Author Note: ...hey thanks for all those wonderful reviews - really made my day and inspired me to post the remaining chapters (not all at the same time of course!)

Chapter 39 – The Gang's all Here –Well…. Almost

Jackie touched Eric's lips with her finger. "I think we should be a thing."

Eric's eyes flew open. "Really? I mean are you sure?"

T7S

For Eric, courting Jackie Burkhart was like wiping the chalkboard clean of every preconceived notion he had about women and learning anew. Every minute he spent around her was poetry in motion. She was graceful and funny and kept him on his toes. He adored watching her laugh when she thought he couldn't see her – he loved leaving little gifts in places that only she would notice.

However, a yellow rosebud on the lid of the toilet was not one of his best ideas.

That Saturday morning she stood in his bedroom doorway twirling the flower between her fingers.. "The bathroom? Seriously?"

Eric pulled the covers up to his waist as he quickly sat up in bed. He knew his hair was unkempt, but the smile in her eyes said appearances didn't matter. Raking his fingers through the mop on his head, he cleared his throat and struggled for a legitimate response.

"…uh…I thought it was….romantic?."

Barefooted, Jackie quickly crossed the threshold of Eric's room and tossed the rose at his chest. "Please…..that is NOT romantic. Ugh."

Eric swung his feet to the floor and patted the mattress beside him. "Well, yeah it is. Sit."

Jackie curled one leg beneath her thigh and sat down eyeing her roomy suspiciously. "Explain."

Eric smiled. "Well, the bathroom is actually the place where all of this started. If you hadn't passed out….and mom hadn't tripped on you….then Fez kicking you out…which was really a bonus for me and I didn't realize it at the time…Mom's bad back is what got you moved into my sister's room and well…..I think I what I want to say is…."

Jackie's eyes softened – yeah, that was romantic in a weird Forman kind of way, but he wasn't off the hook yet, "What do you want to say Eric?"

"Uh….yeah…about that…..I think…I think I'm falling in love with you."

Jackie blinked. Totally hadn't expected that! Eric was absolutely right – if all those events hadn't happened in that sequence….wow….she might still be living with Fez and pretending to be happy when she wasn't. She wouldn't he having the successes and life she was having now. She finally had a set of parents, albeit not by birth, but she truly cared about them and knew they cared for her equally. And he was falling in love with her too?

Jackie smiled at his messy head and realized that everything that came before Kitty's accident was like a dream. This goofy nerd in front of her was all she needed – maybe for the rest of her life. "My little Star. I do not want to you see you settle for a shrimp or a crab when you have a lobster who is waiting for you and doesn't even know it yet."

Was Eric the lobster Tatiana was talking about?

Wait! Who the hell was Tatiana?

xXx

"What do you want to say Eric?"

"Uh….yeah…about that…..I think…I think I'm falling in love with you."

Eric heard the words tumble out of his mouth but they were supposed to stay in his brain! This was the part where Jackie would verbally slap him, then twist him into a pretzel and not the soft kind they served at the mall. He looked over and saw a smile on her face. Quite the opposite reaction he expected. His heart thumped in his chest with each beat sending an overflow of emotion through him. This was definitely an sensation he hadn't experienced in a long time – but did it feel then, as gratifying as this now?

Jackie turned sideways on the bed and replied, "So….." she dropped her voice adopting a bit of a sultry tone. "What are you going to do about it?"

Eric wrinkled his nose. He doesn't have to think that one over! He tugged on her hand and pulled her over onto his lap. "I think that we have some talking and serious making out to do."

Jackie laughed gaily and pulled out of his embrace. "Is that all you think about?"

He smiled softly and shook his head. "No. I think about the stars a lot. Somebody told me to let the sun burn brightly and concentrate on the stars and in my heart….I think you are my star."

Jackie gasped. "Does the name Tatiana mean anything to you?"

Eric frowned. "Nope. I can only think of electric trains making that toot-toot noise." After a pause, Eric replied, "Are we remembering?"

Jackie smiled and nodded. "I think we are!"

T7S

The beer was chilling in the fridge and fluffy bags of chips and cans of bean dip were set on the old wooden spool. The whole gang, sans Donna, were going to meet up at 1:00 in the basement and Jackie wanted to be a good hostess since:

1 - she was now part of a couple and

2- she was representing Kitty Forman as the household hostess.

Eric smiled as he watched his new "girlfriend" (how odd that felt to his brain), putter around the basement plumping the loveseat cushions and straightening magazines. Just a normal girly obsession, but it pleased him immensely. He set his newest addition to the makeshift coffee table and grinned, "I brought backup."

Jackie looked over at the towering stack of Collier's encyclopedia's "R" though "W". He smiled sheepishly, "I figured your Tatiana reference and my toot-toot would be in the back half of the alphabet."

Jackie tossed him a pillow. "Good thinking and maybe when Steven and Michael get here we can figure out our missing memories."

Eric pointed his finger, "You forgot to add Fez in there."

Jackie faked a gasp. "No! I didn't !Really, I didn't – unless its candy related I don't know how much help he's gonna be."

