Joey rolled over in her Queen sized bed and adjusted her body into the most comfortable position.  It had been a long time since she had slept in a normal bed with a real mattress, one which wasn’t in a state of constant motion from the waves and she was going to take advantage of it.

As she wrapped her arms around her pillow she felt Pacey’s hand smoothing her hair away from her eyes.  She smiled even as she kept her eyes closed - his touch only adding to her wonderful feeling of contentment.

“Hey sleeping beauty” he whispered, his hand running over her cheek and down along her neck causing her to give him a satisfied sigh in response.  “I’m going to get some breakfast for us.  Why don’t you sleep in some more and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“OK” she murmured in agreement.  Frankly she didn’t want his touch to stop; it nicely accompanied the general feeling of pleasure she was experiencing by luxuriating in the bed.  Then again, getting to sleep in and have breakfast delivered was a pretty hard offer to refuse.

“Be back soon.” she whispered.

“I will.” And with a kiss to her head he started for the door.  She heard him pause for a moment as she snuggled down deep into her bed.  After a second she heard the door open and sensed the shaft of light that entered the room breaking the darkness, then it shut and he was gone.

Pacey walked along the road and made mental notes of the route he was taking.  He had always thought he was bad with directions but after navigating his boat along the eastern seaboard and stopping in so many ports he had learned that he actually had a pretty decent sense of direction.  Fairly sharp actually.

He would almost attribute that newfound skill to Joey’s influence.  If he tried to explain it it would sound stupid, but something about that girl made him better, made him try harder, made him see things about himself and about the world in a whole new light that had never even occurred to him before.  Ever since she had shown up on the dock and asked him to take her with him to Florida, actually it was right before that – it was the moment she had told him she thought she was in love with him.  From that moment on his life had seemed like an entirely different entity than the one he had been leading up to that point.

Now he thought back to their last few weeks together and he couldn’t remember a single moment of fear, uncertainty, or pain in all that time.  Feelings that previously he could identify down to the very location and second they occurred had no place in the current state of his life.  Any doubts he had ever had about Joey’s feelings for Dawson, or even his feelings of self-worth had dissipated as they spent day after day together exploring the world together, exploring their feelings for one another and falling in love.

Of course he was already in love with her.  He had been for a long time, long before Dawson had asked his fateful favor, before Tamara and Andie, Jack and AJ, probably even before his hormones had kicked in.  For as long as he could remember he had loved Joey Potter.  Not in the heated blinding way he did now, but as a little boy fascinated by the pretty tomboy who lived across the Creek.  He had always been enthralled by the way she stood up to him, even as barely literate five year olds she had called him on every action he had ever tried to get past her.  He had begun the hair pulling and name calling and all the other juvenile trademarks that pass for flirting long before the other boys, particularly Dawson who he couldn’t even remember ever behaving in that obvious and obnoxious a manner around a girl he liked.

Pacey had realized how much he liked girls, particularly Joey - long before Dawson had.  It never ceased to amaze him how ignorant Dawson had remained to Joey’s crush on him after all that time.  Even more unbelievable to Pacey was how long it took for Dawson to notice how stunningly beautiful she was – even as a little girl her wild dark hair and soft brown eyes had mesmerized him.  Having three older sisters he always figured he knew what women were like. Their femininity surrounded him and their differences from the stark masculinity his father projected, and his brother tried to, led Pacey to incorrectly believe at an early age that he had the opposite sex all figured out.

But Josephine always confounded him.  He couldn’t understand why a girl so pretty with such a delicate name would prefer playing with two rough and tumble boys like he and Dawson.  Or why she insisted on only answering to a boy’s name when her full name seemed so beautiful and alluring on her.  He’d had years to think on it and he could pretty clearly identify why he had always been so attracted to her, it was the mystery that she enveloped herself in.  It was her opposites that attracted him – the tough tomboy who wore a sundress like no other girl he had ever seen, the stubborn girl with the independent streak whose face would fall whenever Dawson didn’t respond to her in the way she had hoped.  It was her spiritedness versus the vulnerability that all her family tragedies had born in her.  In the twelve years he had known her Josephine Potter had never once bored him, but instead she had kept him on his toes and always kept him longing for her.

And now she had given him the ultimate thrill, the one he never even hoped to wish for – she had chosen him, not Dawson but him – Pacey Witter.  She had left behind her family and home so they could be together and see where their feelings for one another took them.  And as if that wasn’t enough of a gift – she was indeed in love with him.  During the long difficult ride to their relationship he had often felt that she loved him, she had to or she wouldn’t have been so torn about her loyalties, she wouldn’t have responded to his kisses and touch the way she did.  But there had been more than a few doubts in his mind that any of it was actually real, that he would ever be allowed to love her without repercussion and have her love him back with her whole heart.

