Jackie sat stoically, arms crossed, eyes narrowed, and mouth set as she looked at the blond tramp. How could he pick that over her? She loved him; she gave him everything- her heart, her mind, and her soul. She talked to him, she understood him, she broke down the Zen and found things out about him not even the Formans or Eric knew. His best friend didn't know that when he was six, Bud showed up for one of his baseball games. And he damn well didn't know that at the very same baseball game Bud got so drunk off a twelve-pack that he beat up one of the dad's from the other team when his son got him out. The Formans didn't know that when he was ten, Edna took off for two weeks before stumbling back into town drunk as hell with all of the food money lost to the casino in Michigan. It was another week before he had anything suitable to eat. Nobody but him, her, Edna, and some good for nothing drug lord knew that when Hyde was five, he had once been sold for a week's worth of cocaine. Thankfully, the drug lord had given him back after he screamed and bit for a day straight. Edna had given him a lifetime's beating for losing her coke.
"Jackie, do you want to go to the mall?" Donna's voice was tense as she threw out words that Jackie would have been elated to hear any other time.
"Oh, can I come too? I need a new top for one of my acts. The other one got ripped by some rowdy guys the other night." Sam, the whore, asked them with a look on her face that made Jackie sick. How could she look so damn innocent? She had ruined everything. Everything that Jackie had worked so hard to make happy and perfect. Everything she had every wanted and needed was destroyed by a Las Vegas stripper. What had her life come to?
"Oh, sorry. The Point Place Mall has a strict no whore policy." Jackie spat at her, the bitchiness she carried around like a bomb going off. "Let's go, Donna." With that Jackie plucked her purse from the coat hanger and followed her blond friend out the door.
Sipping thoughtfully on her soda, Donna surveyed her best friend. The dark tresses that fell from her head were messy, and the mismatched eyes that were usually filled with delight when they were here had nothing left in them but a look of heart break.
"God, Donna. What did I do? Why did Michael have to show up? Why did he marry her? Why am I such a dumbass?" Jackie buried her face with her hands, trying to hide tears that had yet to escape- even though it had been two days. She had never held tears in for this long, and it was getting hard to stay strong. Donna gazed at her friend and knew she should divulge the information she had accidentally heard. It would either crush her even more or bring back a fighting spirit that had been gone for a month.
"Jackie... you didn't do anything. Sam is scamming Hyde. I heard her on the phon, talking to some guy named Larry, saying stuff about how she was going to con Hyde out of his money and stuff. She's a stripper and a con artist too." Donna stirred her straw and clenched her lips together, wondering how Jackie would react. At first, she thought that maybe she could be Sam's friend. Make her feel welcome. Even if she was a dirty stripper, she was still a person right? Maybe she could even conform Sam to her feminist ways. But as soon as she found out about what Sam was doing, she knew she couldn't do any of those things. She wasn't sure what to do now. If only Eric had been there to help her. If only Eric had been there at all. He always knew what do- even if he didn't like Jackie; he would still say something in his Eric-y way and make everything a little better.
"That...bitch!" Jackie's shrill voice brought attention from the other patrons of the mall, including some curious children. "Opps." The mall-goers turned their attention back to themselves and ignored the two girls. "Does Steven know?" The excitement and urgency in her voice made Donna grin. Jackie's fighting spirit was being reawakened, and Donna was glad. Weepy Jackie, while understandable, just wasn't as fun as kick-ass Jackie.
"Hell no! Even if I told him, it's not like he would believe me. It's Hyde, he's the guy who thinks ABBA isn't just some crappy disco band but a government paid band to place pro-government theories in our heads. God knows he won't believe anything as rational as his new stripper wife being a con." Donna rolled her eyes at the last part of her sentence. It was true; Hyde was a stubborn ass who wasn't going to believe them unless they gave him cold, hard proof.
"Damn it, you're right! I'm never going to get him back. I'll have to end up with someone like...Fez!" Just the thought of being with her foreign friend brought Jackie to tears. "How can we prove it?" The brunette blinked away her tears and regained her drive to crush the whore who stole her man.
Donna contemplated what to say. She had taken a whole day to decide whether or not to tell Jackie. How was she supposed to know what to say right now? Clueless and frustrated, Donna knew that they were going to have to play detective on this one. She tried to remember the exact words she had heard. Clenching her eyes shut, she brought herself back to this morning at the Forman's.
*Flashback*
Donna lunged at the phone, praying it was Eric. Before she could even say hello, she heard two voices wafting through the speaker. Biting her lip, she considered hanging up. It was rude to listen to others people's conversations, but she wanted to know who else was up at 3 a.m. at the Forman's home.
