"Good morning, everyone!" Brooke sang out as she brought in a tray of coffee for all of them early the next morning.

They were sprawled all over her living room, snuggled tight in sleeping bags.

"Yeah, Happy New Year!" Kelso echoed loudly and kicked Fez to wake him up. "To you," he yodeled and aimed a kick at Hyde. "And you," a gentler kick aimed at Donna's rear end. "And you!" Kick kick. He directed the last two to the edge of Jackie's sleeping bag, more afraid of her than the other three.

"Aaaand. Hey!" He stomped around on Eric's empty sleeping bag. "Where did Eric go?" He twisted Brooke's wrist around to peer at her watch. "8:05," he read, and frowned. "Weird."

They were all still rubbing sleep from their eyes when the doorknob turned and the front door swung open as Eric walked in, breathing heavily and sweaty from his run.

They all turned as one to look at him.

He paused as he saw them staring.

"What?" he grunted, then rolled his eyes and dismissed the lot of them. He pulled off his socks and disappeared into the kitchen for the washer, unzipping his hoodie along the way.

Hyde's eyebrows shot up. "Forman runs?" He looked at Donna, expecting some form of shared incredulity, but Donna was staring after Eric. She nodded back at him distractedly.

Jackie sat up. She really didn't like the look Donna was giving Eric.

Please Eric, stay in the freakin' kitchen and keep your damn shirt on.

Jackie hurriedly rummaged into his overnight bag for a clean shirt for him before he came out and headed for the shower on the other side of the living room.

No such luck.

This gang had always been a bit too comfortable with each other, and Eric stalked out and towards the bathroom bare-chested and in his boxers, with a towel across his back and shoulders.

Jackie scrambled for his shirt and threw it at him. It landed over his head.

"What the hell?" He pulled it off his face. "Jackie?"

"Eric!" she squeaked at him, outraged. "Clothes? Jeez."

He shot her a look that suggested that she might be insane, and strode to the bathroom.

"Huh," said Hyde, and he scratched his chest and yawned. "Peter Parker went to Africa and became Spider-Man."

Brooke glanced at Jackie and mouthed a silent "Wow."

Kelso lifted up his shirt and looked at his own stomach.

Fez pouted. "So Eric has glorious muscles now. Big. Deal," he grumbled. "You don't have to eat him with your eyes," he said with a petulant look at Donna. "I have glorious muscles too, why do you people never look at me like that?"

"Uh-blah," mumbled Donna, slack-jawed and dazed.

Jackie gritted her teeth and glared at them all.

Brooke offered to whip up some breakfast, which was met with hearty approval from her guests, and roped in Jackie and Donna to help get it out.

It had been awhile since Jackie had made breakfast of any sort, and she soon found a happy rhythm with the pancakes she had volunteered to prepare. Though Donna had been skeptical at first, it became clear that Jackie did really know what she was doing, so Donna stopped hovering two inches away from her convinced that they were all going to be poisoned.

"Something else you picked up in Africa, huh?" Brooke smiled as she walked past Jackie to join Donna at the table where she was juicing oranges with Betsy seated in a high chair next to her. "Here, you cut, I'll squeeze."

The conversation soon turned to Randy, when Brooke mentioned that she was sorry that he wasn't able to make it to Chicago.

Donna shrugged. "S'okay, we could use the time apart actually."

Brooke quirked an eyebrow in her direction. "Oh?"

Donna heaved a sigh. "Complicated," she muttered.

Brooke shot a look over to where Jackie was fiddling with the stove. "Complicated," she echoed. "Hmmm. Been hearing that word a lot lately."

Donna didn't seem to hear her, preoccupied with something else behind Brooke instead.

Following her line of sight, Brooke's surprised gaze landed on Eric. She drew a breath and glanced quickly over at Jackie. Complicated indeed.

"So... Eric?" she prompted hesitatingly.

Donna sighed again. "First loves, I guess. It was easier when he was away, but now that he's back. And he looks like, like that..."

"Ah," she said. She thought back to what she found out by accident last night and recalled the way Eric and Jackie had looked at each other.

"You know, sometimes, first loves are just that. First loves." She took two orange halves from the small pile next to Donna. "They're not supposed to be your last. I know it's none of my business, but it's just that it's a mistake that I've made before."

Donna looked away from Eric to meet her eyes. "I think we could really make it work now." Her gaze shifted back to Eric. "I've got to at least try," she said determinedly.

Brooke looked over to where the guys were gathered in the living room. She could see why Donna was so adamant that she wanted Eric back. And especially with the history that they shared...

But she was also convinced that Donna's reasons were the wrong ones and she was infatuated with the idea of Eric rather than Eric himself.

"And you think Eric feels the same way?" she ventured.

Donna shook her head slightly and her blonde hair rustled around her shoulders. "I don't know. I think so. I think he's the same Eric beneath all that new… African-ness… the one that's giving and selfless. And I think— no I know— that once he knows that I've changed too, that I'm ready for this, for him, we could both start over and try again."

