A/N- I wanted to write something like the phone call at the end of The Initiation but with a happier ending. This is what came out. Hope you like it.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Jim sat on his couch in front of the television, in the dark. The flickering images lit up his half open eyes as he watched in a restless state between tipsiness and boredom. He winced as the sound of heated voices rung out from the TV. He turned the volume all the way down.

He didn't feel like climbing up the number of stairs necessary to get to the bedroom so for now the couch would have to do. After a few moments of sitting in silence watching an old movie his fingers curled around something small and flat with buttons and he pressed the number two in with his thumb and put the device to his ear and waited for the familiar ringing sound. It never came.

Jim frowned and looked down at the object and sighed as he realized that he was trying to make a phone call on the remote control. He must have had more to drink tonight than he thought, or maybe he was just that tired.  He tossed the remote away and dug his cell phone out of his front pants pocket. As his eyes were pulled back to the television screen he dialed the number again and waited.

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Pam was dozing off in bed while listening to the end of Conan when her cell rang, jerking her back into alertness. She grabbed it off of the nightstand and looked at the illuminated screen. Her brow furrowed when she saw Jim's name flashing and she sat up straight while pushing the answer button.

"Jim? It's really late," she said trying not to sound worried that he was calling at this hour.

"What are you doing?" Jim said as if he hadn't really been listening to her.

"Nothing," Pam said, growing a little annoyed now that it seemed this was not an emergency, "I was about to go to sleep, but I'm up now thanks to you.  My phone scared the crap out of me."

"Sorry" Jim answered.

"It's OK." Pam said, "Are you still at Poor Richards?  Kevin sounded pretty excited about his bachelor party. I didn't think he would let up before dawn."

"No, it ended pretty early.  Ryan just dropped me off." Jim said in a weary voice that implied his memories of the party were less than pleasant.

"Oh" was all Pam could think to say, she wasn't sure why Jim was calling. "Um, what did you call about?"

"Are you watching TV?"  Jim said which didn't seem like an appropriate response. Pam guessed he was a little drunk and just called to talk

"Well it's on," she shrugged, pointlessly.

"Turn to channel thirty eight, see if you can help me figure this out." Jim instructed.

Pam wasn't sure where he was going with this but she complied anyway.  Truth be told she looked forward to every chance to connect with Jim.  When he had come back from Stamford things had been so weird.  One Friday she couldn't take the two of them not talking anymore so she had pulled him into the stairwell and told him they didn't have to be like this and that she wished he would just talk to her again. That day they began slowly rebuilding their shattered relationship.

She found the channel Jim had asked her to and saw a family eating around a table. She wondered what he could be confused about.

"Are you there yet?" Jim asked.

"Yeah."

"Now turn the sound off." Jim said, he sounded as if he was shifting position as he spoke.

Pam pursed her lips and pressed the 'mute' button.  On the screen three men with red hair and beards were talking to a fourth man as he was writing a note on piece of paper. It didn't look very interesting, and certainly not interesting enough to call in the middle of the night about. But with Jim as a best friend anything could become the subject of stimulating conversation.

"What are we watching?" She asked.

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"I have no idea," Jim half whispered using the same voice he used in the office whenever they were co-conspiring against Dwight, "I was watching it with the sound on and it was annoying me so I turned it down and as soon as I did it became the most fascinating thing I've ever seen."

Pam didn't say anything. Jim knew that meant she was pulling one of her Michael-weary faces, doubting that watching television without audio could be interesting, but he didn't bother trying to win her over. He knew she'd get sucked in soon enough. He stared back at the screen. Sure enough she spoke up, intrigue in her voice.

"Are they on a farm?"

"I think so.  There was a scene where the sons were throwing beer bottles at scarecrows in a cornfield earlier." Jim answered, clearly excited that Pam was playing along.

"Where are the sons?"

"Those four guys are the sons; the mom just got up and left."

"Where'd she go?"

"Probably to get a gun to shoot the blonde one; they all hate him."

"Why do they hate him?"

"I don't know. They've been yelling at him the whole time. I think he's adopted."

"Because they yell at him."

"That and he's blond and all of the rest of them have red hair."

"That doesn't necessarily mean he's adopted."

"His biological parents are beside the point.  We need to know what he's writing."

"Maybe it's a suicide note" Pam said dryly.

"Whoa! That's dark Beesley. You feelin' alright tonight."

"You were the one who said the family wanted to kill him.  Besides, his life can't be so great if his family hates him so much. Why not?"

Jim shrugged. She had a point.

"Maybe he's taking a vow of silence and can only communicate through the written word." Jim offered.

