A/N: This story is, first and foremost, a Labyrinth origin story. I wanted to deviate and explore something different from the typical "Jareth is a Fae Lord and the labyrinth is his outcast kingdom" or "it was always in Sarah's head" explanations.

That being the case, this fic has a bunch time-travel-ly backstory. However, it is also a Jareth/Sarah story. Their relationship runs through every chapter, even if it might not seem like it at first.

I hope people enjoy it. See you at the end!

Sarah Williams never liked hospital hallways. The off-color white that drenched their walls and permeated the air sucked her soul away. As she sat on a waiting bench watching various doctors and nurses scuttle by, the unpleasantness wrapped around her skin, making her almost dizzy with claustrophobia.

Next to her sat Toby with his new Game Boy in his hands. The power was off, his eyes staring blankly at the opposite wall.

After several minutes, their father lumbered slowly out of a side room. Sarah and Toby stood up at once, but held their distance as Karen's doctor followed him shortly after. The two men bent their heads as they exchanged a few last words.

Sarah felt Toby's hand thread into hers. They stood, silent, until the doctor finally gave their father a solemn pat on the shoulder and walked away.

Toby moved first, dragging Sarah behind him. The little eight-year-old had more muscle than most people gave him credit for, although Sarah wasn't giving him much resistance right now.

"Dad!" Toby said. "What did the doctor say? Is Mom going to be okay?"

Their father turned slowly to face them, looking older than he had just an hour ago. He opened his mouth to say something, then paused to swallow. Sarah felt Toby's grip tighten.

"Toby… Sarah…" he said. "It seems your mother is going to be staying in the hospital for longer than we originally thought."

She'd graduated from college earlier that year, but - given her wonderful decision to major in history - jobs hadn't exactly lined themselves up at her doorstep. And so Sarah had received her diploma only to move straight back in with her parents, working part-time at the local supermarket while considering the potential expenses of grad school and sending out as many resumes as she could physically print.

At least she got to volunteer at the library over the weekends. That continued to be sort of fun even she couldn't help the annoying, wistful pang that sometimes flared up whenever she had to re-shelve books in the fantasy section.

Still, her life was good. She couldn't complain.

Everything would work itself out in the end.

Sarah had to keep telling herself that.

Sure, things hadn't gone exactly the way she'd hoped in her head, but that's why they were called fantasies. Sometimes Sarah had to remind herself that life didn't give people what they wanted when they wanted it.

Plus, there had been some upsides. Like… she was getting to hang out with Toby more.

The little tyke had grown on her over the years. She'd cried a bit when she'd finally left for college, knowing she wouldn't be there for him as much anymore. Her relationship with Karen had improved as well.

They'd finally become a family.

And then the first doctor's visit had happened, the preliminary report harrowing enough on its own.

Cancer.

Despite her family's concerns, the various doctors and nurses at their local hospital had seemed to bend over backwards, saying the disease was still in an early stage, that everything was going to be fine. And Sarah had almost believed them...

Until today.

Sarah flopped onto her bed, fingers running through her dark hair as she surveyed her old room. After she'd left for college, her father and Karen had converted it into a guest bedroom. Hardly any of her old things remained.

Her bookshelves were gone, replaced with a small table barely big enough to fit the vase resting on it. A Monet replica hung on the wall above. Her white nightstand had been switched out for a cherry-stained one. The dated floral wallpaper was still the same. Despite talking about it for years, Karen had never gotten that far in her renovations.

Now Sarah was forced to wonder if she ever would…

No.

She didn't want to think about that.

Feeling a storm of tears approaching, Sarah grabbed a pillow and buried her face against it as she rolled ungracefully onto her stomach. Once her breathing was under control again, she turned her head to her right. Her old desk and mirror stood against the wall, two of the few pieces remaining from her teenage years.

She'd lost count of the times she'd called on her friends through that mirror. She still talked to them from time to time, but the location varied. Any mirror worked as a connection to the labyrinth.

Fat load of good those connections did her now though. Sarah sighed and clutched the pillow closer to her face.

Karen was in the hospital and none of them had any idea when or even if she'd be able to come home.

What good was being able to talk through mirrors when Karen's life was at stake?

Sarah gripped the pillow tight against her chest.

What good was any of it? What good was magic when it couldn't even-

Sarah froze.

What good was magic when it couldn't even help? When had she decided that? True, she'd never heard of any of the goblins having healing powers before, but that didn't mean they didn't exist.

