Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Author's Note: Hello everyone! Super sorry about the late update! I really am you won't believe what happened! See I usually work on this story on my dinosaur of a computer but still keep it on my USB incase something happens to the computer or so I can work on it in other places. But this Thursday a pulled a pretty big dumb-butt stunt. I took the USB out of the computer after not saving the changes to the story. Closed the document on the computer without saving changes. And lost half the chapter! So these past few days I've had to re write the chapter along with taking midterms and studying and getting sick and taking the dumb medicine that knocks me out at like 100' o'clock at night! Anywoo I'm really sorry for the late update though to be honest I almost din't post till next week but I figured you guys've waited long enough. Quick notes. Please remember I am not a doctor nor am I studying to be on…though I am watching House MD as I write this…Ah House…eh Anywoo back on topic. Thanks so much for the reviews, alerts and favorites. I am so glad that you all are staying tuned and i hope you'll continued to do so. And finally please forgive my grammar in this one I didn't really reread vover to check for mistakes because that would have taken longer to update. Oh and i'm also sorry for the long chapter once again I swear they seem much shorter in my head! Well that's all for now…Enjoy!
"Um ok…" Hyde said before taking a few seconds to think.
The peaceful quietness that filled the room, since Jackie left, suddenly felt awkward. After another squabble between Hyde the petite brunette had stomped her way to the basement claiming she was going to start making questions for Red's video and would come up with a hundred in the next hour. Hyde was willing to bet she was only up to three and she'd been down there for fifteen minutes now.
Thinking about the questions Jackie could be coming up with unexpectedly helped Hyde come up with his next question for Kitty.
"What's the biggest surprise you've ever gotten?"
Kitty smiled and started to think, "Well…"
"The kids." Red answered for her.
At her husband's words, Kitty's eyes widened and she sent a shocked with a hint of anger stare at him. However Hyde didn't capture the expression on his surrogate mother's face for too long; he was more curious to find out more on the story behind the words Red had said—he hurriedly swung the camera to film Red once again covered by the day's newspaper.
"Kids?" Hyde questioned, "So both Forman and Laurie were unplanned?"
He was almost surprised with himself at not grossing out at the thought of his adopted parents…making babies. He guessed it had to deal with the fact that he was even more surprised to find out June and Ward hadn't been counting on Wally and the Beave coming so soon.
Red nodded—never looking at the camera—"Yup."
"It's not that they were unplanned babies." Kitty began to explain, getting Hyde and the camera's attention again, "After all we had already been married for almost five years when we found out about Laurie. And Laurie was a year and a half when I was pregnant with Eric. They were never really unplanned they were just…"
Hyde could sense the struggle Kitty was having to find the correct word, so he decided to help out.
"Mistakes?" he asked with a smirk.
"No!" Kitty quickly argued, "No. No baby is ever a mistake Steven, especially if it made from love." She paused for a few seconds before shaking her head slightly, "No, Laurie and Eric were not mistakes or unplanned babies, they were just…surprise packages from heaven!" she finished with a bright Kitty smile.
"They weren't surprise packages, Kitty. If they were I wouldn't have signed for them." Red grumped from behind his paper.
"Red!" she scolded and then turned her attention back to Hyde and the video camera, "He's only kidding of course."
"But I guess he is right about them being the biggest surprises." Kitty went on, "Finding out we were going to have each of them was just like any other surprise. It was unexpected, it came as a shock, and in the end was very welcomed—even if it took some of us a little longer to warm up to the idea."
Hyde followed Kitty's gaze with camera and eventually landed back on Red. A few seconds past before Red felt eyes upon him and looked up with a deep scowl indented on his forehead. It was a round that same time that Hyde started to put two and two together.
"Wait a minute…" he began to say, "Red, you weren't excited when you found out Mom was gonna have Eric? Or Laurie?"
Red furiously glared back at the camera for several seconds before lifting his paper shield over his face again, "I'll answer that question when it's time for my video."
"Come on Red, that's not fair." Hyde almost whined, "Jackie's making your video it won't be done till the next millennium!"
Despite Hyde's protest, Red went back to reading and refused to answer the question. This caused Hyde to move the camera back to Kitty in hope of her getting Red to speak up or at least get the answer from her. But she only shook her head.
"Now Steven, if Red wants to wait till his video to answer the question the you'll just have to wait till he and Jackie make his video." She firmly told him and the camera.
And she had Hyde going until she mouthed out the words, 'I'll tell you when he's gone.'
0o0o0o
"After you m'ladies." Eric said with a large grin as he held open the mall's glass door for Jackie and Betsy.
Both of the girls smiled. Betsy giggled laughing at how funny her Uncle Eric was talking; and Jackie smiled a 'thank you' smile in Eric's direction. She hadn't experienced the gentlemen gesture, with a man in her same age group, in a long, long time. It was nice.
The smiles on their faces—especially Jackie's—made the corners of Eric's own mouth to move upwards.
With the grin remaining in place, Eric followed the two ladies into the mall but when he stepped inside and saw the things inside the building he suddenly froze on the spot. This could not be the same mall he and his friends had once dubbed the 'Wannabe Price-Mart.'
This building looked so much bigger. There were stores that weren't there before. Stores that weren't just some rinky-dink stores that would last only about a year before another rinky-dink store replaced it; the Point Place Mall now had stores he had actually seen in Seattle.
There were more places to eat in the food court and quite a few of stands set up outside the stores, selling even more things. The place looked like an actual mall.
Eric followed Jackie as she held Betsy's hand and led them over to a…map? Since when did they have a map in here? Since when did you need a map for in here?
"Whoa." He finally managed to speak, still looking around the place, "This place looks great. Did they remodel it or something?"
