A/N: I was going to upload this last night, but one of my roommates was eating all the house's bandwidth! But here it is now! It's kind of longer than I thought it was gonna be... Oh well.

Disclaimer: I still own nothing.

Jackie was trying to decide if she wanted to look good or normal that night. Donna and Barry were sitting on the bed while she tried to decide what she wanted to wear.

"Okay, should I just wear the jeans and sweater?" she asked. "Or should I wear the flowy skirt with the sweater and boots? OR should I wear the leather pants and the flowy shirt?"

"Why did you pack so much?" Donna asked. "You knew you were just going to be here until tomorrow."

"I know, but I didn't know what I was going to wear to the funeral, so I packed a few extras," Jackie said. "He saw the skirt and shirt last night, should I wear something else?"

"Did you pack an armoire?" Barry asked, and Donna laughed.

"Yes Barry, that's right, I packed an armoire," she said, sarcastically. "Okay. I think I have it. The sweater with the flowy skirt."

"Flowy, that's a new word to me," Donna said. "Where are you two going?"

"I don't know, it's up to him," Jackie said, walking into the closet to change. "Donna, it's okay if I go out with him tonight, right? You don't mind?"

"No, Jackie, it's fine," Donna said. "You came back to see everybody, which includes Hyde. Eric and I are going to take Barry and Tommy out to dinner as well."

"It's true," Barry said. "You go out and have fun, loves. It's your last night here, you deserve it." She threw on her outfit, and leapt from the closet.

"Ta da!" she said, throwing her arms out. Donna and Barry both whistled. "How do I look?"

"You look fabulous!" Barry said. "When is he picking you up?" She looked at the clock.

"Oh," she said. "About fifteen minutes! It took so long to figure out the best outfit, I didn't even consider make up stuff yet."

"Hyde isn't going to care what makeup you have on," Donna said, and Tommy ran into the room. "Hi honey!"

"Mommy," he said, and she picked him up. "Pretty lady." He pointed at Jackie. Jackie grinned from ear to ear.

"See, Tommy thinks you're pretty," Donna said.

"Donna, he's two," Barry said, and Jackie glared at him. "I'm only saying that any girl is going to be a pretty lady to him!"

"Not Laurie," Donna said. "He's scared of Aunt Laurie."

"Ouch," Jackie said, and began putting on eyeliner.

She sat on the couch, waiting for Hyde to ring the doorbell. She was dressed for the weather, and kept staring in her compact.

"You look fine, Jackie," Donna said, walking out of the kitchen.

"This is so weird, Donna, I don't know why I'm caring so much," she said. "We had that horrible fight last night, and now I just want to look pretty."

"You still love him," Donna said, joking.

"I… do not," Jackie said, turning back to the mirror.

"You do?" Donna said. "Oh my God, you still love him."

"Oh PLEASE," Jackie said, spinning around. "Spare me, Donna, it's been years since we've talked."

"That doesn't matter, you still love him!" Donna said, and laughed a little. Jackie shot her a glare, and Donna just hugged herself and smiled. "Well, if it gives you any solace, I think that he may be interested in you too."

"Ugh, if you heard the things he said to me last night, you wouldn't believe that," Jackie said.

"Then why are you going out with him?"

"Because… I… You…. Because I just am!" Jackie answered, and the doorbell rang. "Crap. How do I look?"

"For the last time you look fine!" Donna said. "Just answer the door." Jackie stood, but then made a sad noise. "What?"

"You do it," Jackie said. "He needs to think I'm still getting ready."

"Are you kidding me!" Donna asked.

"Donna, PLEASE!" Jackie exclaimed. Donna groaned, and nodded. Jackie ran up the steps, and Donna went to the door. She opened it, and Hyde was there.

"Hi, you," she said. He smiled, and walked in the room. "Jackie isn't quite ready yet, but she will be soon."

"That's fine," he said. "I can wait."

"You seem nervous."

"I am."

"Why?"

"I said some really mean things that I didn't really mean," he said. "I was just really angry, and I let it get the better of me."

"Talk to me, Hyde, we've always been good at talking to each other," she said. He chuckled a little, and they sat on the couch.

"I don't know," he said. "She left without saying goodbye that time, and now she just comes prancing back into our lives, and everyone has forgiven her, but me." Donna rubbed his back.

"You know why that is, don't you?" Donna asked.

"No, why?"

"You blame her for Sam leaving you," she stated.

"That's stupid."

