She was sixteen and it was around the time of the spring dance. She had always been a hard worker in school, just like her mother. She was a pretty girl. Brown hair and brown eyes, just like her father. Although she was pretty, she never was asked to any sort of social gathering or even on a date for that matter. She shared her father’s facial features, but she had her mother’s shyness, so the two canceled each other out. She would often work alone when it came to class work or projects, and only ate with a few close friends at lunch. She didn’t dress up much; she wasn’t one for fashion, but she dressed nicely enough. Her name was Mary Halpert, the daughter of Jim and Pam Halpert.

They lived in New York City now. Jim was able to get a job at corporate, still working for Dunder Mifflin. It was a little odd, because he still had to visit the Scranton branch constantly for sales calls and things of that nature. Michael was still there, so he always made Jim’s visits… interesting. Jim was the main supplier of money for his family. Pam owned her own small gallery downtown, her second home. She had a few shows here and there, and made a lot of great friends in the art business, but only made so much money. It was okay for her, because she was an artist and a mother at the same time, and she loved it. She also held many classes there. She was an art teacher.

Sometimes, but not very often, Pam would go to other galleries in other cities or towns. She had a lot of friends from art school and they often asked her to come to the galleries. One weekend she had to go to California to visit her friend, Sarah, from art school. Sarah was opening a new photography gallery, and some other people from art school would be there. Pam would be leaving on Friday night; it was now Thursday night.

Pam took out her simple navy blue suitcase from the closet in her bedroom. It was a little late, around 8:30 PM. They had just finished dinner, and Peter and Mary had gone to do their homework. Jim was lying on the bed, his face to the ceiling.

Jim let out a deep sigh. “I’m going to miss you.”

Pam smiled, getting a t-shirt out of her closet. “I’m going to miss you too. But I’ll be back on Tuesday. Before you know it, I’ll be back.”

“But that’s four days,” Jim groaned.

“Jim, it’s only four days.”

Jim sat up slightly on the bed. “What am I supposed to do without you for four whole days?”

“Why don’t you do something with Peter and Mary?”

Jim raised an eyebrow. “Like what? Take them out to ice cream? They’re teenagers now, Pam. They have lives that usually don’t include hanging out with their dad.” Jim sat straight up in the bed and sighed again. “Can’t you at least come back on Sunday?”

“We already bought the plane tickets.”

“We can buy new ones.”

Pam put her last article of clothing in the bag. Then she walked over to Jim and put her hands on his shoulders and looked directly in his eyes.

“Four days. That’s it, four days. You won’t even notice that I’m gone. Maybe you can even work on cleaning the house?”

Jim gave Pam a look. “Pam, that’s not happening.”

Pam let out a small laugh. “It was worth a try.”

“Well, you failed.”

Pam smiled. “I know.” Then she kissed Jim gently on the lips. She removed her hands from Jim’s shoulders and walked back to her suitcase. She pulled on the zipper and tried to close it. It wouldn’t budge. She looked over to Jim who had a smirk on his face.

“Having some problem’s there?”

Pam gave Jim a pleading expression. “Jim, the bag hates me.”

Jim walked over to Pam and gave her a kiss on her forehead. “Then maybe we should get a new one.”

“But I like this bag!”

“Well, it hates you.”

Pam sighed. “Just help me close it.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Jim started tugging on the zipper of the bag. After a few tugs the zipper finally budged and went around the suitcase. Jim picked the bag up and put it next to the door. He looked over to Pam who was lying on the bed.

Jim smiled and laid on the bed next to her. “You are so weak, Pam.”

Pam’s eyes were closed. She smiled and rolled over so her head was lying on his chest. Jim’s arm instinctively wrapped around Pam’s shoulders.

“I am so tired.”

Jim started rubbing his hand up and down Pam’s arm. “Then you should get to sleep. It’s 10:00. You have a long flight tomorrow and I know that you don’t sleep well on planes.”

She let out a sigh. “Yeah.”

