PART 9
Joey
All of us were gathered around the picnic table eating the food Pacey had cooked. Marco, Isabella and Kristina were all playing in the sandbox Dawson and Gretchen had brought over, Ashley was inside napping and Ryan was right beside me sleeping in his playpen with an umbrella to shade him from the sun.
"So, Jack, how is everything with your gallery?" I asked him. Jack had opened his very own art gallery over a year ago where he and Tobey lived in San Francisco. I'd never been to see it. He always promised to feature some of my art in the gallery but I never took him up on the offer.
"It's great," he said wiping his mouth with his napkin. "We did a big show last weekend and I sold two pieces."
"And he made a pretty good profit off sales of other artist's paintings as well," Tobey continued.
"That's great! I still want to get out there and see your place sometime."
"You should definitely go," Dawson chimed in. "Gretchen and I have been. It's a really great gallery."
"Yeah," Jen agreed. "It is a really great place. Jack has it set up so nice and he has all of this really great art displayed there. I'm not even a big art fan and I enjoyed going there."
"I also have to agree. Although he is my brother so I'm biased," Andie said with a giggle.
"Thanks guys," Jack said sounding surprised. I noticed Tobey flash Jack a "see-I-told-you-so" look.
"Pacey and I have to get out to California sooner or later," I said glancing over at Pacey. "Maybe next summer."
"Yeah, I guess we're the only ones who haven't been," Pacey chuckled.
"We'll have to do the fifteen year reunion at our house," Gretchen said.
Dawson nodded. "Good idea."
"Now how far are you guys from Jack and Tobey?" I asked.
"A little over six hours."
"Oh, wow, that far."
"It's not a bad drive at all, really," Tobey said.
"Yeah, we've done it a few times and I've actually enjoyed it," Gretchen agreed.
"That's great that you guys are close enough that you get to see each other," I smiled.
"Yeah, it is," Dawson said, "and we all love going to visit Jack and Tobey. Especially Isabella. She loves going to Jack's pee-wee soccer games."
"That's great that you're coaching soccer again," I told Jack.
"Yeah. I love it. I have a good little team too. I just need my nephew to move to San Francisco and join the team, then we could win the whole season." Jack said putting his arm around Andie.
She smiled sadly. "Marco would love that."
I saw Roberto concentrating on Andie as she hugged her brother. His eyes looked sad as he watched her and when she let go of Jack and turned to look at him again, he smiled at her. "It's hard for Andie," he told all of us, "to be away from all of you."
"We miss her too," Jen said flashing a smile across the table at Andie.
"Yeah," everybody seemed to say at the same time.
Silence filled the air around the picnic table before Roberto spoke again. "Now that I've met all of you, I can see why it's so hard for her. You've created this big family amongst yourselves and it's obvious you all love each other very much."
Pacey cleared his throat then spoke, "Knowing that Andie is happy in Italy makes it easier for all of us to have her so far away."
"Yeah," Jack agreed with Pacey. He put his arm around Andie again. "All we ever wanted was for Andie to be happy. And she is now."
Andie pulled away from Jack and put one arm around her husband. "Yes, I am very happy," she said wiping tears from the corners of her eyes. "But I do miss all of you, everyday," she said sadly. "I'm so glad that everybody got past all that crap that was going on back when I left to go to Italy. I'm glad we all stayed friends because Roberto's right, we did create a family. Jack and I, we never had much of a family and when we met all of you we just grabbed on and held tight. And now ten years later, there are all these new wonderful people in our lives, Roberto, Tobey, Tom, Gretchen and all of these beautiful children. I just.I just think we're so lucky.all of us." In the silence that followed nobody looked at anybody else. We stared at our food, or at the ground, over at the children, anywhere but at each other.
Finally, Jen broke the silence. "Jesus, Andie, you are such a sap." She said with biting sarcasm but we all knew she was joking.
Pacey was the first to laugh and Jack joined in after a few seconds. Surprisingly, Andie laughed next and when we all saw that Andie thought it was funny, the rest of us joined in.
"Jen, you are such a bitch," Jack said still laughing hysterically.
"And that is why you all love me," she responded.
"Every group needs a bitch," Pacey said.
"And we couldn't have asked for a better bitch," I helped.
"Oh, that's funny, Joey," Jen said reaching behind Pacey to shove me.
I just laughed.
"Tom, are you sure you know what you're getting yourself into?" Jack asked Jen's fiancé.
Jen turned to Tom then and wrapped her arms around him protectively. "Don't listen to any of them. They're all liars," she told Tom.
