Sarah woke up to the sound of the fire detector going off, loudly. The cat was yowling, and it created a cacophony that was likely to wake all of her neighbors up. Sarah shot up out of bed, feeling more hungover than she ever had in her life. Her entire body hurt, her muscles having gotten cold during her sleep and seizing up painfully. She groaned as she got out of bed, nearly tumbling onto the ground while wiping the sleep out of her eyes. She slid into the kitchen on unstable legs and blinked a few times before she could really take the whole picture in.

Jareth had made an utter mess. He had tried to cook something, which had burned, and was currently shooting big plumes of black smoke up towards the wailing fire detector. There were eggs that had been broken and she couldn't discern what the gummy stuff he'd gotten all over the floor was - though it looked a bit like blackberry jam mixed up with flour.

"What-" She exclaimed, running towards the oven to turn all of the burners off before grabbing a towel and waving the smoke away from the detector. She released a sigh of relief when it went off, leaving them in silence. Even the cat hat stopped yowling. He looked nonplussed by it all, as if the war zone had merely been a consequence of his curiosity. It didn't matter that he made a mess, because he had needed to know what all of these things did.

She blew her hair out of her face before grabbing a pony tail and tying it back completely. She surveyed the utter horror of it all, realizing how long it was going to take to clean it up, the likelihood of convincing him to do it. He was a bit like a child in a candy store.

"You have to go back," She growled out, emphasizing the word 'you' with a good deal of irritation. "You can't stay here!"

Jareth looked vaguely amused by her anger, though he didn't seem at all concerned.

"There's nothing to go back to," He finally said.

"Oh sure there is, you rotting away in a cell," She began containing the mess, dragging out the trash can to begin throwing away all of the detritus left behind by his cooking experiment.

"I couldn't get back there even if I tried," He admitted. "I'm too weak,"

Sarah hadn't realized he might have been responsible for the tear in his world, but now she felt as if he had been responsible for this entire thing.

"It's your fault I ended up back there, isn't it?" She asked, stopping her movements to look at him.

"No," He said flatly. "It isn't,"

Sarah had once read that the fae couldn't lie. She wondered if it was true.

"So are you going to explain to me what happened?"

"The only information I'm privy to is how I ended up in that cell,"

"Seems like a good place to start,"

"My mother died," Sarah looked shocked. She remembered the dream that she'd had. "She gave an edict that one of us had to be married before we took over the whole court. Neither he or I are married, and it gave my brother an opening,"

"So you didn't even try to defend yourself?"

"He's within his rights to contest me as the ruler," Jareth said, unscathed by the obvious betrayal. "I just didn't think it would end with me in a cell," He admitted.

"So why not just marry someone to get it over with?"

"It isn't that simple,"

"Nothing ever is with you," Sarah grumbled, returning to trying to clean up her kitchen. "So, what's the deal? True love on a full moon? She has to be part bear, part wolf?" Sarah was being facetious. "Or maybe you already have a true love and you turn into a wolf at night and she turns into a bird during the day?"

"Something like that," Jareth said, drearily.

"So what? Goblin King isn't...King of everything?"

Jareth shook his head, watching her move around like a bee trying to clean everything up.

"Just the labyrinth," He muttered. "There's an entire court you don't know about,"

Sarah stopped with her movements, looking at him. Was he serious? Of course she knew about it, she just hadn't thought it had anything to do with him.

"Which one?" She asked, trying to match his condescending tone.

"Winter,"

"Of course," She mouthed to herself, turning back around to continue her spree. "I have to go to work," She said as she tossed the rag she'd been using into the trash. There would be no rescuing it from the horrors it had just seen.

"Work?" Jareth asked, much like he had the night before when it came to soap.

"Yes, it's where I go to earn money so I can pay for all of this,"

Jareth looked utterly confused before he spoke again.

"I'll go with you,"

"You can't come with me,"

"Why not?"

"Because, I don't want to have to explain who and what you are and why you're suddenly accompanying me to work. Besides, you should stay here and regain your strength so that you can go back,"

"You're not even the least bit curious why it was you that got dumped into the labyrinth?"

