Disclaimer: I don't own!

Warning: Mild language

AN: I'm really sorry that I haven't updated. I've been extremely frustrated and upset, and writing this was the last thing I wanted to do. :( I think I'm past that now, though, so hopefully I'll get back on track with it! Thanks so much for the reviews! They boggle my mind, they're so sweet. :) Now, don't kill me for this chapter. I like happy endings. Remember that.

Convincing

Chapter 13 - What the Hell?

The next afternoon

Hyde parked his car in back of the Hub and quickly got out. He was starving. Hadn't had breakfast before leaving for Milwaukee, and the meeting with WB had been a long and dull one. He'd barely managed to stay awake. Afterwards, WB offered to take him to lunch with a few corporate stooges, and normally Hyde would have said yes despite the stooges. Hell, a free lunch is a free lunch. This time he'd said no. That he needed to get back to Point Place. He didn't mention that it was because he was worried about Jackie.

But it was. The longer Kelso was with Jackie, even if Fez was with them, the tighter Hyde's stomach became. And it wasn't only because he knew that Kelso would make a move. He also knew that Kelso didn't comprehend her condition at all. If she wasn't feeling well, Kelso probably wouldn't even notice, let alone know enough to convince her to rest.

He walked in, and immediately saw his girlfriend and Kelso sitting at the table in the middle of the joint. Fez was nowhere in sight. And that made the tightness in his stomach knot until it nearly completely destroyed his hunger. He stopped in his tracks and watched them. Jackie was laughing. Looked like she was perfectly fine. More than fine. Relaxed. Happy, even. That should in turn relax him, shouldn't it? Shouldn't he be glad that she was fine and in no pain?

But it didn't, and he wasn't. He swallowed hard in an attempt to get rid of the bitter taste of jealousy.

"Steven, what are you doing here?"

Hyde tried to grin when she looked at him with that smile and those bright eyes of hers. "Hey. Got back early." He glared at Kelso, who was smirking at him, and pulled out a chair next to Jackie to sit in. He leaned towards her and kissed her lips, slightly longer than he normally would in public.

Jackie was surprised, but she didn't complain when Steven put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her, chair and all, towards him. "Well, I'm glad." She put her hand on his thigh. "I missed you today."

Hyde stared at her. Sure she had. She'd looked so damn broken up when he walked in. "Where's Fez?"

"Oh, he left hours ago," Kelso chimed in. He smiled broadly. "So Jackie and I have just been hanging out." His eyebrows rose. "Alone."

Jackie rolled her eyes. "He didn't leave hours ago, Michael, he left forty-five minutes ago." She looked at Steven nervously. He looked tense, and she was afraid that he was upset. She struggled to look cheerful, like nothing was wrong; her head was really hurting and she was utterly exhausted. She wanted nothing more than to ask Steven to take her home so she could take a nap.

"I helped her try on robes, Hyde. Made sure they fit right. You should've been there."

Jackie again rolled her eyes and turned a quick, nasty glare to her ex. "Michael, shut up! You did not!" She turned back to Steven. "He did not."

Hyde was tempted to rearrange Kelso's face. The ass was so transparent it was sickening. And he didn't like how defensive Jackie was being. "So you done shopping, then?"

She started to speak, but Michael interrupted her.

"No. She didn't find a decent robe so we gotta go back." Kelso smiled triumphantly. "You know, I think why you didn't find one you liked was 'cause I wasn't helping you try them on. When we go back I will."

Hyde looked at him. "You do, and your chin meets your ass, Kelso." His eyes returned to Jackie. "You done or not?"

Jackie hesitated. On the one hand, there was one more store she wanted to go to, one that usually could be counted on for decent nightwear. But the way Steven was looking, maybe it wasn't so smart of her to say that. "Well, I mean, I can always just take my old robe to the hospital."

Hyde shrugged. Why fight? Let her go off with Kelso. Hell, probably bound to happen at some point, right? In the meantime, he could figure out some way to deal with it. Either by planning on when, where and how to kick Kelso's ass, or… "If you wanna go back to the mall, Jackie, go back," he said tightly. He took his arm off of her shoulders and scooted his chair slightly away from her.

And she noticed. She bit her lower lip. "Do you want to come?" She hoped he would. It had been okay when Fez was with them; he'd kept Michael distracted. But since he left, Michael had been coming on to her, and she was too tired to force him to back off. She tried, but she was damn tired, and getting more and more tired as the day wore on.

