CH 19: Casey

The Forman Basement:

5 Minutes Ago:

Brooke met Jackie in the kitchen, and together they descended into the basement.

It was a little dark, but they could still see. It was a little smoky, but they could smell. And their friends were a little baked, but not quite burned.

Brooke only narrowed her eyes at the man on the couch, "Michael."

Jackie took in the other two, slowly dancing off on a corner, listening to something called 'The Human League', "Laurie. Fez."

Hearing their names, everyone jumped. Laurie switched off the radio, and looked over at Jackie and Brooke, "Oh. Hey."

Jackie snapped, "Don't 'Oh, Hey' me! Weren't you wondering where I was at?!"

Laurie shrugged, "We were getting high. And Donna's still not in town. My little brother is still not in town. And you look like crap. Nothing has changed."

Jackie growled, "You are unbelievable."

Laurie smirked, "Hey babe, at least I'm here. More than I can say for baby brother and Donna."

Brooke rolled her eyes, "Enough about them. They got married and had a happy life while some of us weren't so lucky." She glared at Kelso who turned away from her, scratching his chin.

Fez chimed in, "Ah, actually sexy lady, jury is out on your theory, but good guess!"

Brooke walked up to her partner, voice dropping so only he could hear, "Michael, we need to talk."

Kelso looked up at her, a stirring passion in him that no one, not even Jackie had ever seen, "I don't want to hear it."

"I'm not here for me." She said calmly, "I'm here for Betsy."

Even in his stoned state, Kelso would do anything for his daughter. He nodded, reluctant, "Alright. For Betsy."

Brooke took his hand and they exited to the driveway.

As the door closed, Laurie squinted her eyes in suspicion, "I wonder what that's all about."

:::::

"You're in love someone else."

Outside in the Forman driveway, the words rang out and the two parents, Kelso and Brooke, stood apart, facing each other off as opponents.

Brooke shook her head, her dark brown hair pulled back in a ponytail that bobbed along with her, "I don't know what you're talking about!"

Kelso jumped, pointing an accusing finger at her, "Yeah ya do! You always talk about Jake Bradley this, Jake Bradley that-"

"He was my best friend in High School! He was a little younger, but he was very nice and supportive!"

"Bullshit Brooke! Guys aren't just nice and supportive to girls for no reason! He wanted to get in yer pants!"

She narrowed her eyes coldly, "He was supportive when he learned I was pregnant. You just ran around town insisting you never touched me." Sarcastically she added, "The whole thing was a great self-esteem boost, by the way."

"That's not fair." Kelso shook his head, suddenly feeling like an ass, "I was scared."

"And you think I wasn't?!"

"You didn't act like it!"

"I was trying to keep it together, Michael!" Brooke harshly whispered, "I was going to be a mother without a partner!"

Pause.

"Well I'm here. And I've been by both you and Betsy's sides, doing my best." He said slowly, unable to look her in the eye.

"You took her to a strip club!" Brooke broke out, her voice rising a little.

"I work at a strip club!" Kelso said, also trying to keep his voice discreetly low and failing miserably about it, "Besides, it was Career Day and you didn't want to take her with you!"

Brooke threw up her arms, completely flabbergasted, "Michael, I work in at the Medical Examiners Office! We deal with dead bodies and chemicals and everyone in there wears goggles, gloves, scrubs, and masks! It is no place for a five year old girl!"

Kelso paused, thinking, only to give up and groan, "Gah!" He then rubbed his hair wildly, "Well maybe you're right. But still, Betsy would've been crushed if we made her sit around all day at your sister's house-"

Brooke cut in, "Stop. We both know she was supposed to spend the day at the beauty salon with my mother. We both agreed it would have been good for her, seeing her grandmother owning her own salon and all that it entails."

"It would've been boring!" Kelso threw up his hands in an imaginative stance, "No Kelso was ever satisfied sweeping hair and sitting behind a stuffy desk, crunching the numbers to see if we broke even or turned a profit!"

"So you took it upon yourself to ignore our original plan and take her to a strip club!" Brooke shot back, sarcasm oozing off of every word.

