Disclaimer: This story will utilize characters and situations that are the copyright of The Carsey-Werner Company, LLC and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, LLC . ChronicallyChill is in no way associated with the creator or producers of That '70s Show and no copyright infringement is intended. Obviously this is a fanfic meant solely for the entertainment of the fanfic author and (hopefully) it's readers.

Day's Notes:mostly my SasuSaku reader base knows I don't like notes at the top but I thought this would be important to know for this fic. After this any notes I have for you will come at the end of the chapter.

So just some notes that I think are super important for this fic to make sense because it is a time travel au and well...they had 4 seasons worth of episodes that we were supposed to believe all belonged to 1 school year and that made no sense.

Events of the first season and partially second season are condensed into the 1975-1976 school year. The basement gang has been aged down so that they are sophomores and Jackie is a freshman. We are ignoring that Eric shouldn't be able to drive. He wasn't given the Vista Cruiser until after his 16th birthday making some episodes void and/or changed for plot purposes. Hell, maybe Hyde could have been the driver since he was 16 before the rest of them except for Kelso, but Red wouldn't trust Kelso.

Hyde was aged down even more so instead of being 3 months younger than Kelso he is a year younger like the rest of the gang (minus Jackie). This makes him second oldest and their anger at Kelso being a year older more justified.

Episodes from seasons 2-4 have been reordered to make more sense as they all exist in the gang's junior year of high school and T7S had them juniors for like 3 or 4 years. There will be no retconning of Jackie being a good student, she will remain academically smart and on task.

Laurie was aged up one year so she's 3 years older than Eric instead of 2.

I hope you enjoy :)

chapter one: a sharp left in a different direction

Something was off. Completely and totally off.

Usually after a night of crying Jackie woke up with a headache. She couldn't complain that she woke up nice and breezy, body relaxed as if nothing had ever happened. As if she didn't cry more tears over a boy that called their future "crap."

The sooner the pain hurt less, the easier everything would be. The easier it would be to compartmentalize her feelings for Steven Hyde and put them in a box inside of herself to be hidden just like her "Steven Box" was hidden in her closet.

Stretching her arms up over her head, Jackie froze and stared at her bare arm. Last night she had put on her favorite comfy flannel pajamas, the perfect set for when she wanted to feel warm and safe. Certain outfits were just as practical as they were cute.

But she hadn't woken up wearing her cute flannel pajamas that were perfect for winter nights.

Why am I in my nightgown? Jackie sat up and examined her torso. Wait! Where are my—?

Jackie screamed in frustration as she clutched at her breasts—or the lack of them. She was small with slight curves, but they were perfect! Perfectly shaped and round not these small barely formed lumps she hadn't had since she was fifteen.

For the second time since she woke up she froze. Taking a deep breath she turned to slide out of bed and put on her fuzzy slippers. She stared at her feet, eyeing the old slippers she used when she was a sophomore before they had to be replaced.

"What the hell is going on?" Jackie huffed as she examined her nightstand. Why would she have a photograph of Michael Kelso by her bed? Just last night she had gone to bed with a couple shot of her and Steven face down as it had been since she had broken up with him weeks prior.

She clutched at her hair, tightening her fingers around the curly locks. Her chest rose and fell rapidly with her breaths but it didn't feel like she was taking in any oxygen. The pull on her roots hurt too much for her to still be sleeping. Squeezing her eyes shut, she mouthed a prayer to herself. She would open her eyes and everything would be back in its rightful place. It just had to be so.

Opening her eyes to the sight of her old purple suitcase with its matching traveling makeup case sitting by her bedroom door, Jackie screamed again.

She hadn't seen that case since her sophomore year. The luggage set she used now was decidedly more adult—a lovely shade of carmine that was just right for her eighteen year old self.

I swear to God if my wardrobe isn't up to date, heads are going to roll.

Jackie stomped to her closet and pushed through all of the cute clothes hanging in the proper color and seasonal order it was supposed to be in. The only problem was that most of her clothes, while super cute, were out of season for 1979. Most of them were trendy back in 1976 when she had first bought them.

