Hey everyone.

Here's chapter 4. Please review. Please because I've hit a bit of a brick wall and time is short and work is long, so please review. I have a couple more chapters written and I just need to get over my current block, so to beg again...review. They guilt me into writing - good guilt as I don't want to let people down:-)

Tab:-)

Chapter Four

After Joey had realized that Pacey not kissing her irked her far more than she'd like, after she recognized that there must be a reason he didn't kiss her, things became weird. She realized that perhaps they'd taken things too far but it annoyed and upset her that he could put his face on her chest, his hand down her panties and yet he couldn't kiss her for whatever reason. He still hung around, like a bad smell, but even though at times she desperately wanted him to hold her, more frequently than she could bare to admit, she didn't seek comfort from him - she kept a distance. And she got mean - her old remedy for dealing with the weirdness that was her and Pacey. The weird thing was he got mean too. She focussed on Dawson and his lame attempts to get drunk and be frivolous on Valentine's Day and Pacey, he focussed on her focus, called her on it. Then there was the prison cell bit, the bit where he sounded bitter and angry at her all because she was worried about Dawson. Andie had it right, Pacey was some big dumb, loveable puppy, but God she wanted to kick him outside. So she called him on it, called him hurtful and mean, and he professed to being the lout in the corner existing on the periphery of her and Dawson, which was nonsense but she was too mad and hurt to even want to tell him that. Fuck him, was all she quite honestly felt about the situation. He touched her, she let him touch her and he didn't kiss her. In his own words that made him a moron.

Joey opened the door to see Pacey standing there and her immediate impulse was to shut it in his face, because he was a jerk. Whatever he felt about Dawson and her, well it didn't justify how mean he'd been the night before.

'What I said last night was way out of line...and yes I was drunk, but more to the point I was just plain wrong and I wanted you to know that I was really sorry,' he rushed the words but she heard them and softened,

'Well...I was worried about you too, Pacey.'

'Me?...Why?' he looked so surprised and she didn't know why he was always so convinced he didn't matter.

'Well...because, I mean Satan himself could lead Dawson into the fiery pits of hell and he would still come out with his moral code firmly intact, but you...maybe I think that nobody's worrying about you right now.'

'So then, what you're really saying is, given the highly dysfunctional nature of our relationship, this is actually how you express concern for me?'

'You gotta learn to read between the banter, Pacey.'

'Right...' there was a long pause.

'So...so, are we all finished here?' she asked because he had a look about him, the kind of look she was beginning to recognize.

'No, actually, um...there's something else,' he stared at her and she waited but he didn't speak.

'Something else?' she arched an eye brow.

'Yeah...it's just something I've been meaning to tell you...uh...look, uh...Joey...' he looked at her, a really cute little look, '...you're lingering on your clutch, okay? I know you think you're just easing into the gear, but...it's not a good idea, you know, maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow, but soon you're going to do a lot of damage to your transmission, so...what I was thinking was that if you wanted to, I could show you.'

'Now?' she was surprised. She hadn't thought he had her driving on his mind. She was surprised herself at just how desperate she was for him. It had been too long, and even if it was just a hug, she desperately needed his arms around her, his body close to hers. However much it all bothered her, she needed him.

'Well maybe in a bit,' he edged a little closer to her, his hands creeping into the hair at the nape of her neck. Carefully he brought her close to him and pressed a kiss to her hair. It reminded her of her irritation, of the fact that he could touch her and not kiss her.

'Maybe now,' she said a little coldly and he looked down at her, clearly surprised.

'Don't be mad with me Jo, please. I'm sorry,' he pleaded, his thumbs tracing her cheekbones.

'I'm not mad,' she muttered sounding mad even to her own ears.

'You are,' he pulled her tight against him, 'and I'm gonna hug the mad out of you. You can't be mad at me, you know I'm an idiot.'

'A moron actually,' she muttered into his Pacey smelling chest, wondering if he'd get it.

'A total moron,' he concurred as she hugged him back even though he didn't get it.

'You coming inside to hug?' she asked at length because she missed him and he smiled widely,

'You do forgive me!'

'For yesterday yes, for being a moron, we'll see,' she headed into the house, Pacey on her heels, following her to her bedroom.

'Bessie here?'

'She's at the store. We ran out of stuff.'

'The store huh?' he grabbed her in a bear hug pulling her onto the bed with him. She yelped, surprising herself with a girlish giggle, his whole body covering hers, nudging at her legs until he was nestled between them, apparently already hard.

'I think you hear hug these days and think something entirely different,' she chided lightly, but wrapped her hands around his neck.

'I think about you these days in general and my mind falls at an alarming rate right into the gutter.'

