Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Author's Note: Hello Everyone! First off thank you so much for checking this story out, I really hope you enjoy it! But before you do start reading I wanted to say a few quick little things. Now I know I already have a Hyde and Kitty story but I couldn't help doing another one, I love their mother-son relationship and there aren't enough fics out there about the two of them. And yes, yes I know that this fic is kinda late but I got busy with finals and stuff so it kinda threw me off. Also the story does take place in 1980 (duh) a few months after the final but you will notice that Eric is not home, why? Well because I needed him gone so that the fic would work out right lol PLUS they never did say in the finale that he was home to stay (one of the most opened ended finales ever btw) so for this story he did go back to Africa to finish up the year he needed to get the scholarship. I would also like to apologize for this very lengthy this story I didn't mean for it to get so long, honestly. And then once it was done I just couldn't bring myself to cut anything out. I really hope this doesn't discourage you from reading and especially reviewing. And a big thank you goes out to everyone over at That 70's Fan Fic Board who helped me out so much in posting this fic. You all are so very awesome! *hugs* (For link visit my profile page)This story is dedicated to my own mother and all the other moms around the world, Happy (Belated) Mother's Day! I really hope everyone likes this story as I was/am nervous about posting it, please review if you have the chance and check out my AN at the bottom for some more info, wanna end this one so you all can get started on the actual fic, go ahead and cheer with rejoice lol And please, Enjoy!

Mother's Day 1980

It was early in the morning, on the second Sunday of the month, and Steven Hyde was lazily making his way up the stairs of the basement. Hyde was never one to wake up in the hours of 'first light' he liked the 'later, afternoon light' better; he hadn't woken up this early since he finished high school. But today was a special day and besides he knew he could never get away with sleeping in as late as he usually did today—it would either be one of The Formans waking him up or his own conscious.

And knowing these things was what had him groggily climbing up the wooden staircase while rubbing his eyes and yawning quite a number of times. He was beyond half asleep and had actually been surprised he'd made it up the stairs without stumbling…well excluding the one stumble he'd made on the fourth step.

As he walked into the doorway that connected the basement to the kitchen he felt another yawn coming on. He shut his eyes and opened his mouth wide to taken in a deep breath but halfway through his actions he opened his eyes and caught sight of a something that he hadn't been expecting. With his mouth still widely agape and a frown indented onto his forehead Hyde stared at the scene before realizing how ridiculous he must have looked, he quickly shut his mouth close before speaking out loud.

"Mrs. Forman?" he said not knowing why it had come out as a question, he knew it was her small frame standing infront of the stove.

Turning her head over her shoulder and flashing a bright Kitty Forman smile, the mother hen welcomed one of her baby chicks into the coop, "Good morning Steven, how are you this morning?"

"Um fine…" Hyde replied still wearing his puzzled expression, "Uh what're you doing up so early?"

"You know that's funny, I was just going to ask you the same thing. I mean after all it is an hour of the day that's single digit and ends with a.m." Kitty teased adding a giggle at the end.

Hyde smirked as he walked further into the kitchen, "Yeah, I figured I'd see the morning sun everyone's been talking about." He gave a shrug as he looked out the sliding door and then back at Kitty, "I don't get what the big deal is."

Kitty let out another small laugh and Hyde continued to smirk until he realized she hadn't answered his question.

"Why're you making breakfast?" he asked, rephrasing his question a bit.

"Steven, I always make breakfast." She reminded with a smile.

"Yeah. I know." Hyde nodded, "But I figured with today being…well, you know what today is."

Nodding as she pulled out one of the frying pans from a bottom cabinet, Kitty gave a tight smile. Of course she knew what today was she'd been celebrating it for over twenty years but this year—unlike all the others—she wasn't exactly looking forward to it.

"Yes, I know what today is." She replied, keeping her smile in place but not looking up at Hyde.

Hyde was actually glad that she didn't have her eyes fixed on him. People staring at him made him nervous, especially when he was about to do something he didn't do on a daily basis, show his softer, caring side. But this was Mrs. Forman, one of the few people he felt most comfortable with and he knew she needed what he was about to do, especially this year.

"Happy Mother's Day, Mrs. Forman." Hyde said with a small smirk—like smile on his lips as he put his left arm around her shoulders as a one-armed hug and gave her quick kiss on the cheek.

When Kitty looked up at Hyde, he immediately noticed the shininess in her eyes and he held his breath hoping that his actions had done good and not more harm. He opened his mouth and got ready to say something, though really had no idea what that something would be, when he saw Kitty's small smile grow into a larger, happier one and he knew he had worried for nothing.

"Ooohhh. Thank you, Steven." She said sincerely as she pulled him down into a hug and placed a kiss on his own cheek, "That really does mean so much to me."

