Pam 6.0 by DoomGoose
Summary: Set during S01E06 - Hot Girl. Pam has had enough of the little comments around the office, and reaches a tipping point.
Categories: Jim and Pam, Past, Alternate Universe Characters: Ensemble, Jim/Pam, Roy
Genres: Drama, Fluff, Workdays
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: Pam 6.0
Chapters: 18 Completed: Yes Word count: 37058 Read: 37082 Published: April 19, 2020 Updated: May 08, 2020
Story Notes:
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.

1. The Tipping Point by DoomGoose

2. Fog of War by DoomGoose

3. The Last Mile by DoomGoose

4. The Homefront by DoomGoose

5. Scar Tissue by DoomGoose

6. Home Is Where the Heart Is by DoomGoose

7. Coming Home by DoomGoose

8. Moving Forward by DoomGoose

9. Dog Date by DoomGoose

10. Happy Hour by DoomGoose

11. We All Deserve Raises by DoomGoose

12. Confusion and Regrets by DoomGoose

13. Anti-Hump-Day by DoomGoose

14. Movie Night by DoomGoose

15. Moving Up by DoomGoose

16. The Dundies by DoomGoose

17. Crescendo by DoomGoose

18. Release by DoomGoose

The Tipping Point by DoomGoose
Author's Notes:
This is my first time writing any sort of drama, so constructive feedback would be much appreciated! 

Pam hadn’t been having the best day up until this point, but by the time she was able to sit down for lunch things were looking up. She got to sit between her fiance and her best friend. The kitchen was her happy place right now. Or, it was her happy place, until Roy burst that warm little bubble of blissful companionship and brought up Katy to Jim. Jim agreed that Katy was cute, and objectively speaking, Pam thought to herself, she could admit that. However, when Roy took it a step further and asked why Jim wasn’t “On that”, she started to feel uncomfortable. Of course, Jim seemed to sense this and said that Katy wasn’t his type. Pam was relieved to hear this, although she couldn’t quite place why.

Instead of just letting it drop like Pam had hoped they would, Kevin chimed in from the fridge, asking Jim what his type was, obviously implying there was something wrong with him if he didn’t want to pursue Katy. After the comments that Kevin had made to her earlier this morning, Pam was starting to get annoyed with the direction this conversation was headed. Before she could find a way to change tracks, Jim beat her to the punch. He looked her in the eyes before answering, which seemed odd to Pam but then she heard his answer. Moms. He seemed to be letting her in on the joke and she loved that about him, he always let her in on the joke. Pam couldn’t help but look down and smile as Jim explained all the different types of moms that he supposedly liked, ending with the ridiculous “Nascar moms”.

Of course, the Purse Girl had to walk through the kitchen at that very moment, Pam observed exasperatedly. Pam heard Roy make a sound of appreciation to her left and turned to see him ogling Katy’s backside as she strode past. What struck Pam at that moment, was that her best friend seemed almost entirely unaffected by Katy, while her fiance could hardly contain himself, it disgusted her. To make matters worse, the cameras and Jim had been right there the whole time, so it’s not like Pam could make a big fuss.

Roy’s comment to Jim about being “All over that” if he wasn’t dating Pam was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Pam tried to reign herself in, but still heard herself saying “We’re not dating, we’re engaged,” while fixing Roy with a warning glare.

“Uh, engaged, yeah,” Roy proceeded to brush it off like it was no big deal, misspeaking dating for engaged.

To Pam it felt like he was saying that there was no difference. Three years of engagement, with no end in sight, because to him, it was just like dating... except there weren’t any dates anymore. He spent money on wave runners, because, who needs to save for a wedding that’s never going to happen anyway, right? Pam felt humiliated that Jim and the cameras were witnessing this. Then, she felt anger.

Pam stood abruptly, took a breath and said, “You know what? We were engaged. I don’t want you to feel like I’m holding you back, go for it.” Pam proceeded to drop her fork into her salad, twist her ring off, drop it in the lid of her takeout container, and storm out of the kitchen before anyone could say a word to convince her otherwise.

 

End Notes:

There are a few different directions I feel I could go with this, so we'll see how quickly I can decide and move on to actually writing the next chapter.

Thanks everyone who was in the chat the other week who encouraged me to follow through with this idea. 

Fog of War by DoomGoose
Author's Notes:
Well, here we go! Let's see where the skeins lead us next.

Jim was in shock, but Roy recovered quick enough to shout after Pam.

“Pammy you dropped your -,” was all that Roy got out before the door leading to the bullpen slammed shut.

“… ring,” Roy finished lamely, turning to look at Jim with his mouth hanging open.

“Did you just see that,” Roy asked Jim disbelievingly.

“Yikes,” Jim said with a grimace and a nod. That had been the scariest and most awesome thing Jim had ever seen. Jim had never seen Pam that angry before, with the steely gaze and cold tone.

Roy nodded along with Jim, seeming not to notice, “I think she’s just upset that I said the purse girl was hot.”

Jim couldn’t help but look at him incredulously and say, “It sure looked that way, what with the ring removal and the hasty exit,” with sarcasm. How Roy didn’t see what was right in front of him amazed Jim.

Roy glanced at the clock on the wall, and Jim followed his gaze. The clock read 12:30, their lunch break was over.

“Crap,” Roy said as he started hastily collecting his things, “I have to get back down to the warehouse. Halpert, can you do me a solid?”, Jim nodded, not sure where this was going, “Can you tell Pam that I think she’s the prettiest and we’ll talk after work?” Roy asked as he started to get up to leave.

“Thanks, Halpert,” Roy shot off as he rushed out the door to get back down to the warehouse.

Jim could only sit there and shake his head, glancing at the camera operator who looked like they had just won the lottery as they had caught that entire train wreck on tape. The documentary crew hustled Jim towards the conference room, and Jim took a glance towards reception only to see that Pam was not there. Once the crew got Jim into the conference room, they closed the door and quickly shifted the table so that they could get him “framed up” as they called it.

“So,” the documentary produced started, “in your own words, could you describe what just happened for the camera.”

Jim let out a sigh and addressed the camera, “Well, as you probably just saw, Roy said that they were dating, Pam disagreed, and then she just… left,” he said and waited for the inevitable follow up.

“Could you give us some insight into why Pam may have been so upset by this, for the camera?”

“Well if I had to guess I would say that she was upset because dating… doesn’t have a wedding in the near future. Although, to be fair, a three-year engagement doesn’t really have an end in sight either.”

“How do you feel about that?”

Jim struggled to find a diplomatic response that wouldn’t put his hand face up, “Well, Pam is my best friend, so at the end of the day I feel bad that she’s probably feeling pretty bad right now.”

“Do you think Pam and Roy will patch things up?”

“I don’t know.”

With that terrifying idea in looming over his head, the crew released him from the conference room as the purse girl was waiting outside the door impatiently. He gave Katy a sheepish look and a sorry on his way by. Jim looked at the reception counter and it was still empty, glancing behind him, he noted that the camera crew was still tearing down the interview setup. Jim took the opportunity and slipped out of the office to go find Pam without cameras following him.

Jim finds her in the stairwell, sitting on the landing with her head in her hands. As he moves into the stairwell half a floor above where she’s sitting and the door closes behind him, her head raises at the sound.

“Jim?” Pam asks, squinting at him.

“Beesly?” he replies, quirking an eyebrow at her. Jim notices her shoulders relax, and he starts descending to her level.

“My contacts fell out,” Pam offers by way of explanation as Jim lowers himself to the landing beside her, “and the pattern on these floors makes me go cross-eyed, so I’ve been trapped here since,” she finishes, with an attempt at a smile that ends up looking more like a grimace to Jim.

“Ah, so the truth comes out, you’re just using me for my extraordinary vision abilities,” Jim says as he lightly bumps shoulders with Pam.

“Yeah…” Pam says with a small smile, but then trails off and goes back to looking down and frowning.

After a few long moments of silence, Jim decides to see if he can kill the elephant in the room.

“So… Roy said to tell you that you’re the prettiest and he will talk to you after work.”

Pam whips her head back to Jim, “Seriously,” she asks, incredulous.

“His exact words,” Jim nods solemnly.

Pam puts her head back in her hands and after a muffled scream turns back to Jim.

“He can’t set a date, he can’t break up, my life is eternal purgatory, lord take me now,” she says exasperatedly and finishes with a sigh.

“Do you… want to talk about it?” Jim ventures.

“I don’t get Roy,” Pam says, speeding up, “I mean really, I break up with him and he sends my best friend to tell me that I am, quote the prettiest, unquote. Seriously, where does he get off? We’ve been engaged for three years and he can’t commit to a date, what does he think is the outcome here?” Pam rants. As Pam pauses to take a breath for her next tirade, they both hear the door open up the stairs, and Jim sees the glint of a camera lens.

“Uh, do you want a hand getting back to the office?” Jim quickly offers, standing up and offering Pam his hand.

Pam takes a calming breath, “I’m blind, not invalid,” she says, accepting the hand up and linking her arm around his elbow anyway.

“Excuse me for worrying that you’d get lost and end answering the phones at Vance Refrigeration, just looking out for you Beesly,” Jim said, trying to brush off how giddy he felt at having her trusting and relying on him.

Pam socked him in the shoulder with her free arm as they climbed the stairs.

“Ouch!” Jim exclaimed, “I could still leave you down here Beesly, is this how you treat your seeing eye dog on the weekends?”

“Well, no,” Pam said with a giggle to Jim’s relief, “he’s much cuter than you,” causing Jim to mock pout at Pam, “… although I guess you smell nicer, and you don’t leave a mess.”

“Are you sure we’re still talking about dogs here Beesly,” Jim joked as they approached the office.

“Jim,” Pam said with a warning look, unlinking their arms as they entered the office. Jim raised his hands in surrender, and this seemed to placate her.

Jim leaned against the reception counter and watched as Pam rifled around in her purse, eventually producing a glasses case. Pam put the glasses on, and Jim stole some jellybeans before tapping on her desktop.

“It seems my services are no longer required,” he said with a nod to her and a smirk.

Pam looked up with a small smile of her own, “Four out of ten seeing eye dog, barked too much enroute to destination,” she said, and then lowered her voice a little as her eyes softened, “ten out of ten best friend, thanks Jim.”

“Anytime, Beesly, I mean it,” Jim said, leaving to go sit down at his desk. As he sat down the smile that Pam sent him warmed his heart.

“You have overstayed your lunch break by twenty-five minutes Jim,” declared Dwight, “I will ensure that this is docked from your pay,” he finished with a glare.

Jim sighed; it wasn’t even one o’ clock yet. The day was hardly halfway done.

End Notes:
Thank you all for your encouragement and feedback in the reviews of last chapter, I really appreciate the time and thought you put into them.
The Last Mile by DoomGoose
Author's Notes:
Starting to move things forward in a more definitive direction now. Hope you folks like where things are headed.

Today was officially the worst day of Pam’s life and it was barely past noon. First her fiancé- ex-fiancé Pam corrects herself mentally – forgets that they are engaged, so Pam breaks up with him and goes to cry about it, only to find out from her best friend that Roy thinks it was all a misunderstanding and thinks that they can just kiss and make up after work. Now she has to get through the rest of the workday, work up the strength to break up with Roy a second time and figure out how to disentangle from a ten-year relationship. Oh yeah, and they live together, so it’s not like going home is going to be a respite either.

The rest of the office seemed to know that something was up. Phyllis kept sneaking looks at her, and Angela’s head was rising from behind the divider to glare at her more frequently. How Kelly hasn’t caught wind and come up to bombard Pam yet she didn’t know, but she wasn’t going to question it.

Pam put her head down on her desk to rest her eyes for a few seconds, as her glasses were giving her a headache. When Pam looked up again, Creed was leaning against her desk and looking down on her.

“Hey sweet cheeks, heard that Jim guy dumped you,” Pam shot a look of bewilderment at Jim, who leaned back to look at her around Creed as he said this, “that’s a real shame, but if you’re looking for a rebound, you can bounce off me anytime,” Creed finished with a creepy wink, and ambled off to his desk.

All Pam could do was shake her head, it should surprise her that Creed at least named someone in the office, but at this point she just didn’t care. Jim shot her a look with raised eyebrows, but before he could come up to her desk to rag on Creed, her phone rang, the caller ID showing Michael’s extension.

“Yes,” Pam asked after she had picked up the receiver.

“Pam, could you come to my office,” Michael asked from the other end, “I have need of your female-ness.”

“Uh, ok, be there in a second,” Pam said and hung up.

On her way over to Michael’s office Pam wandered over to Jim’s desk, and he looked up at her from the spreadsheet that he had been staring at for the last ten minutes with a quirked brow.

“He said he needed my female-ness,” Pam explained with a stage whisper, “should I be worried?”

“Well… he could be asking anything from which wallpaper you like best to the birds and the bees” Jim replied with a grin.

“Wish me luck,” Pam said and took an exaggerated deep break, preparing to enter Michael’s office.

“Luck,” Jim said to her as she pivoted away, “you’ll need it!”

After yelling “Nerd alert” a few times upon seeing Pam’s glasses for the first time, it turned out Michael wanted to know if “Girls her age” were into futons. Pam could only assume that this had to do with him trying to woo Katy and grimaced at the thought, which Michael interpreted to mean that girls her age were in fact not impressed by futons – not an incorrect assumption. Pam asked if that was all and Michael dismissed her.

Pam stopped at Jim’s desk to debrief him on the futon debacle, which turned into them debating Michael’s chances with Katy. Pam and Jim agreed that they were abysmal. After chatting for a bit Pam had to go back to her desk to answer the phone. Having transferred the call, and not feeling like getting up Pam decided to waste the rest of the afternoon split between freecell and apartment listings.

Unfortunately for Pam, freecell was much easier to win than an apartment, and by the end of the workday she really didn’t have any concrete leads. Pam was not looking forward to the ride home. As she was packing up for the day, moving slower than usual she, noticed Jim had stopped to lean at her desk, waiting to walk out with her.

“Almost,” she trailed off, grabbing something that had fallen out of her purse, “done,” she finished, and moved to the coat rack where Jim held hers out to her and shrugged it on.

Pam thanked Jim and they moved towards the elevators, rode them down, and were deposited in the lobby. Pam stopped and turned when she felt Jim touch her elbow.

“Hey, let me know if you need anything, alright,” Jim said looking down at her with concern written all over his face, “or, you know, if you just want to talk, you’ve got my number.”

Pam nodded, tearing up as she began to realize the enormity of what was about to happen – had happened – to her life in the next hours. Through teary eyes Pam saw Jim reach out and felt him wrap her in a hug, and she just hung on for a minute. This was her best friend Jim, her anchor in all of the turmoil ahead, and she loved that about him.

They were interrupted by a honk from the parking lot. Pam knew it was Roy’s truck. Reluctantly, Pam disengaged from Jim’s embrace.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Pam said as she sniffled and dried her eyes.

“You can call anytime Pam, I mean it,” he said with a reassuring squeeze to her shoulder.

Pam nodded, steeled herself for what was to come, and headed out the door into the parking lot.

End Notes:
Thank you to everyone who is reviewing and leaving jellybeans, your feedback means a lot to me as I feel my way around writing this.
The Homefront by DoomGoose
Author's Notes:
The dreaded confrontation.

Pam crossed the parking lot with her gaze locked forward, refusing to let her resolve falter. She set her mouth in a firm line as she got close enough to the truck to see Roy tapping the wheel impatiently, and opened the passenger door to climb in.

“Come on Pam, you know we have to be at Darryl’s for six tonight, what took you so long,” Roy complained as soon as she was seated.

“I’m not going to Darryl’s with you, Roy,” Pam said, shooting him an incredulous look.

“C’mon, you can’t seriously still be hung up on that Katy comment, can you,” Roy asked with a look of confusion on his face.

“Roy, I gave you back the ring, I thought that was as clear as I would have to be,” Pam said with a sigh. This was so not going to be the quick and painless conversation she had hoped for.

“Pam, seriously we’re going to be late,” Roy tried to explain.

“Roy what part of this do you not understand? I broke up with you, we are done. You can drop me off before you go,” Pam said with increasing frustration.

“Seriously Pam –,” Roy started, but Pam interrupted him.

“Could we not have this conversation in the parking lot Roy? We can continue this at h- at the apartment.” Pam caught herself before she said home, because she wasn’t sure if she could deal with the idea that the home she had made with him meant nothing now, and turned away to stare out the passenger side window.

“Whatever Pammy,” Roy said with a huff and put the truck in gear.

“How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that Roy, I hate that name,” Pam said exasperatedly, turning back towards Roy in annoyance.

“Sorry, forgot,” was all Roy had to say in his defense.

Pam could not believe him, and shot back, “Yeah, you seem to forget a lot of things in our relationship, like the fact that we were engaged.”

Roy didn’t have a comeback for this, and the rest of the ride was spent in uncomfortable silence. Pam noticed that Roy kept stealing glances at her, seemingly realising finally that he had messed up and this was for real. Upon arriving at their apartment, Pam was first in the door as Roy had hung back to get his bag out of the back of the truck.

Pam sat heavily at the kitchen table with a sigh and turned towards Roy who was idling awkwardly in the entryway.

“Come on Roy,” Pam said tiredly, “we might as well get this over with.”

Roy trudged over and sat down across from her with a sigh, “I just don’t get it Pam, things were doing ok until today, why end it now?”

Pam shook her head as she replied, “Really Roy? How have things been going well? I’ve been trying to get you to commit to a wedding date for three years, and today you cleared everything up for me. Answer me this Roy, did you really ever see yourself as my husband, or did you see me as your wife?”

“What, that’s the same the same thing,” Roy said, not seeing the point.

“It’s not though Roy, to me it’s a big difference. It’s the difference between putting me first, and whatever our relationship has been for the last three years,” Pam said, trying to explain to Roy how she didn’t feel like a valued partner in their relationship.

“Pam, please, just put your ring back on,” Roy pleaded, “I can do better, we can work on this.”

“If you want me to wear that ring again you’re going to have to start over and propose again,” Pam said with a slow shake of her head, “and if I’m being honest with you, I don’t think I’ll be saying yes again.”

“So that’s it then,” Roy said with a hint of anger, “ten years means nothing to you? You’re just going to throw it all away?”

“It doesn’t mean nothing to me Roy, how could you say that?” Pam asked, starting to tear up, “I love you, and your family has become my family, I don’t want to throw that all away but I can’t keep doing this, I’m just not in love with you anymore,” Pam finished and started to sob, heaves wracking her body.

Pam had just admitted to Roy something that she hadn’t even admitted to herself yet, that they had just been going through the motions for years now, and it devastated her to think of all the time they had wasted together being unhappy. And so, she wept. Roy came around the table to hold her, and she let it happen, because this was goodbye. She was done and now he knew, she just hoped that he didn’t hate her for it.

“What are we going to do Pam,” Roy asked, whispering into the hair on top of her head as he held her, sounding as unsure and afraid as she did.

“I don’t know,” Pam said with a trembling voice, “find an apartment I can afford, move out,” Pam trailed off and paused, then said, “maybe get a dog,” with a small laugh that ended as a sob.

With a final squeeze of her shoulders, Roy disentangled himself from her and took a step back, rubbing the back of his neck.

“So I guess now would be a good time to tell you,” Roy trailed off as Pam looked up at him expectantly, “I may have lost your ring after you left he kitchen at work, so, you don’t have to worry about me re-proposing any time soon,” he finished with a sad smile and Pam laughed for the first time that evening, Roy’s smile grew a little.

She should be furious Pam told herself, that Roy had lost the ring, but honestly, she was just relieved. She was also glad that he hadn’t been angry, although if that was yet to come or not remained to be seen.

“Thanks,” was all Pam could think to say to that, as she sat in the kitchen with her ex-fiancé, joking about losing her engagement ring.

“Listen, Pam, I think I’m going to head over to Darryl’s now, I’ll pack a bag and stay with him or Kenny for a few days until this,” Roy said as he waved his hand around to indicate the apartment, “is all figured out.”

“Ok,” Pam said with a nod. She was so relieved that he had volunteered to go someplace else, she didn’t really have family close by that she could stay with.

As Pam watched Roy pack, she felt a wave of calm. They would figure things out, she was going to be ok. The hardest part seemed to be over, now she just had to live independently for the first time in her life. Admittedly, Pam thought, that was a scary idea. She should call her mom, she realised suddenly, as she hadn’t talked to her yet today with the mess it had been.

As Roy walked by and out the door, she gave him a small wave and he returned it with a small nod, and then he was gone. Pam heard the noise of the truck start to fade away and it was then that she came to another realisation – she didn’t have a car to get to work tomorrow. Pam resolved to call Jim and ask if he could give her a ride after she called her mom, who Pam decided she would call after she ate supper.

Pam proceeded to have some leftover chicken with spaghetti for supper, cleaned up, and got settled in on the couch in the living room with a box of tissue to call her mom. Pam explained the breakup to her mom and admitted that she hadn’t had much time to look at apartments yet, and she hadn’t even though of a car until earlier in the evening. Helene assured Pam that she and Will would be down as soon as they could on Saturday to go looking for apartments, and time permitting maybe a few cars as well. Pam thanked her mom for coming down on such short notice, and Helene handed the phone over to Will. Will asked where she was staying in the meantime and Pam told him that Roy was out for a few days while she got her stuff together to move, that seemed to satisfy her dad and she was handed back to her mom. After reassuring her mom that she was doing ok for now, no she did not need to drive down tonight, she said goodnight to her parents and ended the call. Glancing up at the clock showed it to be just before nine.

Pam figured that nine was still a decent hour to call someone on a work night, and so she hit 4 to speed dial Jim on her cell and waited as the phone rang through.

“Dunder Mifflin after hours, this is Jim,” he answered with a smile in his voice.

“Hey Jim, it’s me, Pam calling.”

“I know, caller display is an amazing technology, ever heard of it?”

“No, I can’t say that I have, what’s it do?”

