by Jaded (opheliadrowning@hotmail.com)
Summary: When we last left off, Jackie and Hyde had reunited in Madison and had a blazing argument which ended in a make-up make-out session. Kissing is all fine and dandy, but what happens when they have to talk, and when they have to start facing the consequences?
Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: So sorry it has taken so long to write this next chapter. I don't know where my head has been. However, I hope you'll still read and review. And in the meanwhile, have a wonderful Independence Day weekend (to all you Americans, at home and abroad).
Chapter 6: Just Like Starting Over
At first, she didn't really hear him. Jackie could hear the sounds of people on the street below yelling and having a drunken good time. Some girls were shrieking, then giggling. In the back of her mind, she heard Andy Gibb crooning, "I Just Wanna Be Your Everything." She felt light-headed, and she could hardly hear much else because simply feeling everything she was feeling now, kissing him again, was consuming so much of her attention and her energy.
"Me too." I still love you.
It was just like kissing him again for the first time in Eric's basement, that same thrill of excitement that poured through every cell in her body and made her heart pound. Jackie ran her hands down his face, pulled him close again, and kissed him. She didn't even mind the beard so much.
It took a moment to register, but she finally heard him. Jackie pulled away and stared Hyde in the face. His eyes were cloudy and unfocused. He blinked, then looked at her with a slow, sly smile. He reached towards her, touched her cheek gently, then ran his finger along her jaw line. He looked dazed.
"You . . . still love me?" she asked.
He blinked at her again, and his mouth opened. Then closed. Jackie licked her lips and felt her chest start to tighten. Maybe he hadn't really said it, she thought. The long silence made her nervous.
He coughed, the way he always coughed just before he was going to say something important, shook his head slightly, then tilted her face up so he could look her directly in the face.
"You know what, I suppose I do."
"You suppose?" she barked.
"Alright! I do!" His voice became a little softer. "I do. I gotta be. I've never been so stupid about any chick in my life. It's gotta mean something."
She shoved him playfully. "Thanks a lot, Steven."
"Anything for you babe." He ran his tongue over his teeth. "So…we gonna talk, or make-out some more?"
"You're such a pig!" she cried, but without any real outrage. This was how they had been before all the mess, all the misunderstanding. She knew he wasn't much of a talker, especially when it came to emotions, but he always listened to her, even when she was rattling off the reasons why she thought Scott Baio had better hair than Donny Osmond.
The room was still dark, but she could see him so clearly. She felt tingly, then hot and cold all over. Finally, Jackie just gave into the urge and reached for Hyde again, wrapping her arms around his torso and pulling him for a long, deep kiss. She felt him relax, and he began to kiss her back, his tongue darting in and out of her mouth. She pushed against him and they began to slide towards the other side of the room before they tripped over the bed.
He fell on his back and she fell on top of him, both still tangled together in one another. It was just like they had started again where they had left off, and for that reason, Jackie stopped. She let the last kiss linger before she sat up. Hyde, out of breath, managed to sit up.
"Jackie!" he said, "what are you doing to me?"
"Steven, trust me, I didn't want to stop but--" he tried to interrupt her but she shushed him, "we have to talk. About us."
Hyde fell back and covered his eyes with his forearm. He groaned. "Do we?"
"Yes," she insisted, "we really do, because I love you, Steven Hyde, and if there's going to be a next time I want to do whatever I possibly can to make sure that it works. Okay? Steven?"
"Okay! Okay, but I'm going to put it out there I'm saying so not because I'm whipped."
Jackie smiled and said nothing. She'd let him think that. She reached out and ran a hand through his unruly hair. It looked darker than she remembered, more brown. Hyde didn't try to stop her, didn't really seem to react except for an odd expression on his face, a mixture of curiosity and regret.
"I need you to trust me," she said with a sigh, pulling her hand away from him. "That is for sure one of the basic rules if we're going to be . . . anything again."
"Jackie--" he cleared his throat, "me and rules? We don't get along, you--"
"For me?"
He paused, looking at her intently. Finally, he said, "I will. For you."
"Thank you."
"The same goes for you then? You trust me?"
"Steven! Of course!"
"As long as there's no reason for either of us to doubt one another," he said firmly.
Jackie gave him a hard stare. "Yeah, and as long as neither one of us goes looking for a reason."
Hyde grinned at her, his lips quirking somewhere behind the beard.
"What?" she demanded.
