Disclaimer: I am in no way connected to Dawson's Creek and no copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: This is a D/J fic set after the final episode with the alternating POV's of Joey, Pacey, and Dawson
Rating: R for language and some sexual situations.
Body and Soul
Chapter Four
Joey
So this is it. This is where he lives. The house itself is exactly how I expected it to be, a sunny Spanish style one story with large windows and an adobe exterior. Inside it's a different story. It's just so modern. Actually I love it. The Le Corbusieur black leather couch and matching black Barcelona chairs and ottoman and a glass coffee table that I know is by a famous designer but I can't place it. Maybe Ford? I just didn't expect Dawson to decorate his home like this. I expected overstuffed chairs and a huge entertainment center and lots of pictures on the walls and tables, almost competing with each other for space. There isn't even a television.
"The guest room is down the hall, I think." I had forgotten that I wasn't alone. Dawson's personal assistant, Kyle, is here. He seems like a nice guy. He tried to make conversation on the way back from the airport. Kyle looks more like a surfer than a Hollywood type. There's a hole in the knee of his jeans and I don't think he combed his hair today but the look works for him.
"Right." I want to look around some more but I don't want Kyle to think that I'm a snoop or anything so I just open the first door in the hallway. This is the Dawson that I expected. There's a huge entertainment center in the middle of the back wall and two couches and three overstuffed chairs competing for floor space. On the walls there are pictures everywhere. Some of them I recognize from high school and college. Everyone is on those walls. Jen the cheerleader and Jack the football star are laughing and sharing a latte. Andie, Pacey, and Jack are smiling next to the lockers. Jen and I are laughing aboutsomething. When was that even taken? I don't remember. Jen's hair was shorter then but I can't remember what year she had it like that. Mitch and Gale are holding a baby Lily, God she was a beautiful baby. A radiant Jen is reclining in a chair rubbing her swollen stomach. I hated the way that Dawson would always be shoving a camera in our faces (be it either a still or a video camera). Now I'm glad that he was always there documenting these small moments in time that would have otherwise been filtered away by my mind and replaced with worries and deadlines. Dawson, we were laughing about Dawson. He had taken about a zillion pictures of us that day (we were seniors in college at Spring break in Capeside) and Jen leaned over to me and whispered Best lay of my life, what about you?' with a nod in his direction. I couldn't help but laugh with her about it and the absurdity of the whole situation.
"This must be the family room." It was Kyle who spoke and stopped my trip to the past. It's funny how when we were in high school we talked about how much simpler things were when we kids, then in college we talked abut how much simpler things were when we were in high school, and the last time I came to LA we sat up until one in the morning in my hotel room saying how much simpler things in college had been. Had it ever been simple?
"Yeah. I guess it is the family room." I opened the next door. I couldn't help but laugh. The towels were laid on the end of the bed B&B style with a little soap and there was a mint and a note on the pillow. Just keeping you in the style you're accustomed to,' it said. Cute. "I'll just get changed real quick and then we can go to the set." Kyle just stood in the doorway not taking the hint. "If you'll just excuse me for a minute," I closed the door hoping I wasn't being too rude. I opened up my suitcase and milled through the clothes. What exactly does one wear to the television set of her highly successful ex-boyfriend, one time lover, best friend, and soul mate? Jen would know. I can't help but smile at the thought. It doesn't hurt so much to think about her now. When I picture my mother I see her looking down on me from heaven but it's different with Jen. I feel her in a sudden gust of wind and I see her when the ocean waves foam on the shore. Maybe it's because she never believed in God but to me Jen Lindley is the miracle of nature; no beginning no ending, always there. I don't want to keep Kyle waiting so I settle on khakis and a tanktop.
Dawson
Where on Earth could they be? I sent Kyle to pick her up about two and half-hours ago. Thank God we're not shooting today because I just don't have the attention span for it. What I'm trying to write right now is actually for February sweeps, not the November sweeps for next week. Of course I can't get very far when I still haven't decided if I should break Colby and Sammy up. I could bow to pressure from the network and do some sensational of the minute storyline. There are a million things that they have "suggested" to me; anorexia, drugs, date rape, I could go on. All of those things are relevant to teens and were when I was a teenager too, but if I do a story like that it has to be on my own terms, and developed to maybe even actually help someone. I'll just take a buzz down to the writer's room and bounce some of these ideas around.
"If Kyle and Joey come back just tell them I'm at the writer's room," I inform my secretary as I walk by.
