Author Note: ….a BIG shout out to Nannygirl for the excellent help on my cover image! I meant to say something on the last chapter but I forgot so….thanks Prissy!

Chapter 19 – No Regrets Here?

T7S

Eric rested his weary head on his folded arms like they used to do during recess in school. Then there was freaking Fez who wouldn't stop confessing and it was getting pretty darn embarrassing!

"…..and I'm sorry for all the nights I spent in Donna's closet watching her and Eric make sweet love and I'm sorry for all the times I didn't share my candy after circle time and I'm sorry for trying on Miss Kitty's nightgown that time she was out of town."

"What?" Eric finally woke up from Fez's tiresome list of "I'm Sorry's". "You wore my mom's clothes?

Fez frowned, "Well of course I did. I've tried on everyone's clothes in your house and you, my friend, wear scratchy briefs."

Eric looked at Hyde, "I don't know about you, but I'm burning my underwear when I get home."

Hyde looked at Eric, "I'm not wearing any."

Kelso laughed, "Ooh….a good not-any-underwear burn Hyde!"

Fez was counting on his fingers, "…and I'm sorry I didn't share the secret information about how many licks it takes to get to the center of the wonderful Tootsie Pop and I'm sorry about cracking the stupid helmet but I couldn't open my Big Hunk and oh!... I feel really bad about giving Red a heart attack although I think it was actually Eric's fault and…"

Tatiana held up her hand, "Enough!"

All heads swiveled to the look at the fortune teller. "I think we understand now that Mr. Hyde over here has his regrets but you two." She glared at Fez and Kelso, "…you two are either very lucky to still be alive or you have a higher purpose that I cannot see."

Kelso looked at his foreign friend and nodded. "We'll go with the higher purpose."

Fez added, "…and we're kind of stoned too."

Leo laughed, "Man, we all are!"

The movie projector clicked back into gear.

There were tow-headed kids on Schwinn bicycles and little girls with Mary Jane shoes playing hopscotch on the sidewalk. There were little brown haired boys with braces and kids with coke bottle bottom thick eyeglasses.

And they were having fun.

Little green army men were positioned on dirt hills and exploded by rock "bombs" and the boys laughed as the enemy "commies" were blown to smithereens. The girls giggled behind their hands and flirted outrageously and then ran off for fear of catching cooties.

Eric laughed as he saw a younger version of himself chuck a G.I. Joe into the hole with the damaged army men. Kelso was crying and holding a hand over his blood covered cheek. Little Michael said, "Eric, I can't go home like this. Mom will kill me."

Eric sighed and crawled forward on his elbows, reached into the hole pulling out his G.I. Joe with Kung-Fu grip. He stood up and nudged Kelso with his knee, "Let's go see my mom. She has some big band aids."

Kelso nearly sobbed, "Okay." (He was cool about it though and actually wanted to thank the kid with the 'fro for slamming a boulder into his face!) Eric helped Michael Kelso so his feet and then froze.

There she was.

The little red haired neighbor girl with bright eyes.

She had a grape sucker in her mouth and he knew this because she stuck her tongue out at him. She smirked and said, "You're a dork."

Eric felt bashful. He was so afraid of talking to her because the Pinciotti family was different than any family he'd ever known. Her dad had curly hair and Midge was so beautiful.

Donna Pinciotti.

A beauty.

A bully.

A perfect match for Eric Forman.

Flash-forward - They were sitting on the hood of the Vista Cruiser and Donna was wearing her favorite blue coat. She was smiling mischievously and her eyes were dancing. She handed him a black velvet box. "Surprise!

Teenage Eric Forman opened the box and was flabbergasted. "It's a ring."

Donna grinned. "Yeah."

Thinking this had to be some elaborate burn, Eric added, "…and I'm a man."

Laughing bubbly, Donna smiled," Yeah! It's a MAN RING." She hugged him and Eric grimaced in horror.

Repressed memories ran amuck on the screen. The promise ring. A tiny stone that he bought in dark alley from a guy who knows a guy that Kelso knew. (That should have been a clue right there!) and then inevitable disappointment when the promise merely became a pendant to be worn around Donna's neck.