Kelso's face hardened, "Well, you took it upon yourself to fall into Jake Bradley's arms and nuzzle with him instead of me, a.k.a your daughter's father!"

Brooke defended her actions, "I had to talk to someone! My mom went off on how stupid she think's I am to get pregnant so young, with you and you just-just-doing- ugh!" She tried not to scream, but she did rub her hands over her face, tired, "You're not making things any easier, Michael." She stepped forward, pleading, "It's like I can't talk to you. It's as if you enjoy driving me crazy and not listening to my input about Betsy! And I needed to talk to someone and Jake was around…"

After a moment, he said slowly, "That's how I feel…"

Brooke looked up, her eyes widening a little.

He finished, "… with you. I feel like I can't talk with you. You talk down to me as if I'm stupid, and I'm not. I don't care if other people, even my own friends, think I'm dumb, but I don't want you to. I want you to see me as, well, I don't know. I know I'm not exactly a genius, but I'm more impulsive then stupid. And because you and your mom think of me as a let-down, you don't listen to my input about Betsy. I feel like I have to fight to toss in my ideas on how to raise her. And I don't want that. I want to participate in her upbringing." He stepped closer to his girlfriend, "I want to be her dad. I need you to let me."

Brooke smiled softly, "My mom is a stubborn woman-"

"And a bitch." He tossed in.

After she crossed her arms across her chest, he sheepishly shrugged, "Sorry. Too soon."

She shook her head, smiling despite herself, "As I was saying, my mom is a stubborn woman, and she might nag us a whole bunch, and she is right about most things-" Kelso looked down at his shoes. She reached over and tipped his chin upwards, "but she is wrong about one thing. You. You're a great dad."

He let out a goofy smile as she continued, "You're sweet. And you stepped up to the plate with Betsy. That's a good thing." She leaned forward and kissed his cheek.

He turned a little pink, almost like a school boy as she agreed, "And you're right about Jake. I shouldn't have ran into his open arms. Two wrongs don't make a right, and I should've tried talking to you instead of taking solace in an old friend."

Kelso shrugged, "Well, as long as he's kept at a good distance from us, I guess I can forgive."

They hugged and quickly kissed again.

He then murmured, "Maybe I shouldn't have ran away from you at the first sign of real bad trouble. I'm sorry too, Brooke."

They quickly kissed again, Kelso now grinning from ear to ear, "So now we can have make-up sex, right?"

Brooke rolled her eyes, smiling right back at him, "Only if you have protection."

Kelso nodded, chuckling, "We're a good couple! We even learn from our, uh, not mistakes. Betsy is not a mistake but… uh…"

"Happy accident." Brooke helpfully supplied.

"Yes!" Kelso grinned, "We learn from our happy accidents!"

They were so busy kissing that they didn't hear the El Camino as it pulled up and it's driver stepped out of the car.

Hyde walked over to them, quietly.

When they pulled back, they saw him, standing in front of them, smelling a little like stale beer. His eyes were icy, his face stone cut.

Kelso raised an eyebrow, "You okay?"

Hyde grunted, "No. And it's Jackie's fault."

"Wha'd she do?" Kelso dared ask.

Suddenly it appeared as if Hyde was looking right passed them and into the kitchen through the screen door. They awkwardly turned, and saw Jackie, just standing there, looking at Hyde.

After a moment, Jackie began walking toward them, Brooke whispering to her partner, "Looks like we're gonna find out, honey."

:::::

Colette changed in Laurie Forman's old bedroom. She changed into hot pink shorts and a green school shirt that read "Go Vikings" in bright, yellow lettering. She popped on aqua sandals, running her fingers through her damp, red hair.

She looked at herself in the mirror, taking in the sight. She still looked tired, but she was clean. That's all that really mattered.

A soft knock came from the door.

She looked around, confused.

Was it Mrs. Forman?

Or Jackie?

"Come out." She heard a slow voice call out, lowly.

She didn't say anything, but approached the door suspiciously. The voice didn't sound like woman. So it obviously wasn't Mrs. Forman, or Jackie… or Caroline.