Then suddenly she's right before my eyes following Kyle off the elevator. God, she's beautiful. I can't believe that she's been on a plane all morning. She's...Joey. Since the day she was fifteen and I saw her in a dress I've always been amazed at her sheer beauty. I actually checked my yearbooks and pictures when I was fifteen and wondered if she had always been that gorgeous and I had just missed it. Sure enough she became pretty in sixth grade had breasts by eighth grade and blossomed in ninth grade. Somehow I had just missed it. Well that's not entirely true. I chose to ignore it. Sometimes the thought that she looked nice would pop into my head, like the time she dressed up as a cat for Halloween in ninth grade or the time I made her go on my date with Jen. The first time I ever had a sexual thought about her was when I accidentally saw her changing out of her bikini when we first started shooting Sea Creature From The Deep. That was the first time I ever saw a naked breast in person. I had a couple of pretty graphic dreams that I had brushed off as mere biology. The next week I met Jen and any erotic thoughts for Joey were pushed aside until I saw her the night of the pageant. Then, of course, it was like opening a floodgate. Even though we are currently in the realms of the platonic I can't help but appreciate just how stunning she truly is.
"Joey!" I shout to get her attention. She smiles when she sees me and my heart almost breaks. She brushes by Kyle and comes towards me with open arms.
"Dawson," she says simply as we hug for a just a bit longer than old friends usually would. "Look at you," she pulls away. My subconscious is already begging for another embrace. " You look great."
"So do you," I say truthfully pulling back even further thankful for the chance to openly check her out. "You cut you're hair a little shorter. It's nice."
"I just wanted to cut out the last of that dye job Audrey did for me a while back."
"Well it looks fantastic," Yes, I said it again.
"So this is where you work. I imagined something smaller, like maybe your bedroom or like the set of that horror flick. I guess I'm not sure what I expected." I'm glad she's impressed. Hell, even I'm impressed that this is where I work.
Joey
As the elevator comes to a stop my stomach jumps a little bit. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous and majorly impressed. Kyle steps out ahead of me and I let him lead the way.
"Joey!" I hear. I can't help but smile when I see him; he looks so damn good. I remember the first time I felt attracted to him. It was at my mother's funeral and he was holding my hand. I remember thinking how nice his hands were, soft with neatly trimmed nails. It just grew from there. That was during his oopma loompa phase. Now he's grown into such a man. I was awe struck when we actually slept together how much his body had actually changed. It was hard and muscular as opposed to when we were fifteen and dating. How he became so ripped while sitting on his ass was beyond me. Maybe it started from his whole house-painting job. Then of course there is the genetic factor. When Mitch was alive he was the perfect male specimen.
"Dawson," is all can say while enveloped in his arms. He smells nice, like bleach. Now I know that our hug has lasted a little too long to be considered platonic so I reluctantly pull away. "Look at you." I'm happy that I can openly check him out. "You look great."
"So do you." I can feel him looking me up and down and honestly I love it. "You cut your hair a little shorter. It's nice."
Of course he noticed. I had completely forgotten. I just wanted to cut out that awful dye job that Audrey gave me last year. Dying my hair was a bad, bad idea. "I just wanted to cut out the last of that dye job Audrey did for me a while back."
"Well it looks fantastic." I smile at the compliment.
I can't help but look around. This place is huge. There are people bustling everywhere each appearing to be on their own separate life or death mission. The dull roar quiets as people look to see who Dawson is making such a big fuss over in the hallway. I'm proud that it's me that has his attention and the attention of everyone around him and I'm proud of him. This wasn't at all the intimate place I was expecting; this is more of a machine. "So this is where you work," I finally manage to say. "I expected something smaller like maybe your bedroom or the set of that horror flick. I guess I'm not sure what I expected."
"The thing is now I actually have a budget." He laughs when he says it but I still can't believe that he seems so at home here. "Com on," he puts his arm around me. "I'll show you around and then we can go to the set."
"Where's that?" I can't help but possessively lean into him smugly noting the looks I get from a few of the women.
"On the lot, we just have to take a little golf cart there. This," he's leading me down the hall. "Is where we do all of the writing." I notice that there's actually a diagram mapping out all of the relationships between the characters. For some reason this strikes me as funny almost. I could have used that when I first tried to explain things to Audrey our freshman year.
"But Sammy has way too way intimacy issues for that to work," one of the writers with thick black glasses is explaining to a woman. "She has major trust issues."