"No," She said flatly. "The less I know the better,"

She was lying, she was curious. She suddenly remembered that she'd left the hospital without any word, and her family was probably worried for her. She was a bit surprised when she went to the phone to find that the answering machine wasn't blinking. No one had called? She picked up the phone and dialed her dad's number. They still lived in the old house where Merlin was buried, and Sarah heard it ring a few times before her step mother answered the phone.

"Mom?" She asked. "Hi, it's Sarah, I just wanted to let you guys know that I made it home from the hospital okay..."

"I'm sorry, who is this?"

"Very funny. It's me, Sarah. I thought you guys might be worried about the hospital,"

"I'm sorry, I don't know any Sarah," Her step mother said. "You must have the wrong number,"

Sarah thought it must have been, but when she dialed the number again she was sure it was her step mother. She hung up the phone before speaking to her again. She was confused, but not alarmed. She didn't know where her cell phone or her belongings had ended up, so she began rifling around in her drawers to find an old address book that held her dad's cell phone number. She dialed it. He answered after a few long moments of ringing.

"Hello?"

"Hey, dad, it's me," She said. "I tried to call mom but she didn't recognize me. I just wanted to let you know I made it home from the hospital safely,"

"I'm sorry, who is this?"

"It's Sarah," She said, giving a panicked bit of laughter.

"I'm sorry, I don't know a Sarah," He admitted. "You must have the wrong number,"

"I'm your daught-" She didn't get a chance to finish, she heard the line click off. "Hello?"

She turned to find Jareth standing there, looking at her quizzically. She must have looked concerned, or confused, because he opened his mouth to say something before shutting it again. He finally did speak.

"Everything alright?"

"Yeah, everything is fine. I'm just going to go get dressed,"

Sarah dressed herself in long pants and a long sleeved shirt, trying to hide the proof of last night from onlookers. Her head was still throbbing a bit, but the knot had gone down and it wasn't bleeding anymore. She pulled on a pair of flats and exited her room, finding Jareth standing in the hallway staring at her door. He was such an unsettling thing to have around - fine to pull out for special occasions but obviously not for every day use. He was too fine for that. The bruising on him had lightened considerably, and she had to think that was thanks to what he was. He was looking more formidable each passing moment. It gave her hope that he would be out of here soon.

"Is something wrong?" She asked, wondering at the strange look on his face.

"I want to come with you," He tried again. She sighed, thinking that if she left him here he might find a way out anyway and then she might never find him again. At least if she was with him she could keep an eye on him.

"You'll need some shoes," Sarah admitted.

She thought maybe she had a pair that might fit him, so she went digging around in her closet again. One of her boyfriends had left behind a beaten up pair of black sneakers, and she handed them to him. He might have said something derisive but she shot him a sharp look and he quieted down for the moment. When he was all dressed, he looked as if he was ready to take a gondolier down through the streets of Venice. She frowned. All he needed was a cap of some sort and a paddle.

"We should probably get you some clothes," She didn't have her wallet, but she kept a credit card hidden among her things for an emergency. This seemed like an emergency.

She began rifling around for it, and thankfully found her passport. It would do if someone wanted ID. She grabbed an old empty purse and her spare set of keys and dumped all of the items in it, hoping that she might be able to recover her things from the hospital. She pushed the strange phone calls to the back of her mind for the moment, and focused on the items she could take care of right then.

"Come on," She murmured.

He followed.

Jareth turned out to be a full time babysitting job. The first time she lost sight of him, he wandered off to examine the window dressing of a store that sold as seen on TV items. She had questions about them, and Sarah found herself having to grab his wrist and drag him away like he was a dog that had stopped for too long to sniff something. She thought in this case a leash would have been handy.

People sometimes stared at him, seeming to know intrinsically about his 'otherness', and she was thankful when they finally made it to the place where she worked. She waved at the people at the front desk, who looked at her in a confused fashion. She hit her number on the elevator and dragged him into it. This downright terrified him, a moving box that he couldn't get out of, and Sarah found herself rolling her eyes so hard that they almost got stuck in her skull.

