He spends the weekend looking at apartments and it's not until he's driving back to the Forman's from Grooves one night when he finds it. On accident, of course.
He had been driving home when he saw this woman arguing with these two men in front of an apartment complex. The woman was thin and seemed to be upset. He watches her turn away only for one of them to grab her while the other moves to block her from the street.
That didn't sit well with him so he pulls over and advances on them.
"What is going on here?"
"None of your business dude. Just had an argument with my sister."
The woman wretches her arm free.
"I'm not your sister, don't touch me."
Hyde reaches for the girl and tugged her next to him and glared at the two men.
"I suggest you leave unless you want an ass-kicking."
One of the men throws a punch and Hyde grins and he ducks and throws a punch back. The man went down and his friend picks up his friend's body and hurries off. Hyde turns to examine the women who had rushed to his car.
She's was short, dressed in sweat pants, a red tank top, with her breasts almost spilling out, her hair pulled into a bun. She fixes her shirt and then looks up at him as he approaches her.
"You alright Ma'am?"
"I'm fine. Thank for that Mr..."
"Hyde. Anytime. Can I ask what that was about?"
The woman sighed.
"I'm their landlord. They were having some problems with their plumbing so is I popped by to check it out and they got grab assy with me. I told them to knock it off twice and they didn't listen so I kneed one of them in balls and took off. Told them to hire a plumber and will they didn't like that."
Hyde grimaces.
"They are your tenants?"
"Yup, I would ask them to leave but I need the money."
"I don't suppose you have an apartment empty?"
The woman grins.
"Actually I do. You want to check it out?"
He locked his car and nodded.
"That would be great Ms..."
"Ashley. Ashley Meredith Lynn. "
She stops in front of a door and held out a hand. He shook it.
"Hyde. Steven Hyde."
She opens the door and he steps inside.
It was perfect.
Ashle had agreed to cut a deal in exchange for him helping her out with some of the other tenant problems. She went over some papers including apartment rules. Smoking and pets were okay as long as no one complained. He agreed to come the next day to sign the papers.
He drives home, wondering how fast he could move in, when his stomach growls so he pulls into the hub parking lot and bought a burger, and as he went back to his car, he heard a soft whimper and looked down to see a small black puppy looking at him with what seemed to be Jackie's eyes.
Crap he thought.
He can't refuse Jackie when she used to look at him like that so of course, he can't refuse the puppy.
He sighs and gives half his burger to the puppy and continue on his way, the puppy following him. He got into the car and the puppy kept looking at him and thirty seconds later the puppy is curled up in the front seat of his car.
He hid her in his basement room, where she curled up on the floor, one of Eric's shirts used as bedding, and the next day before work took her to the vet.
The vet examined her declared her too skinny and a few months old and asks him if he was adopting her. He was about to stay no, he had enough on his plate with a new apartment and Jackie, but the puppy looks at him and he sighs and nods. The vet hands him some papers to sign and that was how he became a father to a five-month german shepherd puppy.
The puppy made its grand debut at his store.
Eric's eyes nearly popped out of his head at the sight of his best friend cradling a puppy in his arms.
"What the hell! What's that?"
"This is a puppy, Forman. Her name is Midnight."
"Midnight?"
"It was around midnight when she found me."
The puppy wanders around the store and pees on Eric's shoe which makes Hyde smile but watching Jackie squeal over the puppy when she came in with lunches made him feel really hot. She is talking in a baby voice and suddenly he could picture her talking to their kids like that. He can see her calling the kids and the dog in for dinner. He can see himself slapping her ass and her laughing, as their kids roll their eyes in disgust. He can see himself lifting her onto the kitchen counter to kiss her as the cookies burn in the oven. He can see it all and he wants that. It makes his heart ache with want.
She came to his job twice that day, once with the lunches, the second time with stuff for Midnight, which includes various squeaky toys, a light blue collar, and some treats. Midnight adores her and Jackie spends the day sitting on the floor, playing with his puppy, her giggles when Midnight licks her makes him hard and he has to go out for a smoke break. He tries to think of his mother passed out on the couch, of his adoptive parents running up the stairs, of his friends, and it works.
