The late afternoon sun warmed the back of Sarah's neck as she knelt in her garden. She planted tulips in preparation for spring, a task to which she and Hoggle had spent the majority of the day attending. They worked in silence, Sarah too preoccupied to focus on conversation of any sort and Hoggle sensing her mood but unwilling to leave his queen -- and, more importantly, his dearest friend -- to worry alone. Though she had not confided her troubles, the mechanical vehemence with which she set bulbs in the ground and filled holes with dirt were definite indications something was wrong. Hoggle could only guess at the cause, though he was fairly sure that his guess was near the mark.

Their friendship was a unique one, Hoggle being the closest thing Sarah had to a confidant outside of Jareth. However, both were hyper aware of her position and status in relation to his. This would have posed little problem had it not been for the gossip-mongers in the Fae Court. There were those who would stop at nothing to damage Jareth socially or personally. Spies would have difficulty in finding any information to utilize; yet there was no sense in baiting eel infested waters. Especially with Jareth not being available to anyone, including Sarah, for the past few weeks. Yet, from early on after her residence in the Underground became permanent, their friendship required little words to pass between the two of them. Somehow, they just knew things about each other. Though she initially chalked it up as being the way things worked here, she soon came to suspect with near certainty that Jareth had a hand in things. She never bothered to inquire after the truth of it, merely appreciating the quiet gift for what it was. For his part, Hoggle had always known of his King's interference and fully understood the weight of meaning behind the gesture.

All day, Sarah was only vaguely aware of her actions. Indeed, Hoggle's presence at her side had only barely registered. Still, she did know he was there and the companionship brought some comfort as she brooded over things likely better left alone. Hoggle's voice brought her out of her musings.

"Yer Majesty." He waited for her to look up before he continued. "'Tis about time to call it a day."

Sarah checked the position of the sun and sighed heavily. "What a pity, though you are right of course. I've enjoyed the distraction."

"Distraction? Normally yeh say 'tis a relief to be away from the bustle of the castle for a bit."

"Yes, well..." she sighed. "Things are abnormally quiet at the moment. There isn't even any wind rustling the leaves."

"Aye. The whole Kingdom seems to be waitin'. Holdin' its breath and watchin' and waitin'."

Sarah looked around. "Everywhere except here."

"Except here." Hoggle nodded in agreement. "But then, I suppose he meant for it to be that way."

She smiled at that. The Gardens were Jareth's gift to her, a wedding present years in the making, and one begun long before the event took place. As the passage of time made visits Aboveground more painful, and as doing so at all became more and more infrequent, the Gardens became the one tangible link to her Mortal heritage. While the seconds ticked away echoed those experienced by Mortals, here all her senses were enveloped. The seasons passed as they did in her homeland, and even the weather changed as it would have there, regardless of what went on beyond the Garden bounds. There were even small corners dedicated to other parts of the Aboveground world, giving a taste of the exotic and the wild as well as a reminder that she had not left the Underground. However, she never came here to escape the Underground or its magic, now so much a part of her life she could not imagine returning to one without. Were she in need of such an escape, Jareth would simply take her Aboveground for as long as she desired. Rather, the Gardens offered solitude, sanctuary. Here, the one place where both her worlds co-existed peacefully, she did not feel a constant pull from the opposite place.

Today, in truth, she needed an escape. When Jareth left to reconstruct the Labyrinth, the magic of the Kingdom seemed to withdraw with him. Normally not particularly sensitive to it, Sarah was surprised at the emptiness suddenly left behind. At first, she had supposed it to be related to her missing her husband. Not a few hours later, she had changed her assumption completely. And it simply took a brief but carefully worded conversation with her first born to confirm her suspicions. Christoph described as similar to walking into a large cavern, one previously filled with stuff so that it was near impossible to squeeze your way through it to the other end, only to find it had been emptied when you blinked. Now, nearly devoid of light, the empty space carried the echo of an infrequent drip, the source of which could never be found but the sound the only indication that there was something remaining in the 'cavern' other than yourself.

This brought little comfort to Sarah. Especially, as the days waxed and waned, her ability to sense what was, essentially, nothing at all grew. Then, at dinner the night previous, a heavy silence fell over the Kingdom. Sarah herself had inhaled sharply. Andreas and Justin had paled slightly and looked at her, questioning. Lewis abruptly complained he was not feeling well in his stomach. Even Michael had begun to fuss. Raising an eyebrow in Christoph's direction, he had let out a long breath. "The trickle of water has been, well, turned off." And she had nodded, having felt it as well.

In an astute moment that morning, reminding her acutely of Jareth, Christoph took charge of his siblings for the day allowing his mother to flee to her Gardens in hopes of finding solace of some sort. Some way of reconnecting to everything she had grown accustomed to. It had not worked. "I'm worried, Hoggle."

"About what, exactly, Yer Majesty?"

"Arrogance embodied."

"I doubt he'd be appreciatin' that. Probably insist it was confidence."

"Probably. Though he'd be incorrect."

"Heh." Hoggle grinned, knowing her making light of the issue was the one thing keeping her from breaking. "But, fer what it's worth, ye'd know if somethin' had happened. Without him, ye'd be a True Mortal once again. And without you... Well, that would destroy him. Somethin' unexpected happened the day the two of yeh were joined by the Magic of the Labyrinth. And now, ye're connected in a way few of the Fae have ever been."

