"It certainly didn't take Bessie long to remove all traces of you from this place, did it," Pacey said as he carried their bags into the over-decorated chamber that was no longer recognizable as Joey's old bedroom.

"Why have my childhood knick-knacks taking up space when she could put up another room for rent and bring in more income?" Joey said, shrugging. "It's not a big deal, Pace. Everything I wanted to keep is down in the basement somewhere, and will probably sit there for god knows how long until I forget the things were even down there in the first place."

Pacey set the bags down on the floor and blinked at her. "When did you become such an expert in not holding on to the past?" he said. "Who are you and what have you done with Joey Potter?"

Joey rolled her eyes. "Things change, Pacey. People grow up..." She trailed off, and Pacey caught her gaze drifting out the windows, wandering in the direction of Jen's old house. "Some of us do, anyway." He reached for her, but she shrugged him off, picking up her duffle bag and starting to unpack efficiently, placing clothes in the dresser, hanging others up in the small closet.

Pacey watched her busying herself and wished she would let him in just a little bit more, but he knew all too well that Joey Potter could only be pushed so far. After a while it occurred to him that she was probably expecting him to unpack, too, so he grabbed everything out of his overnight bag and threw it haphazardly in one of the dresser drawers. "Well, I'm done," he announced, and flopped down on the bed, which, he had to concede, was one of the improvements over the way the room had been when Joey lived here. The twin bed had been replaced with a queen size instead, covered with a frilly bedspread that was entirely too flowery for Pacey's taste, but he supposed that people who stayed at rustic bed and breakfasts in New England liked that sort of thing.

Joey carefully finished hanging up her dresses in the closet, then turned to look at him. He patted the bed next to him and gave her his best roguish grin, which he knew from past experience was nearly 100% effective. "New bed," he said. "I'm thinking we should try it out."

She shook her head in exasperation, but she was grinning as she did so. "Dinner is in twenty minutes."

"Which is plenty of time for what I want to do to you," he said, raising his eyebrows up and down Groucho Marx style.

"Later," she said, walking toward him and holding out her arms. He reached out and pulled her down onto the bed with him and started kissing her insistently, but she stopped him all too quickly. Damn that woman and her iron will. "Later," she repeated. "I promise."

"Fine," he said, sighing dramatically and releasing her. She hopped up from the bed, suddenly excited about something. "Have you changed your mind?" he asked hopefully.

"No, I just remembered Bessie said she re-did the bathroom up here..." She opened the door to their room and went to the bathroom just outside in the hallway. "Wow," she said when she got there.

Curious, Pacey got up from the bed and joined her in the bathroom. "Wow," he echoed her. The bathroom was done up in an antique style, with wooden finishing and brass fixtures and a large, claw-footed tub in one corner of the room. "Uhhh...what are we 'wowing' about exactly?"

"The tub, Pacey. Look at it." She sighed dreamily. "Think of the baths I could take in this tub."

"Okaaaay..." Pacey scratched his head in confusion, then just chalked it up to being a girl thing. Joey approached the tub with something akin to reverence and ran her hand over the gracefully curving edge. A thought poked at Pacey's brain. "You really hate our bathroom in New York, huh?"

Joey flinched guiltily and looked away from the tub. "Of course not," she said, too quickly. "Our bathroom in New York is fine, it's just...small."

"As New York bathrooms are wont to be," Pacey said dryly.

"Yeah, exactly. It doesn't bother me, it's the price of living in the city. It's just...I love this tub," she said with a solemnity that Pacey found hilarious.

"Do you and the tub want to be alone?"

She grinned. "Sorry. But I will be taking a bath later, let's just establish that right now."

"I wouldn't dream of coming between you and your newly discovered bath fetish," Pacey said, the epitome of gallantry.

"Good," she said as she brushed by him on her way out the door. "Now let's go eat."

*****

Pacey sat on the bed and flipped through the latest Jamie Oliver cookbook as he waited for Joey to finish whatever kind of girl talk she was engaging in with Bessie as the two sisters put Alexander to bed. He studied a recipe for a summer bean salad and reflected that his younger self would never in a million years have been able to envision a future in which he read cookbooks for fun.

