Dawson woke up the next morning alone in his bed, a blanket laying gently over his naked body. Squinting at the bright sunlight that shown through his windows, he knew Joey was gone. Sighing to himself, he looked over to see an empty bed next to him with no sign that Joey was ever there. Wrapping the blanket around his waist, he sauntered into the kitchen to get something to drink, noticing in the mirror that he badly need to shave and should probably wear a turtleneck to work because of a small hickey on his neck. Closing his eyes he remembered vividly what happened the night before. Consoling Joey which turned into kissing, which turned into touching, which turned into him carrying her to his room and making love again all night. He fell asleep with her in his arms again, kissing her forehead, chin, cheeks and eyelids again before drifting away.

While brushing his teeth, inspecting the mark on his neck a bit more, he suddenly felt very alone. Dawson didn't regret making love to Joey the previous night, or the weekend of the wedding, but the idea of Joey slipping away from him made him sick. He heard her whisper, "I love you," before falling asleep and he could see it in her eyes when they sat on the couch. She loved him and he loved her but they weren't together and Dawson knew he had to change that and soon. This was their chance to be together and he wasn't going to let it slip by yet again.

An hour later he managed to get himself together and stroll into the office, noticing Jason sitting at the logging machines, working on his project. Dawson tried to avoid him but as soon as Jason noticed him, he bounced over to his desk.

"Hey Dawson have you talked to Joey at all?" Jason asked, not noticing Dawson quickly avert his gaze.

"Ah no I haven't really talked to her, why?" Dawson asked, shuffling stuff around on his desk, hoping Jason would disappear.

"Well I tried calling her last night and she wasn't home so I stopped by and her neighbor said she left in a hurry earlier," Jason said, not noticing Dawson's nervousness.

"Sorry can't help you," Dawson said, grabbing some tapes to go log.

"Well maybe I'll ask her about it tonight during dinner," Jason said sadly, walking with Dawson back to the logging machines.

"Oh you guys have plans?" Dawson asked curiously.

"Yeah I'm taking her to Scout Bar tonight for dinner, you know remembering back our first date and everything, we have reservations for eight," Jason said, snapping his headset back on his head. Noticing Jason was deeply engrossed in his tape, Dawson smiled privately, concocting a scheme in his head, privately thanking Jason for giving him his idea.

That night Dawson sat in Scout Bar just a bit before 8 p.m., waiting for Joey and Jason to appear for dinner. All afternoon he felt a mix of joy and nervousness, knowing he was going to tell Joey how he felt and convince her that they belong together. He had enough of them being apart and he knew tonight was definitely make or break.

Dawson stayed out of sight when they came in and settled at their table, taking a minute to just take in the scene before him. Joey looked so lovely in a dress and wrap, similar to what she wore on their first date. Jason looked good too, but watching him reach for her hand, stroking it gently, made Dawson almost go nuts with jealousy. He could see Joey flinching a bit, obviously nervous after the events of the previous night, but Dawson still stayed in the background. It wasn't until Jason leaned in to kiss her and Joey half-heartedly responded that Dawson snapped, unable to watch them kiss.

"Joey I need to talk to you," Dawson said, rushing over to the table and grabbing her hand to drag her outside of the bar.

"Dawson what are you doing here, I'm on a date," Joey hissed, grabbing his arm to let go of her hand, which he just held tighter.

"I just need a few minutes of your time Joey, please," he said, opening the bar's door and walking her over to the side of the building.

"What are you doing here Dawson, what is going on?" she said exasperated.

"Joey, I love you, I want us, you and me to be together," he said, feeling his heart start to race.

"Dawson stop, you don't know what you're talking about," she said, turning to leave.

"Yes I do and I know you love me too," he said, making her stop.

"Of course I love you Dawson, you're my best friend." Joey said softly.

"No I know you love me as a friend but I also know you love me like I love you, as something more," Dawson said, moving closer to her.

"Dawson." Joey started, rubbing her head.

"No Joey I know because you said it, you said it last night when we made love at my apartment, you said it when we were together at the wedding and you meant it, I saw it in your eyes," Dawson said, reaching for her hand, holding it tightly.

"We shouldn't have done that Dawson, sleeping together will just complicate all this, it'll complicate everything," Joey said softly.

"I don't regret sleeping with you Joey and I saw it in your eyes, you don't regret it either," Dawson said matter-of-factly, watching her emotionally distance herself. "When we were pretending to be a couple at the wedding, didn't you notice how natural and easy it was, how right it felt to be together?"

"Dawson of course it was natural, we dated before, we know how to act like a couple because of our history," Joey said, looking over her should lightly to see if Jason was coming out to check on her.

"It was more than history Jo and you know it," Dawson said, moving closer to her. "The flirting and tempting one another, the way you looked when you told Sarah and Tim about how we fell in love. You can't lie to me and tell me you don't see the little dance we do around one another."

"What dance?" Joey said, surprised.

"The dance of you and me," Dawson said, noticing he wasn't getting anywhere. "The way we act with one another. Before all of this, you and I were practically a couple, holding hands, kisses on the cheek, spending all of our time together."

"But things are different now Dawson, I'm with Jason, he's a good guy," Joey said, pulling away a bit.

"I know Joey if you were so committed to this guy and he was so great, why did we sleep together on two separate occasions now, why did you come to me when you found out about your dad?" Dawson pressed.

