A/N: Really just a filler chapter that I'm over holding on to! Hope you enjoy x

One Week Later

"Go faster," Jackie growled through gritted teeth. "God gave you five fingers on each hand for a reason, Steven, so use them."

Hyde stopped what he was doing and turned to Jackie. "Why don't you do it then, Jackie? And by the way, I don't think God gave me these fingers so I could be doin' this crap at 18...my fingers are more suited to other things - like rollin'-"

"How are you two getting on over here?" The soon-to-be-parents looked up from the table and smiled at Jane, their parenting class co-ordinator. She smiled back at them before looking down at the plastic doll half done up in a cloth diaper. She frowned. "Do you need some help?" Jane offered.

Jackie pulled the doll in front of her and began undoing Hyde's work. "No, no, we're fine," she assured the older lady. "Steven was just trying to do things his way. You know men, always think they know better."

Behind the safety of his aviators, Hyde rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to tell Jackie she was full of crap. She'd been testing his patience lately; firstly by using his precious car for reasons other than going to the mall, and secondly, by whining all through their parenting class. Her need to be in control of everything - even things she knew nothing about, like changing a newborn - puzzled him and he didn't understand why she just couldn't go with flow.

Jane looked at Hyde. "The way I showed you is tried and tested and I assure you it's the best way if you don't want any accidents."

"My bad," Hyde said, raising an eyebrow at a blushing Jackie. "I'll stick with your way in the future, you being the expert n all."

When Jane moved on to the next couple Hyde pulled the doll back in front of him. "Damn, Jackie. I told you to listen to what she said." He folded part of the cloth diaper into a triangle, and the rest into extra padding in the middle like Jane had shown the class, then set the baby down onto it. "This way makes sense."

"But I can't push the pin through the fabric, it's too thick," Jackie moaned, watching Hyde's actions intently. "There's gotta be an easier way."

"This is the easier way. Your way didn't work. You'll just have to keep practising."

"Or you could just change every diaper," Jackie told him. "I could live with that."

"Yeah, like that's gonna happen." Hyde busied himself with the diaper and the doll while Jackie did what she always did in these classes, watched everyone else. "You could help y'know," Hyde said, the diaper pin between his teeth.

But Jackie instead of helping, Jackie simply elbowed him in the ribs. "Just hurry up, Steven. Those old people over there are nearly done!" she whispered loudly in his ear.

Hyde glared at her. "So?"

"So, I wanna win. We have to win. Hurry up!"

"This isn't a competition, Jackie. There's no prize for who can put the diaper on the plastic baby the quickest," Hyde said, casually taking the pin from his teeth and moving to poke it through the thick wad of cloth between his thumb and fingers.

Jackie raised her eyebrows and tapped her foot on the floor. "Everything in life is a competition, Steven." She eyed the couple next to them with disdain, watching as they successfully dressed their pretend baby and grinned goofily at each other. "God, they think they're so much better than us and look at their baby, Steven, it's ugly. Ours is so much cuter with it's pink lips and dimples -" she swatted him on the shoulder and pointed to the baby at the next table, "- See? Their baby doesn't have dimples. Ours does. Ours is so much cuter. What have they got to be smiling about?"

"Ah, hate to break it to you, Jackie, but this isn't actually our baby, it's a plastic one. See?" He slipped the doll's arm into a onesie before moving it right around in a 360 motion. "Pretty sure our kid's arm won't be able to do that."

Jackie rolled her eyes then went back to watching the other couple. "It's still cuter than their one. Ugh, why does she have to be so happy all the time? Always flicking her shiny hair...flashing her diamond rings...flaunting her designer clothes...makes me want to throw up."

Hyde ignored Jackie's observations and clumsily buttoned up the small cardigan he'd managed to get on the baby. He hated these classes, and not for the reasons he thought he would. Learning about taking care of a newborn had been pretty cool, much to his surprise, but hearing Jackie bang on for two hours every week about all the other parents-to-be had been downright annoying. He'd figured a while ago that her jealousy stemmed from her own insecurities - why else would she have pulled that stunt with Kat last week? But he had yet to figure out why she was so insecure. She knew he was into her and she had to know she would be a good mom, therefore she needed to stop acting like a crazy person.

He wrapped the baby in a blanket and handed it to Jackie. "Well try not to throw up on your cute baby, 'kay?"

...

An hour later Jackie was still moaning about old people who thought they were better than her and Hyde was still ignoring her, his mind now focused on the mashed potatoes Kitty was heaping onto his plate.

"And how was your last parenting class?" Kitty asked, making sure to give him a little extra knowing how much he loved her potatoes.

Hyde took his plate and went to join Red and Eric at the kitchen table. "It was good," he said.