"Why is it stupid?" Donna demanded.

"Sam left because I didn't love her."

"And why didn't you love her?"

"Because… I…. You…. Because I didn't!" he stammered. "She was hot, but she wasn't much beyond that. She wasn't…"

"She wasn't Jackie."

"… I guess."

"Hyde, you know you have a second chance here," Donna said. "She's upstairs, getting ready for this date, and she's just as nervous as you are. You're both older, you're both mature, and you still care about her. You never stopped caring about her." He sighed, and at that moment Jackie walked down the steps.

"Hello, Steven," she said, stopping at the bottom and tilting her head to the side. He stood, and nodded at her.

"Ready?" he asked. She nodded, and put on her coat. He walked to her, and opened the door for her. He turned back at Donna, who gave him a thumbs up. He nodded, and walked out with Jackie.

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

He took her to a nice restaurant that replaced the restaurant where Eric and Donna had their first date. It was now a very fancy French place, which he didn't think had much demand around here, but it got good business. She whistled at the fanciness of it all, and he shrugged.

"I remembered you like French food, and it's the only place near here," he said, and she nodded. They sat at a table with candles on it, and she chuckled a little bit. "What?"

"You never took me to nice places when we were dating and now when we aren't you do," she said, and giggled a little bit. He smiled, and shrugged. "It strikes me as funny, is all."

"It's ironic," he said. A waiter came by and took their orders, and brought them wine.

"I want to apologize about what I said last night," she said. "I shouldn't have brought Sam into it."

"Hey, you called her Sam, not the ugly stripper," he said, and she laughed. He smiled, and they went back to being awkward teens again. It was like it was their first date, even though they had done so much more than date when they were kids.

"So how has it been Steven?" she asked, making small talk. "I hear you may be moving to another city soon."

"Yeah, I'm thinking of getting out of Wisconsin," he said. "Expand the music empire or something."

"Would you stay in the Midwest?" she asked.

"I actually have no idea."

"Oh." Silence again.

"This is dumb, we know each other so well but we can't even make conversation," he said, and she laughed a little bit.

"It is weird, because even after all these years we still know each other's sore spots," she said. "Maybe we haven't changed."

"I think you have," he said. "I know I said you hadn't, but you have. You've grown up." She smiled, and sipped her wine.

"So have you." She smiled at him, and he averted his eyes. Damn it Donna, why did you get that thought in my head, he cursed silently. Jackie had changed. She was grown up, but she also seemed sadder. Life had kicked in, reality had made her see who she really was. And even though she had changed, he couldn't help but see that perky young girl who drove him crazy. In more ways than one.

"It's just so strange," she said. "I never knew how much I cared about Bob until he died. I wish I could have told him." He nodded, and took her hand on impulse. They both looked at it, and he pulled away quickly.

"This is so stupid," he muttered. "We're friends and me just touching your hand is still weird to us."

"So let's try and talk this out like adults this time," she said. "I think we have to." He agreed, and lifted his glass to it.

"Sounds good to me."

"Did you like me even though you married Sam?" she asked. She cut right to the chase, but she wasn't hostile about it. He sipped his wine, and knew this time he couldn't be that evasive boy he had been. He had to be honest with her, because she was going to be honest with him.

"Yes. I wasn't over you," he said.

"Okay," she said. "If you weren't over me, why did you treat me so SO horribly?"

"Because I thought that if I did you would leave me alone and I wouldn't have to keep seeing you and thinking about you," he answered.

"And when I did leave?"

"…. It hurt… Okay, it's my turn."

"Go ahead."

"Why didn't you say goodbye to me?" he asked. She had to contemplate how to answer this one. She swirled her wine, and sort of smiled so as not to cry.

"I didn't say goodbye because…. Well, okay, one, I really didn't think you cared that I was leaving," she said. "And two, I was afraid that if I saw you, and if you were so mean when I said goodbye, that I would hate you. And I didn't want to hate you. OR, and this was worse, I wouldn't want to leave, and it would just get worse from there." He nodded, and she smiled sadly.

"When Eric left, our group fell apart," she said. "And when I left, did it mend?" Hyde sat back in his chair, and shook his head.

"No," he said. "Because you weren't there."

"Oh please."

"No, seriously," he said, and laughed a little bit. "It just wasn't the same. Kelso was gone, Fez was at the Salon so much, Eric and Donna were spending so much time together, and I… I was solitary again." She nodded, and pat his hand.

