Life settled into its own peculiar rhythm once Sarah and Jareth had come to their understanding. They fought constantly, made up nearly as often, and spent the remainder of the time taking advantage of all of the fringe benefits that making up has to offer. Jareth would disappear for hours at a time to deal with goblin affairs, and Sarah would use that time to continue exploring the castle. No matter how many times she could open a door that she would have sworn she had opened the day before, there was always something new to discover on the other side. Then, with his usual impeccable timing, Jareth would show up the instant her interest in exploring began to wane, and the whole cycle would begin again.

Sarah had never been happier in her life.

Though there were moments of discomfort – such as when she tried to convince Jareth to tell her what he had done with Hoggle, or when the topic of her family inadvertently came up every now and again – she soon began to regard the castle as home every bit as much as she had her childhood house. For the most part, she and Jareth consciously avoided topics that would cause any actual rifts, and the making up that came afterwards was immensely satisfying, both physically and emotionally.

Though she never said, "I love you," and though he couldn't say any such thing, the two of them understood each other quite well. When Jareth drew near to Sarah, she could feel the heat in his eyes, and he could see the longing in hers, and they both understood every word that was left unspoken.

And time began to pass.

Sarah no longer paid any attention to how many days had gone by. Her world had narrowed to this castle, and to the man who ruled it. It didn't matter, then, how many days or weeks or even months she'd spent there: she was either with him, or busy entertaining herself, and that was how she counted her time. She was never truly bored, and on those rare occasions that she stayed alone in her room, it was always nice to have a spare hour for a bubble bath, a nap, and a small feast.

For all Sarah knew, mere days had passed since she had last seen Toby, since Jareth had danced with her, since she had first kissed him.

It came, therefore, as quite a surprise when she looked in the mirror one afternoon while dressing and noticed suddenly that her hair was now long enough to brush against the small of her back. Dazedly, she drew the mass of brown hair over her shoulder and gave it a good yank, as though to ensure it was all real and all truly her hair.

How could this be? Last she remembered paying any attention to her hair, it had only extended as far as her shoulder blades. Awkwardly measuring the distance between shoulder blades and small of the back, Sarah estimated that it was a good seven or eight inches.

She frowned. How could she not have noticed how much longer her hair had gotten before today? Abruptly, she snorted. Though she didn't like to admit it, she could imagine exactly how she hadn't noticed. Jareth was… rather distracting. No, she decided, a much better question to ask herself was this: exactly how much time had actually passed?

Sarah spent the remainder of the afternoon pacing in her room distractedly. Now that she had shaken off the blissful cobwebs in which she had been adrift, she found herself plagued with unhappy thoughts. Images of her family returned, in spite of her efforts to keep from remembering. Guilt too returned. Sarah alternately groaned and hid her face in shame as she realized what tortures her family might be going through.

What had Toby told them after all? Did her father and Ruth force the truth out of him? Did they think that she was dead, murdered and buried in a ditch somewhere? Or, even worse, did they think that she had committed suicide?

And so it was that Jareth returned at dusk to a distraught Sarah who, for a moment, didn't even seem to realize that he was there.

"And how have you been spending your afternoon?" was murmured in her ear.

Sarah was so startled that she nearly leapt several feet into the air, but in the end, only winced and swung around to face him. He grinned, exposing his sharp teeth; it wasn't often that he managed to catch her completely off-guard anymore, and he savored his small victories where he could.

She, however, was in no mood for teasing and didn't waste time with small talk. "How long have I been here, Jareth?"

Jareth blinked several times. This wasn't something they talked about, and he was, no doubt, surprised by the suddenness of it, but his pause was barely perceptible before he responded, "A while, I'd imagine."

"Yes, I understand that much," she replied, frustrated. "How long is a while?"

He folded his arms over his chest, a look sliding over his face that once she wouldn't have been able to define, but which she now immediately understood as defensiveness. "Well," he said finally, his voice betraying none of the tension of his posture, "it's hard to say. I haven't exactly been counting the days."

"How long." It wasn't a question.

"I would guess – a guess, mind you – somewhere in the vicinity of… eight months or so."

Sarah didn't scream. Seemingly surprised at this, Jareth risked a glance at her, then very much looked like he wished that he hadn't. She was standing with her fists clenched at her sides, and her face was very pale, her lips pressed tightly together.

"Eight months," she repeated. "Eight…months."

"I suppose you're about to blame me for this."

"What?" she glanced up at him, noting the brackets of apprehension around his mouth.

"You think I've waggled my fingers and cast some sort of spell over you to make you forget the time."

