Disclaimer: I don't own.

Author's Note: I know it was mean of me to end the last chapter the way I did, but that's how the story flowed! I hope the ending makes up for it. :) Thank you so very much for reading Reawakening and Convincing, and thanks SO very much for the sweet and kind and wonderful reviews you've given me! I hope you've enjoyed them as much as I've enjoyed writing them. I'm kind of sad that it's over!

Warning: Mild language

Convincing

Epilogue – You Convinced Me

Eight months later

Funny how life's most important lessons often come with the highest costs. Funny how one has to suffer to appreciate. Funny how quickly emotions turn over; fear to courage, grief to joy. Exhaustion to exhilaration.

Funny how almost losing someone, just one tiny person, can change another's entire world.

And funniest of all was how one person could be so damn convincing and not even realize it.

Hyde walked into the Forman basement and immediately headed for his room. What he really wanted to do was lie down for a little while, before the rest of the gang arrived and inevitably got on his nerves. He frowned. His door was closed, and he didn't remember closing it when he'd left for work that moment. He rolled his eyes. What the hell did it matter? He opened the door, and instantly was paralyzed by what stood in front of him.

A seductive, curvy little body, wrapped up in about a dozen or so silk scarves. Nothing else. Just a rainbow of silk from her breasts to the very tops of her thighs.

"Holy crap," he muttered dumbly. Of course, how could he not speak dumbly? The blood was quickly leaving his brain, heading for southern, more pleasurable pastures.

Jackie smiled sexily and took a few steps towards her boyfriend. "You like it? I just…I wanted to do something fun." She giggled and turned around to show Steven her backside. "Look. You can…untie me."

Hyde nodded and grinned at the twelve or so bows on the back of her. He pushed the door closed behind him and snapped it locked. Yeah. This had definite, definite possibilities of turning into one hell of a night. "And then can I tie you up with 'em?"

She strutted over to him and pressed her body to his. She hadn't felt very sexy the past several months, but he'd been patient. So patient. Never pressuring her, and only occasionally groaning audibly when she put the brakes to their make-outs. And always being there for her, during her depressed moments, when she had problems with her memory, all the nausea and headaches and exhaustion she'd experienced during her recovery. He deserved a reward. Her arms encircled him, and the feel of his strong body against hers thrilled her. "If you're good the first time, Steven," she purred.

"Like there's any doubt of that," he answered, leaning down to kiss her. He did, and as her mouth opened, her tongue welcoming him in, he groaned. Damn…it had been such a long time since she'd felt like playing seductress, and he was already burning way past mere desire. He pulled her into him as tightly as he could, eager to feel all of her body.

They broke apart, and Hyde breathed rather heavily down on her. He looked at her eyes, meeting his so easily. She always did. She was never afraid to look at him, to see him. Even when he was afraid to see himself. He smiled slightly. "You sure you feel up to this?" He reached up and ran his fingers against the side of her head, through her raven hair. It was shorter than she'd ever had it, only about four inches in length, but cut in a cute style. She still wore her wig all the time, except when they were alone. He was the only one she'd let see her without the wig.

And for some reason, that little thing made him feel so….good. Important to her. He'd never been important to anyone else. Always been easily discarded by those who supposedly loved him. But Jackie…Jackie wasn't everyone else. Wasn't like his parents. He'd learned that, and now he truly believed it.

Jackie nodded, but suddenly felt worried, nervous. "Yeah….uh…do you…do you want me to put my wig on?" He'd always loved her hair. She used to brush it over his chest afterwards, and it made him shiver with renewed passion. But now she was still practically bald. She couldn't feather her hair over him. And maybe she wasn't as sexy with her short hair…she hated her short hair. "My hair's so short…so ugly…"

Hyde shook his head. "No. It's cute, dollface." His eyebrows raised and his smile turned dirty. "Besides…it gives me lots and lots of room to do this."

Her eyes fell closed and a sensual warmth released through her body when his lips began nibbling with abandon on her neck. How she loved his kisses! Even more so since the surgery. He kissed her differently, somehow, with more of himself, it seemed. Or maybe she just felt him more because of having almost lost him. And her own life. "Steven," she breathed, arching her neck for his searching mouth. "I…oh…I just…I just wanna be…sexy for you….oh god, Steven…"

He stopped tasting and looked at her. "Jackie," he said, his hands roaming around her back and playing with the bow ties. "You're standing in front of me wearing only scarves. You're about to be naked. Trust me. You're sexy." He gently turned her around and stood as close to her backside as he could with room enough to begin untying the scarves. He bent his head down to her neck and lightly suckled up to her ear. One scarf gone, and his hands briefly slid to her front to cup her newly exposed chest. "So sexy, Jackie…god….damn…"

The lightheadedness Jackie felt now was so much better than the dizziness she'd been experiencing off and on since the surgery. And the reason her body was collapsing into Steven was because of the way he was touching her, not because she was indescribably fatigued. She closed her eyes and completely gave herself up to him, lost herself in him, whispering his name and turning to torture him with her own kisses and heated touches.

