You guys are the best. Seriously, I couldn't ask for a better bunch of readers/reviewers than you. So long as you continue what you're doing, I'll continue what I'm doing.

To Anonymous: I wouldn't want you to go crazy, so here it is!

In writing this chapter, I used three songs for inspiration. Vindicated by Dashboard Confessional, Hallelujah (cover) by Jeff Buckley and Duke of Earl by Gene Chandler. You can find all three songs on You Tube.

Disclaimer: So I was thinking about Scientology the other day (like you do) and it occurred to me that the reason That 70's Show was so bad the last season was because the producers had a bet with some other show to see who could make the worst TV Show possible. It was a social experiment in how to make bad TV! So, they got fifty bucks, and in return, we got shafted! Lovely.


Towers.

"When she was twelve years old, the enchantress took her into the forest and locked her up in a tower that had neither stairs nor a door. At the top of the tower was a tiny little window." - Rapunzel.

The Prince had no idea how long he had been locked in his dungeon, it might have been months, a year, maybe two. It felt longer. One minute he had been walking with his dark haired princess and the next thing he knew, she was gone and he was being surrounded by ogres; locked in the dungeon with nothing but stale bread and putrid water to eat and drink.

The strange thing was that he had yet to speak to his captor. His only company thus far had been the troll who kept guard, and all he did was threaten The Prince with his large club. When he got free, he was going to take that damn thing and beat the troll with it.

The only good thing about being locked up was that it gave The Prince time to think about what he was going to do. He was going to find a way to escape, find out who had captured him, and then he was going to kill them. He knew, as a prince that he shouldn't go around killing others, but they had taken him away from his princess, who was, as far as he knew, in dire need of his help. She was in trouble. He knew it just like he knew that the sky was blue. The feeling had only grown stronger in the last day, as though he could feel something inside her breaking.

He pulled on his chains again. The wall was slightly cracked, if only he could pull just a little harder, the wall would break and he'd be free. But his strength was weakening, his arm aching.

He needed to find his strength.


"If you don't know me by now, you will never, never know me." Fez sang along to the song on the El Camino's stereo as the gang sat on the water tower holding vigil for one of their best friends.

Donna looked over at Hyde. "I'm glad we're doing this." She hoped he understood what she meant. 'I'm glad we're friends again.'

Hyde gave her a small smirk and a nod. "Me too." He looked over Donna to Fez.

"Fez, stop singing."

Fez frowned, "You never let me sing."

"Just ignore Hyde, Fez." Kelso told him from the other side of Hyde. "He's just cranky because of Jackie."

Fez nodded as though Kelso made perfect sense. Donna also nodded in agreement to Kelso's assertion. She half expected Hyde to deny it, but instead he just stared out into the distance, as though he wasn't listening to a word they said. She half wondered if he was mad about the whole Sam debacle.

"You okay, Hyde?" She asked, nudging him with her shoulder.

"What if she doesn't wake up?"

There it was. She had been wondering when someone was going to ask the question they had all silently agreed to never ask. It figured it would be the cynic of the group that broke it.

"She's going to wake up, Hyde." It wasn't Donna who answered him, but Fez. "She has to."

"She might not though." Hyde retorted.

"She will." Donna tried to reassure herself as much as Hyde.


Four days. Four days and still no sign of her waking up. Hyde knew that the doctors were concerned about her head injuries, but there wasn't anything they could do until she woke up. So, Hyde was starting to resign himself to the fact that maybe she wouldn't. She'd die thinking he hated her.

"Man, this sucks."

Hyde looked over at Kelso who up to that point was being abnormally quiet. "What?"

"If I hadn't taken that job in Chicago, none of this would have happened." Kelso said. "I would have been here to protect her."

Hyde knew what Kelso meant. He was saying, 'I would have been here to protect her from you.' Hyde glanced at Donna who was biting her lip.

"What's with you?" He asked.

"I smiled." Hyde had no idea what she was talking about.

"You called her a bitch and I smiled." Donna was practically shaking.

"Donna, you can't blame yourself." Fez told her. Hyde nodded in agreement. It hadn't been Donna's fault, it was his.

"And it's not Hyde's fault either." Fez said.

Hyde disagreed with Fez's notion. "I'm the one who let her fall in."

"I'm the one who wanted to be alone with Randy." Donna argued.

"I'm the one who went to Chicago." Kelso interjected.

"Oh would you three just shut up?" Fez yelled. "Jackie is my best friend and she's hurt now and all you three can do is argue about whose fault it was? I'll tell you whose fault it was! Everybody's! We're all to blame for this."

"How… how are you to blame?" Donna asked Fez softly.

"I'm the one who lost Miss Kitty's ring." Fez replied simply.

