A/N: aaaahhhhh! i cant believe we've reached this point! The stress level of this one is high, but I love it XD


Today's the day. After months and months of learning to get along with each other and speedrunning the "how to be parents" obstacle course, Jackie and Hyde might be told that none of that matters anymore. They might be told that despite their best efforts, Betsy will be taken away from them, wrecking the family they've built and destroying their entire worlds.

Tensions are high, to say the least. Jackie and Hyde are justifiably scared, but they're trying to keep their emotions contained and remain calm to the best of their abilities. They can't fully explain the situation to Betsy, so they simply tell her grandmother is coming over and instruct her to be on her best behavior.

Carolyn said that since they've reached the end of the four weeks she initially gave them she's coming over to have dinner with them and inform them of her decision. Eric, Donna, and Fez come over to help get things ready just as they had offered. They clean the apartment until it nearly shines, scrubbing the floors and dusting the shelves like Cinderella herself. They help prepare the food, season the roast to put in the oven and pick out the finest wine. They even aid in picking out nice outfits for the trio to wear as if that will impress Carolyn into letting them stay together.

"Okay, so Betsy's been bathed and dressed, the roast is in the oven, and the table is set. Am I missing anything?" Jackie asks anxiously. "Tell me, am I?!"

"No," Eric answers with a sigh, annoyed that she's asked that exact same question for the third time.

"Wait! Flowers! Did you put the flowers on the table?" Jackie desperately questions as if their lives depend on it.

"Yes," Hyde rolls his eyes while holding Betsy. "I don't know why we even need flowers, man. We're not trying to make Carolyn fall in love with us- or at least I'm not."

"Steven, please," Jackie chides as she goes over to straighten the bow in Betsy's hair and adjust the collar of Hyde's button-down shirt. "Tonight has to be perfect, okay? We won't get another chance."

"Yeah, okay," he agrees, unfortunately knowing just how right she is. Tonight does have to be perfect. They figure it's their last chance to impress Carolyn and convince her to let them keep Betsy. They don't know if she's already made up her mind, but if she has then tonight will either change her mind or confirm her decision. So yes, Jackie has every right to feel as much pressure as she does right now.

"Don't worry," Donna reassures them the best she can, "I'm sure you're gonna win Carolyn over. You two have been doing a great job."

"Yes, you only lost her once," Fez smiles innocently.

"Hey, we didn't lose her. Eric did. Which reminds me," Hyde says before punching Eric in the arm.

"Ow! Hey, you were the one who thought it was a good idea to let me take her to the Piggly Wiggly," Eric whines, rubbing his now-sore arm. He then looks over at Fez to glare at him. "And you were there, too, man. Why do you keep throwing everyone else under the bus?"

"Okay, guys! Focus!" Jackie protests. "We need to make sure we're ready for Carolyn and then you guys need to leave before she gets here. We can't let ourselves get distracted."

"Jackie, relax," Donna says, laying a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. "The apartment's cleaned up, dinner's in the oven, and you three are all dressed nice. I think you're ready."

"What do you think, Betsy? Are we ready?" Hyde asks the toddler.

Betsy claps her hands. "Ready!" She cheers, not understanding what exactly they're supposed to be ready for in the first place.

"Alright!" Hyde says with a grin before turning to Jackie. "We're ready." He then sets Betsy down and she runs off out of sight, eager to find something more interesting than a group of anxiety-ridden adults.

"Just remember to stay cool and be yourselves," Donna suggests.

"Well," Eric protests with a laugh, "not exactly yourselves. I think you should try to be a more polite and responsible version of yourselves."

Fez laughs along with him, grateful for some humor.

Donna hits her boyfriend in the same arm Hyde did just a minute ago. "No, Eric. They're fine."

Hyde nods with more confidence than he's actually feeling. "Sure we are."

A loud crash comes from the kitchen just then, making the gang jump. They all run towards the noise to find Betsy standing near a shattered bottle of red wine, glass everywhere. The red liquid is not only all over the floor and counters, but also on the toddler's yellow dress and in her hair.

"Oh, my God," Jackie says. This cannot be happening, not now.

Betsy starts to cry, more startled than anything.

Hyde, wearing his boots, quickly crosses through the mess to pick her up. "Are you hurt, Bets?" he asks, concerned. She continues to cry but shakes her head in response. Still, he looks her over for any cuts.