Tom smiled shyly as he returned her embrace. I knew him well from the time Pacey and I had spent with them when we lived in Boston and I knew he had nothing bad to say about Jen. I knew that with him, Jen was a completely different person. They were completely in love.
"I am aware of what I'm getting into," he said with a smile, "and Jen is fine with me just the way she is."
"Oh, that's so sweet," Andie said.
"Yeah, he's great, isn't he?" Jen said kissing Tom on the cheek.
"So, when are you guys getting married? Have you set a date?" Andie asked.
"October 11th," Jen told her.
"Will you guys be able to make it?" Tom asked Andie and Roberto. "I'm sure it's a lot of work for you to come just for a weekend but we'd really love you to be there." Andie and Roberto looked at each other for a second before Andie turned back. "We'll try. I'd really like to be there."
"Of course, the rest of you will be there. Right?" Tom asked glancing at all of us around the table.
"We wouldn't miss it," Dawson spoke for he and Gretchen, smiling cheerily at Jen and Tom.
"I have no choice. Grams and I are walking her down the aisle," Jack told everyone.
"Oh, Jen, what a great idea," Andie said with tears in her eyes.
By looking at her, I could tell Jen was on the verge of tears herself. She smiled across the table at both Andie and Jack, agreeing silently with Andie's declaration that it was a great idea.
"It's funny," Dawson declared after a few moments. "Gretchen and I haven't been back here to Capeside in three years and now we'll be here twice within the course of three months."
"God, I'll be so pregnant in October," Gretchen said as if she suddenly remembered. Then I saw her flinch as she realized she'd just announced it to a table full of people who had no idea. Dawson just smiled proudly.
"You're pregnant?!" Jack asked.
"Five months," Dawson said with a huge smile.
The entire table erupted at that. Jen and Andie were at Gretchen's side examining her tummy while Jack and Tobey congratulated Dawson and then Gretchen. Roberto and Tom expressed their congratulations from where they were sitting.
"I can't believe you're gonna have four kids," Jen said once she was sitting beside Tom again.
"That's what I said," Pacey turned to Jen. "They're nuts."
"Well, you guys must be thinking about kids, right?" Andie asked Jen and Tom.
I leaned forward to catch a glimpse of Jen's reaction to the question. She looked at Tom nervously and he smiled in an attempt to comfort her.
"No, I don't think we're going to have any kids," Tom told Andie. He was trying to sound like he was okay with it but it was obvious he was sad.
"Well, I don't think we've ruled it out just yet," Jen said grabbing his hand in hers. "We'll see."
I smiled supportively and winked at her as Jen turned to catch my eye. Tom looked surprised and he searched Jen's face for an answer to his confusion.
"Pacey, Joey. What about you guys? Are you planning to have more?" Andie asked us.
I looked at Pacey and we both smiled remembering the conversation we'd had the night before. "Eventually," I told Andie. "Right now we're just getting used to one."
"What about you, Miss Nosy Pants?" Pacey teased Andie.
"Yeah, really," Jen said glancing at Pacey and then across the table at Andie. "What about you?"
She laughed a little bit. "I just like to know these things," she defended herself. "And, we've been thinking about it," she said glancing up at Roberto.
"We'd like to have a girl," Roberto added.
"I've just been worried about having another child because of my illness and all. It was hard enough for me deciding to have the first one and we still don't know that he's in the clear."
"Andie," Jack cut her off, "you turned out just fine."
"I know, but I had a lot of rough times and I just couldn't live with myself if I passed this on to my children."
Roberto rubbed Andie's back lightly as we all grew quiet again.
"Boy," Andie laughed. "I guess I really know how to crash a party."
"No," Pacey said waving his hand at her. "You didn't crash the party."
"Of course not," I agreed.
"Tobey and I have some happy news," Jack chimed in.
"Tell us," Jen encouraged.
I saw Pacey and Andie exchange a knowing look and a smile. I wondered if they both already knew about this good news as I set my eyes on Jack and Tobey. Jack grabbed Tobey's hand and glanced at him lovingly before turning back to all of us.
"We're going to adopt a baby," he said with a huge smile.
Everyone was quiet for a moment as the announcement registered in our minds. Jen and I were the first to jump up from the table and smother Jack and Tobey in gigantic hugs.
I was crying as I sat back down beside Pacey. I whispered to him, "You knew already?"
"Andie told me a little while ago. She made me promise not to tell."
I nodded as Pacey got up and went to the other side of the table to congratulate Jack and Tobey. I watched him hug both of them and then tease them about making Andie keep it a secret.
