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"Mommy, how come we goin'?
Pam glanced at the clock. It was 7:38. They needed to be in the car before 7:50 to make the 10 minute drive to Dunder Mifflin. Pam quickened the pace with which she gathered toys and snacks into her breifcase.
"Sydney, Daddy and I explained this to you last night." said Pam hurriedly, before shouting up the stairs: "Jim! Five Minutes!" Pam glanced around the granite kitchen counter, making sure she had collected everything she needed for today.
"I forgot." said Sydney in her tiny voice. "Tell me again." Pam walked around the kitchen counter to where her little girl stood and crouched down to her level. It astonished her sometimes how much Sydney was a solid, 50/50 mixture of herself and Jim. Her hair was Jim's chestnut color but had Pam's defined flowing curls. Her elegant lips belonged to Pam, but the crooked smile they made belonged to her father. Even her eyes couldn't decide between Pam's blues and Jim's greens, producing a beautiful blue-green mix. Straightening her daughter's pink striped tee shirt she explained again why today was special.
"Baby, you know that every day, when you go to pre-school, Daddy and Mommy go to work, right?" Her daughter broke into a smile and nodded. "Dunder Miffles!" the four year old squealed excitedly. Pam laughed. The name was so ridiculous, it might as well be 'Dunder Miffles'. "That's right. But today is a special day called Bring Your Child to Work Day. Little boys and girls get to come to work with their mommies and daddies today."
"Why come?" asked the inquisitive girl, cocking her head to the side and staring up at Pam with those big aquamarine eyes. Pam stood up and glanced to her left to check the time. It was 7:45. "Jim!-" Pam began to shout, when suddenly she felt strong, familiar arms wrap around her waist from behind. Pam had told Jim in the past she hated it when he snuck up on her like that -though a part of her always loved the way it made her spine shiver- and was about to reprimand him, when she inhaled and smelled the mixture of soap, cologne, and an indescribable smell that was distinctly his. Instead of scolding, she found herself giggling and placing her hands over his, which were clasped around her belly. Jim leaned around to kiss Pam quickly on the cheek, and hugged her closer as she giggled.
"Because, baby," Jim said to his daughter, "It's a special day that comes once a year, so that mommies and daddies can spend more time with their children. And it gives you a chance to see what Mommy and Daddy do all day."
This seemed to be enough to satisfy the little girl's curiosity. Pam shrugged her into her tiny blue coat and Sydney lifted her arms, a signal that she wanted her father to pick her up. They loaded themselves into the car and were pulling out of the driveway at 7:49.
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"Oh my god, it's a mini Pam-a-lama-ding-dong!" Michael shouted as he walked out of his office and up to reception, where Jim was spinning a shrieking Sydney around in Pam's swivel-chair just a little too fast for Pam's comfort. Jim stopped so that the chair was facing Michael and held onto Sydney as she giggled, her tiny head still spinning. Pam, who was unloading Sydney's various toys and snacks onto her desk, looked up at Michael and sighed.
"Michael, you remember our daughter, Sydney. Sydney, this is Mr. Scott, Daddy's and my boss. Say hello." Sydney held onto her father's arms, her shyness overtaking her.
Michael didn't seem to notice this as he stormed past Pam and crouched down a little to close to the girl's face. "Hi Sydney-Wydney! You can call me Uncle Mikey-"
Pam and Jim shared a horrified glance.
"- and I think you're going to have a lot of fun today. I'm a boss here. Think of it as if this office is like a magical palace in a fairytale land, and I am it's princess. Well, I'm King. And...your mom is princess." Pam shot a warning glance at Michael. "Well, no. Not your mom..." Michael said quickly. "She's far to old to be a princess." Jim quickly interjected. "Hey, how about Dwight's the princess?" he asked. Upon hearing his name, Dwight Shrute looked up and narrowed his eyes at the little girl, and barked something about being a palace guard.
Sydney hugged her father's arms closer, overwhelmed by the bizzare spectacle unfolding before her, and Jim realized this was going to be a long day.
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By 9:00 AM, the office was filled with children.
Stanley had his daughter: a seventeen year old girl with Stanley's grouchy disposition. She cooed over Sydney for a few minutes before being distracted by Ryan, and preceeded to spend the rest of the morning throwing herself at him, as she did every year.
