After the house was settled in to, life started back up in full swing. Jim returned to work with a heavier work load than ever, Pam got the position at the local art gallery and Scarlet started kindergarten. Their summer had been filled with cookouts with the family, outings, and the blessed lazy Sunday.

Scarlet grew closer to Jim over the summer months. She would wait for him to come home from work, beg him to read her bedtime stories and share her swinging time with him in the backyard after dinner. Pam was happy that she was adapting really well to the change and hoped that it lasted. Although Pam was thoroughly excited for their bond, Pam missed all the time she used to get to spend with Jim.

One night, after they had tucked Scarlet in and gave goodnight kisses, Pam and Jim sat on the couch. They felt like it was their only real time to relax with each other, and they enjoyed every moment away from the chaos of the day and the parenting of Scarlet.

Pam rested her head on Jim’s chest while they watched the late night news. She didn’t care about the weather reports or the crime rate in Scranton, she was just happy to be in Jim’s arms. She glanced up at him as he blinked his heavy eyes.

“You’re sleepy,” Pam said, gazing up at him.

“How did you guess?” Jim said, teasing as he let out a yawn.

“Well, I’m ready for bed if you are.”

“Yeah, let’s get to bed before I pass out right here,” Jim said, pulling Pam off the couch as he stood.

Jim did one last check on Scarlet before he slipped under the covers. Pam was already in bed with a novel perched on her lap.

“Are you going to read me a bedtime story?”

Pam smiled and looked at the cover of her book. “Not unless you want to read this harlequin novel with me.”

“No thanks. I think I’ll stick with Winnie the Pooh,” Jim said, leaning over to kiss Pam goodnight. “Night, Pam.”

“Night,” Pam said, reaching over and turning off the lamp. Pam rolled over to get comfortable and found her normal nestling spot. As she found her position, she placed another kiss on his lips. Before she could pull away, he had his hands on her back and was kissing her. Pam started giggling.

“What?” Jim asked, slightly amused.

Still giggling, Pam replied, “I don’t know.”

Leaning in for another kiss, Jim was cut off by Pam’s laughter. “I just brushed. What’s the deal?”

“Nothing! I’m just happy all of a sudden. Can’t a girl giggle while kissing her husband?”

Smiling, Jim pulled her face towards his. “Giggle all you want; just let me get some lip action in before you burst into fits of laughter.”

“Done,” Pam said, leaning in an inch and pressing her lips to his.

Jim broke apart with his brows furrowed. “For some reason, we haven’t done this in awhile,” he said, smiling.

“We’re busy people now. You work, I work, Scarlet is a handful…so, we aren’t going to be able to make out every day like we want,” Pam said, kissing his cheek.

“Then I hereby declare everyday a make out day,” Jim said, placing another kiss on her lips. She pulled back slightly chuckling again.

“I thought you were tired.”

“I was. Now, not so much.”

“You’re something else, you know that?”

Jim nodded and kept attacking Pam with light kisses as she flinched as if they were tickling her. In mid-kiss, their bedroom door swung open with Scarlet standing in the doorway. Slightly shocked that they had been caught, Pam gasped and rolled off of Jim.

“What’s wrong Scarlet?”

“I had a bad dream again,” Scarlet said, with a weakness to her voice.

Jim sat up and reached out his hands, “Come here.”

She came across the room and crawled into Jim’s arms. He placed her between him and Pam and she snuggled up under the blanket’s. Pam wiped Scarlet’s hair out of her face and placed a kiss on her cheek.

“You’re safe. We’re right here, baby,” Pam said, softly.

Jim smiled at Pam and then looked down at Scarlet, who already had her eyes shut. He leaned over her, kissed Pam on the lips one last time, and sunk back under the covers next to Scarlet. Pam relaxed her body and cuddled up next to Scarlet before shutting her eyes and falling into a deep sleep.

-----

Mornings in the Halpert house were more than chaotic. Scarlet was normally the first to wake up and essentially led to her shaking Jim and Pam awake in the mornings. Pam would normally get Scarlet dressed and ready and start breakfast as Jim showered. After they ate their breakfast, Jim would take Scarlet to school and Pam would get ready for her shift at the gallery.

One day as Jim was on a conference call with corporate, the receptionist buzzed in.

“Jim, Pam is on the line.”

“Can it wait?”

“It has something to with Scarlet.”

“Oh…umm, tell her to wait a few minutes.”

Jim switched over to the other line to finish up the call with corporate. As soon as he got done with them he hurriedly hit the button to talk to Pam.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Hey. Are you free to go to Scarlet’s school?”