"No, see, he just said something."

"Ok so he's not a mute." Jim conceded. He liked how easy it was to talk to Pam.  Even when he called and woke her up in the middle of the night to talk about nothing she was up for it. "Oh good they're getting in the truck, maybe they'll go somewhere.  The whole things been on the farm so far."

"How long have you been watching this?" Pam asked.

"Only about thirty minutes."

The movie stopped for a commercial break. Two men started rapping about boots in a Lugs ad.

"I need new shoes."  Pam said.

"Yeah, I noticed the Keds were looking a little worn. If you don't watch out someone might take your whitest sneakers dundie this year." Jim replied.  He heard her laugh at the mention of the dundie he'd gotten her. He new she still had the award; he had seen it packed away in a box when he helped her move two months ago. He had wanted to ask her why she had kept it but he thought he already knew.

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Pam smiled and thought back to that night at chili's.  She was really drunk but she remembered quite a bit of it. She remembered Angela listening to gospel music the whole ride home.  She remembered Dwight trying to ‘save' her.  Mostly she remembered kissing Jim for the first time. When she replied to Jim she hoped it showed in her voice how much she wanted to kiss him right now.

"Yeah, and who's sneakers have you found that are whiter than mine." Pam said.

"You got me there, Beesley." Jim flirted back

The movie came back on and the truck carrying the four brothers was pulling into a parking lot.

"How old is that truck?" Pam asked.

"I don't know.  Pam I think they're at a bank. This is a heist movie, please let it be a heist movie." Jim was getting excited now. Pam liked how Jim's voice got all bright when he was interested in something, like the Office Olympics.

"I think your right, they have guns."

"Not just guns Pam, tommyguns. Classic bank robber accessory."

"Sorry, my mistake."

"They're doing it all wrong though, they need masks." Jim said as if he had robbed several banks.

"And they didn't even shoot in the air and tell everyone to get on the ground." Pam said.

I can't believe I'm talking about how to properly rob banks.

Pam shook her head and blamed the late hour and the crazy best friend.

"Exactly." Jim said.

"Who is that guy?"

"That must be the banks volunteer security officer."

"No, I mean the actor.  I've seen him before." Pam said. "Wasn't he in Sideways?"

"Which guy from Sideways?"

"The one who was in Lady in the Water. What's his name?"

"I don't know his name but I'm pretty sure that's not him."

"Well, we'll just have to watch the whole movie and see if his name is in the credits."

"First of all we were going to watch this whole movie anyway because its so awesome. Second, how are you going to recognize his name if you don't remember it."

"He'll be listed next to security guard."

"What if there's more than one security guard in this movie."

"I could get on google and find his name right now."

"Focus, Beesley.  We're in the middle of a bank robbery here."

"Right, Oh look one of them is giving a note to the teller. That must be what he was writing earlier."

"Yeah, you were way off."

"What? How was I more wrong than you?"

Pam looked down at her phone as if trying to gage Jim's expression by nothing more than his name glowing back at her.  She realized that she was giving her cell phone a questioning look and huffed. Not even Dwight would look at a lump of emotionless microchips and plastic to gauge a reaction. Gunfire blazed across her silent television screen.

"Oh, what happened?" Pam asked suddenly.

"Haven't you been watching?"

"I got distracted for a second.  Is that the blond guy?"

"Yeah, he got hit."

"Oh no."

"At least now he doesn't have to kill himself."

"Jim, that's terrible."

"What he can't hear me he's dead."

"He's not dead, see his brother is helping him out. Never leave a man behind and all that.  Remind me never to rob a bank with you."

"How could I leave you behind?" Jim replied as if such a thing was impossible.

Pam's minor irritation at Jim's lack of compassion for fictional characters vanished in a heartbeat.  It was moments like these that she looked forward to. The ones that remind her how sweet he is; the ones she stored in her head in the secret Jim file. Like when he told her how talented she was when she showed him her modest sketchbook.  Like when she turned in her chair and found a promised bag of chips staring back at her. Like when he told her he was in love with her.  Like when, against his better judgment, he accepted her Christmas gift and sent Dwight up on the roof. They are precious, these moments that have kept her warm when her bed was empty.

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Jim was coming out of the kitchen with a bag of dry cereal as the movie came back from another commercial break.

"Wow, all that and they didn't even get the money."

Jim thought Pam sounded like a professional movie critic as she continued to list flaws in the movie so intriguing it kept them both up past two in the morning.

"Yeah, and what terrible bank robbers.  They didn't get any money, two of them got shot, and they drove back to their house after.  They're totally going to get caught."

