Chapter 2.

Wisconsin airport.

Hyde tapped his foot impatiently as he waited by the baggage claim for the incoming New-York flight. It hadn't dawned on him until he arrived at the airport 10 minutes earlier that he had no idea what Jackie Burkhart as a 17-year-old even looked like, he barely remembered what she looked like as a 10-year-old.

Her flight had landed 20 minutes ago, and the baggage claim was crowded with people searching for their own luggage. He had chosen a spot near the door's where he could look out over everyone, figuring if he didn't spot her initially, she'd have to come this way to get outside anyway and then maybe she'd recognize him.

Although he wasn't putting all his eggs in that basket either.

His eyes scanned the crowd of people as he decided to limit his search to any girl with brown hair who looked around the age of 17. Time passed by and the crowd diminished, he'd been waiting for almost 25 minutes and was contemplating when would be acceptable to just call it a day and leave without her.

Mrs. Forman wouldn't be happy, but if this chick had any brains she'd be able to call herself a cab and get to the Forman's without him.

Just when he was ready to call it quits and head home Jackie-less, he spotted a small brunette in a sundress and wedged heels walking directly past him and out the door he had been standing next to. So far, she was the only person who had fit the bill, so he reacted quickly.

"Wait!" Hyde called out and followed after her, he picked up his pace so that he could get in front of the girl and once they were face-to-face he asked unsure. "Jackie?"

Now that he was up close, he could definitely see the resemblance to the girl he had remembered from all those years ago, but when she didn't respond instantly he worried that he'd just made a fool out of himself in front of this chick.

She was looking up at him, her mismatched eyes scanning over his face (one hazel the other green. A feature he didn't recall the younger Jackie Burkhart having). It was like she was trying to place him as well and it took her a moment before she finally spoke.

"Oh my God… Steven, right?" she flashed him a big smile.

It was the type of fake smile people reserved when they bumped into acquaintances on the street that they didn't really want to talk to but felt obliged too. Hyde normally hated those smiles, they were fake, and he always strived to be as real as possible. Normally those smiles ticked him off, but for some reason this one was having the opposite effect.

He was surprised that she remembered his name, they didn't have much to do with each other when she lived here with her family. Sure, she followed Kelso around like a bad smell, and sometimes her family would be over the Forman's on occasions when he was there, but most of the time they had spent ignoring the other one's existence.

Hyde was too scruffy and poor for Jackie's liking and Jackie had been to girly and shallow for Hyde's liking. Not to mention her parents had been filthy rich and in turn, had tried to avoid him and his family, at all costs.

"Yeah… Everyone calls me Hyde now."

He couldn't remember the last time someone (who wasn't Red or Mrs. Forman), had called him by his first name. It had sounded strange coming from her lips but what was even stranger was the fact that he didn't hate it like he should have.

He noticed that she looked different from the way he had imagined her to look. People had said that she was cute when she was a young girl, but he had never found anything particularly alluring about her back then.

But now that he was standing face to face with the 17-year-old version of Jackie Burkhart, he finally saw what everyone had been seeing and he couldn't argue that she'd grown up to be nothing less than beautiful. Not that he'd admit that to her or anyone else.

"Uh, okay," Jackie nodded slowly. "You look different, I almost didn't recognize you with the beard and those shades on," she pointed to his signature sunglasses and the new facial hair he had been trying out that summer.

Hyde subconsciously scratched at his thick beard. "It's been awhile… Last time I saw you, you had pigtails and freckles," the pigtails were gone, replaced with long bouncy waves that he imagined would feel pretty cool to run your fingers through and the freckles had either disappeared for good or were hidden by a layer of makeup.

Jackie laughed and as if she had read his mind, ran her fingers through her long brown hair. "I didn't even think you knew who I was back then," she admitted, and Hyde caught sight of what he thought looked like a blush, but whatever it had been, was gone a second later.

"Sure I did… You were that annoying girl who was always going on about Donny Osmond."

Jackie huffed. "Uh I'm sorry. Did you just call me annoying?" She questioned back with a feisty attitude as she placed both hands on her hip, frowning at him expectantly as if the simple change in her demeanor would get him to take back what he had just said.

It didn't matter how she looked at him, Hyde wasn't the type to take anything back or to apologize. She could keep shooting him that dirty look if she wanted to, but he wasn't the type to budge. The sooner she learnt that, the better.

