Disclaimer: I do not own That 70s Show.

Okay...I know I said I'd have to try and have this out before the next major holiday, and if we count Father's Day or even the Fourth of July and ignore Memorial Day, I have! I kept putting this off, I didn't know where to go to get the the point, but sitting here and waiting for my car to be serviced has provided me a chance to write without excuses. So here we go...


The car ride home was normal by most standards. Steven had returned with the tree to find Jackie still frozen in realization. Much to Jackie's relief he had absolutely no idea that anything was other than it should be.

But Jackie Burckhardt was nothing if not a magnificent keeper of secrets. She had been keeping secrets since the day she was two and her mother made her promise not to tell her father what they really did when they went on "shopping trips." Although keeping secrets from Steven was not something that made her happy, this had to be an exception to the rule of honesty that they maintained in their relationship.

There were little moments where he must have noticed something was off, but he brushed it off as PMS too. He didn't have all the stats and facts she did to think otherwise. For instance, she didn't remember to put on the radio.

Steven had hopped into the car with her, immediately started the heater, and pulled out of the lot, careful of the tree balancing on the El Camino. He had made it two lights down the street before he realized he had been driving in silence. He kind of missed the Christmas music that filled their car during the last couple of days, but he didn't want to admit it. So in silence they drove.

They got home, unloaded the tree in their living room and Jackie ran off to their bathroom.

She closed and locked the door behind her, happy to be alone with her thoughts. She stayed still as she listened to Steven in the other room. He knocked off his boots by the door and she soon heard the TV turn on.

Jackie leaned over their sink and gazed at her reflection in the mirror trying to see if there was anything different. She found nothing out of place. Perfect as usual. I mean, you could say more perfect than usual, she thought.

Which was true actually. Her hair had been behaving more lately and her skin glowed. She had chalked that down to the rest of her life finally balancing out. Work was good, Steven was amazing, and no complaints in the family department other than what was now normal.

Taking off her shirt, she tried to see if there was any evidence a baby was growing inside of her. She ran her hands over her flat stomach. She turned this way and that, stood straight and slouched, but again there was no sign of anything.

She let out a breath in frustration. "No way!"

Outside the bathroom, Steven called, "What?"

Jackie jumped, forgetting he was out there, "Nothing!"

But an idea came to her, "I just realized I'm completely out of mascara!"

She tugged on her shirt again, opening the door. "I'm gonna head to the market before we head to the Forman's."

Not giving Steven time to protest, she pulled on her coat, grabbed her hat and purse, and flew out the door.

The market was just at the end of their block, about a five minute walk and the weather had lightened up.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck." Jackie panicked thinking of how this could change everything. Even ruin everything.

Did they even have room in that small apartment? Oh god, they couldn't afford to move could they? She knew nothing about babies! Did Steven even want kids? She would get fat!

She stopped right in front of the store's front doors. Oh. My. God.

"I'm gonna be a whale!" she sobbed weakly.

"Uh excuse me…" a nervous man said passing by her.

She marched in to the store trying to stay positive. First, she needed to buy this test and see whether there was any reason to freak out. Last time with Michael had been a false alarm…

There weren't too many options but it was an easy choice to make when one promised an answer in an hour. She could totally take an hour to get ready for dinner so Steven would be none the wiser.

He deserved to know though didn't he? She fiddled with the box in her hand…

He would know once she knew. She needed to do this alone.

Jackie it made it two steps toward the cash register before she remembered something. She almost forgot the reason she was supposed to be here. She grabbed mascara, paid for her items and rushed home.

Feeling nervous and a little ridiculous she opened the door and first looked to see where Steven was.

He was at the kitchen table going over papers from the record store. For a moment her heart melted at the sight of him with his glasses hook on his shirt, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. She loved when he worked.

He looked up and greeted her, "Did you really need to go? I was worried about you slipping on ice, I could've driven you."

"Sorry, I didn't think, I want to be ready for dinner," she replied. He was right though, what if she had slipped out there. It was possible she wasn't just caring for herself anymore.

She'd be the worst mother in the world. Jackie's eyes watered at the thought of making some little girl feel the way her mother did her.

Jackie rushed to the bathroom, clutching her purchases close. She took a glance at the clock.

Once the door was securely locked, she worked on the box. She tore off the end and pulled out a pamphlet of directions.

The mere number of pages made her want to cry more. She skimmed until she reached the part that told her what she needed to know.

