Sarah struggled to keep her eyes open. It was so frustrating to have to sleep when she had so much else that she needed to be doing. Her heart ached inside of her chest… the only good thing in sleeping was her dreams. Being away from reality was so sweet.

She looked up as her stepmother wandered into the room with a lost look on her face.

"Mom, can I get you something?" Sarah sadly took in Karen's disheveled appearance and her hands that were fretfully sliding over the furniture.

"Yes, Robert told me that he… that he…" Karen's face convulsed as she tried to keep back the tears. She pressed her hands to her face, and took a deep breath. "Robert told me that he had some papers and things that we would need to go through, in his desk, but I didn't see them. Did you move them?"

Sarah nodded, rubbing her eyes sympathetically, forcing back the tears. "Yes, I have them right here." She held up the folder, which held so much thoughtfulness, detailed instructions on contacting his lawyer, on what questions to ask, what financial details needed to be straightened out, his final will… he had handled everything he could for them, had tried to save them as much pain as he could… but he couldn't save them from their mourning, and Sarah felt her own face crumple, dropping her head into her lap as she sobbed.

Karen sat down next to her, holding her tightly, her head pressed against Sarah's hair, crying with her. The two women had been living with the knowledge for six months that Robert William's days on earth were coming to an end, but the pain was so much worse now that he was gone, and the evidence of how much he had loved them, and that he wasn't there to love them anymore, was too much. They clung to each other, grieving.

A few hours later, after more crying, some tea, and a review of her father's papers, Sarah was finally ready to go to bed. She stepped into her younger brother's room, wanting to make sure that the anxious young man was asleep. She shadowed the tear streaks on his cheeks with her fingertips, her heart breaking for the ten year old who would have to grow up without his father.

She looked around the room to make sure that everything was quiet and where it should be, a nervous mannerism that she had picked up after their experience Underground. All was as still, and his room was in the chaotic state that she had come to expect, with his video games scattered on the floor, his clothes in a pile around his laundry hamper instead of inside it, and old worn out toys of earlier days all gathering dust on his shelves, including some incredibly detailed Lego-buildings and her old bear, Lancelot.

Sarah saw a small goblin, sans his usual helmet, sleeping in the shadow of Toby's bed. She smiled briefly, unworried, knowing that no one else ever seemed to see the multiple goblins that stayed with her, not even Toby, who had played with them so contentedly as a baby. She was happy that little Kippy had decided to guard her sleeping brother. Even if he had fallen asleep, too, on his self-appointed watch duty.

She left the room as quietly as she had entered, and then tiptoed to the guest room, where Karen had started sleeping two nights after her husband died, claiming that it hurt too much to sleep in their bed alone. Karen was curled into a ball, looking childlike and fragile, and so much like Toby. There was a bottle of aspirin on the nightstand, and there was a small lamp that was on the floor near the door. She too had managed to attach a goblin… it was Mops, who, like everyone else in the house besides Sarah, was sleeping, curled up between the wall and the nightstand. Sarah closed the door behind her, and finally, finally went down the hall a little ways until she had come to her own room.

She leaned her head against the door before opening it, steeling herself. She knew that Sir Didymus, and probably Hoggle, would both be waiting at the mirror for her. She appreciated having such good friends, but she really didn't want to deal with anyone at the moment. Especially not people who meant well, who cared. What she wanted was to go to sleep, and not wake up for several days. She wanted to wake up hearing her father downstairs starting the coffee maker for Karen, and slamming his suitcase into the side of his chair like he did every morning.

Sarah drew away from her bedroom door, went back downstairs, and curled up on the couch, deciding to face her friends, and reality, in the morning.

Life after the death of Robert Williams was painful, but eventually steadied into a routine. Toby would go to school, and Karen would leave for work. Sarah would sleep in for another hour, and then clean up the house a bit before leaving for her own job, mostly writing grants and assisting in the office of the local college. She would come home to have dinner with Karen and Toby, and the three of them would read or work in the evenings. Every few weeks, Sarah would meet a friend for coffee or a movie, and she spoke with her friends from the Underground every other evening, almost. It was quiet, although never too quiet, living with goblins as they did, but relatively quiet, and it was secluded, but it was just what they needed to heal.

