I forgot to mention in my last review, there's a compilation video on YouTube..If you search "I want you and Always Will" Jim and Pam (It's by ERock X)...this video goes PERFECT with what Jim and Pam are going through in your story. The first time I watched it (Many moons ago) I cried, no joke lol. It is SO good. Everyone should check it out.

Author's Response: That was a GREAT edit! Thanks for reccing it and thanks so much for reading/ reviewing as always :)

Awww, man. I love this chapter a lot.

First off, you continue to do really well capturing the ensemble's voices. Michael is spot on here - his spit-take is just... very Michael, as is his insistence on details. And you can tell why he and Holly go together so well in this chapter, too.

Jim's talking himself into acceptance that they've missed their moment is thoroughly depressing, but also seems a little too real, that this romantic moment and this description of how love is supposed to be by this couple that really encountered no roadblocks might just make him feel like he missed the boat. And the awkwardness of these two people who have so much to say to each other unable to find anything to talk about is just brutal.

Jim's dialogue here is a very worthy successor to original canon, and I love how the teapot gift ends up playing out, the way Jim ends up proving to Pam with both word and deed that her fears are groundless. And I'm loving Kelly as shipper on board here!

Lines I loved:
-"Never. It was an out-of-body experience. It was like... walking your entire life, then suddenly realizing you can fly.” "What were her boobs like?"
-"Although with Michael, it was actual magic... when it was over, he pulled a quarter out of my ear.”

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Canon Pam was an idiot, additionally in a huge amount of denial. I think we have established that. :D

And that was a monumentally good chapter that I have illicitly read instead of paying attention to my School Governor training (good job my camera is off!)

How do you keep churning out this ridiculously brilliant writing?

Author's Response: Thank you so much! :))))

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No! I haven't been repeatedly clicking refreash obsesively waiting for this update. Really....Ok so maybe I was. Thanks for the quick updated. On with the review.

And there's the light starting to peak back into the world after some big grey rain clouds. I liked that the first people Jim and Pam talked to were Micheal and Holly. They both are there for Jim and Pam very much like how we seen in canon. Micheal feels a shade more refined though when he listens to Jim. How he's really trying to be a good friend. The friend who cares that his buddy is hurting. Nice choice. Till he askes about Pam's boobs and then there's the canon Micheal we know and love.

Likewise Holly is just there for Pam. To listen to her. Nice advice that she gives Pam. What if Jim was actually being serious? What if she was the one to misintrurt things?

Jim listening to the vows felt a little bittersweet. But more on the sweet side, but still a little bitter. I've got a feeling that those words were bouncing around in his head. So much so he decided to try one more hail Mary attempt. And it's the bloody brilliant Teapot!

Masterful use of the Teapot and it's sympbolism. Adding in bonus gifts from this story as just like in canon is of course the perfect Jim gesture to prove to Pam of the depth of his feelings for her. How she's always been that one woman to make it worth it for him. And finally the last glass around Pam's heart breaks and she realizes she can have it all with Jim. But now it's her turn to do something bold. Loved that Kelly was there to encourage her every step of the way.

Bravo! Can't wait to see where we go from here.

Author's Response: Thank you so much for your review, I won't give anything away but here's hoping things only go up from here...

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Ooooooof ANGST at its BEST. It's super clever (and BRUTAL) how Casino Night is tied through this chapter. Jim not deciding on it but just being unable to not tell her how he feels. Pam's inner struggle to face this change from their apparent comfort zone - I like how you kept Pam's fear of change and confrontation here albeit in very different ways from canon. Very clever writing!!! Can't wait to see how it goes from here.

Author's Response: Thanks so much! Better times ahead...

Ugh. This scene is BRUTAL. You really let us feel the fast descent of Jim's happiness and glow in the morning into horror at how quickly it all goes wrong. And his internal monologues really have STRONG WHMS vibes here: "He wanted to eat at their favorite restaurants together and not be afraid to hold her hand on the walk home. He wanted to watch their favorite show with her head against his chest; in the same bed, not across town. He wanted to hold her close and kiss her forehead as she fell asleep, to stock his fridge with her favorite mixed berry yogurts. He wanted to spend every day making her laugh and every night making her say his name the way she had last night." Like... that's perfectly Harry.

