For those of you who are interested (all five of you) this story is going to be in three parts. The first part is everything up to this point, the second is going to take place 4-6 months into Jackie's pregnancy, and the third and final part will be the birth. Each part will be about four chapters long to go along with the verses of the poem.
This chapter is hugely based on the song Everything Falls Apart by Dog's Eye View. A great song, go listen to it on You Tube!
The Trees.
Jackie sank down into the couch next to Donna and Fez and sighed. "Well, that went well." She said sarcastically.
Donna smiled sympathetically. "Actually, I think it went very well. At least you didn't have to throw up."
Jackie laughed dryly. "There is that, yeah."
Fez shook his head. "Hyde is a fool."
"There's no argument there." Donna agreed.
Kelso came out of the kitchen with a plate full of sandwiches. "What're you guys talking about?" he asked as he put the plate down on the coffee table. As Fez and Donna took the sandwiches they shot each other looks. Finally, Jackie sighed.
"Okay, Michael," she said, "Since everyone except Steven knows already, I guess I can tell you. I'm having a baby."
"It's not mine!" Kelso yelled out of habit. "Oh, right… I thought Hyde was still here." He said laughing nervously. "Oh my god, you're really pregnant?"
"I'm really pregnant." Jackie replied with a small smile.
"Wow." Kelso said. "And Hyde doesn't know?"
"Define, know." Donna told him.
Jackie instantly looked at Donna, "What do you mean, define know?"
"Um, I might have told him." Donna said sheepishly.
"You did what?" Jackie screeched.
"I used it as a hypothetical example… he um, he didn't quite get that it wasn't though."
Jackie continued to stare at Donna for a minute. "My god."
"I just wanted to see what he'd say," Donna explained. "I asked him what he'd do."
"What did he say?" Fez asked.
"That it would depend." Donna grimaced.
Jackie groaned. "Great, just when I thought things couldn't get any worse."
Kelso handed Jackie one of the sandwiches. "Here, eat this delicious peanut butter and banana sandwich, it'll make you feel better."
Just when Hyde thought things couldn't get any worse, he walked into the Forman's kitchen. Sitting on the table in all it's tacky glory was Sam's sculpture. Sitting at the table was Red, who on the surface looked calm, but Hyde knew better. Red wasn't calm, he was waiting.
"Do you know what that is, Steven?" Red said without looking at him.
"Um, it's a sculpture… made out of empty toilet paper rolls." Hyde stated.
"No." Red said with a shake of his head. He pointed to the sculpture. "That is what your future is."
"My future is a bad sculpture that looks like the empire state building?" Hyde asked, confused.
"No, your future is crap." Red stated. "That thing is crap, and so is your life."
Hyde stared at the sculpture for a minute. "I thought my life was going to be crap anyway."
"All men's lives are crap. Look at my life, my son ran off to Africa, my daughter is god knows where, doing god knows what, I've been shot at, fired more than once, but you know what gets me through it?" Red asked.
"Um, football and beer?" Hyde guessed with a laugh.
"Yes, that and Kitty." Red replied. "Sometimes a man's life is hell, but you learn not to focus on that stuff. Instead, you focus on the good."
"Yeah, you know, I always thought that if I got married, I wanted it to be like you two."
Red smiled. "I don't think you're going to find that with a stripper."
Hyde nodded. He had already made his decision not to stay married to Sam, but hearing Red's advice synched the deal. He gave the sculpture another look and then walked down stairs to the basement.
He found her sitting on the couch reading a magazine.
"Hey." He said nervously.
Sam looked up at him and smiled. "Hi, baby, how was your day?"
"Um, eventful." Hyde replied. He sat down in his chair and leaned forward. "Sam, there's something I need to talk to you about."
"Oh, well, there's something I need to talk to you about too." Sam said with a cheery voice that made Hyde instantly suspicious and guilty.
"Um, okay." Hyde said, "Uh, what is it?"
"Well, I was thinking we should get married."
Hyde blinked.
"Because I know you don't remember our wedding, and I just thought it would be nice if we… you know, did it for real."
Hyde laughed nervously. "Oh shit, see, that's what I wanted to talk to you about… I think we, um, I, made a big mistake."
"What?" Sam asked dumbly.
"Look, us, getting married, I was mad at Jackie and I got married to you for all the wrong reasons."
"So, lets marry for the right ones." Sam argued.
"I thought about that too, and I realized that the only reason to get married is if you're in love, and I don't…" he trailed off not wanting to say the rest.
"You don't love me." Sam finished. "So… I guess I'll go back to Vegas then." She stood up and started to walk to Hyde's room to pack. Hyde watched her leave and then put his head in his hands and sighed.
"Ugh." Jackie complained as the peanut butter and banana sandwich came back up. "Well cross that off the list of foods Steven's spawn will let me eat." She said as she sat down at the edge of her bathtub.
Donna shook her head. "Well, they are pretty gross." She said as she handed Jackie a tissue.
"Donna, what am I going to do?" Jackie asked after she wiped her mouth.
Donna didn't know the answer to that question, so instead she sat next to Jackie and squeezed her hand.
