That night.

Joey and Pacey were at the Witter Manor, now belonging to Doug and Jack. They had moved in after Pacey's parents had passed away. It felt weird sleeping in Pacey's childhood bed, in no small part because it barely fit the both of them. She couldn't wait to get back to their TriBeCa apartment. Pacey looked over at her, and it was clear he was bothered.

"So, what's this thing going to net you?"

"I don't know, Pace, I've never done this before, and first he has to find financing. Right now, it's just a small fee for the option."

"What do you call small?"

She saw it coming before the words left her mouth, the inevitable drama of being back in Capeside. She never should have said small.

"I don't know, probably fifty."

"FIFTY THOUSAND?!"

"Yeah, that's pretty standard for a bestseller."

"And if the movie does the same kind of numbers as Sea Creature? What then? Just another million for you?"

"Maybe. Why are we fighting about this? It's our money. This is good for both, all three, of us."

"Dawson?"

"No, our child!"

"Right."

Joey knew the fight wasn't over, but she also knew she'd just have to wait for him to start it up again.

"It's just…"

"What, Pace?"

"Do you have any idea how small this makes me feel? Like I'm not good enough for you."

"That's ridiculous."

"Right, my feelings are ridiculous."

She had made it worse.

"That's not how I meant it."

"But it's what you thought."

She couldn't deny it.

"You have your own restaurant. You got two stars from The New York Times! Half the chefs in the city would kill to get one star from Pete Wells. He gave you two!"

"And yet my wife makes ten times as much money as I do."

"So what! You were prepared to work at a gas station in Boston when I went to Worthington just so you could be near me. Whatever happened to that mindset?"

"I was young and naïve. I let you go because I was holding you back. And I'm feeling that way all over again."

She could feel the tears starting to well up.

"Don't say that, Pace. Please don't say that. You're doing what you love, and so I am. Who cares if more people buy my books than eat your food!"

"It's not even just that you make more money, it's that it all leads back to Dawson. It always does."

There it was. The real fight.

"I can't believe you just said that." She kept her voice entirely flat.

"It's true! Dawson paid for your college tuition-"

"-and I paid him back! Every penny!"

"Dawson cut you in on his Spielberg movie. And that's why you got your first book deal, too. Your second book was all about him. And now, this, he's giving you a million dollars for a stupid fairy tale."

"Wow." She couldn't believe he was saying this. She knew he was hurt and jealous acting out, but he had just crossed a line. She didn't want to continue this fight anymore. They both got out of bed at the same time. "Where are you going?"

"I'm sleeping on the couch."

"Don't bother," she said, "I'll go."

"No, I started this fight, I'll sleep on the couch."

"I don't care where you sleep, I'm going."

"Where?"

"I don't know."

Joey really had no idea where she was heading when she got in her rowboat. She just rowed. Before she knew it, she found herself at Dawson's pier. Some instinctual force had taken her there, her North Star. She looked over at his childhood bedroom and lamented that the ladder wasn't up anymore. She looked at Grams' old house, a single light on in the master bedroom. She hesitated before walking to his childhood home instead and knocked softly on the door.

"Oh, Joey!" Gale said as she opened the door. "I was wondering who it could be at this hour. Everything okay?"

She just shook her head and started crying. Gale hurried to embrace her and rub her back.

"Pacey and I got into a fight," she finally managed.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, but that happens. Couples fight."

"I know, but this was different. It was really bad." She stopped crying and composed herself.

"I'm sure you'll work through it. Believe me, Mitch and I got into plenty of bad ones. Uh, Dawson and Gretchen are over at Evelyn's old house."

"I know, I saw the light on. I just wanted to be-"

"-someplace that felt like home?"

She nodded and started crying again. Bessie had her hands full with the overload at the B&B, and this house felt more like home than the B&B ever did.

"Oh, sweetie. Can I get you something? Coffee? Wine? Oh, sorry, never mind. I could make some hot chocolate."

"It's okay. Besides, I don't think alcohol could help with this one, anyway." She just wanted to sleep in Dawson's old bed, hoping that it might still have some of that restorative magic it had when they were kids. "Is Lilly still up?"

"I'm not sure. We can go check. She went to bed about an hour ago, but she usually takes a while to get to sleep."

They walked upstairs. It looked like there was a dim light on in the room. Gale knocked lightly on the door.

"Come in."

Gale opened the door.

"Aunt Joey!" Lilly bolted up. Joey walked in, and Gale closed the door.

"Hi, sweetie," Joey said, wiping her eyes. "Can't sleep?"

"Nope."

"Me neither. Can I read you a story?"

Lilly's eyes widened at the offer, and Joey went to retrieve the worn copy of The Princess Who Didn't Know What to Wish For.

