Author's Note: Today marks my 9th anniversary on FF and while I have not had much time to update or write new stories in the last couple of months, I wanted to commemorate today with a new short story. I hope you enjoy!
Jackie stands by her bedroom door, staring out at the scattered toys inundating her living room. How is it possible that in the five minutes since she left to take a work call, this big a mess can occur? She silently watches as her two children continue playing, oblivious to her presence, much less the frustrated scowl on her face.
"But I don't want to blue one" her son wines to his sister who is holding a yellow train over her head and pushing a smaller blue plastic locomotive towards her brother.
"Well you're a boy so you get the blue one" she reasoned with him, as though this makes all the logical sense in the world.
Jackie can't see his face, but from the way he drops his head and crosses his arms across his chest, she can tell that a full pout has formed on his face and his eyes are slowly welling up with tears. "Oh don't be such a baby" her daughter says to him before the waterworks and theatrics can commence.
"I am not a baby" he whines, his voice break a little at the words and he immediately takes a deep breath to try and calm himself.
"Then just play with the blue one" the little girl continues. Jackie takes a moment to admire her little girl. At just six years old, she is easily one of the smartest children Jackie has come across. As smart as she is, she can be just as sneaky and Jackie has learned over the years to keep a watchful eye on her, especially when left alone with her little brother. The young boy is the complete opposite of his sister. As sweet natured as he is, he is very naive and Jackie worried a bit about him. She worried that he would be starting school soon and other kids would take advantage of how nice and generous he was.
"I played with the blue one last time" he says.
"No uh, you had the red one because the blue one was getting fixed remember?"
Jackie watches the interaction for a few more minutes before deciding to step in. "What is this mess?" she asks them.
Immediately, both children look up, their eyes wide and neither responds.
"I was gone for five minutes and this is what I find? How could you possibly make this mess?" she asks.
"It was Lucas mama" the young girl responds.
"It wasn't me! Liar liar pants on fire Lo" Lucas replies, appalled at the accusation.
"It was too you" the sister replies. They go back and forth a few more times.
"Enough you too. Lauren, you are the oldest, you are supposed to make sure things are neat and tidy around here when I'm busy" Jackie says. "Now, you're going to clean up this mess."
"But it was Lucas mama!" Lauren complains.
"You will both clean it up now" Jackie replies and walks towards the kitchen to start preparing lunch for the kids.
She sighs as she enters the kitchen and sees the pile of dishes from the night before that she was too busy to wash. Now, after a worrisome work call, she had even less desire to wash them but knew if she didn't do the dishes now, they would continue to pile up and she would really regret it later. As she dispenses dishwashing soap on the sponge, she can hear her children bickering in the next room about where toys belong and who they belong to. She can't help but smile and their little voices and how innocent and insignificant their arguments truly are. How great would it be to be a kid again, even for just one day, and have no serious worries in the world?
Jackie gets through half of the dirty dishes when she hears the front front door closing and the pitter-patter of her children's feet. "Daddy" she hears them call out. She turns the faucet off, dries her hands off with the decorative kitchen towel Mrs. Forman gifted her, and makes her way to the living room. Once there, she watches as her children nuzzle in their father's embrace and she can't help but smile at the massive amount of messy curls between the three of them. It still takes her by surprise how amazing of a father Steven Hyde turned out to be. When she first learned that she was pregnant with Lauren, just a few short weeks after their wedding, he completely panicked and was concerned that he would screw up another human being "because it's in my blood" he would say. Jackie could remember how devastated he had been at the news and how often he brought up Bud and Edna. "I am a product of them. What do you think my kids would be like?" he would ask her at night. Admittedly, it had broken her heart that he was not as excited as she was at the news that they were creating their own little family. Hell, neither of them had a great childhood and to her, this was the perfect opportunity to give someone else what they didn't have. Things didn't get much easier throughout the pregnancy and they argued constantly. However, after a gruesome 22-hour birth, just one look at their little girl and all apprehension he had were gone. Needless to say, when they found out she was pregnant a second time, Hyde couldn't be more ecstatic.
"Hey" Hyde says when he finally sees her across the room.
"Hey" she says with a small smile.
"Daddy, you would not believe what happened at school yesterday" Lauren says, ready to fill her father in on her first week of first grade.
""Why don't you tell me sweetheart" Hyde said. He picks up the little girl and starts making his way to the couch, Lucas running behind him. Once on the couch, the young girl immediately begins telling her father about her adventures in the playground and all the great new things she learning. "Ms. Sing is so nice daddy, she gives us stickers when we behave. I have three stickers already" she squeals causing Hyde to wince a little bit. He quickly gives Jackie a knowing look and she smirks. Just like her mother is what he means to say with that look. Jackie nods.
"I'm going to finish making lunch" she says. Hyde nods his head and looks back at Lauren while Lucas is sitting on the floor in front of Hyde playing with the yellow train.
Almost twenty minutes later, Jackie feels a pair of arms snaking their way around her waist. She turns to come face to face with Steven Hyde. "What are you making?" he asks before looking over her shoulders and observing the pots on the stove.
"Pasta and some meatballs" she replied and wiggled out of his embrace to grab some bread to toast.
"Who would have thought, Jackie Burkhart would be able to make a meal. This from the girl who refused to touch an egg" he says jokingly.
"And as you can see, no eggs to this day."
Hyde smirks and walks over to a stool near the refrigerator.
"How are things at work going? What ever happened to that Drew guy?"
"He's still there, making everyone miserable as usual" Jackie says, speaking about her new supervisor at the broadcast station who, despite only being 24 and getting the job because he knows the show runner's son, thinks he knows more than everyone around him.
