It felt like time had stopped, and with all she knew was possible as to the bending and twisting and fragility of time, she couldn’t be sure it hadn’t.

The moment seemed frozen; as if time, once liquid and flowing, had been altered by a formidable force crystallizing its structure to suspend it to its solid state and keep it from moving forward. And yet, it seemed to have nothing to do with the frosty air coming off the still open refrigerator they stood in front of.

That cold was barely perceptible on her back, but a blanket of warm in the form of his arms wrapped around her was.

As was the kiss that filled her body with a tingling sensation that began in her toes and radiated to the tip of her head. She couldn’t be sure it wasn’t her body apparating and reunifying with her other self as the feel of his lips on hers made her feel whole in a way she hadn’t for a very long time.

Something was definitely changing as their mouths remained pressed to each other but somehow she knew it wasn’t that time just yet. She was still the other version of herself, with all the thoughts she prayed would still remain when that moment arrived. This transformation she could sense happening was not because of time travel or any other magic. 

Except maybe it was and that magic was Jim. That magic was love.

She hadn’t known a kiss could feel like this, somehow both delicate and penetrating, filled with electricity and purity and release. That she could know the love he held for her as he pressed his lips deeper to hers and she gently opened her own to let him know she felt the same.

She wasn’t sure who pulled away first, for no other reason but they were still in the very public Dunder Mifflin kitchen. Anyone could walk in at any moment, including another Pam, as she herself was highly aware of. The kitchen, it dawned on her, was where Randall and Gabby had also been caught. Though her situation was not quite the same, she likewise knew it was best she and Jim weren’t discovered just yet. But as she remembered Gabby’s story, the parallel romanticism of their first kisses filled her with a deeper joy, especially knowing how perfectly in love the couple still were after all their years together.  It was only in thinking of the other illicit kitchen kiss, the one she witnessed that very morning, that the beauty of the moment faded ever so slightly, but not enough to erase the giddy smile from the curve of her lips. Not even the thought of Dwight and Angela’s sloppy embrace could fully wipe away the sheer bliss she was wrapped in even as Jim dropped his arms from their hug.

As they parted, Jim’s dazed green eyes stayed locked on hers. They seemed to be holding a thousand smiles and a thousand questions, and that’s when he began pinching himself, lightheartedly but still with a measure of disbelief that he wasn’t still back in his bed, oversleeping due to the sublime dream he was under and not ready to leave.

“Yes, it’s real. At least I think it is. But with everything that happened to me since, well,” she paused realizing everything had begun two weeks ago and, she looked up at the clock in the kitchen, would come full circle in the next 20 minutes.

Either way it all started with Jim, and the toy or toys simultaneously still sitting on her desk and in Michael’s pocket. 

“…since you showed up with the Time Turner.”

Delight rounded out the myriad of expressions displayed in his eyes as she mentioned it.

“You found it.”

With a glassy-eyed beam she nodded and then went on to give him the fastest and with hope, most believable version of what happened after he first showed up with it two weeks back. Everything from when Michael called her into his office with it still in her hands, the description of what it felt like to be hurled through time and followed by, since the gift of time was swiftly running out, only the most pertinent of the events that happened after she and Michael arrived in the past. She ended her story by sharing the life-changing act she carried out that afternoon.

Knowing the journey was coming up against itself soon and she would need to be back in Michael’s office, her account lacked the detail she might otherwise share to make him accept what even she knew made her sound certifiable and more like Dwight than the Pam he knew.

Unsure at first what he was thinking as he gaped at her, visually hanging on her every implausible word, she came to realize he probably thought she was playing some joke on him. There was no way reasonable Jim… there was no way anybody except maybe Dwight and, as she’d learned the hard way, Michael… could actually accept that she was one of two Pams running around because the Time Turner he’d bought to trick Dwight with did in fact turn back time.

Assuming when she was through he’d end his, yeah, I’m pretending to buy it act, laugh at her lame attempt at a prank or when she insisted it wasn’t, try to reason with her and when that failed, drag her out to the nearest hospital.

But he did none of that.

Instead, he just took hold of her hands and returned his adoring green eyes to gaze on her face.

“You don’t think I’m crazy? I just told you how I’ve been reliving the last two weeks and you haven’t gone running. Why?”

“Some things you just don’t question, Pam. Whatever magic or supernatural phenomenon it was to bring you to me, I’ll believe. You say you time traveled; I one-hundred percent buy it if it means you want to be with me.”

“Do you really believe me, Jim?” Her voice was pleading, her eyes solemn but hopeful.

