AN: Sorry it is taking longer to get these last chapters out. I hope to finish this up soon, I have ideas of what I want to happen and such just trying to find the time to write has been difficult. I know I still want to go back and finish my other story but I have vowed I want to finish this one first.
Jackie was going around making sure everything was ready for her and Steven's extended weekend getaway. Things were going great with the magazine and they were going to a cabin a little north of Milwaukee, the one thing that Jackie insisted was that there was at least a phone so they could be reached if something happened with one of the babies. She was still nervous leaving them, but Red and Kitty was there to stay with Donna while they were gone to watch the babies. Angie had offered to come stay and help Donna but Kitty insisted she would come watch them. Surprisingly Red jumped to agree, he had really started to bond with both of the babies. He understood that the couple needed this time.
Steven opened the door for Red and Kitty, handed James to Kitty as he went back out with Red to get their luggage for the weekend. As they were grabbing the suitcases, Red stopped Steven, "Just remember what happened last year around this time, you might not be ready for another baby or two in nine months. Just enjoy time with her and use this time to talk." Steven couldn't help but lift an eye brow at the man that hid all emotions, not something he would expect from him. "Look I might not talk to you and the other dumbasses, but I do talk to Kitty, and that is best done in private. You two don't have a lot of private time right now. Right now you have Donna living with you, but as the twins get older the privacy will at times seem nonexistent. Why do you think I was always wanting everyone out of my house? I wanted time with Kitty."
Steven didn't know what to say to that, but oddly enough he understood. He was looking forward to just being alone with Jackie, something they really haven't had much of since they had worked things out. He wondered how they were able to work things out without being alone. Then it hit him, he didn't care who was around all that mattered was Jackie. He just hoped this weekend helped them and didn't make things worse for them.
Jackie was having her own internal struggles with leaving. Kitty came in carrying James, he had gotten fussy earlier and Steven had been trying to calm him down when the Foreman's showed up.
"Hey are you ready for your weekend away?" Kitty asked in her usual cheerful voice.
Jackie closing the suitcase for a final time looked up with a sad expression, "I don't know if I can leave them" She said as she looked at her son in Kitty's arms.
"Dear you know how much I am attached to my kids, but I love Red and cherish the time we get to spend alone with him. You are not leaving your babies, you are strengthening your relationship with their father. I hope that one thing you kids have learned from Red and I are that we might bicker and fight at times, but we do love each other and we have been each other's strength to get through the difficult times we have faced.
It was a bit later the couple finally got into the El Camino for the drive to the cabin. What WB had let Steven know was he had recently bought the cabin, thinking family getaways, and just when one of them needed to get out of the city. WB had sent someone up earlier to get the place heated and ready for Jackie and Steven's arrival. He had even went and had the kitchen stocked for groceries for the extended weekend stay. The couple once they got to the cabin wouldn't have to venture out if they didn't want to. They had also made sure to check the weather to make sure they wouldn't be stuck in a snowstorm and stuck up there. So far it seemed like it was going to be a mild winter. With new twins that was a blessing.
They pulled up to the cabin, it was huge compared to what they were expecting, they would have questioned being at the right place had not a "Grooves Cabin" sign not been by the front door.
"Wow this makes my parent's old ski cabin look like Kelso's uncle's ice shack." Jackie said as she took in the view of the cabin.
"Yea, dad said he bought a cabin big enough for everyone to come to at some point. Said it will be a great place to be in the summer with the lake right over there. I think he is wanting us to have Fourth of July weekend here or something. He even has set up a room for the twins from what he said."
"So we could have brought them?" Jackie said missing her babies.
Steven took and turned to her, "I know I miss them too, but this weekend is to be about us. Is this OK or should we have gone to a hotel or something?" He got nervous that this might not have been the best idea, maybe she would have been more comfortable in the city with restaurants.
"No this is fine, not like I would want to have to walk the city or something to get food or anything, this is better." Jackie looks around, "I guess it is just I have gotten use to the babies and everyone around…I do want to spend time with just you."
