Jareth had been waiting at The Bean for twenty minutes now. Sure, he was early, but he was so nervous he had no choice but to leave his hotel suite and hope that a cup of tea would calm him down. Jareth followed Sarah's words, he gave her time. He expected to wait a few days, but two weeks was too much for him. He had to remind himself that it was better than two months.
It was a bit random really. Sarah texted him in the middle of day in the middle of the week, asking if he wanted to meet her that afternoon at a, as she put it, "neutral space." He worried that she thought he was a danger to her, but he was relieved be contacted by her.
Rehearsing what he wanted to say over and over in his head, all words were lost when he saw Sarah enter the coffee shop. She was dressed professionally, as he expected, but she no longer reminded him of the Sarah he saw when she was unsure and apprehensive. He waited for her to grab her coffee, taking in deep breaths as he waited for her to join him. He couldn't appear so desperate, even though it was all he felt.
"Hello." Sarah said as she sat across from him.
Now it appeared as if she was open to hearing him out. There was a new clarity in her eyes, but she leaned back into the chair and crossed her arms.
"Hello." Jareth responded before adding, "I can't tell you how happy I was when I saw your text."
"Thank you for respecting my wishes."
"You're welcome. And now we're here, 'neutral ground'." Jareth said solemnly.
"I didn't want to be alone with you."
"Sarah, you have nothing to fear from me."
"I know that. I just didn't want you confusing me more than I already am with declarations of love."
"You think I'm not being sincere?" Jareth asked.
"Yes. No. Every hour it changes."
Jareth knew it would take time for her to truly trust him again, so he decided to let her last statement go.
"How are you doing?" Jareth asked.
"Besides the fact that I feel like a complete fool, I can't say that I have any complaints."
Some of her words stung, but Jareth knew he deserved them.
"I honestly didn't think I would have to wait this long to see you again. I figured you would want an explanation sooner."
"I left the city for a few days after my family visited. A coworker invited me to stay at her parents vacation home in the Lake Mohonk area. It gave me a chance to clear my head. I don't get out of the city often enough."
"Did it help?"
"It was nice to get away, but the quiet became too much. Sometimes silence isn't always the answer."
"Does your family know about me?"
Sarah looked away in disbelief.
"Really? If I told them what you told me, I wouldn't be sitting here right now. I'd be back at that hospital."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to come off as insensitive."
"How does it feel to have to let those two words roll off of your tongue? Are you bitter? Angry?"
"No... I'm filled with regret."
"I'm not here to make you feel guilty."
"Then allow me to offer up some clarity. As me anything. I'll be honest: brutally honest."
"I want you to understand that I accept that you're him, but I'm still trying to process everything. It's like believing that someone is dead when really they've been there all along. I'm not even sure if you're real."
Jareth grabbed Sarah's hand and placed it on his heart.
"It beats for you. You have to know that." Jareth whispered.
Sarah pulled her hand away and Jareth did nothing to mask the fear on his features. He stood the chance of losing everything, and he wasn't brave enough to admit that if she couldn't return his love then it would be the death of him.
"I have so many questions. I wake up in the middle of the night with them boggling my mind, but I don't know what breaks my heart more: having the questions or not seeing you there next to me."
"Just ask."
"Brutal honesty, right?" Sarah asked.
"Right."
It was as if the two tuned the rest of the world around them out. All Jareth could focus on was Sarah, and it appeared to be the same way coming from her side of the table. He wanted to caress her cheek, run his fingers through her hair, tell her in every nonverbal way possible that he would devote the rest of his life making up for all that was lost.
"How were you able to just leave behind your kingdom?"
"I think I mentioned that I put everything and everyone in a state of stasis. The underground is frozen in time, waiting for the return of its king. Your friends are safe; it's just that they've been taking a very long nap. If I return it will seem as if time never stopped."
"You don't want to return?"
"At first I wanted nothing more than to do that, but things didn't go as planned." Jared solemnly said.
He could tell Sarah understood what he truly meant.
"How long have you been Seth Carrington?"
"Almost a year. It took me a long time to find you, but was able to."
"I still don't understand."
"I hired people to seek you out. I wanted your history, but there was a time that could never be accounted for."
"The time I was sent away." Sarah said, nodding her head.
"Yes. I had to become acquainted with your routine and schedule."
"So our meeting wasn't by chance?"
"Not exactly. I suppose the moment I decided to let things happen naturally, that's when I first introduced myself. It was like it was designed by fate."
So far the questions were easy to answer. He felt like he was being interrogated by an officer, but he remained calm and collected.
