Donna At 39

Disclaimer-I do not own the characters based on Fox televisions "That 70's Show". This is just a little fan fiction story. Please note-This is my take on the characters. I don't mean to offend anybody. I just wanted to do a twenty-years on short story. Also thanks to Randa (tried emailing you, it bounced back)-after watching more episodes you were right Donna wouldn't call Hyde "Steven", (even after twenty years on) so thanks for the tip.

1999 --We're All all right?

Chicago, Illinois

Donna Pinciotti-Forman really didn't want to do this. She didn't know why she agreed to meet up with Jackie after all these years. Maybe, it was because working as editor-in-chief of a rock magazine and ending her twelve year marriage to Eric was finally taking its toll on her. She got her hair cut into a short bob. Her and Jackie were never really the best of friends. They were just part of a larger gang of friends that included her soon to be ex-husband, Eric Forman, Steven Hyde, Michael Kelso, and Fez. Twenty years ago seemed a lifetime ago. When the biggest worries that she had was wondering why her folks were so messed up. She did receive a postcard from Midge awhile back saying she was happy for her and Eric. There was no return address and the postmark was ink-smeared. Jackie was a regional buyer for a major department store cosmetics/skin care line in New York. She was involved in a retro 70's campaign and brought lip-glosses back to the masses. Roller Discos were making a comeback and Donna remembered that even back then Eric could be a sexist pig (sometimes). She almost wished he was like her Father-In-Law--Sure Red was angry but he and Kitty had their intimate moments and knew how to have fun. Eric worked for a computer firm doing nothing but sitting in a cubicle all day typing up spreadsheets and reports. She did her best to fake a smile when she saw "Shit. She didn't change one little bit! I bet she had work done?!" Jackie Burkhart (almost Kelso, twice, but that's a different story). Donna thought.

"Donna! Oh my god! It's so good to see you!" Jackie gushed.

"You haven't changed a bit."

"It's the skin care regime, I'm using. Dead sea salts, Donna! They do wonders for your skin!" There she goes Donna thought ready to talk about absolutely nothing.

"Um, that's nice. Eric and I are getting a divorce."

"Yeah, I heard about that. Sorry." The waiter poured the water and handed them their menus.

"I don't think we ever should've gotten married."

"You were THEE couple of Point Place. And in the yearbook it clearly stated-the couple most likely to get (and stay) married."

"It was only a ****ing yearbook, caption, believe me, Jackie. I didn't have to have to settle for Eric." Donna said ordering a bottle of wine. She was going to need it if she had to have a lunch date with Jackie.

"Calm down, Donna. I know you've been going through a lot but you don't have to act so bitchy."

"There's a lot things you don't know, Jackie. And I thought about not telling you. It was easier when the whole gang split up and we went our separate ways. And we all had our lives to lead and.well, after all these years you can still be a stuck up little bitch. Eric and I both remember you dumping Kelso in college and him being a basket case over you. But the second time, why? Tell me you don't think about what you did. I knew you weren't going to last with Hyde. But the way you did it. I think he really started to love you. Which is too scary to even imagine. Was Hyde too real for you? Too much of a man that you couldn't control with your winks and nods?" Jackie stood up, which caused Donna to stand up not realizing people were watching this argument unfold.

"Wait a minute, Donna. You don't know everything that went on between Steven and I. Or Michael for that matter. I don't know why I looked you up. You haven't changed a bit. There might just be a reason of why Eric had enough of you."

Donna slapped Jackie across the face. "As I said, " She refused to cry in front of HER, "There are a lot of things you don't know, Jackie. Good day,"

She thought of what Fez used to say and it always made her smile.

"Donna!" Jackie stomped.

"I said good day." It was as if they were transported back in time in Eric's basement.

Donna ran out of the restaurant as Jackie tried to keep up with her in her designer heels.

"Donna I want to know what's all this stuff I don't know. Is it about Steven or Michael?"

"You didn't care about either one of them!"

"That's not true."

"Let go of my arm!" All Donna wanted to do was get back to her car.

"I can always go to Eric and ask him."