"Well I am sure after a few hours you are going to be bored of me and appreciate having Donna. I mean we won't have a drunken naked Fez to gross us out."
They ended up just sitting on the couch in the main part of the cabin, a fire had already been started in the fire place.
It was warm and cozy and they just got comfortable as he held her. "At least you are not crying this time."
"I was so stupid to keep going back to him." Jackie said regretting all the times she let Michael Kelso break her heart.
"I can't argue there, but I would have to say that it worked out. I mean it kept you and I around each other, even if I wasn't ready for you all those times before, I am glad you kept coming to me."
The stayed like that talking about the time at the cabin, when they went shopping, prom and other times that they seemed to be together. Finally they got up and checked out the kitchen, the two decided on what they wanted and started working together in the kitchen, something they really hadn't had a chance to do before.
"I am so glad your cooking skills have improved." Steven told her as they started to put the food on the table.
"Well my aunt helped me some and Mrs. Foreman also took time to help me, I think it would have been my last time if I didn't get it right, but I was more determined than I was before. I will say back in high school I think I made things more complicated than they should have been, and was more distracted."
They ate they joked about her former bad cooking skills. They cleaned up and readied for bed, it was very domestic feeling something they had both watched at the Foreman's most of her teen years.
This was in her heart what she saw last year for their future when she was begging him to see something, she couldn't help the melancholy that came over her in the middle of the night. They had a wonderful night, but out of habit waking up at the time to the babies she had woke up. It took a bit before she realized she wasn't at home and the Foreman's was with Donna watching James and Sarah. She let out a breath and got out of bed and pulled on her robe, looking over where Steven was still sleeping. He normally woke if he heard the babies crying, or if she poked at him to wake him up, otherwise he slept.
She had the life she wanted, but still had fear of how long it would last. She thought back to her relationship with Steven, they had been together on and off for a little over 3 years, but it was never good for a year straight, and those times they were off was some of the most painful times of her life. Would they make it for the long haul? Not all marriages work out, her parents were proof of that. How would either of them coming from crappy dysfunctional homes be able to make this work out? They had never gone a year straight without breaking up, how were they going to manage the rest of their lives? How would the twins handle if something happened and they broke up? Should she have just stuck with her original plan, where they wouldn't know their parents together so it would be normal for them to be going back and forth? She could feel the start of a panic attack happening, something she hadn't had in several months. She sat on the couch pulled a blanket over her and started her breathing exercises her doctor in Chicago had taught her to calm herself down.
Steven had rolled over in his sleep and went to hold Jackie but the absence in the bed woke him up. He looked around the room and noticed it empty, he laid there for a bit thinking she might have just gotten up and went to the restroom, but when he heard heavy breathing and crying from the living room he got up in a flash yanking on his sweatpants he had on the floor and made his way to the living room to see Jackie curled up on the couch in a state he had never seen her in before and wondered if he needed to call for an ambulance.
"Jacks? Baby, what is wrong?" he said as he sat beside her and pulled her close. "Jacks you are scaring me, do I need to call an ambulance?"
In almost a whisper of a voice not normally thought of from Jackie, "Did we make a mistake? Can we actually do this long term?"
"Jackie where is this coming from?"
"We have been off and on for 3 years now, we have never been together for a year straight without something happening and breaking us up. Even this past year we have been apart more than we have been together, and now we have two babies in the mix when we break up."
Steven could feel his anger start to surface, she seemed to be counting on them breaking up. But as he thought about it, she had a point, but that didn't mean it would happen. Jackie needed reassurances right now, not a fight. Taking a deep breath, "Jacks I know our track record isn't the best, but we both made the choice to be with each other, we vowed to love each other and stick by each other in the good and bad times. Know that I won't ever just walk away from you again. I love you and hate that I was young and dumb and messed up so many times. We are not kids anymore, we both know from how we were brought up what doesn't work in a marriage. Basically we don't do the things your parents did, my mom and Bud did or even what Donna's parents did. And to be honest despite how much I like Bob in general…" Laughter erupted from both of them remembering the disaster of Donna's parents, that was not something anyone would expect in a small town in Point Place.
