There was a brief, terrifying moment before reality crashed down around her like an aerial bomb, and Pam searched for safety in the darkness behind her eyelids, hopelessness spiking her heart. She was excruciatingly aware of Roy, not twenty feet away, dark brown pupils burning into her. For it was not the judge he was angrily staring at she was sure, but her. She didn't need to look at him to know this.

She stood stiff and tense, every muscle locked in place, the eye of her mind calculating the steps between her and Roy, the strategic placements of the officers and the cold harbor of the brown framed door to her right marked exit. One white sole of her keds tapped up and down rapidly on the hard floor, and she was again thankful for her carefully strategic attempts at simplifying her outfit in such a hurry following the phone call from Murphy. She was taking no chances at obstruction or falling if she had to move quickly. While her family was seated behind her, more or less as anxious as she was, to the front of the room there came an irritating whisper of papers shuffling through fingers. Slowly. Deep, guttural breathing while Judge Summers concentrated behind the bench, settling herself forward.

It was easy to see the pity on the Judge's face as she meditated on the white sheets of paper in her steady hands.

"State of Pennsylvania." she finally continued. "Verdict-"

"Just lock him up!"

Reflexively Pam spun round at the interruption, an angry adrenaline running through her veins causing her hands and knees to shake ever more. She tugged her shirt down, traitorous tears pricking her eyes at the absurdity of the sudden protest, and the sheer terror it had sent her into.

"Excuse me?" Judge Summers said stonily, lowering the papers and narrowing her eyes towards the back of the room, appalled at the interruption.

"Lock him up for life." Michael mumbled in reply, his cheeks reddened. However, unfortunate as it was his grumbles echoed clearly around the courtroom. Pam could see the typical Michael passive-angry expression and his slumped body from her vantage point – the expression he most often favored when Toby was near, and from the seat neat to him the tentative almost worshipping look on Dwight's face as he too stared at his boss.

"Order!" Judge Summers spat out with irritation, her voice rising. "Sir, this is not Judge Judy. You will keep quiet or you will leave."

More grunts and grumbles drifted from the back of the room while Michael slunk further into his seat, folding his arms. The Judge held her gaze on him momentarily as if challenging him to interrupt again.

"No parole!" Dwight called out, in perfect imitation of Michael, making the other members of the public turn to look at them again.

"Back door parole!" Michael added peevishly. The two of them sparred together energetically, a growing clamor in the tension of the room.

"Pick up the soap-"

"No, idiot it's drop the soap!"

"Oh.. ? No soap, no soap."

"Idiot." Michael muttered again, flinching as Judge Summers slammed her hand against the wooden bench with a loud crack.

"Order!"

Pam glared at the two men in frustration, biting down a strange urge to descend into laughter at the situation. She could see the back of Jim's head, the jaw muscles at the side of his mouth twitching minutely and instinctively knew he was conflicted too. There was Betsy, calmly beside Jim, completely bewildered. And then there was her father, stunned and looking the both of them up and down with furrowed brows as though he had never seen anything quite so ridiculous as the pair of them before. Pam knew that expression – it was the same one he wore whenever he caught the neighbor kid peeing against his trash can.

The whole thing was absurd. She forced her lips together painfully while the judge continued to lecture Michael and Dwight, and by extension the entire room. However her held back laughter disappeared as if by magic as the judge spoke, once again addressing the court.

"If we can restrain ourselves from further commentary," she said, heavy sarcasm lacing her voice. "We'll continue." Once again her slender fingers lifted the white papers and resumed to read. "We the jury…"

Pam's breath froze in her throat. Once again she closed her eyes, frantic waves thrashing in her head painfully.

"-as to Count One; of attempted murder by strangulation find the defendant," Judge Summers paused, eyes moving over the paper. "Not guilty."

The world stopped still around her. The meagre lunch she had attempted to eat earlier climbed into her throat, darkness descending over her.

A deep silence captivated the room. No one made a sound not even Roy. Yet Pam had hot flames of panic heaving through her chest. She shivered, cold drops of sweat pricking the base of her neck. Not guilty. Not guilty, not not not echoed through her. She urged to run, vomit, flee but when she tried to move her feet were rooted to the floor. It was all over. She had failed, it would never be over. Not guilty.

"-felony aggravated assault in the second degree find the defendant guilty."

