Timeline: Early 1986

Characters: Jessie Forman and Steven Hyde, Eric Forman, Mentions of Jackie Forman, Lucas Forman and Diana Forman

Context: It's one of the first nights that Jackie, Hyde and the kids (Jessie, Lucas and Diana) are spending at their new house in Milwaukee and Jessie can't sleep, so Hyde has to figure out how to comfort her and how to be close to her with the new dynamic they share as Soon-to-Be Stepfather and Stepdaughter.


It was on his way back to bed from the bathroom that he could hear a noise, specifically the faint sounds of wood floor creaking under tiny feet. He paused his steps and just a second later, she did the same - the slight shadow that moved under her door told him she was currently pressing her ear against the door to see when he was back in his own bedroom. The corners of his mouth lifted at her attempt to be sneaky. Jessie was a smart kid, almost too much for her own good at times, but that didn't change the fact that she was still little, and so easy to trick. He opened the closet door nearby then shut it after a few seconds, which did the trick. She was once again moving around her bedroom as if no one could hear what she was getting up to.

He quietly walked back to her door and made sure to knock just loud enough for her to hear, very aware of the fact that anything louder might wake the sleeping toddlers the next room over. "I know you're up Kit."

He waited for her to respond. He figured she'd try to pretend she wasn't awake and hope he just went away, and the silence proved him right, so he knocked again to show that he wasn't buying it. After a few heartbeats he heard her attempt an "... I'm sleeping," in a voice that he thinks was supposed to sound tired. She even added a yawn at the end, for good measure.

Hyde snorted to himself at the fake yawn, then followed up with, "Then how are you answering me? And what's with all the walking around?"

"Sleep... walking?" Jessie was not almost only too smart for her own good, this proved she was also almost too honest for her own good, because she couldn't lie to save her life.

He played along, "Okay then, so you won't mind if I come inside, since you're asleep and won't notice I'm there?"

He waited for her response and chuckled when he could hear her shuffling back under the covers and answer with a defeated sigh, "... No."

He opened the door and shut it quietly before turning to see Jessie. Lit by a faint R2-D2 night light from the corner and with her covers up to her nose, all he could see were those big blue eyes looking up at him. He wished he could say he knew what his daughter was thinking, blinking up at him that way.

Unfortunately, he just didn't know her enough yet.

"Look at that, you're awake after all." He teased as he sat at the edge of her bed to see Jessie who looked embarrassed at being caught out. He smiled to show her that it was okay, then continued, "Couldn't sleep?"

"... Nuh-uh." She lowered the covers a bit and shook her head, then reached for her grasshopper. He remembers giving that to her when she was a baby, and when the denial of their connection wasn't something he could ignore by pushing Jackie away, or by chasing numbness at the bottom of a bottle any more. When he had to admit that he saw himself in the baby that wouldn't know him as a father because of his own actions. He couldn't just run away, from her or from Jackie any more so he bought her that grasshopper as a start and he has tried ever since to be there for her, whatever way he could.

Which suddenly got a lot harder once he and Jackie got back together, which made the new Forman family split up. Even though she didn't know how to express those feelings and even though he couldn't say he knew her exactly yet, he could see that she was uneasy around him, fearing the idea of her Dad, Eric, being replaced by her Uncle Hyde.

Oh, the irony of that one.

At least seeing the grasshopper, named 'Mr. Hopscotch' as soon as she could talk to give it one, meant that a part of him was welcome by her side and as far as he was concerned, that meant he still had a shot with her.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" He asked, looking down at her face that looked troubled, then at her hands that were lightly twisting one of Mr. Hopscotch's wings.

She was silent for a while and he thought maybe she didn't then finally she ducked her head so she wasn't looking at him and admitted in a nervous voice, "... I don't like the new house... I know Mommy said we would love it here... I miss my house."

Hyde suspected that was the issue, and he was torn between validating her feelings of not liking the new house, which would only make it harder to remind her that they were staying, or trying to reassure her that it was a great house and making her feel worse about not liking it. He chose something in the middle, and hoped he had the right idea.

"Tell me what you don't like, maybe we can fix it together." He suggested and at that Jessie looked back up at him and spoke up.

"... The floors in my room are too creaky, and the thingy on the window -" she pointed to the blinds that were currently covering her windows, "makes scary shapes."

Those were all something he could take care of and he began to feel a bit more competent, there was at least something he could do for her. "Okay, those are some easy fixes Man, I can take care of those starting tomorrow morning."

"... They are?"

"Yeah, of course. We can buy you a carpet so the floors don't make so much noise under your feet. And we were already going to buy some new covers for the windows, we'll just, y'know, speed up the process." After he spoke, she was silent and had a face on that he could guess was the gears turning inside her head on what else to say.

"... Anything else?" He prompted her.

Jessie was more hesitant with her answer this time, "... I miss my ceiling stars, and the tree outside my window."

