The Yes

Pacey woke slowly with a smile on his face. He kept his eyes shut and grasped at the memories; he'd been dreaming of the day he and Joey arrived back to Cape Side after their sailing trip. He could still feel the tightness of his sun baked skin and the cool water as he grabbed Joey's hand and jumped into the water. He could almost smell Joey, as if she were standing next to him.

The more Pacey came into consciousness, the further away the memories felt. Finally he opened his eyes and took in the sight of a beautiful brunette with mussed up hair and a bit of drool coming from the side of her partially opened mouth. Pacey quietly observed that Joey could look beautiful under any circumstance. He breathed in a sigh and as he exhaled realized it was, indeed, the scent of her that had permeated his dreams. He loved that scent, all strawberry shampoo and sunscreen. Even in the winter she smelled of sunscreen.

Pacey reached over to Joey's side of the bed and lightly shook her, "Hey Jo, time to get up."

"Already?" Joey groaned and pulled the covers over her head. Pacey heard a muffled, "I feel like I've only been sleeping for five minutes" come from beneath the fluffy mass that had taken over half of his bed.

"Yeah, it's seven-thirty. Wakey, wakey." Pacey stood at the bottom of their bed and tugged at the covers with a grin.

"Pacey! Stop!" Joey gripped the duvet with all her strength but Pacey won out in the end and Joey was left lying in an empty bed.

"You are the spawn of Satan. Did anyone ever tell you that? Lucifer himself reincarnate." Joey huffed as she stood and walked groggily toward the bathroom. Joey stared at herself in the mirror and attempted to find motivation for a shower. As she began to undress she heard Pacey's phone ring. Joey strained to hear who was on the other line but as usual, all she heard was Pacey's mumbled, "Hang on a sec" as he excused himself to the other room.

That's the third call this week, Joey thought. The calls started about a month ago and at first they weren't so frequent. The first call came on a Thursday night. Joey only remembered because later that night at dinner Pacey announced he had a work trip that weekend. He said he had to go into Boston for the night and wouldn't be back until late Saturday. Pacey had taken trips to farms upstate to look at produce and even once he'd gone to an ACF convention in Chicago but he'd never had a last minute business trip. That was the first time Joey suspected something was wrong.

When Pacey came home from his trip he was happier than he'd been in a while. As happy as Joey and Pacey were together, they'd settled into a routine of work stresses, bill to pay, and daily life; a happy life for sure, but still normal life. So when Pacey came home from Boston all smiles for days, Joey wondered.

They'd argued that night. Pacey said Joey was being ridiculous and eventually Joey just let it go and told herself maybe he was right. That's when the second call came. Just like the first one he'd excused himself onto their apartment balcony and shut the door behind him. When he came inside he said it was one of the restaurant suppliers. But Joey couldn't ever remember another time when Pacey had gotten a call at eleven o'clock at night from work. She was exhausted from the argument so she let it go.

Joey strained to hear what Pacey might be saying on the phone, just as she'd done every time he took one of these calls, to no avail. When Pacey came back into the bedroom she didn't bother ask him who had called. She knew he'd brush it off, saying it was someone from work, with no further explanation. She couldn't take the pang of misery she knew would settle into her gut when Pacey lied to her, so she turned on the shower and got in without another word.

"Hey, Jo?" Pacey said with a knock at the bathroom door.

"Yeah?" Joey called back.

"Do you want me to wait on you? I can walk you to the subway." Pacey's offer was gentle. He knew she was on edge. He thought about the stress he'd caused her over the past month and was eager to end it all tonight. Eager and terrified.

"Yeah, I'll just be another five minutes." Joey called from beneath the stream of water. Pacey sat in The Chair in the corner of the bedroom they'd shared for the last two years. A lot of the furniture in the apartment had been there before Pacey moved in but this chair was something they'd picked out together. At some point in the adventure of finding The Chair and getting it back to the apartment it became known as capital T, capital C - The Chair. Pacey thought back to the day they'd found The Chair.

About a year ago they'd decided to take a weekend trip to Vermont. Pacey booked two nights at a Bed and Breakfast. Joey had her eyes set on antique shopping.

"Jo, when did this fascination with things five times your age happen, exactly?" Pacey teased.

"All this stuff has meaning beyond the surface, Pacey. I can't say the same for you. It's all lived several lives before you or I was ever even born. Think about that, Pace. Take this table for example, what if one of the great novels of this century was written right at this table? That kind of history is invaluable." Joey responded to Pacey's quizzical look. "It's possible! You never know with an antique."

"I mean, I'm pretty sure most of our apartment furniture is straight out of a Pottery Barn catalogue. & correct me if I'm wrong here, but every last piece of it was constructed in a factory at some point this decade."

