It's a little weird when Karen disappears. Jim really is sorry that he hurt her, that he made her feel like she needed to leave. But, he's been there. And maybe leaving is the best thing for everyone involved.

He spends the summer dating Pam Beesly. It is everything he ever expected it to be. He has never, in his life, been so happy. And he worries that it will only last a while, or that when the people at the office find out, it will be ruined.

But he tries to just live in the moment and enjoy the fact that he gets to hold hands with the person he's been in love with for years. Finally.

They tell each other everything. They hang out almost every day - sometimes just a casual coffee, sometimes they get dinner, sometimes they watch a movie. And he was right, she is the type to fall asleep on the couch watching a movie and then ask when they're going to bed. And God he just loves her so damn much.

He moves back to his old desk, with Ryan officially gone. And it's nice to be able to have his wordless conversations with Pam again. To high five across the open space between them, to pull dumb pranks on Dwight. It's nice that when he has a bad day, or a bad sales call, he can go to reception and she'll just immediately make him feel better.

It's all so damn nice and he can't wrap his head around it.

They both know that people are talking about them. After Pam's speech on the beach, and then Jim's almost immediate break-up with Karen, it looks pretty suspicious. But they find the best course of action is just to ignore everyone else and pretend nothing's going on. Because the second people find out, things are going to get weird.

It's actually really nice that Pam is the one who spills it to the crew after they get caught. God, he didn't realize the crew was going to follow them, or they would have done a better job at sneaking around. But he's been a little worried that maybe Pam isn't as invested as him, and that's why they're keeping it a secret. He know she cares about him, but Jim has been head over heels in love with Pam for years, and he is still getting used to the idea that he gets to kiss her almost anytime he wants. And truly, a big part of him just wants to tell every single person he's ever known in his entire life.

So when Pam is the one to tell the crew, Jim feels just a little bit more secure.

"It is going really great," he tells the crew. And he's smiling at her and she's smiling at him and dammit he has never been so happy.

As always, Jim will take any excuse to get out of doing work. So when this weird fun run idea comes to Michael, Jim is all for it. It's just an added bonus that he gets to lag behind with Pam and hold her hand. Every moment with her is still unbelievable to him and he just wants to be able to show her, all the time, how much he loves her.

He's a little bit disappointed when she shakes his hand off because they see Michael. He knows why they're not telling anyone, but he still...wants to tell everyone. He can't help it.

But then when Pam assures him that she's having a really nice day, looks right into his eyes and smiles that beautiful smile of hers, he's fine. He's good. He's got Pam and Pam's got him and damn, Jim Halpert is so freakin' happy.

Jim is significantly less happy when the entire office finds out that he and Pam are dating. While, yes, he wanted to shout it from the rooftops the moment she said yes to dinner all those months ago, he also wanted to be the one to share the news when he and Pam were ready.

He's annoyed that his co-workers are so petty, that Phyllis really feels the need to remind Pam that she can't favor Jim. Nothing has changed. Things are exactly the way they're supposed to be.

Then, he thinks of the card in his glove box, of the ring in the box in his bottom drawer at his desk, and is just thankful to even be dating the love of his life. When they officially tell Toby, he is beyond ecstatic when Pam uses the words, "pretty official" and smiles up at him with that smile he fell in love with so long ago. He loves when she looks up at him like that, has loved it for years. He loves it more now that it's got something extra to it.

When he tells Pam about Dwight and Angela, he is upset that she knew first. He thinks back to when she told him they weren't a thing, when she got so defensive at his party about it, and wonders why she lied. But he doesn't dwell on it, instead just tells her,

"We should have started dating, like, a long time ago." And it's a silly and funny thing to say, but it's also so true. They wasted so much time with the wrong people. They should have been together all along. But maybe things were meant to be that difficult, because maybe if he'd started dating Pam when he fell in love with her while she was in love with someone else, he wouldn't have appreciated her as much. Maybe if he hadn't loved her from afar for so long, grown close to her as her best friend and confidante, maybe their relationship would be lacking. But instead, it's perfect, and she's perfect, and he loves her so damn much.

