"What the hell, Sam! You've been drinkin'! Again!"
"He was a regular! And it was a tiny sip! It'll be fine," Sam retorted as she brushed Hyde off rudely and stalked towards their room in the back.
"Fuck no. It's not okay."
He grabbed her arm roughly and swung her around to face him. "Look! I never asked for this! I didn't wanna be a father, and I sure as fuck don't wanna be one to a baby with an alcohol addiction!"
Back and forth it went, vicious snipes and angry words that had the four of them — Jackie, Fez, Randy and Donna, wearing varying expressions of ill humor and either rubbing their temples or holding their hands over their ears.
Jackie was only over as often as she was because she knew that it helped the Formans that other people other than Steven and Sam were around in the house.
"Don't swear at me!" Sam shrieked suddenly.
"What the fu—," Hyde broke off incredulously and shoved his hands through his hair. "It didn't bother you before!"
Sam burst into noisy tears. "It does now!"
Jackie decided that she had had enough. This couldn't be any good for Sam or the baby. She got up from the couch and stepped over Donna and Randy's outstretched legs.
"Guys, enough."
She pulled a sobbing Sam away from Steven and pushed her towards Donna on the couch.
Hyde thrust his arm out towards Sam in extreme irritation. "What's her problem?" he asked Jackie through clenched teeth.
She eyed him oddly. "She's pregnant, Steven."
It was the first time she had said it. Or truly acknowledged that Sam was carrying Steven's baby. Unconsciously her eyes turned towards Sam standing by the back of the couch and fell down to look at her still-flat stomach. Something gripped her around her heart. The death of a long-held dream. Once, she had wanted nothing more than to have Steven Hyde's babies.
"Yes! I'm pregnant! With your baby!"
Donna turned to look at Sam then swiveled round to roll her eyes at Jackie, who sighed.
Help, please, she mouthed to Donna. But her friend just smirked and shrugged, then turned her attention back to the TV. Jackie glared at the back of her blonde head.
She rubbed her temples and sighed again. "Steven, she's hormonal. You've got to be more patient."
He glared at her. "What the fuc—"
"Don't say it!" Sam shrieked again.
A lighter came out from nowhere and a cigarette materialized from between his fingers. Flick flick flick, it desperately went, flick flick aha! Hyde inhaled deeply.
"You probably shouldn't be smoking around her either," Jackie said quietly to him.
His eyes bulged out of his head.
Right on cue, Sam parroted, "No you shouldn't!"
Jackie turned to Sam. "You aren't helping either. Come on, this can't be easy for him."
She held up her hands when she saw Sam open her mouth to interrupt. "Look, I know it's not easy for you, but neither is it easy for him. It's difficult for the both of you." She shot her a glance, "But you should probably lay off the liquor — sips or not."
Hyde wanted to break things. Break 'em, throw 'em, then hop into his El Camino and drive away and never come back. Instead he blew out a long breath of smoke.
"Fuck it," he snarled, turning on his heel and stalking out of the house.
He could hear Sam's sharp shriek of protest behind him, but he ignored it and clumped up the stairs in his beloved boots. He climbed into his El Camino and gunned the engine, wanting to be as far away from this piece of shit mess as he could.
Back in the basement, Jackie looked between a wailing Sam and the basement door.
"You go after him," Donna said, finally turning the TV off. "We'll deal with her."
They heard the sounds of the El Camino start and Randy tossed Jackie his keys.
"Here, take my car," he said.
Jackie nodded and grabbed her coat off the hook by the door, leaving the basement without another word.
It seemed as if she had been tailing him forever, but when she glanced at her watch she realized that it had only been ten minutes. She was surprised when he took a sudden turn into an area that she could have sworn that only she visited ever since they broke up.
She waited for him to park and exit the Camino before she pulled in next to him. He turned around and looked shocked when she got out of the car.
"I didn't know you came here anymore," she said, walking up to him. She hadn't been expecting an answer so she was surprised when he replied.