The door to the living room opened and Pam walked in. Jim moved back to the sofa and Pam sat down beside him. They both hung up their phones.

"Fruit Loops" Pam asked.

"No, we're out. Cinnamon Toast Crunch" Jim answered.

They both grabbed a handful and returned their attention to the TV screen where the two uninjured sons were lowering the blond one onto the couch as the police pulled up.

"Look like there's gonna be a stand-off." Jim said.

The next ten minuets were rather uninteresting. The brothers barricaded themselves inside the house and started negotiating with the police. Jim felt himself start to get sleepy. Pam snuggled up into his side and he smiled down at the top of her head and put his arm around her.

"They're just going to get themselves killed. Don't they know that police have swat teams?" Pam whispered.

Almost as if the movie was responding to her comment, a S.W.A.T. team burst into the house and subdued the criminal brothers. They were arrested and lead away in handcuffs.

"I hope I never get arrested. Handcuffs don't look very comfortable." Pam said.

"They're not." Jim whispered.

"Have you ever been arrested?" Pam looked up at Jim suddenly.

Jim felt his face growing hot and new he was turning red.  Pam let go of his arm and sat up sideways on the couch to face him, waiting for an explanation.  He knew there was no way out of this without telling her the whole story now.  Why did he have to say anything?

"Once."

"Oh my God! When?"

"When I was eighteen."

"What for?"

"Breaking and entering."

"What? How did that happen?"

"It was the end of my senior year of high school and two other guys and I were pulling a senior prank.  We were going to get into the school at night and put padlocks on all the folding tables they used in the cafeteria so they wouldn't come down and there would be no place for anyone to eat."

"What?" Pam interjected, laughing.

"I know stupid prank, right? Anyway we drove to the school one night in my friend's car. We get in and we're locking the tables when we see blue lights in the windows. Turns out someone saw a suspicious car in the parking lot and called the cops. So we panicked and tried to run away but we all got caught. The cops kept us there for a long time asking questions. They called the school and everything.  The principle came over and yelled at us for a while and then the cops called my friends parents to come get them because they weren't eighteen.  When they found out I was eighteen they told me I could be charged with breaking and entering, and aiding in the delinquency of minors. They handcuffed me and put me in the back of the cruiser.  Then I saw my principle talking with one of the officers for a while and they came and got me out, told me they weren't pressing charges and I could go home for now and face discipline at school the next day."

Pam was laughing that funny little laugh of hers, the one where no noise comes out.

"They thought it was my car in the parking lot but it wasn't; it was my friend Greg's and he had the keys so I had to walk home."

"I don't believe you. You're making this up."

"No I'm not.  You can call my mom and ask her. I'm sure she'll tell you all about it."

"But you're so good at pranks now.  How could you be so lame at them back them?"

"Prank pullers are made not born, Pam, believe it or not that was one of my first attempts."

"And what made you into one?"

"My friends in college I think. Also Dwight."

Pam giggled and leaned back into Jim's side, turning her attention back to the movie.

"Hey, it's over!" She announced.

Jim eyes were lured away from Pam towards the screen.  It showed credits rolling.

"Look for that guy." She told him.

"Its already on the song credits they did actors a while ago." He told her.

"Dang it." She huffed as she playfully hit him in the stomach. "You made up that story just to distract me."

"I swear to you Pam, I really did get arrested."

"You didn't really get arrested. You just had to walk home; it wasn't even a big deal."

"Oh, it was. I didn't get to walk at my graduation because of it."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Well that's not a big loss, Graduations suck anyway."

"Oh, I know. I still had to go I just couldn't participate."

"Well, I'm sorry." Pam apologized as she rested her chin on his shoulder looking up at his face.

"For what?" Jim asked as he leaned forward so their foreheads were touching.

"For doubting you." She answered as she placed a light kiss to his lips. Pam pulled back and looked into his eyes.

"What?" Jim said, his body tensing under her scrutiny.

"Nothing" Pam said as she tightened her arms around him and laid her head back onto his chest. His hand moved from her back to touch her hair. "I just think it's kind of funny how you called me rather than just coming into the bedroom and talking to me there."

"Yeah well," Jim swallowed, "I didn't know if you were awake."

"Which I wasn't, but your call took care of that." Pam chided.

"If you didn't want me to call you then why don't you turn your phone off when you go to bed?" he asked, his voice tired and low.

"Because I like it when you call me."

The television was turned off, the phones were turned off, and Jim and Pam got up from the sofa definitely not turned off.

The End.