"That's insanse," Eric said.

"It's the dumbest crap you've ever heard, right?" There was still a trace of a smile on Hyde's lips. He scoffed and shook his head. "Leaves. Leaves. 'Oh, look at the leaves, autumn is so cool! Can't wait for all of the costumes and leaf piles and shit.'"

"Hyde...?"

"What?" Hyde said, his voice suddenly tense.

Eric raised an eyebrow. "You're...not exactly..." Making sense. Being normal.

"I'm making as much sense as I want to make," Hyde snapped.

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know." Hyde rubbed his forehead. "Damn. I think I'm fnally starting to understand Leo more, man. Listen, if I'm not making any sense, tune me out. I'll probably crash pretty soon. Or..."

"Or?"

"We could bust out my stash. Both be whacked out of our minds. You know-" The curly haired boy shifted on the couch so that'd he'd be more upright, "-I can't take any more pills until tomorrow. Im definitely going to come down before then. We should totally smoke tonight."

"I don't know, man."

"What, do you have other plans? Another hot date with your dolls?"

"First of all, they're action figures-"

"Yeah, yeah, tell it to somebody who cares."

Eric stood up and paced a few steps aroud the livingroom. "So, uh, Hyde - if you can remember everything now...what was it like?"

"It was cool," Hyde said matter-of-factly. "I was having a good time, man. You should try it sometime, if you ever get the chance. Learn from my mistakes, and practice in a parking lot first. I should ask WIB if he has a picture of it. I broke a perfectly good bike, man."

"Yeah, but like, what about the...whole crashing part? You know. The attack of the rogue leaves?"

Hyde scratched his head, contemplating. "Less cool. It sucked." He plucked at the stained shirt he had yet to change out of. "It's the suck fest that keeps on sucking."

As Kitty Forman entered the kitchen, she was not expecting to find one of her kids in the room before her. Steven, with his head resting on his left arm, was fast asleep at the table. She sighed, and debated whether or not to wake him up and instruct him to relocate to the den, where his cot had been moved last night. What was he even doing sleeping in the kitchen?

She was about to let him be and start making pancakes when she noticed he was shivering. Not only that, but his breathing was even. Suddenly, she went into nurse mode (although Eric would argue mom mode and nurse mode were the same thing), and marched over to him, placing a hand on his forehead. As soon as she did, he stirred, slowly sitting up, then moving his own hand to his chest with a groan.

"What's going on?" he asked, his voice groggy.

"You're sleeping at the kitchen table," she said. "You tell me what's going on."

"I wasn't asleep."

"Are you sure?" She put her hands on her hips. "If not, you were doing an awfully good impression of someone sleeping."

He rubbed at his eyes, which were rimmed with dark circles. "I'm a very skilled impressionist."

"Uh huh."

"Maybe I was asleep. That'd be cool with me."

"But honey, what are you doing in here this early? Why aren't you in bed?"

"I tried sleeping." This didn't clarify the situation for Kitty, but she was used to brief half-answers.

"Do you feel sick?" That would be the very last thing he needed.

Steven tilted his head. "What?"

"I noticed you were shivering."

He raised his eyebrows. "Don't worry, I'm not sick." He reached under his shirt and pulled out two melted ice packs. "Like I said, I couldn't sleep."

Kitty's face fell. "Oh, Steven..."

"It's nothing, Mrs. Forman. Really."

She frowned. "Okay." With Steven, it was better not to push a subject. She'd learned that by now. "Do you want pancakes? I was just about to make some."

"No, thanks, Mrs. Forman, I'm good."

"Are you sure? I can make toast and eggs instead, or we could have cereal, or-"

Steven put up his hand. "I'm fine. Seriously. I'm...just gonna..." He put his head back on the table.

She shook her head at the sight, and dashed out of the room to bring him a blanket. "Here, if you're going to turn my kitchen table into a bed, you might as well be comfortable." And warmed up to stop that shivering. When no response came, Kitty figured he had fallen back asleep already, and started pulling out the pancake ingredients.

Quietly, she mixed the dry and wet ingredients together. As she poured the batter into the pan for the first pancake, she was reminded of years earlier. When her kids were much younger, she'd make them pancakes in fun shapes: an L for Laurie, E for Eric, Micky Mouse ears. A blobby shape that was either a flower or a cloud, she and Laurie never agreed on which. She was tempted to make an E and an S. Maybe even an R. She had just added the third pancake to the stack when Red came in.

