It had been such an easy-going day, Hyde thought, shaking his head, his grip on the steering wheel turning his knuckles white. Just like all the other ones, burning the rest of the guys, which was easier than usual thanks to prom, and then he hadn't pried his lazy ass off the couch when Jackie came in, flipped on The Brady Bunch, and began sighing before bawling her eyes out on his chest. There was no reason in the world to have stayed, he scowled. Forman and Fez had gone to get their tuxes, which would have provided hours of entertainment and it was an old episode where Marcia crushes on the family dentist. Not as funny as the one where she's cast as Juliet and becomes a huge bitch, but still tolerable.

"How's the Lincoln drive?" Jackie asked him from the passenger seat, adjusting one of the bobby pins in her hair.

"Fine."

"Oh, Hyde, come on and stop sulking about going to the mall! Where else do you think we'll be able to get a dress and tux in time? I already have the color picked out and everything. Ooh! And I saw the best shoes here last week, but I didn't bother to buy them because Michael didn't ask me and they're much, much too fancy to be everyday shoes."

He was ready to roll down the window, stick out his head, and roll the window back up, at a speedy pace just fast enough to sever his head from his body. She had talked all the way from Forman's house to her own and now all the way to the mall.

"Hey, I'm going to turn on the radio, okay?"

"Okay," she said. "Enjoy the car, Hyde. Think of it as yours. You'll be driving it to prom, too. You know this isn't Daddy's first Lincoln?"

"No?"

"No. He had some guests from Milan over last year. They brought the sluttiest dresses, too. Anyway, the two of them and Daddy were heading out to Kenosha so he could wine and dine them and the next thing I knew, Martina came up to my room to say Daddy let one of them drive it and it went smack into a tree."

"Who's Martina?"

"Our maid."

"Of course." He nodded. Of course they had a maid. They probably had a butler, too.

"Hey!" the deejay on the radio squawked, cutting through the silence so sharply Hyde and Jackie both jerked in their seats." It's a beautiful day here in Point Place today. That was Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffet! I know I'd rather be in Margaritaville right now, the high for today only fifty-nine. Maybe this will get you and your girl to warm each other up! You know this one! Love Her Madly by the Doors!"

Don't you love her madly, don't you need her badly
Don't you love her ways, tell me what you say
Don't you love her madly, wanna be her daddy
Don't you love her face

Hyde pulled into the parking lot of the mall, filled with station wagons and Sedans, the sun gleaming down on the hoods and trunks, strong for the high being only fifty-nine. Thank God for shades, he thought, pushing in on the frames. Clapping her hands, Jackie opened her door before he could even shut off the engine and stood to the side of the car, tapping her foot.

He sat there, glaring at her with less animosity than he thought there probably should be. Jackie must have thought so too, giggling at his look and playing along by folding her arms and pursing her lips together.

Don't you love her as she's walkin' out the door
Like she did one thousand times before
Don't you love her ways, tell me what you say
Don't you love her as she's walkin' out the door

My baby moves at midnight
Goes right on till the dawn
My woman takes me higher
My woman keeps me warm' on your back aah
What you doin' on your back aah?
You should be dancing, yeah
Dancing, yeah

What you doin

She's juicy and she's trouble
She gets it to me good
My woman gives me power
Goes right down to my blood

"Oh! The Bee Gees! This is going to be so much fun!" Jackie sped into the formal section of the store, the racks all over her head to accommodate for long, ankle and floor-length skirts. It was like stumbling into an enchanted forest of multi-colored trees made of silk and lace. And instead of robins and chipmunks chirping, she had the Bee Gees! And Hyde was here to help her pick out the perfect dress. She spun back around. Where had he gone?

"Hyde?"

Rumpling a tangerine dress in her hands, she could finally see him behind one of the mannequins, tucking its emerald skirt into its lacy thong.

"What are you doing?"

"Entertaining myself."

"Well, stop it and help me find a dress."

"I thought you said you knew exactly what you wanted. Just go get it and take it up to the cashier and I'll pull the car up."

"Will you stop being a hood for one minute?" Jackie stomped her foot. "I need to see if they even have my perfect dress and even if they have it here at Store Number One, we would still have to find a tux for you to match. I was thinking of a coat with tails for you. What do you think?"

"Tails? Are you really that much of a fag-hag?" Jackie dragged him back into the dress forest, gripping the sleeve of his jacket to keep him right next to her. Things would be going so much smoother with Michael here, she thought. No, no, it really wouldn't be because Michael would be whining the whole time about how he could be out chasing dogs or begging her to give him money to get a pretzel. Hyde was a lot of things, but he never whined, and for someone so poor to never whine, well, that was definitely commendable.

"Maybe I can help you find this perfect dress," Hyde said, scouring the dresses with his eyes. "What do you want?"

