Chapter 20: Two In The Morning

"I've always been able to trust you, and God you are such a nice guy."

- Jackie Burkhart

It was two in the morning.

And she was thinking about the irony.

When she was 16 years old, and she thought she was carrying Michael Kelso's baby, the first person she turned to was Eric. And now that she suspected she was carrying Eric's child, he was the last person she wanted to tell. She thought a child was supposed to bring a couple closer together, not farther apart.

She locked herself in their tiny half bath and stared at her sleepy face before saying, "What a fine mess you've made for yourself."

She had just taken another pregnancy test- which also read positive.

Slowly, a soft tapping jarred her out of her thoughts. It was coming from outside the bathroom door.

"Jackie?" She heard Eric's unsure voice, "Are you alright?"

She needed to tell him the truth, so naturally she lied, "Yeah, sorry. Um, just needed to slash some water on my face."

She quickly did so before opening up the bathroom door a creak. She spotted Eric peering down at her, and even in the darkness she could tell he was worried. For a moment they were just staring at one another from the bathroom door. Finally Eric spoke, "I feel like we've been drifting. I don't think we're headed in the right direction."

She instantly got defensive, "I don't have a drinking problem."

He raised an eyebrow, "I was thinking of the reunion."

"Oh." Was all she could say.

"Maybe we should see a couples counselor." He suggested, fearing her answer.

Instead, she said, "Do you think you can make me waffles? I'm always eating organic and natural stuff..." She let h sentence hang and then die off in the blackness of the night.

He stared at her for a moment longer, his expression saddened by her usual tactic of dodging tough questions.

"Jackie, do you want to go to the therapist or not? We won't go if you don't want to."

She shrugged her shoulders, "I don't care. Do you want to go?"

"I do."

She made it a point to look directly into his eyes to see if he was telling the absolute truth. He was. She then nodded slowly, closing her eyes which burned with exhaustion, "Okay. You win. We'll go."

"It's not about winning. It's about doing what is right."

She gave him a sad smirk, echoing her teenage thoughts, "God, you are such a nice guy, Eric."

HHe tried his best to smile, he tried to make it cocky. With a wiggle of eyebrows he tried to be lighthearted, "Come back to bed with me and I'll make you breakfast when we really wake up in a few hours."

She took his hand in hers and he gently led her back to their tiny bedroom.

As they crawled into bed, she turned to her left side, and he did the same. He wrapped his arms around her waste, snuggling his lightly stumbled chin on the crook of her neck. As they relaxed, Jackie stared straight ahead at the blaring red electronic clock digits : 2:45AM.

She didn't think she was in the restroom that long, but more than likely she simply lost track of time. And then a soft peck started her out of her hazy, melancholic thoughts. It was Eric, lightly kissing the temple of her forehead, "Night, Jackie."

"Goodnight Eric."

She closed her eyes, and dreamt of happier times in a smokey basement with laughing friends, in youthful bliss, before it disappeared.

Note:

So, originally I had this three part conclusion planned, but after spending some time getting reacquainted with this fic, I feel I have too many lose ends to just quickly tie up. I think I'm going to focus more on Jackie and Eric's relationship, and I want this couples counselor character to help them figure out what exactly has been holding them back. Also, I do want them to run into everyone at the reunion, but as to what the outcome is, I'm still working on it. And I know this chapter is short, they will get longer, no matter how much I try to shorten them- I tend to write too much, it's both a blessing and a curse.

Anywho, I'm trying to get better at posting updates, I'm using a calendar now, like a real one (I don't count the one my phone, it might as well be a snooze button) that is on the wall- literally in front of my bed. Not gonna lie to you guys, next posting for this fic will be awhile, like 5 weeks from now. Hopefully that should be enough time to steer the ship back to port. And yeah, I could've messed up that refernce, I don't fish:)