Friday morning was met with silence across the Dunder Mifflin - Scranton office.

And while peace and quiet may not be out of place in a professional work environment, it was in this environment. But this silence was even more atypical considering the flurry of excitement that had captivated the office the day before.

Their documentary had been met with a decent amount of success. They were popular enough to keep the camera crews coming back, but not so popular that they had become household names. In Scranton, however, the staff and their lives had become the talk of the town. So much so, that a local columnist had gotten a sneak peak at this week's season finale.

Or, as those who had lived through it called it, last May.

There was a buzz about the office when Kelly had come in waving a copy of the review.

Pam was apprehensive as Kelly bounded towards her, clutching the paper in her hands. The crews refused to let them in on what had or had not made the cut, but she knew that the "episode" was set to center around their Casino Night fundraiser. The thought of seeing even the most benign parts of that night made her want to curl up in a ball and cry. Jim's recent return to Scranton had been awkward at first, but they'd just begun to return to their normal friendship. Even now, she was conscious of any interactions she had with him when the cameras were near, they were so hyper vigilant of the pair since his return. She thanked God every chance she got that the cameras hadn't caught them later on the evening of Casino Night. But even still, having a visual of how Jim had looked that night? Everything that led up to….

Pam tried not to think about it. She was less than excited for this "episode".

Kelly, on the other hand, was even more excited than her usually exuberant self.

"Did you see this?!?!?" she squealed.

Pam smiled politely and shook her head. As if on cue, Jim walked through the front door, Karen poised and beautiful at his side. That was something Pam didn't want to think about, on top of everything else.

Kelly turned; glad to have an even larger audience. "Have you seen the review yet? For Casino Night?!?!"

Jim froze slightly, looking away and then to the ground. Pam had noticed that he'd seemed more distant lately, especially from her. It also hadn't escaped her that this increased as the airing of said "episode" approached.

Karen didn't seem to notice. Even though she hadn't appeared on the show yet, she'd been getting just as into it as the rest of the branch had. "Ooooh!" she exclaimed, hovering closer to Kelly. "What did he say?"

Kelly smiled. "Nothing we didn't know already. Poker, Michael invites two women, blah, blah…. BUT! He says that that there's this HUGE surprise in the last few minutes, and you should have Kleenex handy!" Kelly was nearly jumping up and down with arms waving by the time she had finished. "What does that MEAN? What could have happened that we don't know about? Do you think it will be Michael? Did something happen with Jan? OH! Or," she nodded her head towards Dwight and Angela, the later of who was sending death glares to the group, "something between those two?"

In all the excitement, neither Karen nor Kelly had noticed that both Jim and Pam had frozen, their eyes locking quickly before both averted their gazes. Both were shaking and pale when Kelly turned for their input. "So! What do you guys think?"

Jim shrugged his shoulders and did his best to casually walk to his desk.

Karen followed him with her eyes for a moment before during back to hear Pam's thoughts. Pam had begun reorganizing her desk and answered looking down, "Um, Michael would be my guess." She removed her hands quickly from the desk when she noticed how noticeably they were shaking and tentatively looked up at Kelly.

Kelly was lost in her own world and decided that yes, a Michael fiasco was most likely. Pam smiled weakly as she walked away. Karen lingered for a moment and Pam could sense the wheels turning in her head. Karen eventually nodded slowly at her, giving her a weak smile before turning to walk to her desk. Pam couldn't help but notice that Jim wouldn't meet Karen's gaze.

Karen wasn't blind. She had a pretty good idea what the HUGE surprise would be. When she'd found out she was transferring to Scranton, she'd gotten a hold of all of the old "episodes" to get an idea of where she'd be working. After an episode or two she'd questioned Jim about the great friendship, the one she'd never heard about but was so plainly important to his TV self. He'd been flustered at first, frozen in place. He'd recovered quickly, going on about being good friends and the two normal people amongst the nuts and good television and great editing.