She needed to pee? Oh God.

Gross.

Squatting over the toilet seat, she tried to think of waterfalls, large glasses of water, and running rivers. But all that came to mind was how she better not get any pee on her hand.

Shutting her eyes, she tried to clear her mind.

She heard the shuffling of paper coming from Steven in the other room.

He was playing a record on the old player he used to keep in his room in the Basement. Zeppelin, of course.

It worked, she filled the cup and moved it out of the way just before there was a big mess.

She set the cup on the counter and tried not to think of what it actually was as she finished her business and washed her hands.

Jackie followed through with the other directions, trying to be careful to do everything right but also quickly.

Now all that was left to do was wait.

And not let Steven into this bathroom.

Jackie looked into the mirror once more. This could mean the end of life as she knew it. This might be a moment that she would remember for the rest of her life. She wondered if it would be for better or for worse.

She moved the cup and other pieces of the test off to the corner of the counter. Nothing she could do now but get ready and wait it out.

How the fuck does she ignore the fact that she could be pregnant? Who cares about a dinner?

A small voice that sounded suspiciously like her mother reminded her, A Burckhardt does NOT look anything less than perfect no matter the circumstances. And although most times Jackie wanted to tell her mother to go screw herself, in this instance she was right.

Whether she was pregnant or not she couldn't let herself go! That was something Donna would do, and Jackie was definitely not a Donna.

With that motivation Jackie worked through her makeup routine, taking damn sweet time. She absolutely loved getting ready. Getting lost in the process and routine of the steps was second nature to Jackie, she could do it in her sleep and possibly blindfolded. Her mind was clear for a blessed 45 minutes until –

"Jackie, doll, I love you, but could you hurry it the hell up in there?" came Steven's exasperated plea.

Her heart pounded in her chest but she managed a steady voice, "Steven, you know as well as I do that beauty is not easily achieved. I want to look good, don't you want me to look good?"

She carefully applied her lipstick, trying to keep her shaking hand steady enough to not end up looking like a clown.

Steven sighed on the other side of the door, "Alright fine. But just know you have 10 minutes before I kick you out of there to shower. It's already four-thirty and dinner starts at six."

"Yes, Steven," Jackie replied trying to sound like herself. That worked out perfect because they both knew they tacked on at least an extra ten minutes to whatever time limit Steven imposed on her and she only needed five for the test to be ready.

Jackie fluffed her hair and put pins in to hold the style in place. She refused to glance at the test.

It was basically sitting there and mocking her for the last hour.

She would not look. Not until it was really ready because she didn't want to get her hopes up. Now what she was hoping for she didn't really know.

She opened the mirror to reveal the cabinet and looked at her perfumes. She chose a warm vanilla scent thinking it was fitting for the season as well as comforting.

Running out of things to do, she glanced at the watch on her wrist. Seven minutes. She hummed along to the song playing on the record.

Jackie blinked back tears. It would ruin all her hard work. She sat on the closed toilet seat trying to think of anything else but all that came to mind was the possibility of being pregnant.

She thought about what Steven would say. Would he be happy? She knew he didn't have the best childhood growing up. They'd joked about how their kids would be, but doesn't everyone? Did he even really want children? Would this scare him away?

Ever since the terrible break up of '79, she refused to bring up the subject of marriage. If there was one thing she learned about relationships it was the importance of compromise. And not pushing something too hard if you were ready to lose. At this point she was happy with having Steven and not a ring on her finger.

But a baby. She couldn't compromise on that could she? The only thing she had been sure about since this whole thing started (had it really only been hours?) was that she would keep this baby.

And if she was ready to keep this baby and raise him or her, did that mean she was ready to lose Steven?

Not prepared to answer that question, she looked at her watch and saw that she was three minutes over the hour.

Staring at their lavender shower curtain, she took a deep breath. Well, this is it.

She looked to the cup resting innocently on the counter and at the small indicator strip sticking up.

The strip was positive.

She was pregnant.

She was pregnant.

And she didn't know why, she was scared, she was shocked, she was shaking, but what filled her in that moment was undoubtedly a warmth and happiness. Tears filled her eyes but her heart was far from heavy. She caught sight of herself in the mirror to discover that she was smiling.

She was having a baby. A small Steven and Jackie hybrid.

"Alright, Jackie, I have you more than enough time and I'm sorry, mostly for myself because I know you'll be pissed but this is me officially kicking you out of the bathroom."

