“Well, that is not the reaction I expected you to have seeing that clip. Did I cue up the right section?”

Randall’s reappearance in the kitchen had gone unnoticed until he spoke. It was only after his comment Pam seemed to become aware she was no longer alone and looked up.

It was clear from the red tinge of her eyes that she’d been crying but across her face was a wistful grin, making it hard for him to know whether her tears were from laughter or sadness or a mix of both.

“Or did you rewind back too far and catch some of the shit Michael pulled down in the warehouse. Darryl may not have thought so, but it was pretty funny. I’m glad I decided to head down there after Matt came up.”

Randall himself snickered, thinking of Michael’s Styrofoam peanut snowstorm as he plopped down in the seat next to her. Though sure she'd be no more amused than Darryl had been watching Michael make the mess, he slid the camera towards him to see what scene she’d last been viewing.

Paused on the monitor was the other Pam, also left on her own in the kitchen. Filling most of the frozen frame was a crown of her cinnamon hued curls, the bulk of them pulled back, not counting the few that had found freedom from the confines of the barrette.  Her eyes were shielded from view with a hand draped across the temple of her slumped head. Randall knew below it were the same puffy, red eyes as on the Pam next to him. Likewise, he knew it was the argument he caught on film that had caused them to well up in anguish, both during the live action and now. In fact, he suspected the sting of the fight would be worse for the version of Pam sitting next to him than for the one who had been in the middle of it.

Hell, it was why he felt justified to share the footage with her. 

If Jim couldn’t get through to the Pam in the camera, maybe he could get through to the one watching it play back. He was confused at first when he saw her face, but Randall soon realized that the subtle upturn of her mouth and reflective expression painted on it meant that at lost last, it seemed he had.

Pam turned her head to Randall, who after he adjusted a few buttons and flipped closed the small screen, looked back to her wearing a knowing smile of his own.

“Huh, Michael, uh… no… it’s not that,” she began, the inflection of her voice and the small vertical crease between her brows suggesting mild curiosity at the mention of Michael, but he suspected she'd likely not seen any of the warehouse footage. The shake of her head and shifting detachment to her tone said she had absolutely no interest in it either.  It was clear she had bigger things on her mind than laughing at more of Michael’s antics.

"I…it’s ... I think I've figured something out. No, I know I have. And there’s something that I need to do. It's two things, really. And I've been sitting here trying to work up the courage and a game plan to approach the first so I’m free to move on to the second."

The smile on her face lingered but the tenor of it changed. Where before, it seemed to express all the brightness of possibilities, now it seemed to hold the fear of them, too.

The mingled mien of somberness and sunniness that she wore only added to the odd note of her voice as she kept on talking, almost as if to herself, her attention not on Randall but staring over his head at the wall behind him.

Randall watched her eyes dance and flicker as if scenes she envisioned in her head were playing out like a movie, cast onto a blank space behind him.

“It, it… won’t be easy”, she stammered as she came back to focus on her twisting hands.

“In fact, I’m dreading it, but it is something I need to do. I should’ve done long before now but…”

A happy grin began to radiate again, this time growing bigger and broader than the one Randall saw on her earlier. There’d been a tension in her shoulders, too, that he only noticed as they dropped and it seemed to fall away.

“… but after it’s over, I can get to the other thing I need to do. And I think that is going to make me happier than I’ve been in a very long time.”

Upon finishing her thoughts, she looked up at him, her expression still a mix of exuberance and dread, but the former edging out the latter for dominance.

Randall feigned his suspicion, but he knew.

“It wouldn’t have to do with the person I caught you fighting with in my camera?”

««««««««

As Pam lifted her eyes to meet Randall’s, she noticed that hint of a smile he often wore around the office. The same one he donned as he filmed them, both restrained enough to remain professional and focused, yet friendly enough to make everyone feel safe to be themselves while the documentary took shape.

Had she not just spent a week with him and his wife, she might not have expected it when his thin, taut lips slowly expanded into a mirthful beam or recognized the twinkle come across his face. The hearty grin that reached up to his jewel-bright, glowing eyes was usually kept in check and didn’t make an appearance until he was at home and in Gabby’s company. But here it was on his face. When partnered with his probing question, it told her he knew what he was doing when he shared this footage, exactly what she was thinking after seeing it, and just what it was she needed to do.

“Um, well yes.”

