Jim and Pam’s secret engagement didn’t last very long. Pam had spent the rest of the week after the cameras cornered them hiding her hands behind her desk, which worked well enough until she had to answer the phones or make copies for someone, but somehow she had managed not to flash her ring at anyone. Pam didn’t want to explicitly hide her ring, because she felt like that cheapened it somehow, but she also wanted to keep on living in the bliss that was no one in the office being in on their business. Except for Dwight, who aside from the occasional weird look when he walked in on them sitting together in the breakroom hadn’t said a peep since his concussed congratulations.

Unfortunately, according to Jim there was paperwork that needed to be done with Toby, something that apparently should have been done when they started dating that had to do with corporate liability. Pam had followed Jim to the annex to get the forms from Toby together, and just as Jim asked for them Pam realised their fatal mistake.

“Oh my god, you guys are dating!?” Kelly’s face appeared over the divider as she screamed in delight.

The cat was out of the bag at that point, Pam was pretty sure the entire office had heard that, so she just smiled sheepishly and showed her ring, “Um, we’re not dating, we’re engaged actually.”

“What,” Kelly gasped, “How long!?”

“Two weeks today,” Jim stated proudly, and Pam almost melted into the carpet with the gaze that he gave her as his right hand found her left.

Pam cleared her throat, forcing herself to look away as she blushed, “So, Toby, about those papers,” she asked, trying to get what they came for and get out.

“Uh, yeah, I -uh, was just going to say that if it wasn’t,” Toby fumbled, evidently flustered, “You know, serious, you guys could wait,” he finished like it was a question.

“It’s pretty serious,” Jim said irrefutably, and Pam nodded along.

“Um, yeah, right,” Toby nodded as he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, before finally retrieving a folder, “Um, just copy this form, sign it, and fax it to corporate HR,” he sighed, presenting the paper to Jim who took it.

Jim tried to usher Pam towards escape, however Kelly had other plans as she rounded the divider coming out of her cubicle with a determined glint in her eyes. Jim decided that this called for Kelly Diversionary Tactic number 3, and so he commenced.

“Hey Kelly, did Toby tell you about that sale he saw at the mall the other night,” Jim asked, going on before either could question him, “Man that was some big savings on name brands,” Jim threw over his shoulder as he tugged Pam towards the door, though she didn’t appear to need the encouragement.

Jim shouldn’t have been surprised that they had jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire when they stepped back into the bullpen. Phyllis was looking at them like the cat that got the canary, Kevin was nodding emphatically and saying ‘Nice’ repeatedly, and Michael was staring at them wide eyed through the blinds of his office.

“Um, yup, hi everyone,” Jim have the office a slight wave as he gripped Pam’s hand tightly to try and steal some of her calm optimism for himself, “As you may have heard, Pam and I are engaged, that is all.”

Jim escorted Pam to her desk, feeling as though he was an ant under a magnifying glass as he felt all of the eyes in the office following them. Pam sat at her desk and pretended to work, and Jim sat down at his desk. Eventually the office resumed its normal activities, but the respite was short-lived as the camera crew started pulling people away undoubtedly to get reactions to the latest office drama, and soon enough they were calling Jim and Pam into the conference room.

As was becoming routine, Jim and Pam were seated in front of the conference room window, facing towards the door. Jim decided that if everyone knew they were engaged anyway, there was no harm in holding Pam’s hand in front of the cameras while they all got set up. Jim was frequently amazed that he got to hold Pam’s hand and feel the ring that he had put there, it was so much better than the stolen moments they’d had before. Jim wasn’t even sure that his life was for real most days, except for the fact that he was pretty sure his imagination wasn’t good enough to reproduce the taste, smell, and feel of Pam.

The cameras finally framed up, Greg cleared his throat and started asking questions.

“So now that the entire office knows about your relationship, do you think things will change?”

“I don’t think so,” Pam trailed off, “Jim and I have been best friends for years, and no one’s ever really had a problem with it,” Pam shrugged.

“What about Roy,” Greg asked immediately, and the setup was revealed.

“We’re all adults, and yeah while Roy may have taken issue with it in the past, that’s not his place anymore,” Pam said.

“Fair enough,” Greg conceded, “Moving on, do you guys have any plans made for the wedding yet?”

“We set a date,” Jim answered, “The rest of it is in very early stages,” Jim purposely omitted the date that they had chosen, not sure if Pam would want to share that with the crew, and received an appreciative hand squeeze in return.

