Twenty minutes later...

Mindful of his wounded stomach, Hyde carefully attempted to roll to his left and reach for the nurse's buzzer hanging over what he assumed was the drip feeding his body antibiotics. Upon hearing a loud sigh he stopped and rolled back on the bed.

"Well what do you expect me to do?" he muttered, staring up at the ceiling.

"That was exactly what I thought you'd do which was why I put the damn thing up there," Red stated, nodding toward the buzzer. "You have hounded those poor nurses enough in the last 20 minutes. When they know something, they'll come and tell you. You bugging them every three seconds is only making them angry." Red picked up the paper from his lap and continued reading leaving Hyde to wonder how anything the media was spewing out today could compare to what he was currently going through. Nothing was more important than knowing whether or not Jackie was okay; even cars that ran on water took a backseat.

"Can't you go find someone? Just see if anyone knows anything?" he asked Red.

The old man looked up from his paper with a raised eyebrow. "Son, Kitty will come back when she has any information. You just need to be patient. Why don't you eat some grapes or something." He handed Hyde the fruit bowl and Hyde shook his head.

"I don't wanna eat, I wanna know if she's okay. And where are those other morons? Why haven't they come to fill us in?"

"Steven, I'd say they're staying away because they know that you're being a whiney little girl-" Hyde's eyes widened in fury at his foster father's word's "-Now we're all worried about Jackie but you have to remember that she's in the right hands, whatever's happened to her. The doctors are looking after her and you lying there going on n on is not going to bring us news any faster."

"Yeah but-"

"Yeah but nothing, Steven. You've nearly torn your sutures once this morning trying to get out of that bed...so will you please, for the love of god, just lie down and wait? Preferably with your mouth closed."

Hyde did as he was told and lay still in his bed. He ignored the anger brewing like a storm in his head and the worry flooding his veins. Being helpless sucked. And being guarded by Red Forman sucked even more.

Putting his arm over his forehead he said "When I can move again I swear to god Kelso is a dead man."

Red slammed his newspaper shut and threw it on the floor. "We've been over this. You can't blame that idiot this time. He'd done a good job of looking after Jackie...it wasn't his fault she's a sneaky little minx and snookered off with the keys without him knowi-"

"Not his fault?" Hyde yelled. "He shouldn't have taken his eyes off her. He was supposed to be keepin' an eye on her, not havin' freakin' showers!" As far as Hyde was concerned it was Kelso's fault, no one else's. He knew Jackie nearly as well as Hyde did and he should've known that one way or another she'd put herself in harm's way. He should've watched her like a hawk until Cassidy had been caught.

Yeah, it was easier to blame Kelso for this mess. When Hyde was angry at him he could ignore the guilt that was almost killing him. He'd spent years blaming Kelso for his own fuck ups and he wasn't about to stop now.

For once, he told himself, this wasn't his fault.

It was Kelso's.

Red stood up and crossed his arms. "Look here, Steven. That boy drove like a bat outta hell to get Jackie after you were shot, and while the rest of us were getting some sleep and something to eat he sat in his dirty clothes for seven hours waiting for her and making sure Cassidy wasn't around. I know he tests all of our patience but he's a good kid and he means well and I'll be damned if I let you punish him for this."

Hyde clenched his fist at his side. Who else was he gonna punish? Someone had to be punished and it couldn't be Jackie...the only other option was Kelso. "Whatever," he mumbled as Red sat back down.

The next half an hour went by torturously slow with no sign of anyone; well no sign of anyone with Jackie info anyway. The nurse had come in to check Hyde's wounds which had been awkward. Before Red had taken the buzzer off him Hyde had laid into the nurse about her refusal to take him to find Jackie so now the old duck wasn't talking to him. Hopefully a shift change was coming soon; if he had to see nurses every twenty minutes he'd prefer they were the smiling ones who handed out lollipops, not the ones who scowled and thought he was an asshole.

Fucking nurses.

