Disclaimer: I own nothing! Never have, never will.

Author's Note: Hello friends! Well it's Monday and you know what that means…well yeah it means 'ugh the weekends over, darn it' but it also means a new chapter of this fic! Thanks so much for your kind words you guys, they mean a lot and I hope you'll continue to write those wonderful reviews. Few notes today. First off this is kinda a filler chapter that was gonna be a lot shorter if I hadn't had added some stuff, but don't worry there's still some important stuff that happens in here. Second, please remember I am not a doctor, no am I a nurse or anything else in the medical field…I don't even do community work in a hospital…but I probably should…Anywwo thanks for reading hope you like and please, Enjoy!

Kitty stood in her kitchen, by the microwave. Not the same one that Fez and Laurie had received as a wedding gift…years ago. That machine lasted longer than the marriage.

"Then you press start." Kitty said to the camera after pressing the button on the appliance, "And that is how you use a microwave without making anything explode."

"And that is one of your Grandma Kitty's classy burns." Hyde was heard saying.

Kitty just continued to smile before she walked over to the stove to mix something that was cooking in a large pot.

"What are we having?"

"Spa-Kitty and meatballs." She answered with a laugh, "I cal it that because I add different ingredients to make this recipe my own."

"When did you start coming up with your own recipes and stuff like that?"

"Well let's see," Kitty said as she covered the smaller pot on the stove, "I started baking when I was about seven or eight. Then by the time I was twelve I had my own brownie recipe…which is the one I still use today."

"Whoa." Was all Hyde could say, he had those brownies on many, many occasion and he never would've thought a twelve year old had come up with the recipe.

Kitty shrugged her shoulders, "I grew up in…a long time ago." She said stopping herself from revealing her age, "And back then for girls, having your own recipe for anything was like having one of those 8 track player things."

"Kids right now while we're filming this," Hyde said, staying behind the camera, the people who own one of those things, aren't even close to being cool."

Kitty sent him a warning look before going on, "As I was saying. I started backing at a young age, but I don't think I started actually cooking until…well until Red and I got married."

"Seriously?" Hyde asked surprised, "So like you didn't know how to cook anything?"

"Well I knew how to cook a few things but nothing too big." Kitty explained, "Bless Red for staying with me for those first three months."

Hyde smirked, "That bad huh?"

"One time he got such bad food poisoning he had to go to the hospital. We thought the 'till death do us part' was gonna come a lot sooner than we hoped. Luckily Red got better and I got better at cooking. Everything worked out" Kitty shared, but then her smile shrunk some, "I wish I could say the same for this time around though."

~*~

Eric sat outside on the snow covered ground.

He was in the backyard, sitting against the wall that was also a wall to the kitchen. He knew no one would find him here. No one ever really came out there…well except for his parents and that was to work on the yard. But none of the old gang, he wondered if they even knew there was the backyard. They had to, though. They must have seen it when they made their daily trip to the basement.

And they use to play in it all the time when they were little. With the tree-house in the old oak tree and the swing set with the slide attached. Both had been taken down by Red years ago. He said it was because they were rarely being used but Eric always thought it was another attempt to get rid of the kids that hung around his house. It probably would've worked if there wasn't the basement, but Red couldn't get rid of that.

However, old memories like that weren't what were going through Eric's mind at the moment. Instead he was thinking about how many mistakes he had made since he got here, how he was messing everything up and he'd only been here two days.

Why had he run off today, without even giving his mother an explanation? Why wasn't he able to walk into his childhood home and join his mother and friends for dinner and some laughs? He had felt nervous and a bit left out when he saw them all in the living room laughing, and so he ran off. Why did he do that?

He knew why, because he was a dumbass and a coward. A cowardly dumbass.

But what he couldn't understand was why he was that cowardly dumbass now.

Over in Seattle he wasn't a cowardly dumbass. He wasn't even a dumbass. He was a hardworking teacher, a good teacher. His previous students would rave about him to the incoming fifth graders and they all would ask their parents to request him as their teacher.

