AN: I am so, so sorry for this late update. I really have no excuse this time other than I was suffering from extreme lack of motivation. There is one more chapter after this one, so hopefully you guys like how I'm ending this story. I loved each and every review I received for the last chapter, and I'm glad to see you guys are still reading. Hopefully I didn't wait too long with this update.

This chapter was originally going to be all comedy until the end, but my brother was watching Cosmos when I wrote the first bit of this chapter and Carl Sagan's voice brought that angsty out in me just a wee bit. You'll see what I mean.

Review!
Chapter 12: The Hectic Aftermath

"What I'm trying to say is… let's get married."

Jackie felt her jaw drop as her eyes zeroed in on him. Her mind was an empty shell causing her to suddenly forget how to speak.

Hyde waited for a moment for Jackie to say something. She was just standing there, staring at him. This wasn't exactly how he pictured this moment. He always imagined that Jackie would flip out and shriek as she hopped across the room until she inevitably jumped on him. Now, she looked like she had seen a ghost.

"Uh…so…"

"Okay!" Jackie suddenly said, blinking a few times as she overcame the excitement of finally being able to speak again.

Hyde's words caught in his throat. The core of his chest warmed his body. Even though it was the answer he wanted to hear, it was still surprising.

"Okay?" Hyde felt himself ask.

Jackie blinked a few more times, coming down from her initial shock as reality settled in. She beamed a smile and floated to him. Once she reached him, she wrapped her arms around his waist not being able to contain her happiness. "Yes, I'll marry you."

Hyde cupped Jackie's face in his hands, kissing her lips sweetly. He felt her sigh contently in his hands, and at that moment he was positive that he had never been happier.

As soon as Hyde pulled away from the kiss, a sharp pain shot through his left shin. He keeled over onto the end of Jackie's bed, holding his throbbing leg with his hand.

"What the hell, Jackie?"

Jackie plopped her hands on her hips, wagging a scolding finger at him. "That's what you get for not realizing sooner just how in love with me you are!"

Hyde stared up at her, confused about what to do next. Was this good or bad? He couldn't tell which. Before he could begin to decide, Jackie smiled down at him again and clapped with glee. "Oh, I'm just so happy! My Puddin' Pop finally proposed."

Jackie jumped on top of Hyde, kissing him up and down his neck. She made her way to his mouth, sealing off any words that Hyde could utter. He really didn't mind her bipolar reaction at the moment though. As soon as he felt Jackie's hips roll on top of him, he quickly forgot about the pain shooting through his shin.

"Oh, sexy."

Jackie and Hyde broke apart and looked up to see Fez standing in the doorway. His sneaky grin set uncomfortable chills through the both of them, and they quickly pushed away from each other. Jackie hopped over to her roommate as she clapped her hands in perfect cheerleader fashion.

"Steven proposed to me, Fez. We're going to get married!"

"Oh yay! Now let me see the pretty ring."

Fez waited expectantly as the smile on Jackie's face slowly began to vanish. She turned her head back to her fiancé who was beginning to realize that he might have just screwed himself again.

"Steven…"

"Wait, wait." Hyde held up his hand, thinking as fast as he could to get himself out of this situation. "I'll give you your ring tonight. I just had to do this now, you know?"

Hyde smiled warily at Jackie, watching her reaction carefully so that he can make sure his shins didn't have to meet the toes of her boots again.

"Oh, Steven." Jackie cooed. "You just couldn't wait long enough to tell me once you realized it was what you wanted." Jackie turned back to Fez. "It was really spontaneous and romantic, Fez." Jackie covered her mouth as belated realization hit her. "Oh my god, now this means I'll get two proposals instead of one. Yay! I have to call everyone and tell them the good news."

Jackie kissed Hyde on the cheek and ran out of the room. Hyde's smile fell as he focused his eyes on Fez, who was too oblivious to see Hyde's fist coming at him.

"Ai!" Fez yelped, rubbing his arm where Hyde had frogged him.

"That's for interrupting. I'm pretty sure Jackie was about to show me just how excited my proposal made her."

"Well, you'll just get it when you propose to her again like she said."

Hyde frogged Fez again.

"Ai! What was that one for?"

"That one was for bringing up the ring in the first place."