After a few months, things started speeding up. Toby began to go over to his friends' homes after school more often, and Karen joined a book club. And Sarah went on the first date that she'd had since before she'd moved back in with her parents, three years ago.

Sarah and Brian had gone to high school together, but had lost touch after they graduated, and Sarah had moved to New York for college. Brian, who worked as a high school English teacher, was happy to renew the acquaintance, although Sarah found herself feeling… well, rather lukewarm. They sat opposite each other in a coffee shop, reminiscing about their school days.

"I remember that we had creative writing together with Ms. Standy. I'm so glad that I'm teaching across town, I don't think that I could have handled working with people who had been my teachers only five years before."

Brian handed her a black coffee, grinning as his fingers brushed hers. Sarah smiled at him, and took a sip. She choked as she saw a goblin dart beneath Brian's chair, but quickly cleared her throat, and smiled again, before answering.

"I think that was my favorite class through school. It was always so much more fun that writing timed essays on Ernest Hemingway." The two of them laughed together, and Brian tilted his head to catch her eye. Sarah didn't really notice, being preoccupied with the second goblin peering over the edge of the table at them.

"I remember our last two years, you had a theme. You wrote a ton of fantasy, about elves, and balls, and mazes. That was some of the best writing in the class."

Sarah's shoulders stiffened slightly. Brian now had her full attention.

"I'm surprised that you remember it so well." Her voice hadn't changed, but her face, like her shoulders, had stilled the slightest bit. She tried not to remember her time in the Labyrinth too clearly, these days. Well, that wasn't true, she still interacted with denizens of the Labyrinth every day. No, really, she tried not to remember the Goblin King too clearly. Talking casually about the experience, now, especially when she was trying not to notice the goblin stealing bites from her croissant, was not comfortable for her.

Brian repeated his remark about being impressed, and moved the conversation onto other topics. Sarah relaxed, the goblin (Getty) was slipped the last of her pastry, and the conversation flowed freely. When their coffee was finished, though, and another date requested, Sarah refused.

"How did it go?" Karen drew out the last word, smiling at Sarah as she came in through the front door.

A corner of Sarah's mouth tipped up, and she shrugged.

"Really, that's all I get?" Karen looked incredulous. "Did you not like him? Did it not go well?"

"No, he was fine, but we just didn't really click, you know?" Sarah tossed her purse on the table, and joined Karen on the sofa, wishing, err, hoping, that she wouldn't have to deal with too much of this.

Karen shook her head. "You know, Sarah, you've said that about the last few men that you went out with. That there was nothing wrong with them, that they seemed great, whatever, but that 'you just didn't click.' Maybe you've been meeting the wrong men. Or in the wrong places?"

Sarah became a little defensive. "Well, it's not like he was creepy or anything, he was really nice, actually. I just wasn't that attracted to him."

Karen gave her a hard look, but Toby bounced into the room at just the right moment, and instead of delivering a tedious monologue that Sarah had been hearing since she was fifteen, Karen instead switched gears, asking Toby about the fishing expedition that he had gone on that morning with his best friend. Sarah guiltily sneaked upstairs, feeling like she was a teenager again. But she didn't want to hear about how she was twenty five years old, and hadn't had a serious relationship. She knew, better than Karen, all about her lack of a love life. It wasn't something that she hadn't given serious thought to. It was just that she refused to compromise on her standards. Surely having high standards wasn't such a big deal?

And what was so wrong with Brian, her mind piped up treacherously. He was smart, entertaining, handsome, had a decent, secure job…

Sarah kicked the voice to the back of her skull, and pulled out some papers that she wanted to look over before work on Monday, refusing to let the two impish, guilty looking goblins who were sneaking in through her closet distract her.

Unfortunately, Monday arrived all too soon. It didn't go quite the way that Sarah had planned, however. As usual, she was up and dressed a bit before nine, and was having a cup of tea and a bowl of cereal before driving to work. She had just put her bowl in the dishwasher when she heard loud bumping and cursing from upstairs… it sounded like… Hoggle?

Sarah ran up the stairs, opened the door to her room, and found a wet, miserable Hoggle, carrying in an awkward fireman's hold the clearly unconscious and equally bedraggled Jareth.

