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Author's Chapter Notes:
S3 AU of The Coup

“Jesus.” Jim looked over towards the entryway to the room and saw Jan peering in as the theme from Varsity Blues started to play.

 

“Hi Jan! Hope you brought the Milk Duds!” Sometimes Michael was his own worst enemy. Jim and Pam exchanged a look—someone was going to have to bail him out of this one.

 

“Michael, can I have a minute?”

 

“Sure, Jan!” Michael hopped up excitedly, clearly oblivious to the mound of shit that was about to slide down onto him—as Jim could already tell from Jan’s expression—and made his way across the room. “Don’t start the movie without me, guys!”

 

Jim and Pam’s looks were more urgent this time. She hurried over to the TV and hit eject, while Jim followed Michael out of the room. Not quickly enough as it happened: by the time he reached them they were already in heated discussion.

 

“How would a movie increase productivity Michael? How on earth would it do that?”

 

“People work faster after…” Michael started and Jim realized he was floundering—well, realized was generous. Jim knew he was floundering, but it still amazed him that Michael hadn’t had a single idea of how to defend Movie Mondays if corporate (aka Jan) found out. Jim liked Movie Mondays. On normal ones where Jan didn’t interrupt, he and Pam could sit in the corner and surreptitiously hold hands where no one else could see. It was a relief from working at Dunder Mifflin, honestly.

 

“Magically?” Jan, for obvious reasons, was not as much of a fan of Movie Mondays it seemed. Time for Jim to insert himself.

 

“Actually, no.” He gave Jan a half-grimance half-smile as he interjected. “Michael’s been using the movies to teach us about how to work together. Varsity Blues is about teamwork, after all. Entourage was about…” he paused for a moment. What the hell was Entourage about?

 

“Always believing in yourself.” One of the great things about Michael, dumb as he could be sometimes, was that he always found something to say. In this case, he managed to even make it appropriate.

 

“Exactly.” Jim smiled at his boss. “So we work faster afterwards not because of some magical thinking, or because we have to because we spent half an hour watching a movie and so didn’t get any work done”—which was the case, but Jan didn’t need to know—“but because we’re working smarter, not harder. I cover her phone while Phyllis is on a sales call. Dwight never backs down even when a client is being difficult. That sort of thing.” He gave Jan an apologetic look. “I know it seems silly, but it works.”

 

“It does…” He was pretty sure the next words out of Michael’s mouth were going to be “not seem silly” so he stepped on his foot.

 

“Ow! Jim, watch where you’re going!”

 

“I think I know where Jim is going.” Jan gave him a look that said she knew exactly what he was doing, but she would let him get away with it for now. He always knew she had a soft spot for Michael, it was just a matter of giving her an excuse. “Upwards in this company.”

 

“Thank you, Jan.” He made a face that he hoped said sorry without embarrassing Michael too much.

 

“Well, I suppose, keep up the good work.” She shrugged and then shot Michael and Jim both a hard look. “But no more than half an hour, understand? If I hear you’re spending half the day on a movie…”

 

“Understood.” Jim nodded hard, hoping Michael would catch on—and thankfully he started nodding too.

 

“Exactly. Half an hour. You got it, Jan.”

 

**

 

Pam was only mildly surprised when Jim and Michael walked back in and Jim popped the video back in. “Jan says keep it to half an hour, guys,” Michael said, as if they were the ones who had been asking for this. “No more, no less.”

 

“I don’t think she said no less,” Pam whispered to Jim, who had sat back down next to her.

 

“You would be correct, Ms. Beesly,” he whispered back.

 

“Wait, Jan approved this?” Angela stuck her head into the conference room. “How is that possible?”

 

“It’s a teambuilding exercise, Angela,” said Michael smugly. “Now, come in and sit down. You can’t build a team without your teammates, now can you?”

 

“I will thank you to never refer to me as a mate again,” Angela shot back, but Pam noticed that she sat down—next to Dwight.

 

“Speaking of mates, I still think those two have something going on,” she whispered to Jim.

 

“Come on…” he scoffed under his breath. “Just because you and I…”

 

“No, seriously. Look at them.” They both turned away from the screen and looked at their coworkers backs. “I mean, if you and I were sitting like that, it would mean we were having a fight, but the two of them?”

 

“First, should I be worried that you’ve thought through what we’d look like having a fight?” Jim teased. “But second, I think you’re right. Dwight is leaning ever so slightly towards her.”

 

“About five degrees, yup.” Pam nudged Jim. “And Angela…”

 

“Is letting her ponytail touch his shoulder when she turns to glare at Michael.” Jim nodded. “I think you might be on to something.”

 

“Of course I am.” Pam grinned.

 

“Of course you are,” he agreed warmly, and they slid their hands together in the space between their seats, where no one—not even Angela, who had turned around to shush them—could see.

Chapter End Notes:
I don't plan on doing every episode of S3, but The Coup was irresistible. Thank you to all who've read and reviewed!

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