"Alright, knuckleheads. I want one out of each of your groups to pick a card. Don't look at the card yet. Any card. And I want you to look at the situation and answer the question. Every group has a different situation, a different vision and I have a vision that you will really go for it, be tough, be brutal. This is real life, not the office and these are not your friends today. Go for it." Michael waved an arm at the pile of cards beside him and stood back with glee.

"Any card Kevin, this isn't the counter at Dunkin's." he chided, standing back and folding his hands together.

"Uh huhhh." Stanley quirked a derisive eyebrow, smirking at Michael as he turned away with a card in hand.

"Twenty minutes people. This is no longer the conference room. This is the most important room of your life." Michael instructed. Stanley snorted in response.

"You and your partner have a baby together. You want to hire a babysitter. If you could ask just one question to discover a persons suitability for taking care of your child, what would your question be?" said Ryan, reading off his card.

"Oh man." Jim stared in awkwardly ahead, wishing he was anywhere but in that room. He had anticipated something like this when Michael had told them he was going to be overseeing team building exercises. But as always with anything that Michael had so much as a single fingertip of involvement in, he knew to expect the unexpected – and the ridiculous.

"Well. Is this babysitter a six, seven? Eight?" Ryan asked. Jim turned to him, his forehead creased.

"What?"

"Oh this is a good one," Michael sad peering over Ryan's shoulder. "Don't be afraid to get crucial, Jim. Get real. Your child's life is at stake."

"How would the babysitter feel about dating on the side." Ryan said.

"Woooo… yes, good Ryan, go with the morality. Push the lid off this thing." Michael said.

"Really, Ryan?" Jim raised his eyebrows.

"Jim, don't take that tone with your baby daddy. Teamwork and integrity are what we're working towards here. " Michael scoffed.

"I am really uncomfortable with that." Ryan said.

"Uh, yeah." Jim agreed.

"Get into it, Jim, push it. Ryan is your life partner, you should consider yourself very fortunate, as we all would."

Ryan and Jim swapped a look of disbelief as Michael continued. "You and Ryan have a baby together. What would you ask of a potential babysitter to be sure they wouldn't barbecue your baby in the oven, leave them at hooters, or sell them to a carnival?"

"A carnival?" Jim shook his head.

"So the babysitter has a job at hooters too?" Ryan said, as Michael turned away. Jim groaned, and without warning, sneezed violently.

"Hey, man, you're a salesman, not a weathergirl." Michael smirked, wiping his sleeve dramatically. "Keep the news to yourself."

"I know that patience and loyalty are good, and virtuous traits. But sometimes I just think you need to grow a pair." Angela was saying.

"Right." Karen agreed. "A good company leader is someone who knows where the dead ends are. Who knows what to downsize and what works. What losses to cut."

"Dead ends?" Angela was unmoved, her expression stern, looking up at the taller woman.

"Keep it real, Angela." Michael said, stepping up to them. Karen smiled at Michael.

"Dead ends. A boss who is tough, who knows what to cut and what to keep." Karen repeated. Angela glared at her.

"No."

"Oooh, now we have a debate. Good. This is good. Sparks, that's what we need. What makes a suitable leader of a company? Keeping in mind I am your boss." Michael looked up expectantly, a goofy grin plastered on his lips.

"A good leader of a company weeds out the… well.. the weeds. Things that don't work. You would ask a potential leader if they are prepared to make the tough decisions. Like reception, it's just empty space. We could field our own calls and do our own copies. Bang, a third of the company profits saved in one." Karen pointed out. Behind her, Pam, her face red, turned towards Karen, both a little fearful and curious at the same time.

"A third. Really?" Angela disagreed.

"Reception is the most important area of any office actually." Jim interrupted them. Karen's throat worked, as if it itched to make a response but she held her tongue and settled for a sharp look in his direction.

"That's right Moneypenny." Michael grinned. "Reception and by extension Pam is essentially the face and voice of our office and she plays an extremely important role here. She filters out the dead ends, like Toby, and she does everything I don't want to do. Plus, every office needs a hot receptionist or-"

"Michael." Jim coughed.

"Alright, alright. Pam, Stanley. What's your situation?"

"Oh, uh, marriage." Pam stuttered, caught off guard.

"Ohhh tricky. Never been there. Almost been there."

"I'll tell you what I told every one of my wives, and what I'll tell the next one. The vows say obey and if you don't like it, leave." Stanley said firmly, picking up his crossword and settling down on a chair behind him.

"Umm… right.." Pam said uncertainly. Michael groaned before wandering off towards Kelly and Dwight.

"It's not sexual discrimination, idiot! Women are not good leaders. Every month they are weakened by their bodies and further controlled by the moon – no woman is capable of being in control of a whole country." Dwight stated confidently.

Pam looked around the conference room in wonder, absorbing the eccentricities of the people she worked with. Still slightly stinging from the goading comments from Karen, she caught a familiar green eye filled with warmth and her mouth curved into a smile automatically. Jim reflected the smile back at her, meaning passing between the two of them, completely unaware of anyone else in the conference room at that moment; not least the pair of dark eyes burning bitterly towards them, watching their every interaction.

-TO-

Office politics exist, always have and probably always will. Pam knew that. Work politics were part of work life. Still, she had never quite had a situation like this before. She was the girl who had always got on with everybody, too shy to cause any real drama, not confident enough to stand up for herself when the situation warranted it. But here she was, the office receptionist; who had dated the warehouse guy, been engaged to the warehouse guy, been beaten by the warehouse guy and seemingly most of her colleagues knew this. She was in a sort of, hesitant to use the word – relationship with yet another colleague, her best friend no less – the very same person her former fiancee had believed she was having an affair with. He sat about ten feet from her everyday and now there was this other person involved.

