“Here we are…” Pam said opening the front door to her apartment. Jim followed her inside and took their bags right to her room. Pam collapsed on the couch and Jim came to sit next to her pulling her feet into his lap.

“Have I thanked you enough for driving me all the way up here?” Pam asked leaning her head on his shoulder.

“Jim!” Pam said softly slapping his arm.

“What?” Jim asked innocently, a smirk crossing his face.

“Well I just might have to do that.” Pam whispered, raising her eyebrow mischievously.

“All right…” Jim said pumping his fist in the air exaggeratedly.

Pam laughed and then rolled her eyes mockingly, before leaning in and kissing him gently.

“So what are you going to do while I’m at class tomorrow?” she asked nestling her head back against his shoulder.

“You better…” Pam said smiling. They both looked up as the front door opened and Natalee and Aidan walked in.

“Pam!” Natalee said as Pam stood up to give Natalee a hug. “Hey Jim.” She said giving him a quick hug. “What are you guys up to?”

“Yeah, but its okay.” Pam said smiling up at Jim before leaning into him and threading her fingers through his. “So what have you guys been doing?”

“Well…we actually have some big news.” Natalee said sitting in the chair across from the couch.

“What?” Pam asked.

“That’s great you guys! Congratulations.” Pam said.

“Yeah, congratulations. That’s awesome.” Jim added.

“Thanks, we’re excited.” Natalee said smiling up at Aidan. “So what are you guys doing tonight? Want to celebrate with us?”

Pam looked over at Jim and he nodded, “Sure that’d be great.”

“Awesome, let’s change and we’ll go.” Natalee said standing up, and then following Aidan down the hall to her room.

Pam and Jim walked into Pam’s room and the minute she shut the door she felt Jim’s lips on her neck.

“We are supposed to be getting dressed.” Pam said turning around and wrapping her arms around his neck.

“I know…” he said between kisses. “…but you have to get undressed first.”

Pam laughed softly and then pushed him onto the bed, kissing him passionately.

Eventually, they got dressed and went out into the living room.

“You guys ready to go?” Natalee asked, when her and Aidan came back into the living room.

“Yep.” Pam said as Jim helped her on with her coat.

They went to a small Italian bistro a few blocks away for dinner. They sat in the restaurant, eating and laughing for a couple of hours. They talked about Aidan and Natalee’s wedding plans and the art shows. Jim and Aidan talked about sports and Jim asked Aidan about his job. Pam sat quietly for a few minutes, a smile on her face as she watched Jim. He was so good with people, genuinely interested in what they had to say. Jim looked over and saw her watching him. He smiled, gently squeezing her leg under the table before turning back to his conversation with Aidan. Natalee caught Pam’s eye and gave her a sly thumbs up before mouthing, “He’s great!”

Pam smiled brightly, realizing that she was unable to picture what her life had been like before this. She remembered enough to know what it was like when he wasn’t around and she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she never wanted to experience that again. After a few obvious glances from the waiter, they paid the bill and made their way outside. Aidan had to leave early in the morning so Jim and Pam said goodbye and decided to walk for a bit. It was a nice night, with a warm breeze and a surprisingly clear sky. Pam wrapped her arms through Jim’s and leaned into him slightly, resting her head against his bicep as they walked.

Jim just smiled, casting glances down at her every so often, knowing that this is what it meant to be completely and utterly happy. He still couldn’t believe that she was here, in his arms, smiling at him the way he had always dreamed she would. Suddenly he stopped walking and Pam looked up at him inquisitively.

He turned to face her and slowly brought his hands up to gently cup her face. She didn’t say anything, just looked up at him and he could see the love in her eyes. He just whispered, “I love you…” before he bent down, firmly pressing his lips to hers. She wasted no time throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him back. When they finally pulled apart, Pam tightened her grip slightly and pressed her face into his chest. They stood that way for a long time, Jim’s arms wrapped all the way around her waist, cheek resting against her head and Pam with her arms wrapped tightly around him, breathing him in. Jim kissed her one more time before gently wrapping his arm around her shoulders and then continuing down the sidewalk.