"I am sorry I got so worked up, I guess I just, I guess don't know if it will all last."
"Babe we both know nothing in life is guaranteed but we are going to do our damnedest to make the best life we can for each other and our kids. I am not going to give up and I hope you don't give up on us. We have the Foreman's to look to, honestly I see us much like them in years down the road. I am going to complain about all the dumbasses the twins bring home to hang out at our house and you are going to mother them all."
With those words a peace finally came over Jackie, that is what she wanted a house full of kids even if they were strays her kids picked up like Eric had done. She could totally Steven a lot like Red Foreman years down the road.
Somehow the weekend went by fast, the two just hanging out in the cabin, closed off to the rest of the world, aside from daily phone calls to check on the babies, and the babysitters. They didn't even turn the TV on despite the fact WB had even had cable hooked up. They talked about everything, and anything. The talked about eventually they may need to find something other than the condo. They decided it would be best to wait maybe a year or two before looking for something bigger, though with four bedrooms and Donna moving out soon it seemed strange to need something bigger. Maybe it was something they needed a different arrangement than the condo where two bedrooms were on one side and the other two on the other side. Jackie would rather have both twins when in separate rooms at least across the hall from them. They also talked about keeping the apartment in Point Place or not. They decided they would see how much time the actually spent in Point Place, but had a feeling that eventually it would be more of the Foreman's coming to Milwaukee than everyone traveling to Point Place. Out of the their friends, Fez was the only one that was still working and living in Point Place, along with Randy. But they knew it was only a matter of time before Randy relocated to Milwaukee for Angie. Fez they all felt would eventually move too especially since Kelso and Brooke had been talking about relocating to a suburb outside of Milwaukee. Brooke is looking at library positions and Kelso was looking for security guard positions, deciding he wasn't meant to be a police officer and could still wear a uniform as a security guard, and now only wanted to impress Brooke.
Both were glad they had taken the long weekend away. They both needed to talk through many of the things they covered and just spend time alone. But the couple was looking forward to getting home to their babies. Donna and the Foreman's all could tell that the time away did the couple good.
"So did the cabin make Kelso's uncle's cabin look like an outhouse?" Donna asked after the Foreman's had left and the couple had settled snuggled on the couch with the babies.
"That cabin made my parent's cabin look like an outhouse and Kelso's a pile of sticks." Jackie answered remembering the time that Michael Kelso tried to impress her taking her to his uncle's ice shack, that ended with them having to walk quite a way back home after the van that had been parked on the ice fell through.
The couple shared with Donna how nice the cabin was, the bedrooms, the huge kitchen and family room along with the views that would look great this summer overlooking the lake.
The following week went by and Donna could tell there had been a change in the relationship of Steven and Jackie, something she was surprised to see, but happy. It was like things were going better than they ever had been. She was really starting to feel like she needed to move and to move soon. She couldn't wait for Eric to be home next month. She would next weekend start to get the apartment ready. It was time for her to be on her own, even for a few weeks before she flew to New York with Steven and Jackie to meet Eric. They would have a week of sightseeing and work related meetings. It would be interesting since they decided that they couldn't leave the babies for a week and would be bringing them with them. WB and Angie both decided they would also join the trip as there would be a lot of music news to get and apply for Grooves all the way around, and to also help with the babies. WB had decided to go all out and charter a private plane for them to make sure his grandbabies had full comforts in their first flight. They all thought it funny how WB acted around the twins, it was like he was in competition with Red over favorite grandpa and the twins were only a few months old.
Donna was startled when a phone call came in, Bon Scott of ACDC had been pronounced dead at 33 years old. Working in music this was big, a death of lead singer for a pretty popular band.
WB stepped into her office, "Hey you are going to be on standby to get the story on Scott. Details are going to be leaked right and left, but I want a story that can put the whole thing in perspective."
