Joey surveyed the scene in front of her.  She had definitely set the mood.  There were so many candles lit in their living room that it was probably a fire hazard.  Soft music was playing, the table was set for two, and she was wearing a dress made of red silk cut dangerously low in front and back.

Only one problem.  No Pacey.

He had said he would be back before eleven.  It was now 11:45.  She had taken the night off to prepare this, and she was starting to feel a little pissed off.

As if he knew her temper was beginning to flare, Pacey chose that exact moment to come in the front door.  His wing-toed shoes tapped on the front hallway tile, and she remembered that he had been hosting a benefit dinner for an AIDS charity.  He was probably exhausted.  She cursed herself inwardly.

Pacey entered the room quietly, as if he was afraid he was going to wake her.  He seemed absorbed in his thoughts and didn't notice her immediately.  It gave her a moment to examine him, dressed in black tie, his bright blue eyes slightly heavy with tiredness.  God, he's beautiful, she thought.

Meanwhile, Pacey had noticed.  He surveyed the scene in front of him, his eyes widening.  He licked his lips when he saw Joey, his eyes taking in all of her, from head to toe.  At that moment, the song changed, and the soulful sound of Marvin Gaye filled the room.

Pacey smiled, and Joey blushed.  "Wow, Jo, you do know how to stage a seduction.  Much experience with this?"

She stood up and walked over to him, pressing her finger to his lips.  "Shhh," she murmured.  Sometimes she wondered what it was about Pacey that brought out the vixen in her.  When they were together, the temperature seemed to rise about forty degrees.

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her forward and closing the distance between them.  She sighed and leaned her head against his chest, completely relaxed as they swayed together to the music.  Pacey's hands slid down her bare back, discovering the full extent of the dress.   "Jesus," he muttered, and Joey smiled.

She tilted her head up, and Pacey captured her lips in a passionate kiss.  When they broke apart, Joey was breathing heavily, and Pacey gave her a sly smile.  "Too much for you, huh?" he joked.

She pushed him, hard, and he fell onto the couch.  "Ouch, Joey!  Geez.  You know you need to handle me with care."

She sat in his lap and twisted around to kiss him again, thrusting her tongue into his mouth.  When they separated after a prolonged session of heated kisses, Joey said, "Why do I still feel like I'm in high school, in the B&B, and that Bessie is going to walk in on us at any moment?"

Pacey's mouth curved into a smile.  "Because nothing has changed between us."  He laid down, pulling her on top of him.  "It's the outward circumstances that have changed."

Joey ran her hand down his thigh, and Pacey closed his eyes.  "How have they changed?"

Joey's fingers traced patterns over his jeans, and Pacey began to breathe heavily.  "They-they've changed because now nobody is going to walk in on us."

"Really."  Joey kissed his neck, her tongue dancing over his pulse point.  "So we have an empty apartment all to ourselves, huh?"

"That is correct," Pacey said, struggling to keep his breathing even.

"What do you propose we do?" she asked.

The look in his eyes was all the answer she needed.

Epilogue

"Sandra Witter, you come back here this minute!"

A tiny girl with billowing long brown hair and wide blue eyes ran down the supermarket aisle, her mother in hot pursuit.  The girl (Sandy, as she was usually called when she wasn't in so much trouble) giggled loudly, and several shoppers watched with amusement as she toddled by.

Joey Witter finally caught up with her daughter and grasped her by the shirt before picking her up.  "That was very, very bad," she told her sternly.

Sandy looked at her innocently, then giggled again.

Pacey Witter emerged from the frozen foods section, grinning widely.  He took Sandy from her exhausted mother and lifted her into the air as she giggled wildly.  "How is my precious baby doll?" he asked, with only a tiny hint of irony in his voice.

"From now on, Pace, she is your daughter," Joey said angrily, and stalked away.

