Present.
Jackie groaned and pulled the string on her bright green wrap dress, unfurling the bow.
"That's like, the fourth time you've pulled out the same damn knot." Hyde stood behind her in the bathroom mirror and popped open one extra button than he normally would on his dress shirt, then took in her form appreciatively and smirked. "Grasshopper."
She looked down at the color of her dress and then rolled her eyes with mirth at his reflection. "I'm redoing it, because it's not perfect, Steven. That may not be important to you, but some people care." She shook her head, wondering how he could even ask her such a stupid question, before correcting him. "And it's a bow, not a knot."
Something about this feels oddly familiar, and yet...different?
"Gimme that." Wrapping his solid arms around her waist from behind, his wrestled the limp ties from her hands. "You're just trying to keep it from falling off, right? How hard can that be? Why does everything with you always gotta be perfect?"
"I don't know." She leaned back against his chest and closed her eyes. "It just does."
Jackie felt him tugging at the strings on her dress and stifled a laugh, imagining how adorable he probably looked trying to work out how to tie a bow.
Slow down, girl. It's just a bow.
She could feel his breath on the side of her neck as he craned around her to see what he was doing. With a furrowed brow, he gave the task his full concentration. The idea of him trying so hard to get it right for her, when she knew he couldn't care less about women's clothing, made her smile.
"I don't know why I'm putting so much effort into making this stay on you when all I wanna do is take it off."
Jackie opened her eyes again and looked down at Hyde's sloppy handiwork. The bow was lopsided, one side bigger than the other, and the entire thing was double-knotted for extra support. It looked like a first-grader had done it for her.
"Yeah, so...it's pretty crappy, but hey, it's staying on you, right?" Hyde pressed his mouth into a dissatisfied line. "Guess I underestimated the whole knot thing, huh?"
She ran her fingers over the awkward bow and met his gaze in the mirror. "I don't know...I kind of like it like this."
It looks awful, and if we were back in Point Place, there's no way I'd leave the house like this where anyone and their mother could see me. One report back to those bitchy LOPP gossip hounds, and the entire town would know I'd left the house dressed like a hag.
But we're not in Point Place, and this bow means he's trying. Finally.
Hyde cocked his head to the right to get a better look at her face, and let out a small chuckle. "You are such a damn liar."
She laughed along with him. "Yeah...I mean, no. I know I kind of look like I was dressed by cave people, but it kind of has its rustic charm." She turned to look at her profile, then flicked her eyes back up to his. "It's perfect."
Her spun her the rest of the way around to look at her directly. An emotion she couldn't read passed over his face, followed by an intense glare that she was more than familiar with. "How long is this lunch thing?"
"Your guess is as good as mine."
"Think we can cut out early?" He raised an inquisitive eyebrow at her.
She scowled at the suggestion, though secretly loved that he still wanted her so much. They'd been wearing each other out so much over the past day, that she was sure he'd be sick of her by now. "I know I'm hot Steven, but we've got to come up for air sometime."
I'm pretty sure I pulled something in my calf earlier, and even you're having trouble walking after that shower rendezvous.
Hyde looked a bit wounded by her response. "Why do you assume that question is about sex? I couldn't possibly have anything else in mind to do with you?"
Jackie was taken aback. The thought really hadn't crossed her mind. "I – I didn't realize..."
"Yeah, well now you do."
When they were dating, his favorite thing to do with her was to shack up with a pizza and a bag of weed and spend the day naked together. Not that she didn't love those times they shared, it's just that she was never as much of a homebody as he was.
Before they'd gotten together, she was the consummate social butterfly. Being with Michael made that easy, since he was popular too and loved to party. Without a doubt, she would have gone out nearly every single night if she hadn't been dating Steven Hyde.
Jackie never regretted her choice, though. There would always be clubs, but there wouldn't always be Steven. At least, that was what she thought then. She assumed it was all temporary. He never led her to think otherwise.
"You're taking me somewhere?"
"What if I am?" He raised his chin to her in challenge.
Jackie shrugged and took a step closer to him. "Like a date?"
Hyde mimicked her shrug and cupped her face in his hands. "Would you wanna go on one with me, if I was asking?"
She thought about it for a moment and lowered her chin, affecting a coy expression. "Depends...are you asking?"
He worked his jaw for a moment before the corners of his mouth picked up slightly. "Kinda seems that way, doesn't it?"
"Kinda does..."
"So...?"
"So?"
Hyde took a deep breath and shook his head. He was most likely silently cursing her for busting his balls, but he never let on. "Go out with me, Jackie."