Donna laughed, "And what makes you think he even knows?! My god, Jackie are you self-absorbed. Must be the damn dead sea salt." Donna replied wryly.

"You know what? I don't need this. I have a career. I have a daughter. So you have some little secret that is what going to destroy me? Get real Donna, it's not 1979 anymore."

"Don't you act that way with me. You're the one who is trying to hold on to the past with your clothes and your retro marketing campaigns. You know something maybe you don't need to know that Hyde loved ME. And just maybe, I loved him back."

"I don't believe you."

"Call him. He'll tell you."

"If you were so "in-love" with Steven, Why did you marry Eric? Because it was expected of the two of you? And we all thought you were more independent than that. After all you couldn't even wear his promise ring! Okay, big deal you slept with Steven. Is that supposed to hurt me NOW? It's 1999!"

"I got pregnant and had an abortion." Donna replied softly.

"What? Steven made you????"

"NO. It was mutual. It would have hurt Eric too much and he met a new girlfriend and my career wasn't even started it wasn't the time for me to have a baby. We both decided it was for the best."

Donna watched as Jackie was speechless. She almost sank to the ground But remembered she was in a parking garage.

"I'm sorry," Jackie said trying to regain her composure, "Let's go somewhere else for lunch. "

"I'm not really all that hungry, Jackie. You see these couples in yearbooks and you think, they're going to be forever. Well you know something? Forever is one big ****ing joke. The people in the pictures overlap and you fall in love with the ones you can never have. Sometimes life just gets in the way. Point Place is like Emerald City it really doesn't exist. You click your heels and you are home. Do you even know that Hyde is a record producer in London now?

I have to have an assistant to take care of any bands that he's working with to avoid seeing him. That does seem rather childish. But sometimes there comes a time when you have to close the yearbook and move on. All those places and people are gone now. Eric and I will become friends once we settle into that mode. I think this lunch was a mistake Jackie. You are always trying to recreate the past. Well dear, the past is gone, and all we have is our bleak futures to look forward to. Maybe some other time we can try to have lunch again. Right now, I have to get out of here. I need some air." Jackie watched as Donna raced to her car and sped out of the parking garage.

Nobody told Jackie there'd be days like these.

Goodbye, Wisconsin

(or at least Point Place.)

Kenosha, WI

Eric looked in the mirror at the restroom at his office. Was his hairline Receding?

"Oh, there you are Forman," said one of his young co-workers. "You have a phone call on line five."

"You came all the way to the bathroom to tell me I have a phone call?"

"It's important. Some hyper woman named Jackie."

Jackie? Jackie from the basement? He hasn't seen in her in twenty years after the second time she broke it off with Kelso. Even with the advent of the internet and search engines no one could find Michael Kelso. Even his folks didn't know where he was.

Eric took a deep breath before he picked up the telephone "Hello."

"Eric! I need to speak to you, it's very important."

He figured she must have spoken to Donna about the impending divorce.

"Look, I'm very busy, Jackie."

"It's about Donna. There's something I have to tell you." She bit her lip, hoping she was doing the right thing.

Eric sighed, "All right. Are you in town?"

"No, I'm in Chicago, on my way to the airport. How about tomorrow for lunch?"

Eric sighed again. "Fine." as he wrote down the directions to where they were going to meet for lunch.

If it concerned Donna then it would always concern him. Donna acted like he was this chauvinist pig who didn't want her to have a career and her own dreams. That wasn't true. He just didn't want her to leave him behind for better things, for other men. He always thought Donna could do better than him and his dumbass. As soon as he hung up on Jackie the phone rang.

"Phone call for capitalist pig, Eric Forman." That could only be one person.

"And the records you produce are given away for free to poor children in need of rock and roll?"

Eric rubbed his forehead as surprises of surprises Hyde was coming to Wisconsin to check out a new local band that wasn't far from Point Place and of course wanting to meet at the exact same time as Jackie. Eric refrained from mentioning Jackie to Hyde. Some wounds never heal.