Eric lifted a brow, "You never know what that guy is going to say so don't count him out too soon." He tossed the pillow back and it bounced off Jackie's brunette head. She laughed. "You know, of course, a while back that little maneuver would have just pissed me off."

Eric grinned and jumped over the back of the loveseat to grab the errant pillow. "I know and I think I liked to annoy you back then too."

Jackie stared at his mouth, her bottom lip parted just barely from the top, a tiny signal for Eric to lean in for a soft kiss. She closed her eyes as she felt her heart warm. This felt so right and a time before it would have been so wrong. The couple was so involved in the tender embrace they didn't hear the first guest coming down the steps.

"Your ex-girlfriend is gone for a couple of months and suddenly I come downstairs to see you kissing a succubus?" Kelso looked proud. "Yeah, it's a word – look it up."

Eric wanted nothing more in that moment than to frog Kelso and kiss Jackie again just to make her squeal with delight. He looked over her brunette head and regarded his friend. "You are early."

Kelso grinned, "Nope, looks like I got here just in time – hey! You have a library! Let me have that "S" book. I'm gonna look it up."

A second pair of feet was stomping down the steps, "What's he looking up now? "S" for stupidity?"

Eric laughed while Jackie ducked out of his arms. "Does Kelso even know how to spell?"

Kelso frowned at his friendsand leapt over the back of the loveseat to pull the book into his lap. Meanwhile, Hyde sat down in his own familiar chair and busted open a bag of chips. "Hey, appetizers! This is new."

Jackie moved to sit on the sofa, "I'm trying to be a good hostess." Eric sat down beside her and popped open the lid on the bean dip. "It works for me!" he smiled at Jackie and was rewarded with a shy smile from her.

"Okay, you guys may think I'm dumb but I'm gonna find this and tell you what it means. Let me see….how do you spell it? Okay…., s-u-c-k….a….b-u-s." Kelso drew his finger down index page and was flummoxed. "Damn! I know it's in here."

"I have arrived!" Came a familiar voice from the top of the stairs. Fez saw the dishes of chocolate covered raisins and cans of bean dip and just yummy stuff in general and growled, "You started the party without me. I hate you!"

With a flourish, Fez jumped from the second to the bottom step and landed lightly on his feet as an acrobat would do. "You are just jealous because I have a woman. Selena….my fuzzy faced dental assistant...and she loves when we do eeet!"

Fez walked around the sofa and spied Jackie sitting close to Eric, leaning against his arm and the foreigner scoffed. "You were supposed to tell me about it first."

Hyde looked up from the interior of his bag of chips and said, "Tell what?"

"Nothing!" Jackie chimed.

"We're friends." Eric answered simply. "Good friends."

Jackie wasn't ready to share this information with the guys just yet. It was new and fresh and she loved the craziness of the attraction.

"Nuh-uh." Kelso argued.

Hyde pulled his shades down his nose and looked at Eric for confirmation. He knew this was coming when Eric told him about the double date arrangement awhile ago.

"No." "Yes." Eric and his favorite brunette finally answered in chorus.

"You guys aren't friends," Kelso contradicted his buddy.

"Well we are now," Jackie declared and gave Michael a dare me glance. "So just put your book back and let's start this meeting."

Kelso flailed his hands in a gesture of giving up, 'Whatever, I still need to look up that suckabus."

"Enough." Hyde declared. "To start this basement powwow I brought us a little something special." And just like magic, Hyde whipped out a rolled up brown paper lunch bag. Kelso's eyes lit up and he rubbed his hands together. "This meeting may not SUCK as much as I thought it would."

Eric rolled his eyes, "Kelso. It's succubus. S-u-c-c-u-b-u-s. Look it up later."

Hyde had a half smile on his face. "I also brought something new that I think you all are going to love as much as me." He unrolled the bag and brought out a piece of hand blown glass. Stripes of green and gold were stained into the vertical of the glass and dots of red were dribbled in a discordant pattern. The effect was visually stunning since none of the guys had ever seen anything like it before.

Jackie reached out to touch it but Hyde pulled it away. "It's virgin and my lips will be the first to touch it."

Eric's brows knitted, "What the hell is it?"

Hyde leaned back in his chair and began filling the shallow bowl with some loose weed. "This...my friends…is a pipe and it is the beginning of my new smoking accessories that I'm selling at the store."

Eric reached out and snagged it from Hyde's fist. He looked at the craftsmanship and held it up to the light. On the bottom of the pipe was some tiny lettering in gold calligraphy.

K.L.C. Glassworx

Kenosha WI

Jackie sighed, "Okay, so you have a pretty toy, but what is it good for?"

Kelso laughed, "I think this means no more burnt fingertips."

Fez grinned, "Or inhaled cherries…and I mean the kinds that are on fire."

Hyde smiled. "You are all correct." He took the pipe back from Eric held his Bic lighter to the bowl and lit up the pipe, inhaling before passing it around. Eric took the pipe second and drew in the clean smoke.

Minutes later, after everyone had a turn with the pipe, the room was a little hazy but that didn't stop Steven Hyde from declaring the meeting was now in order. The chuckles and giggles soon turned into raucous laughing. Either from the weed or all of the friends finally together in the same room – the mirth was contagious.

It almost felt like New Year's Eve. Again.

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