Um... yeah, I know it's been a while since I updated. I started writing 'bout New Year's but that bombed so this is the first chapter taking place after season 8. Fez and Jackie break up and Fez tells Jackie a big secret that he's been hiding for quite some time.

There's probably only going to be one mone chapter after this, maybe two, but probably one. So sigh in relief that the happy ending is very near.

ON WITH THE STORY - RESOLUTE LOVE CHAPTER 10

A few weeks passed since New Year's. Mrs. Foreman was ecstatic to have Eric back in the house, but she was at the moment having a breakdown. Eric was just packing the rest of his stuff in the Vista Cruiser to leave for Madison, where Donna was already having left New Year's Day. Eric decided not to go back to Africa. The program paid him for the time he did teach there and he and Donna decided that he would move in with her at her Madison apartment as soon as he could. He would get a job there to pay for the rest of college while she went to school. While everyone considered this the worst idea they could possibly come up with at this particular time, they did it anyway.

Mr. and Mrs. Foreman decided not to move to Florida meaning Hyde got to keep his room in the basement. Bob had moved to Florida and was now in the process of getting a bait shop up and running. Kelso had gone back to Chicago. Randy was still working at the record store and had met Eric on New Year's Day. They actually got along alright. Eric didn't blame him for dating Donna after he was an ass and dumped her and Randy didn't blame Eric for moving in with Donna so soon after they broke up. He was kind of perturbed at Donna though, nothing that he wouldn't get over. Jackie and Fez had gone from awkward couple to cute couple since they had their first kiss at the water tower on New Year's Eve.

Things had been going a little better for Steven Hyde. WB had apparently saved one record store and gave it to Hyde, which meant the last Grooves was now owned and operated by Steven Hyde. A few years ago Hyde never would have imagined himself owning a record store given to him by his black father, but now he did. With his own business, he was well on his way to becoming a responsible, respectable adult. Granted, it scared the crap out of him but he wasn't going to tell anyone that.

While his life was apparently getting better with the store, he himself felt miserable. Having given up his attempt to win Jackie, his life now consisted of working, sleeping, and the circle, having discovered it was vital to his sanity. The only amusement he got out of life was seeing "Michael + Fez" written on the water tower when he would drive home everyday.

Jackie had moved back in to the apartment with Fez and set definite ground rules. They stayed in there separate bedrooms at night and truly almost nothing had changed from before she moved out except that now they sometimes made out in the couch.

Jackie had become content with their current relationship. She had a boyfriend who loved her and worshiped her. He bought her presents. He opened doors for her. He paid her complements almost every time he saw her. They were cute, kind, safe. Safe and content but without passion or joy. She never got carried away when they were making out. In fact, sometime she found her mind wondering. Jackie dwelt on this fact for quite sometime. She wondered, perhaps, if she had chosen the wrong guy again.

Oh great she thought. She had finally found a guy who was everything she ever wanted and she found herself uncomfortable every time he did something kind and gentlemanly. Everything she had spent years trying to teach Hyde and Kelso to do like open doors for her, pull out her chair for her, complimenting her new dress; they made her sick now, and guilty. Thinking of Hyde and Kelso got her to thinking of Hyde. Thinking of Hyde got her to thinking about all the little things he would do; stroking her hair when she sat on his lap, giving her a peck on the lips to say goodbye, calling her Dollface, even the presents he did give her, things that were important to him but wouldn't impress anyone. She still had his old Led Zeppelin t-shirt in the back of her closet. She never let go of it. She couldn't let go of him.

Right now, while all these thought were racing through her head, she and Fez were making out on the couch. She tried to feel passion but all that came was her feeble acting skills. Fez seemed unaware of her preoccupied mind and responded fiercely to her small acting gestures, only making her more timid.

He went for second base, for the first time since the started going out, causing Jackie to squeal in surprise, which he must have thought was excitement, He continued to paw at her breasts, unaware of her rapid change of behavior. She could feel the bile rising in her throat. She couldn't take it anymore. She pushed Fez off of her and got up from the couch.

"Jackie, what's wrong?" Ever the gentleman, so kind and considerate.

"I'm sorry, Fez," she stammered. "I just think we're moving too fast." She couldn't bear to tell him that she was still hooked up on Hyde.

"Oh, I get it." He said, "You're still hooked up on Hyde."