"He won't last long, guys like him never do" Hyde reassures her.
"Here's hoping, no one is sure they can make it another three weeks without strangling him. How are things at the store?"
"Same as usual. I was actually thinking of expanding. Things have gotten a bit slow lately. Not too many people buying records anymore so I was thinking we could sell cassette tapes, videos, maybe have local artists perform once a week. What do you think?"
"I think that's smart" she says as she walks over to the refrigerator to get some apple juice for the kids.
"I think having a relaunch of the store would be cool, have a few bands play, redesign the place maybe. Maybe you can even get the station to cover it, maybe pitch it as a local business expanding."
"I'll talk to them about it, no promises though" Jackie responds.
Hyde nods his head silently and watches as she walks around the kitchen preparing lunch for their little family. "Have you heard from anyone interested about buying your parent's house yet?" he asks.
Jackie put her childhood home on the market a few months prior, officially severing all ties to her parents who she hadn't seen in years. After having her own children, she realized that no decent parent would do what her parents did with her and in an effort to truly have a clean new slate, she decided to sell the house and put the money towards a college fund for when the kids were old enough.
"There is a guy who seems really interested but wants to walk through with a contractor to make sure the foundation and wiring is in order before making an offer" she says.
"That's smart" Hyde responds.
"Yeah, we're meeting with him Sunday and see where it takes us."
"How do you feel about it?" Hyde asks.
"Relieved really, hopefully we can close with him and it'll be one less headache."
"You wouldn't miss it?"
"I hadn't been there in years. If it weren't for me selling it, I still would not have set foot inside. It isn't filled with happy memories Steven."
"I know Jackie" Hyde says and walks over to her. He grabs one of her hands and squeezes it. She smiles and gently pulls her hand away to continue fixing lunch.
"Do you want me to go with you Sunday?" he asks.
"No, I'll be alright" she responds.
"It's a little quiet out there, I'm going to go check what those two are up to" Hyde says. Jackie smiles and nods her head.
A short moment later, the foursome sits in the small dining table, the kids talking more than they are eating.
"And Katie invited me to her sleepover but momma said I couldn't go. Dad, tell her I can go" Lo says to her father.
"Why did your mom say no?" Hyde asks, glancing over at Jackie who just shakes her head.
"I don't know, she just said no" Lo says and pouts, the famous pout she inherited from her mother, the one that can get anyone to say yes to her minimum requests.
"She didn't give you a reason?" Hyde continues, having already had the conversation with Jackie.
"Weeeellll, she did say Katie's parents fight a lot and didn't want me to see" Lo cracks.
"Weellll," Hyde mocks his daughter, "I have to agree with your mom."
Lucas points and laughs at his sister's failed attempt at getting a new answer that earns him a menacing glare from his sister.
"That's not fair" Lo whines.
"That's life" Lucas says, repeating a line his father says too often. Now it's Jackie who looks over at Hyde and glares at him for teaching her son the phrase. Hyde shrugs and winks at Jackie, secretly loving how much his son is like him.
"Whatever" Lo mumbles under her breath and Jackie can't help but see how much their kids resemble her and Hyde. They are both the perfect combination of the two of them, every great and frustrating part of them.
"How's soccer practice going Lucas?" Hyde asks changing the subject and immediately, the little boy goes on a rant about the "awesomeness" that is his soccer team.
After lunch, the kids run off to the room they share to play leaving Jackie and Hyde to clean up the dishes and have some time alone.
"They're really something aren't they?" Hyde asks, never getting over how incredible their kids were. In countless moments he has spent with them, he can never comprehend how they were able to create and raise these two perfect humans after everything they had gone through as kids with their own parents. Watching their mannerisms and overhearing some of their innocent conversations, he can't help but feel like the luckiest guy in the world. When he found out he was going to be a father for the first time, he was terrified. He almost fell into his old habit of running away and not dealing with the situation, but he couldn't do that to Jackie and he didn't want to be like his own father. He was going to make sure to given this kid everything he and Jackie never had as kids, so he stuck around and every day he is thankful he did because he wouldn't change this feeling for anything.
"They are pretty great, but I'm biased" Jackie responds.
"Hey, do you want to talk about things? I know things haven't been that great between us lately but I think we should talk before things start changing" starts Hyde.
"Things have already changed."
"I mean before they change permanently," Hyde tells her.
"How sure are we that this is permanent? Weren't they supposed to be permanent the first time around?" she says, a slightly sarcastic tone in her voice.
"Don't do that Jackie. I thought we agreed not to keep rehashing things between us."
"It's a little hard to not do so under the circumstances don't you think? Think about how you would feel if the tables were turned and you were the one in my position. What then?"
"I would try to be happy for you" Hyde says solemnly.
"I didn't say I wasn't trying to be happy for you, I just said it was hard."
"I know it's hard. I'm sorry."
"You've said that before" Jackie replies as she walks to the kitchen. He silently follows and watches as she places the dishes in the sink.
"I can't really say it enough can I?"
"After some time it starts to lose any meaning honestly. I'd rather you stop apologizing for something that we can no longer change."
"Jackie, I just don't want things between us to be strained moving forward."
"Steven, we're doing the best we can for our kids and right now we're going through a rough patch but we've gotten through worst times. Things will be alright."
"I hope so" is all he says. Jackie turns to look at him and offers him a small smile to reassure him that she harbors no ill will towards him and that she cares about him.
"So," Jackie asks, "have you two set a date yet?"
Author's Note: So the ending should not come as a surprise to those of you who have read some of my other stories. Lord knows I can almost never let these two be happy even though I am an avid JH shipper. I hope it was still enjoyable and don't forget to review! 'Til next time