Jim regretted not making up an excuse for him and Pam to stay at home in bed today. It was Michael’s birthday and he was being particularly childish today with his need for validation. The reason things were worse than usual this year was that Michael had discovered that their coworkers cared more for Kevin’s wellbeing than they did Michael’s feelings. Most of the time, Jim knew that Michael meant well, but today with Kevin waiting on results for a biopsy he was just about ready to snap. Thankfully for Jim, his trusty Fiancée was as observant as ever and had picked up on his discomfort. Jim was watching Michael get hoisted up on a chair from the kitchen door when he felt Pam sidle up to him and grasp his hand, leaning her head on his shoulder.

“I feel kind of bad for Kev,” Pam said quietly from his side, but Jim still managed to hear her over the ruckus going on in the bullpen, “Do you think we could go get something to cheer him up?”

Jim looked down to see Pam looking up at him from where her head rested on his shoulder and felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth, “I don’t know, I think we’re going to have to come up with a distraction before we can make an exit,” he finished, smiling now.

Pam laughed lightly and put her hand on his arm, pulling him toward the back stairs, “Come on, dork,” she said, grinning as she pulled him along, “I think we’ll be fine.”

That was how Jim found himself in a grocery store, pushing a cart slowly down the aisles with Pam at his side, occasionally picking out something that they thought would cheer Kevin up, or something that was running low at home. Jim noticed that his usual fabric softener was on sale and dropped some in the cart on the way by.

Pam guffawed, “Fabric softener,” she asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Yeah,” Jim asked, not quite sure what Pam was getting after.

“How did I not know this about you,” Pam marvelled, leaning against him again to rub her cheek on his sleeve exaggeratedly, “Huh.”

Jim just shrugged and put his arm around Pam’s shoulders to pull her closer to his side, still tickled by how nicely she seemed to fit there, “It’s on sale.”

Pam let out a small, “Hmph,” as they continued to trawl the aisles.

Eventually they ran out of aisles and grudgingly admitted that they should probably get back to work. As they passed a profit panel full of cologne on the end of an aisle Jim spotted a box of Nightswept that was so perfectly Michael that he couldn’t pass it up, adding it to the cart. Pam gave him a funny look but otherwise didn’t comment on his addition.

Pam noticed they were getting a lot of people rubber-necking as she and Jim ambled by with the camera crew tailing them, it was the first time she’d been out in public with the crew following them and it was admittedly pretty strange. By the time they got to the checkout Pam had mostly forgotten about them, and when Jim dared her to use the PA, she did it without question just to see the look of shock and awe on his face. Pam made it halfway through a Darth Vader impression before she broke down into giggles on the intercom, pulling away. Pam was admittedly a little embarrassed that the cashier lady had called her out, but the appreciative gaze that Jim gave her as they carried the bags out to the car did a lot to dispel the feeling.

Jim could tell that Pam was cooking up an idea when they drove back towards the office in silence. When they reached around the halfway point Pam finally gave voice to whatever had been stewing, starting by clearing her throat slightly.

“You know,” Pam started hesitantly, “This Kevin thing is kind of what Nikita was trained for… would it be weird to bring her in to sit with him?”

Jim never ceased to be amazed by Pam’s kindness, and quickly found his voice to affirm her thought. That was how they found themselves making a quick detour by Pam’s house, before finally heading back to the office. When they snuck back into work, everything seemed to have died down from the chair-lifting craziness that they had witnessed before they left. Angela gave them a stern glare as they walked over to accounting with their grocery bags and Nikita in tow, but Jim was used to that by this point, he was pretty sure Angela just hated the idea of anyone being happy if she couldn’t be.

“Hey Kev,” Pam greeted as they rounded his desk, “We brough some stuff that we hoped you might like,” Pam said raising the grocery bags as Jim leaned against the filing cabinet, watching the whole scene.

“Hey,” Kevin said slowly, looking pointedly between Pam, Jim, and Nikita who was sitting on the floor beside Pam, “P B N J,” he enunciated slowly, before giggling a little to himself, “Get it?”

Pam smiled warmly, “Yeah we got it,” she paused, looking over to Jim and he couldn’t help but smile back, “We brought Nikita in if you’d like to sit with her,” Pam offered.

Kevin thanked them and pulled them into an awkward group hug, and Jim patted his back a few times before they were finally released from the embrace. Jim followed Pam back towards their desks, satisfied with a job well done, and Pam gave him a smile over the reception counter as they settled in again. The calm that had settled over the office didn’t last long however, as Michael emerged from his office to try and rally everyone to go to the community centre and go skating. After some initial resistance, their fellow office workers filed out, Kevin being the last with Nikita following until she reached Pam’s desk, sitting down to wait for them.

