“You’re really beautiful, you know that?” He said seriously as soon as he saw her walk through the door. “I mean it. Just…beautiful.” His hand reached to tuck a piece of hair behind her ear and cup her face. “I’m really lucky because you are so beautiful.”
“Hey, Beautiful. Do you mind taking him home?” His brother quipped from the other side of the room trying to clean up where Jim has recently regurgitated his dinner. His breathe still smelled like burnt hamburger, his eyes still a little red and swollen from the tears that naturally find their way down when the throat hurts as much as his did. Still he couldn’t stop smiling at Pam, constantly keeping some sort of physical contact with her, muttering ‘beautiful’ under his breath.
“What did you do to him?” Pam asked trying to collect his things from the table. “You didn’t take all of his money. He still has a girlfriend to take out, you know.” She sat on the arm of the couch across from where Jim was sitting. Tilted her head and just watched him as he watched his hand hold hers as if it was something he had never done before. Like a baby discovering a new part of its anatomy and becoming completely fascinated by it.
“Philly lost Pam. I’m sure the five bucks he’s got left will be enough to get you whatever you want off the value menu.”
“Come on Jim.” She tugged his hand and pulled him to his wobbly feet. “Thanks, Jon. I appreciate it. Really.” She struggled the words out as Jim started falling back on to the couch he had just gotten up from.
“Do you need help getting him to the car?” Jon made his away across the room lifting Jim up from one side letting Pam take the other. “This will make a good hour ride home.”
After finally tucking Jim into the passenger’s seat and under a seat belt Jon hugged Pam goodbye and they made their way to the freeway. “Don’t want to go home, Pam.” His voice indicated that tears were soon to follow.
“Why not?” She asked carefully.
“I want to get married. Make babies. Name them Halpert.” He gave a little laugh at how ridiculous his thoughts sounded out loud and didn’t seem to notice the car swerved a little. That wasn’t anything close to what she expected him to say. He turned to her with a smile that caused the rest of his face small amounts of pain. “Pam…Halpert!” It was almost as if he were intimidating Michael. “Pamela Halpert.”
“What did you drink tonight, Jim?” She avoided him almost completely not knowing what her mind was supposed to think of his drunken rambles.
“I don’t remember. Jon made it. You know, we should get married. I want to get married.”
“We can’t get married tonight, Jim. You’re mother would probably hunt us down just in time and kill us both.”
“I don’t care. I want to marry you. Let’s go to that city that marries people…and get married.” His voice was still as deep and serious as ever.
“We’re not going to go Las Vegas tonight. Maybe we can next month or something, but we’re going home right now.” She tried to her best to sound less irritated and more like the voice of reason. She knew she shouldn’t be at all upset by the fact that he wants to marry her in his drunken state but this was not how she pictured the first conversation they would ever have about their future. It was supposed to come with wine that they both could enjoy and she’d wait for him to casually bring it up. Right now she was disturbingly sober and trying to focus on the road in front of her.
“I don’t want to go home…I want to get married.” He said like a stubborn child who knew that they were not going to get their way.
“I know. I’m too tired though. So we’re going to go home and sleep, and then we can talk about it tomorrow when we’re both sober, okay?”
“I’m not that drunk Pam. I know that I love you. I know that I want to marry you. I don’t think the fact that I had a couple of shots at football party is going to matter.” He defended himself obviously offended enough to make himself sound more and more sober with every word. He leaned against the door, his head against the window, upset with the idea that he was too drunk to know what he was doing.
“Hey,” She said only loud enough to get his attention so he would look at her. She looked at the road for a second to make sure that she wasn’t about to run in to anything living before looking at him. “I love you too. I’m just tired so let’s go to my apartment and get some sleep, okay?” His eyes went back to staring at the lights the passed by.
When they got to Pam’s apartment complex Jim had sobered enough to walk up the stairs still angry with her. Landed face first in her bed still fully clothed.
The next morning Pam was sitting indian style next to his sleeping form reading over her assignments on her laptop she had just gotten for Christmas from her parents. “Good morning.” She smiled down as he squirmed against her leg practically hugging it as if it were her entire body. “How do you feel?”
“Uuuurrggg,” Jim groaned. “How did I get here?”
“Jon called and wanted me to pick you up. Apparently you wanted to do karaoke in the middle of a football game, and then started asking for me.”
“Jon lives an hour away.”
“I know.” She leaned the upper half of her body against his lower stomach and curled her herself so that her head lay just beneath his chest.
“You drove an hour out of your way…two hours out of your way all together because Jon asked you to? Should I be jealous?”
“Insanely.” She smiled. “I went because you were asking for me and there was no way you were going to get here by yourself.”
“I figured I’d just wake up on Jon’s couch and then call and beg for your forgiveness. I’m sorry if I was difficult.” He said slowly knowing that the last time he had gotten drunk he had tried to pummel his brother for suggesting that he move on from Pam when she was still getting married.
“You were…sweet.” She hesitated.
“What did I do?”
“You tried to talk me in to eloping with you, and when I tried to tell you that we couldn’t elope you got really mad at me…and then you passed out.” In her mind she was laughing at the complete ridiculousness of the night before but also scared by his silent reaction.
“I…I don’t…” He ran his fingers through his hair slightly pulling at it. “I have no idea what to say.”
“I was cute Jim. You said you wanted to ‘make babies and name them Halpert.’” She laughed as he groaned.
“How did you respond to that?” He didn’t seem at all amused.
“I said your mother would hunt us down and kill us, which is true by the way. You’re mother hates me.”
“She doesn’t hate you. I think she wouldn’t mind if her son eloped as long as she thought it was what was going to make him happy.”
“She doesn’t think I make you happy.”
“You do make me happy.” He smiled down at her reading the nervousness suddenly written across her face. “What would you have said if I was sober?”
“You’re missing a few steps before you get that kind of answer.” She quipped sitting up in the same position she was in before he had woken up.
“I’m serious, Pam.”
“So am I!” She states with a smile. “There’s process and questions you have to ask before you get those kind of answers. You don’t get to know until if or when you decide to ask the right question.”
“So, I can’t ask that question while drunk?”
“No. That question is not acceptable while drunk because you might not remember doing it and then that would be sad. Wouldn’t you want to remember something like that?”
“Yeah. How about during a hangover when the memory would be fully intact?” He started to play with her fingers making it hard for either of them to take their eyes off of where their hands were interlocked.
“Depends on the hangover,” she answered in a clam and slow voice. Almost childishly sweet to it’s core.
“Small headache, only enough nausea to not want to eat but not enough to have anything come up, probably going to go away soon, pretty bad breath but nothing a toothbrush couldn’t fix, but other than that perfectly fine.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad. It could work.” She laid back down on him again not wanting him to see her face since they both knew what was coming now. His hand moved away from hers and started to rub small circles on her stomach as if he could read her mind when she thought about her butterflies.
“Will you marry me?” It was practically a whisper but there it was in perfectly sober words.
“Yeah, I think I can do that.”
Story Notes:
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.
I don't own Jon either but I don't know where he came from. So if you made him then I give you 100% credit that he is not actually originally mine.
I don't own Jon either but I don't know where he came from. So if you made him then I give you 100% credit that he is not actually originally mine.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Big kind of worshiping thanks to flonkertonxx for helping me get inspired enought to write and italianfood for betaing when I got too impaicient to wait for someone else.
Chapter End Notes:
I really hope you like it. I can't exactly explain how much I like reviews so if good or bad I'd really appriciate any feedback.
Coming Up Next:
Pam and Jim's Mom have lunch.
Coming Up Next:
Pam and Jim's Mom have lunch.