“Absolutely, I do. Not only do I believe you but I think I must have been a time traveler too because, Pam, I’m in love with you and I have been forever, I think before I even met you.”

Pam dipped her lids as he spoke, lifting them a moment later to see his eyes had brightened to a brilliant jade, unaware hers took on a similar glow.

“Jim, I know it took me way too long to see it but I know it now.”

The shine in her eyes glistened madly. The electric tingle returned, this time the current seemed to surge from where Jim’s hands wrapped around hers. She wondered if he felt it as well.

“I am in love with you too.”

He tilted his head down to kiss her again, stopping just short when the breath of a question land on his lips before they reached their intended destination.

“Can I ask you something? If it was Michael telling you about our adventure instead of me, would you have…”

“Not even for a minute,” he answered before she could even complete her thought, stoically but with a familiar grin in his eyes.

“And by the way, two weeks with Michael, I can’t even imagine what that was like. How did you survive that?”

She suppressed the snicker she knew he expected, responding instead with earnestness and a warmhearted smile.

“It wasn’t all that bad, I’m fact, in some ways it was kind of nice. Michael’s got a good…”

She stopped before she could complete her thought. Discussion of the boss that got her into all this made her remember he was due soon and the other he needed to be back in the place where it all started, accompanied by some version of her.

“Michael,” she gasped. “I have to get out there. I’ve got to make sure he stays in his office. And I still have to get you my travel journal, so if I don’t remember all this, I somehow still do. Come on.”

“Your what?”

But she never answered. Only grabbed for his hand again, this time to pull him back toward the bullpen, needing to be out of sight again before Michael and she walked through the front door.

🕐🕑🕔🕖🕘🕚🕧

The weight of the boxes from the delivery he was unloading was no heavier than usual but as he pulled the haul from the truck, each carton felt like it was filled with lead instead of the standard 20# bond .

Though no box weighed on him as much as the feel of the ring that felt like a brick his pocket.

More exhausting than the unloading he engaged in now was the earlier attempt to keep the pain off his face as he bantered with the guys about sports and weekend plans. But he wasn’t about to tell them anything of the conversation when Pam came down or the distress he had been in since. There was no need to. He had no intention of losing her. He would win her back. He had to.

Pam aside, there was only one other person that knew what happened between them; only one person he trusted to tell, even though he knew he’d wind up getting an earful because of it later, after she helped repair the rift, as she so frequently did. She assured him she would see what she could do, but this time seemed less confident her involvement was going to make a difference, not after he told her about the fight from last night too and how he handled her news about the art internship. She often took him to task for what she deemed his stupid man behavior, but never had she sounded so scared that he…they might lose her because of it.

Time seemed to stop once the truck was emptied. Every second felt interminable as his mind swam with visions of a life without her in it. With nothing left to unload he might normally have joined Lonny, Glenn and Darryl in a game of two on two or relaxed on the couch. But he wanted to keep busy, anything to keep him away from the staircase that led up to where she was.

‘Give her a little time,’ that’s what his mom said.

‘You’re still too close to it, too hot, if I know you. You don’t want to make it worse.’

‘Let me talk to her first. You cool off too and think about what to say to make things right.’  

She was right. Sort of. His emotions were hot, he was angry. Angry she could do that to him at work, but more than that he was devastated. And scared…. terrified, that he’d done real damage this time. He still didn’t understand the fascination with the art thing, but maybe he should have pretended to be more interested and supportive.

In any case, his mom knew him well enough that no matter what he was feeling he needed to let his temper settle. Heading upstairs now was not the right move.

So, he did something he never had before.  It was Madge who more generally had the task of entering items into the inventory. They stuck it with her saying her handwriting was the neatest but in truth it was just because it was a boring, mind-numbing job that nobody else wanted to do. Today, it was just the chore that could dull his intense emotions and help him calm down. Madge gladly handed the clipboard over when he offered, and took his place in the basketball game that was just starting up.

Attending to the manifest took less time than he anticipated and soon his mind was free again to feel the ache of losing her. His anger had since ebbed, what remained was something akin to what he’d felt after talking to Captain Jack, a clear view of what was important jumbled up with the regret of losing sight of it and a throb so intense it had the power to push him towards the stairs.

Twice he had started up them to the second floor and her. Twice his eyes burned with the sting of tears as he ran through the words he could say when he got there. Twice he laboriously took the steps, getting as far as the third or forth before he turned back around deciding instead to wait.

