Disclaimer: I own nothing. I do not own That '70s Show. I do not own the characters that appear or are mentioned in this story. I do not own the song that this story is named after. I own nothing!
Author's Note: Hello everyone! How are you all doing? You may be getting through your first week or first day of school, or still enjoying your summer vacation, or just getting through another ordinary week, whatever you're up to I hope you're doing well! I would first like to say welcome to my 50th That '70s Show story! Well 50th if you could the oneshot collections as one big one and not individually—which is the way I see them. Anyway, I thank you so much for stopping by to check it out, I hope you enjoy it! It's nothing big or fancy, as many of you know I'm always one for the little simple moments and this story could sort of fit like this. As I'm sure many of you would have guess my 50th T7S piece is of Red and Kitty Forman. You don't need to know much beforehand expect that it takes place after Red's heart attack. I really do hope that you all enjoy it! If you have the chance please do review, I'd love to hear your thoughts. A special thank you to TvFanaticDayDreamer who helped spitball a few ideas when I first started working on this piece. And a big thank you to all of you wonderful readers and reviewers who have read all of my T7S stories through the years. Each and every one of you! You all are so awesome, your friendship, your kindness, your support, it is all so wonderful! There's really no other fandom like this and I am so happy to be a part of it. If I could I would hug each and every one of you but since I can't exactly do that I'll just have to say thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, and thank you forty seven more times! *hug* *hug* and even more hugs! Thanks for reading, hope you like it, please review if you can, and please, Enjoy!
Let's Take an Old Fashioned Walk
"Alright, Red Forman get off that cute hiney of yours and let's get moving!"
"Kitty!" Red gave a wide-eyed frown sounding more embarrassed than angry.
Their house was always littered with kids, scattered all over the place, you never knew when one was going to pop out from some absurd hiding place; and with Kitty talking so loudly one of them could have easily have heard her. That was the last thing Red wanted. The only body part of his that he wanted any of those kids to hear about was his foot when it was getting ready to make its way up their asses.
Kitty however, didn't seem to give the possibility of one of the kids hearing her any thought. She soon stood in front of her husband—blocking his view of the television set—with her hands on her hips and a determined look on her face.
"Come on, Red, let's go." she told him.
His frown deepened, this time with confusion, "Go where? Kitty, I just had a heart attack. I'm supposed to be taking it easy."
"No, no, no." Kitty shook her head in a knowing manner, "You had a heart attack four months ago. And during those first few weeks you were supposed to relax and take it easy. Now we need to work on getting that grumpy heart of yours happy and healthy and we are going to do that by getting you up and moving. Now, come on."
"Kitty, I just got up and moved." Red groaned, not budging from the comfortable seat in his pea soup colored armchair.
While Kitty didn't appear too convinced, she did raise an eyebrow with interest, "Oh?"
"I did." he confirmed before explaining exactly what he'd done, "I got up from my chair and walked into the kitchen. I grabbed a can of beer and walked all the way back out here and then sat back down."
"Walking to and from the kitchen isn't enough, Red." Kitty said in a disappointed tone of voice, "Especially if you're going in there to get a can of something you shouldn't even be drinking while recovering from your heart attack."
"Kitty, you were at my last doctor's appointment. You hear him say I could indulge every once in awhile." Red wasted little time in reminding her.
"Yes, that's right. Indulge every once in awhile. Not indulge every night with a second can of beer." His wife threw back at him and still wasn't finished, "And because I was at that last appointment, I also heard Dr. Harper tell you that you needed to add some more physical activity into your daily routine, which is why you and I are going to start taking evening walks together!"
Despite Kitty's obvious excitement, Red scowled at the mere idea, "Evening walks?"
"That's right!" she happily replied with a small laugh, "Doesn't that sound like fun?"
"No!" Red answered a bit too quickly.
Instead of taking offense to her husband's words, Kitty wanted to prove him wrong, "Oh but it will be, Red. It'll be just like when we were first married and we didn't have a car yet so we would walk everywhere. You'd hold my hand and we'd fill each other in on our days and talk about the dreams of our future." She finished with her smile even bigger than before, "Remember Red?"
"Of course I remember, Kitty." he admitted because he knew what was good for him, "And I also remember that the reason we walked everywhere was because we couldn't afford a car. Now we have two. Pick the one you wanna take and I'll drive you wherever you want to go."
