I had to listen to a lot of bad eighties music in order to write this, you can pay me back with reviews.

1980.

Eric Forman's return to Point Place was not the joyous occasion he had imagined. As he stepped into the basement, he was amazed how much it had changed in the space of a year.

"Hi."

The group looked up and said a half hearted hi, as though he had just been away for a couple hours. Fez finally stood up and hugged Eric.

"Where's Kelso and Jackie?" He asked, not knowing that it was a bad subject. Both Hyde and Donna glared at him.

"Xnay on the ackie J." Fez whispered.

"Kelso's in Chicago." Hyde told him.

"We don't know where Jackie is." Donna sounded bitter.

Eric sat down on the couch and looked at Fez in silent question. Fez just mouthed "I'll tell you later."

"So how was Africa?" Hyde asked him.

"Hot." "Here?"

Donna laughed sarcastically.

"Crappy." Fez supplied, earning him a glare from Hyde.

It was then that a tall blonde wearing a hot pink tube top walked into the basement. "Hi honey." She said cheerfully to Hyde.

Eric once again looked at Fez who frowned in return. "Hyde's wife."

"Yeah man, I got married."

There were so many things wrong with that statement that Eric didn't know where to begin.

Wasn't he going to marry Jackie? Who the hell was this girl?

"I'm Sam." The girl seemed nice enough.

"Eric."

"I gotta go." Donna said, getting up and walking out.

Hyde stood up as well. "Nice to see you Forman." He and Sam walked into his room, leaving Fez and Eric alone.

Fez sighed. "Like I said, crappy."

"So let me get this straight." Eric was saying a while later, "Hyde saw Kelso wearing a towel in Chicago so he went to Chicago where he married the first whore he could find, and then Jackie ran away and no one has seen or heard from her since?"

Fez nodded. "Yep."

"I'm sorry I missed it."

He then went to find Donna. She was sitting on the water tower. He climbed up and sat next to her.

"She left me Eric. I needed her and she left me, just like you did."

"I'm sorry." He said sincerely.

"No, I'm the one who is sorry." "Why did she leave Eric?" It was a question he knew he didn't need to answer, as they both knew.

Jackie's first instinct was always flight, and it had only been a matter of time before she ran away for good.


1988.

It had been eight years since she had been in Point Place. Steven had kept his promise to her in the hallway of her apartment. He temporarily moved into his father's condo so he could be closer to Jackie and Stephanie. He took them out, to dinners, shows, museums, when Stephanie was asleep the two would stay up and talk. About the past, the present, the future. Of their hopes, dreams, insecurities. They got to know each other again, this time as mature adults. The days turned into weeks, and then a few months later, he asked them to move to Point Place with him.

At first, she didn't know what to say. She was a successful designer, working for one of the top fashion designers, and her daughter was accustomed to living in the big city. But regardless of all that, Jackie had missed all of her friends in Point Place and she wanted to be with Steven. Besides, Stephanie deserved it. The city was no place to raise a kid. As she drove into the town, she could see her daughter, Stephanie, glower. Jackie turned up the stereo. Robert Plant's Addicted to Love came on.

"Come on Steph, it's our song!" She said cheerfully.

"Can't sleep, can't eat." Jackie sang, urging Stephanie to join her.

"There's no doubt you're in deep." Her daughter sang reluctantly.

As the song progressed, Stephanie finally let go and the two started to sing at the top of their lungs.

"You're gonna have to face it you're addicted to love!" Jackie smiled over at the eight year old.

"Hey, you want to see where I used to live?" Jackie asked.

"Sure." Jackie had told her daughter about being raised in a mansion, but she wasn't sure if Stephanie ever believed her.

Jackie was amazed she could still remember how to get around, with only a few wrong turns, mostly due to a couple added sub divisions, she found herself on her old street.

"That's it." She pulled over on the side of the road. She looked at the peeling shingles and the growing weeds in the yard.

"It used to look a lot better."

"Uh huh." Stephanie said in disbelief.

"It was! It was the best house in Point Place!" Jackie defended her old home. She looked back up at it. She had half a mind to get out of the car and give the new owners a piece of her mind. How dare they not take care of Chateau Burkhart! Jackie reached over and tucked a loose strand of Stephanie's dark curly hair behind her ear. "Oh well, I didn't spend a lot of time there anyway."

"Right, because you mostly hung out in Uncle Eric's basement."

"That's right." Jackie said as she drove to the Formans. "You and Eric are going to get along, seeing as you're both geeks."