They thought he was funny and smart and a few of the little girls had little crushes on him. These kids looked up to him. He was a hero to them, not a cowardly dumbass.

"I had a feeling Seattle would get you use to the rain, but I never would've thought the snow."

Hearing the familiar voice, Eric frowned and turned his head towards the garage. There he saw Jackie, bundled up in a jacket with matching hat, scarf and gloves. It wasn't that cold out here. Eric knew who had told her to put on those accessories.

"Jackie?" he asked sounding a bit surprised.

Out of everyone in the house he thought Jackie would've been the last one to come out here and find him. Well there was Hyde too. And his mom couldn't come outside. Donna and him hadn't really talked and he hardly knew that Randy guy. Brooke was probably putting the kids to bed—those kids including Fez and Kelso. Now that Eric thought about it, Jackie was really the only one who would come look for him. When did that happen?

"How did you know I was out here?" Eric asked as Jackie walked over to him.

"Eric, please. I've known you for almost twenty years." Jackie said as she took a seat beside him, "I know you like the back of my hand."

Eric watched her, believing her for a second or two. "You saw me in the kitchen, didn't you?"

"Yup."

They sat in silence. Jackie waited for Eric to speak; she had a feeling he'd want to talk about his visit with Kitty. Eric waited for Jackie to speak; he had a feeling she'd want to talk…because she was Jackie.

Eric was right. Jackie did want to talk; she hated silence and had already come up with several topics to talk about. One of those topics being the visit with Kitty, but Jackie knew it would be better if she waited for him to say something, instead of her badgering him with questions. So she kept her mouth shut and entertained herself with the snow on the floor.

Eric smiled as he watched her run her covered hands over the snow. She had started to create a small hill with the snow, but it looked like she wasn't quite sure what to do with it. She looked so innocent and kinda pretty…

"The coast is clear, you know." Jackie informed. She'd finally had enough of the quietness.

Her words had caught Eric off guard and he could barely remember what she was talking about. Why was she talking about a beach?

He shook his head, "What?"

"What is your brain frozen?" Jackie asked with a frown, "I said the coast is clear as in everyone's gone."

"Oh!" Eric said, finally understanding, then he changed his tone to a disappointed like one, "Oh."

Jackie nodded, "Yeah. They're either already in bed or getting ready for it."

Eric moved his head up and down as Jackie continued to speak.

"Have you eaten?" she asked not waiting for a reply, "I can warm you up some leftovers…well take-out leftovers. None of us really no how to cook except for Brooke maybe. But you know how your mom is about guest not doing anything since they're a guest. Even though, Michael and Brooke were the ones who bought dinner tonight…"

"Jackie," Eric cut her off, "what are you doing?"

"Ok that's it. You need this more than I do." She said to Eric before she pulled off her orange knit hat and placed it on his head. She smoothed out the top of her head and went on with explaining, "I'm talking. It's what people do to communicate. You just did it. I'm talking to you, trying to be nice…"

"Well first off, thanks for the hat." He said with a small smile, "But what I meant was, what are you doing here?"

Jackie sent him a look that was anything but happy. Eric soon realized that wasn't the right way to phrase the question.

"Ok, ok let me try again." He said holding up his hands and then began to think. This was hard, he sighed and decided to just go for it, "Jackie, how do you…how are you able to handle…all of this with Mom?"

"Oh." Jackie said as her face softened. She shrugged her shoulders, "Well it hasn't been easy…"

This shocked Eric. To him she was handling this like it was just another day; she could keep her cool through everything. "Really?"

Jackie gave him a sideways look, "Eric you're not the only one who this has been hard for." She shook her head at the memories of when Kitty was in the hospital before this, "It's been hard on all of us. Me, Steven…and your dad was a wreck during those worst months."

"Red really?" Eric asked, he couldn't imagine Red in a state like that, he was always so strong.