What? she thought, her head shaking in small, jerky motions. The charges were read on and Pam struggled to take the words in with understanding. Misdemeanor in the first degree by stalking – guilty. Count four misdemeanor assault in the second degree by strangulation - guilty.

"Verdicts agreed by the jury to this day of…"

The words were lost in the waves. Somewhere in the storm there were gasping sounds and harsh, jagged sobbing but she barely registered it. All she knew was that it was over. It was finally over. Roy would be going away. They had believed her. She would be safe from him, and live with no longer the threat of him turning up with intent to harm her or Jim, safe from his hands circled around her neck again. She would be free. Something heavy in her chest loosened and a sudden rush of breath exhaled from her. She felt light, lighter than air for the first time in a long time.

"Sentencing will be four weeks from now. Defendant is remanded to custody."

Against her own volition Pam's head turned to her left as the judge made her closing remarks, turned and saw just barely out of her peripheral vision Roy, his hands behind his back, slumped shoulders, head bowed, withered… looking as defeated as she had never seen him. Not a word was sounded from his lips as he ambled dejectedly towards the exit alongside of two officers.

He didn't look back once.

She stood for a moment, contemplating the exit as her former fiancee, her tormentor drifted through it like a ghost and, she prayed, out of her life forever.

"Thank you. Thank you for everything." Pam turned to Murphy, lifting his hand in hers. "Thank you." She couldn't stop saying it, and she was still repeating the words when she stepped round the desk and was immediately engulfed in a blanket of smothering arms and tears. She caught the sweet floral fragrance of her mothers perfume, and somewhere through the madness, the typically warm, earthy scent of the man she loved.

- TO-

She thought Jim would never stop hugging her. If her parents had embraced her zealously, Jim had practically smothered her – once her father had finally relinquished his hold on her. Clutching her against his chest needily, almost desperately, Pam felt positively overwhelmed. Grateful for him, she clung to him in return, subconsciously recognizing his neediness as a need for reassurance – for comfort himself.

"It's okay." she heard herself mumble into his chest. She didn't know whether she was talking to him or herself. It didn't really matter.

Finally, outside the courthouse they walked out towards the steps down to the path that led around to the parking lot. Pam slid her hand into Jim's as she lifted her head towards the sky. The clouds were shifting and moving and changing shape, white and dark clouds molding together to form a murky grey. Straight ahead there was a small, growing break in the sky, with a bright streak of sunshine flashing through down to the ground and over the paths in front of them. It was beautiful.

"Hey." Jim crooned, lightly tugging on her hand and bringing her out of her thoughts. Pam smiled at him contemplatively and nodded.

Helene, who had been watching the two of them, put a soft hand on her daughters shoulder and stepped round to face her. "So what are you going to do now, are you going back?"

Pam nodded again. "Yes." she said. "We're going home."

"Home?" William raised a knowing eyebrow at his daughter, a smile curling at the corner of his lips.

"Yes." Pam said confidently. "Home." She turned her head, searching Jim's expression until her eyes met his. Understanding passed between the two and his worry lines and clenched jaw smoothed out and formed a warm smile. Gently hooking his arm around her shoulders he nudged her closer and she leaned into him willingly.

"Call us when it's a good time to come over." Helene said. "Betsy and I were thinking we'd visit later on, if that's okay."

Pam assured her mother and Jim's mother that she would call them. Privately she wanted a moment on better ground than the courthouse steps to say her thanks to everyone for standing by her the way that they had. She also desperately wanted some quiet time to herself. She and Jim saw them off to their respective cars, gently fending off questions as to her well-being, how she was feeling. That she didn't know.

"You okay?" Jim said, as they rounded off the corner towards Jim's car.

Pam didn't say anything for a moment, simply sliding her hand into his again. "I think so. I don't know." she admitted. "I thought I would… I don't know what I thought. It's not sinking in, I don't think. I don't…."

"-Know." Jim finished. "That's okay." he said lightly. After a moment a small chuckle emerged from him and she turned her head to him suspiciously.

"What?" she said, narrowing her eyes. Jim looked at her sheepishly and struggled to keep a straight face.

"Michael." he said, snickering.

"Dwight." Pam allowed a smile. She couldn't find it in herself to be angry with them, not really. They had been there for her, of their own accord. She wasn't going to find fault with them. They were who they were. You took the good with the bad.

