- Text Size +
Story Notes:
Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of anything related to "The Office" or NBC.

The day after the incident at Poor Richard's, Pam had managed to quickly pull Jim aside and warn him about Roy. She was only able to give him the vaguest details, as Pam had not wanted to appear suspicious to their other coworkers (Karen). So they'd stood side-by-side in the kitchen, he making coffee, she making tea in her green teapot as she quickly whispered to most important details, "Stay away from Roy... I told him about us and he's really angry- he smashed up the bar. We broke up."

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Jim turn quickly to her, shocked and concerned, but then Karen walked into the kitchen.

"Hey, can you believe how cold it's been this week?" Pam asked them both a little too loudly.

------

The day had gone off without a hitch. Pam had jumped every time she heard the door open, expecting Roy come in at any time and plant his fist into Jim's face, but he'd never showed up. And by the time five o'clock came around, Pam thought Jim was clear of any danger.

Jim and Pam were the last ones left in the office, and Jim gave her a small smile as he walked past her to get his coat. She waved, and he disappeared beyond the door. A few minutes later, just as Pam was shutting down her computer, the door to the office opened again, and her heart sank in fear as she saw Jim walk back in- he had blood dripping from his nose and smeared on his lips as if he'd tried to wipe it away. And there was a red, bruising bump already forming on his left cheekbone.

"I need a tissue, or something," he said, sounding kind of dazed.

"Oh my god, Jim, are you okay?"

"Yeah, just a bloody nose. No big deal."

She ran up to him, studied his wounds. His nose didn't look broken, but fresh blood was still slowly trickling out of it. She frantically looked around the room for something to use to keep the blood at bay, but all she could find was a crumpled up tissue in her pocket, unsure about whether it had already been used or not. "Here, hold this on your nose," she said, pushing the tissue into his hand.

"Roy?" she almost whispered.

He nodded slightly.

Tears sprang to her eyes. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up," she said to him, gently tugging on his arm and pulling him toward the kitchen. She led him towards the bathroom, and Jim said, "Come on, the Ladies' Room?" his voice was rough and nasal, but when she looked up at him, she saw the slightest hint of a smirk.

"Come on, no one else is even here. Just follow me."

They went into the Ladies' Room, and stood in front of the row of sinks. In the pale fluorescent lighting, Pam could see that some bruising was developing in the hollows of his eyes. She sighed and looked him in the eyes for a moment, trying to tell him without words how sorry she was. She could see the answer there, It's not your fault, and it only made her duck her head as the tears flooded her lower lids once again.

"Okay, let's get you cleaned up," she said with a sniffle. She gathered together a stack of paper towels from the dispenser, and let the water run for a few seconds until it was warm.

"Pam, you don't have to..." he protested.

She shook her head and continued to soak some of the paper towels in water. She then hopped up to sit on the counter, giving her a couple more inches of height. She placed some of the wet paper towels in her lap, and pulled his hand away from his nose which had stopped bleeding. She took the bloody tissue from him and threw it in the trash, and then turned her attentions back to his hand. There was dried blood and tissue fuzz stuck to his fingers, and she cleaned that off first. As she did so, Jim gingerly placed his free hand on her waist.

She sucked in a breath, halted for a minute, wondering if he realized what he'd done. He hadn't so much as had a five-minute conversation with her in almost two weeks, but there he was with his fingers curled around her waist. Her eyes met his briefly and then bounced away as she continued to take care of him.

She placed her left hand under his chin and used the wet paper towels to wash away the dried blood from around his nose and his upper lip. There was some blood on his lower lip as well, and when she began to wipe that away, his fingers tightened around her waist, and he sucked in a breath through his teeth.

"Oh, sorry," she said, taking her hand away and noticing that his lip had been split.

"It's okay. Just hurts a little." 

I didn't know you had a cut there, too," she said, and continued much more gently, tenderly dabbing at it with the wet paper towel until it was clean.

