There is good news and bad news, the good news is I'm posting another chapter! The bad is that this will probably be the last chapter until sometime after the new year. I'm going with my boyfriend to spend time with his family in California for two weeks, and then I'm going to D.C to get my history geek on. In other words, I'm going to D.C to drink. Yay me!

Thank you all for your reviews. I love reading your theories! A lot of you have said you're confused still, but remember that this story is going to be long. Act I will be at least ten chapters long if not more. Most questions that were brought up in chapter one will be answered by the end of Act I. So remember, we've only just begun.

This is by far, my favorite thing I've ever written, and I'm so excited it, mostly because I know where it's going. Into the Woods was written so I could write this story. I'm writing parts of act I and II simultaneously and I think it's some of my best writing.

I don't own anything that may or may not be in this story except for the idea, and even that can be debated.

So I Put My Arms Around You.

Donna sat down with her trey of gross cafeteria food at their usual table in the hospital cafeteria. It was surreal that they actually had a usual table. For weeks now, Donna felt as though she spent more time there than she did her actual home or the radio station. She sat down across from Fez who was already eating.

"Donna." He said with a mouth full of food.

"It's okay to swallow before you say hello." Donna told him.

Fez chewed the rest of his food, swallowed and then smiled guiltily. "You'll never guess what I heard."

Donna rolled her eyes. "Fez, I'm not going to gossip with you, go find Jackie if you want to do that."

Fez smiled conspiratorially. "But it's about Jackie." He whispered.

Suddenly, Donna wasn't hungry anymore.

"Apparently her and Hyde got into a fight." Fez told her. "A big one."

Donna shook her head. She should have known that sooner or later, Hyde would have done something stupid and piss Jackie off. She might have taken him back, but the two of them still had a lot of work to do in repairing their relationship. She was about to ask what Hyde did when the man himself walked into cafeteria.

"He's here." Donna informed Fez who turned his head to look. He turned back and smiled sheepishly.

"Eeek."

Donna watched as Hyde got his food and came over to the table. He plopped down next to Fez and scowled at Donna.

"So, I guess you know."

As a matter of fact, Donna didn't know. She hadn't seen Jackie yet that day, and Fez was obviously not able to tell her. She felt strangely out of the loop.

"Actually, no, I only just heard that you two had a fight, what was it about?"

Hyde scowled at his burger. "The cheese isn't even melted, fuckers."

"Hyde?" Fez asked carefully. "You can tell us, we're your friends."

Hyde glared at Fez and then sighed. "I might have said something dumb last night."

"How dumb?" Donna asked.

"Uh, the kind of dumb that got me kicked out of Jackie's room last night."

"That's pretty dumb." Fez commented.

Hyde nodded. "She uh, asked what happened when she died."

Donna knew better than to hope that this story wasn't going to end badly. With a wince, she asked, "And what did you tell her?"

"The truth."

Fez gasped at Hyde's response and Donna simply shook her head. "Oh no."

"What?" Hyde asked defensively. "She asked!"

"Oh Hyde," Fez stated, "Even Kelso could have come up with a better answer than that!"

Donna nodded in agreement. "He's right; you actually told Jackie that you were going to leave?"

"I thought she was dead!" Hyde exclaimed.

Both Donna and Fez winced. "Please tell me you didn't tell her that." Fez begged.

Hyde's silence was his answer.

"Well, have you apologized to her?" Donna inquired.

"For what?" Hyde asked, clearly confused as to why he'd need to do such a thing.

Donna shook her head. "For upsetting her, dillhole." She reached over and punched Hyde on the arm.

"I'm not Kelso you know!" Hyde said as he rubbed his arm.

"And yet, you're just as dumb as he is." Donna stated.

After a minute, Hyde sighed. "Fine, I'll go talk to her." He said as he got up from the table. Donna watched him walk off.

"I have a bad feeling about all this." Fez stated.

An hour later, Donna and Fez made their way up to Jackie's room. Inside, Jackie was sitting alone, watching General Hospital.

"That Bobbie is such a bitch." Jackie said as the two settled down in their seats.