"Mommy's not so happy with you, darlin'," Pacey told his daughter solemnly.  Sandy shrugged in response.  "How 'bout you go give her a hug, huh?"  He placed her back on the floor, and she tentatively made her way over to her mother, who was pretending to be entirely absorbed in a box of frozen peas.

Sandy wrapped her arms around one of her mother's legs, causing Joey to look down.  "You're a little troublemaker," Joey told her, but already the annoyance was fading from her voice.

Pacey came up behind her and wrapped his arms around Joey's waist, pulling her against him.  "She takes after her father," he whispered in her ear, and Joey shivered.

"I know.  That's why she's so annoying," Joey said.

"Aw, Sandy's a sweetheart, aren't you, Sandy?" Pacey asked, patting her on the head.

Sandy smiled up at him innocently.  Joey rolled her eyes.  "Let's just finish shopping and get out of here, how 'bout that?"

"Sounds good.  I think somebody deserves some TLC," Pacey whispered in her ear, his voice laced with innuendo.

Joey pushed him slightly, and he grinned.  Sandy looked confused.

Despite all of her efforts to seem blasé after Pacey's little comment, Joey finished shopping in record time.

"Joey.  Joey."

The voice pulled her from the delicious remnants of a deep sleep, but Joey wasn't angry when she opened her eyes.  Pacey sat beside her, his hand resting on her shoulder, his voice quiet and smooth and comforting.  She blinked several times and sneezed.  He handed her a tissue.

"Horrible luck, this cold," she said stuffily.

Pacey rubbed her back softly, his fingers playing over her skin and triggering a giggle.  "I've got to go get ready."

"I promise I'll be out of bed and dressed and looking as un-sick as possible, Pace," Joey said.  "Of course, I can't do much about when I open my mouth..."

Pacey grinned, and leaned down to give her a kiss on the mouth, despite her protests.  "I don't care about getting sick, Jo," he told her when they separated.  "You make me sick all the time, after all..."

Joey pushed him, not as hard as she wanted to.  "I'll get you for that when I'm well," she told him staunchly.

"I'm sure you will.  Listen, I'm going to press my pants and tidy up a bit.  Sandy is still asleep in the other room.  I just checked on her.  Do you want me to take her?"

Joey sat up slowly.  "Don't worry about it.  This is your big day, and I won't have you carting her around everywhere."

"Jo, I will bring her up on the podium."  Joey made a face at him and he nodded.  "I'm serious, I'll do it."

"She'll squeak through your speech."

"Then I'll incorporate it, okay?  Listen, I'll take the baby, and you just work on rousing yourself and getting there by four, okay?"

Joey nodded.  Something about Pacey Witter just made you want to give in, unconditionally, to everything he said.

"I love you," he said, and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"I love you too," she said, and sniffled.

When he was gone the room suddenly seemed chillier, and Joey wrapped her blanket more tightly around herself.  I love him, she thought.  Well, stranger things have happened, I suppose.

Pacey Witter was a performer, no doubt about that.  He had performed on stage, and more than he liked, he performed off.  But that didn't mean he didn't get stage fright.  He sat in the stiff lawn chair on the quad of Boston University, examining his hands.  You did it, Witter, he thought.  Finally.

He would miss the university, certainly.  He liked classes, he liked studying.  Now did I ever think I'd feel that way? he asked himself, shaking his head.  High school had been a chore, at best, for Pacey.  His teachers didn't like him, they didn't believe in him, they didn't care about him.  And so he fell to the side, just scraping by.  For awhile, nobody seemed to care.  But...then there was Joey.

Pacey looked up at the podium, where he would be standing in just a little less than an hour.  He had written this speech ten thousand times in his mind, but he'd never been able to translate it to paper.  And so Pacey Witter would give his graduation speech in much the same way he had lived in his life-he'd improvise.

"Pacey, Sandy wants-" Pacey was brought out of his reverie just as Sandy Witter jumped into his lap.  Cassie stood before him, looking exhausted.  "to be with you," she finished unnecessarily.