But she did love him and every single time he thought of that it literally made his heart jump.  His brother had advised him to never lose the butterflies and with Joey by his side, he didn’t think that was even a possibility.

He neared a street that bordered the small harbor that they had docked at the night before.  A storm forecast had convinced them that being on land was a safer bet than waiting out the weather on the boat.  The harbormaster had suggested a nearby motel and they had rolled in there just after the storm clouds broke, leaving them soaked to the bone as they entered their small sparse room.

They had each fallen into their own beds, Joey was still insisting on sleeping separately which had been her decision from the first night they set sail.  It was a situation that he felt conflicted about, on one hand he agreed with her.  They were new at this with one another and needed the time to familiarize themselves with this new aspect of their relationship.  He didn’t want to mess this up in any way, shape, or form.  He wanted them to take things as slowly as necessary to ensure that everything between them was perfect.  On the other hand he was a 17 year old guy who could barely keep his hands off his gorgeous girlfriend during the waking hours of the day.  He could definitely wait for her, but there were more than a few nights when the sheet that separated their sleeping spaces was his most hated foe.

Exhaustion had overtaken Joey quickly.  She had basically crawled under the covers and wished him good night before drifting right off to sleep.  He had been tired too, but found he couldn’t fall asleep right away.  A restlessness overtook him and kept him from catching up on some much needed sleep.  Instead he had done something that had become somewhat of a habit where Joey was concerned – he watched her sleep.  He could still count on one hand the number of times he had done this already, but he realized that the more time they spent together this summer, the more he would probably catch himself indulging in this innocent pastime.

The first time had been when they were 9.  It was a camp-out sleepover in Dawson’s yard and he had outlasted both of them.  As Joey and Dawson lay side by side in their sleeping bags Pacey had been fascinated to watch how rarely she moved in her sleep, while next to her Dawson tossed and turned incessantly.  Instead she was still and unlike the other times of the day when she was awake and usually arguing with him – she was so silent.  He had come very close to climbing up next to her and leaning in close to her face just to see if she was still breathing.

Then of course there had been the end of the first Potter B&B weekend.  He had come over to talk to her about the furnace and found her sound asleep on the couch, the sleeping habits of her 9 year old self still present as she lay silently by the fire.  With Grams recent words ringing in his head “You know you love someone when you can spend the entire night just sitting by the fire, watching them sleep” he had done just that.  He had sat up all night watching her and been perfectly content to just be able to be close to her, to care for her, appreciate her beauty and let himself believe – if only for a night, that he was the one she could come to love.

And then last night he had lay down on the bed across from her and been able to revel in the sensation that she did in fact love him.  He was finally able to accept it as his reality and not some dream that he was going to be rudely awoken from at any moment.  He had let his eyes follow the curve of her hip as it disappeared under the sheet.  He was transfixed as her long, lean leg tanned from weeks on deck, peeked out from under the bedding and rested at the edge of the mattress.  And if all that wasn’t enough, he only had to look at her perfect face and listen to her slow shallow breathing and know that he loved her more than he had ever thought possible, more than his twelve year fantasy of loving Joey Potter had even conceived of, and now here she was with him.

Up ahead he saw a small market and started towards it.  A few doors down a storefront caught his eye and he reminded himself to stop by there before he headed back to the motel.

Joey was hovering between the worlds of sleeping and waking.  She loved waking up slowly, letting her senses adjust to the surroundings and allowing her mind to start thinking about the day ahead.  She knew it was probably just the fact that she wasn’t on her boat bed, but she truly believed that this cheap motel bed was the most comfortable thing she had ever slept on.

As she started to rub her eyes she heard the door handle click and turned to see Pacey entering the room with his arms full of groceries.

“Still in bed Jo? What kind of first mate are you?” he teased as he set the bags on the table that sat under the window by her bed.

She sat up and began stretching, letting the final vestiges of sleep roll off her body.  She sighed as her muscles woke up.  “What did you get?”

“Well my darling you’ll just have to get up and see for yourself.”  He was unpacking things and setting them up on the rickety table.

“No breakfast in bed?” she mock whined.

“Jo I just walked two miles uphill both ways to bring you this, the least you can do is drag that cute – and might I add lazy – little butt over here to eat!”