Instead of responding, once Kitty had let him out of her grip, Hyde smiled slightly and gave another shrug not sure of what else to say.

Kitty gave a small laugh at his actions before going back to getting the things ready to prepare breakfast with. The room was filled in a comfortable silence with the exception of the cabinet doors squeaking open and close and the occasional pan hitting against another.

"So I'm guessing no breakfast in bed from Red, huh?" Hyde asked breaking the quietness.

"No, no. Red's never been a 'breakfast in bed' type of person." Kitty began to explain, still wearing her smile, "He says there are only two things you're supposed to do in bed. The first thing is sleeping and the second thing…"

Quickly Hyde lifted up his open palm, "Yeah I'm pretty sure I can figure out the second thing, Mrs. Forman."

Releasing another giggle this time at the expense of her adopted son's look of slight repulsion, Kitty turned herself away from the stove and walked over the old brown refrigerator. Hyde watched her grab the carton of eggs and then make her way back to where he was standing.

He felt bad because he had planned on making Kitty a small Mother's Day breakfast, but apparently you had to get up really, really, really early to beat Kitty Forman to her kitchen. Sure preparing a breakfast for Kitty wasn't something Laurie or Eric had done for Kitty for Mother's Day or for her birthday—at least not in the years he'd been living with them—but Hyde did want this day to be a good one for Kitty. She deserved it. And besides maybe it was time for a new tradition.

"Uh Mrs. Forman," he called out, grabbing her attention right away, "It's Mother's Day. Why don't you go back upstairs and sleep in a little longer…I can handle breakfast."

The smile on Kitty face grew even more, "Oh Steven, that is so sweet of you, but really sweetie I don't mind making breakfast today."

Hyde nodded while he watched Kitty expertly crack one of the eggs over the plastic bowl. He knew that had been a long shot, of course she didn't mind making breakfast…she'd been making it nearly everyday for years. And with the response she'd given him, he pretty much had a free pass to go back to bed. Hyde was sure Eric and Laurie and pretty much any other kid would've done just that, and to be honest on any other day he might have too. But not today, not on Mother's Day.

So he gave it another shot.

"Could you use some help?"

Kitty's head popped up and her eyes met with his unshaded ones; he could see the happiness in them and it made him feel proud that he had been the one to put it there.

"I would love some help. That is so thoughtful of you to offer." She said letting out a very tiny giggle. Hyde managed to give a smirk but not much else because a few seconds later Kitty had excitedly grabbed his hand and pulled him closer to the stove top. "Here why don't you work on the eggs, okay?"

"Sure." He agreed, Kitty's giddiness was starting to rub off on him and his smirk was beginning to turn itself into a smile.

While Kitty let out another happy laugh and began to gather up the things to get started on the bacon, Hyde reached into the cardboard egg carton and grabbed one of the eggs, ready to crack it into the bowel Kitty had already started breaking the eggs over. He had no problems with eggs or making them.

Hyde could care less that they came out of a chickens butt and he wasn't allergic to them (though even if he was he wouldn't have done an idiotic stunt like Kelso and drink them raw), plus he'd cooked eggs, among other meals, plenty of times before; back when he was a chef at that hotel and when he was still living with Edna and only had a scarce amount of ingredients. Though he'd been invited to almost every dear at the Forman house during that part of his life he didn't like the thought of him mooching of The Formans. Hyde never liked that thought, which was why he'd gotten the job at The Photohut and paid them rent…never had he thought they'd been putting that money aside and give it back to him the way Red had a few months ago.

Thinking back to that day Hyde was glad he had spent that money on those tickets for Red, they'd helped keep Red and Kitty from moving. And even though he'd acted pretty Zen through the whole thing, he really had no idea what he would've done if they had left.

"This is so nice." Kitty said with a happy sigh, breaking Hyde out of his thoughts. She looked over at him and grinned, "It reminds me of when the kids were little and they use to cook with me in the kitchen."

A confused frown soon appeared on Hyde's forehead as he cracked the last of the needed eggs into the bowl and looked over at Kitty.

"Kids?" he asked sounding puzzled and almost disbelieving, "Your kids?"

Kitty giggled and turned her eyes back to the strips of uncooked bacon, "Yes, my kids Steven."

"Eric and Laurie?" Hyde asked again.

It wasn't that he thought Kitty could be lying to him, he just had a hard time grasping the idea of Eric and Laurie helping their mother cook anything in the kitchen—especially since Eric got confused when making a can of Spaghetti-os. But picturing Eric cooking with Kitty was a lot easier than picturing Laurie spending any time with her mother.

Instead of responding to her adopted son's question she let her mind wander back to the days when her own biological children were younger and actually enjoyed spending time with her.