Meanwhile, everyone else just stares at the mess, unsure of how to proceed. They hadn't counted on something like this happening.

"Okay," Donna says, trying to remain calm and take charge. This is not the time to panic, they just need to keep their heads and get a move on. "I'll start picking up the glass. Eric, Fez, you go find something to clean up the wine."

Close to tears, Jackie manages to nod with resolve before turning to Hyde. She has to stay strong, despite the hurricane of negative emotions that's been whirling around her mind for the greater amount of the past week. "Steven, bring her over to the sink. We need to wash the wine out of her hair."

With that, everyone rushes into action, trying not to crash into each other as they run around chaotically. While Jackie and Hyde try to wash out Betsy's hair, Donna finishes picking up the big pieces of glass. She then scrambles to find the broom and dustpan to sweep up as many of the pieces that aren't currently sitting in a puddle of wine as quickly as possible. Eric and Fez return to the kitchen with armfuls of bedsheets and begin to sop up the mess.

Jackie whines at the sight of her light-colored sheets being permanently stained right before her eyes. She can't do anything about it now.

"Really, you two? Bedsheets?" Donna asks, frustrated.

"We couldn't find the towels!" Eric yells.

"Yes, please do not get mad at us. We were desperate," Fez pleads.

"GUYS! Please!" Jackie yells. They need to get this cleaned up already, no time for arguing.

"Yeah, whatever," Donna says to the boys, "Just-"

She's interrupted by a knock at the door. Everyone freezes, eyes gone wide.

"Oh, my God," Jackie whispers in horror.

"Ai no. She is here," Fez cries in dismay.

"What? No, she's not supposed to be here yet," Hyde says, looking at the clock above the oven. It reads 6:45 P.M.

"Well, obviously she's early, Steven," Jackie snaps, unable to contain her anxiety.

Another knock at the door is heard.

"You guys gotta get outta here," Hyde says to Eric, Donna, and Fez.

"How? We can't go out the door now!" Eric points out, voice panicked. This is not good; the situation has quickly gone from fairly stressful to VERY stressful, and those are exactly the kinds of situations he does not do well in.

"Just- go hide in the bedroom," he orders, unable to think of a better idea at the moment. They don't have many- if any- other options. Their backs are against the wall at this point. "But stay quiet! And take the sheets," he adds.

Eric and Fez hurriedly scoop up the soiled sheets while Donna dumps up whatever glass she had swept up into the trash. They then all run into the bedroom, shutting the door behind them.

"Steven, her dress," Jackie wails, looking at the red stains across Betsy's yellow dress.

"It's too late now, we can't do anything about it," Hyde says, running to get the door. Having walked through the puddle of wine to reach Betsy, his boots leave a couple of wet red footprints on the carpet. Jackie groans at the sight, wondering how things are continuing to get worse.

Hyde opens the door just as Carolyn is raising her hand to knock for the third time.

"Hi, Mrs. Rockwell," he greets with a forced grin.

"I was beginning to think you weren't going to answer," she sniffs in annoyance, stepping inside. She eyes the trail of footprints leading up to Hyde, raising an eyebrow but refraining from comment.

"Yeah, sorry about that. We were...busy," he finishes lamely. What else is he supposed to say?

"Uh-huh. Well, where are your girlfriend and my granddaughter?" she asks.

"Here we are, Mrs. Rockwell!" Jackie says, walking into the room with Betsy in her arms looking frazzled but wearing a smile nonetheless.

Carolyn takes in the sight of Betsy. She's stopped crying but her eyes are still teary and her cheeks are blotchy. And, of course, her dress is stained.

"Was she crying? What happened?" Carolyn demands to know.

"Oh! Uh, there was just a small incident-"

"What kind of incident?"

"Betsy just knocked over a bottle of wine-"

"Was she hurt?!"

"No, she was just scared is all," Hyde reassures Carolyn. She doesn't look convinced.

"Really, she's fine," Jackie jumps in. "Right, Betsy?"

The toddler manages to give a smile. "Yeah."

"See? Nothing to worry about," Jackie laughs nervously. "Anyway, why don't we all sit down in the living room and talk for a bit?" She leads them over to the couch where she waits for Carolyn to seat herself before sitting down next to her, setting Betsy down. Hyde sits on the nearby chair.

