Checked for continuity, grammar, and spelling: May 3, 2011.

Chapter Twenty-Six: Returning Underground

"Take me with you." She spoke just above a whisper, certain of nothing other than she did not want him to leave her yet. His eyes searched hers, and she met him gaze for gaze, daring him to find a reason to deny the request. Instead, he smiled slightly and rose to stand before her. She looked up at him, wondering what was to come next, when he merely extended a hand. She took it, allowing him to help her stand as well.

Before Sarah had time to take a breath, the scene changed.

They no longer stood on campus next to a little bench and a small pond. Instead, they stood in a grove of some sort. A few small fruit trees, so young they could not have been planted more than a few years ago, were scattered in an octagonal clearing that was walled by a tall hedge interwoven here and there with roses. There was a pathway marked out by flat stones, light brown and off-white. It seemed to begin a few feet away from the hedge and disappeared into an arched hole in the green wall. On the opposite side of the clearing from the hole, a stone bench sat against the hedge. The faint scent of a variety of flowers lingered on a warm, gentle breeze.

"Where are we?" Her voice was filled with innocent wonder as she looked around, eyes wide. This looked nothing like anything she had remembered seeing when last she came to this place.

"Part of the gardens on the Castle grounds."

"I didn't know there were gardens like this here."

"They were not like this when you were here nine years ago." He could not help but notice that, even as she looked around, she had yet to release his hand. "It is thanks to the remarkable skill of the gardener that they have been returned to a living, thriving state. Though, in truth, I think he outdid himself to achieve this result so quickly."

"Oh." She turned to him, eyes sparkling. "It's lovely. Perfect for a picnic."

He smiled at that. "Indeed it is. I shall have lunch brought out to you here."

"Oh. Um, should I stay here then, until you come back?"

"If you prefer, though there are more lovely parts of the gardens I would recommend instead." He deliberately did not acknowledge the sudden edge of uncertainty and fear that had crept into her voice. "Actually, you may go anywhere you like within the boundaries of my kingdom, though I do not know that I would suggest venturing into the Labyrinth itself. However, even if you choose to do so, you would have no cause for concern. Nothing can harm you here."

Sarah nodded. That he knew without being told that she was still disturbed by the revelation that there were those of his kind who were looking for her did not bother her. Instead, she found great comfort in knowing he knew.

"Come," Jareth continued. "There is something, or, rather, someone, I would like to show you."

He led her under the archway and along the stone path. Every now and then they would come to more such doorways in the hedge and pause as he poked his head through each to look around. Sarah took advantage of these opportunities as well to take a brief glance at what all could be found here, though they would move on before she could take everything in. From what she saw, the variety of flowers and plants was astounding. Not everything was in full bloom, however. In fact, everything she recognized was at the same state of growth that it would have been Aboveground.

They went around and around until Sarah was quite thoroughly lost. Apparently the gardens are as much of a labyrinth as, well, the Labyrinth. Finally, Jareth seemed to find what he was looking for and they walked through the doorway instead of standing just outside it. Before she had the chance to look around, Jareth pointed at a corner of the garden. When Sarah looked in that direction, everything else around her ceased to stand out.

There, kneeling in the soil and tugging at a fairly stubborn plant, she saw a small figure whose form she would never mistake. The clothes and mannerisms were the same as always, though he was engaging in a task she had not seen him do before. Though Jareth had told her she would be able to see him, she had not expected it to be so soon and her eyes widened in surprise.

"It grows late, Hoggle," Jareth said, not really looking at the Dwarf. Instead, he regarded the woman beside him and gauged her reactions. "Perhaps now would be a good time to take a short break?"

"Now, yer Majesty, I know you say there is no need to work so hard. But I's got a great deal more to do and-" He had turned slowly to look over his shoulder, cutting himself off when he saw that, not only was Jareth standing hand in hand with a young woman, but that young woman was none other than Sarah. His first friend.

They all remained in silence: Hoggle not entirely certain he was seeing properly, Sarah uncertain that her presence would be welcome after so much time, and Jareth fully aware of Sarah's uncertainty. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze of encouragement. "I believe you two know each other."

Suddenly given all the reassurance she needed, Sarah smiled broadly. "Hello, Hoggle. Been a long time."

Hoggle's own face cracked into a grin. "That it has, Sarah."

Unbidden, Jareth felt a pang of jealousy that the dwarf would likely receive a warmer welcome than he initially had. Knowing that giving in to such a thing would get him nowhere, he forced it away to one side. "I shall come find you later, Sarah," he said quietly.

