“We need to go left.”

“We already tried that ten minutes ago.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, that’s the same scarecrow.”

“How did we end up actually getting lost in a corn maze?” Pam put her hands on her hips and turned in a circle. She’d come to a fork in the path. Two identical paths branched to the right and left, but the only thing she could see were more stalks of corn. That and Jim walking up the path behind her glancing over his shoulder at the scarecrow in question.

He was smirking at her under a brisk late October sun. “I do believe the quote was, ‘that’s the whole point, so don’t you dare take a map!’ Is this another side of Fancy New Beesly? The side that tries to navigate by trial and error?”

Despite her slight frustration Pam smiled. Their first summer as an official couple had progressed wonderfully into their first fall. She re-traced her steps down the path and threw her arms around Jim’s neck. “Yeah, well that was an hour ago.”

“Oh?” Jim’s eyebrows raised as his arms snaked around her waist. “And what, pray tell, has transpired in the preceding hour that has made Fancy New Beesly revert back to Regular Old Pam?”

Pam giggled at the endearments. Titles he usually saved for when they were alone and out of sight of cameras. “Food! There’s apple cider and donuts back at the barn. Fancy New Beesly might be all gourmet, but Regular Old Pam wants donuts.”

Jim laughed before he leaned down and gave her a quick kiss. He pointed down the right-hand path. “That way.”

She turned her head at the direction he pointed. “You’re sure?”

“If you don’t want cider and donuts, feel free to go the other way, again. You’ll just end up back here with our friend stuck on the pole back there.” He pointed his thumb over his shoulder at the scarecrow behind them.

“Watch yourself buddy-boy or you’re going to be the one on the pole,” she teased and dropped her arms from his neck to poke at his sides. The thick hoodie sweatshirt he was wearing dispelled any tickling sensations though.

Jim had the good sense to laugh with her. He gave her another kiss before dropping his arms and taking her hand in his. “C’mon, we’ll get back in no time,” he told her as he led the way down the right-hand path.

“What are you going to dress up as for Halloween this year at the office?” Pam asked as they started strolling through the corn.

“I don’t know, hadn’t really gave it much thought,” Jim replied.

“Now that everyone knows about us, we should do a couple’s costume,” Pam suggested. When Jim didn’t answer she tried pressing her case. “Oh, come on! It’ll be fun!”

“I’ll think about it,” he said with a non-committal tone of voice.

“We could go as the Scarecrow and Dorothy from Wizard of Oz.”

Jim cocked an eyebrow at her as they turned down another path. “Don’t you remember the last time someone dressed up as a scarecrow at the office?”

“Oh right, Devon,” Pam said with a wince. “Okay, hmmm, how about Romeo and Juliet?”

“Before or after they kill themselves?”

Pam scrunched her face up and swatted his arm. “Before! Dork!”

“Yeah, that’ll work,” Jim said still smirking. “A lovesick fool who’s probably also a pedophile.”

“What?!”

“Need I remind you Juliet is thirteen in that play?”

“Fine!” Pam let out with a sigh. “You pick something then.”

Jim thought for a sec. “I could be Clark Kent and you could be Lois Lane.”

“How would that work?”

“Easy! All I have to do is get a pair of fake glasses and we write up a badge that says, Daily Planet and put it on your cardigan.”

“Jim!” Pam had a bit of a whine to her tone now. “That’s so boring! You’re shooting down all my ideas and not coming up with any other good ones.”

“Sorry.” Jim hung his head a fraction. His disappointment was short-lived as he glanced up the path. Before Pam could see what had caught his eye he moved to stand in front of her so she couldn’t see it. “Tell you what, we’ll talk more about it over donuts.”

Pam glanced around at the seeming endless row of corn around them. “Yeah if we ever get out of here.”

“As you wish.”

Just as she’d done for years, her gut reaction was to tease him for using the movie line yet again. But then she remembered the line was actually code for, I love you, and her rebuke died on her lips. Even more so when she looked up and saw that Jim had stepped aside revealing the exit to the corn maze. A red barn was visible past the last rows of corn where the promised fall treats were served inside.

“Oh, so pleased with yourself,” she told Jim as they started walking out of the corn field.