Greg asked them a few more questions, and as Jim and Pam were about to get up and leave out of habit as the recording lights on the cameras went out, Greg motioned them back down, pulling his chair closer.

“Hey, just a second guys,” Greg said as he scooted his chair, “So you know that the contract you signed allows us to film at events outside of the office…”

Jim glanced at Pam, seeing the discomfort and trepidation in the way her shoulders hunched, “Go on…”

“While it’s not entirely necessary, we were hoping you would give us permission to film at your wedding.”

Jim turned to more fully look at Pam and read her face, it wasn’t a flat out no, Jim turned back to Greg, “There would have to be some conditions,” Pam nodded as he said this.

Greg didn’t look too pleased by this, but he also didn’t look unreceptive, “Such as?”

Jim looked over to Pam and gave her hand a squeeze, deferring to her. He wanted to make sure that whatever was making her uncomfortable about the idea was taken care of.

“Uhm, if you guys film the wedding like… a wedding? And not like you film around here?”

“I think I see where you’re coming from, and I think we can make that work, was there anything else?”

Pam squeezed Jim’s hand back, so he took lead again, “Can we let you know if anything else comes up? Things are still very much subject to change right now.”

“For sure, we’ll do our best to address any concerns you guys may have,” Greg said with a slight smile as he got up, “Thanks, and again, congratulations.”

With that, Greg let them out into the office and back to work. Other than the obnoxious looks some of their coworkers gave them whenever they sat down together or Jim felt the need to see Pam’s smile a little closer and wandered up to reception, the rest of the day, and then the week passed without major incident. Jim and Pam spent most of the free time that they created in their afternoons looking into various wedding plans. Jim would be the first to admit that he didn’t have a clue what went into one other than the bride and groom, and so he was relieved that Pam had picked up on this and gave him lists of things to look into. Jim’s first task was finding a venue for the ceremony and reception (preferably together, said the subitem to that point), and from what he’d seen of the list before Pam ripped the sheet in half, she was looking into caterers. The goal of course was to get everything before the day had chosen to get married. The fact that Jim could think the phrase ‘choosing to be married,’ – to Pam – still boggled his mind sometimes and he was so grateful to finally have the opportunity.

Pam had expressed her wish for a small wedding, maybe outdoors. Thus, Jim had been scouring the internet for venue ideas, and had stumbled across an advertisement that he had to do a double take for. It read: “Shrute Farms – Agritourism, Beets, Special Events including Wedding, Funeral, and other – Contact Mose Schrute to book.” At first Jim had shown it to Pam for a laugh, but after eliminating the majority of their contenders mostly based on price, it was becoming horrifyingly attractive. On the pros side it had price, obviously, but also it had indoor facilities should they get rained out, large flat areas for a tent or something should they so desire, and lots of room for parking. On the cons it was first and foremost run by Dwight. Another con was the apparent lack of running water, so they’d need porta-potties, not exactly a sight that screams classy wedding. Add to that the fact that Dwight had actual farm animals, so the chances of stepping on a brown landmine were frighteningly high. Jim really hoped he could find something better, because having their wedding at Dwight’s would be all kinds of ironic – or maybe it was fitting? Jim dismissed those thoughts and redoubled his efforts throughout the week to find a different venue.

Near the end of the next week something happened to Michael’s carpet that got Jim usurped from his usual desk, and so he was moved to the annex where he worked even faster than usual with the lack of any distractions, leaving him with ample time to track down more venues. The conclusion that Jim came to after his long day trapped in the annex, with his only respite being a lunch with Pam, was that Dwight’s farm was a top contender for the location of their wedding. The thought horrified him. Jim really wished he could relay his distress to Pam, but Roy was in the office today and that just felt like cruel and unusual punishment to talk about in front of him – Jim knew what it felt like to  be on the other side of that, even if there hadn’t been a date.

Pam’s day hadn’t exactly been one of her favourites so far. It had started with a decidedly toxic smell coming from Michael’s office, which had somehow led to her fiancé being shunted into the back annex. One of the bright sides was that Pam was discovering how she could intersperse fiancé when she thought of Jim, the idea was still so novel to her and she loved it. That small high was quickly overshadowed however, in the form of Roy lumbering into the office alongside Darryl. They were supposedly ripping up the carpet, but Roy seemed to be spending an inordinate amount of time casually leaning against her desk like she wished Jim was around to do.

