A/N: I'm literally posting this in between my double shifts at work (plz help me), so yeah. also this one is kinda sad...dont hate me plz i love you all!

The following days are a hazy mess of numbness as the reality of Kelso and Brooke's deaths set in. Members of the gang take turns staying with Betsy in the hospital while she recovers, which remarkably is going faster than the doctors had expected. They also help Kelso's parents with funeral arrangements. It makes them feel better, knowing they're doing something to help. And if they're honest with themselves, it's easier to keep busy than to have time to think about Kelso being gone. Thinking leads to feeling, and feeling leads to hurting.

Of course, this only works for so long.

The day of the funeral arrives, much to everyone's dismay. Fez sobs the entire time, unable to stand the thought of never seeing his best friend again. Eric, who up until today has been dry eyed and silent, finally breaks down and cries. He's comforted by Donna, who cries with him. Jackie doesn't cry at the funeral, having shed all her tears in the previous days and by now has no more left. But her heart hurts all the more at the sight of her grieving friends. True to his character, Hyde wears his sunglasses throughout most of the service, his need to hide his emotions much more necessary than usual today. But he takes them off when it's his turn to lay a rose on Kelso's casket at the grave site.

"Hey man," he speaks softly to Kelso, "I'm really sorry if I ever brought you down with my teasing. And for laughing when you would get hurt. But you gotta admit it was pretty funny at times, especially when you fell off the water tower every year." He chuckles at the memory, but then his smile falters and his lower lip begins to tremble.

"I'm really gonna miss you, man. It's not gonna be the same without you here. God, I can't believe you're really gone." He wipes at his nose, his eyes are wet with tears now. "But listen, I just want you to know that Jackie and I are gonna take good care of Betsy, so you don't have to worry about her. I'm never going to be as good of a father as you were- hell, I'm probably never going to be a real father at all, just her legal guardian. But I swear I'm gonna try my best to not suck at it."

He lays the rose on the casket containing his friend's body with some final words, "Goodbye, Kelso." And then, very quietly, "I love you, man."

Wiping the tears from his eyes, Hyde walks away and goes to stand next to his friends who have already paid their last respects. Jackie reaches over to give his hand a squeeze and he's surprised to find himself giving her hand a squeeze back.

After Hyde, Fez is the last one to go. Still crying, Fez manages to say some words that the others can't hear before gingerly leaning over to place a kiss on the casket along with a rose. The sight is so tender the others have a hard time not looking away. They know Fez loved Kelso, but they all have a feeling they'll never know just how much, like there was something more. And their hearts break a little more for him.

Fez joins his friends and Hyde places a comforting hand on his shoulder.

With the comfort of each other to give them strength, the five friends walk away from the gravesite.

Inside Kelso's casket is a note in Eric Forman's handwriting:

What a long strange trip it's been. Thanks for taking it with us.

After the services, everyone gathers at Kelso's parents' house for a reception. Photos of their beloved son are visible in every room along with an abundance of other memorabilia. It's surprising in a way, since the Kelsos have seven children Hyde kind of assumed Michael just got lost in the group, that he was just a number. He figured that was why he was so clingy and desperate for the attention of chicks; because he didn't get much at home. But they clearly loved him dearly, just as much as they love the rest of his siblings. It's apparent his siblings cared deeply for him too, especially the younger ones since he'd often babysat them.

Aside from the memorabilia, the Kelso home is crowded with condolence food and mourning people. The atmosphere is much lighter than it had been at the funeral itself, but it's still heavy with grief to the point that it's almost suffocating Hyde. He tries distracting himself by mindlessly stuffing his face with food, despite him not being hungry. He stays by Eric and Donna, but they don't do anything to lift the mood- just bend their heads close together so they can talk. Fez is off hugging random people and talking about Kelso. Jackie is nowhere to be found. The crowded, depressing air eventually becomes too much to take anymore, so Hyde finds himself wandering away from all the people and making his way to Kelso's old room.

He pauses at the door, hand on the knob, suddenly hyper aware of how he feels. Kelso's still dead, but now that he's away from all the grieving people and he's standing in front of something so familiar, so comforting, he can breathe again. With a sad but relieved sigh, he pushes the door open and steps into the friendly space of Kelso's bedroom. He freezes when he's greeted with the sight of Jackie already in the room, sitting on Kelso's bed. She stares back wide eyed, clearly taken by surprise as well.

It's obvious she's been crying; her eyes are puffy and her mascara is running. Hyde's surprised; she hasn't cried all day and he figured it was because she'd gotten it all out of her system by today. He's just glad whatever tears she shed are dry by now, the only way this moment could be worse is if he'd walked in on a full on sobbing Jackie.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't think anyone would be in here," he explains.