Donna could only shake her head, and then thought of her friend and how he might be taking the news, "Have you talked to Steven? I know it isn't one of his favorites, but still I know he did have them on his play lists."
"He is in shock, but Jackie is with him. Honesty taking this one harder than Edna's death, of course the rumors are already starting if he killed himself, or drugs."
"Then there is what happens with the band."
"All things you might want to look into. You did get a passport when I suggested right?"
"Yea," Donna wasn't sure where he was going with this and if it was something she was looking forward to.
"I might have you fly out to England if we can set up with interviews with the band, won't be right away and will try to work it out maybe after you finish this semester, or if you have weekend to get it done. Might not be till after our New York trip. I don't want Grooves to be looked at as a rag mag with celebrity gossip, I want to report the facts and the feelings of those affected. I already talked to Jackie about it, we need to watch how we go about this story, it might set the way other artist and bands see us in getting other stories in the future. Hopefully it won't be as bad as this, but who knows."
Donna was excited to be the one trusted with this story, but to leave even if only a few days and possibly right after Eric got back was a lot to take in. But she knew she couldn't pass this up.
A week later Jackie rolled over in the middle of the night to find Steven's side empty. She knew something had been bothering him most of the day, but he never would talk to her and let her know what was going on. He had left work to go to an AA meeting meaning Angie gave her and the babies a ride home. Jackie got up and grabbed her robe when she noticed there was no light from the bathroom, so he must be in another part of the condo. She went to check on the babies if one of them cried and he heard before she did would be a miracle. She was startled slightly to see Steven sitting in the rocking chair in the room just watching the babies sleep.
"Did they cry and I not hear them?" She asked as she went over to check on them in their cribs.
"No I just couldn't sleep and just wanted or needed to be in here to watch them."
"Babe something is wrong, what is it?" Jackie asked kneeling down in front of him.
"I guess after hearing what caused Bon Scott's death, I just was thinking of that stupid night in the warehouse, how easy it could have been to drink that much. How stupid I was for drinking that much and how it could have killed me and kept me from all this." He said gesturing to her and the sleeping babies, the pulled her to his lap. "I know you wouldn't have done this completely alone, but I don't want to miss out on any of this. I look back and don't know how I even started down that path where I was becoming like Bud and Edna. It makes me sick to think about. When I turned 18 Red talked to me and helped me see I could pick my own path in life, I didn't have to follow theirs, and yet somehow I found I was going down the same path. It was like if I tried I could hear Edna's voice telling me I was going to fail, I would end up just like my old man."
Jackie got up and situated herself in his lap and put her arms around him and he held her in his lap. "Babe the irony of it all is while Edna tried to get in your head that you would be like your father, it isn't the father she always hinted at you have turned out to be. Bud was really never your father and you are a lot like the two men that own that role. I believe that Red Foreman stepped in that place of father to you long before you even moved into his basement. And WB, well as soon as he heard about you never questioned it. You two might have gotten off to a rocky start, hell I even went off on him when we first met, but he loves you as a father should, he has stepped up. So if you end up like your 'old man' be it Red or WB, you will be the man I always knew you could be, the man I saw you turning into long before you saw it yourself."
The two sat there in silence, Steven going over what all Jackie had said. He would never understand Edna and her parenting skills or lack of. Why she had kept him to make his life miserable was beyond him. Last year he had made the decision never to face Bud, he wasn't his father and even when he could have been he left, when he did come back in his life it was for the little money he was earning at the photo hut at the time. WB had said something to him back about when Bud was to have court dates, but he asked that he not be told anything because he could care less what happened to him. Jackie was right when it came to the men that were his father, Red Foreman had been in that role longer than he could really think. Despite all the verbal complaints the man would say, he actually showed he cared about the kids that hung out in his basement, especially himself since they were kids. Red actually was the one that taught him to drive when he was teaching Eric, even helped him get his license and let him use the Vista Cruiser to test in. Red was the one that helped set him up with Kitty for dance lessons and was the first man to talk to him like an adult. If he turned out like Red Foreman as a father his kids would be lucky. He just hoped the twins proved to be better than Laurie, who could understand how she had turned out the way she did with parents that were like the Foreman's. He would have understood if Laurie had Edna as a mother. Was parenting a crapshoot? He and Jackie had turned out OK despite the parents they came from, he figured all they could do was the best they could, and love them unconditionally just like the Foreman's loved Laurie.
