I've been writing fanfiction for awhile now. Just recently discovered The Office and figured I'd try my hand at that as well.
At first I thought of having all my stories in the same universe, but then I had some AU ideas. So any stories that occur within a common universe will be in a given series.
So. There is an entire deleted B-Roll from "Sex Ed" where Pam and Jim are fighting all day, and then he slaps her butt on the way out. It's never explained. This is my explanation.
1 Great story AG. One of the major draws to Jim and Pam is how they feel much like a real couple going through ups and downs together. Not just fall in love, get married, live happily every after. You did great justice to that real feeling.
Even after being married and having Cece they still have things to work on, and they do. Just like a real healthy marriage should be.
Of course the afternoon delight in the parking lot was fun to read too, but from where I sit it's the fact that you wrote Jim and Pam working their way through this with each other that seems a lot more intimate.
"Where is your future?"
"She's back in Scranton."
A deeper look into Jim and Pam's thoughts during "The Job," plus what I think could have happened on their first date.
1 Glad I was able to read this all in one go. That's one helluva long one-shot. Not complaining in the slightest mind you.
I like that you started things out during the entire episode. That we got to go inside both of their heads through everything worked really well. Pam finding that her courage from the beach was still holding firm. Jim realizing that everything was still revolving around Pam. Great look into their mindsets throughout this story.
To be honest it's a lot of the same beats as many other stories about "The Job." However your take on it was just as fun as anything else here.
Jim's interruption of her talking-head, the lead up to the date, and the date itself were all great. I got the feeling that, "We're back, we're together, let's get up to speed," if that makes sense. Like how they started talking about their respective days and re-learning how to have fun with each other. Not that it seemed hard which I also really liked. But then once they laid down that foundation that they are now more than friends with each other the deeper topics come up naturally and it brings them healing. Which all of course leads at last to their mutual declarations of love which is always a fun moment in a story.
So, needless to say I quite enjoyed this fic. Absolutely great job with it all. Looking forward to whatever you come up with next.
Pam calls Jim after seeing Karen and talking to Michael about Holly. She just has to let him know she's where she needs to be and that she loves him.
Set the night of "Lecture Circuit Part 2"
1 This was fun. I really like the conversation here. It shows that Jim and Pam are really doing their best to work on their relationship. Being honest with each other, trusting each other with their feelings, being the person the other one turns to for the big and small things. It's really good to see.
If there's one critique I might have it's to have Pam ask how Jim got her room number and have him explain how he sweet-talked the desk clerk. That way you can have it in the story rather than in an authors note. Kind of a small detail I know, but it was something I was wondering until I read your author's note at the end.
That being said it was super cute for Jim to show up and surprise her like that. Really fun to see. Also color me impressed with the amount of writing you're getting done too. Great to see all these fun stories of yours popping up.
Author's Response: Thank you! I'll go ahead and try to edit it and add in how Jim got her room number. I'm also impressed with how much writing I'm doing, considering I haven't done any in years. Being stuck at home has it's benefits, I guess. Thank you so much for all your kind words!!
1 Nice edit there. It works well.
It started with the priest dying. It should've ended with the priest dying, but it didn't.
Pam is about to marry Roy and things aren't going exactly according to plan...
1 Got me going there for a moment. What with Pam being five minutes away from the start of the ceremony and all. Still, at least she did finally listen to all the signs. Good for having Isabel there too to give her some much needed encouragement.
Roy fuming and throwing a bottle seems very appropriate. Well, I'm sure that little bit was also probably inspired by his outburst in Poor Richards, so yeah good use of theme.
I love that Jim shows up there. "Putting some stuff BACK into my desk..." Nice subtle bit of a line there. Glad to see him come to his senses early and be there for Pam. Also that he's there first offering friendship and support, not "Well you're single now, date me." He's saying "that must have all sucked. I'm here for you." I like that a lot.
One critique though. Are we still considering the abortive wedding in this story to have happened on June 10th? If so, that would have been in the middle of summer here in the States. Thus it seems odd that it's described as a winter setting or that Pam has a coat on. Something that stuck out to me.
Other than that, nice little one-shot. Great to see Pam's thoughts as this all went on.
Author's Response:
I’m so glad you caught that line (back into his desk). I figured Jim hearing that Pam had called off her wedding would be enough of a prompt to have him think that perhaps he’d acted a little too rashly with the decision to disappear to Stamford. I can picture him trying to undo it immediately...