Wrapping her arms around herself, Jackie clutched her elbows and slid down her closet door. She didn't even want to check the rest of her room. She didn't need to look at her records to find out that the ones given to her by Steven were gone. She was sure if she dug through her closet she wouldn't find a shoe box decorated and dedicated to hiding all of his notes and the ticket stubs from their dates and other keepsakes.

Lightly knocking her head back against her closet door repeatedly, Jackie let out an expletive worthy of Red Forman.

What was she going to do?

The first person Jackie wanted to see was Steven. It angered her a little that no matter what he was the one her body, her mind, her soul would seek out. Just yesterday she had been crying her eyes out behind a pillar in public over him and yet now she was ready to run right to him.

Fate had it that the first person she did end up seeing was Fez of all people. As good of a friend as he was, she wasn't as close to him as she was to Steven or Donna. He wouldn't have been her first choice for comfort in a situation like this. Maybe if her hot rollers weren't working properly, but not for finding out that she had slipped into some sort of crazy time rift and was now back in her fifteen year old body.

Great. And now she was sounding like dorky Eric, letting herself think about stuff like time travel.

Fez had come to walk with her to the Forman residence and to tote her luggage. Luckily for her, Fez wasn't observant enough to recognize that her brain fog had anything to do with the fact that she wasn't the Jackie he knew.

As if he would even know a thing about time travel or recognize it in a person.

He had fumbled through his explanation for why he was at her door, reminding her that she had called him the night before to help carry her stuff because she couldn't have Michael picking her up or it would ruin her surprise.

Ugh. Jackie wrinkled her nose in disgust. Why couldn't I have been sent to a time before I ever let Michael sleep with me?

Vanstock. Her first experience attending wouldn't have been so awful had it not turned out that whorey Laurie had been sleeping with her first boyfriend while she had been dating him. It had tainted the memory of her good time.

Jackie had thought that the two of them could be really good friends considering they liked all of the same things. It was almost like having the missing half of what she wished Donna was like. All of the girly attributes that Donna just didn't understand why they were so important.

The gang had all gone again the previous year in her original timeline and that was much better. But then again, she had spent the weekend with Steven and they had snuggled in his double sleeping bag. She had almost forgotten that they were sleeping on the ground.

Almost.

And with the reminder of Steven and their time together came the deep ache in her chest that was always present since she had broken up with him after the LOPP's Christmas party. God, she missed him—missed them.

That was the one positive of the time travel. Yes it hurt, but her feelings for Steven were still there with her and her thoughts were her own despite being back in her underdeveloped fifteen year old body.

She wasn't going to get over that. Applying her makeup on that morning had been frustrating each time she had to look at her rounder cheeks, still full of baby fat.

It's a good thing I'm super cute no matter how old. Jackie turned her nose up at her own wandering thoughts. It was hard to focus on what was important when she couldn't find the source of her problem.

At the moment all she could do was compartmentalize everything and create some order by what was a priority and by what she could actually fix within her own power.

Just because she was her fifteen year old self, it didn't mean she had to live her fifteen year old self's life. She was Jackie Burkhart and she got what she wanted when she wanted. And what she wanted was to not be that girl she was when she was sixteen.

It was a few weeks too soon but there was one matter she could take into her own hands right that moment. She just wished she had made her decision before Fez had carried her stuff all the way to the Formans' house. Now she was going to be stuck taking it all back herself.

Going to Vanstock had seemed like a good idea when she had been faced with choosing between being with her friends or alone with her thoughts in an empty house. The housekeeper had been given the weekend off when her fifteen year old self had made the decision to surprise Michael with her attendance on the group's road trip and she wasn't in the right state of mind to be by herself.

"Jackie!" Donna was the first person to greet her when she walked up the Forman's driveway. Her hair was totally flat and that god awful red but her cheeks still bloomed like she had a sunburn when she was flustered.

