Ugh, so sorry it took so long. The holidays kicked my ass this year. As usual, I do know own the characters, I am simply borrowing them. Also, reviews are love :) Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read!

"Did you know the moment you saw her again?" Audrey asked from behind him. He had been transfixed by the sight before him, standing at the back door longer than he should have, his heart had skipped too many beats and lungs forgot too many breathes to go out immediately. His dog snuggled up in the lap of the only girl who had ever held his heart, he could practically taste his future. But that was the thing about Pacey Witter. He was not a dreamer. Nor was he a romantic. As it was, he kept most people an arm's length away, very few near his heart. It was too fragile and mishandled from the past, and while he could wear it on his sleeve to the ones he knew well and loved, for the most part, it was exceptionally well protected from would-be infiltrators. Audrey tried. She tried harder than anyone else to penetrate those defenses, but she knew it was a losing battle, even from day one. "Pacey?" she questioned louder. Broken from his reverie, he turned to look at her.

"Sorry Aud, I was just kinda…lost for a minute there. What can I do you for?" He turned to face her, wanting nothing more than to turn back and stare out the window a few moments more.

"I asked if you knew the moment you saw her, but then I realized you didn't even know who she was when you first saw her again. I mean, how could I think everything would change for you that rapidly. I've known you for years now, I've seen how you deal with relationships."

"What relationships? I don't seem to recall being in any…"

"My point exactly. I tried for how long to get us past casual? And what, Joey comes back and bam, you're suddenly interested in dating? I don't think so." She was merely inches away from him at this point, her body trying to convey exactly what she wanted from Pacey as she arched herself nearer to his slowly retreating form. He hit the glass of the back door with a light thud causing Joey to turn and look. What she saw was Audrey advancing on Pacey and what looked like, his arms around her. Trying to remove Rosie, quietly, without rousing her was a difficult task though she managed to do it without drawing attention. As she drew nearer the door she could see better, and hear what was being said. Pacey's arms that looked like they had been wrapped around Audrey were merely distancing her from him. His hands laid squarely on her shoulders having stopped her unprovoked advance on him.

"Listen, Liddell, we had some fun. And I won't deny that I care about you, I do, and it didn't take Joey coming back to make me realize that it was just as a friend. We used each other long enough, it'd been over for longer than we let it go on. And for that I am sorry. Truly." Audrey's cold stare didn't waver from Pacey's as he went on. "And you're right, I didn't know it was Joey when we ran into each other, but I swear to you right then and there I knew it was something different." At Audrey's scoff, coupled with Pacey's wild gesticulation, Joey made her presence known.

"Knew that what was different?" The sun filtered through the purples and blues in Joey's hair, her skin was flush from the sun and all Pacey could do was reach out and pull her to him in a crushing kiss. Realizing, quite a while later that Audrey had stomped off, he released her.

"You. Us. This. Everything's different now, Jo." He whispered feeling her mouth turn upward against his cheek.

"Can we get out of here, Pace? I kinda want whatever happens next to be just between us…" Not knowing exactly what she meant by that, he nodded, letting his lips fall to hers again.

"I have the perfect place Potter. Go grab Rosie and we'll head out."

"My car is here. I'll just follow you."

"I could always bring you back to get your car."

"I know. But I heard enough of what Audrey said that if I see her again tonight, it might just get ugly." She stated matter of factly.

"Possessive much?" He teased. Secretly he loved that she was being so territorial. Maybe she did want this as bad as he did. Maybe if they just laid it all on the line, said everything that needed to be up front, they could take two steps into the future without being sucked back into the muck of the past.

"And where are we exactly?"

"They didn't have yacht clubs near the ocean, Potter?" Her eyes narrowed on him as he took Rosie's leash from her hand and replaced it with his own.

"Of course, we did Witter, they just had real yachts."

"Cheeky girl." He admonished, leading her down through the docks until they reached a section of slips set slightly apart from the rest. Rosie apparently knew exactly where they were heading as she began to pull on her lead, making both Joey and Pacey chuckle.

"She seems to know the answer to the mystery location, care to share with the class?"

"Have you no faith in me Josephine?" He said slowing, as the pier was reaching its end. She glared playfully at him but happened to catch the name on the boat behind him. As the realization dawned on her, Pacey smiled.

"This is your boat, isn't it?"

"THESE!" He said emphatically, raising his hands, and motioning all around them. "These are my boats! Or well, these are mine and Drew's boats. He and I did some charters in college and knew how lucrative it could be, so when I moved home after school, he followed, and we've been in business ever since."

