This is a fun chapter with a rollercoaster of emotions to drive us mad (in a good way). At first, I wanted to scream "Where's Michael!" You built up the tension well.

"She’d been given a rewind button, a chance to hear the song that she hadn’t the first time, but because her own playlist was stuck on repeat, she missed it again." LOVE this and for obvious reasons

"Once more history gave her foresight" - clever!

I was so hoping she would overhear Jim's conversation with Michael but you were right, oh my God how frustrating! So great. :)

Author's Response:

Thought you'd like that note... told you those lines spoke to me in a different way.

As much as writing time travel is tricky, it does allow for some cleverness when describing the passage of time or events that have simultaneously happened and are yet to be. Hoping I don't overdo it. Hoping you will let me know if I do.

Glad you felt this was a good balance. Leave something for her to imagine and interpret and we know how she can always find a way to tell herself something other than what is clearly the story. 

Always so happy to get your reviews so thank you as always.

"It reminded her of the cockpit of an airplane, which she’d seen up close as child, back when it was a regular practice to visit the pilots in flight and be given a pin of metal wings." *sigh* I'm nostalgic for those days. No wonder Gen Z is angry all the time. It's a cute - and effective - metaphor for Pam losing her sense that the future is wide open as she grows up.

Oooof. Pam always has to learn her lessons the hard way, doesn't she? Her fear here yet again holds her back from getting what she really wanted. And you did well letting us feel her frustration - if she's not getting to see hre re-engagement, what the heck is all this FOR? (Patience, Pam - the purpose of the evening is coming if you're willing to see it.)

I kind of love having Ryan spotting the two Michaels - he's definitely not open-minded enough to believe in something magical or curious enough to investigate, and also it's more or less his worst nightmare.

Lovely grace note with Michael's humanity - and well placed, too. He really is a kind soul, buried well underneath at all and when his ego is no longer at risk. Just because he can't ADMIT it's his fault and that people got hurt, doesn't mean he doesn't know it is and want to change it. And as always, Pam being able to work with the childlike elements of Michael is sweet. I bet she makes Cece and Phil pink swear all the time.

Props to working in the reference to Jenna's Star Wars skepticism - and of course this is one of those rare things Dwight and Jim totally agree on. (They definitely have secretly watched AT LEAST one piece of geek culture together. Firefly maybe?)

Okay, GAME-CHANGER. So Pam is going to get the answers here she was denied at the end of The Secret, hearing at least some of it from the horse's mouth... and getting time to consider what it all means before having to respond. Very much looking forward to how all this plays out, and seeing the road forward in this story a little more clearly: much like the time-turner, they're going to keep having adventures right up until the moment they rejoin the present day!

P.S. I *may* have missed my shout-out but I'm gonna keep reading for it.

Author's Response:

Hey- it was just a shout out in the sense I wanted to acknowledge your support for this story and the help with weighing in on the lines - I don't think I slipped anything into the story. I'll try to in a future chapter if I can find a way that's organic. But I do appreciate your excitement for this story so wanted to let you know.

Pam's romantic problems are not all her problems, when we meet her in season 1 and get to know her more in season 2 she seems a little broken like she's lost her way - I wanted to bring that out too, in a subtle way. Remind the reader and her too - and you know I like my symbolism and circularity. Glad you are noticing these mentions.

Still not sure exactly how time travel works and i'm still making it up as I go along -taking all my movie references into account- but I'm having fun with all the ways having a second set of M and P affect the original timeline and well as the other way around, case in point, this one with Ryan.

To me Michael never means to be awful and with his childlike behavior has trouble taking blame ( I believe he was internally devastated in Scott's Tots) but something about Pam allows him to peel away some of that armor and get out what he truly feels. and Pam knows exactly how to deal with her first child even if he was not her *firstborn*. #MammaPam

Star Wars bit was more about getting in the lines about understanding the past/future with the knowledge of the other - but had secondary to it was the whole JF & Star Wars idea and the idea that Dwight and Jim also have a bond even if they too can't admit it.

I would have liked to have her come to her senses right there - but where would be the fun in that - and what would we do for two more weeks (and 16 or so more chapters?) 

As always  - big Thank you! 

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Ooh, interesting. So she knows for sure the "crush" is current. I do like that she has not actually heard the L word from his mouth, so she can still pretend this isn't as big a deal as it is. Still, I'm eager to see what she does with this information. Clever the way you had the wind cover up some of the more pertinent bits of that conversation.

*She wondered however, if they still gave out those wings? How she loved hers as a child. Not because she was so interested in aviation, but because the shiny memento somehow gave her a lift and the sense her future was wide open like the skies the planes soared through to get from one destination to the next.*

I love your idea of correlating these wings to something Pam wants that she could not go after out of fear.

Ryan seeing duplicate Michael made me laugh… he’s the perfect choice to see it and then immediately disregard it.

I like that you had Pam not liking Star Wars… perhaps because of Jenna? Haha. (Blasphemous to the both of them!)

*At the same time, she couldn’t help being washed over by a wave of disappointment, the same one she felt when in the same instance she both learned of Jim’s previous infatuation with her and that it had long since passed. That any romantic feelings he had for her were a momentary tick on the timeline of their relationship, a flash of heat that cooled before it could flourish beyond a friendship, because she was involved with someone else and Jim was not the kind of guy to pursue someone else’s girlfriend, much less fiancĂ©e.*

I really like this summation of what she must have been feeling when she first learned of his "crush." Really on point.

Another great chapter!

Author's Response:

Thanks TD - always excited to see what stood out for you ...

Yeah, hearing it this way while a little more impactful that when she heard it in the secret is nonetheless not quite hearing him say I'm in love with you and seeing him tear up - and yet even there, even after that kiss she still decides to stay with Roy so not so far-fetched that she would do the same here.

Ahh, but what she didn't have then was time - since he took right off for Stamford -and this story is all about time. 

I am hugely into symbolism - there was so much sprinkled in this chapter - you picked up on a lot of it - the wings. I guess your story was an influence here - with its focuses on 9/11.

The Star Wars (more about the lines about better understanding of future /past with knowledge of the other than Jenna connection but I will admit it was that as well.

She definitely was a little sad in the Secret when she found out - my take at least.

Thanks so much for your review on this one. So glad you are along for the trip.