Merry Christmas everyone! Again I would like to thank all of you who have read, followed, favorited and reviewed.

Chapter 5

July 28, 1981

A few days had past since the talk in her apartment and Jackie was currently at work. She had been in a much better mood over the past few days and she knew it was due to how things had gone with Hyde. She felt like a load had been lifted from her shoulders where he was concerned. Things weren't completely settled between them as they still had a lot of ground to cover but this was a healthy beginning.

Carol had noticed the change in Jackie's mood as well. She had been slightly worried about her since that night in the dinner when Jackie had seemed so troubled. Jackie made her way into the back room to take her break and it was the perfect time for her to see how things had gone the other night. "Hey honey. How's it going? You seemed to be doing much better today." she stated.

"Yeah I'm much better thanks and thank you for your advice the other day. I went home and was actually able to talk to my ex about a few things." replied Jackie.

"So I take it went well?" Carol asked.

"It did, much better than I expected actually. We actually had a conversation instead of one of our usual knock down, drag out fights. There's still a lot that we didn't discuss but it was a good start if we're going to try to be friendly to one another." Jackie knew that her and Steven hadn't fully gotten to the heart of their issues such as their failed relationship or his treatment of her before and after Chicago but at least as of now she no longer felt that sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach at the thought of him.

"So you're planning to see him again?"

"Well we didn't really plan anything. I told him I wanted to take the whole friendship thing slow. I can see that he's different from the last time I saw him and I haven't decided if that's a good thing or bad thing yet." Hyde had always been different when it was just the two of them alone. Well at least he was before the end of their relationship but this was different. He seemed more understanding and more mature. Jackie thought that maybe not having the gang around had something to do with that but none the less she still wasn't about to forget the other side that he was capable of displaying, the one she knew before she left Point Place. "I figure it's best that I don't have any expectations at all when it comes to having a friendship with him that way I can't be disappointed if it falls apart." she stated calmly.

"Oh honey that's no way to live. People are people and sometimes they will let us down just as we let people down I'm sure but there's nothing wrong with expecting and requiring the best from people. Just make sure that you give as good as you get." Carol smiled and walked out of the break room leaving Jackie alone with her thoughts.

A few hours had past and it was almost the end of the lunch rush. Jackie had about an hour left before the end of her shift. As she walked up to her next table she was greeted with an unexpected customer. "Steven? What are you doing here?"

"Well the meatloaf from the other say was pretty decent so I came to see what else is good on the menu?" Hyde said as he grinned up at her.

"Oh um okay. How did you find out where I work?" she said puzzled.

"You wrote it down the other night when I babysat." he replied.

"Oh yeah I forgot. Well then, what can I get you?" and with that Jackie went back into work mode and took his order. She brought out his food once it was ready and went back to serving the other tables. Every now and then she would glance over to where Hyde was sitting. He had always been the kind of guy that didn't rely on needing a crowd of people around him to make him happy. Of course he always enjoyed hanging with the gang but he had always managed to be just as content when he was alone. However today, Jackie noticed a look of what she thought to be loneliness in his eyes. Could it be possible that the almighty Steven Hyde had finally realized that being an island wasn't all its cracked up to be?

Hyde sat at his table alone with his food, splitting his focus between eating and watching Jackie work. He thought she was pretty good at her job but by no means should a girl like her be working in a diner. Jackie Burkhart was born and raised to be someone who the world took notice of but desperate times called for desperate measures he supposed. He had to admit that even in a waitress uniform she was still the most beautiful woman in the place.

He took another bite of his cheeseburger and smiled. Jackie had the cook prepare it just the way he liked, cooked medium with cheese on top of the burger and pickles and onions on the bottom. After all this time she still remembered the smallest details about him. Hyde wasn't sure at first whether he should come see her today. He knew that she wanted their progress to go slowly and he had hoped that she wasn't feeling like he was intruding. When Jackie came over to the table to bring the bill, he decided to see if she was still in the same frame of mind as he left her the other night. "So uh Jackie, I hope you don't mind me stopping by here today. I was hungry and even though I wasn't sure you'd be here I figure this would be safer than dropping by your house unannounced and I don't know your phone number to give you a call."

