Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Author's Note: Hi everyone! How are you all doing? Hope you're doing well! I'm so very sorry for taking so long to update and being out of touch with everyone lately, school has just kept me really busy especially in the last two week where there were exams in almost every class and it's not even midterms! Anywho I've been trying to update this story for the past two weeks but kept getting interrupted by school stuff but the new and final update is finally here! I'm again very sorry for taking so long to get it to you, your support on the story has just been so amazing so far and I hope I didn't loose any of you during this long wait again! Thank you all for all of the wonderful reviews and support! It really means so much! I hope that you enjoy this chapter! Thanks for stopping by to read! Please do review this final chapter if you can, I'd really love to hear your thoughts! Hope you like and please, Enjoy!

"Hey Forman, where's your mom?" Hyde asked as he stepped out of his room and spotted Eric coming down the wooden basement steps at that same moment.

"Mom?" Eric repeated as if he were saying a foreign word, a somber frown appeared on his face; "Hyde, mom's gone."

A deep indention began to crease onto Hyde's forehead when he heard his friend's reply. Mrs. Forman was gone? Gone where? Had his prank really been that bad that she needed to leave the house for a few days? Or had she left to take care of a prank she was getting ready to pull on him? Hyde really wasn't sure which one of those situations was the worst case scenario.

"Unless…" the sound of Eric's voice interrupted Hyde's thoughts, "you're looking for the shell of the woman who we once considered our mother. Before she was consumed by the evilness of Jackie Burkhart. Then she up in the kitchen."

"Thanks." Hyde muttered, fighting back the urge to frog the skinnier man on the arm.

Eric gave a small smile and then nodded before he carried on his way over to the beat up old basement sofa. As he walked past Hyde, who was heading to the stairways he'd just descended from, he sang a mumbled version of a familiar little tune.

"Ba da ba da Fernando."

Hearing the mashed up music lyric, Hyde froze on his spot at the second stair from the bottom. He could feel his blood run cold and he swallowed hard, hoping to disguise his worry. Of all the songs out there that could possibly scare him, an annoying ABBA song was the one to do it—but no one ever needed to know that. Hyde slowly turned around and eyed Eric suspiciously.

"What did you say?" he wanted to know.

The seated man looked up, "She's in the kitchen."

"No," Hyde shook his head. "What did you sing?"

Unlike Hyde, Eric didn't have on any sunglasses or any other protective gear to help him hide his emotions—and he wasn't very good at doing it on his own either. His eyes revealed how nervous he was suddenly feeling. He didn't want anyone knowing he'd been singing ABBA, that was the devil's choice of music and by that of course he meant Jackie's choice of music. There was only one way to fix this.

"What did you sing?" Eric threw the same question right back at him.

For several seconds the two men just stared at each other. Eric's eyebrows rose little by little as he waited for his answer while Hyde's furrowed into a deep scowl until he finally realized he wasn't going to get an answer and this was becoming nothing more than a useless staring contest.

Hyde shook his head and turned himself around to climb up the staircase, "Forget it."

Glad that the subject had been dropped, Eric couldn't help but smile as he shrugged his shoulders before reaching for a magazine from the spool table.

Soon Hyde made it to the top of the wooden staircase where he found that the door connecting the basement to the kitchen had been left wide open; however, before Hyde took another step forward and into the next room, he was quickly reminded of his nightmare premonition of the stronger-than-it-looks saran wrap barricade.

He wasn't about to be fooled twice…or once in a dream and once in real life…so he devised a plan to test whether the doorway had been tampered with or not.

Cautiously, Hyde outstretched his right arm in front of him and through the open doorway. He was surprised when his hand and forearm were able to make it out into the kitchen without any kind of see-through resistance; but he still didn't take that step forward. Hyde was still unconvinced, maybe even a little paranoid, and knew further testing had to be done.

With his right arm still stretched out, Hyde knelt down to the ground and moved his right arm down until it touched the bottom of the doorway, then he slowly began to rise up, moving his arm through the doorway as he did so.

It wasn't until he had moved his arm through the entire height of the doorway, meeting no type of barrier, that Hyde was finally convinced that the doorway was safe to walk through. Even then though, his steps were small and careful as he finally walked through the open doorway; but he'd done it and made it through the other side in one piece!

