Author Note: ….looks like it's gonna be a long, long night! What would you do in their situation?

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Chapter 11 – Hell Has Frozen Over

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"Damn, you are one smart girl." Eric admitted. Jackie smiled, "Forman, I think Hell just froze over."

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Eric's mind reeled back to the previous year when he escorted Jackie to Brooke and Cam's wedding. "So…do I kiss you goodnight or something?" He had asked after opening her car door.

Jackie touched his cheek. "Forman, did I give you any indication this was a date? It was a fa-vor. Remember?"

"Right. Not a date…But sure felt like a date."He remembered feeling awkward and self-conscious.

Jackie had laughed gaily. "Eric Forman…the day the two of us have a date, Hell is going to freeze over. Good night,"

"Heh-heh…ah...yeah...that was funny Jackie. How can you possibly call this a date?" Eric was busy tucking his feet into the flannel fabric of the sleeping bag, the zipper a little chilly on his bare toes. Jackie looked at him and smiled, "Why not make the best of a bad situation?"

He pulled the material up to his chest and nearly sighed out loud. "Yeah, things could be worse."

Jackie shimmied out of her slacks and into a pair of pajama bottoms. "Really? How could this weekend get worse than being stuck in a Vista Cruiser…..miles from civilization?"

Eric looked at the frosted windshield and smiled to himself before saying, "What could be worse? Well for one thing, we could be trying to walk through the freezing snow back to the main road while hoping that there's someone that sees us and stops to help."

"I don't have the proper footwear for this weather. My boots are for show – not snow. Okay, so you have something worse."

Eric turned sideways in the wonderfully warm blanket, the brown fleece soft against his shoulders. "We could always try and find some wood then use the cigarette lighter to make a signal fire so we can contact Red…who will drive out here just to kick my ass."

Jackie giggled. "That would be funny but I think if we wait here, someone will find us in the morning." Then she turned somber, "You do think that they'll find us tomorrow…don't you?"

Eric was wondering the same thing. Don't freak her out! "Well, I'm sure Exit 157 is pretty popular….someone is bound to take that turn and find us."

The realization of just taking the first off ramp was not lost on the pair. They were between towns, miles away from a gas station which Eric had hoped for….they could be here for days! Jackie looked at Eric with an expression that made his stomach clench and not in a good way.

"We're gonna die out here." She said sadly.

Eric saw Jackie cover her face with her hands and her slim shoulders tremble. She was going to cry – oh no! Eric didn't know what to do. "Wait! Don't panic yet! We can stay in this Vista Cruiser igloo….we have sandwiches and whatever you brought in the ice chest. Jackie….don't cry."

She looked at him with those jeweled eyes brimming with tears. "You can eat me when I'm dead." She said solemnly.

Eric blinked. What? He wiggled his finger in his ear to make sure it wasn't clogged. "What did you say?"

She wiped her eyes and turned on the seat to face him. "I heard about those athletes that crashed somewhere in South America in 1972."

"The Andes. They were rugby players." Eric added.

"Whatever. " She sniffed. "There were 45 passengers and everyone died but 16 and when they ran out of food….they ate the dead bodies!" She exclaimed. "You have a better chance of surviving so I give you permission to eat me."

All sorts of x-rated thoughts ran thought Eric's mind at that point but he quickly brought his focus back around to the situation at hand. "Jackie, you're not going to die and we'll be fine. The most important thing we have to worry about is hypothermia."

"I don't need a shot. I don't like needles. Quit talking in riddles."

He bit the inside of his cheek so he wouldn't laugh, "Hypothermia is a way for the body to protect itself from the cold. Like - like shivering. When you shiver, your body is trying to keep itself warm."

"Well, I was shivering earlier but now that we're covered up, I'm not so cold. What else does it do to you?"

Eric tried to recall what he read in that hiking book at work last week. "When you get too cold, you get uncoordinated and it's difficult to think or make decisions."

She smiled. "I'm like that after I've had a Black Russian. Speaking of which, I have some Kahlua in the cooler!"

Eric chuckled, "I'm sure that will be a factor in this evening's so called date. But seriously, we need to watch each other for confusion, shallow breathing…drowsiness…."

"But when it gets late, I'm going to get drowsy. Are you saying we have to stay awake all night?"

"No, not since we have something to keep up warm, I think we don't have to worry about that."

