Sarah held her breath as the tingling of Jareth's magic filtered its way through her body. His teleportation felt different once again, almost as if it were hugging her, surrounding and penetrating through her. His magic felt like nothing she had ever experienced in her short existence and her heart fluttered in time with the coloring of her cheeks. She felt her heart race every time she heard him take a breath… deep down she knew what this feeling was, she just wasn't ready to say it out loud.

Her room was untouched, exactly as she had left it, and the blush that had captivated her cheeks moved from that of excitement to that of embarrassment in an instant. Her room was a disaster. Clothes were thrown in every direction, her bed unmade and covered in stuffed animals and childish designs. In that moment she could understand what Jareth had been saying when he claimed they were treating her as an adult but she was still a child in the eyes of the Underground. The state of her room only gave validation to that claim.

"Take your time and choose wisely. You can take whatever you can carry." Jareth explained, excusing himself from her presence to go and play with Toby and the goblins. He would give her the space she needed to say goodbye to her human life and to take those items that would mean the most to her.

"Time to get to work." She huffed, pulling a black and pink suitcase from underneath her bed. There were certain aspects of her human life that she would be glad to leave behind but there were so many other artifacts and memories she wanted to remember. First was the photo book that she had hidden in her nightstand. She lowered herself to her bed and flipped through its pages, admiring years of photos. Some of her father and her baby brother and the majority were of her and her friends from school. It was the first six pictures that really mattered the most to her. They showed Sarah, young and missing her front two teeth, smiling proudly next to the most beautiful woman she had ever seen; her mother. Sarah's mother was even more beautiful than the Queen Mother. She had a natural beauty about her that radiated a magic all her own. Sarah's heart ached in longing, a grief unparalleled by anything in her short life.

Once her moment of grief had passed, she put the photo book into the suitcase and moved to her dresser. Jareth had made sure she understood she would be getting an all new wardrobe of magically spun clothing to match her new occupation, but Sarah was a simple girl. There were things she knew she would crave in her new life. She grabbed some comfortable t-shirts and her favorite jeans along with a pair of baggy sweatpants, tucking them into the corner of the suitcase to leave a lot of extra space. She grabbed a pair of chucks from her closet and tucked them into her suitcase as well.

Lastly she grabbed the knickknacks she had come to love the most. Little reminders of times and places in the human world she had loved to visit. She also stuffed the suitcase to almost breaking with books and stories she was sure she could find in the Author's book but that she did not want to take a chance on losing.

Once all her things had been packed, she quietly wheeled her suitcase down the hallway to Toby's room. She could hear the sounds of giggling and joy from the living room downstairs where she was sure Jareth was keeping Toby occupied. Now came the hard part. What items in Toby's room did he care for the most? What would he want to have in his possession a hundred or a thousand years down the road? Lancelot for sure was one of those items that she knew he would want to have in the future. After all, Lancelot still meant a lot to her. She searched through clothing and pictures and finally settled on a small bag of Toby's items. He was far too young to remember most of his life in the human world, anyway. Most of the things he had experienced would be forgotten by the time he reached maturity.

Quietly she headed down the stairs, leaving the bags tucked behind the bed in Toby's room. She crept along upon tip toes, sneaking to the corner of the wall where she could peek around and upon the playing group. Jareth was down on bended knee, his eyes covered with a strong hand as he counted backwards from 100. Goblins scurried around the room, dragging Toby this way and that as they sought to stuff him into different hiding spaces. This was Toby's favorite game: hide and seek.

Jareth finished the last couple of numbers in his countdown. "Four… Three… Two… ready or not here I come." He hadn't seemed to notice Sarah's peeking as he feigned the inability to see Toby's feet sticking out from beneath the curtain by the bay window. "Where could they have gone?" He teased, looking left and right and pretending to be unable to hear the goblins, and Toby's, giggling.

"Shhh!" Toby hissed, waving away one of the giggling goblins amid his own giggling.

"There you are!" Jareth smirked, throwing open the curtain and engulfing the boy in his arms. Gently he lifted Toby off the ground and spun him around, suddenly reminding Sarah of the way her father had once played with her. Before the grief of the loss of his wife had taken away the father she had loved and replaced him with someone else, someone different.

Again her face flushed and her heart raced inside her chest. Jareth was nothing like she had imagined him to be, nothing of the monster she had created to placate her own vendettas. Jareth was kind and compassionate and loving and he cared so deeply for all the creatures touched by his domain… and just the sight of him made her go weak in the knees.

"There you are," he repeated again, this time his tone softer. Toby had been moved to sit nestled against his hip as he smiled down upon the small girl. "All packed and ready to go."

"Ready for this last hour, you mean? Or ready for the rest of my life?" She asked.

"Both?" He smirked.

"I'm adjusting." She admitted honestly.

He reached out, grasping her hand and lifting her knuckles to his lips where he placed a gentle and reverent kiss. "You're going to be fine, Sarah, you and Toby both were born for this life. It will be tough, but you will adjust."

Sarah breathed out a sigh as all three as well as all the things she had packed were teleported back into the room that had been designated for her. She watched the clock in the corner tick away the last seconds of the second to last hour. "This is it…" She whispered as the last bell toll rang to signify the start of her last hour. "The beginning of the end."

Author's Note: I have decided to stop making promises to update chapters. Every time I promise I'm going to update more frequently something drastic happens and then I don't update for months. So have patience. I only have one more chapter (and an epilogue) to post so hopefully I'll light a fire under my butt and get them done sooner rather than later. But again, no promises. I hope you're enjoying this so far. Toby and Sarah are going to spend her last hour in the Labyrinth together so the next chapter should be a lot of fun to read/write.

I've officially decided upon a sequel though! If/when I write it, I'm going to combine the both. It will take place some years in the future, but not enough where you miss the interactions between Jareth and Sarah. Basically, if I decide to put them together, that's where it will happen. Stick with me! We're almost done.

All my love; Kaas