AN: Here's the big zennie chapter! The chapter you guys have been waiting for. I hope to get a lot of feedback on this. I hope I'm not losing a few of you with this story. Trust me when I say this, it's all tying together! I didn't pull this out of the blue. It's an intricate story and all the parallels are put in here for a reason.

Check out my other story that I'm writing with elphabachan called That 70's Slasher Movie! It's a Friday the 13th/ T7S crossover.


Chapter 13: New Death Sensation

Jackie applied dark red lipstick to her still pouty and full lips. She was dressed in a simple black dress that she bought earlier that day with Donna. It had been so long since the two had gone shopping together. They had spent hours looking through clothes, and Jackie suggested outfits for Donna that would look great for her figure and hair color. They called each other midget and lumberjack just like the old days, and Jackie couldn't be happier.

Well, that was a lie. Jackie could be a lot happier. Right now she didn't know whether she was happy or not due to her bones shaking in her skin. It had been so long since she had been on a date and even longer since she had been on a date with Steven. Despite it being a nice restaurant that they were going to, Jackie still chose a pretty casual dress to wear. Dates with Hyde always had a very simple and comfortable feel to them no matter if they were going to the Hub or a place like this. That note didn't help Jackie calm herself. She was a nervous wreck, and Donna only sat back completely amused.

"Jackie, you need to chill out. You look like one of those tiny, spastic dogs that women carry around in their purse. Why are you so nervous? It's just Hyde."

Jackie wrapped her arms around her body to still herself as she sat next to Donna on Donna's bed. "Did I tell you that I used to have a dog?"

"No."

"Yeah, she was a Doberman. Dennis loved those dogs, and at first I really didn't want a big dog in the house. But she was such a princess, just like me."

Donna lifted her eyebrow in suspicion. "That's a nice story Jackie, but it still doesn't answer why you are so nervous."

"I know that, Donna, but anything that can get my mind off of tonight is what I want to talk about." Jackie looked away, irritated at Donna's teasing and her uncontrollable anxiousness.

"Besides, the fact that my first date in years is with Steven is worse than if it were with anybody else."

Donna let go of her teasing attitude and began to click into her maternal comforting. "Why, Jackie? I thought you wanted this to happen."

Jackie sighed and let go of her body, flopping her hands into her lap. "I do… it's just that I know we are going to talk about what happened between us. I want us to talk about it. It's not good just to forget about all that. It's just that I know this isn't going to be some simple date where we just have to entertain each other for a few hours and we'll be through with it. This night is important."

Donna wrapped an arm around her best friend's shoulders and hugged her into her body. "I know Jackie, but after tonight, everything will be okay. I promise."

"But what if it isn't?" Jackie questioned through little tears. "What if he isn't even sorry for what he did? I won't be able to take that Donna."

Donna frowned at her friend's insecurities. Not only should Hyde admit he is sorry, he better feel pretty damn lucky she is giving his ass a second chance. "Trust me Jackie. I know he is more than sorry."

"Really?" Jackie sniffled and rubbed her nose.

"Yeah. Now stop crying. You don't want to ruin your makeup, do you?" Donna let the teasing return to her voice again, trying to cheer Jackie up.

"No. Not like it matters because I'll look gorgeous no matter what. I mean, look at this dress. I make it look so spectacular!"

Donna just laughed at her friend's vanity.

A doorbell sounded from downstairs, and Jackie suddenly felt 10 times smaller. Donna noticed her panicked expression and placed her hands on Jackie's shoulders. "It's okay. It's just Hyde." Donna got Jackie's eye contact and tried to keep her focused. "Alright, I'm going to go downstairs and you stand in the hallway. I'll talk to Hyde for a second and then you can make one of those walks down the stairs where you have everyone's attention just like you have always dreamed."

Jackie's face relaxed. "Really? You'd do that for me?"

Donna chuckled. Jackie was just too easy. "Yeah, really."

"Alright." Jackie took a few huffy breaths. "I'm ready."

Hyde waited patiently outside of the doorway, planting his feet to the concrete trying to make sure his legs didn't bolt on him. After getting ready, he pulled out his sunglasses because he knew that Jackie would be able to see how freaked out he was if he didn't. But once he put them on and looked at himself in the mirror, he knew that it just wouldn't do with Jackie. She had seen him this whole time without them, and she would most likely pitch a bitch fit if he dared to start wearing them now. Besides, he wanted this night to go over well. For years he hid behind dark aviators, giving him a perfect excuse to hide behind other walls as well. Living that way had earned him absolutely nothing. If he wanted any kind of second chance at happiness with Jackie, he had to quit hiding from her.

So that was why he was standing in Donna's doorway, trying his best to still his shaking leg, dressed in a suit and tie, and holding a single rose in his hand. He really questioned the flower angle, but Jackie always demanded flowers when they were dating as kids. The only time he listened to her then was once when they were at Mt. Hump and she began to complain about it. So he picked the first flower he found and placed it in her hair behind her ear. She thought it was the most romantic thing in the world and if his memory served him correctly, he got pretty lucky in the back of the El Camino that night. Even then he blamed his gesture on wanting to get some and not because he wanted to make her happy.