Jackie smiled at the astonishment on Eric's face and she shook her head, "Nope. It's exactly the same building, they just took out and added a few different stores." She explained, "Sometimes it's not until you leave something and then come back to it years later, that you realize just how amazing it's been all along."
Nodding his head Eric captured her mismatched eyes with his green ones.
"You can say that again." He replied.
As she stared back at Eric, she could feel her cheeks redden, and she realized it had been quite some time since she had blushed just because a handsome man was looking at her. She placed her right hand over one cheek, hoping to hide it, but she knew it was too late when she saw Eric chuckle at her action.
"Aunt Jackie! Uncle Eric!" Betsy shouted breaking the eye-lock.
Each of the two looked away from the other and over to the little girl tugging at their arms—one of them more thankful for the interruption than the other.
"Come on, let's go to the toy store." She almost pleaded while practically jumping in place.
Jackie gave a small laugh at the sight, "Ok, ok Bets." She nodded, "Let's take a look at the map first…"
Of course Jackie Burkhart didn't need to look at any map. She knew this mall like the back of her hand; sure she hadn't been here lately with everything hat had been going on, but she could still tell you where the cleanest restrooms could be found and where the nearest trashcan could be located. She just thought looking at the map with her goddaughter would help the little girl figure out how close they were to the toy store.
"But I don't need a map." Betsy protested, the Kelso side of her starting to appear once again, "I can find it all by myself."
The statement earned a chuckle from Eric as he recalled all the previous times he'd heard those same words from the young girl's father. Each of those times usually ending in a disaster—usually getting lost.
From the look on Jackie's face, it seemed like she was thinking the same way he was.
"I don't know Betsy…" Jackie started to say before Eric jumped in.
"Come on Jackie, let Betsy take the lead." He suggested and the little girl grinned brightly, "She doesn't need a map. Every kid has some kind of magnet inside of them that only helps lead them to toy stores and ice cream parlors. She'll find the store in no time."
Jackie moved her eyes from Eric who smirking with confidence down to little Betsy who was looking up at her with big brown hopeful eyes.
She sighed exaggeratedly, "Fine. No Map. And you can lead us there."
"Yay!" the little girl cheered along with her uncle, and then jumped up a few inches in the air before slapping her tiny hand against Eric's larger one.
The interaction between the two brought a smile back onto Jackie's face and she had to hold back a laugh as she went on with what she had to say.
"But you have to stay close by to both of us. No wandering off, okay?"
Betsy eagerly nodded her head, "Okay!"
Not two seconds later, the little girl ran past Jackie ready to lead them to the nearest toy store. She only made it a few steps forward before she was face with making the choice of going either left or right. A silent debate went on for a few seconds and then Betsy took a few steps in the left direct only to quickly turn back around and head down the path to the right.
The two adults shared a laugh as they watched from just a few steps behind.
"It kinda nice to see the Kelso side in her come out." Eric shared out loud and Jackie laughed in agreement; he really did love that sound. "This was a good idea, bringing Betsy out of the house for a little fun."
Jackie nodded, "Yeah, I thought it would be good to just get out for awhile. And not just for Betsy." She paused for a second or two before to realized what she'd said and how inconsiderate it may have sounded. "Not that I mind taking care of your mom. I really have no problem being there…"
"Jackie, Jackie, I get it. Don't worry." He assured chuckling softly at how her nervousness had reminded him of himself—looked like he was rubbing off on her. "Believe me I get it. I wanna be there with Mom too but I can only handle seeing her like that for so long."
Again Jackie nodded, "It's really nice to get away from all the…drama."
"Yeah." He agreed, taking his turn to move his head up and down.
Then suddenly a thought entered his mind and he tried his best to not let a big goofy smile make its way onto his face.
"Hey you know what I just realized?" he asked her.
"What?" Jackie replied with a question while keeping her eyes on Betsy who was walking only a foot or two infront of them.
Eric couldn't hold it back any more and his grin broke out onto his lips, "We're out of the house."
Turning back to look at him, Jackie sent a puzzled expression his way, "You just noticed that?" she asked arching up her left eyebrow.
"Yeah…I mean no." Eric quickly answered before going on to explain in greater detail, just what he was getting at. "I just realized that we're both out of the house, right?"
She nodded, "Right."
"Because we both had some free time, right?" he asked and waited for her reply.
"Right."
"And neither of us planned on having this free time, it just sort of happened, right?"
"Right…" Jackie agreed again, still not quite sure what he was getting at.
A large smile quickly appeared on Eric's face, "So that mean we're on a date. Our first date!"
"Ri…wait what?" she asked stopping in her tracks with surprise in her voice and show on her face as she realized just what he'd said.
"We're on our first date." He repeated keeping his tone a happy one as he went on to explain, "Remember, last night we agreed that our first date would be when we both were free and neither one of us was gonna make the time happen. We were just gonna let it happen. And it has. You pretty much just agreed it has too."
Jackie wasn't sure what she should say. She was still stunned by the fact that Eric wanted this, a trip to the mall, to be their first date. Why was he in such a rush to have the date? Sure he'd seemed excited about it since they'd first made the plan but choosing their first outing together as their first date?
Maybe he'd changed his mind since last night and realized he'd made a huge mistake and wanted to get the date over and down with. Or maybe all he was interested was a 'wham bam thank you ma'am' kind of relationship that would end with her heartbroken and him back in Seattle in a couple of days.
Finally finding her voice Jackie spoke with a faint frown on her forehead, "Eric, just because we're out now doesn't mean we have to have our first date now."
"I know." Eric agreed with a nodded of his head, "But I want to."
It took almost all of Jackie's strength to hold back an eye roll. She felt so dumb for thinking Eric might not be like other guys.