"All right," she whispered in response.

The verbal answer would have been much less than satisfactory, but for the expression on her face when she turned to look at him. Joy and gratitude were written on every corner of her face and he knew in that instant that in this simple reintroduction he had returned to her something she had long since considered lost beyond any hope of retrieval. With a final squeeze of his hand, Sarah went to kneel next to Hoggle, wrapping him in a great embrace. Hoggle caught Jareth's eye over her shoulder, reading assent in the nearly imperceptible nod, and he returned Sarah's hug gratefully as Jareth turned to walk away. Jareth went back out the way he came, not vanishing into the Castle until he turned the corner. Though he could not deny the wish that Sarah's happy chatter would come so easily in his company, the knowledge that she was so happy brought him joy of his own.

Sarah and Hoggle had moved to sit on the grass on his insistence that she should not be sitting around in dirt as he had been doing. They had been talking for quite a few hours, conversation coming easily for two who had not seen each other in years. But their odd friendship formed during her journey through the Labyrinth was one that left a lasting impression on the both of them, almost as though they were comrades in arms. That sense of a unified front, though they were not up against anything at the moment, would ever keep them close.

Shortly after Jareth had left, a pair of Goblins came wandering into the garden with a large tray laden with food. Hoggle chuckled at that, shaking his head, but refused to explain the reason for that reaction. Instead, he insisted Sarah tell him what she had been doing for the past nine years.

She summarized as best she could, answering all his questions throughout the telling while they ate, until she came to recent events. "Then a few months ago, Jareth showed up again. He's come to visit a few times, and then invited me here for today."

"Why ain't you spendin' the day with him, then?"

"He said he had work to do, but that I was more than welcome to spend the day with you instead."

"Ah." What that must have cost his pride, Hoggle thought, to give you the opportunity to choose someone else's company over his own. Though he had a fair idea what Jareth's intentions were, he wondered what was going on in Sarah's mind. "So, what's goin' on with you two?"

Sarah blushed and averted her gaze, looking instead at her feet. "I... I don't really know, exactly."

That was not quite what he expected. "No?"

"Well, sort of. I mean, I know he's... interested in me."

Well, that's one way to put it, Hoggle thought.

"And I have to admit that I... really like him. But I've never been involved with anyone like him before. I can't tell if it's because he is what he is, whatever that is exactly, or if it is because this is somehow just a more, mature sort of thing or something. And sometimes things feel like things are going incredibly slow. He hasn't even kissed me yet. Not that I'm really sure if I'm ready for that yet. Though I do kind of want him to, sometimes. But on the other hand, I feel more involved with him than I should be considering we've only seen each other," she counted on her fingers, "five times, including today. Six, including the night at the theatre when he was just there and didn't say a word. I'm pretty sure he's serious about this, and whenever he's around I feel like we could stay this way forever. But when he's not, which is more often, I keep thinking that this all has to be a game, or a dream. That it couldn't be real, no matter how much I want it to be. Or that I'm in way over my head because he's so... so... I just don't know. It's all very confusing." Sarah found she was able to voice her insecurities to Hoggle more easily than even to Agnes. She supposed it was because Hoggle, who not only knew Jareth but knew what he was and the whole truth of her first encounter with him, could look on the whole thing with a completely different frame of reference.

"Well now, Sarah, he don't talk to me about these things or nothin', but I wager he's just as uncertain as to how to go about courtin' you as you are uncertain how to receive him."

"That just doesn't seem possible," she said on a shaky laugh.

"Well, now, he's lived almost his whole life bein' in charge of himself, answerin' to nobody, and he was fairly young when he came into power. But you," he gestured at her with one wrinkled hand. "You never gave in to him and constantly defied him when you were still little more than a child, before he even knew he wanted you. Now he knows he does, and he knows that you're someone who is not simply goin' to, well, jump into his arms jest because he's the Goblin King."

"So, I'm just a... a challenge?"

"No, that ain't what I meant. I jest meant that he probably don't know where he stands with you if you don't tell him. You have become a strong woman with a mind of her own. And you come from a different World than he does. What is custom here may not be something you're familiar with."

"That's true. We actually ran into that particular problem once already."

"You see? I wouldn't worry too much. It'll all come together in the end the way it's supposed to." After all, he thought, you're here already, even if it is just for the day.

"But how do I know how it is supposed to be?"

"Jest, er, follow yer heart."

