Very nice. It was easy to picture the Christmas lights and the movie going on.

Aww so sweet! I am dead from all of this fluffiness!

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Oh Pam! Jim is in love with you!

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Roy... A douche, as always. They should have stayed broken up, lol. But then Pam might not have started at Dundee Mifflin... So never mind then.

That's awkward and embarrassing. Oh, Kameron... hope he does better with the next gal!

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This is so adorable!

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Oh, DJC. This was truly something special.

Bits I loved:

*It’s not really the point, but she kinda loves that he’s defending the little things in their little world.*

*She tries to keep her face impassive, no reaction, no signal that “yup, ya got me!” The problem is, the world’s gotten very familiar with what she looks like trying not to react to things.*

I was called out here: People were using her husband’s face to reply to tweets

I really love the way this unfolded, trying to nail down the timeframe in space. You created a realistic portrayal of how their world would have been while their relationship was still in a very volatile state.

*They’re trying to make a point of talking to each other about the important stuff, even when it’s hard. They know they both screwed up, they both failed to communicate, they both put their life together at risk. (Sometimes she feels like they’ve almost switched sides, gone from only blaming each other to mostly blaming themselves.)*

This feels so, so real. It's stuff like this that makes me appreciate the S9 arc more than ever before.

*There had been times it seemed to her their story and their memories were what was keeping them going. Because the guy in the expensive suit walking away from her wasn’t always someone she wanted to beg to stay. But the guy who knew her favorite flavor of yogurt and got her Dundie changed? The guy who watched “fireworks” with her on the roof? The guy who gave up a great job for a yogurt lid and a note and proposed to her at a gas station in the rain because he just couldn’t wait anymore and held her like the most precious thing in the world when she found out she was pregnant? The guy who bought her that teapot? The guy she knew would always look for her even when everyone else made her feel invisible? She wasn’t going to let him go without a fight.*

STOP, MY HEART

*There’s pre-prepped ham and cheese and tuna sandwiches in plastic triangle boxes, a Diet Coke and a grape Fanta. Behind them, a framed copy of a receipt for those same items from a rest stop gas station in New Jersey. Total: $0.00, and “congratulations you two!” in pen below it.*

This one was my favorite of all the little keepsakes. I gasped.

*There’s a single daisy labeled 2005. In a world where her fiancĂ©e doesn’t get a good deal on waverunners, this would be her wedding day. Instead she’s lying in a field of flowers with her best friend, desperately afraid he’s about to kiss her and desperately afraid he won’t.*

Please tell me you write a fic about this moment and if you didn't, I'm officially begging you to.

*She feels reassured and cherished and loved and seen, in this space that’s just his and hers.

And she thinks to herself, I have a lot to make up for, too.*

Bravo, my friend. This all feels very authentic and it's officially gone into my headcanon. Well done!

Author's Response: I'm really glad you liked this one - I feel like there's a lot to say about this period in their history, feels like a very rich area, and somewhere I really enjoyed digging into.

It really is fascinating to place the documentary running right after AARM, right? Like, that's such a specific, challenging time for them to revisit their early days, doing so while they're trying to heal from a new challenge.

Ah, yes. Early seasons Jim made a lot of deposits I think Season 9 Jim was counting on to pay the bills, if you know what I mean.

I just love imagining the clerk at that gas station, watching these two nutjobs pull off the highway in separate cars and then get engaged.

There IS in fact a story behind Pam and Jim in the daisy field in the summer of 2005. Maybe it'll get finished one day.

I'm glad this worked for you, and thank you so much for taking the time to read and review!

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I think this moment at the beginning is a good explanation of the depth of their miscommunication at this point... Jim can't conceive of Pam believing what she obviously believes about the call, because he just has no idea what him leaving has done to her.

It's nice to see Jim being decisive and aggressive here. He's not letting this slip out of his hands, he's calling, he's texting, he's searching for her car, he's stealing her personnel file... he's got his opening, and he's determined not to let it go.

And this is a nice place to round this one off with them happy at last! Shame about Benihana though.... maybe her and Karen can still bond? Just with the fraught secret this time being that Pam is already dating Karen's ex-boyfriend?