"But this one…" she said pointing to the smallest ship in the fleet. A shy smile graced his face and Joey saw the boy she had known for so long. She rarely second-guessed her feelings and when she did, she tended to trust her renewed interests rather than her original instinct. Pacey made her second guess every single decision she had made in her life since she was seventeen, without even intending to. She was terrified that he might just realize how badly she fucked everything up. In fact, a very large part of her was certain he had come to Jen's to tell her just that and be done with her. But in that moment, the breeze from the lake bristling through his unkempt curls, his eyes shining bright and smile so full of tenderness, she felt her heart melt. Literally for the first time as an adult she knew she could give her heart to someone and know that, while it may get bruised along the way, it would always be safe. She also knew she would be willing to hold his heart with the same affection.

"Yeah, this one is all mine." Pacey's heart was pounding in his chest. Sure he was literally referring to his boat, but standing hand in hand with Joey on the dock, in front of "True Love" something clicked. He was hardly the type who believed in fate or soul mates, but he knew that in that instant, he had declared more than just ownership of his boat. He swallowed hard noticing Joey anxiously worrying her bottom lip. He stepped forward and placed his lips on hers, softly, wanting to reassure her, before he realized it her hand snaked into his hair, pulling him tight to her. She deepened the kiss, savoring the feel of his tongue, his hands, his body pressed against hers, she had no intention of ever letting go. He wasn't sure how long they stood there completely wrapped up in one another, he only knew they broke apart for the mutual need of oxygen and because Rosie had become terribly impatient and was vocalizing her displeasure.

"So," Joey said taking a step back trying to regain her composure. "This is it then, the infamous boat?"

"Excuse me?!" Pacey's voice alight with mock indignation. "I know you didn't call this beautiful lady here an 'it'. I mean, please tell me I heard incorrectly!" Joey rolled her eyes, but couldn't help the smile.

"You seafarers, all the same! It's impossible to discern whether your proclivity for romance has anything to with females, or simply the objects to which you refer with feminine pronouns."

"As you may have overheard in the exchange with Audrey, romance is hardly my forte. Relationships, in general, I have managed to avoid for years now, not necessarily happily but out of necessity, I suppose. And here we are now, literally standing in front of 'True Love' and I can't help but wonder if it's standing in front of me for a change." He reached for her and walked her to the boat, first putting Rosie on the deck and reaching to help her aboard.

"So why 'True Love'?" she asked quietly. She saw his lips purse and quickly amended. "I mean if you don't want to tell me…"

"No," he said shaking his head. He looked at the beautiful woman next to him and knew if wanted a chance of a future with her, he'd have to shed his past. He motioned toward the cabin, grabbed them a beer from the galley and sat down on the bed, Rosie at their feet, Joey by his side. Sighing, he began, finding the courage and perhaps a bit of something else in the depths of her eyes.

Joey listened intently as he told her the intricacies of how he ended up in Philly. Though, in his life, Pacey was used to disappointment and dejection, but heartbreak and abandonment were not in his personal coping catalog. He told her about trying to take solace in Andie, allowing their relationship a chance but how it only ended in humiliation. How it was that moment that forced him to lock his heart away, that was the final break he could handle. He surmised that anymore mishandling at that time would be irreversible, and he wanted to love again at some point in his life. Joey bit the inside of her cheek, trying to hold down the bile and tears that threatened. He spoke pointedly about the alcohol, cocaine, and various other dabblings, he spiraled so far, so fast he didn't even recognize he had needed the help. He conceded to his parents, he had needed a change and while they were hoping to get him to a specialized center, they allowed him the chance to try a school near where Mary's brother Andrew lived. That's when he had met Drue. That's when he realized that music was the best therapy. He could play anything he was feeling, it was tangible, literal, real. He didn't have to repress how much he hurt, he could play it. He animatedly told her how it felt to get in front of a crowd and have them legitimize everything you were trying to express, his eyes twinkled and the nausea Joey had been feeling since he started finally started to abate. He would not be who he is without these experiences, and she wouldn't either. And while Joey dabbled with singing, she could more relate to being the one in the crowd, feeling every note played in her soul, music had become her therapy too, but in a different way.