"Except we didn't win." Jackie was sitting next to Red, pouting like a child. Hyde rolled his eyes and dug into his food.

"Win what?" Kitty asked. "Were there games in your class? How lovely!"

"No, Mrs. Forman," Hyde said. "There were no games at the class, or prizes...they were just in Jackie's head."

Eric winked at Hyde. "Hanging out in there with the unicorns I bet."

Jackie narrowed her eyes at Eric. "Bite me, Eric," she scowled.

"Um, no thanks."

Red clanked his fork on his plate. "No one's biting anyone. Can't we just have one meal in peace?"

"Not so long as Hyde's girlfriend keeps joining us," Eric said under his breath.

"She's not my girlfriend!"

"I'm not his girlfriend!"

Eric stabbed his meat with his fork and in a sing-song voice said, "Not what the whole school is saying..."

"And since when did those dorks know anything, Forman?" Hyde said gruffly, fully aware of the rumours that had been swirling around the school since Jackie had gone to Kat's house. He didn't really mind what was being said, and he kinda enjoyed Jackie groping him every lunchtime, but he just didn't get why she'd start a rumour like that yet still refuse to officially be his girlfriend. Ugh, he was becoming Forman, thinking about girlfriends and crap like that. He needed a circle, now. He looked at Eric. "If they told you Kelso was gonna be an astronaut would you believe 'em?"

"They've sent a monkey into space, why not Kelso?" Eric shrugged.

"Because a monkey has a damn sight more brain cells than Kelso, that's why not." Red looked over at his son and smiled. "Now I'll tell you someone that they should send into space, and that's you, Eric."

Eric put his hand to his heart. "Dad, are you saying I'm smarter than Kelso? That's, like, the nicest thing you've ever said to me..."

Red frowned. "No, I'm saying that you need to move out and get as far away from this house as possible. Space just happens to be far, far away."

"I'm fine with that," Eric shrugged. "But I'll need a little time. Han Solo didn't learn how to fly the Millennium Falcon overnight."

"Oh -" Red dropped his fork, "- I didn't say anything about you flying the spaceship, you'll just be on it hitching a free ride...much like you do here."

Kitty laughed and dabbed the corner of her mouth with a napkin. "Now, now, boys, I think we're getting off track here. We were talking about Steven and Jackie's parenting class-"

"And now we're planning Eric's future for him." Red grinned. "Because he's clearly incapable of sorting it for himself."

"Dad, come on, I'm still 17-"

"Only for a couple more months," Red reminded his son.

Eric looked up, shocked. "You know when my birthday is?"

Red grinned again. "I know when you're eighteenth birthday is, I've been waiting for it nearly 18 years now."

"Anyway," Kitty turned to Jackie. "What exactly didn't you win at class tonight, dear?"

Jackie chewed her mouthful and put her fork down. "Everyone beat us at dressing their babies," she started.

"Us, Jackie?" Hyde said turning to her. "From what I remember I was the only one dressing our baby. You were too busy gawking at everyone else."

"I was keeping an eye on the competition, Steven!"

"But they weren't our competition, Jackie. They were people learning how to look after a baby, just like us."

Jackie narrowed her eyes but Hyde could still see the tears welling up in them. For the life of him he didn't know why they were having this argument right now. It was ridiculous; just like Jackie at the damn class.

"They all thought they were better than us," Jackie argued. "Didn't you see how they'd stare at us when we walked in?"

"No. Because I wasn't looking at them to notice," Hyde told her. "You, on the other hand, spent the whole time watching other people instead of learning how to wrap a damn baby. We don't have money for a nanny, Jackie. Lookin' after this kid is all on you, man."

All of a sudden Jackie's seat flew back and she was on her feet. Hyde's stomach twisted in guilt as all eyes were on him.

"Oh, you'll never understand! You...you...pig!" Jackie cried, throwing her napkin at his face before flying off into the lounge.

Red was the first one to break the silence. Turning to Hyde he said, "Nice one, idiot."

Hyde shook his head, watching the door as it swung back and forth. "I dunno what's up with her, man. She's doing my head in, always worrying what other people think. Who freakin' cares?"

"Jackie cares." Kitty placed a hand on Hyde's forearm, her forehead creased in concern for the young parents to be. "Her parents are gone, she's still in high school, and she's having a baby, honey. Her life is all over the place, and we haven't even begun talking about the pregnancy hormones-"

Eric raised his hand. "Ah, and I'd prefer it if we didn't while I'm in the room," he stated before returning to his dinner.

