Please tell me what you think. I haven't abandoned my other story, this one just came to me, so I thought I would throw it out there and see what kind of response I get. If I don't get good reviews, I'll give up on it.

Two Fights

July 4, 1980

2:30 a.m.

Jackie Burkhart had never been so terrified in her life. There was only one place where she had ever felt safe, and she was running there as fast as her small legs would carry her. Behind her, in the distance she could hear his feet slapping the pavement and his drunken yells, but she never looked back.

20 minutes earlier

"Michael, we need to go." Jackie stamped her foot in impatience. They had come from their shared apartment in Chicago to visit the old gang. All of them had gone out to dinner and then a bar, but Fez, Jackie, and Kelso were the only one's left. Jackie was tired, and drunk, just like her boyfriend, and she just wanted to go back to her house so they could sleep it off before the annual Forman barbecue the next day.

The bar had closed ten minutes earlier, and Jackie was on the verge of becoming very pissed off. She stepped out into the night to have a cigarette, a habit she had picked up at the Nordstrom's where she was currently doing an internship. By the time she had stomped out her cigarette, Kelso and Fez still hadn't left the bar.

"Oh Michael, that's it!" She exclaimed to herself, past frustrated at this point, she yanked the door open, and stormed back into the seedy little hole in the wall, and that's when she saw him sucking face with some slut. She wasn't shocked, which in itself surprised her at first. She was angry and hurt, and she felt like a moron for putting her faith in Michael Kelso once again. More than anything she was humiliated.

"Michael." She was towering over him, but he just looked up at her a little bit dazed.

"Hey, baby, this is Sheila. She's got great lips." Jackie had had it.

"Good bye Michael, I'm through!" And she stormed out of the bar. It didn't take long for him to come after her, and she realized he was laughing at her. She couldn't believe the nerve of this jerk, laughing at her, Jackie Burkhart. She spun on her heel and got right in his face.

"What is so funny, Michael." He sobered up, but she could see the anger rising in his eyes too. Lately, he had been different when he drank, meaner, less considerate of her feelings. Sometimes he said things that really hurt her, and she braced herself for another one of his inebriated verbal attacks.

"Just the look on your face, beautiful, that's all." She was pissed. This was not how she had planned to spend her night. Kelso tried to pull her in for a kiss, and she slapped him, as hard as she could.

"Don't you ever touch me again. Ever." Jackie was almost surprised she hadn't breathed fire. The old Kelso would have looked down at her like an injured puppy, but this Kelso, this mean, drunk Kelso she hardly recognized got mad. He grabbed the wrist of the hand she had smacked him with pulling her flush to his body, and ramming his lips against hers. Her wrist twisted painfully under his grasp and she cried out in pain.

"Michael let go of me!" She tried to wrench her wrist from his big hand, and when that didn't work she threw herself into him hoping to knock him off balance. It worked a little too well. When he went flying off the curb of the sidewalk they had been standing on, he released her in surprise. She had been straining against him, and she fell into the street cracking her cheek bone hard against the curb. He hurried over to help her up.

"Oh, baby. Are you ok, I'm so sorry." But she pulled away from him eyeing him warily, which only served to reignite his anger. "Damn, Jackie, it's your won damn fault." He cursed under his breath. She began walking down the sidewalk.

"Whatever, Michael, I'm sick of this shit, you stay with Fez, I'm going home." She had been so surprised when he spun her around, his strong fingers digging painfully into her sides.

"You're not going anywhere, we need to talk about this."

"There's nothing to talk about you drunken man-slut." She never saw it coming. Never in a million years would she have expected Michael Kelso to slap her. But he brought his hand back hitting her on her already throbbing face so hard, the force of it threw her tiny body away from him.

That's when the adrenaline kicked in. She had run like hell praying the whole way the door she was running to wouldn't be locked.

2:30 a.m.

Eric Forman's House

Jackie barreled down the familiar back steps, she flung herself at the door, pushing it open, and she slammed it behind her, sliding the lock into place with a quiet click. Not two seconds later Kelso slammed his entire body weight into the door.