"Good morning, Handsome!" She placed a quick peck on his cheek.

"Morning," he said, with a small grin only Kitty would know to recognize as a smile. "Would you look at these pancakes. That one sure is...interesting." His gaze fell on the S topping the alphabetized stack.

"It's an S," she explained, nodding her head towards the table, "for Steven."

Red'd eyebrows furrowed as he stared at the boy for a good, long minute. "Steven-" he finally said firmly, sounding as if he was about to give an order.

In a hushed voice, Kitty said "he's asleep."

"What for? You made me haul his bed into the den last night."

"Oh, leave him be. I think he had a rough night."

"He had a rough night? When I was in Korea-"

She put her hands on her hips, knowing exactly where this was going. "Red."

"Fine. But if he's not going to sleep in my den, I'm having Eric move all of his crap somewhere else. Speak of the devil!" Red exclaimed as their son entered the room. "Eric, have I got a job for you."

Kitty matched her husband's devious smile with a more genuine one. "Good morning, honey! How did you sleep?"

"Fine." Eric walked past his parents to the table. "Ah, man, I missed the 'bring your blanket to breakfast' memo."

"Let him sleep," Kitty said. "Who's ready for pancakes?"

She finished flipping the final pancake, and carried a plate for each (awake) member of her family to the table. They shared pleasant chatter as they ate. Well, a mix of chatter and smart-mouthed comments between her husband and son. They were halfway through the meal when Steven stirred.

"It's...it's...it's alive!" Eric said theatrically as Steven sat up with a groan.

Red asked, "how ya doin' Steven? Not still doped up like last night, are you?" According to Red, he'd had a very interesting conversation with Steven when he'd gotten home from work the previous night.

"No. My dope days are behind me, Red," Steven said. Kitty caught her sons sharing some kind of bemused look. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to have painkillers for breakfast."

After taking his morning dose of pills, Hyde drifted in and out of sleep for another two hours. In the early afternoon, Eric joined him in Red's den, and they split a bag of potato chips while they talked ("the lunch of champions," Hyde called it.)

"So," Eric said, "while you were alseep, Jackie tried to come over, but Donna distracted her. I don't think she'll last long, though. Jackie was talking about some kind of Barbie doll convention."

"Man, I already owe Donna ten dollars. She better not add that to my tab."

"So, are you really not going to tell Jackie?"

"Nah, I'll tell her."

"Really? After we did such a good job lying to her for you? What changed your mind, man?"

Hyde lifted his shirt to show off new bruises. "These."

"Damn, Hyde."

"Yep. The leaves aren't the only things changing colors."

"Oh, yeah, you going to tell her about that too?"

"I figure it'll just be easier to get get up on the roof, pull out a megaphone, and tell all of Point Place at once. Get it out of the way."

Eric clucked his tongue. "Aw, but man - you can't get onto the roof with a broken leg."

"Damn it, you're right. Guess I'll just have to round them all up in an auditorium then." The two shared a smirk. "I don't know what it matters, man. If it comes up, whatever, but otherwise...who cares?"

"My dad will probably care; it'll give him something new and fun to yell at you for when he's complaining about medical bills."

"I'm at least going to tell Kelso so he'll stop going around telling people I have amnesia."

"Hey, Hyde," Eric said in his best imination of Kelso, "what's your name?"

Hyde scoffed. "I can't believe out of the two of us, I'm the one who's had a brain injury."

"We don't know that," Eric said. "Maybe Kelso was dropped on his head a bunch of times as a baby and can't remember it."

"Moron." Hyde smirked, shaking his head fondly.

Eric gabbed a handful of chips and popped them into his mouth. "He did save your ass with Jackie though," he said, crumbs flying out of his mouth. "She almost caught us red handed, but Kelso told her something about taking you to the road where you crashed."

Hyde nodded and shoved the last potato chips into his mouth.

"Wait," Eric said curiously, "did that actually happen?"

"Yeah."

"Oh. How was that?"

"I don't know. Kind of boring."

"Seriously? I think it'd be kind of freaky."

"Yeah, well it wasn't. 'Course, that was before I remembered everything." He sat quietly for a moment, thinking. "Nah, I think it would still be boring if I went back again. It's a boring road. There's nothing left to see."

"God, you're like made of stone." Just then, the phone rang. "I'll get it," Eric said, standing up.

"Obviously," Hyde said.

