Jim was in Michael's office and the door was closed. A few minutes later, Jan called and was transferred to Michael. Then Toby was called into the office.

Pam knew that this wasn't a good sign. She looked over at Jim's new desk and saw that Dwight had opened Jim's messenger bag and found a bottle of pills. He was busily copying down the information on the label. Pam suddenly remembered the side effects that the doctor had told her and Jim about.

"Dwight, could you not do that?" She asked as she walked over to him.

Dwight looked puzzled. "I think what happened on Monday shows that I need to keep this information on file, Pam."

Pam looked around and saw Andy eying things curiously. She pulled Dwight away. "Okay, I understand. It's just that...I need you to promise me something."

"What?" Dwight asked slowly, not willing to agree to anything without further information.

Pam whispered to him. "Please don't share the information with anyone and don't look up the medication."

"Why?" Dwight asked. "Pam, if anyone should want to make sure..."

"Please, Dwight," Pam whispered even more softly. "We can talk about this later but for now can you just trust me on this?"

Dwight clearly didn't understand, but he did try to be a gentleman. Especially when his own survival wasn't compromised. "I can do that."

"Thank you," Pam said, gently squeezing Dwight's shoulder as she took the pill bottle from him and returned it to Jim's bag. As she was returning to her desk, Karen arrived and waved. The salesperson heard Jim's voice through the door and looked over at Pam. "What's he doing here?"

Pam could only shrug as the phone rang. "Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam."

"Pam, this is Larissa Halpert." She sounded frightened. "I've just gotten to Jim's apartment and he's not here. Did he have to go back to the hospital?"

Pam hesitated, "No, uh, Mrs. Halpert, he's..." Karen paused by Pam's desk.

Larissa cut in, "He's not in the office today..." Suddenly her voice was very, no strike that, VERY angry.

"He's meeting with Michael," Pam said.

"His father must have dropped that boy on his head and was too afraid to tell me. That's the only possible reason for my son to be such an idiot. They only let Jim out of the hospital because he swore he would stay in bed for the rest of the week."

"I'm really sorry...We didn't know..." Pam glanced up at Karen and seeing the confused look on her face, hit the speaker phone.

Larissa was positively ranting. "You should have heard him, ‘Don't worry about me, mom, I have plenty of food in the fridge' he said. There's half a pizza and three beers." In spite of everything, Pam and Karen giggled. Jim's mom continued, "‘You don't need to come over until my doctor's appointment on Friday, I'm not going anywhere.' He doesn't have to worry about his heart. I'm going to kill him with my own two hands." Noticing the looks from the other folks in the office, Pam cut off the speaker and picked up the receiver again.

Larissa paused for a breath and Pam was finally able to cut in. "Mrs. Halpert, I'll make sure he leaves the office."

"Thanks," Larissa said, finally beginning to calm down. "I'm sorry. I know this isn't your fault. It's just, I can't believe him sometimes. I drove for an hour and I get here to find an empty apartment full of boxes..."

"Well, I could take him to my place," Pam offered, thinking out loud. "You could come by during the day and I could sleep on the couch at night; it's pretty comfortable." She'd slept on the couch often enough after leaving Roy. It seemed she'd spent half the summer there, watching sad movies and napping between crying jags.

"We couldn't impose," Larissa said.

"Please, it would be nice to have the company," Pam said, hurriedly. "Besides, that way I could keep an eye on him when you're not around." Karen had walked away and was now at her desk.

Hearing no objections from Jim's mom, Pam continued. "Can you give me Jim's new number? I'll call you as soon as I can get Jim out of here and we'll meet at my place." She gave Larissa the address and prepared to deal with Jim.

Jim left Michael's office a few minutes later and called out to the office. "Everybody, if we could just meet in the conference room for a minute. I promise, it won't take long." He caught the look in Pam's eyes and immediately looked apologetic. Michael, for once silent, walked past Jim and sat in one of the chairs in the conference room.

As Pam approached Jim, he whispered, "Can we talk after the meeting?"

"You bet we will," Pam said grimly. "By the way, your mom called," Pam stated as she walked past him.

She heard him whimper, "Oh great."

As soon as everyone was in the conference room, Jim started. Pam could tell that he looked really uncomfortable as he sat in front of them. "First off, I'd like to apologize for all of the drama this week. Believe me, the last thing I wanted to do was to cause a distraction to the staff. I'd like to thank you all for your friendship and support and I'd especially like to thank Angela and Dwight for their actions when I had my... thing."