Stephanie stuck her tongue out at her mother. Jackie pulled into the driveway and was instantly taken back in time. She watched as the boys played basketball while she and Donna sat on the Vista Cruiser.

"Mom?" Stephanie broke Jackie from her thoughts. Jackie smiled weakly. "I was just reminiscing."

"You know, it's okay to be scared."

Jackie laughed. "Shouldn't I be the one saying that to you?"

Stephanie shrugged and the two got out of the car. "You're here for daddy and if it means I have to live in a place where the cows out number the people, then okay." Jackie placed a kiss on top of Stephanie's growing head. "You're the most perfect daughter."

"I know."

It was amazing how much like her father Stephanie was. Not only in looks, she had Steven's curly hair, his blue eyes, his nose. She had even inherited his height as she was already almost eye to eye with her mother. She was still her mother's daughter though, as they shared a very similar personality. What really got Jackie though was that somehow, through no fault of her own, and nothing to explain, it, she had inherited characteristics of the group. She wore bandanas like Donna, although Jackie couldn't blame her, as Stephanie's hair was a wild beast that refused to be tamed, she loved candy like Fez, Star Wars like Eric and was a complete klutz like Michael. It was as though God put all those characteristics into Stephanie so that Jackie wouldn't miss her friends too much. Jackie watched as Stephanie attempted to tie her hair back into a pony tail. Jackie pulled her hand away and did it for her. "Some day, we will find a way to control this." She had been saying it for years. Stephanie laughed. "I think there's a better chance of the Berlin Wall coming down." The sliding door opened and an older Kitty Forman stepped out.

"Jackie!" Kitty ran over to her and wrapped her in a hug. Jackie hugged her back just as strongly.

"Hi Mrs. Forman." Kitty let her go and turned to Stephanie. "You must be Stephanie." She embraced the eight year old.

"Uh, hi Mrs. Forman." The girl said politely as she was being squeezed. Kitty let her go and shook her head. "Oh that won't do. You're going to call me grandma and that's it!"

Stephanie cracked a smile. "Okay." Kitty studied the girl. "Wow, she looks just Steven." Kitty took both of their arms. "Come inside you two, I'll make you some sandwiches." They let themselves be dragged inside.

"Look who I found!" Kitty said cheerfully as they entered the kitchen. Red Forman looked up from his paper.

"Great, it's loud girl and loud girl junior." He said, and then returned his gaze to the paper.

"Wait for it." Kitty whispered to the girls.

Red stood up and walked up to Jackie. "I need you to do me a favor."

"Anything." Jackie said sincerely.

Red grabbed the flashlight from the counter. "Hold this." Jackie took the flashlight and the two walked out to the garage.

"She always was Red's favorite."

Stephanie smiled and sat down at the table as Kitty made her a sandwich.

"So where is everyone?" Stephanie asked.

"They're all still at work, but in hour they'll be here." Kitty answered.


As Jackie held the flashlight while Red worked on the car, Jackie couldn't help but think of how much she had missed this.

"I should put my foot in your ass." He said to her from under the hood.

"I know."

"You broke a lot of hearts that day." Red told her.

"I know, I'm sorry."

Red looked up. "Well, you're back now, and you brought Kitty a granddaughter to spoil, so I think she's forgiven you."

"What about you?" Red approval always meant more to Jackie then her own fathers.

"Jackie, I think you made a big mistake running away from your problems like that, but it's not my place to be mad at you." He paused. "There is one person though who might be harder to convince."

She knew exactly who he was referring too.

"Move the light over to the left." Jackie obeyed and the two settled into their old groove.


Hyde looked at his watch. "Leo, I'm taking off." He told the aging hippy. Leo smiled and waved at him. He drove straight home as Kitty had called him as soon as Jackie and Stephanie had arrived. All he wanted to do was see his girls again. He had half a mind to just walk in and kiss Jackie senseless. He pulled the El Camino up in the drive way to see her short frame leaning over Red's car. Hyde laughed. She hadn't even been home for two hours and Red was already making her help with the car. It was as though nothing had changed. He got out of his car and walked up to them.

"Hey."

She looked up, her face dirty. Yep, he still wanted to kiss her. So he did.

He stopped when Red coughed. "Not in my garage." Hyde took Jackie's hand and they walked inside.

Spotting her mother, Stephanie laughed.

"I have grease on my face don't I?" Jackie asked.

"Yes."