'Really?' she arched a brow. 'I'm in the gutter?' His blush surprised her,

'You're no where near the gutter Jo, you're way up high, some kind of goddess I think. I mean you're beautiful and me...I'm the one down in the gutter because when I think of you, of hugging you my mind just goes all over and I think of your chest in my hand, of how wet you were that time...warm and wet, and all for me and then I can't stop thinking about it...'

'Pace,' she arched against him, his words doing crazy things to her.

'I think about touching you Jo,' he rolled off of her and placed his hand between her legs, rubbing softly through her pyjama pants. 'Here is where I think about touching you,' he shared it like it was a secret, like he was worried she would tell someone which she really wouldn't. His thumb found her clit but his fingers dipped lower and she moaned, her head thrown back. 'I love that sound,' he whispered against her ear, his breath tickling her lobe and causing the throbbing between her legs to intensify. Her hand gripped onto his and pulled it away from her

'I'm sorry,' he breathed into her neck, the apology sincere, but all she did was lay his hand on her stomach and then push it down, down under her pyjama pants and back to the throbbing heat. 'God, Jo,' he groaned the words, his hips bucking against her thigh as his thumb began to trace gloriously right circles on her clit rising her up to that lofty precipice that he was so good at pushing her over.

'Pacey,' his name was her lament and he heeded it, tracing over the wet, tight entrance to her body, once, then again, and a third time, and just when she was about to use her hand to force his, he dipped a finger into her, just shallowly at first, but then deeper.

'Oh,' she couldn't even be embarrassed by her noises because he was too good at what he was doing. Then he did something different. She didn't even know what but the feel of his finger in her changed into something divine and completely addictive. 'Pacey,' she practically sang his name as her whole body abruptly seized around his hand and wave after wave of pleasure rolled through her. 'Oh my god, what did you do?' she rolled over and clamped herself to him, her breathing erratic.

'You liked it?' he sounded very pleased with himself.

'You made me come before, but that was different,' she could still feel it. He looked delighted at her casual mention of coming. Joey would have thought she'd blush but she was still on her come down.

'Just a little trick I know,' he shrugged and tightened his arms around her.

'Just a little trick you have to teach me,' she crooned feeling suddenly sleepy and peaceful.

'So you forgive me for being a moron?' he asked with a smile.

'I forgive you but you're still a moron,' she muttered running her hand over his pecs and then the ribbons of muscle in his stomach.

'I'll probably always be a moron,' he admitted.

'I hope not,' she sighed.

Pacey was being a total idiot. Ok, so some idiot destroyed her mural and that hurt, really hurt, but he didn't need to get in a fight over it. What was the stupid boy thinking? She hated fighting, loathed it, and whilst it was attractive that he was standing up for her, a really, really nice feeling bubbling up from that, she really didn't want him to do it. Then when she called him on it, when she asked him not to throw away his future for her, well then he claims the only reason he's been hanging out with her at all was because Dawson asked him to? She sure didn't think Dawson asked him to put his hands on her, but that wasn't the point - that side of things had always been between them, but the friendship bit? The bit where they cared about each other - he claimed was thanks to Dawson, thanks to some ridiculous wife swap arrangement. Oh she was beyond furious.

Then Dawson called her on it, talked up Pacey to her, which quite honestly was unnecessary because she knew that Pacey was impulsive, thoughtless and stubborn, but the shred of genuine concern was more than a shred. Pacey did care, she knew that but at present it seemed to be in an impulsive, thoughtless and stubborn way. That wasn't all there was to Pacey though, not when he would beat up a guy for hurting her feelings. Pacey was brave, he wore his heart on his sleeve and he cared perhaps too much. He was an underdog, but he could be so much more if he only had a little faith. Not that he needed to change because he was already something special, he just didn't know it, or believe it.

Then she found him painting over her ruined mural, providing her with a blank slate and she did what she always did when her emotions got the better of her - she pressed her ear to his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist, not caring that the wet, painty roller was dripping paint on her, only needing the feel of his arms tight about her.

'Thank you,' she said at length.

'You're welcome. So you want help?'

'One condition,' she murmured against his chest, 'you gotta be honest. The only reason you've been hanging out with me is because Dawson told you to?'

'Yep, that's the only reason,' he smirked down at her expectant face.

'Hmmm. You need to get a life,' she arched a brow at him and he laughed.

'I'll think about it,' he pulled her hips towards his even though it was not the place for that kind of hug, his hands sliding off her hips and onto her butt. 'You look cute as heck in that outfit,' he murmured, putting his mouth against her neck.

'I'm here to paint, not hug,' she told him primly and he chuckled.

'And I'm here to help,' he pressed her against the wall with his body and raising his left hand continued to roller white paint on the wall.

'Doofus,' she told the solid expanse of chest.

'Jo, you might wanna move, you're kinda in my way. You're about as good at this as you are at sanding my boat.'

'Watch it Witter,' she squirmed out from between him and the wall and grabbed a roller, turning to look at him, she saw that he was staring at her, a smile on his face. She returned the smile.

