Conclusion: Trust In Me

Disclaimer: "That 70's Show" is Casey-Werner's property, not mine, I make no profit from their gains. Also went a little crazy with the songficness, so all lyrics, from the following songs:

"Don't Leave Me This Way" - by Thelma Houston

"Rock With You" - by Michael Jackson

"Even The Losers" - by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

...are property of their respective record companies / publishers, creators, etc. etc. No copyright infringement is intended; please don't sue, my bills are overdue.

And as usual, this is a happy-ending Jackie & Fez pairing that contains massive smut. Y'all know where to turn if that's not your thing, and y'all know what to do if it is. Thanks for reading; though I've enjoyed every bit, for all intensive purposes this should be my last 70's fanfic.

4 pm.

October, 1978.

Eric Forman's basement...

"You know, that sweater wasn't on sale or anything. I paid full price for it." Michael's smirk curled up into a proud little grin. "Pretty sweet, huh?"

Jackie closed her eyes briefly and resisted the urge to slap that satisfied look off his face. "Yes," she replied slowly. "But it gets less sweet the more you talk about it."

Michael waved her off. "Sorry, I'm done. Twenty-seven dollars. I'm done." Then under his breath, "Paid extra for the gift wrap."

Ugh, never in her life was Jackie so glad to see that skinny neighbor boy come trudging down the stairs, with gloom hanging over his head and drama primed to unload itself on his ever-patient lumberjack of a fiancee. Jackie grunted and dropped her weight beside Donna, content to let someone else's issues filter inside her sheltered brain for once. Anything other than the tangled web she'd spun between all but two of her best friends was refreshing, and Jackie couldn't even feel sorry for herself now. All of this was her own doing, a result of all her fleeting obsessions colliding at once. She rolled her eyes to herself; Eric noticed and scowled, likely thinking she'd meant to insult him. Jackie looked away, lost in her thoughts.

God, could she be any more stupid?! Tossing one obsession to the wind after it deserted her one time too many; chaining herself to the other obsession in what had started as a way to keep her first obsession's attention piqued. Now she had to tell herself Hyde - no, Steven, it was Steven now - was a way to find some kind of security, now that she'd overheard that one "discussion" between her mom and dad - the hysterical, screeching one involving the cabin, and the bank accounts, and the house she'd lived in all her life. At least she knew Steven would eventually provide a roof over her head as long as she kept providing the friendly benefits. He was the kind of grease monkey a girl could depend on as a solid backup plan if she nagged him enough; Michael could be depended on to bestow sweet comments on her and the occasional fluffy present on forgotten birthdays. Funny...most of those attributes used to apply to someone else. Someone who barely talked to her anymore. Someone whom she used to love and trust with all her heart, but the damned fear inside made her a coward around him. It always had. And he knew it.

He was definitely flaunting that knowledge now, too. What with that tightwad dirty-blonde beast he'd been parading around on his arm (where Jackie should have been parading), holding dinner parties for (dinner parties that should have been for Jackie), torturing Jackie with altogether every time he spoke her name. Nina this, Nina that, Nina freaking everything! Just like he'd done with Rhonda, like with Caroline, and most of all with that annoying dipwad Patti. Again, though, all her fault. She could have been an adult about it. She could have stayed by his side after spending the night with him, could have told all her friends she was with a foreign prince - those dumb bitch cheerleaders would believe pretty much anything that came out of her mouth. It would've been easy once her parents and her real circle of friends got over themselves, and once Jackie herself had gotten over all the old messages the former had stuffed down deep into her psyche. But no. No, too many times she'd thrown away her chances with Fez, and so she'd substituted someone else in his rightful place, just so that huge, gaping hole in her chest would be filled up with something - anything. Anyone. She'd closed the greatest of doors, permanently.

The basement door swung open then, startling Jackie out of her reverie. There stood Hy - Steven, dammit, Steven! - and Fez, both glowing, both beaming like idiots. Why was her stomach sinking all of a sudden?

"Attention, everyone." Hyde's voice boomed in the tiny room. "Our friend Fez has some wonderful news."

That starry, triumphant grin was unnerving her. An urge struck Jackie suddenly to jump up and leave the room, maybe without ever going back.

"Knock, knock!"

Michael's voice answered from somewhere behind the couch. "Who's there?"

"I did it!!" Fez crowed, casting his eyes to the ceiling. Voices erupted all around Jackie, whose stomach had now pretty much crashed down through the floor. She stared at him, concentrating as hard as she could in spite of all the talking. This was not happening. This was not happening.

"All right!"

"Way to go, buddy!"

"Oh, my God!"

Jackie gave a start and looked around her, realizing she'd voiced this aloud. Nobody seemed to have noticed...except for Fez, whose eyes were boring into hers like hot pokers. Taunting her, making it clear she'd given him exactly the reaction he'd expected. Jackie stiffened indignantly. And what right did he have in the first place, that lying foreign sleaze? No right, that's what, no right whatsoever to just throw away the one sweetest moment they'd had together and hand his frigid whorey blonde-beast all the credit! Resentment roared to a boil inside her.

"Wait, I want to hear this," Michael was saying. "I did it who?"

Jackie fixed Fez with a condescending stare and a smile as he sank down between herself and Donna. "Fez," she cooed, patting his firm thigh. "I can't believe you finally lost your virginity!"

Fez stared back until Jackie was forced to look away, over at Steven, who was settling into the lawn chair next to the ratty couch. "Wait, this isn't like the time you got a hamster, named it Virginity and then lost it, is it?" Eric asked. Fez looked up and grinned rather evilly.

"No." His tone was lilting. His eyes turned on Jackie. "This is the real thing."

"I had a hamster once," Michael mused aloud. "Tied him to a helium balloon with a note. He made it all the way to Minnesota."

Eric turned to Michael. "Alive?"

Michael gave him a look and ripped open his popsicle wrapper. "No, I'm gonna send a dead hamster up in a balloon."

"Well, little buddy, I always knew you could do it," Her third obsession said to the first - the only, Jackie was realizing. Not the world's best feeling. "I just figured you'd be forty and it would be out of pity."

Jackie wanted so badly to glare at that frizzy ball-and-chain but she managed to restrain herself. Barely. Wasn't that always the way?

Eric was laughing. "So, tell us about it."

Please don't, Jackie entreated silently. You know, Fez. We both know. And I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but please, please don't do this to me, not to my face. Please.

"It was incredible," Fez proclaimed, and Jackie's heart sank. "Nina and I started kissing in the living room, and then we moved into the bedroom, where we undressed. And then, well..." His voice dropped; so did his face. "We did it."

Michael made a sort of excited scoffing sound as he plunked down in Steven's usual chair. "Details, Fez, we need details!"

No, we don't, Michael, she thought, we really don't. But she watched and listened to Fez anyway, just out of sheer morbid curiosity. The boy with skin of brown sugar heaved a grandiose sigh. "Well, our faces didn't line up right, so I kept...bumping my chin on her nose. And there were sounds."

Immediately: "What kind of sounds?"

Fez glanced across at Steven. "Well, I will say this, it was not applause. And there was no romantic music, like in the movies, so I had to hum."

Jackie gaped at him, eyes wide. Oh, he was a horrible liar, just horrible! And why couldn't anyone see it? Why were they just drinking it all in obediently? God, everyone had to know by now that Fez wasn't nearly the loveless, porn-addict, closet-voyeur loser he claimed to be; lately even the goons on the football team were starting to leave him alone, and she had seen Pam Macy and all her slut friends appreciatively sizing him up, giggling every time he strolled past them in those skintight corduroys - yeah, that once creepy-and-unnatural foreign boy had been a changed man for a long time, all thanks to Jackie. So why couldn't these four see the truth standing stark naked there in plain sight? But then again, how could she expect everyone else to see what she could never let herself accept?

Oh, my God. Jackie glanced over at Steven, then over at Michael, and lastly at Fez. I'm an idiot, a stupid, stupid tramp. I've ruined everything. And now he gets to rub it in my face!

"...And then Nina told me to stop humming, but then I started again without realizing it, and then she got mad, and then I think she got sad."

