Part One
Rating: R
Summary: fourteen years after the finale, they all meet up again.
___________________________________________________________________
Well this was just great. Joey stood on the sidewalk of 40th and 6th, nervously waving her arm in the air as her cell rang for too long. Finally, her husband picked up.
“Jo? You okay? I was in a meeting, I’m sorry it took so long to answer…” “Dawson, where are you?” she asked urgently.
“Uh, work…”
“Dawson, I’m in labor.” It was fitting that as she said that another pain jabbed her in the small of her back. “Taxi!” she yelled.
“What? Where are you??” Dawson exclaimed worriedly.
“Hailing a cab. Just meet me at the hospital, okay? And hurry.” She hung up as a cab finally pulled up to her. Dawson slipped his phone back into his pocket and rushed into the boardroom. His co-workers, who were looking at the budget for the network next year and discussing which pilots had the most promise, looked amused. “Go, go…go be with Joey, you’re about to be a daddy,” said his friend, Matthew, who had worked with him on “The Creek” which had ended (with very high ratings) just seven years ago.
“I’ll be back in a few days.” Dawson grinned. They all laughed warmly and raised their mugs of coffee, citing congratulations as he grabbed his coat and raced out of the office.
The office building was about ten blocks away from the hospital and Dawson felt like running the whole way, but decided a taxi might get there faster. One pulled up straight outside the building as a woman got out, and Dawson wrestled with a man and won out, jumping in and hurriedly telling the driver where to go.
He called his son Mitch, who was playing softball with his friends in central park. “Mom’s in labor.” Dawson told him, ”We might be a while, so I’m going to call Audrey and she’s going to pick you up, okay?”
“Okay.” Mitch said, not being able to disguise his happiness with that idea. He liked Audrey. Who didn’t?
Dawson dialed Audrey’s number and as he did the cab passed a woman pushing a baby in a stroller. Dawson smiled.
****
Audrey was in Ralph Lauren, about to hand over her American Express card for a ridiculously expensive black pantsuit when her cell shrilled in her Louis Vuitton handbag. She held up one polished hand to stop the credit card process and answered it. It was Dawson.
“Dawson…my favorite married man…” Audrey flirted warmly. The sales assistant smiled to herself.
“Audrey, Joey went into labor a few minutes ago, I’m on my way to the hospital now. Could you pick Mitch up from Strawberry Fields in the park?”
“Oh Dawson, it is so weird that your son takes after you in the John Lennon department…” Audrey laughed. She handed the card over. “Of course I will. I had a date but Mitch is so much more interesting than the guys I date sometimes…we’ll rent a movie and you just call as soon as little Audrey gets here.”
“Little Audrey? What if its little…Andrew?” Audrey could hear loud honking and guess he had jumped out of the cab.
“It has to be a girl. That’s just the natural order of things.”
“Okay…well, we’ll soon see. Thanks Audrey.”
“No problem, sweetie. Give Joey my love.”
After Ralph Lauren, Audrey rushed to Little Tykes and bought a pink ruffled dress, excited about her soon-to-be-new identity as godmother and guardian.
She was nearing Central Park when her cell rang again. “Dawson?” she spoke expectantly into the cell.
“Now why do all the girls go crazy over Dawson?” Pacey’s voice was warm and amused.
“Because nice guys finish first, Pacey darling…is this a business call?” Audrey inquired sweetly.
“Family call. Andie had a boy yesterday morning. We haven’t got a name yet…”
“Get out!” Audrey shrieked with excitement, nearly swerving her BMW into an SUV.
“Oh Pacey, congratulations. Boy number…four?”
“Three.”
“Well I can’t keep count, three…four…five…six bunnies in a pen, you know? Oh wow…” Audrey chuckled knowingly. “You’ll never guess who is also giving birth this very moment.”
“She’s not.”
“She is. It’ll be a girl though, I can feel it. I’m going to pick Mitch up.”
“Give Joey my love.”
“No thanks. Too many bad memories,’ Audrey joked.
She slowed down near the park, darting into an illegal parking space and leaning out the window to call at Mitch who was goofing around with his best friend.
“I’ll call you when we get a name.” Pacey finished up.
“Okay bunny.”
“What, I’m bunny now too?”
“Yes, it seems fitting since you and your lovely wife hump like ones.”
“Stop, please…”
Mitch punched his friend Tom goodbye on the arm and rushed over to the car. His friend looked on admiringly and with envy.
“How about Jack?” Audrey offered, sending Mitch a dazzling smile as she reversed out.