Toby had brought his daughter Sahsa, who was beginning to blossom into puberty. She stood at Michael's desk, watching him as she did every year on this day, the same infatuation in her eyes.
Oscar had Charlotte, the petite Asian toddler he and Gil adopted last year. She and Sydney played on the floor of the conference room with Bobby Junior, the son of Phyllis and Bob Vance. It was disconcerning that Pam was pregnant at the same time as Phyllis, who was at least 15 years Pam's senior, but despite Phyllis' age, Bobby Junior was a healthy, beautiful little boy born mere days before Sydney.
The three youngest kids in the office played in the conference room, ducking under the long table and climbing up onto the rows of chairs. Jim had volunteered to keep an eye on the little ones, and he was crawling around on his hands and knees after them, scooping them up into his arms as they shrieked with laughter. He quieted them down when they got too rowdy and watched carefully to make sure nobody hurt themselves. Pam's heart melted as she watched him play with the kids. He was in many ways a big kid himself, and the smile on his face when he held his own daughter tight in his arms and tickled her was bright enough to illuminate the entire office.
Pam should have been doing the new designs for the Dunder Mifflin advertisements, but she was comfortable enough in her 3-year-old promotion to Head of Graphic Design that she knew she could miss a deadline by one day without hearing much from David Wallace. She watched the group at play wistfully for another five minutes before Jim gathered the kids into a straight line, a certain twinkle in his eye tha Pam could detect from even the distance by which they were seperated. He whispered something to the group and they nodded up at him and giggled. Jim opened the door, and the group marched out in single-file across the office.
They reached Pam's desk and stood in front of it, their tiny heads craning up to look her in the eye. In unicon they said "Mrs. Halpert, ("Mommy!" chimed Sydney), could we please have some candy?" Pam smiled broadly at Jim, who she knew was remembering a certain Bring Your Chid to Work Day from about six years ago, when all she wanted was a kid to come up and talk to her when none would. She laughed and smiled down at the children, whose hands were outstretched and cupped, ready to recieve candy. Pam glanced around at Phyllis and Oscar, who both noded an 'okay' in her direction. Pam opened her little candy jar and the children smiled excitedly and lifted their hands up even higher. She placed a single M&M in each of their tiny pink palms.
Jim, who had come up behind the children, looked at Pam incredulously. "Mrs. Halpert, really? One M&M?" His lopsided smile twisted her heart, and she handed to each child two more M&Ms. "What do you say?" Jim prompted, and the children replied with mumbled thankyous as they munched noisly on the candy.
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Jim and Pam sat in the break room with Sydney in between them as they ate lunch. Pam had mixed berry yogurt with a granola bar and a small bag of baby carrots. Jim munched on a ham-and-cheese sandwich and quickly finished a bag of potato chips. Sydney, who needed to sit on a few wrapped stacks of paper to boost herself up in her seat enough to eat at the table, took small bites of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and pretzles.
Kevin walked in to the break room and smiled at the family before heading over to the vending machine. He stood there for what must have been five minutes deciding between barbeque flavored potato chips and sour cream and onion ones. In his state of thoughtfulness, he glanced around the room and noticed what Sydney was eating. "Oh...My...God." Kevin said in his slow, low tone. "What's wrong, Kev? Jim asked, not looking up from his sandwich.
"You! You're a Sandwich!" Kevin declared, pointing to Sydney. This elicited a confused glance between Jim and Pam, and Pam was the one to turn to Keivin and ask him to explain. "Well, you guys are Pam Beesly...well you were Pam Beesly, before you became Pam Halpert... and Jim. PB&J, 'cause you guys were so perfect for eachother and everything. Plus it's your initials!" Pam glanced over to Jim and had to stifle a giggle when she saw the (sarcastic) over-the-top serious intent with which he was listening to Kevin's story. "Well," Kevin continued, "PB and J came together, to make..." he smiled to himself "a PB&J sandwich!!"
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Jim and Pam held a squirming Sydney still in her seat between them for as long as they could, but finally Jim lifted her up and onto his lap, where his long arms wrapped around her and pinned her close to his body. They had been in the conference room for 20 minutes now, and Sydney was getting restless.
