He walked into her office; my, what a mess! He thought to himself. It had been twenty years since he had seen her; one day they were completely happy and married and the next, she was gone. It wasn't like it wasn't his fault; because it was. He was the reason that she had left without a word. He had done it again; the very thing she had warned him against. After college was over, he had gotten a job as a manager for Jonathan Tyler. Being out on the road was hard for them but they had managed. She stayed home with their daughter Clara while he traveled and helped spread Tyler's name around. Tyler had become an instant hit and they were immediately rich. Things were great for five years until she found out about his cheating in a book about Tyler's career. He hadn't even realized that the author of the book would put that in his book; he thought he would only tell about Tyler so he gave him all the info about what happened back stage.

It had been three months, and Jackie hadn't contacted him. When he returned home, he had found out why. There sitting on the table, was a note and a copy of the book. He could hear and feel the anger in her words; but he never took them seriously. He just shrugged his shoulders and went upstairs. She just needed time to cool off he thought to himself; but after a few months, he realized that that was not the case and so he went in search of her to no avail. She had taken Clara with her and that was the last time that he had seen Jackie.

A few years later however, she did contact through the mail; with divorce papers. She told him that she expect to have them no later than the end of the week but he didn't sign them and she didn't ask for them back; she did however try again, a couple years later but he still refused to sign them. It was during this time, that he had become frustrated with her and decided to seek her out but she was clever about where her whereabouts were. After a while he decided to move on with his life, and so he took a job managing another talented group. There was one thing that he wouldn't do and that was sign divorce papers.

So thirteen years went by before he heard from her again and that was why he was in her office right now. She had finally decided to let her whereabouts be known; well, not really. He had tricked one of her friends into revealing where she was. He had taken the first flight out to Alaska and quickly found out that she was a professor at the University of Alaska.

When he had requested to speak to her, they had told him that there was no Jackie Hyde. How could there not be a Jackie Hyde he had asked the receptionist. She said there wasn't a Jackie Hyde but there was a Jackie Burkhart. He gave the receptionist a nasty look and then continued down the hall until he reached an elevator. When he had reached her office, he didn't bother to knock, he just went right in; but she wasn't there. So he decided to wait for her to come back. He got up from the guest's chair and started to look around her office. He looked up on the wall and saw that Jackie had a PH.D in English Lit Philosophy. He shook his head and couldn't believe it; Jackie a PH.D in Philosophy? He then took notice of the thousands of papers lying on her desk. Some of them had grades and comments written on them while others had nothing at all. Then he saw what he was looking for; it was a picture of Jackie and a young girl. He knew that it was Clara. She was standing outside with her mother. They both had long brow hair and blue eyes; then he saw another picture next to that one, it was Clara at her graduation, and then there was one with Clara and her prom date, and then he saw one of her that brought him rage and envy.

Clara was in a long white gown standing next to her mother; she never had the decency to mention his little girl's wedding. How old was she now? She must have been twenty-one there which meant that she was at least twenty-three years old now; his blood began to boil and he decided to sit down again before he saw something else that would make him angry. As he sat back down, a young woman came into Jackie's office and piled another load of papers down onto the desk. Without noticing Hyde, she began to sort through the mess on Jackie's desk carefully. He examined the young girl closely and noticed that she looked warn out and tired at the same time. She pulled out a key and opened one of Jackie's drawers; she laid a package of photos down and then locked the drawer back up. She picked her head up and finally noticed Hyde sitting in the seat watching her. She jumped when she saw him and then went to pick the phone up but Hyde quickly took it from her hands.

"Excuse me sir, what do you think you are doing in here without Professor Burkhart's permission?" She asked him.

"Waiting for the dear old professor to return to her office; tell me, when will she back?" He asked the young girl.

"I don't know." She replied.

"Oh I think you know; and now wouldn't be a good time to get on my nerves if you know what's good for you that is. Now tell me when the professor will be back." Hyde demanded.

"She won't be back until later tonight." She responded.

"Are you lying to me?" He asked her.

"No sir I'm not; she won't be back for another three hours." She said.

"Fine then; will you tell Professor Burkhart that she had a visitor today." Hyde said.

"Fine but what is your name?" The young woman asked him.

"Just tell her an old friend dropped by." Hyde said.

"Okay then." She said to him.

As he was leaving he heard the phone ring and watched as the young girl picked it up; he was going to leave until he heard her name.

"Clara, how are you doing? Wow that's great; so you guys enjoy your trip to Canada? Well, yeah I bet it was cold up there. So when do you start your new internship? Yes, your mother is doing fine. She's really tired out from that trip to England that she took last week. I can't believe she came into work so soon..."

Hyde walked to the elevator; so life had indeed gone on without him. Clara had grown-up and moved on and so did Jackie. Well things were going to change; he was going to emerge himself back into there lives whether they wanted him there are not but first he was going to teach Ms. Burkhart a thing or two about revenge.

Jackie ran to the elevator to catch up to it; she had stopped by her office quickly to see if Annette had gotten in alright without any problems. As soon as she was sure that everything was alright she ran to catch up to the man that was waiting impatiently for the elevator to arrive. She caught up to him and went into the elevator casually without paying attention to him at all. Hyde stood on the other end of the elevator. Jackie looked up from the floor and looked at the man. If she didn't know any better she would have thought that she was staring right at Steven Hyde; well an older version of him that was. Well, she imagined that Steven Hyde would look much older than the man standing before her. This man was cute and Steven Hyde was nothing but a liar and a cheater; still the man did look like him but that was nuts to think. Steven Hyde had never even bother to contact her in twenty years; only to deny her a divorce when she asked for one. She really couldn't do anything about it; if she tried to fight him, he would learn where she was and that was something she would never reveal in a million years. The elevator finally came to a complete stop.

Hyde looked over at the woman standing on the opposite of the elevator. She looked like she was only thirty years old. She had long dark hair; her suit gave away that she was indeed a professor. She wore three bracelets and four rings; except on her left ring finger that is. He smiled at her motioned for her to go ahead of him. She smiled back at him and got out of the elevator. They both walked in opposite directions not realizing that after twenty-years they had finally come into contact with one another.

Jackie's phone went off as soon as she got into her car. She rolled her eyes up in the air.

"Hello." She said.

"Professor Burkhart." Annette said.

"Yes, Annette; what is it?" She asked her.

"I forgot to tell you there was a gentleman here to see you today." Annette said.

"What did he say?" She asked Annette.

"He said to tell you that he stopped by; he said he was an old friend." Annette said.

"An old friend; well, I don't know who that could be...oh no...Annette, did he have curly hair." Jackie asked.

"Yes, he did; I found him in your office when I came in here today." Annette.

"Oh God; please don't let it be him." She said and then hung up.

Jackie nervously drove to the other side of the class. After all these years of finally being out of his grasp, he had finally found her; or maybe he hadn't. She thought to herself.