She frowned. "That's how you ask a girl out?"
"Jackie..." His patience was wearing thin and he had chased her until he was well out of his comfort zone. She had to meet him halfway, it was the right thing to do.
He came here for me. All of this was for me. Am I an idiot for hoping he really has changed?
Jackie bit her bottom lip and looked up at him. "Why not? I've never been to Vegas before, might as well see something besides the inside of this hotel room."
His eyes raked over the room and settled on her, the intention behind his stare forcing the air from her lungs. "I don't know princess, I'm kind of growing fond of the inside of this hotel room."
She grinned into his lips as he lifted her off the ground and kissed her. "You know...I won't be pissed if you do over the knot on your dress. It looks like that Home-Ec project Kelso got a D on in fifth grade."
"It's not a knot, Steven, it's a bow." Jackie smiled even wider now. "But thank you, I'm good the way it is. You, however..." She wrinkled her nose, then closed one of his top buttons and smoothed down the front of his shirt with her hand. "Look full-on Vegas."
Hyde waited patiently for her to realize he'd done it on purpose for her amusement.
"Oh." A sheepish laugh erupted from her chest. She reached over and flicked the button back open again. "Well, when in Vegas..."
She would always wonder what could've been if she didn't see how this thing played out. In the end, this could be the one thing she needed to move on from him. And if by some remote chance they could make it work...
Stop thinking like that, Jackie. You're just courting disappointment.
Jackie apprehensively twisted a lock of dark hair around her right index finger and wondered if she was just kidding herself, thinking she could keep this marriage a secret from her closest friends and unofficial family.
Michael shouldn't be too hard to fool, since he is a fool. Fez could be more difficult, but he's probably going to have his hands too full with his Looney Toons fiancee to notice little details like that. The skinny geek barely even talks to me, much less looks at me. The only real problem I could foresee would be Donna. That girl was always inconveniently too clever for my own good.
She made a fist with her left hand, planting it firmly into her hip. It wasn't high-tech, but it was the only way she could think of to hide her wedding band until they could get it off. At lunch, she could just keep her hand resting on her lap under the table. It wasn't foolproof, but maybe it would keep people from asking questions.
Questions like 'Why the hell is Steven Hyde wearing a wedding band'?
Crap.
She'd completely forgotten Hyde's abject refusal to remove his ring. Seeing one of the gang with a wedding band would be fishy enough – he hadn't even worn a ring when he was with Sam – but if both of them showed up with rings on, it wouldn't take much to put two-and-two together.
He didn't wear a ring when he was 'married' to Sam.
Her breath caught in her throat.
"There you are!"
Jackie barely walked in the private dining room when she was immediately accosted by Caroline, looking higher strung than she had just a few hours before.
Her cerulean eyes filled up with tears at Jackie's arrival. "I was getting so worried about you, I thought something might've happened!"
"What could've happened on the walk from my room to the restaurant?" Jackie was truly confused. "Am I late or something?"
Caroline pointed to her watch, the tip of her finger turning white with the force in which she pushed on the crystal face. "Hello? You're eight minutes late. I thought maybe the Zodiac killer had gotten to you."
Jackie expelled a bored sigh. "The Zodiac Killer is in California, Caroline."
She threw up her arms. "Fine. The Hillside Strangler, then."
"Still California." Jackie narrowed her eyes at the crazy blonde and tried to ascertain if the insanity was merely an eccentricity or whether it was beginning to veer into something more sinister.
"What about Eddie Cole?" Caroline said, in a persnickety manner.
Okay, this is definitely veering into the realm of danger. How does she know the names and murdering locales of every serial killer West of the Mississippi offhand?
"While I appreciate the concern..." Jackie tried to figure out a way of tactfully asking Fez's bride what the fuck was wrong with her. "Why do you know so much about serial killers, anyway?"
Caroline shrugged. "I dunno. I guess it's kind of a hobby or something."
Jackie's eyes drifted toward the naive groom, sitting at the head of the table with a fruity beverage in hand, unwittingly about to hitch his wagon to a rogue horse.
More like a half-mad donkey.
Just as a shiver began to snake its way up her spine, a welcome sight fell within her eyeline.
"Aw yeah! I knew you'd show up looking smokin' hot." Michael Kelso smacked Fez across the chest with the back of his hand. "I told you she'd look hot, man. I don't know what you were so worried about."
Caroline's laser-like focus shifted off of Jackie and onto her groom. "You worried about Jackie looking hot? Why? Why were you worried?" She tittered nervously as she waited for an answer.