"Sam? Is that you?" an unfamiliar male voice asked. Donna's breath hitched for a moment. Sam, the new stripper wife, was getting a call from some mystery male in the early morning. If this wasn't suspicious then Donna had never lived with a Nancy Drew lover.
"Yeah, Larry, it is. Who else would pick up the phone right now? God, you're stupid." An evil sneer was heard in the distinctive voice of Sam. Donna held in a gasp as she continued to listen to the exchange.
"Sorry, Samie, sorry. So how are we going to get the money outta this Hyde guy?" The man, Larry, was definitely whipped by Sam. You could hear the desperateness to please her dripping from his voice.
"We aren't going to get the money, Larry. I am. And I'm planning on… Shit, I think I can hear someone breathing on the line. I'll go check it out." Donna, realizing that she had been caught, rammed down the phone back into the receiver and fled the Forman's home, racing back to her house as fast as her legs could carry her.
*End Flashback*
"Well, I doubt the marriage is legitimate. Actually, I think she may be married to this Larry dude she was talking too. She has him whipped. We'll have to watch her or something to make sure she doesn't do anything else suspicious. I really want to crush this bitch for 1). Taking Hyde away from you, 2) Scamming Hyde, and 3) her being a stripper totally ruins females'-"
"Blah, blah blah! A bunch of feminist crap. But you're right! If we're going to go all detective and follow her, we're going to need some new outfits." Jackie's melancholy thoughts were pushed to the back of her mind. New ones of proving Sam bad and shopping with her best friend distracted her for the time being as she dragged the blonde out of her chair and into the nearest store.
"I'm glad you decided to dye your hair back. Don't tell anybody I said this, but red hair looks much better on you then blonde." Jackie commented to the newly redheaded Donna. Seeing Donna back to her regular state of carrot red made Jackie feel at ease. Donna being back to normal surged Jackie with hope. If Donna could go back to normal so easily, it was possible so could her and Steven.
Jackie pushed open the basement door with her foot since she had two large shopping bags resting in her hands. An apologetic looking Fez greeted her at the door with a grimace. Still high off of her shopping trip with Donna, Jackie pranced by the dark-skinned foreigner and flopped down on the couch, ignoring the beaming Sam and the Zen Hyde.
Donna followed behind Jackie as she took a seat on the lawn chair. The newly red-headed Donna felt her stomach drop, and she could sense that something devastating was about to happen. Call it feminist intuition, but she could tell that stripper was going to shatter Jackie's heart all over again.
"Donna! And ew, Jackie. I'm so glad you're back! Hyde and I have the best news! We're going to get married again! This time I'll be wearing a big white dress, there will be nice red roses, and people will come with gifts-" Jackie didn't stick around to hear anymore. She was already running full force out of the room with tears blurring her vision. Donna took off after her, but not without first throwing Sam a look filled with the most venom she could muster. Mouthing the words "You'll pay for this," she left the room, desperately trying to catch up with the horrified Jackie.
It didn't seem to matter how far Jackie ran. The words of the blond still haunted her. Married. Big white dress. Again. The last word stung the most. Jackie had tried and failed to get Steven to marry her just once. This con could get him to do it twice.
At some point her feet had stopped moving. It took her a moment to realize why they had. She was here, their special place, the place where she first lied to him about their relationship.
"Jackie, I'm so sorry. She's a bitch. We'll get her back." Donna, who hadn't known how fast Jackie could run, was out of breath. It was shocking to see how broken Jackie was. She had never seen her best friend this upset. The redhead had never seen Jackie shaking so hard even when there was no cold and cry so hard that snot dripped down. And Donna had definitely never seen Jackie look so bad and act so destroyed that she began to question whether or not Donna could help fix her. The tiny brunette seemed empty, shallow. The unicorn-loving girl with a lot of spirit was gone, and Donna was scared.
"He doesn't love me anymore. He never loved me." The voice that came out of Jackie was not her own. Jackie's Burkhart's voice was excited, young, peppy, and maybe even a little shrill. This voice had not even a single trace of one of those qualities. Instead, Donna could hear only numbness and despair. Silently, she cursed Hyde for turning the loud cheerleader into this. A devastated, heartbroken girl. Mentally, Donna made a note to herself to break all of Hyde's Led Zeppelin records.
"Jackie, don't you dare say that! Hyde loves you more then you know. We're going to get her. We're going to fix this mess." Donna didn't say anything else because no more words came to her. No more words were needed. Instead, Donna just wrapped her arms around her best friend and let the tears that used to make her mad cover her because what else are friends for.
AN/ Well I don't have much to say other than this is an obviously AU take on Season 8. This will eventually be Jackie/Hyde but it'll probably take a while and a lot of work on Donna and Jackie's part. Anyway thank you to my beta reviewgirl911 who's just awesome. Oh and please do review, they always make my day.
