It was a miserable day in Point Place, and just another one in the string of miserable weeks that Jackie had been having since Steven had left and vanished off the face of the earth.

But Jackie did not know sheer agony until she found out that he had come back.

But not alone.

And married.

To a stripper.

She had begged and pleaded and tried every trick in her book of feminine wiles to get him to dump the skank and choose her, oh please choose her.

But he had turned that shaded gaze upon her, shrugged on that mantle of Zen and muttered, "Whatever, Jackie."

She broke, and it had taken Fez and Donna both to haul her screaming out of the basement and convince her to drown her sorrows in a dingy bar, where as if to add insult to injury she wound up flashing her perfectly perky breasts to the entire room.

She ended the evening alone, puking her guts up in Donna's toilet with her hair plastered over her face, crying over the memory of Steven holding her hair back the last time she had gotten sick from drinking too much like that.

She had taken pains to avoid Steven for the entire week after, spying on the Formans' from behind plaid (yuck) curtains from Donna's bedroom, all the while hoping that the time and space would give him time to think things over and change his mind.

"Why hasn't she moved out yet?"

Donna glanced up with some irritation at Jackie's question. Jackie didn't notice, her eyes were glued to the same spot it had been the past seven days.

Donna ignored her and glanced back down at the words scrawled across the letter pad:

Dear Eric, Come home.

She started tapping her pen in a fierce tattoo against the letter pad.

Donna was missing Eric something fierce. She felt lost and off kilter. Like a ship tossed about in storm-ridden waters with no sense of how to get back to shore. She supposed she had kind of always taken Eric for granted. He was always just there; his devotion and love for her apparent in everything he did. But now he was gone. Just up and disappeared, poof! in a puff of smoke to Africa.

She had never bought that he had done it for the both of them, despite his never failing insistence that it was. She needed to be consulted, dammit, and he had made the decision on his own with the freaking guidance counselor without even asking her first. But he didn't, and she felt left behind.

She was hurt, she was aching and she was confused. She didn't understand. And a part of her was outraged at what he had done to them. They were the couple in the group. The one that was going to make it. And after all they had been through and survived together. Now it looked like along with Jackie and Hyde, their relationship was going to the wind as well.

A loud bang made her look up and Jackie sit up from her spot behind the window. They both saw a busty blonde hurry out of the basement and disappear down the street outside the Formans' house.

Jackie turned to Donna with hope in her eyes. It made Donna cringe. She didn't think that Jackie would be that naive. Not after what she did with Kelso. The scene in the basement with Hyde that day had been borderline pathetic, and the night at the bar had sunk her to a new low.

"Jackie...," she started, but was cut off when her friend hopped off her perch by the window and started smoothing out the wrinkles in her skirt.

"I knew it!" she said excitedly. "I knew Steven wouldn't let that trash come between us!"

Donna swallowed her impatience and strove for an even tone. "Jackie," she tried again, "you know Hyde. I think he made his feelings pretty clear the other day."

Jackie either didn't hear her or chose not to. She started dragging a brush through her hair, her mind racing a mile a dozen at the myriad of ways she and Steven would fall back into each other's arms.

Before Donna could say another word, she was out of the bedroom and flying down the stairs.

Donna sighed, too preoccupied with her own aching heart to try to prevent another break in her friend's.

She ripped the half-written letter out of the pad and balled it up. She got up from her desk and threw it into the waste paper basket where all the other similarly worded letters were littered around it. Then she grabbed her jacket and left the house before Jackie could come crying back into the room.

And crying back into the room Jackie did come. Nasty, ugly and snotty kind of crying as she tearfully wailed out that Steven had chosen his wife over her. And that Sam was moving in, and Hyde had been helping her get his stuff settled into his room at the basement.

Donna sighed, wished she had stayed out later, bit back an "I told you so" and mechanically patted her friend's back instead. Her own thoughts were elsewhere, and she was tired of drama. She heard Jackie mumble "Eric" in her otherwise incoherent bout of sobs and it brought her back to the present.

"Sob... Sob... right?"

"What's that?"

A loud blow of Jackie's nose then, "I said, at least Eric left to give you guys a better chance for the future."

Donna bristled. The subject of Eric was a touchy one with her.