Sad? Sad?! You want to know sadness, Fez? You foreign jackass, you wouldn't know sad if I beat you over the head and cracked your skull open with it! You have no idea how it feels to have lost everything good in your life forever. None at all.

"Don't worry, Fez." Jackie pouted at him and took the opportunity to squeeze his thigh one last time. Then the wind-up...and the pitch: "She probably just felt bad because she was doing it with a foreigner."

Oh, yes, she felt everyone in the room giving her the evil eye, especially Donna, who was wearing one of those how-can-you-stand-to-be-this-cruel looks on her face. Fez, though, barely gave Jackie the benefit of a glance. "And afterwards, I went in the bathroom and cried a little, and then I snuck out the back door."

No, you did not! The scream was building in Jackie's throat. You didn't hum, you didn't bump anyone's nose, and you sure as hell didn't cry in anyone's bathroom! She is not your goddess! I am your goddess, you made love to me, lost your precious virginity to me! We spent half the night in my car and you made me come three times, and I know because I've been vibrating the memory away every night ever since! Every time I had sex with Michael, every time Steven has sex with me, I'm always having sex with you - no, no, no, no, no, not just Having Sex, I'm making love to you! You were the one who showed me what the difference was. You won titles for me and tried to help me win them by myself, you drove me home untouched when you thought I was drunk, you always listened, really listened to me when I had no one else to turn to! You were a true friend, and you didn't just want me for my money or my body like these other two peasants! You wanted me for me. And now it's like you couldn't care less.

Donna was laying her arm around him and pulling him close to her body; Jackie couldn't have felt more jealous if she tried. "Poor Fez. At least it couldn't have been any worse."

Fez gave another sigh. "I left my underwear in her bathroom."

Everyone groaned - Jackie hoped with sympathy - at the admission and crowded around to pat Fez on the back anyway. She remembered how he'd left his briefs underneath the passenger seat and how she'd found them the morning after Steven's party, remembered sneaking down to the laundry room and washing them so she could slip them back to Fez later with a hidden kiss and a grateful smile. A little bemused smirk curled up the corners of her lips; at least he'd kept one detail relatively intact, meaning he still remembered. Which could have meant he still cared. Which could have meant that someday, if their stars realigned...oh, who was she kidding? He might have remembered, but this...this clearly demonstrated how little he gave a damn anymore. Jackie sighed to herself, casting a resigned look at a distracted Steven. Suck it up, Jackie Burkhardt. He's no Fez; heck, he's no Michael. But being with Hyde is better than nothing, which is exactly what you're left with if you give him up too.

Hours later, after being bestowed with a lovely used Zeppelin tee and, she figured, officially claimed as her polar opposite's trophy, Jackie was shivering heatedly underneath a strangely passionate Steven in the El Camino's back seat, feeling safer and lighter in the cover of darkness. Her eyes were closed; her body was responsive, and as a result her mind was free to drift, free to relent to him and to the sensations of comfort his touch provided. And then, out of nowhere, "Dream On" came on the radio, adding insult to already festering injuries. Her skin instantly felt the memories of being caressed, teased, explored by Fez's caring hands, being tasted, penetrated, possessed by true love. And that was when Jackie began to cry. Looking back on it, Jackie would remember the horrified look on Steven's face, how quickly he'd backed off and how profusely he'd apologized, like he'd thrust into her too hard or something. Jackie, mortified, had assured him between sobs not to worry, he hadn't done anything to hurt her, it wasn't his fault.

"Steven, I'm sorry. I-I guess I'm just not in the mood anymore," she said miserably, and Hyde's eyes had narrowed with gentle suspicion. Jackie cried harder, knowing how much less gentle that suspicion would've been had he any idea who she was really grieving over. She sat up and pushed him aside, sniffling.

"Can I change the station?"

He studied her. "Sure."

Once she'd wiggled back into her panties, Jackie climbed over the passenger seat and flipped the dial until she landed on a disco station playing "Don't Leave Me This Way". She flopped back down next to a still half-naked Steven and nestled against him, letting her tears flow as the song bounced along, trying to flush out her pain.

"Don't leave me this way, I can't survive

I can't stay alive

Without your love, oh baby don't leave me this way, no..."

"Jackie..." Hyde said slowly while she continued to sob. "Um, call me crazy, but I'm beginning to suspect that something might be, oh, I don't know, bothering you."

"I can't exist, I'll surely miss

Your tender kiss...don't leave me this way..."

"No," she said to his chest. "It's nothing."

"Uh-huh. If you say so."

"I say so."

"Ohhhh, baby!

My heart is full of love and desire for you

Now come on down and do what you've got to do..."

"It's just that...it's just that you almost never cry. You're a chronic whiner, but you are not generally a crier. Especially not when there's disco music playing in my presence, cause I know how you love to drive me insane with that shit. You should be laughing your ass off at me right now. And you're not. Which in turn indicates to me that something is wrong." Pause. "And if something is wrong, you should be yakking my ear off about it. But you're not. And that makes me more than a little nervous."

"You started this fire down in my soul

Now can't you see it's burning, out of control!"

"Because that would mean that something's really, really wrong." Steven gave the top of her head a light, uncertain little noogie. "C'mon. Unload on me. Annoy the hell out of me so I can sleep in peace tonight, huh?"

"Come on and satisfy the need in me,

Cause only your good lovin' can set me free

Set me free!"

I'm crying because you're right, Steven Hyde, she thought. You and I aren't meant to be a couple. We're forcing this. We're going to end up old, fat, and miserable together because we can't stand each other, but it's too late to turn back now and neither of us can even say it aloud.

"I'll be okay, Steven." Jackie patted his knee briskly. "I'm, um, I'm just PMS-ing. That's all."

"Then shouldn't you be yelling at me, or shaming me into buying you diamonds or something?"

"Steven Hyde! Since when do you have the right to tell me what to do with my raging hormones?!"

His laughter surprised her. "Yeah, see, like that! That's the Burkhardt I know and love!"

Jackie squinted at him, her heart thumping. "Steven, you - you love me?"

"Set me free, set me free, set me free..."

Hyde's face froze. "Uhhhhmm...I love parts of you," he cracked.

Jackie shook her head, feeling stupid for even posing the question aloud. No, no, of course you don't. You can't. You have no idea how and you're not even the type of guy who could learn. Unlike some people who prove their feelings so often they leave no doubts in your heart, and mind, that you're the one they love.

"That's okay, you don't have to say it," she said quietly, that gross tear-lump thickening again in her throat. "I already know."

"Aw, come on, Jackie - "

"No, no, you know what, Hyde, just forget it! Forget it. Just hold me for a few, okay? And then take me home. I'm tired."

"Don't you understand?"

Hyde frowned as if to say something else, and Jackie realized her mistake a moment too late. Of course, it could be easily explained away later as just a pointed barb at his pride, but each mistake she made exposed more and more of her secrets. The hole in her chest now felt like an open, stinging wound, bleeding and weeping. It hurt so badly...Jackie wondered while she wallowed in Hyde's arms if she'd ever be able to get over Fez for good.

"I'm at your command..."

She wondered if she'd ever stop obsessing about what could've been. If she'd ever forgive herself for literally taking him in only to push him away. If this stupid conscience of hers would ever finally let her get on with her life, with or without him.

"Baby, don't, don't leave me this way..."

..."Ow."

"Don't leave me this way, no..."

"Ow, damn!"

Jackie shook herself aware, away from the past, and fully forced herself back into the present. She looked over at Eric, who was grunting and shifting uneasily on the oddly-shaped lilac pleather couch. No matter which way he turned himself, his bony frame just couldn't get comfortable on those large rounded ridges. "Seriously, Jackie, this is the weirdest piece of furniture I've ever tried to sit on. This is ridiculous."

