*Ring* Ring* * Ring* Ring*

“Agh…….” Jim groaned to himself as he rolled over in bed and clamped the pillow down over his face. There was no way that it was already time to wake up. He got so little sleep as it was that he didn’t need anymore distraction than his own thoughts already were to keep him from getting a few precious hours of sleep.

Then he wonders if it’s only his imagination and wishful hoping that causes him to see pain and sadness in her eyes as he slowly lets go of her hands and walks out of her life. These are the thoughts that have occupied almost every minute and hour of his life, waking and sleeping, since he left Scranton. He almost had succeeded in pushing those thoughts away completely until he received the news that he would be coming back to Scranton….to the memories….to her. He had found someone else. Someone beautiful and smart. Someone that could have any guy she wanted, but for some reason when he asked had said “Yes” instead of “I can’t”. However, it was still someone that no matter how hard he tried to let her, could not seem to fill the emptiness that was in his heart.

He buried his face deeper into his pillow hoping it would help to block out the memory of a blue dress, her beautiful smile, the perfect kiss.

Jim peeked out from under the pillow at the clock on his desk. 3:28...the bright green numbers glared at him from the darkness of his room. “Why the hell am I still awake?” he said out loud. He had 4 hours until he had to get up. Four hours until he had to spend another day acting as though the dark haired girl that was boldly smiling at him from across the room was the one he really wanted to be with. Another day of ignoring the fact that the girl with the bright smile, soft red curls and amazing green eyes was sending shy glances his way. Another day of pretending that his heart didn’t break a little every time he looked at her and was again reminded that he wasn’t with her.

*Ring* *Ring* *Ring* *Ring*

The noise continued. It took Jim a minute to realize that the cheerful ringing sound that he was finding terribly annoying at the moment was coming from the cell phone that was on the table by his bed.

“Why on earth would someone be calling me at this hour?”. Jim hurled the pillow off of his head and groaned as it hit the wall on the opposite side of the room. He leaned over to grab his phone just as the ringing stopped. Jim flipped open the phone and looked at a number that he didn’t recognize flash on the screen.

“Well, this is useless” he thought. Slowly Jim crawled out of bed. It was almost painful to think of getting up and having the prospect of another day at Dunder Mifflin and Dwight and stolen glances loom in front of him. Jim slowly made his way out of his room and down the stairs to the kitchen. The whole house was dark and made him feel even more alone. As he was reaching for a box of cereal from the top of the fridge he heard the faint beeping sound from his phone that signaled he had a voice mail. He flipped open the phone as he began to pour the cereal. He was surprised to hear Phyllis’s voice on the other end.

“Jim? It’s Phyllis. It’s about Pam. There’s been an accident. We are at Mercy Hospital…it’s on Jefferson Ave. Call me when you get this”. But Jim wasn’t going to call Phyllis. He threw on some shoes and a jacket and was already out the door and halfway to his car after the words Pam and accident registered in his head.

He slammed the car into reverse and was already speeding down the street when he realized how badly his hands were shaking. The thought passed through his head that it would have been much safer for him to wake Mark and have him drive to the hospital than for Jim to be driving at this moment. A million thoughts were racing through his head. “Pam…accident...what happened? Who was she with? Roy? Did he do something? Is she okay? Is she hurt? Why can’t I drive any faster? Is she hurt? Why in the HELL didn’t Phyllis give more details? Is it serious? Is she….?” No! He couldn’t even bear to think of the end of that sentence. She had to be okay. Everything had to be fine. Luckily for Jim the roads in Scranton at this hour were pretty much empty so he didn’t have to risk an accident. “Slow down…” he thought. “It’s not going to do any good for you to get into an accident also”. Up ahead Jim spied the sign for Mercy Hospital. He barreled into the parking lot and took the first spot he saw. He was running towards the entrance when he heard someone call out “Jim!!”. He stopped and turned to find the voice. He saw Phyllis and Bob Vance sitting on a bench outside the entrance to the hospital.

“Phyllis! What happened? I got your message. Is she okay? Tell me what happened!” Jim couldn’t remember a time when he had been more frantic. He had to stop and catch his breath. “It’s okay Jim.” Phyllis said calmly putting her arm around him. “Let’s go inside. I’ll explain on the way.” Phyllis, Bob and Jim entered the hospital and headed for the elevator. Once inside Phyllis pushed a button and then turned to look at Jim. “Pam was in a car accident.” Phyllis began. “I guess Roy was taking her home and they got into an argument. Roy wasn’t watching the road and he swerved off the road and hit a tree.” Jim felt like he had been punched in the gut. The image of Pam…sweet, beautiful Pam, in any sort of pain was killing him inside.

“The ambulance arrived not long after. She is pretty banged up.” He began to feel numb as Phyllis continued. “Roy is okay. He just has a few cuts and bruises”. The numb feeling in his gut was instantly replaced with boiling anger. He didn’t give a crap how Roy was doing. Roy did this to her. Roy had had something that Jim wanted more than anything in the world and this is how he treated it. How he always treated it. It had always just been a matter of time until his anger was going to hurt her physically as much has it had emotionally.

“Well I have to see her. I have to talk to her.” Jim said as the elevator stopped. As the door slid open he was stopped by Phyllis’ hand on his arm.

“Jim you can’t talk to her”. Jim froze. “She is in a coma”.