Disclaimer: I don't own.

Author's Note: Hope you enjoy this one, and I hope it's not too far OOC. Thanks so much for the reviews! You all are very sweet, and honestly, probably too kind. :)

Convincing

Chapter 17 – So Important to You

Eric tapped his fingers on his knee nervously. No one had said a word since Hyde announced he was going to kill Kelso. The only activity was his own tapping, Donna's fingering of the ill-advised nightie, and Hyde's repeated lethal glares at said nightie. Eric leaned closer to Donna and whispered urgently. "You better stop that."

Donna gave her boyfriend a puzzled look. "Why?"

"Because you're drawing Hyde's attention to that…thing, and I think his head might literally explode if he keeps looking at it."

Her eyes widened and she immediately let go of the nightie. She glanced nervously at Hyde, who sat in his chair with his arms crossed. The look on Hyde's bordered on homicidal; no need to make things worse. She smiled weakly. "So…" She nodded, trying desperately to think of something to say. She failed. "Yeah."

Eric tried to help. "So…guess we should probably take this opportunity to hide anything that could be used as a weapon, huh, Hyde?" He laughed, but Donna glared at him, and the scowl Hyde aimed at him killed it almost immediately. "Uh…yeah. Maybe I should just shut up."

Hyde said nothing. He swallowed hard and stared at that damn pink nightie. They'd been in his room for almost ten minutes. A few more seconds, he was going in there. And Kelso would die. Not quickly and painlessly, either.

The three in the basement's main room all looked towards Hyde's room when the door opened loudly, almost purposefully so, and they watched silently as the other three walked around the couch. Kelso sat down on the lawn chair and pouted at Hyde. "Okay, Hyde. I'm not gonna hit on Jackie anymore."

Jackie swatted him on the back of his head. "Michael, what did I tell you?"

He rolled his eyes. "I mean, I'm not going to hit on your girlfriend. Or look at her like I'm thinking about hitting on her. Or touch her. Or whatever else will make you mad."

She patted him on the back. "Much better."

Hyde raised his eyebrows and smiled slightly. "Good to know." His smile disappeared, and he stood up. His hands clenched into tight, perfect for punching Kelso's face in, fists. "But I'm still kicking your ass."

Jackie scrambled around Michael's chair and to her very pissed looking boyfriend. She stood in front of him and put her hand on his chest. "Steven, it's over," she said quietly. His eyes flickered down to her, and she could feel the worry in him that he'd so like to deny. Her heart ached. This was her fault; it was her doing that he was insecure about Michael, and she'd have to change that from now on.

From now on, she wasn't going to ever give him any reason to doubt her love. Never again.

"I promise, Steven."

Her surprisingly soothing whisper, and the soft look in her mismatched eyes shot him in the heart. Nothing else in the room registered to him in that moment; all he could see or think or feel was her. Her sweet lips curved upwards at the corners, and he couldn't help it. His stomach relaxed, his heart unclenched. Damn.

He believed her. And it felt…odd. Good, but…odd.

Jackie smiled when Steven visibly swallowed. She drew a circle on his chest with her palm, and when his lips twitched, she knew he was calming down. "Okay. Now lets get back to what we were doing." She giggled. "Opening my presents!" With a little squeal, she climbed over Donna's legs and sat back down in the middle of the couch, in front of her pile of gifts. She immediately pushed the nightie away and tore into the next present.

Hyde glanced at Kelso. He might believe Jackie, but he sure as hell didn't trust Kelso. And so he walked to the other end of the couch where Eric sat, and stood there, giving his friend a rather nasty look.

Eric got the point. "Oh, you want to sit here." He grinned and stood up, thought about making a smart ass remark, then noticed that the homicide wasn't completely gone from Hyde's eyes. "Man, where are your sunglasses, Hyde? I never noticed it before, but you could probably kill someone with those looks you're shooting around."

Hyde settled in next to Jackie. He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. He looked at Kelso pointedly. "Yeah, I know." He grinned. "Good stuff, huh, Kelso?"

Kelso smiled and nodded sarcastically.

"Oh, a robe! Donna, where did you find this? I looked EVERYWHERE and I couldn't find a pink robe!" Jackie pulled the fluffy garment out and smiled widely. She closed her eyes and rubbed it against her cheek. "It's so soft!"

Donna smiled. "You'd better like it. Eric and I had to drive to Kenosha to find that."

Eric nodded, a sly grin crossing his face. "Yeah, but it was worth the trip. We made a little…rest stop off the highway on the way home." The guys all gave him congratulatory smirks. Donna rolled her eyes.

"Awwww, Donna, that's so sweet!" Jackie smiled happily at the robe. "This will be perfect for me to wear in the hospital." She made a face. "So much better than those god awful gowns they give you there."