She felt a shift in herself as he continued talking about his past. The sailing charters, the college years, moving home, all had led them back to each other. Surely it would have hurt less to come back into one another's lives sooner, but would he have been as forgiving? She shook off thoughts of a past that wasn't and forced herself to open up to the possibility of a future. The man Pacey had become still held the warmth and love of the boy she loved, but he had a confidence and presence that completely enraptured her. Listening to him talk was something she was becoming not only used to but dependent on. There was something in the way he spoke that seemed to command the attention of all that were in the room. His eyes were as animated as his hands, enthralling his audience, he unintentionally drew you in deeper with every word. It hadn't taken Joey long to realize that, while his bar was a great place, it was only that way because of one thing. Him. And here he was pouring out his heart, spending every spare minute in her company and she couldn't help but feel just a little unworthy.

"Halfway through freshman year our band had hit one of those 'creative differences' impasses, so we called it quits. That summer Drue and I started working down the shore," he chuckled at himself for the use of the imprinted colloquialism that he refused to use while he actually lived in Philly. "That's when I saw her. This absolute hot mess of a sailboat. So, beat up, battered and hopeless, I bought her. I went with 'True Love' because everything about the experience was that. It was completely selfless and selfish in the same breath, and I don't know, I kind of feel like that's what true love is. Anyway, she gave me a new outlet, anytime my melancholy rose and couldn't be quelled by a night out and a warm body, I went to work on her." He couldn't believe he had said that. It was true, he had tried to use many a warm body to fill the gaping Joey Potter-sized hole in his heart, but no one ever compared. That he wouldn't say out loud. Not yet. His brain was rapid firing things he should be saying to try and cover his slip up, but no words were coming out. Noticing the paranoid expression on his face, her lips quirked into a bemused half-smile.

"Wow, warm bodies huh? Pacey Witter, friend to women indeed." She playfully smacked his shoulder. She noticed his eyes haze over with the unmistakable film of guilt and her heart broke a little more. "Pacey," she said quietly taking his face in her hands. "You have no reason to feel bad about that. Your past makes you. All of it. I won't sit here and let you think you did something wrong when it was me who messed up at every turn. And don't think for one second that I didn't try to seek solace in someone else's arms. Not all of those experiences are bad. It just always seemed to dawn on me that none of those arms I woke up in were yours, and it made them less important. I always knew you'd ruined me for anyone else, I was just so scared. I am so sorry for hurting you, but I am so happy I get to know the man you've become because I have a feeling that boy and girl we were could have destroyed us before we actually knew what it meant to be happy. We wouldn't have this now, and I wouldn't trade it."

Pacey sat pensively, taking her words in, letting their meaning hit his bones and closed the distance between by searing her mouth with a scorching kiss. His hands tangled in her hair keeping her tight to him, her arms snaked around his neck while returning the kiss with fervor. He tried to put everything he was feeling into that kiss, knowing fully it would never do them justice. His heart was pounding, his skin was tingling, even the air around them seemed charged. They lay back on the bed, careful not break contact, their tongues dueling for dominance, hands discovering one another after too many years apart. Neither was sure how long they'd been kissing, they only stopped when Rosie's whining became incessant. They had managed to stay fully clothed, somehow, because all Joey could think about was how much Pacey would just rip off her clothes and have his way with her, it was just this morning that they agreed to take it slow. Fuck that, she thought, she could hold out another week, max. She sat up, hair mussed, swollen lips and breathtaking, Pacey knew right then and there that no matter what had happened, or what might still, that he was not letting this girl go without a fight.

"I suppose someone is hungry or needs to go o-u-t." He mused watching the little dog wiggle as attention was finally being paid to her.

"She's going to be a brute isn't she?" Joey cooed as she picked Rosie up and sat her on her lap.

"I hope so. As long as she doesn't think she's a lapdog when she's fully grown." He chuckled, Joey full out laughed.

"Are you serious? This giant baby is always going to be a lapdog. Being seventy pounds isn't going to change that! Would you seriously try to deny this face if she curled up on your lap?" He melted at their matching pouts.

"Fine, you know I can't refuse those puppy dog eyes. Even though yours…" he was cut off by a sweet kiss from Joey and a sloppy smooch from Rosie. "Alright, I guess it's time to get this gal back to Jens." She sighed sadly, their night was over, but it held such promise she couldn't actually be upset.

"I start work next week," she said quietly as they neared their cars.

"I know, which is why tomorrow morning I'm coming over and making you and Nita breakfast, and we can do whatever needs to be done to the property. Thursday I'll be at the bar but I should be done around 6, we can do dinner after?" She nodded, loving that he had been thinking about this too. "Friday…"

"Friday night Jen and I are coming to the bar, I figured you'd be working and she said the band that was playing was pretty good." She smiled shyly as his grin reached his eyes.

"Stay with me Friday night?"

"You don't even have to ask Pace."