A/N: aaand we're back - and on time for a change. Thank you so much to anyone who's alerted, reviewed or favorited this. I hope you guys enjoy this, because I definitely had fun writing this.

San Francisco, California

March 10th, 1990, 9:22 PM

The ballroom of The Love And Joy Hotel

"Can I have a Rum and Coke?" Jackie asked the bartender, who gave her a sleazy smile. She just rolled her eyes. The rehearsal dinner had been kind of a strained thing so far. Kelly and Fez had barely gotten any points in the version of The Newly Wed Game, that some of Kelly's friends had made. According to Fez, they'd just picked bad trivia. If Jackie had been 16 years old, an idealist and practically just waiting to get proposed to, she might have taken it as a bad omen of some kind. Fortunately, she was just 29 and only here for Fez' sake. As well as the opportunity to see her old friends again.

"You know the house we have in the Hamptons is absolutely wonderful. Especially now, that the neighbours finally fired that annoying maid they hired." Jackie overheard, as she made her way from the bar to her seat. The rehearsal dinner had loosened up a little bit, and there were even a few people dancing. But Jackie still had to get Donna to spill, what her and Eric were naming their baby. Apparently, they had wanted to keep it a secret, but Jackie just really wanted to know. And as much as Eric couldn't keep a secret to save his life, he probably wouldn't tell Jackie. "She kept whining about the long hours to our gardener."

The loud guy in question was sitting next to Steven. If Jackie remembered right, the guy was related to Kelly somehow. Jackie watched them for a second. Steven rolled his eyes at What's His Face, but it barely seemed to register with him. "And thank god, we don't have any of those youth gangs who spray paint everything," What's His Face blabbered on, and Steven looked incredibly close to sucker punching the guy.

Jackie decided that needling Donna to find out the baby's name could wait until later, and she took a sharp turn towards the table, where Steven was sitting. She put her hand on his shoulder, making him jump slightly. Jackie smiled a wide and phony smile, which was mostly for the benefit of What's His Face. Maybe, it would get him to leave Steven alone and avoid a black eye. And maybe it wouldn't be so bad to dance around with Steven until What's His Face had found someone else, who'd find him less annoying. Friends could dance with each other. "Steven, don't you want to dance with me?" she said, going for as sugary sweet as possible. "I've missed you all night, darling," okay, so maybe friends didn't call each other darling, but that was for the benefit of What's His Face.

"Oh, I would love to, doll," Steven said, clearly mocking her, even if the nickname was one, he'd called her once upon a time. But from the looks of it, he also got, that she was just trying to save his ass, or more likely trying to save What's His Face's ass. She grabbed his hand and moved them towards the dance floor. What's His Face turned his attention to another victim in a satin suit, who sat at Steven's table. She let her phony smile fade, when Steven put his hands on her shoulders. She laced her fingers together behind his neck. "I hate dancing," he said quietly.

"Yeah, I know," Jackie started in the same kind of quiet tone, that was barely audible thanks to the music. She gave him a small smile, that was more real. She had never known why, Steven was a good dancer after all. Even, if she hadn't noticed that one time, she dragged them to the disco in Kenosha, she had made him dance with her enough times since to know. "But it was the first thing, I thought of, and I figured Fez wouldn't appreciate you bludgeoning one of his wedding guests to death."

"I wouldn't have bludgeoned him," Steven defended himself, making them sway slightly. He looked nice tonight, but that was more about him just having a good suit, than anything else. It had to be. It just framed him nicely, Jackie could appreciate a good suit. "Punched him a couple of times, sure. But not bludgeoned him."

"Whatever you say, darling," Jackie replied, highly enjoying the face, he made at her.

"You can quit that, we're out of earshot," Steven replied. His fingers spread out on her shoulder, running across the fabric of her dress. His face betrayed him a little, the edge of his mouth was tugging upwards slightly.

"Oh, you never know," Jackie replied, but didn't say anything else. The song was slow, not quite a romantic slow dance, but not far off. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Fez and Kelly dancing. Steven wasn't holding her as close, as he used to, for obvious reasons. Not that she wanted him to either, they were trying to put the whole mess of the water tower and New Year's behind them after all. When she had told him, she wanted to be friends, she'd meant it. Jackie wasn't sure, why she kept having to remind herself of that.

She'd always enjoyed dancing with him. Michael couldn't really dance, and for Fez it was always more about the fun of dancing, than it was about her. John argued he didn't have the time or the energy to go dancing, and Jackie had tried telling herself, it didn't really matter. With Steven, it had always sort of felt right. The warmth of his hand on her lower back, the fact that he always seemed to concentrate completely on her, being pressed up against him. It was just nice.

"So- um, did you guys manage to get Fez in a dress last night?" Jackie asked, when neither of them said anything for a long moment. They should probably talk, that would make this less weird. She was looking over Steven's shoulder, watching What's His Face. It seemed easier, looking at Steven's face too much, would just seem too much like last time, they were dancing together.

"No actually, Fez has gotten better at handling beer. Forman might have woken up with big Red's red lipstick on though," Steven replied. Jackie let out a snort of a laugh. "And the pink stuff on his cheeks, and the eyelash thing."

"Might as well, red goes terribly with her hair. Way too much red," Jackie replied, with a dismissive hand. Steven smirked. Jackie wasn't sure, when she'd started looking at Steven again. The edges of her mouth tugged upwards slightly, and something in her chest tightened. She looked away to What's His Face instead.

