"A week long camp retreat?" Jim looked down at Pam with large eyes. "Really?"

"Swear to God." She giggled softly, and his heart fluttered, as it usually did whenever she chortled in this particular way. It did something to him inside. He picked up his grape soda can and shook his head incredulously. "You're messing with me."

"I am so not! Well, you'll find out for yourself this afternoon, huh?" She elbowed him in the arm lightly, grinning widely, and sipped her own can. "When do we leave?"

"Saturday, I think."

He nods thoughtfully. "Well then...if you aren't kidding around...then what would be the point of this retreat exactly?" She shrugged half-heartedly, tapping softly on the can of soda with her index finger nail.

Things had been slightly tense between the usually inseparable duo since Jim had admitted that he used to have a crush on her. They were still best friends, of course, but things had still felt different for both of them tonally. Not that they had brought it up since their conversation in the kitchen; they often danced around deep subjects like that, since they felt like they were going too far. It was as if there was an invisible line, and neither of them dared to cross it for fear of being shot by the other. It was somewhat toxic, but something that they had both learned to live with at this point.

"Beats me. It's Michael, then again, so we may never know." They share a brief chuckle. "There's some truth behind that. Hmm." Jim cocked his head slightly. "It should be fun at least, right?" She smiles at him. "Let's hope so. At least we don't have to work."

"That'll always be a plus."

***

Michael rolled his eyes as Stanley began snapping at him about the whole ordeal. He shook his head. "You guys aren't listening to me. Look, this camping idea is great! Not only does it mean we get to spend some well-earned time away from the office, but it also strengthens our bond as an office. This year's bonding activity is to do with teamwork, because really, how can we function as a workplace if we can't all get along with each other?"

'Some of us seem to do it just fine,' Pam thought, shooting a rough glare at Angela, who fortunately didn't notice. She turned to look over at Jim, who was staring at her. Pam jumped slightly, not expecting this. "Sorry," he murmured, in that one low, gruff voice that gave her goosebumps. She shuddered a little, hoping that he wouldn't notice. He did. "It's okay." She swivelled her head back to Michael.

"Anyway! We leave on Saturday morning, 10AM sharp."

"Is this corporate approved?" Angela quiried, glancing over at Toby, who shrugged indifferently. "Well, corporate won't be paying for any of this, Michael, you have to understand that...but if you wanna pay for all of this, then sure thing."

"You won't be coming with us." Michael said forthrightly. Toby sighed, half-expecting him to say this. Not that he minded. "So! Are we all excited?"

*** 

"Welcome to Oakwood Campsite!" A short, blonde woman said cheerfully, looking around at the Dunder Mifflin crew. She hadn't been expecting them to look so...unenthusiastic. Still, she had these campers for a week, so she'd have to make the most of it with them. Hopefully they'd be far more content by the end of the week after indulging in some exciting activities. Her gaze landed on a tall, lanky man with soft brown hair and deep green eyes. She nearly blushed- he was cute, after all. Her face fell, however, when he began talking to a woman with curly light brown hair and a large bust, and she noticed that he was blushing when he chatted to her. Oh well. "My name is Ellie, and I'll be one of your main counselors this week."

"Hi Ellie." Some of them murmured drearily. She swallowed quietly. In all of her 4 years of being a head counselor at Oakwood, she'd never had a group of people more despondent than this particular lot. Only two of them looked somewhat eager. One of them had dark hair and thick eyebrows, while the other man had a slightly peculiar hairstyle and glasses. "I'm Michael Scott," said the one with thick eyebrows. Ellie recognised him from over the phone. He had sounded very thrilled during their conversation. Ellie wondered why, since this particular group of people seemed extremely crestfallen. Then again, that wasn't really any of her business, so long as there was a payment involved.

Ellie offered Michael a smile. "Hello, Michael, it's nice to meet you. As I mentioned, I'm Ellie. I take it that you're the one who rang up to book this week?" He nodded keenly. "You betcha!"

She plastered a fake smile on her face, nodding along weakly, before she looked down at the clipboard in her hands. "Alright everyone, here are your cabin rooms. There are only 2 people per cabin, unfortunately, since you're a smaller group than we usually take." She cleared her throat and began to list off the pairs. "Alright, Cabin 1 will be Kevin Malone and Creed Bratton. Cabin 2 is Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute." Dwight pumped his fist in celebration in the background. "Cabin 3 is Angela Martin and Oscar Martinez. Cabin 4 is Kelly Kapoor, Phyllis Lapin and Meredith Palmer, since we had an uneven number, for some reason..." Ellie squinted at the sheet of paper, wondering where the name 'Toby Flenderson' had gone. Oh well. "Cabin 5 is Ryan Howard and Stanley Hudson. And Cabin 6 is Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly." 

Jim's face turned a deep shade of red as he looked down at Pam, who seemed to be equally as shocked. She glanced up at him, sharing the same expression. "Should be fun, right?" She asked quietly. "You and me sharing a cabin, I mean." He offered an easy but feeble smile. "Y-Yep. Let's do it, Beesly." He awkwardly put out his hand for a high-five, which she weakly slapped. "Okay," Ellie said, "We'll give you some time to settle in to your cabins, before you meet me back here in an hour. It's recommended that you change into something a little cooler, since it's a hot day and you'll be doing quite a tiring activity in a while, so you'll probably get quite warm. Well, off you go."