"We are not driving anywhere Red, we are walking." She firmly argued, "And I don't want to go anywhere, I just want your heart to get healthier. We're just going to walk around the block a few times."
Red was about to give in and agree until Kitty added that last sentence that quickly put him on the defense again, "Walk around the block a few times? What am I, a damn dog?"
"But Red…"
"Forget it, Kitty." Red cut in before she could begin, "If you wanna go for an evening walk around the block, take Schatzi."
Another full grown smile sprung onto Kitty's lips, "Oh that is a wonderful idea, Red! Schatzi, sweetie, come to Mommy! We're going for a little walk!"
Seconds later the dachshund came running from the den and towards a clapping Kitty. Red watched the scene with a smirk on his face as he settled into his chair, thinking that the situation was settled and everyone was happy. Kitty got to go on her walk around the neighborhood and he could stay in the comfort of his home parked in front of the TV. Even the dog would get some attention. It had all worked out for everyone.
Or so he thought.
"Schatzi can come along with us on our walk!" Kitty giggled on happily.
Red's frown quickly reappeared, "No, Kitty, that's not what I meant."
Kitty ignored her husband's words as she bent down and scooped her puppy into her arms, placing a few quick kisses on the top of his head before beaming over at Red, "Well Schatzi's ready for our walk, what about you?"
Now Red knew Kitty was serious about this whole walking thing. And it wasn't the type of thing he could say yes to and then hope she forgot about it the next day; she wanted to do this now. If Red was going to get out of this, he was going to have to work fast! He stood up from his place and gently grabbed her right arm, directing her towards the living room sofa.
"Kitty, just sit down here for a minute okay?" Red recommended before helping her into her seat and then sitting right beside her, "I think we're acting too quickly on this whole waking bit. I'm sure if you really thought about it you could come up another kind of 'physical activity' that you and I can do together that's a lot more fun than walking around the damn block."
Though Red's hidden suggestion was lost on Kitty she did pay attention to the main one he'd made and decided try to think up some other physical activities that she and Red could do together. It took her a few seconds but she came up with an alternative to a walk in their neighborhood.
"Well, the Community Center is having a Dance Off Dance Class." She began to share information that immediately caused Red's brows to furrow, "It's a class where they teach you all kinds of different dances. Salsa, ballroom…Oh, maybe even square dancing!" she giggled excitedly, "That could be fun!"
Red clearly did not share his wife feelings of excitement. It looked like he was going to have to choose between square dancing and taking a walk around the neighborhood which was like making him chose between being locked in a room with kettlehead or being in locked in a room with the foreigner. No matter what he picked, he wasn't going to win. But at least with the decision between square dancing and walking he knew which the wiser choice was.
"I'll get the dog's leash, you lead the way." Red grumbled unenthusiastically.
As soon as she heard his words, Kitty grinned largely and popped off the couch—with Scahtzi still safely in her arms—before heading for the front door with Red sluggishly following behind.
0o0o0o
Minutes later the couple were off on their evening walk together—with their little dog happily wearing his blue color and matching leash as he led the way down the path of the sidewalk they were following. It was late in the afternoon, almost evening, and since it was the beginning of fall the sun wasn't so bright and instead there was a light but cool breeze. Kitty was trailing along with a grin on her face while Schatzi sniffed his new surroundings and Red grumbled on about them; luckily Kitty was able to keep them both under control.
"You know, I was hoping we'd see more of the neighbors out here." Kitty shared aloud as she looked around at their neighbor's house; they were obviously home but inside their houses.
Red couldn't help but smirk as he watched her actions, "Looks like one of us was hoping a little harder."
"Red." She chided lightly before switching the topics to one that would help her husband enjoy this walk a little more. Besides helping his heart, Kitty had wanted to take this walk with him to spend some time quality time with him. She grinned up at him as they continued their slow pace together, "So tell me, how was your day?"
Though Kitty had given a small giggle after asking her question, Red frowned and gave a quick, "Fine."
"Would you like to expand on that a little?" Kitty suggested in a tone that if anything suggested that he did expand on his current answer.
However, Red pretended not to hear the tone and shook his head, "Nope. I'm good."
"Well then what did you do today?" she asked, rephrased her question, not ready to give up just yet.