“Well you see when somebody on your contacts list calls you – it tells you who is calling, imagine that,” Jim says with a chuckle.

“Right, I knew that. Uh, anyway I called to ask a favour…”

“Shoot.”

“I know it’s kind of out of the way for you, and I don’t want to impose…”

“Go on…”

“Would you be willing to give me a ride in to work tomorrow?”

Jim pauses before replying, “Sure, what time do you want me to swing by?”

“Does eight thirty work? I don’t want you to have to get up too much earlier than usual…”

“Sure, but I have to ask,” Jim pauses and starts to chuckle, “why are you so concerned to get into work on a Saturday morning?”

“What? I thought tomorrow was Friday!”

“No way Beesly, unless this is Groundhog Day, today was Friday. Tomorrow is Saturday,” Jim manages to get out while laughing.

“Ugh, I am such a mess right now. Thanks for cluing me in Jim.”

“Any time Bees, anyway, how are you doing? Wanna talk about it or…”

“Well, I’ve only cried three times since you last saw me so… all things considered I’m doing ok,” Pam says cheerily.

“That’s good to hear… how are things, with Roy?”

“Well… we broke up again, and he’s staying with Darryl or Kenny or someone for a few days, so I guess about as good as you could expect.”

“I’m sorry to hear that Pam, it must have been rough.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it, really Jim I do, you’ve been a rockstar for me through this so far.”

“Anytime Pam. So, I take it you need to find a new apartment?”

“Yeah, and a car. My parents are coming down tomorrow morning to help me with that… it will be an adventure.”

“I bet, but it’ll be nice to have them around won’t it? They live like two hours away if I remember correctly right?”

“Yeah, it will be, you’re right.”

“Right on, well, let me know if you need anything else this weekend ok? I’m just a call away. Oh, and let me know if you need a ride for Monday at some point!”

“Will do, thanks Jim. Goodnight.”

“G’night Pam.”

There was a pause as neither of them hung up immediately, “No you hang up!” Pam said with a giggle before caving and bringing the phone away from her ear to end the call.

Pam sighed and heaved herself up from the couch, she was exhausted and just wanted to go to bed now. She trudged to the bedroom, changed, brushed her teeth, and washed her face before settling in bed. For the worst day in her life, Pam thought to herself as she lay down, it didn’t go nearly as badly as it could have. Here’s hoping that tomorrow was better and that she had somewhere to live by next week. Pam settled in under the covers and sleep quickly overtook her.

End Notes:

So this is the longest chapter I've ever written. I can guarantee this will not be a regular occurrence!

Thanks for all of the reviews folks, I really appreciate getting feedback on this. 

Scar Tissue by DoomGoose
Author's Notes:
Some friends carpool.

Jim pulled up in front of Pam and Roy’s apartment – soon to be just Roy’s from what she had told him earlier that weekend – just before eight thirty. After putting his red corolla in park, Jim typed out a quick text to Pam to let her know he was out front. Pam had called him Sunday afternoon to let him know that she did not have a car yet, but her father was going to take her out to close a deal after work with any luck.

Jim looked up to see Pam making her way out the door, and got up out of his car to open the passenger door for her before she reached it.

“Why thank you kind sir,” Pam said with a smile and a mock curtsey when she reached him standing there holding the door open for her.

“No problem at all madame,” Jim said with his best impression of a butler, causing Pam’s smile to widen as she sat down in the car.

Jim closed the door behind her and rounded the car to get back in. Upon starting the car back up and pulling out onto the road, Pam thanked him again for driving her to work.

“It’s not a problem Beesly, I was up anyway because Mark came back from the late shift and tripped on the entrance table,” Jim assured her.

Pam guffawed, and looked at him sheepishly, “Sorry, that must have been quite the wake up.”

“It was, nothing better than an adrenaline rush to wake you up at six in the morning,” Jim said with a chuckle.

They continued their banter for a while longer until Jim finally had to ask the question that gnawing at the corner of his mind.

“So, any luck with the apartment hunt over the weekend?”

“We managed to narrow it down to a few places, but I mentioned to my parents that I thought I might want to get a dog at some point and they kind of latched on to that and wouldn’t stop asking questions about the pet friendliness of every place,” Pam replied with a grimace.

“Huh,” was all Jim had to say about that, an idea forming in his mind.

“What’s huh, Jim? Spill.”

“Well, you remember a few months ago I told you about my cousin… that… y’know,” Jim trailed off as he tried to figure out how to phrase what had happened to his cousin, “… with the search?”

“Oh, yeah,” Pam said quickly, letting him know that he need not say any more, “why does that make you think of her,” Pam asked quietly.

“Well it’s just that I remembered that my aunt and uncle have been looking for a good home for her dog, since, y’know … she doesn’t need her anymore,” Jim managed to finish.

“Oh,” Pam said, clearly not sure what an appropriate response to that would be, “are you sure they want to get rid of the dog?”

“Yeah, they think it’s for the best.”

“Well, what’s her name,” Pam asked, Jim could see that she was picking up on his discomfort on the subject.

Jim was thankful for the shift, “Nikita, although she responds to Kiida, Pita, and sometimes Cheeto,” Jim said with a small smile.

“She’s a German Shepherd,” Jim answered before Pam could ask her next question, “about three years old, really well behaved and trained, because she was –,” Jim corrected himself, “is an emotional support dog.”

“Thanks Jim, she sounds great,” Pam said, seemingly interested judging by her tone, “I’ll have to think on that.”

“Please do, and if you want to meet her, or want to see pictures, you know where to find me.”

“I’ll let you know,” Pam said as they were pulling into the Scranton Business Park lot.

“Thanks again for the ride Jim,” she said as he pulled into his usual space.

“Any time Beesly, I don’t mind the company,” Jim said as they exited the car and headed towards the doors.

Jim picked up his pace a little to beat Pam to the doors and open one for her, which she thanked him for. As they got on the elevator Pam sighed and said to him how grateful she was that the documentary crew had wrapped last week and was away seeking funding, so the office should be relatively calm for the next while. Jim voiced his agreement, and added that it would be nice not having to double check if they had followed him into the bathroom, which got a chuckle out of Pam.

The morning went by quietly, with the only interruption to the tedium coming in the form of Kelly ambushing Pam while she was in the kitchen making tea. Jim managed to divert Kelly with a comment about how some article had said that Brad Pitt had a secret mistress, which turned out to be a mistake as he was stuck there for the next twenty minutes as Kelly went on about who it could possibly be. Kelly managed to get through almost every celebrity of the era before finally deciding that Brad wouldn’t do that and retreating to the annex.

Jim stopped by reception after that to grab some jellybeans and make sure that Pam knew she owed him one, and she just smiled at him and said she had an idea for a prank on Dwight and she’d tell him during lunch.

Lunch rolled around and Pam told him excitedly of her plan.

“So you know I had totally convinced myself Friday night that it was actually Thursday,” Pam started, “what if we can somehow convince Dwight that it’s Friday on a Thursday, and have him not come in to work the next day,” she finished with a bright smile and a sparkle to her eyes that Jim loved seeing.

“I’ll admit it has merits Beesly, but how do you propose we actually go about doing that,” Jim said, putting on his exaggerated thinking face to get a giggle out of her – it worked.

“I was getting to that,” Pam said with mock exasperation, “so you know how he keeps that tear off calendar at his desk,” Jim nods, “well, what if it were to start moving forward on it’s own,” she says with a devilish grin.

“Oh you are evil,” Jim says with appreciation, “so let me get this straight, we advance Dwight’s calendar for him until he stops noticing, and then skip a day on Thursday, and get an entire day Dwight free,” Jim summarizes with a big smile on his face, always impressed with Pam’s creativity in all things.

“Exactly,” says Pam with a satisfied smirk and a nod.

The rest of the day passed without incident. Near the end of the day Jim noticed an older gentleman standing at reception and noticed that Pam was absent from her desk, so he got up to greet them.

“Hi, can I give you a hand,” Jim asked as the man turned to face him.

“Just waiting for Pam, we’re car hunting after work,” the man, presumably Mr. Beesly, replied, taking stock of Jim as he approached.

“Ah, Mr. Beesly I presume,” Jim said, reaching out his hand to shake, “Jim Halpert.”

“Please, call me Will, or William if you’re feeling formal,” he said, grasping Jim’s hand and shaking firmly, “I’ve heard a lot about you,” he said as they finished the handshake.

“Only good things I hope?” Jim asked with a smile.

Will smirked back, “Well let’s see, tall, hair that would look better on a mop, and a good friend,” Will said and smacked Jim on the shoulder with a hearty chuckle.

“Well, two out of three isn’t so bad,” Jim shot back with a smile, and for lack of any other conversation starters Jim asked, “so how was apartment hunting this weekend? Pam told me you guys had narrowed it down to a few?”

“It went well I think,” Will said, nodding to himself, “Pam said she was thinking she might want to get a dog, which would make me feel better about her being alone, so we started looking into pet friendly apartments. I think at this point it’s really just down to two, but we’ll see tonight after we pick up the car.”

Before Jim could ask where the apartment options were, Pam came over to reception from the kitchen and greeted her father with a hug. She then quickly gathered her things and shot out the door with her dad after a quick wave and a bye to Jim.

Jim wondered what kind of car she was getting tonight; Pam had mentioned they were looking at a few but it seemed to Jim that her dad was confident that there was only one real contender. He would just have to wait and see if she texted him a picture of it or surprised him in the parking lot tomorrow.

As Jim was eating before bed, his phone buzzed and he flipped it open to see a new text from Pam. The text was a picture of a hatchback of some sort silhouetted against the setting sun, and Jim couldn’t help but smile. Pam knew he would be wondering, and only made him more curious with her carefully composed picture. Jim was just going to have to see it tomorrow after all.
End Notes:

Thank you everyone for the kind and thought-out reviews, they are very encouraging to me!

Also side note, this one chapter a day thing is challenging! I worked right up until my self imposed bed time on this one. Hats off to Comfect who manages this every day! 

Home Is Where the Heart Is by DoomGoose
Author's Notes:
Pam out on the town with her dad.

Pam was excited to go looking for a car with her dad, after leaving the office he drove her north towards a suburban residential area, and after a few minutes of driving stopped in front of a small house with an attached garage. Will got out and Pam followed, they were greeted at the door by a man in his seventies who seemed delighted to see them and promptly opened the garage door to show them the car. The garage door opened to reveal a little blue Toyota Matrix, in mint condition. The man, Harold, claimed that he got it shortly before losing his license and so had hardly driven it, and had finally decided to sell it to free up space in the garage for projects. Will asked to take it for a test drive and Harold was happy to accommodate them.

On the drive Pam confided in Will that it was certainly a cute car, and it would be easier to handle than Roy’s truck had been. Will seemed quite pleased with the vehicle as well, talking to Pam about the reliability of Toyota’s and how low the mileage was on the car for its year. Will told Pam that if the price was right, they should take it and stop looking, as finding a used car so lightly worn was a rarity. Pam agreed, and they rode back to Harold’s house.

Upon arriving back at Harold’s Pam noticed her dad produce an envelope of cash, which surprised her as she had assumed he would take her to the bank to draw a certified cheque. He assured her that she could pay him back later, which Pam was grateful for as she didn’t want to feel like a burden to her parents.

Will asked Harold how much he wanted, haggled him down a bit, and in the end cash changed hands, handshakes all around, and a bill of sale was made up. Pam was now the proud owner of a blue 2002 Toyota Matrix. Harold handed her the keys and after waiting for her dad to get to his car, Pam reversed out of the driveway and headed to her and Roy’s apartment. The plan was to drop the car off and see if they could see a couple of apartments that they had been considering over the weekend and a new one that her dad said he had found.

They looked at the two that Pam hadn’t been able to decide between on the weekend and she still couldn’t commit to either one, so Will drove her to the one he had found earlier. As they were entering the area Pam came to a realisation.

“Hey, I think this is the area Jim lives in,” Pam said to her dad as they rounded a corner, “He should be like a block and a half up the road.”

“Well that wouldn’t be too bad, you would already know someone in the neighbourhood,” Will said with a smile, “From what I’ve heard you tell your mom about him and the small talk I had with him today I think he’s good people. I’d definitely be less worried about you alone out here with him nearby.”

“Come on dad, we’ve been over this, I appreciate your concern about me living on my own but it’s going to have to happen,” Pam said with exasperation, “It’s not like I can keep living with Roy after all that’s happened.”

“I suppose, I just would like to think that there’s someone to check up on you is all,” Will said as he raised his hands to placate her, “A father worries Pam, it’s in our nature.”

“Thanks dad,” Pam said, feeling kind of bad for telling him off, “I appreciate you looking out for me.”

“No apology necessary sweetie,” Will said as they exited the car in front of a small bungalow.

“Where is the apartment we’re supposed to be seeing,” Pam asked, wondering if she had the listings confused in her head as she looked around.

“Right in front of us,” her dad said with a shrug and pointed at the house, “It’s in your budget so I thought we’d add it to the list.”

“Seriously,” Pam asked, disbelieving, “I mean, I love it, but there is no way this is in my budget,” she said, fishing for some explanation.

“Do you remember Mrs. Kennedy,” her dad asked, waiting for her to recognise the name.

“Oh! From Sunday school when I was little?”

“Yes, that’s the one,” her dad said with a big smile, “This is her house, and she’s in an old folks home now and the family have been having trouble selling it. I called them the other day and they agreed to let us have a look at it and talk about renting.”

“Oh dad,” Pam said and launched into a hug, overwhelmed with emotion at how things were turning out today, “That is so great, I can’t thank you enough, and I can’t wait to see inside,” she finished as she sniffled and wiped her eyes quickly.

“Well it pays to have connections,” her dad said as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and steered her towards the front steps, “Let’s take a look around.”

The house was perfect, there wasn’t much furniture left, mostly just end tables and a coffee table, that sort of thing, but all the large appliances were still there. Her parents had already told her that she could have some of the furniture from their basement, and they would chip in to help her cover anything new that she needed, saying she shouldn’t have to worry about the small things right now. Pam felt a little guilty taking their charity, but at the same time the half of the wedding savings that she was going to get would run out quickly after she paid her parents back for the car. Her dad had tried to convince her to let them cover that too, but Pam felt like that was too much and she had to be able to fend for herself financially if she was going to live independently, not rely on handouts from her well meaning parents.

“So are they ok with pets,” Pam asked as she toured the different rooms of the house with her dad, “Because Jim gave me a lead on a dog that I thought I might look into, now that I might have a yard…”

“They’re fine with pets, essentially the rent is low enough for your budget because you’ll be in charge of taking care of the house,” her dad explained, “So anything that needs maintenance will be out of pocket for you, but they’re willing to chip in for any large expenses like a water heater or something is how they explained it to me.”

“That sounds pretty great actually,” Pam said, surprised at how generous they Kennedy’s were being with their terms, “So did they write that in the rental agreement? It’s not that I don’t trust them, it’s just I really want to have that in writing in case there’s a misunderstanding.”

“So, you think you’ll take it,” Will asked with a hopeful smile.

“How could I not? It’s a house when everything else in my budget was tiny apartments,” Pam said with excitement, hugging her dad again.

“I’ll get them to email you the rental agreement tomorrow,” her dad told her as they leaned against opposite counters in the kitchen, “As far as when you can move in, well, as you can see Mrs. Kennedy doesn’t live her, so as soon as we hash out the details with them we’re good to go,” he finished with a broad smile.

“Thanks for everything dad,” Pam said with a big smile, “My life has been such a mess these last few days, I really appreciate what you’ve done for me tonight.”

“Just looking out for you sweetie,” her dad said humbly.

Pam smiled at her dad and turned back to wander through the rooms of her soon to be home. The entryway lead into the living room, with a large area rug on the hardwood floors. And a large window looking out over the street. The kitchen was just to the right off the living room with a half wall between and had linoleum down to cover the hardwood it seemed. The kitchen was L shaped with an island, and there was another window out to the front of the house with room for a dining table that had been removed judging by the sun bleaching on the floor.

There was a hallway that ran along the width of the house behind the kitchen and living room that had on the other side of it a small office with a large window looking into the back yard, a bedroom, and a mudroom with laundry that had a door leading out back as well.

Pam’s life was starting to come together with tonight’s events and her super-dad with his wisdom and connections. She had a car, and soon she would have a house and could move out of her ex-fiancé’s apartment. The fact that she would be living down the street from her best friend and might be getting a dog were definitely contributing to her glowing mood as they locked up and her dad drove her back to the apartment. Remembering that the dog in question was her best friend’s dead cousin’s support animal brought a grimace to her face, but she quickly schooled her features before her dad noticed.

“So, you mentioned Jim was looking into getting a dog for you,” her dad asked by way of conversation.

“Well, it’s more I mentioned to Jim that I was thinking about getting a dog, what with living alone,” Pam explained, “And he mentioned that his aunt and uncle were trying to find a home for their dog Nikita, so I said I’d think about it.”

“That sounds great, what kind of dog is it, did he say?”

“Yeah, she’s a three year old German Shepherd, so she’s already trained.”

“Well, that sounds like all the hard work is already done,” Will said, “At that point all you have to do is feed it, clean up after it, and give it some love. Do you think you’re going to take her?”

“Yeah, I think I will,” Pam said with a smile.

“I’m glad to hear that, it’ll be nice to have a big dog like that if you’re going on walks or runs alone,” her dad said, revealing his ulterior motive, “You can never be too careful in this town.”

“I didn’t have a dog when I went running from the apartment,” Pam pointed out.

“Yeah, but you had Roy,” her dad said, looking he immediately regretted it.

“Really dad,” Pam said with exasperation, thinking about how barely present Roy had been when she was doing things like that.

“Sorry, wasn’t thinking sweetie.”

“I’ll forgive you, but only because you found me a house,” Pam said, trying to lighten the mood. This earned her a good-natured chuckle from Will.

“Whatever you say sweetie,” he said with a smile.

The rest of the ride was spent in companionable silence. As her dad pulled up to the curb in front of the apartment Pam leaned over to kiss her dad on the cheek and give him a hug.

“Thanks again for everything tonight dad,” she said with a big smile, “I’ll get a cheque to you guys this weekend for the car.”

“Again, no problem sweetie, and don’t worry about the cheque,” her dad said patting her forearm, “Just whenever you’re settled in. You mom and I will come by tomorrow after work to help you pack and move assuming you get the paperwork done, keep us updated.”

“Seeya tomorrow hopefully,” Pam said as she got out onto the curb. As she started walking towards the back lot of the apartment complex she noticed the sun setting behind the parking lot, perfectly silhouetting the cars parked there. Pam remembered that she hadn’t had a chance to call Jim today, and so instead she smiled as she took a picture of her car towards the sun, making it hard to see any details. She sent him the picture and followed up with a text when she got inside saying she didn’t need a ride and she would see him tomorrow.

End Notes:
Thanks everyone for your continued encouragement, hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Coming Home by DoomGoose
Author's Notes:
Pam moves in.

As Pam pulled into the parking lot in her new car Tuesday morning, she decides that she is going to start the day with some mayhem. In light of this decision, she parks her car in the space where Dwight’s Trans-Am is usually parked and makes her way up to the office to start the coffee maker and make a cup of tea for herself. She greeted Angela as she saw her enter the office from her desk.

Angela responded with a curt, “Good morning,” and a hurtful comment on how she was glad that Pam was no longer living in sin. The rest of the office staff were their usual indifferent selves. Jim and Dwight entered the office together, which caused Pam to raise her eyebrows and Jim shot her a smirk. Pam could only hope that her plan had worked. She was rewarded with hearing Dwight saying he would get to the bottom of some issue as he and Jim parted ways at the coat racks.

“So there was a strange vehicle parked in Dwight’s parking space this morning,” Jim explained, stopping to lean against her desk on his way past, “He immediately suggested that I had paid someone to steal his space to slight him in some way.”

“I know,” Pam said, brining her hand up to hide the huge smile spreading across her face, “Who do you think parked there,” she asked, stifling a giggle and ducking her head down below the counter to conceal it.

“Oh Beesly,” Jim said, leaning in and lowering his voice so as not to draw Dwight’s attention, “You are so evil. So that’s your new car? I thought the outline looked familiar.”

Pam had controlled her breathing enough to answer with, “Yes,” and went back to trying to stifle giggles, curling into herself with her shoulders shaking.

Jim was about to comment on how giggly Pam was this morning when the phone rang and she help up a finger so as to say ‘wait a minute’, and she answered the phone with a laugh still in her voice.

“Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam,” she said as she fought down her giggles and straightened her face, only to break out in a huge smile at whoever was on the other end, “Morning Dad!”

Jim loved how she looked when she was excited, the slight flush of her cheeks from laughing and the sparkle in her eye that it seemed talking to her dad elicited made him feel special, because he had caused that look before, when they played pranks or enjoyed banter together.

“That’s great dad, thank you so much for calling to let me know,” she said with an even bigger smile, if that was possible.

“Thanks, love you too, bye,” She hung up.

Jim looked at Pam expectantly, as a fax started to come through.

“So, what’s got you in such a great mood this morning,” Jim asked, dying to know what had put that smile on her face.

Pam beckoned him around her desk and pulled out the fax that had just come through, “Look,” she said, shoving the paper towards him.

At first Jim couldn’t make heads or tails of what he was looking at, but one thing stood out, the heading ‘Rental Agreement’, and below that an address and the terms.

“That’s great Pam,” he exclaimed, “You found an apartment really fast, I’m so happy for you.”

“Look closer Jim,” She said, guiding his gaze to the address with a finger, “Not an apartment, a house…”

“That address is…” Jim trailed off, looking to Pam’s face, seeing a nervous smile there.

“We’ll practically be neighbours,” Pam supplied for him, “I just need to convince Michael to let me take a half day and my parents will come down to help me move.”