She rolled her eyes. As if selecting a prom dress was the same as ordering a side of fries with your burger! How do you describe a dream? To be one hundred percent honest, it wasn't so much the dress she had down to the last detail, but the way she was supposed to feel in it, the way she wanted someone to look at her when they would see her in it for the first time.

"I, I want it to be like Cinderella's dress," was all she could say, busying herself with stroking the different fabrics of the dresses to avoid thinking how stupid she sounded, how spoiled. Hyde, like everyone else, knew how rich she was and how many clothes she had.

"Okay. Here you go." He reached up and pulled down an icy blue gown with a dipped, Basque waist, an exact replica of the Disney version of Cinderella's ball gown. Her fingertips flew to her lips to cover her smile.

"Oh. Yeah, that's really pretty," she said, tracing the beaded straps.

"Looks like Cinderella's exactly." He actually looked proud of himself! He held it out to her like he had solved her greatest problem.

"Um, yeah, no argument there. Thanks. You know, I'll keep this in mind and if I don't see anything else, we'll come back to it." It took so much effort to spare people's feelings! Shopping with Hyde was not supposed to be as exhausting as shopping with Michael, and yet, Michael probably would have mixed Cinderella up with Ingrid Bergman or Raquel Welch.

"Whatever." He put it back and jumped up to pull down the ruffled red dress next to it. He flipped it inside out and hung it back up on the rack. Grinning at his handiwork, he shoved his hands in his pockets and followed her around the store.

Fuck, even when she picked out a dress it still meant she would take forever finding shoes and a wrap and probably a little crown thing. Why didn't he just say no to her? He could be at home, scrubbing up his mom's puke. Wait, aren't you supposed to think of fun things to do instead? Was this the most entertaining thing he could be doing right now? At least AC/DC played on the radio.

If you're havin' trouble with your high school head/huh, huh, huh, huh
He's givin' you the blues/huh, huh, huh
You wanna graduate but not in 'is bed/huh, huh, huh, huh
Here's what you gotta do/huh, huh, huh
Pick up the phone, I'm always home/huh, huh, huh, huh, huh
Call me anytime/huh, huh, huh
Just ring: three-six-two-four-three-six, hey
I lead a life of crime

Dirty deeds done dirt cheap
Dirty deeds done dirt cheap
Dirty deeds done dirt cheap
Dirty deeds and they're done dirt cheap
Dirty deeds and they're done dirt cheap

You got problems in your life of love/huh, huh, huh, huh
You got a broken heart/huh, huh, huh
He's double-dealin' with your best friend/huh, huh, huh, huh, huh
That's when the teardrops start FELLA, well-uh/huh, huh, huh
Pick up the phone, I'm here alone/huh, huh, huh, huh, huh
Or make a social call/huh, huh, huh, huh
Come right in, forget about him
We'll have ourselves a ball, eh

"Oh my God," he heard her breathe out in one long string. She hugged herself and tiptoed behind one of the columns, making herself even tinier than she already was.

"Jackie?"

"Sh!"

He looked behind him. Tanya Simmons and Alicia Travers giggled and bumped their long shopping bags with their legs. But they were on the cheerleading squad with her.

"Aren't they your friends?"

"You're kidding, right? Just, wait until they're gone, okay?" He had never seen her so intimidated. This was the girl who ordered a guy over six feet tall around every single day, and ordered around a girl who was as close to six feet tall as he had ever seen.

"Jackie, come out from behind there. They're not even looking. What do you care? You're at the mall. They're at the mall. It's a natural place for…"

"For what?" She poked out her head.

"For, you know, girls like…"

"Girls like us to be? You think I'm like them?" She gave him the same violent no-nonsense stare she gave Kelso all the time. "I'm some stupid skank who gets with her other skank friend and gets some little freshman girl feeling so ugly she quits the squad?" Hyde backed away, sensing she would shove him if he were any closer. "I'll show you." All of a sudden, Jackie straightened her back and adopted that vacant, blissfully unaware smile he had seen so many times. "Tanya! Alicia!"

"Jackie!" they screamed, jumping up and down while they ran to her. Hyde wondered if he could understand three screech owls better than the three of them. Their earrings and bracelets sparkled against the fluorescent mall lights, their high-heeled shoes clanking against the hard floor.

"Are you just now buying your prom dress?" one of them asked. He knew their names but didn't know which was which…and that basically applied to the whole cheerleading squad.

"Oh no, no," Jackie lied. "I'm just out spending Daddy's money. What's the matter? Girl can't go out to the mall more than one weekend a month?"

"Hey, Jackie," Hyde said, walking up. All their eyes immediately went to him, just as he expected them to. Most girls seemed to like him, was never one to do without, and the sluts he'd been with before having big mouths most likely didn't hurt his reputation.