"Kitty, I told you what I did today. I sat in my chair and watched TV. Then I got up grabbed a beer and sat back down. And now I'm out here with you on this damn walk."
"Red, you had to have done more than that." Kitty insisted, paying no attention to his groaning and continuing with questions that would get him to share the details of his day, "What did you do before you sat down and watched TV?"
Realizing that the only way the questions were going to stop was if he answered them Red gave in and replied in a muttered tone, "I went to the garage."
"To do what?" she eagerly pressed on, excited that he was finally sharing and going along with her plan.
"I don't remember." came his reply but when he saw her frown he continued on, "I didn't get to do whatever I went in there for because I saw some neighborhood pest in our backyard so I scared it off with the water hose."
Still walking along, Kitty's face scrunched in disapproval, "Oh Red, not another cat."
"Nope, wasn't a cat."
His wife stared at him with more confusion. While his words had been reassuring, his tone and the smirk he wore on his lips weren't so much. Kitty knew that in Red's eyes a neighborhood pest could range from a wild possum to one of the neighbor's children and because she didn't think she wanted to know which it had been, she shook her head and put her free hand up in halting form before he could go on.
"Okay, you know what? Why don't we talk about my day for a bit and then we can go back to yours, okay?" Kitty suggested, hoping she could show him what it was she wanted by giving her own example.
Red didn't seem to mind one bit and merely shrugged his shoulders with a slight tilt of his head before asking, "Alright, how was your day at the hospital?"
"Oh. Well actually I didn't go to the hospital today." She nervously answered and then reminded, "It was my day off, remember?"
"Right." he said sounding a bit irritated as he continued to walk on.
Kitty could tell that her husband was becoming less and less enthusiastic about their walk and their talk and if he didn't enjoy himself this first time there would be no way she could get him to go on another walk with her again. Red's doctor had said he needed to get in better health and it was her job both as a nurse and most importantly his wife to take care of him and get him in that state of improved health. She was not giving up.
"Just because I didn't go to work today doesn't mean I didn't do anything today." She firmly told him, keeping the conversation alive as well as their steps forward, "In fact I had a very productive day today, catching up on housework."
"Housework?" Red repeated, not believing that she actually wanted to talk about housework with him.
"Now wait," Kitty said before he could make the protest she knew he was forming in his head, "housework can also be very interesting. Why, I bet there are plenty of things about the daily chores around the house that you don't know about." she tried to tell him but Red's interest still couldn't be caught, but that didn't mean Kitty stopped trying, "Like did you know that for some reason every since we switched laundry detergents the lint filter in the dryer has started catching twice as much lint as before?"
Straight-faced, Red stared at Kitty, "Fascinating."
"Oh and that new mopping solution we bought, the one that's cheaper than the old one that we usually get?" Kitty asked but waited for no answer, "Well it may smell nicer but it leaves the floor much too sticky, it didn't even feel like I mopped at all. So I went to PriceMart to go buy our usual brand."
Red's ears perked up at the mention of his former workplace, however before he could get a word in Kitty continued to ramble on.
"And as luck would have it they had a coupon for it. So got our usual brand at the price of the new, cheaper but sticky brand." She shared with a small giggle before it flattened a tad, "Of course now I have two mopping solutions, one that doesn't even work all that well…"
"You went to PriceMart?" Red finally managed to ask.
"Mmhmm." Kitty nodded and smiled down at Schatzi who was happily scampering ahead in a pace slightly faster than hers and Red's; suddenly remembering another part of her shopping trip Kitty spoke up, "And you won't believe the sale they were having on paper towels…"
"Did they fill the manager's position yet?"
Startled by his question, Kitty blinked her eyes a few times, "I don't think so." she said but when she saw Red's frown deepen with concentration she became concerned, "You're…you're not thinking about applying are you?"
"I can't, remember?" he answered sounding more disappointed than upset—his footsteps even began to slow down.
After his heart attack the doctor had suggested he take some time off from work while he recovered. It had first been said just a week or two but when Red's health wasn't progressing the way Dr. Harper had hoped it would then another week was added and then another; soon Red was forced to quit his PriceMart job and spend his time recovering at home. Kitty knew it was driving him crazy.
Kitty looked at him sympathetically, "You miss working don't you?"
"I…" Red started to argue before giving in with a slight sigh, "Yelling at the dumbasses in our home just isn't the same."
