"You're quiet..." Pam said dropping her purse down on Jim's couch as she walked around it.

He'd been quiet the entire drive home. Sure it was late, and they were both tired, but it wasn't like him not to want to debrief about the day.  Especially with the kind of day they'd had. The kind of night...How could you not want to talk about Toby for God's sake?

"Am I?" Jim asked, blandly.

"Yeah...the whole ride home," Pam said taking off her jacket then, busying her self with little tasks. It wasn't just the quiet.  There was definitely this...tension.

Jim shook his head slowly, pulling off his own coat, pursing his lips a little.  "It was just a...long night."

"Yeah," Pam said sitting down on the couch.  She watched as Jim walked into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, lingered there bent in front of it with one hand pressed up against the freezer.

"Want a beer?" He asked without looking back at her.

"No thanks..." She said, watching as he stood up. "You sure you're ok?"

"Yeah...No, I'm good."

He most assuredly wasn't ‘good', she knew that. But this was the point at which he'd clam up.  The point in which she started having trouble reading him...

He popped off the top of the beer bottle in the kitchen, then sighed as he walked back into the living room, slumping down on the couch next to her.  A long pull from the bottle came next, as he crossed his ankles on top of the coffee table.

It had been a really long day, and she felt like resting her head against his chest...feeling his fingers glide through her hair...but she wasn't sure...

She knew of course that he wouldn't outright reject her show of affection, but what she really wanted was a peak inside the inner workings of his brain now and again. Like when something was really bothering him...if he would just...say it for God's sake...

Instead, Pam cleared her throat and made conversation. "So...do you think Michael's gonna be mad when we don't all show up tomorrow morning?"

He looked straight ahead, his eyes trained on what?  The clock on the DVD player. "I don't really care."

Pam shrugged. "I know...I was just asking.  I just think he's gonna be really disappointed."

Jim turned to her, his expression some hybrid of a frown and a smile. "I'm sorry...did I like ruin Michael's morning or something?  Like you and Michael had some big scrambled egg plan that I'm not aware of or..."

"What?" Pam said, her brow morphing into a frown then. "What does that even mean?"

"Nothing."

"You're really like...snarky tonight."

"You just said I've been quiet...I can't very well be snarky and quiet, Pam."

"Well that's interesting, seeing as you are...and yeah because I'm pretty sure I just realized that that's your particular way of being snarky.  You don't yell, you don't get loud...you just get...quiet...and snarky."

He dipped his head and then let it fall against the back of the couch. "I'm sorry," he said a moment later, finding her eyes. "I just...Do you really want to talk about this?"

"Yes, for the love of God."

"I felt like you coulda helped me out a little more tonight."

Woah, holy blurtations Batman!

Pam sat back against the couch. Opened her mouth, closed it again when she realized she had no idea what she was about to say. She had not expected that.

"What?" She asked finally.

"Hank?...His number?...Obviously you knew the guy's name Pam...If you had the number to the -

"Oh I'm sorry!  I didn't know his name at all or believe me I would have told you before you made an ass out of yourself. All I had was the number to the desk in front...like I said."

Jim leaned back then too, mouth falling open, brows leaping to the top of his hairline.  "Seriously?"

"Seriously!"

Jim grabbed his beer from the coffee table, got up and walked back into the kitchen.

What the hell?  Pam got up and followed him into the kitchen. "Oh, Jim...I don't think you're done with this argument..."

He licked his lips and leaned against the fridge, shrugged one shoulder. "Um...no...pretty sure I am."

"Pretty sure we aren't..."

Silence. Crickets.

This was how they argued, Jim thought. It was just slightly short of ridiculous.  Going around in these circles...They argued like they did everything else, a little bit tongue in cheek, a little bit cutting...He was still just now getting used to it.

They'd gone a couple of months without any fighting at all, and then suddenly they started actually talking about the past and WOAH

As if having an out of body experience, Jim looked down at himself.  He was leaning away from her, his arm crossed over his chest. But the truth was, he wasn't even mad at her.  At least he didn't think he was...and if he was he didn't really have a right to be. She hadn't done anything to warrant him being pissed other than not bail him out...Which was just...

He'd messed up...He'd messed up and embarrassed himself and he really didn't like messing up or embarrassing himself. His pride was a little hurt and he liked that even less. "I don't really want to talk about this anymore," Jim said taking a drink. 

Part of why he'd gone so long without making any contact with Pam after his infamous declaration of love was because he'd been embarrassed for being so freaking candid and not having those feelings returned.  But now there was nowhere to go...now when his first instinct was to withdraw, run away and lick his wounds...there was nowhere to go.  He was here. He was committed. He was in this.

Because God help him she was worth, every single second of their stupid little fights.  She made learning how to suck it up and be a man worth everything.

"I didn't have his phone number...I'm not really sure why you thought...I did."

