A/N: Thanks for all the reviews!!! I hope that everyone is bearing with me. Last chapter was rough, but it can only go up from here, yes?

Disclaimer: I own neither 70s SHOW nor any rock references.

Hyde wasn't able to work. Ash's words kept repeating in his head that morning, and now that it was noon they weren't relenting. He knew he'd screwed up, but he had no idea when he played that song in 1980 he'd be still regretting it sixteen years later.

Hyde wasn't the type to cry. He'd rarely cried in his entire life. Sure, physical pain, that was okay to cry about in small doses. But emotional pain was not something to cry over. He could remember three times that he had. The first was when his Mom left, and that was only for about ten minutes. The second was when Jackie dumped him for cheating on her, and that was just for about five minutes and because he'd told her he loved her and she'd rebuffed it. Like everyone in his life. The third, though… That was bad. It was a few months after Jackie had up and left for good. He had been cleaning his room, actually cleaning it completely, and he found one of the shirts she had liked wearing to sleep. It was one of those things that no one would have believed him if he told them. She had a KISS shirt she wore to bed when she was at his place. He'd outgrown the band pretty much, but she loved that damn shirt. After he'd dumped her for Sam, he'd shoved it deep under the bed and forgotten about it. When he found it that day, he had actually cried hard. Even bordering on sobbing. And it lasted the rest of the afternoon.

So now instead of crying, he decided to vent his emotions over their daughter the best way he knew how: getting nice and stinking drunk off his ass. Even if alcohol got him in more trouble, it was still the best way to forget everything.

"David, you're in charge," he said as he walked by his underling and out the door.

Adrian drove Ash home that afternoon. He let her change the radio station to the hard rock one, and just smiled a little bit. They pulled up to her house, and he whistled.

"Nice digs," he said.

"Thanks," she stated. "But don't you live on the River Road in Saint Paul?"

"… Yeah."

"You have the nice digs." They got out of the car, and she crossed her arms across her chest. He unloaded her bike, and she nodded at him.

"You didn't have to do that you know," she said.

"What, drive you home? You were in no condition to bike."

"No, I mean… The hallway, you know?" she asked.

"Oh," he said. "Well, it wasn't a big deal. When someone comes undone someone else should be there with them." She nodded, and smiled sort of.

"I liked your story," she said, and he chuckled.

"Ah, well, it wasn't about zombies or vampires, but it got the job done."

"Are you making fun of me?" she asked.

"….Only because I like ya," he stated, and she chuckled a little bit. "Well, give me a call sometime, Ashleigh."

"It's Ash," she said, and smiled a little at him and tucked some hair behind her ear. "I mean, it IS Ashleigh, but everyone calls me Ash, so…"

"Oh. Okay," he said. "Well… Good luck with everything. Leigh." He turned to leave.

"Hey hold on, everyone else calls me ASH, not LEIGH," she stated, hand on her hip.

"I'm not one to be like everyone else," he said. "See ya, Leigh." She nodded, and he got in his car, and drove away. Leigh, she thought. I could do Leigh. At least, if that's what he was going to insist on calling her it wasn't worth her time to argue. Yeah, that was it.

Jackie burst through the front door, scaring Ash half to death.

"Who was that?" she asked, and Ash glared at her Mom.

"Christ you scared me! What are you doing home?" she asked.

"I took Friday afternoon off, who was he? He was cute, is he a new friend?" Jackie prodded, and Ash walked inside. "Is he in your writing class? What's his name?"

"You are really dying for some answers, aren't you?" Ash asked.

"Uh, yes!" Jackie exclaimed, following her inside. "If not because I'm curious about your social life, I AM wondering who this strange kid was who drove you home!"

"Okay fine. He does go to my school a grade ahead of me, but I didn't know him at all until this summer. He's in my workshop, and offered to drive me," Ash said. "I… I kind of had a small meltdown in class today."

"What?" Jackie asked, and Ash held up her hands.

"But lucky for me, Adrian Lawson of all people was there to talk and calm me down," Ash said. Jackie cocked her head.

"Isn't that the kid you've been complaining about since you entered that class?"

"Yes. Funny how these things work, huh?" Ash asked, and trotted into the kitchen.

"Well… Wait!" Jackie exclaimed, following. "Are you okay? What happened?" Ash turned, and sighed.

