Disclaimer: If I owned, I wouldn't have messed them up.

A/N: To all Randy haters, he has a cameo, but that's it. I didn't hate him myself; I just thought he was unbelievably lame, which probably shows here. Also, another chapter that doesn't have any smut, but I promise to make up for it very soon.

Please review! I love reviews almost as much as I love Dr. Pepper.

I agree with everyone who reviewed the last chapter. Eric does deserve all the chicks!

PS: I love writing Hyde. He doesn't say much, but we all know a lot goes on in that sexy head of his. It's fun trying to bring that out. In the next chapters, I'm going to try to branch out and do more with the whole gang. This story will still continue to revolve around the kids though, especially Jackie and Hyde's relationship.

Don't Stand so Close to Me by Sooki.

Chapter 6: Hyde's epiphany.

The gang was all at The Hub. Jackie and Donna had just had their heart to heart; Eric was sitting between the two girls, grinning at finally being the ladies man.

" Ugh, these fries are extra greasy today." Jackie remarked, holding up a fry that was covered in oil. "This can't be good for my pores." She shoved the fries away. "I'll see you guys later." Jackie said as she got up. Brooke also got up. "I have to get to the library. Michael, be sure to pick up Betsy from daycare at three today." She kissed her boyfriend and walked out with Jackie.

They watched them walk out and Hyde turned to his friends.

"I was thinking since Jackie isn't seeing anyone, and I'm not married…" he trailed off.

Donna laughed. "Do you really think just because you're not married you two can just get back together?"

Hyde grimaced. "Well, yeah?"

"Look Hyde, just because you got rid of the skank doesn't mean you have an easy in with Jackie." Eric told him.

Hyde sighed. They were probably right. "So what do I do?"

"Well, what makes Jackie happy?" Kelso asked him while stuffing his face with Jackie's fries.

Hyde thought about it. "Jewelry, unicorns and disco."

"Well, it's easy. Buy her lots of jewelry and a unicorn and take her to a disco." Fez said.

"There is no way I'm going to do that."

The rest of them shook their heads. "Well, then we don't know how to help you." Fez told him, completely exasperated with his friend's stubbornness.

Donna looked at Hyde. "Before you do anything, what you really should do is talk to Jackie. Apologize for being such an ass. Get down on one knee and kiss her ass."

Hyde grinned. "Well, if that's what it'll take…"

Donna hit Hyde on the arm.

"Whatever. I'm going to go check on Leo at Grooves."

As he got up, Donna and Eric smiled at each other. Hyde was playing right into their hands.


Hyde found Leo sitting at the cash register. "Hey Leo, can I ask you a question?"

"Is it about dwarf stars? "'Cause I'm pretty sure they're just really short stars man."

"No Leo, it's about girls."

"Oh. What do you want to know?"

Hyde shrugged his shoulders. "It turned out I wasn't really married all this time."

Leo laughed. "That's what you get for not following your heart man"

Hyde glared at Leo. "Hey, I followed my heart. And you know where it got me? In a hotel room looking at Kelso in a towel, that's where!"

"You only think that's where it got you. But before that happened, you were happy and after, you weren't. Why do you think that is?" Leo asked him.

Hyde stared at Leo. "Man, you're really lucid today; did you run out of stuff?"

Leo grinned. "No, I'm just good at this relationship stuff man. You gotta be willing to make sacrifices man."

"So, you think I should be with Jackie?"

"Well, I don't know if you should be with this Jackie girl, but Loud Girl really likes you."

Leo looked thoughtful for a minute. "You know, Loud Girl hasn't been so loud lately. It makes me sad man."

Hyde squeezed Leo's shoulder. "Thanks Leo. You're a big help."

Hyde walked into the Forman kitchen. Red was sitting at the table eating a sandwich.

"Hey Red, what do you do when you make a huge mistake and you need to make up for it?"

"What kind of mistake? You're going to have to be specific Steven." Red said.

"Uh, okay. Say your girlfriend gave you an ultimatum and you went to answer said ultimatum but you saw your best friend wearing a towel and he's talking about doing it, so instead of talking to her about it, you jump in your car and go to Las Vegas and marry a stripper."