"What do you want then Dawson, just tell me," Joey said, feeling a headache starting.

"I want you and me, I want us to be together, I want us to take this chance and go with what we feel and be a couple again," he said flatly, taking her other hand.

"But why now? Why now when I have someone else?" Joey asked, lacing her fingers with his.

"I told you at the wedding this, you and me, was far from over and I've felt this way for a long time and now it just feels right, this is it Joey, it's our chance," Dawson said, moving closer to drop her hands and put his hands around her waist.

"How do you know it'll work though Dawson, how do you know we won't ruin this and our friendship again?" Joey asked, feeling herself bend, forgetting about Jason.

"Because we'll take it slow," he said softly, pulling her closer. "I know because we both want this to work and we'll be aware of the mistakes in our past and make it different. Please Joey, I love you so much, I don't want to miss our chance again." Their foreheads were now pressed together and their eyes closed with their arms around each other's waist.

"I love you too." she finally whispered, leaning in to kiss him, the butterflies starting again in her stomach and feeling everything else fade away. It felt like hours passed as they stood there together, kissing. Her public declaration of love made his heart soar, knowing this felt right, until it came crashing down around him.

"Joey? What the hell is going on?" said an angry voice, interrupting their moment. Pulling away, her eyes as big as saucers, Joey turned and felt her heart sink to see Jason standing a few feet away having witnessed the kiss.

"Jason." Joey started, unsure how to finish what she began to say.

"Dawson what the hell are you doing kissing her, Joey what's going on here?" Jason said, getting angrier as he moved closer to them.

"Jason I'm sorry man I didn't want you to find out like this," Dawson said, feeling an odd sense of déjà vu, back to the time when Dawson confronted Joey and Pacey in his front yard.

"Find out what?" Jason snapped.

"I love Joey and she loves me too, I'm sorry," Dawson said, wrapping his arm around Joey's waist.

"You're kidding right?" Jason scoffed, noticing the guilty look on Joey's face. "So you convince me she's only a friend, set me up with her and then decide a month later that you love her and can't live without her so you steal her away? What the hell kind of friend are you?"

"Jason." Joey started again, also remembering back to when Dawson, Pacey and Joey had their confrontation and how badly it all went.

"Joey is this true? Do you love him?" Jason asked, painfully waiting for her answer. A deafening silence followed.

"Yes I do," she said softly, nodding her head.

"So is this some kind of game you two run? You claim to be friends, snare some poor guy and then break his heart by letting him find you two kissing while one is supposed to be on a date?" Jason yelled, running his fingers through his hair. "What are you some kind of pimp and she's your whore?"

"Jason if you don't shut your fucking mouth now I'll make you regret it," Dawson snarled, pushing Joey behind him, getting closer to Jason. "She isn't a whore and this isn't her fault so you don't call her names, you deal with me."

"Oh please, Dawson spare me the crap," Jason hissed, getting closer to him too, waiting now for punches to fly. "Just tell me why would you go through the trouble of setting me up with her, telling me how great she was and sitting back idly as I spent time with her. Was it suddenly that she couldn't spend all her time with you that you magically decided you had to have her for yourself or what?" The tension between the men was escalating and both began to forget what they were saying.

"You weren't supposed to get along at all!" Dawson screamed, jerking Joey's attention back to them, causing her to move closer.

"What do you mean?" Jason asked more confused than ever.

"Joey asked me to set her up with someone I knew because she was lonely so I did, but you guys weren't supposed to get along, you were supposed to be the scrubby pig I knew at work and then she would hate you and walk off and come back to me so everything could just be the way it was," Dawson yelled, suddenly stopping when he realized Joey could hear him.

"So this was all a joke?" Joey gasped, moving next to them, looking at the shocked expression on Jason's face.

"Joey." Dawson started, seeing tears form in her eyes.

"You fixed me up with Jason knowing it wouldn't work so you could just continue to keep me for yourself," Joey stammered, backing off a bit.

"It wasn't like that exactly," Dawson said, moving closer to her to try and explain.

"Exactly? Well then how was it Dawson?" she said angrily. "I ask you to do something for me as a friend, something I would have done for you and you just used it as a way to make sure your status quo didn't get interrupted. You don't love me, you just didn't want to lose me to someone else."

"No Joey, please just listen." Dawson started, watching her back away further as Jason just looked at her in pity. "I meant everything I said to you, I love you, I want to be with only you. I never lied about that. I just wasn't sure how I felt before."

"Oh but it must have become crystal clear when your little plan backfired on you, didn't it?" Joey snapped. "That's why you pushed for me to go to that wedding, you wanted to take me to seduce me and try to get me to fall in love with you so I would dump Jason."

"Joey please, I'm sorry okay, but I didn't lie to you about." Dawson said, feeling faint.

"No Dawson you did lie, you've lied about everything," Joey whispered, turning to look at Jason. "Jason I'm sorry but I have to go, please believe me that I didn't know what was going on and I never meant to hurt you with this. I had a lot of fun with you and.I'm sorry."

"It's okay Joey, I know you didn't have anything to do with it," Jason said softly, watching her turn and slowly walk way, putting her hand to her forehead. Feeling paralyzed in his position, Dawson watched Joey walk away soon blending into the crowd on the sidewalk.

"You know Dawson I guess we both lost in the end, but I think she'll still talk to me tomorrow morning," Jason laughed bitterly, brushing past him, leaving him alone on the street.