Afterwards, for almost twenty minutes, the couple lay in silence. Jackie rested her head on his shoulder, close to his head, and he turned his face towards her. His nose swam in her short but as always, sweet-smelling and silky hair.

It had been a long road to this moment, one that started such a long time ago neither of them remembered exactly when. Had it been that day he'd taught her the art of Zen? When she'd bought him the boots he still had and still wore? Or maybe the day she'd brought pot to him, the day he went to jail for her. It could have been later, that Veteran's Day first date, first kiss. Then again, it could have been that hot summer day in the basement, watching The Price Is Right. Kissing until forced to stop by Eric's unwelcome arrival.

When had it started? When had they started?

Jackie smiled slightly and ran her fingertips over Steven's sexy, slightly hairy chest. Didn't matter when they'd started. What mattered was that they'd never ended, even when they'd been apart. Whatever it was that kept them drawn to one another was so potent that it had and could never end. She was convinced of that now, and she hoped to God that he was too.

Hyde nudged his shoulder up slightly. "You sleeping?" He smiled when she shook her head "no" against him. Yeah, he loved it when she cuddled up to him, although he'd deny it until his dying day. Didn't matter. She knew, and that was all that mattered. "I uh…somehow I doubt your mother would approve of the way we just used those scarves. Although, I gotta say, I enjoyed it very much, and we can do it again as many times as you wanna."

Jackie giggled and lifted up to look down at him, and he tried as hard as he could to look at her face and not the pert little breasts so exposed to him by her position.

She sighed, and her smile faded. "Steven, my mom didn't really send those scarves to me, did she?" She'd been wondering this, truthfully, since the moment she'd opened that present.

He stared at her. Damn. He was caught. How had she figured it out? "What? Jackie, of course she did."

She smiled and shook her head. Her eyes wandered down to his chest and she watched her own fingers draw patterns on him. "No…she didn't. I mean, it's been eight months, and she hasn't even called. You'd think she would have, even just to see how I liked the scarves."

Hyde groaned inwardly. Damn it. He should have thought of that. Should have sent a fake card or postcard or something. "Jackie…"

She leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. "Did you buy them for me? And pretend they were from my mom?"

"I…" He rolled his eyes. Might as well admit it. "Yeah. Look, I just wanted you…I mean, you were going into surgery. I didn't want you to feel like…"

"Like my mother didn't love me?" She smiled slightly and leaned down, pressing her chest to his stomach and resting her chin on his chest. "You wanted to protect me. Even though I know….I know that she doesn't."

He stared at her. Her eyes were closed, and he knew her well enough to know that she was fighting tears. That little girl longing for her mommy was still there, even though she knew it was a battle she'd long ago lost. She was always going to be there, and he knew he'd always have to try to spin the pain away from her. "Well, hey. Who cares, right? I mean, you've got Mrs. Forman. She loves it when you call her mom."

Jackie nodded and swallowed the bitterness of unshed tears. "And…I have you?" Her whisper was a question, her voice fraught with sudden insecurity and a desperate need for reassurance.

Hyde smirked. "Just as long as you keep wearing the scarves like you did today." She giggled, but it sounded a little forced, and he sighed. "Dollface, I'm not going anywhere. I've hung around this long, haven't I?"

She nodded and smiled somewhat sheepishly. "I know…I just…" She lay back down on her boyfriend. Her ear was directly above his heart, and the beating of it comforted her. This whole time, he'd been there. Even when she wasn't herself, when she'd been angry and hateful, or too depressed or sick feeling to do anything at all…he'd been there. Not always saying the right things, or doing the right things, and he still insisted on being brutally honest when she wanted him to lie to her. But he'd always been there. "I just get so scared sometimes, Steven, that you're gonna leave…like my mom and dad did."

She squeezed her arm around him tight, to hold him closer, he guessed, and he lay there, almost paralyzed by the weird sensation of being the one needed. Of being the one someone else was scared of losing. She was scared of losing him.

Huh.

He'd never dreamed that he could be that to someone. That important to someone. That needed and desired by someone.

That loved by someone.

"You know what the best moment of my life was?"

Her voice was fluid and sleepy, and Hyde grinned. She always got her most sappy and honest when she was just about to fall asleep. Sometimes she said things she later on blushed at having said. Like that one time she'd told him he'd given her more pleasure during one round of sex than Kelso had in all the times they did it combined. "What, dollface?"

