Author's Note: Thank you for the awesome reviews, it's so fun to write for an audience. This is probably the last chapter. There was another plot bunny a little farther down the timeline, but I'm not sure if it's worth publishing. Anyway, I've enjoyed writing this and I hope you enjoy reading. Thanks for the support on the story guys!

She was at his apartment (which had a table and chairs) when the call came. Crystal, her roommate asked for her, and it was surreal watching her answer the phone, almost like she lived there. Which she basically did. She had most the drawers in his dresser (which she'd picked out), toiletries all over his bathroom, and clothes in his closet. She spent maybe one night in ten at her place, and he knew he should just make it official already, but what if she said no?

Her face went white, and he forgot about all that. "Jackie, what is it?"

"My grandma. She. She's in the hospital." Jackie stuttered, her eyes darting around him.

"Did Crystal say why?"

"I have to go to Milwaukee." She said, moving.

"Milwaukee? It's nine o'clock already, you have work in the morning." He said, trying to reason with her.

"My grandma's in the hospital." She screeched.

"Okay, but we can go in the morning."

"Steven! We're going now."

He pulled out his old canvas duffel bag and packed their clothes while she called her work. As she finished the packing he hunted for map of Wisconsin in the bookshelf they acquired last week, and within fifteen minutes they were on the road.

"You're gonna hate me for not telling you sooner."

"I'm not gonna hate you Jackie."

"I should have told you at Thanksgiving."

He felt confused, it must have shown on his face.

"You know, when you told me about your parents." She paused, "cause mine did the same thing."

He was surprised, she seemed to have it so, together. Like he noticed when they first met, she was out of his league, but now that thread of understanding that bound them together when they appeared to have nothing in common made sense. They recognized one another behind the masks they wore.

"When I was sixteen my dad got arrested for embezzlement. He was a city Councillor. My mom was a real estate agent. And I was a spoiled cheerleader." She sighed."I thought I had everything all figured out you know? I was going to go to college on my trust fund and catch myself a husband like my mom, and he would take care of me. But overnight everything changed. My dad was in jail, my mom took off to Mexico, and I didn't have anywhere to go."

Steven clutched her hand, "so your grandma came for you?"

"No, social services came, I spent a few nights in a group home." Steven winced, as bad as things had gotten for him that hadn't happened.

"Then they tracked her down – she's my only living relative – and took me to her."

She paused, remembering. The social worker drove her to a rundown section of Milwaukee. They climbed two flights of stairs since the elevator wasn't working. The apartment was clean, and bright, but small, with only one bedroom.

Jackie slept on the couch. Grandma Maggie had arthritis, and hobbled around the apartment. Neither of them could cook, so they ate canned tuna on toast, or beans heated on the stove (they couldn't afford a microwave). The Burkhart money had been frozen during the investigation, so they had a foster care subsidy for Jackie and social security checks for Grandma.

Jackie kept up with cheer, earning herself a scholarship to Wisconsin-Madison, and worked evenings, weekends, and summers at the mall so she could afford the clothes and make-up necessary to stay on the squad. After what had happened to Pam and Maggie she wasn't going to depend on a man, she was going to make her own way, and she was going to do it Jackie Burkhart style.

No one at school knew and she made sure it stayed that way, implying she was out with a college boyfriend when really she was at work, and never invited anyone home. After she left for university that chapter was closed, she wasn't going back to being Grandma Maggie's house guest, or the Burkhart's naïve daughter. She wasn't going to follow their footsteps and snag herself a husband, she wasn't going to depend on anyone for anything ever again.

She glanced over at Steven. He was quiet, driving. It was snowing, reflecting the headlights back into their eyes, and she could barely see the road.

"Steven, say something."

He didn't, but he draped his arm around her, and pulled her close to him, kissing the top of her head.

Jackie dragged her feet to Grandma Maggie's room the next morning, Steven following with his hand at the small of her back.

"Grandma?"

Grandma Maggie opened her eyes, and tried to talk but a cough rattled her throat and left her lips blue. One of the machines she was attached to set off an alarm and a nurse came in and hooked up the oxygen.

"You have to leave this in Mrs. Donovan." Grandma flailed, pushing the nurse away, and Jackie stepped back into Steven. He tensed behind her.

Exhausted, Grandma Maggie gave up and lay back into the bed, eyes hard with avarice.

"Look at this. Won't even let me die in peace." She groaned, and launched into a fifteen minute complaint about the nursing staff as she looked them up and down. Jackie reassured her, soothing her as she pulled the chair close and took her hand, leaving him standing alone by the door.

Grandma Maggie gave most of her attention to Jackie, her complaints shifting from the nursing staff to Pam.

"Ungrateful child, I brought her into the world, and she doesn't have the decency to show up and take care of me when I'm leaving it. I did everything I could for her you know. I raised her by myself after Joe left, and this is how she repays me? Dumping her problems on me without so much as a hello?"

"And you, with your fancy career in Chicago, leaving me high and dry. They evicted me you know, threw me out on the street."

"I didn't know that Grandma, what happened?" Jackie asked, but like Edna, Maggie skated over the details, focusing instead on her tale of woe. Jackie lapped it up, still feeling she owed her something. When Maggie fell asleep they left to ask a nurse about the diagnosis and prognosis.

Lung cancer, just a few months. And now it made sense. They wanted to send Maggie to a palliative care facility, but her Medicare didn't cover the expense. Maggie had called Jackie to ask her to pay for it. As the nurse went over the pamphlets and projected costs Jackie's eyes widened into a panic.

