Whenever You Need Me


Chapter: 1

What took you so long?

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters and as much as I would love to own Joshua Jackson and be able to do with him whatever I want, unfortunately I can't. So please don't sue me as I'm just a poor little white girl, well woman, with nothing better to do with her time, plus if you were to sue me I think I only have about enough to buy a happy meal lol.

Summary: well basically this takes place in the middle of season three. Dawson and Joey are friends again and Pacey forgave Andie for cheating on him. Kind of self-explanatory really. I kinda made Dawson out to be quite a dark figure in this story in some parts, because personally I hate his character, the whiny little man he is. Joey and Pacey have spent a lot of time together and Joey starts to fall for him, unrequited love, or is it? When Pacey has some difficult times she is the only one who is there to pick up the pieces, and returns the favour when she has a bad experience, but will it make him fall into her arms?

It was a Sunday night and Joey was sitting on her dock taking in the gorgeous view and sight of the spectacular Capeside night, a chill ran through her body as the cold air hit her face. It was cold, but beautiful never the less. She touched her cheeks, they were cold and her face was red from the blast of the wind off the creek but she actually liked it. She looked out at the marvelous Capeside night and smiled gently. Even though she prayed Capeside would not be where she spent her future she still loved it. It was her home, wherever she may be it was home and it was where her heart belonged. She looked out over the creek and saw a faint reflection of the moon in the water. She smiled as she remembered the man in the moon. The man always looking after her whenever times were bad she would think about him and talk to him. However, for once things weren't that bad, the house was turning into a successful bed and breakfast. It wasn't busy at the moment because it wasn't in season but they did have a few guests who stayed over for a night or two. The restaurant had been re-opened thanks to the work of Pacey who had worked almost day and night to fix it for them. He really cared about her and her sister, he always had. And even though they bantered she always loved and respected him. She smiled at the thought of a lame joke he had told her yesterday, something vulgar about blondes, which she had thought, was particularly funny since he was dating one. As she thought of him she found herself sensing his presence behind her. He always did have a way of making her do that. Thinking of him, making her realize it was him standing behind her she smiled faintly at him, relaxed and tired she saw him wink at her cheekily. He always did that, never meant anything but he always did, for as long as she could remember. His eyes winked but his face was dark, he had a bruise on his face, he was always getting into trouble, into fights or just being plain clumsy. That boy was always walking into, tripping over or getting hit by something.

"Hey" he said sadly, kicking an imaginary can on the ground, his eyes were dark and his voice and shaky. Something was wrong and she knew it. Instead of smiling at her with his usual, 'How's it hangin'?' He just said, "How's life at planet Potter this fine evening?" he asked, trying to sound characteristic of him and his normal tone but did not quite manage it. She could sense something wrong, but didn't want him to know just how worried she was about him. He would just make her feel stupid and she knew he would just tell her she was over reacting and tease her again about caring about him.

"What's up your ass tonight?" she asked him with attitude, she had always known when something was wrong. She could sense something wrong, but didn't want him to know just how worried she was about him. He would just make her feel stupid and she knew he would just tell her she was over reacting and tease her again about caring about him.

"Well hello to you too," he commented walking away from her, he could tell she was so not in the mood, or so he thought. She was always so cold to him on the outside. Sure, she was warm at times but she was usually cold. Not cold hearted though, never cold hearted, he could always sense the warmth in her eyes even when she was cold to him. He decided he couldn't be bothered with this tonight, couldn't be bothered with the Josephine Potter attitude and decided to leave her alone before they got into a fight. He hated fighting with her, because he always walked away feeling bad about being so mean to his best friend.

"Sorry," Joey said, sighing, she grabbed his hand and pulled him down to sit beside her. He wasn't just going to walk away tonight, otherwise if her feelings were founded about something being wrong she would definitely feel guilty if she hadn't talked to him about it. He was her best friend after all. He had been moping for weeks about something, some information he wouldn't disclose but she intended on getting to the bottom of it. "Just you've been moping around for days now and I'm sick of whenever I ask, you just ignoring me so tell me what's wrong or show me a smile," she said, not with warmth, just frustration. She meant warmth, she truly did but she had this conversation with him on a daily basis for weeks now and was sick of it. "Want to talk?" she quizzed him. He was quiet, too quiet. No remarks, no jokes, no conversation. Nothing. Something was definitely seriously wrong.