“Why?”

“I won’t be able to pick her up today. Connie left for the day because she was sick and I’m here all alone. So, can you make it to her school?”

“I have a few calls to make. How much time do I have?”

“She gets out in thirty minutes.”

“Okay. Well, I’ll take off the rest of the day.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay. It’s always nice to get to leave early,” Jim said, tapping his pencil on his desk.

“Yeah, I hear ya. Well, I need to get going. So, you’re okay to pick her up?”

“I can handle this.”

“Okay. Thanks. Bye.”

“Bye.”

Jim hung up the phone and finished up his calls before he left. He pulled up at Scarlet’s school and parked. He had to go inside to sign her out. He made his way to the office and asked the secretary what he needed to do to get Scarlet from school.

“Who are you picking up?” the blond asked.

“Scarlet Halpert,” Jim said as an older gray haired lady turned around.

“Are you Scarlet’s father?”

“Yeah. Adoptive father, actually.”

“Can I have a word with you for a minute?”

“Sure,” Jim said, stepping aside with the lady.

“Hi. I’m Mrs. Landers, the elementary principal. Nice to meet you…,” she said, reaching to shake his hand.

“Jim,” he said, shaking her hand.

“Jim. I was hoping to talk to you or her mother. Scarlet had an issue in class today.”

“An issue?”

“Yes. She apparently bit another classmate during their play time. Mrs. Hunt sent her to me after the incident.”

“She bit someone?”

“Matthew Morrison.”

“Oh, the little boy that picks on her….”

“We didn’t have any clue what started the fight, but she bit him. We had to discipline her no matter what the offense.”

“I understand. What’s her discipline?”

“She doesn’t get recess for the rest of the week. And, we were hoping that you would have a talk with her about her actions.”

“Yes, we definitely will.”

“Well, we really love Scarlet and hope that she doesn’t have to have her recess taken away again. She’s such a good kid.”

“She is. I just don’t know what got into her,” Jim said, scratching the back of his neck.

“Thank you for your time, Jim.”

“No, thank you,” Jim said, turning to sign Scarlet out.

Jim waited for Scarlet’s class to come down the hallway. As soon as she saw him, she came running towards him. He picked her up into a hug.

“Hi Jim!”

“Hey! How was school?”

“Okay.”

“Okay? That’s all?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, let’s get home.”

“Where’s mommy?”

“She had to work late today. So, it’s just me and you for now.”

“Okay,” Scarlet said, skipping towards the car.

Jim was confused on what to do. He had an uneasy feeling about disciplining Scarlet. Jim had never had to discipline her except for the time she kept trying to stick Allie in the bath tub. It not only led to Scarlet and Allie getting soaking wet, but scratches up and down Jim’s arms. Jim thought about how to approach Scarlet and just decided to ask her about it while they drove home.

“Hey, I talked to your principle today,” Jim said, looking into his rear view mirror to see Scarlet.

“Mrs. Landers is nice.”

“Yeah, she is. But, she told me that you had to go to her office today. What happened?”

Scarlet’s face went red and her smile drooped. “I got in trouble.”

“I know that. What started the fight?” Jim asked, trying to be as nice as possible.

“Matthew told me that I wasn’t pretty again. And, he said he didn’t want to play with me because I was weird.”

“So, you bit him?”

Scarlet nodded. Jim looked back in the mirror again to see her sad face. By the look on her face, Jim could tell that she knew she was in trouble.

“Scarlet, talk to me. What’s wrong with this picture?”

“I didn’t mean to! He made me mad.”

“But, you hurt Matthew. Now he isn’t going to want to be friends at all. And, you got your recess taken away.”

“He started it, Jim!” Scarlet said, almost screaming in her defense.

Jim glanced back again. “Don’t yell at me. Now tell me Scarlet, did you think it was okay to bite another person?”

“He was being mean!”

“I know he was but, you don’t just go biting people because they’re mean. You can’t take out your anger on little boys like him. He’s just trying to make you mad so don’t give in.”

Jim looked back to see Scarlet holding her hands over her face. He could hear her little sobs.

“Scarlet, I’m sorry but you know that you’re in trouble for this. When your mom gets home we are going to have a talk about violence.”

“Jim! I didn’t mean to! Don’t tell mom!”

“Scarlet, you bit some kid. That’s not very nice. And, I have to tell your mom. She needs to know that you’re in trouble,” Jim said, hearing Scarlet’s cries picking up.

“NO!” She yelled as she sobbed more.

It nearly broke Jim’s heart as he heard her crying and begging him to not make it worse. He wanted to be the good guy but knew that if she was ever going to respect him in the future, he had to be the authority figure.

