- Text Size +
Author's Chapter Notes:

I'm too tired to recap all from the last chapter...but here's a quick list to spark your memory:

Elvis and Premonitions

PB&J sandwiches and movies

Snores and a broken Time Turner

Glue and Doodles

Tears and Lists

Puxatawny Phil and Packer 

This next one doesn't have a lot of forward movement - think of it as the calm before the storm. 

 

After Michael left she made herself as comfortable as possible, layered between two sheets and a light blanket she'd brought from home. Even so, she barely was able to sleep, not when a few feet away was the desk with a drawer full of her doodles and an envelope with her name on it to keep her mind from shutting down.

In addition, being alone at Dunder Mifflin in the middle of the night wasn’t making it any easier to succumb to the exhaustion that her body felt. Neither was her worry about the Time Turner, and if the arrival of morning would also bring a new flareup of overlapping memories about a day she had yet to live. Tomorrow, she knew would be different from what she currently remembered of it and though she was cognizant of why, it was still very confusing.

As if that wasn't enough to keep her awake, there was also everything she’d come to know over the last two weeks, prompting her to make a decision she never let herself even consider before. Thoughts of it might have always been inside of her, but her boxes had always been shut tight, her vault sealed.

Now, because of the information overload, what had been locked away was out, existing as a complete life form, beating and breathing and struggling to stay free. Fussing and fighting for dominance as her brain danced back and forth with the choice she had to make. Distant memories of good times with Roy were now interrupted by Jim’s ‘may I cut in’ as thoughts of him flooded the crowded dance floor that was her mind.

When at last she was able to drift off to some form of sleep, it wasn’t Roy or Jim she saw, but Gabby and Randall, or at least what she imagined they might have looked like back when they danced to Elvis at the wedding that could have just as easily not happened had it not been for their magical kiss in the kitchen.

It was dark still when Pam was jolted awake. What had moments ago been the sound of silverware on glass, a united clanging persuading the imagined bride and groom to join lips again, was suddenly the shrill tone of the alarm blaring from the clock that read 4:30AM.

Slamming her hand down to stop the noise that took her away from the long-ago wedding, she looked for any sign that Michael had returned. Finding nothing to indicate he had, she took another beat to search her memory for new ones, in the case her other self had also awoken early unable to sleep after the fight she'd had with Roy last night.  

Noting nothing she hadn't already known, she carried her fatigued body to the women's restroom to check the couch for Michael. She knew he’d been making his bed there in the days before she joined him here. Perhaps he had come back and succeeded to slip by her in the few hours she actually managed to sleep.

With still no sign of him she grabbed her overnight bag and rushed down the back stairs to the secret room with the unexplained shower. Despite the locking door she hadn’t been sure she could get completely undressed with Michael anywhere in the building. Now that she knew he wasn’t, she felt slightly more comfortable but still not enough to strip down to nothing. She was thankful she had the foresight to pack extra underwear affording her a pair she could keep on while she showered.

He was right, the pressure was heavenly and if she weren’t concerned about him returning while she was washing up, she may have spent longer letting the penetrating spray take her away from all her troubles, if only for the shortest respite.

Once showered and back upstairs, a protracted quiet indicated her Michael had not yet come back from dropping off Packer, which as alarming as it was, she was somewhat thankful for. After coffee and something to eat she would be better equipped to handle him, that is if he showed up at all.

By now he had to know enough not to arrive once the regular work day began.

At least, she hoped he did. It certainly would be easier if she only had to keep watch for her second self today, but somehow she knew he’d not only show up, but at the exact wrong time and she'd have that fire to put out too.

With what she figured was at minimum another half hour before anyone else showed up she returned to the kitchen. No other sound filled the space except her stomach starting up with its morning rumbles, not yet at maximum volume but headed there if she didn’t get something in it soon.

As she put up coffee, the only memory that remained of the new day ahead was waking in a relatively good mood, even if a bit apprehensive about what might be awaiting her in the office after the few days away, and going about her normal morning routine. That nothing new had formed could mean one of two things—that she'd overslept back at home and had nothing new to remember yet, or their glue job did the trick and the prevailing remembrance about the way today began was the offensive aroma in Michael's office, that is until she made new ones as the day went on.

Hyperaware of her every action and how it could affect the day, she worried if the freshly-made coffee would be curious to whomever showed up first, but then quickly put it out of her mind as she told herself mysterious self-brewing coffee wouldn’t be the strangest thing to ever occur in this place.