"Okay... we can stick new stars on your ceiling, ones that glow all of your favorite colors and we can plant a tree in the yard, down there, and you can watch it grow. You love seeing plants growing, right?"

"... Right." It was something close to a sigh and he realized that while she did have plenty of things she didn't like about this place so far, there was always only going to be one problem with it.

"... I get the feeling that none of those things are the problem though, are they."

She looked even younger and more vulnerable as she admitted quietly, "... I miss Daddy." the pain he heard inside her voice and the sudden shine of her eyes that hinted at tears would have broken his heart, if the fact that she missed Eric so much didn't already.

There was a tiny, selfish part of him that wanted his daughter back, that wanted to say in that moment that Daddy was right here, that he was here in the house with her and she didn't have to miss him, in fact, she wouldn't have to miss him ever again. Except that would hurt her more than anything, and he never wanted to hurt her. And he knew that even if he told her that, it wouldn't change anything. Eric was her Dad and Hyde wasn't, end of story.

"C'mon Kit..." He tried, wrapping an arm around her remembering suddenly the way he had done once before for her mother. "You're not that far away from your Dad, and you'll see him every day after school until one of us picks you up."

Jessie stayed silent, however the silence was louder than any voice and the silence screamed that the arrangement wasn't good enough for her. She only saw him for a few hours before they took her away again, and then she spent her whole night without him, and her whole day at school. He also knew that once classes ended for the Summer, when Fall came around, she'd be starting new classes closer to them, and then she'd see Eric even less than she did right now. Only on weekends and whenever she was on break.

Even though it was the best thing to do, it wasn't anyone's favorite thing to do, least of all for Jessie and Eric. There wasn't an easy way to do this, and there was nothing he could say that would make things okay in an instant.

"... Why don't you try and sleep, the sooner you do, the sooner you can see him again." It was a lame answer, and he knew it. At least if it worked, he could say he was able to do something for her.

"... Okay."

Even though their talk had went alright, at least considering she was tucked back into bed instead of pacing around her bedroom and she would try to stay that way, he could see it in her face that she wasn't sleeping any time soon. She clutched that stuffed grasshopper tightly and when he studied her, there was something familiar in the way she was trying to look like she was okay, but wasn't. She was trying to be Zen without even realizing it. Even though he didn't think he knew his little girl enough yet, he knew that face.

There wasn't much he could do to fix her problems right now, he couldn't make the new house home yet and he couldn't make himself home yet to her either. This though, he thought to himself... this he could try to handle.

"Alright, c'mon." He murmured, opening his arms to her and for a second Jessie just stared at him, confused, as if she wasn't sure why he wasn't leaving her there to try and to back to bed by herself. "Kit, if you're not going back to sleep, I'm not. So we might as well do something else. Now hop on."

Jessie gave her acceptance with a tiny shrug then, without letting go of Mr. Hopscotch, reached out for his neck and clasped onto him, which allowed him to lift her up and walk with her down the stairs and outside the house.

Hyde used his shoulder to open the door from the house to the garage and walked over to the car, unlocking the car and gently seating Jessie on the hood. She looked up at him with that curious and open expression of hers and he nudged her cheek softly with the side of his finger before ducking inside the car.

From the corner of his eye as he began to set up, he saw his Mini Grasshopper kicking her feet idly and watching him, then after a long moment of silence and fiddling with her soft plush bug, she asked him, "What are you doing?"

"We're going to play a game, you and me." He answered as he loaded a tape into the car stereo, then lowered the windows so that the sound could echo through the garage when it started.

"What kinda game?" Jessie asked, tilting her head as she studied him harder. It looked like she was trying to guess what he could be about to have her play by bringing her into the garage.

"I'm about to play a song, I want you to pay close attention to it and when it's done I want you to tell me about as much of it as you can, got that?" Hyde instructed as he set up the song to repeat.

He hoped that this would work, having her listen to one song and try to keep her focus on the music instead of everything else that was keeping her awake. He pressed play and then exited the car quietly to join Jessie to sit on the hood of the car.

Music began flowing out of the car, loud enough to hear and quiet enough that Jessie would have to focus hard to hear the lyrics. Her face began screwing up with concentration as Jimi Hendrix began to sing and he sat back to watch.

Well, she's walking through the clouds,

With a circus mind that's running wild,

Butterflies and Zebras...

And Moonbeams and Fairytales...

That's all she ever thinks about,

Riding with the wind...

"Uncle Hyde...?" she started, turning to him "I can't hear..." he only shh'ed her as a response, tapping his ear to remind her to pay attention. She nodded and kept listening.

