Disclaimer: Nothing in here is mine. I am only playing and will put everything back neatly when I'm done with it.

A/N: For those of you that read my last (and first) story, The Unexpected, this is not the sequel I promised you. (Sorry.) This is just another idea that decided to live in my head and bother me until I wrote it down. Both of them have nothing to do with each other.

Also, although I have a vague idea of how they work, I don't have a baby. I hope that isn't terribly obvious from reading this.

Toby's first word was Sarah.

After everything I've done for you, you annoyingly adorable pain in the ass, my name better be the first thing you say, she thought fondly, as he laughed and babbled at her from his crib.

Granted, it was more "Sawah" than "Sarah" – but it was her name, it was directed at her, and it was two syllables.

Clearly, her brother was a genius.

Toby's second word was dada, which made his father extraordinarily proud. His third word was dog, which made his mother a little confused.

"It'll happen," Sarah's father reassured his wife. "The M is harder for babies to say than the D. There've been studies." Karen nodded, but still seemed unconvinced.

Then came cookie, followed by yes – which Toby quickly learned was the best response to "Toby, you want a cookie?"

"Cookie," he would say, very seriously. "Yes."

Then came bird, and ball. "Really?" asked Karen. "You'll say ball and not mama?"

Sarah tried to help. "Who's this?" she cried, pointing at herself.

"Sawah!"

"And this?" She pointed at her father.

"Dada!"

"And this?" Merlin raised his head, and wagged his tail hopefully, sensing attention.

"…dog!" Toby crowed. Merlin woofed.

"Annnnnd…" said Sarah, pointing at her stepmother. "Who's this?" Karen beamed, expectantly.

Toby just laughed.

He did say it eventually, of course, but by then Karen didn't have time to bask in the glow of her child's attention, because his next word was no.

Suddenly, everything was a no. Sarah was a no, her parents were a no. Merlin was a no. Lancelot was a no no no no no. Cheerios, footie pajamas, the car seat, Big Bird – all nos.

Then Toby discovered Thomas the Tank Engine, which was a big yes. Train came next, followed quickly by plane, and then car.

Now, by Sarah's count, Toby was up to 12 words. She wondered what the next one would be, one afternoon when her parents were out, and she was babysitting. She was in the kitchen, making herself an early dinner of macaroni and cheese from a box, and worrying about her physics homework. Toby was in the playpen in the living room.

"Who's your favorite sister?" Sarah called out to him, so he wouldn't think she had left him alone.

"Sawah!"

"Who do you love the most?"

"Sawah!"

"Who is going to feed you strained pears, if you are very good and keep quiet while she does her physics homework?"

"Sawah!"

They played this game a lot.

Turning off the stove, and giving the macaroni and cheese one last stir, Sarah called out, "Who's your favorite babysitter?"

And Toby, very clearly, said "Jareth."

Sarah stopped dead, her right hand gripping the pot on the stove. "Toby?" she called, tentatively.

Silence.

"Oh no," said Sarah, "oh no oh no oh no oh not again." She ran into the living room, still holding the pot of macaroni and cheese.

Toby was in his playpen, standing up, looking at her and grinning. Sarah gasped in relief.

"Toby," she said, putting her free hand across her pounding heart, "you can't say that word. That's a very, very bad word, okay?" He laughed, still staring at her happily.

Sighing, she turned to go back to the kitchen – and realized that Toby hadn't been staring at her.

He had been staring behind her.

At the Goblin King.

She screamed, and instinctively threw the pot of macaroni and cheese at the Goblin King's head. He ducked, and it hit the hallway wall behind him with a clang, the pot clattering to the ground and the orange pasta sliding down the wall in gloopy chunks.

Toby started to cry.

"Now Sarah," said the Goblin King. "Is that any way to treat an old friend?" He walked past her, into the living room, towards Toby.

"You – " started Sarah. "You have – you have no – "

The Goblin King paid her no attention. "Look," he said, pouting. "You've frightened the baby." He bent down, as if to pick him up.

A hot burst of anger replaced her fear. "Don't you dare touch him," she said. "You have no power over me – you have no power over my brother!"

The Goblin King looked at her. "I know," he said, and picked up Toby.

Toby stopped crying.

The Goblin King began walking around the living room slowly, jiggling Toby against his chest to soothe him. A tiny part of Sarah's fear and anger unraveled, just a bit, at the sight. He looked like a natural. He looked like he knew what he was doing.

Of course he does, Sarah, you idiot, she told herself. Because he steals babies. As his job.