For an instant, Sarah was tempted to believe him – it would have soothed her conscience. But after a moment, she shook her head. "No, Jareth. No, I… I don't blame you. Not this time." Slowly, she walked over to the bed and sat, gripping the bedpost for support. "You didn't need to deceive me about how much time was passing. You see, I…" she trailed off, glancing up at him for a moment before resuming, "I was quite happy to deceive myself." A pained smile appeared on her face. "I had a birthday and I didn't even realize it. I'm twenty-seven years old now."

Jareth gingerly sat down besides her, but he didn't attempt so much as a pat on the hand. "You don't blame me," he repeated, still sounding less than certain.

"No… I can't blame you. It was my fault." She raked her hair back out of her face. "I was the one who asked to stay in the first place without so much as an idea of how long I should stay. And I – I didn't want to feel the time passing. I knew that I'd feel guilty if I realized how long it had been, so I just…didn't." She shook her head. "Who needs magic when there's a stubborn mind about?"

There was a long pause before he asked, "And now?" When she didn't answer immediately, he cupped her cheek with his hand and gently turned her to face him, repeating his question. "And now?"

"I don't know," she whispered.

"And now you want to leave," he answered his own question. "You've realized how worried your family must be, and you think you must return to them. You wonder how you could have ever spent so much time here with me, and you don't want to admit it, but you want to go back to your lovely little adult world." Jareth's voice grew darker and uglier as he spoke. By the final words he was nearly snarling, and his grip on her face had tightened to the point that it was painful.

Sarah winced away and he released her almost immediately. Her heart felt like it was breaking.

"Jareth, I – " She licked her lips, wishing that she didn't have to be honest. "I miss my family."

"No doubt. But make no bones about it, Sarah, once you leave here, you're not coming back again. I won't send you any more clues."

"C-clues?"

"Did you really think that you came up with that ridiculous 'leap of faith' idea on your own?" He snorted. "I wanted to see if you had the ability to understand it, and I was pleasantly surprised. Of course, I had to pretend that I didn't know exactly what you were doing."

Though she was taken aback by his words, Sarah wasn't about to let herself get sidetracked. Not about this. "I can't spend the rest of my life sitting in this castle, alone but for you. I can't, and you know that."

"Of course I know that," he replied, his voice still dark and raspy. He looked away. "And in any case, sooner or later, unlike myself, you'd grow old and lose your beauty, and my interest in you would die."

A tear spilled over her eyelid and traced a silent path down her cheek to fall, unnoticed, onto the satin of her dress. "So you want me to leave."

In response, he shrugged sharply. "I have no interest in looking after a doddering old woman."

As embarrassed and upset as Sarah was, a small bit of wounded pride forced itself to the surface. "Well, in that case, we'd better send me home as soon as possible. After all, my hair might start going gray any day now."

"As you wish." Abruptly, Jareth rose to his feet, straightening his shoulders as he gazed down at her imperiously. "You'll forgive me if I don't snap my fingers and send you back right this second. It's been a most trying day and I'm quite exhausted. If it suits your schedule, I'll send you on your way bright and early tomorrow morning. You'll be home in time to greet your family as they awaken. Now, if you'll excuse me…"

He turned and walked quickly from the room, the sound of his boots against the stone louder than ever before. Sarah stared blankly at the door as the tears slipped over onto her face, and finally, when she knew that he wasn't coming back, she lay down and curled up into a ball, crying bitterly.

…

That night was near as miserable a night as she'd ever known. She tossed and turned for hours, only to fall into a troubled sleep sometime well after midnight. Her dreams were confused and filled with images of her hair growing longer and longer until it wrapped itself around her neck and choked the life out of her. Usually she would have woken up as the choking began, gasping and quickly realizing that it was a dream, but not this time; she did not awaken at that point, and the torture just seemed to go on and on into eternity.

It wasn't until the sun cast a single solitary ray over the wall that she awakened as though she'd had an alarm clock in her head. Her eyes snapped wide open, and she lay there for a moment, trying to figure out why she was awake.

And then it came back to her: Jareth would be sending her back, and he'd said he would do it bright and early. Bright and early…Sarah cast a dread-filled glance out of the windows.

She shakily reasoned that she had better go find Jareth; if she didn't he might just decide to send her back suddenly without saying goodbye. Sarah was still conflicted and upset, but one thing she was sure of was that she didn't want to leave without seeing him one last time, without saying goodbye.

So, still in her nightgown – it was the only thing she had that actually belonged to her – Sarah swung her feet over the side of the bed and gingerly placed them on the cold stone floor. Since she didn't fall apart doing that, she stood up. She wobbled a bit doing that, but caught herself against the bedpost. And since she was still on her feet, she took one step, then another and another, shivering in the early morning chill.

In this way, one step at a time, Sarah managed to leave her room and make her way towards Jareth's throne room. Concentrating on staying on her feet made it so that she didn't have any second thoughts about what was happening.

