THE RIGHT WAY AROUND.

Chapter 7 – Morning After.

A/N: Thank you all for the reviews for the last chapter! They really made me smile and have encouraged me to put everything I've got into this story. This chapter is the one you've been waiting patiently for. Well, at least the beginning of what you have been waiting for lol. Anyway, on with the show!

Disclaimer: I own nothing and after the crap the show spilled out in Season 8, I'm relieved to have nothing to do with the show.

HYDE'S ROOM

Stirring from her sleep, Jackie opened her eyes and like a shot, the events of the previous night came running back to her. Breaking down in front of her dad, coming to the Formans' and having Hyde comfort her. Looking around her, Jackie was surprised at how comfortable she was squeezed up along the edge of the cot and how she had had the best sleep of her life following the most emotionally draining night she could remember. Unwilling to face the harsh reality just yet, Jackie tightened Hyde's arm around her waist and intertwined her hand with his before closing her eyes again, just basking in the feeling of being held by the man she loved most and who had proven to her last night that he was capable of seeing past his own wounded pride long enough to still be there when she needed him.

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Moving his head slightly, Hyde felt the familiar tickle of her soft, silky hair rubbing against his nose causing him to open his eyes and groan, groggily. What the hell? Hyde thought to himself. Spooned against him with a death grip on his right hand was his ex-girlfriend, and Hyde, amazed by how much he had missed this, couldn't resist from mouthing an enthusiastic WOOHOO! before sending himself into a whirlwind of thoughts.

After a solid 10 minutes of reflection, he glanced at his clock and noticed that it was just before dawn. Sighing to himself, Hyde briefly considered getting up and leaving before having the undoubtedly awkward morning-after talk. Although nothing beyond sleep had happened, he was fully aware that the slightest sound from their throats could be misinterpreted and cause a full blown attack to occur. Still, that talk would happen no matter what, so Hyde gave into temptation and lay his head back down on the mass of curls splayed across his sorry excuse for a pillow, and sighed with contentment

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ONE HOUR LATER

Lying in exactly the same position as they had been all night, Jackie and Hyde both laid in deep thought, completely oblivious to the other person being awake. However, this peaceful calm was soon disrupted by the blaring sounds of what Hyde had once described as the anti-Christ.

Shooting up in bed at the sound of ABBA, Jackie and Hyde's heads collided and they both groaned out in pain.

"Jesus, woman! Can't you go five minutes without hitting me these days?" Hyde hollered, rubbing the spot on his forehead where the back of Jackie's skull had impacted moments earlier.

"Um, excuse me. I'm not the one with a golf ball for a head." bit back Jackie. "That 'fro just gives you a bit of height." Climbing out of the cot, Jackie didn't look back at Hyde except to gauge his reaction to current events.

"How about we just go out there and see why Fez is so intent on receiving a beating from me these days?" Hyde offered, in a bid to keep things good between them. He didn't want a blow-up to start because of music. He was already convinced that disco was an instrument of Satan's and didn't need any more proof.

"How do you know it's Fez?" Jackie inquired while throwing on her jacket. He looked at her.

"It's always Fez." Hyde replied.

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FORMAN BASEMENT

Waterloo! Couldn't escape if I wanted to!
Waterloo! Knowing my fate is to be with you!
Waterloo! Finally facing my wa-

"Just to let you know, Fez," he said between gritted teeth after shortly turning off the record player. "I know a much more entertaining way of killing off brain cells."

"Ha-frickity-ha, Hyde." Fez rolled out sarcastically. "Just because you are a broken hearted shell of a man, does not mean that we- HOLY HELL! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" Fez screamed upon seeing Jackie emerging from Hyde's room while still fluffing down her hair. "You two are back together and you didn't tell me? Why on earth would you do such a thing? Huh, Jackie?" he said, his voice still a bit to shrill for Hyde's liking.

