---

The expression in poker was "all in." He had truly gone "all in" with Pam on Casino Night. It wasn't just about fake poker chips, or, in the office parking lot, what he thought was a denial of her true feelings. He laid his true feelings onto the table. The game was over. She had made her decision. She was getting married to Roy.
Stupid Roy. Stupid Roy who asked Pam out their senior year of high school. Stupid Roy who waited seven years to finally propose to his girlfriend. Stupid Roy whose first proposal didn't even mean anything. Roy had only proposed to her so she wouldn't break up with him. Roy had proposed a few months after she started working at Dunder-Mifflin.

As long as Jim Halpert had known Pam Beesly, she had been with Roy.

Jim sighed. It wouldn't be long though, before all this was behind him. Four years of pining, and for what? What a waste.

Jim stared at the blank order screen open in front of him. Jim had picked up a pretty good sense of when the camera was trained on him, and sure enough, when he looked up, he saw Jeff Woods, the head cameraman, trained on his face. Jim gave a wan smile and attempted to go back to putting in the order he'd just placed.

---

"I do think I did the right thing, putting in for the Stamford transfer," Jim said to the camera.

He was sitting in the conference room, recording a 'talking head' segment. This was also informally known as the "Truth Booth" to the office staff, as these segments often revealed a bit more truth than the random filming around the office did. Jim always tried to watch what he said - he never wanted to reveal too much - but the fact of the matter was, after Michael leaked the 'rumor' about Jim's attraction to Pam, things had never been the same. (The fact that Jim and Pam hadn't really been talking much since Casino Night had the office tittering as well.)

"Why?" Jeff asked. He often prompted questions as they were filming in the Truth Booth. Probably because listening to people blathering on randomly didn't make for good television. Michael Scott was probably the exception to that rule.

"Why? Well, for one, it's better pay." Jim raised an eyebrow at the camera. "Um... it's a busier office. I'd probably be a lot more productive. I don't think they have any many distractions there as are there are here." Jim flattened his lips, then quickly added: "I mean, Michael's always bothering us with his dumb jokes, and Dwight - I just don't know what I'm going to do with all that free time, you know?"

"What about Pam?"

For a half-second, Jim's eyes flashed wide, but he recovered quickly. "What about Pam?"

"Does the fact that she's still getting married have anything to do with why you're leaving?"

"Oh ... no, no, no." He glanced over in the direction of her desk, then back at the camera. "I'm not taking this job because she's still getting married. In fact, I'm glad that she's decided to go through with it. Obviously, she made what she thought was the right decision."

"Do you believe it was?"

"Do I believe she made the right decision?" A long, uncomfortable pause ensued. Jim put his hand over his mouth, and then took it off. He looked up at the ceiling, then at the camera for a split second, and finally at the ground, shaking his head. "I... I don't know." Jim got up and left the room. The camera followed him down the hall and into the bathroom where he immediately ducked into a stall.

The bathroom was quiet for about a minute-and-a-half, until the door burst open and Kevin ambled in. Jeff swung around on his heels, causing the camera to jump up in the air and then quickly focus on Kevin's face.

"What's going on?" Kevin asked, looking confused.

The camera turned back to the stall Jim had ducked into, and focused on his feet, visible under the bottom of the stall door.

"Who's in here?" Kevin asked.

Jim said: "Go away. I'll be out in a minute." His voice caught on the last word.

Kevin ducked out quickly, uninterested in getting involved in the drama of this moment. Besides, it was almost time for lunch. Turkey sandwich day!

The stall door cracked open. The camera zoomed in on Jim's face, barely visible through the small opening. "I mean you, too," he said pointedly, staring at the camera. Jim dropped the portable microphone [that was usually attached to his outfit] on the floor, and kicked it outside the stall.

The camera focused on the microphone. Jeff shut off the camera as he left the room.

---

"How do I feel about Jim leaving?" Pam Beesly looked at the camera like a deer in headlights. "I'm going to miss him." She nodded, avoiding the camera's gaze. "Um... you know, it gets kind of boring around here sometimes, and he's really a great distraction. Keeps the time moving."

"What do you consider Jim?"