"She's okay!" Hyde's head jerked in the direction of the door and the beaming face of Kitty Forman rushing through it. "She needed stitches on her arm and has a few bruises but the main thing is she's okay!" Kitty giggled, practically skipping to the bed.

Hyde cleared his throat and tried to conceal his relief. "Well where is she? And what the hell happened?" he asked.

"She's just finishing up with the doctor and then I'm sure she'll be in to tell you all about it," Kitty explained, laying a hand over Hyde's. "Until then, why don't you get some sleep, honey? You've been awake and anxious all morning, it won't be helping your recovery any." Hyde was tired, to the point he was pretty much seeing two Kittys standing in front of him. But he couldn't sleep; not until he'd seen Jackie and found out what had happened between her and Cassidy.

"I'll sleep later."

Red was now next to Kitty, shaking his head. "There's no point, Kitty. This one won't listen. He'll sellotape his eyes open if he has to."

"Fine! I'll close my eyes for a minute if it'll keep you lot happy," Hyde said gruffly. "But I'm not going to sleep. I'm just resting my eyes."

Kitty smiled as he closed his tired eyes and pulled the sheet up over his chest. "Oh you're a good boy, Steven," she cooed. "You rest for a bit and before you know it Jackie will be here."

The darkness was good. So was the quiet. Hyde's body was bruised and battered making it hard to even breathe but the feeling was not new; he'd felt this way long before the shooting. He'd felt this way since his son had died and his only reprieve from the discomfort came in the form of a bubbly brunette with a killer smile and the heart of a saint. If he'd lost her today he would've well and truly lost everything. There would've been nothing worth fighting for.

Lulled by memories of times spent with his son and times spent with Jackie, Hyde found it increasingly difficult to fight the urge sleep. If happy memories filled his dreams rather than the nightmares that had plagued him for months perhaps it wouldn't hurt to succumb to it for a few moments? So he relaxed his muscles as images of Jackie and Johnny danced through his weary mind. In his dreams he had them both and they both loved him as much as he loved them. In his dreams Johnny was a happy little baby, doted on by Jackie, adored by Hyde, growing older in every dream. Why would he ever want to wake up from this perfection?

How could anything ever compare to his dreams?

Yeah, it couldn't hurt to dream for a little while.

...

Two hours later...

When Hyde woke up all he could feel was a numb, tingling sensation in his right arm. He tried to move it but couldn't and when he looked down all he could see was shiny brunette hair.

Jackie.

He wiggled his arm underneath her trying to wake her. "Jackie! Wake up!" he whispered into the top of her head.

She stirred a little before turning her head and looking up at him, her eyelids still heavy. "Hey, you," she said, her voice husky from sleep.

"Hey yourself," Hyde smiled. Jackie pulled her body further up the bed until her head lay beside Hyde's on the pillow. It was then he noticed the dark black and purple bruising around her left eye and the small cut on her cheek. His stomach flipped and he suddenly felt sick. "What the fuck?" he said, his smile gone.

Jackie arched her body so that he could pull his arm out from under her, and she grabbed hold of his hand before resuming her position on the bed. "Ssssh, baby, I'm alright. It looks worse than it is. I'm fine." She placed their entwined hands on his chest and he glanced down at the thick bandage that covered her whole forearm.

"What the hell did she do to you?" A huge part of Hyde wanted to know every single detail about what had happened, but a fairly big chunk of him wanted to know nothing. That was the part that knew once he had the gory details he'd blame himself.

Jackie grinned deliciously. "You should be asking what I did to her. That bitch won't be getting out of bed for a week," she said proudly. "I got her back for you, baby. No one hurts my puddin' pop and gets away with it." She kissed him softly on the lips. He pulled away.

"I didn't need you to go there and 'get her back for me', Jackie. You said yourself that the cops needa deal with her. I can't believe you fuckin' did that. Do you know what could-"

"Steven," Jackie interrupted, propping herself up on her elbow, "everything's okay. I wasn't seriously hurt. The cops have her now and won't be releasing her anytime soon. Don't be angry with me."

