Disclaimer: Don’t own any characters, I don't make any money from them and I don't claim anything about them as my own invention, etc, yadda yadda. And special thanks to ElizabethLynn and xoxoxo for giving me ideas, support, and generally helping me retool this thing so that it flows better!

“Pam, where’s Jim?” Michael is strumming his fingers on her desk, his back half to her as he looks around the office. She ignores him. He finally turns back and raises his eyebrows at her. “Well?”

“How would I know, Michael?” She says impatiently, the phone stuck to her ear and one finger on the hold button, ready to return to the call she had to interrupt in order to pay attention to yet another of his meaningless distractions. She looks away from him and hits the hold button to go back to transferring the call to wherever it needs to go. She hangs up and looks exasperated.

“Because you always know where he is. You’re like that Rosanna Arquette chick on Criminal Minds.”

“I think you mean Medium, Michael. And I don’t know where he is. Until just now,” she says, looking past Michael at Jim’s empty desk, “I didn’t even know he was gone.”

“Well, make yourself useful. Find him. I need him for a meeting.” Michael gives her desk a final thump and wanders off to the break room where Ryan is sitting, drinking a Coke and not looking at Kelly as she prattles on.

Pam dials Jim’s cell phone. Michael could have done this himself, she thinks. But then she hears ringing and sees the phone shaking in a circle on Jim’s desk. She rolls her eyes and starts to get up from her chair. She blows out her cheeks and lets out a rush of air that lets anyone within earshot know that she’s quite aware of how ridiculous it is that she has to look for Jim, but she’s doing it anyway because it’s easier than sitting at her desk listening to Michael.

Phyllis notices Pam’s predicament. “I think he went to the warehouse to check on a shipment,” she helpfully offers. “I heard him on the phone with an unhappy client a few minutes ago.”

“Thanks, Phyllis.”

She trudges down to the warehouse. It’s not exactly her favorite place lately, what with the whole breakup and everything. It’s a little awkward around Roy. And if Jim’s there too, that’s going to be extra awkward. She’s not dating either of them, and both are sort of hanging around these days, making her nervous and anxious and feeling like she could jump out of her skin at any moment. She’s all right around Jim alone because she kind of likes that he’s in love with her even if she doesn’t know exactly how she feels, and kind of nervous around Roy alone because she knows he’d take her back if she just asked, but on the rare occasion she finds herself in the same room with them both she feels like a bomb could go off at any moment. Sometimes she wishes a bomb would go off so she could just disappear and not deal with any of it.

Luckily, there’s no sign of Roy today. Must be at lunch, she thinks. And then she spots the open Dunder-Mifflin delivery truck. Although she can’t see any of the other warehouse guys around, she hears a lot of commotion in the back of the warehouse. Typical warehouse noise, really. The sounds of the forklift, the guys yelling to each other and the general loudness all envelop her as she heads for the truck.

The truck is almost full, but she can hear someone inside. She clambers up the ramp and peers inside.

“Jim?” She calls, and picks her way through the maze of tightly packed boxes to the back.

“Hey,” he calls back from near the front of the truck. She finds him in a small pocket between piles of boxes, looking them over.

“What are you doing?” She asks.

“Tony in Harrisburg called and said we shorted him last week. I’m just checking to make sure the replacements made it onto this truck. And now, you made me lose count. So shhhhhhh!”

“Sorry. Michael needs you upstairs.”

He puts a finger over his lips and doesn’t look away from his counting. Pam hears Roy’s voice moving closer to the truck, and quickly jumps behind Jim. Now she’s the one with her finger on her lips. She’s frantically shaking her head, her eyes pleading. He nods, and they both stay still, hiding behind the stack of boxes.

The cacophony gets closer as they hear the forklift beeping, hear Darryl yell to everyone to clear out, and then another pallet of boxes gets deposited into the truck. Jim looks at Pam and she shakes her head. He understands. She wants him to stay quiet until the guys move away from the truck and she can sneak out. It’s not just for her – he knows that if Roy catches them in the truck together it’s going to be ugly. Pam barely suppresses a giggle. Jim clamps his hand over her mouth and squints at her. While they glare at each other, the truck door slides down with a crash and they both hear the unmistakable sound of the latch noisily being slid into place. The inside of the truck is pitch black. Jim lets go of her and her mouth drops open as the truck roars to life beneath them.