"I know." She rubbed her temples and shook her head. "Believe me, deep down I do know. But right now, I don't... feel connected. I want him here, Hoggle. I want him home. I don't know what is wrong with me, what's going on. We've been apart before, you know. But this... this is different. And all I can think about is how badly I want him back with me, need him back. Right now, I feel so lost. As though I am suddenly trapped in the Labyrinth once again, and it's ten times as dark and even more dangerous. And I'm fighting to survive with no one to save me. No one to push me into challenging myself. No one to send help, however unintended, at the last minute. No one watching to see how I struggle on." She paused. "That sounds so... demented."

"Nah, Sarah-girl," Hoggle disagreed. "Even when he was yer enemy, he was always on yer side. Even when he didn't know it, he was waitin' for yeh. Even when yeh couldn't see him, he was always by yer side."

"Then where is he now?" Hearing the despair in her own voice frightened her even more. Knowing there was little he could do beyond be there for her, Hoggle patted her hand as she continued. "Why can't I feel him? Why do I feel so alone?" Her voice cracked, and she covered her mouth, breathing sharply as she tried to keep from crying.

Without warning, a warm breeze swept through the Garden. Sarah's eyes widened as a very welcome calm spread through her, her fears and sense of loss vanishing in its wake. A low voice behind her asked, "Alone?"

Sarah looked over her shoulder, scrambling to her feet, and ran to the old cherry tree, stopping just short of the man who leaned against it. He looked weary, exhausted even, but every inch the polished Goblin King.

Jareth reached out, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear in an age-old gesture. "What have we here?" he asked, gently.

"Oh, nothing."

"Nothing, tra la la?" He wiped a single tear from her cheek with one hand.

She looked at him, feeling her lower lip quiver and not able to stop it. "I know, I'm being silly." She bit her lip. "I... I'm glad you're back." Once more her voice cracked, though this time she could not prevent the tears from flowing in earnest.

"Oh, my love." He took a step forward and gathered her into his embrace, one arm secure around her waist, opposite hand buried in her hair. Hoggle caught his eye and gave an approving nod. Giving a quick bow, he hobbled off. Jareth watched him go, amused eyebrow quirked, even as he held his wife closer to him. "Shh, don't cry." Gradually, her shoulders ceased to shake.

"I'm sorry. I'm happy, you're back, really." She held him tight, face buried in his chest. He smiled, only barely able to understand her words muffled as they were by his shirt. "I was just... it was just... and then everything... and you were gone and I was here..."

"Sarah, Sarah," he whispered into her hair. "I promised you once, long ago, that you would never be alone. Did you think I would break that promise now?"

"Well... no." She rested her chin on his chest and peered up at him through slightly blurry vision. "Not really. In all fairness, I had been doing fine, just fine, until today."

He kissed the tip of her nose, adjusting so both his arms wrapped around her waist. "I know. I was keeping an eye on you." He sighed loftily. "That's why things took me as long as they did, I suppose."

Sarah snorted. "What happened, Jareth? Why did the magic suddenly... go away? And why could I feel it?"

"It didn't. Remember, you defeated the Labyrinth all those years ago. And while I eventually made you my wife and my lover, it made you its Queen. It can never trap you again. I was bound to it when I took the throne. But somehow, you were bound with it, by it. You are part of its magic, Sarah."

"Yes, I remember. We had this discussion shortly after the fact. But what happened in the past day?"

"Well, most of the time I was gone was spent in preparation. It withdrew, I suppose you could say, for that reason. There was a small link kept open and visible mainly for camouflage purposes against outside eyes. Yesterday evening, the preparations were over and I initiated the final spell, as it were. So it was being redirected in order to establish the new protections over the Kingdom and, as it shifted, hid itself."

"Why?"

"From everyone else, in small part to keep secrets from being revealed I suppose. But those of the Fae, all those of this world really, are intricately connected to the magic of their respective Kingdoms. It is a part of what we are. When that magic is utilized to such an extent as in what I just did, we feel it in the core of our being. And it is not a comfortable feeling."

"Ok, that makes sense. But I am not 'of this world', as you put it. Why hide itself from me?"

He rested his chin on the top of her head. "As the ruler of this Kingdom, the High Fae capable of controlling the magic, and being as I must be able to sense the magic in order to do anything with it, I am able to block the majority of the side effects. Think of how closely bound you are to it, to the magic and to the Labyrinth. Closer than any I have ever seen, myself included, but with no ability to control or manipulate it. Had you been physically aware of what was going on... To say that it would have been painful would have been an understatement."

"Oh." She blinked. "I didn't know all of that."

"Neither did I, until it all happened."

"Oh," she repeated. "Looks like in its attempt to reveal nothing, it revealed quite a bit." She sighed, repositioning her arms so they held him underneath his jacket. "I missed you."

"Mm. Same here. Watching you constantly, while entertaining, is not the same as being with you."

"Entertaining, hmm?" She really didn't have the heart to even pretend to be affronted and grinned at him instead. "Were you really watching me the whole time?"

"For the most part. In truth, I am always aware of you in the back of my mind, though I can get preoccupied with and distracted by other things. But when I am not able to directly keep my eye on you, the Labyrinth watches over you in my stead."

"Well, that is a small comfort, I suppose."

It was Jareth's turn to snort. "By the way, just to set the record straight, I'll have you know it is confidence."

"As you say. But you're still incorrect."

He raised an eyebrow imperiously. "Wench, after the work I just completed for my Kingdom, I grow weary of your incessant prattling."

"Oh really? Poor, poor Goblin King. Perhaps a nap is in order before dinner time."

Eyes suddenly sparkling with mischief, he grinned down at her. "An excellent idea." He leaned down and kissed her deeply, pulling back briefly to murmur, "and you can tuck me in." His second kiss stifled her giggle and, as she wrapped her arms around his neck, they disappeared in a swirl of glitter.