IV. And a monkey in a beet tree
Phyllis smiled proudly at the camera. "Here's the list," she said, brandishing a piece of paper. "For twelve drummers drumming, Jim and Pam are making drums filled with candy. She said it would be pretty easy to use construction paper and gold string to turn ordinary styrofoam cups into drums." She shrugged.
"I'm making the eleven pipers, ten lords, and nine ladies as cookies. I have regular gingerbread man cookie cutters, and I'll just move the legs to make them leap and add pipes and...I don't know, skirts, or something, to make them look like the other things. Um, what else?" She glanced down at the list. "
Oh, yes, for the eight maids, we're mixing eight big boxes of Sunmaid raisins with eight big boxes of Milkduds. Like a trail mix! The seven swans were hard to figure out, but we decided we'd do a punchbowl, and we'd use seven of those ice pack things to keep the punch cold, and Pam's going to draw swans on them. And Oscar promised to keep anybody from spiking the punch, but Angela said he was the one who did it last year...even though he wasn't even here. I don't know."
She shrugged, then went on. "For the six geese a-laying, we're having a dozen devilled eggs- you know, six eggs, split in half. They won't be goose eggs, but we were working with a limited timeframe here. The five gold rings will be five cheese pizzas. The four calling birds was another hard one, but it was actually Toby who had a good idea. We're going to set up four speakers and play birdsongs through them. Pam said if she has time she'll draw birds and stick them on the speakers, too. Then after everyone is sick of the birdsongs, we'll put on Christmas carols.
Kevin is bringing three French breads, and no one would let me correct him. Creed's bringing two turtle-shaped bowls that we're going to fill with Dove chocolate- that was my idea." She smiled. "And the partridge in a pear tree is just going to be one of our normal office plants, with fake pears and a fake partridge, that we'll use for a centerpiece. Pam's doing that one, too." Phyllis shook her head. "It's Tuesday today, and the party is on Friday, so we have a little time to get it all together. We got pretty creative- but the party is still going to be sort of lame."
The clock finally rested at 5:00pm, and Pam came and perched herself on the edge of Jim's desk. "About ready to go?" she asked. "I'm heading out. I have to stop and buy some supplies to make drums, pears, and birds."
Jim smiled. "No word from Angela or Dwight?" Pam shook her head, a frown creasing her forehead. No one was looking, so Jim leaned forward and lightly kissed the crease. "Don't worry, I'm sure it's all working out. You did everything you could. Now, about this 'evacuation'..." Pam smiled again. "I will definitely help you with the drums tomorrow night, but tonight I really do have to go over to Mom's to help her move that stuff. Is that OK?"
"Oh! I totally forgot that was tonight. Of course, it's OK. Tell your Mom 'hi' for me." Pam slid off the desk and started back to her own area. "Oh, by the way, I'm keeping your coat," she grinned.
Jim threw a look of panic at the camera, which of course Pam noticed. "What?" he asked, in his best fake-casual voice.
"Well, I gave Angela my coat, and it's really cold outside. And you wouldn't want me to be cold while I was running my errands, now, would you?" The light in her eyes was pure devilment, and despite his well-founded reluctance he found himself wanting to give in.
"Pam," he said weakly, running a hand through his hair.
Pam started laughing. "Look," she said quietly. "I know there's a box in the pocket. If I give you the coat now, I really will freeze. If I give you the coat now so you can give it back to me without the box in it...you'll have to take the box out and I'll see it. Doesn't it make the most sense for me to keep the coat, and just not look at the box, and give both of them back to you later?" She smiled at his skeptical expression. "I'm not Kelly. I can wait."
He was beaten. Her logic was solid, her eyes were dancing, and her lips were about two inches away from his. "Fine," he breathed, and then she was kissing him softly. She pulled away, and for the thousandth time he was amazed to see that she was as moved by their kisses as he was himself.
She broke into a triumphant smile. "Thanks!" she chirped, and she walked over, grabbed her purse and his coat, and walked out of the office with a wave.
The next two days leading up to the Christmas party were relatively normal, at least by Dunder Mifflin standards. Pam passed time drawing swans on ice packs, while Jim quietly went about his work and kept a close eye on both Dwight and Andy. Dwight had returned to work on Wednesday morning unusually subdued. He never even said a word to Jim about the by-now obviously false chemical spill. Andy, too, was strangely quiet. He looked thoughtful and sort of sad, and Jim suspected that his blossoming romance with Angela might be over. Pam refused to discuss it with Jim, however, claiming that she knew too much about the situation to say anything without giving anything away.