“Oh my god, Jim, we’re stuck! Hey!” she yells and tries to climb around the boxes to get to a wall. But the truck is so loud and they’re so surrounded by boxes of paper (which Pam notes, make excellent soundproofing) that nobody hears them. She falls against him as the truck lurches of the warehouse.

She punches him in the chest, her fists hitting their mark only because she can feel that it’s his chest she’s pressed against. She can’t see a thing, but she knows he’s grinning. She knows it like she knows her own name. Like she knows the sun’s going to set. Except that it seems like maybe she won’t get to see that tonight because she’s stuck in this damn truck.

“Halpert, you better get us out of this!” She yells at him.

“Call the warehouse line. Have you got your cell phone?” He asks. She feels around her sweater pockets and curses.

“No. It’s in my purse. And I already know where yours is.”

“Relax, Beesly. This thing’s going to Harrisburg. Unless there’s a stop in between, we’ve got about 2 hours to kill. I hope you went to the bathroom before we left.”

She huffs angrily at him, and tries to sit on a pile of boxes as far from him as she can. Space is tight, and she can’t move far. And she’s not really that mad at him anyway.

“Look at it this way. At least you have an excuse not to deal with Michael anymore today. This wasn’t exactly our fault. It’s like, field trip!” She doesn’t laugh, and he wishes he could see her face so he could know whether to keep going or to quit before she really gets mad.

“Fine,” she finally says. “Know any good road games?”

“Considering it’s pitch black in here, and I can’t even see my hand in front of me, Bingo is out of the question. Also, Punch-Bug probably won’t work without windows.”

“Oh, I know! How about that one where…never mind.”

“What?”

“I was going to say that one where you collect cows, and then if you pass a cemetery all your cows die and you have to start over, and the one with the most cows wins, but you know, no windows.” She sighs.

“I guess that leaves us with two options then, “ he starts. “20 Questions or –“

“Truth or Dare!” she interrupts. And for the first time since she entered the truck, he thinks he hears a smile in her voice.

“Truth or Dare? Really, Pam? How old are you?” He scolds her.

“Well, it’s a heck of a lot better than 20 Questions.” She scoffs. “I’ll start. Truth or Dare?”

“That’s not starting. Starting is having to do something first, not issuing the first challenge.”

“Fine, you start, you big baby.” She pouts. At least, he thinks she’s pouting. He still can’t see much more than a vague outline of her, and he’s not even sure he can actually see that. He thinks he might just be imagining it, because he sure the hell still can’t see his hands.

“Ok, “ he thinks for a moment. “I’ve got one. Truth or Dare?”

“Truth.”

Jim bites his lip. With a bravado afforded him by the darkness, the question is out of his mouth before he can stop it.

“Did you break up with Roy because of me?”

The silence is thick. Although it’s filled with the sounds of the truck engine and the struts and shocks bouncing below them, it stretches between them like a cat after a long nap.

“Oh, we’re going to play serious, are we?” She says, but he doesn’t hear reproach in her voice. He hears interest, and maybe, he thinks, maybe something a little more than that. “Ok. Yes and no. I needed to break up with Roy anyway. You just helped me see that. So yes, I broke up with Roy because of you, and because of me, but not for you.”

Not exactly what I wanted to hear, he thinks.

“Don’t ask me anything you don’t want to know, Jim. It’s dark. I feel kind of safe. I’m feeling pretty honest right now.”

“Noted.” He says. “It’s your turn.”

He hears her shift off of the boxes. She slips onto the floor of the truck next to him and stretches her legs out. He can feel that she’s directly across from him, her leg solidly against his, her foot at his hip. He assumes she’s got a box behind her back, the way that he does.

“Truth or Dare. Oh yeah, I forgot to say – if you take a truth you have to take a dare next. Those are the rules, and they are absolute.”

“Okayyyyy,” he says cautiously. He thinks for a moment. “I guess I’d better go truth.”

“You sure? Because the truth can be a dangerous thing.” She teases. He can hear the smirk and it makes his toes curl.

“Hit me with your worst, Beesly. I’m ready.”

“Did you like sleeping with Katy?”

“Wow. Not what I was expecting.” He pauses for what seems like forever. She’s assuming that he slept with Katy. He never told her. “Yes. Katy was a good time.”

When she doesn’t respond, he opens up his hand and sticks his palm straight out in front of him, trying to feel for her arm. It’s difficult, because she’s staying completely still, but with her leg against him as a landmark he manages to connect with her upper arm and slide his hand down to close around hers. Her hand is cold, but she doesn’t pull away. She responds with a squeeze.

