CHAPTER SIX: SURPRISE

December 19, 2003 (Capeside High)

To say the following week, after Pacey's arrival, had flown by in a blur for the younger woman would be an understatement. Between helping out at the B&B and helping the two men get accustomed to life in Capeside, Joey was surprised when she woke up Friday morning only to realize that not only was it the last day of school for the week, but it was also the last day of school before Christmas break began.

Which means for the next four weeks, I will no longer have to wake up at the crack of dawn or listen to Bryan lecture me on the importance of a nutritional balanced breakfast-if only every day could be a national holiday.

"Um...what the hell is this?"

Snapping out of her thoughts at this comment, Joey looked down at what Pacey was referring to on his lunch tray, and couldn't help but chuckle as the confused man began to hesitantly play with the brown dish that seemed to be taking up a quarter of his tray.

"That, my friend..." Drue began, while taking a seat on the other side of Pacey, "is what they call pudding…and that, hard stuff on top of it that you're playing with, is what I call crust."

Thoroughly disgusted, Pacey commented that he was sorry he asked. And after viewing the rest of the contents on his tray, he decided that he'd eat the only thing that looked somewhat edible in front of him-a lone red apple. "Remind me to pack my lunch when school starts up again, okay?"

Knowing that was his safest bet caused Joey to chuckle, and then after taking her sandwich out of her own packed lunch, she offered Pacey half her peanut butter and jelly sandwich-which he gratefully took-before turning her attention back towards Drue. "So, how's our patient? Jen feeling any better yet?"

It was going on day three since any of them had seen Jen at school that week, and going by what Grams had told her when Joey had called there the night before, Jen's stomach virus was getting a lot worse than better.

"She's starting to keep some stuff down, but I still made her an appointment to go see the doctor Monday morning. I'd hate for her to have to be sick on Christmas Eve."

Knowing that was the day that Drue and Jen planned to exchange Christmas presents after the Leery party was over caused Joey to comment that she hoped that Jen felt better before then, too.

"Well, let me know if she needs anything. I know Angie just got over the flu and there's nothing worse than being sick during the holidays-especially for a baby."

"Will do," Drue commented, before getting the attention of the guy sitting at the table beside them, asking if he could take a look at his copy of the homework that was due next period.

"Same ole Drue," Pacey commented, with a chuckle, before turning his attention back towards Joey; asking her if she had any plans for the evening.

After taking a second to think about it, Joey outwardly replied: "Not that I know of…why? What's up?"

"Well, you've been such a big help to me and Dougie since we got here-so, I was thinking, if you're not busy tonight, we could hit up the movies or stop by the fair again, I heard tonight's the last night before they shut it down for winter."

Although the offer was really sweet of Pacey, knowing that the other man really didn't have to do that-since she was just being nice-caused Joey to say just that. Afterwards continuing with: "Besides, I just remembered I promised Bryan I'd watch Angie tonight while he ran a few errands, so unless you don't mind dragging a currently teething baby around, I'm going to have to decline."

Figuring that Pacey would drop the conversation after this caused Joey to be somewhat surprised when he, instead, replied: "Well, we can make it a blockbuster night, then. I'll bring the movies and Chinese food and you bring the teething baby and your appetite...what do you say?."

Never one to turn down free food-especially free Chinese food-caused Joey to pretend to think about it for a second, and then after rolling her eyes in amusement at-what was now being deemed Pacey's famous puppy dog pout-she finally agreed to the night's festivities.

"All right, fine...but you better make sure they don't put any onions in my shrimp fried rice...'cause last time I had it, I had heart burn for three days."

After chuckling slightly at this comment, Pacey finished swallowing the last bit of the sandwich that Joey had given him before cheerfully replying:

"Then it's a date."

After agreeing to meet in front of the school and walk to Pacey's house where they'd choose from his large collection of movies, which Gretchen had finally sent to him a couple of days ago, Joey and Pacey had barely seen one another for the rest of the day until school was over around two-thirty.

"You ready to go?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Joey half joked; knowing full well that even though the walk to Pacey's house from Capeside High wasn't that far, the fact that it was December and the temperature outdoors was close to freezing caused the short walk to be-for lack of a better word-rather painful.

Thankfully that would be the only time they had to walk since they would be using Doug's civilian car to drive the rest of the way from Pacey's house to the B&B.

"So, what are you in the mood for?" Pacey asked as soon as they reached his house-both of them thankful to now be in the comfort of the heated furnace. "Drama, romance, comedy...history?"

