Warning: Language and strong adult situations, but no smut. I'm as sorry as you are about this.
It's not crucial, but I think the song Fallen by Sarah McLachlan really sets the mood for this part.
See the last part for summary and disclaimers.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last part! (I know, I'm thanking everyone in advance, go with it)
"There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. It would be a pity to damage yours."
Jackie snuck out the basement and walked over to the Pinciotti's. It was getting to the point where she needed to tell someone other than a few strangers about her mom, and she knew it was only fair if she told Bob first.
"How?" Bob asked blubbering.
"A few days ago." Jackie answered.
Bob nodded. "And who else knows?" Jackie handed him a tissue.
"Including you?"
"Yeah."
"You."
Bob sniffled as he looked at Jackie. After a moment, he wrapped his arms around her and gave her a bear hug. "What about your father?" He asked after he let go of Jackie.
"Oh, I think he was the one who told the morgue to call me." Jackie answered. She sort of remembered the coroner saying something to that affect.
Jackie looked at the man who had given her a place to live after her mother had left. He was crying the tears that Jackie had yet to shed.
"Oh Bob, I'm gonna miss you." Jackie couldn't help but want to smile at her mother.
Jackie took Bob's hand. "I think mom is going to miss you."
Bob smiled as he wiped the tears from his eyes. "I'm gonna miss her too, she was a real fine lady… great rack!"
Jackie wasn't all the surprised when a few minutes later, when Donna found the two in the living room, she was dragged up to Donna's room.
"Okay, you're going to tell me what's bothering you!" Donna ordered. "I know you and Hyde broke up and you lost your job, but you never just… ignore everyone."
"I'm just having some problems with my mom." Jackie answered. She felt guilty for shutting everyone out, especially Donna.
Donna rolled her eyes. "What did Pam do this time?"
"She died." Jackie answered matter of fact.
Jackie watched as Donna's jaw dropped.
"What?" Donna practically yelled. "When? Why? How?"
"A few days ago." Jackie answered. "Apparently it's not a good idea to mix valium and tequila." She shrugged as to say 'who knew?' And for the second time that day, Jackie felt herself being hugged.
"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Donna asked.
"I told people." Jackie responded. "I told your dad, and I told some lady at the A&P and I told you." Jackie paused for a second, "Oh and I told Rick."
"Who's Rick?"
"The funeral director, he's cute too, if you ever get tired of Eric you should give this guy a call."
Donna bit her lip. "What about Hyde or the Formans?"
Jackie stared at Donna blankly. "I don't think Rick is their type."
Donna gently pushed Jackie. "I meant have you told them about your mother?"
"Why would I tell…?"
Donna pulled Jackie off the bed. "That's it; we're going to go tell them."
"There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead."
Jackie found herself sitting at the Forman's kitchen table, repeating the tale of her mother's demise to the Forman's and Hyde, who took the news surprisingly well.
"Your mother died and you didn't think to tell us?" Red yelled.
"Now Red, the girl lost her mother, she's probably upset enough as it is." Kitty admonished her husband.
"Actually, it's not that big of a deal." Jackie interjected.
Everyone stopped speaking to stare at Jackie.
"Jackie…"
Jackie interrupted Kitty, "Really, I'm fine." She watched as Donna and Hyde's eyes met. He hadn't said anything since Donna had forced her to tell them about her mother's death. He was just standing there, staring at her like he wasn't quite sure what to make of her anymore. She couldn't blame him; she wasn't sure what to make of her anymore.
"Jackie, you're never going to win him back if you keep looking so glum! Smile!"
Jackie shot a glance at her mom's ghost.
"Is there anything we can do?" Kitty asked.
Jackie shrugged. "I think I have everything under control."
Kitty nodded. "Well, okay, but if you need anything, just let us know."
Jackie nodded in agreement, but everyone in the room knew that she had no intention of doing any such thing.
Jackie couldn't stand to spend another awkward moment alone with Hyde so she decided that it would be best if she just walked home. Fez would probably let her back inside, and if not, she'd go over to her mom's. She needed to start packing up her stuff anyway.
"Hey." She knew without even having to look whose voice that belonged to.
"Hey." She folded her arms and hugged herself protectively.
"I'm, uh, sorry about your mom."
Something inside Jackie snapped, and the last of her remaining sanity crumbled to the floor. She turned around to face Hyde and found herself yelling at him.
