Oh Hell, Why Not

I was looking around and no one has ever written about this pairing. So I figured I'd give it a try. Laurie and Hyde were always sort of nasty to each other. Maybe they did that to cover a different emotion.

Steven Hyde age twenty eight still lived in the Forman's basement. He didn't have to as he could easily afford his own place or actually a couple of houses if he so choose to. Red and Kitty were getting up in age and Hyde figured it wouldn't hurt to hang around and make sure they were doing okay. Sometimes he wondered who enjoyed more Kitty fussing over him all time; him or Kitty.

Smiling Hyde thought about the lives his friends now led. Eric and Donna were married and had two children. One of their children was natural athlete and excelled in every sport, fast and graceful. The other child liked to read and help around the kitchen. Hyde chuckled. The athlete was their daughter and the slight homebody was their son. Hyde knew that Red loved both his grandchildren immensely, but that didn't stop him from walking around muttering and wondering if Buddha was the true God and that he had pissed him off shooting at Japs and now Buddha was exacting his revenge. All Red ever wanted was ballplayer in the family.

Hyde smiled ruefully when he thought of his ex-girlfriend Jackie. Jackie had made good on her vow. She was now a famous actress living in Los Angles. It was sort of a running joke as Jackie was always firing the help till she came upon what she thought was a brilliant idea. Jackie hired Fez as her butler/man servant. After all in all of her dreams that was the role he played and Fez was ecstatic that he could be with his goddess. Initially Fez wanted to work without pay, which Jackie didn't mind till someone explained to her there were laws against that sort of thing. The only catch in that relationship was that Fez was in the country on a student visa, so Jackie had to keep him enrolled in the local junior college; which kept the nosey immigration agents at bay.

Then there was poor Kelso, he married a rich woman almost twice his age and then she lost all her money and he was stuck in Idaho.

Hyde stretched and sighed then reached over to grab the sweaty beer bottle on the coffee table or what passed as a coffee table. He took a long drink and sat the now empty bottle down. Hyde looked at the clock and decided to have another beer while he was burning one and then go to bed.

Leaning back and exhaling slowly Hyde was jarred out of his blissful state by the basement door opening and then being slammed shut. "Oh Crap, I'm busted." Raced through his mind. Fearfully Hyde looked toward the basement door. What he saw shocked him more than if Red was standing there. It was Laurie. Hyde hadn't seen nor heard from her in over five years.

Laurie had an evil grin. "You're busted orphan boy. I wonder what daddy would say if he knew what was going on in his basement."

"What's the matter Laurie; did they run you out of Canada or something?"

Laurie made a face at Hyde. "No Hyde they didn't run me out of anything."

"So why are you here Laurie?"

"Why do you care Hyde? This is my home. I have a right to be here unlike some others I know. I want a hit."

Hyde snarled back. "I don't hit women."

Sighing Laurie replied. "Not hitting me dummy, a hit of your joint."

"You're crazy Laurie. I'd probably catch sixteen different forms of VD by sharing a joint with you."

Walking over Laurie sat beside him on the dilapidated couch. "Hand it over moron, you don't catch VD that way and besides I don't have anything."

"Ah" Hyde replied. Now I know why you're here. They must have run out of penicillin in Canada."

Reaching over Laurie plucked the joint from Hyde's fingers. "Grow up." Then she took a deep drag on the smoldering joint.

Hyde was becoming acutely aware that even with all his dislike of Laurie she was a beautiful woman. The Farah Fawcett hair cut was gone. Her naturally wavy blonde hair was shoulder length. The modest knee length dress Laurie was wearing was now half way up her thighs from reaching across him for the joint. "Damn she has beautiful legs." Hyde thought to himself.

Laurie noticed Hyde staring at her legs. "Like what you see hoodlum boy?" Then she demurely pushed her dress down about two inches. Smiling Laurie passed the joint back to Hyde. "Get me one of those beers Hyde."

Hyde wasn't quite sure he could stand up without drawing unwanted attention to himself. Hyde kept forcing images of crying babies and Miss. Rudinsky, his eleventh grade math teacher who was at least ninety eight years old through his mind. The problem was that images of Laurie's legs were interspaced between those thoughts.

"Come on hoodlum boy, what's the matter? Your ass stuck to the couch?"

One final thought he pictured the time he caught Miss. Rudinsky kissing Mr. Monash the chunky short balding principal solved his problem. Hyde bounded up and took two cold beers out of the fridge he had installed in the basement. He handed one to Laurie and then sat in the chair he used to always sit in. He didn't need to be that close to Laurie again. He didn't need any more of the thoughts that had suddenly sprung into his mind. Hyde reached over to take the joint from Laurie's outstretched hand and then he noticed Laurie's blouse showed off the beginning of cleavage and his eyes wandered down to the fullness below her neckline. This was not good.