The look in her eyes turned faraway. "He left to better himself. For me. For us. And now that he's back, and he's actually done it..." Donna turned to Brooke, "Don't you see?"

There was a chorus of laughter from the guys and they both looked over again.

But what Brooke could see was not what Donna saw. Eric was sitting before the bar by the side of the living room, legs outstretched and crossed at the ankles. His arms were similarly crossed and he had pushed the sleeves of a baseball shirt further up his forearms. His hair was tousled like he hadn't bothered with it after his shower, but it somehow lent him a rugged appeal, more so with his bronzed coloring and that air of reserve that he had brought back with him from Africa. He was quietly observing the card game going on between Kelso, Fez and Hyde who were seated around the living room table.

It was clear that he was worlds ahead of the rest of the three, not only in terms of experience, but probably in mentality as well. Brooke could understand the appeal, and seeing as to how Donna had once loved the skinny boy that he was, the man would surely be irresistible to her. Brooke also recognized that this was an idealized version of Eric. An ideal that Donna had nurtured and increasingly romanticized, and in no way could see that he had long since left her behind.

Before she could reply though, Donna let out a cry and Brooke looked over to see that she had carelessly sliced her palm open.

"Oh crap!" Brooke exclaimed, and spun around to rush for a first aid kit. She banged bodily into a broad chest and looked up into Eric's sea-green gaze.

"Careful," he said, steadying her and reaching around to place the knife that Donna dropped far out of Betsy's reach.

Brooke gave him a grateful glance and hurried away for the kit.

"Here, let me take a look," Eric turned to Donna and reached for her injured hand. "How'd it happen?"

"Uh," she swallowed, "Dunno. Wasn't paying attention, I guess."

He grabbed a couple of paper towels and pressed them into the wound. Donna winced and he grimaced. "Sorry, I've got to stop the bleeding."

He turned slightly as Jackie approached from Donna's other side to take Betsy. But other than a quick glance at her and the child, he didn't acknowledge her further.

Feeling a sharp pang, Jackie bit her lip and turned away, burying her nose in Betsy's fragrant chestnut curls.

Brooke returned with the kit to find that Eric had stopped the bleeding and washed out the wound. He opened the box and rummaged around for antiseptics before wrapping Donna's hand up.

"It doesn't look bad, but I would avoid doing anything with that hand for the next couple of hours at least."

Donna looked up at him and smiled. "Thanks," she murmured.

Eric shrugged. "It's nothing," he said easily. "I've definitely seen worse." He got up and headed to the sink to wash his hands. "Don't forget, I work with a school full of children."

It was the first time he had mentioned Africa to her and Donna found herself desperately hungry for more. She thought about how funny it was that she had never actually asked him about it in their previous conversations before.

She opened her mouth to call after him, but the moment had passed and he returned to the living room where the rest of the guys were.

Brooke called for breakfast soon later. Despite Donna's little accident, it looked set to be a warm and hearty affair.

They were all seated around the living room table, ladling scrambled eggs and bacon and sausages on to their plates and play-fighting as a mad scramble ensued when Jackie emerged with a tall stack of pancakes and Brooke set down a jar of maple syrup before them.

Eric looked relaxed, but Jackie had learnt to read him better than most, and she knew that he wasn't as he appeared. She had returned to the living room the night before intent on clearing the air between them, but his spot in the mass of sleeping bodies in the room was glaringly empty. She didn't hear him leave, and she didn't know where he had gone, but not wanting to wake every one else up, she had gotten into her bag and stared at the ceiling till her eyelids grew heavy and sleep took her. She wondered where he went, and if he had gotten any sleep at all.

Then morning dawned and since then he had barely spoken more than two words to her. She had caught him looking at her just once earlier when she had been playing with Betsy. It was a rare moment when his eyes were unguarded but barely a second later, the shutters that he had so readily in place snapped down, but not before she glimpsed a loneliness there that tugged at her heart.

She started to take the empty seat to his right but Donna beat her to it, sliding in easily next to him as if it was a place that he had saved just for her; and the seeming rightness of her action, the naturalness of it, struck Jackie and a bitter taste filled her mouth.

She quietly moved to take the only other seat available at the end of the table furthest from Eric and Donna, and try as she might, she couldn't tear her eyes away from the both of them side by side, looking to all the world as if they still belonged together.

She forced herself to chew and swallow, smile and laugh, but couldn't stop her gut from wrenching as she saw Donna reach over and eat something from Eric's plate just like she used to when they were together. What made it worse was that Eric barely seemed to notice the gesture, giving her a casual smile and continuing to spoon forkfuls of his eggs into his mouth. Conversation flowed around her, and every bite tasted more and more like ash in her mouth and suddenly, It became too much for her. She stood up noiselessly and discreetly left for the kitchen.

Putting her dirty plate in the sink she picked up the soap mechanically and started washing. Her mind flicked back to the times that she and Eric would do the dishes together, and a small smile played at her lips.

"I never thought I'd see the day when you'd look happy doing the damn dishes."

She started, and looked up to see Hyde holding his plate and looking at her bemusedly.

