A/N: An extra thank you to the guest review from last time, since I can't reply to you. As always, I hope you guys enjoy this.
Chicago, Illinois
January 1st, 1990, 9:37 AM
Michael Kelso & Brooke Rockwell's house
As soon as the noise in the house started up, Jackie wished, she could go back to sleep. If nothing else, because it might block out last night from her head again. She and Steven had kissed again, and not just a quick kiss and then jumped away from each other in horror. No, they'd made out, actually made out like they used to do, when there was no one else in the basement. Jackie buried her head in her pillow. Closing her eyes didn't help, she could still clearly picture it. She hadn't even been drunk last night, making it all together a hell of a lot harder to justify. Jackie sat up and rubbed her temples.
They had talked last night, about so many of the things, that Jackie would have given her best pairs of shoes and her right arm to hear him say, back when the stripper whore showed up. But it had felt hopeless back then, hopeless to try and explain things with Michael and the motel, hopeless to say anything that could try and convince Steven to ditch Sam. So, instead Jackie had let everything crumble, fade away, until they were back here again. Maybe, that was why she'd let herself just kiss him, and ignore everything between them for a moment. Because they had finally actually talked.
That had to be the explanation, it had been late at night, and Jackie had just let her thoughts get away from her. At least, that was what she reasoned, as she got ready for the day. Sure, these were her friends, but she wasn't getting out there with bedhead, and her pyjamas. She had standards, thank you very much. As she finished getting ready, Jackie decided to head downstairs in the tiny house. She might still not be a good cook, but toast she could at least handle.
"Jackie, can I talk to you for a second?" Jackie twisted, as she'd gotten into the hallway, seeing Michael standing in the doorway to Betsy and Will's room. Jackie frowned, Michael looked almost fidgety. Like when he'd had too much sugar and tried to spray her grandmother with the garden hose, or something like that. Except Michael didn't look giddy, like he had before he'd sprayed Jackie's grandmother with the hose, but more nervous.
"Michael?" she said with a confused look on her face. He pulled her towards the kids' room. "Michael, come on, what's up?" Jackie repeated, as he closed the door behind them.
"Had to close the door first, sound carries," Michael said, in what still to Jackie at least seemed like an overly serious tone. It was never a good thing, when Michael was being overly serious. He bent down, and seemed to receive something from behind a chest of drawers. Jackie wasn't really paying attention to what he was doing, until he pulled out what looked like a ring box.
"Michael, is that what I think it is?" Jackie asked, wrestling the box out of his hand. She opened it. In it was a silver band ring with 3 small diamonds placed next to each other. Jackie stared at it, Michael had actually done it. He had bought Brooke a ring, and a shiny one too. Had this been before Jackie's engagement to John, she might have made a thing out of the fact that Michael had gotten her a balloon, instead of something shiny. But now, Jackie was just happy, happy for her friends, excited that they got to have this. Mostly anyway, the balloon was still kind of a low blow. "And it's so shiny."
"Yeah," Michael said with a proud smirk. He looked down at the ring. "I'm going to ask her to marry me tonight, at dinner."
"Really, with all of us there?" Jackie asked. Jackie wasn't too sure, that it would be her ideal idea for a proposal. But granted, her dream of a proposal had involved a carriage pulled by white horses at one point, and Jackie could imagine Brooke didn't have the same idea.
"Yeah, I mean we don't see Brooke's mom a whole lot, and my family has only seen Will like three times, since he was born. You guys are like the most important people in my life. Besides you know, Brooke and the kids," Michael started. That almost made Jackie smile. What had seemed like Michael just doing it, with an audience so he wouldn't chicken out, was actually kind of sweet. "What? You don't think it's a good idea?" Michael asked.
"No! No, no, no," Jackie hurried to reassure him, holding up her hands. "Michael, I think it's wonderful. She's going to love it, I promise."
