Author's Note: See Part 1 for synopsis. Please be kind and send me feedback (I would send it to you!) [email protected] Thanks for taking time to read this.

"I hate taking these." Joey admits to Andie swallowing a pill. "They make me groggy, but this pain is unbearable."

"Do you want to take a nap, Jo?"

"Yeah," Joey nods. "I just don't think I can make up the stairs."

"We don't even have any fishing poles." Dawson reminds Pacey.

"We'll rent them. Ice fishing is big this time of year."

"What about one of those little cabins?" Dawson asks. Some people simply cut a hole in the ice and fished above it, others rented or owned small one room cabins on the ice and cut a hole in the floor of the cabin. It was warmer that way and more comfortable.

"Don't worry, Dawson, we'll get one. For one day, just forget everything." Pacey tells him parking his car outside of a store that rented out cabins and supplies. It was lightly snowing and very cold out. Christmas Eve was the next day. And Pacey couldn't believe he'd actually thought a hockey game would have been a good idea.

"One more step." Andie tells Joey, a few steps behind her. The boys were downstairs eating lunch and it had taken Joey awhile to get up the stairs. The joints in her legs were stiff and ached, and she was so tired she could hardly think. Joey walked up the last step, and with a little help getting down the hall and into the room she and Dawson were staying in. "It's gonna be okay, Jo." Andie tells her as she helps her into bed.

Joey shakes her head. "It's getting worse." Joey tells her closing her eyes. "Usually I can handle stairs, but my back and my legs are killing me, and this medicine doesn't work that well anymore."

"I meant after." Andie tells her quietly, but Joey is already asleep.

"Is there a heater in here?"

"Is there a TV?"

"This isn't a skybox, it's a fishing cabin." The guide tells them. "Just lift up the floor board for fishing, any questions?"

Pacey shakes his head. "No, thank you for your help." Pacey tells him shaking his hand and slipping him a healthy tip.

The cabin was just like a small room. On one wall there were bunks and on the other two chairs. In the center of the floor there was a handle that could be lifted up to reveal the lake and there was a small fridge and a phone next to the door. The bathrooms were in the supply shop. Dawson and Pacey weren?t staying the night though, they?d be back for dinner or thereafter.

"Tim, where's Taylor?" Andie asks as Tim walks into the kitchen. The boys had been playing downstairs in the basement. Andie and Pacey had converted the basement into an exercise room, playroom and an additional guest room when they'd bought the house. It looked just like the rest of the house, it was completely finished. All Tim's toys were in the playroom down there, and the boys had been playing quietly since lunch.

"He's still downstairs." Tim says sitting at the kitchen table. "Mom, is Aunt Joey dying?" He asked seriously. Almost too serious for a four year old.

Andie sat down next her son at the table. Little kids were blunt and that was hard to deal with. She didn't want to lie to him, or be superficial, or sugar coat things, but she didn't want to scare him either. She felt torn. "Tim, you know Aunt Joey is sick." Andie starts. "And the medicines the doctors gave her didn't work. So Aunt Joey keeps getting sicker and sicker. And soon Aunt Joey might be so sick, that God might decide to take Aunt Joey out of all her pain." Andie explains, as Tim listens attentively, and Andie tries to keep herself together. "And then Aunt Joey can watch us and protect us, just like Grandpa." Andie explains. Pacey's father had died the year before and Tim understood that his Grandpa was watching over him now, and Andie thought it was the best way to help him understand.

"What about Taylor?" Tim asks her. "He won't have a mommy anymore."

Andie smiles at his concern. "Well, even though Aunt Joey won't be around to take care of Taylor like I take care of you, he'll always have a mom. Uncle Dawson will take care Taylor and Daddy and I will help take care of Taylor." Tim nods. "Your job is to be the best friend to Taylor that you can be." Andie tells him. "Why don't you go back downstairs and play with Taylor, okay sweetie?" Andie says hugging Tim.

"Okay." Tim nods. Andie watched him run down the stairs and wondered if she did the right thing. What if Taylor didn?t know about Joey and now Tim did? Andie shook her head, she'd told her son the truth, and it what he'd deserved, whether he was four years old or forty years old.

"I just don't know how I'll be able to go on, living my life, working everyday, with out her. In ten years, when Taylor is 14, and he has no recollection of her whatsoever, when he can't remember what she looked like or how she stayed up with all night when he was sick, what am I supposed to tell him? How will he ever what a wonderful person his mother was?"

"Dawson, I...I don't know what to say here."

"This isn't fair, Pacey! He's four years old, what kind of God would take away the mother of a four year old, she's young, why should she die?" Dawson asks standing up, getting angry.

"Dawson, wait a minute here. Are you thinking about what's best for you and Taylor or what's best for Joey?" Pacey asks him.

"I researched this, Pacey. There are treatments in France, in Switzerland, there are experimental drugs, she doesn't want to try them. I feel like she's just giving up, she just letting this disease eat her away."

Pacey fells stunned, unsure of what to say. He stands up to face Dawson. "Look, Dawson, maybe Joey doesn't want to go through that all over again. Five years ago she did chemo and had the mastectomy, and everyone thought it worked. But, it came back and she did chemo and radiation, and it didn't work. It's over, there's no more she can do. Do you think she wants her last days with you and Taylor clouded by experimental treatments that cost thousands and thousands of dollars and may or may not be even worth it, or do you think she wants her last with you and Taylor to be peaceful and memorable?" He asks him rhetorically.

Dawson sits back down, and so does Pacey.

"I'm not scared about this whole thing." Joey tells Andie. The boys were happily playing downstairs, and Joey had woken up and come downstairs a short while ago feeling better. It was snowing heavily and Joey was freezing. She was wearing a turtle neck with a heavy, bulky sweater over it, and although Andie had a fire in the fireplace and the heat way up, Joey was at least fifteen pounds less than she should be and was very cold. Andie was heating her up some chicken soup and she was sipping some tea. "I've pretty much come to terms with this whole dying thing." Joey said, a little too casually. "I mean there's nothing else I can do but accept it. Dawson and I were fighting the other night, after I broke your plates. He made me see that no matter how normal I try to act, I'm still sick and denying the fact that this is all happening, doesn't make it go away."

Andie walks over to the table with the chicken soup. Andie's throat is tight, she's afraid if she says anything, she'll start crying. It amazed her that Joey could be so be so brave.

"Andie, there's just one thing I'm scared about." Joey says taking hold of Andie's arm. "Please help me with this."

"Anything." Andie responds, willing do anything at all for her.

"Taylor is only four years old. I'm scared that in a few years he won't even be able to remember me. When he asks to hear about his mother, he can ask people, but there is so much I want to tell him. It's too painful to talk to Dawson about this. I wrote Taylor a letter the day I found out about this, will you keep it for him? And give it to him when asks about me, or when he graduates high school or goes off for the prom?" Joey asks her as tears stream down her face. "When he needs a mother and I won't be there to be one?"

Andie nods and embraces her friend. "Of course, Joey." Andie tells her, tears streaming as well. She?s beyond touched. "Joey, I love Taylor the way I love Tim. As far as I'm concerned, he's also my son."

Joey smiles, through her tears. "That makes me feel so much better."

Do you like it? Do you hate it? Tell me!!!