A/N: It's a new story!! Since summer is here I think that it's time to put up a new one, don't you think so too? I had a hard time with this one until lately, and now I feel confident enough with it to start posting. I hope that everyone likes it!!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from THAT 70S SHOW nor Bob Dylan.

LIKE A ROLLING STONE

Point Place, Wisconsin. April, 1980

The basement seemed fairly normal that day. The only difference was that Jackie was silent, and Hyde was glaring ahead, but no one thought that this was very abnormal. Donna and Eric were thumb warring in a lovey dovey sort of way, and Fez was eating candy. Jackie and Hyde were just sitting, and if anyone had actually paid attention, they would have seen that something was not right.

"This sucks," Jackie stated. "I'm so bored. Can we do something besides just sit around for once?" Donna looked over at her best friend, frowning a little bit.

"Well what do you want to do?" Donna asked. "Why don't you call Bill and ask him to take you out?" Jackie sighed.

"How was you date last night anyway?" Fez asked, munching on his chocolate.

"Fine," Jackie said. "Boring."

"Still not getting any, huh?" Eric asked.

"Not from BILL," Hyde smirked, and Jackie shot him a look. No one caught it though.

"Well if I wanted it from Bill I would get it," Jackie said. "At least Bill knows how to be a gentleman about such things." Hyde smirked, and grinned cruelly. He was just itching to get a burn in. After what had happened the night before, he'd been waiting. She was not going to get the last word on this. He had never let her get it before, and it wasn't about to start now. He just needed the perfect set up. He could be patient. He could see that she was cracking under the pressure. Poor predictable Jackie. She always did when she internalized her anger and frustrations.

"Besides, Bill and I…. we're over," she said. "I…. We broke up this morning because…. Well, I don't really want to talk about why."

"Are you okay?" Donna asked. "I mean, do I need to kick his ass?"

"No," Jackie said. "Just another one to add to the list, I suppose."

"Seems to be a pattern," Hyde said, putting the ultimate burn into the works. Jackie didn't look at him, but stared at the floor, fury emanating from her eyes.

Donna sighed, dreading the fight that seemed meaningless and imminent, and turned on the radio in hopes of a distraction. Bob Dylan's voice carried over the waves.

Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall"
You thought they were all kiddin' you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin' out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal.

Hyde smirked as the lyrics filled the room, and he looked at a bobbing Jackie, who was enjoying the song at least a little bit. Perfect, he thought. His moment had come.

"Hey Jackie, isn't this song about you?" he asked. She stopped bobbing, and looked over at him.

"… Excuse me?" she asked.

"Well, it's about a girl who used to be high and mighty, but then gets struck down as time wears on," Hyde said. "So I just figured that this song was about you." Jackie frowned, and they shared a look of shared hurt and loathing.

"Hyde, don't be a dick," Eric said.

"Hey, I'm just asking if my theory is correct," Hyde said, putting his hands together.

How does it feel?
How does it feel?
To be without a home?
Like a complete unknown?
Like a rolling stone?

Jackie stood up, and looked down at him, angrily.

"If I am the protagonist in this song, it's only because of YOU, Steven Hyde," she said, softly and coldly.

"Will you two knock it off? I don't even know what you're fighting about!" Donna exclaimed. "Yesterday you were totally affable with each other! Why are you so pissed, Jackie, he's just being Hyde." Jackie turned her glare to Donna.

"Here's a surprise, sticking up for him over me!" Jackie snapped. "I guess some things never do change, huh, Donna?" Donna didn't know what to say to it, so she left it alone. Jackie turned back to Hyde.

"Is that what you've always thought of me, Steven?" she asked. "Am I like a rolling stone?"

"You do realize that it's not about the band, right?" Hyde asked.

"YES!" Jackie snapped. "I'm not a complete idiot!!!! I understand the burn, I understand the cruelty in that phrase and I've HAD IT! I've had it with you and your SHIT! I'm through with you, Steven Hyde, I am THROUGH." With that, she stormed from the basement. Hyde smirked, and Donna shook her head.

"All that over a stupid folk song," Donna said. Hyde shrugged, knowing that wasn't even the start of it.

That night, Jackie packed up a suitcase, took the money she'd withdrawn from the bank, and wrote three notes. One was for Bill, apologizing and wishing him the best. One was for her mother, saying that she was splitting. Not that she thought it would have much impact. The other was for Donna, saying she would always value her friendship. And that she was sorry for only leaving a note. She put on some simple make up, shoved her favorite stuffed animals and books in the second suitcase, and sat on it so it would close. She then got in her car, and left Point Place, vowing that she'd never have anything to do with Steven Hyde ever again.

She didn't know it at the time, but she already had a part of him with her as she drove away that April night.

You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely,
But you know you only used to get juiced in it.
And nobody has ever taught you how to live out on the street
And now you find out you're gonna have to get used to it.
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say 'do you want to make a deal?'

How does it feel?
How does it feel?
To be on your own?
With no direction home?
A complete unknown?
Like a rolling stone?

Minneapolis, Minnesota. June, 1996.

