A/N: Hello, everyone! This is the first big story that I post on the fandom, so I'm really excited about it. The idea came out to me a couple of weeks ago when I was brooding about one particular character in the show, then this first chapter was born. I'll be updating every Friday night, so stay tuned. Hope you enjoy the reading!

EDIT: If you're a new reader, welcome and I'd still love to hear your thoughts throughout the story! :)

Disclaimer: I don't own any of That 70's Show characters.


CHAPTER 01

SAVE ME

It was a clear night in Point Place. Jackie and her group of girlfriends from work walked through the streets of downtown after hours of dancing and having fun at the most recently opened club in town.

After walking three blocks away from the club, the little click was startled by the door of a nearby bar opening loudly when a big guy harshly shoveled a drunken costumer out to the parking lot. He yelled for him to never come back, while the young man tottered towards his car – a black El Camino which Jackie recognized immediately.

"Steven…" She mumbled as she stopped on her tracks, making her friends look puzzled at her.

"What?" One of them asked.

"Uh, you can go without me. I have to help him." Jackie shook her head, turning to her friends with an anxious face.

"Jackie, are you crazy? He seems out of his mind." Another one said grabbing her arm, worried about her friend's safety.

"No, no. He's a friend." The brunette said, already walking towards her ex-boyfriend. "Thanks for the night, girls."

The clicking of her high heel boots echoed through the almost empty parking lot as she jogged on Steven's direction. He was already by his car, trying unsuccessfully to stick the key into the keyhole.

"Steven, what are you doing?" Jackie's small voice startled Hyde, making him tilt his head towards her.

"I, uh… keys…" He mumbled, not able to form a coherent sentence due to the amount of alcohol in his system.

Mercy and pity took hold of Jackie's face as she noticed how drunk he was. Deciding it was a bad idea to let him drive in such a deplorable condition, she cautiously approached him and took the keys out of his wobbly hands.

Hyde looked at her with the saddest face she'd ever seen and opened his mouth to say something, but was quickly cut out by an acid taste rising up from his stomach. Despite the slow reflex, he managed to turn around in time to throw up away from his ex-girlfriend. Worried, Jackie hurried and rubbed his back gently, attempting to soothe his nerves and show that she was there for him.

By the time, the bar door opened once more, displaying another strong angry man who began to yell right away. "Where is he?!" He stepped furiously towards Hyde, but Jackie quickly interfered, standing up and raising her hands in front of her, as an attempt to make the guy stop on his tracks.

"Back off, okay?" She yelled at him, more furious than the strong man would expect for a so tiny girl to be. "He's sick, for God's sake. Just get back and let me take care of this, Brutus."

Other two guys hurried to pull him back inside the bar before he could advance towards Jackie. "You're lucky you're woman, you bitch! Otherwise you'd be in a worse condition than your friend is."

Jackie didn't bother the insult. After all, it was only a stupid drunk bully thinking he's a badass. For a moment, she was amused to think that Steven got into trouble with a guy three times his size. That's a real badass.

"Come on, Steven. Let's go home." Jackie tried to pull him up and led his sluggish body to the passenger seat of the El Camino, sitting at the driver's seat then. Reaching over, she rolled the passenger window down so Steven could breathe some fresh air as they headed his home. Resting his head on the side of the car, he felt the cool breeze break into his nostrils, giving him a little bit of relief from the nausea.

"How do you know where I live, Jackie?" He asked sleepy, not even opening his eyes.

"I've been there lots of times, remember?"

The corner of his lips lifted up on a wicked smirk. "Oh yeah… in a sexy nightgown."

Jackie grimaced and looked quickly at the drunken boy. "What? No! I've been there for dinner with Donna, Fez, Eric…"

"Yeah, in a sexy nightgown," he insisted, still smiling, which made her chuckle. No point of arguing with a drunken person. That would've probably been a sexy dream he had about her. Huh. Thinking about it… that's interesting.

The El Camino reached Hyde's parking lot about 10 minutes later and Jackie quickly hopped off to help Steven. "Come on, baby. You gotta help me here. I can't carry you all the way up by myself," she said, as Hyde put an arm around her shoulders for support.

"You called me baby," he said with a goofy smile, making her laugh again. He was such a dork when drunk, but still adorable.

"Shut up, Steven. I'm just trying to be nice. Now use your legs, or I'll leave you here in the parking lot."

Once inside Hyde's apartment, Jackie led him to the bathroom and sat him down on the toilet seat, checking him out for a few moments. His face and hands were all bruised and cut, showing that he'd had a tough time at that bar.

"Why do you do this to yourself, baby?" She cupped his beaten face inside her tiny hands and rubbed his cheeks with the tips of her thumbs. Something really bad must've happened to him so he would go out alone and get wasted that badly. Hyde's eyes closed lazily by the gentle touch of his former lover, pressing his cheeks further into her hands. Tonight, he really needed some comfort, and it was nice to be taken care of, especially by her.

Jackie smiled to see him relaxing under her touch just like when they were together. Since that blonde bimbo left Hyde, they managed to stay friends as far as possible. They still hung out at the same places and she'd even been to his place a few times with the gang for drinks and dinner. However, they hadn't had much physical contact till this moment, and it felt good to know that she still had this effect on him.

Deciding that he was still too dazed, Jackie walked to the shower, regulating its water to a tepid temperature. "A shower will make you feel better, Steven. Strip down and get in here so I can take care of your cuts then. You look awful."