Then again, go back far enough and he never would have been able to envision himself with Joey Potter, either.

As if on cue she entered the bedroom, closing the door behind her, holding a bottle of something or other aloft in triumph. "Look!" she said excitedly. "Bessie had bubble bath!"

He leaned back on his elbows, enjoying her giddy delight. "I take it this will greatly enhance your bath-going experience?"

"Our bath-going experience," she corrected him. She jumped on the bed and straddled his waist. "Come on, Pace, let's take a bubble bath."

"Bubbles?" he said weakly. "While I'm all for being wet and naked with you in pretty much any situation you could come up with, I have to admit that being surrounded by girly-smelling bubbles doesn't really make the top of the list."

"It's not girly," she said defensively. She looked at the label on the bottle. "It's orange and bergamot scented. How is that girly?"

"Bergamot?" he said in distaste. "I don't even know what that is, how can I accurately judge whether or not it will strip me of my manhood?"

"I have an idea," she said, her brown eyes sparkling mischievously. "Instead of stripping you of your manhood, how about we just strip you?" She grabbed the hem of his t-shirt and pulled it up over his head.

"Now you're talking," he said agreeably. They kissed for a while, growing more and more passionate until Pacey was grabbing at Joey's clothes, wanting to complete the stripping process.

She pulled back. "Okay, let's go." She got up from the bed and opened the door.

"Where are you going?" he croaked.

"To take a bath, Pacey. Are you joining me or not?" She flashed him her best seductive look and then headed for the bathroom.

He gaped after her, then smiled appreciatively. "Damn, she's good!" he said to the empty room. Then he got up from the bed and ran after her.

*****

"So are you feeling girly now?" Joey murmured.

"No," he croaked. Considering Joey was currently sliding up and down on his -- let's face it, manfully and impressive -- erection as he reclined in the sudsy tub? No, definitely not feeling girly at the moment.

"Good. I, on the other hand," she said, twisting her hips and making him gasp, "am feeling very, very girly."

His response was to crane his neck up to take one of her nipples into his mouth and suck it gently as his hand continued to trace sudsy trails up and down her smooth back. "Pacey..." she hissed.

"Little busy here, babe," he mumbled around her nipple.

Joey moved her hands to his shoulders and started writhing faster atop of him, water in the tub sloshing around them as he matched her pace, thrusting up into her with increasing urgency. He released her breast from his lips and sucked in air, then leaned his head back, the coolness of the porcelain soothing the back of his neck. He was now at a perfect vantage point to watch Joey making love to him, her slender body artistically covered with clumps of bubbles, her breasts bobbing in time with the rhythm of her movements, her dark brown hair dripping wet, sending droplets cascading down her chest.

"Damn you're beautiful," he gasped.

She leaned over further so she could kiss him, then started rubbing herself harder against him, apparently having found just the right spot. He reached up and pinched one of her nipples to help her along, and soon she was coming quietly, convulsing atop of him, sending a splash of water over the rim of the tub. When she was finished he bucked up against her and she came back to herself, clamping down on his cock until he followed her into oblivion.

When they had both subsided, he pulled out of her and she turned around so that she could sit on the bottom of the tub, nestled between his legs. Pacey wrapped his arms around her waist and let out a contented sigh. "I think you may have converted me to this whole bubble bath thing."

"I thought that might happen," she said lazily. She ran her hands over his knees, which were sticking up out of the now tepid bath water. "Our next apartment needs to have a bigger bathroom."

"Our next one, huh?" he said, kissing her temple. "Why stop at an apartment? What about a house?"

She was silent for a moment, and he worried that he had gone too far. Finally, she said, "That would mean moving out of the city. We haven't talked about that yet."

"I know," he said mildly. "I'm not saying we have to talk about it now, either. I'm just putting it out there."

"Okay," she said. She nuzzled her head against his neck. "Baths are nice," she said.

"Mmmm hmmm."

"But I'm thinking bed is even nicer."

"I knew there was a reason I loved you," he said.

She craned her head back to look at him, and an impish grin crossed her face. "Only one?"

"Only one of many," he murmured, and kissed her again.

End.