DISCLAIMER: I own nothing, as I am a poor lowly university student who is now broke from the cost of her textbooks!

Ch21…Helping Out…

***

Well the store hadn't burnt down, that was the good news, Randy however had allowed Leo to be in charge of ordering stock and now they had two hundred Allman Brothers records to shift, which was the bad news.
"How the hell are we meant to sell two hundred Allman Brothers records by the end of the month?" Most people's eyes would be stinging; the thick cloud of smoke circling there heads making the air cloying. Leo seemed to be trying to suck the smoke back into his lungs without the aid of the joint that was dangling from a smirking Randy's fingers.
"I don't know man. Whoa Hyde aren't you in the nuthouse?" Leo was staring intently at his boss; if he wasn't already used to this Hyde would have probably found it quite scary.
"Leo I was in the hospital with Jackie." He said this slowly not expecting his friend to comprehend what he's saying. Randy was jittering in his seat, his eyes flicking between him and Leo.
"You know Hyde all I did was give him the order forms, I was gone for half an hour to get my hair done at Fez's salon and when I came back all there were was Allman Brothers records everywhere." Randy shook his head at the memory, the hair falling across his face. "My hair is so shiny, like the sun. Don't look directly at it!" His hands came up to shield his hair earning peals of laughter from Hyde.
"Who's this Jackie? You should be with loud girl man, she's sad all the time, you should cheer her up!" Hyde's brain slowly whirled to life as Leo's words registered within him.
"How'd you know Jac- loud girl was sad?" He corrected himself quickly, he had to be fast, Leo's lucidity was fleeting at best.
"I see her around, she's always alone, she's not loud anymore. It's not right."
"Yeah I know."
Whatever high he had had was now gone, sobriety fully kicking in. Sobriety sucks.
"Hey Hyde? Whose loud girl?" Randy asked his hands still moving in a frenzy blocking his hair from prying eyes.
"Hyde loves loud girl! They're getting married."
If it was Kelso he would have simply dived across the circle and tackled him, but this was Leo. Randy was shaking his head, once again hypnotized by his hair. Behind him sat the stacks of Allman Brothers records mocking him.
"You know if I squint Leo totally looks like one of those dudes on that album cover."
Hyde smiled; this was why he had hired the guy. Clapping Randy on the shoulder he left the circle and headed towards the door.
"Guys tomorrow we're having an in store recording signing, one of the Allman Brothers is in town."
"Cool man, I always wanted to meet one of them."
Hyde just continued to smirk, why bother explaining to Leo that he was the Allman Brother? He wouldn't remember anyway.

***

Thank god his parents had changed the locks. He had closed all the curtains, placed the chain on the door and taken the phone off the hook; no one was getting inside this house.
"Hold still Eric, I can't have this hem all uneven!" Kitty cried out, of course it had come out a little differently what with all the pins in her mouth but after two hours Eric could translate it in his head pretty easily. The dress was pink with flowers, the sleeves were long and flouncy, he felt very much like Cinderella, and he was dying for someone to rescue him, preferably someone blind so that the amount of people to see him in this dress remained at him and his mother.
"Who's modelling this dress anyway?" Eric asked mentally running through the women of Point Place that were his height; Donna and Big Rhonda.
"Just one more second honey and stop twitching."
His mother had said it almost absentmindedly, not really aware that her words had some kind of deeper meaning. Which they didn't, not really, it was just something Jackie called him, the old Jackie, the bitchy, David Cassidy loving, disco dancing Jackie, he god willing, missed. He had seen glimpses of her, in a look, a comment but nothing substantial, nothing real. Sure she had smiled and laughed, even joked a little but she hadn't been Jackie. He couldn't talk about it with his friends, Donna was still too upset and not for the right reasons and Kelso and Fez were, well Kelso and Fez.
"Oh Donna is going to look so adorable in this dress, it'll be like she's a real girl." She clapped her hands, squealing with delight.
"Donna is a real girl mum." He explained this gently, she was armed with pins after all.
"Well it's not like you can tell what with all that plaid she wears, and the mouth on her! Fez is more feminine! Now just one second." Kitty stook back to admire her work not at all noticing Eric rolling his eyes. "Well it's almost perfect, something's missing, what could it be?"
"Oh I don't know maybe a girl to wear it?" He cried out scratching at his wrists, this dress was itchy, how did Fez stand it? Oh yeah he was drunk. His mother just ignored him, too bust rummaging through her sewing box.
"Aha!"
Oh boy, she'd found something. Armed with a bow she pinned it to Eric's hip.
"Now it's perfect! Don't you think Eric?"
"Oh yeah mum, I'm a fairy princess!" He used a high-pitched girlie voice as he said this, sarcasm oozing into his words. He closed his eyes, there was a sentence he never though he'd say.
"Smile!"
Eric opened his eyes and immediately regretted the decision being momentarily blinded by the flash of his mother's camera. He fell forward tripping over the skirt of the dress in his haste to get to his mother and the evidence this afternoon ever took place. Black circles coloured his vision, he was being guided by his mother's characteristic giggles, the door in the kitchen swung open and he raced after her all thoughts of his outfit in the back of his mind.
"Give me the camera mum!"
Kitty was quiet looking over his shoulder at something; he felt the colour drain from his face, the pink of the skirt flitting into his vision. He turned around slowly with as much dignity as he had, which wasn't much. He opened his eyes one by one and smiled, it was only Fez.
"I thought I had made this clear! I am the man in the group that wears the dresses!"
Fez glared at Eric once more and then stomped back down the driveway. Okay, that was a little weird.
"Mum can I take this off now?"
"Oh I don't know Eric, I think pink really is your colour."
Turning back to his mother he cursed inwardly at Donna smiling at him biting back laughter.
"No I believe it's your colour Donna, after all mum made this for you!"
Now it was Donna's turn to feel the colour drain from her face, Eric crossed his arms and cheered silently, taking a step towards the door he tripped on the skirt, a loud rip accompanying his fall.
"Damn it Eric, now we'll have to work through tonight!"
Oh hell, there goes his evening.