“I like, I like. Except that would mean I was naming my son after a gay guy and an alcoholic.”
“Osborne is not an alcoholic anymore…” Audrey argued.
“Thanks for the tip, bunny. Love you.”
“Love you too.” Audrey said cheerfully, and she dropped her cell phone in the back.
“Hey Mitch, my favorite guy in the whole world.’
“Yeah right.” Mitch blushed anyway, already cute at thirteen with curly blonde hair and astonishing blue eyes.
It sounded clichéd, but Audrey could tell he would one day break a heart…just not intentionally.
“Are you excited?” she asked, tuning the radio to a more ‘updated’ channel.
Mitch shrugged, “Sure. Babies are cool. It’ll be nice to have a sister or brother. And mom was getting kind of…moody.” Mitch looked embarrassed saying it but he got over it when Audrey nodded in agreement. “Pregnancy does that. When your mom was pregnant with you she actually ate an entire bottle of pickled cucumbers.”
Mitch laughed, “I like those.”
“Exactly.” Audrey winked at him and propped her glasses on top of her head as the sun slowly sunk down beyond the skyscrapers.
“Do you want a brother or sister?”
Mitch shrugged again. “It doesn’t matter. By the time it’s old enough to even be fun, I’ll be like, thirty.”
Audrey laughed, “Well…that’s one way of looking at it. You want to get pizza…or Chinese?”
“What do you want?” Mitch propped his elbow up on the car door and arranged his hair casually, trying to catch a glimpse of himself in the rearview mirror. He hoped he looked cool.
“Oh, a gentleman…” Audrey hummed, “Hmm…Pizza sounds good.”
Mitch was relieved.
His cell rang. He answered coolly, “Mitch.”
“Honey…its mommy.”
Mitch went red and turned away from Audrey hoping she hadn’t heard that. Audrey giggled to herself.
“Mom…hi… are you alright?”
”I’m fine.” She sounded out of breath. “I just wanted to check up on you, sweetie.’
“Mom, quit with the names…” Mitch muttered. “Oh, I’m sorry Mitch. Look, this might take a while, but as soon as he or she is born I’ll call you, okay?” “I know, I know…” “I love you.”
Mitch paused, knowing his mom always wanted him to say it back. He sighed, “I love you too.” Joey smiled on the other end of the phone and hung up. Mitch was totally embarrassed and of course, Audrey knew it. “I think a man who tells his mother he loves her is a real man,” she said breathily, driving towards Greenwich for Joes Pizza. Mitch grinned.
****
At approximately 11:37pm, after nine hours of labor, Dawson and Joey’s second child, Amelia Audrey Leery, (or, as known just to them, the “Paris baby”) was born, thirteen years after their first child.
“This is so amazing,” Joey murmured dreamily a few moments afterwards, holding her new daughter in her arms.
“I never thought I’d have another baby.”
“So you had trouble carrying a baby to full term?” the assistant nurse asked, fluffing a pillow and sliding it behind Joey for more leverage.
“Well, I just didn’t get pregnant. I never had a miscarriage or anything, it just never…happened,” Joey admitted. Dawson squeezed Joey’s hand and continued to smile down at his new daughter.
“Luck.” The nurse smiled, and went to get some water for Joey.
Dawson and Joey just stayed quiet and looked at their baby. “She looks very different from Mitch,” Joey finally commented.
“Darker…she’s got your looks,’ Dawson kissed his wife’s temple. “She’ll be beautiful.”
Amelia yawned, and for short moment her eyes fluttered open, revealing them to be a deep blue. (They would probably change to green) she seemed to take in her parents, and then closed her eyes as if to say, ‘well…you two look okay. I think I’ll sleep now.”
Dawson gently touched the patch of dark hair on her head and leaned down to kiss Amelia’s little face.
****
Part two
****
After returning from their honeymoon in Paris, Dawson and Joey settled into married life with a vengeance. Dawson celebrated climbing the ranks in the industry by buying a bigger apartment in the Upper East Side and a beachfront place in Santa Monica where he still had ties.
Their life was centrally in the big city, and eventually, Dawson’s job was located completely there. They made many friends, had an active social life and family life and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else, or with anyone else.
When Mitch turned five they discussed having more children, and agreed, one afternoon whilst jogging through Central Park, that they wanted Mitch to have a sister or brother. Excited at the prospect of having a larger family they went home and started to practice…and practice…and practice...and practice.
