Two more chapters and then we are done people. Pleas enjoy some good old DJ loving from me.
Swallowed in the Sea.
She rolled over and saw his face. The face a year ago she never thought she would see again. The gentle sunlight of the morning played across it, highlighting his already blond hair. He was beautiful.
She rolled back onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. The last two days had been a whirlwind of emotions and events. It was true that her only reason for going to New York was to donate her hair to the cancer charity. She had been doing some classes at the hospital with some of the sickest children, purely as something she always wanted to do for her mother, and met a little girl, Rebecca, with no hair but the bravest smile in the world.
The nurses had told Joey all about the little girl's struggle and that finally she was better. The little girl was mesmerized by Joey's long hair, asking her to brush it and plait it. On casual conversation with her mother she found out about the charity that made special wigs for deserving kids but how they were on a very long waiting list. Joey didn't need to be asked twice.
She ran her hand over the remains of her hair. It hadn't been this short since she was 14. She loved it though, mostly because she knew it was a worthwhile cause. The wig would be ready in 3 weeks when Rebecca was coming home and Joey was going to present it to her then.
Running her hair through her hair again, it snagged on the new set of rings proudly sitting on the 4th finger of her left hand. A single, simple antique gold band with another smaller band with a delicate collection of purple and white gems nestled in the centre. Dawson still had his ring on too she noted and she entwined her hand with his, delicately so not to wake him up.
They hadn't gone to get married. Certainly not. It had happened so fast.
'You're amazing you know that?' Dawson said as they walked through Grand Central station to get their train home.
'It's just some hair…' Joey said, tucking it nervously behind her ears as she searched the departures board. Dawson continued to gaze at her. He was in such awe of her that he could barely process it.
'No…it's not just hair... You are the most selfless person I have ever met…and… I don't want this to ever end Joey.' He said, turning her around to face him in front of the crowd of others looking for their train details.
'It won't, you know that…' she started but Dawson placed his finger over her lips.
'Joey…this is not how I wanted to do this but…we could…what I mean is…would you…' The crowd of people around them started to look over to the young couple, quickly realising what was happening and smiling at the prospect.
'Dawson…' Joey whispered.
'Marry me. Here, today…I can't imagine another second of my life going by without you…' He could hear her gasp slightly, trying to filter out the collective sounds of the audience amassing next to them.
Could she do this? After everything that had happened was it finally their chance? She looked into his eyes and saw the answer.
'Oh Dawson…' Joey reached over and pressed her lips, salty with her tears, against his as the crowd cheered. She broke away, wiping the tears away from his face and nuzzled her head into his neck.
'Is that a yes?'
'I'd say it is buddy,' said the policeman watching from the sidelines.
'I'd just like to hear it from her first…' He said smiling, looking from the crowd to Joey as she pulled away.
'Of course I will marry you Dawson. I love you,'
'I love you too Joey,' He lowered his face for another kiss and the cheers and well wishes from the crowd increased.
'Ok folks, shows over. Let's leave them in peace.' The policeman said, ushering the crowd away. 'Congratulations' he said as he walked away.
'Thank you,' Joey said, gripping onto Dawson in case her legs did give way as she suspected they would.
'Are you okay?'
'Never better. We better get this train home…'
'I thought you'd just said you wanted to marry me?'
'Be serious Dawson…how can we…''
'It will be so simple Joey, no shouting relatives, no extensive research into cakes or limos. Just you and me, declaring our love for one another…what do you say?'
It didn't take Joey long to replay the events of the last 4 months with Audrey's wedding for her to make a decision. They took the first cab to city hall and booked a slot for later that day. After 2 hours looking at rings in various jewellery stores around the city they finally settled on an antique store on the east side, the two rings nestled into one another perfectly in the window. A quick stop at Bloomingdales for a dress and a suit, a mad dash to get changed in a nearby hotel they booked into and they were on the steps of city hall. Married by a woman with a kind face that reminded them both of Grams, Joey's choice of spaghetti strapped lilac and ivory chiffon dress matched the bunch of wild flowers Dawson had bought from a flower seller on the corner of the street. They said their I do's, jumped into a cab and took mad photos of themselves in central park with a disposable camera, grabbing passers by to help them. Their reception, a hastily thrown together picnic in the park with the sun slowly lowering across the city, ended the perfect day for the pair of them.
