Sunrise Sunset

The hospital should have been torn down years ago and replaced with a more modern and efficient building, but when the board of governors tried to demolish it the local population went wild trying to preserve the structure.
It was large and built out of stone. At some angles it could be described as a Victorian-style castle with a single 5-story tower and small windows.
Instead of removing the older building, however, the hospital moved the administration into it and built modern and hygienic buildings around it.


Sarah pulled into a parking space directly in front of the tower, numbed by Jareth’s announcement. Dee was his wife; Dee’s husband, who had been deceased thirty years, was sitting beside Sarah in her own car. The man Dee held up to all others, the one she still got dreamy eyed over, hadn’t aged a day in 7 years.
Sarah turned off the engine and turned to her right to look at the man beside her.
“How dare you treat with her like this?” Sarah hissed. Her eyes were flashing with intense anger. “You’ve been playing dead for thirty years, leaving that sweet lady alone. You lied to her and abandoned her.” She was shouting now, her voice shrill in the confines of her car. “You are nothing but a loathsome …”
“Stop.” Jareth held out his hand and Sarah stopped yelling. His command stilled her tongue but not her outrage. “Sarah, I didn’t lie. I have never lied. Dee has been alone these thirty years because she wanted to be. She pushed me away.”

“No, I don’t believe it. The look in her eyes when she speaks of you…” Sarah paused. “It’s magical, all that love she feels. Why would she push away the object of such pure emotion? She glows when she talks about you! No one who loves that much would push it away. She shines…”

“And what of you Sarah? What comes into your eyes when you speak of me?” he asked, searching her face.

Thrown off by his change of topic, Sarah unbuckled her seatbelt. “I’m going to find Dee.” She left the car and walked into the hospital with Jareth following silently behind her.

The sterile environment always made Sarah uncomfortable. The smell of anti-bacterial cleanser and the dust from the latex gloves seemed unnatural, cold, and scientific; however, you came to science when you needed help… and Dee needed help.

Sarah walked to the reception desk and asked for information about Dee.
When the receptionist asked about her relationship to Dee, she simply replied, “I’m her next of kin.”
“Please fill out the insurance forms.” With that, the receptionist pushed a beaten-looking clipboard in front of Sarah with a pen taped to it. The woman’s eyes were bored and her expression bland.
“Can I see her?” Sarah asked as she took the clipboard, to which the receptionist replied, “Fill out the forms and a doctor will speak to you shortly.” It was an automatic response given time and time again. It offered no comfort or reassurance.
Sarah nodded and walked to the hard plastic chairs.

“The Sarah I know wouldn’t have settled for that,” Jareth whispered into her ear before he walked around and sat on the table in front of her. “She would have gone in ready to fight.”

Sarah ignored him and started to fill out the forms. Jareth acknowledged her silence with a smirk. “The girl has grown up…”

Her eyes never lifted from the paper. “Yes she has, and if you have nothing better to do than irritate me you can just leave.”

“Why are you fighting me Sarah?” Jareth questioned, “I thought we had established that I’m not your y…” y…”

This statement made Sarah put the pen down and look up. Her eyes lifted from the page slowly, mou mouth set in a firm line. Her chin tilted slightly before she levelled her face and looked straight at him, nearly glaring.
“Did you offer her her dreams as well?” Sarah’s voice was flat but the thread of anger was hidden just underneath.
“Sarah - ” Jareth ted,ted, his voice not hiding its own threat. Sarah knew she was being challenged.
“That wasn’t an answer.” She looked back down to her page and resumed writing. “When you are prepared to give me one, I will listen. Until then… Leave Me Alone.”

Sarah filled in the rest of the forms and returned them to the receptionist. Again she asked to see Dee, and she was again given the automated “Please wait and a doctor will come to speak to you.”
Sarah returned to her seat and sighed. Jareth was still perched on the table, covering the backdated magazines, so she couldn’t pick one up to read it. Instead she turned and looked up at the television mounted on the wall. It was muted, and Sarah was glad of it. The program looked like a repeat of one of those trashy talk shows. In the three minutes she was watching, two people had to be forcibly removed from the set.

“Yes I did,” came the voice from the table, “I offered her everything she wanted. She was older than you were. She accepted on her own terms, much like you have.”
“I have accepted nothing,” she hissed, still looking at the screen. She didn’t want to know the terms Dee had agreed to. Sarah herself had been childish and selfish in her wish to have Toby taken away; she knew it was ‘a moment of passion and desperation.’
What could Dee have done to attract Jareth, Dee who is so sweet and gentile? What could she have given up? Sarah didn’t want to think about it - she loved Dee and couldn’t imagine a darker side to her at all.

“Look at me, Sarah,” a voice whispered from behind her. She sat firm, unshaken.
“You’re there, you look like the man of my dreams,” Sarah waved her hand. “I don’t need to see you.”
“Was Jeremy the man of your dreams?” There was laughter in his voice.
“Then he was. Now… no - ” She closed her eyes. Jareth and Jeremy… they did look the same, but somehow Jareth was different. He looked like Jeremy did 7 years ago, but Jeremy didn’t have the charisma that Jareth had: “ t tht then you were as different as night and day anyway.”
Two fingers touched her chin and pulled Sarah’s face towards Jareth. “Tell me.” he commanded.
“What does Dee see when she looks at you?” Sarah’s eyes were hard. He was not going to distract her from Dee. His manipulations would not make Sarah loose her focus on what was important.
Jareth closed his and dropped his hand. “She sees what you see. Why are you fighting me?”
“Every time we meet, someone I love is involved,” Sarah rebutted. “It is hard not to fight you for them.” Jareth’s reply was soft yet firm.
“I’m not going to take Dee from you.”
“No, but you would take me from her.”

Before Jareth could respond, a short man in a white coat with a stethoscope around his neck walked into the reception area.
“Miss Williams?” He looked expectantly to her, and Sarah took the opportunity to move away from Jareth.
“How is Dee?” she asked. He smiled kindly at her and replied “She is fine, and very lucky you were with her. She was severely dehydrated, but that was all of it, really. People her age weaken quickly.”
“She’s well enough to come home then?”
This was when he shook his head and frowned. “No, unfortunately I think she needs to be kept overnight. I want to get her insulin and hydration levels stable before we let her go. This recent hiccup could possibly be a sign of something worse. I would feel better if we could watch her closely for a while.”
Sarah took the news stoically. She wanted to get away from the hospital, but she wanted Dee safe and that overrode anything she might feel. “Can I see her?”

There was a quiet cough from behind that Sarah choose to ignore. Sarah wanted to talk to Dee without Jareth’s interference. Granted, it was childish, but Sarah didn’t care.

The doctor did not ignore the cough, however, and looked over Sarah’s shoulder. “You both will be able to see Mrs. Jones shortly. The nurses are moving her into a room as we speak.”

Sarah bowed her head and whispered a quiet ‘Thank you’ to the doctor. She was trying not to lash out at him; it wasn’t his fault that Jareth was here. He didn’t understand what was going on between them, though a fool could feel the tension in the room. The doctor left after saying a nurse would guide them to Dee when she was ready for visitors.

Sarah sat back down in her chair and closed her eyes. She didn’t want to talk to Jareth; she didn’t even want to look at him. The fact he was there and she could feel him was enough to unnerve her, never mind the knowledge he had misled her. The fact that he was married to her best friend didn’t help either, and now would turn her world upside down once again.

Sarah wasn’t ready for this at all. There were so many questions she needed the answers to, and right now she felt Dee was the only one she trusted enough to give them to her.