This mystery was not nearly as engrossing as the game he was playing with Pam over his coat, however. She simply refused to give it back. She wore it to work on Wednesday, and smilingly put it back on and wore it home without a word. When he arrived at her apartment Wednesday night to help with party crafts, she was wrapped up in the coat...and only the coat. On Thursday, she wore it to work again, leaving it on all day and even teasing him by pretending to reach into the pocket containing the small box. It was maddening, delightful, and perfectly Pam.
Finally, Friday arrived. Jim was already at his desk when Pam struggled in, draped in the ridiculously over-large coat and carrying a big cardboard box of candy-filled "drums". Jim hopped up to help her carry everything into the conference room. "Good morning!" she said cheerily. "Angela called me this morning. She's coming in for the party. I told her we had it all taken care of, but I'm not sure she trusts me."
"Are you sure she's OK?" Jim asked. He still didn't know what Angela's issue was, but he did know that it was quite out of character for her to be gone like this.
Pam nodded, but not confidently. "I think so. She sounded more like herself, at least." Jim let it go, and helped Pam to affix lovely drawings of birds to the speakers that they'd set up the afternoon before.
They had just finished putting the drums on the table when Michael walked in. "Pam! 'O little town of BethlePam!' Merry Christmas! Hello, Jim!" Michael, like most elementary school children, could hardly contain himself as Christmas drew nearer. With an indulgant grin at the camera, Jim returned the greeting. Michael continued to ramble, "This looks great! This is going to be the best party ever! I've invited Jan, and when she found out about that, Phyllis made me let her invite Bob Vance." Michael rolled his eyes good-naturedly at the camera. "But I don't think anyone else is coming, except employees, since no one else has anyone to bring."
"Stanely's married, Michael," Pam pointed out.
"Oh, right. Oh, well," Michael's face had fallen for a second, but his smile returned. Jim wondered if Michael had started eating Christmas cookies for breakfast. "OK, keep up the good work!" Even a two-minute conversation with Michael was exhausting. Wordlessly, Jim and Pam agreed on a break, and both left the conference room.
"Pam!" Phyllis was just arriving. "I've got the cookies and the Dove bars, and Creed gave me his bowls yesterday. I called Meredith this morning to remind her to bring the eggs, Oscar is bringing the stuff for the punch, and we'll order the pizza in a couple of hours, once they open. Is that everything?"
Phyllis nodded. "Yes, I am really committed to this party. If it goes well, it could launch my successful bid to take over the Party Planning Committee."
The morning passed smoothly enough. Dwight had a sales call scheduled for the morning, so it was no surprise that he didn't arrive punctually at 9:00 as usual. Still, something about his absence nagged at Pam, and she fought the urge to call and check on him, or on Angela, all morning.
Around noon, Michael burst out of his office. "OK, everyone! As you know, the office is closed Monday and Tuesday for Christmas, that greatest of holidays dedicated to seeing how much stuff you can get. In honor of the celebration of Santa and Rudolph and Baby Jesus, I think the party should start now! The pizza is coming in half an hour, yes?" Pam nodded. "But let's start now! Come on- stop all that work! Let's par-tay!"
With a general murmur of assent, the employees of Dunder Mifflin got up and started filing toward the conference room (except for Stanley, who waited until they were all in the conference room, put on his coat, and left). Everyone was pretty impressed with the way that the abbreviated Party Planning Committee had managed to fulfill the theme, all things considered, although it clearly bothered Kevin that the five gold rings hadn't made an appearance yet. In the general hubub, not even Jim noticed Pam slip out of the room and come back in with his coat in her arms.
"Hey" she said quietly behind him, when there was a lull in his conversation with Toby. He turned.
"Hey, yourself. Whatcha got there?" he said, grinning. Pam smiled.
"Well," she said, "You've been such a good sport, that I thought I should actually give this back to you. I brought another coat to wear home, and Angela should be back here with mine this afternoon anyway. And I swear I haven't peeked." She held the coat out to him.
"You sure you want to give it back?" he asked. He leaned forward to make sure no one else could hear. "You looked very good in it on Wednesday night." Pam blushed but didn't break his gaze. Nodding, she put the coat in his hand.
Jim and Pam usually did try to avoid public displays of affection at work, but as often happened, Jim couldn't help himself. He leaned down and pressed his lips to Pam's gently. The soft kiss was broken, however, by an ear-splitting shriek.
