A Hard Day's Night by: Holly and Jenny

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Rating: Light PG-13. Nothing at all graphic. If you watch the show, you're definatly old enough to read this. No small kiddies!

Pairing: Dawson/Joey romance

Summary: This takes place right after Breaking Away. Dawson and Joey are adjusting along with their friends to their new relationship. Jen is hurting from her loss, and Joey tries to provide some comfort. Meanwhile, something's bothering Joey, but she won't tell Dawson what it is.

A Hard Day's Night

They were standing together in Dawson's bedroom. Joey had just come through the front door. Dawson was wondering why she hadn't used the ladder. Joey was wondering if she should have come. They stood an awkward ten feet away from each other.

"So, movie night. Like always." Joey smiled tightly. Dawson opened his mouth to say something, and then looked down at the Spielberg film he was holding.

"We can do something else, Jo. Umm, let's see. Oh, I know! The new movie by that Kevin Williamson guy is at the theatre."

"Isn't he the one who makes all those horror movies that twist you around in complicated plot lines with more herrings than a lake and then has the killer be the most obvious person?"

"Okay, so no movie," Dawson said, raising his eyebrows.

"No, I'll go see it." Joey shrugged her sholders. "It's just why waste all that useful brain power on following up on something that comes out to be such a dissapointment?"

Joey looked at him meaningfully. She sighed in her head. Obviously, Dawson wasn't getting what she was trying desperatly to communicate to him--SHE WANTED TO KNOW WHERE THEIR RELATIONSHIP WAS GOING! For so long she had waited for Dawson to kiss her, really kiss her, with all his heart. And finally two days ago, he had and she had felt those fireworks all those romantic sappy books, which she would vehemently deny reading, said there was. Yesterday they had spent the day on a rowboat in the creek basically kissing. Today, Joey was ready for the honesty part of this new relationship to set in. She wanted to ask him something. Dawson was still sitting on the bed looking between a Spielberg movie and a brainless romantic comedy. Joey moved over to the bed and sat next to him.

"Nice to know your going to stay a while, Jo." He gave her that naive Dawson puppy dog grin that set her heart off...no, she was going to be strong.

"Dawson," she said, as he reached over to put the Spielberg movie (surprise,surprise) into the VCR. She pulled him back.

"Tomorrow at school, what are we?"

"What do you mean Jo? Hey, and how come you didn't come up the ladder?"

"Not the issue at hand, Dawson. And even you have to know what I mean. Right now were us, a well, couple or whatever, but at school is this us, or is the old us us?" Dawson looked as if he were thinking very hard.

"Does this really take up all your brain power?"

"No, I'm just trying to figure out what you just said." He knew that would get her.

"Oooo, you!" she yelled. She threw herself on him, tickling him in the stomach, where she knew he was the most ticklish. Dawson turned the tables on her holding her down with his forearm, while tickling her.

"Give?" he asked.

"Give," she said.

"Good." Dawson looked into her eyes and kissed her. Just then Mrs. Leery walked into the room. Dawson and Joey sat up. Mrs.Leery looked at them both. She started to say something, but aparently thought better of it. Instead she turned around to hide her amusement.

"I'll just come back later." Avoiding each others eyes, Joey and Dawson fully sat up.

"The Color Purple okay?"

"Fine."

Later that night, back at home Joey looked at herself in the mirror. She and Dawson had agreed that their sleepovers probably weren't such a good idea anymore. Well, actually Joey had said that, and for once Dawson hadn't argued vehemently, which was basically his way of agreeing with her.

Joey laughed to herself. I guess all this means Jen and I aren't friends anymore. Which was actually to bad. Joey had admitted to herself a while ago that she loved Dawson and she was finding out she should probably revoke that subscription to the I Hate Pacey Whitter Club. But sometimes, and she hated to admit this to herself, she almost wished she had another female to talk to. But at some point in time God decided he hated herand excluded her from same sex friendships. And now all the people in her life were guys, and they didn't even make double digits. Bessie was actually an okay sister, but between Bodie and the baby, Joey wasn't sure Bessie knew whether she was alive anymore. Joey could be off gang banging bikers and Bessie wouldn't have noticed. And most of the girls at Capeside High were of the ditsy sort of mind. And the ones who weren't, like Abby, were stuck up and took assertivness to a level that made even Joey shudder.

Guidance counselors were really beginning to make a difference. Maybe they shouldn't have stressed assertivness quite so much to people like Abby when they were younger.

Maybe she should go out for cheerleading. At least then she'd have female friends even if their IQ's all added together equaled the usual final score of Capeside High's football team.Oh, great now she was going to have to kill herself because her mind was dirty for thinking a thought like that. Joey pinned her hair up, sighed in disgust, and walked away from the mirror.

