A/N: You guys seriously ROCK MY WORLD! I loved each and every one of your reviews, and I'm so happy that everybody liked the last chapter! I was worried that the gang didn't behave in character, but I'm so happy everyone enjoyed it. The first part of this chapter is my love letter to my hometown, NYC (AKA: THE BEST FUCKING CITY IN THE WORLD!). I just hope that this chapter fulfills your expectations (I'm not too happy w/ it)…and if it doesn't…LIE TO ME! Lol

Disclaimer: Seriously…? Look at Season 8. You'd think I'd be responsible for that abomination?

Chapter 5: There's Something about Jackie

They say that New York is gritty. That if you don't behave accordingly, the city can chew you up and spit you out. That it welcomes the bright-eyed and bushy tailed only to spit them out, jaded and cynical.

And they wouldn't necessarily be wrong.

But they wouldn't be totally right, either.

In the months that followed, as Jackie found her apartment, found a job, and immersed herself in her new life, she fell in love with New York in almost the same way that she fell in love with Hyde.

Rashly. Stupidly.

Passionately.

There were days when she would stop in the middle of the sidewalk – a piece of the old vivacious Jackie Burkhart shining through – and she would marvel at the new city she had adopted as her home.

After the pain and sorrow of the closing months of 1979, the city that Frank Sinatra sang about had laid a soothing balm over the wounds of Jackie's soul. In this city where misunderstood misfits and high society rubbed elbows on the subway, she found a peace that had seemingly eluded her since the moment Steven Hyde had walked out of her life.

It was a peace that she thought she would never feel again.

New York, with all of its flaws and hang ups and hardness, still had the capacity to enrapture, and captivate those that had crawled to its borders with their need to escape. It embraced all that came to find hope and happiness. It demanded that you grow up, and forced maturity on those foolish to believe that the freedom the city offered didn't come with a price.

And that was something that Jackie Burkhart knew very well. For everything comes with a price.

Wasn't she still paying for Hyde?

It was this fact, this single fact, that pissed Jackie off to no end. For she knew, as certain as she knew her own name, that no one would ever love him like she did. That no other woman could bury herself in him, surround herself with all that he was and yet still crave more of him. She had needed him like she had needed air to breathe, and instead of it making her feel weak and helpless, the need to love him made her feel strong and capable.

And then he shattered it.

And she knew, that no matter what happened, no matter if she never saw him again, Steven Hyde would always have a piece of her. He would carry a piece of her heart and soul around with him to the end of time, and there was fucking nothing she could do about it. And Jackie was livid, furious that someone who had treated her so badly could yet and still reign over that stupid hopeful corner of her heart that still believed in unicorns and fairy tales.

She wanted the memory of Hyde to be forgotten.

Over.

Done.

And she was furious that his face was the last thing she thought about before she went to sleep, and the first thing she longed for in the morning.

It was this very fury that had her accepting a date with Nathan Taylor.

Nathan Taylor was, for all intents and purposes, the big man on campus. His father was a big shot executive at Columbia Records, and according to campus gossip, Nathan was to follow in his father's footsteps. He was good looking and charming, with a sharp wit and intelligence to match.

There was a waiting list for the waiting list to be the next notch on his belt.

But he didn't want those other girls.

He wanted Jackie Burkhart.

And he couldn't even really explain why. There was just something about this girl. She just wasn't like the other girls. She wasn't fazed by his pedigree or his credentials, or the fact that he can get them into any place she wanted. She barely looked at him.

She just wasn't interested.

But, he was.

He wasn't even sure why he was so focused on her, but she...she just brought out this need for him to protect her from all the big bad wolves out there. She could dish it out like the rest of them, but there was something about Jackie, other than her stature, that screamed small to him. Like she would break if you weren't careful.

The first time he saw her, Nate had spotted her walking out of class one afternoon, and he had never seen a girl more beautiful than she was. As he stood against the wall, waiting for his sister to come out of the very room Jackie had stepped out from, his gray eyes traced her every curve. She was laughing, talking to some kid from her class, and even in her laughter, Nate could tell that her whole heart wasn't in it.