When they got back to Pam’s apartment they went immediately into Pam’s bedroom to get ready for bed. Pam sat cross legged on her bed while Jim finished getting dressed. He pulled a t-shirt on over his head and then walked over to the bed stopping in front of Pam. He reached and out pulled her up so she was kneeling in front of him. She put her arms back around him, running her hands across his broad shoulders and over his muscular back. He leaned down and pressed soft kisses in a trail from her lips to her cheek and down to her neck. She sighed happily as she felt him place his hand behind her head and gently lower her back onto the bed. She loved the slight pressure of his body on top of hers, but also loved the fact that he was so gentle and tender with her. He made her feel beautiful and confident in a way that she had never felt before. She traced her hand lightly over his cheek, smiling up at him before pulling him back down to meet his lips with hers.

Pam groaned as the alarm jarred her awake. She hastily reached over and shut off the alarm hoping that it hadn’t woken up Jim. She rolled over and smiled when she saw him. He was lying on his back, one arm stretched over his head. It felt so right to have him here, lying next to her. Despite everything that had happened between them in recent weeks and the pure happiness that Pam was feeling, it was quiet moments like this when she realized how much she loved him and how close she had come to losing him and the familiar feelings of regret and sadness would begin to creep back in. She would see the pain in his eyes when she said “I can’t”, the longing glances that she tried so hard to ignore, the ache in her heart when she walked into the office and found his desk empty. She could feel a lump forming in her throat as she tried to push away those memories, but somehow she couldn’t shake the fear that she would wake up one day and he would realize that all the hurt he had gone through wasn’t really worth it…she wasn’t worth it. She didn’t want to have these thoughts. She had thought that she had proven to herself that she could be okay on her own. She liked the person that she was becoming, but being with Jim made her realize that he just enhanced that. He made her even better and she couldn’t bear the thought of losing that. She was caught up in her thoughts that she hadn’t noticed that he had woken up and was looking at her.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked softly, startling her back to reality.

“Oh...hey…” she said quickly blinking back the tears that had formed in her eyes. “Did you sleep okay?”

“Yeah. Slept great.” Pam could feel Jim searching her face quizzically.

“Good…” Pam said, lightly clearing her throat before meeting his gaze.

“Everything okay?” he asked reaching over and draping his arm lightly across her waist.

Pam smiled and kissed him softly. “Yup…everything is fine.”

Pam could tell by the look on Jim’s face that he didn’t really believe her, but he just pulled her close and kissed her soundly.

Pam lay still for a few minutes, just enjoying the feel of his arms around her, the way he whispered “I love you” into her ear. Then, she begrudgingly sat up and turned to look at him, “I have to go get ready. Did you ever get a hold of your cousin?”

“Yeah….” Jim said sitting up, stretching his legs over the side of the bed. “I’m meeting him at his place around 1:00. Do you still want to meet up for lunch?”

“Of course…” Pam said. “I should have a break around 11:00.”

Pam gave him one last kiss before opening her bedroom door and heading down the hall to the bathroom. She showered and dressed quickly. She went back into the kitchen to see Jim and Natalee sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper, a cup of steaming tea and a place of toast waiting for her.

“Thanks…” she said, lightly running her fingers along the back of Jim’s neck as she sat down next to him. She ate quickly and then giving Jim a hug and kiss goodbye grabbed her bag and followed Natalee out of the apartment.

Pam was sitting at a desk working on some sketches for her final project, when her cell phone rang.

“Hey Kate…” Pam said flipping open her phone and balancing it on her shoulder while she continued to sketch.

“How’s it going?” Kate asked.

“Oh that was sweet…” Kate said.

“Yeah…” Pam said, and then she paused. “Wait…what? When did you talk to him on the phone?”

Kate was silent for a moment, before awkwardly clearing her throat.

“Kate…” Pam pressed a little more firmly.

