Two days later

"Jackie, stop being such a pig-headed little idiot and call your grandmother now!" Hyde demanded.

"Get bent!" was Jackie's considered response.

Donna and Fez walked through the basement door into another battle of wills between the newly reunited couple. "Oh Lord, are they still at it?" Fez moaned.

"Jackie, you should listen to Hyde," Donna said. "I am sure if you grovel convincingly your grandmother will let you go back. I can call Eric if you like and have him give you some grovelling pointers."

"Donna, you don't get it. I don't want to go back. I don't even like New York," Jackie said adamantly.

"Liar! I have a scrapbook full of magazine clippings that tells a different tale," Fez said, holding up an album full of society page clippings.

"Let's see that," Hyde said. "Ah, I see what you mean, Jackie. You look downright miserable in this photo where you're dancing the hustle with Warren Beatty. I guess we were misled by the huge grin on your face."

"Yes, well, that huge grin masked a broken heart," Jackie replied.

"Really? And how about this one?" He pointed to a photo of Jackie resplendent in a creamy Dior ball gown set off by the stunning Mansfield-Jones sapphires. "You've got 'I'm so happy that I am the prettiest girl in this room' written all over your face."

"Actually," Jackie said, "I was thinking how much my shoes were pinching me and how I wished my grandmother would let me stay home more than one night a week."

Hyde caught the wistful note in Jackie's voice. "I thought your idea of heaven was going to a party every night."

"Remember when Red punished Eric for smoking by making him a smoke a whole box of cigarettes? My experience in New York was kind of like that. When you're ordered to go out to events just about every freaking night, it's about as much fun as coughing your lungs up."

Hyde put his arm around Jackie's shoulders and gave her a squeeze. "Hey," he said gruffly.

Jackie sensed weakness and turned the full force of her huge sad eyes Steven-wards "Plus I was so lonely without you there, Steven or my good friends," she added, turning her folorn countenance towards Donna and Fez. Hyde might have recovered from the sorrowful eyes and returned to his forceful arguments as to why Jackie should not give up her life in New York for his sake, when she went in for the kill.

She pouted.

"Fine!" he surrendered. "Throw away a lifetime of financial security. But don't come crying to me when 20 years from now we're living in government housing and we can't afford to send our kids to college."

"Oh Steven," Jackie cried in ecstasy. "You see us together with a house and kids in 20 years!"

"You and your selective hearing," Steven said. "This isn't the end of… this…disc-" The remainder of his sentence was lost as Jackie peppered his face with kisses.

Before their debate reached its natural conclusion – Hyde's bedroom – Mrs Foreman came downstairs.

"Jackie, there's someone here to see you," she said with her nervous laugh.

Extricating herself from her boyfriend with a promise to be right back, Jackie followed Mrs Foreman up the stairs. Some instinct had warned her not to ask the identity of her caller in front of Steven, and she was glad she had paid attention to it once she opened the door upon one of most the incongruous sights in her memory – Jason Featherstone of the New York Featherstones seated stiffly upon the Foreman's mustard-coloured couch.

"Jason," gasped Jackie, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Well, that's a fine way to greet your fiance," Jason replied.

Kitty was shocked. "Jackie! Why didn't you tell me you were engaged? I saw the perfect engagement present at the mall yesterday."

"Mrs Foreman, I am not enga – ooh, what did you see?"

"Jackie," Jason interjected, reclaiming her attention. "Surely you realised my intentions towards you? Was it despair that I might not propose to you that drove you to this paltry backwater?"

"Backwater?" Kitty repeated, offended. "Would a backwater have a Pricemart and a Fatso Burger?"

"Er, yes, I think I can take it from here, thanks Mrs Foreman," Jackie said. Kitty exited to the kitchen, muttering under her breath about stuck up New Yorkers who wouldn't know culture if it kicked them in the keester.

"Jason, I don't know how you found me or why you're here, but you should know that –"

"I am here, my darling, because your grandmother called me yesterday, quite frantic, with some outrageous story that you had decided not to return to New York. I am under strict orders to bring you back with me." Jason moved towards Jackie, who retreated warily from him, keeping the couch between them.

"Jason, I'm sorry but you have made this trip for nothing. I am staying here where I belong."

"That's crazy talk! You belong with me! You are the toast of New York, Jackie and together we are the golden couple – we complement each other perfectly. You can't deny that." Jason managed to snag Jackie's wrist and pull her wriggling form towards him, "Just as you can't deny the chemistry between us." His breath was hot on her face as he mashed her against his body. Jackie was just about to crush her heel down on his foot when she heard from behind her:-

"Would you mind getting your meathooks off my girlfriend's ass?" In spite of the polite phrasing, there was no escaping the menace of those words. Jackie took advantage of Jason's discomposure to break away and stand beside Steven, keeping a restraining hand on his arm. Although part of her would like to see him nail Jason to a wall for manhandling her, she knew Jason for the kind who fought with lawyers rather than his fists and was therefore much more dangerous.

"Excuse me? Jackie and I are practically engaged – I can put my hands on whatever part of her anatomy I desire."

Jackie felt Hyde's muscle harden under her hand and quickly moved in front of him. "Steven, you once told me there is a time for zen and a time for ass-kicking – trust me when I tell you this is a time for zen," she said warningly. As he stilled, she turned back to her suitor. "Now Jason, I think there's been a misunderstanding here. I know we spent a lot of time together in New York but that was my grandmother's doing. You know very well there is nothing between us."

"On the contrary! Both Mrs Mansfield-Jones and my father made it quite clear that we were to be married. The papers were drawn up weeks ago. You can't throw away a deal of this magnitude for some sordid teenage passion," Jason replied heatedly.

"Deal? What deal? What papers?" Jackie demanded.

"The merger, of course. Surely you must know that your grandmother made our marriage a condition of the merger between Glow and Featherstone Beauty Lotions."

"She did what?" cried a flabbergasted Jackie. "Why would that crazy old witch do such a.. a medieval thing?"

"Because," came an arctic voice from the direction of the front door, "I am blessed with a little more perspective than you, my dear Jaclyn."

The quarrelling trio turned as one towards Elise Mansfield-Jones stepping distastefully into the Foreman house.