Independence Day by: Kilby

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[Previously in "Disclosure": When the group gathers together confrontation arises. Dawson finds out that Pacey and Joey did not sleep together. He and Pacey work out their differences. When Joey says that she wants things to go back to the way they were before, Jen attacks her verbally. To solve the problems Dawson proclaims that no one will date anyone else in the group, much to the disappointment of Pacey and Joey. Later that night, Pacey and Joey have a deep talk, in which he reveals how he thinks he's changed, and she assures him that he has become a good man. She tells him the solution is for him to love, and allow himself to be loved. About a week later. . .]

Dawson had just dozed back to sleep when Joey climbed through his window. She stood there for a moment and watched him. He must have known it, because he woke up. "Hey, Joey," he said in a groggy, early morning voice.

"Hey Dawson," she said. "I'm sorry if I'm early. I thought we were going to watch movies today."

"We are," he said. "I just had a long night."

"What happened?" she asked.

"Jen was over here, and we were talking about what happened last week."

"Let me guess," Joey said. "She's still angry about the 'Dawson rule.'"

"Yeah," he said. "Honestly, I'm a little upset about the 'Dawson rule' too."

"Why?" she asked.

"The last thing that I want to do is cause conflict again, but I would, well, kind of like to give her another chance."

"That's fine," Joey said, a bit relieved, because she could concentrate on Pacey now.

"Are you sure?" he asked her.

"Yeah," she said. "I guess the 'Dawson rule' is now repealed."

"You think you might go back to Pacey?" he asked her.

She was pained by the prospect, because she knew that Pacey really had no interest in her. "No," she said.

"Why?" he asked. "You guys seem like you do so well together. Now that I'm not in the way. . ."

"Yeah, but Pacey doesn't want me," she said.

"Do you want him?" he asked.

"Maybe," she said a bit embarrassed.

"Joey, I hope that you learned something from the mess that was you and me. If you feel a certain way, you shouldn't keep it from the other person."

"I just can't take rejection well," she said.

"At least you'll know, after you've been rejected. It's got to be better than living and not knowing."

"Maybe you're right Dawson. You know, it's nice for us to talk like this again. I never thought that we would be able to get it back after everything that went on."

"Yeah," he said, "but we have. It's nice to be like this again." They both smiled, happy that their lives were almost back to normal.

*****

Joey finished watching a movie with Dawson, and decided to go to see Pacey. He was sitting at his desk, studying. She thought that he would probably get all A's this semester, because it seemed like all he did was study.

"Hey," she said, walking in.

"Hey," Pacey said with a smile. "What's going on?"

"Oh," she said, sitting on the bed. "I was just watching a movie with Dawson. I wanted to come and say hi to you. So what are you doing tonight?"

[Song: "What You Want" by Mase with Total]

"I don't know," he said. "I am so sick of this tired, little town. There's nothing to do. All we can do is go to the movies."

Joey looked down, grinning. "I was going to see if you wanted to go to the movies tonight."

"We might as well."

"Good," she said. "Guess what?"

"What?"

"The 'Dawson rule' I guess is no more."

"Why not?" he asked.

"Well, Dawson decided that he wants to give Jen her second chance, and I told him it was okay."

"That was quick," he said. "Are you sure you don't mind them going out again?"

"No," she said. "Just a little while ago it was so nice. It was like Dawson and I have finally gotten back to where we were."

"Oh," Pacey said, saddened.

"What's wrong?" she asked him.

"It's going to sound stupid," he said.

"Just say it Pacey."

He was scared that it would show her his vulnerability, but said, "I just thought that. . .now that you and Dawson are okay, that, you know, I won't see you anymore. That things will go back to the way they were before."

"Pacey that's impossible. You think that once I had been pulled in by that Pacey Witter charm that I could possible forget about it?" she asked, laughing.

"Joey, you'd better be careful," he said. "You're almost making me feel like I'm important."

