SUNSET, Wednesday

Dawson and Joey sat side by side watching the sun trail rosy streaks down the sky. She sighed and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She looked away from the sunset to smile at him. Dawson smiled back and turned his eye back to the sunset. Joey felt the waves lapping gently against her feet, she heard the wind whistling through the trees and thought how wonderful it was to be back in Capeside. Her thought wandered to staying here, could she be content? Could she be fulfilled here? She shook her head as Gayle approached them. "Hi." she nodded at the familiar pair of faces that turned to greet her with smiles. "Hi." The echoed in chorus and chuckled. "It's good to see you, Joey. How's London?"

This was the scene Pacey Witter saw from across the creek. Standing in front of the Potter B&B, he dropped the daisy onto the porch and sighed. Checking his watch he headed back to the resturaunt.

Dawson, Joey and Gayle spent a lazy evening talking and playing with Lily before Joey Dawson started yawning and nodding off in Mitch's old chair like a man of twice his years. "You're tired." Joey said seeing his struggle. Standing, she hugged Gayle, kissed Lily on the cheek and ran a hand briefly over Dawson's hair. "Thanks for a great day, Dawson. I really appreciate it."

"Sure." He nodded, taking her hand and bringing it briefly to his lips. "We'll do it again before you leave."

"We'll see." She smiled and taking her hand back walked out the door.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Joey pulled out her cell phone and hit the speed dial for Jen.

"Hello?"

"Can I talk to you?"

"Dawson or Pacey?" Jen asked astutely and received a sigh in reply.

"All little of both." Joey answered as she saw the bundle of daisies sitting at the font door.

"Drama, drama, drama." Jen chuckled.

"Meet me..."

"Witter's."

"Jen, I can't go to Pacey's resturaunt to talk about him and..." Click. "Jen? Jen?!" Joey asked loudly until the dial told her Jen was gone.



Twenty minutes later the pair of twenty-somethings sat sipping martinis at the bar inside Witter's. "This is why I said here." Jen pointed at the thick crowd of people around them. It's the least likely place to run into someone we both know."

"So would the spirit be all right with you're fiance?"

"We drink socially, Joey, I'm a believer, not a prude." Jen shook her head, "And stop trying to change the subject. What happened today?"

"Dawson and I went to Boston."

"Boston?"

"Yeah, I had to visit a client—David Wilder—and Dawson was standing in my front yard when I found out I had to go so I invited him along."

"Wait! David Wilder as in the famous forbidden fruit David Wilder?"

"One in the same, but he's no longer forbidden, and he was never fruit."

"No he was beef..cake."

"Ugh! Jen!"

"What? Oh, all right, so what happened while you were in Boston?"

"Nothing, Dawson went to visit Andie and I went to see Wilder. We were apart most of the day."

"Except the four hours of round trip driving and the four hours you spent with him--"

"And his mother."

"before you called me."

"Yeah, and most of the day there was a friendly, comfortable feeling, but toward the end of the day it was tense, like old feelings were surfacing for him and he might have acted on them if his mother hadn't walked up to us."

"And that is...?"

"Unwelcome, unacceptable, un-un-" Joey blew an exasperated breath into the lock of hair falling over her eyes. "Unwanted."

"Okay. That answers a whole plethera of questions."

"What about Pacey?"

"Yeah, what about Pacey?" A familiar baritone echoed from behind Joey. Without a thought Joey laid her head on her arms and started to mumble incoherently. "What?" Pacey asked, but placed a hand on the head that was shaking back and forth. Leaning close to her ear he whispered, "Potter, relax, it was a joke." She sighed in response.

"Pacey." Jen said with a multitude of compassion for both her friends.

"I'm going home now. I'll see you two soon."

"Goodnight." Jen siad aloud. "Thanks." she mouthed at Pacey as he turned to leave.

"Goodphngiht." Joey mumbled from her position on th table.

"All right, Potter, he had a valid question. What about Pacey?"

Joey raised her head. "I don't know, Jen. He's been wonderful since day one. He—he loves me no matter what. The other night, we had dinner and he said he didn't chase me down when I left because he knew me well enough to know that I needed to be away from this place and these people to get to know myself. The thing is, he's right. I didn't have a clue who I was on my own, without him, without Dawson and Capeside, and all the drama. I know who I am now, but something about this place it turns me into a fifteen year old bumbling idiot all over again."

"Jo."

"I don't know. I know that Pacey's never had to be around me to understand me. It's almost instinct with him. He knows how I feel before I do, and while that doesn't necessarily stop him from acting like an idiot; it ususally keeps him from hurting me."

"It there anything else."

"He's crude. He's kind. He's—he's ..."

"Pacey."

"Yeah."

"What do I do, Jen?"

"Make a choice."

"That's been the answer for a long time, huh?"

Jen picked up her glass and clinked it gently against Joey's. "You catch on fast, kiddo."

"Yeah I know.