Songs Used in Story (they're placed chronologically by when they appear): Our House by Madness; I Was Made to Love Her by Stevie Wonder; For Baby (For Bobbie) by John Denver
"Our house in the middle of our street Our house it has a crowd
Our house in the middle of our
There's always something happening
And it's usually quite loud
Our mum she's so house-proud
Nothing ever slows her down
And a mess is not allowed"
Point Place, Wisconsin
December 31st, 1989
9:22
Location: Eric Forman's Basement
"And, coming up at nine thirty, Donna Forman will be on the scene at the Charlie Richardson Memorial Tower."
"That's my girl!" Eric clapped his hands at the newscaster as Hyde rolled his eyes.
"Why are you clapping?" Fez asked rhetorically. "She's been on the news for over a year already."
"Because, its Donna man," Hyde answered, "wouldn't you turn on your TV to stare at see every day if you guys were married?"
Kelso, sensing his opportunity to join in, spoke up. "I think he'd be watching the news everyday even if they weren't married."
The four boys… men erupted into laughter, leaving reality for a few moments. Their lives had expanded far from their basement days. Eric and Donna married nine months after their first daughter Charlotte was born, with Donna later giving birth to Luke and Gracie. Then there was Fez, who'd eloped to his friend, June, from back home—even if it didn't last in the long run. Kelso and Brooke had another child, Nick. And last, but certainly not least, Jackie and Hyde were married as well, with twins Katie and Leo making them a family. Everyone was grown up… okay, maybe not that much.
A Cabbage Patch Kid commercial came on and Hyde turned to Eric with a question. "Hey, didn't they say something about the Water Tower?"
"Your wife is going to be filming there!" exclaimed Fez.
"No shit, Sherlock," Eric groaned. Even after all these years, he still wasn't used to Kelso and—as Red would put it—his dumbass comments.
"Renamed the Charlie Richardson Memorial Tower following the untimely death of one young, the Water Tower has become almost a symbol of Point Place… and a previous hangout for some local teenagers."
"Yeah, baby!" Kelso was the one who clapped this time as a faded picture with some blurry images of him came across the screen. "The king's legacy lives on."
Hyde socked his friend in the arm. "No one cares, Kelso."
"Well, Jackie did when I—"
"Don't start that," Hyde said through gritted teeth.
"Yes, Kelso, please," Fez smirked. "We all know that Jackie liked me when I—"
"Shut up!" Eric yelled, flailing his arms around. "Donna's on!"
"Can you see me?" The former redhead, then blonde, then redhead again asked as she came into view at the Water Tower. Even after all the time she'd been on the news, she still wasn't used to its logistics. "Okay. So, as you can see, we are standing right on the premises of the former Point Place Water Tower. As most of you may know well, this tower hasn't been used in the past five years, since the town board voted on making one bigger and better, in their opinion, across town. But now it seems that this might be the end of the Water Tower as we know it. A petition has been put out all around town to have it removed and in its place a new park will be built. Back to you, Vanessa."
"Ooh, Vanessa's a foxy name," a grin exploded over Fez's face as the camera switched back to the main news anchor.
"You're just got divorced Fezzie, don't forget that," Hyde pointed out. He tipped his glasses back down from his hair, the hair that hadn't changed much since he was a teenager.
"We got our marriage annulled," Fez spat back, adding a laugh in with it.
"So? That doesn't mean you can't have a little fun now and then," Kelso patted his friend on his back. "Even if it is only a fantasy."
"The past ten years feel like a fantasy, man," said Hyde, getting up from his old, battered chair to get a beer can. He popped it open, took a seat back on the chair. "I mean, Kelso, man, you and I just turned 30." Hyde shook his head at the thought—he just couldn't be that old. "I'm just glad I made it through another decade, especially with Jackie."
"Amen to that," Fez raised an arm, pretending to hold an imaginary can of beer.
"Steven," a woman's voice called, getting louder as she descended down the stairs, her feet heavy on the old wood.
Jackie.
"Speak of the devil," Eric mumbled under his breath. No one noticed, though, their attention were on the dark-haired beauty making her descent down the rickety stairs.
