And we have finally reached the end! Thank you so much to the readers who have stuck to this from the beginning. The alternate Jackie and Peter end will begin soon. Please review and let me know what you think and if you have any ideas you'd like me to include in the alternative storyline that's coming.
Epilogue: Father and Son
April 27, 1981
"Hel- achoo… hello."
"Doll?"
"Hey Steven," she says weakly, failing to relay how happy she is to hear from him.
"You're still sick."
"I'm fine, puddin' pop."
"I'm coming home."
"Y- achoo… you can't."
"Jackie, I told you if you didn't get better I'd come home. And I know you're still studying for finals, working and didn't go to the doctor."
"No. Old man achoo... won't let me near the bar. Puddin', you just got there. WB and Angie… need you to stay in Florida for the music video achoo thing tomorrow."
"I'm on my way."
"Ste-"
"Doll, shut your pie hole," he orders. "I'm leaving the hotel right now," he adds and hangs up.
She sighs, hangs up the phone, and sneezes on her management in practice book again. She balls her fists in annoyance, she cannot be sick right now. It's her last quarter and she has finals to finish and a graduation to celebrate! She looks down and sees the ring on her finger then smiles until… "Achoo. Dammit!".
May 3, 1980
"Morning puddin'!" she says, skipping into the small living room/dining room area of the apartment.
"Shouldn't you be in bed?"
"I'm fine."
"Doctor said medication and bed rest for a week."
"It's been a week." He looks at her with a raised eyebrow. "It has! Six days, seven days, what's the difference? I took the last of the antibiotic today." She grabs a book from a nearby shelf.
"Oh no, you don't," he says. He stands up and puts her on her shoulder.
"Steven! You can't just keep in bed."
"Yes, I can."
"How?"
"Are you really better?"
"Yes!"
He smirks. "I have tons of ways. Hell, I'll keep you in bed for days."
June 22, 1981.
Hyde paces in their bedroom anxiously. She opens the door and sits on the toilet, looking green and with watery eyes. He walks in. "So?" She points to the counter. "What does this mean?" She hands him the box and he reads the word positive under the picture with a ring, just like the one showing on the test on the counter. "Oh."
"Uhuh."
"Jackie."
"Ummm…"
"Are you okay?"
She shrugs. He kneels in front of her and caresses her face until she speaks. "I know antibiotics can affect birth control. I just didn't think and now… I'm scared. It's an unplanned baby and last time…" A tear rolls down her cheek.
He cleans the tear with his thumb and kisses her lightly on the lips. "Last time I didn't know and acted like a moron. This time I'm here and we're engaged and living together. You'll have your accounting technician degree in a couple of weeks plus your jobs at the bar and Grooves are solid. And your father in law will probably give you great benefits." She lets out a small laugh. "Doll, I have the store and the music video gigs. We're okay. I'm not gonna let anything happen to you, either of you," he says, touching her stomach with the hand that's not on her face. She smiles lightly as he continues. "We'll go to the doctor tomorrow and make sure you're both okay."
"Puddin'," she exhales and pulls him into a hug. "I love you."
"Me too."
July 18, 1981. In the Vista Cruiser on the way to church.
Eric is smiling as he drives. "I can't believe you're the first one to get married."
"He always said the time to marry a girl was when you knocked her up," Kelso adds.
Hyde turns and frogs him. "She's not some random girl."
"Arh!"
"Oh my gorgeous but dumb friend, my goddess baggged Hyde long before the baby."
Ross nods. "She got the biggest rock this side of the Mississipi months ago."
"It's been coming since she got him to worship ABBA and spend half his money on long-distance," Peter adds. They all laugh.
"Get bent!"
"As long as it's not from dancing to ABBA," Peter counters.
The boys cackle and Hyde glares. "Morons."
"Relax buddy, it's not like she'll say no," Eric says.
"If you call me buddy on your best man speech I'll pound you." Eric twitches.
Once they finally get to the church everything goes as expected. The planning was rushed with the wedding being moved three months before the original date. But with W.B.'s resources, the paperwork and changes in venues and times all worked perfectly. With a radiant smile and a few happy tears Jackie Burkhart became Jackie Beulah Hyde Barnett only days after Steven changed his name to Steven James Hyde Barnett.
Jackie thought that was the happiest day of her life but then Valentine's day 1982 came and they welcomed Joy Kathleen Hyde Barnett to the world. Joy was the perfect name for the beloved girl who brought a new light of pure happiness into her parents' eyes. Steven became softer. Jackie became calmer. Together they found the peace of trust and family and eased into life as the Barnetts of Point Place.
August 18, 1989. Room 375, Hyatt Hotel, Nashville, Tenessee.
The original gang, along with a few new members, sit in a circle without any smoke around them.
Angie is between Hyde and her husband Dean, her eyes watery despite the comfort she feels having two of the men she loves most next to her. "I miss him."
"Me too, sis."
"It's good that you brought him here. He'll be happy with his angel," Jackie says, remembering what Steven had told her about his dad.
Angie smiles lightly. "Yeah. He deserves to be happy. It feels like he brought us here just yesterday and told us about his mistakes to help us see how to live."
Hyde nods. "He saved me."
Jackie kisses his cheek, "He saved us." He holds her and puts his hand on her protruding stomach. The fourth Hyde Barnett and Jackie are his comfort for at this moment while Joy, John and Jimmy are out with the grandparents, aunt Laurie, uncle George and the troop of kids made up of Formans, Kelsos, Mercers and Adamses.