She wanted a clean start. Yet Roy's case for assaulting her – and Jim – had still to come up. She was still tied to him. And now Karen. Why could nothing go smoothly for her?

She got up from her desk and wandered to the break room, deep in thought. What did Karen matter? What did any of them matter? Jim didn't want Karen.

She had to trust Jim. She knew that, he had done nothing to deserve her doubt. It was a hard thing, trust, to give freely. Jim was a man… not Roy…. A good man. So, why did she feel so insecure?

"It's not like they mean anything to me." she remembered Roy yelling at her during an argument. It was some years into their engagement. "You're the one I'm marrying, not them. I'm a man, I have needs!" he had screamed at her.

"How many were there?" she had wanted to know. Pam closed her eyes, the memory of the fight coming back to her.

Roy had shoved her back into the wall in anger. "If you would just do as I ask, or were there for me when I need you I wouldn't have to go somewhere else!"

"If you'd just ask me once in a while instead of just expecting me to be there like a piece of meat, then you'd know!" she'd replied, hurt by his admission. Roy had simply held her against the wall and suddenly his rage had gone.

"Don't you ever question what I do or who I see. You just do it my way and we'll get alone fine." His voice had been chilling, she remembered. Pam shivered and then lifted up the two steaming mugs from the counter and took them back into the office. She put hers down on her reception desk next to her phone and took the other over to the desk in front of her.

"Hot chocolate." she said warmly, grateful that Dwight was not there at that moment. Jim smiled at her with thanks.

"Thought you could use something warm inside you. Are you feeling alright?" she asked, putting a hand against his cheek. "You're pretty warm."

"I'm o-" Jim sneezed.

"Okay." Pam said, slightly amused. "Are my hands cold?"

Jim nodded. "Yeah. Felt pretty good actually."

Pam hummed at him, and touched his cheek again softly. "I think you've got a fever."

"It's hot in here." Jim explained, not very convincingly.

"Er, okay." Pam said humorously. "So.. I guess you don't need someone to come and bring you some dinner later, check you're still breathing?"

"That depends." he said. "Is someone going to say I told you so if I still have a fever?"

Pam chuckled at him. "Idiot." she said affectionately and went back to reception.

-TO-

Six o'clock came and went and Pam had let herself into Jim's house, feeling only slightly uncomfortable about using the key he had given her when she was hiding out from Roy there. Jim had never asked for it back, and seemed happy enough for her to keep it.

Jim definitely still had a fever, and it was definitely higher that evening by the time Pam arrived. Along with the rise in temperature he had developed a cough and a new, husky edge to his normally smooth, pleasant voice. Pam took one look at him and fetched him a blanket – the same blue blanket she had so often slept under on the same couch Jim was sitting on then. She felt at ease. This was okay. Taking care of someone she could handle, she knew how to do this.

She set to work making him vegetable soup from scratch in the kitchen, glad to be busy and doing something useful. When she went back to the living room, Jim was laying sideways on the couch, and very much asleep. Pam smiled at the sight of him and kneeled down on the carpet in front of him, gently stroking his soft hair back from his forehead. Then she lifted the blanket up to his chin and went off upstairs in search of a hot water bottle. She didn't know if Jim would have one around, her mom seemed to be the only one in Scranton who ever used them.

She would bring him one from home if not.

-TO-

It was after eight o'clock when he finally stirred and sat up with a shiver, astonished to find Pam sitting in the chair adjacent to the couch.

"You didn't have to stay." he said, his voice coming out hoarse and scratchy. "But I'm glad you did." he added.

"You were burning up." she said. "And shivering at the same time. What kind of best friend would I be if I just up and left you like that."

Pam noticed the brief expression that flickered over Jim's face before he laid his head back down on the cushion on the arm of of the couch. She winced a little; they hadn't really talked about the use of the 'official' terms for each other – boyfriend or girlfriend. But again, she herself had said, no labels.

She knew though, Jim thought of her as just that, his girlfriend. Maybe that was okay. They didn't need labels. They knew where they stood with each other. That was all that was needed.

Gently she prodded Jim into sitting up again and fetched him some hot soup. Throughout the evening Pam relayed him hot cocoa and sips of water and endless blankets before he finally went up to his room, coughing and sneezing all the way. Pam followed him, carrying the blue blanket and a fresh glass of water. She sat down on the edge of the bed, a little concerned over his rising fever.

"I just need a good night's sleep." Jim mumbled hoarsely. Pam shook her head good naturedly.

"You've got flu, I think." she said seriously. "Do you need anything else?"

"Mmmm." Jim hummed as he snuggled into the warm covers, feeling surprisingly happy despite how unwell he was. "There was something actually. Something I want to know."

"Really?" Pam said, looking down at him with a small smile at the husky voice coming from him.

"Yes. Tell me. Why were you sleeping in my bed that day?" he croaked. Pam almost laughed. Not quite the request she had been expecting. Her face flushed with embarrassment, and she slowly opened her mouth to attempt to provide some sort of explanation when she realized he was asleep again.

She smiled fondly down at the man, her sort of boyfriend, her sort of partner… the man who was nothing like Roy at all, the man who had more patience and more love in him than Roy had in his own shadow. She sat, watching him sleep so peacefully from her perch at the edge of his bed. Truthfully she was worried about his fever and how quickly he had taken so sick. She considered that she may need to call a doctor in the morning if he still had a fever.

Looking at the time and glancing down at Jim again, she made a quick decision, one she didn't think he would mind too much. Leaning over, she brushed the hair back away from his sleeping head and felt his forehead again with a frown. Then, feeling a slight guilt she softly kissed his cheek before getting up and going to make up the bed in the spare bedroom.