It was the answer Karen was hoping for, so even though she had a nagging suspicion that he was lying to her, she pushed it away and put on a smile. That suspicion had come back, screaming for attention, once she came to Scranton and was able to see the pair together with her own eyes. 'Good editing, my ass,' she'd thought. But she'd done her best to act as though she didn't know she was getting in the middle of anything.

That act was getting harder and harder to keep up.

The excitement level remained high throughout the day. Michael continually denied that he was the source of the surprise, so much so that the entire office had become even more convinced that he was. By the end of the day as the group left together for Poor Richards, where they could watch as a group, no one was too suspicious when both Pam and Jim had made excuses to miss the viewing.

By the end of the night it had all made sense. The awkwardness and tension that seemed to exist between the two, Jim's hasty transfer to Stamford, Pam's sudden change of heart towards Roy and her wedding. The end of the episode was met with a silent bar. Minutes stretched as the shock began to wear off.

"I can't believe—"

"Poor Jim!"

"I can't believe—"

"That's why he transferred the next week!"

"I can't believe—"

"Wait! But she didn't get married."

They all stopped.

"And he's back now."

"So then why haven't they…"

They all stopped as the realization hit them. They could hear the door swishing closed through the silence as Karen slipped out of the bar.

This all lead to the surprisingly quiet Dunder Mifflin office on Friday morning. Even Michael seemed to respect the silent agreement to avoid both Jim and Pam, and not confront either on what they had all seen.

The only activity that the pair would make was a ballet of eye contact. It would start the same way each time. Pam would look up from her desk and over at the back of Jim's head. At this point, Karen would begin looking over at an oblivious Pam, noticing where her gaze laid. Eventually, Jim would glance up at Karen, check to see what she was staring at, and lock eyes with Pam.

At which point all three would immediately drop their eyes to their desks.

Michael lasted one hour of silence, more than anyone expected of him, before his desire to provide entertainment kicked in.

"Attention all, attention all!" Michael cut through the silence as he stepped out of his office.

Those who were not a part of the awkward trio began looking at each other cautiously. Michael's demeanor had a sense of finality to it that was not unfamiliar to the group. He'd come up with a "solution" to a problem that was never his to begin with. There was a palpable sense of doom in the air.

Michael stepped close behind Ryan and cleared his throat. "Here at Dunder Mifflin, we are a family. And when someone -- … someone… s…" He stopped for a moment to choose his words. "When two someones in the family are hurting, it's our job as family to be there for them."

Karen stared down at her desk. While they'd never broadcasted it, she and Jim had stopped hiding their relationship all together from their coworkers. She had been happy when Michael never seemed to put things together, as Jim had warned her of what was likely to happen when he did. But in that minute, when she was being brushed aside as inconsequential to the love story that seemed to be unfolding in front of them all, she wished that he knew she had some claim to the situation.

But it was becoming clear why her coworkers had always eyed her slightly warily and almost with pity when they saw her with Jim.

"When two parts of a family hurt, we all hurt," Michael continued. "And that is why I have decided that we are going to have a team building trust exercise conference. Right now. In the warehouse."

The last sentence was enough to make even Jim and Pam, whose gazes hadn't left their desks, stare widely up at Michael.

Phyllis was the first to speak. "Michael, I'm not sure that's such a great idea…" she trailed off.

"Why, Phyllis? Why would you think that?" Asked Michael, angered by the opposition.

She stared blankly back at him, willing him to understand.

Kevin helped her out. "Because Roy will probably beat the crap out of Jim."

Jim dropped his head into his hand and had to fight the urge to bang his head against the desk.

"Not going to be a problem. Jim's a tough guy. And we are his posse, ready to back him up at a moments notice." Michael paused for a moment. "Also, I spoke with Darryl. Roy didn't come in this morning… So, solves that." Michael paused again to look around the room.

