AN: Okay. So obviously this hasn't been anywhere near a week, but I got excellent reviews on the prologue and I really didn't want to leave you guys hanging. Thanks for all the great reviews. I wasn't expecting such a wonderful response! Alright, so part of me doesn't like this chapter, but the information it holds is very necessary. I hope it gets just as good of a response, maybe even better!

Enjoy!


Chapter 1: Confrontation Uno

Zach walked down the stairs the next morning, allowing the smell of pancakes and bacon to be his guide. His morning had started out better than the day before, but he still couldn't help but feel bitter about his new situation. On awakening, he felt his whole self accept his new attitude about people. His first challenge of the day would be a fight with his father about his lack of hair.

Zach cautiously stepped into his fairly large kitchen to find his dad standing at the stove cooking away. His back was to him and Zach took notice to find solace in the hesitation. He opened the refrigerator, "What's for breakfast?"

Without turning around Hyde responded, "The Sunday usual."

Zach chugged from the orange juice jug. He noticed how much lighter his head felt tipped back without the mop of hair. After putting the jug back in the refrigerator, he moved his way past his father to the cupboard to get a plate. Hyde was too concentrated on flipping pancakes to take notice of his new look.

He took a seat at the bar and patiently waited. A nervous ball rolled around in his stomach tempting him to just leave and not eat. He wasn't even sure if he could hold down his pancakes. But then he remembered why he shaved his head and that he had no reason to be afraid of his dad whatsoever. Sure he was going to flip out, but what could he really do? He had never grounded him severely or resorted to discipline just because he didn't like some of the things Zach did. Mostly his father let him be himself and just gave his opinion if he didn't like it.

Hyde flipped the last pancake onto the plate next to him. He turned the stove off and picked up the serving plates in both hands. Once he turned around and finally looked at his son, he was surprised he didn't ruin breakfast by dropping the plates to the floor.

Zach watched his father's reaction play over his face: first shock, then confusion, and finally a look of realization. He stalked over to the bar and slowly set the plates down in front of Zach. He raised one eyebrow and studied his son. Zach never broke the stare, despite wanting to. Finally the pressure became too much.

"What?" he asked stupidly.

Hyde smirked and scoffed. "You aren't going to play stupid this time. You know what I'm looking at."

Zach looked down at his plate and felt slightly ashamed. He buried it deep inside as he spoke up for himself. He had already become a master of Zen at a very early age, this conversation would be easy. "So what?" He reached forward nonchalantly and forked a few pancakes off the plate and onto his own. Even though he wasn't looking at him, Zach could tell his father was shaking his head.

"So when did you do this? Last night?" Hyde was trying to keep his cool.

"Yeah." Zach chewed. Fewer words, fewer problems.

Hyde sighed. "So why did you do it?"

Zach shrugged. "Just wanted to."

Hyde had enough. He was older now and a father. Sometimes he just grew tired of the zen games. Each time Zach did this, he felt like karma was getting sweet, sweet revenge for all the people he used the exact same antics with. Well, karma was a bitch. "But why Zach?" He allowed his walls to fall and used his 'I'm disappointed' fatherly voice. "It was the family.."

"Yeah, Yeah, family fro, I know." Zach interrupted. He waved a hand showing that he didn't need the speech.

Hyde crossed his arms. He went through all the possibilities of why his son would do something like this. He and WB both had spent years programming some kind of pride in Zach. The lineage of hair was never supposed to be broken. Well, at least not by Zach since WB had shaved his fro a long time ago. It was just the principle of things.

"You aren't going to become one of those skinheads are you?" Hyde asked cautiously.

Zach snorted and rolled his eyes. "Yeah Dad. I'm a quarter black but they don't seem to care since I look like a white boy." He scoffed. "Please."

Hyde sat down. If it wasn't some kind of fashion statement, then he had no idea what it could be. Unless… "You aren't doing this just to piss me off are you?"

Zach paused with the fork in his mouth. "No," He grinned. "But it's a perk."

It was times like these that Hyde really hated that he had raised such a smartass. It was also times like these that he couldn't help but notice how much like himself his son had become: rebellious, aloof, and hated everyone. Part of him was proud, but the other part of him, the one that wanted Zach to be better than him in every way, wasn't. He had always hoped that Zach wouldn't live the same miserable life he had, but somewhere, somehow, it seemed like he had. He really wanted to stop the process, but he just didn't know how. Stopping Zach from visiting Sam had completely backfired and apparently produced horrible results, results that caused his boy to mutilate his own head.

