AN: Wow, I actually posted something! Just a short one piece, thankfully not a song fic,
be glad for that. Drop me a line, bug me to write something new, motivate me! LOL Has
everyone been doing okay by the way?

Standard disclaimers apply children. Even to fluff.



*************************** Sweet Dreams ****************************


"You have no power over me…"

'Well, few things do now,' Jareth mused as a tender, unbidden smile lit upon his curled
lips. Except time, and death- who managed to claim all mortals, though their hold on
Sarah was tenuous. Because Sarah was more than human, and less than he.

The Labyrinth had changed her as it had changed few others. To most who traveled its maze
it became a dream, or a nightmare- a reminder to love those taken for granted. But to
Sarah it had never been less than real.

He had never been less than real.

And she was extraordinary for that. In more ways than one.

She looked small lying in the big bed in the bigger empty house where he had stolen her
and she had returned with her own wits and bravey instead on his borrowed and fickle good
will. The others were long gone- her disapproving parents, loving Toby, and a host of
other step children who had followed through out the years.

And how the years had passed. Almost a century had flown by with a quickness that rivaled
the wind. There had been incredibly happiness in that time, and horrendous heart break.
Jareth had been there for much of it, in some way or another.

He was real to her but Sarah was nothing but a passing fancy for the world she had
precariously lived in. He owed it to her to be here, or so his own capricious conscience
said. But as delicate as she looked asleep, Sarah Williams was nothing but awake when she
opened her hazel eyes to find him standing there, an errant Goblin King at her death bed.

"Hay."

"Hello."

"You came."

"Yes."

How could he not? Jareth took one wrinkled hand and wondered if she could hear his
pounding heart. He was immortal. He had seen death in all its guises and forms, in all its
quiet dignified wonder and its terrifying glory. But Sarah's death would be
different.

He could feel it in his bones.

The Goblin King would not walk away untouched by this passing.

"Is it time?"

His hold on her cool hand tightened with the simple question. "I don't know," he answered
truthfully. "I can't see the future…"

"Lucky for me," she replied tartly with a smart grin. He'd miss her smile, and her laugh,
and her eyes… he'd miss her eyes most of all. Her labored breathing was stilted and loud
between them.

Jareth swallowed.

She glanced away from his sculptured face, unwilling or perhaps unable to face the pain in
his eyes. "What's it like Jareth? Is there really light at the end of the tunnel?"

He knelt at her side and clutched the hand close to his breast. "For you brave Sarah
there will be, if you wish it."

Sarah stared at him sadly but with the fondness of long time friends. "I'm not brave
silly Goblin King. Foolish perhaps, but never brave…"

"You're MY hero."

That got that tinkling laugh he was going to miss so much. "What will you do without
me?"

"Talk to the goblins?"

That earned him a large smile but she was too tired to laugh now. He swallowed again as
she seemed to sink back into the bed with a sigh, all of her previous life ebbing out of
like a low tide.

"I don't see any light Jareth…" Sarah whispered as her eyes started to close, heavy with
the years and trials they had seen.

"Hush child, and dream of beautiful things… The dark will go away soon."

"Of Hoggle and Ludo and the Labyrinth when dawn paints it gold?" she murmured sleepily as
her hand relaxed in his grip.

"Yes child, and ball rooms and owls flying across the moon…"

She smiled softly now in response. "I… I've always loved you…" Sarah whispered in between
stolen breaths.

Jareth cursed the tears that pooled in his eyes. "I know Sarah. I've always known."

"Good." And she slept the eternal sleep that would forever be denied him. Slept and
dreamt of magic and a lonely Goblin King.