Begging for her to give him another chance was not something he was prepared to do in front of the clowns she worked with on the second floor and there was no way he wanted to say anything around Jim, who he blamed for putting the damn ideas in her head in the first place. The notion that she could do something with her little art hobby, something that would take her away from him not just on the weekends, but quite possibly for good if she found her own talent could provide her more than he ever could.

Now, thanks to Jim and his ‘support’, Jan and her stupid art internship, Michael and whatever it was he said to embolden her, for Roy to have any chance at getting that ring back on her finger, he would have to agree to let her go.

He just hoped he could win her back first.

🕐🕑🕔🕖🕘🕚🕧

Pam couldn’t remember the last time she had been a passenger in Michael’s car, but whenever it was, she was sure he hadn’t been such a slow driver or anywhere near as cautious as he was being now.

If her recollection of the last time was accurate, he drove much in the way he managed, erratically, by his own set of rules and with little consideration for others.

Today, however, he was giving off a very different vibe in the way he sat up straight in his seat and gripped the steering column with both hands. Aside from staying well below the posted speed limit, he drove watchfully, turning his head multiple times at every turn, and upon each light’s switch to green he would count to ten before continuing through the intersections. It reminded Pam a lot of her Mee-Maw behind the wheel back before they had to take away her car.  Except Mee-Maw didn’t keep shifting her eyes from the clock on the dash and back to the speedometer, as Michael was doing. And Mee-Maw spoke very little until safely at their destination, unlike Michael who kept right on motoring his mouth through the whole drive.

Aside from a similarity to her aging grandmother, Michael’s driving also made her think of times she’d been in the car with Jim back when she gave him lessons. Back then she almost got the sense Jim was trying to make the session last longer and now with Michael, she was getting that same impression. Only here Michael wasn’t learning to learn to drive stick and then she wasn’t feeling so anxious to return to the office before it cleared out.

With so much on her mind, she just wanted to get back. Back to Jim, who she’d left abruptly, not even waiting to ride down with him because she still was working through the mixed-up feelings tumbling about in her head and didn’t yet know what she would tell him. Back to the ring she’d left on her desk, that she didn’t want Roy to find if he came up looking for her when she wasn’t waiting by the truck right after five. Back to thinking of what she was going to say when she told him why it was not on her finger and why she wasn’t planning on putting it back there.

Her own glance at the clock told her they were still on track to be there before closing if he picked up the pace to a normal speed.

“Can’t you drive any faster Michael?”

“I could, yes, but I’m trying to make sure we arrive back around the time we go back.”

If it were anyone else but Michael she’d be confused by the circular reasoning of his statement. Of course, they would arrive when they got back, just like they would be back when they arrived.  Not quite what he said, but she was quite sure it was his attempt to mimic the tactic she often used on him to get him to give up on some his more foolish ideas. Just the other day hadn’t she told him the reason he couldn’t hire a psychic to help plan strategies to help their branch was because a psychic hadn’t suggested he do it.

She was somewhat impressed he had picked up on her strategy and was redirecting it back at her. Until he tried to take back what he said by saying something that made her even more confused.

“No, I... um... I just... I mean I’m just enjoying this time with you I’m in no rush to see it end. I’m going to miss you, you know. Didn’t we have fun on our trip?”

Rather than try to understand anything he was trying to express to her she just answered him with a timid yes and a nod. But in her head, she said what she was really thinking…“Yes, we did. It was interesting and as much as it’s been a hoot coming out to pick you up and be your bell-stealing accomplice, it’s time you put your foot on the pedal and get us back to where we’re supposed to be.”

🕐🕑🕔🕖🕘🕚🕧

“I’m hoping they are on the way up,” she blurted as she took off for the door to the bullpen.

“Who?” Jim asked as he obediently followed her.

“Us, me and Michael but we need to make sure the other Michael stays put in his office. I suppose you and I should stay there with him…or maybe just me…”

Turning back to see what he thought she pushed at the door.

Pam knew Michael almost never left before anyone else, especially on a Friday. After spending these two weeks with him, she knew why, too. The longer he could stay at the office, the longer he would not be alone as long as even one other person stayed behind too. It was only once that last employee or cameraman or cleaning person left, that he would depart and his countdown would begin until he was reunited with his friends again on Monday.

It was this knowledge that made her somewhat confident he would still be in the office. As for the rest of the gang, since it was Friday, she assumed and hoped those that weren’t gone by now would at least be getting ready to leave.

And they might have been if Kelly hadn’t been in the bathroom when Jim walked in behind Pam earlier.

And came out just in time to witness the biggest scoop of gossip she had ever had the fortune to stumble upon...

