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 – Tequila Sunrise

AN:  OMG!  Does anyone even remember this fic?  Sorry for abandoning my original ship.  I hope those who remember don't hate me or think I have turned away from the fold.  I'm still a Zenmaster through and through. 

It's another tequila sunrise

Starin' slowly 'cross the sky, said goodbye

He was just a hired hand

Workin' on the dreams he planned to try

The days go by

Every night when the sun goes down

Just another lonely boy in town

And she's out runnin' 'round

She wasn't just another woman

And I couldn't keep from comin' on

It's been so long

Oh, and it's a hollow feelin' when

It comes down to dealin' friends

It never ends

Take another shot of courage

Wonder why the right words never come

You just get numb

It's another tequila sunrise,

this old world

Still looks the same,

Another frame, mm...

*

*

*

Hyde stared out at the mighty Pacific and took a large swig of the beer he had grabbed on the way out.  He breathed in the clean salt air and tried to let it sooth his flaring temper.  If the crashing waves didn't inspire his Zen to kick in soon, he'd have to get more alcohol.  Why the hell had he come here? 

Somewhere in the back of his mind he had to have known that Jackie would go running back to Kelso.  He had to have known that Kelso would, blonde or no blonde, go chasing after her.  What had he been thinking? 

He hadn't been thinking anything.  That was the truth of it.  Since the beginning of the summer he hadn't been using his brain much at all.  He'd been using his lips, his fingers, and just about every other body part, but not much of his brilliant mind.  If he had he never would have started this thing.  What was this thing he had going on with Jackie anyway?

They were not quite lovers, not quite friends, but he couldn't deny the fact that they were something.  The jealousy that was boiling up inside him now was proof enough of that.  He wanted her.  He probably always had a little.  And now that he had had her (or close enough) he didn't want to lose her.  So what about Kelso? 

Kelso was his friend.  He burned him a lot and gave him a hard time but this didn't compare.  You didn't steal your friend's girl, even if your friend deserved it.  So why had he?

The sliding door behind him opened, and Hyde half expected Donna's drunken mother to come stumbling out with her man of the moment.  But instead he turned to find the girl of his musings looking at him expectantly.  She was looking at him as if he had some answers. 

"What are you doing out here?" Jackie asked shivering a little from the breeze coming off the water.

"Thinking."  He answered resisting the urge to do something about her goose bumps.

Jackie came to stand beside him, confusion painted on her face.  "About what?"

Hyde didn't know if he could have this discussion, but he knew he didn't want to.  "About…" gesturing towards her and then back at himself, he let her fill in the rest.

"Us." She offered, saying what he could not. 

Clearing his throat he coughed what passed as a "yes." He waited for her to respond.  But for once she was silent.  It made him nervous.  "Look if you want to end this then just tell me.  I know that…."

"What do you know?" Jackie asked angrily, startling him with the change in attitude. 

Hyde looked down at the fire in her eyes.  It added a little sparkle that he hadn't seen since before they started this – whatever this was.   "I know that we are different.  I know that he will always be…"  He broke off mid sentence disgusted with his own line of thinking.  Running a hand through his hair he took the neck of his beer and through it as hard as he could out into the churning waters.  It made a small splash, sunk briefly and then resiliently bobbed back up to the surface. 

Jackie sighed and laughed.  "He will always be a dumbass." Turning toward him she touched his cheek and nudged him to look her in the eye. 

He resisted at first, but succumbed in the end.  "He is the dumbass you were going to marry."

Jackie laughed again.  "Well, I was a dumbass too." 

He raised an eyebrow at that.  "Jackie Burkhart is admitting to be anything less than perfect?"

"Well I didn't say that."  She stepped closer to him, taking the hand that had held the bottle in hers.  "I didn't realize that I could be alone then."

He was surprised when that statement caused his stomach to twist.  He opened his mouth before his brain knew what he was going to say.  "But you aren't alone, you are with me."

Her smile was instant and it lit up the night.  "Am I?"

Hyde knew that was the question of the century.  It was the most important and the one he was most afraid to answer.  Hyde turned around to take another look across the beach.  The moon was full and the sky clear, just a few stars were visible in the distance.  He took a deep breath and this time the air did sooth him.  He squeezed the hand still in his and replied.  "Yeah."

She was in his arms before the next wave wet the shore.