Uncharted Witters by Flossie
Part 1 in the Series
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, if I did, these stories wouldn't be floating around the Internet, they'd be on TV! The first little bit contains dialogue from the ep "Uncharted Waters" and basically retells everything that happens in 2 scenes, then it takes on a life of its own.
Pacey Witter was walking his very drunk father along the beach, trying to get him back to their fishing boat while John Witter could still walk. No such luck.
"We've run aground." Mr. Witter slurred incoherently, and passed out.
Pacey sat down next to the sprawled figure of his father. "So I guess this is as good of time as any to have that father-son talk." He started.
Then, imitating his father "So, how ya doin' in school, Pacey?"
"Actually, Dad, I'm doing alright." He continued the conversation; "I'm really turning things around. Turns out I'm pretty smart."
"Good man, Pacey. Always knew you'd turn out to be something. How're the ladies treating you?"
"Well, I met this woman."
"Is she cute?"
"Aw, cute, man." Pacey laughed, "Andie's beautiful. She's smart. She's funny. I tell ya, this girl is something special. For whatever reason, she seems to think I'm pretty special, too." He paused, tears springing up in his eyes, "Why can't you see that? Why can't you see me, huh? When did you give up on me? When I was 5? 10? 12? I'm 16 years old, Dad!" He begins to cry, "And I'm here and I'm not perfect but I'm tryin' so hard for you. It's your job. It's your job to love me no matter who I am or what I become because you're my father!" He holds his head in his hands; "You're my dad! You're supposed to love me you son of a bitch." He chokes out, "I can't do this by myself." His words dissolve into tears as he sits beside his unconscious father.
The next morning, the crew of five men on the fishing boat; Pacey and JohnWitter, Dawson and Mitch Leery, and Jack McPhee were sitting around their rods, looking considerably bored. Suddenly, there's a tug on Jack's line.
"Whoa! Hey!" Dawson exclaims as he notices the line pulling.
"That's it. Whew!" a sobered up Mr. Witter says, getting excited about the possibility of catching the biggest fish and winning the trophy.
Pacey steps up beside Jack and coaches him on "On 3. 1...2...3." and they lift the rod out of the holder.
"Don't panic! Keep your back straight in that chair." John tells Jack.
"Wait a second. Slow it down and pull it up at the tip." Pacey says, "Ready? Go. Okay, when you go down reel."
Jack struggles with the rod.
"Reel! Reel, reel, reel!" Pacey urges, "Hey, nice fish you got on there, Jack. Reel, reel, reel it!"
"You do it!" Jack says to Pacey, he's getting a little tired and he still hasn't recovered from his bout of seasickness last night.
"Come on!" John exclaims.
"Here!" Jack shoves the rod into Pacey's hands and gets up from the seat.
"Get in there, Pacey." John coaches as his son takes over the rod. "Alright, give him some line. We got a big one out there the size of Texas. Keep him coming. Keep him coming...yes...come on.... come on..." He puts his hand on his son's shoulder.
Pacey smiles as he begins to reel the fish in. His dad could actually be proud of him if he got this fish. He starts to feel that maybe there is hope for this father/son relationship after all. He catches a glimpse of the fish in the water. It's HUGE! They'll definitely win the trophy with this one. Just a little more…
"Come on, Pacey!" John says, "Get it out of there…come on!"
The fish is almost there; almost there…suddenly John grabs for the rod. "Goddamn it, Pacey! You'll never get the damn thing out the way you're going…give me the rod."
"No, I got it!" Pacey says, incredulously, and the rod slips out of his hands and jerks into the water flowing behind the fast-moving boat.
"Look what you did!" John screams. "You lost the biggest damn fish we've seen on this entire fishing trip! You almost had it, then you lost it! Not to mention my brand new, VERY expensive fishing rod! What the hell is wrong with you!?" He yanked Pacey out of the chair by his shirt.
The other three men watched, uncomfortably from the sidelines.
"What's wrong with me! What's wrong with YOU!" Pacey yelled back, "I had the fish, dad! I HAD it! I could have gotten it if you'd given me a chance!"
John lurched foreword and punched Pacey in the face. "Don't you DARE talk back to me! I know more about fishing, hell, I know more about MOST things, than you do! You were losing it! You never would have gotten that fish! I don't know why I trusted you with it in the first place…."
"John…John!" Mitch said, as he grabbed John's arm to stop him from going at Pacey again. "Calm down! It's just a fish."
"Alright." John said, "ALRIGHT!" he yanked his arm away from Mitch, and glared at Pacey who had fallen on the floor of the boat, his hand on his cheek. "You know, Pacey, people like you don't get very far in life. You're a constant disappointment to me. And I can't say I'm very proud to have you as a son right now. Get out of my sight!" He hissed, and waved Pacey away with a violent wave of his hand.
Pacey, tears in his eyes, got up quickly and went down into the living quarters of the boat.
