Disclaimer: I don't own.
Author's note: Thanks so much for the reviews! I say the same thing every time, but it can't be said enough. Writing is so emotional for me, and I put so much into it...the fact that you take the time to leave a little note really makes me happy. :) Anyway! I'm going to try to keep this one and Frames on a schedule: I'll post this one on Tuesday, Frames on Saturday. Hopefully I'll stick to it. The structure of this story will be his chapter, her chapter, more or less, until later when I'll probably mix perspectives. And hey, guess what! Fez is not evil in this one! Hee hee! Hope you enjoy!
Warning: Language
For Her Sake
Chapter 1 – His New Year
Mission Accomplished
January 3, 1980, Point Place, Wisconsin
Hyde shook his head in disgust. The windshield of his beloved El Camino was covered in snow, and underneath, he was sure, was a two-inch think layer of ice that he'd have to scrape off before even considering driving. He sighed and opened the driver's side door. He reached underneath the seat for his ice scraper and brush. "Freaking winter," he muttered, his fingers, though gloved, aching from the frigid lash of the Wisconsin wind. He began to brush the snow off his windshield, his mood darkening as the pile of snow thinned.
"Hello, Hyde! Doesn't my girlfriend look beautiful this fine, snowy day?"
Hyde stood up and glanced at the sidewalk. His little buddy, Fez, last name still unknown, and Jackie Burkhart, wrapped in similar wool and fur coats, strolled up the driveway. Her arm was tucked in his, her left hand resting on his forearm, and Fez's opposite hand possessively trapped it there. Hyde shrugged with pretended nonchalance. "Sure. About as beautiful as you do in that girly fur coat, man."
He noted, with a slight prickling in his chest, that her glance at him lasted less than a half-second, and then her cold-pinkened cheeks, bright eyes, sappy smile were again directed at Fez.
"You don't want anything to happen to her, do you?"
Fez laughed and the happy couple continued towards the Forman's kitchen door. "Oh, Hyde. Nothing you say can bring me down. I am dating the most beautiful girl in Point Place."
"Fez, I told you. The most beautiful girl in the universe!"
"Oh yes, my sweet. The whole universe."
Hyde shook his head, but watched them – or rather, her – as they passed him by and walked into the house. They said that if a girl walked past you and looked back, she was interested, secretly or otherwise.
Jackie didn't look back.
He turned back to his car, and this time, his strokes with the brush were rough. They got faster and harder with each one, until the snow was flying rather than falling off the car. And as he brought the brush down to the damned snow, he couldn't help but see Fez's sleazy face.
He'd been back from Vegas for seven months, and a lot had changed. He and Jackie broke up. His marriage had ended. Eric Forman, his best friend, returned from Africa, as had his other friend Michael Kelso from Chicago. And Jackie and Fez had hooked up. He'd made a half-hearted attempt to thwart it, but it hadn't worked, and he'd ended up essentially giving his "blessing".
The group was complete again, and yet, so very, very different.
Hyde stopped beating the snow and stood up, breathing hard. Jackie looked happy. It had been awhile since she'd seemed as vibrant as she had the last few days, though he tried not to notice. He'd spent the past seven months being an asshole to her, talking himself into hating her, talking himself into making her hate him. It had partially worked. He closed his eyes and tried to catch his breath.
"You wouldn't hurt her."
At the New Year's party, he'd seen the couple on the stairs, kissing. He'd looked at her a few times, but she hadn't looked back. Obviously, she wasn't going to anymore. Obviously, she was completely over him.
And it hurt, though he was doing everything he could to ignore that fact. His time in the circle had doubled. His time spent drunk had tripled. He figured in a week or two he'd have himself sufficiently numb and wouldn't care.
He ran a hand through his 'fro, frustrated. He'd been fine just a week ago. Hadn't felt anything when it came to his ex-girlfriend. Of course, his ex-girlfriend hadn't had a new boyfriend a week ago. Now she did, and now she was happy.
"That stupid bitch Sam," he said to no one. If she had just hung around, he wouldn't be reacting this idiotically. She'd been a good distraction. He'd been getting nightly sex, anyway. It hadn't been so bad.
"You sure you want to risk it?"