Jackie came around the back of Hyde's chair to stand in front of him, placing her fair hands on her now non-existent hips; she was pregnant, again. "Steven," she started, turning on the false-sweet voice that could only charm her husband who kept falling for it, ever after all of these years. She took a seat on his lap. "Haven't these past ten years been the best years of your life?"
"Of course they've been, Doll," said Hyde with a groan. Jackie may have been his wife, and these may have been the best years of his life, but she was still pregnant and she wasn't as light as she used to be.
"Thank you, Steven," Jackie cheerfully exclaimed, jumping off of Hyde's lap, relieving him of all his pain. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before turning to Eric. "If anyone's the devil it's your sister, not me."
Okay, maybe someone did hear.
"Mommy!" A tiny three year old's voice rang out down the stairs—Jackie and Hyde's daughter Katie. "Leo hit me!"
"No!" Her twin Leo objected
"Luke stop it!" Betsy shouted at Donna and Eric's son on the next floor.
"Look's like you have your hands full," Kelso pointed out, clasping his hands behind his arm and stretching out his legs.
Jackie glowered at him. Through gritted teeth she said, "They wouldn't be if you guys would actually get off of your lazy butts and dealt with your own kids for once."
"That's what the women are for," insisted Fez with a devilish grin. "Someone needs to take care of the children."
Jackie closed her eyes and slowly shook her head with frustration, trying to prevent her pregnancy rage from coming out—something Hyde was all too familiar with by now. "You don't even have kids, Fez."
"Yeah, like anyone would want to procreate with him," Hyde snorted.
"June would," Fez said quietly as he tried to hide back his emotions. Slowly, a crystal blue tear made its way down his face.
"Fez, get over it," Eric awkwardly patted his friend on the back; Hyde forbidding himself to show any sympathy. "You know your marriage was a sham, now it's time for you to move on."
Fez attempted to man up, sitting up straight and attempting to look tough. "But it wasn't to me."
"Your marriage was a sham, whether you like it or not, buddy, so deal with it," Kelso told his foreign fan. "Seriously, don't you know anything about marriage certificates?"
Jackie smacked Kelso in the arm, hard. "Like you would know, Mr. I Can't Commit to Anything."
Hyde jumped back to the topic, ignoring his pregnant wife's comment. "She ain't coming back either, you were then when she was deported last month back to…" Hyde stopped to think, he'd known Fez for almost 14 years and yet he still had no idea as to where he came from. "Well, you know where she's from."
Fez jumped up from the lawn chair, finally deciding to defend himself for once. "Shut up! You think I haven't been through enough these past ten years?"
Jackie stepped forward to her old ex-boyfriend, intending to quiet him, but he pushed her away.
"First Jackie rejects me for you"—he pointed to Hyde—"then I get married to a girl who only wanted to get married to stay in the country, and it wasn't even real in the first place, then I'm forced to get it annulled like the first time, and now I have to deal with all of you. What more do you want?"
"We get it, Fez," conjectured Eric. "It's just—"
"No, you don't," he backed up towards the door, uttering his infamous favorite words, "good day."
"But Fez…" all four of his friends started.
Fez shook his head at all of them. "I said good day."
~~~ . . . ~~~
12:15
"Behind me, picketers have been congregating together to fight to keep the Water Tower. Why, you may ask? Well, these people can see past the crude drawings on it and to what the future would be without the Tower: a new park taking its place. According to some, the park would be almost deserted due to the location of the Tower and it has been estimated that it would cost more to build a new Water Tower than to refurbish this one and keep it for generations to come."
The camera switched back from the cheerful on-the-scene news anchor to another woman who sat behind a long, curved black table. A small packet of papers sat in front of her and she smiled as the camera focused in on her. "Thank you, Donna. As some of our loyal viewers may be aware of, Donna's last news broadcast will be tonight, on the eleven o'clock news, before she signs off to assume the job of head news correspondent in New York City at ABC. She will be following the Water Tower scandal until then and bringing you the latest breaking news. Coming up after the break, New Year's celebrations from around the world."
Still sitting in his ancient chair, Hyde flicked the almost-as-old TV off with the remote as a commercial about cleaning supplies came on ten times louder than the news. "It's bull," Hyde insisted. "They only make the commercials louder because the government wants to sell you something."
