An icy chill swept over Hyde's body. Edna's dead?

"uh… um…. How?" He barely got it out.

"Well," Bud approached the counter feeling it was okay to get a little closer. "Your mom, you see, she was really sick. The doctors said some kind of bone cancer." Bud gave a slight nervous laugh and sighed again. "Anyways, there wasn't much they could do for her once she found out. They said something like they caught it too late in the game; any attempt at destroying the cancer would only prolong her death. And you know Edna, what with money and all couldn't afford that. So um… she died yesterday."

Hyde's mind was a total blur. He felt nothing but complete shock. He was taken aback by the situation completely. "So, what makes you think I care? She abandoned me just like you..." His voice grew quieter and colder. "She means nothing to me anymore."

Bud watched Hyde's nostrils flare and his arms cross defensively across his chest. He hoped he was just angry and didn't really mean it.

"Well, before she died, she told me she wanted to be buried in Point Place and she wanted you to know she died."

Hyde's chest felt as if a helium balloon was blowing up inside of it. His heart began beating really fast. His ears started to silently ring. "So… what? You actually stuck around while she was dying? Didn't bail on her then too?"

"Look Steven, I know you're upset and…"

"What!" Hyde walked around the counter and pointed his finger in his ex-father's face. "You think I'm upset about this. I told you I don't care. Just like you or her didn't give a damn about me!"

Bud backed up and looked down at the ground in shame again. "I know she and I weren't really there for you…"

"Try never there for me." Hyde turned around and began pacing and running his fingers through his hair. This was too much for him to handle right now.

"Get out Bud."

He listened as Bud Hyde began walking to the door of the store, never turning around to watch him leave. He heard the bell of the door ring as Bud Hyde stepped out into the Wisconsin winter air.

"The funeral is on Thursday at 2." And he left.

And Hyde still never turned around to watch him leave.

Hyde stood in the middle of Grooves grasping all the information that was just given to him. Edna… cancer…dead.

"Hyde man, I think I heard a lot of yelling going on in here." Leo said as he walked into the store from the back office.

"Yeah Leo that was me."

"What's up man? Sounded like you were pretty pissed off at whoever was here."

Hyde turned around and looked at the old burnout in front of him. He wondered if he would understand if he told him. "Look Leo… I just found out my mom died and I need a break from the store for a while. Can you watch it while I'm gone?"

Leo stared blankly at him blinking a few times while processing the information. "Sure man. That sucks about your mom man."

"Yeah… yeah it does."

Jackie Burkhardt sat Indian style on her plush queen sized bed. She patiently listened as she heard Fez packing in the next room, singing to the latest hit on the radio. Well, she thought, at least he's singing now.

The past few days had been a whirlwind of emotions for her. Realizing her current love was just a rebound for some jackass who she just couldn't seem to get over had been pretty draining. She just couldn't keep leading Fez on though. He would eventually figure out her true feelings one way or another. Every time they would kiss she couldn't help but imagine it was Steven's lips. She never let him feel her up. She told him she just wanted to take things slow, that they needed to build on their relationship first. In all actuality however, she really just couldn't imagine herself doing anything sexual with Fez.

So one day while sorting through old pictures and miscellaneous possessions, Jackie came across an old note Steven had written to her and left in her locker at school a long time ago.

Jackie,

Look, I'm sorry what I said earlier about you still being shallow. I know you have changed a lot. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with me or not, but… whatever… I don't think you're shallow. You've actually helped me a lot with Leo leaving. You're the only one who really understands.

Meet me at the Hub after school. I'll buy you something shiny.

Steven

She couldn't help but cry for an hour after she found the note. The past few months had been very regressive for Jackie Burkhardt. She spent all of her time trying to be as aloof and uncaring about her and Steven's relationship (or lack of) entirely. She tried to forget that he married a whore and never thought twice about what he was throwing away. She tried to forget all the lonely nights she spent only wishing she could take it all back and never have left Point Place to begin with.

Then she realized how perfect Fez was for her and everything seemed to get exponentially better. Then she found that note and just couldn't lie to herself any more.

She approached Fez and told him everything, hoping he would understand her pain and confusion. He didn't take it as well as she had hoped. In fact he yelled a lot and wouldn't directly speak to her for 2 days even though they lived together. Now he was moving out to live with Kelso since he "just didn't have a reason to stay in Point Place anymore."

Jackie never felt more alone in her life. Before she at least occasionally had Donna when she wasn't running off with Randy or hanging out with Sam, and then she had the friendship with Fez. But she ruined that, and she was afraid they would never be the same again. The only person left in Point Place for her was Hyde, and she wasn't even sure if that was a guarantee.

Tears slid down Jackie's cheeks as she thought of her unrequited love with Steven Hyde. She still thought about him all the time. Her stomach did cartwheels whenever he was in the same room with her. She felt like a 13 year old girl who had the biggest crush on the unobtainable older guy that wouldn't give her the time of day. Except in her case she had the guy and lost him to her own paranoid insecurities. Everyday the memories of all the things they shared haunted her.

What made everything worse was Jackie still had no way to be sure if Hyde felt anything for her or if he ever did at all. Their relationship seemed like an eternity in the past, almost as if it never existed in the first place. She never talked about it and he never talked about it. No one seemed to remember what they once had and if they did they never dared to bring it up in one or the other's presence.

But she couldn't just avoid Hyde all together and be completely alone. Maybe there was some little hope for a friendship.

Jackie got up and left her bedroom with intentions of finding Hyde and maybe testing the waters. There really wasn't anything more she could lose. Once she got into the living room she found Fez packing some of his bathroom supplies into boxes.

"Hey Fez, I'm going to go out for a while." Her voice was tired and weak, anticipating the next insult he was going to throw at her.

"Where are you going?" He asked nonchalantly while carefully placing his hair products in a linear organization inside of the cardboard box.

"I don't know; maybe see what Hyde is doing." She tensed when she saw him stop and slowly rise to look at her. He placed his hands on his hips and said, "Oh, I see. You're just going to jump right back to him aren't you?"

"Look Fez, I know me and Steven aren't ever going to be anything again. It's just… well… everyone is gone and I don't know anybody else. I have to at least try to make friends." Her words shook with desperation and tears formed at the rims of her eyes.

Fez's countenance softened a little. He had been very hard on Jackie for the past few days and he knew he had to give her a break sometime. He had forgiven her a little. "Well, maybe you guys can be friends."

"Maybe."

Fez went back to packing and Jackie took this as a sign he was done with her… for good.

As much as she would miss Fez's friendship, the possibility of one with Hyde drove her to walk back to her room and not convince Fez to stay.