“Yes actually.” There was no hiding the smugness in his voice.

“How come it took me over an hour and takes you only a couple minutes?”

Jim shrugged as they exited the corn maze and started walking towards the barn. “Advantages to being tall.”

Pam stopped in her tracks and glared at Jim, arms akimbo. “You mean to tell me, you’ve had the barn in sight the whole time?”

“Well not the whole time,” he told her as he turned to face her and his arms came around her waist again. “There was those couple of quick minutes, way in the back, where my vision was completely focused on other things.”

Playfully she pushed his away and stated walking again. “I hate you.”

He quickly caught up and interlaced his hand with hers, smug grin still intact. “That’s not what you were saying earlier.”

She didn’t say anything right away. Instead she just let a smile bloom on her face and leaned her head against his arm as they kept walking. “You know what’s one of the things I love about us?”

“What’s that?” Jim glanced down at her.

She looked back up at him. “That we’re back to teasing each other like this. Like how we were before.”

Jim’s smug grin softened into one of love and he bent down to plant a kiss on her head. “I love that too. That we came through everything still being goofy silly friends.”

“Hmmm,” Pam hummed. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

“Same here,” Jim said as he held the door leading into the barn open for her.

The barn smelled of hay and baked goods. Behind a counter, kitchen staff were busy sorting fresh apple donuts into boxes as well as other fall favorites. Apple, cherry, pumpkin, and pecan pies were laid out along with several kinds of cookies and brownies. Gallons of fresh apple cider were sitting in a nearby cooler. They bought half a dozen donuts to enjoy now and another dozen to bring home later along with two gallons of cider. They found a nearby table that had bench seating and sat down to enjoy their snack. They were sitting across from each other as they pulled out their first donuts.

“Ooh! These are so good!” Pam exclaimed as she bit into her first one.

Jim poured them both cups of cider before biting into his own donut. “Mmm, very good. We should make this an annual thing.”

“Eating donuts?” Pam’s eyebrows raised a bit as she raised her donut back to her mouth. “They make them year-round you know.”

Jim smiled back at her. “No, not that. I mean the whole corn maze, hay ride, pumpkin patch thing.” Of all the reactions Jim had been expecting, the one he got wasn’t one he’d remotely considered.

Pam's donut had dropped to the table with a slight thump. Her face seemed frozen in shock and her mouth was slightly agape as she stared back at him. Slowly her mouth closed and she brought her hand to cover her lips. She started blinking fast in an expression Jim knew was her trying to keep mist out of her eyes.

His smile faded as he reached across the table to grab her free hand. “Hey! You okay? Did I say something wrong?”

She shook her head vigorously as her hand lowered to reveal a radiant smile. “No! Not at all. It just sometimes still gets overwhelming is all.”

“What does?”

She reached down and covered his hands with hers. “That we’ve only been together, like really together, for a few months and here you are already thinking about what we’re going to be doing next year. For years I had to wonder about the future. Then you go and say that we’ll make this an annual thing, implying we’ll be doing this for years to come. It’s just, still a lot to take in, you know?”

Relieved there was nothing wrong, Jim felt his smile return. “Yeah, I know.”

They sat in comfortable silence for a moment then started eating their donuts again. Pam had washed her first donut down with some cider before she spoke up.

“So, changing the topic, back to an old topic, costumes for the office.”

Jim groaned. “Maybe I’ll just do the whole three-hole punch thing again. That was easy. You could go as that cute black cat. That was always one of my favorites.”

“Jim! We can’t repeat costumes that we’ve already seen each other in. That’s just no fun,” Pam almost whined. “Don’t you like dressing up?”

“Not really,” Jim shrugged as he reached for another donut.

“Oh, come on! You, Mr. Sweet Tooth, jelly bean aficionado. You’re going to sit there and tell me you didn’t have fun dressing up on Halloween and going Trick-or-Treating?”

“Sure, I did,” he replied blankly. “But like a lot of things, I guess, after a while it didn’t seem as fun anymore.”

“How old were you the last time you went Trick-or-Treating?” Pam was looking at him over her next donut.

Jim looked up for a second before he responded. “Ten, I think.”

“Ten!” Pam almost exploded. “No way!”

“How old were you then?” he fired back gently.