She left him there, pressing buttons, with express instructions not to go anywhere.

When she came into the office, she found her desk was empty. Her computer, all of her illustrations, everything. She frowned, and when she saw June, she lifted her hand to wave. June seemed confused.

"What happened to all of my stuff?" She asked, obviously concerned.

"I'm sorry?"

"All of my stuff was here yesterday, what happened to it?"

"I'm sorry, I don't recognize you. That desk has been empty for months,"

Sarah blinked. She couldn't believe it. First her parents, and now this? The girl was looking at her strangely, and she realized she didn't want to have the security guard called to escort her from the property. She gave a short nod of her head and shouldered her purse before quickly exiting the area. Was she still asleep? It wasn't possible that she'd been completely erased, was it?

She found herself angry with Jareth, even though he had told her that he'd had nothing to do with it, she wasn't sure she believed him. She stormed out into the hallway to find him gone. Apparently she hadn't learned her lesson the first time. She called the elevator back up, he could be on any floor, and realized she was going to have to check each one. She wasn't sure how upset she was with the idea that he had disappeared, but apparently this wasn't to be that simple. Apparently, she couldn't just return to her life, not when she'd been completely erased from it.

When the elevator door opened, she found him standing there with an ice cream cone. How he had gotten it she had no idea, but she couldn't put anything past him. She just shook her head, and she didn't even ask. Had he been riding this thing up and down the entire time she'd been up there?

"Have you tried one of these?"

"Yes," She said, releasing a sigh as if it might flush out all of her worries.

"Where are we going next?"

"Apparently I don't have to work, so...I guess we should go find you something to wear,"

"Work," He scoffed. "What a concept!"

Sarah was glad to get out of the elevator and get some space from him. She felt sure she was going to throttle him.

Sarah made once more stop at the hospital, where Jareth found endless amusement with the vending machines. He murmured something about not needing Goblins, and she had a brief thought that the next time someone was taken to the Labyrinth there would be the glow of vending machines instead of little, scurrying creatures. She snorted, imagining that he would turn children into the machines instead of goblins. He looked at her, puzzled by her amusement, but nothing could dampen his joy on this particular outing.

Sarah went to the desk and gave them her room number, and her name. Her heart dropped into her stomach when two to three minutes of waiting became fifteen. Finally the nurse came back with the lost and found and set it down in front of Sarah. She found she already knew what was going to come out of the nurse's mouth.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but no one was in that room last night. You're welcome to see if your belongings are here, though,"

"How could no one have been in that room? I remember it,"

"That whole wing is being redone, it's closed off to staff and to patients,"

"Thanks," Sarah said, though her voice felt hollow. The nurse looked at her with some concern, but she was forced to return to her duty rather quickly. Sarah dug through the lost and found, but as she expected, there was no sign of her belongings.

She had started to pull at a thread, and she was sure the more she pulled, the more this would unravel. She tried to keep her mind off of it, but she was scared. She knew she had existed, she was Sarah Williams, the illustrator. When she returned to find Jareth sitting next to an ailing woman asking her questions about the oxygen device she had with her, Sarah sighed again, exasperated. She grabbed his hand and looked to the woman.

"I'm sorry ma'am, my brother is mentally ill. He doesn't mean any harm,"

"I found him rather charming," The old lady said, quietly in an accent that almost matched Jareth's.

"Sorry to bother you," Sarah dug her nails into his wrist and tugged him along, but he forced his hand away from hers.

"I am not a dog," He muttered, darkly. "What does mentally ill mean?" She supposed he wouldn't know the term, coming from the land of tra-la-la.

"Oh no? Stop acting like one then. Come on," Sarah grumbled, having the desire to spoil his fun just because she was so anxious.

Jareth, of course, was drawn to the most expensive stores. It wasn't like the clothing he'd worn in the labyrinth, but Sarah didn't even think they'd be able to find anything remotely like it unless they had someone make it for him - so this would have to do for now. They found themselves in one of those men's stores that was all mahogany, and they offered her a glass of champagne. At least she wasn't invisible. Sarah found she didn't care, if she didn't exist, she wondered if the credit card would even work. She watched him go around picking things out, and piling them all into the dressing room, a poor worker following him around like a goblin himself. Jareth had an air of arrogance that was returning with each moment - the delirium and overall goofiness dissipating the farther he got away from his labyrinth.