Hyde sighed, dropping his fork on his plate, lamenting the loss of his carefree days as the local burnout. All this chick stuff just wasn't him. He had a few weeks left to work out how to be a father and was yet to figure out how to be a supportive kind-of-boyfriend...not to mention the little matter of upcoming SATs. Oh how one summer fling can change your life...

"Yeah, I get all that, Mrs. Forman-" he started.

"But do you really, Steven?" Kitty's gaze was locked on him, trapping him in this conversation whether he liked it or not. "Do you know what it's like to go from perfect little rich girl to the talk of the town - and not for good reasons, I might add. Jackie doesn't have a mom there to give her a cuddle when she's feeling down, and she doesn't have a father around to tell her that despite her being pregnant she's still his princess. Instead she thinks people are frowning on her for being a teenage unmarried mother. That's got to be hard on the girl."

Hyde drew in a deep breath. "So you're saying I gotta marry her?" he asked. "Coz I did mention that pretty early on n she said no."

Eric's eyes grew wide and his mouth fell open. "You what?" he said in disgust. "You asked the devil to marry you? What were you thinking?"

Hyde glared at Eric in annoyance. "No. I didn't ask her. I mentioned it. Like, as in, is that something she expected us to do, Forman."

Kitty moved her chair around, so that her back was to Eric, and concentrated on Hyde. "Ignore Eric," she said, before an audible mumble of protest came from Eric. "Now, I'm not saying you need to propose to Jackie. What I'm saying is you need to see things from her perspective-"

"In all fairness, Mrs. Forman," Hyde interrupted, "I think I've been doing that. I looked out for her when her old man got locked up n her mom took off. I take her to all her doctor's crap. I let her use my car..." He left out the bit where he satisfied her dirty urges, deciding the Forman's didn't need to hear about those trysts, but he couldn't stop his lips curling up at the thought of them. "See, I'm a pretty supportive guy."

Red scoffed. "No matter how supportive you think you are, son, you'll never be supportive enough. You may do everything they ask you to do but if you haven't done the things they didn't ask you to do then you've failed. It's all about mind reading with women. I suggest you get good at it."

Hyde was puzzled. What she didn't ask me to do? What the hell was that? He shook his head. "I don't get it?"

"What they're saying, my friend -" Eric leaned into the table and folded his arms across his chest, "- is that your bitchy girlfriend feels like crap right now 'cause her deadbeat parents are gone and aren't there to fill her head with tales about how special she is, hence feeding her inflated ego. At the parenting class she felt like she was being judged and you were supposed to feed that inflated ego by telling her how she is so much better than those married, successful, and probably more stable, couples. Not only did you fail to do that, but you then pretty much told her that she's gonna be a crap mom in front of all of us. So, yeah, good going, Hyde."

Now Red was puzzled. "Holy hell," he said in disbelief, staring at his son. "You don't know the cold tap from the hot, but you got all that? Well I never..."

Eric shrugged. "What can I say, I get women."

"And I clearly don't," Hyde sighed.

...

Later that night Hyde found himself face to face with an angry looking Mexican woman who, he noticed, had a rolled up newspaper clutched tightly in her left hand. His hands were clenched too, but not because he was readying himself to take the woman on in some kind of warped duel, but because he had been standing on the Burkhart's doorstep for ten minutes in the freezing cold. Damn it to hell that he couldn't stop being so cool and just wear gloves.

"Please, Rosa," he said again through the glass panel in the door. "Just let me say sorry."

Rosa waved the newspaper at him. "No!" she growled for the 500th time. "You'll just upset her again! It take me an hour to settle her down n I don't want you upsetting her again!"

Hyde's forehead fell on the door. He knew Rosa was probably right, he probably would upset Jackie again, but not intentionally because he still didn't really understand how he'd upset her in the first place. On his way over he'd just decided that chicks were weird, especially pregnant chicks, and there was no way of knowing when you were gonna set them off. So he just had to tread carefully and hope she wouldn't break. Perhaps they could just make out instead of talk from now on? He couldn't say the wrong thing if his mouth was busy doing other things...

But that idea was short lived when Rosa banged her newspaper on the glass.

He lifted his head. "Rosa please? Just give me ten minutes...Swear to god if I upset her I'll never turn up without an invite again."

Rosa narrowed her eyes before slowly turning the latch on the door. She eyed him suspiciously as he stepped inside, his wet boots squeaking on the wooden floor.

"Get them off," Rosa ordered before Hyde could remove the offending footwear. "But everything else stay on! No hanky panky in this house, boy" she reminded him.

"No hanky panky, I swear," Hyde said, grinning at the words as he bent down to place his boots next to the other ones by the door.

Rosa continued to stand by the door holding her damn newspaper and Hyde was beginning to find the small woman more intimidating than Jack Burkhart.

