So I'm an idiot who deleted this chapter (which was like 2,500 words and I was super proud of) so here's my attempt at remembering what I wrote and attempting to recreate it. Not too happy with it, but the next chapter will more than make up for it... I hope.

As always, I don't own that 70s show.

Enjoy.

Dinner was a disaster.

A complete utter disaster.

After Jackie, Donna, and Ashley had left, Kitty let out a nervous giggle, Red muttered "dumbass" in his direction, and Fez and Kelso almost broke the table, fighting over the last piece of bread.

They ate dinner mostly in silence, as no one really responded to Kitty's questions and the woman eventually grew quiet.

He tried to ignore the looks Eric and Laurie gave him as he thought about what had happened earlier.

He couldn't get the hurt and shocked look in her eyes as they met his before she ran, out of his mind.

All he could see were her pretty eyes welling up with hurt he had put there, hurt he had caused her.

And the fact that she had been shocked to know he wanted to propose to her.

Did she not know why he had gone to the motel room?

Did she not know that he was crazy in love with her?

Did she really not know how much she meant to him?

He was going to make the ultimate commitment only to turn and run without bothering to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Donna came back in, eyes blazing and she grabbed her jacket, throwing Hyde and Eric a glare.

"Your ex is a bitch."

Then she stormed out.

Eric sighed and then walked out after her and he doesn't come back for the rest of the dinner.

Laurie excused herself to the washroom and everyone seemed to take that as a sign of dinner being over.

Red yelled as Fez and Kelso as they sit on the couch and Hyde headed to his room to take a few deep calming, zen, breaths.

His hands opened the drawer and he pulled out a ring box.

Flipping it open, he stares at the ring that would fit perfectly on the small fingers of his doll.

He sits on the bed, and simply stares at the ring.

There is no one else in the world that he can see himself reaching this milestone with.

Jackie is it for him.

She's the one.

And he lost her.

All because he can't tell her how he feels, how important she is, all because he can't let her all the way in.

When he leaves his bedroom, Eric is still gone.

Red is glaring at Kelso and Fez as they argue over something, and Kitty and Laurie are in the kitchen finishing up on washing the dishes.

Kitty gave a little giggle when she saw him.

"Steven, we were just leaving."

He hugs them all goodbye and sinks down onto the couch when they leave, an open case of beer in front of him.

He can't stop thinking about the look in Jackie's eyes when Ashley opened her big mouth.

That's how Ashley finds him when she knocks on his door an hour later.

"It's open."

"You shouldn't leave it open, I could be a murderer."

She teases him but her sparkling eyes dimmed when she saw that he hadn't cracked a smile and when she sees the pack of beer, its been open and one beer is missing but it's in front of him, unopened.

It makes her proud, a few months ago the entire case would have been gone, but now this is a victory.

Steven Hyde had changed.

She sat down on the couch and curled her legs under her.

She watches him stare at the bottle, fighting with himself.

"So Donna's a bitch. She said some things to Jackie that got my blood boiling, never have I ever wanted to punch someone so much before in my life."

He tenses thining of Doona and Jackie fighting.

Donna had a way of hitting at Jackie's weak points and she was physically stronger than Jackie.

Just the thought of Donna hurting Jackie hurt him.

"What did she say?"

Ashley shook her head.

"Nothing worth repeating."

"Ashley."

"I mean it, this is something that Jackie has to deal with it. Jackie's a big girl she can handle Donna. You can't protect her from everything and everyone or fight all her battles."

She poked his leg with her toes and he sighed squeezing her ankle.

"I spoke to Jackie afterward."

Hyde groaned.

"Ashley!"

"Hyde..."

He turned to look at her, hearing the seriousness in her voice and his hand tightened around her ankle.

"Jackie said something about leaving."

It took him a few seconds for it to sink in.

Jackie was leaving.

She was leaving Point Place.

She was leaving him.

He had lost her.

He had lost her for good.

He had lost his doll.

He had lost the woman he loved.

He had lost the woman he wanted to marry.

He would have continued spiraling downward if it weren't for Ashley.

"Hyde. Hyde. Hyde!"

He looked at her.

"What?"

"You are hurting me."

He looked down to see that his fingers were squeezing her ankle and he let go immediately.

He could already see the bruises and felt a stab of guilt.

"I'm so sorry Ashly."

