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A picture says a thousand words.
'If I see another Smoked Salmon entrée I think I'm gonna hurl,' Jen said, throwing another unfinished plate into the trash.
'Yeah well you didn't have to deal with the 200 servings of chicken with sweet potatoes yesterday. I'm glad we found a homeless shelter to give it all too.' Jack said,
'Why didn't they take all the entrées then?'
'Cause it was kinda too much for them to deal with, the local homeless are only so many and the food can keep only so long. On that line, would you guys like to take some wedding cake home with you? I have 6 tiers?' Gail said as she and Bessie struggled to move the massive monument to the wedding that never was.
'We'll take a layer. I can take some of it to school next week.' Jack said. 'What flavour do you want, lemon or vanilla?'
'Oh…Lemon I think,' Jen said distractedly, trying to pin Amy down to put a diaper on her.
'Give me the strawberry layer. I can do something with it.' Bessie said, collapsing in the cavernous armchair in the Leery's front room. They four of them had spent the morning moving all of the wedding paraphernalia from the church and the restaurant to their homes, in the hope that eventually the pile would go down. Luckily, they were about the send back all of the gifts before Joey called and let them know about the good news. Leaving them in the Witter's spare room until the happy couple returned home, they tried to get everything else in order.
'So do you think we are going to get any thanks for all of this work then?' Jack said, swooping Amy up into his arms when Jen signalled she was ready once more.
'Probably not. This is Audrey,' Jen said, packing away the vast amount of equipment it took to make Amy a transportable commodity.
'Yeah but this is also Pacey. I'm sure we'll get thanks someday. But at least they are happy.' Gail said, taking a seat on the sofa and patting it so that Jen would sit next to her too.
Jen smiled and sat next to Gail. Gail slung her arm around her shoulder and kissed her on the head lovingly. Throwing herself into her family and friends had been something she did to mask her grief over Mitch and the affection that had grown then had not dissipated. She could see the maturity that Jen had blossomed into the minute Amy came into the world. She looked over at Jack, dotting over his surrogate daughter. She hoped that Dawson would be in that position one day.
'Hey, where is my son? How did he get out of all this?' Gail suddenly thought out loud.
'I don't know actually. Joey said they had some stuff to do but that they would see us later.' Bessie said, standing up and moving towards the table of half used disposable camera's left behind by bored guests. 'They left their luggage from yesterday though.' She bent down and picked up a Bloomingdales bag and placed it on the table.
'If they need it they will call.' Gail said, motioning to Jack that she wanted a cuddle with Amy.
'I'm gonna make some coffee to go with the mass of cake, anyone want some?' Jack said as he lowered Amy onto Gail's lap.
A chorus of yes's filled the room and Jack pulled Jen off the sofa. 'You can help me then young lady, leave Amy with her doting Auntie Gail,'
'Yes sir!' she said following him into the kitchen.
Suddenly the screen door slammed as Alex ran into the house, hotly followed by Lily waving a snapped doll.
'Alex I'm gonna kill you!' she shouted as she chased him around the living room in ever decreasing circles.
'It was an accident, I didn't know that dropping it out of a tree would break it' Alex protested, pulling the dinning room chairs out to protect him from the barrage of abuse. The cake wobbled dangerously as Bessie clutched at its base.
'Will you two stop this!' she warned but the loud crash ruined the silence. Amy began to scream.
Jen and Jack ran into the living room to see a guilty looking Alex and Lily standing next to the hall table, 20 or so disposable cameras scattered over the floor, the table next to it and a rattled looking Gail trying to comfort Amy.
'Is she okay?' Jen said, running over to Gail.
'She's fine, just a bit jumpy. She needs her mommy I think,' she handed her over and turned her attention to the terrible two.
'Both of you, upstairs to Lily's room and think about what you've done. And if I hear any arguing then there will be trouble.' Gail said, moving towards the pair and shoeing them upstairs. Without a word, the two moved up the stairs at speed and into Lily's room, slamming the door behind them.