He didn't know how long it was they sat there listening to the song repeat, it was at least a couple of repetitions before it began to work. He saw her start to shift around to get more comfortable, all the trouble from earlier draining from her face as she began to relax. That's when he put his arm around her and held her close to him so she had something to support her body as it grew heavy with exhaustion. She yawned and inhaled a bit of air as she further sank into him, though she clearly was not giving up on playing their game as she kept opening her eyes as they shut involuntary. He began to run his fingers through the curls on the top of her head to soothe her as yet another repeat of the song continued.

When I'm sad, she comes to me,

With a thousand smiles she gives to me free...

It's alright, she says it's alright.

Take anything you want from me...

Anything...

Fly on little wing...

When he felt her body go completely limp against him and heard her heavy breathing he turned to her. She was asleep, curled into his side and had one hand wrapped into his shirt with the other holding lightly onto Mr. Hopscotch. She looked a lot like Jackie when she was asleep, delicate and gentle, and he wanted to protect her from the world the same way. He wanted to shield her from any disappointment, including the kinds he had already brought into her life. Both the ones she knew about and the ones he hoped she never would.

He shifted so he could lift her, as carefully as he could and brought him into his arms again. For a second her eyelashes fluttered and he didn't even breathe until she was settled again. He glanced at the door that would lead them back into the house, where he could settle her inside her new bed and she would wake up the next morning. Maybe after sleeping there one night, she could handle the next one just fine.

Maybe... or maybe not. Some feelings didn't just disappear with one night, and he knew that however much he could do, someone else could do a lot more.

It only took him a second of hesitation to open-up the car again and strap her into her car seat, then move around front to the drivers seat.


He shifted Jessie in his arms, careful not to wake her, and knocked on the door with his available hand. She let out a little whine in her sleep at the sound and buried her face further into his jacket so he steadied his hold on her and waited quietly.

After a wait, the door opened and Hyde was face-to-face with Eric who looked confused to see him on the other side. Lately, the two of them didn't know how to be in the same room by themselves, often having Jessie or Jackie as a buffer. Even though Jackie and Eric were okay through the divorce, and seemed to stay close (at least as far as he knew, neither of them knew quite how to talk about this particular subject), Hyde couldn't help but feel every time he was alone with him that he had taken a lot from one of the people who had given him the most. He didn't know if Eric felt that way exactly, but he wasn't exactly going out of his way to talk to Hyde either, which felt like a clue.

For a moment the two of them just sort of stayed there locked into a stare, the only sound in the air being the steady breathing of their kid. Eric was the first to break it, staring down at Jessie in his arms, he moved aside so Hyde could bring her in, which he did. "Is she okay?" he asked, his concern visible. "I wasn't expecting you guys to come by with her until morning."

"She's fine, she just couldn't sleep, I thought this might cheer her up." Hyde cleared up and Eric relaxed a bit, but had an unreadable expression on his face as he stared at Jessie. He wondered what Eric saw when he looked at Jessie in that moment, and if it was the same things he felt when he looked at her, or if there was just something between the two of them that he missed his chance on ever understanding.

As if she could sense Dad there, even through her sleep, she began to shift again and started to loosen her grip on him. Hyde took the hint and turned so that Eric could reach over and take Jessie into his arms.

That much movement made Jessie open her eyes a crack and when she saw who was holding her she perked up, "Daddy?" she asked, her voice hopeful. She looked over from Eric to Hyde, her eyes shining like little stars and he shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal and winked as he said, "Told ya Kit, the sooner you sleep, the sooner you can see your Dad again."

He tried not to feel left out as Jessie and Eric moved together to her bedroom, leaving him there behind them.


Hyde, with a blessing to stay the night instead of trying to drive back so late, had passed out on the couch while Eric took over with Jessie, felt himself coming back to consciousness from his light sleep as something light landed on the hand that rested on his stomach while he slept. He could hear the sound of tiny footsteps walking away accompanied by a giggle, which made his eyes crack open. He sat up and felt around, picking up the mystery object which was a piece of construction paper.

He squinted at the paper, clearing the sleep out of his eyes to figure out what Jessie had given him and began to smile as he figured out what was on the page.

There was a big stick figure and a little stick figure, both with super squiggly, curly hair and big smiles and they were holding hands, surrounded by what he guessed were supposed to be zebras (except they were purple?) and butterflies together under a bright yellow moon. On the bottom of the page was 'THANK YOU' written out with all the colors of crayon she had, with lots of stars and lopsided hearts.

He didn't know how long he stared at the thank you card she had drawn before he finally folded up the paper and stuck it into his pocket safely before laying back and closing his eyes.

He could hear the faint sound of Jessie happily talking to Eric, even though he couldn't make out what either of them were saying and the content feeling he got from hearing her happy was enough to allow him to drift off back to sleep.


Thanks to Lisa for recommending the song Hyde plays for Jessie this chapter, 'Little Wing' by Jimi Hendrix!

Thanks to Mara for not suing me for referencing Summer Lovin' subtly for that extra shot of soft!

Thanks to everyone else for reading!