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Chapter 1

It was raining when he found her. The fact that he found her was a surprise and nothing short of a miracle because he hadn't actually been looking, but one look and it was clear she needed to be found. Pacey hadn't seen Joey Potter since he was eighteen and he had headed off to study medicine at Harvard. They'd been friends at school, hell, they'd been friends since they were in diapers, but at eighteen she'd disappeared, apparently cutting all ties. It would be a lie to say they weren't close. They'd been extremely close, especially in those last couple of years. Joey may have been from the wrong side of town, from the wrong sort of family but there was no mistaking how gorgeous she was, nor how she had the ability to stir him up inside. She was an opinionated girl, that never failed to get his attention. And on the few occasions she had let her guards down, she hadn't only been gorgeous but she'd also been nice, really damn nice. He had wanted to stay in touch, more than anything, he'd considered himself in love with her after all, utterly head over heels, but after Bessie moved away he had never seen her again, she and her family just disappeared. But that was all years earlier, when she'd had clear bright eyes and, in addition to a disregard for the rules, a steely determination to succeed.

It had been seven years since he had seen her and he didn't immediately recognize her. Pacey dropped to his haunches in front of the young woman huddled in the alley behind some dumpsters. It was a miracle that he'd even stumbled across her. He was using the ally as a short cut to the hospital from his apartment, but his doctor instincts kicked in and he stared at the young women trying to ascertain what was wrong with her.

'Hey...are you ok?' his eyes scanned her arms for the tell tale track marks of needles but he found none, and then he looked at her face. 'Joey?' the air went from his lungs. She didn't look at him, she gave no indication that she'd heard him at all. All of his instincts told him that if he touched her she would flip out but he was unsure what else to do. That was when he noticed there was blood dripping down from her hairline and every doctoring bone in his body urged him to check the injury. Looking her over he couldn't see any other obvious injury but half of her body was hidden by the dumpster. She was dirty, thin, pale, and her clothes were old. However, she didn't smell. Well not obviously, the way the hobos he cared for did. There was no obvious stench of urine but it wasn't like she smelt of Chanel either. 'Joey,' he repeated softly but she continued to stare at nothing.

Realizing he had no other option he dropped to his knees beside her,

'I'm going to touch you Joey. I need to look at the wound on your head,' he spoke softly as if she were a scared animal. She was scarier than a scared animal because her blank expression remained unbroken. Reaching his left hand forward he gently touched her head, his expert fingers working their way around her skull. The wound was in her hair and was serious enough for him to pull out his cell and call ahead to the hospital. He was tempted to call for an ambulance but her non reactive state had him worried and he decided he could manage to carry her there, it was only half a mile and she couldn't weigh a hundred pounds. It would be a lot quicker than waiting for an ambulance.

'It's Doctor Witter,' he said when he reached Maria on reception. 'Call emergency and tell them I'm bringing in a woman. She has a serious head injury, she's conscious but unresponsive. I can't see any further injuries.'

'I can send an ambulance,' Maria offered.

'I'm only a half mile away. I don't want to wait for an ambulance. I know this girl Maria. I need to get her there,' Pacey hung up and searched through his bag for a clean dressing. Cursing, he bunched up a clean t-shirt he had in his bag for his post gym workout and pressed it against the wound. It must have hurt but she made no reaction. Standing up Pacey pushed the dumpster out of the way and then looked at Joey again. 'Fuck,' it was unprofessional for the expletive to rush from him the way it did but the dumpster had hidden what appeared to be a stab wound though he couldn't be entirely sure. There was a lot of blood. He hit redial on his cell,

'Look Maria, send the ambulance and make it quick. She's worse than I thought.'

'Will do,' Maria immediately put the call through remaining on the line with Pacey,

'Get Jack to run over here with a kit please,' Pacey added, 'I'm in the lane that runs from my street at the corner of 15th,' he explained. 'He knows the route I take to work,' Pacey explained not caring that this somehow implied that he and Jack were an item. He didn't really care what the hospital rumour mill kicked up.

'Sure,' Maria agreed and Pacey hung up and immediately peeled the t-shirt off his back, and kneeling beside Joey ripped the blood stained vest away from her body. He frowned and swore again. Carefully and with infinitely gentle hands he tried to move her hands from her knees but she resisted, the first sign she had noticed his presence at all.

'I need to lay you down Joey. I want to help you with that wound on your side,' he spoke softly, kindly, as if he were still her best friend, and moved his hands to hers gently running his fingers over hers and lifting her fingers. This time her hands came away and he saw the dark bruises on her wrists. Trying not to let his mind run away from him he lay her down. She was too thin, her ribs jutted out and the wound was bigger and bloodier than he anticipated. He pressed his t-shirt against it and looked up the lane for Jack who was thankfully running towards him.

