Chapter 14: You Wanna Teach The Alphabet To Leo?

Well my good friends we have reached the turning point. Like a couple of reviewers, I'm supporting Hyde so don't worry there will be a happy ending. I do have a soft spot for bittersweet sad endings but I'm not up to writing one that would be worthy of sacrificing getting them together at last.

I have an ending forming, it is in my sight but there are still many chapters away. I'm not gonna skip to an epilogue because there's just so much chemistry there and I really wanna have fun working out their complications. I might be giving other couples some more time, if for no other reasons than to improve my writing.

A couple of people seemed to like the idea of me doing a Rory/Logan fic. If any one else is interested please tell me because It's beginning to form in my head now.

Laurie settled down on a sofa at the local coffee shop in the mall, dropping her many bags. "God I hate Christmas shopping." Laurie huffed.

"No you don't." Jackie said, dropping down next to her. "You hate Christmas shopping two weeks before Christmas." Laurie pouted.

"Well I'm not moving until I get a serious caffeine jolt." She insisted. Jackie laughed.

"Okay then, I will go and get the drinks. What do you want?"

"Caffeine!" Laurie half-yelled, thoroughly annoyed with the thick heaving crowds. Jackie rolled her eyes and joined the long queue. A little while later with two large winter specials with an extra shot of espresso in each. She also bought two triple chocolate muffins. A decent sugar rush to go with the caffeine jolt. "You're an angel." Laurie sighed taking a deep drink. "My God this is great. What is it?"

"Mint chocolate latte, extra shot of espresso. It's essential for last minute Christmas shopping." Jackie told her, starting on her muffin.

"Do you do this every year?" Laurie asked in disbelief. Jackie laughed.

"Yes I do. I always figure that everyone else would be done by now." Laurie rolled her eyes.

"Okay well I've done all this with you so I think I should get something in return." She answered.

"Hey I bought you a drink isn't that enough?" Jackie replied lightly. Laurie faced turned serious.

"Are you ever gonna tell me what happened?" Jackie looked down. "All I know is you had a terrible date with a giant walking ego and that Hyde's in pieces. Jackie what happened between you two? He won't tell anyone anything, barely even talking to the guys. You seem fine but there's no way something that sent him into a three day beer induced coma didn't hurt you too so please just tell me." She took Jackie's hand. "I'm not too good at the help thing but I do care."

"I broke it off." Jackie answered, sipping her own drink. "What would you except?" She shrugged.

"Well why did you do that? I thought everything was fine. You know, no future so everything is easier or whatever." Laurie asked nibbling on her muffin.

"He bought me a ring. Last year when I went to Chicago he bought me the ring before I left but he never told me until last night."

"But wasn't that what you wanted?" Laurie asked confused. "You wanted to know you'd get married right?" Jackie sighed.

"I wanted to know that he was always gonna wanna be with me. That's why I wanted the ring." Jackie explained quietly.

"And you got it, so what's wrong?" Laurie still didn't understand any of it.

"Yes but he didn't do it until he had to choose between that and me leaving, it didn't feel right." Jackie explained, stirring her coffee. "Like he was doing it because he wants me now, but that doesn't mean he will in a couple of months, you know?"

"He kept it though, for months." Laurie told her. "He might have always wanted to give you it one day. And to be fair, you used to be fine with tricking him into things."

Jackie slumped down sighing. "But last night he only told me because I wouldn't take him back. Anyway, it's not just that, I don't know whether a ring from him is ever gonna mean what it should. What if we did get engaged and everything and we just ended up cruising along living at the Forman's forever?"

"I think you'd moved out if you guy's were engaged." Laurie said with a small laugh.

"He and Sam didn't." Jackie said pouting.

"Jackie, he's trying. What can he do to get just one more chance?" Laurie asked.

"God!" Jackie snapped. "Why do people keep asking me that? There is nothing he can do, okay. I don't want to get hurt again."

"So you're not going to ever let him back in?" She asked, frowning. Jackie shook her head. "It's a mistake." Jackie took the coffee.

"We're not talking about Steven anymore, okay?" She said, holding the precious caffeine out of the blonde's reach.

"Okay okay just give it back." Laurie eagerly snatched the drink back.

"Addict." Jackie muttered. Laurie raised her eyebrows at her and Jackie responded with an expression of innocence. At least she was trying to kick her addiction.