Damn, Randall was perceptive. But then again, he’d had her and Jim under a microscope for the last eight months. She may have taken forever to see it, but he, watching them together every day must have known for some time what was happening between them. That he had lived a similar kind of story himself with the woman who would become his wife…as Pam had learned in her week staying with them… only made him more insightful of the growing love she’d been blind to see.

Randall pushed his seat from the table, setting to rise up with the large camera in his grasp as he did.

“Gabby is going to love hearing this. And she’ll g…”

Before he could get up to his feet or complete his thought, Randall started to shake, almost dropping the camera as he released his hold, then setting it gently down but letting his own body fall hard back into the chair. The quivering continued, becoming almost violent, as if he was being shaken by some unforeseeable force. As it went on, Pam almost could see the muscles in his back go into spasm, bulging outward with the tremors.

Before she could even react or try to help, the shaking stopped and Randall got onto his feet as if nothing had happened.

“Randall, what was that? Are you okay?”

He reached behind himself to smooth down his shirt which had ridden up during his strange convulsion. He began to tuck it in seeming to forget it had always been untucked and pulling it back out again he assured her he was fine.  

“Oh, don’t mind that. I must have twisted funny as I went to get up. It seemed to aggravate my spinal stenosis. Lovely little condition I acquired from the years of lugging around those babies on my shoulders for hours on end. I get these little back spasms from time to time. Not a big deal. Please forget you saw it.”

From Pam’s perspective, it appeared to be more than a little spasm but judging from his ability to twist his torso and tuck in his shirt he seemed to be fine again so she didn’t press him on it. Despite their having gotten to know each other better, she didn’t feel it was her place to anyway.

“And please don’t tell Gabby when you come back to our place tonight. She's been bugging me to see a specialist. But like I told her, it mostly happens when I don’t wear the lumbar belt she got for me and see today, I forgot it again.”

He flashed another view of his waist and the belt he had on, a simple leather brown one, nothing like the wide backed support brace kind that she knew Roy also owned but likewise wore infrequently.

“So, when I tried to get up and grab the camera at the same time, my back got a little angry. But you see, I’m fine and she gets overly worried. So, between us okay.”

His eyes pleaded with her as he pushed to change the subject back to the topic they’d been discussing moments earlier.

“Besides, there’s news I think Gabby would much rather hear about. You know, ever since you came back to our place with me and she got to know with you, she’s been asking me more about you and Jim. She’s been very interested in your friendship and thought there might be something more happening there. Seems she saw a little of herself in you. I heard she told you how we met and our own history. She’s going to be thrilled when you come back tonight and share what...”

CRASH!

Off in the other room there was a loud thud. The sound halts the conversation and sends them both running to the door despite little doubt from either as to the cause. Their suspicions are confirmed when she sees it is Michael returned from his hiding spot in the secret downstairs room, looking much more rested than when she last saw him, although very much in need of a comb and a shave.

From out of the kitchen, they hurried to join him and help pick up the pile of books, DVDs and audiobook cases that caused the racket when they dropped from his arms. Pam asked why he was carrying them all to begin with.

“Well, I figured we’d have to disappear again while the cleaning ladies’ do their thing, so we could swing by the library and drop these off, then Blockbuster to bring back last night’s movies, maybe rent a new one or two and finally pick up a special dinner to share when we come back here for our last night. I found a new place that serves portions fit for the appetites of kings, queens or time-travelers.”

Pam was somewhat impressed. It was a well-thought-out plan Michael had come up with and she was more than a little surprised he knew enough to return the books and DVDs, not only before the dates the materials were expected back, but before they themselves were due back in the other timeline.

“Oh, that’s very smart and very sweet, but Michael, I was planning to go back tonight with…”

She stopped herself mid-sentence.

Back when she decided what she needed to do, the first person she thought about, besides Jim, was Gabby. All along Gabby had been an influence and an inspiration in helping her realize not only what was possible but what she deserved-- support and respect, and above all the kind of love she knew Randall and Gabby shared.

Randall had made it easy, dropping into conversation an invitation to come back with him, eliminating any need for her to even ask. She was excited to return to their warm home for one last overnight stay where she would share with his wife the news about her decision and what she intended to do tomorrow. Never mind that Randall seemed to already know, at least generally what she had planned; it would still feel like telling a soul sister when over dinner and wine she would reveal everything.

