It was a particularly trying day for Pam, even for a Monday. Michael started off the day in rare form and continued to call Pam into his office repeatedly over the course of the morning. Jim finally intervened and pulled her into the break room fifteen minutes before lunch, as a precautionary tactic.

"Just sit here and relax, and I'll get our lunches," he told her. "If Michael doesn't see you at your desk, he'll probably forget what he was going to ask you to do."

"Thanks," Pam sighed resting her head on the table. "I cannot take one more minute of his droning on about whether it's too late to take back his offer to let Jan move in."

She felt a little better as Jim arranged their lunches and drinks before her, and slid his chair next to hers. He rubbed her back gently as she drank her coke, resulting in the first real smile from Pam all morning. "That feels wonderful," she said. "So thank you once again."

"It's all part of the service," he grinned back. "So what do you say we go catch a movie after work?"

"If I live that long," Pam said. "Right now I just want to go home and crawl under the blankets and make the world go away."

"Oh come on. We'll have fun - it will make you forget today." He leaned toward her, as if about to say something incredibly important. "I'll even let you choose the film."

"Hmm," she said, suddenly looking more interested in the idea. "Any film I want?"

"Any," he nodded.

"Even a chick flick?"

Jim winced. "Yes, if we must."

"Wow, what a sacrifice." Pam giggled at his reaction. "I don't even know what's playing."

"Well, the offer still stands. You can check the listings and let me know what I'm in for."

Pam took a bite of her sandwich and mulled it over. "I guess I should take you up on it then. Who knows how long I have before the honeymoon's over."

Jim slouched back in his chair, his arm still resting on the back of Pam's chair. "True," he chuckled. "It has already been three days. My generous spirit won't hold out much longer."

The afternoon wasn't turning out much better, even with the enticement of an evening together with Jim to look forward to. Things took a particular turn for the awkward when Karen arrived at around three o'clock to clean out her desk. She had made arrangements to transfer to Albany until a position in corporate opened up that was suited to her skills. Karen made it clear with her silence that she had no desire to stay in Scranton a minute longer than she had to.

What she lacked in verbal expression she more than made up for with her abundance of dark looks, and Pam felt that most of them were directly solely at her. A short time after Karen's arrival, Jim got up and headed to Pam's desk, seemingly oblivious to Karen.

"So what are we going to see tonight?"

"I haven't even looked yet, I'm afraid," Pam confessed. "Between typing up these idiotic memos for Michael and death threats from Karen, I'm having a hard time focusing on doing much else."

"What death threats?" Jim frowned.

"Not actual death threats," Pam replied, unable to prevent a giggle from escaping. "But every time I look up she's giving me a dirty look."

"Don't worry about it. You haven't done anything wrong."

"Really? I think she begs to differ." She knew Karen was watching them, and it made Pam uncomfortable. "Maybe you should go back to your desk. I really don't want her to think I'm flaunting what's happened in front of her."

Jim gave her a half-smile. "You aren't. You don't have it in you to be like that."

"Oh yes I do," she chuckled. "But it's not what I'm going for now." She added in a quieter voice, "It's enough for me that I have you back."

Jim's smile widened at her comment. "Do you want me to go talk to her?"

"If I thought it would make any difference," Pam sighed, "but it won't. And I really don't want to see her start yelling at you. But thanks."

"There's got to be something I can do to cheer you up," Jim persisted, reaching for a few jellybeans.

"Just go sit back down and lie low until she leaves," Pam said softly. "Go lose yourself in your alternative-indie iPod stuff. Or whatever it is that you listen to now."

Jim stared at her for a moment as if lost in thought, then nodded slowly and went back to his desk.

Karen boxed up her things, then met with Michael and Toby in the conference room until shortly before four o'clock. She made a bee-line for the door immediately afterwards, bumping her box into the back of Jim's head as she passed his desk, and leaving Pam with a final look that seemed a careful mix of betrayal, hurt, and anger - just the look to bring out Pam's instinctive feelings of guilt. Fortunately being in a closed room with two of his least favorite people caused Michael to flee the office shortly after Karen. Pam gave Jim such a look of relief when Michael left that Jim got up to go congratulate her on surviving.

"Now that Michael's gone," he smiled. "What do you say we sneak out of her a little early - maybe get a bite to eat before the movie?"

"I don't know," she replied, shaking her head. "I appreciate your efforts but I am really worn out after today. I'm afraid I'm just not going to be a very good date tonight." Jim gave her his best pleading, puppy-dog-eyed look, but she still said no. "Tomorrow," she promised.

Jim stood up straight and drummed his fingers on the counter. "Well, I guess you give me no choice then, Beesly. I was going to save it for tonight, but it appears there will be no tonight."

"What are you talking about?"

"Meet me in the break room," he replied, and walked back to his desk. He opened one of his desk drawers and headed back to the break room without looking back at Pam. Curious, she followed him.

Jim was standing in the break room, leaning against the back wall. His hands were in his pockets, and he smiled slightly when Pam walked in. "So what's this all about?" She asked, leaning back on the table closest to Jim.

"Remember how we used to try and out do each other with CD mixes?" He asked.

Pam laughed. "You mean, which one of us could find the weirdest band that we liked?"

Jim nodded. "You did pretty well for someone without an iPod."

"Well thanks, but I still don't have one. I have that NonPod Roy gave me a few Christmases ago, but I haven't been using it much because it's a pain to get music for it."

Jim pulled his hand out of his pocket and extended it to Pam. "Well, you do now," he said softly.

Pam took the slim white player out of his hand, immediately recognizing it as his. "This is yours," she said, slightly confused. "What are you going to listen with?"

Jim shrugged. "I bought one of the new video ones back in January. This one has just been sitting in my desk. I don't really have use for two iPods, so I thought you'd like to have it."

"Are you sure? I mean, even the older ones aren't cheap. You could sell it - "

"Pam," he interuppted her. "I want you to have it."

"Wow." Pam replied softly. "That's - that's really nice of you, Jim. Thank you." She reached up for a hug, and he quickly put his arms around her to keep her close to him.

"I thought it might make the day a little more bearable if you could listen to music when Michael was getting to you," he said as he enjoyed the feeling of her in his arms.

Pam nodded, finally pulling back. "You're going to have to show me how to use iTunes with this."

"Sure," he nodded, one arm still wrapped around her waist. "But for now there's already a decent selection of music on it you might like to listen to."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I put all my favorites that I discovered over the last year," he said, looking a little embarrassed. "You know, since we weren't exactly sharing music tips."

Pam smiled broadly. "That was a brilliant idea! Thank you." She hugged him again, this time following it with tentative but heartfelt kiss. "I'll have to make a list for you of the songs I'd been listening to all this time."

"I'd like that," he nodded. "And if it's okay with you, I was thinking that maybe we could just share my iTunes accounts so we only had to buys songs once. Then we could share them between both iPods."

"We can do that?"

"I think so," he replied. "We'll work something out."

Pam stared down at her new (his old) iPod. In a matter of days, they were already reconnecting on so many levels. "This is awesome," she said to no one in particular.

"Feel well enough for a movie then?"

She grinned up at him. "So well in fact that I might even let you pick the film."