Pam was nervous how Jim would react to her moving so close, for some reason to her it just felt a little weird to be living so close, but, Pam rationalised, it’s not like they were living together. The look of admiration, joy, and something that she couldn’t quite place quelled these fears and made Pam’s heart beat faster.

“That’s awesome Beesly,” Jim said earnestly, “I am so proud of you,” he finished with a dazzling smile that did all sorts of funny things to Pam’s insides.

Jim was not expecting what happened next. Pam practically barrelled into him with her tiny frame and hugged him, before placing a peck from her warm lips on his cheek and literally skipping out the office door to ‘go tell Roy’.

Jim’s head was still spinning by the time she returned, looking less giddy but still glowing, and vaguely remembered asking if she wanted help moving furniture, and her saying something along the lines of ‘my dad won’t ask but he’d appreciate the help’.

The rest of the day passed as a blur to Jim, Pam disappeared sometime after lunch so he could only assume that she convinced Michael to let her go, as Ryan was sitting at reception when Jim awoke from his haze standing in front of the coat rack and glancing up at the clock to see it was five o’clock. Jim decided he would drive home, change, and walk over to her new place to help move things.

 

Pam was having a bit of a panic attack. She had just kissed Jim in front of the entire office. Whoa, ok, she reeled herself in, she kissed him on the cheek, that was a super friendly kind of kiss. Except that she’d just been so giddy and caught up in the emotional roller coaster that was her life right now that she wasn’t entirely sure if she bought what she was trying to sell herself. At the same time, people pecked other people on the cheek all the time, right? It was just a sign of endearment and affection. Except, Pam’s subconscious argued, this had felt a lot more like just flat out attraction, but Pam wasn’t ready to be facing those feelings especially since she’d already texted Roy to meet her to talk outside the warehouse. She really needed to reel in her emotions lest she give Roy the wrong idea, or the right one, oh boy she was such a mess.

Pam managed to calm herself, taking deep breaths, and waited for Roy to pop out of the warehouse to tell him the good news. She heard the door open and turned towards it, stopping mid-pace.

“Hey, I have something I wanted to tell you,” Pam said, while at the same time Roy spoke over her.

“Hey, I’ve been doing some thinking,” Roy said speaking over Pam.

“Uh, you first,” Pam deferred with a small smile.

“Well, uh, I what I wanted to say is that,” Roy paused, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, “I’ve been doing some thinking and I realised that we can’t just go back to being engaged, but I was thinking we could still be boyfriend-girlfr-”

“What, Roy no,” Pam said, trying to cut him off

“What do you mean, no, Pammy those were the best years of our relationship, if we can just go back to that…”

“Roy, please no, don’t do this,” Pam pleaded with him to drop it, “I can’t go back to that.”

“Why not Pammy? Come on, I’ll try this time-”

“Stop,” Pam interrupted him, “I came down here to let you know that I’ve found a place and I’m moving out today, so you can come back to the apartment after work today.”

“Oh,” Roy said dejectedly, and Pam felt a little bad for him, but at the same time she marveled about how clueless he was in their relationship.

And not to forget ‘I’ll try this time’, that was a real fire starter, but Pam pushed it down, knowing that hurting him got her nothing in the long run.

“Roy, I’m done- We’re done, ok?” Pam said softly, hoping Roy would take the hint and drop this once and for all.

“Ok,” He said defeatedly, as he then turned and trudged back into the warehouse.

 

 

It was around five thirty when Jim walked up to the Beesly’s sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck, with Pam’s mom Helene on the left, and Pam sandwiched between her parents with a load of furniture behind them.

“Hey strangers,” Jim called out as he walked up and they finally seemed to notice him, too absorbed with their conversation and the food in their laps he surmised.

“Hey Jim,” Pam greeted him with a tired looking smile, “We saved all the heavy stuff for you,” she said, waving her hand behind her at the items in the truck bed.

Helene insisted that Jim have some of their food before they started working so he found himself sitting on the curb with a paper plate and some assorted Chinese takeout. After he finished eating Will gave him a hearty slap on the back and they got to work.

End Notes:

Changing things up a bit, today we have a multi-POV chapter. Not sure why but up until this point I've kept it to a single character's perspective per chapter. Let me know which you prefer.

Thanks again to all the folks reviewing, I really value your feedback. 

Edited 2020-04-26: Fixed line breaks and a few typos - maybe didn't fix linebreaks. Horizontal rules are a PITA.

Moving Forward by DoomGoose
Author's Notes:
Pam is made to have some personal revelations, and Jim reaffirms one of his own.

While Jim and Will moved large items like the bed and couch, Pam and Helene spent time arranging the smaller pieces of furniture in the various rooms in pleasing ways, humming and hawing between themselves over what should go where. This took them about an hour and a half, so by the time they moved on to unpacking essentials like sheets and what Pam was going to wear tomorrow, Will and Jim had parts for what looked to be a desk for the office and a dresser for Pam’s bedroom strewn across the living room. Will was swearing up a storm, fighting with a drawer, while Jim had a look of utter concentration on his face as he tried to line up the legs of the desk to his satisfaction. Pam and her mom idly rustled around in boxes, really just looking busy to enjoy the show. Pam felt a giggle coming on so she grabbed the box she was looking through and headed to the bathroom to set out her toiletries, her mom followed her into the bedroom and started spreading sheets over her new queen size bed.

Pam and her mom chatted idly while they unpacked various boxes in the bedroom and bathroom, interrupted by the occasional shout of triumph or frustration from one of the men in the living room. Eventually Pam had run out of things to unpack in her bathroom and moved back out into the bedroom and flopped down on the freshly made bed with a contented sigh.

“This house is great,” Pam expressed her thoughts aloud, “You and Dad have been great, Jim has been great, work has been surprisingly ok; how is it that my life can be going so wrong but so right,” Pam asked, rolling to look over at her mom.

Helene looked thoughtful for a moment before finally responding, “Honey, you’re putting yourself first for the first time in a long time. I think that no matter what comes of this, you will grow as a person,” She paused before asking, “Can I be brutally honest with you Pam?”

“Ok,” Pam said, not quite sure where this was headed.

“You and Roy held each other back,” her Mom started, “You held Roy back from having to grow up and take responsibility,” Pam started to protest but her mother cut her off, “Just listen, you were the responsible one in the relationship, you paid the bills, made the budget, did the housework, and until recently, planned the wedding. Roy didn’t grow into any of that because he had you to do it for him.”

Pam could only stare dumbly at her mother, for yes, while she did talk to her almost every other night, she had never been given this unique perspective that her mother had just bestowed upon her.

Helene continued, “Roy, held you back in a different way, answer me this, when is the last time you thought about finishing your degree, or taking art classes?”

“It’s been a while,” Pam admitted, “With all the wedding planning and the bills to pay I couldn’t afford tuition at this point…”

“And there you have it,” Helene declared, “You both doomed each other to stagnancy, and I know it hurts to hear it but Pam, now is your chance to live, and grow, and be you, not Pam and…” she finished her speech with a sad smile, coming over to sit on the bed near Pam’s head as she teared up.

Helene got up and closed the door to the bedroom, before coming back and pulling Pam up to sit against the headboard and held her while she cried for all of the years she felt she had wasted.

 

Jim had just finished helping Will clean up the living room, which had been strewn with debris from the furniture construction projects they had been working on, when Helene and Pam rejoined them from the back of the house somewhere. Will and Jim were about to lift the dresser to move it down the hall into the bedroom, when Pam asked if she could talk to him. Helene quickly nudged him away from the dresser and assured him that she could lift it, and so he followed Pam into the kitchen.

“Hey Jim,” Pam asked, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, “Would I be able to meet Nikita? I want to see if she likes me,” Pam trailed off.

“I wouldn’t worry about that Beesly, everyone likes you,” Jim said with a smirk before realising what he had just said, and trying to brush it off by continuing like it was not a big deal, “I can bring her by on Saturday if you want, we can take her to the park a few blocks down?”

“I’d like that, thank you so much Jim,” Pam said, launching into the second hug he had received from her in twenty-four hours.

“Ew, you’re sweaty,” She said, her voice muffled against his chest, but still she hung on longer than was strictly necessary for hug etiquette he observed, and then wondered if he was reading too much into it.

“Well, when you said your Dad would be happy for the help, you failed to mention that he would be happy to stand back and watch me do the heavy lifting,” Jim said and she started to giggle as she finally pulled away.

“Yeah, Dad is a great supervisor,” Pam said looking up at him with a smile.

“Pam honey,” Helene called from the living room by the front door, “We’re getting ready to head out, we’ve got to drive back yet tonight.”

“Be right there,” Pam called as she quickly moved out of the kitchen and hugged her parents, saying her goodbyes.

Jim trailed behind a little and moved past Pam to the door, “I should head out too, It’s getting late and we have to work tomorrow. Helene, great to meet you,” Jim said, and went for a handshake, but Helene pushed his hand aside and gave him a quick hug, “and Will, great to see you again and actually talk this time,” Jim and Will shook hands, “G’night Pam,” he said with a wave, “See you tomorrow.”

 

When Jim pulled in to work the next morning, he noticed Pam’s blue hatchback sitting in Dwight’s usual space again and smiled as he made his way into the office. He said good morning to Pam and chatted for a little and then moved away from her desk to get settled for the day. As Jim was starting his computer, he noticed Dwight come in and make a beeline for him.

“Damnit Jim! I will find out who you’re putting up to this, and have their car towed from this lot,” Dwight yelled as he walked past and hung his coat on the back of his chair before pulling out a notepad that Jim could just barely make out what looked to be a license plate number on the page.

Before Jim could connect the dots, Dwight was already hanging up the phone and heading towards reception looking like he was on the warpath.

Pam quickly hid her grin as she saw Dwight hang up with the sheriff’s office. She had looked up the number when she saw it outbound on line four and knew what was likely to come next, and so she had schooled her features by the time Dwight was standing in front of her desk glaring down at her. She noticed Jim swivel around in his chair to watch with a very practiced look of casual indifference.

“Pamela, w-” Dwight began but Pam cut him off with a fake smile plastered on her face.

“Good morning, Dwight! Wonderful weather we’re supposed to have today,” She gushed, trying to rile Dwight up.

“Yes, very well, Morning, Pamela,” Dwight dispensed with the pleasantries, “Now, as I was saying-”

“Oh, I heard on the radio this morning on the drive over that it’s supposed to be a good growing year according to the alternative farmers almanac, isn’t that great?”

“Alternative farmers almanac? Where do they come up with this- Gah! That is besides the point,” Dwight exclaimed, before getting back on track, “Pamela, why have you stolen my parking space, this is gross insubordination!”

“I stole your parking space,” Pam asked, looking clueless.

“Yes, Pam, you stole the space that I have parked in for years, ever since Todd Packer left,” Dwight explained exasperatedly.

“Oh, I didn’t know that we had any assigned spaces other than the regional managers spot,” Pam continued playing dumb, seeing how far this could go.

“Yes, and the Assistant Regional Manager’s space,” Dwight added, “Which is what I am!”

“But Dwight,” Jim chipped in, now joining them at her desk, “I thought you were the Assistant To The Regional manager.”

“That’s a technicality, besides, I would still occupy the space in my capacity as there is no one here with the title,” Dwight defended his position valiantly, but Pam decided it was time to play her trump card.

“But I didn’t park in the Assistant Regional Manager space Dwight, there was no sign,” Pam explained.

“Ugh, it’s an unwritten parking spot rule woman! I wouldn’t expect you to understand these things,” Dwight said, positively seething.

“So, if I can’t be expected to understand these things, then I guess you can’t really blame me for parking where I did,” Pam said, delivering the killing blow.

“Damnit Pam, I know Jim put you up to this, just tell me and I can protect you from his schemes!” Dwight yelled, drawing the bored gaze of Stanley across the office, while Jim just stood there smirking at Dwight with his hands in his pockets.

“Dwight, you know I can’t do that,” Pam said with mock regret, “There’s no way that you would get to me before he does, we live in the same neighbourhood now,” she finished sadly.

“Damnit Jim how could you,” Dwight yelled, poking his finger in Jim’s chest before spinning away, yelling, “Michael!” and storming into his office and shutting the door.

Jim stood in amazement of Pam for a minute, just drinking in her triumphant smile before snapping out of it to congratulate her on a job well done.

“Oh my god,” Jim said to Pam, “That was amazing, you really hit that one out of the park,” he gushed, ecstatic at how good at pranking Dwight she was all on her own.

Pam giggled before straightening up and saying, “I feel kind of bad for that bit at the end though, he was trying to protect me, even if it would never happen,” She trailed off. If Jim was not sure he was in love with her before this moment, it would have sealed the deal. As it stood, Jim was just in awe of this woman in front of him. She was the kindest, funniest, just all-around warmest person he knew, and he wished that he could experience it every day for the rest of his life.

“Beesly, are you going soft on me,” Jim asked, trying to ease her guilty conscience.

“No, it’s just, that was really sweet of him, y’know,” Pam replied, “I just feel like maybe we could let him win the next round, so that he feels that he’s freed me from your clutches,” Pam explained with a smirk.

“As you wish,” Jim said, as he grabbed some jellybeans and strode off to his desk with a smile, looking forward to what the rest of the day and week would bring, now that he was within walking distance from Pam’s house and could hang out with her without guilt or fear.

 

End Notes:
Thank you all so much for your feedback thus far, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I spent a lot of time spinning out on different plot bunnies before I settled on this path, so hopefully it was the right one.
Dog Date by DoomGoose
Author's Notes:
The long awaited "Pam gets a dog" chapter.

Pam had been looking forward to Saturday morning all week. Jim had offered to go to his Aunt and Uncle’s to pick up Nikita and bring her over for around ten thirty. The plan was to walk ‘Kiida down to the park, practice some commands, and then play. Pam ate her breakfast and started to get ready, cleaning up stray objects that might look chewable to an excited dog and then getting showered and dressed, throwing her hair back into a lazy ponytail and grabbing some jeans and a t-shirt to wear for the day before trying to track down some sunscreen. Pam looked at the clock to see how much time she had until Jim was supposed to drop in and figured that she had enough time to pack a cooler of sandwich supplies and a few different pop choices- including grape soda for Jim of course.

With all the prep done Pam opened the blinds in the living room and sat down on the couch to wait for Jim to come by but the combination of the warm sun on the soft couch caused her to drift off. The next thing Pam knew there was knocking on the front door as she bolted upright.

 

Jim woke up and lazily rolled over in bed to see what time it was and was startled to see that it was already just after ten, immediately regretting not setting an alarm for today. Jim jumped up from bed with a start and ran into the bathroom to take a quick shower, and then ran back to his room to throw on a t-shirt and shorts. He then rushed down the stairs, grabbed a piece of bread and slathered it with peanut butter, folded it in half, grabbed his keys and wallet, slipped on his shoes, and ran out the door.

Jim started his car and drove to his aunt and uncle’s place seven minutes away, obeying all traffic laws. Jim managed to get there in five. His aunt and uncle handed over the kennel with a few toys, a bag of dog food, and Nikita’s water bowl. After some quick hugs all around, Jim regretfully let them know that he was running behind and had to be going, and so he hooked up Kiida’s leash and let her hop into the kennel in the back seat, before taking off again.

Jim decided to drive directly to Pam’s, as according to his car radio clock he was already ten minutes behind schedule. Upon pulling up Jim got out of his car and walked around to the back door of his car to let Kiida out, and she walked with him up to the front door of Pam’s new house.

Jim knocked lightly on the storm door and waited for a few seconds, but didn’t hear anything, so he tried again with a bit more gusto, while peering into the large living room window to see if he could spy Pam. What he saw was a very frazzled looking Pam becoming rapidly upright from laying on the couch, and as she got her wits about her she ran over to open the door.

“Hey, sorry Jim, how long have you been out here,” She asked.

“No worries, we just got here,” Jim said, and then gestured down to Kiida sitting beside him, “Pam, say hi to Kiida!”

“Hey Kiida!” Pam said as she came out on to the front steps barefoot to crouch in front of Nikita and scratch her behind her ears, with Nikita closing her eyes and raising her head into the hand appreciatively.

“Watch this,” Jim said, preparing to show off one of Kiida’s cuter moves, “Stay crouched like that.”

“Ok,” Pam affirmed.

Pam wasn’t sure where Jim was going with this, but figured that Nikita would have bitten her already if that was going to happen, so she just did as Jim had instructed and remained crouched in front of the dog, with her big cute tongue lolling about as she panted and her perky ears.

“Kiida, hug,” Jim said in what Pam could only describe as a command voice.

Pam watched as Kiida placed her front paws on Pam’s knees and shoved her head over Pam’s shoulder.

“Aww, that is so cute,” Pam gushed as she embraced the dog, rubbing it’s back a little before letting go, as Kiida went back to sitting in front of her.

Pam remembered the cooler of food at that moment and excused herself to grab it and slipped on some shoes while she was at it.

“I figured we could make a picnic of it if we get hungry,” Pam explained at Jim’s raised eyebrow, “I’m all set, let’s go!”

As they were walking Jim explained how to control Nikita on a walk, explaining that the dog should not be leading her, and how to use the leash to remind Kiida of that.

“Once she gets used to you and knows you’re the boss,” Jim finished explaining, “She will just trot along beside you with no need for the leash. She’s very well trained.”

“I remember some of this from when my family had a dog as a kid,” Pam supplied, “but then again, our dog didn’t really behave most of the time.”

Pam spent the next hour or so in the park with Jim, having him teach her the various commands that Nikita would respond to, there were some of the standard ones like fetch, stay, come here, but also a new one ‘place,’ where Kiida would stay by whatever object you pointed at. Between learning commands, they played a mix of catch, monkey in the middle, and tug of war with Nikita thanks to various toys that Jim had brought.

Jim was sitting against a tree beside Pam where Kiida had draped herself over their feet and settled in to take a nap. Jim looked over to see that Pam looked like she was about to do the same, before suddenly he heard her stomach growl, and he didn’t catch himself before he laughed, startling her out of her haze.

“I guess we should feed the beast, hey Beesly,” he prodded, earning a smile and a light smack on his arm.

Jim cracked open the cooler Pam had brought to find various sandwich supplies and some pop, including grape soda. Jim was touched that Pam knew his favourite pop and recalled fondly the day when he had admitted to the documentary crew that he knew Pam’s favourite flavour of yogurt. Jim had wondered on occasion if there might be something more between them from Pam’s side of the sordid tale of Jim’s unspoken unrequited love for her, but for as many small ticks in the ‘yes’ column he got, he was never really convinced enough to risk their friendship over it.

Jim mentally added another tick to the ‘maybe she likes me too’ column, before chastising himself. She had just gotten out of a very serious long-term relationship with someone who worked in the same building as them, and who could definitely beat him up. Additionally, she had admitted to crying about this what seemed like once daily for the last week, although towards the end of the week this week she had been a bit more chipper than she had been before, just not back to where she had started.

As they ate, they catted idly, and Jim watched Pam run her left hand through the fur on Nikita’s head contentedly. This is what Jim wanted for Pam, regardless of his relationship woes. Jim just wanted to be able to see the look on her face right now, every day. And so, Jim decided, that he could wait and play the faithful friend for as long as it took her to realise that he was there, right under her nose. Of course his inner monologue then threatened him with the scenario where Pam started to date again, and he conceded to making an addendum that if she looked like she was going to start dating he would throw it all on the line at that point, maintaining friendship be damned. He could not watch Pam with another man.

 

Pam was having one of the best days of her life, and as she sat there against a tree with a hand in Nikita’s fur, another holding a sandwich, and her should bumping against her best friend, she sighed in contentment and just closed her eyes and leaned back with a smile. Before long, her sandwich was gone, and clouds were blowing over, blocking out the sun and bringing with them a chill.

“It’s getting chilly out, we should head back,” Pam said regretfully, as she got up to throw their garbage in some nearby bins, waking Nikita in the process who followed her over.

“I see how it is,” Jim said when she returned, nodding at Nikita sitting obediently beside her, “My best friend has stolen man’s best friend from me.”

“Well, she is cuter than you,” Pam said with a giggle as she watches Jim struggle to get up after sitting for so long.

“Seriously though, I’m glad to see that she’s taken to you,” Jim said earnestly as they began their walk back, “So do you think you’ll take her?”

“Yeah, I’d really like to,” Pam said with a smile and nodded.

They continued in companionable silence for a few minutes before Pam asked, “What are the next steps?”

“Well,” Jim said as they rounded the last corner and started walking towards her house, “I get the kennel, dogfood, and bowls from my car, place them in your house, and take the leash off her, how’s that sound?”

“What,” Pam asked in disbelief, “I meant like how much do your Aunt and Uncle want for her,” Pam tried to clarify.

“Zilch, Beesly, they just wanted to be sure that Kiida was going to a good home,” Jim explained as they mounted the steps, “And if I do say so myself I put in a pretty good word for you.”

“Oh,” Pam said as she opened the door, moving into the house with Nikita at her heels.

“And I can bring by the rest of her stuff by tomorrow if that works for you,” Jim continued behind her, heedless to her emotions bubbling up and threatening to spill over.

“Oh,” was all Pam could muster in response as she felt dizzy and started tearing up, so she took a few long strides to the couch to sit down.

“Pam, are you ok,” Jim asked, his voice coloured with concern as he could finally see her tears with her sitting on the couch.

“I’m fine,” Pam said giving him a watery smile and fanning herself, “These are happy tears.”

Pam was surprised to find Nikita had suddenly bounded up onto the couch, and before she could react the dog had placed her paws and head across Pam’s lap, looking up at her with those cute big brown eyes. Pam stroked behind Nikita’s ears with one hand while she wiped at her eyes and tried to control her tears.

“Ah, happy tears, of course, how could I have not know,” Jim said, and Pam could tell he was trying to spare her the embarrassment of having cried in front of him at least twice in the last week, “Regardless, Nikita is well trained to deal with situations such as these,” he finished in a mock serious tone, getting a chuckle out of Pam.

