A/N: Yay an update! Uh, this story has a life of its own and has started straying from it's originally intended path, so hopefully everything will make sense and work out with all the changes i've made and it will all come together in the end. I hope you enjoy and please please review. i'm such a newb at this that I need all the encouragement/advice/whatever I can get.

Chapter 5: Explanations

Jackie pulled away as quickly as possible and screeched out, "Who the hell is Sam?"

Crap. 'I'm royally screwed,' Hyde thought to himself as he watched the hurt and shock play across Jackie's face. He had been so focused on seeing her again, all the things that he had wanted to say to her ever since she died just spilled out without thought. Had he been thinking, he would never have mentioned a girl Jackie didn't even know existed in this reality.

Unfortunately, Hyde wasn't much of a thinker. "Baby, I drank a lot in Vegas," he said by way of explanation.

"Vegas? You went to Vegas and met a girl named Sam?" Jackie's eyes widened briefly as a thought reached her frazzled brain. "Please tell me it was a girl, Steven. Because if you have a thing for guys now…"

"Don't worry, sweetie. It was a girl," Hyde quickly reassured.

"Okay. Good." Jackie paused for a minute. "Wait, not good. There shouldn't have been anyone, Steven."

"Baby," he sighed deeply. "You have to understand-"

"No, no! I do not have to understand! This is all your fault, Steven!" Jackie shouted, frantically searching for clothes. Suddenly she felt entirely too exposed in her nightgown.

"My fault! You left me, Jackie!" He grabbed her by her arms, forcing her to look at him. "Then I follow you to Chicago and find Kelso in a towel! This is all your fault!"

"How many times do I have to tell you? Nothing happened with Michael!"

She pulled away, grabbed some clothes and quickly changed, Hyde staring at her hungrily all the while. She silently fumed, panting heavily. When she looked up, she noticed the lust in his eyes, and for a moment, she just wanted to fall into his arms and let his touch make her feel better.

Hyde seemed like he was willing to do the same, but then he sighed deeply and ran his fingers through his hair. "Jackie, look, I'm sorry. I was really drunk and hurt, and I wasn't thinking. It didn't mean anything, baby."

"Do you know how many times I've heard that? You told me that after the damn nurse!"

"I saw you with Kelso! I thought we were over!"

"That's what happened the last time, too!" Tears streamed down her cheeks. "When are you going to learn to trust me?"

Hyde quickly came to her and wrapped his arms around her. She folded into him. Funny how even when he was the one to hurt her, her first instinct was to let him comfort her.

"Baby," he whispered into her hair, "I want to trust you. I do. I'm going to try so hard to trust you, a-and to earn your trust in return. Just give me another chance, doll face."

With a wavering sigh, Jackie slowly pulled away from him. "I don't know if I can do that."

Jackie turned around for a minute and closed her eyes, trying to compose herself. "What happened?"

"What?"

"What happened?" she asked again, her voice grim with determination, as she turned around to face him.

"Uh." Hyde ran a shaky hand through his hair as he sat down on the cot. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"I think I deserve to know," Jackie replied as she sat down as well.

"Well, after, what happened, in Chicago, with Kelso, I, uh, didn't know what to do," Hyde began, his eyes taking on a distant quality as he relived that night in the hotel. A stabbing pain resounded in his gut as he continued, "So I just started driving. Somehow I ended up in Vegas."

"Isn't that where people go when they have nothing left?" He asked with a shrug. "After gambling for a bit, I went to a strip club and started drinking. And that's when I saw her."

"A stripper? She was a stripper?" Jackie screeched.

Hyde continued as if he hadn't heard her. "She was nothing like you. The complete opposite, in fact. Tall, blonde, rough around the edges."

"Of course she was the opposite of me. She was a stripper, Steven!" she interrupted again.

Hyde chuckled softly to himself. "And I thought to myself, this is what I needed. This is what would help dull the pain of losing you. We never made sense. Hyde and Jackie? It was so wrong and unnatural. Jackie deserves something special, and I, I deserve a stripper."

"Was she prettier than me?" Jackie asked quietly, so insecure and unsure.

"God, no." Hyde let his eyes refocus on her then. "Baby, she was nothing. She meant nothing. I thought about you the entire time. Compared everything she did to how you would do it, and how you did it better."

"Well, it's great that I'm sluttier than a stripper!" Jackie shouted before standing up, although the smirk on her face led Hyde to believe she was secretly happy about it.

"That's not what I meant. I just meant…" he paused to recollect his thoughts, standing up and pulling her to him. He grabbed her face and held her so close that their foreheads were touching. "I meant you and I are perfect for each other. We fit, and nothing anyone can do will ever even come close to that. I love you, baby."

Jackie's hands reached up to his, caressing them to her face, briefly savoring their warmth, before she pulled them away from her.

Their hands still clasped in front of them, foreheads still touching, she began to speak softly, "I love you, too. So much that sometimes I think I'll die if you aren't with me. You're here-" she moved both of their clasped hands to her chest. "In my heart, and no matter how much I want to sometimes, I can't get you out. I want to work this out with you, but it's going to take time. We need to go slow."

She pulled away from him, looking him dead in the eye. "Can you do that for me? Can we go slow, so we can learn to trust each other again? Are you willing to put in that kind of time and effort?"

Hyde smiled and leaned in to kiss her, slowly and sweetly. "For you, doll? I have all the time in the world."

She smiled and hugged him. She was so busy hugging him; she didn't see the torment written across his face as he thought, All the time in the world? Or just 5 short days until I lose you forever…

Hyde was so busy in his own anguish; he didn't see her smile quickly turn into a pout, pain evident in her features as she thought, All the time in the world? Or just until the next fallout. First a nurse, then a stripper. Who will Steven turn to next? Why doesn't he love me like I love him? He is the only person I've ever turned to.

They both pulled away from the hug with forced smiles and fell back onto the cot, hoping to find some sort of temporary comfort in each other's arms.