The Accident

The plastic wrapping on the flower stems were beginning to make his hand sweat. Why the hell had he brought flowers anyway? It's not like flowers could heal the aftermath of a brutal car accident. Nothing could heal that, except maybe time travel. Why, oh why had he let her run to the store alone? What kind of an asshole was he anyway? She had whined and complained about having to go, and he had waved her away, reminding her that she was the one who wanted cookie dough, not him. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.
"Mr. Hyde?" A nurse entered the waiting room, her eyebrows raised. "Are you Miss Burkhart's next-of-kin?"
She was obviously referring to how young he was. Her eyebrows remained her arch, her lips pursed. Steven nodded, standing up. "Her father's in jail," he explained. "And she hasn't seen her mother in three years."
"Who does she live with?" The nurse raised her pen to her clipboard, ink at the ready.
"She lives with me," he replied, more hesitantly. It wasn't entirely true. She still had her unecessarily large house, but it was lonely, so she spent less time in her queen-sized bed and more time on his old, worn-out stacked mattresses. He peered past the nurse, towards the hallway where Jackie was somewhere tucked away, her condition unknown. "How is she?"
As if on cue, a doctor appeared behind the nurse. He held out his hand and the nurse handed him her clipboard. He scratched the back of his ear and hemmed and hawed. Steven drummed his fingertips against the sides of his jeans. "Hey, Man," he sighed. "I've been here for three hours now and haven't heard a thing about her. Is she alright?"
"Jacqueline's condition is uncertain at this point," the doctor finally said. "She's suffered a severe head injury, and as of right now, she's unresponsive, but breathing on her own."
"You mean...like, brain-dead?" Steven felt his heart skip a beat.
"We doubt that," the doctor continued. "But we have no idea how badly her brain's been bruised." He sighed and asked, "Would you like to come and see her?"
Steven didn't have to answer. He was already at the end of the hallway, waiting for the medical workers to move ahead of him so they could lead him to his precious Jackie. They arrived at a door and the nurse opened it. It took Steven a moment to realize a figure in a bed was Jackie. Her face was lifeless, covered in bruises and scrapes. Her bottom lip was busted. Her head was bandaged, and tufts of dark chocolate poked out. They had shaved an area. The doctor pulled a chair up to the bed and motioned for him to sit down.
"She's very lucky," he explained. "The way the two vehicles collided, it's amazing she wasn't completely crushed."
"Who hit who?" Steven asked flatly, looking the lifeless girl in the bed up and down.
"Drunk driver hit her," the nurse spoke up. "He hit her head on, and it seems as if she tried to swerve just a few seconds too late."
"Where is he?" Steven brushed his fingers against her scratched hand.
"He didn't make it," the doctor said quietly. "He was pronounced dead at the scene."
The doctor tugged at the nurse and they left the room. Steven continued to stroke Jackie's hand, and then he leaned down and kissed it, repeatedly. His lips brushed over each of her knuckles, some crusted with dried blood. She was naturally petite, but lying in the hospital bed, she looked ridiculously tiny. He looked away from her and wiped at his eyes.
"Hey, Jacks," he whispered, turning back. "I'm here." He scooted the chair around to be closer to her head. He kissed her cheek. "It's your puddin' pop."
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Over the next three months, it became a regular routine to go visit the unconscious Jackie. A couple of times, the gang had gone, but Steven mostly went alone. The others understood, even Kelso, who rarely picked up on anything. On the first day of the third month, Steven arrived with a vase of flowers, and dropped them when he walked through the door. Glass, greenery, and water went everywhere. Jackie was sitting up, her eyes open. She looked around the room, her dark eyes taking in everything.
"Jackie?" Steven took a step forward. He grinned, and felt stupid when his eyes became warm and wet. "Jackie!"
He raced over to the bed and knelt down, grabbing her hands. "Oh, God, Jackie! I don't even know-"
"Steven?" Her brows furrowed. "What are you doing here?"
He wiped at his eyes, chuckling and swallowing sobs at the same time. "It's a long story, Babe. Do you remember anything?"
" 'Babe'?" Jackie frowned. "Where's Michael?"
Steven's brows furrowed a bit. "Um, Jackie...Kelso moved to Washington a year ago, remember?" It suddenly hit him that the doctor had informed him that the bruising to her brain could have done a number on her memories and thought process. "You were in an accident," he explained softly. "The doc said you might have a rough time remembering things for a while."
Jackie looked down at the thin hospital blanket. "So, Michael and I aren't together anymore? Is that what you're trying to tell me?" She shook her head. "Where's Donna? I want her to explain things to me!" She started to get up, but Hyde placed one hand to her chest and gently took her arm with the other. "Wait, wait, wait. Calm down."
"Don't touch me!" Jackie ripped her hand away. "Get me Donna!"
"How much do you remember?" Steven frowned. " Jackie, you and Michael haven't been together for, like, five years now?" He tried to laugh it off, but he was starting to get scared.
" 'Five years'?" Jackie repeated, smiling as if she didn't believe him. "Steven, that's ridiculous! I'm only sixteen."
"Jackie." He leaned foward, placing his knitted fingers under his chin. "Jackie, you're twenty."
Her face paled. "How long have I been out?"
"Just for three months," he replied. "You were, um, going to the store to get cookie dough, and some drunken asswipe crashed into you."
"Where are my parents?" He hated to hear her voice, which was usually so proud and confident, become so small and afraid.
He looked down and then back up at her. "Your father's been in prison for three years now, and your mom, well...we're not really sure where she is."
Jackie's breathing changed. She sounded shaky. "So my parents are gone, Michael's gone...who...where do I live?"
Steven tried to place his hand over hers, but she jerked it away. "You live with me," he explained quietly. "We've been together for four years."
-------

