A/N: Here's chapter six everyone. Some of you are probably curious how long these two can keep it a secret and I'm just going to say they can't keep it much longer. Thank you Reviewers, love hearing from you! Happy Reading!

Forman's Basement

12:35 am

"I'm going to go lay down, puddin pop." Jackie kisses Steven's forehead and heads back towards the bedroom. It was late and after a day at the job fair, she's exhausted.

"I'll be there in a moment." Steven heads out to his car, he had left his stash out there and didn't want to leave it out all night. He rolls a small joint to have a quick smoke to ensure that his dreams were of the good variety.

He sneaks quietly back into the house but someone must've shut the lights off and he ends up tripping on Forman's damn lego space command center. He hopes the sound wasn't loud enough to wake anyone up, but the muffled footsteps that start moving about above him say otherwise.

Steven walks into his room, "Jackie, you've got to get out of here."

Jackie rubs her eyes, "What?" "I think the Forman's are coming down here. Just go wait outside for a minute."

"Can't I just hide in here, it's chilly out."

"Jackie they can't find you here."

"I know that but I don't want to go outside. I'm in my pajamas."

"They're flannel button downs, not a silk nightgown. Out." He walks her out of the bedroom just in time to meet three unhappy and surprised faces.

"Jackie."

"What the hell?"

"Oh my god." Jackie say placing her hands over her face.

"Oh my god." Kitty exclaims.

"Forman, are you naked?"

"Kitchen now! Dumbasses!"

Forman's Kitchen

12:50 am

Kitty moves about in her pink robe to make some tea. Jackie takes a seat at the table trying to think of any explanations that didn't give her and Steven away. This might be it though.

"Who the hell do you think you are, bringing a girl into my house in the middle of the night?"

"And right in our basement too, we keep our christmas decorations down there. Baby Jesus was watching!"

"They weren't doing that, mom. Hyde would never mess around with the devil."

Jackie looks up at Steven, who was leaning on the counter. Was Eric really so naive? Maybe they could get away with this after all.

"Alright, now what is going on in my basement?"

"Jackie's just been sleeping here."

Everyone turns to look at the two and their guilty faces. Red's face is growing more red and stern by the second. "How long."

Hyde decides not to say that she's been staying over consistently since August. That would really set them off and he and Jackie may end up homeless. "Just the last couple of weeks."

"Couple of weeks, this isn't the playboy mansion!"

"Look, nothing was going on! Jackie has only been staying here because her dad's in jail and her mom still isn't back yet."

Jackie jumps from her chair and grabs Steven's arm. "Steven! That's private."

"Your mom's still not back. You told me she came home."

"Look, Mrs. Forman, can we not talk about this? Im fine, okay? Everything is fine."

"But if you need a place to stay…"

"No, no, no. I don't need anything." Jackie looks at Mrs. Forman's concerned face. "Look, I'm only here cause…" She looks at Steven, "I am such a tramp." Steven looks at with such an endearing smile. "So, I should just go home and try to control my dirty urges."

"Jackie you aren't going home, there's nobody there."

Red's tone softens and he pats the brunette on the head. "Jackie, you can sleep in Laurie's room tonight. Then tomorrow we can track down your floozy mother."

"Do you have any idea where she might be, honey?"

"The last postcard I got had a picture of a man with a bone through his nose. So, maybe Tennessee or Georgia."

Red and Kitty exchange a look before heading off to bed. Eager to get some sleep before the early morning ahead of them. Jackie turns back to Steven looking around the room to make sure it's empty. She reaches up and kisses his lips. "Do you think we got away with it?"

"I don't know, we'll see tomorrow when Donna demands answers. Worst case, people think I'm nice and we are friends."

She smiles at him, "goodnight Steven."

"Where are you going?"

"To Laurie's room?"

"Do you really want to sleep in a bed where Kelso did it with Laurie?"

"Ew." She shudder and they sneak quietly back into the basement.

Forman's Basement

"Hey Donna, this just in. Your boyfriend sleeps in the nude." Hyde walks out of his room to the crowded basement taking a seat in his chair.

Donna looks up from her magazine, "yeah so? I do too."

"Oh, yeah!" Kelso is too excited by Donna's response to continue to play boxing with Fez and takes a seat in the lawn chair with oven mitts on his hands.