Pam was pretty sure that Roy should know by now that she was engaged to Jim with how fast rumours spread around the office, but he had been trying to awkwardly flirt with all day. The next time Roy approached her desk she tried to look busy but didn’t find any papers to shuffle, so she quickly dialled Jim’s temporary extension and hung up, hoping he’d call her right back; it was a trick they usually used to get one another out of talking to Michael, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Pam wasn’t disappointed when her phone started ringing within five seconds of her calling. Pam stopped Roy mid-sentence and answered the phone as she normally would, she was surprised at how calming Jim’s voice was after not hearing or seeing him since lunch. Pam quickly forgot about the pretense of the call as she lost herself to filling him in on what he was missing in the bullpen, like how Michael was trying to usurp his role as the office prankster with his ‘prank’ raid of accounting. Pam was brought back to reality by Roy’s awkward throat clearing. She looked up to see his gaze locked on her left hand which was holding the receiver. More importantly, it was the hand adorned by her new ring.

“Hey Pam?”

“Just a second Jim,” Pam moved the receiver away from her mouth, but didn’t cover it, “Yeah Roy?”

“Did you, um,” Roy fumbled, looking increasingly flustered, “Did you find your ring,” he asked, pointing at Pam’s new engagement ring.

Pam was flabbergasted, how unobservant was Roy? Did he seriously think that it was the same ring that he had thrown in the garbage last year?

“Um, no Roy,” Pam shook her head, “I’m engaged,” Pam tried to affect a kind smile, but she wasn’t sure it looked very genuine.

It was like a switch was flipped, gone was flirty Roy, and in his place was the Roy that had almost hit Jim for holding her hand last year, “What? To who,” Roy raised his voice, drawing the attention of the whole office.

“Pam, get out of there, abort, I’m coming,” Pam heard Jim’s far-off voice from the phone handset that was hovering near her ear.

Pam was tired of pandering to Roy’s pride however, he had no right to dictate how she lived her life now, and he shouldn’t have back then either.

Pam frowned at Roy’s demeanor, “I’m engaged to my best friend, Jim,” Pam said as she registered the kitchen door opening in the back of her head, “And you can do nothing to change that, understood,” Pam asked coolly, giving Roy her best disapproving parent look.

Unfortunately, Roy had never been one to bow to authority, “Like hell I can’t,” Roy said as he spun from her desk, casting his gaze about the office wildly spotting Jim walking towards him from the kitchen, looking decidedly manly and displeased, “What the hell, Halpert!”

“Roy!” Pam yelled as he started to stomp away from her desk, everyone else in the office was frozen. Pam moved to intercept him by the copier, but she was too slow.

“For years,” Roy raged, “You were trying to seal my g-AAAH,” his rage turned into a bellow of pain, as Dwight had suddenly produced a can of pepper spray and absolutely drenched him.

Pam, who had been eclipsed by Roy, escaped the worst of it, but she still felt her eyes tearing up and her nose starting to drip as she gasped and accidently inhaled the powerful concoction. Her vision blurred as it stung her eyes and she reached out to find her desk, only to feel a strong hand at her elbow guiding her away. The hand guided her towards what she could only guess was the conference room, before seating her and becoming a body that sat beside her and pulled her close. By that point pam was certain it was Jim, and she let him hold her close until the police and paramedics arrived.

The rest of the day was a flurry of recounting events to the police, to corporate, and to HR. Interspersed were bouts of blowing her nose and wiping her eyes as the lasting effects of the pepper spray worked their way out of her system. The paramedics had cleaned her eyes out and wiped down her face, but Pam still felt the slight burning well into the evening. Jim took her home as she had needed to get her contacts taken out and she’d forgotten her glasses at the house. Pam didn’t make Jim leave when night came, she didn’t feel like being alone after the events of the day. She was still a little shaken by how quickly things had escalated with Roy, he was obviously not well. Pam was glad that Jim hadn’t gotten hurt though.

As Jim wrapped himself around her after they got ready for bed, Pam was struck by how awkward the situation wasn’t. Like with almost all other things when it came to Jim, he just fit right into her life.

As Pam closed her eyes Jim laid a kiss on her forehead, and whispered to her, “I think we owe it to Dwight to have our wedding on his farm now,” he joked.

Pam’s eyes shot open and her body was wracked with giggles as Jim held her, of course Jim could find a way to make light of the situation.

Pam sighed contentedly, “I agree,” she laid a kiss on Jim’s neck and continued, “Let’s check it out this weekend.”

With that, Jim tightened his embrace, and Pam let the tiredness of her eyes carry her into a deep sleep.