From a distance, approaching the throne room, she knew that he was in there. It wasn't that she could see him or hear him, since that would have required much more attentive and attuned senses than she had; it was the almost tangible sense of fury surrounding the room that alerted her to Jareth's presence.

She drew near slowly, peeking around the wide doorframe. Normally, she would have stormed into the room, demanding whatever it was she wanted, but today she was scared of him (and rightfully, too). He was sitting on his throne, his back ramrod straight, unlike his usual decadent reclining posture, and he was glowering off into space. At that moment, it was entirely possible to fathom how this man had an entire kingdom of monsters so afraid of him that they barely even dared to speak his name.

She tried anyway. "J—J—Jareth?" Only a flicking of his eyes in her direction indicated that he even noticed her peeking from behind the door. Nervously smoothing her nightgown, Sarah practically tiptoed into the room to stand before him, and clenched her hands together so they wouldn't shake.

"Come to say goodbye, have you?" His voice was cold and distant. "How bloody polite."

Shifting her weight from foot to foot, Sarah couldn't quite meet his eye, but instead stared somewhere in the vicinity of his chin. "Jareth, I—I—I—I don't… I mean, that is—"

"Hurry it up. I don't have all day."

Angered by his callousness, Sarah straightened up, emotion burning two red spots high on her cheeks. "I'll take as long as I need. You owe me that."

"It would seem that I owe you nothing except to pack you straight off to your beloved family."

"Not yet, please," she begged. With nothing left to lose, she managed to lift her gaze to his eyes, and what she saw there gave her courage: two eyes, haughty as ever, yes, but every bit as tormented as she felt. It gave her the strength to say, "Jareth, I don't want to lose you."

He was tapping a single finger against the armrest of his throne, but didn't even seem to be aware that he was doing it. Sarah hoped that it was nervous energy causing it and not impatience.

"And what would you have me do? Go with you? Leave the Labyrinth, put on a suit, and get a job?" Jareth spoke the word as though it were something loathsome and disgusting. "I couldn't do that even if I wished to."

"I know that I can't expect you to—"

"Good," he cut her off, ignoring that her next word had very likely been 'but'. "I'm gratified that you remember that my duty is here."

"Duty…" she whispered softly, sadly.

"Mine is here. Yours is not."

"How do you know that?" she asked. "How do you know that my… my duty isn't here?"

"You said it yourself. You can't spend the rest of your life in this castle."

"Oh… Oh, right." She hung her head. There was no hope left. It was an impassable rift. "Is that it, then? I go home, and you stay here and forget all about me?"

"Yes. Or near enough as makes little difference."

"Why wouldn't you let me come back?" she asked. "Why does this have to be goodbye forever?"

"You realize that your questions are merely prolonging the inevitable."

"Answer them anyway."

"Because when you leave, if I let you come back, you'll want to leave again sooner or later – or I will want you to leave. As I said yesterday, you'll grow old, and I won't. I am not in the habit of allowing myself to be jerked around in this manner."

"So you'll end it all now to save yourself future hurt," she said in a soft voice. "How very adult of you."

He shot her a black look, but before he could respond, a small goblin raced into the room and prostrated itself at Jareth's feet.

"Your Majesty!" it squeaked.

Jareth didn't take his eyes from Sarah's. "Not now. I'm busy."

"Y—Your Majesty, we have another one." As if to punctuate his words, the sound of a frantically barking dog suddenly echoed through the castle and into the throne room.

Jareth groaned. "I see."

"Did someone—" Sarah started.

"Yes. Wished their dog away." Jareth glared up at the ceiling. "Impeccable timing. I have to go speak to the erstwhile owner immediately." He glanced back down at her. "It looks like your homecoming will have to be delayed at least a little. Excuse me."

And he vanished, leaving Sarah alone in the throne room with the little goblin, who was only now looking up warily from its prostrate pose. It squeaked to see Sarah looking down at it.

"Don't be afraid," she said softly. "I won't hurt you."

Slowly, it glanced up again, but didn't say anything.

"Tell me," she said in the same soft voice, "does this happen often? That people or animals get… wished away?"

The little goblin nodded. "All the time."

"He hates it, doesn't he?"

It blinked solemnly, but didn't reply.

"He'd rather spend time doing other things, but he has to deal with this happening all the time and he hates it… Right?"

This time, she got a teeny nod in reply before it scrambled to its feet and made a mad dash from the room.

And Sarah smiled, just a little. She had an idea.

It only took her a few minutes to get it all figured out, which was good… since a few minutes were all she had.

By the time Jareth returned, clearly in even more of a foul mood than when he had left, Sarah was seated on his throne. She was more nervous than ever and was shaking inside, but on the outside she looked relatively calm.