"How do I think of Jim?" she asked. All of the office employees had gotten the hang of the documentarian's trick: repeating the question that was just asked to keep a sense of continuity without having to hear the [un-mic'ed] cameraman's questions. "I think of him as my best friend." She seemed to think about that, then quickly said, "I mean, Roy's my best-best friend, after all, we're getting married -" her eyes grew wide at that comment - "but, you know, at work, I mean, Jim's always been a very good friend to me."

"Has he ever been anything more than that?"

"Um..." Pam suddenly grew very uncomfortable at that question. "He's just... a really good friend... he's been a very good person to me..." She trailed off, and the camera focused on her face as she looked away, sitting in silence.

She got up and walked back to her desk, avoiding looking at Jim's desk while she did so.

The camera followed her as she sat back down. Faintly, you could hear her picking up the phone: "Darryl, can I talk to Roy? ... Yeah. I wanted to find out if he already ate lunch. ... Oh, okay. Well, tell him I'll see him at five. ... Okay."

Quickly, the camera turned to Jim, who no longer seemed to be pretending to work. He was starting straight ahead into space. He sighed lightly to himself. The camera zoomed in on Jim's open desk drawer, where a makeshift medal made out of a blue foil yogurt cap and paper clips sat on top of the pencil compartment.

---

"Yeah, we'll be sad to see Jim go -- he was a good salesman. Losing an employee -- it's almost like losing a child. Sending them off into the wilderness." Michael Scott, Regional Manager for Dunder-Mufflin Paper Company (Scranton branch), puffed his chest up proudly. "You know you prepared them well, though. That's what good management is really about."

"Do you think Jim was happy here?"

"Was Jim happy here? Oh, yeah. Yeah. We all have fun working here. I am not just a good leader, but a good friend as well. That really makes the difference."

"Why do you think he's leaving?"

"Why should I say he's leaving, or why is he really leaving? Is that what you're asking? Because those are two different answers."

"Pick one."

"Well, I mean --" Michael made a face at the camera. "I think we all know why he's really leaving... and, you know -- it's a shame, because, you know - love is hard. Especially unrequited love. Love is a battlefield. Pat Benatar." Michael grinned at the camera. "But, you know, the 'official' reason, of course, is that Stamford is a better opportunity for him 'professionally.'" Michael used the air quotes liberally. "Everyone knows that's a joke. You're not going to get a better career working outside of this office. That's just a fact."

---

"Am I sad to see Jim go?" Stanley Hudson asked. "Not really. He never really got any sales done. The clients he has will be distributed among the sales department, which is good. My daughter's education doesn't pay for itself."

---

"What do I think about Jim?" Angela Martin asked. She frowned. "I think he needs to spend less time pulling office pranks on innocent people, and more time working. I'm glad he's leaving."

---

"Jim? Ha, I'm glad someone's finally realized that Jim only gets in the way of my efficiency," Dwight Schrute explained. The camera zoomed out to reveal Dwight's keyboard, which he was holding up. "It's stuff like this that keeps me from reaching my daily sales quota." All of the keys on the keyboard were re-arranged to different positions.

The camera quickly turned to Jim, who smirked.

---

"Dwight's keyboard? Oh, yeah, that took a while. I had to take it home overnight and used needle nose pliers to get all the keys off. It took me three hours to get it to work again once I'd rearranged the keys. But it was worth it." Jim paused for a moment, thoughtful. "I'm really going to miss doing things to Dwight."

---

Jim glanced at the calendar he had on his desk. On it, he had highlighted two weeks. "Australia Trip" was written across the calendar on those days. Jim noticed the camera on him as he was looking down at the calendar. The day after he got back from Australia was circled. That was when he started at the Stamford branch. His vacation started in two days.

---

"I guess you could say I was a little upset that Jim scheduled his vacation right through my wedding." Pam looked up at the camera, her eyes wide. She shook her head. "I mean, I guess - maybe he still hasn't gotten over this whole 'thing' about me. Or something." She looked embarrassed to even be suggesting it.

Pam was under the impression that the cameras hadn't caught their personal moment in the office on Casino Night. It was the only time they had ever really kissed. She didn't count that one time at Chili's when she'd had too much to drink. Margaritas were bad ... and caused people to do dumb things.