"Okay, well I saw Dad and I kind of blew up at him," Ash said.

"Yikes. What did you say?"

"…. I just called him a loser and some names I probably shouldn't have," Ash said.

"Ash…"

"That was part one of my meltdown. Part TWO was when Adrian was there and… helped me." Jackie sighed, and hugged Ash.

"Are you okay now?" she asked.

"I think I am," Ash said. "And I think I'm close to making a decision about dad."

"Okay…."

"Yep…." Jackie knew she wasn't going to get anything else from Ash. Not yet.

"So we'll leave it at that. What do you want for dinner, sweetie?" she asked.

"….. Stuffed Peppers?"

"Oh I LOVE those!" Jackie exclaimed, hopping a little bit. Ash rolled her eyes.

"Gawd Mom," she said, picking up Claudius and walking up the steps.

"I'll just go to the store, then," Jackie said.

Jackie was on her way to the grocery store, when she had a thought she didn't want to have. How was Steven handling it? She sort of regretted wondering that, but couldn't help it. Ash could be relentless. So she turned the car around and went towards Dinkytown.

She parked on the street, and walked to Grooves. She walked in, and saw a college age kid at the counter. He looked up, and smiled at the hot woman who walked into the store.

"Well hello," he said. "Can I help you with a music selection today?"

"No, I'm looking for Steven Hyde. He owns the place, as I'm sure you know," Jackie said, crossing her arms.

"Oh. Well, he's had a rough day, I guess," the kid said, disappointed that she was not interested in chatting with him. "I think he went to the Dinkytowner."

"Thanks," Jackie said, and left the store.

She entered the bar, and indeed saw Hyde sitting and drinking. She groaned, and wondered how long he'd been there and how drunk he was. She strolled over, feeling eyes on her as she was the lone female at this hour, and sat next to him.

"Steven," she said. He looked up, and nodded at her.

"Oh. Hey Jackie," he said, waving a little bit. He was pretty drunk. Not completely gone, but drunk enough to make a complete nuisance of himself if he wanted to. "How're you?"

"I'm fine, Steven," she said. The bartender walked to her. "I'll just have a Shirley Temple, thanks." He nodded, and went to make her drink.

"Our daughter HATES me," Hyde said, and sipped on his beer.

"She doesn't hate you," Jackie said. "She's just really confused right now."

"No, no she HATES me," Hyde repeated, and the bartender placed her drink on the bar. "Not that I blame her, I'm not exactly my number one fan right now."

"Come on, you can't beat yourself up over a teenage girl's temper tantrum," Jackie said. "Granted, I've survived a few more than you have, but-."

"THIS was NOT a temper tantrum," Hyde said. "YOU threw temper tantrums. This was hate spewing from her mouth directed solely at me. I'm not even going to go into what she said, but I don't disagree with her. I'm… I'm a complete loser." Jackie rolled her eyes, and pulled his beer away from him.

"Well you're somewhat coherent. How many has he had?" she asked the bartender.

"About four," he said. "And also a couple whiskey shots. After the first three and before this one."

"And you just LET him drink all this?" she demanded.

"Hey, he's paying," was all the man said. She growled, and Hyde tried to take the beer back.

"Ah ah ah!" she snapped, and smacked his hand. "No you don't!"

"Hey, I paid for that," Hyde said. Jackie took his wallet away from his pocket, and took out his cash. "Hey! You're robbing me! MY EX IS ROBBING ME!"

"Oh calm down," Jackie said, putting the money in her pocket. "You'll get it back later when you aren't boozing your problems away. Barkeep, you are cutting him off as of right now. He has no money left. Get me a pitcher of water, please."

"Jackie," Hyde said, and grabbed her arm. She looked down at his hand, and then at him. "You have to talk to her."

"I have already," she said. "For your information, it's not like she blew up at you and then went on with her day. She had a COMPLETE breakdown at her workshop, to the point where a friend, or acquaintance, although I thought they were enemies…. Anyway, she had to be driven home. So I am still holding out hope that she will come around. But stop with the drinking. In fact, drink some water and then I'm taking you home."

"I have work," Hyde protested.

"You're ridiculous," Jackie said, and poured him some water as she took her arm away. "You aren't going back to work in THIS state. It's unprofessional."

