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I'd never read this before and saw the John Mayer song title and thought, "Well now I simply HAVE to."

(First of all I can't believe we both Rick Rolled our readers in our fics. I love that about us.)

*“But Jim, you didn’t ask me. You assumed I would do it. You told me and then really gave me no choice but to go along with it. And how does it make me look if I tell you not to pursue your dreams, especially when you’ve already made the decision to pursue them? Hi, Rock. Meet Hard Place. I’m either the bitchy wife that holds you back or I suffer at home and I hate both of those options.”*

YES. This was perfectly articulated and why poor s9 Pam never stood a chance.

Nice work, would have loved if they'd resolved things this way and much sooner.

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Hi, I'm crying. The beginning of this was so heart wrenching. I could feel then tension between them. How Jim just saw it as helping his family, but Pam saw it as him leaving his family. How he kept assuming things, which put them in this predicament in the first place. All heartbreaking. And then having Michael be the solution to it all was genius. Michael really did have a big hand in getting them together, even if they never really figured that out. I loved it. And then him coming back early at the end? I had to actually take a moment before I finished reading. Of course the steamy moments were perfection as well. You can feel everything Pam is feeling, how much she has missed Jim and how she's so happy to be this close with him, even though she knows the road ahead is going to be tough. Ugh. Bravo.

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Okay, wow. We’re only in the first line & I already feel like this story is going to break me. This line:
“A charged current was running through their perfect marriage and she was afraid of touching it for fear of causing the wrong kind of spark.”
I’m just... It’s so good & so true to real life & relationships. That precipice of if I bring this up it could make things worse v. it needs to be addressed so it doesn’t fester for the rest of all time.

“But now so much had been haphazardly shoved under there, that the rug was getting lumpy and difficult to walk across”
Oh god. It’s so good. So real, so raw, so perfectly Season 9 and Pam.

“you didn’t ask me” YES. This.

“I would choose my ties based on what I thought you would like” My heart is in my throat. I —

Jim getting his priorities straightened out like that, just so sweet.
This fits really well with canon! It’s a nice balm to the angst.

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OMG SOOOOO Good!

I loved it. It was actually refreshing to witness a Pam and Jim fight (we get so much fluff here and I'm just as guilty as the rest so no judgements)-
BUT as hard as season 9 was it really didn't give us the heart we had experienced in the first 3 seasons.

But with this - you did!!

There were so many little lines I loved but I'm already late to start dinner because I stopped to read. Just know that it was all great.

I appreciated the way the love scenes were written and their back and forth playfulness even in the middle of a fight (that's how I see it, too) always something to break the tension when it gets too heavy. And of course talking about Michael cam always do that.

I did make a little change in my head in the line "As you Wish" reciting it like Wesley since Princess Bride was on her Desert Island Movie list... As you wiiissshhhh! Hope you don't mind.

Author's Response: Maxine, thank you so much!! Your reviews are always so thoughtful. I’m so glad you liked it! I tried to strike a balance between raw emotion with their fighting and still keeping true to who they are as a couple. And “As you wish” is 100% a callback to Princess Bride. :)

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So this is a tough fight read, and I assume it would've been an even tougher fight to write. Kudos to you for taking it on. Just in general, this does feel like the conversation they maybe NEEDED to have and didn't.

The Roy comparison is interesting, because there's definitely moments where Season 9 Jim makes decisions that would've made Season 1 Roy say "Jeez, I would be a better boyfriend than that" (shortly before getting in a fight with Pam because they're not dating, they're engaged). It does feel like a natural comparison for Pam to make with the sort of thoughtlessness going on this season - and is absolutely something that would remain a hot button for Jim all these years later.

I really like that looking back through their history, reminiscing helped them find their way through this - letting them remember who they are to each other and how important they are in each other's lives.

Jim's letter was great - and I appreciate that you let him try to be funny in it, too, which was both successful and very in character.

What's with all the quality Season 9 fic right now? Jeez.

Author's Response: Thank you, as always! I spent a lot of time trying to work out the fight. Like, the Roy thing. Obviously Pam didn’t REALLY mean it. But it was something that would make sense to blurt out and have it sting, but would be easily mended with a sincere apology. They both know he’s not Roy. And I’m glad you appreciated the reminiscing and the funny Jim. :)

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Okay. As a rule, if I see a story with angst in the description, I stay the **** away. But I read this anyway, and holy hell, I am so glad I did because this is a masterpiece.

It's hard for me to pick a favorite line, but I have to go with "Somehow airing her long-kept grievances felt equally as suffocating as it did freeing." That is exactly why Pam wants to avoid conflict, but she's being brave and pushing through anyway. She's kind of being selfless here, in that she's telling Jim the truth instead of holding it all in because he deserves to know how she feels, even though it's so hard for her to say it.

And I think the writers took a few episodes too many to turn things around for our favorite couple, so I'm going to pretend that this is actually what happened. ;)

Author's Response: Girl, thank you!! I’m so glad you took a chance and liked it. :)