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Six months. Pamela Beesly had moved far away from Scranton and had been enjoying an up-and-coming career in graphic design in Chicago for the last six months after she finally decided to up and move on. Six months away from Dunder Mifflin. Six months of no contact with Michael, Dwight, Phyllis, Angela, Kelly and...oh yeah, Jim.

Her eyebrows instantly furrowed at the mere thought of her best friend. Her former best friend. Jim had made the decision of moving to Chicago easy for her. After she finally gathered enough courage to come clean to him about her feelings, he rebuffed her, never even giving her the chance to continue after "I know this is horrible timing, but I'm in love with you." He brushed her off, saying she just had too much to drink that night. Even worse, he accused her of wanting to ruin his relationship with Karen because she was looking for someone who she could be miserable with.

After that incident, Fancy New Beesly finally found the balls to give up on the guy who showed no signs of maturing. If evolving meant acting like a prissy, stuck-up corporate puppet who saw fault in everyone else but himself, then she wanted nothing to do with the new and improved, evolved Jim. She fought for him, perhaps in the smallest of ways, but she tried. Dear God, she really did try. Eventually, however, she realized that it wasn't really Karen that she had to embattle, but Jim's pride. It took her a while longer to realize that things were never going to be the same, but the minute did, she realized nothing else was holding her back in Scranton. Days in the office grew increasingly unbearable, and finally she decided to fill out an application for an apprenticeship at a graphic design company in Chicago. She never looked back.

Living in an unfamiliar city was melancholy at the start, but it was nowhere as lonely as she felt sitting in reception at Dunder Mifflin, pathetically staring at the back of the head of a man who refused to love her. A month into the move, she finally began to get the hang of things, and soon she was convinced that she was living the kind of life Fancy New Beesly was supposed to be living.

It was unfortunate, therefore, that come Christmas time, she found herself back in Scranton, shopping for honeyed ham in the local supermarket. Even with her new life in Chicago, she was still obliged to spend Christmases with her parents. Not that she minded, of course. She was just wary about bumping into people she had no intentions of seeing again. Then again, she had already gone three whole days without crossing paths with any of her former officemates, and so she was starting to think that maybe she was worrying over nothing.

"Pam...?" A shy, unsure voice shattered her reverie while she stood in line for the butcher.

Pam's eyes widened the minute she turned around and saw who had greeted her.

"Oh my God. Toby! Uh...hi. Hey." So much for not seeing any one from the old office. Oh well, better Toby than Michael, right? Or Jim. Ugh.

Pam's face softened as she looked up again at Toby. He seemed genuinely happy to see her.

"I'm sorry. Toby...hi." she said gingerly, moving in to hug her former co-worker. "Merry Christmas."

Toby smiled and pulled back from her hug to fully admire the girl standing before him. After a couple of seconds, he noticed the confused expression on Pam's face as he found himself staring longer than he should have.

"I...I didn't know you were going to be in town. Visiting your parents? I'm sorry. I'm...I'm... of course you're visiting your parents."

"I wouldn't dare miss a Beesly Christmas. Wouldn't want to get disowned." Pam quipped, as she watched Toby chuckle softly.

"I've been sent to fulfill the oh-so important duty of... picking out the ham. I'm here on official Beesly family business." she added.

"Wow. That's...great." Toby stammered, still visibly surprised, not only at seeing Pam after six months with no word from her, but also by the little changes he observed in her. The extra chattiness. The straight wispy hair pulled in a loose ponytail. The soft makeup that made her glow. The soft pink color that stained her cheeks from the cold.

"How are you? How's..."

"Jim?" Toby offered, regretting it the minute he uttered the name.

Pam pursed her lips, trying not to wince at the sound of his name. "I was gonna say Sasha."

"Oh. Oh yeah, she's good. She's in kindergarten right now. She's...learning how to read. She really likes The Cat in the Hat."