But looking again at the growing disappointment washing over Michael’s face she found herself torn.

Randall had left after they gathered up what he had dropped, returning to the kitchen to put away the camera that was still out on the table, left behind when they ran out to the crash in the bullpen. She knew the cleaning crew would be coming in soon but tonight she was less bothered about what they might think and figured she could present a quick rundown of the plan with Michael in his office while they did their job in the other areas. Hopefully, Randall wouldn’t mind waiting a little longer so she could.

That’s when she decided she wasn’t leaving with him.

There was more than one reason to stay behind with Michael.

For one there was Randall’s earlier speech and his theory about how things meant to happen still would. They may have stopped Packer last night but who knew if he would try to come back again to attempt it again. She knew once the time travel was over, they’d no longer be able to keep Dunder Mifflin safe after hours from any of his foul deeds, but they could prevent him from leaving a disgusting deposit for one more night.

Maybe as they talked later, she could convince Michael that Packer should not have a key to the office any more than he should have a key to a car. In his hands, both were extremely dangerous.

At the very least, after she went over the strategy for tomorrow, they could also try to come up with a way to Packer-proof the office.

And who was she kidding, a quick rundown with Michael before she took off with Randall was never going to be enough for him to keep his role straight. His part was crucial to the plan, it could all fall apart if he couldn’t get her to come out, or showed up when he wasn’t supposed to or didn’t get her back in time.

They would need to go over it many times and that could only happen if she stayed behind with him.

Plus, with the other thing due to transpire tomorrow, they had a lot more to discuss beyond the plan where she changed her life forever. They needed to strategize about what to share and with whom, once the whole journey was over and they were each returned to being one single version. Or rather, Pam had to make sure Michael realized it was best he did everything he possibly could to keep this particular secret. That if he learned anything after the last time he spilled a confidence, it was how bad he felt afterward, and that was nothing compared to how he might feel when he was ridiculed for insisting that time travel was possible and he had done it.

Although, as she thought on it more, this was Michael. The things that came out of his mouth were quite often so outrageous that no one would think anything strange if he shared the details of his last two weeks. They wouldn’t believe a word of it of course, but also wouldn’t be shocked at his claims he had gone back in time. Still, it was better she try to convince him to keep it under wraps.

But none of those reasons were the true driving force keeping her here with him. 

What was was that she realized how she wanted to spend this last night with Michael.

To close out the two weeks of a crazy adventure with the crazy person she began it with. The same person who she now cared about it a way she never thought she could. The person she came to recognize loved her as if she was family and to him, she was.

The person who would still be there on Monday when this whole time travel experience was behind them, but she would miss in a way she didn’t completely understand herself.

She excused herself from Michael and went into the kitchen to tell Randall about the change of plans and to ask him for his assistance with one last thing.

When she came back out from speaking with him, she and Michael left the Dunder Mifflin office together to begin on the itinerary he had set for the night.

When they returned, she would share with him the one she had devised for tomorrow.

»»»»»»»

“I’m breaking up with Roy.”

Michael responded by grumbling audibly as he stabbed his fork into a crouton which crumbled upon impact. She was somewhat certain his reaction was more about his frustration at the inability to spear the perfect bite of salad with any single utensil. It had been the thing he’d been rambling about just before she blurted out what she planned to do tomorrow.

Picking one of the larger chunks up with his fingers, he placed it atop what remained on his fork and answered with a mmm-hmm before he carefully brought the composition to his mouth.

She expected a more drastic reaction.

Something akin to the one he’d had some year and a half back.

Kelly had arrived to work, her eyes swollen and red, black makeup smeared under them. When through her sobs, she tried to speak, her unintelligible voice came out rasp and scratchy.

When she managed to calm down long enough for Pam to ask what had her so choked up… expecting to hear some guy to have not called her back or something of the like, Kelly shared the news. It was long before anyone had ever seen or read a thing on the subject.

Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston’s marriage was in trouble.

Most of the office ignored her overreaction to the potential breakup. Angela harrumphed and went back to her spreadsheet. Stanley rolled his eyes. Phyllis asked where she’d heard about it while Pam listened in for her answer to decide if there was any veracity to the rumor.

Michael soon came out from his office to see what the all the commotion was about. With Kelly’s speech once more incoherent as she tried to talk through the uncontrolled sobs that re-emerged with Michael's question, it was Pam left to give him the news about the celebrity couple.