Pam still wasn't sure how she felt about their kiss. That bothered her more than anything, knowing that her wedding was less than a week away. She had told her mom that she was actually questioning whether she should still get married to Roy. Especially after Jim told her he was in love with her. What was she supposed to do with that? What type of person throws something like that at you a few weeks before you're getting married? He couldn't have told her that earlier?

Not like it would have made a difference. It wouldn't have... probably.

Of course, after Jim kissed her that night, her good sense had gotten the best of her. Pam had walked out on him, unable to think straight. She'd collapsed onto the floor of the elevator, her legs unable to support her body. It wasn't until the next morning that she called him. She told Jim that she was going through with the wedding. Jim told her he was transferring to Stamford. The conversation had gone downhill from there.

What was she supposed to do, though? She'd invested over ten years into her relationship with Roy. She'd waited over three years for Roy to set a wedding date. Now the wedding was four days away and Jim was leaving in two days and she would probably never see him again. And she wouldn't blame him for it, either.

It was too late now. Everything was already set. You can't just cancel your wedding four days before it happens! No one does that. And besides: she loved Roy. He was a rock to her.

Albeit, a boring, solid rock that never went anywhere.

Pam was rambling to the camera, not even really knowing what she was talking about: "Sometimes I do think you can end up with the first person you ever date. I mean, you don't have to date a ton of people to know that someone is the right person for you. I always knew that person was Roy." She smiled, realizing as she smiled how hollow those words sounded. Her smile turned into a grimace as she got up to go back to her desk. The camera zoomed in on her face right before she turned away.

---

"Hey, Marie, I just wanted to thank you for helping me plan all of this on such short notice..."

Jim was sitting at his desk, on the phone with his travel agent. He was trying to secure all the last-minute details before he left for vacation.

"No, I mean - I just felt like it was time to take a vacation. Sometimes you just have to be a bit spontaneous." Jim was turned with his back to Pam's desk.

The camera turned to Pam, who was very conspicuously avoiding the camera's gaze.

"So, I leave June 8th from LaGuardia, and I need to be at the airport at 5 am, wow. Is that to give me enough time to go through security screen--"

The line went dead. Jim looked up to see Dwight's finger on the release button. "You really shouldn't be making personal calls during work time, Jim. I should report you to Michael."

The camera quickly glanced to Michael's open office, where he could be heard loudly saying, "Well, of course I made a reservation for tonight, Carole. Only the best for you. No, it's not Chili's..." Michael quickly scribbled himself a note. Michael continued talking to Carole, whom he was now dating, apparently. Wonders never ceased, Jim thought.

"Er, yeah. I can see Michael will really care," Jim said.

"Michael is the Regional Manager, Jim. He can do what he wants. You, on the other hand--"

Jim shook his head and got up. He instinctively went to Pam's desk. Remembering (again) that they hadn't really been talking for the past few weeks, he reached into her candy bowl. Jelly beans. He smiled tersely at her while popping jellybeans in his mouth. He noticed she was consciously trying to avoid looking at him. "So," he said.

She looked up quickly and then back down at the Rolodex sitting in front of her. "Mm?" she asked. Her shoulders were hunched over as she flipped through the Rolodex.

"What'cha working on?"

"Just, um... making sure the Rolodex is in order." She didn't look up at him when he talked to her.

"Isn't that already -- you know -- in alphabetical order?" Jim gave her a funny look as he leaned over the counter. There was something very comfortable about standing like that at her desk, even if the act of talking to her was very uncomfortable right now.

"I'm just making sure there isn't anything misplaced."

"Whoa, way to start sounding like Angela. Are you sure she's not sending her anal-retentive vibes through that wall?"

Angela stood up and glared over the wall at Jim.

Jim ignored Angela. "Or," he asked Pam, "are you just pretending to do things so you don't have to talk to me?"

---

"Yeah," Pam said, "it's been slightly awkward ever since Michael let that rumor about Jim liking me get out." She was sitting in the Truth Booth, her hands tightly clenched together, then apart, as she played nervously with her engagement ring.

"Do you think it's awkward because he's still interested in you now?"

"Wow, um." Pam didn't even want to approach that one. She rubbed her face, and then went back to playing with her ring. "Um. Maybe. I don't know." She looked up, as if she was about to cry. Sniffing, she put her hand over her mouth, and squeezed her eyes shut. "I really wish... I guess I just wish he was coming to the wedding. It... really hurts." At that point, she started to cry. Pam got up and ran out of the room.