'Here's the kit Pace,' Jack dropped the kit to the floor and gasped. 'Is that Joey?' he immediately began assisting Pacey in the medical treatment of her injuries.

'Don't give her anything until we've done a tox screen. I can't see any evidence of drug use but...' he didn't need to say more.

'Joey, this will sting,' he warned her before cleaning the wound. There was no reaction.

'So you just found her, here Pace? Just by some fluky luck?' Jack frowned at his friend as they worked on putting in an IV.

'Half hidden behind this dumpster,' Pacey leaned over Joey, 'hey sweetheart, Jack's here,' he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear but Joey's eyes stared ahead blankly.

'What the hell has happened to her?' Jack asked rhetorically, he knew Pacey would never theorize in front of a patient who might hear.

'We're gonna make it better honey,' he whispered as the flashing lights of the ambulance approached. The EMT's jumped out and helped Jack and Pacey load her onto the stretcher and nobody stopped them when they wanted to ride in the back with her. On the ride to the hospital she flatlined, but by the time they got her to the hospital her heart was beating again but Pacey immediately scrubbed in to lead the operation that was to save her life.

Pacey stood at the foot of the bed watching as Joey awoke from the anesthetic. She was hooked up to a ton of machines, a rape kit had been used as signs pointed towards that having occurred, but she was breathing and her heart was beating. Pacey moved to the side of her bed as her eyes fluttered open.

'Hi Joey,' he took her hand. 'It's me Pacey... remember, the arch nemesis of your youth ' he smiled but she frowned, 'Can you tell me what happened to you?' he attempted but the frown deepened.

'Where am I?'

'You're in Boston General Hospital. I'm a surgeon here.'

'I know you?' she didn't seem convinced.

'You did, when we were kids.'

'No...' she shook her head.

'You don't remember?' he lifted her lids to look at her eyes and she pushed his hands away.

'But...'she trailed off.

'What happened Joey?' he asked.

'I don't understand,' she stared at him with bewilderment.

'Do you know who I am?' he asked at length wondering whether the wound to her head had caused amnesia. It was totally plausible.

'Pacey Witter,' she spoke softly, her voice scratchy.

'And you know who you are?' he asked.

'Josephine Potter,' she agreed but then a tear leaked out of her eye.

'Hey, it's ok. I might be your doctor but we we're friends or we were once... you can talk to me.'

'I don't understand,' she repeated.

'What don't you understand? Can you tell me what happened?' he leaned back in the chair trying not to overwhelm her.

'You...you don't remember,' she was frighteningly pale.

'Me?' Pacey couldn't help but be taken aback. He was used to people's confusion, often people didn't recollect what exactly had happened to them, but he'd never been accused of not remembering.

'You'll think I'm crazy,' more tears leaked out. 'I'm not but you'll think I am.'

'Joey, look at me,' Pacey's voice was deep and calm, she turned frightened eyes to him, 'something happened to you. You were stabbed, from what I can gather you were forcibly held and you had a serious head injury. I won't think you're crazy.'

'Where are they?' she asked at length.

'Who?'

'The children,' her breath caught in her throat and her face crumpled.

'You had children with you?' Pacey paled.

'Jake and Alice...' she nodded. 'My...children.'

'Ok, look I'll go get the police in here and we can get an APB out on them ASAP.'

'No Pacey wait, you don't understand,' there, she'd said it again and Pacey was beginning to feel frustrated.

'Start at the beginning then, make me understand. I want to help,' he took her hand and she seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

'I have to start way at the beginning,' she hung onto his hand.

'Ok,' Pacey nodded wondering what was going on.

'You remember how we met?' she asked.

'In diapers at the park. Our moms made friends.'

'Yeah,' she seemed relieved. 'They were friends...for a long time, up until my dad was arrested by your dad, you know that first time, before my mom was really sick.'

'My dad had issues,' Pacey grumbled.

'Your mom was good - she snuck care to my mom when she could, things you'd never realize. They used to mail things. They wrote letters to each other until my mom died.'

'Wow...I had no idea,' Pacey was surprised by his mother who talked about little these days except the grandchildren. She had yet to say she was proud of him, if she even was.

'When do you think you last saw me?' she asked. Pacey remembered it clearly.

