(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 14

"Hey" said Hyde feeling just a little odd as Jackie stepped back in off the balcony wearing one of his shirts and very little else.

"Hi" she responded, looking equally as awkward as he felt.

It was like they were teenagers again, more so last night than now, as they went from fighting to kissing in one easy step and then found themselves making love in his bed before long. It was easy to sleep after that, Jackie had found, in the comfort her lover's arms. She was emotionally and physically exhausted and let sleep claim her until the early morning sunshine had hit her across the face and startled her awake.

Steven had remained, snoring gently at her side, and she wasn't so sure she really wanted to wake him. A part of her actually considered getting dressed and getting out of there before he woke at all, but that would make Jackie a coward and she would not be that, not now.

Running away before had been so wrong, she'd admitted as much last night. Doing the same again would only make things ten times worse, and not just for herself and Steven either. There was Brittany to think about, their precious daughter who had yet to meet her father. She had a name, one lousy photograph from too many years ago. She wanted a real father-daughter relationship, if such a thing were possible. For that to happen, Jackie had to remind herself she was a grown up now and start behaving like one, in the hopes that Steven might do the same.

"Er, coffee?" he offered, as he ran a hand over his face, thinking maybe he should've put a shirt on, but then Jackie wasn't wearing pants either so it wouldn't be entirely his fault if things got hot in here again!

"Yes, please" she answered his question absently, mind running a mile a minute and she tried to think of anything she might say to make this situation less awkward than it felt right now, "Steven, I..." she began, turning to face him where he now stood behind the breakfast bar, putting the machine on for their coffee.

"You what, Jackie?" he prompted when she failed to go on.

Honestly he didn't blame her for being dumb-struck, he could quite easily be the same. If anyone would have asked him what he'd say or do if he ever saw Jackie Burkhart again, the honest answer would have been that he had no idea. When she arrived here last night, he certainly hadn't thought they might end up sleeping together. Okay, so that was a lie, the thought had briefly crossed his mind, after all she was still as hot as the last time he saw her twenty five years ago, and he never really had stopped loving her, truth be told, but that wasn't the point.

One minute they'd been talking about the daughter he'd never met or even knew existed, which made him so very mad at Jackie, the next she was crying and he could see why she'd behaved the way she had. Within the hour he was making love to her, feeling like a teen again just because she was there, because they were together.

"I just talked to Brittany" she said then, pulling Hyde sharply from his dreamy sexy thoughts into the stark reality of fatherhood, "She still wants to meet you"

"And I wanna meet her" he said definitely, though just yesterday when Veronica had told him about his daughter he had been so unsure of what to do for the best, "She's my little girl, Jacks, however old she is now"

Jackie couldn't help but smile then, for a hundred reasons she'd never be able to explain. Pushing her mussed up hair off her face, she pulled herself up onto the stool by the breakfast bar and picked up the coffee Steven had put there for her. It was strong black and sweet, as she used to drink it so many years ago. Her tastes had changed since then and she'd cut out the sugar to keep her figure in check, but Jackie didn't feel the need to say anything as she drank it down with a smile that wouldn't shift.

"What's the look for?" asked Hyde as he leaned on the other side of the counter top, sipping his own drink.

"There's no look" she said, somewhat defensively, knowing immediately that she shouldn't have snapped like that at such an innocent question, and that she was lying her ass off too, "Okay, there is but... I don't know, Steven. It's been twenty five years and this... it's still familiar. I like it" she explained, practically hiding in her coffee the very moment she was done talking.

"Yeah, well" he said, clearing his throat, awkward as ever when it came to talking about serious things like feelings or whatever, "It's not so bad from where I'm standing either" he told her, a half-smile evident on his face when Jackie dared to meet his eyes again.

Unfortunately, a whole wave of negative emotions and memories came crashing over her the very next moment. She could not let herself get caught up in this, couldn't let herself fall for Steven Hyde all over again. Jackie was a grown up now, she had learnt to have a little more control over her emotions than she had at seventeen, when every crush was meant to be forever, and every kiss a promise for the future. Now she knew better than that, of course she did, but when her eyes met Steven's own and he looked at her that way, she could so easily forget herself. They had to be on good terms for Brittany's sake and they both knew how badly things always ended when they tried to get close. There was such a thin line between love and hate, and the last thing Jackie wanted for herself as well as her daughter's sake, was for there to be hate between her and Steven again.

"I have to go" she said so suddenly it startled Hyde and almost made him spill his coffee as she jumped down from the stool, dumping her mug on the counter and practically running away from him.

"Jackie!" he called after her, but she didn't turn back, just gathered up her discarded skirt and top on the way to the bedroom, and then slammed the door tight shut when she got inside.

Immediately Hyde went after her, not at all amused by her childish behaviour and actually thinking they could have a adult conversation without the teen tantrums of the old days. Clearly he'd been wrong, and Jackie had the capacity to be just as bratty as she'd been aged seventeen. Of course, had he thought about it for two seconds, he would have realised he hadn't changed so very much either.

"What's going on with you?" he asked as he yanked the bedroom door open, finding her mostly dressed now and hopping around trying to find something she was missing.

"Nothing" she snapped, as she got down on the floor to check under the bed, making a sound of joy when she came up with the misplaced earring in her hand, "I just, I have places to be" she said as she hastily shoved her jewellery back in her ear and tried to move past him to retrieve her purse, but apparently he wasn't budging, "Look, Steven, last night was... fun" she settled on, knowing it was a highly inapt word but also knowing she could not bear to analyse it all right now, "but I really have to leave now" she said again, glad when he finally moved a little and let her through.

