Wow everyone, the response to the last chapter was better than I could have hoped. Thanks so much. I know you're all confused, but like I said, all you need is a little patience. And yes, I wrote that in my Axel Rose voice.

This chapter is really kind of boring action wise. But we have to start at the beginning if we're going to get to how Hyde got in his present state right? I don't know if I mentioned this before, but this story is going to be long. It might be awhile before we actually get to the events of the prior chapter. My advice is to enjoy the ride, because a lot is going to happen.

The Long, Lost Princess.

Three months ago…

The only thought in Jackie's head was that she was going to have a bruise on her hip from where her boyfriend was pressing his hand. She found though that she really didn't care however, because his other hand was tracing its way up her other thigh and his mouth was placing gentle kisses on her neck. Smiling, she wrapped her arms around him, tugging at his shirt.

The thought that they were doing this in a hospital bed didn't even occur in Jackie's mind. All that mattered was that he, her Steven, was with her and for the first time in over a year, she was truly happy.

Her only regret was that it took her falling into a creek, drowning and landing in a coma for that to happen. When she had first woken up from her dream of being a lost princess in a fairy tale land, she had been scared of what was going to happen. Even though she knew it had just been a dream, it had felt more real than anything else in her life, including her father going to prison, her relationships with her boyfriend and her friends. It was almost like all of those things had been the dream, and her battling an evil queen with the guidance of a man who could make himself invisible had been real. At least once a day, she had to remind herself that she really was in a hospital bed, and that her friends weren't just figments of her imagination.

The truth was though, that part of Jackie missed the dream world, not because it was easier than dealing with reality, because she knew that in some ways, the dream world had been even scarier. Even though the man she had affectionately named Not! Eric had been there, she had been alone in those woods, desperately trying to find her prince and a way home. What she missed was the feeling of being strong, and independent. Reality was just a hospital bed, daily tests and long hours of physical therapy to strengthen her body. When Hyde wasn't there, Donna or someone else was. She was never alone.

Choosing to ignore these thoughts, Jackie went back to kissing Hyde. She had made the right choice.

Right?

"It's time for therapy miss Burkhart." The chipper nurse said the next morning as she wheeled in the wheel chair for Jackie. .

"How am I supposed to eat this Darla, how?" Jackie looked up at the nurse from her breakfast. She put the plastic fork onto the over cooked scrambled eggs in disgust.

Darla leaned over and looked at the eggs. "Are those green?"

Jackie stared at Darla in contempt. "Yes, they are, I'm not eating anything that's green."

"Maybe you could pretend you're Sam I am." The nurse suggested.

"And maybe you could find a hairstyle that doesn't make you look like Mrs. Brady." Jackie challenged.

The nurse shook her head at Jackie. "I liked you better when you were in a coma."

"I'm telling Kitty you said that." Jackie promised.

The nurse shook her head again, taking away the tray of food. "Never mind that now, we have to get you to Doctor Benson."

"But I don't wanna go see him." Jackie whined. "He's a Nazi."

"Now come on Burk, I know you don't like therapy but that doesn't mean that Doctor Benson is a Nazi."

Jackie raised her eyebrows at the woman as she struggled to get out of her bed and into the wheel chair. "How do you explain the mustache then?"

The nurse just shrugged as she started to wheel Jackie out of the room. She was used to this behavior from Jackie, had even come to expect it.

"Here we are." Carla said as they reached the doors to the psychiatrist's office. She quickly tapped on the door to let them know inside that they were there, and then stood back and waited. A moment later, another nurse opened the doors and smiled.

"I'll be back in an hour." Carla told Jackie, who simply shrugged in response.

The moment the other nurse took a hold of Jackie's chair and wheeled her into the office where a balding man who was making coffee with his back turned to Jackie. Jackie sat down on the plush leather sofa as the other nurse walked out.

"Well if it isn't our sleeping princess, awake from the dead." Unlike all the other people had to see during her stay at the hospital, it was only Doctor Benson who liked to constantly remind Jackie that she had, in fact, died twice. This, the mustache and his constant passive aggressive attempts to make her open up gave her plenty of ammunition to hate him with every fiber of her being.