"Mind if I just sit a while?" he asked, quietly, his voice was quiet like a small boy, but rough too. His words were jagged and as a large sharp sigh exited his mouth, she needed to talk, she nudged him hoping it would spark a question, a remark, a joke, hell even a jibe, just something, anything from those full lips of his. They moved so often usually but tonight. Not a twitch, but he was dying to talk she knew it. She looked at him; she really looked at him. Question in her eyes searching his for emotion. They say that eyes were a window to a person's soul, it was certainly true with Pacey, it's hard not to read his eyes. They give away everything, she looked at him some more, he didn't notice, he just looked out over the water with melancholy. There wasn't just awkwardness in his eyes but there was a hurt and a pain she had never seen before, deeper somehow. There had been a lot about him she had just started to see lately.

"So what's up?" she asked softer than before. "Why you here?" she forced him to look at her as her eyes burnt through his skin, he could feel it. That look, that Joey Potter look, as her forehead wrinkled and the question appeared in her eyes he knew he had to say something before she went to that angry Joey, the one who always demanded answers.

"Honestly?" he asked, looking at her, shrugging his shoulders. He wanted to answer her questioning eyes but couldn't, he didn't quite know why he had come here at night to her dock. Automatic pilot had taken over, he had been here so much lately he felt like it was his safe haven, a place he could go where she wouldn't analyze like Dawson, or ramble like Andie, or joke like Jen. Just pure, pure safety and sanctity. "I don't know why I'm here," he said thinking out loud. "Just kinda kept walking, had no where to go and just felt myself drifting here, feet just seem to want to come here," he said solemnly. He could tell she wanted to know more. He sighed. "My dad threw me out," he said sadly. He had to tell her, he had no option but to tell her. He had been dying to anyway, plus there were only a certain amount of nights you could sleep in a car. His back ached, his neck was knotted and his bruised rib was really starting to hurt on the hard seats.

"What?" she was taken aback by his comment, this she wasn't expecting. Nothing this serious, she turned to him seriously, even more question in her deep brown eyes. "What happened?" she asked putting her arm around his waist. "When did he throw you out?" she asked nervously. He jumped when her hand came into contact with his back and she felt it. A groan escaped his mouth, a painful groan and she pulled back sensing she was hurting him.

"Well," he let out a sigh and turned to her, she had, thankfully, removed her hand from his bruised waist, usually, he wouldn't mind but the pain was killing him and he hadn't taken any pain killers yet. He was all out of them and in a great deal of pain. "Me and dad had a fight. I was meant to be in by eleven, because he wanted to talk to everybody about something and he..." Pacey stuttered. He wasn't sure how to say this without it seeming too serious, but it was serious, it had been since he was eight years old. "My curfew is usually one so I totally forgot and I came in at half past one. He was pretty mad said something about disrespect and then just said he was sick of me." His mind thought back to that night. He had really been hurt by his father's cruel words. "He said that I was loser, a delinquent and that he was ashamed to call me his son." He felt Joey's hand rub his shoulders, comforting him. That's what he needed, a shoulder to cry on, and not a person to answer back to him. "Then I told him I was sick of him always putting me down and then he just threw me out," he said sadly looking at her, her face was full of question.

"When did he do this? Tonight?" she questioned, this guy needed a shoulder right now, and she wasn't going to give it to him without the whole story. She needed to know what he was dealing with first, he looked away from her gaze and that's when she sensed it. This wasn't a new problem. "Not tonight?" she asked him, he was silent but he shook his head. "Yesterday?" No answer. "Friday?" she asked him again and he stayed silent. This was ridiculous. "Not tonight, not yesterday, not Friday then when?" she asked. She was curious and a little annoyed he hadn't told her. "When?" she repeated, she heard him whisper something but didn't catch the sound. She thought she heard him say a week ago, but that can't have been right. "What?" she asked. "I didn't catch that".

"A week ago, last Sunday night," he replied, gulping down a huge lump in his throat as her eyes grew wide and shocked, he took her hand and rubbed her knuckles. "I'm okay really, I'm managing," he reassured her, she pulled her hands away from him hastily and stood up. 'Uh oh,' he thought, she was not happy.