“Scarlet, do not yell at me.”

“No! I don’t want mommy to know! You can’t tell her!”

“Scarlet, there’s no getting out of this one. So, stop screaming at me,” Jim said as he put the car in park.

Scarlet was sobbing uncontrollably as she pushed her car door open as soon as Jim shut the car off. She jumped out and ran towards the door with Jim close behind her. She ran up the stairs in a fit of anger.

Jim hollered at her, “Stop running and calm down.”

“I don’t like you anymore!” she screamed as she climbed the stairs and slammed an upstairs door.

Slightly shocked, Jim’s heart sank at her statement. He never wanted her to be that angry with him and hoped that it never happened again. He knew that it was the first of many fights to come but hated that it had to start so soon. Jim hung his head and made his way to the kitchen. He assumed she would be down for her after school snack once she cooled down.

He set out the peanut butter and sliced up an apple and put the on a plate for her. After fifteen minutes of waiting for her to come down the stairs calm and collected, he decided she wasn’t giving up that easy. Jim waited a little bit longer and started to munch on some of the apples. Before the last slice was finished, Pam walked in through the garage.

“Hey babe,” Pam said, shutting the door behind her.

“Hey,” Jim said, wiping the dish off.

“How was your day?” she said, accepting a kiss from Jim.

“Good. Yours?”

“Boring. Without Connie there it seemed mundane. No one came in today.”

“Really? Well, it is an art gallery. In Scranton,” Jim said, rolling his eyes.

“I know,” Pam said, looking around. “Where’s Scarlet?”

“Um…she’s mad at me,” Jim said, lifting his eyebrows.

“Why?” Pam said, putting her purse on the counter.

“She got in trouble at school today and she didn’t want me to tell you. So, when we got home, she stormed up the stairs and slammed her door.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Oh, and now she…quote/unquote ‘doesn’t like me anymore.’”

“No way. She told you that?”

“Serious as a heart attack. I thought I was going to die when she stuck the knife through my chest.”

“Have you talked to her since?”

“I was just about to go up and talk to her but I ate all her apples that I cut for her. I was going to cut some more and take them as a peace offering.”

Pam giggled. “I’ll let you handle this one for now. Wait, what did she get in trouble for?”

“She bit Matthew Morrison at school today.”

“What?!” Pam said, flabbergasted.

“Yeah. When I picked her up the principle talked to me about it and asked us to have a chat with her. She doesn’t get recess at school for the rest of the week.”

“I cannot believe her. She hasn’t ever bitten anyone before. Not that I know of.”

“It seemed a little odd to me too. But, we chatted about it in the car and she got upset with me for telling her she was wrong to bite Matthew.”

Pam pulled an apple out of the fridge and handed it to Jim. “Go make amends.”

After the apple was cut and a nice lump of peanut butter was next to the slices, Jim treaded the stairs to Scarlet’s room. He opened the door saying her name.

“Scarlet,” he said, finding that she wasn’t in her room. Confused, Jim went over to the spare room at the end of the hall. He peeked in there and couldn’t find her. He walked over to his door and opened the door a crack. He peered in to find a lump in the center of his bed. She was hiding under his covers.

He stepped in the door and could hear her still whimpering. He sat on the side of the bed and placed the apples on the nightstand.

“Hey, Scarlet. I brought you some apples and peanut butter,” he said, hoping she would come out from under the covers. When she didn’t he thought about what the proper thing to say at that moment.

“Scarlet, please talk me.”

When she didn’t answer or move an inch, he knew it was all on him. He pulled back the covers to find Scarlet drenched in sweat and her hair slightly damp. He had been under the covers crying for more than thirty minutes and knew it must have been hot under there.

When the light hit her head she didn’t budge. She stayed perfectly still. At least now he could see her.

“Scarlet, what’s wrong?”

Through her cries he heard a faint voice say into his sheets, “You don’t love me anymore.”

For some reason, that phrase struck Jim’s grief bone. He wanted to pull her into his arms and tell her she was wrong. Instead, he placed his hand on her back and rubbed it.

“Scarlet, I love you so much. Why would you say that?”

“Because I got in trouble in school.”

“Scarlet, there isn’t anything that you could possibly do that would make me love you any less. I love you so much,” he said, hoping to find a little hint of something from her.

Her cries subsided slightly. She looked up at Jim with red, puffy eyes and sniffled back from more tears. “You do?”

“I would love you no matter what,” he said, brushing the sticky hair from her neck.

“I love you like that too,” she said, sitting up.