***

The place was grimy; oil stained the floor, the benches and even the windows. The jumpsuit Red wore had once been grey but was now black and smudges the same colour dotted her arms and face and she loved it. She even loved the oversized shirt he had given her that reached mid thigh and the name stitched into it, Jack, with an extra ie scrawled on the end in permanent marker. Oil smudges decorated her legs which disappeared from view as she wheeled herself under the car. Some people probably would have found it claustrophobic and possibly gotten nauseated from the fumes but she loved the smell, after all it was the first time she ever realized that Red and Steven were human, actually had feelings.
"How's it looking under there Jackie?"
She wheeled herself back out from under the car to look at Red, his voice had sounded muffled and now she knew why, he was stuffing his face with a burger, she looked at him slyly with one eyebrow raised and he just smirked back.
"The thingie with the black circle mabob was loose so I-" She broke off when she saw Red's stricken face. "Don't worry, I fixed it."
"Oh I'm not worried about that, I actually understood what you were saying before that."
Jackie giggled, wiping her hands on the shirt.
"Well all the names sound the same and really as long as I can fix it what does it matter if I can't name them all?"
Red shook his head at her logic that made sense to him as well.
"Don't tell every tell anybody that I agree with you, got it?"
"Got it." Her hair was on its way to being shiny again, right now it was piled on top of her head, stretching upwards she pulled it out letting it fall around her shoulders.
"You get fries with that burger?" She asked hopefully, she was actually hungry.
"Steven bought over lunch, there's fries and a strawberry milkshake waiting for you in the break room."
She smiled at the thought, she loved dipping her fries in her milkshake, she'd given Steven a heart attack the first time he'd seen her do it and past it off as a pregnancy craving.
"Is he still here?"
Red nodded as he swallowed the last of his burger.
"Yep he said he needed to talk to you about something."
"Right." Jackie muttered as she walked towards the back, Red at her heels.
"I'll be right out here." He whispered, he straightened up quickly and pushed the door open for her
"Oh and if Kitty asks her cucumber sandwich was delicious." He said this with a grimace as he threw the offending sandwich in the bin shuddering slightly. Jackie giggled as he disappeared back through the door; it was funny she felt more like herself in this dirty and smelly old garage.
"Steven?"
He hadn't moved from his spot at the table since she had come in, hadn't spoken, hadn't blinked. She moved forward hesitantly pulling herself up on the bench next to the food, crossing her legs underneath her. He shook his head and coughed, shouldn't she be wearing pants?
"Hey Jackie, I wanted to check when Mina was coming over."
It sounded like a lame excuse even to him, they lived under the same roof, this couldn't have waited three hours?
"I was going to call her tonight, is tomorrow afternoon okay?"
The fries were crunchy with extra salt, just the way she liked it; the sweetness of the milkshake off setting the salt perfectly. For all the zen in the world Hyde couldn't stop himself from wrinkling his nose as she ate the milky covered fry.
"Yeah that's fine, Randy and Leo can cover the records signing although I think I'm going to have to start docking Randy's pay every time he skips out to the beauty salon."
"I think he would actually end up owing you money then, Fez said he comes by at least once a day, he's worse than a girl." She dismissed this with a wave of her hand enjoying the not awkward conversation with Steven; as long as they avoided any topics that were personal they were fine. "Wait what record signing?"
Hyde smirked, it was his I'm a diabolical evil genius smirk and was usually reserved for when he was being truly evil, though she was loath to admit it she loved that smirk.
"Well it seems that Leo is one of the Allman Brothers, or at least that's what I'm hoping the dumb citizens of Point Place will believe."
"You are evil."
"You love it."
Both fell quiet, there easy banter effectively stonewalled. Jackie slipped down from the bench, the smile on her face slipping away with her.
"Yeah, that's the problem."
She fled from the room before he could even react; it was only once she was safely hidden underneath the car that she allowed the tears to fall from her eyes. She remained silent, allowing the tears to spill down her face mixing with the smudges of grease and oil, wanting to remain hidden from the world, she could hear Steven cursing and calling out her name, it echoed in the empty room. She would stay here safe from the world.
"Oh hell, what did you do this time?"
She sucked in a breath, oh dear god, this was too much, too familiar and yet she couldn't move.
"What I'm best at, I hurt her. I'm no good for her Red I'm just going to screw it up again like always."
Red's spanner clattered on the ground next to his feet and Jackie prayed to the Gods that neither of them bent down to retrieve it and gave her away.
"Welcome to being an adult. Stay here there's something I need to show you."
She could see the scuffed toes of his boots, the same boots she had bought him, the same purple love heart with their initials drawn on the underside. She was a jumble of nerves, worried about what Red wanted to show him, about being found out but most of all about what he had said.

***

Okay guys, so instead of reading The Odyssey by Homer like I was supposed to I wrote this chappie! I know you all agree with my decision. Anyways I hope you liked this; Red and Hyde will be having a very important chat, any guesses what he needs to show the young dumbass? And what exactly will happen in their next counselling session? Will the gang ever be allowed back in the basement? Well I know and you will too, eventually…