"Oh, I can see it now, and it is glorious." Fez is clearly lost in his head. "Excuse me." He runs from the basement to deal with his needs.

Jackie comes down the steps looking cute in pigtails. She sits on the couch with Donna really wishing she could sit on Steven's lap instead.

"Jackie, I can't believe your parents are gone. I'm so sorry." Donna offers her pity.

"Okay, everyone needs to stop worrying about me. I'm fine. How could I not be? Mrs. Forman cooked me breakfast, smiley face pancakes, and did my hair."

"I have a question." Kelso raises an oven mitt in the air. "If Hyde was in Hyde's bed and Jackie was in Hyde's bed, what was going on in said bed?"

Hyde smiles to Kelso and with a sarcastic smirk he speaks. "Except, Hyde wasn't in Hyde's bed. Nothing was going on , I've been sleeping on the couch."

"Yeah, I came by during that storm a couple of weeks ago cause I couldn't sleep."

"She woke me up, being loud as usual, so I told her she could stay here til her mom got home. She just needed a place to sleep."

"Needed a place to sleep?"

"Oh, shut up Michael. It's not like we were doing it."

"Oh, come on Jackie. You can't sleep in a man's bed without doing it."

"Well, maybe you can't. I'm going home."

Burkhart Residence

The Burkhart's house really was a massive mansion in comparison to all other homes in Point Place. The interior is expertly decorated in pricey art that the owners couldn't name but knew the dollar value by heart. The furniture seems unused and styled to unknowingly resemble a museum. No amount of money though can turn that house into a home.

Jackie is curled up with her knees to her chest on the chesterfield which rests in front of the massive window, that pours light into the otherwise darkened library. She is surrounded by hundreds of shelves stretching from floor to ceiling and filled with old books her parent have never read.

"Is that Catch-22 you're reading?"

She looks up and sees Steven walking towards her. She was glad he was finally able to sneak away from the Forman's crowded home. He takes a seat and pulls her in close so that her back is resting against his chest and she's placed between his outstretched legs.

"Yeah it is."

"I didn't take you for satirical type."

"Well, you've been wrong about me before."

"Maybe."

"Definitely."

He smiles at her difficulty, she's always been so stubborn. "Name it, Doll."

"You said once and I quote, 'I have no interest in you, and you don't have a chance.'"

"Alright you got me there." He uses his finger to lift her chin. Her eyes are soft and she's smiling brightly. "Jackie, I have a great deal of interest in you, and you stand a chance."

"Steven."

He bends down to lay a kiss on her small scowl that softens at his touch. Maybe the two of them could lie about her mother being home and then just stay here. Then at least she wouldn't be alone and they could continue sleeping in the same bed. He didn't want to give her up at night, didn't think he even could at this point.

"The Forman's are looking for you. Everyone's trying to find a way to house you like you're some sort of lost puppy."

"Great, this is all your fault Steven."

"Hey, I'm not going to just let you stay here all alone. The electricity and water have been shut off, it looks abandoned. Someone could come in here and hurt you and I'm not okay with that."

"Yeah, okay."

"They just care about you." Jackie just smiles calmly up to him. "So can we go back and figure out where they plan on stashing you?"

"Fine, but I'm not staying in Laurie or Eric's room so they better be offering up a cot in the basement."

"I have the only cot there is, Doll."

"We can share."

Forman's Kitchen

Jackie and Steven approach the house but find themselves standing in the driveway listening to everyone's pity of Jackie's terrible misfortune. People weren't supposed to pity her, they are supposed to wish they were her. It made her stomach churn listening to the words they spoke.

She might not have had the best childhood or the best parents but she had the best of everything else. She could always hide behind a nice outfit and a fancy car. Now she felt so vulnerable and weak and that made her angry.

"Steven, I don't want to go in there."

"Come on, it'll be okay."

He places a hand on the small of her back and gently leads her into the kitchen to meet absolutely everyone with sympathy written all over there faces. This isn't going to end well, Jackie Burkhart doesn't appreciate sympathy.

"Jackie. Jackie, Donna has something she wants to ask you."

"So, Jackie, we were all thinking that you might come stay with me for awhile, since you're having such a hard time right now."