"Why are you alone?" Donna asked as she looked around the room for a sign of Hyde.

Jackie looked at Donna inquisitively. "Oh, are you inquiring as to why Steven isn't here?"

Donna nodded. "Yeah."

"Oh." Jackie said with a fake sweetness. "It's because he's a moron."

"So you haven't seen him?" Donna asked.

Jackie shook her head. "Not since last night. Can you believe him Donna? I thought you were dead? Who the hell says that?"

Donna shook her head. She knew that if Eric… no, not Eric, she corrected herself mentally, if someone she was dating (that was better) told her that, she would have beat on them until they said they were sorry.

"Well, I don't blame you for not wanting to spend the night with him." Donna told her.

"Yeah, it probably be better though if I didn't miss him so much." Jackie pouted. "Maybe I should just apologize"

"What for?" Fez asked. "He's the one who messed up."

"I know, but… it's stupid isn't it? To get mad at something so trivial?"

A part of Donna didn't really understand how Jackie could be so forgiving of them after everything she and Hyde had done to her, but she knew better to fight with it. It seemed that the experience had changed all of them, Jackie most of all. It was as though the new Jackie knew things that the old Jackie did not, and yet, it felt as though something was off with her best friend.

"You're right, it is trivial." Donna agreed. "Do you want me to go find him and tell him to come here?"

Jackie smiled. "Thanks."

"No problem." Donna said. "Come on Fez."

"But… those two people are to have sex." Fez said pointing pitifully to the television.

"Fine, I'll find Hyde by myself." Donna huffed.

Donna was waiting by the elevator when Hyde came walking around the corner.

"There you are!" She exclaimed. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Record store." Hyde said nonchalantly. "I have to hire someone since Randy left and I can't be there that much to look after things."

"In other words, you're avoiding talking to Jackie." Donna stated.

"Am not, and really, you're one to talk." Hyde snapped.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Donna asked as she crossed her arms.

"It means that the minute Jackie opened her eyes and said she forgave you, you've been acting like the dutiful best friend but have you actually talked to her about what you did?"

"Have you?" Donna countered, already knowing the answer. It was true that she and Jackie hadn't had the big talk yet, but every time she wanted to, a voice in her head would come on, asking if she really wanted to ruin a good thing by bringing up the past.

When Hyde didn't respond, she carried on, her voice soft but firm. "Do you really think that anything is going to change? So she took you back, big deal. You got quote un quote married, Hyde, you treated Jackie like she was garbage for months until one night where you got so piss faced drunk that while I was running around trying to find her, you were sitting against a tree, laughing like fucking lunatic, saying how quiet it was now that Jackie wasn't around. How have you made up for it so far? Oh right, you told her you were going to leave when she flat lined." She could tell his temper was about to burst but she didn't care. These things needed to be said.

"Oh, and you were so great that night too?" Hyde hissed. Donna interrupted him before he could list all of her faults.

"I ditched her, I know. I wanted to be alone with Randy, so I ditched her and made her go with you. I lost everything Hyde, I lost my mother, I lost Eric, I even lost you, and all I wanted was to forget, to just have a good time with a guy I'm not even sure I ever really liked in the first place, so I ditched Jackie and nearly lost her as well." She felt a sense of déjà vu as though they had this same exact conversation before.

Hyde never got a chance to retort because Fez was running out of Jackie's room, yelling for help. They watched as Kitty Forman, some other nurses and doctors scrambled into her room, pushing Fez out of the way as one of the nurses closed the door quickly behind her. Fez ran up to her and Hyde.

"We were playing cards…."

"Do you have any threes?" Fez asked.

Jackie took her one three out of her hand and gave it to Fez. "Oh look, Luke and Scotty are fighting again."

The two watched the T.V and groaned as the two characters took swings at each other.

"That looked painful." Fez commented. The two turned back to their game.

"Jacks?" Jackie asked.

Fez grinned and handed her a Jack of hearts. "A Jack for a Jackie."

Jackie smiled as she took the card. She was putting it with her other cards when she stopped.

"Is everything okay?" Fez asked worriedly.

