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Author's Chapter Notes:
Poor Jim and Pam :( This season breaks my heart every time.

Jim has been saying for years that he's bored at Dunder Mifflin. He'd said at the beginning of this documentary that he didn't want it to be his career, and yet, that's exactly what it's become. He hated not working with Pam when she left with Michael, when she was in New York, when he was in Florida… He loves working with his wife.

But he needs to do something else. It's time.

"Well, I don't think anything's gonna change in our lives now. With work and two kids, I just... nothing interesting is gonna happen to us for a long, long time," Pam is telling the crew.

Jim is not bored of Pam. But he's bored of...almost everything else.

He thinks, somewhere deep down inside, Pam is bored, too. He pulls an easy prank on Dwight, getting him riled up about the new guys. Pam doesn't even laugh, just a small chuckle.

"Too easy," he says. And it is! He's even bored of pranking Dwight.

Oh God, Jim needs a change.

He's scared - terrified - of making this call without Pam knowing. But they'd agreed to not be a part of this new business. This isn't like buying the house without her knowing, or like her going away to art school. This isn't a surprise she'll enjoy later, or something they'd agreed to take a chance on.

They'd talked, and they'd agreed not to do it. So now, Jim is going behind his wife's back, behind his best friend's back. But he's so bored and so sad and he just needs to do this in order to feel like he's not totally wasting his working life away at a job he doesn't care about.

He needs to do it, and he just hopes Pam will get that eventually.

If there's one thing Jim is more nervous about than Pam not knowing about the new business, it's going to Roy Anderson's wedding.

It's actually almost ironic being invited to this wedding. Jim felt like he'd never be invited to Roy and Pam's wedding, and yet, half a decade later, here he and Pam are together at Roy's wedding.

It's...really nice. One of the nicest weddings they've been to, actually. And Roy is looking so classy. Jim remembers when Pam's mom came to visit, how Roy came up in a sweater, with product in his hair, talking about "tunes". So what, now Roy lives every single day like Pam's mom is coming to visit?

Pam is the only person more surprised than Jim himself. She gets so stuck on this "we know everything about each other" thing, and he doesn't get why she's so worried about it. Isn't it a good thing that they know everything about each other?

Well, he guesses, not everything.

He doesn't know why he can't just tell Pam the truth. It's not like they've never fought before, not like they've never disagreed on things, big and small. So they disagreed on this business idea. The end. The sooner he tells her, the sooner they can fight and get it over with and get back to normal.

He wonders if he's not telling her because he's afraid she won't believe in this idea. But that's crazy. Jim has supported Pam through dream after dream, there's no way she wouldn't support him if she knew how much this meant to him.

Right?

When Jim notices that Darryl seems to be going through the same thing he is, he talks to him about this new business. Jim recognizes when someone else is feeling defeated by Dunder Mifflin, bored by their surroundings.

"It's not real until your wife is on board," Darryl tells him, and he knows Darryl's right. He has to tell her. And if she's mad, let her be mad. They'll work it out, they always do.

But of course she's not mad. She's understanding and proud and totally cool with it. Jim has never been so in love with her. He knows he says that all the time, but he really does just love her more every single day. Every obstacle they climb, he falls more in love with Pam Beesly. He knows she's a Halpert now - loves calling her Mrs. Halpert, in fact - but she'll always be his Beesly.

He's really not surprised that Dwight somehow manages to mess up an entire week off of work. He's used to Dwight messing up almost anything nice that he tries to do, so why should today be any different? He just wants to find a way to properly thank Pam for being the coolest wife ever. That's all.

It does not go well. Pam gets coffee spilled on her, the bus is cramped, and now Dwight is being an absolute menace. Jim can't win. And literally all he wants is to get a pie to share with his beautiful, amazing, understanding wife.

Is that so much to ask?

When Dwight finally calms down from his tantrum, Jim actually somehow feels better.

Oh God, is he starting to like Dwight?

Great.

When they finally get their pies, Jim feels like it's old times. He feels like he never kept a huge secret from Pam for several weeks. She drops her head on his shoulder, he kisses her forehead. Back in their old rhythm.

Of course, she does keep bringing up the fact that he kept that secret. She claims she's fine with it one minute, and then goes right back to angry. He just wants her to understand the position he was in. He was really scared that she'd be mad.

Okay, so now she is mad. And maybe it's partially because he just dropped $10,000 into something that is very far from a sure thing. But still.

Jim is beginning to feel like he'll never get back into her good graces, and he's really terrified. He remembers last Halloween, Robert California's weird story with no real plot or ending, talking about a couple who had a stupid fight and never got over it. That day, they'd been talking about believing in ghosts. It was easy enough to get over it, to walk out of the building holding hands like the whole day had meant nothing.

This is… a little bigger than that.


Pam Halpert loves her boring life. She loves working a steady job, with a steady income, and going home at 5PM sharp to see her two beautiful kids. She loves living in the neighborhood her husband grew up in, loves living so close to work. She loves that, despite how "dramatic" she and Jim were in the beginning, that they've settled into something great.

So when Jim suddenly shakes things up by going behind her back and joining up with one of his college buddies on some business venture, Pam is...surprised.

Not surprised like she was when Jim proposed, or when he bought his parents' house without telling her. Not surprised like when she went to the hospital for a twisted ankle and turned out to be pregnant.