Sarah took a deep breath before her thoughts spiraled too far ahead of her.

It'd be dangerous to get her hopes up too soon. She had no guarantee that any of the goblins would help, that any of them would be able to help… but the possibility was already taking root in the back of her head. Her heart began to race.

Sarah crept over to her old desk and sat down, brushing back a few loose strands of hair as she faced the mirror.

"Hoggle, I need you."

It took only a few seconds before her old, stout friend materialized in the glass plane before her. Once he did, Sarah realized how tightly she'd been holding onto everything inside of her. The stress of the past few weeks flooded out.

"And I know that I never had the best relationship with her when I was young, but I really do think of her like my mother now," Sarah told him. "And even more than that, she's Toby's mother, and I don't even want to begin to imagine what he'll have to go through, what he is going through and… oh, Hoggle. I don't know what to do. I don't know what I can do."

She hiccuped slightly as she rubbed her sleeve against her eyes in her seventh futile attempt to dry them.

Her friend lifted one of his gnarled hands as if to pat her shoulder, but stopped halfway, his hand coming to rest on the invisible barrier that divided their two worlds.

"Sarah…" Hoggle said, his brows lowering in sympathy. "I'd… I'd love to help, but-"

"Please don't say that no one in the labyrinth can. There are so many of you. Surely someone has the power."

"Well, yes. You could say there is someone…"

Sarah's sniffled quietly as she blinked at the old dwarf.

Surely it couldn't be this easy.

Even as her heart started to swell with hope, she noticed the tell-tale signs of one of his half-lies. A twitch of his right hand, the quick glance upwards… He wasn't telling her the whole story. Sarah wiped her eyes one last time and leaned forward.

"Someone," she repeated, insistently. "What kind of someone? Who is it?"

"Oh…" his brows furrowed together as his hands continued to fidget. "You can very well guess who."

"The Goblin King?"

"Ssh!" Hoggle hissed. He glanced around to see if anyone or anything was watching. As with all their conversations, Sarah felt it better not to mention that the king had ways of magically keeping on eye on his subjects. Normally she humored Hoggle's paranoia, but Sarah didn't have time to waste today.

"You really think he has the power to heal my step-mom?"

"Think? Oh, I've seen him drag creatures back from death's door itself. But the price… trust me, you're better off without him."

"Hoggle, she's my step-mom. She's Toby's mother. The price isn't an issue."

"You say that now. Wait until after he has you in his grip."

A flicker of doubt uncoiled in her mind. She quickly squashed it back down. "I've beat him once," she said. "He has no power over me."

"And you think the best way to treat that advantage is to ask him for a favor? Might as well sign over your soul on a golden platter."

"You've never talked about him like this before," Sarah said, slightly unnerved by Hoggle's intensity. "It's always chicken coups and the latest goblin unfortunate enough to get tossed in the bog."

"That's because those've always been about just him and us. We're his subjects, comes with the whole 'living in the labyrinth' thing. You on the other hand." Hoggle paused, as if carefully considering his next words. "Sure you talk to us a lot, but you've kept yourself out of his control. To tell the truth, that's the best place you can be. You see, he's still…"

Hoggle glanced around several more times before leaning in close to the mirror. When he spoke again, it was in a gruff whisper. "He's still bitter you know, even after all these years. Some say he'd do anything to get you in his debt again."

Sarah raised an eyebrow.

"That's why they're called favors," she said eventually. "People do them as gifts for one another. The whole point is that you don't owe the other person anything afterwards… technically."

"It's not the technical part that worries me."

Sarah bit her lip, thinking it through.

On one side was an immortal, magical, goblin king who apparently hated her just as much as she liked to laugh at him. On the other was Karen, her condition only worsening with each passing day.

Hoggle had always given her good counsel before and very few things frightened him in the labyrinth like the wrath of his king, but she couldn't completely listen to his this time. Not when the king seemed to be her only option.

"Alright," she said as she took a deep breath. "I know you're only looking out for me, but I have to ask him. For Karen's sake... and Toby's as well. But I promise that I won't agree to anything if he starts making serious terms or if it's worded weirdly or anything like that at all. At least, not until I consult with you three. Is that okay?"

Hoggle let out a soft, reluctant grumble. "I still don't like the idea of you have anything to do with him at all," he muttered. "But I can understand why you have to."

"Thank you," Sarah said, a smile finally breaking onto her face. She lifted her own hand against the glass, spreading out her fingers as her palm reached the edge. Hoggle glanced at it briefly before looking away. Blatant signs of friendship still embarrassed him after all these years.

