The tables have turned...

Sarah opened her eyes and turned her head slightly. As she slept she could sense Jareth's eyes focused on her. When she gazed at him, he was indeed staring at her. Propped up on one elbow, resting on his side, gazing at her with those mismatched eyes of his, his blond hair falling softly over his slender shoulders.

She smiled sweetly and stretched her arms. "Good morning." He smiled in return but there was sadness in his eyes. "Is something wrong?" she asked as she reached over to tuck some of his hair behind his ears. He took her hand into his and brought it to his lips placing a soft kiss on her skin. "Jareth?"

He smiled lazily. The sadness still present in his eyes. "We should talk today Sarah." He told her, his voice a whisper.

She said nothing for a moment. She wanted to talk to him, but she had not expected so soon. She knew what she wanted, how she wanted things to go, but now she suddenly felt unsure.

"We should do it today, because if we don't say what needs to be said, it will never happen." She opened her mouth to object and he raised a slender finger to her lips. "You will be going back to work soon, and Ary will be in the house again. When will we have the time to talk?"

"We have at night before we go to bed."

"Yes, when you are tired and aggravated from a long day's work? We should do it and today would be a an ideal time."

She titled her head at him and then nodded. He seemed very persistent about it and she couldn't see any harm in getting out what needed to be said today. "So where should we start?"

"I have no idea." He admitted honestly. His mind was whirling with thoughts and it had been since he has awakened a good hour before Sarah had. He was so afraid of how she would take things. Fear was an alien emotion to him...and right now it was gripping him something fierce.

She smiled sweetly, inching toward him in the bed. "Well we both know that we love each other, right?"

He nodded, sighing deeply, as if he was troubled. She frowned.

"Are you having second thoughts about your feelings for me?"

He shook his head. "Of course not."

"Then what was that about?"

"What?" he asked innocently.

"That big deep sigh."

He sighed again. "Sarah this is not easy for me. I've never sat down and talked my feelings out with someone before. I've told you that I love you and that I have for a very long time, but for me to sit here and plan my future...it's a little difficult for me." He sat up in the bed and pulled her to sit opposite of him. He reached for her hands, resting them on his knee, gently running his bare hands over her soft skin.

"Sarah, you know what I wish. I want to spend forever with you and Aryanna. But there are things that will complicate the wonderful little life we've all been living these past few months."

She frowned. "I...don't understand."

"How is it that you want things to be Sarah? What do you want your future to be like?"

She shifted uncomfortably for a moment before meeting his intense gaze. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to marry you, for you to be the father my little girl never had."

He felt a warmth rise in his heart, but forced himself to ignore it. He could not and would not get his hopes up before everything was out in the open. He squeezed her hands gently. "And where would we live Sarah?" He took a deep breath.

She looked uncertain, very uncomfortable. She knew what she wanted. "We...we could live...here. This house is plenty big for the 3 of us and if we ever decided to expand our family there is a spare bedroom." She looked at him with a hopeful expression on her face, but something within her knew, he couldn't, wouldn't stay in the mortal world with her. He gave her a pained expression. She knew that this world would never accept him.

"Sarah, I can't live here...I've stayed here much longer then I should have." Sarah felt her heart sink into her stomach, her worst fears realized. She lowered her head, unable to look at him. He reached for her chin, beckoning her to gaze into his eyes. "I'm a creature of magic Sarah. I can't live in the mortal world. My magic would wither and die and so would I. And besides that, I have a kingdom to run." The look on his face as he regretfully told her this reminded her of how he looked in their final confrontation 20 years ago. His eyes filled with sorrow, sad desperation.

She wanted to cry and she could feel the tears stinging her eyes. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying I can't live here. I can't live in this house and live the life you want me to. Have you any idea at all how difficult it has been for me to stay here? To curb my anger, to accept an insult somewhat gracefully and not give into my nature?"

"If it was that much of a burden for you to stay here with me, you could have left anytime you wanted to!" she shot back suddenly. She reacted with anger and it put him on edge.

He tilted his head at her, his long blond hair falling softly over his shoulder. "You are not a burden Sarah. You never have been and you never will be. Staying here with you and Aryanna has been wonderful and I wish it did not have to end." He sighed deeply. "But it does. I can not be who I truly am while I'm here. I can't be the Goblin King and that is who I am. I've had to hide my anger, my arrogance, important pieces of who I am, away."

"Oh so you've been acting this whole time with me and Ary? Pretending to be someone that you're not?" He opened his mouth to speak and she cut him off. "What was this?" She gestured feverishly around them, at the room, at them sitting together on her bed. "Some kind of revenge? Go back to the girl who defeated you when she was at her most vulnerable point, get her to fall in love with you and then leave her?" Her eyes flashed anger and hurt. "Sarah...I would never...-" He reached for her shoulders and she pulled violently away, totally ignoring the look of hurt that he was etched into his handsome features.

"You miserable son of a bitch! I should have known you would pull something like this!" She was angry and so afraid that this could be the truth, angry that they couldn't keep living how they had been living. She hated change...

Jareth advanced towards her again and she jumped off the bed, moving away from him. His heart felt as if someone was squeezing it painfully.

"How could you sink so low? You even saved my brother! You tucked my little girl into bed and told her bedtime stories!" She wanted to cry, wanted to rush under the covers and cry like she had never cried before. She loved him so much and it was completely possible that everything between them had been a step toward revenge, a lie. That cut her deep.

