Jackie's Car somewhere two hours away from Point Place
Stephanie was starting to awaken in the back seat. They had just passed through another town
"Okay Stephanie, we are about two hours away from Point Place!" Jackie was getting nervous, and the coffee wasn't helping. Jackie had come to love coffee. It gave her the energy needed to get through the day. Working eight hours of the day every weekday was exhausting, the fact that she still spent a few moments of the day watching a movie with Stephanie, or doing some sort of puzzle was surprising.
They spent the last five minutes skipping around stations. An old Led Zeppelin song came on and Stephanie just had to listen. Half way through the song Jackie couldn't help, but to point out how much her daughter acted like Hyde.
"Mom, what was dad like?"Stephanie had this curious puppy dog look; she even had her head tilted slightly to the side.
"Well, Steven…He was a lot like you actually. He didn't like showing his emotion, he listened to Zeppelin all the time, and he had a pair of aviators, just like yours. Those damn glasses; he always wore those things."
"Mom! I have never heard you cuss before!" Stephanie was surprised.
"Sorry, honey. Steven, he just, well I can't explain."
"Hey mom? Was I-I mean, was I named after him?" Stephanie thought about her mom's use of his first name, and she couldn't stop thinking of how similar Stephanie is to Steven.
"I was wondering if you would catch on. You know, when I found out about you I was the happiest person alive. You really got to understand the situation I-we were in. Your father was married, and when I thought of telling him. I don't know. I did the only thing I had ever done when things got bad. I ran away."
"Mom, I love you." Jackie gave her daughter a confused look
"How can you love me when I just told you that? You should be angry at me!"
"I know you really love me, because you managed to provide for me when you had no money, nobody, and nowhere to live! So I want you to know that I love you as much as you love me! Maybe a little more" Stephanie gave a grin. She was never this open with her mother, and Jackie decided she was going to savoir every bit of it.
"You know Donna told me that she and Eric have a son." Jackie said giving her daughter a sly grin. "I heard that two, not-so-attractive, people have beautiful children."
"Mom, are you trying to play match-maker here?" Stephanie let a little laugh out.
"Come on honey, it's what I was born for!" Jackie and her daughter shared laughs as they drove the rest of the way.
Foreman Basement
Donna and Eric were sitting on the couch enjoying some Gilligan's Island when a noisy Fez bursts through the door.
"Ladies and gentleman, your God is here!" Donna, and Eric looked at him strangely questioning the foreign mans actions. You would think that with a little growing up, he might have matured a bit. Although we are talking about Fez here aren't we?
"Heeeyyy, where is everybody? Don't tell me I am the first one to show up?" Fez was obviously upset. At least he realized being first is not always the best thing.
"Thanks Fez, we are happy to see you too!" Donna said in a sarcastic tone.
"Donna, what are you talking about I never said I was…. Ohhhh! You were using sarcasm again, weren't you? Tricky, Donna!" The red head and her husband rolled their eyes at the slow foreign kid.
"Don't worry Fez, Jackie called me at a phone booth and hour ago and said she'll be here in around thirty minutes" Eric shifted upward from his slouching position at the mention of Jackie coming, "You mean you found her? She agreed to come too!" Eric knew Jackie was stubborn, and since she left so abruptly he didn't think she would want to come back.
"Eric, why are you worrying about how, and be happy that my goddess is returning!" Hyde happens to walk into the basement right as fez is ending his sentence.
"Fez, did you just say 'my goddess is returning'? You don't mean Jackie do you?" Donna got up quickly and moved over to Hyde. She kinda stood there a bit thinking of what she would say to the former lover of Jackie B. Burkhart.
"Hyde….I-I invited Jackie to the reunion, and she is going to be here in thirty minutes." Hyde was lucky he had his aviators on or else Donna would have seen the shock, and maybe just a bit of happiness in his eyes. Hyde hesitated a bit before answering, and making sure he had his Zen on.
"Well, I guess you guys are gonna be in for a lot of yelling." With that he walked off to his old room in the basement.
Hyde's Old Room In The Basement
The cot was still in the old room. Nobody ever had a use for it. Mrs. Forman didn't get a lot of overnight guests. If she did, she wouldn't dare think of telling them to sleep on a cot when there are two unoccupied rooms. Hyde sat down, and thought the situation over. He had already admitted to himself he missed Jackie. He didn't know if he was quite ready to see her though. Hyde thought about her all the time. There was nothing else important enough to think about anymore except for her. Jackie lit up his dull world. He listened to more things people said just in case Jackie might bring it up later. He was happy about this. The gang had interesting things to talk about, but without Jackie, Hyde didn't have a reason to actually listen to anything. He sure as hell wasn't going to let the gang know they were interesting to him. Then they would actually think that they are cool. Jackie made things better, but she wanted to much from him at one time. He had never thought anything about marrying somebody, or loving them. She was too stupid to see that the reason he didn't say he loved her is because he didn't want to say it and not mean it, and in return hurt her. She was the annoying puppy that is too cute to hurt. She was his annoying puppy. Hyde didn't know much about what he wanted, but he figured seeing Jackie again would be no worse than bowling.