"Good old Jackie," Hyde said, and she smiled at him a little bit. "Man, I was such an idiot. How did I ever let you go?" She sighed uncomfortably, and shrugged.

"Just drink your water."

"No, you are such a good person," he said, taking her arm again. "I never deserved you." She closed her eyes, those old feelings mumbling within her again. He needed to stop touching her. So she yanked her arm away, and thrust the glass of water into his hand.

"Drink. Your. Water." He nodded, and began to drink it.

After telling his worker (whose name, she learned, was David) that Hyde was going home for the day, Jackie drove Hyde home. He was complaining about his car, and she said that he could take a cab to work the next day and get it then. She helped him into his apartment, and wrinkled her nose at how…. Blah it was.

"Steven, you need to get some pictures up or something, because this place is downright depressing," she said, and helped him into the bedroom.

"It's fine," he muttered, and she sighed in exasperation. She went into the kitchen, and got him a big glass of water. She put it on his nightstand. "Arg. No more water, you made me drink enough at the bar."

"Not true," she said. "You are going to sober up and you are going to thank me later when your head isn't splitting open. Do you have any vitamins?"

"…. Huh?"

"That was a dumb question, forgive me," she said. "I may have some Flintstone ones in the very bottom of my purse. They're pretty convenient, I like them myself…"

"Why are you doing this?" he asked. "You have no obligation to me whatsoever. I was such a jerk to you when you left, you should be totally disinclined to have anything to do with me." What could she say? She didn't even know. So she decided to avoid the topic.

"Hey, you're using big words, that's a start," she said. "You can't be as plastered as you were. See. Water works."

"Seriously. Why?" Fine, if he wanted to be that damned persistent. He'd had a rough day, she could throw him a bone.

"Because it's YOU, Steven, I've always had a soft spot for you," she stated, digging through her purse. "Even when you were with that dumb bitch stripper I still kept you in my life. And don't ask why because even now I can't answer it, especially why I'm doing it right now. Maybe it's because we were lovers, maybe it's because of Ash, but it's been there since I was a fifteen year old. Ah ha. Flintstone vitamins." She tossed him the bottle, and he caught it.

"I can't tell you that I know what Ash is going to do," she continued. "But I can tell you that I know our daughter. She's hurting. No doubt. But at least she isn't indifferent. Trust me. That's MUCH worse. I know from experience." They stared at each other for a little bit, and she cleared her throat.

"Now I'm going to go," she continued. "No more drinking tonight. Here's your money back." She handed it to him. "Goodbye, Steven." She left the apartment, and Hyde was left alone. He looked at the money, and the vitamin. He smiled despite himself, and exhaled. The spark was there. It was faint, but it was there. Had she felt it too? He couldn't tell. He hoped she was right about Ash, but wasn't sure.

After a dinner of peppers and salad, Ash was helping Jackie clean up the dishes. Ash hadn't asked what had taken her mother so long to get back from a grocery trip, and had a feeling she didn't want to know.

"How were the peppers?"

"Good."

"I didn't use too much sauce, did I?"

"Nope."

"…..Can you tell me what you think you're leaning towards in regards to Steven?" Jackie asked flat out, and Ash rolled her eyes. "I mean, I will assume that this fight you two had was bad, but-."

"I think that we did just fine without him and we should continued doing just that," Ash said, putting down the dishrag and walking from the kitchen. Jackie followed.

"Ash, hold on a second," Jackie said. "Okay…. Now you are probably going to be upset with me, but I saw him today, and-."

"Well what did you go and do that for?" Ash exclaimed, spinning around.

"Because I wanted to make sure that he wasn't…. I don't know!" Jackie snorted.

"Why do you always go back to this guy?" Ash asked. "I mean, he treated you like crap, why should he get another chance from either of us? Why from me?"

"…. Because he's your father."

"Fuck him."

"Ash!" Jackie said, firmly, not pleased with the foul mouth that just seemed to keep growing on he daughter. "You can't run away from this! He's your Dad!"

"I don't need a Dad!"

"No, you don't NEED a Dad, but I can tell that you want one!" Jackie snapped. "What he did has hurt you! If it hadn't you wouldn't have had a breakdown!"

"So it hurt me! So what?" Ash snapped back, stomping up the steps.