"Uh, I don't think it's the government that does that," Kelso interjected.
"What do you know?" questioned Hyde. "Your ten year old daughter can solve a Rubik's Cube and you can't. She's clearly smarter than you."
"Does it matter?" Jackie came down the stairs, the creaking of them, along with her ever-persistent voice, making her incoming presence known to the men. She groaned as she came down and stood in front of them. "You know, you guys haven't moved since the last time I came down here."
"That is sooo not true," complained Kelso, lifting himself an inch off the couch and moving his butt. "I just did now."
Eric simultaneously rolled his eyes with Jackie—it was probably the only thing they'd been able to agree on since… well, forever. "Do you not see the eight month old baby that I'm holding?"
Jackie's eyes quickly darted to Eric and Gracie, the newest addition to the Forman family.
"Yeah, well, I got stuck watching your other two," Jackie pointed out, looking to Kelso and Hyde. "And these idiots' kids also."
"Don't forget that Katie and Leo are yours also," Eric reminded her.
Hyde peered through his aviator glasses at his wife. "Who's watching them anyway?"
Jackie straightened herself out and said, in a matter-of-factly tone, "I left Betsy and Charlotte in charge."
"You left them in charge?" Hyde's eyes nearly bugged out as he tried to imagine the scene that must have been unfolding on the floor above them.
"Yeah, so? Betsy's almost eleven and Charlotte's nine; with the amount of times everyone in this family drops the baby bomb, they might as well learn babysitting skills early."
"Well, I'll take one of the tykes off your hands," Kelso stood up and started for the stairs. "Me and Nicky have to go pick up a few things."
"Don't you mean you have to go pick up stuff?" Eric shouted after him.
"No!" replied Kelso with a laugh.
"Aunt Jackie, we need you up here!" came Charlotte's call of help.
Jackie took once last glance at the remaining two boys, sighed and retreated back up the stairs.
Hyde took his glasses off, wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, and replaced his glasses back onto his nose. "Man, I'm telling you, I can't handle one more week of this pregnancy crap."
"I heard that!" Jackie yelled down the stairs.
"Eric, did you hear me?" Hyde asked his lone friend.
Abruptly, Eric lifted his head up from the infant in his arms. "Oh, yeah, sorry," he cowered. "Too wrapped up with Shamrock, I guess."
"You guess?" Hyde exclaimed. "You're going insane, man. You're calling your daughter a plant."
"In case you don't remember, I call Gracie Shamrock because she was born on St. Patrick's Day," Eric reminded him.
Hyde held back what he wanted to say and instead replaced it with something less harsh. "I'm lucky enough I can actually remember my kids' names; I don't need to come up with nicknames for them."
"Whatever," Eric waved the comment off.
"Do you know how crazy raising three kids is going to be?"
Eric looked at his friend without empathy, full sarcasm coming out in his voice. "I don't know, Hyde… tell me about it."
"Okay, sorry," Hyde sincerely apologized. "I forgot about your litter."
The two men sat there in silence until Hyde decided to break it: "So you and Donna leave next week, right?"
Eric shrugged. "I don't know. Donna's still trying to decide whether or not she wants to take it. I think she just wants to stay because she doesn't want to leave everyone else behind."
"That's crazy; all her life she wanted to get out of here and now she's given a chance to leave and she doesn't even take it."
Eric took a deep breath and exhaled. "Try telling her that. Besides, if Fez moves to California and Kelso gets the school security guard job in Madison, then only you and Jackie are going to be here."
Hyde folded his arms and scowled at Eric. "What's so bad about that?"
Eric jumped back a little at Hyde's glare. "Nothing. I want to stay, the kids at the middle school are going to hate if their favorite history teacher is gone." Eric grinned with delight.
"Yeah, right." Hyde wouldn't buy the story. "Anyway, don't you have papers to grade or something?"
Eric jumped up immediately and hurried to the stairs, remembering all the times he'd forgotten to do his tasks as a teacher, still clutching his daughter close to his chest. "Thanks, man," he told Hyde, "you're a lifesaver."
