A/N so this might be a short chapter because its stuff I need to cover but it should move on from there, as usual I'd like to know what everyone thinks and any suggestions for the end will be considered just so you know.
Hyde stared at Connor lying prone on the floor unable to believe that he'd dropped so easy? From what Kick had told he and Forman, Connor was notorious for being almost impossible to knock out? But there he was – laid low by a girl half his size with wide blue eyes and a pirate smile. With a slight shrug Hyde went to where his friend lay and set about hauling him into a sitting position in an attempt to revive him.
"Connor! Connor! Come on buddy time to wake up!" Hyde called to him and was rewarded with a low groan and flutters of his eye lids.
"Take him in the kitchen; I need to go be sick" King told Hyde flatly and stood to make a dash to the bathroom, Max and Jackie following behind with identical looks of concern for their friend.
Kick and Hyde worked together to get their excessively heavy friend from the living room floor to the kitchen table.
"Jesus! Is he made of lead?!" huffed Kick, his face going red from the effort it took to carry Connors legs.
"Just hold on were almost there!" Hyde grunted, he wasn't enjoying Connors density any more than Kick was.
After what felt like forever they got him propped up in one of the chairs with them on either side to keep him from falling over, neither relished the idea of explaining it to king if he fell on the hard tile floor on their watch. She might have seemed unimpressed with her man for fainting at the revelation that she may well be pregnant, but she loved him all the same and as Hyde learned firsthand when he'd first met King – she was scary when you fucked with her loved ones.
Kick got impatient waiting for Connor to wake up on his own and expedited the process by snapping a small white tube under his nose.
"Is that an ammonia popper?" Hyde asked sounding both curious and impressed.
"Yep, keep a few around for eventualities….never thought I'd need one for this sort of thing though" he muttered in a low voice.
"What will happen now you think?" Hyde asked quietly while they watched Connor slowly come too.
"From what I hear King will expand in the mid-section and get….more irritable and scary than she is already" Kick shrugged while he rummaged around in one of the high cupboards seemingly looking for something he was sure would be there.
"I mean, will they stay here? Will they move or get married or not want a baby? That sort of thing" Hyde told him, feeling a lot more worried than he would have expected to feel.
Kick joined him again at the table and smiled a very similar half smile to the one he'd seen on Kings face, "they'll stay here as long as they want, I promised King a long time ago that I'd never turn my back on her the way her folks did, she may as well be my own kid for all that. I don't know that marriage is going to be the first thing on their minds but I wouldn't rule it out either, and they'd hardly be the first of our extended circle to tie the knot, Lux and ivy are married, so are John and Exene, it's not something we frown on as a community. As for whether they're stoked to have a baby or not – you'll have to ask them" Kick told him in a low voice that didn't carry out of the room.
He set three shot glasses on the table and filled them with whiskey, Hyde knew the label well – it had been his mom's favorite long ago. The green bottle, the red cap….he felt a twinge of anger towards Edna but quickly stamped it down, there were more important things just then than thinking about her.
"hey Casanova, you look like you could use a drink" Kick told a semi-conscious Connor with the same happy grin that Hyde was starting to suspect was Kicks way of creating his own reality – if you looked at the world as though it's funny no matter what the circumstance than maybe, just maybe it would be.
"Not sure drinkin' is the best idea just now, I should find Kings and make sure she's nah too pissed at me" Connor mumbled while rubbing his face to wake up fully.
"King is fine, she's with Max and Jackie and she might be a little annoyed that you crumpled like a tissue at the news you'd 'got her in trouble' but we all know she won't be mad too long, she likes you too much for that" Kick assured Connor kindly.
Connors dark brown eyes stared at his blue haired friend, who was much wiser than they usually gave him credit for and asked him for a favor "will yah, please go and check that she's alright?" he asked Kick softly
"Aye mate, consider it done" Kick said and quickly rose to see about King.
"You Ok man?" Hyde asked the big man, who currently had his face buried in his hands
"What if it's not true mate?" Connor asked when he finally looked up at Hyde.
"I don't get what you mean?" Hyde said with a frown
Connor took a deep breath to collect his thoughts and explain what he meant to his friend "what if we go to the doctor tomorrow of the next day, and….and it turns out to be a false alarm? What do I do then?! I mean – how do I carry on after that kind of disappointment?" he asked desperately wanting reassurance
Hyde stared at Connor a picture of shock and confusion "wait? You're afraid she ISN'T having a baby? You lost me Connor; I thought you fainted because you were terrified she was pregnant?" Hyde said trying to make sense of what he'd heard.