"He may not have shown it very much, but I could tell." she told him.

Again Eric nodded, he could believe that. A small frown soon appeared on his face as he realized Jackie had yet to answer his question.

"But how do you do it, Jackie? I mean you're watching over her, you've been watching over her. Making sure she's comfortable. Getting her medicines when she needs them. You never freak out when you're taking care of her." Eric said, "You're taking care of her in a way that I haven't…and probably won't ever be able to."

Jackie placed her warm hand over Eric's cold one. "Sure you will Eric." she gave it a slight squeeze, "I know it's hard. You're so use to your mom taking care of you, you never would've thought that the roles would reverse like this and your mom would be the one who needed your help."

Eric nodded, that was exactly how he felt.

"But you've got to remember all of those times that you were sick in bed and your mom stayed up sitting at your bedside, even after you had fallen asleep."

Kitty had done that to Eric too many times to count—even when he was well into his teen years. Sometimes it would annoy him, because he wasn't a baby, but most of the time it comforted him to know his mother would be there if he needed anything.

"When your mom first got sick and we had to start taking care of her, I couldn't do it." Jackie went on, bringing Eric out of his thoughts, "Then I reminded myself of the times that she had helped me. And that if it were me who was sick, Mom would take care of me in all the ways that she could. The least I could do was the same for her."

Eric nodded, Jackie's words made a lot of sense and it gave him not only a smidge of hope but an idea too.

He looked over at her, "Hey Jackie, how about if you and I switch places tonight? You could sleep in your room and I'll stay with Mom."

"Um Eric…" Jackie began, not really sure how she should word this, "I don't really think that's such a good idea."

"What? Why?" he asked not understanding, he thought it was a great idea. "You'll get to have a good night's sleep and it'll give me a chance to talk with Mom."

Jackie shook her head, "I know, it's a good idea…just not tonight."

"Why?"

"Steven's staying with Mom tonight." she explained, "We're sorta taking shifts. Since I stayed with her yesterday, he's staying with her tonight. "

"Oh ok. " Eric answered trying to hide his disappointment, "Oh but hey doesn't that mean you're gonna need your room tonight? I haven't gotten a hotel room yet with everything that happened today. But I guess I could…"

"Eric, Eric" Jackie interrupted, "Don't worry about it, I'm gonna stay in Steven's room tonight. "

Eric frowned, "You sure that's such a good idea? "

"Eric, please." she said with a roll of her eyes, "Steven and I have been over for years now. "

Eric shrugged, "I guess that might come in handy to know, but I meant cause Fez is staying in the basement too."

"Oh." was all a slightly embarrassed Jackie could say, "Well you don't have to worry about that either. Steven added a lock to his bedroom door a few years back."

Eric nodded as he kept his eyes on the floor. Jackie could tell he really did want to make the effort and talk to his mother again.

"But hey, there's always tomorrow night." Jackie reminded, "We can do your idea then and…"

"I'm going back to Seattle tomorrow, remember?"

Jackie's face fell as his two days plan came back into her mind.

"Oh right." she muttered as she stood up and brushed the snow off of her pants. She looked at Eric and frowned before snatching her orange hat off of his head. "Orange is so not your color."

Eric watched as she marched her off away from him.

"Jackie," he called out, causing her to turn around, "I'm sorry."

Jackie just shook her head, "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."

Eric didn't say a word. She was right and he knew it. So instead of calling her back or saying anything else he watched the tiny brunette get tinnier as she walked over to the basement, until she finally disappeared into the lower level of the house.

~*~

Fez was sitting on the old basement couch when Jackie walked into the room.

Seeing Jackie, Fez forgot about the old Lavern and Shirley episode he was watching and jumped up onto the back of the couch. He smiled largely at Jackie, never noticing the upset frown on her face.

