He looked at the letter, in its perfect, crisp white envelope, with its perfect lettering, in his hand. He sat there for five minutes with it in his hand, not daring to open it. It was addressed "To Mr. Steven Hyde". He had to open, as he was deeply curious as to what exactly was inside. So, he took his pocketknife, and tore the envelope along the edge. He put the pocketknife on the table, and took the white card that was inside out. He saw the back of it, the purity of the white contrasting sharply with the black of his shirt. He sighed, and turned the card over. In gold, elaborate lettering was written something that he had hoped to never see, something that made him sick to his stomach.
You are cordially invited to the Engagement Party of:
Jacqueline B. Burkhart
And
Fernando Emilio De Vries Bakker
Held at the Point Place Hilton Crystal Ballroom
On August 26th, 1980 at 2:00 p.m.
He couldn't believe that this had actually happened. He looked at the invitation, and he couldn't take it anymore. He ripped it in half viciously, then in half again, and so on until he could no longer tear the pieces. His chest was heaving in anger and disappointment; he had hoped that Jackie's "infatuation" with Fez would soon pass, so that he would have a chance again. This invitation, this evil thing, had been the proof that had been before his eyes for some time that he had blown it with Jackie, and that he would never get another chance. He took the pieces of the invitation with him into his room, where he put them on the small table he had next to his bed, before he rolled himself a joint and lit it. After he had taken a few drags of his joint, he took another match and lit it, putting it on top of the pieces of the invitation, enjoying watching them curl and smoke with the match.
Babe,
baby, baby, I'm gonna leave you.
I said baby, you know I'm gonna
leave you.
I'll leave you when the summertime,
Leave you when
the summer comes a-rollin'
Leave you when the summer comes along.
Jackie was
sitting at home, watching TV and waiting for Fez to get back. They
had about 2 weeks before their engagement party, and Jackie found
herself becoming more and more frantic. She convinced herself that
it was just nerves, that she was just nervous to be standing in front
of so many people, declaring her love for Fez. But there was one
thought niggling at the back of her brain; what would Steven think of
all this? She imagined his face for what must have been the
hundredth time that day, crystal blue of his eyes staring straight
into hers, his strong arms wrapping themselves around her waist and
his lips moving in for the kill… She shook her head, trying to free
these thoughts from her. She was in love with Fez,
she loved him with all her heart… So why couldn't she get Steven
out of her head? Jackie tore at her hair in frustration, letting out
a little scream. She decided to go release this energy the only way
she knew how; sit in the shower and have the burning hot water pound
down her back while she pleasured herself with thoughts of Steven's
hands being the ones touching her. Baby,
baby, I don't wanna leave you,
I ain't jokin' woman, I got to
ramble.
Oh, yeah, baby, baby, I believin',
We really got to
ramble.
I can hear it callin' me the way it used to do,
I can
hear it callin' me back home!
He leaned back against the wall of the hotel; he really didn't want to be here, but Donna and Eric had convinced him that if he didn't go they would make sure that he never had a minute's peace. Not like he had any peace now, his mind always focused on thoughts of her. He finished his cigarette and flicked it onto the driveway, not caring about anything but getting this over with so that he could go back home, get totally hammered and call it a day.
He walked into the ballroom, having to admire the beautiful location that Jackie had picked. There were two crystal chandeliers in the middle of the ceiling, and the ceiling had a Baroque-style fresco painted on it. The ceiling was so high overhead, he had to strain his neck the whole way back to see the beautiful paintings done on it. He looked back at everything, and saw a table to his right with place cards on it. He went over to it, and found his name card. It was a beautiful white name card with his name written in gold lettering, saying that his table was table 5. He looked up and looked around the room to see where table 5 was; he saw Donna and Eric seating themselves at it, right across from their parents and next to Kelso and Brooke. He moved through the crowd of people and arrived at table 5, squeezing himself between Kelso and Donna. He looked around to see how many people were coming to this party and saw that there were quite a few tables. Probably all from her side, he thought to himself. He sat there, while a waiter went around getting everyone's orders for lunch and drinks. The waiter came to him, and he ordered the beef fillet. The waiter asked what he would like to drink while he waited for the food, and Hyde looked him straight in the eye, saying,
"What is the strongest drink that you have here?" The waiter looked shocked for a moment, before he recovered, and said,
"A Long Island Ice Tea, sir." Hyde nodded his head to that, and the waiter went off to get his drink. Another waiter soon returned with it, and he started getting to work on it, shouting at the waiter that he would need another one in about five minutes. Hyde was aware of the looks that he was getting from everybody at the table, but he didn't care. He didn't really care about anything anymore, so why not get totally plastered?