He was getting more and more agitated as he realized that no one had been sold on the brilliance of his plan. "Come ON you guys! We have to get out of this office. I can't take the tension anymore. This has become a sad place, a quiet place. And that's not how I run an office. This whole place is just reeking of tension." He waved his arms around the area of the room between his office and reception. "Over here. It's just horrible. And –" he stopped and looked down. Waving his arms to indicate the area in front of Ryan's desk. "Actually, this exact area. Right here, against the –"

"OKAY!" Jim stood abruptly, cutting off Michael. He looked down and walked towards the exit, making sure to avert his gaze as he walked past reception. "Let's just go."

"Okay!" Said Michael, pleased now that he'd gotten through to some. Slowly people began to stand, taking Jim's departure as permission to go along with Michael's plan. The room filed in line behind Jim. Michael jumped in with the group about halfway through and Pam waited to be the last one out.

Once they'd all made it to the warehouse, Michael ordered everyone, warehouse staff included, into a semi circle around him so that he could address them all.

Jim stood to one end of the group. As everyone settled into position, he cautiously raised his eyes to look around at the group. He noticed Pam first and couldn't stop the pang he felt at seeing her almost trying to hide herself behind Phyllis. He tried to convince himself that the pang was a result of not eating breakfast and nothing else. Karen was situated somewhere between himself and Pam, staring straight ahead, arms crossed against her chest. He hadn't been able to muster up the emotional energy to have a conversation with her, but he could understand her annoyance. He would never forget each instance where she'd questioned him about the nature of his friendship with Pam and he'd had to lie to her. So he understood the anger he saw lurking behind her eyes. But honestly, what had she expected him to say? Now that she'd seen the demise of that friendship, could she not understand why he'd never been honest with her? How painful that would have been for him? He looked away from Karen and noticed the majority of the warehouse workers glaring menacingly at him.

Shit.

He went back to staring at the floor.

"Family," Michael started, "is built on many things. Three things really; love, blood and trust. Since our family is missing one of those criteria –"

"Blood," inserted Dwight, coming to stand next to Michael. "We are not related."

"God, Dwight. Thanks for being obvious. Go back over there."

Dwight, dejected, turned and walked back to his spot.

"As I was saying before Captain Obvious over here started," he paused for laughter, then coughed and started again when none came. "Because our family is lacking that one criterium, we have to work especially hard to make sure that we meet the other two criteria; love and trust. Now, I think we all know that the love part is covered."

Michael paused just long enough for Jim to sense him glaring pointedly at him. He decided that the sheer extent of how excruciating this whole day was becoming would be comical if he hadn't been fighting the urge to curl up into a ball and cry. One day, he told himself, I will look back on this and laugh. He tried to convince himself that he meant it.

"So what does that leave?" Michael continued. "Trust! So without further ado, here's what we're gonna do. We are going to play some games that build trust and teamwork. They include a blindfolded treasure hunt, where one partner is blindfolded and the other can't touch anything and they must guide the blindfolded partner. Also, a three legged race. There may also be others, depending on our… progress… by that point. I will now begin putting your into pairs."

Both Pam and Jim's head shot up as Michael mentioned hand selecting the pairs. The mischievous gleam in his eyes was enough to confirm what his plans for pairs were going to be.

Jim recovered first. "Michael, no."

Michael tried to look innocent. "'No' what, Jim?"

Even though she knew the idea of working with Jim right now was a horrible one, Pam couldn't help the hurt she felt when he so immediately tried to get out of it. She tried her best to recover quickly and try her luck with Michael. "Please, Michael. Don't."

Michael almost looked like he was loosing steam, possibly about to reconsider. As he opened his mouth to speak, he was interrupted by a car squealing into the parking lot, skidding into a parking space and it's door slamming.

Through the open door of the warehouse, a quite obviously drunk Roy stumbled in.

"Darryl! Hey Darryl, man I am so -" he stopped as he noticed for the first time who all was in the warehouse.