Dawson stirring next to her woke her from her daydream. She ran her hand through his tussled hair.
'Morning Mr Leery,' she whispered.
'Morning Mrs Leery,' his eyes still closed, he reached over to her and pulled her into a deep embrace. He kissed her gently and opened his eyes.
'So…how did you sleep?' she whispered.
'Wonderfully…but I always do when I'm with you,'
'Flattery will get you everywhere young man.' She kissed him again.
'As…nice …as this…is…don't you think…we …have people to talk…to?' Dawson said between kisses.
She rested her forehead against his and closed her eyes. 'I know'
'What are we going to do?'
'Well we need to find Audrey first and then we can deal with our families. Do you think they will be that mad?' Visions of an enraged Bessie had been filling her mind on and off for the last day.
'Well hopefully the craziness of yesterday might have fixed it so they will never want to be part of another wedding but…this is my mother…'
'…and my sister…any ideas?'
The shrill of Joey's cell phone broke the moment and both of them sighed deeply. She reached over to the bedside table and tried to make out the caller ID with blurred vision.
'Oh my god…' She whispered before sitting bolt upright and opening the phone 'Audrey, where the hell are you?'
'Actually it's Mrs Witter now! I got married bunny!'
'What?' Joey looked over to Dawson and put the phone on speaker phone.
'I'm in Vegas with Pacey and we just got married! Isn't it wonderful?' Audrey said, looking over to Pacey trying to pull the Vulcan ears off his head with great difficultly.
'Did they use superglue for these?' he moaned, leaning over to the phone and shouting 'She made me wear a costume Jo, a Vulcan Costume.'
'Audrey…are you okay?' Joey said slowly, grabbing Dawson's hand to stop herself laughing at the vision on Pacey dressed as Spook.
'Didn't you hear honey, I got married! Of course I'm okay. Plus I got to dress as princess Leia…' she said, readjusting herself into her gold Bikini. Utterly devastated that their were not suitable Star Trek woman who she deemed sexy enough she ran to a local fancy dress store and rented the costume, much to the annoyance of the owners of the wedding chapel but Pacey was understandably happy.
'Okay…well as long as you are okay…I suppose congratulations…'
'Thank honey. Can you let everyone know that I am okay and apologise for yesterday. Especially Dawson's mom I feel so bad about that…'
'We will Audrey, my mom will be fine. Actually we have something to tell you…' Dawson began, looking over to a smiling Joey…' Joey and I got…'
'Oh I've gotta go guys, our ride is here. We will call you when we are back from Honeymoon. Hawaii here we come. Bye!' Audrey shouted, lowering herself into the lime green limousine they had rented.
'But Audrey…' Joey shouted but the line had gone dead. 'Well, trust Audrey to out do us at every turn,'
'Would you have wanted to get married in a gold lame bikini?' Dawson asked, getting to his feet.
'No.'
'Then they didn't out do you did they? We better start calling people to let them know they are both okay.' Dawson pulled on his trousers and groped around for his shirt.
'Okay…I was hoping maybe we could spend a few more moments in bed.' Joey said, diving under the covers. After some wriggling the oversized T shirt of Dawson's she had been wearing came off and she threw it across the room, hitting his face.
He peeled the t-shirt off his face and saw the cheeky grin on his wife's face peeking out from under her old patchwork quilt. She winked at him and dove back under the covers, a pair of panties flying towards him shortly afterwards.
'Oh is this how it's going to be?' he mumbled, quickly struggling out of his trousers and joining her back in their new marital bed. Maybe everyone could wait for another couple of hours to find out their secret.