 

 

Jim left Pam to sit on the couch for a minute and leaned down to pick up the cooler from where she had left it and try to put it away why she collected herself. Jim entered the kitchen and started with unpacking everything, putting the sandwich stuff away in the fridge and pantry, before pondering where made the most sense to put the cooler. Eventually Jim settled for on top of the pantry, and just as he finished placing it there, he heard Pam enter the kitchen with the telltale clicking of Nikita’s paws behind her.

“Now just how do you expect me to get that down,” Pam said with a mock glare, seemingly back to her cheerful disposition of earlier this morning.

“Well you see,” Jim explained, “This is all a part of my master plan. You’ll have to recruit a certain tall individual to get it down for you, and in return they will be granted a share of whatever is going into the cooler.”

“Oh, really now, and why do I feel like you might know just who this tall individual might be,” she rebutted.

“Beesly, you wound me, how dare you insinuate such a thing,” Jim said with mock hurt, clutching his chest.

“You’re the one holding my cooler hostage for food,” Pam said with mock indignation, before breaking into a giggle that lit up her face, Jim smiled back at her.

“Well if that’s the way you want to play it, I shall away,” Jim said, returning to his character, and promptly exiting the house.

Jim used the opportunity to grab the rest of Nikita’s stuff from his car and lug it all back to Pam’s house in her kennel. After depositing it in Pam’s living room he looked to the clock and realised he had to be on his way if he was going to be on time for his weekly game. As Jim bid goodbye to Nikita with a rub between the eyes, he turned to say bye to Pam and was pleasantly surprised to find himself wrapped in a hug from her for what had to be at least the third time this last week.

“Thank you so much for today, Jim,” she said as she squeezed him a bit tighter, “You have no idea how much your friendship means to me.”

“Me too,” he said as he squeezed back and gave her back a few pats, before she broke away.

“We should do this again sometime,” Pam said, looking incredibly cute and shy in that moment.

“Absolutely, we should,” Jim agreed, before glancing at the clock again, he was running late. As much as he wanted to stay here with Pam a while longer he had promised Mark after missing last week’s game that he would be there today, and so, with great regret he bid goodbye and goodnight to Pam, and left.

End Notes:

How long will Jim manage to keep his promise to himself, or will he not have to? What other major changes is Pam going to make in her life?

The answer to all of these questions and more... is not in the outline yet! I really need to get on that!

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thank you so much to all of you reviewing, you make this so much more fun to write. 

Happy Hour by DoomGoose
Author's Notes:
The Dunder Mifflin gang goes to Poor Richards.

It was Friday, almost two weeks after Nikita had entered Pam’s life and she felt like she was finally getting the hang of things. Her parents had come out last weekend to meet the dog and they were smitten, and they had taken plenty of pictures with Pam, Nikita, Will, and Helene. One of the pictures was of Pam sitting on the front steps of her house with Nikita on the landing poking her head out from behind her, which she had taped up just beside a family photo next to her monitor at work. One of the less fun things about living with a dog was making sure that one got home on time to let it out of the house to do its business. On the bright side as Pam had discovered last week, a dog was a great excuse for getting out of working late, as she had managed to guilt Michael into letting her go home to take care of Nikita when he asked everyone to stay late to finish expense reports for last month.

An unintended side effect of revealing to the office that she had a dog was dealing with even more condescending attitude from Angela then usual, and Kelly’s endless barrage of asking for pictures. Pam had remarked to Jim the other day that it looked like she wasn’t going to be invited to any more cat parties, and that was fine by her.

It was getting close to the end of the workday when Kevin approached her desk to let her know that her coworkers were all going over to Poor Richards after work, asking if she would like to join them. Pam made a noncommittal response about having to go home and let Nikita out, but she’d see.

Jim heard Kevin making his way around the office inviting everyone out for drinks and couldn’t help but be excited for another chance to hang out with Pam outside of work, short of inviting himself over now that she lived within walking distance. Jim was a little disappointed when he heard Pam’s answer to Kevin’s invitation, but he resolved that he would get Pam out of the house if it was the last thing he did, because she needed some fun in her life right about now. With that, Jim stood and made his way over to reception to see if he could change her mind.

“Hey, you coming to Poor Richards,” Jim asked nonchalantly as he leaned against her desk.

“I don’t know, I’d have to let Kiida out, and then come back across town,” Pam trailed off noncommittally.

“I think you should come, it’ll be fun,” Jim pressed.

“I won’t even be able to get drunk Jim,” Pam said with exasperation, “somehow I always get nominated designated driver when I’m the only one in the car,” she trailed off.

“Pam-Pam-Pam, need I remind you that we live like a block away from each other, I will drive you,” Jim promised.

“Oh alright,” Pam conceded, “But only because you volunteered to be designated driver.”

“Perfect, so I’ll follow you home and we can go straight to Poor Richards after you let Kiida out,” Jim said, leaving no room for negotiation.

“Fine, twist my arm why don’t you,” Pam said with a small smile.

Jim just shot her a smirk and stole some jellybeans before retreating to his desk to run out the clock.

Pam was a little nervous about going to Poor Richard’s, though she hid it well. There was a not-insignificant chance that she would run into Roy there, as it was one of the bars that he frequented. By the time she was pulling into the parking lot and getting out of Jim’s car, she felt like a nervous ball, and so when she sat down she immediately started on some fruity drink that Kelly put in front of her, trying to take the edge off the nerves.

After having another drink foisted upon her by Kelly, Pam decided she had better slow down and switch to beer, as she was already feeling kind of giggly. On the bright side she had forgotten what she was so nervous about, being in a bar with her best friend and inebriated co-workers wasn’t so bad a place to be on a Friday night. It was easy, she didn’t need to impress anyone or meet new people, just unwind from their shared Dunder Mifflin experience. Jim said something to her that struck her as funny and she almost fell off of her stool giggling before he caught her by the elbow.

“That’s enough of that I think, I’m going to go grab you some water,” he said, removing her beer from the coaster in front of her even though it was only half empty, and turning to go and get her some water.

“It better have the lime slice,” Pam yelled out after him, drawing some funny looks from her coworkers, before they decided to ignore her outburst and go back to whatever they were taking about.

“Oh my gosh, Pam, don’t look behind you,” Kelly rambled, coming to sit in the empty stool that Jim had left, “Roy is coming this way, he like, totatlly gonna beg you to take him back I bet! It’s gonna be so romantic!”

“He lost the ring you know,” Pam admitted to Kelly, not quite sure why she had told her that in the moment, and decided to blame the drinks Kelly had plied her with.

“Oh my god, seriously,” Kelly exclaimed, “No wonder you dumped him,” she said, doing a complete one-eighty so quickly Pam’s head felt like it was spinning, “Oh no, here he comes!”

“Pammy?” Roy asked from behind her, “Pammy!” he exclaimed when she finally turned to face him.

“Yes, Roy,” Pam asked as neutrally as she could, trying to withhold the derision from her tone.

“Why haven’t you returned any of my calls,” he whined.

“Must have slipped my mind,” Pam said sarcastically, emboldened by the liquor in her stomach.

“C’mon Pammy, don’t be like that, I need you so much,” Roy pleaded.

“Mmm,” Pam mimed considering his words, “No.”

“The apartment isn’t the same without you, it’s a mess, I’m a mess, just come home with me and we can start over,” he begged.

“Roy, leave me alone,” Pam said, losing her patience, before recalling her conversation with Jim on the day they broke up with a vindictive smirk.

“I have a dog that I love much more than you to take care of already, I don’t need another,” she said spitefully.

Jim had just reached the bar and asked for some water when he saw Roy making his way over towards the corner that Dunder Mifflin had occupied for the night. Water forgotten, he started elbowing his way back over, worrying that things might get ugly with two drunk ex-fiancés having a chat. He arrived just in time to hear Pam asking him to leave her alone and make a biting remark about already having a dog that shocked him and warmed his heart at the same time. Jim recalled making that joke to her on the day that she had broken up with Roy after he found her in the stairwell. Jim thought Pam probably didn’t see the double meaning there, but he couldn’t help but hope. Before things could escalate further Jim decided it was time to get Pam home and inserted himself into the situation.

“Ok drunky, we should get you home,” Jim said, trying to get Pam out of there, “Why don’t you go grab your coat and I’ll be right out.”

Pam started nodding like a bobble head before getting up and shuffling towards their pile of coats at the end of the table, and it looked to Jim like Roy wasn’t quite finished.

“Pammy,” Roy roared after her, while Jim moved to put his body in between them, “Don’t leave!”

“Roy,” Jim said, holding an arm out, “She asked you to leave her alone, ok? Just let it go.”

“Just- Just who do you think you are, Halpert,” Roy stammered angrily, his nostrils flaring, and shoulders squared, “So she goes home with you now, huh? You sure move fast!”

Before Jim could refute that statement, as much as he wanted it to be true, he was on the floor. Hearing sounds of a scuffle he rolled his head to look up and saw Kevin and Darryl holding Roy’s arms back. In his dazed state, Jim decided it was time to go now, and he found Dwight of all people giving him a hand up before placing himself between Jim and Roy with his hands on his hips, looking very martial.

“…im, Jim! Are you ok,” he heard Pam asking as her face swam into focus in front of him, looking sick with worry, or maybe alcohol, it was hard to tell in the moment.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he assured her, “Just a little dazed is all, let’s get you out of here.”

“Are you sure,” she asked, not seeming to believe him.

“Nothing a freeze pack won’t fix, plus, I don’t even feel a thing yet,” he tried to assure her with a smirk, but ended up grimacing as he did in fact, feel that.

They got the rest of the way to the car, and a considerable way home in awkward silence, neither of them really knowing how to break it, when suddenly Pam burst out giggling.

“What,” Jim asked, dying to know what drunk Pam thought was so funny about all of this.

“I, ah, called Roy a dog,” she managed to get out between giggles, and then sobering she said with a frown, “And I said that I love Nikita more than him,” she trailed off.

“I’m not sure how that makes me feel, that I can love a dog I’ve had for almost two weeks more than I love a man I was with for almost ten years,” she admitted to Jim, looking very small in that moment.

Jim wasn’t sure what to say to that as he pulled up in front of her house.

“I said some really hurtful things tonight Jim, and that just isn’t me, I don’t like being like that,” she continued, filling in the silence and sniffling.

“Pam, you’re drunk, let’s get you inside and you can sleep it off, you’ll feel better in the morning,” Jim reasoned with her, before adding, “And I know that isn’t you, ok?”

“Ok,” Pam said tiredly, as Jim got out and came around to help her into the house.

“Try and get some sleep Pam, and call to let me know you’re ok in the morning, all right,” Jim asked as he leaned against the wall outside her front door.

“Ok, g’night Jim,” she said tiredly as she opened the door and was greeted by an excited Nikita.

“G’night Pam.”

Jim drove home to put an icepack on his throbbing cheek for a while, much to the amusement of Mark. Jim then went to bed, where he tossed and turned restlessly, still feeling the adrenaline high of being attacked by Roy.

End Notes:

I hope you folks enjoy this. Thank you to everyone reviewing with kind words, encouragement, and constructive criticism. 

I'm taking requests on how you'd like Roy expunged from the narrative. The idea to beat is arrested on a drunken rampage and/or DUI as in canon.

Thanks for reading, and good relative planetary rotation to you too! 

We All Deserve Raises by DoomGoose
Author's Notes:
Pam starts some plans for the future.

Monday’s were particularly slow for Pam at work, and so she usually found herself with a lot of free time on her hands. Today was no different, and so Pam with nothing better to do found herself reflecting on the troubles and triumphs of her past few tumultuous weeks. A reminder of one such trouble was sitting across from her, a bruise on her best friend’s face that was received standing up for her. A triumph stared her in the face in the form of the picture of her new house and dog, the happiness that she felt looking at that photo was almost enough to drown out the worry that Roy might do something drastic to Jim – aside from hitting him in the face that is.

According to Jim’s retelling of the encounter at Poor Richards when he stopped by to check on her Saturday afternoon, Roy had been especially upset that Jim was giving her a ride home, which stuck Pam as odd seeing as Roy knew Jim was her best friend. Best friends gave each other rides home from bars all the time; Pam had convinced herself. Pam was still confused as to why her ex-fiancé would deck her best friend for driving her home, but Jim had had nothing more to say on the matter over the weekend, just shrugging it off.

Mind you, Pam thought to herself, Jim had never really like talking about Roy, they just didn’t get along all that well. Roy was the stocky sports guy, and Jim was… the tall, lanky sports guy? They both liked basketball, she reasoned, so they at least had that in common. Pam decided not to waste any more time on trying to figure out why Roy and Jim didn’t seem to like each other and thought instead of what her mom had confronted her with on the night she moved into her house.

Her mother had challenged her to recall the last time she had thought about pursing her art, and Pam wanted to change her answer. Today, she was going to enroll in an art class. She wasn’t really sure what it would be, because she hadn’t looked at what was out there yet, but it had to be cheap and in the evenings, so that probably narrowed it down quite a bit she thought. She started looking on the internet for classes in the Scranton area, but so far, she wasn’t very pleased with what she was seeing as far as prices went. Pam just didn’t have money in the bank to pay the enrollment up front for most of these classes, and the thought of taking out a loan just to pay tuition for one lousy evening art class was disheartening.

Jim glanced up from his monitor to see Pam frowning, staring intensely at something on her computer screen. He thought maybe Michael had emailed her an obscene forward, or another runaway bride joke, so he got up to see if her could cheer her up.

“Hey, why the long face,” He asked as he leaned on her desk and popped a jellybean in his mouth.

“It’s nothing, I just,” She started and then sighed, “I wanted to see if I could enroll in an evening art course, but with the car, house, and Nikita I’ve used up a lot of my cash on hand,” she said, gesturing on her screen to some course prices.

“Well, what about your parents,” Jim offered, “Surely they would support you doing this.”

“It’s not that they wouldn’t,” Pam said, looking embarrassed, “It’s just, I need to be able to do things on my own now, you know? I can’t just go running to Mom and Dad every time I have a problem, they’ve already done so much for me these last few weeks,” she explained, looking downcast.

“I get that,” Jim said, trying to reason with her, “My parents are the same way, they paid for all of my gas when I was in college so that I wouldn’t have an excuse not to come home and visit. Pam, they just want you to be happy, and if this art course is going to make you happy, I bet they’ll be all over it.”

“I know, I know,” She said, “But I can’t ask them for more than they’ve already given me Jim, it’s just that they have been so great with the whole Roy thing, and moving, and coming out to visit, and finding me a house, and a car, I just can’t ask for more Jim, they have done so much already.”

“Ok, I’ll drop it,” Jim said to placate her, seeing that he wasn’t going to get anywhere further with that, “Let’s switch gears; have you thought about asking for a raise?”

“Um, no,” Pam admitted, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, “I don’t think they would give me one.”

“Oh, come on, you are selling yourself so short here Beesly,” Jim encouraged, “The way that you manage Michael – you are practically the branch manager. Without you herding Michael nothing would get done around here.”

“Thanks Jim, but I just don’t know,” She trailed off.

“How awesome you are,” Jim jumped in, finishing her sentence and earning a small smile from her, “Fine, we’ll put that one under maybe and circle back to it later.”

“Any other ideas,” Pam asked, looking up at him with a raised eyebrow.

Jim hummed as he wracked his brain for anything else.

Jim remembered that Ryan had made an offhand comment at one point that he wished he wasn’t a temporary employee, because then he’d be eligible for some corporate professional development programs. Jim was surprised at himself for remembering that because it had been like the first week the documentary crew had been filming them.

“Actually yes,” he started tentatively, “There might be some money from corporate available, I remember Ryan mentioned it once because he couldn’t apply as a temp, Toby might be able to figure something out,” Jim finished hopefully.

“That sounds like a longshot don’t you think,” Pam said disappointedly.

“You won’t know unless you try Pam, no harm in asking,” Jim tried to bolster her confidence.

“Yeah, only embarrassment and shame asking for handouts,” She said with a chuckle, trying to brush it off.

“You’ve gotta take a chance Pam, you deserve to be happy,” Jim said as his parting shot, before tapping her desk and returning to his to get some work done.

Her conversation with Jim had given Pam a lot to think about. She wasn’t really pleased with the way they had left things, Pam felt Jim’s last barb deep in her churning stomach, not really sure how to deal with it. The words at face value were encouraging, but the tone he had used… made him sound disappointed in her. Jim had always been there to encourage Pam to pursue her art, so it made sense that he was frustrated that she couldn’t go after it she reasoned. Although, Pam had to admit to herself, she could take any of the options he’d laid out for her, it was just that she wouldn’t ask her parents for more money, and she wasn’t assertive enough to ask for a raise.

Ok, screw that, Pam thought to herself, if she was assertive enough to break up with Roy in front of a camera, she could ask Toby to file a request for a raise for her. While she was at it, it wouldn’t hurt to look into corporate professional development money that Jim had mentioned. With her resolve steeled and a fire in her belly, Pam got up from her desk determined to replace the disappointment on Jim’s face with a stupid lopsided grin.

Pam set the phones to voicemail and walked towards the annex with her head down and her arms wrapped around her stomach with her hands tucked into her cardigan sleeves. Ok, so she wasn’t assertive enough to look over at Jim and challenge his gaze, she admitted to herself, but she was still going to talk to Toby.

Jim couldn’t help smirking a little as he saw Pam cross the office towards the annex, looking so small with her arms wrapped around herself but at the same time so determined. There was a confidence in her step that Jim didn’t often see in her. Jim wasn’t sure if she was going to talk to Toby to prove him wrong, or just for herself, but he was immensely proud to see her trying it anyway. She had grown a lot in the past few weeks. From her first outburst breaking up with Roy, to asserting herself and not saying yes to everything people asked of her. He just wished that Pam could see how awesome she was.

Pam entered the annex and seeing Toby at his desk she pulled a spare chair up.

“Hey Toby, do you have a minute,” She asked as she sat down.

“Of course, Pam, what can I do for you,” Toby replied with a small smile as he pushed his chair out a little to face her better.

“I was wondering if there are any professional development programs available from corporate for art,” Pam explained, “I was looking into taking some evening classes and I just don’t have the funds to sign up for anything.”

“Well,” Toby said with a hum, “Nothing for art per se, but… if you can convince corporate it’s graphic design related there are a few grants for that,” he supplied.

“There is also an internship for graphic design offered at the corporate offices,” Toby continued, “but it only runs once a year starting at the end of April, so you’ve missed the deadline for that unfortunately,” he finished sadly.

“How have I never heard of this,” Pam asks, frustrated. That sounded like an amazing opportunity.

“Well it’s not really intended for employees, it’s more for students,” Toby explained as he pulled Pam’s personnel file from a cabinet, “So we don’t advertise it internally. With your two years of schooling though, you might be able to qualify,” he said after looking at the resume that Pam had submitted as part of the hiring process all those years ago.

“Well that’s kind of a bummer,” Pam said, feeling the corners of her mouth dip, “So all I can really do is try to convince corporate somehow that my painting class is a prelude to graphic design?”

“Well when you put it like that,” Toby said with a sad smile and a shrug, “Have you thought about a mixed media class,” he offered.

“My wife took one once and it had all sorts of things like photography, computer design, and some drawing and painting too,” Toby said with a wistful smile.

“No,” Pam said, surprised she hadn’t thought of that, “I hadn’t even considered it, thanks Toby,” Pam said with a wide smile. Mixed media would certainly be easier to sell corporate on, she thought to herself.

“Any time Pam,” Toby said shyly.

“Hey, while I’m here, could I ask you about something else?”

“Sure, go ahead,” Toby nodded.

Pam took a deep breath and prepared herself. She had a few talking points that she had been able to come up with in her head, she just hoped that she didn’t butcher them.

“Would I be able to get a raise,” Pam asked, and met with silence from Toby she continued on, “It’s just that, I’ve been here for a few years and I’ve never asked for one, and cost of living has gone up several times, and I feel I’m an important part of the administrative team in the office, I facilitate all of Michaels meetings and -,” Pam was cut off by Toby.

“Whoa, ok, slow down and take a breath Pam,” he said with a  chuckle and a slight grin, “Yes I can put in a request for a raise for you, I can’t say if you’re going to get it or not though,” he explained to her.

“I just really feel like I deserve a raise,” Pam said with determination, “Michael would hardly get anything done without me here.”

“You are… not wrong,” Toby conceded, “I’ll see if I can sell Jan on the idea, I’ll let you know ok?”

“Great, thanks Toby.”

“Was there anything else I could do for you? I know you and Roy… Just, If you ever want to talk about it… I’ve been there, and I’m a trained counselor,” Toby said as her looked at her with something in his eyes that she couldn’t really discern.

“Thanks again Toby,” Pam said as she got up, purposefully ignoring the last bit as she felt a little awkward and exited the annex to return to her desk.

Jim noticed Pam enter the office again several minutes later and saw that she was taking the long way around which meant she would be stopping by his desk. As she approached Jim noticed she looked decidedly nervous, so he turned towards her in his chair and held up his hand for a high five.

“Proud of you Beesly,” Jim said with a smirk as she high fived him with a grin breaking out on her face. She did a strangely cute thing where she grabbed his hand and squeezed after making contact, before letting go.

Dwight chose this moment to interject, “Pfft, you have nothing to be proud of her for, she can’t even secure a mate.”

Before Jim could say anything, Pam had taken the two steps towards Dwight from where she was standing at the side of Jim’s desk and slapped the smug look right off his face.

“You’re a jerk!” She yelled, her voice wavering, and then stormed away towards the exit of the office.

Jim turned his head back from watching Pam storm out when he heard Dwight make a sound of appreciation at the back of his throat, and saw a stupid look on his face as he ogled Pam’s ass as she stomped out of the office.

“She has fine childbearing hips,” Dwight said dazedly, “You wouldn’t assume that by the way she dresses,” he continued, before suddenly straightening up and looking down at his desk. Jim thought he might have heard a feminine ‘hmph’ from over by accounting but couldn’t be sure.