"Sorry you didn't get to see her topless again is more like it!"
He held up his hands. "Jacks."
"Don't Jacks me!" She yelled, pointing at him. "You don't get to Jacks me anymore; you lost any and all Jacksing privileges Mister!"
"Uh, okay, Jackie…" He said, scared.
Jackie shook her head. "No, you don't get to do that either. You don't get to stand there and look at me like you pity me, like you feel bad for me or you want to make it better, you don't get to make it better, you can't make it better!"
"I know." Hyde answered softly.
"Oh, and another thing, remember that apology I gave to you about Chicago? I take it back!"
Hyde raised his eyebrow "You take it back?"
"Yes!" Jackie shouted in the middle of The Forman's driveway. "You're the one who wouldn't let me explain, you're the one who took off and ran to Vegas to have sex with random sluts, where as all I did was talk to a friend because I was lonely! I did nothing wrong!"
"Nothing wrong?" He repeated.
In truth, Jackie had no idea why she was yelling these horrible things at him, but the words just wouldn't stop themselves from coming out of her mouth. Every mistake he ever made, every insincere word out of his mouth, she repeated it verbatim, throwing everything he had ever done to hurt her back at him. What made it worse was he just stood there and took it. At one point he even took off his sunglasses and sat them down on the Forman's porch. Jackie would have wondered if he was afraid she'd slap them off and they'd break, but she was too busy verbally cutting him down.
"I'm the best thing that ever happened to you, and you blew it, you treated me like I was just some stupid girl who was only partially worth your time. I gave you everything, and you gave me nothing!"
"Nothing?"
Was he just going to repeat everything she said? For someone so cool, he really was quite stupid.
"Well I'm tired of being treated like garbage by you!"
"By who?" Hyde asked.
Jackie blinked. Was he not paying attention? "By you."
"By who?" He took a step closer to her. She took a step back.
"You."
He shook his head.
"You." She repeated again. She pointed at him. "I'm mad at you."
"No you're not." Hyde stated.
Jackie looked beyond Hyde at her mother who was nodding in agreement with Hyde.
"Jackie, honey… it's time to let me go."
She felt herself being caught by Steven; he held her close, running his fingers through her hair, clutching the strands with one hand as he rubbed circles along her back with the other. She could feel his heart beat match her and she tried to count the beats as her body shook.
"It's okay, you'll be okay." He whispered into her ear.
She looked up from his shoulder just as her mother was waving goodbye. She couldn't bring herself to wave back though. All she could do was let herself be held by the man who had, with one gesture, torn her world apart. It was in this moment that she was forced to contend with the fact that not only was her mother dead, but her relationship with Steven was not.
"You should have told me." He whispered to her.
"I didn't want to bug you with it." Jackie replied.
He pulled his head away but kept his hold on her. He tugged her chin with his hand to force her to look at him. She knew she must have looked like an absolute wreck.
"Jackie…" She waited for him to finish his sentence, instead, he simply kissed the top of her head and let go of her.
"You need a ride home?"
"I have my car." Jackie answered. Whatever moment they had was now gone.
"Okay, be careful." It was the last thing he said to her before he went inside the house. She watched as he pushed by Donna and Kitty who were staring out the door, clearly dumbstruck at the scene they had just witnessed. Jackie didn't blame them either, she was dumbstruck as well.
"Since the invention of the kiss there have been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind."
When Jackie got home, she found herself with her arms full of sweet tarts.
"Oh Jacqueline, can you ever forgive me?" Fez begged.
"For what?"
"Donna called me and told me what happened!" Fez exclaimed. "I cannot believe it."
"Oh." It was the only thing Jackie could say.
"Have my Sweet tarts. I know they're your favorites." Fez told her.
Jackie smiled a small smile of thanks.
The next few days seemed to fly by in a blur, now that everyone knew, it seemed like they had come to some sort of collective agreement not to let her out of their sights. Michael had come up from Chicago and apart from one obscene comment, he had been surprisingly supportive. Even Eric had called to offer his condolences.
It made Jackie want to scream. She had never felt so trapped, so smothered by her friends that she felt like she couldn't breathe. Unfortunately, she couldn't leave.
"Pamela's daughter, Jackie, has a few words she wants to say."
Jackie blinked herself out of her reprieve. She clutched onto the eulogy she had written the night before and after smoothing her dress, walked up to the podium. There were quite a few people in the audience, not surprisingly, most of them happened to be male.
