Ch 3- "Not my night tonight"

"Is Eric coming inside?" Joey asked.

"In a little bit. He's very upset right now. Here's some money. Why don't you go try to win that gorilla your mom wanted?" she asked as she handed him some dollar bills. As he ran to the game room, Jackie just sighed and stared out the window. Eric never smoked in front of her; it was a habit that she hated that he had just picked up a month ago. But tonight, he was leaning against the glass on his second cigarette, not caring if Jackie saw or not.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded softly when he came inside.

"Donna didn't want you to know."

"How long have you known about this?"

"I don't know, Eric. Why don't-"

"Jacqueline Renee." She stopped again and froze. He had never called her that before, in all the years that they had known each other and fought, never once did he say her full name.

"Eight months. But Eric- I told you because you need to know!"

"Like I didn't need to know ten years ago!?"

"Twelve," she muttered.

"Twelve? That's great, that just great Jackie. You told me before that you would never lie to me, " he said as he turned to leave.

"Without me, you wouldn't know."

"What, like is this supposed to be a present?" he asked sarcastically.

"It should be! You have a child Eric! It doesn't matter whose he is, he's yours!"

"You don't get it Jackie. I've had a son for twelve years and not once, not once did anyone tell me. Then you find out. You're my best friend Jackie, I trusted you!! And you couldn't even let me know," he snapped as he backed away from her.

"Look, I'm sorry," she started.

"Have a nice life Jackie. Tell Donna thanks," he said as he walked out.

"Jackie?"

"What?" she sniffed, back turned towards him.

"Is that guy really my dad?"

She whirled around to see a confused Joey standing behind her. "And why are you crying?"

"Let's go sit down," she choked out as she led him to the table. He might as well know now she thought to herself. "When your mom and Eric were in high school, they dated..." she began.

"Who here knew I had a kid?" Eric bellowed as he walked in the house. There were two cars outside so he knew at least two people were there. He barged into the backroom and stopped like he hit a brick wall.

"Eric!!"

"Oh my God. Fuck!! This is not my night!!!" he yelled again as he ran out of the room with his eyes shut. He got back in the car and stopped. Where was he gonna go? He couldn't face Jackie again, but there was not way in hell he was going back in there. Look at it this way Foreman, at least Joey's good news he thought to himself as he sighed and started the car to double back to Charlie's.

"So mom and Eric almost got married? But he skipped out so they didn't."

"Yes."

"But then when he came back, they got back together."

"They were together for a long time again after that. In fact, they were going to try being married again. Then like two months before, Donna found out about you."

"Ok...so why didn't they get married? I mean that's what you're supposed to do."

Jackie smiled sadly at the thought. "Well instead your mom freaked and she left. Eric never knew why. All she said was she couldn't handle it anymore."

"But how come she didn't tell me!? Or him?"
"She probably thought I wasn't ready for a child," he answered as he appeared at their table.

"Eric!!" she exclaimed.

"Ok, let's not yell my name please," he said as he did a shudder from what happened last time someone yelled his name.

"What are you doing here?"

"Lack of better place to go."

Her face fell as he squeezed in next to her and he gave her a weak smile.

"I know you were doing what you thought right, but Jackie- next time I have a child, tell me!"

"Does this mean we're ok?"

"I guess. But..."

"You don't exactly wanna see me?"

"Yeah."

"Umm...so what do I call you?" Joey ventured across the table.

"You can call me Dad if you want, but I think we'll both feel better if you call me Eric."

"Yeah, "he agreed, nodding his head in relief. "But I still don't get it. Why didn't I know?"

"She didn't want you to go look for him. She told me she didn't want you to be let down," Jackie said quietly.

"I can't be that bad! Women almost married me damn near twice! And don't even get me started on how many-"

"Eric!! None of us need to know that. Even if some of us unfortunately do."

"Right, right."

"So what do we do now?" Joey asked.

"Well, let's all go back to my house. Steven would love to see you both, I'm sure."

"Umm...yeah. Let's not," Eric put in.

"And why not?"

"Donna's there."

"So what? Tell her to go to hell; no offense Joey," she said as they got up.

"I'm sure she will," Eric muttered softly.