"It's trendy," Jackie offered lamely, giggling. Which was true; Le Disco had apparently gone through quite a few upgrades since she'd danced there last. Gone were most of the glittering silver streamers, replaced by a brand new array of tiny red and blue strobe lights. The skinny black dinette sets that once accented the expansive room had been ditched in favor of this huge, club-encircling purple divan. The smooth wood parquet dance floor had been ripped up and replaced with a rather delicious state-of-the-art LED model, which now was flashing and throbbing to the same Thelma Houston song that had triggered those old, sad memories. But that was okay! Y'know, change was proving to be a far more positive force than she'd ever given it credit for.

"Fuzzy Navel for you," Fez suddenly announced, placing the tall drink in front of her. "And Sex on the Beach for me."

"But there aren't any beaches in Wisconsin," Jackie replied, grinning wickedly.

"It hardly matters," he quipped, returning the grin with a lingering, breath-light kiss as he reclaimed his seat beside her. She took a delicate sip from her drink and watched Donna teeter over to Eric's side of the table, nearly dropping his cola. "And a virgin Coke for my not-so-virgin high school schweeeetieeee," she cooed, sliding next to him with a tipsy laugh. "My Coke's not a virgin either! Shhhhhh!"

"Yeah. Um, and how much rum found it's way in there this time?" Eric asked her, pointedly looking at the collection of glasses that had accumulated in front of his girlfriend over the course of the night. Donna snorted and grinned at him.

"Ooh, quite a bit, Forman, quite a bit," she replied matter-of-factly. "But I am not drunk, I'm just bah-liss-fully happy. There is a difference."

"You...may be a mix of both, there, m'lady."

Jackie noticed the beats pulsing from the sound system were slowing down, segueing into a familiar monotonous tempo; across the table, Donna's eyes immediately lit up at the first notes of "Miss You".

"No way!" She slapped the table, laughing. Everyone's glasses rattled. "No way, man, they're actually playing the Stones in a disco? Real music?" Grinning, Donna hauled back a good portion of her drink and grabbed for Eric's hand. "Oh, we have got to take advantage of this. Come on!"

Eric squeaked in protest as his girlfriend practically dragged him out of the booth. "Wait! Donna! Wait, I - "

But the newly reborn redhead was already wading her way through the crowd, taking Eric along whether he liked it or not. "C'mon, 'Rainbow', show Mama your skills, baby!"

Fez and Jackie sat back and watched, laughing quietly to each other at the spectacle their friends were making of themselves. Jackie bent towards her boyfriend's ear.

"What do you think? Should we go out there and save them?"

He gave a breathy kind of snicker and took a sip from his glass. "No," Fez replied, shaking his head. "No, amour, let them have their fun. At least until everyone else starts to show signs of serious trauma; then maybe we can intervene."

Jackie laughed and nestled closer to his body. Funny, she mused. Always she'd craved, and demanded, verbal and monetary proof of someone's devotion to her; now none of it was necessary, and a damn good thing, too, cause if this was going to be another one of those relationships, Jackie'd hang up her lucky stilettos for good and switch teams altogether. Her first boyfriend had made her feel pretty; the second had encouraged her to toughen up. But Fez...Fez somehow had managed to give her stability. In his arms, Jackie felt safe, like the world could blow up around them but they'd still come out unscathed. Now that primal one-on-one chemistry between the two of them - the same thing that once had frightened her to no end - finally felt natural, and this tired little former rich girl finally felt a sense of...what was that thing Midge always used to babble about?...oh yeah, inner peace, or something. Right. A happy sigh escaped as her leg shifted over to slide its way in between her lover's toned thighs, against his rising heat; her fingers absently traced lines up and down his chest. She heard him murmur wordlessly, a sure sign she was getting to him. Jackie smiled and bit her lip; Fez smiled back, raising an eyebrow.

"Now what's gotten into you?"

"I can't help it, this just makes me so happy. You make me happy." Her eyes closed as she breathed in the cool, piquant scent of his cologne. "And I really want to thank you."

"Mmm, for what, darling?"

"Oh, it sounds so sappy, but...for forgiving me when I was mean. For being so patient with me, and being a friend to me even when I wasn't being one for you, and just for...everything. I've said it before, I know, but I can't say it enough. You've never been a backup plan. You've always been my rock, Fez, always giving me a shoulder to cry on when I needed it, no matter what, and I'm just - God, I'm just so happy you decided to stay here with me."

She felt him hesitating and clenched up a little inside. "Don't even tell me you're having second thoughts, Fez."

"Now, see, what did I just tell you last night? Did I not tell you I would not be so stupid as to lose you again? Didn't I?"

"Well, then, what's your deal? You're like, uptight all of a sudden."

Fez leaned away from her slightly, closing his eyes. "I need to confess something to you, Jacqueline."

The clenching worsened; Jackie wanted to cry. Oh, no. Not another woman, not him too.

"When I told you I wouldn't be your 'backup plan' anymore..." Another, longer sip from the Mai Tai. Fez swallowed and reclined back to her. "How do I say this...I went to great lengths to keep that promise intact. I'm not proud of the things I did, but they are the truth."

"Okay," Jackie ventured. "I'm really, really afraid to ask, but what exactly did you do?"

Fez smiled, ruefully shaking his head. "Well, for one, I never hid in Donna's closet for any other purpose than for a place to sleep when I had none. Anything I could do to make myself seem like a freak, I did - including, unfortunately, letting you think I'd been bedding every available woman in Point Place."

Jackie stared at him. "You mean you weren't...and you didn't - but-but you were always in your bathrobe in the mornings!" She stammered, and frowned at how stupid that sounded aloud. He laughed. "True, but I never touched any of those girls. And when they tried touching me, I could never finish what they'd started, so we'd just end up talking all night. You of all people know how much I love the 'girl talk'."

Her jaw fell open. "Fez!" Her palm stung his chest; he recoiled. "That is not funny! That was disgusting to have to see, and I can't believe you - okay, well, I can believe you'd lie about something like that, cause that was always typical high-school-you behavior, but still! What the hell, girl talk?"

"Girl talk. Like at Vanstock, remember? It reminded me of the days when you and I used to park somewhere in someone else's car and talk for hours." His gaze trailed over to the swarming dance floor. "And I will be honest, I did manage to do it with Laurie, and with Nina, and poor Hilary, but in my mind and heart I was always seeing you in their place. That wasn't fair to any one of us." There was a heavy pause, and then a sigh. "Jackie, the truth is that I'd made the decision to leave long before the, um, argument. I'd talked to Fenton, well, really, I talked at Fenton about changing the lease over to your name and everything not long after Kelso moved away. I'd been talking to Andrew about it; he'd had me convinced it was the right thing to do."

Jackie tried to piece this together in her mind and felt her head starting to hurt. "But why?" She watched as his eyes closed, as if he were in pain, and reached out a hand to comfort him. "Fezzy? Why did you do all those things, baby?"

"Because, Jackie, I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't keep guessing your intentions, spending so much of my time obsessing over whether or not you truly wanted to be with me." He squinted a little and rubbed his forehead. "When you were the only one I'd ever wanted to be with."

Jackie sighed too, feeling heavy inside. So much wasted, she thought, and nestled back into his arms. "Fez. Fez, listen, I'm sorry too, okay? I'm sorry I went back to Michael. I'm sorry I went back to him again even after you and I got together in the car, and I'm really, really sorry about what happened with Hyde. I am. But Fez, I only stayed with him because you didn't seem to care about me anymore."

"Likewise."

Hot tears burned in Jackie's eyes. "I know. Hey, look, I thought we'd 'rewritten history' here, remember? Both of us screwed up, both of us paid for it and it's all totally over and done with, okay?" She patted his thigh and gazed up at him. "Fez, none of it changes the fact that you're still my best friend; I love you so much. I always have. Please, let's just let it go."

It took a while for the starry grin to resurface, but when it did, the relief felt so pure it could have made her levitate. "My Jackie, I've said it before and I'll say it again; I love you the most."

She giggled. "Let's just call it a draw."

"No, no, it's true." Then, in a lower, insinuating register: "I can prove it to you."

The outside world dissolved around her as he lifted her chin up to kiss her, lightly tasting her open mouth. Jackie eagerly reached for him and let herself melt away for a while...just for a little while...God, he tasted so damned good...and ooh, the song was changing again, oh, this one was just so much sexier than those icky old Rolling Stones. Her body flushed as he wrapped her in his arms, possessing her, causing her head to spin.