Jackie's eyes felt so heavy, she wanted to sleep. But she wanted him to know, this, too. "When I woke up in the hospital and the first thing I saw was you."

Hyde furrowed his brow. "Jackie, you didn't recognize me when you woke up. You thought I was your doctor." And it had been the worst feeling in the world, her eyes looking at him with such confusion and absolutely no recognition at all. Luckily, it hadn't lasted long at all, but those moments were the worst of his life. Well, second to the hours and hours her surgery had dragged on.

Jackie nodded. "I know, but then when I did remember you, I remembered that you were the first one I saw. And I knew…I knew that you'd stayed with me."

Hyde stared at the ceiling. Stayed with her. That was apt. He'd paced the hospital halls, sat in the hospital waiting room, beat up two or three vending machines…all the while, his mind in the operating room with her. He shook his head. Never thought he'd ever be that obsessive. "You wanna know the best moment of my life?"

Jackie giggled. "The first time you saw me naked?"

Hyde grinned. She'd changed a little since the surgery, was a bit quieter, even a bit shy at times, but still vibrant, still confident almost to a fault, though he understood that part of her by now. "Okay, the second best moment of my life." He had to admit, the first time he'd seen her naked had to be at the top. Damn. That had been absolutely spectacular.

"Tell me."

"When you gave me my glasses back."

Jackie sat up, and her eyes flashed at him. His glasses? His damn GLASSES? Here she'd just told him that waking up to him was the best moment of her life and his was when she gave him his glasses back? "I should have known. Your precious glasses. Was that all you were worried about that whole time?"

She started to pull get off the cot, but Hyde quickly sat up. He grabbed her and pulled her squirming body to his. "Damn it, Jackie, stop," he hissed, angry at her for overreacting and at himself for saying it the way he had. She kept squirming, kept trying to get away, and so he rolled her to her back and climbed on top of her. He trapped her there with his body. "Just listen, okay?"

She closed her eyes.

"Jackie…" He sighed and shook his head. God, why did she have to make everything so damn difficult? "Look, what I meant was that when you gave me my sunglasses back…" His throat tightened. "It meant that you were coming home…" His eyes involuntarily rolled. Yep. Yet another Forman moment. "To me."

Her eyes flew open, her sleepiness entirely forgotten, her anger completely dissolved, and stared at him with her lips parted.

Coming home to him. To him.

He wanted her with him, always. He wanted to be with her. To take care of her. To protect her. To love her.

Tears filled her eyes, and she gave him a shaky smile. "Steven…"

He smiled and brushed his fingers over her lips. "Now, can I tie you up with those damn scarves?"

Jackie laughed and slapped his butt. "Pig!"

"You know it, baby!"

About an hour later, Hyde lay on his cot, waiting for Jackie to come back downstairs with the beer and snacks she'd offered to get. It seemed to take her forever, and he had the oddest sensation. Like she was never going to come back.

And that feeling made his stomach hurt. Badly. Almost like the way his stomach had throbbed the entire time she was in surgery. He shifted on his cot, suddenly unable to find a position his muscles found comfortable.

God. Even his body wanted her here. He was getting to be exactly like Forman, wanting to cry like a baby when his woman wasn't around.

He hated it.

And he loved it. Because he knew how it would feel when she did come back. When she was back close to him.

He'd be at home.

Home.

Damn, Jackie, hurry up!

"Sorry it took me so long, Puddin' Pop, but Fez tried to steal some of the candy. I had to beat him off with a stick!" She grinned and plopped down on the cot with the treasures she'd stolen from the kitchen upstairs. "Of course, I always have to beat him off with a stick, even when I don't have candy. He thinks I'm a goddess! Which, of course, I am!"

He grinned at her as she started handing him stuff, a beer, a bag of chips. She reached up and pulled off her wig and tossed it away, to the floor, then smiled at him, that huge, million watt smile of hers.

He knew.

And it was time.

"Hey, Jackie," he said. "I uh…you remember when you told me you needed to know if we'd get married?"

Jackie's heart stopped beating, and all her functions nearly shut down. She had to force herself not to look at him, because if she did, he'd see in her eyes the hope now racing up and down her body. She noticed that her fingers, holding her can of beer, were now shaking, and though she tried, she couldn't steady them.

Life stood still for her. Everything stopped.

"Oh…." She could hardly speak. "Uh…yeah, I…I remember, Steven."

He took a few deep breaths. Was he really going to do this? Commitment? To Jackie Burkhardt? A former cheerleader who adored shopping, unicorns, Donny Osmond and disco music?