Kelso frowned. "But what about the nightie I got you? You could wear that."

Hyde glared at him. "Kelso, I swear to god, you mention that nightie again, you'll be singing soprano!"

Jackie put her hand on Steven's thigh and also glared at her ex. "Michael, what did we JUST talk about?"

Kelso threw his hands up in the air. "I'm SORRY! God! Bad habits are hard to break!"

Jackie's hand slipped further up on his thigh, and inward, and it made Hyde smile. "Yeah, well, I knew there had to be a reason Jackie stayed with you longer than a week."

Fez grinned. "Ah burn!"

Kelso glared at him. "Shut up, Fez!" He paused, thinking, and then smiled. "Okay, that was a good burn, Hyde."

Fez gave Jackie a stuffed animal, and Kitty brought down a box full of cheesy romance novels, adding that Red highly recommended them. Kelso couldn't help but notice that there was no gift from Hyde.

And he also couldn't help himself from commenting on it.

"So, Hyde, where's your present?" He looked at Jackie. "Your boyfriend didn't get you anything." He shook his head. "Tsk, tsk. How very sad."

Hyde smirked. "Oh, I got her something. I'm just waiting to give it to her." He ran his hand through Jackie's hair, up and down the back of her head and spoke mockingly. "I'm thinking I'll give it to her in the morning, after we have sex all night long. Unlike you, since you have no girlfriend. Like I do."

Fez grinned, Eric and Donna groaned, Michael stuttered and looked shocked, and Jackie swatted at Steven's leg. "Steven!"

He looked at her. "Hey, I just want to be sure he knows exactly who will be doing what with whom." He shrugged. "Besides, he needs to pay for giving you that nightie." He focused a hard look at Kelso. "Idiot."

Jackie smiled and scooted closer to him. She reached up and whispered in his ear. "I love it when you get all possessive, Steven." She brushed her lips over his cheek. Mmmm…it felt stubbly and warm, and smelled faintly of the Old Spice he was fond of. She kissed him again. And again. A few more times.

Hyde nearly closed his eyes because of her sweet kisses, but managed to restrain himself. "Whatever," he answered. He looked at her, and her eyes shone up at him. Before he knew it, his neck bent and his lips caught hers.

Afterwards, his heart skipped a beat when she rewarded him with that one certain smile of hers. The one that said he was the one, and he always would be.

And he grinned. Yeah. His chick.

Two hours later

The basement was quiet but for the sound of Laverne and Shirley bickering on the television. Everyone had gone out for pizza, except for Jackie and Hyde. She'd come down with a headache, and now they sat together on the couch. She rested her head on his shoulder, and his arm was around her shoulders. Her eyes closed, and she tried to focus on the soothing circles he was rubbing into her suffering temple.

Hyde glanced at the top of Jackie's head. "Its pretty bad, huh?"

"It feels like a drill in my skull."

Her voice was so small. She sounded almost like she was five miles away from him, and he wondered if maybe she actually wasn't. She was probably mentally in Point Place General Hospital, wondering what it would be like, fearing what would happen, imagining all sorts of horrible scenarios.

Just like he was.

His cleared his thick throat. "Well, it'll all be over soon."

Jackie lifted her head and looked at him. His eyes met hers, and instantly, she could see he was thinking the same thing she was.

It could ALL be over. Soon. Everything. Them. Her. Her life.

Soreness drew wet cloaks over her eyes, and she had to close her lids to hold back. A tiny kiss pecked her nose, and she opened her eyes. Steven was staring at her, trying to smile, and she tried to as well. She failed. Her face collapsed, and again her lids shuttered. Sobs began a soft wrack of her chest.

Hyde sighed. He needed to distract her. Somehow. And the best way was probably to offer her a present. Jackie liked presents. She lived for presents.

God. She lived…she has to live. She has to live.

Best way, hell. It was all he could think of. And it wasn't like he had the power to make her head feel better, although he would if he did.

"Uh, hey, Jackie, I actually did get you a present."

Jackie raised a smile, and she forgot the tears hovering on the lower ridges of her eyes. "Really?"

He lifted his shoulders. "Yeah, well, you would have killed me if I didn't."

"Steven, no I wouldn't have."

A grin played on his lips. "Right, Jackie."

She giggled. "Well, maybe I would have maimed you a little bit."

He unwound his arm and took her hand. "Come on, dollface, its in my room."

He led her to his room, then pointed to his cot. "Sit down."

