AN: I don't want to forget some of the characters in the show, Laurie being one of them. Sometimes a person has to hit rock bottom and pray it doesn't kill them before they can get up.
Chapter 24
Before they knew it Christmas was here, Fez had still been keeping away, afraid he wouldn't be able to keep his secret. He had talked to Laurie the night before and she was doing much better and had been and had been grateful for Fez's help, she had decided her parents deserved to know what had happened and that she was going to be OK. He had been able to talk to Jackie when she stopped by and let her know that Laurie was going to call the Foreman's Christmas Eve, he would be by after the phone call, he didn't want them to know he had been helping Laurie, and been in contact the whole time. Jackie was to do her best to make sure both Foremans was home at the time.
Kitty had worked the morning shift at the hospital, Red had closed up his shop for the week and Eric and Steven opened Grooves for a few hours for anyone needing to buy a last minute record for someone. Jackie was left alone putting last minute touches on the food for the party that night and getting lunch ready for when everyone came home. She had went upstairs to get Steven's Christmas present that she had hidden in the corner of her closet, she had already noticed a box under the tree to her from Steven. Not really wanting to disturb Red she made her way to the basement, they hardly went down there anymore, it was more likely they would all be upstairs talking and hanging out. This house had become her home long before she moved in a few weeks ago, this is where Steven snuck her in and she stayed with him when her mother was gone and her dad had been arrested. She wished her mother never returned after that, she hoped that now the house was gone she would stay away for good this time. Before she realized what she was doing she had found her way to Steven's room, a room she hadn't been in since before she left for Chicago. She was waiting on him to come back from going out with the guys in this room, she figured then she would at least let him know about the baby and that she was going to Chicago, maybe he could ride with Michael when he would go visit Betsey and he could visit his kid. But then he was late, she ended up over at Donna's right before Eric showed up, Donna had been too happy that Steven was going to tell her no and rubbed it in, Eric had told her he was passed out in the back of the warehouse. After Chicago she slept here waiting on his return, she slept in a different shirt of his each night. She thought she hid her morning sickness those few weeks well, she hung out with Kitty in the kitchen learning to cook and helped Red do some work of the Vista Cruiser. This became more of a home and she had a mom and dad to look after her. And then Steven came back and before they had a chance to really talk, before she could blurt out that she was having his baby Sam showed up. She couldn't come in that room after that, knowing that is where he slept with who he thought was his wife.
But here she was sitting on his cot, she noticed no sign of the stripper anywhere in the room, she did notice a pair of black boots in the corner, she couldn't remember him having any other pair of boots since the day they went shopping and she bought that pair of boots for him that day. She was still sitting there staring at the boots when Steven came down the stairs looking for her. His heart was racing when he realized she was in his room, the thought of her finding the boot box, or more so the small ring box in the boot box. She never heard him call for her, when he stopped in the doorway and looked at her, she didn't have a boot box in her hand but a pair of black boots.
"Jacks"
Finally snapping up she looked up, "You're home, lunch is ready" She got up and dropped the boots on the floor and headed over to the door. But Steven stopped her from walking out.
"Why were you holding the boots?"
"I had never seen them, I don't know I guess I got lost in memories down here, after next week this won't be my home anymore, and it really was the only place I ever felt at home, and then before I knew it I was in here. I slept here for weeks waiting for you, slept in a different shirt of yours everynight"
He led her to the cot and sat down and brought her to his lap, "Thanks for doing that by the way" Jackie turned and looked at him with an eyebrow raised "My cot had your smell, as did my shirts, what did you wear them and put them back in the drawer?"
She couldn't help but blush, "Yes, they still had some of your scent so I didn't want to wash them. Where did those boots come from" she pointed to the black boots.
He hated to go back to that time in his life, how much he hurt her. "Vegas"
"Why?"
