A lovely fluffy read! Looking forward to your next!

"the next day he’d decided that Dolores Garcia’s dolls were better than Pam’s, and that had been the end of that" *sigh* I miss your writing when it's gone.

Betsy and Jim's Marxist-inspired parent-child bickering is amazing. I never want to hear anyone argue against capitalism in any tone but John Krasinski pretending his mom is showing his new girlfriend his baby photos ever again. And ending this on a rimshot was perfect.

I will be *eagerly* awaiting your next project.

Delightful way to bring this one to a close. Keeping up with the banter, making nice with Betsy, a little glimpse of little girl Pam on the playground, she and Jim in a really good place. What's not to love.

This whole story was just tons of fun as it progressed. We got to see some really great character development from Pam. A Jim who's at his best, and some fun interactions with other characters as well. And to think all of it was merely set up for that last line. Bravo.

Great job as always my friend.
Fortes Fortuna Adiuvat

What a lovely read! Sad to see it end but now I can go and read all 43 chapters, but this time all in one sitting!!

I love this version of Jim and Pam so much, good job :)

I have a feeling that someway, somehow, in any iteration of canon or AU, just about every single character has had a similar fantasy when it comes to Michael. Even Dwight though he'd never admit it. Great fun with that.

Pam's mind going back to Mrs. Anderson as the Wicked Witch of the West is a great way to show her mindset now. Any good memories of that time are long gone and the reality of what it was like has sunk in, and she can also move past it quickly.

Her interaction with Betsy though was all sorts of charming. If she's able to so easily pick up bantering with Betsy, no wonder she was able to start in with Jim so quickly. Great to see Pam warming up to extended Halperts so quickly given what you also told us about previous extended family of significant others. Delightful as always.

Author's Response: Thanks so much! Pam deserves a nice, healthy relationship with her in-laws, and in this world she gets it.

Pam's mini-fantasy about having to flee to an extradition-free country with Jim after killing Michael was amazing. And also feels like a thought she would've had a LOT in canon. (For the record, my opinion is she wasn't allowed to use Mrs. Anderson's first name because she didn't think Pam was good enough for her son, and preventing someone else from calling her Eugenia was just a bonus.)

An ADORABLE meeting of Betsy and Pam, too.

Author's Response: Aww, thanks! I'm glad you liked Betsy & Pam. More of them in the final chapter. And yes, I think you're entirely right, and shame on Mrs. Anderson for thinking so.

I really like this chapter. Yes Pam is in a good place, which is wonderful. But what's so great about it is that it really feels like she's grown into the woman who realizes that this is what life should be like. That she can be her own person, pursue her dreams and passion in art, make friends, and have a wonderful boyfriend who is there to support her simply to support her, not because he's expecting anything in return.

Great to see her get to this point in her life. Also, always great to see you're not dead too.

Author's Response: Thank you! I am really glad the character growth I was going for is showing through! Pam deserves nice things. I hope you like our ending chapters!

HE LIVES. You are very welcome, and can repay us by starting your next story promptly after wrapping this one up.

It's nice to see Pam arrived at a good place here. It's been a bit of a journey, but she's rediscovered her people, and maybe a little bit of herself too. "It was, frankly, something she’d always wanted deep down inside and never let herself admit she wanted, because it had seemed so unlikely she’d ever get it" is a lovely line from this side of the ravine. "Being happy was all it was cracked up to be" is too.

Author's Response:

I'll do my best...I am currently working on about six different writing projects (not including fanfic) at once, so either I will get inspired and ditch them all for fanfic or it may be a while until I start another WIP. We'll see.

 

Glad you liked Pam's character growth! It's important to me with all the background hints of how bad I made her and Roy's relationship that she gets to be in a good place when this ends. 

Hurray for Katy and Pam! I’m so glad you brought her back, and now have her as an actual friend to Pam: this is what we missed out on on the show. I also love this look into shrewd business Katy, and the idea that Pam can actually learn from her. (And this line just feels very Katy: “Cheer camp.” Katy winked. “The only thing more important than church on Sundays was football on Fridays”). Michael misinterpreting Pam and doubling his offer before she even asks is also brilliantly Michael. And aww with the Jim text at the end. Great update!