"Not that one. This one." She handed Joey the new copy of Ordinary Things in Extraordinary Ways.

"All right." Joey realized that this would probably make her feel better than reading the fairy tale, anyway. She found the passage she knew she wanted to read and got in the bed next to Lilly.

"Chapter 27, Holding Back. Friends, I have told you so many times not to hold things back. Don't hold back the truth, don't hold back your feelings, and don't let other people hold you back. When Dawson offered to pay for my college tuition, the only thing I could think about was how I held back from him the fact that Pacey and I had…"

"Sex. You can say it around me. I know where babies come from," Lilly sighed.

"Of course you do. This isn't the part I want to read, though."

She skipped ahead to find it.

"Pacey asked me to promise him that I would let him go if I ever thought he was holding me back. I refused to promise him that. Friends, never let anyone make your decisions for you, and never try to make other people's decisions for them. Never let anyone tell you they're not good enough for you. The only person who gets to decide what's good, or good enough, for you is you. No. One. Else.

"When people say, 'It's not you, it's me,' it may or not be true, but it's always an excuse. It means they're afraid or unhappy in the relationship. Even if it really is them, it's not their decision to make. Anyone who tells you that they're doing something because they don't want to hurt you is probably just afraid of getting hurt themselves."

She put the book down and looked at Lilly, who was staring at her with enraptured interest.

"I'm sorry, Lilly."

"What's wrong, Aunt Joey?"

"Pacey and I got into a fight." She started crying again. "The same fight we've been having for ten years."

Lilly started crying, too. She hated seeing her aunt like this, and she felt so helpless.

"Is it going to be okay?"

"I don't know, Lil. I really hope so."

"I hope so, too."

"Thanks. Don't ever let anyone tell you you're not good enough for them, but, more importantly, don't let them tell you they're not good enough for you, either. Okay? Promise?"

"I promise."

Joey stopped crying, and Lilly handed her a tissue then took one to dry her own eyes.

"Thanks," she said, drying her eyes with the tissue. "God, do you know how many times I've slept in this bed?"

"How many?"

"I don't even know. Hundreds, maybe close to a thousand. It's been so long since the last time, though."

"How long?"

"Uh, four years, I guess, when your parents got married. Before that, it had been ten years."

"Do you want to sleep here tonight?" Lilly asked hopefully.

"If you don't mind."

"Of course I don't!"

As Joey turned off the light, she thought back on the many times that she had slept in this bed. One particular summer night when she was Lilly's age came to mind.

You never told me where you were this afternoon, Joey had finally worked up the courage to ask. She had waited two hours in his bedroom for Dawson to show up that afternoon, only leaving when she had to go back home for dinner.

Oh, sorry, I thought I told you, he had responded casually, I was at Pacey's. Gretchen and I got to talking in her room after he left.

It was the exact answer she had been afraid of hearing.

Wasn't that a little weird?

Not really, it's just, I feel like I can talk to her about anything, and I think she feels the same way about me.

It had taken all of Joey's willpower to not lose control at that moment.

What about us, Dawson? I thought we could talk about anything, isn't that our whole thing?

Wait, you're not jealous, are you? Oh my God, you are. You're jealous!

Of course she had been. It had been hard enough for her when Pacey took her time with Dawson away from her, and it had been exponentially worse for another girl to have done it.

I don't know. I guess a little.

He had rolled over to face her.

Don't worry. You're still my best friend. You always will be.

That had been what she was afraid of. She had flashed the corner of her lip into a smile that had disappeared as soon as it had formed.

Right, she had said in an emotionless tone, best friends.

God, Joey, Dawson had said with the mischievous grin that had stolen her heart since the moment they first met, when I grow up, I'm going to marry a woman just like Gretchen Witter.

She had turned away from him to hide her tears from him that night, and she could feel all the tears coming back right then, for so many reasons. She turned away from Lilly to hide them from her. Being in Dawson's old bed, inches away from his sister, provided some small measure of the palliative effect that sleeping next to Dawson himself once did. Even crying, she found peace as she fell asleep.

The next morning

Gretchen had been awake for about fifteen minutes before Dawson woke up. She was lost in thought. She wasn't sure what she had done to deserve this perfect life. All because she had shown kindness when she was 13 to an 11-year-old boy with a crush? She didn't even do it out of charity or pity. Dawson had been a genuine friend to her. She loved him then as she did now. What they had was real. It was real when she was 13. It was real when she was 19. And it was very real now. Her thoughts flashed back to the end of the summer before she started high school.

Dawson had shifted uncomfortably after Pacey had left the Witter Manor.

I guess I should get going, I'm supposed to meet up with Joey soon, he had said in a way that made it seem like he was bored with the idea.

