Disclaimer: That '70s Show copyright The Carsey-Werner Company, LLC and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, LLC.

Author's Note: This story was written for the 2022 Zenmasters Anthology on tumblr.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
HAZARDOUS MATERIAL PROHIBITED

Copper-leafed trees sped past Steven's car. Jackie enjoyed her view from the passenger-side window, but those branches would be bare soon. This was one of the coldest Octobers she could remember. Michael had left for Chicago yesterday. He'd be home in a week, likely when the trees lost their leaves. She might be as bereft of color by then, but today she hummed cheerfully to Led Zeppelin's "Good Times, Bad Times". That band was rarely out of the El Camino's tape deck.

Steven had agreed to drive her to Milwaukee for a weekend trip. More specifically, to the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. It was putting on a production of Shakespeare's Richard III. Steven had read the play last year during English class, and she'd just finished reading it.

Her dad set up the visit. He contacted the theater director, arranged a tour, and suggested Steven take her. Dad and Mom were busy this weekend with business conferences.

Jackie didn't mind at all.

She and Steven would be staying in Milwaukee overnight. The performance was this evening, but the tour wasn't until Sunday morning. Adjoining rooms at the Wintry Hotel were booked, but she hoped Steven would spend time in hers. She liked talking to him. Their conversations spanned every topic she could imagine … and some she couldn't until he introduced them to her.

He even listened when she spoke on subjects he didn't care about. Unlike Michael, who half-listened, Steven actually paid attention. When she'd switched shampoos, Steven smelled her hair's new apple scent and said, "You went for that Earth Born stuff, huh?" He also teased her for knowing Donny Osmond favorite syrup, which she'd mentioned only in passing months earlier.

Their friendship had helped her grow in ways she hadn't guessed were possible. Being with him was complex but not hard. Being with Michael was simple but incredibly hard. She'd finally realized how much of her—everything—she'd repressed to be in that relationship. She refused to go back to that version of herself. It would be like volunteering for a life prison sentence.

Michael wasn't to blame, but until she'd had certain experiences, understanding that other possibilities existed for her life was impossible.

"Hey," Steven said as he drove them onto the highway, "I got a secret to tell you."

Jackie clapped excitedly, her pulse beating faster. "I love secrets! What is it?"

"Not yet."

"But I want to know now."

"Got to learn patience."

I-94 seemed to go on for eternity. In truth, they were on it forty minutes, and once they reached Milwaukee, Jackie said, "What's the secret? Am I performing in the play tonight? Is it Queen Margaret? I can learn her lines in time, but I need a copy of the play."

She rummaged in the car's glove compartment. Steven had to be keeping his copy of Richard III there, but he shut the compartment after she yanked out his sunglasses.

"You're not performing," he said and took his sunglasses from her. He slipped them over his shirt collar.

Her empty hands dropped to her lap. "Then what is it?

"Wait 'til we're at the hotel."

"Fine, but saying you have a secret without revealing it—that's a terrible thing to do someone."

"Plenty of worse things people can do."

"Like what?"

He didn't answer, and she shivered in her coat.

Hyde's room at the Wintry Hotel was big and had decent amenities. Two full-size beds. A TV. A bathrobe. Mr. Burkhart hadn't skimped on the accommodations. Or his trust. Doors connected Hyde's room to Jackie's. Her folks must've thought she and Hyde were practicing celibacy. Which they were, but not for the reason Mr. and Mrs. Burkhart suspected.

Jackie crouched at his minibar and opened it. "Wow, there is a lot of liquor in here." Her luggage was visible through the doorway between their rooms. She'd left the matching set unpacked to join him.

"It's your dad's dime," he said. "Drink whatever."

"Donna got totally wasted on these little bottles and ruined her and Eric's first getaway." She closed the minibar. "Donna also almost ruined her and Eric's first Valentine's Day by drinking Long Island iced teas."

"I was there for some of that. She beeped my nose."

"She what?"