Not being able to help herself, Kitty laughed before using her hand that wasn't holding onto Schatzi's leash to rub Red's right upper arm, "I know, honey. I know you miss your job at PriceMart. But I for one am glad you're not working anymore, it's much better this way."
"Better?" Red scowled, stopping in his tracks and causing Kitty to do the same, "Kitty, me not working has led to you working longer hours at the hospital, Eric not going off to college, and having to buy discounted sticky mopping solution. How is that better?"
"Because it means that I still have you." she replied while staring him straight in the eye, "I know that job was important to you and the pay was good…but it was also a stressful job and you don't need that stress, Red. Especially not after…what happened." Kitty closed her eyes for just a moment but when she opened them again, Red could see the tears shinning in them, "I do not want to relieve that horrible experience again, Red Forman."
Right away Red pulled Kitty into his arms and held her to him. She soon wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned her cheek against his chest, taking comfort in the steady beating sound she heard there. Schatzi watched the couple for a second or two before he let his nose lead him to something much more interesting.
"I know, sweetheart." He said softly and then placed a quick kiss to the top of her head, "It's okay."
He continued to hold her for just a little bit longer before carefully breaking their embrace.
"Come on," he said with a faint smile as he grabbed her hand giving it a small tug as he stepped forward, ready to continue their stroll; Kitty smiled and began to match up with Red's steps making his own smile grow as he asked, "What else did you buy at PriceMart?"
0o0o0o
"Now that wasn't so bad was it?" Kitty asked her husband as they stepped onto their front porch.
"Didn't hate it as much as I thought I would." Red had to admit and soon heard his wife laugh making him smirk before he added, "I even learned something very important on this walk."
She became curious, "Oh?"
He nodded and then explained, "I need to get you out of the house more."
"Oh Red." Kitty said holding in a laugh, she really did think he was joking.
"I'm serious, Kitty." Red stated in a tone that backed up his words, "You work hard all day, both at the hospital and especially at home doing all that housework and cleaning. I think you deserve to be taken out to dinner every now and then, maybe to a nice steakhouse…"
Kitty frowned just a bit, "Red, you know that kind of food isn't good for your heart right now." She scolded him lightly.
"Alright, fine." He gave in almost too easily and when Kitty saw his smirk reappear she realized he was up to something, "Then how about just a few more evening walks around the block?"
"Oh well, I would love that, Red." She said with a tight smile.
Red smirked back at her but that smirk soon lost its shape when Kitty pressed her lips against his in a kiss that may have been quick but was also filled with plenty of love and gratitude. The pair shared one more quick smile before Kitty opened the front door and they walked into their home.
"My, it certainly is quiet." Kitty observed as she kneeled down to unhook Schatzi's leash and the dog soon scurried off.
"Don't jinx it." Red grumbled back as he headed back to his usual spot.
Letting out a small laugh, Kitty followed Schazti into the kitchen to make sure that he had enough water in his bowl. Meanwhile Red eased himself into his armchair and closed his eyes, wanting to enjoy this rare moment of peace in his house. A few moments later, Kitty pushed open the swinging door and reentered the living room. Catching the sight of her husband made her smile as she walked towards him.
"Oh Red, that walk really took a lot of out of you, huh?" she asked while using her hand to smooth out the few hairs on the top of his head..
His eyes remained shut as he replied with a simple, "Mmm."
"That's too bad." said Kitty as she moved her hand off him and folded it to rest against the back of his chair, "I was hoping you might be up to another physical activity. Upstairs."
Red's eyelids flew open and he instant spotted his wife looking down at him with an all too familiar look which made him look back at her his with own playful smirk that he saved just for her..
"You lead the way." He repeated the sentence from earlier, though this time his voice sounded much more excited.
Kitty giggled gleefully as she hurried off to the staircase and ran up the steps with Red following close behind.
The End
Author's Note: So what did you think? Yay? Nay? Somewhere in between? Let me what you think!
Again, thank you so much to all of you wonderful readers and friends. Your support means so much to me. Without you all there would be no way that I would be posting this 50th piece. Thank you for all the wonderful smiles you given me, for brightening my day whether it be with a review or a silly PM. You're the greatest! Be sure to grab a piece of celebration cake on your way to the review box!
Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, take care, and have a nice day!