Martin and Hannah had left with barely a good-bye. But Karen was different.

Pam and Karen had become friends since she showed up in Scranton despite Pam's initial reservations about her -- or rather, her relationship with Jim. Pam wanted to give her a good send-off, going as far as asking Angela to have the Party Planning Committee come up with some good ideas. In the end, though, it was just a subdued affair with cupcakes and chips laid out on a green tablecloth in the conference room. Angela didn't like the color very much, but thought it would be good to buy it since they could reuse it a few weeks later for the St. Patrick's Day party.

Unlike the first conference room meeting with the new people from Stamford, this was much friendlier. Everyone ate, socialized, and had a good time. Well, everyone except for Jim. Pam had noticed that he had taken the time and effort to make some homemade salsa for the party -- something she had never seen him do before. Other than that, he was a wetter blanket than Angela, which was obviously saying alot. He didn't talk to anyone, didn't crack any jokes, just put some food on a plate and ate at his desk. At 4 o'clock, he told Pam he was leaving for a "sales call." She could tell he was just trying to get out of the office as soon as possible.

He gave Karen a lingering hug good-bye. "I'm sorry," Pam heard him say.

"Me, too," Karen replied.

Pam watched him walk out, shoulders slumped over. He looked like someone had killed his puppy.

Two hours later, almost everyone was gone and the punch was warm.

"I can't believe you're sticking around to help clean up your own going away party," Pam told Karen.

"I wanted to make sure I got dibs on any lingering double fudge brownies."

Pam laughed. "I think this is the first time Kevin has been beaten to the leftovers."

They smiled at each other as Pam pulled off the tablecloth and started to fold it.

"Here, let me help you," Karen said, putting down the green plastic cups in her hand.

They started folding, just a casual post-party thing, which is probably why Pam wasn't watching what she said around Karen as much as usual. "Um...I don't mean to pry, but this whole transfer thing seems to have really knocked both you and Jim for a loop. Did something happen?"

Karen looked up at her with weary eyes. "Between Jim and I? It's...um...complicated, I guess. To tell you the truth, Jim and I hit a rough patch. Whether I left or not, it just...it wasn't going to work out."

"So what really made you decide to go?"

Karen let out a half laugh. "It was actually something Michael said to me."

Pam started running though all the idiotic things Michael could have said to Karen to make her do something as drastic as head to New York. She thought about Karen's first day when Michael asked her if her dad was a G.I. and how Karen continued to work in the office after that despite the remark. How could Michael have said something worse than that to make Karen want to leave?

"You can't be serious," Pam said, looking back at Karen. Karen gave her an exasperated look. "You're serious? What...what did he say to you?"

Karen shook her head. "I don't want to talk about." She handed the folded-up tablecloth to Pam, grabbed the green cups from where she had left them, and walked past Pam out of the conference room. Pam followed her, watching Karen put the cups in the party supply box, trying to read the expression on her face to find any hint of what had happened.

But Karen wasn't giving any hints as she grabbed her coat from her desk. "Alright, Pam. I guess this is it."

She walked over and gave Pam a hug. Pam hugged her back. "I'm really gonna miss you. It was nice having a girlfriend in the office for once."

"New York isn't that far away and you're welcome to visit anytime," Karen told her, but the invitation didn't sound very sincere for some reason.

They pulled apart and Karen took a deep breath. "Will you do me a favor?"

"Yeah. What do you need?"

Karen looked up at her. "Promise me you'll take care of Jim and be good to him."

What? Of all the things to ask her, this was kind of weird. Promise to be good to him? "Um...yeah, sure. I will," Pam stammered.

Karen nodded her head once in acknowledgement. "Ok, I'll see you later."

"Ok. Good luck with New York."

"Thanks."

Pam watched her walk out before going over to her desk to make sure everything was in order before she left. She was about to grab her coat from the rack when she heard a moan from Michael's office. She saw him walk out of the conference room an hour ago, so it couldn't be him...

Or it could. She saw his feet sticking out from the side of his desk. "Michael?"

"Pam? Is that you?"

"Yeah. Are you ok, Michael?"

Michael grasped the edge of his desk to help himself stand up. "Pam-a-lama-ding-dong! I'm so glad to see you!"

He was not looking good. At all. "Michael, are you drunk?"

Michael looked down at his hands and started moving them around, entertaining himself with the drunken trails his fingers were leaving behind in the air.

"Oooook," Pam said. "Let's get you home, alright?"

"Home, home on the range, where the deer and the unicorns play..." Michael sang in a drunken, off-key stupor.

Pam grabbed his coat and put her arm around him. "How did you get this drunk?"

Michael took some time figuring out what he was going to say. They had gotten all the way to the elevator before he finally blurted "I think Andy spiked my punch. Oh, Andy! He can be so funny sometimes, Pam, but he was depressed today. He's the only Stamford person left. All alone....So so alone. So I got him drunk to make him feel better."

"You mean, you both got drunk," Pam corrected him.

"No, Pam, we're both not skunks."

Pam rolled her eyes, trying not to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. "Shotgun!" Michael yelled as loud as possible in her ear. Pam opened the door for him, buckled him up, and rolled down his window before getting in on her side.

He seemed to sober up a bit on the car ride home with the cold air hitting his face and by the time she pulled up in front of his condo, he was at least able to carry on a sort of coherent conversation.

"Ok, this is your stop," Pam announced.

"Pam," Michael said, staring straight at her with a serious look on his face. "You are so great. Really great. It's so easy to see why Jim is still in love with you."

"WHAT?" Pam's mind started racing and she felt as drunk as Michael actually was. Jim what? How did Michael know that? How did Michael know anything about what happened between her and Jim? How did he know Jim once loved her? And he still loved her? Even now, after everything that had happened? Pam's mind was a mix of shock and elation and it took her several seconds to finally recover.

Oh my God. Did he tell Karen that?

"Michael," Pam said, putting her hands on top of his as he tried to unbuckle his seat belt. "What did you say to Karen that made her want to leave? Did you tell her Jim was in love with me?"

"That would be an affirmative, Pam Pong!" Michael said.

She let go of his hands and he started fidgeting with the seat belt to get it undone. "Karen was hanging all over Jim so he wouldn't be able to get together with you and he can get together with you now because you're not engaged like you were last year when he was in love with you and then at the convention he said he left because you rejected him so I was mad at you because it was your fault we lost Jimbo but then he came back and then it was ok except he came back with Karen -- blech! -- and that was bad because I could tell he still really wanted to be with you -- I pick up on these things now that I have a girlfriend -- and...um...why is your seat belt not working?"

Pam hadn't noticed Michael was rambling and hadn't noticed his drunken hands couldn't get the seat belt to let go of him. She swiftly snapped out of her stupor, unbuckling it as fast as she could to get him out of the car. She couldn't listen to this anymore. Her brain could not process all of this fast enough. She reached over and grabbed the handle of Michael's door, nearly pushing him out of the car in the process. He finally steadied himself on his feet and turned around, facing her while leaning on the car door to keep himself upright.

"Thanks for the ride, Pam. And you know, with the whole Karen thing? You're welcome."

Michael smiled triumphantly and slammed the door shut. As Pam watched him walk sloppily his driveway, she could feel a splitting headache coming on. She probably wouldn't be thanking him any time soon.