"It's fine Steven. You are allowed to eat wherever you want." she said rather rudely as Hyde's face fell slightly but she quickly continued "However I'm just surprised you trusted me enough not to spit in your food." she said as she flashed one of her classic sneaky grins. Immediately Hyde looked down at his plate. He and Jackie both laughed easing some of the awkwardness. "No seriously Steven it's nice of you to drop by." she told him genuinely.

They stared at each other a little longer than they intended before Hyde decided to speak up. "So yeah…cool. How's the little guy? We had a pretty decent time the other night which was surprising considering he can't even walk or talk."

"He's great. His at the sitter's now until I get off which is in about 15 minutes. If you want to wait around till I get off you come by and see him." she suggested.

"Uh sure why not? Hyde was really glad that Jackie had invited him to come by again. Truth was other than the store he had nothing else going on in his life right now. Back home he had his friends and other acquaintances to keep him occupied if he got bored with being by himself but he hadn't really met any in his new city other than the contractors working on the store and he preferred to keep that relationship professional.

"Okay great. I'm gonna finish up here and be out in about 15-20 minutes." Jackie walked back to her other tables to finish closing out her tabs. Once she was done she headed to the break room where she ran into Carol again.

"So it looks like you have a new friend out there?"

"Who me? I don't think so. Who are you talking about" Jackie said completely unaware of what Carol meant.

"The cute rugged loner looking guy with the curly hair and t-shirt, you were pretty friendly with him." Carol teased.

"Oh him? That's my ex I was telling you about. He just kinda dropped by for lunch." Jackie told her.

"Ooooooh the ex. I get it."

"What do you mean?" asked Jackie.

"Nothing bad. He was staring at you while you worked but not in a creepy way. But I mean he's not stalking you right?" said Carol wondering if she should become worried.

"Oh no no no. It's nothing like that. He just came to see how I was doing. I think he might be a little homesick. I doubt he's made any friends here yet."

"Well then I hope you got tipped extra for that."

Jackie just laughed as she grabbed her purse and headed back to Hyde's table. "Are you ready?

"Yeah my car's right across the street." Hyde was grateful that Jackie was giving him a chance to be a friend. He knew very well that if the roles had been reversed in their situation, he wouldn't be so quick to accept the olive branch.

Hyde and Jackie drove straight to her apartment building. When they arrived Jackie made her way to the 2nd floor to her neighbor and babysitter, Mrs. Henderson's. Jackie knocked on the door and heard a response on the other side telling her to come inside. They made their way inside the living room where Mrs. Henderson was with Julian who was crawling around the floor with his toys. "How's my baby boy today?" Jackie said bending down to pick up the baby,

"He was very good as always." replied Mrs. Henderson. She suddenly took notice of Hyde who was standing next to Jackie. "I didn't realize we have a visitor. Who's this handsome young man?"

Hyde extended his hand towards the older woman "Hi I'm Hyde. Nice to meet you."

"Mrs. Henderson this is Steven Hyde. We grew up together back in Point Place." answered Jackie not wanting to go in full detail about their complicated relationship.

"Well its nice to meet you as well young man. Are you visiting?" Mrs. Henderson had never seen or heard Jackie talk much about her life back home. She knew that her parents weren't around and that she had come to Minneapolis to make a life for her and her baby but not much else.

"No I just moved here last month. I'm opening a store downtown." Hyde answered.

Jackie sat Julian back down on the floor. "I'm going to go pack up his bag. I'll be back in a few." She headed to the guest room to gather the baby's things.

"Well Hyde it's very nice of you to come by and see Jackie. She doesn't talk about home much and other than Julian and me she doesn't really socialize with anyone. A beautiful young woman like that needs more friends than a baby and an old woman." She smiled. "I'll be right back. I'm going to go see if she needs some help" She stood and walked down the hallway to check on Jackie.

Hyde watched her retreat down the hall. It had bothered him a little that Jackie only referred to him as someone she grew up with but then he relaxed once he was told she hadn't mentioned her previous life much. He figured that was probably better than the ugly truth she could have told the older woman about him.