You don't have to go, stay for a bit, she had offered. She had really wanted to tell someone how nervous she was about starting high school the following week, and she hadn't felt comfortable talking to her siblings about it.

Okay, just for a bit, he had answered casually.

Let's go up to my room.

Dawson's eyes had widened when she suggested it, but he had quickly tried to play it cool. She knew that he had been leaving her chocolates and flowers anonymously, gifts that had made her feel special, but what had made her feel even more special was when they talked. He had had a way of making her feel like everything she said was important.

Sure, whatever you want, Gretch.

They had gone up to her room and sat next to each other on the edge of her bed.

I'm scared, Dawson, she had said, not caring how vulnerable she had let herself be around her friend. They had had a strong bond independent of Pacey. I'm starting high school next week, and I'm scared. All my siblings are telling me how exciting it's going to be, how fun it will be to make new friends, but I'm not feeling it.

Dawson hadn't responded right away. He had been lost in thought, trying to find the right words, not just some empty platitudes. She had been glad to wait for him to say something that really mattered instead.

I'm sure that everyone has a different high school experience, Gretch, and I bet no one has the exact experience they're expecting to have, he had finally said. Maybe your siblings were scared, too, maybe they weren't, and just because it was fun for them to make new friends and meet new people, doesn't mean it has to be the same for you. Is there anything about high school you are excited about?

She had thought for a minute before responding.

I'm sure the classes will be interesting. New subjects, more advanced discussions of the old subjects.

What's your favorite subject?

Probably English. I love analyzing characters and themes. I bet we'll read some really deep books in high school.

She had started to feel relieved. They had wound up talking for two hours, about everything and anything, until dinner time.

Dinner's ready! her mother had shouted, her call reverberating throughout the entire house.

Oh, I bet my mom is waiting for me, too.

Thanks for talking to me, Dawson. It really helped. She had meant it. The idea of starting high school had started to seem a lot less scary after talking to Dawson.

They had headed to her door.

Bye, Gretch, he had said, it's going to be okay, I promise.

She had kissed him on the cheek, and his eyes had widened as he recoiled from the touch in shock.

Bye, Dawson, she had said softly before he had smiled at her and walked out.

"Morning," Dawson said slowly, as he lovingly looked up at Gretchen, who leaned over to kiss him. "Oh, good morning indeed."

"No, easy there," she said playfully. "I was just thinking about an 11-year-old boy."

"Okay, mood killed."

"I meant you!"

"Ohhh," he played as if hadn't understood her original meaning.

"What do you want to do today?"

"Take my rowboat out on the creek and spend the afternoon making out?"

She seemed pleased with the idea, his passion never having wavered in their two years of dating.

"And the rest of the day?"

"I need to call Todd at some point. I'm actually not sure if he's in London or LA right now, so it's a little challenging to plan the call."

"Oh, you're going to have him shoot Joey's movie?"

"Yeah, I also wanted to get his advice on adapting it and pitching it to the studios."

"Ah. We should go to the cemetery, too, at some point, while we're in town."

"Yeah…"

"What do you want for breakfast?"

"Let's go next door. See if my mom will make us pancakes."

"My pancakes aren't good enough for you?" she teased. She knew full well that Gale was a far better cook than she was.

"Everything about you is good enough, too good, for me."

She smiled at him, and they got changed before heading over to Gale's. As soon as they walked in, they smelled…

"Pancakes!" Dawson shouted cheerfully from the foyer.

Oh, hi, sweetie, Gale called from the kitchen. Joey's here, so I just figured, for old time's sake.

Dawson and Gretchen looked at each other. Joey walked out a moment later. She looked completely disheveled. Her eyes were bloodshot, as if she had spent the whole night crying, which, of course, she had. She just walked over to Dawson and hugged him wordlessly. He patted her back, as Gretchen looked on with concern. Not jealousy, but genuine concern for her sister-in-law.

"Let's just eat breakfast," Joey said after a bit, breaking the embrace.

Dawson and Gretchen followed her, and they all sat down. Dawson's stepfather had already left for work, and Lilly had gone to school. Dawson struggled to make sense of the situation. Gale made sure everyone had food and coffee before sitting down herself.

"Sometimes I wish I didn't leave Neverland," Joey finally managed.

"All right, Wendy, what's wrong? I'm guessing you're not here because you wanted my mother's pancakes."

"I don't even know why, but I came here. I guess I was hoping your old bedroom still had some of that fairy dust left."

"So what exactly happened?"

"Pacey and I got into a fight."

"What else is new? You've been fighting for over 20 years."

"No, this was different. He said everything, all my success, was because of you."

"Well, thank you." Dawson was taken aback as his fiancée and mother shot daggers at him. "What? Isn't that a compliment?"

