Blocked Up by Robert Dunder
Summary: What if Pam didn't hug Jim back? Set during S9: Paper Airplane and will continue from there.
Categories: Jim and Pam, Alternate Universe Characters: Cece Halpert, Ensemble, Jim/Pam
Genres: Angst, Drama, Kids/Family, Married
Warnings: Other Adult Theme
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 14 Completed: Yes Word count: 29143 Read: 15741 Published: January 13, 2021 Updated: February 07, 2021
Better Than A Fairytale by Robert Dunder
Author's Notes:
FIN.

2014, one year after she opened her eyes


"You actually did it," Jim told Pam as they stared at her mural in the warehouse. It had been a month since its grand unveiling at the DVD release party of PBS. On that same day, he found out that Pam had been secretly showing their house to potential buyers and that it had been sold. Not only was he he appreciative of her effort to make a grand gesture to him, he was excited to know that Pam was finally ready to embark on a new journey in Austin. Dwight immediately fired them upon their revelation, not as a sign of spite, but as a last gesture of friendship so they could get their severance packages. 


Pam help his hand and gently squeezed them. She gazed at her masterpiece and focused on the shaggy haired paper salesman. She noticed how sophisticated he looked now but it was still the same face that she had fallen in love with. "Can you believe we just sat five from each other for ten years, and we've only been together for seven of them?"


"Well…" he looked at her with a smirk on his face, "you were engaged."


"Then you dated someone else," she laughed as she replied.


"I know," Jim kissed her forehead before continuing, "How crazy would it have been if I got engaged to Karen? Would you have stopped me?"


"I don't know," Pam looked at him intently, "It took a fire pit to confess to you. Maybe if I walked three more times, I might have just done that."


They both laughed and remained in silence as they continued looking at the painting.


"Are you really ready for this?" Jim asked.


"Jim, it's our last day in Dunder Mifflin. We're here to say goodbye to Dwight and everyone else. Well, mostly Dwight because he still looked upset this week. Another family is already living in our home. We're basically homeless. If we're not ready now, then we're screwed."


"We could always stay in Schrute Farms."

"Is that really what you want Jim? Because Dwight will be more than happy to have you digging manure every day."


"Alright then. So I guess we are ready," Jim joked as he wrapped his arm around her, "Wow, we're really doing it."


"Yes, we are Halpert. No backing out now," Pam paused for a while before she spoke again, "Hey Jim…"


"Yeah?"


"I know I've said this before but you have been so amazing this past year. And I'm sorry it took me so long get there."


"Hey, come on. We've already been through this, there were things we could've done better. Both of us, but we're here now and that's all that matters, right?"


"Yeah, I guess you're right," she replied as they shared a long passionate kiss, "I love you."


"Love you too. Alright, let's do this," he said as they headed up the stairs for the last time.


2016, three years after she opened her eyes


"My children! They have arrived!" Michael opened the door and he gave the two of them an awkward and uncomfortable group hug


"Hey Michael, we're so happy to see you too," Pam said as she tried to squeeze her way out. "This is such a lovely place. I can see why Jim wanted to go here."


"No Pam, he did not want to stay because our house is nice," Michael said as he took their coats and led them inside, "He obviously wanted to go here because of the entertainment."


"So…"


"Me. I'm the entertainment in case you didn't catch that Pam," Michael interrupted before Jim could finish his sentence. "You would not believe how much effort I went through to make this guy happy. That's what she said. But seriously, you should've seen him. He was literally crying over you for an entire night."


Jim's eyes widened at Michael's revelation. He could bring himself to meet Pam's face, but he could tell she that she had a smug expression as she said, "Really now?"


"Okay, Michael…" Jim finally spoke, "We were drunk and I only cried when I called her, which she was fully aware of."


"Oh, Jim," Michael said as he walked up to him and ruffled his hair, "Jim, Jim, Jim. You probably don't remember this. But you took a bottle of wine from our stash after we got home."


"What? No I didn't," Jim had a confused look on his face as he tried to remember the events of that night.


"Yes you did. We didn't think you were gonna continue drinking since you just threw up, but you finished the entire bottle. Why did you think you were so hungover the following day?"