"Girl, close your eyes
Let that rhythm get into you..."

"Ay, my love," he breathed to her between hot, starving kisses, "any more of this and my needs will overwhelm us both, here in this booth."

"Don't try to fight it
There ain't nothin' that you can do..."

"I'm up for it if you are," she breathed back, very discreetly straddling his thigh and rubbing herself against him in a slow rhythm. He kissed her hard in response; her cry escaped against his mouth as his hands gripped her by the ass to help her along. Tiny shocks of heat sizzled up through her sex into her loins, again and again. Jackie moaned for him, wanting so badly to wriggle out of her wet panties right there and then...no one would see if they were careful...would they?

"Relax your mind
Lay back and groove with mine..."

"No...darling, wait. Wait." He pulled back, paused a moment to catch his breath, and delicately lifted her off his lap. "Not here." Fez nodded at the teeming, strobe-lit mass of dancers and took her hand. "Out on the floor."

Jackie drew back and squinted at him, trying to fan away the lust fogging her brain so she could process his words. "What...?" Do it on the floor? But there were way too many people out there...God, she wasn't that much of an exhibitionist!

"You got to feel that heat
And we can ride the boogie,"

Fez winked at her.

"Share that beat of love!"

A knife of logic sliced a path through the lust-fog; Jackie brightened with a big euphoric grin. "Oh!" She blurted, her hands fluttering excitedly at his chest. "Oh, Fezzy, I simply love the way you think."

He grinned back at her as they threaded through the crowd, to the center of the glowing dance floor. "Of course you do."

"I wanna rock with you (all night)
Dance you into day (sunlight)..."

Jackie strutted ahead a pace or two, then whirled around and let her lover embrace her form from behind, cradling his head against where her neck curved into her shoulder. One surprisingly strong hand slowly, slowly traced its way from the swell of her hip, up across her delicate ribs, up to caress and cup her breast possessively. She felt his breath on her skin, his hips mimicking the swaying rhythm and encouraging her to follow suit.

"I wanna rock with you (all night)
We're gonna rock the night away..."

She felt his body tense as his arm stretched out for her; Jackie picked up the cue and spun twice, three times, before whirling back into his arms as if gravity had no hold on her.

"Out on the floor
There ain't nobody there but us..."

Fez laughed softly and dipped her without warning, letting her head fall back and the rest of her arch elegantly backwards. Jackie let out a squeal, giggling. She closed her eyes and responded with her body, undulating herself up and against his gyrating hips, his hard stomach, finally up to his chest before fixing him with a filthy, telling gaze. "If I didn't know better, Fez, I'd think you were trying to tell me something," Jackie purred to him over the music, coming close enough for their noses to just barely touch.

"Girl, when you dance,
There's a magic that must be love..."

Fez leaned in to brush his lips against hers, teasing her until her lips opened to accept him, taste him, drink him in. Her head spun as the kiss quickly deepened, turning into something robust, exhibitionistic. His tongue flicked hers; she moaned into his mouth and pulled him closer. Still their hips followed the song's rhythm in sync, and a throbbing deep inside her followed suit.

"Just take it slow
'Cause we got so far to go..."

"Now do you believe?" he asked her in a luscious murmur, biting at her earlobe while both his hands drifted down for a quick squeeze of her posterior; Jackie gasped as his mouth sucked at the tender flesh of her neck, tormenting her, turning her sex to molten liquid heat. She tried not to moan, tried to form coherent speech, forced her lips and vocal chords to obey her commands.

"Believe what, lover?"

"When you feel that heat
Yeah, we're gonna ride the boogie..."

"That I'll do anything for you. Anything to you. Anything to satisfy you, make you happy. I want to spend my life by your side."

"Share that beat of love..."

"Oh, Fezzy..." Jackie wanted to cry; she reached up and kissed him hard instead. "God, that's just all I've ever wanted. Someone who would promise not to leave me. Someone I could trust to keep that promise. And you did."

"I wanna rock with you (all night)
Dance you into day (sunlight)..."

Another, gentler kiss. "I'm just sorry I didn't promise you sooner."

"I don't care," she whispered back with a smile. "Not anymore."

"I wanna rock with you (all night)
We're gonna rock the night away..."

She twirled out of his arms and traced a line across his shoulders as she trotted behind him, raking her nails lightly down his back. Their bodies collided once more; she felt Fez's hands on her everywhere, teasing her in response. One hand made its way under Jackie's skirt, easing her thigh up against his hip so she could feel him, right there. Their eyes met; something quivered low inside Jackie's stomach. Everything in her throbbed to the music as his hardness rubbed against her rhythmically. Distantly she was aware of eyes, countless pairs of eyes watching them and devouring every move they made, but the taste of him and the fire it stoked inside made her careless. Let them watch. Let them see what most people could only dream of having, cause Jackie Burkhardt had it now, and dammit, Jackie Burkhardt had earned every last bit. Fez had, too, simply by being the insanely patient accessory to her past crimes. They deserved this. This was their moment - no, this was their celebration.

"And when the groove is dead and gone... yeah
You know that love survives
So we can rock forever, on..."

He spoke her name then, his voice strained, lust-ridden. Jackie blinked at him.

"What would you say," he ventured, "if I told you there was a place we could have some...privacy?"

"Privacy, huh?" She leaned into his neck, craving his heat. "Hmm. I'd say that I'd love for you to show me this place."

"You...would not think I only want you for sex?"

"Um, no. You obviously don't."

"Then come with me," he answered, kissing her hand and leading her discreetly off of the floor.

Strobe lights flashed all over, scorching Eric's retinas no matter which way he turned. His precious Donna, on the other hand - delectable, sloshed, undulating Donna - was oblivious to this, still stumbling around in an attempt to dance and forcing Eric to keep preventing her from colliding with anyone nearby.

"Okay, doll, song's over, time to go sit down," he shouted over the thumping beat, unable to help cracking a smile at that sweet, intoxicated happiness on her face. Donna squinted at him a moment and then guffawed.

"But I like this music! I wanna keep dancin'!"

"You hate this song!"

"Nu-uh! I'm too drunk to care, everything sounds good now!" She let out a little happy yelp, sweeping both arms out and smacking a tall, built, slightly familiar man dancing with his tall and disturbingly spindly-looking friend. Both gentlemen glared at her, the spindly one assuming a haughty, hands-on-hips stance. Eric recognized him immediately and cast his eyes to the ceiling. Donna giggled.

"Sorry!" She crowed at them, grinning and swaying in place. "I'm sorry - oh, wow, hey guys! Wow, you two really make a beautiful couple..."

"Oh. Well. Isn't that just so sweet of you, honey," Fenton retorted, his tone oozing with disdain. His glare turned on Eric for a few uncomfortable seconds. "Don't get me wrong, I'm...happy...that you were able to trade back down and all, but do us all a favor and keep her the hell off our dance floor? Some of us want to seduce each other in peace. Come on, Chip."

And before Eric could come up with a rational reply, the two men linked hands and pushed forth, disappearing into the massive crowd. Pain started throbbing in his head in time to the song; he paused to rub his forehead. "Okay, Donna, what do you say we go sit down so I can, um...buy you another drink?"

To his relief, the redhead brightened at the idea and clutched onto his lean arm. "Yay! Can I get a Long Island Iced Tea this time? I love those things...remember I had them on our first date?"

"Yep. I'd just bought those shoes, too," he said, reminiscing. "But as long as it was you hurling on them, I didn't really care."

The closer they drew to their table, the harder Eric's heart began pounding against his sternum. That little brass circle was burning a hole in his pocket; he had to be crazy, really, he had to be, to try and pull off yet another ring with her. What was he thinking? Where was the Stupid Helmet when he needed it?

And why weren't Fez and Jackie still sitting where he'd left them only five, ten minutes ago?

"Goddamn it," he muttered, wiping a sheen of perspiration from his forehead. Donna giggled again.

