Just a guy with Jim and Pam on the brain, trying to get the song out of his head by singing it.
The Ladies' Restroom has always been the place for the "official" parties. Here's a behind the scenes look at one of those parties. No men allowed.
1 This is relentlessly sweet. I love good Office ladies friendship fic!
Kelly, Pam, and Karen find different meanings in a romantic comedy. Takes place sometime after Women's Appreciation (season three). Spoilers for the movie "My Best Friend's Wedding"
1 Whoa. Interesting choices here! First, I love the image of Pam torturing herself with rom coms during the post-Casino Night summer, because that just feels... very Pam. But you also took this in a way different direction than I thought you would by having Pam see herself in Kimmi, the one who is going to "win" because she *is* his true love - especially at this point in the story where Pam is starting to fight for herself more. It's a fun way of building on Karen and Pam's opposing advice to Michael about Jan.
Also, Kelly getting serious about the Dylan McDermott/Dermot Mulrooney confusion is perfectly Kelly.
Author's Response:
This one was super fun. And I really enjoyed threading Kelly in here (because she’s describing herself and Ryan, too!). She’s like a Greek Chorus of obliviousness.
This was fun to re-read! Thank you. I’ll glad you enjoyed it.
Pam cools her feet in the water. Takes place immediately following Beach Games.1 The connection between cold feet/Pam's hesitance and Pam's growth literally culminating in a coal walk desperately needed to be made. That's genius.
Author's Response: Oh, thank you! I feel like it couldn't have been a coincidence, right? No more cold feet for Pam, who is finally being brave.
. . . comes from some other beginning's end. Post-Beach Games. Based around the finale (but no spoilers).
I guess this is kind of AU now ;)
1 I really liked this - this feels a lot like what might have happened post-Beach Games if these were real people and not TV characters whose big life moments have to be dramatic, a sort of quiet coming together.
I also really appreciate that you gave Karen some agency here and let Michael give Jim the guidance he needs once again.
1 I appreciate you taking the time to dig into the mini-genre of "just because we didn't SEE Jim talk about transportation back from New York with Karen doesn't mean he actually abandoned her" fic. Which really makes total sense! Why the hell would Karen want to spend two hours in the car with someone who just broke up with her for another woman?
And this is a very kind treatment of Karen - you're giving her both the opportunity to vent some well-deserved rage and a certain level of recognition that this was a fight she was always bound to lose.
Author's Response:
I wrote this before we found out that apparently he left her "crying by a fountain," but I still don't think he just straight-up abandoned her! That takes a lot of the charm out of "It's a date," doesn't it?
Karen deserved more than she got out of that whole situation; I'm shocked she stayed with Dunder-Mifflin at all. I liked the idea of letting her say her peace (her piece? I don't know which way that expression goes, both could work!), and then sort-of giving her blessing before Jim rushes back to our girl.
1 Really enjoyed this as someone who loves the show for the humor as well as for JAM.
1 I love the fundamental playfulness of their relationship here!
Author's Response: Thanks, darjeelingandcoke! Sorry for the late response -- I rarely check this account. Glad you're still reading old Office fic!
1 You are a *very* good writer.
"'Jiiiiiiiiim. Come to beeeed,' Pam’s voice is light, and it mistily floats down the empty staircase as it swirls about the room, echoing like a siren’s song."
A series of one-shots. There are times when Jim and Pam's relationship seem a little supernatural.
1 The line "I guess I believe that I knew you before I ever met you, like we loved for a longer time" haunts me.
1 I love the idea of exploring Pam's journey through her art, and you brought a very deft literary sort of touch to it.
Jim is nervous about their first date. Spoilers through "The Job".1 This is a lovely look into their mindset at the beginning of their first date. But real talk: they keep going like that, that date is never getting out of Pam's apartment.
Author's Response:
Ha, there’s that. I always figured they took those first steps pretty slowly, though. Lots of baggage to unpack.
But oh, how exciting that first date must’ve been! I’m glad this caught that feeling for you.
