Chapter Six- "I want you to want me..."
"Joey are you almost finished?" Donna asked impatiently as her son deliberately took his time eating his eggs.
"Why? Where do you have to go?"
"Work!!"
"Mom. It's 10:30...you're a little late," he smirked knowing full and well his mother hated to wait around places. "I'm almost finished," he finally conceded.
"Donna?"
She suddenly sat up and smoothed her clothes.
"Hi Hyde," Joey said as he munched.
"Hey Joey," he replied while staring at Donna. Joey looked back and forth between the two adults and excused himself to go to the bathroom. Hyde slid into his empty seat and tried again to start a conversation.
"How've you been?"
"Good, I've been good."
It had been five years since they'd seen each other and it was more than just a little awkward. Right when he got his divorce is when he stopped calling her. She was the reason he no longer had Jackie. He cut her off and had been doing good with that...until 10:30 at a Denny's.
"Listen Donna, I didn't mean-"
"It's ok. I get it. I ruined your marriage. Why would you want me around?" she laughed almost bitterly.
"It hurt ok? I lost Jackie and had no idea how to deal. I figured you'd remind me of her..."
"Don't worry, I'm fine," she said as she got up.
"Don't do this!" he called after her. All he got back was the tinkling of door chimes as she grabbed her son and left.
"Hello?" Jackie answered the ringing phone.
"Hi, is Joey there?" a girl asked.
"No I'm sorry. He's with his mom Caroline, he should be back later tonight," she replied.
"Oh ok. Thanks Mrs. Forman!"
"We're not-" she got out before she hung up. Jackie just sighed. She had stayed with Eric for a month or two before finally moving in. For the past five years she had been there and for the past three months, Joey's girlfriend seemed to think her and Eric were together.
"What's going on?" Eric asked as he came into the kitchen to get some coffee.
"Once again, we're married," she sighed.
Eric just laughed. "How many times is this now?"
"Like six."
He smiled as he kissed her good morning. "We should really get on it then," he said quietly wrapping an arm around her waist.
"You pig!" she screeched as she shoved him.
"Yeah you're right. You can't handle this," he replied.
He and Jackie had continued living together and surprisingly still got along. However, the general public seemed to think that the two of them were either together or married. And of course, that never happened. Jackie was closer to Eric than Laurie was and she was his biological sister!
"So what's on the agenda today?" she asked.
"Let's see. It's Saturday so that means go see my parents and pretend that they love me, rescue my son and then I think I'm getting together with Mike."
"Mike?"
"Yeah. Remember Kelso didn't want to be called by his last name anymore when he became a cop?"
"Michael?"
"Yeah. He called like a month or two ago out of the blue and I think we're gonna go get us a beer or something tonight," he answered as he walked out into the living room. "Why, you wanna come with?"
"No, I'm okay. Isn't he married now?"
"Uhh...not sure. You sure you're okay?" he asked again unsure.
"Yeah..."
"Ok," he said as he left for his parents.
Hyde looked around the Pinciotti's living room and smiled. There were pictures of Joey growing up scattered about and lurking behind everything, was an old photograph that caught his eye. He snagged a corner of a slightly bent photo and stared at it, a sad smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. It was a picture of all the group at Jackie's graduation laughing and smiling. Eric was holding Donna, Hyde was holding Jackie, Fez was lustfully looking at Jackie and Donna and Kelso was holding his daughter Betsy.
"Oh man, what happened to us all?" he muttered.
"Life happened to us all," Donna replied to him. "Why are you here?" she sighed as he turned around.
"Joey let me in. I wanted to see you Donna. Not because I feel bad for you or some other bullshit. Because I want to get back on track."
"Back on track? What would that be? Doing what we used to?"
"No. Listen Donna, we've known each other like our whole life. We're too old to fight. I wanna go back to the basement days."
"Hyde, I destroyed your marriage! I don't think we can go back," she said softly.
"Don't say that," he answered walking over and taking her hands. Donna looked at their hands and shook her head.
"I can't do this."
"What?"
"This! Us. I can't just be your friend with what we've done."
"I'm not asking to be your friend."
She once again just looked at him, not saying a word.
"Mom! It's time to go," Joey called as he walked into the room. But seeing his mom and Hyde, stopped. "I'll just...go back..." he mumbled backtracking out of the room. He had never thought about his mom and Hyde together. Sure he knew about what happened years ago, but then Hyde stopped coming around so Joey didn't even think about it anymore. But there they were in the living room, holding hands and looking each other in the eyes.
"I won't tell Jackie," Joey brought up in the car a half hour later.
"What? You still see her?" Donna asked, caught off guard.
"Yeah, Eric lives with her."
"Really?" she asked trying to keep the interest out of her voice.
"Yeah. She moved in like five years ago or something."
"Oh..."
"Nothing's going on Mom," he said quietly.
"I didn't say anything!" she said defensively. Joey just looked at her and sighed. He had no idea what was going on in his mothers head, but every time he said something about Eric and Jackie, she got real quite and he could see her wheels turning.
"Ok, so I'll see you on Wednesday?" she asked as she pulled up to Eric's apartment.
"Yup," he replied as he shut the door. She nodded and smiled before driving off. Joey watched her go and shook his head. When he turned thirteen, Donna gave him the choice to go live with Eric if he wanted because he would always complain he never got to see his father. So that was four years ago and Donna took him every other weekend. No court got involved or anything. In fact, for someone who "despises" Eric, as his mother put it, they worked together quite well.