"Yeah, me neither," she remarks, looking down at her hands placed on her lap. She looks even smaller than usual, as if sorrow has shrunken her down a bit.

Hyde turns to leave the room and leave Jackie to wallow in whatever sadness hole she's dug for herself, but something stops him. He's tried to convince himself he hates her, but deep down he knows he still cares about her. Before everything that they became, and even now after everything that they currently are- or aren't- they're friends, sort of. And friends don't leave friends like this.

He closes his eyes and purses his lips, inhaling deeply before turning around. Again, he's met with the sight of a tear stained Jackie sitting on Kelso's old bed looking tinier than ever as she stares down at her hands. He would never admit it, but he feels a pang of pain in his heart. He forces himself to walk over and stand in front of her.

"Hey. How you holdin' up?" he asks.

She looks up at him, a brief flash of questioning crosses her face as if confused by his words before she visibly relaxes at the realization that he's being sincere. Of course he is, they're at a ceasefire right now, she'd just forgotten. This is the day of Kelso's funeral, there's much more important things going on, more important feelings than their petty feud. A chill of guilt creeps up Hyde's spine at her reaction though. Has he really been that much of an asshole to her lately? To the point that even on a day like today she's suspicious of the slightest act of sympathy? He knows the answer, and it ebs away at his conscience. But he tries to push it away- for now at least.

Jackie finally shrugs in response. "I'll be okay."

"Didn't ask if you will be, I asked how you're doing now," he says, not satisfied with her answer.

"Well obviously I'm not doing too hot right now, Steven!" she snaps, "If you didn't notice, our friend is dead!" She glares up at him but finds that he doesn't react to her raise in voice, doesn't snap back or leave the room. He just calmly stares back, watching her. Defeated, she tears her eyes away from him. "I just really miss him," she says, her voice suddenly much softer.

There's a heavy silence filling the room when Hyde feels the compulse to sit next to her on the bed. He hesitates for a moment, but gives in and sinks down onto the mattress beside the ex cheerleader. "Yeah, I miss him too," he shares.

"Things just aren't going to be the same without him, you know?" she asks.

Hyde chuckles. "I know, man. I mean, who's gonna fall off the water tower this year?" he jokes.

"Probably Fez," Jackie answers with a small smile, and they both laugh. The small vanishes again after a few moments as her thoughts wander. "Michael just had such a big heart. He always found a way to make me smile," she says, gaze set on the floor as tears start to fill her eyes again.

Hyde watches her face carefully. He's surprised that he still feels a spark of jealousy when he hears her talk about Kelso that way. This time, however, he's immediately overcome with a feeling of shame. Kelso's gone and they're both currently grieving him, the last thing he should be worried about is his ex-girlfriend's feelings for their late mutual friend. Kelso deserves better than that. Hyde's pretty sure Jackie's been over him for years now and she's only speaking of him platonically, but even if she wasn't it's none of his business. They're broken up.

"I might've fallen out of love with him years ago," Jackie says as if answering Hyde's thoughts, "but I still cared so much about him. He was a great friend to me."

"Yeah, Kelso was a pretty special guy," he smiles.

"He really was," Jackie agrees, laying her head on Hyde's shoulder.

Outwardly Hyde keeps his Zen, but internally his brain short-circuits at Jackie's touch. He hasn't felt the warmth of her body pressed against his in so long he doesn't know how to react. Eventually his brain catches up to him and he realizes the appropriate thing to do in this situation is to put his arm around her comfortingly, so he does. The movement is stiff at first, but as Jackie leans more into him he loosens up, even rubbing her arm a bit in a soothing manner.

They sit like that for a few minutes, taking comfort in each other's presence as they think of the friend they lost. There's still a terrible chasm between them, one filled with uncertainty of whether or not they can get over some things, but that doesn't matter right now, in this moment. They're here together, showing that some things will never change.

"We should probably go check on the others," Jackie says after a short while.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Hyde agrees, secretly wishing they didn't have to leave this sacred moment of civility between them. "Gotta make sure Forman hasn't drowned Donna in his tears."

Jackie stands up, "Let's go."

"You got raccoon eyes, ya know," Hyde refers to her streaked makeup, amused. Usually he wouldn't say anything and let her walk around like that so she'd be embarrassed when she got home, but he decides to go easy on her today. And also the horrified look on her face is priceless to see. He chuckles as he walks out of the room, leaving Jackie frantically trying to wipe the makeup from under her eyes before she catches up with him.

They're just reaching the end of the hallway when they run into Kelso's parents. "Oh there you two are, we were just looking for you," says Kelso's mother, Rachel.

"Yeah, we just wanted to thank you two again for agreeing to raise Betsy," John Kelso says. "We had no idea he even made that will, but we know how much you two meant to him, so we're glad he chose you."