On her salary she couldn't even rent an apartment in a safe part of town, let alone cover the cost of this. The nurse sensing the problem, withdrew. Jackie slumped into one of the chairs, before standing up and fleeing to the bathroom, probably to fall apart where no one could see it.

Good.

He jostled Maggie awake, "you called her for a shakedown, knowing she would do anything for you."

Maggie didn't say anything, but her smug look was familiar.

"She can't. She doesn't have any money, and even if she did there's no way in hell I'd let her sink it in you. You don't deserve it. What have you ever done for her? Not a god damn thing. You don't even love her, all you see is dollar signs."

Maggie raised her brow in a challenge, she had the pull of family, he knew. He'd left the Forman's when Bud had shown up, and stayed there working to keep the roof over his dad's head out of a sense of obligation, of misguided love for the bastard. He was going to have a hell of a time convincing Jackie.

He milled around the waiting area for nearly an hour before Jackie reappeared. Her mascara was gone, her eyes still dilated and unfocused. He pulled her into a hug.

"We need to talk Jackie."

"How am I going to afford to-"

"You can't give her the money, you don't even have it." He said, trying for gentle.

"Steven! I know! Why can't you help me figure this out instead of pointing out the obvious?"

"The obvious? The obvious is that woman never loved you, and paying for this isn't going to change that."

"She's my grandma, of course she loves me, and I, I love her!" Jackie asserted.

"No she doesn't, she only called you because she thought you could help her out of a jam, that's what people like that do, they expect you to jump because you're family."

"Who else is going to help her?"

"Jackie… you can't. She'll bleed you dry."

Jackie started to cry.

"Don't cry, baby, look-" He said trying to comfort her but she pushed him away.

"I can't believe you! I ask you for help and this is what I get? You stand there and tell me the only family I have left doesn't love me? You're unbelievable!"

"Jackie-"

"No, I…I… God, I loved you." She wiped her eyes.

"I'm just trying to protect you, my dad he did the-"

"I don't want you to protect me, I want you to support me! I want you to help me, be there for me!"

"What the hell do you think I'm trying to do? I know how bad it hurts when you're family uses you like this!"

"I can't ditch my grandma because you say I should. I can't abandon the only family I have left for a guy who won't even tell me he loves me."

"Jackie…"

"Just go Steven." She said and when he didn't she put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot until he left.

WB was surprised to see him at the office. He hadn't been back since the disastrous month of trying to be a corporate employee. He watched as Steven sat down, then stood again pacing in agitation.

"Steven, what's wrong?"

"It's Jackie."

Steven hadn't actually told WB about Jackie, but from Angie he knew they had been dating for nearly ten months now.

"Did you break up?"

"No!" He said, then softly, "maybe. I don't know." He ran his hand through his hair, "look her Grandma is dying."

"That's terrible, you know when people are grieving they say and do things they wouldn't normally-" He tried to sympathize, but Steven interrupted.

"No, it's not that. Look, she expects Jackie to pay for this palliative care facility so she can die with dignity."

"Oh, well if it's about money I can pay for it-"

"No man, she doesn't deserve it!"

"Jackie?"

"Grandma Maggie, that bitch, you should have seen her, all she could see were dollar signs. She doesn't care about Jackie, all she cares about is herself."

WB nodded, glad Steven was confiding in him, finally.

"I told her not to, and she went ballistic on me man!"

"Well, that's easy to fix, just apologize."

"Apologize? I'm right!"

WB shook his head, "sounds like to me we got a perfect solution."

"What?"

"I'll pay for it, and you apologize and get your girlfriend back."

"I'm not asking you to do that."

"I'm offering. And you better take it. Don't be an idiot."

"No."

WB picked up the phone, "it's not like you can stop me, it's my money."

"People like her don't deserve anything."

"Maybe not, but people like Jackie do." He paused, "people like you do, Steven."

"Steven!" He slouched against the entryway pillar smoking, Jackie spotting him as she came out of the building.

"Get your Grandma all settled?"

She nodded, "you were right. She didn't even want me to stay and hold her hand."

"I'm sorry."

She snuggled into him, "no, I'm sorry, I can't believe you arranged all this."

He shrugged, "technically I didn't. That's all WB."

"You were right too." He said quietly.

"Hmm?" She said, exhausted from dredging up the past.

"I should tell you I love you, ask you to move in me."

She drew back, a touch of panic back in eyes.

"But then there's this." He said gesturing to the building, "our crappy families. I used to think we were too different for it to work long term. And now, now I think, maybe we're too broken. You know?"

She was crying again. Dammit. This wasn't going as planned.

"But then I look at you, and damn Jacks, all I can think is who cares? Who cares if they couldn't get it right, because I love you. And I should have told you, I should have, but I don't want to be Bud and Edna, I don't want you to stay with me because you feel obligated, I don't want to screw it up. And I will-" she stopped him with a kiss.

"So does that mean you'll move in with me?"

She squealed and threw her arms around him.

"Is that a yes then?"

"Yes, yes of course, yes!"

She pulled back and pouted at him,"if I'm going to move into your place then that means I get to paint the walls."

He laughed.

"I'm serious Steven, it's my home too."

"Fine, but no pink. Or purple. Or flowers. Or frilly lace-"

She stopped him by kissing him, her favorite way of shutting him up and getting her way, and his too, much better than the shin kicking.

"And I want a table, and chairs."

"Jeez, and you wondered why it took me so long to make it official…"

She punched him hard in the arm, he winced, but then she took his hand and draped it over her shoulder, settling into him as they walked to the El Camino on their way home, and filling his ears (and maybe his heart) with plans for the future. Their future.