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Author's Chapter Notes:
So here we go.  One Saturday BBQ and random quotes from an 80's movie and voila.  More JAM angst.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

In the beginning....

Jim sits perfectly still and tries to remember the exact moment. He thinks that if he closes his eyes it might appear to him.

Because it wasn't as if she walked into the office and instantly he knew. It took time, it happened slowly. There were a thousand little things that when put together added up to …this.

He tries to slow his heartbeat but it's nearly hopeless. He can hardly breathe without her. He can barely focus knowing that he's out here and she's in there and he can't even be there to help her.

They've told him it's better if he just sits tight and waits.

Better for whom exactly?

If he has to stay away he at least wants to remember a better time, a happier time, a time when things were much simpler.

He wants to remember when exactly he knew she was the one.

xoxoxoxoxo

Jim held the door open for her as she walked to the break room.

"How's your first day treating you?" He asked with a smile.

Pam blushed a bit before she sat down at the table and ripped the lid off her yogurt. His name was…Jim she fought to remember. Sales.

He'd been the first to introduce himself to her again after Michael had ushered her around the office in a frenzy. Even if she wasn't looking she thought he was kinda cute, if you went for those gangly, lanky types with mussed up hair. She wondered then if he was single. Her friend Sue had just recently broke up with her boyfriend…

God. Pam. Leave the poor guy alone. She scolded herself as she smiled back at him.

She stirred her yogurt as she replied. "Not too bad. But tell me something." She patted the seat beside her.

Jim grabbed his brown bag from the fridge and settled in next to her.

She leaned close and whispered. "Is he always like that?"

"Who? Michael?" Jim cast his eyes downward and smiled busying himself with setting up his lunch. He cracked open a grape soda and drank deeply. "Hate to break it to you but yeah. Pretty much."

"No. The other guy. Dwight, was it? I mean. Is he for real?" She blinked at him, holding her yogurt in her left hand and continuing to stir with her right.

It was then he noticed the faint glint of a stone on her left ring finger. Instantly he felt a pang that he couldn't quite place. Had he been concentrating more he might have realized that it felt vaguely like disappointment.

That's right. He remembered suddenly. She's with that warehouse guy, Roy what'shisname.

He tried to picture them together for a moment and it seemed an unlikely pairing as far as he was concerned. But who was he to judge?

His gaze moved back over to Pam and he tried to remember her question. Oh yeah. Dwight.

"Unfortunately, yes. Dwight is definitely for real. Real annoying, real bizarre, really frightening actually."

"How can you possibly stand sitting right there next to him day after day?" She asked her voice full of awe and tinged with horror.

"Sheer ingenuity." Jim replied. "He's like a toy. You wind him up and just sit back and watch. It's really quite fascinating."

Pam shook her head, still not quite understanding how he could cope. She went to take a taste of her yogurt. She felt his eyes on her and gave him a quizzical look.

"What?"

"Fruit on the bottom." He remarked.

"Yes?" She looked at him. What was he getting at?

He shrugged and took another bite of his sandwich. "It's just that it seems like a lot of trouble, having to you know, hunt for the good stuff. Like wouldn't it be easier if they just flavored the yogurt as a whole, spread the fruit through it evenly instead of making you dig?"

Was he serious? He smiled and she giggled, realizing he was teasing. "I guess."

He was really funny. And nice. No matter what weirdos lurked outside the door all of the sudden she felt for sure she could cope as long as Jim was out there with her.

She took another spoonful and sighed. "But it would lose something I think. You know the good stuff is always hard to find. It's part of what makes it good."

"True enough." He polished off the rest of his sandwich and crumpled his napkin, throwing it back in the paper bag.

Pam scraped at the bottom of her yogurt container.

"Got all the good stuff?" He asked with a grin.

"Yes." She sighed as she licked the back of the spoon.

His collar felt slightly tighter as he watched her. "So. Pam. Tell me something. Want to see firsthand how to handle Dwight?" He asked with a conspirator's smile.

Her eyes sparkled and she bounced on her heels. She gave him a grin as she replied. "If I'm expected to survive here, absolutely."

"Then let's go." He smiled widely and followed her out the door.

xoxoxoxoxo

She had fallen right in step with him, he remembered. She didn't even need much guidance and that first day she even gave him a suggestion. He remembered how she whispered in his ear and smiled shyly as she did, as if she was afraid he'd shoot her down.

He wouldn't even think of it. Her idea had been brilliant and Dwight was none the wiser, and that's how she became his partner in crime.

What that it? Was that when he'd known? He shook his head and dismissed the thought. No. Not then. He hadn't really been thinking of her that way at all at first. She was engaged and he wasn't someone who would mess with that, whether he knew the other guy well or not.

He stares at his hands, the ring on his own finger glinting in the fading sunlight. He looks up and then across the room at her mother, giving her a weak smile.

But somehow, someway that had all changed. In order to keep himself sane while he agonizes and waits it suddenly becomes really important to him to remember just when.

 


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