“Oh no, I forgot the champagne.”

They were nearly to Tom and Marcie’s when Pam thought about the bottle of Cupcake Prosecco.

In the interest of saving time, the plan was to leave right from the office for New Jersey. Despite being let out early for the holiday, Jim was worried about the traffic, knowing how bad it could get once crossed over into the bizarre state where his brother resided. 

Their mornings were often rushed since Jim had a tendency to squabble with the alarm clock, refusing to surrender to the wake-up chime the first few times the alarm would go off, often wrapping his arms around Pam to hold her hostage from succumbing to morning either. Pam smartly suggested they pack their bag the night before not wanting to forget anything while they hurried through their morning routine.

The gifts Pam had insisted they pick up for the kids, a Cars movie Lego set for Charlie and a make-your-own friendship bracelet kit for Vanessa were wrapped and tucked away in the bag. The bottle they picked up to toast with at midnight was in the kitchen fridge. Pam was hoping they’d remember it as they grabbed something to eat in the morning but just in case left a post-it on the front door to remind her to take it with them when they were leaving the apartment. Her note effective as they left, their arms loaded up with the duffle, Jim’s satchel and her handbag plus all their winter gear, the bottle had nearly slipped her mind until the post-it reminded her to return to the kitchen to grab it.

Once at the office, Pam hid it in the back of the fridge in the kitchen, hoping it would be safe for the half day, that Meredith wouldn’t sense its presence when she grabbed milk for her morning coffee and Pam wrote herself another note to remind her to grab it when they left.

When she finally noticed the note, stuck to the back of Jim’s sleeve, it must have attached there as he loaded the car, it was too late as the bottle was now miles away still hidden in the back of the Dunder Mifflin fridge.

“What happen to your note?”

Pam pulled the note from Jim’s sleeve and groaned.

“So much for that.”

“I’m going to go for gas when we get to my brother’s exit. Maybe the shop at the station will have champagne there.”

“I doubt it. And I don’t think I would trust gas station champagne anyway. We’ll have to ring in the new year with apple juice.”

They drove on, making good time despite the full parkway, Pam’s apprehension causing her to alternatively bombard Jim with more questions about his pint-sized relatives and muse in silence, trying to remember how her mother was with her and Penny in their younger days. The radio played softly in the background, the Christmas music having abruptly ended on December 25, the rotation was back to One Republic, Taylor Swift and P!nk with the occasional modern rendition of Auld Lang Syne thrown in to celebrate the changing year. As Pam stared out the window during one of her contemplative sessions, Jim turned the volume up a notch just as the speakers pulsed with the staccato notes of the Zombies song that had come on the radio just the other day.

It took a few moments for each of them to recognize the melody that was playing. Ten bars of piano preceded the opening lyrics that would clue them in to the song was but as the singer’s voice filled the car, they both suddenly realized what it was at the same time. 

“It’s the Zombies song.”

This time Pam wasn’t fast enough and Jim was the one to follow up on their joint utterance. 

“Jinx, buy me a coke.”

Adept at conversing with no words from the many years they shared conversations from across the office, Pam pleaded with Jim through expressive eyes and downturned lips that he sensed even with his eyes straight ahead on the road. But he held firm.

“Nope, Beesly, you know the rules. No talking.”

He went on to report on the latest sports stats and tell her about the one hunting trip his Great Uncle took him and his brothers on while she stuck her fingers in her ears. As Alicia Keyes came over the radio, he sang along to No One in his highest falsetto voice while Pam held up an imaginary noose titling her head to demonstrate how much she was enjoying his serenade.

After 10 minutes that seemed much longer to Pam, they finally passed the sign for exit 17 and Jim pulled off to the right lane then finally veered off on the exit ramp that would lead them to the rest stop. They pulled up to the gas pump and as Jim shut the car, Pam grabbed her coat from the back putting in on as she wasted no time stepping out into the chilly air.  

“Hey, you can check for the champagne while you’re in there.”

Flashing him her rolled eyes she dashed off into the cold air as Jim greeted the attendant, now at his window.

Pam spent a bit of time looking through the small shop in search of some kind of festive bubbling drink after all. When the closest she could find was Miller High Life, the familiar if you’ve got the time jingle playing in her head as she recalled the old commercial that touted it as The Champagne of Beers, she opted to just buy the coke.

Stepping out of the shop with her sole purchase she felt rude for not having wished the man who rung her up a Happy New Year, but also felt like somehow Jim would have known if she had spoken. As she walked outside again she now took notice of the scenic backdrop of the gas station, the lush trees coated with ice and snow and thought what a nice painting it would make.  Lost in the vision of her imagined canvas she mis-stepped off the curb and the coke went tumbling from her hand.

Remarkably, her coordination somehow resolved in time to catch it with the other hand before it hit the ground.  