However, when he comes back in, Jackie has the puppy in her arms, talking to a blond man and he feels anger. But then he notices that her back is straight and that she has a fake smile. Midnight barks when he comes in and their eyes meet and he knows something is wrong and she gestures to him, blowing him a kiss and he realizes Jackie is attempting to brush the guy off. Jackie puts the dog down and the man reaches to grab her wrist with one hand and her ass with the other, Jackie jumps and squeals and Midnight pees on the man's foot and the man yells and takes a threatening step towards the puppy, while still holding onto Jackie's wrist and all he can see is red. The next thing he knows, the guy is flat on the ground and Jackie is standing in front of him grabbing his wrist, examining his knuckles.
"Steven?"
He turns to face her and pulls her away from the fallen man. Midnight is growling at the man.
"Are you okay?"
He reaches for her wrist and he can already see faint bruises.
"I'm fine."
She doesn't look fine and he doesn't even think about it before he pulls her in close, pressing a kiss to her wrist before pulling her into a hug taking in her scent. Jackie clings to him and he pulls his head away only for her to do the same and they freeze, faces close. He can stare into her eyes all day and he thinks about kissing her but Midnight barks, breaking the spell and he bends down to pick her up, thankful for the distraction.
"You alright Midnight? Good girl, protecting Jackie."
He scratches one of her floppy ears and she licks his fingers. Jackie smiles and reaches over to press a kiss to Midnight's nose. Her eyes meet Hyde's and he swallows hard. How can she turn him on being simply kissing his dog's nose?
Eric watches the pair and smiles. They look like a happy family. Eric can practically see the heart eyes and the lust on his brother's face. He wonders if his brother will attempt to win her back and what is his plan in doing so.
Ashley Meredith Lynn was a force to be reckoned, just like Jackie, which was probably why he likes her so much.
He watches her with a smile as she helps hang curtains and organize his kitchen. He had not asked his friends for helping to move in, wanting to do it on his own and he needed the privacy and Ashley had helped him carry in boxes without blinking an eye, she had even picked up a couple of the heavy ones. When she asked about his friends, he told her that they were all busy and most of them weren't too good at lifting heavy things which made her laugh. She catches him looking at her and raised an eyebrow, cocking a hip.
"Hyde?"
"Thanks for helping."
She nods her hair falling out of her bun. She reaches down to scratch Midnight's head and she smiles and he takes the time to look her over.
Ashley has blonde hair that she had dyed dark purple and green eyes. She is taller than Jackie but shorter than Donna unless she was in heels. Her boobs were big like Donna's and she had a small tattoo on her hip. She was pretty and he would have to be blind not to notice it but, what he noted was that she was lonely. She had jumped at the chance to help him unpack and didn't say anything over the fact that it took all day.
They chat while unpacking his stuff.
The woman had come home to help her grandfather and was miserable with no friends. She had been engaged, which he knew still affected her judging by the dark look in her eyes. She was attention starved and he thought of Jackie whenever he saw her.
As he watches her go back to her lonely apartment, he thinks about Jackie and how she spent time around people who were not too fond of her because she didn't want to be alone.
Ashley had seemed happy helping him hang up things and unpacking his records. She could use a friend and he could use a friend, not in the basement.
So after a particular rough dinner with the Formans, where Jackie was there talking about a potential date, he went and brought some beer and went to Ashley's apartment.
She answered the door in a tank top and shorts and no bra.
"I have beer?"
She opens the door wider and Midnight darts to greet Luna, Ashley's cat.
They sit on the couch and he hands her a beer. They drink the first one in silence. She cracks open her second one.
"There's this cop at my work who drives me insane. Calls me sugar every time he sees me and I want to punch his face. He tips well so I don't. Plus he's hot."
"My ex is dating again."
"How long?"
"We broke up a year ago, it was bad."
"Do you want to talk.."
"No, I'm not drunk enough yet."
"Do you smoke?"
He grins at her and pulls out a bag from his shirt and she laughs, sliding it back into his pocket. She brushes a kiss to his forehead and heads to her bookshelf.
"I got you this time. "
She tosses him her stash and he's not going to complain.
He finds out that she's from Chicago, two years older than him and hates coffee.
He lets her talk, it relaxes him and if he closes his eyes it's like being with Jackie.
As their high wears off, she sighs from where's she laying on the couch.
"Did you love her?"
He's quiet.
"More than anything. Never told her enough."
"You should."
She falls asleep and he drags a blanket over her frame and he crashes on the floor.
When he wakes up, she is already gone but he finds breakfast in the microwave and a note on the table telling him to hold onto her spare key so he can lock the door.
He smiles at the trust she is giving him.
He doesn't know what it is about small loud-mouthed cheerleaders but they seem to trust him for some reason.