...and slipped past them to tell everyone in the bullpen what she just saw.

-------------------------------------------------- 

2.      Chapter 33 B - The Bells of Dunder Mifflin

 Matt kept the camera trained on his subject, expecting to finally get some worthwhile footage here in the parking lot when Pam showed up to leave for the day. If she arrived as she often did, with Jim at her side, while Roy was in the agitated state he was watching build, it could prove to be what he was waiting for, since nothing he’d captured after coming downstairs was all that riveting.

Filming down in the warehouse was not a priority at first for the crew, but they’d ramped up since the basketball game and by now had a pretty good fix on the personalities that worked down there, including the one he was currently focused on.

Matt knew about his temper, had seen it firsthand on more than one occasion. But as he watched now, he wasn’t quite sure what was going on in his head as he paced in front of the building. All he knew for sure was something had happened to cause the odd behavior earlier and the anxiousness taking over his face now as he waited.

The afternoon was mostly a bust.  He got little to nothing useful filming him in the warehouse. Most of what he captured was pretty routine stuff, loading and unloading boxes, driving the lift, taking a swig of some energy drink he’d had stashed in his locker. The only unusual thing he did was offer to take a task off the hands of a co-worker. From what he knew of Roy it wasn’t in his character to help anyone but himself, or maybe Darryl on occasion if it didn’t put him out too much, and he was not one to take on extra work without getting something in return.

Matt could only assume he wanted to keep busy and his mind off whatever had happened between him and Pam. He certainly seemed not to want to talk about it with anyone but her as he kept to himself the whole time.  Matt had even caught him start up the stairs a few times but he never made it past a few steps.

With his editor’s creativity, the scenes he captured—zoomed in footage of Pam’s finger, her tearful phone call, Roy’s uncharacteristic behavior all afternoon, and anything that Randall might be getting upstairs–there could be something salvageable to form an engaging story. Rather an ‘unengaging story’, since that is what it seemed was going down, if it hadn’t already.

But when Matt saw him race out to the parking lot, restless and coatless at 4:45, he made sure he followed, certain that there would be some real drama playing out soon and he didn’t want to miss it.

He stayed a close distance behind, but was careful not to let himself be seen and tucked himself behind some bushes that not only kept him hidden but shielded him somewhat from the frosty winds that were beginning to intensify.

🕐🕑🕔🕖🕘🕚🕧

Roy checked his watch again as he walked back and forth among the still full parking lot and then shoved his hands back into his pockets. White clouds of his breath appeared before him and he shuddered from the chill than grew colder with every minute that passed and still no sight of her.

He was used to her being one of the last to come down but he hoped today she would want to get out of the office as soon as she could. Even if she thought she meant what she said, they would need to talk again, at home, in private and when they did, he was prepared to do whatever he needed to change her mind.

Another gust of the icy wind pushed at his back and he switched direction again.

After ten minutes with still no sign of her or anyone else except a few of the Vance guys, he tugged again at his thermal sleeve, the ersatz tissue he’d been using to wipe the drip from his nose when snorting it up no longer did the trick.

“The hell with this,” he shouted up towards the window on the second floor and stormed off to his truck around back. She wasn’t worth freezing over.

Halfway to the pickup he’d changed his mind about leaving but still made the trek all the way there to grab his coat and gloves, and a minute of warmth as he sat inside and calmed himself down again.

He started up the engine to drive around front but then turned back the key to turn it off. He needed to show her he could change, be a different man, the kind who would be waiting outside to grovel on his knees and ask her to take back the ring and his promise to be better. He couldn’t do that from inside his truck.

Worried he could miss her, he raced back hoping the lot would be emptier by the time he arrived again to the front. An audience was the last thing he needed if the tears he shed as sat in his truck made a reappearance when he saw her again.

🕐🕑🕔🕖🕘🕚🕧

Matt was both frustrated and thankful when Roy cursed the sky and left. He would have liked to catch the next scene of the Pam and Roy drama but truth was he was freezing. The bushes and his hat weren’t enough to keep him from turning to an icicle out here in the cold. Plus, he hadn't peed in hours and the frigid temperatures were making it harder and harder to ignore his full bladder. He knew about cold diuresis, that it was making his urge worse, but the knowledge of why he had to go, didn't change the fact that he needed to relieve himself and soon, inside where it was warm.

With the work day for the most part over, and Roy deciding not to wait around any longer, he deemed it a good time to duck into the warehouse to take care of business. Maybe have a quick talking head with Darryl if he was still around to see what he knew. Then if there was nothing more to see outside, he could linger in the warm lobby, and catch everyone leaving the office, Pam and Jim in particular. He was confident even if he missed them, Randall wouldn't.

