Pacey pulled out freshly washed clothes from a laundry basket on the couch and folded them haphazardly before tossing them into a cardboard box. A football game was playing on TV, the sound muted as he worked. A knock on his door drew him away from his chore and he moved around one of the boxes to answer it. He figured it was one of Ryan's girlfriends. Scowling, he went to open it, ready to give the girl a piece of his mind and tell her to keep it down.

Opening the door, he balked momentarily, seeing Joey on the other side. "I didn’t think you’d get here so soon," he stepped aside, his voice low.

"I thought it'd be better if I did."

"I got her calmed down," he closed the door behind her, avoiding her eyes. "I put her in my bed to sleep. You can go and check on her if you want."

"Is she okay?"

"God, I don't know," he shook his head helplessly. "I tried to help...but I'm a guy. What do I know about going through an abortion?"

She sighed. "I don't know either."

"All I know is that I'm not supposed to say anything to Dawson."

Joey frowned. "She'll probably tell him herself."

He went back to the living room, "Like I said, she's in my bedroom. You can check on her."

She headed to the room. "I'll take a peek."

Pacey returned to his laundry, tossing the folded clothes into a box, one eye on the game, and his thoughts in the other room with his two friends.

Joey carefully opened the bedroom door and stuck her head inside, taking a look at the bed where Jen lay sleeping peacefully. She sighed, and shut the door. "She looks okay."

"Sleeping?" Pacey asked, as Joey came back into the room.

She nodded, sliding her hands into her pockets. "Yeah."

"Feel free to hang around, if you want." He offered, refusing to look at her.

She shook her head. "Just tell Jen I stopped by, and I'll have my cell phone, so she can call me if she wants."

His facial expression tightened, "Yeah, whatever. I'm sure she'll appreciate that."

"Hopefully."

He threw a pair of pants harshly into the box. "Goodbye, Joey."

She nodded, heading for the door. "Bye."

He didn't bother to show her to the door, or say anything else, knowing it was fruitless. Finished with the clothes, he moved to the bookcase, and started scanning his room mate’s books for his photo album. He heard the door click shut behind him, and let out a long sigh.

She lay back on her bed, the open English book resting on her stomach as she rubbed at her eyes, trying to renew their energy so she could finish the last few pages.

It had been a couple days since she'd found out about Jen's abortion, and she hadn't talked to anyone except Jen since. What little conversation she had with Audrey was limited to, 'turn off the light', 'hello' and 'goodbye.'

The door swung open and Audrey whisked into the room, throwing her back pack onto the table, she turned to Joey, her hands on her hips. "What are you doing?"

"Um, studying?"

"No, seriously. What do you think you're doing?"

Joey sat up, casting a puzzled glance toward the book she had to read, and then Audrey. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Jen kicked Dawson out."

"I know."

"He's moving into Pacey's place."

"Okay..."

"And Pacey's moving out." Audrey narrowed her eyes on her.

She snapped her book shut. "Oh."

"Yeah, oh, is right." Audrey turned away from Joey, and opened her backpack to pull her books out. "Dawson told me."

"So where's Pacey going?"

Audrey shrugged, "Out to sea. I didn't care enough to ask. I just figured you should know, seeing as you're in love with the bastard."

Joey rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

Audrey turned away, and loaded another set of books into her backpack. "Yeah, sure. I don't know why I bothered. I'm going to have dinner with Dawson after my class. I'll see you around."

Joey frowned, and picked her book back up. "Fine. Bye."

"Bye." Audrey hiked her backpack over her shoulder and left the room.

"This seems awfully familiar."

Pacey glanced up from where he was readjusting the rigging on the boat he had docked in slip 142. Giving her a fleeting glance he turned back to his work. "What do you want?"

She folded her arms across her chest, her eyes narrowing. "So you're leaving?"

"You have eyes, what does it look like?"

"Like you're running away again."

"I'm not running." He protested, tying a knot in the thick rope. "I'm sailing."

"Same difference."

"Again, what do you want?"

She shrugged. "I guess I wanted to say bon voyage."

He snorted, "I appreciate the sentiment, but you shouldn't have bothered." He stood up and walked around the boat to check the rest of the knots.

"Well, I know you wouldn't have come to say goodbye, that's not your style."

"Ouch," he made a face and rolled his eyes. "That hurt, Jo."

"Not enough," she replied quietly.

He stood up and walked to the edge of the deck. "What do you want me to say?"

"I love you."

He froze, his startled blue eyes flying to hers. Several long moments passed where they just stared at each other. He licked his lips, "Is--is that what you want me to say or...?"