He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, When I finally stopped aside from getting gas on the way I was at a motel outside of Vegas, I didn't bring much with me as far as clothes, and you know I only had the one pair of boots that you bought me, I saw the boots and thought of you, and well then I didn't want to think about you. I realized I had been wearing these boots since you bought them for me, I had been wearing them when I got arrested for you, when we went on that first date, too many memories of you flooded my mind when I looked at them. So I bought the black ones the next day, had thoughts of chucking the boots over the Hoover Dam but couldn't bring myself to do it, so I had them under the seat of the El Camino. That is where they stayed till I found them after I got home, I stashed them under the cot. I was wearing the black boots when I went into the pond after you, Fez must have pulled the boots out from under the cot and brought them to me in the hospital."
"Well they are probably dry now" her voice sounded small and sad
"Yea but they don't hold any good memories, I need to chuck them. I don't want to keep those memories anymore"
"Who knew you could keep objects because of memories?"
He motioned for her to get up so he could get up, as she sat back down on the cot he reached under the cot, if she thought it was something for him to keep the boots she bought him before they started going out, she wasn't ready for what he had for her.
"Speaking of memories, well Sam and I may have slept in here, but that is all we did, I couldn't be with anyone else in this room and I could never be with her sober, I am sorry for not staying and hearing you out, for wanting to throw away what we have been to each other over the last two years. And maybe to show you how much you have meant to me, you should look at this" He handed her the boot box, he had taken the ring out and left it under the bed for now.
Jackie looked at the box, it was the box the boots she bought him was in, she opened it and was hit with a flood of memories, memories going back longer than 2 years, their prom picture, silly little gifts she got him when she had a crush on him after he helped teach her zen. Notes she gave him when they were school together, Valentine's day cards. The flower from that Valentines dance she wore in her hair, they had went back to her house that night, everything was too sad at the Foreman's with Kitty's dad having passed away earlier that week. That was their first time, and that next morning Steven asked where her mom was, the night before he hadn't taken noticed he couldn't notice anything but her. They had their second fight when it was discovered that her mom hadn't returned like she said she had and she was alone in the house. It ended with her packing some of her things to take over and sneak into Steven's room.
She had been sitting there holding that flower staring at it, "Yea I pocketed that while you was packing your stuff, I put it in the box and then I had to hide the box. I am surprised you never found the box before, especially when you redecorated in here"
Laughing at that memory she looked over and noticed the lavender scented candle, "You still feel like Laura Ingalls?" she couldn't help but tease.
He just smiled back at her, then they heard the phone ring upstairs and then Kitty scream 'Laurie'
"Wow I wonder if she is calling to let them know she is coming home for Christmas? Are we going to have to move down here till we move?"
Jackie knew that wouldn't be the case but figured she could let him in on Fez's secret, now that Laurie had finally called her parents, "OK you have to keep this a secret, but Laurie isn't going to be coming home for a few months"
"How do you know?"
"this is part that you need to keep secret, Laurie is in a rehab facility in Chicago, I know because Fez told me, she came close to dying of an overdose and well Fez was contacted as her next of kin"
"I thought they divorced?"
"Yea they never signed or turned in the papers or whatever, anyway Fez helped her get into a rehab and has been visiting her and keeping in contact on the phone. He told me she was going to be calling today, Red and Kitty are both upstairs right?"
"Yea, Eric was grabbing something to eat and watch TV or something. Why"
"My job was to make sure they were all here when she called, she is going to tell them what happened, but I think she is keeping the fact that it is Fez helping her quiet, they don't want to give Red a heart attack again."
"Yea I guess not, are they going to tell them eventually?"
"I think so, just try to ease everything over, we might need to go check on them, and I am getting hungry"
As they made their way to the kitchen Red was standing by the phone holding Kitty, for the first time they saw what looked to be tears in Red's eyes, Eric was sitting by the table with a shocked expression on his face. The couple looked around trying to have a questioning look on their face as if they didn't know what was going on. "Did I hear that Laurie called?" Jackie broke the silence, she wasn't prepared to see them take the news like they were, she didn't know what she expected. Steven didn't know what to expect either, he had seen them go through Red's mother dying and Kitty's father dying, but it was never like this. Steven looked around and saw the preparations Kitty and Jackie had been working on for tonight's party. Could they go on with a party tonight? Eric was looking around still taking everything in and noticed the party food, in a few hours his friends and such would all be crowding the house, were they ready to handle that?
"Do you want me to call my friends and such and tell them not to come tonight?"
