Come September
Part 3
Karen H.

DAWSON VOICE OVER: “I know that she’s hurting, I can see it clearly. And I feel powerless to help her, to stop the pain. She’s trying to act normal and to some it may seem normal. But I see that it’s there. I see it in her eyes. I see the pain, the questions . . . the confusion. I swear sometimes I even hear her eyes screaming, ‘who am I? Who loves me’? I want to be here for her, I want to help her but I’m hurting too. Yet I don’t know who is feeling the most pain! Who is suffering the most from all that is unsaid?? Sometimes the temptation is there to just tell her that I love her. I know that she says things that she doesn’t mean. I know that she can’t help it, it’s said before she can even process the thought. But it still hurts.”

FLASHBACK - THAT SAME DAY. Scene: - Down the creek from the B & B.

PACEY: “DAWSON . . . DAWSON WAIT!” Dawson stops walking, turns to face where Pacey is coming from and then slumps on the grass. “Dawson . . .”

DAWSON: “Pace, I don’t know how much more of this I can take! She doesn’t remember anything about ‘us’.” Crying. “She doesn’t remember how incredible the past two years had been . . . the day we found out about the baby . . . nothing. And if that’s not bad enough, I had to pick this up this morning.” He takes his jacket, pulls out a small box and hands it to Pacey. Pacey opens the box. “We where waiting on the ring arriving before we announced it. We had planned on getting married about a month after the baby was born.”

PACEY (his eyes water) : “I can’t even begin to understand how you feel.” He then pulls Dawson into a hug. “But you just have to give it time, as hard as that seems.”

DAWSON: “It’s gotten to the point where I can’t even act natural around her. I can’t hold her hand, I’m even afraid to touch her. I’m trying to go back to best friend mode and I’m failing. The one thing I’ve always been good at and I can’t even pull that off.”

JOEY VOICE OVER: “I still haven’t heard from my college boyfriend. And I know that I don’t even know who he is, but I hope that he hasn’t had to suffer though this. Pacey even gave me the chance to tell him that I was trying to remember and that although I don’t even know who he is right now that I love him.”

FLASHBACK: - Pacey’s apartment.

PACEY (on the phone) : “Look I know that this isn’t exactly the conventional thing to do, but I want to be able to give you both something. She wants to do this but you can’t say anything to her. Okay.”

DAWSON: “Okay.”

PACEY (to Joey) : “Here. I’ll leave you alone for a little while.”

JOEY (to Pacey) : “Thanks.” On the phone: “Hi . . . I’m sorry that I can’t say this to you in person. I’m sorry that I can’t remember you. Most of all I’m sorry that I can’t be there for you. We can’t be there to help one another through this.” She starts to cry. “I know that I don’t remember how things where . . . but I’m pretty sure that I loved you, we where gonna be a family.” We can hear Dawson crying on the other end of the phone. “. . . and I suppose that somewhere deep down . . . I know that I still love you. I’m trying so hard to remember everything . . . and I’m terrified that I never will. I just thought that my telling you this would . . . somehow make it easier on you. I don’t know just let you hear my voice. I’m going to go get Pacey now, just in case you want to talk to him.”

She puts the phone down and goes and gets Pacey. Pacey picks up the phone and Joey sits on the sofa with her arms wrapped around herself.

PACEY: “Hey are you okay??”

DAWSON: “I’ll get there. Thank you. It really meant a lot to hear her say what she did. That deep down she loves me. Can you do me a favour??”

PACEY: “Sure what is it??”

DAWSON: “Can you tell her that I love her?? That I think about her every second of every day.”

PACEY: “Yeah.” To Joey: “Joey?”

JOEY (turning to face Pacey) : “Mmhm.”

PACEY (to Joey) : “He says to tell you that he loves you, that he thinks about you every second of everyday.” Joey starts crying again.

DAWSON: “Tell her that I can’t wait to hold her in my arms, to kiss her. To tell her how I feel to her face and have her know how much she means to me.”

PACEY (to Joey) : “He says that he can’t wait to hold you in his arms, to kiss you. He wants to be able to tell you how he feels to your face and for you to know how much you mean to him.”

DAWSON: “Tell her more than anything I just want to be with her.”

PACEY (to Joey) : “He says that more than anything he just wants to be with you.”

DAWSON: “Thanks Pace. I think that I really needed that. You have no idea how much that meant to me to have her tell me that she knows that deep down she still loves me. I’ll speak to you later.”

PACEY: “Bye.”

JOEY VOICE OVER: “No one may know this but it meant a lot to me to be able to tell him that I love him. And for Pacey to relay his message to me. For Pacey to tell me that someone out there still loves me.

I’m starting to wonder if it’s really possible for hope to really die. As far as I’m aware I always thought that it took a lot to kill hope and it now looks as though in his eyes that hope is dead. I no longer see hope in his eyes. And if hope is dead to Dawson, then surly it must be dead to whoever it is that loves me out there. Does he even still love me??”