Pam smiled widely and pushed up to her tip-toes to kiss her husband.  There was something about kissing him lately when they were out of the office, but still in their work clothes that felt almost...naughty.  Like she was making out with her boss. Just a few months ago the world couldn't have paid her enough to make out with her boss. Now it made her tingle from head to toe...

Or maybe that was just poor blood circulation.

"What?" Jim asked, grinning at her as she pulled away.  "Nothing. I think I just like you a lot today."

"What did I do today that was so awesome?" He said with a dramatic roll of his eyes.

She smiled. "You threw a good Christmas party...aaand you let us all leave a little early today. That makes you a good boss."

"That last part was actually Michael."

"That's ok...I'll pretend it was you," she said still gazing up at him. "I don't even mind the fake tree."

He squinted and swung the hands that were joined with his, between them. "Ok, so we agreed...no gifts for each other right?"

They stood in the center pavilion of the very crowded for a weekday evening - Steam Town Mall.  With as crazy as things had been throughout these last few weeks at Dunder-Mifflin neither one of them had much time to do any real Christmas shopping, and hadn't really felt comfortable doing so, with as bad as things had been. Now, there were things to celebrate.

Like the fact that they still had jobs.

God...David Wallace...Allan...Jim shook it off, he couldn't think about that right now. Right now was family time. Right?

He'd made a pact with himself a couple of weeks ago that he had to get better at shaking the day off.  Suddenly, a problem he'd never had before: not thinking about work - was becoming a big one.  This was either a really great problem because it meant he was growing up and caring, or it was really terrible - he wasn't entirely sure yet.

Maybe it was a little of both.

He focused his eyes on Pam's mouth, bringing himself back to the here and now. "Right. Just baby stuff," she was saying resolutely.

"And we'll just surprise each other with what we get?" Jim asked carefully.

"Why are you asking so many questions?  We talked about this like a thousand times on the way over."

"I just don't want you opening whatever I get and getting pissed that it was something on the registry or not on the registry or on somebody elses' registry or...whatever."

Pam's eyes widened and she rested her hands atop her belly. "Jim...Are you implying that I'm easily angered by things? Because I don't think you should be implying that."

He shook his head quickly. "No...Pam...What on Earth are you talking about? You are consistently the most reasonable person I know."

Pam pushed her tongue against her teeth unconsciously and reached inside his jacket to pinch his side even as she snuggled against him.

"Ow!"

"Ok, Smarty...we'll do an hour and then we'll meet in front of Santa."

"An hour?" He asked, his voice cracking through a half laugh. "You're gonna do the mall in an hour?"

"Ok, now I'm getting angry. Stop being mean to me," she said looking up at him. "You're setting a really bad example for our baby."

"Just a minute ago I was goodness and light...Which is it, Pam?"

"Shut up...

Jim grinned at her.  She was gorgeous.  On a sigh he said, "Ok, let's split up."

She sighed. "Ok, go," but once again she pushed to her feet when he went to pull away, kissing him for a lingering moment even as crowds of people walked by them. "Ok, now go for real this time."

"If you'd stop trying to feel me up I could go shop for our kid."

She grinned widely as he pulled away and headed towards Boscov's.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jim stood in the middle of the toy section in Boscov's, feeling for all intents and purposes like a giant.   As soon as they'd found out she was pregnant they'd started frequenting toy stores and baby stores and every single time all he could think about was how small the person coming was going to be, and he knew that even his imagination was probably not doing justice to how tiny the being was that was making Pam grow bigger and bigger.

Their latest sonogram photo - that crazy multidimensional one had nearly broken his brain.  A baby. A real life baby was growing inside of her every second of every day.  Right this second - wherever she was in the mall - their baby was growing.

Their baby could cry now! According to that website that sent them both updates every week.  Their baby could cry and their baby had taste buds. He had no idea what the baby was tasting. Probably just a countless amount of Crunch Wrap Supremes from Taco Bell...but tasting none the less.

Just then a woman with a stroller passed by him, angling the unwieldy contraption through the racks of baby clothes, Jim stepped aside to let her through and his eyes fell upon one of the tiniest little creatures he'd ever seen, tucked beneath a white blanket.

Jesus.

"Thank you," the woman said, quickly continuing as best she could, through the racks of Onesies and booties. He could only nod in response even though she was long gone.

So tiny...

Jim shut his eyes for just a moment and did something he hadn't done since he...well he couldn't remember since when. He just said a little prayer of thanks that they both hadn't gotten laid off today.  

Thank you.

Today he could buy his first born child a totally frivolous gift for Christmas.  For today, that was ok.

Jim rubbed his hands together in anticipation.  Suddenly the idea of shopping wasn't so bad at all...

Was that a Raggedy Ann doll?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She couldn't even last forty minutes on her feet at the mall anymore, so she was happy she'd found something perfect right away at Things Remembered and then found a bench near their meeting spot.

Pam gently pulled the simple, icicle themed baby bulb out of the box in her lap and smiled as she read, "Baby's First Christmas," aloud to herself.  She could barely hear her voice over the din of the crowd in the mall, but the little baby inside her seemed pleased with her purchase.  A firm nudge against the wall of her belly, drew her hand close to rub circles. 

"I shouldn't have said that out loud...It's supposed to be a surprise."

Another nudge.

"I'm glad you like it though."