“Hey, you ok?” He asks. “You asked. I never wanted to talk about it with you. Maybe we should back it off a little in the truth department.”

“No, no, it’s ok. I’m ok. I didn’t know for sure. I just…” She stops. The sick feeling that bubbles up from her stomach takes her completely by surprise. She manages to force it back by thinking about how Jim professed his love for her one fateful night, and tells herself Katy was meaningless. And why would it matter anyway, Pam, if you don’t even know how you feel about him?

“I think it’s your turn, Jim.” She says, a false chipper note in her voice. It quickly shifts and becomes a challenge. “A dare, obviously.”

He thinks about it for a minute. Even Jim’s creativity is taxed trying to come up with something original that can be done in a confined space with nonexistent visibility. And with no Dwight, there’s not really anything funny they can do. So he goes with the only thing he can think of that gives him an excuse to touch her.

“Ok. I dare you to let me take that clip out of your hair.”

“Lame, Jim. You can do better than that.” She teases him. He lets go of her hand and swats at the darkness, at about waist level because he doesn’t want to accidentally hit her in the head. She giggles when he connects with her waist and pokes her.

“Well, I was going to dare you to belch the alphabet, but even I don’t really want to hear that. So clip-thingie it is. No negotiating dares,” He says. “If that’s not a rule, it should be.”

“Fine.” He can feel her lean into the space in front of him. Her breathing is even and close enough that he can feel it on his face. He slides his hand up her arm and feels soft skin underneath his palm. He stops for a moment, savoring the smooth warmth of her forearm under his hand, marveling that she hasn’t pulled away. He stops long enough that Pam says, “Jim?”

“Oh,” he says, quickly covering. “I was just surprised. When did you take off your sweater?”

“Oh, that. It’s hot in here.” She says, and he can feel her lift her other hand, the one attached to the arm that he’s not holding, and fan herself. “Ahem. So anyway…”

“Right.” He moves up, tracing the line of her arm, her shoulder. His fingers slide up her neck and he thinks he feels her shiver a little under his touch. She lets out a breath and he realizes suddenly that she’s been holding it. His palm softly rests on her cheek, and he brings his other hand up to the other side of her face, pushing them both into her hair, fingers carefully lacing through the jumbled curls. She closes her eyes and sighs and lets herself get lost in the feeling of his hands in her hair. When he gets to the clip and unfastens it, she shakes her head and her hair falls and tickles her nose. He pulls back and sticks the clip into her hand.

“Thanks.” He says. “I’ve always wanted to do that.”

“Really?” She says, her voice teasing and low and resonating in the dark. “What else have you always wanted to do?’

“Oh, no you don’t. It’s my turn for a dare. Your rules, “ He reminds her.

She knows what she wants to dare him to do. She’s known since she started the game. And since feeling his hands on her arms, her face, in her hair, it’s the only thing she can think about. She doesn’t know exactly how she feels about him, but she does know that she’s attracted to him, maybe even in love with him.

“I dare you to kiss me. Again.”

Silence. Oops. Might have gone a little too far, there, Pam.

“Jim?”

“I don’t know, Pam,” He says quietly. “I already took that dare, and it didn’t work out so well. For either of us.”

She can practically hear his heart breaking, and tears well up in her eyes. She hates hearing that sound in his voice, knowing that she’s the one who put it there. She reaches out and her hand lands on his shoulder. She pulls him in as she scoots closer to him.

“It might work out better this time.” She whispers.

He swallows hard enough that she can feel his shoulders shift. It seems like forever passes before he reaches up to her hand and puts it to his lips, lightly brushing against her fingertips before pressing a slow soft kiss into her palm. His lips are warm on her, and she feels the skin on her arm turn to goosebumps as he lowers her hand and puts both of his hands around it.

“Disappointed?” He asks.

“No. That’s not exactly what I…but that was….” She trails off and doesn’t finish the thought.

“Truth.” He says, with no preamble. She quickly shakes the fog from her head and waits. He doesn’t let go of her hand.

He takes a moment to figure out what he wants to ask, because her answer makes all the difference in the world.

“Did you ever...think about me? You know, as anything other than a friend?” He finally says.

“Wow, “ Pam says. She’s glad it’s dark, because she doesn’t think she could answer him honestly if she actually had to look at his face. He waits and gives her a chance to compose her thoughts. “Ok. That’s another yes and no. I never thought that I thought of you that way, because of Roy, you know? But I was jealous of Katy and you, and I hated hearing about other dates you had. But I told myself it was nothing. And anytime I had a thought like that, I tried to shut it down because it wasn’t right. I was engaged.”