Jackie had to resist wrapping her arms around her best friend. She wanted nothing more than a hug and for someone to tell her that everything was going to be okay but this wasn't the moment, especially when she knew what was making Donna so nervous.

She barely registered the mentions of mud and Canadians. Jackie's gaze drifted from Donna to her future ex-boyfriend who stood in the back in his worn out denim jacket. She had to remind herself that this was Hyde not Steven. That while he was complicit in letting her heart get broken, this wasn't the man that owed her any loyalty. It was just the boy that got his kicks where he could and didn't recognize that what he was doing was terrible.

This was also the boy that would get his heart broken again in a few months and Jackie bit her lower lip to keep from shouting about everything she knew. This Steven Hyde wasn't hers to protect like when he first met his real father.

And if she shared those secrets there were worse things that could happen to her than waking up almost a full bra cup size and a half smaller.

"Where's Michael?" Jackie asked before anyone else could fumble some sort of weak reason as to why she shouldn't go with them to Vanstock. Any moment now Steven was going to try to convince her that it was a fantastic idea regardless of the fact that Michael was bringing along the girl he was having an affair with.

"Jackie." Steven stared her down, expression more solemn than she recalled him looking at sixteen. Last time when they stood in this driveway, he had been gleeful, downright giddy. "I need to talk to you about something."

She wasn't ready for this, whatever this was. His hair was longer and blonder, he wasn't as muscular, but his voice was still the same deep timbre she loved and even though it should have been easy to separate this Steven from her Steven, she couldn't do it. Jackie was convinced one look, one direct look, into her eyes and he would know everything.

Steven Hyde of 1976 would know she loved him.

"Can it wait?" Jackie's gaze shifted anywhere but his face. "I really need to talk to Michael before you guys go."

"Wait," Eric looked back and forth between his best friend and her, "you're not coming with us then? And why do you need to talk to Jackie?"

Jackie really didn't need this right now. Eric Forman could hate her some other time but he wasn't going to be wasting her time with his questions. "Makes no sense why I would be going." Jackie crossed her arms across her chest protectively. "Doubt he'd let me come along after I dump him."

"What?" Came everyone's shocked response.

Hyde leaned his head back and closed his eyes, propping his feet on the spool table. They should have been on the road over an hour ago. He should have been roaming the grounds and meeting up with his friends from Kenosha, dropping acid or smoking a joint in between the different musical acts performing.

The last time he had been there in 1976, that was exactly what he had done as well as hooking up with any willing hot chick. The desire for acid or a girl had significantly dropped since then, both for different reasons.

Opening his eyes, Hyde watched the smoke float in lazy circles up towards the ceiling. The swirls had his focus more than the conversation currently being had in the basement.

"You were just frenching Laurie not even ten minutes before she broke up with you, dillhole!" Donna huffed, passing the joint on to Forman.

That comment had Hyde peering at Donna from the corner of his eye. When she had discovered that Kelso had been cheating on Jackie back in his own 1976, she hadn't warned Jackie at all. She still hadn't warned her this time around, only weakly attempted to get her to change her mind about going on the trip. Not that Jackie needed to change her mind. She had shown up and broke up with Kelso in the simplest most blunt way possible.

"I don't love you and you're a cheating bastard. Have fun at Vanstock." And then she just skipped away.

The divergence in the timeline was going to be interesting.

Waking up had been a trip. Hyde had woken up thinking he had been tripping. It had been so long since he kept his hair long enough to be as blonde as it was and he felt lighter than usual━his limbs no longer carrying the extra weight of the muscles he had developed over the past couple of years.

Time travel. It was a subject that only Forman out of everyone he could possibly have a serious discussion with. Kelso at this stage wouldn't even try to jump into the conversation unless it was about a time machine that could take him back in time before Jackie broke up with him.

"Shouldn't we be glad that we're finally free?" Forman shrugged his shoulders passing him the joint. Hyde didn't honor him with a response, only taking a long drag before skipping right over Kelso to Fez.