“Nineteen,” she said with pride.

“What? You’re kidding me!” Jim was shocked to learn this new information.

“Hardly,” Pam countered. “Tell you what, I’ll tell you about the last time I went Trick-or-Treating, if you do the same.” She held her hand out to him with a challenging expression.

With a sigh Jim shook her hand. “Fine Beesly. Your idea, you start.”

She shrugged and nodded her head to her side as she finished chewing her latest bite. “It was back when I was in college at Marywood. That should be enough of an explanation right there, but the details are fun. We had these things called floor dates. Basically, a floor of girls would meet up with a floor of guys for a huge big group date-slash-hang out time. Most of the time I just ended up hanging out with other girls rather than try to meet new guys for obvious reasons.”

Pam paused to gauge Jim’s reaction. For the most part, her telling him of times from before they’d met at Dunder-Mifflin carried no weight anymore, but she was still cautious. Jim’s face however, betrayed no hint of annoyance and he just waved his fingers for her to continue.

“Halloween was coming up and we decided to go Trick-or-Treating with another floor of guys. So, there’s forty or so college age freshmen and sophomores going door-to-door all in Halloween costume.”

It was clearly a fond memory for Pam that Jim couldn’t help but smile at her. “Please tell me you didn’t all go in one huge candy craving blob. I have this image of a mob of college students just oozing down the street, sucking up candy and little kids as it went.”

Pam giggled back at him. “No! Nothing like that. We all separated into groups of like five or six. We also waited a bit before heading out to give the real kids first chance at the candy.”

“How thoughtful,” Jim raised his glass of cider to her.

“But of course,” she demurred back. “The real fun part was that a lot of our professors lived in the area. It was almost like they were expecting us. We got a lot of ‘aren’t-you-to-old-for-this' comments. Most of the profs though smiled and were clearly joking. It was fun.”

“I’m sure it was,” he agreed. “What was your costume?”

“A painter, what else?” Pam told him like it was the most glaringly obvious thing in the world. “I grabbed a smock and some brushes from the art department and added a few splotches of paint here and there. Carried around a wooden pallet that had been left out. I even found a black beret at a thrift store a couple days before hand!”

“I’m sure you were very cute.”

“Thanks. Okay, your turn.” She finished off the cider in her cup and poured herself some more.

Jim’s cup was also empty by this point but rather than re-filling it with cider, he just started fiddling with it. “It’s not nearly as fun as your story. Kind of embarrassing actually. At least for me.”

“I’m sure it’s not that bad,” Pam tried re-assuring him.

“If you say so.” He looked up to meet her eyes before launching into the tale. “So, like I said I was ten and Larissa and I were going to go out. Tom and Pete by now were far to cool for Trick-or-Treating. Didn’t stop them from stealing my candy later. Anyway, we’re out with my mom acting as chaperone and we get to this house that has a sign on the door. It just said, ‘Candy this way,’ and had an arrow pointing to the back yard.”

“Hold on,” Pam interrupted. “I need to know what you guys were dressed as.” She tilted her cup back for another drink.

“I was a ninja, plastic sword and throwing stars and all. Larissa was a picnic.”

Pam actually performed a spit-take. Jim would have found it a lot funnier if he hadn’t been covered in apple cider spray. “What!?” Pam exclaimed as she wiped her face with a napkin. “Sorry. How was she a picnic?”

“She cut a hole through one of those red and white checkerboard table cloths to start out with and made like a poncho out of it,” Jim was telling her as he grabbed a few napkins of his own and started dabbing his face. “She super-glued plastic food to paper plates then super-glued those to the table cloth. Added a few plastic ants too. Instead of a bag or plastic pumpkin to carry candy, she had a picnic basket we found at my grandma’s house. My mom helped her a lot with the costume.
“Back to the story, we go around to the side of the house and there’s this guy just standing there waiting. He said he was waiting for a bunch of people to show up and we made it enough people. He told us all to follow him for candy, so of course since we’re kids we do. We go behind the house and on the other side of the back yard is a bowl of candy on a chair. The guy pointed to it and told us we could go set some.
“We’re all about half way across the yard when a bunch of teenagers in scary masks jump out from behind wood piles, and bushes, and the shed and stuff like that. All the kids start screaming and running cause of course they’re also being chased.”