~~~ . . . ~~~
3:15 PM
I was born in Lil' Rock, I was hightop shoes and shirt tails, You know my papa disapproved it,
Had a childhood sweetheart,
We were always hand in hand.
Suzy was in pig tails,
I know I loved her even then.
My mama boohooed it,
But I told them time and time again,
"Don't you know I was made to love her,
Built a world all around her"
Yah! Hey, hey, hey.
But was he sure that he loved her now? Yes, of course he did, there was no doubt about that. Now the only question was did she feel the same way that he did?
Walking to his apartment from the Formans', he decided that these kind of things always happened to him and they were going to keep happening, whether he liked it or not. But why him? He wasn't anything special. Sure, there were some things that he insisted everyone loved about him, but there had to be something that stood out to make her love him.
But did she really love him?
He wanted June back, the girl he'd loved since he met her back home—his childhood sweetheart. He thought she really was the one, that's why he never let her go back after Eric and Donna's wedding. That's why he asked her to move in with him. That's why they got married, even if it was just a spur of the moment thing. But then the truth came out, her past was revealed, and she was deported. She was gone just like that, leaving nothing but a broken heart for him to remember him by.
Fez slowly walked the familiar back roads through the town. Now he was thinking of another girl—Jackie. Now he couldn't even try to rebound with her. She was married to Hyde, she had twins with him, she was expecting her third child.
She was happy.
Fez turned his head like a wilting flower. The sound of a car was getting closer… and closer… and closer….
"FEZ, WATCH OUT!"
Jumping away just in time, Kelso drove straight onto the sidewalk and grass in his car… a newly bought Volkswagen Bus.
"Kelso, what are you doing?" Fez yelled at his friend with concern, he'd just notice Nick in the backseat.
Kelso looked back to where Fez was looking. "Oh, Nicky? He's sleeping; he'll be fine." He motioned for Fez to get in the passenger seat. "You like my surprise for Brooke?"
"This is your surprise for her?" Fez gawked at the car, almost an exact replica to the one that rolled down the side of Hump Mountain while in Eric and Donna's possession. "You'll probably give her a heart attack!"
Kelso shook his head, grinned, and opened up the glove department while Fez looked inside. "That's her surprise."
She's been my inspiration, Like a sweet magnolia tree
Showed appreciation
For the love I gave her through the years.
My love blossomed tenderly,
My life grew sweeter through the years.
~~~ . . . ~~~
3:30 PM
"I've got great news!"
Ten pairs of eyes, even Gracie's tiny baby ones, shifted toward the sound of the high-pitched, woman's voice; Mrs. Forman came running through the swinging kitchen door into the living room, Brooke following behind her. She stopped once she was in the middle of them all and looked at them like they were crazy. "Wh-what's wrong?"
"Mom," Eric started. "Have you seen yourself lately?"
"Stop back talking and just to listen to your mother." Red sighed, with a disapproving shake of his head, from his faded green chair. Leo played with trains around his feet.
"What's going on?" Hyde asked, tenderly picking Katie up off of the floor and lifting her to his lap. "Did you find one of Eric's report cards without an F?"
"No, no," Kitty's face pulled into a tight smile. "I just found out Laurie had a baby!"
Though everyone suspected she was taking a nap, Jackie's eyes shot open and she sat up, alert. "That… girl had her kid before me?"
"Hold on," Hyde intervened. "You knew Laurie was pregnant?"
"No," Jackie shrunk back into the couch. "I just think I deserve to give birth before she does."
Red's bewildered face turned toward Kitty. "Laurie had a baby?"
"That shouldn't be the question," Eric said. "It should be is Casey the father?"
"Why wouldn't it…" Red sighed and finally gave in to the real knowledge of Laurie's past; he looked back to Kitty, pleading with his eyes that the father of the granddaughter he didn't even know existed was her mother's husband.
Despite the rudeness in their voices, Kitty's eyes still lit up with pleasure as she started off answering the questions. "Well, she did and she didn't have her baby before you, Jackie."
"Whoa, cool." Hyde joked. "It's a Twilight Zone baby!"
"Steven," Jackie's tone of voice warned him of what could happen. "What do you mean, Mrs. Forman?"
