A/N: Okay, please, please don't hate me for this chapter! I know you all hate Sam, and trust me, I do too, but I need her for just this one chapter and then I promise she'll be gone! As a compromise, I swear Randy will not exist in this story at all, so please don't hate me too much! Have faith because I am a die-hard Jackie/Hyde shipper, and I would never let anything come between them for too long. Oh, also, I know absolutely nothing about news stations, so everything I say about co-anchors and reporters is me totally flying by the seat of my pants, so if you know anything about them and I've made any glaring errors, you can kindly point them out, but don't flame me for it, please! That said, I'd like to extend my warmest gratitude to everyone who has been reading this, and especially to everyone reviewing. I hope you'll all continue to review even if you hate this chapter!

Chapter Six – And Then There Were Four

The tears were streaming down Jackie's face as she shoved random articles of clothing into her suitcases. She had stopped trying to wipe them away, and wasn't even bothering to control the loud sobs that wrenched out of her body. Fez thankfully wasn't in the apartment when she'd returned after her confrontation with Steven, so there was no need for her to put up a brave front. Her world was once again crumbling around her, and she was eternally grateful that no one was there to witness the sad spectacle; she simply didn't have the strength to put on a show and pretend that she was above everything.

As she finished packing and the tears finally began to subside, Jackie pulled her notebook out from her dresser drawer and sat down on her bed. It was a terribly impersonal way to leave, she knew, but she couldn't risk saying goodbye to everyone in person, fearing she would run into him, or worse yet, him and his skank of a wife. She ripped out three pieces of paper, took out her pen, and began to write the hardest letters of her life. When she was done, she folded up the letters, placed them in three separate envelopes, sealed them, and printed three names neatly on their respective envelopes. Then, with a heavy sigh, she grabbed her luggage and the letters, and headed to the bus station.

Hyde was slumped down on the couch, his head in his hands, when Sam returned to the basement early the next morning. Her shift at the club had gone later than she'd expected, but she'd made some really good tips, and she wanted to take Hyde out to celebrate in order to make it up to him. She had expected to find him asleep in his room, not wide-awake and clearly upset on the couch.

Cautiously, she stepped up to him. "Steven?"

Hyde slowly removed his hands and angled his head up at her. His eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep and sunk into his hollow, unshaven face.

"What happened? You look awful," Sam remarked as she sat down next to him.

He shrugged but didn't respond, the argument he'd had with Jackie still fresh in his mind. He hadn't been able to stop thinking about it, the insults he'd flung at her, the dejected way she'd left, it all just kept replaying inside his mind like a song on repeat.

"Well, I had a fantastic night!" Sam exclaimed, smiling brightly at him. "I made over three hundred dollars in tips!"

Hyde sighed and closed his eyes, leaning his head on the back of the couch. "That's great, Sam."

Sam scooted closer to him and placed both hands on his knee. "Let's go out, Steven. To celebrate!"

Hyde's eyebrows knit together in a frown. "Sam, I'm exhausted. I really don't feel like going out. Besides it's like," he opened an eye and brought his watch an inch from his face, "five o'clock in the morning."

Her smile faltered slightly, but was back in place as an idea popped into her head. Her hand slid up his thigh and she said, her voice lowered suggestively, "Well, we could just stay in and celebrate."

Normally, Hyde would have leapt at the suggestion, but there was a headache beginning to form behind his eyes, and he still couldn't get the image of Jackie's tear-stained face out of his head. He sighed again, removed Sam's hand from his thigh, and looked her fully in the eye as he said, "No, Sam, I'm tired."

Sam stood up, glaring down angrily at him. "Fine! Enjoy your sleep on the couch, Hyde."

He stared up at her incredulously. "You're kicking me out of my own room?"

"That's right," she snapped and stalked off to the back of the basement. She turned around at his door and glowered at him. "And don't even think about make-up sex because I have another shift at the club tonight!" With that, she slammed the door.

Hyde's head fell back heavily against the back of the couch. His headache was now full-blown. "Great," he muttered, closing his eyes and rubbing his temples. "Just great."