No. This is not the same type of surprised feeling.

Pam wants to be there for Jim, because Jim's been there for her through everything. Through her parents' divorce, through art school - and failing art school, through two pregnancies. Jim's been there for her every single moment, even before they were dating.

But Pam doesn't like that Jim went behind her back and then was, like, afraid to tell her. What would make him afraid? When has Pam ever been anything but supportive? Why did he feel the need to hide something from her?

She knew something was up from the minute he made that face. Pam thinks back to that day in the break room, when she had jinxed Jim and the vending machine was out of soda.

"Come on, you can tell me. Jim, you can tell me anything."

And he'd gotten this sad look on his face. Because he wanted to tell her that he loved her, but he couldn't. He couldn't tell her anything because he was keeping a secret from her.

And then, there at their desks, the same look on his face when she'd asked him about anything that could have possibly happened in his life that he hadn't told her about.

There had to be something going on.

She certainly didn't expect this, though. That Jim would go behind her back, lie to her.

First of all, they had talked about it. Jim didn't seem that confident that the company would work, Pam didn't want to pick up and move, and she certainly didn't want that uncertainty for their kids. Jim agreed with her, or at least he pretended to.

Second of all, once he'd gone and done it anyway, he'd talked to...who? The crew, Darryl, obviously his dumb college buddy and whoever else was in on this company. Everyone but Pam.

But Pam knows that Jim has supported her through literally everything, so she puts on a brave face. She supports him when he needs to invest in the company - wait, how much?

Still, $10,000 poorer, Pam supports him when he goes part-time at Dunder Mifflin. Supports the fact that he'll be away from her, from the kids, for half the week. Not like when he went back to work while she was on maternity leave, and she was home with the kids all day. At least then, at 5, she knew a reprieve was coming.

She feels really alone, if she's being honest. But Jim supported her, so she'll support him.

She's rarely seen Jim as excited as he is when he hears about Dwight's Christmas. If he's bored at Dunder Mifflin, then maybe she just needs to remind him of how exciting and fun things can be. So she pushes the PPC to throw that weird Christmas party, and it works.

And then Jim calls it a "last Christmas party," and she's right back where she started.

Pam loves Christmas at this office.

Christmas at Dunder Mifflin had brought more Michael Scott tantrums than any other event. It had brought her a teapot full of memories with her best friend. It had brought her a beautiful bracelet, and the proud look on Jim's face when she'd turned him into a superhero. So, thinking about this being their last Christmas at the office...sucks.

Dwight is acting extra funny today, too. And then it hits Pam: Dwight is going to miss Jim. All these weird moments they've had: bonding in Florida, Jim saving Dwight's job, the moment on the roof of the work bus; they've made Dwight start to actually like Jim and here Jim goes, leaving him behind.

Her suspicions are confirmed when Dwight jumps up and hugs Jim before she can get to him. He came back!

"I just missed my wife," and oh God she loves him so much. She's still not sure about this whole business in Philly, but she is completely sure of how in love she is with Jim Halpert.

Things at home are stressful. Just like Pam knew they would be. But she keeps that brave face on. Because Jim is following his dream, and she's so proud of him.

She just wishes she had someone to share the late night diaper changes, the screams for Mommy and Daddy because of nightmares, the baths and the feedings and the everything else with.

God, she has no idea how single mothers do it.

She tells Jim everything is great. She doesn't want him to worry.

She doesn't want him to resent her.

She goes with Darryl to visit Jim. She thinks it will make her feel better, seeing how rinky dink his operation is. She'll see how much more at home he is in Scranton than in Philly.

She's not prepared for how happy he is.

Don't get Pam wrong, she wants Jim to be happy, obviously. But she wants him to be happy with her and their kids and their town and their jobs.

The receptionist mentions moving to Philly, and Pam feels like she's going to be sick.

Darryl gets the job, and there goes her support. She'd been talking with him about how much Philly sucks and then he turned on her so quickly…

"Maybe I'm a little disappointed that we'll be losing him," she says. About Darryl. Totally about Darryl. Nothing to do with being disappointed that Jim is clearly going to go full time here soon.

Nothing to do with being disappointed that she's going to have to uproot her entire damn life soon.


Jim is stressed. He's working two part-time jobs, but it's really two full-time jobs, plus being a parent and commuting back and forth to Philly. And now they've lost this huge buyer.

Things are not looking good. He just wants to see a video of his adorable daughter doing this dance move that he taught her and-

Pam messed it up. Why isn't she upset about this? Why is she trying to laugh it off? Jim is never going to get that dance recital back. He's never going to get that moment in his baby girl's life back. And it's Pam's fault and she doesn't even sound sorry.

"Maybe you should've been there," she's saying and he honestly can't believe it. After all the things he's supported her through, she can't just support him through this? He's already so damn stressed out and he can't be with his family because of work, so he at least wanted to see his family.

Does she think he's being selfish? Does she not understand that he's doing this to ensure their future? This company is going places, he can feel it, and Dunder Mifflin is NOT. Dunder Mifflin has had three different owners in the past five years, has gone through, what, four CEOs now?

Why doesn't Pam believe in this the way that Jim does!?

Honestly, Jim can't deal with this right now. He'll deal with it when he gets back to Scranton.


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