A Walk Through Hell


by Melody

Joey and Dawson were asleep in his bed when his father entered the room. "Dawson, are you awake?"
Dawson rolled over and looked at his dad. "Barely, what's up?"
"Joey's sister called. She needs her at home."
"Okay. I'll get her up."
His dad left and Dawson rolled back over. He looked at Joey as she slept peacefully next to him. They had decided not to have sex for a little while. And the decision, though Dawson agreed with it, was not easy. Sleeping with the same girl you've known forever, then finally completeing that friendship, was a hard thing for Dawson to deal with. He had thought about telling his dad what happened, but he decided to keep this secret to himself. It was bad enough Jen and Pacey knew about it.
He put his arm around Joey and slowly rocked her. "Joey, time to get up."
Joey moaned something, then put her arm around Dawson. He smiled, but continued to move her. "Come on Joey, wake up."
Joey opened her eyes and looked at him. "Do I have to?"
"Yeah. Your sister called. She wants you home."
Joey sat up and looked at the clock. It was ten. "Why did you let me fall asleep?"
"I didn't want to wake you. You were really tired last night, and I figured I'd let you crash here."
Joey moaned again and got out of bed. She ran her hand through her hair and opened the window. "Guess I'll see you later."
Dawson got up and went to her. "Call me when you get home, okay?"
"Sure." Dawson watched her climb out of the window and disappear.
Across the street two men also watched Joey leave. "When should we take her?"
The other gentleman took a sip of his coffee. "Later. She has to come home eventually. We'll take her then."

Joey walked into her house. She heard the screams of Alex coming from down the hall. Bessie poked her head out of the door and saw Joey. "Nice of you to come home. Do you think you can watch him now so I can go to work?"
"Sorry. Dawson didn't wake me."
"That's okay. But I'm late, I gotta go." Bessie ran out the door and Joey sat down with the baby. The cries continued for a few more moments and finally died down. Joey let out a sigh of relief and quietly left.
She went into the kitchen and picked up the phone. "Hey, I'm here."
"What was the problem?"
"I'm supposed to watch Alex today. My sister had to work."
"You coming over later?"
"Yeah, when she or Bodie get home. What are you doing?"
"Nothing. Figured I'd clean up my room a little bit."
"No trips to Jen's house?"
"Not after last night. As far as I'm concerned, she can destroy her life if she wants to. I'm not being dragged down by her."
"Dawson, maybe you should talk to her. She's probably just upset."
"Then you talk to her. I have nothing to say to her."
"I'll consider it. So I'll be over as soon as I can, okay?"
"Sounds good. What do you want to do tonight?"
"I don't know. How about a trip on the creek?"
"More serious discussion?"
"No. A little fun. Why don't you call Pacey?"
"Pacey? I thought we decided to wait."
"Who said anything about sex?"
"But you implied...why call Pacey?"
"Can't be too careful Dawson. Bye." She hung up the phone and smiled.

Dawson went down to the video store. Pacey was working. He looked up when Dawson walked in. "Well, nice to see you Dawson. What made you decide to come to work today?"
"I'm not working today Pacey. I came here to apoligize for my attitude the other day. I was a little rude and I'm sorry."
"That's alright Dawson. Women will do that to you. If you're not careful, they can take over all your actions. So how are things with you and Joey?"
"Good. Great actually. It's nice, at least it's getting there."
"And the other one?"
"Jen? Miss alcohol ruined my life yet I was drinking last night? Don't know, I haven't talked to her."
"She was drinking?"
"Yeah. Joey and I saw her at the Salty Dog last night. How she got in I don't even want to know. But she was having a grand old time."
"Did you talk to her?"
"No. We left. I didn't want to ruin her wonderful evening. Besides, I was with Joey, and didn't think it'd be cool to talk to Jen. At least not in the state she was in."
"Think she'll go back to New York?"
"Don't know. If her grandmother finds out about last night, she might not have a choice. I just don't see why she would want to go back that way. She blames her drinking problems on all the other problems she had in New York. Now she's here, and nothing's changed."
"People don't change over night Dawson. So were's your woman now?"
"Babysitting. She's coming over later. Did you get any new movies in today?"
"Nah. It's been slow. Even the returns are done. Nothing to do here but fantasize. Speaking of which, you never told me how that night in the woods was. Was it everything you thought it would be?"
"Was it for you?"
"Oh yeah. That and more. But my woman was experienced."
"I refuse to give you the details of mine and Joey's adventure together. Although I am sure you want to know all the details, you can see the movie."
"You taped your first time too? Wasn't mine enough?"
"I didn't tape it Pacey. And yours was an accident. Besides, you were the one that made copies. Giving them out as gifts?"
"Nah, for my own private collection. When I wear one out, I'll have more."
"Pacey, sometimes you even shock me."
"Yeah well, all I can say is once you have it, you always want it."
"I don't know about that. But I do have a question for you."
"What's that?"
"Did you use...um...protection?"
"Of course Dawson. Didn't you?"
"Didn't plan on it happening."
"Well you better next time. I have a sample pack if you want."
"Pacey!"
"Gotta be prepared in this world Dawson. You never know what could happen."

