Disclaimer: I own nothing, nothing, and nothing.
Author's Note: Hello All! I know I'm late again and ugh it's for a really dumb reason this time. And I am so sorry for it. See last night I was gonna work on the end of the chapter but I fell asleep. Can you believe that it was only 12:30. I woke up kicking myself, but then I figured I'd work on it in the morning since i have the day off. Well that would've worked out if I had gotten out of bed and not stayed in it watching old Lucy reruns. Yup I fell asleep again. I am so sorry for my tardiness and this week of no school will be used to work on fics only…well and a few other stuff got get ready for the concert I'm going to the weekend, The king of country George Strait! Whoa!! But I'm rambling. Just wanted to say thanks for the reviews and for continuing to read this story, I am so glad you guys are enjoying it. Remember I'm not a doctor, but I have decided to study something in the medical field. Thanks again and sorry for the lateness, I'll be back on track soon! I hope. Enjoy!
Hyde quickly came up with the next question for his adoptive mother, "Out of all us kids, who's your favorite?"
"Steven, you know I don't have a favorite." Kitty answered with a smile as she shook her head just a bit, "I love all of you the same amount."
"I don't have a favorite either, but not for the same reason." Red commented from his chair.
"Come on Mom, you've gotta have a favorite." Hyde said moving the camera away from Red and back to Kitty, "Just say who it is."
"Steven I do not have a favorite." She told him in a firm voice.
"Ok, ok, fine." The camera man paused for a few seconds, "What if I guess?"
"Steven…"
"Alright let's see…" Hyde began to think, "It can't be Randy cause no one but Donna likes him. You haven't known Brooke as long as the rest of us."
Kitty remained silent as she watched her surrogate son try to figure out which one of her children she loved the most.
"It's not Fez or Kelso, cause they get on everyone's nerves. You and Donna never really saw eye to eye." Hyde went on, "And it's not Laurie cause she's well Laurie."
As Hyde continued to ramble on, Kitty shook her head. He would never figure out who was her favorite child, because she didn't know who her favorite was. She didn't have a favorite!
"It can't be Jackie either. She's already Red's favorite…."
"Wait who says the Loud One is my favorite?" Red asked with a frown.
Hyde turned the camera over to Red before he started to explain, "Red, come on man, we all know she's' your favorite. It's kinda a tie between her and Laurie; but since we haven't seen Laurie in like six years the title pretty much goes to Jackie."
Red continued to scowl as he heard Hyde's explanation. He took a few seconds to review the points made and then his expression softened a little.
"Well the girl does know her way around a car." He frown soon reappeared, not wanting his soft side to be caught on film, "But she's talks too much."
Shaking his head slightly, Hyde moved the video camera back to film Kitty.
"So that leaves me and Eric." He stated, "Which is it?"
Kitty titled her head to the right and slowly began to shake it, "Steven, I can't choose between the two of you. I can't choose between any of you." She took a deep breath, "I love you all for many reasons."
"I lo…well I like Randy because he makes Donna happy. I love Brooke because she gave me my first grand-basement baby." Kitty went on with a smile, "I love Fez because he says the nicest things to me, when I can understand them And Michael can always make me smile which is why I love him."
"Donna and I didn't always get along but I do love her. She's helped Eric and taught him so many things about life that me and Red wouldn't be able to. And Laurie is my daughter, my first born child. She'll always hold a special place in my heart."
"Now onto the final three." Hyde reported.
Kitty's smile grew, "I love Jackie like another daughter. She is just a wonderful girl who is so full of surprises. I would've never guessed that the young girl who refused to touch an egg would be helping us the way she is now."
"Steven, I love you for many reasons. You truly are our second son. And the way you've been here for me and Red through all this, I…I couldn't ask for more."
Kitty smiled as she watched the camera man turn a light shade of pink, before she went on to the last person on her list.
"And Eric." Her smile grew, "Eric's my little baby boy. I'll love him no matter what."
"So you see, I love you all equally," she paused, "But it's almost impossible to love you all for the same reasons."
~*~
Hyde pushed open the Forman's bedroom door and walked inside. He had to frown a bit when he saw that the bed was empty. However when he saw that the door to the bathroom was shut, he understood.
He placed the bottles of pills on the night stand and then his pizza right new to it, before he walked over to the shut door.