"I remember when Laurie was a little girl, oh she was precious, with her big blue eyes and bouncing blonde curls." Kitty shared out loud, smiling as she thought of the little girl Laurie had once been, "Of course even back then she was a 'daddy's girl' with Red, but when Red was at work she was stuck to me like glue, there at my side when I was doing housework and taking care of Eric. Well except when I had to change his diaper, then she insisted on staying out in the hallway because of the smell." She said laughing at the memory.

Hyde smiled back while whisking the egg yolks in the bowl. He could see the scene that Kitty was telling him about; a small blonde little girl following her around the house, eager to help her out in any way—that wasn't too hard to imagine. It was when he thought about that little girl being Laurie that everything else got thrown off.

"But she loved when she got to help me make lunch or dinner…Oh or cupcakes and cookies." She let out a small giggle, "Laurie was just so fascinated with it all, you should've seen her face when she pour in the ingredients and mixed the bowls, she was so concentrated. Back then she use to tell me when she grew up she wanted to be a chef."

As Kitty let out another one of her famous laughs, Hyde couldn't help but join in. It was a funny thought…Laurie Forman saying she wanted to be a chef, especially the Laurie Forman he knew saying she wanted to be a chef.

Maybe Mrs. Forman had started hitting the schnapps a little earlier today…nah it was eight something in the morning that was even too early in the day for her.

Still what she had said about Laurie wanting to be a chef, Hyde just couldn't see Laurie saying that. Maybe something similar like, her wanting to do a chef; but knowing Laurie she'd probably already been there and done that with at least four chefs already.

And while Hyde was thinking these thoughts and others quite similar to them, he held his tongue not wanting to ruin any of the dear memories his adopted mother had of her children and instead let her continue with her story.

"Oh and Eric was just the cutest thing when he was helping me in the kitchen, he looked so adorable in his little apron." Kitty rambled on, her smile even brighter than before.

"Eric had his own apron?" Hyde asked with a smirk, ready to tease his adopted brother the next time he talked to him.

Kitty nodded, "Yup. Both him and Laurie had their own. I made them for them; with their names sewed on and everything…I think they're up in the attic somewhere."

While pouring the yellow egg mixture into one of unused pans, Hyde gave his own nod. Making her kids their own aprons did sound like something Kitty would do.

"Although I think Eric always liked baking over cooking." Kitty continued, pulling Hyde back into the kitchen just in time for him to hear that statement.

"Really?" the curly haired young man asked, stifling a laugh, "Eric and "baking"…who would've thought."

The comment went right over Kitty's head as she simply nodded and went on with what she was saying while still keeping an eye on the sizzling strips of bacon in the oily pan.

"It's true." She smiled, "But I think he liked taste testing even more." She said with another giggle.

Hyde gave a smirk just as a question popped into his mind. "So what happened?"

Kitty turned her head from the stovetop and over at Hyde, staring at him for a few seconds before shrugging her shoulders slightly and turning away. He didn't need to elaborate his question; she knew what he was asking.

"Well with Red being Red, he thought Eric should spend more of his time doing things that other boys were doing." She explained to her second son, "That was when he tried to make Eric into an athlete and…well you know how that went."

"Yup." Hyde nodded not being able to hide the smirk on his lips, "One of the biggest fails in Point Place history."

The smirk almost instantly dropped away when Kitty sent a sideways glare in Hyde's direction and he swiftly shifted his eyes over to the eggs that were now becoming cooked and fluffy, he continued to scramble them some more with the wooden spoon.

"Anyways," Kitty went on, erasing her warning glare and softening her face again, "after that Eric wasn't so interested in doing anything in the kitchen expect eating. He started spending more time with you kids, which I thought was really just wonderful, and he developed more 'boy' interests. And with Laurie…she developed an interest in boys."

Hyde's smirk reappeared at the last statement, even though he couldn't help but feel a bit guilty at the fact that him and the rest of the ganging coming around was part the reason that Eric had stopped spending so much time with his mother.

"Have you heard from Eric today?" Hyde asked curiously.

"No." Kitty replied but kept her voice in chipper tone, "But it's still early and besides it's late in the evening over in Africa right now so Eric probably won't call until later on in the day."

Again Hyde nodded but this time it wasn't done just to agree with Kitty or to keep himself from saying anything that might upset her; he nodded because he believed what she was saying. Eric would call her eventually.

It didn't matter that he was thousands of miles away in another country; it was still Mother's Day over here. And Hyde knew that Eric loved his mother, he may not have always shown his appreciation for her but he knew that he loved her and wouldn't let her down by forgetting to call on Mother's Day. Hyde also knew that Eric wouldn't forget that today was Mother's Day; both Eric and Red had learned what happened when they forgot a holiday that was important to Kitty, and Hyde was pretty sure they didn't want a repeat of it…ever again.

"I did get a card from Laurie though." Kitty said out loud.