"God, I am so sick of this! I don't have hard times! I'm Jackie Burkhart! I got voted head cheerleader by the largest margin in cheerleader history. Okay? I have a wonderful life."

"Yeah, but, Jackie, your dad's in prison, and your mom…"

"Well, yeah, I'm sorry, Donna, but you're just not popular enough for me to live with." She snaps at her friend.

"I'm not popular enough?" She scoffs, "I was doing you a favor cause I felt bad for you."

"Well, don't, okay? I don't need to be your good deed for the day."

"Fine. There's the door, don't let it hit your popular little butt on the way out."

"Fine." She stomps out the door, she sits on the el camino holding the air inside her chest to keep the tears from escaping.

Pinciotti's Kitchen

Hyde found himself at Donna's after comforting Jackie and letting her lay down on his cot with her book. He knew that wasn't going to end well but Donna didn't need to be so rude.

"She said I wasn't freaking popular enough. Am I not on the radio all the time as Hot Donna?" Hyde hands her a beer as she rambles on playing the victim in the story Hyde was there to witness. "There are posters all over town objectifying me. Is Jackie being objectified? I don't think so."

"She only said that because you embarrassed her in a room full of people. It was like a damn telethon in there. The only thing missing was Jerry Lewis."

"So, what, it's my fault because I didn't ask her right?"

"Okay. How about when your mom left? Think about how you would've felt if you walked into a roomful of people, and everyone's talking about how sad your life is and how much they pity you."

"Yeah I guess I get that."

"Jackie needs a place to stay, and it'd be really cool if you could ask her in a way that doesn't make her feel bad."

"Fine," Donna groans out. "What's your deal with Jackie anyway? You let her sleep in your bed? You were talking to her before she came in and you went to the Valentine's dance for her."

"Nothing's going on, man."

"You're not dating her?"

"Donna, I don't date women period. Let alone Jackie freaking Burkhart."

"Then why the sudden change, I haven't even seen you burn her in such a long time."

"Jackie just isn't what we alway thought, she's not girl we've come to know and hate. She's been on her own for a lot longer than you realize and I don't know maybe we bonded over it. I've been in her shoes, so she comes to me to talk."

"Yeah I guess that makes sense."

"Plus it's all your fault."

"How is it my fault?"

"You left us all alone with Fez and a mopey Forman all summer." Hyde laughs, "what were we supposed to do?"

Hyde's Bedroom

Steven walks into his room and sees Jackie laying on his cot with her legs pressed up against the wall, reading Catch-22. She was slowly whispering the words to herself as she usually did but stops when she sees him come in.

"Hey puddin."

"You feel better?"

"Yeah, thanks."

"Good, now get upstairs. Donna's going to ask you again and you're going to say yes."

"But Steven-"

"No, Jackie, you need a place to stay. So go."

Jackie looks at him as she slowly sits up, marking her place in the book. Steven's face looked serious so she makes her way out the door into the empty basement and up the stairs.

Forman's Kitchen

Donna was sitting at the table alone so Jackie takes the seat across from her. "So, Jackie, the reason I asked you to stay with me before, is because, well, you were right. I am unpopular."

Jackie tries harder to hold in a smirk as Donna forces out the words. This she had to hear. "Go on."

"I'm too tall, and…and red hair is gross." Donna struggles to find the words to insult herself. "And, well, if I don't do something soon, my unpopularity is going to follow me to college, unless you help. Please come stay with me." Jackie thinks about saying yes but decides to stay quiet and see what else Donna might come up with. "Jackie, help me be more like you." Donna force the words out.

"Well as long as everyone knows I'm doing it for you, I'll do it." She smiles.

"Great."

"Hey, Donna. Thank you." She gives her favorite lumberjack a hug, feeling grateful she has a friend willing to disparage herself so much her.

"You're welcome."

"Okay. First things first. If you want to be more popular you're going to have to break up with Eric." Donna rolls her eyes and heads out the door. "What?"

Donna's Bedroom

Next Day

Jackie carries one red suitcase into the room she would now be sharing. It was smaller than she was used to but it'll be okay. Joann gives her a strange look as she enters.

"Is that all you're bringing?"

"Just one or two more small things." She smiles.

"Out of the way, Jackie." Steven pushes past her wheeling in her other suitcases leading the rest of the boys in too.