"That's great, Toby. That sounds really great. Tell her I said hi, okay?" Pam said, as the butcher finally gave her the ham she had bought. She carefully placed the package on her cart and smiled at Toby. "I guess I should be on my way," she said, gesturing for the counter.

"Hey, do you have plans today?" Toby asked, in a voice more hopeful than he willed it to sound.

"That depends. Are you asking me out?" Pam said, playfully batting her eyelashes at him.

Toby was taken aback by the new forwardness Pam seemed to display. "Actually, I was uh...hoping maybe you'd like to drop by the office party?" But coffee would be good too! Dinner? Oh. Too late. Damn, Toby.

"Oh. Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think I should." Pam said, suddenly uncomfortable again.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." Toby stammered, looking embarrassed for even asking.

"No, no... I'm sorry. I don't want to seem like a bitch, Toby. I miss you guys a lot and I wish I could see you all again. It's just that...there are a lot of bad memories I've been trying to run away from, and I guess I'm just scared that if I go back, everything I've done the last few months might... I might...do you know what I mean?"

"Uh..."

"Oh God. I'm sorry. Did I just unload on you? I'm sorry, Toby. I hope you understand." Pam said, smiling apologetically, while tucking a stray wisp of her hair behind her ear.

"Don't worry about it. It's my fault. I didn't mean to seem so pushy. I just thought seeing you there would lift everyone's spirits this year... Michael's especially..."

"What's up with Michael?" Pam asked, trying to act uninterested to no avail.

"Well...to make a long story short, we're actually throwing a Christmas Bon Voyage for Michael."

"Bon voyage, huh? Is he off to Sandals again for another Carribean romp with Jan?" Pam joked.

"He's been fired, Pam." Toby said morosely, immediately silencing the girl in front of him. "And he and Jan broke up months ago."

"Oh... Oh my god. That's horrible. They broke up? And he's being let go a few days before Christmas? That is just...brutal."

"Yeah. He's been moping around the office the last two weeks. We hardly get any work done anymore, but it's not like we can blame him, you know? The whole office has been trying to cheer him up, but he's just so brokenhearted. Jim's been feeding him That's what she said moments, but he's hardly spoken a word. He keeps taking pictures of every single object in the office and crying about it. It's all weird and sad at the same time."

"I didn't know. Wow." Pam said, now visibly perturbed by what Toby had told her.

"I guess, well, you two seemed to have some sort of connection.. I just thought it'd be good if he saw you, you know? A reminder of the good old times."

"Good old times, huh?" Pam retorted bitterly, briefly remembering what she had gone through during her last few weeks in Dunder Mifflin.

"I'm sorry, forget about it. I..." Toby began.

"Will everyone be there?"

"Yeah. Michael, Ryan, Dwight, Kelly, Phyllis...the whole gang."

Pam smiled gratefully at Toby not mentioning Jim and Karen. She really didn't want to start thinking about them now. But thinking of what Michael was going through ate at her, and so she realized that maybe she can try to stay for at least an hour. She didn't have to talk to everyone, right?

"I'm probably going to regret this, but okay. I'll swing by to say hi. For you guys. And Michael, definitely."

"Really? Hey... hey that's great!"

"Yeah." Pam huffed, already starting to regret her decision.

"I'll need to pick up one more thing before leaving though. Angela put me in charge of streamers." Toby said, as he and Pam began walking around the supermarket to look for the said item.

"Really? Angela actually delegated work?"

"She asked everyone to chip in. We're all trying to make this special for Michael, given the circumstances. We're not really best friends, Michael and I, but he's a good guy."

"Yeah." Pam said earnestly. "I'd love to be there for him with you guys."

Toby and Pam stopped at the seventh aisle, with Toby checking his shopping list for what he needed to buy next.

"Here we go. Streamers." Toby said, surveying the selection of streamers stacked carelessly on the supermarket shelves. He dipped his head, as if to carefully assess which ones to but. When he started to reach for the green streamers, Pam stopped him.

"Buy the red ones. Green is whorish." Pam said with a smirk as they grabbed several packs and headed for the counter.

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