A/N: I am again, late. My apologies. My university schedule has been the worst for the last while. Hopefully, we should be back on schedule for the next update. Regardless, I hope you guys enjoy.

San Francisco, California

March 9th, 1990, 8:40 PM

The Love and Joy Hotel bar

"I bet you can't stuff this many straws in your mouth," Michael said, or more likely gargled around the plastic straws, he'd stuffed into his mouth. Eric and Fez gave him a sceptical look. Brooke kind of chuckled, from her seat at their table, clearly more than used to this behaviour from her fiancée. They had all collected together in the bar of the hotel for the night. Donna rose from the bar chair, where she had been sitting next to Jackie and Steven, abandoning the drink on the table.

They had all agreed to meet up in the hotel bar that night. The guys were all planning on dragging Fez around to a couple of bars later. However, neither she, Brooke nor Donna were exactly close friends with Kelly, so none of them had plans for the night. So, they had convinced the boys to stick around the hotel a little longer. Or Brooke had convinced Kelso really, and then Michael had proceeded to convince Fez. Both Steven and Eric had protested, but it was Fez' wedding after all. So for once, Fez got to be the one making decisions.

"Alright, Kelso if you talk Eric into this, he's just going to choke on the straws again, like last time and almost swallow one," Donna protested, clearly feeling the need to rescue her husband. Eric glared at her.

"Donna!" Eric protested. Jackie couldn't help, but notice the fact that Steven was smirking, out of the corner of her eye. The edge of his mouth kind of ticked up, like he knew Jackie had noticed. She looked away from him again.

"You know, you'd think Forman could fight his own battles by now," Steven said. He wasn't looking at her either, and if asked he could probably deny he was talking to her. But Jackie knew better, she knew him better. She looked over at him again. Steven was resting one arm on the bar, the sleeves on the army green jacket he was wearing, was rolled up a little.

"I mean, it is Eric," Jackie said and took a sip of her drink. She tried for a small smile. She'd kind of missed this, things just being okay. They weren't saying anything that really mattered. But at least, they were okay, they weren't burning each other, or ignoring each other. They used to have jokes together, before everything went to crap. "And Donna is more man, than him anyway," Jackie pointed out.

Steven let out a breath of a laugh. Before of course, most of their jokes would be things, one of them had whispered, when Jackie was sitting on his lap. Jackie didn't want to repeat that, and she definitely didn't miss that part. But she missed getting along, which was why she'd said, what she had said that morning. They had to be good, because she kind of missed being actual friends with Steven.

"This is kind of nice, you know," Steven said quietly, making Jackie turn her head away from the display before them. He was looking at her, wearing his shades, but definitely looking at her. Steven practically had the edge of his glass at his mouth. Jackie wasn't an idiot, whatever he meant, he was defensive. Luckily, none of their friends appeared to notice, Steven had said anything.

"What? Drinking and making fun of our friends?" Jackie asked. She was trying to make him feel a little bit more comfortable without even realizing it. Jackie sucked her lip in between her teeth and took another sip of her drink. The stool was suddenly very uncomfortable.

"Well, that too. But it wasn't what I meant," Steven started. He was trying to avoid looking at her, even though he was wearing his shades. There was a pause, Jackie was tempted to say something, but decided against it. "I meant this- you know? Us, getting along, man. Not yelling at each other or trying to avoid each other, and all that shit," Steven said.

"Steven," she said in the same kind of quiet tone. Jackie wasn't entirely sure, what she was going to say. There was a lot of things, she could. As much as Jackie hated admitting fault, she knew she'd screwed up going to Chicago, and not making Steven understand what had actually happened between her and Michael. But that didn't change, what had happened after. The thing that Jackie didn't want to talk about, but at the same time, now that was hanging between them, not repressed or unspoken, she couldn't really ignore it either. "To be fair, you did a lot of the not getting along," Jackie continued.

"That's true," he replied, looking over at her again. Jackie wasn't entirely sure, she could read his expression. Normally, she would try to snatch the glasses off his face, but she didn't want to draw any kind of attention to them. Michael and Donna were arguing on the other side of the hall, the bar was in.

"I mean come on, I know I tried to talk crap to you sometimes. But even forgetting Sam, you practically pushed me into that creek!" Jackie continued. Jackie still remembered being ice cold, and her ankle throbbing and Steven had thought it was funny. There was still a memory of that night, forever burned into Jackie's brain, of crawling into bed that night, still shivering and finally letting herself cry about it. It had felt like a joke, a great big cosmic joke, the universe had decided to play on her.

"I didn't- God, you still remember that?" Steven said, clearly cringing, and something flashed across his face, that Jackie could recognize, but it had been a long time, since she'd seen it on Steven's face. Shame. She kept her eyes on him.

"Steven! I could be all old and wrinkly, and still remember that," Jackie shot back. Jackie drew a deep breath. There was something stinging at the edge of her eyes, this was the reason, she'd avoided Steven for practically ten years. Because as much as she loved him, he'd hurt her too, made her so angry with him. Used to love him, she reminded herself. She definitely wasn't still in love with him, no matter what had happened in August or at New Year's. And god, she shouldn't even have said anything. Why had Steven had to say something?

