Four years later...

Pam doesn't know what to think when her husband arrives home and walks into the kitchen with wide eyes and a shocked expression on his face, mouth opening and closing like a fish as he tries to formulate words. She can't tell if he's happy or upset or what, but he looks oddly pale and left the front door part-way open.

"Are you okay?"

He sits down at the kitchen table and shakes his head in a way that makes her start to worry. She has no idea what could have happened in the thirty minutes that have lapsed between now and when he called her just before leaving work. He sounded fine then.

"Does Cece have a boyfriend?" He asks, his voice cracking slightly on the last word.

It's a strange question. She isn't sure what she was expecting, but it wasn't that.

"I don't think so," she answers because, as far as she knows, Cece has never had a boyfriend in her life, and surely, if she did, she would tell her own mother. They are close, after all, and Cece is terrible at keeping secrets. But what does all of this have to do with Jim looking so completely unnerved?

"Well, she was making out with some kid in a car parked on the curb about five houses down."

Ah. That's why.

He stares at her for a moment with a helpless expression, but before she has time to even think, 'No, my baby would never do that,' or ask, 'Are you sure it was her?' he continues.

"We made eye-contact when I pulled up alongside them, she panicked, and I almost hit a mailbox," he explains before roughly running a hand through his hair and then raising his voice to a volume that he very rarely uses. His tone is harsh, almost a little scary because it is so out-of-character for him, but then again, they have never faced something like this before. "God, Pam, she knows better! We taught her better than that! She's only sixteen!"

They both know as soon as he says it that sixteen really isn't all that young for this kind of behavior, but still… making out in a car? Their daughter? Their sweet, innocent, precious little baby girl?

Pam is speechless. She looks at her husband and shakes her head in disbelief before looking out the kitchen window to see Cecelia nervously (and very slowly) walking toward the house. Her face looks like her father's had when he first walked in a minute ago—stunned, visibly shaken—and her somewhat slumped posture indicates guilt and embarrassment. Pam instantly wants to comfort her. While she may not appreciate the fact that Cece omitted this significant new development in her life, she remembers what it's like to be that age, to have that first boyfriend, and to feel so grown-up, and she finds herself surprisingly a little excited for her daughter. Cece has always been shy, and maybe this will be a good thing for her.

To Jim, though, this whole thing is clearly a crisis.

"I think I'm going to be sick," he groans, dismally burying his face in his crossed arms on the table.

She walks over and begins to massage the tension out of the back of his neck.

"Listen, she's coming up the sidewalk right now, and I know we've never dealt with anything like this before, but Jim, we need to be rational," she reasons gently, and he grumbles something to himself about how he is being rational. "If we can talk to her without raising our voices, we'll have a better chance of getting her to cooperate."

He nods.

"Now let's go wait for her in the living room, and once she gets in, we'll talk about it, lay some ground rules, and learn to deal with this.

xx

As she follows him to the couch, she tries to think fast about what to say—something that isn't outright accusatory or guilt-provoking, but still conveys that they both know her secret now and take it very seriously. Something calm, but firm.

"Did you have a good time with Emma and Abby?" is what ends up coming out.

Cece, who had said that she was going to the mall with friends after school, initially looks horrified, but then turns to Jim with angry tears in her eyes.

"You told her?"

"Cece—" Pam starts evenly before being cut off by her husband.

"Of course I told her. She's your mother!" He argues from his place on the couch. "We don't keep secrets in this house, and there was no way I wasn't going to tell her about our daughter making out with some punk in a car."

"Dad, stop! I'm embarrassed enough, okay? I'm sorry that I'm a teenager doing normal teenage things. I'm not a little girl anymore."

"Cecelia, that kid had his hands all over you! Any boy that—"

"You don't even know him! He's a really nice guy!"

"You're right. I don't know him, and that's what worries me. A nice guy wouldn't be doing any of that to my daughter, especially not 200 feet away from my driveway!"

Pam raises her eyebrows and squeezes his arm. "Jim, relax."

"It's not like we were having sex!"

"Oh my god," he exclaims as if the thought physically hurts him; it even looks like it hurts him. "You're not—"

"NO! Is that what you think of me now? Of course I'm not doing that!" She cries, moving towards the stairs. "Dad, please, I don't want to talk about this. I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys, but now you know, okay? I'm going to my room to study. I have a test in pre-calc tomorrow."

xx

"So you knew nothing about this?" Jim asks her while changing out of his work clothes in their bedroom as she lays sideways on the bed. "She didn't tell you anything?"

"Come on. If I knew, I would have told you. All I knew is that she had been talking to a boy and that he's been out with her and her friends a few times, but I didn't know it was this serious," she answers truthfully. "Trust me; I'm just as shocked as you are. I thought it was just some innocent little thing."

"I can tell you that nothing about what I saw was innocent," he says with a bitter laugh before shaking his head and getting upset once again, his whole body shaking as he speaks. "Pam, he was all over her. God, we need to do something. This can't happen. She's grounded, and if I ever see that boy around here again—"

"Jim, listen to yourself. You don't even sound like you right now."

"We don't know who this kid is! I didn't even recognize him!"

"Look, I don't like this either, but you need to relax for a minute, okay? She's a teenager. Telling her 'no' or making her feel guilty is only going to make this worse," she contends sternly before reverting to a calmer tone, knowing that they can't both overreact right now. "Jim, we don't want her to pull away from us."

This seems to strike a nerve, and he meets her eyes with a different kind of concern, as if he never considered that their daughter might emotionally distance herself from them. He looks hurt, but she knows this means that he understands that there is more to consider in this situation than the fact that their daughter had a secret boyfriend.