"And let me guess, you stay married to the stripper, but then you find out that you were never married in the first place and now you want the loud one back." Red interjected.

"Oh, so you heard about this one before?" Hyde tried to joke.

"Steven, I'm going to be honest with you. What you did was one of the most dumbass things I have ever seen in my life. You don't just get to apologize to the girl and hope that will solve everything. The only thing that will solve this for you is if you swallow your pride and grovel like you've never groveled before."

"That's what Eric and Donna said. Hell, that's what Leo said."

"Wait, you mean I just gave you the same advice as Leo? What is this world coming to?" Red shook his head. "Look, if you tell anyone I said this I'll kill you with my bare hands. Of all of you kids, I like Jackie the best. You know why?"

"Because she knows how to fix a car?"

"Yes, that and she's honest. She reminds me of myself. I've had to watch her walk around like she was missing a leg for the last six months. I'm not saying you need to marry her, but you broke it, you fix it."

"Can't I just buy her a card?"

"Steven, there's no card in the world that says 'I'm sorry I married a stripper.' Believe me, I would know."

Hyde stood up. "Thanks Red. Have you seen your son?"

Red shook his head. "He's probably over at Donna's. They better get married this time. And if they think they're living here, they've got another thing coming."


Hyde sat alone in the basement, staring into space when Jackie came in.

"Oh, hi." She said to him, clearly anxious that she was alone in the basement with him.

Hyde stood up. "Jackie, are you busy?"

"Um, no, what's up?" She sat down on the couch.

"I read your letters to Forman." He told her.

"You did?" She didn't sound surprised.

"You don't sound surprised."

"Well, this is Eric. He probably wanted you to read them so you could see what an ass you've been these past few months."

"Can we talk about them?" He asked her nervously.

"Okay, if you want to." She didn't seem too thrilled.

He nodded. "I want to." He went to his room to get the letters.

He didn't know where to start, so he went right for the heart of the matter. "I know you didn't nail Kelso." Talk about going right for the goods.

"Good." She said.

"And I don't really think you're a slut, or the devil, or Yoko. I was just really pissed at you."

"Also good to know."

"Come on Jackie, we need to talk about this!" he waved one of the letters in her face.

"What is there to say Steven? You got married out of spite! You didn't trust me! You wouldn't talk to me unless it was to burn me! It's like I meant nothing to you!"

He got mad. "Nothing to me? He asked her incredulously. "You meant everything to me damnit! You were the one who left without giving me a chance!"

She stared back at him for what seemed an eternity. "You got drunk in a warehouse Steven!" She yelled back, tears starting to fall down her face. "What was I supposed to think?"

They were now standing, facing each other.

"I was scared! You were pressuring me!"

"Damn you. All I wanted was for you to say you wanted to be with me!"

"I thought that was obvious!"

"Obvious? How was it obvious?"

He thought about it. Maybe he hadn't made it as obvious as he thought. She was tapping her foot expectantly while he tried to come with an example.

"See Steven, you didn't make it obvious. If anything, you kept trying to push me away!"

"Because you were always mentioning marriage!"

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe I just wanted us to have a better life than what we were given?" This was said more quietly.

No, he hadn't thought about that. He had always thought she just wanted to get married for the sake of being married. He had no idea that it went much deeper than that. What other things about her did he not catch? He realized he didn't understand her at all, that even after two years, he barely knew her, but he wanted to.

"No." he said, embarrassed.

"We had a real chance at being happy Steven, and we blew it."

"We?" He asked her, figuring she would have just blamed him.

"Yes, I'm partially to blame too. I should have just talked to you about how I was feeling."

"Uh, yeah." He was still amazed that she wasn't blaming him.

Hyde took a long look at the girl in front of him. Her face was stained with tears, her eyes .bright with fury. She was gorgeous.

"I'm so sorry." He brushed her hair out of her eyes and wiped another tear.

"I meant what I said earlier, I don't want to gloat about you and Sam's pseudo marriage not working out. I want you to be happy Steven."

"Yeah, about that… I talked to Leo today at the store, and to Red, and earlier I talked to Eric and Donna. They made me realize some things. "

She looked confused. "Okay, what things?"

He stared into her eyes. "Like how before we broke up I was happy, and after, I wasn't. I think it might have something to do with you."