Eric made his way to the kitchen, where he grabbed the phone from its receptor. "Forman residence, Eric speaking," he said, wondering immediatly why he had chosen to use the decidedly awkward phrase his parents had taught him when they first deemed him old enough to answer phones.

"Hello, Eric. Barnett residence this end, WB speaking." Eric could practically hear the smirk in his voice. "Is Steven around?"

"Yeah, he's in the other room. I'll go get him."

"No, that's alright. I told him yesterday he could go back to work if a doctor cleared him. I was just following up on that. Do you know if he's sorted that out yet?"

"Uh, I don't know. Probably not. Well - maybe. He did...see a doctor yesterday. You know what? He should talk to you about this."

Eric went to inform Hyde, and a minute later he was waiting at the kitchen table, listening to Hyde's side of the conversation.

"Hey, WB." Hyde started, followed by a short pause. "Yeah, uh, about that... I'm not going to be cleared for a couple more days... I definitely do, man, but... No, I do. Yeah. So the thing is, I kind of broke a couple of ribs yesterday."

Eric wondered what WB said during the ensuing pause, and if maybe he shouldn't be eavesdropping. But he continued to, anyway.

Hyde spoke quickly. "No, no, no, I'm fine. It's all cool, man. No worries. I fell down some stairs... Only a couple hours. Couple x-rays. Nothing else broken... No, my head's fine. Nah, it's all fine. Everything's good. You know...I'm grounded in the most literal sense of the word, and the bathroom's on the second floor, so I'm going to have to hold it for, like...weeks. But otherwise, good. Hmm? Yeah, sure, that'd be cool. Alright. See you around." Hyde looked at the receiver on the wall. "Forman."

"Yeah?"

"I can't reach the receiver."

Eric stood up and replaced the phone. "Are you going to convince my mom to give you the crutch back?"

"No. That thing would suck three times as worse, it ain't worth it. I'll deal."

"Are you saying," Eric said, in mock-amazement, "that additional broken bones have caused you additional pain?"

"What the hell are you grinning like that for?"

Eric put on a relaxed expression, with a phony, dopey smile. "Forman, man," he said in an exaggerated Hyde impression, "I don't feel anything."

"Get bent, man." Hyde rolled his eyes. "I didn't. It was sweet."

"Classic Steven Hyde, always the optimist." Eric quipped with a smirk.

As soon as it was his self designated lunch hour (okay, so maybe he was going to take several hours off, but hey - he was te boss), WB left to pick up Steven and bring him back to his home.

"It's about time my son see where I live," WB said as they pulled up to the lengthy driveway.

"Damn," Steven said, awestruck. "I know you make a lot, but...damn."

"What do you think?"

"It's like money threw up everywhere." He turned from the window the face WB. "In a good way. Man, this house could beat up an army of my old house and eat them for breakfast. This is far out. It's like Jackie's dream house. Hell, her old place was a mansion, but this one's still better. Don't ever let her see this place, she'll want to move in."

WB chuckled. "Well, I don't know about Jackie, but you could stay here if you wanted."

"What?" Steven was taken off guard.

"Just until you get back on your feet. Literally."

"Is that why you brought me out here?"

"You said it yourself. You have a great home with the Formans, but everything is split up between floors."

"This place has got way more floors. I don't know, man." Suddenly, his eyes light up. "Do you have an elevator?"

"No, but I do have a bathroom, kitchen, and guest bedroom all on the first floor."

"Well, when you have a point, you have a point."

Finally at the end of the driveway, WB parked the car. "Does that mean you want to stay here?"

There was a pregnant pause as Steven mulled the idea over. "That'd actually be pretty cool. You know what, man, I think that's an offer I can't refuse."

Steven extended his good hand, and the two shook on it.

A/N: Hello, hello! I'm so very sorry it's been a long time; I started school just after posting the last chapter. I thought I'd get another one finished before the first day of classes so that'd I'd b able to tell you all. Didn't mean to leave you in the lurch. But! Thank you so much for your many incredibly kind reviews in the meantime! I'm halfway done with the semester, so uploading will continue to be erratic until winter break, but once December hits you can expect regular uploads again! I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll bring you the next one ASAP.

What do you think? There are a lot of balls in the air, several secrets to be revealed to many people now. How will they all react to Hyde's memory being back? How will Jackie react to the stair incident? How will Kitty react to Hyde staying with WB? Find out next time!

Review if you enjoyed this one, and have a lovely day!