"Because I saw The Shining and Jack Nicholson froze to death in the snow….I don't want that to happen to me!" Jackie said in an alarmed tone. Eric squeezed her cold fingers. "We're not in a movie and we're going to be fine. Really fine and why don't I get those sandwiches while you get some drinks?"

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Royal Crown and Coke was a great belly warmer. Kitty Forman's roast beef sandwiches were better than a steak at Sizzler! Eric leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. If he imagined it just perfectly, he was in his bed and tomorrow he'd wake up to one of his mom's homemade pancake breakfasts…

A hand nudged his shoulder. "Eric." Jackie said slightly slurred. "It's still light out. What if we put on all the clothes in my luggage and your backpack and wrapped up in the sleeping bag….I bet we can walk to the freeway and get help."

Eric rolled his head to the right. "How fast can you run a mile? Remember in school they used to time you? Let me tell you that the average person can run a mile in around ten minutes in perfect condition. Jackie, there's snow out there and it's freezing. Even if we walk it, one mile is going to take us at least a half hour."

"But….." She started to protest.

Eric's common sense came to forefront; "We don't really know how far from the freeway we are. It could be one mile or four…do you really want to take a chance?"

His question was punctuated by the howling of a lone wolf coming from somewhere in the trees beyond the Vista Cruiser. Jackie shivered and Eric felt kind of spooked. She pulled her knees up under her chin. "Okay, we can listen to the radio and talk softly…I don't want that wild animal out there to get a clue."

Eric smiled softly. "The windows are up and he should be afraid of us."

Jackie looked skeptical. "What makes you say that?"

Eric grinned, "We can cook him in the signal fire for Red."

Jackie laughed, "You are too funny! I'm not going to eat wolf meat. I'd rather go hungry." She rested her cheek on her kneecaps and looked at him. There was something in her eyes that intrigued him. Yeah, he was attracted to her but even when she wasn't speaking those huge eyes conveyed a lot of unspoken words.

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"Welcome to Love Songs with Lisa….I'll be here keeping you company until the witching hour…." The radio personality's voice was soft and sultry. From the light green glow of Jackie's cassette radio, Air Supply's All Out of Love played in the background. Jackie yawned and sunk down into the sleeping bag. Eric wedged himself up against the door and sighed. This was not working out well at all.

Ten more songs or half an hour later Jackie declared, "This isn't going to work. I can't sleep sitting up."

Eric rubbed his rib where the rubber armrest was jammed into his side. "I couldn't agree with you more. Let's lay this seat out. We'll be laying on the hard surface but my folks have camped out back there and it didn't kill them."

"Okay, but I gotta move a lot of my stuff around." Jackie warned him. Eric replied, "I'll move my junk to the front seat. Watch out for that shoe box, it's got my valuable comics in it."

Jackie climbed out of the sleeping bag and Eric suddenly realized that she wasn't wearing pajama bottoms actually, but tap panties that were delectably sexy. Why didn't she warn him about that? Oh crap, why didn't she warn him she was climbing over the back seat? Don't think about it Eric. Don't look! He couldn't help it. Her ass was right there….and his left hand was right here…..

Jackie turned around and he quickly put his hand under the sleeping bag. Awkward! Swallowing the lump in his throat he managed to squeak out, "You climb in the back and lift those two levers on the sides and I'll be in the front. You push and I'll pull….got it?"

Jackie nodded and with a concentrated effort, the pair pushed and pulled while the seat groaned from years of being idle and reluctantly fell onto the backseat creating a flat floor – perfect for stretching out the sleeping bag. They straightened out the bag and zipped up the sides and suddenly Bob's Coleman flannel cocoon looked a little too small for two people.

Jackie looked at Eric who looked back at her. Who was going to get the bag? Jackie thought about the hungry wolf outside and the sex depraved wolf inside and said, "Screw it, we sleep on our sides and we'll both fit."

Eric breathed a sigh of relief. "Just don't go getting all handsy on me okay?"

Jackie giggled and pulled a couple of pillows from a duffel bag. "I won't get handsy….as you put it if you promise not to drool…on my satin pillowcase."

Eric grinned. "It's a deal."

At least it sounded like a deal on the surface!

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A/N: I know all of you deviant minds are thinking about being naked in a sleeping bag. Yeah, that's what I thought. Get your minds out of the gutter and decide what you would do in this situation. Of course, I would have brought a spare for my spare!