"How many times did he hit you?" she asked, eyes still focused on his lip, her fingertip slightly touching the tender, swollen area where the split had already begun to heal.

"Um, three times."

"Why?!"

"Well, he hit me first, under my eye... so I hit him back- you know, gut reaction- and then he swung at me again and hit me in the nose, and when I decided it wasn't worth it to get into a stupid fight with him, he got angry that I was walking away, and caught me in the mouth."

Pam shook her head and looked down at her hands. "I'm so sorry, Jim."

"Not your fault," he said, quietly.

"Things are so screwed up."

"I know," he said, and then things were silent.

Pam studied his face, which was now clean of blood, but bruises were showing up everywhere. Under his eyes from the blow to his nose, on his cheekbone, around the split in his lip... she reached up and brushed her fingers, feather-light over his cheek. "Does this hurt?"

"A little," he said.

So, she leaned in and kissed it softly. His fingers squeezed her hip a little.

She cupped her hands around his jaw, then, and brushed her thumbs over the bruises under his eyes. "What about this?"

"Mm-mm," he said, shaking his head in the negative.

"Oh," she said, backing away slightly and looking down.

"The bridge of my nose hurts, though," he said softly.

Their eyes connected for a second, and then she leaned in and gently kissed the bridge of his nose.

Then their eyes locked, and neither averted their gaze. Pam kept her hands cupped around his face, but shifted her left one so that she could lightly touch the pad of her thumb to his injured lip. "What about here," she asked in a whisper.

He moved his other hand to rest on the other side of her waist, and squeezed a little. She took this as a yes, and leaned in and kissed his bottom lip as gently as she could. But she found she couldn't get enough of his mouth, so when her lips parted from his injured bottom lip, she leaned in again and pressed her lips a little more firmly to his top lip.

When he slid his arms all the way around her and tried to pull her closer, she pulled away and buried her face in his neck, letting a few tears slide out onto his shirt.

"I'm going to get you some ice," she said after a few moments. "Stay here." She hopped off of the counter and left the bathroom, searching for the First-Aid kit, where she knew there were a couple of ice packs. When she found them, she squeezed them to break the barrier inside, and carried the cold packs to Jim in the ladies' room. "Here, put this one on your nose," she said, handing him one ice pack, "And put this one on your lip," she said, handing him the other. He did as he was told, never taking his eyes off of her.

"Pam, what just happened in here?"

"I don't..." she said, shaking her head and averting her eyes from his.

"Come on, Pam, how much longer are we going to do this?" he asked.

"Shh, you should keep the ice on your lip."

He put the ice down on the counter. "No, Pam. I've had it," he said, his eyes darkening. "I need to know, once and for all, what you feel for me. You give me mixed signals all the time, and I just try to ignore them and tell myself that what you told me in May still stands. But seriously, what was that just now? Did you just feel bad because what you told Roy about us made him do this to me, or was it more than that? I can't--" he shook his head, looking at himself in the mirror.

Pam was shocked. She'd honestly believed that Jim didn't have feelings for her anymore, but he was almost breaking in front of her, and it felt like Casino Night all over again. But this time, she knew what she wanted. This time, she was free. She felt the breath rush out of her, and her face crumpled. Confessions of her love for him tumbled out of her mouth and bounced off off the walls of the dim bathroom.

And before she knew what was happening, she was caught up in a fierce hug, and Jim was whispering in her ear that he still loved her. It sounded like a release, felt like an answered prayer. They stayed like that for a long time, enveloped in each other's arms.

And as Pam felt the tears begin to dry on her cheeks, she heard Jim say, "Hey..."

She looked up at his bruised face, and felt a lump form in her throat again.

"Thanks for fixing me."



PuffingNoise is the author of 41 other stories.
This story is a favorite of 14 members. Members who liked Bruised and Broken also liked 2480 other stories.


You must login (register) to review or leave jellybeans