A/N: And we're back with the penultimate chapter of part 2. As always, I hope you guys enjoy this.

Chicago, Illinois

December 31st, 1989, 10:36 PM

Michael Kelso and Brooke Rockwell's bathroom

It was stupid, Jackie knew that. She hated, that it got to her a little bit. Actually, more than a little bit, if Jackie allowed herself to be honest. You probably wouldn't have needed to get me wasted, to make me wanna marry you, it was typical, he was always late with everything. Fez let out a pathetic sound, and Jackie stroked his back comfortingly. Or as comforting, as she knew how to be. She was sort of thankful for the distraction, even if it did come at the expense of Fez' lack of self-control, when it came to Amaretto. She'd been determined earlier, to push what had happened in August out of her head, and what Steven had said, was not helping.

"Ai, this is evil," Fez said, sitting back up. He looked less green in the face now. Jackie gave him a reassuring pat on the arm. Fez wiped his forehead and looked like he drew a heavy breath.

"Well, Fezzie that can't surprise you that much. You remember what happened, when Steven gave you that whole bottle of Amaretto on the ski trip," Jackie started. Fez rolled his eyes. "And you ran out of the cabin to go make a snow angel in your underwear."

"I would rather forget, Goddess," Fez said, looking down on the orange tiled floor. Neither of them said anything for a moment. Jackie pulled a strand of hair behind her ear. "And since, when is it Steven again?" Fez asked, practically making her jump out of her skin.

"What do you mean?" Jackie asked, even though she knew what he meant. She usually called him Hyde now, she'd started doing it to prove how indifferent, she was, and the habit had stuck. But she didn't call him Steven, it had just been a slip up.

"Well, it's always 'Hyde this' or 'Hyde that' now," Fez said, thankfully looking like he was oblivious to Jackie's inner panic. "Do I have to call off my wedding with my lady love, so we can elope together, once you're done with Hyde?"

"Fez!" she said, honestly more than slightly offended. She punched his arm, and he let out a yelp of pain. Jackie took a deep breath, before she continued. She couldn't believe, Fez thought she was still hung up on Steven! This night had been all about taking Brooke's advice and pushing the fluke in August out of her head. "I was done with Steven, ten years ago, when he decided to keep his stripper wife around, and screw her."

"Well, he obviously only did that, because he thought you wanted to do it with Kelso," Fez said, leaning his head against the tiled wall. That wasn't an excuse, and Fez should know that. At the very least, Jackie hoped Steven knew that. But then she reminded herself, that it didn't matter what Steven thought about that. Not anymore. "I mean, he kept babbling about how he was going to be 'Mrs Jackie Hyde' when we headed home from the warehouse."

"Wait, a second, Fezzie what do you mean?" Jackie said, before she could stop herself.

"Hah, I knew it," Fez said victoriously. Jackie immediately punched his shoulder. "Ai, stop hurting me! Fine, remember how you got all mad, because instead of saying he was going to marry you, we went to the warehouse with Charlie, the magnificent bastard? Well, Hyde was trying to make up his mind, and he said, he was going to be 'Mrs Jackie Hyde.'"

If it had just been something Steven had said once, when he was wasted, Jackie could have said, it was a joke, and be completely right about it too. Ten years ago, Jackie would have probably thought he was being embarrassing, if anyone had been about to be Mrs Jackie Hyde it was her, thank you very much. But she could imagine him saying it now and making her giggle at it. Jackie squandered the thought, she was definitely letting herself get carried away. She was supposed to be getting over this, put the thing after the Water Tower behind her. Fez had probably been wasted out of his mind too.

"Wait, weren't you drunk that day too?" Jackie asked, ignoring how her insides felt like they were bursting. She'd screwed it up, she should never have left, before he'd actually given her answer.

"A bit, but I get bored of beer. Fruity drinks taste better. I remember, because I tried to tease him about it, after he came back from Las Vegas, and Hyde frogged me," Fez said. Jackie pushed herself up from the tile floor. In her head, she was trying to find an excuse to find a moment away from Fez. But her head was buzzing, with the same thought. Steven had been about to say yes. She'd left without hearing him out, and when she came back, he'd been too pissed off to want to say anything to her. Because of course, he had been, it was Steven.

"Well, you're clearly drunk now, Fez," Jackie said. Steven, because of his insecurities, had thought she'd ditched him. Of course, he'd been too pissed off to trust her, and give her a yes, when she'd gotten back. "If you think, some stupid drunk crap, Hyde said ten years ago, is going to change how I feel. I'm gonna go get you some water."

"But we're in the bathroom!" Fez protested, as the door shut behind her. Jackie had barely closed the bathroom door, before she practically bumped into Steven. Because of course she did, because everything that had happened in the last half hour seemed to indicate, that contrary to popular belief, the universe did in fact hate her. "Is Fez okay?" Steven said, without looking her in the eyes.

"Better now," Jackie started, not looking at him either. Her legs wouldn't carry her to the kitchen, so she could escape this conversation. "I'm just going to get him some water."

"But you were just in the bathroom," he said, gesturing towards the door, that Jackie had just walked out of.

"Well, I needed a glass!" Jackie retorted sharply.

"Look, man. I probably shouldn't have said that shit earlier," Steven said. Jackie knew a Steven apology, when she saw one. But she wasn't sure, this warranted one. As much, as it made everything a mess inside her head, it was probably for the best, that he'd said it.

"No, it's fine," Jackie hurried to say. "I mean, we've always been bad at saying important stuff to each other. Figures we start ten years too late."

"Yeah, I guess, I get what you mean. We never talked about any of this crap, and then we always just assumed the worst. When it came down to it," Hyde said. He put his hands in his pockets and shuffled a little awkwardly. "We kind of sucked at the whole trust thing."