With Pacey gone from the bench and everyone else gathered around Jack and Tobey congratulating them, Jen scooted over to be closer to me. I put my arm around her neck and whispered in her ear. "Now I just have to keep trying to convince you that you'll make a great Mom and then all of us will have kids."
She turned to look at me and, although I expected one of her familiar evil glares, she was smiling. "I think I'm warming up to the idea."
"Good," I told her.
"Can you believe these two?" she asked me pointing over to Jack and Tobey.
"I think that's so great. Jack as a Dad. I can't imagine anything better than that."
"I know," she said shaking her head in disbelief. "That's one lucky kid that ends up with those two."
Andie joined us after a few seconds. She sat beside Jen and joined our private conversation. "I never thought I'd get any nieces or nephews," she said with a giddy smile.
Jen and I laughed at the same time.
"Andie," Jen said in a serious tone, "you should have a second baby."
Andie's smile saddened and she looked towards the ground. "You guys don't understand how it is for me."
"You're right, we don't understand," I said reaching across Jen for Andie's hand. "This is probably gonna sound pretty wacky," I warned them with a small laugh, "but I don't think God gives us anything we can't handle."
To my surprise, Jen didn't harass me for talking about God. She and Andie both just stared at me as though they were waiting for me to say more.
"I think the three of us can attest to that. I mean, I survived my mother's death and my father's many indiscretions. And believe me, when those things happened, I thought I'd never make it." I paused briefly and took a deep breath.
"And, Jen, she survived her asshole parents," we all laughed briefly at that. "Andie, you made it through your brother's death, your mother's illness and then your own illness. And you came out of it on top. You're a strong lady," I said with a funny voice trying to lighten the mood a little. They both smiled.
"So, what are you saying?" Andie asked me.
"I think," Jen cut in, "I think she's saying that God isn't cruel enough to give you a sick child but that if it ends up that you do have a sick child, there's no one stronger and more full of love than you to handle it." Jen glanced at me for my approval.
I nodded a little unable to speak, then I laughed. "She said it much better than I was going to say it."
"Thank you, guys," Andie said softly as she rested her head on Jen's shoulder.
"Anytime," I told her squeezing her hand.
"Yeah, anytime," Jen said patting Andie's shoulder and smiling at me.
Joey
All of us were gathered around the picnic table eating the food Pacey had cooked. Marco, Isabella and Kristina were all playing in the sandbox Dawson and Gretchen had brought over, Ashley was inside napping and Ryan was right beside me sleeping in his playpen with an umbrella to shade him from the sun.
"So, Jack, how is everything with your gallery?" I asked him. Jack had opened his very own art gallery over a year ago where he and Tobey lived in San Francisco. I'd never been to see it. He always promised to feature some of my art in the gallery but I never took him up on the offer.
"It's great," he said wiping his mouth with his napkin. "We did a big show last weekend and I sold two pieces."
"And he made a pretty good profit off sales of other artist's paintings as well," Tobey continued.
"That's great! I still want to get out there and see your place sometime."
"You should definitely go," Dawson chimed in. "Gretchen and I have been. It's a really great gallery."
"Yeah," Jen agreed. "It is a really great place. Jack has it set up so nice and he has all of this really great art displayed there. I'm not even a big art fan and I enjoyed going there."
"I also have to agree. Although he is my brother so I'm biased," Andie said with a giggle.
"Thanks guys," Jack said sounding surprised. I noticed Tobey flash Jack a "see-I-told-you-so" look.
"Pacey and I have to get out to California sooner or later," I said glancing over at Pacey. "Maybe next summer."
"Yeah, I guess we're the only ones who haven't been," Pacey chuckled.
"We'll have to do the fifteen year reunion at our house," Gretchen said.
Dawson nodded. "Good idea."
"Now how far are you guys from Jack and Tobey?" I asked.
"A little over six hours."
"Oh, wow, that far."
"It's not a bad drive at all, really," Tobey said.
"Yeah, we've done it a few times and I've actually enjoyed it," Gretchen agreed.
"That's great that you guys are close enough that you get to see each other," I smiled.
"Yeah, it is," Dawson said, "and we all love going to visit Jack and Tobey. Especially Isabella. She loves going to Jack's pee-wee soccer games."
"That's great that you're coaching soccer again," I told Jack.
"Yeah. I love it. I have a good little team too. I just need my nephew to move to San Francisco and join the team, then we could win the whole season." Jack said putting his arm around Andie.
She smiled sadly. "Marco would love that."