******************************

Hyde lay back on his cot as he threw another empty can at a wet spot on the wall. There was a sizable pile of empty cans mounting underneath it. He had used up most of his stash which only really helped him to come up with some very worrying theories about the government. At one point he'd thought up several reason why Fez was obviously a robot spy invented by the government and Laurie was back to download the information he'd recorded so she could carry it back to the white house. Then do it with the president of course.

It had started out as trying to understand what Jackie was thinking now, but that turned out to be impossible. She wanted him to prove he wanted to be with her for the long run. He gave her a ring, surely that was what it meant. No way she thought he was lying, she knew him too well for that. At least she used to, he didn't know anymore. He rolled over and stared at the open ring box. There was nothing wrong with it, he had considered the possibility that the ring was completely wrong and that's why she didn't want it. That did make sense, if he got a ring she hated that wasn't really a good sign. But that wasn't it, it was beautiful.

The guys had tried to find out what was wrong but he didn't want to talk. He wasn't one for going round in whiny circles that never gave any answers. They knew it was about her but not the specifics. They gave up eventually on asking about it, still coming to check on him but he knew that was Mrs. Forman. She didn't want to intrude by coming into his room all the time, but everyone who walked through the kitchen was sent down with food and medicine. They let her think he was sick.

He opened up another can, it was getting tricky to do, his fingers weren't co-operating well. "Oh yeah, that's great. That's really going to help you now." Oh God not her. "Mom sent down some soup."

"Oh I like soup." He mumbled, trying to get up. It was difficult when the world kept spinning. Laurie put the soup on his draws and pushed him back down. "I want my soup."

"Special chicken soup is for when you're ill. You are just being stupid." She told him. He groaned taking another drink. "Is that really helping?" She asked.

"No." He sneered. "Go away."

"I know why she broke it off." She sighed reluctantly. "If I explain things to you are you gonna screw her over again?" She asked.

"You know what's going on?" He asked her.

"Are you going to screw her over?" He lay down again. "Hey, I don't want to help you here, dick. I thought you were trying but if you can't promise me that you really want her and that she can trust you, then just forget it."

"Fuck off Laurie." He snapped rolling to face the wall. He could hear her still in the room.

"It's a nice ring." She said. He rolled over and snatched the box back off her. "You know what, you don't wanna know what's going on that's fine. You can sit here getting hammered all you like, she'll find someone else." He heard the door slam behind her. He wasn't ready to listen to someone else tell him what Jackie was feeling or thinking. He wanted to just know, without having to have Laurie or anyone else explain it to him. He wanted to figure it out himself, if he could.

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Jackie trailed around the mall alone with no bags. She'd gotten everything within one day, everything except a gift for Steven. She wasn't even sure if she should get him one. There was now twelve days left until Christmas and he hadn't come out of the basement, but according to Fez he seemed to be drinking less.

She couldn't not get him something but nothing seemed right. It couldn't be something meaningful, could it? No, that wasn't right, not now that they were over for good this time. But something normal like a record or t-shirt just seemed so distant, almost cold even. This was so hard now, if they'd just stayed the way they'd been before the party it wouldn't matter. Either she'd buy him something cheap and pointless or just skip him completely. But now she was a hairs-breath from getting him a partridge in a pear tree.

She past the shoe store where she'd bought his boots. That had been good, he'd like the boots and it had made her happy to see him wearing them. She wandered along past the shop and bumped into someone. She past just about to tell that giant tree to move it when she realised it was Donna and Eric. "Hey you guys, why are you here?" She asked.

"Uh my Mom needs turkey." Eric said awkwardly. He was terrified of talking to her when Donna was there. He really didn't like keeping things a secret from her. Probably because he was really bad at it. He must avoid the subject as much as possible but when she was there, he panicked. "How about you?"

"Ugh. I need to get a gift for Steven." She said, rolling her eyes. Eric's eyes widened at the mention of his name. He was just as tense and twitchy as ever. You'd think Africa would have got some of that out of him. It certainly gave him some muscles, you could see him from the side now.

"Hyde?" Donna asked, looking confused. "Why are you getting him something?"

"Well we're all gonna be at the Forman's so I have to get him something." She lied with a shrug. Donna seemed to believe her.

"I think he got one for everyone." Eric chimed in. Shrinking as both girls turned to look at him.

"He came out of the basement?" Jackie asked.

"When?" Donna queried, this was news to her.