'Look at this mess! Oh god I'm sorry Gail,' Bessie said, getting onto her knees and pulling the table back up.
'It's not your fault. They are as bad as each other some days. Anyway, we have to do something with these,' She started flicking through the camera to see which ones had pictures taken on them and which ones were unused.
'Only of few of these were actually used. I suppose we could get them developed.' Jack said as he looked over them.
'Be a waste otherwise wouldn't it? Bessie said, picking up a camera that seemed different to the others in its packaging. It was fully used though. 'One of the guests must have brought this one. We'll get it developed and then we can return it.'
'I was gonna go out to get you more milk so I can take them to et developed if you want? They do 1 hour development at that new pharmacy' Jack said, taking the mystery camera out of her hands and collecting the few that Gail had collected.
'Thanks Jack, can you grab me some Coffee as well thinking about it?' Gail said, grabbing the Bloomingdale's bag and stuffing the scattered contents into.
'Sure, anyone for anything else?' he asked at the door before turning and going.
'Hey, that's such a nice dress,' Gail said, pulling the lilac and cream dress from its crumpled landing spot.
'Joey must have got it from New York. It's lovely.' Jen said, moving towards Gail and running her hands across it.
'They must have gone out for a nice meal, it's been worn,' Bessie noted, seeing that all the tags were gone.
'Well they deserve it.' Gail said quickly, folding the dress carefully up and placing it back in the bag.
'So we've agreed, we'll handle Bessie first and then we will tell your Mom,' Joey repeated, watching Dawson's changing facial expression as the lowered themselves into the car.
'Right. Are you ready?'
'Not in the slightest. You?' She turned to him again.
'No. But we have to,' he said as he turned the engine over.
'I just wanted it to be us for a while…our little secret.'
'Okay, how about we go get the camera developed first and then have a nice lunch looking over the pictures?' he said reaching over and grabbing her hand.
'That sound lovely. Where is the camera?'
'I think it was in the same bag as your dress which…'
'…is at your Mom's house,' Joey joined in. 'It's okay, we'll go over to pick it up and say hi,'
'I'm here to collect some photos?' Jack said, sipping on his caramel latte as he stood in front of the bored teenager.
'Name,' the surly youth replied.
'MacPhee,' Jack responded in like
'Wait here,' he said as he trudged off to a back room.
Jack tutted and looked around the store. The pharmacy was new to Capeside, a chain store that had popped up while he had moved away. It seemed to be providing most of the town's youth with employment which had to be good.
'That'll be 20.95,' the youth had returned stealth-like while Jack considered his surroundings.
'Oh…here,' he handed over his credit card and the youth sighed again. Slowly, ever so slowly, he completed the transaction and threw the photos into a bag. 'The envelope on the top has 37 photos, all the others are partly done. Have a nice day' he said in one long drawl, as if someone was squeezing all the air out of him.
'Yeah…thanks,' Jack said, considering how he continued to work with teenagers.
'Well hello strangers,' Jen said as Dawson and Joey entered the Leery's front room.
'How is everything going?' Dawson said, kissing Gail on the cheek and sitting down next to them on the couch.
'Well you missed all the heavy work. All that is left is to divide the food amongst us all. I was thinking having a family dinner tonight,' Gail said.
'Sounds good,' Dawson said nervously. He glanced over to Joey but she had picked up Amy and was lost in baby world. He always was amazed that babies had such control over the female brain. Jen had joined her and they were both cooing over Amy. 'Where's Jack gone?' he said, suddenly craving some male company.
'He's nipped out to get some supplies…oh and get some of the disposable camera developed from yesterday.' Bessie said, also walking over to join Joey and Jen.
'Who was taking pictures yesterday?' Dawson said.
'Well we did in the morning before everything fell apart and some of the guests had arrived early. Plus some were taken at the rehearsal dinner.' Gail explained, getting to her feet and joining the others in the oestrogen soaked corner of the room.
