Pam settled into her top bunk, careful not to disturb a sleeping Angela below her.  Though she was physically exhausted, Pam’s mind was busy with projecting a slideshow of the day’s events in front of her, mainly those that included playful banter or shared smiles with Jim.  She was treading in dangerous territory and knew that if it kept up, someone was bound to be hurt.  Still, the warm familiarity of his laughter over the course of the day was enough to drive her to be at her very best for the duration of basic training.

She heard Karen quietly come back from the bathroom adjacent to their barracks, making her way up to her top bunk that was placed right next to Pam’s.  Karen let out a large sigh as she plopped herself on top of the covers, the humid air being enough of a thick blanket to keep them from becoming too comfortable.

“Longest. Day. Ever,” she whispered.

“Tell me about it,” Pam said, her hand rubbing across her forehead in attempt to ease the throbbing that her fatigue had produced.  “And just think, we have another two days of this.”

“Not to mention Michael’s increasing body odor.  Jim was telling me that he heard him say that he refused to shower in order to get the full experience, whatever that means.”

Pam flinched a bit at the sound of Jim’s name, that knot of jealousy she had come to know all to well settling in her stomach.  “Hmm,” was all she said, as she knew it was the safest response to give without revealing how much she wished Karen would roll right off the top bunk.  Pam began to scold herself for thinking such thoughts, but then again, Fancy New Beesly thought about a lot of things lately that she probably shouldn’t.  Like dropping everything and moving to California.  Or signing up for Match.com.  Or Jim in uniform.

“And this heat doesn’t help any,” Karen continued.  “It’s going to be terrible when we move to New York next month.”

Pam’s eyes shot open and she felt her stomach jump up to her throat.  We.  Move.  New York.

“Umm, New York?”  was all she managed to get out, still trying to sound as casual as possible.

Karen turned over on her side and propped herself up on her elbow.  “You mean Jim didn’t tell you?  There’s a big marketing firm over there that’s looking people with sales experience.  Jim scheduled an interview, and you know how he is, everybody just falls in love with him the minute he introduces himself.”  Pam remained on her back, nodding her head slowly as her brain still tried to process the new information.  The sound of footsteps outside their cabin stopped Pam’s thoughts, and the two women exchanged a look of worry.

“What is that?” Karen hissed.

Pam shook her head in confusion, slowly climbing down off of her bunk, Karen following shortly behind. They looked around for something to attack the potential intruder with, settling on a sharp stiletto protruding from Kelly’s Louis Vuitton bag.

The footsteps grew louder as they approached, and in an instinct left over from childhood, Pam clutched Karen’s hand in fear, the stiletto raised high in the other.  Karen looked to Pam as they came to the door, and she gave a small nod as a signal to open it.  Karen winced and threw the door open to reveal Jim, clad only in a t-shirt and boxers.  His eyes went wide at the sight of them, obviously not expecting to find the two of them in pajamas, looking terrified and armed with a shoe.  Both women let out a sigh of relief, putting a hand to their rapidly beating hearts.

“Uhh, hey,” Jim said, an innocent grin spreading across his face.

Karen grabbed the shoe out of Pam’s hand and hit him on the arm.  “Jim Halpert, don’t you ever scare us like that again.  What the hell are you doing here?”

“I thought it was only fair to warn you that Michael and Dwight are planning on TPing your cabin in about 20 minutes.  So if you can tear yourselves away from painting nails and pillow fights in your underwear…” he smirked, gesturing to the small bits of material that passed for Karen’s sleeping attire.  Pam refused to make eye contact with him, partly out of embarrassment for her own short nightgown and partly out of knowing that there would surely be anger and betrayal radiating from her eyes at the thought of him moving to New York.

“Beesly, you with us?”  His voice brought her back to the present, and she hesitantly looked up at him.  

“Yeah, I’m here.  Thanks for the warning.”  She turned on her heels and moved back into the cabin, leaning against her bed frame as she struggled to regain composure.  Pam heard the door close and was suddenly blinded by the fluorescent lights overhead flickering on.  Groans came from all corners of the cabin as the women stirred awake.

“Okay ladies,” Karen clapped her hands.  “Here’s the deal:  The guys are going to try and TP our cabin tonight, we have to be ready to attack.”

“Attack with what?”  Phyllis asked, rummaging for her glasses in her purse.

“Oh my God, I brought shaving gel!  Will that work?”  Kelly squealed.

“Perfect,” Karen nodded in approval.  “Anyone else have anything?”

“I have an idea,” Angela growled from her bunk, sitting up in exasperation.  “How about we put an end to this childish behavior and go back to bed?”

“Come on, Angela” Pam insisted.  “You wouldn’t want Michael and Dwight to ruin our cabin, would you?”  She stressed Dwight’s name and raised her eyebrows knowingly.  Angela’s stern expression shifted ever so slightly into what Pam assumed was the closest thing to excitement that Angela ever got.  “Very well,” she said reluctantly.  She reached into her suitcase and pulled out a large bottle.  “Is holy water okay?”

Pam and Karen turned to each other with looks of amusement and confusion, before grinning at Angela. 

 “Excellent.”

xxx

Michael crouched behind a shrub of bushes next to Dwight who was peering through binoculars at the ladies’ cabin.

“Can you see anything?” Michael asked in a hushed voice.

“Everything appears to be normal…too normal,” Dwight growled.  “Hold on, I see something moving!”

“What is it?” Michael squinted, his voice becoming more and more high pitched.

“False alarm.  Just a squirrel.  Want me to dispose of it?  I have a slingshot.”