Hyde shook his head, making sure he'd heard right and that it wasn't part of the thoughts he'd gotten lost in for a few seconds.

"Seriously?" he asked in disbelief.

Kitty smiled and nodded, "It's over on the table there."

Following the older woman's arm to where it was gesturing towards the round table, Hyde saw the lone envelope resting on the tabletop. He took Kitty's words and gesture as an invitation to check out the card himself, so he turned off the burner that had been cooking the now prepared eggs and stepped over to the breakfast nook area.

He picked up the envelope and then placed his fingers into the neatly cut incision at the top before pulling out the store bought card.

It was a light pink color with a picture that looked hand drawn—but of course wasn't—of a white vase full of purple flowers. There was no writing on the cover which made Hyde even more curious to see what was written on the inside, a few seconds later he opened the card up and read the message inside.

'Hope your Mother's Day Blooms with Happiness!' it read in a purple cursive like font.

That part had obviously been part of the card when it was bought, but there had been a little something that Laurie had written in herself, underneath the prewritten message, in her own black pen and cursive handwriting.

'XOXO Laurie'

Like said before, a little something.

"Isn't it sweet?" Kitty asked from where she was still standing at the stove.

Hyde twisted himself around to look at her and when he saw her happy grin he couldn't bring himself to tell her his real thoughts about the card.

"Uh…" he struggled for a few seconds, "yeah."

Knowing that Hyde had only given that response to make her happy made Kitty's smile grow even more.

"Now I know it's not much," she began to say, "but after not hearing from her in so long it's so nice to at least know she's…well, alive!" she laughed, "And not in jail."

"I don't know Mrs. Forman." Hyde said as he eyed the envelope that the card came with, "I'll give you the alive part but this envelope doesn't have a return address…"

Kitty turned her head and saw the envelope that Hyde was lifting up to her while pointing at the empty paper left hand corner; but she only laughed a small laugh while shaking her head and waving her hand in his direction. Hyde smiled back not being able to hold in his own laugh as he dropped the letter back onto the surface of the table.

"Anything else I can do, Mrs. Forman?"

"Well let's see, you finished with the eggs, and I've got the bacon going…" Kitty said as she searched around her kitchen for a task she could give the boy she'd long ago accepted as her second son and done so with open arms, "Oh could you make a few slices of toast for me?"

"Sure." Hyde nodded in agreement before grabbing the loaf of bread and heading to the shiny silver toaster.

While he was glad to be able to help out Kitty a little bit with breakfast, he wished she'd given him some bigger tasks. Making scrambled eggs and toasting a few pieces of bread he could do in his sleep! Besides it was Mother's Day and Hyde felt that he should have been doing the bigger jobs while Kitty got the simpler ones so that she could relax, if even just a little bit. But he remembered that this was Kitty Forman, a woman who enjoyed making breakfast for her family—and Hyde wasn't about to take another thing away from her on this day.

"Thank you Steven, you don't even have to make so many. Just about four or so." She informed as she looked over her shoulder while moving pieces of cooked bacon onto a nearby plate, "And then while you do that I'll get started on the blueberry waffles."

Hyde smirked in response even though Kitty didn't see it; she was preoccupied with gathering the supplies and ingredients she needed for the next breakfast food she was about to prepare.

From the sidelines by the toaster Hyde watched her actions; pouring the various ingredients into a bowl in measurements that only she knew, mixing them up, and never once looking at a recipe on the back of a waffle mix box…there wasn't even one anywhere near her and probably not one in the entire house either.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" he asked as Kitty put a cup of flour into the bowl.

"Do what, Steven?" she asked as she continued to mix the batter.

"Make breakfast."

"Oh Steven," Kitty said almost bashfully, "Plenty of people know how to make breakfast."

Hyde shook his head, keeping his eyes on her, "Plenty of people know how to pour a bowl of cereal, or scramble some eggs, make a few pieces of toast or frozen waffles, and pancakes from the instant mix stuff." He declared, "You pretty much make all your stuff from scratch. Where did you learn all this stuff?"

"Well," Kitty started to say as she stared into the mixture in the bowl before turning her neck to look over at Hyde and smiled, "I learned from my grandmother. She—unlike my mother—was a very sweet woman."

"Sure, she was." Hyde was quick to agree, even though he'd never met the woman or heard about her before; he did however have another piece of information about Mrs. Forman's family, "Evil skips a generation, remember?"

Kitty released another Kitty laugh into the air, "That's right." she agreed and then took a small pause before beginning her second story.

"You see when my sister, Paula, and I were little we would always go to my grandmother's house sometimes for just a quick visit and other times to stay the night over. I always liked it better when we stayed over night because then come morning she would always have us help her make breakfast. Actually help her and not just watch her do everything while she explained the steps, the way my mother tried to teach us how to cook."