"Yeah well. I do." He shrugged. "Sometimes."
She gave him a small nod. Dead leaves crunched on the ground as she walked over them. There was a tree not far off from where they were both parked. Her fingers caressed the bark and found the carving that she had spent many hours staring at and crying over during the months before she left for Africa. She heard him come up behind her.
"It's still there," he stated.
It was a little heart with their initials scratched on the inside.
J.B & S.H
4 Eva
She had laughingly insisted that he add in the 'forever', not knowing that he actually would, and she remembered the feeling that she had gotten when she saw him do so. It was when they had been at their happiest, and had spent many hours making out and making love at the back of his Camino at that very spot. It was where they had shared their first kiss, even though it would be years later before they actually got together.
"Yeah, I know." Her fingers brushed over the carving one last time before she turned to look at him.
"J.B and S.H. forever," she said with a sad but beautiful smile, "and here we are now."
He fixed his shaded gaze on her. He felt trapped, trapped in the farce of a relationship he had with Sam. It was far more than anything with Jackie had ever represented. And to make matters worse, he didn't even love the would-be mother of his child.
Save me, he wanted to tell the woman he did indeed love, take me in your arms and let us go to sleep and wake up right here to find that all this has been a bad dream.
"Jackie," he said, his voice hoarse with emotion and he took a step towards her.
Before she knew it she found his lips on hers. She sank into his embrace, her response more from the comfort of familiarity than from actual desire.
For Hyde, having Jackie in his arms again incited a whole different reaction. His senses swarmed with the feel of her, the scent of her, the softness of her skin. Jackie. His Jackie. His lips moved over hers, tongue probing past her lips to stroke hers. She tasted exactly as he remembered and he felt like he had come home. How had he ever let her go? He felt like the biggest fool on the planet for ever letting her go. He deepened the kiss, trying to get more of her, trying regain their past together that had vanished the moment he let her walk out the door.
A part of Jackie was happy being in Hyde's arms again, and another, larger part of her recognized that this was a different Steven than the one that she had fallen in love with years ago. His mustache tickled her, and she let out an uncontrollable giggle.
He broke the kiss and frowned down at her in mock indignation. "Killin' the mood here, princess."
She smiled slightly and leaned forward to rest her head in the crook of his neck. She found that she couldn't quite, and was a little surprised that her forehead bumped against his lips instead. He was shorter than Eric, she realized, and it was the oddest sensation — like they were two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that were supposed to fit but somehow didn't.
"Steven," she said gently, and pulled away from him. "We can't. You're with Sam now, she's having your baby."
He stiffened as her words sank in and reality crashed back around him.
"You owe it to this child of yours to actually try and make something work with his mom. I know you… And I don't think that you want any child of yours to have the childhood that you had."
Looking down, she scuffed the tip of her boot lightly against the ground. "Moms and Dads belong together, Steven," she said softly. "We're both living examples of what happens if they don't."
She glanced up at him and touched his arm. "I don't want you to add one more regret to the list that you already have regarding your life."
He took a moment to absorb what she said. "What if things between Sam and I don't work out?" he finally said.
She didn't know how to answer.
"I don't know, Steven," she said honestly. "So much has happened between us. Things change, people change… Who knows? You might actually fall in love with Sam." She chanced a small smile at him.
"But…" and Hyde hated himself for asking it. For sounding like that. "There's a chance? A… possibility?"
Jackie looked down at her hands in her lap and she was silent for a long time. Who knows? And who indeed did know? Who knew that she and Eric would have found each other like they did in Africa? Who knew if this thing that she was feeling for Eric would ever die? Who knew if Eric would ever decide that he wanted to come back to Point Place again? Who's to say that she and Steven Hyde will never get back together?
She looked up at him with a sideways glance. "Who knows?" she echoed her thoughts.
She let out a breath and spoke without looking at him. "I guess there's always a possibility, Steven."