"Babe let's go back to bed" Steven nudged Jackie to get up so they could make their way back to the bedroom.
The next morning Jackie got up and was fixing breakfast before anyone else woke up. She then went and got the bottles for the babies ready for when they woke up. She made the way to the nursery as Sarah was starting to stir, so she picked her up and went ahead and started to change her before grabbing James and doing the same with him. She was walking back into the kitchen holding both babies as Donna walked in.
"Hey want me to take one?" Donna asked as she walked into the kitchen.
"Sure" Jackie handed Sarah over to her, James was already slightly becoming a momma's boy, she had noticed but didn't think anyone else had. He seemed to settle more for her than anyone else.
"I am trying to figure out the questions to be asked for the story on Bon Scott and ACDC, I don't know. Just not been a fan to bring myself to care. Not sure what to ask."
"Donna you have to think outside of the box, what if it had been a band you loved? What questions would you want answered? I am afraid this will be something that happens often, I mean how many have already died in the music world too early. I mean look at the plane crashes that have taken several way too young, even Elvis died before his time. Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison the list may keep growing."
"Wow you have a point, writing in music isn't always going to be all that great. I mean bands break up for one reason or another, and then like you said so many have died before now. I think I understand what you are saying."
"Not to put a lot of pressure on you, and WB may have mentioned it already, but this story could be the one that sets the tone of the magazine from here on out, are we going to be a gossip rag for the music industry or a legit respectable magazine that gets to the heart and soul of the stories? Donna I have all the faith in you for this story, I also have a feeling that this will be what sets off your career before you finish school."
Donna sat there and complicated what Jackie said, how this story comes out could be the making or breaking of her career. She loved music, it was part of what helped get her from office girl to Hot Donna while in high school. This was going to be first story she was literally going to pour her heart into. She knew the gossip rags that lined the checkout lines of the grocery stores and such were heartless could care less about the hurt parts of their story could do to others. "I think I understand what you are saying, and I think I have an idea of how to approach the story to start. I also think as I go further into the story I may need to be able to adjust my approach."
About that time Steven walked into the kitchen, he kissed the babies and Jackie before going and fixing a cup of coffee. "Is breakfast ready?"
"Yea, if you want to get the swings in here James and Sarah can sit in there while we eat." Jackie suggested.
Steven went to grab the swings then took Sarah from Donna while Jackie put Sarah in the other swing.
The trio then went about eating their breakfast talking about plans for the day, Donna was still a little reluctant to pick out items for the apartment without Eric.
"Donna you know if you wait for him to pick out stuff you are going to be sleeping in Star Wars sheets, surrounded by his GI Joes."
"Seriously Jackie, I think Eric would do better than that." Donna said disbelieving her friend.
"Donna I went shopping with him remember? We started out in the bedding department, I thought it would be simple until he found full size Star Wars sheets and we argued for half an hour over registering for them. After that I needed a break from that and took him to the bridal store for his suit, and well that is when you guys showed up." Jackie said looking a little guilty. "Before he had seen the sheets things had been going great and I was able to manipulate him to just what I picked out."
Steven thought back to that day and Jackie in the wedding dress, he almost proposed to her right then and there but pulled himself together or at least that is what he thought at the time and carried her to the dressing room to change back into her clothes. He couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if he wouldn't have wussed out, where would they be? This was before the wedding that ended up not happening, before he found out Bud was not his actual father. How would the failed wedding of his best friends have affected his outlook on marriage? What about the fall from the water tower that led to meeting his dad? He was so lost in thought he didn't pay any attention to when the girls changed the conversation to the upcoming trip to New York and Eric coming home.