"When Paula and I got to cook with our grandmother we got to take part in it all. Measure and add the ingredients, mix them up and pour them out, and make plenty of messes." Kitty drifted off a bit as the corners of her mouth tugged upwards, "My grandmother never minded when us kids made a mess, she actually encouraged it and usually helped make them. She always used to tell us that kids weren't having fun unless they were making a mess."

As Kitty let out another giggle Hyde found himself joining in on the laughter with his own faint laugh while he took out the two—now toasted—slices of bread from the toaster and replaced them with two more.

"Even when I got older I continued going over to her house and then we'd have our own little cooking classes." She giggled slightly, "She taught me so many different recipes."

"Like your Swedish pancakes?" Hyde questioned, wearing a smirk on his lips as he thought about the infamous breakfast meal.

"No, no." Kitty shook her head, "That recipe came from my grandmother on my father's side. This grandmother was the one who gave me the recipe for those chocolate peanut butter cookies you love so much though."

"Really?"

Kitty grinned, "Mm-hmm"

"Huh." he said in response, wearing a small thinking scowl on his forehead as placed the second pair of toast onto the small plate, "I never even met the woman but already she's my favorite relative from your side of the family."

"Oh she was such a wonderful woman." Kitty shared out loud when suddenly her smile faded just slightly and her tone of voice didn't sound as joyful as before, "She passed away a few months after Laurie was born."

Hyde remained silent. It wasn't that he didn't want to say anything he just didn't feel the need to say anything, and he had a good feeling that Mrs. Forman didn't expect him to say anything. She wasn't sharing this information with him for sympathy or to get any comments or remarks from him, she was sharing this with him because she wanted to.

"She had been sick for awhile by then but I was so happy that she had been able to see Laurie and be there to help me out in those first few months. Especially when it came to dealing with my mother."

"What do you mean?" Hyde decided to ask a question partly to ensure Kitty that he was still paying attention and the other part being because he was curious.

Kitty whipped away the last of the lumps in batter while she answered Hyde's question, "Well being a first time mother is nerve-racking alone and it doesn't help when you have your mother beside you telling you everything you're doing wrong. I was either not holding Laurie enough or holding her too much. I was letting her sleep too much, I wasn't letting her sleep enough. It drove me crazy!"

"So then your grandmother stepped in?"

"That's right." Kitty said with a nod, "She stepped in and made me realize that I did know what I doing and that I could handle it. And whenever Laurie cried she never told me what I needed to do because she knew that I knew what to do and didn't need hers or anyone else's help. She was the one who gave me the confidence and made me believe that I could be a good mother."

Listening to Kitty's story Hyde didn't know how to feel. He was surprised to find out that there had been a time when Kitty had been worried about being a mother, the way she acted towards her own children and himself along with the rest of gang he'd always figured she was the type of woman who was born and ready to be a mother. He also found himself feeling a bit upset at the thought of someone thinking that Mrs. Forman wasn't a good mother—even if it was her own mother—because she was a good mother, who needed to be told that more often.

At that thought Hyde made a mental note to try and do that very thing himself and maybe even hint at Eric about doing the same. He then took a few nervous steps forward, towards his adopted mother, deciding to put this resolution into action a lot sooner.

"Mrs. Forman." He called and she looked up at him, "Your grandmother was right. You are a good mother. You're a great mother."

"Oh Steven." Kitty said as another tight and teary-eyed smile appeared on her face.

And before Hyde knew it Kitty had thrown her arms around him and pulled him into a very tight hug. At first he pretended to be a bit bothered and act like he was being squished tightly—which wasn't too far from the truth—but after a few seconds passed he put his own arms around Kitty's smaller frame and returned the hug. Not nearly as tight, of course.

'And I wish you were my own mom.' He thought to himself while still holding onto the old woman that those words were meant for.

Kitty pulled out of the embrace just abit and looked at Hyde with her lips still stretched out into a smile that Hyde returned with his own tiny form of one. When Kitty let him out of the hu, the plate of stacked slices of bread resting on the counter caught her attention.

"Oh you finished making the toast. That was fast." She said, trying to hide the disappointment in her tone and eyes by turning away and busying herself with the sizzling pieces of bacon.

"Yeah." Hyde answered, as he watched her and could sense she was trying to hide something.

"You know Steven," Kitty began to say, breaking him away from the train of thoughts that were helping lead him to an idea, "you can go back to your room now and get a little more sleep. You're still a growing boy who needs his eight hours of sleep. I'll call you up when everything's ready."

A smirk crawled its way to Hyde's mouth. While Kitty still seeing them as kids bugged the heck out of Eric, Hyde actually found it a bit comforting. It was nice to know that someone still cared about him and made sure he was taken care.

