A/N: Sorry this is a little short and moves fast but its finals week here and this is all I could manage. I am out of school Friday so I will try to update more over my two week break. I hope you enjoy this and please r&r! And thanks for all your nice reviews so far. Its been keeping me thinking up more ideas for the plot.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

Love wasn't built on Conditions

Chapter 4: The Unicorn

Brooke stood in the kitchen; the entire house was quiet for once. Betsy was taking a nap because she had to get up so early for a doctors appointment. Jackie was at her interview and Hyde never dropped off Nikki. Brooke looked at the clock it was almost two and she still hadn't seen her. Maybe he didn't have to work today? She thought and mixed the bowl in front of her. She was making cookies for Betsy for being such a good girl at the doctors. She didn't even cry when he gave her a shot. She knew that Michael would probably eat all the cookies by the time he got off work till the time he went to bed. She heard the door opened and turned around expecting to see Jackie and was ready to hear her complain about the day she had. She was surprised when she saw Hyde but more surprised when she saw that he was alone.
"Hi," She said waiting for a reason of his presence.

"Hey, thanks for watching her again today. She was good right? She wasn't picking on Betsy or pulling her hair," He asked.
Brooke looked at him confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Nikki," He said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Nikki isn't here," Brooke told him.

"What do you mean she isn't here? I dropped her off around eight o'clock and Jackie said she'd watch her until you got back," he answered alarmed. She could see he was already pissed off.

"Then she is probably still out with Jackie," Brooke explained and he seemed to calm down a little bit. "She had an interview at ten this morning and I didn't get a back till around ten thirty. She probably just took Nikki with her,"

Hyde stared at her like this wasn't a good enough answer.

"She'll probably be back soon?" Brooke tried.

He nodded a little.

"You want some cookies when they come out of the oven?"

"Hell yeah!"

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"Miss, do you have a picture of her?" The store manager who she had just seen about the job asked.

Jackie shook her head. She could feel tears begin to well up in her eyes. She heard a woman shopping with her friend say "What good mother wouldn't have a picture of her child?"

To which her friend responded "What good mother would loose her child at a department store?" Both women laughed. Jackie wanted to turn around and scream at them. How dare they judge her? They didn't know the situation. The manager turned to talk to the employee that Jackie had questioned earlier about Nikki. Jackie walked over to the corner by the toy display and sank down till she was sitting on the dirty floor in her skirt. She didn't care what people thought and she knew that job she had just been offered was probably no good now either. She was so mad at herself. This proved it she couldn't be a mother. She couldn't control a child that wasn't even her own. How stupid was she to expect a little three year old girl to sit perfectly still in a hallway in the back of a department store. She should have just rescheduled all her interviews. She was still terrified about the situation. She wasn't sure if Nikki just walked off and was lost or if she had been kidnapped. She was hoping it was the former because she didn't know how she could live with herself having to tell Steven about her stupid mistake. He would never talk to her again and he would have good reason too. She had never felt so helpless. She knew she should be walking around the store looking for her but she was so shocked about the entire thing. She took a few deep breaths to stop crying and then ran her hand underneath both her eyes to get the mascara stains off. She really needed to invest in water proof mascara.
"Excuse me ma'am. But did you loose a kid?" She heard a familiar cocky voice say.

Jackie looked up and saw Michael standing in front of her holding Nikki's hand.

"Oh my god Michael! Thank you so much!" She exclaimed and stood up. Proceeding to give him a huge hug and jumped up and down.

"Where did you find her?" she asked.

"By the food court, I was getting some corndogs and she walked up and was hungry," He said.

"Wait why are you here?" she asked.

"There was a robbery at the electronic store and it was a slow day so I came in,"

"Did you catch the robber?"

"Yeah he is sitting in the back of the patrol car with my partner," Michael said trying to act tough.

"How did you know I was watching her?"

"She was whining about not getting fed and she smelled like your shampoo and I put one and two together and figured you had to be watching her. Cause you have been known to starve children," He told her.

"First off it's one and one or two and two together, you idiot. And secondly I don't starve children!" she yelled at him.

"I'm not an idiot and you do to starve children. Remember when you had to do the big sister program at school and starved little Jackie? Or when you had to watch Betsy for the first time?"

"Little Jackie never told me she was hungry. And I didn't feed Betsy because I didn't want to change diapers. I had just painted my nails,"

"Yeah well whatever, you need to keep a safer watch on children. As I remember you lost little Jackie too and she ended up in the back of my patrol car. Man I got a lot of crap from the sarge about that."

"I didn't loose little Jackie, Donna did," She said picking up Nikki. "Did you at least feed her?"
"Yeah cause I'm the responsible one of this group,"

Jackie just rolled her eyes.

"Well if that's the thanks I'm gonna get, I'm so gonna tell Hyde what you did,"

"Michael," She said in a warning tone. "I'll teach Betsy to call you tator nuts,"

"Fine, I won't say anything to Hyde but how are you gonna get Nikki not to spill the beans?"

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Hyde sat at the kitchen table watching Brooke trying to keep herself busy. He knew she was starting to get worried herself but didn't want to upset him. He watched how frazzled she became when the phone rang.
"Hello," He heard her say. Her face brightened and put the receiver to her shoulder. "It's Jackie,"
"Oh yeah?" He said getting up and walking towards her and she began listening to her again. Brooke's eyes got huge.

"What?" He asked angrily.

"Um… okay, yeah I'll figure something out," Brooke answered before hanging up the phone.

"You'll figure what out?"