"Coming through!" Eric struggle to hold onto her chest that she filled with all her favorite books. She's surprised he's made it this far.

"Got a buttload!" Kelso drops her suitcase and boxes just barely in the doorway.

"Heavy. Can't feel my fingers!" Donna takes the chest easily from Eric and sets it on her bed.

"Ooh," Kelso pulls her panties out of the lightest box he had been carrying. "Jackie's panties." Hyde notices him and can't stop himself from walking over to his moron friend. "Hey, Hyde. If these babies could talk, am I right? I bet they'd tell some pretty great stories."

"Jackie's panties, Kelso?" He's entirely unenthused.

Kelso holds the panties to his ear. "What's that panties? No I can't tell that story panties." He play spanks them, "naughty panties."

"What's that, fist? Oh it would be my pleasure." He punches Kelso's arm and steals the panties to give to Jackie, not noticing that Kelso takes another pair before leaving.

"Hey Jackie where's Fluffycakes?"

Jackie looks at Steven and smirks before turning to Donna. "There was an accident involving a lot of stuffing and-"

"And fire." Steven finishes before heading out of the room.

Donna's Bedroom

11:45 pm

Jackie is laying on the cot that Bob had brought up for her. Donna had been expecting her to complain until the two of them switched beds but Jackie had been sleeping on a cot for much longer than anybody realizes. She's reading a magazine listening to the sound of the bathroom sink running when she hears a tap at the window.

She moves to the window to see Steven and she helps him crawl in. He sees that Donna's room has become so much more cluttered with Jackie now staying there too and he struggles to find a path to Donna's bed.

"Where's Donna?" "She's just went into the bathroom."

"Good," he pulls her up onto his lap so that her legs wrap around her waist. He kisses her and doesn't let her pull away. This is the first night they were spending apart in almost eight months and he's grown to need her to fall asleep.

"How'd you get up here?"

"I've had some practice."

"I"m going to miss you tonight, Puddin pop."

"Believe it or not I think I'm going to miss you too." He kisses her again with great energy and his hands tangle up in her hair. They are torn apart by the sound of Donna's footsteps heading towards them.

Jackie jumps off his lap and ushers him to the window. He kisses her one last time. "Goodnight."

"Night." Jackie makes it back to her cot and under the covers before Donna enters.

"Jackie. I thought you were going to put everything away."

"I did. The hardest thing was finding room for my shoes. But then I realized I could just fit them in your shoes."

"Uh huh, let's just get some sleep." She sighs, "goodnight," before shutting off the lights.

"Goodnight."

Jackie set her magazine down in the dark and flips on the stereo that starts playing ABBA music especially loud.

"Jackie! Turn that off!"

Jackie groans sitting up and flipping the music off. "See, Donna, I need music to fall asleep. I wear earplugs so I can just barely hear it, but I need it loud because I like the vibration on the bed."

"So, how am I supposed to get to sleep?" "Think of something boring, like school or Eric."

Donna is much too tired to argue and gives up and turns the lights off and Jackie turns the stereo back on, curling up with her eyes closed, picturing Stevens muscular arms all warm and wrapped around her. He pulls her in close to his chest so that she's perfectly curved around his body. The exhale of his breath tickles the back of her neck as he likes to keep his face nuzzled down between the pillow and her hair. Jackie falls asleep quickly and dreams sweet dreams.

Hyde's Bedroom

7:30 am

"After awhile you learn the subtle difference between Holding a hand and chaining a soul, And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning, And company doesn't always mean security, And you begin to learn That kisses aren't contracts, And presents aren't promises, And you begin to accept your defeats With your head up and your eyes ahead, With the grace of a woman, Not the grief of a child, And you learn To build all your roads on today Because tomorrow's ground is Too uncertain for plans, And futures have a way Of falling down in mid flight, After awhile you learn That even sunshine burns if you get too much, So you plant your own garden And decorate your own soul Instead of waiting For someone to bring you flowers, And you learn That you really can endure, That you are really strong, And you really do have worth, And you learn and you learn, With every good bye you learn."

He hears her voice whispering quietly, saying each word slowly. His eyes are still closed and he guesses that she's assuming that he's asleep and can't hear her reading to herself, so he keeps his eyes closed.

