RED EYE DISTRICT

Disclaimer: None of the major characters are mine. That is all. ;)

Authors Note: There will be some foreshadowing in this chapter so pay attention.

Fort Lauderdale International Airport (Sunday, May 14, 2006)

"And will you be checking any bags in with us at this time, Mrs. Potter?"

"Uh yeah, just this one, but please, if you don't mind, just call me Joey, okay?" Joey quickly replied, while absentmindedly handing the woman in front of her the small black roll-away case she had just brought a couple of weeks ago at the flea market on her way back home from work.

To anyone else, it probably would've seemed strange that the young woman was literally moving across the country with just one small suitcase in hand, but Joey was never one to pack much—especially since she really didn't have that much—so she chose to pack light.

"Okay, Joey, here's your boarding pass and your ID back. Now, if you just stick to your right and follow the signs down to the security check point, your gate will be right behind it. It's Gate D3."

Having never ridden a plane before in her life caused Joey to pay close attention to what the woman in front of her was saying and then nod her head accordingly as she outwardly confirmed to the woman that it was, "Gate D3, got it."

With that being said, Joey thanked the older woman for all of her help and turned to make her way towards the direction in which the employee had told her to go. But unfortunately before she could even take one step foreword, she found herself having to catch herself as she almost ran into the person who had been behind her in line, who was now making his way towards the clerk she had just been speaking to.

"Sorry about that. Go ahead."

After flashing the man, now beside her, a brief thank you smile, Joey quickly eased by him and began to make her way towards the security checkpoint; barely hearing when the woman she had just been talking to asked the man, who had just given her his I.D and itinerary, if he'd like to bump his seat up from coach to first class, with a surcharge of course.

"To be honest with you, I'm so tired I don't even think I'm going to be able to fully enjoy the chips and soda Jet Blue gives me in coach, so I think I'll have to pass on that one. Maybe next time though…Roxanne, is it?"

While blushing slightly as the man in front of her threw her a flirtatious grin, Roxanne quickly checked that the passenger had refused the, too expensive for her taste, upgrade and then as an afterthought, she just as quickly moved him from having a middle seat on the plane ride to N.Y to having a window seat, instead. Can't have him getting stuck between two over-weight guys, now, can we? Especially not with those baby blues and a gorgeous smile like that.

With that thought in mind, Roxanne quickly began to ask the man in front of her the rest of the questions on her list, while secretly scoping out his left hand to see if he was wearing a wedding ring or not. After seeing that he wasn't, she gave him one of her best flirtatious smiles while telling him to have a great day, "And feel free to come back and fly out of Fort Lauderdale Airport anytime, Mr. Witter."

"I will…and please call me Pacey." Pacey commented back to her, before taking his itinerary and I.D from Roxanne and then bidding her one last final goodbye before turning around and proceeding down towards the gate she had just directed him towards; a window seat and phone number in hand.

That was so easy I almost feel sorry for her

Feeling the need to share this fact with someone else, after making his way through security and taking a seat towards the back of his gate, Pacey quickly pulled out his cell phone and began to dial a familiar New York number; smiling when it was answered on the third ring.

"Don't tell me I over slept and you're already here, bro?"

While chuckling at the half worried-half tired voice he heard on the other end, Pacey replied, "No, that's why I'm calling you right now to make sure you aren't going to do that. I'm not trying to be stranded at JFK for close to three hours while you frantically try to fight traffic to make it there like last time I came home. I swear I was two seconds away from jumping in a cab full of old nuns that I met on the plane just so I wouldn't have to freeze my ass off sitting outside on the curb."

Knowing full well that the other man would do no such thing 'caused Pacey's best friend and soon to be room-mate Jack McPhee to laugh at the statement, before jokingly replying: "I wish you would've, then I might not have gotten that sixty-dollar speeding ticket trying to hurry and pick your ass up off that said curb, jackass."

After chuckling slightly at the other man's comment, Pacey scooted down further in his seat; preparing to get comfortable while he spent the next hour, until his plane boarded, catching up with his old high-school friend. "Whatever you say, man. Anyway, why so tired? I thought you said you had given up all-night partying after that last time I came home for New Years Eve."

"Believe me, I have. I was actually at Andie's all-night cleaning. You're not even going to believe what my sister has done this time."

Knowing Andie to be more of a saint then both him, Jack and any else they knew combined caused Pacey to joke, "Hmm, let me guess, she met some random stranger off the street and took them into her home to mooch off of her causing you to be slightly pissed and aggravated at the moment? "

"Ha, close. She actually met her on the internet."

What..?

Without even bothering to hold back his laughter, Pacey asked in pure disbelief, "You're joking, right?"

"I wish I was," Jack replied, sounding very serious at the moment, "She called me last week to tell me that a couple months ago she had posted an ad online looking for a room-mate to help her pay off the other half of the rent, since that bitch Abby deserted her ass, and said that some girl had emailed her back about the room and that they'd really hit it off. She's supposed to be flying here today."

