A/N: Thanks for everyone who reviewed our last chapter! You rock! More reviews please? Hope you enjoy the chapter. The proverbial triangle go camping.
"I want you to make sure you put lots of Mosquito repellent on," Joey's mother instructed. "Make sure you always wear your raincoat, you never know when it might start to rain."
"Mum! It's July!"
"Even if it doesn't start raining that Pacey will probably start a water fight! Sweet kid!"
"Sweet? Okaay… Which Capeside have you been living in? Last week Pacey flicked ink all over me!"
"Awe… I wondered where that stain was from. He's only 8 Joey, that's what 8 year old boys do!"
"Dawson doesn't."
"That's because he's Dawson! The mature one…"
"Well maybe Pacey should be more like Dawson."
"Joey when you're older, you'll realise that Pacey means just as much to you as Dawson does. Until then… have fun camping!"
"You're not going to do a check list? You always do that!"
"I have to go to work honey, ask Bessie. Come here." She threw her arm around little Joey, and kissed her affectionately on the forehead.
"Mum!" Joey complained, wriggling out of her grip. "See you after the weekend!" and with that, she skipped off. "Bye dad!" she called to her dad who was watching television.
He watched her go, confused. "Where is she going?" he asked Lily.
Lily sighed. "You never listen do you? She's going camping with Dawson and Pacey! And I'm going to work, someone need to be the breadwinner for this family. Make sure Bessie gets off to school."
Pacey sat in Dawson's room, throwing a baseball against the wall as Dawson's parents fussed over Dawson.
"I know you and Dawson have been watching the Great Escape, Pacey, but really… we can play ball out side," Mitch warned him, "That way we don't have to spend money on fixing the walls."
Pacey stopped, and smiled, "Good God, man. Do you really believe I haven't thought about that, too?"
Mitch stared at him blankly.
Dawson smiled, "It's a quote from The Great Escape, Dad."
"Right," Mitch replied. "So what times Joey getting here?"
"She'll be jumping threw the window anytime soon," Pacey replied.
"I hope that ladders safe," Gail worried.
"If not, she'll fall to her death and we can go camping without her!" Pacey joked.
"You love her really!" said Mitch, patting him on the head, "Wasn't this your idea anyway?"
"It wasn't my idea for buzzkill pigtails to come!"
"Yeah," Dawson intercepted. "It was mine! And don't make fun of her, she's still getting over the ink thing!"
Pacey laughed, "Yeah, that was classic."
Suddenly there was a noise from the window as Joey jumped through. "Actually Pacey, I don't think so. And prepare for payback, because I hear there's a lot of mud around Capeside forest!"
"Oh I'm scared, pigtails is after me with the scary scary mud!" Pacey feigned.
"Bite me, Pacey!"
"Haven't we already had this conversation, Potter?"
Mitch sighed, "Now, now, none of that this weekend. We're gonna have a good fun time. Right?"
Dawson sighed, "Does that involve playing football?"
"Ahem, like girls can play football!" Pacey joked.
"Like cretins like you can play football!" Joey quipped.
"Okay, no football. I get it, lets' go!" Mitch announced. He kissed Gail on the cheek.
She whispered in his ear. "You keep an eye on those two, I think John Witter wants his son back alive."
Pacey overhearing called, "I wouldn't count on it!"
Everyone stared at him, silence followed.
"I was joking…" Pacey lied, quickly. "Let's go," he looked down and ran down the stairs as Mitch and Gail looked at each other concernedly.
Mitch sighed, "This is going to be an interesting camping trip."
They were in the car; Mitch had put on some slightly geeky camping songs whilst Joey and Pacey ignored each other at the back.
There were a few problems at the beginning of the car journey as the battling duo both wanted to sit next to Dawson, so Dawson sat in the front seat with his dad, cringing over the camping music, leaving Joey and Pacey to play a game. The game involved pretending to be people on a bus who had never met each other once in their lives. This game seemed to be their favourite.
Dawson watched them through the mirror. "Is this gonna be what it's like all day? Seriously? Cause this is boring. Extremely boring. Undeniably inexplicably boring."
"Stop reading the dictionary Dawson, I know you're bored but hey…"
"Hark at he, who's never read a book in his life!" Joey replied.
Pacey looked at her confused, "Sorry do I know you?" He threw her a sceptic look and then smiled to himself.
Dawson sighed. "Come on guys, we need to all get along or we'll have to resort to acting like my dad."
