Title: Hotel California
Disclaimer: Don't own, ain't getting paid
Pairing: J/H, E/D
Rating: Pg -13
Archive: If you want just ask – I will freely give.
Summary: Summer before Season 5. Jackie and Hyde accompany Eric on his quest to get Donna back. AU – Eric gets over his wallowing a lot sooner and the gang minus Fez spend the end of the summer in Cali.
Credit: The Eagles –Take it Easy
AN: Tell me what you think. Please.
Well, I'm running down the road
tryin' to loosen my load
I've got seven women on my mind,
Four that wanna own me,
Two that wanna stone me,
One says she's a friend of mine
Take It easy, take it easy
Don't let the sound of your own
wheels drive you crazy
Lighten up while you still can
don't even try to understand
Just find a place to make your stand
and take it easy
Come on, baby, don't say maybe
I gotta know if your sweet love is
gonna save me
We may lose and we may win though
we will never be here again
so open up, I'm climbin' in, so take it easy
Well I'm running down the road trying to loosen
my load,
got a world of trouble on my mind
lookin' for a lover who won't blow my
cover, she's so hard to find
Take it easy, take it easy
don't let the sound
of your own wheels
make you crazy
come on baby
don't say maybe
I gotta know if your sweet love is
gonna save me, oh oh
Hyde pulled into a gas station somewhere outside of Iowa. He was tired. This whole road trip had been his and Jackie's plan. It had been the one thing they had talked about this summer except where and when to start making out.
Both had decided quickly that Eric needed help if he was ever going to get Donna back. California was roughly about two thousand miles away. Red and Kitty had agreed to it only after he promised to go along. He had told the Forman's and Eric that Jackie was coming along to fund the trip.
They had decided that they could take turns driving and try to go straight through. But now that it was crunch time no one was stepping up to the plate. Eric was completely zonked in the back seat. And Jackie was quiet beside him.
If Jackie was quiet it usually meant one of two things, she was either asleep or waiting for you to say something. And Jackie never wanted you to say just anything –she wanted you to say what she wanted you to say. Just like she wanted you to feel whatever it was she thought you should feel, whether or not she felt the same way.
Hyde had tried very hard not to give Jackie or anybody any proof that he felt anything. But that wasn't very believable when he couldn't keep his hands off her. It had never been that believable when he was helping her every chance he got. Or delighting in her and Kelso's turmoil. He didn't know why anybody had ever bought it.
He was better than he thought. The reputation he had built through Zen was solid. Hyde was cool. Hyde was unattached. Hyde loved them and left them. After the ill fated crush on Donna, he had settled happily into that role. It was a good way to be.
Women were too complicated. Because most of them were like Jackie, they wanted something. That is why he had liked Donna. He thought she was different. But now he realized that she was different because she was his friend. Life wasn't letting you cheat by letting you have something easy. That is why she belonged with Forman and he belonged with…
"Steven" Jackie interrupted his disturbing thought.
"Hmm?" he responded still shaking off the introspection.
"Are we going to sit at this grungy gas station all night?" she asked curling up her pretty little nose.
Noticing for the first time that the car he had been waiting on had left the pump, he drove up and got out of the car.
Jackie followed walking over to where he was unscrewing the gas cap.
"What?" he barked. He didn't want to talk to her. It was bad enough he had been thinking about her.
Jackie took offense to his unexpected harshness and showed it "I want a drink and some crackers."
He laughed. "And you expected me to go get them?"
The look on her face was incredulous. "NO, I just wanted you to walk in with me. This is a gas station, in some nowhere town, in the middle of the night."
He saw her point and at any other time would have completely agreed. But at the moment he was feeling exposed and therefore mean. "Jackie, get over your self." motioning toward the Senior Citizen behind the gas station cash register "Pops doesn't want you."
A small huff and she was clomping loudly across the parking lot.
He looked into the backseat of the car, Eric was still in dreamland. Eric didn't know that he and Jackie were no longer strictly enemies. Eric didn't know that they had been making out for weeks. Eric didn't know he liked Jackie.