"She gave birth to a girl on Christmas Eve the year the twins were born… so they're older than her, but this one," she smiled as Jackie touched her stomach, "is going to be younger."
"And the baby's Casey's?" Red persisted.
Kitty nodded.
"Oh, thank God," Red fell back in his chair, like this news was exhausting him.
"I'll bet anything they named the baby some stripper name," commented Eric as he.
"You don't know when to stop, man." Hyde pointed out. "You really don't."
"Her name is Kirsten, Kirsten Casey," Kitty announced.
Eric groaned. "Even better, she's named after her dad."
"Stop it already," Jackie yelled. "It's getting old and we all get that you hate her."
Eric raised his hands in self defense. "You know, Jackie, you used to hate her, too."
Jackie squinted her eyes at Eric until they were just slits. "That's when Michael was cheating on me with her; it's different, I actually had a reason to hate her."
Before Eric could interject or anyone could jump in to get them to stop, Betsy and Charlotte ran into the living room from the den with interlocked arms. "You need to come outside," Betsy told everyone in the room. "Like now."
"Later, girls," Red waved their words off.
"You shouldn't be out there anyway, it's freezing," advised Kitty.
"But Grandma," Charlotte protested, throwing a red curl behind her shoulder, "it's important."
"Wait," Hyde thought aloud. "Where'd Brooke go?"
"That's why everyone needs to come outside," Betsy insisted. "Now."
Without any more objections, the group stood up from their spots scattered around the room, each adult accept Red carrying a kid out with them, and headed out through the living room door and crowded onto the porch and part of the driveway.
Outside, they found Brooke in shock, staring at Kelso, the person she had the slightly unfortunate fate of having two kids with, coming out of his green Volkswagen Bus. "You like it?
"Michael I—" She paused as she saw Fez come out the other side and Kelso opened up the door to unstrap Nick from his car seat. "You brought Nick with you?"
"Yeah," Kelso let Brooke take Nick from him. "I got this car as a gift to me and I bought another gift for you."
Brooke steadied herself, she couldn't remember the last time Kelso brought her anything that wasn't a comic book… from the library she worked at. "What is it?"
The group behind them drew in their breath as the scene in front of them enfolded.
Kelso leaned up against his new car, opened up the ring box he took from his jacket pocket, and presented it to Brooke. "You know, to some people fate isn't when people meet in a bathroom at a Molly Hatchet concert," he quoted what Brooke had said to him so long ago, "but I don't think meeting in a café in Paris is any better."
Brooke lifted up her head at Kelso. "Michael…."
Slowly, but surely he got down on one knee in front of Brooke. "And maybe this is fate. So will you marry me?"
Jackie, at the front of the driveway, exclaimed the words that Brooke couldn't: "Michael, what are you doing?"
Kelso jumped up and turned to Fez, Hyde, and Eric at the side of the huddled group. "I was hoping all three of you would be my best men, like at Fez's wedding."
Brooke appeared next to him. "I haven't answered you yet."
Kelso's happy expression dropped. "Wait, so you…"
"Yes, I'll marry you," Brooke smiled and, still holding their son in her arms, she wrapped her arms around Kelso's neck and kissed him.
Eric turned to Hyde with a frown. "What just happened?"
Kelso butt in with yet another infamous grin. "We're getting hitched!"
~~~ . . . ~~~
11:10 PM
They were all in the basement again, all in their respective spots. Fez was sitting on the washer, Hyde in his chair, Eric on the couch with Charlotte and Betsy, and Brooke sitting in the lawn chair (after Kelso let her, of course) with her new fiancé next to her on the floor. And Jackie? Well…
"I don't see how anyone, even the babies can sleep on a night like tonight," Jackie came out from Hyde's old room, it was the fourth time in the past hour she'd gone back to check on her "little angels" and her friends' kids as well. "Even though it's the news, the volume is just too loud."
Jackie sighed as she realized no one was paying attention to her, a skill they'd all mastered such a long time before. She came around to Hyde's sighed and reached for his beer can—the fifth he'd downed that day. She had it about half way to her mouth before Hyde realized what she was doing and quickly grabbed it from her.