Fez stomped his foot, shooting an angry scowl his way. "Jackie is a goddess, and if you didn't expect to get her a ring, then you don't deserve her at all!"

"Don't get your panties in a twist. I already have a ring." Hyde walked out of the bedroom noticing Jackie in the kitchen, chatting away to Donna on the phone. He allowed a small grin to tug at the corners of his mouth, knowing that he was the one that put that beautiful smile on her face and the excited laughter in her voice.

"You do?" Fez curiously questioned, following closely behind him. "When did you get it?"

When Fez noticed Hyde wasn't going to answer his question, he immediately assumed what he had suspected all along.

"Oh my god," Fez gasped. "You got her a ring before you went to Chicago."

"Shh, keep your voice done. Jackie's right in there." Hyde turned completely around, leaning in close to Fez while whispering. "Look, don't tell Jackie about the ring, okay? I'll tell her when I'm ready. Right now, I have to go back to the basement to get it. So she won't get suspicious, you're going to say that we're about to go have a circle, okay? She's not going to want to follow us if we say that. She's way too excited right now to want to join. If I'm lucky, she'll want to stay on the phone all day."

"But I don't understand. Why wouldn't you want to spend all day with your new and beautiful fiancé?" Fez asked, shooting admiring eyes at a giggling Jackie who was still chatting away in the kitchen.

Hyde rolled his eyes and pushed on Fez's shoulder to get his attention again. "Because it took me hours just to come up with my first proposal, and Jackie's going to want some overly romantic gesture out of me that I just don't do. So I'm going to have to think of a way give her what she wants but still being me."

"So you think a little circle time is going to help with that?"

"Yeah, some of my best ideas have been in the circle."

Hyde didn't appreciate the disbelieving scowl scorned across Fez's brow. "What?"

Fez folded his arms across his chest, spreading his legs slightly so he could project his usually nonexistent confidence and dominance. "Hyde, you're my good friend, but Jackie is too. I know you love her, but you have a tendency to disappoint her when it comes to these types of things."

Jealousy and irritation chomped tiny holes in the lining of Hyde's stomach. He didn't like Fez's judgmental stare of the criticism he had rarely dished out. Hyde knew he wasn't perfect and Jackie certainly could do a lot better than him, but only he was allowed to have those thoughts. And then Hyde remembered how just weeks before, Jackie was supposedly Fez's girl, making her no longer his anymore. A possessive worm crawled up Hyde's back, making his hair stand on end; his body begging for a physical release instead of the verbal one he smartly chose instead.

"What, you think you could do better than me, Fez? You can actually satisfy her?"

Hyde noticed the tightening of Fez's jaw, and Hyde was positive he had hit the spot he was looking for. The deep brown eyes that had been challenging him, daring him to prove them wrong lost their hardness. Fez quickly looked away.

"Just promise me you won't leave her crying for months again. Then we won't have a problem at all."

Hyde still stood tall over his friend; however he felt his territorial aggression begin to take a downward spiral. "Things are different now, Fez. I'm different now."

Fez slowly nodded his head, sighing as he let his defeated smile be revealed. "I hope you're right."

Jackie gave a little wave when Fez and Hyde announced they were leaving as she continued to chatter away to Donna about the good news.

"And I wasn't even really that upset that he didn't have a ring with him right then, you know? I'm just so happy that he finally did it!"

"That's great, Jackie. I guess getting his memory wasn't such a bad thing for you guys after all. So, did he say anything about Sam?"

Donna's question popped Jackie's little euphoria bubble. She thought back to Hyde's rant about not wanting to take responsibility for his choices. Some things were just meant to be kept between her and Steven.

"Yes, he did a little, but it was all so fast and he pretty much just got right to the proposal." Jackie squealed again. "Donna, Steven and I are getting married!"

"You know, I'm surprised you aren't chewing his head off about not proposing to you with a huge romantic gesture like you've always dreamed of."

Jackie rolled her eyes despite Donna's inability to even see her annoyance. "It was romantic, Donna. It caught me off guard and was very spontaneous."

"It just sounds to me like Hyde half assed it like he always does."

"Oh, what do you know? Eric proposed to you on the dirty water tower!"

"Hey!" Donna exclaimed. "That night was very magical for us." Jackie heard Donna giggle, something that hadn't happened at all since her and Eric's breakup.