"Late last night." He answered quickly. "That's all I know." He insisted when it looked like more questions were coming his way. "He went out for a couple of hours then wrapped up some stuff. But that's about it."

"What's up with him?" Donna asked. "Jackie, do Fez or Laurie know anything?"

"No, no I haven't heard anything. Isn't he like ill or something?" She said hurriedly.

"Oh yeah and that's why he's being sick, please." Donna scoffed. "He's drank at least three times his own body weight over the past week."

"Well I don't know anything." Jackie shrugged, pretending not to care. "I need to get a few things so I better go; bye." She dashed off, not stopping until she was out of sight. Donna hadn't occurred to her yet. She really hoped that Donna didn't try to ask Hyde what was wrong. It was possible that he could be mad enough to tell her everything, she hoped he wasn't feeling that spiteful. Steven could be cruel when he was hurt and she knew he was hurting now. She sighed heavily. Just a week ago it had all been so simple.

She wandered along staring into shop windows, she didn't even feel like shopping for herself. Definitely a sign she was way off. Jackie finally found herself standing in front of a store she used to take Michael to all the time. She even bought him that terrible leather jacket there. Hyde looked good in that, but he suited his old denim one better. She wandered into it looking around. There were some good things in there, nice quality.

"Hi, can I help you miss?" A young sales assistant came up to her. He was cute, sandy blonde hair and light blue eyes. He was very cute and seemed rather shy. She wasn't interested though. Even though he was a sales assistant so probably not as big an ass as her last date. Luckily he was about the same size as Hyde so she could try everything on him. She was much happier by the end, he was a good doll. She finally bought a black smart denim jacket with satin on the inside. It was great, Steven liked black and he would never buy himself a new one until Mrs Forman made him, even then it wouldn't be nearly this expensive.

"Thanks Robert." She said walking toward the door.

"Hey, um. Here's my number, you know if you wanna call me sometime." He mumbled, blushing furiously. She smiled and took it.

"Thanks." She gave him a little kiss on the cheek and left. She dropped the paper in the next bin she past.

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"Coming!" Fez shouted at the ringing phone as he ran into the living room, his sheet half wrapped around his waist. He was unbelievably happy to be a married man. "Hello this is Fez." He chirped happily.

"Hey man…"

"Hyde? You're out of the basement, hooray!" Fez interrupted dancing on the spot.

"Yeah yeah Fez, whatever." He sighed. "Is the old lady home?"

"Well no Hyde, my friend, your Mom is not here. Burn!" Fez laughed in glee.

"Would you please put Laurie on the phone?" Hyde growled quietly. He'd finally stopped drinking and the hangover had sunk in. The phone was much too loud for comfort, as was Fez.

"Why?"

"I need to talk to her." Hyde hissed, through gritted teeth. He really didn't want to talk to Laurie, let alone ask for her help but desperate times meant he had to.

"Why?"

"Fez please?" Fez was very confused by now and would have continued questioning Hyde if Laurie had not wandered into the living room just then.

"Why does Hyde want to talk to you?" He asked her as she popped some toast in the oven. She looked very sexy in nothing but her underwear. He loved her underwear all bright and lacy, today it was a cute baby blue bra and matching thong.

"I don't know, or care. He's such a moron." She bitched, rolling her eyes.

"Sorry Hyde but she does not want to talk to you." He explained simply.

"Just put her on the phone for one minute and I won't ever bother her again I promise." Fez held out the phone to Laurie. She groaned and took it off him.

"What!" She snapped down the phone.

"Okay, tell me why she broke it off." He muttered.

"Oh, no way." she scoffed. "That is not how this is working, I'm not telling you anything now. You had your chance okay so just forget it!"

Hyde sighed deeply. "Laurie, please explain this to me." He forced out through gritted teeth.

"Why?" She asked coldly. "Why the fuck, should I help you at all! I offer to tell you and you refuse to listen and now you want my help? What you sobered up and changed you're mind did you?" She asked, her voice dripping with false sweetness.

"That's not how it is…"

"Oh really!" She cut in. "Because if you're just gonna run off and hide in the basement every time you're unhappy then I'm not telling you anything jackass! I told you that I would help you if I knew you were not going to fuck up again. And if you are going to drink yourself into a coma every time you're upset then you don't deserve her okay! Bye now!" She hung up the phone in anger.

