Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or The Office. No copyright infringement intended.

♥

When the morning sun blared through the slits of the blinds and spread rays of pink and orange beams across the tussled sheets early that morning, Jim found himself in that hazy place between dreams and being awake. He was unsure why, but the random firings of his memory brought him to remember a class he had taken back in college on Shakespeare. There was one sonnet he had liked and accidentally memorized, and the lines came to mind again as he looked around the room and the memories from the night before came back to him. Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,/ But bears it out even to the edge of doom./ If this be error and upon me proved,/ I never writ, nor no man ever loved. Pam was asleep, on her side leaning against him with one arm tossed across his bare chest.

Her chest rose and fell beneath the white sheets with every silent breath, her lips slightly parted. Jim realized that one of his arms was holding her flawless sleeping figure to him, and he lightly ran his fingers across her naked shoulder. She sighed in her sleep at the gesture, and nuzzled her head against his side. Although he had caught himself imagining a moment like this on countless occasions, his imagination never had the caliber to conjure an instant as beautiful as this one.

Jim eventually managed to slip out of bed without disturbing Pam’s sleep, and put on a pair of pajamas. The clock next to his bed said that it was about 7:30 AM. He went to the kitchen to prepare Pam’s favorite breakfast: french toast and jasmine tea. He put on a CD of John Mayor because she had once mentioned how much she liked listening to their peaceful sound in the morning. He laid a single daisy on the pillow next to her sleeping head because he knew they were her favorite flower. When her breakfast was done cooking, he quickly slipped into the shower.

♥

Pam stirred to the distant sound of hushed acoustic music and the smell of cooking food. She was confused for a moment until she remembered Michael’s farewell party, Jim’s voice mail, rushing back to Dunder Mifflin, finding Roy beating up Jim, screaming for help until everyone heard and rushed to tackle Roy, kissing Jim...

A small daisy lay on the pillow next to her head. A slow smile crept across her lips at the gesture, and it surprised her to remember just how well Jim knew her. She heard the shower running, and put on one of Jim’s giant button-up shirts (because she had girlishly dreamt of wearing one of these after spending the night at his house). She tucked the daisy in her hair behind her ear. Just as she made her way into the kitchen, Jim emerged from the shower.

"Hey, Beesly," he said, sliding his arm around her back and pulling her in. He smiled, and rested his forehead against her’s. She was beginning to love it when he did that.

"Hey, Halpert," she said back. She rested her balled fists against his chest.

"Breakfast?"

"Mhmm."

"Okay, c’mon." He led her into the kitchen, and had her sit at the table while he served her the french toast and tea.

"Roy really beat you pretty bad, huh?" she remarked. The entire left side of Jim’s jaw was a bruised yellow, and the left side of his nose was purple, the color seeming to extend from beneath his eye.

"My side is bruised too," Jim said, slightly lifting up his pajama shirt to reveal the damage. Pam recoiled at the thought of how it must’ve hurt.

"I’m so sorry," she said.

"Don’t be. But just imagine: he did that to me for kissing you. What do you think he’d do if he found out about last night?" Jim said with a laugh as he sat down at the table to join her in eating. Pam didn’t smile, and her eyes fell solemn.

"There are going to be consequences for last night," she mumbled. The lighthearted, peaceful mood deflated with the comment, and Jim looked up from his breakfast plate. Her hands were folded in her lap, and she stared blankly at the table.

"If you don’t tell Roy, I won’t–"

"That’s not what I mean," she cut in. "I mean... it all happened quickly. Unless we want to end up acting awkwardly around each other again, we’ll have to build a relationship just as fast to catch up." Jim smiled. A relationship... with Pam. She caught his gaze, and smiled back.

The doorbell rang, and Jim got up to answer it. Unlatching all the locks, he opened the door, and sudden horror churned his stomach acids when Karen was standing there. Getting so tangled in the moment had made him forget about her, and he naturally had to break up with her (what an ass he was for not doing so before he made love to Pam). But how he could he do it in such haste, in his doorway? (what an ass, what an ass)

"Karen!" his instincts gasped aloud. Her face was flushed, but her lips remained tight with such forced sternness. She studied his bruised face.

"So what Kelly called me about last night was true?"

"Huh?"

"I got a message on my cell phone saying that Roy kicked your ass." She folded her arms across her chest, and stared at him with such brutal hurt that he struggled to explain everything that had happened while standing in his doorway. "She also mentioned you leaving with Pam."

"A lot happened last night that we need to talk about, but now’s not a good time," he said. Karen’s eyes were red, but she strained to maintain a straight face.

"Did the events of ‘last night’ cause Pam’s car to still be in your driveway this morning?" she asked, her voice cracking slightly. He looked out the door, and remembered that her car was still parked there.

"We need to talk, but please, not like this..."

