A/N – This is a long one. It's over 3000 words. I hope you enjoy and thanks for all the reviews, keep 'em coming, they inspire me.
Disclaimer – Cliché disclaimer here.
March 5
Eric Foreman was laying in front of the three girls moaning over his leg with a bit of blood dripping from his chin. He must've hit it when he fell. Jackie and Donna were shocked and Callie was smiling at how weird this chance encounter was. It was awesome.
Eric didn't seem to take in the girl's appearance too much, not even really realizing it was the two girls he grew up with all those years ago.
"Um…" Donna tried, but couldn't really get anything out. She didn't know what to say. I mean, what do you say to and ex-boyfriend that you were once engaged to who then decided to run off to Africa who then came home, but never to say 'hey, I'm back.'
The man on the ground, who was wiping his chin, looked up when he heard his name. His eyes then went wide at the realization of who had hit him with their car.
"Jackie?" Eric said in his seemingly tired sounding voice as he looked over to his ex-fiancé, "Donna?"
Donna stared at Eric, still not knowing what to say, so Jackie came to the rescue, "Oh my God, Eric! Are you okay?"
Jackie grabbed both his hands and helped pull him to his feet. He was still quite the light-weight. Eric got to his feet and brushed himself off before wiping his mouth with his sleeve again, mumbling something under his breath, "Second time this week…"
Jackie brushed that off before starting again, "Are you alright? You didn't break anything did you?"
Eric shook his head, still trying to wrap his mind around what had just happened, "Yeah, I'm fine, I think I'll— Ah!" He cried out as he took a single step forward. Jackie winced at this and sucked in a sharp breath.
"Oh God, we're so sorry," Jackie said, grabbing Eric's arm, "I tried telling Steven to watch where he was going."
Eric raised an eyebrow at this, "Steven? Hyde's with you?"
Jackie looked up into Eric's eyes, her heart skipping a beat. She never realized how pretty his eyes were, "Um…"
"Yeah, he's driving," Callie suddenly cut in, pushing between Eric and Jackie and looking up at the man, "Hi, I'm Callie. Donna's daughter. It's nice to meet you."
She suddenly grabbed Eric's hand and shook it roughly, "Um, yeah, it's very nice to meet you too."
Callie smiled and released his hand as Jackie asked, "Do you want a ride? We can take you home."
Eric nodded and looked back over at Jackie, "Yeah… Yeah, sure. That'd be nice."
"Okay, come on," Jackie nodded, gently pushing Callie out of the way and grabbing Eric's arm, helping him around the side of the car.
Jackie opened the passenger side door for him and helped into the seat, apologizing every time he winced or yelped a little bit.
"Oh God, are you okay, man? I really didn't see—" Hyde stopped talking when he recognized the familiar face. He facial expression went from that of worry and concern to… A really unidentifiable one.
"Hey Hyde," Eric said, but cried out when Hyde punched him in the arm hard, "Ow! What the hell was that for?"
"For leaving," Hyde snapped as he turned back to face the road as the three girls got into the car and closed the door.
Jackie smacked Hyde on the side of the head and glared at him with that signature Jackie snarl, "Steven! Be nice! You just ran him over for God's sake!"
Hyde scoffed, "Yeah, and he deserved it, too."
"Steven," Jackie warned.
Hyde stayed silent except for the incoherent mumbling to himself. Eric tried getting comfortable in his seat as Jackie rambled on, "Do we need to take you to a hospital?"
Eric shook his head and adjusted his skateboard between his feet, "No, I think I just sprained my ankle. I'll just put some ice on it when I get home."
"Where do you live?" Hyde asked blandly, as if he were infuriated with Eric. Which to be completely honest, he probably was.
"Just take a left up here," Eric directed, "I just live a few blocks away."
As Hyde put the car in drive and started towards the corner where his old friend had directed him, Callie started asking questions, "Are you any good on that thing?"
Assuming she was referring to the board, Eric turned to look at her and nodded, "I've been riding it for almost twenty years, so I guess you could say that."
Callie smiled, "What do you do?"
Eric was entertained by this girl. He liked her enthusiasm. Eric adjusted his shoulders, "I'm a photographer."