Kelso mimed the international symbol for loco behind the woman's back and bit down on his fist to keep from laughing.
Fez's face, however, froze into a frightened, death mask. "I – I was thinking about our wedding photos, muffin. You said you didn't want anybody in them that would detract the eye from my face."
An involuntary guffaw escaped Jackie's throat and she covered her mouth her both hands, before yanking her left one down and placing it by her side in a fist.
Dammit!
Too excited by her appearance to go around, Kelso climbed over the table gracelessly and swept Jackie up into his arms, swinging her feet back and forth like a pendulum. "You still weigh as much as a kitty cat."
She wrapped her arms tightly around her ex-boyfriend's shoulders and buried her face into his neck, giving him a squeeze. "You can put me down now, Michael."
"I don't wanna," he said with petulance, as he continued to shift her legs back and forth.
"I'm losing circulation in the lower half of my body," she whined.
"I can help you get that back, Jackie." Kelso grinned at her like a demonic child, and she couldn't help but laugh at his antics, before wincing in discomfort as his grip on waist grew tighter and tighter.
"Michael!" Jackie struggled to free herself from his grasp.
"Fine." Kelso reluctantly lowered her to the ground and pouted. "You're no fun anymore."
"She's plenty fun still," a male voice called out from across the room. "That is, if you know what you're doing with your hands."
Jackie looked over her shoulder and her eyes followed Hyde as he leaned up against a nearby wall, where he had obviously been observing her.
"Hyde!" Kelso promptly abandoned Jackie and fumbled his way toward his oldest friend. "Hey man!"
The gave each other a one-handed hug and clapped each other's backs firmly.
"Can you believe Fez is going to be the first one of us to get married? I totally thought it woulda been Forman."
That's what you think.
Jackie felt Hyde's gaze burning a hole through her. "Steven got married here a year ago."
Hyde frowned at the reminder. "It was a year and a half. And it wasn't legal, so it doesn't count."
"Sometimes even the legal ones don't count," she volleyed back.
One corner of his mouth subtly curled up. "No, those always count, Jackie. You'll see."
Kelso, as usual, remained blissfully oblivious to the events happening around him.
"I have no idea what you guys are talking about..." Kelso said gleefully, wrapping an arm around each of his friends. "But, you're talking! And you're not killing each other!" He tugged them both a little closer.
"Yet," Jackie pointed out.
"Still!" Kelso's look of amazement remained intact. "I haven't seen you guys so civil to each other since before Hyde married that hooker."
Hyde blanched at the false description. "She was a stripper."
"Whatever, dude. She gave up her goods for money, am I right?" Kelso said, with a flourished gesture over his own chest. It was times like this when Jackie felt her affection for the dumb lug grow. "And you've been trying to kill little Jackie ever since."
Gotta love an unfiltered Michael Kelso.
"I haven't been trying to kill, Jackie, you moron," Hyde snapped, before slamming his left fist into Kelso's shoulder. His friend recoiled from the force of the hit.
"Damn, Hyde. Are you wearing brass knuckles or something?" He rubbed his shoulder, with a look on his face that was a cross between angry and impressed. "Watch your back, Jackie."
Jackie pouted her lips and flipped her hair off her shoulder. "I'm too cute to murder."
Kelso nodded in agreement. "That's true, but somebody needs to tell that to Caroline. She spent ten minutes talking about you getting whacked by serial killers, before you got here."
Though her hangover had abated, the need for food began to gnaw at Jackie's insides and she was feeling faint.
Maybe if I just splash some water on my face...?
Jackie looked around the room. "Where's the bathroom, Michael?"
He nudged the carpet with the toe of his shoe in disappointment. "You just got here, Jackie, and you haven't even had a drink. You can't have to pee already."
"Maybe I want to freshen up?" She flipped her hair again, and internally cursed herself for not eating that packet of nuts Steven had left for her on the bedside table.
Kelso gave her the perverted once over. "You look pretty fresh to me."
Jackie's eyebrows raised in surprise as she noticed both of Hyde's hands tighten into fists. "Where's the bar?"
Here we go, again...
"Beats me. They just keep bringing out these fruity cocktails." Kelso grabbed one of the concoctions off of a passing waiter's tray and took a long, delighted sip. "They kind of taste like candy, though I'm pretty sure they're also alcoholic, because Fez would definitely need to get drunk before marrying the crazy chick."
"I'll catch you guys in a bit." Out of patience, Jackie walked off in the direction she assumed the bathrooms to be.
As she turned the corner into the secluded hallway, she felt a pair of hands grab her waist from behind and pull her into an abandoned ballroom. Her fight or flight instinct kicked in as she watched the heavy door shut itself behind her. "What the hell?"