Jackie glared at Hyde and went to the bathroom to clean up. Hyde sat next to Stephanie at the table and Kitty placed a sandwich in front of him. "Eric called; he and Donna are on their way."

"What about Fez?"

"Said he had to make an emergency candy run."

"I hope he gets skittles." Stephanie said.

When Hyde had met Stephanie, it had taken Him about two hours to realize that Jackie had told him the truth when she had said that Stephanie was like the group put together. They had argued for nearly thirty minutes about Star Wars while Stephanie popped M&Ms in her mouth.

She wasn't just his, but was all of theirs.

The door opened and Fez walked in. The eighties had been weird to Fez. He wore a white Jackie and a pale pink shirt, just like on Miami Vice. Without fail, Fez put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a bag of skittles. "Here you go one bag of skittles." He gave them to Stephanie.

"Thanks uncle Fez."

Fez beamed. "I'm an uncle!"

While he might have looked different, he was still the same old Fez.


Jackie walked out from the bathroom, her face now clean. The kiss had literally taken Jackie's breath away and she needed to calm herself down before she went back out there.

"Fezzy!" She shouted, running straight for the dark skinned man.

"Jacqueline!" The two embraced tightly.

"Oh god it's the devil." A sarcastic voice broke the two apart.

"Eric!" She ran to him and hugged him just as tightly. Oddly enough, he let her. "How are you Vader?" Even stranger was the fact that he held her back.

"Vader. Psst." Stephanie waved her hand. "If anything Mom is more like an Ewok."

"If you mean cute and adorable, then yes I am." Jackie and Stephanie stuck their tongues out at each other.

Eric laughed. "Donna is getting some stuff out of the car." He sat down at the table.

"So, I hear you like Star Wars." He said to Stephanie. She looked at him. "Does Han Solo like Leia?"

"I'll have you know lady that in my day, Leia wanted Luke."

"But that's gross. They're twins." Stephanie said it like she was speaking to a child.

"Well we didn't know that then." Eric defended.

"But even in the first movie you can tell Leia was all over Han."

Donna walked inside with Red, both carrying large bags. As soon as she sat them down, she and Jackie got into a staring contest.

"'Hi." Jackie said shyly.

"Hi."

"I'm sorry!" Both said at the same time.

"No, I'm sorry!"

"No I am!"

"Is this hug mom day?" Stephanie asked her father.

He smiled. "I didn't hug her if that makes you feel any better."

"It does."

"I kissed her instead."

Stephanie grimaced. "I didn't need to know that."


The kids ended up back in the basement. Come on Eileen was playing.

"So what do you think of Point Place?" Donna asked Stephanie.

"It's small. Mom drove me by her old house." She said house in quotation marks.

Jackie looked up. "Have you guys seen it lately? I'm going to go there and tell the new owners off."

The others looked at each other awkwardly.

"Uh, Jackie, your mom still owns the house." Hyde told her.

Jackie frowned. "Shit."

The door to the basement opened and Kelso walked in. He grabbed a Popsicle out of the cooler and then sat down in his usual chair. He didn't seem to notice either Jackie or Stephanie. Everyone just stared at him.

"Eileen sounds hot." He said, taking bite from his Popsicle.

"Yeah, I'd like to too loo rah ray her." Fez smirked.

Jackie glared at them. "Could you two please refrain from talking about 'To Loo Rah Raying girls while my kid is in the room?"

Kelso finally realized that Jackie was in the room. "Jackie!" He jumped up from his chair and picked the petite woman up.

"Michael!" He put her down. "Why didn't you tell me you were here?"

"And why didn't you tell me you became a priest?"

Kelso looked down at the priest's collar around his neck. "Oh this, I'm not really a priest." He stood up straight. "I'm a thespian."

Stephanie laughed. "You should see a doctor about that."

The others laughed. "Hyde, your kid is awesome." Eric told him. Hyde just nodded proudly.

Kelso grinned. "So are you guys excited?"

Both Hyde and Jackie smiled, both Stephanie just shrugged. "Eh."

"Watch it Missy or I'll dance."

Stephanie glared at her mom. "You wouldn't."

"I would."

Stephanie looked her mom in the eye. "And risk dad seeing you make a fool out of yourself? I don't think so."

Jackie smiled at Stephanie. "That sounded like a dare."

"It was."

Jackie sighed. "Fine, you pick the song."

Stephanie stood up and walked over to the cassette collection. "What's with all the Styx?" She finally saw something she liked and put it in.

