What is meant to be...will be...

Ary looked from her mother to Jareth and back to her mother again. The two adults were sitting at the kitchen table and they had been so very serious from the moment they had picked her up from school. Her mother sighed, resting her chin on her hand, and her elbow on the kitchen table. Jareth gave her a sweet smile and a nod.

"Ary, mommy has to tell you something very important."

The little girl nodded and remained standing quietly, her old well loved teddy bear in hand. It was odd for her to stand so still, so silent, but she stood that way none the less.

Sarah gently reached over to comb back her daughters long dark hair from her eyes. "Ary, remember how you summoned Jareth and you told him something? It was something that you read in the blue book." Ary nodded. "Do you remember what you told him?"

"I told him that he made you happy."

Sarah smiled, and gazed at Jareth who returned a warm smile. Sarah gently took one her daughter's small hands into her own. "And what else did you tell him? Do you remember?"

"He asked me why you were sad and I told him all about my father leaving and the car and the house and..."

Sarah shook her head. "No there was something else you told him. There was something you believed mommy felt for the Goblin King a long time ago. Do you remember what that was?"

Ary thought very hard for a minute and then she nodded. "I told him that you loved him."

Sarah let out a deep breath. Ary didn't seem bothered by that idea in the least. But those words were written about 18 years ago. What would she feel now? "Ary sweetie." Sarah pulled her daughter to her and pulled her into her arms, cradling her like when she was a baby.

"Yes mommy?" She peered up her mother with her large hazel eyes.

"Mommy is in love with the Goblin King again, and it's possible that I never stopped loving him."

Ary's eyes widened. "You love Jareth, mommy?"

Sarah nodded. "Yes, I love him very much."

Ary turned her head to look at Jareth, her hazel eyes focusing on the Goblin King's pale face. "Do you love mommy?"

Jareth nodded immediately, his blond hair falling over his shoulders. "Yes Aryanna. I love your mother. I always have."

The two adults were silent for a moment to let the little girl digest what she had just heard. Ary let her head fall against her mother's shoulder and she fingered her mother's dark hair with her little fingers.

"Does this mean you're going to get married and I can be the flower girl?"

"We don't know sweetie. You see there is something else mommy has to tell you. Do you remember the Labyrinth?"

"That's where Jareth lives."

"That's right. Well Jareth has invited us to stay with him, maybe forever if we like it there."

"Forever?"

"Forever." Jareth injected softly. "There will be many interesting things for you to discover in my Labyrinth Ary. Creatures that your mother has told you about when she tells you bedtime stories."

"Fairies?" Jareth nodded. "Dragons?"

"Yes. My healer is a dragon, well half dragon."

Ary sat up in her mother's arms her eyes wide. "You know a dragon?"

Jareth chuckled softly. "Yes. I know many dragons."

"Mommy can we go, can we go??? I want to meet a dragon!"

Sarah laughed softly. "You want to visit Jareth for a while, to see if you want to live there?" Ary nodded furiously. "We aren't going to go for a few days though ok? Mommy wants to make sure that Toby is going to be ok first."

"Can Toby come with us mommy? I bet he'd like the Labyrinth. He hasn't seen it since he was a baby."

"Toby isn't well enough to visit us, but when he is Jareth said he could visit. Mommy has to tell work that she is going on vacation and I have to call your school and tell them that we're going on vacation. And you can not tell anyone where we are going. Is that understood? If you tell, we won't go. This is a secret."

"Like Jareth is a secret?"

"That's right. Jareth is a secret that you can't tell anyone about and you can't tell anyone about his home or that we are going there. Promise me."

"I promise I won't tell mommy."

Sarah kissed her forehead. "That's my good girl. Now why don't you go downstairs and play with your toys so that mommy and Jareth can talk."

"Ok." Ary wiggled out of her mother's arms and raced to the cellar door swinging it open.

"Don't you run down those stairs!" Sarah called.

Ary walked down them quickly instead. "Lancelot, we're going to the labyrinth!" Sarah heard her cry out at the bottom. She smiled, turning back to Jareth.

"I knew it would be a big hit with her."

Jareth grinned, standing and pulled Sarah into his arms. "And what about you? Do you look forward to going back?"

She rested her head in the crook of his neck and played with the long hair that rested opposite her face. "I have mixed feelings about it. I mean....its been 20 years." She became silent for a moment. "Is...is Hoggle still alive, Ludo, Sir Didymus?"

"I don't know. Other then Sir Didymus, who guards the newly built bridge, I don't know what happened to the others. Hoggle and I had a terrible argument after you left."

"An argument?"

"Yes." He sighed. "He...he didn't, wouldn't believe that I loved you. He didn't think it was possible. I guess I can't blame him for his doubt...I had never loved anyone before you. We argued back and forth on the matter and he returned to the Labyrinth. He's wandering about somewhere I would assume."

"I haven't called him in 20 years. Not since the night I defeated you. I couldn't bring myself to call him, or anyone else for that matter."

"And why was that?" He asked, running his hands through her hair.

"Hoggle said they would be there if I needed them. And I told him that I needed all of them. My friends, even a few goblins came to visit me. Everyone who had been an important part of my journey was there, except for one. He never made an appearance. And if he wouldn't come when I invited all, then I didn't want anyone to visit me." She pulled back, her eyes burning into Jareth's.

"Me?" He seemed surprised by this new information.

