It still felt surreal to Jim that today was Pam’s last day in the office. Between the flurry of wedding prep that they crammed into the last two weeks, Pam’s art show, and the packing of essentials for her extended stay in the New York internship accommodations, the time had just flown by. Jim was proud of Pam as he thought back over all of the growth she had done in the last year to make her own dreams come true, and if he was being honest with himself he was also a little jealous of the clarity she seemed to have when it came to life goals. Jim still wasn’t sure what his dream was, but watching Pam prepare for the internship with such joy and determination made him wonder what he could do to find something like that to strive for. That’s not to say that Pam didn’t have moments of doubt or weakness, just last night she had almost broken down saying how much she was going to miss him, and was it really ok that they were going to be spending some of their first months married states apart? Jim did his best to reassure Pam, but privately he had fears along those same lines too. What if Pam discovered that alone in New York was where she wanted to be, and he was holding her back? What if he wasn’t enough for her and her artistic aspirations? Jim knew in his heart that these were unfounded, and that she loved him, but he couldn’t shake the feeling.

Jim had almost forgotten about Dwight finding a joint in the parking lot, so when Pam caught his attention and inclined her head toward the entrance, he was thrilled to see Dwight walking into the office in full regalia. Jim smiled at Pam, but it felt bittersweet, this was going to be the last day of their shared office experience for a long time. Between Dwight’s interrogations and Pam’s trips to his desk to drop off ‘memos’ that mainly consisted of smiley faces on sticky notes, Jim couldn’t help but smile. Pam’s  gesture warmed his heart, and he was starting to come around to some semblance of normalcy when she sidled up to him in the kitchen while he was grabbing a cup of coffee to escape Dwight’s screaming interrogation of Kelly.

Jim could tell Pam was still trying to cheer him up when she started gushing about his impressions to anyone who would listen. He gave in and did his Stanley impression, not realising that Stanley had just emerged from the bathroom. Pam tried valiantly to salvage the situation but her skills as a mediator weren’t getting him out of that one.

Stanley just looked at him, very unimpressed and said, “I do not think that is funny,” with a huff and left the room.

Jim turned to Pam and saw the laugh in her eyes, “I do not think that is funny,” they both intoned to each other in their Stanley impressions.

Jim watched Pam’s eyes widening, and realised his fatal mistake, “Jinx,” they exclaimed together, pointing at each other.

Before Pam could recover Jim quickly followed up, stabbing his finger towards her again, “Double jinx!”

Jim grinned madly as he watched Pam’s mouth form a shocked ‘O’ before her brow furrowed and she pouted at him as if to say, ‘How could you, on my last day?’

Jim shrugged, “You’ve said it yourself Pam, the rules of Jinx are unflinchingly rigid,” he said innocently, following her as she turned on her heel and started stomping exaggeratedly towards the break room.

Pam tried to put on a display of being livid, but that quickly gave way to giddiness. Somehow even with all the stress of moving, her art show the other week, wedding planning, and impending separation anxiety they could still just be them. Pam was ashamed to admit that Jim had beaten her at her own game, and so she immediately took to the breakroom to solve the problem. Her angry quarter dropping and punch of the coke button was met with the clinking of the change return, and a mocking ‘Sold out’ flashing across the seven-segment display. Somehow it seemed fitting to Pam that she would spend her last day at work playing a game of Jinx with Jim.

Not one to be accused of cheating, Pam hung her head and made an exaggerated play at moping as she slowly made her way out of the breakroom. Jim followed her out and matched her pace, giving her a side hug before they left the kitchen and got back out into the office. Pam proceeded to set the phones to voicemail while Jim raised his eyebrows at her. Pam just stuck out her tongue at him in a display of immense maturity and decided that her time could be better spent sketching layouts of her house integrating Jim’s things, as he would be moving in after she moved some essentials to New York. Pam was excited to be taking that step with him, but also sorely disappointed that she was going to be living in New York on weekdays for the next couple of months unable to take advantage of it. At the very least she wouldn’t be coming home to an empty house on the weekends and she didn’t have to find anyone to take care of Nikita, as she wasn’t allowed in the internship accommodations.

Pam was drawn from her thoughts by Dwight appearing in front of her desk and demanding her presence in the ‘Interview chamber,’ immediately. Pam grabbed her steno pad and followed him reluctantly, fixing Jim with her best accusatory glare on her way by. Jim just smiled and shrugged at her, causing Pam to vow mentally that she would make him share in her suffering one way or another. Pam smiled to herself as an idea formed, but she schooled her features as she moved to take a seat across from Dwight at the table after he’d closed the door.

“What were your whereabouts after eighteen-hundred last night,” Dwight questioned impatiently, not waiting for her to get settled.

Pam made a big show of thinking it over, before she just shrugged.

“What does this,” Dwight mimicked her shrug exaggeratedly a few times, “Mean Pam? Do you not remember where you were because you were so high on weed?”

Pam shook her head and started to write something on her steno pad as Dwight continued to work himself up with her lack of response.

‘I know my rights – right to remain silent,’ she wrote, turning the pad around and pushing it towards Dwight.

