Chapter 2

"Hey Jo, what are you doing for Christmas?"

Joey laughed at the way Jen phoned her without saying hello or anything. She always seemed to make her day better.

"I don't know… I believe we decided we were gonna have dinner together but we have yet to settle the location"

"How about my place?"

"Sounds good but why exactly there?"

"Well, Jack's having some friends over and we're throwing a dinner for them. And I'm not having any Christmas dinner without you"

"So you've basically made plans and now you're forcing me to go along with them"

"Pretty much, yeah"

"So what if I have other stuff to do?"

"You cancel them, obviously…"

Joey sighed dramatically.

"Fine, I'll have my secretary squeeze you into my tight schedule. I might pass by for a minute or two."

"Good cause I'm counting on you to help me clean up."

Joey rolled her eyes.

"I suppose I should be thankful you're not making me cook…"

"There's no way I'm letting you cook for my guests… if I wanna poison them I'll just buy some arsenic, it'll be a lot cheaper and a lot easier to cover it up…"

"This coming from the person that thinks broccolis and spagghetis are the same thing."

"Well I ain't got the vocabulary but unlike you I can cook edible stuff… and they both sound Italian anyway… besides, we're ordering in at the dinner"

"Ordering in? On a Christmas dinner? This is so not Christmas spirit"

"What would you rather have? Christmas spirit or good edible dinner?"

"I'm still pondering on that one… we're losing our values, you know"

"Yeah I know I know, young people nowadays"

Amy's voice screamed in the background.

"Speaking of young people, I gotta go", stressed Jen took over. "She's been bugging me about eating some sort of chocolate Jack bought her in Disneyland… I swear, Jack's too nice for anybody's good…"

"Yeah yeah go now and feed that child. I'll see you on Sunday"

-------------------------------------------------

Visiting building sites was not always fun. Joey decided to walk home to calm down her nerves. Her client, mr. Darlington, was not exactly the easiest of people. And Dawson was not exactly understanding when she took her work problems home. So she just walked.

"Joey!"

She heard Jack calling her and turned around. Jack was enthusiastic about something, obviously.

"How's it going?"

"It's going great! How about you? I heard you paid an extended visit to the god of cartoons."

"Yeah that was a lot of fun" Jack smirked. "For Amy of course"

"Of course" Joey rolled her eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Well we're buying presents now. And I have this huge shopping list Jen gave me for the Christmas dinner on Tuesday. Which reminds me. You ARE coming for the Christmas dinner"

"Of course I'm coming, Jack, I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Good. See, I'm pretty nervous, it's my first Christmas in Boston so I'm trying to make it as good as I can".

"Don't worry about a thing Jack, I'm sure it's gonna be great."

She was surprised to be reminded that Jack had only been in Boston for half a year. He and Jen seemed such a fixed couple, it was hard to believe they had just gotten back together two months before (after sniffling around each other for other four months before that).

"Hey Jackers, are we Christmas shopping or picking up lovely ladies on the streets?"

Joey turned around and was faced with a tall blue-eyed brunette.

"Not that I mind picking up lovely ladies, shopping ain't my thing anyway", he winked.

"Joey this is Drue, Drue this is Joey. And before you start flirting or something, may I remind you both that you're married…"

"Well I suppose all good ones are taken…" Drue smirked.

"And some of the bad ones too", Joey picked up right away. Drue raised his right eyebrow.

"I like this lady, Jackers. A woman after my own heart"

Joey blushed a little. She wasn't much used to compliments.

"Good. She'll be at the Christmas dinner anyway. And she'll probably be over at our place on Sunday." Jack looked at Joey for confirmation. "It is our house's turn this week, isn't it?"

"Oh" Drue seemed to be struck by realization "This is Jen's friend…"

"Yeah, that would be me."

"Yeah, the new threesome member"

"Excuse me?"

"Didn't you know? These two are into threesome-like relationships… Beware…" Drue giggled.

Joey looked at Jack who just laughed. OK. So it was a joke. She should have known that.

--------------------------------------

She showed up at Jen's a little later than usual.

"Sorry, Jen but Dawson discovered a new recipe and he decided to show me how good a cook he is. So I kinda already had dinner"

"It's OK as long as you're still alive" Jen said. "We're not alone this evening"

"Oh yeah, I heard, I bumped into Jack yesterday and he introduced me to Drue"

"Yeah, one of Jack's old friends. They used to have a band, you know. Jack was the drummer" Jen winked and started mumbling "Sweaty sexy drummer, yum…"

"OK I really don't need to know everything…"

"Oh come on, Jo, we're best buds and everything. You really don't wanna know what he looked like with his shirt all wet and how his muscles looked from the effort?" Jen practically drooled at the thought. "One of the first times I saw him he was drumming. It was love at first sight, I tell ya…"

"Uh, earth to Jen… I don't want to know about Jack's sweaty appeal…"

"Well, I figured since your guy is not exactly muscly and stuff, you might wanna live the real life through me"

"Oh, so that's what best buds do they rub it in each other's faces that they have muscly guys unlike others…?"

