Come September
Part 6
Karen H.

Scene: - The Leery’s Cabin

Dawson opened the door and entered the cabin with a few bags of groceries and then struggled to close the door behind him. He then turned towards the kitchen when he smelt something. At first he couldn’t quite place the smell but once he’d processed it, he knew. He walked to the kitchen, put down the groceries and then headed for the stairs. As he stood in front of one of the doors upstairs he listened carefully before he considered entering, not sure of what he would find. He then opened the door to his parents room and found that no one was there. He figured that he must have imagined the familiar smell. As he walked down the stairs he took off his jacket and then headed for the door next to his kitchen. To his room. As he opened the door he was surprised be what he saw. There lying sleeping on his bed was Joey. He almost cried. She was lying facing the door with no blanket on top of her. He just stood there looking at her for a few minutes . . . or maybe it was a few hours. Who knew??

DAWSON (thinking) : “How did she know I’d be here? No scrap that, how does she even know about this place? My parents only bought it two years ago. They must have mentioned it to her, or maybe they said that she could come here for some time to herself. God she looks to beautiful, so at peace.”

He walked over to the chair by the closet, picked a blanket up off of it and walked over to the bed. He covered her with it gently, careful not to waken her. He then had this urge to kiss her, but knew that he couldn’t. So he just knelt down beside the bed and kissed her gently on the forehead. His lips lingering for a second. As he moved his head away from hers, she stirred slightly.

JOEY: “Hey.”

DAWSON: “Hey.”

JOEY (eyes watering) : “I’m sorry for all the hurtful things that I said to you.”

DAWSON: “I know that you didn’t mean them.”

JOEY: “I’m still sorry.”

DAWSON: “I know.”

She sits up and he sits on the bed facing her.

JOEY: “Where were you?”

DAWSON: “I had to go get some food!”

JOEY: “So I noticed.” He laughs and looks away. She puts her hand under his chin and turns his face towards her. “I know that these past few months have been difficult for you.”

DAWSON: “Not as difficult as they have been for you!”

JOEY: “Maybe, maybe not.”

She then leans forward and kisses him on the lips. At first he doesn’t respond, he seems surprised. Then he gives into the kiss and all thoughts are lost. As he starts to kiss her back it is slow, soft, small kisses as her hand moves from his shoulder to caress his cheek. At her touch he melts, finally feeling what he had missed for so long. But the feeling fades as he realises what he is doing. He stops kissing her and breaks away from the kiss.

DAWSON: “Joey . . .”

JOEY: “I know everything Dawson. I remember.”

DAWSON: “You do?”

JOEY: “Yes.” She kisses him again. And again he is lost in her kisses, in her touch as that which he has craved for the past five months seems to come back to him. But before his mind becomes clouded he breaks away from the kiss again. “Dawson . . .”

DAWSON: “Joey how do I know that what just happened wasn’t a result of you reading your journal or someone telling you everything? How do I know that you really remember?”

JOEY: “I do remember everything. Although Bessie may have hinted at a few things and Pacey did to when . . .” She trails off.

DAWSON: “When Pacey what?”

JOEY: “A week ago I went to see you about something and you weren’t at home. I heard your parents talking about how you had gone somewhere, without telling anyone where you were going. I started asking Bessie why you would leave. Why would you do something like that? She wouldn’t tell me. So I changed my questioning method and started on her a few days later. She blurted out a few things that she shouldn’t have, she hinted at us being together although at the time I didn’t realise it at the time. But I knew that your leaving was to do with the baby. And that if I still kept a journal, well it’d be where I was living last. At yours. To cut a long story short, I went to our room as Pacey now calls it. Found my journal, I didn’t read it. Why? Because I wanted to know why you hadn’t been sleeping in your own bed, cause if you had then you would have found it. As I reached the top of the stairs I voiced that question out loud. And suddenly Pacey is behind me saying that it’s because I wasn’t there with you and before you know it I’ve fallen down the stairs and I’m back in hospital. I woke up and I had remembered everything. And I still haven’t read my journal.”

DAWSON: “You haven’t?”

JOEY: “No and at the moment Bessie has it hidden away.”

DAWSON: “Does she know that you’re here?”

JOEY: “She knows that I have come to find you. And if I haven’t read my journal how do I know about this place? Plus there are things about us that I haven’t even written in my journal.”

DAWSON: “What stuff?”

JOEY: “You still want proof? We’ll you’re probably right to want it. Well for a start I know about the birth mark at the top of your thigh. How else would I know about that if I hadn’t seen it? I also never wrote down what you said to me the night that you proposed to me in this very room, as I sat in that chair over there. Oh I mentioned it happening, what girl wouldn’t?? I mentioned it happened in here but I never wrote that you had been wearing the navy blue shirt I had given you for Christmas. And I still remember word for word what you said to me.” She leans over to the cabinet drawer beside her and takes something out of it. She then puts it in Dawson’s hand, closing his fingers around it, then closing her hands around his. “You started by saying that you couldn’t think of one way or word to define how you loved me. You said that being with me made you feel so many things. Being with me made you happy and excited but at the same time you felt scared, and at the time I didn’t know why it scared you. But I do now, it scared you to think that you could ever lose me. And you may have for a while but I’m here now. I’m still here. You also said that you could get lost in me but at the same time you had found what you needed more than anything else in the world, the only person that could ever complete you.” They both start to cry. “You said that you had never known how safe you would feel from loving someone in every way possible and that being with me was stronger than having to face everything alone. I wish that I could somehow change the past few months. I wish we could make them different. And I want to be with you so much. Dawson Leery, will you marry me??”

DAWSON: “Joey you don’t have to even ask! Could you honestly see me saying no to that. For as long as I can remember that all I’ve wanted. And it’s what I want more than ever now. So yes I will marry you.” He then leans forward and kisses her. “God I’ve missed you.”