Disclaimer: That '70s Show copyright The Carsey-Werner Company, LLC and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, LLC.

Dedication: To Prissy (nannygirl) who helped me greatly on a night quite like this one.

CHAPTER 10
LONG ODDS

The animal hospital's Emergency and Traumatic Care department was located on the second floor, and Jackie was pacing. She'd ensconced herself in a quiet part of the waiting area. It was filled only by herself, abandoned newspapers, and a pair of vending machines. The rest of the waiting area was packed with talkative and worried pet owners, some with their dogs beside them on leashes.

Shade had been taken in by techs to be put on oxygen, to get an IV, to be sedated, and to be assessed. Jackie was holding herself together as best she could, but John's attitude didn't help. He'd tossed off a casual, "Shade'll be fine" before disappearing into the bathroom.

He'd been gone for several minutes already, and she stopped pacing. She didn't want to sit, but her legs were too shaky, so she leaned against a beam.. John should've been the one supporting her, though, instead of a tile-covered hunk of steel.

Her gaze remained on the nurse's desk. The emergency-care rooms were situated in hallways beyond it. Her heart fluttered each time a doctor emerged, but none of them approached her. She didn't know what to feel right now, trepidation or grief. The lack of information was worse than anything.

She inhaled a few steadying breaths, something Shade hadn't been able to do, and a hand cupped her shoulder. She turned toward it, "John, I don't—" but Steven was the one standing by her side.

Without thought, she crumbled into his embrace. He held her perfectly; his arms were cozy without being constricting, and his cheek slid against her temple. She could've stayed with him like that forever, shutting out the truth of what was happening, but his grip eventually loosened.

"How're you holdin' up?" he said.

"I'll be better once I know something. Shade's being assessed right now."

He nodded and offered his hand. She grasped it tightly, and they went to the back of the waiting area. They sat on the bench together, and he didn't let go of her hand. She was relieved. His physical presence kept her from panicking, and they began to swap Shade stories.

"He was freakin' tiny when I found him," Steven said. "Covered in dirt."

She laughed. "And looking just like you."

"So I keep hearing. He's got my balance, too."

"Yeah," she said. "He still doesn't understand he's gonna fall when he rolls off an edge. He flops off the cat tree, the chairs, the bed..."

"Doofus-cat," Steven said with an amused smile. "He shoulda picked up some grace from you."

"It was too late by the time I got to him. He patterned his behavior on you, Steven. That's why he's so sweet."

"Bull. That's all you, baby—"

"Hyde, you're here," John said. He'd finally surfaced from the bathroom. His focus was trained on Jackie and Steven's knot of fingers.

Her hand sprang open. "Of course he's here. Shade's his cat, too."

"Good. Then he can take care of it. Let's go."

She stared at him a moment. "Are you kidding me?"

"No." His six-foot-three height was casting a shadow over her, but he crouched down and clutched her knees. "Hyde," he said, "why don't you go to the nurses' desk and ask about Shade?"

"I'm goin' nowhere."

"Steven," Jackie said, "go... please. I want to know what's taking them so long."

Steven stood up and did as she asked. Her gaze lingered on his back, but a double-knee squeeze from John drew her attention.

"Look," John said, "I'm sick of this. You can't go away for a weekend with me because you won't leave that thing—won't leave Shade."

"The pet-boarding place was being renovated that weekend," she said.

"Hyde could've watched him."

"Steven would have, but he was visiting family in Milwaukee."

John shut his eyes before speaking again. "It's time for you to choose, Jackie: me or Shade." He pressed his thumb and forefinger down on her engagement ring, which sent a shock of pain up her broken arm. "Come home with me. Let me make love to you. I'll make you forget that cat ever existed, all right?."

Jackie's right hand shot out and struck him across the face. "How dare you! You're a damn narcissist, you know that?"

"Is that what I am?" He got to his feet and tried to pull her with him. His fingers clamped around her cast, sending more pain mixed with panic through her body. But before he could do any serious damage, Steven grabbed his arm.

"Go home," Steven said. His voice was calm, but a hint of menace lay beneath it. John must have heard it because let her go. "Before you make a bet you can't win, man, go home."

"Yeah, screw you." John shook him off. "She's myfiancée,not yours, so butt out." He extended his hand toward Jackie "I love you, babe. Please, let's figure this out."

"I already have." She dropped her engagement ring into his waiting palm.

He stared at the ring. The injury she'd caused him was clear on his face, but he stalked off before it incited her to cry. She'd never wanted to hurt him, but he was wrong. For so many reasons—and about so much—he was wrong.

John went to the bank of elevators. An elevator dinged its arrival, and he disappeared into it.

"Did you get any information?" she said to Steven. His sunglasses were on. Even so, she recognized his sadness.