He’s just about to say ok, when she continues. “But I had a dream about you once.”

“Really?” She can hear the smile in his voice. “Do tell.”

“Well, “ She begins, embarrassed. The darkness affords her a certain confidence, but even that isn’t enough to make this easy. But she wants to tell him, wants him to know what he does to her. How the thought of him makes her feel when she actually lets the thoughts creep into her consciousness.

“If it helps, I’m closing my eyes.” He says. She pushes him with her foot. He catches it and holds her ankle.

“Very funny, “ she laughs. “Ok, so it involves you and me, and a supply closet. Which is funny, you know, because we don’t even have a supply closet. We just have that bunch of shelves over by Stanley’s desk. Which is totally not hot at all…”

“Wait a minute, this is a hot dream?”

“Yes. Now shut up, or I’m not going to tell you.”

He doesn’t bother to tell her that she doesn’t have to continue. That it’s his turn to tell a truth and she’s off the hook. He lets her go on, describing in great detail the things he does to her in that supply closet in her dreams, except that some things she doesn’t tell him and says “you know” and “stuff like that” instead of describing. While she tells him her dream, his hand absently rubs her ankle and calf.

“And now that I’m thoroughly embarrassed…” She says.

“Don’t be.” He says. His voice is rough and sounds more serious than it did before her story. “By the way, we’re in something of a supply closet at the moment, in case you didn’t notice.”

Her breath catches. The image of everything she just told him flashes through her mind while she takes inventory. Paper? Check. Pens? Check. White Out? Check. Holy crap, he’s right. It IS a supply closet.

She clears her throat. “Time for a little truth from you, Jim Halpert.”

“Let’s go, “ he says. There’s nothing she could possibly ask him that could be worse than what he’s already told her. Nothing worse than finally telling the girl you love how you feel and getting shot down. He has no fear of any truth she could ask of him, but he’s still surprised when she asks.

“Do you think I’m beautiful?” She asks tremulously. “I mean, do you think I’m prettier than Katy?”

She feels him move closer to her and wrap his arms around her. He presses his cheek against hers and closes his eyes. When she responds by putting her arms around him and dropping her head to his shoulder he speaks.

“Never in my whole life… I’ve never seen anything as beautiful as you.” He feels her hands grip his shirt and she presses her face hard into his shoulder. He hears the breath rush out of her and feels her tremble against him.

“Hey, “ he says, and she lifts her face to him. He angles in a way that he thinks will fit, and moves in to kiss her. Their noses bump, and she laughs, but stops quickly when his lips touch hers. Tentative at first, and then harder, more confident. She nips at his lower lip and licks it. He opens his mouth and gasps a little when her tongue darts out to meet his. The kiss deepens and she pushes fiercely against him, trying to get as close to him as she can. He feels her move, her mouth never leaving his, her hands moving over his shoulders.

Her hands move to his tie, pulling at the knot, sliding it off of his neck. “What are you doing, Pam?”

“I think, “ she says against his mouth, still kissing him, “That it’s your turn to dare me.”

He can hear something in her voice, something that tells him to push. Something that tells him that she’s ready for more than he ever would have asked of her if she wasn’t making it so plain. He closes his eyes and decides to take a chance. He pushes himself up to a leaning position against the boxes behind him, finds her hand again, feeling his way up her leg, and pulls her up.

“My turn?” He asks. She hears a throaty growl in his voice, as if he needs to clear his throat, but he doesn’t. He puts his hands on her shoulders and leans in so that his face is next to hers. For a long time, he doesn’t say anything. He stays that way, breath hot on her neck and in her ear. He buries his face in her hair and breathes deeply, memorizing her scent and the feel of her curls on his cheek. Heat spreads from her throat to her chest and her nipples tighten. When she feels his hands move down her back and his lips on her shoulder she lets her head roll back and a gutteral moan comes from deep inside her. “I dare you to take off your panties.” He growls in her ear.

He expects her to say no. He expects to feel her pull back and slap him, or punch him in the arm any second now. But she doesn’t. He feels her breath on his face as she moves in closer to him and suddenly her mouth is on him again and they’re wrapped so tightly around each other that he can’t tell where her hands are because she’s everywhere, surrounding him.

Everything in her body responds to his voice. Warmth rushes from every place he’s touching her and gathers in her center, where it grows and radiates outward. She lets him go and steps back just a little. She remains silent as she reaches down. He can feel her slide her skirt up and it brushes maddenly against his erection. She hears his sharp intake
of breath as he grabs her hands, just before she can slip her panties off.