Rachel nods. "Betsy's such a sweetheart and she seems to be quite fond of you two, it's good to know she'll be with people who were good friends with Michael."

Hyde just gives a small, polite smile. He's a little uncomfortable talking about this with them, like there's suddenly more pressure that they don't mess this thing up.

"Well thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Kelso," Jackie replies, "That really means a lot. I just hope we live up to his expectations."

"I'm sure you'll do fine. You two are a wonderful couple, I'm sure you'll be wonderful parents too," Rachel assures them.

And just like that, Hyde suddenly feels sick and it's difficult for him to breathe again. It was one thing when he and Jackie had a nice moment together in Kelso's room, but now people are talking about them being a couple and being parents together. It's too much, too real. He's going to be doing the whole raising-a-kid-thing with Jackie fucking Burkhart, the girl he's been desperately keeping at arms length because he knows if he doesn't she'll end up in his arms. And he can't go through that again. But now he's going to be sharing this huge responsibility with her and he's not sure if he can do that. Not to mention there's all this pressure not to mess up the rest of Betsy's life.

He'll just have to keep his guard up.

Yeah.

But right now he needs to get out of there. "I gotta go check on Forman," he blurts out and walks away, leaving Jackie stranded in the awkward situation by herself.

Later that evening the gang all comes back to Forman's basement to have some drinks and laugh together over fond memories of Kelso. They all agree it's a great way to honor his memory because they think it's something that he would want them to do. In fact, it's something he'd want to do with them if he were here right now.

"Don't forget about the time he drank raw eggs and his entire face blew up to like, three times its normal size!" Donna says, and the group cracks up even harder than they had been before.

"Oh man," Hyde says, wiping a tear of laughter from his eye, "that might've been my favorite."

"Or-or when he accidentally set my living room on fire when I was trying to have a nice dinner party," Jackie manages to get out between laughs.

"That was great," Eric says as Kitty comes down the stairs, "I can honestly say it was the best dinner party I've been to, all thanks to him."

"Hey kids," Kitty greets in her usual way, even though they're not kids anymore, "sorry to interrupt, but I just got a phone call from the hospital and they said Betsy is being discharged tomorrow morning."

"Oh no," Jackie gasps.

"What do you mean, 'oh no'?" Eric asks, "That's great news."

"No, I know. It's just that I've been so busy these past few days I haven't had any time to prepare for Betsy moving in," she explains. "Mrs. Forman, you've had kids. Tell me everything a two year old needs so I can go out and buy it tonight."

"Oh my," Kitty remarks with an uncomfortable laugh, "well, we'd better go into the kitchen and I'll make you a list."

"Great! Let's go," Jackie says as she follows the older woman up the stairs.

Once they're gone, Donna raises an eyebrow at Hyde, "Hey, shouldn't you be up there with them?"

"Nah. I figure Mrs. Forman already has most of what I'll need, I just need to get some stuff down from the attic. Besides, Jackie and I agreed that she'll take the first shift when Betsy gets out of the hospital, so I still have a few days."

"Yeah, how is that gonna work anyways?" Eric asks, curious, "the whole sharing custody thing?"

"We haven't had much time to talk it over yet, but it'll probably be like Jackie takes her for a few days and then I take her for the next few days, back and forth," he explains.

"Ohhh" Fez says, "I thought Jackie was going to raise Betsy for the first 9 years and then you raise her for the last 8 years until she can live on her own."

Everyone stares at him with weird expressions on their faces. Sometimes they just can't tell if he's being serious or not.

"Yeah okay, as much as I'd rather deal with a teenager than a baby, I don't think that's gonna happen," Hyde responds.

"Yeah Fez," Donna jumps in, "sharing custody is about sharing the burden of raising a child together. Like what Hyde is gonna do with Jackie. Right, Hyde?"

Hyde narrows his eyes at the tone in Donna's voice. "If by that you mean that we're both gonna do our part to see to it that Betsy has a good childhood, then sure."

She lets out an exasperated sigh, "Oh come on, you're raising a kid with her. Isn't that a little, you know, domestic? Maybe even intimate?"

Hyde uncrosses his legs and sits up, slightly leaning towards Donna. "Look, Jackie and I might be sharing custody of Betsy but that doesn't change anything between me and her. She's still the girl that went back to her ex without giving me the chance to tell her I was ready for a future with her, and I still hate her for it. For Kelso's sake, I'm gonna raise Betsy with her, but I'm gonna do it as separately as I can. Understand?"

Donna holds eye contact with him, letting him know she's taking this as seriously as he is. "Yeah. I understand," she says.

I understand you're scared of getting too close to Jackie again, she thinks.