Time running out, she sat down to eat a quick something. Even after two bowls of cereal and one of the toaster pastry things Michael bought for them to share, she was still ravenous, not a surprise with all the emotions she was feeling so she returned to the fridge to see if she had any yogurt that hadn’t expired while she was out on her vacation. Most of them had, but she did find one that still had time. It wasn’t stealing, she argued internally, if she was taking something from herself.

Focused on swiftly swirling the berries in the small container, she didn’t hear the sound of someone entering the kitchen until he spoke.

“Morning Pam.”

For a second, she thought it was Michael, but as she whipped around, she saw it was Randall, eyeing her curiously. Something in the way he looked at her indicated he was not sure which version she was.

“What are you doing here so early? I would think you’d soak up every last minute of your time away from this place.”

Was he fishing for her to reveal something? The first time he came upon her like this, he used the code word he had overheard to let her know what he knew.  She couldn’t understand why he didn’t just call her Hermione again.

Figuring she’d help him out, with the hopes the reason he wasn’t using it wasn’t that when they broke the Time Turner, they also erased his memories of knowing there were two Pams floating around in this timeline.

“Randall, it’s me, Hermione.”

If he had looked confused before, his squinched up nose and furrowed brow indicated he had no idea what she was talking about by calling herself the young witch from the JK Rowling stories.

Oh shit, she thought. This day was going to get more complicated than she thought if Randall didn’t know she was a time-traveler. Not to mention, who was to know what other damage they may have caused when the ring around the Time Turner broke.

“Huh? Who’s Hermione? I mean I know she’s a Harry Potter character but what do you mean you’re her?”

He stopped and craned his head around the kitchen as if he himself was looking around for someone hidden with a secret camera, like she and her officemates often were.

“Oh wait. Pam, tell me, where’s Michael?”

“Which one?” she answered giving it one last try since she still felt there was something different in the way he was talking to her, the coded questions, the odd looks.

Her response seemed to calm his face, bringing it back to the relaxed look she was used to seeing on him, that is when his face wasn’t hidden by the contraption that, ever since her return trip to the boat, she knew caught more than she ever could have imagined.

“Ah so it is you? Future Pam, right?”

Breathing a huge sigh of relief, Pam nodded. “Yes, I am the time traveling version and boy am I glad you know that.”

“I wasn’t sure.  It's not beyond Michael to have called Pam on her vacation to ask her to come in early on her first day back to help him prepare for Jan's…" he air quoted the rest, "gabbedy gab, gossip fest."

Randall was right, not knowing what the new future had in store for them today, she had no idea what the other Michael might be doing now that a whole new timeline was being written. He could arrive early, especially since he had been all aflutter about the fact that Jan was throwing this seminar in the first place. He'd even suggested she postpone her trip back when he first found out, worried she would not be around in the days before it to help him prepare for the event. She refused, knowing there was no way Roy was going to allow that. Besides, Jan assured her when she scheduled it, there was nothing special they needed to do, except be ready for an illuminating session with her fellow female co-workers. Michael's worry, she knew had something to do with what happened when they had that client meeting, but there was nothing she could do to help him with that even if she been around yesterday, in either timeline.

It did mean she had less time than she originally thought. On top of that, if Randall was in this early, it meant Matt could be in soon too, and Brian and the rest.

“So, if you are future Pam, then I guess the question isn’t what are you doing her so early, but what are you doing here at all? Today's not the day you traveled from, is it?”

So, he did know she came back from an earlier time, knew there were two versions of Pam to potentially encounter, but why hadn’t he known about the code word? And what did that mean in the larger scheme of her own memories and going back?

She couldn’t worry about it now, not when she realized she’d lost more time, the minutes she thought she still had before she had to find a place to hide.

“Um no, but we stayed here last night to…” she stopped herself, remembering how he didn’t like to know about events that hadn't happened yet. Did this count? It wasn’t really the future or the past, at least not anymore.

“Have you been staying here? You know you are welcome to come back to my place. You don't need to subject yourself to more time at the office with Michael. But, tell me what kind of hijinks are we in for today? I want to be ready for all the good stuff.”

Now it was Pam’s turn to look at him all confused. Not only did he forget the code word but he seemed to have a whole new attitude about knowing things about the future.

