When Jim was in the tenth grade, he liked a girl named Rebecca Long. For some reason, she seemed to like Jim, too, so he decided to ask her if she’d like to come over and watch a movie. Things were going well until Jim’s older brother Tom had came down stairs.
“I didn’t know your older brother was Tom Halpert!” she’d whispered.
“Um, yeah. My last name is Halpert, too. You knew that, right?” Rebecca was too excited about Tom Halpert, the cute senior on the football team, being in such close vicinity that she didn’t really hear him. Or at least, she pretended that she didn’t.
Rebecca left that night having talked more to (and about) Tom than she had to Jim. After two weeks, she was running around school telling everybody about how lucky she was, because she was going to prom with "Ohmigod, Tom Halpert!!"
“It’s okay with you, right, little brother?” Tom had asked. “I mean, you didn’t even really like her anyway, right?”
Jim had shook his head and said, “no, not really. Go for it, Tom.”
Later, as Jim laid on his bed thinking about how in the world this entire thing happened, one thought kept running through his mind: All’s fair in love and war.
Now, as he walked up the stairs to the office, those same six words were resounding in his head. He knew that Pam was engaged to another man—of course he knew that. He also knew that that other man didn’t deserve her, didn’t appreciate her, didn't love her the way that Jim did.
Jim also knew that what he was about to do was…well, frowned upon, to put it lightly. Making a move on another man’s fiancée? Inexcusable, even if you loved that woman so much that you felt like your heart would explode every time she smiled at you.
Still. Inexcusable or not, there was no way that Jim could let things end with “I can’t.” Even if Pam told him the same thing, he had to try again. His heart had been broken into pieces in the parking lot, anyway, so it wouldn’t hurt anything, right?
Except that when he walked into the office and found her leaning against his desk, twisting his phone cord in her fingers, he knew that this woman had the power to completely destroy him. She also had the power to completely destroy another man—one that was expecting to marry her in a little over a month. For crying out loud, he was at the apartment they shared together, waiting on her. Jim didn’t have any kind of claim on her, so what in the world was he doing?
All’s fair in love and war. It was his new motto, it seemed. It was all he could think about as he moved towards Pam. He barely even heard her when she said his name. Even when his movements became slow-motion and he could see the way her eyes fluttered closed as he pulled her to him, all he could think was all’s fair in love and war.
But then she was kissing him, too, and he couldn’t think about anything anymore.
Story Notes:
Takes place throughout the show, beginning at the end of season 2 and ending...who knows?
Author's Chapter Notes:
So, I decided that I would expound on this theme of "all's fair in love and war" and apply it to some different points in the show, just to give a new perspective on what might be going in inside the character's heads. This one is from Jim's point of view and takes place on Casino Night, so spoilers for that episode.
Thanks (as always) to IThinkWeBrokeHisBrain for giving me her thoughts and to Hannah_Halpert for being so supportive!
Standard disclaimer applies.
Thanks (as always) to IThinkWeBrokeHisBrain for giving me her thoughts and to Hannah_Halpert for being so supportive!
Standard disclaimer applies.
Chapter End Notes:
So I'm thinking more from Karen, Jim, some from Pam, maybe even something from Dwight and Roy? What do you guys think?