"...I mean, (hiccup) yeah, he's a skinny, geeky, twitchy nerd and all, but he knows what he wants and he's brave enough to do it." Jackie swiped at her eyes. "I know you're (hiccup) missing him and all, but still, you're so lucky," she said mournfully.

To her surprise, Donna sat up angrily, nearly toppling Jackie off the bed. "Well no. I don't miss him. I'm mad at him! He left! I asked him to stay and he left anyway. He wasn't supposed to do that! Lucky?!" She scoffed.

Jackie stared at her bleary-eyed. "He knows what he wants," she repeated cautiously. "You gotta admire that at least."

"Yeah, but what he wants isn't me. And there's nothing to admire about that."

Donna jumped off the bed and stalked to the dresser. "I can't believe I tried to comfort you and you're defending Eric to me." She violently pulled open her drawer and slammed it shut again.

Jackie stared after her with her mouth open. She wasn't sure why Donna could think that. Eric was planning for their future, while Steven was busy spitting on their past. Eric didn't leave to leave Donna behind, he left so he could come back better for her. Always for her. Surely she wouldn't be mad at that?

"I'm not defending Eric to you. I'm just saying that-"

"Save it, Jackie," Donna interrupted with a sharp wave of her hand. "Just... Look. You're really not in the best position to offer relationship advice, okay?"

Hurt flashed across Jackie's features and she lowered her dark head.

Donna didn't notice. She picked up her jacket from across the chair where she left it and shrugged it on, pushing at her hair in frustration.

Jackie looked up, and fully took in her friend's tense expression for the first time. "Donna... I didn't mean to-"

Donna sighed, cutting her off. She really didn't want to hear it. "Look, you've got to get over this situation with Hyde. He's married now. This isn't like before when you guys can just kiss and make up or whatever."

"But—"

"Whatever it is that you think you had, it's pretty obvious that it's over, okay?" She stopped at Jackie's sharp intake of breath and turned to face her. "Look, honestly Jackie. This is hard to take but, you kinda did sleep with Kelso."

Jackie's eyes went wide and she found it difficult to breathe. "Y-you think I slept with Michael?" she asked disbelievingly.

Donna blew out a frustrated breath. "It doesn't matter what I think, okay? Things are what they are now and I just-, I, ugh, I think I'm gonna step out for a bit." She tossed another box of Kleenex onto the bed. "Here."

If it was even possible, Jackie felt her insides rent a bit more. She stared at her best friend, wondering if it was possible to wake up from this nightmare which was now her life.

Donna hesitated, but only a little, as she looked at Jackie's forlorn figure on the bed. Then she shook her head and left the room.

What was Jackie's problem? Donna thought as she pushed the door to The Hub open.

Anyone could see that she and Hyde would never make it this time. Hyde was notoriously possessive, and even more so when it came to her past with Kelso. He barely tolerated her hanging out with him; yet Jackie had actually insisted that Kelso drive her all the way to Chicago. That was just asking for it in Donna's opinion. Sometimes she didn't get how her friend's mind worked. And for Jackie to say that what Eric had done was for the good of their future! What future? The present was already looking pretty bad. His phone calls had dwindled, and she had to admit she hadn't always been as eager as she used to be when it came to writing him. She was just so sick of the situation. At the rate things were going, there won't be a future for them at all, she thought darkly.

She squashed down the feeling of jealousy that it had been Eric who was leaving this Podunk town first out of all of them. She loved him of course, but of all of the gang, it had been she who was the brightest star, the one most likely to make something of herself. Definitely not Eric. She felt mean and petty for feeling that way, but it was a bitter pill to swallow. She pushed back tears. Despite everything, she still missed him. Why did he have to leave?

Her attention was drawn to Kelso's lanky form at their usual table. He was gesturing animatedly in typical Kelso fashion to a guy with the most magnificent hair Donna had ever seen on a man. She made her way over to where they were.

Kelso looked up and saw her. "Donna!" He greeted her exuberantly and kicked a chair out for her to sit.

Donna's eyes were drawn to the stranger. He flashed her a megawatt smile and she felt her breath hitch. He was very attractive.

Kelso seemed to notice and he gave her a knowing grin. She blushed slightly.

"Donna," he said, "meet Randy. Randy, this is Donna."