"A week!" she said, almost shouting. "A week!" she repeated. "You have seen me every day at school, all Friday night, four study sessions during the week, not to mention yesterday when you came and fixed the heater, you had plenty time to tell me and you didn't. You've been homeless for a week and you didn't tell me. Isn't it the kinda thing you mention?" she rambled. She couldn't believe this man. She shook her head and put her hands on her hips. "I can't believe you didn't tell me. I thought we were friends, Pacey. I thought you could have told me before now." She was angry and she knew she shouldn't be. How could she not pick up on something so bad? She wasn't just angry at him but at herself too.

"I'm sorry" he said standing up to look at her, he was a little upset that she didn't seem to care, she only cared that something was going on little Miss Joey Potter wasn't aware of. That she had missed out on some juicy gossip another thing to end to the endless lists of disappointments. "Well what am I supposed to say?" he questioned her loudly, his voice was hinted with sarcasm as he relayed a conversation he could have had with her. "Oh hey, Jo. How are you? You want sugar in your tea? Would you like honey? The Florida red wings beat the New York Rangers six to three and oh by the way I'm homeless!" he almost yelled, but calmed down. "I couldn't tell you," he sighed, he had surprised himself with the outburst he had just made. So surely it had surprised her. "I'm sorry," he sighed, her eyes were getting full and he could almost sense the heat in them, the tears. He hated seeing her like this, he cared too much about her to see her cry. "I just, I didn't know how to tell you." He waited for her response, he knew she was upset, but he needed her not to hate him right now. So he grabbed her hand back again and held it softly, playing with her fingers uneasily.

"You told me you felt like you could tell me anything" she said. She was hurt. "Why the hell couldn't you tell me? I would have understood," she was calm now, still hurt, but calmer, trying to understand. She didn't take her hand away from his, she couldn't bear to, and she was enjoying the warmth it was causing, it caused her to relax a little. She was being a little harsh and she knew it. He gave him an apologetic look, to make up for her outburst and he seemed to nod and accept it.

"How could I Jo?" he questioned her, his eyes were hot and he could feel tears forming, he wiped them stubbornly, he was going to let her see him cry. His father always said that men never cry. "How could I tell you that my father, the beloved, respected, can't-do-anything-wrong sheriff hates his own son?" He turned from her, he couldn't look her in the eyes, not like this, he couldn't let her see the pain. He continued, he felt his voice shaking, trying to hide it, his voice got rough. "That I'm as much a failure as he thought, that I let him hit me. I let him hit me since I was eight years old. That I'm a disappointment and I'm such a terrible person I can't even keep the love of my own god damned father." He couldn't stop the tears that were falling down his cheeks and he couldn't stop his lip from trembling or even his heart from breaking. He couldn't stop any of it, and he had no control anymore.

"You're none of those things, Pacey," Joey said. She couldn't believe his view of himself. "I can't even comprehend why you would feel that way." She said walking to him and pulling him to her in a hug, he responded after a moment and hugged her back. "I'm not even going to tell you how amazing you are because you already know how I feel," she said seriously. She couldn't think much, she was numb. She didn't know what to do. She can't remember seeing him cry since third grade when he fell out of a tree and broke his leg. He sat down again pulling her down with him, she was surprised as he smiled weakly and looked at her, his eyes were still full of tears and her heart broke for him, he was only seventeen and to him his life was worthless. It doesn't matter that she didn't think so, because he did and as much as she told him he never quite believed it. But why would he when he had been neglected and put down his whole life?

"I know what you're thinking," he said against her skin, his tears still steadily falling from his eyes, he couldn't stop them and didn't want to now that she didn't seem to care, his crying didn't bother her. "I'm a wuss. That I can't stand a little rejection." He shook his head, "I've been just thinking about it Jo, stewing in it for a week. I sit every night in my truck," he started at the sky wistfully. "I lie awake staring at the rain, or the stars or the moon or the clouds or, or whatever is there. Y'know the seats are hard, it's cold and I can't sleep. I went to Andie and she just shouted at me for letting him throw me out." He paused and looked to Joey, his tears had subsided. "I felt bad, I lied, I told her I'd gone back the next day and everything was okay. I can't have her disappointed in me, that look in her eyes that said 'I could do better than you,'" he swallowed a lump in his throat, fearing the tears again.

