Disclaimer: I do not own the 'Dawson's Creek' charaters mentioned in this fan~fic, although there are quite a few creations of my own in here. The whole story is fiction and if anything mentioned in my story happens in the show it is completely coincidental. But, that would be pretty weird huh.....also any and all names that belong to anyone living or diceased are also merely a coincidence. (All except Joshua Ryan which is the name of a friend. The name will be mentioned in the fan~fic at a later time.) The places are real (except Capeside), and some characters are based on real people. Friends...family...etc. Anyhoo...This story is my baby so if you don't like it please keep all comments to yourself. BUT if you do have any ideas or considerably nice comments then PLEASE e-mail me. I'll love you forever. hehehe anyhoo.....on to the story!

~*~Theres no summery because I love surprises...and this ones full of them. I hope you have fun finding out what's happened to everyone 'through the years.'~*~

And now without further ado.....


Through the Years
Part 1
By Jackie


Pacey and Andie stood in front of their house. "So.....what should we take? Your car, my car, or 'the' car?" Pacey thought about the question as he looked over the cars. On the left of the driveway stood his black jeep Cherokee. He then glanced over at Andie's which was idenical. He turned to face her. "We might as well take yours. The car seats already in there. What would be the point of moving it?" With that Andie nodded and opened the back door letting everyone pile in. Everyone but Pacey, Pacey Jr. that is, who was at baseball practice. She put the baby in the car seat and sat down in the passenger side. Pacey leaned over to kiss his wife's cheek, then started the car.

Pacey was the father of four. Thinking of this he glanced over at Andie and smiled. They had three sons and a daughter. Pacey was their first born. Andie had talked her husband into the name. Oddly enough he turned out to be his father's spitting image. Next came Andrew or Andy, which got quite confusing at times. Andrew had lighter hair but that wasn't enough to make him look like his mother. Andrew was two years younger then his older brother, making him 6. All their children were quite close together and came early in the couple's life. The two were married at 22 and Andie learned she was expecting only months after that. At 4 years old came Emily. Pacey adored his sons, but Emily was defiantly a 'daddy's girl'. I suppose that's normal since she was the only girl. After Emily, Pacey and Andie decided to wait a while before having another. Of course 'a while' didn't turn out to be that long. Their youngest son was born about 2 years later. Pacey and Andie showed a little creativity in the naming of this one and they choose a combination of loved ones: Timothy Dawson Witter. Timothy of course coming from Andie's late brother (a name she had always loved) and Dawson, who had only become a closer friend throughout the years. In fact the three, Pacey, Andie, and Dawson lived in the same area and were insepratable. Shortly after their senior year of High School, Dawson longed to break free of their small town of Capeside. Besides the town didn't offer much along the lines a career in movies which is what lead Dawson to moving to southern California. He enlisted in USC and was acceppted only weeks later, where he began studying at once. Pacey and Andie had yet to find their place. All they knew is they wanted to be together. They lived in a small apartment going to school in a 'nothing' college, when Pacey first got the idea of moving to California...

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"Think about it Andie!" Pacey started to pace (no pun intended) around the room waving his arms in the air and emphasizing every good point. "I mean you good start going to better school, I'll find a nice job......who knows maybe I could even get into a nice school. And what about Dawson? Wouldn't it be great to be close to him again?"

"Well of course Pacey but....we can barely even afford to stay here and go to Capeside College. What makes you think we could afford to live in California?" Pacey sat down on the computer chair and rolled over to the desk she was working at in the corner. "Andie....you KNOW you could do something about that..." She glanced at him and then back at her work. "Andie! She's gone and you've got that entire inheritance.......What good is money if you can't use it?"

This caught her attention and although upset her, it made her think. "You really want to do this, huh?" Pacey nodded. "Well....your right about the money....your right about the schools....there's nothing really keeping me here, and it would be nice to see Dawson again."

Pacey smiled and stood up. "You see! Its gonna be great I promise you. Besides I think it will be good for you get outta this town." Andie nodded and agreed. Pacey pulled her out of the chair and they shared a kiss.

