"Eric, look! Those are gor-geous!" Jackie exclaimed excitedly as she squeezed his arm.

They were at the mall as they had both decided to take a half day off from work to spend time together. It had been a pleasant afternoon for the both of them, and both the mall and the shops were decked out festively and the jingle of bells could be heard at every turn.

Eric looked over to see what had gotten her so excited and smiled to himself as he spotted the attractive display at the jewelry store. It made quite a picture, as the display windows had gotten inspiration from nature, and a couple of sparkly earrings dangled from a small tree branch that was painted white in the spirit of winter. Several rings of the same design clustered around the base of the branch, each boasting a main stone of a different color, and Eric could pretty much only identify a green stone that he was sure was an emerald, and a purple one that he knew was amethyst because of the promise ring that he had suggested that Hyde get Jackie. The rest of the stones, one a deep red, another in a striking blue, and the last a golden-orange, he had absolutely no clue as to what they could be.

"Wanna go take a look?" he asked Jackie and she nodded her head eagerly. They moved closer to the store and Eric was mentally calculating if he was able to get her whatever it was that caught her eye when she pulled him past the sparkly displays without even a look in their direction to the handicraft store next to it.

It was an open kind of store, with no doors and no glass windows, and seated in front at the entrance on a three-tiered rack were rows and rows of pinwheels in many shapes and sizes.

But these weren't just your ordinary four-leafed pinwheels. They were Chinese pinwheels, and were so elaborate they looked more like mini Ferris wheels in a dizzying multitude of colors and patterns. The breeze from the overhead ceiling fan in the store sent them spinning like a shimmering circular rainbow and Jackie bounced about in glee next to him.

"Look. Look!" she breathed with her fingers clasped just before her face and her eyes transfixed. "Oh Eric, these are perfect!"

Eric was quite honestly, dumbfounded. He had no idea why in the world pinwheels were suddenly all the rage with her, but he was quite taken with the excitement in her eyes and her overall happiness.

"Mmmm, yes, they are," he said indulgently and slung an arm around her shoulders, hugging her to his side. They looked at the spinning wheels of color for several more seconds.

"We have to get them," she said decisively. "All of them."

He raised an eyebrow.

All of them? Wasn't that a bit excessive? Where was she gonna put them?

"Right," he said.

She grabbed a basket from the stack at the side and started filling them up with pinwheels.

Oh, so she was serious.

Eric took the basket from her and stood dutifully by while she collected all thirty on display. He frowned a little as he looked at the overflowing basket. He thought about her huge lawn at the mansion and thought that it would probably cheer the dreary place up a little. Her sudden obsession made more sense to him.

His felt a pang, and a sudden rush of love and affection for the beautiful girl by his side and leaned down to give her a lingering kiss that quite took her by surprise.

"You know that you'll never have to be alone again as long as I'm here, right?"

She looked a bit dazed from his kiss, but blinked at his words. "Yes?" she replied confusedly.

He kissed her again, lightly. He looked deep into her eyes. "I'll be here if you want me. Always."

"Oh Eric."

They were interrupted when the store clerk called them over to check out her items and a few minutes later they left the store with Jackie happily inspecting her purchases. They found a bench to sit on nearby as Jackie pulled out the biggest pinwheel and leaned into his side. She held it out in front of them and he spun it with a finger.

"God, the kids will love this," she breathed.

Eric shifted a little. "Kids?" he asked inquiringly.

She nodded and leaned up to kiss his chin. "Yeah, at your yard. Put, like, all of them around the yard, or clustered in a row at the edge. Imagine what it'll look like in the sun when the wind sends them all spinning."

Her eyes took on a faraway look as memory took her back to Africa. "It'll be beautiful, Eric. They'll love them. It'll be absolutely wonderful — I don't think they've ever seen anything like these before."

Realization dawned. Eric's arm around her tightened and the rush of love he felt earlier for her paled in comparison to what he was feeling now. He pressed a long kiss to the top of her head and inhaled the sweetness of her hair. "Those kids, huh?" he said, trying to keep his tone even.

She nodded and swiveled around, swinging her jean-clad legs up over his. "Yeah, imagine how happy they'll be."