Kelso didn't even notice that he had been skipped in the circle. His head hung low and his eyes were glazed over with unshed tears. Hyde cared for them just as much as he did the first time Jackie had broken up with Kelso━not at all.

Tears from his friend over a girl that he himself loved meant nothing.

Kelso crying over Jackie was a joke. It was a joke back when all she was was the bitchy anchor around Kelso's neck. It was a joke when he got caught cheating with Laurie.

"We were in love," Kelso choked out, voice thick and watery from crying.

"Kelso." Hyde snapped his fingers in front of Kelso's face and tried to capture his attention. "No you weren't. You were cheating on her with the Earth Mother Whore."

Kelso blinked at him and swallowed hard. "Doesn't mean I don't love Jackie."

Rolling his eyes, Hyde took the joint back from Donna and took the last drag from the remaining stub. He coughed as the burnt smoke hit his lungs and pinched the dying ember on the paper between his index finger and thumb. The high from the marijuana wasn't enough for Hyde to tolerate listening to Kelso talk about being in love with his chick.

Ex chick. Future ex chick.

Time travel was such a fucked concept. It was one thing to hide a hurt that he had reasons for having, but the hurt he felt wasn't for the Jackie of 1976 but the Jackie of 1979. He was hiding a deep ache in his chest that was caused by a girl that had probably been crying over his moron friend the night before, not him.

Miles away there was a shrill, loud, bitchy cheerleader who was probably stuffing all of her Kelso paraphernalia into a box right at that moment and it was killing him that he couldn't have her. And because of this time travel bullshit she didn't even know that she had ever been his and he had been hers.

"I can't believe we're missing Vanstock all because of Jackie," Forman scoffed. "Leave it to her to ruin everything."

"Forman," Hyde turned to him in disgust, "really? Are you forgetting certain important details?"

"I still can't believe you all knew!" Donna slapped her hands on the spool table. She glared at them all and then stood up from her seat. "I'm going to go see Jackie."

"Wait!" Fez called after her. "I'll go with you!"

Hyde reached over and pulled Fez by the back of his shirt, forcing him back on the mushroom ottoman. "Sit down!" Like hell was he going to let an infatuated Fez try and take advantage of the situation again.

Fez wrinkled his nose and gave him a disgruntled look before shrugging it off. "So what happened with Laurie?"

Hyde rolled his eyes yet again. Right after Jackie had confronted Kelso, Laurie had taken off when it was obvious they weren't going anywhere. She had looked downright gleeful when they all had dragged their stuff back inside, looking miserable. She took one look at a sad Kelso and shrugged it off. No one knew where she went after everything went down, but Laurie made herself scarce as soon as it was clear that no one was going anywhere.

Kelso was a dumbass, but the consequences for his actions lead to Hyde finding out that there was more to Jackie than they all originally thought. There was just one very important difference in this timeline.

Jackie wasn't heartbroken over her split with Kelso. In 1976, Jackie had told Kelso it was over, tears thickening her voice, and then threw herself at Hyde for comfort. This time, Jackie tossed out the break up statement casually with the same attitude she would give a shoe department employee her size on whatever clogs took her fancy and then went on her merry way.

Hyde didn't know what to make of that. As annoyed as he had been when he was last sixteen years old, Kelso and Jackie's first real break up was the catalyst to his and Jackie's relationship changing.

This was his punishment at last from the government. Kelso threatened the president and once they all were lulled into a false sense of security, Hyde was shifted to a different time and was forced to relive his teen years in a simulation that altered the events of his life out of his favor.

Out of his favor? Shouldn't this be what he wanted? Hyde was back in a time that he and Jackie could just hang out without any of the complications of dating.

But life was a bitch because that's not how it worked.

His body was closer to seventeen than twenty but his memories were still there. He could still remember the way Jackie felt under his fingertips, how she breathed into him when he laid kisses onto her inviting mouth...and how she looked with eyes full of tears from a broken heart.

