A/N: All right, loyal readers. This is the last segment. As you will soon notice, the artists of the songs are jumbled to emphasize how much closer the group has come now. The order in which the members of the gang tell their stories stays the same, but they relate to different songs. I hope it's not too confusing for anyone. But that's a great reason to leave a review...another is just that you like the story and what it is that you like about it. Well, without further ado, I give you...love.
December 19, 1981
It was a small room, a scant, picayune room, Donna thought, forming sophisticated, educated synonyms out of habit. Hot Donna, now broadcasting out of Chicago, was a deejay who brought in a higher class of listeners, to quote her latest review, not that she read those…all that much. She flung the curtains open to look out into the sanctuary, to see the bustling and panicking, in which tradition demanded she not partake. A few years ago, she would have laughed if someone told her she would grant every one of her father's requests to be married back in Point Place and in a church.
"Donna! What are you doing? What if Eric sees you?" Jackie pushed her aside and closed the curtains. "Ugh! I'd hit you if I could!"
Towering over her in just a slip, Donna laughed, shaking her head at the little banshee in navy blue that was setting her jaw and demanding an explanation.
"Jackie, take it easy! I just wanted to see what was going on out there."
"Well, you're not allowed, and as the Maid of Honor, I have to make sure you don't completely ruin your own wedding with all this feminist nonsense. Now, bend over so your mom can put on your dress."
Midge knocked on the door.
"Donna? It's me, your mom."
"Come on in, Mom. There's not much room."
Laurie and Brooke, her other two bridesmaids, only one by choice, were off somewhere passing out boutonnieres and corsages to the parents and grandparents and groomsmen, and that was just as well.
"Donna?"
"Come in, Brooke!" she shouted from underneath layers of white lace and satin.
"I brought some music for in here like you asked."
"Great! Just pop anything in. I don't even care at this point."
With Midge buttoning her up in the back and Jackie standing in front of her, smoothing out the long soft skirt, the screeching Steven Tyler and guitar riffs sent her head bobbing in rhythm.
Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate it
This is Critcal Mass
So far, so good
I heard the other say
So good, so far
They're takin' me away
I drink to you, your mind, her ass
We'll take a drink and break the glass
Celebrate, celebrate, celebreak it
This is Critical Mass
"What are we listening to?" Midge asked.
"Aerosmith! Like, one of the best bands ever!" Donna squealed. "Come here, Brooke. I have to hug you. Is Betsy all set?"
"She sure is. My mom has her out there right now. Is that okay?"
"Oh, hell yeah. I don't care right now."
"Now, Donna," Jackie said, forcing Donna to remember the countless times Jackie lectured Kelso like that, with a "Now, Michael," starting every single one. "You have to eat a little bit before you go out there or else you'll pass out and crush me. Now I know how hard it is to find some kind of food that won't get on your dress, so…bananas!" She tore a banana from its bunch in the basket in the corner and held it out to her. "I don't care if you're not hungry. You're going to eat it."
Donna shoved it into her mouth.
"Wow, I'm sure that's the image Eric is imagining for tonight."
"Jackie!" she coughed, sending a small chunk of the banana back down her throat. "That's the dirtiest thing I've ever heard you say."
"Obviously, as much as I talk, it was bound to happen sometime." The two giggled as Laurie returned, plopping down in one chair and propping her feet up on another, her panties visible to everyone. From her cleavage, she produced a small bottle of whiskey.
"Uh, you want to ease up off the whore pedal there, Laurie?"
"When is this thing going to start? It's bad enough I'm being escorted by Fez down the aisle, but I have to be here all day?"
"Don't worry, Laurie. Donna has a bunch of cousins. I'm sure one of them will be drunk enough to give you a chance," Jackie said, taking one of her bobby pins out of her hair and cramming it into Donna's hair.
"I feel cut off from everything!" Donna said, cringing at that last pin. "Jackie, my hair's freakin' fine! I want to go see Eric."
"But, honey, you can't see Eric. You're about to marry him!" Midge protested.