The beer and the joint was doing its job, Hyde was relaxed and feeling very mellow. He noticed Laurie looking at him. She was smiling. "What are you staring at witch?"

"You Hyde, you know I'm going to be here for a while. Don't you think we should try and get along?"

Hyde pondered Laurie's last statement. "Why the sudden change of heart. You need money or something?"

Laurie reached over for the joint and took it out of Hyde's outstretched hand." If you're offering I'm not going to say no, but I don't need money."

"I wasn't offering. Laurie, why did you hate me and give me so much grief when we were younger?"

Looking into Hyde's eyes Laurie softly replied. "Who said I hated you? I never hated you."

"You sure have a funny way of not hating me. You did everything to make my life miserable."

Shrugging her shoulders the blonde replied. "Well you were my brother's friend and you took his side. Now I had two of you to contend with. Actually I rather liked you."

"Yeah right Laurie, you had a funny way of showing it."

"Come on Hyde you're all grown up now. Think about it. I could have totally ignored you."

Laurie sighed. "There is a reason one does not ignore a person."

"I don't know what that reason is, but I wish you did ignore me." Hyde looked up waiting for Laurie's reply and had a sudden urge to kiss her.

Standing up Laurie walked to the other side of the room. It was if she wanted to put space between them. Looking at her feet she replied. "I liked you Hyde."

"That's hysterical Laurie; you liked me and carried on with Kelso."

"Oh that. That went a little further than I had intended. I wanted to make you jealous." Laurie looked up and into Hyde's eyes and loudly proclaimed. "This is crap Hyde, I'm not going to sit here and explain myself to you. You don't like me and never have. Since mom and dad aren't here I'm just going to go to my room and get some sleep. I won't bother you again." Laurie turned on her heel and stomped up the stairs.

Hyde shrugged his shoulders and got another beer and sat on the couch. Hyde tuned on the TV and some mindless game show was on. He couldn't concentrate anyway. Little things started jogging his memory. Like the time he found his math homework done. He thought at the time maybe Eric and Donna did it for him as he was too blitzed to do anything. The times he woke up after a bad night and finding two aspirins and a warm beer on his night stand. Then the time he got into his car and found the tank half full after he swore it was empty. Hyde just assumed Kitty or someone was just looking out for him. After a little more thought he realized that the little favors stopped when Laurie moved out.

Hyde had realized but had buried the fact that Laurie had a good heart. She could be a bitch, but he noticed how happy she made Red. They had to co-exist for the time being. There was no reason that he should hold any grudges against her. Ruefully Hyde admitted to himself that he rather liked Laurie. He liked her spunk and her sense of fun, but he had to be true to his best friend Eric and torment her.

Hyde walked to the fridge and took out two cold beers and climbed the stairs to Laurie's room. The door was closed so he knocked. "What do you want Hyde; are here to give me more crap."

"Come on Laurie open up. I want to talk to you." Hyde was met with silence. "I have two cold beers Laurie." he added as an incentive for her to open the door.

The door opened and Hyde heard a loud sucking noise. He then realized it was him. Laurie was standing before him in one of the so called baby doll nighties.

Noticing Hyde staring at her Laurie loudly spoke. "Give me a break Hyde if I was at the beach in a bikini you'd see a lot more than this. Give me the beer."

Speechless Hyde handed he the beer and followed Laurie into the room. "So what do you want to talk about Hyde?"

Hesitantly Hyde started talking. "Laurie, were you telling the truth in the basement? And I have one more question. Did you ever do my math homework?"

"Hyde, are you up here to make fun of me in my one moment of weakness and yes I did your math homework on occasion.

"Why Laurie?"

"I was bored, so you got your answers, now go."

"Laurie I think you did some other things for me. You know, I hate to admit this at this time, but I did have a little crush on you."

Laurie and Hyde stood for several minutes staring at each other till Laurie broke the silence. "This is funny, the whole time you liked me and I liked you and we went out of our ways to make each other miserable. Laurie threw her head back and started laughing. Hyde started laughing with her. Between bouts of laughter Hyde popped a question. "Laurie do you think we could start this over and let's get along?"

Reaching out and putting her hand on Hyde's shoulder Laurie replied. "I think so. It shouldn't be hard. We just have to be kind to each other."

"Look Laurie as a gesture of a peace how would you like to go out for some beers tomorrow, my treat."

Mildly surprised Laurie didn't answer right away. She looked at Hyde and finally spoke "Oh hell, why not?"

Extending his arm Hyde quietly said. "Let's shake on it."

"No Hyde I have a better idea."

Hyde withdrew his arm mildly disappointed Laurie didn't want to shake his hand. "So what's your idea Laurie?"

Smiling Laurie stepped up toe to toe with Hyde." I'd rather kiss on it." Then she slipped her arms around Hyde's neck.

The End.