DISCLAIMER: I don't own That 70's Show or anything related to it. I wish I did cause then I could make Jackie and Hyde be together. Humph… Oh well. The last season never happened. Sorry that I haven't been writing. I've been busy and I forgot. Also, this chapter is really short but I couldn't think of anything. I need to get back into the swing of things.

Summary: Takes place in the 8th Season, during and after Fun It. Jackie and Hyde bottle up their feelings because they can't stand getting hurt again by each other. The final season leads them through tragedy and self-discovery. But will it lead them together again?

Chapter 7: Rock In A Hard Place

Jackie sat at the Forman's kitchen table, drumming her fingers on its surface. She was alone, thinking about the events of the past few days. A lot had happened, it honestly felt like it had been a lifetime since Fez had brought her some very interesting news.

FLASHBACK

Fez looked nervously around as he paced the driveway. He had asked Jackie to come with him outside while everyone else was in the basement almost 15 minutes earlier and was still yet to say anything. Jackie was about to turn and leave when he finally spoke.

"He still loves you!"

She stopped mid turn and brought her eyes to Fez's face. "What?"

"He... Hyde loves you. He never stopped. He doesn't want to be with that slutty stripper!" Fez said as loud as he could.

To his surprise, Jackie only let her lips draw into a small smile before saying, "I know that."

"Now I'm confused," Fez dead panned.

"Fez, really, I want to thank you for telling. You're a good friend, maybe the best that I have now, which is sad because I'm pretty and you're foreign, but I already knew. Steven loves me still, yes, but he doesn't want to be with me, not by the way he's been acting. He wants me to hurt, because I hurt him. And trust me, it's working. If he did want to be with me, if he was willing to give us another shot, and I mean a real shot not just what we were, then I'd take him back in a heartbeat." The end of her speech was more of a plea to let Steven know, via the gossip that Fez was, that she wanted him. From the look in Fez's eyes, Jackie thought that he understood what she meant. She smiled at him again and gave him a kiss on the cheek before returning to the basement where the group of people she was still calling her friends were getting ready for circle time.

END FLASHBACK

Jackie sighed. 'Apparently, Fez didn't get what I was saying,' she thought. Dread soon filled her face as a realization passed through her head. "Maybe he just doesn't care." She buried her face into her hands as she realized what an idiot she had been. All that time, she had thought that once Steven knew that she would forgive him, he'd come running back. It was the only option that she had considered. It never occurred to her that even though he loved her, that maybe he wasn't in love with her. She was his Kelso; the one he'd always love but could no longer stand to be more than friends with, if friends at all. It was looking that way. He was treating her worse than he ever had, trying to push her away. She'd always thought that it had meant that he was trying not to get hurt again but maybe she was wrong. Lately, she was wrong about a lot of things, for example, Steven begging to have her back. "I'm such an idiot," she said before getting up and leaving the only place she ever felt truly welcome, knowing that she really wasn't welcome there anymore.

Fez paced his room. He felt like that was all he really ever did lately. Pace. He usually wasn't this concentrated. Even in trying to get the ladies he was always kind of free spirited, like a horny dog that won't take no for an answer. But he was kind of scared now. He knew something; something that could either destroy the already fragile state the group was in or rebuild it. He knew that Hyde wanted to be with Jackie, but he'd learned something else too. He, Fez, wanted Jackie. He loved her, adored her, worshiped her like neither of his friends could ever dream of. Both Kelso and Hyde has mistreated her so badly and seemed happy that they did; Fez couldn't understand it. Jackie was beautiful. Jackie could be caring. Jackie was a goddess. How could they violate a goddess like her?

That's where he was stuck. He knew he could make Jackie happy, but he also knew that she would never truly love him. He knew that she would always think of Hyde, even when she was with Fez. But he wanted her so damn badly. He deserved her; Hyde didn't.

"What do I do?" He asked himself in the mirror. But the mirror image didn't say anything back, leaving him with the hardest decision that he'd ever had to make. A decision that would effect the lives of everyone he knew forever.

AN: I think that the next chapter will be happier (not much) and really won't be centered around this. Maybe a few undertones, though. Thanks for reading, and I'm really sorry again that I haven't update since forever.