. Summary: Her choice changed everything, EVERYTHING! (Remember the season 4 promos when they played Madonna and had a lot of sad faces, yeah that's what I mean) What if one night did the trick? If you don't get my promo like summary let me elaborate, it's mid-season 4 minus all the P/J goo. Near the end of junior year Dawson and Joey get back together and then break up and I think the rest is pretty self-explanatory.  Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Epilogue

The first week of August they went into Boston searching for an apartment finding a small two bedroom one on the outskirts of town. It dawned the mildew on the chipping paint and the broken cupboards but Pacey had reminded her that they had practically built the B&B from the ground up with nearly no money so they could apply a fresh coat of paint and work their magic with a screwdriver. 

They had decided to take a step back in their relationship each claiming their own bedrooms. Joey's, the larger one was kept neat and tighty with some of her old vintage furniture, while Pacey's was a mess with only a mattress in the middle of the floor and a dresser by the window. They slept alone although more nights then not Joey would crawl into Pacey's bed claiming there was something else living in there with her. 

By the end of the month the apartment was up to living standards after a few trips to IKEA and the Pottery Barn. Pacey even added a few touches with a basket ball hoop in the corner of the living room where he lost about three basket balls to the window next to it. By that point Pacey had checked in Joey's closet and under her bed and deemed the room safe followed by a brief christening and the decision to turn Pacey's room into the guestroom. 

Jen and Jack crashed at their apartment regularly after heavy nights of partying when they didn't want to confront Grams with their hooting and hollering throughout the night. Classes at college went fine and was an experience in their own. Pacey would question the need for education past grade twelve whenever he was disciplined for missing classes on a regular bases, but with Joey's helpful direction, i.e.: No sex till you get an 'A,' Pacey was back on track. 

He continued to work on his culinary skills after working as a chef for the Leery's, by getting a position at a trendy restaurant Civilization. He talked the boss, Danny, into hiring Joey as a waitress citing that she was "one of the most experienced serving wenches on the eastern seaboard." On the weekends he entertained his love for the sea by piloting a whale watching boat out of Boston Harbor. 

The summer was harder though especially when July rolled around. On what would have been Ethan's first birthday, Joey spent the whole day rolled in her covers crying. Pacey wrapped his arms around her nuzzling his face in her neck, "He's probably having a wonderful party" he comforted. "As I recall your mother made a wonderful chocolate cake, and Ethan probably has it all over his face and hands." She shuddered a bit still buried in her pillow. "There's no better person to take care of him Jo, but your mom," he had said still cradling her, "and they're probably looking down on us and wondering why we're so sad." 

By her second year Joey decided she was going to be a writer and began to work on her first book about a girl growing up on a creek. Jen had made a big show of this asking, "Is none of our adolescence sacred? First Dawson pimps our high school years in that Creek Daze thing and now you're exploiting us on paper." She then claimed that she was going to do her own dramatic interpretation through a one woman play featuring a "Spunky, bitter, blonde New Yorker, female sex goddess." Pacey asked if he could portray her and Jen denied him claiming she had Jack in mind for the role. Pacey then said that he would "pay homage" to their childhood with "a puppet show down at the pier." 

Pacey had decided to major in psychology so he could try and figure out why exactly his father was such a "jackass." 

Pacey and Joey continued to banter and argue but instead of ending it with dirty glares and slamming of doors they would have wild makeup sex. One such shameful event occurring during a movie night when they had been arguing about a blonde down the hall who had a thing for Pacey. It had started with "I saw you checking her out" and ended with Joey calling him "the worst lover she ever had." Pacey mildly scoffed at this telling her to "wrack up some experience" and then that comment would offend him. Joey then took Jack's hand and told him that she needed his help on a "very important matter" leading to Pacey throwing her over his shoulder and hauling her to the next room. Jack, Andie, fresh from Harvard, and Jen sat frightened on the couch turning up the volume on The Shining as loudly as possible to drown out the bumps and moans that vibrated from the next room. Nearly an hour after they had disappeared they came back out disheveled, jumbled up hair, Pacey's shirt tucked partially into his boxers, and a wide grin painted on his face. 

Dawson had called regularly from USC, he found a girl Alicia who had piercing blue eyes and long flowing brown hair. She was honest and harsh and wasn't afraid to tell Dawson the truth when he asked for it. She was the complete opposite of the na?ve Dawson but they mended perfectly and she was an absolute sweetheart. Joey was the most surprised out of all of them to learn that Dawson too adored her, because he had always hated constructive criticism. 

After the end of sophomore year Dawson had began to shoot an independent film in Capeside and Pacey still reconciling their friendship helped out as his assistant. While shooting Pacey would randomly walk through the back of the frame and when Dawson asked "what the hell," he was doing Pacey had replied, "it can be like your running theme, people will want to see the movie so they can 'Spot the Pacey' colleges will make it into a drinking game!" Dawson had simply rolled his eyes and let out a chuckle saying nothing whenever Pacey would sneak out behind a trashcan in the background. 

In the middle of senior year Joey realized she was pregnant again and was afraid to tell Pacey since they hadn't discussed children since the miscarriage. She called Jen up crying one night that she didn't know how something like this could happen again to which Jen replied "Well when you screw like rabbits, shit happens." Jen then told her that they already went through this four years ago and he would be exuberant. She decided to tell him late November when they were walking home from work, the light rain trickling onto the slick streets around them in the dark of night. She had asked him if he'd really ever wanted to have children, to which he replied, "I'd have a billion babies with you if it was possible." Smiling at her relief she threw her arms around him droplets of water escaping their coats as their bodies clashed in the rain kissing him squarely on the lips, she screamed "Congratulations, daddy!" 