"Uh…nah, it's cool Mrs. Forman." He replied, he knew she would be let down if he left and the truth was he might feel the same way; he was enjoying this quality time between the two of them. "I think I'll hang out here a little while longer. If you don't mind that is." He added, never wanting to over stay his welcome, "I still gotta butter the toast anyways."

Kitty's face lighted up again, "Of course I don't mind Steven. Here I'll get you the butter." She announced before walking over to the fridge.

Once Kitty handed the butter tray to Hyde along with a silver butter knife, the kitchen became silent. It was silence that Hyde found both relaxing and comfortable. It wasn't like the other moments of silence that he'd found himself in lately, the types that were tense and each of parties seemed to be abit edgy. The soundless moments that Hyde shared with Kitty before had always had the same comforting feel to them, he never felt any force or any type of pressure, he felt like he could just be himself, say what he need say and not ever be judged for it; he felt the way a child should feel when with their mother.

Kitty was also enjoying the peaceful moment but all the talking they had previously done had been about her and she had a certain topic she had been meaning to discuss with him.

"So Steven, did you hear the talk at the water cooler?" she asked with a small giggle.

Hyde looked up from the toast he was buttering, "What? About Dan from 'Days of Our Lives' waking up from that coma?"

"Oh Steven, don't be silly." Kitty said waving her hand in her direction, "That's a soap and I'm talking about real life. Besides he just got in that coma last week he'll be in there for another three months or so."

A small chuckle escaped Hyde's mouth before Kitty went on.

"I'm talking about the latest news about Fez and Jackie." she explained while eyeing him carefully.

"Oh." Was all he managed to say before putting on his armor of Zen, and being sure to avoid his surrogate mother's eyes. If anyone could see past his Zen it was her, "Yeah, I heard. Fez told me the other day."

"And?"

The curly haired man's brows scrunched together, "And what?"

"What do you think about it?" Kitty elaborated her question.

"Honestly." Hyde said looking back up from the toasted bread, "They lasted a lot longer than I thought they would."

Kitty tried to send a disapproving glance his way, but couldn't bring herself to make even make one, "You too, huh?"

Hyde only shrugged his shoulders, not bothering to say anything. He wasn't at all surprised to learn that Kitty had the same thoughts as he did on the whole Jackie and Fez thing…or as Fez had nicknamed them 'Jaz.' The whole 'relationship' was a joke and he doubted anyone thought it could ever be anything serious, and he included both Fez and Jackie in that statement.

"Soo, what are you going to do?" Kitty asked smiling widely.

But the large grin only confused Hyde.

"Nothing." He said not at all sure why she had asked that.

"Nothing?" she repeated, her smile now gone, "Steven you can't do nothing. You have to do something."

The young man still didn't understand and his puzzlement was growing but he wasn't sure he wanted to know the real reason behind his surrogate mother's questions.

"Like what, Mrs. Forman? Throwing a party doesn't really seem appropriate." Hyde started to say but paused a few seconds to rethink his words, "Well maybe I could put one together for Fez, you know celebrate him getting rid of Jackie."

Hyde's joke did not sit well with Kitty and the look in her eyes told him so. His smirk quickly vanished while Kitty continued to glare in his direction as she moved her hands on her hips.

"I am not talking about Fez. I'm talking about Jackie."

"Why would I throw Jackie a par…" Hyde began to ask but stopped mid-sentence when he suddenly realized why Kitty was bringing this up.

'Uh-o.' he thought to himself as he quickly searched for a quick exit.

"Alright well I'm done with the toast, Mrs. Forman." He announced, his eyes on the basement entrance, "Just call me up when you and Red start eating…"

Trying to be as quick as possible Hyde walked past Kitty and over to the doorway when all of a sudden a dainty hand grabbed onto his forearm. He heaved a heavy sigh and closed his eyes, cursing himself for second guessing his first plan of sprinting to the exit, and allowed Kitty to pull him over towards the kitchen table.

"No, no, no. You are staying right here, Steven." Kitty declared before lightly shoving him towards an empty chair, "Now sit down and we'll figure out what it is that you'll say to Jackie."

Hyde literally dropped himself into the seat, "Mrs. Forman, I'm not talking to Jackie. Especially about anything you're already thinking up." He said as he only imagined what plans were stirring up in her head but already they worried him; he sighed, "There's no reason for me to."

"Oh of course there is, Steven. A very good reason too." Kitty argued with a smile as she sat herself into the chair next to Hyde, "You're still in love with her."

A look of surprise and slight panic crossed over Hyde's face for a second or two before he quickly covered it with his Zen mask and hoped Kitty hadn't noticed his previous expression. When he saw the even larger smile on her face, he knew it was too late…but he wasn't going down without a fight.

"No, I'm not." He declared.

"Yes, you are." Kitty chimed right back.

Hyde frowned, "No, I'm not Mrs. Forman."

"Yes, you are Steven." She said almost singing it.

