Cause I repeat the same routine
I think I used to have a purpose
But then again
That might have been a dream
I think I used to have a voice
Now I never make a sound

He lay in the dark staring up at the ceiling, images flooding through his memory in rapid-fire succession, moments that he suddenly wished didn't move him the way that they still did. ...Moments to which he'd clung like a life boat, believing they could drag him back to life.

And they had.

***********************

He knew she'd realized as soon as she stepped into the slimy, cold water that he'd deliberately led her to the lake.

She gasped, then turned, lobbing the egg at him as she exclaimed, "You ass!"

His laughter was genuine; he loved it that she'd called him an ass. Such a camaraderie they shared, such a...cool dynamic.

She'd chased him to a remote corner of the beach, standing on her tiptoes and pressing her lips to his, kissing him until he felt his body straining toward hers without even meaning to.

She didn't pull back until he was breathless, hungry for her, and then, with a gleam in her eye, she repeated: "Ass."

With that, she turned on her heel in the sand and stormed off, glancing back once to giggle at him as he stood dumbfounded, still breathing heavily.

*********************
He watched her profile as she spoke to David Wallace, the sun glinting off her hair, her gorgeous mocha skin. Sometimes her sheer physical beauty made him just stop and stare, a little transfixed. That she seemed oblivious to it was just another reason to love her.

He grinned when she slipped and said that she was interested in the position "in well."

Immediately he interjected, ""In well?"

She shushed him with a grin.

He continued, non-plussed: "How would that work? 'In well'?"

When she waved a hand to silence him again, he grinned even wider. "I just want to know...wait a minute...."

She continued her conversation, trying to appear frustrated with him, but not even remotely pulling it off.

So he whispered, "If this job is in a well, I don't want it."

She shot him another look, to which he repeated staunchly, "I don't."

When she snapped the phone shut, she threw it at him, then wagged her finger menacingly. "You are so going to pay for that, Halpert."

"Really?" He loved it when she called him by his last name, wasn't sure why.

"Mm-hmmm...."

"And how's that going to go, exactly?" He tilted his head, taking her in, her green eyes stunning against the backdrop of the glistening water. "What, are you gonna push me down a well or something?"

"Oh, you'll wish I'd pushed you in a well by the time I'm finished with you." Again she stood, casting him a seductive glance, one eyebrow raised, then she walked off to leave him staring after her, smiling to himself.

**********************

He'd fallen for her. Maybe not in love with her, but he'd really believed that would come in time. Hell, they'd even talked about it - the fact that he'd been sort of in a weird state when he met her, more or less, so he hadn't really been in a place of opening up, of falling.

But he'd get there.

He never doubted that, ever. Karen seemed to think he was already there, just didn't realize it yet.

And really, sometimes he wondered.

But now...god, now he couldn't escape it. Her.

Because tonight he should've been mortified - no, livid - at Pam for just...blowing it all to bits, spewing it all out in front of not just their co-workers, but Karen, with whom he'd been honest about his history with Pam, just...cautiously so.

He should've stopped her mid-sentence, should've lept to his feet and taken her by the arm, led her off so she could say what she needed to say in private. Because he knew the people he worked with well enough to know that they'd be buzzing about this long after the dust settled.

And Karen - god, Karen bearing witness to this.

But as he sat there staring up at her, unable to turn his eyes away (very much aware that Karen was watching him closely, gaging his reaction - as well she should), he was so overwhelmingly proud of Pam.

That girl whose face had gone ashen in the light from the streetlamp, the girl who had been paralyzed with fear, who had asked instead of answered, "I can't"...

Well, she was nowhere to be seen.

Watching her there, her eyes so fucking alive, her delicate shoulders heaving with excitement....all he could do was silently cheer her on, no matter how much it cost him.