Jim entered Scranton Regional’s emergency room like a man determined.  

Since the moment he had hung up with Toby and started the blazing path toward the hospital, going at least fifteen over the speed limit, he had said little more than a handful of words to Karen. Only telling her that they were heading towards the hospital and that Pam was hurt. She, of course, had taken the news as expected. Peppering him with question after demanding question. 

But Jim couldn’t even begin to answer any of the repetitive inquires when every mental capacity he had was solely focused on all the unknowns that currently pertained to Pam, and his reckless driving. 

What were her injuries? What happened to make Roy fly off the handle like that? Did it have anything to do with last May?  

And then there was the repetitive ones.  

Is she okay? Please, let her be okay. Is she okay? Please.let.her.be.okay.  

And on and on. Until the questions and begging blurred in his mind into a congealed mass of anxiety and worry. 

So without any hesitation or pause, and despite a now silent Karen by his side, Jim made his way through the emergency room entrance and into the lifeless waiting room just beyond it. There, Jim saw his diverse group of coworkers all slowly milling around. Some sitting in the painful sterile plastic chairs, others talking quietly amongst each other. 

“Jim!” Kelly yelled across the room as soon as she spotted him. Karen’s name noticeably absent from her greeting. “Oh my God, Jim, I’m soooo glad you’re here!” She said as she looped her arm with his, dragging him towards their small group. Leaving Karen, again, to follow along dutifully; the clicking of her heels suddenly sounding much more harsh than Jim remembered.  

“It was sooo crazy Jim! Roy just started screaming and then he and his brother tore Poor Richard’s apart!” Kelly’s hands moved rapidly with her talking, even the one still looped into Jim’s elbow. “And then Pam, oh my God poor Pam, that piece of wood just hit her out of nowhere! Like, how unlucky do you–” 

“Whoa, whoa, Kelly.” Jim said, gently interrupting her rampant speaking. While simultaneously detangled himself from her. “Maybe, um, Toby should tell me what happened?” He glanced at the others now gathered near him, Toby’s face standing out of the crowd. “Since he uh, he called me and all?” He prayed it sounded convincing because the last thing he could take at the moment was a long winded Kelly explanation. Much to his surprise, Kelly nodded in agreement with any argument, quieting down immediately.   

Toby’s usually forlorn face lifted in surprise as all eyes turned to him. “Oh, well, Kelly covered most of it, actually.” Toby rubbed the back of his neck in an anxious manner as he no doubt recalled details from the evening. “Roy, well, he blew up, smashed a few bottles but then he picked up a bar stool and smashed it on the bar, unfortunately the leg went flying and…it hit Pam as she was trying to leave…” Toby paused and for a brief moment a grief-stricken look passed over his face and Jim couldn’t help but feel his own anxiety reach a fever-pitch within him. 

“…and n-now we’re here…waiting to hear from the doctor.” It was clear to Jim that Toby wasn’t going to give him anymore specifics. Which in all honesty was probably for the best. Images were already beginning to terrorize Jim’s mind from just the scant details he had gotten thus far. 

“How long have you been waiting?” Karen’s voice suddenly chimed in from beside him. Causing Jim’s head to snap in her direction in obvious surprise. To be perfectly honest, between Kelly’s frantic rantings and Toby’s heart palpitating description, he had all but forgotten that Karen, his girlfriend, was even there.  

Fortunately for Jim, Toby was unfazed by Karen’s pragmatic question, answering her right away. “Uh, thirty minutes or so. Not long.” Both Jim and Karen nodded along to the information. Though their interpretations to said information couldn’t have been more different.  

Jim cleared his throat and swiped a hand down his weary face, still processing. “Has-uh anyone called her parents?” A flash of Pam and her mother hunched next to her desk, whispering quietly together, Jim’s name on her mother’s lips, entered Jim’s mind immediately. That had been a good day. Despite not getting to actually talk to the Mother of the women Jim was secretly in love with, that small moment had been extremely gratifying. For weeks after Jim had replayed the small interaction in his mind. Like an addict taking a hit, the memory of how Helene had whispered his name, like he was some big secret between them, sent his blood racing through his veins. The rush giving him an incredible high every-time.  

“Oh, they won’t be available.” Phyllis spoke up in her soft voice, commanding an unusual amount attention, “they’re on a cruise, until Sunday.” She tapered off and resumed her earlier silence.  

The knowledge that Pam’s parents were out of town, an unavailable, left Jim feeling strangely off kilter. And he knew exactly why, because if this had happened a year ago, he would have already known the location of Pam’s parents. Along with, probably, a thousand other important or inane details about the daily going ons of Pam’s current daily life.  

But as it was, Jim knew little to nothing about Pam lately, and this proved that. 

Shaking off the wrong feeling, filing it away to mentally dissect another time, Jim gave Phyllis a small nod of acknowledgement and resumed talking with his coworkers. 

“So, okay, then I guess…we wait?” He didn’t know what else to say. To ask. It was clear to Jim nobody out here knew anything else and until the doctor came out, no one would.  

The group sat in relative silence for fifteen minutes or so. Kelly’s incessant chatter in Ryan’s ear, the only noise amongst them. The quiet atmosphere was only broken when Karen gingerly leaned over and told Jim she was going on the search for coffee. 

“Do you want any?” She quietly asked.  

Through the past fifteen minutes Jim could tell she was getting increasingly restless. Between her bouncing knee and her palms rubbing divots into the satin of her dress, it became painfully obvious to him how much she did not want to be here.

“Um, sure,” he nodded. Granting her a reprieve. “Black, please.” He offhandedly told her. Not putting much thought into the words. Until that is, he happened to glance back at Karen, and found a suppressed look of annoyance blossoming on her pretty made up face.  

“I know how you take your coffee, Jim.” She snipped before quickly rising. Not bothering to wait for a reply as her heels quickly clicked away.  Jim watched Karen go until she was out of sight. He didn’t bother to hide the slightly stunned look on his face as he digested the small interaction and wondered how a plainly insignificant detail about how he takes his coffee could turn into yet another fight.  

You know why. He mentally chided himself. And he did. Because after almost five months of dating the small fact that he assumed Karen didn’t know how he took his coffee was a clear testament to the state of their relationship. At least from his end.  

Jim let out a sigh and pulled his attention away from the now empty hallway his girlfriend had just disappeared down and back to his lap. Where his own worrying fingers were still fast at work and had been since he sat down.  

“I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Phyllis told him in a low whisper. Her smaller softer hand gently covering his own moving ones as she spoke.  

Jim had always thought of Phyllis as the comforting aunt type. Someone you could confide in, tell your secrets too, share a dirty joke with. All the while knowing they were always rooting silently for you in the background.  

She had been that person through out his years of pinning for Pam and as was her personality it seemed she would be that person through the ups and downs in his relationship with Karen.  

“Yeah, she’s just going to get some coffee. Ya know, long night, gotta get that caffeine fix.” He quickly told her, hoping she wouldn’t read any further into his lame jokes. As she was prone too.  

Phyllis gave Jim a knowing smile and nodded her head. “Oh, of course dear.” Pausing, Phyllis dropped her head to glance at Jim over her glasses, her smile growing.

“But I wasn’t talking about Karen.” She told him before turning back to her husband, Bob Vance.  

And with that Jim knew definitively who Phyllis was now silently rooting for, and it clearly wasn’t Karen.