Oh, Catie, this is just gorgeous.  I stealth-read this at work yesterday and didn't have time to leave a review, but it brought tears to my eyes.  It's strange - you made me feel so happy for Pam in a whole new way.  Falling in love like this - where the mundane turns sublime - is just the best thing in the world.  I love the idea of her thinking she's fallen as far as she can go and then falling deeper.  The last paragraph is just...::sigh:: 

Author's Response: Sweetpea!!! You are just the best! Your review made my day. I just started a new job today, and I\'ve been stressed...but to come home to this is just great! And yes, you definitely know it\'s love when the mundane turns sublime. And I have no doubt that Jim and Pam are totally reveling in the everyday things (like sitting on the couch watching a movie, holding hands) because they were forbidden before. Anyway, thanks again!!!

Okay, the idea of Jan and Michael's mother together on a girls night out?  Comedy gold, Jerry!  I wouldn't mind reading more details about that! (I keep asking for stuff and it keeps working, so what the hell?)  Until then, this is my favorite line because it's just so real and so Pam:

“Nothing, just…who has days like this?”

I absolutely think she's said this at least once.  This is very sweet and very them.  Love.

Oh, susanita!  Why oh why don't you write more?  This was just so beautiful!  I could picture every bit of light and how the snow looked and Pam's image in the moonlight.  Such a sweet and funny moment between them!  Howling at the moon?  Maybe the best Pam and Jim image ever!

Author's Response: Aw, Sweetpea! How'd you get to be so awesome?! You are such an amazing writer with such great stories.  Thank you so much for your kind comments, they mean a lot to this old gal.  ::huggles::

Colette, this is so heartbreakingly real and sad. I think it would have been just like this between them, with Karen trying everything under the sun and Jim trying so hard to love her.

Moments like this: 

Still, he wishes he didn’t know it wasn’t an inspiration she’d had in the moment.

Where there’s impulse – messy and imperfect - instead of technique. He thinks of bodies colliding how they will and skin kissed or licked or stroked simply because resistance is futile.

are why your stories are so great, and why they always leave me with a sense of longing to have a great love in my life again.  Even with an angsty Jim/Karen story, that promise of true love is still there.  Wonderful.

Okay, TLK, you should write talking heads endlessly, because these are hysterical!  I love the TH exchange between Jim and Kevin!  You write Michael's awkward moments so well - those times when he's gone too far down a line of reasoning that turns on him.  So funny. 

Author's Response:

Talking Heads are fun to write, too! ;)  I do like the thought that Kevin has some sort of specialty, but Michael won't pay any attention.  Michael's awkwardness is always fun to write as well.

Thanks so much for reading and reviewing, Sweetpea! 

Thank you very much for keeping me awake since 3:30 am!  I was just going to be up for a few minutes and then try to fall back to sleep, but...new chapter.  And such a good one, too.

I really like the choice you made about not having Jim confront Roy, but Pam instead.  As much as I would've liked to see a Jim-Roy smackdown at some point, this wasn't the right time or the right issue.  Loved Jim feeling covered by the dirt that Roy was throwing around.  But him saying "I would never do what he's doing to you" and her nod of acknowledgement...wow.  Right in the griefbone!  Yes, I did want to yell at her, but I want to give her a hug, too.  Looks like the ball's in her court now - she's going to have to do something.  I can't wait to see what that is!  Of course, I wouldn't mind seeing her eventually get her tongue down Jim's throat again...:-)

I don't care where it's going or if it even ends happily - please, just keep going.  I can't quote a single line without quoting them all, but the idea of Jim abandoning his own imaginings of how this might happen to give in to whatever she needs and letting her break his heart is just so epically tragic and true for Jim.  Yes, poor Jim, because this 'yes' is even more heartbreaking than the 'yes' he gave to Karen.  But poor Pam!  I don't think there is a sadder question than the one she asks him.  Please, do continue.

