"Do you remember?"

Josephine Potter looked up over the edge of her coffee cup with a raised eyebrow, tilting her head to the side in contemplation. "What do you mean, do I remember?"

The man sitting across from her shook his head before looking down at his own mug. They were three-thousand miles from where they started, tucked away at a small coffee shop in Inner Sunset. Joey had been working in publishing in San Francisco for five years now and taught writing classes a few evenings each week. Despite all the years, she was still very much the girl she had been at eighteen – with soulful brown eyes that were wise beyond her age and wavy chestnut hair that shone in the warm afternoon sun. He loved her now as much as he had loved her then.

Joey had gone her own way after Jen's death, leaving Boston and her old group of friends far behind. She had managed to make things work with Pacey for that first year, but work and the weight of mourning their old friend was just too much for either of them. She had also kept in touch with Dawson during that first year, talking to him every week after his show ended. However, when spring had given way to summer and Joey had immersed herself in a project, she had lost touch with both of them. A bitter break-up with Pacey and a slew of unanswered calls from Dawson later, she had become someone she knew that neither of them would recognize. She had always believed that it was the choices that made you who you were, and choosing to leave behind both of her childhood loves had turned Joey into this woman.

"Do you remember how important everything used to seem?" Jack McPhee asked before leaning over to brush a strand of hair from his daughter's face. She was five now, with blonde hair just like her mother's and a wise presence like her adoptive father's. Jack was the only one who knew where she was at. He hadn't even told Doug that she had ended up in San Francisco. When an education conference had sent him to the west coast, he had made plans to visit his old friend. "It seems silly now."

A genuine smile spread across her pretty face. There was something about seeing old friends who knew the history behind the feelings and the stories. "Some of it seemed silly then, but most of it felt like life and death," she admitted. The end of her junior year came immediately to mind, when she had left a sobbing Dawson on a dock to sail around the world with Pacey. It felt like the most important decision she would ever make. "Jack, I know I said I wouldn't ask..." She stopped short of actually asking the question. Asking it meant that they would become real again and would be more than just a memory of people she used to know. "How are they?"

Jack took a drink of coffee and looked up at his old friend. Joey, she'd always been confused, that one. He had loved their friendship because without her, he might have never got the courage to be who he was today. "Pacey is doing pretty well. I saw him last week at dinner," he told her. "He's working pretty hard at the restaurant, putting in long hours but actually doing really well despite the economy. Gale is helping him manage it. You should see Lily, Jo, she's getting so big!"

"Yeah, Bess sent picture a few weeks ago of her and Alexander," Joey smiled fondly. "History repeating itself, huh? Bess says that they are inseparable. Gail's husband even put up a ladder outside Lily's room so Alex can climb in. I still remember when Mich put that up for me. Gail and Mom thought it was a bad idea, but Mitch said that he'd rather do that since he knew I'd climb up the trellis anyway."

The way that Joey spoke about Dawson was different, and Jack recognized it immediately. No matter what had happened between them and how much time had passed, Dawson Leery would forever remain her soulmate. "He misses you, too, Jo," he said softly. He didn't need to hear the words to know that she was missing him fiercely. "I think he owns every book you have edited."

"Do you know he made me a producer on The Creek?" she asked, shaking her head in disbelief. "I get a check every Thursday afternoon on schedule, wired to my old account back in Capeside."

"Dawson told me," Jack retorted, brushing his hand through his hair. He watched Amy for a moment, happy that his beautiful little girl was still innocent and young enough that she didn't get caught up in boys. "He also told me that you are taking that money to set up an art and film program at Capeside. How did he find that our before me when I teach there?"

Joey grinned mischievously, as the two of them were both quite aware of the length she had gone through to hide her current location. "I had my assistant in New York send a thank you letter and a brief outline of the plan that I set up with the school," she confessed. "That's actually part of the reason that I wanted to meet up with you. You love art, and more importantly, you love Dawson and me. I was hoping that you would serve as the staff sponsor."

"Of course!" he exclaimed excitedly, reaching across the table to squeeze her hand. "But don't think for a minute that offer is going to divert me from the conversation at hand, Ms. Potter. How is it possible that no one has ever found you?"

"My office is based out of Chicago and my assistant is in New York," she shrugged. "You know that I set it up that way on purpose, Jack. I'm just not Joey from across the Creek anymore."