He leaned in and kissed her, his tongue opening up her mouth. An involuntary moan escaped from her lips. "Tough love," he said, his voice full of sex. "I like it. You are most definitely still a badass, Jackie."
"You know it," she sniffed with mock disdain, then giving into an urge that had seized her, grabbed his face and kissed him back until they were both short of breath and light-headed. Jackie fell against Hyde's chest and suddenly felt very tired, but tired in the happiest, most wonderful way. She nuzzled her cheek against his face.
"You don't have to leave now, do you?" she whispered.
Hyde ran his hands up and down the sides of her body, one hand coming to rest on her waist. "Only if you want me to. Though let it be said now, I personally am pretty happy where I am. You know, just so you have all the facts in."
Jackie stared into the darkness of the room. Things were quieting down outside. She could hear him breathe. Her arms tightened around him, a delicious feeling filling her up inside.
"I want you to stay."
"Then that's what I'll do."
Hyde rolled onto his side and pulled her with him. She landed softly on the other side of the mattress.
"We'll talk more tomorrow," Jackie mumbled sleepily. "Mmm, Steven, I'm so glad you're here." Snuggling up against him, she curled up and rested her head on his chest. "Goodnight."
"So we're not going to do it then?" she heard him say.
Jackie jerked back, eyes wide open. She hit him. "Pig!"
Hyde laughed and caught her fist in his hand. "Jackie! Jackie!" she kept struggling. "I'm joking, man! Jackie, quit it!"
She stopped, saw his face, and then started laughing herself.
"You know, for a ninety-five pounder, you sure pack a punch."
She tilted her head slightly. "Just a little something I learned at cheerleading camp. Anyway, it's not like I'm going to stand around all the time waiting for my knight in shining armor to save me."
"That's a . . . fair point," he said thoughtfully.
Jackie took on of his big hands with both of hers. She pressed his palm to her cheek. "But it's nice if he comes around every once in a while. I kind of like it when he does."
Eventually Jackie began to drift off to sleep, feeling safe, comfortable, and content. The day had seemed so long, but now, now with Hyde lying next to her, she didn't want tomorrow to come. Dimly, through her fog of sleep, she thought she heard him say something to her, his lips only inches away from her ear. It sounded like, "I've missed you. You don't know how much," but she wasn't sure if he had actually said it or if she had dreamed it. But it didn't matter. She didn't need to hear the words to know that it was true.
***
Hyde left the next morning to go to his apartment and get some clean clothes, but only after a lengthy goodbye with a promise to come back in a couple of hours to pick her up for lunch. They had slept in until 9:30, spooned up against one another.
Jackie had been worried that things would be awkward in the morning, that all the excitement from the night before would've worn off and they would've been back to where they had been when they had broken up months ago. But it had been just like starting over, like their relationship in those early days when they had snuck around to make-out, and everything seemed so forbidden and wrong, but neither wanted to end it.
She had thought long and hard about them after she had found out he had left Point Place. I won't let anyone ever cheat on me again, she had thought, and had felt resolved in that decision. She still was, although the little details had changed. Those first few months, as much as it pained her to not be with him, she wouldn't allow herself. She'd forgiven Michael too many times, and that had ended badly. In the long run though, she felt that he, of all people, deserved a second chance.
He'd had a horrible childhood. She knew a little of what that must have felt like now, with her father in jail and her mother abandoning her. If it hadn't been for him then, she would've felt unwanted and unloved, and sometimes she had. But he'd do something in his round-about way to show her he wanted her and loved her, and she had felt better.
And Jackie had seen her parents torn apart, and saw how their "love" had deteriorated until she was the only one left, and left alone at that. Love, apparently, wasn't as easy to come by and keep as she had thought, and it had come down to the honest fact that she loved him, and that it was worth another chance at least to try and see.
While she was trying to brush her teeth that morning he had come behind her and wrapped his arms around her, kissing on her neck and on her shoulders, so completely engrossed in her. Jackie had missed feeling this way, and feeling this way with him.
She turned around to kiss his back, giving him a mouthful of toothpaste.
"Now I don't have to brush my teeth," he had smirked at her.
Hyde promised to come around at noon to get some lunch.
"My clothes still stink like smoke and beer," he said, "and you probably don't want to smell that, do you?"
"No, not really."