Connor smirked and rolled his eyes "not fucking likely, I passed out 'cus id taken a nasty hit to the head during that fight and sometimes it takes a bit to catch up to you, hearing that Kings is pregnant? That doesn't scare me one damn bit" he said with absolute certainty, and Hyde could see that he was the picture of calm – sort of scary Mohawk sporting calm, but calm none the less.
"So you're not afraid of her being pregnant, you're afraid to get your hopes up and then find out it's not real?" Hyde tried to put it in order
Connor nodded that Hyde had it right "I don't have much family left Hyde, me Mum and me Da` are both dead, me brother is gone and I don't know where? King and this lot are all I have and sappy as it's going to sound, I love King more than I know how to describe, starting a family with that crazy wonderful girl would make me happy and now I'm scared that just when I think that's what I'm about to get, it'll all be snatched away from me" he explained what was bothering him to Hyde as best he could, and Hyde thought he understood – Connor wanted this so bad he wasn't sure how to deal with it if it weren't true.
"Well man, I don't think you need to worry too much, Kings off puking again as we speak and jacks said that she's looked under the weather for the last week or so. Does that math add up to you guys – ya know?" Hyde gestured awkwardly to illustrate his meaning.
Connor raised a questioning eyebrow at his friend "are you asking if us having sex matches with Kings feeling like crap?" He asked dryly
Hyde stared back unashamed "yeah pretty much" he admitted
"Well let me think here, she's been feeling bad for what – three weeks? And we've been together officially for about six months give or take, so yeah that'd matchup" he shrugged
"Connor, do you know how math works?" Hyde questioned when Connors answer was anything but.
A self-satisfied smirk crept onto Connors face "yeah I know how it works mate, three weeks falls into the six months where it could have occurred at least every day of that six months" he told Hyde offhandedly
Hyde's face twisted into a look of chagrin "dude, I'm disgusted and oddly impressed – but more disgusted and yet still more jealous" Hyde realized he was rambling and stopped.
The smile that touched Connors lips when he thought of King was so touching Hyde had to avert his eyes; it hit him hard that he'd had something like that and had fucked it up like it was his job.
"Stop it" Connor snapped suddenly
"What? Stop what?" Hyde asked looking up quickly
"stop beating yourself up about the past, I know you want Jackie back, king knows it, Kick and Max know it, the mailman knows it and most importantly Jackie knows it, so if you want her – if you want to have a life with her get your ass up those stairs and tell her! Cus she sure as hell aint going to send you an announcement that she's ready for you" Connor told him forcefully and for a split second Hyde was afraid Connor was going to drive his point home painfully.
"She's with King at the moment" Hyde reminded him in his own defense.
"Kings laying down now and sent me to tell Connor to – and I'm quoting her here – get the hell in there and tell her it's going to be ok before she gets in her own head too much" none other than Jackie informed them from the doorway.
Connor looked suddenly worried "shit, I got to go Hyde, Kings Head is a scary confusing place" he told him with a shudder and all but sprinted towards the door to their room to shoulder his share of the burden.
Jackie gave Hyde a tired smile, her hair was down now from its earlier pin up girl style and to him she was still the most gorgeous girl he'd ever seen.
"How you holding up doll?" he asked softly and waved her to take Connors empty chair.
Jackie crossed the room and sat heavily in the vacated chair, her dress was wrinkled from crouching beside King while she was sick but she wanted to spend some time with Steven before he had to leave her again for LA. It was small consolation that she was well aware he loathed Los Angeles, but she missed him more than she liked to admit and she couldn't wait until a few weeks from then when the Forman's came to visit. Although truthfully she missed Steven more than she missed the Forman's.
"Are you going to stay the night or drive back now?" she asked casually, but she wasn't fooling him for a second.
"I can give you some space jacks it's cool, I was going to stay but I know you've had a hectic night so I can leave tonight and let you get some rest" he said perfectly serious, but there was a smirk battling to get free when he saw the looked on her face, she wanted him to stay but she didn't want to ask.
"I'm not sure that's safe Steven, it's so late and what if you fall asleep on the drive? I could never forgive myself if you died leaving my house instead of in the hail of FBI gunfire you've dreamed of" she told him with mock concern.
Hyde nodded slowly at what she'd said "yeah, that'd be a shame" he agreed "guess I'll crash on the couch after all, wouldn't want to let the man down" he noted feeling hopeless that they would ever move forward from the holding pattern they'd entered.
