DISCLAIMER - I don't own Sarah or Jareth or the Labyrinth (unfortunately) they belong to Jim Henson & Co, and I'm definitely not making a profit from this.
All other NPC's are a figment of my own imagination.
Daylight faded unseen beyond the window as Anita and Chris reluctantly left to go home and freshen up. Jareth employed charm on the shift nurses and got them to agree to him staying after visiting hours. They plied him with cups of tea and biscuits, turning the small bedside lamp on for him as they did their routine checks, and still she lay like a broken porcelain doll on the pristine sheets, unmoving.
As another hour passed by unnoticed he decided to look in on Toby, no doubt his mother would have left by now. He made his way across the hospitals now quiet corridors, wrinkling his nose at the prevalent smell of disinfectant and sickness heading out into a small paved courtyard and into the childrens ward. Exercising his charm again he had the night staff eating out the palm of his hand by the time he reached Toby's bedside to find him laying in the dark brooding.
"Toby. Why aren't you asleep?"
"Jareth! You came to see me!" Toby replied jumping up in delight.
"SSsshh." A nurse whispered walking by and winking at Jareth.
"I had to wait till your mother left." Jareth smiled sitting down on the edge of the bed. "How are you feeling?"
"My head doesn't hurt as much now. They gave me some super strong painkillers, then I threw up."
"Well, you'll have to rest for a few days. Concussion is not nice."
"Jareth, has Sarah woken up yet? They won't tell me anything... Karen said..." Jareth reached across and ruffled his hair as Toby sniffed.
"Shes in a coma Tobe. She was hit really hard on the back of her head, so they have to make sure theres no swelling in her brain, but shes really not well."
"I want to see her!"
"I'm not sure if.."
"Please Jareth! Please let me go see her. Can't you.." Toby wiggled his fingers making Jareth roll his eyes.
"Give me a minute."
Jareth walked off back towards the nurses station leaving Toby in bed with Gob sat at the end watching his King with wary eyes. True to his word Jareth returned a few minutes later pushing a wheelchair, accompanied by a young nurse.
"Meg here is going to come with us down to the ICU. She has errands to run as well, so we can go see your sister for a few minutes." Jareth said helping Toby into the hospital dressing gown and slippers before throwing a blanket over Tobys knees when he sat down in the wheelchair.
"Awesome." Toby said settling himself.
The journey back to Sarah's bedside was broken by Toby chattering to Meg who smiled and nodded with only slightly glazed eyes as she kept glancing across at Jareth who pushed the wheelchair. She left them at the entrance doors to the ICU which whooshed aside for them with a mechanical whirring.
"Toby, she doesn't look great."
"I know. I saw her on the floor." Toby said quietly as Jareth wheeled him into the private room. He gasped and stumbled up from the wheelchair to stand next to her bed reaching out to touch her hand.
"Shes so cold."
"Probably better for her to be not too hot. Its practically tropical in here." Jareth replied, relieved that Toby was taking his sisters condition so well.
"When she wakes up, will you let her go to the Labyrinth to get better?" Toby asked eventually as he held onto her hand. Gob had climbed up the bed frame and was sat patting her blanket covered foot.
"Why would she want to go to the Labyrinth to get better?"
"Because. Isn't the Labyrinth full of magic? It will be able to make her better won't it?" Tobys automatic conclusions momentarily stumped Jareth in how obviously simple they were.
"Its much more complicated than that I'm afraid."
"Why? Shes sick, you can help her get better."
"I can not just take her to the Labyrinth, there are rules. Laws."
"You're King. Don't you make the laws and the rules?" Jareth sighed and shook his head.
"I may be King Toby, but there are some laws I can not change. Everything would be turned to chaos."
"How about if I wish her away?"
"Nice try young man but shes too old to be wished away."
"Well then, just.. invite her for a holiday. Can't you have friends over to your castle?" Toby looked across the bed as Jareth chuckled.