She smiled at the thought and wished she could be around to see that. Maybe she would ask Eric to take a picture and send it back to her. Her smile dimmed a little at their uncertain future but she pushed it away, determined to stay in the warm fuzziness of the now.

"They'll love them," he agreed. "I'll tell them that Miss Jackie sent them along with her love."

Her eyes brightened and she hugged his waist. "That'll be great," she told him softly.

He glanced at his watch and reluctantly shifted her legs off his. "We gotta go if we wanna make it back in time for dinner. Mom told me seven, and we know how Red gets when he's hungry."

"You're sure Steven and Sam won't be around to join us?" Jackie asked him.

He nodded an affirmative. "Yeah. Mom said they're both hardly ever back before nine at night."

Jackie grasped his outstretched hand as he helped her to her feet. "Okay."

They made it back with time to spare and Jackie really enjoyed herself at dinner with Eric and his parents. It was their first meal together as a foursome, and she found that she could really get used to this. She felt part of a proper family for once, and it was something very special to her. Conversation flowed naturally, and Kitty was able to ask all sorts of questions about Africa, and Jackie finally found herself being able to share her experiences there openly with them, without feeling the familiar ache and pine, for Eric was right there by her side now.

Eric didn't speak much, except to add on to details she might have missed, or to correct a skewed version or two. It was clear that both Red and Kitty hungered for this part of their son's life that they had missed out on, and Jackie did her best to fill them in on the happy times, and as always taking great care with Eric's privacy and making sure to steer clear of anything related to events that she knew he would rather his parents know nothing of.

His pain was his own, and his suffering was his own, and it would do no service to his parents if they were to know of what he had gone through - Eric was firm on that, and Jackie understood it.

After dinner and the dishes had been cleared, they headed down to the basement, desirous of time alone in each other's company.

They turned the television on out of habit, but soon found that they were more interested in each other than the TV.

"I've been wanting to do this all day," Eric murmured as he trailed kisses along her jaw and down her neck.

"Really?" she asked breathlessly, and then giggled as he nuzzled the sensitive spot under her ear.

"Yeah, really." His hand slid up to cup the curve of her bottom and he squeezed gently. "And this too. Those jeans of yours are crazy tight. They've been driving me nuts all day."

"My jeans or..." she trailed off innocently as she wiggled her bottom in the palm of his hand.

He laughed softly, enjoying her playful mood. "What do you think?" he asked her sensuously, and gave her bottom another squeeze. His hand disappeared up under her top then, and trailed up her side, his thumb lightly tracing the lacy cups of her bra.

She shivered and her breathing quickened. He looked into her eyes, waiting for her to change her mind, but he saw nothing in them to discourage him. His own eyes darkened then, and his thumb slid down to brush across her nipple through the thinness of her bra. He played with it lazily under her top, then pushed up her bra and fastened his mouth where his thumb had been, laving at it through her top. She gasped and his other hand reached up under her sweater to massage her other breast.

Her breasts were incredibly sensitive, and he knew that, and he took his time with them. He missed this, he missed her, and soon he craved the feeling of her velvety skin in his mouth. She helped him raise her top up over her head, but they didn't bother with the bra, leaving it bunched up above her breasts. She groaned when his mouth fastened over her without the barrier of cloth in between and her legs naturally wrapped themselves around his waist as she clutched at his head with her hands.

He desperately wanted to go lower, to the core of her, but willed his mouth and hands to stay above her waist. He knew that she was still uncomfortable and guilty about their relationship as it was, and didn't want to make it harder for her. But it was so incredibly difficult to do so when she was making those sounds that got him harder each passing second, and was rubbing herself against the part of him that was already straining to be free from the confines of his jeans.

Africa had conditioned him, and what he had been through had sharpened his reflexes, for being taken off-guard had nearly led to his death before. And it was because of that that he was able to register unwelcome voices in the kitchen above, even when his senses were so thoroughly filled with the girl below him at the moment.

He pulled back from Jackie and for a brief, very brief, moment, debated whether it was preferable to just let Hyde find them this way. But there was that streak of honor in Eric, and besides Jackie's modesty that he would protect at all costs, there was also the guaranteed ugliness of the consequence in such a revelation to Hyde, and that, he would cut his own arm off to spare Jackie from ever going through.