She smiled faintly. "One of us has to say it first."

"I do love you."

"So why are you leaving?"

"You don't love me back."

She raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that?"

"Reasonably."

"Seriously?"

"I was," he corrected with a sigh.

"You're wrong. I can't believe that after all that's happened, you think I don't."

"You mean you sleeping with Charlie was supposed to translate to ‘Pacey, I love you’?" He arched an eyebrow at her, "How could I have misunderstood that?"

"I guess I should have just waited patiently and bide my time."

"You didn't do anything wrong. You don’t owe me anything," he turned away from her and went back to work. "You had every right to fuck Charlie."

"It was a mistake."

"Yeah, those seem to run rampant these days."

"Must be something in the water."

He walked around the deck and braced his foot, holding his hand out to her, "How'd you find out?"

She put her hand in his. "Audrey, actually."

"Really?" He lifted his eyebrows in surprise. "I thought she'd rather castrate me than say my name out loud."

"She did throw in a bastard, if that makes you feel any better."

"No, not really," he pulled her aboard.

"I thought it was a step up."

"I never wanted her to hate me," he explained, gazing up at the sky.

"Technically, she was the one that cheated."

His jaw tightened, "With Dawson. Of all people, it was Dawson."

"I think everyone was surprised by that."

"Isn't that just the kicker though, that she chose to cheat with *Dawson*?" He scowled, a little of his insecurity from high school coming back to haunt his eyes. "The least of which is the fact that Jen was pregnant with his baby."

"It's pretty unbelievable." She shoved her hands into her jean pockets and shrugged. "Sounds like some bad soap opera."

"Some horribly bad, kick you in the ass, make you wanna tear your hair out, soap opera." He gazed out at the harbor, "Can you blame me for wanting to leave?"

"No." She shook her head, turning to stare out at the horizon. "Charlie hates me. Apparently, I am just as oblivious as Dawson when it comes to certain things."

Pacey shook his head, leaning against the railing beside her, "Charlie doesn't hate you." He sighed, "No matter what you said to him, he couldn't hate you."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that."

"Potter," he shot her a smile, "You're not the kind of woman a man could ever hate."

She smirked. "I can just send them running in the other direction, huh?"

He shrugged his shoulder, "You are good at that, I’ll grant you. But he still doesn't hate you."

She laughed. "Thanks. I think."

"You're welcome anyway." He sighed again moments later, "This whole thing just sucks ass."

"Right." She nodded, brushing her hair behind her ear as she leaned back against the railing and folded her arms across her chest. "But, y'know, now that means things can only get better."

He shot her a narrow look, "Potter, are you going all optimistic on me?"

"Well, the alternative is pretty depressing."

"Are there pigs flying somewhere?" He looked up into the sky. "Hell freeze over? I liked Cynical Joey."

She rolled her eyes, her lips twitching faintly. "Bite me."

"But I'm sure with some persuading I could like Optimistic Joey too." He admitted with a wary smile.

"So," she began surveying the boat. "When do you set sail?"

"Tomorrow morning," he answered. "I was commissioned to sail this baby down to South Carolina for a friend of the dean. He wants it docked down by his summer house."

"And then?"

He shrugged a shoulder, "I don't really have a plan. I'll find some work down there."

Joey smiled faintly. "It's nice over there."

"Yeah," he looked down at the water. "I remember."

"I'll miss you," she whispered softly.

"I'll miss you too," he replied quietly. "I'll be thinking about you all the time."

"You think you'll ever come back to Boston?"

"Who can say?" He snuck a glance at her profile.

"Will you at least call, so I'd know you're alive?"

"Yeah," he looked down at the dark water again. "I can do that."

"You better." She smiled weakly. "Or I'll have to fly down there and kick your ass."

"I'll look forward to that," he shot her a smile.

She sighed. "Now you'll probably end up married to some Southern belle named Mary or something."

"I think you're overestimating my desirability." He shook his head, with a faint smile, "I could never land a Southern belle, a southern stripper maybe..."

She shook her head. "You put your mind to it Pacey, and you can do anything."

He flashed her a quick grin, "See, I knew I'd start to like Optimistic Joey."

She shrugged. "It's true. You have to face it, Pacey, you're not totally hopeless."

Shifting his weight, his smile faded, "But it's nice to know I should have some hope."

"Like this whole boat thing, you should be proud of what you've done, but you like to sell yourself short."

"This isn't exactly my boat, Jo. And I sank the last one I owned." He shook his head, "Not exactly the actions of a man who's got much going for him."