The group found themselves without anything to say. They all turned back and stared straight ahead, each contemplating what ifs. What if Donna hadn't been so selfish, what if Hyde had told Sam to leave when she first arrived, what if Kelso had stayed in Point Place, what if Fez hadn't lost Kitty's ring.

"We should get going, I don't know about you guys, but I haven't slept in days." Donna suggested. The guys nodded, knowing that Donna was right. As they stood up, Hyde had an idea.

"Hey, since we're all to blame, why don't we suffer a little karmic payback and jump off the tower together?" He waited as the other three debated his suggestion.

"Right, because nothing says I'm sorry like breaking your neck." Donna responded sarcastically.

"Hey, I've fallen off the tower millions of times and I've never broken my neck." Kelso said.

"Kelso, I have one word for you, 'Charlie'."

Hyde watched as realization dawned on Kelso's face. "Oh yeah, I had forgotten about him." Kelso shrugged. "I still think we should do it." Hyde and Kelso turned and looked at Donna and Fez, staring at them until they buckled under the pressure.

"Fine." Fez relented. "I'll jump… for Jackie."

Hyde smiled. "What do you say, Big Red?"

"I say the three of you are crazy." Donna answered. "You three go ahead and jump. I'm getting down the sensible way."

Hyde shrugged. "Fine, but the minute Jackie wakes up, I'm telling her you refused to jump for her." He stuck his tongue out at her and then watched as Donna waged war with herself.

"Oh hell." Donna said, hooking her legs around the so called safety rail. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

"Wait… what if we all get hurt, who is going to drive us to the hospital?" Fez asked. Hyde shrugged. "The one who is hurt the least, I guess."

"Good plan." Kelso agreed. "So, on the count of three?"

"On three." The others agreed.

Kelso turned and smiled. "One."

The others joined. "Two."

"Three!"


It had been Jackie's decision to call her male sidekick Not! Eric to distinguish him from the real thing, although to be honest he found it a tad bit insulting. However, he had gotten used to that sort of thing from her, so he shrugged it off and decided to be grateful she wasn't calling him bean pole.

Not! Eric was silent as he and Jackie walked through the woods. He had gotten so used to her yammering on about Steven and her friends that her being silent was almost unnerving.

"Do you know where you're going?" He asked, needing to break the silence.

"To the castle." Jackie replied.

"Uh, Jackie… you destroyed her shoes, what do you think is going to happen when you get there and you don't have them? I'll tell you… she's going to kill you!"

"I don't care."

He didn't know what to say to that. He had been put in charge of this girl, to make sure that she remembered, to help her get out, but how was he supposed to help someone who didn't want to be helped?

"Jackie, I know you're scared, but you do want to wake up don't you?"

Jackie stared pointedly at him. "Why?"

"Why?" He wasn't sure what she meant.

"I mean," Jackie continued, "Why would I want to go back? There's nothing there for me anymore." And with that she started walking again, leaving her guardian alone to contemplate how he was going to convince her that she wanted, needed to go home.


At first, Donna contemplated not jumping and letting the three morons fall, but she knew that if she didn't, she'd never hear the end of it. Also, she owed it to her friend. So as soon as Kelso shouted three, she took a deep breath and stepped off the tower, screaming her lungs off until she felt her body hit the ground. Beside her, Fez was groaning, saying something about how he landed on his bag of M&Ms, she turned her head to see how Hyde or Kelso was doing. Hyde was blinking rapidly, and Kelso was laughing like a crazed Hyena.

These were her friends, of everything Donna knew, or thought she knew, this was the one thing she never had any doubt on, Sure, things had gotten weird after Eric left. Hyde had brought home Sam and Kelso had move to Chicago. Donna had tried to keep the remaining part of the group from falling apart; she had brought in Randy even though it pissed off Fez, and had become friends with Sam even though it hurt Jackie, all in some desperate attempt to replace what was missing. But, if there was one thing she had learned from watching her best friend lie motionless in a hospital bed it was that people can't be replaced. There would never be another Jackie, another Eric, Hyde, Kelso or Fez. At least, she hoped there would never be another Fez. One was enough.

Now Eric was back, but he had moved on while he was in Africa, and Kelso had returned, but for all the wrong reasons. Sam was gone, which while a good thing, made Donna slightly suspicious. She wasn't sure if Hyde had kicked her out because he realized he loved Jackie and wanted her gone, or if he simply felt guilty. She made up her mind to find out.

"Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone."