🕐🕑🕔🕖🕘🕚🕧

Despite Michael’s painfully slow driving, it was only a little after five when they pulled into the Dunder Mifflin lot. It seemed impossible it wasn’t later, like time was somehow suspended for much of the ride, halted while they navigated the streets of Scranton, only starting again as he made the left onto Slough Avenue.

Even the conversation while they drove had a dreamlike quality to it, in that it was odder than usual. Not only did Michael seem to decelerate to a crawl with every confusing thing he said to her, but some of the things he mentioned, she had no idea how he knew.

Like the stuff about her dreams to do something with her art and how he knew the exact subjects she might like to paint if she only had the time.  She chalked it up to that he must have heard about the design internship Jan had offered and it wasn’t all that wild a guess to think she might one day attempt to replicate the building they worked at on a canvas in watercolor.

But more mystifying was how he mentioned he was glad she was moving on from Roy. That is before he slapped his hand over his mouth and starting spouting gibberish through his fingers; things about wrong timelines and being confused who he was with and hoping he hadn’t ruined anything.

Had he noticed her hand and her mood and read something into it? He could be good at reading people, sometimes, if it meant making a sale, but it was rare where could pick things up just from context clues.

No, he had no reason to know what she had been considering. And yet, he did.

So strange were his ramblings, she almost told him to pull over so she could drive him to the nearest hospital, unsure if somewhere along his journey he had hit his head and found himself concussed just as Dwight had been last week.

He was wasn’t wrong though, about Roy. Every mile nearer to where he’d be waiting, brought her closer to knowing what she needed to do. But how on earth did Michael figure it out?

He went on spouting nonsense, moving on from Roy and her relationship to ranting about secret rooms and poop on his carpet and how he never got to learn French. The more he talked the more her concern grew that he was having a mental breakdown or he was high on something the new delivery guy convinced him would be fun to smoke or take.

Of course, with Michael it could be any number of things causing his fountain of gibberish, including nothing more than he’d had too much sugar. This diarrhea of the mouth was similar to his manic behavior after he ate half the red velvet cake Kelly insisted the PPC serve for her last birthday party... then decided she couldn’t eat after learning how high in sugar and calories it was... then forbade everyone else from eating since it wouldn’t be fair for her to watch everyone else eat the birthday cake she couldn’t. Pam knew then something was up when he and Kevin snuck back into the kitchen after the office threw the party with a replacement carrot cake...(because according to Kelly, it was healthier)... that Pam had to run out to purchase. That day, Pam recalled having to stay late to help Michael set up a whole new filing system in his office all while he told her, speaking at double his regular tempo, about his experiences at boy scout camp, where he rattled off all the badges he could have earned that summer, none of which he did except for Indian Lore, which he then demonstrated why by sharing, in triple-speed, outlandish tales of the various chiefs from the tribes of Pennsylvania.

Yup, she was sure he ate a half dozen candy bars before he even called her to come get him today and a few more while he waited. But whether it was a sugar high or a real one, his nervous energy seemed to make him drive just a little faster and because she just wanted to make to Dunder Mifflin before everyone… more importantly, before he...left for the weekend, she just responded as if she knew what he was talking about and let him blather on through the whole ride. 

She was used to this kind of nonsense with him. What really had her thrown however, was his perception about the real reason she wanted to get back, not because of the ring which maybe he noticed was off her finger but when he said, “Don’t worry. I’m sure Jim will wait for you.”

It was like he could hear what was happening in her head and knew how anxious she was to get to Jim.

Anxious, because something told her it was only after she repaired the rift with Jim that she would find the strength she’d been lacking to end it with Roy...for good. After that, well...she’d think about what could happen after, later.

How Michael was perceptive enough to know all this was beyond her. Maybe it was an acid trip he was on granting him this enlightenment or he just took a lucky guess but it felt strangely good, during the rare pause in his ramblings, to tell him he was right. She was thinking about breaking it off. It felt even better to know he agreed she was making the right choice. 

Was this how it happened when Jim confided in him? Michael slipped something insightful into his stream of babble causing Jim to spill his guts, just as Pam did just about the time they pulled into his spot.

It took only a moments glance to spy Jim’s car, parked three spots over from them. She sighed a breath of relief that it was still among all the cars left in the lot, which included most of the Dunder Mifflin staff, including Stanley’s, which felt not quite right at ten past five on Friday.

