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Author's Chapter Notes:
Pam gets a phone call, and Jim and Larissa talk

Pam was completely flustered. Jim clearly had no idea what that tone of voice from him did to her—and for good reason, because she hadn’t heard it from him very often but she’d worked very very hard to make sure he didn’t know what it did. Something inside her was turning to jelly and it was really difficult to concentrate. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for her sanity and Larissa’s hope of not seeing her canoodle with Jim in front of his sister, her phone chose that moment to ring. She had charged it overnight in Jim’s room, and apparently now it had decided to hold forth. She glanced at it on the bedside table, sighed, and picked it up.

“It’s my mom. I kind of have to take this.” She looked down at Jim. “Don’t you go anywhere.”

“I won’t.” He gestured at his body laid up in bed and winked. She giggled and picked up the phone, murmuring “Sorry” to Larissa before stepping out of the room.

“Hey, mom.”

****

Jim was deeply disappointed that Pam had chosen to take the phone call, but he supposed it made sense. She’d just broken up with Roy; now she was in the hospital looking after another man; of course her mom would want to know what was going on with her. He supposed it also made sense for her to take the call out of the room, although he would have loved to hear that particular conversation. She’d been talking to her mom on Casino Night too, he remembered. Maybe that would help Mrs. Beesly relate to whatever it was that was going on in Pam’s head. He grinned. She loves me. She actually said it.

He reached over to the bedside table to take a closer look at something he’d noticed when Pam’s phone went off. It looked like a piece of art of some kind, but not one he recognized. He couldn’t quite reach it, and as he considered the pros and cons of stretching his already injured body to grasp it, he noticed Larissa picking it up and moving into the chair Pam had vacated. She handed him the sketch and sat down.

“There you go, big bro. Never say I didn’t bring you anything.”

He looked at the sketch, which he now recognized as Pam’s work. Too many ways to say I’m sorry/But not enough to say how much I love you. Feelings he thought he’d banished down deep inside were rising up, and he wasn’t sure he knew how to handle them. He chided himself—Pam had already told him she loved him, with her actual words—but somehow this made it all feel real. It wasn’t just a reaction to him waking up, or something impulsive in the moment. She’d sat down and sketched it and left it for him to find even if she hadn’t been there when he woke up. She really meant it. He felt tears coming, and reached for the familiar tone of banter to keep them at bay.

“I dunno, L, it looks like Pam brought me this, so...”

“And who exactly brought you Pam?”

He cocked an eyebrow at her, but as he was used to by now Larissa did not back down, just cocking one right back at him.

“Yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask, how exactly did you do that? What possessed you to invite the girl who broke my heart into the room where I broke everything else?”

“Are you saying you’d rather I hadn’t brought her?”

“No, I…”

“Good, because I remember some older brother or other of mine telling me when I was a little girl not to look a gift horse in the mouth.”

“I’m not sure what your dentition has to do with this?”

“Are you calling me a horse?”

“OK, maybe that metaphor got a little away from me.”

“That’s right it did. And don’t change the subject. If you’re not saying you wish she weren’t here, what exactly are you saying?”

“I’m saying that you couldn’t have known it would go this well when you asked her to come.”

“Of course I didn’t. Hell, Jim, I thought she was married when I called her, because no one bothered to tell me she broke it off.”

“Don’t look at me, no one bothered to tell me either.”

“Yeah…I actually think she might not have told anyone who could tell you. It sounded like a recent thing, so I’m not sure she’s told the office, and how many other friends do you have in common?”

“Well, no one. But she could have told me. We’re friends.”

“Yeah, and how do you think that conversation would have gone? ‘Hi Jim, I know you haven’t talked to me in a month and literally moved states to get away from me, but anyway I broke up with Roy?’ I may not know Pam as well as you, big bro, but do you really think that’s a conversation she was going to have?”

“Whose side are you on here?”

“Yours, idiot. But hers too. She’s, like really awesome, you know.”

“I do know. In fact, I told you so.”

“Yeah, I’m still not sure you appreciate her enough.”

“I thought you were on my side!”

“I am. I just don’t want you to screw this up.”

“Not planning on it. Thanks for the faith though.”

“Hey, I’m not the one sitting here complaining that Pam Beesly is by my bedside.”

“OK, OK, complaint withdrawn.”

“Thank you.”

“I still want to know how that all went down though.”

“Well, as long as we’re agreed that I did the right thing?”

“Fine. You did the right thing. You’re always right. Happy, L?”

“No more than my due. Anyway, now that we’re agreed on that, I’ll admit I was kind of desperate.”

“Desperate?”

“Yeah…have you noticed it’s just me and Pam here? No Mom, no Dad, no Mark?”

“…I really hadn’t thought about it.”

“Oh my god, you are far gone. Admit it, you just looked at Pam and forgot all about them. You even forgot about me, didn’t you? If she hadn’t gotten that phone call you were going to jump her right in front of me.”

“Kind of hard to do that right now, L.”

“Alright, I’ll give you that one. Anyway, Mom and Dad are in Sydney right now.”

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah. They were going to surprise you, make a family vacation out of it, try to cheer you up with some kangaroos and koalas and such. But now they’re trying to get back here, obviously. And Mark’s…”

“Yeah, I know, wedding, no cell reception, yadda yadda. I think he just agreed to go to it because I was going to Australia and he got jealous.”

“I wouldn’t put it past him. You really know how to pick your friends, Jim.”

“Pam’s my friend. You like her.”

“I like Mark! And Pam’s different and you know it. But I’m just saying, you and Mark never had the healthiest relationship.”

“I suppose that’s fair. He did think I was making up Dwight, so there may not have been the trust you’d expect there.”

“Hah. I didn’t believe Dwight until Pam confirmed his existence.”

“You trust Pam over me?”

“Duh. Anyway, I was here for like two days, by myself, and I was starting to go crazy. Climb the walls, lick the floors, that kind of thing.”

“Ew.”

“Exactly. So I thought, who cares enough about Jimmy-boy here to bail me out and give me someone else to talk to or at least a conscious face to see? And all I could think of was Pam.”

“Well, I’m grateful you did.”

“You’re welcome.”

Chapter End Notes:
Thank you to all who have read and reviewed! I greatly appreciate the feedback. Next time we'll learn about Pam's call with her mother.

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