Donna smiled as Jackie moved to stand behind the couch. "You and your daughter have a very strange relationship."

"Well, that's what happens when you have to raise a kid on your own." Jackie said.

"I thought you were married." Donna was confused.

"Like I said, that's what happens when you have to raise a kid on your own." She started to sing.

Michael Jackson's Billy Jean came on.

"Oh, this doesn't scare. I was the Miss Disco 1978."

"I know you've shown me the trophy, now dance!"

Jackie smirked and danced to Billy Jean, recreating Michael Jackson's famous moves, including the moonwalk. Everyone clapped.

Jackie looked at the time. "It's your bed time missy."

Stephanie pouted. "Fine." She looked at her new aunt and uncles. "Good night."

"Want me to tuck you in?" Jackie asked.

"I'll do it." Hyde said, standing up.

As the two started up the stairs, Jackie called out to Stephanie. "Stephanie!"

"Yeah mom?"

"You spin me around."

"Like a record." Her daughter replied, and continued up the stairs with Hyde.

Jackie smiled and sat down on the couch.


Hyde walked his daughter up to Laurie's room, her bags were already in the room and she quickly gathered her pajamas. She looked at Hyde expectantly.

"Ahem."

He stared at her.

"I need to change."

Realization hit him. "Oh, right, uh, just let me know when you're done." He stepped out and closed the door to give Stephanie some privacy.

When Jackie had first told him that he had a daughter his first emotion, after getting over the initial shock, was anger. Anger at her for not telling him, anger at himself for not being there for them. While he had been enjoying the benefits of marriage, Jackie had been struggling to keep herself and their daughter alive. Clearly, she had made it, had put herself through school, and had both married well and had a good career. He had never been more proud of her.

"I'm ready." Stephanie's called to him.

He opened the door. She was already in Laurie's old bed. He sat down next to her. "So, what exactly do I do? Do I read to you? Sing a lullaby?"

She laughed. "Mom and I usually talk."

"What do you talk about?"

"Everything, clothes, boys, TV."

"Did she ever talk about us?"

Stephanie nodded. "She always made sure I knew who you were. Kyle didn't like that very much." She shrugged. "I'm glad you and mom got back together." She laid her head down on the pillow.

"Me too kiddo." He kissed her forehead and then turned off the light, closing the door behind him.

He walked back down to the basement. Everyone was still there. Fez seemed to be in a middle of telling Jackie how he met his latest girlfriend.

"She's the one, I just know it."

"Don't listen to him Jackie." Kelso told her. "He's said that about like the last six girls."

Hyde sat down in his chair. Donna turned to Jackie. "Okay, now that we're all here, you have to tell us what happened when you left."

"Steven didn't tell you?"

They all shook their heads.

"I thought it would be better if you told them."

Jackie sighed and started her story.


Jackie stepped off the bus in New York City with exactly two hundred dollars in cash and whatever she had in her bank account. She was nauseated by both hunger and the smell of urine. Jackie closed her eyes and willed herself not to cry. She had the address of an old family acquaintance written on a piece of paper. After asking directions, she ended up walking the distance only to find that the acquaintance had moved out and hadn't left a forwarding address.

She ended up staying that night at the local Y, promising herself and her baby that it would be temporary.

Never once did she cry, even with all the homeless bums leering at her. It was high time she learned how to be self reliant.

The next day she brought herself a breakfast at a small diner, it wasn't the best food Jackie had ever had, but she wasn't going to complain. After eating, she paid and went to a free clinic where after a quick check up, she was given pre natal vitamins and instructions to take it easy.

Doctors always said that. She'd take it easy when she had a job and a place to live. That night, she went back to the diner where she ate four pieces of pie. She flirted her way into getting a cheap motel room. She took an hour long shower trying to release the tension from her body.

The phone beckoned her, and she started to pick it up. Surely they were worried about her.

But then she remembered all the snide comments she had gotten over the years, and put

the phone down. It was better if she had no contact.


"I can't believe you thought that!" Donna shouted, interrupting Jackie's story.

"I was a mess Donna; I didn't know what to think." She continued.


The next day she went back to the diner for breakfast, and then looked for a place to work. She was turned down as she had no permanent place of address and refused to give any references. The only people she knew where the Formans, and she couldn't use them.

"I don't know what I'm going to." She told the waitress, Colleen."

"You know what you need to do?" Colleen asked her.

"Find a job?"

"No, you need to dance. It's what I do when I'm down."