They would leave work during lunchtime for a ‘rendezvous’ at their apartment whilst Mitch was in school and tear each other’s clothes off (sometime actually tearing and sometimes not removing all their clothes—Joey had a thing for Dawson leaving his tie one sometimes) and have wild sex on their bed or on the floor, depending where they ended up falling. They had hot, fond memories of curling up in each other’s arms in brilliant sunshine on the floor, out of breath, hopeful, full of love.
But then Mitch turned ten, and then eleven…and Joey turned thirty- four and thirty- five, and was made an executive editor at the publishing firm.
She and Dawson just gave up—not sex, but hope of having another child.
They had tests but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Dawson’s sperm just didn’t want to go near Joey’s ovaries…for some reason, or…no reason. Dawson blamed himself. It was a little hard to deal with sometimes, especially at family gatherings or holidays, made harder since Andie and Pacey had two sons and a daughter.
They loved Mitch very much, and were very happy with him; just disappointed they couldn’t give him a sibling.
For their twelve-year anniversary Dawson surprised Joey with a trip to Paris after Christmas. Mitch happily agreed to stay with his grandmother in Capeside and spend the holidays gallivanting with Pacey’s sons. He would have been mortified to know what his parents were doing in Paris.
They walked all over the city, had lunches at cute little deli’s, spent afternoons in galleries or old cinemas watching foreign movies, drove out to the country, and even spent three nights in London. Feeling very romantic and in love being in the most romantic city in the world, they made love almost every night…morning…and sometimes, afternoon.
They went back to New York in a state of bliss. A few weeks later, Joey started to feel sick, and the sight of chicken or meat made her want to throw up. So disbelieving she might be pregnant Joey dismissed Audrey’s diagnosis-- “You’re knocked up, girl,” and just took some aspirin and took a week off work, lying on the couch watching talk shows and doing some editing on her laptop.
She took Mitch to the park on a Saturday morning and read a mystery novel whilst keeping an eye on him as he played softball with some other kids. A woman then sat down next to Joey on the park bench and started to breastfeed a little newborn girl.
Feeling an overwhelming surge of emotion hit her like a truck, Joey had quickly put her sunglasses on as tears collected in her eyes. The woman had smiled at her. On the way home Joey had bought a home pregnancy test.
Two blue lines…it was positive. Joey sat in the bathroom for half an hour, shocked. She was pregnant, at thirty- seven.
***
“We’re here.” Dawson gently shook Joey who stirred from her sleep and blinked in surprise. She’d forgotten that the ride to the beach wasn’t very long.
They got out of the jeep and stretched, watching Mitch race up the front steps of the beach house calling, “Grandma! Hey!” completely forgetting for a few moments that he was a teenager.
Joey opened the back door of the jeep and reached in to unbuckle her baby, Amelia, as gently as possible. Amelia was sleeping soundly, small and pink and warm in a fuzzy yellow jumpsuit. Joey held her baby to her chest and inhaled her soft powdery scent. Dawson opened the trunk and contemplated carrying in all the bags or getting Mitch to do it later. A waft of salty, fresh air hit him as he juggled two giant duffels across the lawn and he smiled—finally. It’d been close to six months since he’d been out of the city.
The beach house was in Cape Cod. Gale’s late husband had bought it ten years earlier, and they had planned to retire in it and leave the Capeside house to whoever wanted it. Dawson and Joey had declined reluctantly, deciding they preferred their apartment in New York, which was prime real estate, and right by Central Park, and Mitch wasn’t thrilled with leaving the city and his friends anytime soon. Lily, who was just twenty, was busy with school in California and had no plans to come back and live in Massachusetts. So, in a surprise twist but one Dawson was glad for, Gale had reasoned with Pacey Witter on a price and now the house was his and his wife’s, and their three sons and one daughter.
Fourteen years worked wonders uncoiling past tensions, Dawson thought to himself as he edged into the house. He and Pacey were actually friends now.
****
“When we get there, can I go swimming right away?” Jack Jr. asked impatiently from the way back of the truck.
“Sure. I hear sharks like to swim at this time of night too,” Pacey replied confidently. There was silence and then Jack said meekly, “Maybe tomorrow.’
Andie sent Pacey a knowing look. She was at her prime at thirty-seven, with long silvery-blonde hair, ice-blue eyes and a slim figure she’d kept up even after Billy was born. She worked part-time tutoring Harvard students in Boston, and co-managing a successful art gallery in Capeside. She had mellowed some since she was sixteen, but occasionally she’d smile, or laugh, or jump and grab him, and he’d be reminded of young Andie and why he fell in love with her. They’d been married just over fourteen years, longer than Dawson and Joey, although no one had expected it to last—least of all, them.
