Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Summary: What if in "Take It Or Leave It" it wasn't Charlie behind the door.
AN: In the beginning the story contains some of the original script. Hey, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
For some reason beyond my own knowledge the pounding hangover I had just would not subside. No matter how many aspirin I took. I didn't even remember coming home the night before. All I remembered was waking up, on the couch in the living room in my clothes from the night before. Although when I did wake up I knew exactly what the day was going to bring and what I was going to do with it. I, Steven James Hyde was going to ask Jaclyn Belueh Burkhardt to marry me.
In the middle of the Loony Tunes, Red came rushing down the stairs. "Alright you two, where's Charlie?"
"Look Dad, not so loud okay? We had a really rough night." Eric explained.
"Oh I'm sorry… Where's Charlie?" Red yelled.
I turned to Eric tiredly; "Who's Charlie?"
Eric looked at me and then turned back to the television, "Last time I saw him, he was on a stack of kegs claiming Mount Schlitz for the US."
"Crap. And he was a good kid." Red stated clearly disappointed. "Now who am I gonna spend time with?"
"I don't know. Me?" Eric suggested sarcastically.
"Don't be a smart ass." Red chuckled as he left the room.
I lazily brought my arm over so I could see what time it was. "Well it's almost noon. Guess I got to go talk to Jackie." I let my arm drop and looked back over at the TV.
"What are you gonna tell her?" Eric asked.
"I don't know man, I'm thinking about letting the ol' El Camino make the final decision. Pulls to the left, marriage, pulls to the right, nudie bar." I said giving my trademark smirk.
"So you haven't decided?"
"No, I've decided."
"Steven?" Kitty said pushing through the kitchen door holding a folded piece of paper. "Jackie stopped by and asked me to give you this note."
I leaned forward taking the paper out of her hands and unfolding it. Inside was Jackie's neat cursive writing. What else was I expecting? I'll tell you. I was expecting her to say to meet her somewhere so we can talk. But no. It wasn't anything like that. "She took the job in Chicago and she left this morning." I thought that if I said it out loud that it would make it all some sort of joke. But it wasn't it was real.
"Oh you poor baby," Kitty sympathized. I looked up at her in almost a sort of shocked amazement. "You know what, I am just going to turn my back and let you go into the kitchen and have a beer."
I looked back down at the piece of paper reading it over, seeing if I missed something. But I didn't. The last words in the card were I love you. I was so absorbed I didn't even hear the door bell, or feel the couch move when Foreman got up to go get it. I didn't even hear him as he called my name. But I did hear it when she did. "Steven?" I looked up toward the front door, and there she stood in all her glory.
"Jackie?" It almost didn't look like her at all. She had her hair up in a pony tail and plain jeans on that had a small rip in the middle of her thigh, but the strangest part was that she was wearing a Led Zeppelin T-shirt. But not any Led Zeppelin T-shirt, my Led Zeppelin T-shirt. I stood up, never breaking eye contact with her. "I thought you left." I said simply.
She looked up at me through pained eyes. "I did. I got halfway there, and I couldn't do it. I realized that no matter what I can't be with out you."
"But Jackie, this was your dream." I said stupidly. This could have been some weird drunken dream, for all I knew.
"No, Steven, you, us is my dream. And if I have to wait around forever to get married to you, then that's what I'll do. I want to be with you."
"No." I could see the tears forming in her eyes. "I mean, you won't have to wait forever."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, I was going to ask you to marry me." I took of my sunglasses and hooked them on the front of my shirt and pulled out a black velvet box out of my pocket. "Jackie, I've always wanted to be with you. And I can't explain why I've done so many stupid things to keep us from getting to this point but I think that some how a drunken night in a beer warehouse showed me that, I have to be with you." I knelt down on my left knee never looking away from her tear stained face. "Jackie, I love you so much, and I might not say it as often as I should but it's true. And I would be completely honored if you would be my wife. Will you marry me?"
Jackie looked down at me in awe. "I… you…. Holy shit… Yes!" I can't tell you how fast I got up and pulled her into my arms…
"Oh my god," I turned around to see Jackie leaning against the doorway of our daughter's room. "You are such a big fat liar."
"What? That is exactly how it happened." I said situating myself on the little bed so I could see both my daughter and my wife. Jackie just folded her arms across her chest and shook her head. "Fine then, why don't you tell me how it happened."
"Well, for one, you didn't have a long heart felt speech. I had to beg you to forgive me for trying to leave and then a few days later we got into another argument about it and then you yelled 'Fine, do you wanna get married or not?' then I said 'Why, are you proposing?' and then you go 'Yeah, I guess so.' So then that's when I said yes, then we went into your room to… Uh…" Jackie looked down at our five-year-old daughter Anna, hanging on to every word.
"What did you do mommy?" Anna asked, eyes full of curiosity.
I was intrigued to see how Jackie would get herself out of this one. "Yeah, mommy, what did we do?"
I watched her squirm, as she searched the carpet for an answer. "Uh… We, uh, we played…Cards. Yeah, we played cards and ordered a pizza." Jackie crossed the room and pulled the covers up to Anna's chin. "I think it's time for you to go to sleep missy." Jackie leaned over and kissed her forehead. "Good night."
"Night, baby girl." I said as I stood up and left the room with Jackie in the lead.
"So we played cards and ordered pizza? Huh?" I asked when the door to Anna's room was shut.
"What? It was the only thing I could think of!" She hissed.
"I'm just waiting tell you have to give her the sex talk." I chuckled walking down the hall.
"Me? Oh, no, that will be you my friend." I turned around to see she had her hands on her hips in defiance mode.
"How bout I give you a sex talk?" I said suducingly as I stalked back towards her.
Jackie backed up against a wall. "You are a bad, bad boy."
"That's why you married me." I mumbled into her neck as I zeroed in on her most sensitive spot. I felt her nod her head vigorously and I knew I had her right were I wanted her. With me.