Chapter 1: Tragedy at Vanstock

As Hyde packed a pair of jeans and a concert tee in his overnight bag, thoughts of the night to come began playing out in his head, the good and the bad. A night supposed to be filled with sex, drugs, rock n' roll, and uh… vans… was being carelessly interrupted by Kelso and his idiotic affair with Laurie. Of all people Hyde assumed himself to be the least bothered by Kelso's acts of infidelity but something inside of him was eating himself away. For awhile he thought it had to be the fact that of all whores Kelso could be screwing around behind Jackie's back with, he chose the skankiest, least appealing of them all (at least in his book anyways). But the more it bothered Hyde the more he was forced to realize that that wasn't the case at all.

No, Steven Hyde, the guy who didn't believe in relationships, felt bad because it was Jackie Kelso was cheating on. When the thought first occurred to him, a shock wave surged through causing him to stop short of breath and heat flush in his face. No, it couldn't be that reason… it just couldn't be. Or could it? Since prom he did feel the unnatural urge to cease the burns to a low minimum and actually burn Kelso more in the process. Since prom he had been catching himself staring at her from time to time, wondering if maybe things would have been different if he had stayed with her. But why would he want things to be different? Jackie wasn't his type and he wasn't Jackie's type. Yep, no feelings whatsoever…. It's just a need to… uh… protect her. Yeah that's it, protect her. Because of course he saw Jackie as a friend and nothing more… didn't he?

Well, whatever the reason was, Hyde's positive thoughts of Vanstock were shoved to the side when he thought of having to spend the whole day and night watching Kelso disrespect Jackie with Eric's skank of a sister.

Jackie sat in between Hyde and Donna as the van pulled out of the Foreman's driveway. All her insides were jumping with joy at the thought of surprising Michael. Since the little "we should see other people" scare in the van a few weeks back, Jackie was being uncharacteristically more giving and nice to him from the fear of him slipping away. Her mother always told her the key to keeping a man at bay was to be the most beautiful and loving woman in his eyes that you could be, and any less, he would stray. And that was Jackie's worst fear of all. She had put all her heart and effort into Michael and hers relationship that if it all came crashing down around her she wasn't too sure just how she would pull through.

Jackie looked over to Donna, her best friend. Donna smiled guiltily to her as if to tell her the strange looks she had been giving her were nothing more than Donna being her goon of a self. Jackie thought back to when everyone settled into the van and Jackie heard Kelso and Laurie talking in the front. She asked Eric, "Why is your sister coming with us?" Eric just gave some smartass remark that she wasn't to sure about at that moment and Donna looked to the curtain with her "I'm going to kick someone's ass" look. It had worried Jackie a little at first but she blew it off quickly to think of the perfect time to surprise Michael, which she had decided would be right before they got to Vanstock. But now Donna's look made her stomach churn again as it did before and she quickly tried to forget her worries from earlier.

Jackie then looked over to Hyde who sat with his knees raised and his strong arms across them. His head was leaned back against the wall of the van and she could see his eyes were closed under his sunglasses. Earlier, he had suggested the surprise to her with more enthusiasm than he usually displayed, which was always none. At the time she was too excited with the idea to really find it strange, but now, with just time to pass away, she found the whole suggestion slightly off for Steven Hyde. His choosing of words and sound of his voice was almost as if he knew something that she didn't. It was the same voice he used when he was attempting to burn Michael by roping him into some kind of situation that everyone else knew was quite obvious how dumb and absurd it was but Michael. Could this be the same thing? But really, how could Hyde possibly burn Michael by making her surprise him about going to Vanstock…..

Then, the worst idea came to Jackie and she immediately felt sick. Her face grew hot as her eyes panicked around not looking at anything, just dodging from side to side from the images going on through her head. No… it couldn't be. Her Michael would never do that to her again, especially with someone as whorey as Laurie. No… his need to "experiment", as Jackie so deniably liked to put it, with other girls was done and gone with the whole Pam Macey fiasco. He had learned his lesson then of just how important she was to him.

But as much as Jackie tried to push the thought aside, memories of her fellow cheerleaders informing her of Michael's sick display of horniness behind the school gym flooded her mind. Their snotty remarks, their sneers, the embarrassment from not being able to hold onto her love all bombarded Jackie until she just couldn't take it anymore.

"Looks like we're here." Eric interrupted the horror show as he looked out the tiny window in the back.

It was now or never. Jackie didn't even look to Donna or Hyde to see their knowing reactions. She had to see for herself. She had to prove everyone wrong. She had to prove that she, Jackie Burkhardt, was pretty enough and desirable enough to keep Michael Kelso from straying.