"Alright Jackie, I have got everything planned." Fez excitedly told her, but Jackie never stopped walking towards the back room. "First we have a makeover and then we are going to gossip and eat chocolaty chocolate ice cream and then to top it all off back to back episodes of Mary Tyler Moore!"

Jackie never said a word, probably because she didn't hear a word that Fez had said. She finally reached Hyde's small room and she stepped inside before slamming the door shut, leaving a poor confused Fez on the couch.

"Jackie?" he called but got no response, "Fine you can give me the makeover instead. But that means I get more of the ice cream!"

~*~

"You know, I just realized I haven't seen Eric since breakfast." Donna said to her fiancé as they tried to get comfortable on the sofa sleeper in the Forman living room. "Did he get a hotel or something?"

Randy shook his head, "I don't think so. I don't think he'd wanna get Mrs. Forman upset."

"He barely said anything this morning. Or yesterday night." Donna reminded.

"And?" Randy asked, not really seeing a point to this.

Donna swung her head to look at him, "And that's not like Eric."

"Alright, so." Randy shrugged his shoulders, "He's changed. People change Donna."

"I guess." She replied as she rested her head against the pillow, "I just hope he hasn't changed too much."

~*~

Upstairs in Eric's old room, Brooke was trying to get some sleep but it wasn't so easy. She wasn't exactly use to sleeping on the ground, but it was the only logical thing to do since the bed in the room was a twin sized.

So Betsy was sleeping soundly on the mattress while her parents slept on the floor over a few old comforters.

Brooke had her eyes closed as she counted the fiftieth sheep jump over the fence in her mind. Then suddenly the sheep stopped making their 'baahh'ing noise and instead sounded like the noises little boys made when they were pretending to play with guns.

Her eyes flew open and she turned to her left to see her husbands back.

"Michael?" she called softly, and the noise stopped, "What are you doing?"

Kelso lay on his side, his eyes wide and nervous. He never turned to face Brooke, instead he tried to hide what he had under the covers.

"Nothing." Kelso replied unconvincingly.

Brooke knew he was lying and so she sat up and looked at Kelso waiting for him to admit it. Slowly Kelso moved onto his back and looked up at his wife.

"What?"

Instead of answering, Brooke squinted her eyes a bit at Kelso before grabbing hold of the blanket and pulling it off of him; revealing his new found treasures. Brooke frowned slightly at what she had found.

"Come on, Brooke. They're G.I. Joes!" Kelso exclaimed happily as he lifted up Eric's old 'action figures.'

"Shh!" his wife said to him while trying not to laugh. "Betsy's in here, remember?"

He didn't, at least not until she reminded him. "Oh right. Sorry." He paused. "Can I still play with Joe?"

"Sure." Brooke replied as she shook her head and laid back down, "Just don't break anything."

"Yeah, yeah." Kelso said as he waved his hand, waving of Brooke's words.

Again the silence—except for Kelso's slight gun noises—filled the room, but Brooke still couldn't sleep. She turned to herself to lie on her left side and saw Kelso playing with the toys, making them climb up his knee as if it were a mountain. Brooke had to smile at that.

"You know Michael, this whole trip here for Mrs. Forman has really got me thinking about Betsy…"

Kelso dropped the dolls and quickly turned to Brooke, fear and worry in his eyes.

"Betsy?!" he asked sounding panicked, "Why Betsy? Is she sick? What's wrong with my little Sweet Pea?!"

"Sh, sh, sh. Nothing's wrong Michael." Brooke calmly said as she placed her hand over his chest, "Betsy's perfectly fine. I meant Betsy and your parents. I mean With my mom in Chicago, Betsy's really close to her but whenever we come to Point Place we only spend an hour or so at your parents house.

"Yeah, cause most of my brother's still live there." Kelso reminded, "They'll use Betsy as a football!"

Brooke laughed a small laugh at Kelso's words, causing him to frown.

"You think I'm joking, but I'm not. When I was little, I was the soccer ball!"