On the other side of the room, Julian, who was crawling on the floor looked over and saw Hyde. The baby smiled at him and started clapping his little hands in excitement.

"Hey little guy. How's it going?" Hyde bent down and picked up one of the toys on the floor and held it out for Julian. Julian started to crawl and stopped when he reached the coffee table. He pulled himself up and stood for about two seconds. Mrs. Henderson, who had returned back to the living room saw what was happening, quickly realized this was a milestone moment in the infant's life and shrieked in surprise startling the baby and unintentionally causing Julian to get scared. He then fell and bumped his head on the table. Julian started screaming as Hyde picked him up right away.

At the same time Jackie was also walking back into the room. From her viewpoint all she could see and hear was Hyde bending down in front of Julian followed by a thud then him screaming. As soon as she heard her child she saw red immediately. She quickly ran over and snatched her son from Hyde. "What the hell did you do to my son?" she yelled.

"Jackie I.." Hyde tried to explain but was immediately cut off.

"You can't go two full days with wrecking something. I should've known better than to let you anywhere neat my son. Look at his head! He's getting a bruise. You know what Steven just we were perfectly fine before you showed up. Just get out!" Jackie exploded on Hyde.

Mrs. Henderson who had witnessed the whole scene tried to help Hyde who was staring at Jackie wide-eyed. "Dear it was an accident. He..."

"No he needs to leave." she said continuing to try to calm the baby.

"It's okay Mrs. Henderson, I'll be going now. Take care." and with that Hyde walked out of the apartment. He expected that Jackie still had some residual hidden anger towards him that it would show up at some point but he never expected to see it this soon. He figured that he probably just blew his final chance with Jackie and this time it wasn't even his fault. He got back into the El Camino and drove off defeated.

Back in the apartment, Jackie was still furious as she treated Julian's bump on his head. Mrs. Henderson went to the kitchen and grabbed some ice and handed it to Jackie. "Wow. I've never seen you like that. I think you were extremely unfair to that young man. You really didn't see what happened."

"I saw my son screaming his little lungs out with a knot on his head. That's enough. You don't know Steven. You don't know what he's capable of. He almost destroyed me before I left Point Place. I gave him my heart and he gave it back in shreds. I just need him to stay away from us." Jackie said revealing some of their past history.

"I don't know what happened before with Hyde but I know what happened tonight. Julian was happy to see that young man. He started to crawl over to him and then, for the first time, he pulled himself up and stood. Jackie your baby was standing on his own. Well I just got so excited at what was going on I shouted and startled him. That's when Julian fell. Hyde was just trying to console him." Mrs. Henderson explained hoping that Jackie would calm down.

Jackie's whole demeanor changed in an instant "My baby stood? He was standing?"

"Yes. I think he was trying to walk over to Hyde."

"Oh my God. I missed my son's first time standing." Jackie felt terrible. She had not only missed this major milestone she had ripped Hyde apart. "Not only that I was so mean to Steven when he was only trying to help Julian."

"Yes you were. Babies fall and accidents are going to happen. You can't attack people over it. Maybe you and Hyde have some bad history but he certainly didn't deserve to be attacked like that over an accident. However, I don't think that's what you were yelling about completely. It certainly was the trigger but your anger ran so deep." Mrs. Henderson continued "You haven't told me much about your past but I know that since you've been here you haven't had much to do with anyone from it. I understand that you've been hurt but you can't keep that inside. It will bubble up and spill out at unexpected times like tonight."

"God I know. It's just that so much has happened especially between me and Steven. When I found out he was in the city I was prepared to tell him to stay away from me but then he helped me out of a horrible situation the other night and we actually decided to try to be friends. I'm pretty sure I've just destroyed that now." Jackie said remorsefully.

"Well you should apologize to him at least."

"Yeah but he's as stubborn the day is long. I guess all I can do is try and if he doesn't accept it then so be it." Jackie figured it wouldn't make much of a difference if he disappeared from her life again since only four days prior she didn't think she would ever see him again.