Jackie stomped on the kidnapper's foot and gave him a backwards jab to the shin with her heel.
"Fuck!" Hyde doubled over in pain. "Why did you kick me?"
"Why did you grab me?" she shouted back, after spinning around to face him.
He rubbed the spot on his leg that she made contact with and grumbled. "You know why I grabbed you."
"Well..." That familiar tingling feeling began to stir in her stomach again. "I guess all that talk about serial killers got me feeling a little jumpy."
"I can easily take down the Manson Family, should they break out of the big house and come after you." He straightened up and immediately pulled her into his arms, where she went willingly.
"You would do that for me?" Jackie batted her coquettish eyelashes at him.
"You're really asking me that?" His baritone vibrated against her cheek through his chest.
She shook her head 'no' and snuggled closer to him.
Hyde cradled the back of her head with the palm of his hand and moved it slowly down the length of her hair, continuing down her back until it settled on the junction of her behind. "Let's blow this joint."
Jackie didn't even bother pretending to be shocked, since she'd known he would try to get her to leave the moment she felt his eyes following her interaction with Michael. "Come on, we just got here."
"I feel like putting my hands on you." Hyde's mouth turned down. "But you won't let me touch you in public."
"You know why." She frowned at him.
Now, he's purposely being obtuse.
His fingers teased the swell of her behind through the material of her dress. "You used to let me."
"I used to let you do a lot of things I won't allow anymore," she said quietly and glanced the door for to make sure it was closed. An act that didn't go unnoticed by him.
Hyde gently lifted her chin and forced her to look at him. "You're really that embarrassed for people to find out about us?"
"Of course I'm that embarrassed for people to find out, and there is no us! Not really, anyway." She felt bad for stating the obvious, but he was nuts if he thought it was all bygones between them.
I can't trust him. How can I stay married to a man I don't trust? Love can only take you so far.
The look of betrayal in his eyes made her forget the year and place for a moment. It felt all too unpleasant and familiar, except that she was on the other side, this time.
"You can't really expect me to just..." Jackie waved a hand through the air like she was shooing flies. "Things have changed."
"Yeah, I know." He cleared his throat. "I've changed."
"Okay, but so have I. I'm not the same girl you were with before. Maybe I never was that girl?" She cast her eyes at the ground and worried her bottom lip with her teeth. "I don't know, Steven. Maybe you won't even want to be with this version of me. Have you even stopped to consider that?"
"This 'version' of you?" A smirk played upon his lips and he stroked the side of her face with his thumb. "You've always been a multiplex, doll, this is nothing new."
"Huh?"
"I've always known what you were, even if you didn't."
What is he talking about?
"Even when you were jailbait, following me around like a lost sheep with a dimebag of weed in your handbag, I knew there was a real person under that stiff dress of yours."
Her eyes widened at his confession. "If I was such a secret badass..."
Hyde lifted a finger. "I never said 'badass'."
"Shut up, Steven." She slapped his arm. "If you knew I was so cool underneath it all, why didn't you tell me? Why'd you tease me so much and make you think you hated me."
"Everybody has their own path to the Zen, baby. Yours just happened to include me giving you a hard time." He shrugged and pulled her closer by her waist. "My harassment shaped you."
She snorted a laugh. "Yeah? Ever think that maybe I liked who I was before?"
"You hated yourself. You were living a lie, and you were smart enough to know it while it was happening."
Fuck. He's knows me too well for me to have this conversation with him.
Jackie's face grew hard and she glowered at him. "Like you weren't exactly the same way? You always pretended to be this leather-wearing, anti-establishment hippie, but you never fooled me. Deep down, you always wanted the white picket fence and the steady job. And if you were truly honest with yourself, you even wanted the girl too, but you were always just to scared to admit it. You wanted what you never had, what the Formans had."
Hyde looked utterly bewildered and struggled to regain his bearings. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"I know exactly what I'm talking about. And so do you." She smiled with smug satisfaction at the look of panic that swept Steven's features.
"You're wrong, Jackie," he said, weakly lifting his hand to adjust his glasses.
"Why did you come to Vegas, Steven?"
"I told you why."
She shook her head. "Another girl probably wouldn't have made you work so hard."
"Maybe things that comes easy, ain't worth having?" He looked stricken by the realization that she knew as much about the way he ticked as he did about her. "I just wanted to talk to you, wanted for you to hear me out, that's all. I didn't mean for you to get all wasted and sloppy."