"My mother…" Jackie looked down at the clichéd words she had written down. "My mother was a…" She sighed and crumpled up the paper.
"My mother was a bitch." Jackie ignored the shocked gasps from the audience. "She spent most of my childhood pretending as though she didn't have a child, and then when I was older and needed her the most, she left me to go carousing in Mexico, but when I did see her, all she did was tell me how I wasn't good enough, but hey, it was out of love right?" Jackie clutched the podium as she tried to control her tears. "My mother loved money and alcohol, and that's it. She used people to get what she wanted, and then when she was done with you, she would leave you for something better."
This time, the tears would not stop, and she found herself unable to go on any further. She could see him coming up the stairs through her blurred vision, but was unable to stop him when he picked her up and threw her onto his shoulder and carried her out of the church, sat her in his car before going to the other side and getting in.
In retrospect, she had no idea who kissed who first, but the next thing she knew, she was straddled on top of him and they were making out as though their lives depended on it. She knew she must have still been crying because she could feel her tears as they ran down her face, but she couldn't stop kissing him, no matter how hard she tried.
Eventually though, they pulled away and Jackie was forced to reconcile with the rift.
"I slept with someone in Vegas."
Oh god, why was he telling her this now? She struggled to get off his lap and then moved as far as she could in his car to get away from him. She had half a mind to get out and run away, but she didn't know if she had strength left to run, and besides, he would probably catch her.
"That's why I told you no when you asked if we could try again." He explained to her.
Suddenly, Jackie understood. "Because you swore it would never happen again."
"You were right to take back the apology, because yeah, even though you shouldn't have given me the ultimatum or left without saying goodbye, I was the one who jumped to conclusions and I was the one who cheated."
Jackie didn't respond, she couldn't respond. All she could do was watch as everyone trailed out of the church.
"You ready?" He asked.
Jackie nodded. "Yes." This was a lie, but she knew she had no choice but to go.
The two got out of the El Camino and they walked slowly up towards the hill where her mother was being laid to rest. Rick ran towards her, breathing heavily.
"Jackie…" He bent down to catch his breath. Jackie looked over to Steven who was giving him his best 'who the fuck is this' expression.
"What is it?" Jackie asked.
Rick stood up and handed Jackie the bag he was carrying. "Uh, this isn't usually allowed, but I got you this."
Jackie looked into the bag and started to laugh. She pulled out the bottle of Jose Cuervo.
"Thank you." She said sincerely as she gave Rick a quick hug and her and Steven continued their walk up to the rest of the group, Jackie holding the bottle of tequila in her hand.
"What's with the spice?" Hyde asked.
"Inside joke." Jackie answered.
Jackie stood between Hyde and Donna for the rest of the funeral, and as she listened intently to the preacher, she watched her mother look down at herself.
"Would you look at my tan?"
Jackie wanted to laugh but kept it in. She caught her mother's eye though and Pam smiled.
"That tequila better be for me." Pam said. Jackie walked over and tucked the bottle of Cuervo into her mother's casket.
"Oh and Jackie dear, stop slouching!" She blew Jackie a kiss and disappeared just as they closed her casket and lowered it into the ground.
Jackie watched as her mother's acquaintances threw dirt into the ground and said their prospective goodbyes, and soon it was just the gang left on the hill.
"You look like you need a circle." Donna told her, hooking her arm through Jackie's.
"Well what do you know?" Hyde asked, "Because it so happens that I have this." He held up a baggie.
Jackie felt herself being stared at by her friends as though they were truly asking her permission to smoke up next to her mother's grave. She had to admit the thought of getting high right after her mother's funeral had a certain appeal, so with a single nod of the head, she gave her okay.
"That day, she was amazed to discover that when he was saying "As you wish", what he meant was, "I love you."
A week had passed by and Jackie had yet to talk to Hyde about his confession. It wasn't so much that he had cheated on her that made her upset, or even that he had chosen to tell her at her most vulnerable(although he really did have the worst timing in the world) but that no matter what she did, she couldn't stop loving him, nor could she forgive him. She this couldn't go on however, and once again, she found herself alone in the basement with him, and once again, he was sitting on the opposite end of the room, his sunglasses on, their arms were crossed as they both pretended to watch whatever was on the TV. Both Donna and Fez had tried to sit with them but found it too uncomfortable, so left quickly. The tension was so palpable that it may as well have been a living thing.