The music
started up, and he saw everybody stand up, but he refused to do it,
even when Donna practically elbowed him in the face. He sat there,
lighting up a cigarette and waiting for the whole thing to finish.
It was when everyone sat back down that he looked up, and his eyes
met Jackie's. It was at that moment that everything around him
vanished; she was the only thing he saw, a vision of beauty in her
asymmetrical lavender dress, her hair pulled back from her face into
a bun on the top of her head. It was obvious that she saw him too,
for she stopped for a minute, and blue/green crashed with crystal
blue. She stared at him for a few more moments, before turning her
head towards her fiancé. Babe...I'm
gonna leave you
Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you
Oh I can hear it callin 'me
I said don't you hear it callin'
me the way it used to do?
The lunch came and went, but he never noticed any of it. His attention was solely focused on Jackie, even when he was eating. He couldn't help but notice that she had placed him so that he was directly in front of her, so that whenever he looked up he would be looking at her. He felt rage boiling up at her; did she put him there so that she could taunt him with her beauty and her inapproachability? He got up from his chair, wobbling slightly after six Long Island Ice Teas, and Donna caught his arm to help steady him.
"Hyde, do you need help?" she asked him, concern in her voice. Hyde snatched his arm away from Donna, and said in a scathing slurred tone,
"Don't need your damn help. Don't need anyone's help to go to the fucking bathroom." And he walked away from the tables towards the grand entrance doors, as the bathroom was down the hall. No one ever noticed Jackie staring after him, her eyes full of tears.
Hyde wobbled his way to the bathroom, finally making it without too much damage to himself. He went and peed, afterwards washing his hands, splashing water all over the place. He took a paper towel, and dried his hands. He threw it away, and opened the bathroom door, gripping onto the door jamb to help himself out. He got about two steps back towards the ballroom, before something attacked him from behind. He felt small hands wrap themselves around him, he smelled the strawberries from her hair, and he turned around. She kissed him then, a bruising, passionate, unrestrained kiss. He answered her back in full, pushing her up against the wall, his hands caressing her hips while he ground his own against hers. She moaned into his mouth, making him even harder.
"Steven," she moaned into his mouth, her hands moving to unzip his pants. She unzipped his pants, and felt him spill out into her hands, harder than she thought he would be. His hands moved further down her legs, pulling her skirt up and tearing her thong off. He grunted slightly as he kneeled down slightly, needing to be inside her, to feel her one more time. He thrust into her viciously, grunting into her hair as she moaned on his neck, her breath raising goose bumps on his neck. She grabbed the back of his head, biting down lightly onto his neck as he thrust into her. Their pace built as she panted, her nails digging into his back and the back of his head, his hands bruising her ass and thighs as he dug into them to get a better grip. He felt the heady feeling of her orgasm as she screamed as quietly as she could into his shoulder, as she spilled her juice all over him, and he knew he wasn't far behind. A few more quick, violent thrusts, he felt a shudder build throughout his body as he grunted into her hair and he spilled his seed deep into her. He slowed down, stopping completely but still inside her. He looked her in the eyes, those beautiful mismatched eyes that haunted his every dream, his every waking moment, and he fell even more in love with her.
"Jackie, I love you," he said, his voice husky and low. She smiled sadly, before saying in a quiet voice,
"I love
you, too, Steven." She pressed her lips against his one more time,
locking them in a passionate kiss as tears rolled down her face. I
know I never never never gonna leave you babe
But I got to go
away from this place,
I've got to quit you, yeah
Baby, ooh
don't you hear it callin' me?
It was three months after the engagement party, and Hyde had fallen into an even deeper depression. Donna and Eric suspected that something had happened between him and Jackie at the engagement party, as Jackie had come back first, flustered and her hair a little out of place, but with a sad smile on her face. Hyde had come back to the ballroom about ten minutes after Jackie, and promptly proceeded to get so drunk that once the party was finished he couldn't even stand. Red and Kitty had driven him home, while Eric had driven the El Camino back to the house and Donna had taken the Vista Cruiser. Kitty and Red had put him to bed then, leaving him to sleep off his drunkenness. It hadn't mattered, for the next day he was drunk again, and the day after that. He was still drunk three months later, and everyone had tried everything they knew to pry out of him what had sent him down this spiral, though everyone suspected the answer. It was Donna who finally talked Jackie into going to see Hyde, to keep him from killing himself from booze and drugs. Today was the day that Jackie would go to confront Hyde, and she stood at the basement door, her hand on the handle. She took a deep breath, and opened the door.