"Babe," he told Jackie quietly, and his hands were already swiftly pulling down her bra to cover her breasts and groping for her discarded sweater. "Hyde's upstairs and will come down any moment."

His voice was carefully steady so as not to send her into a panic. Jackie's legs were still tightly wound around his waist, and it took her a moment to register what he was saying.

"Omigod!" she gasped and started pushing at his hands and grasping at her sweater only to find that Eric had already gotten it over her head. She shoved her arms through the sleeves and nearly caused serious injury to his manhood when she swung her legs violently off the couch. It was then that she noticed the obvious bulge in his crotch and gestured frantically towards it.

"How're we gonna hide that?" she whispered in a frenzy.

Eric grimaced, and grabbed a cushion from the lawn chair nearest the basement door. He nodded toward her red sweater where his mouth had been earlier and left a glaring wet spot above her nipple.

"I think we're gonna have more trouble hiding that."

"Crap! Crap! No no!"

He held out a hand to steady her, gently holding her chin in his fingers. "Relax, it'll be fine."

He sat her back down on the couch and pulled the scarf she had been wearing earlier from where she had left it behind the couch. He wound it around her neck and left the sides hanging to cover the spot.

"There, see, all good."

She glanced down and noticed that it was indeed all covered. Her eyes slowly lost that panicked look in them.

"Relax," he repeated. "It's okay, I'm here with you." He squeezed her hand and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. She gave him a shaky smile in return.

Hyde clumped down the stairs, dragging Sam along by the hand. Following in their wake was Randy and Donna.

"Great, looks like almost the whole gang is here," Eric said under his breath.

Jackie's barely-there smile turned brittle.

The foursome on the stairs didn't notice the couple on the couch at first, for they were arguing fiercely about something.

"You do not, ever invite your stripper friends and their clients over to my store. Ever!" Hyde fumed at Sam, nearly foaming at the mouth. "And you!" He spun around with his index finger pointed like a trigger. They reached the bottom of the stairs and he stuck that finger an inch from Randy's nose. "You! You do not follow any instructions from her! At all!"

"Come on, Hyde," Donna interjected. "It was good business."

"How is giving away free records good business?" Hyde asked nastily, frustration oozing from every pore.

"Okay, maybe not that part, but the strippers helped bring in customers?" she ventured, swiftly changing tactics.

Randy looked at her gratefully. "And come on, man," he said, turning to Hyde. "She said she was your fiancée, and how can I question my boss' fiancée?"

Donna nodded emphatically, like this was common knowledge.

Hyde's eyes shot open so wide Eric was certain they could've rolled onto the floor.

"What?!" he gasped, sounding so strangled there could have been a noose around his neck. "What?" he repeated, nearly choking with the preposterousness of the allegation.

Everyone, including Jackie turned towards Hyde with a frown.

"You mean, you didn't know?" Jackie asked unthinkingly from the couch.

"What! That I was engaged?!"

It was proof of how gobsmacked Hyde was that he didn't even question Jackie and Eric's rather rare appearance these days in the basement.

"Of course not! Because we are not engaged!" he yelled the last two words at Sam.

He suddenly seemed to notice something winking on the ring finger of her left hand. He seized the offending finger roughly. "What's that?"

"My engagement ring, baby," Sam said, looking confused as hell at events unfolding. "You were going to give this to me."

"What! No!"

Sam's expression darkened menacingly. "Yes!" she insisted, with a stomp of her foot. "I found it! And you can't take it back!"

Hyde was dumbfounded. He had no idea how Jackie's promise ring ended up an engagement ring on Sam's finger. His mouth opened and closed but he could barely force a coherent word past his lips. "I- You- I- Take it off!" he sputtered instead.

"No!" she retorted, shaking her head stubbornly.

Hyde made a sound like a strangled chicken and stalked off to his room. A second later, they heard his door slam.

There was a moment of silence before Sam burst into noisy tears. Before Jackie could react, she rushed across the room and was crying into Jackie's shoulder.