"What the hell is this?" Roy slurred as he screamed across the warehouse. He looked around, still swaying in place, before his gaze landed on Jim. "YOU!" He shouted before he started walking towards him.

Jim did nothing but stood his ground and matched Roy's glare as the drunken man made his way towards him.

Pam froze. She knew she needed to do something, take Roy aside and try and talk some sense into him, or at least get him away from Jim until he was sober.

Roy kept towards Jim. "What do you have to say for yourself, Halpert? You're the reason I'm not married right now, you piece of shit!"

Jim half laughed, infuriating Roy even further. "What!" he spat.

Jim opened his mouth and spoke in full sentences for the first time that day. "You're not married because you're an insensitive ass hole, which I have very little to do with."

Pam realized that she'd been moving towards the pair since she'd heard Jim laugh and was now nearly next to him. She stepped in front of Jim as Roy got closer, nearly spitting, "You son of a bitch!" in the other man's face.

"Roy," Pam said quietly, reaching her hand out to keep him back. She tried to step closer to him, putting more room between herself and Jim. She realized that the worst thing in this situation was for it to look to Roy as if she were protecting Jim. Maybe if she could just get closer to him, make him forget that he'd been ready to beat the crap out of Jim... "Roy, come on. This isn't a good idea. Let's go get some coffee and sober you up." She tried to reach up and lead him aside.

"No!" Roy waved his arms, knocking Pam's hands off him. Pam could hear Jim take a step forward behind her and waved her arm in his direction to stop him.

She stepped towards Roy tentatively. "Come on, Roy."

Roy looked for a split second as if he were considering her proposal, then in another split second became agitated again. "I said no, Pam!" Then to emphasize his point, he pushed her out of the way.

Pam had started to relax, thinking that Roy was giving in, and was caught off guard by the too forceful shove. She lost her balance and footing and tripped as her ankle caught under her and she fell hard into a nearby metal shelf.

"NO!" Jim was running at Roy and had tackled him down before Pam had hit the ground. He grabbed the other man by the shirt shaking him while screaming. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

A commotion to his right caused Jim to drop Roy back to the ground. Phyllis and Kelly had come to Pam's side and were trying to help her stand. They pulled her to her feet, only for Pam to collapse back to the ground, clutching her right ankle.

Jim felt the fight leave him and concern take over and he all but ran and crouched in front of her. "Pam?"

Pam looked up at Jim and could feel the tears forming behind her eyes. She'd been holding it in all day, all week really. But now, as he stared at her, worry and pain so evident across his face, she could no longer hold them back. The way Jim was looking at her, as if he were in physical pain at seeing her hurt. How had she managed to let this slip away? The thought only made the tears come faster.

He tenderly brushed her hands aside so that he could look at her ankle as Phyllis and Kelly, as well as the growing crowd just behind him, looked on. "Pam, it's starting to swell up already. We've gotta get you to the hospital. Can you stand?"

Pam took a deep break and tried to talk. "I don't kn..." was all she could get before the situation hit her and she was crying again.

Jim waited for only a beat before placing an arm under her knees and another behind her back and lifting her up. He tried to think the pain she was in, the hurt he was feeling, or his hatred for Roy. Anything but the fact that she was leaning flush against his chest and that his hand was resting on the bare skin of her knee. Or that her hands were going around his neck.

"Pam!" Roy shouted from his spot on the floor that he was trying to stand up from. "Pam, I'm so sorry! Are you okay? It was an accident."

Jim pulled Pam closer to him as he stopped and turned to Michael. "Somebody needs to call the police to have them pick him up."

Dwight jumped out from the crowd. "Yes! Yes, as a volunteer-"

"Police?!" Roy yelled, cutting Dwight off while Darryl helped him up. "What the hell are you talking about? It was an accident! Pam!"

"Yeah, well drunk driving sure as hell isn't. I'm sure they'll remember you from last time." With that he turned to walk out of the warehouse. It could have been his imagination, but as Karen caught his gaze, he could have sworn she almost smiled softly at him.

