Chapter 4: Hyde Gets A Clue

Cooper was nervous when he got home. He shouldn't have been, really. It wasn't as though he had done anything wrong, he reminded himself continuously. When he walked into the music filled garage he noticed his mom was working on the car and took it as a good sign.

She looked up and smiled happily. "Hey, how was your weekend?"

He hoped up onto the end stool and shrugged. "Ok. Six Flags was awesome and Grandpa took me on this ride that went upside down and we went to Point Place and I met Steven Hyde, and then we were on the bumper cars and I hit everyone else really hard!"

"You what!?" Jackie screeched, dropping her screwdriver. "When? Why? How?"

"Grandpa needed to go on an emergency call and we were leaving and he walked in and I didn't say anything!"

Jackie sighed and reached over to switch off the radio. She cleaned her hands and sat down beside Cooper. "How'd he look?"

"He had a beard."

Jackie gave a soft, short laugh that sounded almost bitter. "How'd you feel?"

"I couldn't decide on an emotion. I was angry for a while though."

Jackie kissed his forehead and he didn't try to bat her away. "I'm sorry you had to see him."

"It wasn't that bad," Cooper tried to reassure her. "I met Michael Kelso and Fez and you're right, Michael is a brain dead moron."

Jackie was torn between amusement and concern. "You met them?"

"Yea and Fez…Fez sort of saw a resemblance…"

"Oh great!"

Cooper gave her a brief hug. "We'll be fine mom, no way is Steven Hyde is going to figure out," he paused, "or even come to see us."

Jackie nodded, almost sadly. "Yea," she agreed quietly, "Steven Hyde would never come looking for us."

**

Hyde walked through the doors of Grooves early on Tuesday morning. Actually it was past twelve but that was early enough for him. Leo was over by the listening pit talking to Kelso—didn't he have a job?—and Donna was hanging out with Eric by the counter.

"Hey man," Hyde greeted, dumping the magazine on the counter.

"What's that?" Donna asked.

"Grooves have a magazine now," he explained. "Got the first copy today."

Donna picked it up, flipping through. "Awesome." She went over to Kelso and Leo to read. It wasn't long before Kelso had caught their attention.

"What is it?" Eric asked as he and Hyde joined the others.

"Look at this girl," Kelso grinned, "she looks like Jackie!"

He held up a model spread. Whatever the image was selling none of the guys could care less about because the image was good enough to sell toxin. It centered on a silver El Camino with a girl kneeling on the hood who looked identical to Jackie.

"That is Jackie!" Hyde yelled, snatching the picture away.

She looked more beautiful then he remembered and a hell of a lot hotter. She wore ripped jeans that the normal Jackie would have burned and the Led Zeppelin concert tee that he'd given her for her birthday, only she had tied it up at her waist. Her hair was wild and the corner of her lips turned up in a seductive smile.

"She is smokin'!" Kelso yelled, trying to catch another glimpse.

Hyde frogged Kelso hard, who yelled and backed down, before returning to the picture. There was a caption in the left hand corner that read Jackie Burkhart and the date of last month.

"Man, what is Jackie doing in a Grooves magazine?" He demanded of no one in particular.

"Modeling?" Eric suggested lightly.

Hyde threw a look at Eric who backed down. The last thing he needed was for Hyde to start questioning him about Jackie.

Leo had taken the magazine and was looking at the image in confusion. "Hey man, when did Loud Girl get a car?"

"She didn't, Leo man, it's a prop," Hyde explained.

"Yea, she owns a mustang anyway," Eric said without thinking.

Donna rolled her eyes as Kelso and Hyde looked around at him. "What!?" They both demanded hotly.

Eric swallowed nervously. "Mom? What's that? I'm coming!" He turned to bolt from the store but Kelso leapt and tackled him to the ground, pinning him and preventing him from escaping.

Hyde stood menacingly over his skinny friend. In a quiet, deadly voice, he asked, "Now Forman, how would you know that?"

"Lucky guess?" Eric asked in his squeaky, guilty voice.

"Uh huh, that or you know where she is!" Hyde snapped, each word getting louder. He frogged him hard. "Tell me, Forman!"

Eric winced. "Why would you wonna know anyway? You're the reason she left!"

The words were out of his mouth before he could take them back and he wished he could because he knew they had hurt his Zen-mask friend. He wriggled out of Kelso's grasp and stood facing the curly haired burnout.

"Look, man, she was real hurt and she asked me not to say anything…" He trailed off as the others watched him silently.

"You knew where she was, man?" Hyde snapped. "You knew and you didn't tell me!"

"She was crying!" Eric snapped back. "She was scared, she was hurt and you did that! You broke her and God I sound like a girl!"

Hyde was glaring him down; at least his body language suggested as much, his eyes were still covered. "You don't think I already know that!? I've been kicking myself for seven years!"

The others were deathly silent, watching the ever so emotionless Hyde reveal the smallest ounce of pure emotion. Their silence was broken by Leo, "Hey man, I don't get it, is it like art?"

They chose to ignore him and Hyde asked quietly, "what happened to her?"

With reluctance Eric began to explain, hoping against hope that Jackie wouldn't kill him. "About seven years ago she sort of just turned up in Africa, unannounced. She needed a friend so she hung around for the rest of the year. We were, surprisingly, pretty close by the time we came home. She didn't want to come back so I took her up to Milwaukee and she talked to W.B and she's been living up there with him, he's being helping her out and everything."

Hyde felt as though he were going to flip out. "She's been living with my dad and he never bothered to tell me!?"

"Jackie didn't want you to know where she was." Eric paused and let out a sigh as though he were releasing something he'd held for years. "Hyde, do you remember when W.B came in with that kid? A boy about six?"

Hyde nodded, remembering the kid and the way he'd looked at him, like he was seeing a nightmare come to life. "Yea, what about it?"

Eric glanced at Donna and sighed. "That was Cooper, Jackie's son." He paused and gave Hyde an apologetic look. "Your son."

And Hyde's world started to get a lot more complicated.

-TBC-