"Okay, I think I'd remember downing another bottle of— Oh my God," Jim suddenly paused upon realizing what had truly happened that night, "Oh my God. Oh my God."


"Yeah, and that's not even the worst part. You thought you were in your room but you actually crawled up beside me and started crying on my shoulders saying how much you miss 'me'. I mean it was just—"


"Okay, Michael. I think you should stop talking," Jim interrupted before Michael could continue embarrassing him.


"Wow, this is so amazing," Pam laughed as she clapped her hands, "Jim, I'm never gonna let you live this down. You know that, right?"

"Great," he said with a sarcastic grin on his face, "Michael, why didn't you tell me any of this before?"


"Well, you were feeling down when you came here. I just figured I'll tell you when the time is right. Which is now. With Pam. Your lover.


"Okay, Michael she is not—"


"There he is, you little party animal," Holly appeared from the kitchen and gave Jim a hug while ruffling his hair, "Hey Pam. It's good to see you."


"It's good to see you too, Holly," she said as they shared a warm embrace.


"You would not believe this husband of yours. He downed a bottle of wine and—"


"Yes, Holly," Jim continued with his interruptions, "Michael already told the story about how I crawled into your bed and cried. It's amazing."


"Oh no, he didn't get to the best part. Pam, he was so hammered, I told Michael to bring him to the bathroom in case he needed to throw up again. They didn't make it to the toilet. You should have seen Michael, he was covered in vomit. It was such a sight."


"What?" Michael looked at her and continued speaking, "I don't remember any of that."


"Of course you didn't, you were just as plastered as him," Holly replied, "I'm guessing he also failed to mention that when Jim was crying about how much he missed Pam, he was also crying with him saying how much he missed him too."


"Okay, Holly, as if that really happened," he smiled as he kissed her on the cheek, "Hey Pam, why don't you see how she's doing in the kitchen? Maybe get some expert advice on her chicken pot pie?"

"Alright then," Pam said as she gently tapped Jim's shoulder before walking to the kitchen, "I will leave you two because you have clearly so much to catch up on."


"Okay, let's just both agree that the night went out of hand for both of us," Michael said.


"Yeah, I think that's for the best. I don't want to recall actually throwing up on someone. Sorry about that."


"It's fine. Water over the bridge,"


"Actually, it's water un—"


"So how are you and Pam doing? I take it things are going better?"


"Yeah, things have been going great actually. She's been enjoying Austin and well… I'll explain it when we go to lunch."


"Alright, we'll have that lunch then. How about tomorrow?"


"Alright, tomorrow at lunch."


"Okay. Jim…I'm really proud of you." Jim could see Michael's eyes genuinely beaming with pride. He could see Michael offering his hand but he instinctively went to hug his former boss.


They hugged for a while in silence until Michael spoke, "Hey Jim…"


"Yeah?"


"Maybe we shouldn't be this close to each other for a while? I'm still trying to get over you throwing up one me."


"You got it," Jim replied as he let go.


2017, four years after she opened her eyes


"I don't know, Mr. Schnoot. It just makes a really loud crumply noise whenever I fold the paper," Jim said over the phone as he pretended to be an old man, "Well, I know you mentioned you were trying to fix the problem but I don't see anything changing. Staples just has more quiet paper, maybe I'll buy from them instead."


He listened on to Dwight's attempts to win him back until he realized that the cameraman was already in his office, "Ok sir. I'm going to have to call you back"

He then hung up his call and started talking, "Sorry about that, man. I was not expecting you to come in early."


"I can't believe it's been four years since I last spoke to a camera. So as you can see, I have my own office," he continued as held up his nameplate in front of the camera, "James Duncan Halpert, VP for New Acquisitions. I really wish we could change the name 'Athleap' but there's no going back from it. Wait, I have a call. Hold on one second."


"James Halpert," he said as he picked up his phone, "Yeah? Alright, yes we would like to take you up on your offer. Alright, talk to you soon."