The interesting part was yet to come though. He opened the door to leave, and Jackie followed him. They kissed goodbye again, a full minute at least, and it would have gone on longer but a voice screeched through the hallway and broke them apart.
"JACKIE! WHAT THE HELL?"
Hyde whirled around and Jackie saw past his shoulder and saw who it was.
"Hey Donna," Hyde said. "Hey Forman."
Donna and Eric stood in the hallway of the hotel, mouths agape.
"HYDE!"
"Yep, that's me." He turned to Jackie and he kissed her on the forehead. "I'll see you in a couple of hours, babe."
He threw his jacket over his shoulder and strolled down the hallway to the stairs past a stunned and silent Donna and Eric.
"Jackie!" Donna cried again, "what is going on?"
"Was that…was that Hyde?" Eric asked lamely, looking behind him.
Donna shoved him. "Eric! Go follow him! Sic!" She shoved him again and he scuttled away.
Jackie tightened her bathrobe a little more. She saw Donna's face burn red, and smirked. She had so much to tell her.
"Jackie!"
Jackie sighed in exasperation. "You already said that, Donna, like a million times! What's your point?"
"I called like, five times last night and you never answered! I was worried sick about you, and I would've come but well, I was drunk… and Eric said I shouldn't worry so much."
Jackie faintly remembered a phone ringing, but that had been the least of her worries last night.
"Wait, wait. You let Eric win an argument?"
"That's not the point! What happened? What's going on? Why was Hyde coming out of your room? What was Hyde doing anywhere near you?"
Jackie pulled her friend inside the room and shutting the door, must to the disappointment of her neighbors who had been listening intently through their doors. They sat down on the bed and Jackie began to explain everything.
"You were assaulted?" Donna cried, horrified.
"No, well, almost, but I hit him and then Steven dragged him outside and hurt him." Jackie beamed. "Steven is so wonderful."
"So wait, you're back together now?"
Jackie hesitated. "Yes. No. I don't know. We're something though. Donna, I still love him."
Donna looked down at the floor, then tucked a strand of her red hair behind her shoulder. "Yeah. I always thought you still did."
"You did?"
Donna smiled faintly. "Yeah. I thought what he did to you was pretty crappy, but it was a misunderstanding, and . . . I knew he loved you then, and Hyde doesn't love anything. Except for maybe weed, but that's beside the point. He's good for you, and you're good for him." She shrugged. "It makes sense, in a horrific, alien kind of way, but it makes sense."
Jackie hugged her best friend and squealed happily.
"I don't know what's going to happen with us now," she said honestly, "but I definitely want to try. Donna, Steven has changed me for the better."
Donna raised an eyebrow. "How?"
Jackie grinned excitedly. "Well, I've said before that Steven makes me think about stuff, and while that still is kind of annoying sometimes, most of the time, it isn't."
"Well I suppose that's a good thing."
"And I'm less shallow now!"
Donna raised up a hand and laughed. "Jackie, let's not get carried away now!"
"No!" Jackie insisted, and pointed to something on her face. "It's true!"
Donna leaned in and squinted. "What am I supposed to be looking at?"
"Last night before Steven and I fell asleep…I didn't take off my make-up. Donna," Jackie continued seriously, "I always take off my make-up before I sleep. I wash my face. I moisturize. I have an excruciating, exacting skin regime that I follow every night without fail. I'm not this beautiful without a little work at least." Jackie kept on pointing. Donna still didn't understand what she was supposed to be seeing.
Jackie sighed. "What I'm trying to say is that I didn't follow my regime last night, and this morning when I woke up, I didn't freak out that I hadn't. And this," she said pointing again to her face, "is a pimple."
Donna gasped.
"And I don't care," Jackie finished firmly. "I don't care that I have a little break-out, because I got to see Steven again, and last night I didn't even think about washing my face because it didn't seem important to me at all."
"Wow."
"Yeah."
"You don't care?" Donna asked. "Not even a little bit?"
"Nope."
"So if I tried to pop it--"
Jackie swatted Donna's hands away quickly. "Get your lumberjack hands off me!" she screeched.
Donna chortled. "You still care a little bit. That' s the Jackie Burkhart I know."
Jackie pouted grumpily.
"Aw, don't worry, Jackie, I'm sure Hyde won't say anything about it. Because he looooooves you. Hyde and Jackie, sitting in a tree . . . "
"He does, doesn't he?" she said. Jackie smiled to herself and began to daydream. It was funny how things worked out.