Getting some action was not his motivation for tonight, even though he had been thinking of that possibility quite a lot lately. It seemed like forever since he had gotten any. All of that didn't really matter so much to him anymore. He had had his share of women in the past, and through the years he realized that the best thing that ever happened to him was not mind blowing, kinky sex from some faceless girl who knew all the right moves. The best thing that had ever happened to him was spending secret nights with Jackie hiding out in his room, dancing with her at all the stupid dances she loved so much, and feeling her soft whispers of "I love you's" that skimmed his neck during their breathless hours. Just like he had grown, so had Jackie. He knew that the woman that had come to Point Place from Boston was not the same girl that would give him car sex for picking her a flower. He no longer deserved her clinging attention and grand rewards for the little gestures he pulled off every once in a while. He was doing all of this just for her.

Hyde took a deep breath and slowly blew the air out his nose. The front door swung open and Donna stood smiling at him.

"Wow Hyde. You really dressed yourself up for this night didn't you?" Hyde met her with a stern look as she almost burst into giggles at his appearance.

"Can it, Donna." Hyde pushed past her into the living room.

"Is that a rose in your hand? Aw, you loovvee her."

"I said can it, Donna." His voice grew more irritated with her teasing.

"Are you guys going to kissy wissy on your date?" Donna made kissy faces as she rotated her hands and body along with her words.

A loud clearing of a throat that clearly belonged to Jackie sounded from upstairs. Donna giggled again and straightened up. "May I present to you, your date, Ms. Jacqueline B. Burkhardt!"

Jackie descended the stairs with all the grace she could muster. Hyde only stared as she made her way down the cream carpeted steps. He expected her to look beautiful, but not this beautiful. You really couldn't tell that she was almost a 40 year old woman. Jackie turned her head to meet Hyde's eyes once she reached the bottom. She could tell her eloquent entrance had some kind of effect of him because she noticed a small smile glazed over his eyes that accompanied the one on his face.

"Hi Steven." She said, slowly walking towards him.

"You look really beautiful Jackie." He replied back, not able to tear his eyes away from her.

"You look really nice in your suit." She looked down at the ground, feeling shy at the little moment they shared.

"Aww," Donna broke the tension in the room, or did she just add to it?

"Do you want to leave now? Hyde asked, placing a hand on the small or her back starting to lead her to the door.

"Yes please." Jackie shot Donna a giddy look as she passed by.


They sat across each other at a small table by the wall of the dimly lit restaurant. It was Italian, and pretty nice for Point Place standards. Jackie couldn't stop smiling. When they were kids, she was lucky if he took her to the Sizzler on their anniversary, but this was for no special occasion other than to get to know each other again.

"God I just love Italian food." Jackie exclaimed as the waitress set down her plate in front of her. "I think it just might be the best food on the planet."

"Yeah." Hyde answered, giving her a little smile as she dug into her pasta. "It's Zach's favorite too."

"Bobby's favorite is Cajun. Once, when he was twelve, Dennis and his law firm went to New Orleans for this seminar right around Mardi Gras, and for once he actually took Bobby and me. We went to the parade and this couple that lived there who were family members of one of Dennis's law partners were next to us, and they just insisted we come to their house for a big cook out they were having. It was pretty good, a little to hot for my tastes, but I swear Bobby was going to eat them out of a house and home. And then they brought out the crawfish." Jackie squirmed in her seat at the memories. "Ick, I wouldn't touch the things but Bobby was like a vacuum through them."

"Aren't they just like tiny lobsters?" Hyde asked, taking a bite of his food.

"Yeah, but they creeped me out. I always order just lobster tails. I don't want my food's own beady eyes staring back at me as I eat it, much less hundreds of them!"

Hyde chuckled as her eyes grew round as she got more emotional with her speech. "I remember being slightly embarrassed by him because it was like he completely forgot his table manners, but once I looked around, I noticed that no one was being polite. Do you know what they do after they eat the tails of those things? Suck the heads!"

Hyde choked a little on his chicken and quickly reached for his glass of water. Hearing Jackie yell, "Suck the heads!" was just a little too much of an innuendo for his mind, especially coming out of her mouth.

"Are you okay, Steven?" Jackie asked as she gently placed her hand on his arms and looked up at him with concern in her eyes.

Once Hyde gained control of his coughing, he smiled at Jackie and said, "Yeah. You just need to watch you language around me."

"Steven!" Jackie exclaimed as she swatted his arm and began to grow red, slowly realizing what she just yelled out. "You know what I mean."

Hyde just chuckled at her embarrassment. After her cheeks started fading back to their normal hue, she sat quietly in her seat, thinking more on the memory. "Bobby wanted to try, you know, THAT… but I forbade it. After I explained to him that their guts and brains were in there, he decided not too."

Hyde studied her facial expression. She was grinning so big, but sadness left a fade in the shine of her eyes.

"Sounds like a really good memory." He said, closely watching her body language.

"Yeah, it is." She folded her hands in her seat. She couldn't stop the next words that came out. "We don't really talk that much anymore. He's always busy with school and friends."

