Author's Note: Takes place in the future, everyone is in their early thirties. I really enjoyed writing this, and it is my first submission, so please be kind J and send me feedback (I would send it to you!) [email protected] Thanks for taking time to read this.

"I'm fine, Bessie." Joey tells her sister on the phone in their room the next morning. Dawson was still asleep, and Joey knew that Andie and Pacey were up, she could hear them making breakfast downstairs. The smell repulsed her, food had become an enemy, and it showed. She'd lost twenty pounds and her skin was gray.

"You'll call tonight, though?" Bessie asks her. Bessie, Bodie and Alex had decided to spend Christmas in Florida that year, Capeside was too cold and they were sick of the snow. "We've never spent Christmas apart and.... and with you so sick."

"I feel okay," Joey lies, "besides we'll be in Capeside in a week or two to visit you guys." Joey reassures her. She hears one of the boys calling out in the next room. "Bess, I think Taylor just woke up, I have to go." She tells her and they hang up.

It was only eight but Joey had been up since six. She simply couldn't sleep anymore. Her body hurt too much. Joey put on her satin bathrobe and walked out of the room and into the Tim's room, where the boys were staying. "Mommy?" a voice asked. Tim's.

"Hey, Tim." Joey said walking over to the bunk bed. She saw that Taylor was still asleep.

"Hi Aunt Joey." He said. Joey sits down next to the bed. "Can Taylor and I go sledding today?"

"Sure." Joey tells him. "I think it snowed all night long."

"Aunt Joey, are you dying?" Tim asks her, frankly. When Pacey and Andie found out there was no more that the doctors could do for Joey, they'd talked to Tim. They'd never told him she was dying they just told him she was very sick and would be coming for a visit at Christmas. But Tim knew from Joey's appearance she was more than sick. He was only four years old, but he wasn't stupid.

Joey sighs and rubs her Godson's head. "Not today." She tells him. "But one day everyone dies."

"Mommy said you're sick." Tim tells her, slightly unconvinced.

Joey nods. "I am, sweetheart." Joey tells him, tearing up a little. "I have cancer."

"Can I catch it?"

Joey smiles. "Nope."

"Does it hurt a lot?"

Joey thinks for a minute, unsure of what to say. "Sometimes it hurts. But one day, it won't hurt anymore."

Tim sits up and throws his arms around Joey's neck. Joey smiles and squeezes him. She gives him a kiss on the cheek and he breaks the hug. "Can you help me get dressed?" he asks her.

"Will you be okay?" Dawson asks Joey, his arms around her waist.

Joey smiles. "Of course!" They kiss.

"Boys," Pacey says bending to down to eye level with Taylor and Tim. "While we're gone, you two are the men of the house. So you two make sure everything goes okay while we're gone, all right?"

The boys look serious. "Yeah!" they exclaim. The boys were upset that they couldn't go with their dads to the hockey game, but Pacey had only bought two tickets and wanted to spend some time, just he and Dawson.

"Have fun guys." Andie tells them after she and Pacey kiss good bye.

Pacey backed the car out of the garage. It was a long drive to the stadium, 45 minutes to an hour. Dawson and Pacey sat silently in the car for awhile, but it wasn't uncomfortable. Dawson and Pacey were like brothers, and they didn't need to say anything at all.

"It'll be all right, you know." Pacey breaks the silence, wanting to comfort his friend.

Dawson sighs. "I'm not so sure, Pace. What am I supposed to do without her?"

"Raise your son, be the best father you can be. Continue on your life. Dawson, this will be hard, I can't imagine what I would do in this situation, but Dawson-"

"How can you say that?" Dawson interrupts. "Pacey, this may work on Andie but you can't just purge this inexperienced advice on me. You have no idea what this is like. This is my worst nightmare."

Pacey nods. "I know. But Andie and I, we're here for you, now and always, with Joey and without her. You and Taylor are our family and we love you, and we'll help you in every way we can." Pacey tells him.

"And don't take your mittens off like last time." Andie tells Tim zipping up his heavy winter coat.

"Okay, okay." Tim promises, eager to go out and play.

"And don't take you hat off." Andie reminds him.