"Well, I guess that I'd better stop then," she said. "What's this?" she asked, picking up a book off of the desk.

"Nothing," he said. "Just a book about getting into college."

"You're thinking about going to college?" she asked, with a crooked smile.

"I was," he said.

"Was? Why the past tense?"

"I spoke to our lovely Capeside guidance counselor the other day. He did everything but come right out, and tell me that I would have no future. He did everything to convince me that I'm hopeless, except urge me to fill out an application to clown college."

She quickly flashed back to their phony break-up. "You know that I wasn't serious about that, don't you?" she asked, worried that he didn't.

"Yeah," he said, "but I just needed some sort of reality check about it all, so I got this book."

"What did you figure out?" she asked.

"That if I make the right choices, and do well, I can go," he said.

"What do you have to do?" she asked.

"Get my grades up," he said. "Show a marked improvement from this year to when I finish. If I don't do the best, I can start at community college, and transfer. Fill out financial aid applications."

"That's going to be hell," she said. "I have no idea how I'm going to pay for college."

"It says that if your family and personal contribution is low enough, you can get loans, and grants, and that pays for college. You and I both know that our contributions are going to be non-existent. You are going to get accepted to a lot of colleges," he said. "You can go with whoever gives you the best financial aid."

"What did you do?" she asked. "Did you read the whole book in one night?" she said smiling.

He looked down, and smiled. "Yeah," he said, quietly.

"Pacey, I think that this is great," she said. "Before I never could've imagined that you'd want to venture off to college, and right now, I don't think that I could even see you anywhere else."

"Thanks," he said.

"Promise me that you won't give up on trying."

"I won't," he said. "I need to do this."

"Good," she said, focusing her attention back to the book. She started to thumb through the book, and stopped at a page that was dog-eared. "Psychology?" she asked, curiously.

"Yeah. Lately, I've been pretending to be Freud. He was able to tie everything to sex, you know," he said trying to lighten the mood

She laughed. "Then you have definitely found the right field to work in," she said.

"Maybe somewhere along the line I can help myself figure out why I am the way that I am."

"I think you already know that answer to that one," she said.

"You're probably right," he said.

"Okay Pace. I'd better go before you decide to psychoanalyze me. So I'll see you later," she said.

"Like eight?"

"Yeah."

"Bye Jo," he said.

"Bye," she said with a smile. She shut the door, leaned against the wall, and let out a long breath. She couldn't believe how many times that she had come so close to telling him how she felt, but each time she couldn't bear to finish. She started to think that maybe he could feel the same way, but every time they approached the subject, he seemed to back away from it. To her, Pacey obviously had some intimacy issues, and was scared to death that she may someday leave him. She had become so involved in loving him, that she began to wonder if she would ever be able to leave him.

*****

Dawson stood at his window after Joey had gone to see Pacey. He saw Jen sitting on the dock with her legs dangling over the water. He grabbed his coat, and walked out to speak with her. When he approached her, she didn't realize it, because she seemed to be deep in thought. "Hey," he said softly, not to disturb her.

"Hey Dawson. What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I. . .I just saw you sitting here, and I thought that I would come out and, just talk to you for a minute."

"Well, why don't you sit down then?" she said with a grin. He sat next to her. "So what's up?" she asked.

"Not much," he said. "You looked like you were deep in thought when I got here though. Is there something that you want to talk about?"

"No," she said. "It's pretty much the same old too."

"Me?" he asked.

"I guess so," she said. "We don't need to dwell on this Dawson. I mean, I can completely understand how you feel, so it should be nothing for us to wreck our friendship over. Last week, I. . .I, uh, just got a little bit out of control. I guess that Joey had lashed out at me so many times, that, I don't know, I was ready to give it back to her. But I really acted like some spoiled little child, and there are no excuses for doing that. Reality is reality. The world has become what I made it, and I just need to accept that. Sometimes there are no second chances."

