Jim leaned backwards on the chair and looked around at the darkening room. It would be an opportune time to prank Dwight, he thought with the instinctive ability to unconsciously know when to strike for maximum effect. And Dwight was really getting on his nerves, a quality he employed in abundance even before the whole breathing thing came into the makeup.

Yet after thinking on it, he came to the reluctant realization that with his usual audience of one out sick and spending the day with her sister he was ill motivated for pranking that morning. Without anyone to impress with his efforts; without her to smile and laugh with him pranking Dwight just was… less fun somehow. Of course it wouldn't be totally without mirth; and the man certainly was begging for some kind of revenge mischief to be bestowed upon him, but with Pam not there to share the joke, the main impetus Jim felt was very much diminished.

"Really?" he grumbled in Dwight's direction before leaning down to the floor and picking up his scattered sales reports off the floor again. Thinking on it, he stacked them again and dumped a mug on top as a paperweight.

"A healthy diaphragm is not a joke, Jim." Dwight stated, offended. Settling for a glare, Jim declined to say what he thought of such a joke.

"Okay, stop!" Jim exhaled a few minutes later when an irritating whistling erupted from across the desk.

Somewhat abashed, Dwight kept his eyes on the computer screen. "Every second you sit there being a slave to the demands of the body is as damaging as Meredith's fifteen minute smoking rule."

"Hey!" Meredith called over, affronted by the remark.

"Hey, twelve step, you ever hear that you only live once?" Dwight eyed her with superiority.

"Actually that's false, Buddha's live many lives." Jim said leaning back knowingly.

Dwight turned his attention back to his screen. "I do not accept the premise of reincarnation, Jim. I am training my body to be super efficient, using half the energy it takes for you to breathe." To make his point, he then drew long, exaggerated breaths in through his nose and out of his mouth. "Oh, yeah." he said. "Feel the impurities escaping."

"You mean, like hot air?" Jim said, eyebrows raised.

"False." Dwight clicked furiously at his mouse. "Hot air-"

Loud ringing filled the office, effectively silencing Dwight. The next few minutes was a mad scramble as Angela and Dwight stood and shouted overlapping instructions and Michael pelted for the exit at record speed, mowing down Oscar in the process.

"Fire's not your friend, Kevin!" Dwight called, instructing him to hurry with interpretive waving of his arms.

Soon, they were gathered outside the building.

"Okay, guys, listen up, we need a head count. We need to count off. Michael's number one. Where is he? Where is he? " Dwight shouted.

"The only thing I'm counting on is the hot firemen." Meredith said, leaning towards Kelly.

"Oh yeah." Kelly nodded happily. Angela tilted her head towards the two in annoyance.

"No." she said stubbornly.

Meredith wasn't fazed. "There ain't nothing hotter than a fireman who knows how to use his hose." she said seriously. Kevin giggled at them.

"Hey, Jim. When is Pam coming back?" Kevin said, still laughing.

Jim shook his head discreetly. "I dunno, Kev."

"Forgot to ask her when he rolled off her this morning." Meredith said to Kelly, using the side of her mouth. Kelly snickered behind her hand.

"What?"

"Yeah, man, what you doing doggin' Roy like that?" Darryl appeared. Jim suddenly felt very uncomfortable, noticing all the eyeballs on him at that moment.

"Okay, everyone. Shouldn't have to say this. But there is nothing going on between me and Pam. Okay?" he said irritably.

"That didn't work for Bill Clinton." Angela pointed out.

"Bill Clinton had sex with Pam?" Kevin said in awe. Dwight came running towards the group, knocking into Jim as he came to a stop.

"Where's Michael?" he yelled, looking around. Not waiting for an answer, he shot off towards the building.

"Hey, Dwight!" Angela shouted at his retreating back. "You can't go in."

"Dwight." Oscar protested.

"What the hell is Dwight doing? Michael stepped up behind Angela, leaning forward and squinting his eyes. She sidestepped away from him.

"There you are." Angela said, glaring at him.

Michael looked sheepish. "Here I am. Where's Dwight going?"

"Five bucks it's to his death." Stanley drawled dismissively and moved away from them as a flash of red indicated the arrival of the fire engines.

Michael groaned loudly. "He is an idiot. The man is an idiot, ladies and gentlemen." He jerked his neck round to see two firemen stepping out of the vehicle. "He went in the building? He's such an ass."

Raising her eyebrows, Angela scowled. "Hey, he was looking for you."

"He didn't go inside." Meredith cut in. "He ran off towards the back there." She pointed over in the direction of Michael's car and smiled suggestively at the firemen.

Michael looked somewhat relieved. "Oh… well… I better tell somebody anyway…. Idiot…" he mumbled looking around. "Jim, go check back there."

Jim reacted in surprise. "Uh, me, what?"

"Go check. Just yell at him to get back here." Michael said, trying to get the attention of a fireman.

"Yell at him?" Jim said in wonder.

