Randall was coming in from the breakroom after twenty minutes of filming Kevin in front of the vending machines as he contemplated what to purchase. He almost opted not to waste his time on what was only mildly amusing as the office fool whispered the merits of each option. He got his payoff however, when Kevin finally decided on m&m’s, realizing his mistake with a very animated, OH MAN, seconds after the candy released from its slot and fell to the opening below.

By now it had to be safe to go back and retrieve Michael, but he had yet to see Pam.

Neither the new nor the old version.

But when he found Matt in the kitchen, he learned why.

Pam, one of the two versions he knew had been here at Dunder Mifflin today, was hiding in the restroom, and had been for quite some time.

Matt claimed he knew why. As he detailed what he’d observed, the missing item from her finger, the grief overcoming her face while on the phone call, the abrupt end to it and subsequent mad dash to the ladies’ room, Randall realized which one Matt had been watching. New Pam had arrived and her plan was in motion. He expected she might have a little breakdown once it began, understood she might need to gather herself in private. But neither of them had considered it might be caught on camera.

Randall hadn’t given much thought before with regard to what the other crew might notice and more dangerously, what they might film as the events he, Pam and Michael put in motion occurred in real time. He now realized his error there. But as the DP, he had some authority and after a quick discussion with Matt about Pam and Roy and the major incident they may have missed, which by Matt’s calculations happened sometime after lunch, he set a plan of his own.  He sent off his B camera operator to spend the remainder of the day down in the warehouse spying on the—if Matt had it right and Randall knew he did—ex-fiancé.

Now all he had to worry about was Brian’s boom and the clipped-on mics. Who knew what Pam might say to Jim when she caught up to him later? While this Pam was wearing no wireless recording her audio, Jim would still have his. Randall knew his part of the plan, getting Michael out of sight until Pam could send her away and take her place. Following that, he only knew she intended to find Jim and enlist his help in some way. Would she trust him enough to tell him who she was and where she’d been? Could he ever believe her? Yes, Randall decided, and if she said anything about the time travel it could be very tricky to explain when the dailies were reviewed.

Messing with the audio board seemed the only thing he could do, and while it was an offense that could get the whole crew in trouble, he couldn’t fathom the alternative predicament they could wind up in if he didn’t. So, before he left to bring Michael back up from downstairs, he detoured at the closet where the transmitter sat and switched off Jim’s mic, closing the door and stepping away.

He managed to take two steps before he turned back, opened the door again and flipped the switches to knock out Pam’s and Michael’s too.

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Michael’s car was like a bomb site. He wasn’t kidding when he said there was no room for anyone else in the back. Aside from a carton of Hammermill that was wedged into the area behind the passenger seat, the rest of the floor was littered with half-empty bottles of energy drinks and old fast-food bags. One side of the cabin’s back seat seemed to be reserved for his magic stuff. Occupying the space was a magician’s top hat, a colorful bouquet of fake flowers, large silver looping rings and a deck of cards that had escaped the box and was scattered across the upholstery. It being the middle of winter, the sandy towel that sat on the other half would have been there months, or maybe not. If Michael thought a lake cruise was a good idea in early January, he may have also hit the beach on an unseasonably warm day in December.

She was pleasantly surprised slipping into the driver’s side at how uncluttered, almost immaculate the front seemed. Still with what was going on in the back, she kept on her gloves, unsure how grimy the gearshift or sticky the steering wheel would be. It was hard to be sure they were indeed gunk -free while wearing the protection of fuscia colored wool as she grabbed them, but when she didn’t stick to either she was happy to know the mess was just behind her. That is until she went to pull the seat beat down to buckle herself in and it wouldn’t budge. It took a good couple of yanks before it released from the mechanism.

What held it back was a section of the strap itself, which was all frayed and torn, like a dog had chewed through it. The tear kept catching on the clutch lever, holding it back until Pam finally found the strength to force it down.

There was no logical explanation as to how or why it was so shredded. Michael didn’t have a dog and short of him developing a taste for the polyester webbing… nope, she couldn’t nor did she want to think about what was going on with it.

With no further thought about the cause, she clicked the metal buckle into the hold and drove the tattered strap from her mind, focusing instead on the dash display and navigating the streets to where Michael told her he’d be waiting.

Michael was where he said he would be outside the satellite Hertz office, pacing back and forth on the sidewalk as she pulled up. She wasn't one hundred percent sure it was him until he turned back to face her, not accustomed to seeing him in a big puffy ski-jacket like the one he was currently wearing over his suit.