She was started as the doorknob clearly tried to turn, but was stopped since she had locked the door.

The knocking then came, a little louder. She then heard the voice, a little louder, "Open up for poppa. I know you're in there, I heard you."

She stopped, her breath catching in her throat. Her eyes darted to the window? Should she jump out of it? Did it make sense to jump out of a second story window?

"Laurie, open up."

Laurie?

Colette mustered as much gusto as she could and unlocked the door, yanking it wide open.

The man on the other side looked up at her, smiling, "Daddy's here, bab-" His eyes widened, "Pinciotti? I was told you split town after Foreplay realized he could do better than you."

Colette responded coldly, "I'm not Donna Pinciotti."

"Hmm," He nodded, seemingly pleasantly surprised, "Well young stranger, are you at least over eighteen?"

Colette knew instantly she didn't like this guy, "Aren't you gonna ask for my name?"

He shrugged nonchalantly, leaning against the doorframe, "Names are overrated. What a young girl such as yourself should be more interested in is a pretty face," His hungry eyes raked her from top to bottom as he smiled, "to match that pretty body."

"I'm seventeen." She said flatly.

He made a face, his eyes growing distant as he took a step back, but his smile never left, "Well the good news is that you won't be seventeen forever."

"The good news is that I'm seventeen right now." She retorted.

They heard a noise followed by giggling laughter coming from the stairs. Both turned to see Fez and Laurie, hand in hand, giggling and kissing each other.

Fez was practically singing, "Can't wait to reach your old room so we can-" He burst into song, "DOOoooOOOoo IIIITttttt!"

At this Laurie burst into more hysterics, a beer clearly visible in her left hand. But she stopped when she looked up and saw Casey Kelso standing before her. She instantly dropped Fez's hand, which obviously caused the foreign man some distress.

"Casey Kelso," She breathed out slowly.

That name sounded familiar to Colette. She turned to the man that gave her bad vibes, saying his name slowly as if his whole life could be summed up in two words, "Casey Kelso?"

He smiled at Laurie, "In the flesh." And then turned to Colette, winking quickly, "Charmed, beautiful."

Fez didn't like that look he witness Casey giving the ladies. He walked over, motioning to Colette to stand by him and Laurie, "You know, in my country, we have ant farms and when the ants grow into the large numbers, we stomp them out."

Casey looked at Fez, 'who-cares?' plainly stamped on his forehead.

The foreigner then looked Casey in the eye, "You look like you need to be stomped out."

Colette walked over, standing a little behind Fez and Laurie.

Casey smirked, "Look, I came up here to talk to Laurie."

Fez said loudly, "She does all her talking with me now, so I hope you brought someone else you can communicate with."

Casey stared at him before snapping his fingers, "Weren't you the guy that had a sex dream about my brother? A buddy of mine showed me the column that was printed in the school paper, I think you kissed my brother's leg?"

Fez snapped, "I caught a fish, dammit!"

"What's the big deal? I've had plenty of sex dreams involving Michael Kelso!" Laurie proclaimed, haphazardly doing her best to defend her husband.

At this, Fez and Colette whirled their heads to her, one saying, "WHAT?!" the other, "Oh damn…"

Laurie rolled her eyes, "Look, I wasn't always a genius."

Casey stepped closer to her, smiling, "You don't have to be. You just need a pretty face-"

Laurie waved her hand dismissively, "Yeah, yeah, to match my pretty body. You've already fed me that line, Casey. I think you're in desperate need of some new material."

"If it aint broke, don't fix it." His smile grew.

Colette pointed at Casey, "Who is this guy? He's creeping around the hallways-"

Fez wrinkled his nose, "In poor taste, I might add!"

Laurie sighed, turning to Colette, "Baby Jackie-"

"Little Jackie." Colette oddly found herself correcting.

Laurie rolled her green eyes, "Whatever. Anyway, Casey dated me. Then he broke up with me. We then went out with other people."

"She landed in my brother's bed- head first." Casey chimed in, confidently shoving his hands in his jacket.

