Chapter 2

A.N. Firstly, thank you so much for the overwhelming positive response to the first chapter – I don't think I've ever had so many reviews to a single chapter. Now I'm taking you back 3 months to the beginning of the events that will lead to that explosive wedding.

June 12, 1980, Point Place

"Fez, what do you think you're doing?" Hyde demanded as his foreign friend charged into the basement and reached for the television channel dial. "Don't change the station – we're watching The A-team."

"Yeah," Eric agreed. "I pity the fool that changes that channel."

"Man, who was that supposed to be?" Kelso asked.

"What do you mean? My Mr T impression is dead on!"

"Only if you were doing an impression of Mr T doing an impression of Eric Foreman," Donna said around a mouthful of cheetos. Donna and Eric were visiting for the weekend from college, a frequent occurrence due to Kitty's superlative cooking skills and Donna's lack thereof. Kelso also liked to motor in from Chicago for the occasional weekend, so the gang was almost at full complement on this Saturday morning. All except for one.

"You do not understand, my American friends. Jackie told me I must watch her show today because she has an exciting announcement to make."

"Yeah, sure. Jackie's idea of an exciting announcement is that platform heels are out and flats are in. Although working that headline into a show for preschoolers will be a challenge for her," Eric said.

"I'm still blown away that Jackie has her own show, just like she always wanted," Donna reflected. "Hard to believe that just last year she was sweeping hair in Fez's salon. Now look at her – host of what is fast becoming Wisconsin's leading kid's show."

"Ah, I know," Fez said sadly. "Me, I miss the old desperate Jackie. The one whose self-esteem was so demolished by Hyde that she actually wanted to be my girlfriend."

"Oh, was she ever your girlfriend, Fez?" Hyde said. "I must have blinked and missed it."

"They were the best three days of my life and none of you sons of bitches can take them away from me," Fez declared. "And if Jackie hadn't caught me spying on Eric and Donna having make-up sex on New Years day, there is no telling where we would be right now."

"My guess would be at your trial for her attempted murder," Eric jibed. "No way could someone live with that chatterbox and not be tempted to smother her with a pillow. How did you ever deal with it, Hyde?"

"I had ways of making her – not talk." Hyde said with a quiet smile. In truth, when he and Jackie had been alone together they had usually found better uses for their mouths than talking. Although, looking back, he kind of wished they had talked about certain things more.

"You know, Fez, go ahead and put Jackie's show on," Kelso said suddenly. "That way all the gang will kind of be together in the basement again – just like the old days."

"Yes, it is the only way that will ever happen again, isn't it, Hyde," Fez said accusingly.

"Will you quit laying that guilt trip on me." Hyde's good mood evaporated at Fez's innuendo. "It's Jackie's choice that she won't come to the basement anymore. I had nothing to do with it."

"Well, I wouldn't go that far, Hyde," Donna contributed. "When she and Fez told us they'd broken up, you were pretty damn merciless with your burns."

"Yeah," Eric said. "I mean, I love a good Jackie burn better than most but that crack you made about how she wasn't even woman enough to hold onto a guy who will sleep with any woman regardless of age, shape or species – well, even I winced at that one."

"This is such crap," Hyde said angrily. As the sing-song theme tune to "Happy Hour" floated through the television speaker, his eyes involuntarily strayed to the figure of a smiling Jackie in an orange pinafore-style dress holding a giant sunflower and waving happily at the camera. The cheerful sight only increased his frustration so that he launched himself out of his chair and started pacing the basement. "Jackie and I had been broken up for 5 months before that happened," Hyde reminded. "And in all that time she wouldn't leave. I marry a stripper, she's still here. I say mean things to her on a daily basis, and she's still here. Fez, Kelso and even Donna slobber all over my brainless ditz of a wife, completely ignoring her, and she's STILL here. But then, when things are finally settling down, when Sam is gone and she's come to her senses that Fez is no prince charming, THAT'S when she finally takes a freakin' HINT and leaves!" Suddenly Hyde realised all his friends were staring at him in amazement. "What?"