Hyde nodded his head and they both weren't sure of what to say. Hyde almost was about to tell her that he and Zach were having problems too, but then he'd have to start talking about Sam and he did want to have that conversation just yet.

"Steven." Jackie called to him. He looked up at her and saw she was shyly playing with her napkin in her lap. "Do you think that I'm a bad mother because I left him?"

Hyde noticed the desperate look in her eye as she patiently waited for his answer. "Well, how old is he now?"

"Eighteen."

"Is he going to college in the Fall?"

"Yeah. He was accepted to Dartmouth."

"Have you talked to him since?"

"Yeah, I left a note when I left because he wasn't at home at the time, and then I was finally able to get in touch with him on the phone last week."

"Don't worry Jackie. You've been there his entire childhood. You didn't leave him in a place where he still needed you like our folks did." Hyde reached across the table and wrapped Jackie's hand into his. He gave it a light squeeze and she answered back with her own.


The stars were extra bright that night, lighting up the black of the night sky. Underneath the celestial giants were two hearts side by side in their keeper's bodies. They returned to the first place that it had all began so many years ago. A place where they had shared their first true kiss and a place where they told their first lie to each other.

Jackie thought about that kiss and how soft his lips felt against hers. She had never been kissed like that before, and even when she was with Steven, there were only a few rare moments that he kissed her just like that again. Thinking back to that night, Jackie had never been so scared about what someone thought of her before. She put her soul in that kiss, and it wasn't until the very end when her lips were sparking with passion did the thought cross her mind that he might not be feeling the same way. The fight or flight instinct kicked in, and unfortunately, Jackie chose flight.

Before hashing out the big things that tore their souls apart from each other, Jackie wanted to get to the very foundation that their rocky relationship built itself upon.

"Steven." Jackie's voice called to him, and Hyde thought he had never heard a sweeter sound.

"Yes, doll." His use of her nickname gave her courage.

"Do you remember our first kiss?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I just wanted to let you know that I lied to you that night."

Hyde's body froze as he comprehended her confession. They had said many things that night, but he knew exactly what she was referring to. "Why?" Was all he could ask.

"I was just scared. The kiss was amazing and I was afraid you would just burn me again."

Hyde wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her in close to him. "Well, I wasn't going to."

"Did you lie too?" She peered up at him with her mismatched eyes that still held their colors even in the moonlight.

"Yeah, I did." He answered her, never breaking their stare.

Jackie couldn't help herself. She grasped his face in between her palms and pressed her lips onto his. Luckily for her, Hyde wasn't too shocked and soon reciprocated the kiss. At first, their lips held onto each others at a slow pace, trying their best to remind each other of how it used to feel. It wasn't long until their lips glided across each others passionately, making new memories for their hearts.

Once Jackie was satisfied with the taste of him on her tongue, she slowly pulled away, this time not pretending that he didn't take her breath away. She rested her head on top of his shoulder and breathed in his scent that was all him.

Hyde ran his fingers through her silky hair as his heart rate began to come down. He felt like the luckiest person on earth that she was giving him a second chance. Long years without the one thing that makes life worth living does that to a person. Even the most guarded badassses have to change sometime.

Hyde laid his head down on Jackie's and decided he would take the plunge into the issue that they never truly talked about. Because she wasn't looking directly at him with her eyes that held her soul on their brims, he figured his apologies would be much easier to voice.

"Jackie," she felt his voice tremble against her skin. "I made a huge mistake a long time ago."

Jackie's heart twisted in pain, but she squeezed his thigh, encouraging him to continue anyway.

"I should have trusted you when it came to Kelso."

"I don't blame you for the way you felt. I was a bit immature when it came to those things."

"None of that should matter Jackie." Hyde took a deep breath, trying his hardest to continue with his speech. Even though he had come a long way, it was still hard to put himself out there, even for her.

"Look Jackie. I'm going to be completely honest with you right now and you'll probably never here me say these things again, because… well…they're difficult." Jackie stilled her body, not wanting to miss a word of what he was about to say. "I never let you completely in, and I think ultimately that was what hurt us in the end. I was always suspicious, and whenever something happened that didn't look exactly right, I did everything I could to hurt you more than how I felt. And even whenever I was sorry for the things I did, for some reason I had to be so damn self-righteous about it all. I just let that pride take the best of me because I thought it was all I truly had. But I had you, and I didn't realize until I really lost you for good just how much you gave yourself to me. All the things that I've done Jackie, especially when I married Sam… they haven't been because I didn't care about you because I did. I guess I just never truly accepted that I would be good enough for you in the end."

"Well what about now?" Jackie asked as her eyes let her tears loose. "How are things different now?"

"Because these last twenty years have been shit without you doll, and I never want that to happen again."

Jackie launched herself onto his body, burying her face in his neck and crying her eyes out. She was proud of how open he was being with her even though it had taken all this time for it to happen. But she mostly cried because the emptiness began to close in on itself. So this was how it felt when her pain died? Jackie knew they still had a world to talk about, but this was the first step into their progression to rediscover communication.


AN2: Nexy chappy is the Zach/Jackie convo! I love that you guys have been asking this because this convo has been planned from day one. Review!