He licked his lips again, shook his head.... Started to apologize again. "Listen...I'm not really...This isn't really about you.  I'm sorry for being an ass, but I just....I'm sorry," he said again.

She shifted from foot to foot, he could tell she thought about letting it go...but then changed her mind. Fancy New Beesly...

"Well...ok...you're sorry, but...I don't understand why you're so upset about tonight."

Jim sighed. "Because tonight was crap!" He said finally. "First, I decide to make everyone stay late - which apparently has ruined Michael's existence -

"Woah -

"Then I forgot to tell the nameless, African-American security guard that we're staying late, then don't have the phone number to call said security guard...all of this only to find out that here's Toby to save the day with the phone number...oh and what else? Oh yeah Toby likes to sexually harass my girlfriend right in front of me....Stellar night."

Pam laughed then, in spite of herself. In spite of how bitter he was.  Soon he was standing there, grinning and then shaking his head at his shoes.

"Would you have rather he did that behind you're back? You said ‘in front of you'...maybe I can Toby and have him arrange to do it behind your back..."

"Shut up."

Pam looked down at her shoes too for a moment and then they both looked up at once. "If it makes you feel any better, I think I felt more harassed by that picture of Dwight with his tongue down some girl's throat."

Jim smiled. "Both Pam. I am equally disturbed by both."

"At least you didn't almost send Meredith to the hospital...again," Pam said softly. He still looked bugged. "Jim...seriously, tonight was no big deal."

"Pam...literally every single time I'm in charge...it's horrible."

Pam sighed and rolled her eyes as she moved close to him, leaned against his chest. He was sandwiched between her warmth and the refrigerator.

She was exactly what he needed.

"You know Jim...you really fucked up tonight."

His mouth fell open, and then he grinned back at her, mirroring the same wide grin she wore.

Yeah, exactly what he needed.

"Listen...Jim...You have to like stop.  Ok...so every now and then, you're not all ‘Hi, I'm Jim Halpert and I'm so charming and I'm literally the best at everything."

"Except ping-pong and being a manager," He mumbled under his breath.

Pam groaned and looked up at the ceiling.  When she found his eyes again she adopted another dramatic air. "Listen...sometimes when you're charming - I can't stand you...I think you should really mess up more often."

 He grinned down at her, his mouth close to hers. "Really? You can't stand it?"

"Well...sometimes," she said in a flirty kind of way, pulling his beer away from him, and having a long sip of it.

He licked his lips as he watched her. When she pulled the bottle away he replaced it with his mouth.  They kissed that way, standing there in the kitchen for a long time.

"I think Michael calls that guy, Henry by the way."

He shook his head and she giggled at him, wrapping her arms more tightly around his waist. He pulled back, suddenly stricken. "Damnit! I forgot to call Hank and tell him we got out!"

She started laughing, really hard.  She backed up and doubled over.

"Stop...no...it's totally not funny......"

Between episodes of laughter, "Just...call....just call him...."

"No! I'm not gonna call him now, Pam!"

She was still giggling. He started to leave the kitchen and she grabbed his wrist, tugging on it. "Come back...come back...I'm sorry....Ok...So..." He stood there, waiting, as if daring her to say something that could possibly make him stay and take this abuse. She took a deep breath and got herself under control. "So...you weren't the best at being the boss....but there are worse things right?  And it's not like you've ever wanted to be the boss of Dunder-Mifflin anyway....right?"

He shook his head, shrugged. "Who the hell even knows."

Ok, well that was new. She sobered up instantly, her hand sliding down his wrist and into his hand. Their fingers linked. "Seriously?"

"I..." he shrugged. "I honestly don't know and I'm not trying to be evasive...I just...don't know," he said again. "Can we...not? Just not tonight?...There are a couple of life decisions that I'm absolutely sure about...this job thing...it's just not one of them and I'm not sure when it will be."

She nodded.  Jim, saying he didn't know was a lot better than Jim not saying anything at all.  "Ok."

He looked so sad though. She didn't want them to go to bed this way. He needed a bit of cheering. "Ok...but what if -

"Pam...come on -

"No! Listen, I have a great idea. Because I'm a great idea expert."

He sighed. "Go."

"Are you ready for this?......Tonight...I'm going to let you practice being the boss of your receptionist," she said swinging their hands back and forth between them.

He lifted an eyebrow. "What?"

"This offer is for a limited time only.  For a limited time, you Jim Halpert can be the boss of sex."

His eyebrows lifted even higher as she started to pull him out of the kitchen and back towards his bedroom. "A little bit like the boss of dancing..."

"Better pay."

"Better benefits...No, Pam I think...you know it sounds like a tough job but -

"Hard job," Pam corrected, grinning.

"Shut up...You're worse than Michael"

She frowned. "You've done this with Michael? Is that how you got to be number 2?"

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