Chapter Nine
When Eric and Jackie left the bedroom the next morning, they were surprised to find only Brooke waiting for them.
"Sorry, guys" Brooke said as she made breakfast. "He got a page during the night from one of his team leaders. Something about major issues with a contract. Michael bolted as soon as he was informed. He's not too sure when he'll be back, but he'll let me know the minute things change."
Yawning as she stretched, Jackie nodded. "No worries, Brooke. It's the one of those joys that we call life that likes to intrude from time to time." As she sat down at the table, Eric sat next to her; placing a kiss on her cheek as he did so.
The gesture did not go unnoticed by Brooke as she served the plates of food she had made ot the table. This made her resolve even more to have that talk with Eric. Jackie was her best friend and she wanted to make sure she going to be treated right. "Okay, people, breakfast is up. Let's dig in before it gets cold, shall we?"
After breakfast, the trio got themselves dressed and worked out what was happening for the next few Jackie prepped for the meeting with Gio and Elena, Eric decided that he wanted to see how much of Kenosha had changed in the five years since becoming a celebrity. Having nothing to do herself, Brooke offered to be Eric's tour guide.
Relishing the opportunity to finally grill Eric, Brooke grabbed her purse, then hugged her friend and whispered, "I'll try to bring him back in one piece."
Eric kissed Jackie, murmuring as he did so, "I know Brooke's going to grill me, so, for you, I'll play nice." Watching as her two friends left, Jackie grinned as she heard Eric ask Brooke, "So, seeing as you're married to Kelso, you like living dangerously, right?"
When Brooke got into the Mustang, she thought she knew what to expect. Then Eric started the engine and gunned it, the revs vibrating straight through Brooke to the point of almost giving her an orgasm. Eric grinned when he saw the look on her face. This was one moment he definitely would not be telling Kelso about.
Brooke saw Eric's grin. "Say one word to Michael and you'll never even see me coming."
"Not a word." Eric gunned the engine and drove off with a roar, Brooke squealing with delight. For the next several hours, Brooke took Eric on a tour of Kenosha; showing what had changed, what had stayed the same and what had been updated. In return, whenever they came across a back road, Eric would put the Mustang through its paces; giving Brooke a thrill as the car roared down the road.
Eventually, however, both Eric and Brooke began feeling the pangs of hunger. Driving back into the heart of Kenosha, Eric parked next to a bistro right near the center of the city. As Broke got out of the Mustang, she struggled for a moment to find her legs under her.
"Everything okay, Brooke?" Eric asked with a grin on his face. Brooke scowled at him as she finally regained her balance. Still grinning, Eric offered his arm to Brooke, who eventually smiled and looped her arm through his before the pair entered the bistro. Finding a table just outside, they'd only just sat down when a waiter appeared with a carafe of water and two glasses and menus for them each.
Quickly reading the menus, Eric ordered a steak, medium, with fries and salad on the side and a Jack Daniels on the rocks, two fingers, three ice cubes. Brooke ordered the same, except her steak was medium-rare and her drink was a Long Island Ice Tea. As they waited, Brooke looked at Eric. "Alright, Eric, what are your intentions towards Jackie?"
"Intentions?" He had expected to have the Talk, as he called it, with Brooke, but he hadn't expected her to be quite so blunt about it. Watching as Brooke raised her eyebrow, Eric took a breath. "My intentions, Brooke," he finally replied, "are to love and care for Jacqueline Burkhart for as long as she'll let me."
The honest answer made Brooke's heart melt. Not really knowing Eric all that well, what little she did know came from the stories that Michael, Jackie and the others had told over the years. The one thing that Brooke did learn about Eric from all those stories, though, was that he was an honest, down to earth, good guy. Any woman would be lucky to have him. She was curious, though, as to what had happened between him and Donna, but that part of the conversation was for later on.
"Do you love her?" Brooke had picked up hints from her husband that Eric's feelings were headed in that direction. She just wondered what damage Donna had done to Eric that had left him single for so long.