"Do you need any help in there?" he asked after knocking.
"No Steven." Kitty's muffled voice answered after a several seconds, "I'll…I'll be right out."
Hyde nodded before he took a seat in the armchair by the bed. He knew that despite the fact that Kitty said she'd be right out, it would be several minutes before she'd come out. She might even end up calling him for help soon.
Sure enough there were few minutes of obscure noises before the bathroom door reopened. Only two or three not as long as Hyde had guessed and he wasn't called in for any assistance.
"Hi." He greeted with a small smile.
"Hi." Kitty replied weakly.
"You need help getting to the bed?" Hyde asked already on his feet.
He was ready to argue with her and insist that he help her make her way to the bed, but didn't have to. Kitty closed her eyes and nodded her head. Soon Hyde was at her side helping her take the few steps, while making sure not to interferer with the wires that connected her to the machine he also helped push along.
"Thank you, Steven." She said softly after Hyde had helped her onto the mattress and under the covers.
"No problem." He reassured as she reached over and grabbed the pills he had taken out while he was waiting, "Here, I brought you your medicine."
Kitty nodded before dropping the tablets into her mouth and then accepting the glass of water Hyde handed to her.
"Is that pizza?" she asked frowning slightly as she caught a glimpse of the paper plate.
"Uh yeah. Do you want me to go get you a piece?"
"No, honey, thank you." Kitty answered shaking her head "I don't think I can hold anything down right now."
Hyde nodded, "Ok, well how about some TV?"
Not waiting for a response, Hyde reached over and grabbed the remote control. He slowly flipped through the channels, hoping to find something entertaining on. After a few more channels, he found the opening of an opening of an old movie.
"Hey look it's good ol' Carry Grant." Hyde said to Kitty, knowing she had a thing for the British-American actor.
But unlike the times before when she's tell him to leave it here or even take the control our of his hands to insure that he wouldn't change it; Kitty just smiled as she kept her eyes closed.
Hyde grabbed the plate of pizza and got comfortable in his seat. He left the channel on "An Affair to Remember" it was one of her favorite of Grant's movies. He had a suspicion that she'd be watching the film soon.
After a few minutes of nothing but the voices from the movie speaking, Hyde looked over to the bed and saw that Kitty still had her eyes closed. He figured she had fallen asleep so he grabbed the remote again and changed the channel. He wasn't much of a old movie type of guy.
"Did Eric leave already?"
Surprised by her question, Hyde forgot about his food and turned his attention to the woman in the bed beside him. Kitty had opened her eyes back up and was looking straight at him.
"Um," he struggled not sure if he should tell her the truth, "Um no. He's still here."
Kitty smiled, "Good, then I still have a chance to say bye to him."
"Maybe." Hyde said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"What do you mean 'maybe?'" Kitty asked, her smile gone and a frown taking it's place, "He is still here isn't he?"
"Well yeah, but I just don't know if he's gonna get the chance to see you before he leaves." He explained, "I don't want you to get your hopes up too high."
"Steven, what is going on between you and Eric?"
"Nothing." Hyde said in his Zen mode that would have fooled anyone but his mother.
Kitty shook her head, "Steven, don't lie to me."
"I'm not lying, Mom." He protested as he avoided her eyes and hoped that his shades hid that fact, "There's nothing going on."
"Really?" Kitty asked unconvinced as she lifted an eyebrow and Hyde nodded, "Then why is that whenever someone was in here visiting with me, you were close by, either in the room or sticking your head into the room every five minutes; but when Eric was in here, you were never here?"
Hyde shrugged, "I didn't know he was with you."
Though Kitty believed him this time, she could tell he was telling the truth, Hyde's answer still didn't satisfy her.
"And why didn't you know he was with me?" she questioned.
"Because…" he sighed and looked down at his feet, "Jackie snuck him up here to see you."
Now Kitty knew something was wrong between her two boys.
"Why did Jackie have to sneak Eric up here?"
"Because I didn't want him to see you." He told her, placing his head in his hand with his elbow propped up on the arm of the chair. Kitty opened her mouth to ask another question but Hyde continued to speak. "I didn't want him to see you before I could warn you."
Kitty frowned slightly, "Warn me about seeing my own son?"