"Wait a minute. Did something happen between you and nerd boy?"

"Yeah. When you and Hyde were on your picnic, he came over dressed up real nice and took me to the Vineyard. We had a really good time."

Jackie could practically see the smile on Donna's face from how happy she sounded. She couldn't help but smile a little bit to herself. It seemed like everything was going back to the way it was when they were all happy and in love.

"So are you guys back together?"

"Well, sort of, but sort of not."

"Oh god," Jackie sighed. "This isn't like right after the wedding that didn't happen, is it? Where you guys were together but not calling yourself anything?"

"No, no. We're just going to take things really slow. Get to know each other again. We're like starting all over from our first date."

"Yeah, Steven and I said we were going to take things slow. Guess that didn't really happen."

"Well, has it ever happened that way with you guys?"

Jackie blinked a few times and then smiled widely remembering how intense everything was for them even back during the summer they had hooked up. She let a tiny giggle escape from her mouth. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Oh, Donna, I'm so excited! I'm getting married!"

"Well I'm happy for you, midget. Let's just hope that Hyde doesn't somehow find a way to mess this up."

"Oh god, I totally just messed this up." Hyde exclaimed and he stomped back into the basement from his bedroom where Eric, Fez, and Kelso were waiting for him to start a circle.

"What did you do this time?" Eric asked as he lit some incense and placed the stick in the center.

"I can't find the ring I got for Jackie." Hyde said as he covered his face with his hand, sighing in defeat. "I looked all over that god damn room too."

Kelso jumped back and held out his long arms in panic. "Wait, did you look in the air conditioning vent by your bed?"

"No, why would I put a ring in there?"

Kelso relaxed in relief, hardly attempting to mask his guilt subtly. "No reason."

Hyde shook his head. "Even though I know you hid something in there now, I don't even care because I have a much bigger problem now."

"Yes," Fez nodded. "Your romantic picnic and thoughtful shoebox are going to mean nothing now. Jackie doesn't like it when she's expecting a present and doesn't get it."

"Wait a second," Eric interrupted and pointed across the circular table at Hyde. "You gave Jackie a shoebox?"

"Yes, it was filled with all of the notes and pictures Hyde kept of Jackie's over the years." Fez added. "Our friend Hyde is very romantic when he wants to be. Like this one time Jackie said he…Ai!"

Hyde brought back his fist that he had just used to punch Fez with to rest in his lap again. "Do you think you can keep your mouth shut for a few minutes and try not to make look like a girl?"

Fez frowned at him, clearly offended by his accusation. "I don't see what your problem is. I'm just trying to show everyone that you're the sensitive man that I always knew you were."

"Yeah, Hyde." Eric butted in. "We already know Jackie has you whipped anyways. That's old news. Now onto bigger and better things such as my date with Donna last night."

"Alright" Kelso shouted. "Did you score with her?"

"No…"

"Well what's the fun in telling us your date if you didn't do it with her?"

"Yeah, Forman." Hyde smirked. "You call me whipped. At least I got somewhere with Jackie last night, and it was good." Hyde grinned to himself at the memory.

"Well you won't be getting any more from Jackie any time soon when she finds out you lost her ring." Kelso snickered. He began rubbing his chest. "Yep, she'll just have to come back to me for all of her physical needs."

Hyde's fist violently came in contact with Kelso's upper arm, causing him to yelp out in pain.

"Kelso's right though." Eric nodded his head. "Jackie is never going to forgive you after this."

"I know!" Fez exclaimed. "Just think of the last time you remember seeing the ring."

Hyde thought for a few moments, each second that passed by his frown dropped further. "Humph, I can't seem to remember at all. I thought I had this memory thing back!"

"You are so screwed!" Kelso laughed and pointed.

"I know, okay? Just none of you tell Jackie about this."

"Tell me, what?"

All four of the boys' heads whipped towards the bottom of the staircase where Jackie and Donna stood with puzzled expressions.

"That Hyde can't find the ring he got you." Fez blurted out.

Hyde was about to turn around and punish Fez in the only way he knew how, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from his wide-eyed fiancé, who might not be his fiancé soon. Their eyes met from across the room, and Hyde could see the pure devastation in them. Jackie quickly turned away and felt her feet carry her up the stairs again, running as far away as she could.