Relieved he was still upstairs, she quickly looked toward the back to check for another vehicle, the one usually polluting the air with black clouds of soot as it idled by the doors.

There was no sign of him yet. But she knew he’d be pulling around soon and thus had her fingers resting on the door’s handle, ready to jump out of the cabin the minute Michael shifted into park.

She was greeted by the kiss of an icy wind when she opened the door. Outside the air had turned bitter cold, the temperature having plummeted along with sun as it exchanged places with a moon just becoming visible in the sky. Though the intense chill was a huge shock to her system, she took off for the front door, ignoring Michael’s calls to wait for him.

🕐🕑🕔🕖🕘🕚🕧

At 4:50 when Kelly came out squealing about the scandalous kiss she had just witnessed between Jim and Pam, Stanley began to shut down his computer. When everyone started gathering around his and desk to secure a front row seat for when they came out, he just continued to gather his things. When he bumped into Michael on the way to get his coat, and his boss told him he couldn’t leave because big things were going down, he just grumbled and tried to continue on his way to where it hung.

“Did you not hear what Kelly said, Pam and Jim kissed?!?”

“The only kissing I care about is kissing this day goodbye and starting my weekend, now get out of my way Michael!”

Things got a little heated after that.

“No, you have to stay and be witness to the family drama.”

“I do not and I will not!”

“As your superior I’m instructing you to not leave this office.”

“And I don’t care who you are. It is after five and I’m leaving.”

“No. Stanley. I forbid it.”

“Get out of my way, damm it.”

Michael stepped in front of the coat rack spreading his legs to fill the space and block access to where their outerwear was stacked.

Stanley was in no mood. He almost blew but instead he turned back around and took what seemed to be a step back in the direction he came, only he detoured at the other end of the circular reception desk, took the hard right and came upon the rack from the other side, grabbed his overcoat and still muttering expletives, stormed out the front entrance. 

Which was why when he saw Michael as he stepped out of the elevator on the first floor, he only scowled and barked at him more, completely overlooking the notion that unless Michael had wings or was capable of doing that thing from the Harry Potter movies (yes, even he’d seen the movies because Harry Potter factoids were often crossword puzzle clues)– he could never have made it down to the entrance before Stanley had. But at twenty past five, Stanley was too mad he was losing precious weekend time to remember it was called apparating or realize that it was also impossible.

🕐🕑🕔🕖🕘🕚🕧

It wasn’t all that baffling to Pam the reason why Michael got so rattled after crossing paths with Stanley. The man did seem more annoyed than usual which was strange considering it had been a Michael-free few hours. By the same token it was Stanley who could become grumpy because the elevator had taken too long to come. But being he was already past them and out the main door, there honestly was no longer any cause for Michael to be apprehensive about the encounter.

But for whatever reason getting yelled at by him rattled Michael into another of his weird rants and next thing she knew he was insisting they go around to the back door and staircase so they wouldn’t get noticed by anyone else.

“No, Michael it’s freezing and the elevator should be down any minute. “

“Exactly, that’s why we need to get out of here.”

Her feet were still cold after the run from the car plus she just wanted to get upstairs, pick up her ring, and go talk to Jim.

“Michael. You’re not making sense again. Let’s just wait for the elevator.”

“As your boss, I insist we go up the back way. And as your friend, I’ll grant you two more vacation days if you do.”

Not one to turn down more days off, she pulled out from her pockets the gloves she had only just removed and wrapped her coat tighter around her body to follow him around to the back entrance.

Despite the cold, Michael was lighting fast, but Pam’s thin tights and delicate shoes provided little protection from the whipping winds that further numbed her frosty feet and slowed her down. It took her a few extra minutes to reach the door and by the time she made it inside, Michael was disappearing up the stairs. A faint clank from the bell in his pocket echoed in the stairwell as he made his way up.

Although it was just a short distance they traveled from the front, her stinging toes felt as if she’d been wearing shoes made of ice. Desperate to get up to their floor, but in need of a minute to let them thaw she sat down on the bottom step, removed her gloves and her frozen footwear and rubbed her toes until feeling came back to the littlest ones.

Not bothering to put her flats back on, she carried them at her side, taking the steps in stockinged feet.

Halfway up, the jangle of her phone startled her, the acoustics in the stairwell intensifying the sound. She stopped to dig it out from her bag knowing it was probably Roy calling to see why she was still not down at the truck yet. When the ringing halted before she could find it, she assumed it hadn’t been him or if it was, he’d call again.