The camera quickly followed, passing Jim on the way. He watched the camera go by with a shocked expression on his face.

In the background, Michael said: "What was that? Women sure do get moody around that time of the month, don't they?"

The camera focused on Jim's face as he sat stoically at his desk, expressionless.

---

"I think there will be a lot less drama around here when Jim leaves." Kelly paused and looked at the camera. "Which is really too bad because I like drama. I like gossip, actually. Which is why I was so surprised that neither Jim or Pam said anything about the fact that they like each other. Well, even though Pam won't admit it because she's still getting married to Roy, which is cool, because weddings are really romantic. I can't wait until I get married. I don't know when Ryan's going to ask me, but I'm really looking forward to it. Do you think he'll ever ask me? I hope he does, because I really want to get married and have kids, it'll be so great. Has Ryan ever said anything about us getting married to you?"

---

"Well," Jim said, looking at the camera as he walked into the office the following day. "Today is currently my last official day working at Dunder-Mifflin Scranton. I can't say I'm not a little sad about that."

"Jim," Pam said as he started to walk by.

He quickly did a 180 and came back to her desk, leaning over the edge. He felt sad about the fact that this would be the last day he'd ever be hanging over Pam's desk, watching her as she took phone messages, or played Free Cell, or answered the phone...

Jim smiled expectantly at her. "You rang?"

"I asked, actually," she said, cracking one of the first real smiles he'd seen in weeks. "Um, Michael wanted to throw you a little going-away party at lunch today."

"Really?" Jim asked, smiling at Pam. "What fine establishment will we be gathering at this afternoon?"

"Well, Michael was trying to get us to go to Hooters, but I convinced him that Toby would never approve that, and I think he realized he didn't want to pay for twenty people, so instead --"

"What is this?"

Jim and Pam were interrupted by Dwight, who had just arrived, and was staring at his desk, which was attached, upside down, to the ceiling, along with his chair, computer, phone, and everything else that had been on his desk.

---

Jim looked at the camera sheepishly. "Well, I don't really do much during the weeknights... and I had to pull in a favor from a buddy of mine who's a carpenter." He glanced over at Dwight, who was still staring helplessly at the ceiling. "It actually took over four hours to get everything attached."

"This is not funny, Jim!"

Jim half-snorted. The camera turned to Pam, who started giggling, but stopped once she realized the camera was looking at her. She quickly went back to concentrating on the surface of her desk.

Jim shrugged. "The hardest part wasn't getting the desk attached to the ceiling, believe it or not, although we had to take out some of the tiles-" he gestured towards the drop-ceiling- "and use two-by-fours and brackets to attach the legs to the support beams. That took a while. But, really, the hardest part was attaching the computer monitor -- there's really not an easy way to attach a computer monitor to a desk, upside down. We almost dropped it three times."

He looked back at Dwight, who was now stomping on the ground. "Michael, this is unacceptable!" A loosely attached pencil dropped off the desk onto Dwight's head. "Ow."

"This is one of those cases where I'd say the extra time spent was definitely worth it. Besides - it's my last day. I had to make it a good one." Jim smirked.

"Whoa - what happened to your desk, Dwight? I think you're taking this whole Battlefield Gallatico / anti-gravity thing a bit too seriously," Michael said as he came out of his office, laughing. "Wow," Michael said, looking up at the ceiling. "Nice work."

"It's Battlestar Gallactica, and why are you -- oh, never mind," Dwight said, huffing. Michael, Dwight, and Jim stood in the main office area for a moment, staring at the space where Dwight's desk used to be.

Michael started to walk back to his desk.

"Michael -- Question," Dwight said.

"Go ahead."

"Can I use the conference room for my workspace today since Jim glued my desk to the ceiling?"

"It's not glue; it's actually boards and brackets..." Jim started to say.

"Shut up, Jim. May I, Michael?"

"Yeah, whatever, just … whatever," Michael said dismissively.

"Question: may I call it my office?"

"No, we already went over that before, no."

"May I call it my workspace?"

"I don't know - Dwight, we have a lot of work to do - like planning Jim's going-away party, just - whatever. Yes, fine."