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They lived in Long Beach in a large house. It has 5 bedrooms plus a den downstairs which served as Andie's office. Pacey had started going to school the second they stepped foot into California. He was never quite sure what he wanted to do with his life. It wasn't until he met Andie that he thought he could be anything more then a drunken gas station assistant. Or at least that's what his father had planted into his head. He thought for weeks about what he wanted to do, but one day during an argument with Andie was when it finally came to him.

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"Pacey please....we do not need cable." Andie punched in one finial number on her calculator and rolled her eyes at the result.

"We can afford it."

"No we can't! And even if we could....its such a waste. Between school and work when are we ever going to get a chance to watch television!? "

"In our spare time...."

"Oh well thats nice a vague Pacey."

"Well what I mean is...you know when we're not.., " He cleared his throat, "busy." Pacey smiled and raised an eyebrow and Andie rolled her eyes again. "or even while we do homework or something."

"Pacey.....no."

He stopped a moment, but being the prescient nag he was started right up again, this time with a new found confidence in his cause.

"Andie....sweetheart.....love. We NEED cable." Andie pulled her glasses down on her nose and crossed her arms.

"All right, explain yourself."

"Well, look at all the good points....I mean we have The Weather Channel. That's weather 24 hours a day ya' know. And there's CNN. I mean you can't beat CNN for the news. And there's the history channel...."

"Pacey the history channels extra."

"Oh....well screw the history channel. I mean there's all these great opportunities for really great learning uh....stuff."

Andie took a deep breath. "You know I'd give you the world, but I guess I don't think cable is that important.....especially not for 23 dollars a month!"

Pacey thought to himself. He sat down on the bed and looked up at Andie. She glanced over at him. "I'm not buying it Pacey...I know just want you'll do. You'll look up at me like a sad little puppy dog with those gorgeous eyes of yours and start to pout and pretty soon I'll feel like the bad guy and give in. Well, its not gonna work this time." She went back to filing papers and sorting others. Soon after she glanced over at Pacey and pretty soon after going back and forth stooped her work and turned to him. With a sigh, "Alright....who do I call?" She picked up the pamphlet and started to read though it.

"Oh Andie I could just kiss you!" Pacey started to laugh and walked her way.

"Have I ever told you how wonderful you are?"

"Yes Pacey you have....that's when you talked me into buying the apartment with the pool." She couldn't help but laugh. "Sweetheart you can twist people's words and win them over just to get your way. You should be a lawyer," she said with a laugh, going back to her work.

Pacey fell back on the bed and laughed. "Yeah...wouldn't my dad get a kick outta that." The next day they had cable......and the week after that 4 movie channels.

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Well Pacey had taken that joke to his heart. He was studying to be a lawyer and had quite a few years of school under his belt. He was working in law right now as an attorney for those who couldn't afford one of their own. (you know 'you have the right to remain silent'...blah blah blah) Andie worked out of the house a writer. She had a column in a nearby newspaper and frequently wrote for a woman's magazine. She also had a book she had written about her life titled 'The World Through My Eyes' which was a bestseller and her friends got a kick outta it saying she portrayed Pacey has a god. She replied with, "Would I lie...c'mon you guys...I only speak the truth." Andie's mother died one year after their graduation of a drug overdose. It was quite devastating, but once over Andie had the strangest feeling of relief. Andie could move on with her life knowing her mother was finally save and her pain had ended.