'That party at Dawson's. You and I, well we made out. We'd been talking out on the dock and I kissed you. We kissed for hours. You left the next day, though I asked you to come see me at Harvard. You were supposed to be starting Worthington. You were so excited. You were planning to show them all. I just never heard from you again. I tried to get in touch, but I couldn't find you. Jack, Jen and I went to Worthington a bunch of times. Dawson didn't know. You just disappeared, I guess we all thought you were making a fresh start.'

'Ok...after high school...I met up with you at Harvard...I was visiting Jen and you and I got to talking, to flirting actually,' she looked at his bewildered face and stopped.

'Joey, I haven't seen you since high school,' he frowned. 'Nobody has. I see Jen and Jack all the time. Even Dawson. You just disappeared and as Bessie had moved...' Pacey was worried about her.

'No,' she shook her head. 'You... you said you had fallen in love with me. Over the course of a weekend, well I'd laughed in your face but you said it was over the course of a lifetime. You kissed me and I yelled at you, then you kissed me again, and I kissed you back. We dated Pace, for four years. Four years of banter and fighting, of sex, oh my god the sex, of being in love. You asked me to marry you and you knew you didn't even have to ask. Jack was your best man, Jen was my bridesmaid. Bodie and Bessie gave me away and you kissed me in an entirely inappropriate way - I didn't care. We spent a month sailing in a little boat you named True Love. We finished our training and got jobs and when I got pregnant you didn't stop smiling for a week. You boasted that you'd knocked me up twice you were so pleased it was twins and when they were born you held my hand the whole time even though I swore to castrate you,' she trailed off. 'Like I said, you don't remember.'

'Joey,' Pacey said gently, 'none of that happened.'

'Are you trying to tell me I imagined my entire life?' she frowned at him.

'You've got a serious head injury, you died for a few minutes in the back of the ambulance. I'm not saying that what you remember is imaginary, just that the traumatic experience you've clearly been through may have blurred real memories with those of me and Jack finding you.

'Look, if you think you had your children with you, we need to find them. You said their names were Jake and Alice?' Pacey felt guilty when her eyes flooded with tears.

'They're babies Pace,' she whispered and his gut rolled. Maybe it was the absolutely distraught expression on her face or the way she said his name so intimately, with years of familiarity behind it but he felt suddenly unwell. He hadn't heard her call him Pace since that party years earlier, and it was far to familiar. It spoke to her delusions.

'How old are they and what are their full names? What name do you go by? If you want me to help you, I need information,' he spoke kindly. It was Joey Potter after all, and as he had said to her he was her doctor and her friend.

'They're eleven months. Alice Lillian Witter and Jacob John Witter,' she didn't miss the spark of scepticism in his eyes, 'those are their names whether you believe me or not,' she told him. 'And I go by Josephine Potter - always have, always will.'

'Look, I'll get the cops in here and I'm going to get a doctor down here to talk through all this with you...' he made to stand but she caught hold of his hand.

'I don't want another doctor, I want you Pace,' her eyes were wide. He squeezed her hand but shook his head,

'I know you do sweetheart, but I can't help you. None of it happened. I don't know where you've been for the last seven years but it wasn't at Harvard. We aren't married and we don't have kids. I live here in Boston, alone. No one has seen you. I'll see if the police can track down Bessie.'

'Bessie's dead,' she said unexpectedly and then frowned, 'no wait, no...' she trailed off looking confused. 'No,' she shook her head.

'Joey,' Pacey watched the confusion write itself across her still perfect features. 'Tell me what you're remembering?'

'I remember her alive. She... she just visited with Alex...oh Alex,' her hands covered her eyes and she began to rock back and forth, the word no muttered repeatedly. Pacey hit the nurse call button and reached for Joey's hand but she hit out at him.

'Don't touch me,' it was real fear that emanated from every pore. 'They're dead, they're dead...' the level of her voice was rising and she seemed to grow ever more frantic.

The door opened and the nurse looked in at Pacey holding Joey who seemed to be exploding with insane yelling and immediately drew up a shot of sedative and inserted it into Joey's arm. It took only moments to work. Pacey settled her back onto the pillow and looked at her peaceful face. Without really thinking he tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, then stood and exited the room with the nurse. Jack was waiting for him and was stood with Jen, in her police uniform. He gestured to them and they followed him down the corridor to an empty room.

'What the hell is going on?' Jen asked and he arched his eyebrows at her. 'I mean, tell me what appears to have happened?' she rolled her eyes.

