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Disclaimer- I do not own That 70's show or any of the characters.

Chapter 2

Jackie just stared at the man holding her arm in unbelief. "Ste..Steven?"

Hyde carefully helped her to her feet all the while never breaking contact with her arm. Once Jackie was on her feet it finally dawned on her the severity of the situation. She never expected to run into him of all people today or anytime soon for that matter. He was one of the main reasons she had left Point Place and any resemblance of her former life there. The last year she had spent there was one of the hardest she ever gone thru and he was the primary source of her misery. She quickly remembered all the heated glares, continual burns and bitterness he dealt her on a regular basis and suddenly his hand on her arm felt like a weight.

She snatched her arm a way in a hurry and angrily shouted, "Get off me! I'm fine. What are you doing here?".

Right away Hyde felt her animosity towards him but he decided to not be his usual sarcastic self. "I live here now. I'm opening up a new Grooves store for WB right over there." he said pointing to the store's location.

Jackie couldn't believe her luck these days. She had moved here to get away from him and now he was going to be living right under her nose. "Great, just great. Just when I thought this city couldn't get any crappier."

"Yeah well whatever." Hyde understood the bite in her voice but he sure as hell wasn't going to put up with too much more of her snappy attitude especially when he just saved her and the little boy in her arms from hitting the concrete. Just then it hit him. Why is she holding a baby? Whose kid is that and why is he with Jackie? I hope to God she's working as a nanny now he wondered as these and a million other thoughts flooded his mind.

Jackie noticed him staring at the baby with a confused look on his face and immediately she panicked. "I have to get out of here. It's raining and we're getting soaked." she said as she turned to escape.

"Jackie wait! Don't leave just yet. Can you just talk to me for a second?" Hyde pleaded.

"Well this is a change. You actually want to talk instead of running away. That's new." she sniped.

"Look let's just get out of the rain for now and then if you want to finish yelling be my guest."

Hyde picked up her spilled groceries, grabbed her arm and pulled her towards his store. He directed them to the inside of his office so they could have some privacy from the contractors working on the store plus it was the only part of the store with a place to sit. Once inside, they both sat there silently waiting for the other to begin the conversation. The awkwardness of the situation was evident and neither one knew what to say or where to start. Hyde knew that since he dragged her into the store he should begin and so he coughed to clear his throat. "So uh yeah. I know you weren't quite expecting to see me just like I wasn't expecting to see you and even though you don't owe me any explanations I just want find out what happened to you. You left Point Place without saying a word to any of us. Even though we knew you could take care of yourself we were still worried about you. You just left so suddenly" he said calmly as he could.

"We? We who Hyde? Cause the way I remember it Donna hadn't been much of a friend in a long time and with Eric back in town I was the last person on her mind. Fez was around but things became kind of awkward with him when we broke up and Michael was busy with his family. And you, you stopped caring anything about me long before I left so as far as I see it there was no one to say goodbye to."

Hyde cringed when she called him by his last name. He knew at that moment that this wasn't the bubbly, perky, always optimistic Jackie he remembered. The person in front of him was way more guarded and he was going to have a time getting her let him in on anything going on in her life right now but he decided to try anyway. He knew her owed her that. Well not just her because he knew the gang back home, especially Mrs. Forman, would have his head on a platter once they found out he saw her and didn't try to talk to her. "Look Jackie I know things were tense when you left especially between us but that doesn't mean people didn't care. Everyone was just busy with their own lives I guess." he tried to reason.

"And what were you so busy doing? Trying to figure out another way to bring me down? Maybe some other prank you could get Fez to pull or burn me about the fact that I had yet another failed relationship? I saw the smug look on your face when you found out I had ended things with Fez. I had to get away. I had a LOT going on right before I left and even though I stayed away from the basement Point Place is only so big and I knew I would see you all at some point and I didn't want to deal with anyone. I needed to go somewhere and get a fresh start so I came here." Jackie stated.

Hyde stood up from his chair and started pacing back and forth. He just couldn't figure out what she meant when she said she had a lot going on before she left. Sure she had a break up with Fez but it was just Fez. Their own break up had been way worse. The time to leave town would've been when Sam showed up if anything. It just didn't make sense. Just at that moment the little boy in Jackie's arm started to fuss and she started to rock him. He stopped pacing and looked at her and then it hit him. The baby looked to be about almost a year but not quite. He knew it took nine months for a baby to arrive and he started to count backwards and BINGO! He looked at the baby and then back at Jackie and then repeated the action. He noticed the baby had Jackie's signature dark hair and pouty lips but he didn't recognize the rest of the features. "Jackie…is that your kid? Did you leave because you got knocked up?" he asked.

"Yes Steven he's mine and yes it's the reason I left." she whispered softly.

Immediately Hyde felt like he'd been punched in the stomach, like all the wind had been knocked out of his body. He quickly recovered from the shock and grew angry. "You know what Jackie you're such a hypocrite. You bitched at me for running away from my problems and what do you do? The same damn thing! You have no idea how things may have went down cause you took off." He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down because he didn't want to scare the kid plus he knew that yelling at Jackie wasn't going to get him anywhere. She was just as stubborn as him and all yelling ever did for them was cause even more problems but it was too late. Jackie was already on attack mode.