"You make it sound so easy."

"Perhaps." He shrugged. "Maybe I's making it more simple than it really is. But even the most complex of situations have a simple base to stand on."

Sarah thought about that for a moment. "You're right," she said with a sigh. "Though putting it into practice might prove to be a bit of a challenge."

They sat there in silence for a few minutes. "You know something, Sarah?" he asked, finally. "I wouldn't say you've changed, exactly. But you've really grown up."

She laughed. "Well, I should hope so. It's been nine years!"

"Some days it don't seem like it could have been so long."

"True." She stopped as a chicken wandered in through a gap in the hedge and clucked its way across the garden. "What is it with all the chickens here?"

"Eh, don't think anyone really knows. They just pop up now and again when least expected."

"Sort of like Jareth," she said in mock seriousness.

Hoggle looked at her sharply, wondering if he heard her properly. "Hm. I's not too sure how His Majesty would feel about being compared to a chicken," he said, watching the chicken in question leave through another gap on the other side of the garden. "I mean, he's changed quite a bit too, but everyone has their limits."

"He really has changed, then?" she wondered aloud. "I thought that maybe it was just my impression of him as being different because of my 'older' and 'more mature' point of view."

He laughed. "Nah, he's changed in his own way."

"Hm. I wonder why."

Do you really? Hoggle had to smile to himself. "Passage of time, I guess."

"Hm." Sarah said again. Triggered by the conversation, her mind wandered to a snippet from the conversation she and Agnes had Sunday night after Jareth left.

"You 'like' him," Agnes had said, "are happy that you're dating, will probably be happier to be a couple, but aren't sure if you want to sit around on a porch swing once you're both ancient and wrinkled while the great-grandchildren play in the yard."

She realized as well that it was this thought she had landed on before she went to sleep Sunday night, but had not gotten the chance to focus on yet. "Hoggle..." she began, gnawing on her lower lip.

"Yeah?" When she did not answer right away, he looked at her. "Sarah? Is something wrong?"

"No. Yes. It's just," she hesitated briefly before plodding on. "Agnes, the friend I told you about, said something the other day about Jareth... Well, about me in regards to Jareth."

"Oh?"

"She said something about he and I being ancient and wrinkled together."

"Right..." He had a feeling he knew where she was going with this.

"I know Jareth has changed in some ways, but in others, he hasn't. He looks exactly how I remember him."

"Well," he said slowly, "that he does. Looked that way for as long as I remember him, which is quite a long time actually."

"How long is that, if you don't mind my asking."

"Oh, a couple hundred years or so."

"A couple... good heavens. Hoggle," her brow furrowed deeply, "people... human people don't live that long."

"Normally, no."

"What happens when... when I grow old and Jareth," she had little desire to say it, but needed an answer from someone she could trust, "doesn't?"

He patted her hand awkwardly in a gesture that was vaguely familiar. "Oh, Sarah, I wouldn't worry too much about that."

"What?" She gave him an incredulous look. "How can I possibly not worry about it?"

"Sarah -"

"I mean, for all that this whole thing still makes me rather, well, nervous, I have to admit that when I've been thinking of Jareth and I as a couple, I sort of pictured us actually growing old together. I'm a girl; it's what we do! But now you tell me he's a couple of hundred years old -"

"No, I'm a couple of hundred years old. His Majesty goes back much farther."

She blinked at that. "Oh." It took a minute for her to get going again. "Still, he hasn't aged at all. But I have. I will. What is going to happen when -"

"Sarah," Hoggle interrupted her, placing his hand on her arm. "When you two finally sort yerselves out, what you and Jareth will have will be something special. That sort of thing don't come along every day, you know. And it ain't likely to be undermined by a little thing like human aging." His tone brooked no argument and he gave a hard nod to add even more emphasis to his words.

Sarah looked at him, curiously. "How can you be so certain?"

"Some things, Sarah girl, a body just knows. Now you just trust me on this here point. As yer friend, I'd not lead you wrong."

"I..." Sarah looked him in the eyes and suddenly knew he was right, without a doubt. "I trust you, Hoggle." He gave her hand a final pat and then faced the garden once more. Sarah sighed, smiling, and shook her head before echoing his gaze. "How is it that one simple comment can make everything seem ok?"

"Don't quite know. But when it happens, just gotta take it in stride."

"Right again, my friend. Right again." She watched the breeze make the daffodils bounce their heads. "Enough about me, though. What have you been up to all this time?"