"Sarah everything I have done I've done for you!" He shouted, wishing that he could have taken the words back as soon as they left his lips. They were an echo of the past, a past that went so terribly wrong and dared to be repeated again unless he made her see the truth.

"Gee where have I heard that before? How original of you!"

"Sarah...I love you. And everything I've done has been done due to my love for you." He told her stepping off the bed, advancing toward her. His voice was desperate, shaky with fear, but thick with truth.

"You don't know what love is!" She cried back, steeling herself against being hurt, being left alone again.

He rushed at her pulling her into his arms. She struggled the entire way but he didn't relinquish his hold. He didn't say anything to her, just held her and looked into her eyes. He let her see how vulnerable he was right now, that he spoke the truth, that he loved her with every fiber of his being. Gazing into her eyes he knew she wanted to cry and that she wanted desperately to believe that he had not deceived her.

"Everything that I have done while I have been here was done because I love you Sarah and because I love Aryanna." He sighed deeply, so afraid of how she might react to his next words. "I want you to return with me Sarah. I want you to be my queen." His voice was soft.

"Go back the Labyrinth?" He nodded. "No way!" She saw the pain flash across his eyes. "Jareth, I can't just leave my life here, my job, my brother! My little girl goes to school here."

"Just as I can't live here Sarah and abandon my kingdom." Sarah felt the tears begin to stream down her cheeks. Toby had warned her about this. He was a King, and he had a kingdom he was responsible for. No matter how much he claimed to love her, his kingdom would come first. He could not abandon it to live here with her, no matter how much she or he wanted to.

"I want more then anything for you to join me, to be my queen. Ary can be a princess, living out her dreams. She can be schooled in the labyrinth, she will have friends there. You won't be bothered by the likes of terrible neighbors, a car that often breaks down. You won't have to worry about paying for your house or for groceries, working hard everyday at your job. The only thing you will have to worry about is what to wear. What to do with your hair each day. How you feel like spending your day..." He gazed at her lovingly, running his fingers through her silky dark locks.

"Jareth I can't just run away from my life." Her voice was soft, the anger gone, even though it still shone in her eyes.

"It wouldn't be running away, but moving, starting something new. A new chapter in your life. Sarah I love you and I never in 600 years expected you to feel the same way. I didn't even expect it when we were reunited and your daughter told me that you once loved me." He peered into her angry eyes. "I know you love me...even though right now you are angry with me and I don't want to lose you." He locked his eyes with hers. "I lost you once, I don't want to lose you again.

"Sarah I have been honest with you and Aryanna. You are the only one I would ever allow to see my vulnerable side. I am not evil. I can be cold, cruel, and arrogant. I have to be those things to run my kingdom, but I don't feel the need to be that way with you. You balance my life. In being here I've I can still be kind, carefree and I will not be thought of as weak if I show that side of myself to the right person." He reached for her hands kissing each of them gently. "If I show that to you..."

"You don't have to make a final decision right now. Just journey with me back to the Labyrinth. I will show you and Aryanna what could be your home should you decide to stay. There are going to be things that you don't like about me Sarah and our relationship will be rocky at times, just as any relationship would be. But I promise you that if you stay with me there will be more good times then bad. That the love, the kindness I've shown you here is genuine and it won't change if we go to my labyrinth." He gently gripped her shoulders.

"Please Sarah...just think about a trip...a look into what could be yours." He locked his eyes with hers.

She matched his gaze, didn't back down. "What would happen if I stayed? I mean what if I wanted to stay but Ary didn't?"

"Sarah I would never separate you from your daughter. I can live with the fact that things didn't work out, if we tried. If things are meant to be, then they will happen. I can not and will not live with the fact that we didn't try at all."

Sarah closed her eyes, knowing she was contemplating the idea, rolling it around in her mind. She loved Jareth with all her heart and Ary seemed to love him.

He had lived with her for a few months in her world, tending to her needs, going at a slow pace because it was what she needed, putting his kingdom on hold for her. There wouldn't be any harm in doing the same for him. He could be the father her little girl needed, and he could be the husband, the lover that she needed and wanted.

"What about Toby? Jareth...." Her last attempt, really the only true reason she could see passing up the Labyrinth. She couldn't leave Toby behind, would not let him become some distant memory while she went off to play Goblin Queen.

"Sarah if you stayed...my magic would be at its full strength and I could send you to visit him any time that you wished. He could visit any time that he wished. I would never keep you from your brother." His eyes reflected to her that he was being completely truthful with her.

She sighed deeply. "All right....I'll go with you back to the Labyrinth...to see how things work out. But we need to talk to Ary first...though I have a good idea that she won't object to the idea of going to the Labyrinth and missing school. I'll figure out something with my work." She reached up hesitantly, playing with his golden mane. " I'd like to give it a chance..."

He felt joy course through him. He knew she was putting forth an incredible amount of trust to consider this. "A chance is all I ask." She nodded and slowly leaned against him, her head resting against his chest. He pulled her into his arms, stroking her hair and then her cheek with the backs of his fingers. He kissed her hair, and held her, not wanting to ever let go.

She knew Ary would be thrilled with the idea of going to the Labyrinth. So she was going back after 20 years. And this time she would not be entering the Labyrinth because she had wished a child away. This time she would not enter as Jareth, the Goblin King's enemy or rival....but as his invited guest, his lover....his possible future queen. My how the tables had turned.....