This chapter was hard to write, emotionally, so please leave a review.

I'm also back from my vacation/s so I'll be able to get out new chapter, pending inspiration and time and all that.

As You Are.

"I wanna go home." Jackie told her therapist. "You can't keep me captive here forever."

Dr. Benson merely raised his dark eyebrow and tapped his pen on his notepad. "Are you having any more dreams or hallucinations?"

"No." Jackie lied.

"You know I can't send you home until I'm absolutely sure that you're not a danger to yourself or others." The doctor reminded her.

Jackie did the only thing she could do when someone said this to her. She nodded.

"Let's talk about your relationships with your friends prior to your death."

Jackie cringed at the therapist's choice of words. "Do you always have to use the word death?"

"That was what it was, wasn't it?" Dr. Benson asked. "What else would you want me to call it?"

"I don't know." Jackie snapped. "Anything except that, it's creepy."

"Jackie, the sooner you come to accept it for what it is, the sooner you can begin to heal."

Jackie could only stare incredulously at the doctor.

Jackie took a bite of the burger Fez brought her and put it down on her food tray. "It's almost time for my pills."

Fez shook his head. "I can't believe they think you're crazy. I mean, you are, but in a good way."

Jackie shook her head, resigned to her fate. "I attacked a nurse, Fez. I'm lucky I wasn't put in a padded room."

"I still say the nurse had it coming." Fez muttered.

Jackie had to laugh at Fez's defense of her. Through everything that had happened, he had been the one person to stand by her, and that meant the world.

"You talk to Hyde yet?" Fez asked curiously.

"Nope." Jackie said with food in her mouth. "The last time I saw him was yesterday when he said he'd be back later and that he had to think." Jackie tried to keep her voice level, but the truth was she was scared that he had run off again.

"He'll be back, Jackie." Fez said while he reached for Jackie's hand. "I know it."

Jackie allowed herself to smile at Fez, and then sighed. "Do you think I made a mistake?"

Fez looked at Jackie intently. "What do you mean?" He asked.

"Do you think I made a mistake forgiving him?" Jackie asked a little more confidently.

Fez shrugged. "Jackie, I…" He squeezed Jackie's hand. "I really can't say."

Jackie nodded, knowing full well that Fez was right. She could remember every detail of how Hyde was that night, and knew that if it hadn't been for Not! Eric and the Prince, she would be cursing the name of Steven Hyde right about now.

Aside from getting a divorce from a woman he had never been married to in the first place, what had he truly done to deserve her forgiveness?

He had begged. He had held her the night she woke up, had cried with her, had touched her as though she would break apart in his arms, and she had.

Jackie gulped. "I'll be right back." She told Fez as she climbed out of her hospital bed to go to the bathroom. She closed the door behind her and walked to the sink, turned on the cold water and splashed her face. With her eyes still closed, she reached over for a towel to wipe her face. She lifted her face up and opened her eyes.

She could see herself in the mirror, but it wasn't her reflection, but Jackie, the princess. She was standing in front of the disappearing cottage, crying. Jackie bit her lip as the girl in the mirror looked up as though she knew someone was watching her. Then the image turned black, a liquid puddle swirling together. Tentatively, Jackie reached out to touch it when she heard Hyde's voice.

"Jackie, are you there?"

Jackie stepped away from the mirror and gulped. "Yeah, I'll be right out." With another look at the still black mirror, she walked out of the bathroom.

"Fez said he had to go to work." Hyde explained the reasoning for Fez's departure. Jackie knew it was a lie and that Fez had the day off, but she said nothing. Instead she stood still, waiting for Hyde to explain where he had been.

"Oh, so you're not going to make this easy on me are you?" Hyde asked nervously.

Jackie shook her head. "Nope."

Hyde nodded. "I guess I should be grateful for that… it's after all what I wanted."

Jackie was confused. What was he talking about? "What?"

Hyde took a deep breath. "Uh, I did some thinking, and I figure out what's bothering me."

Jackie took a deep breath herself. "Go on."

"It's you, well, not you, you, but um, the way you are, uh, I guess then it is you, but um…"

"Steven, I don't understand."

"Jackie, I know something is wrong. I also know you don't want to tell me, and that's okay, but I gotta get this out. I know you're afraid of dealing with what happened, and maybe I would be too, but I miss the Jackie who would have ripped me to shreds, who would have kicked me into I was black and blue. This isn't you."

"Of course this is me." Jackie explained.

"No it isn't!" Hyde yelled. "The Jackie I know wouldn't have just accepted some lowly apology after what I did! You forgave me Jackie when I don't deserve to be forgiven. The Jackie I know is strong, determined, shrill, annoying, beautiful and demanding and I love her. I love her! I want my Jackie back!" He stepped away from her and began pacing around the room. Jackie could only watch.

"You want to know what happened when you died?" He asked slowly. "I thought that you gave up on me. I thought, here it is, the moment of truth, she doesn't think you're worthy of redemption and you want to know what else, I thought you were right. You were right to choose death and that's why I left. I thought I had nothing left, and I just, I couldn't deal with it."

"Oh." Jackie said softly. "It's okay."