Now that Ryan is corporate, he's got a little extra of that attitude he'd been starting to accumulate during his last few months at Scranton. So it gives Jim...probably a little bit too much pleasure when Ryan asks Pam out and she says no with absolutely no hesitation. When she tells Ryan she's dating Jim, it gives him this little extra pep in his step for the rest of the day: take that, New York Ryan. And he's really not jealous of Ryan - he withdrew from consideration for that position because of Pam, and he'd never ever change that decision. Ryan is just a jerk, plain and simple, and Jim really likes when bad things happen to jerks.

For example, when this stupid website gets launched and Dwight decides to take it on. Yes, this will be an amazing example of a bad thing happening to a jerk.

At first Pam won't join him but he knows Pam. It'll just take one wrong move-

Andy blasts the air horn and she's in.

Pam is so damn good at these pranks. It's a shame Jim wasted a year barely working with her, because they really do great work together. A computer coming to life to taunt Dwight is like...the best thing they've done in years.

After the meaningless road trip with Michael, Jim is really dying for some alone time with Pam. Alone time with Michael always seems to do that. It's like, to wipe away the weird, awkward, kind of stupid vibes from Michael, he needs to go be alone with Pam and her good, kind, smart, beautiful vibes. Somehow, they get onto the topic of when they first knew they had feelings for each other.

For him, it's easy.

The moment they met. And she made an offhand comment about Dwight. And he knew he had to get to know this girl because she had the same sense of humor as him, and a great smile. And he was hooked. Right away.

He expects hers to be recent. He expects it to be while he was with Karen, or maybe when he started dating Katie.

"This might sound weird, and there's no reason for me to know this, but that mixed berry yogurt you're about to eat has expired"

That's the moment? God, she's liked him nearly as long as he's liked her. That was years ago.

They really should have started dating a long time ago. But he's just happy, here on this roof, with the love of his life. He thinks about the last time they were up here, when she went home to her fiance, when she wouldn't even admit that there was anything romantic about it. But now here they are with pizza, and he's got a ring downstairs that he's had since their second date. And she's going to go home with him, and not to Roy. And he's so damn in love with Pam Beesly right in that moment, and he's so thankful that he's lucky enough to be the one she's up on that roof with.

The one thing he never expected from Pam Beesly was that she would spend time with Dwight Schrute outside of work hours. What he kind of expects to be a set-up for a prank, turns out to be a reservation at Dwight's beet farm. And it is...weird. And kind of exactly what Jim would have expected from Dwight. And a beet farm.

When Jim used to imagine his future with Pam, he never ever thought that their first "night away" would have anything to do with Dwight, but here they are. And it's not so bad, and he's with Pam. The sounds throughout the night have Jim thinking about their future kids, taking turns to see who's crying and who needs a glass of water and who's up for no reason.

The fantasies are a lot less daunting when they're an actual possibility.

What shocks him even more than spending a night with Pam on Dwight's beet farm is how bad he feels for Dwight. Jim has been in the same place, pining over a woman who won't look at him that way. He goes to the stairwell to comfort Dwight and only ends up horribly sad himself.

He wishes he could tell Past Jim about where he is today - back in Scranton, with Pam. How he gets to kiss her all the time, hold her hand, talk to her all damn day if he wants. How she sleeps in his bed some nights and how he loves her even more now that he has her than he ever thought possible. How she's his and he's hers and they are so damn happy. And he would tell Past Jim to still go to Stamford. He really wouldn't change anything because whatever choices he made, they got him Pam. And he would never want to risk that. And while he's remembering two years ago, and while he's telling Dwight how bad it got, he knows how lucky he is to be where he is now. And he wonders if he's told Pam lately how lucky he is, how happy he is.

So he kisses her. He kisses her before she even finishes her sentence because, just like on Casino Night, he has to kiss her. He can't stand, in that moment, to not be kissing her anymore. So he does, and he's not sorry that he's kissing her at work and he's not sorry that it's in front of their co-workers or the cameras or anything else. Because he can kiss Pam Beesly whenever he wants and she can kiss him whenever she wants and they are just so lucky to have found each other, finally.

The next few months are nothing short of amazing. Through every rough day, every weird Michael moment, everyone of annoying Dwight antics, Jim has Pam.

When he has to go see Karen, he's reminded of how badly he screwed up. He never ever wanted to hurt Karen, which is why he will probably never forgive Michael for dragging him to Utica, but he also knows Karen was all wrong for him. The way she doesn't understand the pranking - he knows, it's dumb, but that's something he and Pam fell in love over, so sue him if it's something he enjoys.