"We're not back together, Fez." Jackie replied, as if there was nothing unusual about this sight. Upon Hyde's swift glance in her direction, she rephrased, "Well, at least not yet." Focusing on Hyde, she gave him a look that said, "Better?" He said nothing and merely sat down on his chair with his legs resting on the coffee table. Sighing, despite herself, Jackie quickly pulled Fez by the belt and physically dragged him out the door before shutting it, and turning the lock so that they received no more unwelcome interruptions. Turning around to face Hyde, Jackie decided to start with the basics. "Thanks for last night. I know you'll tell me to forget it or something but I just want you to know that I really appreciated you being there especially after how I've been treating you lately." She smiled weakly. Hyde cleared his throat and took his feet of the table.

"It's no problem, Jackie." he said with a quick smile. Jackie pressed him.

"And…?"

Blinking in confusion, he replied, "And…?"

"Well, I was thinking you might say something like, 'Don't worry about it, doll. I've done nothing but taken you for granted for the entire time I have known you so there's nothing wrong with you giving me a tiny taster of it. After all, it's the least I deserve.' Or something to that effect." finished Jackie.

Rolling his eyes, Hyde said, "Oh, don't start this. Yes, I was hardly the perfect boyfriend but you act like I never gave a damn about you.""

"Can you really blame me?" exclaimed Jackie, forgetting her intent to talk this through rationally. "I get that you have problems, Steven, I really do. But that's not my fault and I can't keep getting punished for something that I had no control over! When my parents went away, did I punish you for not knowing what to say to make me feel better?"

"You made me shave my beard off." Hyde reminded her, fighting against everything she said.

"Oh, my mistake! How idiotic of me to confuse emotional scarring with losing a few body hairs." Jackie said in return. Digging into his hair, Hyde groaned in frustration.

"I really can't win with you, can I?" He said, exasperated. "I tell you I don't want a girlfriend, but then I let you become one. I tell you that I don't know if I want to get married at 19, and you break up with me. Then you say you'll give me some time to think it over, but you take off before hearing my answer. Then I'm telling you that I am finally ready to deal with our problems, but you tell me that now isn't the time and that you have other things that are more important. This, from a girl who told me countless times that I was what mattered most to her. And then finally, I let you spend the night in my bed after you barely say two words for me, and the next morning you are ready for all-out war. What the hell do I have to do?" he finished, yelling by this point.

"Deal with it!" Jackie yelled back, sick of him not seeing the big picture. "You keep complaining that I pressured you to into a relationship, but I don't remember you ever looking for a way out. If memory serves, you came to Chicago because you wanted to have a future with me."

"Yeah, and I found you with Kelso!"

"But, you came because you wanted a future with me! Forget what happened when you got there and just remember what it was that you were feeling before you got to my motel room. Just tell me what it was that finally made it click in your head that I was the girl for you. And don't tell me I'm not because I know that I am." Jackie finished in the calmest voice that had sounded in the basement since this argument had began to pick up speed.

Hyde didn't speak and after a while Jackie decided that this was pointless and was about to leave before she heard him get out quickly, "I felt worthless." Bewildered, Jackie cautiously turned back to the man standing before her with terror filling his body.

"What do you…" Jackie began before being cut off by Hyde.

"I felt worthless. The day you left, I mean." Seeing her confused eyes, he continued, "You didn't even stick around to hear my answer. Or to even say goodbye. You just left me with a note. Better than a phone call but still…

Shaking her head with regret, Jackie whispered, "Steven…"

"The one thing you always showed me was that I was worth your time. And, okay, I was passed out in a warehouse that day so understandably that would give you some doubts. But when I got your note it felt… Jackie, it felt like I wasn't worth it anymore in your eyes. And that made me angry. Big shock, there." Jackie wanted to let out a sad laugh but refrained. But Hyde wasn't finished. "And then Eric left, and all of a sudden I've lost someone else." Hyde was really struggling with this but not because it was 'girly' or anything. He just hated knowing that this was the only way to fix his life and he didn't have a choice. And anyone who knew him knew that he liked his choices to be right in front of him at all times. Jackie, however was more surprised at the tender way he referred to Eric. Not 'Forman' as he had always been for Hyde. Eric. For a brief moment, Jackie wished that Hyde could be the emotion-free guy he was when they first met because she knew that he was telling her the truth. Not the abbreviated version like telling her that he loved her and nothing more, or telling her that he wanted to be with her and nothing more. The real truth, and that terrified Jackie.