He likes hearing the way she reads, he finds it endearing and also very attractive as her love for books isn't something she advertises. Although she should. He hears the pages turning and she lays down on the cot to get more comfortable, scooting in close to him.

"I will remember the kisses, our lips raw with love,
and how you gave me everything you had, and how I offered you what was left of me,
and I will remember your small room, the feel of you,
the light in the window,
your music, your books,
our morning coffee,
our noons and nights, our bodies spilled together, sleeping, the tiny flowing currents, immediate and forever, your leg, my leg,
your arm, my arm,
your smile and the warmth of you who made me laugh again."

He heard her hover on every word in the poem as if she were trying to draw them out of herself. He could feel the connection in her voice to each lyrical syllable and he's drawn to kiss her soft cheek. She closes the book and rolls into his chest to hold him.

"You're up early."

"I wanted to sneak in here before anyone else woke up."

"I'm glad you did but it sounds like Mrs. Forman's making breakfast so maybe we should get upstairs before Donna wakes up too." Jackie doesn't move except to kiss Steven chest where her face was tucked just below his chin. "Is that a book of poetry?" "Yeah I found it in my trunk last night when I was putting things away. Some of the poems were really beautiful."

He nods.

Forman's Kitchen

"Jackie read my diary, Mrs. Forman." Donna came stomping into the kitchen just before supper and Hyde was sitting at the table. "She even wrote little comments inside. Yeah like, 'oh, this could never happen.' And…and 'Donna that guy was whistling at me, not you.' I can't take it anymore! I'm kicking her out."

"Donna, man, you can't kick her out."

"Hyde, she played ABBA while I slept last night!"

"Why?"

"Apparently she can't sleep without it."

Hyde chuckles softly, "sure she can. You don't honestly think she was playing ABBA when she was in the basement, do you?"

"Then why did she-"

"No idea."

"Donna, the poor girl has nowhere to stay." Kitty tries to reason with the red-head. "She can't stay here."

"She can't stay anywhere near here. Bob was in our shower. This morning I pulled something out of our drain that I could not believe came off a human body." Red adds.

Jackie comes in from the sliding door, "oh, Donna, there you are. Okay, look, we have to talk about your makeup collection. Chapstick is not lipstick."

"Jackie sit down," Donna forces her into the seat next to Hyde. "We need to talk about you and me living together, okay?"

"Donna, I just came from the jewelry store." Eric enters from the living room and interrupts the current conversation. It gave Hyde the distraction he wanted to say hello to Jackie since he hasn't seen her since they came up for breakfast. He places his hand on her thigh under the table and and gently squeezes getting a smile from her. "You can't pay for your own engagement ring! This ring is from me to you, not from me to you, paid for by you. That's like cutting off my bal…" He stops realizing his mother is in the room. "-lierina shoes."

"Eric, I didn't pay for the ring."

"Well, Fenton at the jewelry store said there was a pretty little number who…oh, my god. Mom? You're the pretty little number."

Kitty lets out her signature laugh, "Well, I … I do like hearing that, once in a while. But it wasn't me."

"Well, I don't know, Dad, or um Hyde, some men might consider you…"

"Shut it!" Both men snap at Eric before he can finish that thought.

"Eric, I paid for the ring."

"What?" "What, Jackie why would you do that?"

"I read in Donna's diary that I'm kind of hard to live with. I wanted to find a way to say I'm sorry and to say thank you and I know how much you loved that ring so I paid for it."

"Well, gosh, Jackie, how very sweet, and uncharacteristic of you."

"Well, I wanted to do something nice for Donna."

"Wow, thanks." Donna smiles.

"You know, Jackie, some people, if they wanna be nice, they just start being nicer on a day to day basis." Eric speaks with his usual smart alecky tone.

"Yeah, I figured it'd be easier to write a check."

"Jackie, man where'd you get the money for that?" Steven turns to her. He's the only one who knows all her parents assets were frozen and her trust fund was missing.

"I had some money saved up from my job as the cheese maiden."

"You used you own money. Alright, Jackie I'm going to need you to go back to being selfish and shallow."

"Shut up Eric."

A/N: I hope you liked it, also I didn't write the poetry. I found it on my computer and I'm assuming it's published but I don't know for sure. Please Review!