They all looked at Mitch, amused, as he sang along cheerfully to the camping music.
"To avoid this soon to be out of date music, I'll get along with this cretin. But only to avoid the music."
"I don't know, I quite like this music. What's a cretin anyway?"
Joey rolled her eyes. "Uh… look in a dictionary. Might do you some good!"
Pacey smiled gleefully, "You don't know do you?"
"You know what, Pacey? I could pretend that's it's a strange bug and you'd never know if was telling the truth."
Mitch smiled. "Cretin? It means someone with subnormal intelligence."
Pacey gave him a blank look.
Joey smiled, "In other words an idiot."
Following this, the rest of the ride was not much better.
They got to the forest, erected the tents, and just as it began to get dark, Mitch had a campfire going.
"Ok guys!" he called.
Joey crawled out of her lonely girls only tent. And the boys crawled out of theirs.
"Why don't you three start playing a few games whilst I make dinner? And then we can come and sing some songs around the campfire right?"
His words were proceeded by silence.
"Guys?"
Mitch turned around. They were gone. The thought of singing songs around the fire had frightened them all away.
Joey, Dawson and Pacey huddled behind a tree.
"Ok, what can we do which will take up lots of time? Because we are not singing around the fire!" Dawson hissed.
"Hide and Seek?" Pacey suggested, "Maybe Potter can get lost in the woods and we can have a tent each."
"Shut up!" Joey replied, irritated.
Dawson sighed, "That actually could happen. Not Hide and Seek."
"No let's play," Joey insisted. "Then maybe Cretin could get lost!"
"Yeah, you'd love that," Pacey teased. "Then you and Dawson could share a tent. Dawson and Joey sitting in a tent K-I-S-S-I …. Ouch!" Pacey fell to the floor rubbing his arm, as Joey had socked him one.
"You asked for it Pace!" Dawson responded, grinning at Joey.
"That's right, you two love birds gang up on me!"
Dawson sighed, "Don't be like that, look I'll count. You two go and hide. But now too far?"
"Don't worry, we won't!" Pacey grinned.
Joey, although hating to ever have to agree with Pacey, couldn't help but to suppress an equally mean giggle. "See ya!"
Joey and Pacey walked off together into the wood.
"Good thing we got Dawson to count, he takes forever, plus I'm not sure if you can count!" Joey said, meanly.
"Well good thing this is hide and seek because it means we don't have to see eachother…" Pacey replied. "Unless…"
"Unless what?"
"Well we could hide together. Make it harder for him."
"How would that be harder?" she asked, suspiciously.
"Well think, in one huge forest we could be hiding anywhere and the last place he thinks we'll be is together. Right? How about a tree? You know Dawson hates climbing trees."
Joey thought for a moment, she could either have to put up with this Cretin and have some company, however dismal. Or be alone in this forest, scared to death. "Yeah yeah sure, just to make it harder on Dawson though. And I don't want you touching me."
"Oh I agree," Pacey nodded, "I don't want to get cooties!" before walking off.
"Hey!" Joey said, running after him. "Grow up! We're going to hide in the middle of a tree in the middle of a forest and you're scared I'm going to give you cooties? Hello, we're going to be in a tree? They'll be lots of cooties there. Infact, now that we're on the subject I DON'T HAVE COOTIES!"
Pacey stared at Joey. "You know, instead of that ramble you could have just said that."
"Just find the tree!" Joey ordered.
Joey and Pacey twenty minutes later were still sitting in the tree.
"Oh God! Where is Dawson?" Joey complained.
"You underestimate him!"
"Pacey, Dawson can't even find his sunglasses! Then he realises they're on his head! I don't underestimate him – you're the one who calls him Oompa-Lompa!"
Pacey laughed so hard he nearly fell out of the tree, "True, so true! Look he'll find us, we're fine. Aren't you having a good time?"
Although she didn't like Pacey, anything was better than singing songs with Mitch.
Gerry stirred his teabag. "So… sitting in a tree?"
"Don't you start," Joey warned. "I'm telling you it wasn't the funniest experience."
Gerry smiled, "So this is the Dawson I've been waiting to hear about? He doesn't seem like that much trouble!"
Pacey laughed. "Not much trouble? He left us in that tree for 45 minutes! 45 minutes? Maybe it was an hour. Or two."
"Don't exaggerate!" Joey replied.
"I'm serious, we were up in that tree so long, we actually gave up and left. That's when we got lost." He added, darkly.