Donna raised an eyebrow, "What happened to being a teacher?"
Eric shrugged, wincing a little at the pain in his ankle, "I taught for a little while, but after about five years, the town got a little rough. There was a lot of drug dealing in the school, like hard drugs. Kids were getting into fights all the time, girls were getting assaulted, some kids threatened bodily harm on each other."
"So you just quit?" Donna asked, crossing her arms.
"I quit because I tried breaking up a fight once and kid pulled a knife on me," Eric responded.
Jackie's eyes widened, "Damn."
Eric nodded as Callie chirped up, "Have you ever been stabbed?"
Donna glared at her daughter, "Callie!"
"What?" Callie asked, seeming confused, but Eric just laughed.
"No, I've never been stabbed," Eric responded to her question, "But I've been threatened to be a few times."
Callie nodded and leaned back in her seat. Jackie and Eric so badly wanted to ask about where Eric's been all these years, why he's never come back to see anybody, but they decided they'd try to do that later, maybe when Callie wasn't around.
"Now where to Forman?" Hyde asked from the driver's seat.
Eric looked out the windshield, "Just keep going straight to rest of the way, I'll tell you when to stop."
"What do you take pictures of?" Callie asked.
Eric shrugged, "Mostly people. I like to see what kind of lifestyles people from all around the world have. I like to see how their lives are different from ours."
"Does that mean you've been to different countries?" Callie asked, her eyes wide.
Eric nodded, "Yep."
Callie beamed, "Where?"
Eric pondered for a moment, trying to think of a few, "India, Spain, Africa, of course, Turkey, China, Pakistan…"
"Cool…" Callie smiled. She was really interested.
"Wow, you've been everywhere, Forman," Hyde spoke, "But not to see us. Why is that, exactly?"
Eric frowned and looked down at his hands in his lap, not really feeling in the mood to talk about this, so he stayed silent.
Hyde nodded, "Too much of a wuss to talk about it, huh? You haven't changed much, Forman."
Eric was feeling a bit awkward like this, so thankfully Jackie chimed in, "Do we have to do this now, Steven?"
Hyde pursed his lips and shook his head, "No. But we have to talk about it sometime."
"Yeah, but not right now," Jackie snapped back, seeming a little defensive.
Eric cleared his throat, trying to clear the tension a tad, "So… Girls, what do you two do?"
Jackie smiled and crossed her legs, "Well, I work with Fez at a hair salon. Your Mom is always coming in there for a new style."
Eric smiled, feeling his eyes burn with unshed tears, "Yeah… How are my parents, by the way?"
Jackie didn't even notice his uneven tone of voice, so she just answered chirpily, "They're doing fine. Your Dad's walking again, that's great."
"What do you mean 'again'? What happened?" Eric asked, looking back at Jackie, his head jerking around roughly. It almost gave Jackie whiplash just watching him.
"You—You don't know?" Jackie asked, surprised that he didn't know this information, "You don't talk to your parents?"
Eric looked down again, feeling ashamed, "I know, it's sad, but… You just don't know my half of the story."
Jackie felt angry at Eric for not even keeping in contact with his parents. He should have at least done that. But Jackie couldn't be too mad either, because he was right, she didn't know his half of the story.
"He had a stroke," Donna said. Well, she wasn't going to hold back her anger, "We thought he was going to die. The left side of his body is paralyzed, he just sort of drags his left foot around. And your sister, yeah, she can barely speak. She was in a car accident a year ago, I bet you didn't know that either."
Eric sniffed and averted everyone's gaze, not saying a word. Donna was right, and she had every right to be angry with him, "Stop here, Hyde."
Hyde slowed the car and came to a full stop on the curb before putting the car and park and turning it off. He turned to look at Eric. He looked defeated. Hyde was angry at him before, but seeing his friend so broken pulled a bit of sympathy out of him.
"Here, I'll help you out," Hyde said, getting out of the car and walking around the side. Eric waited for his old friend to open his door before he wiped his eyes and looked up at Hyde, "Come on, man."
