Hey guys,

sorry for the delay. I really hope I am able to update more regulary now, but can't promise anything.

This one provides a little insight concerning Joey, as one particular person wanted some information about her. Let me know if you need anything more.

I hope you enjoy and please leave me a review or write me a PM, they really help me find the time and motivation for writing in my everyday-chaos.

Thanks to all of you, who review every chapter. Special thank you goes out to Eva and Kate for extra-motivation.

Yana

The Lead

- Chapter Six -

They were at the ice rink, after they'd left Renee's. Pacey found it strangely romantic to slide beside her over the ice under the first stars. Even though it was bitter cold Pacey felt all warm and the small smile that graced his lips and it grew even wider as the afternoon became evening. Surely it was tightly bound to the fact, that Joey had never let go of his hand since she's taken it as they left Renee's and neither did he. Every time their eyes met she would smile at him the most stunning smile and the sparkle in her big brown eyes melted away the carefully build wall around his heart. Pacey knew, even if he hadn't been sure about his feelings for her before, now there could just not be the slightest doubt: He was in love for her and every time their eyes met he fell deeper. His heart beat fast and there couldn't be any dout, that it wasn't due to the ice skating.

After they were both exhausted and their cheeks and noses were red from the cold and the excitement of spending time with each other Pacey stopped at the ring fence and pulled her against his body. She placed her gloved hands on his shoulder and he held her oh so casually on the thighs, even though his whole body went crazy with her in his arms. He wasn't able to avoid his thoughts to creep under her clothes and it didn't help at all. God, he wanted to kiss her. To touch her.

His breath came quickly and she smiled at him, causing his already racing heart to speed up nonetheless. Pacey tried to find any expedient words but wasn't able to catch a straight thought. Instead his eyes switched from her shining eyes to her kissable, smiling lips and he cursed quietly as she licked at them.

His breath quickened and his arousal rose. She was hot. And in his arms. It could so easily be heaven… He just needed to lean a little closer and their lips would finally meet again in that breathtaking way they had hours before. Oh, how he longed to taste her again, to feel her pounding heart against his chest and to believe she wanted him back the same way he wanted her. That she needed him the same way. That maybe she loved him in return... He'd forgotten what he wanted to tell her as he stopped, all he knew was that he held her in his arms and she doesn't seem to mind the slightest bit. His head swam and the surroundings had long gone into unimportance. His whole body ached for his lips to touch hers again. They hadn't kiss since that first time, but now, as she stand invitingly in front of him, between his wide stance, looking up at him with desire filled eyes it was the hardest thing to do to resist her.

'You're going to say something or would you just kiss me already?' She asked, her voice a mere whisper, filled with the same longing he felt, but with the slightest smirk on her lips. Pacey chuckled quietly and then his lips met hers again and this roaring fire started right away. Desire and lust and longing, overwhelmed by the fact he got to kiss her in the open. He struggled for balance as he draw her closer and hadn't she been as quick as she was, stabilizing them with her hands on the ring fence, they would have surely landed in an rather awkward way on the ice. She laughed into the kiss and so did he. Oh, but it felt divine to kiss her out in the open, for everyone to see and he just wasn't ready to stop kissing her now.

'Maybe you guys better should head for home.' Some guy, suddenly standing beside them, stated in an authoritative voice.

'Well yes, we'd better…' Joey cleared her throat and adjusted her woolen cap with an embarrassed smile and Pacey buried his burning face in her shoulder, trying desperately to regain control over his thrumming body. 'Doug!' Joey squeaked as she recognized who the stranger was.

'Well yes in flesh and blood.' Doug grinned as Pacey lifted his head and met his brothers gaze, but wasn't sure if he should be embarrassed, amused or angry. Doug patted him on the shoulder with his typical officer-brother-smile, half amused half educational. 'Glad to see you two have finally made it. So, off with you, can't let you make out on the ice rink, would have to charge you for incorrect behavior and I would hate to do so.' He smirked and before any of them could say anything he was gone again.