"That wasn't Dawson's fault!" Joey defended. "That was yours!"
"Oh yes blame me! It's my fault we got stuck in the tree, it's my fault we got lost, it's my fault that you took the wrong turn-"
"I did not!"
"Okaay…" Gerry smiled. "It doesn't matter who turned where. What's important is how you sorted the problem out. Back to the story?"
"Where are we going?" Joey asked Pacey, she could feel her heart beating faster as darkness fell.
"Well we can't stay in a tree all night. A bird will probably come lay eggs in your hair!"
"Shut up!" Joey replied, she was finding it hard to conceal her fear.
"Lighten up Joey, think of this as an adventure."
"Don't tell me to lighten up… I'll lighten up when… when I feel light!"
Pacey grinned. "The profound words of Josephine Potter. Don't worry, I have a flashlight." He searched around in his pockets. "Or maybe I left it in the tree!"
"Oh great, Pacey the wonderboy who left his powers in the tree. Literally."
The forest began to look very dark now. The trees cast dark silhouettes around them. The wind was throwing leaves around them and in their faces, and they could hear nothing except owls chirping.
"Pacey! Let's go!"
"Oh it's not that bad!"
"PACEY I'M SCARED!" she shouted.
Birds flew away in surprise, and a silence followed. All Pacey could hear were the sounds of Joey hyperventilating.
Pacey looked puzzled. "Come on Joey, you can't fool me. You've got more balls then any guy I know, this can't scare you!"
Suddenly a bird flew past Pacey shoulder.
"Ah!" he shouted and he ran backwards into Joey.
"Ouch!" she said. "Pacey!"
Pacey sighed. "Ok, let me tell you a secret. I'm not so confident myself here so why don't we just calm down, stick together and… and you can hold my hand."
"What?"
"Find you can get lost alone!"
"No, no… wait!"
Joey clasped her hand around Pacey's and to her surprise she found it quite comforting.
They walked together in silence. Joey looked at Pacey and threw him a thankful smile when he wasn't looking. She looked back down at the floor, just in time to miss Pacey's relieved smile at her. He was glad he wasn't alone.
Suddenly they heard a call. "Pacey? Joey?"
They turned. "Dawson!"
Joey grabbed her hand back from Pacey and ran into Dawson's arms. "Thank God you saved me from this Cretin!"
Pacey grinned, "Yeah you saved me from this control freak! She couldn't just take simple instructions! I tell you man, good luck with her!"
"Where were you?" Dawson asked.
"We got a bit lost!"
"I looked everywhere!"
"Did you look in the trees?" Pacey asked. "Joey missed climbing through your window so we climbed a tree instead!"
Dawson looked angry. "Well I did see a tree, and I heard people, but they were laughing so I knew it couldn't be you two. You don't get on well enough."
Pacey and Joey exchanged awkward looks.
"Yeah, couldn't been us!" Joey replied.
Mitch walked over. "Ah Dawson, you found them? Good on you son, just in time for some good old camping karaoke!"
"No!" they all shouted.
There was a pause.
"Gee… Mr. Leary, we would love to, but we're so tired, you know? After all that running, hiding…"
"And climbing," Dawson inserted, irritated.
"Yep, that too. We're a little tired. Maybe tomorrow!" Pacey charmed his way out of it.
Mitch smiled. "You bet Pace. Ok off to bed then, all of you!"
It was the middle of the night. Joey crept into Dawson and Pacey's tent and watched Pacey sleep. Her Mum was right, Pacey could be sweet. Could a cretin be sweet?
"Hey!" She whispered.
Pacey looked up. "Huh?"
"Never mention what happened in the forest again ok? Otherwise the next time we'll be talking about it is in your funeral."
"What are you talking about?"
"We never held hands, we never shared a moment, and I was never scared. Got that?"
Pacey turned over. "Joey I'm trying to sleep!"
"Pacey, never mention it again! Promise?"
"Yeah yeah."
Gerry smiled as the story ended but Joey was on the warpath.
"You said you would never mention it again…"
"I didn't know this counted!" Pacey answered. "And I didn't know then we'd be in marriage counselling did I? And anyway you always share you secrets with your wife and your marriage councillor."
Gerry chuckled. He remembered why he loved this job.
"Ok how about another memory?"
Joey grinned, "How about a memory Pacey doesn't want to hear?"
"Don't you start Joey! That's different!"
Joey's lipped curled. "Well…maybe… but we don't keep secrets from our councillor do we?"
