And that was when the phone rang.

Pam just stood there for a second, still trying to process that there was an actual fairytale prince in her office, that he had come here looking for Katy, and that this meant everything Katy had said was really true. Or, alternatively, there was another delusional psychopath in her life, who had come looking for the other delusional psychopath that had recently come into it, and both of them were equally confused as to their own whereabouts and mental state. Either conclusion was a little hard to take in, but somehow, looking at Jim, Pam couldn't help but think that the former was probably the right conclusion to make. Incredible as it all sounded, there was something about Jim that just seemed so... normal. He might be dressed a little strangely and there was still the matter of that sword he was carrying at his side, but beneath all that he was just a regular guy.

"Uh, Pam? Are you gonna get that?" Michael asked.

"Huh? Oh." She grabbed the phone. "Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam." She sat back down in her chair and tried to pay attention to the voice on the phone, but it was difficult not to be distracted by Jim's conversation with Michael and Dwight. The rest of the office seemed to have gotten over their initial curiosity, but Michael and Dwight were now asking Jim a series of questions and he was answering them politely. Every so often Jim glanced in her direction, and she knew he probably would have left by now had it not been for her comment about knowing who he was looking for.

By the time she got off the phone, Michael had actually taken Jim and Dwight into his office and shut the door. She knocked and Michael told her to come in, but when she asked what was going on he quickly dismissed her with some mundane task that she knew didn't really need to be done until next week anyway.

Half an hour later Jim walked out of Michael's office and over to the desk next to Dwight's that had been vacant for the last several months since Michael had banished Ryan to the annex for refusing to take part in a skit he'd planned for the dundies that year. Michael and Ryan's relationship had been a bit strained ever since.

Michael and Dwight were right behind Jim. "Okay," Michael was saying, "now don't get nervous, you know? Just let the whole thing be natural. Let it come from within. From deep down in your soul."

Pam knew this couldn't be good.

"Forget it, Michael. He doesn't know what he's doing."

"Just, just give him a chance, Dwight. I told you, I have a sense about these things."

"Michael, what's going on?" Pam asked, coming over to join them as Jim sat down at the desk.

"Well, Pam, Jim here has just been hired as our newest temp, and I think he is going to do a fantastic job."

"What? But... Michael, he's not... I mean, you're not staying are you?" she asked, turning to Jim.

"Uh, I actually don't really know."

"Oh," Pam responded, taken aback. "I... sorry, I guess I just thought that once you found Katy you guys would just go back to uh, what's it called."

"Yeah, I mean, we probably will, but... well, it's kind of complicated and I thought that maybe it would be a good idea for me to find some way to, you know, make some money while I'm here at least."

"Oh, right, yeah. Yeah, that makes sense." Well, as much as any of this makes sense, Pam thought to herself.

"Okay, Pam, now that we have your approval." Dwight's sarcasm was almost as annoying as his Nazi-like monitoring of her break time. "The important thing to do at this moment is to determine whether Jim here is really up for the job. And personally, I doubt it."

Pam's eyebrows rose. It was easy to get on Dwight's bad side, but she wasn't sure she'd ever seen anyone do it this quickly before.

"So here's the number," Michael said, handing Jim a post-it with a phone number on it. "You just call and ask them if they'd like to order some paper. Simple as that."

"It is not that simple," Dwight contradicted.

"Wait, what?" Pam was beginning to wonder who of the four of them was most confused right now. "I thought you said he was a temp? He's making sales calls?"

"It's a test," said Dwight.

"An initiation of sorts," Michael added.

"Um, excuse me, guys, but would someone mind telling me what I'm supposed to do with this?" Jim looked up at them holding the post-it in one hand and the phone receiver upside down in the other.

"You just dial, you idiot." Dwight looked at Jim like Jim was deliberately acting clueless as some kind of practical joke on his new coworker.

"I... which dial?" Jim asked. "All I see is numbers."

Of course. Pam almost laughed aloud when it hit her. Jim didn't know what a phone was. He was from fairy-book-landia, after all. Their version of a sales call was probably hollering across the marketplace or traipsing through town with a caravan.

"Okay, um, I'm sorry to have to do this, but I think Jim and I need to go somewhere and talk. In fact, I'm gonna take him to find that girl he was looking for. She's the one who was here the other day. You guys remember Katy, right?"

"You mean my girlfriend Katy?"

"Girlfriend?" Jim's looked at Michael confused.

"Oh, right. Her." Dwight said. "But what about Jim's initiation into sales?"

"It'll have to wait," Pam grabbed Jim's hand and pulled him back up out of his chair. "I'm taking my lunch now," she said, grabbing her keys, purse, and coat.

"Fine. But I want you and Jim back here soon so he can..." Michael's voice got fainter as they walked out the door and down the hallway toward the elevator.

Jim pushed the button and seemed pleased when it lit up.

"How'd you learn how to work the elevator?" Pam asked, smiling at his enthusiasm.

"Your security guard downstairs showed me."

"Oh, yeah?"

"He's the one who told me he'd seen Katy, too."

"Right. Katy."

"So do you really know where she is?" Jim asked eagerly as they stepped inside and the elevator doors shut behind them.

"Yep. Assuming she hasn't run off with any of her woodland friends yet, I know exactly where she is."

"That's great." It was silent for a minute. "I, um, I really appreciate your help, Pam." Jim looked over at her with a shy smile on his face and Pam was reminded again that in spite of his medieval garb he really was a normal guy.