"And I didn't want the last things I said to you to be 'have a good trip'." Jackie frowned at this, remembering the numbing feeling that comment had left in her gut. "So I decided to go see you. I wasn't even thinking that I would propose or we would even get back together. I just had to see you again. Then on they way there, I got to thinking about stuff and before I knew it, I'm sitting in the parking lot with a ring in my pocket." Jackie's eyes widened at this last comment. She knew that he had been intending on proposing but she had had no idea that he had a ring. In the back of her mind she wondered if he still had it. Probably threw it in the river after seeing Michael, Jackie thought. "And then…" his voice cracked.

"And then him." Jackie finished, full of shame. Hyde nodded, unwilling to voice the feeling he had felt when he saw Kelso standing there in a towel proclaiming that he and Jackie were about to have sex. Jackie thought as much and knowing how difficult it had been for him to say the little he already had, she said, "You don't need to tell me how you felt, Steven. I already know." Jackie's words caused Hyde to look at her with a confused expression before he caught on. Shaking his head, he said,

"No, this was different. When I did it, it was to hurt you. You did it, or you were about to, and it had nothing to do with me. I mean, I know I drove you to him. But you wanted comfort and not to hurt me. It was like I didn't matter enough…" he trailed off, feeling like he wasn't making much sense. But he had said enough for Jackie to understand what he was talking about. He was still trying to explain that she made him feel worthless. In some way, it would have been easier if she had been trying to get revenge on him like he had with her instead of dealing with the fact that she didn't feel it was worth it. She didn't feel he was worth it.

"Steven." Jackie started off, softly. Pulling at his chin, she whispered, "Steve, look at me." Meeting her eyes, he stared at her with an exhausted gaze. "I love you." She smiled when he looked at her more intently. "Do you get that? I love you, even though you can be such a jackass." At this, Hyde had to laugh slightly. But he was just waiting on hearing the right words from her. He had to know she understood him before they could start to rebuild their relationship. "The day I left…" Jackie started, knowing this would be difficult to get through. "That day, I was mad. Mad at you, and mad at myself. I never expected you to tell me that you knew without a doubt in your mind that I was your soulmate and that you could never bear the thought of being without me. I haven't thought that way since you went to jail for me." Jackie shuddered, remembering how much she drove him crazy back then with her relentless pursuit of him before deciding that they weren't right for each other, just when he had began to come around to the idea of them. Timing never was our thing Jackie thought.

"Anyway, I was so mad that Eric came to see Donna, even though he was drunk, but you didn't come to see me. Admittedly you were unconscious so that posed a problem, but everybody always saw us as playing second fiddle to Eric and Donna – we were the other couple." Hyde grimaced at hearing how Jackie had taken the jibes they had received to heart. "You should have seen the pity on Donna's face when Eric told us you were passed out in the back of the warehouse. It was humiliating that here I was showing everyone that they were right all along. Not even Jackie Burkhart was enough for big ol' Hyde." Jackie finished, with a sting in her voice. She hated reliving the anger she felt that day and the loneliness she had felt at that motel room and the terror she had felt when he left her room after catching her with Kelso. Thinking back on her conversation with Donna the day before, she had to agree that things were a lot easier when she was just a rich bitch planning her future on Michael Kelso. Developing layers is a pain Jackie said to herself. "Then, when you left I thought, "It's over now. He'll never forgive me after this." And that's all I thought for a month before I had the courage to come back and face you. Then I find you're not even here and I get pissed since it looked like you were off living your life while I moved back to the shabby town I spent years trying to escape. And then we got into that fight at the Hub, and then my dad came back, and I just felt like saying 'Screw it all' because I didn't deserve it. I didn't deserve to go through all this pain when all I ever wanted was to make the people I love happy. So I went a little crazy on you-"

