Sitting on the hood of Eric's Vista Cruiser, Hyde was engaged in a animated discussion with Donna. The sun was shining and it was indeed a very lovely day. Although Kelso thought that the amazing (and no, amazing was definitely not an overstatement) events of last night may possibly be clouding his judgement, but none-the-less, it was a very, very lovely day.

So when he saw Jackie head out from inside the house with a plate of freshly baked cookies courtesy of Mrs Foreman, he didn't even mind that much. He returned her smile and headed over to say hello to Donna and Hyde.

"Hey" he smiled, feeling Jackie loop her free arm around his hip and place a kiss gently on his cheek, "What's up?"

The three faces said the same thing they pretty much always did.

Nothing.

Point Place was code for 'nothing happens here'.

"We have cookies" offered Donna generously, Hyde grabbed a couple and started munching but he was the only one.

"It's too early for cookies" Jackie proclaimed,

"It's noon" Donna raised an eyebrow,

"Some of us like to stay thin Donna" jibbed Jackie, in her usual 'what? I didn't mean to offend you' sort of way. Hyde chuckled but hastily stopped as Donna scowled at him. It didn't stop her taking a cookie though,

"Save some for me" came a sickly-sweet voice from the doorway, "aw, how sweet, you're Mummy's let you come over for a play-date."

"Beat it Laurie" Hyde quipped, not very wittily he admitted, but he hadn't got any sleep due to the night before's events and was definitely feeling the effects, luckily his sunglasses were hiding the rather unattractive dark shadows under his eyes.

"Speaking of beat, you look tired Kelso" she batted her eyelids, Jackie tightened her grip on her boyfriend and her expression darkened. "Long night?"

"He was with me!" Jackie smirked, Donna thought to herself Jackie would have much preferred to say something along the lines of: 'Yes, I have sex with Kelso, you don't, he's mine, mine mine, back off bitch!', but kept that observation to herself.

"And where were you Hyde? The basement seemed surprisingly empty when I went down to get some laundry this morning"

Cursing internally Hyde shrugged, he'd slept late at Kelso's. They'd had a very narrow brush with his mother wanting to come in but luckily the locked door had given Hyde enough time to scramble out of the window and get home. He's got back around eight, he thought nobody had noticed, obviously he'd been mistaken.

Had he been more awake his mind might of coupled this with the comment from last night, but unfortunately they two incidents seemed firmly separate in his head.

Much later that day the whole gang where sitting contentedly in the basement. That was until Donna and Eric decided to head on upstairs and 'shoot some hoops'. Hyde found himself wishing the couple would find some other form of foreplay so that 'shooting some hoops' could actually go back to being a group sport. Instead of being an excuse for Donna and Eric to run around finding excuses to grope and paw at each other.

He wondered if he should maybe sit them down and tell them about sex, but then thought that it was probably best they found out about it themselves. He didn't want poor little Eric's head to explode.

"Michael I'm bored," Jackie claimed, for the millionth time. This time she shifted her weight away from Kelso and adopted a sulky pause. Hyde had been lost in thought but he could surmise that Kelso had been ignoring her for some time.

Jackie sulked, 'why is Kelso ignoring me?' her inner voice whined. It had been whining for quite some time. She watched her boyfriend closely, disgusted by the way he found the TV so much more interesting than her. She looked over to Hyde who was doing that whole 'I'm somewhere else' thing he was so good at.

"Fez" she mused, who's head snapped up and eyes widened,

"Yes" he answered almost too quickly, Jackie smiled, this was more like it.

"Lets do something" at this Fez got far too excited,

"You want to do it?" Fez grinned, to which Kelso's head snapped up, Jackie smiled about her little personal triumph, Jackie shook her head to Fez, still grinning from ear to ear,

"Michael, see, at least someone wants to do it with me" Kelso frowned at Fez who looked dejected,

"Fez, would you not hit on my girlfriend" he tried to bark but it came out more of a yelp. Kelso wasn't too good at the angry emotion, confused he had down, but angry, no. Jackie smiled warmly,

"Aw Michael you're so protective," she shifted her weight back over to him. "C'mon, we could go back to mine and-"

"Er, I have to go Jackie" he made a quick excuse "I'll see you later" he kissed her gently,

"Will you call me later?" she asked, her temper flaring up,

"How about I stop by your place" he added, placing a well timed coy grin which was actually because Hyde was mocking Jackie behind her back and not because Kelso could act.

"My dad's out of town"

"Well then I'll definitely be by" and with that Kelso made a hasty retreat.

'Bang goes my evening plans' Hyde thought to himself. But vowed not to be bothered by the turn of events. Kelso loved Jackie. He was supposed to spend time with her. Hyde and Kelso were just to relieve each other's tension. They should be each other's last resort, not their preferred option.

And as long as Hyde kept repeating that to himself, he figured he'd be alright, and eventually he might start to believe it.

"And then there were three" Laurie came sauntering down the stairs. "Why so glum Jackie?" she mocked concern,

"Kelso didn't want to do it" Fez added helpfully, Laurie grinned,

"Aw poor little Jackie," she sat down next to her "I know how you feel" she paused "well actually I don't, people always want to do it with me" she feigned innocently,

"Shut up Laurie" Jackie pouted,

"Well, okay I know when I'm not wanted" she stood and made to walk away, but then stopped herself as if having an epiphany, she turned to Jackie and bit her lip,

"What?" Jackie queried, unimpressed,

"Well, men like to do it right?" Laurie asked, in her sugar-sweet I'm-baiting-you tone,

"I guess" was the slightly more intrigued reply,

"Well, if he's not doing it with you, he must be doing it with somebody else" and with that Laurie Foreman exited stage left.

Hyde had sat there and watch the train wreck happen, unable to say a word, and when Jackie's hardened suspicious gaze locked on him he couldn't help that his stomach fluttered nervously.

"Oh my gosh!" Jackie screamed, standing up, she started pacing around the room, "He's sleeping with Laurie" she squealed, as if it all suddenly made sense.

Hyde, although relieved was shocked to feel a tiny bit of disappointment somewhere deep down inside, but he couldn't for the life of himself fathom why.

"Jackie-" he made to calm her down and to tell her that Laurie was full of crap,

"No Hyde" she glowered "did you all know? Oh my god, I have to talk to Donna" and with that she stormed out of the basement, making the door slam heavily in her wake.

"Well Fez, you know what this means?" Hyde rolled his eyes and fixed his gaze on the TV set.

The foreign boy thought for a minute or two and then he suddenly broke into a grin,

"Catfight"

Hyde rolled his eyes but despite himself, found he couldn't not smile at Fez's hopeful enthusiasm.

He wondered if he should warn Kelso about the turn of events, but realised it would be much more fun for him if he didn't.

And for the second time in a very short space of time Hyde had no idea why he suddenly felt so hopeful and cheery.

'Odd' he thought to himself. And then shrugged.

Author's Note.

Sorry for the long, long wait. I've been busy etc etc, I know it's no excuse but I'm sorry, it'll have to do. I was pretty much hoping that a host of frequent updates would make it up to you all?

Or would you prefer a long, written apology instead?

Didn't think so ;)

Muah xxx