"I don't know about you Jackie, but I've been feeling pretty anxious about the two of us going out." Eric continued to say, "And not the nervous kind of anxious. It's more like the excited kind of anxious. I can't wait to going out on a date with you Jackie…I don't wanna wait."
A feeling of guilt filled Jackie and she could help but crack a smile at how sweet and innocent looking Eric looked at the moment. She was just about to make a remark on his comment when she heard her name being called form a few feet away.
"Aunt Jackie! Aunt Jackie!" the tiny voice hollered.
Moving her eyes away from the grinning tall man, Jackie looked down the mall, two stores down, and soon saw little Betsy Kelso hopping and pointing outside of a 'K B Toys.'
"I found it! I told you I'd find it!" she announced sounding more and more like her father.
Jackie nodded to the little girl, "Ok sweetie, wait for me and your Uncle Eric. Hold on just a second." After seeing her goddaughter nod she looked back at Eric whose smile was still frozen on his lips. "What are we gonna do about Betsy?"
"Nothing." He replied with a slight shrug, "She can stay with us…she'll be like our chaperone. A really young and tiny chaperone." He said realizing how that didn't exactly sound like a convincing argument, but at the same time it really did make perfect sense. "She'll keep us from doing anything too risky, and I think that's really the biggest role of a chaperone."
A giggle escaped Jackie's lips and Eric started to relax—it looked like things were going to go his way.
"You know," Jackie began to say, "I've never had a first date in a toy story."
"I'll make it worth your while." Eric responded smugly as he wiggled his eyebrows slightly.
Jackie returned the smile, "Alright Forman, let's see what you've got."
And with that Jackie officially started their first date by lacing her right arm through his left and then together the two of them made their way to Betsy and the toy store.
0o0o0o
Red Forman sat on the yellow couch in his living room watching TV…well staring might be a better way to describe what he was doing. After all his eyes were on the screen but he had no idea what was going on in the show.
He'd spent the whole morning upstairs with Kitty and had only come down here about half an hour ago when the kid's dumbass 'shift plan' had gone into action. First up were the kettle head and wife. Of course Red really had no problem with Brooke but the problems he had with Kelso went on into a very long list.
At the beginning of the Kelso' visit Red had sat silently in another one of the arm chairs that had been brought up to the bedroom, just listening in on the conversation while pretending to read the paper.
But the couple hadn't been in the room for ten minutes when a migraine started to form in Red's head and he started to fight back to urge to kick the kettle head in the ass and out of the room. The only reason he hadn't was because he saw how much Kitty seemed to be enjoying the visit. Maybe this 'shift's plan' wasn't a complete dumbass idea.
Still his wife could see the aggravation in his face and suggest that he go down stairs for awhile. Red had argued against it for several minutes before giving in only because if he left Brooke would also be in the room with Kitty and not just Kelso. After all never for what ever reason would Red leave his ill wife alone with Michael Kelso.
At first he'd planned on going back out to the garage and working on the Vista Cruiser—he could swear he was close to getting tat thing started—but he wanted to be close by incase Kitty needed him. And so that's how he found himself now 'watching' an old episode of Gilligan's Island. Not that you really need to watch the program to know what was happening, it was always the same thing in Red's eyes: Professor thinks there's a way off the island, Dumbass Gilligan does something stupid, and they're still stuck on the island.
The deep silence, excluding the television set, was suddenly broken when the sound of the front doorbell ringing through the air.
Red stay completely immobilized. There were four dumbasses in the house one of them had to have heard it and they'd be up hear to answer the door. The person on the other side of the door pressed the button once again and Red sighed realizing he was both right and wrong. There were four dumbasses in the house, but because they were dumbasses they wouldn't come and answer the door.
He groaned loudly as he stood up from the sofa and dragged his feet to the front door as the door bell rang for the third time. He was in no mood to see anyone.
"What do you want?" came his greeting as he pulled open the wooden door.
Not a second after he'd opened the door two arms went around his neck and the person began to cry on his shoulder. It had happened all so quickly Red had barely gotten the chance to recognize the visitor.
"Paula?" he asked the crying woman who was his sister-in-law, "What are you doing here?"
The dark haired woman pulled out of the embrace but continued to dab her eyes with her tissue, "What do you mean what am I doing here? I'm here to see Kitty."
Normally Red would have rolled his eyes at such an obvious answer but now the only thing he could think about was finding out how Paula had found out.
"But how did you…"
"Your brother Marty called me." Paula finished for him, already knowing the question, "He's such a sweet man. He called and told me everything he knew and I just got out here as fast as I could."
Red continued to frown as the woman infront of him continued to ramble on. This would have made perfect sense if he only knew who had called his brother.
"Oh it is just so terrible about what's happening Red. I still can't believe it." She went on, sounding very close to tears, "How are you doing? How's she? Can I go see her? She's in the bedroom right?"
Paula hurried up the living room stairs to see her sister, never waiting for a response to any of her questions. It didn't bother Red that she'd lead herself upstairs without letting him get a word in, he was almost thankful for it. It let him continued to try and figure out this mystery one and for all.
0o0o0o
"Just pick one."
"I can't…it's too hard."
"You should get the one you're gonna play with more."
Eric turned his head to face the little girl who had delivered the last comment; he smiled and shook his head while chuckling softly to himself.
"Oh Betsy, Betsy, Betsy. These are collectibles, you don't play with them." He informed as he lifted up the two action figure boxes in each of his hands, "Well actually you can…I don't. Ok actually I do, but not all the time."
Betsy giggled at the nervousness her uncle seemed to be displaying, while Jackie fought back her own laugh. She found the scene just as amusing as Betsy but didn't want Eric to know that, he may let it drag on and they'd already been in the same aisle for the past twenty minutes. Fifteen of those minutes had been spent watching Eric go back and forth between the Han Solo action figure in his left hand and the Luke Skywalker in his right.