"Yeah, I'm gonna hold that over your head even when we're talking to our fake teeth in the circle." Hyde joked, letting Jackie know that she wasn't fighting a losing battle here. Jackie joined in on the laughs but quickly regained her composure.

"Steven, this still doesn't solve anything. We don't trust each other, at least not completely, and until we do we aren't going to be able to move forward."

"Jackie…" Hyde started, fearing that she might take this the wrong way. "I can't just start trusting you right away after everything that has happened. I'm sorry." Hyde looked down, sure that this would drive her away. Instead of a slammed door he got a chuckle.

"Well, duh! That's why we're here. To start over and to do this right." She said, smiling confidently at him. Hyde nodded blindly before asking,

"Do what right?" Hyde asked, clueless.

"Dating." Jackie informed him.

"Dating?" Hyde exclaimed. "You think the key to trusting each other is in dating?"

Hyde felt sure that Jackie had lost her mind because she was making absolutely no sense to him and spinning his mind in circles. God, he had missed this.

"If memory serves, we never even had a first date. We had a first kiss, a first grope, a first make-out session, a first time-"

"And a second, third and fourth." Hyde reminded her with a cocky voice, remembering the first night they had sex. Blushing, Jackie continued,

"As I was saying." Hyde chuckled. "We did everything but have a normal relationship and I think it's about time we tried that."

Hyde was starting to catch up with her. "So, by dating you mean…"

"Taking me to nice restaurants while complaining about how overpriced the steak is. Kicking out my chair as opposed to pulling it out. Sticking your fingers into my back pocket instead of delicately touching my hand. Screwing me against the washer. You know, romantic stuff." Jackie was fully smiling by now and Hyde couldn't stop himself from moving in to kiss her.

"Ah, ah." Jackie said, pulling away from him. "What did we just talk about?"

"Um," Hyde looked in deep thought, "screwing against the washer, right?" Hyde said, smiling wickedly

Jackie laughed seductively and moved in to brush her lips against his before whispering in his ear, "Nice try." Moving away from him, Jackie smiled to herself upon hearing his frustrating groan and stood over him. Picking up her purse and slinging it over her shoulder, Jackie turned around to pick her jacket off the couch and when she turned around, nearly died upon seeing Hyde down on one knee.

"Oh, my God. Steven…" she whispered.

"Jackie Burkhart. For the longest time I couldn't stand you but I kneel before you with a very important question to ask. Will you… go out with me?" Hyde gave the most sincere smile he could muster without breaking out into laughter.

Jackie, actually feeling choked up, answered, "Why, Steven Hyde, I would be honoured to go out with you."

Hyde smiled, embarrassed at his silly gesture but Jackie was touched by it. Placing a finger on his lips, she whispered, "But you're still not getting a kiss until I see my chair being kicked out from across the table." And with that she left him standing there staring hungrily after her and walked out of the basement, giving her hips an extra sway to remind him that she was holding the cards this time around. Now they were going to do it the right way around.

To be continued.

A/N: I had so much fun writing this chapter. It killed me trying to infer so much but I think it was a decent first attempt. Originally this was going to be longer, but I wanted to get the discussion going straight away and I wanted to leave the date until next time so I ran out of story lol. Hope it was a good read. If it was, go crazy and give a review. If you thought it sucked, well you can still review but be gentle. LOL. Next chapter is the date. Or depending on how it goes, the build-up to it. You know these two: there's always something to deal with.

Stay safe.