He stared at her with hooded eyes. "You're sitting in my seat."

"Yes."

"Get out of my seat."

"You really hate it when people do that, don't you?" she asked, not without sympathy in her voice.

"Do what? Sit in my seat?"

"Wish loved ones away." She crossed her legs and leaned back in the throne. "You really hate it because it cuts into your time and makes you deal with annoying people."

"Well, it's my—"

"—duty, I know," she interrupted, feeling as though she had the upper hand for the first time. "That doesn't mean that you enjoy it… Having to drop everything you're doing to go and check on their progress, wasting your time with random confrontations and sabotages… You hate it."

He shook his head in consternation. "What are you trying to do, Sarah?"

It was the first time he'd said her name that day, and it emboldened her.

"I'm saying that you could use some help, Jareth. You'd like these people to get through the Labyrinth more quickly so you can give them back their siblings or pets and get rid of them more quickly." He opened his mouth to speak, but she didn't give him the chance. "Do the rules of duty say that you can't have any help? Particularly if that person helps you of her own free will?"

The dark look on his face eased slightly, and Sarah fancied that she might even see a little hope in his eyes.

"What exactly are you proposing?" he asked.

"I'm proposing that I stay," she replied bluntly, maintaining her outward calm, but quaking inside. "I'm proposing that I stay here – with you – and help you with this."

"You stay here," Jareth repeated, sounding puzzled. "What would you do?"

She smiled shakily. "Haven't you ever read any fairy tales? For every evil fairy, there should be a good fairy who helps the travelers on their way."

"Good fairy."

"Exactly. That way it would speed things up, and you wouldn't have to deal with them in between the initial meeting and the final confrontation."

"It's my duty to make things more difficult for them."

She shrugged with a shy smile. "So you make things more difficult and I make things easier. Sounds like fun."

"Before you embark on your new career as a fairy godmother, might I remind you that you're still human and mortal?"

"But you could change that, couldn't you?" He stared at her, and Sarah swallowed. "What I mean is," she continued, her voice shaking slightly now, "if you have the power to change humans into goblins, then I'm sure that you have to power to… to make someone like, well, you."

"So," he linked his hands behind his back and raised that ever-insolent eyebrow, "you want me to make you immortal; is that what you're saying?"

"No." She stood up and descended the stairs to look him straight in the face. "What I want is you. And this would give me a reason to stay."

"But…" He grabbed her hand and squeezed it between his own. "But what of your family? Of your duty?"

She shrugged. "Who's to say that my duty doesn't lie here, huh? I'm still young… I have no serious commitments back there. And as for my family…" She faltered briefly.

"Sarah, if I do as you suggest and make you immortal, you'll no longer be human. And you'll never be able to go back there."

"I…I've accepted that. Jareth, I love my family, but they had me for twenty-six years. I'm less mature than I used to be," she smiled slightly, "but I'm still mature enough to make my own decisions. And… if you'll have me… I've decided to stay here. With you."

"I don't know about this. It would change everything. It's not in the plan."

"So change the plan." Now it was she who grabbed his hands and looked up at him trustingly. "If anyone can do it, it's you."

"Are you sure about this? It would be a life unlike anything most people want, and so many women your age want… Er…"

"Marriage and children?" Sarah smiled. "Hey, why the rush? The way I see it, we've got all eternity for that kind of thing."

Jareth blinked in surprise at her forthrightness, his eyes almost owl-like for a moment. Then, ever so slowly, a grin crept over his face. A real grin.

Sarah smiled back at him with all of her heart. She would never forget her family, but she knew she had made the right choice. After all, this was where she belonged. Here where everything made so little sense that it made perfect sense.

It had taken a long, strange journey to get her to where she was now, but after all, that was the Labyrinth's way, wasn't it? It might take longer than expected, and it might cause grief and terror along the way, yes, but the Labyrinth always got you there in the end.

The End

…

Author's Final Note: And there you have it. A happier ending than I usually write, but I felt that I'd already put them through enough pain.

And in a bizarre little way, my life while I wrote this story was like a strange journey. I began this back in mid-'03, and a lot's happened since then. Relationships began and ended, I lost and gained good friends, I lost a guinea pig and gained a dog, I lost both grandmothers, descended into depression and fought my way out, and I started and stopped this story a dozen times. When I started, I was halfway through college, and now I'm preparing to graduate.

If it weren't for those of you who kept reviewing… even when I hadn't updated in months… I probably would never have touched this story again, much less finished it.

But yes. It's been a long strange journey, and the me who's typing this note is a different me than the one who started this story. It's all been worth it, though.

As always, thanks for reading, and thanks to those of you who kept reminding me that I had a story to finish!