"The proper term is ‘cardiac arrest,'" Dwight supplied.

"What? Oh, right. Thanks Dwight. Anyway, Corporate wanted me to go over a couple of things. First, we wanted to express our regret over the loss of two of our valued colleagues from the Stamford branch who resigned yesterday. We appreciate the sacrifices that they made to try and make this situation work and why they considered it necessary to make the choices they did. To all of you, if workplace circumstances make you uncomfortable, we encourage you to speak with Toby, Michael, or myself about the situation and give us a chance to make things right. While we understand why some of you may have thought it necessary to involve the Corporate office," Pam's eyes cut over to Andy, who was sitting beside Karen. "We hope to show you by our actions that we are committed to providing a harassment-free environment."

Pam didn't like the sound of this. And the way that Michael was just sitting there with his head down was so out of character for her boss. Suddenly Jim's appearance in the office made more sense.

Jim continued. "I will be in and out of the office for the next few days, and I hope you can understand my situation. But I will email everyone my cell number and please feel free to call me anytime you have concerns. Does anyone have any questions?"

Andy raised his hand. "Tuna, I'm sure I speak for us all when I say how much we appreciate you coming here from your sick bed to talk to us and we know that in spite of everything that you are trying your best."

"Uh, thanks, but I'm fine. Was there a question in that?"

"No, just wanted to say something. Hope that's alright."

"Sure," Jim replied. "Anything else?"

Kelly piped in, "So, are you going to have, like massive scars or anything? I mean, I know some girls really like them, like my friend Connie totally gets off on motorcycle scars. But some girls don't and anyway, they still want their boyfriends tell them what their doing before they go skydiving, Ryan...."

"No real scars, Kell," Jim cut in. He sighed visibly and took a deep breath before asking. "Is that all?"

Karen asked, "What the hell are you doing here, Jim?"

Jim hesitated. "I was asked to participate in a meeting this morning and talk to you guys. Believe me, I'm okay. Now if there's nothing else, I know you all have work to do."

The meeting broke up, but Karen and Pam walked up to Jim, so he didn't even attempt to get out of his chair. He tried to explain, "I'll only stay half a day, tops. I'll just sit at my desk and do paperwork. It's no big deal."

"Your mom was worried when she called," Pam said. "When she found out you were here, she freaked. You are in so much trouble with all of us."

Jim looked from Karen to Pam and knew he was trapped. "Jan called me yesterday. She said if I couldn't get a handle on things she'd fire Michael and bring in a new manager. She understood the position I was in, but she was so angry after she talked with Michael she was ready to drive down and fire him herself."

"So?" Karen asked.

"So, Michael isn't the easiest person to deal with, but he's a good guy."

"Well that last thing wasn't even him," Pam said. "It was Creed."

"I know," Jim said. "And that's being taken care of now. Toby's suspending Creed without pay for a month. Dwight and Andy will handle quality control."

Pam was shocked. Not that she really had sympathy for Creed after what he'd done. Still, it showed how serious things were. But regardless of that, she was more concerned about Jim. "Fine. You've played Corporate Jim, now it's time to go home."

"I have to take care of things here," Jim started.

Karen cut in, "Jim you look half dead already; do you want to finish the job? Go home."

"It's not that bad," Jim said, defensively.

"Really?" Pam asked. "Fine. Prove it to me. Karen, you hold down Jim's left shoulder, I'll hold down his right. Jim, if you can stand up with us holding you down you can stay. Shouldn't be a problem for a big strong man like you. Otherwise, go home."

Jim didn't even try to stand. "Fine, I'll leave." They took their hands from his shoulders and Jim slowly rose to his feet. Pam had backed away and saw Jim stumble. Before she could react, Karen steadied him.

"Damn," Jim mumbled. "This is so embarrassing."

"Don't worry," Karen replied. "You pull something like this again, I'll let you fall on your butt."

"Promise?" Jim asked with a weary laugh.

Pam tried not to feel jealous. "He's with me now," she thought.

She called Larissa Halpert while Jim gathered his things with Karen. Pam left with Jim, leaving Kelly in charge of the phones.

Seeing Pam take a left out of the parking lot, Jim said, "No, I live down Ninth..."

"You're staying with me." Pam clarified.

Jim was confused. "What? I mean, thanks for the offer, but..."

