Friday’s for Toby Flenderson, are often the best days. He has his daughter at the weekends, and though he knows that one day she’s going to ask him if she can spend them at sleepovers and at the mall, right now he relies on her company to get him through. This weekend they’re going the zoo, to see the otters and enjoy the hot August weather.
“Hey Toby”
He turns quickly to Pam’s voice, suddenly a little more awake, alert to her presence.
“Oh… hey Pam”.
“Can I talk to you in private for a sec?” she almost whispers, eying the cubicle next to his nervously. As the HR rep he is used to these occurrences, someone pulling him aside to moan about Angela or Michael until they’re calm and he’s bored. He’s not a bad person, but he slyly checks for the presence of her engagement ring as she turns to lead him away from his desk. Of course it’s there and he berates himself for his thoughts as he follows her into the vacant corridor.
“What’s up?” He tries for casual, but you couldn’t tell.
“Um…” she breathes in, formulating words that seem hard to say out loud. “I just wanted to let you know, that um…”
He senses it right there, the wide grin she’s fighting, a little embarrassed, gives it away.
“I’m pregnant”.
Hearing it from her is worse than he thinks, though he knew one day this might be coming. He’s an expert though, in covering for his own improbable distaste at the thought. So he smiles the gentle, tired smile he saves for special occasions.
“Oh wow…well er…congratulations, that’s great”.
“Thanks” He’s never seen her so timidly excited, or blushing so much. The words he knows he should speak are absent so she continues, “my due date is February 8th… we’ve known for a little while but we wanted to make sure everything was…” she trails off. “anyway, um, I wanted to just let you know, for maternity leave and everything” She waits for him to say something.
“OK, well I’ll double check on the company’s policy, this hasn’t happened here for a while”
She nods earnestly.
The words still clog in his throat so he just smiles again, because she seems like she’s looking for a bigger reaction. He wonders if he’s the first person they’ve told, feeling oddly powerful for a second.
“Great, well I’ll let you know about maternity leave later and get you to sign some stuff.”
“Okay, thanks Toby” she turns to leave and then stops. “Er… can you keep this quiet for as long as possible?”
“Of course, Michael needs to sign the forms though.”
“I’ll get Jim to ask him, tell him it’s for one of Kelly’s fake pregnancy’s or something.”
“Okay”.
She walks away, a nervous spring in her step. He follows a few steps behind her, even as she walks through the kitchen and as he stops to pour himself a fresh coffee, he notices her fingers as they brush past his back as she walks past him, the sly nod and his big grin. He tries not to hate them for this.
When he leaves this office at 5:01 their desks are empty, so he places the forms he’s printed out in his briefcase and joins Stanley and Dwight in the elevator. When they reach the parking lot, having successfully ignored each other, none of them can ignore the happy couple, lost in their only little joyous bubble in front of Pam’s Yaris. The others won’t have noticed his hand on her stomach but Toby can’t tear his eyes away.
Dwight’s “this isn’t a Friendlies you know!” messes with their moment and he’s relieved.
As he drives to pick up his daughter, he recalls his own exhilaration, at being a father, at being so important for the first time. That sense of being needed, unconditionally loved, had excited him the most. He pictures baby Sasha, limbs everywhere as she entertained herself and slowly the picture morphs into a different child, with green eyes and the beginnings of messy strawberry blond hair, both mischievous and loved. As he pulls up to his ex-wife's new house, the one with the huge yard and the swing set, he takes that image and breathes it out into the humid air.
Enough.
Friday by SlumDunder
Story Notes:
I don't own these characters or situations, otherwise I would have been invited to the wedding. No copyright infringement intended.
Author's Chapter Notes:
I wrote this before Gossip, but hopefully it's still canon. I was curious how this moment might have played out.
Chapter End Notes:
Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think!
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