Jackie threw open the curtains without bothering to say surprise. What was infront of her eyes was a wicked surprise enough. Through the windshield she saw a see of vans coming head on and in the driver 's seat was the love of her life, slowly easing on the brake with his head thrown back, one hand on the steering wheel and the other on a blonde head of hair that was bobbing up and down over his crotch. Only instinct and pure emotion had the best of her now.

"Michael!" She screamed. Both he and Laurie immediately jumped from their position turning around to face her. Jackie stared straight into Michael Kelso's eyes, not wanting to see him tuck himself in and zip himself up. But she couldn't stare at his eyes for very long due to the clouding of her own tears temporarily impairing her vision. She quickly turned around and scurried across the floor on her knees as far away the enclosing of the van would allow her. She felt familiar arms cradle her shoulders as she attempted to lean forward and bury herself within herself to hide her uncontrollable sobs. Donna patted her head and sushed her as the commotion in the van began to accelerate.

As Donna comforted a sobbing Jackie, Hyde tried his hardest to will himself not to react as violently as he wanted to, to the whole situation. Being the closest to the curtain, Hyde had seen what Jackie had seen, and his idea of a good burn on Kelso came to a screeching halt at the sight of Laurie blowing Kelso. It wasn't his intention for Jackie to find out so graphically.

Whenever Jackie screamed and Kelso turned around, at the same time he slammed on the brakes and parked as quickly as possible. Everyone but Donna and Jackie piled out of the van in excitement, fear, and fury. Kelso of course, was freaking out.

"Eric! Why didn't you tell me Jackie was in the back?"

"Why the hell were you having my sister give you head in the front seat?" Eric quickly retorted both shocked and appalled at the sight of his sister blowing Kelso, and of Jackie's sudden reaction. The Kelso and Laurie relationship didn't settle well with him on more than just it was Kelso screwing around with his sister level, he also despised the fact that Kelso could do that to his girlfriend, something Eric knew you should cherish completely.

"God Eric, she started it! How was I supposed to know you guys were hiding Jackie back there? Which brings me back to once again, why the hell did no one tell me?" Kelso stamped his foot as he demanded answers.

Hyde was the one who finally spoke up. "We didn't tell you because I thought it would be a good burn on you." He used as much zen as he could bring himself to use.

"No no, that wasn't a burn Hyde. That was just plain cruel." Kelso accused while pointing directly in Hyde's face and slowly turning around.

"How the hell was I suppose to know you would have Laurie blowing your fucking brains out in the front seat?"

Kelso was now pacing in front of them running his fingers through is hair trying to figure out what just happened and how to fix it. The whole time Laurie was leaning against the van watching the whole display with a sly smirk on her face. Finally, she spoke up to break the silence.

"Well as much as I would love to watch this little soap opera continue, I'm going to go find some college boys." And with that she strutted off, completely content with the mess she helped create.

Hyde leaned up against the van and heard Jackie's muffled sobs from inside. Now the only thing he felt, was guilt.

Jackie's crying hiccups came to a stop as she heard Kelso open the back of the van.

"Jackie look…"

"Shut the fuck up Kelso." It was Donna who spoke up. "Get the hell out of here because I don't want to see your face right now and I damn sure know that Jackie doesn't want to see your face right now either."

Kelso looked at his curled up girlfriend and wanted to comfort her and tell her he was sorry. But he knew this time he had to walk away.

Once Kelso was gone, Donna began talking to Jackie. "I'm really sorry Jackie."

Nothing.

"I know that that really doesn't mean anything to you right now but I'm going to help you through this."

Still nothing.

Jackie slowly rose from her position on the floor and looked up at Donna with her tear stained face.

"You knew didn't you?" She sounded so small.

"Yes, but I only found out right before we left. I… I was trying to figure out a way to tell you."

"Looks like you didn't have to." Jackie chuckled slightly and wrapped her arms around her body. She slumped on her knees and pouted a bit as she tried to make sense of the whole situation.

Other than the fact that she was a total failure.

Donna slowly rubbed her back and looked to the doors as Eric and Fez came into view.

"Hey." Eric said.

"Hey." Donna responded.

"Well uh, we were just checking, see how things were. Um… we'll just leave you two alone." But as Eric and Fez were about to turn around, Jackie called out. "Wait, you guys don't have to go…. Sit"

And so they sat. Not saying much and all staring at the ground.

Jackie moved out of her position and leaned up against the inside wall of the van. She rested her head backwards and tried to drift off into her own thoughts as she heard a long held in sigh and felt a fist hit behind her. Not more than a second past and she heard the crunching of Hyde walking away. The words of his and Kelso's earlier argument played through her head. So it was a burn after all…. "How the hell was I supposed to know you would have Laurie blowing your fucking brains out in the front seat?" His words were filled with more malice than she had ever heard from him before. Whatever that was suppose to mean she would save for another time, because the only thing she could do now was hurt.