Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter One: Born with a Void

Her daddy always told her to do anything necessary to get what you want. 

Her mother always said nothing compared to a glamorous life. 

She lived by these rare pieces of advice every moment of her sixteen years of life because other than the expensive clothing, cars, and shoes, that’s all her parents gave her. 

They were too busy for her, simple as that and she didn’t blame them. Her dad worked hard to provide for his family; hell, campaigns wouldn’t just run themselves. Her mom worked hard to make the life of a socialite and a congressman’s wife appear beautiful and easy; so who could blame her if she found release in a bottle? 

They weren’t perfect parents. 

They’d miss so many birthdays, she’s lost count. They weren’t home most of the time leaving the mansion and her in the care of their help. Yet despite their faults and absence, she loved them both dearly. 

Besides, how could she complain when she always had the latest fashion collection in her wardrobe, drove the nicest car in her entire private school, and was the most desired girl in their social circle? Who needed active parents when she set fashion trends? 

She remembered when her father first got elected; the look of unadulterated joy on both of her parents’ faces, them moving from that god awful town in Wisconsin, and the glamorous life that followed.  Her father got his dream job; she got a shiny new school with people just like her, with the elite. It was blissful being surrounded by her own kind. These teenagers were like her, glamorous with absent parents. Not only did they understand her, they helped her. 

She remembered the first charity ball she had to attend. Her dad encouraged her to mingle, so, like a good daughter, she did. There she met her true peers, and as time passed and she hung out with them more and more, they introduced her to the many escapes of life. They introduced her to smoking so much pot that she could feel every molecule in her body vibrate, to drinking until she couldn’t remember the aching hole in her chest, to taking such a mix of pills that she became numb to the outside world. 

On paper, her habits sounded unfavorable but the feelings they gave her, the relief they brought her, was astounding. Besides, who would catch her, scold her? 

Her daddy was too busy. Her mother was too drunk. 

So when she drank until her vision was blurred, smoked until the only thing she breathed in was weed, and took pills that made her stay up for days at a time, she had no regrets. When she let her rich, handsome  boyfriend fuck her in her pretty red mustang convertible, she had no regrets. When she partied so hard, she ended up spending her Sunday mornings vomiting whatever she put in her body, she had no regrets. 

She was living the life, her life, and it was amazing. 

Well,  until her dear daddy got arrested. 

She remembered when the cop cars first showed to their mansion. The bright colors of red and blue that filled the night sky; the anxiety she felt in the pit of her stomach as her live in maid answered the door. At first, she thought that they somehow found out about her unsavory habits, that they were here to arrest her because she possessed so many drugs it was entirely illegal.  

Yet as the pushed passed the elder maid, waving a warrant in their baffled faces, she saw her perfect life crumble. 

As she heard the metal clink of handcuffs snapping onto her daddy’s wrist, saw the unshed tears in her mother’s honey gaze, and smelled the stale damp air of the night watching the officers shove her daddy into the back of a police cruiser, she knew her astonishing, glamorous life was over.

The press had a field day. 

Apparently, her dear daddy was embezzling money, lots of it. 

They dragged him through the dirt, happily, like he was a pig getting ready to be slaughtered and they were promised the first piece of bacon. 

Maybe he was everything they said he was; a crook, a thief, a no good lying and screaming politician. 

But he was still her daddy. 

When they were done slandering her daddy, ripping the name Jack Burkhart to streads, they then moved onto her family, onto her . 

They questioned her mother’s involvement. They questioned her involvement. They accused her of turning a blind eye to her daddy’s crooked actions just because he bought her pretty things. 

She wanted to scream out that she was sixteen . How could she know that the money she was spending was dirty, was stolen? She barely knew the number to her daddy’s safe, much less his business dealings, but the press didn’t care. 

They didn’t care that she was a teenage girl that lost her father. No, to them she was the latest story, their big break, and she hated it. 

So she tried to do what she always did when she couldn’t control something, spend her time in a drug and alcohol induced haze with her friends, but her dear friends wanted nothing to do with her. 

They couldn’t align themselves with the daughter of a criminal, and she understood that.

Still, it didn’t stop the looks of dismissal from causing her heart to ache. 