"Excellent. I'll need to make a sign --"

"You don't need a sign."

"I'll make a sign." The camera followed Dwight as he went over to Angela's desk, since he had no computer. "Can I use your computer to make a sign for my office?"

"I'm trying to work, Dwight." She looked at him sternly, but smiled, almost imperceptibly.

"Will you make me a sign?"

"Yes, if you let me get back to work."

"Please type: 'Office of Dwight Schrute.'"

"It's not your office, Dwight!" Michael called out from his office. "You cannot call it your office!"

Dwight frowned. "Fine. Type 'Workspace of Dwight Schrute,'" he said to Angela.

---

"So, today's Jim's last day here in our office - we're definitely going to miss him. You hate to lose someone you work with. Your employees are not just your employees: they become your friends, your confidants, your drinking buddies," Michael Scott smiled widely. "Yeah, we're all going to miss Jim around here. Especially Pam, if you know what I mean." Michael raised an eyebrow. "They had a secret underground romance," he whispered. "Kind of like Jan and I. Keepin' it on the down-low."

He glanced out the door of his office, where Dwight was standing on a chair, directly under where his desk was, trying to detach items from his desk. Dwight opened a drawer and a shower of paper rained upon him.

---

The women were set up in the break room since Dwight had taken the conference room as his workspace for the day. Angela sat at the head of the table with a brand new legal pad and a freshly sharpened pencil. Her hair was pulled up in a tight bun. Sitting around the table were Phyllis, Pam, and, per Michael's request - Ryan - who was there to provide the "male perspective" to the party-planning committee.

"I picked up a card for Jim on the way to the office today," Pam said, pushing a card and envelope across the table.

"This wasn't approved by the committee," Angela said sternly.

Pam gave the camera a look. "We didn't have a party-planning committee until this morning, when Michael determined we were going to give Jim a party."

"Then how did you know to get Jim a card?" Phyllis asked.

Pam stared at Phyllis for a moment. "I was ... going to give it to him myself, but I figured since we were having the party, everyone could sign it. It would be a nice gesture."

"I hope it's not a sappy card." Everyone looked up to see Kevin, who was pulling three items out of the vending machine tray. Deadpan, he continued: "I don't feel comfortable with telling Jim 'I Love You.'"

The camera swung back to capture Pam's jaw, which was hanging in mid-air. "What?" she asked.

"Yes, Pam, I don't know if a sappy card is appropriate for the entire office to sign," Phyllis joined in.

"It's not a sappy card. I am not in love with Jim. I am getting married in three days." Exasperated, she stormed out of the break room and took off down the hall.

"The card will still need to be approved by the party-planning committee," Angela said.

---

"I really thought that once we got closer to the wedding, everyone would stop making these comments about Jim and I." Pam frowned as she paced back and forth down the hallway near the entrance to the office. "Instead, it just feels like everyone's trying harder to make fun of us. It's not fair. It's not fair to me, or Jim, and especially not Roy."

She paused.

"Sometimes I'm really glad Roy doesn't work in the office." She glanced down the hall. "I mean -- maybe I'm just imagining things. Kevin sometimes says things without thinking about it. Maybe they didn't mean it like that."

Kelly came through the doorway, stopping when she saw Pam. "Hey," she said. "I heard you bought Jim a sappy card. Are you going to tell him you love him? Do you love him? That doesn't seem like the best idea if you're going to get married in three days. You are getting married, aren't you? I love weddings, they're so romantic. I can't wait until I get married. You're so lucky; you're going to be so pretty for once. It's really the one day that you have to look nice, though, you know? I want a wedding like Princess Diana's wedding. I keep wondering when Ryan and I will get more serious. Do you think he'll propose soon?"

"It wasn't a sappy card," Pam said feebly.

"Well, anyway, I'm going to see where Ryan is. Is he in with the party planning committee? Why don't they ask me to help plan parties? I'm a girl, and I know a lot about parties. If I had a second job, I'd probably be a party-planner because I just love parties and having fun. Plus, I'm really good at coordinating colors - did you guys figure out what colors you're going to use? Are there going to be centerpieces? Centerpieces are nice. Maybe I should go find out what they've figured out so far." Kelly bound off into the main office towards the break room.

Pam looked at the camera. "I think I'll be glad when this is all over."

---