A Prologue to Forever

Jim let his fingers trail along the cool stone walls of church.  He needed to get away.  He needed just a moment.  Just one moment to himself.  If he was being honest what he really needed was to see her.  To able to just...

Someone was listening.

The plush grass gave beneath his black patent leather shoes when they came to a halt.  "Hey...Oh my God -

The startling contrast of crisp white against all that green stopped his heart.  She looked like some kind of ethereal tree fairy caught unaware in the forest.  Her eyes went just as wide as his for a moment and then she took a breath.

"Fancy meeting you here," she said, and then a slow, measured breath slipped from her lips.  She bent slightly, clutching the skinny trunk of a willow for support.

He closed the distance between them. "Are you ok?"

"No....your first words are supposed to be ‘Wow...you look beautiful, Pam'..." She said inhaling slowly through her nose then. 

Jim recognized the now familiar expression on her face and he glanced quickly at his watch.  Yes, right around this time every midmorning...especially when Dwight snacked on Wasabi covered soy beans.

Nausea aside, he'd never seen her look more beautiful than at this very moment.

"That's...a given," he said swallowing hard.  His eyes drifted over the porcelain skin of her bare shoulders and stopped for a moment to linger on the sun light's intense love affair with her hair.

He couldn't fully take all of  her in though...If he allowed himself to ponder the dress - and everything that meant for too long...he'd embarrass himself by crying before the ceremony ever began.  He didn't need his brothers catching him looking all glassy eyed when he returned to the lobby.

"You look...insanely pretty...Come here," Jim said pulling Pam gently into his arms.

Her head dropped to his shoulder immediately.  She sighed and melted against him.

Quietly he asked, "Is this bad luck?"

"I don't care," she whispered.

"Me neither," he said, as his hand slid up her back to rest on the soft, bare skin he found there.  God, she felt good.  This was exactly what he'd wanted.

Just a moment away from the cameras, his family, Michael.  Just this intoxicatingly warm reminder of why they were all here in the first place...for her, for him, for them.

Them. THEY were getting married.  Pam...that girl he'd had lunch with at Cujinos that one time...and well, she was engaged already...so oh well...you win some, you lose some right?...

No. No because, see...he was marrying that girl. Today.

"I'm pretty sure I was about to be sick," she was saying against his shoulder. "I came out here to get some air...and potentially barf in my wedding gown," she said chuckling lightly.

Jim pulled away just enough to rest his hands on the little secret they kept safe beneath all the chiffon.  "Hey baby...Be nice to Mommy today."

Pam looked down at his hands and covered them with her own.  A slow smile spread across her lips. "Look at that...I'm pretty sure I feel better already."

"Obviously," Jim smiled. "Our baby wants you to make an honest man out of me already...jeez."

"Obviously," she said grinning back at him. 

It literally felt like time stood still then.  Their eyes locked. "I - I love you....This is..."

Words failed.  How the heck did you find any sort of coherence inside this moment?

"I know," she said, though he hadn't really spoken a word.

He took a deep breath and looked down at his shoes.  "Hey...If I get in there and forget everything I was going to say, please know it's because right now...it's like...I'm pretty sure this is the closest I've ever - or will ever - come to having an out of body experience."

"Me too," she said with their hands joined between them.

Another few seconds passed while they stood in a timeless sort of quiet.  Even the birds seeming to stop and pay attention; as chirping ceased.

"I think I should go now," Pam said finally.  "My mom will come looking any minute."

"Ok..." Jim said smiling at her again.  He reluctantly let go of her hands. "So glad I'll know who to look for now though...You're gonna be the one in white."

She grinned. "Yes."

"Ok...I'll see you in 10 minutes, Beesly."

Pam hitched up her dress as she began to turn around. "Catch your act in ten minutes Halpert."