"Yeah." Hyde nodded before noticing how dumb that sounded, "Mom you know the way he's been with this whole cancer stuff. He can't handle it. And I didn't want him going to see you then getting you excited about him staying for awhile only to leave the next day." He explained, "Which he practically did with him running out of the room and then the 'two days' deal you told me about."
Kitty shook her head, silently regretting ever telling him about it.
"Steven," she began but Hyde wasn't quite through.
"Red…"Hyde stopped himself as remembered Kitty wasn't supposed to know he'd talked to Red. So pointing out that Red had told him to make sure she was comfortable and happy was out of the question. Thinking quickly he came up with something else.
"Red's gonna be coming home soon and he sees Eric…it's not gonna be pretty." He said, "I think we should be worried about that."
"I'm not worried about how Red's going to react towards Eric." Kitty began, "We've been married for thirty years, and in those thirty years he has gotten his way maybe two three times. I am not worried about Red and Eric." She repeated, "I'm worried about you and Eric."
"You two have been friends since you were six years old. The two of you always behaved like brothers for the longest tome." Kitty went on, "In fact as much as you thank Red and me—maybe not out loud but silently—for taking you in when your mother left, most of the credit belongs to Eric. He was the one who was so concerned he told us what was going on."
"Huh." Hyde responded as he thought over Kitty's words.
It had been awhile since Hyde had stopped to think about how he'd become part of this family. How it had been Eric who had been concerned and brought him something to eat or asked Red if he could stay for dinner…
Hyde shook his head, "But that doesn't have anything to do with what going on now, Mom." He started, "He hasn't seen you in months and now that he's here he's thinking about work and wanting to go back, instead of being with you."
"Steven, I appreciate you looking out for me, I do. And I have missed Eric these past few months, I am disappointed that he's leaving so soon." Kitty began, "But I am so glad I got to see him for a few minutes. Those few minutes are so much better than not seeing him at all."
Looking down again, Hyde nodded.
"When I'm gone, I don't want to have to constantly be watching over the two of you to make sure you don't kill each other."
Hyde smirked as he heard the words and looked back up, "I think it'd be me who killed him. Have you seen they guy throw a punch?"
"Steven" his adoptive mother warned.
"I know," Hyde said erasing the smirk form his face, "I know."
"You know what you have to do?" she asked making sure.
"Yeah." He said with a sigh, "I gotta talk to Forman."
Kitty smiled. "Good. Now change it back to my Cary."
Hyde smirked as he grabbed the remote and switched the television to the previous channel and got comfortable. He'd talk to Eric later, right now he wanted to spend some more valuable time with Kitty.
~*~
Brooke and Jackie with the help of little Betsy explained to Fez and Kelso that Red wouldn't kill them because they had come to see Kitty and Kitty's happiness was one of the important things to him, and that managed to stop the two from running their way back to Chicago.
That was almost fifteen minutes ago, and since then everyone had gone down to the basement. Well except for Jackie who was picking up the take-out trash in the kitchen and Eric who hadn't seemed to move since Hyde delivered the news.
Jackie walked inside from the driveway after throwing out the pizza boxes and saw that Eric was still seated at the table.
"Eric?" she called as she sat down in the chair beside him.
"Yeah?" he asked not moving anything but his mouth.
Jackie breathed a sigh of relief, "Good you can talk. I was worried you'd gone into some kinda weird shock thing."
"No I'm fine." Eric assured looking over at her, "I just can't feel my legs."
Jackie giggled just abit, knowing he was just joking, "So you excited to see your dad?"
"Oh yeah." He nodded with enthusiasm, "I can't wait for him to threaten me with a foot in the ass."
"It won't be so bad, Eric."
Eric frowned, "You do know who we're talking about, right?"
"Yes." Jackie answered with a roll of her eyes, "And I also know that your dad is a good man. He really is sweet and caring and I think he's gonna be happy to see you."
Eric's brows knitted closer together, "Red Forman, right? The angry bald guy who owns this house?"
"You really shouldn't be so hard on your dad." Jackie told him.
"Right, because he was never that way with me."
Jackie didn't like the sarcastic tone Eric was using, and she frowned her own frown as she answered him.
"Your dad's a really good dad, Eric."
"You're just saying that because he likes you." Eric replied in a teasing tone.
And though Jackie could easily hear the tone and it was true that Red did like her—she was his favorite—Eric had to realize how good he had it. How great his parents really were compared to some many others.