"Can you believe him?" She asked Fez, he stared at her blankly. "He wants me to tell him why Jackie won't give him another chance and help her change her mind. What has he ever done to deserve her, moron." She angrily began buttering her mildly burnt toast. Fez shrugged.

"Loves her." He answered.

"When he feels like it." She hissed.

"Darling, um..." He giggled nervously. "Maybe we give Fez the knife now, yes right thank you." He carefully placed the knife down out of her reach. "Come here darling." He pulled her into a hug. "He really does, you know."

"I know." She admitted reluctantly. "Won't stop him breaking her heart though will it?" Fez shrugged. "Do you think he'll give up now?" She asked sitting on the couch. Fez shook his head.

"I don't know, I hope not." He answered honestly. She smiled briefly.

"Hopeless romantic aren't you baby?" She laughed.

"Baby, I'm just a love machine." He purred, nibbling her earlobe. She giggled and layback, tugging him on top of her. "I'm just a love machine." He sang licking her neck as she laughed in delight. She took his face, kissing him deeply. "Just tell him what's going on Darling. There's no way he's figuring it out on his own." He reasoned. She nodded.

"Fine." She said softly. "But I'm not helping him anymore." She said, before grinning wickedly. "And you, owe me now." She stood up and strolled toward the bedroom, rolling her hips. "Are you coming?"

******************************

Hyde sat staring at the kitchen table furrowing her brow. He was confused and furious and hung over. Laurie was being difficult and, as always, Jackie was impossible to figure out. Plus he didn't have the nerve to just go talk to her, even though he knew she was just upstairs. She was avoiding him too, she could've come into the basement at any time but she was anywhere but near him whenever possible.

If it wasn't for Red's threats he'd be back in the basement now. Kitty had been worried sick about him for the past few days and Red wasn't letting him fake it any longer. "Here you go Sweetie." Kitty trilled placing smiley faced pancakes in front of him. He jumped at the high-pitched noise.

"Thanks Mrs. Forman." He mumbled, quietly. "Wait, pancakes. What time is it?"

"Eleven-thirty." Red grunted. "Too late for pancakes." He glared at Steven over his newspaper.

"Red, you be nice to Steven." Kitty scolded. "He's been sick." Hyde stabbed the grinning pancake in the hash brown nose. It was mocking him with it's bacon smile and syrup hair.

"Hey Mrs Forman." Hyde's head snapped up as he heard Jackie bounce into the kitchen. "Steven." She stopped short.

"Isn't he looking better." Kitty said happily. "Do you want some pancakes honey?"

"No thanks Mrs Forman." Jackie replied, looking at anything but Hyde. "I'm just going to meet Fez for lunch so I need to run. Uh; bye." She dashed out of the kitchen in a major rush. Hyde saw Red roll his eyes and mutter something under his breath.

"Dumbass." He muttered, so only Hyde could hear. Hyde savagely ate his breakfast's smile.

"Hey there, hi there, ho there!" Called Bob coming into the kitchen. A look of great pain crossed Red's face. "I just got back from Florida."

"Oh how exciting. What was it like?" Kitty asked excitedly.

"Amazing, in fact I'm moving there!" He announced to the kitchen.

"You're leaving?" Red asked.

"Sure, I've bought a condo and there's a great spot for bait shop near by. I just need to sell the old home and I'm gone. Now Red, I know you're gonna miss me but I'm just a phone call away." Bob said putting a comforting hand on Red's shoulder.

"Of course Bob, you need to follow the dream." He said turning back to the newspaper. "The dream you've had for one week." He added under his breath. "Hey here's an idea, sell it to one of the kids that's invaded my home. Like that one." He said pointing at Hyde, how was still attacking his food. "Or better yet the loud one."

"Oh and then Donna and Eric can have Laurie's room and I can have my sewing room back!" Kitty squealed.

"No." Red complained. "Why get rid of one kid just to bring in another one?"

"Shush you." She said, flicking his newspaper. "You know it'd not even noon but we need celebratory cocktails! Ladies first!" She declared racing to the bar. Bob ran off after her and Red eventually followed grumbling softly. Hyde was left alone in the kitchen, his breakfast didn't have enough features left to mock him further. Now it was just a pancake. He was just beginning to enjoy his breakfast, the first full mood he'd eaten in a week, when the phone rang.

"Hey." He muttered into the phone, in irritation. He was seriously considering taking a foot in the ass if he could go back to drinking alone.