Jackie froze for a minute and then made a feeble attempt at denial. "Of course not!" she said, attempting to dismiss the issue. "That was over, like, eight months ago, and it was his loss anyways." She averted to her stuck up snobbish personality. "If he can't appreciate me for who I am, he doesn't deserve me." "Jackie, come on," Fez said. "It hasn't been eight months. It's been, like, six weeks." Jackie made another attempt at denial but the only thing that came out was incomprehensible gibberish. "Jackie, don't even try to deny it. I mean, how many closets have I hidden in? And Hyde was married to a stripper! Don't you think I'd want to see some of that?"

"Oh my god! You were there!?"

"Yes, and imagine my surprise when you came in and started making out with Hyde instead of Sam."

"You sick pervert! Did you see anything?!" she slapped him a couple of times before letting him answer.

"No, of course not. How are you supposed to see anything is a dark basement?" Jackie turned away frustrated and angry, though glad he didn't see anything. "But you know, you two are a lot more vocal that Donna and Eric. It still gave me needs."

Jackie slapped him hard on the arm.

"Ow! What was that for!?"

"You disgusting bastard! You knew the entire time and you just watched while Hyde and I had an affair, throwing burns at each other whenever there was anyone else in the room!"

"I told you! I didn't watch; I listened!"

"Uh!" Jackie stormed towards her room.

"Jackie, don't you get it?" Fez stopped her. ""That's why I didn't go out with you when you asked me the first time. I figured you and Hyde were just arguing over some thing and you were looking for a rebound!"

"Agh! I can't believe you thought that about me!"

"Well... weren't you looking for a rebound?"

"No! Well... yes but¾ that's not the point!" she yelled. "You thought bad about me and I can't be with a guy who does that!"

"Well, that works fine because I can't be with a girl who I think bad about! Oh, who am I kidding? Yes, I can."

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"So, friends?" Jackie tiredly walked over to the couch and collapsed.

"Oh, Fez. What's wrong with me?"

Fez sat down next to her with a sigh, "Well, Jackie. If you really want to know... your a bitch. "

Jackie turned to him with surprise and disbelief. "Fez!"

"Let me finish," He held up his hand. "You are stubborn and selfish. You know what you want but not what you need and you won't admit to needing anything."

"That is so not true!" She stood up to tower over him. "I am Jackie freaking Burkhart! I get everything I want or need... and I don't need anything!"

"Your lying!" he stood up nowto stare at her at eye level. Jackie looked like she was ready to hit him again. "You need people and especially Hyde! Do you realize how much less annoying you were when you were with him? It's because he's just as stubborn as you! He's the only one you can't push around! With Kelso you just bossed him around a lot because he was weak and liked to be manipulated, so you two made the most annoying couple in existence. Then me, I do whatever you tell me to in hopes of making out." Jackie stared at him in disgust. "I got to second base and that's further that I expected to get, so¾"

Jackie started hitting him again. "You sicko!"

"Ow! I know! I'm a sicko! Stop hitting me!"

She stopped hitting him and started scowling into space, ignoring him. Fez starred at her for a minute before letting out a heavy sigh.

"Why don't you just go ask him to take you back?" Jackie continued to stare off into space, but her scowl had turned to a saddened expression.

"I can't do that," she said.

"Why not?" Fez asked.

"He would never take me back," she said.

"Of course he would. He's been moping around more than you."

"No, he wouldn't... not after what I've said to him. He probably hates me even more than before we went out."

"Jackie, he never hated you. He just pretended to, like he pretends to hate everything. If he really hated you, he wouldn't have taken you to Prom and he wouldn't have punched that guy on Veteran's Day and he wouldn't have tried to comfort you every time you cried." Jackie made another attempt to run to her room but Fez once again stopped her form escaping. "Don't you see? He always loved you. He just pretended not to because you were Kelso's girl and then his ex-girl and then his girl again etcetera, etcetera It's common courtesy not to hit on your best friends girl/ex-girl. It never stopped me but that's because I have no common courtesy when it comes to hitting on women."

"It doesn't matter!" Jackie was on the verge of tears now. She dodged into the small bathroom before Fez could catch her, locking the door behind her. "He hates me now and he's not going to take me back and it doesn't matter because I'm not going to ask him anyway!" That was the last thing she said before the tears choked out her cries of outrage.

END CHAPTER 10

So, what ya think? Did you guess the secret? :-)