Now the tallest of two
With a brush full of blue
Paints surrealist scenes on the wall
So I tell her for fun
That it's really well done
But she just ain't listenin' at all
She points to my heart
Tellin' me if I'm smart
I'll practise and phase
Out and admit, when the shoe doesn't fit
And I went screamin' out down the hall
"Hey, yeah," Donna breathed. "I'm marrying him today. I'm marrying him today!"
"Don't remind me that little shit is getting married before I do…well, not exactly before, but having a wedding before me anyway," Laurie mumbled from her two seats, biting down on the tip of a banana. None of them bothered looking at the door when it knocked.
"Donna? It's Kitty."
"Fuck!" Laurie sat up straight, twisted the cap back onto the whiskey bottle, and passed it to Brooke.
"Hi, everybody. I just wanted to come and see the bride-to-be. Brooke, honey, it's best to start out with something a little milder so early in the morning and then move on to the hard stuff. Oh, Donna. You look absolutely stunning!" The last word wobbled, a strong sob seeping from Kitty's lungs.
"Mrs. Forman, don't cry!"
"Donna, it's Kitty now, and I'm only crying because I'm…so…happy!" She pulled a handkerchief from her purse and dabbed her eyes.
"When I'm happy, I like to smile," Midge said.
"Well, I won't keep you, honey. I just wanted to come and see you and tell you how much I love you, and how I know that Eric has been dreaming about this since the first day he saw you, and that he'll be a good husband, and someday a good father, and Red and I will always be there if you need us to babysit or mow the lawn…or fix your sink because Eric's not very mechanical!" Burrowing her face into her handkerchief, she blew her nose. "I'll see you out there."
"Can you believe her?" Laurie asked the air.
"I know!" Brooke answered. "She thought this was mine. Take it back, you tramp!"
Donna took deep breaths, forcing the tears in her eyes to go back wherever they came from. She couldn't cry on the one day she chose to wear mascara. Kitty, my mother-in-law, she smiled. My mother-in-law that sort of just recited Eric's vows to me. Eric her husband. Eric the father of her children. She bit her lip, wishing it were time to leave this cramped room, leave all these girls, and go be with her favorite Lost Boy, the one that actually found her.
"Hey, are you ready to go?" Jackie asked her, looking into her eyes.
"Yeah," was all she could whisper. With a shaking hand, she grabbed Jackie's and crossed into the lobby, a heavy oak door the only thing blocking her from Eric. About to faint when she saw it was being pushed from the other side, she sighed when it was her father.
"Okay, the boys have the aisle runner down and are right behind me," he said, dabbing his own eyes with his own handkerchief. "You really do look beautiful, pumpkin."
"Thanks, Dad."
"I've always told you I never wanted to do this, that I wanted you to be my baby girl forever, but Donna, I have wanted this for you. I was hoping it would be Eric ever since you told me you loved him."
"Thanks." If she said anymore, she would burst into tears herself. How could anyone tell her dad what she wanted to tell him without crying? That he'd been a perfect gentlemen to her mother while she was here, that he hadn't gone all fatherly on Eric's ass, that he put up with Jackie demanding that, as the bride's father, it was his duty to place little mints onto a lace doily and tie a navy blue ribbon around it to make a wedding favor? That he'd been the most supportive father she could have ever had?
"You don't have to say anything, pumpkin. I know it."
"Someone turn that music off!" she shouted back behind her as the groomsmen took their places, Laurie and Fez first, then Brooke and Kelso, and then Jackie would walk down, followed by Betsy, all of them making their way towards Hyde and Eric.
Really need it
Really need your love
Just then I heard a poundin' on the wall
We're all there, sang the voice of twenty more
I drink to you alas
We'll take a drink and break the glass
Celebrate, celebrate, celebreak it
We are the Critical Mass
Time and space is takin' me away
Time erase, don't know the time of day
The same note played over the organ again and again before the Bridal Chorus, the oak door opened, and the first person Donna saw was Eric, looking right at her with his jaw dropped.
Suddenly, she couldn't force the tears to stay in her eyes anymore.