Joey stopped outside her doorway, her attention caught by the shadow at the end of her dock. The moonlight shifted and she realized who it was. Biting her lower lip, she hesitated, her hand on the doorknob, before shrugging and moving toward the water.

"What, pray tell, are you doing here?"

"I just dropped Andie off. She's sleeping it off."

"So's Dawson."

"And I wanted somewhere quiet."

"You want me to go?"

"Nope." He shook his head and patted the space beside him. "Tell me something, Potter. How on earth did you and I end up the two normal ones all of a sudden?"

She laughed softly. "I couldn't tell you."

"My girlfriend's brother declared himself gay to the gathered masses, only to be found making out with one Abby Morgan, scourge of Capeside. My best friend ended the night of his sixteenth birthday, face down in his cake after bemoaning his troubles at some sort of blues bar too stupid to realize he was too young to be served alcohol. Our mutual friend Jen told off her Bible Belt boyfriend for the hypocrite he is, and my girlfriend is popping medication like a fiend in some attempt to stay normal. Which, I have to add, she failed at miserably once the alcohol took effect."

"And you and me?"

"Your ex-boyfriend is gay, and your other ex-boyfriend is going to wake up with one hell of a headache." He grinned. "And I am sitting on your dock because it's about the only sane place I can think of right now."

She let loose a sudden sigh, followed by a quiet giggle. "The cake looked good too."

He laughed with her. "It looked better all over Dawson."

Joey sobered as quickly as she'd laughed. "Mitch and Gale are royally pissed."

"Mitch and Gale are half the reason he did it."

"And I'm the other half?"

"Well, I don't know if you're a whole half, but you're right up there on the pie chart." Pacey smiled over at her. "He wailed his troubles at the mic for ya, Potter. And, if I never do anything else for you, I will give you this piece of advice. Never. NEVER. Let Dawson serenade you."

She laughed. "I'll remember that."

"I'm not kidding."

"I grew up listening to his karaoke attempts at his Aunt Gwen's. Trust me, I know whereof you speak." She sighed and swung her legs in the open air, watching him out of the corner of her eye as he stared up at the night sky. "Are you and Andie okay?"

"You mean after the big coming out party?" He shrugged and nodded, not answering her question. "I think so, but I can't be sure. She seems better about it, but at the same time…not."

"I'm sure this is a huge thing for her. I mean, what with everything else, it can't be easy having another…scandal, for lack of a better word."

"No. It can't. And it's not." He shrugged again.

"What about you? How are you doing with it?"

"Jack being gay doesn't affect me in the slightest. In fact, I'm about the only one it doesn't affect, which makes the whole circumstance surrounding it even more ludicrous." He lay back on the dock, avoiding having to look at her. "I mean, he wasn't my boyfriend, he wasn't dating my soulmate and he's not my brother. I got out of this one scot-free."

She lay down beside him, turning on her side so that she was facing him. "Liar." Her hand hovered over his stomach before settling on it lightly. "I think maybe you're right smack-dab in the middle of the whole thing."

"How do you figure?"

"Well, Andie needs someone more than ever now, doesn't she? Jack's got his own thing to deal with now, so Andie can't lean on him as much as she did before. And Dawson's gotta complain to someone, right? That's going to be you. You're going to get an earful of 'How could she like a gay guy more than she liked me'." She laughed softly, her hand shaking slightly from the heat rising off his body. "And Jack's not exactly going to have a lot of friends right now, which means you've got to be the friend to him, despite Dawson's neuroses."

"And you?" He turned over, dislodging her hand, but bringing them closer together. His blue eyes met hers and the temperature seemed to rise all around them like fog rising off the creek.

"Well, I get to rag on you for helping Jack come out and costing me a boyfriend." She found it hard to smile in the wake of his gaze. "But I suppose I have to thank you too."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. Because…because you standing up for him made it easier for me to stand up for him, and stand beside him. Made it not about me. Which, for Capeside, is a pretty amazing thing."

"Is this some sort of apology?"

"Did I do anything worth apologizing for?"

"I feel like the bad guy here, Jo. I feel like I did something wrong by standing up for him to Peterson. I feel like I ruined everyone's life just a little bit."

"You didn't ruin anyone's life, Pacey. Jack's gay. That's the truth of the matter, whether we want to accept it or not."

He put his hand over hers and brought it up to his lips, kissing her palm softly. "Why can't this all be easy, Jo?"

She stared at their hands for a long minute, not answering him. "Nothing's ever easy, Pace. I mean, look at Dawson and me. We should have been the easiest thing in the world once we figured it out, right?"

"You would think."

"But instead, there's all this other stuff that we never even thought of when we were friends, because it didn't matter then." She paused. "I wish it were easy."

"So, what about you two?" He asked the question lightly, his voice revealing nothing.

"I don't know." She smiled sadly. "I don't know what we are anymore. We're friends, we're exes, we're in love, we're mad at each other. I keep thinking we're supposed to be more and then wishing that we're supposed to be less."

"He'll come around, Jo."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Pacey sat up, suddenly unnerved by their closeness. "And when he does…"

"This never happened? Any of this, right? You and I are bitter enemies."

"What makes you think that's what I was going to say?"

"Because that's what he needs to believe."

Pacey nodded, obviously not happy. "You think he's right, Jo? Should I just stop trying to be something I'm not?"

"I think you're whatever you can make of yourself, Pacey. If we just stayed the same, I'd be stuck in Capeside the rest of my life, popping babies out by the dozen."

He laughed and got up, grabbing her hand and helping her to her feet. "That's something I can't even imagine."

"And I can't imagine Pacey Witter staying in Capeside, satisfied with the reputation his family has decided to make for him. You'll get out of here, Pacey. I told you that once before. And I wasn't lying."

He walked with her to the porch, stopping and watching as she climbed the steps to the door. "Dawson's pretty lucky, you know?"

Joey smiled her thanks, something more behind her eyes. "So's Andie."