1 "The phone at reception rang and rang." That's a beautiful line.
1 I love this version of the Halpert sister.
Ooooof. This is hard to read even if it does come at the end of a happy, well-lived life together.
Author's Response:
Sorry! I sort of felt bad coming back after all this time just to, you know, do this to them. But it always bothered me that this story didn't feel finished, and it just sat in my brain until I wrapped it up. I think they lived happily ever after, and that whichever of them survives the other would take a lot of strength from those years together.
Thank you for enduring all of these many chapters. I hope you enjoyed them!
Oh, my. Risky, Jim - but you know your wife! And I guess he did always have a thing for moms - soccer moms, NASCAR moms, grand-moms...
Author's Response: I loved thinking of those two having a full life together full of laughter.
I'm choosing to adapt this to Cece's eventual wedding.
Author's Response: I'm honored to be in your head-canon! I very briefly considered going back and changing the kids' names, but I am much too lazy and I would most certainly miss some and then it would be a mess. But we'll pretend that Lucy is CeCe, for sure!
This is in some ways a tension that I wish Season 9 had explored more going the other way - the idea of two spouses who start in more or less the same place, support each other doing more and one of whom ends up growing way more than the other does feel like a recipe for unpleasantness, and I'm glad you were willing to dig into it.
Author's Response: Thank you! It can be tough to feel supportive when someone else's success just seems to highlight your own lack of progress. That hurts in friendship and I imagine it would be that much worse in a marriage, especially with the fear of being left behind.
Awwww Jim. A+ husbanding.
Author's Response: Time passes, but Jim Halpert remains perfect. Ha.
1 This is exactly what that summer felt like for them - complete with them using their relationship to mess with Dwigt.
Author's Response:
We missed so much of their early days, but I definitely tried to catch some of that heady new-relationship energy. And messing with Dwight is how they flirt, so...ha.
Whoa. That's a powerful way to bring back THE DRESS.
Author's Response: I took a swerve away from fluff with this one, but these two can never drift too far apart to make it back, at least in my fic! And THE DRESS! I loved pulling it out of her closet.
1 SHE WORE THE RED BLOUSE. You slay me.
Author's Response:
Ahhh, you got to this one. I mean, this was a decade in the making. Fun!
My friend, for whom I wrote this piece originally, loved the red blouse enough to look it up and try to buy it online, so it was a given...but it also seemed like the exact right thing for their first date!
Ahhh, you got to this one. I mean, this was a decade in the making. Fun!
My friend, for whom I wrote this piece originally, loved the red blouse enough to look it up and try to buy it online, so it was a given...but it also seemed like the exact right thing for their first date!
1 *SQUEE*
Author's Response: I loved their real wedding...but it was a lot of fun to imagine it before it happened, too. Thank you for the squee! :)
1 You know, it's always struck me that so many fics from this era had at least Pam and usually Pam and Jim leaving Dunder Mifflin not too long after they got together - I know it didn't happen like this, but it actually still feels like a pretty natural progression of their story.
Author's Response: It did feel like a natural way for Pam to continue her growth, even if it wasn't in the cards considering that the show took place in The Office. Heh. But I also did feel like, for Jim especially, the job was the place they could be together. Once they had a real relationship outside of work, either or both of them could be free to leave and keep their connection intact.
Author's Response: It did feel like a natural way for Pam to continue her growth, even if it wasn't in the cards considering that the show took place in The Office. Heh. But I also did feel like, for Jim especially, the job was the place they could be together. Once they had a real relationship outside of work, either or both of them could be free to leave and keep their connection intact.
1 This is very cute almost-smut! And a really fun way to stick to the overall theme.
Author's Response: The closest to smut I ever got. Just not my cup of tea, but I admit to having a great deal of fun with this one. :)
1 While I will admit I don't love that the inciting incident of Pam and Roy splitting is Roy standing up for workers' rights (sorry to get political on you), the consequences are realistic for an already flawed relationship, and this AU is just so well developed.
Wherever you are, I hope you're still writing.