I saw Roberto concentrating on Andie as she hugged her brother. His eyes looked sad as he watched her and when she let go of Jack and turned to look at him again, he smiled at her. "It's hard for Andie," he told all of us, "to be away from all of you."
"We miss her too," Jen said flashing a smile across the table at Andie.
"Yeah," everybody seemed to say at the same time.
Silence filled the air around the picnic table before Roberto spoke again. "Now that I've met all of you, I can see why it's so hard for her. You've created this big family amongst yourselves and it's obvious you all love each other very much."
Pacey cleared his throat then spoke, "Knowing that Andie is happy in Italy makes it easier for all of us to have her so far away."
"Yeah," Jack agreed with Pacey. He put his arm around Andie again. "All we ever wanted was for Andie to be happy. And she is now."
Andie pulled away from Jack and put one arm around her husband. "Yes, I am very happy," she said wiping tears from the corners of her eyes. "But I do miss all of you, everyday," she said sadly. "I'm so glad that everybody got past all that crap that was going on back when I left to go to Italy. I'm glad we all stayed friends because Roberto's right, we did create a family. Jack and I, we never had much of a family and when we met all of you we just grabbed on and held tight. And now ten years later, there are all these new wonderful people in our lives, Roberto, Tobey, Tom, Gretchen and all of these beautiful children. I just.I just think we're so lucky.all of us." In the silence that followed nobody looked at anybody else. We stared at our food, or at the ground, over at the children, anywhere but at each other.
Finally, Jen broke the silence. "Jesus, Andie, you are such a sap." She said with biting sarcasm but we all knew she was joking.
Pacey was the first to laugh and Jack joined in after a few seconds. Surprisingly, Andie laughed next and when we all saw that Andie thought it was funny, the rest of us joined in.
"Jen, you are such a bitch," Jack said still laughing hysterically.
"And that is why you all love me," she responded.
"Every group needs a bitch," Pacey said.
"And we couldn't have asked for a better bitch," I helped.
"Oh, that's funny, Joey," Jen said reaching behind Pacey to shove me.
I just laughed.
"Tom, are you sure you know what you're getting yourself into?" Jack asked Jen's fiancé.
Jen turned to Tom then and wrapped her arms around him protectively. "Don't listen to any of them. They're all liars," she told Tom.
Tom smiled shyly as he returned her embrace. I knew him well from the time Pacey and I had spent with them when we lived in Boston and I knew he had nothing bad to say about Jen. I knew that with him, Jen was a completely different person. They were completely in love.
"I am aware of what I'm getting into," he said with a smile, "and Jen is fine with me just the way she is."
"Oh, that's so sweet," Andie said.
"Yeah, he's great, isn't he?" Jen said kissing Tom on the cheek.
"So, when are you guys getting married? Have you set a date?" Andie asked.
"October 11th," Jen told her.
"Will you guys be able to make it?" Tom asked Andie and Roberto. "I'm sure it's a lot of work for you to come just for a weekend but we'd really love you to be there." Andie and Roberto looked at each other for a second before Andie turned back. "We'll try. I'd really like to be there."
"Of course, the rest of you will be there. Right?" Tom asked glancing at all of us around the table.
"We wouldn't miss it," Dawson spoke for he and Gretchen, smiling cheerily at Jen and Tom.
"I have no choice. Grams and I are walking her down the aisle," Jack told everyone.
"Oh, Jen, what a great idea," Andie said with tears in her eyes.
By looking at her, I could tell Jen was on the verge of tears herself. She smiled across the table at both Andie and Jack, agreeing silently with Andie's declaration that it was a great idea.
"It's funny," Dawson declared after a few moments. "Gretchen and I haven't been back here to Capeside in three years and now we'll be here twice within the course of three months."
"God, I'll be so pregnant in October," Gretchen said as if she suddenly remembered. Then I saw her flinch as she realized she'd just announced it to a table full of people who had no idea. Dawson just smiled proudly.
"You're pregnant?!" Jack asked.
"Five months," Dawson said with a huge smile.
The entire table erupted at that. Jen and Andie were at Gretchen's side examining her tummy while Jack and Tobey congratulated Dawson and then Gretchen. Roberto and Tom expressed their congratulations from where they were sitting.
"I can't believe you're gonna have four kids," Jen said once she was sitting beside Tom again.
"That's what I said," Pacey turned to Jen. "They're nuts."
"Well, you guys must be thinking about kids, right?" Andie asked Jen and Tom.
I leaned forward to catch a glimpse of Jen's reaction to the question. She looked at Tom nervously and he smiled in an attempt to comfort her.