"Uh-oh. Looks like our pals the lovebirds flew away to find another ne-est..."

"Apparently." He felt flushed; was the room spinning? "Oh, crap, crap, I promised the bouncer I'd keep them out of trouble - crap, where the hell are they? Donna, what are we going to do?"

Donna adopted a sympathetic pout and massaged his arm gently. "It's okay, Eric. If we can't see them, maybe nobody else can, either."

Eric again felt the ring burning his thigh, urging him on, and sighed. Whatever. His friends could do what they wanted; he wasn't about to go off searching for them, not right now when he had everything he loved right in the proverbial palm of his hand. He waited as Donna slid into the booth and gingerly sat down beside her.

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right, baby. At least now we're alone," he conceded, taking a deep breath and digging as discreetly as he could in the folds of his pocket. Donna watched with a buzzed, vague interest. Eric swallowed and cleared his throat, grateful the song had broken down into an instrumental bridge, and forced himself to speak.

"I brought you back something," he said, watching the redhead's face. She smiled.

"Yeah? Whad'ya bring me, neighbor boy? Cause I know it ain't a drink...yet."

Eric forced his heart back down his throat and produced the little decorated box. "Just something one of my students made for me," he said. "And we've had really weird, really bad luck with this kinda thing in the past, but that's actually what made me decide to get it made for you."

He lifted the lid; Donna leaned forward for a better look. "A ring?"

"Not just any ring. Not a promise ring, or a man-ring, or an engagement band or anything like that. Nothing heavy or anchor-like," Eric stammered, smiling. Keep going, Forman. Now or never again. "It's a sankofa bird," he said as Donna plucked the tiny brass trinket from its pillow with excessive care. "A symbol of learning from the past. See, the bird's flying forward while looking back - like, looking to the past to create a better future."

"Ooh, symbolic," Donna breathed, eyes alight. The pressure in Eric's chest eased up enough for him to continue. "Yep. It's worn as a good luck charm throughout Africa, as they say, 'to bring wisdom and prosperity in the future.' I, uh, I thought of you when I heard about it. And once I decided to ask my student for one, I also decided it'd be best to...um..." Cripes, his throat was closing. If Red could only see him now...Eric forged ahead. "I decided I had to give it to you in person."

Donna looked up from the ring, her eyes shining now. "You did?"

"I did," he confirmed quietly. "I had to, Donna." He stopped, looking away; her awe was almost too much to bear. "I don't believe in reincarnation. I've only got one life, this one. It isn't worth it if I don't at least try to make things right."

Donna stared, beginning to smile. "So does this mean we're...um...you know, again?"

"Only if that's what you want." Eric looked point blank into her eyes, deep blue pools presently glittering green and purple from the surrounding disco balls. "I don't care where we live, I don't care about any of that. I just want to be with you; that's...really all that ever mattered to me. And now I know that."

She peered at him, eyes narrowed. "Are you...sure, sure?"

He grinned, holding back a snicker. "Yes, yes."

There was a pregnant pause just before Eric was toppled over by her sweet, soft weight throwing itself on top of him. "Oh, skinny neighbor boy, I love you too!" His face was assaulted by rum-flavored kisses, hard ones that grew softer the closer her lips came to his. One more kiss landed right on his mouth; Eric reached for her and savored it, savored Donna's heat, her taste, her sweet, drunken love, and secretly hoped she'd remember all this come the next morning. But for tonight - hell, for right now - sweet drunken love was all he needed in life.

"Make love to me, neighbor," she whispered, pressing her damp, perfumed breasts up to his face.

"Here?" Eric asked, already feeling himself stiffening and his resolve vanishing into utter abandon. Donna's husky, passionate giggle and her palm working his shaft through starched polyester was his answer. Eric closed his eyes and embraced her, pulling her out of view and gave himself up to her, ecstatic, breathless. He was sure at some point he'd whispered more vows of love as their bodies joined, and realized as the throbbing erupted in hot searing pleasure that there was such a thing as heaven after all.

Jackie held tight to Fez's gentle hand and followed him blindly, through the throngs of sweaty, grooving club goers, through the smoky darkened corridor they'd entered from, through a section of empty wall that still boasted the old glittering streamers to a hidden room lit only by a pair of giant lava lamps. Her eyes adjusted to the dim light and tried not to see the smattering of amorous couples taking advantage of the semi-private hideaway. Jackie squinted at the darkness.

"Ohmigod." She almost laughed aloud. "Fez? Where are we?"

"Actually, I don't know. I just noticed it on our way inside," Fez whispered back, keeping her close to his body as they sought out a more secluded area: a booth with a marble table off to the side, behind the lamps. "We don't have to do anything, if you don't want to," he added as they sat down, anticipating her unease. "But I thought...you know...it might be fun to..."

"No," Jackie said quickly, noticing more than a few couples leaving for the dance floor and smiled to herself. Now being careful no longer applied. "No, Fez, it's fine! Actually...it's kind of perfect. Not too public and at the same time - "

"Someone could be watching us."

His lips were on her neck again, teasing, nibbling. Jackie inhaled sharply. "Then we'd better put on a hell of a show," she purred, rubbing herself against him. She felt his growl vibrate on her skin and swallowed a nervous giggle as the straps of her dress were slid down past her shoulders, farther, past her breasts. Teasing fingertips lightly traced the curve of her bare neck; Jackie turned and shivered into Fez's welcoming arms, cradling his head to her chest as the music continued to throb.

"I wanna rock with you
I wanna groove with you..."

"I'm sorry I hurt you," he whispered to her, taking her into his mouth. Jackie shuddered, raking her nails across his shoulder as he suckled. Her legs wrapped around his waist. "I told you, there's nothing to apologize for, baby."

"But I want to make it up to you." Those lips, God, those soft, tantalizing lips, moved on to her other breast, gently biting, sucking. Her head slowly rolled back as her hands clenched at him, her throat constricting while her entire being seemed to melt from the inside out.

"I wanna...rock (all night)..."

"Fez..."

"With you, girl..."

"Mmm, you're close, aren't you?"

"Sunlight..."

Her hips bucked against his waist, pressing her hot center up to his flesh. "Yes...baby, please..."

"Rock with you, rock with you...yeah..."

"Come here, then."

Her limbs for a few moments were weakened, reluctant to obey for fear of letting the rest of her crash to the floor. His hand steadied her as she straightened, shifting out and away from his body so she could lift her dress and let the panties be pulled away, slowly. Jackie closed her eyes, trembling uncontrollably. Her flesh went hot at the feel of his lips, kissing the swell of her hip, along a curve of the backside, slipping underneath to kiss her again in the most intimate place possible. A spasm of pleasure shot through her core, paralyzing her.

"Dance the night away..."

"Baby..." Her thighs slid a little further apart, her hips rocking with unconscious rhythms. "Please."

"Patience, my pet," Fez murmured from behind her as one hand slipped through her legs to stroke her. A gasp tore itself from her throat as her entire being throbbed for him, begging to be filled, to be satisfied. After a few hot, desperate seconds she realized what he was doing and smiled, arranging herself so that she straddled him backwards.

"I wanna rock with you, yeah...

Dance you into day (sunlight)..."

"Oh, praise the gods for cheerleading," she heard him stammer. Jackie couldn't help giggling out loud. "You're so sweet," she whispered, acutely aware of the sweat trickling down the small of her back and the incendiary heat of his tip teasing her entrance. "God, I want you, Fez, I need you inside me."

"I wanna rock with you, all night..."

"I love you, my Jackie, my precious goddess," he groaned, his words strained with the first welling of absolute blind lust as her inner walls engulfed him in throbbing liquid heat; Jackie bit back another, louder cry as she sank onto him, taking him in as deep as she could and holding him there.

"Rock the night away..."

"Love you...too..." She managed, feeling herself throbbing around him, feeling his base grinding against her in time to the music. Her reasoning obliterated, Jackie rocked her hips, her mind and body now possessed with the need to be driven over the edge. Fez gripped her hips for control and leaned her back against him, thrusting slowly. Her cry escaped through clenched teeth.

"Feel that heat

Feel the beat, all night..."