"Crap." Hyde mumbled and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Hey Big D." Kelso winked from over the couch. "So I hear you and Eric are split up again."

"Kelso!" Eric exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air. "I'm right here."

"Yeah but this is like your billionth chance with Donna! Learn to share a little, Eric."

"Aren't you and Brooke sort of starting something, Kelso?" Donna asked.

"Yeah." Kelso sat back against the couch and smiled. "You know I think Brooke might be the one. Maybe I should ask Brooke to marry me. I'll just make sure not to let Hyde look after the ring."

Hyde shot a glare at Kelso, barely hearing Eric yell, "Burn!" at his expense. He just got up from his chair and marched back in his room to search for a ring that he just knew had to be in there somewhere.

Jackie sniffled as she sat on the dusty counter of what used to be the Foto Hut. No one had bought the tiny shop yet and Jackie would come here a lot to be alone. Throughout the day she had gone through a rollercoaster of emotions, but for the most part she had been beyond happy. It was definitely the best she had felt in a very long time. However, despite all the amazing things that had happened that assured her she would be happy forever, she was once again sitting in the looming darkness disappointed.

It wasn't really the ring that was getting her upset. As materialistic as she still was, Jackie realized that it was more important that Hyde actually proposed in the first place. She had dreamt of many different places and ways that he would finally pop the question to her, but none of that even crossed her mind when it actually happened. All she could think of were his words and that beat any fantasy she ever had. Even though the ring wasn't the most important thing, it still hurt her to no end that he could just so carelessly lose it. Was that how much she really meant to him?

Jackie wiped her eyes as she heard the jingling of keys from the other side of the door. She knew it had to be Hyde because he was the only person in their entire little town that had keys to this place.

Jackie noticed that he didn't seem too surprised to see her there despite the fact that from what she knew, he had no idea she even came here. He closed the door behind him, leaning against the door as he stared at her.

"I didn't know you came here." He finally said after a long, testing silence. "How did you get in without a key?"

"You never locked the window when you closed this place. It just slides right up." Jackie said, looking down at her dangling feet. She felt him approaching her, but she chose to just continue to stare downwards. Her insides were mushy and conflicted, and she knew he would be able to see that if she met his gaze.

"I found the ring." He stated as he stood next to her, leaning against the counter.

"Great." Jackie said sarcastically still staring down, refusing to look at him.

"Look Jackie, I didn't lose the ring on purpose, okay? It just wasn't in the place I remembered putting it last. I did just recover from memory loss, you know."

Jackie folded her arms and looked to the window of the Foto Hut, hoping Hyde would get a good look of the scowl she had on her face. "I'm not going to feel sorry for you anymore, Steven, so don't try and make me."

Hyde sighed and stood in front of Jackie, resting his hand on her knee. He stared at her for a few seconds, hoping his uncovered eyes alone could get her to look at him, but Jackie was just as stubborn as he was. "Look Jackie. I got that ring a while ago and I hid it in my special spot that I always put the things I need to be safe at. When it wasn't there, I panicked. There is nowhere else in my room that I would trust to hide it. I started thinking that maybe Sam found it and threw it away, or possibly someone was…"

"Wait," Jackie stopped him, forgetting about her little "no looking" grudge. "You got the ring before Sam?"

Hyde stood still for a few moments, his nerves nervously tingling from the memories. "Um, yeah. I got it when I went for you in Chicago."

A knife stabbed into Jackie. There was that feeling again that she hated more than anything. Regret. It always snuck up on her at the most inopportune moments just like this one.

"I thought you said you weren't ready to get married yet."

Hyde heard Jackie's voice getting raspy with tears. They were digging at old wounds they had both wished had stayed buried.

"Well after you know, what happened in Chicago, I decided we needed to wait a little longer."

The knife in Jackie's chest twisted against her bones. Old, destructive thoughts that she could have prevented all of this hurt just by telling Michael to go to his own hotel room sprung alive inside of her again. She bowed her head down in shame, feeling the sting of an all too familiar hurt that used to haunt her dreams at night. His rant earlier that day about him being irresponsible and cowardly was a lie. He stayed with Sam because of what she did, and now she knew it for sure.