"Oh good, you're here." Doctor Benson said as he turned around, stirring his coffee as he sat down in the chair across from Jackie.

"We have a lot to talk about today." He always started their sessions with this phrase.

Jackie rolled her eyes. "When are they going to let me out?"

"That depends on you Jackie." The doctor said. "Do you think you're ready?"

Whether she was actually ready or not was irrelevant as far as Jackie was concerned. All that mattered was being able to walk out the front doors and into the world again.

"Of course." Jackie said masking her own doubts. "I've been ready; it's been you creeps who're keeping me here."

"Well, Jackie, we just want to make sure you're okay. You did suffer a massive concussion."

Jackie rolled her eyes. "I hit my head on a rock and drowned, of course I had a massive concussion, but as you can tell, no headaches, no internal bleeding or swelling, I'm fine. I do however have a craving for coffee now, do you think that could mean something?"

The doctor shook his head. "You're doing it again Jackie."

"Let me guess, I'm avoiding the issue." Jackie crossed her arms. "Okay here's the deal, I want to go home. I want to go to my house and sleep in my own bed. I want to go hang out in the basement with my friends and watch television and I want to eat Kitty Forman's breakfasts and not have to talk to you or to any other doctor ever again."

"Tell me about your friends." The shrink suggested. "How was your relationship with them before your accident?"

"It was fine." Jackie replied shortly.

"The police report said that Steven Hyde was drunk that night, want to talk about that?"

"Not really."

"The report also said that the two of you had been arguing that day." The doctor was attempting to lead Jackie on, but it wasn't working.

"So?" Jackie asked, "I fell off a log while trying to cross a flooded creek while wearing high heel boots. Something bad was bound to happen."

"What about your friends, did they try to rescue you after you fell in?"

Jackie stared at the doctor in contempt. He was digging far too deep for Jackie's comfort.

"How much longer do I have?" Jackie asked as she tried to look at the clock on his desk.

"You still have forty five minutes." Doctor Benson replied after taking a glance at the clock. "And I'm expecting you to use it wisely."

"Well, in that case…" Jackie replied with a smile, "Tell me, what's up with that mustache."

Fifteen minutes later, Doctor Benson threw his glasses onto the ground.

"Okay, you clearly don't want to do this."

"Now he gets it." Jackie stated. "I'm ready to go home, why can't any of you see that?"

The psychiatrist studied Jackie closely. "What will you do when you get there?"

"What do you mean?" Jackie asked, "You means besides take a shower and wash the smell of death off me?"

"Interesting choice of words there." Doctor Benson said smiling.

"What?" Jackie asked, "This is a hospital, people die here." The words I died here went unspoken. She glared at him, "I swear if the next words out of your mouth are how does that make you feel, I'm walking out."

"You know what, I think that's enough for today." Doctor Benson said standing up, "I'll see you on Thursday."

"What, that's it, I still have ten minutes left." Jackie said, surprised.

"Look Jackie, I've been doing this for over twenty years, but I've never met anyone quite like you before. I wouldn't wish what you went through on my worst enemy, and the fact that you don't want to talk about it, I'm just not sure I can help you."

Jackie sighed, "It's not that I don't want to talk about it, it's just that I don't know if I can. I feel like I've been given a new start you know? Why would I want to ruin that with talk about the past?"

The doctor didn't say anything, he merely waited for Jackie to continue.

"Before that night, I was having the worst year of my life, and then, when I woke up, it was like… here I am again, ready to do it all again, only this time, it wasn't just me who had changed. Steven made that whore go away, and Donna… Donna was really great the day after I woke up. She came in and we cried together and when she apologized, I knew that she meant it. So, maybe me falling in that creek wasn't such a bad thing." Jackie gave the doctor a small smile.

"So you're saying you think your dying was a catalyst for change?" When Jackie nodded, Doctor Benson continued. "What if you hadn't been revived?"

"Am I supposed to guess?" Jackie asked sarcastically.

"No, that's a dumb question, forget I asked it." The doctor replied flippantly. "Now go. I'll see you Thursday."