Jackie wasn't listening though; she was fixating on the Jack of Hearts. Slowly, she started to shake and mumble something Fez couldn't decipher. It almost sounded like she was talking to someone. Not knowing what to do, Fez ran out of the door for help.

They watched as Jackie's shrink walked briskly down the hallway, opened the door and went inside.

"Crap." Hyde said.

They could hear yelling from inside the room. Jackie's voice carried through the thin walls as she screamed at the doctors to let her go.

"What the hell is going on in there?" Donna was about ready to march in and aid Jackie when Kitty Forman came out the room.

"Mrs. Forman!" Hyde shouted over the chaos.

Kitty walked over to them, clearly upset but trying to hide it. She gave one of her signature laughs in order to calm herself down.

"What's going on?" Fez asked.

"Everything is fine now kids, Jackie just had a little moment." Kitty explained.

"What the hell is a moment?" Hyde asked.

"Steven, language." Kitty admonished. "Anyway, they're going to run some more tests to make sure that nothing is out of place."

"Tests?" Donna asked. "I thought they did a bunch of tests and everything came back fine."

"Well, they did." Kitty agreed, "But Dr. Benson and Dr. Reiner want to make sure they didn't miss anything.."

Donna knew what this meant. It meant that Jackie was going to be in the hospital indefinably, unable to go home until the doctors gave their say so. She looked over at Hyde who was clearly thinking the same thing. Jackie wasn't going to be happy about this.

"You kids go on home." Kitty suggested. "I'm going off my shift in a couple hours, and then I'll be home to make you all a nice dinner." She smiled softly.

The three of them could only nod and walk away, though none of them wanted to. Slowly and silently, they rode down the elevator and walked out the front door. The three stood in a row, staring at the parking lot.

"So…" Donna started.

"So." Hyde replied.

"We could go to the Hub." Fez suggested.

Both Donna and Hyde shrugged. Donna wasn't sure she was in the mood for the Hub.

"The record store?" Donna offered. "Didn't you say you needed to hire someone?"

"Already did." Hyde replied. "Some girl named Cara."

"Is she hot?" Fez asked hopefully.

Donna stifled a laugh as Hyde tried to subtly nod his head at Fez. She reached over and frogged his arm.

Hyde rubbed his arm but didn't say anything. "I didn't say I was attracted to her, just that she's cute. You should get her number, Fez."

Fez nodded. "I might."

Donna rolled her eyes and decided to get back on topic. Donna knew that the three of them knew where they would eventually end up. Donna wasn't sure what it was, if it was Eric and Kelso leaving, or Jackie's so-called accident or if everything had just built up, but the basement no longer felt alive, especially now since they had taken over the two chairs, even though Hyde had rarely sat in his chair since Jackie had woken up.

Several hours later and a stomach full of food, Donna found herself in her room, unable to sleep. She got out of bed to close the window, gone were the days when she would leave the window open so her boyfriend could climb in after her father and his parents had gone to bed. After pulling the window shut, she leaned her head up against the window pane. The echoes Jackie's screams from that day surrounded her as though on surround sound, filling her ears until any trace of other thoughts.

What the hell was she going to do? A brief thought crossed her mind that maybe the doctors weren't trying to help Jackie get better, but she shook it off. Donna wasn't the paranoid conspiracy nut of the group. She was the rational one, the one that kept the gang in line.

And that, it seemed, is where Donna failed. She was supposed to tell Hyde to tell Sam to high tail it back to the hell chasm she had crawled out of, but instead, she had said nothing, and had even gone as far as to become friends with her. While Donna knew that somehow, she had made up for the past, she knew she could never be fully redeemed until she talked to Jackie about everything. She paced through her room until she couldn't wait any longer and then, quietly, she snuck out of her room. She needed to talk to Jackie now.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Hyde's El Camino was still in the driveway. It meant that she'd be able to talk to Jackie alone.

The night nurse barely paid Donna any attention as she walked quickly but quietly to Jackie's room. When she opened the door, she saw that Jackie was shaking in her sleep. Donna quickly closed the door and went over to the bed where she crawled in and put her arms around Jackie in order to steady her. Slowly, Jackie started to wake up.