She resisted the urge to draw a heart on the glass, knowing the smudges from her finger would stick on the other side for several days before beginning to fade. Instead she leaned back and took a deep breath of fresh air before settling her hands in her lap.

"Now," she said. "How do I summon him without wishing anyone away in the process?"

"You mean you don't know?"

Sarah shrugged. "All I know about the labyrinth I learned from that old book of mine. And even the things I learned from that didn't work out the way they were supposed to," she said.

Hoggle had laughed for days the first time she told him she'd told him about the archaic rhyme she'd tried. The memory still stung.

"It's all rather simple, when you get down to it," Hoggle said. "Despite his majesty's love for…"

"Glitter?" Sarah supplied.

"…the dramatic, when it comes to business he's always been the type to get straight to the point. Just wish for him to show up and he probably will… as long as he feels like it." Hoggle crossed his arms. "Then again, it also helps that it'll be you'll be the one doing the calling."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sarah asked suspiciously.

"You see, well, it's like I told you. Even after all these years, your whole time here in the labyrinth is a rather touchy subject. We usually avoid talking about you 'round him less we want to get dipped in the bog."

"I see he's still as much of sore loser as ever."

"And you might not want to say those kinda things around him, seeing as how you are trying to get his help for free."

"Very true," Sarah said with a slight sniff of self-importance. "I will try my best to keep a civil tongue."

"As I was saying, he's still not very fond of you. Wary even, though for what I don't know. The point is that… well, ever since you got back he's been kind of keeping a loose eye on you. Almost waiting for you to summon him back into your world."

Sarah stared at him.

"What?"

"I told you," Hoggle said as though those three words explained everything. "It's best not to go meddling in things you've managed to stay clear of so far." He let out a sigh. "But - like you said - it's the only way. I'll go ahead and find the others for when you call back. Remember. Not an agreement on any deal until all three of us have heard it first. Even something that seems innocent to you could have big consequences down here. Don't take anything for granted. Nothing at all."

The dwarf stuck his hands in his pockets and began to wander off.

"Hoggle, wait!"

But her friend had already vanished, the mirror's image fading to reflect only her own tear-stained face. She considered calling him back, but he had his work cut out for him tracking down the others.

And she had her own tasks at hand.

Sarah still wasn't sure how to quite feel about the fact that Jareth had been watching her.. or rather "keeping a loose eye on" as Hoggle had described it.

She hoped he wasn't able to spy on her with the crystals he used to keep tabs on the labyrinth. Most likely he couldn't. Hoggle had told her once that their power extended only to the edges of the labyrinth. Most of his powers extended only to the edges of the labyrinth.

Hoggle definitely seemed sure that the king hated her though. It'd been the first time he'd directly talked about him. The topic of Jareth had popped up in conversations before, but her friends were all deceptively good at redirecting.

For not the first time, Sarah wondered if she was the first ever to beat the labyrinth.

With the labyrinth and its inhabitants as old as they were, it didn't seem possible that she was the first. From a basic probability stand point there had to have been others before her… but her victory was another topic that tended to get derailed whenever it sprung up.

If the Goblin King truly hated her, was it because of that? Or was there some other weird reason she hadn't discovered yet?

If he did hate her, perhaps this was all just a giant waste of time.

Still, no matter how much she contemplated her situation, it all boiled down into two simple points.

Karen was dying, and Jareth had the power to help.

With that in mind, Sarah stood up from her desk. With a shaky hand, she drew a heart on the mirror anyways. When she'd been talking to Hoggle, summoning the Goblin King to ask for a favor had seemed like a piece of cake. However, now that she was about to say the words - choose your right words - she needed all the self-encouragement she could muster.

"I wish the Goblin King would be here," Sarah said. "Right now."

Her fingers gripped tightly against the back of her chair as the last two words left her mouth. She could almost taste the way they tumbled out, escaping into the air like a messed-up, inerasable telephone message.

"And to what do I owe this delayed pleasure?"

Sarah whipped around to see him lounging on her bed, foot hooked over one knee as he stared at her with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

Tearing her gaze away from his face, she watched as his fingers ghosted over the pillow she'd been crying on earlier. She wondered if he could feel the dampness. Sarah felt the urge to touch her cheeks - they had to still be red; he had to know that she'd been crying - but resisted, curling her fingers into tight fists instead.

"I wanted to ask you for a favor," she said stiffly.