“Your guess is as good as mine Randall. We um, changed some stuff, Michael and me, last night, so I’ll be living today for the first time just like my other self.”

Randall nodded, then pressed her to share, looking fascinated as she went on to tell him all about what had been the events that were supposed to happen, with Packer and the stinky package and the new carpet, right up to when Michael got his hands on the Time Turner and brought them back.

He went from laughing to almost crying before he got hold of himself as she told him how they stopped that awful creep, Packer last night before he could leave his little present.

“Michael left to take him home and still hasn’t come back. I’m a little worried they might have had an accident or something. That somehow Packer convinced him he could drive or just distracted him in some way. Michael's not his best when he's tired and we were up late.”

“Now that would have been something great to capture for the doc."

Pam looked at him slightly horrified.

"The package, not the accident of course,” Randall clarified. “I’m sure Michael’s just being Michael. He’ll show up. At the wrong time of course and we’ll have to watch out for that but I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Things always have a way of working themselves out.”

This was a whole new tune for Randall. With the mind meld of the memories after the turner broke, her head was still jumbled as to what he had said and when about their time travel, but she swore she remembered him not wanting to know what she knew. Adamant, he was about not knowing anything more than what he witnessed with his own eyes. The Randall she had come to know wouldn’t let her tell him anything about the future or how they came to be here again in the past. Now he was asking her questions about what to expect. It was strange, but maybe again, it had something to do with the break and repair of the magical apparatus.

She was about to bring that up, when out in the bullpen she heard the sounds of the door opening and people coming in. Both she and Randall turned back to look who it was and finding it was more of his crew, he relaxed but Pam frantically slurped up the yogurt she’d started. She knew it might be awhile until her next meal and she readied to make herself invisible before the others came in for coffee or to set up.

“Hey relax. They won’t know you’re one of two.”

“They might notice the different clothes. I mean later, when the real me shows up. I have no idea what I’ll be wearing but I’m sure it won’t be this since it’s no longer at my house for my other self to put on.”

“Ooo, you are right there. Let me go distract them while you finish up.”

Randall left her in the kitchen to scarf down the rest of the yogurt and was back before she’d taken her last spoonful.

“I told them to set up some extra mics in the conference room. That way you can sneak out to get your bag or whatever you need from your desk.”

“Thanks Randall. I think I’m good. I guess I should just find a place to hide now. Got any good places?”

He seemed hesitant to give most of them up but shared a few of the spots he liked to tuck himself away so not to be seen as he filmed her and her co-workers including one behind a giant stack of boxes in the accounting area she had never noticed before.

“There’s also the little closet between the bathrooms. I don’t think anyone ever goes in there except Sadiq and sometimes Meredith because she has a little booze hidden in there. You won’t be able to see much unless you crack the door but there’s no better place to catch the good stuff than here in the kitchen.”

Pam swung around to look to the closet between the two bathrooms.

Randall was right. There was always some juicy gossip to be heard in the kitchen. It seemed to be the place where her co-workers went when they had something to discuss not meant for everyone to hear, including the cameras but she was coming to realize it wasn't the safe place they thought it was and there was little escaping what Randall's lens would find.

She herself had many a private chat with Jim in here, often to complain about Michael, Angela, but most of all Roy. But not all their kitchen meets were about her problems. Many were to help him plot out a prank away from Dwight’s prying ears. The very thought of them cheered her momentarily and she pondered if might catch any confabs she and Jim could have today.  

As for the closet, in all her years here she never once opened it, she had no idea what was even in there.

Suddenly curious about that too, she walked over and grabbed the door handle pulling it open to see what was inside.

Metal shelving took up the bulk of the space, on which there were rows of binders, some cleaning supplies, little plastic trophies, spare Dundies she supposed, and office equipment, most of it broken or too old to be used any longer. In the center was a stack of boxes, covered with the various paper mill logos although Pam was sure it wasn’t paper stored in them. Stepping into the remaining space not occupied by giant CRT computer monitors or the boxes, she lifted the lid of the top one. There among more of the same binders that were piled on the shelves, some old plaques and framed artwork was a half empty bottle of Wild Turkey and a leather and metal strap contraption attached to a small red ball.

She shuttered as she realized what the item was and immediately let the lid fall back down. Meredith was not only a drunk, but into some very kinky stuff.

