Just a guy with Jim and Pam on the brain, trying to get the song out of his head by singing it.
1 I thought the quirky style really worked here. Brief but beautiful.
1 If you ever decide you want to finish this story, I'm sure a lot of us would love to see what happens next. And I don't think you need to write actual smut to finish this - the scene you wrote with them cuddling in bed was good as far as action goes!
But I'm glad if this is it, it at least stops here with Jim and Pam in a good place.
Their first date gets derailed. Somehow, that's OK.
1 Of course Michael injuring himself is what led to their first date being postponed - and of course they had a perfectly lovely evening hanging out with each other anyways. I like this - and the choice to have them start The Talk while they're waiting. The line "e felt a sudden urge to kiss her, and realized with a swooping sensation that there was no longer any reason not to." is beautiful.
Author's Response:
Oooh, first date fic was the best. A date! They were going on a date!!!! The fic world exploded.
But of course there had to be complications, right? And Michael's antics are dependable chaos. Thank you for liking it. I'm not a "visualizer" when I write, but I could always clearly see the ugly hospital waiting area that somehow became the most romantic place in the world because they were finally, finally together.
A phone call interrupts their Valentine's Day date.
1 Oooooooooh. Too smooth, Halpert. And exactly prank-y enough that Pam would absolutely love it. Very cute!
Author's Response: I am not a prankster, at all. Jim rarely does pranks in my fic because I could never think of any. But this one seemed to flow organically from his character. I'm glad they got the more traditional, romantic proposal, but I think something like this would have worked well. Thank you, and happy early (late?) Valentine's Day!
Sometimes, still, he would wake up in the middle of the night just to make sure that she was okay, that there was no blood. And only when he had made sure of it, made sure that it was just her, clean and peaceful, did he close his eyes and fall back asleep.
1 This is awful and brutal and brilliant and healing all in the same fic.
AU Season 2, some undetermined amount of time after Booze Cruise. Roy invites Jim to a house party.1 Love this. And it supports my personal headcanon that the cameras set back Jim and Pam by a LOT.
1 Too sweet! And lovely to fill in the unforgivable gap of their first Valentine's together!
Author's Response: Thanks! I was all about the missing "firsts." Stupid strike.
1 You did a really good job capturing what makes JAM feel both universal and unique here.
Michael Scott gets everyone involved in planning a party for President's Day.
This is part of my series "Holiday: Just One Day Out Of Life."
1 Okay, the implication that Creed is in fact Kevin's father is worth the price of entry here.
What if Roy was lying when he said he'd never cheated on Pam? What if Pam was always a little less healthy than she let on? What if everything, everywhere, is only meant to fall apart?1 This is just lovely.
1 "This was who he loved. Someone that didn’t even love herself. Why would you love someone like that? Especially when the alternative was available. This is the thought that haunted him. This is what he had been asking himself for a week. And the only answer he could come to, the only thing that made sense, was that Jim was the same way. That he didn’t love himself."
Holy fuck. This was good, but WILDLY dark.
1 This does a good job addressing some I feel like you just talked about in one of my other reviews - identifying WHY Jim, who has always stuck around Dunder Mifflin because he doesn't want to leave Pam, continues to do so now that he can leave the job without leaving her. For someone who doesn't really have a clear professional goal, there's a lot to be said for a job where he doesn't have to work particularly hard and can spend a lot of his day hanging out with Pam just like he would at night.
Author's Response:
It makes sense to me that he started to develop professional aspirations after he and Pam were settled, too. He wasn't living for his workday anymore, and also having a successful relationship is a great confidence builder.
Also, I liked giving them a chance to be supportive of one another.
She saw the iPod as she was packing her stuff into boxes. It had been tucked away in a drawer for months. She never listened to it anymore; the memories were too painful.
1 While I wish you had gone further with this, I'm really happy you posted what you had - "Pam just flat out keeps the iPod" is a premise I don't think I've seen before, and the idea that Jim has unintentionally kept Pam and Roy's relationship on life support by filling the gaps he refuses to is very insightful.
1 I've always loved the dialogue in this chapter - it's very Michael, and very funny.
Imagine Jim’s confession on Casino Night never happened and Pam actually made it down the aisle on June 10th . . . only to say “I don’t”.1 The image of Pam as a crazy lamp lady has stuck with me for a long time.
1 This actually feels like a remarkably plausible beginning for the Michael-Toby feud - Michael is absolutely the kind of person who would blow this up into a battle to the death, especially once he realized Toby's main job is to say no to him.
God. I adore this.
1 I have no words for this. None. Absolutely zero. I'm really trying here. This is just an emotional roller coaster, and I'm still trying to catch my breath now that we're at the end of it.
1 Considering the title, this is a remarkably upbeat story. This feels like it hit the nail on the head with Season 4 Jam in a way a lot of fic misses - they're not uniformly euphoric and they have their moments, but nothing that would come close to threatening their relationship. And ugh, do I ever wish this has been the fate for Kelly, if not Michael.
Pam disappears one day in August.
Post-S2 AU, if Pam had decided not to stay in Scranton.
1 I cannot even begin to describe how brilliant this is. This is something they'd obviously never do on the show, but it's fascinating to see Pam give her life the complete tear-down and fresh start it needed post-Casino Night. You really embraced the quiet desperation of this office, and you made Pam's journey about PAM and not just about Jam without forgetting that Jim is one of the things Pam wants to be brave enough to go after. (I love the way their connection is used here.)
It's just a literary accomplishment. I've said this before, but I desperately hope you're still writing.
He goes out, he works, he does not call Pam, even when he's drunk and calls the office, he somehow gets Dwight's extension instead of the main desk, and the following Monday he recieves a very long pamphlet on alcohol abuse, narrated by a green panda.1 Okay, I love this for the reference to a truly iconic commercial, but this is also a terrific take on Jim's inner monologue. Really enjoy the voice you've given him here!
10 "You need to catch up. Maybe if you wouldn't have lost your space in the Finer Things Club you might know more words to beat me."
Communication is hard.
1 The Jam is adorable, and Angela's voice felt true to her, but I think my favorite section here was Jan's. It feels like you hit on a non-cartoony version of her inner monologue that still fits with the relatively cartoony season 4 Jan, not an easy bar to clear.
It only took me 3 days to finish it (stupid work) but here's a little Post-Dinner Party action. Fluffy and short, just the way I like it.
Obvious spoilers abound. :)
1 HA! This is fantastic follow-up to a fantastic episode. I'm sure they would've joked about that dinner for days.
NOW COMPLETE!!!
"Jim, why don't you tell Pam how you really feel?"
Jim and Pam deal with the stuff that comes with being on a hit show...talk shows, radio call-ins, and press junkets. They say there's no such thing as bad publicity, but is that really the case? Watch as Jim and Pam deal with being in the public eye and under the thumb of manipulative network producers. The story is told through interviews, transcripts, web pages and photos.
1 This story is ambitious and well-executed, and the greatest praise I can offer it is that it makes me genuinely feel bad for being so judgmental of Jim and Pam, real people trying to live their lives in a fishbowl, in spite of the fact that I know full well they are not in fact those things.
1 Ha! Love the use of Marjorie, and this is a theory on Phyllis' one-night-stand I'd never heard before. Fun.