But, she didn’t let it get her down. She still had the prettiest car, the cutest clothes, and a rich, pretty boyfriend, yet slowly she lost each of those things as well. 

Her car went first. 

The police claimed it was evidence, but she knew their claim was bullshit. 

The boyfriend was next; he claimed that her family drama was too much to be around. 

Her clothes were last; she had to discard most of them when her mother burst into her room one day telling her that they were taking an extensive vacation and to pack light as possible. 

She knew they were running, and she wanted to fight against her mother with every fiber of her being. They were supposed to stay, to be the support system that her daddy needed in the worst time of his life. He gave them the world, and they were repaying him by fleeing, but at the desperate look in her mother’s gaze she submitted and packed. 

She ignored the fact that they were conveniently in Mexico when the date of her daddy’s trial came. 

She ignored the guilt that came with that realization. 

She ignored the tiny detail that her mother was now only going by her maiden name. 

She even ignored the tacky man her mother started to date in the blistering heat of Campeche until it was too late. 

Suddenly, she found herself on a plane to the states in between her mother and a snoring old lady, simply because her mother decided that she was in love with the most tackiest man on earth and she wanted to marry him.

She wanted to scream at her mother, to tell her that she was being idiotic, that they should be going back to the states to visit her dad, to pick up the pieces of their glamorous life. They shouldn’t be heading back to that god awful town in Wisconsin, to live with a tacky man and his daughter. But she didn’t say anything, she did what she did best, smiled and admired her mother’s magnificent tan. 

Yet as she sat on the uncomfortable coach plane seat, she knew her glamorous life was gone. 

When Bob announced he was getting remarried, it was a shock to everyone including his only daughter. 

Hyde remembered how in the early morning of the start of a new week,  Donna came storming into the basement, skin flushed from the Wisconsin summer heat wave, eyes blazing with suppressed frustration and rage. It was the first time he’d seen her since she left to spend the summer with her mother in California, and he expected her to greet the group with her usual playful grin and shoves but that was not the case. She greeted the guys in the room with a loud explanation. 

“My dad has lost his freaking mind!” 

At this, the guys let out a collective groan and all shook their heads at their only girl friend knowing that she was about to start a heated tangent and wouldn’t stop until Eric either distracted her or said something stupid. It wasn’t like they didn’t care about her issues, they did, but they didn’t want to spend the last few days of summer listening to her rant. 

“C’mon Big Red, do we have to do this now? There’s a Charlie’s Angels marathon on.” Kelso whined, and Hyde couldn’t help but snort at the way Donna shoved him nearly off of the ragged couch as she plopped down beside him, huffing as she crossed her arms over her chest. 

“Oh, shut up, Kelso. I have more serious issues than that show about bimbos.” The redhead shot back, her head turning to glare at the brown haired male beside her before she refocused her attention on her male best friend and her lanky boyfriend. 

“Guys, I’m serious. When I got home, it wasn’t a ‘Hey I’m so happy you’re back, I missed you!’. It was a ‘Hey, I’m so happy you’re back, you’re getting a step mom and a new step sister!’.”  

Frowning, Hyde turned his gaze from the black and white television to the redhead, his brows furrowed in slight confusion. He knew Bob was a bit more eccentric than most, with his joyful and naive personality, and his horrendous since of style but he never pegged him as the guy that would rush into another marriage, especially when his last one had only ended a mere year ago. 

“Funny, I thought Bob was making up the fact that he had a summer girlfriend.” Hyde replied in his usual bored tone as he shook his head in disbelief, a slight chuckle leaving his mouth when he saw the look of agreement flash across each face in the basement. 

“I know!” Donna exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air as her eyes rolled, “But apparently he wasn’t lyin’ and now I have to go with him next week to pick up our new ‘family.” 

“Hey, maybe it won’t be too bad. Maybe you’ll get the sister you always wanted and you guys could exchange secrets and have naughty pillow fights.” Kelso replied, a goofy grin taking over his face as a daydream played out into his brain but it was quickly cut short when Donna shoved him once more. “Damn, Donna, I was just trying to help!” 

