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

"When he was a baby, he had this little stuffed duck. And it had a little white sailor hat and he carried it everywhere. A co-worker of Dawson's had given it to him. And he took this duck everywhere he went, until it got so dirty and germy it was gray. I had to wash it while he was sleeping. That summer, he was probably only two, we went to the beach and Taylor had to take this duck. So Dawson took him into the water, just so he could feel the waves and play in the sand, and he brought the duck with him. This big wave came and knocked him over. Dawson grabbed him, he was fine, wet and scared, but okay. The duck, however, never made it. We never found it, he cried for hours, we searched the whole beach, but it got carried out in the tide. Whenever we see a duck or go to the beach, he asks me to tell him that." Joey tells Andie as Andie writes the story down in a little book. Pacey and Dawson had taken the boys sledding, and it was just Andie and Joey in the house.

Andie and Joey had been talking that morning, and they'd decided to write down baby memories of Taylor, ones that would otherwise die with Joey, or stories that he would miss hearing. Andie would become the closest thing to a mother Taylor would have after Joey died, but Joey knew every memory, every tear every smile, and Andie didn't. And she didn't want Taylor to suffer because of that. Everyone wanted to know their roots, where they came from, what they once were like. Joey knew the pain all too well, when he mother died, she was left with a gaping void, and didn't want Taylor to feel the same way. "The thing that scared me the most, when they first told me about this, it wasn't the pain, or the dying, it was the fact that I would become my mother. When my mother died, my childhood died. Bessie could remember some things, but only a my mother would remember the first time I talked, and walked and smiled. I didn't want Taylor to experience that pain."

"This will help, Joey. So much. And when I tell him these stories when he asks for them, he won't feel that void. And when he asks about you, and I tell him what a wonderful friend and wife and mother you were, he'll know I'm telling the truth because he'll see that you did this for him. Whether he can remember how caring you were or not, he'll be able to see it, by this book." Andie reassures her.

Joey nods. "I don't want him to forget me, but most of all, I don't want him to have to forget himself. Dawson works, he doesn't spend all day and all night with Taylor, like I do. I just want him to have something to grasp to. I was so worried, Andie, that he would want to hear stories about himself, what he was like as a baby, as a little kid, and he'd have no one to ask. I'm sure Dawson would remember some things, but not the things a mother would remember."

"You need to write this in here, Joey. I want you to, write down why you are having me do this." Andie tells her handing her the pen.

Jack turned off the highway to exit 47. Welcome to Lakevail, the sign read. Jack was nervous about this Christmas. He always spent Christmas with Andie and Pacey and Tim, but this year would different. Dawson and Joey would be there, and Joey was sick. He and Joey had remained close friends all through high school, the first time she'd gotten sick, five years before, Jack had visited her a few times, and called her often. They'd drifted apart after high school, but Jack always remembered how Joey had been there for him when he'd announced he was gay, when he needed a friend most, that had to return the favor.

He remembered it clearly, it had been about four years after she and Dawson and Pacey and Andie had graduated from college when she found out. The chemo therapies had worked at first, but it wasn't stopping the spread of the cancerous cells and Joey had been left with one last option, a mastectomy. The doctors told her the it would clear cancerous cells out of Joey's body, and therefore prevent further spreading from occurring. After she recuperated from the surgery, she underwent more chemo therapy to ensure there wasn't any cancer left behind. Jack had stood by her the whole way through, he called her everyday and even flew from Colorado to help out after the surgery. After that they'd kept in touch, but it was five years later, and they hadn't really spoken in a year or more. Jack couldn't believe it when Andie called, telling him the horrible news. Joey's cancer was out of remission. But the worst news came when Andie called again to say the chemo hadn't worked, and the radiation hadn't worked, and there wasn't anything the doctors could do.

There were experimental therapies, or course, abroad. Dawson had looked into them extensively, Andie told him. But Joey didn't want to go through with it. She wanted her last days with her family to be peaceful, and not blurred over and clouded up by medications. Jack couldn't believe her bravery, and Dawson's. This was going to be a Christmas to remember, for good reasons and bad.

"Jack should have been here half an hour ago." Andie notices glancing at her watch.

