... And, Action! by: Katy

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Disclaimer: You know the drill. Don't Own DC, if I did, I wouldn't be sitting in front of my old computer at home, daydreaming about meeting Josh Jackson…I'd be out actually meeting him and dancing the night away. But enough of that.

Katy's Note: I have a bunch of people to thank for this. Lisa, for letting me bounce the idea off of her, Melissa and Alex for beta reading it and giving me possible conclusions, MaryAnn for going "You can't put that in!", and Cory and Vanessa for constantly proving my point that PACEY/JOEY FANS ROCK! J/K guys. ;)...but not about the Pacey/Joey part...

Author's Note: This story is based on "The Truman Show." I don't know how many of you have seen it, but it's basically like this. A man finds out that his entire life is a scripted television show. Every movement of his is carefully watched and every person in his life is a hired actor. The only real thing about it is him and how he acts. This is the same deal. You're gonna have to do a lot of stretching for this. You're going to have to pretend that the set for Dawson's Creek has been around for fifteen years, and Dawson's just been raised in this set. This would never ever in a million years happen, but I promise, you'll get it.

Spoilers: "Homecoming." Where Dawson and Joey say those three little words to each other.

The Dawson Show
"…And, Action!"

"All the World's a stage."
~As You Like It

      Joey climbed down the ladder-being careful not to fall off-and took off. Dawson had just told her "I Love You" and she had told him she loved him back.      

She kept going until Dawson's house was out of sight. Turning around, she made sure that he had not followed her. "Okay, it's clear," she said.      

Suddenly, bright lights flashed on her and the fake trees moved to reveal an entire theater crew. A dark-haired man, Kevin Williamson, walked over to Joey, beaming.

"That was amazing, Katie," he said, hugging her, "That was incredibly believable. I even got teared up."

"Thanks," Katie said, taking off her high heels, "So how's Dawson reacting?

"Well," Kevin said, walking over to a television screen. Dawson Leery was pacing around his room, looking angry. "He's upset."      

"So what's on the agenda for tomorrow?" Katie said as a make-up person began taking off her make-up.

      "Well," Kevin said, "I just called Josh. I told him to call Dawson in a few minutes so they can have a heart-to-heart tomorrow. And I'm bringing Michelle and Monica in for a meeting tomorrow to discuss how their characters should react to this."

"Anything I should tell Nina?" Katie asked, referring to the woman who played her older sister.

"I think we need to script out a sisterly chat between you two," Kevin said, "and get Kerr on the phone and tell him to call me to discuss some plot lines."

*****

      Dawson fumed in anger for a little while. How could Joey just say she loved him and then leave like that?

Dawson walked over to the bed where Joey had sat a few minutes before. Her purse had been left behind, open. Not wanting to see anything that reminded him of her, Dawson pushed it to the floor. Something with a wire fell out of it. Bending down, Dawson picked up the small object which resembled a microphone that they use on television shows. He looked at it closely, trying to figure out if it really was a microphone. Dawson couldn't decide, so he figured he'd ask his mom. She was on a news show, she might know.

Dawson walked downstairs and heard two voices talking. "Listen Mary Margaret," said a male voice that sounded strangely like his father, "What do you think about letting Mitch have an affair. We can bring back LeAnn…"      

"I don't know John," said his mother's voice, "I don't think the character would do the sort of reversal of roles thing. He seemed so opposed to infidelity…"

"Mom? Dad?" Dawson called, confused. Sure enough, his parents were down there. Their faces looked scared for a moment, but then they calmed.      

"Dawson!" said his mom, "your father and I were just discussing…"      

"What to do about the sofa," his father said quickly.      

"Right, the sofa," his mom said, "we both love that sofa."      

"Right," Dawson said, "so that's why were you calling each other Mary Margaret and John?"

"We weren't," they both said quickly.      

"But that's what I heard," Dawson said, confused.      

"Go to bed, honey," his mom said, "you're still upset about your break up with Joey. It's fogging your mind."

"Okay, mom," Dawson said, figuring that was it, "night."      

"Night, Dawson," his parents said.

Dawson walked upstairs. His mom was right. His head was just foggy. Only one thing bothered him. He hadn't told his mom about the break-up, so how did she know?

*****

      "Sit down, it's almost Creek time!" MaryAnn said, collapsing on her friend Katy's bed.

"Relax," Katy said, pulling her long hair back in a ponytail, "we still have three minutes."

"Got the pizza and drinks," Vanessa and Cory declared, walking in.      

"It's about time you got here," MaryAnn said, "you were cutting it close."      

"We haven't missed anything, have we?" Cory asked, stretching herself out on the inflatable sofa.