"Just that the doc will be out in a few minutes."

"Another ' few minutes'." She moved away from the bench and leaned against the beam again. Another few minutes to ponder her broken engagement. Another few minutes to think of all the horrible things her kitty was going through. And another few minutes for the horror of her choices to crawl through her veins like parasites.

"Jackie," Steven said. He was at her side again. Maybe he'd never left it.

"I don't know what to feel," she said. "Shouldn't I be crying? I don't know..."

"You don't gotta know, not right now." He gestured to himself, inviting her into his arms. She returned to his embrace silently, and his fingers brushed through her hair. "I don't know, either," he said.

"Shade was practically dying in my lap as John drove us here. He collapsed on me at the house, then again in the carrier."

Steven said nothing, only held her tighter in a way that she'd craved.

A little while later, a female doctor entered the waiting area. She was wearing a crisp white coat and had a clipboard. "Who's the owner of the cat who can't breathe?"

Jackie and Steven both waved the doctor over and said, "Us."

The doctor joined them by the beam, in their private enclave of the waiting area. "It's pleurisy," she said quietly. "We need to tap Shade's chest to remove fluid from his lungs. There are risks involved. He can bleed. He can—"

"Do what has to be done," Jackie said.

The doctor nodded and walked away, but Jackie's legs could no longer support her. She plunked down on the bench and finally began to cry.

Steven sat by her. He was silent, but she said, "If he's got be put down, then I'm doing it."

"He's only four."

She grasped his hand again. "I know."

"Quality over quantity, man... I get it."

He palmed her knee while they waited for the doctor to come back. Unlike when John had clutched her, Steven's touch was comforting; more importantly, it felt right.

They didn't talk about Shade during the wait. She leaned against Steven's shoulder, and he told her about the dirty hippie—about Leo's latest visit to him. She even giggled a little as he described Leo's attempt to sell records at Grooves.

"He started offerin' customers money to take 'em," Steven said. "My money. Took it straight outta the cash register."

Jackie sat up when the story was finished, and he swept his thumb over her chin, unsticking tear-glued hair from her skin. The gesture astounded her. She hated when her hair did that, and he'd remembered.

"Better?" he said.

She nodded, "Better," and laid her head on his shoulder again. She shut her eyes against the reality of their surroundings but knew now, without question, that Steven was her family.

The doctor eventually came back with her clipboard and a stethoscope around her neck. "We withdrew a lot of fluid from Shade's lungs," she said. "But when I listened to his heart afterword, I heard crackles. That's indicative of congestive heart failure."

"What's it mean in the long-term?" Steven said.

"Shade can survive a year after a first attack like this, but that's at the very most."

"How can we be sure it's congestive heart failure?" Jackie said.

"The other causes for pleurisy are even worse than heart failure..."

Jackie looked at Steven. "Then we have to put him down."

"How did he get this?" he said.

"It's genetic," the doctor said. "Not uncommon in younger cats."

Steven's fingers threaded between Jackie's. "So... what do we do?"

"He'd have to undergo regular lung-tapping, bi-weekly or weekly, depending on how fast the fluid builds back up. But we couldn't get it all, what's in there now."

"We have to put him down tonight," Jackie said. "I don't want him suffering anymore."

Steven nodded his agreement, and the doctor frowned sympathetically. "I'm so sorry," she said.

"I want to see him before you do it." Jackie pulled Steven's hand to her chest. "Will you say goodbye to him with me?"

He rubbed the back of his fingers over her heart. "Yeah."

Shade was brought into Room 1 on a thick towel. A young male tech placed him on a metal examination table and said, "He seems like such a sweet kitty. I'm really sorry."

"Thank you," Jackie said.

Shade was awake, but he didn't appear to register Jackie or Steven's presence. It had to be an effect of his sedation. His pupils were wide, and his breathing was still labored.

"Have you ever been present when a cat's been euthanized?" the doctor said.

Jackie shook her head. "Oh, no. I can't be there for that."

"I will," Steven said. His sunglasses were hooked on his shirt collar, and tears rimmed his eyes.

"All right." The doctor gave Jackie two pieces of paper and explained them. One was to give permission to euthanize. "The other asks if you'd like to donate Shade's body to the hospital, so student vets can learn."

"Yes," Jackie said, and the doctor continued.

"Would you be willing to donate the fluid from his lungs so we can research—"

"Yes." Jackie was crying again, but she managed to sign the papers.

"I'm so sorry," the doctor said, just as sympathetically as before. Jackie was a stranger to her, but the doctor showed more compassion than John had.

"It's okay," Jackie said, blotting her eyes. Steven had passed her some tissues from the medical counter.

The doctor left them then, and Jackie and Steven petted Shade at the same time, as they'd always done since he'd come into their lives.