"Get out," Sarah said, quickly. "Get out of my house – and leave my brother," she added.

The Goblin King looked like he was considering it, weighing his options. "No."

"You have no power over us, Goblin King," she said, her voice becoming shrill. "Get out of my house!"

"You keep saying those words," he told her. "I do not think they mean what you think they mean."

What?

"I know I have no power over either of you," the Goblin King said, patiently. "But your brother called me here, by my name. So you see – it's him, who has power over me."

What?

"And," the Goblin King continued. "I don't think he wants me to leave. Do you want me to leave, Toby?"

Toby looked up at him. "No," he said, decisively, and pulled on the Goblin King's hair.

The Goblin King raised his eyebrows at Sarah, and shrugged the shoulder that Toby wasn't braced against. "You see?" he asked, spreading his free hand out, wide. "I am helpless."

"But – that doesn't – you don't – " Sarah sputtered. "He's a baby. He doesn't know what he's saying! I caught him trying to eat Merlin's dog food the other day!"

The Goblin King tsked at Toby, who laughed, and pulled on his hair even harder. "That actually hurts, you know," he said to him.

"Right," said Sarah. "Enough!" She stormed over to the two of them, getting as close as she dared. She tried to ignore the memory that the closeness triggered, of the last time she had been this close to the Goblin King, and what he had said to her then.

It was a trick, she told herself. A trick.

"Toby," Sarah said to her brother. She pointed at the Goblin King. "This man, is a very, very bad man."

A trick. Only a trick.

"You need to make him go home, okay?" she continued, "So when I say, 'Toby, would you like the Goblin King to go home,' you say, 'Yes.' Got it?"

Toby shoved his fist in his mouth and drooled.

"Okay. Toby, would you like the Goblin King to go home?"

Toby removed his fist from his mouth, said, "No," and shoved it back in.

"Hmm," said the Goblin King. "I'm afraid you're no match for him, precious thing."

"You're not going to leave, are you?" asked Sarah, desperately.

"Hmm. I think… No." He smirked at her.

"I cannot believe this," Sarah said. She walked towards the couch, in a daze, and slumped down. "I cannot believe this. I beat you. I beat you, and I was going to eat my macaroni and cheese, and try to do my physics homework, and then maybe watch the Cosby Show." She looked up at him. "I beat you, Goblin King."

His eyes searched her face. He walked over to the playpen, settled Toby inside, and made his way back to her, slowly, watching her the whole time. When he reached the couch, he crouched down in front of it, by her feet.

"I know you did," he said. "I remember it, very well."

"Do you?" she asked him.

"Yes," he said. "Do you? Do you remember… everything?"

She did.

She remembered the stench of the Bog and the glitter on the bricks and the dead air in the oubliette and those things that took off their heads and Ludo and Sir Didymus and Hoggle – and the peach. And the stiffness of her hair and the heaviness of the diamonds in her ears and the tightness of the dress where it bit at her waist and the pinch of the shoes – and the dance. And the song.

She remembered everything.

"Some parts… better than others," she told him, her voice a little unsteady.

His expression softened. He nodded. "Sarah," he said, "do you need…" He stopped.

What? Did she need what? She needed a lot of things. She was sixteen, after all. But what could he give to her that she needed? A villain? A hero? A friend? A boyfriend? A… lover?

No, she told herself. Sixteen, sixteen, sixteen. No. Not yet.

His eyes were still on hers.

Then Toby said, "Cookie?" and the moment passed.

"Do you need help with your physics homework?" the Goblin King said, his face neutral again. "I have studied the subject, extensively. I could offer you my assistance."

"In exchange for?" asked Sarah.

He smirked. "So very clever. I ask for something… so little."

Sarah folded her arms. "Well?"

"Say my name," said the Goblin King. "That's all. Just the once."

"You're trying to trick me, aren't you?" said Sarah, slowly.

The Goblin King raised his eyebrows, but remained silent.

"What will happen if I say your name?"

The Goblin King still didn't answer.

"Will I have… power over you? If I say your name?" she asked.

"Yes," the Goblin King acknowledged, after a moment.

"Jareth," she said, immediately, and then, "Now get out of my house."

"Ah," said Jareth. "It doesn't work like that, I'm afraid. Toby called me, so Toby must make me leave. So sorry." He cocked his head, his face a mask of fake pity. "Now. About that physics homework?"

A/N: Part two coming soon! If you liked it, please review! (If you didn't like it, you can review, too. I won't hurt you, I promise.)