Stunned, all Jackie could do was to rub her back soothingly. "Er, don't cry," she said, exchanging a look with Eric. "I'm sure it's all a misunderstanding."

Eric leaned back into the couch and smirked. He recognized the ring on Sam's finger. "I'm sure," he echoed.

If he wasn't so amused with the entire situation he would have groaned at the added implications of Hyde's having kept that ring after all this time. Jackie had told him about Hyde's intention with the promise ring, and had even mentioned that she knew that he had suggested it to Hyde. But she had never seen the ring, so she was clueless as to what it looked like.

He wondered if he should tell her.

He was distracted from his thoughts when Donna and the tall blonde guy he had earlier surmised was Randy finally cleared the stairs and headed over to the couch. He found himself thanking Sam for the drama when he had to rid himself of the cushion on his lap and stand up to shake Randy's proffered hand.

"Hey, I'm Eric," he said by way of introduction.

Randy's smile seemed a little forced. "Randy Pearson. Donna's boyfriend," he said in a manner loaded with meaning.

Ah. That explained the somewhat tight grip he had on Eric's hand. "I know, I've heard about you for a long time."

"You have?" The grip on Eric's hand loosened a little.

"Yeah, of course, man. Donna's boyfriend. My mom loves you."

Randy suddenly found it slightly easier to breathe. He released Eric's hand and slid his arm possessively around Donna's waist. "Yeah, your mom's great," he said. He wasn't normally a competitive or possessive kind of guy, but something about Eric rubbed him the wrong way. "I built her sewing table for her," he added, pride in his tone.

"You did? Good for you," answered Eric easily. "I saw it, it's good work. The only thing I ever made in this house was—"

"—a birdhouse that you painted the hole on 'cos you were afraid of the saw," Donna finished with a smile on her face.

Eric looked at her in surprise. "You remember that?"

Donna shrugged and glanced at him before shifting her gaze to the ground. "Yeah, of course I do. And Red still has it. Though he calls it a useless piece of crap."

Jackie sat silently as Sam's bawls dwindled down to loud hiccups, keenly observing the interaction between Randy and Eric. Relieved that Eric showed no jealousy whatsoever towards Donna's boyfriend, her thoughts drifted to what Red would say if he saw how Eric handled an ax. Or what Randy's reaction would be to the elaborate yard Eric built with his bare hands for the kids in Africa. A sewing table seemed paltry in comparison.

She opened her mouth, determine to wipe the superior smirk off Randy's face when she caught Eric's look in her direction. His eyes warned her off and she blew out an exasperated breath.

"What was that?" Donna asked suddenly, looking between the two of them.

Jackie gave a start. She couldn't help herself, and now that she was assured that Eric didn't seem to harbor any lingering feelings for his ex, a million and one things that she should not be doing with her best friend's ex-fiancé flashed through her mind like a Rolodex. She frantically started sifting through which one Donna meant.

"What was what?" Eric interjected calmly.

"That. That look. You guys shared a look."

Sam ceased sniffling and started to take great interest in the turn of the conversation.

"Yeah, she was about to say something I would rather she didn't."

"Oh." Donna stepped away from Randy and took one closer to Eric. "H-how did you know what she was gonna say," she said, sounding odd. After all, Eric never learnt to read her that well through all their years together.

Eric looked at Donna patiently. "I've come to know Jackie very well."

"Oh," she said again. Her eyes followed Eric as he dropped down next to Jackie on the couch, then swept between the two of them.

Jackie struggled to keep her expression neutral, but she was never really very good at hiding her emotions in the first place. She was sure that guilt was written over her every feature and she cast her eyes downward and surreptitiously tried to inch away from Eric's body on the couch.

Eric picked up on it straightaway and a small frown made an appearance between his brows. Hyde's door crashed open just as Eric started to openly reach for Jackie's hand. Because though he was willing to go along with her idea of 'easing' their friends into the idea of them as a couple, but as he told her, he flat out wasn't going to sneak around.

"You found it in here, didn't you?" Hyde thundered from the back. In his right hand was an old box that looked like it used to contain a pair of boots and he was waving it around manically.