"Ok, ok." Brooke said softly, hoping to calm him down and lower his voice, "But maybe we could make a small visit to see them while we're here. We'll call before and make sure your brothers are gone.

Kelso thought about it for a few seconds before shrugging his shoulder. "Yeah ok, I guess. But only for a little while, this trip is kinda for Mrs. Forman. I mean I know she's not my mom or anything but she kinda is."

Brooke nodded, signaling for him to go on.

"It's not like Jackie or Hyde though cause I had good parents…just not good siblings. And it's not like Fez where his parents are in…it's not like Fez." He went on, "See since there was a bunch of us over at my house I was kinda like just another kid there; but whenever I'd come over here Mrs. Forman always made me feel like…"

Kelso drifted off as he tried to come up with the right word. He drifted off for a long time. Seeing her husband struggle, Brooke decided to try to help.

"You were something?"

"Yeah, I was something." Kelso nodded, "I just can't think of the word…"

Brooke laughed and rested her head against his shoulder, "Michael you are something else."

"Brooke you can't say that if I haven't even said what the first something is!"

~*~

"Yeah, Red Forman. He's there for a veteran's convention." Hyde repeated for what felt like the hundredth time, but this time he kept his voice soft and low.

However, he wasn't keeping is voice down because he wanted to; it was more like he had to. He was upstairs in Kitty's room with her, using the telephone while she slept peacefully on the bed.

"Yeah I need to tell him something." Hyde said into the phone and there was a pause before he rolled his eyes, "Yeah, it's important."

Another pause occurred as the person over in New York spoke. The person had obviously said something to upset Hyde as he forgot about who was in the room with him and raised his voice with annoyance.

"No, I'm not gonna tell you what it's about." He firmly told them, "Cause it's none of your damn business."

A small moan of pain reminded Hyde of his surroundings. He held his breath as he watched Kitty, hoping she wouldn't wake up. She may have been an ill woman and there were a few things she couldn't do anymore but getting mad at her children wasn't one of them.

After sitting as silent as a statue for a few more seconds, Hyde sighed and then began to speak into the receiver once again.

"Look man, can you help me or not?" he asked in his softer voice again, "It's a family emergency kinda deal and he needs to come home."

Silence filled the air for a few seconds as Hyde waited for a response. When he did get one, it wasn't what he had expected.

"You have his room number?" he asked, "Yeah, yeah pass me through."

Hyde felt some of the weight lift off of his shoulders, he was finally getting closer than he'd been before. He was gonna be able to tell Red what was going on now. A thought suddenly entered his mind and he looked over at the alarm clock.

It was late here which meant it was later in New York. Not only was Red gonna be woken up in the middle of the night by Hyde—that alone didn't look good to Hyde—but at almost one in the morning Hyde was gonna have to tell him he had to come back home because his wife was dying.

Talk about rude awakening.

"Um wait." Hyde said before the person on the other line could pass him over to Red, "Could you like give me his room number so I can call back tomorrow and tell them so I can get passed through faster…it's kinda late and he's probably asleep."

There was another pause.

"Great, ok yeah hold on let me get something to write on." He said and then reached over to grab a pen off the nightstand and then the newspaper from a few days back. "Ok, room 236…yeah I got it. Thanks man, I really appreciate it."

"Nah no message." Hyde answered after another pause. That would be the easiest and maybe even safest ways, but Hyde couldn't do that to Red, "I've gotta do this."

Author's Note: And that was Chapter 8 of "Two Weeks" Hope you liked!

Now that Hyde's got Red's room number will he be able to contact Red? Will Kelso go visit his parents? Is Eric leaving or will he talk to Kitty? Or will he do both? Will Fez's plans for the night be fulfilled? Find out in the next chapter of "Two Weeks"

Yup, I'm doing the questions closing again. I always liked the sitcom SOAP and when I did "Learning to Fly" I loved coming up with my own questions.

Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, stay tuned, take care, and have a nice day!