"You have a point there, but it is still more complicated than you understand."
"I don't see how it needs to be. You ask her to visit the Labyrinth for some R&R and she says yes and Bobs your Uncle."
"Bob is not my Uncle, Toby." Jareth said with a straight face. Toby narrowed his eyes and went back to watching the monitors next to him counting her heartbeat. Jareth sat back down and mulled over the possibilities Tobys comment had raised.
"You did that thing again didn't you."
"What thing is this that you speak of?" Jareth asked evasively.
"You reordered time. Does that mean you'll forget us again? I don't want you to forget me, and I don't want you to forget that you love Sarah, and I like being able to have the goblins as my friends."
"Unfortunately Toby, as I keep trying to tell you, there are.."
"Consequences, yer I know. Maybe this time will be different though, and you won't forget so you'll be able to help her. Maybe you should write yourself a letter or something, or put a postit note on your desk telling yourself to remember." Toby huffed.
"Its not fair. Everything was just starting to go right again."
"I know." Jareth replied sadly. "I will do everything I can Toby. I promised. I can only delay the inevitable for a short time, and then I will have to return to accept the consequences." He said watching as Toby glared at him then nodded.
They sat for some time in silence, mulling the conversation over until Jareth noticed that Toby was practically asleep where he sat on the bed next to his sister, still holding her hand.
"Come on, we need to get you back to bed." He said helping him back into the wheelchair and handing him the blanket.
He ignored the night staff as he wheeled Toby back to the childrens ward, helping him back into bed and making sure Gob knew to call him if anything untoward occurred.
"Jareth. You will look after her won't you?" Toby mumbled as he turned over on his side and pulled the covers up around his chin.
"I will."
With a fresh coffee sat on the bedside table next to him, Jareth sat back down in the small private room next to Sarah and took a deep calming breath before he summoned paper and a pen to him from his study and began to write, reasoning that Toby had made a very good point about writing himself a letter. Page after page of details, notes and thoughts he wrote down until eventually satisfied he folded them all carefully and placed them in a thick envelope. Calling one of the castle goblins to attend him he gave strict instructions for it to hand the envelope to the Lady Anyetta post haste.
As dawn slowly began to light the room he stood up, stretching before moving to stand next to the bed. They would no doubt be in soon to change her dressings, but at this moment, when the world was still, she was his alone and he relished that feeling, despite her present condition. His next actions he knew would bring chaos and disorder to both his world, and to hers, but he had few choices left. The Labyrinth drew him inexorably to return, to face the consequences of his reordering of time. Just how big those consequences would be, he did not yet know. He had risked taking her as far back as he dared, it still hadn't been far enough. He frowned as he lay a hand against her cheek. Her aura felt flat and lifeless. She was somewhere else, he hoped somewhere safe. He regretted it deeply that he had not taken her far enough back to protect her, it was one of the few things in his very long life that he actually regretted at all when he thought about it. Taking a breath he leant down and began to whisper in her ear. Minutes later, and with a heavy heart he placed a gentle kiss on her cheek and stepped away from her, back to the Labyrinth where the world went dark.
Consciousness returned as a warm comfortable lethargy that encouraged just a few more minutes in bed. Somehow she knew something wasn't quite right by the light that hit her closed eyelids which was coming from entirely the wrong direction. Somewhere, a window was open allowing a dusty hot smell to enter the room. Something akin to hot wet pavements after a summer storm, but it just didn't seem quite right. On further reflection she didn't feel right either, and it was some minutes before memories crashed back into her brain making her squeeze her eyelids closed even more. She reached a hand up to touch her face and gasped as she realized her arm was encased in plaster.
"Not a nightmare." She whispered opening her eyes with trepidation and pain from what she could tell was swelling. The ceiling above her was a pale blue, slightly peeling in the corners where it met old fashioned cornicing in an off white. The bed creaked noisily as she managed to sit up despite being hampered by the plaster cast, and a sudden series of stabbing pains and aches across her body made her groan.