Upon hearing it, he did a full-on spit take, spraying the coffee he’d been drinking into Kelly’s face which set her off even more and she collapsed to a heap on the floor which he joined moments later. It took forever to calm them down and even after he let Kelly go home, since she was way too hysterical to talk to customers, he stayed despondent and spent the remainder of the day lamenting for the couple as if they were his own parents.

To the news Pam just shared, that she was ending the biggest relationship of her life and one where he actually knew both the people involved, he just stared at her and responded normally as if she had given him his messages.

“It’s about time. Never did see why the two of you were together.”

He went on eating his salad speaking through a mouthful of lettuce.

“Now, you know who I do see you with…and who is totally into you, too,” he began but then clasped his hand to his lips. Pam wasn’t quite sure if it was to keep the dressing from dribbling out the side or because he knew the conversation could lead to him revealing what Jim had said on the boat.

“Michael, I know you won’t tell me about what Jim said but that doesn’t matter. I know how he feels and to be honest it’s because of him I’ve come to realize I deserve better, that I can have better.”

“Good for you,” he said with his head down, his attention focused on the cherry tomato that kept rolling away from his fork.

“I guess if your plan is to dump Roy and then after the proper cooling off period give my boy, Jim the chance he deserves then I can let you in on what I told that young man.”

Having managed to spear it at last, he lifted the tomato up and swinging like a conductor’s baton he sang out, “Never, ever, ever give up. See, whatever it was he did to make you see that you and him make more sense than you and Roy, it’s all thanks to me.”

He barely looked up to notice Pam’s wide-eyed reaction.

Was he really taking credit for Jim’s love and devotion for her? And what was that thing he said about waiting a proper length of time?

But she was to a small degree grateful to him for the advice he’d given Jim. It may have been just the thing he needed to hear to end what he had with Katy that night.

Katy, with who it never would have worked with anyway. Pam knew as much from just the one longer conversation she had with her on the boat. She was not right for Jim at all and in time he would have seen it. Or would he? It took her over nine years to see how wrong Roy was for her.

And then while she’d still be calling off her own wedding, and doing it because of Jim—for a whole lot of reasons she had no idea existed until she even met him…he would be with someone else.

And she’d have to be okay with it because she would have missed her chance.

And she’d be the one in Jim’s spot, watching him plan a life with someone she knew was all wrong for him, wondering what could have been if she had only seen it sooner.

Maybe Michael was justified in taking some credit.

She was about to reach over to hug him when he finished chewing and added, “My little arteest, that advice goes for you and what you should be doing with your talent, too. Never, ever, ever give up.”

Her arms flew around him, knocking over what was left of the salad in the plastic take-out container.

---

“I’m doing it tomorrow.”

Pam stood up from the floor after scooping up the last of the lettuce. Michael was busy splitting the two pasta dishes onto their plates.

“Tomorrow?” he repeated as a question with a hint of shock to his response this time.

“Don’t you think we have enough to worry about tomorrow without adding a potentially messy breakup to the mix?”

Was she hearing him correctly? Was this Michael expressing concern about the complication tomorrow might bring?

After nearly choking on the sip of soda she’d just taken, she set the can down and looked over at him as he neatly placed covers on the remaining food after he doled them both out a generous portion of each.

Michael may not have learned to cook any new dishes like the ones from this new Italian place he suggested they try, or managed to acquire even a few new, correct words of a foreign language, or become any more skilled in playing an instrument...but he did seem to have gained wisdom over the two weeks. Just the fact he was able to recognize how tricky tomorrow would be and verbalized it so succinctly showed how much.

And he did have a point about the added trouble the acts she was planning would bring. But no matter how rational Michael’s argument was, she also had her mind set up.

She didn’t want to wait any longer to end things with Roy.

Or to tell Jim how she truly felt.

After the fight she just witnessed between them, she needed Jim to understand that she did hear him, she did see how he wanted her to grow and be happy, she knew the harsh words were because he loved her and her strong reaction was because she loved him.   

Even if it was only this new and improved, clear-sighted version of Pam that knew it.

She wasted too much time not seeing what had been there for so long, she couldn’t think of letting a single moment more go by without letting him know she finally did.

And even though she was hopeful it would be this fancy, new Beesly that would remain once two Pams became one, she still had no way of being sure the insights she gained in this world would come back with her.