Kate sighed and then said, “Ok…now Pam…doesn’t get upset. It’s really, really no big deal.”

“What isn’t a big deal?” Pam asked. She set down her sketch book and gripped the phone a little tighter.

“You told him what?” Pam said, hearing her voice rise slightly.

“That’s not the point.” Pam said fighting back the tears that were forming. “The point is that what if you hadn’t called? He wouldn’t have tried again. It wasn’t his own doing.”

“Pam.” Kate said forcefully. “Stop. It’s not even like that at all. He loves you. You love him. Both of you were hurt and apprehensive.”

“I…This just changes things….” Pam said quietly.

“Pam….” Kate said forcefully.

“I have to go. I’ll talk to you later.” Pam said and then she quickly hung up the phone. She really couldn’t figure out why that had upset her so much. All she could think was what if Kate hadn’t of called him. Would he have come to her apartment that Saturday? Would he have kept e-mailing her? Would he have even thought about giving her another chance? All the doubt that Pam had been feeling that morning about her lack of deserving him, hit again with full force. She sat at the desk, staring blankly at the wall until her cell phone ringing again jarred her out of her thoughts. She sighed when she saw that it was Jim. She didn’t want to let this get in the way of how well things were going with them, but she couldn’t stop replaying the conversation with Kate in her head.

“Hello?” She said softly hoping that he wouldn’t be able to hear the sadness in her voice.

“Hey! How are you?” The lightness in his familiar voice made the tears start to prickle in her eyes again.

Jim paused and then said, “Good. When should I come by?”

“Oh….um…okay?” Jim said questioningly.

“Bye.” Pam hung up quickly and immediately regret overwhelmed her. She knew that he knew that something was up and that eventually they would talk about it, but by then the situation would already by more escalated than she wanted it to be. She wanted to call him back, but she stopped when she realized that she didn’t know what to say. She knew deep down that she was probably overreacting, but she couldn’t get the thoughts out of her head. She tried to resume with her sketching, but was unable to concentrate. After twenty minutes of staring at a blank piece of paper she finally decided that sitting here any longer was useless. She threw her books into her bag and slowly walked out of the building.

She was sitting at the kitchen table mindlessly playing Solitaire on her computer when there was a knock at the front door. She quickly hurried over and opened it to reveal Jim standing slightly hunched over with his hands jammed into his pockets.

“Hey…” he said, brow furrowed slightly.

“Hi.” Pam whispered, standing aside so he could come in. She pushed the door shut and then turned to face him. He was standing rigidly by the kitchen table, looking at her expectantly. Pam gave him a small smile, knowing that this was always how it was with them. They knew each other so well that even in a five second phone conversation he knew that things were off and that they needed to talk. It was something that had always impressed her about him. His ability to read her emotions was astounding to her. He knew when she was upset or mad. He knew when it was something that a joke or good prank would fix or when all she needed from him was a smile. He had always been like that and it was one of the reasons why she had always felt so safe with him. It was almost as if that at times he knew her better than she knew herself.

“How was hanging out with your cousin?” she asked going towards the couch. She felt his eyes follow her as she sat down, but he made no move to sit next to her.

“It was fine.” He said his voice even and calm, but she could see the spark in his eyes that made her know that he was waiting for an explanation.

“Good.” Pam took a deep breath and finally held his gaze. “Can we talk?”

“Sure…” he said taking a few steps towards her, waiting for her to speak.

“I talked to my sister today.” Pam began and then she stopped, suddenly very aware of how lame this whole thing was going to sound.

Jim looked at her with a look of slight bewilderment on his face. He opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it.

“Can you sit down?” She asked gesturing to the couch. Jim slowly moved forward and sat on the edge of the couch. “Ok…here’s the thing.” Pam started again. “I talked to my sister…and she told me that she talked to you…before you came up here that Saturday.”

Jim’s eyes widened slightly when she said that. “Yeah…she did.” He said leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees.

