Chapter 13: Jackie's In Luve With Eric
Place: Foreman Living Room
(November 4th, 1980; Election Night, 8:12 CST)
There were a lot of people in the house tonight. Most of the people who had helped Red in his campaign for mayor were having a party and waiting for the results to appear on the local TV stations' coverage.
Kitty was over joyed about tonight, because it was very likely that Red would win. The polls last week had Red running at 70 percent of the voters, and it was expected that the margin might be even larger tonight. For Kitty, the idea that she would be the wife of a mayor got her excited in more places than one.
Kitty saw Red chatting it up with Bob, Barnet, and Leo right by the in house bar; she decided to go over to her strong man.
Kitty tapped Red shoulder, and he turned around to look at her.
Red gave a big smile, wrapped his arm around Kitty's waist, and said, "Hey, Kitty! Can you believe this? I'm going to be mayor."
Kitty gave Red a look and said, "What happened to being humble, until you've actually won?"
Red chuckled a little and said, "Kitty, I've been leading in the polls by so much that the only way Johnson could win is if nobody went to vote."
Kitty smiled and said, "Ok, Red but I've got to ask…"
"Quiet down everybody the news is about to give our first voting numbers!" Hyde shouted to everybody in the room.
Everybody looked at the Foreman's TV, and saw the local news anchorman come on the screen.
The anchorman was in the middle of his stories, "…leading in the Kenosha votes. We now have our first voting numbers in the Point Place Mayoral Election and with ten percent of the votes counted local businessman Red Foreman is leading against incumbent Mayor Johnson with seventy-four percent of the tallied votes…"
The room erupted in celebration and Red grabbed Kitty quickly and kissed her on the cheek. Kitty turned to look for Eric, who was on the other side of the room with Hyde, Donna, Fez, and Kelso. The absence of Jackie was instantly noticed by Kitty, so she looked around the living room to see if she could find the talkative brunet. However, Kitty could not sight her anywhere. Kitty decided to walk over to Eric and ask.
Eric turned to see his mom and said, "Hey mom. Or should I say, Mrs. Mayor Foreman."
Kitty chuckled a little bit and said, "Oh, shush Eric. I just came over to ask if you know where Jackie is because I don't see her in the room."
Eric said, "She said that she has been a little sick recently, so she's down stairs right now working the phone in case we have any callers."
Kitty, who was a little concerned that Jackie could be sick, said, "Did she say what she was sick from?"
Eric shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know, that's all she told me."
Kitty decided to go check up on Jackie, so she went through the kitchen and down the stairs. Jackie was sitting down on the couch and talking on the phone with someone.
"…Okay, and thank you very much for voting Foreman." Jackie said, and put the phone down.
Jackie rested her head on her hands because she was obviously stressed. Kitty was curious why Jackie was so stressed out, so she walked next to Jackie. Jackie lifted her head off her hands and saw Mrs. Foreman.
Jackie tried not to show any stress by smiling and saying, "Mrs. Foreman, how are you doing? How's Mr. Foreman? Is he winning?"
Kitty sat down next to Jackie and said, "I'm fine, Red's fine, and he is currently winning by a lot over Johnson."
"That's good; I really hope that Mr. Foreman crushes Johnson. He always bad mouthed my dad and it would be…" Jackie said, while she looked really tired and stressed.
"Jackie, that's nice that you want Red to win so badly, but I want to know how you're doing." Kitty interrupted with a concerned look on her face.
Jackie tried to continue to hide all of her stress and said, "I'm fine Mrs. Foreman, I really am."
Kitty said, "Then what are you doing down here instead of being upstairs with everybody else?"
Jackie said, "I just felt that someone had to watch the telephone."
Kitty gave Jackie a look, and said, "Jackie, you have been around my house too much for me to know that you would not give up a chance to chat with people to wait on voters' phone calls. So tell me Jackie, what is really the matter with you?"
Jackie gave a little defeated look and said, "I'm just feeling a little under the weather that's all."
Nurse Kitty said, "What have you been experiencing lately?"
Jackie said, "I've been vomiting a little in the mornings recently."
Kitty furthered her inquiry, "How long has this been going for?"
Jackie said, "Well, it's been…"
She was interrupted by the sound of the phone ringing. Jackie instantly picked up the phone.
"Hello, this is the Red Foreman campaign headquarters. A vote for Red is a vote to 'put a foot in these taxes.' How may I help you?" Jackie recited perfectly.
Jackie face got a little more serious, so she stood up and said, "This is she."
Jackie walked around turned to face the driveway door, while continuing to listen to the phone with intent.
"Uh-uh, and what did it say?" Jackie said, responding to the other voice.
Jackie started to tear up and said happily, "Really, oh my gosh. Thank you so much."
Jackie hung up the phone with watery eyes and an extremely happy face. Once she looked at Mrs. Foreman, she tried to cover it up.
"Just some prank caller." Jackie said quickly.
Kitty got a sense of deja vue and instantly realized what was going on.
Kitty got a big smile on her face and said, "Oh my god, are you pregnant?"
Jackie gave a guilty grin and said, "Yep."
Kitty got off her seat and excitedly bounced over to hug Jackie, while saying, "Oh Jackie! I'm so happy for you! You're going to be a mom! I'm going to be a Grandma!"
Jackie got Kitty off her and calmly said, "Yeah, I know it's great."
Kitty realizing that Jackie wasn't too excited about this, asked, "Jackie, shouldn't you be over joyed about this? Don't you want to be a mom?"
