Pam was stressed and beginning to feel overwhelmed with all of the plans and different things going on in her life and March was already halfway through. Even with being able to get a fair amount of wedding planning and coordination done in their self-created free time at work in the afternoons, Pam still felt like they were falling behind, and June was screaming towards them. To add to that, today was ‘Bring your Daughter to Work’ day and Pam had completely forgotten about it until her calendar event in Outlook told her to remind Michael about it at the end of the day yesterday, leading to Pam spending an inordinate amount of time at the dollar store trying to figure out what candy kids liked these days. Pam was glad that Jim hadn’t been there to see her mini-meltdown in the candy aisle, eventually she just ended up grabbing something of everything; some Reese’s cups, Jolly Ranchers, suckers, Star Bursts, and of course a refill of jellybeans. Pam didn’t miss the look that Jim gave her in the morning when she got into his car with two shopping bags full of candy.

“Bribery, really” Jim asked as he quirked an eyebrow and gestured to the candy in her lap when she was settled.

“I need the kids to like me,” Pam explained exasperatedly as the car began moving again, “Kids hate me.”

“Kids love you,” Jim objected, and Pam looked at him incredulously, wondering if he had forgotten what happened last year, “Come on, don’t give me that, Vanessa loved you the moment she met you.”

“She was just being nice,” Pam shot back, “It’s probably all an elaborate prank on me by Tom and Pete anyway, I’m waiting for the big reveal.”

“Ok, wow, first of all you think way too highly of my family’s pranking skills, and secondly, Vanessa was calling you ‘Auntie Pam’ within the hour,” Jim gave her a significant look, “You know how shy she is, she loves you.”

“Ok, fine, but that’s one kid, and they’re practically family,” Pam argued.

“Pam, you’re going to be great,” Jim assured, “They’re just little people, talk to them, treat them with respect, learn their interests,” he trailed off for a second, “And I guess bribing them with candy couldn’t hurt either,” Jim finished with a smirk.

Pam wasn’t entirely convinced, but she let the conversation go with a small smile. By the raised eyebrow he gave her when they got out of the car to go into the office, he saw right through her. She was thankful that he’d dropped the subject though. Pam went about putting the extra candy out and noticed the camera focusing on her, making her feel just a little self conscious about the variety of candies in bowls set out on her desk, and so she stopped and left the contents of the second bag under her desk where no one could judge it.

As was routine by now for so called special events, everyone was called into the conference room in ones and twos to do interviews and speculate on the day ahead. When Michael entered and made an inappropriate comment, Pam was glad she was there to shut him down and remind him that there were kids around. Immediately afterwards she and Jim were pulled into the conference room to talk to the crew. Pam justified her candy to the crew by saying that she was getting married so she better improve her kid skills, which earned her an intense gaze from Jim that she was sure had her blushing well after the interview.

Most of the early morning was parents making the rounds with their kids and doing introductions. Pam had met most of them in previous years, although this was the first year that Toby had brought in his daughter Sasha, and Meredith had brought her son in because he was suspended or something. As a result, Pam wasn’t able to get much done as her carefully crafted routine fell by the wayside. Pam mentally imagined her wedding planning timeslot being pushed off a table and falling over the edge like a poorly balanced plate of cake and couldn’t help grimacing at the thought.

To top all of that off, Pam was still waiting to hear back about the graphic design internship at corporate that she had applied to. Pam was looking forward to knowing, but she dreaded the choice that would come after. Would she sacrifice her dreams of working with art to plan a wedding? One of her dreams was the wedding. The internship, if she got it, was an opportunity of a lifetime for her, a practically zero-risk foot in the door of an entirely different and hopefully fulfilling career path. With these thoughts Pam noticed she had been unconsciously twisting the engagement ring on her finger and pulled her hand away as if physically burned. She recalled the thoughts that she associated with that subconscious gesture from her previous ring, thoughts of doubt, regret, and despair. Pam did not regret being engaged to Jim, she did not doubt that they could make it work, and she was happy with how her life was going right now. As if she needed a reminder of all of this, she looked up to see Jim smiling down at her with concerned eyes. Pam gave him a small smile in return to reassure him that she was fine.