Couldn't rat out a friend? Hyde inwardly scoffed. Maybe his sixteen year old self had a point, but nineteen year old him had more loyalty to the tiny loud girl than his doofus friend.

Government simulation or not, he wasn't going to let Jackie go through all of that bullshit again. Hyde had planned on warning Jackie before she surprised him and took things into her own hands.

"You could have just—and I'll say this yet again," Forman flattened his palms together and pressed his fingers to his mouth before shouting, "not make out with my sister!"

"No," Kelso's expression became serious as he turned his attention towards Eric, "I couldn't, Eric."

"You know what?" Eric threw his hands up and flailed them in exasperation. "I don't even care anymore that you ruined Vanstock. What am I going to tell Donna? She's going to ask me if I knew the whole time."

Hyde rolled his eyes behind his aviators. He already knew how that turned out last time when Donna had stormed off, upset. "As entertaining as it would be to see you fuck this up further, Forman—just tell her the truth."

"How is that not going to screw me over?" Forman gestured wildly again. "She's going to know that I've been keeping this from her."

"Because if you lie it will end up biting you in the ass later."

"Hyde is right, Eric." Fez nodded in agreement. "Just take a look at Kelso. It's biting him in the ass right now."

"And you already lied earlier when you tried to get me to cover for you about Don Juan El Tardo and The Village Whore."

"No!" Kelso jabbed his finger at Hyde's direction and then Forman's. "Eric, you can't tell Donna. She'll tell Jackie how long it's been going on and then I won't be able to get her back."

The other three boys stared at Kelso like he had grown a second head. Fez was the first one to fling something at him, tossing as many magazines and comic books he could reach. Forman was irritated by the events of the day and needed an outlet. Hyde already knew how Kelso was, wasn't surprised by his statement but it didn't stop from irritating him and the anger boiled deep in his gut.

"I'm out of here."

He was done with this crap for the day. It finally hit where the punishment was. Hyde was going to have to witness Kelso jerking Jackie around all over again━only this time, he was going to have to pay the price for feeling more than he wanted to for her.

This crap ain't happening again. He slammed the door shut for his bedroom and flopped on his cot. This is why he didn't do love. Fuck the U.S. government.

In a way, Jackie was grateful for the place in time she had been sent back to. She wouldn't have to deal with anymore of Michael's crap and she had less stuff of his to throw away.

"He really gave you a slinky for an anniversary?" Donna sat cross legged on Jackie's bed, tossing it back and forth between her hands. "Kind of makes me appreciate Eric more."

"Yeah, Michael's a moron." Jackie slipped the photo of Michael out from the frame on her bed and wrinkled her nose in thought. "You think Fez would want this?"

Donna's face scrunched up in confusion and she shrugged. Jackie shrugged back and tossed it into the trash can by her desk. She wasn't exactly sure when Fez became a little obsessed with her ex-boyfriend, but maybe this was before then if Donna didn't understand the question.

"I'm really sorry about the Laurie thing," Donna apologized for the second time since she had arrived at the Burkhart mansion. "I just found out before you showed up and was asking Eric about it."

Jackie kept her gaze on the box of stuff she had collected from her year of dating Michael. She bit her lip to keep from smiling or making a comment, but she couldn't help the warmth that spread in her chest.

Despite her friendship with the Donna of 1979, it sometimes felt like Donna sided with the boys over Jackie most of the time when they were younger. They had their moments though and Donna was like a less attractive, goofy older sister. It felt kind of nice to have her right now even if they weren't as close as they would be some day.

"I wanted to tell you but once I saw you I blanked out a bit because...well," Donna shrugged, hiking her shoulders up to her ears, "you're kind of my friend and I didn't want you to get hurt and for me to be the messenger that caused it."

"Well, I deserved to know." Jackie finally turned her gaze back to Donna and smiled slyly. "But you could always do something for me to make me feel better."

