Dwight enters the office and places his jacket on the coat rack. Turning towards his desk he narrows his eyes. “Why are all my things on Jim’s old desk?” He demands to nobody in particular. Pam drops her head with a giggle.
“Today is Jim’s first day back,” Pam says cheerfully. “I haven’t seen him in six months so of course I’m excited to see him.”
“Jim is 25 years old, I am 48. He has been in this business for 6 years, I have for 25. I have a college degree, I have no idea what schooling Jim has had.” Stanley drones, “Jim is my superior,”
“I am so glad Jim is coming pack,” Kelly begins. “He’s so laid back and cool, he’s going to make the best boss ever. Plus he’s like my best friend. I tell him everything and he’s such a good listener.” She looks off thoughtfully, “But his advice usually sucks.”
“Who’s Jim?” Creed narrows his eyes.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Dwight says. “No way would they promote my subordinate over me.” He shakes his head, “No. Way.”
Dwight sits down at his desk. There’s a box of Jell-o on his mouse pad and when he picks it up for further inspection the words “I’m Back” are written in sharpie on the back. He looks over at reception where Pam is biting back laughter.
“No. Way.”
“Every week we try to make some progress with you know financial reports and things,” Oscar begins. “But every week Michael gets us roped into some topical program or office party, so we never get anything done. We were optimistic that with Michael gone we would finally be able to you know… work, but we received a fax from corporate requesting educational seminars every Tuesday and Thursday. And get this, the speaker will always be Michael Scott.”
“Good afternoon ladies and girls,” Michael says hauling a cardboard box of supplies. “I know I’m a day early for our first installment of Dunder Blunders, but I thought I’d give you an introductory course in what this program is, so we can dive right in for our first lesson.”
“Dunder Blunders is kind of a working title,” Michael begins to the camera. “I really wanted to circumvrent blunders in the office by sort of placing the employees within these blunderous scenarios, because really the only way you learn a lesson is through making a mistake. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, and now that I’m up in corporate I finally have the tools to go out and get the job done.” He frowns, “Of course two hours is a bit of a commute, but it’s well worth it for our employees to be fully trained and prepared for the work place, even if it means missing meetings in New York twice a week.” He pauses, “Maybe I should have run this past Jan first…”
“Question,” Dwight says raising his hand.
Michael rolls his eyes, “Yes, Dwight?”
“Is Jim Halpert really replacing you as regional manager?”
“Yes Dwight.”
Dwight narrows his eyes, “I’m not on TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes am I?” He asks looking suspiciously around the room.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about Dwight, and no. My hermano Jim will be back some time this afternoon, which is another reason I’m here: for the party.”
“We actually have a lot of deadlines coming up,” Pam speaks up. “So we weren’t really planning on throwing a party at work, per se.”
Michael looks dumbfounded at first, but quickly settles on incredulous, “What exactly do you mean by no party?”
“We were going to go out for drinks or something,” she explains. “After work.”
“After work, hmm…” Michael cringes. “I really should get back to New York for that important budget meeting tomorrow, but Jim’s a good friend so I’ll make an exception. Drinks at Chili’s I presume, I’d love to join you if you’ll have me.”
“Sure,” she says tightly.
“We were planning on meeting outside of work because we knew Michael would come back.” Pam explains, “And nothing against Michael, really. He’s just very often a mood killer.” She nods, “I did neglect to tell Michael we were going to Applebee’s though, because the crew highly insisted we go to Applebee’s instead of Chili’s.” She lowers her voice, “I think it’s because of the endorsements.”
“Today’s lesson is learning,” Michael begins thoughtfully. “And if you step out of this conference room today with that simple thought in your head, I have succeeded, because you have learned something.”
“If Michael isn’t fired in the next few weeks,” Toby says, “I would be very, very surprised.”
Meredith adjusts a picture frame on her desk.
“I was in charge of getting Jim’s welcome back gift,” Pam begins, “and I had a really hard time because there were just so many ideas I wanted to run with. But, I settled on these goodies,” she says lifting a bag onto the conference room table. “We have ‘Managing for Dummies’ because in the fast paced world of Dunder Mifflin, he’ll need all the help he can get. ‘Truly Tasteless Jokes’ so he can carry on Michael’s legacy. A six-pack of coke so he’ll always be able to communicate effectively. And a spy kit because we used to joke that Michael thought he was a detective and how the manager always doubled as a PI—it’s hard to explain.”
“Do I think Jim will make a good boss?” Ryan stares blankly for a moment. “Maybe. Probably not though.”