"Wow…" was the only thing Pacey could manage to muster. He couldn't imagine what Andie was thinking, letting someone she barely even knew and had only spoken to on the computer, move in with her. Hell, he couldn't even imagine what the other woman was thinking flying across the country to move in with someone she barely even knew and had only spoken to on the computer.

She must be one piece of work.

(An hour later)

338 East 11th Street. New York, NY 1009. East Village Apartments.

After slowly reciting back the information that Andie had given her one more time in her head, Joey stuffed the journal, the directions were written on, into her book-bag and stuffed that underneath her airplane seat.

True, she figured she should've been slightly nervous over the fact that in less than three hours she would finally be meeting the woman who she'd only spoken with a couple times on the phone and a couple of times on the computer, when she had gone to the library for free internet access. But to Joey, this was nothing more unusual than that time she had to stay almost a year with someone she had randomly bumped into a couple years ago after she had ran away from her last foster home.

She was more nervous about the fact that she was, at the moment, seated on a plane on its way to New York City.

I swear if this plane can manage to get me in the air and stay in the air until I reach my final destination, I will never strip for another dollar another day in my life, I promise.

Knowing that even if, God forbid, her plane was to take a nose dive in the middle of the air and she made it out alive, she'd still never strip another day in her life caused Joey to quickly try and think of something else she'd never do if her plane got her to J.F.K airport safely and on time.

Unfortunately before she could really come up with something, a voice coming from up above snapped her out of her thoughts.

"So, we meet again."

Looking up at this comment, Joey locked eyes with the guy who had almost ran her over while trying to check his luggage in.

And here he is again…small world.

"Yeah, I guess we do. Are you seated in this row, as well?"

"Yeah, I've got the window seat."

Realizing that in order for him to sit down, she'd have to stand up, caused Joey to give the man a small my bad smile before unbuckling her seatbelt and getting up; allowing the taller man to be able to slide in and take his assigned seat by the window.

"First time flying?"

Having no idea how he could tell that fact from a few measly words alone caused Joey to look at the man strangely before outwardly retorting, "Is it that obvious?"

After slightly chuckling at the look on her face, the man shook his head slightly before outwardly retorting, "No, I was just making friendly airplane chatter. I figure since we're going to be stuck sitting next to one another for the next couple of hours we might as well make small talk…the name's Pacey."

Pacey? That can't be his real name.

Figuring that the man in front of her had just given her a false name to call him while they were on the plane, caused Joey to—instead of giving him her real name—give Pacey her stage name. "The name's Candy. Nice to meet you."

Even though he knew, with the name Candy, he could probably throw a couple of bad puns the female's way, Pacey figured that anything he could've said to her at the moment, she more than likely had heard before, so instead of commenting on her name, he gave the woman a slight smile before quickly retorting, "It's nice to meet you as well, Candy…so, what brings you to New York? Business or pleasure?"

After seeming to take a second to correctly word her next phrase, Candy shrugged slightly at the question before retorting, "A little bit of both, I guess. I'm in the process of moving there."

"I guess this is a small world. I'm doing the same. I just bought a place up in Mt. Vernon with one of my buddies, Jack. What part of New York are you moving to?"

Seeing a slight expression change cross Candy's face caused Pacey to quickly laugh, before replying: "Don't worry, I'm not a stalker or anything, just part of the small talk again. You don't have to answer that if you don't want to."

"Oh, it's not that..." Candy quickly replied, even though Pacey could tell that it was exactly that, "It's just that I just bought the apartment not too long ago, so it's still taking me a little while to memorize the address. It's somewhere in East Village."

Remembering that Andie lived somewhere in the East village caused Pacey to open his mouth to tell Candy that he had a friend that lived there, but before he could do so a voice came over the speaker system, telling them that they were about to prepare for lift off; a remark that caused the woman beside him to quickly turn her attention to the flight attendant in front of them who was going over safety procedures.

Damn. She really wasn't lying when she said that this was her first flight. Can only imagine what she'll do if we hit a bit of turbulence. Should've brought some Nyquil with me to knock her out for the ride.

With that thought in mind, Pacey waited until the flight attendant had finished delivering her safety speech—that he had heard so many times before that he seemed to tune it out—before opening his mouth to talk to the female stranger once again. "Jet Blue is one of the safest airplanes I've ever been on, so don't look so nervous. And they provide us with a TV so it's a pretty quick flight if you can find a movie on one of there many TV channels."

Even though he could tell she knew he was trying to comfort her the best he could, she still didn't look very at ease with her present situation, especially when the plane started to lurch backwards; reminding them that they soon would be over a thousand feet in the air.

"Flight attendants, please prepare for lift-off."

Noticing the expression on Candy's face go from slight nervousness to absolute fear caused Pacey to mentally kick the thought of being able to sleep on the three hour flight out the window while fully turning his attention towards the scared woman and opening his mouth to ask her the first of many questions he'd be asking her on their flight to N.Y.

"So, are you originally from Florida?"

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