"So that means you care! If you didn't care and you didn't want him in your life, you would have been completely apathetic, but you aren't!"

"Whatever," Ash muttered.

"Oh Jesus, not you too," Jackie said, and followed Ash up the steps. "Okay fine, yes, it's YOUR decision. I can't influence you, but if I were you I'd give him another chance."

"You know, you always did that and what did it get you?" Ash asked.

"You," Jackie said. Ash was sort of thrown, and stopped the beeline for her room. She turned, and smiled wryly at her mother.

"Ah, well met," she said, and Jackie chuckled. "…. I hate what he did to you, Mom, and I don't understand why you kept going back to him."

"I don't either, but it was my decision and I don't regret it," Jackie said. "Look, you and your father… You're alike in so many ways and it's really frustrating for me at times, let me tell you. And you obviously were connecting with him on some level when you didn't know he was you Dad." Ash sighed, and crossed her arms.

"Yeah…." Good, make her remember this, Jackie thought.

"Again, you need to make the decision best for you," Jackie said. "And any decision you make I'll support." Ash nodded. Jackie pet her hair a little, and kissed her head. Ash sighed, and hugged her Mom. Jackie smiled, and hugged her back.

"I'm going to go read," Ash said.

"Okay." Ash sighed, and walked into her room. As soon as the door was closed, Jackie hugged herself. Well Steven, I hope for your sake that she changes her mind. Of course now her skeptical side was in a tizzy. Why did you do that? You don't owe him any favors? Why couldn't you have let it work out on it's own? She shrugged at nothing, and went to read as well.

She heard a low rumbling of thunder in the distance. She smiled a little bit. Rain brought renewal. That was a good sign.

By Saturday afternoon, it had started to rain in the Twin Cities. As the rain fell outside in gentle drops, Hyde sighed. The past few days had been hell. The waiting was slowly killing him. He couldn't even fathom why he cared that much, he wasn't the type to form such an attachment to someone he didn't even know existed until two days prior. He couldn't stop thinking of Ash, and also Jackie. Seeing her brought back a bunch of memories and feelings he'd repressed for so long. And Ash, well, she brought on a whole other flood of emotions, and Hyde hated his emotions. When she yelled at him the day before, it hurt like no other pain he'd experienced. Kind of like when Jackie up and left, but at the same time completely different.

He had really despised himself in the past sixteen years and didn't even know it until now. He hadn't opened up to anyone, not even his closest friends, about Jackie, or his life, or his secret pain. He thought that maybe if he just ignored it, it would go away. Instead it manifested itself in broken relationship after broken relationship, and he became so immersed in work that he barely saw anyone anymore. After Jackie left, Donna and Eric left. And no one else was really that worth it to Hyde. And now he had two people in this new place that were worth more than anything else, and he didn't know if he was even going to see them.

And then there was the fact that Jackie was there for him yesterday. She could have stayed away, but she sought him out to make sure he was okay. He certainly didn't deserve it, but she did it regardless.

The door opened. He looked up, and was surprised to see Ash in a red raid coat.

"Hey," she said, pulling the hood down. His body tensed up, and he nodded quickly.

"……. Hey." She walked in the aisles of the store, not saying anything. Just looking at the CDs. She found one she liked, and brought it to the counter. "Warrant?"

"So?"

"They're awful!"

"Come on, 'She's my cherry pie, cool drink of water what a sweet surprise. Tastes so good, make a grown man cry, sweet cherry pie'," she recited the words monotone. "What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing, though coming from your mouth I'm kind of disturbed…. I didn't think you were going to come."

"Yeah, I didn't either."

"Hm. That's disheartening," he said. She shrugged, and leaned against the counter. "What, um..?"

"Well, after my freak out yesterday, I did some thinking," she said. "… Sorry about yelling at you."

"Oh, it's okay…."

"And calling you white trash."

"Hey, it wouldn't be the first time I'd been called that."

"And plus, Mom sort of verbally assaulted me after dinner," Ash said. "God, she's so nosy, you owe her a lot since I was perfectly content to just walk away from you."

"…. What did she say?" Hyde asked.

"Eh, not much really," Ash said. "But it was more of what the meanings were behind it. I mean, she was completely defending you and wants me to let you into my life."

"….. Wow."

