RadioStation
Part 5 - Homeward Bound
“Hello, Jennifer. Hello, Jennifer.” Lily’s squawking woke up Dawson the following morning. The bird kept repeating the phrase, with the sound of someone shushing her interfering in moments of silence.
He could imagine Jen was ready to kill that bird, especially if she had just woken up. She wasn’t a morning person to begin with and that wouldn’t help her mood.
Dawson was about to throw the blanket over to the other side when he spotted a figure next to him. Joey must have opted to wait downstairs for Pacey. He had to admit it was strange to imagine that he had slept under the same blanket as his boss. He frowned, realizing that he was the wrong employee to be in that position.
He muttered, “What the hell happened to Pacey?” as he got up and went to the kitchen to find an angry Jen leaving Lily and her cage outside the house. She walked over to the coffee maker to start a fresh pot and was alarmed to see Dawson in the doorway.
“I don’t understand that bird. Why does she have to wake up at 6 in the morning on the weekend?”
“She’s used to your schedule, I suppose.”
Jen shook her messy curls about. “I’m not even supposed to be there today!”
“Maybe not but you normally do during the week. She knew, even though she hadn’t said so until now. You don’t give her enough credit.”
“Well, you have that cat Yoda. Maybe you could ship him over so he can play Sylvester.”
Dawson smirked, “Remember, the cat never actually ate the bird in those cartoons.” Jen snapped her fingers, aware that was true. “Have an entertaining night?”
“I wish you hadn’t told Pacey where I hang out. Jack and I had to lug his sorry ass back to the house.”
“I’m surprised I didn’t hear him stumble into something.”
“Because I left him on the front porch. He was enjoying the rare view of the stars. Fine by me since that meant I didn’t have to drag him upstairs.”
* * * * *
Joey woke up wondering why she wasn’t in her comfortable bed. Then she recalled the evening before and realized how little time she had left. Trying to sleep in on the weekends was near impossible - it was all routine at this point.
She pushed the blanket off her body and headed for the kitchen. She stopped when she heard two people talking with the intermittent sound of… squawking? Some things were better left alone, such as the damn bird not speaking. Joey leaned against the door to hear clearer.
“So how much was he rambling about Joey?” Dawson asked.
“I’m not sure how much progress we made on him. It was hard to tell whether he was listening to us or just agreeing to shut me up. Something tells me that Jack made more of an impact, being an outside party. But then he was getting drunk, killing anything more.”
“Drunk? Great, thanks Jen.”
“ You’re the one who led him there!’
“He would have found a bar anyway. When you’re desperate for a drink, it’s easy to find a bar to satisfy your craving. I was hoping, with you around, he wouldn’t get too sloshed.”
“I made sure he got back in one piece. That’s about all we could have gotten.” The sound of coffee being poured stopped their disagreement, before Jen remembered, “I’m surprised Joey’s not awake yet. Girl doesn’t know how to sleep in.”
Joey considered that her cue to enter the kitchen. She trudged in, sniffing the air loudly.
“Morning, boss.” Jen and Dawson said in unison. Jen snapped her head in Dawson’s direction, knowing that Joey shouldn’t be Dawson’s boss unless…
Joey watched the cloud growing around Jen Lindley and giggled. “I’m so sorry, Jen, but that part’s true.”
Jen raced over to the phone book, frantically searching through the pages for the number of a shrink.
Joey watched her in amusement. She hadn’t the heart to warn Jen of that possibility occurring. She asked Dawson, “When are you supposed to leave here?”
“About noon. Though I’m not so sure that’ll happen unless he lets me drive.”
“I thought you drove the car over to the station last night.”
“I did, but he doesn’t have to know that.”
As Jen wrote down prospects, she asked, “How long did it take you to teach Lily to say my name?”
“She already knew your name from before the move. If you mean initially, about a half hour. Why?”
“I need you to teach that bird something…” With that, she dragged Dawson over and pointed to something on the paper. “Can you do that? I’d be so grateful.”
He raised an eyebrow but nodded, “Yeah, I can do that. No problem.” He left for the backyard, where the cage was.
Joey realized she didn’t want to know why Dawson would take an order from Jen. Or, for that matter, why Jen would ask him to do anything, since she despised him handling even the most minute of problems.
She shook off that concern and focused on the issue at hand. “You were with Pacey last night. Do you have any idea what he’ll do?”
“How did you know I was with him?”
Joey thought a moment, not wanting Jen to realize she overheard. “Who else would he willingly hang out with? Besides, the animal lover told me. So?”
“I have no idea. I want to say that he’ll do the right thing. I just don’t know if he’s too stubborn to truly act on it. They’re supposed to leave at noon. That gives you the whole morning to work your magic. I’ll assist in any way I can, even though I have to go to work shortly. When’s the witch supposed to return to her normal schedule?”
“Wednesday but I have Charlie Todd taking the other shifts,” Joey informed her. “How could you possibly do anything from there anyway?”
“That’s why the dork from New York is training the parrot to say a particular phrase to wake the idiot ex.” Jen smiled widely before continuing work on her play list. “And any other surprise I can think of.”
Joey filled up her cup with coffee and immersed herself in Boston’s Sunday newspaper. She didn’t give it any more thought until she heard the bird again about fifteen minutes later. It wasn’t quite clear the first couple of times. Eventually, it was clearly understood and neither girl could resist a smile.
