Chapter 11
The Two of Us
by: Jade
Disclaimer: Dawson's Creek
is not my property.
Author's Note: In this chapter the focus is once again on the character
of Jen Lindley. Read on and find out about a significant episode from her past.
"Hello dearie."
Jen smiled warmly at the elderly woman who reminded her of Grams.
"Hello," she responded.
"Do you mind if I ask how many months are you?"
She instinctively raised a hand to the slight swell of her abdomen beneath her
loose-fitting clothes. "Close to three."
"My granddaughter's eight months herself. Any day now," the woman
could barely contain her excitement as she proudly proclaimed, "my first
grandchild will be born."
"Congratulations."
"Is this your first one?" Jen nodded to her question, to which she
said, "I'm sure your family's just as excited."
She simply smiled and gestured a goodbye as the woman stood up, having seen her
granddaughter leave the examining room and made her way to the reception counter
with her.
Jen wondered what Grams would say about her current situation if she were still
alive. Probably disapproved that she hadn't got married first.
"Jennifer Lindley?"
She looked up at the nurse who called her name in the waiting room and followed
the latter into the doctor's office.
*****
She finally let out the breath she had been
holding outside the clinic. She had made her decision and there was little time
left for her to change her mind now. A couple of voices coming down the hallway
toward the elevators distracted her from her thoughts.
"You should have seen a doctor before this."
"I told you I was fine."
"Oh yeah," the college girl replied sarcastically, "you felt so
good, you nearly fainted in my arms."
The boy with her started coughing and groaned immediately at the effort it took
having done that.
"Serves you right," she lectured but her face told a different story.
She relented and took his arm gently as he lightly leant against her for
support.
"Do I look as bad as I feel?" he asked raspy.
"Worse."
She felt nostalgic watching them. The girl sensed that someone was looking her
way and turned. Jen's gaze dropped to her feet in slight embarrassment. The
girl stared on curiously but was distracted by the sound of the elevator
arriving. Jen decided to wait this one out.
~~~~~
She reached out to knock on the door but it
opened beneath the weight of her knuckles. "Hello," she called out.
"It's Jen."
She took tentative steps into the room until she was sure there was no one
around that she would unnecessarily shock or surprise. Pacey's side was in its
natural state of habitation, she concluded. She wondered how on earth she was
going to find the CDs she lent him in the mess. Her roommate Alice needed them
for her party tonight and she had promised after all.
Only Pacey knew where his things were. He had to be away this weekend just when
she needed his sense of order. She bent down and began to pick dirty laundry
off the floor and saw something she didn't really want to see and threw his
shirts back over it.
"Urgh," she grimaced. "Oh man, what have I done to deserve
this." A sudden noise behind her nearly threw her off her momentum and
into the mess. She turned around and saw Danny blowing his nose. He looked like
he was going to say something to her but changed his mind and fell back on his
bed instead.
She cautiously approached and stopped at the foot of the bed. "Are you
okay?" she finally asked tentatively.
"Couldn't be better," he replied dryly, his eyes closed.
Jen rolled her eyes at the obvious dismissal and went back to her ransacking.
She managed to ignore his coughing and heaving for a minute before she took
charge. Without waiting for an invitation, she sat by him on the bed and laid
the back of her hand to his forehead.
He was burning up.
"Have you seen a doctor?"
"I don't believe in doctors," he muttered.
"I bet you don't believe you're really sick either," she said
sardonically.
He opened his reddened and teary eyes then and said through a stuffed nose.
"Do you think it's appropriate to be sarcastic at this time?"
"Spoken like a true lawyer," she grumbled, unable to help feeling
sympathetic. "Come on, I'm taking you to the clinic."
He tried to protest but he couldn't really gather the strength to do much but
say weakly, "I took something. All I need is sleep."
"What you need is a prescription." She propped him and struggled to
help him stand up. Danny Lerner was by no means a small man, especially in
comparison to her size.
She succeeded in getting him downstairs and into a cab. He was pretty much only
semi-conscious throughout the journey, his head lolling on her shoulder. She
tried to keep it there for awhile but finally allowed him to slide further down
and rest his head on her lap. He mumbled something and then seemed to lapse out
of reality.
Jen watched him and wondered why she felt this compulsion to make sure he would
be all right. She reached out to brush his hair from his forehead and the dark
bags under his eyes told her he had had a couple of sleepless nights. He
mumbled something again. She took his cold and clammy hand and whispered,
"Hey, everything's going to be okay."
She was roused out of her reverie by another
train passing the one she was in. She looked out at the station they'd stopped
at and was grateful she hadn't missed her own stop in all her daydreaming.