Truth be told he wasn't angry at her. Or Kelso. He was angry with himself for bringing this craziness into everyone's lives. He was like Friday the 13th, or a black cat, or walking under a ladder - he brought bad luck to everyone.

"I'm not angry with you," he mumbled as Jackie stroked his sideburns. He gently ran his fingers over her bandage. "So how'd ya get cut?"

Jackie's eyes widened. "I got stabbed, Steven! How badass is that? Sixteen stitches, baby." Hyde shook his head as Jackie proudly recounted her bitch fight with Cassidy. If he had to estimate he would've said the story took around eight hours to retell, even though Jackie had only been at Cassidy's for around half an hour. It was fairly easy weeding out the extra bits Jackie had included for dramatic effect and by the time she was done he was pretty sure he had a decent enough picture of what had happened.

"I can't believe you told everyone that she was fucking Chris, man," Hyde said, trying to stop the laugh that so badly wanted to escape his mouth.

"I was seventeen. A seventeen year old can't be held responsible for what comes out of her mouth." Jackie raised her eyebrows. "I can't believe she thought you were nice. That is not a word I would use to describe you back at high school."

"Hey, who took you to prom? And who let you buy him boots when you were all sad over Kelso?"

Jackie's face softened and she leaned down to kiss him again. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I guess you were quite nice." She pecked at his lips a few times and he cursed his left arm for not being able to move and pull her down on top of him.

"Gimme a proper kiss," he ordered.

"Oh, well since you asked so nicely..." She giggled before placing her lips on his and parting his lips with her tongue. The warmth of her mouth, the touch of her fingers caressing his face, the weight of her leg over his, made it easy for Hyde to forget the bruises on her face and the cut up her arm. Right now they were just two horny teenagers foolin' around in the Forman's basement. Much like his dreams he didn't want the moment to end.

He didn't wanna deal with reality.

She broke away first and when he opened his eyes he saw a look of seriousness cross her face. "Mrs Forman said you should be able to come home next week," she said, tickling his neck.

Home? Where the fuck was home?

"Yeah, so the doctor said."

"I have a bit of grovelling to do to my landlord but I'm hoping I can keep my apartment so I thought, that maybe, you might wanna move in with me? Let me take care of you. Nurse you back to health." She winked and he smiled, even though he felt like complete and utter shit. She'd left her job and her apartment for him and now she had nothing but was still willing to look after his sorry ass.

The feeling had returned to his right arm so he ran his hand through her hair. "I'm sure I can go back to the Forman's, you don't needa worry about me."

"But I want to worry about you. I love you remember?"

She loved him. He had put her through hell over the years but she still loved him. Why?

"Jackie, you have enough to deal with. You gotta get your job back, n your apartment...you don't need to add lookin' after a cripple to your list. I'll be fine at the Forman's for a bit." The basement. The freaking basement. He always ended up back there. It was as if it were his destiny to lurk below the happy 'normal' folk for his whole life.

Jackie furrowed her brow. "I can sort all of that no problem. By tomorrow afternoon I guarantee I have my job back and all my stuff unpacked. Please come home with me, baby?" Hyde was sure that she whispered 'please' into his mouth when she softly kissed him again, and it broke his heart. She was battered, bruised, and bleeding but still begging him to let her take care of him. Did he even deserve her?

"Okay," he said when she pulled away. Jackie's face lit up, even her eyes smiled above him.

"You'll come home with me?"

"Sure. Beats the basement n Red's moaning n groaning."

Jackie rolled her eyes and lay her head on his chest. "Oh, I'm flattered to know that living with me just beats out a manky old basement and a grumpy old man."

"And you should be flattered," Hyde teased as he stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head. "Because I think you forget about Mrs Forman's cooking. A man needs to eat, Jackie, so I'm expecting big things."

He couldn't see her face but he knew her well enough to know that she was biting her bottom lip, worried about how she was gonna cook for him everyday and not kill him. God he wished her cooking was his only worry...