She found a men's magazine and was flipping through it when she heard him clear his throat. Her eyes widened when she saw him standing there in a well cut suit that had the vaguest hint of purple in it. He looked like a man, a stunning man, and she turned to find people looking at him. He seemed pleased with the reaction, and disappeared back into the fitting room. Sarah's eyes dropped back to the magazine before she found herself looking up again, but he didn't come out again. Apparently, once was enough for him.

Sarah was dazed when she handed over her credit card. He had picked out almost an entire new wardrobe, as if he had plans to stay here for awhile. She watched, in shock, as the credit card allowed the purchase. The store clerk handed her the receipt and a pen that likely cost more than her rent. She signed for it, Sarah Williams, and noticed that her name had not printed out underneath the line. She tried not to take it as a sign, but it was hard not to.

Jareth left the place in his new clothes, he'd chosen an expensive shirt that was just distressed enough and a pair of well fitting black jeans. His shoes were pointy and shined and over it he slung a leather jacket that she probably would never pay off, if she was ever expected to. He'd even bought sunglasses, which worked out quite well with his new hair cut. Instead of stares of derision, she found they were getting very different kinds of looks now. Sarah was forced to carry all of the bags until she nearly dropped one, and Jareth finally turned around to watch her struggle with it. She didn't expect him to offer to help, and true to form, he didn't.

When she retrieved the bag, he continued on his trek. He stopped in front of an expensive looking restaurant. She wasn't sure if he actually ate, but then she realized he likely didn't eat anything that wasn't already prepared for him and to his specifications. Sarah was hungry, and since she had already gone down the path of burning her credit card out, she didn't know what would stop them now. She was under dressed, though thankfully the place was dark enough that no one seemed to notice. They were sat in a booth that was decorated with trendy black leather and minimalist furniture.

Sarah felt like she needed a drink.

So, she ordered one. Jareth watched her with an appraising eye, but he didn't seem to be interested in the alcohol himself. He looked over the menu, sprawled out in the booth like a feline, and ordered something that looked interesting to him. Sarah kept it plain, and ordered a salad. Jareth had ordered some pasta dish, and she watched him test it out. She wondered if he had pasta back home. She crunched on her salad and found herself uninterested in it, going instead for the drink she'd ordered.

Sarah ordered another drink. And then another, and then another.

By the time she tried to order her fourth, her vision was blurry and her head felt heavy. The waiter decided there would be no more drinks for Sarah, and she got a bit belligerent. Jareth had initially seemed amused by all of this, but when Sarah was digging around in her purse for her credit card, he reached out to stay her hand with his own. She flung it onto the table anyway.

"I think it's time we should be leaving," Jareth said. The waiter nodded, taking the credit card.

"I'll call you a cab, sir,"

Sarah found herself taken up, felt Jareth's arms wrap around her as he lead her towards the exit. The waiter gave her back her credit card, and blearily, she looked back at him. She kept shouting that she had money to pay for more drinks, as if she just couldn't stop herself. She began struggling against Jareth, who had gained back enough of his strength to keep her from getting away from him.

"No, I don't wanngo!" She slurred out.

Eventually, he plucked her up as if she weighed no more than a feather and tried to wrangle her into the cab. She was a flurry of legs and arms, but before long she felt herself being deposited into the back of the cab. The cabby said something about how she better not puke in his back seat, but she didn't feel like puking. She just felt angry. And drunk.

He had dragged her back into the labyrinth, and now, she didn't exist. Her family and her friends didn't remember her. It was her worst nightmare. She started to cry, the emotions just flooding out of her, aided by a good deal of vodka. Jareth watched her, forcing her to give her address to the cabby before Sarah fell asleep, tired and more than a little bit drunk.

The last thing she remembered was being carried on someone's back, like she had when she'd been a girl, up a flight of stairs. Everything else was a vague memory, and she wasn't sure that any of it had happened at all.