"Didn't suck," Steven said a moment later, as the song came to an end. What's His Face seemed enthralled in his other conversation, so they probably didn't have to keep doing this. Weirdly, Jackie almost didn't want to stop.

"What?" Jackie asked, the question making her look at him again.

"The dancing," Steven continued, a look on his face that Jackie couldn't decipher. "A lot less crap, than I remember it being."

"You're such a liar," Jackie retorted with a breathy laugh, letting go of him. After all, she still had Donna to pester about the baby's name. She didn't look back at Steven, she wasn't sure, what she'd do or say, if she did.

San Francisco, California

March 11th, 1990, 00:37 AM

The Love And Joy Hotel

Technically, Hyde had just meant to go back to his hotel room. It had been a long, very boring night, and he really just wanted to pass out in his bed, and get up in time to not be too late for the wedding. Dancing with Jackie, Kelly's uniquely annoying square cousin Fred, he'd been stuck with all night, because Kelly had made the seating plan not Fez, the logical thing would be just to pass out in his bed with a beer. He paused for a moment. The hotel had small green areas, like someone had tried to convince them, they were actually on some romantic farm, rather than a hotel in the middle of San Francisco, with cars razing by on the highway outside. It was annoying him.

Jackie was sitting on a bench in such a green area, her knees dragged up under her chin. She looked like she'd spaced out, and probably hadn't even noticed he was there. If he wanted to, he could still go back to his hotel room, and Jackie wouldn't get mad that he ignored her or some shit. Not that he was expecting her to get mad or anything, not anymore at least. Even, if it were to annoy her, that wasn't really his problem. Instead, he pushed the glass door open. "Hey," he said quietly.

"Hi," Jackie replied, turning her head to look at him. He knew, the two of them alone wasn't anything good at the moment, after what had happened after the water tower, and at New Year's but right now, he didn't actually care too much. "So- That's Kelly," she said, gesturing towards the hotel.

"God, she's a moron. I thought Kelso was bad, but man, he might actually have some serious competition," Hyde said, as he sat down next to Jackie.

"Yeah, you're not wrong," Jackie said, smiling to herself. Something inflated in his chest. She looked gorgeous. She'd loosened her hair, since last time he'd seen her, and now it was falling over her shoulders. Her eyes were sort of shining in the dull light. She always looked fucking gorgeous, even when she'd just been Kelso's annoying girlfriend, or back when he'd been dragging Sam around. Maybe he was drunk enough to let himself admit that. "But hey, whatever makes Fez happy, right?"

"Yeah," he said, his voice sounded a lot smaller than he had expected it to do. She met his eyes. He had been happy for a while with Jackie around. Not that, that mattered anymore. He wasn't even sure, why he was thinking about it at all. "Whatever makes Fez happy."

He'd moved towards her, before he even had a chance to realize it. Like he wasn't even thinking about it. Maybe, it wasn't just the same stupid mistake, they kept making over and over again. He knew, he'd said, he wanted to be friends with her, and he had meant it for the most part. It just so happened, he also wanted to kiss her. Everything else in his head whited out, and he just wanted to kiss her. Jackie angled her head towards him. But then a hand against his chest pushed him away, and she got to her feet. "We can't keep doing this!" Jackie said, shaking her head. "Steven, we agreed this was a mistake."

"What, if it's not," Hyde heard himself say, before he knew what he was saying.

"What?" Jackie said in disbelief. She was glaring at him.

"Man- Jackie, we keep doing this. You know, what if it's a sign or something?" Hyde replied. His thoughts were evaporating, and none of it made sense. He'd gotten himself into one of those situations, he absolutely hated, and with his back against the wall, he had no idea how to get out. So apparently, nothing had changed in the last ten years.

"Steven- you don't- you don't believe in signs," Jackie fired back, clearly frustrated. She didn't move though, she just stood where she stood, still glaring at him.

"You just wanna keep acting like, this is not a thing?" Hyde heard himself asking, as if he was outside his own body, and had no control over what he was saying. "Not an expert, but I don't think this is what people who went out in high school are supposed to be doing, ten years later."

"People make mistakes," Jackie bit back, and he hated that, that stung. But it still felt like, he was watching this from afar. Everything Jackie had happened more than 10 years ago, he had gotten used to not thinking about it, pushing it away from him. But it was also happening right now, mostly because he was screwing it up – again.

"Three times, Jackie," he replied, because apparently he could still practically argue with Jackie in his sleep.

"Just tell me one reason then," Jackie said stubbornly, crossing her arms. Her expression hardened, like she was trying to look stubborn. "Just give me one reason, why it's not a mistake, Steven."

He had never been good at that, she should know that. This was how they'd always gotten into trouble before. He wished, he could say something, didn't realize how much he actually wanted to say something to convince her, until just now. There was no way in hell, he could explain to her why he'd kissed her at New Year's, or that he'd actually genuinely enjoyed dancing with her earlier, or anything like that. Even if he could, it would be pointless, because she needed to be convinced. Whatever Hyde thought, Jackie thought it was a mistake. He took a long breath, and turned towards the sliding door. "Forget, I said anything," he said without looking at her.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Jackie said quietly, before the door slid shut, her tone unreadable, and he didn't turn around to see the look on her face. If he had needed to pass out before, he definitely needed to, now.