Dawson looked at his father, who nodded at him, and Dawson went down to find Pacey. He found him sitting on the edge of a cot. He was facing the wrong way, but Dawson could tell that his friend was crying.
"Pace?" Dawson said, tentatively, "Pacey?"
"Go away, Dawson." Pacey said, his voice thick with tears.
"I'm not going to go away, Pacey." Dawson said as he entered further into the room, "I'm your friend, aren't I allowed to be concerned?"
"I suppose." Pacey said, sniffing, as Dawson came over and sat beside him.
"I guess you know my secret now, huh?" Pacey said, as he wiped tears from his eyes.
"God, Pacey, I had no idea things were that bad. Why didn't you ever tell me anything? Does he…do this a lot, Pacey?" Dawson asked.
"Does he do THIS a lot?" Pacey said, pointing to the beginning bruise on his cheek. "Well, he's usually a little more careful about where he hits so that it's not obvious to the whole town that Chief Witter isn't the…" he paused, and swallowed back the tears that were threatening again, "…isn't the model citizen that everyone thinks he is. That he's an alcoholic and when he abuses alcohol he has the tendency to abuse other things too, namely his wife and his screw-up son."
"Pacey, you're not a screw-up." Dawson said.
"What do you mean! What would you call what just happened up there?" Pacey said, "I screwed up!"
"Pacey! God, he's got you believing it now!" Dawson said, incredulously, "Look, he's the one who grabbed the rod out of your hands, he's the one who lost the fish, not you!"
"Yeah well, in his eyes, it was my fault. And he's never gonna let me forget it." Pacey said. "It's always something with him. Nothing I ever do is good enough"
"Well that's his problem, Pacey, not yours." Dawson said, "OK? He's the one with the problem."
"I know…I know." Pacey said, "I just…" the tears were threatening again, "I just wanted him to be proud of me, you know? I try so hard to prove to him that I'm a good person but he only sees the bad stuff. As crazy as it sounds, I need him to love me, to accept me. He loves Doug, so why can't he love me? What did I do to make him hate me so much?!!" Despite Pacey's efforts to hold them back, the tears took over and he buried his face in his hands.
"Pacey…" Dawson put an arm around his friend's trembling shoulders, "It's not you, OK? Don't cry, Pace, there's nothing wrong with you. He might tell you that, and he might even make you believe that, but he doesn't know anything. Alright? You're a good person and you don't need him to tell you that."
"Thanks, D." Pacey said after a few moments. He sniffed and wiped his eyes, embarrassed for having cried like that. "Sorry about this." He said, finally looking over at Dawson and forcing a meager smile.
"No problem." Dawson said, and smiled back.
Just then, Jack poked his head downstairs. "Um, sorry to interrupt, guys." He said, awkwardly, "Just thought I should tell you that we're heading back, OK?"
"OK, Jack." Dawson said.
"OK," Jack started back up the stairs again, "Oh…um, you alright, Pacey?"
"Yeah." Pacey said, and smiled a pathetic little smile that would make it obvious to anyone that he was anything but alright.
"Good." Jack said, and started up the stairs again.
"So…" Dawson started, awkwardly, "Do you want to…crash at my house for awhile or something, till things settle down a bit…?"
"Thanks for the offer Dawson, but I've gotten through worse than this with the old man." Pacey said, already beginning to hide behind that brave front again.
"You sure?" Dawson asked.
"Yeah," Pacey said. "And stop looking at me like I'm going to crack at any second, OK? It's kinda disconcerting."
"Sorry," Dawson said, suddenly looking away from Pacey, "But the offer still stands, OK?"
"Thanks, but I think I'll be alright." Pacey said. "He usually doesn't get to me that much, I don't know, maybe the conditions were right for a good cry today or something." He laughed, but there was no humor in it, "Male-PMS or whatever you want to call it, I don't know. But really, I'm OK. You don't need to worry too much about me, alright?"
"Alright." Dawson said, not believing a word of it but pretending he did believe that his friend was not affected in the least by his obviously abusive father. "So, um…do you want to play some cards or something?" he said after a few moments of awkward silence, "I mean it's just WAY to intense to go back on deck right now."
"Sure." Pacey said, and reached for the deck on a nearby table.
"Hey, why don't we get Jack down here to play a game too?" Dawson offered, "I mean, did you SEE him when he came down here before? He looked like he was going to die of … uncomfortableness!" he laughed.
"Is uncomfortableness even a word, Dawson?" Pacey laughed, "But yeah, I know what you mean. Hey Jack!" he called, "Wanna play some cards?"
"OK, sure." Jack said, as he tentatively descended the stairs into the cabin, surprised at the offer from the two people who'd been all but ignoring him for the entire trip so far.
"Yeah, we figured you probably didn't want to be stuck on deck with the old guys for the whole way home." Pacey said, "Pull up a …cot…what do you want to play?"
And they played cards for the rest of the way home. Dawson beginning to feel that maybe Pacey would be alright after all, and Pacey beginning to feel less and less alright with every passing moment.
>
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