"I'm sure she doesn't feel that way, Pacey," Joey said taking his face between her hands. "It's not possible for her to feel that way, she loves you," Joey said, she didn't actually like Andie. Never had. She had cheated on him and he had forgiven her and neither had she. She couldn't forgive her for what she had done to him and how she had broken his heart.

"I never got over it y'know," Pacey said looking at her, his comment was out the blue but she knew who he was talking about. "I forgave her, but I didn't forget. If she loved me she wouldn't have done it and if I was enough for her, or good enough for her or just, even, a tiny bit worth her then she wouldn't have done it." He paused. "And you don't think she thinks that, huh?" he asked her harshly, tears threatened his eyes as they stung, they stung just like someone had thrown pepper into his eyes. His eyes glistened, but he held it back, he didn't like to think about what he was thinking about, the things Andie had said the week before when they had a huge fight about pizza, nothing but pizza. "Do you know what she told me last week?" he asked her and she shook her head. "She said 'why do I even date you, you're incapable of making a decision, you get nothing right and sometimes I wonder why I care the way I do.' I memorized those words Joey. Those words cut me deeper than anything." He swallowed that familiar lump again, he fought back the sting and he prayed he wouldn't cry as his voice cracked. "The only person I thought believed in me told me that. She said she loved me but how could she love me when she says that, Jo?" he asked her, a genuine question.

"Pacey she's not the only one that believes in you. I believe in you too," she said moving beside him and looking to his face, so he could see the words and feel them. "I know that we bicker, quarrel, contend, dispute, brawl, contest, spar, spat, fight." She ran out of words, they were all the ones in the dictionary. "But you're my friend. I like to think my best friend. Better than Dawson even. Y'know I can trust you and I know what you are and who you are so don't even think about telling me you are anything but what you are," she said firmly.

"And what is that, Joey?" he asked curious. "What exactly am I? Tell me because I don't know. I have no faith anymore." He looked at her, his eyes were confused, he really didn't know anymore, he needed someone to tell him.

"Pacey, you are sweet, you are kind, you are much more intelligent than most people I know, you're interesting and most of all you are who you are and you are what you are and if you changed you wouldn't be Pacey anymore. You are not a failure, you are not a disappointment and most importantly you are not what you have come to think you are." She smiled at him and he smiled back, touched that someone actually cared about his pathetic existence, but it was not a pathetic existence and knowing someone thought so gave him a good, warm feeling. "And to end, you are not sleeping in that car tonight." She said getting up and grabbing his hand. "You're coming with me and I'm going to fix you some dinner, and then you're going to a bed, a warm, cozy, comfortable bed to sleep without that obvious pain in your ribs and knotted shoulders okay?" she told him and he nodded. "Good," she said taking one of his large hands between two of hers and walking to the door, she opened it and they walked inside.

"Joey?" Pacey said softly before they walked in, he leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her, sweet cheek, soft cheek, wet from the tears she had shed over him and his distress. He took his free hand, the cold one it could be called as the other was being held in the loving hands of her. He wiped the tears that still hung on her cheek and kissed it again, softly, taking one tear in his mouth; her salty tears were sugar to him. "Thanks for this. Y'know I needed to unload my frustrations and stuff. I appreciate the bed, but there's only one way I'll accept," he said seriously, she thought something was wrong. What else could he want? He eyes asked him, they said 'what?' without the need for words. A look is all it took from her. "You read me a bed time story," he said smiling at her softly. She just chuckled and pulled him inside. He had lifted her spirits again; he always did, even at tough times.

"Come on, you loveable rogue," she said, he certainly was loveable, she knew this recently, spending so much time with him had been something she had been dreading in the beginning but she came to love his company very quickly. He could always be relied on to be there when he was needed and even when he wasn't. He had become, dare she say it, a better friend than Dawson Leery. Not that Dawson had much time for her now anyway. He had a new girlfriend, she was a secret because she already had a boyfriend and apparently he was a big guy and he didn't want to be beaten up. She was such a secret no-one even know her name. She snapped out of her thoughts as she passed Bessie, with Alex on his hip, it was way past his bedtime but she sensed he had just got too energetic and wouldn't settle. Again. "Pacey's staying tonight, Bess," she said sternly, walking into the bathroom and grabbing him a towel from the dryer. "Here," she said giving it to him. "You can take a shower, or a bath if you want one, y'know get the knots out from sleeping on a car for a week."