Hyde helped Eric out of the car as Jackie and Callie made their way out of the backseat. Jackie felt her heart leap at Eric's limping self. She felt bad for him. She had to yell at Hyde later for that.
"Here let me help," Jackie offered, taking Eric's other arm and tossing it over her shoulders. He seemed bonier than she remembered.
"Is this it here?" Hyde asked as he reached one of the doors in front of him, making Eric nod.
"My rooms on the third floor," Eric informed him.
Hyde opened the door as Donna got out of the car, her angry expression still on her face. Hyde and Jackie helped Eric inside before starting up the steps. It took a few minutes with an injured Eric to get to the third floor, Jackie apologizing every so often when Eric yelped out in pain.
Eventually, they got to Eric's room with him directing where to go and he pulled his keys out of his pocket. He put the key in the lock and opened the door before turning to his friends, "Um… Would you guys like to come in?"
Jackie smiled sweetly and nodded, "Yeah, sure."
Eric moved out of their way and let them pass him by into the living room of his nicely sized apartment. It was kind of dirty, needed dusting, but it wasn't bad.
There was an old brown couch in the middle of the room and an old TV in front of it, a coffee table between them both. There was a can of beer on the table and an ashtray with cigarette but's there as well.
Jackie raised an eyebrow at this and wondered if Eric smoked now, "Shit," She heard the slightly older man say as he tossed his keys onto the kitchen counter. She looked over at him and noticed him staring at the several cans and bottles on the counter where he'd thrown his keys.
There were at least three beer cans and a bottle of wine up there. Did Eric drink all that?
"Chris?" Eric called out, picking up the empty alcohol cans and bottles and tossing them into the trash.
Jackie heard some thumps coming from the short hallway and a door creak open before a boy revealed himself in the living room. He was a teenager, maybe sixteen or a little younger. He had brown unkempt hair and large glasses over his dark eyes.
"Yes?" He replied, standing in the hall awkwardly, his hands clenching and unclenching, he didn't really take notice of the other four standing in the room with him.
Eric took notice over the boy's erratic behavior and raised an eyebrow, "Are you okay?"
"Yes," Chris replied in a monotone voice, as if he were trying not to get upset.
Eric nodded, "Where's your mother?"
Jackie was confused. Was the kid Eric's son? Was Eric married? Why did he seem so concerned about all the alcohol laying around?
"She's sleeping," Chris replied, looking over to finally notice the others in the room, to which he suddenly averted eye contact.
"In bed?" Eric asked, throwing the last bottle into the trash bin.
The boy nodded and looked down at his feet as Eric sighed in relief, "Are you okay?" He asked again.
The boy nodded, but it wasn't convincing enough for Eric, "Alright, we'll talk about this later, I have some people I want you to meet."
Eric stepped over to Chris, passing his friend's on the way by. He gently put his hand on the boy's shoulder and directed him over to his friend's, "Chris these are my old friends, Steven Hyde, Donna Pinciotti and Jackie Burkhart, and this is Donna's daughter, Callie."
"It's Dubashi now, Eric," Donna informed him, a little too bitterly, though.
Chris looked up shyly and refused to make eye contact with anyone as he shook all of their hands firmly, but quickly, "Nice to meet you all."
He turned back to look at Eric quickly, "Can I go back to my room now?"
Eric smirked softly and nodded, "Of course."
"Thank you," He said before turning and leaving the room quickly.
Jackie smirked as he left, "He's odd."
Eric shrugged and scratched the back of his head, "He's just a little shy, that's all," He said before switching the subject quickly, "Do you guys want a drink?"
Hyde nodded, "Yeah, man. I need something to relax me after a long two days with three constantly chatting women."
Eric chuckled lightly let a tired smirk play across his lips. There's the Steven Hyde he remembers. Eric turned and went into the kitchen to get drinks, his limp still present. The three other adults in the room sat at the bar and waited for Eric to hand them a beer as Callie followed Eric into the kitchen.
He looked down at her and then back to the fridge, "What would you like to drink? We've got some Orange Juice, Milk, Soda… Are you allowed to have soda?"
Callie nodded, "Yeah, I'm not five."