"Yeah, you were," he smirked over at her, enjoying riling her up.

Jackie rolled her eyes at him. "Whatever…" She dropped it and turned her head to look around. "So, what are you doing here anyway? Are you going somewhere?" She wondered, motioning back to the airport then crossing her arms over her chest.

Oh right. She must have thought he was flying out somewhere.

Yeah, right. Like he'd ever get out of Point Place.

"Not exactly… I'm your ride man… Sort of living with the Forman's now and they had some shit to do," he explained quickly, hoping she wouldn't ask any more questions, he hated to talk about himself and didn't want to explain why he was living where he was living.

It would only end up in a story about how his parents abandoned him and then he'd be forced to listen to her similar story of misfortune. He didn't want her thinking that just because they both had shitty parents, meant she could come to him with all her abandonment issues.

"Oh," Jackie looked down. "They didn't even want to pick me up themselves," she mumbled as if hurt.

Hyde frowned, he didn't want her to get the wrong idea about the Formans. "Yeah well, they would have come, but Red had a heart attack and Mrs. Forman's been dealing with that… So you know picking you up from the airport kinda' landed on me."

Jackie quickly looked back up at Hyde. "Oh… I'm sorry I didn't know. That's horrible," she apologized quietly. "Is Mr. Forman alright?"

Hyde shrugged her off. "Don't sweat it… He'll be alright. He's coming home from the hospital today," he informed her right as a strange man walked towards them with a trolley full of luggage. Hyde watched as the man stopped behind Jackie and stood there as if waiting for her to notice him.

"Uh, hey Jackie… Who's this guy?" Hyde wondered, nodding his head towards the stranger behind her.

Jackie turned her head to look quickly before returning her gaze to Hyde. "Just some guy who offered to help me with my things," she shrugged, turning her attention to her nail beds.

Hyde looked back over at the awkward looking guy and frowned, he looked like a love-sick puppy dog as he waited for Jackie to acknowledge him. Hyde's gaze wandered to the trolley jam-packed with luggage that was so full it looked like the thing was about to buckle under the pressure and fall over.

"All that stuffs yours?" Hyde asked in disbelief, he knew she was coming to stay for the whole year, but this seemed ridiculous, especially to a boy who could pack all his belongings in a single green duffel bag.

"Yeah… It was so hard picking out what to take and what to leave behind," Jackie admitted with a sigh as she looked back at her things. Hyde tried to comprehend having even more stuff then what was packed up into those bags. Her family must have been loaded.

"Thanks for your help… You can go now," she finally acknowledged the poor guy who had been suckered into pushing her luggage around for her.

"Are you sure you don't need help getting them to your car?" He questioned as he eyed over Hyde with a jealous expression. Hyde couldn't help but snicker back under his gaze, was this guy serious?

"We'll be fine," Jackie responded with a bored tone.

"Okay… Can I get your number?"

Jackie let out an exasperated sigh. "Sorry but I don't even know my number yet," she admitted and finally, he took the hint, leaving Hyde and Jackie alone.

"Man… You should have just let him haul your shit to the car," Hyde pointed out as he watched the deflated man retreat into the airport. Normally, he wasn't into chicks using their looks to manipulate others but, in this case, he could get behind her calculating ways if it meant he didn't have to help lug her shit back to the Camino.

"Oh yeah," Jackie shrugged. "That's okay. I'm sure you can handle it," she flashed him a smile that Hyde was sure she probably used on every man to get exactly what she wanted but he wasn't just any other guy and he refused to allow her to get her way so easily.

He wasn't like those pathetic guys who would do what she wanted just because she smiled at him.

Hyde turned to the trolley and grabbed two bags that looked like they were about to fall off anyway. "How bout' you carry these, and I'll push the trolley," he dropped the bags in front of her and Jackie looked over at him with a shocked expression.

But before she could complain, he was already walking off with the trolley towards where the Camino was parked. "Come on, cars parked this way," he yelled back to her and chuckled as the sounds of her struggling with the bags reached his ear.

Hyde got to the El Camino first, even though he was the one lugging most of Jackie's shit. He was loading the back of the car up with her bags when Jackie finally approached him. She was struggling with the two bags he had left her with, one she had thrown across her back and the other she was dragging along the ground as if she didn't have the strength to lift it.