It only takes a few seconds to land when you fall from the water tower, but in those few seconds it took to land, Hyde wasn't thinking about how much it was going to hurt when he landed, or how Donna was probably going to kick his ass for suggesting such a stupid stunt in the first place. He was back in Halverson's department store, staring at Jackie in the wedding dress. He'd had this fantasy before, but usually it was followed with him joining her in the dressing room. This time, it was just her, smiling radiantly at him as she held out her hand.

"Dance with me, Steven." She commanded.

"Jackie, I'm not going to dance with you."

She pouted slightly. "Sure you are! I know you can dance, you've done it before, so dance with me!" She tugged on his arm.

Hyde shook his head. "Jackie, there's no music." It was a feeble argument he knew.

"Sure there is." Jackie argued. "Now dance with me, Steven!"

Hyde listened to the awful department store music in the back ground. "Jackie, I can't dance to this crap!" It was useless to argue with her though, because soon she was placing his hands on her shoulder and waist, swaying slightly to the melody.

Hyde sighed, knowing he had no choice. "Fine." He wrapped his arms tightly around her and she put her head on his chest.

He was no longer in the department store, but in a large banquet hall surrounded by people in tuxes and gowns. He looked down at himself and saw he was wearing a tux, and Jackie was still in her wedding gown. Your Song played in the background, but the only thing he was paying attention to was the being in his arms. Jackie smiled up at him.

"So, what do you think?"

He didn't get the chance to answer though, because as consciousness returned, he felt the cold hard sting of the ground, heard the concurrent cries of pain from his friends and realized that he was no longer at his reception.

God he hated reality.


She was close… really close. So close that he could almost smell her perfume.

But it wasn't clean. It was mixed in with something else. Tears, yes, worry, yes, but those were just undercurrents to the strongest scent of them all. Someone, or something, had hurt his princess.

The Prince pulled on his chains, deepening the crack a little bit more. Whoever had touched his princess was going to see the end of his sword.


Jackie stared up at the single tower in the middle of the forest. It was completely unattached to any other structure, and there was no visible door to the inside.

"What is this tower doing here?" She asked Not! Eric.

He shrugged. "Oh, uh, I'm not sure."

Jackie looked up at the window. "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let your hair down!" She giggled softly. "I've always wanted to do that."

"Very funny, your highness, but can we get back to the discussion at hand?"

Jackie had a very good idea what the discussion was, and she wanted nothing to do with it. "Look at these thorns, I bet it would really hurt if you fell into these."

"Yeah, the last guy who did scratched his eyes out." Not! Eric replied disinterested.

Jackie rolled her eyes. "It's too bad I can't get in there." She shrugged and walked away from the tower. "Come on, we need to get to the castle before morning."

"What about the Prince?" Not! Eric asked.

"What about him?" Jackie asked back, she didn't want to think about the prince, or Steven, or anything except getting to Cinderella.

"Well, aren't you going to rescue him? Be the Luke to his Leia!"

Jackie stopped and glared at her companion. Not only did he look like Eric, but he talked like him too.

"Why should I? He let me drown!" She couldn't believe she had to explain this.

"You're the one who kept telling me that I was better off without him, and now you want me to rescue his stupid ass?"

Not! Eric shrugged. "Well, yeah."

Jackie shook her head. She had enough of this conversation. "I'm done here, can we go?" She didn't wait for him to answer.


"Love is so confusing there's no peace of mind." Donna sang along to the radio as she pulled into her driveway. She opened her car door but remained in her seat as she listened to Debbie Harry sing about misused love. She could see the light was still on in the Forman's kitchen, and part of her wanted to go in, but she knew that the days of her just walking into the Forman's house uninvited were over as long as Eric and his new fiancé were around. Even when Eric had been in Africa and he had broken up with her, she had still been considered Eric's girlfriend, Sure, Kitty had called her a whore when she started dating Randy, but there was never a moment when she didn't feel welcome. Now, she felt out of place, out of touch.

"You gonna stay there all night?"

Startled, Donna jumped in her seat at Hyde's voice. "God, you scared me." She hit him in the arm.

"Ow." He replied, rubbing his arm. "What's got into you?"

Donna shrugged, "I was just thinking."

Hyde sighed and rubbed his eyes "Your father must be very proud."

Donna laughed. She had missed this part of Hyde. "When Sam came, Jackie said she was over you like that, and I believed her, mostly because I was too depressed about Eric to actually look beyond the surface."

Hyde leaned on the car and sighed, waiting for Donna to continue.

"Hyde, why are you doing this?"

Hyde blinked, "What do you mean?"

Donna took a deep breath. "Did you get rid of Sam because you no longer wanted to be married to her, or did you do it because you feel guilty about Jackie?"

"Oh I get it." Hyde answered after a minute. "What you really want to know is if I'm tearing myself up inside as much as you are."

Donna shrugged. "Well, are you?"

