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

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Catching Up

Hoggle looked awkwardly at his hands. "Oh, there's not that much to tell, really."

"But there has to be something, Hoggle. It has been nine years." Sarah lay back on the grass and stared up at the sky that was dotted with fluffy white clouds.

"Well, things pretty much went back to the way they were before you came. I went back to tending the vines outside the walls of the Labyrinth. Then almost four years later, I got a summons to the Castle. Now I have to admit, Sarah, I was pretty nervous about comin' face to face with His Majesty after all that time."

She turned to look at him. "Why?"

"Well, I had heard rumors by that time about things goin' on in the Goblin City." He shot a glance at her from the corner of his eye.

Sarah frowned. "What kind of things?"

"No one could say, precisely. Word was that His Majesty had changed somehow, perhaps gone a bit mad for he weren't actin' like his usual self." At Sarah's startled expression, he hurried on. "Though I weren't as worried about that as I was the fact that I hadn't quite followed his orders all those years ago."

"Wha -"

Not letting her continue, Hoggle turned to face her once more. "It's like this, Sarah. The Fae are generally a possessive and jealous sort. Compared to the way history and legend tell it, things have mellowed out over the last few millennia or so. But those traits are still part of the basic nature of the Fae."

"That isn't all that foreign to human nature to some extent, really," Sarah said.

"Not even humans manage to duplicate the Fae in the sheer strength of it, though. And, considerin' how long they live, the Fae hold grudges like none other. His Majesty included. And when you defeated his Labyrinth, somethin' no one had ever done before..." Hoggle trailed off, letting Sarah come to the obvious conclusion.

"Oh." She paused. "So, by all rights, Jareth shouldn't be exactly happy with me. At all."

Hoggle chuckled. "No, not really. And since I helped you along yer way, rather directly against his orders -"

"By all rights he shouldn't have been happy with you either."

"Exactly."

"I didn't realize that you might have gotten in trouble after I left. Why didn't you tell all this to me before?"

"Apart from the fact that it didn't ever come up?" Hoggle shrugged. "It's against the rules."

"The ru – Oh. Those rules."

He laughed at her expression. "Yeah, that'd be them."

Sarah mulled that one over for a minute. "Well, he obviously didn't dip you headfirst into the Bog of Eternal Stench. So what happened?"

"Nothin' too special, really. Jest made me gardener of this here place, much to my surprise. It was rather desolate when I started, but it's on its way to gettin' up to snuff."

"On it's way?" Sarah looked incredulous. "Hoggle, it's beautiful."

"Nah, it ain't much to go on about." Though he waved her comment aside, embarrassed, Hoggle could not prevent showing his pride at Sarah's compliment.

She looked around again. "You know, I never would have thought Jareth to be that interested in gardens like this."

"Er, no. Can't say that I'd have done either." But then, he thought, something tells me he didn't exactly have me come work here and fix them up for his own personal enjoyment. Aloud, he continued, "So that's what's been goin' on with me. Anythin' else you'd like to know?"

"What about Sir Didymus? And Ludo? Do you know what happened to them?"

"Aye, some. Didymus took Ambrosius back to the Bog to resume his post."

Sarah looked rather startled at that. "He went back to the Bog? By choice?"

"Heh. That's what I thought. But his sense of smell weren't that good when we met him."

"No," Sarah giggled, "that's true. But goodness."

"He tried to get Ludo to join him, bein' that they're brothers or somethin'."

"Tried? I take it he was unsuccessful."

"Yeah. And the wailin' to be heard from them both when they parted were like none other."

"Wailing?"

"Well, yeah. Bein' as they thought they might never see each other again."

"But that's terrible!"

"And pointless." Hoggle shook his head. "I believe they have tea together once a week."

Sarah was silent, staring at Hoggle with disbelief. "Really," she said finally, for lack of better words.

He nodded. "Beginning the morning after you left, in fact."

"I have nothing to say to that." Sarah shook her own head, chuckling with amusement. "Do you ever join them?"

"Me? Drink tea? Nah. But they come out to the gardens now and again. Didymus likes to update me on all the things that go on in the Bog, not that there is all that much to tell. He seems to think that it will remind me of the happy times I spent there."

"Happy times?" Sarah's eyebrows rose a notch.

"Yeah." There was a pause, then Hoggle sighed. "I don't have the heart to tell him that I didn't care for the Bog much more than Ludo does."

Sarah giggled. "Poor Didymus. He's so misunderstood. I suppose it is just as well that he can't smell though. I wonder what he'd do otherwise?"

"Who knows."

"Hm... Does Ludo tell you what he is up to as well?"

"Er, no. He ain't much of a conversationalist, if you know what I mean."

Sarah laughed even more. "Oh dear. I suppose he's off somewhere with the rocks, then."

"Yeah, best as I can figure."

"But you're all happy, right?"

"Yeah, Sarah, I would say so."

A gentle cough interrupted their conversation. The two friends turned to find Jareth leaning in the doorway. As they stood, Hoggle took in the delight fleeting across Sarah's face before turning to Jareth with a nod. "Yer Majesty," he said.

"Hoggle, I apologize for disturbing you. But it is time to go, Sarah." Pushing himself away from the hedge, he approached them. "Unless, of course, you wish to join me for dinner."

Sarah looked at Jareth, taking in his costume with a smile. It was not nearly as extravagant as the ensembles she had seen him in during her first visit. He looked almost casual by comparison, if the combination could be called casual. It was a variation of that worn by men in Regency England: high waisted trousers, knee length boots, white shirt and vest. There the resemblance ended, however, for the vest was of fitted black leather and the shirt loose and open at the neck. As always, he wore gloves. His hair was still pulled back into a ponytail, leaving Sarah to wonder if its different length enabled it to even be styled as before. She could not help thinking, however, as she looked at him, that something was missing. What that something was, she could not pinpoint.

"I would like that," she told him. "Though I confess I feel slightly underdressed." She was well aware that her favorite jeans bore old paint stains and likely had attracted bits of dirt, grass, and moss during her talk with Hoggle.

Jareth chuckled. "That is a problem easily remedied." He offered her his arm. "Come with me."

Sarah looked down at her clothes once again, and shrugged. "Alrighty then," she said, taking his arm. She looked over at Hoggle and waved with her free hand. "Bye, Hoggle. I'll see you again soon."

Hoggle nodded, a smile further wrinkling his already wrinkled face. "Ok, Sarah." He gave a little bow as well. "Yer Majesty."

"Hoggle." Jareth gave the dwarf a half-grin and nodded in return before leading Sarah through the doorway in the hedge once again.

Hoggle watched them go, saw the way Sarah turned to Jareth and told him something while animatedly gesturing with her hand. He did not hear what it was, but Jareth's reaction was telling. It was a genuine smile expressing pure joy, the delight reaching his eyes as he chuckled low. Hoggle was both surprised and pleased to see it instead of the arrogant smirk with a hint of bitterness that so frequently was seen by almost everyone, or the weariness displayed when only his most trusted subjects were present.

You better hang on to her this time, Yer Majesty, he thought as they walked out of sight. As he contemplated the various reasons why, Hoggle returned to tugging at a stubborn weed that did not want to come out of the ground.