"Eric, come on." Jackie urged, "This trip to the toy store was for Betsy to get new toys remember?"
"Oh yeah, year I know. I'm going. I just…" he whipped his head back and forth between the two toys, and then swiftly looked up at Jackie, "Alright you choose Jackie. And whichever you pick I'll get."
Agreeing that it was a good idea Jackie nodded her head, "Get Luke." She replied not three seconds later.
"Right Eric nodded his head and started to put the Han Solo doll back on the shelf only to retract it back to him, "But I already have four different Luke Sky Walkers and only three of Han Solo."
"Then get Han Solo." Jackie instructed, fighting back the urge to sigh a frustrated sigh.
"Right." He repeated before repeating his action all the way to pulling the Luke Skywalker toy away from the shelf and back to him, "But Luke Skywalker's my favorite."
Taking advantage at the fact that Eric's eyes were on the two 'collectables' Jackie exchanged a look with her little goddaughter who was standing beside her. The little girl hadn't taken this long when she picked out what toys she wanted.
Her choices had been a new dress for the doll Kitty had given her earlier in the week and with the suggestion of both adults, the classic game Hungry Hungry Hippos. They thought it would help keep her entrained and get the others in the house playing with her as well, while Betsy just thought the game looked fun and had already called the Pink Hippo for eternity.
However these two toys had been the gifts that would be from her Uncle Eric. The trio had yet to enter the Barbie aisle so that she could pick out what she wanted her Aunt Jackie to buy her. And to Jackie that sounded like the perfect escape from this episode of Eric's Choice.
"Alright Eric, while you try to decide which doll you want to buy, I'm gonna walk around with Betsy so she can decide what she wants me to get her." She informed before clasping her slim hand with Betsy's tinier one.
Eric's head popped up at hearing Jackie's words, but by the time he looked in her direction he saw that she and Betsy were already at the end of the Action Figure aisle and turning into the next one. Right away he felt a pang of guilt. This wasn't how he wanted his first date with Jackie to go. He wanted to curse both toys and Star Wars all together, but found he really didn't have the heart to do it.
So instead he looked back at the two toys and quickly came up with a logical solution that he was actually surprised he hadn't come up with earlier. Happy with his decision he followed the footsteps of his date and chaperon.
Just two aisles down, in a aisle of much girly-er and pinker toys, Jackie let her eyes scan over the various different dolls. It seemed like they had a Barbie doll for every event!
As Jackie took her time to look at the dolls, it only took Betsy a few seconds to find the doll that was for her. This time around anyways. Grabbing the pink box off the shelf, the little girl scurried over to her godmother to show her the new toy she wanted.
"I found the perfect Barbie!" she shared happily and then turned the box over so that Jackie could see it's contents, "Funtime Barbie!"
Jackie smiled largely, "She's very pretty."
"Yeah, and she even comes with a matching watch for me too!" Betsy practically shouted.
"Wow." Jackie said still smiling as she examined Betsy's choice of Barbie, "But you know as pretty as Funtime Barbie looks right now, don't you think she could use a few more outfits too?"
The famous Kelso grin grew on Betsy's face and nodded, "Uh…yeah!"
A small laugh escaped from Jackie as she saw Betsy's happiness when she rushed over to the nearby wall that held the smaller pink boxes holding various outfits made just for Barbie.
It was that scene that welcomed Eric when he caught up to the two girls and it caused his own smile to appear on his lips.
"Wow you're like Betsy's own Fairy Godmother but without the magic wand." He teased getting Jackie to turn around to face him.
"Oh I've got a magic wand." She replied with a playful smile before she tug into her purse for a few seconds before coming back out with a slim piece of plastic in her hands. "It's made out in Steven's name but it gets Betsy whatever she wants and that's all that matters."
Laughing and nodding agreement Eric decided it was time to apologize and he cleared his throat before beginning to speak.
"Uh Jackie listen…I'm sorry about what happened back in that other aisle." He started to say, "That's not how I wanted our first date to go. Believe em I didn't plan on it going that way either. I want us to have a good time, talk, learn more about each other. It's just when I saw all those Star Wars collectibles, I just…I…"
"Forgot about everything else." She finished for him.
"Yes." Eric nodded only to realize that wasn't at all what he'd meant to say, rapidly he shook his head back and forth, "No. I mean yes I did but I didn't mean to I mean…"
Before Eric went completely twitchy on her Jackie jumped in to interrupt and help him find his words and ease his nerves.
"Eric, relax. It's ok, I understand. Really. You just had a moment of weakness. Everyone had them, especially guys. Fez's weakness is candy. Michael's is…"she paused and took a moment to review her ex-boyfriends habits, "Well Michael has many weaknesses ranging from fire to boobs. And your weakness is Star Wars dolls. You really have nothing to worry about. I'm the exact same way."
Eric's eyes widened and both his eyebrows rose with surprise. Did a hot girl actually like Star Wars collectable too? And not just any hot girl but Jackie?
"Really?" he asked sounding almost too hopeful.
"Yes. But not with anything that deals with Star Wars." She informed as if reading his mind.
Eric's grin fell in disappointment until another thought entered his mind and he quickly put his facial muscles to work again. However, Jackie saw this and while she didn't enjoy making that loveable smile of his disappear she had to set him strait.
"Or anything else that has to do with anything in space."
Again Eric's smile faded away and the look on his face resembled a small child who'd found the cookie jar, opened it only to find there were none of the cookies they loved so much in it.
Though just because his favorite cookie wasn't inside the cookie jar didn't mean Eric wasn't going to take sometime to give these other cookies a chance.