She nodded, reaching up to stroke his cheek. "You." She lowered her hand, clutched it to her side. "When you didn't show that night with everyone else, it hurt. Not right away, but after. I felt such a sense of triumph when I first defeated you. But it faded. The older I got, the more I thought of you. I wanted to call you, to see you again, but I thought you would hate me. So I...I never called...for anyone. I wrote everything I felt, everything I remembered down in my diary so if I wanted to look back someday I could. But I had to grow up, so I let it all go. Started dating boys, went out with friends. I started acting like a normal teenager and not the dreamer I used to be."

"Such a pity...I had no idea of your feelings."

She turned in his arms to face him and gaze up into his mismatched eyes that at the moment were filled with warmth and his love for her. She smiled. "No one knew, but me and my diary and that's the way I wanted it to be."

"So you wanted to see me again, even after I made you go through the Labyrinth, after I took your brother?"

She nodded. "Pretty silly, huh? You were the bad guy and I fell head over heels for you."

"You should have called for me. I would have come." Had he known...he would have been there in a heartbeat. She had no idea how many lonely nights he had spent dreaming of her, yearning for her.

"How was I to know that? Like I said, I thought that you hated me and I grew up anyway." She shrugged sadly. He merely gazed at her, his eyes moving over her beautiful face. She suddenly looked like she had the word REGRET stamped all over her face. "And I....I'm so sorry about this morning...I-"

A slender gloved finger touched her lips. "It's the past, forget about it." The subject had been brought up suddenly and he didn't wish for things to go down hill again.

"But the things I said..."

"I've put them behind me."

"You were so wonderful yesterday, helping Toby like you did, putting yourself at such great risk and I...the way I treated you this morning. So unappreciative of you. I'm so sorry."

"Stop it. I told you, it's forgotten and you are forgiven. We all say things we that don't mean, that we wish we could retract. But you showed me that you loved me by accepting my invitation." He pulled her closer to him and tipped her head up toward him so that he could lower his lips to kiss her softly.

He pulled away slowly but she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him back down to her. His hands landed on her waist and he pulled her closer to him roughly. She shivered at the feel of him against her. He may have a touch of feminine beauty to him, but his lower body was definitely all masculine. She pulled back regretfully, when the kiss had grown too passionate and when she could feel a warmth begin to spread through her. She wasn't about to start making out in her kitchen with the Goblin King while her daughter played with her toys downstairs. There would be time for intimacy later.

Jareth sighed when she pulled back, slightly out of breath from their kiss. He stroked her hair, combing the dark locks through his gloved fingers. "Tomorrow I will leave for the Labyrinth."

Her eyes widened. "You're going to leave so soon?"

He nodded and soothed her with his gentle touch. "With those goblins of mine running loose, I fear my castle may not be ready to accept guests. I just want to make sure that everything is in order for when you and Ary arrive." He kissed her brow. "Besides you can spend the time with Toby. Maybe by Thursday or Friday you would be ready?"

"That seems so far away."

"If we both don't dwell on the time then it will pass by quickly." She nodded and leaned against him.

"I wish you could stay with me tonight." She whispered softly as she clutched the fabric of his shirt into one hand. The other hand was making lazy circles over his exposed chest.

"There will be plenty of time for that at my castle. I could stay with you any night you wished."

She chuckled softly and he gently drew back from her to look at her face.

"What is so amusing?"

"Us."

"What about us?"

"I don't know anyone other then us that has so much will power. We love each other with all that we are and yet we've never been intimate. It is not easy always being in your presence and not being able to follow through with certain things."

"I certainly won't claim that it's been easy, but it's been necessary. I thought that is what you wanted....to wait."

"It was. I wanted to wait until I was sure about things, but the truth is we will never be completely sure about everything." She tugged at the collar of his white shirt. "I know that I love you and that you love me. You care for my daughter and she cares for you. That alone right there I'm sure of and that's all I need to be sure of. The future is uncertain right now, but it will always be uncertain. We will never know what horrible thing or wonderful thing may happen next. I mean look at Toby. He was fine one day and the next fighting for his life."

"What are you trying to tell me Sarah?" He tilted his head, gazing at her through confused eyes.

"I'm telling you that I'm ready to take the next step. I know it's something that can't be planned and it will happen when it's meant to, but I want you to know that you can stop trying to protect us both from giving into each other completely."

"It was you who stopped me a short while ago." He reminded her with a smirk.

"That's because right here and right now were not the correct time or place. My little girl is in the house. When we are alone together, if it happens, it happens and it will be special because it wasn't planned. You can't plan true love no matter how hard you try."

He gazed at her with love in his eyes. "You're certain that you are ready for the next step?" He needed to be sure, because the next time his will power might just disappear all together and he didn't wish for there to be regrets between them. She nodded firmly. "Even before you have decided whether or not you wish to stay with me in the Labyrinth?" he had to double check.

She shook her head. "Jareth...I thought about this all day. I know what I want. It's what I wanted from the moment I realized that I loved you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. It doesn't matter where we live. Here, the Labyrinth. The only place I need and want to be is by your side. But what I want doesn't matter." She admitted sadly. "The decision is Ary's. If she decides that after a week or two that she doesn't want to stay then we leave, even if I don't want to."

Jareth drew a sharp breath. "You wish to stay with me?"

She nodded and wrapped her arms around his neck, grinning. 'But now that you know that, don't you start bribing my little girl."

"I would never...although it is a tempting idea." He brought a finger to his lips as if he was contemplating how it could be done.

"Jareth?"

"I wouldn't."

"I told you once, that Ary comes first, before you and before me. I love you, but my daughter comes first, just as your kingdom comes first." She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "Like you said, if it's meant to be, then it will happen."

He placed an innocent kiss on her lips and whispered in a throaty voice. "Than I pray with all that I am that it's meant to be..."

She fell against him, her cheek pressed against the silk of his shirt. "So do I.....so do I."