A few minutes later, Pam was fast asleep, still in Jim’s arms. Jim moved Pam gently, as not to wake her, then slipped out of bed. He tucked her in so that she was lying on top of a pillow and under the blankets. Jim kissed Pam’s forehead and turned out the lights. He walked out the room and closed the doors. He walked to the kitchen to get a drink of water.

Peter and Mary were sitting at the dining room table.

“So then it would be… negative four?”

“Yep, negative four.”

“Yay.”

Jim finished his water and walked to the dining room table. He leaned against the wall.

“How are you doing?”

Mary looked up at her father and smiled. “I think that I’ve got it down.”

Jim looked at Peter, and he smiled his confirmation. “She’s actually doing really well.”

Mary wasn’t so good in math, so Jim and Peter usually helped her study for tests or finish her homework. Tonight, Jim wanted to spend a little time with Pam before she went on her trip, so Peter was helping Mary out.

“You think you’re ready for the test tomorrow?” he asked, pulling up a chair and looking over Mary’s homework.

Mary nodded her head and yawned. “I think that I’m going to head to bed. Where’s mom?”

“She fell asleep. She was exhausted.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll see you guys in the morning. Thanks for helping Peter. Goodnight.”

Mary got up and got her notebook. She hugged Peter and kissed Jim on the cheek, and then went into her room.

Jim yawned, “I’m going to bed, Pete. It’s been a long day. You should probably get some sleep soon too.”

As Jim was about to leave the room, Peter called, “Wait. Dad?”

“Yeah?”

“I need to talk to you about something.”

Jim turned around and walked back to the table, then sat down where Mary was sitting before. “Sure.”

Peter looked down at his hands. “Well, it’s not really something that I wanted to tell you, but Mary asked me if I could ask you something.”

Jim was a little confused. “Why didn’t she just ask me herself?”

“She didn’t really uh, know how. She asked me to ask mom about it as well. Mom was okay with it, she was just kind of concerned about you. I know that you can be a little over protective of Mary sometimes.”

“I’m not that over protective.”

“Dad…”

“Okay, okay. Just ask me what you wanted to ask me.”

“Well you see… there’s this kid, Harry, and he asked Mary to the spring dance-”

Jim groaned, his head falling into his hands. “Oh no. Was it a joke? Did he do it to prank her?”

Peter gave his father a strange look. “Dad, no one does that anymore. Like, ever. Harry asked Mary, and she said yes. She wanted to know if that was okay with you.”

Jim froze for a moment, but he slowly got up and started walking towards his room. “I’ll talk to Mary about it tomorrow.”

Peter nodded. “He’s a good kid,” he said, before heading to his room as well.

Jim laid down in his bed that night, barely able to get any sleep, because one thought was running through his head, my baby girl is growing up.

“Jim, get up.”

Jim was finally able to get to sleep the night before, but only around 4:30 in the morning. It was now six o’clock, and Pam was shaking his shoulder. Jim groaned. She leaned down and kissed his forehead gently, then ripped the covers off of him. His eyes remained closed.

“Jim, c’mon. It’s six o’clock. You have work and I need to get going.”

Jim finally sat up and stretched his arms out. He let out a yawn and leaned against the headboard, trying to stay awake. Pam noticed the bags under his eyes.

“Hey, did you sleep okay?”

Jim was going to tell her he slept fine, but then he remembered what made him get so little sleep the night before. He looked up at Pam, wide-eyed. “Pam?”

“Yes Jim?”

His eyes suddenly turned sad. “Our baby girl is growing up.”

Pam gave Jim a small smile and sat down on the bed next to him.

“Peter told you?”

Jim nodded his head. Pam took in a big breath then said, “Jim, she’s growing up, and that’s okay… But you need to let go. And besides, it’s just one dance.” Pam laughed. “It’s not like she’s going to be walking down the aisle with the guy.”

“Pam, you were engaged to the guy you went to the dance with in high school.”

Jim wanted to take it back the second the words left his mouth. Pam simply pressed her lips together, forming a taut line.

“We never got married, Jim. And we’re not talking about that, we’re talking about our daughter.”

“Okay, I’m sorry.” Jim sighed. “It’s just that she’s only 16!”

