A/N: Hi! Today I thought of a new idea for a chapter that I'm super excited to write, but we won't see that for a while, mostly because I'm trying to really balance the comedic, lighter portions with the angstier bits. Here we have a mostly funny chapter, with a bit of JH fluff for you guys. I hope you like it! PS, I'm trying to update once a week now. I'll pick a regular postingtime soon, and hopefully that will entail releasing chapters earlier in the day as opposed to midnight (what can I say, I work better when it's late). Thank you all so much for your continued support!

It was hard to focus when high as a kite, to borrow one of Forman's phrases. Hyde was trying to listen to Kitty, he really was, but his eyes kept drifting to other things in the room, and soon he'd realized he'd zoned out yet again. Crap, what was she saying now? Something about sleeping? He told himself for the tenth time that conversation to focus. But god, the wall of his bedroom was suddenly interesting.

"Steven?"

"What?" His eyes recentered on Kitty.

"So what do you think?"

"Uh..." Kitty was looking at him expectantly. What was she asking about? Maybe if he waited long enough to give an answer, she'd keep talking and he'd be able to figure it out. "Huh, you know, that's...a tough one."

"I know you must have missed your room, but I just think it'll be so much easier. It'll save you one trip every morning and night, at least."

Okay, so she was talking about sleeping somewhere else. And being spared a trip...down the stairs? That must be it. So he'd be sleeping...in the living room? "Yeah." He blinked vacantly, staring over her shoulder. "I think...uh..." He thought over everything she had just said again. "I missed my room, and...but, the stairs..." He told himself to concentrate once more. Staring off into space could wait. "The stairs are a pain, but I can handle them." There, now he sounded like a person with a brain.

Kitty wrung her hands. "I'd just worry..."

"I mean, Forman and I hang out down here every night after dinner, so it wouldn't really be saving me a trip." Yes, he was making a case. He mentally patted himself on the back for this, even though he was putting no thought into which stance he took. This one seemed easiest.

"Well, okay." Kitty sighed. "At least for tonight, and then maybe we can revisit the idea tomorrow."

"Cool. Good talk, Mrs. Forman." He remembered the plate in his hand, the reason she'd come downstairs to begin with. "And good pie. One of your bests. Barbara would be jealous." He was pretty sure Barbara was one of Mrs. Forman's baking rivals, one of those Ladies of Point Place.

"Why thank you, Steven, you are too sweet." She giggled. "Do you think it could beat Barbara's pecan pie she's always on about?"

"Any day."

"Aww." She smiled, and then her expression morphed into satisfaction. "I am taking home that blue ribbon this year." Placated, she left his room.

He had no idea how many minutes passed between Mrs. Forman leaving and Jackie coming back from the bathroom. Surely it was only a few. "Hey," Jackie said with the kind of smile that only came from the circle, "I ran into Mrs. Forman in the kitchen and she told me she thinks your medicine is making you spacey."

Hyde burst out laughing. "My 'medicine' is working great, man." He put finger quotes around the word "medicine."

"Oh yeah?" She sat on his bed.

"Yeah."

"Yeah?" She leaned in.

"Yeah!" He leaned in closer, until finally they were kissing. "Hey, Grasshopper. I love you."

Jackie sniggered, but then said "I love you, too."

Hyde's expression betrayed his confusion. Why did she laugh? "What?"

"You saying cute things like that unprompted. You are so high." She twirled a strand of his hair.

"What can I say, I'm in a good mood."

She laid down next to him, and he rested his head on her shoulder. She asked, "you're actually admitting that you're happy?"

"Happy is a strong word," he said, only because of his reputation.

"Whatever, Mr. Cool Guy."

"...But yeah."

"Good." She continued twirling his hair. "You should be happy more often, Puddin'."

After the best night of sleep he'd had in a week, Hyde was woken up by Forman, who was sent by his mother to announce that he was about to miss breakfast. Hyde popped a pain pill from the open bottle and then the two made their way upstairs. The table was set, each plate piled with pancakes, eggs, and bacon, and glasses filled with orange juice. Red grunted in acknowledgement of Hyde entering, but Kitty greeted him with a cheerful "good morning, sleepy head!"