"You said that you originally wanted revenge. What was the plan?"
Jareth took a breath before answering, "I was going to seduce you, bed you, and then leave you. I would have revealed myself to you also. At first my fantasies involved seeing you break after learning the truth, but then they shifted."
"How so?"
"They became physical. It was no longer about breaking your heart. It was about winning it."
Sarah looked away, another way to distance herself from the truth that she asked for. Jareth continued,
"I told you that it all changed when I learned the truth about why you were gone all that time, but if I'm going to be honest, everything changed the moment I saw you perform that ghost trio. I had never been so moved by something. I remember wanting to leave the auditorium after it was all over, but I couldn't. My body wouldn't allow it. I wanted to believe that my plans were tossed away after learning the truth, but it was before we were even reunited."
"Why Seth Carrington?"
"It took some time for me to create this persona. I figured that being a lawyer would be the easiest one to pull off. I did some research, educated myself on the lingo, and hoped, in the process, that I wouldn't slip up."
"How long were you planning on keeping up this charade?"
"I can't tell you that. I wanted to tell you the truth the moment you told me what happened to you, but I thought it would be too much too soon."
"Why couldn't my parents hear Ludo, Hoggle, and Sir Didymus?" Sarah quickly asked.
"I can't really explain that, I'm afraid. I think maybe because you were the champion of the labyrinth such luxuries were allowed."
"Was I the only one?" Sarah asked.
"The only one to run it?"
"No."
"Was I the only champion?"
"Yes."
Sarah leaned into the chair next to her and mindlessly ran her fingers over the skin of her forehead. She didn't look at Jareth. The silence was too much for him, but he had to let Sarah be in control. He could tell she was processing everything.
"I did try to find you, you know, before all of this Seth Carrington rubbish."
This got Sarah's attention.
"I searched far and wide, but all I could see was a fog. I didn't understand that the fog was you, lost and lonely."
"If you would have known what was happening..."
Jareth quickly answered her unfinished question.
"I would have stopped it all by any means possible. Even if that meant taking you away from this world."
Jareth heard Sarah sniffle as she quickly wiped her nose. She was clearly overwhelmed, and he could tell that tears were about to fall.
"I've got to go." Sarah said, standing up.
"Please don't let this be the last time we speak. I was honest when I said I would give all of it up."
"I believe you," Sarah said before adding, "and that's what scares me so much."
"Why fear me?"
"I don't fear you. I fear what I feel for you. It's all so liberating, but it's also consuming. I've never felt like I was being swallowed into an abyss, and that's what I feel when I'm with you. That fantasy you talked about, having a life with me, I can't get that scenario out of my head because I can picture those things too." Sarah whispered the last sentence.
"Most are tame." Jareth whispered in return.
"I'll call you soon." Sarah said as she threw away her untouched coffee in the bin next to their table.
Jareth sat still, hanging on to the hope that came from her last four words. He knew he wasn't completely forgiven, but for the first time in weeks he felt as if things were slowly being rebuilt.
"I have to go." Sarah repeated, a bit more forcefully this time.
"Is that it? Am I to be cast aside forever?"
"You have no right to play the victim here!"
"I don't mean for it to come off that way. I had hoped that we could work towards rebuilding what we had."
"And just what was it that we had?"
"A friendship for starters. Trust? Companionship. Love."
"All of which were built with deceit."
"Will that always be your dagger to attack me with?"
Jareth quickly realized that his last question was insensitive and wrong. He looked down at the table, shameful for even playing that card.
"I need you to understand that my wounds are still fresh. I want nothing more than for them to heal."
"You do believe me though? You do believe that my feelings are real?"
Sarah moved to get up without answering his questions. It was as if she was still trying to formulate answer, but rather than give a definitive answer, she let the silence speak for her.
"I really do have to go. I'm meeting a former student at the school today."
Jareth tried to hide his jealousy.
"Why?" He quickly realized that he gave himself away.
"He's a guitarist and he wants some of the instructors to play a few shows with him. 'Take away shows' are what they're being called. We're going to play in Central Park next weekend."
"So now you're a touring musician?" Jareth asked with pride.
"I guess you could say that." Sarah said as she walked away.
Later that night Jareth's mobile rang at three in the morning. Assuming it was a wrong number, he wanted to just ignore it and continue with his sleep, but checking it he saw Sarah's number. Worried that something was wrong, he answered,
"Sarah?"
"Did you let me win?"
He could tell she never went to bed.
"Yes." Jareth replied too quickly.
"Why?"