Jackie reached behind her to grab the back of his head, kissing him hard, violently. Their hips thrust upwards, hard, as one, as their tongues licked and thrashed one another. "Now," she murmured to him, pleading. "I trust you." He breathlessly nodded affirmation. Jackie steadied herself and carefully leaned forward to grasp the marble table, letting him dominate their rhythm. Letting him lead, she thought with a lusty flush of heat. Something inside her twinged, throbbed in pleasure; Jackie groaned and felt him shift up to meet her, slowly driving into her at slightly altered angles, testing her, letting the tingling build. Jackie gasped, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Rock you into day...!"

"Harder," she growled as he hit her spot once, twice. He complied; her fingernails scratched desperately at the table's surface.

"Sunlight..."

The tingling exploded in a rhythm of searing throbs, consuming her; only with supreme effort did Jackie manage to keep from screaming his name as his thrusts came harder, faster, less rhythmic and more erratic as both their bodies begged for release.

"I wanna, rock...all night..."

His fingers returned to her clit, indulging in a few slow loving strokes and then a gentle press. Jackie's jaw clenched against another scream as the force of her orgasm thrust her forward, her nerve endings shattering in pleasure as she felt Fez give one last deep, explosive thrust.

"Rock the night away..."

Her body still throbbing, Jackie arched and gulped cool air into her lungs, her eyes wide and watering. Behind her, Fez groaned with the relief of release and nipped appreciatively at her earlobe. She reached behind her to cradle his jaw against her neck, willing her heartbeat to return to normal. The beats thrumming from the club's sound system were again merging into a different song.

"You believe it now, don't you, love?" He asked her after a few moments had passed. Jackie closed her eyes and smiled, panting out a tiny laugh. "Okay, baby, okay, I do. I believe you now."

"You are sure?"

"Yes, Fez, I'm sure." She craned her neck at an angle to kiss him, rather breathless still. "Ohhh, yes, I'm sure."

4:02 am,

January 2, 1980,

Michael Kelso's kitchen,

Chicago, Illinois...

"What are you going to tell her?"

Hyde glanced over at his best friend and puffed out a little insecure breath. "I don't know, man," he admitted, his guts tensing up at the lie. "I'm thinking about letting the El Camino make the final decision; it pulls to the right, marriage. It pulls to the left.." He grinned slightly. "Nudie bar."

Eric shifted a little in his seat. "So you haven't decided?"

The comment induced a massive thrumming in his skull, as if it were stuck inside a speaker blasting Deep Purple. God, for a guy who wanted to be a teacher, Forman really wasn't all that bright, Hyde thought, blinking at that twig of a young man who'd been by his side most if not all of his life. Damn, she wasn't much, but she was enough. He knew when he was licked, and as far as Jackie was concerned, Hyde thought himself enough of a man to admit to it. He wasn't afraid of a challenge. "No," he said simply, feeling quite relaxed despite the thrumming, "I've decided."

To his right, the kitchen door opened with a soft swishing sound. "Steven?"

Kitty Forman was creeping into view, her face masking a deep, hidden apprehension. "Jackie stopped by and asked me to give you this...note."

Hyde blinked at the ceiling for a second, willing himself to go numb, then forced his torso upright and plucked the envelope from Kitty's waiting hand. Somehow he knew already. He just knew. And he could already hear the echoes of her voice, all her transparent pleas.

"Steven, this is my dream come true, but you are the most important thing in the world to me..."

He slid a finger through the heart-shaped sticker, unfolded the scented stationery, carefully read each word, and swallowed his rage. "Says she took the job in Chicago," Hyde muttered, letting out a cough. "And she left this morning."

"I'm willing to give it all up and stay here with you..."

Lying bitch, he kept thinking. Stupid, patronizing, demanding little bitch. I should've seen this coming a mile away. Once again, I wasn't quick enough for you. Once again, I didn't immediately cave and give you exactly what you wanted, exactly when you wanted it.

"But if I do that...I need to know that we're going to get married..."

What a crock of shit, Jackie, you knew exactly how I felt about you; you didn't need a ring, a bouquet and a blood test to prove it. You knew every dirty detail of my past - the only person besides friggin' Forman that I'd ever done that with, for Christ's sake - and Christ also knows how many times you'd yakked my ears off about those slimy, money-laundering parents of yours. I tried and I tried to understand your side, even when you were clearly insane and trying to take me with you. I even purposely dogged two of my best friends, people who are brothers to me, just so I could be with you the way you wanted me to be. I did everything I possibly could to be there for you, and for what?

"And our future is happening now."

All so you could train me like a dog, so I'd provide you with the perfect little suburban picket-fence nuclear-family lifestyle you've always craved. You could never just be grateful for the good things you already had; no, Jackie, you always had to have more. Nothing I ever did was good enough for you. Fuck, I practically crucified myself for you, every day in every way I could think of and it was still never, ever enough. All so you could simply ditch me in the end, like I always thought you would. All of it for nothing. I knew it wasn't really me that you wanted to be with, Jackie. I knew it all along.

The pen ricocheted off the surface of the kitchen table and bounced onto the linoleum floor with a tinny cracking sound. Hyde buried his face in his hands for the umpteenth time in as many waking hours and swallowed a scream, wanting more than anything to smoke the endlessly looping sounds of "It Ain't Me, Babe" out of his mind but he'd used up the last of his reserves around two A.M. Christ only knew what time it was now. He gazed down at the slightly tattered, scribbled, mostly empty notepad and blinked his aching eyelids, wondering if he'd ever be able to sleep again.

He had to do this. He had to admit to himself that he'd brought this on himself. Not only that, but he had to accept, for better or worse, how weird it felt knowing Fez and Jackie belonged together. Hell, it had felt weird enough seeing him with Patti, let alone with her. The fact that he'd known in his guts all along, being ignorant about it, was proof enough. Never ignore the Zen instinct, he thought, never again. Not for Sam, not for Laurie, not for Jackie, not for anyone. And never let the Zen get in the way of his buddies, his real family. Never again.

"Mornin'."

Hyde's tired eyes shifted blankly over to Kelso's shuffling, towel-clad form. "Still dark out."

"Still morning. And I still gotta get ready for work."

He recoiled from the sight of his friend getting down on all fours to rummage for something underneath the sink, and instantly flashed back to finding him in Jackie's hotel room in the same disturbing state of undress. Probably in that same damn towel.

"Goddamn, Kelso! Don't you ever wear clothes, moron?"

"Not when I go to bed or when I get out of bed, no!" Kelso teetered back onto his feet, grasping a cord-dangling coffee pot in triumph. "And if you're gonna crash here, dude, you might wanna try and get used to it. Hell, you've seen me in the buff enough to go blind - "

"I think I just did go blind, man!"

"So why are you being a big whiny girl about it?"

"Because I haven't slept in two, three days and your naked body is traumatizing to me."

Kelso's features contorted into a gentle smirk. "I knew it."

"Knew what?"

"Don't be a whiny girl. You know what."

Hyde's chest deflated with an exasperated, groaning sigh. "Think what you want, Kelso, go ahead. You're probably right anyway."

Kelso spotted the discarded pen on the floor and retrieved it, handing it to Hyde. "I hope you're not tryin' to get her back or something."

"Dude, I don't want her back. She gave me mental malaria, and besides, I wouldn't do that to Fez. They seem to like, love each other or something," Hyde replied, yawning. He then blinked and looked again at Kelso. "Wait, why would you think that was what I was doing?"

Kelso stood on tiptoe and swung a cupboard open, presumably to reach a jar of coffee. The wood muffled his voice. "'Member when I told you Brooke and I split?"

"Yeah."

Kelso shut the cupboard door shut, shrugging. "Well, let's just say you might wanna invest in some ear plugs or something, cause she's probably gonna come over tonight."

The grin on his face told Hyde everything. "That's cool. How'd you manage that with Evil Incarnate still living off of you?"

Another shrug as too much coffee was carelessly applied to the bottom of the pot. "I did what you're doin' there. I wrote her a letter."

Hyde looked back down at the paper. "No kidding."