Jim was disgusted that Dwight would say such a thing, even if he couldn’t help but agree.

“Dwight,” Jim said slowly, “You are an ass.”

Jim got up and left the office to go find Pam.

End Notes:

I'm so encouraged by all of the reviews you folks leave, thank you.

I don't consider myself a very good writer, so the fact that you lot are enjoying this story means a lot to me.

Thanks for all of the feedback and thoughts!

And for the winning idea of Roy plot-disposal, tune in next time (I hope)!

Confusion and Regrets by DoomGoose
Author's Notes:
Pam makes some progress.

Pam let her feet take her to the base of the ladder to the roof. She was frustrated by a myriad of things and it had all culminated in Dwight’s terribly hurtful snipe at her recent relationship status change. Now, Pam was embarrassed that she had slapped him and stormed out like a temperamental little girl, her face felt like it was burning and the cool air on the roof soothed her slightly. Pam knew she would have to go back down and apologise to Dwight eventually, lest Toby catch wind of the incident and make them sit through one of his conflict resolution meetings with the binder.

Pam walked towards the edge of the roof and leaned against the parapet overlooking the loading bay and gazed over at the undeveloped lot just across the hedgerow. Pam figured that she had a few minutes before Jim came to find her. He always seemed to know to give her enough time to put herself back together before he showed up, and Pam loved that he just somehow knew. Jim knew how long to wait so that she was collected, but not long enough that she was wallowing in her feelings. In these last few weeks, he had amazed her with the skill, or attunement, whatever you wanted to call it. Her best friend was more in tune with her then her ex-fiancé had been in the last few years of their relationship.

Wasn’t your best friend supposed to be your fiancé, Pam thought wistfully. Pam would have described Roy as her best friend at one point, but lately, Pam had wondered when that changed. When had her best friend and fiancé become two separate entities, one to talk to and laugh with, and the other to love and hold. Before Pam could chew on the idea further, she felt Jim’s presence behind her, looking to the right to see him moving to lean with his back against the parapet beside her.

“Hey,” Pam greeted a little hoarsely, clearing her throat and twisting to face Jim.

“Hey yourself,” Jim replied with a smirk, “You know, I’ve always wanted to smack Dwight, but I’ve never had the opportunity,” he mused aloud, looking toward the sky.

“Oh my god, don’t even,” Pam said exasperatedly, but not able to help the smile tugging at her lips, “I am so embarrassed that I did that, you have no idea,” she continued, feeling the blush burning up her neck again.

“I don’t think it’s that big a deal Pam,” Jim said, his tone reassuring, “Dwight is probably too embarrassed that he was hit by a girl to go to HR,” he finished, and Pam couldn’t hold back her snort at that.

“Plus, you know how Dwight is,” Jim continued, “He actually seemed really impressed with you when you left.”

“Really,” Pam said with a raised eyebrow, Jim nodded, “Why would- You don’t think- No, no, that’s disgusting, Jim do you think Dwight is…?”

“What? Is Dwight what, Beesly?” Jim asked, searching her face intently.

“Is he a, a … masochist? Like, does he like that sort of thing?” Pam got out haltingly.

“Oh my god, Bees,” Jim said, clutching his stomach as he started laughing, “You did not just say that,” he managed between gasps.

“I mean let’s observe the facts here,” Pam said, giggling, “He responds well to authority-”

“Dog like obedience,” Jim butts in.

“And now, he likes being slapped,” Pam said, her voice raising at the end like a question.

“I don’t want to think about that Pam,” Jim said with a sigh, finally recovering from his fit of laughter.

“No, you’re right, that’s just crazy,” Pam said hurriedly, “We never had this conversation… I need some bleach for my brain now,” she finished, making a gagging motion.

Jim leans there against the wall for a few minutes, just watching Pam in companionable silence, watching the cool breeze blow her hair around. Jim wants nothing more than to be able to reach out and tuck it back into place, but sadly Jim admits to himself, he’s no closer to making a declaration of love than he was two weeks ago. Sure, Pam has hugged him a few times, kissed him on the cheek once, and touched his hand for longer than was strictly necessary, but these last few weeks had been a tremendously emotional time for her, and so he tried not to torture himself by reading into these touches too much. Jim watched as Pam ducked her head down and cutely tucked some hair back behind her ear. He was shocked out of his reverie when he heard her gasp.

“Oh my god,” Pam exclaimed, pointing down towards the ground, “Is that the purse girl?”

Jim turned fully around and leaned over to look at where she was pointing, seeing a shock of red hair down below.

“I don’t know,” Jim said, puzzled, “Why would she be back here, she’s already sold here just a few weeks ago,” Jim questioned, dreading what the answer might be for Pam’s sake.

Jim cringed as Roy exited the warehouse from the man door and moved towards Katy after spying her walking towards the loading bay from the parking lot. Beside him, Pam let out a harsh bark of a laugh.

“You have got to be kidding me,” She said with disbelief, as Roy and Katy closed the distance.

Jim chose to watch Pam’s face, instead of Roy and Katy’s embrace, seeing her lip curling and forehead scrunching in disgust.

“Correct me if I’m wrong here Jim,” Pam deadpanned, “But that does not seem to be first or second date behaviour,” She gestured to the pair that had moved to enthusiastically making out against one of the dumpsters in the lane.

“You’re not wrong,” Jim agreed apprehensively, not quite sure how Pam was going to take another blow to her ego today.

“Disgusting,” Pam said with disdain, “And to think, he made such a stink on Friday about coming back, when he was probably already dating her- not to mention decking you for no good reason,” she rolled her eyes, and turned away.

Jim followed suit and bumped shoulders with her while twisting around again. Anger was better than tears Jim supposed.

“I don’t know why I’m surprised,” Pam continued, “Hell, I practically told him to go for it when we broke up the first time… I just didn’t expect him to actually do it.”

“Like seriously,” Pam vented, “How did I let things get this far? How invested could Roy have seriously been in our relationship if he’s already moved on- with Pam six point-fucking-oh of all people,” she finished, balling her hands and rubbing her eyes furiously with her heels.

“I’m sorry you had to see that Pam,” Jim said, trying to assuage her frustration.

“I’m not,” she said tiredly, “Maybe now he’ll leave me alone and let me get on with my life.”

“If I had it my way he’d just disappear,” Jim admitted, “All he seems to do is make you upset.”

Jim played back what he just said in his head and was afraid he had revealed too much of his hand, but before he could backpedal Pam replied.

“That’s the saddest part, you know, there were good times, a long time ago,” she explained, looking wistful, “But as the years went by… they just got further and further apart,” Pam finished sadly.

“Anyway,” Pam sighed, “We should probably head back down before Dwight threatens to dock our lunch break.”

As Pam walked back to the office with Jim, she began to muster her strength for the inevitable confrontation with Dwight. When it didn’t happen before the lunch hour Pam was both relieved and concerned. Relieved, because she didn’t really want to deal with it, but concerned, because the longer it festered the greater the chance was that the event would be damaging to the weird frenemy type relationship that Pam and Dwight had. After an enjoyable lunch sitting with Jim that was nonetheless shadowed by these worries, Pam determined that if Dwight did not approach her by the end of the day she would have to initiate, as much as she hated putting herself out there like that.

Around the middle of the afternoon, Michael stormed out into the bullpen to make an announcement.

“Conference room, five seconds,” Michael exclaimed, and Pam rolled her eyes at Jim behind his back, causing Jim to raise his hand to his face to hide a smile.

Pam put the phones on voicemail as everyone grumbled and shuffled their way towards the conference room, Michael’s Monday meetings were usually notoriously bad ideas. Jim lingered at his desk and entered the conference room behind her, sitting down beside her in the second row of chairs that had been assembled as people ambled in.

“Now that we’re all here,” Michael said with a significant look to Jim and Pam, who had been the last ones to enter, “We may begin!”

“So, I know what you’re all thinking, Michael, why did you call this amazing meeting, thank you for giving us some time away from our desks,” he said the last part in falsetto.

Jim smirked over at her and she couldn’t help but try and stifle a giggle with her hand over her mouth.

“I have invented the solution to hump day,” Michael exclaimed, with jazz hands for added effect earning a groan from the room.

“Get on with it,” Stanley mumbled from behind Pam.

“I was getting there, Stanley! The solution to hump day is obviously a shorter workday!”

This was met with tentative cheer, although those wise to Michael’s great ideas were waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“To accomplish this, I am implementing an experimental anti-hump day,” Michael said while gesticulating randomly, “Where we will have a pizza party and then work another three hours after work! The best part is, we start tomorrow!”

The room erupted at this, an ‘I have plans’ from Stanley and a couple of other yelled complaints that Pam couldn’t quite make out over the cacophony. As things started settling down from chaos to depression, Pam made her play.

“Michael,” Pam said with her hand raised to get his attention, “I have to let my dog Nikita out after work, there’s no way I can stay that late,” she finished, and as Michael looked up to ponder this with a pained look, she shot a triumphantly raised eyebrow at Jim.

Her look quickly changed to a grimace as Michael announced loudly, “All right everybody! Thanks to Pam’s high-needs dog, tomorrow will also be bring your pet to work day!”

“Michael we can’t-” Toby started but was interrupted.

“Ah! No! Shut your face Toby, you will not suck the fun out of this plan! Why are you even here?”

At this, Toby stood with his head hung low and exited the room, as seemed to be routine for conference room meetings by this point.

“All right, any questions,” Michael asked. He promptly dismissed them all before people could start asking questions and closed the door to his office.

Jim raised an eyebrow at Pam as if to say, ‘You got what you deserved.’

“Could be worse,” Pam said, “At least I’ll have you and Kiida around to keep me sane. It’s not like anyone calls after hours, they hardly call during hours.”

As everyone started filing out of the conference room, Pam told Jim that she’d catch up and caught Dwight’s attention by tapping his shoulder.

“Yes,” Dwight asked, looking down his nose at her, almost breaking her resolve to apologise.

“Hey, Dwight, I just… I wanted to apologise for hitting you earlier,” Pam stalled, “I shouldn’t have done that, violence is never the answer, I’m sorry.”

“Historically speaking you would be incorrect,” Dwight stated, “Regardless… I will accept your apology.”

After a pause, Pam looked at him expectantly, “And?” She prompted.

“And… I am sorry if I may have… offended your feelings… with my commentary on observations,” He said haltingly, if sincerely, which was honestly a surprise to Pam.

“Apology accepted,” She said, holding out her hand to shake with a small smile.

Dwight shook her hand, and with a nod, quickly exited the room. Pam was relieved to have dealt with that, it was a weight off her shoulders. As Pam turned to walk back to her desk, she smiled at the thumbs up that Jim sent her way. For such a terrible and messy day, it wasn’t looking like such a bad end. Sure, her ex-fiancé had some new floozy, but she might be able to enroll in art classes soon, and she got to hang out with Nikita all day tomorrow. It was the little things, Pam told herself, that really mattered. Like the way Jim smiled at her after she talked to Toby earlier, or how he just always seemed to be there for her these last few weeks.

Pam felt guilty, as she admitted to herself, she was secretly glad that Jim was single right now, because if he wasn’t, he likely wouldn’t have the time to spend with her these last few weeks. He certainly shouldn’t have any problems in the ladies department, Pam thought to herself, remembering checking him out at the basketball game down in the warehouse. There was certainly an appeal there, as he seemed more muscular than his lanky frame would imply. Pam shook herself from these thoughts, he’s my best friend, she chastised herself, he surely wouldn’t be thinking about her in that way, not when he could probably have any girl he wanted.

Pam didn’t quite succeed, as she wondered back to the kitchen that day, asking herself, what was his type really? It certainly wasn’t moms, that was obviously a joke answer meant to divert the flow of the conversation. Pam sighed, there was no use in speculating, she should just enjoy the time and attention while it lasts before he finds himself another girlfriend. Sure, he hadn’t mentioned dating anyone seriously in a while, but that could change in short order, if Roy was an example, Pam thought, shaking her head to dispel these thoughts for the time being.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, and after leaving the office with Jim at the end of the day and following him most of the way home, she was glad to be in a simpler place, away from the storm cloud of confusion and emotions that seemed to hang over the office. A simpler place, with unconditional love from an energetic dog, she thought with a smile as she was greeted by Nikita wagging her tail and licking her hand. Tomorrow was going to be a good day, Pam promised herself, nothing could bring her down when she had both her best friends in the office.

End Notes:

Thank you everyone reading and reviewing!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I am really looking forward to the hi-jinks in the next one! 

Anti-Hump-Day by DoomGoose
Author's Notes:
Bring your pet to work day/Take a half day on Wednesday-day.

Pam was actually excited on her drive into work today. Probably not for the reasons that Michael would have wanted, but regardless having Nikita to hang out and play with all day was certainly something she could look forward to. Pam had packed Nikita’s favourite blanket, a few toys including a knotted rope, her bowls, and some dog food into her kennel and loaded it into her car earlier this morning. Pam grabbed some poop pouches on her way by the laundry room and called out to Kiida, who came racing down the hallway excitedly to see what all the fuss was about. Pam reached down to scratch behind her ears and then affixed a leash to Nikita’s collar, before grabbing her lunch and leading Nikita out of the house, locking the door behind her.

Pam had been out and about with Nikita enough by this point that she didn’t need to be loaded into her kennel to drive around, and so Pam opened the back passenger side door of her Matrix and motioned for Nikita to hop on in, which she did enthusiastically.

Pam arrived in the parking lot a little later then she usually would, and so most of her coworkers’ cars were already present. Pam decided to bring Nikita’s kennel up first and so she grabbed it out of the trunk, telling her to stay as she tried to climb out the back after the kennel. Pam couldn’t help but grin at this. Pam quickly nipped into the office to put the kennel down, but didn’t really see a good place for it, as there was not a lot of room behind her desk. Pam decided that it could wait and quickly walked up to her desk and deposited the kennel in front of it.

“Good morning, Beesly,” Pam heard Jim call from his desk.

“Morning Jim,” Pam said as she turned to give him a quick wave, “Be right back!”

Pam went back to her car and got Nikita out, locking it after closing the door behind her, and walked back into the building. Deciding to avoid the elevator just in case someone she rode up with had allergies or something, Pam took Nikita up the stairs to their floor and walked her to the office with her leash held loosely, pleased to see she wasn’t straying too far in the new and exciting environment.

Jim waited for Pam to come back into the office with Nikita, he was excited to see Pam with Nikita all day, hoping that the look of joy and contentment he had seen the first time Pam met Nikita would make another appearance.

Jim heard the door to the office open, followed by Kevin’s voice.

“That’s a nice doggy,” Kevin said slowly, and Jim turned to see him rubbing behind Nikita’s ears, both of them looking very pleased.

“Thanks Kev,” Pam said, and Jim’s gaze snapped to see her on the other side of Nikita and Kevin, a beaming smile on her face.

“Kiida,” Jim called out, rolling away from his desk and patting his legs as Kevin walked by to accounting, “Hug!”

Nikita did the cutest thing, looking up to Pam as she stood beside her seeming to ask permission. Pam smiled even wider and let go of Nikita’s leash, and that was all the permission the dog needed to bound up to Jim and practically jump in his lap. Jim gave Kiida a rough rub on her spine that he knew she to liked, before letting her down to the floor again.

“Oh my god, that is soooo cute,” Jim heard Kelly squeal, and he turned to see her standing at the kitchen door with her hands covering her mouth in glee.

Jim noticed Phyllis also looking at him with a matronly smile, while Stanley looked on with indifference, already working on his morning crossword puzzle.

“Aren’t you going to introduce us Pam,” Phyllis said with a smile and a nod to Nikita.

“Of course,” Pam said as she picked up Nikita’s leash and led her to a few feet from Phyllis’ desk, before getting her to sit. By this point Kelly had come up to stand behind Phyllis, bouncing on her feet.

“This is my dog, her name is Nikita,” Pam said, making a Vanna White gesture showing off Nikita, causing Jim to hide a wide smile behind his hand at how proud Pam looked.

“Oh, isn’t she just a dear,” Phyllis gushed, “So well behaved, where did you find her?”

“Can I pet her,” Kelly burst, finally losing her resolve to stand behind Phyllis.

“Go ahead,” Pam said with a smile as Kelly came around and kneeled in front of Nikita, “Nikita was actually Jim’s cousin’s old dog,” Pam addressed Phyllis’ question.

“Oh, that wasn’t the one that,” Phyllis trailed off with a look to Jim, he nodded in reply, “Oh my, that was such a tragedy, I’m so sorry Jim,” Jim simply nodded, accepting Phyllis’ sympathies, not wanting to dwell on the topic of his cousin.

“She is so cute, aren’t you girl,” Kelly said while rubbing Nikita’s cheeks, seemingly oblivious to the conversation going on over her head.

Kelly stopped attacking Nikita’s cheeks after a minute and retreated to the annex, apparently having had her fill of cute, and Phyllis simply reached out a hand and let Nikita lick it before getting back to her work. Pam moved on through the office, stopping at Creed and Meredith’s cluster asking if they’d like to pet her. Meredith declined, and Creed… was Creed.

“That thing isn’t a drug sniffer is it? I wasn’t told we were having a shakedown,” Creed said in a panicky voice before grabbing a bag of something and tearing out of the office.

Jim met Pam’s eyes after that and made his patented ‘What was that’ face to her, earning a stifled giggle from her across the room.

Pam brought Nikita over to the accounting cluster, curious to see how this would go. She had already introduced Kevin in the entryway, and so he just quickly pet Nikita as she went by. Oscar gave Nikita a few head pats and commented on how well trained she was. Angela was the last person in the main office asides from Michael and Dwight to meet Nikita, as Pam had not been particularly looking forward to how any of them would react to her.

Angela glared at Pam, and then at Nikita, as she sat obediently at the edge of Angela’s area.

“Would you like to pet her,” Pam prompted.

“I would like to do no such thing,” Angela replied in a tone that led to Nikita cocking her head at her, “Get that ugly mutt out of my sight, I can’t stand the way it’s beady little eyes are staring at me.”

Pam was kind of disappointed at how uneventful that encounter had been, she had half expected Angela to have her legion of cats under her desk, but then she supposed Angela was never one for taking advantage of company time. Pam could have sworn she heard a muffled meow from the accounting department as she walked away, though she convinced herself that she must have imagined it by the time she sat herself down at her desk, with Nikita taking up residence underneath it.

Pam finally started her computer and started transcribing voicemails, and noticed Dwight finally enter the office for the morning, not a moment too soon as the clock ticked over to nine o’clock, almost tarnishing his perfect record. Pam did a double take as Dwight went back to the door and grabbed someone’s arm and dragged them through, seeing him hauling in a young amish looking man. Pam shot a look at Jim to get his attention and jerked her head towards the door.

“Morning Dwight,” Pam greeted, “Who’s this,” she asked, gesturing at the young man.

“Good morning Pamela, this is Cousin Mose,” Dwight gestured to the man, “Since I have no pets, I brought the next best thing,” he said, looking proud.

“What about one of your animals, Dwight,” Jim asked from his desk, “You know, from your beet farm?”

“I could hardly bring one of them in, idiot,” Dwight admonished, “They are working animals, they have no place in an office; Mose, on the other hand, is great at mundane tasks.”

Pam heard someone clear their throat from the kitchen doors and looked to see Toby standing there with a mug, looking like he was in physical pain at what he had just overheard. Pam shot Jim a wide-eyed look and hid her smile behind her hand.

“Come on Dwight,” Toby started exasperatedly, “You cannot bring another person into work with you, there are liability concerns…”

“Uhg, fine,” Dwight said with disgust, before ushering Mose back to the door, peeling two twenties out of his wallet, and saying that he would pick him up at the arcade at lunch to take him back to the farm.

“Happy now,” he asked upon re-entering the office, shooting Toby a glare.

Toby just shook his head and walked back into the kitchen, mumbling something that Pam couldn’t make out from her desk, but she thought she saw Stanley nodding along.

As Dwight settled in his desk, Pam finished taking messages, putting them up on the ledge in the organiser, and decided she was going to go make herself some tea. As she got up Nikita roused herself at the base of her chair and made to follow her.

“Kiida, place,” Pam commanded, pointing at the area behind her desk.

Pam got to the kitchen door and looked back to see Nikita sitting at the edge of her desk by the copier, her head cocked at her in an adorable way. Satisfied that Nikita would stay, Pam entered the kitchen and started the kettle to boil some water.

Jim watched with amusement as Nikita and Dwight had a stare down while Pam was in the kitchen presumably making her morning tea. Nikita had her head cocked and tongue lolling out, tail wagging slowly behind her, and Dwight had his face scrunched in intense concentration as he glared at the dog, as if daring it to move.

Jim decided he would go get coffee while Pam was in the kitchen, as he hadn’t really talked to her a whole lot yet today. He had kept himself busy so far planning how to do two days of work in one, so that he could slack off tonight and the entire half day on Wednesday. The secret was, Jim wasn’t slow, he was just lazy. He had already compiled the call list and figured he could complete it by lunch, and the paperwork would the be done by mid-afternoon barring any Michael Scott incidents.

As Jim entered the kitchen, he found Pam leaning against the counter waiting for the kettle to boil, and so after pouring himself some coffee he leaned next to her.

“So, big plans for your half-day tomorrow,” Jim asked to kick things off, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

Jim’s sister Larissa was back in town from University, and he was having her over to his and Mark’s place for a pizza and movie night to hang out. Jim wanted to invite Pam to come over for it, but he was nervous about how she would respond to such an invite. For some reason Jim just really wanted Larissa to meet Pam and reaffirm that he wasn’t crazy, and she was indeed as awesome as he had built her up to be.

“No, not really,” Pam admitted, “Maybe take Kiida for a run in the afternoon, do some weeding in the garden if I’m feeling particularly industrious, how about you?”