As soon as Hyde was in the kitchen he spotted Kitty standing at the stove, opening the oven door and checking something inside. He was more than a little relieved to have found her so quickly. He'd already waited long enough to come and talk to her and the less searching he had to do for her the less he had to worry about any booby trap doorways.

"Hey Mrs. Forman," he greeted as he walked towards her.

Kitty shut the oven door and straightened back up, "Hello, Steven," she replied, not turning around to face him but he could hear the smile in her voice—that was a good sign.

"Hi Steven," a new voice pepped up soon after.

He knew exactly who it was and usually the voice and their person it belonged to were welcomed by Hyde; but he hadn't been expecting to hear it and so it startled him with surprise when he did. And after his dream earlier, Hyde wasn't too sure if he welcomed the idea of hearing that voice now at least not in this situation.

"Hey. Hey Jackie," he said awkwardly as he felt her lips brush against his cheek quickly before she continued on her way to the counter space beside the stove where cooking materials were laid out; Hyde shifted his eyes from the younger woman to the older one and then back again, they both had smiles playing on their lips that were making Hyde a little nervous, "So uh you two are still spending time together?"

Jackie nodded, "Mmm hmm."

"That's right," Kitty cheerfully confirmed, "We've spent just about the whole day together. It's been like a little Girls Day." She finished with a giggle that made Jackie's smile grow.

Hyde tried to remain Zen, "Cool." There was a pause, a short one, he had to know, "What'd you do?"

The two women looked at each other and shared a smile that soon turned into girly giggles that reminded him of the giggles shared between Betty and William on the Flintstones—not a good sign. When their giggles subsided, they both looked at Hyde and smiled before answering simultaneously, "Girl stuff."

All Hyde could so was nod his head; he should've known better.

"Mrs. Forman gave me another cooking lesson, Steven." Jackie said, deciding to share some of the things she and Mrs. Forman had done during their Girls Day. "I even got to help make tonight's dinner and dessert! Isn't that great?"

Kitty smiled on Hyde's left side, "She did, Steven and she did such a good job. I think we may have another Julia Child in our house!"

While Kitty laughed gleefully, Jackie gave a proud smile that dampened into a frown as a thought crossed her mind, "Only without the weird funny foreign accent," she quickly stated and reminded, "We leave all the weird funny foreign stuff to Fez."

Hearing this, Kitty continued to smile and started to nod her head. Hyde's head was moving in a similar fashion, however he hadn't heard much of what was said about their foreign friend, his mind was still on what Jackie had told him earlier. Kitty had given her cooking lessons again. She helped make dinner AND dessert.

It was the food.

That's how they were going to get him. They must have done something to the food…put laxatives in it, put something that was not supposed to be eaten in it, Jackie cooking it may even be enough to get him pretty sick. Hyde was positive, even if it hadn't been part of his dream's warning, that they were going to get him back through the food…unless he could fix things in time.

"I just finished frosting the cake, Steven. Want a taste?" Jackie asked, offering Hyde a spoon covered in the white creamy substance.

Hyde stared at the spoonful of frosting and then down at the bowl of had very little frosting in it. Most of it had gone onto the small round cake that sat beside the nearly empty bowl of frosting. It looked safe and it was used on the cake that everyone would be eating. They wouldn't really poison the whole family just to get back at him…would they?

"No," Hyde swiftly shook his head from left to right, "No, I'm good."

Jackie shrugged her shoulders before lifting the spoon to her lips, putting it into her mouth, and seconds later pulling it out frosting free.

After watching Jackie's actions Hyde felt like a dumbass. This was getting ridiculous, he was getting paranoid over little things like cake frosting? He was starting to feel like he couldn't trust two of the most important women in his life, two of people he most trusted. He knew he was the one to start this which meant he was going to have to bring an end to it.

"Hey Jackie, can you give me a minute with Mrs. Forman?"

"Yeah, okay," the short brunette agreed, almost too easily. "I'll just go wait outside on the patio."