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First of all, I am... genuinely sorry about these prompts. I did not anticipate how high a degree of difficulty I was creating.

Second of all, the way you used them was amazing - not just references and details, but a lot of genuinely important developments. I bow to you. And also the non-genuinely important plot point uses were great too (Michael will LOVE that polar bear!)

Third of all, have you seen this YouTube video? https://youtu.be/z2bxgK6SEFM

Fourth, you used the non-Jim and Pam characters in really cool ways here. Michael inciting this all with a perfectly canonical Michael obsession (and not being able to keep track of her relationship status). Using the knowledge that Pam's parents live two hours away to let us know that Pam's mom's lack of confrontation is going to cost her. Meredith setting her on edge about her relationship. (Also, Roy being a "the girlfriend is not allowed to drive The Truck" guy is so... 100% who he is. Ugh. He's the worst. I hope Pam doesn't marry him.)

Fifth, I really liked the glimpse into pre-series Jim and Pam, a Jim and Pam who aren't quite yet the besties they are when the doc crew arrives and are still forming some of these patterns and boundaries and grey areas, and how they feel about it. Pam's mix of excitement and hesitance about spending that time with Jim feels just right, as does her brushing aware the warning signs and how being with Jim just feels fundamentally *good*. (The universe is talking to you, Pam, please listen to it! I feel like a lot of this really effectively echoed the episodes - a little bit of Michael's Birthday, a little of the happy early parts of Casino Night) I like the little notes of their closeness, how Jim clearly doesn't need the reminder that her parents were fighting, their "Emergency Preparedness meetings" (also a new tradition, I suppose.) It's one of those things that's clearly a "moment" for them that's part of their internal mythology just like, say, the dinner in The Client that we by necessity don't see, something that would go in whatever Pam's version of The Teapot, and I love filling that out more.

Sixth, the very deliberate call-forward to Phyllis' Wedding. Like. What gives you the right to make that already devastating moment 6 more devastating. Seriously, that's brilliant but also cruel.

Seventh, again, I really liked this use of Jewish Jim and how the driedel ends up being a symbol.

Anyhow. Kudos. You are brilliant and I am unworthy of this magnificent gift you have given me.

Eighth - did you specifically make reference to everything I said in the note about my preferred theme?????

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“going steady” oop
“bar hopping” BT. The wit. I can’t deal with how good this is.
Oof. That Meredith comparison. Amazing. It’s like a neon sign blinking brightly at Pam.

Jim letting Pam start his car in such stark comparison to Roy not letting her drive his. Be still my beating heart.

“Emergency Preparedness Meeting,” I love this! I would gladly take a series of fic-lets of these moments...

This was beautiful & sweet & festive & I’m so glad you were subbed in & we got this.
Could you update 3 or so stories everyday? Please & thank you.

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“Aren’t you guys, like, going steady or something?”

I'm reading this right after reading evermore. This line makes up for you breaking my heart.

But also. This entire story is so sweet. All of her new feelings of butterflies and doubts and the intimacy of someone who really cares about coming to a collision. The dreidel at the end? LADY. She's in loooooove.

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Jim's half Jewish - I love it. Want to see his Bar Mitzvah now. Lots of good foreshadowing in this story - like in her talk with Meredith and the parents moving and in her early connection to Jim. But maybe Pam needs to listen to her inner voice and take a little of her own advice. It's interesting that the next time we see these 2 go shopping is when they hoist Michael up on a chair like they do at Bar Mitzvahs. Coincidence? Very sweet she buys the dreidel for him. Really enjoyed this -now on to the next story- you were a busy beaver (It says Bushy Beaver).  😃

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Ah, thank goodness they managed to force it out, those crazy kids. I liked the use of Dwight's menstruation schedule here, and Jim catching her wearing his shirt!

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This was lovely! Nice touch of having Pam's stpry with art runking parallel to it.
I'm curious, though. Where are you from?
Thanks for writing!

Author's Response: Thank you for reading and reviewing :) 
I'm from Ukraine.