Donna Pinciotti lay prone on her bad, revelling in her sadness. This was a melancholy that went bone deep and was of a particularly romantic variety. Her childhood sweetheart-slash-soulmate was even now trekking some African wilderness in his quest to get a free education.

"Damn fool kid" she muttered as she relived the tender memories of their love affair. Such as when Eric scaled an empty swimming pool wall to bring her a beer tap. Or when he got high and had what was supposed to be her name written on his ass. "Oh, my love..."

Just then her bedside phone broke through her gloom. "Hello?" she answered dully. "Jackie!"

"Hey, Donna! You sounded really sad just then. Oh, are you missing me?"

"Yeah, right, Jackie" Donna replied, projecting into her voice that she was rolling her eyes since Jackie could not see her. "No, Eric left for Africa last week." No more explanation was necessary. That was one of the few good things about have a best girl friend.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. He actually went through with it? I thought for sure he'd knuckle down to you in the end."

"Eric does not knuckle down to me, Jackie! How many times do I have to say he is a real man? And yes, he did slink off to that stupid country in spite of my telling him not to," Donna growled. "Anyhow, where have you been in my hour of need? I haven't heard from you for two weeks. In fact, I called your mansion this morning and some snooty butler said Miss Jackie was away for the weekend and then hung up on me."

"Yes, well, in Hitchen's defence, if your surname does not sound like something you would read on the Mayflower's ship log, he has been trained not to waste time on politeness."

"So where are you?" Donna asked.

"Actually," Jackie replied, drawing a deep breath, "I'm at my old house in Point Place."

"What! Why didn't you call me and let me know you were coming? I haven't seen you in four months."

"Well, this is like a secret visit. It's my Dad's birthday tomorrow and I've just come down to visit him. I'm flying back out tomorrow night."

"But why does it have to be a secret from your friends?" Donna questioned.

"Um, well, its just… you see, things were kind of awkward with Steven when I left and…"

"I see," Donna interrupted, sparing Jackie from finishing her disjointed sentence. She could understand Jackie's shyness, as the frequent phone conversations they had shared during her absence were a mixture of Jackie making it quite clear she was over Hyde and a desperate thirst for news of what he was doing. Clearly Jackie still had strong feelings for the scruffy burn-out which warred with her conviction that walking away from their dead end relationship was the best thing for them both. Donna herself had never made up her mind if the weird and unnatural connection between the mismatched pair was a good or bad thing.

"Look, why don't you come over to my place tonight and sleep-over. We can hang out, catch up, just like the old days. The guys don't have to know about it."

Jackie accepted the offer gladly. Her mother, not one to remain on her own for long, had deserted the Burkhart house shortly after Jackie's defection and the house was currently a dusty barn without water, electricity or servants. Arrangements were made for Jackie to sneak in through the back door and join Donna for dinner that night.