"I'm going to have to find a job to support myself and this kid, and forget about me ever dating again, Donna, I'm going to have to start thinking about someone other than me!"
Donna laughed. "Jackie, I hate to tell you this, but you're not as selfish as you pretend to be. You did offer to quit your dream job in order to be with Hyde."
"Yeah, and look where that got me." Jackie spat. "Besides, I told him I'd stay if we got married, I'd say that's pretty selfish on my part."
"Yeah, I suppose that was pretty stupid." Donna said thoughtfully.
"Not helping!" Jackie exclaimed.
Donna laughed, "Jackie, you're going to be a good mother, and you have us and the Forman's to help you, and Hyde will too once he gets his head removed from his ass."
"You really think so?" Jackie asked hopefully.
"I do." Donna said with a nod.
Jackie smiled at her best friend and stood up. "Thanks." She said sincerely and the two girls hugged.
Hyde watched as the cab pulled up to the Forman's driveway.
"Well, there's my ride." Sam said beside him. "If you're ever in Vegas…"
Hyde laughed, "I probably won't be in Vegas any time soon."
Sam nodded, "Yeah, I…was thinking about moving to New York and starting my art career. The Forman's really seemed to like my sculpture; Mr. Forman even said he was going to put it in their bedroom."
Hyde nodded and tried not to laugh, he knew exactly where that sculpture was, in the trash bin behind the liquor store.
"You better go." Hyde said. He gave Sam a hug and helped her get into the cab. "I'll have my dad's lawyer send you the divorce papers."
Sam gave a short nod. "Good luck."
He watched as the cab drove down the street and out of his life. He knew he would never see or hear from Sam again, and it didn't bother him.
"Is she gone?" Kitty asked from the door.
"Yeah." Hyde replied. "I know you don't agree with divorce."
"Usually no, but when the marriage was a sham to begin with, I think God will make an exception." Kitty said with a smile. "Besides, you have other things to worry about now besides trampy strippers."
Hyde looked sharply over at his surrogate mother. "What do you mean?"
Kitty covered her mouth. "I didn't say anything."
"You said that I had other things to worry about… you're talking about Jackie right?"
"Oh, so she told you!" Kitty said with a surprised clap.
"Told me…" and one by one, the pieces of the puzzle started coming together. Donna's evasiveness, all the times Jackie ran out of the room, how she would go with Donna to the bathroom. Jackie hated seeing people throw up. Everything started to make sense.
"You know what; we don't need you, but remember this day, because soon, you're going to remember it as the day where you ruined the rest of your life!"
"What if it was me?"
"The right thing…oh Hyde…the right thing is so far away from you right now that you wouldn't even recognize it even if it came up to you and said hi, I'm the right fucking thing."
"Say you're married to someone else, but before you went and made the biggest mistake of your life, you knocked your now ex girlfriend up, what then?"
"Oh my god." Hyde muttered, his knees felt weak.
"Oh, oh dear." Kitty said worriedly. She hurried to Hyde's side before he fainted. "Let's get you inside."
"A baby… she's… oh shit…"
"Yes, yes, you're screwed, get inside."
Hyde looked over at the small woman who was attempting to help him inside the house. "Did you just say I'm screwed? I've never heard you say that before."
Kitty laughed, "Did I say screwed? I mean, oh who am I kidding, Steven, I love you like a son, but you did get yourself into quite the pickle."
"How was I supposed to know!" Hyde shouted, "She's the one who kept this from me!"
"Well," Kitty said as Hyde sat down in one of the kitchen chairs, "It's not like you gave her much of a chance." She walked over to the kitchen cabinet, pulled out a bottle of vodka, poured some in a shot glass and then dropped it in front of Hyde. "Drink that." She ordered.
"The last time I drank Vodka I accidentally got married." Hyde informed her.
"Fine." Kitty said, taking the glass and drinking the contents before slamming the empty glass onto the table. She sat down and took Hyde's hand. "Do I think Jackie was wrong for not telling you in the first place? Yes, but her heart was broken by the one person she trusted more than anyone else in this world and that's never easy."
Hyde groaned, "I'm such a screw up."
"You're not a screw up." Kitty disagreed, "You know what the difference between boys and men are?"
"Uh, what?" Hyde asked.
"Boys make mistakes, but men own up to them and do their best to fix them." Kitty said, "So go out there, buy her a huge bouquet of flowers, get down on your knees and apologize to the woman you love."
"Uh, but I don't do that." Hyde argued.
Kitty raised her eyebrow at her adopted son and gave him a stern glare. "Steven, you married another woman by accident, I think after that you can swallow your pride for just this once and do what I said."
Knowing that Kitty was right, Hyde stood up and walked out the door.
Forty minutes later with a hand clutching a bunch of flowers he had stolen from Mr. Fisher's garden Hyde stood nervously at Jackie's door. He could hear music coming from inside and the sound of Kelso and Fez singing.
"It's not the way you smile that touched my heart." Kelso sang loudly.
"Sha la, la, la!" Fez sang with equal fervor.