"No!" Hyde yelled again. "It's not okay, aren't you listening, I seriously fucked up Jacki. I told you I didn't know when I did, I got drunk in a warehouse instead of talking to you, I let you go to Chicago, I married another woman when I said I wouldn't marry you, I even stayed with her! I flaunted her in front of your face; I let you fall into a raging creek! I just left you alone for two days without any goodbye or explanation and here you are, just letting me back in like nothing happened!"

"I know it happened!" Jackie screamed. "I know you did all those things, I was there!"

"So tell me to leave, just for now. Tell me to leave so you can be alone and we can work this out."

Jackie shook her head. She knew she couldn't do that, after all, her complete and total forgiveness of him was what brought her back to life. If she took it back now, what was to happen?

"I…" She began, but was interrupted by Fez coming into the room.

"Fez…" Hyde glared at their friend for intruding.

"Sorry." Fez stammered. "But we have a problem."

"What kind of problem?" Jackie asked. She was actually grateful for Fez's intrusion.

Fez locked the door to the room and walked to the couple to explain.

Fez sat awkwardly on Jackie's bed while she was in the bathroom. He traced the design on the fabric, humming the tune from Stairway to Heaven when Hyde walked in.

"Is Jackie here?" He asked.

Fez glared at his curly haired friend. "She's in there." He pointed to the bathroom door. "Where the hell have you been?"

"I drove around." Hyde shrugged. "Can you give me and Jackie some time alone?"

Fez nodded, not only because Hyde had actually asked nicely, but because he knew they needed it. He patted Hyde on the shoulder for good luck and then left the room.

With nothing else to do, Fez decided to go the mall to get an Orange Julius. He knew he had more than a few hours to kill, and maybe after he got himself his smoothie he would go over to Hyde's record store to chat up the new girl.

"So what do we do about her?"

Fez knew the voice on the other side of the corner was Jackie's therapist. Fez stood still, and waited for whoever was with him to answer.

"You know perfectly well what you're to do about her." The voice that spoke was soft, almost like a caress, but Fez couldn't help the shiver that went down his spine.

"Well, I can't legally keep her here forever." The therapist argued. "Barnett is already threatening to stop paying her bills."

Fez did a fist pump. Thank god someone was trying to get Jackie out of there.

"Her bills are the least of your worries." The man told him. "Remember our deal?"

A third voice spoke up. "You better do what he says Calvin, otherwise you'll lose everything."

"I know that!" The shrink snapped. "Okay fine, I'll keep saying she's not ready to be released, but I don't know for how long I can keep doing it. She's getting really persistent."

There was soft laughter from around the corner. "Of course she is."

Fez's heart was beating out of his chest. Who was this gravelly voiced man and why did he want Jackie to stay in the hospital?

Jackie said nothing as Fez told his story. She gripped the sides of her bed and swallowed.

"Huh." Hyde said, mostly to himself. "Well, they didn't actually say Jackie's name."

She knew he was just trying to make her feel better. "Steven, it's okay. I know they meant me."

"No, he's right, I might have heard wrong." Fez interjected. "They were probably talking about some other patient that uh, some guy named Barnett is paying the bills for."

Jackie told herself to remain calm. She would get through this.

CUT

After Fez left, Hyde and Jackie stared awkwardly at each other, their earlier conversation still fresh in their minds.

"So…" Hyde began.

"So…" Jackie repeated.

She still wasn't sure what she would say to him. There was so much she had to deal with at the moment that it felt like it was engulfing her. She felt now exactly like she had the night she had drowned.

Her savior came in the form of a nurse carrying a tray of pills. She handed Jackie her medicine with a smile. "Good night, Jackie."

"Night Rachel." Jackie said carelessly. She fiddled with the pills in her hands, trying to decide what to do.

"I'm going to take these in there." She told Hyde, pointing to the bathroom.

He nodded at her and Jackie walked quickly into the small room. She sat the pills onto the sink and looked into the mirror. Nothing was strange or unusual about the reflective glass. All she could see was her reflection.

"Come on." Jackie urged it. "Please."

The mirror however, remained still.

Jackie looked back at the pills and then back at herself. With a beating heart, she took the pills and put them to her lips, all the while staring at her reflection. Maybe it was the look in her own eyes, maybe it was the earlier conversation Fez had heard, but in that moment, Jackie knew what she had to do. No longer would she play innocent victim to Dr. Benson and his soft voiced colleague. No longer would she sit back and let them decide her future. She was going to find her way back, on her own.

She dropped the pills into the sink. She turned the water on and watched them fall into the drain. Then, with a deep breath, she walked out of the room and faced Hyde.

"I need you to leave." She told him what he needed to hear.

"I hope you know this doesn't mean I'm leaving you." Hyde said. "Because I'm not."

"I know." Jackie said with a smile. She left out the words, "but I am."

He walked over to her and kissed her gently on the lips. "I'll be back after work tomorrow."

"Okay." Jackie smiled. She got into her bed and watched him walk out. A few moments later, she fell into a deep sleep.

When Jackie woke up, the first thing she noticed was the sound of the birds singing. Then, she noticed that she was no longer in her hospital gown but in her princess garb, and then, she noticed the face of Not! Eric looked down at her.

"What are you doing here?"

Oh yeah… what will happen next? If you want to find out, you know what to do!