"It's the best bud's job to open your eyes to the world of possibilities out there. There are so many muscly guys out there, there's just gotta be one out there for you"

"I'd rather have the brain, really"

"Nothing wrong with having both you know. Jack's not exactly dumb"

"Never said he is. But there are not many people like Jack out there."

"True. Sad, but true", Jen concluded philosophically.

Joey just smirked and started taking her coat off. She was used to Jen treating her like she was still single. It was like an unwritten agreement between them "Jen will never accept Dawson as husband of Joey's…" She was surprisingly ok with that… well unless she was supposed to go on blind dates or something… Jen definitely did not go there, thank god.

She went into the living room. There was Jack, Drue and three other people.

"Everyone, this is Joey." Jen started. "Joey, this is Oliver, his girlfriend Sarah, this is Drue's wife Audrey, and you already met Drue."

"Hi everyone", Joey greeted with a smile. They greeted back.

"Finally we meet you, Joey!" Audrey jumped enthusiastically. "We were beginning to think you were just a fantasy"

"Why would you think that?" Joey frowned.

"Well, Jen kept talking about you like you were the perfect best friend or something. And since that does not exist, unless you're talking about me, it was either that she was exaggerating or that you didn't exist" Audrey smiled perkily. Joey wasn't sure if she was joking or not.

"Now, honey, no need to scare her off… how about you drop off your best friend abilities and start thinking about the wife obligations?" Drue wiggled his eyebrows.

Audrey looked at him flirtily: "Wife obligations? You are obligated to provide me and I am obligated to look pretty. That's what this whole marriage thing is about. And since my looking pretty is a given, I don't have any wife obligations" Audrey came to her conclusion.

"Now guys, I thought you didn't want to scare her off…" Jack started cautiously.

"No worries, Jack, I'll just lurk around and make fun of you in my mind. Go on. Have your way", Joey said and sat down on the couch. Everyone stared at her in awe.

"Jackers have I mentioned that I like this lady?" Drue grinned but soon his grin was replaced with a thortured glance towards Audrey. "Will you save that for later?"

"Sure as long as you save your compliments for me, since I am your wife and all…"

Joey loved the atmosphere. She had never had a group of friends, there was always Jen or Dawson or Jen and Dawson but since they weren't exactly buddies, there was never that playful group banter. Sure, Jen socialized a lot in her only year of college but Joey didn't meet many of her friends back then and they didn't quite mix.

The door rang and Jack went to open it. Everyone sat down on the couch and on the floor except for Jen who was looking for the remote control.

"Damn, I know I've seen it somewhere… And there's that movie with Keanu Reeves tonight!"

"Lindley, I am not watching Keanu Reeves if you have to tie me to the chair, I swear to god" a voice came from behind.

"Pacey!!" Jen beamed, ran towards him and jumped into his arms. Jack just came from behind and laughed at them.

"Easy guys, don't destroy the house or something."

"Well, you know me, I couldn't not destroy something if I wanted", Pacey smirked while putting Jen down.

Joey watched Jen in awe. She was glowing. She usually was, but now it was better than usual. It was so uncharacteristical for the cool, laid back Jen that she knew who always kept to herself.

Drue moved towards the two: "Hey Witter. You made it after all"

"Yeah, I figured what the hell… It's a band reunion after all" he winked.

"Not really, we're not singing or something" Jack said.

"Hell why not?" Oliver jumped into conversation. "We were pretty good"

"Yeah but we've got nothing. No instruments, no nothing. And it's not like we played in the last year or anything."

"Sorry to cut your band conversation short" Jen interfeared, "but we're having a friends' reunion. As you can see, it's not just the band here".

Pacey seemed to suddenly be aware of his surroundings. He looked around and his eyes stopped on Joey who just stood there and watched the whole exchange, feeling totally out of it but loving it nevertheless. He smiled, a sad half-smile, then turned to Jen.

"Well, Lindley, if you're gonna make this a proper reunion, you are going to introduce me properly and everything."

Jen dragged Pacey towards the couch.

"Okay then, Pacey, this is Joey, my best friend. Joey, this is Pacey, Jack's best friend."

"How do you do" he said and smiled politely. Joey felt out of place. The way he looked at her was making her unconfortable. She couldn't tell why.

"I feel ignored" Audrey said coughing.

"You might want to talk to your husband about that", Pacey smirked and turned towards her.