She's my home.

"Well, here's the deal. If you say yes…" Another deep breath. "If you say yes, we will."

Her beer fell to the floor. The bag of candy she was also holding fell to the floor. She flipped her head around and stared at her boyfriend.

Oh my god…oh my god…did he…is he…

"Steven," she breathed, hardly feeling anything except for an amazing surreality. "Did you just…are you…"

He smiled. "I'm not saying it again, Jackie, so…"

"OH MYGOD! YES!"

She pounced on him, knocking his beer and the chips out of his hands and to the floor. It didn't matter. And her shock didn't matter. She'd have time enough for disbelief. Time enough to sit in wonder at the fact that Steven Hyde had just proposed marriage to her. Right now, she had to act.

Hyde laughed when her small body landed on his with enough force to take his breath away, but it was smothered by her mouth. She kissed him wildly, with so much passion that he thought they both might suffocate on each other.

Hell, he wouldn't complain. Suffocating on her kisses would be a great way to go.

When she finally drew back, he rubbed her bottom and smiled up at her flushed, beautiful face. "So…is that a yes?"

"Oh, god, Steven, yes!"

Another wild, long kiss.

"Steven," she panted after pulling back. Her eyes darted back and forth between his. All of her felt on fire, with desire for him, and with the knowledge that he wanted to marry her. HER! He wanted to MARRY her! And she hadn't even had to give him an ultimatum! "Steven, not that I'm complaining…" Her eyes narrowed. "And I'm not taking my 'yes' back so don't think you can get out of this, but why now? I didn't think…I mean, I didn't think you were ready to be married. You told me that."

He shrugged and slipped his hand up the back of the tee shirt, one of his, she wore. God, her back was sexy. He still wanted to breathe and kiss and lick every inch of that back. He'd have to do that. Tonight. "I just…" His smirk faded; her eyes were in him, seeing him the way she always could and did. "You convinced me."

Jackie's eyes welled up with tears, tears she'd always dreamed of but never really dared to hope for. He was ready to get married. To her. SHE was the one this amazing man, this smart, funny, sexy, masculine, tender-on-the-very-very-inside man wanted to spend the rest of his life with. "Yeah, well of course I did," she said, her voice breaking. "I'm pretty convincing, huh?"

He nodded, and his hands moved to the back of her head. "You are, Jackie," he whispered, just before pulled her down so he could kiss her again. "And I…" their kisses shortened to sweet little bites, over and over, both pairs of eyes open and staring into the other. "I love you."

She tried to smile, and for once, didn't at all mind the tears. Didn't mind that she probably looked horrible. Didn't mind that he was seeing into her, into her heart the way he always could and did. "I love you, Steven."

After a few moments of lying on his chest, crying for joy and listening to his heart race, then settle down, Jackie raised herself up and smiled sexily down at her boy….no…her fiancé. "So…can I tie you up with those scarves now?"

Hyde nodded quickly. "Oh, HELL yeah!"

Oh hell yeah.

This was home. With her. Forever.

One year later

Hyde stood in front of the flowery alter, nervous as hell, wishing to GOD that he'd taken part in a circle before the ceremony, wishing to GOD he'd had about ten beers.

Why am I doing this again?

Jackie stood just outside the church, behind the closed doors, her arm hooked through Red Forman's. Her stomach danced with ten thousand butterflies.

Why am I doing this again?

The door opened, and immediately, Jackie's eyes met Steven's. He looked so handsome. No glasses, a tuxedo, his hair relatively tame. Broad shoulders, slim but strong, manly body. Sideburns still, but no beard.

And she smiled. He was there. Waiting for her. Wanting her. Loving her.

Now I remember. He loves me enough to be convinced. He knows just like I do, finally, how right we are for one another. And God, I've never loved him more than I do today.

Hyde swallowed hard, and tried to find breath. She was beautiful. Gorgeous. An absolute angel in her wedding gown, the veil making her look like a demure porcelain doll. Her long-again hair swept up on top of her head in a mass of curls, crowned by a circle of white roses. She glowed pure beauty.

He smiled. There she was. Coming to him. Wanting him. Loving him.

Now I remember. She loves me enough to do everything she can to convince me of it. She knows how much…how right she is for me. And God…I've never loved her more than I do today.

Just a few hours later, well into their wedding reception, Jackie Burkhardt (or as she forced everyone to call her, Mrs. Steven Hyde) once again convinced her new husband to stay until all their guests left with the promise of a long night of no sleep and lots of playing with silk scarves.

As always, Steven Hyde let himself be convinced.

Because after all, his pretty little dollface was a hell of an expert at convincing him. And something told him that she always would be.

The End