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This was fun. Lovely to see the Halperts having a day like this. I can easily see that Phillip would have gotten the highest score in mini-golf, running around tapping his ball hither and yon. However in golf, mini or otherwise, one wants the lowest score. Maybe they've got some family rules or something.

Yes it feels kind of rushed, some grammar issues here and there, but they don't really detract from the story.

Just lovely to see them having some good time as a family. I wish my parents had pulled me out of school for my 10th birthday. My classmates would have been jealous too. All in all a lovely little story. Thanks for writing it.

Author's Response:

I'll definitely need to go back and edit it haha. I threw it together pretty fast once I saw NLM's note (like in 40 minutes kind of fast since I had a tiny window of time)!

As you can tell, I don't play golf (or mini golf) very often. They don't have family rules...I just don't know the game very well, but thank you for giving me the benefit of the doubt!

Thanks for the feedback and reading. Even though it was a quick write, it was a lot of fun. 

Two updates on the same day! We are blessed. Very easy to see both of them right now. They're both drifting, both somewhat lost. Jim may think he has a destination in mind, but for me at least he's just moving without any purpose.

Pam too. Beyond the pacing in her room, it seems like she wants to move but isn't sure where to go. I liked the mention that Pam tried to save her relationship with Roy. She also had the wherewithal to see the relationship was beyond saving at that point.

Looking forward to more.

Author's Response:

Technically, it was two in two days (11pm and then morning my time). But now it is two in a day since I've updated again. Thanks for noticing the Pam/Roy dynamic I tried to set up; I like the idea that she actually tried to do something with him, not just completely freezing up. 

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Yes short, but nice to see. Jim's still just going through the motions. Pam though is building up momentum.

I also love you're giving us both of their perspectives in each chapter this time around. The one POV per character from your previous stories worked well too, but it's nice to see this change as well.

Author's Response: Yeah, Pam has a ways to go to get to Jim, both metaphorically and literally, so that dynamic may persist. Thanks for the feedback on the POVs--it's a thing I wanted to try, glad it's working.

So many lovely little gems scattered throughout this chapter. Jim's thought's that German is a violent sounding language, wanting to imitate Dwight, Todd Packer is not in jail. Lots of fun. Then under all the memories is one inescapable fact. The fact that no matter what he does, how far he runs, how much he lies to himself, he can't find something that's not there. If he's trying to find his heart, he'll need to realize he gave it to Pam a long time ago and she still has it tucked away.

Loved the 40 Year Old Virgin shout-out. Pam's epiphany continues. Most often it's through adversity that we grow and I'm see that here with her.

Lovely as always.

Author's Response: Thank you! I had a lot of fun with Jim's memories. He'll get better as he has a little time to heal--of course, only a very little time before that second flight comes in.

Good on Mark to get through to Jim there in that recollection. Easy to see Jim could have gone down that path but still had friends to pull him back. Likewise that he remembered the lesson later.

For all the horror stories of air travel, sometime things just go right. Good to see more things going right for Pam.

Author's Response: Yeah, I wanted to tip my hat to the many fics where Jim does get a little lower than this along the way, but keep us up on the more straight and narrow I find more fun to write. Thanks for the review!

Very glad you're feeling better. Still stay safe though. We've still got a long way to go with this whole thing.

Anyway, good on Jim for starting to get unstuck. Regardless of season I'm sure there's a lot to do in any major city. The references to the remains of the British empire were a fun nugget to include.

Now the nerves start ramping up for Pam. I think she's right to have over-analyzed everything in her head on the flight over. It's a long flight and she's got the time. Great time to for her to stop doubting herself now though. Hopefully that will help her out as she goes forward.

Author's Response:

Thank you! And so we do.

I like making Jim ponder whatever I'm pondering at the moment, so British empire it was. Pam will get some calm back, I assure you, but she is at max tension (well, except when they do meet) right now I think. 