"Steven." WB sounded in the same good mood as usual, with as much money as he had, a good mood was a very common thing. "Got some great news. I sold the chain, and I got a butt load of cash for it. Which is great for me but I got good news for you too. I kept one store, Point Place, for you to keep. So now you can name it any white boy name you like. So can I stop by the store later to give you your share?"

"Share of what?" Hyde asked.

"The money. I got more money than I can spend in a life time so I might as well give you enough to get out of your friends basement."

"Are you serious?" Hyde asked in disbelief.

"Hell yeah I'm serious son. See you later and you can see my corvette. I bought a corvette!" WB Shouted with a final laugh before hanging up the phone. Hyde put the phone down, still surprised.

Maybe it would be good to move out of the basement, wasn't like he'd never be able to steal Red's beer again. Point Place was a pretty small town. At least the day was taking a turn in an upwards direction, he called the store and told Eric he'd be in later. Eric was as excited and surprised as everyone else to hear he'd come out of the basement. Why was everyone making such a big deal of that?

As he turned back round, the direction of the day turned opposite. Laurie was sitting at the kitchen table and had eaten the rest of his meal. "Why are you here?" He groaned. After her refusal to help she was the last person he wanted to see.

"You are so lucky Fez likes you." She muttered. "If you promise not to mess up then I will tell you why Jackie broke it of with you and why she didn't want the ring. I won't tell you what to do or anything else. Take it or leave it." She leaned forward. "So what's it gonna be? Loser."

"I really hate you." He spat.

"Not a promise." She stated standing up.

"Fine." He said tiredly, staring at the floor. "I won't screw up again."

"It'll do." She said in annoyance. "You didn't buy her a ring because you wanted her."

"What?" He asked. "Why the fuck else did I then?"

"No interruptions or I'm leaving. And no, you didn't. You bought it because she was going to leave, and you gave her it when she was going to leave again. Unluckily for you, she doesn't want a ring that you were forced into buying anymore. You decide if that's a good thing or not, makes sense to me." She paused slightly. "Any questions?"

"Why does she keep wanting to leave?"

"Because you can't give her a good enough reason to stay." She snapped. "A ring from you means nothing." She told him. "You married a woman who meant nothing to you. Sam's not really important she's over that but how much can a ring or an engagement really mean to you if you did that?" Hyde shrugged. "So a ring, even a pretty one, is barely a commitment. You didn't start on the same page so try it now. Either give up now or not all okay?" She smiled with fake sweetness. "Done now." Hyde nodded to himself once she left. There were some good points, now he just had to sort it all out and see what comes next.

"Going to work." He called into the living room before leaving. The ring in it's box, burning through his jean pocket.

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"Damn Forman, you totally messed up the system." He complained, looking for a Zeppelin record to play.

"There was a system?" Eric asked.

"No." Hyde scoffed. "But I can't find Presence and I didn't move it." He stuck his hand in his pocket, gripping the little black box.

"Then play The Wall or something." Eric answered nonchalantly. Hyde managed to find it and stormed off to set it on. "You know we could try having a real system."

"You wanna teach the alphabet to Leo?" Hyde asked sarcastically.

"What about genre or rating?" He suggested.

"With your taste in music? And seriously Forman, Leo can't master the alphabet how can he figure out the difference between glam rock and heavy rock?" Eric nodded, it was easier this way.

"Hello all." WB walked in smiling. "Hey look it's the skinny naked guy."

"Hey I'm not so skinny anymore." Eric complained.

"Yeah but you're still a whiney bitch." Hyde commented.

"Where's Faye Dunaway?" WB asked.

"He left when Forman here stole his girl back." Hyde said grinning, he was still proud of his friend for that.

"Hm, that would be humiliating. Well I have rich white men to scare at the golf club so here." He held out a check to Hyde.

"Wow, how much did you sell for." Hyde asked, staring at the numbers.

"About fifty times that." WB grinned.

"Man, you're like the coolest dad ever." Hyde said. "Thanks man."

"You're welcome, son." They shared a barely awkward hug before Eric interrupted.

"Aw, Hyde had a Daddy!" He exclaimed, hand over his heart.

"Shut up!" Hyde yelled.

"Accept the love orphan boy!" Eric yelled wrapping his arms round Hyde.

"Get off!" Hyde yelled shoving him onto the couch where he landed on a sleeping Leo.

"I didn't even know there was a war!" Leo yelled sitting upright and knocking Eric onto the floor before dropping back to sleep.