"Well, I see that."  Pacey pulled his daughter close to him, placing a kiss on her forehead.  She wiggled in his lap, not content to be still even for a second.  "What do you want, sweetheart?" he asked.

"She's going to wrinkle your pants, Pace," Cassie said.

He waved her off.  "Sandy, baby, what do you want?"

Sandy fixed her blue eyes, wide and such a clear reflection of his own, on him.  "Daddy talk?" she asked.

"Yeah, Daddy's going to talk, but Daddy's not sure what he's going to say yet," Pacey told her.

Sandy nodded.  "Daddy be okay."

That was Sandy's new favorite thing to say.  "Okay."  Pacey couldn't think of a better moment for her to use her new vocabulary, and he hugged her tighter to him.

"...And now, graduating summa cum lade and the valedictorian of the class of 2012, Pacey Witter."

Pacey Witter stood as people began to applaud, not encouraged by the fact that his limbs felt like jelly.  Sandy tugged on his pants, and he anxiously scanned the crowd for Joey.  He didn't see her, but there must be 5,000 people there.  He hoped nothing had happened.   Cassie held Sandy back, as she tried to follow her father to the podium.  He smiled at her and blew her a kiss, which drew some laughs from the crowd.

Pacey shook hands with the dean and took his place at the podium.   He cleared his throat and looked out at the crowd, and for a moment felt his breath catch. Jesus, he thought.

At that moment, he saw Sandy make a run for the stage, her little legs carrying her far faster than he would have ever thought possible.  But before she reached it, a woman, dark hair flying, caught up with her and picked her up.  She looked up, and her eyes met his.  It was Joey.

Pacey inhaled sharply, and began.   “When I was sixteen, my English teacher told me that teaching me was like spitting in the face of the entire educational system. I promptly spit in his face.  It wasn’t well-received, as you may imagine.  I’ve had troubles in school, to say the least.  That’s why when I was told that I had made valedictorian at the ripe old age of 33-“ here he drew some laughs from the crowd.  “--I couldn’t believe it.  Pacey Witter, valedictorian?  In high school people wouldn’t even say my name and ‘good grades’ in the same paragraph, let alone the same sentence.”  Pacey paused, and looked up, his eyes meeting with Joey’s again.  The world seemed to drop away, and he seemed to be speaking only to her.  “Today, I will leave this university with a double degree in English and Business.  The irony does not escape me, given my past academic faux pas.  Sometimes it’s strange how things turn out.  I wish I could give you some kind of monumental advice for the future, or tell you incredible stories of my successes and failures in the so-called ‘real world’, but I’m afraid it would only bore you, and you’ve had enough of that in your less-than-savory classes.”  More laughter.  “I’m just going to say this.  Life isn’t about accomplishments, and it isn’t about competition.  Life is about the people you meet and the connections you make.  For that reason, I want to thank the two most important people in my life, my wife and the love of my life, Josephine Potter-“ here Pacey extended his hand to point out Joey in the front row, “and my beautiful daughter Sandra.  I’m not going to thank the Academy or anything, so don’t worry, but I just want to say this--without you, nothing would be possible.  I love you, sweetheart.”

Sandy, who had been struggling in her mother’s arms, finally broke free and this time made it up on the podium, eliciting laughter from the crowd and applause.  She wrapped herself firmly around her father’s leg and refused to let go.  Pacey said into the microphone, “I told her I’d take her up on stage, Jo,” and grinned when he saw her shaking her head.  “Thank you.  And congratulations.”

Pacey walked down the stairs with his daughter clinging to his leg, shaking hands with professors and administrators, all of whom were trying to control their laughter.  Joey met him at the bottom of the stairs, frowning at Sandy, who as usual, was trying to look innocent.  “She’s a pain,” Joey said, a smile turning up the corners of her mouth.

Pacey took Joey’s hand and kissed it.  “But she’s ours.”

Joey’s eyes met his, and she felt the familiar rush of electricity run through her.  “Yes,” she said slowly, as he brought his lips to hers.  “She’s ours.”