Sunrise, Wednesday

Dawson couldn't remember the last time he'd gotten up just to watch the sunrise. In the last six years he'd watched a number of rises and sets thru a camera lens, but rarely did he watch for the pleasure of the event anymore. The creek ran flame with the reflected newborn light. He looked at his neighbor's house remembering the years he'd spent pining away for Jen or Joey—almost always one or the other. He pulled on a light jacket and headed for the pier. He stood there alone as he had so many times before and let the feeling of home, comfort, and warmth wash over him. Capeside, particularly this part of Capeside was so much a part of him. Every script he wrote, every picture he shot had something to do with this place. He sighed remembering, as he often did the things his father had told him. "Some people, Dawson they say that you can never go home again. For people like us, for people who love their homes, I wonder if we ever really leave—no matter where we are." He watched as the bright ball that inspired his early rising settled just barely over the trees ahead of him. He turned to see Joey sitting on the front steps of the Potter B&B.

Curious about what urged her out of bed at this hour, Dawson crossed to her, and within minutes understood.

"No, really Janey, it's not your fault he's being tempermental." She sighed and shoved her hair behind her ear. Pulling her hand down from her face she glanced at her watch. "No I'm not far from Boston, I can be there in a couple hours." She listened again, and picked up the legal pad sitting next to her to scribble some information out. "When'd he move?" She listened again with a raised brow. "Really?" Pause. "No, I hadn't noticed the return address. I send all the manuscripts through shipping." She rolled her eyes at what the other woman was saying. "All right Janey, I promise I won't show up at a client's house in sweats." She looked down at her ragged gray sweats forlornly. "Yeah, I'll get out there ASAP. All right...yeah, bye, Janey."

She looked up at Dawson and smiled. "Wanna go to Boston?" She raised her brows with the question.

"Sure." Dawson shrugged. "Let me grab a couple things?"

"Meet me back here in ten?"

"I'll be here."

Fifteen minutes later, Joey was in a pair of camel pants, a brow blouse and a trendy turquoise belt. Dawson looked at her and shook his head. "Should I have changed?"

"Nah. I've got to drop in on a client who's not happy with some of my editor's notes."

"And?"

"Well, my assisstant let it slip that I was on vacation in Capeside..."

"He demanded a personal visit."

"Yeah, and I guess that's not really fair...I promised him last year I'd fly to the states for a meeting, but things got crazy and I couldn't make it."

"Well, Joey Potter tell me what's new in your life."

"Nothing, it's just the same old me from yesterday that you see today."

"No way. I knew you back then. You've definitely changed."

"Not really, I've grown up somehow; I mean I guess I just decided at some point to put wawy the childish things in my life." She shrugged. "That was easier to do in London."

"I'll bet."

He cocked her head to one side. "That's not to say that I don't occassionally indulge in taking out the past and wallowing in it."

"Really?"

"Yeah." She thought of the three books she'd published under another name. "I like to let the tortured girl I once was come out and play sometimes. So what's up in your life?"

"Well, you know about the movies, but I have a TV deal in the works now."

"Do tell." Joey said as they fell into the old, friendly rhythm again. Later they were driving in Boston, Joey turned a cautious eye to Dawson. "Listen, the company, it was great and I'll probably need it badly on the drive back, but--"

"I can't go to meet your client."

"No, he'd probably welcome you," she lied. "It's just not as easy to get him to focus with other people around."

Dawson nodded. "I heard Andie works in Boston now, maybe I can drop in on her."

"Yeah, I think Jack said she worked at an architecture firm—Boland, Bailey and something?" She dug out her cell. "Jack's number in New York is in there call him."

She pulled to a stop out side a large library and waited for Dawson to finish talking to Jack. He handed the phone back. "He said she is in the office all day today and that he'd see me Saturday. I didn't want to mention it, but I though Jen had not invited him."

Joey shrugged quickly and stepped out of the car. "I didn't have a date and he wa on my flight to JFK."

"Joey." Dawson's tone warned.

"Dawson." She flung back at him, but with a smile. "This shouldn't take but an hour. Do you have your cell?"

"Yeah, just call when you're done."

Dawson walked down the block and after Hoey watched him round the corner she walked two blocks from her car and pushed the buzzer next to the scrawled signature reading "O. Wild." Caught somewhere between exasperation and amusement she chuckled.

"Yes?" The somewhat tinny voice asked through the speaker.

"Am I still your favorite Obsessive fresheman?"

She heard the door click open and she pushed it in heading up the stairs to 2C.

He opened the door before she could knock with a glowing smile. "Potter."

"Professor." She nodded desparately trying to keep a straight face.

"Ugh, Joey. David please, I assume you're nolonger a student?"

"You assume correctly." She walked past him into the brownstone, small than his house had been, but comfortable, cozy, and cluttered. "It's good to see you again, and I have to say that is not something I can say about all my professors. Particularly the British ones."