"How to you get any work done?" WB asked in confusion.

"We don't." Hyde answered.

"Is that something you wanna tell the boss." WB asked.

"Who cares, I'm the boss now." Hyde grinned. WB nodded.

"Well I'm gonna go drive my corvette. See you later." WB waved, walking out.

"See you man." Hyde said, still looking at the check. "Hey Forman, would you mind living with Donna?"

"Nooo?" Eric said very confused.

"Good." Hyde answered. "See you later." He took off with a couple of good ideas. Hope at last.

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Hyde sat in his room staring at a blank piece of paper. He couldn't talk about his feelings and it turned out he was even worse at writing them. There were at least ten crumpled sheets on the floor already. He looked down at the open present box on the floor.

He considered forgetting the note. Maybe it wouldn't be necessary, the gifts were pretty self-explanatory. Then again he'd spent nearly a week drinking because he didn't understand her. Come the fuck on dumbass. He thought in anger. He had a high IQ, he even got a B in Spanish without knowing he was taking that class. If his brain could do that, why did it constantly fuck off when it came to Jackie? She made him stupid.

He'd bought her a real gift a couple of days ago, something she'd really like. There was nothing particularly special about it but it was perfect for her. It wasn't until an hour ago he'd thought of something he could do. He wanted her to know that he wasn't giving up on them, not now or ever.

He'd folded the Led Zeppelin shirt around the ring's box, he couldn't carry that damn thing around anymore and having that shirt hidden away was driving him mad. Even if she wasn't with him he didn't want anyone but her to have it. He grabbed the little box and sat there snapping it open and closed staring at it. He looked back down at the paper and realised that he'd doodled all over it, he tore it off the note book and threw it on the floor.

He started writing, not trying to make it sound pretty or cool. He just wrote what was in his head. It made sense at least, wasn't just a random jumble of pointless words and it was honest. He folded the box back into the shirt along with the paper and covered the shirt with wrapping paper, leaving a card asking her to open it alone. Placed the real present on top and wrapped it all up, ready to go under the tree.

Why wasn't making an effort enough? Once upon a time it would've been. Nobody's fault but mine.

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"So you got him a jacket?" Laurie asked distractedly, wrapping a halo of tinsel around Martin's head. Most of the girls had come to work in wings and halos, Laurie and Jackie had decided that Martin didn't suit his Santa suit so he should be an angel too. The club had now been closed for about thirty minutes and they were suppose to be cleaning up. There was only three days now until Christmas, thing's were moving unusually fast. Everything was ready for Christmas day at the Forman's and Bob had already sold the house, he'd be leaving on new years day. Kelso had decided to close up the bar until new years day. He wanted to spend Christmas with Brooke and Betsy and so gave himself a long holiday. Martin was cleaning up the glasses while Kelso checked the stock. Jackie and Laurie were meant to be taking down the decorations but the place seemed much messier than it had when they began. Laurie was more amused with dressing Martin up as an angel and Jackie was playing with the sound system.

"Yeah. Couldn't think of anything else." She called back, smiling when she found an Abba record. "Hey Laurie, don't tell Fez what I was saying at the mall. I know he'll tell Steven and I really don't want him trying anything else."

"Uh sure." Laurie said, wrapping more tinsel round Martin's waste. "I heard Hyde's back at work and everything."

"Yeah he seems better." Jackie said smiling. "Oh don't you just love this song?" She laughed as dancing queen blasted through the club.

"Totally!" Laurie shouted over the noise. She ran up onto the stage swinging tinsel over her head. They both started singing along.

"You can dance, you can jive. Having the time of your life!"

"Stop singing." Kelso sighed coming out into the main area. "You're suppose to be clearing this place up."

"Aw come on Michael!" Jackie pouted. "It's nearly Christmas day."

"Yeah Kelso, come dance with us!" Laurie demanded. Jackie was frantically shaking her head. "Or don't?" She said uncertainly.

"Just one more song." Jackie said. "I promise we'll clean up then."

"Fez is coming to pick us up soon anyway." Laurie said. " Are you getting a ride with us tonight?"

"No." Jackie said sadly. "I think Steven's picking me up as usual. I've been avoiding him though so I don't really know." Just then Hyde came into the bar, Jackie finally started to clean up.