Nodding his head, Hyde watched as Jackie walked over to the sliding doors that were for some reason covered by their brown floral curtain. Jackie was only a few feet away from the doors when the haunting image of what had been out in the driveway in Hyde's nightmare reentered Hyde's mind.

"No, wait!" Hyde shouted and in the next moment he was standing at the curtain covered doors, holding his breath and slowly pulling the material away so he could see the view outside.

A sigh of relief escaped Hyde's lips when he saw that his El Camino was still out in the driveway and looking perfectly intact. No frozen cotton balls, no painted on rainbows. However, his relief didn't last very long. Just because they hadn't done anything to his Camino yet didn't mean that they didn't have plans to do something later; in fact letting Jackie go out there behind the curtain while he was inside talking to Mrs. Forman might give the perfect opportunity to put any plans into action…unless Hyde could help it.

Without giving it a second thought, Hyde grabbed the end of the curtain and pushed it to it's rightful place in the far right of the door, uncovering the perfect view of the driveway and his most importantly his El Camino. Once the curtain was off to the side, Hyde went back to the opposite side of the door and slid it open for his girlfriend.

"There you go," he told her, still holding onto the door's latch.

Jackie's forehead had scrunched up with a frown, "Steven, why did you open the curtains like that?"

Hyde needed just a second or two before he came out with the smooth reply of, "So I can see how beautiful you look even when you're not in the same room as me."

"Oh Steven," cooed Jackie, placing her hand on her heart, "That is so romantic!"

A mere smile formed on Hyde's lips as he continued to hold the door open for Jackie until she walked past it and onto the Forman's back patio. Hyde shut the door behind her and continued to watch Jackie for a little while longer. She sat herself down on one of the chairs and with her smile still in place she waved at Hyde who returned both the smile and wave before moving his attention back into the kitchen and the woman in it.

When Hyde turned himself away from Jackie and the sliding glass doors, he found that Kitty was no longer standing at the stove but instead was seated in her regular spot at the breakfast table. Hyde decided to join her, however, instead of heading for his usual seat he headed for Eric's—it gave a better view of Jackie and the driveway. He would be able to talk to Kitty and watch Jackie and his Camino all at the same time.

"So Steven, what's on your mind?" Kitty asked curiously, wearing her usual welcoming smile.

"Mrs. Forman I…" Hyde started to say as he got ready to take a seat in the kitchen chair, but not before eyeing it for a hidden whoopee cushion; it was as he did this that he was reminded how he needed to cut to the chase with this talk.

Once he was seated safely, he started again, "Mrs. Forman," he repeated, this time his voice was a little softer and he took off his shades, hooking them onto the collar of his Zeppelin t-shirt, though it looked like he was still having trouble meeting Kitty's eyes. "The whole Judas Priest prank thing…I wanted to apologize for it."

There was a pausing moment but Kitty didn't say a thing, she could tell that Hyde was still had more to say and just needed a little more time and she had no trouble giving it to him. When Hyde finally raised his head to look at her, he was met with kind eyes and matching smile that swiftly filled him with more guilt that before.

"I didn't mean…I mean I did mean…" Hyde struggled for the right way to explain his actions; he sighed slightly, "It's just, you've done…a lot…a whole lot for me over the years…" his head hung low again, "I shouldn't have pranked you like that. Or at all. I'm really sorry."

Suddenly Hyde felt a soft hand touching his upper arm and he looked back up finding Kitty looking at him with a look he'd seen on her face before. It was a look that showed him that he'd been forgiven, that she was touched by what he'd said, she was proud of him, and she still loved him. It was that look moms were known for giving their kids.

"Oh Steven, that is so sweet of you." She told him, her tone confirming the emotions that look on her face was expressing. "But sweetie, you don't have to apologize for anything."

"I don't?"

Smiling, Kitty shook her head, "Nope. In fact I thought the prank was pretty funny."

"You did?" Hyde was surprised until he remembered how he had thought she'd get a kick out of the prank before too. "Yeah, I kinda thought you would."

"Now, I'll admit at first I was more shocked than anything," Kitty made sure to make clear, "but isn't everyone when they get pranked? But then the more that I thought about it, the sweeter I thought it really was."

