Part Seven [By: Candace]
"Hyde, oh, be okay," he heard a faint voice pleading.
"I'm going to kill . . . that . . . bastard," he muttered. His head throbbed and he really didn't feel like moving, but he still couldn't erase the image of Chip treating Jackie -- His Jackie -- like she was worthless.
"You're, okay! Thank God," a sweet voice said accompanied by a rush of breath he suspected was relief.
"Gonna . . . kick his ass . . ." He opened his eyes but they were bleary and it was dark, a combination that banned his sight to a few smudged motions.
The voice grew with concern as a soft hand stroked his cheek. "Who, Steven? Is someone here with us?"
Steven.
It was nice to be called Steven by that confection of a voice. It made him more aware and he blinked repeatedly trying to clear away the muck in his gaze.
"Jackie?"
"It's me, you're going to be okay. Steven, is someone here with us? Did someone hit you?"
"I like when you call me Steven," was his response to worried questions.
Jackie's mouth quirked a little, in a very different situation a slightly off Steven would be a lot of fun to play with.
"I like it when you call me Jacks," she whispered encouragingly.
"Jacks," he answered to make her happy.
She stroked his forehead and felt stickiness, in the dim light she hadn't noticed this. She reached for the lighter that was still in her pocket but stopped. There was *much* more light than the last four times she traveled this hallway.
She peered up and saw the cause. Such an old and beaten house that a section on the second floor was completely gone, she could see up to the roof. The roof that now had a large hole that allowed the moonlight to seep inside. She looked back at the seemingly comfortable Hyde and for the first time saw the shapes of plaster, tiles, and wood around him. He was struck by at least one of the aforementioned things. At least she knew they weren't trapped in an abandoned house with a psycho.
"Steven? Steven are you okay?"
"Jacks?" he squinted before grimacing and clutching his head. It was coming back now, stupid house, stupid situation . . . good touching as Jackie ran her hands over his body, checking for bruises, a few scratches. When she got to his thigh he jerk as if she hit a sore spot, he would never admit it but maybe it was just to get extra contact.
"Come on, Steven, we have to get back to the others and get out of here."
She took one of his arms and lifted him as much as possible. He leaned on her heavily though he tried his best not to, his head throbbed and the hallway seemed to be twisting with his sight shifting in and out. They made quite the pair stumbling down the darkened corridor.
Hyde was shirtless having left his clothing in the warm, comfortable room he still wished he were in. His boots were covered in ash and charred from the displeasure of stomping out the small fire that was so inviting to go and see a moron who had hurt his shoulder doing something a five-year old could have figured out didn't work the first time. All this with a cut on his forehead and scratched on his back he could feel burning, not that he minded scratches in his back, he just liked to get them a more pleasant way. Jackie looked disheveled and a little worried; she had left Hyde's jacket in the rush of the nights events and had given up her blouse for Kelso. She shivered griping Hyde closer.
He tried to hold her tightly against him and seceded somewhat, he meant to say something comforting but what came of was a left over from whatever he experienced with the knock on his head.
"Ya know, Jacks, next time I see Chip I'm going to beat the hell out of him."
**
"Ay! This is terrible, I think the house is telling us of the hate it has! We need to get out of here! This is bad so, so b -- Ooo, Jackie is almost naked," he ended abruptly, blissfully distracted.
"Ten, Fez, TEN!" Hyde growled referring to earlier in the night. Fez got the idea and went stand behind Eric. He was still leaning against Jackie when he looked away from his horny friend and stared at Kelso on the ground. "How is he?"
"I broke my shoulder how do you think I AM?!" Kelso whined. "And it's all from you! *You* and your conspiracy theory, all-the-chicks-did-my-hair personality! Because of you my bone is sticking out of my arm, right through the skin!"
"It is not," Donna sighed. "Eric said it's dislocated and there is a bad cut though."
"How did you know, Foreman?" Hyde asked, looking in his general direction, his eyes finally returning to normal.
"My mom is a nurse, I respect the profession, okay?" he said defensively, when all eyes were on him he relented. "She made me go to first aid summer classes."
"You said that was karate class," Fez interrupted. Eric went to lean against the door and pouted but Fez just smiled. "So you can not give me the 'death touch' if I give you the 'wedgie without mercy' . . . I suspected as much." He said through narrowed eyes.
"Would you guys SHUT UP? I am hurt here and my bone is too sticking out, I can see it!"
"Your only half right, idiot, it's dislocated and pushing against your skin. With all the blood and that moonlight glinting on it just looks like it broke the skin . . . moron."
"Wait, Hyde did you just say moonlight?"
"Yeah," he answered, really not in the mood for stupid questions.
"Well where is it from?"
All of their eyes traveled the shaft of white illumination, something wasn't boarded up right and if they were lucky it could be . . .
They really hoped it was their way out.