Jackie stood outside the door of the same motel, the same room, and swallowed the lump in her throat. She had tried getting a room at every motel within a five-mile radius, and none of them had vacancies. Grudgingly, she had made her way back to the infamous place where her life as she had known it had come to a screeching halt. Just her luck that the only room left at the motel had been the very same one she had stayed in that night.

Heaving a sigh, Jackie turned the key in the lock and opened the door to the familiar room. She flicked on the light, dropped her bag by the bed, and sat down heavily, staring around as the memory of that night came flooding back. She slid back onto the bed and curled herself into a tight little ball, closing her eyes as the tears slipped unnoticed down her cheeks. In a few minutes, she had drifted off into an exhausted sleep.

In the morning when she awoke, Jackie felt anything but rested. Her body ached, half from fatigue and half from the lumpy, uncomfortable mattress she'd slept on. Her face was pale and tear-stained, her hair tangled and dirty. Even a hot shower didn't make her feel better, though she was certainly glad to wash away the grime. She dressed in a professional-looking business suit and pulled her hair up into a simple ponytail. After applying her make-up, she looked at herself critically in the mirror and frowned. To the untrained eye, Jackie Burkhart looked flawless, but Jackie herself could see the slight sagging under her almost unnoticeably puffy eyes, and the slightly sallow tint of her normally glowing skin. She sighed and gave her lips one last coat of lipstick before turning away from her reflection and grabbing her purse, her keys, and the letters she had written the night before to her three remaining friends in Point Place.

On her way to the news station, where she prayed they would still offer her a job, even if it was something as stupid as getting coffee and donuts for everyone, she stopped at the post office and mailed the letters. She figured it was easier to send them once she had arrived back in Chicago; that way, nobody would be able to stop her from leaving. She almost didn't send them, realizing how upset they would make her friends, but she couldn't go back now, not after she'd convinced herself she was doing the right thing, and sending letters was better than giving her friends no goodbye at all, so she dropped them into the box and hurried away.

At the news station, the manager wasn't happy to see her after her abrupt departure the last time she'd been in Chicago. He was a short, balding man who smelled of cheap whiskey, but he wasn't a cruel man. He listened quietly as Jackie pleaded her case, and when she had finished, he sat back and eyed her thoughtfully.

"You know, Ms. Burkhart, I always thought you'd make an excellent reporter one day."

Jackie smiled timidly and inclined her head in a polite nod. "Thank you, Mr. Ackerson."

"But after the way you left the station, I'm not sure you're committed to this news team. We here at WBBM are a very close-knit group, and we value loyalty a great deal." He paused and stared at her intently. "Now, you've impressed me before, Ms. Burkhart. After only two weeks here, you managed to work your way up to co-anchor. No one in the history of this station has been able to do that."

A gracious smile spread over Jackie's face. "Thank you, sir."

"However," Mr. Ackerson continued, and Jackie's face fell a little. "The people who have the best positions here, the anchors, the reporters, they've all earned their stripes, so to speak. Most of them have been here for years, and they know this station inside and out. I saw the potential in you, Ms. Burkhart, and I decided to take a chance on you because I believed some day you'd make a great reporter. After the way you left, I'm beginning to think I made a mistake." He raised a brow. "Did I make a mistake, Ms. Burkhart?"

Jackie shook her head. "No, Mr. Ackerson, I was the one who made the mistake. When I left, I guess it was because I wasn't completely committed to the job. I thought I still had a future back home…" she trailed off and shook her head, realizing she had gotten off topic. "I swear to you, Mr. Ackerson, I am committed now."

Mr. Ackerson rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Well, the co-anchor position has already been filled. It'll be hard to work your way up again, Ms. Burkhart. It could take months or even years for you to become a co-anchor again, and then of course I'll have to evaluate you and make sure you're ready to be a reporter."

"That's fine!" Jackie said eagerly. "I have been waiting my whole life to be a reporter, I can wait a few more years. I am dedicated to this news station, Mr. Ackerson, and I'm totally willing to work my way up to prove that to you; I'll take any position you offer me."