"Oh my God!" Donna cried. "That's why you were so awful to her! That's why you stayed with Sam! You were trying to drive her away!"

"What? No. I never cared about her one way or the other," Hyde scoffed, sinking back into his chair.

"Hyde, you haven't seen her in person for 6 months and still just the sight of her dancing with a giant purple teddy bear – " Donna gestured toward the screen where Jackie was indeed jitterbugging with a man in a bear suit – "- makes you go into one of your melt-down rants. Face it, zenmaster, she is still under your skin."

"I always said she was like a tick," Hyde growled. But his eyes were captivated by the television again as Jackie picked up a guitar. She gently stroked some chords from the guitar and sang a song which celebrated the cleverness of having ten fingers and ten toes. It took him back to a time long ago when she had been hanging out in his bedroom.

Show me how to play the guitar, Steven. How do you make a B chord?

Her hands were small, she had trouble reaching all the strings.

Well then, what if I sit on your lap… like so and you put your fingers on the strings I can't reach… that's right. Now we can make beautiful music together.

He had gotten pretty sappy with her that day. But she had always been able to talk him into anything, luring him one step further away from his "cool" zone; or comfort zone; when it came down to it, it was all the same thing. Then one day he found himself in a place he had no business being, flying without a safety net. That was when she shot him down out of the sky, back in that Chicago hotel room.

"You guys should be thanking me," Hyde said, crossing his arms defensively over his chest. "If I am the reason she left, then I did you all a public service. None of you wanted her around. You were always telling her to get lost."

"C'mon, Hyde, it's not like we ever really meant it," Eric replied. "That was just our thing with Jackie. Like the way you guys kid me about being a geek, and we rag on Kelso for being stupid; Fez is a perv, Donna's a tomboy and Jackie's annoying. But we don't really mean anything by it."

"It is not the basement without her," Fez sighed.

"Well, at least you still have contact with her," Donna griped at Fez. "The last time Jackie got together with me I had to make an appointment with her – and then it was only half an hour for a cappuccino and some small talk and she was out of there. She didn't even gossip about how slutty the other girls in the café were. Some best friend!"

"Oh, is she your best friend again?" Hyde snarked. "What, now that my pseudo-wife is out of the picture you just expected to gloss over how you dumped Jackie for her worst enemy and you two would be hunky-dory again? Dream on, Donna!"

"I didn't dump Jackie," Donna objected hotly. "I was just trying to stay neutral in that whole mess YOU created. By being both Sam and Jackie's friend, I wasn't taking a side."

"Donna, you may be at the top of your journalism classes at Madison," Fez said, "but when it comes to being a good girlfriend, I have to tell you that even the Stupid Helmet is too good for you."

"You should listen to Fez," Kelso said earnestly. "He knows a lot about being a good girlfriend to Jackie."

"Thank you, amigo."

"Hey guys, clam up," Eric broke in before Donna could throw something at Fez. "I think Jackie is gearing up for her big announcement. Turn the volume up, Fez."

"…but before I return to the land of the pixies, there is something I need to share with all of you boys and girls out there," Jackie said importantly as she looped her hand through the arm of an unconvincing giant purple teddy bear. "I am afraid next Friday will be the last show for Bernie the Bear and me hear at Wisconsin's WKX. But not to worry because "Happy Hour" is not ending, it has just found a new home – in Chicago! So make sure you get mommy and daddy to ask Mr Cable Guy to pay a visit so we can keep playing together thanks to a magical thing we grown-ups call syndication!" Bouncing excitedly, Jackie waved goodbye as the credits rolled over her beaming face.

"Wow," Kelso breathed. "Jackie's moving to Chicago for a fantastic career opportunity in television. OK, who else is feeling freaked out by the déjà vu?"

"Tell me about it," Fez agreed. "Any minute now I'm expecting Eric to leave for Africa."

"Oh no, not that again," Eric said, hand gestures in full force. "They had insects so big the only thing you could use against them was a machete."