"Jackie, isn't this the guy that drew the facial hair on Mr. Litz's driver's license?" one of them asked. Oh yeah. That had been fun, especially when his chemistry teacher had been pulled over and no longer looked like his license picture, which wasn't that great to begin with.

"That's me." He quickly turned back to Jackie. "So, Jackie, you said you needed my tux to match, right?"

"You're going to prom with him?"

"Yes," Jackie said slowly, the corners of her mouth perking. "Yes, it is, and if the two of you bothered to care about anything except yourselves you would have known Steven and I had this planned out for weeks." She gave out an arrogant laugh that seemed to plunge down into Hyde and make him want to laugh, too. But the way she said his name cancelled it out, instead making him want to bend down and peck her cheek, and then her other one, and then…no. No. Prom is getting to you. Prom's making you a little weird, is all. But he did love the shocked looks she made appear on the other cheerleaders' faces.

"Come on, Tanya, let's go."

"So that one was Tanya," Hyde said. "I didn't know which was which."

"It doesn't matter," Jackie said. "They have to be together for them to equal one whole person."

Hyde let out a laugh and followed her back into the formals section. She deserved to have the best dress the mall had to offer…wherever the hell it was hiding.

"Have you been in a lot of fights?" she asked him, sifting through the racks, making a face at every dress.

"Yeah. Why?"

"I just…have you ever been in a fight with one of Michael's brothers?"

"Well, you've seen me and Kelso fight in the basement. Oh, I got in a fight with Jim once."

"Really? Me too. They're impossible. They all need girlfriends to tame them. Isn't like a circus over there?"

"Well, I don't know…"

"Haven't you ever been to their house?" Jackie looked up from the dresses. Come on, he told himself. You're going to let Jackie, Jackie Burkhart, make you think you're a shitty friend? "You've been friends for how long and you've never been to Michael's house?"

"Well, we're more basement people," he said, looking at the shiny metal bases of the dress racks. "He's been over to mine a couple of times. I don't know. Kasey's kind of a prick and it's so busy over there and we just like going over to the Formans', you know?"

"I know." She bent her head back down and sorted through the dresses.

"Haven't you already looked at those?"

"Oh yeah." Blushing, she crossed to the other rack and continued her search.

"No! Blue would look too much like Donna's dress!"

"And you wouldn't want to look like a giant redheaded lumberjack, right?" he laughed.

"You can't tell her I said this," Jackie laughed back, "but Donna is really a very pretty girl. She just needs someone to get her out of all that flannel and make her put on some mascara once in a while."

It wasn't really a rescue, Jackie thought, biting into her pizza, but it was more a confidence rescue. That's what she would call it. A confidence rescue. It didn't even bother her that Tanya and Alicia would undoubtedly spread rumors about her, one of which is that she and "Steven" were an item now and had been planning on going to prom for several weeks. But agreeing to go with her in the first place was a genuine rescue, and while she toyed with her straw, she took the opportunity to watch his eyes, his sunglasses folded and clipped onto his shirt collar while he ate. They had such a shine to them, and a sweetness.

"What?"

"What? I'm eating," she made sure to say with the same tone. She tore into her pizza crust-first, the warm dough comforting her teeth.

"Yeah. Hey, uh, why didn't Kelso ask you to prom?"

She coughed, sure she was choking on her pizza. Bringing her cup up to her lips in spite of the straw, Jackie gulped down a swig of her pop. By now, she had been down in the basement enough times to know how skilled Hyde was at setting everyone else up for burns. Be careful how you answer, she could hear her conscience, with Donna's voice, warning her.

"Look. I waited for him to ask me a month ago, which is when guys are supposed to ask out their prom dates, and he never once mentioned it. All of a sudden, he comes down to the basement like he does everyday and tells all of you right in front of me that he's taking Pam Macy. He's a thoughtless, perverted…" She clamped her lips shut, dropping her pizza slice back onto her plate. Every bit of pepperoni had been picked off. Wiping her fingers with her napkin, Jackie waited for him to laugh, recalling that day when even Eric had the good sense to not laugh at her when it happened.

"So why are you with him?"

"Why is Scarlett with Rhett? Why is Maid Marian with Robin Hood? Why is Lara with Dr. Zhivago?"

"I don't even know who those last people are…"

"Michael is a good person and a good boyfriend. He just needs…a little guidance every now and then. He'll realize he made a big mistake."

"Yeah. And then he'll never do it again and just make another big mistake, right?" Hyde asked, finished with his lunch.

For a long while, she stared at him, knowing he was staring back.

Layla, you've got me on my knees.
Layla, I'm begging, darling please.
Layla, darling won't you ease my worried mind.