"STEVEN!" Jackie hollered at her husband to get his attention.
"Sorry what?" He finally snapped out of his thoughts.
"I was asking you what you thought of the twins coming with us?" Jackie said, she thought it strange that WB came in and changed up the plans for the New York trip including not only himself and Angie but the twins as well.
"Actually I had said something to dad about it, after we were gone for our extended weekend, I wasn't sure I wanted to leave them for a week. He then decided Angie and he come along and we could split all the meetings and he really wants to hear more in person about this new cable station that is in the works."
Jackie thought of what he said, she was looking forward to going to New York, but she had hated the thought of leaving the babies for a week, and had been afraid that it might be too much for the Foreman's to watch them that long. "Ok, you know I am excited about going but hated leaving them for that long too, just didn't know how we would be able to take them. Now what were you thinking so hard about that you didn't hear me the first couple times I called your name?"
"Just remembered you in that wedding dress, I was so mad at Donna and you and then forgot it all when I saw how beautiful you looked." He figured he wouldn't tell her the rest, there was no reason to go back and wonder what if.
"See I knew you wanted to marry me back then, and I was right." She leaned over and pecked his lips as she got up and started clearing the table.
Donna could see they needed alone time and needed to get ready to go out, she had told Jackie she would go ahead and do some shopping by herself, making sure to pick out bedding first thing. She was starting to feel that she was an intruder on the couple's family time.
Steven checked and the twins were still content in their swings, so he started to help Jackie.
"One thing I am going to insist we have when we move is a dish washer, with bottles and everything this has been great to have. Plus it has been a timesaver so I am not always washing dishes and bottles, have more time with you and the babies."
She turned to him "So what do you want to do today?"
"Honestly I wouldn't mind just staying home with you and the two munchkins, maybe a nap or other things." He reached for her and kissed her.
"Does that mean I can just go with sweats and no bra all day? No dressing up?"
"You know that it is how I like you best, no one is supposed to stop by today and Donna's going to be gone. Pretty soon it is going to be just us all the time." He led her to the couch.
Jackie giggled, "Do you think that was why Red was always complaining about us being in the house all the time, he wanted alone time with Kitty?"
"Not sure if you remember but that was not an issue when he got the go ahead to have sex again after his heart attack. OK I think Kitty kicked us out that day."
Later that night Donna came home happy to have most of her shopping done. She noticed the babies were already in pjs for bed. "Hey little guys going to bed early?"
"No we just had a stay in day, did laundry and a few other things, just figured why dress up if staying in."
"Kind of like when Eric would stay in all day." Donna joked.
"Um no, unlike when Eric would do a lazy day we did at least bathe," she stopped at that, no need to tell Donna the details of her bath with her husband while the twins napped, something she hoped happened more often when they had the house to themselves.
Donna noticed something in the expression in Jackie's face after what she said as if it was bringing back a memory of something that she probably would be best not knowing. She wonders what it will be like when her and Eric are finally living together. What would their lazy days be like? Things had been so crazy busy since Eric left, moving around with Jackie, helping her with doctor appointments, moving to Milwaukee and working at Grooves and starting school, she really hasn't had a lazy day to herself in a long time. As she thought about it, neither had Jackie, aside from the weekend getaway. The trip to New York wasn't going to be all fun and such, but had turned into a work trip, but she was looking forward to it, she was working for a music magazine, so work wasn't so much work. Even when she was working at the radio station back in Point Place it didn't seem like work, not like the way Red Foreman described work when he worked at the auto plant or when he worked at Priceless, though she can't remember him complaining too much about working at his muffler shop. Maybe it was the work that made the difference? So far she had been lucky to work in something she was passionate about. She wondered if Eric was going to be passionate about teaching?
She watched as the couple took and put the twins to bed and then came back and cuddled on the couch. It wasn't more than when Jackie would sit on his lap in the basement, but with just the three of them she was starting to really feel like the third wheel.