Jackie felt Eric's fingers close around her own just as everyone else turned to look at Hyde. She immediately tugged away as if he burned. She saw a shuttered expression come over his face and she squashed down the nagging voice that told her that she had hurt him.

Hyde marched over and brandished the box at Sam. "Didn't you?" he repeated furiously.

"Yes!"

"Well, it's not yours!" he yelled and reached over and tried to tug it off her finger.

"No!" She snatched her hand back and cradled it protectively to her. Her eyes filled again. "If it's not mine then whose is it?"

Hyde's mouth slammed shut and his eyes flashed ice-blue fire.

He didn't reply and Sam cried out. "You're— You're cheating on me!"

She looked devastated and her hand immediately went to cover her stomach. "I'm carrying your child and you're cheating?"

Jackie had been observing their fight as closely as everyone else in the room and realization dawned. She didn't know why it had taken her this long to figure it out but now it was so glaringly obvious — it was hers. Her ring. The promise ring that Steven was supposed to give her that Sam had found.

"Sam, he isn't," Jackie said gently to the girl beside her. She reached up to touch her arm and pull her back down to sit next to her on the couch.

"Steven's not cheating on you," she said with a glance at Hyde, trying to figure if he would be grateful or try to murder her if she went down with the story she was going to tell Sam. "This is a promise ring, you know those?"

Sam sniffled, seemingly soothed by Jackie's consoling tone. "Y-yeah." She nodded and gratefully accepted a tissue from Jackie. "Eric g-gave one to Donna. S-she told me about t-those."

"Yes, well, this is one. It's not an engagement ring, and you shouldn't be wearing it if he didn't officially propose to you anyway."

"But it was s-so pretty! And I couldn't k-keep waiting!" Sam wailed.

"Right. But now you've put him in a spot." Jackie bit her lip and took the plunge, figuring that if Steven was going to do her any bodily harm, she was sure Eric would step in and save her, even if she did hurt him earlier. "You see, you've robbed him of the chance to properly give you this ring. To promise you a promise of the future."

She chanced a quick look at Steven and saw his eyes go wide. She was surprised that he had even let her go on this far without interrupting, and decided to throw caution to the wind.

"He really, really wanted to make it special when he finally gave it to you," she finished with a pat on Sam's hand and a reassuring smile.

"I- You- What?!" Hyde gasped.

"Steven," she said warningly, though she did try to scoot a little closer to Eric behind the couch, highly aware that a few minutes earlier she was scooting along in the opposite direction away from him. She grimaced at her behavior.

Sam turned eyes that were bright with hope Hyde's way. "You were?" she breathed. "You were really going to try to be a family with our baby?"

She sounded so hopeful and so unlike her usual self that Jackie's heart softened a little towards her. Maybe underneath her apparent disregard for it, Sam really did want something concrete for the future like everyone else.

Hyde looked furious. And stuck between a rock and a hard place.

He looked at Sam.

He looked at Jackie.

He looked at his friends, but none of them looked like they were going to throw him a lifeline.

Donna was looking at him expectantly.

Randy was interested, but seemed as if he had something more worrisome on his mind than his boss' drama at the moment.

He looked at Eric, certain that he would find a way out there, but Forman was closed off and sitting way closer to Jackie than Hyde would have personally preferred.

He was on his own.

A family. A future. With Sam. He glanced at Jackie again and saw that she was pleading with him to take it. The lousy, stupid, lame-ass bit of a lie that she had tossed out for shit knew what reason.

He looked back at Sam and his eyes fell down to her tummy. A baby. His baby. Their baby.

He figured that no matter what, as long as his child existed, he would be forever tied to Sam. So a future for him would always include Sam anyway.

Somewhere. Preferably in the background while he was happily together with Jackie, but, whatever it was, Sam was going to be there. Somewhere.

"Yeah," he grunted. "Like she said." He jerked his chin in Jackie's direction.

He looked in his doll's eyes and saw approval there. Fine, he thought, that's what really matters after all.

Sam squealed and rushed around the couch to pull him into a hug. He stood and bore it, together with the kisses and the 'I love you's' that she was always saying to him.

He needed a circle, and he craved a drink.

Sam never took the ring off; and what was once Jackie's promise ring, came to find its home on Sam's finger.