Jim knotted his tie and adjusted his collar around the looped material. It was his favorite one and he felt he needed a little bit of luck today. It was Monday and he was back in Scranton, getting ready for his first day back at Dunder Mifflin  He felt nervous, like it was the first day of school and he was seeing his friends for the first time since spring. Would he still be the cool kid on campus? Would his friends still treat him the same? Would the pretty girl he had a crush on notice he was alive?

Jim snapped out of his pathetic reverie. It wasn’t high school. He wasn’t a kid and this wasn’t a reunion. It was work and he was going to treat it like such, for the first time in his life. No more trips to reception for a handful of candy beans, no more conference room amusements, no more break room games of jinx. He was going to take his job seriously because that’s what he came back for. Not for anything or anyone, but for the money, the position, the advancement in her career. He was going to make something of himself, even if it killed him.

He thought of his father’s heart attack three years ago from job related stress and runs to the fast food joint in between meetings and worried that it might actually do just that.

Jim got into his new car, paid for by Dunder Mifflin as a thank you for agreeing to return to Scranton to take on a job described behind closed doors as ‘unsavory’ and pulled out of his drive. He had rented a small house on the edge of town until something more permanent made itself available. Mark had moved in with his girlfriend and he refused to live at home with his parents, so Jim was once again living alone. And surprisingly, he enjoyed it. He liked the quaint yard that came with a bird feeder in back and porch swing that was left behind by the last tenant. It was quiet and comfy and felt like a new beginning.

They had decided to meet that morning at the Denny’s near the highway for a quick breakfast and a much needed run-down on all the employees she was set to meet at Dunder Mifflin that day. Jim found that to be an agreeable task and found himself to be smiling when he walked inside the diner and found her grinning at him inside a booth in the corner.

“Good morning,” Jim greeted, sliding into the other side of the booth.

“Good morning to you too,” she beamed. “You look great. I like that tie. Its vintage looking.”

Jim frowned, holding up the end of his brown tie. “Vintage? Its only two years old.”

Karen laughed. “It looks like a hand-me-down from your grandfather. Look, its fraying on the ends.”

“I wear it a lot,” Jim defended, half serious. “It’s my lucky tie.”

Karen’s brows raised. “Ooh. I didn’t know you needed luck.”

“I don’t. I’m wearing it for you. You’ve never met Michael Scott.”

Karen sat up straighter. “No, I haven’t. Which is why you’re here. Now give me the run down. How crazy is he? Cause I’ve heard stories but there is just no way…no way that he can be that bad.”

“Oh but he can,” Jim replied ruefully. “Tell me what you’ve heard and I’ll let you know if its fact or fiction.”

“Okay. Is it true that he tried to form a union with the warehouse workers?”

“That is fact. Yeah, that was actually an interesting day. Jan had insisted on having a meeting with just the women of the office to talk about their hopes and dreams-“

“Oh yeah, we had that,” Karen interrupted. “She just asked us what we wanted to do with our lives. I was thinking…uh, what do you think, lady?” She laughed. “Why would I be working in sales if I didn’t want to do sales?”

Jim cocked his head to the side, blinking rapidly. “Yeah. I know, right?” His words sounded hollow. “Anyways, Michael took great offense to this and started his own meeting with just the guys. He took us down to the warehouse for some male bonding. Issues of pay came up and one of the foreman started talking about a union, and so to fit in, Michael agreed to bring it up to Jan, who firmly shot it down like that.” Jim snapped his fingers.

“Wow. Okay. What about…the blow up doll. Tell me that’s not true.”

“Oh that’s very much fact. It was part of a sexual harassment awareness thing Toby was forced to do that Michael took over.”

“Did he really cause someone to drown during a motivational seminar?”

“That is fiction,” Jim said. “Yeah, a man jumped off the ship because Michael said it was sinking. But he didn’t drown. He came down with hypothermia, I believe. But he didn’t drown.”

Karen shook her head. “I used to hear those stories and tell people that they couldn’t pay me to work here. And now look at me.” She smiled over at him, her eyes shining.

Jim shifted uncomfortably. “Now you’re part of the madhouse.”

“We'll see about that. Okay, who else is there?”

Over the next thirty minutes, Jim gave her the brief rundown on nearly everyone in the office, from the bizarre (Creed) to the sickeningly sweet (Phyllis) to the downright crazy (Kelly). When he was finished, Karen looked a cross between curious and overwhelmed.

“And there you have it. Dunder Mifflin Scranton.” Jim splayed his hands out on the table and gave her a lopsided shrug.