And he wanted to know why.

So he pressed his sister Melissa for information. They had class together, didn't they? She was bound to know some background information on Jackie.

Melissa gave him shit for it, but Nate couldn't care less. He just couldn't get Jackie's face out of his mind.

It was almost embarrassing.

As always, Melissa came through for him (after weeks of him begging, of course, that bitch), and was able to choreograph a run-in with her brother as she walked outside of the class she shared with Jackie. By that point, after weeks of getting to know Jackie and telling her brother to hold his horses, Melissa, too, fell in love with the brunette. There was just something about this girl (which she was loathe to admit since that was the very thing that Nate had tried to explain to her) that screamed to Melissa that Jackie needed a friend.

And friendship was something that Melissa Taylor did exceptionally well.

For Melissa, it took exactly five minutes of conversation with Jackie Burkhart to know that this girl was special. But, even in the politeness that Jackie had displayed throughout their first conversation, Melissa got the feeling that she was being measured up, but Jackie's measuring stick wasn't like others of her age. Melissa wasn't being measured by her connections, or her last name, her pedigree, or even her choice of major.

Jackie was measuring Melissa on her willingness to hurt her. To break her.

To shatter her.

Melissa passed.

But Jackie kept holding her cards close to the chest, and she wouldn't give up personal information unless forced to do so. Oh, a bit of the old Jackie Burkhart that Melissa never knew came out, when she would talk endlessly about clothes and makeup and the latest trends. But Melissa wasn't stupid. She knew why Jackie would rarely talk about her life outside of New York.

She knew a broken girl when she saw one.

So she choreographed the meeting with Jackie and Nate, hoping that setting Jackie up with her brother would ignite the Jackie fire that Melissa hadn't yet seen, but felt regardless.

It was a fire that she suspected was doused before Jackie walked along the crowded streets of New York.

It was a fire that both brother and sister were eager to re-ignite.

Jackie knew what brother and sister were up to when she first met Nathan. She was Jackie Burkhart, after all, she knew when she was being set up. And while a part of her was furious at Melissa (though it technically wasn't her fault, she never brought up Stev – damn it, Jackie, I thought we went over this! It's HYDE! – name in conversation, how would Melissa know she was still picking up the pieces of the shell of Jackie that Hyde had left behind?), she understood that, like her own matchmaking, Melissa's intentions were good and came from an honest place.

That still didn't mean that Jackie was going to go out Nathan.

Jackie and Nate's first meeting went as smoothly as can be expected – if the expectation was that it would be extremely awkward, with two of the participants knowing all of their lines, while the third stood by, unknowing. Melissa and Nathan invited Jackie out for coffee, and while Jackie knew that at any moment, Melissa would come up with an excuse to leave both Jackie and Nate alone together, she had accepted the invitation.

It was free coffee after all.

And, just like Jackie knew she would, Melissa came up with a – in Jackie's mind, sorry – excuse to jet away.

"Oh my God, where is my head? I was supposed to meet with my dean like ten minutes ago! I'm so sorry, I gotta go!"

And with a flounce of her dark hair – and a secret wink she threw in her brother's direction – Melissa left.

Nate smiled. Finally…

"You know, I just remembered that I have something to do, too. It was nice meeting you, Nathan. See you around."

And with that, the girl of Nathan Taylor's dreams walked away.

Nathan frowned after her.

Then he smiled.

Oh, she's good, he thought…

For almost two weeks, that's the way it went. Melissa and Nathan would invite Jackie out for coffee or a bite to eat, and as the three started to make their way over, Melissa would come up with an excuse to leave. Without fail, Jackie would do the same, leaving Nate frustrated and yet, still remarkably turned on by her stubbornness.

Both brother and sister knew that Jackie was onto them.