"Want to have a bath with me?" he smiled cheekily, grabbing her waist, and reeling her into him. Trust him, Joey thought, to make saucy suggestions at times like this. "Y'know we could get all bubbly together and your hand could accidentally on purpose slip when you're looking for soap," he smiled. That smile, she wanted to scowl at him, shove the towel into his chest and walk off, muttering under her breath how he was such a pig but she couldn't.

For some reason the boy she had known since she was three years old had started to get to her, she could no longer resist that smile, she was sure she was immune but lately she wasn't quite so sure. She couldn't help but smile and blush, what the hell was it about him, she sure as hell didn't know but she never got that feeling before. She pushed it aside; she didn't need to think about that today. All she did was glare, unsuccessfully at him and walked out the door, he smiled and laughed. "So is that a no then?" he asked laughing, before closing the bathroom door.

Joey walked through to the kitchen to a scowling Bessie, she had not been happy At all about being advised that they had a visitor. She didn't mind the visitor, she liked Pacey, it was the manor she was told in. She glared at her little sister and crossed her arms in front of her chest and awaited an explanation. Bodie looked from the background and walked over. He knew Bessie was going to be stubborn and Joey needed his help.

"What was that?" Bessie asked annoyed. "Wouldn't it be nice to ask me?" she said looking at her sister. "Y'know I do run this place, I deserve to be asked if someone can stay. Why is Pacey staying here doesn't he have a home to go to?" She looked at her sister's hard and unforgiving eyes. "It's not that I don't like Pacey, because you know I love him like a brother but. I don't understand why he doesn't just go home. It's not that late in the day."

"Listen Bessie," Joey said simply. "It's my house too and Pacey needs somewhere to crash," Joey told her going to the cupboards and getting out some ingredients to make him some food. She looked around just to see Bessie silent but asked for an explanation. Joey just shrugged her shoulders as she started to chop some vegetables. "He's having some trouble at home, Bessie. He hasn't been home in a week. He can't stay in his truck anymore, he needs somewhere to stay. I couldn't turn him away he's my best friend," she repeated the last words sternly. "My best friend, Bess." She stopped chopping and turned to defend herself. "You always said to help a friend in need Bessie, that's what I'm doing and he has nowhere else to go." She looked at her sister whose look had softened, but was in total agreement. "If he had anywhere to go he would be there instead of sleeping on the back seat of his truck for a week."

"A week?" Bessie said shocked, she needed to sit down. "He's been sleeping in a car for a week and you didn't ask me if he could stay before now." She said "Pacey is family, Jo. As close as you can get without being family. He's helped us so much you should have offered it as soon as possible, but you waited a week," she said, looking at her sister softly. "Why didn't you offer?"

"I didn't know until now, he just told me tonight. His dad threw him out so he might have to stay here a while okay? Just until he gets some place else to stay," Joey pleaded with her sister.

"He can stay a while, but you still should have asked me. It's the kind of thing you ask me," she pointed out, drinking some coffee she had poured a while ago and grimacing at the taste, it was cold and sweet. She had obviously forgotten how long ago she poured it out.

"I know, I know" Joey said, her back to Bessie turning a bit to take over he shoulder whilst she continued to chop the vegetables, cutting herself. "Ow!" she shouted, sucking her finger and jumping up and down in pain. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow," she repeated. "Ok, ok," Bodie said calmly taking Joey's hand and putting it under the tap. "This is exactly why we don't argue and cook at the same time," he said exasperated. Wrapping her hand in some kitchen towel he pushed her away from him gently, wiping the knife under the water and resumed the chopping Joey had been doing. "Now you two take your fighting into the living room. Don't kill each other and I'll make something to eat," he pushed them into the living room and muttered to himself, "Y'know I pity the boy living here with two Potter women." He sighed and shook his head an continued to make him a meal.

Joey sat with Pacey in her room; he was staring at the ceiling, just thinking about everything and nothing all at once, Joey lay beside him. She had been looking at him for ten minutes and he had said nothing.