Pam’s eyes were wide as she listened to the tale. “What did you do?”

Despite himself a Jim felt the corners of his mouth turn up. “I pushed Larissa behind me and drew my ninja sword and started looking around to see if any were coming my way. I remember I really liked that sword. The blade was clear plastic and it had a light in the handle that I could turn on and off. I could even change the color since there was this little wheel that had different light filters.”

“Ohh Jim!” Pam’s look of shock had melted into an adorable smile. “That’s so cute and sweet. Then what happened?”

“Larissa and I were standing there in this backyard. She’s standing behind me and I’m trying to look everywhere at once to see if anyone’s coming. By this time, I hit the switch that caused my sword to light up red. One of the teenagers in a werewolf mask comes up to us and says, ‘you can have some candy because you were brave.’ We went over, got some candy, met back up with my mom, and headed to the next house.”

“That’s really cute you know,” Pam told him with a gleam in her eye. “I don’t get why that would make it so you stopped Trick-or-Treating though. Sounded like it was kinda fun.”

“You’d think so,” Jim went on. “After we got back mom wouldn’t keep her mouth shut about how I had protected Larissa. How I’d been so brave. On and on and on. For a while it felt good, you know. Tom and Pete always got a lot of attention since they were older. I was always getting their hand-me-downs and stuff like that, so to start out it felt really good to get attention like that.
“Well, you’ve met Tom and Pete. They’ve mellowed out over the years, but growing up, a lot of times they were just plain nasty. The rest of the year, we’re talking past Thanksgiving and Christmas, they kept giving me crap about Halloween. They’d jump out from behind doors to scare me and then make fun of me for not having my ninja sword. They’d jump out at Larissa and make me feel bad that I wasn’t there to protect her, even though they’d wait to make sure I wasn’t anywhere near her. The real kicker was when Pete broke my ninja sword since I’d taken to carrying it around the house.”

“Oh Jim, that’s no fun,” Pam told him as she put a hand on his shoulder. “Didn’t your parents do anything?”

“They probably would have, if they’d had known about it,” he said ruefully. “I’m not the only Halpert that knows how to get away with a prank though. By the time next Halloween came around, I just didn’t want to go since I figured they’d just find something else to pick on me about. So, I said I’d stay home and hand out candy. Ever since then, it’s just been hard for me to get into the whole costume thing. Especially once the cameras showed up at work.”

“Thanks for telling me that though,” Pam said as she started rubbing his arm.

Jim flashed a weak smile at her. “You’re welcome. Sorry to tell such a depressing story on what was supposed to be a fun date.”

Pam leaned over the table to give him a quick kiss. “It’s still been a fun date. It’s not your fault your brothers were kind of jerks to you when you guys were growing up.”

Not really knowing what to say after that, Jim did the next best thing. He got up from his seat and walked around the table to sit next to Pam. His arm draped across her shoulders and he pulled her close in to his side. Her head came to rest on his shoulder, which prompted him to kiss the top of her head again. Telling the story had been surprisingly exhausting to him, so he was simply glad to feel the warmth of her body next to his. They sat in companionable silence as they finished their snack. A quick trip through the pumpkin patch later and they were heading back to Jim’s car for the ride back to his townhouse.

“Can I make a deal with you?” Pam asked as they approached the car.

“What kind of deal?” Mock-skepticism written on his face.

“Let’s throw a nice Halloween party at your place this year. I’ll try to re-create my painter costume, you go as a ninja. Then I’ll do my best to not bug you about costumes at work anymore,” she suggested as she used her knee to get a better grip on her pumpkin.

Jim was opening his trunk lid as he replied. “I thought it wasn’t any fun to repeat costumes?”

“No,” Pam told him as she put her pumpkin in the car. “I said it would be no fun if we were wearing costumes we’d already seen each other in. Completely different.”

“Who would we invite? People from work?”

“If you want to,” Pam said as she tried poking his sides again. “Or we could invite other friends and family.”

Jim thought about it for a moment. “It would be nice to throw a party that didn’t involve Michael trying to sing karaoke or Dwight, well, being Dwight.”