She entered the basement, and was immediately hit by how overpowering the smell of stale beer and marijuana was. She closed the door behind her, and heard someone shuffling in the little basement room.
"Who is it?" Hyde asked, his words slurred. Jackie stood there next to the couch, waiting for him to come out. He finally did, and her heart broke at how he looked. He was unshaven, his hair sticking out everywhere, and he looked like he hadn't showered in over a month. He stopped when he saw her standing there, and asked her in a gruff voice,
"What are you doing here, Jackie?" She took a step forward, wringing her hands slightly, and said,
"Well, everyone has been really concerned about you since the engagement party, and I came down here to see if you were alright and-"
"Shut up, Jackie. You're not here because you care, you're here because Donna made you come. Well, I'll have you know that I am perfectly fine, so you can go right back to that farce of a relationship you have with Fez," he cut across her, his voice sharp and fine as a razor. She glared at him, before she retorted,
"It is not a farce, Steven! I-I love Fez, and-"
"And you let me fuck your brains out not even 500 feet from where he was! Oh yeah, Jackie, that's love." He turned his back on her, not wanting to listen to what she had to say anymore, but she yelled out at him,
"That was weakness, Steven! I love Fez, not you and what I did that day was inexcusable and it eats me alive inside, lying to Fez about what happened! But get it through your thick skull, Steven, I don't love you anymore and I don't want to love you anymore!" He turned around and looked at her, her face turning bright red from anger, her fists clenched at her sides, and he felt the old longing for her stir. In three steps he closed the distance between them, grabbed her around the waist, and said, his face millimeters from hers,
"Tell me you don't love me now, Jackie."
"I don't lo-" she started, but was promptly cut off by his lips, covering hers. She tried to get him off of her for a few seconds, but he only held on to her tighter and she finally gave in, putting her arms around his neck, pulling him in closer to her. He picked her up, his lips still locked onto hers, and went to his bedroom, closing the door after them.
Woman,
woman, I know, I know
It feels good to have you back again
And
I know that one day baby, it's really gonna grow, yes it is.
We
gonna go walkin' through the park every day.
Come what may, every
day
Another two months had passed, and it was Jackie's wedding day to Fez. Donna and Eric had once more convinced Hyde to come, even though he had made every excuse possible not to show up. Eric had finally dragged him out of the basement, made him get dressed and got him in the car with him and Donna. They had arrived at the church and gotten out, making small talk with the other guests until it was time to go into church. Donna was a bridesmaid, so she left a little earlier, going off to help Jackie get ready. Now, the bells on top of the church rang, signaling to everyone that it was time to start. They all filed into the church, filed into the pews and sat to wait for the ceremony to start.
Hyde sat
next to Eric, watching as the bridesmaids walked down the aisle with
the groomsmen, before everyone stood up for the bride to enter. Red
Forman was escorting Jackie down the aisle, as her father was still
in jail and she considered Red to be more of a father than her own
father. The two of them went down the aisle, reaching the altar
where Fez was waiting for her and Red placed Jackie's hand in
Fez's. The two turned towards the minister, who started the
ceremony, and Hyde felt sick to his stomach. He thought back on all
the happy times he had with Jackie, and he felt a tear roll down his
cheek. It was really, really good.
You
made me happy every single day.
But now... I've got to go away!
Suddenly, everything went pear-shaped. The minister had gotten to the part where he asked Fez to pledge his eternal love to Jackie, which he did, but when it was Jackie's turn she hesitated. She looked at Fez from under her veil, and saw that he was happily awaiting her answer. Jackie looked out of the corner of her eye at Steven Hyde, who had a tear rolling down his cheek, and something in her broke. She ran away from Fez, ignoring the painful gasp from him and the startled cries from the guests, and threw herself into Steven's arms. She lifted up her veil then, and kissed him deeply. She looked into his eyes and said,
"I'm so sorry, Steven! I love you, I always have!" She started to cry then, and he hushed her, comforting her in her confusion, before he said,
"It's ok, Jackie, I know. I love you too, and I swear I will never leave you again." He kissed her then, not caring if anyone hated him at that second, for he had the one thing that mattered most to him back; he had the love of his life back.
Baby,
baby, baby, baby
That's when it's callin' me
I said that's
when it's callin' me back home...
A/N: I hope you all enjoyed that, as much as I enjoyed writing it. The song is "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" by Led Zeppelin, and I think that it fits Jackie and Hyde perfectly. And remember folks, reviews are love! Thanks for reading!