"Penny for em?" Joey spoke up finally. He turned his face to hers and gave her a confused look. "Your thoughts. What you thinking about?" she asked. His eyes were full of mystery and she couldn't read them. He was just lying there beside her in his boxer shorts, Daffy Duck, not surprising really, this was Pacey after all. His boxers cut off and there was a slight space where she could see flesh and a line of hair heading down into them, before his white T-shirt came into view, he was lying stretched out and his body looked so long. His legs were long and his toes were funny, they looked so funny and weirdly shaped, his big toe was bruised where, unfortunately he had dropped the heater on yesterday and it had been bruised. It was funny looking at him, when he was like this, stretched out and it hit her, while she was waiting for his answer about his thoughts, that had not come yet, that she could recognise every scar she could see on him. His left leg he had scars where he had picked his chicken pox when he was six. She remembered that time, they had both caught them from Dawson and were laid up, he spent a whole week at her house, Bessie complaining about them moaning and her mother rushing around after them keeping them well and constantly telling them funny stories. She smiled at the thought he had been so sweet. He had bragged that he overcame them two days before her but spent the following two days at her house reading her stories and looking after her. And even though she hated to admit it, it was one of the best times she had ever had. "I'm waiting," she said snapping out of her thoughts. "Don't ignore me. Tell me what you're thinking, Pacey," she demanded softly.

"Well," he breathed "I don't really know, Josephine." He smiled at her name, he loved saying it. The way it rolled off his tongue, Jo-seph-ine, he wished he could call her that. He thought it was a nice name. He noticed her looking at him; he had drifted off into thoughts instead of answering the question. "I guess I was just thinking about everything y'know but at the same time I was think about nothing at all." He laughed; he knew the comment made no sense at all. He turned to her and she rolled so they were face to face. "I've been thinking about Andie," he said, her eyes asked him to continue and elaborate a bit, so he did. "I think she's seeing someone else. Well I think she's sleeping with someone else. Another guy..." he thought then exhaled a breath he had been holding. "Again."

"Why?" she asked. She couldn't believe she would do it again. Why anyone would do it again after almost losing him once, how could she want to do it again. "What makes you think that?"

"Well I don't know," he answered, thinking, "a few things. Like she's secretive, I have to call her before I go over now. And well she..." he didn't know how to say this. It was kind of embarrassing. "Y'know we're not." She obviously didn't know. "Y'know we don't," he gave her a look into her eyes and hoped she would catch onto his thoughts instead of making him say it. For such a smart girl, she was stupid sometimes, he thought then took it back, she wasn't stupid just oblivious sometimes, that was the word, oblivious.

"Ohh," she said, her eyes growing wide as she realized what he was indeed talking about. She couldn't understand this. Even she had to admit that the thought of being that way with Pacey was kind of exciting and hard to resist. "You mean she doesn't want to?" Joey asked confused.

"Well. No. I mean I'm not complaining about it either y'know I...I can't, y'know I can't. I'm not able to," he said sadly.

"You can't, y'know?" Joey asked, finding it hard to believe that Pacey Witter couldn't function for sex, he was quick to respond.

"Oh no I can," he said, "I am perfectly able to, I'm very able to, no problem down there. It's all working fine, perfect, my man has plenty juice." He said stopping to blush a little he realized that she had gotten the message. "It's not down there that's the problem it's here," he said pointing to his head. "I can't, because if I do it means I'll get that feeling you get, that close connected feeling and I don't want that. I can't handle it right now. I can't trust her with my heart then have it broken again. When I let her into my mind my heart isn't too far away and its just being held together with tape it's not fixed yet." He cringed at his words. "Every time I touch her I just think of him, I think of Marc, his hands all over her body, touching her places nobody but me had touched her before. I wonder if she thought of me at all when she was with him and..." he paused a second letting his words sink into him properly. "She doesn't complain, I'm thinking that if she's not getting it from me she's getting it from somewhere else." He paused, and looked at her, she was itching to say something.

"Maybe she just understands, maybe she's not cheating at all," Joey offered, taking his hand. She could see his pain and she desperately wanted to make it easier for him.

"Then explain this," he said to her, looking down. "Me and Andie haven't had sex since we got back together two months ago and we were broken up for four months before that and just in case you can't count that six months since we had sex add that to the three months of summer she was away. I haven't had sex in nine months and I found condoms in her drawer, empty packets and one in the garbage. I can't think of a way to explain that," he said saddened, he didn't look at her but felt her eyes burning into him.