“Dwight—just,” Michael let out a frustrated groan.  “Give me those.”

Dwight reluctantly handed over the binoculars, silently sulking with his arms folded.

“Okay, now wait a minute.  Something’s coming, it’s getting closer!”  Michael toppled over bringing Dwight down with him as the shadowy figure moved completely into his line of vision.  In the darkness, Michael could see a hand being extended.

“You okay?”  Jim asked, trying to mask his amusement.

Michael took Jim’s hand and brought himself to his feet, dusting off his uniform.

“Fine, just trying to see if we’re all clear.  And where were you?  You were supposed to be here ten minutes ago.”

“Sorry, got a little umm…sidetracked,” Jim stammered, as thoughts of Pam’s sleepwear drifted through his mind.

“That is no excuse for tardiness, Jim.  I think as punishment you should be demoted,” Dwight began, a look of smugness spreading quickly across his face.

“He’s not being demoted, Dwight.  Just, please, stay focused.  Everyone grab a bag,” Michael instructed, gesturing behind him to the three large trash bags filled with toilet paper.  Once armed, the three men crept slowly over to the women’s cabin.

“On my signal,” Michael whispered.

“What was that?”  Jim spoke in his normal register.

Dwight and Michael shot him furious looks, bringing a finger to their lips.

“He said ‘on his signal,’” Dwight whispered slowly, as if talking to a child.

“Whose signal?”  Jim raised his voice a little louder, his eyes drifting over to the window, where he could see two pairs of eyes peeking over the windowsill.

Finally fed up and losing track of the task at hand, Michael shouted “Mine!”

Just then the door to the cabin swung open, revealing all the women poised and ready with their various ammunition.

“Go!” Karen shouted.  At her command, streams of shaving gel, balls of socks, and other makeshift weapons were thrown at full force toward the men.  

Michael squealed as he was doused with a bucket of water by Phyllis, and began to sputter in shock.

“ABORT! ABORT!” he cried, as Phyllis, with a look of delight on her face continued to chase after him with a soap-filled loufa sponge.

Pam was armed with balls of socks, heavily soaked in water and spotted Dwight fending off a shaving-gel armed Meredith and Kelly.  Pam threw the socks with everything she had, but right as one was about to strike her target, Dwight lunged out of the way, leaving Jim fully open to accept the blow.  She let out a mix between a gasp and a laugh as he was hit squarely on the cheek.  His face twisted in surprise as he looked around for his attacker.  When he spotted Pam looking both guilty and pleased, he broke out into a sly grin.

“Oh Beesly, you are so dead!”  And with that he raced towards her, causing her to scream and drop the rest of her ammo as she rounded to the back of the cabin.  It didn’t take long for him to catch up with her, and he reached out to tug on the fabric of the nightgown, only to grab too hard and cause them both to go toppling down onto the ground.  Pam let out a cry as he landed on top of her, struggling to breathe in between their fits of laughter.

“Let me go!” she squealed playfully, her smile betraying any notion that she was in pain.

“After you attacked me?  I’m afraid not,” Jim said, laughing as he pinned her wrists to the muddy ground.

“It was an accident, I swear!”  Pam’s growing laughter made it increasingly difficult for her to catch her breath, but she could make no complaints about the wrestling partner she had unexpectedly found.

Their laughter died down in the midst of their heavy breathing, and the eye contact between them was fiercer and stronger than ever, holding both mischief and delight.  Neither said a word till the blaring sound of a whistle broke them from their trance.  A beam of light flashed into their eyes, and they quickly removed themselves from their compromising position, squinting to see the source of the light.  As it inched closer, a tired and extremely angry Sergeant Miller appeared in view.

“What in the name of Rachel Ray is going on here?” he bellowed.  The rest of the group appeared, all looking guilty as they cowered behind a terrified Michael.

“Sir,” he began quietly.  “This is what we call in the paper biz ‘bonding.’  We were just—“

“Oh I know what you were just doing.  You were just destroying my base, that’s what you were just doing!” Sergeant Miller roared in Michael’s face, and with trembling lips, it looked as though Michael might cry.

“You and I are going to step into my office and have a little chat,” the sergeant sneered to Michael.  “The rest of you,” he addressed the rest of the group, all staring down at the ground.  “Get some sleep.  Because I can assure you, after your little escapade tonight, tomorrow will be a very, very, very long day.”  He took one last menacing look at the employees before grabbing Michael by the sleeve of his shirt and dragging him off toward the main offices.

The remainder of the group slowly began to look up at one another, small smiles exchanged from one person to the next.  They surely were in for it tomorrow, but the fun they had had that night would give them enough memories to get them through whatever Sergeant Miller planned to throw at them.  They all began to move towards their cabins, Kelly and Meredith giving each other a small but triumphant high-five and Angela and Dwight sharing a knowing look.  Karen lingered behind, smiling weakly as everyone walked by.  Pam and Jim continued to brush themselves off, refusing to look at each other.  It was yet another moment Karen had witnessed, and it was getting increasingly harder to ignore the nagging feeling at the pit of her stomach each time she saw them together.  Jim finally moved towards her, giving her a sheepish smile and a kiss on the cheek before jogging ahead to catch up with the rest of the group.  Pam waited till he was out of sight before she approached Karen.

“Look, I’m really sorry, nothing—“

“Don’t,” Karen held up a hand.  “Don’t worry about it.”  The two women exchanged awkward smiles before retreating back into the cabin.

Neither one would get much sleep that night.

xxx

How did our attack go?  Jim displayed the balled up pair of socks he had managed to intercept to the camera, sighing with contentment.  Better than I could have expected.