“Jim…”

“No dating until age fifty. I thought that we made the rule pretty clear, like, two weeks after she was born.”

Pam looked back on the memory.

Jim was sitting on the couch, Mary asleep in his arms. Pam had just woken up from a nap, and when she didn’t see Mary in her crib, Pam had scurried outside. When she approached the entrance to the living room, she saw Jim. He was holding Mary, looking down at her lovingly. Pam smiled as she walked into the room and sat down next to Jim.

“Isn’t she beautiful?” Jim asked, completely intrigued with how his daughter was cooing and laughing.

“The boy’s are gonna go crazy when she gets older,” Pam joked, gently touching her daughter’s soft cheek.

Jim’s head snapped up, eyes wide. “She’s not allowed to date until she’s 50.”

Pam pulled back from the short flashback and gave Jim a sweet kiss on the cheek. “I don’t think that she can wait until 50.”

“Yes… she definitely can.”

“Let her be a teenager, Jim! Besides, Peter told me that the boy is really nice. And Mary only went to one dance with in her entire life, and that was with a group. Don’t be so overprotective.”

“But I…”

“Nope, I don’t want to hear it. Now get ready for work.”

Pam got up from the bed and headed to the kitchen. “I’ll make you some breakfast and coffee.”

And with that, Jim got out of bed and started getting ready for work. He showered, dressed and made the bed. After he was completely finished, he headed into the kitchen. Mary and Peter were sitting down the table already, eating pancakes. Pam was just putting some pancakes on Jim’s plate.

Jim sat down, thanked Pam and started eating. Pam sat down a few moments later and started eating as well. Breakfast was probably the most awkward ordeal that morning. Mary kept her eyes on her food. Peter was thinking about ways to lighten up the situation. Pam wasn’t sure what to do, and Jim tried not to think about the Mary-Harry situation.

After everyone was done with breakfast, they cleaned their dishes and got their things ready for work and school. Peter kissed Pam on the cheek and waved to Jim as he was heading out the door. Mary was about to follow Peter but Jim stopped her.

“Mary?”

Mary turned around. She was playing with the hem of her t-shirt nervously. “Yeah, dad?”

Jim looked down at his shoes. He was nervous as well, and didn’t really know what he was supposed to say. “Peter told me about how you have a date to the dance.”

Mary looked at her feet. She had a double-load of dorky awkwardness; some from her mom, some from her dad. “Yeah, he told me.” Mary took a short pause, “Are you, um, okay with it?”

“Well…” Jim hesitated. “I’ll have to meet this Harry kid first. And if he doesn’t have any gang tattoos or nose rings… then I guess it’s okay.”

Mary finally looked up and smiled. When the news finally sunk it, she threw her arms around her father. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!”

He squeezed her back tightly. He tried to untangle himself from her grasp, but she just wouldn’t let go. “Um, Mary,” he said, “you’re going to be late for school.”

“Oh, right! Thank you!”

With that, Mary ran out of the house to catch up with her brother.


Jim looked over to the clock: 11:36. His lunch break was in a few minutes, and he had an hour. He was already getting his things together impatiently. He was planning on getting a bite to eat with a few friends originally, but there was something that was bothering him, and he felt that he wouldn’t be able to make it through the rest of the day if he didn’t figure it out.

Steven and Matt, his two friends from work, were waiting by the door for him.

Jim walked up to them and said, “Sorry guys, but I just have some things I have to take care of at home. We’ll have lunch some other time, okay?”

“Yeah sure,” Steven agreed.

“See you later, man,” Matt added.

Jim quickly rushed out the door to his car. He fumbled with the keys for a few seconds. Finally, he was able to get into the car and get the car to start. He drove as fast as the New York speed limit would allow him back to his building.

Approximately nine minutes later, he pulled up to the building. He found a parking spot on the street and parked the car awkwardly. He ran into the building, barely looking back.

The doorman greeted him with a simple, “Hello, Jim.”

“CAN’T TALK NOW!” Jim called back, running for the elevator.