"So then Miss. Burkhart, what is your weakness?" he questioned
Jackie smiled as she replied, "Shoes."
"Well that sounds…" Eric suddenly drifted off and pretended to fall asleep—including making the loud snoring noises.
Not being able to hold back Jackie let out a giggle as she shoved Eric's shoulder with her hand. At the nudge Eric reopened his eyes and joined in on the laughter.
"Very funny." She mocked with her grin still in place, "But we went through your weakness on this first date so for our second date it's my turn and we're going shoe shopping!"
When Eric first heard what Jackie had said he just about frowned and groaned in pain. Shoe shopping? That wasn't fair. Toy stores were fun, shoe shopping was not. However before he decided to react to Jackie's words he understood just what she had and it made him very happy. Minus the shoe shopping part.
"Our first date isn't even over and already you're talking about our second one?" Eric asked with a smug smirk, "I think that's a good sign."
Jackie feel the heat starting to build up on her cheeks again. She moved her hand up to cover them but lucky for her the little chaperon stepped in with an arm full of the items that she would soon be able to call hers.
"Aunt Jackie," Betsy called stepping closer to the two, "I can't pick which dress I should get for Barbie. Will you help me?"
Jackie looked down at her goddaughter and saw the two slimmer pink boxes of Barbie clothes that she was talking about.
"Well I'd love to Betsy, but why don't you ask your Uncle Eric? He's a boy and knows what girls look pretty in." she said smiling looking at both Betsy's smiling face and Eric's shocked one.
The young girl eagerly nodded, "Ok." She turned to her uncle and lifted the outfits for him to see, "Uncle Eric, which one will Barbie look pretty in?"
Eric shifted his gaze from the pink box that held a bright blue dress with a hot pink belt matching blue shoes and hand bag to the box with a yellow sundress with white polka dots a yellow sunhat and shoes, and then back again. He didn't know what to say. Maybe if he tried to picture Jackie in both dresses and tried to see which dress she looked best in…though that might not work all too well. Jackie could be wearing a potatoes sack and still look very pretty.
"Uh…the yellow one." He finally decided.
One his choice had been made both Jackie and Betsy looked at each other as if sharing a conversation that only girls were apart of. Then they next thing Eric knew was Betsy had put back the yellow dress on the shelf and kept the blue one in her hand.
"I'll go with the blue one then."
With a puzzled frown on his face Eric looked over to Jackie to see her giggling behind her hand. Now it made sense.
"You told her to do that didn't you?" he asked pointing his finger at her.
It took her a few seconds but Jackie finally managed to control her giggles and keep a straight face as she looked back at Eric.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She said in a serious tone before looking at Betsy, "Ready to go home now?"
"Yup!" Betsy shouted, surprising both Jackie and Eric somewhat. What kid was excited to leave a toy store?
"I can't wait to go home and beat Uncle Fez at Hungry Hungry Hippos!" the youngest Kelso went on to say happily before rushing over to the register line.
Jackie turned around to Eric, "Come on, we better get going."
"Nah ah." He said before reaching out and grabbing a hold of her hand to hold her back, "I saw what you did. Casually changing the subject by using an innocent little girl. Well played Beulah, but not well enough. Now back to our second date, so far we've got shoe shopping and me wearing my Spiderman boxers…"
"Oh my God." Jackie suddenly said interrupting Eric from going on.
He furrowed his brow just slightly before shrugging his shoulders, "Yeah, I know. I've kinda been over doing it with the whole Spiderman underwear…"
"No. Not that." She said shaking her head, her eyes fixed on something that was far off and in front of her. "That." She finished as she pointed her finger in the direction her eyes were looking.
Still not seeing what she was talking about Eric moved his eyes and head around the store trying to find the thing that had caught her Jackie attention. But this was a toy store full of toys and people. Anything could have caught her eyes.
"What?"
"That." She replied in an insisting tone, her index finger still raised in the air, "In the doll case."
Eric moved his eyes back to one of them sections of the store that he'd let his eyes merely skim over. It was a glass showcase with at least four different baby dolls that seemed to be from years ago.
"The one in the blue dress." Jackie added helping Eric see what doll she was so captivated, "That's Darling Daisy."
There was only one doll wearing a blue dress. She had dark brown wavy hair that was pulled back with a matching powder blue bow. Her shoes were white with matching little girl socks. She had sparkling green eyes and her pink lips made a perfect little heart.
"Oh yeah right." He nodded his head, "Yeah those things always scared me too."
Jackie snapped her head away from the doll and back to Eric, as deep frown indented on her forehead, "She is not scary! She's beautiful."
Eric wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to say, the doll looked like any ordinary doll to him. So he stayed quiet and just let Jackie do the talking.
"She's one of the dolls that I always wanted but never got." She shared, her eyes back on the baby doll.
Quietly Eric scoffed, but not as softly as he thought he had. Jackie heard his cough like noise and arched her left eyebrow.
"Is that scoff supposed to mean something?" she questioned crossing her arms over her chest.
"I'm sorry Jackie." he apologized sincerely. "I know I never went into your room when we younger but from what I head from Donna and Kelso you had a lot of dolls, unicorns, and Donny Osmond posters. I'm finding it a little hard to believe that this was the one doll you wanted but never got."
"First of all it was not just Donny Osmond." Jackie argued, "Marie was in some of them too. And it's true. I never got Darling Daisy because my dad never bought it for me."
Eric was still feeling confused, "But he bought you every other doll?"
"No…" she exhaled quickly before deciding to tell the story, "Look Eric my parents bought me things a little differently than they way your parents probably did. They didn't bring me to the store help me pick what I wanted, they didn't stand in lien with me to pay for it, they didn't even know I had gotten the toy until about a week later."