'Oh and this mystery camera we found. We think one of the guests must have left it behind.' Jen said as she took Amy back off of a suddenly stiff Joey.
'Really? Why…why do you think it…it was different,' Joey said, sliding over to the almost glowing Bloomingdale's bag on the corner of the table.
'It wasn't one of those wedding ones that Audrey bought, looked like it was a bought at a tourist spot somewhere.' Gail said joining Joey over by the table 'By the way, I'm sorry for being nosey but we had an accident earlier and your dress popped out of the bag. Its gorgeous, was it a present?'
'Hmmm….errr…. it…' Joey began
'…it was a gift, from me. We had dinner and Joey had nothing to wear so I bought it for her, didn't I Joey?' Dawson said, flying to his feet and taking the bag from Joey and taking the dress out, passing the bag back to Joey.
'…yeah, it was lovely,' she said, trying to rummage around the bag.
'Where did you go?' Jen asked.
'hmmm….that place in central park….you know….' Dawson said, looking over to Joey as she shook her head from side to side.
'Tavern on the green?' Jen elaborated.
'Yeah' Joey said, taking the dress back and shoving it into the bag. 'Anyway we better get….'
'I'm back.' Jack's voice filled the room and sent a shiver down Dawson and Joey's spine.' I bring gifts of Milk, Coffee and photo's.' He passed the grocery bag to Bessie and the photos to Gail.
'Oh lets get this mystery solved.' Gail said as she shuffled the photo envelopes.
'No!' Dawson and Joey shouted at once. Everyone stopped to look at them.
'Why? Bessie asked as she returned from the kitchen.
'Because….because….it's rude to, right Dawson?' Joey began, nudging Dawson in the ribs.
'Oww…I mean yeah, it could have personal photos on it.' He moved towards his mother. 'Maybe you should give them to me and I will mail them to their owner.'
'But that's why we got them developed, cause we don't know,' Gail ran her finger under the lip of the envelope.
'Well…we could just send them to Audrey and she can sort it out, it was her wedding after all?' Joey added, joining Dawson as they both moved towards Gail.
'What's the matter with you two, it's almost as if these were your pictures….are they your photo's?' Bessie said, standing next to Gail and taking the envelope from her.
'No…yes, they our photos from New York…' Dawson suddenly said snatching the photo's back from Bessie.
'Oh I get it...they must have got mixed in with the others. Sorry you guys,' Jack said, nudging Dawson in the ribs and winking. Joey blushed a deep shade of red and took the photos from Dawson.
'Well that solved the mystery then, what about the other ones?' Jen said, nodding at Gail who held the wad of other photo envelopes.
'Oh, here you go.' Gail handed one out to Jen, Jack and Bessie. 'We might as well all get to look at some.
Joey ran out onto the porch as the blush got too much, followed by an equally embarrassed Dawson.
'What did you say that for?' she hissed and she ripped the envelope open.
'What does it matter, we have them don't we?' he said, walking her towards the car.
'I suppose. We can't tell them now though, it will look too suspicious.' Dawson took the photos from her and started to look through them 'No, we better leave it for a few weeks…maybe when this whole wedding thing has calmed down…that or we could announce our engagement and have a fake wedding, that would work…'
Dawson stopped dead in his tracks. 'I don't think we will have too…' he looked over to her, his face white, his expression blank and his hand full of pictures of Audrey posing on tables during the rehearsal dinner.
He quickly dropped them and ran towards the house, Joey behind him and they reached the front door.
Bessie, Jen, Gail and Jack stood in a circle, all crowded around the one envelope in Gail's hand. Jack and Jen, desperately trying not to laugh as Bessie and Gail's faces were still in shock.
It was too late.
Their secret was out.
Jack cleared his throat and looked at the worried pair at the door.
'So…hmmm…wanna tell us anything….Mr and Mrs Leery?'