"Hasn't started yet," Katy said, taking a seat on the window seat.

"Shhh!" Vanessa said, sitting down on the ground, "It's starting."

The opening of the "Homecoming" episode started, with Andie doing her little "Footloose" dance." Katy laughed. "Wonder how long it took Meredith Monroe to learn that," she said.      

The show progressed, with the four girls shouting at the screen and discussing what happened at every commercial break. And at the end, when Joey left, the room was in an uproar.      

"NO!" Vanessa was shouting, "you don't just say I love you and then leave!"      

"They're building dramatic tension," MaryAnn said matter-of-factly, "in about 6 episodes, they'll be Dawson and Joey again."      

"Or maybe she'll move on to Pacey," Katy said happily, "and all my suspicions that they are secretly in love will turn out right."      

Cory and Vanessa, the die-hard Dawson and Joey fans pelted Katy with milkduds. "Get over your delusion, Katy," they said, "They're Dawson and Joey, they'll always be Dawson and Joey."    

"We'll see," Katy sang with a mocking tone in her voice, "So what's Charmed about tonight?"

*****      

Kevin Williamson studied his "Dawson cam" and watched Dawson eat breakfast. His secretary walked in. "Michelle Williams and Monica Keena are here to see you," she said.  

Kevin stood up as Michelle and Monica walked in, already in their Creek costumes. "Michelle, Monica," Kevin said, smiling, "It's great to see you."      

"Hey, Kevin," the girls said, taking a seat at the table, "what did you want to see us about?"      

"Well, I know you guys heard about the Dawson and Joey break up we did last night," Kevin said, "and I just wanted to talk to you guys about how your characters should react. Do ya'll want to go in for the kill now, or wait?"      

"To tell you the truth Kevin," Michelle said, "I was kind of hoping we could bring the first season Jen back. Maybe have her and Joey bond. I mean, having Jen obsessed with Dawson is great for ratings, but I feel like Jen has lost that last bit of niceness her character had."      

"Yeah," Monica said, "and I'd kind of like it if we saw a more human side to Abby. I mean, to the viewers, she a conniving witch who's corrupting Jen."      

"I understand how you feel girls," Kevin said, "but the fact is that the viewers are loving the Abby/Jen friendship. They love seeing a bad-girl Jen and a conniving Abby. Maybe further down the road, once we get Dawson and Joey back together again, we can tone it down, but right now, I think Jen and Abby would be moving in for the kill. I won't hold you girls any longer, since you have to be at the school set in fifteen minutes."      

"Bye, Kevin," the girls said, leaving his office.

*****

Joey was at her locker, pulling out her books when Pacey walked up. "So where's the boyfriend?" he asked cheerily.      

"It's okay, Josh," Katie whispered, "Dawson hasn't arrived yet."      

"Great," Josh said, kissing his girlfriend on the cheek, "so that gives us some time to rehearse."

*****

Dawson hopped on his bike and put on his headphones. He reached to play the tape when he realized that he had taken the tape out. Dawson groaned. He would have to listen to the radio, and it was hard, if not impossible, to find a non-country station in Capeside.      

Dawson flipped through several stations before giving up and selecting a news station. Might as well find out what's happening outside of Capeside.      

The radio program he had picked seemed to be a police station. "He's now turning on Mill Street," the announcer said as Dawson turned his bike.      

"Weird," Dawson muttered as he listened to it. The announcer was silent for a while, so Dawson figured he had lost reception. But just as Dawson came up to Capeside High, the announcer said, "Leery has just approached Capeside High, we will now turn to his bicycle microphone."      

Dawson's eyes shot open and he stopped his bike so quickly that it made a screeching noise. All of the kids on the front lawn threw their hands to their ears.      

Dawson looked around and shook his head. The break up really had gone to his head. Now he was hearing things.

*****      

Katie laughed as Josh tickled her. "You'd better stop," she said, "Dawson will get here any moment and we'll have to be Joey and Pacey."  

"But he's not here yet," Josh said, sweeping her into his arms, "so I feel the need to steal one more kiss."

*****      

Michelle and Monica reached the set of Capeside High School. "Ready to work our bad-girl selves?" Monica asked Michelle.      

"Let's do it," Michelle said.      

The two girls walked quickly and turned on their earphones which connected them to the station which told them all of Dawson's movements. At the moment, the announcer was apologizing for some shriek which had taken down some of the extras.      

"Glad my earphone wasn't turned on," Monica muttered.      

The two girls looked around until they saw Josh and Katie. Josh and Katie had been dating off and on for a while. Right now they were tickling each other and laughing.      

"They are such a good couple," Michelle said, smiling, "I really think Kevin should eventually hook Joey and Pacey up."    

