Well that was about what I expected. I can't wait for the next chapter! I have a feeling Jim will end up sleeping with Karen, but obviously that won't happen with Pam and Roy. Actually it can only go so far since Jim and Pam have a Kid together. Though Jim doesn't know... can't wait for more!

Author's Response: The story will follow some expected paths (Jim/Karen Pam/Roy), but not really. As you can see I got tons of twists and turns here. And yes They DO have a kids together that Jim doesn't know about it YET....[insert evil laugh). Thanks for reading and reviewing!

10

Okay first off, PLEASE don't throw yourself in front of a bus or anything else! You are much to nice and I would sincerely miss your story telling ability, not to mention not getting an ending to this one.

Okay, you say that the next chapter will get our hearts racing, is that in a good way? ::::said while looking at the computer with extremely hopeful eyes:::: I have to be honest, this chapter was another very well written chapter but honestly, it was agonizingly painful to read. I'm serious. Watching Pam get further sucked in with Roy and even having any thoughts that he could even begin to fill Jim's shoes... that WOULD make me want to cry if not for Duo number 2. I am like screaming at the computer, look away Jim, look away! Once again, for him to begin thinking that Karen could in ANY way begin to heal what is broken in him by what HE DID to Pam... it makes me upset and honestly, it makes me angry. So it's been three whole months since he absolutely crushed the woman who he claimed to love and want to marry. He was so down yet he gives himself permission to go ahead and start filling Pam's place I'm sure giving no real regard for what she could be going through. I mean, I'm just wondering, Jim's family has all this money and apparently has the resources to find people and find out about people, Jim's dad found him when he ran and hid and knew all about Pam and her being pregnant etc. Would it EVER occur to Jim that just maybe his family owes him a little something at this point and he could use those same resources to find the love of his life and find out that he's going to be a dad before Roy is firmly in place and playing daddy to his child. UGH!!!! Of course, I guess our Jim IS one that blows a person's world apart and then just covers with another person. At least on the show, I know different people seem to think a little differently about when Jim started seeing Karen etc. The theory that seems to be most widely used in fan fiction and the one I tend to believe is that Jim went out with Karen for the first time either the night he returned to work at the Scranton Branch OR sometime after he knew he was returning which would be very shortly before that. SO, at least there that Jim was decent enough to let his heart heal some and I think would have probably waited even more than the appoximately 6 months that he did had he not needed Karen to sheild him from Pam. It seems like in ThIS situation where he didn't have just one kiss that he's sure she responded to but a whole relationship that he KNOWS he screwed up badly, seems he would need more time. Of course, for the sake of the story Jim has to be like this so things can get all good and tanfled up. I just hope that as Pam takes these tentative steps toward Roy and Jim does toward Karen that as they experiment they each are able to come to the solid conclussion that what they had was that once in a lifetime, sould mate type of love and that they just don't have any real feelings towards these new people in their lives. They can't really because for one, the break up is still far too new. Pam has part of Jim with her that I just know it would be too painful for her to really share with Roy. Jim has the knowledge that he did this. He made her run from him AND, she's still out there somewhere. I mean, does it not occur to him that he's never really tried the one thing he CAN do to hopefully make the pain go away and that is look for her. In looking for her he would also show her just how much he cares. Also, it would become VERY obvious that though yes, she IS pregnant with his child, it very obviously had nothing to do with his family's money since she ran to get away from it rather than trying to get any of it. He could calm her fears about his family and the baby by being with her and them doing the parenting thing together. Oh my, this chapter just has me all messed up and I REALLY hope you are sending relief and sending it SOON because as far as getting the heart pumping, you did THAT in this chapter, just in a painful way!

Reflecting back to early in the chapter, it sounds like if Jim does find Pam some how, she just might be receotive to allowing him to explain about his upbringing and such. Something that will help make sense out of it all for Pam.

I need to make something clear, I am certainly not criticizing the way you are writing the story when I'm expressing outrage over Jim moving on or not looking for Pam. I kinda look at the story as something that is really happening and I am like mad at the people because there are people that would act in those ways. Does that make sense? I still feel like you are telling an absobrillfantasically awesome story that is just packed full of imagination. (BTW in case you can't tell, that word is potions of absolutely, brilliant and of course fantastically and awesome. Couldn't think of one word to sum it up well enough!)

The negative side, you have been pounding relentlessly on my grief bone and this chapter here? This one here threatened to absolutely shatter if once and for all. Can you just imagine me having to live the rest of my life with a shattered grief bone abd you would have no choice but to accept that it's ALL YOUR FAULT! Another chapter like this and I'm pretty certain it WILL shatter and you will have to live the rest of your life with the knowledge that YOU so cruely shattered my grief bone! Okay, this is just getting silly now. It was a seriously hard chapter for me to read BUT I did think your analogy about the torn apart paper was really good. I hope in thinking about that Jim will think that the only thing that would fit in the spot where the torn paper once was, is the part that was torn from it. You can rig something else in there but the paper will always be missing part of itself and the part you rig in there is never going to really even come vlose to fitting the right way. You have to ignore a lot.

Okay, another excellent job. Now PLEASE, I've been patient, haven't I??? I KNOW I have so PLEASE, give me something I can smile about! Throw us a bone here! (or the entire steaK WOULD BE NICE! :o) )

Author's Response: I don't see your reviews as critical in any way. They are actually a compliment to my writing - that someone is taking their time to analyze it and see it beyond the words I've typed up. You brought up a good point here - Why doesn't Jim use his dad's resources to find Pam. REALLY GOOD POINT. This is how I see it... Jim is trying to not be like his father. He doesn't want any part of his schemes. He didn't like it when it was done to him, so why would he do to someone else? Jim thinks that Pam doesn't want to be with him anymore - that she made her point loud and clear by leaving him. Although this pains him, he know he has to move on. Tracing her and finding her, to him, seems a little low - something his dad would do. So, he chooses not to do that. Also, I think I see Jim from the show a little differently here. I don't see him as trying to replace Pam or cover her place. I legitimately think that he believed that could move on from Pam. I don't think he saw Karen as a rebound until Pam was there, front and center, being that person he'd fell in love with. It's the same way here. Jim thinks that Karen can be the anti-Pam, if I may say. He want to stop the feelings that emerge every time he thinks of Pam. And, right now, for Jim Karen is that buffer that will keep him, for the time being, sane. And yes, things have to be like this so now just to tangle it all up! lol! Spoiler alert... Jim will find Pam. And I'm going to stick to the idea that time heals things and yes, Pam might be more open to listen to him and his story... but remember scars are forever! Thanks you so much for taking your time to review. It means a lot. Your reviews make me think about what I'm writing and how people are perceiving my ideas. Luvs Dee