A/N: Originally written for the 1K Prompt Challenge on /r/Fanfiction, but I was too late to the party to add it to the collection lol

Prompt: "hanging"

Jackie wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of water running in her apartment. She rolls over and sits up, then scoots backward on the bed to rest against the headboard. The bathroom door is ajar, and light spills out onto a patch of the carpet beyond its threshold. The water stops, but Ziggy doesn't come back to bed, and she waits a few seconds before she finally calls out to him.

"Zig?"

He doesn't answer her, so she throws off the covers and swings her legs out of bed, pausing to grab a t-shirt off the floor and slip it over her head as she rises to her feet.

She finds Ziggy in the bathroom staring into the mirror, his hands on either side of the sink and water dripping from his face. Jackie edges the door open the rest of the way with her foot and then leans heavily against the doorframe, her eyes squinting sleepily against the bright light.

"What's goin' on?" she asks. "You ok?"

Ziggy doesn't seem surprised by the interruption, and Jackie wonders for a moment if he intentionally made enough noise to wake her.

He looks her in the eye through the mirror.

"I can't do it," he says remorsefully, "I can't go through with the bike shop."

Jackie doesn't say anything at first. She closes her eyes instead, takes a breath, and forces herself to stay calm. When she opens them again, Ziggy is drying the excess water off his face with one of her hand towels. She watches him silently, growing more irritated by the moment, and fights the urge to strangle him with it.

"Why?" she finally asks, exasperated.

"It's too much," he confesses, guilt written all over his face. "Dan and me, you know, we were just going to hang out and fix bikes. Make money selling 'em off like we used to talk about. Nothin' serious, no big deal. We'd just move on when we got tired of it. But there's no guarantee the shop will work out long term. We could go under, and it would be my fault for suggestin' the whole thing in the first place. They'd hate me forever."

Suddenly wide awake, Jackie pushes off the doorframe and plants herself firmly in the open space of the doorway. She crosses her arms in front of her and gives an exaggerated shrug.

"So, then what was the big plan this time, huh? You came sweeping in here and got everyone all riled up and excited for some big new business idea because…..what?" Jackie stops talking long enough to throw her hands up in the air. "Help me out here. You just didn't like the way the rest of us settled down and got boring?"

Ziggy looks insulted. "It's not like that," he insists defensively. "Dan and Rosie, they were stuck. Wastin' all this time going to jobs they hated every day. They just needed a reminder. You saw how excited they got about that bike the last time I was in town. The shop could have given them that again."

"And now you're gettin' cold feet, so you're just gonna leave? Run out on the whole thing without even tryin'? I thought this was your dream!"

He opens his mouth as if to defend himself further but closes it again when she narrows her eyes at him suspiciously.

"Were you even going to tell them?"

He keeps quiet, looking at the floor and running a hand through his hair in an obvious attempt to avoid answering her question.

"Oh, I get it," she says, nodding as she puts the pieces together, her hands finding their way onto her hips, "that's why you were splashin' around in here loud enough to wake the dead. I'm supposed to tell them for you. Is that it?"

"Jacks," Ziggy finally pleads quietly, his expression wounded.

She shakes her head and glares at him. "No. They put up the house!"

"I know," he argues, "but now they don't have to, see? We can forget the whole thing, and everything can just go back to normal. They keep the house, Dan keeps the drywall business, and I come back into town in a few months after it all blows over."

Jackie blinks in disbelief. "Get out."

Ziggy doesn't move, and instead just stands there in the middle of her bathroom looking uncertain, as if he can't quite understand how their conversation went downhill so quickly. "It's better this way, Dan and Rosie will understand that eventually."

Jackie stares at him, astonished. "Are you kidding me? You'll be lucky if they ever speak to you again. Get the hell out. Now."

She turns on her heel and stalks back out into the rest of the apartment, not even sparing a glance to see if he follows. The duffle bag he's been living out of is sitting on the cushions of her window nook, and she scoops it up and begins forcefully stuffing what she can find of his scattered belongings inside. Once it's zipped up, she turns to find that Ziggy's already fully dressed and standing by the front door. She heaves the bag at him, hitting him square in the chest.