Eric took a moment to gather his thoughts. "When I ran into Jackie that day at the convention, I wasn't expecting the wave of emotions that hit me." Brooke was surprised by the admission, but let Eric continue speaking."After learning about what Hyde had put her through over the years, plus finding out about it all after the fact, I resolved to reconnect with the ones I loved and cherished the most."
"The complete and utter collapse of my marriage had hit me hard. Walking out on Donna was the hardest thing that I'd ever done in my entire life." Even now, Eric still remembered the bitter fight which had led to him leaving seven years ago. "The way I felt after, it was as if I'd failed at the one thing I'd always wanted: to marry someone that I was in love with, have kids and grow old together."
"After the divorce was finalized a year later, I threw myself into my teaching and my writing. When my first book was published and became more successful than I ever thought it would be, I decided to take the time find myself again. Rediscover who Eric Forman was." Eric smiled sadly as he thought about those years he missed spending time with his friends. "Along the way, though, I forgot about those most important to me."
At that moment, the waiter arrived with their drinks. After he was gone and they'd both had a mouthful of liquid, Brooke asked, "So, what brought about the realization?"
"When my dad broke his hip," Eric replied. Even now, he still remembered the late night phone call from his manager nearly a year ago. Eric had been in Los Angeles, having just returned from an international book tour and had decided to spend a few weeks recovering before heading back ot on the road again. The moment he had received the phone call had completely changed all that. Instead, he had booked himself a flight to Wisconsin and arrived home ten hours later after being notified of what had happened. Once at the hospital, Eric had found his mother and gotten the full story of how Red Forman had wound up in the hospital.
Of all the things to put Red Forman in hospital, Eric would never have thought that slipping on ice would have been the thing to do it. But, when he saw his father that day in the room being attended to by the doctors and the distress that his mother was in, Eric had suddenly realized that his parents weren't young people anymore. He had realized that, even though he had been living his life for the past ten years, he could've done more to stay in closer contact with his family and friends. Point Place was his home. Home was a place that no one should ever forget about.
After speaking to the doctors and seeing to it that all of his father's medical expenses were covered, Eric had taken his mother to get some food and drink and make sure that she was alright as well. That was when Eric got the full story of most of what had been going on during his time away. After ensuring that his mother got some rest while the doctors tended to his father, Eric set about making sure that his parents were well taken care of during the recovery process. He bought a van to help transport Kitty transport Red around for when he eventually left the hospital and began his physiotherapy. He organized for renovations to be done to the house to help his parents adjust to their new living arrangements, converting much of the downstairs living area and turning the upstairs area into a storage area for the time being. And when Red was finally released from the hospital, Eric also covered the costs of any additional help that was required to help Red and Kitty, sparing no expense.
Nearly one year on, Red was finally able to move about without needing assistance while Kitty no longer worried about her husband relapsing. Eric had been glad to see that the recovery process had worked out well for his father. Perhaps the greatest help of all had been the counseling that Eric had offered his parents to help them cope mentally as well as physically. While Red had scoffed at the idea of talking to what he a 'quack', Kitty had put her foot down and had made Red go; promising him that if he didn't attend, life would become even more unbearable than it already was. Knowing a threat when he heard one, Red had acquiesced and had gone to see the counselor.
Six months of therapy had not only helped Red adjusted to the life as he now knew it, but it had also helped him come to terms with other issues he hadn't even realized he'd needed to deal with after all these years; some of them dating back to his service in the Second World War and Korea. "Once I'd made sure that my parents were taken care of, that was when I started getting back in contact with everyone else and reconnecting," Eric told Brooke.
"Is that when you found out about Steven?" she asked. Eric was about to answer when the waiter arrived with their lunches. They waited once more until the meals had been served and the person had vanished before Eric gave his answer.
"Almost two years after I should have, Brooke." Even now, Eric was still angry at having been left in the dark for so long. "If Mom had told me what had been going on when I called, I would have come home and done what I can. Finding out from W.B. was not how I wanted to discover that the man I loved as a brother had become someone I didn't know or recognize anymore."
"When I got to the convention that day, I'd already planned to track Jackie down and be her friend again. No one had bothered to mention to me that she would be running the event that I was attending as a guest. So, I took my opportunity to reconnect and, six months later, here we are."