Jackie couldn't find her voice but her heart definitely found its ability to try and beat out of her chest.

Steven knocked, "Come on, I'm sure you look amazing and Donna will wish she loo-"

Jackie opened the door and Steven stopped mid-sentence. He caught on quickly that something was wrong as he took in her tears.

"Jackie? What's wrong?" his brows were furrowed and he stepped closer slowly.

Jackie at this point could not stop the tears, quickly turning into sobs.

"Doll, you're scaring me," he said grabbing hold of her arms.

"Um…Steven, I–, "Jackie started wondering how you tell your boyfriend that you were about to change everything.

Steven looked at her, waiting for an explanation.

"Steven, I'm pregnant." There she said it. She held her breath looking at him trying to get a sense of what he was thinking.

His hands went loosened on her arms but managed to hold on.

His eyes searched hers as if they would tell him something.

"What?" was all he said.

"I'm pregnant, Steven, I just took a test," she gestured to the cup behind her, "and it says I'm pregnant. I missed my period last month but I didn't notice until today. So I got a test and I took it and I'm pregnant."

Saying it out loud felt like a weight had lifted off her shoulders.

"Oh man, oh man," Steven started letting go of her and raised his hands to his head.

"Steven?"

"Oh man," he repeated, "Okay. Okay, alright, it'll be fine." He sounded more like himself and less like the frightened boy he had been a second ago.

"It will?" Jackie said her voice small and confused.

"Yeah, I own where I work so I can change hours if I need to. I make decent money, I may need to move some funds around and maybe talk to WB. You make more than me so we'll be alright. You may need to cut back on some hours the bigger you get."

"Cut back?"

"Well yeah Jackie, you can't be running around in heels when you're about to pop it's not safe."

"Wait, wait," she waved a hand to get him to stop, "You're not mad?"

He looked genuinely confused, "Why would I be mad?"

"Steven, this is definitely not planned. We just moved less than a year ago, and I'm sure you didn't want kids anytime soon."

"Yeah this isn't planned. I would have hoped to wait for us to be more stable but it's not like we can undo what we did," he stumbled for second, "Unless you want to?"

"Oh God no! No, I just thought- I just thought you'd be mad and you'd, I don't know, want to break up."

Steven's eyes softened, "Jackie, I know I don't have the best track record on these things but I love you. I wouldn't have moved in with you if I wasn't serious. I'm not gonna be like my dad, like Kelso, and run from this. This kid's gonna know their dad. They're gonna know love. They're gonna know a real family way sooner than I did." He finished at a whisper, his eyes glassy.

"Oh Steven," Jackie's voice wobbled and she threw herself at him.

She hugged him tight, happy this was working out and happy that their baby would have both of them.

Suddenly he let go and held her at arms distance, "Wait, I shouldn't be squeezing you like some kind of pillow, it can't be safe for the kid."

Jackie scoffed, her tears definitely drying, "Steven, I'm sure we can hug."

"Hug maybe but your death grip is bound to be unsafe. There's a kid in there and I don't think pressing on 'em like that is safe." He said pointing to her stomach.

She rolled her eyes, "So what, I can't lay on my stomach?"

"Can you?"

Prepared to answer smartly, Jackie found she actually didn't know. She'd never been pregnant before and the only pregnant person she'd known was Brooke and they didn't actually talk much.

"Oh my God, Steven, I'm gonna kill the baby!" she started to cry again.

Steven's eyes widened, he hated when she cried, "Jackie you're not gonna kill the baby. We'll go to the doctor tomorrow and we can ask them about it. You have Mrs. Forman too." He gathered her in his arms and hugged her. Lightly.

He was right, Jackie thought. She sniffled, "Okay, but until then, I have to be extra careful. Baby Hyde is counting on me to not mess this up."

Steven smiled, lightly brushing the tears from her cheeks, "Baby Hyde…"

Jackie smiled up at him, "A little baby you and me."

Steven still smiled as he replied, "God help us all."

Jackie giggled and reach up to kiss him.


Well there you go, it went differently than I had first planned. Steven wasn't supposed to find out until after dinner but this seemed right. The chapter title's are getting harder to fit as well. There were some cute ones but they would have given away the result of the test, although were any of you surprised? I'll keep writing and try to have it up soon. Thank you so much for following this story and the reviews, they're so kind and a great motivation! Happy Father's Day to those who celebrate this weekend (and to new Dad Steven!).