***

Jim opened the door of Cabin 6, allowing Pam to step inside first. After a few minutes of searching, they had found Cabin 6 with relative ease. He followed her in, shutting the door behind him with an accidental slam, making her jump. "My bad." He mumbled. They looked around. There were 2 rather large iron beds with green sheets, and the walls were made of logs. The floors were made of thick wooden planks. There was a smaller room through another door, which Pam assumed was a bathroom. She looked up at Jim, grinning. "Fun, right?"

"You bet." He went over to the left bed and plonked his bags down on top of it. Pam furrowed her brow, noticing that the left bed was actually a little bit smaller than the bed on the right. "Jim..."

"Mmm?" He looked over at her with a smile. 

"That bed is smaller..."

"Oh. Is it?" He looked from his bed to the other one, cocking his head slightly. "I hadn't noticed."

"I think you should have the bigger one. You're taller than me, after all." She dumped her bags down on the wooden floor. He shook his head, frowning. "No, it's okay. I don't mind." She went over to him, smiling. "Really, Jim...you should have it." 

He glanced down at her and blinked. "Well, if you're sure. Thanks Pam." He grinned, showing off his beautiful pearly white teeth, making her heart thump loudly for some reason. He picked up his bags and placed them on the other, larger bed. "Just tell me if you want to swap again, okay?"

"I will." She smiled, as heart started to beat faster and faster. She opened up her bag, searching for some colder clothes since she was currently wearing a sweater. "God, I'm so hot. I didn't bank on it being so warm in here; and outside."

"Yeah, me too." He began to riffle around in one of his own bags, looking for a warmer shirt. Pam took out a sky blue tank top, as well as some denim shorts. She peeked at Jim, who was still leafing around for something else to wear in his bag. She smiled a little. "I'll change in the bathroom."

"Alright."

A tiny part of her wanted him to turn around and say "No, don't bother, baby girl. I want you to change in front of me. I wanna see your beautiful body." But he was Jim, so of course he wouldn't say this to her, and so she tucked the thought away inside a hidden part of her brain, along with all her other feelings for this man. It was just what she did, these days, rejecting her inner feelings for Jim. It was weird of her to think about him like that anyway. He obviously just liked her as his best friend, and besides, she was engaged to another man. The universe didn't want her to be with him, that was clear now. So why was she still having these weird feelings for him?!

She shrugged away the thought and went into the cabin's bathroom. Pam glanced around. It was smaller than the main room, but not too snug. The wall's logs had been painted a light shade of green, and there was a small shower beside a toilet and a sink, along with a few white fluffy towels. 'Michael found a really decent place, actually.' She admitted to herself as she began to take off her sweater. 'Wonder how much it cost to rent for a week with all of us.' Pam pulled the tank top over her head and slid out of her trousers, before pulling the shorts up her long, creamy legs. She glanced at herself in the small, slightly stained mirror. She put her hair up into a ponytail. Pam reached into her discarded pair of trouser's pocket and took out a small makeup bag that barely fit into the pocket. She took out some cherry-flavoured lipgloss and spread it on her lips, hoping she looked okay, before leaving the bathroom with her old clothes in hand.

She bit back a gasp as she caught the tail-end of Jim changing his clothes. She watched as he pulled a short-sleeved white shirt over his head, and her eyes fell to his 6-pack. He ran a hand through his hair, and Pam nearly passed out. His eyes fell upon her and he smiled his usual charming smile. "Oh, hello. You look nice."

"You...you...you..."

"I what?" He chuckled.

'Holy fucking shit. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Jim is ripped. What the Hell is this? Am I dreaming? This can't be right. If this is a dream, then I need to wake the fuck up. Jesus Christ, this is a weird dream.' Pam just stared at him with large eyes. 

"Pam? Are you okay? I'm getting worried..."

"I...I saw you getting changed."

He turned pink, looking cute as hell in her opinion. "Oh. You did? Sorry, guess I should have turned around-"

"No, don't apologise."

"Oh. Um. Okay." He chuckled shyly. She managed a weak smile, her eyes wandering over to his arms. His muscles were pretty huge. She almost fainted again. "Jim...you...your muscles."

"Hmm?" He glanced over at his arms. "What about them?"

"I weren't...I mean, I wasn't...I wasn't expecting them to be so big." She admitted quietly. "Oh." Jim said softly, and smiled. "Uh, thanks I guess. I've been working out a lot lately. Wanted something to do, since I've been so bored." He slowly made his way over to her. Pam's heart beat loudly in her ears. What was he about to do? 

Once he had stepped all the way in front of her, he reached out at a tantalising pace and gently tucked a loose strand of soft hair behind her ear. "You look pretty with your hair in ponytails. It's nice." 

"Tha...Thank you."

"Come on, Beesly. Let's head outside for the first activity. Hey, if we have to be in groups for any of these activities, wanna be partners?"

"...s-sure."

His lips twisted into their usual charming smile. "Sounds great. Let's go."