"She cried?" Donna repeated, balling up Eric's shirt and tossing it in one of the laundry baskets. "Just because she found out you two are together?"
"It's gotta be a hard realization to come to terms with," Eric joked with a straight face and Donna tossed another shirt right at him. She turned to Steven, who sat on their couch, sipping a soda.
"So what'd you do?" She asked. "I mean, when she started blubbering?"
"She asked me to leave and I did," he said, shrugging. "I mean, what else could I do?"
"She just needs time, Man," Eric said. "You've been nothing but a great boyfriend to her."
Steven scoffed. "Yah, that's what landed her in the hospital in the first place. I was too much of a gentlemen to go out and buy her cookie dough myself." He closed his eyes. "I will never forgive myself for that."
"Sure you will," Donna said, sitting beside him. "Nobody ever expects to drive around the block and be hit by another car."
"So she thinks she's sixteen?" Eric asked. "She thinks we're all still in high school?
"As far as she's concerned," Steven agreed. "I just hate to see her cry, you know?"
"It has to be scary," Donna explained. "I mean, just imagine if you woke up like she did, and you had no idea it was four years later."
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The following day, Steven went to the hospital with an armful of Jackie's favorite things: Chocolate almonds, her worn-out teddybear, an ABBA cassette, a coconut milkshake, and her favorite pink fleece blanket. He entered the room and was slightly relieved to see her dressed, sitting cross-legged on the hospital bed. She looked up at him and slammed a book shut.
"Why are you here?" she asked.
"I just thought you'd hate some chocolate and ABBA," he joked weakly. He set the items down in the guest chair and moved closer. "Come on, Jacks. I know this is all scary, but everything's gonna be fine, I swear."
" 'Fine'?" Anger flashed in the girl's eyes. "I'm dating you! I'm twenty years old! My parents abandoned me! I have a huge scar on the side of my head! What part of any of that sounds fine to you?!"
"I see you're as charming as ever," Steven grinned. "It will be fine, Jackie. You'll get your memories back-"
"I repeat, I'm dating you! I would never trade Michael for you!"
"You didn' t trade," Steven tried to keep the annoyance out of his voice. "I didn't even want to date you. You wanted to date me, and then I decided that I did want to date you, and then we dated, and then we..." he trailed off, his face heated.
"And then we...?" Jackie cocked an eyebrow skeptically. "Ohmygod! If you say we had a baby I am going throw myself out that window!"
"They took it away b/c you had to be sterile," Steven said, clearing his throat. "Look at your finger."
Jackie looked down at her hands, her eyes studying in each finger. Her gaze fell to the third finger on her left hand, where a pale line of skin crossed over the rest of the tanned. A ring had been there.
"We're married?" She whispered.
"Engaged," Steven corrected. "We're going to get married next Spring."
Jackie frowned at him. "I'm not marrying you!"
"Look." He stood up. "I know you hate me now, because you hated me then, but we're in love, and we're going to get married."
Jackie scowled even harder. "Really? And what makes you think that?"
"Because I bought you a stupid four-thousand dollar wedding gown," Steven replied. "And because I love you."
"I don't love you," she retorted, crossing her arms. "Maybe I got this head injury for a reason. Maybe it was a sign that I shouldn't have been such an idiot to get together with a moron like you."
" You call me Puddin' Pop," Steven sneered, his eyebrows raised.
"You're poor," Jackie told him coldly.
"When I proposed to you, you started bawling like a baby," he replied.
"I was probably devistated," she said, looking away.
"You're gonna remember me," Steven said. "And if you don't, then you're going to fall in love with me all over again."
"We'll see." Her smile was sweet, but her voice was anything but.
"Mmhmm." Before she could move or protest, Steven moved forward and pecked her on the lips. "I'll see you tomorrow, Sweetness."
Just as he closed the door, she threw a pillow at it, screaming in rage.

To Be Continued...