"You bastard! How dare you sit there and act all self-righteous like all the choices you've made in your life were just golden. You married a stripper…a stripper Hyde! Then you shoved your 'marriage' in my face while you and your whore burned me every chance you could but you know what takes the cake? You didn't even have the balls to admit it was a mistake. She left you once her real husband came back. You would think the whole experience would make you a little more humble but no you remained the same jackass you always were. So if you think you I'm gonna let you stand there and tell me that I was wrong for getting scared and running away you've got another thing coming. You don't get to judge me when YOU are the biggest coward of them all! "

Hyde was momentarily stunned. He knew she still harbored a lot of resentment towards him for the whole Sam debacle even when she said she was fine after the whole thing was over. One thing Jackie had always been good at was pretending to be fine when everything around her was crumbling. She did it when Kelso left her to go to California, when her dad went to prison, even when he had cheated on her with the Nurse. She would have an initial reaction of course be it tears or yelling but that only lasted briefly and soon enough she would smile and act is everything was back to normal even though he could always tell things were still bothering her.

He had actually done a lot of reflecting on the whole situation for the last year. Being alone more often tends to provide a lot of time to think. During that time he realized just how messed up things had gotten between him and Jackie even before she went to Chicago. He most certainly hadn't the best boyfriend in the world but she was always demanding more and more from him. However he realized what she wanted wasn't anything that she didn't deserve. She had only pushed him to be better not only for her but for himself but the slacker in him only wanted to do just enough to get by and after a while that just didn't cut it. Finally he was ready to try and what did he get in return? Kelso in a towel in the hotel room of the woman he loved. What happened in Chicago and the ensuing chaos afterwards seemed to be the final nail in the coffin for them. He had never felt such a range of emotions as he felt on that day and he vowed to himself he would never feel that way again. He knew that once he came back from Vegas things would never be the same and then when Sam showed up he figured this was the best way to rid himself of the whole situation with Jackie altogether. Even though eventually he found out that nothing happened with Kelso in the hotel room, he was still angry because he felt that Kelso never should've been there in the first place. It was inappropriate and the thought of him just being there as comfort to Jackie had enraged Hyde even more. He realized later on it was the reason why he has been so bitter and nasty to her during his relationship with Sam. Well at least part of the reason. He wanted her to know how it felt to have the person you love turn to someone else for comfort and he needed to push her as far away as possible; to protect not only himself but her as well because putting an end to their relationship meant she could find someone who could finally give her what she so desperately wanted. It wasn't until after she left that Hyde realized how much damage he had actually done. She had turned to Fez, of all people, for love. He burned her about it and tried to do his best to prevent it from happening at the time but looking back at the situation he realized that the Jackie that existed before he had hurt her would've never even thought of Fez that way. He was a good friend but he was still a pervert and this was who she was then calling her "true love". It sickened him to think that she would kiss and touch Fez the way she did with him. That he would get to hear the sounds that were meant only for his ears. He was so relieved when he had heard their brief relationship was over but of course he couldn't show it. He had actually figured that maybe things could go somewhat back to normal when it ended but she stopped showing up to the basement altogether and then a few weeks later it was discovered that she was gone.

Hyde took in all the words she shouted at him and realized that she was sort of in the right. He had no right to yell at her but how could she expect him to react after seeing her for the first time after she vanished without a trace. He decided that he wasn't going to make the situation worse and yell back plus he wanted some answers so he knew what he had to do at that moment. He had to act like a mature adult. "Look Jackie and I'm sorry for yelling at you but seeing you after all this time and then finding out you had a kid just took me by surprise. I get why you felt you had to leave town but didn't you have enough faith in any one back home to help you get thru it? I'm sure at least Fez would've been there for you if you had told him. He deserved to know something at least"

Jackie's anger subsided for a moment. She expected more yelling from Steven. That's how it had always been but of course he would switch things up and deny her the chance to use the argument as a way to escape this unexpected encounter. She could see actual genuine concern on his face. She sighed as she realized this was the part of the conversation she was dreading most. She could choose to run away again or just get it over with and get back to her life. She weighed her options carefully and decided there was probably no going back now especially since it would get back to the gang that he had run into her. "I didn't want to deal with the disappointed faces, judgments and questions form everyone and I didn't owe Fez anything more than the rest of you."

Hyde was starting to get annoyed with her and how she didn't understand the implications of her actions. She was back to her old selfish ways he thought. "Ok you didn't have to tell us but why not Fez? He might be a pervert and a bit creepy but he would've been there." He had a right to know about his kid Jackie!"

"It's not his baby!" Jackie shouted. "He's not the father." she said in a much quieter voice.

Hyde was floored. His brow instantly knotted in confusion. He looked at the baby again and sure enough he saw no signs of Fez anywhere but he still felt so confused. "What do you mean he's not the father?

Jackie bowed her head. "We never…we never slept together."

He thought immediately that she was lying to him so that he wouldn't go back and tell Fez but when he looked at her closely he saw that she was ashamed. It was written all over her face. He was almost relieved it wasn't Fez's kid. If the relationship with him was torture, him actually having a kid with Jackie was way worse but then the other side of that cold reality started to set in and his stomach started to twist in knots. Jackie had a kid and it didn't belong to Fez and since he and her hadn't had sex well over two years it certainly wasn't his.

I know this isn't what some of you were expecting but please hang in there. I hope to have another chapter up in the next few days. Please review. All feedback is most welcome. Thanks for reading.