"I know, you are this important editor, Jo, but come on," he disagreed, looking at her pointedly. "You haven't moved on anymore than they have. If you truly had, you wouldn't care if they knew where you were. You wouldn't be hiding, and you wouldn't have to go to these great lengths to cover up your entire life."

A soft breeze passed by, sending her hair whipping around her face. "Sometimes I think how disappointed Jen must be in me. Her dying wish had been for me to make a choice," she looked down at her hands and then at the little girl sitting between them. "I tried, Jack. I just..."

"You just chose wrong," Jack finished for her. It was the one thing she had never managed to say out loud, and now that she was finally confessing it, maybe they could all move forward. "You need to deal with this, Jo, before it's too late. Time goes so quickly. Jen loved you so much and more than anything, she just wanted us to be happy. She wanted us to stay friends. Pace and Dawson still talk. Audrey was just in town for a visit, and Andie saw Dawson last month when she was in Los Angeles for a medical conference. She is going to spend a week with me and the rest of the Witter clan on the Cape this spring. We're all still connected. The only thing missing is you."

"I'm scared, Jack."

"I know you are, but you're a big girl now. You have to deal with this, Jo. You can't just keep hiding. The three of you will never truly be happy until everything has been dealt with. For so long, you were this barrier between the two of them, and after Jen died and you chose Pacey, they were finally able to put it behind them. Pacey leaned on Dawson after you ended your engagement," Jack revealed. This was part of the story she had never heard before. "And you know what Pacey said? He told Dawson that his only comfort was that maybe the two of you would finally make things work and you could finally be happy in a way that you never quite were with him. If that's not a blessing, Jo, I don't know what is. You have to go back and talk to Pacey. And you have to head to Hollywood to see Dawson. If you don't do it now, you may never get this chance again."

"I haven't been back in such a long time," Joey lamented, thinking about that warm summer she had spent in Capeside after Jen died. The group of friends had spent a few lazy weeks in the small town, watching movies in Dawson's childhood room and looking through old photo albums. "I don't even know what to do."

"It's still the same," Jack told her. "Grams is even back in her house."

"I still can't believe that you and Doug are living there," Joey grinned.

"It just felt right," Jack replied with a shrug before Amy crawled out of her chair and into his lap. She rested her head against his shoulder sleepily. "Having Grams there is not only a great help but I need her there. She is the only one who really understands, you know? Doug tries, but there are times when it's just too much. I miss her every day still, and the older this one gets, the more I miss her."

Amy was the spitting image of her mother. No one had felt Jen's loss more than Jack except Grams, and the two of them had become even closer after Jen had died. She helped take care of Amy just like she had Jen, making sure that her great-granddaughter knew about faith and acceptance and love and forgiveness.

"It's time, isn't it?" Joey asked. It had been time for quite awhile, but she was finally brave enough and strong enough to answer that question. "I need to say goodbye to Pacey once and for all. I need closure so I can move forward...move forward with Dawson hopefully."

"He's been waiting to make you his wife since he was fifteen years old, Jo, I don't think there is any doubt that he is going to be there waiting for you," Jack vowed. Dawson and Joey were the very definition of soulmates, something that they all strove to be. Even after eight years with Doug, he still didn't have even a sliver of what Dawson and Joey shared. It was something altogether different, but he envied what they had just a little bit. "Come home with us, Jo, come home to Capeside."

Amy clapped her hands excitedly. "Are you going to come visit, Auntie Joey?"

Joey reached out and ruffled her hair affectionately. "I'm thinking about it, Amy, what do you think?"

"You should come! You should come! Right, Daddy?"

"Right, sweetie," he whispered before dropping a kiss on her head. "You heard her, Jo. You have to come now. You can't disappoint us."

Joey rested her head on her hand before looking out at the water. She had always loved this coffee shop because it reminded her a little bit of home. "Two conversations," she mused. "I have a lot of vacation time. I haven't been off more than a day or two in over three years. I can do this."

"You can do this," Jack emphasized. "And maybe if everything goes well, all of us can get together soon so that I don't have to compartmentalize my friendships. They all miss you, even Doug."

"Alright, McPhee," Joey smiled confidently. "Let's do this. Take me home. I'm ready to go back."