"All they would so was, Daddy would give the money to my nanny who would take me to the toy store and buy it for me with the money Daddy gave her." She went on, "So Daddy did buy it for me but he didn't buy it for me…does that make sense?"
"No." Eric answered honestly, "Why couldn't you have just gotten this Daring Daisy they way you'd gotten the other dolls?"
"Because Darling Daisy was different." Jackie explained, "I wanted it to be like in the commercial when the dad gave her to his daughter. They were both smiling and happy. Darling Daisy has to be given to you by someone you love and loves you, not just some nanny."
Looking back at the baby doll Eric suddenly recognized it as a doll his own sister had gotten one Christmas. An dif Laurie had gotten the doll—that she probably only played with for a couple of months—Jackie surely deserved it too. He moved his eyes away from the doll and over to the items in his hand—he'd gone with both Luke and Han, just like any true fan would do.
"Aunt Jackie!"
The two adults looked over to where the voice was coming from and saw Betsy was now standing in the part of the line that would be next to the register.
The brunette smiled and reached into her purse for Steven's credit card, "Looks like it's times to put this magic wand to work."
"Right." Eric replied with a nod of his head and then took notice of what had just happened; his boyish grin grew, "Hey, I just learned something about you that I didn't know before!"
Jackie smiled at is excitement and it became bigger in size when she realized how right he was, "Huh, what do you know. I guess this date at the toy store really wasn't too bad."
"You know Jackie, it doesn't have to end yet." Eric commented, "We could make this 'toy store first date' into a 'mall first date.' We could shop some more, maybe go to the food court get some lunch…"
"I'd like that."
The couple shared a smile that was soon interpreted by another call form the mini-chaperone.
"Aunt Jackie!"
"I'll be right there, Bets." Jackie replied and headed over to the line but not before looking back at Eric, "Just make sure where ever we go for lunch has a kid's menu."
0o0o0o
Upstairs in the Forman's bedroom Kitty laid in bed as she caught up with her younger sister who had dropped by unexpectedly.
When Paula had first come into the room interrupting Kitty's visit with Brooke and Kelso, Kitty had been beyond surprise to see her here. Though the two sisters had kept in touch, especially during the time that Kitty's cancer had started, Kitty hadn't called to tell her anything about the current situation. She was almost tempted to call up her husband and children to find out who'd been the one to inform Paula, but after the first few minutes of talking with her sister she realized she really didn't care who had made the call. And if she did find out who it had been she'd only thank the person.
For the past hour and a half had Paula sat on the foot of her sister's bed as the two talked about various things. How Paula's exciting career and life were going. Other family members. Even celebrities. They talked about just about every topic except the most obvious and most painful.
At the moment the two were both laughing and giggling as they recalled moments from their younger days.
"I was the wild one?" Kitty repeated Paula's words in question form, "You were the one who showed up to this house in a police car after being detained because of that protest you joined in because of that teacher man you were interested in!" she reminded and the two continued to laugh at the memory.
"What was that protest against anyways?"
Paula stopped her giggling and looked her sister in eyes, "Kitty, I didn't know then and I don't know now." She answered causing another fit of giggles, "But I do remember that Tim had a great pair of dreamy blue eyes!"
The two sisters continued to laugh for a few more minutes before Paula brought up another point. She raised her hand and wagged her index finger at her older sister as she spoke.
"I may have done some crazy things, but they were all done once we had moved out of Mom and Dad's." she reminded, "You were the one who drove the crazy when we were kids. Especially Mother!"
Kitty waved her hand at the last part of Paula's words, "Oh everything drove Mother crazy."
Agreeing with Kitty once more Paula nodded her head while she laughed along with the blonde.
"Do you remember the time she caught you and Red in that steamy kiss on the front porch?" Paula asked, "I thought she's was going to have a heart attack!"
Nodding her head rapidly Kitty laughed and managed to find her voice again.
"First off all, we were engaged at the time." She defended herself with a serious look on her face that last for about a second before her lips broke out into a smile, "Second. Why do you think we did it on the front porch where we knew she would see?"
Together the women burst out into another fit of giggles. However just as quickly as she had started laughing, Kitty suddenly stopped and a discomforted expression appeared on her face. Paula soon noticed how silent her sister had gotten.
Looking over at Kitty Paula saw her sister's eyes closed as she winced in pain and clutched onto the sheet that covered her. Seeing her older sister in pain broke Paula's heart and she reached over and grabbed Kitty's left hand.
"Kitty, are you ok?" she asked softly, "Do you need me to get Red?"
Kitty shook her head and kept her eyes closed for a few more second before reopening them and trying her best to not show how much pain she really was feeling. It wasn't just the physical pain that the cancer was causing her it was the pain in her heart as well. It seemed like each time she started to enjoy herself and laugh a little the pain from the cancer would start back up and ruin everything.
"No. It's ok." She tried to assure, "I'm fine, really."
Paula gave a small smile and gently squeezed Kitty's hand, "I'm afraid I have to get going."
"Oh no don't." Kitty began to say holding on to her sister's hand and attempting to ignore the painful pain and feeling of nauseas that was starting. "'m really feeling fine, Paula. You don't have to go."
"I know." Paula nodded and could already feel her throat getting tight, she really didn't want to leave, "But I really do have to leave. I wish I could stay longer but I could only get a few days off and I have to drive back…"
Kitty nodded understandingly and gave the slightest smile, "Do you still have that pretty pink car of yours?"
"Only the top Kathy May salespersons gets one." She stated with a smile, "And that's still me."
Paula's response made Kitty smile, "Good. You've gotta keep working to keep that car."