Jackie smiled. "My feet hurt."

Colleen pulled her up. "Ray, turn up the radio!"

Colleen spun Jackie around and the two started to dance in the diner to Build Me Up Buttercup. It was true, dancing did make Jackie feel better. Soon, an elderly man was dancing with his wife, and a young couple had followed in their footsteps. Others were singing to the music.

"I'll tell you what." Colleen said to Jackie, "How about you work here, temporarily, and tonight you can stay with me." Jackie's response was to hug the older woman. "Thank you!"

Jackie made sure to save up her money, gone were the days when she spent her cash of frivolous items. She had pawned most of her jewelry, including the necklace Steven had given her last valentines day. She and Colleen struck up a friendship that in some ways went beyond what she and Donna ever had. Colleen understood what it meant to be lost. Every night, when the two would return to their apartment, they would sing and dance until their feet no longer hurt. Jackie had no idea how that worked, but it did.

It had been Colleen's idea that Jackie go back to school. There were scholarships that Jackie could get, and she had enough money saved up. Jackie knew that she didn't want to be a waitress for the rest of her life, so she followed Colleen's advice. At first, she only took one class at the community college, because she didn't want to over exert herself. She was already seven months pregnant, and getting around was difficult.

Every night, Colleen would hand Jackie the phone and tell her to call home.

One time, she did, if only to hear someone's voice.

"Hello?" It was him. She stopped breathing.

"Hello?" He said again.

She quickly hung up and looked down at it. "Hello, Steven."

On New Years, she spent the day in the hospital giving birth. Stephanie was born January 2, 1980. Colleen and Ray were there, holding her hand as she screamed. When it was all over, she was holding a six pound girl with Steven's curly hair and blue eyes. Jackie named her Stephanie Hyde.

Two years later, Jackie graduated from college with a degree in design and fashion merchandising. Colleen switched her shifts to days so she would be able to baby sit Stephanie. She was also set up on dates, mostly with friends of her school mates. Whenever Jackie uttered the words "I have a kid." They would go running.

Every night, Colleen and she would get into an argument about whether she should tell Steven.

"Call him." Colleen ordered, handing Jackie the phone.

Jackie shook her head. "What am I supposed to say to him?"

"How about "Hi, it's Jackie."

"And then what? Btw, you have a kid? I don't think so."

"Stephanie deserves to know her father." Colleen admonished.

"Stephanie deserves a lot of things, that doesn't mean she's ever going to get them."

She got a job as a receptionist for Calvin Klein the day Colleen died.

It had begun like any other day. Jackie had an interview; Colleen had picked up a double shift at the diner, so both were unable to watch Stephanie. Marissa, a friend of Jackie's from school, had been eager to watch Stephanie. After the interview, she ran home to tell Colleen how it went.

Except Colleen wasn't home. Marissa sat on the couch crying, she said that there had been a mugging, and Colleen had died on the spot.

It was the first day in over three years that Jackie seriously considered moving back to Point Place.

And then the phone rang. It was an HR Rep for Calvin Klein offering her the job.

If she hadn't been offered the job, she would have gone back, or at the very least, moved to another small hole in the wall Midwestern town. But Jackie knew an opportunity when she saw it, and there was no way she was going to let it go.


"How did you meet your husband?" Fez asked.

"We met five years later on the subway. He was cute, I gave him my number. He was rich, he was a doctor, and he didn't care that I had a kid. The first year was good, but eventually both of us just stopped caring, and he stopped hiding his infidelity. Besides, I was too busy with my job and Stephanie to really care. I only ended up asking for a divorce because he started to bring his girlfriends over to the house, and I didn't want Stephanie to see that. I had to see it with my parents and well, I didn't want her to go through that like I did, so we moved out."

"I can't believe it." Donna muttered.

"Well, believe it, that's the way it happened." Jackie told her snottily.

Donna was quick to explain. "No, I believe you; I'm just amazed that you were able to deal with all of that."

Jackie shrugged. "I did what I had to."

"I'd be running back to my mommy the first night." Eric admitted.

Jackie sighed. "What if you didn't have anyone to run back too?"

They all sat in silence as they considered the implications of that statement. Jackie broke it. "I spent my entire life running, and when I got to New York, I was forced to fight. I wanted so badly to just give up."

"But you didn't." Hyde told her. He wrapped his arm around her tighter. He was never going to let her go.

Sometimes, the difference between Fight and Flight end up not being different at all.