Ashleigh "Ash" Burkhart sat up in the slight light of her room, and looked at her alarm clock she had set to snooze repeatedly. Seven in the morning. She hit the clock, and threw the covers back over her head. There was a knocking on her door.

"Mrrrrrrrgh."

"Ash," her mother said. "It's seven."

"I'm not biking to my workshop today," she groaned from beneath the covers.

"Not if you don't get out the door in forty five minutes you aren't," Mom agreed. "Can I come in?"

"I wanna SLEEP." Jackie Burkhart entered the room, and sat at the edge of the bed.

"How late were you up?" she asked.

"…. One," Ash said.

"No wonder you're so tired! Ash, you knew you had to get up to bike today," Jackie said, chiding her a little bit.

"Mom, there was a 'Hellraiser' marathon on last night, I couldn't miss it," Ash said, pulling the covers off her head. Her cat Claudius strolled into the room and jumped on her. "Oh not you too."

"…. That was Samuel's influence, I bet," Jackie said, huffing a little bit and crossing her arms across her small frame.

"He knows me too well," Ash said. "He knows I can't resist Pinhead and the Cenobites." Jackie rolled her eyes at her daughter, and then smiled.

"Okay, since we were going to lunch with Paul anyway, how about this: I'll drop you off at your workshop before work, and then he can take you home after lunch."

"Will Paul go for that?"

"You know Uncle Paul would do anything for you, even if it was because you used poor judgment on how late you could stay up," Jackie said.

"True. Okay, thanks," Ash said, and threw the covers back over her head.

"Hold on, you're still getting up." She pulled the covers away.

"Wha-?!"

"I can't let you get off THAT easily," Jackie said, and smirked at her daughter, petting her hair a little bit. Ash groaned, and nodded. "Hey, I'll make waffles. Sound good?"

"Sleep sounds better."

"Waffles will just have to do," Jackie said, and stood up. Ash nodded, and rubbed her eyes.

Ash knew her childhood was atypical., and it wasn't because she had a typically boys nickname. It also wasn't because her mother never talked about her Dad. It was because, unlike most other children of a single parent home, Ash didn't care who he was, it was irrelevant. She loved her Minneapolis lifestyle, and her family that was an accident. Her mother was a successful fashion boutique owner. Ash knew that at one point it looked like she wouldn't have anything. Thus begins the back story of Ash.

Jackie Burkhart blew into Minneapolis in the Spring of 1980. She had little money, no friends, no job, and a severe heartache. She spent most of her money on an apartment past Dinkytown near the University. After trying to get jobs at various beauty stores, fashion stores, hell, anything that could possibly be glamorous, she was out of luck. Every time she heard the same thing: you're too young and/or too blunt. If Jackie was good at something it was exuding confidence, even when she felt extremely unconfident. So of course she seemed brash, she was overcompensating. She eventually got the job that every woman like her fears: waitress at a diner. She became a waitress at Annie's in Dinkytown, a favorite food stop for college kids. Though she hated it, she did a pretty good job. She found it difficult to balance all aspects of her life, and the juggling act became old very quickly.

When it became apparent that she was pregnant, her world went from teetering on the brink to hurling into the stratosphere.

But serendipity managed to smile down on Jackie one day in the summer. She was serving a college student, one that had been in there a lot in the past few weeks. She was beginning to show under her apron, and she knew that it wasn't something seen in a college diner that often.

'So can I get you anything else?' she asked, standing at his table. He looked at her, and shook his head. 'Maybe another soda, or a malt for dessert?'

'No, thanks….It's not too busy today,' he said. She looked around, and shook her head as well.

'Yeah, lots of people are home for the summer,' she said. 'Why aren't you?'

'Oh, well, I'm taking a class,' he said. 'And, I live about ten minutes away, so technically I am home… for the summer.' He cleared his throat awkwardly.

'Ah.'

'…. Want some of my fries?' he asked. She looked at the fries suspiciously. 'I mean, have you had a break yet?'

'….. I am due for a break,' she said, and sat at his table. 'And it's not like anyone else is here besides you.' It was true, it was pretty dead. He smiled, and she picked at his fries. And THAT was how she met Paul Hodge, the guy who would become the brother figure she never had. He was a senior in college when they met, and had been accepted to the U of M law school. And he was a soft touch to the core. So after talking with her during her break, and then for an hour after her shift, at the Purple Onion Coffeehouse, he knew why she was there and how she had no idea what was going to happen after her baby was born. Not long after, Paul brought her to his parents, who lived in St. Paul. And the Hodges became her surrogate family, and therein Ash's as well. Paul's Mom, Debbie, gave Jackie a job at her store, Grace's, the fashion store that Jackie now ran since Debbie's retirement in 1994. His Dad, Matt, was a professor at the U. And when Ash was born, they became doting grandparent figures. And Paul was her uncle in every sense of the word.

Now Ash was fifteen years old, and living the good life in Minneapolis with her Mom and the Hodges. Why would she need anything else? She didn't. But the question of her identity was going to thrust itself upon her anyway.

TBC

A/N 2: Just needed some backstory. And the chapter titles are songs I thought one would find on Ash's personal play list.