"God damnit, you bitch, open the fucking door!" He screamed at her through the glass. She backed away tears streaming down her face, slowly walking to the little hallway where Hyde's room was. She leaned against the cool cinder block wall and slid down it. Jackie curled into herself her hands over her ears and she hummed softly, trying to block out the obscenities her boyfriend was screaming at her through the door.

Hyde rolled out of bed with a groan. Some one was screaming. Loudly. Christ, who the hell is that? He tried to shake off his drowsiness and the effects of the alcohol he had consumed with his friends that evening. He silently thanked God for small favors that the Forman's were out of town until tomorrow morning. The yelling was getting louder, and he could hear something else too, some one singing that stupid song from The Wizard of Oz. He opened his door and heard Kelso screaming, but saw Jackie, all curled up, blood all over her hands, holding her face against her knees, singing softly

"We represent the Lollipop Guild, the Lollipop Guild, the Lollipop Guild, and in the name of the Lollipop Guild, we wish to welcome you to Munchkinland…"

He kneeled down in front of Jackie and put his hands gently over hers. She looked up at him, and whimpered. He was shocked at the sight of her. She had a huge gash across one cheekbone, which was apparently where all the blood had come from. He could already see a bruise forming around it, and it looked like it needed to be cleaned. Her lip was busted open, but that injury didn't look too bad. Ever so gently he pulled her hands from her ears and lowered them.

"Jackie, what's going on, did Kelso do this to you?" He knew it was important to stay calm, but inside his blood was boiling. That drunken bastard. They had all noticed the mean streak he had picked up since he and Jackie had moved to Chicago, and Hyde had noticed that he had been particularly cruel to his small girlfriend ever since their arrival earlier that day. Slowly she nodded her head, but before he could move she put her hand out.

"Steven…I made him mad, though. And when I fell on the sidewalk, it wasn't really his fault." Hyde had no idea what she was talking about but he nodded as though he did. She was obviously intoxicated, he could practically smell the alcohol wafting off of her. Gently he took her into his arms, carried her into his room, and placed her on his cot. He could tell that she was terrified, and Kelso practically breaking down the door in the background wasn't helping.

"Jackie, baby, I want you to get under the blanket. When I leave, you need to reach over and lock the door, ok? Don't open it until I come back for you, can you do that?" She nodded up at him, and he saw pooled in her eyes all the trust that he had thrown away more than a year ago. He leaned over a pressed a kiss to her forehead. "It'll be ok, Jacks. It's going to be fine." Again she nodded with complete trust in him. He walked out of the room, and heard her lock the door behind him.

2:40 a.m.

Kelso was still pounding at the door, and cursing at Jackie, but he seemed to have lost some of his intensity. When he looked up to see Hyde standing at the other side of the door he completely sobered up. He had never seen his friend so pissed before, and he suddenly had the urge to run away. Why did this always happen?

It seemed like lately all he and Jackie did was fight. He cheated on her, she found out, she insulted him, and they made each other's lives hell. Despite that he loved her, and the thought of losing her forever was unbearable. Though if it came down to having to fight Hyde for her, he knew he'd have to walk away. Hyde would totally kick his ass.

Hyde opened the back door, and Kelso pushed past him, looking around the basement for Jackie. Not finding her, he whirled on Hyde.

"Where the hell is she?" Hyde was trying his best to keep himself from killing one of his oldest friends. It was getting harder by the second.

"She's scared man, what the hell did you do to her?" Hyde's voice was quiet, but through his anger, Kelso caught every word.

"It's none of your damn business, Hyde. Tell me where the hell my girlfriend is so I can take her with me." Hyde shook his head.

"No way, man. You're not going any where with her tonight. You need to go somewhere and sleep it off, you can come back in the morning and talk to her, if she wants to see you." Kelso looked at him incredulously.

"No fucking way am I leaving my girlfriend here for the night with you. That slut will probably jump on you the minute I'm gone." Hyde lost it; before he even knew what he was doing he had hit Kelso in the face. Kelso hit the cement floor.

"Ow, my eye! Damnit Hyde!" But Hyde had had enough of his drunk, bastard of a friend. He picked Kelso up, and threw him out the back door.

"Go sober up you ass hole. Don't come back here until you have." He locked the door, and turned to his bedroom. Now what to do with Jackie.