'I guess we better…' Joey pointed to the exit.

'...go.' Pacey nodded and followed her with her hand in his as she led the way.

Thereupon they strode in comforting silence through the tilted streets, Pacey's arm around her shoulder and hers around his waist. And it felt like finally being in the right place at exactly the right time. And as Joey rested her head against his shoulder, Pacey was sure would he die this very second, he'd be the happiest he'd ever been in his life.

'What about pizza and red wine, I'll light a fire in the chimney and we get to know each other better?' She asked while she turned her head just the slightest bit to be able to look at him.

'Sounds great to me.' He grinned, even though "great" was the understatement of the century. So it came, that they ended up in front of her house, caring a family sized pizza, laughing and joking, bantering and lighthearted. Right up until they entered the house and Pacey placed the pizza box on a sideboard. He began to take off his jacket as he caught her eyes. She looked at him, her gloves in her hands, just looking at him, watching him all heat up and he just looked right back into her eyes, fully aware to what this glance could lead. And he wanted her far too much to let this opportunity slip through his fingers. If she wanted him back, he sure as hell wouldn't stop her. Joey stepped a little bit closer to him until he could feel her breath on his neck and it send shivers down his spine. His whole body was shaking as her eyes held his steadily and she stepped even closer to him. It drove Pacey insane, all he could think about was her body, her taste, the way she would feel beneath him. He longed to discover all there was to find beneath her clothes, to explore every little bit of her body. God he wanted her so much, more than he thought possible.

'Would you mind if I'd kiss you?' She whispered and looked up at him under long lashes with ridiculously innocent eyes and Pacey was sure every word was meant to torture him.

'If you're aware of what might happen when you do…' He responded, his voice hoarse and deep and desperate.

'I am.' She whispered and without further hesitation she sealed his lips in the most desire filled kiss and they abandoned their clothes on the way through her house, only breaking the kiss when inevitable, touching, exploring, devoting themselves to one another. Somehow they made it up the stairs and into her bedroom until they were blissfully naked, finally skin to skin. Pacey had abandoned clear thinking bit by bit along with every pieces of cloth they dropped.

As they lay in the aftermath of orgasm on her comfy king-sized bed, the light of the full moon shining into the room, painting silver shadows on the walls. Joey was curled up on his side under a warm blanked. Her head rested in the most intimate way on his shoulder, his arms possessively around her slender naked figure, one hand playing lazily with her brown hair, as realization slowly sank in on Pacey.

'Jo?', his voice was very quiet, almost a whisper and all his insecurities crept back into his heart.

'Hmm?', it sounded tired.

'Can I ask you something?'

'Anything, Pace.' She changed her position just enough to rest her head on her hand. She was beautiful and in the twilight of the dimmed lamp she seemed almost unreal but her eyes were filled with warmth and honest interest.

'Do you regret what we just did?' He was afraid to ask the question, afraid of what the answer might be, but he knew, wouldn't he ask now he'd most likely never ask.

Joey looked at him with narrowed eyes.

'Why should I?' She kissed him on the corner of his mouth and her other hand began to draw patterns on his covered chest, doing nothing to ease the arousal that took hold of Pacey again. Her eyes followed her hand and it caused him to close his eyes for a second. Emotions washing over him as she kissed his no longer covered chest. 'I wanted this for so long now.' Her voice was deep and filled with desire but than she stopped kissing him, but her hand stayed just were it had been. She looked into his eyes again. 'I kept wondering why you refused to meet me at Doug's. If I interpreted something into your behavior that just wasn't real, just existed in in my head, caused by my lonely heart longing for you to want me back the way I wanted you for so long now. And by Christmas I was convinced, you just weren't interested and so I tried to understand.' She tilted her head and he felt all kinds of guilty. 'I tried to convince myself, that the looks you gave me didn't mean anything, that you just weren't interested in me the same way I was in you. That you just saw me as your mentor, maybe a model of what you wanted for yourself. But than again Doug went on about you asking him about me and I began to hope again until you didn't show up time and time again.'