My Australian brain totally slipped with the June 10th thing. Whoops. In my head I definitely just went with June 10th being winter - as it is here and forgot to Americanize it. Whoops. Whoops. Whoops. And here was I a little impressed I remembered to spell “mom” the American way. I should go back and change it, but I kind of liked the imagery that came with the cold. Can we just pretend Pam was getting married in December? Ah, I’m so annoyed that I missed that...
Thank you for your wonderful review, as always!
'Cause I've spent a thousand nights
Lost in your emerald eyes
Lost in a place where I know you can see my soul
A fluffy song fic to Emerald Eyes by Anson Seabra.
1 Lovely throughout. I liked the mentions of canon events, but the majority being extra-canon. It was a lot of fun to see their thoughts and feelings as their relationship progressed. Great job.
1 Something happier? Getting Jim and Pam together sooner than canon makes me happy. There's always going to be a certain amount of angst and recovery with just about any story that's near canon. They put each other through a lot so it's going to take a lot to get past all that.
However this was a great way to do it. A lot of very real feelings and honesty from each of them. That's always great to see. I really like the way they reconnected here with their discussion. Great dialogue between both of them before they connect in other ways.
Lovely imagery through it all, but you're always great about that.
1 For a subject that's been done quite a bit on the archive, this was really good. I was wondering how you'd take it. It does all seem to fit with them. Jim just sitting there being numb with a glass of Scotch. Alone in his thoughts. Hard to see him like that.
The idea that Pam sneak moved out to her new apartment was brilliant. I'm not sure I've seen that idea before so that was good.
Then of course their tearful and emotional conversation here. Great to see them being honest. I can very easily see this happening. Kind of funny how Jim had her name in his phone. Nice touch.
Great start. Can't wait to read more.
Author's Response: I do realise that it is often written about on the archive and I appreciate that you think it is good. I hope you'll like how I choose to carry on. I was rewatching season 3 and I couldn't get the image of Jim with a glass of scotch out of my mind. It was quite hard to write about him like that. I appreciate that you think that you that having Pam sneak out was a good idea - I don't really know how it happened, but once the idea was there I couldn't stop myself from including it. I felt that in this season Jim and Pam needed to be honest no matter how hard it was and I felt like Jim would do that to avoid calling Pam. Thank you so much for your lovely review and I hope you'll continue to enjoy it.
1 Another great update. Clear signs that Jim's heart is healing. How could it not with daily calls from Pam along with all the text messages as well. After such a big shock I kinda like that. Injuries rarely heal quickly so this adds an element of reality to the story. However I love that Jim is determined now to get back to Pam in a face-to-face setting.
Interesting take on Karen. Nice balance as well. Clearly Karen' into Jim. He's just trying to be friendly. A few potshots from Karen there as well. Maybe this time since Jim's heart is on the mend, he'll be able to see some of those signs earlier and thus not doom them all into the season long rebound heartache we saw in canon.
Great writing.
Author's Response:
I am pleased that you like how Jim's heart is healing and yes, I think if we all had daily conversations with Pam then we'd all find our hearts healing. I think Pam would like a face to face meeting too.
Karen was difficult to write, but I found in season 3 it was very obvious that Karen was definitely into Jim from the beginning. Jim is always friendly I think and perhaps you'll be right about Jim reading the signs.
Thank you so much!
Michael inadvertently attempts to smooth things over between Pam and Jim. Who would want two of their very best friends to be miserable after all?
Set after The Convention.
1 This looks all sorts of interesting. Once again you've got morose Jim in Stamford down very well. He's still broken up not only about the conversation at the convention, but of course about Pam. Having his old habits of looking up at reception die hard was a great way to help show that.
Same goes for Pam. While it's a fun image to have her drawing that sketch of Dwight, it also feels like she's a bit lost. They're both hurting, clearly. Thus it seems like they've let their hurt and thus their fear take hold.
So enter Micheal. In his own weird way here he sees that. He feels very in character here. Not quite a good serious Michael moment in this chapter, but not to far off one of those either. Looking forward to seeing how you take this one.
Author's Response:
Thanks Warrior! I hope it differs enough from my other stories to not become too repetitive...
As to Michael, I haven’t quite decided just how aware he is of what he’s doing here. That may impact on whether or not we get a good serious Michael moment.
First off Jim and Pam's almost parallel swirling thoughts here are so on point. Even though they're apart and have no idea what the other one is thinking, I think it's lovely that you've got them thinking in very similar terms. Great way to show their connection even if it's a bit stretched right now.
Good on you Pam to play that card. Great way to break into what could have happened if they'd only talked to each other earlier.