"Yeah….uh…do you want to hang out with me and chewy for a little while first? I've barely seen you since you got here and I know you came to see the show and not me, but I'd like to hear how the studios doing" she said in a rush to keep her nerves from failing her.
"Jacks, of course I came to see you, all I ever want to do is see you" he told her softly and with a flash of courage, and took her hand.
Jackie just stared at him and finally found the words she wanted "how do we ever move past all of it and start over Steven?" she asked in a small scared voice.
"I've been thinking about that and here's the best I've come up with" he began nervously and saw that Jackie was waiting on the edge of her seat for him to go on, that alone gave him the boost of courage he'd needed.
He took a deep breath and began.
"Hi, I'm Steven Hyde, I'm a Sagittarius who's working hard to overcome a drinking problem, when I was a kid – not too long ago, and I did a lot of dumb, mean and destructive shit. I was short tempered and jealous and I'd been let down so many times I didn't know how to trust people anymore, because of that I cheated on the only girl I'd ever loved and what's worse is that later I married a stranger that I didn't even like being in the same room with when I sobered up. For what I was, I'm so, so sorry, but the things I used to feel that made me act the way I did then I just don't feel anymore, I'm asking for a chance to prove that I'm not a dumb kid anymore and it's safe to let me in your life again" he told her in a low urgent voice.
"hi Steven, I'm Jackie Burkhart, I'm an Aquarius who's so scared everyone's going to figure out I'm not good enough and leave me that I'm afraid to get close to people, I was a spoiled bossy brat not too long ago but I'd like to think that I've grown a lot and learned to forgive people and believe that they'll forgive me if I make a mistake and not just abandon me" she introduced herself back to him.
"it's nice to meet you Jackie, maybe we can hang out again, get some coffee and get to know each other" Hyde said with a slight smile.
But Jackie looked stunned bordering on pissed off. "That's it?! After all the stuff you've said about how were meant to be together, and how you love me and all that and all I get is a damn invite to coffee?!" she shrieked at him indignantly "where's the declaration of love and asking me to be with you again? Where's the flowers and jewelry begging for another chance? Aren't you going to ask me out?!" she asked sounding a little sad towards the end of her rant.
"no I'm not going to ask you out Jackie" Hyde told her gently and held firm to his plan even when her face fell and tears filled her eyes, licking his lips and swallowing hard he went on "I'm asking you to marry me" he managed to get out hardly above a whisper, but judging by the tears filling Jackie's eyes even while her red lips broke into a huge smile – she'd heard what he had said.
"Marry you? You want to jump from being friends to being married? Isn't that insane?" Jackie asked him without the smile on her face faltering for even a moment.
Hyde appeared to consider what she'd said, but could only smirk for a long minute before answering her question "I've don't enough insane things in my life jacks that I can spot them quickly and this doesn't have that feel to it, and if you think about it – we already dated for two years and if we'd been more mature or had better role models we never would have broken up, and I know that I screwed it up pretty much single handedly, but I'm not that guy anymore doll and I think you know that. I don't want to just date, I don't want to be your boyfriend, I want to marry you because you're my family and I want to make that official, so how 'bout it doll? Will you marry me?" he asked seriously and pulled a plain silver band with a small red stone set in it out of his pocket, it wasn't too cheap but it wasn't at all expensive either.
There had been a time when Hyde would have been worried that the ring he picked wasn't grand enough for Jackie's taste, but in that moment he was sure that its worth wasn't a concern for her anymore, at least not judging by the way her eyes were locked on the simple ring with her mouth formed in a perfect 'oh'. Her hand slowly lifted to hover before Hyde and allow him to place the ring on her finger.
"doll, you have to answer to keep the ring" he reminded her gently, but didn't have a chance to continue because suddenly there were slender but strong arms locked around his neck and a giddy squealing voice chanting 'I'm engaged! We're engaged! We're getting married!" into his ear while intermittently kissing him ecstatically – he didn't have any problem reciprocating.
They were engaged, she was with him again, she loved him and wanted to marry him….he'd never felt so happy in all his life.
A/N so it's possible that writing a whole chapter at midnight and beyond isn't the best idea? I really hope it isn't too bad, if it is ill try and figure out how to edit it later, and just for the record id planned him proposing instead of them starting off dating again from really early on, I figured they could use the security and feeling that both were in it for the long haul.