He gave her a smile. "I'm glad to hear that, Ms. Burkhart, because a position has recently opened up."

She beamed at him. "I'll take it!"

"Good, here is a list of errands for you to run," Mr. Ackerson said, handing Jackie a clipboard and a pen. "Oh, and make sure you get plenty of jelly donuts, they go fast."

Hyde was sitting in his usual spot in front of the TV, his shades on and his feet propped up on the circle table. He was watching Donahue and was really getting into it when a clearly furious Donna stormed through the basement door.

"What the hell did you do?" she screamed.

Hyde looked up at her, his expression blank. "What are you talking about?"

"This!" Donna shouted, shoving a letter into his hands.

Opening the letter, Hyde began to read:

Donna,

I know I haven't always been there for you when you needed me, and I have to apologize because I'm not going to be now either. I'm leaving. I tried to talk things through with Steven, but he still refuses to listen to me. I can't bear to stay here and see him with Sam; it's just too hard. And I can't sit back and pretend that nothing happened between us like he can. So I'm going back to Chicago. I didn't exactly leave WBBM on the best terms, but I'm hoping they'll give me another shot. I can't keep putting off my future in the hopes that Steven will come around and realize he loves me. You'll probably hate me for doing this to you, especially since it's all in a letter, but I knew if I spoke to you in person or called you on the phone you would've tried to stop me from leaving, and this is just something I have to do. I know you've been upset since Eric left, and I know that as your best friend it was my duty to comfort you, but I just can't stay in Point Place. There's nothing there for me anymore. I hope you can understand that, Donna, and I hope you know how hard it was for me to leave. I promise you I will keep in touch, and as soon as I get my own place, I will be sure to invite you and the others down here for a visit.

Love always,

Jackie

"She's gone?" Hyde asked, almost to himself.

Donna nodded, still glaring at him. "Yeah, she's gone. And I blame you. I don't know what you said to her to make her leave…"

He cut her off, his own anger coming through as he said, "What I said? Do you know she slept with Fez?"

Donna's voice softened slightly and she dropped down onto the couch. "Yes. But, Hyde, she slept with him because she was upset. She came back here to be with you, and then your wife shows up, whom, by the way, you didn't even remember marrying. How do you think that made her feel?"

"Probably the same way I felt when I found out she'd slept with Kelso," Hyde retorted.

Shaking her head, Donna said quietly, "Hyde, she didn't sleep with Kelso, and you know it."

Hyde shrugged, but he knew deep down she was right. Jackie wouldn't have hurt him like that, even if Kelso wouldn't have thought twice about it. But admitting he'd been an ass wouldn't fix anything; he was married now.

"Look, Hyde, you've both made mistakes," Donna said softly.

"I'm staying married to Sam," he said quickly, cutting her off.

Donna blinked, dumbfounded. "You're what? You can't stay married to her!"

Hyde dragged a hand through his hair and leaned toward her. "Donna, I know I made a big mistake. I should've believed Jackie when she told me she hadn't slept with Kelso, but the fact is, I didn't, and now I'm married. Saying I'm sorry isn't going to reverse everything that happened."

"So you think staying married to a woman you don't love while the woman you do tries to pick up the pieces of her broken life in Chicago is the way to fix all this?" Donna asked incredulously.

"Look, Jackie's gone. She wants to start her life over. And I've got a new life here, with Sam. Too much has happened between us, Donna. We can't just turn our backs on the past and pretend it didn't exist."

Donna shrugged. "Maybe not, but you can talk things over. You can work all of this out, Hyde."

He shook his head.

Donna stood and looked down at him, her eyes hardening in anger. "You are a coward, Steven Hyde," she said, her voice cold and steady, and then left the basement.

Hyde's head dropped into his hands, but immediately snapped back up at the sound of the basement door crashing open. He groaned inwardly as he looked up at his visitor.

"What the hell, Hyde?" Michael Kelso shouted, waving a letter at him.