Hyde's brow wrinkled in confusion once more, "The prank?"

Kitty nodded with a smile that Hyde was sure had grown in size, which led to his own frown to grow in size especially when he heard the little laugh come from the woman sitting beside him.

"You see Steven, you can prank people for different reasons." She started to explain, "You can prank a person to get back at them for a prank they pulled on you, you prank them to teach them a lesson, or you can prank them just to have some fun."

"My reason was the last one," he said, wanting to make sure that she knew this.

She smiled back at him, "I know. When I was younger my sister Paula and I would prank each other, sometimes we'd even tam up and prank our parents. Well we'd prank my father not my mother, the woman has the sense of humor of a wet blanket on a spoilsport." He muttered and then shook her head as she realized she was straying off topic. "Over the years Red and I have pulled a few little pranks on each other and I know all you kids prank each other all the time. I've even pranked all of you boys myself."

A smirk and light laugh came from Hyde as he recalled the sprained ankle prank Kitty had pulled on him and the guys and even Red!

"The point is Steven, you prank the ones you love." She continued with her conclusion, "So when you pulled that prank on me I thought…well, I thought it was your way of showing how comfortable you now felt in this family that we've considered you part of for years."

Hyde stared back at Kitty, who was looking at him with a teary eyed tight smile. When he'd decided to create the prank it wasn't done in a mean spirited fashion, he'd meant it earlier when he said he'd done it just to have fun. But maybe there was a deeper reason to it. It hadn't really entered his mind before but after hearing Kitty's theory, maybe there was some truth to it.

His head moved up and down, "Yeah, I guess that's what I was doing."

"I thought so," Kitty said with a smile causing Hyde's smile to slowly appear as well; she then stood up and walked behind Hyde, placing her hands on his shoulders and then leaning down to place a kiss on the top of his curly haired head, "You're a good boy, Steven."

The words caused Hyde's grin to shrink back down with guilt again, "I still feel pretty bad about the whole prank thing though."

Kitty pulled away from Hyde so that he could see the frown that had sunken itself onto her forehead, "Is this because of what Red said to you?"

"He was pretty pi…upset." Hyde replied, his first choice of words would have described Red's behavior in the basement the night before but they weren't words that Hyde felt very comfortable using in front of Mrs. Forman.

Shaking her head and clicking her tongue, Kitty moved herself back to her seat beside Hyde, "He overreacted."

"Think he was protecting you," pointed out Hyde.

"Yeah," she agreed, not being able to contain her smile; she thought it was sweet that after all these years, her husband was still so protective of her even when it came to their own children. She was a lucky woman. "But I think he was protecting himself too."

"What do you mean?"

She took in a deep breath as she got ready to elaborate some more, "Well, your prank was a very good one, Steven," she commented and Hyde's mouth twitched into a smirk. "I think when Red found out about it he got worried that he might lose his title of master of the pranks."

Hyde found himself scowling once again, "I thought you were Batman…I mean the master of the pranks." He quickly corrected himself, not wanting to sound any more like Forman than he already did.

"I am." Kitty confirmed in a serious manner before her stern expression was cracked by the return of her shinning grin as she added, "I just let Red think he is. It keeps him happy."

One of her famous Kitty Forman laughs filled the air following her statement and soon Hyde found himself chuckling along with her. Their shared laughter however, was interrupted when the glass door was slid open and the petite brunette who'd gone out on the patio, poked her head back inside the kitchen.

"Is everything okay?" Jackie asked as she cautiously walked into the room, shutting the door behind her, "I saw laughing. You weren't laughing at my cooking were you?"

Her question was asked in such a sad little tone it caused Kitty and Hyde's laughter to stop instantly; although they still wore smiles on their lips, only they were more of the assuring kind rather than the joking, funny kind of smile.

Kitty looked over at the young girl, "Of course not, Jackie."

"Yeah, doll, quit worrying." Hyde told his girlfriend in a reassuring manner as he took hold of her hand and pulled her to sit on his lap, "I bet whatever you cooked up today is the best thing you've ever cooked."

