That 70's Show isn't exactly my wheelhouse. I loved it during its original run and have already rewatched it on the ol' Netflix a couple of times. That being said, I have always been slightly uncomfortable with E/D and J/H canon pairings for my own personal reasons. Eric and Jackie have been on the same wavelength in a lot of ways, and I always thought they would have made a great pair. So this is my 'in TV canon' attempt to get 'em together.
He was just a boy. She was just a girl. A loud, annoying, abrasive girl that hung onto Kelso's arm. When she joined the basement group, he flinched away from her at every turn. When he heard her voice he wanted to roll his eyes and clench his fists. He wished she'd go back to whatever mansion she came from with a flip of her skirt and the back of her head breezing out the door. Their group was fine before she showed her face. Why he never fully requested that Kelso take his screechy girlfriend away from their pubescent sanctuary was lost to him. Kelso had been a part of his existence since they were small enough to make secret pacts and promises. A brother of sorts. Maybe that was why it just never occurred to him to do so. Then again, he remembered a seven-year-old Jackie Burkhart under a blanket fort in the basement, and told himself that she was already a presence since '68.
Much to his dismay, she integrated her teenage self into their routine as he watched from his peripherals. They grew up together, sure, but she was never on his radar enough to acknowledge her. After a time though, he no longer braced himself against the couch cushions at her verbal onslaught when she flung open the basement door, burdens unloaded as soon her feet hit the cement floor.
He was in love with the girl next door, but he could still appreciate a pretty face (and body) when he saw one. The tiny girl flew into their lives and somehow they'd given themselves over to accepting her. The brown-haired tornado was all mouth and wit. Demanding, bossy, and clever, all at the same time. This small band of Midwest teenagers had spun a web so taut (Jackie now included) that they were so woven together in each other's lives and anything less was unspeakable.
Slowly, she had become less coarse and exasperating. There was still so much that Eric didn't like about her, but those reasons were becoming less and less significant. He didn't realize how much she contributed to their rag-tag bunch until she wasn't around for a day or two sometimes, and he noticed things were too quiet and unbalanced for his liking. Internally, he questioned his heart because when she spent significant time away he missed her.
Okay, maybe not missed her missed her. But he thought of her as a friend of sorts, because they had their moments. Not many, but there were a few. They had their own way of looking out for each other.
He loved Donna, but there was some inexplicable force that made Jackie appealing. He told himself it was because he was tired of Donna's lectures on feminism and her plans of demarcation lines drawn for their relationship once they were married and in college. Donna was a beautiful, independent woman and he would never voice his opinions to her. Buried deep within is heart, however, he wanted the petite and delicate girl. Someone he could wrap his arms around. A feminine, soft body. A girl with big doe eyes and a tiny waist. A girl who repeated time and time again that she wanted a husband and a family and a two-story house.
She was the opposite of his childhood sweetheart. Stylish and delicate, her views on love and marriage mirrored his own. At some point, they had bounced around each other and their friends long enough for him to recognize that they were running parallel in their life ambitions. Eric and Jackie's plans never crossed, but they had familiar enough desires for the future. It was a wonder that no one around them noticed.
He'd seen her through Kelso's infidelity that lead to her blustering and tears and demands for attention. She annoyed him still. But underneath the exterior of the jilted woman bent on revenge, he simply saw a girl who loved a boy who wronged her. Wronged her with Eric's own demon blood tie (among many others).
It wasn't until she had physically separated herself from that handsome idiot that she showed a little more of her true colors. Oh, she was still bossy and straightforward, but there was a keen intelligence in that cheerleader body that was hidden in Kelso's shadow. Her insults and looks became more quick and barbed, often directed toward Eric himself. He liked to think that he gave as good as he received, but what he didn't know was that if there was an outside audience, they'd catch on to his deflection. The more he was pulled to her, the sharper he tried to be in order to extricate himself from something he suspected was happening for awhile.
One day she was a self-absorbed, obnoxious witch.
One day she was an insistent, whiny pest.
One day she was a hesitant and unexpected friend.
One day she was a gorgeous, out-of-his-league cheerleader.
One day she was so much more.
He could never, ever admit outright that he wanted Jacqueline Burkart. He could already feel it in his gut and his heart, and if any one of their friends even suspected such a thing, it would turn out so, so bad.
Donna was his love and his life. That's whom he was supposed to be with. Anything else wouldn't do. He had to commit himself more fully to his relationship with Donna and hope that whatever feelings he had for that girl would fade away.
That girl with the pink lips and stunning eyes that would take his soul and yank him down with her perfect fingertips to the depths of hell-because she was the devil.
They all kept their routine in the basement. Seasons changed and not much else did. Jackie gravitated back to Kelso and his other friends carried on much the same. Hyde's Zen koans. Fez's sugar-laden fingers. Donna's observations. Jackie's romantic dramatizations.
He pretended that he didn't care about Kelso and Jackie, but whenever he saw them together his chest tightened. It took all his willpower to not take her by the shoulders and demand why she thought so poorly of herself that she would lay herself down as a Michael Kelso doormat. Again.
The plan that a promise ring would solidify his relationship with his girlfriend turned out poorly. Somehow, he figured that if he put on a front, nobody would find any reason to question his loyalty to the neighbor girl. But, much like anything else he attempted, it blew up in his face. He'd be lying if he said his heart wasn't broken when Donna gave him back his ring, but it confirmed something he had suspected. They had drifted apart and no matter what mantra he repeated in his head at night, they were not meant to be.
How could they be? She pictured her future without the high school boyfriend tagging along and he pictured his future with a brunette bombshell linked to his arm.
It amused him that while Donna cringed away from the idea of a lifetime promise, Jackie loudly demanded one from Kelso.
It was less amusing when Kelso and Donna took off to the sunny beaches of California. Appropriate, sure. Appropriate in that they left their "loves" behind in a mildewy basement in Small Town, Wisconsin.
Eric's heart rejoiced when Jackie trampled down the basement steps. He had spent too many days pantsless in his room, unshaven and confused. His friends and family assumed it was because Donna had left unceremoniously. But the confusion lay in his heart and his head. Now that he was no longer taken, how do you tell the girl that you really love that you…love her? Furthermore, how do you handle the rejection of a girl that was so stunning and smart and too good for you?
What on Earth would make him think a girl like that would like a skinny, nerdy guy like him?
So when she whirled into the basement and plopped herself onto the couch, her thighs touching his and he was nervous.
"That…ugh…that asshole. He's an asshole and a coward. He was lucky that someone like me would ever marry someone like him," she said, more to herself. She was looking at her hands in her lap, face clenched.
Eric turned on the couch to face her. "Look, Jackie. I'm not disagreeing with you. I could actually come up with a couple more adjectives to describe Kelso." Thinking about Kelso's and Donna's escape he felt reckless and angry. "Donna too. They just…ran away from us, you know? I loved, erm, love Donna. And you love Kelso. But Jackie," Taking her hand into his he continued, "If they loved us they wouldn't have left us."
She didn't pull away from him as he stared into her eyes. It was all he could do to not run his free hand through her dark, shiny hair.