Pam finished setting up her out of office email responder, put the phones on voicemail, grabbed her bag and let Jim help her with her coat, heading towards the door with Nikita trotting along at their heels. They got to the rink and sat with Kevin for a little but Pam managed to convince Jim to take her out on the rink to skate for a bit, so they left Nikita under Kevin’s care and went out on the ice. Pam was having a wonderful time wobbling along beside Jim and leaning on him until Ryan skidded out of control and bowled them over. Pam tried to get back into it but reluctantly they retired from the ice and went back to sitting with Kevin in the box.

Pam was relieved for Kevin when his test results came back negative, and everyone could finally relax and actually enjoy the outing. Pam had to admit that Michael’s outing would have been pretty nice if it hadn’t been for the poor timing. They eventually retired to a side room where Pam presented the Nightswept that Jim had picked out and was tickled by how pleased Michael seemed to be with it.

The end of the day found most of their coworkers heading straight home from the community centre, but Pam had to go back to the office to make sure that nothing time sensitive was laying on the floor near the fax machine. Jim took her back, and they left Nikita in the car with the windows rolled down while they went inside quickly. Jim leaned against the counter while she sorted through the faxes that had piled up while they were out, setting aside the ones that she would have to get Michael to address first thing tomorrow.

Jim was content to watch as Pam caught up on all of the so-called urgent matters that a mid-range paper supply company could generate in an afternoon. She rifled through some faxes and using some arcane method produced three sperate piles which she put sticky dividers into and recombined, before moving to take down voicemails. Jim watched her as she recorded each onto a memo card until she stopped, her brow furrowing, and hit the two key on the phone to replay something. Jim looked down at her quizzically, but she wasn’t looking at him, her head had snapped over to her computer screen.

“Oh my god,” Jim heard her whisper.

“What is it Pam,” Jim asked, growing somewhat concerned by her reaction to whatever she had just heard on the phone.

“Oh my god,” Pam said a little more loudly, and Jim noticed a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

“Pam, what?”

Pam beckoned him around the desk as she rolled to face her computer properly, “Jim, look!”

Jim came around her desk to look over her shoulder and saw her pointing at an email on screen. He wasn’t really sure what he was looking for, but little bits and pieces registered to him, the email was from Jan, the subject line had internship in it, and the first line said congratulations… Jim felt the smile growing across his face as he stopped reading and spun Pam in her chair, bringing her into a crushing hug.

“Oh, Pam,” Jim said as he held her close, “I am so proud of you!”

“I got the internship,” Pam said, sounding like a mix between giddy and disbelief.

“You did,” Jim pulled back a little, trying to gauge Pam’s reaction to the news.

Pam was absolutely living. She had been accepted for the graphics design internship in New York, she had won out against art students going to school in New York. Pam had no clue how that was possible, but she had a strong feeling that it had a lot to do with the man who was holding her in his arms. Pam didn’t have any words for how grateful she was for his support, so she took the opportunity when he leaned back to pull him in for a kiss. Initially she just wanted it to say thank you, but it went on for much longer than intended, only stopping when suddenly they heard someone clearing their throat awkwardly from the doorway. Pam broke away and tried to bury herself in Jim’s embrace, feeling a blush burning up her cheeks.

Pam felt Jim clear his throat awkwardly as well, “Hey Hank, what’s up?”

There was a pause, “Saw the door was open, though you might have forgotten to lock up… I’ll be on my way,” Pam heard him reply as he promptly turned on his heel and left.

“Oh my god Jim, we have to see him every day,” Pam groaned, muffled by Jim’s jacket.

“So?”

“So, what is he going to think of us now!”

Jim leaned down toward Pam’s ear, “He’s probably going to think that I love my fiancé very much,” he said before planting a light kiss below it, trying to coax Pam back out of her shell, “We’ll make sure we pitch in for a nice gift for him this year.”

“Great, so we’re going to pay him off,” Pam asked, finally raising her gaze up to meet his.

“If it means we get to do this again? I’d gladly pay him off.”

That finally broke her, Pam burst into giggles, “You’re incorrigible!”

“That’s just the way you like me,” Jim said with a wink, reluctantly unwrapping himself from around Pam to let her up from her office chair.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Pam said as she locked her computer, bumping shoulders with him.

Jim pulled Pam close along side him with an arm over her shoulder, and Pam’s snaked across his back wrapping around his waist as they walked out of the office and went home to celebrate properly.