"Yeah, wow. So I thought about every aspect of yours and Mom's relationship. Everything from your lame first date to your summer fling to when you cheated on her to when you married a stripper over her, all the way to that one last time, which led to me," she said, gesturing to herself.

"…. I'm not proud of a lot of things that happened between your mother and myself," he said.

"Well I'd certainly hope not," she stated. "While she told me all these horrible, HORRIBLE things you did, I kept thinking: why did she keep going back to him? Why did she fall for his lines every time? And why, despite everything he did, is she still speaking so fondly of him? What does that say about my mother?" Hyde didn't know what to say to these hypotheticals.

"But I kept thinking," she continued. "And I realized something yesterday. I can't make snap judgments about complicated people. My Mom has her faults, but she's overall able to see the good in people. If she knows that a person is deep down great, she'll stick by them no matter what they do. So I guess I spun it. Instead of asking what it said about her, I began to wonder what her loyalty said about you."

Hyde smiled slowly at his daughter. She smiled back, and yep, she had his natural sly smile.

"So I guess what I mean is… She was able to forgive you. And you never even did anything to me, so I should forgive you too. So I forgive you. And I want to get to know you," she said. He smiled, and had no idea he could feel this much relief at one moment.

"Okay," he said.

"And because of this, I need to know what to call you."

"…. Wait, huh?"

"Well, calling you 'Dad' is a little weird still," she said. "At least for me. So what do I call you?" He snorted, and put a finger to his lips in thought.

"You can call me Hyde," he suggested. "Or, Steven… Or Steve…. I take those back, call me Hyde."

"Hyde."

"Yeah, cuz Steve sounds stupid, and Steven, well-."

"Is what Mom calls you," Ash finished.

"… I guess." He hadn't thought of it that way before. He certainly didn't let anyone besides the Foremans call him Steven after Jackie left. Especially his many flings.

"Well, okay, Hyde," she said. "The first step in the transition from Hyde to Dad is this: want to come over for dinner tonight?"

"Oh," he said. "Well… Sure! That sounds good."

"Sweet. We'll expect you at seven thirty," she said. "…. Do you ever take your sunglasses off?"

"Yeah. When I sleep… And shower."

"Okay. Seven thirty," she said, putting up her red hood. "See ya then." With that, she left the store, got on her bike, and biked off. As soon as she was gone, the normally stoic Hyde had a lapse in his stoicism and pumped his fist in the air a couple times. Mental note, he thought. You owe Jackie BIG TIME.

"Are you crazy!" Jackie exclaimed. "Dinner tonight? At seven thirty? That's…" She looked at her watch. "An hour and a half from now! And I don't cook that fast!"

"Mom, you cook plenty fast!" Ash exclaimed back. "You cook fine under pressure! Better than fine, even!"

"Ugh, Ash, why couldn't you have invited him over for tomorrow night?" Jackie asked, and Ash eyed her.

"Oh my God," Ash stated.

"What?" Jackie asked.

"Are you seriously freaking out that Hyde is coming over tonight?" Ash asked. "I mean, seriously? You track him down yesterday and go to his place, but you are scared when you have the home field advantage?" Jackie huffed, and crossed her arms.

"No, I just don't know if we have any food," she claimed, and Ash decided to play along.

"Well, we have hamburger," Ash suggested. "And it's nice outside now that the rain has stopped. You could grill…"

"…. I could grill," Jackie said. "And I do make good hamburgers, don't I? But we'll need a vegetable to go with it."

"You could roast corn," Ash said. "That's really summer-y."

"You're right!" Jackie exclaimed. "And Steven likes corn! I'll make corn!"

"Hooray for corn!" Ash exclaimed, displaying that personality trait of her mother that everyone found endearing: giddiness. Jackie rushed to the fridge. "We can soak the corn first, and then-."

"….. We have no corn," Jackie said, and Ash snorted. "…. Do I have time to run to the store?"

"…No."

"The side dish is ruined!" Jackie exclaimed.

"My GOD you're such a drama queen sometimes!" Ash exclaimed. "I'll throw other veggies on the grill."

"… Okay, it's been salvaged."

"It was never ruined," Ash stated. "So if you are done freaking out, we can begin!"

"I'm not freaking out," Jackie insisted. "And I'm done not freaking out. Let's begin."