Dwight’s face scrunched up as he read what she had written, “Well, you- You could waive your right to remain silent, everyone else already has! And they all said it was you too,” he backpedaled.

Pam shook her head, taking the steno back, ‘I have a right to have counsel present during questioning – I choose Jim,’ she presented to Dwight with a raised brow.

“What, no way, you can’t choose your fiancé,” Dwight blustered, but Pam could tell he was close to breaking.

‘Who else here has my best interests at heart – not like I can choose you – conflict of interest,’ she wrote back.

“Wha- I could totally,” Dwight started, but Pam cut him short with a frown and a shake of her head before he could figure out some convoluted way to be both her interviewer and legal counsel.

“Fine,” Dwight grumped as he pushed himself up from the table and opened the door to the bullpen to retrieve Jim.

Jim smirked as he heard Dwight interrogating Pam behind him in the conference room, wondering how long it would go since she couldn’t speak. Jim heard the conference room door open behind him and spun around to find Dwight glaring at him.

“Jim, your presence is requested,” Dwight said with disdain, beckoning him towards the door.

As Jim got up, he peered around Dwight to meet Pam’s gaze and she stuck her tongue out at him. Jim had to think fast lest Pam throw him under the bus or something.

Jim moved past Dwight to sit down beside Pam as Dwight close the door behind him. Pam bumped shoulders with him and when Jim looked down to meet her eyes he could see the mischievous glint there, it was if she was saying, ‘You should know better than to leave me out to dry, now we’re in this together.’

“All right,” Dwight began, clearing his throat, “Now that your counsel,” he intoned while gesturing derisively to Jim, “Is present, we may begin.”

Dwight opened a folder from the table and produced a picture, sliding it over to Pam, “What does this picture look like to you?”

Jim looked over to Pam to see her looking up at him, playing along with the whole counsel thing, “Don’t answer that,” he advised.

Dwight huffed, “Fine, we’ll start with something easier,” he rolled his eyes at Jim before looking back to Pam, “What is your name?”

Jim looked down to Pam as she met his eyes and just shook his head.

“Damnit Jim, you can’t just tell her not to answer any questions, I’m trying to conduct an interview here! Someone was smoking marijuana on company property,” Dwight emphasised by stabbing his finger on the picture.

“How can you be sure that it wasn’t you,” Jim posited, loving the incredulous look that spread across Dwight’s face.

“That’s ridiculous, of course it wasn’t me.”

“Maybe you just forgot? Marijuana is a memory loss drug Dwight, you told me yourself last week,” Jim continued, planting seeds of doubt in Dwight’s logic. Jim could feel Pam’s hand tapping on his knee, a sure-fire sign that she was trying not to break.

“Stop it Jim, I’m trying to conduct an interview,” Dwight gestured between Pam and himself.

“No, I’m conducting the interview,” Jim went in for the kill, “You said so yourself before you brought me in! Now you can’t even remember Pam’s name. Exactly how much pot did you smoke Dwight,” Jim interrogated, hitting his hands on the desk to drive the point home.

Dwight just sat there gobsmacked, and Jim knew it was time to make an escape as he could feel Pam’s shoulder shaking against his. Jim pushed away from the table and helped Pam up. They exited the room before Dwight could come to his senses. Jim felt Pam curl into him and press her face against his side to stifle the giggles that had started to bubble up as he guided her to sit down on the couch by reception. When she finally got control again and looked up at him Jim felt like his heart skipped a beat. The way she looked at him with unabashed love and joy never ceased to give him pause, and as he was struck by the look her face got closer and suddenly, she was kissing him. It was over before Jim even really had time to process it but when his brain finally caught up the thing that stood out to him was that Pam had just kissed  him in front of the entire office. Jim took a dazed look around and took in the rest of the office, the kitchen door blinds were swaying, Stanley was working on a crossword, Phyllis and Dwight were in the conference room, and no one else was in his line of sight from the couch. Jim didn’t let that temper his amazement though, he knew it was bold for Pam. He felt kind of bad that he had Jinxed her, but if this was how she said ‘I love you’ without words, he could forgive himself. He was going to miss her so much these coming months, but he knew the joy in her eyes when she was going to talk about all of the amazing and new things that she would be doing at the internship would be worth it.

“I love you too,” Jim whispered as his gaze finally came back to rest on her face, “And I’m really proud of you,” he said, nodding toward the painting that now adorned the wall separating Michael’s office, squeezing her shoulder to pull her closer to his side.

Jim wasn’t sure if he could ever really put into words how proud of Pam he was, she had put on her first art show as part of her class and invited everyone in the office to attend, which was really brave Jim thought, knowing some of their coworkers. Of all the people to show up, the most surprising had been Michael, who had actually bought one of her paintings which featured their office building, and it now hung proudly on the wall. Jim was proud of her for putting herself out there like that, but also how she was chasing her dreams. She was planning a wedding with him, but she wasn’t letting it hold her back from going after the internship. Sure, their sisters had stepped in to help manage some of the smaller details, but Jim was still impressed by her ambition, she was starting the internship early so that she could have the week before and after the wedding off. Sure, they weren’t going away for a fancy honeymoon right away, but they had made plans to go away in August for a trip to the west coast to see the pacific and anything else that struck their fancy along the way.

