December 31st, 2005 19:35

Steven Hyde was already late for the company party in Manhattan. He looked at his watch for the 50th time in 10 minutes; he really needed to get to this party as fast as possible. It was a party that was thrown this New Year's by the competing record store company that wanted to buy him out. He just wanted to get there, get hammered and get home by January 3rd, not that there was much for him to go home to. An empty house was just that, an empty house. But still, it was his personal space, and he could really, truly be himself there. He sighed and looked at his watch again. He sat forward more, and tapped on the cabby's window.

"So are we almost there?"

"Yes sir, we're only about 5 blocks away," the cabby answered him. Hyde leaned back against his seat, and decided to just relax. He took out his iPod, and turned it on, playing one of his favorite songs, Hanging on the Telephone by Blondie. He relaxed as he heard the first few chords of the guitar, along with Debbie Harry's haunting voice.

By the time the song had finished, he had arrived at the Waldorf Astoria, where the party was being held. He turned his iPod off, put it away and paid the cabby. He entered the grand building, which though very beautiful, was not his style at all. It was more her style… He shook his head, telling himself once again that he had searched everywhere for Jackie Burkhart for 15 years, and had never found even the smallest shred of evidence of where she could be. He was determined to have fun tonight; his definition of "fun" being getting plastered and having his friends from work find him some good whores for him to have a good time with.

He arrived at the party, a half hour late but he had shown up. He got to work eating some of the hors d'oeuvres, drinking some of the booze and schmoozing the big corporate guys. He knew that it was working the drunker he got, because he became freer when he was drunk; he didn't care about anything when he was drunk. He was ready to go back to his hotel by the time it was one in the morning; he knew that he had accomplished what he set out to do, as he had practically signed the contract to sell his store. He left the party with some of his coworker friends in one cab; they drove back to his hotel room, where they said that they had hired some good hookers.

They got to the hotel, and Hyde stumbled out of the cab, after paying the cabby. His friends went with him up to his room, where the girls already were and a few other coworkers who hadn't needed to go to the party. He opened the door to his room, and was greeted by two scantily clad women. They both kissed him on the cheek, and he let them lead him into the room. He saw some of his coworkers already passed out, either drunk or high. He let the two girls drag him towards the living room portion of the room, where there was another girl dancing for some of the guys, dressed in what he guessed were 15-cm high heeled boots, a tight-fitting black leather corset, fishnet stockings and a pair of black leather boy shorts. He looked at her, as she looked so damned familiar.

"Who's that?" he asked one of the girls, his words slurred. The blonde one looked at the girl, and in a voice seething with disgust said,

"Oh, her. That's that old lady, what was her name, Tabitha?" She turned towards the redhead, who said,

"How the hell should I know? She comes well recommended though, heard she's been in the business for like, 20-something years." Hyde looked at the woman, as that was what she obviously was, and he could have sworn that he knew her from somewhere. He approached her, as she was dancing. She stopped dancing and sat next to some of the guys, her back still turned to him. He could see that she was planting her face in the small bowl of cocaine that some of the guys had bought for themselves. She sucked a lot of it up, getting screams of disbelief from his coworkers, before she turned around and saw him. He looked straight into her mismatched blue and green eyes, and his eyes grew wider.

"Jackie?!" he said in disbelief. She shot up off the couch, and looked at him like she had seen a ghost.

"Steven!" she said in a whisper, before she fainted and crashed backwards onto the table. Everyone looked over to see what had happened, as Hyde jumped over the couch and picked her up off the table. He quickly laid her on top of the bed to see if she was ok. He ran his hands over her back, just to make sure that she didn't have any glass stuck in her back. She didn't seem to have any shards anywhere, which he thanked God for, before he turned her over. He cupped her face in his hands, and said, quietly so that no one else there would hear him,

"Jackie. Come on, Jackie, wake up. Wake up, my little ray of sunshine." He ran his thumb over her lips, the surest way to wake her up years ago. She stirred slightly, and opened her eyes very slowly.

"Steven?"

"Yeah, Jackie, it's me," he said, a tear running down his face. He had searched for her for 15 years, and 10 years ago he had given up the search, only to find her in New York. She looked at him, before she put a hand tentatively to his face, wiping away the tear, making sure that he was really in front of her, before throwing herself in his arms.

"Oh, Steven!" she cried out, as she hugged him tight to her. He held her to him, and stroked her hair, which hung lank down her back. He wanted to get her out of there, now. But where was he going to take her?

"Jackie, come on, let's go," he said, trying to carefully untangle her from his neck. But Jackie had a kung fu death grip on his neck, and wouldn't let go for the life of her. The redheaded girl looked at him, and said, in a condescending voice,

"When she gets like that I heard the only way to deal with her was to threaten her with violence." Hyde glared at her, and picked Jackie up in his arms, grabbing only her purse, which someone pointed out to him. He went towards the door, and only turned around when one of his coworkers asked him where he was going.

"I'm taking Jackie home," was all he said, and he opened the room door, leaving behind all of his coworkers and the hookers. It wasn't like they would really give a shit if he left or not; he was known for doing strange stuff like this. At the last New Year's party that they had had, he had gotten completely shit-faced and went to the water tower alone. He had sat there until the sun came up, and Eric had come to get him, having heard that Hyde was gone. Eric found him on the top of the water tower, passed out and completely naked, his clothes all over the place. Hyde had ended up catching the mother of all colds, as well as a massive hangover. But this, this was totally different. He looked down at the limp form in his arms, and he moved a little faster down the hallway. He had to get to his car, and just take her home, where she was wanted and still needed, even after 25 years. She had a lot of questions to answer.

He got onto the elevator that would lead him down to the garage, and jabbed the button for the garage. The doors closed and down they went. A few seconds later, the doors opened, and he somehow fished the keys for the El Camino out of his pocket while still holding Jackie. He unlocked the passenger door and put Jackie carefully down in it. She stirred a little, muttering something. Her eyes opened for one second, staring straight at him, before they closed again. He looked down at Jackie, her head against the seat, her eyes flickering behind her eyelids, and he felt a cold rage start to build in the pit of his stomach. His hand tightened around the car door, before he closed the door and went over to the driver's side, opening his own door. He looked over at Jackie, passed out against the seat, and he turned the car on.

"I can't believe you did this to yourself, Jackie," he said, more to himself than to her, before he put the car in gear and left the garage. He wanted to get out of this damned city as soon as possible, and just take her back to Point Place. Back to the home that he had bought in anticipation of finding her, in anticipation of the family that he would have with her. He snorted to himself, so much for broken dreams, as he got on the highway that would lead him back to Point Place.