Meanwhile, up the creek, in Dawson's room, he was trying to figure out what had happened when Joey was there. It had been so awkward, and he really didn't want to to be that way. He sighed and lay down on his bed, hands behind his head. And what were they going to tell people? Jen was going to be upset, and since her grandpa had just died, he didn't want to make it even harder on her. But he knew she was going to find out. It was the inevitable fate of love triangles. When something actually happened, someone you liked ended up getting hurt. Dawson wondered if there was an appropriate movie-real life corralation.

"I bet Steven Spielbergs teenage years weren't like this," he thought. "This is what I get for falling in love with my best friend." Dawson realized with a start that he had just admitted to himself that he loved her. That was a blow to him. He knew he cared about her, but he hadn't realized until right this second he was in love with her. Dawson went over to his desk. On it was a picture of him and Jo on their first fishing trip on the creek. They were seven years old and grinning broadly, holding up the three small fish they had caught. It was all so simple back then. Joey was his best friend, she still was, but back then he hadn't thought about kissing her every other second. He shook his head to try and rid himself of the whole jumble of thoughts going on in there.

"Dawson!" Joey called from the window. "Hey!"

"Joey!" Dawson turned away from his desk suddenly. "Hey what are you doing back here?" He jumped over to where she has climbing over the window sill.He put his hand on her back, as if trying to help her down.

"Dawson," Joey looked at him scathingly. "I've been climbing in this window for ten years. I think I'll be okay without your help." But then she smiled and he grinned back at her.

"Anyway, I came back because I was just wondering if your mom came back to ask questions?" She smiled a little half smile and sat down at his desk.

"Nah, she sent my dad up," Dawson picked up his ET doll and sat across from her on the bed.

"What'd he say?"

"Basically, so you finally got together!! Thank God!" Joey laughed. Dawson loved that laugh. Joey didn't laugh a whole lot, but when she did it was so beautiful...

"Uhh, Dawson..." Joey waved her hands in front of his face.

"Ohh, sorry Jo. Anyway then he just said we should be careful about how serious we get. I don't think he was serious." What Dawson wasn't telling Joey was that his dad had actually been asking a lot of personal questions about their relationship. He said the public had the right to know, after waiting so long for them to get together. Dawson was puzzled because he had thought Jo had only liked him for about three months. Maybe he really was a child, he needed to grow up. Then his father had said he was to young to have grandchildren, which Dawson basically thought was a stupid statement. Now he looked back at Joey, who seemed to be examining her hands.

"The reason I came back, Dawson, is that tonight was very weird. I don't want that to be us, I want us to be best friends, and boyfriend and girlfriend. And I have to tell you, we said we wanted to be honest with each other. So, I love you, Dawson. I am deeply and totally, completely in love with you. And that is so hard for me to say, because I don't like to need anyone. I hate needing someone, because I really don't have anyone who cares." Tears started to stream down her face, slowly because it was taking all her self control not to completely break down. "I'm sorry.. I'm sorry.." she mumbled. Dawson just sat there staring at her. Then slowly he got up and moved towards her. Then he put his arms around her.

"It's okay, Joey. I care about you, so much. If anything ever happened to you my life would cease to function. I mean, who would tell me when I was acting stupidly romantic, and who would analyze my every action and believe in me? " Joey gave a small smile. "I love you Jo. I can't even beieve how much. I don't know why it's so hard to believe. Your everything to me."

"God," Joey ran a tissue over her eyes, that Dawson had just handed her. "I'm waiting for the ugly sappy music to start."

"This isn't the movies Jo. We don't have a soundtrack--but we have this.." Dawson ran over to his cd player and put in Natalie Merchant. Joey lay her head on his shoulder and they danced.

"Bessie- oh, hi." Joey looked into Bessie's face and knew she was in for it. Darn, she definatly liked it better when Bessie wasn't paying attention.

"Josephine Potter, it is 4 am, where the hell have you been!?"

"At Dawson's?" Joey said it almost as if she was asking Bessie.

"You didn't say you were going to be there. I thought you were spending the night here."

"Well, we were just talking, I mean, nothing happened."

"Nothing happened?" Bessie sat dwn looked confused, but knowing.

"You and Dawson--your dating now?"

"No!," said Joey uncomfortably. "Were not dating exactly..." Bessie laughed.

" Now. No more going out without telling me first. And unless you want to add another kid to this house, which would not excite me, no more sleepovers." Joey screamed. Then the baby screamed. Then Bessie.

"I am soo tired," Joey put her head down on her desk. She was in homeroom, which, unfortunatly, she shared with Pacey.