After eating some more of their lunch, Brooke asked the question that had been burning in her mind ever since Eric's return and that no one knew the actual answer to. "Eric, what happened between you and Donna?"
Having expected this, Eric took his time as he looked Brooke. Swallowing a mouthful of his drink, he set the glass down and asked her, "Tell me what you know."
"Not much, really." Brooke struggled as she tried to think about what Jackie, Michael and the others had told her over the years. "From what I can remember, you and Donna got married not long after you returned from Africa. You joined her at college in Madison, as had been the plan, where you both graduated two years later. A year after that, she walked out and filed for divorce. I do know that you guys have only spoken once since the divorce and that was at Bob Pinciotti's funeral three years ago."
Eric nodded. "Nearly of all that was correct. The only detail you were wrong about was Donna walking out and filing for divorce. In fact, it was the other way round." Brooke was stunned. While she had known that Eric and Donna had had their share of up and downs over the years, it had usually been Eric the one chasing after Donna after she had walked out. To hear that their divorce had been the result of Eric walking out on Donna was not what she had been expecting to hear.
"I still remember the day I left as if it was yesterday." Even now, the memory of that day still filled Eric with anger; the arrogance that Donna had displayed and the resultant row that had come about. The moment that he had realized that she would always place him second as opposed to achieving her dreams. The moment he had packed his bag and walked out on the woman he had loved and married and thought he would spend the rest of his life with. "It was the weekend of Thanksgiving in '83. Donna had been working for a local paper whose owner had connections with several more prestigious ones while I'd just finished the last of my units in order to qualify to teach History as well English."
"The principal had let me know earlier that week that, with the additional qualification, my place at the high school was a permanent one if I wanted it. Needless to say, I jumped at the offer. The opportunity of a full time job, even back then, was rare. So, the moment that school was done for the day, I raced back home to share the good news with Donna. I walked in to our apartment all excited and ready to share my news with her, feeling glad that things were finally starting to move forward. That's when I found her in our bedroom, packing our things as if we were getting ready to move."
The memory was still vivid even after all this time; as if remembering a scene from a book or a movie. "When I saw the suitcases on the bed, I initially thought that Donna was leaving me. Then I saw that she had mine as well as hers and that's when she told me about Chicago." Eric shook his head as he remembered the fight. The words spoken that couldn't be taken the wounds reopened that they both had thought long since forgiven and forgotten. "She'd planned to surprise me with her news, but Chicago had upped the timetable on her; wanting her there just after the new year. That meant moving then and there and heading to the Windy City and leaving everything behind."
Sitting back in his chair, Eric recalled the look on Donna's face and what it would have meant for him if he had gone with her. "After she told me everything, that was when I realized that I would always come second in our relationship, no matter what. I could see that I was being expected to just agree with her and drop everything. And, for the first time in god knows how long, I found the courage to look her in the eye and tell her no."
"When the words came out, I don't think Donna knew how to deal with being told no. I watched her struggle to find the words for a few moments before she blew her cool and that's when it really started. While she unleashed every bit of rhetoric at me as to why she had to go and why I had to go with her, I countered back about all the selfishness and bullying that I'd endured over the years to help her achieve her goals while I put myself second in the grand scheme of things. From there, it just got worse."
Brooke's heart went out to Eric. While she had been lucky enough to find Michael, even if how they met hadn't been under the most ideal of circumstances, she could see that Eric was a lost soul; searching for something that he once thought had been possible with Donna. It was obvious to her that the scars that remained from the fallout of their failed marriage had never really healed at all. He did so now, however, if he and Jackie would be willing to give the beginning of what they had a chance.
"So, after about an hour of screaming and yelling at one another,," Eric continued, "I finally came to the conclusion that this was a moment where I had to put myself first, consequences be damned. That's when I stopped fighting with her, walked back into the bedroom, packed my open suitcase on the bed, closed it up and proceeded to walk out the door. As soon as she realized what I was doing, she chased me all the way down to the front of the building. She continued to try and stop me as I waited for a cab to show up. I almost broke when she screamed my name as the cab left the apartment. But, I knew that if I didn't leave, I never would."
