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Dawson picked up the next story and looked at it.

Dawson: I sure hopes this one makes more sense than the last one!

Joey: I wouldn't count on it.

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Beaches by snowgirl

Disclaimer: yadda yadda yadda < yawn >

Pacey: Now this I understand. Short and simple

Part 5 ~ Beaches

At the same time that Dawson is going through dream hell. The girls are facing some of their own demons. But they don't get the condolence of know it is all just a dream.

"Do you love him? Don't lie Jen, I already know the answer, I just want to hear you say it."

Joey: I thought they were friends!

"Yes I do, with all my heart."

Pacey: No, she doesn't. She just thinks if she can't have him no one can.

"Then why did you break up with him? That's what I don't understand. Both of you are totally miserable without the other, yet you're not together."

"Well, I knew that you had feelings for Dawson and I couldn't be sure if he didn't want you. I couldn't just wait for him to wake up. I'm having enough trouble as it is, I would die if he broke up with me later. Besides, what I told him was true. I don't know who I am without a guy to tell me. I had to find myself."

Dawson: Either that or she is psycho.

Jen: Thanks a lot.

"Did you?"

"Not really. I'm spending all my time trying to not think about Dawson, that I don't have time to think about myself."

"But what if we're nothing without him, Jen? What if we just stop without him to write the script?"

Joey: And they wonder why teenage girls have low self-esteem. Lines like that.

"He can't write our lives Joey."

Jen: He's not the master puppeteer ….. As much as he wants to be……

Joey smiles. "I think you just answered your own question, Jen. You'd be the same person with him as without. Only happier."

Dawson: What a nice thing to say about me.

"But what about you? I couldn't hurt you."

Pacey: Yes, she could.

"It hurts me to see Dawson like this. It hurts me to see you like this. I think it hurts more than seeing you two together.

Dawson: She's just a whole lot of hurt.

Besides, I don't think I want Dawson like that. He was just a shield, as long as I held onto him I didn't have to face anything else, including my past. But I can't hold on to him any longer. I'm just hurting myself."

"I do love him, but I don't know in what way. I do know that you are the best girl for him right now. You need to be there when I'm not. Because right now I can't lean on him anymore and that is going to hurt him. He'll need you to pick up the pieces."

Jen: I'm confused.

Pacey: What I am getting from this story is that everybody hates Dawson. And it's about time too. I am always the screw-up. It's about time someone else was the at the receiving end of all the insults.

"Yeah, but what if he does want you? I can't go on wondering if he wants me, or if I'm just a replacement of you."

"Don't worry about that part, I'll take care of him."

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Joey: Is that it?

Jen: I guess so.

Dawson: That didn't explain very much.

Pacey: Well, we do know something will happen eventually. When ever the last sentence is I'll take care of him, you know something is coming.

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