"No, not like that. He meant that the only reason I've had these successes was because you set them up for me, because you included me on your projects."

"I see."

"You see?!"

"Yeah. I'm not sure what I'm missing here. Isn't this what we do for each other? We lift each other up, try to include each other in each other's opportunities, be there for each other when no one else is?"

Gretchen was looking on silently with pursed lips.

"I'm not explaining it right, Dawson."

"I think you are, and that's the problem."

"Let me just try it again. See, you paid for my tuition, and that's how I got into Worthington. My Masters from Worthington got me my job at Donovan Publishing. Then, you asked me to help you write Peter and Wendy, and the Oscar nomination was why Mr. Donovan asked me to write my first book. My first book led to my second book, which was mostly about us, and now you're going to get me a huge movie deal for my first book."

"My turn. I dropped out of film school because I wanted to give things another shot with you. That's what led to me going to the film festival in New Hampshire, where I met Oliver. Since I was already in Boston, I was able to go to film school with him in Boston. My first movie with Oliver, which you saved by smoothing things over between Pacey and Audrey, led to me getting noticed and working with Todd again. Our fight after we slept together made Natasha change her mind about me getting fired. When I remade Creek Days on ten dollars and a dream, you singlehandedly produced it, even after I had given up the dream. That led to the show The Creek, both of which were about, oh, that's right, our relationship, and you're the one who coined the phrase that it's best known for!"

"You and me always," Joey said softly.

"Always," Dawson repeated, not caring that his fiancée was sitting next to him. If he had looked at her, he would have seen her looking at him with pride. Dawson might have been the only person in the world to have a winning record when it came to arguing with Joey Potter, and Gretchen knew full well how much of a dolt her brother could be.

"Okay, fine, I see your point."

"I'm not finished. Peter and Wendy was only nominated for an Oscar because of your contributions. I made it good, but you made it great. Joey, sure, I provided you opportunities, but it's your talent that seized on those opportunities. Don't let anyone take that away from you. Not me, not Pacey, no one."

"Ugh, why are you always right. Oh, Dawson, what am I going to do?"

"You're not going to do anything. I am."

Joey was about to protest, but then she gave up on it. She wasn't ready to face Pacey yet, and she was grateful for Dawson to try and smooth things over first.

"Okay," Joey said finally finding interest in her breakfast. "Let's talk about something else, anything else."

"So, if Joey is Wendy in your fairy tale," Gretchen started, "does that make me Tinker Bell?"

"Doesn't Tinker Bell die after Wendy leaves neverland?" Gale asked.

"Mom," the word came slowly off Gretchen's tongue, "fairies don't die. They just turn into fairy dust until someone…brings them back to life." She looked at Dawson poignantly with the last words.

"I love you, Tink."

"I love you, too."

Joey sipped her coffee a little louder than necessary, and Dawson looked over at her.

"Uh oh," Dawson said to Gretchen, "Joey has her deep thought face on."

"Do I have a deep thought face, too?" Gretchen asked.

"I'm pretty sure that's just your normal face."

Gretchen was pleased with his answer.

"Are any of you familiar with the Apollonian and Dionysian duality?" Joey asked.

"What? Like the Greek Gods? Apollo and Dionysus?" Gretchen offered.

"Yeah, there's this literary concept, it's not quite like the tragedy/comedy duality, but it's similar. Nietzsche used it to analyze Greek tragedies, but it really caught on. See, you have Apollo, who's supposed to be this reasonable, logical, purist, and then you have Dionysus, who, well, he's the God of wine, and he represents chaos and passion."

"So, you have to categorize stories, characters as either Apollonian or Dionysian?" Dawson asked.

"No, that's the whole thing. Most people see them as polar opposite concepts, but they're not. They can co-exist. In fact, that's where true greatness comes, when they do co-exist.

"Like how there's always a bit of the yin in the yang?"

"Exactly."

"I think I know where Joey's going with this," Gretchen said. "It's what your Aunt Gwen got wrong, about always choosing the person who makes you feel alive."

"Right. Her first husband was her Apollo, and Richard was her Dionysus, but she never found that duality," Joey explained.

"I'm not even sure she ever wanted that duality," Dawson said. "She's the embodiment of, what do you call it, Dionysian spirit."

"I guess that makes me the Apollonian," Gale said drily.

"See, Dawson, you were my Apollo, and Eddie was my Dionysus, but it was only with Pacey that I could ever find that true duality. Now, what you and Gretchen have, that's the same thing. You guys have that Apollonian/Dionysian duality. Don't ever lose that."

Dawson and Gretchen smiled at each other, and everyone turned to their now-cold breakfast with a modicum of interest.