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I loved this! I really want to see more of Jim and Pam's alliance and this was perfect. Jim hanging around in case she needed a rescue, Pam's Todd Packer face, Jim knowing he might end up feeling bad for Michael even though he's annoyed, and the fact that Jim quite likes the cameras and know that Pam won't - there are so many nice touches in this. It also made me go back and rewatch the pilot (they are weirdly awkward in that scene!), and I'm unbelievably slow because I didn't twig that Jim pranked Michael directly after what he did to Pam...so thank you for pointing that out. Amazing!

Author's Response: The friendship that underlies their romance is such a big part of what makes Jim/Pam appealing to me, so I'm happy to provide a little more of them fighting for each other like friends (albeit friends who are totally secretly pining for each other). And I'm glad you picked up on some of those details! Yeah, I ended up rewatching the pilot a bunch while writing this for timing purposes (getting everyone where they needed to be in between Roy coming up to the office and Roy beeping at her was a little tricky), and there's definitely some early installment weirdness that it was interesting to try to explain through fic. Thanks for reading and reviewing!

Author's Response: The friendship that underlies their romance is such a big part of what makes Jim/Pam appealing to me, so I'm happy to provide a little more of them fighting for each other like friends (albeit friends who are totally secretly pining for each other). And I'm glad you picked up on some of those details! Yeah, I ended up rewatching the pilot a bunch while writing this for timing purposes (getting everyone where they needed to be in between Roy coming up to the office and Roy beeping at her was a little tricky), and there's definitely some early installment weirdness that it was interesting to try to explain through fic. Thanks for reading and reviewing!

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I like it a lot! I can't pinpoint the exact moments I enjoyed the most; the whole story feels like the one absolutely seamless moment from the original show (I don't know how you do that, but please, continue!). But the moments when Jim fell in that pit of 'get over Pam,' was dragged back with a ping of IM, and thrown back with a mention of Roy... that was hurtful.
And I like that Jim wasn't so perfect and flawless here, I like that you showed that he could be cruel (the reason for it was quite noble, and yet...)
Thank you! Looking forward to the next chapters!

Author's Response: Yeah, Jim's kind of on a roller coaster ride in this one - I think an upset Pam puts him in some bad places, and Season 1 is kind of a hopeless moment for him. And he's definitely taking out his inability to push back against Roy on Michael here - although honestly, Michael's pretty awful in this episode.

First off, I love that you are digging into the different reactions to the new film crew. It's great insight to how they were on day one compared to how normal it becomes for them as time goes on.

It's a nice tie back how he talks about this boring job in episode one and how at the end everything he owes to the same job (you know the line I don't have to repeat it for you)

Very astute line "like they’re saving the rainforest instead of killing it"
and a fun one
He had needed to let off some steam right away, and his supplies were already on-hand. Since he couldn’t stick Michael’s beloved World’s Best Boss mug where he’d have liked to stick it, into the Jello it went.

I like the new twist on how it really began with Jan. Clever. The long con, huh? That he doing it for Pam's honor makes it even better.

Looking forward to more.

Author's Response: Yeah, as we've talked about before - there's a lot to be said about the way the documentary crew impacts what's going on onscreen. I felt like that was particularly important for this episode, where Jim and Pam seem noticeably more distant from each other than they'll be even in Diversity Day and Health Care, and other than the presence of the cameras it's hard for me to identify a reason why. Really, imagine Jim and Pam in an office where they actually had to WORK most of the time. Who knows what their story would've looked like? I'm glad you flagged those lines - I feel like Jim would have been very lost as to what exactly the documentary crew was doing there at that point. And the thing about the mug just made me giggle. And it all paid off! Mainly at Jan's expense! (Although also a little bit at Pam's.) Poor Jan. I felt bad, but really, I didn't do anything to her TPTB didn't already do.