Shaking his head in disbelief of his friends idiocy, Eric scooted up from his position on the couch and offered the redhead a soft grin. “Although Kelso said it in such a dumb way, he’s right. Maybe your new sister and mom will be kinda cool.” He said lightly, causing Donna to shake her head in annoyance. 

“I don’t want to think about how good they might be right now, right now I want to forget the fact that my dad is some lovesick fool, and he’s ruining the beginning of my senior year.”  

A slight smirk played on Hyde’s lips as he stood up from his usual seat, “I can help with that.” He replied, and at Donna’s eager expression and the slight plea in her eyes, he knew his offer was greatly appreciated. 

Now as he stood on the side steps of the Pinciotti’s front porch with the Formans plus Kelso and Fez beside him, he found himself wondering just who would step out of Bob’s car that had just pulled into the driveway. Yet, his wandering thoughts were put a halt as two sets of tanned legs stepped out of the steel grey vehicle. 

The first thing he noticed was Donna’s annoyed expression as she approached the group. 

The second thing he noticed was Bob’s boastful smile as he practically bounced around the car, opening the trunk to start and get out the ladies’ luggage.

The final thing he noticed were the two women, no sirens , who were leisurely making their way to the front porch. 

When they first stepped out of the car, Hyde was sure his shades were playing tricks on him. They looked absolutely sinful. 

It was the only way to describe women who were that good looking, who moved that graceful.

The two women were tan from obvious time spent under a sun that was certainly not shining the same way in Wisconsin. They both had long, voluminous curled locks that fell in perfect waves to the middle of their toned backs; their bodies seemed to be clothed in flirtatious summer dresses that showed just the right amount of skin and Hyde could tell they had both had the type of bodies, most women starved themselves for. Their features were nearly identical, although the younger woman smaller in stature and in height, and they walked in such a hypnotizing rhythm each man that occupied the porch eyes followed each sway of their ample hips. 

If he was a lesser man, his mouth would’ve dropped open in the same manner Kelso and Fez’s had or he would’ve let out a slow whistle in the same way Eric did. But he wasn’t a lesser man, so his face remained in it’s usual passive expression as the two, admittedly hot, newcomers approached the group. 

As they came closer with Donna in tow, he got a clearer look at their faces. The elder woman held a bright smile that showed her impossibly straight and pearly white teeth, while the younger woman (who he assumed to be her daughter) appeared to be bored by the entire situation. He could see the way his friends stood up a bit straighter as the women approached and was a bit surprised to see Red amongst the group of males that seemed to try and make themselves more appealing to the bronzed arrivers. 

“Oh, lookey here Jackie! I think these are the neighbors Bob was telling us about!” The woman said once the trio arrived at the steps, her honey locks still swaying behind her,  smile still wide and polite as ever. 

Hyde’s shade cover gaze then move to the younger woman that occupied the space beside her. From a distance, he could tell she was a hot little slip of a person, but up close she was a completely different story. 

This girl in front of him wasn’t the usual Point Place hot, no, she was the type of hot he’d only seen in magazines or cable TV. She was shorter than her mother, yet her tanned legs still seemed to go on for miles, and he found himself wondering if they were as soft as they appeared. Her hair was dark, but instead of making her appear paler, it seemed to complemented her olive tanned skin, and her eyes were so wide that they seemed to suck everyone around him in her orbit. 

She was hot, until she parted her plush, glossed lips to speak.  

“If I knew we were moving next to poor people, I would’ve stayed in Mexico.” The younger girl responded; her expression still was light and smiling and Hyde found himself a bit stunned at her words, the previous attraction he held for her wavering slightly. So, she was the shallow type; no figure, someone that hot couldn’t have the personality to match. 

“Oh dear, I told you on the ride here that we had to get used to poor people, you know how Bob loves to be around charity cases!” The woman replied, and Hyde couldn’t resist the eye roll that escaped him. 

So, the apple didn’t fall too far from the hot tree. 

He looked to his friends to see if they were witnessing or hearing the same thing he was, but by their doped up expressions he could tell they hadn’t heard a thing that came out of the plump, glossed covered lips. He shook his head at his friends, refusing to turn his gaze to watch the backsides of the two women that pushed passed him without a spare glance. He caught sight of Donna’s narrowed eyes and could feel the air around them turn.