Deciding it wasn’t enough to merely leave herself the written account, she had to make sure she got it. Got it and read it and for that she needed Jim to know everything. He needed to be her messenger, so he could be her future.

She believed the only way to ensure her happiness was to set the course right.  Right away.

“It has to be tomorrow and I know that will make things harder—and don’t you dare say that's what she said.”

Michael held his hands up in mock surprise and then clasped them together visibly indicating his pride.

It made her smile.

“But I have a plan and you only need follow a few simple directions.”

“Pam, I don’t know if I can. You know how I always seem to mess things up, no matter my best intentions.”

Just the fact he was able to recognize his past shortfalls assured Pam he could do this.

“If you were the old Michael, the one who overreacted about his carpet and got a little carried away with the Time Turner and got kicked out of Randall’s home in record time, I might say you are right. But Michael, because of our time here, you are different now. We both are. And seeing how much you believe in me played a big part. It’s why I have every faith in you, too.”

She waited until they had finished their meal and cleaned up after to give him all the details, first clearing the table and then grabbing some paper from the printer in the annex and a pen from off Toby’s desk to present the plan in writing. She had faith in him, that was true but not without him having a written account to study to make sure he understood what he was needed to do.

“Tomorrow, when morning comes, you’ll need to leave as you have been doing, but I will stay behind to take care of some stuff here.”

“Like kicking Roy to the curb?”

With the giddy giggle that followed his question, it was like Michael turned into a 16-year-old girl.

Or Kelly.

“Yes, Michael. And as much as it needs to be done, I’m scared and sad too. We’ve been together a long, long time and it is not going to be easy, especially when I’ll have to do it here at work and won't have much time to do it. But in a way, that’s why I’ve chosen to do it this way. Knowing I’ll have Jim and you and Randall upstairs will give me strength.”

“But I thought I’ll be gone.”

“You will. But remember the other Michael will still be here. But in order for the rest of my plan to work, he needs to be sent off too. That’s where I asked Randall to help out.”

Pam scribbled on the paper, creating the schedule and list of tasks for each of the players in her scheme.

“Michael, see there isn’t much for you to remember. We’ll leave the Sebring keys in my drawer tonight. We already took care of the library books and the other DVDs. In the morning you just need to drop off tonight’s movie rentals and any other things you took from your own condo. I’ll ring you when the coast is clear so you can call to ask me to pick you up. But remember you can’t call until you get my signal. Remember, just in case you both answer, I’m going to disguise my voice and try to sell you diet pills again, and this time don’t try to haggle me on the price. Just hang up and make the call to the office.”

“It was just you were so convincing with your sales pitch, I forgot ...you know maybe I should promote you to a saleswoman.”

Pam waved her hand at him to keep him from the tangent about to happen. But she did like the sound of a promotion. She would have to remind him of his suggestion when this whole ordeal was over.

“Never mind Michael. Just remember it this time. You get the call from me, then you call the office and tell me to come pick you up. Remember, it has to be me, and no one else can come.”

“But what should I tell you is the reason I need to get picked up?”

She hadn’t thoroughly thought out what to have Michael say to explain, but knowing herself she didn’t think she needed him to. With her boss, it would be easier to just go get him than to try to understand why he needed to be picked up in the first place. She was counting on the fact that both of her knew that.

“Just tell me it’s a long story. I can pretty much guarantee I won’t ask. If I do or if I try to get out of it, just tell me there are three extra vacation days for my honeymoon in it for me.”

Michael nodded in agreement for a moment. A moment later he was shaking his head side to side instead.

“Um Pam did you forget you’re calling off the wedding?”

“I am, she’s not. But by the time she knows what I’ve done, well, I’m hoping she’ll be relieved I did it for her. After all she’s me, and I’m her and even if we’re not on the same page just yet, I imagine eventually we will be.”

She saw his forehead crinkle as he tried to make sense of the logic that she knew was anything but logical. But since nothing of their situation was, it was no use trying to explain. Instead, she went over the details of her plan with him a second time and then a third.

“The most important thing is that you make it back here on time. And make sure you get the other me to come back upstairs with you.”

Pam marked the list with several bold exclamation points to accentuate the last task, set down the pen on the paper and suggested they retreat to the bullpen to watch a movie together before they turned in early. It was the almost the edge of tomorrow and now was the time to enjoy one last tonight with her friend, Michael.