Donna could not concentrate on her work at all. The papers were mounting up, faxes went unanswered, and she wouldn't check her phone calls. She shocked her staff when she announced that her second in command would take over the magazine for a few weeks while she went on vacation. She had successfully pushed Hyde out of her mind or at least tried to. It's not that she didn't love Eric, he was like the best girl friend she never really had. Jackie was too self absorbed and dropped out of college, met a (wealthy) guy after dumping Kelso the second time and through his executive connections got her a cushy department store job. Donna wasn't much for keeping diaries or journals of her personal life but there a few entries that she remembered writing with great guilt and angst

italics It was at the disco

Then she crossed it out with a big "X" to remind her it was wrong to think of Hyde in that way.

She was half way out of her apartment door when the telephone rang. She looked at the caller-ID (wish they had that back then, she thought) It was her Dad. It could have been an emergency, if was news that her Mom passed away she wouldn't care at all. But she'd be there for her Dad because for some strange reason he still loved Midge even though he hasn't heard or seen her in years.

"Hello?"



"Forman, are you anxious about something?" Hyde asked drinking a beer. They were in the infamous Forman basement. It was different though it was properly remodeled as soon as Eric left for college to be a proper laundry room on one side, finished guest bedroom, and a small TV room because Kitty was tired of having to sit through Red's stupid programs when he retired from Pricemart a few years ago.

"No," Eric thought what time would Jackie be arriving and how could he keep them apart? And what was so important about Donna that she couldn't say on the telephone or via email? "Um, what time do you have be in Centerville?" (note: fictional town)

"Eight. Why?" Then Eric wondered why didn't Hyde inquire about Donna and how come he works in Kenosha and Donna in Chicago? Granted Hyde was never one to talk about intimate subjects unless he could wrap it around a healthy slice of sardonic wit. But still if the situation were reversed Eric would have asked.

"No, reason, man."

"One things bothering me though."

"What?"

"Can you take off that stupid ****ing tie? I feel like I'm talking to "The Man"."



Jackie was unable to get in touch with Eric as her cell phone was not working. Her flight was delayed and then she had to go home because her daughter had a fall and broke her leg. She was quite the tomboy climbing trees and rolling down hills. Jackie thought that wasn't very ladylike behavior for a little girl!

"Look who is here!" Kitty gushed, kissing Hyde on the cheek when her and Red came home from the grocery store.

"Better not be to borrow money." Red shot back.

"What about me, ahem, your flesh and blood son?"

"Especially not you, dumbass." Somehow the jibes didn't sound the same when Eric got older.

"Have you boys eaten? I'll fix you lunch." Kitty laughed as she walked up the stairs.

"Your moms the best." Hyde replied.

"This is all so nice and touching but go away, I want to watch TV. A rerun of Barnaby Jones is on." Red said going to his favorite green chair that Kitty had moved down here because it was "ugly" and didn't go with the "new décor" she said.

"I thought this was Mom's TV room?" Eric asked

"All the rooms in the house belong to me as I paid for them all."

"I heard that Red!" Kitty called from upstairs, "No chips for you for your sandwich!"

"See how you get me in trouble, son? Go away!"

"Come on, Hyde. Isn't this just like the old days?"

"No." He replied candidly.

Instead of being on a tropical island somewhere forgetting the men in her life Donna was on her way home. Bob wanted company. He and Joanne didn't last long infact they didn't even survive the eighties. It was clear he missed Midge. Donna figured she could spend some time with her Dad (But she had to stay clear of her in laws next store) and then go away to that tropical island. The parents knew they were separated but didn't know they were actually going to divorce. She just hoped Eric wasn't going to be there visiting his parents because she was in no mood to see him at all. And Hyde was across the ocean in England so she didn't have to worry about seeing him.

Promises

Eric was relieved that Hyde had to leave early due to the band that he came across the ocean to see was playing an hour earlier than planned. His Father fell asleep on the sofa after lunch and all he had to do was avoid his Mother.

"It was nice seeing Steven again," Kitty came in with some dishes to wash.

"What about me?"

"You're always over here, son." She laughed.

Eric stirred his coffee cup hoping his Mother would not ask what was just about to fly out of her mouth.

"How come Donna didn't accompany you?"

"You know she works in Chicago, Mom."