"Whoa there, pregnant girl," Hyde placed the can on the coffee table. "You know you can't drink."
Jackie pouted, trying to get her way. "But Steven…"
"Oh, just let her have a sip," Fez asserted in his whiny voice. "What's it going to do to her anyway?"
"It'll do everything and anything to her, that's what," Eric answered for Hyde.
"Yeah, Brooke would've killed me if I let her drink when she was pregnant with Betsy or Nick," Kelso added. "But I knocked her up drunk," He grinned, remembering two of his greatest accomplishments in life. "Twice."
"Michael…," Brooke's words trailed off as she tried to find the right words to say. She sighed and gave up; this wasn't worth the fight, she was engaged anyway already.
Hyde rolled his eyes at the couple and turned back to Jackie. "Anyway, babe, you're pregnant; you can't drink."
"Why can't she drink?" Fez asked, being persistent with his words and needs. "How isn't she thirsty when she's pregnant?"
"Booze, Fez," Eric told him. "Beer, vodka, tequila—she can't have any of that stuff."
"I get that you can't have alcohol, but now she can't have boobs?"
"Give it up Fez, if you can't understand it…" Hyde tried to think of what to say, then giving up his seat to his wife and hoisting himself up next to Fez. "It's me and Jackie's problem, not yours."
Fez did just that, even though he knew that he right. He glued his eyes like everyone else as the news came back on; it seemed as if the channel hadn't been changed all day. The camera switched from a new news anchor at the station behind a desk to Donna, still on the scene at the Water Tower. This time, however, no one spoke over what was happening; only a camera panned over the scene.
Though it was nearing eleven pm, protestors were still gathering on the grounds of the Water Tower. And there was Donna, in the midst of it, joining in on the protest herself!
The camera zeroed in on some of the people, stopping a second on each one of the signs the people had made and the ones holding them.
"It's funny," began Kelso. "If they knock down the Tower, Nick's never going to get to jump off the tower like I do…" Kelso was quick to add, "I mean, did."
"Oh, there's no way our son is ever going to go near that thing if it still exists when he's older," Brooke criticized him, yet still keeping a loving tone.
Suddenly, Fez jumped off the washer, walking closer to the TV as he shouted, "THAT'S NINA!"
"Shut up," Eric said through gritted teeth. "My parents don't need to hear you."
Jackie snorted in her 'I-might-be-married-to-Hyde-but-I'm-still-a-snotty-rich-girl-at-heart' way. "Your parents? I'm worried more about the twins." She exited the room, more out of annoyance with Fez than concern for her kids.
"That's Nina!" Fez repeated. He turned to her Fez, "You know, my ex-girlfriend?"
"Oh, yeah, her," Kelso remembered. "The one who dumped you when we were still in high school."
"Yeah, that's her," Fez acknowledged it with a dreamy sigh. "You think she still knows who I am?"
"Why don't you go find out?" Hyde nodded toward the TV set. "It's only a few blocks away from here, you could go and protest over there and be on TV and catch up with Nina at the same time."
"But what if she—"
Eric got up and put his hand on Fez's shoulder. "You never know until you try, buddy. Tonight could be your lucky night and you wouldn't even know it."
"Okay," Fez straightened himself out. "Yeah, I'll go," practically racing himself, Fez ran toward the door, opened it, and proceeded to slam it as he climbed the stairs.
"Steven!" Jackie called from the back bedroom. "Steven!"
Everyone in the room craned their necks to see Jackie running, very uncomfortably, toward them. "I… the… we… my water broke!" she finally managed to say.
Hyde's face drained of all color as he stood up to face Jackie. He didn't know what to do, the last time Jackie was pregnant he wasn't there to take her to the hospital, he showed up just as she was about to give birth!
"Wow, your pathetic," Eric stated. "Are you seriously just going to stand there?"
Hyde opened his mouth to say something, but closed it when he realized that no matter what he said, he just wasn't going to win this one.
"We need to get her to a hospital," Brooke advised them, leading Jackie to the stairs.
"Come on, Kelso," Eric told his friend, heading into the back. "Let's go get the small fries."
"Wait," Jackie stopped just as Brooke started to help her up the first step. "Someone needs to get Donna."