She stood by the passenger door as Jim walked around to the driver's side to unlock the car. The sun was glinting off the windscreen creating beautiful pyramids of light. She put her hand to the side window, feeling the warmth seep through her cold fingers, her eyes drawn towards her bracelet, a circle of sparkles and glitter in the bright light. She had barely taken it off since Jim had given it to her, and its beauty never failed to surprise her. He'd given her more in less than a year than Roy had in seven.

She heard somewhere outside of her thoughts Jim calling to her, saw him climbing into the car. It was over, all over, she thought, drifting off again, blindly fumbling for the door handle.

She never saw it coming.

Her fingers slipped from the handle as something slammed into her back, spinning her round and seizing her arm.

"It should be you in jail. You!" the woman stormed, squeezing Pam's wrist hard.

"Woah!" she heard Jim say hurriedly as he scrambled out of the car. Pam stared at her assailant, her arm still held up in mid air, bulky fingers circling her flesh roughly.

"Let her go!" Jim demanded, moving towards them.

"I told him right from the start you were no good for him," she snarled. "I told him you were no good."

"Mrs…. Anderson." Jim said, reaching out to her.

The woman ignored him, a burning hatred directed at Pam. "He done nothing to you. No wonder he got sick of ya, told him you were no good, now it's up to me to deal with and to tell you what a lying –"

"Shut it. Just shut it!" Pam suddenly snapped. Her eyes burned. She was tired, so tired. So tired of this whole damn family. Roughly she yanked her arm out of the woman's grasp and, in a rare moment of unbridled wild frustration, shoved the woman away from her. "Just shut up."

Roy's mother looked positively outraged as she regained her balance. Momentary shock covered her face, then it twisted back into a hard mask of fury.

"It's over. Just deal with it." Pam said, interrupting the woman who had been about to launch another scathing attack on her. "Get out of here, just go."

"You think this is over? My two boys are in jail because of you." Mrs Anderson bit just short of a scream. "Look at you. I knew you were trouble from the start. You're nothing but a filthy canc-"

"I said shut it!" Pam heard her own voice rise. "It is what it is. Your son did it, he did all of it and you know it and so does everyone else. Come near us again and you can go to jail too. Your choice."

The woman turned positively white. "Don't you speak to me like that. I mean it." She stepped forward again, only to be stopped by Jim's outstretched arm, pressing her back away.

"Back off. You heard what she said. I think she made herself clear enough." he said firmly.

Roy's mother glared at them both hatefully. "What you gonna do about this then? He's gonna stay in jail and it's all your fault."

"It's not my fault." Pam stood her ground. "Roy is what he is – a bully, a coward and someone who hates woman and if anything is true it's your fault! You made him what he is, not me. You want answers, go look in the mirror, go to him. I'm sure he has a few things to say to you. I'm done with you, done with him and I'm gonna get in this car and we're going to leave and you and I are not going to have anything to say to each other in the future, got it?"

With that she opened the door and got in to the passenger side, leaving the woman no room for retort. As small as she felt about it, Pam was slightly smug about getting the last word, if not shaking a lot more than she let on.

Jim didn't say a word as he got in next to her, simply locking the doors and starting the engine. Slowly he pulled the car out of the lot and started home.

It was about half way there when he finally spoke. "Well, Beesly." he said pleasantly. "That was awesome. And all these years I've been taking the rap for our pranks to protect you. I'm coming to you next time Dwight builds a fort round our desks or Kevin tries to tackle me for the donuts."

"Hey." Pam said, lightly punching him in the arm. "I can handle Dwight."

"Ow!" Jim moaned playfully. "So tough." They turned a corner, slowing down for traffic. "Seriously, Pam. You were amazing, you really told her off. Although we definitely should report her to the police. If Roy gets sentenced in four weeks-"

"Jim." she said softly, laying her hand on his arm. "This can all wait until we get home. Let's just take a break."

"Okay." he said amiably. "But," he glanced at her before returning his eyes to the road. "I am proud of you though. Just wanted you to know."

"I know." Pam felt her cheeks reddening. "And one day I'll find a way to thank you for everything. Because," she took a deep breath. "Because I wouldn't have done this without you. I'd still be with Roy. Or not here at all." she said, thinking of the night she had left.

"Give yourself some credit, will you?" Jim looked at her meaningfully.

"Let's just go home." Pam replied. It was another discussion that could wait until later.

"Home." Jim repeated with a smile. "You win."

She laughed ruefully, toying with the buttons on her jacket.

"There are no winners in this game. But that's okay." she said softly. "I've got something better."