July 29, 1981

The very next afternoon Jackie had decided to go apologize to Hyde. She asked Mrs. Henderson to watch Julian and caught the bus downtown. While on the way there she had no idea what she would say once she arrived. She still had mixed feelings about the situation. Part of her had been glad to finally let off some of the pressure that had built up concerning him but the other part of her hated that it was at a time when he didn't deserve it although she had been the recipient of many undeserved burns from him. She thought back to the things that both Carol and Mrs. Henderson had said about dealing with her past. She knew that she needed to sort things out and if she could find a way to do that with Steven it would only benefit her in the long run. She didn't want her son to grow up with a mother who lashed out emotionally. Even if he would never be a target of it, she didn't want him to be a witness to it either.

Jackie finally reached her stop and made her way down to the store. She walked in but didn't see Hyde anywhere. She finally went up to one of the contractors and asked for him. They pointed her to the back where his office was. As she reached the door she stopped when she heard voices coming from the other side. She couldn't make out what they were saying but she knew that one of them was a woman. Jackie immediately assumed Hyde was probably in his office about to partake in a little afternoon delight. In the past whenever Hyde was really hurt or mad at her he would go running to the nearest skank he could find and she figured things were no different now. Not that she should care of course. They weren't together and he was free to do as he wished. She turned to leave when suddenly the door opened and out walked Hyde and a woman. She was in her mid to late twenties with dirty blonde hair. She was bit rough around the edges and dressed like a biker chick. In other words, she was Steven's type.

Hyde stood there shocked seeing Jackie in his store considering what had happened the night before. He finally gathered himself and turned to the woman. "Thank you for your help today. I'll be in touch."

"No problem at all Hyde. I'll see you around." answered the woman right before leaving.

"Jackie, what are you doing here? I didn't expect to see you so soon or at all really."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you." said Jackie trying to appear indifferent.

"No you didn't. Our appointment was already over. Why don't you come inside" Hyde replied.

Jackie felt relieved that the woman was only there for business. She knew it was stupid to feel like that but some things never changed she supposed. She sat down in a chair in front of his desk while Hyde moved to sit behind the desk. She sighed and decided to get it over with. "Steven I just wanted to apologize for how I behaved last night. I found out after you left that you hadn't done anything to Julian and honestly I knew that you wouldn't hurt him on purpose especially after you took such great care of him for me the other day. When I heard him crying like that I panicked and some left over anxiety I had took over and before I knew it I was yelling at you unfairly. I'm sorry and I hope that you can forgive me."

"I'm not going to pretend what you said didn't bother me cause it did but I also know that we still have a lot of unresolved issues between us. As long as you know I would never do anything to hurt your son I can forgive you." Hyde answered honestly.

"Thank you. I already know that you wouldn't and I'm sorry that I said otherwise." she said feeling relieved that he accepted her apology.

"For the record that kid is lucky to have a mom who will fight for him like that. If Edna had been even the slightest bit as protective of me I'm sure things would've gone quite differently." Hyde really meant those words. Jackie was a great mom.

"Thanks. I still feel really bad about the whole incident. I want to make it up to you. How about you join Julian and I for dinner tomorrow night?"

"Are you going to cook?" Jackie nodded and smiled. "So first you yell at me then you're going to poison me?" Hyde said jokingly.

"Shut up!" she laughed. I'll have you know I can actually make quite a few meals now. Mrs. Henderson has been teaching me plus I picked up a few tricks working at the diner so there." She stuck out her tongue at him.

Hyde laughed. "Fine I'll be there. I'm going bring antacid for dessert though."

"Whatever. Just be there at 6:30." she said as she got up to leave.

"Will do". Hyde said as he walked her to the door. "Bye."

"Bye." she replied and with that she was out the door.

As he sat back down in his chair, Hyde felt grateful for another chance. He had been wracking his brain trying to figure out how he was going to get Jackie to talk to him again but couldn't come up with anything. He was also thankful that he was mature enough now to be able to accept her apology. The nineteen year old Hyde would've made her pay severely for her undeserved attack on him but he was no longer that guy and he was going to do his best to make sure she knew that.

Thanks for reading. I'm going to try to bang out another chapter next week if I have time. Happy Holidays to you all!