Loved the sci-fi reference with Jim. If one knows about his enemy (frienemy?) in Dwight, one is more able to confound them. I'm sure at this point he's also glad for a reprieve in his thought patterns. I think this is the first time we saw him thinking about something and it not going eventually to Pam.

Still loving Pam setting out to do what she wants to do. The Year of Beesly is a great way to think of it and I'm excited to see how this new found confidence in herself pays off.

Author's Response:

Thank you! I think you're right. He's gradually moving that way. And the YoB is a fun concept for me to play around with. 

Okay so here I am at work, and we get a call from the police to come and evaluate a subject who is having a psychological issue. Long story short, as we're driving into the hospital a very angry patient start shouting, yelling, and flailing his arms around. And he's about twice my size. He didn't hit me but he was clearly upset and more than a little ticked off. Left me feeling quite nervous once we cleared the call.

The reason I tell you this story is because once I got the report written up and clicked over to MTT, seeing an update for this story did a lot to help me calm down and let that call go. Wanted to let you know that.

Now getting into the actual review of this chapter. Jim's introspection continues. I like that he comes to the realization about the huge weight he dumped on Pam that night. How he wasn't being fair to her or to himself really. Hopefully since he's going through and hashing all this out with himself, once they do meet up that'll make their discussion go smoother.

Pam walking through the wax museum sounds like a ton of fun.

Author's Response:

Well, thank you. That makes me feel very good inside that this was helpful to you at such a time. I'm sorry you had to deal with that, but thank you for all you do outside of this site as well as for your reviews which are uniformly insightful.

I think it's reasonable and important for Jim as a person to have this reflection at this point: I think Pam not telling him about the wedding being off is really what triggers his S3 frustrations, but he'd have realized that the initial "rejection" wasn't entirely her fault. 

So my theory proves correct. Yes, you would do that. Well done.

I was grinning ear to ear reading this whole chapter. Can't wait to see how their reunion goes. Wish I could be more eloquent, but I just sat back and enjoyed this one. Can't wait to read more.

Author's Response: I'm delighted to know you liked it! It's a real pleasure to know I can make you, who are always so eloquent in your comments, sit back and enjoy.

Jim being kind of speechless and numb, but in a good way as he finds his way down to her seems very appropriate. This time she's dropped the bomb on him and he's the one stunned into silence.

I love that Pam turns the tables around with her lines from Casino Night. Great choice with her realizing it's her turn and just going for it. From first kiss, to each one knowing their lines, to this first words of really coming back to each other. Very cute, very romantic, very healing. I also love the fact we're still not done with this story.

Author's Response: Thank you! I had a lot of fun figuring out how she should talk to him.

Great banter. Also a seamless transition of POV's there too. The end though was for me the best part. After making her find several new shades of red, she is able to turn the tables and get the reaction out of him with those two little words.

Just wonderful how you've got them bouncing off each other. It's fun, it's easy, it's adorable, it's them. Lovely as always.

Author's Response: Thank you! I appreciate it, especially coming from you.

More great feelings all wrapped up in little nuggets of wonderful. "Campbell’s Condensed Soup of Wonderfulness," "You’re stuck with me for the duration, Halpert," "Because I kind of wished it was too." Just all great lines there.

I really like how Pam is taking the initiative here. It seems to me she's finally realized how deep Jim's feelings have been for her all these years, and also that her feelings have been just as deep as well. She's also realized how much unintentional pain she caused by with her denial and words like "friendship," or "I can't."

However now that she no longer has those constraints she's not only free to feel them in their entirety but also to move forward and heal the damage. It's great to see. It's also great to see Jim letting her bandage his heart like this as well. After getting his heart crushed twice on Casino Night by this same woman, it would make sense he'd be hesitant to open up to her again. That's what we saw in canon of course. However here, especially in light of the bg-Jim-gesture(s) she's made, he has no fear to give her his heart once more. Lovely to see them both taking care of each other as we go forward.

Author's Response: Thank you! I think it's valuable for her to take some initiative--and once she's already leapt to Australia, what is left that could be scary to do?