For the second time Dawson's phone interrupts them. "This better be good." He mumbles as Joey moves off of him and he grabs his cell off of the nightstand. "Todd, what can I do for you?" Dawson asks, trying to keep the bite out of his tone.

"Oh nothing much really mate, just wanted to call and ask what you were doing."

"That's it? There's no big dilemma that you need me for, no one has lost a limb on the set?"

"No, if that had happened I wouldn't be calling you, you have more important things to be doing right now!" Todd replies and Dawson can visualize the smirk on Todd's face.

"Well Todd, since it's not an emergency why don't ya just ask me what you wanted to and then I can go."

"Oh, did I call at a bad time?" Todd chuckles.

"Whatever gave you that idea Todd?" Dawson replies, rolling his eyes.

"Anyway Leery, I was calling to ask you what you were doing. Ya know, nothing important or anything, just showing off my 'bastard with the worst timing' status."

"I'm going now Todd. I'll see you tomorrow." He finishes, hanging up and switching off his cell.

"What did he want?" Joey inquired.

"Just to ask me what I was doing." Dawson tells her. "He just likes playing with me. This will crack him up and he'll laugh about it all the way to LA." He finishes, taking up the position he was in before.

When I'm feeling blue, all I have to do

Is take a look at you, then I'm not so blue

When you're close to me, I can feel your heart beat

I can hear you breathing near my ear

Wouldn't you agree, baby you and me got a groovy kind of love

Joey lightly traces his jaw line, then his lips. "This doesn't feel weird." She says, shaking her head a little. "It…"

"You expected this to feel weird?" Dawson asks her, threading his fingers in hers before laying their joined hands on his chest.

"No, I…I guess there just came a point when I thought something I had wanted so much at some time or another seemed to be inconceivable and…" She pauses for a moment, musing over his question. "I don't know, maybe some part of me thought that if we ever did get intimate, it'd be weird…" she trails off.

"After everything we've been though already?" He offers.

She meekly nods her head. "And then after last night, I wasn't even sure this would happen again." Joey bites her lip.

"You really thought this could be a one night thing? That it wouldn't mean anything?"

"When you say it like that it sounds dumb and I know it'd never be meant that way. I just…part of me just wondered if maybe last night was too good to be true. Normally when something good happens with us, there's something there, something trying to pull it all away at the seams." She half shrugs. "With our track record it's hard to not think that once we get to the high points that it's gonna come crashing down."

Anytime you want to you can turn me onto

Anything you want to, anytime at all

When I kiss your lips, ooh I start to shiver

Can't control the quivering inside

Wouldn't you agree, baby you and me got a groovy kind of love, oh

"Was there a part of you that didn't want this to happen again?" He asks as he retreats his hand from hers.

"NO! And don't you dare think that." She shifts her position, now laying more on her tummy and with her hands clasped. "Last night was wonderful, today has been wonderful, but you leave tomorrow…"

"And I'm coming back again Joey." He assures her. "I'm not leaving for good or leaving for a few months or years. I'll be gone for two weeks, nothing more." He tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. "All I can do is reassure you that I intend to be coming back to an 'us'. It wasn't a one time thing…"

"It wasn't just once Dawson!"

"I know!" He replies flashing a sexy smile at her. "What we have isn't gonna be whittled down to some fling. I refuse to allow that to happen and I don't, for one second, believe that you could either. Could you?"

Joey shakes her head. "I don't either." She takes his hand and lightly brushes her lips against his palm before lacing her fingers in his. "I guess part of me just really needed to hear you say that. I know it's a lot of pressure to put on a new boyfriend, but there's always this part of me that thinks the next time we go through something major, well it's going to be our last chance at anything and that really scares me."

"And you think it doesn't scare me too? Joey, I was terrified that we never seemed to be in the same place with how we felt about each other and where our lives were taking us."

"You were?"

"Don't sound so surprised, you're not the only person who has insecurities Jo. Even I have them." He squeezes her hand gently. "Everything isn't so cut and dried for me either, it's not always perfect. There was a time when I thought it was, but I'm not fifteen anymore. I grew out of that."

When I'm feeling blue, all I have to do

Is take a look at you, then I'm not so blue

When I'm in your arms, nothing seems to matter

My whole world could shatter, I don't care

Dawson cups her cheek and she leans down and kisses him. Pouring everything she can into that one kiss, as her lips glide against his. Both hoping that this one moment, this one kiss, can help them convey that they are ready to achieve what they have been lacking in so long. An honest relationship where any insecurity can be voiced.

He leans up on his elbow, wraps an arm around her waist and rolls her onto her back so that he's above her. Dawson breaks the kiss causing her to groan and he looks at her puzzled.

"What?" She asks him.

"Did you just call me your 'new boyfriend'?"

"Maybe." She replies blushing and bites on her lip. Maybe that's a bit premature.

"That's so cute Jo; I thought that now you'd be past blushing." He cocks an eyebrow at her as she gazes up at him.

"I did not blush."

"You didn't? Oh okay then, when your cheeks flushed a little just then, that was cute."

She mock glares at him. "Maybe my new boyfriend is about to get dumped."

"Maybe your new boyfriend figures it's about high time he was a single man again, did you consider that?"

Her jaw drops and she struggles for something to say in reply. "Well…um…you know…maybe…if that's what you want."

"That's the best come back you have?" He asks, earning him a playful swat on the shoulder. "Geez, having a boyfriend has made you a little soft. I guess I'll be the one winning our little verbal spats from now on."

"You really think so Dawson?"

He cocks an eyebrow at her and flashes a sexy grin. "We'll be seeing who wins, Jo."

"That we will!" She assures him before he starts an assault on her waist with his hands.