It was Michael's last-minute idea to have a special conference room meeting on Bring Your Child to Work Day. This obviously upset Angela, who had been setting up for the party in the conference room, and was forced to take everything back down and then to get it all ready again in the space of 10 minutes. This plus the trauma of Michael telling her earlier in the week that she could not, in fact, bring in a cat for Bring Your Child to Work Day had made Angela an extreme grouch all day.
Her wrath only seemed soothed by Dwight, who whispered something in her ear at the start of the meeting that made Angela smile as much as was possible for Angela to ever really smile. Michael was having a 'getting to know you' interview with each of the children at the front of the room. Michael crouched down next to Stanley's daughter, who was sitting in a chair, and pushed a blue furry puppet in her face, asking her what her favorite thing about paper was.
After a few more uneventful interviews, Sydney, who suddenly lost all ths shyness of that morning, bolted up to the chair and struggled to climb up into it. Michael boosted her into it, surprisingly swiftly, and brought the puppet up to her face which made her giggle.
"So, little girl-" Michael asked in the high pitched voice he had decided to use for the puppet "-what's your name?"
"Sydney Larissa Halpert" replied Sydney, smiling with satisfaction that she had remembered her entire name.
"And how old are you, Sydney?" Michael squeaked. Suddenly the confidence vanished from Sydney's eyes. "Um.." she stammered, looking helplessly towards her parents. Jim smiled as Pam wiggled four fingers in the air. "OH YEAH!" shouted Sydney, a little too loudly for Michael, who jerked back a bit and nearly knocked the puppet off of his hand. "I'm this many...four!" she cried triumphantly, holding four fingers in the air, just like her mommy had.
"And Jim and Pam are your mommy and daddy?" asked Michael, his puppet voice cracking slightly much to the amusement of Jim. Sydney nodded, knowing her parent's names by their frequent use of them around her. "Well, have we got some stories for you about your mommy and daddy. Have you ever heard the names Roy or Karen?" Jim and Pam both snapped "Michael!" at the same time, and Michael shrugged and went back to his interview.
"What are your favorite things to do, Sydney?" he asked, stretching out the 'a' in 'favorite' for a good eight seconds, eliciting an eyeroll from the adults in the room and a giggle from Sydney. Sydney paused and thought about her answer for a moment. She then took a deep breath and began a long answer.
"Well, sometimes, Mommy and Daddy take me to the playg'ound. And we play in the sammbox. And that's fun. And then sometimes Mommy and Daddy make up stories and we, um, make my stuffed aminals play them out. " She took a big breath, and Jim and Pam looked at eachother, giggling over how slurred and toddler-esque her speech became when she was excited. "And sometimes, Daddy and me makes Jell-O and we, um, we put stuff in it. Like Mommy's lipsick." Sydney took another breath and smiled her mischevious, crooked, Jim-like smile before dissolving into laughter.
Pam chuckled and playfully smackced Jim, remembering the day she came home to find a green Jell-O mold encasing her lipstick on the front table, a note next to it reading 'Love, Sydney' twice: once in Sydney's illegible handwriting, and once in Jim's neater print. Jim's head was thrown back in laughter, he was so proud of his little girl for that.
Everyone in the room was giggling at the Jell-O comment. Andy, who hadn't been around for the original Jell-O pranks, laughed just to be included. Even Dwight and Angela cracked half-smiles. Michael just sat there dumbfounded. Sydney had done what nobody else in that office had ever been able to do: leave Michael Scott speechless.
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After the party in honor of Bring Your Child to Work Day, Pam and Phyllis watched the three youngest children run in circles around the conference room on a sugar high. Angela tried to step around them in order to clean up, but eventually gave up and left the room muttering something about cats never misbehaving.
The children were playing some sort of game Pam and Phyllis didn't understand, wherein they hid under the tables until one of them touched the other's shoulders, and then they would all run around the table in circles, screaming and laughing. Rather than trying to work out the logistics of the game, Phyllis and Pam sat back and watched the group. Pam commented to Phyllis that Bobby Junior was the spitting image of Bob Senior, which wasn't entirely true, but Pam could tell how much it pleased Phyllis to hear her say it.
"They're so close in age, Bobby Junior and Sydney. They're only a few days apart. They'll be in the same grade at school. Heck, they'll be able to take eachother to prom!" laughed Phyllis. Pam giggled at that thought and said "Well, I'll let you know in advance that if your boy tries anything that night, Jim will probably have to kill him." They both laughed. "I can see him trying," said Phyllis "your daughter's beautiful. Your whole family is just lovely."