“Honestly?” Jim asked. “I hadn’t really thought about it. I didn’t think that it mattered.”

“Didn’t think that it mattered?” Pam said, her voice rising slightly. “Of course it matters.”

“Why?” Jim said running a hand through his hair.

“Because….it just…matters.” Pam mumbled. Jim looked over at her, a look of genuine concern on his face. He slid over a bit closer to her.

“Things were going great…are going great.” Pam corrected. “This is nothing…it’s stupid.”

“Pam…if it’s how your feeling it’s anything but stupid.” Jim reached over and placed a hand lightly on her knee. “Come on…”

Pam looked down at her hands that were twisted together in her lap. She knew that she had to be honest with him. He deserved that from her. She sighed softly and then placed her hand over the top of his.

Jim looked slightly confused, but let her continue.

“I just sometimes can’t help but think that I really don’t deserve this…I don’t deserve you.” Pam swallowed the lump in her throat; unable to meet his gaze for fear that she would lose her nerve. “When Kate told me that she had called you, it was almost like my fears had come true. What if she hadn’t of called you Jim? Would you have come here? Would you of tried again? I guess in all honesty I should be glad that she called you…it’s just….I don’t know. This isn’t making much sense.”

Jim waited a moment and then cleared his throat. “First of all Pam, don’t ever…ever think that you don’t “deserve” me. The things that happened between us were not all your fault. I have plenty of the blame in this. I bombarded you with…all of that and then I just left when you didn’t immediately respond the way I wanted you too. I thought that if I made a clean break then it would be easy to move on…to let you go.” Jim paused. “It didn’t work. I never fell out of love with you Pam. I just didn’t know how to come back to it…to you. I always held onto the knowledge that you kissed me back…on Casino night. I felt it, but I needed to see it from you. Yes, it was your sister called me, but all that means to me is that you loved me enough to let me go because you thought that’s what I wanted. I came here that day because her phone call gave me the small bit of hope to try again. It was just the kick start.”

Pam smiled, but then blurted out, “But what if she hadn’t of called you?”

Jim squeezed her hand softly and then said, “I don’t know Pam. But does it really matter? We are together now, because we want to be. Because we love each other. Maybe that’s all that matters.”

Pam nodded. She knew he was right. Questioning the unknown wasn’t going to help anything. She knew that he loved her and she loved him and that was enough. “I’m sorry that I got upset.”

Jim wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “Pam…don’t ever apologize for how you feel. Seriously. We’ll always work it out…together.” He turned his head to press a soft kiss against the side of her head. She sighed contentedly as she draped her arm across his stomach, tracing her fingers lightly across the hem of his shirt. They were sitting quietly, wrapped in each others arms when Jim’s cell phone started to ring. He loosened his hold on Pam slightly to dig his phone out of his pocket.

“Hello?” he said flipping the phone open.

Pam looked at him curiously as he stood up and walked into the kitchen. She leaned forward slightly so she could see him, pacing back and forth, one hand shoved into his pocket.

“Okay….yeah….sure. That sounds great. See you then.” Pam heard him say. She watched him hang up the phone and then saw his shoulders rise and fall as he took a deep breath before turning back to her.

“Who was that?” she asked immediately clasping his hand in hers as he sat back down on the couch next to her. He was quiet for a few moments. Pam turned to look at him, concern furrowing her brow. “Is everything okay?”

Jim turned to look at her. “He wants me to come in for an interview.”

Jim blushed slightly and kissed Pam’s temple. “I’m not sure anything will come of it, but I couldn’t say no.” He paused and then said, “Crap. What happens if I get it?”

“Then we figure it out…together. Remember? You told me that before? If you get this job and it’s something that you want to do, then we will figure it out.” Pam smiled and leaned her head against his chest.

“Well what’s not to love?” she said snuggling deeper against him. Jim rubbed his hand lazily up and down her arm and she sighed happily.