The air in the car was stiff and it choked her and she knew she needed to say something. She glanced over at him and could see white knuckles gripping the steering wheel.

She couldn't decide if she felt comforted that he seemed just as on edge.

She took a deep breath and opened her mouth, still unsure what she was going to say. "Jim."

He cut her off immediately. "How's your ankle?"

She sighed. How do you tell someone that the pounding in a very possibly broken bone is just a twinge compared to the ache you feel for what you've done? You lie, she guessed. "It's okay." She took a deep breath and tried again. "Jim."

He shook his head quickly and looked at her for the first time since he'd gently set her on the seat. "Don't."

She dropped her gaze to her lap. She knew she had very little right to bring up the subject. After all, this was her mess.

"Just..." Jim started softly. "Later." He glanced over again and tentatively met her eyes.

Pam nodded slowly, trying to find a way for her eyes to convey 'I'm so sorry. Please give me another chance' before he looked back to the road.

They pulled up in front of Mercy Hospital five minutes later. Pam couldn't decide whether she was relieved or upset to see that there was a wheel chair sitting by the building which Jim grabbed and brought over to her door.

He wheeled her through the doors and with some direction and forms from the admitting staff, they were seated in the waiting room. Pam had started filling out forms when she suddenly gasped and looked up. "Oh, no."

"What? What's wrong?"

"I don't... I left all of my things at the office. My wallet, my insurance card, my ID..."

She was getting more and more worked up as she spoke and Jim placed his hand on her arm to calm her. She froze at the contact and he pulled back, clearing his throat. He spoke softly, still trying to calm her down. "It's not a big deal, Pam. I'll call the office and have someone drive your purse over. Okay?"

Pam seemed to calm down at that and he pulled out his cell phone.

"Dunder Mifflin, this is Ryan." Thank God, Jim thought to himself. He'd known that anyone else would have asked questions, which was not something he could deal with at the moment.

"Ryan, it's Jim. Listen, I need someone to drive Pam's purse over here. She needs her insurance information and ID."

"Uh huh, sure." Jim could hear the disinterest in Ryan's voice. "Got it. I'll send someone over."

"Thanks, man." He hung up the phone and turned back to Pam.

She smiled weakly at him, a little embarrassed at her near panic attack. "Thank you."

"Beesly?"

Jim stood and wheeled Pam to the nurse who'd just called her name. She took the handles from him and let him know that he'd have to wait in the waiting room. Jim nodded and met Pam's eyes. "I'll just be..." he motioned over his shoulder at the chairs, "I'll be waiting."

Jim sat back down as Pam was wheeled away. He felt all the tension leave his body at once as he realized that he was away from prying eyes for the first time that day. He sank lower into his chair and let his head fall into his hands. The whole day hit him at once. He had tried not to think about the ramifications of the previous night. What it meant for him and Karen, what it meant for the way he was treated in the office, what it meant for him and Pam. But now, finally allowing himself to be in the moment, he was petrified by the inevitable change that was coming. He just wished he knew which way that change would go.

He sensed a person standing above him and then a purse dangled in front of him. He hadn't expected the arm holding it to be attached to Karen.

"Here," she said as she sat beside him.

"Thanks," he said quietly. He looked back down to his hands. The silence stretched out between them as he tried to think of the proper thing to say in this situation. Was there a correct way to apologize for not telling your girlfriend that you're in love with someone else before she finds out on TV?

Luckily, Karen spoke first, relieving Jim from having to answer his own thoughts. "I'm sorry," she said softly.

Jim almost burst out laughing. "What do you possibly have to be sorry for?"

Karen took a deep breath and turned to him. "I'm sorry that you've been having such a rough time. I know that I haven't been helping matters. Especially lately."

"Karen..."