It was Paula's turn to nodded as she smiled a tight smile and continued to hold onto Kitty's hand.
"Thank you so much for coming Paula." Kitty said in a sincere tone of voice.
Paula could feel the tears forming in her eyes, "I wouldn't be anywhere else." She replied honestly before leaning in and giving her sister one more hug.
It was several seconds before the embrace was brought to an end and by the time it had both women were on the verge of tears. And still neither one of them did break down, each wanted to be strong for the other.
"I love you, Kitty."
Kitty smiled back, "I love you too, Paula."
There was another hug and a kisses on the cheeks before Paula stood up off Kitty's bed and headed for the bedroom door.
Before exiting, Paula turned back around, "I'll call you ok honey?"
"Ok, sweetie."
One more wave and then Paula was out of the room closing the door behind her.
On one side of the door, as soon as Paula was in the hallway Kitty clenched her fists and scrunched her face in pain as she rolled onto her side. She quickly moved her hand around the on the night stand trying desperately to grab the button that would help dispense the morphine and aid with her pain.
Out in the hallway on the other side of the bedroom door, the second she was safely out of the room Paula covered her mouth to muffle out a sob.
She had really thought that's she'd prepared herself to see Kitty by thinking and expecting the worst, but she hadn't been expecting something like this. They had been talking and laughing one minute and the next Kitty was in pain and trying to make it seem like she really wasn't. And just knowing that Kitty was actually in pain and that this could be the last time she saw Kitty…Paula was really quite surprised that she was able to hold back the tears for this long.
"Paula?"
Hearing her name Paula looked up and saw her sister's husband and adopted son making their way towards her.
Red had a look of worry and as he walked closer Paula could see the slight panic in it as well.
"What's wrong? What happened?" he began to question, "Is Kitty…"
Paula raised her waving hand to stop her brother-in-law's rambling, "She's fine Red." She replied managing a small smile, "Well she is in some pain but she's saying she's fine. Very stubborn that one. Must have picked it up from being married to you for so long."
Hyde got a quick chuckle out of Paula's word along with the frown of annoyance Red had sent her way.
"Are you leaving already?" Hyde asked.
Though he knew the house was already full he slightly hoped Kitty's sister would stay a little longer. It wasn't that he so much liked her—he did, but then again he really barely knew her—it was the fact that she had started to brighten up the house abit. She hadn't caused any drama in the short amount of time she'd been here. And Hyde could hear Kitty's laughter all the way downstairs when Paula was with her.
That was why he hoped she'd stay.
"I'm afraid so dears." Paula nodded sadly, "Being top Kathy May salesperson, I have to work quite abit…and I've already used up most of my vacation days. But I wanted to make sure I came to see her and that I'd still have a day off to…come to the…funeral."
Hyde looked down at his feet, he still couldn't connect the two words Kitty and funeral together. Red meanwhile gave a simple nod to the dark haired woman infront of him.
Paula sniffled and continued to look at Red, "You'll take care of my sister, right Red?"
She wasn't exactly sure why'd she'd asked, she knew he would. Red loved Kitty and Kitty loved him. The relationship the two of them had was one of the things Kitty had and Paula was slightly jealous of.
Again Red gave another nod.
"Yeah, that's really the one thing you don't have to worry about." Hyde stated from the sidelines.
Paula smiled at the young man and Hyde returned the smile with a smirk.
Red cleared his throat, "Uh Steven, why don't you walk Paula out and I'll go check on Kitty?"
"Yeah." Hyde nodded, "Ok."
Before she followed Hyde to the staircase Paula turned around and gave her brother-in-law another tight hug.
"I'll call." She said pulling out of the embrace, "Everyday."
Red only smiled and raised up a hand to wave Paula off. Then the second Paula disappeared down the stairway, Red dropped his fake smile into a true scowl.
"Terrific." He mumbled before opening his bedroom door to check on Kitty.
0o0o0o
Later that day, getting into the evening, the orange Toyota slowly pulled up into the icy driveway.
Eric turned off his father's old car and turned to face the tiny woman who was sitting shot gun.
"So…"he began, "Guess our dates over now."
Jackie smiled, "Guess so."
"I had fun. Did you?"
"Very much." She nodded her smile in place and her eyes twinkling.
"Great!" Eric practically exclaimed earning him a giggle from Jackie before he cleared his throat, "Um you know…usually at the end of the date there's an I don't know…a little kiss…"
"Ok!" a voice exclaimed.
But not the voice he had hoped for.
The next thing Eric knew his cheek was being given a quick little kiss from Betsy—who'd unbuckled her seatbelt sometime earlier. At first Eric's face showed shock and some disappointment but not wanting to hurt the little girls feelings he gave a small smile. Meanwhile Jackie was doing her best not laugh about loud and settled on another girlish giggle.
After giving her uncle his kiss Betsy turned to her godmother, "Can we go inside now?"
"Sure, Bets." Jackie replied with a smile and then opened her door and stepped out into the cold.
Eric watched her actions with his eyes widened just ever so much. Why was she getting out of the car too? He hadn't gotten his goodnight kiss! Maybe she was coming back…
"Jackie?" he called out to her.
The brunette sent a smile his way, "I have to help Betsy out of the car."
Eric only nodded hoping and wishing that she was going to let Betsy out of the car and then climb back in. The hope of Jackie coming back and joining Eric in the car were soon brought to an end when he saw her walk over to patio doors.
Not wanting to be out in the old, old Toyota by himself, Eric scurried out of the vehicle and made his way to his parent's house. If he couldn't have a good night kiss in the car, the back porch was the next best thing!
By the time Eric made it to the patio, both Jackie and Betsy were already inside the kitchen taking off their coats. He decided to join them and entered the room just as Betsy and her armful of gifts ran down into the basement.