"Yes, Pacey, it was. But it all looks old and I like things that have character. Besides, maybe I'll buy something today then the whole apartment won't be full of department store finds." Joey turned a corner and was lost behind armoires and writing desks.

As they strolled through the aisles of an antique shop that afternoon rain began to fall in earnest. That's right around the time Joey saw The Chair. "Oh Pace, come look! This chair is amazing."

Pacey followed Joey's voice through the aisles of oak and mahogany. As he approached her his eyes found The Chair. It was cream colored with gold accents. It was ugly. "Jo, you can't be serious. That chair is hideous."

"It's got character and it's perfect for the bedroom."

They spent the next half hour haggling down the price to something they could afford and then came the real problem… loading this monstrous chair into the back of Joey's Rav4. In the end the hatch was left open about a foot and tied down with bungie cords. Pacey climbed into the front seat of the car soaked through and miserable. He looked at Joey with a scowl on his face that was met with one of her incredible, thousand watt smiles. He melted. Suddenly he wasn't so angry about this chair. In fact he was kind of starting to like it. But he couldn't let her know that. For the rest of the weekend they drove around with The Chair tied down in the back of the car and Pacey made quip after quip about it.

On Sunday when Joey wanted to buy a small writing desk they came across as a yard sale, Pacey teased, "Ah but Jo, what about The Chair? Perhaps they'd take a trade? Rickety writing desk for ugly old chair?" That had earned Pacey a very firm punch in the arm. In the end, they didn't buy the writing desk.

When they arrived back at home that evening Pacey struggled and wrestled the chair up the stairs of their fourth floor walk-up. He was back to hating the chair again. But when he placed it in the corner of their bedroom and saw Joey's smug smile, he was glad they'd found The Chair. Every time he looks at the chair now he sees one of Joey's many smile.

Joey came out of the bathroom looking radiant as usual. Pacey slung her work bag over his shoulder and they exited the apartment together.

"Christine, do you think Pacey would ever cheat on me?" Joey blurted out half way through their usual Monday morning meeting over coffee and muffins.

Christine let out an audible laugh. "Jo, don't be ridiculous. That man adores you. He would never."

"I guess so. But he got another one of those calls this morning. Who would be calling him at 8 o'clock?"

Joey's assistant looked down at the cup of coffee in her hands and airily exclaimed, "I'm sure it's nothing! I bet its work, just like he said." Christine's tone deepened a bit as she looked back at Joey. "Please don't worry about this. I'm sure he would never cheat on you."

"Well he and I are supposed to have lunch today. I think I might bring it up again."

"Oh… actually, he called this morning to say he couldn't meet you for lunch and to let you know he would see you at the house tonight." Christine said sheepishly.

"Of course he did. He's taking mysterious calls and cancelling plans with me left and right. If he's not cheating, Chris, I don't understand what's going on. But something is up. I can't believe he would do this to me again. I feel like I'm 17 years old and getting rejected at the prom all over again!" Joey said all in one breath as tears began to well up in her eyes.

"I'm sure this will all be over soon, Joey. Everything is going to be fine." Christine placed an arm around Joey as Joey buried her face in her hands.

The rest of the day passed without incident. Joey ate lunch with a few other editors in the building and worked on her most promising client's new novel.

As Joey walked back to her apartment from the subway that night she mentally prepared the conversation that she planned to have with Pacey tonight. She wanted to be rational but she knew the second she tried to explain how insecure and hurt the past few months had made her, she would break down and cry. She hated that about herself. She wanted to stay objective but she had never been able to do that when it came to Pacey. She braced herself for the argument she knew was going to come as she turned her key in the lock. The first thing she saw as she opened the door was Pacey standing in the middle of their living room staring right at her.

Pacey looked nervous. In fact, Joey could count on one hand the number of times she'd seen this look on Pacey's face. The first image that came to Joey was of a fifteen year old Pacey with wet hair and wearing Bodie's clothes. They were standing outside her house and Pacey was moments away from kissing her for the first time.

Joey looked around the living room and noticed the candles and flowers on every available surface. Her first thought was of what a pain it would all be to clean up. That is, if one of those candles didn't set the apartment on fire first.

Looking back at Pacey, Joey was reminded of another time she'd seen this look on his face. He'd just picked her up from the train station after a horrible date. They were fighting about God only knows what in the car on the way back to Cape Side when Pacey pulled the car over on the side of the highway and starting pacing on the side of the road. Joey had followed him out of the car and before she could make sense of anything Pacey was kissing her. Even more quickly than the kiss had happened, it ended.

Joey realized that for a few minutes she'd been scanning the apartment in wonder, completely lost in her own memories. She came back to the present and asked "Pacey, what is all this?"