He nodded stiffly. It wasn't much, but he would take what he could. For life without her was no life at all — he saw that now, and made a split decision to try his damnedest to win her back again.
She leaned against the trunk of the tree and looked around her. It was beautiful here. She remembered the last time she had been here — she had been depressed, in so much pain and crying over her broken heart. Then she had gone to Africa, and found that she had grown another heart. One that didn't beat solely for Steven Hyde.
This new one held a deep love for the richness of another land, the sincerity of its people, and wasn't confined by the boundaries of the expectations that the people she knew had of her. This new one was discovering that there was so much more to her, so much that she was capable of, and with every beat of it she felt alive.
"I've been looking all over for you," Donna said a she pushed open the door to Grooves. "I must say, this was the last place I expected you to be.
Hyde gave her a sour look. He picked up the box of records he was cataloging and brought them with him to the back room.
"What's up?" he asked her as she followed him in.
She looked bemused. "I can't believe you're actually working," she muttered. "I mean when Randy told me you gave him the day off, I was like, woah."
Hyde grunted in response.
She hopped on the table in the middle of the room and made herself comfortable. "So," she started, swinging her legs back and forth, "this thing with Sam."
Hyde pulled out an old Frank Sinatra album and tossed it in another box. He didn't appear to be very interested in the conversation.
Donna tried a different approach. "Uh. We were pretty worried when you tore out of the basement like that on Tuesday."
"Uh-huh."
"I mean, I get that this whole pregnancy thing must be really freaking you out and all."
Hyde stopped and turned around to look at her. "You think?" he asked her sarcastically.
She lifted a shoulder and ignored his tone. "Yeah. Sure I mean, you aren't even ready for a committed relationship and now you're gonna be a dad."
He turned around again and went back to his records, giving her his back.
"But you know. I get it. I just wanna say that we're friends and all. So if you wanna talk or anything. I'm here."
Hyde stopped and took a deep breath. "Look Donna. I 'preciate the thought and all, but leave off."
She sighed. "Hyde, you—"
"Look. Maybe you don't get it, but talk's just that — talk. And all the talkin' in the world's not gonna do a damn bit of good."
"Fine. But I'm just saying. If there's anything that I can do."
He shook his head impatiently. "No. I doubt it."
She blew out a weary breath. "Hyde. We just wanna help," she said gently.
He let out a cynical laugh. "Quit it, Donna. I mean it."
He hated being the object of anyone's pity or discussion. It was why out of the lot of them, Eric was his best friend; because unlike everyone else, he knew when to stop.
"I'm no stranger to shit. I'll deal."
"Fine," she said, and then repeated herself, "Fine."
She slid off the desk and pulled open the door. Sighing, she turned back to look at him.
"It's just. Hyde, we're all really worried about you. You're always drunk or high, and today's the first day you've actually been at the store for months. Months!" she exclaimed softly. "It's not just me, Mrs. Forman's really concerned about you, too."
He stood still at her words and closed his eyes behind his shades. He cared about what Kitty and Red thought about him and he would never forget that it was Eric who had been there for him when Edna left. Eric that had steered the way into him living in his parents' basement, and the day that Red and Kitty welcomed him into their house they had actually given him a chance for a life that he never thought that he would have.
He got that Eric had to leave for Africa and all, but times like that, he really wish that his friend were back so that he could rein his big blonde girl in.
He sighed. "Donna. Did you even stop to think why I'm back at the store in the first place?"
Donna paused and frowned. And then her brow cleared as understanding dawned. "Hyde! You're—"
"Yeah yeah. Whatever. Now go away so I can get back to work."
She left the room with a smile on her face. Hyde heard her pick her way through the store and the front door close in her wake. Yes, he was cleaning up his act, and going to the store for the first time in months was a start.
He knew that Jackie was right, and that even though he didn't love the mother of his unborn child, there was no way that he would ever deny the child of his love or try to give his child the best that he could.