She was clothed in what looked to be an old fashioned night dress, and the bed was covered in an eiderdown duvet and patchwork quilt that had seen better days. Her left arm revealed a perfect dark purple and yellow imprint of a hand around her wrist and several scratches which made her not want to look at the rest of her body. A door which stood slightly ajar at the other side of the room looked to lead into a bathroom, but further investigation meant finding enough energy to get out of bed. She debated for a moment just lying back down to rest her pounding head, but the angry part of her brain demanded to know the truth and forced her to move the covers aside to look at her legs, scratched, bruised, painful. She staggered as she stood up, clinging onto the antique bed frame until the world stopped spinning before she attempted to work her way across the room, first to the chair by the dressing table, then to the wardrobe in the same pale wood to the door frame of the next room.
Pushing the door further open caused the lights to turn on, though it didn't register on her that the lights were in fact lamps burning some sort of oil. They did however reveal a rather plain bathroom with a large standing mirror in the corner which she walked over to. Taking a deep breath she tilted it towards her and tried not to wail in horror at the sight of her face and neck. Tears came unbidden as she tried to take in the extent of what had been done to her almost unrecognizable face. She sobbed as she pulled the nightdress up to look at her entire body.
There didn't seem to be a single inch of skin that wasn't bruised or scratched or bandaged. She assumed she must have broken ribs from the tight bandaging under her bra to match her broken plaster encased wrist and her panties did little to hide the bruises and scratching up the insides of her legs. She shuddered as her brain jumped to the worst conclusions, making her want to scrub herself with bleach in an effort to be clean. Her willpower broke and she fled from the mirror to throw up into the loo. When there seemed to be nothing left inside her to throw up she flushed the chain and moved to the sink to wash her mouth out with water, wincing as she caught her split lip on the rough towel she dried herself with, leaving a smear of crimson blood on the cloth. Leaving the towel by the sink she crept back to the bed and curled into a small ball under the duvet and wept until exhausted she fell asleep.
She had no idea how long she had slept for when she next awoke, the wind had picked up and was making the drapes at the open window billow, sending splashes of pale moonlight across the room as they parted and settled again. The faint smells had changed to a heavier, damper cold which made her leave the heat of the bed behind to investigate what lay beyond them.
Pulling the drapes back showed that the window was actually a set of doors leading out onto a small balcony which in turn looked out onto a small courtyard garden where a few thin plants still grew. Even by the moonlight she knew the ruined wasteland beyond the gardens walls belonged to the Labyrinth. In her head she had known as soon as she had first woken up that she was no longer above ground but had ignored it with more pressing matters to take up her attention. As she stood and watched in silence the moon skipped in and out of the swift moving clouds which seemed to swirl perpetually round her position which could only be the castle of the Goblin King. It was not quite what she had expected, though on reflection she wasn't sure what she should have expected at all after all her dreams with him, and the things she had seen since that night she had come back by accident.
Without thinking about it she stroked a finger carefully over the scar which as usual throbbed in time with her heartbeat. The next time the moon appeared from the clouds she raised her left hand to examine it, unsurprised to find that the red lines that spanned from it had reached all the way up her arm to her shoulder. The wind chilled her but rather than going back to sleep she dragged the patchwork quilt from the bed and wrapped it around herself, settling onto the small stone seat on the balcony to watch the Labyrinth, shrouded by nights dark mantle.
She shivered as the moon disappeared behind another cloud not from cold, but from the torrent of partial memories that threatened to overwhelm her, making her weep silently utterly devastated by what had happened. When the sun arose, sickly in the east losing its battle with the perpetual clouds she rose from her seat feeling numb and exhausted. She washed her hands and face and used the loo before returning to the bed to try and sleep.