Yes, Micheal is being silly here. After all, he's Micheal, silly is right in his wheelhouse. However it's a more pleasant rather than off-putting silly which is nice. It's not quite a Good Micheal moment, but it's also not far off. I liked it.
Author's Response:
I’m glad you caught all the parallels! It wasn’t all that subtle, but I was hoping people would get that they were basically going through the same thing...
It’s nice to hear that you’re finding the silly more endearing than ridiculous. I guess that’s what I was going for.
Thanks as always for your review!
1 Great way to have them start talking again. Especially after everything that's been building up in their heads. There's fear, caution, nervousness, and just the faintest glimpses of hope.
Still kind of hard for them to be 100% honest, but I get that. For their first time talking especially over the phone it makes sense. I actually like this version better than the phone call we saw in canon. Granted in canon we're not exactly sure how long they were talking, but it seemed in canon they dropped right into banter pretty quickly. Then all that kinda disappeared when the branches merged.
Here it's a lot more tentative, which to my mind fits better. You've also got them moving towards each other which is also nice to see. Great update.
Author's Response: Thanks Warrior! I’m glad my more tentative approached worked. It’s a tricky balance I reckon, because there is a lot of hurt, but there’s also a lot of history so it starts to reason that they would fall into banter pretty quickly.
1 This was just all sorts of sweet. This banter feels a lot more earned than in canon because of the earlier conversation. Like you put it, there's a huge weight lifted off both of them which is allowing them both to have so much rebuilding going on here.
I loved Pam's courage here. That she's the one to take Jim's idea and run with it like that. It's wonderful to see them like this.
Aww, a serious but sad Micheal moment. He's truly rooting for both of them. Don't worry Micheal, it'll turn out alright.
Can't wait to see them finally reunite in person as well as the surprise dates they're bringing to the party. Should be a lot of fun.
Author's Response: Thanks Warrior! You won’t have to wait too much longer for them to reunite in person. I should finally have an update up in the not too distant future...
1 Been looking forward to this chapter. Great set up with their nerves at the office and right after leaving. After all this a BIG THING for them. The lead up to everything deserves some attention.
I was kind of hoping for them to see each other and fall into their arms. However the gradual hand holding route you painted here worked well too. The relationship had been fractured and then on thin ice. It makes sense to go slow and test the footing. But as they venture further together the footing is more and more stable with every step. Maybe that big embrace will happen later.
Micheal's reaction is nothing but sheer joy to read. You got him perfect. His rapture in Jim and Pam combined with his thoughts of self-promotion are right on cue. Wonderful to behold.
Author's Response: Thanks Warrior! I hope the fact it was a little longer than the other chapters made up for the fact it took a million years for me to update. I figured with how early on this was, after Pam calling off the wedding and Jim moving to Stamford, that I could have them play it slow and nervous. Although, I do think in the original draft in my head they just jumped each other, but when it came to writing it out it all came out a little softer. It glad it still kind of made sense. I’m so glad you liked Michael - I feel like he’s the hardest to get right sometimes.
"What do I know? I’m just a stranger on a plane who was crazy enough to listen to your story."
A take on Jim's trip to Australia and Pam cancelling her wedding.
1 I liked it. Often times it seemed that they both needed just a kick in the pants from an outsider to get over themselves. Plane Pam did that nicely here for Jim.
I loved that Pam came to her realizations on her own like this. It was also good to get the full break up conversation. That can be a tricky thing to write and I think you did it well.
I also really liked all the thoughts and feelings going through their heads. It added a lot of depth to the story. Great job.
Author's Response: I debated on writing the break up scene, thinking I would just start off with Pam at Jim's house, because I wasn't sure how to write it lol. But I figured I might as well try and I think it's decent. Thank you so much for reading, and I really love your thorough reviews!!
When it is revealed that Pam missed out on the joys of her senior prom, Jim and Michael bring the employees of Dunder Mifflin together for a night that everyone will remember.
Not at *all* inspired by Savage Garden.
1 First and foremost, I love the image of the little Team Pam Jim bursting through a brick wall like the Kool-Aid Man waving a big Pam pendant around like a hyped up ADHD kid who added twice the amount of sugar to the mix and is off his meds. Or at least that's the feelings I got here.
Great set up chapter here. Love that Jim was able to get over himself here and get back to banter with Pam. You write him so much happier when he and Pam are in top form like that.
The other thing this reminds me of is Office Olympics. Not only another great JAM moment, but it sets the precedent for this impromptu prom. Jim seeing an opportunity for fun and it just falling into place.
Can't wait to see where this goes.
