A Second Chance

Summary: Death can come upon you in an instant. A now grown Sarah reads her granddaughter a bedtime story, has one last conversation with her daughter, and then, in the blink of an eye, her life is over- or is it? One-shot, JarethxSarah.

Disclaimer: Labyrinth is not mine. I just own the DVD and several Bowie CDs.

-

"Grandma?"

"Yes, honey?"

"Tell me the story again." There was no need to specify which story. Only one was 'the' story.

Sarah chuckled. "May, darling, you're almost thirteen. Aren't you getting a little old for bedtime stories? Besides, you can read the book any time you want."

May wrinkled her nose. "Yes, but it's different in the book. It's not your story. And mom doesn't tell it right."

"Your mother just isn't the storyteller you and I are."

"She doesn't tell it right 'cause she doesn't believe. But I do."

"You can't blame your mother. She's just more interested in reality."

May frowned. "Who wants reality when you can have fantasy?"

Sarah laughed.

"What's so funny?" May asked indignantly.

"Nothing, honey. You just remind me of myself at your age."

"Does that mean you'll tell me the story?"

Sarah sighed and sat down on the edge of May's bed. "Alright."

May grinned. "Thank you, Grandma."

"Oh, you're welcome. But it's going to be the short version. Now let's see. I was home on yet another Saturday night, my stepmother was making me baby-sit your great-uncle Toby, and I was so angry with her that I wished Toby away to the goblins…"

-

"Mom, you didn't keep May up all this time, did you?" her daughter asked as Sarah entered the kitchen.

"I was telling her a bedtime story," she said.

"A twelve year old shouldn't still need bedtime stories!"

"Ariana, just because your daughter isn't growing up as fast as you did doesn't mean anything's wrong with her." Sarah said firmly. "She's just a dreamer."

"A dreamer with her head in the clouds and her feet miles off the ground." Ariana said.

"You sound just like Karen. And while I can't tell you how to raise your daughter, I would advise you to let her be. She'll grow up in her own time." Sarah advised.

Her daughter sighed. "I just can't seem to be as patient with her as you are."

"Well, dear-" Sarah broke off suddenly, her face going white.

"Mom?"

Sarah didn't reply, unable to focus on anything but the huge, pressing weight she felt pushing against her chest.

"Mom? Mom!" Ariana sounded alarmed now.

Sarah took a gasping breath, but the air wouldn't come. Her heart- it was her heart. She vaguely heard Ariana run to the phone and dial 911, but it was too late. She collapsed onto the floor, and then everything went black.

-

Sarah was in the Labyrinth. It wasn't a section she had been in before. The maze was constructed of hedges, but there was thick grass covering the ground instead of paving stones.

She was wearing the same clothes she had worn the last time. They fit, despite the fact that she had been fifteen then.

Another thing- she was younger. Not fifteen, but not the seventy-four year old woman she had been. She was as she had been in her late twenties- at her prime.

"Sixty years is a long time, even for the Fae."

She knew who it was even before she turned. "Hello, Jareth."

He raised an eyebrow. "So Hoghead did tell you my true name. I always wondered."

She smiled. "Hoggle."

He laughed, and it was not the cruel, mocking laugh she had heard sixty years ago, but kind, gentle laughter. "That's right."

She looked around. For the first time she noticed that the castle was very close. "Where are we?"

"In my private gardens. This is part of the original labyrinth, you know. It's very old."

"Is this… the center of the Labyrinth?"

He nodded. "I had to come here to cast the spell that brought you here. I needed all the assistance the Labyrinth could give me."

"So… how am I here?"

"Well, you aren't. Not really. You're dreaming. Currently, you are in a coma, but if you accept my offer, your earthly body will pass away."

"I take it that your offer is the same as it was last time we spoke?"

He nodded. "That's right."

She gave a sad smile. "Sixty years, Jareth. I got married. I had kids. I had a life."

"But you never forgot. And you married your mother's best friend's son, a boy you'd known all your life, and only after you both got drunk and fell into bed together when you were both twenty-three. And even then, only because you were pregnant."

She raised an eyebrow. "If you've been watching me, you'll know I loved him."

"You didn't love him when you married him." Jareth challenged. "You did the right thing. You did it because you had known true love, but you thought you had lost it."

She scoffed. "How presumptuous of you."

"Am I wrong?"

She didn't reply.

"I thought not."

She gave a sad smile. "If I reject your offer, will I live?"

He shrugged. "For a few years, perhaps. I cannot see the future. But it will be a sad, broken life. This offer will not come again. It cannot. Magic this strong can only be performed once in a lifetime. If you say yes, you'll be immortal."

"You ask me to spend eternity with you?"

He nodded. "I do."

"Why?"

He had learned from past mistakes, and no eloquent pleas fell from his lips this time around. "Because I love you."

Sarah smiled. "I love you too."

"And you will spend forever by my side?"

She laughed. "Yes, Jareth. Gladly."

-

Finis