Jim enters the office; his jacket is thrown over his arm, and his bag hanging loosely on his shoulder. His hair is cut shorter and his face looks leaner. He spots Pam and a warm smile spreads across his face, quickly his eye catches the camera and his face falls shyly.
Clearing his throat he steps up to reception. “Hi I’m the new regional manager, I was wondering if you could direct me to my office,” he says.
Pam looks up and jumps out of her chair, “Jim! Hey!”
“Why did I come back?” Jim says to the camera and laughs, “If you saw the pay increase, you’d understand.” He clasps his hands together, “But honestly, I sort of missed this place, even Dwight. I uh – I wasn’t in the best place when I left, but I went to Australia and had an amazing time. And things are great now,” he nods, “just great.” He looks around for a moment and then shakes his head, “I didn’t really miss Dwight.”
Pam runs around her desk and throws her arms around him. They hug briefly before Pam backs away timidly. Jim drops his head and clears his throat again.
“What about the wedding?” He narrows his eyes sitting forward in his desk chair. “I haven’t heard anything about it.” Jim scratches behind his ear casually. “I may have filtered any message that contained the word ‘Pam’ to an e-mail address I forgot the password too.” Over his shoulder, Jim tries to access an account. The message “Forgot your password?” Keeps coming up, the hint is ‘tulips.’ Jim sits back in his chair frustrated. “It did wonders preventing SPAM,” he explains before furrowing his brows, “sure I might have missed a couple of important messages, but I never really read those Monty Python newsletters anyway.” He seems thoughtful for a moment before looking back to the cameraman repeating, “What about the wedding?”
“Nothing, never mind,” the guy says.
“Weird?” Pam asks. A flood of insecurities seem to strike her face before she frantically begins to shake her head. “No it wasn’t weird at all.” She stops and frowns. “Why do you ask?”
Dwight glares as Jim walks into Michael’s former office. He picks up his name plaque and covers the word ‘Assistant.’ He nods approvingly. “Two weeks,” Dwight says from the conference room interview. “I give corporate two weeks before they recognize their mistake.”
Jim is startled when his desk chair begins to spin around slowly. Michael is sitting at his old desk staring gravely. “Wow, hey Michael,” Jim says dryly. “Was not creepy at all,” he mutters under his breath.
“What was that?” Michael asks narrowing his eyes.
“Nothing, I thought you were in New York?” Jim shakes off.
“Had to properly hand down the reigns,” he says holding an invisible rope that he pulls tightly with the assistance of a fake horse cry.
“Not entirely necessary.”
“This moment, will be the most important moment of your life,” Michael begins. “More important than your wedding day, your first child’s birth, way more important than the second…”
Jim ducks his head with a silent “wow.”
“When you’re great grand child sits in your lap and says,” Michael quickly cocks his head sweetly and lifts his voice to a squeaky child, “’Old man, what’s your best memory?’” He adjusts his voice to normal, “You’ll look down and say:” Enter cranky old man: “Who the hell are you?”
Jim nods, “Because of the Alzheimer’s,” he reasons to himself. “Obviously.”
Michael cocks a brow, “Excuse me?”
“Nothing,” Jim pretends to swipe a tear from his eye. “So true.”
Michael starts to laugh, “You fag—,” he looks off at the camera in the window and makes a noise as if the wind were knocked out of him. “—grantly sensitive man you.”
“I believe the word is ‘flagrant,’” he corrects.
“That’s what I said,” Michael counters tightly.
“The reason I got promoted,” Jim begins to the camera, “or so I’ve been told at least. Is because I saved the Stamford branch from needing to be downsized—a stretch I know. I mean with all the insurance agencies up there it really wasn’t that hard to sell paper to a company.” He pauses tilting back his head wistfully, “The real reason? They didn’t want Michael in direct contact with their employees because he had offended so many people. Sure they could have just fired him, but yeah…” he trails off pressing his lips together his eyes widening in confusion. “I guess more power and a pay increase is what they opted for instead.”
Pam stares at Jim’s office door tapping her pen against her desk aimlessly. She looks through the messages on her desk and quickly gathers a few before heading over to his office.
“Hi,” she says shyly holding the messages close to her body.
Jim raises his brows in pleasant surprise. “Hey.”
She bites back her lower lip and then steps forward. “These messages came for you this morning.”
“Thanks,” he says taking them from her and leafing through them.
“And if you’re not busy or anything, we were all planning on going out tonight,” she quickly adds. “Mainly for you, that is. Dinner and some drinks at Applebee’s,” she holds her arms out with a shrug, “our treat.”