"Okay, mom, I promise." Tim reassures her.

"Do you two promise to be careful?" Joey asks Taylor and Tim, all suited up to play in the snow.

"We promise!" The boys say in unison.

"Okay." Joey tells them as Andie opens the back door. "But we're watching you." She jokes, smiling. The boys run outside and begin dragging some sleds up a hill in the backyard. Andie and Pacey had a big house with a huge piece of property, about three acres, mostly in the backyard.

"They're so cute." Andie smiles, watching them. "They get along so well."

Joey smiles warmly and Andie pours them each some tea. "The other day I found myself just watching him play with his toys. I guess I realize now that....that I don't have a lot of time left with him and every minute of it is precious."

"We take what we have for granted until we realize how easily it can be taken away." Andie agrees.

The car ride once again fell silent. It had been for about ten minutes. "What am I supposed to tell him?" Dawson breaks the silence suddenly, looking at Pacey. Pacey looks at him questioningly. "What am I supposed to tell him in ten years when can't even remember her? When he forgets what she smelled like, how she wore her hair, her crooked smile?" Dawson asks Pacey, near tears.

Pacey takes a deep breath. "You know what Dawson? I have a better idea." Pacey says getting off at the next exit.

"This isn't the way to the stadium." Dawson realizes.

"I know." Pacey nods. "I think I have a better idea."

"You'd think they'd be frost-bitten by now." Joey laughs looking out the window above the kitchen sink, seeing Taylor and Tim play in the snow. Andie and Joey were making chicken soup for the boys for lunch. When Joey had woken up that morning the muscles in her back were stiff and painful. Andie brings some bowls over to the kitchen table, and Joey grabs the counter to steady herself. She feels the room go blurry and all her muscles hurt. "Jo, are you okay?" Andie asks her.

Joey nods. "Yeah. She says. She sits down at a stool next to the counter. "Andie, in the bathroom there is a bottle of pills in a brown bottle. Can you get them for me?" Joey asks her, in obvious pain.

Andie nods and puts the plates down. She walks up the back staircase and into the bathroom that was connected to the room Dawson and Joey were staying in. Andie saw the bottle right away, and read the label. Morphine.

"Where are we?" Dawson asks Pacey.

"How can you not remember this?" Pacey asks driving into a town just outside of Providence.

Dawson looks around. "I know where we are...." Dawson realizes, a smile washing over his face.

Every year, usually on Pacey's birthday, Dawson and Pacey would organize a roadtrip, to Providence. They always stayed in the same town, Vailview, just outside of Providence itself. The summer before college, they took Joey and Andie camping there. The best memories of their friendship came from the weekend camping.

[Flashback]

"All I can say is, I won't eat any fish you catch in a river with a stick and a crouton." Joey laughs at the boys attempt at fishing. They?d left their gear at home and improvised. They'd actually caught a fish, a very small fish, and were intent on cooking it.

"I think I'll stick to the food we bought at the store." Andie agrees.

"Fine, McPhee, you be skeptical, but this is the best fish you'll never taste." Pacey grins at her.

"Oh, Pacey, grow up. We graduated high school last week, remember? We're adults now." Joey tells him.

"I can't believe we've all managed to stay friends for this long." Dawson says sitting down next to Joey. "With out ripping each other's heads off."

"We've come close." Joey smiles, eyeing Pacey, who rolls his eyes at her.

"Guys, joking aside, we've been through a lot together. Break-ups, make-ups..." Dawson reminds them

"Breakdowns," Andie continues.

"We've been through enough." Joey says, remembering back. "But we've been through it together."

"And we always will." Dawson adds. "No matter what, we?ll always be friends."

Pacey nods. "We've been through too much to turn back now."

"And just because we're all going our separate ways to different colleges, doesn't mean that has to stop." Andie says.

"This calls for a pact." Dawson tells them. "We'll make a pact to promise to be there for each other, even if we haven't talked in years, even if we live 3,000 miles apart, no matter what."

Joey shakes her head. "We don't need a pact," she tells him. "What we have is much stronger than a pact, our friendship is stronger and more meaningful for a pact. I couldn't ask for better friends." She smiles.

On to Part 5