"Yeah, I mean who wouldn't? Getting to be married to a guy this handsome for the rest of your life?" Michael said with pride in his words. Jackie resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Besides, you're like the expert on weddings, Jackie. So, if you think she's going to love it, then she's gonna."
Expert on weddings, Jackie thought to herself. She wasn't sure, she would agree with Michael on that. Not anymore, anyway. She used to think, it was the end all be all. It was what you were supposed to do, when you loved each other. At least, eventually. But she hadn't gotten anything out of that with Michael or Steven, and when it came down to it, she couldn't marry John. But Jackie wasn't exactly in the mood to have that discussion with Michael of all people. "Look, Brooke makes you happy, right?" Jackie said with a somewhat strained smile.
"Yes," Michael replied, with a serious look. Something twisted inside Jackie.
"Good, then I don't think anything else really matters," Jackie said. She paused for a moment. "Although, I better make sure, Brooke doesn't get any kind of tacky dresses for her bridesmaids. I do have standards."
"Damn, Jackie! I think she has to say yes first," Michael fired back.
Chicago, Illinois
January 1st, 1990, 6:45 PM
Michael Kelso & Brooke Rockwell's living room.
"Did you really have the sticker on your face, all of last night?" Betsy asked, as the girl sat down next to Jackie. Jackie nodded affirmatively, making Betsy beam proudly. Hyde himself, put the dish he'd carried in from the kitchen, down on the coasters, and took his seat on the opposite side of the table, in between Forman and Fez. It was probably a good thing, he wasn't sitting anywhere near Jackie, where it would be weird not to talk to Jackie. Because, he really didn't feel like talking to Jackie. At all. "Good, because that's what you promised," Betsy said, overly serious.
Nobody had particularly felt like going home on January the first, so they'd all pretty much agreed on staying for an extra day. But if he hadn't been driving Forman and Donna, he probably would have ditched them, and gone home. Even though, Hyde kind of felt like a coward for being willing to admit that. Jackie and Hyde had done a lot of talking last night. Too much talking for a New Year's party, and definitely a lot more talking than they used to do. And then shit had gone wrong, because lately it seemed like that always happened, whenever they said more than two words to each other.
The worst part was, if they could avoid the crap afterwards, Hyde wouldn't actually mind. But ultimately, the crap always came back around. He looked over at her, she was listening to something Betsy was saying. Her hair fell down over her shoulders, and the blue dress, she was wearing had a sweetheart neckline. She'd lectured him about different dress cuts, while they were dating, and for some reason he hadn't forgotten about it yet. Probably just because she'd said it a lot, or something.
It was ridiculous, how he still felt the same, when he kissed her. Both times, in August and last night, it had felt easy, comfortable. Jackie was annoying, she was pushy and too stubborn to compromise with anybody. She had pushed him towards getting married, which he absolutely did not want, just because it was how she wanted it to be. On top of that, it had been 10 years. It was probably just because, he hadn't dated anyone in a long while. The last girl, he'd actually gone out with, was the girl Angie had set him up with a couple of months ago. That had to be it.
Brooke had sat down at the table, her attention on getting some dinner for Will. Kelso was the only one, who hadn't sat down. He was just kind of awkwardly shuffling from foot to foot in the doorway, between the kitchen and the living room. Once the toddler had gotten a plate full of food, Brooke looked up at Kelso. "Michael, sweetie- What are you doing?"
"Brooke, um- You know, I love you," Kelso was fiddling around in his back pocket. The expression on Kelso's face was oddly serious, oddly as in Hyde had seen him look this serious, maybe twice in the whole time, he'd known him. As Kelso pulled out what he'd been looking for, Hyde suddenly got it. It was a ring, pretty flashy too. A far cry from the whole balloon bullshit. Brooke immediately got up from her chair and took a step backwards.
"No. Michael, if you're doing this as some kind of joke," Brooke started, and Hyde could tell, she was clearly upset. He couldn't really blame her for being a little suspicious. "Then the kids and I are going to be out of here, before you can spell aquarium."
