By the time the four of them – Eric, Donna, Fez and Hyde – had returned to Red and Kitty's to attempt to eat dinner, Hyde felt so hollowed out, it was as though every single brain function had shut off and he was simple a talking shell. For a brief fleeting moment, he wanted to say to Kelso, so this is what it's like to be you, but then he was snapped back into reality of why they were all together in the first place. He barely registered it when Kitty asked him a question; then she was waving her hands in front of his face.

"Steven?"

"Huh? What?"

"I was just asking if you want us to wait for Jackie before we have dinner or if you just want a quick sandwich to take with you while you wait for her at the airport."

Hyde looked at her, and then at his watch, saw it was only an hour to Jackie's plane and it would take nearly that to get to the airport. "Oh, I guess…she'll probably want to eat once she gets in, so…do you mind waiting?"

"Of course not dear."

Hyde stood up, grabbed his coat off the back of his chair and head to his El Camino – his love of his first car had caused him to invest the time and funds into keeping it in primo condition – and heard the light steps of Eric following him.

"Are you going to be okay seeing Jackie, man?" he asked.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

Eric shrugged, stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Well, it's just…Kelso was her first boyfriend and then she was with you…and it just seems kind of weird that you're going to be the first one she sees coming back here."

"Whatever." Hyde climbed into his car and floored it out of out the Foreman driveway and onto the freeway to head to Milwaukee.

The last thing Hyde needed at a time like this was to be reminded of his failed relationship with that short little caramel-coloured howler monkey. Jackie had always been Kelso's woman, everyone had known it, and it had been a pathetic delusion to believe they could have lasted. She was shrill and demanding and bossy…and her hair had always smelled of vanilla and honey, her lips always soft and sweet. No, no, snap out of it, he told himself. He wouldn't be any good to anyone if he started reminiscing, especially himself. It was easier, and maybe even better, to keep Jackie as part of his past and look back on the good times they had together, and leave it at that.

Switching on the radio, he fiddled with the dial until he found Donna's radio station playing its Thursday night Kick It to the Curb that normally featured Sizzling Sarah but was being filled in by Smoking Josie tonight. Then as if the gods were continuing their cruel joke on him, that song came on the radio. That Leo Sayer song from the first time he took Jackie out on a date.

That night when he'd kissed her and refused to feed her ego and his shock when he felt like his skin had been set on fire as their lips had met.

The memory of it had nearly made him miss his exit, and he swerved just in time, earning rude gestures and loud horns from other drivers. When he pulled in, parked, and found out the flight information he needed, Hyde had done his level best to keep all sinful Jackie-related thoughts out of his head.

Then, he thought his heart nearly stopped as he saw her walk through the gate, looking around. The caramel skin had darkened with the years spent on the west coast, so she was now a lovely coppery colour, and her figure was just as slender and trim as it was at eighteen, showcased in jeans and a funky printed sweater. The bi-coloured eyes – left one green, right one blue – were now red rimmed and searching for a familiar face. Before he could stop himself, Hyde had raised a hand and waved it to get her attention. She immediately bounded over to him, threw her tiny arms around him.

Hyde breathed in the smell of her, and he swore he could have been a teenager again himself. She still had the same vanilla and honey scent in her hair and her skin against his cheek was soft as ever. He drew back, carefully, looked at her.

"Hey Jackie."

"Oh, Steven," she whimpered. "I can't believe Michael's gone. I just…can't."

Jackie would never have admitted it aloud that Steven's phone call had shocked her to the core, nor that she had spent two hours crying on her bathroom floor in a mixture of grief for her first love, relief that it wasn't Steven who'd been shot, and guilt that she felt that way. But that was something only her bathtub would have witnessed. Now she placed a light kiss on Hyde's cheek and gesture absently behind her.

"Can you help me find my luggage?"

"Sure." Hyde followed her, trying to keep his hands in his pockets and not rub the spot on his face where she'd laid her lips. "Where are you staying?"

"Um, the Merry Yacht in Kenosha. I made a reservation there."

"You're going to drive every day from Kenosha to Point Place?"

Jackie looked at him as she hauled up her luggage. "You have a better idea?"

"Why don't you stay with me? It'll be easier, since we're doing all the funeral stuff there in Point Place, plus you're closer to Foreman's house."

"Alright."