Together Alone
Part Two of "Once in a Lifetime"
by Rae Vertudez

DISCLAIMER: I know disclaimers are fairly boring and repetitive, so I decided to spice things up...by making it a song! *clears throat*

The characters of "Dawson's Creek" do not belong to me,
They are owned by creator Williamson
and the following production companies:
Columbia-Tristar, Sony Pictures Entertainment,
plus the Warner Bros. Network,
brought you Dawson, Joey, Pacey, and Jen.
 Send comments/feedback to RaDa113@aol.com.

SUMMARY: A romantic tale that explores the past lives of Pacey, Joey, Dawson, Jen, and various other Capeside citizens. Ever wonder what the small Massacusetts town was like in the 50's?

Capeside, Massachusetts
~January 23, Present Day~

"What are we going to do?" Joey moaned into her hands. "We only have two weeks left and we still have no idea what we're doing for our class presentation."

It was Friday afternoon, and the two had decided to meet after school in the library to brainstorm ideas for their Romeo and Juliet presentation. An hour had passed, and they still were clueless on what they were doing.

"Look, it's not so bad. You got to look at the bright side of things," Pacey tried to comfort her.

Joey took her hands away from her face. "You've been hanging out with Dawson _way_ too often."

"Dawson's--" he stopped midsentence and seemed to be contemplating something.

"What?"

"You know when you're watching cartoons," Pacey said slowly, "and whenever the character gets a bright idea, a lightbulb goes off in his head?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Pacey grinned, and his hand flipped the on-switch of the desk lamp.
Capeside, Massachusetts
~January 23, 1958

"So you guys want me to help you make a film presentation of your Romeo and Juliet scene?" Nina and Ben had gone over to his house to ask the favor immediately after Ben had come up with the idea.

"Well, yeah," Nina said. "You have all of the equipment, and we can show it to the class using the school's overhead projector."

"Come on..." Ben pleaded. "We'll be your bestest friends _ever_."

"You already are."

"Great!" said Nina. "So, you'll do it."

"Not so fast," Stu replied. "I'll do it, but only if you do something for me."

Ben turned to Nina, and gestured toward Stu. "What happened to him? He used to be the nice one, the one who does things out of pure generosity and with no strings attached."

"Well, he needed something in return," he responded. "I'll direct...but *only* if you agree to star opposite each other in my next project".

Nina groaned.

Ben, who did know the storyline of Stu's next film, asked, somewhat reluctantly, "What's your next project?"

Stu grinned, "A romantic tragedy." He watched as Ben's face fall. "Hey, it's a fair deal. A love scene for a love scene."
~Present Day~

"Well, it was a fair deal," Pacey said as he stepped out he pulled the key from the ignition. "And besides, if we filmed it by ourselves, it'd be crap. We need Dawson's expertise."

"Whatever," Joey sighed, stepping out of the car.

"Remember," Pacey said, falling into step with her,"act like you actually don't mind my company. No matter how big of a strech it is."

"But only for twenty minutes," Joey reminded him, "Five dollar surcharge for every extra minute."

They had parked several blocks from the house the party was being held in, but the music could still be heard from that distance. They walked in a comfortable silence, and after several minutes, they were entering a large Victorian-style house overteeming with teenagers.

Pacey took Joey's hand and pulled her through the crowds of people, and they found themselveself at a makeshift refreshment table. He ladled out juice from a punch bowl into two cups and handed one to her.

"Kool-Aid?" Joey asked, looking at the red liquid.

Pacey took a sip and grimaced at the sweetness. "Knowing Will Redding, there's a special ingredient added." He took the cup of punch back from her and placed both of them back onto the table. "I'll go get us some sodas. Be right back." He left in search of the kitchen.

Joey stood alone at the refreshment table, and after a while, with Pacey still not returned, feeling like a pathetic wallflower, she started to wander about the house. She pushed her way through the crowds, having absolutely no idea where she was going. Without knowing it, she stepped into the den, where she found a group of people, among them Dawson and Jen, watching "Scream." The character of Tatum had just entered the garage. One girl commented, "God, don't they wear bras in this movie?"

Since there was no available place to sit, Joey leaned against the doorway. When Dawson and Jen noticed her presence, they nodded hellos, and continued to watch the untimley death of the protagonist's best friend. When onscreen, Jamie Kennedy better known as "Randy," began to his famous speech on how to live through a scary movie. Dawson jumped up from his seat on the couch and stood next to the television set. He began to speak Randy's lines simultaneously and mimic his movements. "There are certain rules one must abide by in order to succesfully survive a horror film. Number one: You can never have sex."