“Oh, I was just going to have my sister over to hang out in the evening,” Jim paused, struggling to transition naturally, “Hey! You should come over, we can make a movie night out of it, order pizza. Plus, Larissa wouldn’t be outnumbered in the movie vote if you decided to come,” Jim finally managed to spit out the offer, if a little awkwardly.

“That sounds fun,” Pam said brightly, giving him a wide smile that relieved the ball of tension in the pit of his stomach, “But how can I trust that you won’t hide all of the movies that Larissa and I might want to watch before we get there, thus forcing us to pick something you and Mark want to watch,” she challenged, looking at him with a raised brow.

“Good point,” Jim conceded, pleased that she was considering it, “Why don’t you bring a few favourites, just to be safe,” he suggested.

“I can agree to that,” Pam said, nodding her head with a mock serious expression, “I’m in!” she said with a giggle.

Pam finished making her tea as she chatted with Jim for another minute, trying her best not to let on how nervous she was at his proposal. Pam somehow found herself back at her desk sipping her tea and running her hand through the fur on Nikita’s head.

Oh my gosh, Pam thought to herself in the voice of a teen girl, does Jim like me like me? No, don’t be ridiculous, she scolded herself, he was just being nice and inviting her to meet his sister and roommate… which was just enough people to make it feel like not a date, but maybe that was just so that she’d feel comfortable coming? Even if it wasn’t a date, that was thoughtful of him, Pam admitted to herself. Although, she was probably reading way too into this, Pam tried to reason with herself, Jim was her best friend, who had met her parents, and helped her move, and hugged her, and held her while she cried after breaking up with Roy, had taken a slug from Roy for her, and had literally been her best friend for years now. Pam was admittedly not doing a very good job at downplaying this to herself and was spiralling pretty hard.

Jim was nervous, as he sat and watched Pam’s emotional spiral play out over her face, he couldn’t help voice at the back of his mind that whispered, ‘Maybe there is something there after all.’ She started with frowning in concentration, staring at the space above his head with unfocused eyes, and then she smiled for a little before cringing. Jim wasn’t really sure how to interpret that, but it didn’t stop him from wildly speculating in his head. What did stop Jim’s wild speculation however was Michael finally rolling in through the office doors for the day with a loud question.

“Where is the bitch,” he exclaimed, before doubling over on Pam’s counter with laughter.

“Oh, hi Michael,” Pam said, shocked out of her downward spiral by the last person she really wanted to deal with right now, “What was the question?”

“The dog Pam, where is your dog?”

“Oh, right,” Pam said, embarrassed to be caught out as she pushed back from her desk to usher Nikita out and around it, “This is Nikita, you may pet her if you want,” Pam said stiffly, not really wanting Michael anywhere near her dog.

Unfortunately Nikita seemed to have taken a liking to Michael, and as he crouched in front of her ruffling her fur and scratching behind her ears saying all the nonsensical things people say when they are petting a dog, Nikita was enthusiastically licking Michael’s face and hands.

Pam wandered over to lean on Jim’s desk while this was happening, momentarily forgetting about her earlier turmoil in her eagerness to banter with Jim about this latest development.

“I think I may need to get a doghouse,” Pam said, leaning in close to whisper conspiratorially.

Jim cocked a brow at her, “And why might that be,” he whispered back.

“Nikita likes Michael, she can’t live under the same roof as me anymore,” Pam delivered with a deadpan, before breaking into a grin at Jim’s raised eyebrows.

Pam cleared her throat, “I should probably save Kiida,” before pushing herself off Jim’s desk to prevent Michael from stealing her dog.

“Kiida, c’mere,” Pam said, getting her attention as she craned her neck to look back at Pam standing by the edge of her desk closest to the copier.

“Kiida, place,” Was enough to get Nikita to trot back behind the desk, swishing her tail into Michael’s face as he was still crouched where she had been before.

Pam couldn’t help but smile as Michael let out a, “Blegh,” and seemed to pick hair out of his mouth, retreating to his office.

Pam cleared her throat again, it was starting to feel kind of scratchy, but she thought nothing more of it as she thought of ways to waste time until it was lunch. Playing tug of war with Nikita under her desk and occasionally answering phone calls was how she spent her time waiting for lunch. Occasionally Jim would come up for a jellybean, but he seemed to have sensed her earlier discomfort and backed off a little, at least that’s what Pam hypothesised must be responsible for his more restrained mood.

Lunch came around and Pam put Nikita in her kennel with some food and water and sat down to eat with Jim in the break room. They made small talk and while it was back to normal in some respects, Pam couldn’t help the feeling that it was kind of stilted, and she wasn’t sure what to do to fix that. As they returned to their desks Pam checked in on Nikita in her kennel, which she’d put in the corner of the conference room and saw that the dog was asleep. Pam left her in the kennel for the time being and got back to work.

Pam noticed around mid-afternoon that her throat clearing had been getting progressively worse and now it was sore, but she was confused as to why this would be the case. The throat soreness felt kind of like allergies, but she had never had a reaction to anything in the office before, which confounded her. By the time it was almost their supper break, Pam’s eyes were watery and irritated, and her throat very scratchy, she decided to go nuclear and take a Benadryl that she kept in her purse for such occasions. Jim had come up to her desk an hour ago asking what was wrong, and Pam had brushed off his concern citing allergies.

What Pam had yet to figure out, was what was she allergic to in the office? As far as she knew she was only allergic to mould, cats, and- cats! That had to be it, Pam thought to herself, Angela probably came in with a bunch of cat hair on her clothes or something today. Pam was about to write her reaction off as just that until she heard a faint ‘meow’ and what sounded like… was Angela hissing?

Pam got up from her desk and peeked over the divider, and sure enough, there was Angela hissing at a cat beneath her desk. Pam let out a heavy sigh, that’s why she had been feeling terrible this afternoon. Angela’s head shot up at the noise and she met her gaze.

“I wish you would have let me know you bringing a cat in Angela,” Pam said while wiping at her bleary eyes and sniffling, “You know I’m allergic, I would have taken a Reactine or something this morning.”

Oscar chimed in, “Yeah Angela, that was very inconsiderate of you.”

“Yeah Angela,” Kevin joined in, not really appearing to know what they were admonishing her for.

Angela for her part just held Pam’s gaze defiantly, before finally breaking, “I groomed Mr. Sprinkles before I brought him here so that he would shed less, I didn’t think it would affect you this much,” she said coolly.

“Yeah, well it has, and I just took a Benadryl so I’m going to be useless for the rest of the evening… so in the future, could you please just let me know so I can prepare?”

“I will consider it,” Angela said with a huff before turning back to her desk.

Pam sighed and sat back down at her desk, before rising again to go grab some water to soothe her throat.

Jim had noticed that Pam was getting progressively worse throughout the day, at first he thought it was just residual awkwardness after the kitchen debacle, but soon he noticed that clearing her throat had turned into reddened eyes, and sniffles, and constantly watering eyes. Jim didn’t know if Pam was allergic to anything, but supposedly that’s what she felt these symptoms were, and who was he to argue? It was getting close to their supper break when she got up and it suddenly became a lot clearer. She was allergic to cats and from what he could hear of her conversation, Angela had one.

By the time the pizza had arrived, and people had eaten their fill there was still some time left on their supper break. Jim noticed Pam grabbing Nikita from the conference room and heading to the door with a leash.

“Hey, want some company,” Jim asked, falling into step with her as she reached the door.

“Sure,” she said with a sniffle, “I need to get out of here while I wait for the Benadryl to kick in, and Kiida needs to take care of some business,” she indicated a cleanup bag that she was carrying.

After chatting out back of the office at a picnic table on the grass, and cleaning up after Nikita, Pam reluctantly stated that they should get back to the office, and Jim walked back with her. He noticed that she was looking a little drowsy, and even saw her eyes drift closed and her head dip down a little a few times before she jerked it back up, blinking several times to reassert her awareness. Jim had finished all of his work for the day, and so when Pam plopped down onto the couch by reception and didn’t seem like she was going anywhere fast, Jim flipped the phones to voicemail and sat down beside her, causing the cushion to slant towards him, and Pam’s head followed as it lolled about her neck, coming to rest on his right shoulder. Pam was out like a light, and Jim was too afraid to move from the couch and wake her or lose the warm feeling of her cheek on his shoulder, and her side against his arm. Jim looked around to gauge the interest that this was garnering from the rest of the office, only to be met with a headshake and indifference from Dwight, a bored gaze from Stanley, and a smile and a wink from Phyllis. Michael had the blinds closed to his office, so likely he was sleeping too.

Jim decided he could safely continue to be Pam’s pillow. As he came to that conclusion, Nikita decided that she wanted up on the couch and effectively trapped Jim, resting with her head on Pam’s lap and body across Jim’s. Thankfully, the shift didn’t wake Pam, as she was completely gone.

After twenty or some minutes, Jim decided he should somehow extricate himself, and tried to shift out from under Nikita, but this apparently was enough to wake Pam up, as he looked down at he shoulder to see her eyes fluttering open.

“Hey Beesly,” Jim said softly, trying not to startle her, “We lost you there for a minute.”

“Mmph,” Pam mumbled into his shoulder before flopping the other way to land on the armrest.

“Ok,” Jim said, finally getting out from underneath Nikita, “I’m going to see if I can get us out of here.”

Jim walked into Michael’s office and knelt beside his boss, who was slumped over his desk. If you were careful enough, Jim recalled, one could get Michael to agree to just about anything in his sleep. Jim lightly prodded Michael’s arm as he sat there in the dark office, waiting for his breathing to shift.

“Hey, Michael,” Jim said as he prodded him, and hearing a grumble he pushed on, “This is your conscience speaking,” Jim said in a ghostly voice, “You should let these people go.”

Jim quickly padded to the door, before flipping the lights on and hurrying to close it behind him, slowing down for the last little bit to do it quietly. Jim looked over to see that Pam was asleep again, this time sprawled across the length of the couch with Nikita draped over her like a blanket. Jim couldn’t help the smile that broke out on his face at that picture. Jim sat down at his desk and pretended to look busy, hoping that he had succeeded in compelling Michael into letting them go. Jim was not disappointed when he heard Michael exiting his office and clearing his throat.

“All right everybody, that’s enough, get outta here,” Michael announced to the office, “You’ve all done good, we’re still on for the half day tomorrow, so no worries. Show up for nine and leave after lunch!”

Jim watched as everyone trudged out of the office, Phyllis stopped by his desk to shoot him a knowing look before continuing, and soon it was just Jim, Pam, and Nikita left in the office. Jim got up and gently shook Pam’s shoulder to wake her.

“Pam, Pam, time to go,” Jim tried to no avail, “Beesly, did you just see that,” he said a little louder and watched as she shot up, suddenly looking very alert, and couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Oh crap,” Pam said, looking around to see everyone gone, “How long was I out?”

“Not too long, I convinced Michael to let us go, everyone just left,” he assured her.

“Come on, upsie-get,” Jim said like he was talking to a child, holding out his hands for Pam to grab on to.

Pam sat up and grabbed his hands, shifting Nikita over and allowed him to help her up before she stumbled forward a bit, unsure on her feet, catching herself on his chest as he reached his arms out to steady her.

Pam was overwhelmed by how dizzy she was getting up, obviously the Benadryl had really done a number on her, and so she held on to Jim until she felt it subsiding, blushing a little after realising how close they were standing.

“Thanks, just a little dizzy there,” Pam said, nervously brushing some hair behind her ear and taking a slight step back.

“No problem,” Jim replied as he followed her into the conference room where she was packing all of Nikita’s things into her kennel, causing her some dizziness again when she bent over to retrieve it, “I’ll grab it, don’t worry.”

They made their way down to the parking lot with Nikita in tow, and as they reached their cars parked side by side, Jim looked over at her and paused, causing her to stop walking around the car.

“Are you sure you’re good to be operating heavy equipment,” he asked with his tone light, but laced with concern.

Pam wasn’t that dizzy she thought to herself, but before she could entirely convince herself to turn down his offer he spoke again.

“Because, we live like right next to each other, so really it’s no bother if I give you a ride back tomorrow.”

“Ok,” Pam said as she changed course to put the kennel in the back seat of Jim’s Corolla, “Thanks.”

“Just lookin’ out for you Bees.”

They drove home in silence, Pam thought she may have dozed off again because the next thing she knew they were pulling up outside of her house. Jim grabbed the kennel from the back seat and carried it up for her, and Nikita followed them up the steps. Pam unlocked the house and opened the door, stepping aside to let Nikita and Jim in. Nikita trotted off to the middle of the living room to lay on the area rug, and Pam wished she could just crawl into bed, but she needed to say goodbye to Jim first. He placed the kennel down where it lived in the laundry slash boot room and met her by the front door. Pam had an overwhelming urge to hug Jim, and in her tired state she didn’t try to convince herself not to, she just did it.

Pam felt warm and safe as Jim returned the hug after some initial hesitation, holding on for a while longer than she would probably normally be comfortable with, but she really couldn’t find it in herself to care in that moment.

“You give the best hugs,” she mumbled tiredly into his chest, and she felt him give her a little squeeze before he pulled away slightly.

“What?” He asked, the amusement clear in his tone, although she saw an intensity in his gaze that she’d never seen- or maybe never acknowledged- before.

“Oh man,” she yawned, “I think I’m a little loopy from the Benadryl I took is all.”

“Thanks for the ride Jim,” Pam pressed on, “You’re the best.”

“Ok, Beesly, feel better and sleep well, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Jim said and disengaged from the hug with a final squeeze to her shoulders.

“Thanks, g’night Jim,” Pam managed through another yawn, moving to close the door behind him.

Pam shuffled into her bathroom to wash up before bed, and barely made it into her pajamas before she collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep.

End Notes:

Writing this one took me way into overtime (Past my self imposed bed time).

 

Hope you all enjoy it, and as always thank you to everyone reading and reviewing. 

Movie Night by DoomGoose
Author's Notes:
Pam makes a friend.

Wednesday morning passed quickly for Pam, Jim had apparently done enough work yesterday that he just had to return a few calls, he then loitered near her desk or exchanged instant messages with her. For her part Pam just had a few faxes to go out and the occasional phone call to answer. Pam noticed that some of the awkwardness that had pervaded their conversations yesterday seemed to have faded, and she was grateful for that. Pam was anxious about meeting Jim’s sister tonight, but that was more of a general Pam didn’t particularly like meeting new people anxiety, as she reasoned that the sibling of her best friend shouldn’t really be that threatening. Pam was cautiously excited about the opportunity befriending Jim’s sister represented, if Larissa was anything like Jim, she would surely provide Pam with incriminating or embarrassing childhood photos to enable Pam to pull one over on him. Before Pam could conceive of further ways to embarrass Jim with his sister’s help, the phone rang.

“Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam.”

“Hey, can you put me through to Jim please,” a male voice asked.

“Sure, may I ask who’s calling?”

“Oh, yeah, this is Mark, his roommate.”

“One moment, I’ll transfer you,” Pam said as she initiated an attended transfer, causing Jim’s extension to ring on his desk.

“Jim, Mark the roommate for you,” Pam informed him as his eyes met hers over the counter.

“Great, thanks, send him through.”

Pam hit the transfer button again, and Mark was connected to Jim’s extension, Pam replaced the receiver on her phone and tried not to eavesdrop, but she really had nothing better to be doing in that moment.

“Well that’s a bummer,” Jim said into the earpiece as Pam refocused on his side of the conversation.

“Ok, we’ll try not to have too much fun without you.”

“Sure, I can do that.”

“Alright, seeya buddy,” Jim replaced the received on his phone, and spun in his chair before getting up and making his way over to the reception desk.

“That was Mark calling to say he picked up a late shift tonight,” Jim filled her in, “So looks like it’s just you, Larissa, and I for tonight. Hope that’s ok.”

“Only if you’re ok losing the vote for the movie,” Pam quipped, attempting to mask her nerves.

“You are so on Beesly, I’ll have you know my sister has my back,” he shot back with a grin.

“We’ll see,” Pam said with a playful glare and a challenging eyebrow.

“I see how it is, first you steal Nikita, and now you want to turn my own sister against me, who’s next,” Jim asked dramatically and then deadpanned, “Count Chocula?”

Jim always enjoyed making Pam laugh because of the way that her eyes lit up and was not disappointed when his comment elicited a giggle from her, breaking the straight line of his mouth into a wide smile. He was glad to see that spark back in her eyes, after the last few weeks of watching closely he had seen her eyes brightening steadily, after the first few days of despair after her breaking up with Roy they had been particularly dull. With his mission of lifting Pam’s spirits accomplished, Jim grabbed a jellybean and returned to his desk with a tap on her counter.

Jim passed the time until noon with a prank on Dwight. While Dwight was away from his desk Jim stole his stapler and twisted the crimp plate around to the flat side, and enlisted Pam’s help to superglue it in place. While not his most inspired idea, Dwight’s reaction and subsequent failed investigation was well worth it. It also helped that Dwight, instead of fixing the stapler, was now bending every staple he set manually with a pair of pliers, much to Jim and Pam’s amusement.

Jim was nervous for the evening, and as much as he kept telling himself that it wasn’t a date, there was a small part of him that suggested that if he just un-invited Larissa… – but that sounded terribly contrived and so he stopped himself there. Pam was fresh out of a long-term relationship and really needed best friend Jim right now, not awkwardly draping your arm across the back of the couch Jim. Also, Jim told himself, it wouldn’t hurt for Pam to have a friend in Larissa if they hit it off. On top of having a female friend, which Pam seemed to have lost most of over the years, it could also indicate a certain level of compatibility if one read into it – probably too far – Jim amended, chastising himself.

Again, Jim found himself taking stock of his mental ‘Is she or isn’t she’ list; She had broken up with Roy, cried on him, kissed him – on the cheek, hugged him – on several occasions, maintained their dynamic – which had inherent undertones of flirtation if he was honest with himself, and admitted under the influence – of Benadryl – that he gave ‘The best hugs’. To balance that out, in Jim’s mind, was that their dynamic hadn’t changed, except seeing each other outside of work, which admittedly had never happened when she was with Roy. The fact remained though, that Pam had not made any overt signs of more-than platonic interest, although, Jim argued with himself that neither had he, and she wasn’t really a risk taker and the fact that she had broken up with Roy was a huge deal in itself. Jim tried to put these thoughts from his mind as it came to quitting time. He was not doing himself any good by psyching himself up on ‘maybes’ and ‘what ifs’ if he was trying to be best friend Jim.

Pam checked in with Jim before she left for home to confirm what time to go over, and was told that any time was fine, as he didn’t have any other plans and they would order pizza once everyone was there. Pam had some soup for lunch and sketched for a bit in front of her tiny TV showing some reality program or another, and then took Nikita out for a jog to the park. After playing with Nikita until the dog was tuckered out, she walked her back home to feed and water her. Pam removed her contacts and took a quick shower, before toweling off and getting dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. She decided not to put her contacts back in, and after towel drying her hair as best she could, she put it up in a ponytail and glanced at the clock to see it was quarter after five. Pam figured she could probably safely head over to Jim’s now and so she grabbed her copy of The Princess Bride, as well as the two DVDs under it in the stack, and made her way out the door after slipping her Keds on.

 

Jim heard a knock on his door at a little past five-twenty, and was greeted with a warm smile on a face adorned with glasses belonging to Pam. He smiled widely back and ushered her in, directing her to the living room where she placed her DVDs on the coffee table.

“Larissa should be here in a few,” Jim felt the need to assure her, it hadn’t explicitly been his plan to spend time alone with her in his home.

“Cool,” Pam acknowledged, “What are your contenders for the movie battle royale,” she cocked a brow at him from the place she had claimed on the loveseat.

Before Jim could answer there was another knock at the door, with a cadence that could only be Larissa. Larissa always knocked the same way, four rapid fire knocks with increasing intensity.

“One sec,” Jim excused himself as he got up to go greet Larissa, who had let herself into the entryway.

Pam decided to remain in the living room while Jim presumably went to greet Larissa, she didn’t want to impose on the siblings. She stood when Larissa and Jim entered and walked over to introduce herself. Larissa looked to be younger than Jim by a few years, and closer to Jim than Pam in height. She had long brunette hair, a big Jim-like smile, and was wearing shorts and a burgundy hoodie with her university’s logo on it.

“Hi, I’m Pam,” she held out her hand to shake.

“Oh my gosh, the Pam?” Larissa enthused, “You didn’t tell me she was coming,” she directed at Jim as she smacked her brother on the arm.

“Oh, I’m Larissa,” she seemed to remember herself, “I am so happy to finally meet you, I feel like I already know you with how much Jim talks about you!” Larissa beamed, while shaking Pam’s hand.

“Oh, well, only good things I hope?”

“Only if you qualify being an evil prankster mastermind and enabling my brother to prank his poor innocent co-worker to be good,” she shot back with a wink.

Ok, Jim thought to himself, maybe he should have briefed his sister on the friend-zone situation before she got here, Larissa was laying it on a little thick. At the same time, maybe Pam needed some hints to put into her mind the possibility of Jim as more than just the office best friend. In the meantime, Jim chose to head off any further embarrassment and start the night off.

“So,” he butted in, “Movie then pizza, pizza then movie, or movie-pizza-movie,” he quizzed.

Jim noticed Pam and Larissa glance at each other and in an uncanny display, they both spoke at the same time.

“Pizza then movie,” they spoke in sync, Pam broke out in giggles and had sit back down on the loveseat, while Larissa flopped down in the recliner with a huge grin on her face.

“Ok, that was officially terrifying,” Jim admitted, much to their apparent delight, as the giggles only intensified from Pam’s quarter, and he earned a bark of laughter from Larissa.

“Oh man,” Larissa said, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand, “This is the start of a beautiful friendship,” and Pam could only nod between giggles, not able to get any words out yet.

“Not on my watch,” Jim said, pointing at the giggling Pam, “I told you I wouldn’t allow you to corrupt Larissa too, you already have Nikita,” he accused, and saw tears trickling down Pam’s cheeks as she tried to rein in her giggles.