"Good arm!" he jokes approvingly.

When Jackie doesn't even smile, Ziggy clears his throat and regards her seriously.

"Well ok then," he says softly, lingering at the door. "I guess this is it. Until next time."

Jackie strides over and twists the knob, pulling the door open for him. She rests her head against it and looks up at him somberly. "I don't think there's going to be one this time, Zig. Take care of yourself, ok?"

He doesn't argue with her, just gives a resigned nod. "You too. Bye, Jacks."

Ziggy holds out a fist, so she humors him long enough to bump her knuckles against his before he finally leaves. Jackie closes the door behind him once he disappears into the hallway, then leans back against it and sighs. Knowing that the growing knot of impending doom in her stomach is going to make it impossible for her to get back to sleep, she takes the opportunity to do some cleaning instead. By 8am, she's contemplating how she's managed to collect so many coffee mugs while also wondering if it's still too early to call her sister. Luckily for her, the phone rings soon after, and she scrambles to catch it before her answering machine picks up.

"Well, he's gone," Roseanne says bitterly without preamble when she answers. "I don't know why we're all so surprised. This is like his specialty by now."

"I'm sorry," Jackie says sympathetically, twisting the phone cord around her fingers. "How's Dan taking it?"

Roseanne sighs. "He's been better, but…well, we're thinkin' about going ahead and doing it anyway. Norbie left us his twenty grand before he hightailed it outta here."

"He did?"

"Yeah."

There's silence on the line, but Jackie can practically hear the wheels turning in her sister's head.

"So, do you think we can really do this? Like, could we really have an actual business, you know? Or should we stop livin' in a fantasy land?"

Jackie thinks back to what Ziggy said about being stuck, about chasing after something exciting for once instead of always choosing the safer path. She thinks about how the safer, more responsible path hasn't ever really helped any of them get anywhere. She knows that it could all go horribly wrong, but she also considers the possibility that it could all go incredibly, wonderfully, and successfully right.

"I think," she finally answers, "that if you both want to do it, you should do it. You already got the loan, and you have Ziggy's share. Dan knows all there is to know about bikes. I think that you guys should at least give it a shot."

"Yeah, I think so too." Roseanne tells her. "Hang on."

Jackie hears fabric rustling, followed by what might be the sound of footsteps in the background before Roseanne's voice, slightly quieter but no less clear, comes again.

"See, Dan? Jackie believes in us too. I think we oughta do it."

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. The new owners of Lenny's Bike Shop, Dan and Roseanne Conner!" Dan crows in the background while Roseanne laughs. There's a beat of silence before he adds, "we're going to have to work on the name."

"Did ya hear that, Jackie?" Roseanne exclaims happily when she comes back on the line. "We're gonna do it. We're gonna open the shop!"

"Ahhhh!" Jackie yells excitedly into the receiver.

"Ahhhh!" Roseanne yells back, laughing. "And now that I got all that out of my system, we're going back down to the bank to sort everything out."

"Alright," Jackie says, "I'll talk to you later. But we should do something tonight to celebrate!"

Roseanne snorts. "We can't afford to celebrate, Jackie. All our money is gonna be tied up in this shop."

"Oh, come on," Jackie goads her, "you guys gotta celebrate a little, this is a big deal! Let's at least just go down to the Lobo or something."

"Once we start makin' a profit in like two or three years, then we'll go out and go crazy."

"My treat," Jackie presses temptingly.

"Well, those are the magic words. Alright, you're on, Sis. But I gotta go, Dan's practically halfway to the bank already."

Jackie is suddenly left listening to the dial tone when Roseanne hangs up without saying goodbye. She rolls her eyes and returns her own phone to its cradle, then stands there and turns back to look at the pile of coffee mugs she'd been sorting through earlier. Now that the immediate drama is over, her lack of sleep the previous night is starting to catch up to her, and she decides to abandon the mugs in favor of a short nap.

Climbing back into bed, she spares a momentary grateful thought toward Ziggy, wherever he is. Despite his running off, he'd still managed to give Dan and Roseanne something to be excited about again, and that was a win in her book. Her last thought before drifting off is the hope that they don't end up regretting it.