The soft sound of the door opening brought his head up. He was about to say something when a tissue fluttered to the floor. A quick grin quirked the corner of his mouth as the door opened further and Joey stood there, waving another tissue.

"I come in peace."

"I always knew you'd surrender first, Potter."

She smiled and closed the door behind her and moved to the chair opposite him, setting her book bag on the table. "I don't know that I'm surrendering so much as sleeping with the enemy." She opened the bag and pulled out a Coke, pushing it across the table toward him. Pacey took it, eyeing the can for any signs of tampering. Joey stuck out her tongue then passed him a package of mini-doughnuts. "Truce?"

"Temporary, maybe." He smiled. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." She opened her own package of doughnuts and broke one in half. "And, at the risk of putting said truce at risk, can I ask you some questions?"

"I don't think I have any answers."

"I don't expect you to and," she held up her hand before he could say anything, "that's not a dig at your intelligence or anything. I just don't know that anyone knows the answers to the questions I have. Or you have." She gestured toward the book. "That's what you're looking for though, right? Answers?"

"Yeah." He chewed thoughtfully then popped his Coke open and took a drink. "What do you want to ask?"

"Well, I guess…what really happened? I mean, I've heard what little you've told me then I heard Abby's entire diatribe. I guess I was just wondering what the truth is."

"Well," he bit another doughnut in half, "I don't know how much of the actual truth I know. But what Andie told me is that after the crash that killed Tim, her dad got really distant and her mom got really…nutty. Refused to believe Tim was dead. There was some hospitalization but nothing seemed to work. Andie's…anyway, her mom's on medication, but Andie and Jack are a little too young to have to be taking care of her, but they really don't have much choice."

"What about their dad?"

"Distant, like I said, but he's in Providence trying to keep the business afloat so they can stay in their house and everything else." Pacey shrugged. "Jack and Andie don't say much about him, but from what they do say, he sounds like a prick. And trust me, when it comes to Dads that are pricks, I am an expert."

"That you are." She nibbled on another doughnut. "So what are you looking up?"

"Drugs."

"Drugs that Andie's mom is on?"

Pacey took a deep breath and released it slowly. "I don't know. I don't…that's a lie. I do know. They're drugs Andie's on."

"Andie's on medication?"

"Well, no. Not anymore." He leaned back and stared at the ceiling. "She says she takes 'em for mood swings, but she's taking some high level shit. And if they're supposed to be helping, well, let's just say my girlfriend might need to up the dosage a little."

"She's a little…manic at times."

"Yeah, well." He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed again. "Her doctor wants her in therapy and she doesn't want to go. But I…what the hell do I know about shit like this, Jo? Nothing. And if I don't know anything, then how the hell am I supposed to help her?"

"Seems to me that you're helping her right now. Or trying." She gestured to the stack of books. "You do your best, Pacey." She shrugged. "That's all you can do."

"Maybe." He shook his head. "Does Jack talk about this with you?"

"Oh no." Joey shook her head. "I'm Jack's opportunity to pretend none of it's happening. Remember? The typical Joey Potter trauma."

"Right. Sorry about that."

"No. You were right. That's what it is, that's what it's like. Especially with this damn movie of Dawson's."

"Damn movie?"

"Self-indulgent, egotistical, ridiculous, damn movie?" She smirked. "He's rehashing our relationship on celluloid."

"He's reliving your relationship to give it the ending he wanted and thinks he deserved." Pacey looked away from her and shrugged. "But that might just be my spin on it."

"He says it's all he has left now that I've moved on. He says he needs to do this to work through it. And all I keep thinking is that going through it over and over and refining it and analyzing it and everything just makes it unreal."

"Maybe he needs it not to be real."

"Nothing's going to make it not real though, Pace. We broke up." She shrugged and took another doughnut. "I wasn't happy. Not really. And seeing all this again just makes me remember what it is that made me unhappy."

"Being with Dawson made you unhappy?"

"No." She reached for his Coke and took a drink. "Being the subject of whatever it is about for Dawson made me unhappy."

"We're quite a pair, you and me, Potter. I've got a manic-depressive girlfriend and you've got an obsessive-compulsive ex-boyfriend." He pushed the psychiatric reference book she'd looked at earlier toward her. "Who ever thought you and I would be the normal ones, huh?"

"Normal?" She lifted an eyebrow and reached over to steal his last doughnut. "I don't know that I'd go that far."