Jackie's pout remained in place as she shrugged her shoulders. She knew Steven was trying to make her feel better but there wasn't much of a competition when you looked back at the other things she had tried to cook over the years. The burnt to a crisp apple pie, the hard as rocks peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies, and there had been that one time when tried to make some pasta but ended up burning the pot before she even put the noodles in to cook!

She continued to wallow in the memories of the past cooking attempts when a sudden new thought caused Jackie's mood to lighten and she turned to Hyde with big bright eyes.

"So does that mean you'll try the cake I helped make?" came her eager, cheerful question that startled Hyde just a tad.

"Uh yeah, sure." He agreed trying his best not to sound as hesitant as he felt.

Now that Hyde had talked with Kitty and apologized he felt safer and less threatened with the idea of the two women pranking him back by sticking something in his food. However, there was still plenty to worry about when Jackie's cooking was concerned.

Hyde could see how excited she was, he couldn't tell her know but he wasn't sure he could handle another one of Jackie's cooking attempts especially when it was only a few days ago when he almost chipped a tooth on her cookies. He didn't want to hurt her feelings then—so he sucked on the cookie—and he didn't want to hurt her feelings now, but was struggling with a way out this times.

Then it hit him!

He casually added to his previous statement, "If I don't fill up on dinner."

"Oh." Jackie's face deflated with disappointment.

"Well I know a way we can keep that from happening!" Kitty happily announced, grabbing the couple's attention right away—Jackie became hopeful while Hyde looked more than a little fearful…maybe he wasn't completely forgiven after all. "You can have a piece of cake now, before dinner!"

"Mrs. Forman, that is a great idea!" praised an excited Jackie before she turned to her boyfriend, "Isn't it Steven?"

Trying to keep his Zen in order, Hyde look from one smiling woman to the next, "I don't know. I mean…Mrs. Forman, dessert before dinner? Isn't that against one of the kitchen rules?"

"Oh Steven, don't be silly." Kitty chided, standing up from her seat to get the cake, "Besides I think we could all use a piece of cake."

Hyde opened his mouth to protest but before he could make out any words, Jackie moved herself off his lap and into Kitty's previous seat while Kitty was up and collecting the dishes needed to cut and serve the homemade cake. It would be pointless to try any to argue it now and so Hyde shut his mouth back up.

He looked over at his girlfriend to give her another smile of reassurance when a scrap paper, sticking out from underneath one of the placemats on the table called his attention. His hand reached over and pulled out the paper revealing their cursive writing that had created a list with some somewhat familiar items.

Grooves

Led Zeppelin

Mayonnaise

A smirk curled onto Hyde's lips as he looked over the note and then glanced up at Jackie, "You know, you freaked out Forman pretty good with this list."

"Yeah, I know," she replied with a nod and her own smile, "It was all part of the plan."

"What plan?" asked Hyde, his smirk now missing.

Jackie's smile had also disappeared when she realized what she had let slip. With wide eyes she looked over at Kitty for help but it appeared that Kitty was a bit shell chocked by Jackie's exposure as well. For several moments the two women stared at each other, neither too sure of what to do next and their exchanged looks were not lost on Hyde.

Luckily Kitty managed to recover a lot quicker and she soon smiled again, shaking her head, and waving her hand dismissively, "It was just a little plan we had to prank you."

"You were gonna prank me?" Hyde asked his surrogate mother, not sure if he was more shocked at the fact that the two important women in his life did plan on pulling a prank on him or that Forman had actually been right!

"Only because you pranked me first." Kitty pointed out, still gathering plates for the pieces of cake, "We were prank you to get back at you, it's one of the three reasons I gave earlier."

Hyde gave a head nod and shoulder shrug kind of movement, he could get that. While Hyde showed his understanding of the reason, Kitty approached the table and began to pass out the plate and forks as she began to explain the details of her and Jackie's plan.

"You see we wrote the note and left it out for Eric to see it…"

"Part of our plan to prank you included scaring the pants off of Eric." Jackie added in with a large grin on her face. Seeing her enthusiasm at burning Eric, made Hyde smile as well but Kitty didn't seem to share their happiness.