Wow!  So, I read the first version of this chapter and wanted to let it settle in a bit before leaving a review and then I fell asleep on the couch.  I woke up and came back to it to find...a whole new chapter?!  Not just a reworked paragraph or two, but a whole new chapter.  Now I'm jealous, because I wasn't asleep that long and this is what you can do in the time it takes me to nap on the couch?  That's just nuts.

With some stories, I find myself skimming over narrative and inner monologue stuff to get to dialogue, but never with this, because then I'd miss stuff like:

She wanted badly to know that the ocean was in front of her and all it would take to be on the other side of the world was a well-tied knot of blind determination.

In fact, the whole pond-ocean metaphor was just beautiful and I loved this:

Pam wanted to snap her fingers and see if it would rain.

She already knew she could make it storm.

I love how Jim feels comfortable to her, "like white t-shirts and jeans and 1950."  Man, that is so...right.  I definitely like this new chapter better - the old one was just fine - but this feels more like the rest of the story and I love that Jim tells her to just watch the game even though he's probably dying to know what she's thinking. 

You deserve every word of every review and if this one helps drag more words like these out of you, I'll be thrilled!  

My goodness, that was fine.  Every single emotional note just pitch perfect.  I stealth-read this at work and got so choked up, I knew there was no way I could leave a review, but I looked forward to coming home and reading it again.    

This put a gigantic lump in my throat and turned the water works on:

“Like I wanted you to be on my team, almost, but I couldn’t tell you because it was just so bad and you were so…” she huffed and she flinched and she looked down at her feet, “just so good,” she breathed.

Did you hear that whimper from there? 

Pam asking him if she was beautiful again just killed me and the line about them volleying their insecurities - so tender and vulnerable and sweet.

Then this just finished me off completely:

“I believe you,” he whispered between kisses, “I believe you.”

Oh Jim!  He IS so good!

I'm so glad I waited one more day before emailing you, begging for another chapter!  When you say "not that much" what I'm thinking is "plain and simple" in the best possible way writing can be, which means it IS a lot.  Thank you so much for this and I just can't be that patient anymore, SG!

I am SO over you!  (not really!)

Oh, sweet, aching, delicious anticipation!  Pam certainly has grown a pair, hasn't she?  I really love this turn of events - love seeing her feeling confident and beautiful enough to dangle it in front of Jim's nose just a little.  She better be careful - that's some powerful mojo she's messing with there!  Simply can't wait for more, so I hope you don't mind putting everything else in your life on hold to finish this. 

You are a goddess.  I love that Pam has just a moment of fear at her own vulnerability because she's so invested in him but then she knows that he's never going to hurt her.  Oh, that trust and that certainty is just the most wonderful thing in the world and it has such a rightful place in this story and for these two. 

This has been such a beautiful and beautifully crafted love story.  Thank you so much for sharing it.

Oh, Colette!  I'm swooning here and I have tears in my eyes, too.  I love how you have Jim letting just  few words out at a time while he talks to her.  I love her tying his tie.  I love that it makes her think of her dad.  I love the whole thing and the ending is perfect. 

Author's Response: So glad the slow pacing of what Jim tells her worked for you - I thought it might be, oh I don't know - sexy? LOL. But also, that him recognizing/affirming that side (and so many others) of her would help her kind of 'own' them. Okay, enough of my egregious psycho-babble - thanks so much Sweetpea - always feel like if you liked a fic, I must have gotten something right ;-)

Awww, kells, this is lovely!  You know, I really bought Pam's claim that she was totally fine in the ending we saw, but after reading this, I completely agree with your take on it.  She would have held it together as long as she could (and that was a long day for her!) but I do think she would have had a good cry thinking Jim was really gone.  And the hug!  So sweet! 

Author's Response: Thanks for reading and reviewing, Sweetpea!  I do think that Pam had come a long way and she knew that she would be okay without Jim, but deep down she would be heartbroken if she lost him all over again, so to speak. I think she would have always had some regret in her mind about the way things happened between them, and I tried to convey that here.  I'm glad I can make you see it my way, too. lol.  Thanks again :) - K