"A boat you practically built yourself, that's pretty impressive."

He smiled weakly, "I appreciate it, Optimistic Joey, but I don't need you to stroke my ego. Not tonight."

She shook her head. "When you left last summer, I was left with a lot of thinking, and I realized I was the world's worst girlfriend. You gave me everything, Pacey, and loved me completely, but I don't think you expected the same thing from me. Which was wrong, you should have, because you deserve it."

"Joey..." his voice was weak, "That's not what happened. Things got messy between us because of my insecurities. Not anything you did or didn't do. I knew you loved me. I just stopped understanding why."

"I don't think you ever understood, Pacey," she said softly. "And that's partly my fault, I should have realized that. It was never about what you could give me. It was about you. I did not fall in love with a boat or a wall or a ski lodge, I fell in love with you, Pacey Witter, and the rest didn't matter."

Biting his lip, he turned her, watching the breeze flutter the ends of her hair. Everything she said shot straight to his heart, "Don't beat yourself up over it, Jo." He said softly, pulling at the collar of her T-shirt and touching the chain that still hung from her neck. "It was in the past."

Her weary gaze met his. "Is it?"

He pulled the ring free from her shirt, running his thumb over the warm metal. "Yes...maybe. I don't know." He swallowed, lifting his blue eyes to hers, "I love you. So much and for so many reasons, Joey. And I honestly can't tell you if it's a continuation of what I felt before or something new and completely different. Does it even matter?"

She nodded, her voice quiet and resigned. "I think you're still the boy waiting for the other shoe to drop."

"No," he shook his head once. "I'm waiting for it to land."

She gave him a watery smile, shaking her head. "You're not, Pacey, and until you realize that...."

"...This is never going to work," he finished for her in a choked voice, letting the ring slip between his fingers.

"You have to fix this yourself, Pace. It means nothing if you don't believe it."

"I believe that I love you."

"I know."

"And that's not enough," He whispered.

She shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry. It doesn't mean that it's never going to happen," she offered helpfully. "It just can't happen right now."

His eyes fell and he turned back to the water, "On some level, I think I knew that from the very beginning."

"Go to South Carolina, Pace."

He nodded slowly. "Go...go fix things with Charlie," he managed to get out, his throat closing in on the words, trying to hold them in.

"I'll wait for you."

He bit his lower lip, more to keep it from trembling than anything else. "I'll come back."

She nodded with a tearful smile as her hands went to the clasp around her neck. "Here." She unfastened the necklace, and let it drop in her hand before offering it to him. "For now. You can return it later."

Inhaling an unsteady breath, he let the jewelry fall into his hand, the amethyst glinting in the light. "For now," he agreed putting it around his neck.

Her smile was tremulous at best. "I guess this is goodbye. For now."

He nodded, his eyes falling closed of their own will. "Sure seems that way."

"It'll be okay."

"I know," he gave her a weak smile. "It just..."

She just nodded, knowing how much it hurt them both, and surveyed the boat. "I should go, you probably have tons of things you need to do before you leave tomorrow."

"One very pressing thing stands out," he agreed, moving closer to her and resting a hand on her hip. Searching her eyes for a moment, he lowered his lips to hers, the only suitable way he could think of to say goodbye.

Her fingers grazed his cheek as she parted her lips to him. Tears welled behind her lids at the fragile hold they had on their emotions, and she squeezed eyes shut tightly to ward them off. She feared that at any moment she'd break down into gut-wrenching sobs. He pulled her closer and she circled her arm around his neck, letting his soft kisses lure her into a deceptive web of love and security.

Very slowly, he pulled away resting his forehead against hers as he fought to regain his breath and he tenuous hold on control. His eyes, dark blue and stormy, fluttered open to meet hers. She lowered her gaze; reluctantly, she untangled herself from his embrace.

Sliding his hands into his pockets to keep from reaching out for her again, he gazed back toward the city, glittering with light. "This is it then..."

She nodded slowly. "Yeah..."

He looked down to the worn wood of the deck below his feet, "No good-byes?"

"No good-byes," she smiled weakly. "I'll go."

Nodding, he watched her turn away, climbing off the boat without his aid. His dark azure eyes followed her as she walked slowly along the docks and towards the city. She paused several yards away under one of the dock lights and looked back at him, the streaks of her tears glimmering in the light. He lifted the ring that hung around his neck and brushed his finger over the inscription, wondering if she could see his.

Then with one last longing look, she turned and walked away.

Webmaster's Note: Wasn't it just awesome? Make sure to give Dannie and Rinny some loving.