"OH MY GOD, THEY GOT MARRIED!" Jerking his head up, Jim could see Kelly pointing accusingly at Dwight and Angela, who had apparently just entered the room. The cameramen both lunged toward the couple. The one immediately managed to get a shot of Angela and Dwight's hands, both sporting plain gold bands.
The other cameraman, however, tripped on the cord that was plugging in the old-fashioned, bird-festooned speakers. He fell hard against Pam, who lost her balance. She reached instinctively toward Jim, but only managed to grab the coat, which she took with her as she went sprawling onto the floor. The cameraman apologized, helped her up, and then returned to pursuing Angela and Dwight, who were now facing the entire staff and both cameras as though they were facing a firing squad.
After checking that Pam seemed unhurt, Jim too turned his attention to his coworkers. Jim noticed that Angela was very pale, but otherwise the two of them looked pretty content, if embarrassed. Dwight finally spoke up. "Yes, Kelly is correct. Angela has consented to become my wife. We've just come from the courthouse. It was a private ceremony. We will be having a small reception in a few weeks, and some of you may be invited."
Angela actually smiled at the camera. "Dwight finally understood why I was so upset with him. When he thought I might die in the chemical spill, he realized that he wanted to save me, even if letting me succumb to poison gas would be the easier course of action. It really put things into perspective for him, and I believe he has truly changed. I think he'll be an excellent husband and father." Her smile flickered away as she continued seriously, "We're going to start trying for a family right away. Also, please note that premature birth is very common in my family."
Nearly everyone rushed forward, talking excitedly, to gossip or to congratulate the newlywed couple. Jim, shocked himself, saw Andy slink out of the room quietly, and he turned to Pam to ask if she thought someone should go check on him. With one look at her, though, any thought of Andy was dashed from his mind. She was pale, and had a stunned expression on her face. "Are you OK?" Jim asked. "Did you hit your head?" He remembered Dwight's concussion, and was already planning his route to take her to the hospital when she looked up at him and held out her hand.
"My head's fine. This...this fell out of the pocket when I fell down," she said. She was holding the small jewelry box that had been hidden in his coat pocket all week. In the fall, it had popped open to expose a small gold ring, crowned with a diamond and two tiny rubies.
"Oh, no. Oh, not here. Pam..." Jim felt sick. He'd come up with a million wonderful, romantic plans for giving her this ring. He had wanted it to be special and dramatic and perfect- not part of the normal Christmas lunacy in the office, overshadowed by the marriage of Dwight and Angela, of all people.
"I had no idea," Pam said softly. "I thought it was probably jewelry, because of the small box, but I didn't think...not yet." She wasn't meeting his eyes, just staring down at the open box in her hand. Jim took her arm gently and steered her out of the conference room toward his desk.
"Is it too soon, Pam? We can wait. You don't even have to answer right away," he said seriously, once things were quiet.
Pam finally looked up. Her eyes were brimming with tears, but she was smiling. It was the most amazing smile he'd ever seen. It was full of love and trust and hope, and Jim suddenly realized that he could do or be anything in the world, if he could make someone like Pam smile like that. "Answer what?" she said. "You haven't asked me anything." Her voice was giddy.
"Dammit, Pam, I didn't want it to be like this," Jim sighed. He took her hand and looked into her eyes. The love shining there made him sure of her answer, and he started to feel giddy himself. "But if you insist...Pam Beesly, I love you and I think we've waited long enough to be together. I want you to be my wife. Will you marry me?"
Pam laughed shakily. "Yes!" she said in an emotional squeak. "Yes, yes, yes!" She threw her arms around his neck for a moment, then pulled back and handed him the box that she was still holding tightly. "Now, put this on me!"
His hands shaking with emotion, Jim slipped the ring onto Pam's finger. It was a perfect fit. "You seriously didn't suspect anything?" he asked.
Pam shook her head, wiping away tears with her right hand while staring at her now-adorned left hand. "No! I thought it was earrings!"
"Earrings? Really?" Jim tilted his head in amusement.
"Yeah. Darryl got Kelly some really, really pretty earrings and I figured you'd seen the same sale!"
"OOOOH, what KIND of EARRINGS?" Kelly's voice pierced the room again.
"Gold rings, Kelly," Pam answered. As Kelly clapped happily and ran off to call Darryl, Pam threw herself into Jim's arms for their first kiss as an engaged couple.
In the conference room behind them, Phyllis had apparently tired of birdsongs and put on Christmas carols.
On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
A partridge in a pear tree.
