Spoilers: I don’t even care anymore.

Rating: Everyone knows I am the Smut Queen. If my stories didn’t require birth control--then something would be desperately wrong.

FAR AND AWAY
Part 4
Another Stakeout
By Kit

Pacey kissed Andie sweetly as she slept, as she returned it drowsily. He exited her room, closing the door softly behind him. He crept across the hall and softly tapped on the door.

“Dawson!” Pacey whispered outside his best friend’s door.

“Ugh, huh?” Dawson sat up, disoriented. On the bed, Joey groaned, and rolled over, deep in sleep.

“Dawson! Hurry!” Pacey muttered.

“Coming,” Dawson sat up on the side of the bed and promptly fell off. He struggled with his jeans. Finally, he grabbed his button-down shirt and headed for the door. And he tripped over the wooden chest sitting at the foot of the bed.

“Shit!” he muttered, “ow.” Finally he opened the door to see Pacey grimacing.

“Sorry, Pace,” Dawson said sheepishly.

“Gee, Dawson--I don’t think the DEAD have heard you yet!” he hissed, chagrined.

“Pacey, I...ow, that *really* hurt!” Dawson buttoned his shirt as they snuck down the stairs.

“SHUT UP!”

Dawson snuck down the stairs, trying not to trip on the backs of Pacey’s shoes. Finally they reached the bottom, and snuck out the back door. Quietly, they tiptoed around to the front of the house and waited in Pacey’s Jeep, heads just barely above the windows.

“There she is!” Pacey muttered, practically throwing himself into the floorboard. “Get down!”

Mrs. McPhee glanced around the empty yard, slid into the seat of her Cadillac, and drove quickly out of the driveway. Pacey started the engine and pulled out onto the road behind her. He tailed her at a decent distance all the way into town, until she pulled up into an alley. They parked at the entrance, and watched her walk quickly up the driveway of a rather large home.

“Okay, Pacey, now what?” Dawson sighed.

“Follow her,” he replied without hesitation.

“Pacey! Are you crazy!? That is trespassing!” Dawson pulled Pacey back into the car as he attempted to get out.

“Let me go!” he whispered back, and jerked his arm out of Dawson’s grasp. He slid like a cat along the side of the vehicle, pausing at the front of it to bade Dawson to accompany him. Dawson shook his head and Pacey continued on. He walked down the alleyway casually, pausing to jump the low fence of the yard he meant to occupy.

He crept slowly to a lighted window, peeking in. Inside, he saw a middle-aged man pouring wine and handing it to her. Pacey almost choked when he realized the same woman who had earlier that day warned them of the sins of drinking, was now letting the wine flow. The man, close to Mrs. McPhee’s age, began to kiss her neck. It appeared that ‘Miss Morality’ had a lover... They moved up the stairs together and Pacey lost sight of them as they headed past the bannister. At this point he had two options. He could wait for her to come out and confront her, or he could leave now, satisfied that he knew what she was up to.

Pacey was almost forced to hit the bushes again when Mrs. McPhee ran down the stairs and grabbed something out of her purse. As she flew back towards the staircase again, Pacey recognized condoms. And a lot of them. Pacey had seen enough. He was sick as he quietly he snuck out the yard, and when the coast was clear, jumped the fence once again. He jogged back to the car, where Dawson was dozing.

“Dawson!” Pacey nearly shouted once he had closed the door. He peeled out of the driveway he was parked in and sped down the freeway towards the house.

“What is it, Pacey? What did you see?”

“Dawson, oh, man! how do I tell Andie?” Pacey asked, distraught.

“Why don’t you tell me what you have to tell her, and then we can figure out what to do...”

“Dawson, she was taking a lover! God--I’m sure of it!” Pacey was going nuts.

“Pacey--don’t be so melodramatic! Can you say *over*reaction?!” Dawson laughed, a bit insensitive, he realized, but Pacey couldn’t possibly be serious. The woman who had grilled them all about their honorable intentions surely wouldn’t be....would she?

“Dawson, she was undressing...this woman, who is so bent on morality for me, and Andie--goddamn hypocrite!”

“Okay, Pacey, what is scaring you here? I *really* think you are overreacting, but I really don’t see the big deal. I mean, that is a pretty scandalous thing to do, but really Pacey--why do you care?”

“Dawson, that girl is my *girlfriend*. I *love* her--I can’t keep a secret like that from her! Would you tell Joey is you found out Bessie was....I don’t know, selling crack?” Pacey hypothesized.

“Whoa, buddy--there is a BIG difference here. Andie doesn’t even live with her aunt now. She lives with us, hours away in sleepy little Capeside. Second of all, are we really sure she is sleeping around? I mean, this town is TINY. And there is a lot of talk in small towns--hell,we live in Capeside--no one could pull off a completely SECRET love affair,” Dawson rationalized.

“*That* doesn’t mean jack shit and you know it. But the real argument is not about the feasibility of a love affair. The argument is this: your mom was in a perfectly happy marriage, or so *you* seem to think--Joey told you about your parents--and you wigged out because she hesitated to tell you. Now you chastise me for wanting to tell *my* girlfriend her aunt’s a psycho.”

“But infidelity doesn’t run in *my* family, like *psychosis* does in hers, where everyone’s a fruit loop,” Dawson retorted, angered.

Pacey pulled to a stop in Mrs. McPhee’s driveway. Andie and Joey were sitting on the front steps, waiting.

“Oh, God!” Pacey cried, and banged his head on the steering wheel, “Dawson, this is the *most* stupid thing I have ever done. I can’t possibly lie to her now. ‘Oh, Andie, we just went to town for a few things--pick up some bread, rent a video, play Peeping Tom on your aunt,’,” Pacey mimicked in a girly falsetto.

“Look, Pacey, just tell her we went for a little joyride,” Dawson shrugged.

“Hi! Pacey,” Andie faked a smile at him, and ran to greet him out on the porch. “Where’ve you been?” Andie was furious, but morbidly curious as to what Pacey’s excuse would be.

“Oh, we just went for a little joyride on the coast, smelling the fresh hair, and...” Pacey grew decidedly uncomfortable as he realized Andie wasn’t buying a word of it, and without skipping a beat, continued, “....and you already know, don’t you?”

Andie nodded curtly, “well, you two only woke the dead leaving. And what I didn’t figure out, Joey told me.”

Joey grimaced sheepishly, and to her defense, added, “well, *she* asked!”

“So tell me the dirt,” Andie was being facetious and she knew it, but she couldn’t help feeling betrayed.

“I’m sorry, Andie, can we discuss this alone?” Pacey asked quietly.

“Well, why, Pacey? You took Dawson with you and he’s bound to tell Joey sooner or later--we might as well get it out in the open,” Andie sat down on the porch steps once again.

“Andie,” Pacey’s voice wavered, but it returned to normal, “your aunt...your aunt, she...”

Dawson came to the rescue, “Pacey believes she has a lover,” he finished discreetly.

“Oh God!” Andie put her head in her hands, shocked, and burst into tears. Pacey moved to embrace her, but she scrambled up the stairs before he could reach her and went wailing, up the stairs. Pacey stalked off angrily, and Joey flew into Dawson’s arms.

What will happen next? Will Pacey and Andie make up (oh, there’s a big duh!)? Will Andie find the courage to confront her aunt? Will Pacey save her? And what about Fred? Stay tuned.