He makes a list of things that need to get done and then goes to sleep hugging one of the pillows she had left behind and that he had hidden in a box under his bed. The pillow still smells a bit like her and he falls asleep thinking about her.

The next morning he gets up early and starts to clean his room. Beer bottles get thrown out and as does anything Sam left behind. He finds a few things that Jackie had left behind, Nancy Drew books and candles and these all join the other stuff in the box under his bed. He finds her cheerleading shirt and he folds it gently, thinking about the last time she had worn it.

She had shown up to the basement in his old blue jacket and she had dropped it to reveal her uniform. She hadn't been able to even get through a simple cheer before he had kissed her hard and flipped her over his shoulder and taken her to his room. The next morning, she couldn't find the shirt so she had thrown on one of his shirts and tied it up and he was nearly late for work, not wanting to leave her. She looked hot in her skirt and his shirt. She had shown up to Grooves later that evening to help him close the shop in her outfit.

Then he goes searching for a razor. He had thrown his away as a protest about shaving his face but he needed to get his porn star mustache off his face. He can't take himself seriously with it and he knows Jackie hates it. Besides the last time he shaved his face, it was a way to show Jackie how he felt, maybe she will see it and realize he is trying, or maybe she will smile at him.

He bumps into Laurie in the bathroom as he searches for a razor to shave his mustache.

She's throwing up and he holds her hair back as she dry heaves. Her eyes are red and she had an arm cradling her stomach as she looks up at him. He puts two and two together, realizing that she has not had any alcohol to drink since she came home, nor had she been cruel to anyone, and he hugs her. She is a pain to him but in a weird way, she is family. She's his sister.

She always had been.

She was the one who held his hand crossing the street and when Bud left she was the one who gave him one her teddy bears to sleep with. She had taught him how to play basketball. He was there the first time Casey Kelso broke her heart and she was the one who brought him a book on conspiracies theories for this birthday. She had taught him how to put a condom on a banana and taught him how to burn.

"Congrats Laurie. You are going to be a great mom."

She smiles so widely and he helps her up.

She laughs and splashes water on her face.

'Thanks, Hyde."

Breakfast is ready when he exits the bathroom and he, Laurie, and Eric eat in silence as Kitty beams at the sight of her babies sitting for breakfast together, not arguing. After breakfast is done, he heads back to the bathroom, Laurie following him curious, as to why he was heading upstairs, and Eric heads to work.

She sits on the edge of the tub and watches him as he shaves off his mustache. He shaves it all off, and when he looks at himself he feels like a new man, a man who is going to try to make things right with the women he loves.

Laurie lounges on his little cot as he finishes cleaning out his room folding and organizing things, talking to him about her travels and to his surprise he finds himself telling her about Jackie. He tells her the stuff he could never tell anyone else because Kelso and Fez were in lust with Jackie, Donna would burn him and Eric didn't understand their relationship, and it was weird to tell the Formans all the details of their relationship. but Laurie is different, half tormentor, half-sister, she listens.

All she can think about is how her adoptive brother is in love and can see how good it makes him. She feels his pain as he tells her about all the mistakes he made and she feels his love. He and Jackie fit well together, they always have.

Later on, he helps her off the cot and she automatically places a hand on her stomach as she leaves the room. As he follows her, he slips the plastic ring into his pocket.

She notes the way he helps her up the stairs and takes care of her and she feels this swell of pride for her adoptive brother.

"Hyde? You will make a great husband."

She leaves him with that parting thought and she heads upstairs to take a nap and he heads to Grooves, he takes a quick look at the clock. It's only ten in the morning.

When he gets to Grooves the first thing he does is sit down and go over expense reports. He has Randy and Eric man the registers and Leo wanders around.

Jackie comes in during the afternoon with packed lunches for Eric and Leo courtesy of Kitty Forman.

He can hear her laughing with Eric and he dips into his stash so he won't do something stupid like charging out of his office and pinning her against the counter and kissing her had until she pressed against him and he has to break away because he needs air to breathe. She would laugh before she kissed him again, grinding her hips against his before pulling away and resuming her task, sending him a wink.

His Jackie would love that, she loved his possessive kisses. This Jackie, however, would hate him more than she already does.

Randy heads out with Donna who stops by and he hears Jackie comforting Eric, after the couple leaves. He peers out his door to see Eric with his head on her shoulders, the way Kelso was doing when he got upset and cheated on her with the nurse.

He wants to look away but he can't, he's drawn to her.

"Eric, that's not your Donna. Was breaking up with her in a letter a good idea? Probably not. But I can't get mad or judge you for that because that is how I ended things with Michael. But she's changed and so have you. You have both grown up, that a part of growing up, everyone has to grow up and sometimes you grow apart and sometimes you grow back together."

"It that what happened between you and Hyde?"

"Steven and I... we grew together, but we also grew apart. I want something he couldn't give me." The unspoken but he could give it someone was loud and he watched Jackie brush a tear away.

"Do you think ...?" There were so many ways to end that question. Can you forgive him? Does he love you? Was he going to marry you? Will you leave us all behind?

