I do not own that 70s Show.
The gang looked up when Sam walked in. Hyde raised an eyebrow looking at her choice of clothes. Only Sam could think of wearing a tank top and shorts when it was almost winter in Wisconsin. Not that he was complaining. Now that he was rid of Jackie, he could go back to being the cool and carefree Hyde who cared about only beer, film, sex and his El Camino. And there was plenty of sex with a stripper for a wife. So what if sometimes, ok all the time, when he was pumping furiously into Sam, images of making love to Jackie would pop up in his mind. That was to be expected after spending two years with the brunette.
He heard Jackie scoff, probably at Sam's clothes, but he didn't turn to look at her. In fact they both had neither looked nor directly talked to each other since Sam had showed up and that had been almost a month ago. Hyde found it easier to pretend he was satisfied with his life when he didn't have to see the hurt that would surely be in Jackie's eyes. Pretend nothing is wrong and you will believe it, number one rule in Steven Hyde's guide to survive a broken heart. Not that Jackie had broken his heart or anything, no he just had a bruised ego.
"Hey baby" Sam came towards him and bent forward so he got an eyeful of her bountiful breasts "I'm sorry I have been busy working this week and we haven't got much time together, but I don't have to go to work until this evening, so how about I give my man a personal strip tease?" Hyde grinned, yeah if there was one thing that could get his mind off Jackie, how it had landed back on her in the first place he had no clue, it was a striptease followed by sex, rough and hard, just like he liked it. He didn't make love to his wife, he fucked her. But with a stripper he hardly knew for a wife, love wasn't a part of the equation anyways.
"Yeah, you go on in and wait for me, I'll be right there" he said to her, patting her butt and directing her towards his bedroom. He stood up and looked at his friends, avoiding Jackie of course, smirking at them before turning towards his room. A tiny sound suddenly made him turn back and without thinking his eyes sought Jackie, he knew nobody else had even heard her because they all were still staring at the television. He would recognise that sound anywhere, it was the sound she made when she was trying very hard not to cry. When Jackie had been staying with him after her father was arrested, he had woken up many a times hearing Jackie's almost inaudible whimpers. Steven Hyde was a heavy sleeper, beer and film did that to a guy, but should the brunette even mumble in her sleep and he would wake up immediately to check on her. For a moment a pang hit Hyde's chest but when he looked at her face his heart dropped into his stomach and the pang was the least of his problems.
Jackie was sitting on the lawn chair, holding onto its sides so hard her knuckles were white and had her eyes shut tight. He could tell she was trying hard to control herself but her bottom lip was wobbling dangerously and he knew she was close to bursting into tears. All of a sudden, breathing became hard for Hyde. It was easy pretending when he was ignoring Jackie, but seeing her like this, he suddenly realized what he had done to the girl whose only fault was that she had loved him. Without thinking he changed direction and walked towards Jackie instead. Before anybody even knew what was happening he had pulled Jackie out of her chair and was leading her out to the basement stairs, encountering little resistance from the girl who was not shivering ever so slightly. As soon as he had closed the door behind them , he heard a loud thud indicating his snooping friends but he had more important things on his mind.
Leading Jackie to rest her back on the wall, he immediately engulfed her in his arms. By this time the shock factor of having Steven acknowledge her existence had passed and Jackie immediately began pushing him off her. The more she pushed the harder he held on till finally he looked her clearly in the eyes and Jackie immediately stopped. For looking back at her was the Steven she had loved and assumed dead post the stripper wife's entrance. This wasn't the guy who had told her to have a good trip, this wasn't even the guy who had showed up at her hotel in Chicago, this was the guy who had sat up nights with her when she had cried about her mother abandoning her. This was the guy who had looked her in the eye and told her she was beautiful when they had made love for the first time at the reservoir, the guy who had struggled to meet her eyes when he had told her about the nurse.
Unable and unwilling to resist anymore she clung to him fiercely, letting out all the pain that she had been hiding since Chicago and more so since Sam had entered their lives. Just a few feet away but separated by the basement door the gang were all doing their best to avoid each other's eye. Even though they couldn't see anything, the sounds coming from outside pretty much clued them in to what was happening. They could hear Jackie sobbing hard, the sound being slightly muffled against Hyde's chest, while they heard Hyde soothing her with soft words in a tone no one had heard him use before. They had of course been by Jackie's side all this time, helping her cope with her heartbreak, but it was Hyde's reaction that had them feeling ever so guilty. Ever since Sam had shown up, he had appeared nonchalant, claiming to anybody who would listen that he was happy to be rid of the bossy girl and living it up with a stripper willing to entertain all of his kinky demands. If they had walked into the basement to see him watching The Price is Right with an unreadable and faraway expression on his face, they had just attributed it to too much film or too much hot sex with the stripper wife.
Looking back now, they should have realized what was going on. But it was so hard to tell what Hyde was feeling at any given point in time. Only Jackie could tell, she could always tell, however she had stopped looking at him since Sam's arrival. They lost track of how long they had been standing there before they were suddenly alerted by a noise coming from the back of the basement, the gang all turned as one to see Sam walking towards them. "Hey, where is Hyde, I thought he said he would be right in" the clueless blonde said. Thinking quickly, Donna said in a loud voice "Sorry Sam, Hyde had to run to his store, W.B. called him with an emergency, he told me to tell you but we forgot, damn my stupid memory" she concluded with a rather loud bang on the basement door, hoping it had alerted the two clinging to each other just outside. Sam looked at Donna with confusion, turning to the three guys who were all nodding their heads rather enthusiastically. "Whatever" she huffed before turning back to return to her room.