“Oh fine.” She climbed out of the bed and came up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist she peeked around his shoulder at his purchases.

“We’ll we’ve got some bagels with your choice of cream cheese or jam, some coffee, oranges, and uh some really sticky lookin’ crullers.  I couldn’t resist, they looked too good.”

“Mmm hmmm.” She agreed.  The food did look really appetizing but more than that she was enjoying being so close to him again.  While she still believed the separate sleeping arrangements were for the best right now, they did make the nights seem pretty damn long.  During the day she got so accustomed to his embrace and the feel of his hand on the small of her back, or the way it felt to kiss him that at night when they reluctantly parted she found herself fantasizing about pulling the stupid sheet divider down and rolling right back into his arms.

“OK time to eat” he took her hand into his and gave it a kiss then nodded towards her seat.

She spotted something on her chair. It looked like a paper bag with some ribbon tied crudely around it.

“What’s this?  Is it for me?”

“Yeah, open it up!” He took his seat across from her and watched her excitedly.

“Pacey you didn’t have to…”

“Open it” he urged.

So she did.  As she pulled the bag open the contents revealed themselves: a new sketchpad, some brushes, and a small beautiful box of watercolors.

“Oh Pacey!” she gasped “this is…amazing” She ran her fingers over the colors and looked up at him smiling.  She had once told him that he constantly surprised her and challenged her in every way and it was the absolute truth.  Whereas Dawson had always seen her interest in art as his competition for her affections, Pacey always supported it.  He helped her repaint her school mural, he bought her the wall, and he liked to point out interesting scenes for her to sketch.  And now he had given her this simple yet perfect gift that told her how much he loved her and understood her interests.  What was important to her mattered to him and that overwhelmed her.

“Pacey thank you.  This is so generous. I’ve – I’ve never had new watercolors before, just the leftovers from the Art Room.”  She actually thought she might cry, it didn’t seem like he could know her any better than he already did yet he still managed to fulfill her needs often before she herself even knew what they were.

“You’re welcome.  I know you’ve been using the pencils but I thought as we get closer to tropical waters and romantic sunsets you might want to capture it better.”

“I will – I want to” she replied breathlessly.  She didn’t know how else to tell him how amazing he was and how incredible he made her feel.  She put her gift down on the table and walked over to him, quickly dropping herself down into his lap and wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

“Thank you Pacey” she whispered as she leaned her head down to capture his mouth in a kiss.  Instinctively he curled one arm around her waist and ran the other up her bare arm to take hold of her face.

“My pleasure” he whispered back, his voice already husky with the headiness of having her so close, touching her so intimately.  She kissed him again with more insistence this time and he suddenly realized that if they didn’t halt this activity and start on breakfast they may never make it back to the boat this morning.

Slowly he tilted his head back away from hers:  “Potter you wouldn’t be trying to distract me so you can have all the crullers to yourself, would you?”

“Drat, foiled again!” she giggled.

“You little vixen!” he scolded as she dropped her arm from around his chest and readjusted her position on his lap.

“Is this where you want to eat breakfast?”

“This is where I want to eat breakfast” she stated.

“Alright then” Pacey reached over her legs to the spread in front of them, “name your poison baby”

As they ate their breakfast Joey nestled into his lap and relished the comfort his body gave her.  The extremes of her responses to him were a constant thrill – she had never felt more safe or comfortable than when she was with him.  Yet at the same time she had never felt more dizzy and breathless or as bold and out of control as when she was near him.  A few more mornings like this one and she would have to put an end to her separate sleeping policy.

“So where are we again? Did the storm blow us off course?” she asked as she wiped at some orange juice on his chin.

“Wilmington, North Carolina.  We’ve officially made it to the South Joey.”

“Well la di da da!” she giggled at her poor Scarlett O’Hara impression.

“The town is so strange Jo, it reminded me a lot of Capeside, all cute and nautical, shingled and weather worn with just a touch of prissiness.”

“Maybe New England doesn’t corner the market on quaint seaside villages” she mused.

“Must be.  We should take a look before we go.  Maybe you can paint something to show the Capeside folks that no matter where you go – you just end up back home.  Or at least a reasonable facsimile of home.”  He popped the rest of the orange into his mouth and grinned at her.

“I don’t care where I am, as long as it's with you Pacey”

His grin slid into a huge smile, the one that melted her heart every time she saw it.  This was not the first time she had pondered how it was possible that she hadn’t noticed his wonderfulness all along and she had a feeling it wouldn’t be the last.  Now that she was lucky enough to know she understood that there was no way she would never forget.