While slightly laughing at his last suggestion, Joey threw out Surprise me. And after waiting until Pacey had ventured into his room for the movies, she absentmindedly scanned the contents of the room she was in-having spent a good amount of time this week here with both Pacey and Drue, helping the former decorate the house while his older brother Doug was away at work.

"I figure with him paying all the bills for now, this is the least I can do until I start working in a few weeks," Pacey had commented a couple of days ago after Joey and him had finally finished putting on the last few touches of the Witter home.

"All right, I think I found some really good ones," Pacey called out, breaking Joey away from her thoughts just as he came back into the living-room. "We have 8 mile, Finding Nemo, Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Bruce Almighty.

Due to the fact that Jen had made her sit through 8 mile more times than she could count-since the blond had a thing for bad boys, obviously-Joey refused to watch that movie ever again. So, out of the choices he had in his hand, Joey decided on Bruce Almighty and Finding Nemo. "I did enough thinking at school today. Let's just watch something that I don't have to concentrate that hard on to understand what's really going on in it, okay?"

This caused Pacey to chuckle.

"Hey, that's fine by me," Pacey commented, before throwing the other three movies back into his room and then holding the front door open for Joey to walk out of, "Back and out into the cold, we go."

"Don't remind me!"

After telling a rushed Bryan that they'd see him later on-which had pretty much been a pointless thing to do since he was all ready halfway out the door by the time they got there-Pacey placed a call to the local Chinese food restaurant; asking for a pint of orange chicken with pepper steak sauce on the side for him, and a pint of shrimp fried rice without the onions, for Joey, of course.

"It should be here in about forty-five minute's tops."

"Okay, then we might as well start watching the first movie while we wait," Joey replied back, before asking Pacey if he could hold Angie for a second while she popped Finding Nemo into the DVD player. Afterwards, she made a move to take the giggling baby from Pacey's arms, but the older man-who seemed to have a knack for taking care of babies-said he had it and that she could just sit back and relax-which was usually easier said than done for Joey. But nonetheless, after a couple minutes of shifting her attention back and forth from the movie to watching Pacey play with her niece, Joey found herself becoming somewhat more at ease.

"That funny looking fish right there is called a clown fish...can you say clown fish?"

Without even bothering to cover the small smile that was slowly starting to creep across her face, Joey outwardly remarked: "She's only four months, Pace. I think you've got a long ways to go before she can say anything that isn't ba-ba or da-da, dont'cha think?"

While grinning at this comment, Pacey loudly whispered, so Joey could still hear him: "That's not true, is it, kiddo? You might have your auntie and the rest of them fooled, but I think you already know how to talk. You're just pretending not to know how to so they won't send you to Preschool, aren't you, cutie?"

As if understanding exactly what the older man was talking about, Angie began to loudly giggle and was surprisingly still continuing to do so thirty minutes later when the delivery man rang the door-bell; signaling to the both of them that it was finally time to eat.

"You can just put her in her crib until we finish eating. But she'll probably just tire herself out in there before we're even halfway done."

"Okay," Pacey commented, in disbelief, before putting Angie down in her crib; surprised when, not less than twenty minutes later after he had done so, she was-just as Joey had predicted-fast asleep in her crib, sucking on her thumb.

"Damn, that was fast...I wonder if these things come in my size, too."

While laughing at this comment, Joey half-jokingly replied:

"I don't think so, but, hey, it doesn't hurt to look."

After finishing up the majority of the Chinese food and both movies that Pacey had brought over for them to watch, the two friends decided to call it a night around ten pm; allowing Joey the opportunity to climb into bed a little after ten-thirty pm-the earliest she had gone to sleep since Angie had first came home from the hospital four months ago.

Unfortunately, it seemed that just as soon as her eyes had fully closed, they were being pried open again by a bright light and Bryan's voice beside her telling Joey that the phone was for her. "It's Jen and she sounds like she's been crying."

Wide awake now, Joey quickly sat up on her bed and grabbed the cordless device from her brother's hands; waiting until he had walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him, before she answered the phone. "Hello? Jen, are you okay?"

"I'm late."

Not fully understanding what the other woman meant by this comment caused Joey to look at the clock beside her bed-seeing that, not only was it seven a.m., but it was also seven a.m. on a Saturday morning. This caused her to say: "Jen, go back to sleep. It's Saturday...we don't have school today."

With that being said, Joey made a move to hang up the phone and go back to sleep, but before she could do so, Jen's next words caused her to stop in her movements and freeze.

"No, you don't understand Joey...I'm late...I think I might be pregnant."