The crowd of people, like the crowd of people onscreen, booed and threw wrappers at him.

Dawson shielded himself, as did Jamie Kennedy. "Big no-no! Big no-no! Sex equals death," he continued. "Number two: Never drink or do drugs."

The crowd of people, like the crowd of people onscreen, laughed and toasted their beers and cups of "Kool-Aid."

"It's a sin! It's a sin factor! An extension of number one." Dawson/Randy moved on. "And number three: Never, _ever_, under _any_ circumstances, say 'I'll be right back.' 'Cause you won't be."

"You want another beer?" said a guy name Chris as the character Stu did.

"Yeah, sure."

"I'LL BE RIGHT BACK!"

Laughs erupted. People began to applaud, and Dawson bowed.

"Okay," Meredith asked Dawson," if these rules _do_apply, why didn't Neve Campbell die? She lost her virginity just hours before."

Joey stepped out of the den and into the hallway in search for a quiet place to hang out by herself for a while. After a couple more shoves through the crowds and a little aimless wandering, she found a seemingly abandoned room. It was a small library, and was dimly lit. Not sure she was alone, she called out, "Hello?"

"Hey, Joey," a familar voice answered.

Joey turned around and saw Pacey sitting on one end of a leather couch.

"Sorry I forgot about you," he apologized. "I got...um...distracted."

"Who's the unfortunate victim?"

"Ha, ha, very funny," Pacey grumbled.

"I'm guessing you didn't get very far."

"Actually, she did. She ran away in the other direction as quickly as possible," he joked. "Witter receives the ball, he shoots, he..._completely_ misses."

"That bad?" Joey sat down next to him.

"Yup," Pacey admitted. "But I've gotten fairly used to the rejection, so no worries." He forced a small smile.

She looked at him sympathetically, which was followed with a moment of silence. "Can I ask you something? Personal?"

Pacey shrugged. "Yeah, sure."

"Did you and Miss Jacobs...really...you know..."

Pacey looked away, and paused before answering. "Yeah...yeah..we did..."

Joey nodded her head. "Were you...in love with her?"

He looked at her in surprise, then contemplated the question. "I think I did, actually."

Joey studied his sad expression. "You miss her, don't you?"

Pacey laughed uncomfortably. "What is this? Twenty Questions?" He grew solemn again. "Yes, I miss her. But it's okay. Handling rejection is one of the few things I do well."
~1958~

"You're not so bad," she said sincerely.

"If only my father would agree," Ben sighed. "I'm this big disappointment to him. Everything I do is wrong, and when on the rare occasion I do something right, I'm told I could have done it better, because Big Brother Sean did."

"No matter what people say, Father doesn't always know best," Nina said bitterly, thinking of her own father. "You shouldn't listen to him. Let him strip you of your self-confidence like that--"

"Because that's _your_ job, right?" Ben attempted a joke.

"Because he has no right to be saying those things," she continued despite the interruption. "Nobody's perfect, and no offense, he certainly isn't."

A small smile appeared on his face. "You're not so bad yourself, Nina," Ben said. "Not type, but..."

Nina rolled her eyes. '"Don't worry, you're not mine, either."

Ben stood up. "You ready to go?"

"From the moment we got here," she said, heading toward the door.

They pushed their way through the crowds yet again. Nina saw that in order to reach the front door, she had to pass Jeff Mitchellson and his cronies. Jeff was not a person she particularly liked, especially after he had spread rumors about him and her sleeping together. She prayed that she would pass by him unnoticed. But, alas, her prayers weren't answered.

"Hey, Nina," Jeff said, his breath heavily scented with alcohol.

"Hey, yourself," she replied, continuing to walk past him.

"Hey, beautiful, where do you think you're going?" Jeff grabbed her arm and pulled her toward him.

"Let me go," she demanded, trying to pull away with him.

Jeff and his friends laughed. "What did you say?"

Ben appeared. "She said to let her go."

They laughed again. "And what are you going to do if I don't?"

"Look, I don't want to start a fight," Ben said. "Just let her go and pick another target, all right?"

"I would except your girlfriend here is so darn pretty," Jeff said, stroking her cheek. Nina tried to pull away, a look of repulsion on her face. "Hey, maybe I can get lucky."

Ben's eyes narrowed and he delivered a punch. Having lost his skills of balance with each drop of beer he had drank, Jeff went crashing down. He staggered a bit, and tried to get up, but lost his balance and fell again. As his equally-drunk friends tried to help him up, Ben grabbed Nina's arm and pulled her through the masses of people.

Once they had gotten outside, Nina pulled away from him. "I can't believe you did that!" she said angrily.

