A/N: heyyy so i have no idea how this legal stuff works but i feel like they had to be more chill about it in the 80s so...also this one is a bit shorter, sorry! ive been busy and I'm tired. But i'll see yall friday with another one:)

"So you're-you're agreeing to do it? Raise Betsy? With me?" Jackie asks, still in shock. She honestly didn't expect him to say yes. She'd literally just been planning her life as a single parent ten seconds ago, fully prepared to take on the task herself if she needed to. And then he'd said those words, "So are we gonna do this thing or not?" and now single parenting might not be necessary- unless she'd imagined him saying that. She's seriously wondering if she had now.

"I'm going to do my part to help raise Betsy. Not with you," he clarifies, "just sharing custody with you. Think of it as a divorced couple sharing custody over their child. Co-parenting. You know, she stays with you for a few days, then a few days with me. It all works out."

A huge weight lifts from Jackie's shoulders at his words, not bothered in the least by his "not with you" statement. She's just happy she won't have to do this alone. The task of parenting a toddler, especially now , at her young age, and in these circumstances, seems daunting. Terrifying, even. But sharing the burden with another person, knowing there'll be someone to lean on, that makes it seem a whole lot less terrifying. "Oh Steven," she breathes, a smile spreading across her face, "I'm so glad to hear that. I was afraid-"

He holds up a hand, stopping her from continuing her rant of appreciation. "Look, I just said I'm not doing this for you, okay? I'm doing it for Kelso." He then nods towards Betsy's hospital room. "And for her."

There's a pang of hurt and annoyance in Jackie's chest at his words. Of course he's not doing it for her, but does he have to be so defensive about it? Is he that revolted at the thought of doing something to help her? "Right. I don't need or expect you to do it for any other reason, trust me," she says, unable to hold back the passive aggression. She hasn't needed him for anything in a long time and she has no intention of letting him think she does now.

Hyde clenches his jaw at this and he looks like he's about to respond, but luckily he's interrupted by a nurse leading a middle aged woman in a blue pantsuit over to them.

"Here they are," the nurse says before walking off again to return to her duties.

"Steven Hyde and Jackie Burkhart, I presume?" the middle aged woman asks. She has bright red lipstick and prematurely graying hair.

"That's us," Hyde answers, unsure of where this is going.

"I'm Tina Freeman, Betsy Kelso's social worker. I'm here to talk to you about your rights to custody," she shakes both of their hands.

Hyde came around just in time, Jackie thinks.

"Oh yes, they mentioned you would be stopping by," Jackie replies to Tina.

"I must say, these are pretty unusual circumstances. First of all, I'd like to offer you both my condolences for the loss of your friend," she starts. While the words are genuine, it's obvious that the woman has been trained to deal with a lot of difficult situations like this, and the routineness of it all feels a little impersonal.

Jackie manages to mumble a 'thank you', still unfamiliar with the reality of Kelso being dead. Hyde doesn't say anything.

"Now," Tina continues, "I have some routine questions for you. By now you're both aware that Betsy was left into your custody through legal documentation, meaning that should you choose to claim these rights you would become her legal guardians, correct?"

Jackie tries to catch Hyde's eye, but he keeps his gaze on the social worker. "Yes," they both answer.

"If you do not claim these rights, the court will decide where to place the child. Either with a willing and acceptable next of kin or in a foster home," the woman informs them.

At even the thought of Betsy being placed in some random foster home Jackie's chest tightens around her heart and she zones out of the rest of Tina's speech. Betsy can't go to one of those places, she deserves better. Michael would never forgive them if they allowed it. After all, a dysfunctional family with separated, but loving parents is still better than going to live with strangers. Who knows what kind of home Betsy could be placed in? Jackie shudders at the unpleasant possibilities that come to mind. She won't let that happen, and she knows that Hyde won't either.

These circumstances are horrible and traumatic, but Jackie and Hyde can help keep Betsy's bad experiences to a minimum. At least with them she'll be in a somewhat familiar and comfortable atmosphere, with people she's familiar and comfortable with. To be honest, Betsy knows them- and the rest of the gang- better than she knows Michael's parents, not that they have the time to raise a two year old anyway. Yes, the more she thinks about it, the more Jackie becomes convinced that her and Hyde are making the right choice...as ridiculous as that may sound.

"...after considering the full extent of what this means, have you decided to accept these responsibilities and wish to obtain custodial rights?" Tina asks as Jackie zones back into the conversation.

"Yes." The responses come out firmly.

"I see. We usually don't have such young people come into custody of a child like this, let alone agree to them. Nor are the people usually unmarried," Tina comments, "but you are together, right?"

Oh no.

Jackie's eyes fly to Hyde's, panicked. She hadn't been expecting this question. She should have, but with everything going on of course her mind wasn't thinking too clearly. If the woman knows they're not together she may not agree to sign off on the paperwork to finalize the custodial rights. Who wants to willingly give a kid a dysfunctional family with separated parents? Especially a kid that already has to deal with the death of her biological parents.

"Uh, yeah," Hyde answers, clearing his throat, "of course we are."