Pam glanced through the window over to Jim's desk, to see Jim was swivled in his seat to face her direction, speaking quickly into the phone and watching Sydney play. He was closing a sale, she could tell, by his smile and quick jotting down of notes. He hung up the phone and smiled broadly at Pam, and then his gaze shifted over to the other side of the room. When Pam followed his eyes, she saw Sydney had tired herself out, and was leaning against the wall, rubbing her eyes and pulling at her ear: a sure sign she was tired. She pushed her glossy brown curls away from her beautiful eyes looked up at Pam and said, in her tiny voice, "Mommy, I'm ready to go home."
Pam walked over to her, scooped her up into her arms, and cradled her there for a moment. She looked back to Phyllis. "Yes," she said. "I'm very lucky."
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It was 7:45 when they pulled into their driveway. They had stopped to pick up Chineese for Jim and Pam's dinner, and Pam made sure Sydney finished a full yogurt before falling asleep in the back of the car. Jim shut off the engine, and looked over at Pam. Moonlight spilled into the dark garage through a window, and illuminated Pam's soft, beautiful features. His breath caught in his chest when he saw her, the same familiar feeling only she could evoke in him since god knows when. He reached out to touch her soft cheek, and wove his fingers through her silky curls, pulling her close. "You have no idea," he said, "how absolutely beautiful you are."
With that, he drew her into a deep kiss. She reached out to touch the nape of his neck, where his soft, sensitive skin met the wavy mess of his hair. Feeling the restraint of the seatbelt holding her back from holding him closer, she was reminded of the days many years ago, when their new relationship had been a secret and was confined to apartments and cars. A familiar and warm shiver ran throug her at the thought.
A few minutes later, Jim was carying a sleeping Sydney up into her bedroom. He turned down the sheets, set up the night light, and pulled her favorite stuffed animal from the shelf and tucked it against the pillows. Pam struggled to change her into her pajamas, as Sydney was only barely awake. Once she was tucked in, her eyes fluttered open for a moment. She smiled and said "Fank you for taking me to work, Mommy. Fank you to for taking me to work, Daddy." She yawned and turned over to her side, her eyes closing again. "Aww, baby, you're welcome. Good night." Pam whispered, crouching down to plant a kiss on her daughter's cheek. Jim leaned forward and lightly kissed Sydney's forehead. "Good night, honey" he said, taking Pam by the hand and leading her out the door. He closed it most of the way, took one last look at his beautiful daughter, and flicked the lights off.
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"I don't know if I want to do this next year" said Jim. They were downstairs on the couch, not paying much attention to whatever television show they had put on. They were each eating hungrily from their Chineese takeout boxes, Jim sitting against the arm of the couch and Pam leaning up against him.
"Why come?" asked Pam, mimicking their daughter's grammaticly incorrect catchprase. Jim sighed and said "I don't know if I want them influencing Sydney. I mean, Uncle Mikey?" Jim felt Pam shudder against his chest at remembering that particular exchange. "Okay," Pam agreed. "That part was weird. But really, Jim. I've worked there for a long time now, and I think I turned out okay." She turned around so she was facing him. "You don't like how the girls at the Dunder Mifflin Scranton Branch turn out?" she asked, feigning sadness. He chuckled, lifted her chin, and kissed her softly. "Well, you know I love how ONE girl turned out" he said, and kissed her again.
"I love you." said Pam.
"I love you, too" Jim replied, and they settled back into their lazy positions on the couch.
"Jim?"
"Hmmmm?"
"If you really love me, you'll refrain from encasing my belongings in Jell-O."
Jim laughed and kissed the top of her head. "But Pam." he said. "That's how you know I really do love you."
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.
Author's Chapter Notes:
This is my first try at fan fiction! I love reading the Jim/Pam/Daughter stories so much I decided to write one. If I get any positive feedback, I'm considering making this into a series? Enjoy!!
I own nothing.
I own nothing.
Chapter End Notes:
Hope you liked it! Reviews would be wonderful, seeing as this is the first one for me! If people like it I'll make a series surrounding Jim, Pam and Sydney.
chiliswaitress is the author of 0 other stories.
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This story is part of the series, Sydney.