Pam woke up around eight. Jim had had to borrow some clothes of Aidan's that Natalee had in her closet for his interview. Pam grabbed the blue shirt and black pants and took them out into the living room to iron them. She smiled to herself as she worked, loving how right it felt to be ironing his clothes. After the clothes were ironed she set to work making some breakfast. She was so busy focusing on not burning the omelet that she didn’t hear the door to her bedroom open and Jim come up behind her. He slid his arms gently around her waist and pressed a soft kiss against her neck.

“Good morning…” he whispered into her ear in the deep, husky voice that made her shiver.

“Hi…” she said taking the pan off the burner and turning in his arms so she could wrap her arms around his neck. He rested his forehead against hers for a moment before kissing the tip of her nose and then making a trail of kisses from her nose, to her cheek, to the sensitive spot behind her earlobe.

“Breakfast is ready…” she murmured tilting her head slightly. She felt him grin against her neck as he continued to brush his lips from her ear to her neck and back.

“You’re going to have to stop doing that if you are going to make it to your interview on time.” She said after a few minutes.

“That’s a risk I am willing to take.” He said tightening his arms around her waist. Pam smiled happily as she ran her fingers gently through his hair.

Jim sighed exaggeratedly and then rubbed the scruff on his face against her cheek making her laugh. “Fine…but I am holding you to that.” He kissed her once more and then sat down at the kitchen table. Pam put the omelet on a plate and set it in front of him, along with a cup of coffee. She was about to turn back to the stove when she felt Jim’s fingers close around her wrist. She looked down at him and her breath caught in her throat at the look that was in his eyes.

“What?” she asked softly.

“You know what I mean Pam. This is everything I’ve ever…” Pam could have sworn that his eyes had started to glisten, but he just smiled and said, “Thank you.”

Pam leaned over and cupping his face in her hand kissed him firmly and said, “I love you too.”

After they ate Jim hurried to take a shower and then got dressed. He stood in front of Pam as she straightened his tie.

“You look great!” she said smoothing his tie over his chest. “Good luck. You’re going to be amazing.”

“Pretty lame Jim…pretty lame.” She shook her head in mock disappointment.

“Thank you. That helps a lot.”

“Whatever I can do.” She said with a smile. “You’ll call me when you’re done right?”

“I guess…” he said. He bent down to kiss her quickly and then waved as he walked out the front door.

Pam cleaned up from breakfast, took a shower, got dressed and then headed to the museum.

“Hey!” she said setting her bag on a table and sitting down next to Natalee. “How was your long weekend in Boston?”

“Oh my gosh! Of course! I would love too!” Pam said happily.

“Yea! I am so glad.” Natalee said giving Pam a quick hug. “So what have you and Jim been up to?”

“I will definitely. So what are you thinking for colors for the…” Pam started before she was interrupted by the art director’s secretary coming into the room.

Pam shot Natalee a confused look before following the secretary to the elevator. Twenty minutes later she left the art directors office and went back down to the basement room where Natalee was waiting.

“What happened?” Natalee asked the minute she walked in.

Pam stared at her, slightly stunned for a moment. “She offered me a job.” She finally managed to squeak out.

“What?! Pam! That’s amazing!” Natalee ran to Pam and threw her arms around her. “What’s the job?”

“She wants me to be a part of the new marketing team, helping with the design of the graphics for promotional fliers and the website.” Pam took a deep breath.

“That is totally fantastic! You will be awesome at that.” Natalee took a step back. “What’s wrong? You don’t look that excited.”

“What is there to think about?” Natalee said quickly, before the realization sunk in and she muttered, “Oh….Jim.”

Pam smiled weakly and nodded before turning back to her checklist.

Jim sat in the reception area of the Dunder Mifflin corporate offices his fingers nervously tapping against the arm rest of the chair. David Wallace had been very vague on the phone and so he wasn’t sure what to expect from this interview. He was quietly flipping through his sales portfolio that Phyllis had faxed over to him, when the door to the office opened.

His head jerked up quickly and his eyes widened slowly when he saw who was standing in front of him.