Jackie looked down. "Steven, I've been hoping you would say that for a long time now, but I don't know if I can just forgive you. It's not that simple. I don't want to just have a fling. I want an actual relationship, with a future. I won't be your rebound."

Hyde inwardly grimaced. Eric and Donna had been right; this wasn't going to be as easy as he had hoped.

"Okay." He said to her.

She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. "I'll see you later Steven."

The feeling of her kiss lingered on his cheek. He looked down at his pants. "We're in so much trouble." He went back into his room to take care of his problem.


"I can't believe I said I didn't want to get back with him Fez!" Jackie and Fez were sitting on their couch; he was behind her, braiding her hair.

"I'm glad you did. He hurt you Jackie; he needs to do a lot of apologizing to you."

She sighed. "I just really miss him."

Fez kissed the top of Jackie's head. "I know you do. But remember the plan. Stick with the plan!"

"But what if he finds someone else?" She asked worried at the prospect.

Fez turned Jackie's face so she was looking at him. "We won't let that happen."

She turned back around. "You're right. Thanks Fez."

He went back to braiding her hair.

Jackie went to bed that night feeling slightly better than she had since Chicago. Chicago. She never wanted to step foot there again. It was just a place of bad memories, bad mistakes. Why did she even let Michael come over? Because she had been lonely that's why. He had thought it would have been funny to joke up about them doing it, but as usual, his jokes came at heavy price. She didn't blame Michael though. He was just trying to make her laugh. It was during these moments when she thought about how it would be if he hadn't been there. Steven was going to propose to her. He was going to ask her to stay with him. They would have been happy. No strippers, no crying herself to sleep at night. He still loved her. For the first time in six months, she wasn't crying herself to sleep out of sorrow, but of joy.

He still loved her.


"Okay Eric, I've been thinking." Donna barged into her fiancé's room the next morning.

"Go away mom." Eric turned around in his bed.

Donna pulled the covers off a naked Eric. "No dill hole. Wake up!"

Eric woke with a start. "Good god Donna!" He reached for his sheets to cover himself up.

"I don't think we should wait to get married."

That woke Eric up. "What?" He asked, clearly confused.

"I think we should elope. Get married by a justice of the peace at the court house, today."

Eric stared at Donna. "Uh, as much as I like that idea, we can't do that. Mom would kill me."

"So, we don't tell them. We get married in secret and then later, we'll have a big wedding for them."

"Wait, why don't we just wait to have the big wedding then?" Eric was even more confused.

"Because this way, we won't run away when the time comes, it'll be like pulling a band aid."

Eric got up and went to his closet to get dressed. "Donna, pulling a band aid really hurts, just like it's going to hurt when Red literally puts his foot in my ass for doing this."

Donna kissed Eric. "We need to do this Eric. Please?"

"Okay, if that's what you want. I think it sounds like a really, really bad idea, but what do I know. We'll get Jackie and Hyde to be our witnesses."

"No! We can't let anyone know, especially Jackie!"

Eric thought about it for a minute. "You're right; Jackie would never be able to keep her mouth shut."

Donna walked over to a now clothed Eric. "Let's do this!"

He smiled at her before kissing her. "I feel like Luke when he went to the Death Star."

They were both surprised to see Jackie sitting at the kitchen table.

"Jackie what are you doing here?" Donna asked her.

"The wicked witch of the west fired me for good this time."

Eric pretended to be shocked. "No! What did you do this time, squash her sister?"

Jackie looked up at Eric. "Apparently I'm too pretty! Also, I kind of forgot to water her prize winning azalea" She shook her head. "It's a freaking plant!"

She took a deep breath. "So anyway, I'm out of work now, and so I was kind of hoping to talk to Mr. Forman. I was just thinking, I'm good with cars, and he owns a muffler shop…

Red entered the room, having overheard Jackie's speech. "You actually want to work at my shop?" he asked her.

"Yes. Anything is better than working for Christina St. George."

"Will you actually work?" He asked her. "You won't be able to slack off all day."

"Of course I'll do work Mr. Forman. You can trust me." She said with sincerity.

He looked at her. "Okay, how about you come to the shop today and we'll see how that goes?"

She gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks Mr. Foreman!"

"Yeah, yeah, let me eat my breakfast first and then we'll go together."

Jackie ran out of the room.

Kitty came over to the table with a plate of eggs for Red. "It's so nice of you to this for Jackie." She told him.

"Nice smice. I just did it so she wouldn't start to cry."

Kitty kissed Red on the head. "Whatever gets you through the day."


Inside Grooves, Eric and Hyde were talking as Hyde sorted through records.

"So let me get this straight, Jackie is going to work at Red's Muffler shop?" Hyde asked Eric.

"Yeah man. She asked for a job and he said okay. It was really weird."

Hyde ran his hand through his hair. "Huh. Well, I guess she is good with cars."

"Good? One time Donna, Jackie and I went to Madison and the car started to stall. She had it fixed in no time. She's freaking brilliant when it comes to cars. Which makes no sense because it's Jackie, I mean you don't look at a girl like her and instantly think I bet she knows her way around an engine. It just doesn't happen." Eric gave Hyde a poignant look.

"God, she's hot and she can fix cars. Why did I give that up Forman?"

Eric simply laughed at his besotted friend. 'Operation Millennium Falcon is so far a success!' he thought to himself.

"We got into a fight earlier."

"What happened?" Eric asked.

"I asked her about the letters, and I tried to apologize. I just have a feeling she isn't done yelling at me."

"Hyde, she's probably never going to be done yelling at you. Twenty years from now, she'll still be yelling at you. That's what Jackie does. She yells."

"I know, but I want it to be about how I left the toilet seat up, not about this." Hyde asked his best friend. "What do you think?"

"I think you're better with her than you are without. I also think that you know how to get her back, but you're too much of a coward to do it. What you need to decide is if you trust her."

"See that's the thing, I don't know if I do or not. I know that logically, I should. That nothing happened in Chicago. But I can't get the image out of my head Forman."

Eric looked thoughtful. "I had the same problem when Donna dated Casey Kelso. I just kept imagining him touching her, and it nearly drove me insane. Even after we got back together, I kept thinking, what if he wants her back? What will she do? You just have to push past it, and remember everything else."

"Look, I just admitted I still have feelings for her. What more do you want from me?"

Eric shook his head at Hyde. "I want you to stop blaming Jackie for all the bad choices you made, I want her to stop crying all over the place, I want you two to admit that you belong together, but most of all, I want my friends to be happy."

Hyde was at a loss for words.

"What do you want?" Eric asked him.

He sat down and rubbed his eyes. "I want to stop…" he trailed off, unable to say the word.

"Hurting." Eric finished for him.

Hyde gave a short nod. "Yeah, that. I want her to stop crying, and for you guys to stop hating me for it."

"Hyde, we don't hate you, you know that."

"You should. I do."

Before Eric could respond, Donna walked into Grooves and kissed her fiancé. "Are you ready?" she asked him.

"Ready for what?" Hyde asked them, instantly curious.

"Well… uh..." Eric started to say.

"We're going to go to the mall to look at tuxes." Donna told him.

"I thought you guys weren't going to get married until next year." Hyde said suspiciously.

"We just want to look." She smiled at Hyde and her and Eric left Grooves.

Hyde looked over at Randy who was glaring in their direction.

"Hey man, you had to know you two weren't going to make it. Those two have been in love since before puberty."

Randy sighed. "Yeah, but dude, my hair is so much better than his!"

"What did I tell you about talking about your hair?"

"That whenever I did I have to pay you five bucks."

"Yeah, so pay up."

Randy gave Hyde a five dollar bill.


Eric and Donna sat outside the office to the justice of the peace.

"Are you ready for this?" Donna asked him.

He looked at Donna. In his mind's eye he flashed back to the first time they met, the first time she kissed him, the first time they did it, the time he proposed on the water tower, of all the rings he had given her, how hard it was to leave her.

"More now than ever."

"Okay, good. Let's go get married!"

They walked into the office holding hands.

Next time on DSCTM: Hyde does something very brave, Jackie really likes working with Red, Fez is worried, Kelso attempts to do something romantic for him and Brooke, and Donna and Eric… well, you'll just have to wait to find out.

Next update will be after New Years. Be safe everyone!