Brooke turned around slowly to face him but quickly her face brightened. "Jackie said she would be about another hour so why don't you go enroll Nikki at pre-k?"

Hyde thought about it for a second and decided against it. Something was going on and if anything happened to Nikki, anything at all he was going to kill Jackie.

"No, I think I will just wait right here," He said and sat down where he sat before and bit into a cookie crossly.

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Jackie walked up the driveway carrying Nikki. Ever since the incident she wasn't letting her out of her site. She saw the el Camino in the drive way. Crap, he must of beat me here, she thought. Jackie turned and looked at the little girl sitting on her hip.

"Now remember what I told you about telling your Daddy about your big adventure,"

"He will get mad at me and yell at me like he was yelling for Brooke this morning,"

"And you don't want that to happen now do you?"

Nikki shook her head. Jackie slowly walked to the door and took a deep breath before walking inside. She felt two pairs of eyes on her immediately.

"Jackie, what the hell?" Steven exclaimed and ran up to her and snatched Nikki out of her arms.
"What?" She asked innocently.

"You got her a unicorn? What is this the next of kin to fluffy cakes?"

"Her name is fluffykins, daddy," Nikki responded and Jackie smiled.

"And what's up with the dunce cone on her head?"

"It's a princess hat!" Jackie yelled pulling on the ribbon coming out of the top.

"Ugh! Now I got sequence and glitter all over me!" Hyde complained.

Brooke looked unsure and walked up in between them. She took Nikki from Hyde and put her on the ground. "Why don't you go see if Betsy is up," she told the little girl.

Nikki smiled and ran off with her unicorn in one hand and her raggedy Ann in the other.

"Why the hell would you turn her into a miniature version of you?"

"Sorry for making her better looking!" Jackie shot back.

"You are so irresponsible, you haven't changed!" Hyde yelled as the door opened and Kelso walked in.

"Jackie! I thought you said you weren't going to tell him about loosing Nikki! Gah your are the dumb one of the group," Kelso said as he sat down. "Ooh cookies!" and began to eat the ones of the plate.

Jackie stared at Steven; she had never seen him this mad before. Not even when he found her in the hotel room with Kelso or when she tried to force him to marry her.

"You did what?" He bellowed. Jackie swallowed. She didn't know what to say.

"I didn't you dumbass," She said to Kelso and he laughed. She walked up to him and put her hands on his chest.

"But she is back now and safe and that's all that matters right?" She looked at him pleading. He stood there momentarilly stunned under her touch. He hadn't felt it in three years. She used to do this to him to get her way and here he was feeling it again. Her soft touch trying to make everything better. He looked down in her big doe eyes, he could see how truely sorry she was but he couldn't accept it. He was older now and responsible for someone elses feelings and safety other then his own. He felt a knot in his chest. He didn't want to be angry at her but he couldn't let her off the hook either. This was someone elses life, this person couldn't take care of themself and if she couldn't he could have lost Nikki forever.

"From now on if I need someone to watch Nikki, I will put Kelso before you!" He said and stormed through the kitchen door. "Nikki! Come here its time to go!"

Jackie stood there with tears in her eyes. Steven walked in with Nikki in his arms. He said good bye to Kelso and Brooke but before he could insult her again she ran out of the kitchen and into her room. She sat on the edge of her bed crying and feeling sorry for herself even though she knew she was wrong. How could she expect Steven not to act that way. If something ever happened to her favorite pair of shoes she would lash out too. But this was something more important then shoes, it was his daughter's life. She knew she screwed up but she didn't want to lose him forever. Even if they just had to be friends she didn't want him out of her life completely. She had tried that before and she wasn't happy. Just seeing him her first day back made her more happy then she had been she got into college on her own. Then it hit her like a ton of bricks, she walked briskly out of her room and tried to catch up to him.

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Hyde was still seething when he got outside. He was so happy that Nikki was okay. If anything happened to her he wasn't sure what he was going to do. He loved her so much. He didn't even know what to say to Jackie at this point. He wasn't sure if he ever wanted to see her again. He didn't even want to discuss the details with her.

He looked at his little girl's face, was that lipstick on her? He took his finger tip and ran it across her mouth. Sure enough it was.

He heard the door open.

"Steven, wait!" He heard her call.

"What you want to put hot curlers in her hair? Are you not done playing?" He asked as he turned around and saw her jog up to him.

"Jackie, she isn't just some doll you can play with whenever you want to," He told her.

"Look, I just realized you had some trouble getting her to take a bath and I found a way to get her in the tub," she said handing him the bottle of bubble bath. He looked at her not sure what to say but he took it.

"That's cool," was all he could manage and she rolled her eyes.

"You're welcome," she said with a small smile and walked off. Maybe Jackie wasn't that bad with Nikki after all?

"Daddy, you forgot fufflykins!" Nikki told him as he put her in her car seat. He looked around the car.

"Don't you want your raggedy Ann doll?" he asked looking for that as well but it was no where to be seen.

"No! I want fluffykins!"

"Fine!" He said walking back up to the house. He was surprised no one had been able to get her away from the dumb doll in a year but of course Jackie could. And Jackie could get her to take a bath. He knocked on the door and she opened it holding the raggedy Ann doll.

"Did you forget something?" she asked.

"Yeah the unicorn," He said with amusment.

Jackie stared at him for a minute not believe him and when he looked back she realized he wasn't lying.

"Um… okay hold on. Let me see if I can find it," She started to leave.

"Hey Jackie,"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry for what I was saying before. You are really good with Nikki probably better then I am,"

She smiled proud of herself. "Whatever,"