"No, I don't think we're going to have any kids," Tom told Andie. He was trying to sound like he was okay with it but it was obvious he was sad.
"Well, I don't think we've ruled it out just yet," Jen said grabbing his hand in hers. "We'll see."
I smiled supportively and winked at her as Jen turned to catch my eye. Tom looked surprised and he searched Jen's face for an answer to his confusion.
"Pacey, Joey. What about you guys? Are you planning to have more?" Andie asked us.
I looked at Pacey and we both smiled remembering the conversation we'd had the night before. "Eventually," I told Andie. "Right now we're just getting used to one."
"What about you, Miss Nosy Pants?" Pacey teased Andie.
"Yeah, really," Jen said glancing at Pacey and then across the table at Andie. "What about you?"
She laughed a little bit. "I just like to know these things," she defended herself. "And, we've been thinking about it," she said glancing up at Roberto.
"We'd like to have a girl," Roberto added.
"I've just been worried about having another child because of my illness and all. It was hard enough for me deciding to have the first one and we still don't know that he's in the clear."
"Andie," Jack cut her off, "you turned out just fine."
"I know, but I had a lot of rough times and I just couldn't live with myself if I passed this on to my children."
Roberto rubbed Andie's back lightly as we all grew quiet again.
"Boy," Andie laughed. "I guess I really know how to crash a party."
"No," Pacey said waving his hand at her. "You didn't crash the party."
"Of course not," I agreed.
"Tobey and I have some happy news," Jack chimed in.
"Tell us," Jen encouraged.
I saw Pacey and Andie exchange a knowing look and a smile. I wondered if they both already knew about this good news as I set my eyes on Jack and Tobey. Jack grabbed Tobey's hand and glanced at him lovingly before turning back to all of us.
"We're going to adopt a baby," he said with a huge smile.
Everyone was quiet for a moment as the announcement registered in our minds. Jen and I were the first to jump up from the table and smother Jack and Tobey in gigantic hugs.
I was crying as I sat back down beside Pacey. I whispered to him, "You knew already?"
"Andie told me a little while ago. She made me promise not to tell."
I nodded as Pacey got up and went to the other side of the table to congratulate Jack and Tobey. I watched him hug both of them and then tease them about making Andie keep it a secret.
With Pacey gone from the bench and everyone else gathered around Jack and Tobey congratulating them, Jen scooted over to be closer to me. I put my arm around her neck and whispered in her ear. "Now I just have to keep trying to convince you that you'll make a great Mom and then all of us will have kids."
She turned to look at me and, although I expected one of her familiar evil glares, she was smiling. "I think I'm warming up to the idea."
"Good," I told her.
"Can you believe these two?" she asked me pointing over to Jack and Tobey.
"I think that's so great. Jack as a Dad. I can't imagine anything better than that."
"I know," she said shaking her head in disbelief. "That's one lucky kid that ends up with those two."
Andie joined us after a few seconds. She sat beside Jen and joined our private conversation. "I never thought I'd get any nieces or nephews," she said with a giddy smile.
Jen and I laughed at the same time.
"Andie," Jen said in a serious tone, "you should have a second baby."
Andie's smile saddened and she looked towards the ground. "You guys don't understand how it is for me."
"You're right, we don't understand," I said reaching across Jen for Andie's hand. "This is probably gonna sound pretty wacky," I warned them with a small laugh, "but I don't think God gives us anything we can't handle."
To my surprise, Jen didn't harass me for talking about God. She and Andie both just stared at me as though they were waiting for me to say more.
"I think the three of us can attest to that. I mean, I survived my mother's death and my father's many indiscretions. And believe me, when those things happened, I thought I'd never make it." I paused briefly and took a deep breath.
"And, Jen, she survived her asshole parents," we all laughed briefly at that. "Andie, you made it through your brother's death, your mother's illness and then your own illness. And you came out of it on top. You're a strong lady," I said with a funny voice trying to lighten the mood a little. They both smiled.
"So, what are you saying?" Andie asked me.
"I think," Jen cut in, "I think she's saying that God isn't cruel enough to give you a sick child but that if it ends up that you do have a sick child, there's no one stronger and more full of love than you to handle it." Jen glanced at me for my approval.
I nodded a little unable to speak, then I laughed. "She said it much better than I was going to say it."
"Thank you, guys," Andie said softly as she rested her head on Jen's shoulder.
"Anytime," I told her squeezing her hand.
"Yeah, anytime," Jen said patting Andie's shoulder and smiling at me.