Jim and Pam walked out of the breakroom and they were welcomed by Kelly having a spaz attack.

Dwight was handing out flashlights to the office and Angela was telling everybody to remain calm.

Michael was hiding under his office desk like a baby, Stanley was using a flashlight to work on his crossword, Meredith was passed out on her desk for drinking God knows what, and Kevin was holding his flashlight up to his face in an attempt to look frightening to his co-workers.

Jim retrieved both him and Pam a flashlight. “Let’s go back to the breakroom away from everybody. I think soon Kevin will have us all in a circle sharing scary stories, and I do not wish to be included in that,” he said. Pam laughed.

“Hold on a second,”

Jim watched her walk back to her desk and pull out a sheet of paper. She wrote something on it and met back up with him.

“Let’s build a fort!” Pam exclaimed.

“How old are you?”

“Come on, it will be fun! Please, Jim? Please?”

“Alright. I give in!”

They both headed toward the buildings hallway closet, where there were a lot of blankets for events like this. The grabbed as many as they could hold, a few pillows too, and walked back into the breakroom.

They got a few chairs and draped some blankets over them. They made a door too. They covered the floor on the inside with blankets so it would be comfortable, and set pillows all around.

“I think we should be architects,” Jim said and crawled in with Pam. “I mean really, look at how sturdy this is!” He pulled on the blankets and the whole fort came crashing down. They erupted into fits of giggles, rolling around on the floor with tears streaming out of their eyes. Soon, they were laughing so hard that there was no sound coming out at all except for occasional gulps for air. Pam thought about how she and Roy almost never laugh together. It took a long time for the laughter to finally cease, and when it did they were lying on their backs.

“I have cramps from laughing so hard,” Pam said.

“So do I. But that was fun. I think we need to try building our again.”

They both looked at each other and smiled. They stood up and rebuilt the fort, making sure it was not going to fall this time.

They finally got settled inside. They hung the flashlights from the fort’s ceiling.

“I think this fort deserves a name,” Jim said.

“Of course it does!”

“I’ve got it! Our fort will be called ‘Beesly and Halpert!’”

“Oh wow, how original is that?”

“I think we should go with it.”

They laughed and went to the supply closet to get a piece of paper and a marker. On it, Pam wrote the fort’s name.

They both stood outside of the fort and Jim said, “From henceforth, this fort shall be referred to as ‘Beesly and Halpert’s Fort!”

With that being said, Jim taped the piece of paper to the fort.

They laughed and took their spots back inside the fort.

Pam shivered. With the heater shut off with the electricity, the building was freezing.

Jim noticed and wrapped a blanket around her. “You were shivering,” he said.

“Thanks. You have to admit, you’re freezing too! Here…” Pam gave Jim part of her blanket.

They never have sat this close to each other. Jim was in awe. His heart was beating 100 mph and he was sure she could hear it.

“You know, I’m hungry,” Pam said.

“You can’t be! You practically ate that whole bag of Sunchips!” Jim would say anything to get her to stay in the blanket sitting so near him.

Pam giggled and crawled out.

She went and got her lunch she packed for the day. There were two sandwiches in it, one for her, and one for Roy. She figured Roy could do without. She walked back into the fort and poured out her lunch.

There was her Mixed Berries yogurt, two PB&J sandwiches, 2 cokes, another bag of French Onion Sunchips for her, a bag of Doritos for Roy which now belongs to Jim, and a piece of the apple pie Pam had made the other night.

“Bon Appetite!” Pam said and reached for her sandwich. Jim’s hand went at the same time and their hands met for the third time that day. Jim’s started pulling his hand away, but Pam reached for it and took it in hers.

“Don’t let go,” she said.

Jim ran his thumb against Pam’s hand. He noticed something missing.

Her engagement ring was not present on her finger. He was bursting to ask why, and he knew he shouldn’t. He kept the question to himself. That’s when he noticed a bruise on her arm.

“Woah, what happened to your arm?”

Pam looked at her bruise.

“Oh… um… Roy and I were fighting last night and he refused to clean up his mess. Things got a little out of hand….”

“What? Pam, are you okay? Did anything else happen? He hurt you!”

“No, it’s okay, honestly! Don’t worry about it, I deserved it. He was really drunk, too.”

“I’m sure you didn’t deserve it. What… how did he hurt you?” Jim felt the anger rise inside of him. He wanted so desperately to hurt Roy. If Pam was his, he would never physically harm her.

Pam took a deep breath. She started explaining what goes on with them every night. Jim was paying close attention to each word she said. He held her hand the whole time and would occasionally give it a squeeze of which she would happily return.

“But last night something happened. He got really tired of me asking him to do things. After his friends left, he broke open the door to the bathroom and started yelling,” Pam had a tear rolling down her cheek. Jim did too. “Then, he just punched me. It was no big deal…”

Jim interrupted her. “It is a big deal. He hurt you and I can’t stand seeing you hurt.”

Jim pulled her to him and hugged her. He held her tightly and he could feel her crying in his arms. She was crying hard. He ran his hands soothingly up and down her back.

He could feel her starting to breath steadily again, and he knew she had stopped crying, even though tears were still rolling down his eyes.

“Since when has my life turned into a soap opera?” Pam asked, and they started laughing.

Pam put her free hand on Jim’s knee. They were looking deeply into each other’s eyes, and their faces were close together. He could feel her breath.

He was in shock being this close to Pam’s face.

Their faces were slowly moving closer, and closer, until their lips were hardly a centimeter apart. Pam let out a staccato breath. Her eyes started closing and his did too.

Jim’s thought was cut short, and the door to the fort was opening.

Pam opened her eyes. Her heart sank into the pit of her stomach.

Roy Anderson was now sitting in the fort witnessing Jim and Pam about to kiss.