"You still a little ticklish Jo?"

"No...Dawson! No…stop…please." She pleads with him between her fits of laughter as she tries to pry his hands off of her. "Daws—"

The rest of her plea is muffled by his lips falling on hers. She winds her arm around his neck, running her fingers through the hair at his nape; they both moan into the others mouth.

"So, that was you not ticklish Joey?" He asks as his eyes fall on the clock beside her bed. "Dammit!" He says before burying his face in her pillow.

"What is it Dawson?"

He mumbles something into the pillow.

"Dawson?"

"Yeah." He replies lifting his head enough to look at her.

"I didn't understand a single word you just said." She replies cupping his cheek. "What is it?"

"I should be getting back to the hotel, my stuff isn't packed and I have to –"

"Go to LA tomorrow?"

"Yeah."

"I know. I guess you should be going." She replies in a soft voice.

"I never even realized it was so late." He chuckles. "I guess we should just be grateful Audrey never came back and interrupted us!"

Jo closes her eyes and starts to laugh. "I'd never hear the end of that one."

Dawson rolls off of her, swings his legs off of the bed and locates his boxer shorts, quickly putting them on. Next he grabs his t-shirt and pulls it over his head.

"Dawson?" Joey asks standing on her knees with the sheet wrapped securely around her.

Dawson turns to look at her, now with his pants in his hand. For a brief moment he is caught up in how sexy she looks with her hair mussed a little, knowing she's only wearing that sheet.

"Dawson?" She says his name again, pulling him back to life.

"Hmmm."

"Could you pass me my bathrobe?"

"Sure." He replies and Joey misses the grin on his face as he turns to get it. He moves to hand her the bathrobe and she puts her hand out to take it, only for him to pull it away from her.

"Dawson!"

"Joey!" He mimics her tone and holds the robe out again.

Wouldn't you agree, baby you and me got a groovy kind of love

We got a groovy kind of love

We got a groovy kind of love, oh

As she reaches for it he pulls it back again, steps forward and wraps an arm around her, leaning down to kiss her and catching her by surprise. She gets wrapped up in the kiss and forgets about the sheet, bringing one hand up to cup his cheek and the other to rest on his shoulder. As the sheet falls Dawson catches it and holds it in place.

He breaks the kiss and rests his forehead against hers. "Bathrobe?"

"Thanks Dawson."

"No problem." He replies as he puts on his pants and she turns to put on her bathrobe.

By the time she turns around and climbs off of the bed he has his shoes on and his cell and car keys in his hand.

"I guess I should get going."

She nods her head. "So, I'll see you in a few weeks." "Yeah".

"Will you call and let me know you arrived ok?"

"I will." He assures her before adding. "Mom called earlier and told me that she wanted you to go down sometime soon to pick up your birthday present. She said she was gonna try and call you."

"I'll try and call her tomorrow."

"Okay."

We got a groovy kind of love *Phil Collins – groovy kind of love*

"So you're coming back to…" She starts to say and he finishes it with her. "Us!"

They both take a step towards the other. "I should probably get going." He says, not moving away from her.

"Yeah, you have to be up early."

"Yeah!"

They just stand looking at each other.

He thinks of how he has to leave her and of the fact that he doesn't want to. They're finally in the same place, and he has to go.

And her thoughts are similar, he needs to go and she wonders how she'll cope for the next fourteen days. It's really not that long; they've been apart for longer. But not when they've been in that same place. Not when they're an 'us'.

She bites her lip, willing him to stay. Just stay, she thinks to herself, let's just lock the door and stay like this. Already she misses his touch, simply misses him and he's still within touching distance.

And Dawson, he can't imagine opening his eyes the next morning and she won't be the first thing he sees, she's not going to be in his arms.

"Can it really be that if you want something, but put it off for so long, it can make it all the harder to resist when you finally get it?" She asks her brown eyes searing into his pools of blue.

"Yeah." He replies

Just one more…she thinks to herself. Stepping forward, bringing her mouth to his. His taste is already causing her pulse to quicken.

"These next two weeks are going to be pure torture." She concedes.

"I know." He replies kissing her quickly, fighting with himself to leave.

"Dawson, in order to come back you have to leave!" She tells him, although she wants him to stay. He moves to kiss her again and she side steps him. "Will you go already?"

"Anyone would think you wanted rid of me Joey." He tells her sticking out his bottom lip.

"Yeah, that's really it Dawson. It doesn't have anything to do with the fact that it's going to kill me to get you back and then to not see you for two whole weeks."

"So, that'd mean that you're going to miss me!"

"Just a little bit."

"Okay, I'll go, but…" He leans down and kisses her quickly on the lips. "On one condition."

"What?"

"You wear that little black dress when I take you out once I'm back."

"Deal! Now go."

"I'll see you Joey."

"See you Dawson."

They kiss again, neither of them wanting to leave the other, neither of them wanting to be without the other, for these incredible days to be over. But they both know there's something there and they're an 'us' now.

They break the kiss and he leaves and once the door is closed she leans on the back of it, allowing the happiness she feels to wash over her not knowing that he's doing the same thing on the other side of the door.

A few moments later as Joey flops down on her bed unable to keep the smile from her face as Audrey enters the room.

"Now don't we look like the cat that got the cream?" Audrey quipped as she took off her shoe. "Did you guys buy matching grins or something?"

"What do you mean?" Joey asked puzzled.

"I just saw Dawson outside." Audrey informed her as she rummaged through a drawer looking for her pajamas. "He had the same look on his face you just had. I take it everything is okay with you guys."

"Nope, not okay."

"It's not? So why the grin?"

"Because things are great." Joey beams as tears well up in her eyes. "We're great!"

*to be continued...*