Disclaimer: I do not own Labyrinth or its' characters, although I wish I did.

First off, this is my first fanfic so any and all feedback is welcome and encouraged...enjoy.

Secondly, and lastly, I used the title of an Underoath song for chapter one. I know the song does not really go with the content of the chapter, but the title does...so I kept it.

Sarah Williams was bored. She was so sick of the monotonous routine that her life had become. Wake up, get Toby ready for school, sit at her computer and attempt to write something decent (and failing miserably), go to work, come home, go to bed. It was utterly dull. The sad part was that this lifestyle was her choice. After she graduated college, she had moved back home while she tried looking for a job at a publishing company. In the meantime, she was trying to write her stories, and juggle her part time job as the town's librarian. It wasn't too hard, just…boring. She longed for another adventure, but she feared that she had already had the biggest adventure of her life. And she wasn't even sure if it was real.

It had been six years since Sarah had returned from the Labyrinth. She longed to go back and see her friends, but were they actually real? Did the Underground actually exist?

After the first few months of her trip back, she could summon Hoggle and the others without a problem. Whenever she had a bad day, or was feeling lonely or upset, she could just say, 'I need you," and they were there. Her own little support group. Yet, as she started to grow up, she began to slowly stop calling on them as frequently. Then finally, she just stopped completely. She got caught up in college, and other friends, and life. When she finally stopped to take a break from her hectic life, she went home on Christmas break and tried to call her friends to her. It wouldn't work. She thought maybe they hadn't heard her, which was ridiculous, she knew. She tried again. Nothing. Sarah began to panic and frantically tried to call on them for hours. Finally, she just sat in front of the mirror and wept. She had lost them. She let them slip away as she tried to move on to be an adult. She thought she needed to be more independent and not so clingy to her childhood.

So slowly over time, without the assurance of her friends' presence, she started to doubt the existence of them, and the Underground. Sarah started to believe it was all one big, elaborate dream. There was nothing left to argue otherwise. It wasn't possible for all of it to be real.

Of course, even though she doubted it all, her subconscious would not be ignored. Night after night, she dreamed of the magic of the Labyrinth. She dreamed of seeing her friends and all the things they would do together. Mostly though, she dreamed of a certain mysterious, annoying, and arrogant man who had plagued her thoughts ever since that day. She was annoyed with herself that she couldn't simply forget her childish ways and let go finally. She had no regrets. Everything that she did in the Labyrinth, she would do over again. None of her decisions would have changed….except maybe eating that damn peach. Sure it had given her quite an interesting dream that still haunted her, but for the most part, it was quite a troublesome experience. Yet. . .even that experience might be worth reliving. Maybe.

In any case, she still would have refused Jareth's last offer. . . Not that she was admitting that it was real, per se. He had Toby, what else could she have done? He needed her to save him, and she did. Jareth was just using any means possible to win. It was all a game to him. She seemed to have the impression that he had been doing this a long time. What did it matter if one person won their loved one back?

No, she was certain that she would have still said those same words, words that seemed to almost affect the Goblin King's indifference. Almost. Six words, that's all it took in the end. And then she was back at home, with Toby-in her dream, of course since it would be silly to still think it was all real. However, she still dreamed of her friends and seeing that beautiful, mysterious land again.

Sometimes she humored herself by allowing herself to believe that it was real. On those days, she fiercely wished to be able to go back. Even if it was real though, Sarah had a feeling she might not have a warm welcome awaiting her return. After all, she did reject the Goblin King, defy his entire Labyrinth, and turn his subjects against him. Not exactly something a man can get over easily, especially for a man. They had such pride issues. If she wanted to go back and it was real, she could have just wished herself to the Labyrinth, but she never dared to try it out. What if it didn't work? She would be devastated to realize that none of it ever existed. The truest friends she ever had, had been imaginary. On the other hand, what if it worked? That was an entirely different issue to think about. Sure she would have been right all along in believing in the Underground, but would she be trapped forever this time? Would she be met with hostility by her friends? What would Jareth do?