“You forgot the most important person!” Karen reminded him.

“Who's that?”

“The person who holds the key to every office. The receptionist. Please tell me she’s normal. We had one back in Stamford before you got there that thought she was a witch. I’m not kidding. She wore this vial of blood around her neck, like she was Angelina Jolie or something.”

“Oh. Right.” Jim suddenly found his nails fascinating. “You already met her. At the airport. Pam?”

Karen’s expression turns dour. “The girl at the airport? That’s her? I know you said she worked with you, but I figured she worked in like…accounting or something.” Her tone dripped with disdain.

“No. Nope. That was her.”

She leaned forward with a dubious look on her face. “I meant to ask you about all that. That was weird, right? Her showing up like that instead of the woman you told me about? And the way she kept looking at me, like I had three heads or something?”

Jim cleared his throat, uneasy. “No, Pam, she just…Phyllis couldn’t make it and Pam wasn’t sure…Um, no Pam is pretty cool. She is practically the only other sane person around that place. We, uh, we were pretty good friends.”

“Were friends?” Karen pounced, oblivious to his discomfort.

“We still are,” Jim corrected hastily, his eyes darting around before finally settling again on Karen’s face. “We just didn’t really keep in touch while I was gone, so it was kind of awkward seeing her like that.”

“Well.” Karen sat back with her arms folded. “If I didn’t know she was married, I’d think she had a crush on you.” She smirked teasingly while she reached over and rubbed his hand.

Jim felt the knife twist just a little deeper.

“You ready?”

Jim nodded, not trusting himself to speak. He left a wad of bills on the table and walked behind Karen out the doors. He felt his anxiety spread with each step he took, as though he were walking the Dead Man’s Walk.

At this point, being put out of his misery sounded like sweet release.

***

Pam curled the last strand of hair and placed it delicately over her shoulder. It was finally Monday. She didn’t think it would ever get here.

She had taken extra care in her appearance that morning, even going through great lengths to wake up earlier than normal, straighten her hair to erase the uncontrollable curls and then re-curl fat waves back in. It was a tedious process, but with every passing minute, she knew it would bring her closer to seeing Jim again.

It was as though she’d erased the last memory she had of him, deciding instead to conjure up a moment where they’d parted on good terms instead of her stalking off into the night after being rejected of the friendship she had so taken for granted. If she thought about that night, if she thought about the expression of pure pain that covered his features when she told him she missed him, she would have no choice but to crawl into a hole and die.

Being positive and firmly in denial was much more productive.

She didn’t know why he had decided to come back to Scranton, but that didn’t matter to her now. All that mattered was that through some sort of miracle, he was back. She had anther chance to make things right.

Pam got to work a little early that morning. As part of the Party Planning Committee, she offered to be the one to set up the tables and chairs for the Integration Celebration Michael had orchestrated for that afternoon. She pulled into the Dunder Mifflin parking lot and audibly groaned at the sight of Roy’s truck already there, lights on, exhaust puffing.

She got out of the car and counted the seconds until she heard his voice calling out for her.

“Pam. Pammy, wait up!”

She turned around and watched his face register in surprise.

“Wow, Pam. You look…Did you do something different to your hair?”

“I just had a little extra time on my hands this morning, so I thought I’d play with it.” She fingered her curls self-consciously.

“Well it looks…wow.”

“Thank you.” She kept her tone formal and polite, not wanting to give him any reason to jump to conclusions.

“I wanted to talk to you about Christmas. Are we still planning on going to my folks? Or are your parents coming back? I know they said they might go to your brother’s in Jersey, but either way, let them know they are welcome at Mom and Dad’s.”

Pam swallowed hard. “Christmas? Roy…I…”

His face fell. “What? We’re still having Christmas together, right?”

Her head shook slightly, almost imperceptively. “I don’t-“

“Pam, come on. You can’t do this to me.”

“I’m not trying to hurt you, Roy. But surely you’re parents understand we’re going through a separation right now. I doubt that they’d even want me there.”

“Of course they want you there,” Roy protested, his voice growing more heated. “You’re family.”

Pam blinked. “Roy. Do they know? Have you told them that I moved out? That we’re separated?”

Roy clenched his jaw and stared at the ground. Pam let out a deep breath.

“Roy.”

“I can’t tell them, Pammy. I just can’t. They’ve been married for thirty years. How can I tell them that I failed?”

Pam’s heart ached with shame. “You didn’t fail.”