Pacey turned on the off ramp onto the freeway and sped up. He glanced over at Andie and focused in on her wedding ring. It wasn't much, a small diamond surrounded by a few even smaller ones and placed on white gold, but she charted it. They didn't have much money at the time, but Pacey was planning on putting another diamond on it for their anniversary. The hard thing would be getting it off her hand. He knew that wouldn't be easy since she was practically in tears when the jeweler wanted to clean her ring and explained she'd have to take it off first. With the wedding on his mind he began to reminiss. His father had died two months before their wedding. Because of the timing Pacey had become angry and had an overwhelming feeling of hate for the man that was never there for him....and now nothing had changed. Pacey was so proud of himself for having Andie. He knew that John would love Andie just as much as he did. He had wanted so much for his father to be proud of him and seeing him marry such a wonderful person who thought so much of him. The wedding went on and it did turn out to be the happiest day of Pacey AND Andie's life at that time, only beaten by the births of their children, but Pacey would never forgive his father. Dawson was his best man and Andie had chosen one of her close friends from Rhode Island to be maid of honor. Joey and Jen served as bridesmaids in the wedding.

Andie looked over at Pacey and their eyes met. She smiled and Pacey returned the smile and placed his hand over hers. They drove in silence for a while before Emily spoke up.

"Mom?"

Andie turned in her seat to face her daughter. "Yes, sweetheart?"

"Can you put in my music please?"'

Andie's smile faded and was replaced with that of a fake one. She exchanged looks with Pacey who had the same look on his face. Andie obeyed her daughter's wish though and pushed the white colored tape into the tape deck. As the music began to play Emily softly hummed along, very content. The car was filled with the sound of child's music, sang by a man who was obviously desperate for money. He sounded as if he was coaxing a cat down from a tree rather then singing to children. Andie would never forgive her friend Beth for giving the tape to Emily for her birthday. The songs had no message...no real point or moral behind them. Songs of leaky umbrellas, tying shoe laces, and itching and scratching. She couldn't help but roll her eyes every time a new song played.

The car pulled up to a large field. It was evening, but still light out. Pacey stepped out of the car, his full length black coat blowing behind him as walked towards the diamond shaped field. He stopped, taking a breath and was instantly hit with a flashback of his younger years.

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Pacey was 6 and had just lost his baseball team the championship. He remembered striking out and looking for his father in the crowd. John Witter's eyes were filled with disappointment and disgust where sympathy should shown.

He remembered walking down the stairs the next day, still upset from the day before, tossing a baseball lightly in the air, catching it with his oversized mitt and overhearing his father's conversation. John was standing with Pacey's older brother Doug and replaying the events of the day before to him. The young boy listening outside the door couldn't help but lower his eyes as he listened to his father. John then put his hand on the shoulder of his oldest boy, Doug. Pacey wasn't truly listening as he was concentrating more on stopping his tears before entering the room, but he remembered one phrase. "Well, at least I have you." John said patting Doug's shoulder. And from that day on, Pacey would never forgive himself for not hitting that ball.

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Pacey shook his head of the thought and turned up the collar of his coat. He couldn't help, but smile as he saw his youthful reflection...that of his son. Pacey ran to his father, ignoring his couch. Pacey embraced his son and picked him up. The boy was 8 years old, but wasn't ashamed if being seen with his family. He still kissed his mother when dropped off to school and would point out his parents during his ball games. Couch Trenton walked over to Pacey smacking on his gum. "Mr Witter may I ask what you are doing here? You know practice doesn't end for another hour."

Pacey nodded. "I am well awhere of when practice ends Mr. Trenton thank you very much." Pacey said with a sarcastic grin on his face. He hadn't lost his wit over the years. If anything it had grown. "I am extracting my son from practice early today if that is all right with you."

"And what if it isn't?"

"Well then that's your loss." The man nodded. "Fair enough...may I ask though where you are taking him?"

"You may.....but I'm entitled to not answer. It is none of your business, but if you must know we, being my family and myself, are visiting a close friend." The man realizing he was beaten at his own game, backed down without further augment. He muttered something under his breath and returned to his boys. Pacey turned his face to his son, his expression suddenly changing. "So Pacey, " his voice trailing off as he walked back towards the car. "How was practice?"

"Well, for one thing...." Pacey started with a smile. And he told a rather interesting story with the passion only a child possessed, on their short trip back to the parking lot.

~*~Much Much more to come. Hope you enjoy. PLEASE let me know what you think.~*~

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