Memories.
A baby. Soft tufts of dark hair and greener than green eyes. Sarah realized it was herself with a sudden start. With another sudden start, she realized she was seeing this from the Goblin King's point of view... essentially, she was him! It was freaking her out a bit, but she tried to concentrate. She felt the adoring look. The certainty that there was more to her... something quite special about her. Something that needed to be protected. She felt the strong sense of duty. And... the love. But as she concentrated on it, she realized it was pure love of children, the special ones, the unwanted ones, and the ones who needed something or someone like Jareth in their corner.
She saw as he looked in from afar, he didn't know what to do with her because there were no answers where she was concerned. No obvious ones, anyways. He would not take her from her loving family. So he watched.
She saw herself at about 3. And her cousin Meghan. Sarah guessed she had to be around 19-20 months or so. She vaguely recalled that Megan and her family had come for their very first visit from Ireland and it had seemed like a long time that they had stayed. She wished away Meghan! Sarah felt horrified. How could she have done such a thing? And then the Goblin King, standing there, looking at little defiant her, and the flood of amazement and amusement that entered as he stared at her, while she waited expectantly for him to do something. And then he was cuddling her... telling her how he couldn't take her cousin. But assuring her that although he had given Meghan a toy, she would not bother with Sarah's stuff again and that one day, she would be a good friend. And then he gave her a peach.
She remembered how for months after, she couldn't get enough of peaches. She wanted them for deserts, snacks, dinner even! And she also remembered how confused her mother was about all the glitter in the playroom. And how for months she kept vacuuming it up and still find more. And she felt the adoration that had gone through Jareth when he had held her younger self. He admired how brave she had been. So certain of what she wanted. And so unafraid to go after it.
She saw how he still watched. And then she saw how he started reacting to the issue of her parents fighting. Or rather, how she reacted. And she felt his sorrow and misery.
Then she was soaring... and she realized... Snowy! He had been Snowy! He watched over her in the park, followed her home, perched in the tree outside her window and felt how his heart tugged every time she cried herself to sleep. And how he listened. Listened to her childish ranting over her step-mother. Her pleas for her mother to come home again. Her bargains for everything to go back to "normal"... even though things had been far from normal for many a year before Linda left and Irene came. She felt his enchantment with her as she read her plays... the pride at how much she could memorize and recite. The way she unabashedly dove right into everything and put her entire being into it and how he found it admirable.
He still watched. He understood her silly tantrums over Toby. How she still needed to grow up a bit, but the understanding that that, is not as easy as it's said. She gaped. She had been quite a brat. Even more than she had realized. And then, the fateful moment where she wished Toby away. His excitement to see her again. But his fear, too. He had made her forget him, but would she really not remember? And the crushing disappointment when he realized that she did indeed, forget him entirely.
She felt his pride as she faced each challenge. She felt his envy when she hugged and kissed Hoggle so freely. His desire for her in the ballroom. His wish that things could be different. His hope that when he offered her everything she would consider it. And then the heart wrenching loss as she said her final words, putting her as his equal, and rejecting him completely, finally and outright...
She felt his heart as it shattered...