It wasn't like Jackie hadn't meant it, when she'd said they were good. She had, but she'd also been happy to never bring this up. Steven had always been fine with never bringing shit up. But the one time, she didn't want Steven to talk about something, he did. Or at least hint at it, making it beyond obvious what he meant, at least to Jackie. "Look, I know I was being a bitch that day, but you didn't have to call me one. And I got a cold, and twisted my ankle and you thought-"

"I'm sorry," he cut her off. Jackie furrowed her brow. Steven twisted his hands, before reaching up to take the shades off. He held them in one hand. Jackie stared into his blue eyes. Steven looked like he wanted to look away, but he didn't. "And not just for that day in the woods, for all of it after- You know. I was pissed off and angry and taking my shit out on you. I shouldn't have."

"That's a lousy excuse, Steven," Jackie replied, her words watery. She wanted to wipe at her eyes, aware that she was probably crying. But she was scared of breaking eye contact with him and making him retract back into himself.

"It's the truth, Jackie," Hyde said. He looked down at the sunglasses in his hands for a moment. "Wish, there was a better reason, but that's it, man."

Neither of them said anything for a long moment. Jackie's hand was shaking, as she closed her fingers around the edge of the bar. Luckily, the hotel bar was so busy, no one appeared to have noticed, what they were doing. Their friends' voices could be heard in the hallway, away from the hotel bar. They'd continued the straw argument somewhere else without either of them noticing. Steven appeared to be looking in the direction of the sound, but he was tapping his foot. He still hadn't put the sunglasses back on.

"So, we still good?" Steven said, looking down at his glass. There was definite zen in his words, or an attempt at it anyway. But Jackie wasn't an idiot, he was clearly nervous. His foot still hadn't stopped tapping, and he was hunched over slightly. It also helped that he wasn't wearing the glasses, it made it so much easier to figure out, what he was thinking.

"Honestly?" Jackie asked, looking at him. He stilled, before he nodded once. Jackie drew a deep breath, she already knew what she was going to say, but she almost didn't want to say it out loud. "Better now."

Neither of them said anything for a long moment. Steven had said he was sorry. If it had been ten years ago, Jackie would have given anything and everything to hear him say that. It would have meant the world to her. A small voice in the back of her head told her, it still did. But Jackie swiftly ignored that. Steven put his glass down on the bar. "I better go," he said, avoiding looking at her.

San Francisco, California

March 9th, 1990, 11:46 PM

The Drunken Goose Bar

"This place is so lame, man," Hyde said, barely managing to speak over the music on the speakers. Not, that they were actually playing anything good. Fez was swaying slightly from side to side in his seat, but that might just be because they were playing Steely Dan. Hyde took a swig of his beer, he wasn't even really that drunk, because all the places they had gone tonight had been crap. Kelso rolled his eyes, or it looked like he tried to roll his eyes anyway.

"What's gotten into you?" Forman said, slurring slightly over his words. Seemed like everyone else was more drunk than Hyde tonight, which was just depressing. "I haven't seen you this grumpy, since Gilligan's Island ended without them getting off the- you know, island thing," Forman finished off, this time it was Hyde, who rolled his eyes.

"When am I not pissed off, man?" Hyde said, glaring at Forman. Forman didn't appear to notice, because he didn't look intimidated at all. Either that, or Hyde had had one too many beers to pull off a good glare.

"No, I know what you mean, Eric-" Fez added, pausing to grab onto the table, clearly unsteady. Fez plastered a grin on his face, as to reassure the rest of them, that he was fine. "I haven't seen Hyde look this grumpy, since Lisa dumped him to get that fancy lawyer job in New York."

"Oh, come on," Hyde bit back, and took another big swig of his beer. He'd been determined to enjoy this, and enjoy this weekend. But his conversation with Jackie earlier, was making that harder than he liked. Even, if he was the one, who had brought it up. But at least, he had gotten to say he was sorry, so maybe that was something. He pushed the thought down, he didn't want to think about it again, tonight.

"Yes, I know what you mean, man!" Kelso said, his friend practically yelling into Hyde's ear. He winced, and resisted the urge to kick his shin or something. "It was even worse, when like Jackie dumped- Man, is this about Jackie?!"

"The hell are you talking about, man?" Hyde said, and punched Kelso in the shoulder. Apparently, being wasted made Kelso smarter. Who would have thought, the day would come? He scowled, and took another sip of his beer. "Jackie and I broke up ten years ago, because of you, man. That doesn't even make sense!"

"Man, I told you-" Kelso started, and looked down at the table for a moment. Kelso drank from his beer. "It like makes total sense. Gilligan has been cancelled for years, and Lisa is not even here, man. So, like it has to be Jackie, guys!" Kelso concluded with a proud grin. "Man, you're still in love with Jackie!"

"I wasn't pissed off, but all three of you," Hyde paused and gestured to the other three sitting at the table. None of them looked particularly bothered. He kept his face zen, even if you couldn't really see much at the bar. The lights were mostly dim. "Are doing a real good job of making me. Who wants more drinks?" he asked, if nothing else to have an excuse to leave the table. They'd probably have forgotten what they were talking about, when he came back.

"Whatever you say, you're the one who wants to for-for-fornicate with the devil," Forman said, clearly struggling with long words, as Hyde got up. Hyde rolled his eyes, when he had his back to Forman. Maybe Fez wouldn't get drunk enough, for them to get away with putting a dress on him tonight. Out of his three friends, Fez seemed to be the least out of it. But Hyde was definitely going to get Forman wasted enough to wake up in interesting attire tomorrow.