At around seven that evening, Dawson decided to call Joey. She hadn't shown up yet, and Dawson was starting to worry. "Hey Bess, is Joey home?"
"Dawson? She left for your house three hours ago. She's not there?"
"No. Maybe she stopped by Jen's on the way. I'll check over there."
"Have her call me when you find her, okay?"
"Sure." Dawson hung up the phone and tried to call Jen. The line was busy, so he decided to go over to her house. He knocked on the door and Jen's grandmother answered the door. "What do you want."
"Is Jen home?"
"She's upstairs on the phone as usual."
"You haven't seen Joey, have you?"
"Not since she crawled out of your window this morning."
Dawson saw Jen come down the stairs behind her grandmother. "Dawson, what are you doing here?"
"I was looking for Joey."
"Why would she be here?"
"Thought she might have stopped by. Do you have a minute?"
"I guess." Jen's grandmother gave her a nasty glance as Jen walked past her and outside. Jen closed the door behind her and sat on the porch. "What's up?"
"I wanted to talk to you about Joey and I. About what happened."
"On the trip? That's really none of my business Dawson. That's between you two."
"Yes, it is. But I wanted to make sure you were okay with it. With us."
"What do you want to hear Dawson? Do you want my blessing? I've known how Joey felt about you for a while. And you should have seen it too."
"I know. I realize it now. But I want us to be friends. I don't want to lose what we had."
"I don't know Dawson. My life's really a mess right now. I don't want to complicate it."
"Being friends with me would complicate things? What about drinking at bars all night."
"How do you know about that?"
"I saw you Jen. Joey and I were there last night."
Jen blushed and looked away. "Dawson, you don't understand what it's like. You don't understand how I'm feeling."
"Feeling bad enough to resort to the way you used to be? Back to the way you were trying so hard to change? No, I don't understand that. I don't understand how you could tell me we couldn't have sex because you were trying to change, yet you can go out and drink. Does your grandmother know?"
"No, and I'd like to keep it that way. I just needed to get out Dawson. Hang out with people I didn't know."
"So you had to drink? You could have gone to the next town for that. I don't get it.. But I guess it's just another thing I don't understand about you."
"Dawson, why did you come here? To judge me?"
"No. Just to be a friend." He stood up and walked off the porch. "If you see Joey, tell her I'm looking for her."
Jen watched as he walked away.