Five minutes later, she was walking out of the subway station into daylight
again. Feeling the need to cheer herself up, she bought some flowers to
brighten up the office. And as she was turning a corner, someone shouted a
warning and she instinctively protected herself first by moving out of the way
of an incoming trolley of heavy-looking but rather harmless cargo. She sighed
after that and picked up the bunch of flowers she had flung aside. They seemed
to be in better shape than her, she thought as she dusted their petals. She
laid a hand lightly onto her stomach and muttered, "We're okay, kid but your
Mom's becoming paranoid."
She got to the office with no further incident and called for her assistant to
fill her in for the day. "A Mrs. McGarry stopped by about an hour ago,
asking to see you."
"McGarry?" She didn't recall a client, old or potentially new by that
name. "Did she say what it was about?"
"No. She just asked when you'd be back and if she could see you as soon as
you're available. I told her later this afternoon. Is that all right?"
Jen nodded and began to work herself into a stupor for the day.
*****
It wasn't easy taking him to the doctor's and
then bringing him back but she did it. As she handed him some capsules and a
glass of water in his dorm room, she told him "These are going to put you
to sleep but you're going to feel a thousand times better later."
He threw them into the back of his mouth and took a gulp of water and then
leaned back against the pillows, looking at her.
She was suddenly conscious of the fact that there was nothing else for her to
do. "Errm, I think I'm just going to go-"
"Weren't you looking for something among Pacey's heap before I
interrupted?"
"I don't think Alice is going to mind. I'm never going to find anything
under there anyway."
"Try the first drawer at his desk. He sometimes keeps the stuff he borrows
from me there."
She followed his advice and opened it. Underneath some papers, she found the
CDs and held them up in mid-air. "Thanks," she said, smiling. She was
about to close the drawer when she spotted some photographs. Seeing herself,
she picked them up and smiled further at what she saw. She almost didn't
recognize herself at fifteen
and then another one
snapped when they were joking around at school a year later. She remembered how
much Pacey had been flirting with her when she first got to Capeside and the
brief sex pact they had going in junior year and laughed quietly. She sat
herself down on his chair and looked through the rest. She kept the smile on
her face as she saw his prom picture with Andie.
When she came to the last one in the pile, her smile wavered and her brows
knotted in a subsequent frown. It was one of him with Dawson and
Joey. They looked so young and happy and she had to remind herself it wasn't
really so long ago that the three of them were still the best of friends. She
put the photos back and shut the drawer.
"Pacey showed them to me once," Danny said. "You look nice in
those pictures."
"I looked terrible," she said, almost absently.
"Nah, you didn't" he responded softly.
She looked toward him. "Thanks," she said gently.
"Is something wrong?" he noted.
"No." She got up from the chair and walked back to Danny's side.
"Those photos brought back some memories."
"A picture speaks a thousand words. You and Pacey are close."
"Yeah," she conceded. "We are."
"Have you ever thought-" he began and then hesitated to finish what
he was going to say.
She raised a brow. "Thought what?"
"Nothing."
She didn't push him and instead stood up to survey her surroundings. "You
don't mind if I look around, do you?" she asked.
"Just as long as you don't ask too many questions," he half-joked.
Jen ran her fingers through the spines of the books on his shelf. From that she
knew he had eclectic tastes in reading at least. She moved to his desk and
picked up a photo frame. The teenager in it was holding up a large fish he'd
probably caught from the river behind him and was grinning proudly at the
camera. "Who's this?" she questioned.
He kept quiet a long time before she looked back at him and realized he was
staring, somewhat in surprise at her. He started to frown.
"Did I say something wrong?" she added.
"No," he recovered to say. "That's my brother."
"Older or younger?"
"Younger."
"What grade is he in?"
"He died three years ago."
She silently berated herself for being so inquisitive. "I'm really
sorry."
"It's okay." He shrugged. "It's been awhile." But even as
he reassured her it was so, his face told a different story. The wound was
still fresh.
"You know what," she hastily said, "I ought to get back and
leave you to sleep it off."
"Thanks for today," he told her.
"No problem," she replied.
"I mean it," he added.
"I know." She smiled and left.
He closed his eyes and
when he fell asleep, he dreamt of his brother again.
*****
"Jen, Mrs. McGarry's here."
"Send her in," Jen replied into the intercom.
She straightened her jacket and tried to ignore her aching feet as she stood up
to greet the visitor.
The woman who entered the room looked vaguely familiar but Jen didn't recognize
her until she came closer and spoke.
"I didn't leave a first name in case you remembered. Do you remember me,
Jen?"
Jen closed her eyes momentarily. She sighed and looked right back at her.
"Yes. You're Danny's aunt."
Feedback please, to: pacey@hockeymail.com