Jack looked around outside, and figured that Pacey hadn't gone far since his car was still sitting in the driveway. Hearing the sound of Bobo barking, he decided to investigate and walked around the house. Opening the side gate, he found Pacey in the back yard, throwing a ratted old tennis ball for Bobo, who refused to chase after it and walked to wherever it landed, and then walked back to Pacey. "That is one sad old mutt."

Pacey nodded, "No argument from me."

Jack shifted his weight, coming to stand beside Pacey. "You okay?"

He shrugged, "I'm not sure."

Jack kicked at the dirt, "Women suck, man. See, if you were gay, you wouldn't have this problem."

Pacey chuckled softly, "Men are just as bad as women, if not worse." He was quiet for a minute as he watched the dog walk towards him, "I just don't get her."

Jack nodded in empathy, "She doesn't get you either."

"What was the big deal with telling Dawson? I mean, she likes to tell me as often as possible that this isn't a real relationship, so what would be the harm in telling him?" He looked over at Jack, "Once again, I'm put behind him."

"Did she say that she didn't want to hurt him?"

He sighed, "She said she didn't want to bother him. Why would it bother him? They're over and done with. Why should it matter to her what he thinks?"

"They have a history..." Jack offered half-heartedly, not knowing what else to say.

"Yeah..." Pacey sighed and sat on the ground. "They have a history. All my life I've been told they have a history. I've seen them hurt each other numerous times, and she..." he sighed, "It just boggles the mind, Jack. I mean, we have a history too, and...she's never acted about me the way she has about him. She's never put my feelings before his, even when he's half way around the world." He looked up at Jack, "You understand now? You understand why I can't fall for her? Because no matter what, she's going to hurt me again."

"Okay, first of all," Jack sat down on the ground beside him as Bobo dropped his tennis ball to lick Pacey's cheek, "You don't know for certain why she's avoided telling Dawson. And until you do, you can't draw any conclusions. Second of all, and probably the most important: Why do you care that she hasn't told him?"

He looked over at Jack, then back at the dog at his side, "I just do. I don't know why." He looked over at his friend, "Why do you think I care?"

"Because you've done what you swore you weren't going to do. You fell in love with her. And just the thought of her and Dawson makes you want to break things. Preferably Dawson's nose."

Pacey smiled, "Hitting Dawson might make me feel better." He leaned back on his hands, "You think I'm in love with Joey?"

"You still think that you aren't?"

"I don't know anymore. I mean, sometimes we get along great, you know? I mean we talk, we laugh, we enjoy one another, and then there are times when she will say something about me dating other women or Dawson and I just...I want to hurt things, you know? She makes me so angry...I can't see straight."

"If you honestly didn't love her, do you think she'd have the power to make you this angry?"

Pacey hung his head, "No."

"Great, than I've made my point." He stood up and offered his friend a hand. "Now, let's go get drunk."

"Getting drunk sounds like a great idea."

Jack gave him a grin, "I figured you'd need it right about now."

"You think we should tell the girls we're leaving?"

"No. Let them stew in their own juices for a while. Let her worry about you for once."

"Yeah." Pacey took Jack's hand and stood. They made their way to the front of the house, "Should we take my car."

"Yeah, that way Jen can get home."

"Okay."





"Okay, upsie daisy," Jack helped a very drunk Pacey up the stairs to the porch. It was several hours after midnight, and they'd stayed drinking until last call. Or at least, Pacey had kept drinking, Jack had started ordering soda after the first hour.

"Why does everyone want Dawson, Jack? I mean...I'm a much better lay than he is. I've been told..."

"I don't want to know what you've been told man," Jack shook his head with an amused smile and leaned him up against the wall. "Where are your keys?"

"I don't know...you drove. Am I cuter than Dawson?" Pacey asked as he leaned against the house.

Jack laughed, "Oh hell yes. But don't tell Landon I said that."

"I won't. Did you find my keys?"

"I am not looking in your pockets for you. I draw the line there."

Pacey shoved his hands in both pockets and removed his keys, "Here."

"Which one is it?" He asked, flipping through the keys.

"A gold one."

"They're all gold." Jack grumbled.

Thankfully, the lock clicked and the door opened, revealing Joey standing there in her pajamas, a concerned frown on her face. "Where have you been?"

Pacey looked over at her and walked inside, "We've...been out," he said stumbling a little.

"Drinking." She shot Jack a glare, "You let him get this drunk?"

"Pacey is a big boy and does what he wants." They both watched as he fell onto the couch.

"Yep. I do what I want." He rolled off the couch into the floor when he knocked the remote off the table and under the couch. He busied himself with trying to retrieve it as Jack and Joey looked on.

"You can leave. I'll handle him from here." Joey waved a hand to Jack, "Landon called looking for you."

He winced, "I'm in trouble."

Pacey chuckled, "Oooooh...you're gonna get it," he said as he laid his head on the seat of the couch.

"Right," Jack nodded and gave Joey a wave. "Take it easy man. You're going to regret this all in the morning."

"No, he's gonna regret it in..." Joey checked her watch as she walked Jack back to the door, "One hour when Hope starts crying for her bottle."

Pacey perked up, "Hope. Where is Hope?"

"She's sleeping, in our room. Which is where you're going to go," she shot over her shoulder. "Bye Jack."