"Mornin'."

Once seated with the rest of her family, Kitty took a better look at Hyde. "Honey, you're wearing the same clothes as yesterday."

He only had one pair of shorts. Yeah, he could have changed shirts, but with a broken shoulder that seemed like too much effort. He gave a one-shouldered shrug. "Wore the same thing for a week at the hospital." Suddenly, he noticed that his pancake was already cut. Convenient, yes, but also somewhat annoying.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Kitty said, "Angie called for you while I was making breakfast."

"Everything okay at the store?" Hyde knew he needed to get in touch with WB to figure out when he'd go back to work. He could probably have as long off as he liked, but he was in a rush to get back for a couple of reasons. First, if he was at Grooves he could avoid the (s)mothering of Kitty a bit. Secondly, he could use the money. He was sure the Formans and WB were going to cover all of the accident related costs, but he wanted to chip in, or at least buy them something nice as a thank you. His final reason for wanting to return was the layout of the store; everything was on one floor, which meant no dealing with stairs every time he had to take a leak.

Mrs. Forman answered, "She just wanted to know how you're doing."

"She should just ask Kelso," said Forman.

Red peered over his newspaper. "Now, what's a nice girl like her doing with the kettlehead anyway?"

Hyde sighed. "I don't know."

"Kelso's dating your sister," Forman sang.

"Oh, by the way, how's Laurie doing?" Hyde said, daring him to keep talking.

"Okay, point taken."

The boys exchanged a look, the kind that said I'm watching you, then dug into their pancakes. The scene played out as it often did, with familial banter and the intrusion of Kelso, who claimed a stack of pancakes for himself after devouring the rest of the bacon. For once, he brought something in return: a box of doughnuts he'd bought for the novelty of fulfilling the cop stereotype. Inevitably, the other members of the gang arrived just in time for Red to excuse himself to go to the muffler shop.

Hyde stood up with the intention of calling Angie back, but sunk back into his seat just as quickly as he had stood. Only Jackie noticed, luckily. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"'Nothing. Just got dizzy for a minute."

The concern on Jackie's face was replaced with a look of understanding. "Oh."

"What?"

"That was one of the side effects listed on your pill bottle. You read that, didn't you?"

Hyde scratched his head. "Yeah - can cause blah blah blah."

"This is the blah blah blah."

"Great."

He stood up again, this time putting an arm around his girlfriend, who ushered him into the living room and onto the sofa, where he lay with his head on her lap. "Hey, Jackie, don't go making a big deal out of this."

"I do not make big deals out of things."

"Uh, yeah you do. Every friggin' day."

Forman appeared in front of them before Jackie would argue. "What's up?" he asked.

Hyde sat up immediatly upon seeing his friend, but Jackie put a hand on his shoulder. "Lay down."

He rolled his eyes. "Jackie-"

"Steven," she said warningly.

"Fine! But not because you told me to."

Forman looked at them with all of the curiosity of a kid at a sideshow.

"Steven's not feeling well," Jackie filled him in.

"I'm fine," Hyde said, noticing that he could see up Forman's nose from this angle.

This information only brought up more questions for Forman. "Uh, Hyde-"

"It's the stupid pills. Whatever, I'm fine." Dizziness was a minor inconvenience compared to the intravenous medication at the hospital that made him want to puke.

"You wanna ask my mom about it?"

"No, don't ask your mommy. I told you, it's not a problem."

"Okay." Forman put his hands in his pockets. "Do you want water or something?"

"Coffee. Black." It probably wouldn't solve the dizziness, but he was drowsy as hell. He would have to actually read the bottle label at some point. He turned to Jackie, wondering aloud, "how come it didn't do anything to me yesterday?"

Both of them seemed to have a simultaneous realization. "The circle."

Hyde locked eyes with her, saying, "huh. Wanna try a little experiment?"

As soon as Kitty was out of the house, Hyde broke out his stash. Surprisingly, it helped. "Man, I'm going to burn through this so fast," he said.

"You feel better?" Jackie said, perky.

"Uh huh."

"Yay! Can we go shopping now?"

Oh, right. He'd promised her. "Yeah, I guess."

