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Well, that was lovely. I feel genuinely emotional, and I'm glad you managed to fit in a happy ending. Great insights into both of their states of mind, at that point in their story.
Super!

Author's Response: This may well be my favorite thing I wrote last year tbh, so I'm really glad to hear you liked it!

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Let's start with the cover art - not sure if it's new or I just missed it the first time but it's brilliant- never have brown and black, barely-filled balloons looked so festive.

Now onto the story, which was also masterfully written. One man's garbage is another man's treasure and never has that been more demonstrated. And I'm very curious what does a cootie catcher look like.

This line - No more sacrificing for a relationship he’s the only one in. - hit me right there.

You had me for a second - I thought you were going divergent, fix-it but what you did was even better. The ghost-like Pam was so much more than a real one could be in this story. I absolutely loved the framework here and this part:

*She touches him. Takes the tips of his fingers between hers, and puts his hand on her belly. He feels…
“You’re pregnant.”
She nods.*...gave me goosebumps.

SO true they both needed their experiences and I caught the allusion (right word?) to the possible plot twist mentioned in OL or by Jenna - that they were only meant to help them to get to another relationship - which I'm so glad didn't happen.

*He’ll fall in love again, and he’ll be better at it because of Pam. More gentle, more giving. More grateful. He’s sure he knows a little more about being a partner… and how not to be one.* (this was... - just so...no words).

and this...*Maybe one day when his son goes through his first serious breakup – his son who will not have curly hair or a knack for sketching – he’ll tell him about the person he loved so he could love his mother, about getting your heart broken and how to let it heal. About the people you meet who aren’t your soulmate but help lead you to them, make sure you’re ready for them.* You've captured not only the Jenna paraphrase but the experience (put from the Dad's perspective) that inspired me to write Sleepless Nights (of course from the mom's).

*She felt something* and *She said me too, she said me too, she said me too.* - more goosebumps.

Jumping ahead that she would be fearful any shift would change the outcome - ARE YOU IN MY MIND - I have a mini obsession with time travel and yet whenever I think what I might do different if I were to go back I always think this- the risk of changing anything by altering the past.

But her taking credit for leaving him hope - not through time travel per se but the magic of the kiss - very Pam.

I think you could say I liked it.

Well done.

Author's Response: Not only is the cover art new, I actually had to learn a whole new skill to make it. I'm becoming a terrible graphic designer! I hope you're proud of me.

Ah, see, I went with cootie catcher because I thought the image was more vivid, but when I was a kid we called them fortune tellers: https://content.instructables.com/ORIG/F8C/AM3J/H0KL0ROR/F8CAM3JH0KL0ROR.jpg?auto=webp. Which... probably would have been a better fit for the story, come to think of it, but either way, definitely the sort of thing Pam would have casually made for Jim to get them through a meeting and Jim would've kept 5eva.

I tend to share this Pam's view that canon Pam was not even remotely ready on Casino Night itself to pull a move like this... but I think in the future she would have had a LOT of regrets about that. Mainly this emerged out of some broader ideas I've had about Pam and Jim retelling their story in later years and what they'd think about it then, and the idea of this conversation kind of emerged from that.

I'm glad you liked where the pregnancy reveal ended up, that definitely went through a bunch of versions.

You know, in a way, Jenna got her wish. We very much saw that kind of relationship in the Office... except it was between Pam and Roy.

I mean, he's definitely rationalizing a little here, and the how not to be one is 100% a shot at Roy. But yay!

I'm glad you enjoyed it, AND now this is an excuse to reread Sleepless Nights!

Ooof. Those lines were not fun to write, because I'm sure Jim was tripping over those moments for a verrrrrry long time, poor guy.

This seemed like a very Pam concern, right? Like you want to write the AU where they just get to Exit 17 a lot faster, but honestly, who the hell knows if they were ready for that? (Also, if you haven't William Tenn's story The Brooklyn Project, you reallllly should.)

Hey, Pam may well think she can time travel. She believes in ghosts, after all!

ANY HOW. I'm really glad you liked it!!! This one's been long in the works.

I'm fairly new to MTT so don't know the underrated classic but I did love that you incorporated this paraphrase from Jenna from the Office Ladies pod: "About the people you meet who aren’t your soulmate but help lead you to them, make sure you’re ready for them." I've always been fascinated by that idea from Jenna even though I'm glad the writers didn't hurt us like that :)

Author's Response: I'm gonna be honest with you, I write the end note well before the final draft, and in the posted version the allusion is so slight there's really no earthly way anyone should get it. (But you should read Borneo anyways!)

Yeah, you know... I think it's a sentiment that makes sense coming from someone who presumably thought she found the love of her life incorrectly once or twice, but it's definitely a scarring thing to hear in Pam Beesly's voice. Fascinating, produced some devastating fics, but yeah. I too am glad the writers' room didn't go for that. I think it might have been comforting to Jim at this moment of his life, though.