After having his heart broken this time by both Joey and Dawson, Pacey had fled Capeside and just traveled around the country. Some friends of his then invited him to Florida. He had gone to a party in Palm Beach and had seen a familiar blonde standing in the corner looking out of place, sipping a Daiquiri and watching her fiancée socialize. He hadn’t seen Andie since Jen’s funeral—but then only for a quick second since he was in embroiled in drama with Joey.
She was overjoyed to see him, and he was overjoyed to see her. They were both a little drunk and ended up spilling their hearts to each other on the beach until dawn. She was extremely doubtful about her fiancée, a handsome executive from Boston who she met at a party in the Berkshires whilst a senior at college. He too was a Harvard graduate. They had a good time, but she just didn’t love him. Pacey told her about Joey being pregnant with Dawson’s child. Andie had been shocked and sympathetic, and had held him whilst he cried. The next day they ran into each other at breakfast.
Embarrassed but pleased to see each other again, Andie informed Pacey she had just broken it off with her boyfriend. Pacey was just looking at her, and realized seeing her was the only thing that kept his mind off Joey…completely. They left Palm Beach together and traveled up the coast back to Boston. By the time they drove into the city limits they were in love. Pacey couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed how beautiful she was before, how funny, how sweet, how vivacious. He wasn’t trying to be bitter, but Joey wasn’t half these qualities. Andie however wasn’t as sure about their future as he was. She was actually convinced it was a mutual rebound relationship and tried to break it off. He wouldn’t let her, though.
A month passed and they lived together on his new boat in the harbor. It was a cold, rainy day when Andie sat him down and told him she was pregnant. But he didn’t feel cold inside. It was as if a bright light was shining down on just the two of them. He picked her up and whirled her around, laughing, happier then he had been in ages. Jennifer was born eight and a half months later, and they stayed together.
“Mom, Billy looks like he’s going to throw up,” announced the eldest child, blonde, green-eyed fourteen year old Jennifer.
Pacey turned around at a red light and inspected the infant who lolled his head and stared at his father blankly.
“He’s just happy.” Pacey tickled his son’s tiny feet and went back to the steering wheel.
“I don’t know…’ Jennifer said doubtfully, “He looks nauseous.”
Andie turned this time and studied Billy’s little face. “He does look a little nauseous.”
“You know what?” Jennifer held her nose. “I know why he looks nauseous.”
“Oh, not again.” Pacey said in disbelief, clapping the steering wheel.
“We’re almost there,’ Andie reassured her husband. “I’ll change him when we get there.”
**** “What do I say to her?’ Jennifer blurted out before they walked into the charming beach house, which was right on the sand.
“Just say hi.” Andie patted Jennifer’s head. “Gale is a very put-together woman, she seems fine.”
“Seems,” Pacey murmured. He was sorry for Gale, who had to lose not one but two husbands. She was still gorgeous, though. Or maybe he just thought she was because she was a top lady. She opened the door with a huge smile, and Pacey could see Mitch, blonde and blue-eyed and so Dawson-esque it was scary, standing behind her smiling shyly at them all.
Despite the sobriety of the occasion, they managed to keep things upbeat. Gale was energetic, vibrant and a youthful sixty-five, hugging her adored friends kids and managing to keep up with them. She cradled her new grandchild, Amelia, in one arm, and Billy in the other, and attempted to answer the concerned questions in their eyes.
“I’m relieved,” Gale told them. “He suffered for too long. He’s resting now.”
Her husband had died after a two- year battle with lung cancer. “We had a good, fifteen year run,” Gale laughed, flipping her hair. “I guess I just don’t have much luck with husbands, though. Should have known marrying a smoker would have ended like this.”
“Hello?” Jack’s voice boomed from the front door, and he stepped through with a duffel bag. His adopted daughter, Amy, who they hadn’t seen for a while, followed; blonde, brown-eyed and simply beautiful at fifteen. Pacey, Joey and Dawson’s jaws all dropped.
She looked just like Jen.
****
Joey managed to put herself together and greet Jack after hugging Amy for what seemed like eternity. Amy, who loved Joey like a sister, didn’t mind. She laughed and teased Joey for being overemotional, and then demanded to hold Amelia. She caressed Amelia’s soft hair and looked at Billy, then back at Amelia.
“Wow…” Amy sent Dawson and Pacey coy looks. “Two babies born at almost exactly the same time. Weird.” Joey and Andie smirked, and the two men looked a bit uncomfortable. Amy was only fourteen yet she had Jen’s wry humor down perfectly.