Karen put a hand up and Jim looked back down at his hands. "No, just listen. I'm not going to pretend I'm not at least a little angry. I really wish I'd known everything before I moved here. But I think I have some understanding of why you couldn't tell me."

"Karen, I never meant to hurt you," Jim said, realizing how much he meant it. "I never meant for this to happen."

"I know you didn't," she replied with a soft smile.

"This doesn't have to be..." he trailed off as he searched for the words. "We don't have to be over."

Karen laughed softly and placed her hand on his forearm. "Yeah. We do. Jim, it wouldn't be fair to either one of us." She looked up at him pointedly. "Or to anyone else, for that matter."

Jim hung his head, refusing to acknowledge her meaning. Karen paused for a moment, trying to decide whether or not to continue. "Jim, I hate to jump in here, but someone has to tell you this."

Jim stared downward, his gaze fixed at a stain on the ground. He had to remind himself to breathe as he waited with a sense of dread at what Karen wanted to tell him.

"You get that she was lying, don't you?"

Jim shook his head, and looked back up at her. "Karen, please don't."

Karen met his gaze and continued on. "You didn't misinterpret anything."

As the words registered with him, Karen could see his eyes well in a manner which was eerily similar way what she had watched the night before. She could see it in his face that he was back in the moment, back to that night. She realized with some relief that her heart ached for to see him in so much pain more than she ached for him. As she leaned in to kiss his cheek, she was amazed at how alright she was with pushing her supposed boyfriend to another woman. Before she pulled away she whispered in his ear, "It's going to be okay. Hang in there."

With that she gathered her own purse and stood to leave. She stopped when she reached the door and turned back to him. "Oh, I forgot to tell you. Michael's locked himself in his office because he feels so guilty for what happened. He told me to tell you that you both have the rest of the day off."

Jim sat, his attention fixed on the stained floor. No one who knew them, who had seen them together on any regular basis, had ever speculated on Pam's feelings for him. Karen's words had been a catalyst to bringing back up the hope that he'd spent the majority of the last year pushing down. When he'd moved to Stamford, he'd forced himself to give up the idea that things would ever work between Pam and him. So while he'd never been able to stop loving her, he'd been able to stop himself from thinking she could love him. He'd stopped thinking that her actions could be mistaken for any interest in him.

But for Karen to tell him that he'd been right all along? He assumed that she was the last person who would want that to be true. That gave her words have a little more weight.

As he'd sat there, he'd gone back over the past year in his head. He'd thought about all of the things that had happened between them since he'd come back to Scranton. He thought about her hug that first day, and how she'd asked him out to coffee. He thought about how he'd thought he'd seen a flicker of shock and sadness cross her face before the mask slid into place and she told him that they'd always be friends. He thought about seeing that mask again when he'd rejected her Christmas gift. And he thought about the way she smiled at him when he'd come back for it.

It was in that moment that he realized that a prank over new responsibility had meant the same to her as a teapot over an iPod had to him.

And then Jim realized that he recognized that mask. The same mask he saw on Pam's face as he glanced back at her while Karen rubbed her hand along his back, the mask that slipped over her face when he sat next to Karen in the conference room…

The mask he had worn when Roy came around.

By the time this revelation hit him, nearly two and a half hours had gone by and Pam was hobbling out of the Emergency Room doors on crutches and her ankle in an air cast.

Jim scrambled up and over to meet her at the front desk, bringing her purse with him.

"Are you okay?" he asked, handing her things over to her.

She nodded, getting out her wallet and passing over her insurance and identification. She turned back to Jim. "Sprained, they said. It's pretty swollen, but should heal on its own. I've just got to stay off of it for a few days."

He nodded, not trusting what might come out of his mouth after his very recent thoughts. Once Pam's things were given back, they were sent on their way.

The car ride to Pam's apartment was just as quiet as the one to the hospital. Jim spent the trip still trying to keep his mouth shut while Pam sat trying to think of something, anything to say.

"Oh, who should I thank for bringing my purse?"