Eric chuckled and nodded, "Alright then," Eric liked this little girl. She was feisty, but not feisty like Donna. Callie seemed more straight to the point than Donna, didn't take no for an answer. Must have been a trait of her father's. Eric handed the girl a Coke and then stood, four beers in his hand.
He hobbled over to the bar and set three of the drinks in front of his friends as he popped the top on his own beer and took a swig.
Callie wiped her upper lip of Coca-Cola residue before looking at the photos on the fridge. There was at least a dozen. There was one of Eric when he was younger, looks like it may have been taken in the late 80s. He was standing by a railing, the Statue of Liberty tiny in the background as Eric held up a peace sign, a beaming smile on his youthful face. Callie smiled as she looked at some of the other photos. There was one of a women with a little baby in her arms, another was a photo of Eric with a child, maybe five or six year olds, and another of Chris at an outdoor restaurant of some sort, smiling. Chris must be the baby and child in these other photos.
Callie turned to Eric as he tried starting conversation with his old friends, "Excuse me, Mr. Eric," Callie tugged on the hem of his shirt.
Eric looked down at her, "Yes?"
"Can I go talk to Chris?" Callie asked curiously. She didn't know why, but the boy intrigued her.
Eric nodded, "Yeah, sure. Just don't be to conversational, take it kind of slow. He's not used to yet, so it may take a while to get a conversation actually going."
Callie nodded, "Okay, I'll be gentle," Callie said sarcastically taking another swig of her drink before walking down the hall to find Chris.
That left the four adults in the kitchen together, not knowing at all what to say. This was going to be an awkward afternoon.
That night, after trying desperately to avoid an argument with Donna and trying to keep the other two entertained, Eric decided he'd step outside for some fresh air. He needed a break from everything that had happened today.
As he looked up at the sky, the stars barely visible because of the bright city lights, he thought. He thought about his parents and his sister, his strained relationships with his friends, how he was going to explain his absence to them all and not make them angry about it.
He heard the door to his building squeak open, but he didn't look back to see who it was. He thought it was just one of his neighbors coming out to take a walk or something.
"Hey," He heard the familiar feminine voice.
He looked over to see Jackie standing next to him, her arms crossed over her chest as she braved the cold.
"Hey," Eric replied as he looked back up at the stars.
Jackie wanted to ask him so many things, but she didn't know where to start, so she went with the easy route, "Happy Birthday."
Eric looked over at her and smiled, "You remembered. After all these years."
"I've always remembered," Jackie said. She noticed Eric's cheeks become a little red as she realized the way she made that sound.
"Well, thanks for remembering," Eric said, stuffing his hands into his pockets.
"So…" Jackie started, kicking her foot, "Is uh… Is Chris your son?"
Eric smirked and shook his head, "No. No, he's my roommate's kid."
Jackie nodded, "He's nice."
Eric nodded, "Yeah."
This was awkward.
"Why did you keep asking him if he was okay?" Jackie asked, serious concern in her voice.
Eric looked down at his feet, as if he didn't want answer the question.
"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm intruding. Sorry," She said, blushing furiously.
Eric shook his head, "No, no it's okay. You're just concerned," Eric said before looking up at her, "His Mom is uh… She's a bit of an alcoholic and sometimes she gets a little too drunk and she yells at him."
Jackie looked shocked, "Does she ever…" She couldn't bring herself to say it.
"Hit him?" Eric asked, "Yeah, sometimes. I try to be there when she's drunk though so I can protect him."
"Has she ever hit you?" Jackie just asking questions, but Eric didn't mind.
"Yeah," Eric said, "I don't want to report her though, because she's trying to stop drinking and she always says she's sorry… I don't know, I guess I just have too much faith in people sometimes."
Jackie pursed her lips into a thin line and put a hand on Eric's arm, "That's a good quality, I think."
Eric just shrugged and sniffled at the cold, "I better get back inside, see if Callie's still chatting Chris's ear off."
Jackie giggled at that, "She tends to have that effect on people."
Eric smiled and turned around, "Come on, we don't want you getting frostbite out here without a jacket on."
Jackie smiled and nodded, following Eric back inside.