Jim slammed the elevator button. The slam didn’t hurt his hand, but it made a loud noise. Everyone in the lobby turned to look at him; he ignored them. Soon, the elevator came and Jim ran into it. He ran so fast that he almost knocked over an old lady carrying groceries.

“Sorry, Mrs. Higgenbaum!”

His neighbor gave Jim a questioning look and walked out of the elevator extremely slowly. As soon as she was out, the doors closed, and Jim pressed the button to take him to his floor. He pressed it a few times, hoping that it would go faster.

After a few more seconds the elevator stopped at his floor. He ran out of the elevator to his door. He took the keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door. He threw the keys somewhere in the house and let the door slam behind him.

He walked fast, not running because it wasn’t a huge apartment and he didn’t want to run into a wall. He walked into Mary’s room and immediately went to the bookshelf. After thoroughly searching the shelves, he found what he needed: Mary’s high school yearbook.

He quickly brought the book over to Mary’s desk, sitting down on her beat-up desk chair. He flipped through the pages quickly, smiling at his daughter’s yearbook photo. It distracted him slightly, but he soon shook himself out of it. He started searching the pages more thoroughly. He was looking for one name and one name only.

Harry.

Finally, he found one picture, labeled Harry Smit. The boy had geeky glasses and was also in the chess team picture. He looked sort of like a younger version of Dwight.

“Please don’t let this be the Harry she’s talking about.” Jim thought to himself.

A few pages down, he saw another caption that read a Harry Berminghams. He looked at the picture. There was a boy making out with a girl, leaning against a wall. Jim looked to the left of the picture. It was of the same boy making out with yet another girl. He looked below that picture. Another girl.

“Oh my God. What if my daughter’s dating a man-whore?” Jim thought to himself.

About ten minutes later he had found 11 Harry’s, and two Harry’s that changed their names to Frank and Jimmy respectively. None of these boys met his standards for his daughter.

Jim sighed and looked over to the clock; it was 12:40. His lunch break was now over and he was running late.

“Shit,” he mumbled to himself. He put the yearbook back in its place and headed back to his car. He spent the rest of the day distracted

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

CHAPTER THREE

Peter was waiting for the elevator, leaning against the wall nonchalantly even though he was totally anxious. Mary almost ran into Peter as she was leaving the house. She had just had her father-daughter talk with Jim, and Peter wanted to know what happened.

“So…what did he say?”

Mary smiled. “As long as he meets Harry he’s fine with it.”

“Awesome.”

The elevator arrived at their floor, and Mary and Peter walked into it. They got out on the first floor and went to the subway. After 35 minutes, they arrived at school.

“Bye, Mary!”

“Bye! See you at lunch?”

“Obviously.”

They parted ways and headed to their classes. Peter had science first period, and Mary had English. English was one of Mary’s favorite classes. She liked the material enough, but her fondness for the class was mostly because it was one of the classes she had with Harry.

When she walked into the room, the teacher wasn’t there yet, and Harry was already seated. Harry’s face lit up immediately when he saw her. Mary smiled back at Harry and sat next to him.

“Hi.”

“Hey.”

They both looked down for a moment; they were occasionally stuck in the awkward, oh-my-gosh-we’re-dating phase of their relationship. Harry was the first to break the silence.

“So, uh, what did your dad say?”

“He wants to meet you.”

“Should I be scared?”

“Not really,” Mary laughed. “Just don’t get any nose rings or anything like that.”

“You mean I can’t show your dad my awesome new tattoo?”

“A tattoo, huh?” Mary couldn’t help but smile playfully. “It might help if I knew what was on the tattoo… that way I could tell if it’d be okay with my dad.”

“Oh, it says Mary, and it’s in a heart of course.”

“Ah. And where exactly is this tattoo?” Mary’s eyes widened. “Oh my God, if it’s dirty, I swear-”

Harry laughed. “It’s on my back! I would show it to you, but I don’t think that the school would be very pleased with me taking off my shirt in English class.”

“Yeah, getting expelled won’t go over well with my dad, either.”

They laughed for a little while, and then Harry asked, “So when do I get to meet your dad?”