Leaving the engine on, she stepped out so he could take over the driving. She had been nervous the whole way, at first because she was not familiar with all the knobs and controls of his Sebring, but after a few blocks she felt so at ease in his car, her attention drifted back to everything else she had on her mind.

“Drives like a dream, right?”

He stepped off the curb in a rush to get around to the driver’s side.

“Man, I missed my baby,” he added as he opened the door, kissing the wheel once settled into the seat.

Pam lowered her eyes and shook her head. Only Michael would claim to miss his car after what could have been no more than a few hours, if that. But he was right that it drove smooth, in stark contrast to the bumpy ride of Roy’s pickup, her normal mode of transport.

A car, she thought to herself as she walked around the front end to her side. It was one more thing she’d need to get if she decided to go through with it. The Sebring, she knew would be way out of her price range new, but maybe a used one, or the economy Chrysler whatever that model was. She did find the make easy to drive.

She slipped into the roomy passenger side and was instantly hit by the shock of hot air that Michael turned on full blast before he even adjusted his seat position. Now that it was safe to, she removed her gloves just before she reached to twist the vents away from her face. She noticed it just before Michael spoke again.

“We need to make one stop before we head back to the office. Pam-a-lama ding dong, where can we go to get a bell? They had one on the counter and I want one just like it for the office to sound off after every sale.”

“What, huh?”

Pam hadn’t heard anything beyond his saying he wanted to make a stop. She was focused instead on what was under her glove. Or rather what wasn’t.

Her ring, it wasn’t on her finger. Logic said it was where she left it, sitting by her keyboard back at her desk but Pam found herself suddenly uneasy not having it in her possession. Even if she wasn’t sure she would ever wear it again, losing it would more than complicate the act of giving it back.

“What are you saying? A what?”

She pulled down the belt on her side, cleanly this time, no ragged edges holding it back, and buckled up, anxious to start the return trip to Dunder Mifflin.

 “Never mind. Tell me later. We have to head right back. I left my…”

Before Pam could finish her sentence, Michael was jumping out of the car again.

“I just thought of something, I’ll be right back.”

Pam tried to stop him but he was gone, headed back through the doors of the rental place, emerging again in less than a minute. His hands held something between them, small but shiny, its reflective surface drawing light from the late sun high above and refracting back into a mass of sparkly beams that radiated off it as if it was an amulet with magical powers.

It was when he slipped back into his seat she identified the simple item it was, a silver calling bell like the ones used at the front desks of B&B’s and on the line at Glider Diner, its telltale chime a signal to the waitstaff when an order was up.

That’s what he was going on about? A bell? From the looks of it, one he may have swiped from the Hertz counter.

“Michael, did you steal that?”

“No, I borrowed it,” he clarified as he placed it beside him on the center console, setting off its tintinnabulation as it touched down.

 “With permission?”

She never knew with Michael.

 “And what in God’s name do you need a bell for?”

Michael turned to face Pam where a twinkle almost as bright as the beams that bounced off the bell, flourished to the corners of his eyes. He was up to something for sure. He seemed not like himself, acting stranger than usual but not in his typical way, the kind that caused havoc for everyone around him and often left massive destruction in his wake, like on his full-of-surprises cruise a few weeks back. He seemed more aware, of what, that was still unknown.  It wasn’t necessarily he was acting more mature or any less insensibly, but he was ebullient in a way that was almost infectious. Like he had a secret that was so juicy, he couldn’t help but express it on his face, but amazingly for Michael hadn’t revealed what it was.

 If it wasn’t that her whole world had taken a nose dive directly following the events of that fateful cruise, his current disposition might have rubbed off on her. But what with what was on her mind, she felt only her regular irritation being stuck dealing with him.

“I told you, to ring after sales. Or any other fortunious event that might be on the horizon.”

“Fortunious?” she hummed under her breath, wondering what he meant to say.

He turned back to face the road without elaborating further, just grinned wider and turned up the volume on the radio, singing along with the Kelly Clarkson song that was playing.

“Gotta take a whisk, take a chance, make a change, and bake away.”

Laughing at his lyrical gaffe achieved for a minute what his broad smile and cheerful attitude could not. It lightened her mood, but only momentarily, until she told him the actual lines, lyrics that seemed to be a sign from the heavens telling her just what she needed to do.

🕐🕑🕔🕖🕘🕚🕧

She didn’t know how long she was in the ladies’ room but knew it had been long enough.