Hyde sighed again. "You know, when I was jumping off the tower with you guys, I could only think about Jackie? Maybe before it was about guilt, but now… now I think about what my life would be like if she wasn't in it, it's very quiet." He gave a small smirk.

For whatever reason, Donna felt relieved by Hyde's answer. "Do you love her?" It was a loaded question she knew, and she doubted Hyde would give a straight answer.

"I don't love people." Hyde answered. Donna was about to say something to the effect of 'I didn't ask if you love people, I asked if you love Jackie.' But Hyde went on before she had a chance. "But Jackie isn't people. Jackie… is…." Donna waited for Hyde's answer, but never got it as he was walking towards his car. Donna jumped out of her seat and yelled towards him.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to the hospital." He yelled back as he jumped into the drivers seat of the El Camino.

Donna ran towards him. "But it's two am, visiting hours are over."

Hyde shrugged. "I don't care." And with that he was off, leaving Donna alone, wondering what had gotten into Hyde.


Sneaking into the ICU at two in the morning was remarkably easy. Taking a quick glance around, Hyde entered Jackie's room and closed the door behind him before walking towards the bed. Still standing, he picked up her hand, making sure he didn't accidentally rip out her IV. Rubbing his thumb on her wrist, he stared down at the girl he had fallen in love with against his will.

"I don't know if you can hear me… and I know you probably can't, but I've got something I need to say to you, Jackie." He didn't know why he was so nervous; it wasn't like she could talk back.

"Huh, it's kind of weird to be able to talk to you without you interrupting." He gave a soft chuckle before taking a deep breath.

"You know what? I don't want to say this unless you're awake, so… you got to wake up. I'm trying, Jackie, I really am. Sam is gone, and I'm gonna start going to AA meetings, but none of that will mean anything unless you're there, so you have to wake up. I can't do this without you." He placed a kiss on her forehead, beneath the bandages. "I should go." He told the sleeping girl. He couldn't move though, couldn't get his hand to let go of hers.

"Fine, I'll stay, but only for a little bit." He let go of her hand and walked over to the other side of the bed where there was some space. He carefully removed his boots before climbing in beside her, wrapping his arm around her delicate frame. "Good night, Jackie." He kissed her cheek before closing his eyes. "Sorry about the beard, I haven't had time to shave."


As Jackie and her companion got closer to the castle, Jackie became more apprehensive. She knew what she needed to do, but the actuality of pulling it off seemed almost too lofty a pursuit. It didn't help that Not! Eric had kept asking her about Steven. She'd rather talk about anything else besides him. Michael's panty collection was a better topic for discussion as far as Jackie was concerned. Given then half of them were probably hers, she'd most likely qualify as an expert. However, she knew that he wasn't going to let off.

"Everything just got so screwy you know?" Jackie didn't wait for Not-Eric to reply. "Sometimes I think it was my fault, because I know I shouldn't have given him that ultimatum, but on the other hand, he shouldn't have just chosen someone he didn't even know, and he shouldn't have said nor did the things he did afterwards. Because I would have forgiven him for the stripper, but I don't know how I'm supposed to forgive him for everything else, especially if I don't know if he's sorry for it."

"Well, you can't stay here." Not-Eric told her. "You're gonna have to go home eventually."

Jackie nodded. "I know." She did know, but that didn't change the fact that she was absolutely terrified. She was becoming used to being a Princess. Granted, she was a princess without the amenities that other princesses got, but it was better than the real world, where her friends ignored her, her ex was nasty to her, and she had nothing going for her except being pretty.

Jackie never thought she would ever think this, but simply being pretty wasn't enough anymore.


"You can keep pulling on those chains all you want, but you're never going to get out of that cell." The troll told him.

The Prince glared at the troll. "I am," he replied, "and you better be ready for when I do."

The troll pretended to shudder. "Ohhh, I'm so scared." "Give me a freaking break. You ain't getting out from behind those bars. Only one person has the key and she isn't gonna give it up."

She… his capturer was a female. Which old witch had it in for him these days?

"I know it for a fact; she's left you in here for good." The troll snorted when he laughed.

The Prince's reply was to pull on his chains. The troll shook his head and walked back to his chair. "Never gonna happen, Puddin'pop."


"The prince was beside himself with grief and in his despair he jumped from the top of the tower. he was still alive but his eyes were scratched out by the bramble patch into which he had fallen. He wandered around in the forest, unable to see anything. Roots and berries were the only thing he could find to eat and he spent his time weeping and wailing over the loss of his dear wife." - From Rapunzel in the Annotated Brother's Grimm. It doesn't get much better than that. But he found his princess (and his eye sight) so don't despair people! If he can do it, so can Jackie and Hyde!