Just a guy with Jim and Pam on the brain, trying to get the song out of his head by singing it.
Three things I believe: They love each other. Dunder Mifflin would wear Jim down without Pam there. Parenting ain't easy. This story follows from those three premises.
1 This is really interesting reading from a post-S9 perspective, and it feels very true to these characters and their relationship at this point. They love each other so much, but they haven’t really learned how to communicate about the big things and they’re so desperate to maintain their image in the other’s eyes that it ends up making things more complicated – that’s just the essence of them.
A slight peak into a very special moment between Jim and Pam.
Complete and utter fluff. Just ridiculous fluff.
1 This is just really good fluff here.
1 Wherever you are - please come back and write more.
What if Pam refused to let Angela drop her off at home after the Dundies?
“I want to go to Jim’s,” Pam said, interrupting Angela’s thoughts.
Angela felt as though her head might pop off and land in one of her cup holders. Would the depravity of this night never end?
1 This is one of the best versions of the talk out there. Kudos.
9 1 The talking dresses bit is SO REAL and also so funny.
1 This is tremendously well-written ensemble fic.
1 Much as I love the Exit 17 Proposal, this would have been an amazing one.
1 The transition between the end of chapter one and the beginning of chapter two is life-giving.
Completed1 The dual POVs here made this so much more painful - knowing they were recognizing these missed moments right along with the audience and with each other.
A missing scene (of sorts) from Survior Man.
Spoilers (obviously) abound!
1 This is a fascinating read so many years on, and especially knowing what comes in Season 9 - you seem to anticipate the fault lines of the conflict ahead.
Yet another story inspired by a song by Ingrid Michaelson called Breakable. I really wanted to tell a story about people being just that -- breakable, and ultimately how grace helps keep us from falling apart. So yeah -- a nice fluffy holiday piece. ;-)1 Honestly, I'm mainly reviewing this story as a bookmark for myself, because it's devastating and devastatingly good. Obviously we've learned some things about Pam's family subsequent to this being written that make it AU, but you do an amazing job building out the version you've created and how Jim interacts with them as they come apart.
7 1 Ooooof. You can almost feel bad for Toby from this perspective. And this is some great Kelly dialogue!
1 Man, you just had a really good handle on these characters and their inner monologues. This feels exactly like what would have been running through their minds during E-mail Surveillance – Jim’s mind-racing, off-kilter and debating if he should and wondering if she wants him to, and Pam, giddy as hell and not coming within a mile of the reason why.
MEMBER'S CHOICE - "She didn't analyze it. Not talking to him had been weird and hard and lonely; talking to him made her happy."1 This is really well-written, very hot, and it seems like a very plausible version of how they could have backed into a relationship while Jim was in Stamford.
Eleven years of Pam Beesly's life. Some are better than others.1 I've always thought this is probably the truest look inside Pam's head pre-Casino Night on the archive - it changes the ending of Casino Night in a way I obviously love, but I actually think it's got a lot of explanatory power for how Pam actually reacted to Jim's confession.
It's really difficult to make her both a) as unaware consciously of what's happening with her and Jim as she would have to be to explain her behavior in S2 and b) not just completely boring and disconnected from the events of canon. This manages to pull it off better than anything else I've read.
The Dunder-Mifflin employees take up online gaming, exercise, and hoagies. Jim leaves a lot of voicemail messages.1 Wherever you are now, and if you ever see this: I dearly hope you're still writing.
1 This is beautiful, and very different. I love the insight into Toby and Toby's perspective on the "grand romantic drama playing out on the fourth floor." I'm particularly intrigued by his sense that the documentarians are significantly impacting the story they're telling by their mere presence, and not just through the editing, which seems like a really rich vein of story-telling the show would for obvious reasons never really touch.
Michael makes a toast at the party, raising his plastic cup of cream soda. "To lovers," he says. "In all forms and all colors. No judging here. No sir, not on this day of all days, when we celebrate the power…of <i>love</i>."
1 As TRAUMATIZING as I find several of these, it is ridiculous that this has no reviews, because there is just a remarkable amount of character insight in these pieces. Really, really good work.
1 Different kind of ending it may be, but I've always felt this journey is in many ways truer to Jim and Pam as they're characterized in their early seasons than what happened in canon. This was never going to happen on the show for obvious "no one is writing Jim and Pam off The Office" reasons, but it feels like a really natural direction for them.
1 Wow. Again. Traumatizing, but really well written.
1 I love this. There's so much to explore with Meredith taken seriously.
1 This is adorable - and in my opinion only theoretically AU. Feels like the beats of a conversation they could have had post-Exit 17 Proposal.
"He's emotionally retarded," Pam said, and went to sit next to Karen on the stairs. She didn't mention that it seemed to be contagious.
1 It always seemed like Karen and Pam (and for that matter, Karen and Jim) could have been really good friends in a different world. I love that you've explored that.
1 SecretlySociallyAware!Kelly is my antidrug.
1 This is fiendishly cute, and I can't believe I missed it before. In addition to the very human filtering of these fictional relationships through her own experience, Pam also very much seems like the kind of person who would fret about Harry Potter characters, and I love seeing it.
Author's Response:
Ahh! I'm sitting in day-long meetings and really ought not to have been checking my personal email account, but I'm so excited that you found this one.
I know I find myself musing about the future of fictional couples after the book/movie/show is over...and considering how vehemently some people oppose Ron/Hermione, Pam's concerns are not unfounded. But I loved imagining that Pam would care so much, and that Jim would know enough to calm her, and really this was just an exercise in me being a nerd in two fandoms at once. :)