"But you'll see me naked," he whined, feigning shame.

"As I haven't seen you naked like a million times," she said between chuckles and reached for the hem of his shirt to help him strip. He still looked good, she thought, but it was no time to think about that. Next, she crouched down and took his boots off, leaving him only in his pants. "You can keep your underwear on if you prefer that way. I'll be back in a few minutes." Hyde clumsy stood up and took off his pants. Then Jackie helped him get into the shower and left the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

An amazing feeling spread over Hyde's body as he entered under the warm shower. How come did I get that drunk? It's been months that he hadn't been that wasted, and he knew why he did tonight. As he regained some of his senses, he silently thanked God – or whatever – for Jackie finding him in the middle of the night. He would've probably done something even more stupid and dangerous than fighting a guy in a bar if she hasn't shown up.

A couple of minutes later, he saw her small hand stick into the shower box holding a toothbrush. Her attentiveness to the minor details made him smile, so he grabbed it from her hands and began to wash his mouth, which still got an unpleasant taste of bile.

Finishing the invigorating shower, he stepped onto the fluffy bathroom rug Mrs. Forman had given to him when he moved into this apartment, and began to dry himself up. On the sink counter, a pile of neatly folded jammies waited for him. As he finished putting them on, he heard a knock on the door.

"Steven, are you feeling okay?" Jackie's voice asked from the other side of the door. He opened it up and found her preoccupied eyes staring right at him.

"Better, but not completely okay." He scowled a little bit, as his fingers rubbed his temples. He was already feeling this huge headache coming up, but sobriety hadn't arrived completely.

"Come lay down." Jackie pulled Hyde by the hand and laid him down on his bed, handing him a glass of water and some Aspirin. She reached for the medicines on his nightstand and began to take care of his bruises. "Are you gonna tell me now what were you thinking of when you decided to get into a fight?"

"I was drunk."

"No kidding," she said sarcastically, making him chuckle, but soon he got serious again. Taking a deep breath, Hyde gathered some courage to tell her the truth – possibly because of the remaining alcohol running through his veins. He needed to confide it to someone.

"I got a letter from Edna this afternoon. She found out I'm working with WB now and asked for some fucking money."

Jackie was speechless. Steven had never heard about his mom after she left, and she could imagine how angry he might've been to learn that the only reason she wanted to contact him was because of money, something he'd never had his entire life till now.

Deciding that she had to say something to break the awkward silence, the brunette managed to ask "How did she found out about that?"

"Apparently, she lives in Vegas now and coincidentally met the hell of my fake ex-wife who told her everything about my current life," Steven explained, clearly getting angry with the subject.

Jackie's eyes grew wide. That bitch! Not only had she turned her life into a living hell, but now she wanted to screw Steven's too. Silence took over the room for a while, interrupted only by a feel whimpers when an alcohol moistened cotton stung Hyde's cut skin.

"Have you figured out what are you gonna do?"

"No. I thought that drinking half of Craig's Bar booze would help me out about that, but I guess I was just wrong."

Jackie smiled sadly. "If it makes you feel any better, my mom also asked me for money before she left for Mexico last month," she tried, but knowing it wasn't the same situation. Pam still came back every year to spend some time with her daughter, and she always called back when in Mexico, even if it was only to remind Jackie how she would never be as flawless as her mother.

Steven's face didn't lose any trace of anger. In fact, he seemed more pissed than before. "We've got the worst mothers in the whole world."

"We do, but we don't have to be like them, you know. We're better than that," she said with a small smile and put the medicines back on the nightstand. "I guess I'm done here. You need some rest now."

The brunette looked down at her ex-boyfriend and noticed that he was staring back at her. His drunken eyes looked sad, breaking her heart once again. One of her hands caressed his scruffy cheek for a few moments before motioning to stand up, but Hyde was faster and reached for her hand, pulling her to lie beside him.

"Steven!" She squealed and laughed, attempting to get rid of his hold.

"Just for a few minutes," he asked softly, quieter than she'd ever heard him since they broke up the last time. She could feel he was miserable and vulnerable. He just needed some comfort, something she could never deny to a friend – even if her ways were kinda odd sometimes.

"Just for a few minutes," she repeated before taking her boots off and climbing under the covers with the once love of her life. Resting her back on the headboard, she let Steven cozily snuggle to her stomach, as if she was still his chick. Her fingers tangled in his damp hair, massaging his scalp for several minutes, before she felt his breathing slow down.

"Thanks, Jackie," was the last thing she heard coming from his slurred voice before she also drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, Hyde woke up with a tremendous headache. The curtains in his bedroom were thankfully closed, preventing the crashing sunlight to worsen the pain. Through his blurred vision, he noticed he was alone – no sign of Jackie –, but a glass of water, some aspirin and a note waited for him on the nightstand.

Steven,

I took your car to come back home. Sorry about that, but I'll bring it back by noon, promise. You'll probably stay in bed till then if I know you well, so I hope it's not a big deal.

Love, Jackie.

Hyde finished reading with a sleepy smile. She was right. It was still 9am and there was no way he was gonna wake up this early on a Saturday morning. After taking an aspirin, he rolled over and came back to sleep, not even noticing the satisfied smile still placed on his face.

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A/N2: So how was it? Did it catch your attention? If it did, don't forget to follow the story and tell me what you think. I really appreciate your thoughts! Till the next time!