"Are you sure you don't just wanna stay over tonight?" Laurie asked. She hadn't told Fez what happened, but she also hadn't told Jackie that Hyde knew what she'd said and was probably not giving up.

"No. It's ok, we live in the same house so I'm gonna have to see him." Jackie shrugged. Fez arrived around the same time as they finished cleaning.

"Come on, Angel." He called. Laurie ran strait into his arms. Jackie smiled, it was great that her friends could be happy.

"Are you ready to go?" Steven asked, suddenly standing right next to her. She jumped with a small shout. "Sorry."

"It's okay." She muttered blushing. "You just startled me, yeah, I'm ready to go." She said, she found it hard to look him in the face.

"Okay then Angel." She bit her lip. "I was joking." He told her, prodding the fluffy halo. "How often do you have to dress up here?" He asked.

"Whenever Michael can think of an excuse." She answered laughing a little. At least he was acting normally, it made things easier at least. "Did you hear about Bob selling his house? Another person moving into the Forman's."

"I no." He laughed. "Red's gonna lose it soon, least he likes Donna." Jackie nodded in agreement as she got into the El Camino. "You all ready for Christmas?" He asked.

"Yeah, presents all wrapped and under the tree. Just need to decide what to wear." She said.

"Of course the most important thing." He teased, with a smirk.

"You know it is." She said. He smiled with a small chuckle. It was a short drive to the Forman's from the club. They carried on chatting about past Christmas madness at the Forman's up until they reached her bedroom door. The awkwardness came back there. "Thanks for the ride home." She said, looking down. She was terrified he was going to kiss her and knew that if he did she'd probably give in to him. "When do you close the shop up for Christmas.

"It's closed Christmas eve, day and Boxing day. Then normal hours until new years, I'm shut on the eve and next day." There was silence for a few seconds. "Goodnight, Jackie." He said quietly.

"Goodnight Steven." She replied, smiling as he left. She went into her room, finally breathing comfortably.

Since that night, the thought of him had been like a belt around her chest, crushing her till it was hard to breath. Even his name had been a shard of glass in her throat, talking about what had happened had relieved pressure slightly although it had hurt her badly. His presence was like a soothing balm and a burning flame at the same time. It was less painful, speaking to him normally. But when he was close she was on fire, lava surging through her veins, filling her lungs.

Jackie lay down on her bed, and sighed in relief. He believed her and had accepted that she did not want another relationship with him. But he was being a friend at least, she felt it easier than their previous coldness. She didn't know why exactly it was easier now, maybe it was because the sexual feelings that she'd had for him had finally been exercised. She hoped it wasn't that, she still wanted him and probably always would, there was no way she knew to stop it. If it was all about the sex then it was only a matter of time before she was unable to be his platonic friend again.

It was possible that it wasn't about the sex at all. She'd never found out why he'd hurt her so much. Even though the explanation wasn't great at least it wasn't 'I don't know' yet again. Everything was out now, there was no more big questions racing through her brain now. It was peaceful at last. There was calm now.

******************************

"Great news Kitty." Said Red, entering the living room with an uncharacteristically wide smile. "Bob just told me who he sold the house to" "

"I thought he wanted to keep that private until they moved in?" Kitty said, hanging more candy canes on the tree.

"Yeah but he was being an ass about it so I made him tell me. It's Steven! That's right, one down, three more to go!" He announced gleefully.

"Steven's moving out?" She asked. "Why? Why is he leaving here again? He needs someone to talk care of him Red. Well, he just can't live all on his own he's just a boy." She was growing hysterical.

"Kitty for heaven sakes he's twenty-one and it's just next door. It'll be fine." She suddenly brightened. Damn mood swings were confusing sometimes.

"Oh Red." She sobbed. "They're all growing up so fast. Brooke and Michael are together and now my Steven's flying the nest. Isn't it just wonderful Red. Oh, oh!" She squealed clapping her hands. "Do you think he wants Jackie to go with him?" Red's brown crumpled.

"Where did that come from?" He asked in disbelief.

"Oh, now Red you've seen the way he looks at that girl." She said smiling. "Oh and Donna's wearing Eric's ring again! Fez and Laurie too. "Oh Red!" She was almost jumping on the spot. "God bless us every one!" She yelled.

"You know Kitty I was thinking about an early night?" He said, raising an eyebrow. There was a silence. They bolted to the stairs.

Ok Christmas day next chapter, this one was a little shorter then I wanted but this was the only good place to stop it. Please review.