1 Good for Pam to give Kelly that pep talk. Great way to show Pam's kind heart as well as give Kelly some much needed advice. Of course the real treat is of course all the wonderful JAM woven throughout everything.
Love the banter at Pam's desk. Love Jim's reaction to her dress. Love all the subtle flirting going on between them. Love it all. Can't wait for the next chapter.
1 Lots of fun with this one. Lovely images of Jim and Pam dancing like that. Also of them starting to let their guards down and have fun with each other again. However to bring in the coal walk. Unexpected to say the least. It's a very Michael-ish thing to do of course.
Good for Pam for getting up her courage. Things forged in fire are often much stronger that when they started. Looks like we're seeing that here with Pam. Can't wait for the next chapter.
1 Manic Panic? Not so much. I did get into a gelled hair phase for a bit though. Didn't quite get as far as frosted tips though. I stopped the whole gelled hair thing when I got involved with the local fire department and didn't want to have hair gel goop inside my fire helmet.
Lots of huge emotional beats throughout this chapter. From Pam's confession, to their return to best friendship, to of course sex in the truck, and finally Karen showing up at the prom there at the end. Hell of a roller coaster ride with this one, and it dosn't look like it's over yet.
Wonderful writing as always. By the way did I see a few shoutouts to the MTT prom play list that NLM typed up last week? If so, that was fun.
1 Yeah, kinda figured Jim would be put through the wringer. There's no getting around it. While I'm very curious to get a peek into that conversation, it can wait.
Kelly here though. Wow! Fancy New Kelly here tonight! I love that Kelly is the one to give Pam the oxygen she needed to get through the rest of the night. I got the impression that Pam was still figuratively going through the coal walk there. There's still some things to burn away. Bravo that she has the mentality and bravery to hold on just that one more night.
Clearly she learned from the pain of the past. It's not the same kind of pain as I usually ascribe to the aftermath of Casino Night. Similar yes, but not the same. However since she's already gone through that she knows now how to bear up under it. That doesn't make it any easier or that she wants to, but she's able to.
The ending was dece? That was well more than just dece. I don't think there could have been a better way for that to end. They're bruised and battered but they're not broken. And of course now they're in each others arms again which of course is always wonderful.
I was very much looking forward to this chapter. Imagine my disappointment that as soon as I see it's posted I have to first sit down to dinner, then rush off to work. Ah well. Good things come to those who wait.
Just superb! Even through the bits and pieces of the conversation with Karen, there's enough there that you can see the drubbing she starts out giving him. Then as soon as that little smile crosses his face, I can just see him come back to life. Granted I'm sure she would have been more than pissed off during that speech, but it finally brings him back.
Love that Pam is there to take care of him the next day. She's caring and patient and the woman he fell in love with. But so much more than that.
Just wonderful to imagine them during their first day together like this. Finally both on the same page, it's a delight to read. Thank you for this story. It may have had your usual ups and downs, but it was a great ride all the way through.
Fortes Fortuna Adiuvat
1 Very cute. Kinda fun to see what they'd be up to while cooped up for so long.
1 Somehow I figured that suit jacket, shirt, tie, and swimsuit combo wouldn't go unnoticed here in the forum for to long. Well done. Great to see them still so affectionate with each other. Great way to steal a moment together as well as plan for more later.
Delightful.
Author's Response: Thank you for the kind words. Yeah, there was way too much fodder in those videos - I couldn't let it go to waste!
"When you're a kid, you assume your parents are soulmates. My kids are gonna be right about that."
Pam on soulmates and finding her person.
1 Bravo! This was an absolutely wonderful look into Pam's mind. I simply love how her colored threads progressed over the years. That her first thread was her true love thread and it all grew from there.
As artfully enigmatic as it was, you also grounded it in reality. Threads fade, change color, or even fray and break. Such is life.
Then to end things with a Casino Night fix-it story was just wonderful. How Jim starts out True Blue and then there at the end she knows he's at the other end of her Red Thread. Simply wonderful.
Author's Response: Thanks Warrior! I’m glad you found it grounded in reality. I was worried about it being a fair bit more fantasy-ish than anything I usually write, so it’s good to hear that it still kind of worked.
I know it's cruel
But I kind of hope you're tortured too
Some of Pam's feelings throughout Season 3.
1 Very good look into Pam's mind though S3. I like how there were enough canon elements in there to stay grounded, but some other new elements to add depth. Pam's talk with Toby and Kelly for instance. I think you captured the up and down feeling of S3 very well.
Not a bad choice to end at the beach. I mean we all know what's coming so that's a nice thought. But ending it there also seems to fit this story a bit better in my opinion. Nice job.