God help him he liked Jackie.
And he had sent her into some shady gas station by herself. Replacing the pump he hurried inside. And of course because that is how life worked, Jackie was cornered against the ice chest by some big Bubba farmer boy. "Hey" Hyde called.
Jackie looked relieved even at the same time her eyes placed blame. "Steven"
"You said you didn't have a boyfriend." Bubba accused dumbly.
Reaching over to take Jackie's hand, he pulled her protectively beside him. "You told him you didn't have a boyfriend." He reproached.
You never told people you weren't interested in that you were available. Jackie knew that. But could he scold her for something he had caused? Oh yeah ---hell yes.
"Well I don't." Jackie growled.
He rolled his eyes at her melodrama, knowing that it would only make it worse.
"All I have is a guy who won't even go into a gas station with me." Flinging down her crackers and coke she stormed away from both men.
Bubba gave Hyde a sympathetic glance. "Son you are sleeping in the dog house tonight."
Picking up Jackie's discarded snacks he went to pay for his gas. The man was smarter than he looked.
By the time he got back to the car, Jackie had woken up Eric with her hissy fit. Slipping behind the wheel he threw the crackers in her lap and turned around to hand Eric a bag of chips.
"You want me to drive man?" Eric offered taking the bag.
Handing Jackie her coke, noticing as she hesitantly took the peace offering he said "Nah man, I'm good for a little while longer."
Eric nodded and put the chips on the floor "Then I'll sleep for another hour or two, wake me when you get tired."
Pulling back onto the interstate, Hyde agreed.
45 minutes later Jackie was still silent and still not asleep. He felt himself give in. "What Jackie? What do you want me to say?"
"Nothing Steven I don't want you to say anything." She answered sounding less mad and more tired.
Mad would have pissed him off, but weary made him feel guilty. Something in the back of his brain told him that none of this made sense. If he liked her he should be nice to her. If he liked her he should just reach out and touch her. She shouldn't be pressed up against the opposing door. But another part of his brain told him to stop. It told him that liking Jackie was the dumbest thing he could ever do. "I'm sorry." He said listening to the first part.
Jackie seemed surprised and unconsciously scooted closer to check his face for signs of falseness. When she saw none, she sighed. Reaching over she put a hand on his knee "You want me to drive a little?"
Feeling giddy from the driving, and no other reason, he laughed placing his hand on top of hers "You -are not driving."
"I'm a good driver." She insisted scooting closer and checking the back seat to see if Eric's eyes were still safely closed.
He checked as well and then let his hand wander up her arm bringing her closer. "Yeah I'm sure."
She was almost on top of him now and only her smallness allowed him to still be able to see the road.
He considered letting her drive just so he could kiss her neck in the same way she was kissing his at that exact moment. God she was good at that.
"Then let's stop at this rest stop." Jackie stated.
Hyde noticed the rest stop exit, realized that Eric's turn to drive was coming up and decided to take her suggestion. Pulling into the parking lot he shut the car off as quietly as possible holding his breath as Eric rolled over in his sleep.
Jackie looked at him from her position almost in his lap and waited.
There she was again waiting. She was making him uncomfortable. He understood this – the physical attraction. But he did not understand what she was waiting for. Or this weird desire inside himself to figure it out and give it to her. Reaching up he took her head in his hands and pressed his lips into hers.
The kiss felt like redemption. It had since day one. And more and more lately he found himself holding his breath before every meeting in fear that it would stop. But it hadn't. The one thing he was sure he and Jackie agreed on was this. Her moans and sighs let him know that she was as lost in the bliss of whatever this was as much as him. Hearing one such moan escape, he smiled into the neck he was currently licking.
A stirring in the back sent them both flying back to their corners. Eric wiped the sleep out of his eyes and looked around confused at their surroundings.
"I was just going to wake you man. It is your turn to drive." Hyde covered.
Eric glanced at Jackie whose face was turned away from him and said "O-kay".
They all got out of the car to switch places. As Jackie and Hyde passed he smiled and he would swear she blushed. It was going to be a long way to California.