Pacey looked up at Joey as she stood over him, "You're tall." He then looked concerned, "Am I shrinking?"

She cracked a smile and held out her hands to help him up, "Only in your penis."

He looked down, then back at her, "Really?" he asked sadly.

"Yes, really. Now get up." She waited patiently as his swimming vision focused on her hands and he clasped them, letting her pull him up.

He leaned against her and smiled, "You smell good, Jo."

"Thank you." She tried to lead him to the bedroom. "What possessed you to get drunk?"

"Oh...let's not talk about this right now," he said as they made their way into their room.

"Fine, but we will talk about this." She gave him a hard look that faded into a troubled frown "You can't just disappear on me like that. I worry."

"Why do you worry? It's not like this is a relationship or anything."

"Because I care about you," she said softly as they entered the room. "Don't wake the baby." Her bassinet sat on her side of the bed, kept within close reach. Joey had been too nervous to leave her in her own bedroom so soon.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you care about me," he said snidely as he sat on his side of the bed.

"Pacey," she moved around the bed to kneel in front of him. "I do. So much, and I was so worried that something had happened to you." She touched his cheek lightly, "And all I could think was that you left and you were mad at me."

"I did leave and I am mad at you. But I'm fine," he said brushing her hand away.

She bit her lip and stood up, "You're right, we can't talk when you're like this."

"Why talk? All I am to you is sex and a name on a marriage license."

"That is not all you are to me."

"Sure, Joey." He pulled his sweat shirt over his head, "I'm going to sleep."

"You're my best friend, Pacey."

"Friend? Friend? Answer one question and give me an honest answer, why did you really not tell Dawson we were married?"

"Cause I didn't want to cause trouble." She answered, folding her arms across her chest defensively.

"Why would it cause trouble? I mean...what could he have done? Come back here and declared his undying love for you? That wouldn't have mattered would it? According to you, you don't want or need a man in your life, so tell me, how would it have caused trouble?"

Her eyes started to tear and she glared at him, even as her voice trembled, "Because he would come here and try and talk me out of it. Tell me what a horrible mistake I was making. He'd tell you what a loser you were, how you're going nowhere and how you'd be dragging me down with you. And he'd make you believe it." She turned away from him and picked up the baby, who'd woken with their arguing. "I'm so sorry for trying to protect you from that." With those parting words, she left the room, Hope crying in her arms.






Joey slept in Hope's room that night, waking up every three hours to feed and change her, putting her slowly back to sleep in the rocking chair. At around eight, she heard Pacey moving around, grumbling to himself as he fumbled in the bathroom, probably looking for aspirin. Vindictively, she hoped he wouldn't find it, or better yet, found it, but accidentally dropped the open bottle in the toilet. That would serve him right.

She heard him curse loudly again, and she stood up, checking once on Hope, she made her way to the bathroom, and leaned against the doorjamb, regarding his rumpled form through dark eyes. "Looking for something?"

"Aspirin...a gun...something to get rid of my headache."

"Try sobriety. You wouldn't have that problem." She hooked her half of the baby monitor to the elastic of her sweatpants and moved into the cramped bathroom. Opening a drawer she handed him a bottle of Tylenol.

"You think if I take all of these it will do the trick?" he asked shaking the bottle at her.

"No, you'd need arsenic for that," she said breezily and left him to go make coffee in the kitchen.

He looked after her curiously and followed her into the kitchen, "Did I say something to offend you?"

"You mean aside from basically accusing me of still being in love with Dawson and being completely heartless? No." She busied herself grinding coffee beans, effectively drowning out any of his attempts to reply. When the grounds were down to a fine powder, she finally stopped.

He leaned against the door frame of the kitchen, "When did I say that?"

"As you were stumbling your drunken ass to bed."

He was quiet for a minute as he tried to remember their conversation. He didn't remember much of it, just the look of hurt in her eyes, "So I take it you're pissed about that, huh?"

"Considerably." She put the coffee grounds in the maker, and then moved to the sink to fill the pot with water.

"Okay," he said walking out of the room.

She turned around to look after him, wondering why he was giving up so easily. Shaking her head, she turned back to her task. He walked back into the kitchen, fully dressed, "I'll may be back later," he said dropping a bag at his feet. "Then again, I may not."

"What?" Her eyes widened, "Where are you going?"

"I'm not staying here and fighting with you all day because I said something stupid while I was drunk, and I'm not going to let you give me the cold shoulder either. So I'm going to work."

"It's not what you said, it's that you actually believe it." She scowled at him, "And what do you mean you may not be back?"

"It depends on if I feel like having my head bitten off tonight. If I don't...I'll find somewhere else to stay."

"Fine, you do that." She bit out, hating the part of her that was crying out for him to stay.

He picked up his bag, "I don't know what you want from me, here. I mean, I think we're getting along great and then...you tell me that this isn't real and that you don't want a man in your life. So, you figure out what you want, and you call me. If all you want is sex and that baby, then tell me now. Not ten months from now. I want to know what to expect because all of my expectations for this have been turned upside down and I don't know what the fuck is going on anymore."

"Come home tonight?" she asked.

He sighed, "Fine."

"I'll make dinner. We can talk..."

He nodded, "Okay."

She released a shuddering breath, "Okay then."