It was amusing to note that Amelia and Billy were both four months old, separated by a day. The two men unsuccessfully tried to ignore the fact they had impregnated their wives at the same time. The babies were a source of embarrassment being symbols of ‘new love’ after all.
Mitch took Pacey’s sons, Jack Jr and Charlie, out to the beach to kick around a football. Jennifer followed around after Amy, who she was in awe of. Gale sat out on the back porch with a glass of wine, Billy and Amelia near her in twin bassinets, happy to see a lot of kids running around after so long. Jack, Joey, Andie and Dawson were in the kitchen preparing dinner, talking. Joey was leaning against Dawson, drinking wine, watching as Andie and Pacey took over the kitchen to make spaghetti.
“Amy is looking so pretty lately. Jack, you might have to start locking her up at night. Didn’t you see the way Michael was checking her out?” Andie teased her brother, dicing up tomatoes and tossing one at him.
Pacey laughed, “I had to practically whack him across the butt to get his attention.”
Jack held up his hands. “Hey, what can I say? She comes after me.’
Amy had developed over the summer, and Jack had been a bit surprised to realize she had just suddenly acquired long legs and a B cup.
She had inherited Jen’s wavy golden hair, and warm brown eyes. Her long, lanky body she had gotten from her father, who she never saw.
Speaking of the devil, Amy wandered into the kitchen and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl. She tossed it from one hand to the other and looked at the adults curiously. She then left. Jennifer came in a few moments later. “Have you seen Amy?” she asked.
Jack and Pacey exchanged glances. They knew Amy found Jennifer annoying.
“Uh…she went that way, honey.” Pacey pointed out to the beach. ****
After a long, rowdy dinner, Pacey slipped Amy and Jennifer $10 each to put the kids to bed so he could have a beer with Dawson outside. Joey disappeared off down the beach, and Gale went to bed. Andie went in to check on her sons who were all sharing a room, and then she heard a little squeak from Dawson and Joey’s room and went in to check on Amelia. The little girl was wide-awake, her arms and legs flailing in the air. She was so adorable. Andie harbored secret feelings that Billy and Amelia would get married one day. But then, that would also be kind of incestuous, especially considering her and Pacey, and Dawson and Joey’s situation already.
She picked the baby up and looked out the window, to see Joey sitting alone on the beach, staring out to sea.
She approached Joey slowly, jiggling Amelia as she did. Joey looked up, surprised but then pleased to see them. “Oh…” she lifted her baby out of Andie’s arms, “She wasn’t tired?”
“She’s a very active little girl,” Andie said warmly, tickling Amelia’s hands.
“She slept all the way up here.” Joey unbuttoned the top of her sundress and started to nurse Amelia, who sucked greedily. “Oh you little monster…” Joey murmured to her papoose.
“This is nice. It was so great of Gale to invite us up here. We’d do anything for her, really,’ Andie hugged herself, full of smiles, her friendly eyes glittering. Joey never ceased to be amazed by Andie’s enthusiasm. She saw what Pacey saw, why he fell in love with her. She was happy he had found someone.
“How’s Billy?” Joey asked. “I haven’t seen much of him. He looks like his father. Dark.”
“He does. A head of hair like him, too,” Andie loved speaking about Pacey or one of her children, you could see it in her dreamy expression. Joey didn’t know any other couple that was as lovey-dovey as Andie and Pacey were. Even she and Dawson kept it under wraps most of the time (In the bedroom it was a different matter.) Pacey was always picking Andie wildflowers, or stealing her away for kisses, holding her hand whenever they walked together. It was so sweet…sometimes sickening, though.
“Look at them,” Andie commented wryly, nudging her head in the direction of Dawson and Pacey, who were waving beers around as Dawson talked and Pacey nodded and held his son, Billy, who also couldn’t sleep.
“They managed to sort their issues out, I guess.” Andie said slyly, sending Joey a quick look and stretching her legs out in front of her.
Joey ducked her head, mildly embarrassed.
“It was all I wanted for them to do. But I just made it worse by throwing myself between them. Believe me, if I hadn’t been in love with both of them I would have gone far away and married someone completely different.” Andie nodded slowly. “Funny how you run and run but you always end up right back where you started,” she said softly.
She cleared her throat and turned her gaze to the sand. “Do you…ever regret what happened between you and Pacey?”
Joey looked at Andie worriedly, “No…of course not.”