Hyde mimed what Donna had done to him, and Jackie giggled. Her laughter was a pleasure he didn't deserve. The temptation to let booze do his talking was strong, but he gathered toiletries from his duffel bag. That was all he'd unpack for one night in Milwaukee.

Jackie settled onto one of his beds as he entered the bathroom. He arranged his toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, and other supplies. When he returned to the bedroom, Jackie had stacked pillows against the headboard and sat in a relaxed position. Her legs were crossed at the ankles, and one of her arms was behind her head.

His chest ached at the sight. She'd given him another undeserved pleasure.

"So what's this big secret you've been making me wait for?" she said.

He considered putting on his shades. Instead, he left them dangling on his T-shirt collar.

She placed her palm on her heart. "I'm your friend, Steven. A real friend. You can trust me. Don't you believe that?"

His breaths grew shorter, and sweat formed beneath his thermal undershirt. The last half-year, he'd shared intimate details of his life with her, ones not even Forman knew.

He stood across from the bed, near the dresser. "All right," he said and clutched a drawer handle. "Say if you kept bein' cast as an understudy for the main role, would that be enough for your theater career?"

"Of course not! I'd fire my agent and get a new one."

"What if your new agent could only book you for bit parts?"

"I'd write and produce my own plays. I won't let anyone or anything stand in the way of my dream."

"Exactly." He opened and shut the empty dresser drawer. "Think about it for a sec."

She clasped her hands over her stomach. "You're avoiding telling me your secret."

"Nope. It's an introduction." He walked toward the bed but stopped halfway. "I've been Kelso's understudy."

"What do you mean?"

"Before he jetted to Europe last summer, he asked me to get close to you."

"Okay …"

"To become your boyfriend."

She pushed herself up from the pillows. "He would never do that. You would never do that for him."

"We did." Hyde dug his fingernails into the nape of his neck. "Plan was a more intense version of yours, to sweeten your parents' view of him. His included me dumping you 'because I could see you were still in love with him.'" He rubbed the skin he'd scratched. It was raw and stung. "Then your folks would welcome the newly famous Kelso into their fold and your life."

Jackie rose from the bed. "So you've been a phony to me the whole time?"

"No, man! That's part of—"

She advanced on him, and he backed away. "All our conversations, your encouragement, your—" she cut herself off and inhaled a breath—"it was just to help Michael?"

"You and Kelso. Both of you."

"So our friendship was always gonna be temporary." She continued pursuing him around the furniture, and he continued to evade her. "As soon as my parents accepted Michael, you'd be gone. Again."

He held his ground at the doorway connecting their rooms. "There's no damn space for me when you and Kelso are together."

"That's not true!" She moved in close, face flushing. "Donna and I are best friends and don't have that problem."

"She ain't Kelso's understudy."

"You keep using that analogy."

"You catch Kelso cheating on you. Then you and me start hanging out 'cause you made that happen—" he glanced at the top of the door frame—"and I don't end it. We go on that date. We kiss, but you feel zip. I feel everything, and you're Kelso's girl a few months later."

Jackie's head whipped to the side like he'd punched her. "You said you felt nothing!"

"'Cause you said it first, so why the hell tell you the truth?" His heart pumped wildly, roaring at him, and he twisted his thumbs in his belt loops. "It wouldn't have changed your direction. I was Kelso's understudy when you were broken up, and I've been his understudy since his stint in Europe."

"No …" She put distance between them, but her foot landed on the strap of his duffel bag. She kicked the strap aside. "No."

Hyde stayed in the doorway. "It's all I'm ever gonna be, Jackie. He's the star in your life. You're disconnected from him right now, but that's temporary."

"He isn't the star in my life. I am, and you're not his understudy. You're—"

"I'm what?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Yeah, it does."

"Why?" she said from the center of the room.

He didn't answer.

"Why?" she said louder.

He remained silent.

Jackie strode toward him and jabbed him in the chest. "Why does it matter?" She poked his right arm. "Tell me! Why?" She smacked his left shoulder. "You act like you have all the answers when it comes to us—"

Hyde stepped deeper into the doorway. "I don't."

