Disclaimer: I still own nothing.

The visitation had a good group of people. Bob's poker buddies were there, and Jackie found herself trying to look good but inconspicuous. The small presentation was nice, and the funeral would be longer. Now people were just socializing. She would have talked with Donna, but most everyone was flocking to her and Eric, so she found herself alone. Barry was chatting it up with Fez, and Jackie hoped that Barry wouldn't get the wrong idea and have his heart broken. She had viewed the coffin, and felt numb, as if it wasn't real. Kitty was crying again, and Red was doing his best to comfort her. Kelso was talking with Hyde, and Jackie just wished that she could melt into the crowd. It was very hard being there. She wished that it was an Irish wake, so she could just drink and forget about it. So she walked out onto the front steps of the funeral home, and looked up at the sky. Damn, she thought, and wished that she hadn't quit smoking. Because she could really go for a cigarette.

The door opened, and out walked Hyde, who had also been hoping to be alone. But he saw Jackie, and walked to her.

"Hey," he said. She turned, and smiled a little bit.

"Hey," she replied. "That was…"

"… Yeah."

"It still hasn't processed that he's gone," she said. "I even saw his dead body, and I still don't believe it."

"That's understandable," Hyde said. "So, we haven't had much alone time together." She shrugged.

"I would have thought you wouldn't have minded that," she said.

"God, why would you say that?" he asked, irritated.

"I… I'm sorry, I didn't really mean anything by it," she said. He sighed, and walked to the wall of the building. "So I've heard that you own the record store now. That's pretty great."

"It's fine," he said, and she leaned against the railing. "It's not New York, but I like it." She sensed hostility.

"Okay, let's just get it over with," she said. "Why are you so pissy towards me all of a sudden?"

"I'm not pissy."

"Sure you are," she said. "I know when you're mad, Steven, I've always known when you're mad. So what did I do? I've barely said one word to you!"

"That's the problem!" he snapped.

"Well, being back is really hard for me!"

"Not just this time, you didn't talk to anyone from Point Place for all those years!" he stated, angry. "And now you just waltz back into our lives, and act like nothing happened! Like you didn't leave or forget about us while you went and lived it up in New York City!" She crossed her arms, and stormed to him.

"Oh, well, FORGIVE me for not dropping you a line, Steven, but when I left you made it pretty clear how you felt about me!" she snapped. "So if I didn't send you a letter or call you in all these years, it's because you didn't want me to!"

"How would you even know?" he asked. She held up her hands. She was not about to fight with him while at Bob's Visitation.

"We aren't doing this here, it's not appropriate," she said, tersely. "I am here for Donna and Bob, and will be DAMNED if I let you get to me when I need to be here for my friend!"

"I'm surprised you still consider her a friend!" Hyde said. "You didn't even come to her wedding!" She growled, and walked back into the funeral home. But he followed her.

"God, you always picked the most ill-timed moments to lay into me!" she hissed. "Can't we just handle this after everyone leaves?" He sighed, and ran a hand through his hair.

"I really think we need to talk this out right now," he said. She groaned, and held up a finger. She walked to where Donna and Eric were.

"Um, Donna, Steven wanted to talk to me, so…" she said, thoroughly embarrassed. Donna nodded, and smiled.

"It's fine, I'll tell Barry to take the car," Donna said. Jackie nodded, and Donna could tell she was looking upset. "Is everything-?"

"Well, Steven is being Steven," she said. Eric and Donna nodded, and Jackie walked back to Steven.

"We're taking your car," she said. He nodded, and they walked to the parking lot in silence.

--------------------------------------------------

He drove them to the record store, an awkward break in conversation looming as they exited the car, and as they walked to the store. He unlocked the door. It looked fairly similar to when she had last seen it, but there were mainly tapes and some CDs in it now. She looked around, and sat on the couch.

"You took me here to talk, so talk," she said. "What has you so mad? I didn't do anything to you. I've barely said anything to you."

"That's my problem, Jackie," he said. "You've been acting like it's all back to normal with everyone else, but not me." She sighed, and crossed her arms.

"To be fair, this is how we were when I left," she said. "We barely said anything to each other, and when we did we were usually fighting."

"That was so long ago.."

"But it's still how it was, Hyde," she said. He was visibly shaken by this new moniker. She didn't really know why she did it, but she didn't want to call him by his first name. She just didn't. Maybe she did it to hurt him, reverting back to her high school games, but it felt like the right thing to do.

"You may think that you've changed, Jackie, but you haven't," he said, crossing his arms as well. "You're still that cheerleader who thinks she's better than everybody else."

"No I'm not," she said, standing up. "That didn't get me anything in life! I'm grown up now, I'm successful, just because YOU'RE stuck here it doesn't mean that you can resent me for leaving and coming back!"

"What is that supposed to mean?" he demanded.

"It means that you can't stand seeing me happy for once!" she stated. "You liked seeing me miserable because it gave you power over me, the only power you had back then. But now that power is gone, and it just KILLS you. It KILLS you."

"It wasn't about power," he snapped. "You hurt me."