These thoughts circled their way around Sarah's head for years. It was exhausting, really, trying to figure out if you were a little crazy, or if you had actually had a special journey into a magical land with goblins and other creatures. Either way, Sarah couldn't decide which was which, and so didn't entirely give up on either one being a possibility.

So, she went to college like a good girl. She had just graduated with a degree in creative writing. She used her experiences, or dreams (whichever way she felt about it that day) as inspiration for writing. After she graduated a few months ago, she moved back home to get her post grad life together before diving into the real world. Sarah tried getting a job at all the publishing companies, but it was harder to get hired then she thought. So, for now she settled on being the librarian. It was an easy job, and quite enjoyable at times. She didn't give up on her stories, although inspiration had been lacking of late. The library opened up many opportunities for her, one of which was meeting Jonathan.

Jonathan was a graduate from the local university the next town over. He graduated with a teaching degree in math. He was quite nerdy, but confident in himself. He visited the library often and immediately noticed Sarah. He would talk to her everyday and come in just to see her. They became friends, and Sarah really enjoyed his company. He was easy to talk to but Sarah was never very comfortable around guys. He slowly warmed her up to him until finally one day, he got the courage to ask her something.

"Um. . .Sarah," he said. She looked up.

"Oh hi Jonathan. How was tutoring today?" Jonathan was a math tutor at the high school, getting his foot in the door, as he put it.

"Good, listen, Sarah, I was wondering if you would want to go to dinner with me tonight."

"Oh." She was caught off guard. Sure she had been asked out before, but she usually kept to herself. She just never desired to pursue a serious relationship. Sure she had a few boyfriends in college, but nothing really deep or lasting. She just couldn't seem to find the right person that made her want to jump in to a relationship. No one was interesting enough to keep her attention. So when she answered Jonathan, it wasn't what he wanted to hear.

"Look, Jonathan, I'm sorry if I have given you the wrong impression, I didn't mean to. I am just not interested in you that way." The words came out in a rush.

"Oh, I see. You're already taken aren't you? I knew it! All the great girls already have boyfriends."

Sarah was about to refute the conclusion he had hastily jumped to, but stopped herself. This was an easy out. She wouldn't have to explain anything this way, like she did for others.

"Yea, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lead you on. If I did, it was unintentional. My…boyfriend is abroad so we are doing the whole long distance thing. Otherwise, you would definitely being seeing him hang around here." The lies came so easily.

"Oh, ok. Well, I know the long distance thing can be hard, but if he's the one, it will work out. He's a lucky guy."

"Thanks."

"What's his name?"

"Jareth." She was thoroughly appalled at what she had just blurted out. Her face turned bright red. Why did she say his name? It had just popped into her head, and she had gone with it.

"You're blushing."

"Um yea…I guess he has that effect on me." She wanted to smack herself in the head. She was not using her brain today. At all.

"Well, good luck, and I guess I will see you around."

"Ok, sure thing."

When he left, she slid down the length of the librarian's desk until she was sitting on the floor where no one could see her. She covered her face with one of her hands while the other was ferociously pulling at her hair. Stupid, Stupid. STUPID.

She sighed deeply. What had made her say those things? It wasn't like she was in love with the Goblin King. That would be so cliché that it made her sick to think about it. Sure, she had sort of had a crush on him when she was fifteen but it had passed and now he was just a lingering reminder of an adventurous dream. If he turned out to be real, he would get a kick out of this. Oh the humiliation! He would never let her live it down. Well, she never intended seeing the Goblin King again, so that solved that problem. She stood up and said aloud, "That was nothing, just thinking on my feet." She said this out loud just in case he was actually real and could somehow see and hear everything that had transpired in the past few minutes. You know, as a safety. Although, he wouldn't buy it. Oh she was losing it. She shook her head and went to shelve a pile of books that had been returned.