Fuck, it was going to be a long day.

Chapter Text

Chapter Two: Pick a Personality

The last few days of summer was spent listening to Donna rant, and oh boy did the redhead rant. 

She ranted about how shallow her new family members were, about how they spent more time shopping than anything else, about how they had her dad so wrapped around their tanned little pinkies that he didn’t see the magnitude of the flaws the new women possessed. 

But nothing topped the rant she had when she found out she was switching schools in her fast approaching senior year. 

For Hyde it’d been a normal day, he participated in a few circles, napped, and watched a copious amount of TV, but it changed when Donna strolled into the basement in a Catholic school uniform with Eric hot on her heels. Raising a brow, he let a sarcastic grin play onto his lips. 

“Bringing you and Forman’s roleplay habits outside of the bedroom?”  He watched as Donna rolled her eyes, a sarcastic laugh leaving her lips as her face flushed with tell-tale sign of frustration. 

“No,” She deadpanned, “Little Miss Shallow told my dad she wouldn’t be caught dead in a public school so he gets this great idea to send us both to Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow! The school practically means sad forever! It’s freakin’ predicting my senior year!” 

The redhead stomped her way to the deep freezer, grabbing a Popsicle as before turning back around, her face scrunched in anger as she looked at both Hyde and Eric. “They’ve lost their freakin’ minds, I tell you! Now I can’t even graduate with you guys!” 

Eric shook his head from his seat on the back of the basement’s couch, his lips turned down in a frown, “You can’t talk to your dad about it? I mean, he practically does everything you say if you just pout enough?” 

Donna shook her head vehemently, seeming even more pissed off than before, “My pouts don’t even work anymore! Ever since Jackie came into the picture, it’s as if she is Baby Jesus and can do no wrong.” She huffed, sitting down on the couch in between Eric’s opened legs, “At dinner last night, she even convinced him to give us a curfew, a freakin’ curfew!” 

Hyde let out a snicker, and shook his head. He had to give it to the new girl, it had to take some talent to come in and ensnare Bob in a way that made him go against his precious baby girl’s wishes. Either she was a conniving little thing, or Donna was simply exaggerating the control the newest chick in Point Place had over her father-Hyde figured it was the latter. 

Still, he didn’t like that Donna was so bothered by things at home, especially since she went through enough crap with her parents divorce last year. So he did what he always did, and offered a circle, hoping that it would at least quell her rants for the next hour or so. 

Weeks passed, school began, and Donna had thankfully stopped ranting about her new family. 

Sure she and Forman bitched and moaned occasionally about going to separate schools, and sometimes she would come into the basement pissed off that her stepsister somehow managed to convince everyone surrounding them that she was a perfect little angel.

But, eventually all of that had become a distant buzzing sound in the back of Hyde’s mind and he genuinely didn’t spare another thought about Donna’s home life until a member of that life was literally standing in his driveway. 

He and the gang minus Donna had just gotten home from school, each of them exiting the Vista Cruiser in a different manner, and there she was. 

Dark hair pulled from her face in a high near perfect ponytail, lashes heavy with mascara, lips pouty with rosy lip gloss. She wore the same Catholic school uniform that Donna had been parading in for the past few weeks; the only difference in her uniform was that she switched the Mary Jane flats for heels. Kelso and Fez didn’t notice her as they were too busy racing each other to get a bite of Mrs. Forman’s afternoon brownies, and Forman well, he was chasing after Tweetledee and Tweetledum as well so that just left him with Point Place’s newest princess.  

Hyde watched as she fiddled around with the basketball that was often left discarded in the Formans’ driveway, and even lifted a brow in surprise as she successfully shot it in the basket. 

Clearing his throat, he fixed her with his usual impassive stare, “Do ya need somethin’?” He questioned. 

The girl in question turned her body, facing him full on, a light smile graced her features, as her pony swayed behind her, “Oh! I was waiting on Mr. Forman to get home.” She explained, her tone so peppy that it caused Hyde to inwardly cringe, “Bobby wants to invite you guys over for dinner, and he entrusted me with the task.”

