Pam wasn’t about to let anything ruin her mood today. She was in love with Jim, her mom was coming to town, and Jim was joining them for dinner. Pam felt emotionally invincible. This was challenged when Pam noticed Todd Packer creeping up behind Michael while he was making some joke between the sales desks in the bullpen.

Pam had to stifle a giggle when Jim replied to Packer’s taunt of ‘Still Queer?’ with a smirk as he looked her dead in the eyes and said that absolutely, he was.

Pam tried to ignore Packer for the most part, but she couldn’t help but groan and let her head hit her desk after Packer inevitably made a pass at her. She was almost relieved that Toby was doing a corporate mandated sexual harassment policy review, until she remembered what usually happened after these meetings. Namely, some people – primarily Kevin if she was naming names, sexually harassed her for the fun of it.

The rest of the day passed with the usual harassment, but with Jim just a few feet away to roll her eyes at it was a lot easier to deal with. Jan and some suit had dropped in to pull Michael into a meeting, and apparently comedy was dead, but to Pam it was no big loss. Pam was excited for the end of the day and kept glancing up to see if her Mom was coming through the door, but of course she appeared sometime shortly after four-thirty the moment Pam was distracted.

Jim was having a pretty good day, all things considered. Sure, Packer was in the office and he hated him, but Pam had kissed him this morning, so that was a trade-off that he was willing to take. Add on top of that hearing Pam sass Packer about needing to be driven around by Ryan because of his DUI really warmed his heart. Jim was in the middle of trying very hard not to be productive when he noticed Helene sneaking up to Pam’s desk with exaggerated tiptoeing, and Jim couldn’t help but smile as he watched them out of the corner of his eye. Helene made it to the coat rack before Pam looked up and noticed her.

“Oh my god,” Pam yelped as she sprung from her chair, “Mom, hi,” she exclaimed, wrapping her mother in a hug.

Jim watched discreetly as Pam showed off her workspace and moved his hand to his chin to hide a smile at her wording, thinking back to the day he and Pam had pranked Dwight with all of the fake diseases because he had tried to violate their privacy. Jim shook his head slightly to clear his thoughts and glanced over again to see Pam and her mom huddled behind her desk.

“So how are things going with Jim,” Helene asked Pam quietly, and Jim’s smile grew even wider as he watched Pam blush.

“Mom!” Pam chastised, mortified at the thought of someone in the officer overhearing her.

Jim figured he’d save Pam any further embarrassment and spun in his chair to get up and make his way over to the reception counter, seeing Michael dragging the blow-up doll by an arm in the corner of his eye.

“Mrs. Beesly,” he greeted with a smile from the corner of the desk near the coatracks, reaching out to shake her hand and she spun around to address him.

“Mr. Halpert,” Helene responded with a wink and a light handshake, before pulling him into a hug, “That’s Helene or Mom to you,” she said into his ear as just before she pulled away from the embrace, giving him a grin with a twinkle in her eye that reminded him of Pam.

Jim and Helene had started playing this sort-of game over the summer, he would always greet her with an overly formal address, and she would do the same. She seemed to get a kick out of it and so Jim kept doing it. Her eyes sparkled just like Pam’s when she was amused, and that was reason enough for Jim.

Pam was relieved that reinforcements had arrived in the form of Jim, but she was also very concerned that her mother would use this opportunity to interrogate Jim, but she had to run some forms back to Toby before she could finish her faxes for the day.

“You two behave,” Pam said, fixing Jim and her mom in turn with a stern look, “I just have to run these back to Toby and then finish getting the faxes out,” she waved the forms as she disengaged and retreated to the annex through the kitchen.

“Would you like to have a seat,” Jim asked Helene, gesturing to the couch.

“Of course, thank you,” Helene moved to sit down, and then patted the cushion beside her, “Care to join me?”

“Sure,” Jim lowered himself down beside her, “I’ve been done working for a while anyway,” he supplied.

“That’s good,” Helene nodded, “So Pam tells me that you two have finally started carpooling,” she looked at him with a raised eyebrow and as he nodded she continued, “Did she tell you that I was coming to take her out for dinner tonight?”

“She may have mentioned it,” Jim answered cryptically, not quite sure where Helene was going with this as he glanced around the office.

“Did she invite you to come along,” Helene prompted with a raised eyebrow and a straight face.

“Yeah, she did, I hope that’s alright, I don’t want to impose,” Jim started before she cut him off.

“Good, I was afraid she wasn’t going to let you come along because you hadn’t been on a real date yet,” Helene finally clued him in with a smile, before adding in a low voice, “Although if you ask me the summer of picnics in the park should have counted.”

“Phew, you had me worried there for a minute Helene,” Jim said with a good-natured chuckle, relieved that she wasn’t upset about him tagging along, and that she seemed to be rooting for him.

Jim chose not to comment on her opinion on date eligibility because they were in the office, he continued to entertain Helene as Pam returned and puttered about her desk getting the evening faxes out. Their coworkers trickled out, their assorted grunts and goodbyes reaching his ears as they made their way through the doors and out into the night. Pam finished up at around ten after and Jim offered that she ride with her mother to the restaurant, so he wouldn’t intrude on their entire evening together. He followed them in his Corolla the short distance to the restaurant with a huge smile plastered on his face.

Helene had told him he could call her ‘Mom’ was all that was running through his head as he pulled into the space beside her car and got out to open the passenger side door for Pam.