It took Jackie mere seconds to understand what was going on, and yet she couldn't bring herself to break away from him. She begins kissing him back passionately as he digs his hand in her hair. For the first time in years, she feels a soothing calm take over her body. It was as if this kiss transported her back to 1978 in Point Place when she was happy with her Puddin' Pop.

As she felt him moving them to the couch, never breaking the kiss, she remembers the last conversation they had before she showed up. Then, the calm left and her body stiffened. He chose her. With the image of a leggy blonde now in her head, she tore away from her past. Jackie quickly broke away from Hyde and hurried to gather her belongings.

Taken out of his trance, Hyde stared at her in confusion, pondering what he had done wrong.

"Jackie, what is it?" he asked.

"What the hell are we doing Steven?"

"We're...um, kissing I guess." Once he says it, he realizes how crazy the words sound. He and his ex-girlfriend had just kissed.

"God, I'm so fucking stupid" she mutters under her breath. "I have to go" she states, finally looking him in the eye.

"No, wait. Let's just...talk."

"I really don't think that's a good idea right now Steven. It'll just be confusing."

"So let me talk, you just listen" he replies hoping it will convince her to stay.

"Steven not now, I just-"

"Damn it Jackie, just let me talk" he says cutting her off.

Jackie wouldn't admit it but his determination to talk about something, anything, intrigues her. Never would she have thought they would have switched roles so drastically. Here she was trying to escape an uncomfortable situation and Steven Hyde was trying to talk about it.

"Fine" she said. Putting down her bag, she walks over to the couch and sits as far away from him as she can.

Not liking the distance between them, Hyde stands up from the spot he is sitting and sits next to her. Noticing her tense up, he shoots a smile at her which he reluctantly returns.

"I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable, and I'm sorry I crossed the line by kissing you...but, well...did you feel something?" he asks.

"Steven, I don't want-"

"I mean, the kiss was hot, but...did you feel something?" he asks again.

It took her a minute to understand the reference to their first date on Veteran's Day. She couldn't help laugh. It is weird to her how long ago that night had been...how innocent and hopeful she had been. She really was a girl who believed, and desperately wanted, a fairytale life. She can remember that night so clearly. They had sat on the hood of her father's car for hours and talked about the most insignificant things and yet, it had been one of the best dates she had been on. She knew he tried his best to resist her that entire night, but eventually ended up having a good time.

She knows this because he told her. Of course it took him years to say this as he would not have admit it before. One night when they were laying on his cot in the tiny basement room, he told her how special that night had been to him and how he thought about what a relationship with her would be like. Once he said that, she couldn't help but think of all the time they had wasted being apart. She even wondered, once they had finally crashed and burned, how their relationship would have been different had they admitted their feelings that night.

Now, so many years later, sitting in an unfamiliar couch. She realizes that that night was a representation of their entire relationship. Both that night and in the years they were together, neither were able to put their pride aside and admit their true feelings. As a result, they both ended alone and miserable. He had married a stripper, and she moved halfway across the country to escape the hell hole that had been her life in Wisconsin.

"Steven," she began, "I don't know why that just happened, but it's not something I want."

"What exactly is it you don't want Jackie?"

"I don't...I don't want to go back to that part of my life."

"You mean the part I'm a part of" he responds.

"Yes..I mean no. The part where you are anything but a friend."

"You want me to be your friend?" he asks.

"I do."

"Jackie, I can't be your friend. With everything that's happened between us, I can't just have part of you."

She laughs. How dare he? How dare he back into her life and demand anything from her after all the shit he put her through. He is the reason she had to uproot her entire life and start over. The reason she no longer had family or friends.

"I am not giving you an option Steven. You don't get to have an option. The fact that you acknowledge everything that has happened between us should make you understand why it is that I refuse to go back down on that road."

"That was years ago! We're different people now."

"How would you even know? You don't know me well enough to know that. I'm not that girl I was back then. I'm not the girl who leaves with her tail between her legs whenever your wife burns me and rubs our failed relationship in my face...while you just stand idly by."

"Jackie, I was hurt then. I resented that you left with Kelso without waiting for my answer."

"Yeah well, I resent you now."

"Just, give me a chance to show you that I am not that guy anymore."

As he sat there staring at her, it pained her and angered her to see the sincerity in his eyes because she truly wanted to hate him. The one man who hurt her more than anyone in her life was asking for forgiveness and she can not bring herself to do that. No matter how much she has changed, she could not be the bigger person in this situation and give him the opportunity to get back into her life, to hurt her once again.

"I..I just need to think about it" she responds.

Jackie stands up from the couch and picks up her purse from the table nearby. As she starts walking towards the door Hyde rushes in front of her and stands in the way of her exit.

"Steven...please."

"Just answer one question" he says.

Jackie sighs dreading what he's about to ask her. What she fears the most is that whatever his question is, she will not be able to lie.

"What is it?" she asks.

"The kiss...did you feel anything?"

Jackie looks down at the floor wondering how she didn't see this coming. After a few seconds of silence, Hyde places a finger under her chin and forces her to look at him.

"Did you?" he asks again. This time, his voice is low and husky.

Jackie takes a deep breath. "Yes."