Disclaimer: Characters are under no certain terms not mine. I wish that they were and I could lay claim to the pure genius of them, but let's face it, if I had my way, Dawson and Andie would be dead and Pacey and Joey would reign in glory.

Author's Note: Hey, I kind of got tired of writing in-the-smack-dab-middle-of-the-season fan fiction. So I decided to age them. They are all in their early thirties. In order to make the plot work they had to be.

Rating: It's gonna get spicy!!! So I say rated R. PG-13 for right now though. Maybe even PG.

Pacey slouched on his overly stuffed couch after having worked fifteen full hours on a case that had him perplexed what how he was going to win it. Pacey was the top lawyer in all of Boston and was working up a huge winning streak that made everyone fascinated. People took notice of his impressive skill and charming wit as he approached every case like it was his defining moment. People all over Massachusetts knew who the brilliant Pacey Witter was. And not one person could ever stand in his way of winning a case.

But his latest case had him stumped. The man he was defending was accused of organized crime and murder in the first. The problem was, all evidence pointed to him. His fingerprints were on the scene and the body was in his building. If he didn't kill him, he had one of his under ranked men do it. When he was called to defend the man, Pacey saw a challenge he was going to love to go after. He had no idea though, that the evidence was going to be so stacked. He could, however claim it all to be circumstantial. The DA on the other hand could prove it to be other wise. He was racking his brain and he didn't know what to do.

Pacey graduated from law school at the top of his class. His parents were amazed. Not only did there son, who never really showed much interest in school or anything else for that matter, graduate at the top ten percent of his class in high school but he also went through law school and was a huge success. His first job was in a law firm with a high list of winning lawyers. The partners heard of his accomplishments and offered him a job as an assistant. He handled small cases like divorce and things of that nature. The partners noticed that he hadn't lost a case. As a trial, they let him have a much larger case. They wanted to see if he was only good with the smaller things or if he could handle the stress that major cases usually could put on a person. To their satisfaction, Pacey had won his case. It was the first time he actually felt like he had achieved something great in his life. They gave him a few more cases and soon realized that he was very good. They realized that they could put him on the more stressful cases, seeing as he was younger and more able to take the stress, and he won all but one. That one he'd lost actually made him feel good. The guy had told him that he was guilty but he had to get him off. He tried. He put in an awesome effort. But the DA's evidence against his client was all pending and he lost his one and only case. Johnson and Marks, the two major partners in the firm, decided that Pacey was so good, they were going to offer him a partnership. Pacey gladly accepted the higher rank in position over guys who had treated him like he was lower than him when he'd first arrived. As he walked into his office every morning, he walked past the other associates who gave him the disdainful looks and he walked smugly by.

As for his social life, that was basically dates that went no where. He never liked the girls that he dated. Which made him wonder why he actually dated them. Nothing in his life had really gone right in his personal life since the whole Andie fiasco. Andie had made him scared of actually dating a girl he might fall in love with. The fear of being hurt was too great. He didn't want to put his heart out again and risk the chance of someone hurting him like she had. Andie, though, he loved her, didn't love him as much as he had loved her. She meant so much to him and although he would have done anything to make her happy, he would have eventually realized that she wasn't the one for him. It seemed to him that he did more giving in their relationship that she did. He supported her through anything and everything and she couldn't even admit that the way he defended her brother when the school turned against him was right. He saw a human being in trouble and only wanted to help. But she never understood that. She never would either.

As for his other friends, Jen was living happily with Jack in New York, where she was a photographer for the stars. Anyone who wanted to look great in photos went to Jen. She could do wonders with a camera. Jack worked as a second grade teacher. Working day in and day out with those kids was his life. He seemed to get a great satisfaction in teaching them how to read and write. Andie, he heard, was married with a three year old little boy living in LA. She was a day care attendant where her little boy stayed during the day. Pacey had heard from Jen that she was very happy. Dawson was a huge director. His fame was surprising to everyone. But after writing one of the greatest screenplays possibly in the history of Dawson Leery, he became a huge success. Dawson was known world wide as an incredibly suave director with the ability to actually make the movie-goers feel like they were part of the movie. What the public didn't know was it was his actual relationship was his with Joey. Joey�there was someone that he felt held a responsibility over his becoming a lawyer. She was partially the reason he was so good at being a lawyer. She had prepared him to be ready for an argument at any point and to be able to win. She was the driving force of his success. He felt like he owed her so much.

Joey encouraged him to succeed. She told him that the best way to get back at his parents was to prove them wrong. He was going to beat the odds. They thought that he was a worthless looser who wasn't capable at making anything of himself. She was what made him decide that he wasn't going to live up to the low standards of his family. He understood that she saw him as someone who could be anything and do anything if he just set his mind to it. Joey, his life long friend and room mate, was a successful designer. Her choice of a job surprised everyone. The people who knew her well knew that Joey had never been all that interested in cloths. Now she had a rather successful clothing line. Everyone wanted to own something of Joey Potter, or known to the fashion world as JP.

Not only had Joey become a huge success, she had also grown into a beautiful young woman. Joey was the only woman Pacey could ever see himself being in love with again. His lovely room mate had him captivated. She was successful, independent, beautiful, and bitchy. He loved her ability to look cynically into every situation. Some things never changed. Joey decided at that time to walk into the room. Her short black dress cut off in mid-thigh. It showed her long soft legs and accentuated her small waist and tummy. The dress was made for her. No one could ever pull it off. She kicked off the pumps that had straps around the ankles. She then pushed Pacey's legs off the couch and plopped down next to him. She smiled at him and he'd never seen anything that was more exotic than when she smiled. Her whole face lit up, which for Joey Potter, was very rare.

She grabbed the remote off the table and turned on the radio. The CD that was in the Disc player was the soundtrack for the movie "Dirty Dancing". The song "Cry to Me" came blasting through the large speakers. She leaned her head back and took her bun down, letting her hair fall down around her shoulders. She looked so sexy. It took every ounce of self control not to pin her to the couch and ravish her. She made his whole body hurt.

Joey felt his eyes on her. She turned to him and gave him a wicked smile.

"What's on your mind, Witter?"

Pacey's mind raced with what he could tell her. He could say he wanted her, he needed her. He could say he loved her. He could say so many things, but decided on something work related.

"Marks has a party next week. He told me I was invited. The only problem is that I have no date."

"What about Carrie?"

"I think you said it best, a blow up doll could carry on a better conversation."

Joey laughed. "I did say that didn't I? So, I guess that means that you want me to go with you, huh?"

"Would be nice. I've been working there for six years and no one even knows who the Joey in my life is. They all probably think that I'm gay."

"Pacey, I find that doubtful."

"Oh, really? Casey, you know my secretary, tried to set me up with her cousin...Gary."

Joey laughed again, which brought a smile to his face. "No she didn't!"

"I swear!"

They both sat there and laughed. After the two caught their breath, Joey looked at him seriously. "I guess I could go. When?"

"Friday. 8:00."

"Formal?"

"Very."

"Okay."

Joey patted Pacey's knee and gave him a wink. He didn't know how she did it, but she could make him loose his mind with the smallest gesture. She was his world and he wasn't even sure how it had happened. One day he woke up and realized that he would never be happy with anyone but her. And this didn't just happen a few weeks ago. It's been years since he realized that Joey was the one he wanted. She was so amazing. Her independence, sophistication, her passion for certain things were all things he loved about her. The only question was, how long until he told her that?