"And all these years, I blamed you for my isolation," he said, obviously upset by it. "But in the end, it was all my fault."

"Why did Sam leave you?" Jackie asked. "Because, I know she slept with someone else, but then it gets confusing. You didn't leave her, she left you." He was going to answer, but their food arrived, so he didn't have to.

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

After dinner they drove to the place of their first date, on that Veterans Day that changed both their lives. It was now colder, and snow was on the ground, but it all seemed very familiar. They sat on the hood of his car, and just stared into the night air.

"And we're back here," she said.

"Yep."

"Our first actual date," she said.

"Uh huh."

"When we didn't realize how good we had it."

"Depressing."

"It was true." She shivered, and he looked at her.

"Cold?" he asked.

"Kind of. It's my scarf, it's not very good. At least not for this weather. It's more stylish. I just can't quite find that scarf that is stylish AND warm."

"That's too bad. Okay, I have another question," he said, and she looked over at him. "That Veterans Day, after we kissed, you said that you didn't feel anything. Was that true?"

"Was it true for you?" She turned the question on him, which was irritating, but he couldn't blame her.

"…. No."

"Me neither, I just wanted to stop bugging you because I KNEW that I really liked you, and didn't want to drive you away," she said.

"It's just a night of truths, isn't it?" he asked. She smiled, and nodded. "What do you think would have happened if we had admitted we did feel something?"

"You know, I've been haunted by what ifs for the longest time," she said. "And I usually don't think about them. But… Okay, I think that if we had just come clean with how we were feeling, maybe our relationship could have grown and progressed in a normal manner."

"Yeah, no kidding," he said. "I could have wooed you."

"Oh shut up, you would NOT have wooed me!" she said, laughing. He laughed too, he knew she was right.

"Okay, I wouldn't have wooed you, but we could have started differently. And I wouldn't have thought that you chose me because Kelso was gone, which was probably our problem the entire time."

"Kelso?"

"No, my paranoia and inability to trust you." She nodded, and looked over at him.

"I have one last question for you, Steven," she said. He looked at her, and nodded. "If you could have changed one thing, what would it have been?" He sighed, and shrugged.

"Well, the obvious thing to say is that I wouldn't have brought Sam home," he said, and she laughed a little bit. "But, the realistic thing to say is that I would have accepted the fact that I cared about you." She nodded. "What about you?"

"I wouldn't have been such a manipulator," she said, and left it at that. "So… where do we go from here?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well Steven, the fact of the matter is that I didn't stop caring about you," she said. "I'll own up to that." He looked at her, and she was looking at the ground. He sighed, and decided that he should own up to it as well.

"… Yeah, I didn't stop caring about you either," he said. "That's why Sam left. She knew. I walked in on her and Todd having sex, and I just left the room. Sam followed, and asked 'aren't you mad?', I just kind of looked at her blankly. And then she figured it out. She figured it out before I did."

"And when you said that you never loved me… Was that true?"

"Jackie, come on. You know me better than that."

"I'm not sure what I know anymore, Steven. Did you ever love me?"

"…. Yes. I was in love with you when I said it." She nodded, and stared ahead.

"So where do we go from here?" she asked again. "You were… you ARE the love of my life. But I live in New York and you live here."

"Yeah."

"… Steven, I still love you," she heard herself saying, and couldn't believe she said it.

"… Yeah?"

"Yeah." And with that, they slammed into each other, kissing and grabbing and falling onto the car. He rolled on top of her, and they made out like teenagers again. She ran her hands through his hair, and then shoved him off of her.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I'm not having sex with you on a car," she said. "It's cold, and we did that once before and it wasn't very comfortable."

"Okay, then… we go back to my place," he said. She nodded, and they ran and leapt in the car. He sped the car away from their lookout spot, and towards his and Fez's apartment.

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

They threw the door open, kissing and fumbling for a light switch. Hyde found it, closed the door with his foot, and lifted Jackie up as he kissed her and carried her into his bedroom. She kicked the bedroom door shut with her boot, and it slammed. Fez walked out of his room, and heard the noises coming from the bedroom. And since he'd heard Hyde and Jackie go at it before, he knew what the noises were. So he smiled, considered listening, but just went into his bedroom instead.

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

Back at the Pinciottis, Barry looked at the clock. It was midnight. He knew that Jackie wasn't coming home that night, so he laid back on the bed, and reveled in the fact he was going to get a good nights sleep while in this town after all.

A/N: There's still more, I know this seems fairly 'final', but… it's not.