“So, is that a yes?” Excitement was growing on Pam’s face.

“Sure, why not?” Jim agreed.

Pam quickly enfolded him in warm hug and pulled him down for a kiss. “We’ll make it fun,” she promised after leaning back.

“Of that I have no doubt Beesly,” he said smiling down at her.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Since Halloween was on a Wednesday that year, Jim and Pam decided to throw their party the Saturday before the actual date. Several trips to various Halloween stores in evenings after work on the days before hand provided them with the decorations they’d need. Pam’s time as part of the office Party Planning Committee came in very useful as she was able to find good deals for the various supplies. Jim and Pam had spent most of the day cleaning his townhouse, hanging decorations, and setting out snacks in his kitchen. It was nearing the time they’d told their guests to arrive when came down the stairs after putting the vacuum away.

“Jim!” She called out. “I set your costume out on the bed.”

“Be right there,” he answered back after dumping a bag of ice into a cooler containing various alcoholic and soft drinks. He made his way to the stairs to see Pam waiting for him halfway up the flight. She was sitting on one of the steps when he found her. Unable to resist indulging for a moment he wrapped his arms around her and gently tackled her on the stairs. Her gasp of surprise was cut off as he went in for a deep kiss.

They stayed in that position for a few blissful minutes. Jim brought one hand around to the small of her back while the other became tangled in the soft curls of her hair. For her part Pam had one hand caressing his shoulder blades while the other was cupping the back of his neck.

Finally, it was Pam who broke the long kiss. “As much as I would love to stay like this, we have guests showing up soon and we need to get our costumes on.”

With a huge melodramatic sigh, Jim pushed himself off her and helped her get up. “Fine! If we must.”

Pam giggled at him and batted her eyes. “Oh, but we must. Now come on. I have a surprise for you.”

Jim found himself intrigued. “Really? What kind of surprise?”

“You’ll find out as soon as you get in here.” Pam had scooted ahead and disappeared into Jim’s bedroom.

He climbed the rest of the stairs and walked in the room. Pam had laid out the ninja costume they’d bought at the last Halloween store on the bed next to her painters' outfit. Those parts he was familiar with. What he didn’t recognize was the item Pam was holding out in her hands to him. His eyes grew big with delight when it fully registered.

“No way! A light up plastic ninja sword! How did you find it?”

Pam was grinning from ear to ear. “E-bay,” she said casually. I had it delivered to the office earlier this week.”

Jim took the toy from her hands and drew the sword from its red plastic scabbard. Turning around he flicked the switch to turn off the lights in the bedroom. His thumb found the switch on the sword handle and instantly the clear plastic blade lit up with red light. He turned the small dial and changed the color to blue, green, and yellow before turning it back to red. He turned off the sword and hit the bedroom lights to find Pam standing right in front of him.

“Good surprise?” She asked with her grin still on her face.

He pulled her forward for another kiss. “The best,” he said after releasing her.

They quickly changed into their costumes, with only a few slight pauses for kisses and caresses, before heading back downstairs. One of Pam’s purchases had been a CD of Halloween songs meaning classics like Monster Mash and Thriller would be on repeat from the stereo all night long.

Soon guest started arriving. Penny showed up dressed as Wonder Woman with her current boyfriend, Craig going as Superman. Larissa arrived decked out as a gender-bent 10th Doctor from Doctor Who. Jim's brothers arrived without their wives but in similar costume. Tom with a werewolf mask and Pete wrapped up as a mummy. Ethan Wilcox showed up with his wife Emily, the pair having developed a friendship with Jim and Pam. Ethan dressed as the Red Mighty Morphin Power Ranger while Emily was attired as the Yellow Ranger. Jim’s cousin Johnathan arrived just as the party was staring to really get underway dressed as a pirate. A few other friends not from Dunder-Mifflin showed up as well.

As far as parties went, it wasn’t very loud or rambunctious. For the most part the party-goes just enjoyed hanging out and making new friends. There was one game of bobbing for apples. Johnathan took home the prize of a bag of candy for successfully grabbing nine apples in the minute time limit. It was after the game that Pam noticed the bowl of candy on the counter was getting low. She went up to Jim who was enjoying a beer with his cousin. The two were playfully debating which was more badass, pirate or ninja.

