The funeral and everything had occupied Jackie's mind for a couple days. She'd almost been on auto-pilot at work. The little things about the job that she had enjoyed when she started seemed to annoy her over the last few days. Everything, really, had annoyed her. But, it felt like it started before that. It was like everything hit all at the same time.

She sat on the couch after the funeral staring at the television blankly, not even paying attention to what was on the screen. So much had happened since she lost that job at "Wake up Wisconsin". That was something that she'd wanted to do. It was only now just occurring to her that everything she'd wanted to be after high school, she'd never thought of how she was going to get there. Weather girl, Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, stewardess, actress, model, she'd never had the commitment to follow through on any of it.

That's what made what happened at "Wake Up Wisconsin" suck so much. She felt like she'd blown a real opportunity through no fault of her own. Her boss just happened to be psychotic. While she kept telling herself that, it felt less and less like it was helping. It felt like she was staring at the pieces of her life stretched out on the floor in front of her and, because she couldn't decide which piece to pick up first, she just left them laying there.

"Jackie." She could dimly hear Fez call to her as though he was off in the distance somewhere. She just stared into the floor, between the couch and the coffee table. There was so much whirling in her head that her thousand yard stare was imperceptible to Fez who was standing across the apartment in the kitchen. "Jackie!" He got a little more persistent and he head snapped up to face him.

"Yeah?" There was a vague look of annoyance in her eyes when she finally focused on him.

"What's wrong?" Fez chomped on the end of a Twizzler as he walked over to the couch.

"I'm just really confused and I think, maybe, a little sad." Jackie went back to avoiding his eyes. Her lower lip jutted out. "I graduated last year and I'm just…I'm stuck."

"Stuck?" Fez sat down on the couch with her. "You are working, though you will not tell me where. You have an apartment. You are just things out."

"No. I don't have anything figured out." Jackie shook her head furiously. "I lost Steven, who I thought I'd end up marrying. I lost a job that I loved." She paused. "And even when I want something, for the first time, I'm not sure I can get it. I mean, look at me, a girl this pretty should not have this kind of doubt. That's for ugly girls."

"What do you want that you are not getting?" Fez reached into the bag of Twizzlers and pulled another one out.

"It's nothing. Forget about it." Jackie waved him off and tried to pay attention to the television which halfway through broadcasting an episode of Taxi.

"Clearly it is not nothing, Jackie." Fez tried to reach for the remote but Jackie's arm dashed out and took it from him. "Why will you not you tell me what it is?"

"Because it's nothing, okay?" Her voice got loud and instead of leaning back on the couch she sat bolt upright. "Besides, even if it was something, it isn't something that you can help with."

"Ah, I see." The gears in Fez's mind started to turn. "It is about someone we know?"

"No, it's…" She had to cut him off. It felt like he was getting too close to the truth. "I think I might have a thing for a guy but I work with another girl who likes him and I think she's more likely to do something about it."

"So, why don't you just beat her to it?" Fez followed up, still not quite comprehending Jackie's problem.

"I can't!" Jackie protested, her frustration growing.

"Why not?" Fez's voice climbed an octave.

"Because, I can't!" Jackie bounced off the couch to her feet.

"Why not?" Fez's arms spread out, his palms upturned as his confusion grew.

"Because, I can't!" She was on the verge of screaming at him. Her restraint that time was demonstrated by the fact that she seemed to push the words out between gritted teeth.

"And why not?" Fez felt the need to match her in both volume and emotion.

"Because it's Eric!" She blurted out and immediately flung her hand up in front of her mouth. Her eyes opened wide and she was tempted to collapse down into the floor. For his part, Fez looked like someone had just hit him in the middle of the chest with a hammer.

"Eric Forman?" He questioned almost breathlessly. Of all the reasons he was expecting her to give, that one would have been pretty close to the bottom of the list. It was sort of like being stunned. It never felt possible. Of everyone in their group of friends, he would have thought that even he had more chemistry with Jackie than Eric did.

She let out an affirmative squeak from behind her hands. Then her eyes melted and she nodded slowly. In a way it felt good to say out loud. The lump that she'd carried somewhere between her throat and her stomach for the last week seemed to be slowly disintegrating.

"Who's the other girl?" Fez couldn't help himself. This felt a bit like an afternoon soap. His natural curiosity got the better of him.

Now, Jackie was back to regretting that she'd blurted this out in the first place. She didn't want to get into the detail but over the last few days it had been going through her mind. There wasn't anyone else she could really talk to. Normally, she'd go to Donna with something like this. She couldn't. Then she thought about talking to Steven but that was a non-starter. The final option for something like this was usually Mrs. Forman. Yeah, that wasn't happening either.

"You remember Shelly Wessler from high school?" She edged closer to the couch.