Principal Green was going to have to leave and despite all the work she was doing, despite help coming from everyone they weren't going to change that. It was so frustrating, to be so powerless, to be so futile when facing the system. Pacey had said she could rally people, AJ agreed and yet despite the rallying, despite everyone that agreed, the end result was going to be that the board wouldn't back down and neither would Green.

She could tell AJ arriving to help, AJ being there at all bothered Pacey but what did he expect? AJ wasn't a moron - he kissed her and Pacey was just her friend and her teddy bear apparently. She knew why guys didn't kiss girls - she'd seen Pretty Woman - and if Pacey wasn't kissing her, if he was going to be a moron as he so eloquently put it, then it was because she was his teddy bear. His friend and his teddy bear and nothing more. So he could hate on AJ all he wanted, dislike his presence, but at the end of the day AJ kissed her, and that meant something.

And they did failed like she thought they would but hoped they wouldn't. Green resigned and it felt good to have stood up for what was right but devastating to have not had an impact. AJ left and that was good because she wanted Pacey, she wanted him to make that horrible feeling of the world not being right go away. Only he wasn't at home, and she didn't know where that meant he'd be because these days he was usually with her. Then Bessie was hanging up the phone and telling her to head to the store for bread.

'Good you're here,' Pacey grinned at her and grabbed her hand. 'Now come with me...'

'What?'

'Come just a little further, we're here.'

'I don't know where you think here is, but we're in the middle of nowhere,' she smiled at him because she'd needed to see his face, to hear his enthusiasm for life.

'Come on Jo, think back to where this all started. A girl with a paintbrush,' he held up a paintbrush.

'You bought me a paintbrush?' she frowned.

'No lame-o, this I stole from your permanent collection,' and he gestured at the wall, looking absolutely adorable in his wooly hat.

'You bought me a wall?' It didn't make any sense.

'Not bought. Rented. And this thing didn't come cheap either. It cost me a hundred bucks,' he gestured wildly.

'You bought me a wall?!' her heart was racing in her chest and she wished he wasn't such a moron.

'You said that already. Look, it's a limited time offer, so you should get cracking,' he handed her the paintbrush.

'Pacey, did you fail to notice the size of this thing?'

'Well I just thought your next endeavor should be bigger and better than your last one. It's important that you keep on growing both as a person and as an artist. Now I also got you this,' he held up small can of paint, 'and I know it's not going to cover the whole thing, but as the saying goes, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.'

'Well I'm going to need your help on this one,' she stared at him, not the wall.

'Ha, no no no no, not this time, you're on your own this time, sister,' he began to walk away and she hated it, even the sister annoyed her.

'Pacey, you're unbelievable, I mean as soon as I think I've got you all figured out, you go and you do something so...outrageous that...completely challenges me in a way that no one else would even think of that...in case I don't say it enough...thank you.'

'It's about time, Potter. It's about time,' he gave her a huge smile and deciding she didn't really care that they were in the middle of town, she dropped her paintbrush and threw herself at him, hugging him as tightly as she could. 'Hey, it's ok,' he wrapped his arms around her, holding her as tightly as she was holding him.

'Pacey,' she said his name because the other words swirling through her head were too jumbled, too confused and really they couldn't be said. He stared down at her and she tried to force something out,

'I want to do something...um... for you...' she mumbled into his chest.

'Kinda mumbling there Jo - can't hear?'

'I want to um... do something for you,' she raised her head to look at him.

'huh?' he frowned.

'Don't look at me like that. I said, I want to do something for you. For you,' she slid her hand down and into the back pocket of his jeans.

'You do?' again nothing but confusion on his face.

'Yes,' she stared over his shoulder at the wall, 'yes,' she took his hand and pulled him along behind her back to the truck Bessie had let her take. Dropping his hand she opened her door and got in waiting for him to get in beside her.

'Wh...' he coughed, 'um, where are we going?'

'I don't know,' she murmured and they fell silent until she stopped at the end of the drive leading to the B&B. 'Here, we're going here,' she looked at him.

'You know you don't have to do anything for me,' he took her hand, his face a cross between nervous anticipation and blatant desire.

'I want to...but I don't know how,' she stared at the steering wheel.

'First off,' he clicked the radio on, switching it to rock, 'I mean I know you Potter and if there's too much quiet you'll get to over thinking and over thinking leads to over worrying.'

'Ok,' she looked at him. 'Do I um...need to do anything to um...you know...get you in the mood?'

'Err, no,' he shook his head and looked at her like she must be crazy. 'Let's...go in the back...I wanna hold you,' he unplugged and considering his height rather nimbly clambered into the back seat. After a second she followed him, falling into the seat next to him and into his arms and just like that it all felt ok. Principal Green leaving, the futile fight against the powers that be, Pacey buying her a wall, they all felt manageable again, and she realized that she wanted to do something for him, but for herself, because she wanted to touch him.