"I don't know. I don't know, Eric I don't like to think about it, it hurts. I love him, I love him so much and seeing him with her, it was my worst nightmare come true and I kept waiting for the day for someone to tell me it was a joke, a burn but no one did and he just got crueler and crueler... Look in a perfect world we would grow back together. But Eric, Steven has a lot of growing up to do and I can't wait for him. I love him but I have to move on. I might never love someone the way I love him but I have to move on. He made his choice and besides it not like he really loved me. I was just someone to pass the time with, a way to burn Michael, one of the few cheerleaders he figured he would never have."

His heart jumps at the fact that she still loves him. But it sunk when he realized that she didn't think he loves her. That was his own fault, he never told her, only when it benefits him. He had said it enough times to fit on one hand. He hated the way she talked about herself. She was so much more than someone to pass the time with, she was the girl he was in love with, the one he married as a kid and the one he still wants to marry.

However, he didn't see the way her hands tighten around Eric's as she said the last sentence, and Eric knew that those were lies she told herself to lessen the pain because while maybe he hadn't told her he loved her enough, she knew he loved her.

He hurries back to his seat and crosses two things off his list.

Twenty minutes later there is a knock on his door and Jackie comes in.

"Mrs. Forman made you a lunch."

He takes it from her.

"Thanks."

It's in a brown bag and he thinks about the little troll she gave him, he thinks about lunches she made him.

Their eyes meet and he can see she is thinking about the same thing. She turns and leaves the room and he eats his lunch in silence.

He joins Eric at the register a newspaper in his hand.

He finds a red marker and starts circling things.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm moving out Forman. I love your family but I can't spend the rest of my life in the basement."

Eric wonders if he overheard the earlier conversation.

"What brought this to mind?"

"It's been on my mind for a while, with Sam leaving and you coming home, I decided it was time. A new and fresh start"

"Mom's going to freak."

Hyde smiles, sensing a chance for a good burn.

"I'm trying to figure out how to break the news. I don't suppose you can tell me when you plan on screwing up next so I can just piggyback off your screw up?"

Eric scowled at his adoptive brother and punches him in the arm and then his eyes wide when he realized what he just did and to whom.

Hyde glares at Eric and the boy gives a soft squeal and hurries to help a customer. Hyde grins and circles another listing.

His hands goes into his pocket and fiddles with the plastic ring in his pocket.

He talks to Red and Kitty that night and Kitty cries and Red is proud. He goes back to the basement to find everyone there, even Jackie, who had taken to sitting next to Eric when she was in the room with others. It hurts to think his brother was now in his spot, protecting Jackie. However, Jackie is sitting in his chair and he feels a jolt in his stomach at how right it looks for her to be there. he grabs his bag and tosses it to Eric.

"You are not going to join us?"

"Think I'm going to bed. I had some earlier."

Donna snorted.

"Don't tell me you are cutting back again."

Hyde looks at her, annoyed.

"Not wrong with cutting back. "

"When did you cut back?" He turns to look at his brother.

"While you were in Africa. I had a bad trip man, really bad." Eric nods understanding.

"Why are you cutting back now?"

"I have things to take care of and I need a clear head." His eyes land on her in his chair.

Then he heads back to his room, he can't be in the same room as her, see her in his chair and not pull into his lap. He's resisting temptation. He can't sit in a circle with her so near, it brings back memories of circles they had together, the two of them in his room, sometimes naked, sometimes partly naked, smoke spilling from their lips.

Sometimes he would lean over and the smoke would pass to her lips and she would breathe it in and then out back to him before kissing him. They would break away expelling the smoke and then either they would repeat the cycle or she would straddle him, kissing him softly, lazily, and his hands would simply run down her back or through her hair or he would rub circles on her hips.

Those were his favorite circles, the two of them in his room, music playing softly, her long hair around her shoulders, sheet crumpled on his bed.

These moments are when she is silent and he fills the silence with words. He tells her about the car that runs on water, he tells her about his life with Edna, his memories of when he was a kid. He tells her things, things she never tells anyone, things he sometimes doesn't even remember saying.

Jackie creeps into his room later on as he tries to fall asleep, he can hear her place the bag in his hiding spot and then she pauses before she leaves.

She bends down and he gets a whiff of he perfume as she fixes the blanket over him, she pauses seeing the familiar pillow in his arms and she feels this wave of sadness. It would be so easy to strip down and crawl in next to him, to wrap her arm around her waist, to bury her face into the back of his neck, kissing him there, but she can't not anymore.

"Good night Steven."

She brushes a kiss over his cheek and Hyde listens to her leave the basement. Once the door closes, he turns to face the ceiling and closes his eyes.

Jackie was under the impression that he was a heavy sleeper, the truth was that he only went into a deep sleep around her, when she was in his arms. That was the only time he let himself relax, knowing she was safe in his arms, knowing they were safe.

He holds the pillow tighter and smiles.

She still loves him and she kisses his cheek. He could work with that.

Let me know what you think of this one.

I have two papers due at the end of the week and instead I edited this and managed to work on two other chapters for this. This was supposed to be a one shot, which became three chapters, and now I have like six chapter and possibly a few more on the way.

-Queen