"Hot Shelly?" Fez replied almost on impulse only to be granted by another quick flash of insecurity in Jackie's eyes. "I mean, uh, blonde Shelly?"

"Yeah, that Shelly." Jackie huffed as she tossed herself back into the couch. "With everything that's gone on, I just can't see Eric wanting to get involved with somebody else in our group."

Fez thought for a second. Truth be told he could never envision Eric with anyone other than Donna. That was true to such an extent that watching Eric and Donna fight always made him physically uncomfortable. When he took a second and started to think about Jackie and Eric, it wasn't actually that hard to envision. It actually made him want to help her. "How do you know that Shelly wants Eric?"

"She told me." Jackie answered instantly. "I didn't know whether to be insulted or not. Like, did she just assume that I didn't want him? Did she just assume I wasn't a threat?" Jackie was slowly starting to freak out. "Oh my God, maybe I'm not as pretty as I think I am."

"Let's call that option B." Fez smiled at her. "Why do you not just tell Eric that you have feelings for him?"

"We've been so close since he got back." Jackie explained with a slight wistfulness in her voice. "You know, we actually laugh together instead of just at people when something stupid happens to someone? He smiles at me, he…" She paused. The next admission was really close to the bone.

"He what?" Fez couldn't help himself. It was like he was gorging and he just couldn't stop.

"He touches me." She almost seemed to whisper. "And not because he wants me. It's just like he wants me to know there's someone there for me, you know?"

"Oh my God, you actually like Eric." Fez sounded a little less stunned this time. Then a smile came to his face. "To quote Red, what are you going to do about it, dumbass?"

Jackie shot him a stern look before cracking a smile a laughing.

BAD-TIME-TO-BE-IN-LOVE-THAT-70s-SHOW

When you knew that you were going into work at noon, it was like the morning barely existed. Eric slept a little late this morning after getting back late from the bar last night. Since he'd gotten back, he'd been up with the sun and he'd tried to be out the door before the rest of the house woke up if he could. As they got closer to Christmas, work just turned more and more into a madhouse.

They knew now that they'd have to do two Christmas parties this year. The first was next week when the Ladies Of Point Place would be holding their annual Christmas event. This year, Shelly's mom would be hosting the event over at the Knights of Columbus hall. After his dad told him last night that his parents already knew where he was working, it caused him to relax just a little bit. He was worried about playing Santa Clause at the LOPP Christmas Party while trying to avoid meeting eyes with his parents – even behind Santa's half-moon spectacles.

He pulled up in front of Jackie's apartment building just a little early. That knot from last night hadn't worked its way out of his system. There was something discomforting about it. Even his Dad's confident assertion that his recent single status meant he should go after pretty blondes like Shelly Wessler didn't mean he was going to.

When their shifts started at the same time, he always drove her into work and, of course, he always drove her home when their shifts ended at the same time. After getting the last two days off, he'd be working five full shifts with Jackie until next Saturday. She came out of the apartment building in that long tan coat with the white fur collar. For a short girl, she had a way of dressing that made it look like she had legs for days.

"Hey," he walked around and popped open the door to the Cruiser. "How are things?"

"Oh, you know." Jackie shrugged as she slid into the passenger seat. "Last night was a lot of thinking but I think I'm good now." She watched Eric swing around the front of the car and get into the driver's side.

"Yeah." Eric fired up the car. "I ran into Hyde on the way home. He was taking it a little rough."

"Without you there, Donna kind of turned her anger on him after the funeral yesterday." Jackie shifted in her seat to face him.

"Okay, so good decision not to go then." They pulled out on to the street and headed for work. "What did you get up to after the funeral?"

"Ice Cream, couch and an episode of Taxi." Jackie tried to downplay it. After accidentally blurting out more information than she intended to last night, she was determined not to do the same thing when actually talking to Eric. "Fell asleep on the couch actually."

"That doesn't seem like you." Eric shook his head slightly. "You seem more the goose down comforter and furry pillows type."

"What makes you think that I don't have furry pillows on the couch?" Jackie sprouted a bit of a smile and tried to evaluate the look on Eric's face.

"Because Fez definitely seems like more of the silk pillow type and I don't know how you'd resolve that conflict." He swallowed hard and awkwardly. "That's a real Jedi and Sith conflict, right there."

"Jedi and what?" Jackie's one eyebrow bolted upward. "That's a Star Wars thing, right?"

"Yeah, the Sith are…" Eric couldn't believe how few of his friends actually got into the Star Wars mythos. "Nevermind. Hope you didn't spend the whole night out on the couch, Twinkle."

That unexpected use of her nickname from work tugged at the corners of her mouth and widened her smile. She hadn't been called Twinkle in days. Just hearing it was enough to improve her day. "I got up once the colour bars came up on the screen and went to bed."