Crying in the bathroom again was not how she should be spending the last hour before time caught back up itself, so she splashed more water on her face and returned to the bullpen.

Jim didn’t appear to be back yet. She began to fear he might not return at all. That meant she would have to rely on herself to make sure if her memories faded, she still had the means to retrieve them. From out of the drawer, she pulled out the stack of folders she marked for immediate distribution, inside of which she intended to leave the stash of notes to herself. Pushing aside her keyboard, she noticed another note, this one next to a tiny box.

Seeing the lightning bolt letters on the outside, she knew in an instant exactly what it was.

The Time Turner.

In all likelihood it was the same one that two nights ago she carefully glued back together, only this was before it had broken.

Michael hadn’t yet gotten hold of it. He hadn’t yet taken it from her hands with the seemingly impossible intention of using it to time travel back in time, achieving what she never would have believed, hurdling them into a time loop which she was wondering if she might never escape from now that it was here again on her desk.

Inspecting the box further she noticed Jim's messy handwriting on the note that sat beneath it.

How I wish this trinket were real and we could use it to rewind time so I could redo yesterday. I’m so sorry for giving you such a hard time. I know it’s not my place. I hope you know I never meant to overstep and it’s only because I want the best for you that I did.

Please, please, please forgive me so we can go back to how we were and have fun using this to prank a certain someone that believes in wizards and time travel.

-Jim

The trinket may have been one and the same but the way he presented it to her was new.

And even more meaningful, making her cheeks flush and eyes water with happiness as she received it this time.

All this time she was worried about finding him so she could apologize and he had already forgiven her for what was her own loathsome behavior and seemed desperate to put it behind them so things could be as they were.

But she didn’t want to go back to how they were. Not anymore and never again and she wished he would walk in right now so she could tell him that.

And then, as if the trinket inside the box had magic beyond its intended purpose, the door swung open. But when she looked up for Jim, she realized its powers had only one purpose and that didn’t extend beyond turning back the clock.

“Pamarella, you can’t believe where I’ve been.”

Of course, she knew but she figured she’d let him have his fun.

“Where were you, Michael?”

“Randall showed me this secret room downstairs and I’ve decided I’m going to make it a disco café, wait no, a café disco. I’m going to get an espresso machine and a mirror ball and a state-of-the-art sound system and turn it into a place we can go to unwind at the end of the work day, or the middle of the work day, or even start of the work day. What better way to get in the mood to sell paper than with a cappuccino and a donut and a bit of morning dancing, right?”

“Well, it sounds great Michael,” she remarked, happy to see he was just as excited about it in this timeline as in the one she’d first seen the room with him, and had somehow learned how to say espresso. But even though her happiness for him was genuine, the rest of everything that she’d been through today was still on her mind and causing her stomach to gurgle louder than it had in the last two weeks.

“You know what doesn’t sound great?” Michael grimaced as he heard the rumbling from her middle.

“That. Is that noise coming from your stomach? I heard of your gut telling you something but does is have to yell like that. What could it possibly be saying?”

She knew what it was saying, aside from she needed to get a yogurt or something from the kitchen. It was telling her what she logically knew.

That it was still best to wait before telling Jim how much she loved him too.

That she needed to spare the feelings of Roy and Vicky and the rest of his family and her own and not jump immediately from one man to another.

That time was what had been needed to make the first step, and time was also needed before she could move on to what was next.

“It’s saying I need a yogurt,” she said as she got up for the kitchen.

🕐🕑🕔🕖🕘🕚🕧

She'd only found one container left in the fridge and was just grabbing it to check the date when she heard his voice.

“It’s expired.”

She swung around to see him standing in front of her, his signature smirk spreading from ear to ear as he smiled back at her.

It may have been because she’d just found the Time Turner he’d left that had her remembering scenes from Harry Potter but she swore what was passing between them was something like Priori Incantatem and flashes of light were bursting from the connection of their green eyes gazing into one another.

And when he spoke again, she knew it was hopeless to try to wait. The universe was speaking and like his voice, it couldn’t be clearer.

“Hey, weren’t you wearing blue earlier?”

With that the sparks broke from between their eyes as her lids slammed shut. She opened them for the second it took to take the two steps to close the distance between them. As they dropped again, she crashed her lips onto his, igniting an electricity that felt even more magical than their gaze. The mind-blowing, toe-curling, heart-bursting sensation of Jim’s lips on hers was like nothing she’d ever felt before as there in the kitchen they had their real first kiss.