"I hurt YOU?" she asked, stamping her foot. "You have got to be kidding me! I didn't DO anything to you!"

"I thought you'd slept with Kelso!" he yelled.

"But I HADN'T!" she yelled back. "You're the one who came home with a wife! After you'd been so afraid to commit to ME, you came home with a stranger you thought you married while DRUNK. And you STAYED with her even though I told you that I loved you and wanted to make it work! For what? Spite!"

"I'm not the one who ran away from our problems!" he yelled back at her. "I'm not the one who up and moved away without saying a decent goodbye beyond a stupid two word note! You at least owed me that!"

"I didn't owe you anything! I left that way because I didn't want to hate you!" she snarled. He glared, and sat on the couch. She was taking out the claws now, it had been stewing inside of her and she didn't even realize it. "I left because I didn't want to stay in the town where the worst thing in my life happened."

"I was the worst thing in your life?" he asked.

"No, what you did was!" she exclaimed, and decided to go for the throat. "And I'm sorry that your fiancée fucked someone else and left you, which, I might add, is a BIIIG surprise. But now you know how it feels to have your heart ripped out and stomped on, now you know how I felt! You know how you made ME feel! And I hope that it hurt." She had sank to the chair, the anger took a lot out of her. He was staring at her, almost speechless.

"You can be really mean," he said.

"I learned from you," she retorted. It was his turn now. And he wasn't about to hold back.

"For your information, I don't know how you felt. Because I never loved Sam," he said. "I stayed with her because I knew I wouldn't be attached to her. I kept her around because I wanted to hurt you. To mock you, knowing that if I chose someone I didn't know over the love, er, supposed love of my goddamn life it would have torn you apart. It certainly worked."

"It got you a lonely life."

"Well what do you have?" he asked. "A job that consumes you, one that you can hide from reality with. The reality that you have no one."

"I have Barry."

"Oh that's right, you're his beard, how fulfilling," he mocked. "You know, I think you were scared to come back here not because of the fact you ditched your friends, but because you knew that we would all be happier than you. And you didn't want to face that."

"That's not-," she started, but he cut her off.

"You know you're alone, and you hate the reminder," he continued, sneering. "You tell yourself that you're happy, that you have it better than me, but you're still that elitist girl who is actually worse off than everyone else. At least I was engaged for a time, at least I had someone who was constant, be it for a short time. Tell me something, did you jump from guy to guy at NYU, searching for approval? Did one glimmer of acceptance and affection get you in bed with them?"

"Steven, for God's sake," she begged, but he wasn't about to stop.

"And when they all rejected you in the end, that reality slowly began to sink in, that you were alone. And now that you're thirty, that reality has just knocked you to the ground because you now have to accept the fact that NO ONE will love you as much as you love them."

She noticed the tears falling down her face at that point, they had been unnoticed by both of them until his bitter and nasty tirade stopped. When he realized that she was crying, he felt bad for laying it into her so horribly. She did make some nasty comments, but he knew that hers paled in comparison to his. They always did.

She held in the sobs that were threatening to burst from her throat, and walked for the door. He stayed on the couch, and she turned to face him.

"You know, Steven," she said, grabbing the door handle. "You said that I was good at being mean… But you are still the best." He stood up.

"Jackie, wait, I'm-." But she wouldn't listen. With that, she walked out the door, and towards the neighborhoods.

Hyde sat on the couch, and really regretted everything he had said. He kicked the couch, and leaned back on it. Dammit, man, she's still just a lonely girl, he thought. And you abused that knowledge to tear her apart. Feel good about yourself.

----------------------------------------------

Barry was on the bed, reading a magazine and waiting for Jackie to get home. Donna knocked on the door, and he looked up as she opened it.

"Donna, it's late," he said. "What are you doing up?"

"I can't really sleep," she said, leaning in the doorframe. "I'm sure you understand."

"Heh, I do," he said. She nodded, and had a glass in her hand. "Night cap?"

"Just water," she said.

"Well, I don't want to keep you from it."

"Oh, no one will keep me from that," she said, and laughed a little. "I wonder if Jackie is gonna get back soon…"

"Me too." She smiled, and left the doorway. He heard the downstairs door open and slam. He hoped that their meeting was a good one, but when she walked through the bedroom door, her face said otherwise.

"How'd it go?" he asked. She closed the door, and sat on the bed, across from him. "Loves?" She let the tears go, and Barry sighed. He put his arms around her, and she hugged him tightly as she sobbed.

"Oh loves," he whispered. He pulled her in his lap, and brushed her hair with his fingers. She wailed into his chest, and he rocked her slowly. The door opened, and Donna was there, water glass in hand. She must have heard her sobbing, Barry thought.

"Jackie," she said, and sat next to Barry and hugged her too. "Jackie, what happened?" She just sobbed, and let her two closest friends hug her.

"I never should have come back!" she exclaimed, between sobs. She was weeping so hard her tiny frame shook. Donna and Barry just hugged her, and looked at each other, at a loss for what to do. Barry knew he'd get little sleep again, but this time he didn't care.