"Where did you go?" Brooke asked.
"Home," he replied. "Back to Point Place. While my parents weren't exactly thrilled to see me, they knew I wouldn't have come that far unless there was a good reason for doing so. The next morning after breakfast, I told them that I'd left Donna and that I wasn't going back. Mom, while she hadn't been Donna's biggest fan, asked me if I was sure about what I was doing and that it was the right thing. I couldn't answer her, not really at that point, so Mom just disappeared and made herself a drink to help her deal with the fact her son wasn't going to be a married man anymore. Red just looked at me for a moment, nodded, then told me to follow him out to the garage."
"My dad and I didn't often connect or talk very often up to that point. When we went out there, he sat me down, handed me a beer from the cooler and asked me what happened. I told him everything, from the moment that I'd got home to the fight with Donna and my decision to leave. When I was finished, he took a drink of his beer and then asked me if I planned to go back to Donna at all. That was when I realized that if I was going to live my life the way that I needed to in order to be me, I had to move forward without Donna being it. We were, and still are, two very different people leading very different lives. I told Red that. He nodded, drank what was left of his beer and then told me that it would seem that a visit to a lawyer was in order after the weekend was over. He told me to start thinking about how to handle everything else once I'd seen the lawyer and he'd help me go from there."
"So, after Thanksgiving was over, I went with Red to see an old war buddy of his who was a lawyer and I filed for divorce. A couple of days after that, I finally returned to the apartment to find that Donna had completely cleaned everything that was hers; leaving behind anything connected to our time together as husband and wife. She did leave a note for me that read: 'I'm sorry. I love you. Donna.' That pretty much strengthened my resolve to move on my life as best as I could. I packed up everything from our marriage and put it in storage while I lived in the apartment till the lease ran out and I moved into a small one bedroom apartment closer to the school.. The divorce was finalized a year later. Donna tried contacting me several times during the proceedings, wanting to reconcile, but I refused to speak to her at all. I knew that, if I didn't stay true to myself, I would regret it for the rest of my life. Donna eventually signed the papers and, well, you pretty much know the rest of the story."
And she did. Brooke had been there by Michael's side when, at Bob Pinciotti's funeral just after the service had finished, Donna had approached Eric in the hope of putting the past to rest and moving forward. In a very rare and out of character display of emotion, Eric had rejected Donna's tentative peace offering and had lashed out verbally, cutting Donna to the quick. While she and Jackie had comforted Donna when she broke down in tears, Kelso, Hyde and Eric had quickly gotten into it when the pair had caught up with Eric just as he was getting to his car.
She still didn't know what had been said, but she knew it hadn't gone well when she saw Michael helping a bloodied Hyde back to where the others had been waiting. The group had moved to where the wake was being held, where it was found out that Donna had planned to introduce Randy to Eric in the hope of putting the past to rest and moving forward herself. Eric's reaction had not been one that anyone had anticipated. Michael had later told her privately what had happened when he and Hyde had caught up with just he'd left. While Michael had planned to talk with Eric, Hyde had reacted a lot worse to the way Eric had treated Donna and had left things.
Fully expecting Eric to be laid out by Hyde, Michael couldn't have been more surprised when Eric ducked Hyde's haymaker and had driven a fist into his gut before unleashing a left and then a right to Hyde's face; the left knocking his jaw loose and severely bruising the right side while the right knocked a few teeth loose and fractured his jaw. Eric had then finished up with a knee to Hyde's nose, breaking it while he'd been doubled over from the pain.
Michael had raised his hands in surrender, telling Eric that all he had wanted to do was talk. Seeing that the fight had gone out of Eric already, Michael had told her that Eric had told him that he would catch up with everyone another time. That had been three years ago. Now, he was back in Wisconsin and Brooke was glad to see that he was trying to move forward and make peace with the past.
After they finished their lunch and had another drink, Eric paid the bill while Brooke waited by the Mustang. Just before getting in, Brooke turned to Eric and kissed him on the cheek before giving him a hug. Smiling at each other, they got in the car. Gunning the engine, Eric grinned as he asked Brooke, "So, up for some more fun?"
