DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Office, or anything remotely related to it. Please, don't sue me.

III: SEE ME

He spotted her about half an hour of having been there. She was seated at one of the picnic tables near the playground, bent over her work. A sketch, it looked like.

He felt himself grin a bit as he made his way over to her.

"So, it's Beesley, right? Is there an 'E' in between the 'L' and 'Y'? Because I want to make sure that I've got it right on the restraining order."

She had been startled to find him standing next to her but recovered quickly. She gave him a frown.

"Not a restraining order! I really don't need another one of those on my record, Halpert. People might think I'm some kind of a stalker."

"Can't fight the facts, Beesley. Number one: you showed up at my place of employment. Number two: you approached me while I was shopping. Number three: you are sitting here watching me, rather suspiciously I might add, from a park bench," he held up three fingers at her. "Lackwana County has a three strikes law."

"I still plead not guilty due to the aforementioned circumstances being partially contrived and completely excusable," she responded, looking up at him with a playfully defiant stare.

"Wow. That was a very succinct response. Have to say that often?"

"You have no idea."

He frowned at her skeptically. "Well, in any case, let's hope that you've got a lenient judge. But don't worry too much, Beesley. You could always argue that you suck at being a stalker."

She was about to retort when he noticed his charge as moving away from the sandbox and waddling towards the small lake, attracted by the ducks, no doubt.

"One second," he told Pam as he jogged off to scoop the three year old little Sasha into his arms, ticking her belly while playfully scolding her about wandering off. The three year old giggled and happily sat back in the sandbox as Jim made her a little makeshift throne out of sand.

When he finally moved away so that Queen Sasha could rule over her new subjects (while Sir Jim went off in search of a dragon), he noticed Pam had moved to the small bench he'd initially been sitting on right next to the play area.

He sat down next to her with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry. If I let her get away with it, she's jump head first into that green muck to swim with the ducks. She's really into ducks right now."

"I think we all had a duck phase. Mickey stole all the lime light, but I really do think that Donald should have had his own club too."

They shared a smile over this and looked over towards Sasha.

"How old is she?" Pam asked politely.

"She's three and a half. Which really, is the best age to be," Jim responded with a smile.

"She's adorable. You must be really proud of her."

Jim's eyebrows furrowed a little at Pam's polite tone, wondering at her response when it dawned on him what he must be thinking.

"Yeah, her dad's really proud of her. He's a friend from work and he can't stop bringing in pictures and stuff. I'm babysitting for him while he goes to a corporate meeting in New York," Jim explained.

"Oh," Pam sputtered, a slight flush coloring her cheek that only made his grin wider. "I'm sorry, I had thought--"

"Pam, I'm not even married," he said with a chuckle. "Wow, you are really unbelievably bad at this stalker thing."

Pam pretended to be hurt. "I'm sorry. It's still just so new to me. But seriously, Jim, it's really sweet that you'd do that for a co-worker."

Jim shrugged and looked to where Sasha was shyly offering to share her royal ceptor/shovel with another little boy.

"No, Toby's a friend and he's going through a rough time. He got divorced last year and his wife really took him to the cleaners. It sucks because he's a really nice guy and he puts up with so much just at work. He has to be in New York every month on a Saturday and this weekend he has Sasha. It's the least I can do for him."

Pam smiled at him with something like admiration and he could feel his ears becoming hot. "But anyway, she's a cool kid. Kinda shy because she spends a lot of time with older step siblings, but once you get her talking there's not stopping her."

"You're lucky since she seems to love you. I'm not good with kids at all," Pam said, reaching up to fidget with her necklace. "But I like to watch moms with their kids. They look so...happy."

"I have a hard time believing that kids don't like you."

"Well, at least none of Roy's nephews liked me," she responded, staring hard at the ground.

The mood shifted, and Jim noticed that Pam's eyes had teared up a little bit. He looked away, not wanting her to see that he'd noticed. She had every right to be a little melancholy, since she had pretty much dashed her own dreams of a family anytime soon.

He cleared his throat a little bit, trying to lead her away from that sadness. "Hey, do you want to meet her? Sasha loves to draw, so I think you'll already have loads in common," Jim offered, nodding at her sketchbook.

"Oh no, let her play. I don't want to bother her."

"It's cool, Pam, really. It's snack time anyway," Jim said as he wandered over to Sasha and led her toward the parking lot, waving for Pam to follow them.

"Sasha, this is my friend Pam," Jim told the little three year old as they all walked toward his car.

"Hi Sasha," Pam said putting on her brightest smile.

Sasha shyly looked at her, trying to hide behind Jim a little bit but smiled anyway.

The three of them sat happily on the curb, eating Jello snacks and Sasha asked Pam about her sketch book. Pam drew a quick cartoon of a duck for her and Sasha beamed at her while Jim gave her a thumbs up sign.

Soon enough Toby pulled up and Sasha waved good-bye to Jim and Pam.

"See? That wasn't that bad," Jim turned to her with a grin.

"She's cute," Pam said as she gripped her notebook tighter. "And she loves you."

"Well, I let her eat chocolate for breakfast."

"So you bribe her?"

"Absolutely. Please, Beesley. A good stalker would know that I use a three year old as an excuse to watch Saturday morning cartoons."

Pam slapped her forehead, pretending to chastise herself. "God, I really suck at this."

Jim suddenly realized that he wanted to spend more time with her. They had a great rapport, especially for people that had only ever met twice. He wasn't about to just let her go if he could help it.

"Tell you what, Beesley --and keep in mind that this a one time offer-- I will teach you the finer points of stalking me so that when you actually get arrested, it'll be worth it."

"I'm sure that I could let off with a warning."

"Not a chance. I got connections, you know. I know a Lackawana County volunteer sheriff's officer."

"Oh, God. Do I want to know?"

"Beesley, I have stories you wouldn't believe."

TBC....

A/N: Okay, so that's the next chapter. Sorry it took so long to get up. I'm actually looking for a beta reader. Anyone interested? Seriously, guys, I would love some feedback before posting because I am the Queen of Typos. And I tend to focus so much on details that I miss the big picture. Any kind of help would be much appreciated.

Please review, if you can!

cheers.

--Lex