"You know. A gentleman would have carried all the bags for me," Jackie pointed out with a glare as Hyde turned to her to grab the two bags off her.

"Well, guess I'm no gentleman," he shrugged as he threw her stuff carelessly into the back of the Camino. Jackie's mouth opened in shock at his mistreatment of her things, but before she had the opportunity to berate him, he turned to get into the car.

Jackie entered the passenger side a moment later with a huff and Hyde wasted no time starting the car up. The engine purred as he pulled out from the parking space. They sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes before he noticed her shift in her seat, turning to face him.

"This is a nice car," she admitted quietly a moment later. "Is it yours?"

Hyde eyed her curiously before turning his attention back to the road. "I didn't steal it, if that's what you're getting at."

He figured she was just making pointless chit-chat about his car to fill the awkward silence. But if there was one thing Hyde hated more then awkward silences, it was pointless chit-chat.

"I wasn't saying that… It's just this is a really expensive car and I-"

"Hey Jackie, how's about we don't talk?" Hyde cut her off and reached out to flick the radio on, he turned the volume up loud hoping that she would get the hint. He wasn't into chatting all the way home, wasn't really the kind of guy who conversed just to fill the silence, but he had a feeling this chick never stopped talking, too into the sound of her own voice probably.

And just to prove his point, Jackie leaned forward to turn the radio volume down low.

"I wasn't trying to offend you or anything. I'm sure you didn't steal it, or at-least I'm 80% sure you didn't steal it because, well I don't really know you that well… But anyway, I only brought it up cause' I like cars, they're kind of a hobby of mine," she shrugged, and Hyde scoffed.

Sure, all chicks liked cars. They liked guys with cars so that they could drive them around places and make-out in the backseat.

Hyde could feel Jackie glaring over at him. "And I don't mean that in a superficial way… I actually am really interested in them, my dad and I used to work on his Lincoln together… You know, before everything happened. It was our thing," her voice dropped so low he almost didn't catch the last bit.

He turned his head quickly to look at her, she was looking down sadly at her lap, her fingers fiddling together as if she were nervous.

He thought about how it must be hard for her, losing her old man like that. Sure, his old man had gone to jail when he was a kid too, but him and Bud had never been that close, never had a hobby that they used to do together, unless you counted watching TV.

"I'm going to miss it," she added, her voice shaky.

Ah crap, don't cry, don't cry.

Hyde couldn't stand when chicks cried around him.

Quickly, he said the first thing that came to his mind to cheer her up before she started the water works. "Hey man… I wouldn't worry, your dads rich, right? Rich people don't stay in prison for long."

Jackie looked over at him with a blank expression that he couldn't read. He wasn't sure if she was buying what he was selling, but for a while his words seemed to work in getting her to shut up and they went almost a full 15 minutes of blissful silence.

Which was just the way Hyde liked things.

Although, Jackie seemed to be the opposite to him in every way, he could tell she was dying to say something. She kept turning her head to look at him every other second and was practically buzzing in her seat.

A few minutes later and he wasn't sure if he could take it anymore. "What, man?" He finally caved and snapped at her.

"Nothing," she shot back and turned to look out the window.

Hyde rolled his eyes.

Three… Two… One

"How come you're living with the Formans?" She finally asked, and Hyde groaned, there was no way he was having this conversation with her. "You said before you lived with them now…"

"Ever heard the phrase, mind your own business?" He shot back at her as he turned the Camino onto the Point Place exit from the highway and thanked the Lord that they were only 10 minutes away from the Forman's place. He couldn't wait to paw her off to Mrs. Forman.

"Did your parents abandon you too?" She completely ignored him, jumping to a conclusion that annoyingly enough, was spot on.

"Jackie… Anyone ever tell you to shut your pie hole back in New York?"

"… No"

"Shut your pie hole!"

Jackie huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "I can't believe my life has come to this… Moving back to Point Place, starting at a brand-new school my senior year where I know no-one and living in a house with random people I hardly remember… Not to mention sharing a living space with you," she turned her nose up at him.

Hyde's jaw clenched, and his fists tightened around the steering wheel. "The Formans are good people man… You're lucky they even took you in. If it weren't for them you'd be a high school drop-out living on the streets and by the way I ain't so thrilled about having to live with you either."