'I've never...' she dropped her hand to his strong, washboard stomach and she noticed his breathing hitch - that little hitch made her feel good.

'And somehow you're doing great,' he quipped.

'Show me,' she said, moving her hand down, her fingers tracing the outline of his hard on through his jeans.

'Oh man... that's...um...pretty amazing...' he stared at her and his eyes fluttered shut as she continued her exploration. She was surprised how big it was because she didn't remember Dawson's being that big, but then he hadn't really got as close as Pacey was and she'd certainly never touched it. She didn't get how that was supposed to fit inside a girl. She was certain it would never fit inside of her, not that she was thinking of it going near the inside of her. Not that that was a bad thought, it wasn't, not at all, but no. 'It's ok,' his words were steady and meant to calm her.

'Can you, I don't know, maybe undo your jeans or something?' she asked licking her lips, feeling nervous but intrigued, excited and full of trepidation, a whole jumble of emotions.

'You want me to undo my jeans?' he nearly choked.

'Only if you want to, I mean...'

'Yeah,' he nodded and flicked at his buckle and then popped the buttons. She could see it straining against his boxers, this hard masculine thing that was all for her. Well she assumed it was.

'Is it thinking about me that does that? Or is that just because you're hormonal, and well you?' she looked up at him, a trace of insecurity.

'That's all you Potter,' his voice was so sexy. She moved her hand and gripped him, not tightly or anything, just sort of held it in her hand, testing out how it felt.

'Can I look at it?' she didn't look up at him just moved her hand to the waistband of his boxers. 'Please?'

'Sure, yeah, ok,' he watched her tug at the waist band and then he lifted his butt to help her.

'Wow,' she tilted her head to the side and stared.

'Wow, that's hot, or wow, it's not?' he coughed a little and she realized he was nervous, something she hadn't expected seeing as he had all the experience and she had none.

'Just wow,' she stared at it, and then reached out her hand and trailed a finger from the tip to the base, watching his body jolt from the sensation. 'Show me,' she told him and allowed him to take her hand and place it around him to show her how hard to grip and how to move it, his soft groans of approval feeding her confidence and her own desire.

'Yeah like that,' he trailed a hand up her side and squeezed her boob, his eyes on her hand on him. 'Fuck Jo,' he groaned, as she smoothed her thumb over the tip gathering the drop of moisture there, 'harder,' he urged and he looked at her with a heated gaze. A gaze so hot she was sure he was going to kiss her - the look was just like in the movies before the guy grabs the girl and kisses her senseless, but he didn't kiss her, he just ran a thumb across her cheek and then his head dropped back and his eyes fell closed. 'You're gonna make me come,' he moaned, the words crass but a surprising turn on. 'Keep going, please keep going,' he begged and even though her hand was tired she did keep going, surprised at the desire to put her mouth on him. She hesitated. His eyes were closed so he probably wouldn't even realize. She could just lower her head and put her lips around him. She'd heard from the girls at school, when they were talking around her, not to her, that you treated it like a lolly pop. She could do that, just for a second. She looked at him, his breathing erratic, his eyes shut, one hand on her boob, the other in his hair. He was beautiful. A beautiful boy who bought her walls, fought battles for her, who made the world seem less scary. Without slowing the pace of her hand she shifted, lowering her head just enough to enclose the tip of his cock with her mouth, her tongue whipping out to taste the slightly salty taste. It felt nice, nicer than she'd expected, the skin silky and smooth. 'Oh fuck,' she heard him swear, and felt his hips buck and then he was coming in her mouth which she had not expected nor anticipated. 'Oh shit I'm sorry,' he pulled her against him as she sat up, his come still in her mouth. She looked at him and then swallowed because what else could she do with it.

'Don't be sorry,' she shrugged a little and curled up against him. 'I didn't warn you I was gonna do that.'

'That felt, jeez Jo, that was... I...'

'Speechless?' she teased.

'One second of your mouth on me and I came, that was amazing,' he pressed a kiss to her hair. 'You're amazing.'

'Thanks for my wall.'

'It was nothing,' he shrugged bashfully.

'This is my favourite place in the world,' she admitted in a soft voice.

'The back of your truck?'

'No, dumbass, here,' she gestured to his arms.

'You've conditioned yourself to equate my arms with safety.'

'There are worse things to equate with safety.'

'I'm sure college boy wouldn't like this particular equation.'

'This particular equation is nothing to do with college boy.'

'If you were my girlfriend I would punch me out,' Pacey pulled up his boxers and jeans and then pulled her onto his lap.

'Good thing I'm not your girlfriend then,' she said, her head over the steady thumping of his heart. The thumping picked up.

'I guess,' he said and she held on a little tighter.