“I don’t know, he just said that he wanted to meet you.”

“So that I can show him my tattoo, right?”

Mary nudged Harry gently with her elbow. “Shut up.” Harry laughed, and nudged Mary back. Mary was about to nudge him again, but the teacher walked into the room to start the lesson. Instead of nudging, Harry grabbed Mary’s hand under the desk. After about 40 minutes, the class was over. Mary and Harry untangled their fingers and had to go to separate classes.

When they were outside of the classroom, they stood in front of each other awkwardly. Harry smiled sheepishly. “So, I guess I’ll see you at lunch?”

Mary smiled and nodded her head.

Harry quickly kissed her cheek, then gave an awkward wave and walked to class. Mary was smiling her entire way to math.


Jim was answering phones and making sales all day, but he couldn’t get this Harry kid out of his mind. Whenever he thought of the name Harry, he immediately pictured the man-whore, or the geek, or the guy with rings all over his body. If only he knew Harry’s last name, then he would have been able to find him in the yearbook. But what if Harry really was a geek, or a punk, or a man-whore?

At around 4:00, things started to settle down. Jim wasn’t getting that many calls and he had some time on his hands, so he decided to call his wife. Maybe she would make him feel better about the situation. He took out his cell and typed in her number. After four rings, she picked up.

“Jim? Everything okay?”

“Pam, our daughter is dating a man-whore.”

Jim heard Pam sigh on the other side. “Oh, Jim…”

“No Pam, listen to me. I was looking through the yearbook for Harry, and there was this kid with four girls! Four girls!”

“That probably wasn’t Mary’s Harry and you know it. She has better judgment than that.” Pam paused. “Besides, you can’t be sure that that was him. You don’t even know Harry’s last name.”

“Do you? It’d help me out. For Christ’s sake, I found 11 Harry’s.”

Jim was getting even more worried.

“Jim, calm down. You’ll meet Harry eventually. And I’m pretty sure we’ve taught our daughter to not date man-whores, okay? You need to calm down.” He heard her sigh again. “And you can’t look through her stuff, Jim! You need to trust her a little more.”

“I trust Mary, just not Harry. What if she doesn’t know that he’s a man-whore?”

“Peter knows Harry as well, and you know that nothing goes by Peter. Especially when it comes to Mary.”

“But Pam-”

“Nope, not listening. You are over-reacting.”

Jim sighed, knowing that he would never win this argument. “Fine. I guess I’ll talk to you later. I love you.”

“I love you too. Bye.”

They both hung up, and Jim tried his hardest to not think about the Harry-Mary situation.

Five o’clock couldn’t come soon enough for Jim. He wanted to go home and try to keep himself busy so that he wouldn’t worry so much. He wanted more than anything for Pam to be waiting for him at home though. He let out a sigh and collected his things. He said goodbye and goodnight to everyone that he needed to and walked out to his car.

He made the short drive back to his apartment and parked the car. Then he went to the elevator and to his house. He opened the door and could already hear Mary and Peter arguing.

He heard Mary’s voice first, “No, I want to make pasta for dinner.”

Then Peter said, “We should just order in Chinese.”

“No, we do that all the time.”

“We have pasta all the time.”

“No we don’t.”

Jim finally walked into their argument, “I’m home.”

They both turned to Jim and talked at the same time, “Tell Mary that we should have Chinese.” “Tell Peter that we should have pasta.”

“Why don’t we have soup?”

Mary and Peter just stared at him for a second. Then Mary said, “Soup?”

Jim nodded his head, “Yeah, soup and salad. Yum.”

Peter and Mary looked at each other and then shrugged.

“Soup is okay with me I guess…”

Jim smiled, he always knew how to settle these arguments, “It’s settled then. Get your shoes on and we’ll go to the soup place across the street.”

After a few minutes they were all in the soup place eating their soup quietly.

“So how was school?”

Mary smiled, “I think that I aced my math test!”

Jim smiled and kissed Mary’s forehead, “I knew that all of that studying would pay off. What about you Peter?”

“I have decided not to go to college.”

Jim’s eyes widened, “What?!”