“I’ll relay the invite to him,” He responded, shrugging his shoulders lightly, and she gave him an even brighter smile, that strangely didn’t line up with her wide eyes. 

“Oh, goody!” She breathed out, her hand brushing a stray curl that had escaped her ponytail behind her ear, “Thank you…” She trailed off, expecting him to offer his name.

“Hyde.” He said, tone flat, as he shoved his hands in his jeans pockets. 

Her nose scrunched slightly, but still her smile didn’t waver, “Well, Thank you, Hyde. See you at dinner tonight.” and with that statement and a playful wink, she turned on her heels, hips swaying slightly as she walked back towards her house. Hyde’s brows furrowed in slight confusion, but before he could think about how weird the encounter was, paused and turned her head to the side, an innocent smile playing on her lips. “Also, I do hope you shave your beard, it makes you look like a poor hippie.” 

He went to respond, to shoot back that plenty enough girls fell over themselves just to touch his beard, but he never got the chance, she had already disappeared from his vision. 

Dinner that night wasn’t a quiet affair. 

Sure there was tension in the air of the Pinciotti’s tackily decorated dining room. Donna couldn’t stop rolling her eyes at her stepmom who monopolized the entire conversation. Forman kept making jokes that only made the tension thicken. Red definitely looked like he was only there because his wife threatened him while Kitty and Bob tried to engage in polite conversation. Yet, Hyde paid no attention to any of this. 

No, his attention was firmly locked on the brunette who seemed to think her painted cherry red nails were more interesting than the meal in front of her. 

Her comment earlier through him for a loop. Somehow the simple sentence had gotten under his skin, and he hated it because he didn’t know why it bothered him so damn much. He shouldn’t be paying attention to anything a prep from god knows where said, much less let  it affect his Zen. 

Yet, here he was, biting his tongue to keep from shooting a burn off in her direction. 

So, he continued to eat his rather bland dinner, trying to ignore the disinterested girl  that sat across from him, his eyes only snapping back to her form when she cleared her throat.

“Well, as much as I would like to stay,” She began, standing up from her chair, not even bothering to pick up her untouched plate, “I have somewhere to be.” 

Hyde watched as the girl’s mother, Pam, didn’t even bat an eyelash at the girls statement, only opting to shoo her hand in a manner that seemed to say ‘ run along now.’ He heard Donna let out an exasperated huff, and raised an eyebrow at the look the now standing brunette shot the other girl. 

“What about our curfew , Dad?” Donna questioned, her voice dripping with the annoyance she felt, and Hyde was sure that Bob was going to tell the other girl to sit back down in her seat, yet to his and Donna’s surprise, Bob only smiled a bit goofy. 

“She will only be out for a little while, right sweetheart?” The man responded fishing though his wallet and handing the petite girl a crisp twenty dollar bill, and the brunette only nodded eagerly, before placing a small kiss on Bob’s cheek. 

“Of course , Bobby,” She said in a sickeningly sweet tone, as she tossed her dark locks over her shoulders, sliding the money in the her jacket’s pocket. She fixed Donna with a sweet smile, yet her wide eyes seemed to tell a different story, “Don’t wait up, sis.” and with a wave of her manicured hand, she was out of the dining room. 

Hyde stared at her empty seat in disbelief. 

Instantaneously, every rant Donna had about the other girl made sense. Not only did she get out of an awkward dinner, but she also managed to skirt around the curfew that she had invoked, and got twenty dollars out of the whole affair. He would be impressed if his mind wasn’t spinning. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the glare of headlights come from the dining room window and his head turned. He witnessed a blonde girl dressed in a leather jacket, low waisted jeans,  and a tight, cropped tank exit the passenger side seat of the sleek black Chevy Camaro that occupied the driveway. Jackie appeared into his vision only a second, offering the tall blond an eager hug before slipping into the back seat, her cherry mini skirt swaying around her bare legs as she climbed into the car. He couldn’t make out who was in the driver seat, but these friends didn’t look like the crowd Hyde pegged Jackie to be apart of. 

Furrowing his brows, Hyde took a sip from his Cola. For the first time he began to wonder, who exactly moved beside him, and why she made the back of his neck itch.