And by the time she had reached her floor he did, this time the vibrations alerting her before the ring began. But when she lifted the phone to read the number off the screen, she instead caught sight again of her bare finger, and that was all it took for her to decide to ignore it and tuck it away again in her bag.

She wasn’t ready to speak to him.

Not yet, even though she knew what was in her heart to do. What even Michael knew she had to do. What she should never have let him talk her out of last night. 

To do it again, she still needed to gather her courage and for that she needed her support, her best friend, her, her…

The sound of the ringing seemed only to intensify from her purse, while from the other side of the door she could hear someone’s office phone rattling with the new ring that Ryan changed the system to while she was gone. Stepping through the door into the annex, one more sound pealed into her head, the deliberate and continuous wailing of the call bell Michael had pilfered from the Hertz desk. Cacophonous at first, the dueling tones came together like a melody, a harmonious signal to tell her what had taken her way too long to realize before.

It wasn’t just she needed to move on from going nowhere with Roy. It wasn’t just she needed to follow her dreams and take a chance on doing something with her art. It wasn’t just she needed to let out the person she once was, the girl buried down deep who a long time ago lost her wings but may still have the chance to find them again with the help of the person she was racing to get to.

Her person. 

Right then she knew what the bells in her heart were telling her.

She was in love with Jim.

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Matt returned to the lobby after using the warehouse restroom and noticed something he hadn't before, Michael's Sebring, which upon reviewing his footage he realized was actually not in its spot when he was hiding out before. Which meant that Michael was back from who knows where, and that offered another reason to stay downstairs and capture the office exodus. It might not be the Pam, Roy, Jim act he'd been waiting on but footage of Michael was almost always worthwhile, if not for the drama of it but the humor.

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It took until he was entering the kitchen for Michael to notice she wasn’t right there with him when he turned around to tell her to cover her eyes. He had just started to head back to get her when he heard the claps and whistles.

It was happening. He knew his most important job was getting Pam there on time but he figured she couldn't be far behind. And he didn’t want to miss this magical moment. He wanted to chime out his joy with the bells of Dunder Mifflin…more precisely, the bell of Hertz, but on loan to Dunder Mifflin for this special event.

Wildly he begins dinging the plunger, creating a resounding, DING, DING, DING.

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The temperature seemed to have dropped another ten degrees as he hurried back to the front. Even with his winter weight coat on, the wind’s chill cut though him, causing frigid tremors to move through his body.

The lot seemed as full as before so maybe there was something, or more likely someone, keeping them all upstairs and it wasn’t just her avoiding him.

Even if she was, eventually she would get released from the office and when she did, she would have to come home. Was it smarter to wait for her there where he wasn’t freezing and where there wouldn’t be an audience when he begged her not to leave him.

She could surely catch a ride with someone, but when he thought of who he knew it would be it only made him want to wait it out, even while fierce winds whipped at his face causing a sting that matched what his heart was experiencing.

Besides if he left her to find her own way back to what was still their home, how would he ever get her to forgive him?

He tried her number but got no answer. His hands were too numb to try again.

At this point he wasn’t sure what to do and it was getting colder with every minute he paced the lot.

Would she really expect him to wait this long for her after she called off the engagement and gave back his ring, doing it in the middle of the work day in his warehouse where all the guys could see?

No, that was a deliberate choice, a statement. At that moment he realized she wouldn’t be coming down.

She was the someone keeping everyone behind.

If he had any chance of getting her back, he would have to make a statement too.

And just like he did back on the boat when he noticed Halpert getting a little too close to her, he would have to make it in front of all of her co-workers.

Wishing it had been something stronger than a Red Bull he gulped down back at his locker, he now swallowed his pride and took a step in the direction of the main door.

🕐🕑🕔🕖🕘🕚🕧

Matt wasn't sure what to do anymore. If a camera could get whiplash, the unit on his shoulder would have a pretty bad case of it by now.

After loitering in the warm lobby for a bit, his camera trained on the elevator doors waiting for them to open and spit out the subjects he was hoping to capture, he panned it around to see that Roy was back out there, looking rather cold as he ambled anxiously to and fro in front of the building. It would be tricky to get past him now but he knew he should somehow get out there despite not wanting to endure the arctic temperatures again.

Taking advantage when Roy's back was turned, he slipped out and back to his hiding spot behind the bushes. Still having no coat or gloves, the icy chill burrowed into him and it took only minutes for him to feel the effects of what had to be the coldest it had been that winter. But he kept filming, knowing there was a story to be captured from the way Roy was pacing so.