'I'm sorry….' He felt guilty as he tightened his embrace and draw her closer.

'Don't be.' She rested her forehead against his chest, her voice hushed. 'Just please tell me this isn't just a one night stand. That this is more for you also.' Her voice begged with him and he felt it deep inside his soul and so he lifted her head so he could look at her.

'This...' He pointed between them. 'This is everything you want it to be, Joey. Because I told you and I will tell you again: I fell in love with you right from the beginning and I'm not afraid of risking my heart for you, even though it had been broken before.' He took a deep breath. 'So, if this is more for you, than it's absolutely more for me, too.' He told her in a serious voice but than he smirked a little bit ' This is, if you're okay with being with someone you babysitted...'

'I just slept with you, so obvioulsy it's not that big a problem for me.' She grinned and he blushed the slightest bit. 'But don't think I hadn't thought about that, I mean, I changed your diapers.' She laughed and placed the sweetest kiss on his nose tip, enjoying the deeper red that now graced his cheeks and he felt all kinds of embarrassed. 'I spend much time wondering where life would leave you and as it played out, if had brought you right back to me.' She smiled the warmest smile and it made him feel safe, maybe for the first time at all. 'To tell you the truth, I have no problem with this – with us – if you have none. The man you've grown to be has nothing to do with the baby I nursed all those years ago.' She smiled at him broadly and he smiled right back at her, because it was all he could think of. She wanted him. She said "us" and meant it as in "together", so really, what was there for him to do as to smile and he was sure his eyes must be telling her everything. 'I want you, Pacey, and I don't mean for tonight or even a couple of nights. I want you in my everyday life, if you want it too. I... I want you to be with me.' They shared a long, deep look.

'I want you to be with me, too.' He whispered, because it was the truth. He pulled her closer to his body until their lips met in a soft, promising kiss and Pacey's heart skipped a beat as they lost time and space again as they fell into one another one more time.

Later they sat on the big sofa in front of a homely fire and shared the rewarmed pizza and the red wine. Pacey looked around the room. There were wooden bookshelves and a rocking chair in front of the chimney, a woolen blanket hung over one armrest and he could almost picture her sitting there, reading a book curled up under the blanket a fire in the chimney soft music in the background.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he leaned back, as all of a sudden a pencil drawing on the wall caught his eye. A child in a boat on a lake, it looked strangely familiar. And as he now looked around the room with open eyes he saw other pictures much like the first. A child under an apple tree. A baby on a blanket in the shadow. All beautifully drawn and with so much love for detail he could almost feel the pictures. But than his eyes widened as another one caught his eye. A young man in his early twenties, sitting in an auditorium. He narrowed his eyes and stood, aware of her watching him as he stepped in front of the picture.

'It this….?' Pacey pointed at the picture. Something about this man was so familiar, realization almost hit him in the face. This couldn't be...

She stepped up to him until she was beside him, he could feel her close to him. 'You? Yes it is. It always is.' Joey smiled sheepishly as he turned to look at her, to see if she made fun of him and clearly she wasn't.

'All of them?' He asked, taken by surprise and he loved the red stain that crept over her face as she gave a him little nod.

'I just don't seem to be able to draw any other thing.' She shrugged. 'I tried to draw a picture of my nephew right after Bessie gave him up for adoption, but out came this.' She pointed to the picture of the baby on the blanked, obviously Pacey. 'You under the apple tree. Than I tried to draw a picture of Bessie on the Creek, out came this.' She pointed to the picture of Pacey in the rowboat. 'It's always the same.' She shrugged again, smiling her adorable lopsided smile and he grinned at her, feeling a mix of amusement and nervousness. 'And than one day I just had to draw you, sitting there in the lecture, taking your exam while you did it…' She sighed and he harrumphed suddenly nervous 'I can just take them down if they irritate or offend you.'