With all that was stuffed inside of the space, there was not much room left for her. She knew she would not be able to stay there all day as it was. It was way too confining to spend any more than about an hour with her legs crammed up into the crevices left between all the junk. Not to mention, there was the risk Meredith would be visiting her bottle, needing a swig after sitting through whatever this seminar with Jan was about.

Even when Randall suggested they move around the boxes she couldn’t see a way her limbs wouldn’t go numb being all crunched up for hours. She could hardly imagine how he was able to hide in it, moreover with his large video camera but apparently he had. It had her wondering how many private conversations he had filmed while they were unaware.

They were able to move a few things including one of the bigger old computer towers, which he planned to relocate to another closet in the back by where Kelly sat. With it gone she managed to get a little more comfortable in the space, maybe even enough to rest her eyes until it was safe to venture out again. Perhaps once Jan gathered the women in the conference room there’d be a time when she could sneak back through the annex when she knew Toby was somewhere else.

Randall was just getting ready to take away the computer when she called him back.

“Hey Randall. How come all of a sudden you’re not scared of knowing the future?”

He set down the large unit he was holding on the table and turned back to Pam.

“What do you mean?”

“So, before you didn’t want to know anything about what was going to happen. You said all this stuff about the repercussions on upcoming events if I even hinted at what was to come.”

“I did?”

Randall was shaking his head as if trying to remember his own past.

“I can’t recall saying that.”

Pam struggled to think back on her interactions with him, harder to do with so much in her head, new memories, old memories, ones that no longer existed except for in her mind and ones that maybe she was making up altogether. They absolutely had a conversation about time travel theories with Gabby at his apartment and he had said something about it when they were on the boat. But had he said what she thought he did in how knowing information about the future was extremely dangerous or was her intense recollection of it being said from Back to the Future?  Had she attributed the preaching of the scientist in that tale to her personal advisor of her own time travel adventures.

“Now that I think of it, maybe it wasn’t you. Maybe it was Doc Brown.”

“Like in the movie? Great Scott!"

He imitated the Christopher Lloyd role, adding a bit of a Michael Scott to his impression since it was a catchphrase her boss also used with some regularity.

"Yeah, but if you recall in the end, he broke his own rule. He followed his instinct and it was a good thing too or he might have been killed by the Libyans.”

Randall smiled warmly at her, his normally blue eyes brightening as he did into a more teal tone, a shade with hints of green and gold sparkling from them, like in those of a newly transformed superhero.

“Remember my theories about time travel.  We talked about them. See I know you think you guys changed things by stopping Packer and sure, temporarily you did. Much better that he didn’t leave a dump on Michael’s carpet, right, but the universe has a way of bringing things back around. So, if Packer was meant to crap on the carpet and it was supposed to be replaced, eventually it will be replaced. Which is a good thing because his carpet is pretty nasty anyway, am I right?”

Pam said nothing and just stared as Randall went on with his thoughts on the subject.

“I see time like a rubber band, for the most part it, the band will snap back. However, I amend my original statements on the matter. When you stretch it too much, at some point it will lose its elasticity and won't stretch anymore or any longer.”

Back at home in a basket in the bathroom there were a bunch of hair bands that were exactly as he described, stretched too many times around her wavy tresses they could no longer be used, their stretch pushed past the limit . She wasn't sure why she didn't just throw them out when they got to that point but for some reason, she tossed them back into the basket every time and now the useless ones outnumbered the ones that she might use to pull her hair up. Good thing she didn’t sport a ponytail very often.

“So, what are you saying, do you think Packer will be back tonight to try again?”

“Maybe, maybe not. I think what I’m trying to say is no matter what you do here while back in time, in the future things will always happen as they were meant to be. But even that is changeable if you want it to be. But it has to come from you, not some predetermined fate you believe has it all mapped out.”

Just as the last word escaped his lips, the door to the kitchen swung open. Angela who had been just about to step in, was briefly distracted by something or someone in the bullpen, giving Pam just enough time to mouth a thank you to Randall before she shut herself inside the closet.

Randall picked up the computer equipment again, softly humming a familiar tune as he walked to the door leading back to the annex. From her hiding spot, she could hear the refrain growing fainter, but Undercover Angel, the song she identified through by the melody alone, continued on in her head.

Chapter End Notes:

Like I said, not much in plot progression but I hope still an enjoyable read and a little breather before the major events to come. Thanks to all still on this journey with me.


You must login (register) to review or leave jellybeans