Disco Leo grinned, "Hey, man I told you that you shoulda got a concert tee AND the misdemeanor's worth of film."

The film projector skipped and the screen stopped at the picture of his mother sleeping on the basement sofa in her nurse's uniform. Eric remembered that despite the ugly promise ring thing….he and Donna had declared their intentions on still going to Madison and fulfilling the dream. An exhausted Kitty Forman upset the balance in Eric's perfectly planned universe. Eric knew – he knew – he couldn't leave home with his dad recovering from the heart attack and his mom working double shifts. It would be impossible not to hide from the guilt all the way in Madison.

They could go to school the next semester right?

Nope.

No chance.

No way Jose.

But, Donna declared she had already decided she was still going to college. What? Wait for Eric? Nope. Put the brakes on that bus!

Eric looked over at Disco Leo. "Why did it stop on this picture?"

Tatiana walked over to the brown haired boy. "Eric." She put her fingers under his chin and tipped his head, "This was a pivotal point in your life. You had less than two seconds to put your priorities in order and while Donna was the light of your life, your Sun. You chose your family."

Tatiana bent and kissed his cheek. "For that I commend you." She sat in the empty seat beside Eric. "While you were the bigger man and took responsibility, you were still angry and confused inside. Watch the screen."

Eric turned and looked at the sight of himself, all of his friends and Donna squeezed into the tiny little rental trailer where Fez decided to take a leak. Said friend laughed and replied, "I remember that!"

Eric glared at Fez and watched as the scene changed to his supposed bachelor party. His hand was duct taped to a beer stein and he was miserable. Even at a strip club, Eric Forman was miserable.

The next screen shot was when Donna thought she was pregnant and he blabbed everything to his mom and while the pregnancy was still just a possiblity, Eric only wanted to best for the promising baby Forman and suggested Donna give up her career. Well that was a disaster!

The film reel continued with its damning images: the destrcution of Donna's wedding dress, shopping for cutlery at the mall, and a montage of all the times she called him a dillhole or other disparinging insults.

Eric scrubbed his face with his hands and looked at Tatiana. In a low voice he admitted, "I really regret not telling Donna sooner that I didn't want to get married."

Hyde pretended to look shocked but Kelso laughed. "Dude, we knew you weren't ready and we knew that Donna was too good for you."

Fez sighed, "But in a good way Eric. She needed someone that fit her needs better than you – or me, dammit!"

Eric could only think of the time that he missed maybe furthering his own career instead of being a dead dog shovel scooper – he could have been a paramedic or a Wall Street investor or anything. But no. He spent so much of his youth chasing after Donna which turned out to be a one way street and he crashed into the dead end. He would never get that time back.

Tatiana leaned against the side of his desk. "Does it help if I tell you that the Sun, I mean your Donna regretted her affair with a Casey Kelso?"

Eric's eyes widened. How did the gypsy know about that? "She did?"

Tatiana smiled, "She was confused and acting out and she didn't really want to hurt you but she didn't want to get married either. Eric, can I tell you something?"

Eric wanted to tell her that he was basically her hallucination-hostage so go ahead – but he actually wanted to hear with she had to say. "What is it?"

Tatiana bent so the other boys wouldn't hear. "Everybody loves the Sun. It's warm and inviting and people miss it when it goes away. But Eric, it's always there and like the story of Icarus…if you get too close to it, it will burn you. However, at night when you look in the sky you will see many Stars. They twinkle just as bright and they wink at you and like the constellations, they will always be there. Eric, you need to let the Sun burn brightly and concentrate on the Stars."

"Oooh-kay." Eric blew out a breath because that made no sense to him at all!

She merely smiled, "You'll understand what I'm talking about when the time comes." Tatiana clicked off the projector and smiled at the boys. "Take a little nap while I go tell someone a story about shellfish."

Leo looked puzzled. "What?"

She waggled her finger, "Come my king, we have one person left to talk to."

T7S

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