He goes home to shower and then heads to work.
Jackie comes in with lunch as usual.
He steers clear of them not wanting to chase her off. The only times she talks to him are to give him his lunch or to ask him something about Midnight.
She's telling Eric about her date in which the guy ordered her a salad. She was not impressed. It made him happy to know the guy would not be getting a second date but it made him sad to know that she is open to dating again, which he knows makes him a hypocritic with the whole stripper wife thing.
His conversation with Ashley is on his mind and when she drops off his lunch he mutters "Thank you doll, love you."
He doesn't realize what he said until the door slams and he hears Eric call out after her.
Eric comes in furious.
"What did you say to her?"
He's pale thinking of how easy the words came out now. Where was this ease a year ago, when he needed it the most?
"I thanked her for the lunch and then said love you and I may have called her doll."
Eric slams his hands on the desk. Hyde knew his friend has inherited his father's temper but he had never seen it like this, in his face. In this instance, he was sure that his friend could and would have landed a punch, but then again he would not have defended himself since he deserves it.
"What the hell Hyde? Why would you do that? Do you know what it took to even convince Jackie to even go on one date? Jackie refuses to go on dates because she feels like she's cheating on you. Isn't that sad? You hurt her and she feels like she's cheating on you. Why would you say love you? You almost never said it to her."
Hyde feels the anger in his veins and he stands up.
"It slipped out. I went out to the bar yesterday, talked to the bartender. The bartender told me about how I should say I love you more and that conversation was on my mind. They gave some decent advice. It slipped out. And I said it to her, she was always sleeping."
"Did you mean it?"
The two best friends simply look at each other. Then Hyde removes his sunglasses so Eric can see his friend's blue eyes. Eric can't remember the last time he saw his friend's eyes. Jackie was the only person who ever got to see his eyes on a regular basis.
"I do."
Ashley shows up to his apartment, with wine in one hand food in the other, five days later.
"My sister is dating my ex-boyfriend."
He lets her in ad Luna wave around his ankle before the cat darts up to Midnight's bed and stretches out.
They eat on the sofa as he has yet to buy chairs for his table.
He's lacking a lot of furniture and she points this out to him and he shrugs.
"I'm bad at this stuff, my ex is good at this but I can't ask her."
"Want some help?"
She raises an eyebrow and then nods. Her hair is loose around her shoulders and as they drink their wine, his hand automatically twists a strand as they talk. She tells him about her sister and the anger and hurt she felt when she got the news, earlier that day and about her former relationships, good and bad.
After a while there was silence and he looks at her as she stares off into space. They don't talk for the rest of the night until she leaves for her apartment.
It becomes a tradition, she shows up every Saturday night with drinks and on Tuesdays they get lunch.
He learns that her grandfather had raised her after her parents took off. He tells her about Edna and the Formans. She tells him about the baby she gave up for adoption.
They have known each other for three months when he finally tells her about Jackie.
He comes over with beer and she has dinner on the table. They don't drink the beer until they are both on the couch, their pets sleeping. They get through their first beer in silence. It's not until he reaches for the second beer that he speaks.
"I think I'm ready to tell you about my ex."
Hey Wallflowers!
Sorry that it has been a while. I have been busy with school work but I do have several chapters written out, some just need to be edited and others need to be finished. This story is turning out to be longer than I expected. This was originally a one-shot that was over 10 thousand words and now it's expanded. (This chapter alone was over 5,000 and I ended up splitting it into 2) I'm not too sure how many more chapters mostly because every time I think that I'm done, I realize I can add another point to the storyline that ends up being another chapter.
I have several other ideas for this fandom and I can't wait to have time to work on them all!
-Queen
Reviews:
(3/20?)Guest: It looks like this fic will be around 6- 10 chapters but there's a chance it might be more, depending on time and what other ideas I come up with. Thank you, I'm really glad you like it. It's nice to know people like this story.
(3/13)Guest: I'm a sucker for a Laurie redemption. She was one character I always wanted to know more about and she and Jackie were a lot of like. Plus Laurie is sort of Hyde's sister which would make them sister in laws. Hyde is very soft when it comes to Jackie. It's something I noticed from early on, even when he claimed to hate her. He never really pushed her away when she hugged him and the way he looked at her at prom.
Judy: Thanks for reviewing. I'm glad you like the build. Sometimes I think I'm rushing this and I get nervous and other times I feel like I'm taking forever.