She took in a deep breath, "Eric I want you to think back, and try to think of the most recent, fondest moment you've had with your dad."
"One that doesn't include him calling me a dumbass?" he asked.
Jackie shrugged, "If you think that's what helps make it a nice moment, then yeah."
"The day I was born." Eric answered, "Pretty sure that was the only day he didn't call me that. Maybe the day after too but I'm not a hundred percent."
Eric smiled as he own joke, but when he saw the deep scowl on Jackie's face he realized he'd made a mistake.
"I'm serious, Eric." She told him in a very stern tone of voice.
Eric nodded, "Um ok, ok. Give me a second."
He then proceeded to rack his brain and try to remember having a father-son moment with his dad. And it had to be recent. That was pretty difficult since he hadn't really spent in close quality time with his father in…well forever.
It took him several minutes but finally he had remembered something.
"Ok, I got it." He said grabbing Jackie attention, "After I came back from Africa and was still living here, I was up late because I wasn't use to the whole time change…"
"You aren't good with any time change." Jackie commented an Eric smiled.
"Yeah, I guess so. But anyways, I was awake and sitting in the kitchen when Red came in. I thought he was gonna kill me for being up so late or at least wake up the rest of the house with some yelling." Eric shared his story with Jackie.
"But he didn't. Instead he grabbed two beers out of the fridge and we sat at the table, drinking the beer, and talking. I talked about Africa and he talked about when he was in the war." He smiled slightly, "It was pretty nice."
Jackie smiled, "See, he is a good dad."
Eric shrugged, and then remembered something, "But he did still call me a dumbass that night!" he added pointing his finger in the air.
"You wanna know the most recent fondest moment I had with my dad?" Jackie asked tilting her head.
Eric looked down at his watch, "Let's see, add two hours…" He mumbled to himself before looking up at Jackie, "Yeah, why not I've got time."
Jackie shook her head, hiding her smile as she playfully slapped his arm; before she turned serious for a moment.
"Ok, well we were having dinner together at the dinning room table, and it was a really rare thing especially since it wasn't a holiday." She began, "Daddy was pretty quiet and was looking over some work stuff and I was talking away…"
"Don't you always?" Eric asked jokingly earning him another hit.
"I was talking to try and get him to start a conversation with me, but he never did." Jackie said sadly, "He just mumbled a few 'That's nice.' 'Great sweetheart.' And then when he finished eating, he stood up, kissed the top of my head and left to his office."
Eric frowned, "That's your most recent fondest moment with your dad?"
"It was the last dinner we had together before he went to jail."
"Wow." Eric said in shock, "Who would've guessed that Red Forman would have the most qualifications for Father of the Year?"
"I did." Jackie replied with a smile.
"You just know everything don't you?" he asked smiling slightly.
"Yup." She said her smile growing, "I also know that you're gonna be seeing your Mom real soon."
Eric's smile fell as he started back at the tiny brunette, "Yeah you know nothing." He told her in a serious tone. "There's no way Hyde's gonna let me in there now that he knows I was gonna leave today."
Jackie shook her head, "Eric, you've known Steven for a long time. You should know him better."
"I do know him better." Eric replied, "I know how Zen he acts, I know he's set in his stubborn ways, and I know he's acting pretty childish with this whole thing, and I know he's not gonna let me see Mom for a long time."
Eric waited for Jackie to say something about his words, but her mouth never opened. She just looked straight ahead and slightly to the right. And Eric had a good feeling about what she was looking at.
"He's standing right behind me, isn't he?"
Slowly Jackie nodded. Eric closed his eyes before turning himself around in the chair and then reopening them to the sight of Steven Hyde standing by the swinging kitchen door, looking very Zen. Not a good sign.
"Steven…" Jackie began.
"Jackie, get out." Hyde told her firmly.
The tiny brunette moved her mismatched eyes to Hyde and then to Eric, then back again as she asked the age old question in her head. Should she stay or should she go?
Author's Note: And that would be Chapter 14 of "Two Weeks" Hope you liked!
What did Hyde hear? Will Jackie leave the room or will she stay to protect Eric? Will Eric be seeing Kitty soon? Will he get any of his luggage back? What's going to happen when Red gets home? And will the gang ever have a home cooked meal? Confused? You won't be after the next chapter of "Two Weeks!"
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!