"Uh-oh, here we go." Pacey rolls his eyes.

"Pacey, are the roads icy? Maybe the car Jack took from the airport doesn't have four wheel drive. What if the car slid off the road?" Andie asks him, panicky.

"God, Andie, he'll be here any minute, just cool it." Pacey tells her.

"Hello?" Jack calls from the front hall, and walks into the kitchen.

"Jack!" Andie exclaims, happy to see her brother. They hug. "How was the trip?"

Jack rolls his eyes. "The roads were really bad. I was afraid my car was gonna slide off the road." Andie makes an 'I-told-you-so!' face at Pacey.

"Are you hungry? We've got Christmas cookies and tea and egg nog,..."

Jack shakes his head. "I'm fine. Where are Joey and Dawson?"

"They took Taylor out for awhile, they need some time alone as a family." Pacey explains as Andie takes a batch of cookies out of the oven.

"How is she?" Jack asks.

Pacey shakes his head. "She's pretty bad. She's down about 15 pounds, she looks gray and sick, she's tired, and always cold."

"And she's lost so much strength. And what strength she has left she can't use because all her muscles hurt. It took her ten minutes to get up the strength to carry two plates and two bowls from the kitchen to the dining room the other night." Andie adds.

"And the next time she tried, she dropped them."

Jack looks lost. How could someone like Joey, someone so full of life and energy and spirit be the broken person Pacey and Andie were talking about.

"Uncle Jack!!!!" Tim runs up from the basement into the kitchen.

"Hey, buddy!" Jack says giving his favorite, and only nephew, a big hug.

"Uncle Jack, wait until you meet Taylor and my Aunt Joey and Uncle Dawson." Tim tells him excitedly and Andie brings him over a bowl of count chocula. Even though it two in the afternoon, it was Tim's favorite snack.

"I already know your Aunt Joey and Uncle Dawson." Jack laughs ruffling Tim's hair.

Tim shoves a heaping spoonful of cereal into his mouth. "He does?!" Tim asks Pacey and Andie, eyebrows raised, milk running down his chin.

"Tim, close your mouth when you chew." Pacey tells him.

"Tim, Uncle Jack and I and daddy have known Uncle Dawson and Aunt Joey for a long time." Andie tells him. "We went to school together.

"I've know Taylor for a long time." Tim relates.

"Tim, you and Taylor are three months apart." Andie laughs.

"And you're both only four years old." Pacey reminds him.

"Four and three quarters." Tim corrects. Pacey rolls his eyes as Jack and Andie laugh.

"Cold?" Dawson asks Joey. They're sitting on a park bench watching Taylor play in the snow, at a local playground. Joey nods. "Do you want to go?" He asks her.

"No," Joey shakes his head. "He's having such a good time, and we're altogether." Joey tells him, shivering. He wraps his arms around her to warm her up.

"Mom, I want to play with Tim." Taylor tells them running over.

"Yeah?" Dawson asks.

Taylor nods vigorously. "He's my best friend." That was nothing new, Taylor and Tim had been inseparable since they could sit up. "Can we go home?"

"Taylor, no. We're staying with Aunt Andie and Uncle Pacey for a few more days." Dawson reminds him.

"No, I mean home to Aunt Andie's." He tells them. "That's my house, too."

"You like being with Tim and Aunt Andie and Uncle Pacey, don't you?" Dawson asks him. Taylor nods. "Uncle Pacey said when it's warm out I can drive his Viper."

"I think he meant ride in his Viper." Joey smiles.

"I think he meant look at his Viper. That car is Pacey's baby, you have to pass an inspection to be able to ride in it." Dawson laughs.

"Taylor, you can play for a little while longer and then we?ll go home to Aunt Andie's." Joey tells him. Dawson and Joey sit in silence, huddled together, for a while. "Dawson, do you remember when my mom was sick, and she was dying. I would climb through your bedroom window, and you would know, just by the look on my face, how I was feeling. And even though we just little kids, we could just sit in silence and you would just hold my hand?"

Dawson looks at Joey and nods. He takes her hand in his, and she leans her head against his shoulder. They didn't need to say anything. The silence said it all.

On to Part 13