"He saved lot of us," Amira, Peter's wife says. "He was wonderful." Hyde and Angie nod.
Peter raises his beer. "To WB! Who helped more than one man get the woman he loves."
"Here here!" says everyone as they raise their beers.
They remember the story of Peter and his Amira. In 1983 he was deployed in Lebanon and got shot while protecting a young widow and her two little brothers in the middle of a riot, pulling them away from her dead parents and other siblings. She was allowed to see him in the hospital and from the moment he woke up they became inseparable. The arranged marriage to her dead husband had never entailed love; with Peter everything was different. But he got sent home while she and her brothers were moved to a refugee camp. W.B. paid for lawyers and helped speed the process of finding her, getting her and Peter married and moving them and the boys to the U.S. As a way to thank him, Peter and Russ wrote an album worth of songs and gave W.B. all the rights to sell them. He gave everything to Hyde who invested most of the money he made from the songs in a joint venture with Jackie and Leah for Abbott's.
"To WB for always rocking!" said Leah Kelso who had taken ownership of Abbott's and turned it into a place where bands battled for a chance to meet Grooves executives and record a music video.
"To your dad, for never judging," added Dean, kissing Angie's forehead. W.B. had always been supportive of their relationship. He told Dean he could see his eyes sparkle when his little girl came in the room and as long as he stayed true to her he couldn't care less about his background or money. He also told him to never listen to Angie's mother who detested that he was a simple contractor who had worked his way out the worst neighborhood in Milwaukee and met Angie during the remodel of the main office.
"I second that," said Russ, remembering how W.B. supported gay rights and helped him look for a lawyer when Monica's mother tried to take Maddy away because they had moved in with Fez.
"To WB!"
August 19, 1989.
Hyde feels like he's gonna fall flat on his face on the way to the small podium. Jackie decides to stand, takes his hand and walks the small way to the front of the church.
His voice doesn't want to work but somehow he manages to speak about his father. About how he wishes he would have had him in his life more than the eleven years he got and yet how thankful he is that they got to be a father and son for those eleven years. He tells them about the man who got him to fight for the woman he loved and clean up his act after his time in a Chicago jail. About the poor kid from Nashville who survived a war to become the music man who sold records of artists from all over the world and made sure all artists got a chance to make the coolest music videos. About the sweet grandpa that his daughter adored because he let her put ribbons in his fro and was the best guest at her fancy tea parties. The cool man who gave John Robert and Jimmy Reginald a drum set and guitar for Christmas and T-shirts signed by the original Zeppelin members. Not that Hyde let them wear them, they'll have to wait until they're thirty and understand the legacy behind their names.
Angie also shares her memories and adds that even if a car accident took him from them, he lives in his children's hearts and will live there always.
Later they bury him next to his Angela.
"Puddin' they'll be happy together," Jackie tells him. He nods and kisses her briefly.
November 28, 1989
His excessively large birthday dinner turned into a caravan of cars from the Formans to the hospital. Jackie was in labor for over five hours. It was exhausting, but she safely delivered William Jackson Hyde Barnett before midnight. Hyde turns to look at her in the bed and smiles.
"Your mom is amazing," he says to the bundle in his arms. The baby opens his bright blue eyes and begins to fuss. "Hey man, none of that. She's sleeping and I ain't so bad. Plus you better enjoy this 'cause once we get home you'll be lucky to get a second of quiet. Between your mother and sister, you'll be surrounded by yapping. Joy is more up to date in the town's gossip than the ladies at the market. Truth is between your mom and grandma Kitty she had no hope from the start. And your brothers won't stop the racket with the music instruments. Peter is supposed to be showing them how to play properly but who knows when they'll learn. If they're anything like me they're probably not listening to their teachers anyway and I'm wasting my money in private music school, but hell they're having fun."
"Don't say hell to the baby," he hears.
"Go back to sleep, doll," he orders. "We're having boy time."
"But I'm not tired."
"Jackie." She pouts at him. He moves closer to the bed. "That's not always gonna work."
"Really? It's worked you met me."
He scowls. "Whatever."
"Give me my baby," she says. He does and then she scoots, making room for him to join them in the bed. Hyde lays next to her. He kisses her cheek and they watch their new addition to the family as he snuggles against his mamma and falls asleep. "Thank you for coming thru for me," she says with a smile. "You made sure we had a home that's happy like the Formans and the most gorgeous little girl. Hello! She looks just like her mother. With the most badass twins in Wisconsin and now him. A little boy that has your hair, your eyes, your nose. My dream."
Hyde smiles. "The first one with the fro."
"He's perfect."
"He is. Happy birthday little W.B."
She kisses his cheek and says, "Happy birthday, daddy."
"You know I wouldn't be against another little Joy to drive us nuts with dresses and dolls." Jackie laughs. "But we'd need some baby-making practice. Maybe a trip for mommy and daddy to have some fun."
"Celibacy Steven Hyde Barnett. Six weeks of celibacy."
"You're killing me. And you're the one that's always going crazy for the six weeks to end."
She laughs. "Well I love my puddin' pop."
"I love you too, doll." He puts his arm under her head and lets her snuggle next to him. Tomorrow they'll go home and deal with the craziness that is the Barnett clan with their sassy girl, rowdy boys, and the new baby who will probably be unhappy with the noise and let them know. But tonight they can sleep and just enjoy their bundle of joy.
THE END
Thanks for reading! LREAwrites.