"We'll go!" Charlotte and Betsy, who still sat on the couch, piped up at the same time.
"No," Hyde told them both. "You're too young."
Kelso and Eric came back, each holding their youngest child while three tired three year olds followed after them. "Charlotte can go," Eric countered his friend's comment.
"Yeah, Betsy can too," Kelso nudged Brooke. "Right?"
Brooke lifted her head, coming-to into the situation. "Oh, yes, alright."
"Yay!" the girls exclaimed, in unison once again.
"Just make sure you catch up with Fez first," Brooke called after them as they flew past the adults and out the door.
"Kids these days," Hyde remarked.
"Um, hello?" Jackie waved her hands in front of the group. "I'm going into labor here!"
~~~ . . . ~~~
11:35 PM
"Nina!"
Fez ran into the grassy lawn, the last trickles of people still standing around with their picket signs. There she was, standing right in front of the Water Tower that he still had so many memories from.
"Fez?" Her voice was tiny, frail, as the name quickly popped into her head and then out of her mouth. There he was, right in front of her. "Is that really you?"
Fez stopped as the words played over in his mind. He'd said those same words when Tina, Donna's little sister, introduced him and June again at Eric and Donna's wedding. Now someone else was asking him the same thing eight 8 years later.
"Yeah, it is," he looked around, trying to think of what to say. "So you remember me?"
"Remember you?" Nina laughed. "Yeah, I do." She lowered her picketing sign and walked over to a tiny cleared out area, taking a seat and gesturing for Fez to join her. "So what's new with you?"
"Aunt Donna!"
"Mom!"
The girls came in after Fez, sprinting to where Donna stood in front of a camera.
Donna looked away from the camera for a moment and scowled at the two girls. "Betsy, Charlotte, what are you doing here?"
"That doesn't matter," Betsy responded.
"Yeah, Mom, we need to get to the hospital," Charlotte added.
Donna's scowl quickly turned to a worried frown. "Did someone get hurt?"
"No!" Betsy's frustrated voice came out. "Aunt Jackie's having her baby. We need to go, now!"
Nina stopped listening to Fez in order to hear this last comment. "Jackie's having a baby?" she asked.
"Yeah, she—"
Fez was cut off short as Nina grabbed his wrist and pulled him up. "Then what are we doing here?"
"No," he pulled her back down. "Let's stay here."
Donna smoothed out her hair as the camera turned back on. "Well, if you've been paying attention, I need to go to see the birth of my best friend's child. So, good night, Point Place, I'll see you in New York!" Donna signed off and turned back to the two girl's anxiously waiting next to her. "Well?" she started. "What are we doing here? Let's go!"
17 MINUTES LATER…
"Ten!" The countdown to the New Year had begun in the waiting room…
…and the countdown to the baby in delivery room as well. "You can do it, Jacks."
"Nine!"
"I know you can, don't worry, Doll."
"Eight!"
"You're doing great, Jackie."
"Seven!"
"Come on, sweetie."
"Six!"
"Alright, keep them coming."
"Five!"
"You're doing so good, don't stop now!"
"Four!"
"Breathe, it's going to be fine."
"Three"
"We're almost there!"
"Two!"
"One more!"
"One!"
"IT'S A GIRL!"
~~~ . . . ~~~
I'll be there when you're feelin' down And I'll sing you the songs of the rainbow
To kiss away the tears if you cry
I'll share with you all the happiness I've found
A reflection of the love in your eyes
A whisper of the joy that is mine
And leaves will bow down when you walk by
And morning bells will chime
"Come on; don't keep us waiting any longer." Donna asked. "What'd you name her?"
"Sophie Michaela," Jackie was quick to say.
Simultaneously, Hyde said, "Jessica Rose."
Jackie's face was of utter disgust. "Jessica Rose sounds like a stripper's name."
"Yeah, it is," Kelso told them, a huge smile on his face. Of course he knew the name belonged to a stripper.
Hyde rolled his eyes and turned back to Jackie. "What kind of name is Michaela anyway?"
"It's after Michael," Jackie pointed out, like it should be obvious.