"Come here," she murmurs, sitting up and patting a spot on the bed next to her.

"She's my little girl," he explains softly, staring dazed at the wall. "I just want what's best for her."

"I know," she assures him gently with a hand on his back. "I do, too, and quite honestly, I'm a little hurt that she didn't tell us. I always thought we were open with her about this kind of stuff. I thought she would feel comfortable telling us, or at least me, but now when I think about some of our conversations over the last few weeks, I probably should have figured it out," she says with a shrug. "I guess I just didn't want to think about her growing up."

He gives a short laugh.

"You're telling me. I mean, I knew that, realistically, I couldn't keep her from dating until she was 30, but it was a nice thought," he sighs. "I just hope he's a good kid."

"Well, she has grown up watching how you treat me," she offers, knowing that they have made a conscious effort over the years to make sure that Cece and Philip know that their parents very much love and respect each other. It is important to her to show her children what her own parents didn't show her and her sister. "And she's grown up being your daughter, so I think that based on those two things, she knows exactly how a boy should treat her and wouldn't settle for someone who isn't good to her."

He nods contemplatively and then smirks after a few seconds.

"I'm not so sure that any teenage boy could possibly treat her as well as I do," he replies somewhat smugly, which he has every right to do because as far as she is concerned, Jim has set the best possible example for Cece and Philip when it comes to their future relationships.

She laughs and nudges him playfully. "That's very true. You are a tough act to follow, Halpert."

He smiles somewhat sadly, and then dejectedly flops down on the bed to lie on his back. She follows, curling up next to him on her side.

"It'll be okay. She's a good girl, Jim."

She puts a hand on his chest, and he laces his fingers through hers.

"I just… it doesn't seem like it was that long ago that she was asking for piggy-back rides and help with tying her shoes, and now today, she's suddenly kissing boys," he says. "It's a lot to process."

"I know," she agrees, squeezing his hand. "It is for me, too."

She misses that little girl who used to excitedly tell them every last detail of her day, who used to climb into bed with them on Saturday mornings just to snuggle, and whose eyes would light up over the simplest of things. She misses watching that little girl with the blonde curls sit on her father's shoulders and run around with her little brother in the backyard.

At this moment, the phrase, 'They grow up so fast,' has never felt so true.

"You know, it's kind of funny because I was the one to talk sense into my dad when Larisa brought home her first boyfriend," he recalls after a few minutes of quiet reflection. "Granted, had I seen that kid kissing my baby sister like that, I probably wouldn't have been okay with it, but my dad—calmest guy in the world—completely freaked out. I had never seen him act that way."

"Like father, like son," she remarks with an appreciative smile.

"Maybe," he replies, looking over at her with a shrug. "I don't know. I mean, isn't this how your dad reacted when you were first with…?"

He trails off, and her face falls. "Actually, no."

"Sorry, uh, I shouldn't have—" He starts, noticing her discomfort.

Her father died six months ago, and it's still a sore subject. They never had a particularly close relationship, especially not one as close as Jim and Cece's, and ever since her parents divorced all those years ago, her father seemed to make less and less of an effort to keep in contact. When he passed away, they hadn't spoken in almost a year, and he knows she regrets it, even though it wasn't entirely her choice.

"No, no. It's fine. I just… he didn't react," she explains with a sad laugh. "He didn't really react at all, which seemed great at the time, but in hindsight, it's like, I wish he would have said something. I'm not sure I would have listened at first, but I wish that at some point he would have asked me, 'Hey, is this guy really good enough for you?' instead of just doing, you know… nothing… like he didn't even care."

"Oh, Pam," he murmurs sympathetically, turning to wrap an arm around her and press a kiss into her hair. "Honey, he cared."

"Cece is so lucky to have you," she says tearily. "To have a dad that cares so much about her well-being. Jim, I love that she has you."

"Hey, she's lucky to have you, too. You're handling this way better than I am. I mean, if it weren't for you, let's be honest, she would have a boyfriend on his way to the hospital and a father in the back of a cop car right now," he jokes, and she laughs. "God, you're amazing."

She looks away and blushes, and when she meets his gaze again, she recognizes a very familiar glint in his eyes. Even after nearly two decades together, they haven't lost that spark, and when he leans in to kiss her, she eagerly meets him halfway.

"Are we seriously going to do this right now?" She asks as he rolls so that the top half of his body hovers over her.

"Do what?" He asks, feigning innocence. "Am I not allowed to make out with my beautiful, amazing wife?"

She laughs through kisses at his choice of words, and even though she knows Cece is down the hall and Philip is due back from a neighbor's house any time now, she can't help herself. It quickly becomes heated, but when his hand starts to slide underneath her shirt, she remembers that their bedroom door is open, and they really should save this for later.

"Jim," she mock-scolds, pushing his hand away with a mischievous giggle, "I thought we said just kissing."

"I changed my mind," he informs her in a low voice before nipping and sucking on her lower lip just before she notices a figure enter her peripheral vision.

Immediately, she breaks the kiss and frantically tries to push him away, but it's too late—Cece is standing just outside their room with a look of pure disgust on her face.

"Oh my god! Close the door!" She shouts as she turns to run back to her room.

They quickly roll away from each other, laughing through their noses in an effort to minimize the sound because, while embarrassed, they cannot deny the humor in this situation.

"I think we're even now, Cecelia!" He calls out, and she swats his arm.

"You're so bad. We just traumatized her."

"Eh, she'll live," he shrugs, quickly jumping out of bed to shut the door.

She shakes her head and laughs, and when he returns, he is a man on a mission.

"Now where were we?"

Somehow, handling all of this doesn't seem like such an ordeal anymore.