Ben looked at her in surprise. "Did what? All I did was punch out a guy who was harrassing you. You should be thanking me right now."

Nina laughed bitterly. "_Thanking you_? You are so full of it!" And with that, she walked away from him in a huff.

"Nina, wait--" he began to call out to her, but she made no motion whatsoever to stop and turn around, and fairly soon, he stood alone in the middle of the deserted street. An exasperated sigh. "Women," he muttered to himself.
~Present Day~

Joey sat on her bed Indian-style, pulling her hair into a loose french twist and holding it in place with a clip. She shifted in her sitting posistion and placed her already-open history book in her lap. She studied the pages, trying to repress the memories of the party she had attended earlier that night.

She heard a light rap on the window, and thinking it was nothing, did not look up from the the page she was skimming. Then there was another rap on the window, this one slightly louder than the first. She looked up this time, and slowly closed her book and put it to the side. She hesitantly rose from the bed and walked over to the window cautiously. Upon seeing Pacey from the other side of the window, she breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't a serial killer. Setting her face in a stern and annoyed expression, she opened the window. "Pacey, what are you doing here?"

"Can I come in?" His face was solemn, his eyes somewhat sad.

She moved to the side of the window so he could come through. "It's midnight."

"Yeah, I know," he said with an apologetic tone as he climbed inside, "Sorry, I needed to talk to you--" He paused. "You sleep in that?" he asked, referring to her pajama tanktop/shorts set.

"Yes, I sleep in this," she said irritably, grabbing a an oversized sweatshirt from the back of her deskchair and putting it on. "Couldn't this have waited until tomorrow?"

"I can't--"

Joey interrupted him by gesturing to keep his voice down. "Ssshh, not so loud, you'll wake up Alex," she said in a hushed tone.

His voice dropped down to whisper. "I can't sleep with a guilty conscience, so I came to apologize."

"You know, phones are doing marvelous things these days."

"I needed to do this in person. Besides, the phone would wake up Alex, as well as a doorbell, which is why I came through the window."

A knock on the door. "Joey?" Bessie called from behind it.

"Shit." Joey glanced around her, trying to find a place to hide Pacey. "Uh...under here..." She shoved Pacey under her bed and once she was sure he was concealed, she opened her bedroom door slightly, and her sister stuck her head through the crack. "Everything all right in here?"

"Yeah, great," she said, trying to sound convincing. "I was just studying."

"Well, don't stay up too late," Bessie said with a motherly tone. "You're working the morning shift tomorrow."

"I won't," Joey said, beginning to close the door. "'Night."

Pacey's head poked out from under her bed and slid out from beneath it. "It was so cramp--"

"Pacey, just say what you came here to say and leave."

"All right," he said, standing up. "I'm sorry...I...what did I exactly _do_?"

Joey rolled her eyes.

"Because I'm not really clear on what I did wrong," Pacey continued. "But whatever I did, I apologize--"

"Apology accepted," Joey said, then pointed the window. "Now leave."

"Look, Jo, the least you can do is tell me what I'm apologizing for. 'Cause I've spent a lot of time trying to figure it out and I still draw a total blank."

She didn't answer immediately. "I...I like to handle things on my own. I don't need anyone to fight my battles for me."

"Well, I'm sorry that I stepped in," Pacey said. "But I just wanted to help."

"I can take care of myself," Joey replied. "But thanks anyway."

"You're welcome," Pacey said. "But, Joey, you can't do everything by yourself. If you ever need help, just ask."

"I don't need anyone. I'm fine by myself. I've always have been."

"You really think that?"

Joey shrugged. "It's not something I think, it's more like a way of life for me."

"Must be a lonely life then," Pacey observed.

"It's _my _ life," Joey said stubbornly. "My choice. You don't understand. I don't have time to have friends."

"No, you just don't want to get hurt. And I don't blame you for that, because I've been there, I _am_ there. When almost every person in the entire world is either against you or taken away from you. You don't think I understand? I understand perfectly. But at least I try."

"What are you getting at?"

"You...you have this tendency to shut people out. All our lives, we've had this rivalry I myself have never understood until now. You won't let me in, you've _never_ let me in, or hardly anybody else for that matter. Don't you ever feel like you're missing out on something?"

"So, what are trying to say, Pacey? You want to make nice and be friends?"

"Well, being lonely together certainly beats being lonely alone, don't you think?"

She shrugged again. "I don't know..." Joey contemplated on what he had said the past few minutes, and a brief moment of silence fell. "I guess I could give it a try."

A small smile. "Cool."

"Let's just hope we just don't kill each other in the process."



To be continued.