"This is your fault," She blurted out, into his back.

"Most things are," She remembered him replying.

Sarah woke up with the cool tile of her bathroom floor pressed into her face. She had an awful taste in her mouth, as if she'd been smoking cigarettes and eating onions all night. It was also dry, so dry that she didn't think she'd make it to the kitchen for a glass of water and just turned the bathroom tap on to cup her hands underneath the flow of water and drink it from her hands.

When she caught sight of herself in the mirror, she groaned. Her mascara mixed up with her tears had created attractive little rivulets down her face. She had looked better. She took a moment to wash her face before the reality of the day before came crashing in on her. Oh right, she was stuck in this bizarre situation with a man who she had convinced herself was just a bad dream.

She smelled coffee, and she had hope for a brief moment that it hadn't been real. She saw him standing in the kitchen, though there was less of a mess this time. She wondered how he'd figured out the coffee maker, but he had. She sat down at the kitchen table and put her head in her hands. He was wearing a white shirt and a pair of well fitting jeans, likely those she had bought for him yesterday. He looked annoyingly not hungover. She groaned through her fingers.

She heard him set something down in front of her with a thunk. It was toast. And coffee. She couldn't call him stupid, that was for certain.

"How did you figure out how to make toast?"

"Well, considering it was the most difficult thing I've ever had to do..." He murmured in his sarcastic, deep tones.

Sarah felt ill, but she couldn't vomit on command. She took a drink of the coffee. It was strong. She wondered if he'd been watching the television. He sat down across from her, looking ever more beautiful. The bruises had almost completely faded by then. The strange color of his hair only made him look more lovely, and Sarah thought she hated it, considering she looked rather like the swamp thing.

"Why are you so upset?" He finally asked.

"What makes you think I'm upset?"

"Well, you drank what amounts to your body weight in what I assume is some sort of fermented beverage, and while I'd love to think that my presence purely contributed to that I can't say I fully believe it. Why don't we start with what happened the night you ended up in the labyrinth,"

Sarah recounted it to him, from the hospital to the thing chasing her. She never told him about the mark causing her to pass out, though. She wasn't sure if it was important, though it had come up at a very opportune time. It had showed up only a few days before all of this started, after all. Jareth seemed thoughtful, maybe even as confused as she was. The look on his face made it clear that he hadn't been the one who had done it, though he might have unintentionally been the cause of it.

"If I go back it's likely I'll end up back in that cell," He admitted. "They sent anyone who might have helped me away, and they tend to use brute force,"

"Can't you trick them, like you used to trick me?"

"They're fae," Jareth said, taking a sip of the coffee. "I'll have to do better than a poisoned peach,"

Sarah had been a trusting girl, so she was not so hard on herself, but it did sound like he was calling her stupid.

"Why did I just disappear?" She asked, looking at him with wide eyes and a face she didn't realize was hopeful.

"It had to have been something old, and something strong," He admitted. "Not even I have that kind of magic,"

Sarah had also left out the presence of the strange dog, thinking that he likely remembered it already. It had helped them get out of there, after all.

"What about the court?" Sarah asked.

"The winter court?"

"Yes, we could go there and see what we might find out,"

Jareth laughed, genuinely amused.

"Foolish girl," He muttered. "One doesn't just bring a human into the Court," He admitted. "Not unless they're under indentured servitude or for some other reason. Besides, it's probably in chaos," With no leader to lead it, Sarah couldn't imagine all the devilry going on there.

"Well, I can stay here," She said, frowning.

"And do what? Rot away in a world that doesn't remember you?"

She leaned back, surprised at it.

"What do you mean?"

"Usually this type of magic starts by erasing you from others' minds, and ends with erasing you completely. I'm the only person who remembers you exist. You and that wretched cat,"

"What do you mean?"

"Forgetting is disappearing," He took another sip of his coffee.

Sarah was so stunned, she couldn't reply. They sat there in silence, the toast having grown cold.

alternate titles included: jareth conquers the appliances. jareth goes shopping. jareth holds sarahs hair while she vomits.