Ah. Jeez. Pam talking herself around this whole thing is just... I mean. Ow. Ow ow ow. I need ice for that burn. You can really see how her leftover damage from Roy interacts with months of her rationalizing away the strangeness in her relationship with Jim to create a perfect storm of self-destructive denial. Poor Pam. And poor Jim too.

Author's Response: I have to take the good parts from Harry and give them to Jim, because he deserves nothing less! 

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Ouch. This one hurt.

Great take on "Casino Morning", I guess you could call it!

Author's Response: Thanks and sorry! 😬

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I'm pretty sure my heart actually broke for Jim in this chapter. I understand why Pam felt the way she did but boy, to be on poor Jim's receiving end of it 😔
I absolutely pictured his face on Casino Night when he had tears in his eyes, too. You sure know how to write out the angst! By the way, I am SO so grateful for your quick updates as of lately. The other stories I follow only update every couple of weeks and it drives me nuts lol.

Author's Response: You’re very welcome! I try to update as quickly as possible because I know that feeling. The rest is very close to done so you won’t have to wait long. Thanks so much for your reviews!

Ok so going into this one I knew it was going to be rough. Their pasts come back to haunt them here. Jim in telling there that sex means different things to different people along with all the times he hasn't told her his real feelings. Pam with years of hollow I love you's and somewhat mixed signs from Jim.

What really stings is that finally Jim IS being open with his feelings about her. Telling her how he felt and why he's been so quiet about it all this time. She still asks him to leave. Sorry Pam, there's no "let just call this a mistake and go back to normal," after that.

Lots of Casino Night vibes here too. The single tear leaking out of Jim's eye. Her rejection after he tells her his true feelings. After a brief time curled up in what could be, the outside world seems to slam into them breaking the spell. Nice job in that regard.

Kinda makes me wonder what it will take for Pam to finally find her courage to accept what her heart and now Jim are telling her. That she can have what she dreams of with him.

Author's Response: You won’t have to wait long to find out…

What a strange sensation to be picturing Pam in my head but hearing Meg Ryan's intonation. What a perfect melding of the two in the first part of this chapter... and what a perfect melding of the other two in the second. You did a fantastic job describing the scene and really get a the feelings going through their minds.

Sometimes the lines that aren't from the show or even that don't even have bearing on the movement of the story are the ones that strike me...
this one was one such for me...
She could hear rain pattering on the window outside, its syncopated beat complementing their movements.

I love circularity in a story and this brought the rain from the beginning of the chapter full circle and was the perfect partner to the Obviously sex can mean something, but it doesn't always have to mean everything that you set up much earlier.

Oh and the end note - even if I didn't know WHMS - you know it isn't smooth sailing from here on in, not just yet.

Really well done.

Author's Response: Thanks Max! Again, I love that you're always picking up on those tiny details like the weather. And yes, no smooth sailing, unfortunately... appreciate your reviews as always!

Okay, Roy is the absolute worst here. I'm sure his behavior wasn't *actually* purposefully designed to make Pam spin out, but if it had been he could not have done a better job. (Actually, if he *had* done it on purpose he probably would have done a much worse job. Jerk.)

Jim realizing this is really about Pam's insecurities rather than about Roy and how this slides into them FINALLY hooking up is well executed. (Her being in the pajamas he got her is the cherry on the sundae.)

But the ending. Ooof. Oooof ooof oof. I am not emotionally prepared.

Lines I loved here:
“Thanks, but it’s more about the canvas than the artist.”

Author's Response: Dude, you rock. That is all.

Ooooof. Not going to lie, reading this at once, I feel a little bad for Katy. Not *too* bad, because, you know, I know what she's saying to Pam while this is happening. But Jim has handled this with a level of gracelessness that unintentionally crosses over into mean. Oh, well. She still looks like Amy Adams, I think she'll land on her feet.

The Valentine's Day call is a pretty sweet moment for them. They're just so good together. *sigh* And as usual, I'm loving what you're doing with Michael here. You did really well recasting some of his canon lines and making them fit with this story - his travails with Holly in canon really fit IHTBY Jim and Pam well!

LOVED this version of the baby fishmouth scene. Jim and Pam clearly showing they're on the same page, Jim's inability to draw, the soup snakes!

ALSO. THE FORESHADOWING IN THIS CHAPTER. EEEP.

Lines I loved here:
-“Is he a big guy? I will make an earnest attempt to kick his ass.”