"Not that Miss. Jackie would want hanky panky with boy who made her cry," Rosa said frowning. "I should beat you with my paper for telling poor girl she be a no good mama! Miss. Jackie will be wonderful with baby. You, on the other hand, I not so sure about..."

Hyde opened his mouth ready to protest, before realising anything he said would be in vain. Rosa was protecting Jackie, acting in her best interest, and he should be thanking her for it even if it meant he looked like an asshole.

"You're right," he said, nodding. "Jackie will be a great mom, which is what I'm gonna tell her. So, can I go up?" He gestured with his thumb to the stairs and Rosa slowly nodded. "Thanks, Rosa," he said, scuttling up the stairs two at a time.

When he opened Jackie's door he found her lying on her bed wearing blue flannelette pajamas, holding a half-empty box of chocolates. She quickly sat up when she saw him and threw the box to the ground.

"Steven! What are you doing here?"

Hyde was still walking into the room, his mind replaying the 'I'm sorry' speech he'd prepared earlier, when he was stopped in his tracks by a familiar sound. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. He especially couldn't believe he was hearing it in her room.

He looked at the record player and the album spinning round and round. "You play it?" he asked, his arms feeling tingly though he wasn't sure why.

"Yeah, I told you I would."

He looked at her. She was sitting up now, her eyes puffy from crying. He felt like shit for making her that upset. "But I didn't think you would."

She shrugged. "Well now you know." Jackie settled herself, pushing some pillows behind her back, and sat back against the wall. Through a mix of guilt and surprise Hyde allowed himself to smile. 'Down the Highway' wasn't his favourite Bob Dylan song but it still beat the hell out of any disco shit and the fact that Jackie was exposing their child to this music because he'd asked her to, well, that just blew him away. No one ever did anything he told them to do unless he ordered them to do it with a fist in the face or the arm. Jackie had done it for him just...because...

"Well, thank you," he said.

"Your welcome." She looked up at him. "So, what are you doing here anyway? Thought you were grounded?"

Hyde stepped over to the bed and sat down on the edge, next to Jackie's feet. "I am, but it turn's out Red has a soft spot for crying pregnant girls so he let me out for a couple hours. So here I am..."

"You're here because Red told you to come?" She sounded pissed. He didn't blame her, he probably could've worded what he'd said better, maybe said 'I'm here to apologise' straight off the bat.

Hyde put a hand on Jackie's leg, holding firm when she tried to kick it off. "No I'm not here coz Red told me to come. I wanted to come apologise so I asked Red if I could leave the house. And here I am...apologising. I'm sorry for being a dick, Jackie."

Jackie eyed him cautiously. "And what exactly are you sorry for?" she asked.

He needed to chose his words wisely so he did his best to recount the ones he'd practised on the way over. "I'm sorry for implying that you couldn't take care of our kid. 'Cause we both know that you can and you will. You'll be an awesome mom, better than either one of ours and a whole lot better than those old skanks at parenting class."

Jackie's hand shot to her heart and her lips crept into a beaming smile. "So you do agree that those women were old and skanky and eyeballing me?"

Hyde nodded. "For sure, just didn't wanna say it in front of Mrs. Forman, you know what she's like at the moment with all her woman stuff going on. If I'd said those chicks were old n totally jealous of you then what would she think?"

"Oh, Steven, you are so sweet n considerate!" Jackie leapt up as quickly as her pregnant belly would allow and perched herself on Hyde's lap. He grinned in relief. All he'd had to do was go along with her nonsense to turn her from a crazy person into a loved up one. He could get used to this...to an extent. Some of her antics were going to cause them to butt heads, but telling her that pregnant women in their late 20's were jealous of her wasn't one of them. She ran her fingers along his jawline and stared into his eyes. "I'm sorry for getting mad with you," she purred into his mouth. "I should've known you were just trying to protect Mrs. Forman's feelings. God, you're the sweetest."

When Jackie's tongue dove into his mouth and danced with his he wanted to pull away and tell her that she was the sweet one. After all, she was the one listening to music she hated just because he wanted her to. She had done for him something he wasn't sure he'd ever do for her. At a time when she was sad and pissed off she'd still played their baby music just because Hyde had once drunkenly asked her to. She was the sweetest. But as much as he wanted to tell her that, he didn't. He couldn't. Yeah he was going soft, doing dumb crap to please her, but he still had to keep some walls up. He couldn't leave himself open for heartbreak. So instead of telling her that she was special - a hundred times more special than Kat Peterson or parenting class old ladies - he pulled her tightly into him and kissed her for as long as he could, hoping like hell a certain Mexican didn't catch them.