"I can spell aquarium, it´s got like three a's, that's not-" Kelso clearly cringed at himself for seizing on that. He met Brooke's eyes, and that serious look was back on his face. "Babe, it's not a joke."
"It's not?" Brooke said. There was still disbelief in her voice, but anyone with two working eyes, could see the smile, that was spreading across her face. Hyde might have hated this kind of corny crap, but he was happy, his friend had finally worked up the courage to propose to Brooke. If nothing else, so he'd stop going on about it.
"No, of course not," Kelso protested. He actually then got down on one knee, in front of where Brooke was standing. Clearly, he was actually going to do this, and not chicken out like had for the last two years. "Look, I love you. More than I've ever loved anybody."
"Burn," Fez said under his breath, making Jackie send him a withering glare, and Hyde punch his shoulder, hard. Fez pouted.
"Not now, buddy," Kelso said in Fez' direction, before turning back to Brooke. There was a happy smile on Kelso's face, that looked straight out of some ridiculous movie. But Hyde couldn't find it in himself to make fun of him. "But I love you so much, and I love Betsy and Will. And this right here, the four of us, it makes me really happy, like ridiculously happy. So, I thought, that we should get married, so we could keep on being this happy and be together."
"You make me really happy too, Michael," Brooke said quietly, making Kelso, if possible, smile even wider. It looked like his face was practically going to be split into two.
"Sweet!" Kelso exclaimed, clearly getting distracted for a second, but making Betsy laugh. Hyde resisted the urge to roll his eyes for a second. After a moment's pause, Kelso continued: "Brooke Rockwell, will you marry me?"
"Yes," Brooke said with a grin, and Kelso barely slid the ring on her finger, before he enveloped Brooke in a hug, that sent both of them tumbling to the floor. They were both practically giggling. Finally, they sat back up again. Brooke's hair was ruffled, not surprising, considering they had practically rolled around on the floor. Kelso's shirt was askew, the buttons practically dragged under his left arm.
"I'm gonna have a wife!" Kelso said proudly, smiling at Brooke, who was smiling right back. They both seemed to complete ignore the fact, that they had technically all been about to have dinner. Usually, he hated this kind of romantic gooey crap. After all, both times Forman had proposed to Donna, the story behind it had been kind of disgusting. He always believed, you didn't have to tell a chick constantly, how you felt. She'd know, if you cared. But on the other hand, look where that had gotten him with Jackie. As soon, as the thought entered his head, he pushed it out. He wasn't hung up on Jackie, no matter, how many times they kept making this mistake.
"Can I be a bridesmaid?" Betsy said, at the exact same time as Jackie did. Something like glee shot up in Betsy's eyes. "Jinx! You're not allowed to speak, until someone says your name!"
"Well, I'm going to enjoy this," Forman said, practically rubbing his hands together in glee. Hyde rolled his eyes at him.
"Of course, you can, sweetie," Brooke said to her daughter, giving her a small smile. Brooke gave Forman a quick pointed look. "Same goes for you, Jackie," Brooke continued.
"Spoilsport," Forman said with a practically Fez-like pout.
"Jinx!" Betsy yelled victoriously, having once again said the same thing, as one of the adults at the table. There was a wide smirk on her face, like Kelso after he'd pulled off a burn. Jackie was practically giggling. "You're not allowed to speak until someone says your name, or you're cursed for life and you owe me a soda," the little girl continued.
"I said, cursed for life and a soda!" Betsy repeated, when Forman opened his mouth to protest. That promptly made Eric shut his trap again.
"She makes a tough deal, man," Hyde said, patting Forman on the shoulder in faux sympathy. Forman tried for a withering glare somewhat unsuccessfully. Hyde caught Jackie's eyes across the table. She was practically laughing with her eyes, the way she used to when Kelso did something particularly stupid, or when he said something, she didn't want to admit was funny. He quickly looked away. They'd both agreed, they had made a mistake, and sure it didn't hurt to get some of their crap out of the way. But that didn't mean anything.