"Yeah. You want some coffee?"

"Thanks."

Listlessly, he watched Kelso fill the pot with water, turn it on and set it aside, then click on the radio that sat on a shelf above the sink. A loud bubbling hiss from the coffee pot clashed with the low, jangling strains of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as Kelso pulled out the chair across from Hyde. "Anyway," he said, plunking his naked weight down, "I figured I'd write down what I wanted to tell her, cause, y'know, when I'm thinking and talking at the same time the words never come out in the right order, and it just gets me more trouble that way."

"And it worked, huh?"

"Sure did." Kelso bragged, his words stretching as they expanded into a lazy yawn. He leaned back in the chair and scratched the back of his head. "But you just said you don't want Jackie back."

"Very good." Hyde picked up the pen and bit the end, thinking. "But I've got hatchets to bury with her."

Kelso paused in mid-stretch, looking startled. "Uh, Hyde? Law enforcement officer in the room."

He scowled. "Not literally, you shaved ape! I mean I didn't say some stuff to her that, I don' t know, maybe I should have. That's it."

"Oh." That trademark goofy grin spread back over Kelso's face. "I get it now. Yeah, that's a good idea, man." He got up after a moment to pour the coffee, placing one of the steaming mugs in front of Hyde's notebook. "Yeah, cause see, me and Jackie got to sit down and talk stuff out after we broke up, and actually got to be friends and stuff, but you and her..." Kelso trailed off, shrugging ruefully. Hyde nodded, inferring the rest.

"Yeah." He paused. "You don't happen to have an envelope or something, do ya?"

"I even have stamps," Kelso said proudly, and scampered off into the living room.

While his officer buddy was busy digging through his paper-smothered excuse of a desk, Hyde eased himself to a standing position and pried his skinny, weathered wallet from the back pocket of his jeans. He grunted and took a few deep breaths, then opened the wallet and wedged a spanking new plastic card out of the first insert, holding the gleaming proof of a bank-issued, government-approved identity at an angle. Hadn't actually been used yet; Hyde had been still trying to get used to the idea of possessing an actual credit history all his own. He smirked. She'd 've been so damn proud. And then she would have promptly set to work at driving said history into the ground. Hyde shook his head, sat down, and cracked open the yellow pages, phone in one hand and his new line of credit in the other.

By the time Kelso was darting back into the kitchen, holding a slim tab of stamps up in toothy triumph, an elaborate twelve-pound basket of fine Godiva candies had been ordered, purchased, and put on the next UPS truck to a certain love nest on the outskirts of Point Place. Hyde put his nearly-empty mug down and glanced up from his nearly-full notebook page.

"I found 'em!" Kelso crowed, flinging the little paper onto the table. "They're kinda tiny, but who cares? Don't worry about payin' me back for 'em or nothin, cause they were a total bargain."

Hyde examined the row of two-cent stamps and cleared his throat. "Nah, I'm not worried, know why? All of these combined wouldn't send a strand of my magic 'fro." He shook his head again at Kelso's obvious confusion and made a mental note to go to the post office tomorrow. "Never mind, Kelso. It's the thought that counts."

Kelso's frown softened just a little as he tried to make sense of Hyde's answer. "Okay...Hyde, buy your own stamps if you want, but you're wasting your money, man."

Hyde chose to ignore this, intently re-reading the contents of the page as his friend scuttled back to the other end of the kitchen and bent to retrieve a frying pan from underneath the stove. This time Hyde kept his eyes glued to the paper in front of him, rereading intently. Kelso dropped the pan on the stove with a huge clatter, twirled around, and swung the refrigerator door open.

"So how's that letter comin'?" Crapshoes asked, his voice muffled from behind the fiberglass. Hyde contemplated his own handwriting and coughed into a clenched fist. "Not bad."

"Wanna read it to me?"

"Not really."

"Oh, c'mon!" Kelso again bent to rummage for something; Hyde kept his eyes on the paper this time. "That's what friends do, Hyde, friends share!"

"Kelso, it would bore you," he replied. "It's just a bunch of words tossed together."

"Hyde." Crapshoes closed the door, cradling a carton of eggs, and rolled his eyes. "It's the thought that counts."

"Fine. But if you start laughing, I'm gonna beat you over the head with that frying pan. Deal?"

Kelso grinned, nodding, and cracked an egg on the side of the pan. Hyde cleared his throat again.

"'Dear Jackie:

Hey, guess who. Look, I know this is a little messed up, cause by the time you read this, I'll have been long since rendered sterile by Betsy's little fists and you and Fez there will be warm in your own bed. That's good; that's the way it ought to be. You guys deserve all the happiness in the world, you really do. But I think you oughta know why I decided to leave in the first place, like, without saying anything. One good turn deserves another.

I want you to know that I know, about you and Fez, and about me being your rebound. I felt it the whole time; I just couldn't put my finger on what the feeling meant. But that's okay. I mean, in the past it would have totally pissed me off, but I don't care anymore; there is absolutely no point in either of us trying to be something we're not. You're loud, ambitious, totally destructive. I'm silent, lazy, totally neglectful. I'm not up to the kind of compromising you need, though I did try, Jackie. And I would have kept on trying, too. But you leaving me for that job before I could give you any answer was the last straw. It wasn't so much finding you with Taternuts here, it was more the fact that you just couldn't bear to have my needs enter the picture too. It was always about you and you alone. I'm really sorry if it hurt you to see me happy with another woman, but damn, Jackie, you left first. Let's get that straight right now. You left me. You ended up moving in with him. And now I know you really meant it when you told me you didn't love me.

So I'll tell you what I'm gonna do, even if you don't give a shit. I'm going to let go; in fact, I already have. I'm going to forgive rather than forget the past. And I'm going to rededicate my energies. I hope you've got it in you to do the same. Maybe it's true what they say: with every end comes a new beginning. I guess that's our final lesson, grasshopper.

Take care, and hey, tell Fez he's still a good guy. Oh, and that I'm sorry I stole his woman.

Enjoy the candy,

- Steve.'"

"Heh," Kelso laughed to himself, whisking the egg while it fried. "That's one long, wordy burn, there, Steve."

"Kelso," Hyde warned, his forehead vein twitching in anger. Kelso froze, deer-in-headlights style. "Uh, uh, I, uh, Taternuts! It's still funny, what?"

"You lie - "

"Hey, that letter wasn't bad," Laurie interrupted loudly, startling Hyde out of the overpowering urge to leap up and punch Kelso in the eye. "Not bad at all. I'd forgive you, totally."

"Yeah, uh, thanks for the unbiased opinion," Hyde replied unsteadily, slurping the last of the brew from his mug and setting it down. A smile crossed his face as Betsy tottered into view, eyes bright and smile brighter. "Shouldn't she still be in bed or something?"

Laurie yawned and fluffed her tousled hair. "That's what I said." She shuffled over to the coffee pot and poured a cup, ushering Betsy over to Hyde with one hand. "But she's totally got a mind of her own. Here, Betsy-Wetsy, go see Uncle Orphan, Daddy's cooking and it's dangerous."

Hyde smirked and lifted the toddler onto his knee, bouncing her gently. "Yeah. Don't go near Daddy and fire. That's a lesson every kid should learn, especially your father."

Kelso let out an indignant squawk. "I can too handle fire!"

"You burned down your own academy, Crapshoes."

Kelso twitched and flailed out a pointed finger. "See? Case in point, man, it was on fire!"

"Because you set it ablaze."

"How can a man possibly be expected to resist a match and a fresh bag of dog - "

"Okay!" Laurie exclaimed, disgusted. "Literally too early for that shit. I'm gonna take a shower. You two keep her away from any open source of heat, I'll be back in a while."

In her wake she left a tiny, lingering silence that the Heartbreakers' song briefly stepped up to fill. Hyde listened, silently singing along, bouncing little Betsy's weight to the beat.

"Two cars parked on the overpass

Rocks hit the water like broken glass..."

Kelso gave the eggs a final series of flips and grinned over at his old friend. Geez, Hyde thought, he's worn that same stupid grin through, like, every moment of his life. Even when he cried, he still kinda grinned. What a moron. We're both morons. We totally deserve each other.