At least her mother's ghost wasn't bothering her anymore.
"Have you started packing up your mom's things?" Hyde asked.
"Mrs. Forman and Donna are going to help me with it." Jackie answered.
"Cool." Was his reply.
"Yeah." Was hers. Communication had never been their strong point.
It suddenly became too much. She wasn't ready to have the conversation with him, and there was no reason for her to be there. She stood up and walked to the door, intent on leaving before he stopped her.
"You leaving?" He asked.
Jackie nodded, unable to move. Instead she looked down at her hand and the doorknob. She didn't see him walk over to her until he was next to her, taking her hand off the doorknob and turning her towards him. She then found herself being dragged into his room and then she was pressed up against his door.
Once again, he was standing too close for comfort. For whatever reason, she found herself wanting to sink into his embrace again, to forget everything that had transpired between them and just let go of all the hurt, of all the guilt, of all of it. She reached up and took his sunglasses off so that she could see into his eyes, so that she could see for herself if he felt the same way. All she saw was the look of the man who had once told her he would do anything for her.
"Do you remember when you told me you would do anything for me?"
"Uh huh." He answered softly but surely.
"Would you really do anything for me?" Jackie found herself asking. Their faces are just inches apart, their lips as close as you could get without touching; it was as though his touch is slowly rebuilding her, and all that needed to happen was for him to bend over slightly and she'll be whole again. She hated him just a little bit for having that power over her.
"I would." He answered after a moment, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
Jackie looked up into his eyes and gathered up her courage. "Then why wouldn't you marry me?"
"Why didn't you stay?" He answered her question with a question.
"I used to know." Jackie admitted. "But now it all seems so stupid."
Hyde smirked at her. "I know how that goes."
"Well?" She pressed. She knew she needed to know his answer if there was hope for them.
He pulled away from her and Jackie felt herself sliding down to the floor.
"Because I would do anything for you."
"Except marry me." She stated the obvious fact.
"No, including marrying you. Including going to your mother and being told that I'd never be good enough for you, and you really don't want to hear what your father had to say." He spoke the words with such bitterness that Jackie couldn't help but flinch. Hyde moved closer to Jackie, but they were still miles apart. "I watched you burn your mother and I thought to myself, I don't care what her mother thinks of me, and I definitely don't care what her father thinks. All that matters is what she thinks."
Jackie sucked in a breath. "So that's why you told me what happened in Vegas."
"Yeah." Hyde answered.
"So what are you saying, Steven?"
"I'm saying," He said, putting her hand to his heart, "That you have this, for um, as long as you want it." He sounded as nervous as she felt. She decided to have mercy on him, and instead of saying yes, okay, or even whatever, she reached out and grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him to her, pressing her lips against his. It only took him a second to get with the program, and soon she found herself pressed up against the door, her legs wrapped around his waist as they kissed each other deeply.
"I love you." He spoke into her hair.
"I love you too." She replied into his neck.
They ended up talking all night about everything. They listened quietly as each confessed their darkest secrets, insecurities and fears, he told her how he was afraid he would turn into Bud, and she told him her fear of turning into her mother. They yelled, laughed, and had even cried at one point. Jackie could feel the gap that had been between them now start to mend, and the emotional wounds she carried were starting to be healed finally. To commemorate this occasion, they made love until both were spent. He took her over and beyond what she could have ever imagined, and in return, she did her best to do the same for him.
"You owe me a Valentine's day present." She said as the lay on his cot, their skin fused together by sweat.
"I'm running out of shirts to give you." Hyde joked.
Jackie looked up from her resting spot on his chest. "Very funny, I meant you owe me an actual gift, and don't think I'm just going to forget about you running off to Vegas and sleeping with some whore! You didn't even bring me back anything from there! You're going to get me a good present and that's final." Jackie ordered, poking him in the chest.
Hyde sighed. "Anything for you, doll."
Jackie put her head back on his chest and sighed contently. Anything was right. A thought popped into Jackie's head and she looked up at him again.
"Would you give me a job?" She asked coyly, watching as his eye's widened with fear.
The end.
Please review! And if you haven't, go over and review Into the Woods if you haven't done so yet.
I might, after I get the next chapter of Into the Woods out, write Hyde's POV of this, but it's really up to you, so let me know what you think!