"Are you kidding? Jackie, I hate shopping," Hyde snapped. The look she gave him in reply made him sigh, and he backed down. "Sorry. Long day. Look, just go finish up and we'll hook up later." He stood up, and despite Kelso's presence, something tender burst out. He put his hand on the back of her upturned head and stroked lightly. "You feeling okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine," she lied. Considering his mood, it was better she didn't mention her headache. Or the fact that all she wanted was to lie in bed with him wrapped around her. No pressure, she reminded herself. No demands. And then he wouldn't leave.

Hyde could tell she was lying. She had that dull look in her eyes. He'd noticed it every time she had one of her headaches. Anger and bitterness began to stir in his gut, and he figured he better leave before he ended up yelling at someone, more than likely, her. "All right, I'll see you later." He caught Kelso's smirk out of the corner of his eye, and so he leaned down and kissed Jackie, pressing his lips against hers several times. She smiled at him when he finally pulled away, and he did his best to return it.

"You guys can french all you want, but I'm the one helping Jackie try on robes!"

Hyde began to walk away, stopping long enough to frog Kelso's shoulder, harder than usual. The half scream, half groan it produced made him grin. "Remember how that feels, Kelso." He shook his head and turned to head for the door.

Just before he opened it, he glanced back over his shoulder. Kelso was saying something and Jackie was laughing. His jaw tensed, and he left the Hub. He walked quickly towards the El Camino. So what if she was tense and defensive with him and then the moment he left laughed up a storm? So what? So what if Kelso seemed to make her feel better? What the hell did that matter? Better than him having to do it, right?

He slipped into his car and sat there, staring at the wheel, swallowing hard but failing to get rid of that disgusting taste in his mouth.

It mattered. It mattered a lot.

Two hours later

Eric frowned as he approached Jackie's car parked in the Hub's parking lot. He'd stopped at the Hub an hour earlier for some fries and had found Jackie, Kelso and Fez there. But Jackie left shortly after he arrived, or so he'd thought. He slowly walked towards the driver's side window, and saw that she had her head down on the steering wheel. Her shoulders were shaking like she was crying. For a moment, he thought about just pretending he hadn't seen it, but then remembered that she was sick. What if something was wrong and she needed help? He couldn't live with himself if he just ignored it and then something happened.

He tapped lightly on the window, and winced when she jumped. He was startled; tears were streaking down her normally perfectly made up face, her eyes were swollen. She looked like hell. And it made him feel surprisingly bad. She rolled the window down. "I uh…I'm sorry for scaring you," he said sheepishly. She just stared at him, and he watched more tears fall. "I just…I saw you with your head on the wheel…Jackie, are you okay?"

Jackie couldn't pull herself together. She just couldn't. She was too damn tired to. She was too damn tired to even want to. And so she cocked her head to the right, towards the passenger side of the car. "Get in," she creaked through the lump in her throat. He did, and she looked at him. All the feelings she'd been suppressing had all of a sudden caught her just as she was about to head over to see Steven. She'd found herself paralyzed in her car, until the tears came storming out of her. "I'm just so tired, Eric. I'm tired and my head hurts so much. I don't think I can drive and I just want to go home!"

Eric was taken aback. He'd only rarely seen Jackie this upset, and never to this degree. He shifted in the seat. What could he say? What should he do? What the hell did he know about comforting her? "Do you…I mean, do you want me to call Hyde?"

Her eyes widened. "NO!" she yelped. "NO!"

Eric furrowed his brow. "Why not?"

"Because then I'll have to pretend that everything is okay! But it's not okay, and I can't pretend anymore! I'm too exhausted! It's too hard! I just can't do it anymore! But I can't let Steven know that I'm…that I'm…" She gasped for air. "That I'm falling apart."

Eric watched silently as she put her head back on the steering wheel. Her entire body began to shake, and he was at a loss as to what to do. But it bothered him to see her this way. Especially knowing that she had something in her head that could kill her. He took a deep breath and slid over towards her. He put his arm around her and gently pulled her up from the wheel, and she turned eagerly to him for a hug. He held her, and for a few minutes just let her cry on his shoulder. "Jackie," he said finally, quietly, as her sobs began to slow somewhat. "Why are you pretending that everything is okay? God, no one is going to blame you if you're upset." He frowned. "Well, Kelso might, but that's just because he really doesn't get what's going on."

Jackie lifted her head from Eric's shoulder. It was bony, unlike Steven's, and she wondered how Donna could stand to put her head there. Still, she was grateful for him being there. "I just…" She shrugged and wiped frantically at her cheeks. She knew she must look horrific. But actually, she didn't care. At all. "I don't want Steven to feel like…I mean, I don't want him to feel pressured or anything, you know, to be nice to me or anything."