Jim was silent for a moment. "Um, Karen, actually."

Pam looked over at him, not having expected that answer. "That was really nice of her." She paused for a moment and took a deep breath. "She's really great, Jim."

Jim nodded slowly, staring straight ahead at the road. "Yeah…"

The car was silent for another moment before Jim spoke again, still staring at the road. "That's, uh… I actually think that's over. Me and Karen, I mean."

Pam froze, unsure of how to respond. He didn't sound particularly upset. It sounded more like he was just relaying information. "Oh. I'm sorry," she said softly.

Jim still faced the road, willing the car to be at its destination already. He only nodded in response.

When they finally did arrive, Jim helped Pam with her things as she maneuvered on the crutches up and into her apartment. As he set down her things, Jim took off his coat and placed it over a chair. He turned back and suddenly it was just the two of them without any distractions.

Pam glanced around nervously. "Jim, you don't have to… I mean, I think I'm okay. You don't have to stay here…" she trailed off and looked back down to the ground.

For the first time in almost a year, Jim let himself interpret the tone of her voice. I don't want you to go, it told him. "I want to stay," he responded quickly, then adding, "If that's okay," as almost an afterthought.

He was rewarded for his bravery with a small smile from Pam. She nodded. "Of course." With that she turned and walked into the kitchen. "Would you like some tea?" she asked, over her shoulder.

"Yes, please."

Jim followed her into the kitchen and found her standing, sans crutches, in the corner of the counter. He stopped only a foot behind her, willing his heart to slow down and move out of his throat. This is it, he thought. With one more deep breath he decided to dive in.

"If you could change anything about that night, would you?"

He saw her tense and freeze, then take a deep breath.

When she finally turned to face him, she was eye level with his chest. Her gaze remained there as she started speaking. "Please listen to everything I have to say before you react." She paused for a moment and collected herself. "I will never forgive myself for how horrible I was to you. You were so…" she shook her head. "And the worst part is that I knew exactly what I was doing." She paused and shut her eyes for a moment before squaring her shoulders and starting again.

"But, Jim, you've got to understand this. I was stuck with the same idea of what my future had to be for 10 years. That night… You were what it took for me to realize how unhappy I was and would have been with Roy. I needed that. Desperately.

"So I guess I don't know if I would have changed it all. I wish so much that you hadn't gotten hurt; you've got to know that. But I can't imagine what would have happened if you hadn’t…" She stopped talking and placed her hands on his chest. Finally she looked up and met his eyes, feeling tears come to her eyes as she saw the same in his.

"There is one thing I would change. Regardless of what I did say that night, I was screaming one thing in my head the whole time. Jim, I should have told you that I loved you, too." She placed her hands on his cheeks and used her thumb to wipe away a tear that had fallen. "That I'm in love with you."

Her words hung like anticipation in the air. Neither moved as they stared at each other; his arms at his side and her hands holding his face.

He swallowed quickly and when he spoke his voice was low and heavy. "Can I react now?"

Her response came as a whisper. "Please."

He wrapped his arms around her waist and brought her lips to his. She felt tears spill over her eyes in relief as they came together. His mouth opened and hers followed suit and she swore that the room was spinning.

When they finally broke apart, she wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him close.

"That's what you'd change, huh?" he whispered in her ear. She was glad he was holding her so tight, because she was sure that she would have lost the ability to stand upright when she more felt than heard him.

She murmured her affirmative response into space behind his ear and felt him shudder in her arms.

After taking a moment, and a deep breath, to recover, he whispered again. "Then I propose a do-over."

She laughed with her whole body for what seemed like the first time in months. "A do-over?"

He pulled back and released her with a smirk on his face. "Take two?"

She nodded and smiled.

"I'm in love with you."

She tried to keep herself from crying all over again. "That's probably a good thing, since I'm in love with you."

"You are, huh?"

"Oh yeah."

He smiled and pulled her back into him. "Good answer."