"Donna?" She asked, emotionally wrecked.

"Yeah, you okay?" Donna asked, concerned.

Jackie nodded beside her. "Yeah, it happens."

"It looked pretty bad." Donna stated.

Jackie let out a breath. "I'm getting used to them. The Nazi guy said that they're normal."

Donna wanted to growl. There was absolutely nothing normal about any of this.

"He said they're going to put me on some new medication, but I don't want to." Both girls sat up in the bed, still close. Donna could already feel herself get lighter, but she knew that the hard part was just beginning.

"Jackie, there's something I need to tell you, and I know you don't want to hear it, but I need to say it."

"Donna, please, all I need is for you to tell me one thing."

Donna knew what Jackie was about to ask. She took Jackie's hands and looked into her eyes. "Which time?" She asked.

Jackie gulped. "Both."

Donna nodded. She should have known. "Right, um, well, the night… well, uh,"

"Just spit it out, Donna."

Donna sighed; something about Jackie's bossy tone was oddly comforting. Slowly, she told Jackie about her experience the night Jackie had drowned in the creek. How she had run all over the woods, yelling Jackie's name, how she had thrown Hyde's glasses, how Randy had given her CPR, everything, but she didn't stop with just that night, she told Jackie everything she had gone through while Jackie was in the coma. She left no detail out, even the ones that made her look less than worthy.

"And when you died, I think I died too, a little bit. Cliché right?" Donna laughed at herself. She knew better to make that comparison.

"No, it's not, not right now at least." Jackie said emphatically. "Donna, you're my best friend okay? We both were stupid for a really long time, but… you know what I told my shrink? I told him I thought what happened was a good thing, because it made us better people. I forgave Steven the minute he walked out last night, but we both needed time to think things over, and as for us, Donna, a blind guy could see that you've changed. I saw it the moment I looked at you. We're not the same people we were before, and for once, I think that's okay."

Donna did the only thing she could do and reached over to hug Jackie. "Do you want to talk about your nightmare?" She asked.

Jackie shook her head. "No, I want to talk about you, so tell me about this skank who has stolen your man."

"Eric isn't my man anymore, Jackie. We moved on."

Jackie rolled her eyes. "Oh please, you two could be half way around the world from each other and married to other people and he would still be yours and you would be his. You're soul mates, there's no hiding from that, so don't even try."

"You talk like you know about this." Donna commented.

Jackie gave a little shrug. "I do." She looked like she wanted to say something else but didn't.

"I'm not sure I'm used to this new ultra forgiving Jackie." Donna confessed. "I was certain you were going to murder me."

Jackie laughed. "Oh, I'm still going to tell the nurses tomorrow that you made out with Clifford."

"Wait, isn't he the dorky orderly with the big coke bottle glasses?" Donna asked.

"Yep." Jackie grinned.

Donna laughed and hugged Jackie again. "Thanks."

"Sure, lumberjack." Jackie hugged Donna back. "Now let's get some sleep. I need to rest up because tomorrow I'm supposed to have more tests."

"You sound thrilled." Donna said.

Jackie looked over at her IV bag. "This medicine is making me nauseous."

"You want me to go get someone?" Donna asked.

"No, it's okay; I have a bed pan next to me." Jackie said as she pointed to the floor beside her. "After what happened this afternoon, Mrs. Forman thought it would be a good idea."

"What happened?" Donna asked. They were both growing sleepy.

"I threw up on one of the nurses." Jackie mumbled. "Anywhoo, they keep looking inside my brain like something's there, but there isn't… 'cept my brain."

Donna would have laughed at Jackie's drowsy talk if she wasn't so tired herself. There was still one thing she needed to say though before she could sleep.

"Jackie, I just want you to know, that whatever happens, I'm here for you."

Jackie reached behind her and grabbed Donna's hand. "I know."

Okay people, you know what to do. Next chapter is either past Hyde or Jackie centric, I haven't decided.

Also, I know I need to update a bunch of things, but I don't want to try to work on a bunch of stuff all at once, so tell me what you want me to update, and I'll do my best to get it done by the time I leave for vacation (Next Wednesday)