Chapter Text
Chapter One: Find a Queen Without a King
June 21, 1979
Point Place, Wisconsin
“Oh my god,” said Jackie, and Hyde heard her run out of the room behind him. He stared at Sam, feeling the pit in his stomach grow bigger as he realized what she said.
“Oh and Eric, Steven married a stripper!” he heard Mrs. Forman say into her microphone. It echoed in his head...he married a stripper? How? He hadn’t even seen Sam during his last week in Vegas. He shook his head and walked through the kitchen and down to the basement, leaving Mrs. Forman and Sam in his wake.
Jackie paced back and forth in Donna’s room, wondering what to do. “That stupid son of a bitch!” she seethed to herself as she stomped along the carpet. She started chewing on a hangnail as Donna banged into the room.
“That stupid son of a bitch! He married a stripper?”
Jackie finally broke down into tears. “That’s what I said,” she sobbed. Donna rushed over to her and pulled her into her arms. Jackie pushed her back and said, “Donna, I don’t want to get tears all over your only nice sweater.” She threw herself onto Donna’s bed instead and cried bitterly into her pillow.
“But you’ll get tears all over my comforter?”
“It’s not as nice,” Jackie replied. Donna rolled her eyes and sat next to Jackie on the bed.
“Don’t worry Jackie; I’m sure there’s some explanation for this. We can go over to the basement and yell at him right now! I’ll even hold him down so you can kick him,” she said soothingly.
“Donna, he let me go to Chicago without him, abandoned me for a month, and then came back married to another girl after not even letting me talk about marriage for months. There is no explanation that can fix this!” Jackie sat up on the bed and rubbed her eyes. “God, this is the worst thing anyone has ever done to me. And that’s including the time when Michael left me at the arcade in Madison so he could drive Pam Macy home!”
Donna watched Jackie wipe her eyes on the corner of her pillowcase and she felt her heart twinge. Sure, Eric had left her to go to Africa, but at least he didn’t marry anyone there! At least, she thought he didn’t. Donna was getting riled up again. “I am going to kick Hyde’s ass the next time I see him!”
Jackie nodded along. “That’s a good idea, Donna. I kind of want to be alone right now, so maybe you can go get a head start on that.” Donna nodded and passed Jackie the tissue box on her nightstand.
“I’ll let you know how many bones I break,” she said and stormed out of the room.
As Donna left the room, Jackie slowly sat up. How could Steven do this to her again? Her love for him was so unconditional that she let him ruin her first big job opportunity. Jackie’s head started to pound when she thought about how she left things with her station manager in Chicago. She did not even show up for her first day of work; she just left her motel room and immediately chased Steven back to Point Place. No matter how hard she tried, she could never leave this horrible town behind, and she could never stop Steven from ruining her future. How could he do this to her? She was Jackie freakin’ Burkhart for god’s sake! He should be kissing her feet for even considering marrying him! Jackie broke down in sobs again as she pictured his face when Kelso walked into her motel room. Why didn’t he love her the way she loves him? Why doesn’t anybody ever love her enough to stick around? Maybe being Jackie freakin’ Burkhart isn’t enough. Maybe she really was just Jackie Beulah Burkhart, washed up Snow Queen from nowhere, Wisconsin. Forever unlovable and forever left behind.
Jackie swung her legs out of the bed and smoothed down her hair. She needed to do something, needed to distract herself from her spiraling thoughts. She walked over to Donna’s desk and started painting her nails, hoping beyond hope that she could convince herself to stop thinking about her Steven.
“Jackie? We need to talk,” she heard as Steven himself crashed his way into the room.
“Don’t you knock?” she muttered and bent her head lower over her nails. Steven walked further into the room, grabbed the swivel chair, and turned her to face him.
“What are you doing here? I went to your house and it was dark,” he said, holding the chair steady so she couldn’t spin away from him.
Jackie sighed. “Steven, that is clearly none of your business.” She wrenched the chair out of his grasp and turned back to her nails. Hyde sat down heavily on the corner of Donna’s bed and took off his sunglasses.
“Jackie, would you look at me?” Jackie vigorously shook the nail polish and started working on her other hand. “Jackie, I’m not married, okay? I don’t know why she said that; we barely spent two weeks together.”
She still wouldn’t look up at him. “Only two weeks, huh? Maybe you could’ve spent part of those two weeks CALLING your GIRLFRIEND to tell her where you are! Oh wait, you were too busy spending time with your wife to let me know where you were! Or poor Mrs. Forman, who barely left the house so she could be near the phone in case you called. Or Michael, who was terrified you would pop out and kill him every time he walked into a room!”
Jackie pushed back her chair and started pacing again. Hyde popped up as soon as she did and yelled, “Oh, poor Kelso, he had an extra month to nail my girlfriend when I was away! If you were so worried about me or where I was, maybe you shouldn’t have slept with him in Chicago!”
“For the last time, NOTHING HAPPENED!” Jackie shrieked. “He’s Michael, he’s always naked! And even if I did sleep with him, which I didn’t, marrying a stripper is way worse! If you wanted to get rid of me so badly, you could have just broke up with me in Point Place like everybody else does!” Jackie’s chest heaved up and down and her eyes sparkled with tears, but she didn’t let them fall. She watched Steven take his turn to pace around the room, tugging on his curls like he always did when he was stressed. Before Chicago, Jackie would have sat him down on the bed with her and scratched his scalp until he calmed down. Now, she just dug her nails into her palms and waited for him to apologize. If he told her he was sorry, maybe she could listen to him. If he told her he loved her, maybe she would forgive him.
“Jackie, Sam and I are not married. I know we’re not. Why can’t you just trust me?” he said finally. Steven stared at her beseechingly, but Jackie had heard enough.
“TRUST YOU, trust you!” she screamed. She grabbed his sunglasses from the bed and threw them at him as hard as she could. She sat back down and pushed hard against her eyes, hoping to stop the trickle of tears that were creeping out through her fingers. “What is wrong with you?” she said quietly. “What is wrong with me?”
“Jackie,” Hyde said again, and his voice cracked.
“I need you to leave,” said Jackie as she looked up at him. “I can’t have you near me anymore.”
Hyde took a step towards her, then seemed to think better of it and instead leaned down to pick up his sunglasses. He turned to leave without a word and quietly shut the door behind him. Jackie wrapped her arms around her stomach and held herself tightly. Hyde could hear her sobs all the way down the stairs.