"Did you know I know the story behind this song?" Jackie blurted, her voice cracking. "Eric Clapton had fallen in love with the wife of his friend…"

"…Just hurry up and pick out your dress."

This would be the last store, Hyde decided, sitting in a chair, not caring where Jackie was in the assortment of formal gowns. If she didn't pick out something here, he would just have to throw her over his shoulder, carry her out to the parking lot, and have his way with her in the backseat. No, no, damn it. A girl should either be the strong badass he had seen in her earlier or should be the lost little waif waiting for her prince or waiting on her prince, like he had seen in her at lunch. A girl who was both could never be figured out.

Standing up, Hyde paraded around a rack of dresses, each one not a far cry from the others. What the hell did it matter which one she wore? She wasn't going with her boyfriend, and she was already achingly beautiful, so why not just take one off the rack, throw it on, and go to prom with Steven Hyde? She wouldn't put herself through all this hell if things were the other way around and he had asked her to the prom first, which would never, ever, not-in-a-million-years happen.

Blue jean baby

LA lady

Seamstress for the band

Pretty-eyed, pirate smile

You'll marry a music man

Where was Jackie anyway? Gazing out into the dresses, he found her dark head bobbing up and down in between the racks. It was an amusing image, and she was so tiny. Throwing his arms behind his head, Hyde imagined some flowers in her hair. She'd want a romantic dress, something that looked like it was from another time period, something that would give her a little mystery. Shocked he now knew what she was looking for and why it was taking so long, he sprung up and headed over to her.

"Any luck?"

"These are all so, so trendy." She grimaced at all of them. "I'm sorry, Steven. I've dragged you everywhere and let's face it, none of these dresses are cute enough for me. I'm so sorry."

"No. Just keep looking."

Looking on, she sings the songs

The words she knows, the tune she hums

But oh how it feels so real

Lying here with no one near

Only you and you can hear me

When I say softly, slowly

For a second, just a split second, not even that, Hyde loved her, loved her enough to finally understand what prom meant to her. I don't like her. I don't like her, he repeated with each dress he sorted through. But he no longer wanted to find a dress so they could leave. He wanted to find a dress so she would be happy.

"Oh! Oh, Steven, look at this one!" At the sound of his name, his eyes snapped up to see nothing but a purplish lacy mass in front of him.

"You need to step back with it if you want me to look at it."

"Sorry!" She held it up to her, a sleeveless gown with a high neck and flouncy chest things he couldn't name, but it definitely looked like the romantic kind of dress she would want. "Do you like it?"

"It's nice. Purple?"

"Oh, this isn't purple. This is lilac, and it's going to do wonders for my skin tone. I'm so excited! We found it! We found my dress!" She let her fingers dance in his hair on the way to the fitting room.

Lay me down in sheets of linen

You had a visitor today

It seemed like hours before Jackie came out of the fitting room, back in her regular clothes, her lilac dress on the hanger.

"I don't get to see you in it?"

"No. Bad enough you saw what I picked out."

"It's not a wedding dress," he argued.

"But it's a prom dress, Steven! It's the second most sacred dress a woman can ever wear."

"I want to see it on you."

"And you will! I'll come by your house and you can drive the car to school and you'll see me in it then. It's going to be the best night ever. I know just the flowers to go with these, too!" She opened her purse and pulled out her wallet.

"Let me pay for it."

"What?"

Shit. Why had that of all things come out of his mouth? To quote Jackie herself, she'd dragged him around all day and he wanted to pay for her dress? He held his breath, searching for the price tag. It was going to cost more than the best stash money could buy.

"Steven, that's so nice, but I'm not expecting you to buy me anything. I'm the one who asked you, remember?" He would have been angry, but it was said so sincerely, and sincerity was something he hadn't heard come out of Jackie. "You've been a lot of fun today." She kissed his cheek and made her way to the cashier.

There had to be some way he could contribute to her prom night. Well, the crude bad boy in him said, there was definitely something he could do for her that night, but he wouldn't. He had to do all the old-fashioned, gentlemanly things he'd seen in the old movies to match her dress. There would be no time or funds for taking her out to dinner, and he wasn't sure if he could do another meal with Jackie for a while. She was already providing the car. No, there had to be...corsage. Those were affordable, and he could already see the smile on her face when he would give it to her. Maybe prom wouldn't completely suck ass, he smirked, making sure to turn it back to a smile when Jackie came his way, her dress now in a long sack. And just think, he resumed his smirk. He was going to be the good-looking guy dancing with her in it.

A/N: Hi! The songs in this one-shot are Love Her Madly by the Doors, You Should be Dancing by the Bee Gees, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap by AC/DC, Layla by Eric Clapton, and of course, Tiny Dancer by Elton John. I do not own T70sS, but I do appreciate reviews. Hint hint.