“I know I said no negotiating, but you don’t have to, “ he says, holding her hands still.

“I want to.”

He thinks his heart might have stopped.

“Let me.” He hooks his thumbs around the elastic and slides her panties off easily. She notices with a little embarrassment that they’re wet and oh my god, this is Jim she thinks as she sinks into the darkness. He doesn’t mention it, though, and sticks them in his pocket so they don’t get lost in the truck. She surfaces, only to go under again when he returns his attention to her throat, licking and sucking at a place between her neck and shoulder that makes small sounds of pleasure escape from her. His hands are busy unbuttoning her blouse and slipping softly up to sneak fingertips under her bra.

She lets her hands run over him, feeling the muscles tighten under her palms. She stops to pull his shirt untucked from his pants and unbuttons slowly on her way up, pressing her lips to his neck, wishing she had started at the top. Her tongue darts out and she licks at his collarbone. She leans back and braces herself on the boxes behind her, allowing herself to get lost in the feeling of Jim kissing and licking his way down her body. She feels his tongue between her breasts and his hands over them, pinching just enough to make her squirm and wake up the few nerve endings that haven’t yet noticed what’s going on. He moves lower, lower and stops at her navel.

“Oh, god, Jim, please.” She begs, her hands involuntarily pushing at his shoulders. He wordlessly slides his hands down her hips, his tongue on her belly, licking, kissing. Her entire body is alive with sensations she hasn’t felt in a long time. She’s not sure she’s ever felt them before and now here, with Jim, she’s so alive and out of control that she feels herself slipping deliciously into the darkness again. She’s become a creature of pure feeling, no rational thought except urging him lower so that she can feel even more.

“What do you want?” He whispers against her skin. His arms snake around her back and he slides his hands around her exposed ass. Her skirt is shoved up around her waist, and she doesn’t even remember that happening, although her thighs are tingling with the physical memory. He slips one hand around through the front of her thighs and is met with proof of her arousal. She leans back further on the boxes and widens her stance to allow him easier access. He presses the heel of his hand over her and she presses against it, moaning, slipping across his fingers. Feeling her completely under his control is intoxicating, but it helps to keep him from losing his mind too quickly. His hand is replaced by his tongue, hot and insistent and so obviously skilled that for a fleeting moment she wonders who he practiced on, but the image is quickly sucked into the blackness in her as she goes under again. It spreads from the place where Jim’s mouth is hot on her to the tips of her toes. Her climax takes her by surprise and she cries out, unable to form anything remotely like words.

When she can finally speak, she gasps, “You, Jim. I want you.”

“Are you sure?” He stands up, his body sliding the length of hers as he presses against her. His hand is on her again and he kisses her. She arches her back and her stomach arcing against him sends sensation shooting through him. Every inch of his skin is awake. Her hands are everywhere, everywhere, as she pulls him against her. She pulls as if he can’t get close enough, as if she’s trying to pull him into her.

“God, yes.”

He guides himself into her and when he’s entirely engulfed inside her he wraps his arms around her and stays perfectly still.

“Don’t move, “ he says. And she squeezes. “Don’t do that either. Just…give me a second.”

He feels her hands cup his face as she pulls him in for a kiss. She slips her tongue into his mouth and deepens it, tasting herself on him. She doesn’t mind because it’s Jim and he’s kissing her and doing things she’s only ever dreamed about doing with him. He keeps his mouth over hers, sucking her tongue into his mouth and biting her lower lip. He begins to move then, and moves his mouth to her neck. Their breathing comes in ragged gasps and he moves faster and faster and when he hears her start to make out of control noises again he sinks his teeth into her neck and he feels her nails dig into his back and she breaks beneath him again as his own climax overtakes him. He shudders against her, his mouth covering hers again, and they stay still against each other, holding on as if letting go would break the spell binding them together. She gasps and presses herself more insistently against him, feeling him still hard inside her.

“Wow, “ She says.
“That was –“

“I know, right?” He says. “Do you want to --“

“Again?”

“Yeah. You?”

“Definitely.”

When they get to Harrisburg, the driver is surprised to find them in the back of the truck blinking against the invasion of sunlight. They ride back in the cab with him, acting as if nothing at all is different. Ten minutes into the ride, Pam realizes that her panties are still in Jim’s pocket.

She smiles up at him and doesn’t mention it.