Jackie's Car
"Look, Stephanie! There is the sign! It says, 'Welcome to Point Place'!" Jackie let out a loud squeal. It seemed that every minute Jackie got more anxious and more excited to see Hyde. She was thinking about it, and she was happy her daughter could finally get to see her Dad. She knew Steven would love his daughter, she also knew that if Jackie had told his daughter that he ran out on them there would be no forgiveness for Jackie. Luckily Stephanie never brought her dad up a lot as a child. Of course there had been a time when Stephanie saw other children's dads, but she never tried to be like other children a lot. Jackie can still remember the day Stephanie came home from school. Steph was in the third grade, and she came home all serious.
"Momma!" She said with her scrunched face, "Momma, am I an orphan?"Jackie gave her daughter a confused look.
"Steph, you are certainly not an orphan. Where did you get that idea from?"
"Alexander Cunningham. He said that since I didn't have a daddy I was an orphan." After she said this she crossed her arms, and gave this pouty look.
Jackie looked her daughter straight in the eye and said, "Well, Alexander doesn't know what he is talking about. To be an orphan you can't have a daddy or a mommy, but you have a mommy, so there is no possible way that you are an orphan." Jackie gave her daughter an encouraging smile, and with the news that Stephanie got, her face lightened up into a smile.
Driving around the town Jackie saw so many familiar places. She even saw the hub, which she had to point out to Stephanie. Everything was just like she left it. Point Place never changed. Jackie pulled up to the old Mansion she used to live in. Her dad never sold it. He probably didn't even know when Jackie moved out. He figured that when he lost all his money Jackie got a job and was handling herself just fine. Stephanie looked at the house in disgust.
"It looks a little too fancy don't you think" Jackie gave her daughter a giggle and thought, "She is just like him!"
"Stephanie you are looking at the house I grew up in. It's a little run down, I guess the maids stopped coming by for the weekly clean up after I moved out.
"Mom, you used to live here! I thought grandpa was poor." Jackie loved the moment of surprise her daughter gave off.
"Well until I was 17 your grandpa was actually very rich, but he got caught for bribery and we lost everything. That is why I always tell you that money won't solve all your problems. I learned that the hard way." Stephanie gave a small little 'oh' and got out of the car. She went to the trunk and got her bag swung it on her shoulder and started walking to the door. Jackie could tell Stephanie just went into zen mode. It was expected Stephanie was giving off way too much emotion last few days. Jackie went over to the flower pot with some dried up dirt in it, and fished around for the spare key. After a second or two she found it and unlocked the door. It gave away this eerie creek when it opened. There was dust everywhere, and the house was too big to clean it all by themselves.
"Go ahead and put your stuff down. I don't think any of the power is still on. I can dip into my old savings account a bit, and get this place up and running, and I guess I can get a cleaning crew down here. I'll go ahead and pay for a month of electricity, and we can just see from there." Stephanie nodded; she didn't care much about the dust so she went ahead and lay down on the couch. Jackie took a quick little walk around the parts of the house she was acquainted with.
Eric Forman's Basement
Kelso had shown up twenty minutes ago. The five of them sat there and watched a marathon of Gilligan's Island. A voice was making it's way from upstairs down to the basement. "Hey dad? Grandma is going crazy because she can't find the icing for the cake she was going to make for the reunion. Do you have any idea where it is?" Before Eric answered, his son was greeted by the three visitors. "Hey Luke" All three friends said in unison. Eric gets up to talk to his son.
"Tell your grandmother that we are all out of icing, but I am about to head out to get some beer-."
"Eric!" Donna interrupted in a stern voice giving her husband a mean look.
"And soda!" Eric quickly corrected himself. Fez got up and looked at the young man. "Ooohh, Luke it has been so long since I have seen you…I just missed you so much!" Fez collapsed on top of Luke, which made him take a few steps back. After Fez was done Kelso came up behind him, "Yeah, I remember those days. You know I used to ruin people's lives with how good looking I was. You could do some minor ruining." With a pat on the back it was Hyde's turn to greet the boy. "You know, with Eric as your father I have to admit I am surprised about how attractive you turned out to be." At that very moment a slender, yet familiar figure walked into the basement. "Jackie?" The gang says simultaneously. "Hey!" is her only response. They all sat there for a moment, and then another slender figure walked in; this time not so familiar.