Zach felt Hyde's heavy stare and every second grew more uncomfortable. He had learned well from his dad how to ignore people and pretend like nothing bothered him. So, he just mimicked. Even though he hated when people would go on and on about how much of his father he was, and he tried everything to prove them wrong, this was the one thing that he was glad to do. Turn his dad's own methods against him. It really got a rise out of him, and almost nothing ever did that.

Just then, Hyde cleared his throat. Zach knew that he only did that when he wanted to talk about something serious. "So, you still haven't talked about what happened with Sam."

Zach froze in his seat. He really didn't want to have this conversation. He scanned his brain for a proper answer to give. He found none. "What is there to say," he began, "We met, we talked, I left. That's all." He gulped down a huge knot of breath that seemed to have built in his throat.

Hyde knew that things would go badly; he just didn't expect them to go this badly. He had a feeling that Zach's shaved head was more than just to piss him off. In fact, he was almost positive it was the direct result from seeing his mother. When Zach didn't want to talk about things, Hyde usually just left him alone until he came around due to understanding of not wanting to being pushed, but this time, Hyde was afraid that Zach might isolate himself away from everyone. That was the very thing Hyde wanted to save him from.

"Zach, I know you don't want to talk about this, but I think it's important." But before he could finish the point he wanted to make, Zach slammed his silverware down in front of him.

"You know." Hyde could hear anger shaking in Zach's voice. "I find it so funny that you never wanted to talk about her before, but suddenly you do." And with that Zach got up from stool and marched out of the kitchen.

Hyde buried his head in his hands. He knew he was a hypocrite. He expected Zach to open up to him when he still couldn't. He would just have to give Donna a call later.


Jackie arrived in Madison's airport. It was much smaller than the one in Boston, but Jackie felt less suffocated now that she was closer to Point Place. She had called her husband when she arrived in Chicago. She told him that they were through and she wanted a divorce. Once she stated that she didn't care about his money, he became much more willing about the matter. She simply told him that she would call him soon with her new address, and he said he would send the papers in the mail. She had tried to call her son, but he never answered his phone.

She got in a taxi and headed to the nearest hotel. She still had no idea what she was going to do from here. She thought about calling Donna, but then she remembered she didn't know whether Donna married or not, so she couldn't look her up. It would probably be easy to look up Forman just to see if Donna had ended up marrying Eric like Jackie always dreamed she would. Jackie was scared though. She abandoned Donna just like she had abandoned the rest of her friends, and Jackie had no idea if Donna hated her or not.

Instead, Jackie decided she would just relax in her hotel and get things straight in her head. The last time she ran away, she just jumped right into things, not even allowing herself time to regret the decision she had made. Instead she let that regret grow slowly over the years, until it had exploded inside of her the night before. She had a feeling though that this time, there would be no regrets. Well, except for leaving Bobby, her son. She really hoped that he wouldn't hate her for this.

Jackie turned over and dialed her son's number. She twirled her necklace and bit her lip as she listened to each ring. When his voice mail picked up, her heart sank.

She climbed into the large hotel bed, and rested her head on the fluffy pillow. She felt so lost, so tired, so lonely, but she knew that this was the only way to find happiness again. Her eyes traveled around the red walls of the room, and she swallowed acidy vomit at the bottom of her throat. At that moment, every thing reminded her of the first time she ran away. Not when she left for Boston, but when she left for Chicago in 1979. She hadn't really returned home since then. True, she did come back to everyone, but things were never the same. Eric and Kelso were gone, Donna was an empty vessel, Fez was just different, and Steven… Steven was impenetrable. There was no way to get inside of him again.

Jackie wiped her hand across her face, feeling the hot tears that streaked their way down. She let out a coughing sob and clenched her hands to her heart. She hadn't cried like this in years and made no efforts to stop herself. It was therapeutic. Each jolting sob and piercing cry lulled her into a place she hadn't been in a long time. Before she knew it, she had fallen asleep.


AN2: Chapter 2 should be up shortly, once again, depending on response. I'm into Chapter 5 in writing, so hopefully I can keep this steady pace and will always have an update waiting for you guys. I definitely don't want to get behind on this story.