Author's Response: Thank you! Pam deserves friends! And honestly, so does Katy...not enough friendship in the Office, I sometimes think, especially for women.

Ah, I love this. A Katy/Pam friendship chapter! And nice to have Pam have someone giving her a push with some perspective on what it's like to work as an independent operator - she doesn't have that much in canon.

Author's Response: Thank you! Pam deserves friends! Especially ones who support her professionally!

Fun to see Katy and Pam like this. I could easily see how the two of them could form a nice friendship. Sadly events in canon precluded that, but thus we have AU. Katy telling Pam to not sell herself short is wonderful. Nice that Pam has more than just Jim in her corner when it comes to these kinds of things.

And in the end Michael doubles his offer. How very Michael of Michael. You know Pam there's a saying about looking gift horses in mouths. Seems like she needed that pounded into her head a bit.

Always a pleasure getting an update from you and this story.

Author's Response: Thank you! I feel like the Pam & Katy friendship would have been really nice if canon had gone that way. But...what can you do. Thanks for reading!

Hee, this was another treat to read. I love the idea that Jim has clearly been showing off her art to Michael after she shared it with him, and I can’t wait to see how this commission turns out with Michael. Especially with the reveal about the Eddie Murphy wall-hanging. My money would 100% be on a long-suffering Jim putting it back up every night. I really like Pam trying to get the Roy comparisons out of her head for her own benefit - but also that it gave us this amazing line: ‘After all, Jim was inevitably going to win those comparisons, or if he didn’t she was going to run screaming into the Lackawanna River and let it pull her into the Susequehanna.’ And I’m continuing to enjoy her attempts to work out how she texts Jim with the miss you/I miss you - it’s a great touch. Also: Kelly! And Riley/Riker/Ryan, lol. Great chapter!

Author's Response: Thank you! Jim definitely, 100% puts that hanging up every night. And probably fantasizes about burning it, but he's too soft on Michael's foibles to actually ever complain out loud instead of by making faces.

Makes sense that Pam is comparing Jim with her previous relationship. I don't think any rational person couldn't, especially considering the upswing in said relationships. Nice job to bring that out. Pam just texting "I miss you," all the time to Jim is all kinds of sweet.

And there he goes and surprises her in such a great way. Yes he's interested in her art, but he also wants to help advance her career. Well done Jim. That's how you show someone you support them.

Always glad to get an update regardless of how long it takes between them.

Author's Response: Jim is always on that Pam-supporting grind. I'm glad you enjoyed it! Hope you like our returning character next chapter...

Yay! Happy to see this one updated again... and that in this universe too Michael is a big supporter of Pam's art! She's really finding this whole new community now that she's escaping from the patterns she was forced into as Pam Anderson-to-be...

Author's Response: Pam deserves all the support in the world, and I will die on that hill--more Pam support coming up next chapter, in fact!

Pam's fear that she was becoming Michael - in multiple senses - is hilarious. Poor girl... apparently Michael is catching.

"How's it hanging? Seriously, you said you were hanging pictures." This is wonderfully Jim dialogue.

Jim recognizing the Rothko influence in Pam is lovely... and also 100% Pam is heavily into Rothko. That has long been my headcanon. Great minds, my friend.

Author's Response: I'm glad you agree on Pam's artistic influences ;). Glad you like the Jim banter--he's so much fun to write...and thanks as ever for reading!

Always a delight to get an update for this one. Pam's coming more and more out of her shell and I love every bit of it. She's okay with Jim having some time away from her, and yet she still wants to share her time with him. And he answers back wonderfully. Not one word answers, but responses that are thoughtful and playful all at the same time. Yeah, Pam he's yours. Enjoy.

Author's Response: I'm having a lot of fun making this Jim and Pam actually get a chance to be a couple in ways that I don't think the show really did (with the hiding the relationship and then the drama). Thanks for reading!

Oooof. sorry about the laptop switch. One of the great modern inconvenienecs people don't talk about.

The use of "frogboiled" as a verb is something I'm definitely going to try to work into conversation... clever, and I think a very solid insight into how Pam put up with Roy for all those years. And Pam talking herself into being hot and bothered through metaphor form was fun.