"Obviously I know about the internship at Random House across the pond. Clearly that went well."

Joey smiled. "Yeah, it did. I was just kind of in the right place at the right time and caught on quickly, dealt pretty well with some of the authors she roleld her eyes at him and before I knew it I had decided to stay there. Within a year I had my degree and Random House offered me a good job." She shrugged. "It seemed like a dream come true."

"Then?" He prompted and shook his head when she didn't respond. "You know that's a bad habit it seems you've held onto."

"What?"

"You stop telling the story just when it gets interesting."

She shook her head and dug a manuscript out of her briefcase. "I don't have too long. Let's get started."

He shook his head, but decided not to push and the two settled across the coffee table to look over her notes on his newest book.



Across town, Dawson sat in a plush waiting room. He looked around at the quiet colors of the impressionistic art hung on the walls and thought they suited Andie well. Her assistant, a plump, friendly older woman, had checked to be sure Andie didn't have lunch plans when he'd asked. He thought he spied a sparkle of match making in the older woman's eyes. He chuckled briefly to himself when the door openned and one of Andie's collegues stepped out. One plump finger reached out with surprising grace and pressed a button. "Yes?" Andie's vocie sounded distracted and a little flustered.

"Your eleven thirty is here, Ms. McPhee."

Dawson heard a sigh. Then the door opened suddenly and he caught his breath. "I don't have an eleven thrity, Marie." Despite the lines of confusion creasing her brow, Andie was striking. She hadn't changed much, but her chatty, fidgety girlishness was gone, replaced with a presence that had Dawson wondering if it wa in fact the Andie he'd known.

Marie nodded at Dawson and Andie looked at him blankly for a solid fifteen second before it hit her. "Dawson?" She blinked. "Dawson Leery?" She flung her arms out and walked across the room to hug him fiercely. "Marie, I'm going to lunch." Dawson turned to see the shocked look on the older woman's face and realized the Andie must not be so open with everyone, which was definitely a change for her.

Andie walked dawson out of the building and turned to him, taking his elbow, "Tell me everything. I'm so far out of the loop, but I'll assume you came in for Jen's wedding?"

"Yep, I did." He nodded. "You going? I got and invitation, but Jack won't be there, and I don't have a date so it just didn't feel right...you know, I've been gone so long."

"Everybody would love to see you and you have to meet Joey's roomate, Audrey. What a trip."

"I'll think about it. Now tell me all about you."

The pair walked to a resturaunt and spent a couple of hours catching up, and by the time Dawson walked her back to her office, he felt sure Andie would attend Jen's wedding.

After a couple hours of arguing over his work, David and Joey took a break. "So what ever happened to that boy. One know the one that was so off again on again with you?"

She chuckled as shook her head. "We're still friends. See you came into the middle of the story so you didn't get a lot of the really interesting parts."

"Do tell." The dark brows implored.

"Well it started when I was a little girl and moved in across the Creek from Dawson. He, his best friend, Pacey and I used to play together, and for years that was great, nearly perfect."

"Until pueberty hit."

"Yeah, pretty much." Joey nodded.

"You had a thing for Dawson, unrequieted..."

"In the beginning, but then..." she paused considering the best wording, then she shrugged. "But he broke it off and told Pacey to 'look out for me.'"

"Mistake."

"Big mistake."

"Pacey and you...?"

"Yeah, but it ended. Badly, but we all seemed to have gotten past it when we went our separate ways to college."

"Until you somehow all ended up in Boston?"

"Precisely."

"Joey?"

"Hmmm?"

"This has the makings of a great romance novel or soap opera concept."

"Thanks."

"So how does it end? Who won the heart of Miss Joey Potter?"

"It doesn't end really. Along the twists and turns I met...other people, they met other people. Then I left, I went to London."

"You mean you copped out."

"No, I mean I took a great oppurtunity, and moved on."

"You mean you copped out, just like you used to in you're writing."

She shrugged. "Yeah. I guess you can look at it that way."

"I will."

She shook her head and put down her coffee. "Dawson will be back to meet me soon." She stood up.

"So you have a made a decision, you just haven't admitted it."

"No, Dawson was soming over to visit when Janey called to tell me that the temperamental David Wilder needed a personal visit from his editor."

"How did that happen by the way?"

"My first account. Brody, my boss, handed me Red Candle telling me it had been written by a Professor at Worthington. I had no idea it was yours until I guess chapter five."

He shook his head, "And you still told him to publish it?"

"It was good."

"The writing's been better since I got this new editor."

"Well I hear she learned from the best." Joey smiled and put a hand on the door knob.

"Let me know how that story ends, Potter."

"If it ever does I will, David."

"It will, it's too good to go unresolved."

Joey hugged him briefly and opened the door to see Dawson already leaning against the car.