"Eric you two will wind up divorced if you don't sit and talk about things. You can go up to Chicago on some weekend or she could go up to Kenosha and see you." Yeah Eric could just picture Donna showing up at his office with champagne.

Eric wondered how come Jackie didn't show up? She couldn't possibly have known Hyde paid him a visit.

"Mom, I really don't want to talk about this. But I will say, I love her and no one else can say how much they loved Donna other than me."

Kitty saw the pain in Eric's eyes; she knew baking all the cakes, pies, and cookies in the world would not erase her son's anguish. Eric finished his coffee, hugged his Mother and told him he was going to crash in his room because he didn't feel like driving back to Kenosha right now. If he was up to it, he'd drive to Centerville and join Hyde for the after show party. For the first time he could appreciate his Father it wasn't easy to pretend to go to work every morning just so you'd have enough to pay your bills let alone buy stuff that you actually want. At least Kitty and Red were together growing old gracefully. If they were going to divorce Eric decided he wasn't going to make it easy for Donna. He was a good husband, he didn't yell at her, he certainly never hit a woman, Red told him when he was ten if you ever hit a girl, "I'll kick your dumbass" and that was the end of that. Eric threw himself on his old bed and wished Donna was in here with him. was it his imagination that she climbed inside his room on one than more occasion? And all of a sudden she hated his sight? He didn't really buy that. He wasn't against her working, although she didn't have to go to Chicago and she could've done most of her work on the computer and fax if she wanted to. He wasn't expecting June Cleaver greeting him at the front door with his pipe and slippers and a home cooked, hot meal every night. He just wanted his wife to be there. Was that a horrible thing? They promised for better or worse. The only thing Eric knew was that he meant his part of the vows.

Twelve Forty-Five AM

Donna woke up after sleeping in her own bed. She loved her Father, but it was quite obvious that he couldn't put her Mother behind him. He kept on expecting Midge to walk through that door any day now. She looked out the window and saw a light go on in Eric's room. She hoped Red and Kitty had a small argument and one of them went there to sleep. Donna did love Eric, its not that she didn't, but the whole situation was too suburban for her tastes. He could be deadpan funny, do imitations that all sounded the same, and quirky. Who went from hiding money in the Candy Land box to the Trivial Pursuit box. Eric Forman was a good man. Donna thought maybe she was having a mid-life crisis and didn't want to think of the possibility of turning into her Mother! Was Hyde just a fantasy? Something that happened in the past, that should remain in the past? Would it hurt his friendship with Eric? George Harrison remained friends with Eric Clapton after Eric married George's ex-wife Pattie Boyd. Granted her and Hyde had careers (Hyde had a career! The thought made her laugh) in the music business, but they weren't the rock stars. Donna saw a shadow, a silhouette on the shade that lanky body was definitely Eric! She did love Eric but she also loved Hyde. However she was Donna Forman.

Twelve Fifty AM

Eric was getting ready to fall asleep again when he felt a slight breeze on him.

"Not a word, Eric," Donna was on top of him, he thought he was high then remembered he hadn't touched a joint since his company started the random drug testing or at least had to be dreaming,

"Donna?"

"Ssh." She kissed him

For the first time in many, many months they made love that night.

Two AM

"That doesn't sound like a very nice hotel." Kitty was more than happy to fix the guest room for her second "son" Steven. They screwed up on the reservation dates. But Hyde couldn't give up working for an indie label nothing made him more ill than corporate rock or the once cool artists that sell out their souls to the evil major label empire.

"Thanks, Mrs. Forman." The closest Steven Hyde came to real parental figures were Kitty and Red Forman. He never forgot how they took him in when he needed it. He secretly paid off their second mortgage when they were having financial troubles when Red retired.

"No problem, dear. Sleep well and tomorrow, I'll make my two favorite men breakfast."

Hyde slightly smiled. "Looks like you forgot Forman again."

Kitty turned off the light.

Three AM

Eric opened up his eyes sure enough he wasn't dreaming he had his arms around his beautiful wife. Before this day was over they were going to have to talk about their marriage and that worried him. Because right now it was perfect the way he used to remember it. He kissed Donna on the forehead and fell asleep thinking that every morning starts a new day, and another day that a promise was kept.