Colette dared ask, "Who's your brother?"

"Michael Kelso." Laurie groaned. She then mumbled, "And he ain't no saint either. He was a 22 year old man, running around with an 18 year old girl. Donna Pinciotti to be more specific."

Colette's eyes widened at this news, looking at Casey in strangely, "Donna went out with you?"

He grinned, "Just innocent flirting, nothing big."

"Bullshit!" Laurie snapped, "You crushed her! That's you do! That's you're MO!" Laurie turned to Colette, saying seriously, "Don't get involved with this guy, Jackie. You'll live to regret it."

Colette said plainly, "I know."

Casey stepped closer to the three, saying in a bored tone, "I don't appreciate you making me out to be some kind of bad guy. I'm not. I'm just a regular guy who knows what I want. And Pinciotti knew what she wanted too."

He looked over to Colette, "Angel, you think you know these people? You Don't. You think you know their history? That's a laugh. But let me educate you: Pinciotti went after me. Did you hear that cub scout? She wanted me. Foreplay, in his infinite wisdom, broke up with her. Now he," Casey looked Laurie in the eye, "crushed her. Not me."

Laurie turned away, as if she didn't like this turn in the conversation.

Casey continued, "He messed up her head. Bad. She didn't know which way was up and all I offered was a good time for her to get her life together. Then when she became too much of a hassle, I did what any good fisherman would do- I cut her loose. That was the end of it. I did her a favor and last I heard she was marrying-" He turned to Laurie, "-your brother. So, you're welcome. Am I getting an invite to the wedding? Or did he mess that up too?"

Laurie asked quietly, "Why're you here? Outside my old room?"

Casey shrugged, his smile full of false charm, "Brooke made me come over here, she's looking for Mikey. And if I was here already, and maybe if you were here already, maybe we could catch up."

"So you were reminiscing and got all nostalgic for old times?" Laurie uttered sarcastically.

It looked like he was undressing her with his eyes, "Especially a particular mole on a particular spot."

Fez sucked in his breath, "That is my mole now! Now leave!"

Casey looked over at him, as if just remembering Fez was present, "Look dude, let's be honest-"

Fez snapped, waving a hand, "I SAID 'GOOD DAY'!"

Laurie reached over and pressed her hand to Fez's chest, "Hold on, give me a second with him."

"Hell no!" Fez blurted, getting worked up, "I am not losing you to this has-been playboy!"

Laurie pressed her palms gently onto her husband's face, forcing him to look at her, "Fez, look at me."

"I refuse to just stand by and-"

"Baby."

He stopped, his dark brown eyes daring to look at her, daring to fall for her. She smiled at him, "You are my sexy foreign fox, and you said I wasn't losing you to nobody. Well, now it's my turn to remind you that I am your sexy blond babe, and this time I am going to put real effort into our marriage. I'm not sleeping with anyone but you, and that's how it's gonna stay for a long, long time."

Fez kissed her palm, murmuring, "You better mean that, woman."

Laurie said quietly, a peaceful gleam in her eye, "I do."

Two words, those two words were his undoing. With a quick kiss to her inviting lips, he let her go, and trusted her enough to come back to him.

Laurie walked over to Casey, the two of them taking a few steps away from Colette and Fez for more privacy, and she lowered her voice, "We are not doing the dirty. As soon as possible, I want you out of this house and my life, got it?"

He took her hand in his, slowly massaging it, "C'mon. You know how I can make you feel."

"Disgusted?" She offered with false innocence.

He chuckled, "Good one."

Laurie yanked back her hand from his grip, narrowing her eyes, "For someone who's nostalgic, you sure do have a selective memory, Kelso."

"Hm?" He tried to reach for her hand again, but she buried it in her elbow when she crossed her arms across her chest, "You cheated on me with my best friend, Jenny Mulligan. And when she came out pregnant, you joined the Army to avoid her. When you came back, you didn't even bother checking on her or your son. Disowned by her parents, especially her father, Jenny was forced to move in with an understanding cousin upstate. Luckily her cousin took her in because you left her high and dry. And you know what? If I knew you were going out with Donna, I would've placed my pride to the side and warn her about you."