There was a brief pause until Hyde heard Jackie sniffling from beside him. He sighed, damn it. He couldn't show up to the Forman's with a crying Jackie, he'd get the blame from Mrs. Forman and Red was liable to kick his ass.

Plus, he just really didn't want to deal with a crying Jackie. He needed to do some damage control to make sure that wouldn't happen.

"You hungry?"

Food was the first thing that came to mind, a good meal always put him in a better mood. Why not Jackie too?

Hyde turned his head quickly to catch her reaction, they were about to pass the turn for Fatso Burger. Jackie was wiping at her eyes; no tears had fallen yet which was a good sign.

"I don't have any money," she admitted quietly as if embarrassed. He figured her parents would have left her with something but maybe the Burkhart's were worse off then he'd thought.

Hyde wasn't normally the type to pay for others, he worked hard for the money he got and besides giving money to the Forman's for board and food, he didn't make a habit of spending his earnings on others. But he was willing to spend some cash if it meant avoiding bringing a crying Jackie home to the Forman's.

"It's cool… Ill buy."

"Okay," Jackie agreed as Hyde took the turn to Fatso Burger.

5 minutes later and Jackie was digging into a burger and fries as Hyde steered the Camino out of the Fatso Burger drive-through.

He watched her in his peripheral vision as she chowed down on her burger, she was eating so quickly it was as if she hadn't had a meal in days.

"You know… You might want to chew that. Got this rule about people choking to death in the Camino."

Jackie glared over at him, a look he had a feeling he would get used to rather quickly. "Shut up," she told him lamely after swallowing down the food in her mouth.

"I'm just hungry…"

"Yeah… I remember that feeling man."

Hyde recalled the countless times that he had to go without food back when Edna had run out on his ass, before the Formans had taken him in and he was living on his own. Crackers and ketchup weren't as sustainable as he'd imagined them to be, and they ran out quickly, leaving him with nothing.

Was hard to imagine this chick dealing with those same issues. But she'd been abandoned just like he had, dealt with the same shit he dealt with… maybe he'd judged her too quickly.

Jackie blinked over at him, chewing on another bite of her cheeseburger.

"Thank you… For the food," she said a moment later before holding out her fries to him. "Want to share?" She asked and surprised him, he hadn't expected the word 'share' or even 'thank-you' to be in this chick's vocabulary.

Hyde hadn't bought himself any food, he'd eaten before he had left to pick her up from the airport and he wasn't exactly hungry in the moment. But this seemed more significant then just an offering of fries.

Both knew what it felt like, not knowing where your next meal was coming from and they both knew the pain of having your parents abandon you. That wasn't something he could say about anyone else in his life.

So, he grabbed a handful of the offered fries and popped them into his mouth.

Accepting her peace offering.

They rode the rest of the way in silence and reached the Forman's a few minutes later.

Jackie bit her lip nervously as Hyde parked the Camino in front of the house that she was now supposed to call her home. She knew she had been here before when she was a kid, but she barely recognized the house now.

She looked out the window over at the small, modest two-story home as Steven dealt with the empty burger wrapper and fries' box that she had left on the bench seat next to her. He was stuffing the rubbish back into the Fatso burger takeout bag and buying Jackie a little more time before she had to step out of the car and officially enter her new life.

She was worried that the Formans would hate her. Sure, she normally got along with adults and parents usually loved her. But that was in passing moments, would it be different when she was living in their house? Some had found her personality a little… annoying. Or so she had been told.

And if they didn't like her, where would she go? No, she had to fit in here. This was her last option and she needed to make it work.

She took a deep breath in and prepared herself for the start of her new life.

Hi there!

I just wanted to thank everyone who Reviewed/Fav/Followed this story so far, I'm so happy you guys enjoyed the first chapter and that people are interested in the concept I came up with. Hopefully you all enjoyed the second chapter as well because I had so much fun writing it. Hyde and Jackie don't really know each other in this fic so it's been really interesting building their relationship without certain events/relationships getting in the way.

Also, I've decided that i'm going to try upload the same time each week, so you guys will know when to expect the next chapter ;)

As always please hit the fav/follow button if you enjoyed this chapter and let me know what you liked/didn't like in the review section.

xoxo