Disclaimer and author's notes at bottom.

Summary: It's been twenty years since Sarah defeated the Labyrinth, and she's completely happy with her life. There are no lingering dreams of Jareth, no persistent goblin sightings. Ironically, she's happily married and the mother of two girls. The only problem is that her husband is falling sick--rapidly. What secrets are going to come out as he fights for his health? Is he who his loving wife thinks he is, or someone completely different--someone from her past?

Persona- the mask or façade presented to satisfy the demands of the situation or the environment and not representing the inner personality of the individual; the public personality

Chapter 1: They're Just Memories Now

Sarah seldom thought of the Labyrinth and its ruler.

Her thoughts mostly stayed on her family and her job. She had delegated herself long ago to the role of 'perfect wife and mother.' She worked as an editor for Goldlettering Publishing Company and spent her free time diligently cleaning her house and caring for her daughters and husband. Sometimes her mind would stray and land on trivial subjects such as her need to buy new socks or how her tuna casserole compared to the neighbor's, but never on the Underground and its inhabitants unless she was plagued with a mild case of insomnia.

The insomnia came about irregularly yet undeniably. It always occurred in the week before her birthday and the few days before she completed her Christmas shopping. Often it would come about, almost conveniently, when someone near her became sick. Once, when her oldest daughter's midterm announced she was failing three of her classes, Sarah didn't sleep properly for three weeks. Another time, her half-brother Toby broke his arm and she had lain awake for hours every night until his cast came off. There was no logical reason for it—Toby was fine, and everyone, Sarah included, knew it.

Occasionally, it would happen for no reason at all. She would watch a movie and then have to lay awake all night, sometimes for over a week. The same also occurred with manuscripts she was given at work. There was no reason to it—some of the manuscripts that affected her so were wonderfully written and hardly needed her skills, and others were like blobs of words and punctuation randomly tossed onto a piece of paper.

These were the only times she thought of that amazing adventure when she had been fifteen. Her thoughts would start out on the movie or the manuscript for an hour or two and then change drastically. Sometimes her mind would play through it like a mind-movie, sometimes it would go through it in words, like a mind-book. Other times, she would just think about the friends she made, and the Goblin King. This would lead her to the guilty realization that her husband reminded her of Jareth, even in his name—Jared.

She had met Jared the summer after, when she was sixteen. Her father and Karen had decided they wanted a vacation—epically referred to as Toby's First Trip to the Beach. That vacation was often spoken of in their household, and never because it was when Sarah first met her future husband.

Jared had lived with friends near the beach they went to. When Sarah first saw him walking along, near the water, she was certain he was Jareth, the Goblin King. She had stood up and cautiously made her way down the beach.

When she got nearer, she could see it wasn't him. He was much younger, his hair was a darker shade of blonde, his eyes were both blue, his skin was tanned to a bronze color, and his lips weren't as thin. Intrigued, Sarah introduced herself. For the rest of the trip, all of her time was spent with him. Karen was obviously thrilled that Sarah was 'dating,' or doing the on-vacation version of it. Sarah's father had tried to act disapproving, and had spoken to her quietly about what would happen when they returned home, but Sarah thought he was secretly glad, too.

Sarah herself tried not to think about leaving the beach and her time with Jared—it was her first relationship and it was moving quickly. The night before she went home, he promised her it wouldn't be the end.

He called her the day after she got back home, and continued doing so until his eighteenth birthday. On that day, he knocked on her door instead.

Sarah was still seventeen then. She begged her father to let her move into Jared's apartment with him, but he strongly opposed the idea. She couldn't really blame him for that, but she resorted to immaturity and refused to speak to him for over a week, which really only served to strengthen his resolve.

When her eighteenth birthday finally did come along and her father had no more control over her life, she moved out. She and Jared were married the next summer. Two years later, their first daughter was born.

Sarah wondered if she would have fallen in love with Jared if she had not met the Goblin King. She always came to the same depressing conclusion: no. She doubted she would even have spoken to him if she hadn't, and she was ashamed that most of her physical attraction towards him stemmed from her memories of Jareth. She did love him, but she felt as if she was continually deceiving her husband.

Sometimes, she entertained fantasies of Jared being the Goblin King, but always with immense guilt. She knew she wouldn't trade her husband for him, but the concept of imagining it led her to being ashamed and disgusted with herself.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Labyrinth, and I won't be obtaining it for the duration of this story, so this applies to all chapters.

Author's Notes: I am writing ahead with this story, so as to avoid forcing it as I did with my last one. The chapters are short, I know, but that's how it's coming out. I'm no more in control of it than you are. I would love to hear what you think of it. :)