"I’ll be less cryptic: did you sleep with her?" Karen snapped. Jim dropped his chin, and swallowed a rock of calcified indecision. He had felt himself once before in this same kind of position with Karen, unable to answer honestly without hurting her. He rested his body against the door frame, and the answer he gave was the same as last time.

"Yes," he whispered. Karen nodded her head in mechanical jerks, and the morning sun caught the glimmer of her glossy eyes. She slapped his bruised cheek.

"I hope I served your rebound needs well," she said with hateful sarcasm, her voice stressing under the threat of crying. She turned around, and left with what little dignity she had left.

Jim shut the front door, and returned to the kitchen table, the once elated mood now sobered by the consequences affronting them. Neither of them had wanted to hurt Karen, but they loved each other... was it selfish?

"Did we rush this?" Pam asked herself, but the question was posed aloud. Jim felt himself shatter at her remark. Everything had worked out so perfectly. Why, why did he have to date Karen? What had driven him to make such a stupid decision? But then again, he knew exactly why he had dated her.

"Jesus, please tell me I didn’t fuck this up. I couldn’t have, not when I’ve been waiting for this for so long." he said, dejected. Pam smiled in sympathy, and reached across the table with her hand, cupping his bruised jaw. She kissed him so softly, and he knew that they were meant, made rather, for each other.

"I just want this to be perfect. I don’t want there to be any problems," she said.

"That’s all that I want," Jim said. "So... what do we do now?"

♥

Jim Halpert had always hated Mondays. The Worst Day of the Week. The end of the weekend recharge. The alarm clock that wakes you up from a really, really good dream. So when he found himself looking forward to Monday and thankful that it had finally arrived, he knew that she had turned his world upside down. And it was a new world that rotated in the proper direction, that didn’t make him feel like he was bleeding his life away for the sake of paper. And he could get used to this new world when Mondays were another opportunity to be with the woman he loved (because love alters not, and he didn’t have to forget anymore).

"Hey," he beamed, walking up to the reception desk.

"Why, hello, Jim," she said in a horribly obnoxious British accent.

"Anyone else here yet?" he asked, drumming his fingers on the desk.

"Nope." Jim slipped the messenger bag off his shoulder, pulled her out of her chair, and kissed her. She rested her arms around the base of his neck, chuckling against his lips in giddiness.

"So how long do you want to wait before we go public about this?" he asked after they had pulled apart. Pam ran the tips of her fingers up and down the back of his neck, and a current of tingling ran down the surface of his skin.

"Oh, I don’t know. Not at least for a little while. I think we have to let the whole thing with Roy and Karen blow over first. I mean, everyone knows now that we kissed a month before the wedding," she explained.

"Okay, we’ll wait to go to HR and all that. But before someone else comes in here..." Jim began. He kissed her again, a deep kiss. Pam’s knees became gelatinous, and these were the kisses she had always fantasized about in her mind when she looked over at his desk.

"I love you," he said.

"I love you too," she said.

♥

"Jim?" Pam squeaked, tilting her face up towards his. Saturday night, watching a dumb romantic comedy they had made fun of together, Jim lay sprawled across his couch, and Pam lay against him, one of her legs thrown over his and her head resting on his chest. A thin flannel blanket covered their hips and below. They were drifting to sleep until she spoke.

"Mhmm?" he moaned.

"When did you first fall in love with me?" At the question, he understood that he was going to have to give a real answer, not one uttered mindlessly in a haze of sleepiness. Jim sat up a little, pulling her with him by the arm wrapped around her.

"I think... you had been working at Dunder Mifflin for about six months. We were in the kitchen, planning that prank on Dwight when we soaked the seat of his chair with water so when he sat in it, it looked like he peed himself. Remember that?"

"Yeah."

"Well, we were talking about that prank when you reached across the table, and put your hand on my forearm. You couldn’t stop laughing, and you looked so beautiful. When I got the butterflies in my stomach, I suddenly realized that I was in love with you. I pushed the thought out of my head almost immediately since that was when you had just gotten engaged to Roy, but yeah, that was the first time."

"For me, it was when we had known each other for about seven months. Roy had said something hurtful, although I can’t remember it now. But I was crying in the kitchen after work, and you came in. I tried to wipe away the tears, but you were so supportive. You hugged me and told me that I deserved nothing but happiness, and if Roy couldn’t understand that then he was an idiot. You made some little joke, and I laughed. It was then that it struck me how good to me you were, and how much I wanted nothing but to kiss you. That must’ve been the first time I realized I was in love with you."

"So... we were in love for three and a half years before we got together..." Jim mused aloud in thought. "Wow, I never really thought about how long it was."

"How can it be that we stayed secretly in love all that time?" Pam whispered, her eyes fluttering shut as drowsiness settled in again.

"Because love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom," he said quietly.

"Is that... one of those dorky romantic verses... you have memorized?" Pam babbled, her mind unwilling to stay awake much longer.

"Something like that," he whispered. Jim kissed the top of her head, rubbed her shoulder, and they fell asleep.