Taking a few seconds to clear his head, he knew that absolute honesty was the best way to go. It appeared to work so far.
"Because I wanted you to. I wanted you. That whole spiel about loving and obeying me was truth in its highest form. I would have willingly been your slave, but I knew you weren't ready."
"Ready for what?"
"To experience the touch of a lover. To feel the depth of my devotion to you." Jareth whispered.
"You pined for me all along?"
"Yes, but you were still a child in so many ways. My intention was to come to you when you were of age and repeat my offer, but by that time all I could see was your fog. All I could hear was your playing. I didn't understand what was happening. I wanted you as my queen."
"What if I would have refused you?"
"I never thought much about that."
"You've imagined all of things we could be and do together, but you avoided the most important possibility?"
"I too was lost in my own fog. I wanted to kiss you in the rain. I wanted to bring you pleasure, but hear MY name, not Seth's. I suppose none of that matters now. I wake up everyday and go to bed every night knowing that I fucked up the most important thing in my life. I suppose we both had to mature."
"Jareth, what if I can't give you what you want?"
"I'll wait for you. It's only forever, my love."
"I'm going to go now." Sarah said. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight precious." Jareth said as he heard the beeping of one phone hanging up on another.
Jareth didn't really understand the point of a take away show, even with Sarah's explanation. He kept his eyes and ears out for any sort of promotion. The school's website didn't even promote the show. It wasn't until he did some more digging and discovered that the former student, guitarist Joe Gonzalez, was going to be performing a free show for whoever just so happened to be in the middle of Central Park. Sarah didn't bother to pass the information along to him, but he knew that she knew he would figure it out on his own. That was, however, how he was able to track her down.
Jareth didn't even bother contacting Sarah to see if she would be bothered by his appearance. He looked at it as showing his support for her new venture. Showing up at around one in the afternoon, he didn't expect to see such a sparse crowd. None of the musicians were there, and for a few moments Jareth thought his information was wrong. Maybe he mixed up his dates? Maybe the show was cancelled at the last minute? Maybe she lied to him? No, Sarah would never do such a thing to him.
After walking around for a few minutes, assuming his information was wrong, he saw a few people walking towards the Bethesda Fountain carrying instruments. There was a guitarist, Jareth assumed that was Gonzalez, followed by the violinist that played the ghost trio with Sarah. Sarah came in with her cello from the opposite direction as the other two, and was soon followed by someone carrying one part of a drum kit.
The crowd wasn't huge, not what Jareth experienced at the Alice Tully Hall, and he was still internally debating whether or not he wanted Sarah to notice that he was there. Even if he tried to hide, he couldn't, the crowd wasn't that huge. He counted no more than 30 people.
Sarah didn't appear to notice him; she didn't even give the crowd any notice, but that wasn't unusual from what he had already seen. All of the musicians were dressed in casual clothing, nothing like the orchestra fare he had grown accustomed to. Sarah, wearing jeans and a long sleeved hunter green top, saw down on the edging of the fountain as she positioned her cello in between her legs.
People were passing, not taking any notice of the musicians setting up. Jareth wanted them to stay and listen, but he figured that it was beside the point. The guitarist started playing, and it didn't take long for the violinist and Sarah to join in, backing up his instrument with theirs. Gonzalez began singing, and while Jareth tried to focus his attention only on Sarah, he did enjoy the music he was hearing.
It didn't take long for a small crowd to gather around the fountain. Jareth took the opportunity to hide behind a few of them, but he was still able to hear the music. When the second song began, Jareth felt as if he was hiding just as he was before he reintroduced himself into Sarah's life. Now that the truth had come out, he figured it was no point in trying to conceal himself from her life.
Gently nudging his way through the crowd, he made his way to the front. He saw her gently plucking the strings of her instrument, her head moving along to the beat of the other instruments. This type of show allowed her to sway to the music and it was something Jareth enjoyed watching. Such movements weren't allowed with orchestra music.
He didn't care if Sarah noticed him, but he secretly hoped that she would see him there. It was his way of telling her that he was still here, giving her the space and time that she so needed. One day, when she was ready, they would walk through the world together as friends, lovers, and hopefully even husband and wife.
Jareth expected a take away show to last long, but after the second song, the musicians picked up their instruments and walked back in the direction that they came in from. Jareth tried not to linger for too long, but he couldn't help but smile when he saw Sarah look at him just before she walked away. She nodded her head in acknowledgement of his presence, and went on her way. A part of Jareth wanted to follow her, talk to her, but he knew that wasn't what she wanted. He would go his own way too and let her continue to dictate the pace of their rebuilding.