A Wedding & a Funeral
Follows the story of the history of the That '70s Show characters
in Donna at 39, Here Come the Brides, Great Expectations, Interwoven, and Forbidden Kiss, and It's Only
Castles Burning*
No copyright infringement intended and some of season 7 and NONE of 8 never happened.
Chapter 1
Eric Loved His Little Girl
Summer
Eric loved his little girl.
It seemed like only yesterday that Eric and Donna took their adopted daughter Megan home from the hospital.
She was never supposed to make it. Being born to a drug addicted mother and father who was also a dealer,
the cards were stacked against her. The only hope came from her adopted father who due to his own cocaine
addiction, was selected to be in a program (The Greater St. Louis Area Recovery Child Bridge Program) that
would let addicts, who got their lives together, have a chance to adopt these special babies. In conjunction with
a solid mother Megan Lynne Forman could have a chance at a normal life. Granted, it was outside the societal
norm of living in a wheelchair, needing a hearing aid, and strong prescription glasses, but at least, Megan had
her mind, a sense of fun and adventure, but the love and support system of not only her immediate family, but
that of her parents best friends, Steven and Jackie Hyde as well. There was more drama thrown at the two
families then anyone should have to endure: abortions, divorces, separations, infant deaths, drug addictions,
betrayals, reunions that took longer, but in retrospect were part of the master plan, illegitimate children,
teenage rebellion, automobile accidents, and health scares.
It was here in the house he grew up in that middle-aged Eric sat at his desk looking over the simple wedding
invitations (before sending to Jackie for approval!) for his daughters autumn wedding to Jackie and Hyde's son,
Hunter as his coffee turned cold.
Hunter Hyde was an artist and sensitive (although, not in a milquetoast way) gentle soul, who didn't conceal his
emotions like his father was known to do, but had his common, Earthy sense (and who also liked to dress in
the same clothes) and like his mother was kind, yet was not bubbly and didn't care much for being a social
butterfly. If a child was a unique recipe of the ingredients of both parents, then Hunter was the right mix of
both. He loved Megan since they were teenagers and Megan had a strained, which was a too-polite way to
describe it, relationship with her mother over it. Would Jackie prefer a blue or lavender background? Eric figured
he better send both. The kids wanted the most simplest wedding possible, but Hunter relented on letting his
'poor mother' have some enjoyment with the decorations and reception planning. Eric thought Donna should be
here sitting by his side and helping him out, but Donna, ever the stubborn ox, meant what she said years ago,
and that she was done with their daughter. It broke Eric's heart, but it was better to love them both with every
ounce of his being then it would be to ultimately be drawn into a side. She said she would attend the wedding
and that was a small consolation, he supposed. Megan still lived at home in Point Place, Wisconsin, in the
revamped and handicapped accessible house that her Grandparents bought many years ago, and Hunter was
also still at home in Hyde and Jackie's quaint country cottage in Pennsylvania. Hyde noted the irony of their kids
generation when Forman was acting twitchy over his little girl growing up during one of the family holiday
get-togethers once. It was going back to a simpler time before they were even born, when families lived and
raised their families in the same house or houses on the same block. You stayed together and you didnt stray.
There was something comforting about that. Hyde wanted a real family for so long that, he couldn't push them
out the door. Hunter's twin sister Hannah did bolt when she left for college in the Pacific Northwest and made
her home there. She sent emails that and phone calls that were too infrequent for Jackie's taste. Their oldest
child Tiffany (whom Hyde adopted) was still living in her New York City apartment working for the Peacock
Network and telling her mother on more than one occasion that she was looking for Mr. Right and how
frustrating a quest that was. Hunter and Megan were undecided where they wanted to live, they both had jobs,
him doing decorating at the bakery while he went to art school, and Megan worked the phones at the doctors
office she used to go to and she also enjoyed making soaps to sell on Ebay.
Eric liked the Old English calligraphy script, but it wasn't a matter of life or death, if Jackie wanted another type
of font. He could've sent the Star Wars themed font, just to see if he would have received a rambling phone call
from Jackie asking if he lost his mind? Eric wondered if Mark would come to the wedding? Mark was Mark
McAdam, the result of a coked-up one-night-stand with another drug addict, he wasn't aware of his sons
existence until a few years prior, where he naturally almost blew having any kind of relationship with him by
overanalyzing the situation instead of just accepting it for what it was. Mark was a former Army man, something
he knew that Red would have approved of. He was an auto mechanic who made his real home in Indianapolis.
They didn't see each other often, but when they did each visit was better than the one before it. Eric and Mark
liked to go to classic car shows together and that seemed to be what they could bond over. They did email, talk
on the phone, and Facebook regularly, but to Eric it wasn't the same as being there. After the newness wore off
and Megan didn't see Mark as a threat, she liked him, but it made Eric sad that they kind-of treated each other
as if they were acquaintances and not family. They were siblings.
There was something wrong about that.
Eric's phone nor IMs didn't go off and he sent those invitation suggestions to Jackie five minutes ago. Maybe, he
did a fantastic job, maybe, Jackie hated them and was by-passing his opinions entirely, or maybe, just maybe,
she was making love with her husband.
It's not that he and Donna didn't love each other, they did. But, it took Eric a very long time to admit this to
himself and no one else, not Hyde, certainly not Megan, not even any therapist, it was quite obvious, that
Donna and Eric Forman, were not the romantic soulmates that he thought they were back when he was just a
scrawny adolescent dreamer. He was there for her during every inch of her breast cancer scare, and she only
had to have a few lymph nodes removed, and did that bring them closer? No. It was not that she didn't want
Eric there, but Donna was tough, she was tough on her friends, her husband, and her child. She had unexplored
resentment issues that Eric tried to internally analyze where they came from. Was it due to her mother Midge
leaving their family unit? Just trying to be a young woman in the mid '70s where the mixed messages ran
amuck: From you can't have it all, to you can have it all, stay at home and have kids, work and dont have kids,
you don't have to have kids, who doesn't want kids? He was certain it could make any person cave in to all that
pressure.
If Megan and Hunter had a chance at succeeding in their relationship and transitioning from fiances to spouses,
to know how to make a marriage work, and how to actually be (gasp!) happy in it, they had better look to
Jackie and Hyde and not Eric and Donna for their inspiration.
Eric sighed as he closed his laptop and decided it was best for everyone involved if he slept on the sofa once
more being surrounded by the glow of the plasma screen TV to keep him company.
His only daughter was getting married.
He couldn't wait.
*I toyed with the idea of these characters in the future in Jackie at 55, which I didn't finish and wanted to go with
this storyline instead.
Interwoven was meant to have more chapters, but one of my reviewers said they liked how it ended and that's
when I fast-forwarded into Forbidden Kiss.
It's Only Castles Burning is still a work-in-progress.
Thank you for reading and reviewing.
It is always appreciated.