This wasn't how Steven Hyde had thought things would go when he saw Jackie Burkhart again. A part of him always knew their paths would cross somewhere down the road, however unlikely it had seemed for a good long while. Once he knew about Brittany, their seeing each other again became as definite as anything could be, but he never thought for a second it would be like this.

The night spent together was surprise enough, but her reaction to it this morning, and his own feelings about it, were the bigger shocks. She didn't seem to care much that they had made love, that he might actually care. She was so aloof about it, so Zen, he realised, feeling stupid. Maybe it was all his fault that she'd turned out this way, but there wasn't time to worry on it now as he hurried back out into the living room and caught up to her as she waited by the elevator doors.

"Hey" he called behind her, and she turned sharply to glance his way, arms hugging her body, "What happens now?" he asked from across the room, knowing if he got closer to her he might do something dumb like kiss her again.

"I'll call you, about Brittany" Jackie promised, "As for anything else..." she shook her head as the elevator doors opened and she stepped inside, "I'm sorry, Steven" she told him softly, "but I just don't know" she said as the doors slid shut.

Steven Hyde watched the lights change and the elevator made its way down the ground floor. For not the first time in his life he was alone, and yet this was so much worse than before. Last night he had the woman he loved in his arms, and now she was gone, again. He hadn't hurt this bad in years.

"Eric, would you please just let me.." said Donna as she pushed him out of the desk chair and squeezed in herself, clicking away with the mouse and immediately regretting it.

"Yeah, that's not good!" he said of his wife's mistake as they found themselves on some kind of gay porn website by mistake.

Donna frantically backed out of the page and then took her hands very definitely off the mouse and keyboard, as Eric ran to the stairs and bellowed up them to his son.

"Luke!" he called, "Come fix this contraption for your mother!" he urged him, and dutifully the young man, who could have been a double for a younger Eric if not for his red hair, came barrelling down the stairs.

"Y'know I could've gone somewhere else for Spring Break" he complained, though he was smiling when he said it, coming to take his mother's place at the computer in the corner where once the family's electric organ had been way back in the seventies.

"After last year?" said Donna with a raised eyebrow, and Luke dutifully went about helping her out.

"What were you trying to do?" he asked curiously, "Does this still have to do with that old friend you were talking about before?" he checked, bringing up the Google home page and awaiting further instructions.

"Is your sister still hiding in her bedroom?" asked Eric as he wandered back over from the stairs, hearing no movement from above.

"Yeah" Luke snickered, "She's still sulking like a baby 'cause you wouldn't let her go party with her friends for Spring Break"

"She'll get over it" said Donna definitely, as her hand landed on Luke's shoulder and she gestured toward the computer screen, "I need to find an address for a Private Investigator in California" she told him, "All I know is the girl who called here was called Veronica Mars, and this was the number she left" she explained, handing her son a scrap of paper.

"Okay, we can do this" said Luke with a nod as his fingers raced across the keyboard at what appeared like lightening speed to Eric.

He had no doubt their son could help them out with this, though the whole situation that could spiral out of them actually finding this Veronica Mars was a little crazy. He and Donna had got to talking about their old friends Steven Hyde and Jackie Burkhart. Coming to the conclusion that it seemed likely she was the mother of the mystery child, and that one or both of the parents had to be close by to wherever this PI was based, it had made the couple start to wonder if they should head over there.

They hadn't seen the friends they were talking about in over twenty years, pretty much completely lost touch with them, and the more they thought about it and talked about it, the more Eric and Donna felt the need to reconnect. Call it a side effect of getting older, or watching their kids grow up. All these two knew for sure was that they really wanted to see Hyde and even Jackie again if it were possible, and it seemed it might just be...

"Address, email, and number" said Luke with a proud grin, as the details of Mars Investigations popped up on the screen, "What did you need it for anyway?" he asked his Mom and Dad curiously.

"Your mother and me are taking a trip" Eric told him, sharing a look with Donna as she grabbed onto his hand.

"To California?" asked Luke, double-checking the address on the computer screen, "Cool, I'll come along" he offered, liking the idea of a beach vacation rather than just staying home if he were honest.

"Part reunion, part family trip" his father shrugged, "Why not? We can afford it since you got your raise at the paper" he told his wife who nodded her agreement.

"Oh but PJ had some stuff to finish up at Med School, she's not coming home for the break til tomorrow" said Donna suddenly, knowing she couldn't live with herself if they headed off on a trip and left an empty house to greet their eldest daughter.

"Well, chances are good we wouldn't even get one of those cheap last minute flights til tomorrow morning" her husband reasoned, as Luke got straight back onto the Internet and started searching for the appropriate flights, "PJ could just meet us at the airport if she wants to come along. You know she always talked about seeing California sometime" said Eric easily.

"Yeah, and the promise of a beach might even get Jaime out of her room" his son chuckled as he continued searching for cheap airplane tickets, his mother moving to sit down beside him and watch.

Eric was smiling as he went over to the bottom of the stairs this time and bellowed up to his youngest child.

"Go away!" she responded loudly, as many a seventeen year old did when getting summoned by her father in such a way whilst she was trying to show her displeasure with the whole stupid family and all their stupid rules!

"Okay" Eric sighed, "but I thought you might wanna known about our mini-vacation to the bea-ach" he sing-songed, trying not to grin too much as he heard her bedroom door crash open and her dainty feet stomping across the landing.

"The beach where?" she asked from her position now perched at the top of the stairs in front of him.

"Neptune, California" he smiled somewhat as he told her their destination.

"Okay, I need new beach clothes, and at least three hours of packing time" she informed him, scrambling back to her room to begin the process of getting her things together for the trip.

Sometimes Eric wondered how he and Donna made such a child, but at least she was guaranteed to get along with 'Aunt Jackie', if indeed they found her.

To Be Continued...