At first, Jackie's refusal to be alone with Nate confused and frustrated them both. But if it was anything that Jeremiah Taylor taught his two children, it was that if you saw something you wanted, you went out and fought for it. Persistence and dog-headedness were traits that described the elder Taylor to a tee, and they were also traits that he had passed along to his children. "Nothing that feels right is ever easy," he'd say to his kids. "If you don't have to work hard for it, then most likely whatever you're after isn't worth very much."

And Nathan Taylor knew this much – Jackie Burkhart was worth a lot.

So he had no problem putting in the extra work. To him, Jackie felt right, and he was going to do what his daddy told him to do.

Fight for her.

So, the routine changed somewhat – instead of dashing off to be somewhere else, when the brother and sister duo invited Jackie out, Melissa would be there. While Jackie was surprised at the sudden change of events, she didn't question it. After all, these two wanted to hang out, and who was she to deny them of her beauty and grace?

And that's how the new routine started – Melissa and Nathan would invite Jackie out for coffee, to go out to the movies, to the hundreds of things there was to do in the city, and she would go. And Jackie was grateful. She had forgotten what it was like to simply hang out, without the threat of cruel burns and intense discomfort dangling over her head. Slowly, minute by minute, she was regaining all that she had lost in Point Place those last few months of 1979. Her vivacity, her passion…

Herself.

But fate would sometimes intervene on Hyde's behalf – and fuck her over.

Hearing Zeppelin on the jukebox in some bar, fuck - just being at a bar that had Zeppelin on the jukebox – could still send Jackie into a complete tailspin. She would hear the opening chords of "Thank You" or "Since I've Been Loving You" and the pain she thought over would come rushing back, stronger than ever. She would make some lame excuse to leave, and she would rush back to her apartment, tears running down her face, and a burning hatred for all things related to Steven James Hyde.

And a fury that wouldn't let her sleep.

And so it was this fury that now had her accepting a date with Nathan, much to both his and his sister's delight. Nate was smart enough to know that it wasn't out of Jackie's genuine desire to go out with him, but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He already (barely) had her friendship, he wasn't going to go fuck up any opportunity to get her attention romantically.

He had had the night planned out since the moment he saw her face, and had decided that Jackie was a woman that needed to be dazzled. So he took her to New York's most expensive restaurant, his father's name getting them the best table, and took her out dancing to the most exclusive club. Nathan had never tried so hard with any of his other girlfriends.

He had never gone this far out for them, either.

As Nate sat with Jackie in the car that he had hired for the evening, he couldn't help but wonder why Jackie seemed a bit preoccupied throughout the entire night. In fact, there were several times when he would say that she actually looked….bored.

"Penny for your thoughts," he called.

Jackie turned her gaze from the window to his face. "Oh, sorry. I was just thinking about some things."

"I see that. Care to share?"

She giggled softly. "And ruin the mystery? Where's the fun in that?"

"Ahhhh, a challenge! You know, I have ways of making ladies such as yourself talk…" Nate warned, taking hold of her hand and kissing it lavishly.

She again giggled, and a part of her wanted to die inside. Here was this guy, this great guy, who had picked her up in a chauffeured car, taken her to the most expensive restaurant, and danced with her in the city's most exclusive club.

So why wasn't she happy?

It didn't escape Jackie the old Jackie would have loved to be on this date, with NYU's most eligible bachelor. The irony of it was rich. The old Jackie would have jumped and squealed at everything Nate did tonight; instead, this new Jackie was a bit bored and wished to be anyplace else.

All because of Steven.

And it pissed her off.

Made her want to rage against whatever deity had made her fall so hard for a man that held nothing but contempt for her, and have her herself just hold nothing but kind regard to the man who sat beside her, trying his best to win her over.

It just wasn't fucking fair.

As the car pulled up to Jackie's building, the air inside the car got a tad more awkward. Nate and Jackie looked at each other, with one hoping for a good night kiss and the other quietly seething that a Wisconsin burnout still held so much of her soul in his hands.

"So…" Nate began.

"Do you wanna come inside?"