'Offend me?' He turned to look at her and even if it felt strange to know she drew him while he did an exam. And even more so, drew him almost his whole life, he found it kind of sweet. 'They flatter me.' He offered and pulled Joey into his warm embrace, letting out a sigh of relief as she leaned her head against his chest.

'Jen?'

Pacey stormed into their shared dorm room in the early morning hour. A bag of take away breakfast from Renee's in one hand, the other balanced a cardboard tray with two cups of hot milky coffee, one sweet for Jen.

He smiled at her sleeping form, utterly dressed on his bed. Obviously she had fallen asleep while she had been waiting for him. A book beside her had fallen off her hand and the yellow highlighter lay still open on her notes. A quick feeling of bad conscience took hold of him, but he shook it off, because really, he felt all kinds of good inside.

Pacey placed the food on the table and knelt beside the bed. Tenderly he brushed a strand of hair off of Jen's face and brought his mouth to her ear.

'Hey my sweet Jen, I brought breakfast.' He whispered and she stirred. 'Jen… Come on, wake up.' His voice was still low, even though he wanted to shake her awake so he could tell her everything. He felt like a child, telling the neighbors Santa Claus brought the best present ever. 'I burst with all I want to share with you.' She blinked her eyes open by the sound of his soft voice.

'Pace?' She starred at him and than sat straight up, rubbing on her face and suddenly her arms were around him she hugged him tight. 'God Pacey, you had me terrified with your phone off and all…'

He grinned at her, couldn't fight the sparkle in his eyes as he tried to make a guilty face. 'Sorry?' He offered and she bobbed him.

'Really I am.' He gave her his puppy eyes.

'No you're not.' She grinned and looked adorable with her sleepyhead and this sunshining Jen-smile.

'Maybe no entierely...' He grinned back and she laughed.

'So I get it, it was a great night…' She tilted her head and he shook his head. 'Not a great night?' She narrowed her eyebrows in confusion and held out a hand for him to pass her the coffee but instead he sat beside her and tried hard to sort his thoughts.

'Yeez, Jen it was…' He paused. 'Incredible. I mean it was….' He paused again. 'Indescribable. Unreal even. And so very unexpected.' He struggled for words and she chuckled.

'Oh, so please tell me everything but before you do, would you be so kind and just hand me that damned coffee before it gets any colder?' Pacey leaned forward and grabbed the cardboard tray and the bag as Jens eyes caught a glimpse of the clock.

'Oh, a shame I'll have to wait to hear all you gotta tell me…' She sighed and got up. Now it was Pacey's turn to look at her confused. She pointed towards his bedside clock. 'Lesson's about to start in fifteen minutes and I absolutely have to have a shower and a change of clothes before attending it!'

He chuckled and stood to stop her from getting into the bathroom, grabbing her by the thighs making her squirm and laughing too. 'Now, you stop there woman, get back onto that bed and celebrate with me probably the one and only day of my college experience I'll spent talking with you about last night.' She raised a brow. 'Because I will literally going to explode if I don't have the chance to share it with you right now. And when we start this day now, it will not be over until seven p.m. so, please Jen please, please will you have breakfast with me and listen?' He gave her his best puppy eyes.

'Is this you asking me to "play hooky" with you?' She looked at him with an unbelieving look on her face and it made him cherish their friendship even more, because really, she had no intention of attending class if she had the opportunity to listen to him – and she knew he knew.

'Yes' He nodded.

'As in "cut classes and maybe missing something important"?' She clarified while sipping on the still hot coffee Pacey passed her.

'Yes, please Jen.'

'Are there croissants in there?' She eyed the bag.