She woke suddenly with the feeling that something was terribly wrong discovering that there was a woman standing at the foot of the bed watching her. Sarah sat up slowly, trying not to lean on her plastered wrist too much, feeling awkward and exposed under the woman's stare.
"Things are certainly going to be different for you from now on." The woman finally said walking across the room to the wardrobe.
"I'm sorry?"
"Magic has,.. consequences." The woman continued reaching into the wardrobe to withdraw a long white dressing robe.
"I know that."
"I do not think that you do." The woman replied handing Sarah the robe expecting her to put it on.
"Tell me then." "It is not my place to do so. There are,.. rules."
"Where is Jar.."
"STOP!" The woman cried reaching out to her. "Do NOT speak his name girl. Not now, not when everything is chaos. You would tear the world apart with your ignorance." She huffed, motioning for Sarah to stand and dress in the robe.
"Unless you tell me what is going on, I'm not moving."
"Don't be a child. You have been summoned before the throne and thats exactly where you will go, robed or not."
The angry, hurt part of Sarah raged at the tone of this unknown woman, did she not know what Sarah had been through, could she not see the bruises? A streak of stubbornness that she might once have ignored reared its head.
"Then I guess I shall go like this." She said folding her arms as best she could with the cast.
"As you will. I care not if you go naked for all the good it will do you." The woman shrugged throwing the robe at Sarah as she walked back to the door.
"You will have to wait, I need to use the bathroom." Sarah replied taking the robe into the bathroom and shutting the door behind her. She was not too stubborn to admit that wearing the robe made her more comfortable in the cool air as well as hiding her arms.
She finished her toilette and reluctantly left the bathroom, not looking in the mirror to find the woman tapping her foot impatiently by the door.
"You will find it is less than acceptable to be late in this place." She remarked ushering Sarah in front of her as she closed the door behind them. The woman bustled off full of self importance fully expecting Sarah to follow meekly behind her, but the new surroundings had fully captured Sarah's attention. The corridor was gently curved to follow the line of the tower it seemed to reside in, and a high arched vaulted ceiling with regular columns neatly segmented it. Adorning the top of each column where it met the arch of the ceiling was placed a coat of arms, not always the same, but similar in style. The floor was of large stone slabs, neatly worn into a slight groove in the center from what must be centuries of footsteps, reminding her that she had nothing on her feet as the cold started to seep up her legs.
"Is it much further?" She asked as they made their way down another set of steps though yet another arched doorway into another long corridor. The woman huffed and turned a corner abruptly that revealed a highly ornate door which opened into a far grander throne room than the one Sarah remembered. Grander, darker, more oppressive and somehow achingly lonely. Torches flickered in alcoves along the long walls leading towards the throne at the far end of the room which seemed to be draped in rags and cobweb like fabric and as far as she could tell was unoccupied. Sarahs scattered mind noted that the woman seemed to cast no shadows from the flickering light, whilst Sarah seemed to have a dozen from all different directions. She shivered.
Creatures lurked in the dark corners and behind the massive stone pillars that supported the vaulted roof, muttering and moving, seemingly keeping pace with her as she followed the woman up the central aisle towards the throne.
As she caught up with the strange woman she could hear her muttering.
"This is what you get for being slow. Now you will kneel before the throne and wait for his pleasure." Sarah stood there and looked dumbly at the woman.
"What? If hes not here I'm not going to wait around in the cold." SHe huffed folding her arms.
"You dare to defy him? You are either stupid or foolish, or both. I said you will kneel, and kneel you will until he tells you otherwise."
Sarah gasped for breath as she found herself suddenly face down on the floor, her broken ribs making her want to scream in agony at the unexpected movement. It was all she could do to pick herself up, kneeling and holding onto her ribs as pain swept through her body.
By the time she had gathered her wits the woman had walked off back the way they had come leaving Sarah alone in the middle of the dark, strange throne room with the unseen creatures scuttling around in the dark. A thousand eyes watching her.
"When he gets back your King and I are going to have words." she muttered in anger.