"But that's my point. Of course she won't be happy for long with Colby. She's going to find some excuse to run to Petey."
"But that's so lame. No one will ever buy it. Sammy cares too much about Colby, she wouldn't cheat on him."
Dawson interrupts them. "I've already said let's nix the whole cheating idea. Sammy would never cheat on Colby." I can't help but feel embarrassed like I've overheard someone talking about me while I hid in a bathroom stall. "We're deciding weather or not to break up Sammy and Colby for sweeps."
"Next week!" They were so happy last week after they made up. I know that on a show like this you can't have the two leads dating for the entire time but it seems so sudden.
"February sweeps," he says casually. "Its never too early because we have to build up to whatever the outcome will be through other stories."
"This is my friend Joey Potter." As Dawson finally introduces me I can see their faces change. They look like they've been caught passing a note about the teacher in class. They look guilty and embarrassed. It's obvious that they know that I'm Sammy or Sammy's based on me, or whatever. But the embarrassment becomes something else as they study me. They look like they are searching me for inspiration or the clues to what Sammy really would do. I don't like it.
I was glad to get out of the writing room and continue with Dawson down the hall stopping at offices along the way. Todd greeted me with a hello love' and a slap on the ass but I wouldn't have expected less. It was actually nice to see him again.
"Dawson." It's Sammy or according to the credits Julia Karen Brown. She's shorter than she looks on television she's maybe five-five, five-six.
"Hey Jules." Surprisingly Dawson hugs her. "What are you doing here. I thought you would have already left for vacation."
"I just wanted to say goodbye first."
"This is my best friend Joey Potter." When we shake hands I think that she realizes that her character is based on me because her whole demeanor changes from casual to observant. I don't like being dissected like that. My impulses tell me to do something crazy to shock the hell out of her but I just nervously tuck my hair behind my ear.
"Oh my God!" she's caught me off guard. "You like, totally really do that hair thing! It's even written in the actor's notes. Cool." I can see her examining me more closely as if all of Sammy's secrets will be magically revealed if se just looks hard enough.
"It's nice to meet you." I'm not sure what else to say. She seems sweet enough but I can tell that she's trying not to stare at me.
"Well, I should be going. I have a plane to catch." I'm even more surprised when she kissed Dawson on the cheek. "Maybe we could get together and talk sometime." Julia Karen Brown offers.
"Sure," I say. What else could I say? No. I don't want you to pick my brain.
"She's a nice girl," Dawson says as we join hands and continue walking. "I think she was surprised to meet you. She's a little sweetheart though. Actually my favorite actor to work with. I'd love to do another project with her."
"So she's Molly Ringwald to your John Hughes," I joke.
"To a lesser degree, yes."
Dawson
Having Joey here on my arm is heaven. I can't help but give the guys that look her up and don a she's with me look' as we go from office to office making our way around.
"That's everyone," I say when were finally done meeting everyone. "There's just my secretary, Linda and then we can go see the actual set.
"Linda," my secretary is a truly a God send. I've always been a big picture dreamer type and Linda is great at micromanaging to the tiniest detail. "This is my best friend Joey Potter." I'm always unsure how I should introduce her to people. Friend and even best friend don't describe what is to me and soul mate makes her sound like my new age lover or something.
"Yes," she says to Joey. "I believe we speak sometimes on Wednesday nights."
"Nice to match a face to the voice." Joey shakes her hand graciously.
"Will you be attending the premier with Dawson tonight?"
"Huh?" Joey looks surprised. Those are my thoughts exactly. Linda must see the confused look on my face,
"David Dahl's movie premier. I sent you the reminder yesterday." Of course, David Dahl, one of my closet friends plus he helped me get the pitch meeting for my television show. I got so caught up in the thought of Joey coming that I totally forgot. Actually I had planned on an evening at home watching E.T. on DVD but I guess there is no better way to show Joey a good time in LA than by taking her to a Hollywood premier.
"Would you want to go?" I'm not sure if she'll want to. I can see by the expression on her face that she's unsure.
"I don't think I have anything to wear. All I brought were a few black cocktail dresses."
"Perfect," I say at the thought. "A beautiful woman can't go wrong in a black dress." My mother actually told me that. "It's not as big a deal as it sounds. It's a small movie, no one big will b there." I can see her relenting
"Bessie's gonna freak when she finds out I went to a movie premier."
To be continued