This all lead to the surprisingly quiet Dunder Mifflin office on Friday morning. Even Michael seemed to respect the silent agreement to avoid both Jim and Pam, and not confront either on what they had all seen.

The only activity that the pair would make was a ballet of eye contact. It would start the same way each time. Pam would look up from her desk and over at the back of Jim's head. At this point, Karen would begin looking over at an oblivious Pam, noticing where her gaze laid. Eventually, Jim would glance up at Karen, check to see what she was staring at, and lock eyes with Pam.

At which point all three would immediately drop their eyes to their desks.

Michael lasted one hour of silence, more than anyone expected of him, before his desire to provide entertainment kicked in.

"Attention all, attention all!" Michael cut through the silence as he stepped out of his office.

Those who were not a part of the awkward trio began looking at each other cautiously. Michael's demeanor had a sense of finality to it that was not unfamiliar to the group. He'd come up with a "solution" to a problem that was never his to begin with. There was a palpable sense of doom in the air.

Michael stepped close behind Ryan and cleared his throat. "Here at Dunder Mifflin, we are a family. And when someone -- … someone… s…" He stopped for a moment to choose his words. "When two someones in the family are hurting, it's our job as family to be there for them."

Karen stared down at her desk. While they'd never broadcasted it, she and Jim had stopped hiding their relationship all together from their coworkers. She had been happy when Michael never seemed to put things together, as Jim had warned her of what was likely to happen when he did. But in that minute, when she was being brushed aside as inconsequential to the love story that seemed to be unfolding in front of them all, she wished that he knew she had some claim to the situation.

But it was becoming clear why her coworkers had always eyed her slightly warily and almost with pity when they saw her with Jim.

"When two parts of a family hurt, we all hurt," Michael continued. "And that is why I have decided that we are going to have a team building trust exercise conference. Right now. In the warehouse."

The last sentence was enough to make even Jim and Pam, whose gazes hadn't left their desks, stare widely up at Michael.

Phyllis was the first to speak. "Michael, I'm not sure that's such a great idea…" she trailed off.

"Why, Phyllis? Why would you think that?" Asked Michael, angered by the opposition.

She stared blankly back at him, willing him to understand.

Kevin helped her out. "Because Roy will probably beat the crap out of Jim."

Jim dropped his head into his hand and had to fight the urge to bang his head against the desk.

"Not going to be a problem. Jim's a tough guy. And we are his posse, ready to back him up at a moments notice." Michael paused for a moment. "Also, I spoke with Darryl. Roy didn't come in this morning… So, solves that." Michael paused again to look around the room.

He was getting more and more agitated as he realized that no one had been sold on the brilliance of his plan. "Come ON you guys! We have to get out of this office. I can't take the tension anymore. This has become a sad place, a quiet place. And that's not how I run an office. This whole place is just reeking of tension." He waved his arms around the area of the room between his office and reception. "Over here. It's just horrible. And –" he stopped and looked down. Waving his arms to indicate the area in front of Ryan's desk. "Actually, this exact area. Right here, against the –"

"OKAY!" Jim stood abruptly, cutting off Michael. He looked down and walked towards the exit, making sure to avert his gaze as he walked past reception. "Let's just go."

"Okay!" Said Michael, pleased now that he'd gotten through to some. Slowly people began to stand, taking Jim's departure as permission to go along with Michael's plan. The room filed in line behind Jim. Michael jumped in with the group about halfway through and Pam waited to be the last one out.

Once they'd all made it to the warehouse, Michael ordered everyone, warehouse staff included, into a semi circle around him so that he could address them all.

Jim stood to one end of the group. As everyone settled into position, he cautiously raised his eyes to look around at the group. He noticed Pam first and couldn't stop the pang he felt at seeing her almost trying to hide herself behind Phyllis. He tried to convince himself that the pang was a result of not eating breakfast and nothing else. Karen was situated somewhere between himself and Pam, staring straight ahead, arms crossed against her chest. He hadn't been able to muster up the emotional energy to have a conversation with her, but he could understand her annoyance. He would never forget each instance where she'd questioned him about the nature of his friendship with Pam and he'd had to lie to her. So he understood the anger he saw lurking behind her eyes. But honestly, what had she expected him to say? Now that she'd seen the demise of that friendship, could she not understand why he'd never been honest with her? How painful that would have been for him? He looked away from Karen and noticed the majority of the warehouse workers glaring menacingly at him.

Shit.

He went back to staring at the floor.

"Family," Michael started, "is built on many things. Three things really; love, blood and trust. Since our family is missing one of those criteria –"

"Blood," inserted Dwight, coming to stand next to Michael. "We are not related."

"God, Dwight. Thanks for being obvious. Go back over there."

Dwight, dejected, turned and walked back to his spot.

"As I was saying before Captain Obvious over here started," he paused for laughter, then coughed and started again when none came. "Because our family is lacking that one criterium, we have to work especially hard to make sure that we meet the other two criteria; love and trust. Now, I think we all know that the love part is covered."

Michael paused just long enough for Jim to sense him glaring pointedly at him. He decided that the sheer extent of how excruciating this whole day was becoming would be comical if he hadn't been fighting the urge to curl up into a ball and cry. One day, he told himself, I will look back on this and laugh. He tried to convince himself that he meant it.

"So what does that leave?" Michael continued. "Trust! So without further ado, here's what we're gonna do. We are going to play some games that build trust and teamwork. They include a blindfolded treasure hunt, where one partner is blindfolded and the other can't touch anything and they must guide the blindfolded partner. Also, a three legged race. There may also be others, depending on our… progress… by that point. I will now begin putting your into pairs."

Both Pam and Jim's head shot up as Michael mentioned hand selecting the pairs. The mischievous gleam in his eyes was enough to confirm what his plans for pairs were going to be.

Jim recovered first. "Michael, no."

Michael tried to look innocent. "'No' what, Jim?"

Even though she knew the idea of working with Jim right now was a horrible one, Pam couldn't help the hurt she felt when he so immediately tried to get out of it. She tried her best to recover quickly and try her luck with Michael. "Please, Michael. Don't."

Michael almost looked like he was loosing steam, possibly about to reconsider. As he opened his mouth to speak, he was interrupted by a car squealing into the parking lot, skidding into a parking space and it's door slamming.

Through the open door of the warehouse, a quite obviously drunk Roy stumbled in.