As Hyde was signing his hospital release forms, Red Forman walked into the room to pick him up and take him home.

"Hurry up Archie, I don't have all day to spend in this crap-hole" Red stated.

It always amused Hyde how blunt (and slightly scary) Red. Ever since the day Hyde walked Eric home to protect him from bullies, he remembered Red Forman being a hard ass. He might be the only person that truly scared Hyde, and that was saying something coming from a kid with his upbringing.

"I'm almost done" Hyde responded.

Red walked over towards Hyde and took a quick look at the forms he was filling out. "You know, every time I see one of these, there's more questions than before. Nosy sons-of-bitches."

Hyde nodded and, wanting to push Red's buttons a little added, "well they are in America, isnlt everyone a nosy sonofabitch?"

"Watch it hop head," answered Red, "if you don't like it you can go live with those damn commies or the pansy ass Canadias. Is that what you want?"

Hyde smirked. It was too easy to make Red upset, just talk about how much you disliked the American government and he would tell you off. "No sir, I don't" he replied, to which Red just shook his head.

"You kids nowadays don't know how good you have it. When I was your age I was in Korea fighting for this country and was damn proud to do so. Now everything is party all night, sleep all day and drugs and sex. Had I know this is what I was fighting for, I would've let a commie shoot me."

"Okay Mr. Hyde, if you're done with the forms I'll take them and you can go" a nurse interrupted. Hyde signed the form and handed her the clipboard. As soon as she exited the room, Hyde gathered his belongings.

"Well Red," he continued. "I would love to keep talking about commies but how about we do it on the way home?"

Red rolled his eyes at Hyde and exited the room with a grunt with Hyde following behind with a smirk.

California:

"So Hyde huh?" asked Jason.

Jackie was in her kitchen warming up some food for herself and Jason."Uh huh" she responded.

"What did he want?" he continued.

"Huh?" Jackie was barely paying attention. Between trying not to burn the food and going over her conversation with Hyde, she couldn't focus on much. "Oh, nothing. Just called to say he's getting out of the hospital today."

As soon as Hyde told her, she got a sense of relief which surprised her because she hadn't realized how much it affected her.

"Jackie, as your friend, I'm asking you to be careful."

Jackie turned away from the stove at his comment. "Careful about what Jason?"

"Him. Be careful about Hyde."

"Why would I need to be careful about Steven?"

"Because of what he did to you in the past. You're letting him come back into your life so easily. It's almost as if you're forgetting everything he put you through."

Jackie now completely stepped away from the stove and moved closer to Jason."

"Look, I appreciate you trying to be a good friend and looking out for me, but you don't have to worry because I will never forget how much Staven hurt me. And as far as me letting him into my life, I'm not. We're hundreds of miles away and yeah I talk to him on the phone, but it's only because he was in an accident, and as someone who used to love him, I was concerned. But that's it. I'm not looking to get back together with the man."

"I know Jackie, but guys like him have a way of inching back into people's lives."

"Jason, I get what you're saying and I appreciate it, I really do, but I don't want to talk to you about Steven. You don't know him or what happened througout our relationship, so let's just drop it, okay?"

"Fine Jackie, but just know that if something happens, I'm here for you...promise not to say 'I told you so.'"

At this point Jason had obviously decided to just leave because he was putting on his suit jacket and Jackie could not have been happier to be left alone.

"Fine Jason."

A few minutes later he was gone and Jackie was plopped down on her couch running the conversation back in her head. She understoon why Jason was concerned (and given the way she felt when talking to Hyde she should be concerned also) but something triggered some protective emotion over Hyde that she was all to familiar with. Since before they had started dating many years prior, Jackie had been protective of Hyde. She hated when people said bad things about him, even though she used to be one of them, and she always found herself sticking up for him, even when she knew she shouldn't

Here she was, so many years later and so many miles away from "home," having had to start her entire life over because he managed to destroy her without any apologies, still defending him. Even after everything they had gone through, she was still making excuses for him and trying to make him seem like a decent person, and she couldn't understand why.

All of a sudden her fire alarm went up and she jumped off the couch and rushed to the kitchen.

"Crap" she said out loud. She turned the stove off...the food was burned.

Point Place:

Red Forman and Steven Hyde were en route to the Forman's house. The whole ride had been, thus far, silent. Neither men were very talkative, a characteristic that worked for one and had hindered the other.

"Hey Red, I've been thinking" Hyde started to break the silence.

"Oh great, let's hear this" Red said sarcastically.

"I thought I would convince W.B. To open up a store in California."

"California huh?"

"Yeah, it's a good music market, there's a lot of music happening down there. I think a store there would do well."

"Well sure. He can get someone over there to run it."

"Actually, I was thinking I could go manage it."

"You? Go to California?"

"Yes. I've been thinking I need a change of scenery. I mean, no offense man, but Point Place is pretty dead. There's not much more I can do with the store here."

"Steven, this would have nothing to do with the Burkhart girl would it?"

"What! Jackie...no...no way man! I'm not even thinking about her."

"Uh huh" Red responded, clearly not believing a word Hyde said.

"I'm not!" Hyde insisted.

"If you say so...Oh and good luck telling Kitty, I'm sure she'll be thrilled the last one of you is leaving."

Hyde nodded, he had already figured out how he was going to tell Mrs. Forman, all he needed to do was figure out a way to get his car back soon enough to get to California where, hopefully, he could get back some consistency in his life.