"Don't say it like you're being tortured. I am going to make you look so good. Are you sure you won't consider makeup?"

"Yes."

"Alright, your loss. Let's go!"

Fez asked, "where are you going?"

"Probably the mall," said Jackie.

"Ooh, can I come?"

"Sure."

"Hooray, road trip!" Fez cheered.

Jackie nudged Hyde. "Why can't you have his enthusiasm?"

"Must be genetic." Just then, he remembered something. "Crap, I still gotta call Angie."

His phone call with Angie was just the way he liked calls: short. She insisted that things were totally under control, and that after a week of running the shop by herself she was starting to get the hang of it.

"Don't get too used to having it to yourself," he told her. "I'm going to see if I can get one of the guys to give me a ride over there tomorrow."

"Miss me?"

"Don't flatter yourself, sis. I just can't handle another solid twenty four hours of mother-henning. You break a couple of bones and suddenly everyone freaks out on you."

Angie sighed in fake sympathy. "Oh, I'm sorry people want to make sure you recover. That must be hard on you."

"It's annoying."

Her tone shifted to a more genuine one. "Yeah, it would get pretty old pretty fast being the center of attention all of the time." He hadn't exactly thought of it like that, about being the center of attention. He preferred to stay more under the radar, definitely. For someone dating a Kelso, she was pretty smart.

"Yeah, so, like I was saying, expect me there sometime tomorrow. I probably won't work-"

"So no different than usual."

"Angie-" Hyde smirked, "-that there is what we call a burn. Congratulations."

Hyde had been strong-armed into using the wheelchair at the mall; Jackie had given plenty of logical reasons ("it's too much walking, especially in a crowded place with multiple floors."), but the part he reacted to most was Kelso asking if he could borrow it for racing if Hyde wasn't going to use it. Hyde actually thought that would be a great idea, but Jackie extinguished any hope of that spectacle. Her final offer was to pay for everything if Hyde gave in. To be honest, he didn't mind terribly. The crutch was a bitch to use after a while. However, he did mind the gawking of the other mall-goers.

"Man, all these people staring are making me paranoid."

"Yes, but you are always paranoid," Fez said.

"Fair enough."

Fez, Jackie, and Hyde entered a clothing store, and soon Jackie was asking him a bunch of questions about clothing preference.

"I don't know, I don't wear shorts." Shorts were decidedly not cool.

Jackie huffed. "Okay, fine. I know you really well, so I'll just do my best."

"I'll give you an A for effort, but don't get your hopes up."

Jackie shook her head. "It's such a shame your mother never exposed you to the magic of shopping. I am going to find the best shorts ever, and you are going to say 'Jackie, love of my life, I was so wrong to ever doubt your shopping skills.' I'm like the fairy godmother in Cinderella."

Fez said, "I think it was the mice who made the clothes in Cinderella."

"Ew, I don't want to be a mouse. Mice are icky. And I'm not making clothes, that's a poor person job. I'm just the stylist." She looked around the crowded store. "You two stay here, and I'll be back as soon as I find a good pair." She tossed her hair. "And I have a great eye, so it will probably only take a minute."

Hyde looked around the store, and out into the main hallway of the mall. "Which circle of Hell do you think this is, man?"

Fez wasn't listening, however. He was holding up a pair of pink shorts to himself. "What do you think of these? Too girly?"

"I think this is the third circle of Hell."

"So, is that a yes?"

A/N: I seem to have inadvertantly referrenced my friend Nannygirl's (AMAZING) fic If You Ever Did Believe with the whole Jackie/Cinderella thing. Guess princess references just fit with her.

So, next chapter we pick up just exactly where I left off! I wasn't even going to show the shopping until Aliyamad said they were looking forward to it, but now I have enough ideas for it planned that it'll take up the first part of next chapter. Things to look forward to without spoiling too much: a stranger striking up a conversation with Hyde (reread the summary, hint hint), and then Grooves. Lots of comedy in the next one. I hope you enjoyed, and please leave a review if you're enjoying, I really appreciate them and they frequently give me new ideas or help me think of things in a new way or bring up things I haven't thought of before. At the very least, they let me know what kind of stuff you guys like most. Until next time, readers! Have a lovely day!