This is something a little new for me...I usually stick with Harry Potter stories :) But I've wanted to write a Joey/Pacey fic for awhile now. I find them to be such a great couple. They have so much raw energy and chemistry between them. Anyhow, this is slightly AU. For instance, Will never moved away and he and Andie are together (I always wanted him to be more involved). Other things may come along that are AU, so I'm warning you now...if you don't like that stuff then I apologize. Here's the introduction to the action. I have no idea how long this will be or where it will lead ultimately, so if you have any feedback for me please leave a review. Thanks!

A Trip to Remember

For most of Joey Potter's life the sun rose and set on one boy. Of course there had been other guys in her life - Anderson, who had given her her first kiss and made her feel beautiful, and Jack, who taught her about art…then told her he was gay - but in the end, Dawson Leery had been the one who mattered most. It all came back to him, that golden haired dreamer who had placed Joey in the role of his soul mate in the movie that was their lives. And she was thankful that he had; he was a part of so much of her life, but ever since he had come back from Philadelphia he was different. He didn't need her anymore. It hurt for awhile, but she found solace in the place she least expected it.

Pacey Witter. Joey didn't know when he stopped being the friend who dried the tears she shed over Dawson, or the ride to pick her up whenever she needed him - like the night she fled Boston and A.J. But suddenly he became more; the less she depended on Dawson for comfort and companionship, the more she began to seek out Pacey's calming gaze and ready heart.

Things began to get complicated when he kissed her. She began to feel things stirring inside of her that she never had experienced before, even with Dawson. Pacey kept her on her toes; he constantly challenged her to follow her dreams in any means necessary, but he was always willing to help her in any way he could. With Pacey, Joey could be herself - her real self - and not the complex character Dawson created her into when she was around him. She still had her sarcasm and sharp wit intact around Pacey, but he seemed to thrive on it and recognize it rather than twist it around to toss back in her face later.

And he cared. He really cared about her, in a way that nobody else ever did or could. She knew that Dawson thought he needed her, but she was beginning to have her doubts. Joey thought that while Dawson loved the idea of a soul mate and the idea of her being his soul mate, it was really just that - the idea of it. He could live without being her romantic interest, in fact, he had been for quite some time now…but she wanted more. Joey wanted to be needed; she wanted to be everything to someone, not the one standing on the outskirts while the boy she loved for the longest time figured out what it was exactly that he wanted.

Joey's initial outburst at Pacey's kiss was due more to the fact that she found herself returning his kiss, something she never thought she would do. At that moment, it seemed that what was standing right in front of her hit her like a ton of bricks, and she didn't quite know how to deal with it. The world as she knew it turned upside down and she found herself realizing exactly what the feelings and dependency she had for Pacey were all about. On one hand, she was thrilled and wanted nothing more to explore what could develop between them. On the other hand, there was Dawson.

At that point, she had to decide for herself what was more important to her - a lifetime of friendship, or the electric sparks that flew between Pacey and herself whenever they were in the same room with one another. She knew she wasn't going to have much time to work it out on her own seeing as how they were all headed up to Dawson's Aunt Gwen's house for the last time over Spring Break. Joey only hoped that she would be able to come to a decision of what the right thing to do was; made even more difficult by the fact that both the boys in question would be attending. How could she spend the days with Dawson, using words neither of them should have in their vocabulary, when she was secretly yearning to be kissing Pacey? It wasn't fair to any of them: Dawson, because he deserved to be with someone who wanted to be there with him, Pacey, because he didn't even realize how much Joey wanted to be with him, and Joey, because she was stuck in a situation no one should have to be trapped in.

She didn't want to choose. While part of her realized it was selfish in some ways to have both of them in her life - she knew that one would always feel threatened by the other when it came to her - she knew that she couldn't live without either of them. Dawson sharing in her past gave her a link to it, and she felt somehow that she would lose whatever grasp she had on it if she let him go. As far as Pacey went, she hadn't stopped thinking about that kiss since the day it happened…and she didn't want to.

The day they were leaving for Aunt Gwen's had turned out to be a beautiful day. Dawson and Joey were sharing an uncomfortable silence as they finished loading up the truck, mostly due to the fact that all he was getting out of Joey were two syllable responses.

"Are you alright, Jo? You seem a bit, I don't know, preoccupied or something today."

"Me? Oh yeah, I'm uh…yeah, I'm fine…" Joey's words trailed off as her gaze shifted to the right side of Dawson. He followed the direction her eyes went and his heart sank as he saw Pacey walking up with his friend Will. Though Dawson didn't want to believe his friends could be capable of anything so underhanded, he couldn't help but be aware of the change in the air around Joey and Pacey lately. Every time they were all in a room together Pacey couldn't keep his eyes off of Joey. At first, Dawson just assumed Pacey was being a good friend and keeping an eye on Joey like he had asked, but then he recognized something else in Pacey's eyes - a sincere, deeply felt affection. He unfortunately was beginning to notice the same look in Joey's eyes whenever Pacey was around.

"Potter," Pacey called by way of greeting. "You're looking incredibly rugged. Couldn't find a shower, or was the creek incredibly rough today?"

"Bite me, Witter. At least I found the time to brush my hair before dragging my sorry ass here this morning," Joey replied with a trademark scowl.

"Alright guys, can we leave the sarcasm here, or am I gonna have to pull over every ten minutes?" Dawson chimed in rolling his eyes at the two, though secretly he was happy to hear them bickering with each other. They had been too close for his comfort lately and the trademark banter made him feel much more at ease about his developing relationship with Joey (or what he assumed was a developing relationship).

"I'll be happy to leave it here as long as the cretin sits nowhere near me," Joey quipped.

"Don't flatter yourself, Potter." Pacey threw his and Will's bags into the back of the truck alongside Joey and Dawson's as Andie staggered up with all of her luggage. She graciously smiled at Will as he took her bags from her and loaded them up. She gave him a kiss on the cheek as she led him to sit next to her in the truck. No one was surprised when Andie and Will got together, and strangely, nobody was happier than Pacey when they did. He figured that everyone should have their shot at happiness, and Will was a good guy. If anybody deserved Andie, he did.

A few last minute instructions from Gale and Mitch, a trip to fill up on gas, and the five friends were on the road. They knew this trip would most likely be the last like it. They knew times like these were far and few between and that they would most likely look back on it for years to come. What they didn't know was that they were driving towards their fate - inexplicable and irreversible - their lives were about to change forever, with just a few words, a single action, or one longing glance.