"Yeah. No problem," she said, smiling back at him. "Anytime."

***

Pam parked the truck and looked over at Jim. He had quickly gotten over the initial shock of riding in the truck and had spent the last few minutes examining the vehicle. He seemed fascinated by the power windows in particular. Pam was doing her best to keep from giggling as he kept pointing out things like stop lights, neon signs, and billboards.

They had stopped at a fast food restaurant because for one thing Jim had admitted he was starving and for another Pam wanted to hear Jim's side of the fantastic story Katy had told them before Jim and Katy were reunited. Strangely, Jim didn't seem to be in much of a rush to see Katy even though he'd come all this way to find her, but that was just another in a long list of things Pam intended to ask him about over lunch.

"So, do you want the chicken slenders or the combo meal?"

"Huh?"

"Just pick a picture," Pam said, pointing to the illuminated menu behind the counter.

"Oh, uh, the number 3 one. I think."

"Right. Good choice." Pam turned to the cashier to order and in a few minutes they were seated with their food at a booth in the corner of the nearly deserted restaurant.

Pam glanced around quickly to make sure no one was paying attention to Jim.

"Okay. Tell me everything," she said.

"Like what?"

"Everything! How did you get here? Is Katy really a princess? Why are you both dressed so weird? She's not really from a fairytale, right? And how on earth did you both end up in Scranton of all places?"

"Wow. Uh, that is a lot to tell. And it's kind of a long story."

"I don't mind a good story."

Jim smiled. "Okay. Well, then, I guess I'd better get started."

Jim's narrative matched Katy's perfectly. Their parents had arranged their engagement in order to unite their neighboring kingdoms. Then a few weeks later the two of them had met for the first time and while they weren't entirely opposed to getting married it was still something they weren't comfortable with. Jim had explained to Katy that while she seemed like a very nice girl, he wasn't sure he was ready to marry her, and he'd been relieved when Katy had said that she felt the same way. However, their parents wouldn't hear of their postponing the wedding. Katy's father was particularly angry and had soon dragged Katy back home to force her to make the wedding preparations. On the morning of their wedding, yesterday morning, in fact, Katy went missing and it didn't take long for everyone to figure out that she'd jumped into the well. There had been a long council about what to do and finally Jim had volunteered to go rescue her at his mother's urging. And that was how he had ended up here.

"Wow." Pam said when he finished. "So, what are you supposed to do now?"

"That's the hard part. I mean, technically I think I'm supposed to just grab Katy and drag her back with me to Ciridon, but I don't know..." Pam watched as Jim's gaze wandered around the restaurant and then out the window to the cars passing by.

"What?"

"Well, it's just that, I've never really been away from my kingdom before. I've always wanted to travel, but there were too many things to do. My father died when I was young and I've been so busy with lessons and councils and trying to learn how to be a good king someday that I've just never had a chance to figure out what it is that I really want, you know? And here," Jim said, looking around in awe again.

"Here it seems like everyone gets to do exactly what they want. No matter what it is."

Pam looked down at the table. "Not exactly." She sighed, thinking about her own life.

"But you still have a choice, don't you? If you really wanted to change your life, you could."

"I guess... but it's not that simple. There's a lot of stuff to worry about here, like money. You've probably never had to worry about that. I don't know, you still have to be practical."

"I quess you're right," Jim agreed.

Pam wasn't sure how they'd gotten on such a depressing subject, nor why she felt comfortable talking to Jim like this. She rarely talked so openly to anyone except her mom, and Roy, of course.

"Well, we'd better get going," she said.

As they were climbing back into the truck Pam's cell phone rang in her pocket. She sighed when she recognized the number.

"Hi, Michael."

"Pam, are you and Jim done with lunch yet? It's been over an hour."

"Really?" Pam was surprised that they'd been talking so long.

"Yeah, and I have some very important things I need you to do."

"Right. Uh, well, we just have to make one more stop, okay?"

Michael made a faint noise of protest.

"And Michael, um, I think you should just know that Jim might not be coming back with me."

"What? No. You have to bring him back. He's my new proteej!"

"Your what?"

"My proteej."

"Do you mean protege?"

"Whatever. Just bring him back here, Pam."

"Okay, Michael, I'll bring him back."

"Good. See ya soon."

"See ya."

"Who were you talking to?" Jim asked.

"Michael. You know? My boss, and yours too apparently."

"But... he's not here." Jim said, looking around the inside of the truck.

"Oh, right, the phones. Here just put your seat belt on, I'll explain it on the way."

***

When they reached the townhouse Pam let herself in.

"Katy?" she called.

"Yes?" came a voice from the kitchen.

"You have a visitor."

Jim just stood there silently and Pam watched as his nervousness gave way to a charming smile when Katy walked in the room. Her eyes lit up at the sight of him, and for a moment Pam felt like she was intruding as she watched them embrace. Jim swung Katy once around the room and then set her down.

"I'm so glad you're all right," he said.

"Yes, and it's so good to see you."

They may not have been ready to get married, but it was obvious to Pam that they were more than just friends. Which was good. Great, really. It made everything easier. Now Katy could just go back to her home with Jim, and Roy would stop flirting with her, and everything would be back to normal. They would all live happily ever after just like they were supposed to. Just like a real fairytale.

Wouldn't they?