The sliding glass door opened, and Jackie popped just her head out. "Steven, Mrs. Forman wants you to come in and have lunch."
Hyde looked up, and she was actually looking at him, but it was different than it used to be. Remote and detached. He was just another guy around the house to her. He shrugged. "Tell her I'm going out."
She raised her eyebrow. "Tell her yourself, Steven. I'm Fez's girlfriend, not yours. I speak for him, not you."
He snorted. "Thank god."
The door closed behind her, and he rolled his eyes. She could be such a damn bitch. He wondered if Fez would survive her with his balls intact. Doubtful. At best.
Fifteen minutes later, after telling Kitty Forman of his plans and witnessing yet another Fez and Jackie kiss, he sat in his car, finally cleaned off, finally warm. He didn't really have any idea of where he was going, but hell, anywhere was better than here. Forman and Donna were busy making up for lost time in the basement. Kelso was bragging about his reinstatement to the Point Place PD. Jackie and Fez were happily sucking each other's face off.
She was happy. She was so damn happy.
Hyde leaned over to the glove box and opened it. He rummaged through the papers in it and pulled out what he was looking for. No one touched his car or anything in it for fear of instant death, and so the glove box was where he kept things no one else could or would ever see. He sat back, turned over the picture. It was her senior picture, and of course, she'd photographed perfectly and breathtakingly beautifully.
There was just one thing wrong with the picture. Horribly wrong. And what he had, for the past seven months, always looked at whenever his resolve weakened.
He traced over the whole in the middle of her forehead, the size of a small caliber bullet.
"Now do you see what I'm willing to do?"
The last seven months hadn't been wasted. Hadn't been for nothing. And he supposed that was good.
"Mission accomplished," he said as his finger slipped down her pictured face to her lips.
It's Nothing
January 5, 1980, Roller World
It was worse than having all his teeth pulled out, one by one, by string. Standing by the side of the rink while Donna Summer screeched about her "Last Dance", the lights changing color as rapidly as a hummingbird flaps its tiny wings, watching Jackie skate and dance past him, smiling and laughing at her partner, Fez.
Hyde stood there, his body stiff, his mind repeatedly wondering why he'd come. He could have said no. He could have punched Fez when he begged the gang to watch him and his "sweet princess" return to their previous roller disco glory. Jackie wouldn't have cared. Hell, she hardly noticed anything he did or didn't do anymore.
He should be glad. That should make it easier. He wasn't, and it didn't.
She looked beautiful. Her hair flowed behind her, the olive, perfectly smooth skin on her face was tinted a becoming shade of pink. Her lips seemed even fuller than normal under the colored lights, and her eyes seemed to contain all the colors and shine of a rainbow. She moved so gracefully and easily, stretching her slender and toned body sexily without really meaning to.
Ten times, he'd told himself to look away. Ten times he'd failed.
It seemed like a lifetime ago it had been him she'd wanted to roller disco with her before she asked Fez. This time, she hadn't asked him first. Of course.
He cleared his throat and elbowed Forman, who stood next to him. "This is freaking lame. I'm gonna go have a smoke."
Hyde stalked out of the roller rink, shaking his head as he'd taken a habit to. So what if she was a goddess on wheels? So what if she'd been giving Fez those sweet looks, the one he'd been jealous of when she gave them to Kelso, the ones he'd taken for granted when she'd thrown them his way?
She was alive. And safe. Not with him, but alive and safe.
He opened the passengers side door of the Camino, slid in, and opened the glove box. He pulled out the picture and stared at the bullet hole in her forehead.
"I will do anything to keep her away from you."
"Hey,Hyde. Want some company? God, if I have to listen to one more Donna Summer or Bee Gees song I'm gonna freaking kill myself."
Hyde jumped at the unexpected sound of Forman's voice, and he quickly thrust the picture back into the glove box, so quickly that he briefly caught his hand in it. Trying to cover the pain, he grinned. "Hey, Forman."
"Thought you were having a cigarette."
"I am." Hyde got out of the car and pulled out his lighter. "Left my lighter in the car." He closed the door and leaned against it, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling his Marlboros out. "Want one?"
Forman made a face. "No."