Dawson continued to look for Joey, but couldn't find her. He decided to check back home and see if she was there. He came around the corner and noticed two police cars at his house. When he walked in the house, his mom and dad were sitting in the living room. His mother got up and gave Dawson a hug. "Thank God you're home."
"Mom? What is it?"
She looked towards Dawson's father. "Sit down Dawson. We have something to tell you."
Dawson walked with his mother to the couch. "What?"
Dawson's dad gave his mother a look, and then spoke to Dawson. "You're mother and I got home about an hour ago. There was a message on the answering machine you need to hear."
"From who? What's going on?"
His mother spoke. "Listen to it Dawson."
Dawson got up and walked into the kitchen. One of the policemen introduced himself. "My name is Sergeant Walker. You must be Dawson."
"Yes. What happened?"
The officer played the message:
"Mr. Leery (a man's voice says). We have something you might want. (In the background you here Joey screaming for Dawson). She insists she's not your daughter, but we saw her leave your house. I suggest you sit by the phone and await our demands if you ever want to see her again."
Dawson watched as the officer shut off the tape, which was now hooked up to some suffisticated equpiment. Dawson walked back into the living room. He sat down on the couch in a state of shock.
"Dawson," his mother said, "are you okay?"
Dawson could barely speak. "Did you call her sister?"
"The police are notifying her right now. Dawson, did you see anyone this morning when Joey left? Anything?"
Dawson thought about it for a moment. "I didn't even look outside when she left. When did they take her?"
His father spoke. "The ladder was on the ground when we got home."
"So they took her right from here? And no one else saw anything?"
"The police are going to question the neighbors. So far they don't have anything."
"What about Jen's grandmother? She's always watching the house."
"We called her. She's coming over. Dawson, we will get her back."
"Who would take her? What do they want?"
"We don't know. All we can do is wait."
"Wait for what? Wait for her to die?"
"She's not going to die Dawson. We will give them whatever they want."
Sergeant Walker came into the living room. "I've got two FBI agents on their way. They will review the witness statements, probably put a tap on your phone. We're taking the tape to our crime lab to analyse it, maybe find something about where they called from."
Dawson stood up. "What do we do till then?"
"There's nothing you can do son."
"Don't treat me like I'm some kid! This is my best friend we're talking about, and all you can do is sit and wait for a phone call?"
Dawson's mom put her hand on his shoulder. "Dawson, relax. There's nothing we can do right now. Please try to calm down."
"I don't think I can do that Mom. Not without knowing if she's okay."
"We'll know something soon."
Just then the phone rang. Dawson ran to the kitchen to get it but the Sergeant held his hand. "Let it ring three times, and then keep them talking as long as you can. We will try to trace the call."
Dawson waited impatiently for the third ring. "Hello?"
"Who's this?"
"Dawson Leery."
"Ah, the big brother. Is your daddy at home?"
"Joey's not my sister. You won't get anywhere with her. Take me instead."
"I'm not going to waste my time talking to a child. Put your father on or the girl dies."
Dawson yelled for his dad. "This is Mr. Leery."
Dawson put on the police headphones and listened in. "Mr. Leery. I hear you are in the position to give me a lot of money. But I'm not a greedy man. I'll accept no less than ten million dollars for the return of the young lady."
Dawson looked at his dad. He shook his head, but his father continued. "It will take me some time to get it. When do you want it?"
"I will call you back with the information. We've spoken long enough." The line went dead.
Dawson took off the headphones. "How are you going to get that kind of money? We don't have that, do we?"
"I'm sure I can find it. We'll mortgage the house if we have to."
There was a knock at the door. Dawson answered it. A woman and a man, identidying themselves as FBI, entered. "Mr. Leery, I'm Agent Mulder, this is Agent Scully."
Dawson's dad couldn't help but laugh. "This is a joke, right?"
Agent Scully spoke. "No sir. Our boss has a sick sense of humor. Thought we were naturally a perfect team. My first name is Michelle, his name is David." "Well, come in, please."
The agents entered the house and met up with the Sergeant, who filled them in on the current situation. Agent Mulder spoke to the family. "The last thing we are going to do is hand over the money. But this guy knows you have it, so he might be monitoring your movements. Make arrangements to get the money; we can always return it later. This guy knows the time limits on a trace, since he missed it by two seconds. So he's pretty thorough. The main thing here is the girl gets back alive."
Dawson spoke up. "That girl has a name. It's Joey."
"Right, Joey. Mr. Leery, can I talk to you for a moment?"
Dawson's dad stood up and joined Agent Mulder in the kitchen. "I don't think it's a good idea to have your son around. He's too close to this and could get in the way. Is there somewhere he can go till this is over?"
"Trust me Agent Mulder. Dawson won't leave. They've known each other for a long time. She is like a part of this family, at least since her mother died. I wouldn't think of asking Dawson to leave. Besides, I feel better knowing he's safe. And that's by staying here."
"That's your decision of course, but keep him out of the way. He might hear things he doesn't agree with, and I don't need him screwing up this investigation."
There was another knock on the door. "We will continue this conversation later." Dawson's dad went to the door. It was Jennifer and her grandmother. "Thanks for coming. The FBI want to question you. Just see if you saw anything unusual today around the house."
Jen's grandmother shot him a look. "What makes you think I know anything. Do you think I have nothing better to do than spy on you?"
"No. I just thought maybe you might have seen something while sitting out on your porch. Jen, Dawson's in his room."
"Thanks."

Jen knocked on Dawson's door, but there was no answer. She opened the door. Dawson was lying on the bed with his headphones on. Jen could hear the music from where she was standing. She walked towards him and yelled. "Dawson!"
Dawson shut the walkman off and removed the headphones. "Hey."
"Hey yourself," she said while sitting down. "How are you doing?"
"This is my fault. If Joey wasn't always in and out of here, they'd know she didn't live here. Maybe they would have me instead."
"Dawson, what good would that be? Then Joey would be sitting here just as worried as you are."
"But at least she'd be safe. I promised her I would always be here for her, keep her safe. And now there's nothing I can do."
"What do you think you can do? Dawson, let the police handle this one."
"What do they know? Seventy three percent of the time the kidnappers kill their hostage and still get the money. And the last thing Joey will have on her mind is me before she dies. And I can't see myself going through life without her. She's been such a part of me for years. And I was too stupid to realize how much I needed her. And how much she needed me."
Jen reached over and hugged Dawson. "She will be fine. She'll be back before the nights over. The only thing you can do is wait. If you want, I'll stay with you."
Dawson rolled over. "I don't want anyone here."
Jen stood up. "Fine. I'm trying to be your friend. I just wish you wouldn't shut me out of your life."
Dawson turned to say something, but Jen had left.
He got up to follow her downstairs. Agent Mulder was hudled in the corner of the living room with Dawson's father. "Dad, what's going on?"
Agent Mulder spoke. "We now know what happened, and who has Joey."

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