“Pacey, you’re home.”
* * * * *
Several hours later, Pacey, not surprisingly in a cranky mood after that wake-up call, was packing his belongings when Dawson entered the guest room.
“I didn’t need that after last night,” Pacey muttered upon realizing who entered.
Dawson shrugged as he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. “Has this weekend been what you needed?”
“It’s over. That’s all I need right now. You’ll be ready to leave in an hour, right?” He gave up on folding the clothes neatly into the suitcase and started cramming everything in instead.
“Yeah. I saw an ad in the paper for an opening in one of the apartment complexes at the end of town but I’ll be back in an hour. My suitcases are already in the car so you won’t have to worry about that.”
“Okay,” Pacey answered distractedly, not even trying to figure out what he was talking about. “I wish everyone would just drop the damn subject. I don’t want to be asked to stay anymore today. Do you understand that?”
“Fine. My dad will send you the transfer papers tomorrow. I’ll still be there for two more weeks, since that’s the amount of notice he has to give the researcher here. Hopefully, I can be settled in this place.”
“Uh uh.” Pacey sat on his suitcase and tried to snap it shut. “Do you realize that Jen’s been using songs as segues into commercials? We’re a news station; I doubt the listeners were expecting to hear Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Mama I’m Coming Home’ every fifteen minutes.”
“Good song,” Dawson snickered. “I’ll be back in time.” He left the room and rushed down the stairs.
A few minutes passed before Pacey comprehended what Dawson told him. “He’s moving to Capeside?! He’s returning here in two weeks?” Pacey did a quick dance around the room before resuming his packing.
* * * * *
Pacey quickly finished packing and went outside to fill up his car. Imagine his surprise when he found something already in his car. Or, more appropriately, someone.
Joey was sitting in the driver’s side, waiting anxiously for Pacey to leave his room. After Jen’s plan for the wake-up call, he’d made an effort to avoid the ladies for the rest of the morning. Although she tried to get his attention earlier, he completely ignored her. This was the only way she could think of in which she couldn’t be denied.
Pacey stood by the door, signaling her to roll down the window. Joey granted the request.
“What are you up to?”
“I’m asking you to stay.”
* * * * *
She raised her hand, not allowing Pacey a chance to speak yet. “I know that the methods used throughout the weekend have been rather shady. That I’m sorry for. I need to know what’s holding you back.”
“Holding back? If anything, the idea is that I’m trying to get away from this.” He pointed at Joey then to him. “Does everything we do have to be intertwined? I’m in New York to finally grow up and move on!”
Joey gave a wry smile as she cracked, “I hate to inform you, Pacey, but you’ll never grow up.” She meant for it to sound teasing but frowned upon Pacey seeing no humor in the remark.
“I can’t do this, Potter. This isn’t a joke! See, that’s your problem. Everything in this supposed relationship is light-hearted.”
“Would you prefer it if I stayed angst-ridden? No, that’s your method. You blame the fact we worked together for our failed relationship, all along stewing over how I must not think of you as marriage material. I considered myself the type to never get married. There was no one in my life who I considered important enough to make such a commitment. I never changed that view while we dated because it never became a major discussion. I wasn’t seriously thinking about that talk. But if it was important to you, that would have been essential to say.”
“You certainly changed your opinion in a hurry,” Pacey scoffed.
“Marrying Drue may not have been the best decision I ever made. But let me tell you something. If you had legitimately proposed to me, I would have said yes.”
“You what?!” Pacey ran his hand through his hair. His eyes opened wide and his mouth gaping at what she said.
“I waited for you to change your mind. Once Drue proposed, I kept having these doubts that I was marrying the wrong man. Unfortunately, you were too stubborn to come around. You were the one insisting to end our relationship so I figured you didn’t care that I wedded. Obviously, I was wrong about that one.”
“Joey, do me a favor.” His voice was flat as he struggled to keep emotion out of it. “Get out of my car.”
Joey shouted out, “No! I will not leave until you tell me what’s changed since then. We’re here now - nobody else involved.” In a lower voice, she added, “I still love you.”
“ Still?” Pacey backed away from the car. In the time of their relationship, she had never said she loved him. There was affection for the other but they, mainly she, danced around the word ‘love’. “You’ve never said that once.”
“Now I guess I’ve corrected that mistake.” She exited the car and walked toward Pacey. “You’d think that, if I’d consider a marriage proposal from you, that it’d be apparent that I must love you. Yet you seem more stunned by that part.”
“It’s just…hearing you say it…” Pacey heard footsteps and that was soon followed by Dawson appearing from behind the bushes and heading for the front porch. “Hey, D-Man. You ready to hit the road?”
Dawson looked from Pacey to Joey, knowing everything hadn’t been said. He replied, “Not really. I don’t feel like being your excuse right now.”
Joey laughed as she watched Dawson sit on the porch, reading the newspaper. He was far enough away to be unable to hear them, unless someone began yelling again.
“Hmm, I suspect you’re stuck without an exit.”
“You want the truth?” Pacey walked back and forth. “The truth? The truth is… I don’t need this garbage anymore.” He stormed over to the porch and ordered Dawson, “If you’re not in that car, ready to leave, in two minutes, you’re stuck without anyone to watch those cats.”
Part 6 - And We All Know What's Next
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