"I know you're mad at me right now, Jo. But can you just hear me out?" The stammer in Pacey's voice brought Joey back to one of her very favorite memories of him. They were standing outside of Dawson's aunt's house and Pacey was demanding to know how she felt about him. He'd counted to ten before he kissed her. When he did kiss her she was excited and scared. Even then she knew she loved him.

Joey was frustrated that she would think of such a personal moment between the two of them at a time like this. She didn't want to be reminded of their happy times in a moment she was sure was going to break her heart.

"I don't know Pacey, can you tell me why you've been so absent minded lately? Why you've been hiding your cell phone from me and disappearing for hours at a time with no word about where you're going? Because honestly Pacey, I don't want to hear anything else from you right now."

"Joey, I can explain all of that, I promise. And I will in time." Pacey let out a deep sigh and worked to collect his nerves. "Jo, I just… give me a second okay."

There was something about the way Pacey looked so desperate and exhilarated at the same time. Something about the urgency and hesitancy in his voice. Joey wasn't sure what was coming next, but she'd been here with Pacey before and she was sure of one thing, this was either going to end with one of those life altering, world shaking, heart pounding kisses that only Pacey could give or it was going to end in tears.

Pacey took one last deep breath and began "Josephine Potter, I adore you. Since the day you walked into my life, all angst and light and fire, you've rocked my world. You changed everything about me and who I thought I was and could be. These past two years have been some of the best days of my life, rivaled only by the other ones spent with you. I want to do this forever, strike that, no I need to do this forever. This fun, miserable, wonderful, banter-y thing that we have is the best thing I've ever known and I don't want to know anything else."

Joey couldn't believe what she was hearing. After the month they'd had this was the last thing she'd expected. "You want to get to a point sometime this century Witter?" Joey couldn't help the excitement bubbling up inside herself but she hid it with the emotionless, laisse fair expression she'd given Pacey a million times when taunting him.

"Yes, Miss Potter." Pacey straightened up and took a step toward Joey. "What I'm trying to say is, I don't want to call you Miss Potter any more. In fact, I hate the name."

"Oh, you do, do you?"

"Yes, absolutely despise it."

"Uh, huh and why is that exactly?"

"Well, you see, there was a time when I loved to call you Miss Potter but it just doesn't feel right anymore. I think it's a great name for Bessy. & for the B&B. Maybe even for the characters in children's books. But not for you." Pacey slowly moved down onto one knee and produced a black velvet box from his jacket pocket. "You… I don't want to call you Miss Potter at all, I'd much rather call you Mrs. Whitter. Joey potter, will you make me the happiest man on earth and do me the great pleasure of becoming my wife?"

Joey's look of mild surprise was replaced by the gleeful, squinty-eyed, childish smile she so often directed at Pacey. "Hmm… no, I don't think so." Every bit of anxiety she'd experienced over the past few months was flooding out of her. She didn't understand everything just yet but she knew that Pacey hadn't been cheating or second guessing their relationship. He'd been preparing to propose to her. With the first light hearted expressions she'd worn since that first call came Joey reached for the ring box in Pacey's hand.

"Oh really?" Pacey stood and snatched his hand away before Joey could take the box into her hand.

"Wait, let me see the ring!" Joey exclaimed and began trying to wrestle the box away from Pacey.

"No, ma'am. This ring is reserved for the future Mrs. Whitter." Pacey paused for effect, "I wonder what she'll be like. Blonde maybe? Or a red head? I've never been with a red head before…"

Joey wrestled Pacey to the ground and sat on top of him. "Ha! I win!" Joey took the box from Pacey's hand and opened it. Her mouth gaped open at what she saw inside.

"Oh my God, Pacey, how did you get this?" Joey stared into the box at her mother's old wedding ring. The ring had belonged to her grandmother before that. Joey hadn't seen this ring since she was thirteen years old. Joey crawled off of Pacey and sat on the brown leather couch in the middle of the living room, an expression of shock plastered on her face.

"I talked to your father about this. I asked his permission and he told me that he had your mother's ring in storage somewhere. It's took me a whole weekend of digging in his old storage shed to track it down and I've been storing it at the B&B ever since. Bessie drove up with it today and I met her for lunch to pass it off."

Joey's mouth gaped open in shock as understanding flooded through her. The calls, the trips, the secrets. It had all been about finding her mother's old ring. Pacey knew how much it would mean to her to wear it. In this moment she felt like the luckiest woman in the world.

"Oh my God. Pacey, I can't believe you did this."

"You know I'd do anything for you." Pacey said as he took Joey's hand and lifted her to her feet. "Now, tell me, will you make me the happiest man in the world and let me call you my wife?"

"Of course, Pacey. I love you so much." Joey said as Pacey took the ring out of the box and slid it onto Joey's left hand.