Jim twiddles a pen between his fingers and nods, “Definitely. Sounds excellent.”
“Good. We’ll probably go straight from work, is that good for you?”
“Perfect.”
She continues to stand in the door and he looks at her curiously, “Anything else?”
“I just,” she wrings her fingers together nervously. “Um… I was going to…” she glances at the camera and then shakes her head, “never mind, I’ll talk to you later.”
Jim narrows his eyes, “Okay.”
Pam turns on her heels and heads back towards her desk. Jim watches after her for a long moment. His eyes again catch the camera and he drops his gaze back to his messages.
Kevin sits at his desk eating a muffin. He squints his eyes and picks at something allusive from where he had just taken a bite. After much struggle, he gives up and takes another bite.
“Gather round everybody, gather round,” Jim says stepping out of his office. “It’s mandatory that I give some sort of little speech so Stanley if you can put that call on hold for 30 seconds, that would be fantastic.” He claps his hands together and looks around at the familiar faces. “So, for those of you who neglected to learn my name during the six years I worked here, I’m Jim Halpert. I spent some time over at the Stamford branch and now I’m back here, my favorite color is green, and I enjoy Nacho Cheese Doritos. Any other questions, you can direct towards my assistant,” he said nodding towards Dwight, “and I’ll get back to you right away.”
“I am not your assistant,” Dwight says without looking away from his computer monitor.
“I am not his assistant,” he repeats from the conference room interview for more clarification.
“Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam,” she says from reception. “And may I ask whose calling?” She frowns, “Hold please.” Taking a deep breath she switches lines.
“Yes?”
“Jim, Lisa Krandberg to speak with you.”
There’s a pause, “Yeah, great put her through.”
“Lisa is a girl I met in Connecticut,” Jim explains. “And that’s all you need to know.”
“There’s nothing you can tell us about her?” The crew asks.
Jim presses his lips together and shakes his head. “She’s really nice. Um, funny, sweet, just a really cool girl.”
Jim’s never been one to talk about his personal life, especially to a camera crew. He doesn’t feel the need to tell them how Lisa is a cousin of one of the guys he worked with in the Stamford branch. She had come into the office one day to drop off a toolbox and she and Jim had hit it off. She was beautiful and could tell a joke that he genuinely laughed at, and when his coworker asked if he wanted to double with him and his girlfriend, Jim had accepted.
He had told her about life growing up outside of Scranton, the crazy faces at his old branch, and of one Dwight K. Schrute. Somehow he always neglected to mention Pam.
She was just out of college and working at an independent insurance agency in Greenwich. She was one of their top consultants, and as Jim was offered the job in Scranton, she war receiving a rather large raise.
“Does that mean you’re over Pam,” he asks with much audacity.
Jim’s eyes widen incredulously, “That’s inappropriate.”
Jim sits back in his chair with the phone cradled between his ear and shoulder. “Yeah, I settled in fine.” He chuckles a bit, “No Dwight hasn’t done anything outrageous yet.” He squints his eyes out the window to the main office. “He seems to be taking notes or something.” The camera whizzes around to catch Dwight through the blinds with a pad of paper and pen making visual estimates before jotting something down. “I think he’s planning out the new layout of my office. He thinks the job is really his and we’re just playing a mean trick on him.” He grins, “Yeah, nothing’s changed.”
Oscar launches a Hateball and Kevin cheers.
Creed is not at his desk.
Carrying a folder, Kelly walks past Ryan’s desk. Ryan sighs. Carrying the same folder, Kelly walks past Ryan’s desk again. Ryan drops his head in his hands.
“I told Kelly that I needed some space,” Ryan explains. He nods a little, obviously frightened. “She did not take the news well… at all.”
Jim sits at his desk propping his chin in his hand as Kelly paces back and forth in his office. “And then he tells me that sometimes he feels like he can’t breathe and I’m just like ‘What the hell, Ryan? You said you wanted to have fun!’ And trust me Jim, I am a lot of fun. But not too much fun. Not like Paris Hilton fun. I’m the perfect balance of fun. Like, I don’t know, Jessica Simpson fun. And I was like ‘Is it something I did?’ And he was all ‘No, no, it’s just between work and the weekends, we never get any space.’ And I was all ‘Then there’s something wrong with me, isn’t there? Isn’t there Ryan?’ And he was like ‘I just think we’re on different pages.’ I mean what is that about?”
Jim stares ahead blankly.