“Ok, I’m ordering, is one half-Hawaiian half pepperoni and a meat lover’s ok,” he asked, getting no response from Ms. Giggles and a nod from Larissa, he went to the kitchen to call it in.

Pam finally got her breathing under control and wiped the moisture from her face, sitting in silence for a minute listening to Jim order the pizza over the phone. He knew her favourite of course, it never ceased to amaze her the little things that Jim seemed to pick up on.

“So, what are you studying,” Pam asked, gesturing at Larissa’s sweater.

“I just finished my first year, so I haven’t declared a major yet,” she answered, “But I think I want to go into the faculty of engineering and do civil engineering.”

“That sounds really cool,” encouraged Pam, “What kind of work would you be looking at with that?”

“Designing roads, wastewater treatment, pretty much anything public infrastructure,” Larissa explained.

Before Pam could question her further, Jim returned to inform them that the pizza would be there in thirty minutes or less.

“So, we should pick a movie,” Jim started, “I got Pam to bring a few, and of course there is Mark and I’s collection to choose from, let’s see what Pam brought…”

“The Princess Bride, Fargo, and Edward Scissorhands,” Pam supplied.

“The Princess Bride,” Larissa blurted out, not ever waiting to hear Jim’s offerings.

“Seconded,” Pam quickly followed up.

“I guess I have no choice,” Jim said with resignation, but Pam could tell he was joking by the twinkle in his eye and so she just grinned at him.

“Face it bro, you were never going to win even if you had somehow convinced Mark to stick around for this,” Larissa said, rubbing it in.

“As you wish,” Jim said with a sigh, earning a stuck out tongue from Larissa, moving to pop the DVD in the player and then sat down on the loveseat next to Pam, repeating to himself that it was ok because it was the only place left to sit.

Pam felt Jim’s love for his sister in his joking reference and couldn’t help but recall that he had made the same reference to her the day she first got her car. Pam couldn’t escape the double meaning, did Jim love her like a sister, or was there more to it than that? Was she reading into this way too much? Maybe Jim just liked quoting The Princess Bride and it didn’t mean anything. Maybe it meant everything. Pam felt the conversation flowing past her, offering noncommittal answers and affirmations where required, content to live in her thoughts for the moment while the siblings caught up.

Maybe Jim liked her too? Wait, did that mean that she liked Jim? Pam’s mind screeched to a halt, all thoughts tumbling off the rails at the inadvertent revelation. Pam felt her face go slack and realised that she must look really stupefied right now and struggled to get out of her thoughts, putting the frightening revelation on hold to enter back into the playful banter whizzing by her head.

The pizza finally arrived, and with it a reprieve, Pam didn’t need to talk around pizza and beer. She ate to busy her hands, and she drank to try and quell the slight shake, which neither Larissa or Jim seemed to have picked up on or were just too kind to say anything about it. With the movie starting Pam sat back and mechanically quoted the right lines, and laughed at the right places to look engaged, but she wasn’t really paying attention. Pam had seen the movie enough times to quote it in her sleep.

Pam drifted back to her previous train wreck of a thought process. Did she like Jim? She decided she needed to make a list. Lists helped with every obstacle that she had ever come up against, so why stop now? One, she loves making Jim laugh; Two, she loves Jim making her laugh; Three, she loves laughing with Jim; Four, she loves when Jim encourages her; Five, she loves that Jim notices the small things… Pam stopped herself. She might like Jim, as like, more than a friend, Pam admitted to herself, and this thought terrified her.

“… You killed my father, prepare to die,” Pam heard Inigo saying on screen, startled to realise that the movie was almost over. She had just spent almost an hour and a half wrapped up in her tumultuous and traitorous thoughts.

Pam tried to refocus on the movie and took a sip of her beer only to realise it was long empty, before putting it back down in embarrassment.

‘I can’t tell Jim,’ she thought to herself in a panic, Jim was her best friend and if she ruined that by telling him that she might want to be more? She would have no one. Sure, she had some girl friends, but most had left her when she split with Roy, being the significant others of his friends. The others were out of town, not in reach. If Pam lost Jim as a friend, she would be devastated, and truly alone. Ok, she amended, not totally alone, she would still have Nikita, whatever small consolation that was, for the dog could not replace human contact.

The movie ended, and Pam dismissed herself after exchanging number with Larissa and promising to get together some weekend. She arrived home and took Nikita out, and then sat down heavily on her couch to wallow in her thoughts.

‘This is stupid,’ Pam told herself, if she was brave enough to break up with Roy in front of the cameras, surely she could be brave enough to ask Jim if maybe they could try to be more than best friends? Her thoughts from a few weeks ago come back to her, she had already given Jim half of the relationship that was supposed to be the fiancé’s, how bad could the whole package be? Pam screamed into a pillow in frustration. For as many reasons to take chance she came up with, she had another ten for why the status quo was as ambitious as she should be. Mostly revolving around how lonely she was already, and how much lonelier she would be without her best friend. She was paralysed by indecision, sitting on her couch until it got dark out and she finally just decided to give up and go to bed. She was not going to be able to figure this out tonight.

Pam got into bed and slept fitfully. Things would be so much easier if Jim would just give her a sign.

 

Jim wasn’t sure what to make of the movie night, it had started off great, if a little awkward. However, by the end Pam was withdrawn in her own little world. He was disappointed when she dismissed herself so soon after the movie ended, but at the very least she and Larissa had made tentative plans for the weekend, so there was that. Jim also hadn’t been able to help but notice sitting beside Pam on the loveseat how tense she had been almost the whole time and hoped that he hadn’t made her uncomfortable somehow. After talking with Larissa for a while longer, which really was more Larissa interrogating him on Pam’s personal affairs, he decided to grab another beer and finish out the night with some late show to slow down his buzzing mind.

Jim went to bed wishing that Pam would give him a sign, but even as he thought this, he knew that it wasn’t Pam’s modus operandi, and it wasn’t likely to happen. With a frustrated sigh he burrowed under the covers and attempted to sleep.

End Notes:

This one was hard to write, I hope it came across well. As you can see we've got a classic Jim/Pam non-commuinication double whammy. Hopefully they'll get their act together and just go for it right? Well, I'm the writer. I guess I'm the one that's supposed to make that happen.

 

Hope you all enjoyed, and as always, thank you for your reviews and feedback, I really appreciate them.

P.S. - ROUS - I broke my update streak by missing yesterday. Oh well. 

PPS added the chapter title in, woops!

Moving Up by DoomGoose
Author's Notes:
The pieces start to fall into place.

Thursday morning found Pam idly passing time at the reception desk, when she received an email from human resources, cc’d was Jan Levinson-Gould. Pam was apprehensive about what such an email could contain, because it was sent directly to her personal mailbox as opposed to the reception account. It turned out that Pam was being offered a new job title, Administrative assistant. Pam took a few minutes just to let the offer sink in, and then started looking at the details. On top of a fancy new title, which was admittedly meaningless – except that it wasn’t receptionist, Pam would be in a salaried position as opposed to her hourly pay as receptionist, have slightly better benefits coverage, and have some of her unofficial duties related to Michael wrangling be made official. As far as Pam could tell the salary was an effective raise for her of somewhere around four dollars per hour, which was very generous. Pam didn’t realise that she was smiling until her cheeks started hurting as she had to reread the offer several times just to make sure that she wasn’t missing anything. Below the offer from human resources Pam noticed a message from Jan.

‘Hello Pam,

I hope this offer finds you well. We at the corporate offices have been repeatedly impressed with your efficiency and initiative well in excess of your current role in the company. It is with great pleasure that I put your name forward for consideration for this new position. As you may have guessed from the description that human resources has put together, the job encompasses everything you already do, but with the opportunity for more responsibilities down the road as we learn how the new position best fits within the organization. I hope you find the offer to your liking, and I look forward to working with you in your new capacity should you choose to accept it.

Sincerely,

Jan Levinson-Gould

V.P. Sales’

 

Jim looked up from his computer and saw a look of dazed happiness on Pam’s face. She was staring at something on her computer screen, reading it intently. Jim looked back down to his computer to finish entering the order he was working on, and when he looked back up Pam’s look of shock had been replaced with a wide smile, and her eyes met his, beckoning him over.

“I got a job offer,” Pam said in an excited whisper when Jim leaned against her counter.

Jim couldn’t help the flash of disappointment that washed over his features, but he quickly plastered on a smile hoping that Pam wouldn’t notice. Or maybe he wished that she did notice, but if she noticed and didn’t say anything, then wasn’t that worse? Regardless, Jim should be happy for her, she was his best friend first, secret target of unrequited love second.

“That’s great,” Jim managed with a smile that felt too wide, “What is it?”

Pam had seen the sadness roll across Jim’s face for a split second before he donned the mask of supportive best friend. Why would Jim be sad about her getting a promotion?

“It’s a title change to Administrative Assistant,” Pam explained, trying to quell whatever was going behind Jim’s strained smile, “It’s pretty much everything I do right now, but it pays more and its salaried,” she finished enthusiastically.

Jim’s heart was plummeting. This was it; Pam was leaving Dunder Mifflin, she would no longer be the face that he saw for eight hours a day. Sure, they had just started hanging out with each other outside of work, but would they keep that up if she moved to a different job?

Pam noticed the corners of Jim’s mouth fall a little before he asked, “Where is it?” and everything clicked into place.

“Oh,” Pam said aloud, connecting the dots in her head.

Jim had thought that she meant she got a job somewhere else, and that was why he wasn’t over the moon like her right now. What did it mean that Jim would be disappointed thinking about her leaving? Was that like a ‘best friend, I’ll miss you’ sort of thing, or something else? Pam’s thoughts were interrupted when Jim spoke again.

“Earth to Beesly,” he said, pulling her up from her thoughts, “Where’s the job?”

“Sorry, got distracted,” Pam blushed, “It’s here Jim, Jan just sent me the email.”

The “Oh thank god,” was out of Jim’s mouth before he registered it, and he struggled to backpedal, “Because – Who would help me keep Dwight in line if you left,” he finished awkwardly with a rub to the back of his neck.

Pam noticed the relief wash over Jim’s face, the mask fading away for a second before it slipped back on after she told him it was here. He was suddenly much more relaxed and started asking her all sorts of questions and congratulating her repeatedly, even though Receptionist and Administrative Assistant essentially meant the same thing. This was one of the things that Pam loved about Jim though, he was always there to encourage her.

At the end of the day, no matter in what form Jim had feelings for her, it warmed Pam’s heart to know that he did care about her. Pam didn’t let her thoughts go further than that as she laid in bed that night, skirting around the deep pit of doubts like ‘Does he like me, like me,’ and ‘Do you like him? You know you checked him out at the basketball game, right? When you were still with Roy?’. Pam shut those thoughts down as she screwed her eyes closed, returning to the warmth in Jim’s eyes as he praised her accomplishment earlier today, and fell asleep.

 

 

Friday passed by without incident, and the weekend found Pam talking on the phone with Larissa as she walked Nikita back from the park after her run. Larissa asked about her week, and Pam told of her impending promotion that she had accepted Thursday and was effective as soon as HR and accounting were on the same page. She agreed to meet up with Larissa at the mall later for some ‘Retail Relationship Building’ as Larissa called it, to spend money that she didn’t really have yet.

Shopping with Larissa was fun. Pam had never been particularly a fan, but Larissa made good company, and pushed her ever so slightly out of her comfort zone, making her try on bright colours and less conservative cuts. Pam walked away with a few new outfits for work, none of them contained a button-down blouse, and she considered this a victory on the road to living for herself.

 

 

The next week, when Pam made the mistake of mentioning her shopping trip with Larissa to Kelly, she was steamrolled into agreeing to wear some of her new outfits to work, which she hadn’t done yet. Pam started to and noticed that while the first few days were particularly horrible with the increased male attention, it had mostly worn off by the second week.

Pam developed a routine in the following weeks, going out for runs with Nikita every other day, groceries on Tuesdays, playing with Nikita in the park on Saturdays – sometimes joined by Jim, Larissa, or both, followed every other week by a movie at her place or Jim’s.

The first week of June saw the addition of her two-month mixed media class to her routine, Monday through Wednesday in the evenings after supper for three hours. Pam was somewhat disappointed by the small proportion of painting and sketching content, but was glad that corporate was subsidising the class, and so she resolved to save up to take real art courses in the future, grateful for the raise that she had been given enabling her to do so. She also tried experimenting with doing her hair and makeup differently, trying to tamp down on the imposter syndrome she felt every time that she walked into that classroom looking bland, the same as always, longing to visually signify the changes that she felt inside of her.

Pam was having the best summer of her life, and while she and Jim hung out more and more outside of work, it frustrated her that she still could not muster the courage to just flat out ask Jim what his feelings were. The closer they seemed to get, the harder it was for Pam to justify ruining the relationship that they had, and so she spun in endless circles in her mind all summer, and as the Dundies and the film crew’s return fast approached, she wondered how long she could keep it up before she just spontaneously combusts.

 

 

This summer had been the best worst summer of Jim’s life. His best friend, who he was in love with, and had been engaged to another man, had broken it off. She had then proceeded to cry on his shoulder and lean on him through the hard times, before pulling through the other end a stronger and more beautiful version of herself. She had gotten a promotion slash raise, started taking art classes, and hung out with him outside of work with increasing frequency. The problem was he couldn’t just tell her that he was in love with her because he was so afraid the longer their friendship went on that it was purely platonic for her. She hadn’t made any noises about dating again, but Jim was terrified of the day, almost sure that it was coming as he watched her grow into trying new hairstyles, wearing different makeup, and reinventing her wardrobe with the help of Kelly and Larissa. Jim had long since lost track of his ‘Is she/Isn’t she’ mental list, because it had gotten so convoluted that he had mentally trashed it and instead just didn’t read into anything she said or did anymore, too afraid that he would destroy their friendship that meant so much to them both.

This didn’t stop Jim’s heart for beating faster with every hug or kiss on the cheek, as the became more frequent towards the end of the summer. Jim was so torn up inside with indecision. The cameras would be coming back soon, and he didn’t want to start anything with them around. Jim owed it to Pam not to let any more of her life’s drama get captured to be put on a TV screen.

Jim felt like his skin would literally burst open at any minute with all of the feelings that he was bottling up inside, and when Michael reminded him that the Dundies were next week, he was sure that Pam was probably in for even more televised embarrassment. If he knew anything about Michael, her Dundie would probably be something stupidly insensitive like ‘Runaway Bride’.

Somehow, wanting to save Pam public embarrassment turned into a lunch with Michael at hooters, where he tried to subtly steer Michael away from whatever he was thinking of giving her for an award. He gave Michael a few ideas to choose from, and when Michael was particularly taken with one Jim let out a mental sigh of relief. Jim was sure that it would be worth it to see the look on her face next week when she received it.

End Notes:

Hey, I'm hoping the timeskip wasn't too jarring, I just really wanted to get a move on to someplace where the tension can finally be released. Coming up next time: The Dundies!

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Thank you to everyone for their kind reviews and feedback, you are a major part of what makes writing this fun. 

The Dundies by DoomGoose
Author's Notes:
What more needs to be said? It's the Dundies!

Pam was not looking forward to the Dundies after work. Michael had forced her to re-watch previous years to note down the “Best” jokes and so she had been reminded almost all day how insensitive and horrible they could be, not to mention some of the awards. She and Roy had won longest engagement almost three years running, and so Pam did not have high hopes for what her award would be this year now that she was no longer with Roy – or anyone for that matter. Pam expected something along the lines of “Runaway Bride” or “Hottest Spinster.” The only upshot so far today had been her writing a joke on the women’s room wall and having Dwight go all super-investigator on it, but that had unfortunately ended when he barged in on Phyllis in the bathroom.

Nothing was helped by the fact that the camera crew seemed to be trying to make up for lost time on the drama that had once been her love life, pulling her aside for updates on her summer, how was Roy, and other crap like that. Pam stayed vague, but she couldn’t help but gush over her new house, dog, and art classes. Then they started asking questions about Jim, and Pam wasn’t nearly as comfortable or confident answering those, because honestly she wasn’t really sure what she thought of Jim at this point, not that she would admit this to the cameras, she gave enough non-committal answers that they moved on and let her go.

Jim had noticed that while Pam had styled her hair in loose curls and pulled it back with a barrette, something that she had begun doing more frequently over the summer, she was also wearing the grey knitted sweater that her mom made for her, which Jim had observed usually meant Pam was subconsciously bracing for disappointment. Jim liked to think that Pam wore the sweater to remind her of her mother hugging her or something, but he’d never really found a way to ask without it being totally creepy that he noticed these things. Jim’s suspicions were only confirmed when Pam came over to his desk late in the day to ask if he would be willing to drive her to the Dundies so that she could “Consume as much alcohol as possible” before her assumed public embarrassment. Jim was only too happy to oblige, greatly anticipating the pleasant surprise she was in for tonight when the award wasn’t a terribly insensitive joke about her failed engagement.

After going home to let Nikita out, Pam rode with Jim to the Chilli’s where the Dundies were being held this year. Upon arriving Pam noted that they were not the first, however, nor were they the last. Most of the office workers had already arrived barring Toby, Kevin, and Stanley, and none of the warehouse had rolled in yet because they had been busy loading a late shipment. Pam was a little apprehensive about seeing Roy in a public setting again, having spied him and Katy together on numerous occasions over the summer, so she knew that was still going on and really hoped she wouldn’t have to see her here. Katy was a painful reminder to Pam that even if Jim was her best friend, she was still alone every night, lacking the courage to potentially ruin the best friendship of her life.

‘You have to take a chance Pam, you deserve to be happy,’ rung in her ears from when Jim had encouraged her to go after the means to take her summer art course. They were seated at a raised table just in front of Michael’s presentation area. Pam decided that if she didn’t have enough courage to take Jim’s advice, she was going to acquire some in liquid form. The plus side to drinking was that it also offered a buffer from her impending public embarrassment. Pam was halfway through her beer, enjoying just being in Jim’s presence, when she saw Roy, Darryl, and Katy walk in and get seated a few tables over by the corner. She finished her beer with determination and ordered a margarita, looking back and focussing only on Jim, on happy thoughts, like how it might be to be his girlfriend.

Jim noticed a distinct change in Pam’s demeanor when Roy and Katy entered and were seated. Pam finished her drink and quickly ordered another, all the while she looked him straight in the eyes, seemingly determined not to look anywhere but him. She had downed half her margarita by the time Michael came onstage to give his opening speech and song.

Pam recalled the last time she had gotten drunk in a bar with Roy and Jim, it had ended with a bruise on Jim’s cheek and spiteful words from herself. So, Pam was relieved when Michael announced that there was no group tab and the warehouse crew rolled out, Roy and Katy included, and she ordered herself another margarita to celebrate.

Jim was having a great time just watching Pam, she seemed so joyful and carefree once the warehouse left and he noticed that her gaze rarely left his face, as if she drew her energy from his reactions to the train-wreck that was Michael’s Dundies presentations. When Ryan got the hottest in the office Dundie and she gave a catcall before dissolving into giggles, Jim almost fell out of his own stool laughing at her, adoring the pure joy on her face.

Pam found that alcohol did strange things to her. She actually found Michael funny, and couldn’t hold in the giggles at each award he presented, which she admitted was a red flag that she had probably had too much to drink, but she couldn’t bring herself to care because she could also finally admit to herself that Jim was handsome and she wouldn’t mind waking up wrapped in those strong but lanky limbs. These thoughts caused another fit of giggles, and Pam loved how his eyes sparkled when he laughed with her, even though he didn’t know what it was about.

Jim was having a blast; drunk Pam was a barrel of laughs. The waitress had stopped serving Pam so she had taken it upon herself to start crushing the ice in her margaritas so that it would melt faster, claiming it was like “second drinks” before bursting into more giggles after he raised an eyebrow at her in challenge. As the presentations progressed Jim was slowly working on the mound of fries on his “side” plate, wondering how he was ever going to finish them, when the waitress deposited a milkshake beside Pam.

“What are you doing Beesly,” Jim exclaimed with disgust as she started dipping his fries into her milkshake before eating them.

“It’s the best, you shouldn’t bash it until you try it,” Pam said around a mouth full of soggy fries, dipping another and then reaching over the table making airplane noises, moving it towards Jim’s mouth.

Jim decided to play along and let Pam stick the fry in his mouth, beyond amused at how cute she was in that moment, as he ate the soggy fry.

“There you go, big baby,” Pam said with a triumphant smile, “Was that so bad?”

“You were right,” Jim was pleasantly surprised at the taste and texture, “I never should have doubted you.”

 

They polished off the fries pretty quickly after that, and even Pam’s second drinks had run out so she had switch to water, having gone around to a few other tables and stealing any fruit garnishes she could find and shoving them underneath the ice cubes in her glass in an endearing display of drunk logic. As Michael started his next musical number it drew some heckling and projectiles from the bar area, visibly discouraging him.

When Pam willingly told Michael that she hadn’t gotten a Dundie yet Jim was amazed. Her compassion for Michael even while drunk was a beautiful trait, Jim mused to himself, joining in on encouraging Michael to continue, evidently making his day by the smile that he gave them as he pressed on. Pam cheered as Kevin and Stanley got their awards, quickly brining the party back to life, her enthusiasm rubbing off on their coworkers.

“This next award is going out to our own little Pam Beesly, we had to change things up this year, you all know why… I think you all know what she’s going to be getting this year,” Michael trailed off for dramatic effect.

Jim watched as Pam’s face suddenly fell at Michael’s preamble to her award, barely able to contain himself waiting for her reaction to what it would be.

“It is… the Fancy New Beesly award, because she’s really come into her own this year!” Michael exclaimed before adding a quick, “That’s what she said,” with a cough, and Jim watched the shock on Pam’s face become tinged with joy, as she got up to accept her award.

Jim tuned out of whatever Michael was saying, unable to tear his eyes away from Pam’s beautiful face as she accepted her award giddily, grabbing the microphone to make a speech.