"Well have you talked about it?" she asked him, he was visibly upset now and she saw it, she didn't understand Andie, how could she have been such a bitch to him. She definitely didn't deserve him.

"No," he answered simply. "I'll deal with it after all this is over, when I find some place to stay I'll deal with it then." He said, "Listen I really don't want to talk about this right now." He said it kindly, he didn't want her to feel like he didn't want to open up. "It's just that you know I already feel like. I'm this huge disappointment and to know that there's something else to make me even more pathetic and even more of a laughing stock is just depressing. Plus," he yawned, "I haven't slept right for a week and I'm shattered so if you want to talk more about me and my depressing life can we do it tomorrow?" He looked at her with his large blue eyes.

"Sure," she said ruffling his hair lovingly. "Ok we'll talk tomorrow but, just so you know. You are not pathetic. She is if she can't see what a good thing she has then she is pathetic. You are never pathetic and I refuse to let her take you down," Joey said getting off the bed. "Now I'm going to get you some tea and then you're going to go next door and sleep okay?" he said, in a stubborn tone.

"Sure," he said. "Can I have honey in it?" he asked. He loved honey tea, always had it when he was little and sick and still now he had it when he was feeling a little bit down. She turned to him and shot him a small smile and nodded "And, thank Joey, for everything," he said sincerely, she headed back towards him and kissed his forehead gently, walking out without a word to get his tea, Pacey smiled and yawned simultaneously.

"Hey Bodie," Joey said walking into the kitchen and putting the kettle on to boil. "Where's Bessie?" she asked him, he was standing in his pajamas in the kitchen fixing some coffee before bed, reading the paper. He always read the paper at night; too many people read it during the day. Usually Bessie would sit with him and read with him. But she wasn't here "How come she's not partaking in your little nightly reading ritual?"

"She's in bed," he said simply, not looking up from the paper. "She's tired she had to start work early tomorrow and I wasn't tired enough for bed, I'm going in a minute thought. "What are you doing?" he asked her. Running a hand through his short black hair he yawned lightly. "So?" he said finally, looking from his paper. "How is he?"

"He's okay. We had a talk I'm just fixing him some lemon tea then he's going to bed to sleep," she said waiting for the kettle and looking in the cupboard for the honey. Bodie walked over and reached for it out of a different cupboard. "Thanks," she said smiling at him. Bodie was almost like father to her. She was glad he didn't go away now and he was here all the time. She missed him when he went away.

"He does know he can stay around as long as he likes doesn't he?" Bodie asked her. He liked Pacey; he and the boy had become friends in the last few months. He had been at the house and the restaurant so often they had connected. "He's very welcome, I don't mind having another man around the house to share the burden," he paused and looked at her, "I mean pleasure of living with the Potter sisters."

"Hey," Joey said hitting him on the arm, he winced and laughed through the pain. Then turned serious, "He knows he can stay a while but..." Joey smiled. "It's just you know Pacey, he's stubborn and he likes not to feel in the way of anything," she said. "Telling him he can stay as long as he likes and him actually believing it are two very, very different things," Bodie nodded in agreement. "It's just that," she paused as she poured the water into two cups "I'm worried. He's so down and he has so much pain, so much going on in his life right now. I just want him to be close to me so that I'm always here if he needs me," she looked at him sideways, "y'know?"

"You're a great friend, Joey," Bodie said kissing her head as she put the honey in the tea and stirred it. "I'm going to bed now. Don't be late you have school tomorrow, honey," he said walking off to bed.

"Night" she shouted softly and picked the tea up walking out the kitchen switching off the light and walking into her room. The only light in the house shining out through the door, she walked in and put the tea on the bedside table. Looking at Pacey, she saw he was sleeping soundly. She considered waking him but he looked so peaceful, his eyelashes laid delicately on his skin and his lips curved into a small smile. She decided not to wake him and instead pulled the covers over him and climbed in beside him. She drank her tea, looking at him once in a while, to check he was still sleeping. He was, he was peaceful and his aura was tranquil, more pain free than she had seen him for a long time. She smiled as she kissed his cheek softly and turned off the light drifting into a sleep beside him.