"I love you, Shade," she said and kissed his front paw.

"Hey, Cat," Steven said. He traced a fingertip over the stripes on Shade's head, over the orange rings that had given Shade his name.

Jackie, though, could no longer control herself. She wept openly and loudly while leaning over Shade's body. Then her voice grew to a whisper. "Thank you," she said. "Thank you, Shade, for the time you gave us. I love you."

She straightened up and hugged Steven's waist with her right arm. He hugged her back without hesitation.

"Thank you for giving him to me, Steven," she said, and he kissed the top of her head.

"Do you need more time?" the doctor said. She'd returned without Jackie noticing.

"No," Jackie said

But Steven held up a finger. "Yeah, just one sec." Then he bent over Shade and kissed the top of his head, just as he'd done to Jackie. "Okay."

The doctor scooped Shade up, towel and all. Steven followed them out of the room, and Jackie made her way back to the waiting area. She stayed close to the nurse's desk, and when Steven eventually appeared, she ran up to him.

"Went peacefully," he said. "Fell asleep then... went." His sunglasses were still off, and his eyes were wet. "Want me to take you home?"

"I don't... I don't have one anymore."

"Yeah, you do." His palm slipped down her right wrist and eased over her hand. "Always will."

A small but deeply-felt smile rose on her lips, and she nodded. "Take me home."

A year later, on the anniversary of Shade's death, Hyde and Jackie were lying together on their bed. It was covered in a patchwork quilt from Mrs. Forman, something their two kittens loved. The cats were curled up on it now, a feisty but affectionate tortoiseshell named Zeppelin and a gray-and-white fluffball Jackie had named "Bee," in honor of the trait he shared with Shade: a constant buzzy purr.

Jackie sighed, and the sound made the kittens' ears twitch. It was late at night, time to sleep, but Hyde wouldn't turn off the lights until she gave him the okay. She couldn't seem to stop looking at a picture they had on the wall. In it, Shade was sprawled on his back and looking up at the camera. Hyde liked to call this Shade's "Watch me! I'm like Ma!" pose. But she always argued it was Shade's Steven-pose because the orange rings around his eyes were so evident.

Hyde stroked Jackie's arm, and his touch seemed to draw out her thoughts. "I still miss him," she said.

"Yeah..." he kissed her temple softly, "me, too."

She finally pulled her gaze from Shade's picture and glanced at her engagement ring. He'd proposed to her six months ago, would've done it earlier, but she'd needed time. Moving into his house in Glenview had been easy for her. Finishing out her contract at Wake Up, Chicago! had been rough. John Boy tried to sweet-talk his way back into her good graces, but she didn't take the bait. Seeing him at the studio from then on, dealing with her co-workers' whispers, used every bit of strength she had.

She'd call Hyde in the middle of the day for support, and he gladly gave it. Her courage impressed him and kindled his own bravery. He freely admitted his feelings without a run-around, confessed he'd moved to Illinois because he loved her—had never stopped. If John Boy hadn't been a dick, Hyde would've stayed put in Wisconsin and let her be.

"I'm so glad he was a dick," Jackie had said months ago, and Hyde laughed.

He wasn't laughing now, though. Jackie seemed close to tears, and he grabbed a few tissues from the nightstand for her.

"It comes in waves, y'know?" she said and scooted toward him. He moved his pillow so she could share it with him. "Most of the time, I'm okay, but sometimes his absence just hits me. I'll be on set at ITM, and between commercial breaks, the memory of Shade will flash through my mind. I have to pinch my leg to keep from crying." She took his tissues but crushed them in her fist. "And sometimes I get really angry. He was so young, Steven. I wanted more time with him."

"Me, too," he said again. "There was nothing we could do, doll. No way to know he had a ticking time bomb in his chest until it was too damn late."

"I'll probably miss him for the rest of my life," she scooted even closer and snuggled into his chest, "but I'm so thankful I don't have to miss you anymore."

"We played a few bad hands... but we won the game, man."

His arms closed around her, and the movement woke Zeppelin and Bee. They trotted up to Hyde and Jackie to see what the fuss was about. Then they pounced on each other and tumbled to the floor.

"Doofus-cats," Hyde and Jackie said together and burst into laughter. Their time with Shade had been cut painfully short, just as Hyde's time with Jackie once was. But Shade had bound them together, in ways Hyde still didn't completely understand.

A loud purr rose to the bed, prompting Hyde and Jackie to peek over the side. Zeppelin and Bee were a tangle of paws, and Zep was grooming Bee's face. Jackie reached down and petted them. Hyde did the same, and as his fingers crossed under hers, he sent silent gratitude to Shade...

Thanks for the time you gave us, Cat.