Jackie said, "Well of course I do. I've wanted to be a mom for a long time, but I'm not sure that this is the right time."
Kitty got confused and said, "What do you mean?"
Jackie started tearing up again and said, "I mean Eric just started his teaching career, and we have yet to get a house. We haven't got married yet, and what if he won't love me because of this."
Kitty hugged Jackie and said, "Of course he will still love you, Jackie. He's over the moon about you, and I would not be surprised if he asked you to marry him soon."
Jackie continued to cry and said, "But what if I'm not fit to be a mother? I mean look at my past, my mom was never around to help me with anything, and my dad just had the servants take care of me. What if I end up like them and don't care about my child? What if I can't be a good mom? I don't have any experience."
Kitty sat Jackie down on the couch and said, "Jackie, listen to yourself. The way you are talking right now tells me you'll be a great mother, and don't worry about not being experienced. I've given birth to two kids, raised you six kids who basically live down here, and I still don't know everything about mothering. Jackie, don't worry about being a mother because no matter how many times something happens it will never happen the same way twice. Look, you will be a great mom, I have no doubt about that and if you need any help Red and I will be here to help you."
Jackie smiled and said, "Thanks Mrs. Foreman."
Suddenly there was a loud roar coming from upstairs.
Place: Foreman Living Room
(About one minute earlier)
Ever since his mom asked him about Jackie, Eric had been very worried about Jackie. Eric was very happy with Jackie, and didn't want to see anything bad happen to her. He couldn't wait for this election to be over because he had something very important to ask Jackie.
"Shh! Quiet down everybody they're about to make an announcement" Hyde yelled to everybody in the room.
The anchorman on the screen looked up from his piece of paper and said, "WTF News as now projects that Red Foreman will defeat the incumbent Mayor Johnson by over seventy-eight percent of the voters."
The room erupted in celebration. Eric looked over at his dad and saw him shaking his hands with Barnet and Bob. Now his dad was… hugging Leo? Eric now knew he had seen it all.
Eric's thoughts quickly returned to Jackie and decided to go talk to her. Eric slipped into the kitchen and went down the basement stairs. Eric saw Jackie and his mom talking on the couch. Once he got to the couch, both women turned their heads towards him.
Eric gave a big smile and said, "Dad's the Mayor."
Jackie and Kitty gave big smiles at hearing the news.
Kitty got up, hugged Eric, and said, "By how much?"
Eric said, "Like, seventy-eight percent I think."
"Well, I'm going to go upstairs and congratulate your father." Kitty said, before rushing up stairs.
Eric turned to Jackie and said, "Isn't this great?"
Jackie hugged Eric and said, "Yes it is."
While Eric held Jackie, he could feel her slightly shaking, and this got him concerned.
"Jackie, you're shaking. What wrong?" Eric said with worry.
Jackie was about to speak but then the telephone went off.
Eric decided he wanted to talk to her somewhere quiet, and said, "Let's go outside."
They both went outside to the driveway, and stood right next to the Vista Cruiser.
Eric grabbed Jackie's shoulders and said, "Ok, tell me what's wrong?"
Jackie looked at the ground and said, "Eric would you love me no matter what?"
Eric, who was confused, and said, "Of course I would Jackie. There is nothing you can do that could make me not love you, unless if you burned all my Star Wars fighter models."
Jackie got a little frustrated and said, "I'm serious Eric."
Eric said, "And I'm serious too. I can't think of anything you could do to make me stop loving you."
"I'm pregnant!" Jackie blurted.
Eric was dumbfounded for a second then he looked at Jackie and felt really happy.
Eric grabbed Jackie and said, "Jackie, why did you think I would stop loving you?"
Jackie looked up at him and said, "You aren't upset?"
Eric excitedly said, "No! In fact, I've never felt this happy before."
"But I thought that since you just started teaching, and we don't have a house, plus, we aren't married or engaged yet. I thought you would be upset about this." Jackie said, surprisingly.
Eric reached into his back pants pocket and pulled out a little black box. Jackie saw box and started to tear up, since she knew exactly what it was for.
Eric got on one knee and said, "I have been waiting for the right moment to ask you this, and since we have a kid in the equation… Jackie Burkhart will you do me the great honor in becoming my wife."
Jackie was in full tears now and said, "Yes! Yes! I will be your wife!"
Eric slipped the ring on her finger, and enveloped her in a deep passionate kiss. They continued kissing for a while.
When they stopped, Jackie looked into Eric's eyes and said, "I love you Eric."
They continued to hold each other in a similar position as they did last Christmas, except now they were both full of love with each other.
Place: Foreman Kitchen
A single pair of eyes had been watching this whole moment play out.
"Huh, would you look at that. Loud girl finally got her happy ending." Leo said before he lost his attention to a refrigerator he swears he's never noticed.
AN: Finally done with this story! I finally have my first completed story. I had fun doing this but I am ready to move on to new and other story ideas I have been working on. It took me over seven months to finish this story.
I would like to thank all of those who read this story. I would also like to thank all of those who reviewed my story as well. Thank you Ace5492, Marla's Lost, Jackie Loves Fez, FanFictionObsession43, DFT, Sieg15, nannygirl, MidniteRaine, and 19ADHD96 for your reviews.
I would just like to put it out there that if anybody wishes to review any chapter of this story they still can. I would not mind any reviews after even if this story is completed. It gives me great pleasure to know that my stories are still being read.