Carolyn crosses her legs, keeping her back stiff. "So how did this final week go?" she asks and Hyde can't help but wonder if she used the word 'final' in reference to the four weeks or to him and Jackie raising Betsy together.

"Fine! It went just fine. In fact, it was better than fine," Jackie answers over eagerly. "Right, Steven?"

"Yeah, it was great actually," he agrees more casually.

"Well that's good to hear," Carolyn says. "I hope Betsy feels the same way."

Bitch, Hyde thinks.

"Of course she does," he says, unable to resist matching her energy. "Betsy enjoys living with us."

"Right. Of course," Carolyn replies, holding Hyde's challenging stare. She breaks it only to redirect her withering gaze on Jackie. "And how has the modeling been going? Have you decided to stick with it?"

Jackie's eyes briefly flicker to Hyde before returning to the blond woman. "Well, I was never considering not sticking with it. So, I mean, yes."

"Oh! Of course, I just thought that maybe you were considering taking a break or something," she explains. "I know how stressful and time-consuming raising a young child is, let alone on top of being employed."

Hyde narrows his eyes at the woman's demeaning tone. "Jackie's pretty tough and she knows what she's doing. She can handle it."

Carolyn ignores him, keeping her focus on Jackie. "You really think you can still keep up with regular household responsibilities like laundry and cleaning?" she presses.

Jackie shrugs, trying to hide her annoyance at being interrogated like this. "I don't see why not," she answers. Of course, her dream is to be financially stable enough to hire someone else to do those icky things, but she knows she can do them if she needs to, after all, she has been so far.

"What about cooking?" she asks.

"Actually Mrs. Rockwell, I usually do the cooking," Hyde jumps in. "It's safer that way, trust me," he adds under his breath.

Jackie laughs with gritted teeth. "He's just joking. I'm not too bad at cooking myself," she lies, shooting Hyde a warning look as he tries not to laugh.

"Oh, really? Then what's that I smell burning?" Carolyn asks, raising an eyebrow.

"What-" Jackie starts to say before her eyes suddenly widen, "Oh, my God!" She immediately jumps up and takes off to the kitchen, Hyde close on her heels. A cloud of black smoke is released from the oven when she opens the door, drifting up into the open air. Frantic, Jackie barely remembers to put on some oven mitts before she pulls out the remains of dinner. The roast is burnt to a crisp. "Oh no!" Jackie wails at the depressing sight.

"Well, there goes dinner," Hyde says with a sigh.

"I'll say," Carolyn comments as she joins them in the kitchen, taking in the scene.

Jackie blinks back tears and turns to her. "I'm really sorry, Mrs. Rockwell. We'll find something else to whip up for dinner, I promise!"

"Don't bother. We might as well order a pizza at this point," she mutters, and Hyde thinks she makes it sound like pizza is a trashy dinner for the lower class or something.

Before either Jackie or Hyde can respond, the awkward moment is interrupted by another awkward moment. Betsy walks into the kitchen in nothing but her underwear. Jackie looks horrified.

"Betsy!" Hyde yells. "What the hell, why'd you take your dress off?"

"I don't like it no more," the toddler simply says, "it was dirty."

"Well I don't blame you one bit, dear," Carolyn says comfortingly to the child. "Let's go get you some clean clothes," she suggests, taking Betsy's hand and striding across the apartment to the bedrooms.

Jackie and Hyde are barely processing what just happened before they realize what's about to happen. They start to run after Carolyn and Betsy.

"No, wait!" Hyde yells as Carolyn reaches for the doorknob to Betsy's room. It's too late, however, and Eric, Donna, and Fez come tumbling out along with an armful of wine-stained bedsheets. They get up, looking sheepishly at Carolyn and then at Jackie and Hyde, not knowing what to do or say.

"Um, hello," Fez smiles awkwardly.

"What on EARTH is going on here?!" Carolyn shouts, appalled and taken aback by the chaotic chain of events that just unfolded in the last five minutes.

Unable to hold back her emotions towards the unfortunate and overwhelming turn of events any longer, Jackie bursts into tears. The perfect dinner to convince Carolyn that she and Hyde deserve to raise Betsy has completely unraveled into a disaster, and now they're going to lose Betsy. This was it. They wouldn't get another chance.