A few weeks after graduation, Joey had finished writing her book, she was now extremely pregnant, her ankles swollen, her back aching, and two weeks overdue. Every time Pacey offered her something she would tell him to "go cut off your testicles so you can never put me through this hell again." He would respond by going into the kitchen and bringing out a knife before Joey would fold her arms over her chest and say "don't think I won't make you do it, do you know how much pain I'm in?" Finally on July 8 she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy James Matthew Witter and Joey had decided it was all worth it. 

He had gorgeous blue eyes and Joey's perfect round nose. Joey knew the moment that little boy looked into her eyes that he would be the spitting image of Pacey and probably have the personality to match it. James was an explorer and by the time he was crawling about the apartment, it had become so baby proof even Pacey had trouble opening the cabinets. The two would parade him around town proudly until their sleep deprivation finally kicked in to which they would lounge on the couch most of the day mumbling "your turn" whenever he cried. 

Two years later Joey's book was finally released and Pacey was an intern in the psych ward down at the hospital. It also was the introduction of Bridget Lillian Witter who also sported Pacey's ice blue eyes but took after her mother. Pacey spoiled her rotten by the time she was three months old and it took a while for James to accept the newest addition. Bridget was a shy little girl and would burry her face in her mother's shoulder whenever Joey was showing off her baby girl to her friends. 

The apartment seemed to shrink and when Joey announced that they were expecting again three years after Bridget they realized that it was time to move. They were skeptical about raising their children in the city and when Pacey had noted, "If I could choose anywhere in the world that I would want to grow up, you know where it would be?" Joey had immediately nodded and began searching through the real-estate agents. 

Three months later they were moving into a beautiful new house on the creek. Although growing up Joey had refuted becoming a townie, after nearly a decade away she decided that she missed it. Capeside was her muse and the atmosphere was perfect for raising their growing family. They had family all around them and it was nice to recognize nearly every face walking down the street. While Joey worked on her second book, Pacey inherited Leery's Fresh Fish from Mitch and Gail who had claimed to have "seen enough fish to last a lifetime." They acted as surrogate grandparents to James and Bridget, and Lilly loved the idea of having a real life doll to play with although Joey had warned nervously that Bridget was still very fragile even as an adventurous toddler. 

Pacey was surprised at how gentle his father was with his newest grandchildren happy that his son had finally done something right by carrying on the Witter name. He even gave James a junior police officer badge and Jimmy would run around the house for the next month playing cops and robbers with the neighborhood kids. 

Stephen Elliot and Elisabeth Jennifer were born in late March only a few months after Dawson and Alicia had welcomed their own little boy Mitchell Lawrence. Joey had threatened to set up Mitch and Elisabeth when they were fourteen to which Pacey explained, "We don't need anymore soul mates." Dawson had then replied "Well at least the Leery, Potter, Witter triangle is over." Pacey then pointed over to Alexander, Lilly, and his niece from one of Carrie's clan, Caroline and said "I beg to differ." 

Now living in a full house Joey refused to birth anymore of Pacey's children and Pacey decided that he would "welcome the mailmen's children with open arms" when she birthed them. James was now five and starting kindergarten. Joey cried clutching Stephen tightly against her chest begging him to stay a "baby boy forever." James loved school and brought home stories of Stephanie Whitley pushing him off the swing set to which Joey chirped, "Ah, the joys of young love." After this Pacey shoved her off the couch and they laughed wildly. 

That June Jen finally decided to settle down. She was living in New York with Jack and had been dating a man, Sam Johnson, for nearly a year now. Coming home to Capeside for the ceremony she had granted Bridget the honors of being her flower girl. Pacey was so excited that he gave the honey brunette haired girl a two hour tutorial on how to toss petals correctly. 

After the wedding Jack moved back up to the small town and began teaching at the Junior High School claiming that "somebody had to push those Witter deviants onto the right track." While there Pacey introduced Jack and Doug formally and within six months they were seeing each other seriously. 

Joey and Pacey fell into family life perfectly. They had their systems in the morning with Pacey preparing breakfast and Joey helping the kids get their things together. Pacey had perfected it so well that he could burp Steve or Elisa and cook an omelet at the same time. Before they knew it James was off to the first grade and Bridget starting pre-school. The twins were competing against each other Elisabeth getting 'Dada' out first and Stephen making his first steps to the coffee table while Eli was still working on standing. 

Joey helped James with his reading and writing and when a class project came about questioning "Who is your hero?" James decided that he wanted to write about his brother Ethan because he made "mommy and daddy realize they loved each other." Joey had sobbed into the little boys belly for nearly an hour and when he asked her how he made her sad she had replied, "No, no Jimmy boy I'm crying because you make me so happy." 

June of that year Joey had realized that it was their tenth anniversary. They babbled about how old they were getting when at twenty-eight they could be celebrating a decade of marriage. She had presented him with a brand new set of pots and pans since he had been complaining for months over the condition the old ones were in and he had presented to her a velvet blue box. 

Smoothing it over with her fingers she pried the box open revealing an intricately woven diamond ring. The gold seamed together in thin strands the pattern familiar cradling a beautiful diamond that mimicked the seal of the band almost flawlessly. Pulling it out of the box she read the inscription inside Soggy Cigar Rings. Her eyes brightened as he slid it onto her finger above her wedding band shrugging, "A conventional engagement ring for a conventional family." 

She shook her head at that snaking her arms around his neck, unable to wipe the grin off of her face, "We're not conventional." He furrowed his brows wrapping his arms around her waist. "We're perfect, absolutely perfect." 

He smiled nuzzling her nose with his, "May I get all schmoopy on you Mrs. Witter?" 

Biting on her lip she nodded, "Yes you may Mr. Witter," before he leaned in to kiss her.