His eyes narrowed slightly at that.

"I don't usually 'do' favors," he said in clipped tones. "Not without a promise of something in return and especially not for my enemies."

"Well… for an enemy, your subjects are still rather friendly to me."

He glared at her.

"That only makes you a more annoying enemy."

"Look, while I've love to take the time and muse on the exact nature of our relationship," Sarah said impatiently, "I didn't ask you here for me personally. Will you help or not?"

That was apparently the wrong thing to have said.

Jareth scowled, pushing himself off her bed.

"Very well," he said, stopping directly in front of her. His leather jacket crinkled as he crossed his arms. "What do you desire so much that you'd wish me here after all these years?"

Her stomach dropped at the disdain in his eyes. Sarah felt herself begin to take an involuntary step back, but caught herself in time. She locked both her feet firmly in place and forced herself to meet his eyes.

"Karen is very sick," Sarah said as calmly as possible. "Our doctor says that there isn't much that he can do. I'd appreciate it if you could heal her. Please."

She doubted that he'd be one to be swayed by a bit of tacked on courtesy, but it didn't hurt.

Jareth stared at her, one eyebrow slowly raising as he continued to examine her face. She tried to keep his eyes locked with his, but there was something about his close proximity that gnawed at her soul. Her stomach dropped even further. Cursing herself for her lack of endurance, she glanced away. She could still see the faint heart on her mirror where she'd traced it.

Fat load of good it was giving her now.

"Karen is… your stepmother?"

The question was purely inquisitive, blank of any external emotion. She glanced at him briefly, noting his calm expression before looking down. He was still wearing that weird pendant of his.

"Yes."

"Toby's mother."

"Yes."

"And I take that she is dying? Or rather, dying faster than the rest of you mortals do?"

"Yes," Sarah said gritted out through her teeth.

She fought the urge to slam her fists into his side. She needed him; she had to remain civil. Perhaps he was simply gauging how much magic the deed would require. She could give him the benefit of the doubt for that.

She could also slam her knee forward.

"Not interested," Jareth said, casually spinning around as he walked away.

"What?!"

He paused halfway across her room and glanced at her from over his shoulder. "I find nothing to gain in it, therefore I am not interested."

"But Toby-"

"Ceased to be my concern after you rescued him and destroyed half of my labyrinth in the process."

"What are you talking about? Aside from that one Escher room, I never destroyed anything," Sarah said. "And don't think that I'm saying that out of denial, because I'm not. I've talked with hundreds of different goblins and other creatures since that night and not one… Wait, why am I even getting into this? This is about Karen, not me."

"Yes, yes. So you have said."

Sarah forced herself to take a deep breath.

"Alright, fine. You win," she said. His back was still turned to her. "I'll make a deal with you. Just say what you want. You can have anything."

That got his attention.

He smoothly turned back around, a feral grin on his face.

Sarah belatedly remembered Hoggle's warning. Perhaps her friend had been right. Perhaps the price would be too high. She imagined her friends together, waiting beyond the mirror for her to call them.

Imagining them there didn't change the fact that they weren't here now.

"Anything?"

Sarah forced herself to think of Karen. Of Toby.

"Name your price," she said cautiously. "And then I'll decide."

"Hmm…" He glanced at the ceiling, taking his time with his decision. "I choose… nothing."

His words hit her like a punch in the gut.

What was happening?

This wasn't how it was supposed to go.

"Excuse me?" she asked, still in disbelief at his completely flippant demeanor.

Difficulty, yes. Sarah expected that. He'd never been one to make things easy. Eventual bargaining had been almost a certainty. Despite her inclination to try and believe the best in everyone, even she knew better than to think that the Goblin King would do something like this for free. That was the point of haggling though; one started off low in hopes that the cost wouldn't climb too high.

But of all the possible things, she would've never expected complete and utter disinterest.

"You heard me clear enough," Jareth said. "You, Sarah Williams, have nothing that I desire, nothing about you that would be worth the price of your step-mother's life. And, if that is all you wished me here for, then I will be taking my leave."

"But you can't!" she cried out, grabbing for the sleeve of his jacket as he started to fade. Her fingers merely slipped through his arm. He stared at her as he took a step back before re-materializing.

"Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do?" He sneered at her as she tried to take a step forward. Sarah froze under the full weight of his derision. "For a mortal you sure are assured of your own importance. I already told you that I have no desire to deal with you. I'd advise you to instead direct your wishes towards someone who cares."