Eventually, they had to get up off of the couch and do their actual jobs. Since Pam had the phones on automatic voicemail until she could sneak away and find a coke somewhere, she resumed sketching floorplans for the co-mingling of her and Jim’s things. She was interrupted briefly by a Michael meeting about the dangers of drugs. Jim mercifully didn’t volunteer her for any speaking roles, not that she could have with her face buried against his shoulder to stifle her giggles, but it was the thought that counted. Otherwise, as far as Pam could tell, Jim had made it his mission to make her blush as much as possible while she wasn’t able to retort. Not that she was complaining – he was saying the nicest things to her and it warmed her heart – but it did remind her that she was going to be living away from this wonderful man for ten weeks. Even after their wedding, they would only be together for a week before she went back to New York to finish out the last portion of the internship.

Pam shook herself from her thoughts as she spotted an opening to take an early lunch and leave for a few minutes in search of another vending machine. As much as she liked the strange boldness that came with not being able to talk, and the silent conversations she and Jim could hold, she just wanted to be able to speak to him again. Maybe while she was at it, she could ask what the heck was up with Dwight and his toting of the suspicious coffee cup, and why Michael kept going on about clove cigarettes.

Jim watched as Pam grabbed her purse and slipped out of the office shortly before when they usually took their lunch together and was kind of disappointed that their game would be coming to an end. When she returned shortly thereafter and produced a can of coke from her purse and tried to hand it to him, he didn’t take it. Instead, he raised his eyebrow at her in silent challenge as if to ask if she really wanted to exit the fantasyland that their game seemed to place them in. Pam placed the coke on the edge of his desk and nudged it towards him, giving him an encouraging smile, and as much as Jim wanted to make a big scene of thinking it over the gesture was so endearing that he had to take it. Jim lifted the can from his desk and cracked it open, taking a sip.

“Hi,” Pam said after he’d taken a sip, having to clear her throat after not using her voice for a substantial part of the morning.

“Hey,” Jim replied warmly, “You want to take lunch now,” he asked, gesturing towards the back of the office.

“Absolutely,” Pam spun and deposited her purse behind her desk before joining him as he got up to grab their lunches from the kitchen, “I don’t know if I really want to know… but what’s up with Dwight and the cup,” she asked as they seated themselves in the breakroom.

Jim had grabbed a couple of plastic cups from the kitchen on his way through and he split the coke with Pam as they started on their lunches. Jim wasn’t sure why but today the cameras seemed to be close at hand at all times. While to him the game of Jinx was the most interesting thing going on, he wasn’t blind to the fact that most other folks would likely be zeroing in on Dwight’s investigation and the ensuing moral dilemma he was facing, so he wasn’t really sure what was going on there. Jim shrugged those thoughts off as he took his time in filling Pam in on the details of the Dwight-Michael conspiracy, savouring the way that she paid such close attention to his retelling of events. Jim had finished debriefing Pam and she was theorizing as to what Dwight was going to do with two authorities in his life conflicting when Jim noticed some sketches under her lunch bag and slipped them out to take a look.

“I just don’t get what he’s getting out of that relationship,” She concluded wistfully.

“Yeah,” Jim agreed absently as he leafed through the drawings, “Hey Pam… are these what I think they are,” he asked, looking up at her.

“What do you think they are,” She asked, biting her lip.

“Well they’re certainly not plans for the dungeon we discussed,” He trailed off, watching her parse out what he had just said and blush.

“No they aren’t dork,” She hit him lightly from across the table, “They’re plans for where we’re going to put all your stuff,” she finished more confidently.

Up until that point Jim hadn’t even been aware that Toby was in the break room with them, but he sure clocked him making a hasty exit. Jim shot a look to the cameras and saw they had clocked it too, as they were following him out. Jim brushed it off, he had more important things to worry about right now.

“Pam, these are great – they’re so detailed,” he gushed, poring over the plans, “The couch even has the hole in the right place!”

Pam giggled, “Of course that’s the detail you call out, way to shower me with praise Halpert.”

They spent a little more time going over her drawings, before finally settling on the plans that they liked best before their lunch hour was up. Jim stole one of the drawings that didn’t make the cut and put it in one of his drawers when he got back to his desk.

The rest of the afternoon went by without much exciting happening. Jim did notice the look of sympathy that Pam shot Dwight as he came back from a late lunch sans uniform, which made it clear the authority he had chosen, but otherwise everything had quieted down substantially from the craziness of the morning. Jim decided to return Pam’s earlier favour and started trading her smiley post-its for jellybeans when he made his visits, which prompted her to visit him a couple more times at his desk in the afternoon to drop off false messages and steal a few moments of closeness in the middle of the office.

They went to Pam’s house – soon to be their house – after work and discussed plans for Jim to drive her down to New York and stay for the weekend. Jim couldn’t help the feeling that he was going to be leaving his home in New York, and while he knew she would be missing him terribly as well, he hoped for her sake that she could come home the right way after finishing her internship.

They went to bed early after an evening in as they had a long day of moving ahead of them tomorrow.