Dawson crawled into work the next morning barely able to keep his eyes open. He managed to get a few hours of sleep the night before, but woke early and stopped by Joey's apartment to see her when he noticed she had not called while he was asleep. He buzzed her apartment several times, asking her to let him in over the loud speaker but she didn't answer. And when she didn't answer her phone he began to really worry, tempted almost to call the police. Arriving at work a bit late, he occupied his mind with calling for rights and clearances for his location shots. Staring at the clock and asking around for Jason, no one knew where he was and if he was coming in or not. Dawson tried calling Joey several more times with no luck and was about to dial the police when Jason came bouncing in the office.

"Jason Peterson is that you?" Kyle, one of the other program kids called, doing a double take like most of the guys did in the office. Jason's usual attire of wire glasses, baseball hat with greasy hair and jeans and T-shirt covered in holes was completely gone. This guy was dressed in a designer dress shirt, pants and shoes, and had contacts on with a clean-shaven face and hair nicely styled.

"Dude Jason what is this the GQ look, is it Halloween?" one of the other guys asked. Jason laughed and did a turn for them, looking over to see a pissed but relieved Dawson looking at him before bouncing over to his desk.

"Jason holy cow man I'm shocked," Dawson said, as Jason pulled him into another hug.

"See this is how I dress when I go out Dawson, believe it or not I'm not as disgusting as everyone here thinks I am," Jason laughed, grabbing a chair to pull up to Dawson's desk.

"So ah how did it go because I can't reach Joey and I'm getting really worried," Dawson tried to say calmly.

"Joey? Oh she's fine man," Jason said with a goofy grin on his face. "Dawson thank you for hooking me up with her, she's the most amazing woman I've ever met. I mean she's smart, funny and so amazing to be around."

"So what did you guys end up doing?" Dawson asked, trying to maintain his calm. "I was in the neighborhood of Scout Bar and didn't see you guys there."

"Yeah well we stayed for like an hour but then we were having so much fun we left and just hung out and talked all night," Jason said. "We went on a walk, carriage ride, stayed out all night and had breakfast at that diner near her house this morning. I just like dropped her off twenty minutes ago." Dawson knew he should be happy, but the feelings of jealousy and resentment bubbled inside of him.

"Oh so it went well," he stammered, trying to look cool.

"Oh man Dawson it was great, thank you man I owe you so big for this," Jason said, standing and slapping Dawson on the shoulder. "Joey said she'd call you later because she knew you might be worried." Dawson nodded, watching Jason saunter away. Staring off into space for a few minutes, he knew he couldn't wait to talk to her later, Dawson told his supervisor he wasn't feeling well and ran over to Joey's apartment.

"Hey Dawson what's up?" she murmured when she opened the door and found him standing nervously in front of her. Unable to suddenly say anything, he grabbed her and pulled her into a tight hug, relieved that she was alive and in one piece.

"Joey I called you like ten times in the last twelve hours and I got no response so I got worried," Dawson said, moving into her apartment as she shut the door behind him.

"I said I would call you today and check in, you were really worried?" she said with a smile.

"Yes and don't make fun of me," he said, pulling her into another hug. They shared a nice moment of silence before he began again. "So how did it go?"

"Oh my gosh Dawson this guy is so.he's just something else," she laughed, pulling him over to the couch to share.

"Really? Jason?" Dawson asked, shocked.

"Yeah, I remember meeting him awhile ago at your office and he was well a pig but last night he was clean-cut and handsome, funny and witty," Joey gushed, causing Dawson to get a bit more jealous. "We had so much fun and stayed out all night, it was just amazing."

"Are you going to see him again?" Dawson asked hesitantly, pulling her into a comforting embrace.

"Maybe, I mean I gave him my number and I hope he'll call," Joey giggled. "Thank you Dawson, you're such a good friend." He smiled unhappily, enjoying the other moment of silence between them before the phone rang. Almost in slow motion he saw Joey leave his embrace to answer the phone, pausing for a minute before breaking into a childish giggle, making Dawson's heart sink because he knew it was Jason, calling to ask her out again.

The following week was like a continuos bad dream for Dawson that only got worse, never better. His clever idea to set Joey up with Jason, thinking it was bound to fail, well failed and backfired in his face badly. Dawson and Joey still went to the movies in Chelsea on Friday and Saturday night but they were greeted with Jason's presence immediately after the movie let out, whisking Joey away to have drinks or go talk as Dawson painfully watched them get closer. Joey still met Dawson for lunch while he was filming, gushing about how much fun she was having with Jason and what a great guy he was. The stress to finish his shooting combined with his sudden jealousy seeing Joey with some guy made it difficult to get his work done and concentrate fully on his job.

The thing about this nightmare that made Dawson go crazy was that Jason was suddenly this completely different person. He cleaned up his appearance and attire in the office, turning into this clean-cut, nicely looking guy, compared to the guy Dawson knew just two weeks before. Dawson tried to keep in mind that this was the traditional "honeymoon" period of a relationship, when everything was new and exciting and you couldn't get enough of one another. He remembered back to his own short relationships since he moved to New York and knew how Joey was feeling, but he hated that he barely got to see her. She was always working or hanging out with Jason and despite their invitation for him to join them, Dawson declined, especially after seeing them kiss one day on the street. That kiss sent a jealous stab right in his heart and gut, but he let it go, hoping that Jason's sudden personality change wouldn't last.

Two extremely painful and lonely weeks later, Dawson was invited on short notice to a wedding in the Hamptons that weekend. It was a three-day event and Dawson needed a date. Finally able to catch Joey on the phone and make plans for them to have dinner together, where he planned on convincing her to be his date.

"Dawson I don't know, I really have to catch up on work this weekend," she sighed, picking at the pizza she brought over to his apartment.

"Joey please, please, please, I'm begging here, begging!" Dawson pleaded. "We would leave Friday after work and be back Sunday night."

"Dawson I have to catch up here and Jason talked about maybe getting together."she started, noticing his face fall.

"Joey okay you guys have been 'together' for like two weeks now and you spend all your time with him, I barely see you at all anymore," Dawson pouted. "I'm asking for a huge favor here, consider it payback for setting you up with Jason, please?"

"Okay, okay I'll go and play your best friend and possibly the role of adoring girlfriend if necessary for these people but we have to be back Sunday afternoon so I can work and maybe see Jason," she sighed, giving him a smile.

"The role of loving girlfriend will probably be necessary and Sunday afternoon return time is a deal," Dawson said happily, extending his hand for her to shake to seal the deal.

"Deal," she giggled, shaking his hand before returning to their meal and casual, comfortable conversation.