"Shoulda known right then it was too good to last

God, it's such a drag when you're livin' in the past."

A plate of strangely appetizing scrambled eggs was set in front of him, followed by a tiny bowl of cereal for Betsy. Michael Kelso sat back down across from Hyde with his own breakfast, and said nothing. Hyde nodded his gratitude and began to eat, helping Betsy do the same every so often. An apology for Jackie was on the tip of Hyde's tongue, but he decided not to voice it. It wasn't worth stirring up old, bad memories for. It certainly wasn't worth upsetting this shaky, newfound feeling of balance. Kelso was, of course, still grinning, and now while it was just the two - well, the three of them, but Betsy wouldn't squeal - Hyde allowed himself to grin back. Just for a moment. And that was the moment he felt his Zen, long ago scattered to the whims of other women, come creeping back to him in full force.

This was all he needed in life, really. A place to sleep, a little nourishment, good music, and someone - hell, maybe a few someones - who didn't care, and wouldn't judge him, if he wasn't a perfect person. This, Hyde concluded as he happily stabbed at the egg with his fork, was what he needed the most.

Twenty minutes earlier,

In Eric Forman's Vista Cruiser,

Nearing Point Place, Wisconsin...

"Donna." Jackie's voice struggled to rise above the blaring spurts of radio static. "Donna, will you please stop fiddling with that radio? We're going deaf back here."

Her friend gave a cavernous yawn and patted a depleted-looking Eric on his shoulder. "Sorry, Jackie, but I for one would rather go deaf than become road pizza from this one falling asleep at the wheel. Besides, I gotta do something to drown that friggin' disco out of my head."

"Oh, you suck at lying, Donna, you know that?" Jackie retorted, giggling. "All we had to do was get a few rum and Cokes in you and bam, out comes your inner dancing queen. Yours and Eric's."

Fez snickered and shook his head; Eric's mouth fell open as he mentally groped around for something to say. "Hey, look, it's not my fault I was off the beat...I just...I told you, I can't do it right without the wheels!"

"Own up, 'Rainbow,' you ought to be thanking us right now," Fez replied over the din, aiming a sardonic wink in Jackie's direction. "Someone needed to be shown how it's done out there, eh?"

Roaring static finally gave way to the sound of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers crackling through the Cruiser's aging front speakers. Satisfied, Donna settled back into her seat with a smirk. "Sure, yeah, it was all us. Had nothing to do with your song coming on or any insatiable need to be the center of attention. Nothing at all."

"Nope." Jackie grinned and gratefully curled up in her boyfriend's embrace. Fez gave her a gentle squeeze, appreciating her warmth while at the same time inwardly struggling to calm his nervous stomach. Stop it he kept thinking. Everything's going to be fine. Just relax.

"Well, it was nearly summer we sat on your roof

Yeah, we smoked cigarettes and we stared at the moon..."

"You know what we should do?"

He glanced down at his love, watching the reflections of passing cars' headlights play over her flawless features. "We should open our own dance studio one day," she said, snuggling down into his lap. "Wouldn't that be fun, baby?"

"And I showed you stars you never could see..."

"A dance studio?" He repeated, contemplating this. Jackie giggled tiredly.

"Yeah! C'mon, Fezzy, don't you think it'd be fun teaching old couples how to tango, help them rekindle their love?"

"Babe, it couldn't have been that easy to forget about me."

The same headlight reflections lighting Jackie's face was glinting off of the tiny silver bird on Donna's finger, briefly catching Eric's attention. He placed his palm over Donna's hand, daring to cradle it gently. She looked over at him and smiled a bit, then glanced away. Sure was nice not to have to hash anything out anymore, he thought, feeling his shoulders lighten and exhaustion taking over his cognitive functions. He began to sing along with dramatic abandon, snickering every time he noticed Donna cracking up. Sure was nice, after all the years spent proving his manhood, to truly feel his age again.

"Time meant nothing anything seemed real

Yeah, you could kiss like fire and you made me feel..."

Fez was singing too, albeit under his breath to soothe his dancing nerves. Jackie released her seatbelt and curled up in his lap while he stroked her hair absently. He swallowed hard, fighting the lump in his throat and ignoring the invisible dragons beating their wings against his stomach lining. It's okay to be afraid, he told himself. She is a terrifying entity, but now? She is yours and you are hers. And it doesn't matter what happens now; no one can take this moment away from us. Jackie has told you so in her own words, fool; hope springs eternal.

"Like every word you said was meant to be

It couldn't have been that easy to forget about me."

He drifted off, still singing, still hearing the other two occupants singing along with him, only becoming aware again when the Cruiser rolled to a stop outside his apartment complex. Jackie raised her head, blinking drowsily; Fez roused himself so he could lead her out of the vehicle safely. Eric and Donna grinned out at them from inside the car.

"So we should do this again sometime," Donna offered, her sunny smile waning. "Like, soon."

"Yeah," Jackie called back in a sleep-rasped voice. "We will. Don't worry."

Fez had the notion that if he'd been more awake, he might have possessed enough presence of mind to actually worry, that there were infinite little reasons to be worried. So much had ended, so much had begun, and everything, he mused while swaying on his feet, was constantly in motion, moving forward. There wouldn't be any more circles, really, in the Forman's legendary basement. Not many chances left for all of them to go out together for a good dine-and-dash promotion, or a Tad Nugent show, or a Canadian beer run. Fez had the feeling that all six of them wouldn't be hanging out again the way they used to do, and that glimmer of realization unsettled him deeply. Still, he mused, the future was wide open, and one way or another, everyone always found their way back to each other. Everyone cared too much about each other not to. That much Fez knew was a given.

"I'll call you, Jackie," Donna promised as the Cruiser began to roll away. "Okay? When we get to Madison. I'll call you!"

Fez glanced down at the one constant in his not-so-new American life, Jackie, as she waved to the two old friends leaving them behind. He waved, too, then turned her towards their house as the familiar car disappeared from view. Jackie gave a sad little sigh in his arms.

"She'll remember," Fez assured her, rubbing her shoulder a little as he opened the door and led her inside. "And if by chance she does not, you can drag her number out of Bob and harass her until she does."

Jackie smiled tiredly. "She'll remember."

"And we will all go out together again. Maybe even take Kelso and Hyde along for old times sake, what do you say to that?"

"Maybe," Jackie echoed at him, her eyes closing. Fez struggled to keep her upright. Together they climbed the stairs to their apartment, Jackie leaning most of her weight on Fez as he fumbled for his keys and singlehandedly wrestled the correct one into the deadbolt. He swung the door open and let her wander inside in the direction of his bedroom, watching for a moment to make sure she found her way safely before shutting and locking the door behind him. The apartment's darkness seemed to crowd him, swallowing him up in its pervading silence. Feeling exhaustion weighing him down, he shed his shirt, flung it onto the couch and followed the warm gentle glow now emanating from the bedroom. Jackie'd flipped on the twinkly lights again and was already waiting for him in their bed, clad only in her panties and nightshirt. Her smile sparkled.

"Come to bed, Fezzy," she purred affectionately, giving the empty space beside her a brisk little pat. A smile of his own tugged at the corner of his lips at the nickname; he shed his pants and gratefully climbed under the marshmallow-soft covers, happy just to leech her warmth, to bask in the sweetness that was his Jackie. Tonight they were a clean slate, released and reassured by one another's presence. She was whispering something to him as he slid an arm around her tiny waist, about how tired he'd made her tonight, how high she felt. Fez didn't recall if he'd mustered any kind of reply before relinquishing himself to the relief of sleep, but he did hold one thought in mind as he dozed, and one thought only.

Mr. Petty is a wise, wise man, Fez thought, listening to Jackie's breaths slowing. He is right. Even us losers keep a little bit of pride. We do, in fact, get lucky sometimes. He blinked sleepily and kissed the nape of Jackie's neck, then settled into sleep, for once completely unafraid of anything life could bring. Life, he figured, had decided to forgive them both.

fin