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"You assume a great deal."

He had been silent for several long, tense moments before speaking, but the image of his dark expression-now masked, his aloof pose firmly back in place-haunted her.

"Do I?" Sarah asked quietly. "You came..."

The Goblin King's gaze was unrelenting, and she finally had to look away, dropping the small engagement ring into her skirt, letting it disappear into the voluminous folds of the fabric.

Out of sight, out of mind...

"I was called," he grated harshly. "You have no idea of the forces that you meddle with, mortal child." He saw her tense at the implicit insult, expected her to flare up in her own defense, but when she raised her chin with quiet dignity and spoke, it wasn't in the self-righteous tones he expected.

"You are right," Sarah agreed confidently, her sudden, unshakable poise almost making him feel at fault. "I don't understand. I'm not sure that I was ever able to, as I never saw any of the Labyrinth's citizens after that night."

And yet you remembered enough to call me, he noted silently.

"And yet, even without any reminders, I could never forget you," she confessed softly, echoing his own thoughts eerily. "Even now, all these years later, the memory of you haunts me enough that I can't settle into another relationship without wondering-what could have happened? What could we have been?"

She had laid the words between them, quiet and undeniably heart-felt, and now waited for his reaction.

"...what could a mortal possibly have that I would want, to tempt me to play her little game?" he asked scornfully, and she knew she had won. He had taken just slightly too long to answer to be completely unmoved.

Sarah smiled softly, understandingly, letting him know that she had seen through his defensiveness. "Adventure, romance, excitement. An escape from the norm, and perhaps..." She paused her smile turning inward-wistful, more reminiscent. "An entire world of possibilities, with no knowing how it will end. All the things that you offered to me, when I was so young and foolish as to wish away Toby."

Jareth snorted and left the couch, rising to stand with his back to her. "And why should I listen to you, if you were heartless enough to abandon your own brother?" he scoffed.

"But I didn't abandon him."

Sarah rose to stand behind him, stroking one of his long strands of platinum hair from shoulder to back before curving her arms around him. Her boyfriend's ring dropped silently from her skirt onto the carpet, forgotten.

"I always fought to get him back, didn't I?" she asked, resting her cheek on the back of his shoulder. "Even when you tempted me, even when I wanted so much to know what it was you offered, I couldn't forsake him. Not when it was my fault in the first place."

Jareth remained unmoving in her arms.

Sarah didn't sigh, didn't lose hope, but she knew she still had to reach him somehow.

"When I ran your Labyrinth, Jareth, I was young and foolish, but I still knew that getting Toby back was my first goal-my only goal, truly. Whatever I did, it was ultimately to save my baby brother. But today-now-isn't about him; it's only about you and I."

She paused for a moment before continuing as if thinking to herself. "I'm not asking for forever, Jareth, or even for a promise. All I want is another chance."

Jareth snorted quietly. "Always, you have some excuse, someone to put over me. What will happen in two weeks, if you still don't have an answer? Will you running back to your beau and tell him that you want him then?" he asked, dangerously calm.

"No. I would tell him that I didn't know what I feel, and that I can't accept his ring until I do," Sarah replied calmly, refusing to rise to his bait.

"Words," he scorned.

"You were the one who taught me their importance," she reminded him gently. When he was still tense, she laid her head on the back of his shoulder and begged him softly, "Please, Jareth. Just give me a second chance."

She could feel him go suddenly still, and then-

He pulled her arms away from his waist and stepped away, turning to face her. He didn't seem to notice that he still held her wrists between them, almost gingerly.

"No. No second chances. This is your only chance," he decreed, just before disappearing from her living room.