Hyde chuckled. His friends were so idiotic. They'd smoke joints, but no cigarettes. He lit up.
"Does it bother you?"
Hyde frowned and took a long, soothing drag. "Does what bother me?"
Forman looked at him. "Jackie and Fez. They seem really happy together. Donna says Jackie hasn't been this happy in a long time."
Hyde exhaled a ring of smoke and watched it as it faded into the darkness. "Why would it bother me?"
"Oh, I don't know, because you thought about marrying her just a few months ago."
Hyde shook his head and shrugged, his stomach clenching in an effort to block its sudden ache. "Seven months ago. And I didn't, now did I? I only thought about it because I was experiencing temporary insanity."
Forman chuckled. "Right. Two years temporary." He sighed. "Look, man, if you wanna talk about it, I won't make fun of you. At least not now. I'll wait till the others are around." He grinned, but only briefly. "Seriously, Hyde. I know you loved her." He shrugged. "If I had to watch Donna with another guy, I'd be miserable. Oh, wait. I did. And I was."
Hyde didn't look at him, but stared at Roller World. Inside, she was with someone else. And it wasn't going to change after she left the skating rink. She was going to go home with that someone else and probably have sex all night long with that someone else. He closed his eyes and sucked heatedly on his cigarette. Damn it, what in the hell was wrong with him? Why was he suddenly a lovesick, jealous idiot, when getting Jackie to hate him enough to move on with someone else had been the goal?
"I'm even willing to kill her. You want that on your shoulders, Steven?"
She was alive, and safe, and he should be relieved. He was. Of course he was.
Fuck, why did he still love her?
"I've just kind of wondered how you've been doing. Donna told me the break up was pretty brutal. She, uh, well, she had some not so nice words for you, my friend."
Hyde smiled slightly, bitterly. He shouldn't care that everyone thought he was a coldhearted bastard. Hadn't he always cultivated that very image? Still, the thought that everyone believed he could purposely do the one thing that would hurt Jackie more than anything else bugged him.
Of course, he had purposely done that very thing. But none of then knew why.
He looked at Forman, suddenly exhausted by the burden. Suddenly angry as hell at the secret. Suddenly tired of hating himself so damn much and knowing that she hated him about three million times as much. Nights of guilt, not even alleviated by the sex Sam gave him, had taken a toll. A huge toll. Yeah, no one had really given him a hard time for what he'd done, but he knew they all thought it. Hell, he thought it. Maybe if just one person didn't secretly think he was an ass… "You know, it didn't happen the way everyone thinks it did."
"What? Wait, what are you saying?"
Forman stared at him hard, as if trying to read through the sunglasses, through the catch in his voice.
"If you go back to Point Place without doing as I say, she will die. I guarantee you that. She. WILL. Die."
He came so close to blurting it out, blurting out exactly what that son of a bitch had so coldly told him. Confessing that he'd been forced to marry, forced to set up Sam's surprise arrival at the Forman's.
"I want beer. Lots of beer. If I'm gonna get married, I wanna be drunk off my ass."
All to break Jackie's heart into as many pieces as possible.
All to ensure that that same heart kept beating.
"Hyde, what is it? God, you look…man, you look bothered or something."
He smiled wistfully. He'd told Jackie he wasn't ready to get married, but even then, she'd been hopeful that someday he would be. And right on cue, Sam. Right on cue, Jackie's broken heart.
"Guys, they're about to announce the winners and Jackie and Fez want you in there." Donna Pinciotti, from out of nowhere, it seemed to Hyde, walked up in front of them, a rather sarcastic grin on her face. "I know you wouldn't want to miss them being crowned roller disco king and queen. Again. I sure don't."
She turned and headed back to the building, but Forman moved in front of Hyde. "Hyde, what were you gonna tell me?"
Hyde looked away, out at the street. The same street it had always been. Telling Forman wasn't going to change it. Wasn't going to change anything. "It's nothing, man. Just forget it." He threw his finished cigarette down and brushed past his friend.
Inside, Jackie and Fez were waiting. A couple. Jackie and Fez. Not just Jackie, or just Fez. Jackie and Fez.
This was his new year.
Happy New Year, Steven Hyde.