She slammed the wall with her hand. The force vibrated both doors, and she shouted, "Why does it matter what you mean to me?"

"Because, man!" Blood heated his neck, and the scratches there burned.

"Because?" She charged into the doorway. "You've been vandalizing my heart since Michael went to Europe!"

He stepped forward, making her back off to his room. "I was freakin' protecting it!"

"Why?" she shouted and grabbed his arms above the elbows.

"'Cause you should be happy!"

She squeezed his arms tighter and shook him. "Why?" She was still shouting. "Why would you do the things you've done for me since—since—forever?"

"Underneath the superficial bullshit, you're a good person—"

"So what?" She continued to shake him. "So what?"

"'Cause I love you, damn it!" His legs were weak. Jackie's must've been, too, because they both collapsed to the carpet. "I love you," he repeated quietly and dropped his forehead to her shoulder.

She held him and began to cry, but her lips brushed against his earlobe. "I'm so stupid," she whispered. "It's obvious. It's been obvious ..."

He gazed up at her, and she met his eyes. She was sure to spot his unshed tears.

"Over the summer," she said, "I clung to an idea, but reality was in front of my face … talking to me. Sacrificing for me." Her own tears flowed freely. "I tried not to look at you too long, to touch you more than I should. But I wanted to."

He nodded; nothing else he could do. She'd spoken his thoughts about her.

"I believed I was betraying my dream—" her fingers slipped into the curls above his sideburns—"my future, but I'm in with love you."

He caressed her hair, and his suppressed emotions broke free. "You're the last chick I would've chosen. The only one I could've fallen for."

"Why?"

"Smarts, bravery, compassion … you."

Joy replaced any traces of pain in her expression. "What about beauty?"

He laughed and tasted salt on his tongue. "You are freakin' beautiful … and obnoxious."

"So are you."

Their faces edged closer together. His breath caught in his throat, but she loved him. She loved him, and their lips touched. His own buzzed, the sensation stronger than the one in his memory. It spread to his cheeks and chin, but his stomach tensed as Jackie deepened the kiss. He pulled away, their lips barely an inch apart, and he said, "Kelso."

Jackie jumped to her feet. "His dream doesn't include me anymore."

"It does." He stood and crossed to the window. It was built into the wall opposite the front door. The vantage point provided a view of the whole room.

"Well," she said, "mine doesn't include him anymore."

Hyde leaned his butt against the window sill. "If he quit his modeling job, you'd feel differently."

"Don't tell me how I feel. Or how I would feel."

"He turned his life upside-down for your relationship." Hyde sat fully on the sill and lowered his head. She and Kelso had the better chance of lasting. "Once he realizes what you need, he'll give it to you."

Jackie approached him and cupped his knees. "I don't want it from him. I want it from you!" She tapped his left knee until he looked at her. "You're not his understudy, Steven. You're part of my life I can't live without."

Her words passed through his defenses, but fear was an unrelenting sentry. It prevented him from responding, except by retreating farther into the cavern of doubt.

"Tell me you can't live without me," she said, and the plea in her voice tied around him like a lifeline.

"I would if I had to. That was always my plan."

She pressed her forehead to his. "You're such a stubborn ass … because you're afraid. I understand. I do, but please let us happen."

"Living without you would be hell." It already had been, and he wasn't keen on staying there. "But our friends'll think we're breakin' some kind of loyalty code."

"Who cares? I hid my love for Michael from my parents, and it was awful." She kept one hand on his knee and cradled his cheek with the other. "I won't hide my love for you because it might piss off our friends. They can go screw themselves if they have a problem. Or go to Canada." She shrugged, smiling that cute smile of hers. "Their choice."

A year of accepting her loss blazed through Hyde's mind, but he slid his right hand over hers on his knee. His left hand buried itself in her hair, and he kissed her. She was present. His present. Maybe his future, and the idea vibrated through his body. His euphoria imbued how he touched her lips, her mouth. She matched it, affection for affection. Their kiss traveled from the window to the bed, and it didn't stop until they fell asleep in each other's arms.