Donna rolled her eyes in exasperation but she playfully shoved at Jackie's shoulder. "Alright midget, what are you scheming at? And no, I'm not dumping Eric in solidarity or throwing out my clothes."

"As great as those two options would totally be, that's actually not what I was going to ask."

Donna sat up straighter, her curiosity obvious. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion but nodded for Jackie to continue.

"I really meant what I said about not loving Michael and—"

"Jackie, you just told him you loved him three days ago."

"Shh! Let me talk you big goon," Jackie snapped. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing. "Ignore that, that was the past and I've learned some stuff about myself, okay?"

"Okay. So what about not loving Kelso?"

"I don't want him to bother me. I know he's your friend and he's been your friend longer than I have but can you be on my side about this? I really am over Michael Kelso and never want to be with him again."

Donna stared impassively at her for a moment before nodding in understanding. "I'm guessing this means you're asking me to run interference in case he tries to get you back like he did after the Pam Macy incident...incidents?"

Jackie nodded enthusiastically. "That's exactly it. Look," Jackie turned her whole body and sat cross legged on her bed, "Michael isn't just cheating on me with Laurie but also some tramp from Sacred Heart and really that's just what I know about."

In reality, Jackie knew a lot more now thanks to Steven tricking Michael to reveal everything he had ever hidden from her.

"I know he's a cheater but you don't seem as upset as I expected you to be." Donna raised a brow in confusion. "Like you sound a little angry but mostly resigned. I expected waterworks. Didn't think you could get over stuff like this unless you found someone else." Donna slapped her hands on the bed on either side of her hips. "Oh my god, Jackie! You already like someone else!"

"No," Jackie lied, shaking her head and dragging out the vowel in the negation. Damn Donna always nailing it right on the head. 1976 Jackie didn't love Steven and it would be weird if she suddenly had feelings for him. "I just realized that what hurts is my pride, not my heart. So, I don't really love Michael."

As much as the cheating hurt back in 1976, Jackie had recently felt pain that made the Michael cheating stuff feel like a mosquito bite in comparison.

She didn't know when the timeline would spit her back to where she belonged, but the one thing she did know was that she wasn't going to be spending her time in the past letting a boy she didn't love touch her. And Jackie of 1976 might not know it yet, but she deserved better than to be with that doofus.

She found better. And she lost better.

Jackie blinked her eyes but the tears welling up in her eyes threatened to roll down her cheeks. She couldn't be sad about that. Steven wasn't her boyfriend in 1979 and he wasn't her boyfriend in 1976. It didn't matter how much she wanted him to be. 1979 Steven didn't see a future with her and 1976 Steven didn't see her at all—at least not as anything other than an annoyance.

Her parents were never around, she just broke up with the cheating boyfriend she didn't even want, Steven wasn't her friend yet, dorky Eric wasn't really an option, and Fez was way too into her to be a real friend. The only thing she really had was her tentative friendship with Donna.

How did Donna end up being her lifeline?

"Could we still hang out?" Jackie sniffed. "I know I'm not with Michael anymore and well I'm not really part of the group…but I think of you as my friend too. My best friend. Despite the fact that you're a lumberjack and all."

Jackie was about to tell Donna that her eyes would get stuck if she kept rolling her eyes but was cut off by the feel of a slightly calloused hand taking hers into its grip. Donna offered her a small smile and nodded.

"Of course, midget."

1976 and going into 1977 was going to be a rough school year for Donna. Donna invited her to live with her when she didn't have a home and would in the future of this timeline. The least Jackie could do is save her lumberjack heart some heartbreak. Especially ones she may have had a hand in—there would be no Casey Kelso this time around.

Squeezing Donna's hand, Jackie smiled to herself. It was only a day and she already had more than 1976 Jackie had. She had no idea why she was there or how but she did know one thing:

She needed to make a list.

Day's Notes: I hope you enjoyed my first fic for this fandom. I had so many headcanons and AU ideas bouncing around that I really wanted to try and write something, especially my own take on a time travel au.