Sarah knew the tremors in her body must be visible to the entire room at this point. Fatigue and emotional overdrive rendered her limbs a pile of quivering jelly.

It seemed like the goblins were almost finished though. Four hours it'd been. She could feel her voice about to go.

At last, a small pug-faced goblin with large obsidian eyes made its winding way toward her stand.

Sarah took a deep breath and prepared herself for another senseless question.

The creature cleared its throat with surprising professionalism.

"So tell me now, Kingy's pet, you grow tired of Kingy?"

Sarah blinked, amazed to find he'd actually asked her something of pressing relevance to her trial.

"Never," Sarah whispered as though she'd just been stung.

"Never, never, never? Not when Kingy angry, not when Kingy mean, not when you with Kingy a long time, not when you see new pretty fae, not when Kingy don't say I love you..."

Jareth waved a hand curtly wishing to cut off the little Goblin's soliloquy. He didn't appreciate the thing going into too much detail about his feelings for Sarah in front of all the other goblins.

"How could I grow tired of him? If you love someone, if you belong to them and they to you, it's preposterous to even think that way. Bad days, good days, misunderstandings, hurtfulness, what does it matter?"

"So you love me?" A darker, richer voice cut in before the goblin had time to take up Sarah's response.

Nearly overcome at the sound of his voice, Sarah stilled the jolt in her chest and turned to look Jareth in the eye. His expression was intense, almost ravenous, yet patient...waiting, waiting for Sarah to give him the answer he so hoped to hear.

"Yes, Jareth," Sarah swallowed, "I love you." Suddenly she felt very dizzy.

"And you're not tired of me?" he pronounced with lips awry.

"Like I said, why would I be?" Sarah's eyes glistened with an ineffable innocence.

Jareth held his tongue. He knew this was her trial, so I he didn't want to start heaping potential accusations on himself.

Instead of responding to the child-like plea shining forth from Sarah's weary green eyes, he snapped his fingers imperiously causing all the goblins to shuffle nervously away from her stand.

Standing up haughtily with cane in hand, Jareth gracefully slid across the room and planted himself between the hoards of subjects and the one creature who had the power to wound the inner sanctum of his heart.

"Well?" He raised his cane over his minions' gritty little heads.

"What shall it be? What do you say? Is she guilty?" he let the rise in pitch at the end of his question trail suggestively.

"YES. GUILTY. GUILTY. GUILTY!" Came the unequivocal response. Sarah's heart sank.

"See Sarah, you're guilty of stealing my heart. What do you have to say for yourself," he wheeled upon her like a jungle cat.

"You can have mine," she proffered, feeling like that was probably the stupidest thing she could have managed to eek out.

"Can I?" He paced in front of her, clearly enthralled at her suggestion. But his enthusiasm he cloaked in a veil of cold opposition and disbelief.

"Yes. It's already yours. I wouldn't let anyone else put their hands on it-not for the world."

Jareth stopped pacing.

"Jareth, when will this farce end? You say I am cold, that I harm you, that I neglect you, but how can I love you the way your heart begs to be loved if you keep me always at arm's length? And don't think I'm complaining. If that's where you want to keep me, fine. I'll manage. But you just made it sound like I've been ignoring you completely when you know that simply isn't true. Like the morning star, the thought of you rises with me when I wake. Like moon, the tides of your tempestuous nature tug at the oceans of my existence without fail. Like the sun, your favors and cherished affections warm the soil of my being and feed the flourishing canopy of life that grows in your honor there. Can't you see? Can't you see how much you mean to me? How it's not going to change? That I'm not going to leave you? Or say I quit and close the door behind me? Even if I disagree with what you do or think it's wrong. That I'll stick with you. Because I trust you. Trust that you have a heart. A conscience. And because I love you. And feel more deeply than I could ever say that you love me too?"

The usual hum of goblin chatter had died down to complete and total silence.

Jareth touched a gloved hand to his strained forehead before meeting her gaze once more.

"So you love me."

"Yes, I love you."

"You're not going to change your mind."

"No, not in a thousand years."

"Not ever?"

"Never, I'm all in."

"You'll live with me? Be mine?"

"Of course."

"Say it."

"I'll live with you. Be yours."

"Bear me a child?"

Sarah's heart leapt. She hadn't expected him to be so forward, intimate with her.

"Yes, if that is what you desire."

"No, but do you desire it?" he checked.

"Yes, I do."

"Do what?"

"Desire to...be the mother of your children," this last phrase made her heart race to speak aloud.

"And you'll love me?"

"Yes, I'll love you."

"You'll let me make you happy?"

"You always make me happy."

At this she could tell Jareth's mask was beginning to fall away. His jaw dropped slightly with satisfied realization. Yes, his Sarah loved him. Wasn't afraid to say it anymore. All he had needed to do was ask.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes, my love, I'm ready. But you promised me something."

At this the light in his face dimmed again. He had been mistaken. Sarah was going to turn on him like every one that came before.

"I did," he uttered, crestfallen.

"Jareth," she said trying to coax him, "You promised me an account of yourself if I received a favorable verdict. And I know I am guilty. Guilty of stealing your heart. But you know that you hold mine in the palm of your hand. I just wanted to say, I think I understand why you do the things you do. And I'm not going to hold it against you. I wanted to make that clear."

He wasn't quite sure how to take this.

"Jareth, forget the trial. Yours. Mine. Let's just be together. We've paid our ransoms to this bloody circus. It's time we had our happy ending. Beginning, rather..."

Sarah stepped out from behind the stand. Approaching the bewildered king, she gently sought his hand, squeezed it and brought it to her lips.

"My liege, my love, what is your command?"

THE END

Author's note: there may be an epilogue. Haven't decided. Thanks everyone for reading!