"Jackie…" Hyde called to her, trying to lift her chin with his cupped hand. She wouldn't budge though. Hyde could feel her body shake with the tiny sobs that she was holding inside of her. "Jackie, I know what you're doing, so stop it. Stop blaming yourself."

"Why should I stop?" She yelled, startlingly the both of them for a second. "You're not the only screw up in this relationship, Steven! I've made mistakes too."

"I've forgiven you for those though, Jackie. Look," Hyde grabbed her hand and held it tightly in his. "We have to put that stuff in the past if we're ever going to make this work again, and I want to make this work. If you hadn't noticed, I wasn't doing so well without you."

Warmth spread throughout Jackie's body, soothing away her self-abuse. That always happened when their bodies were close to each other just like now. His hips were in between her knees, and his face was so close to hers, she could feel his hot breath blow lightly against her cheek when he spoke. They were terrible when it came to this verbal communication kind of thing, but it was moments like these that Jackie knew they were together for a reason larger than the two of them alone. Most people talked about their doubts and fears to get over these problems with their loves, but words weren't a part of their language. Jackie knew exactly what he was trying to tell her as he squeezed her hand that rested in her lap. She knew he got exactly what she was saying when she rested her forehead against his and he closed his eyes. Somewhere along the road, they had lost this connection they had with each other to her insecure persistence and his paranoid cowardliness. Jackie dried her eyes and promised herself that she would make sure neither of them ever slipped away again.

"So where did you end up finding the ring?" Jackie whispered, squeezing his hand once more for reassurance.

"In a notebook I have on my dresser beside my bed."

Hyde chose to leave a few details out for her about what really happened to the ring. He really meant what he said about leaving these things in the past. When he came across it, his memories came back to him much like they did earlier that day. When Sam had left to be with her husband, much to Hyde's own relief, he had pulled the ring out of his secret spot and looked at it for a very long time. He placed it in his journal, not wanting to hide it away from the world or himself. However, the day Jackie had come to him to ask if he was okay with her dating Fez, he threw the ring at his wall, hoping the damn thing would break into pieces. But even his force wasn't strong enough to even leave a scratch. He had stared at its perfection glittering on the floor as it mocked that hopeless feeling he let consume him. Despite the intense self loathing he felt, he still didn't have the heart to hide the ring again. He placed it in his notebook once more, leaving it in the open as a remembrance.

Hyde freed his hand from Jackie's grip and fished in his pocket for the indestructible ring. He could feel her wiggling with excitement against his hips only to stop once he had presented it in front of them.

"Steven," Jackie gasped. "It's beautiful."

Hyde cleared his throat, knowing he needed to say a few words to her. Everything he had come up with while he went searching the town for her always turned out too cheesy and something that Forman would say. It just wasn't him at all. Jackie deserved something real from him.

"Jackie, I've kept this from you for a long time, and who knows, maybe everything that has happened to us was supposed to for a reason. I think I've figured it out now and I think this is what is meant for us. Even if I'm wrong, I want to risk it now."

Hyde slid the ring on her finger, their foreheads still touching as they looked down at her hand. Jackie moved her head slowly to kiss the lips of the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with. They were unconventional and far from perfect. Donna and Eric even went as far as to refer to them as a creepy and unnatural couple. That might have been true, but whoever said that that was a bad thing?

AN2: I was going to make this little speech for my last chapter, but that one is insanely happy so I'm going to do it now. I wrote this story for a reason, and it's sort of a dedication to zennies everywhere. Season 8 truly scarred us. How they ended Jackie and Hyde was cruel and unusual and they really made it seem like they never gave a rat's ass about each other. So many of us just choose to deny the seasons existence because it hurt so bad. I myself am guilty of that and even after writing this I'm still guilty of that. But, I wrote this to show that we just can't forget about what happened. As much as we would like to sweep what was done to them under the rug and lose our memories about it, what happened was still important. We are all here reading and writing because of how badly we were betrayed by the writers we thought loved them as much as we do. The idea for this story was the best one I have had to right the wrongs and actually make what happened to them seem important instead of complete shit.

On a happier note, be expecting an AU fic from me very soon. It doesn't take place in any particular season. It's AU to the extreme when it comes to getting these two together. I think you guys will really enjoy it.