"That's good." Eric pulled them into the mall parking lot. "Santa can't have a lead elf with a kink in her neck."

"You saying I couldn't trust you to help me get it out, Santa?" And that was the moment that she almost put her hands up in front of her mouth to try and bring the words back.

Eric was a little dumbfounded. Was Jackie…flirting with him? Nah, it was just the playful banter that they did when they were at work. It was almost like Santa's workshop was a retreat for the two of them. "Now, it strikes me as the Elves' responsibility to build the tools for that task. Just Santa's job to leave them under the tree."

Jackie looked a little disappointed. It felt like an opening for Eric flirt back but he didn't take it. She wondered if something might have happened while she was away from the store. The last time that she was at work was when she'd had that talk with Shelly. "Hey Eric," she decided to chance it. "Um, I had a talk with Shelly a few days ago and she, um, I think she has a crush on you."

That was the moment the radio decided to chime in. It wasn't Hot Donna or Jerry Thunder or the Vixen Hour, but still it felt like WFPP knew how to mock them.

Day light, alright, I don't know, I don't know if it's real
Been a long night, and something ain't right
You won't show, you won't show how you feel
No time ever seems right, to talk about the reasons why you and I fight
It's high time to draw the line, put an end to this game, before it's too late

In that minute, the air got still between the two of them. The awkwardness started to rise. He looked guilty and she wasn't sure that she should have told him that. "Yeah, um." Eric cleared his throat. "I was talking to her last night and, uh, she kind of came on to me."

"Came on to you how?" Jackie did her best to keep her voice level.

"She sort of got real close, and it was like she was trying to get me to kiss her." Once again, Eric felt the lump in his throat rise.

Head games, it's you and me, baby
Head games, and I can't take it anymore
Head games, I don't want to play the head games

"But you didn't?" That was the only question that she could bring herself to ask. Really, it was the only one that she wanted the answer to.

"No!" He felt like he was a little too emphatic with that answer and he wasn't sure why. "I mean, it wouldn't have felt right. I don't know if it was guilt or what it was."

"So nothing happened?" Jackie nodded slowly. She was amazed that he wasn't asking why she cared. "Did you want something to happen?"

Man, he felt like he walked right into that trap. It was almost like she didn't even have to try that hard. Still, it didn't feel like he owed Jackie anything. What went on at work, those little lingering touches and the laughs that lasted longer than they usually did, they didn't really leave work. "I, uh, I don't know." Eric gulped. "I know that it didn't feel right."

That was the best that he could do. He felt like going any further wouldn't be right because it wouldn't be honest. The talk he had with Red last night actually helped. He wanted to get somewhere in his life. He wanted to start putting things in it that weren't just the Cruiser, his parents and the basement. There was also a part of him that was attracted to the fact that Shelly didn't really represent his past in anyway.

"Maybe, uh, maybe we should get into work." Jackie pushed the car door open and got out. Was he trying to leave an opening for her? Was she supposed to compete with Shelly? She wasn't going to if that's what he wanted. But something like that seemed way more like Michael Kelso than it did Eric Forman. More likely he just didn't know what the hell he wanted. Figuring that out was messy for her, it probably was for him, too.

The two of them walked through the back door of the store and headed to their separate changing rooms. Jackie started her transformation into Twinkle. As she pulled her leggings up, Shelly walked into the ladies' change room and Jackie did her best to avoid making eye contact. "Hey, Jackie." Shelly somewhat cheerfully popped open her locker. "Hope you're okay after that funeral yesterday."

"Yeah." Jackie murmured and tied her oversized black belt around her waist.

"Don't seem all that talkative." Shelly seemed to fake pouting just a little. "If you need more time, I can cover for you until we get our other elf in around dinner."

"No." Jackie protested quickly. "I think that I need to work through it, you know?"

"Oh, sure." Shelly waved at her reassuringly. "Take your mind off it, I totally get it."

Jackie adjusted her hat on her head and let out a deep breath. "I think I'm just going to get out there. The other girls never leave the candy cane jar full and we always run out early on the next shift."

She headed out of the change room and saw Santa walking across the store room toward her. As always with her his fake facial hair in his hands waiting for her help to put it on. She wondered how he did it the last couple days when she wasn't there to help.

She was tempted to watch him do it now, but that seemed wrong. "Need help getting your beard on there, Santa?"

"Please." Eric managed a half smile as he stood in front of her. "That last couple days I tried to do this in the mirror in the bathroom and I think Santa was starting to look a little like a homeless man who'd spent a little too much time drinking out of a paper bag."

She giggled and pushed the moustache on above his upper lip. "Well, we can't have the kids thinking Santa's got problems at home."

"Jackie, about earlier, I…" He started by she cut him off.

"Eric." Her voice was a little hard.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up or this beard is going on crooked." She grinned just a little and started on his jaw line.