“Its okay, you can tell the truth. We’re adults, Jo, I’m not worried you’re going to like, hit on him or something,” Andie laughed. Joey shook her head. “I sometimes wonder what would have happened…but I was in love with Dawson. Either way I would have realized and it would have had to end eventually.”
“Hey you two…” Dawson advanced up to them.
“Having a secret meeting?”
Joey and Andie both raised their eyebrows up at him. Dawson coughed. He then noticed Joey’s breast revealed outside her dress as Joey propped Amelia up and started to burp her. She and Dawson exchanged a quick look--*later*--and Dawson patted Andie’s hair fondly. “Night.”
“Night Dawson.” Andie reached up to squeeze his hand affectionately. Andie had noticed ‘the look’ and smirked to herself. Dawson and Joey were very much the ‘fireworks’ couple. It was funny how it worked out, especially seeing as they always seemed so…’safe’ and sweet back in high school.
But Andie realized things weren’t always as they seemed. Their whole situation was so passionate, so complicated, and it had spanned more than thirty-two years of leaving each other and going back again. At first Andie was sure they’d win out, but then after a while she just assumed there was no fire in all of hell to light the fire between Dawson and Joey after Joey and Pacey started living together. And yet it was far from over…it seemed there was something bubbling just below the surface, all along. Now their relationship was like cinders jumping off a fire… sexually charged, passionate and loving all rolled into one. They fought far more than she and Pacey did which was pretty miraculous. They said their goodnights and Joey caught up to her husband.
****
Her husband was still so handsome, Joey thought to herself as she watched him change. Athletic, muscular, trim…his hair was darker now, and his features less open, less innocent then they had been, but he still eluded sexuality. Women looked on the streets of New York, and Joey felt smug she was holding his hand. She wanted him.
Amelia was finally fast asleep in the corner of the room in her little bassinet. Mitch was in the attic watching movies with Amy and Jennifer.
Joey leaned on her elbow, sticking her chest out a little and unbuttoning two buttons on her silky pajama top. She knew Dawson wanted to make love. It had been a while. Joey wasn’t as easily aroused as she had been during her pregnancy (and before) but she still wanted to be with him, any way possible. One of the many lessons being with Dawson had taught her that sex wasn’t just about ‘getting off’ or proving something or healing an ache, it was about just being together.
Dawson noticed Joey and her little mannerisms, and he threw his bundle of clothes aside and advanced towards her, leaving his shirt off. Joey took him into her arms and they kissed lovingly. He started to unbutton the rest of her buttons, revealing her breasts, which were heavier from childbearing. He kissed them and she moaned softly, whispering his name. They made love slowly yet feverishly, cautiously because they were in a house full of people. Joey was thrilled when she came, after hearing so many stories that sex was ‘impossible’ after childbirth. For her it had been as wonderful and as intimate as it had been beforehand.
“I just completed one of my fantasies…’ Dawson murmured afterwards, stroking her hair as she burrowed under the covers and rested her head on his chest.
“Mmm?”
“Making love to you less than three feet away from Pacey.”
Joey thumped his shoulder.
****
A little way down the corridor, Andie turned slightly from Pacey’s advances, but rubbed her husband’s shoulder reassuringly. “Not tonight, honey…I’m exhausted.”
Billy stirred in his cot and Pacey sighed to himself…well it was just as well. He still remembered when Charlie had run into their bedroom at 3 years old, confused to see his parents breathing heavily and naked as jaybirds.
To be Continued
PART 3
Amy loved spending times with ‘the gang,’ the name she gave to her mother’s and Jack’s oldest friends.
As well as loving the food they cooked, the stuff they talked about (adult, exciting things like sex and sex in movies and sex in public and occasionally politics) and the way they spoilt her, Amy loved hearing stories about her mom and her mom’s role in the dramas all of them had been through.
She swore it, they had been through more in ten years than she had read in a hundred books. Her favorite story was the love triangle between her mom, Joey and Dawson. They had been her age, too. Joey would reenact the catty comments and eye rolls, and Dawson would act out his potent obliviousness to his skimpy-short wearing best friend and his infatuation and adoration of her mom. She thought it was understandable. She was beautiful, after all. Amy had pictures all over her room, and watched the video of her mom Dawson had made twice a year—once on her mom’s birthday, and once on her own birthday.
Her favorite picture was one of her mom and Dawson, when they were fifteen and total lovebirds, on a picnic table nuzzling noses. Her mother just looked so…innocent and carefree and in love, and Dawson looked so handsome. She had found it in a photo album and Dawson had told her she could keep it…if she wanted. Well, duh.