"No Mrs. Forman, I'm…"

"Steven, don't make me shoot you again." Kitty teased as she cut him off.

Immediately Hyde knew what she was referring to. Veterans Day. The day they had a very similar discussion about Jackie in this same room, Hyde had told Kitty that if he did like Jackie then she should shoot him—and she did. The day he had punched out that dumbass Chip guy. The day he and Jackie had their first date. The day he and Jackie had their first kiss…

"Okay, okay," Kitty said pulling Hyde out of the memory of the night in the woods, on Jackie's dad's Lincoln and back to the kitchen, "Maybe you're not still in love with Jackie, but you do still have feelings for her and care about her…not in the 'in love' way but in the way you care for Donna and Laurie…" Kitty paused realizing that her daughter may not have been the best example, "and Donna. Right?"

"Yeah, I guess." He admitted. It was the truth, whether they were together or not, he did still care about Jackie and didn't want to see her hurt, "But that doesn't mean I'm still in love with her." He was quick to add in.

The mother hen nodded her head, "Right." She agreed before a cheerful smile sprung to her face again, "But it also doesn't mean you're not still in love with her."

Hyde shut his eyes and resisted the urge to drop his head smack down on the table, causing Kitty to laugh with amusement.

"Oh Steven, you can't fool me. I was the one who pointed out that you liked her back on that Veterans Day, remember? And I was right then wasn't I?"

Hyde opened his eyes but kept his mouth closed.

"I'll take that as a 'yes.'" Kitty said still smiling, "And I'm right now aren't I?"

Silence again.

The grin on Kitty's face grew once more, "I'll take that as another 'yes.'" She said with a light giggle.

Slowly, Hyde moved his gaze up from the spot on the table he'd been staring at and over at Kitty, "How did you know?"

Kitty's smile softened as she began to speak, "Steven, I have known you for almost your whole life. I can read you just as easily as I can read my own children." Hyde had to return the smile when he heard that comment, "And I also got a pretty big hit on New Years. The way you crushed that beer can in your hands when you saw the two of them kissing, I was sure that I was going to have to have Red hold you back."

Hyde gave the shiest of smiles. If anyone else had caught his actions that night he would have been embarrassed on the inside and denied it left and right on the outside, but with Kitty he didn't feel the need for either of those things. And if someone had to catch him and the jealous way he'd been acting, Hyde was glad it had been Mrs. Forman.

As his thoughts traveled back to that night not too long ago, Hyde remembered why he'd only crushed the beer can and not done anything else. He remembered the reason he hadn't gone to talk to Jackie when she and Fez announced that they were together or before that or since he witnessed that New Years kiss of theirs.

"Mrs. Forman, even if if I did talk to Jackie, it wouldn't do anything good. Nothing would change because nothing has changed." Hyde shared one of his worries without actually addressing it as a worry—he knew Kitty would figure it out on her own.

"Jackie and I weren't good together…I mean we were good together." He was quick to change that statement around 'We were damn good together.' He thought but kept on with what he had to say, "But we wanted different things. And that's why we broke up. Jackie was ready to get married and I wasn't…I'm still not."

Though Kitty listened to most of Hyde's words with an unbiased ear, when she said his last statement she couldn't help the scowl that became indented on her forehead.

"Steven James Hyde, you know that is not true." She said in a stern and almost scolding tone, "Jackie never said that she wanted to get married then and there. All she wanted was to know if she was in your future, if the two of you had a future together."

Hyde sighed, "But..."

"I know, I know." Kitty cut in raising her hand sin the air a little, "You're a young man who doesn't know what his future holds for him, you have a future that can change completely at any time. And because you do, you choose to imagine all the different ways that your future could turn out; but you still have no clue as to which one of those thoughts will turn into your actual future."

"Yeah." Hyde nodded and was ready to add more but Kitty wasn't finished.

"However." She said in that motherly lecture done of voice, "I am willing to bet a thousand dollars that Jackie was in a few of those scenarios that you pictured as your future."

There was silence again and it caused Kitty's grin to grow as she went on.

"And I am also willing to bet twice that amount of money that in not one of those scenarios did you see yourself married to a stripper."

Hyde looked over and saw Kitty looking at him with raised eyebrows and he couldn't help but smirk at the burn she'd made on him—it was a pretty good one. But he still wasn't persuaded enough to go see Jackie or even pick the phone to give her a call.

"Even if I did change my thoughts about my future to one that had Jackie in it, it's too late." He said shifting his eyes down to his hands, "She hates me."

"Steven, honey, Jackie does not hate you." Kitty said in a comforting voice as she placed her hand on his arm.

"Yeah she does. She's told me." He said keeping his gaze downwards, "I can count all the times she told me she hated me since we broke up on one hand." 'And remember each amount of pain it gave.'