Jackie couldn't get out of there fast enough.

By the time Jackie got back to her room, Hyde, Donna, Fez and Kelso had already arrived.

"Where were you?" Hyde asked as Jackie climbed back into her bed. He handed her a cup of water. Jackie smiled at him and took a sip.

"With Dr. Benson." Jackie complained. "I swear if he asks me what being dead is like one more time…"

"What is being dead like?" Kelso blurted out as Jackie took another drink of her water.

Everyone but Jackie turned and glared at Kelso. Hyde reached over and frogged him on the arm. Jackie however, remained silent. She could feel the poison go down her throat, coating her insides like hot lava.

"No!" Jackie screamed, throwing the cup of water.

Everything seemed to happen in an instant. Fez was running out the door to get help, Kelso was apologizing fervently, Hyde was telling him to shut up, Donna was putting her arms around a sobbing Jackie in an attempt to calm her down.

"I'm so sorry." Kelso repeated. "I'm so, so, so sorry. I didn't mean it, really."

Jackie blinked. "What?" She looked around the room at the worried faces surrounding her. She was about to ask what happened when Fez came running back into the room with Carla.

"What is it Jackie?" Carla asked in her soothing tone.

"It's nothing." Jackie said. "I'm fine."

"That was not nothing." Hyde stated, "Something freaked her out and she threw her water." Hyde told Carla.

Carla merely nodded her head. "I'm going to go find Dr. Benson."

"No." Jackie shook her head. "There's no need to get him." But it was too late, Carla had already left to retrieve the psychiatrist. While they waited, the group remained silent in their own thoughts. Kelso stared at his shoes, embarrassed and guilty, Fez kept looking back and forth between Hyde and Donna, who were standing on either side of Jackie, both holding her hands. Jackie felt comforted by the gesture, and was staring to feel better when Dr. Benson walked in.

"May I speak to the patient privately please?" He asked.

Hyde looked down at Jackie. "You sure?"

Jackie nodded. "I'm sure."

He and the others nodded their consent to the doctor and walked out of the room, closing the door behind them as they walked out. When they were alone, Dr. Benson sat in Hyde's chair.

"Steven really doesn't like it when people sit in his chair." Jackie told him.

"Is it because it's uncomfortable, no wonder he's so cranky." The doctor joked. "So, want to tell me what happened?" It wasn't a suggestion.

"Michael asked me what it was like being dead."

"So?" The doctor inquired, "I ask you that all the time."

"No." Jackie said, "It wasn't like how you ask it. When you ask me about being dead, you're asking about my feelings regarding my recovery. He was asking what it's literally like being dead."

"Oh." Dr. Benson nodded thoughtfully. "So what happened then?"

"I guess the question freaked me out a little." Jackie admitted. There was no way she was going to tell him what she had felt though. It was merely her imagination playing tricks on her. She wasn't going to do anything to jeopardize her chances of leaving the hospital.

"Well, death is a traumatic experience." The doctor said thoughtfully.

"But that's just it." Jackie said, "How can something be traumatic if I don't even remember it?" It was technically true after all. She remembered falling into the creek; she remembered dreaming about being in a fairytale. She even remembered being poisoned and waking up in the Prince's arms. She even remembered the sight of Hyde's eyes when she woke up, but she couldn't actually remember being dead.

So why did it freak her out so much?

Soon after her inner revelation, Dr. Benson left, leaving Jackie with orders to get rest. When the gang came in to tell Jackie goodnight, she knew that he must have given them orders to let Jackie rest. Hyde raised his eyebrow, silently asking her if she wanted him to stay or go. She moved over on the bed to make room for him in response.

"Look, Jackie…" Kelso started.

"Michael, it's fine. I forgive you." Jackie interjected. "I love you all." She waved to the group.

"We love you too." They told her in unison.

When they were alone, Hyde walked over to the wall to turn off the light.

"Steven?" Jackie asked in the dark.

"Yeah Jackie?"

"What happened when I died?"

If you're wondering if you should leave a review, just do what I do and ask what would Jackie do?

Jackie would leave a review.