Pacey waggled his eyebrows. 'Oh yeah, there are with chocolate.' She grinned and he felt utterly pleased. 'And lot's of other stuff…' Pacey smirked and knew he'd won. Jen defeated with her hands up and slumped back on the bed with a dramatic sigh. 'So, pass me the bag and tell your tale.' She smiled at him and he passed the bag. Jen took a croissant and took a hearty bite. Pacey grinned at her as he watched her eat for a moment but shook his head as she offered him the second one.

'Okay, so don't eat anything, leaves more for me.' She licked some crumbs from her lips. 'But, by the grace of god, please just start that story of yours.'

A sunny smile graced his handsome face.

'Oh, it was just…. The best day of my life.'

Jen waited for him to continue, but he seemed too far off in memories, that she couldn't help but laugh.

'Jen to Pacey, Pacey are you still somewhere in there?' She poked him playfully on the shoulder and finally his eyes fixated on her. 'I'm dying of curiosity here, so would you please share whatever memory made you grin that shit eating grin of yours?' She raised a brow and he smiled the sunniest smile she'd ever seen on his face.

'It was fantastic!'

'Yeah, you keep saying so one way or the other. So shoot man, or I will be off attending boring Krester's lesson rather than sitting here watching you grin, telling me it had been great.' She bit into the second croissant. 'Wow, these are good!' And sipped on her coffee while she watched him expectantly.

He sighed and drank his coffee in one go.

'We had brunch and all the while our hands brushed against each others until she took mine in hers.' He paused. 'She took mine in hers, Jen, and it felt divine. Never before had such a simple touch such an effect on my body and mind. Like electricity rushing through my veins. I could barely see straight.' He shook his head, surprised that the memory alone made him want to go back to her just continue right were they had stopped.

She smirked. 'As if you had before.'

'Sush you.' He poked her shoulder much the same way she did before.

'It's true.' Jen defended playfully.

'Yeah, you're right, maybe it is….'

'And what happened after hand holding while eating?'

'I told her how I feel.' Pacey deadpanned, causing Jen to choke on her coffee.

'You what?'

'I told her, I'd fallen for her the moment I saw her for the first time.' He smiled again.

'And what did she have to say to that?'

'Told me pretty much the same thing.' And he began to tell her in each and every detail the events of the last evening.

'And now? Was this a one night stand Pacey, or will I have to worry next night too?'

He kissed her on the cheek. 'Well, not exactly, I tell you now, that you'll not have to wait for me tonight, because we'll be going to the cinema and…'

'And you are about to stay for the night?'

A dirty grin stole itself into Pacey's eyes as he shrugged casually. 'I told you I had the best day of my life…. Including the night.' He waggled his eyebrows causing her to laugh out loud again.

'Okay, too much information Pace.' She stood and grabbed his hand pulling him up also. 'I guess you gotta change and than we're on for medtech, because you promised that girl you won't stop studying and the first thing you do is forcing me to skip class for you…'

Pacey grinned at her and was just so glad to have a friend like her.

'Good work, Mister Witter.' Joey stood beside him, handing him back his paper with an A+. He didn't pay any attention to the paper, because every atom in his body was aware of her hand lying on his shoulder. God, he wanted to kiss her right now, in front of everybody. Let them all know she was his, but he didn't. She smiled at him and it gave him god damned butterflies. He cleared his throat.

'Thanks, Miss Potter.' Pacey managed to say as she nodded and handed the next paper back to Jen.

'Outstanding, Miss Lindley. Keep up the good work.' Joey smiled warmly at Jen who returned the smile. Than, suddenly, her hand was gone and she stepped further downstairs, handing papers back right and left until she was standing in front of them in her whole glory.

Pacey couldn't stop his heart from beating as he watched Joey teaching later this day. It had been the longest day in his life, he'd missed her so badly he'd texted her about twenty times over the course of the day, each time getting a response almost instantly. And now, sitting there, watching her, drowning in her voice and not being able to touch her almost killed him.

At the end of the lesson he gave Jen a quick kiss on the cheek and jumped down the stairs of the auditorium, eager to finally be near her again

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