Kitty continued to smile her reassuring smile, "I'm sure you can. Just like I'm sure Red can't count on both hands all the times I said I hated him." She paused and her smile turned into an even bigger one, "And that's just counting the times from when I was in labor with the kids."

As the older woman broke out into another one of her unique laughs Hyde joined in with his own chuckle as he thought about the picture that had been painted for him. But then the laughter from the two of them died down and Hyde looked back up at his surrogate mother.

"Why are we even talking about this now?" he questioned, "It's Mother's Day, we should be talking about you and…other Mother's Day things." He ended on a weak note that made Kitty giggle.

"And things that I, the mother, want to talk about. This is one of the things I want to talk about." She informed in a serious tone of voice before an idea entered her head and quickly became very excited, even patting her palms on the tabletop a few times, "Oo Oo Oo! You talking to Jackie could be my Mother's Day present from you."

The expression on Hyde's face fell flat as he watched the giddy blonde woman in front of him.

"Uh…Mrs. Forman, I…I don't think so. I…" he struggled to find something to change the subject to, "How about a diamond necklace instead?"

Kitty smiled and released a soft laugh.

"Steven, I would choose my children's happiness over a diamond necklace any day of the year. And I see you as one of my own children." She said giving his hand a slight squeeze, "I want you to be happy, sweetie."

Hyde just stared back at Kitty; her words had meant so much to him. She said she saw him as one of her own children, he had a feeling that she'd always felt that way by her actions—taking care of him when he was sick or hurt, making him his favorite meals on his birthday, taking him out to buy a needed jacket (even if she had bought him the tackiest one in Point Place)—but it was always nice to hear the actual words too. And she wanted him to be happy, more than she wanted a diamond necklace. If he'd made that offer to Edna she would've taken it in a split second and later sell off the necklace for cash to buy who knows what.

At last he nodded his head, "I'll think about it."

"Okay." Kitty replied trying to contain her smile, "That's good enough for me."

She then stood up from her chair and bent down to place a quick kiss on Hyde's forehead; and this time it was Hyde who tried to contain his smile. After letting go of her adopted son's head she went back over to the stove, practically skipping over there. Her mother's intuition was telling her that he was going to do more than just think about the idea she'd put into his head.

"So Mrs. Forman," he called out, more than ready to change the subject, "what've you got planned for this Mother's Day?"

"Well, I'll be leaving to church in a little while and there are a couple of errands that I need to get done." She replied after a small sigh, but kept her smile on her face, "But I won't get started on any of those until I hear from Eric."

Hyde merely nodded his head and Kitty noticed this.

"Why?"

"Nah, it's nothing." Hyde said in his zen manner and matching shrug, "I was just wondering if you maybe, between your phone call from Eric and the errands, you'd wanna go out for lunch. My treat…kinda like a Mother's Day Lunch."

The corners of Kitty's mouth travel upwards, "I would love that, Steven."

"Cool." He responded with a nod and a smirk.

The way Hyde had given his reply made Kitty smile. It was the same way he would reply to some of her questions or statements when he was a little boy. The word 'Cool' was said in the same tone of voice, only deeper than when he was younger. He still wore the playful and mischievous smile on his lips and those blue eyes of his showed how excited and happy he was really feeling.

Kitty closed her own stinging eyes to keep in the tears. Her babies were growing up. And no matter how many times she thought the thought, it never failed to make her at least abit misty-eyed. By the time she opened her eyes backup, she found Hyde walking over towards her.

"Hey Mrs. Forman, you think you could teach me how to make those waffles?" he asked but then caught the sight of the uncooked batter on the counter, "Or is it too late, cuz…"

"Oh don't be silly, Steven." Kitty interrupted, "Sure I already made some batter for one batch but you can never have too many waffles." She said with a laugh that made Hyde smile, "Why don't you get that bowl over there?"

Hyde reached over to the dish rack and grabbed the plastic bowl that Kitty had been talking about; bring it over to the counter area so that their first cooking lesson could begin.

Author's Note: So what did you think? Yay? Nay? Applause? Silence? Please lemme know what you think. I would really, really like to hear from you especially your opinion about what I have to say next.

Did you all notice that there was no 'The End'? Well that's because it's not the end :-) See I have a part two to add to this but because of the very large word count esp for a 'oneshot' it was better to split it in two…I think. So this is a 'two shot' maybe I'll stretch it out some more if a lot of people want me to even, but for now it's just the two chapters. This one and the one I'm putting finishing touches on and don't worry it is alot shorter than this one. I plan on posting the second part soon, not sure when, but I do know that reviews help me work faster *wink*

Ok I'm going now because I know I've rambled on long enough and apologize for that and for the lengthy chapter as well but I do hope you enjoyed it and will be back for part two!

Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, stay tuned, see you next time, take care, and have a nice day!