That surprised Eric. Normally, Jackie was all about pressure. It was how she operated. "But Jackie…"

"No, because if he feels too pressured, he'll leave me, Eric!" she blurted out, her voice laden with the intense fear she felt. "I know him! He doesn't do well with pressure! And I…I just…" Her voice choked and the tears began a steady freefall once again. "I can't lose him, Eric."

He stared at her, and was struck by the emotion in her. He'd noticed it before, but he'd never really appreciated it, or maybe he'd chosen to ignore it, but she really, truly loved Hyde. And it was deep. She looked frightened, just at the idea that Hyde might leave her. "Hey, Jackie, he's not going to leave you," he said firmly. And he knew Hyde wouldn't leave. He knew that Hyde cared, and was worried, and wanted to be there for her. "Look, Hyde's really worried about you, okay? And he's trying his best to be there for you…"

"I know, and he's been great," Jackie interjected. She took a deep breath and looked down at the car seat. "I just…I need him so much, Eric, and…" She shook her head and looked back up at him. "I can't risk it."

She turned to face forward in her seat and put her head back on his shoulder, and he rubbed hers. He sighed. He had no idea that Jackie and Hyde's relationship was so complicated. He'd always thought it was just some twisted, unholy lust that must have been pretty good when consummated or they wouldn't have been together for so long. "He's not going to leave you, Jackie," he repeated.

They sat quietly for a few minutes, both of them engrossed in their own thoughts.

"I might die, Eric," Jackie muttered, not quite sure why, maybe just to say it. She'd been thinking it ever since the diagnosis, but hadn't ever said it. Maybe she needed to. And she did feel a little pocket of relief in her heart. Tiny. "And Steven will forget me…everyone will forget me." She cleared her throat; it ached painfully from all the crying she'd done.

Eric smiled. "You're not going to die," he said, even though he had no clue if she would or not. "And even if you do, no one will forget you." He chuckled. "Uh…unforgettable is definitely a good word to describe you."

Jackie lifted her head and smiled at him. "Thank you, Eric."

Eric smiled back at her, but it quickly disappeared. "Look, Jackie, just go talk to Hyde. Tell him exactly what you've just told me."

She sighed and looked down at her lap. "The last time I opened my heart to him it didn't exactly work out well."

"This is different, Jackie." Eric wasn't sure what she was referring to, but his answer sounded good. And it was probably true. "I don't think Hyde likes that you're pretending everything is okay. I think he'd rather know what your feeling." She looked up at him, and he shrugged. "God only knows why, and believe me, I'm just as surprised as you are."

She giggled softly. "Well…maybe I will." She smiled at him. "Thank you, Eric. I mean…really. Thank you."

They hugged, and Eric smiled. "Sure thing."

The hug ended and she pushed him away. "Now get out of here. And you better not tell anyone you saw me looking this…" She glanced up into the rear view mirror. "This hideous."

Eric shook his head. "No, I won't. At least…not right now. But I reserve the right to use it in the future. You know, blackmail purposes or whatever."

Jackie laughed. "Go!" She pushed him towards the door, and he started to open it. "Oh, Eric? Tell Steven that I'll be over in a little while, okay?"

Eric got out of the car. "Okay." He paused. "You sure you're okay to drive home?" Hyde would kill him if Jackie got in another car accident.

She grinned. "Yeah, I'm fine." She felt a little better now, more in control. Maybe she just needed a release.

He nodded. "All right. Just take it easy around those curves, okay?"

Jackie rolled her eyes. "Yes, sir!"

With a laugh, Eric closed the car door.

Ten minutes later, Hyde's bedroom

Hyde stared at the ceiling. Since he left Jackie at the Hub, with Kelso, he'd tried hard to not think about it. About them. Kelso and Jackie. How easy it was between them. How they never seemed to fight or struggle over every little thing. How Kelso could make her laugh when she needed to. How Kelso could say and do what she wanted him to.

How Kelso could make her feel better. And all HE could do was make her feel like she had to pretend.

Someday she'd realize this. And someday she'd get fed up with always wanting something he'd never be. Always needing something he couldn't give. She'd leave. She'd run back to Kelso.

And damn if he was going to sit around and watch it happen.

He rolled off his cot and reached under it for his duffel bag. No way in HELL was he going to just wait around for the inevitable to happen. He stalked over to his drawers and roughly pulled one open. He grabbed some shirts and stuffed them into his bag.

He didn't know where he was going to go, but at this point, he didn't give a damn. He just had to get the hell out of here before….

Before he lost her.

"Hey, Hyde, I just saw Jackie and she….what the HELL?"

Hyde looked towards his door, and there was Forman, looking at him with that dumb, deer-caught-in-headlights look. He groaned. The last thing in the world he was in the mood for was a Forman lecture.

Damn!