Sarah didn't waste time on useless gaping or hysterics. She immediately reached out to help Hoggle support Jareth, whose boots and long, wet hair were dragging on the ground. She tugged ineffectually on Jareth's arms before realizing how futile her efforts were.

Hoggle stepped forward, looking around tiredly before asking "Where's should I put him?"

Sarah looked around frantically for a goblin or two for back up, but found, as was frequently the case in the morning, that they were no where to be seen… presumably sleeping in. She backed up and led the way to her parent's unused room, and pulled down the covers on the broad four-poster. She stopped Hoggle from heaving him up on the bed.

"Wait, you're both soaked, we should get him dry first." Hoggle nodded agreement, but looked at her with a little hesitantly.

"He won't wake up…" his gravelly voice was worried.

"That's alright." Sarah's voice was firm. "Start getting his boots and clothes off, and I'll get a towel to dry him off with." She rose swiftly, stopping only to turn on the electric blanket before crossing into the master bath to grab several clean towels.

Hoggle struggled to pull Jareth's shirt over his head, nervous at being so close to his monarch, but knowing that Sarah had the right of it. He sighed in relief when Sarah came back into the room holding some fluffy blue bath towels. He let Sarah take over, watching her pull off the boots, the shirt, and finally, after biting her lips, his pants. She towel dried his hair, and chaffed his limbs and torso, before hefting Jareth onto the bed with Hoggle's help. She pulled the covers up over the Goblin King, and resolved to let him sleep for a few hours before trying to wake him. Sarah turned to Hoggle.

"Let's get you dried out, too." Sarah led the weary dwarf to her brother's room, and after handing him a towel, pulled down some of Toby's clothes… Toby was taller than Hoggle, and thinner, but they would make do. She left him to change, and went downstairs.

Sarah felt the adrenaline surge leaving her, and collapsed on the couch. She glanced at the clock, and groaned as she realized how late for work she was. She reached for the phone, and called in, telling her superior that she was having an emergency here at home, and that she couldn't make it. She hung up the phone, and relaxed back into the cushions, and closed her eyes. She smiled grimly as she heard Hoggle coming down the stairs, and turned to look at him.

"Alright, Hoggle, what is going on?" She felt the dwarf sit down on the couch next to her, exhaustion practically oozing out of him.

"I don'ts know, Sarah." Hoggle sounded utterly confused. "I's was down near the lake, walking home, and I saw's two elves throw him into it, with weights around his ankles, and when they's left, and I pulled him out, and it was Jareth! And he won't wake up!"

"Why won't he wake up, Hoggle?" Sarah felt numb… she knew her brain was not operating the way that it was supposed to.

"How's should I know? I'm just the gardener!" He sounded tired, and indignant.

"Why did you bring him here? Doesn't he have a doctor up in the castle?" Hoggle bowed his head.

"Who's ever thrown him in a lake was elves, and they's ain't people to cross when's you don't even know what's going on." He lifted his gaze from his hands and went on. "Whatevers going on up in the castle ain't no business of mine, and I won'ts be a part of it. It's all politics," he muttered nastily, curling his lip.

"Politics?" Sarah felt confused. She had wondered over the years about the way things were run Underground, well, about everything Underground, but Sir Didymus, Hoggle, and Ludo had never been very clear in answering her questions, and the goblins didn't even pretend to know what she was talking about; 'king kicks us when we chase the chickens,' and 'he sings cause he needs to,' whatever that meant, were the most coherent accounts of castle-life that she could get from them.

"If it's to do with elves, then it's to do with politics." Hoggle snorted, and Sarah stopped contemplating about how little she knew about the Underground. Hoggle's comment was about as clear as mud… well, murky water, anyhow. There were certain things that she could extrapolate from that… elves and politics… hmmm…

"So how long has it been since you pulled Jareth out of the lake? And how did you get the two of you here?"

"I pulled him out and tooks us straight to my house, and we went through the mirror. Its only been twenty minutes."

"And how long was he in the water? Did you perform CPR?" Hoggle looked confused. "Why didn't he drown?"

Hoggle waved his hand. "I don'ts know. He's breathing. He's alive. And he's safe here where no one knows wheres he is. And I's is going home!"

"Hoggle!" Sarah thought, with a brief, hysterical, mental giggle, how some things didn't change. Like the tone of her voice as she watched Hoggle run away from a fight.