"And you're living together, I assume?" she presses.

"Yes!" Jackie jumps in hastily, eager for Tina to buy the story. "We have an apartment together. I mean, it's in my name but we uh, we share it. And there's an extra bedroom for Betsy."

Hyde raises an eyebrow at her.

Her response had only been half a lie. While of course Hyde doesn't share the apartment with her, Jackie was speaking about her own apartment that does in fact have a guest bedroom that she was (very recently) planning on turning into a nursery for Betsy.

"Ah, alright then. I guess people are just doing things differently these days," Tina says with a slight air of judgement.

"It's the 80s, man. Things are changing," Hyde shoots back, annoyed with her old fashioned attitude.

"Apparently so," the woman responds with a tight smile.

Jackie watches awkwardly as Hyde simply gives Tina one of his classic, innocent smiles. Normally she'd be amused, and maybe even proud, but she's a bit intimidated by the seriousness of the situation. She feels like they're being judged, and Betsy's social worker is definitely someone to be concerned about how they think of her.

"Well, I think that about covers it. I have some paperwork I need you both to sign in order to finalize everything. While you two do that I'm going to see Betsy, let me know if you have any questions" Tina says, handing them a stack of paperwork before heading towards Betsy's room.

Jackie and Hyde find a nearby table and chairs to sit down and begin filling out the paperwork, silently passing papers back and forth as needed. Reading the statements written across the pages feels surreal and Jackie almost feels like she's dissociating. It's hard to process the fact that she's here right now, with Steven Hyde, filling out legal paperwork granting them custody of Kelso's child.

"Never thought we'd be doing this," Jackie comments after a few minutes of tense silence.

Hyde snorts. "Yeah, I never thought a lot of things, but here we are."

"I'm not even going to ask what exactly you mean by that, Steven," Jackie says, more than fed up with his attitude towards her by now. She's been dealing with it ever since they broke up two years ago. It got old real fast.

"Jackie, not everything is about you," he replies, rolling his eyes.

"Oh please," Jackie retorts, "I've been on the receiving end of your passive aggressive comments long enough to know that was one of them. And also, how dare you accuse me of being self absorbed while I'm sitting here signing paperwork that binds me to taking care of another human being for the next 16 years." She's having none of his bullshit today.

"Yeah, well I'm not entirely convinced you agreed to this without some ulterior motive," he reveals, "The Jackie I know would never willingly do something as selfless as adopting a kid."

The words sting like salt in an open wound. Even now, here, Hyde can't see her as anything but a selfish bitch. Maybe it's all he'll ever see her as, because it's all he wants to see her as. But he's wrong. He has to be.

"You don't know me at all, Steven," she snaps, "That's the whole problem, isn't it? That was always the problem." The words are meant to hurt him, but they hurt her as well. At one point, she not only believed her he truly knew her, but that he knew her better than anyone else did.

"Oh, here it comes-"

"No," she interrupts, "I won't bother getting into it now, you're not worth it. But I would like to remind you that Michael and I dated for years , and he was my first love. Even after everything, he was still a close friend of mine. And a part of me will always love him. So maybe that's why I chose to honor his wishes by agreeing to raise his orphaned daughter! Because I genuinely loved him."

Hyde opens his mouth to respond but Jackie continues, "And what did you do? Constantly call him stupid and enjoy watching him get in trouble or even get hurt? Yeah, that's what I thought."

At this point, Hyde's jaw is clenched and his left eye is slightly twitching. Jackie can tell he's pissed.

Good. He should be.

"First of all, Jackie ," he spits her name, "don't act like you didn't contribute to making fun of Kelso. He told me once that he broke up with you that one time because he felt like you made him feel bad about himself. And second, don't you fucking dare say that I didn't care abut him. We were friends since we were six years old and even though we gave each other a hard time we both knew we were willing to die for each other. Just because I didn't fuck him doesn't mean I didn't care about him too."

They're both standing now, in each other's faces, glaring down one another. Jackie stares up into Hyde's eyes, but she can only see herself in the reflection of his sunglasses, nostrils flaring. She can feel the sting of tears in her own eyes, but she refuses to let them fall. She won't give him the satisfaction. Not today.

"Am I interrupting something?" Tina's voice cuts through.

Immediately, Jackie and Hyde take a few steps back from each other, still peeved but embarrassed to have been caught in such a moment.

"No," Jackie answers innocently, "how did it go with Betsy?"

"Well, she was still pretty out of it. But from what I could gather she seems to be a very sweet little girl," she reports. She glances between them, giving an amused smile. "You're going to have your hands full with a two year old, but if you two are really dedicated to doing this together then I'm sure you have nothing to worry about."

Jackie looks away awkwardly and Hyde coughs.

"Here's the paperwork, we signed everything," Jackie hands the stack of papers back to the woman.

"Wonderful. Michael already made the arrangements with his lawyer, so all I have left to do is report back to his lawyer and get him to sign off on this. Other than that, it's official; you two are now the legal guardians of Betsy Kelso. Congratulations."