“Jim, I bought a billion of the stupid things, and every one of them came up positive. Jim, I’m pregnant.”
“Well, maybe…” Jim was still at a loss for words. It was the next day, and he and Pam had taken an extended lunch break to talk about… Well, Pam knew what they had to discuss, but she’d hoped they wouldn’t jump to it so quickly.
Jim covered his face with his callused palms, letting out a small groan.
“Pam, we can’t afford another kid, not right now. Weren’t you…” Jim trailed off.
“Yes,” Pam sighed heavily, her mind racing for excuses. “I was on the pill, but I thought-”
“Pam, what you thought is irrelevant, what matters is that you’re pregnant. We have to move,” he said suddenly, with a panicked tone. “The girls already share a bedroom, and Philip’s room is the size of a walk in closet. We have to move, before the baby’s born. Now.” Jim whipped out his phone, his eyes clouding over with confused thoughts. Pam sighed.
“Look, we still need to go to the doctor, okay? If we still need to move, then… Maybe we can stay with my mom for a while,” Pam was spitballing, trying to divert attention from the fact that this was all her fault. How would her future child feel when he found out how upset his parents were at his existence? Pam knew she should be happy, but she felt exactly like Jim did, yet she somehow managed to contain her emotions long enough to pay the bill for the meal and stumble from the restaurant. The whole time Jim was on his phone, rambling off numbers and addresses like some insane hospital patient. In the end, she dropped Jim off at home, mumbling some excuse about food poisoning to Michael, then snuck into the bathroom and called her mom.
“Mom, I need to talk to you. Listen, can Jim and I come stay with you for a while? Just a week, no more. We really need to get away for a bit,” she said, holding in her stress.
“Of course. Come on over this Friday and we’ll talk,” Helene said slowly, obviously masking confusion in her voice. Pam hung up with her mother and sat in the bathroom for a long time.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Whoah, I'm so sorry I didn't mention this until now, and I can't go back and post it in the first chapter (dumb computer!)... In this world Pam and Jim DID plan to move for Athlead or Athlete as it is now called, but due to the slow business and lack of money, they've put that on hold for a while. The documentary channel is also paying them just to stay at the office.