"And before you knew it, something like the nurse incident happened," Jackie replied. Or the fact, that she'd run off to Chicago, or tried to push Steven to marry her, instead of trusting that he wasn't going to bail. But it felt easier to say that.

"And then someone ran off to Chicago, without hearing me out," Hyde replied.

"And then someone married a stripper," Jackie fired back.

"What, you married a stripper too? What a crazy coincidence," Hyde retorted. Jackie rolled her eyes, she should have seen that coming from a mile away. She also hated, that she almost smiled at that. Because it absolutely was not funny. "Sorry. I was an asshole. I'm being a dillhole."

"Yeah. Look, we did the talking. Can we just have a nice New Year's Eve, and not think about the past too much?" Jackie said.

"Sounds like a decent deal, Jacks."

Chicago, Illinois

January 1st, 1990, 4:02 AM

Michael Kelso and Brooke Rockwell's living room

Even though, the beer was getting flat, Hyde chugged the last of it, and turned the TV in the living room off. Forman yawned, and headed for the stairs to go to bed, with a silent wave. The only people who hadn't gone to bed already, were himself, Forman and technically Jackie. Hyde rubbed his eyes for a moment. It was late, 4 AM late. No better way to begin the New Year, than to watch concert movies, that were being run on TV in the middle of the night. He sat up and looked out of the window in Brooke and Kelso's living room. It had started to snow. Jackie was currently asleep on the floor, resting her head on the seat of one of the armchairs in a position, that couldn't possibly be comfortable. He should probably wake her up.

"Jackie," he shook her slightly, but she didn't wake up. One of her arms just kind of tried to swat him, which wasn't surprising, considering the fact that it was Jackie. He shook her a little harder, without being too harsh. "Jacks, you should wake up. It's 4 AM."

"Steven?" Jackie said, looking a little confused for a moment, blinking her eyes, as she looked up at him. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. Jackie tried to sort out her hair, but it was clearly in disarray, and she was tired, so she wasn't doing a particularly good job of working on it. "It's 4 AM?"

"Yes. Come on, get up," Hyde said, as he pulled her up from the floor. He grabbed Jackie's arm and pulled her up from the floor. She glared at him or tried to at least. Although she looked a lot more awake now, than she had earlier. He managed to pull her onto her feet. "Otherwise, you'll just be bitching about having slept on the floor tomorrow morning, and that'll give me a headache."

"If it's 4 AM, how the hell are you not tired?" Jackie asked, completely ignoring what he had just said. He was, but he wasn't going to say that. Hyde had volunteered to take the couch, and while he could technically let Jackie could sleep on the floor in Brooke and Kelso's living room, he would really rather, that she just got into the guest room, so he could sleep in peace. "Did you turn into a vampire or something?"

"Would you just get into the guest room, so I can crash on the couch?" Hyde asked, hoping that finally she would take a hint. Her hair was muzzled, curls falling out of the hairdo she'd had for the party earlier. Her lipstick had gotten smudged on her face, after she decided to fall asleep on the floor. Not, that he was noticing, much. She sat down on the couch, which really wasn't helping in the slightest.

"Do I really look so awful, that you have to stare at me, Steven?" she said, still fiddling with her hair, even though it was probably beyond saving until she'd had at least 12 hours of sleep. At least, that was what he would imagine, Jackie would say, if she was less tired. He didn't even know, why he was thinking like that. Hyde had to be really tired, if he was thinking like Jackie. All the more reason to make her go to sleep.

"It's like a car crash, Jackie. Just can't look away," he fired back, but it sounded a lot less mean, than he'd planned on. Regardless, she still tried to shove him, but there was no real force behind that either, with her sitting on the couch and him standing up, and instead her hand just kind of fell flatly against his chest. She was probably just as tired, as he felt, because to his surprise she didn't move her hand. Her mouth was soft and warm, when he crouched down awkwardly to kiss her. Jackie moved her hands to cup his face, and he sunk down onto the couch next to her. She angled her head towards him, her mouth moving lazily against his.

The angle is bad, so he made a quick decision and pulled her onto his lap, before he could tell himself not to do exactly that. She pushed herself closer towards him, making him groan. He was aware, that they should absolutely stop doing this, she probably knew that too. It's one thing to accidentally kiss her once, when you're drunk. It's another thing entirely to make out on a couch in the middle of the night. But maybe it's because he's tired, maybe it's because some pathetic long forgotten part of him missed her a little bit, but he really doesn't want to stop. She moved her mouth against his, and he grazed her lip with his teeth, making her let out a small whine. Her hands felt amazing. Everything felt amazing.

But on the other hand, he's making out with Jackie fucking Burkhart. He pulled himself away from her, Jackie's hands dropping to her lap. Her lips were red, and not because of her smudged lipstick. More of her hair had fallen out of her hairdo. She was clearly as out of breath, as he was. "Fucking hell," he swore under his breath.

"Steven, we can't keep doing this," Jackie said, quickly getting off him. She didn't meet his eyes. He could imagine, she was just as disgruntled, embarrassed or whatever, as she had been that time after the water tower.

"You're not wrong," he replied, and maybe he's a coward, but he doesn't look at her either. She said something about going to sleep, and she finally finally left the living room. He switched the one lamp still on, off and flipped back on the couch. That was his damn problem, it felt exactly the same. He wasn't in love with Jackie anymore, he hadn't exactly pined after her or whatever. But it still felt the same, as back when things between them were good, and they weren't fighting about getting or not getting married. When it was just the two of them together. It was 4 AM, he was tired. That had to be why, he was thinking like this. He closed his eyes, he had to stop thinking about it, or he was never going to fall asleep.