Hyde shook his head. "Ugh, why do we have to name her after the first guy you slept with?"
"Hey," grunted Kelso. "I was damn good, I deserve recognition."
Brooke, who was used to this by now, ignored them, and continued admiring the ring on her finger. However, Donna was the one that butt in. "Um, don't forget there are children in the room."
"I am not a child!" Betsy interjected.
"Yeah, yeah. We nixed the name with the twins for the same reason: we're not naming our child after him." Hyde continued, "How about Sophie Jacqueline? We'll both get what we want."
"But Gracie's middle name is Jacqueline after me already," Jackie whined. "And I'm not changing the name. Sophie Michaela and that's it."
"Jacks—"
Jackie, still holding her pregnancy fit of rage, hit her husband square in the arm.
Hyde lowered his head in frustration. "Never mind then."
Donna laughed. "Sophie Michaela it is."
Red walked in from the waiting room and, leaning against the doorway frame, let out a huge sigh, bringing all of the attention from the newborn to him. "Who wants to take baby duty now?"
Hyde was quick to jump on the act. "I'll go get them, let 'em meet their new little sister."
Hyde slowly walked out into the pristinely clean small waiting room of Point Place Hospital. A woman decked out in a white nurses' uniform smiled at him as she lifted her head up from her paperwork. "Congratulations," she said with a nod towards the room he'd just left. And then with a reference to the twins, "They're little angels, you know."
"Thanks," Hyde breathed. He scanned the room for the twins, finding them curled up together on a plush purple couch in the corner, fast asleep. He looked to a clock on the wall and he squinted to try and see the time—12:25.
I'm getting old, thought Hyde as he bent down next to his kids.
Hyde spoke softly to wake them up, "Hey, guys."
Simultaneously, Katie and Leo's bright eyes—Katie's piercing green, like one of her mother's, and Leo's sea blue, just like his father's—opened and took in Hyde's sight. "Daddy!" they happily screeched, wrapping their arms around him in a hug.
"Come on," Hyde soothed, standing up with a toddler on each arm. "There's somebody I want you to meet."
Jackie's face lit up as the three entered the room together. She waved them up with her right arm, securely holding on to Sophie with her left.
"Mommy!" they squealed as Hyde set them down. They both eagerly crawled towards Jackie, each taking a spot on either side of her.
"This is Sophie," Jackie told them. "You're new little sister."
"Sofee?" Katie looked up at her mom, unsure.
"No," Hyde gently said, picking her up and sitting down next to Jackie. "Sophie." He glanced at Leo, then to Jackie, and back to Katie. "Do you know what having a little sister means?"
Katie and Leo both shook their tired heads.
"It means you need to protect her and watch out for her."
"Okay, can we cut it with the cheesy stuff?" Eric broke in. "Donna and I have some news to tell everyone."
Red's eyes widened as he turned to his son and daughter in law. "She's not… you're not pregnant, are you?"
Donna smiled. "No… we've decided to stay in Point Place so we can keep our old jobs and have our kids grow up where we did."
"I've been through so much with Donna and everyone, I just can't leave. Plus the kids get a kick out of listening to what happened in my life. " Eric laughed at his father's disgusted expression as he threw in, "And we're going to move in next to my parents,"
"Brooke and I have other news, too," Kelso announced. "I got a job as a security guard at the middle school. We're going to stay here and move in next to you guys, too." He looked at Red's grim face. "Oh and Fez wants me to say that he's staying also, he got a date with Nina next week."
Donna remembered something else as well, "And I just found out that their saving the Water Tower."
"Isn't this great, Red?" Kitty rested her head on her husband's shoulder. "We're going to get to see all of our grandbabies grow up."
"What about Kirsten?" Red questioned his wife.
"Well, she…" Kitty trailed off. "Well, almost all of them will be here."
"So I guess it did work out in the end," Hyde remarked, more to himself and Jackie than anyone else.
"Yeah," she sighed. "Just as long as we're together."
"Our house in the middle of our street I remember way back then when everything was true
Our house in the middle of our
And when we would have such a very good time
Such a fine time, such a happy time
And I remember how we'd play simply waste the day away
Then we'd say nothing would come between us two dreamers"