"Sorry, potential new client. Where were we? Oh yeah, so everything's going great, the kids are packing up because we are heading to Scranton for the weekend. Dwight and Angela's second child turned one today. They have this grand ceremony in the Schrute family for when a child turns one. They call it Gebertstag, which is birthday in German. You know, when he described it to me, it sounded exactly like a birthday party, but he said it's not so I guess I'll just have to see it when I get there."


"How's Pam? Well…" He raised his hands to show that he was not wearing his wedding ring, "we are getting divorced. Last I heard, she was making a name for herself in the mural business but… we just wanted different things. It's crazy right? We wanted to make it work so bad, especially for the kids."


He looked at the camera, trying not to tear up in front of them, "I guess…I just thought we were growing stronger and now that it's all about to end…I don't know. I really wanted to—"


"Jim?"


He fell silent as Pam opened the door with a smile on her face. She went to his desk and kissed him on the lips.


Jim worriedly look at the camera and said, "Hey….what's up? I was not expecting you today."


"I was done for the day and I wanted to surprise you. I just thought before we fly to Scranton, we could have lunch and—," Pam suspiciously looked at him, "What's wrong with your face?"

"What? Nothing's wrong with my face."


"You have that weird look that you give when you're trying to hide something. We've been married for eight years, you really think I'd—" Pam paused and held out his hand, "Where's your wedding ring?"


"I… uhhh…." Jim took out the ring from his pocket with his free hand as he gave a sheepish look to the camera and mumbled softly as if he did not want the camera to hear him, "I just thought you know, it would be funny to…"


Pam looked at the camera then quickly diverted her attention back to Jim, "Jim, my parents did not find this funny. Your parents did not find this funny. Even your brothers think you took it too far. You have got to stop doing that."


"Alright, I'm sorry," he smiled as he put his wedding ring back on and kissed Pam. He then looked at the camera again, "Not divorced. Happily married. I just wanted to be funny."


"Okay then…so lunch?" Pam asked.


"Alright, let me grab my coat"


"By the way, when we get to Scranton, try not to mention anything about Dunder Mifflin paper. Dwight's still upset about some customer complaint. Apparently, some customer was complaining about how loud their paper is?"


"Oh wow," Jim smiled at the camera, "I cannot wait to hear that story."


————————


2018, five years after she opened her eyes


“Thank you everyone for coming here tonight. I hope you’re enjoying the food and the champagne because those are insanely expensive,” Jim was onstage giving the introductory speech to Athleap’s five year anniversary. “Five years ago, I was still working as a paper salesman in Scranton. I didn’t know where my life was head but then my friends and I took a leap of faith from an idea that we had in college. Granted, we had no idea what we were doing when we first launched our business. Wade? Is Wade here? There he is, I still remember that day we lost a huge investor. I really thought it was over, but we persevered and never gave up, and now… We’re growing stronger than ever. Thank you so much to my source of inspiration, my wife, Pamela Morgan Halpert who believed in me every step of the way."


His eyes connect with Pam who looked as beautiful as the first day he had laid his eyes on her, "Without her and our two children, who unfortunately can't be here tonight because they have homework, none of this would be possible. Thank you everyone," he stepped down from stage and immediately went to his wife. She wrapped her arms around his and laid her on his shoulder as they headed to the balcony to get some fresh air.


"Congratulations," Pam said as she pulled him close and gently pressed her lips to his. Their kisses grew more fervent as each second passed and neither of them wanted the moment to end. Pam eventually let go, realizing they were still in public.


"Wow," Jim said, "That was amazing. Do you want to skip this and have a romantic dinner. Just us?"

"Are you sure we can skip this? Seems really important."

"Well…they already know I showed up. They're not gonna notice."


"Alright, then. What are we gonna have?"


"How about some Italian food?"


"Never expected anything else," Pam said as the two of them held hands while heading towards the exit.


————————————


End Notes:

And that is it. I hope you all enjoyed.

I never had the courage to write before and I'm sure it's not even close to being perfect but I hope I made someone's day with this story.

Reviews are highly appreciated, like Jim and Pam Halpert. 

This story archived at http://mtt.just-once.net/fanfiction/viewstory.php?sid=5977