"Definitely," Monica said.      

Out of the corner of her eye, Michelle saw Dawson lock up his bike and start heading towards the front door…right towards Katie and Josh. "Uh, oh," Michelle said frantically, "he's going to see Katie and Josh."      

Monica looked over. The color drained from her face. "We have to warn them," she said. The announcer was screaming for Katie and Josh to get out of there, but apparently their earphones were turned off, because they just kept going.  

Michelle realized that she had to do something. Taking off in Dawson's direction, Michelle caught up to him and spun him around. "Dawson! Hey!" she said, immediately going into character.      

Dawson looked shocked. "Hi, Jen…" he said, giving her a strange look.

"So rumor has it you and Joey broke up," Michelle said, giving Monica a silent look that told her to go warn Katie and Josh." Monica took off in Katie and Josh's direction.

"Yeah, see ya," Dawson said, trying to turn around.      

Michelle saw that Monica wasn't there yet, so she grabbed him again. "If there's anything I can do…"

"Thanks for the concern," Dawson said, "but I'm not ready to talk to anyone. Later maybe."

Dawson turned around just as Monica reached Katie and Josh. But Monica wasn't in time to stop Dawson from seeing Katie and Josh kiss each other.

*****

"Guys, STOP!" Monica yelled as Josh kissed Katie.      

Josh turned around. "Hey Mon," he said, smiling, "what's…" Josh paled as he saw Dawson staring at him with a hurt look on his face. "Oh shit," he said.      

Katie turned around. When she saw Dawson, her face paled. "Kevin's gonna be pissed," she said.

*****

      After seeing his best friend and his ex-girlfriend kiss, Dawson took off home. Since he wasn't at school, Kevin cancelled the school scene to call an emergency meeting with the other main characters.      

Kevin paced around his office, pulling at his hair, as Katie and Josh looked down guiltily. "This is a disaster," he said, "we told you guys to have your earphones turned on whenever you felt like going out of character so you would know when he was coming. John and Mary Margaret did the same thing the other day and Dawson nearly caught on."

"We're sorry," Katie said.

"Do you guys remember when we replaced the old characters with you guys five years ago?" Kevin asked, "because the other people that played you guys had messed up? And it took a lot of convincing to make Dawson believe, that no, Joey's eyes were never brown, they were always blue, and of course Pacey had always been that tall. It was hard but we did it. I have been raising Dawson Leery for 15 years by keeping him in this isolated area. It started out as just a sealed off neighborhood, but has now grown to a huge city, where day and night are controlled. It took fifteen years to finally get a station that would go along with my vision. And now, after we've only done this for two seasons, you nearly mess up the entire show."

"Maybe we can turn this into a good thing," Michelle said, "I mean, let's say that after her and Dawson broke up, Joey ran into Pacey who comforted her. Besides, having a fling between Pacey and Joey could be good for the show."    

Kevin didn't get the hint, but he did see her point about Pacey and Joey. "You're right," he said, "we can turn this into a good thing. We'll have a scene where Joey goes over to Dawson's house to apologize for what he saw, how they never wanted to hurt him, and how it was…"

*****

"…a spur of the moment thing," Joey said to Dawson, who still looked hurt. "Last night, I ran into Pacey. We got to talking, and I was crying, he hugged me, we just kissed. I never wanted to hurt you. But right now, I have to figure out what this is between me and Pacey. That's all I know."      

Dawson looked like he had been hit by a train. He wanted so hard to hate her, to tell her to leave his room and never come back…but he couldn't. He still loved her, despite everything.

"You want my forgiveness," Dawson said, "you want me to say that I'm okay with this. You want me to give you and Pacey my blessing. Well I can't do that. I can't pretend that it doesn't kill me to think about you and him. I can forgive, but acceptance is something different."      

Joey looked crushed. "I can't help the way I feel," she said.      

"Nor can I," Dawson said.

Joey moved to the window. "I still love you," she said, "but right now I have to figure out if I love you as a soul mate or a friend."      

"You know where I am," Dawson said.

      "I never forgot," Katie/Joey whispered as she left the room.      

As soon as Katie left the room, she sighed. Hopefully this had appeased Kevin some.

Announcer's voice - "Next week, on the Dawson show…" "Andie, listen." - Pacey "I don't want to listen! I just want you out of my life forever!" - Andie "I'm just so nervous about it and I don't get nervous." - Jack/Kerr "And it's not like I'm die-hard in love with him, it's just a crush." - ?  "I have nothing to live for." - A Diehard Dawson/Joey fan

To Be Continued in
The Dawson Show:
"Take Two."
Coming Soon
"Smile, you're on camera"
&
"Cut, that's a wrap"

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