"It's not the way you kiss, that tears me apart, ooh many, many nights role by, I sit alone at home and cry, what can I do? I can't help myself, 'cause baby, it's you!" Kelso continued to sing out of tune.
Shaking his head, Hyde walked quietly into the house as the two morons kept singing Baby It's You by the Shirelles. He watched as Kelso and Fez did an elaborate song and dance routine in front of Jackie and Donna who were laughing hysterically on the couch.
"What the hell are you doing?" Hyde asked from the doorway. Fez and Kelso stopped in the middle of their routine and Jackie and Donna spun around to look at him. His eyes instantly went to Jackie. Her eyes were filled with tears of laughter, and she looked scared and a little queasy and he suddenly understood what Red had meant when he said you focus on the good stuff. Jackie was the good stuff.
"I uh, got you these." Hyde said as he held the flowers out to her. Jackie remained motionless on the couch, simply staring at him. Donna quickly hopped off the couch and grabbed the flowers out of Hyde's hand. "I'll go put these in water." She said, "You two," She said pointing to Fez and Kelso who were staring at the estranged couple, "Come with me."
"But…" Kelso whined.
"Now!" Donna yelled and the two boys followed her into the kitchen. They all came out a minute later though and stood in the doorway to give their support to their friends, and to stop any arguments if they started, which the odds were heavily in favor for.
Jackie sighed and put her arms around herself, "Is there something you want to say to me, Steven?"
Hyde looked into her eyes. "Is there something you want to say to me?" He challenged.
Jackie looked behind him at Donna who was frantically shaking her head yes from the kitchen door. "Donna, you're going to get a neck spasm if you keep doing that." She turned back to Hyde and shook her head. "Actually, there is something I want to say to you."
"Oh god," Hyde muttered underneath his breath. "What is it?"
"This isn't how I wanted to tell you, but I can't put it off any longer, Steven, sometimes things happen that, depending on your perspective can be both good and bad. Now, I know you're going to think this is bad, but I happen to think it's good, and if you do anything, anything to make me feel like it isn't, I will scream at you until your ear drums break, got it?"
"Just spit it out." Hyde said impatiently. He knew there was a fifty/fifty chance of her actually telling him the truth.
Jackie ignored the butterflies in her stomach, straightened herself and without further ado said, "I'm pregnant." And after a beat she added, "It's yours, just in case you had any doubts."
His reaction was not what she expected. On one hand, she had thought that hearing the news would bring out the romantic in him and he'd sweep her off her feet, kissing her as he spun her around the room and on the other, she thought he'd go into straight denial, asking her if she was sure, if she was lying, and worst of all, if it was actually his. He didn't do either of those things though. Instead, he simply nodded, said, "Huh," and then turned and walked away.
"He's probably just in shock." Donna said, trying to comfort Jackie.
Jackie however was having none of it. Her earlier sickness had abated and was now replaced by another emotion, rage. Jackie ran towards Hyde and leapt up onto his back.
"Jackie, get off." Hyde commanded.
"No!" Jackie yelled as she tightened her grip around his neck, "I'm not going anywhere and neither are you."
"Jackie, I need to go."
"No, you can yell, you can scream, you can insult me however you want, but I'm not letting you just walk out like none of this matters. We're having a baby whether you like it or not!"
"Jackie, I know already." Hyde said softly.
Jackie remained on his back but said nothing. "You know?"
"Yeah, uh, I kind of had an epiphany."
"Oh, well then where are you going?" Jackie asked.
"To get my suit case." Hyde informed her, "I'm moving in."
Stunned, Jackie dropped to her feet. "What, but um, what about your new stripper wife?"
"I sent her back to Vegas." Hyde informed her, and before she could ask, he clarified his statement with, "Before I found out about the baby."
"Oh." Jackie said in shock. "Wait, no, you can't move in with me, we're broken up, remember?"
"No we're not." Hyde denied.
"Uh, yes, we are, you married another woman, I think that automatically breaks us up, besides, I don't think I like you anymore." Jackie said with a pout.
"Yes, you do." Hyde said into her ear, "Get ready for a new room-mate, Jackie." He kissed her on her temple and patted her stomach before walking out of the house.
Jackie blinked and then screeched, "Can you believe him?"
Donna stood at the doorway, laughing.
"Stop laughing, Donna. That wasn't funny!"
"Oh, I knew he'd come around eventually but I didn't know he'd do that…"
The more she thought about it, the angrier Jackie became. "If he thinks he can just waltz back into my life like everything's perfect he's got another thing coming. Steven Hyde is going to pay for this."
Fez and Kelso looked at each other and grinned. "She's going to spend the next nine months of Hyde's life making him wish he was never born." Fez said.
"Yeah," Kelso agreed, "It's going to be awesome."
Next time: It's twenty weeks into Jackie's pregnancy…
"So, how's life with Jackie?" Eric asked over the phone.
"Complete and utter hell." Hyde replied.
A/N- A big thanks goes out to all of you who are reviewing this story or adding it to your favorites. I've been feeling kind of eh about writing lately and your support means a lot to me. Thank you.