By the time Roy headed determinately to the door, Matt was sure he was on the verge of hypothermia or at least frostbite and he almost dropped his expensive equipment trying to keep it focused on Roy as he followed him inside.

It was what kept him from keeping pace with his subject as Roy disappeared into the elevator up to Dunder Mifflin while Matt was left to thaw out of the first floor.  

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Stepping into the bullpen with Jim by her side, Pam felt like all eyes were on them and for good reason.

They were.

She immediately caught sight of Kelly front and center, beaming with the pride of a paparazzo who had broken the story of Brad and Angelina.

Which meant everyone knew what had just happened in the kitchen with Jim.

Everyone except maybe not Stanley, since he was the only one not there in the audience of wide-eyed gawkers staring back at them with a range of expressions her blurred mind was too flummoxed to register at first glance.

In that instance everything else from the life-altering episode of her last two weeks seemed to ebb into the background as she herself backtracked to the person who allowed the expectations of others direct her path.

The shame of what would no doubt be seen as scandal, colored her face the shade of a summer peach. With the heat of her embarrassment flowing through her, she slowly scanned the room that upon their entrance had fallen silent, leaving only the sound of ticking clock to fill the open air of the bullpen.

The first face she locked on was Toby's, his droopy eyes and sullen expression even more dour than usual as if he was disappointed at her choice to cheat on her fiancé. Being that Kelly worked upstairs and not in the warehouse, nobody knew how she had ended it with him first. But even though she technically was now free to kiss anyone she wanted to, it was exactly this she had been afraid of, the critical judgement she would face going so fast from Roy to Jim.

Averting her eyes quickly away from him as she also took a small step away from Jim as she transferred her glance to Kevin, his nodding head and salacious grin a stark contrast to Toby's disappointment.

As she moved her eyes around the room, a din of sound started to rise. Phyllis began clucking like a hen proud of a nest full of eggs and Meredith held up her mug in a mock toast, reciting cheers, before knocking back whatever tipple was in it, most likely the Wild Turkey she'd discovered while in her closet hiding spot.

At the center of it all was Michael chanting with the veneration of a monk, "This is good. This is really good."

Could it be they were happy for her? That they knew what had taken so long and a trip back in time for she herself to figure out. That not only was Roy not right for her...she and him together were like Michael and a white couch, a disaster waiting to happen...but that the person who was had been right in front of her all along. For the last three years he had been sitting just five steps away, making her smile and laugh and through the friendship that was so much more than just that, helping her to find her wings so she could be the somebody she was meant to always be.

And then she saw Angela, posed with her arms tightly wrapped across her tiny frame. The disapproving scowl plastered on her face could make Severus Snape’s sneer seem like Buddy the Elves’ smile by comparison. Pam never could understand how someone so small could make her feel even smaller, but as usual her critical stare seemed to have a power over her. This time the telekinesis-like control she seemed to possess caused Pam to not only bow her head in shame, but to take another step away from the man she just professed her love to.

Feeling the joyous moment slip away as she stepped, she turned back to Jim to see his reaction. If he noticed Angela's disapproval, he didn't let on, the ebullient smile that hadn't left his face since she'd revealed her secret had a power of its own, and like a spell from a wand, it radiated across the room to block Angela's influence over her.

She doubled back to Jim, emotions still painting her face red but no longer from shame or embarrassment but rather the side effect of a joy like she'd never known rising back up in her.

She wasn’t going to let Angela ruin this moment. She was happier than she’d ever been and wasn't going to let that end if she could. She hadn't a clue what was going to happen in the next few minutes, with everyone still gathered around as their time ran out.  It was dangerous to do anything but shuttle Michael back to his office but she didn’t care.

All she knew was at that moment was she was going to do everything she could do to savor the love she felt and make sure Jim knew all that had been encapsulated in her heart for so long.

Even if the next minute wiped clean her recent memories, he would know she was irrevocably in love with him and nothing, not even retrograde amnesia, could erase what she felt for him.  

Throwing back her biggest smile at Angela she flashed to Jim again, grabbed him by the collar and planted another passion-filled kiss on his lips.

From around her she heard the claps and the whistles and from behind her in the kitchen she could swear she heard a bell, ringing incessantly along with the other Michael who chanted as he made his way in from the back, hopefully bringing the other Pam along with him.

“Let 'em ring. Let the bells of Dunder Mifflin chime out your love.”

With all the focus on the Pam and Jim, nobody seemed to hear or notice who else had stepped through the front door to walk in on a very public and passionate kiss.

“What the hell? You and Halpert!”