"This time there is," he said.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"I would like to give us another chance," he said, "but only if things can be different this time."

"Different how?"

"I think this needs to be gradual, Jen. I mean, things obviously got pretty serious very quickly, and that was the ruin of it. I know that I may have smothered you, and between you and Joey, I've learned from that. We could just start with a couple dates, and still see other people, and just make sure we keep things friendly, and I know I'm rambling on, but I just want to be more careful this time."

"You're exactly right, Dawson. I hope that I don't sound overly anxious, but I'm so glad that we can try again."

"Me too," he said.

"So when do we start?" she asked him.

"Well," he said, "if you don't have plans, I thought we could go with Pacey and Joey to the movies."

"Are they dating again?" she asked.

"No, but I thought it would be nice for all of us to go together."

"Sure," she said. "It'll be fun."

"Good," he said. "I'll see you later."

"See ya," she said, as she stared back at the water; this time with a smile.

*****

After Joey left his room, Pacey tried to study again, but he couldn't concentrate. He didn't know how many more times that he would have to let Joey give him the speech about how much she needed him. There was a crazy struggle going on inside him. His heart wanted desperately to tell her that she loved him, but his mind kept convincing him that she didn't feel the same, and it would just mess things up for her to know. He felt that he had to let it out. He grabbed some paper, and began to write. He was writing a letter to her.

[Song: "Last Night's Letter" by K-Ci and JoJo]

He wrote, and wrote, even though he knew that she would never read it. When he was finished, he didn't even read it over again. He quickly glanced at the last line. It read, "Joey, I love you with every ounce of my soul, and that will never change."

Pacey sat and looked at the letter for a moment. He picked it up, folded it, and buried it in a drawer of the desk.

*****

Joey trudged up to Pacey's room to grab him for the movie. He was asleep at his desk, and she wondered if he had even moved. She carefully shook him, "Pacey," she said quietly.

He snatched his head up quickly. "Hey Joey," he said groggily. "I'm glad that you're here," he said with a smile.

"You ready?" she asked.

[Song: "Your All I Need to Get By" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell.]

"Sure," he said, as he stood up and grabbed his coat. They both walked down the stairs to hear the song blaring. "Isn't this that Method Man song?" Pacey asked.

"I think that it's the original version," she said to Pacey, in her most fake, stern face.

They saw Dawson's mom and dad dancing, and they looked to be having the times of their lives. Joey and Pacey cackled to see them. Mr. and Mrs. Leery quickly pulled them both to the center of the room. Pacey gave in and began dancing too, but Joey refused. She couldn't help but to laugh at Pacey. He grabbed her hand, lifted it over her head, and attempted to spin her. When she didn't move, he just walked around her. Finally, because she thought she might be missing out, she did join in. The room suddenly filled with smiles and laughs. Joey and Pacey were happy to be there having such a good time with one another, and if an outsider had looked at them, he would've known they were in love. That kind of fun just didn't come around often for them.

Jen and Dawson walked in just as the song was ending, and they giggled at the dancing bunch. "Hey guys," Dawson said.

Pacey looked at Joey a bit confused. Out of the corner of her mouth, Joey quietly said, "they're going too." Pacey shook his head in agreement, although he wasn't very happy that he wouldn't be alone with Joey.

*****

Dawson, Jen, Joey and Pacey were all walking back from the movie theater. Dawson was completely disappointed in the film, and he and Jen were passionately discussing it, as they walked side by side. Pacey and Joey followed them, and Joey was at some points laughing uncontrollably at Pacey, who was also making fun of the movie.

In their own worlds Jen and Dawson crossed the street. As Pacey and Joey crossed, Joey stopped to pick up a twenty dollar bill that she saw in the road. Pacey turned to look at her, when he noticed she was gone from beside him. He saw a car barreling towards her, speeding.

"Joey, look out!" he screamed full of fear, as he took off running towards her.

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