"Late night Jo?" Pacey swung his feet up onto is desk. "Daydreaming about Dawson again?" He gave her is smirk.

"Oh, shut up, Pacey,"she gave him a smirk of her own.

"I just gotta say Jo. You have amazing patience. I mean, if I were you, I would have picked another guy by now."

"I knew all that oogling of girls was just an act to hide your true feelings--"

"Yeah, yeah. Well at least I don't obsess over someone who likes me as a 'friend'. Face it Jo. It'll never happen. " Just then Dawson came over. He had been listening to the conversation in amusement from outside the door. He decided to make Pacey eat crow. He walked into the room, smiled at Joey, and kissed her.

"Hey! How's my favorite girl friend?" If Pacey's jaw dropped any lower he would need surgery to fix it.

"Guy!" Pacey slammed his locker shut. "So MY advice was good, huh? You and little Joey. The good girl, the girl from the other side of the creek, the.."

"Pacey?"

"What?"

"Shut up."

Joey was in a little dream world. Boy was it fun to show up Pacey..

"Oooff!" Joey bumped into a figure coming around the corner.

"Jen, oh, sorry," Joey ducked her head a little. She couldn't help but feel a little guilty about being with Dawson. She hadn't even noticed Jens tear stained, red face until now. "Jen, um, are you like, alright?"

"Joey--uhh, yeah. Excuse me." And Joey stared after Jen, wondering what was going on. Maybe it was about her and Dawson, but it seemed like something else, besides the only person who really knew was Pacey. Joey shrugged and walked down the hall.

Dawson kissed Joey deeply. They were hiding in the stacks of the library at lunch, so they could be alone.

"I love you, Jo." Joey smiled. She loved how Dawson could be hoplessly romantic, even if annoyed the hell out of her sometimes.

"I feel like we're in that sappy movie Bed of Roses. The only missing thing is....we're both virgins."

"Dawson. Real world. NOW!"

"Sorry, Jo" He kissed her.

"Hmm, maybe we can do something about that thing that's missing."Dawson grinned in that puppy dog way.

Over in the next stack, Capeside's favorite little vixen, Abby Morgen covered her mouth to stifle a gasp. "Oh my god," she whispered."This...is...NEWS!!!!!" She ran out of the library to find Jen Lindley.

Joey broke off a kiss. "Dawson, I saw Jen today. She looked like crap. Do you think she knows about us?"

"Oooh, I'm so stupid!" He hit his forehead with his fist."last night, my dad told me her grandfather died."

"Oh..."

"Uhh, Jo?"

"What??"

"I don't know, you just got this look on your face..."

"Dawson, you're reading too much into things. I'm fine." She kissed him, as if to prove it.

"So, you coming over after school?"

"No, I have to work, but I'll be over later."

"Ok." He grinned.

He reached to kiss her, and she stopped him.

" Class, Dawson?" We ARE still in school."

"Right. Class." He took her by the hand, and they started off to class together. "I love you." She smiled.

Joey knocked on the door in front of her. Mrs. Ryan opened the door, and Joey was amazed to see that she looked as though she'd been crying.

Not making eye contact she said " I -I heard. I'm so sorry."

"Well, thank you. W- Would you like to come in?"

" Yeah. I would, actually."

Joey walked up the stairs looking at the pictures on the wall. She saw a little blond girl, about three years old. She was wearing a "Jesus Loves Me" t-shirt. With a start she realized this was Jen. She knocked on Jen's bedroom door.

"Hey. Jen?" There was a small crumpled up figure lying on the bed and Joey could hear sobs emerging from it. She walked over slowly, uncertainly towards the bed. "Hey. Jen, it'll be alright. It really will.I know how you feel. " Jen sat up.

"Joey?" she sniffed. Joey swallowed all her own hurt and pride. She opened her arms.

"It's going to be okay. I know you can't see that right now, but it will." And Jen hugged her and cried.

"Joey?" Dawson looked up from his movie. Joey climbed into the room. "Hey what's wrong?" Dawson knew right away from the look on her face that she was upset. He may have been blind to a lot of things, but he could always tell when Jo was hurting.

"I just.." she bit her lip, her eyes watery. "I just really need you to hold me tonight Dawson.I--I.." Dawson moved over to her, and put his arms around her.

"Hey, hey, it's gonna be alright." And even though Joey knew that it wouldn't be and that Dawson couldn't stop the hurt of remembering her mom's death, for that moment she felt safe.

Yes, a little mushy we know. Sorry! Hate it, despise it, want to tell me I'm a hack? Feedback, but please be kind! We're very nice people, so please be nice back!

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