Her other favorite stories were how Jack came out, Abby’s influence over Jen, (told in detail by Andie) and when Joey ran off with Pacey. She could hardly believe it. Joey and Pacey were like brother and sister now, joking around, bantering, and teasing each other about babies and sex and food habits. But she had hints it had been very serious from the look on Dawson’s face whenever someone mentioned it—he would smile but it would be a struggling smile, a hard smile, and his eyes would flicker around uncomfortably. It wasn’t too obvious and only she and Joey really noticed it. From the looks and sounds of it, Dawson had been left heartbroken and he hated to be reminded about it.
It just made him all the more human, and out of all of them, he was the one Amy could feel most comfortable with. They would sometimes just sit on the porch or the beach with a drink and be quiet for an hour, comfortable in the silence, or they would talk for hours about anything. She, like him, was analytical and a bit neurotic as well as being well aware of her surroundings. She felt comfort in the fact he had once been in love with her mother, that he had once worshipped her like a goddess. Being with him bought her mother back to life.
The one thing Amy wouldn’t talk to him about was sex. In need of some advice she approached his best friend, instead.
Not shy about things like this, Amy went straight to Joey as soon as Joey was left alone—Dawson and Pacey went to the grocery store with their babies strapped to their fronts, the kids following, and Andie and Gale went for a swim. Amy asked if she could walk with Joey on the beach.
“So what’s up?” Joey asked warmly, putting her slender arm around Amy’s shoulder. “How’s school?”
“School is…school,” Amy said dryly. “Boring.”
“Do you want to go to college?”
Amy shrugged. “Maybe. I guess so. Jack wants me to go to NYU. I don’t mind…”
“You have a while to go yet,” Joey reassured her.
“I sort of have a boyfriend…’ Amy admitted with a half-smile and Joey raised her eyebrows in interest. “Really?”
“Yeah. He’s sweet. He’s a senior now. We met in elementary school…” Amy blushed just talking about him and Joey giggled to herself.
“Anyway…” Amy paused and readied herself. “Should I have sex with him?”
Joey’s eyes widened. “Oh Amy…’ they stopped walking.
“Do you want to?” she asked, tucking a strand of golden hair behind Amy’s ear. “Or is he pressuring you?”
“No, he’s not pressuring me. He doesn’t really talk about it much…I think its more me…I think I want to get it out of the way.”
“That’s not a reason,” Joey said seriously. “Do you love him?” “I think so,” Amy smiled.
“Even if you do love him, you might not be ready,” Joey shrugged and adjusted her sunglasses. “It has to feel completely…right.”
“Was it right for you?”
Joey managed to smile a little, “Kind of. Granted now, it didn’t look like the best situation. I kind of wish I had…” she stopped. ‘Well, you’re old enough to know.” She added as an afterthought.
‘Of course I am.” Amy said, rolling her eyes. “Well, now I kind of wish I had done it sooner, with…another certain man.”
Amy smirked.
“But for the time I was in and the space I was in, it was fine.”
“Did you have regrets?” Amy asked.
“Only that I hurt someone in the process,” Joey sighed. “And…it wasn’t great, if you catch my drift.”
“My friends tell me that,” Amy laughed. “That it hurts like anything. So…” she flickered her brow. “I’m assuming Pacey was your first.”
“Yes. But not last.’ Joey and Amy both laughed then.
“What was it like when…you and Dawson did it for the first time?”
Amy hoped her question wasn’t rude, but Joey didn’t mind. She flipped her glasses onto her head and sighed, “Perfect…well. There were a few mishaps. You’ll learn that sex isn’t movie star perfect. And afterwards…” Joey rolled her eyes. “But we had waited for so long, and when you wait and you finally get something and it’s with someone you love more than life itself…” Joey looked at Amy and smiled, “Its so, so worth the wait.’
****
After her talk with Joey, Amy went for a swim with Mitch. They had fun together. He was very sweet and very funny, and wise for his age. He wasn’t an ass like a lot of the guys are at thirteen-on-fourteen. He was the perfect combination of Joey and Dawson. Dawson’s looks—blonde, blue eyes, earnest expression, tall, was going to be broad—and Dawson’s good nature and cheeriness. But a lot of his personality was reminiscent of Joey’s—integrity, passion, and shyness. If he was her age, or a year older, Amy was sure she’d be in love with him.
He liked her too, she kept it real, and they had been friends for as long as he could remember.