She gave him a smile.

"Not the first time a guy left me with bruises."

He opens his mouth to question her but she shakes her head and he takes the hint.

"So what now? I mean she's leaving. There is nothing I can do to stop her, I'm the last person that can stop her. And honestly, I don't blame her for leaving, I messed her up so bad."

Ashley sighed and crawled over to wrap her arms around him and she pressed a kiss to his head before she drew back and smacked the back of his head.

"Ow."

"Listen to me, Steven Hyde. You and I did not spend an entire night making a plan for you to give up now. Talk to her."

"She doesn't want to talk to me."

"If she didn't want to talk to you, she would be hanging around the record store, she wouldn't have come over for dinner, she would have taken care of your sick self. Talk to her, Hyde. Make her talk to you, make her listen."

Her voice had softened towards the end of her little rant.

He turned to look at her.

"What if it's not enough."

Ashley ran a hand through her hair.

"Then it's not enough but at least you tried. You are trying, you have cut back on the smoking and the drinking, you moved into this apartment on your own, you work, and you have been tyring. You talk to her, you tell her everything. regardless of how it goes, it will be out there. Either she tells you to get lost or she forgives you."

"Do you think... "

Ashley thinks about the look in Jackie's eyes when she spilled the news about the ring and then later on the car hood when she spoke to her.

"I can't answer that. But Hyde, she didn't sound sure about leaving. "

They sit in silence until Ashley feels herself getting tired.

"Want me to stay?"

He shook his head.

"I think, I think I need to be alone right now."

Ashley nods and presses a soft kiss to his cheek.

He locks the door behind her and he knows he should sleep.

He eyes the case of beer but instead, he picks it up and places it under the sink.

He's not the same person he was a few months ago, he's changed.

So instead of drinking his problems away or sleeping, he grabs the plan that he and Ashley had spent six hours writing. He scans the plan and he grabs another sheet of paper and begins to write.

He writes down all the mistakes and issues he and Jackie had, he writes down what he needs to say, or at least what should be covered during their talk.

If he is going to talk to Jackie, he only has one chance to get it all out, to get it right.

He doesn't realize how much time has passed until he yawns and looks out the window and sees the sunrise.

He groans and lays down on the couch, closing his eyes.

When Ashley checks up on him before her work shift, he's spread out on the couch, speech in one hand.

She throws a blanket over him and calls the record shop.

She leaves him a plate of breakfast and a note.

Hyde wakes up to find a blanket over him and the speech in his hand.

The first he does after he eats and showers is drive to visit the florist.

He asks for them to send some sunflowers mixes with red carnations to Jackie. He sends it to the Formans knowing that Kitty will make sure she gets it.

Then he calls Kitty asking her for the recipe for Jackie's favorite chocolate chip cookies, which he makes, with Mrs. Forman's special ingredient- love.

As he waits for them to bake, he goes over the speech he made, crossing things out and adding things in.

He only had one shot to get it all right.

He sits on his couch after the cookies are done, trying to get the courage to see her and when he does leave, Ashley waves to him from her door.

"Good luck Steven Hyde."

She whispers it as he drives away.

Her hand finds her necklace where a ring sits.

He finds himself outside Fez's apartment sitting there for about ten minutes.

He's nervous, nervous in a way he has never ebene before because this might be his last chance.

And that is a sobering thought.

Then he's angry because how on earth did little Jackie Burkhart get so deep into his skin that he's even considering marriage with her?

How did she go from the girl who drove him insane to the girl he couldn't live without?

And it was that anger in his veins that gets him out of the car and pounding on her door.

The original chapter was longer and more detailed but after staring at the screen, I figured you all waited long enough and this was as good as it was going to get, anyway I am more excited for the next few chapters and I think you will be too. The next chapter is done and needs to be edited but after that, the only other chapter done is the epilogue, so will be a bit of a wait as I have already started my senior year of college and recruitment is approaching.

Reviews:

Guest (8/12): Hope you like this! Can't say much on this but I think since Hyde is bettering himself that Jackie is too.

Guest (8/16): 1. Thank you! 2. Jackie will get her time to 'talk' to Donna but it will be a while. I have a love/hate with Donna, she did some things I couldn't stand on the show. I haven't thought about the boys calling her out but now...hmmm. 3. Here's the update as promised.