“Yes I did. You left me. Whatever we have isn’t enough.” He leveled her words back to her in accusation.

She buried her face in her hands, exhaling loudly. “I’ve made such a mess out of things,” she murmured. “If I would have just…done this sooner.”

“Sooner?” Roy’s voice cracked. “How would that have helped? Our marriage would still be…wait.”

Pam’s heart stopped and she felt a hot flush rush down her body. She dared to look up at his face, which was slowly hardening in realization.

“Wait a minute. Wait a god damn minute, Pam. What the hell are you saying? You had these kind of thoughts before the wedding?”

“I had cold feet,” Pam tried to explain, her voice reaching a higher pitch of panic. “I thought it was just nerves. But they never went away.”

The sounds of two car door slamming cut off his reply. Roy turned to see who was coming up the walk and he moved closer to Pam.

“Halpert. Welcome back.”

Pam closed her eyes and wanted to sink to the ground. Roy put his arm around her shoulders and stuck out his hand in way of greeting. When Pam opened her eyes, she saw Jim approaching, his expression guarded, with Karen at his side.

Jim reluctantly shook Roy’s hand, glancing briefly in Pam’s direction. She tried to read his eyes but his wall was built high.

“Hi. I’m Karen.” She pumped Roy’s hand professionally three times, a questioning look adorning her face.

“Roy Anderson. I’m Pam’s husband.” The emphasis was not lost on Pam nor Jim, both assuming the significance placed was for themselves.

Karen turned her smile to Pam. “Pam. Nice to see you again.”

Roy was confused. “Again?"

Pam’s breath was strangled in her throat.

“Yeah. Pam picked Jim and me up from the airport over Thanksgiving.”

Jim watched as Pam squirmed under Roy’s baffled stare. “When was that?”

“We’re gonna head inside,” Jim spoke up, nudging Karen with his elbow. “Good to, uh, see you again Roy. Pam.”

Pam nodded, keeping her eyes straight ahead as they walked by. She tried to wait until they were gone but when she turned around to face Roy, she caught the metal doors of the elevator sliding closed and Karen’s small hand comfortably enclosed within Jim’s larger one. Blood rushed to her ears. In all the way she imagined this day going, that was not on her list. So much for optimism and denial.

Roy was talking and Pam felt herself bubbling up with annoyance.

“When was that?” he had repeated.

“Phyllis couldn’t make it to pick them up,” she stated plainly as though it cleared up everything. “I have to go, Roy.”

“Wait. When are we going to finish talking? Don’t you think we hit on some pretty important stuff before?"

Pam shook her head, her mind filled with slim fingers and squeezing hands and sweaty palms. “Not today. Later, though. Okay?” She was being so unfair and so needlessly cruel. What was the matter with her? He just wanted some answers. He deserved that.

“Pam. Please.”

“I’ll call you.” She hurried through the lobby and pressed the arrow hard, over and over and over again until it opened. The weak smile she offered to Roy as he watched her go wasn’t enough to push the dazed expression off his face.

***

Pam shook another strangers hand, the same tight smile fixed to her lips. “Pam Beesley. I’m the receptionist. Nice to meet you.”

“Andrew Bernard. I’m the salesman. Nice to meet you.”

He kept talking and her eyes began to wander. They found Jim as he was talking to Kevin and Oscar. He was laughing, a strained laugh that was all too familiar. She saw him politely excuse himself and stride quickly into the break room. This was her chance.

“It was nice to meet you,” she repeated and cut him off in mid-ramble. Something about the cornet or getting in trouble. She really didn’t care. Her feet moved as if of their own volition and she soon found herself only mere feet away from him. He heard someone behind him and didn’t have to turn around to know who it was.

“Do you realize who you were talking to back there?”

Pam faltered. She hadn’t been expecting direct communication. “Who? Andrew?”

Jim turned with a half smirk. “That’s the one I told you about.”

She felt the weight start to lift ever so slightly off her shoulders. “The one who kicks trash cans?”

He nodded, holding his bottle of water so tightly, his knuckles were turning white. “The one and only.”

“Thanks for the heads up.”

“No problem.” He threw her a quick smile and started to shuffle past her when she spoke up.

“Jim?”

He hesitated and she heard the breath catch in his throat. He didn’t reply but he was listening and that was all she needed.

“I was wondering…if you wanted to get coffee later. With me. Please.”

Her last word warbled ever so slightly and was filled with enough fear that Jim knew her asking took more guts than he figured she was capable of.

"Okay."