With an idea in her head, Pam tried to grab her purse from the floor next to the bench she sat on; once, twice, three times before she was able to grab the strap and haul it upwards.  She sighed tiredly and reached inside her purse knowing she had a Sharpie somewhere resting at the bottom.  Her fingers clasped around it and she pulled it out and grinned as she inscribed a little message under the words that were already scrawled in fancy script across the bulb. This baby would know that mommy and daddy had a sense of humor from the moment he was born.

"I'm not telling you what it says," Pam said quietly as she capped her Sharpie. She waited a beat - another nudge.

Tears stung the backs of Pam's eyes as she looked at the perfect little ornament. Oh God thank you for not letting us lose our jobs.

Pam reached up with the end of her sleeve and dabbed at her eyes. "I know that you can, but please don't cry about it baby."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jim found his wife sitting on a bench and shook his head. "What a lightweight."

She slumped forward, rotating an ankle in front of her as she held her calf. "I know.  I really can't hang anymore...This baby thing is slowin' me down."

Jim transferred several shopping bags to one hand and sat down next to her, a hand rubbing a slow circle on her lower back.

Her eyes widened at all the bags that sat next to him. "Jim, what did you do? Buy an entire store!"

He pulled a face. "No..."

"All I got was this one thing!" She said holding up her bag.

He made a grab for it and she pulled it back just in time. "No, I want us to be surprised! You don't tell me and I won't tell you...It'll be like we're giving each other gifts on Christmas morning even though it's for the baby...I did get a stocking though! It's really cute."

"Oh my God," he said chuckling. "You just said you weren't going to tell me!  That's the quickest anyone's ever reneged on anything."

She just grinned. "I had to."

He stared at her for a long moment until she finally said, "What? Are you ok?"

"Yeah I just...Pam...It's Christmas...and we're having a baby."

She smiled. "You're just realizing this?"

"No, believe me...I've been thinking about it. I just..." his eyes strayed towards the busy Santa Claus station in the middle of the pavilion.  The Thursday evening line was beginning to dwindle and the Elves who helped Santa keep the line orderly and without too many eyes being poked out, were beginning a slow pack-up process.  

"Pam...One day soon this is going to be us...We're gonna be standing in a line like that one...with a screaming kid..."

"If our kid screams you have to promise you won't make him sit on Santa's lap," Pam said, with eyes wide.

"Why would I make her sit on Santa's lap?"

"I'm serious Jim, and it's a him..." She smiled then. "God you're gonna owe me so much money."

"Oh my God, how many times do I have to tell you that gambling with someone who deposits money into the same checking account as you do, does not pay off?...Do we need to find you a 12 step program, or -

"Shut up...I'm just telling you, it's a boy."

"Well if it's a boy he's not going to be screaming about sitting on Santa's lap..so..."

"Oh-ho!" Pam said, her mouth falling open wide in shock.  She shook her head, "Is that because you'll be busy crying, or...."

He pulled her close. "So much trash talk...So much trash talk from such a little person..." he said lowering his voice.

"Not so little anymore," Pam said, her tone matched his quiet one as she rubbed her belly.

The mall around them seemed to quiet just for them as Jim watched his wedding band slide between their entwined fingers.  Sometimes when he looked at it he still found himself amazed to find it there.  He lifted the back of her hand to his lips, kissed it, and smiled.

"Well, I guess we just have to be sure we can get a picture of our kid on Santa's lap right? I mean, before he or she turns into a massive sissy?....So, we should get the picture now, Beesly."

Pam stared at him blankly for a moment before what he was saying finally dawned on her. She shook her head vehemently. "I'm not sitting on that guy's lap."

Jim's eyes widened. "I'm talking about having him hold the picture of our new sonogram!"

"Oh!" She exclaimed. "Ok."

He laughed at her as she fished the photo out of her purse.

"Come on," Jim said taking their bags in his right hand, while his left was in hers.  He quickly asked one of the elves to get Santa's attention even as the last child finally left the line. The elf glared at Jim, and Pam leaned toward him sweetly.

Her eyes were wide as she rubbed her belly. "Please...it'll just take a minute.  We promise...It's our first baby...Actually, I'm a surrogate for this other woman and I just want to do something nice for..." 

The elf wandered away towards Santa, mid-story.

Shock lit up Jim's face. He held up one hand and started ticking off fingers, "Immoral, unethical -

"You want the picture right?" She whispered.  "Because of your wife, that tired Santa is going to take pity on us and stay open just a couple of minutes longer than he would have."

Jim continued to stare at her as if he were seeing her for the first time. "How do you not have the highest sales in the office?"

She socked him in the arm as they watched the elf talk speak hurriedly to an equally annoyed looking Santa.  Pam lifted her head slightly and smiled sweetly.  Jim watched the guy nod as if he had no other choice in the world.

He understood completely.

Passing their newest Sonogram photo over the red velvet ropes and into Santa's hand,  Pam stood over the Elfin photographer's shoulder and asked that he take at least two more...just to be sure everything came out perfectly before finally allowing Santa to give them their photo back.

Jim waved at him as they walked away. "Thank you so much Santa!  Merry Christmas!"

Santa grumbled Merry Christmas as Jim and Pam walked away. 

Pam leaned against Jim's shoulder as they started towards the mall exit. "This was the perfect gift, you know that Mr. Halpert?"

"I can return all these other things then?" He asked, gesturing towards the bags he carried.

"No..."

"Yeah, it was perfect" he said then, turning to kiss the top of her head for just a moment.  "Too bad we have to give all these photos to the baby's biological mother..."

She smiled up at him. "Yeah, that'll suck...Hey, can we go to the food court for dinner? The baby really wants a Crunch Wrap Supreme."

"Whatever the baby wants."

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