"Hyde? Hyde! Are you OK?" Donna asked as she observed her friend's frozen face.

"It's happening again," Hyde murmured to himself. "She's leaving me again."

"Leaving you? Hyde, you guys have been broken up for almost a year."

"But I always thought… I mean, we live in the same town, we have the same friends. I figured sooner or later we'd get past it all and…"

"Go back to how it used to be?" Kelso shook his head. "I remember when I used to think that way. Took me a long time before I could accept it was really over, that I'd never get another chance."

"No! It's not the same! It was different for me and Jackie," Hyde cried. "It went deeper. All this stuff that's happened between us, that's on the surface. But underneath it all, we're still like… connected."

"What are you saying, Hyde? You think you can get her back?" Kelso said with astonishment. He looked at Fez and the two of them burst out laughing. "Yeah, good luck with that."

"Shut up!" Hyde was incensed, especially when Eric and Donna joined in the laughter. "You morons think you know everything – you don't even know the real reason why Jackie suddenly latched onto Fez the way she did." His mind flash backed to the day when he had to decide what to do about Sam's extra husband. That day had marked the first real confrontation that he and Jackie had shared since their break up. The memory of the outcome of that meeting sent a chill through him and it reminded him that these days Jackie did not follow her heart. She no longer trusted that unreliable organ.

Now every decision Jackie made, she had to see the percentage in it. It hurt him that he was the cause of this change. Part of the reason why he had tried to drive her away was because he thought if she was not around him she would have a chance to heal and go back to the carefree Jackie he used to know, the one whose biggest problem was matching her shoes to her handbag. Yet from the tales his friends brought back about his ex, that was not the case. These days Jackie had distanced herself from all of them, especially Donna. Fez and Kelso still had a special place in her heart, but even they complained that she was more focused on advancing her career than sharing in burns or finding a new boyfriend. Not that he really wanted that to happen, but it would at least be a sign that Jackie was returning back to her old self.

"This isn't working," he said, mainly to himself. "She's not better off without me and I'm… it's just not working."

"Hyde, give it up. Even if you wanted to make a pitch to Jackie, she wouldn't let you get anywhere near her," Donna discouraged. She was still miffed with Hyde for implying she had not been the best of friends to Jackie.

"She's right, Man. You're public enemy number one for Jackie. She won't even let us talk about you to her," Eric added. "And anyhow, if she's moving to Chicago, what kind of future would you have? Take it from me, long distance relationships are more trouble than they're worth." Donna looked at her boyfriend through slitted eyes before slapping him upside the head. "Ow! Sweetie, I wasn't talking about you and me! You know my heart stayed true all the time, no matter what I wrote. Lambchop? Love Muffin?" Donna continued with the slitty eyes. "Oh crap."

"You know, if Jackie is moving to Chicago, it seems to me she should have a going away party," Hyde meditated.

"She won't willingly come to any party you'll be at," Kelso objected.

"A surprise going away party," Hyde finished. "Yes, that should do it."

"Oh man, this is going to be the best party ever," Fez grinned. "It is all too rare for me to see Hyde go down in flames."

"I'll bring the marshmallows and we'll roast them over him as he burns," Kelso said gleefully.

"You know, I think Hyde does have a shot," Eric said. "I mean him and Jackie were pretty intense when they were together. Plus Jackie does have a track record of taking back undeserving boyfriends."

"Twenty bucks says she kicks him to the kerb," Kelso challenged, extending a hand to Eric.

"Done!" Eric agreed, slapping his hand against Kelso's.

"Quit it, morons. This is serious. I swear, Kelso, if you do anything to mess this up for me, it will take more than one punch to say what I need this time. In fact, I reckon my fists will be getting real chatty – all over your face."

And with that final threat, Hyde went into his bedroom. As he leaned against his bedroom door, he exhaled a deep breath. He was finally going to listen to that annoying voice inside his head that had been on his case for the past 11 months. This time he would tell her all the things he should have said before. This time he would ask her to stay.