And before she could say anything else, he vanished.

Sarah stood there, alone, in her old bedroom. She replayed the details of their conversation over and over again in her head. Her eyes were clear as she stared blankly at the opposite wall, too much in shock to cry.

Nothing to offer.

Assured of her own importance.

Not even worthy of a deal.

"Hoggle, I need you!" Sarah yelled as she yanked her desk chair back and slammed herself down in it. She crossed her arms, muttering streams of curses under her breath as shock slowly began to ebb into fury.

When Hoggle appeared in her mirror again, he was flanked by her two other friends. Didymus began to smile, his whiskers twitching in friendly greeting, but it faded after one look at Sarah's face. Ludo's reflection barely fit, the mirror's frame cutting him off at mid-nose.

"I take it that things did not fare well, my lady?" the old fox terrier ventured.

"Ugh! Who is he anyway to put his stupid ego above someone else's life? You'd never see me deny someone else common decency, especially if it was a matter of life and death!"

"His majesty didn't like the idea of a favor?" Hoggle asked.

"He didn't even like the idea of a deal," Sarah said bitterly, pounding her fist against the hard surface of the desk. The pain fanned out through her bottom knuckles, but she easily ignored it. "He said I have nothing to offer. What a pack of lies! I'm Sarah Williams," she said, gesturing to herself. "I'm the one that beat his stupid labyrinth. If I don't have anything to offer, who does?"

"I see…" Hoggle said, looking mildly pensive.

"He hasn't heard the last of me though. You said he keeps an eye on me from time to time? Well, let me tell you. It's going to real interesting for him soon because… because I'll do something. Something he'll regret. Who does he think he is?"

"Well," Hoggle said. "He is the king."

"Horrible excuse for a king if you ask me."

"Perhaps he just wasn't feeling good. Threw four goblins-"

"Five," Ludo rumbled, his hand extending as he counted each finger.

"Five goblins," Hoggle corrected. "In the bog yesterday. Perhaps something's just on his mind."

"'Something' is not a reason to be a terrible person! I don't care if he woke up this morning with the stomach flu. You don't turn your back on someone like this. Not if you have a soul anyway."

"He's… his majesty's a complicated person."

"And I can't even believe that you're defending him, Hoggle! What would an immortal git like him… what does he know about pain and suffering? What has he ever lost?!"

"Many things, my lady," Didymus said softly, his eyes downcast.

Sarah froze in mid-rant. She slowly turned her attention to the small fox terrier.

"What- What's that supposed to mean?"

She stared at Didymus, waiting for an answer, but he remained silent. She turned to Ludo, but since she couldn't see the top part of his face it didn't do much good. She shifted her attention to Hoggle. The old dwarf's eyes were already focused at the ground.

"You're really trying to tell me that he understands what I'm going through? Don't you all realize how ridiculous that sounds? You've all told me yourselves, he's been ruling the labyrinth for thousands of years. And you see, that's the thing about human pain. To even begin to understand it, he'd have to have been…"

She trailed off, instantly recognizing the guilty looks on their faces. It was the look they always shared when she stumbled across a topic they didn't want her exploring. Her eyes widened.

"He was human once," she said simply, the concept having trouble taking root in her head. Didymus and Hoggle separately looked at her, only to turn away from her questing eyes. "Didymus! Ludo! Hoggle! What do you know about this? What have you known about this? Tell me! Now!"

"I don't know nothing," Hoggle said, having difficulties with trying to look at her while avoiding her eyes. "All of it happened before my time."

"All of what?"

Hoggle squirmed beneath her gaze. Didymus frowned and wrung his hands together before looking away.

"All of what happened," Hoggle eventually said. "That is… how you-know-who became you-know-what."

"Let me get this straight," Sarah said. All sorts of new possibilities were beginning to run through her head. "Mr. Royal Tightpants was human once. He was a human just like me, a human without magic. And now... now he's immortal and can make illusions and potentially cure cancer. Don't you know what this means? I don't need him to help Karen." Her face brightened. "All I have to do is get my own magic."

"That won't work," Didymus said.

"Why not?" Sarah said. "All I need to do is find-"

"My lady…"

"-the same source of magic that he found and-"

"My lady…"

"What?" Sarah asked, slightly annoying at the interruption of her reverie.

And then she looked at Didymus, truly looked at him. The smile that had been creeping up her face fell as she took in the gaunt faces of her three friends.

"The king wasn't given magic," Didymus said. "He took it."