The clock on the wall reads 5:45 and only the cleaning crew is left at the office. Across town at Applebee’s, a large section has been roped off to accommodate the camera crew. There’s a long table where majority of the employees sit along with a few smaller tables that others sit with family members. Jim sits at the head of the main table, laughing at something Toby has just said. Pam sits timidly beside him with her chin resting in her folded hands. Her eyes stay frozen on Jim’s face and she studies the lines and curves of his profile intently.
“It’s really great to have Jim back,” she confirms from the bar. “It’s as is he never left.”
While Pam is gone, Kelly slips into her seat. “So tell me Jim, now that Roy’s out of the picture, are you going to go for it with Pam?”
Jim looks up to the camera and them back down at the table.
“I did not know that,” he tells the camera.
“They’re not,” he moves his finger back and forth. “Not anything anymore?”
“He moved out of their apartment like forever ago,” Kelly confirms. “Nobody knows why they broke up either.” She leans in conspiratorially, “Do you think he cheated on her.
Jim takes a long swig from his beer.
Kelly turns and winks at the camera.
Kevin lifts his plate and tells the waiter that he ordered the ribs. The waiter apologizes for his mistake.
Angela passes Dwight the rest of her slice of pie.
Creed is sleeping in the parking lot.
A waitress flirts with Ryan. From across the table Kelly watches with dagger eyes. Ryan catches this and tells the waitress he’s all set.
Phyllis walks up to Jim who is standing by the bar ordering another drink. They have a short exchange and she laughs placing her hand on his shoulder as he winks.
Pam sits at the main table and watches Phyllis as she walks away from the bar. She slips a gift bag out from underneath the table and heads towards Jim. “Hey,” she says sliding onto the barstool beside him.
“Hey,” he smiles. “It’s not your birthday,” he says addressing the gift bag.
“No it is not,” she agrees pushing it towards him. “This is for you. Just a little gift from all of us.”
“Am I allowed to open it now?”
“You’re actually required to.”
He pulls out the first item, “Truly Tasteless Jokes,” he looks at her beneath the hood of his eyes, “perfect.”
“Keep going,” she says patting her hands against the bar in excitement.
“Coke,” he grins. “I wonder what that’s for,” he says teasingly.
“Rules are rules, and you’re now the enforcer so you have to follow them.”
He pulls out the spy kit and they both erupt in laughter leaning in to mutter “Michael Scott, Private Eye” in unison.
Jim holds his finger against her mouth silencing her before she can say “jinx.”
“And finally,” he says reaching in for the last gift. “Managing for Dummies… because apparently I’m incompetent.”
“Sad, but true,” she shrugs.
“And this came from everybody?” He says arching his brows.
“Yep,” she nods innocently, “I was very impressed by their creativity.”
“Amazing,” he tells the camera. He bows his head shielding his mouth as he mutters, “She’s just so amazing.”
Pam and Jim play with his spy kit. He places the detective hat on her head while she inspects the bar with the magnifying glass. Jim’s cell rings and he glances down at the number before excusing himself. “Hey Lise…” she hears him say as he walks towards the door. Slowly Pam removes the hat from her head and frowns.
“Things change,” Pam shrugs. “You can’t expect things to be exactly the same as they were and I’m fine with that.”
From the parking lot Jim scuffs his feet against the sidewalk. “No I wasn’t busy,” he says. “Nothing, nothing’s wrong.” He sighs digging his hand into his pocket.
Michael enters the restaurant and spots the Dunder Mifflin crowd, many of them are putting on their coats. “Wires crossed,” he announces making an X with his arms, “don’t worry, I found the party.” A bunch of people sit back down awkwardly as Michael approaches. “What do we have here?” He asks over Stanley’s shoulder. “Are you going to finish that?” He wanders poking at the leftovers a bit.
“Not anymore,” Stanley mutters.
“Great,” he lifts up the plate and takes a seat next to Dwight. “Let’s get this party started!”
“Yeah!” Dwight cheers.
Jim sneaks back in and taps Pam’s shoulder, “Hey you want to get out of here?” He clears his throat, “You know, to talk.”
She looks up and smiles, “Yeah.”
“Do I get to give another goodbye?” Michael asks from the bar. “Let’s see. As the Beatles once said ‘And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.’” He nods thoughtfully.
Pam and Jim bump into each other as they walk across the parking lot. He says something nonchalantly and she laughs.
“And that’s very true. What’s also very true is ‘I am the walrus, goo goo cachoo.’ You know, just something to think about.”
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© 2006-2023 More Than That | Skin created by Kali
© 2006-2023 More Than That | Skin created by Kali