It strikes him how odd it is that he finds other office romances reassuring, and nice, where he used to find them annoying. He plays ping-pong with Darryl and he loves that Pam and Kelly watch them. It reminds him of the basketball game, of Pam cheering for him when she was dating Roy. He finds it weird that Kelly takes it so seriously, but if Pam wants him to play harder, than he's damn sure going to do it.

He still sucks, and he still loses, and she still loves him at the end of the day.

The Michael/Jan relationship is still just as weird as the first rumors that went around so many years ago. He remembers discovering that, talking about it with Pam, being so frustrated that other people in the office were able to get together and he couldn't have that.

Once he sees how they live, he wants literally anything but what Michael and Jan have. He almost gets out of it, seriously considers leaving Pam behind, but of course she would never let that happen and he gets roped into staying.

He deserves it for trying to leave.

After the disastrous events of the evening, they eat burgers in his car, and honestly it's one of the best dates he's ever been on. Every date with Pam is the best date. He has stopped caring how cheesy he is, he loves her more every single day and every time she smiles at him like that and damn is he in deep.

But now being in deep is a good thing. He's not in deep over a committed woman, a married woman, a woman going home with someone else at the end of the day. He is head over heels in love with a woman who is just as in love with him.

Which is why it's kind of shocking at first that she turns down the idea to live together. Not that it was a graceful conversation, but she turned it down cold. And he gets it, but does she really think he's not serious? He's never been so serious about anything in his life as he is about Pam Beesly.

"Got it a week after we started dating," he tells the crew, and he starts faking her out. He wants her to always think he's going to propose. He wants her to remember every single time he gets down on one knee or starts a deep speech, because he remembers every single moment with her. So whether it's the real proposal or not, damn if it's not going to be something they tell their kids about.

After Ryan puts Jim on probation, he has this weird new motivation. He hasn't had motivation to actually do work in years. But probation is not good, and he's trying to buy a house and he can't do that without a job. So he's going to land this account.

And he does. And he kisses Pam so damn hard and he doesn't care that Kevin and Andy are making weird noises behind him and that Michael is right there. Jim is so in love with this woman and he wants her to know it. She's the reason he tried, the reason he didn't just keep scraping by. He has big plans for Pam Beesly, and he can't tell her what they are yet. So he just kisses her and relishes in the fact that she is is and he is hers and that is all that matters.

For what feels like the fifteenth time in this long, convoluted love story with Pam, Michael is the inspiration behind a big move. Jim talks him down over the Holly thing - because yikes, but also he gets it because Jim knew he loved Pam years ago. But Jim didn't go telling Pam that he loved her right away, and now he is the happiest guy in the world.

Which is why he needs to marry her.

He goes all out. He tells Phyllis to get the fireworks and he gets the ring out of the drawer in his desk and he sits in the parking lot with Pam and he waits.

And her head is on his shoulder and suddenly it's three years ago and she's fallen asleep at a Michael meeting and he's imagining a crazy future. And now here he is, about to make that future a reality. He holds the ring box in his hand and he looks at Pam and he nearly cries.

He may have never had this. He may have never taken that chance on Casino Night and let Pam just go be blissfully unaware with Roy. He may have never come back from Stamford. Pam may never have said her piece at the beach or left a note for him in his interview. So many "ifs" and he won't let this be another one.

He is meant to be with Pam Beesly and he just doesn't want to wait anymore.

"Hey…" and then it goes quiet, because Andy is at the mic.

And then Andy proposes to Angela and Jim honest-to-God almost cries. That was his moment. He wanted a big, exciting, impossible-to-forget moment for his mental memory box. He wanted to give Pam something amazing and wonderful and now he can't because what is he gonna do, pay Phyllis to get some more fireworks the next day?

And he sees the look on Pam's face and he knows she thinks something is wrong. He knows that she thinks tonight would have been amazing and that she thought he would propose. He knows Pam and he knows why her smile isn't reaching her eyes and dammit he is so sad.

Because this summer, Pam is going to freaking New York for art school. And dammit he is so proud of her but he doesn't want her to go. He feels like he just got her and now she's leaving and she won't have this ring on her finger that he so desperately wants to put there. And Jim hates that he's made her sad and he hates that Andy ruined this night and he hates that Pam is leaving.

He's so happy but he's also so damn mad.