Jackie was getting worried, did something go wrong? Was that not Laurie on the phone but someone calling to tell her she did OD and die this time? "What happened?"
Finally Red spoke up, "Apparently after Laurie left here this last time she got involved in some serious drugs, she almost died of an overdose, she has been in a rehab for the past month, she was finally able to call and let us know and let us know she is alright and will be home in February." He finally made his way with Kitty to the table to sit down.
Steven looking at the people he considered parents, he put his hand on Red's shoulder, "Jackie and I can let everyone know not to come over if you want?"
"No we need people here, we need the distraction, we could have lost our daughter but we didn't, she is going to be alright and we have little Betsey coming over to be spoiled by her godparents."
Kitty looked at her husband, for the first time he wanted the house full of people, she knew that Betsey was a big reason. He had even went shopping with her after they found out what Jackie and Steven had got her and got dolls to go with the doll house and furniture. Red helped Steven put it together the night before and put it under the tree. Before going to bed he talked about when they got Laurie a doll house and he put it together for her, and how he missed Laurie and wished she would call.
"It's going to be a long night, Red lets go up and take a nap before we have to get up prepare for everyone to get here"
Once the older couple left Jackie and Steven joined Eric at the table, Steven having grabbed two bowls of soup for him and Jackie, she might not feel like eating right then but she needed to. Jackie had sat beside Eric and grabbed his hand, "How are you doing?"
"Honestly I don't know. I know at times I hate my sister, a lot of it is how she treated mom and dad, and even my friends, she treated Michael like a boy toy, she rubbed their relationship in your face, she always treated Steven like dirt, but she was still my sister"
"Hey I dished it right back to her, and I never drooled over her like our other guy friends, she's my sister too, we just have always had a twisted relationship" Jackie and Eric both laughed.
Jackie looked at Eric "She is going to be OK, you are not going to lose your only sister"
He looked up at her and smiled, "No, now I'll just have two of you to deal with" he gave her a wink, "It just reminds me of how much not saying things came tear at you, or saying the wrong things could eat away at you. Like I don't remember what my last words were to Laurie, but I am sure they weren't nice, sort of like my grandma. What if the last thing you say to a person is the LAST thing you say to that person?"
"Ok boys, I love you both, one more than the other, but I think Kitty has the right idea with a nap, this little guy is wearing me out" Jackie got up and put her dish in the sink, once she had the bowl in front of her she ended up inhaling her soup.
Eric feeling better with Jackie's comment, "So which one do you love the most?" She didn't answer just gave him a hug and Steven a kiss on the cheek.
Steven looked at his brother, "You going to be OK?"
"yea I guess, just sometimes I miss the sweet sister she could be at times, last time we really got along was around the time we were graduating, do you know she had came back to see us graduate?"
"then she leaves us in the woods to run off and marry Fez and we all miss the graduation, man that trip truly sucked, along with most of that summer"
"Dad's heart attack, me deciding to stay home, I wish now I had forced Donna to go to school, ended the madness sooner"
"I wish I never met that one chick, it was bad enough what I had done to Jackie by cheating on her, but why did I stop fighting for her and waiting for her?"
"You realize that was one of Donna's feminist friends?"
"You don't think she set it up to crush Jackie when she was telling me she chose me?"
"Honestly I didn't think anything of it at the time, but I got to thinking about it later, and I don't think, I know. She sent her in there when she knew that Jackie was there with you, and you did just what she wanted by going out with the girl, she told me later she hoped you finally wised up, she liked her better than Jackie. God she was a bitch, and I was too stupid to see it."
"I wonder if she has opened her Christmas present yet?"
"What Christmas present?"
"Jackie and I bought her a book, try to remind her that her life dreams was to travel and write. I gave it to Bob to put it in with the box he was sending her."
"Wow that either one of you would bother with a present to her, you guys are bigger people than I have ever given you credit for"
"I don't know, the more I find out the more I regret it now. I guess we just wait and see what happens"
"Well lets clean up here and do what we can to get ready for tonight, after today I am hoping the rest of the night is drama free, unless we can get Fez drunk and in a dress"
"sounds like a plan"