She did, and watched him rummage around. Her stomach suddenly felt a weird mix of nervous and excited, a sensuous kind of anticipation that inspired goosebumbs on her arms. It was almost arousing. Steven giving her a gift! And she knew it wouldn't be just something he found on the street, like a few of the necklaces Michael had pawned off on her years back. This would mean something more than that. Like the Led Zeppelin tee shirt. That had marked her as his. She wondered what this one would mean.

He handed her a rectangular box wrapped in purple paper topped with a pink bow. It was about the length and width of a checkbook, but a several inches thicker. Too thick to be a jewelry box, she thought with a pang of disappointment. "And…this is something I can use in the hospital?"

He nodded and sat down next to her. "Yeah. Now look, Jackie. This isn't anything much, and it doesn't mean anything much. I just had to get you something, and I wasn't gonna be a wuss like Fez and buy a stupid stuffed animal." He grinned. "Plus it was cheap." His eyes narrowed. "Just don't get all sappy or anything about it, because it's not a big deal."

His words sounded firm, but the way his eyes kept darting between hers and the present, Jackie knew that he was lying. That it meant a lot. Even to him. She smiled patronizingly. "Okay, Steven." Lightly biting her lip, she tore the paper off and opened what appeared to be a case for glasses.

The world seemed to stop, and her breath became tightly coiled in her chest. Her heart seemed to disappear, replaced by a warm, fluid motion inside. "Oh my god…" Her fingers shook like there was a major earthquake taking place in her hands.

He swallowed hard, and with it, his pride and defensiveness. Hell, she deserved to know why. "I uh…well, I mean, I'm probably not gonna be able to be with you all the time in the hospital, and I figured maybe you'd want to have…" He shook his head. Damn, this was corny as hell! How in the hell did Forman do this kind of crap all the time?

Jackie looked up at her boyfriend, and the tears in her eyes this time didn't bother her. In fact, they felt welcome, soft and happy, just like the liquid where her heart used to be. "Something that reminds me of you?" she whispered, her voice breaking. She looked back down at her gift, and nearly swallowed her lower lip she was so overcome with emotion.

He'd given her his sunglasses. The sunglasses he hated to be without. The sunglasses he'd sleep in if he didn't fear he'd break them. The sunglasses he'd beaten up a kid who'd swiped them off his face in an effort to appear tough.

"Your sunglasses, Steven." She gasped and looked up at him, a tear or two meandering silkily down her cheek. "Steven, these are like your eyes. You're giving them to me so that even when you're not with me, you can watch over me." She covered her chest with her hand. "So I can feel you with me. You want me to have part of you with me all the time."

Hyde rolled his eyes, but only slightly. And his voice shook. "Whatever, Jackie."

She was right. Completely right.

She smiled. "Oh, Steven…"

"Well, like I said, don't get too excited. You're giving them back as soon as you get out of the hospital." He grinned uncomfortably. "As soon as they put you in the wheelchair to wheel you to the exit you're giving them back."

Her tears increased, and she lightly caressed the frame of the glasses with her fingertips. "Steven," she whispered. "I just…I don't…" She looked up at him again. "Steven, your sunglasses are so important to you."

He didn't say anything, at least not verbally. He just stared into her eyes, for once not fighting the intimacy, not trying to hide from her. His eyes, normally blockaded by those glasses, almost seem to sing to hers.

I can't always say it, Jackie, but I love you. And this…this is my way of showing you that. I want to be there for you. I want to protect you. And I'm always gonna be with you, because I'm always gonna love you. Even after they shave your head and cut it open. Even if anything. I'm always gonna love you.

And she knew in that moment that somehow, she'd become the most important thing in his life. Just as he'd become the most important thing in her life.

She put the precious gift down on the cot on the opposite side of her from Steven and threw herself at him. Her arms snaked around his neck and pulled him to her, and her head naturally burrowed in the crock of his warm and masculine-scented neck. Her tears rushed fast and furiously down her face, just as her love for him did through her entire body. "Oh my god, Steven!"

He'd given her his sunglasses, what he used to hide himself, to protect himself. He'd metaphorically given her the walls he'd built up around himself. He'd let her inside of him.

He'd given her, finally, honestly and truly, his heart.

She pulled back and looked up at him. He was trying desperately to be Zen, she could see how his jaw was straining, his eyelids were flickering, but when she smiled, the Zen collapsed. "Steven, I love you so much," she murmured. "I just... Steven, I love you!"

She catapulted back into his arms before he could respond, and for a long moment, he just held her. His precious chick, his beautiful dollface. The girl he knew, after everything they'd been through, he was going to love for the rest of his life.

Hyde turned his face into her head, inhaling the always sweet fragrance of her velvety hair.

"God, I love you, Jackie," he whispered gruffly.

Lord, I love her. Remember that.

Please don't take her away from me.

Please.