Peter smiled, “ May and I have decided to run away to Las Vegas and get married.” May was Peter’s girlfriend.

Jim’s eyes widened even more. Mary was just in her seat trying to hold her laughter. Jim was too in shock to say anything. Then Peter and Mary started laughing uncontrollably.

Peter said, “Dad, I’m just kidding. Nothing interesting happened in school today.”

“You’re sure that you’re kidding?”

Peter nodded his head, “Yep.”

“Good, because your mother would have killed you.”

Peter smiled, “I know. And by the way, I’m out tomorrow for dinner. May and I have plans to see a movie and have dinner.”

Jim nodded his head, “As long as you too aren’t running off to get married.”

“Don’t worry.”

Then Jim turned to Mary, “And you don’t have any plans?”

Mary shook her head, “Nope. I decided to spend some time with my father.”

Peter laughed, “Harry is visiting his relatives this weekend and everyone else is busy.”

“Shut up Peter.”

“Hey, I was just saying.”

They finished up their dinner and headed back home. They put a movie in the DVD player and made popcorn. Then they sat down and started watching the movie. Half way into the movie Mary fell asleep. Once the movie was over Jim was still wide awake and Peter was tired, but not asleep.

Jim was a little tired, but he knew that he was never really able to fall asleep with Pam gone. Peter yawned and then got up. He picked Mary up and then turned to Jim, “I’ll take her to bed, goodnight dad.”

“Night Pete.”

Peter carried Mary to bed and then made his way to his own room. Jim turned on the TV and tried to keep his mind off of everything that was happening. About two hours later he was finally starting to get more tired. He made his way to bed. It took him a while, but eventually sleep overtook him.


Jim woke up in the morning, he looked at the clock, 11:42. YIKES! He slept in late, well he didn’t get to sleep the night before. Slowly Jim crawled out of bed and headed to the kitchen for breakfast.

Mary was in the living room reading a book and sipping on a cup of warm tea. Peter was in the kitchen trying to make waffles.

Mary, still reading her book said, “Keep trying Pete.”

“It’s harder then it looks.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Yes it…”

Then Jim cut in, “At least you’re trying.”

Peter said, “Thank you very much. You are supportive of me, unlike someone I know.” He was looking directly at Mary.

Then Mary said, “What idiot can’t make waffles?”

“Well you know what…just for that you don’t get any.”

“I don’t want any of your waffles anyways, I already made myself some eggs.”

“Well then. I’m sure that dad will like some waffles.”

Jim paused for a second, he’d eating Peter’s cooking before, “Um, I think that I’ll just um make myself some coffee.”

Mary started laughing and Peter just stared at his father then said, “I thought that you were supposed to be supportive of me?”

“I am supportive of you. Good job son.” He patted his son on the back and then went over to the coffee maker.

Peter mumbled to himself, “May would like my waffles.”

Mary laughed and then said, “If they don’t kill her first.”

A few minutes later, the phone rang. Mary sprang up, “I’ll get it!”

She hopped over the couch and over to the phone. After three rings she answered it.

“Hello?”

“Hi, is Mary there? It’s Harry.”

“Hey!”

Mary looked over her shoulder. Peter was still trying to make waffles and Jim was looking straight at Mary. Mary picked up the phone and walked into her room. Once she was in the room she closed the door.

“Where are you right now?” Said Mary.

“Our trip to my grandparents was cancelled. They live in Alaska, so there was this insane snow storm. So our trip was cancelled.”

“Oh, sorry to hear that.”

“It’s okay. But I was wondering…um,” Harry took a pause on the other line. They had been together for over a week and he still got nervous whenever he asked her out. “I was wondering what were you doing today?”

Mary started smiling like an insane idiot, “Um, I wasn’t really doing anything today.”

“Wanna um hang out?”

Mary smiled even wider, if it was even possible. “Um sure!”

“I was thinking dinner and a movie?”

Mary laughed, “Okay.”

Then Harry said, “So I’ll pick you up around six then?”

“Um, okay, six it is.”

With that they said their goodbyes and hung up the phone.