Author's Response:

Right? Transferring data is much more difficult than you think it will be. Thanks for the sympathy!

 And I'm glad you liked it! Especially the vocabulary choice ;) 

Run out of jelly beans, still enjoying this though 👍🏼

Author's Response: Thank you! I'm glad you're still reading with me!

Glad to see this one back. Nice introspection from Pam. Kind of hard to not compare her two relationships. Very much feels like a everything that Roy wasn't, Jim is in so many good ways. Lovely to see Pam getting into that headspace. That this relationship with Jim is great with him and also she's free to still be her own person without being attached at the hip with him. However Jim is also doing a great job of filling out her life too. Really liked that as well.

Author's Response: Thank you! Jim and Pam as capable of being people in parallel and not just completely wrapped up in each other is one of the things I love about them.

“They really prefer the orange handle for the decaf and the black for the real stuff, if you know what I mean.” *insert gif of lady thinking about mathematical equations* That's a great Michael line, though.

Nice break in the romance to let Pam observe Comedy Roasters without Jim as a very pleasant distraction and get a sense of how much she's starting to feel at home here, forming new attachments in her post-Roy life.

Glad you're not dead!

Author's Response: Thanks! I intentionally made it not actually make full sense because...Michael...

Very glad you're not dead. It would be much less filled world without your presence.

Always fun bringing in the Vance's. Kinda wonder if they'll invite Jim and Pam to have lunch with them then take in inordinate amount of time in the restroom. A little bit of a bummer that Jim's not there. But as part of this new Pam that's awoken she's also found some peace and happiness in her situation even without Jim. Jim makes things better for sure, but he's not 100% critical to her happiness. Signs of a very Fancy New Beesly indeed.

Though of course I'm sure now that Jim is there things will be looking up. Wonderful update as per usual.

Author's Response: Thank you! I like the Vances as another couple for Pam to think about in respect to her and Jim--as you'll see next chapter!

I really like Pam realising she’s found someone who likes the authentic version of her here, and the contrast with how she was with Roy. The false consciousness idea (thanks to her communist-inclined new boyfriend, lol) is such a neat way to bring this out - and I like her acknowledgement that it might have been slightly self-perpetuating. Which feels like it could have been true in canon too. Her spilling paint in her eye in the middle of all this excellent introspection is very funny.

And then the flirty texting with Jim was just great, as was Pam enjoying his typos in his speed to reply to her 😍 I’m greatly looking forward to him seeing her big walls….

Author's Response: I am glad you like that :) It'll be a bit until he actually gets there, but mostly because it's taking me longer than I thought to get chapters up...

Excellent introspection on Pam's part. New boyfriend, new outlook, new perspective on the past. Really liked that she has the insight to see that with Jim she is free and encouraged to really be her true self as opposed to what now feels almost like an act with whatshisname. The brief conversation between the two of them at the end was lots of fun and really cute too.

Author's Response: Thanks! I'm doing my best to keep the fluff going fluffy here while also giving Pam a nice mental makeover at the same time.

Congrats on working false consciousness into this. Jim's not only got a girlfriend, maybe he's also got a convert to the cause?

I am *really* curious if we're going to get any flashbacks to Pam/Roy in this story... it feels like you've got a specific idea of their dynamic here I'm really enjoying the glimpses of.

Those two kids are darn cute together as always...

Author's Response:

I do not think we're going to get much if any actual Pam/Roy flashbacks, because I don't want to muddy my fluff, but yes, I do have specific ideas and they are not nice.

So, instead, fluff! 

Awww. I greatly enjoyed the insight into Pam’s dating life with Roy (and the picture in her locker: ouch but also lol, that is very Roy). And then the Andy date, AND the even worse Facebook stalker date - which is hilarious, and something I’ve both experienced and is also my biggest fear when I do my own Facebook stalking. I love it. But Jim being totally fine about her mom calling, and her blurted ‘literally anytime’ is just adorable. And the kiss!! This was lovely.

Author's Response: Yeah...Pam's dating life is something I'm not going to fully flesh out because it's not the focus but I do think it's fun to come up with ways Pam would date outside of canon...