****
“Hey, at least you’re not changing a liddle boy,” Pacey said wisely, coming into the bedroom, watching as Dawson grimaced and threw Amelia’s diaper in the trash.
“Oh yeah…’ Dawson laughed, looking up to see Pacey jiggling Billy. “*I* can’t even piss that high.”
He powdered Amelia and made a face at her, and she baby-giggled. Pacey smiled down at her. “She is cute,” he admitted. “Big brown Joey eyes that make you feel guilty just for standing there. Cuter than Billy. Billy looks like a frog.” On cue, Billy burped.
“Can’t disagree with that,” Dawson joked.
Pacey lifted his son into the air to try and get a reaction, but Billy’s stoic wide-eyed nausea face remained. His diaper suddenly felt heavier and Pacey quickly put him on the table next to Amelia.
“This summer is going to be great,” Pacey quipped. “While the ladies are tanning we’ll be changing diapers and doing laundry.”
Dawson just gave Pacey a look.
Amelia gurgled.
****
Joey was relaxing in the hammock out back with a book one of her closest friends had just had published and a tall glass of Gale’s lemonade. She felt unbelievably serene. Mitch was down in the water with Amy and Jennifer, splashing them until they shrieked bloody murder, Pacey was balancing Amelia and Mitch on his knees as he supervised his sons building a large sand castle, and Andie was in town shopping for the things Dawson and Pacey had forgotten—mainly vegetables and fruit.
Maybe this summer she would find the time to finish her novel. She had been writing for some time now, as well as editing, but writing had always been her first love (After Dawson.) at first she had tentatively written a short novel about her childhood.
The book covered her mother’s death, her best friend’s fascination with films and the girl next door, and her own search for self. She was sure it was awful but her editor had loved it and demanded it be published. And so Joey became a published author. The novel, “Home” reached 2# on the New York Times bestseller list and was picked up by several book clubs and went into paperback syndication. Excited by the thrill of publishing, Joey had written more books and had been asked to write some articles for the New York Times as well. Dawson had been thrilled for her, and supported her completely, even suggesting “Home” be turned into a film eventually. Typical Dawson.
After that she wrote a popular novel called “The girls club” about three friends (all women) who have very different lives but share the same men and experiences. Audrey was convinced it was about her, Joey and Jen, Andie hinted maybe it was about *her*, Joey and Jen, but Joey refused to tell.
Her next novel was more personal, more intense and she had been reluctant to show it to anyone. She had written it whilst recuperating with a broken ankle over winter two years ago. She had ‘loosely’ based it on her and Dawson’s relationship, changing the names and throwing in a few changes of scenery and circumstance so it wasn’t a biography. The protagonists, the two soul mates, were difficult, passionate people who hurt each other deeply, and the ending was tragic—the woman ran off with the man’s best friend, and then the man was hit by a car leaving the woman distraught and alone when the best friend dumped her after realizing she didn’t love him. Her editor and publicist had praised it though, and to Joey’s surprise it reached 1# for two weeks on the bestsellers list.
Dawson had read the manuscript some weeks before it was published, and had been incredibly impressed by it. He reassured Joey that just because the man in it based on him died it didn’t mean she secretly wanted him to die. “Always” stationed her as an author to be taken seriously, and the two of them became a ‘power couple of the arts,’ there was even an article written about them—along with other couples that were in the same business.
Her latest work in progress was about Jen. Joey knew that after this, nothing else should be based on life experiences, and that she relied a bit too much on her own life for interesting reading material, but how could she not? People read them, and people liked them. No one had to know they were based on real life. Right now, on her laptop, she was in the middle of writing about Jen’s childhood. She had interviewed Jack and Jen’s mother, and had spent a day pouring through old boxes of documents in Jack’s attic. At the core of the story was Jen’s strength.
Joey had opened the book (a contemporary literature piece about an American college student in Morocco) but was not concentrating on it. Instead she was watching Amy frolic in the waves with Jack, her curly blonde hair swishing around her shoulders, her large brown eyes alive with happiness. It was amazing how much she looked like Jen.
“Hey beautiful.” Startled, Joey looked up quickly, and melted into a smile when she saw her husband standing there, watching her.
She put the book down and patted the spot next to her on the hammock. It creaked when he joined her but they just laughed and she rested her head on his chest, sighing, “I love you.”
“I know…” he traced patterns on her arm.
He tipped her chin up and they kissed slowly and greedily, enjoying the kiss.
“Hey, lovebirds…” Dawson and Joey looked up to see Audrey at the door, grinning, with her arm around Gale. “Get a room.”
To Be Continued