"Excuse me, sir?" he heard Michael say as he walked off, seriously considering the sanity of the people that he worked with. He wanted to get away from any further interrogation about Pam, so perhaps Dwight had done him a favor. Michael was right, he worked with a bunch of idiots. He was more than irritated by them – fine, Darryl he understood, Darryl was friends with Roy, Roy and Darryl were warehouse, not office so his loyalties would be to Roy. But the rest of them, who saw Pam every day of the working week automatically believed she was at fault. And himself, he allowed, although with the feelings he had for Pam he supposed he deserved some of the fallout – but not Pam. Pam was blameless, she had done nothing to deserve any of this.

On he strode, his shoes slapping the ground loudly in his annoyance. Finally, he spotted Dwight, just on the side of the building, away from view of the staff. He was standing at the end corner; Jim suspected he was planning to go round the entire building. Now becoming thoroughly vexed, he decided to go back and assure Michael that Dwight was fine and coming back on his own.

Jim stood for a moment before turning back again, but before he could place more than a step forward two hands caught hold of him and forcefully shoved him back again the wall of the building.

"Halpert!" Roy growled, and immediately raised his fist, landing a punch square on his jaw. It was a fair hit, and Jim painfully collided with the wall again, briefly cursing Roy's strength. Jim was a tall man and if it wasn't for the wall he would have been on the ground – this is what he did to Pam?

Jim pushed back off the wall angrily. "You didn't deserve her. You almost killed her!" he shouted angrily, remembering the vicious red-purple fingermarks he'd left around her neck. He pushed Roy back, hard. Hands grabbed at him, pushed at him, pinned him against the wall roughly.

"You had this coming." someone laughed maliciously close to his ear. Roy stamped forward and raised his fist again. Now the hands were holding his arms and he couldn't move, couldn't struggle out of their cold grip, couldn't fight back. Roy's fist collided with his cheek, the impact temporarily sending black clouds over his vision.

Everything happened in a blur. The next he knew, he was on the ground, on his knees and his eyes were stinging viciously and worse, he couldn't see a thing. Blinking madly, he made out the groaning form of Roy rolling around on the floor. And next to him, sitting up, was Kenny.

The scene probably would have looked comical to an observer. Roy and Kenny on the ground, Jim clambering to his feet, his eyes streaming. And there Dwight stood holding out a spray can in his hand like a gun, almost daring the men to move a muscle.

Jim furiously scrubbed at his eyes. Roy was still on the ground moaning, but he had stilled now. He didn't seem to be making any effort to get up. Jim looked down at him with pure contempt.

"What you did to her." he said tightly. "You treated her like she was dirt. You hit her. You put her in the hospital."

"The police are on their way." Dwight said, not moving the arm holding the mace. Roy made no response. Kenny, on the other hand had no such qualms.

"Roy didn't do nothing she didn't ask for!" he yelled back.

As though he didn't hear, Jim once again addressed Roy. "For four or five years! You got away with it. You made her live like a slave. You deserve worse than what you gave to her. You deserve worse than jail. How could you do that to her?"

"Real fair." Kenny mumbled, starting to get to his feet and thinking better of it when Dwight stepped closer to him.

"Don't talk to me about fair!" Jim snapped. "I saw what you did to her. She's lucky to be alive. You never should have laid a finger on her!" he said, his voice raised. Roy had gone very pale on the floor. Jim looked on him without pity. "You blamed her. You told her it was all her fault that you got mad and beat her up. You told her she deserved it. Every time. You think that's fair?"

Kenny grunted something incomprehensible.

"What she deserves is someone who treats her with respect. She is an amazing person-" he said with deep feeling. "She is good, kind, selfless and so loving. You never saw any of that. You saw a punchbag. You saw a thing you could order around and control. You saw someone to use all your anger on, to bear the blame for everything wrong with you!"

Jim nudged Roy with his foot. "You're not even a man, Roy. No man would have done that to her. You're an animal. And she is worth so much more than you. Stay away from her. "

Jim stepped back, out of breath. A police car was slowly driving down into the car park. The relief he felt was indescribable. He turned towards to police and stopped on seeing Michael, standing there, a picture of horror on his face. Behind him Toby, Ryan and Darryl stood, identical looks of shock playing over their faces.

-TO-

She couldn't take her eyes away from the door. Pam wrapped her arms around herself, breathing unsteadily. She'd been sitting out there in the hall since Toby called. She hurt in a way she had never felt before. The guilt she felt was like a red hot poker twisting and turning in her stomach. She leaned against the wall miserably. She was suffocating, a deep heavy feeling in her chest fighting her for every breath. It was all her fault. She made this happen. She didn't even know what had happened, not fully. But she knew it was because of her. She would never forgive herself. She wouldn't blame Jim for not forgiving her. She had dragged him into this.

She was deeply afraid – afraid of so many things. Jim was hurt. She had got Jim hurt. Michael was driving him home. Roy would not leave them alone. She rose to her feet and traipsed down the hall lethargically, methodically walking around the downstairs, locking up all the windows and doors. She pulled the curtains shut and then climbed up the stairs like a zombie, closing and locking the windows on the second floor. The house was darker now. Somewhat satisfied now she had locked herself up in the house, she would wait for Jim to come home and leave the world outside.

Pam stepped into Jim's bedroom without a second thought. Climbing onto his bed, she buried herself in a pile of pillows and blankets, pulling his bed cover up over her head. Then the tears came, and she began to think they might never stop.