"Hey Jackie," he said getting her attention to turn to him, "About our shoe shopping second date…" he started to say, "I say we leave our little chaperone behind for that one."
Jackie gave another laugh as she took off her knit hat and placed it on the table, "ok. But you'll have to break it to her."
"Ok." Eric agreed as he saw a way to get a deal from her too, "But I have to get that end of the night kiss now."
"But you already did. From Betsy, remember?" she innocently asked as she titled her head just slightly.
Eric shook his head and stepped closer to Jackie, "I want one from you."
"Eric did it ever occur to you that maybe I didn't give you a goodnight kiss because I don't want the night between the two of us to be over just yet?" Jackie asked in a shyly voice and matching smile.
Immediately Eric felt a flutter in his stomach. He stared at Jackie's beautiful mismatched yes, her beautiful pink lips stretched out into the most beautiful smile…he had to kiss her. But he couldn't. It could end their night. But he wanted to so bad…but he couldn't!
This internal argument continued on for several more seconds inside Eric and just when one side of the argument was about to win, there were footsteps heard coming up from the basement.
"Hey Jackie." a Zen voice called out and the couple looked over to see Hyde making his way towards them.
"Betsy just came down and showed us all the things you bought her. She said something about a magic wand." He explained and then stuck his open palm towards Jackie, "Can I have my card back now?"
With a roll of her eyes Jackie stuck her hand into her purse and retrieved her 'magic wand' and then slapped it into her ex-boyfriend's hand.
"Whatever." She managed to mumble in her own Zen fashion.
Hyde stuck the card in his back pocket, "Yeah, whatever." He said in a equal or greater Zen.
Eric watched the scene infront of him and knew that something had to be done. After all before he'd come back Hyde and Jackie had been close…sure they weren't bestest buddies but they were civil and kind and unzen to each other.
When he saw Hyde start to walk away and back to the basement Eric decided to step in. Even if it meant him not getting his goodnight kiss just yet, which was actually a good thing.
"Uh Hyde, anything interesting happen here today?" he asked and luckily Hyde stopped his journey to the basement and turned around.
"Uh yeah…your Aunt Paula came by."
"Aunt Paula's here?" Eric asked excitedly, he really hadn't seen that coming, "That means we each get ten dollars! Where is she?"
Hyde shook his head, holding back a laugh and the fact that Paula had given him ten dollars, "She left already, man. She was only here for a couple of hours."
"How did she find out about Mom?" Jackie asked, remaining Zen as she spoke to Hyde.
"Turns out Marty called her." He informed, "Guess that phone call you made came in handy."
With that said Hyde didn't feel like talking anymore. He really didn't have too much to say especially with Jackie in the room…well he did but not too many of the things were too nice and Red was in the house and Jackie was his favorite. Hyde didn't want to take the chance. He turned back to the basement and descend down into the lower level of the house.
Eric and Jackie looked at each other. Both of them smiling smiles of approval before beginning to speak. At the same time.
"When did you call Uncle Marty?" they both asked together.
At about the same time a frown appeared on each of their foreheads, "I didn't call Uncle Marty. I thought you did."
"I didn't."
Getting frustrated with the shadow-like game, Jackie stepped forward and grabbed the sides of Eric's face before pulling him closer to her. Their lips touched only for a few seconds but Eric couldn't think of anything that felt more like heaven….except maybe those other kisses they'd shared.
Slowly Jackie pulled away, "Just so you know that was a 'shut up' kiss not a goodnight kiss." She stated before turning serious once more, "Now, did you call your Uncle Mart or not?"
"No." Eric shook his head, "I haven't even seen the guy in years. You didn't call him?"
"No. I barely even knew you had an Uncle Marty."
"Well it couldn't have been Hyde since he said, 'the phone call you made'…maybe it was Dad." Eric suggested
Jackie shook her head 'no.' "Steven already asked and he said he hadn't either. Mom was the one who asked Steven in the beginning so it's not her."
The detective in Eric began to come out as he got more and more details on the case.
"Ok, so if Mom, Dad, and Hyde didn't call Uncle Marty…" he began to recap, "And you didn't call Uncle Marty. And I didn't call Uncle Marty….Who did?"
"I did."
At the sound of a new voice, Eric and Jackie turned their heads to the sliding glass door and saw a sight they had defiantly not been ready for.
Standing at the back entrance of the kitchen was Laurie Forman.
Or at least some one who looked like her in some way but in other ways didn't, She physically looked like the daughter of Red and Kitty who hadn't been heard from in almost six years. She had blonde hair, blue eyes, the same voice. However there was no evil smile nor was she wearing any skimpy short shorts. Instead she wore an almost frightened expression and dress appropriately in jeans and a nice clue blouse under her brown coat.
The biggest surprise of all though wasn't so big. It was a little girl Laurie had resting on her hip. She looked no more than five and was almost the exact replica of Laurie. She had the same facial features and the same blonde hair. But when Jackie took a closer look she noticed the little girl's eyes weren't blue. Instead they were a darker color that she felt like she'd seen before.
Eric looked at his older sister blinking his eyes rapidly as if making sure he were actually seeing what he was seeing.
The stillness of the kitchen was soon brought to an ended as Jackie gasped and covered her mouth. The little girls eyes were brown a puppy dog, chocolate pudding brown. She knew whose eyes those were.
Author's Note: There you go! Chapter 31 of "Two Weeks" Hope you liked!
What will happen now that Laurie's home? Will her parents be happy to see her? Is the little girl her daughter? Whose eyes does she have? Will thing between Hyde and Jackie ever get better? When will Randy return? Will we see Aunt Paula again? And will Eric get that goodnight kiss from Jackie any time soon? 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!