"Your mom thinks you need someone keeping an eye on you and after your stunt this morning, I have to agree. So you're staying at my place and she's dropping by while I'm at work."

"Don't I have any say in this?" Jim asked, not sounding entirely displeased.

"Take it up with your mom," Pam replied.

She arrived at her apartment before Jim's mom got there, so Pam was able to straighten things up a bit while Jim sat on the couch. Jim noted the wine bottle and glasses on the table. "So, you had company last night?" he asked.

Pam looked over at Jim and saw he looked a little insecure. On most guys that would be pathetic, on Jim it was cute. She really did have a thing for him. "I went out to dinner with Karen. The hotel room was closing in on her. We came back and had some wine afterwards."

"Thanks, Beesly. I'm glad you guys are hitting it off. Of course, knowing you and alcohol, I bet Karen knows all your secrets now."

Pam smiled back at him. "I'll have you know I spent the summer doing shot contests at Poor Richard's with Meredith. I've developed quite a tolerance."

Jim laughed. "Wow. Fancy New Beesly is in the house."

"Don't you forget it," Pam deadpanned.

There was a knock on the door and Pam saw Jim take a deep breath. He was obviously not looking forward to facing his mom.

Pam opened the door and looked into the angry face of Jim's mom. Quietly, she stepped outside and closed the door. "Mrs. Halpert..."

"Larissa, please."

"Larissa. Look, I totally agree with you that Jim was an idiot for coming to work today." She saw that Jim's mom was waiting for her to continue. "But I think he did it to try and save somebody else's job. Like I said, totally stupid, but his heart was in the right place."

She saw Larissa seem to calm down a little. "That does sound like my son," she admitted. "I packed some of his things in my car. Can you give me a hand?"

"Sure."

Larissa turned around and said, "Of course, I'm still going to make his life hell for what he put us through this morning."

"Oh, I understand," Pam assured her. "I encourage it, actually. We need him to take better care of himself."

There were a couple of bags in Larissa's car. Pam picked up one and saw several pairs of pajamas, all in plastic wrap. "Did you buy these today?" she asked.

"No, I was going through some of Jim's things, trying to figure out what he might need and I came across those. Every Christmas, I ask him what he needs and every year he says ‘pajamas.' I found those. He had them all in a box, completely unopened."

"Sounds like him," Pam admitted. She didn't tell Larissa that she did the same thing to her mom.

"He has a serious problem with telling people what he wants," Larissa mused.

Pam left soon after Larissa got settled. Five minutes of Larissa's merciless care convinced Pam that she could get back to the office. As she gathered her things, Pam heard Jim's cell phone ring. It was Andy, asking if Dwight had the authority to set the schedule for their quality control activities. She silently kissed Jim's cheek as she left.

She grabbed a burger from a drive through and ate as she drove. When she got back to Dunder Mifflin she went to the bathroom to wash her hands. As she was getting ready to leave, she heard Karen and Andy, who were apparently just outside the bathroom door.

"Really," Andy was saying. "Tuna is doing that badly."

"Yes," Karen replied. "I was at Pam's last night, you know, making sure that she's aware of her options, and she mentioned that Jim's doctors have told him that sex is definitely a no-go for them."

Pam stifled a gasp. She hadn't told Karen about the side effects of Jim's medication last night. At least she was almost sure she hadn't. She hadn't had that much to drink, she was certain. Almost.

"So, Jim's no threat to you," Karen continued. "Let me have some time to work on Pam and I'm sure I can convince her to let us all play together. It'll just be a matter of time before you're running the branch and anything else you want." Karen was practically purring at the salesman.

"Well..."

"Look Andy, I know you called Jim three times since he left. All that's going to do is make Pam angry."

"You're right, there's no need for that," Andy agreed.

Pam thought she understood what was going on now. At least she hoped she did.

After they walked away, Pam waited for a few minutes before leaving.

Shortly after she returned to her desk, Karen walked behind the reception desk and leaned down to Pam. "How's Jim doing?" She asked, her hands gently caressing Pam's wrist. She winked and then moved her head slightly, indicating that Pam should look at Andy. The salesman was definitely paying attention.

"He's settled in. His mom is taking care of him," Pam replied, still uncertain on how to handle this.

"Good," Karen replied, lazily tucking Pam's hair behind her ear. Kevin, who was walking past reception on his way to lunch, saw her and accidentally walked into Ryan's desk.

"Can we talk later?" Karen asked.

"I think we need to," Pam said.