Pam almost jumped when Jim he called over to Abby, who had taken to sitting on the couch by reception, asking about her book and getting her talking. Pam watched as Abby made her way to join them at the reception counter, and just as the girl was leaning in to snag a peanut butter cup from one of the many bowls lining the top of Pam’s desk she saw Abby’s gaze drawn to something on her desk.

“Did you draw that,” Abby pointed at one of the sheets of paper haphazardly strewn about the surface of Pam’s desk, which turned out to be a drawing she had been working on yesterday.

“I did, it’s for an assignment in my art class,” Pam said as she extracted the paper from the pile it was falling out of so that Abby could take a closer look, “Do you like to draw?”

“Yeah, I want to be an artist when I grow up,” Abby enthused.

Jim covered his mouth to hide his growing smile as he stood by and watched Pam and Abby interacting.

“Me too,” Pam said with a small laugh, and Jim wanted to tell her she already was when Abby beat him to it.

“But you already are an artist,” Abby said as she cocked her head at Pam.

“I know,” Pam said and looked up at him, “Sometimes it seems to good to be true,” and Jim couldn’t help but feel there was a double meaning there as Pam smiled softly at him.

Abby narrowed her eyes at them, “Are you guys married,” she asked, snapping Jim and Pam out of their moment with her inquiry, as if it was the most natural thing for someone to assume of them within minutes of meeting.

Jim noticed Pam blushing a little as she looked back up at him, smiling with her tongue between her teeth before she responded to Abby, “Not yet, we’re getting married in June.”

Jim hung around reception for a bit, watching on as Pam pulled a chair around for Abby and produced some art supplies for her so they could draw side by side. Jim was kind of jealous that Pam had actual skills to teach Abby, but he was so proud of her in that same moment. When Jim noticed Sasha wandering by with some of Michael’s office toys, he ambushed her and soon they were playing with trains on his desk. When Jim looked up to reception, he met Pam’s eyes and smiled warmly, she was going to be an amazing mom.

All Pam could think was what an amazing dad Jim was going to be when he paused to look up at her from where he had been playing with Sasha. The day went by faster than Pam would have thought possible after she, Jim, Sasha, and Abby formed their own little pod together. Other than just generally having fun with them there were a few moments that stood out to Pam during the day. Notably Stanley could be heard yelling at Ryan in the breakroom just before lunch, and after lunch Pam had seen Dwight make Meredith’s son cry, which she had promptly admonished him for. As the end of the day neared and Michael had a meltdown Pam found herself standing between his office door and the conference room, debating with Jim as to whether Michael was in need of an emotional intervention or not. Fortunately for them, Toby inadvertently beat them to it when he waddled by to return all of the toys that Sasha had managed to smuggle out over the course of the day. Toby still hadn’t left Michael’s office by the time everyone was calling it a day and packing up to go home.

Kevin and Abby approached her and Jim as they were getting ready to leave and Abby invited them over for dinner that night. Pam was touched and seeing as she didn’t have a class, after looking over to Jim to see if he had an opinion one way or another and seeing him nod slightly, Pam agreed on their behalf. As she and Jim drove home from work Pam couldn’t help but contrast Jim’s personable and friendly approach to dealing with kids to what she had witnessed of Roy’s roughhousing at family gatherings they had attended in the past. Pam gazed over at Jim warmly in the car as she thought again about how lucky she felt to have Jim, and what a great dad he was going to be.

As they got into bed after the evening hanging out with Kevin, Stacey, and Abby, Pam couldn’t chase away the niggling doubt that had been eating at her in the morning.

“Jim,” she asked quietly, “What are we going to do about the wedding if I get the internship? I can’t plan a wedding from New York.”

“When you get the internship,” Jim said as he pulled her close, “We will recruit our sisters and mothers, and if we’re feeling particularly desperate my brothers,” Jim said as though it was the simplest thing in the world.

Pam couldn’t help but tear up a little at the sheer confidence he had in her, that there was no room for doubt in his mind that she would get the internship and that the wedding plans would work out. Pam rolled in his embrace and tried to burrow deeper to steal some of that confidence for herself. She wasn’t sure how successful she was, but she fell asleep quickly and woke up the next day feeling well rested and maybe a little relieved. Everything was going to work out, even if she had to get married in her tiny back yard with Nikita as the ring bearer.