“I have so many people to thank for this award,” Pam began, short of breath from laughter and with a smile that almost reached her ears, “First of all, my Mom and Dad, for being awesome; And, just while I’m up here, can we thank Michael and Dwight for running this? It’s a lot harder than it looks. And I’d also like to thank Jim, for being my best friend; My dog, for being so cute; and finally god,” she paused, sobering, “Because god gave me this Dundie, and, I feel god in this Chilli’s tonight,” she finished earnestly, before letting out a loud yell of victory, raising her Dundie in the air.

Jim could only watch in awe as Pam kissed Michael on the cheek before doing a victory dance and making her way back towards him at their table. He got up to pull Pam’s chair out for her, but instead of moving to sit down she threw her arms around him and wrapped him in a very enthusiastic hug. Jim was stunned when she pulled her head back and planted a kiss straight on his lips, leaving him unable to really react before she spun away to sit down. His heart pounding in his ears, Jim tried to affect an air of indifference in front of his coworkers but internally he was on cloud nine, Pam had just kissed him on the lips for Pete’s sake.

A while later Jim was shaken from his daze by the camera crew. He looked around and realised he was sitting at the bar beside Pam, he must have followed her there for a refill or something. Jim was doing his best to answer their questions and recap the Dundies for them, but having Pam sitting so close to him was distracting, to say the least. It didn’t help to see Pam staring at him intently and trying to look sober by nodding along to his commentary enthusiastically.

Jim finally looked over at Pam and just asked her, “What,” to see if he could shake her out of it.

When she responded with nodding a little more and then, “Nothing,” before pausing and asking “What,” back to him, Jim struggled not to laugh.

“I don’t know, what,” Jim prompted her, beginning to laugh.

Apparently, this was enough to set her off, and she giggled herself off the stool ending up on the floor. The ensuing scene somehow entailed Dwight shirtless and thus Jim tried his best not to pay any more attention and helped a still giggling Pam up once Dwight had finished making a fool of himself threatening to have the manager arrested. Their party was promptly asked to leave and Jim took Pam by the arm to steer her towards the exit.

Upon exiting the Chilli’s Jim was again amused as a drunken Pam screamed at the camera about this year being the best Dundies ever, and then proceeding to hug every single one of their coworkers goodbye, even Angela. Jim’s heart was full with the knowledge that he had helped put a smile on Pam’s face, and joy in her heart.

As Jim walked Pam over to his car to drive her home, she suddenly broke away from his arm to plop herself onto a bench, tilting her head back to stare up at the sky.

“What’s up,” Jim asked after sitting beside her in silence for a few minutes.

“I don’t know… I just don’t want this night to end because I know I won’t feel this good when I wake up tomorrow,” she explained, still staring dazedly at the constellations.

“Well, I hate to break it to you Beesly, but you do have to go to bed sometime, and it is already fairly late,” Jim said, glancing at his watch to see it was almost eleven at night.

“But how about we get you home, and tomorrow Larissa and I can join you in the park for a picnic,” Jim offered, as that was an activity that always brought joy to Pam’s face, “How does that sound?”

“Mm,” Pam mumbled as she finally raised her head, only to rest it on his shoulder, “That sounds really great,” she said, not making any move to get up.

Jim chuckled, “Come on Beesly,” he said as he wrapped his arm around and under her armpit to support her, “Up we get!”

Pam half-heartedly assisted Jim’s efforts to get her up, wrapping her arm across his shoulders, and Jim walked her over to his car, opening the passenger door for her and helping her in. Pam seemed content to loll her head to the left and stare at him during the drive home, and Jim couldn’t help but feel warm under her gaze. Pulling up to her house Jim went around to help her out of the car and up her steps. When she unlocked her door, she opened it but hesitated, turning back around to face him on the front steps, suddenly looking very sober.

“Hey Jim, can I ask you a question?”

End Notes:

Sorry, not sorry? I had to put that cliffhanger there, it was the perfect opportunity.

I really hope you folks enjoy this rendition of the Dundies, it was a joy to write, imagining all of this playing out. I look forward to hearing back from you in the reviews!

For those that have and will review, thank you, you make writing this so much more fun and interactive!

Hope you're looking forward to the next one. I will say now that I cannot promise smut, but fluff will abound.

Editied (2020-05-07): Fixed some typos that I noticed upon re-reading. 

Crescendo by DoomGoose
Author's Notes:
Pam asks a question.

‘You’ve got to take a chance Pam, you deserve to be happy,’ was ringing in Pam’s ears as she turned her key in the lock, before opening her door. She hesitated, now was her last chance, if she didn’t do something now the moment would be lost, and she might never have the courage to do this again. Pam turned around.

“Hey Jim, can I ask you a question,” Pam asked, even as all questions that she wanted to blurt out were whirring through her mind.

‘Why do you always invite Larissa?’

‘How are you so awesome?’

‘Why did you never like Roy?’

‘Why didn’t you kiss me back?’

“Sure, shoot,” Jim said, leaning against the siding next to the steps and looking her dead in the eyes with something that she couldn’t quite place, but she hoped for once it was what she thought it might be.

‘Do you know just how much your friendship means to me? What it means to me?’

‘Do you ever think about being more than best friends?’

‘How come you haven’t dated in ages? Is it because you feel this too?’

‘Would you please kiss me?’

‘Do you have any idea what just your hugs do to me?’

‘Did you get my Dundie changed?’

‘Crap, crap, crap – Say something Pam!’

“What is your type,” Pam finally asked, having resolved to just blurt out the next question that came to mind, consequences be damned.

Jim didn’t know what he was expecting Pam to ask, but that certainly wasn’t it.

“What,” he asked dumbly, refusing to get his hopes up with where Pam was going with this, she was drunk. Sure, she had kissed him tonight, but that was after a beer, two margaritas, and a surprise Dundie change.

“Do you remember that day in the kitchen… just before I broke up with Roy?” Jim nodded, noticing the trepidation leaking into Pam’s demeanor

“You looked at me to let me in on the joke… and – so … I just need to know what your type is,” Pam struggled to get out, the fear of ruining their friendship clamping down on her throat.

Jim didn’t speak for a moment, that was certainly not where he had expected this to be going. Did that mean that Pam felt it too? As Jim was pondering this, he noticed the fear on Pam’s face and the tears welling in her eyes. ‘She has feelings for me! After all this time, I’ve been afraid for nothing!’ Jim crowed internally, lost in his thoughts.

‘Oh my god, I’ve done it – I’ve misinterpreted everything and ruined my relationship with Jim,’ was running through Pam’s head as Jim just stood there looking dumbstruck. She felt tears rolling down her cheeks before finally a sob broke free from her constricted throat, and she buried her face in her hands.

Jim was shaken from his thoughts by her sob, and his eyes focussed again to find her with her face buried in her hands, crying.

“No, no – hey, don’t cry,” Jim said as he stepped forward and wrapped her in a hug, rubbing what he hoped were comforting patterns on her back.

“You have no idea – how much your friendship means to me,” Pam managed to gasp out between sobs, “And now I’ve ruined it!”

“Hey, no, don’t do that Pam, it’s you, ok?”

“What?” Pam asked with a sniffle as she finally looked up at his face, seeing concern and… adoration?

“My type, Pam, is you – It’s always been you,” Jim said as he squeezed her shoulders, hoping that he hadn’t misinterpreted her distress, because then he would be the one ruining the friendship.

Jim pressed on regardless, “Pam, you are just so awesome, you are – the kindest, warmest, funniest person I know, and you’re beautiful, and … my best friend.”

Pam buried her head in the warmth of his embrace and squeezed back, too overcome with emotion to add anything at that moment. Jim seemed to sense this, and Pam recalled when she had mentally listed all his attributes that she loved.

‘How did it take me this long to realise this,’ Pam thought with an internal guffaw, ‘I don’t just love his attributes – I love him!’

Her immediate thoughts after that were that she could not tell him this while drunk, and she needed to find a way to tell him as soon as she was sober.

Jim found himself spiralling in her silence, what did it mean? Did Pam like him too?

‘Of course she likes you, she’s your best friend,’ he thought, scoffing internally, ‘What you really need to be asking yourself is –”

“Why didn’t you kiss me back,” Jim hears Pam ask in a small voice, ripping him out of his internal monologue, and he looks down to see her eyes searching his face.

“Well if I’m being completely honest,” Jim trailed off, trying to decide how honest he wanted to be, before settling on brutally, “I was still in shock that my beautiful best friend had kissed me – on the lips.”

“You have no idea what you do to me when you kiss me on the cheek,” Jim pressed on, “The lips was just… wow.”

Pam giggled, “Do you want a redo? I’m sure it could be arranged.”

“You know, as much as I’d love to, for the sake of science we should schedule the next one for when you’re sober, so we can compare” Jim shot back with a laugh tinging his voice.

“Oh!” Pam gasped, “There is something I really want to tell you when I’m sober,” Pam exclaimed with a huge smile, and Jim felt like his heart had skipped a beat.

“Oh really,” Jim raised an eyebrow in challenge, “Well it better be good, because there is something that I really want to tell you too.”

“I want to go to bed so I can be sober,” Pam complained suddenly, pouting at up at him.

“Well then why don’t you,” Jim asked, his amusement colouring his voice.

“Because I don’t want to let go of you,” Pam explained, “You give the best hugs, like a giant lanky teddy bear,” she said, burying her face against his chest.

“Ok drunky,” Jim said playfully, “Let’s get you to bed!” Jim proceeded to move his arm lower and scooped Pam up off her feet, lifting her into the house.

Pam let out a shriek, before bursting into a fit of giggles, unable to say anything to admonish him. Not that Pam was really upset by this turn of events, but sober Pam would have wanted her to admonish Jim.

“Come on Beesly, you have to let go if you’re going to sleep,” Jim said with a laugh as he laid her down on the bed, she didn’t remove her arms from around his neck.

“It’s hard to fall asleep when you’re lonely,” Pam mumbled back, her head turned towards a pillow.

“You know I’d love to stay Pam, but I can’t, I don’t want you to think that I’m taking advantage of you,” Jim said earnestly.

“You wouldn’t be, I’d be taking advantage of you,” Pam said with a giggle after rolling her head back to look him in the eyes.

“Wow, fancy new Beesly indeed,” Jim chuckled, “And that is why I cannot stay, I want to do this right Pam, this – us – is a big deal to me.”

Pam let out a big sigh, “Me too.”

“Tell you what, how about I come back tomorrow morning and make you some breakfast,” Jim offered.

“Stay with me until I fall asleep,” Pam asked drowsily.

“As you wish,” Jim said as Pam finally let go of him, scooting herself over on the bed and under the covers.

Jim sat against the headboard over the covers as Pam got comfortable, and she reached for his hand and interlaced their fingers, causing the warmth in Jim’s heart to practically overflow as he felt himself flush.

It couldn’t have been more than ten minutes before Jim was confident that Pam was sleeping, but her grip on his hand remained. When Jim heard Nikita whining at the back door to be let out, he regretfully disentangled their hands and got up to let her out. Jim looked back as he left the bedroom and saw Pam’s arm stretched out across the space he had vacated.

Jim let Nikita out the back door, and watched as she happily trotted to the bedroom, and jumped up onto the bed to fill the void he had left. Pam turned in her sleep and wrapped her arms around the dog, and Jim wished that it was him. Jim locked the back door, and after confirming the location of the spare key he had been shown over the summer, he locked the front door and walked home, the cool night air helping to clear his thoughts. Jim went to sleep with a smile on his face as soon as his head hit the pillow.

End Notes:

Well I hope that didn't disappoint. Jim and Pam are on a collision course with destiny now.

In my story outline the next chapter should be the last one, and I'm not sure quite how I feel about that.

Thoughts? End it when they get together, continue for an AU rendition of season 2, or start a sequel for the AU season 2?

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and thank you everyone for all of the kind and encouraging reviews. 

Release by DoomGoose
Author's Notes:
Sober Beesly keeps her promise.

Pam struggled into consciousness and was drowsily aware that her arms were wrapped around someone.

“Mm, Jim,” Pam mumbled, drawing him closer to bask in his warmth.

‘Wow, Jim is really hairy,’ Pam thought to herself, before she was rudely shaken from her reality by a slobbery tongue licking her face. Pam’s eyes shot open and she was greeted with a cheerful Nikita, laying on her bed where Pam had imagined Jim.

‘Just a dream,’ Pam though dejectedly, remembering some of the emotional turmoil that her frayed mind had fabricated for her in her sleep.

Pam looked at the clock, it was around ten in the morning. With a great sigh she rolled herself out of bed and into the bathroom to take out her contacts that she had left in overnight. Pam started a shower, and as she stood under the water, she tried to recall the events of last night.

 If she had dreamed up the emotional confessions on the doorstep, what other memories should she be questioning? Pam decided that she really didn’t want to burst any more bubbles yet, and exited the shower, drying her hair and lazily putting it in a ponytail, no loose curls today. Pam put her glasses on and then grabbed some sweats and a tank-top to go make breakfast for herself. Pam opened her bedroom door, Nikita bounding out of the room ahead of her, and started to slowly make her way down the hallway, deaf to the world as she just focussed on putting one foot in front of the other.

 

 

Jim had spent most of his morning after showering and getting dressed debating the creep factor of letting himself into Pam’s house to make breakfast for her. What if she didn’t wear clothes in the morning and thought he was a total perv? What if she didn’t remember him promising to come over and make breakfast? What if she didn’t remember their conversation on the doorstep?

In the end Jim decided that romantic and creepy were usually two sides of the same coin, it just depended on whether the other party appreciated it. Drunk Pam had taken a big chance last night, so Jim could do the same. Jim could only hope that sober Pam also wanted to take advantage of him. With that decision made, Jim walked over to her house around ten and let himself in using the spare key.

Jim heard the shower running when he entered, so he had no idea how much time he had until Pam emerged from her bedroom, but at least she was awake. Jim started rooting around her kitchen and procured the necessary supplies to start making some bacon, reasoning that if she could smell something cooking, she might not be as shocked to find someone standing in her kitchen. The bacon had just started sizzling when Jim heard the shower shut off.

Jim knew from previous experience that Pam didn’t really have much of a morning routine on a Saturday. The times they had gone for runs or picnics in the morning Jim had noticed that she usually didn’t do makeup, and her hair was usually still somewhat damp. With this in mind, Jim started on making pancake batter, because she could be entering the kitchen at any time now.

Jim’s assumptions were confirmed when a few minutes later, Nikita came skittering into the kitchen to greet him. Jim was always happy to see Nikita, because it usually meant that Pam was around, unless he was taking care of Nikita while Pam was out, but that also meant that he would see Pam when she picked her dog up. Jim gave Nikita some vigorous rubs around her jowls to get her riled up, he loved playing with her.

 

 

Pam trudged into her kitchen and was stunned when she looked up from her feet in the doorway. There was Jim, standing – crouching rather, playing with her dog, with bacon sizzling on a pan behind him, and what could only be pancake batter in a large glass measuring cup beside the stovetop.

“Oh my god,” Pam gasped, “It wasn’t a dream!”

Jim’s head snapped up from where he’d been playing with Nikita, the small grin he wore growing into a smile. Pam remembered seeing that look in his eyes last night, in what she had assumed was her drunken wishful subconscious, but seeing it now sent a shiver down her spine.

“Good morning to you too, Beesly,” Jim said with an easy smile and the same look in his eyes she had seen last night on the front steps. Pam felt her knees becoming a little weak and made her way to the island to sit on a stool.

“Please tell me nothing really bad happened last night,” Pam rested her head in her hands, “My memory’s pretty hazy right now.”

“Well, you can rest assured that you didn’t take advantage of me last night, I left before that could happen,” Jim chuckled.

Pam grimaced, her memory of that moment coming back to her, “Oh my goodness, I can’t believe I told you that.” Jim just laughed.

“Chocolate chips or no,” Jim asked, gesturing to the pancake batter that he was pouring onto a pan on the stove.

“Are you really asking me that,” Pam looked up at him and raised an eyebrow in challenge, “Only heathens have pancakes without chocolate chips, a fact that I’m sure I’ve made you well aware of before.”

“As you wish,” Jim smirked as he proceeded to sprinkle the chips over the cooking batter.

Pam was struck by his casual recital of the classic line from The Princess Bride however, suddenly recalling him speaking it to her as she held his hand before falling asleep. The pieces of her memory from the previous night were starting to fall into place. This was a big deal; Jim had admitted her that she was his type last night. She couldn’t believe that she hadn’t seen it all along, and looking back at it now, knowing that Jim had seen the movie before, she was astounded at the realisation that he had been trying to let her know for a long time. He was probably just as terrified of this going awry as she was.

“Jim,” Pam started, not quite sure how to phrase what she wanted to say, “I seem to recall that there was something that drunk me very much wanted to tell you when I was sober.”

“And I, you,” Jim said, flipping a pancake, “But how about we save that for after breakfast.”

‘Jim might be in love with me,’ was all that occupied Pam’s mind as he continued flipping pancakes while her mind raced connecting all the dots. Jim was her best friend; he had been for years. Sometimes he looked at her with an emotion she couldn’t place, because she was too scared to think about it. Jim had always been there to encourage her to pursue what made her happy. He hadn’t dated anyone for almost a year and a half. He held her while she cried, asking for nothing in return. He helped her start her new life over the summer. He introduced her to his sister, who was now also her friend. He always seemed to know how she was feeling and how best to cheer her up.

Jim might be in love with her, and she might be in love with him. This was amazing and terrifying all at the same time and Pam was hardly paying any attention until Jim shook her from her reverie with a question.

“Where do you keep the syrup Beesly?”

Jim could tell that Pam was deep in thought, and the silence was starting to make him nervous. He was in love with her, and he had all but spelled it out for her last night. The fact that she might not remember was driving him wild, and so he fell back on what he knew, making her laugh.

“Middle shelf, pantry,” She answered, looking like she had just realised he was there all over again.

Jim found the syrup in question, a bottle of maple.

“What, Aunt Jemima not classy enough for you,” Jim asked as he held the syrup’s handle between two fingers as if it had offended him.

“I just like maple better, it’s what we grew up with,” she explained with a slight smile.

“I can’t decide if this makes you a socialist or a commie,” Jim deadpanned, struggling to keep a straight face, “Regardless I’m going to have to report you and have you deported to Canada.”

Pam laughed at the absurdity of the accusation, “You’re not getting rid of me that easily, Halpert.”

Jim and Pam chatted idly over pancakes and bacon, just enjoying being in each other’s presence. Jim thought it was weirdly intimate to be able to see this side of Pam and wanted nothing more than to be able to do this every morning for the rest of his life. She was somehow even more beautiful in her tank-top and sweats, with still drying hair and glasses, than he had ever seen her. Jim could tell that she had something big that she wanted to tell him from the way she kept worrying her bottom lip and could only hope that it wasn’t an apology for how forward she had been while drunk.

They finished breakfast and did the dishes together, and it just felt so natural that Pam was convinced that she needed to get this off her chest as soon as possible. She just had to take a chance and hope this worked out. Pam lead Jim to sit on the loveseat in her living room, curling up in the corner facing towards him and mentally prepared herself. This was it, the moment of truth, the release of months of tension.

“Hey, Jim, I have something I want to say, but I just – It might be weird, but, I need you to know that no matter what, you are my best friend, and if what I’m about to say– If you don’t – y’know,” Pam trailed off, she was rambling, “Ok, phew, here we go, just going to go right in and say it,” she paused, seeing the look of cautious optimism on Jim’s face, “I’m in love with you.”

Jim was over the moon. Pam Beesly had just admitted that she was in love with him. He suddenly recalled last night on the steps, when he had been lost in thought after her question, her fear about ruining their friendship, and realised that he needed to break out of his head and say something fast.

“Do you remember asking for a redo of last night’s kiss,” Jim asked, not waiting for an answer before proceeding, “Now would be good, because I’m in love with you too and I think I might be dreaming.”

Jim saw the tears in her eyes, and the smile on her face, as she practically launched herself across the loveseat and wrapped her arms around his neck. She clung to him and he held her there, loving the feeling of having her in his arms.

Pam burrowed into Jim’s embrace, allowing her to just bask in his warmth like she had wished she could when she woke up. She held on for dear life, knowing that this was it, this was huge. She was in love with her best friend and he loved her back. Pam finally opened her eyes when she felt a warm tear land on her nose, and she pulled away enough to look into Jim’s eyes and finally acknowledge what she saw. The look that she could not place, that he was giving her right now, was love, and joy. Jim was crying tears of joy and Pam couldn’t restrain the giddy excitement in herself any longer.

Jim met her halfway, seeming to have sensed as he always did what was on her mind and staying one step ahead of her. They kissed. Jim tasted of maple syrup and hope and the future.

Jim felt Pam start giggling and finally broke the kiss, “What?”

“We did this so backwards,” she gasped between giggles, “We fell in love before we’ve even gone on a date!” Pam broke down into more giggles, shaking in his arms.

“Yeah, I guess we did,” Jim was smiling so much that his face hurt, and he broke down and joined her in laughter, too overjoyed to care that he sounded hysterical in that moment.

Today was the first day of the rest of their lives, Jim could only dream of what the future held for them.

End Notes:

And there we have it, the conclusion to the longest story I have ever written. When I started this I had no idea it would end up being over 35K words long. 

This was a joy to write, thank you everyone who has reviewed throughout or left jellybeans. You folks made this even more fun to write with all of the interaction.

I hope you guys enjoyed this conclusion.

I haven't started an outline for the intended sequel, I figured I'd give myself a break before jumping into that. But hopefully in the next couple weeks I'll have a plan fleshed out for it and start writing.

For now, I'm re-reading some of my favourites here, and keeping up on new stories.

Again, thank you everyone, it's been a great ride.

This story archived at http://mtt.just-once.net/fanfiction/viewstory.php?sid=5767