Casey only had one response, "You have prettier eyes then Jenny."

"You're a dumbass." Laurie snarled, taking a step back.

Casey stepped closer to her, "Why are you upset? You're not the one I knocked up. As far as you're concerned- bullet dodged."

Laurie stared at him in disbelief before letting out a little chuckle, "I can't believe it. Y'know, I used to think Michael Kelso was the maron and you were the stallion. And now, after all this time, I see it was switched."

"Don't insult me." He said plainly, "Mikey put a bun in some girl's oven and didn't have the sense to skip town. In fact, he wants to raise the little twerp. It's the stupidest thing he's ever done."

"It's the smartest thing he's ever done." Laurie told him, "The noblest thing."

"Get a life, Casey. And please, stop sniffing around my bedroom door. I'm talking-" She glanced at Fez, "-to better people these days." She looked back at him, smirking, "And I'm having the most riveting conversations of my life."

His smile fell, becoming a straight line, "Good for you."

"I know." And with that she turned around. She walked back over to Fez, sighing sadly, "So much for messing around up here. That jerk sucked the mood right out of the night."

Fez winked at her, taking her hand in his, gently twisting her wedding band playfully, "Perhaps I can suck the mood right back in."

"That's gross." Colette said plainly.

Fez and Laurie looked over at her, both looking as if they forgot she was present. Fez then looked back at his wife, shrugging his shoulders, "Or maybe we should just join everyone downstairs?"

Laurie shrugged, "I guess. First we get kicked out of the basement from Hyde and Jackie, and now this."

The two walked downstairs, and as Colette made a move to join them, she caught sight of Casey Kelso, staring at her.

She raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"You look like Donna." He walked over to her, stopping when he was a foot from her. He crossed his arms over his chest, "I gotta niece and in a few years, she'll be like you."

"And?" Where is this going, she thought.

Casey's eyes softened a little, "Laurie's right. Don't fall for someone like me, cub scout."

She was a little surprised by the admission. He then walked past her and went downstairs. She followed him, intrigued, "I think I heard Laurie say something about a son. Are you going to try to be a dad to him?"

Casey smiled at her when he reached the bottom step, her being three steps higher then him still. He looked up to her, "Leopards don't change spots." As he walked over to the Forman couch to sit by Betsy and Mrs. Forman, Colette stayed on her step at the staircase.

Laurie and Fez were by the piano, messing around with keys.

Red was sitting on his usual seat, reading the newspaper and grumbling about Michael Kelso sneaking into his house. He looked over his reading glasses and spied his wife suspiciously, "You had nothing to do with bringing that boy and his baby mama-drama over here, did you?"

Kitty feigned innocence, but somehow it didn't look innocent.

And when Kelso and Brooke entered the living room, hand in hand, Colette noticed how stiff Casey became as the little girl ran up to her father, "Daddy!"

Kelso picked her up, saying loudly, "Look at me with my lovely ladies!"

Colette watched as Casey obviously became more agitated. With an exaggerated roll of the eyes, he stood up and walked over to Laurie.

Laurie's voice rang out, "There's nothing here for you, Casey."

"I know." He grumbled, looking over his shoulder at his brother who looked picture perfect at that moment, "But I aint looking for you this time 'round."

Laurie quirked her head to one side- sizing him and his intentions up.

"Do you have Jenny's number?" He suddenly blurted, looking very un-Casey Kelso like.

Laurie's eyes widened in surprise, "You're joking."

"Give it to me now, before my brain starts working again." He warned.

Fez and Laurie exchanged looks, before Laurie shrugged, "Ok." She took a pen that rested on the piano and scribbled something onto his big hand. When he looked at it, he smirked, "So now it's my turn to ask…" He held up his hand, "You joking?"

Laurie devilishly smiled, "Actually I'm not. But it is a weird coincidence, right?"

Colette curiously walked over to them, "What's her number?"

Chuckling, Casey showed her his palm, "Read it and weep."

And there, in blue ink on his palm, it read: 867-5309.