"No, no, no." the mother hen said as she shook her head, "Scaring Eric was not part of our plans. We didn't want to scare him, we just wanted to worry him." She insisted as she carefully cut the cake, "The plan was for Eric to see the list and get worried. Worried for you that is, and so he'd go and tell you what he found and even though when he told you you'd be Mr. Cool…"

"On the inside you'd be shaking like a leaf." Jackie finished for her partner in crime, the smile she wore was now a little more deviant. "We knew your paranoia would get to you and pretty soon you'd be watching every step you took. It would be like you were pranking yourself!"

Not wanting them to know just how well the pieces of their plan had fallen into place, Hyde used all of his Zen to keep his feelings hidden; and with Jackie and Kitty being the ones he was trying to hide his feelings groom he was going to need all the Zen that he could muster up.

"Huh." He said casually, soundly a tad bit impressed, "Sounds like a pretty good prank."

Jackie and Kitty shared proud smiles as Kitty moved three slices of cake onto the three different plates. They knew their prank had been cleverly thought of!

"Too bad it didn't work." Hyde added mere seconds later causing the two smiles to drop.

Kitty's smile had turned into a saddened frown as she asked, "It didn't?"

"Nope."

"But…" started a pouting Jackie.

"Sorry." Hyde said, though his tone did not fit with his words. In fact if you looked closely you could see the corners of his mouth trying to twitch up into a smile. He tried to contain his smile but it was getting harder and harder. Without thinking he grabbed his fork and cut into the slice of cake on his plate before bringing it up and into his mouth.

Putting a piece of cake into his mouth was supposed to help Hyde keep his smile from growing but he never expected it to cause his smile and happiness to suddenly disappear. However that's just what happened when the piece of cake made contact with his tongue and he tastes a kind of taste that no cake should ever have.

"This taste like meatloaf." He said his mouth full of the unchewed piece of food; he looked down at his plate and saw the strange details of the cake.

It was a lighter shade of brown but it didn't look very chocolaty. The texture didn't look very spongy or fluffy. And the frosting was a very off white color, thick, and now that Hyde looked at it more closely, resembled mash potatoes.

He looked back up to find the grins had reappeared on Kitty and Jackie's faces and he knew why, "This is meatloaf."

"Gotcha!" Jackie exclaimed with glee.

Hyde smirked at her happiness and began to properly chew the food in his mouth when he felt an arm go around his shoulder. He looked up to find Kitty smiling down at him.

"You prank the ones you love, Steven." She reminded, still smiling.

The reminder caused his smirk to grow and he nodded his head in agreement. Hyde was glad that this whole prank war thing was over now. With Kitty's reminder of pranking the ones you love, he actually didn't mind too much that he had been pranked by two of the women he care most about. And this meatloaf cake wasn't half bad. In the end it looked like things had worked out just fine.

Hyde knew he had learned an important lesson today too. He had no future plans of ever pranking Kitty or Jackie ever again. But maybe he could enlist them to help out with any future pranks he pulled on the other guys. With that last thought in mind Hyde's smirk grew and took another bite of his meatloaf cake.

The End

Author's Note: So what did you think? Yay? Nay? A little of both? Be sure to let me know in a review!

Once again I would like to say thank you so so much to all of you wonderful readers who stuck with the story to the end. I know it took a lot longer than I expected to finish it, I planned on finishing it in May remember? Lol But life had a few bumps, but it's okay because I finally got us to this final chapter and hopefully you all enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it! Thank you for all the favorites, follows, and reviews! You all are awesome!

Also just some quick notes, really quick I promise! First, just a friendly reminder that Resurrection Season 2 with Kurtwood Smith starts TONIGHT! Been waiting all summer for this! Secondly, now that I have finished this story, it's time to move on to a new one. This new one is actually an old one. The next story that will have my focus is Nine Months, a what if pregnancy fic. It's only a few chapters in but if you all would like to catch up with it in the meantime feel free to do so! Another story you may want to catch up with if you haven't already is…Guess Who's Coming to Dinner! My annual thanksgiving story that gets update around this time of the year! This year's updates are coming soon so be on the look out!

Thank you so much again for the all awesome support! Very sorry for being away for so long, I'm gonna try better this coming week and month :D

Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, take care, and have a nice day!