Just when I think we've moved up a level, he takes a flying leap off of the edge.
She kicked him in his other shin and he fell against the wall. "Don't call me sloppy."
"Sorry." He breathed through the pain and the finally looked up at her with a smile on his face. "But hey, since you did get sloppy, I'm now living the American Dream, right? I've got a wife and everything!" He was teasing her with what he knew was her own fantasy, and she didn't find it remotely funny.
Jackie exhaled the breath she'd been holding. "I'm not your wife."
"Yeah, you are." Hyde moved closer to her again and she pulled away, knocking off his sunglasses in the process.
She held out her hand to block him. "No. You've said many times that don't ever want to get married, and it's time I took you at your word. Like you said, I don't know what I'm talking about."
He yanked her closer by her outstretched hand, and pressed his lips to the side of her mouth, closing his eyes as he murmured against her pout. "I lied."
And now I'm right back in the thick of it. I'm getting whiplash.
"Steven..." Before she could get out another word, he had her backed up against the wall.
"Kiss me," he demanded.
Jackie resisted the command with a sharp look, but her resolve quickly crumbled. She leaned forward and bestowed a chaste kiss on his lips.
"That's not a kiss."
She allowed him to pull her face toward his, then closed her eyes and parted her lips to grant him entry. He plunged his tongue deep into mouth and her blood caught fire.
Hyde mouthed his way down the column of her neck and she quivered in his arms. "Did you miss this?" Hyde whispered into her damp skin.
"Uh-huh."
"Did you miss this?" Hyde slid her hand down to his growing bulge and pushed her palm against it.
Like a lost dog.
Jackie gasped at his firmness, amazed that she still had the ability to do that to him in such a short period of time. But she was just as weak, he could do it to her, too.
"Uh-huh."
"I was getting hard just thinking about you in this dress...wanted to pull out the knot...and you're gonna let me do it." He bit down on the side of her neck and she cried out.
"It's a bow, Steven, not a..."
"Shut up, Jackie," he said without an edge, as he crushed his pelvis against her, instantly derailing her train of thought.
"We can't...we can't do this here..." she panted into his mouth, wanting to disagree with herself. "They're probably wondering what happened to us."
"Let 'em wonder. What do you care?" He dragged his lips down to the hollow of her throat and groaned as her breathing sped up. "It's not like you were gonna eat that rubber chicken dinner anyway."
"What about Fez and Caroline?"
"Take off your underwear." Hyde lifted her skirt and placed his hand against her warm center for a moment, before attempting to slide his fingers past the elastic of her panties.
Jackie struggled to keep her composure. God, she wanted this - wanted him - but at what cost? "I thought you said this wasn't about sex."
He stopped and slowly removed his hands from her body, then lowered her skirt like it was the last curtain call of a really sad play.
She instantly mourned the loss of his touch and wondered what had come over her that made her stop him, when everything in her body was screaming for him to continue.
Why didn't I just let him? I wanted it. He knew I wanted it.
"It's not about sex." Hyde looked at her with resolve, before breaking out into a smirk. "It's not not about sex, but that's not the only thing."
She crossed her arms over her chest protectively. "What's it about then?"
"I told you...in the shower."
"Tell me again."
"Fine." Hyde owed her, and he knew that better than anyone. "I love you."
He said it again! Could it really be true?
The words washed over her like a balm and she let her head hit to back of the wall. "Thank you."
His eyebrows quirked nervously at her. "Do you, you know...still?"
He can't tell? I must be a better actress than I thought. Well, I can't give him the satisfaction, not now anyway.
Jackie's eyes fluttered open and she stared placidly into the deep expanse of his eyes. "I don't know."
She took a breath and waited for the eventual fallout from her words. If their past was any indication, things were about to get distinctly ugly.
Cue nasty tirade and eventual storming out of room here.
He struggled with what he wanted to say, but finally opened his mouth to speak. "Yet."
Huh? That was unexpected.
The door of the room swung open and a shock of red hair flew past them, dragging a suitcase behind it.
"Eric! I'm just going to leave our stuff in here until after the meal!"
Jackie and Hyde's eyes met in mutual frustration at the interruption.
"Jeez. Don't offer to give me a hand or anything!" Donna sniped loudly in the direction of the door before her gaze fell on the clandestine pair, standing in the wings of the room.
"Hey..." Hyde said, trying to sound casual and failing miserably.
Jackie lifted her chin, determined to keep her dignity. "Hello, Donna."
The redhead looked with suspicion, back and forth between the former couple, then expelled a loud, disgusted moan. "Oh God. You two got married, didn't you?"