'She was stabbed, I'm pretty certain of that. She was held for some time, bound at her wrists. She has a serious head wound, inflicted with a blunt object - it appears to be affecting her memory. It appears that she was raped. There is no DNA on her body but there was lots of physical evidence. We've kept her clothes for you guys,' he nodded at Jen. 'She was scrubbed clean before she was released. I believe the injuries are a day old, although she has a stream of previous injuries - fractured ribs, skull fractures, bruises, that could have been inflicted days or weeks, months or even years ago.'

'What does she remember?' Jen asked.

'She seems to have blurred real and fake memories together. She thinks we're married, that we're all still friends, that we have two kids,' Pacey shook his head with a frown.

'Wow,' Jack put a hand on Pacey's back. 'Thats extreme.'

'Well maybe she is married with kids, and she confused me with her husband because I found her,' Pacey shrugged feeling uneasy.

'Did she give you names?' Jen had her note pad out.

'She says she still goes by Josephine Potter. The kids are Alice Lillian and Jacob John. She says Witter, but if they are it's obviously not me. They're eleven months old according to her, so if they were with her they need to be found.'

'Can we trust this information?' Jen asked.

'It's all we've got. The most real thing that happened was when I said I would get you to find Bessie. She said Bessie was dead. She got extremely disorientated but I believe she thinks Alex is too. That's why we had to sedate her.'

'I'll go see her if that's ok?' Jen needed Pacey's medical approval.

'If it were anyone but you I'd say no. You'll need to give her a couple of hours. Her clothes are with Maria.'

'I'll get the station to put out an APB for the kids and begin seeing what we can dig up on her.'

'Thanks Jen,' Pacey smiled at her.

Jen cornered Pacey in the hospital lunch room where he was sat with Jack and a couple of other doctors.

'Excuse us,' she said bluntly looking at the two unwelcome men.

'Catch you later guys,' they grinned and left. Jen had a reputation at the hospital and no one wanted to mess with her.

'So if Bessie and Alex are dead there have been no bodies found. On the other hand there has been no active use on Bessie's SIN for seven years and to all intents and purposes they are officially missing people.'

'So she may be right, they may be dead,' Jack felt queasy.

'Well they may be, but Joey is officially classified as a missing person, well not now, but there has been no evidence of her existence for nearly seven years either.'

'Any children by the names I gave you?' Pacey frowned at all the information. Jen shook her head,

'But the names could be wrong. I have the force looking in case. It wouldn't do not to be prudent.'

'No,' Pacey agreed.

'So the bad news,' Jen leant in closer to them. 'Bodie was murdered. They found his body in upstate New York five years ago. He was shot,' Jen was used to murders but she hated the thought of someone she had personally known being murdered. Someone she had liked.

'Ok I don't get it,' Pacey was glaring at the table. 'We all grew up in Capeside. We lived in this sheltered, perfect place. It was beautiful and we had friends and we were nearly innocent.'

'Not Joey,' Jack reminded him and he glared at him,

'I know not Joey. But her dad - he was a criminal but it was small town. How did an entire family disappear.'

'Mike Potter wasn't such a nice guy Pace,' Jen informed them.

'The guy was a douche but he wasn't involved in more than drugs.'

'Yeah but the guys he was involved with we're involved in a lot more than drugs.'

'So maybe he had something to do with the families disappearing act?' Pacey suggested.

'That's what we were thinking,' Jen began.

'Were?' Jack prompted.

'Joey has popped up twice in the last seven years. Both times in New York, both times after her family disappeared but nearly seven years ago.'

'In what manner did she "pop up"?' Pacey asked.

'Using a bank card to buy two items of clothing at the Gap.' Jen let the information sink in. 'So I'm going to talk to her now. I've referred this to the FBI but they haven't reviewed it yet so I'm going to talk to her whilst I can.'

'The FBI?' Pacey knew he could probably figure out why if he really tried but his head was turning all the information over in addition to a small portion of his brain that was still thinking over Joey's injuries, the expression on her face when she told him he'd fallen in love with her. An even smaller part was remembering that night at Dawson's.

'Yeah. This has drug ring written all over it. I don't think it's any coincidence that Mike Potter was released from prison seven years ago. They may have information on her father, even on her, that we're not privy to.'

'Ok. We should call Dawson,' Pacey stated feeling the pressure of time and things to do.

'You do that,' Jen nodded. 'Ill catch you two later,' she ruffled Jacks hair causing him to snarl at her. 'Trying to lighten the mood,' she shrugged easily.

'The only thing to lighten anything is the fact that she's safe.'

'Yeah...' Jen interrupted sheepishly, 'we're going to keep an officer outside her room for the time being and we better limit who we tell about this.'

'But Dawson is ok?'

'Not yet. Just hold off for a bit I think.'

'Gotcha.'