"Oh. I was... uh, thinking of something that made me happy." She reached across to take his plate from him.

He looked even more dumbfounded when she did that, that she couldn't help but laugh.

He stared at her, dazzled for a moment. He had forgotten how much he had loved to see her laugh. Maybe it was because of the heart-warming familiarity of all of them together under one roof again; or the joviality of the holidays; or being away from the hot mess that was his life at the moment, and he found himself unable to recall why he ever hated her with a passion that consumed his very being.

"You're beautiful," he found himself saying.

Memories of prom; of her in a wedding dress; flashed through both their minds.

Jackie recalled the memory fondly, and her features softened. "Thank you," she said with a sweet smile.

He stared at her for a while longer before turning around abruptly and heading back out. She watched him go, feeling a relief of some sort, and a deep feeling for this man that she had once loved with all her young heart.

Brooke came in with more plates after he left, shooing her away and made to take over the dishes, but Jackie shushed her and they compromised on Jackie drying and Brooke washing. She had pulled herself up on the counter next to Brooke at the sink with a dish rag in hand when Donna walked in with Eric two steps behind her.

The room suddenly felt very small.

Donna was in high spirits and had a smile on her face from something that Eric had said to her and Jackie was finding it hard to keep her expression neutral. She gave up and hopped off the counter instead, in a bid to turn her back to them.

There was a wetness, an intimate sensation and Jackie's brows furrowed as she felt something warm and sticky leak out from inside her core and trickle down her inner thigh.

And then she realized.

Eric.

From where he had been last night deep inside her.

Her breath caught. She instinctively found herself looking at him over Donna's shoulder and her pulse quickened when her eyes collided with his startling green gaze. Her mind flew to the night before and she grew hot as a blush stole its way across her cheeks.

He raised an eyebrow slightly but didn't speak to her otherwise. He brushed against her as he tried to make room for Donna to walk past, and Jackie was mortified at the thoughts that flew through her mind. She hastily squashed a particularly visual one that had her pressing herself up against him and begging him to shove his hand up her skirt.

Eric dropped the stack of plates he was carrying in the sink, and offered to take over the washing from Brooke. Brooke firmly turned him down and shooed him out to hang out with the rest of the gang. "I've got Jackie here helping me. We'll be fine," she smiled.

Eric flashed a brief look in Jackie's direction and nodded to Brooke. "Alright. Thanks for the breakfast you two."

"And me too!" Donna called from a few feet behind him and received an amused half-smile in return.

Jackie stared after him as he turned to follow Donna out of the kitchen. Before she knew what she was doing, she had caught up with him and snagged his wrist.

"Wait," she said.

He stopped but didn't exactly turn around to meet her eyes. She saw him heave a sigh.

"What is it, Jackie?"

She tugged on his wrist to pull him back into the kitchen, and to her relief, he allowed her to do so. When she let go of him, he leaned against one of the kitchen counters and folded his arms, fixing his gaze somewhere above her head at the wall opposite.

She reached up and placed one hand on his forearm and the other to touch the side of his jaw. "Eric, please."

He sighed.

After a while, where she was left nervous and unsure and on her toes, he finally lowered his eyes to meet hers. He searched them for a long moment, then unfolded his arms and she immediately stepped into his embrace.

Relieved, Jackie buried her nose in his neck and inhaled. Her arms snaked around his waist. "I'm really sorry."

He rested the side of his jaw against her temple. "I know," he said.

"But we can't keep hiding this, Jackie," he continued in a low voice. "They have a right to know."

She nodded her head and he felt the movement against his neck. And then a gentle kiss as she pressed her lips to the jagged scar on the underside of his chin.

"Aren't you afraid one of them is gonna walk in on us?" he asked her seriously.

She shook her head sharply in answer. "Right now I don't care. I just… I want to be with you."

He felt her body shake slightly and her arms tighten around his waist. "Please forgive me," she whispered.

"There's nothing to forgive, angel-face."

She smiled at the endearment. "So we're okay?"

He nodded. Then pulled her gently back so that he could look in her eyes. His own were grave and sombre as he asked, "Last night... Did you have sex with me because you felt guilty?"

"No!" Jackie cried, stunned. Her hair flew around her shoulders with each vehement shake of her head. "No," she repeated, and held his face between the palm of her hands. "I did it because I wanted it. I wanted you. I wanted to belong to you."

He looked unconvinced, and she looked deep into his eyes. "I-I really need you to believe me."

His eyes probed hers and when he nodded she felt like she could breathe again. She gave him a tremulous smile and pressed a sweet kiss to his lips. "It's real for me too, Eric."

"Even though we're still keeping it a secret?"

Jackie tilted her head at Brooke, who was at the other end of the kitchen, out of earshot and tactfully minding her own business. "It's not really a secret. Brooke knows."

Eric gave her a flinty look.

She dropped her chin and heaved a weary sigh. "I'm tired of hiding too, Eric." She leaned her forehead against his shoulder, thinking things through, and came to a resolute decision.

"We'll tell them after we get back to Point Place. Sit them down and tell them. I promise."