“Hey guys,” Pam said as she walked up. “Jim we’re getting low on Reese’s cups. I think I left a bag out by the car. Would you mind coming out with me to get it?”

“Sure, no problem,” he said as he slipped his ninja mask back over his face. “Catch you in a sec,” he told Johnathan as they clinked bottles.

Jim followed Pam to the front door where he opened it for her before heading outside himself. He was halfway to his car when he noticed Pam wasn’t standing with him anymore.

“Pam?” he said as he turned back to the front door.

Without warning four dark shapes jumped out from behind the car and a few bushes and converged on Jim yelling loudly. Instantly Jim’s mind was back to when he was ten years old and like then his first reaction was to draw his plastic sword and turn on the light. It was only when he saw who was actually rushing at him that his shock died and laughter replaced it. Tom, Pete, Larissa, and Penny surrounded Jim and began pushing him lightly even as they laughed. Pam was doubled over from laughing so hard on the front step; her beret having fallen off.

“You can put the sword down now little bro. I promise I won’t break this one,” Pete told him.

“We couldn’t resist the chance to get one over on you,” Tom chimed in.

“It was a lot of fun to be on the other end this time,” Larissa told him while poking her Sonic Screwdriver in Jim’s side. “I hope you would still try to protect me though.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Penny said as she draped her Lasso of Truth over Jim’s shoulders. “I think you’re plenty big enough to defend yourself now.”

Jim smile was huge as his family and friends ragged him. Looking over to the house he saw Pam had a delighted expression on her face now that she’d recovered from her laugh attack. “You!” Jim pointed his sword at her. “You put them all up to this!”

“Of course, I did,” Pam said as she skipped down the walk to the group grinning like the Cheshire cat. “When you told me that story the other week how could I not?”

“Well done,” Jim told her as he broke from the circle and pulled in in for a quick kiss.

“Get a room you two,” Pete admonished as he gave Jim a light shove on the arm.

“Yeah save the funny stuff for the after party,” Tom agreed.

“If we must,” Pam said dramatically before turning to Jim. “We are actually almost out of candy and there is more in the car. Do you mind?”

Jim put on a face of mock-concern. “I’m not going to be jumped by the Boogey Man now am I?”

Pam shrugged but kept grinning at him. “If you are, you’re a ninja, Wonder Woman and Doctor Who are at your side and we have two Power Rangers we can call on. I think you’ll be fine.”

Shaking his head at Pam’s prank he retrieved the candy from the car and the group made their way back inside. The party kept going for a few more hours before people started to call it a night. As the last guest left Jim closed the door behind them and looked back over the now empty living room.

“Clean up tomorrow?” He asked Pam.

“That is one of your best idea’s ever,” Pam replied as she pulled her beret off. “I need to use the bathroom, be right back.”

Jim flopped down on the couch and pulled his ninja mask off. He leaned his head back against the cushions and closed his eyes for few moments. The party had been fun but also tiring. It was only the sound of Pam walking around the couch to stand in front of him that had him open his eyes. The sight in front of him made him grin and chuckle.

Pam had taken off her painter smock to reveal she was wearing a black turtleneck underneath. It matched the black leggings she’d also been wearing. A cat ear headband now adorned her head along with the nose and whiskers she’d obviously applied to her face while in the bathroom.

“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” she asked.

“Something like that,” Jim said as he stood up and pulled her close. “You’re just full of surprises tonight.”

“I just wanted to show you that costumes can still be fun,” she told him with a smile. “How’d I do?”

“You did great.” Jim told her as he lightly touched her nose.

Pam’s smiled screwed up a bit as she wiggled her nose back and forth at the slight tickling sensation. “I’m glad. And I promise I’ll try to stay off your back if you want to do minimal costumes in the office from here on out.”

“Thanks. I’ve got a reputation to uphold for the cameras you know.”

“Whatever you big dork,” she gently teased before pulling him down for a drawn out kiss.

The kiss deepened and before Pam knew it, Jim had swept her off her feet and started carrying her towards the stairs and the bedroom at the top. She didn’t mind at all. Nor did she mind when they arrived in the bedroom and quickly discovered they didn’t need their costumes on anymore.