She looked up to see if Jim had noticed, she was proud of her catch and knew he would be impressed, but he was faced the other way. Now he’d never believe her.  

Slipping back into the car she handed Jim his coke excited to tell him about her save.

“Now you may talk,” he said, as he began to pop open the can.  

“Wait, Jim…” she tried to warn him but it was too late, cola was bursting out from the can all over his white shirt. 

“I’m so sorry,” Pam apologized through her barely stifled giggling. “I tried to tell you I kinda dropped the can but I was still jinxed.”

Wiping down the sticky soda that was now all over him he turned to her.  

“Well, you got your exploding beverage. Although I think I would have preferred champagne at midnight to this.”

 ---

Twenty minutes later they were standing at Jim’s brother’s doorstep, Jim in his cola-stained work shirt, Pam holding his jacket along with the bags.

“Hey Jimmy,” Tom said as he opened the door taking a step back from his brother and reaching over to kiss Pam hello. “What happened to him?”

“A little Jinx mishap,” Pam responded as Tom waved then inside.

They stepped into the house and Tom grabbed the bags from Pam’s arms setting them down by the staircase. From up on the second floor they heard someone call out.

“Is that them?”

The attractive blonde woman Pam recognized from the many photos in Jim’s parent’s house, carefully stepped down the stairs, in her arms a cherubic, rosy-cheeked infant with a faint tuft of blonde hair and a string of drool spilling from his mouth. Passing the baby off to her husband before it landed on the golden, flutter-sleeved gown that clung to her little frame, she wrapped her arms around Pam.

“Pam, it’s so nice to meet you at last. I’m sorry we missed you at Christmas, but these boys…” she flashed a look to her husband, “never seem to get the dates straight. I’m Marcie.”

Turning to Jim she said, “you weren’t kidding, she does have the most beautiful smile.”

Pam blushed as she said hello to Marcie and the four of them walked further into the living room.

Finally noticing Jim’s shirt, Marcie added, “What happened to you?”

After quickly explaining what happened at the gas station, Marcie picked up a burp cloth from the couch.

“I leave these around the house for the baby,” she said as she wiped away the drool from her son’s mouth. “But it seems tonight Pam might need to use them on you, Jim.”

Pam laughed. Marcie clearly was comfortable with Jim, teasing him the same way she often did.

“And this is Evan, the newest Halpert.”

“He’s adorable. Can I hold him?”

“I don't know, Pam,” Tom joked. “Are you sure you're not too scared?

If there was such a thing as jinx for wanting to murder your partner at the same time it would have occurred at that very moment as both Pam and Marcie turned to glower at each of their significant others.

Marcie, taking the baby from her husband and passing him to Pam responded, “never mind him.  I don’t blame you for being apprehensive.  This little guy can be a handful and I would have been nervous too if I suddenly had to watch him and two more kids I never met before.  Even my mother-in-law gets nervous when I leave them with her for an hour.  Don’t let anything this fool says make you feel self-conscious. This fool either,” she said as she reached out to hug Jim, pulling back just as she noticed his shirt again. 

“Marcie's right.  I’m just playing,” Tom added. “The kids are really excited. Charlie hasn’t stopped asking when you’ll be here since we told them you’d be coming.”

“Speaking of the rugrats,” Jim asked, where are they?”

Marcie replied as Pam made faces at the baby on her lap, getting little giggles out of him as she tickled his belly and he squealed in delight, kicking up his chubby little legs with each chuckle.

“We’ve got them set up in our room with a movie. We figured it would be easier to talk without them around. Jim you know what’s going to happen once they know you’re here.”

They went on chatting for a bit, Marcie and Tom filling Pam and Jim in with what they needed to know for the night and the next day. As they spoke Jim rummaged through the duffle and grabbed a clean Henley shirt, lifting the presents out of the way as he uncovered his jeans, before he excused himself to change in the guest bathroom.

“We really do appreciate your doing this for us.” Marcie said to Pam after Jim left the room. “and you brought presents too. You really didn’t need to do that.  We should be giving you presents.”

“Yeah, we know it was a lot to ask this being your first New Years and all,” Tom added.

“Really, we’re happy to. We were just going to dinner. Now we’ll get to have a little party and I’m really excited to meet the kids. Jim talks about them a lot. It sounds like we’re going to have a lot of fun ringing in the new year with them.”

Jim returned from the bathroom, looking a lot more casual and a lot cleaner.

“I know it’s New Year’s Eve but do yourself a favor and get the kids to sleep at a decent hour.  You don’t want to deal with an overtired Charlie tonight or a cranky Vanessa in the morning.  Besides, I’m assuming you’ll want to ring in the new year without my kids climbing all over you.” Marcie winked at them as she went on.

“Oh, and we left you a bottle of Veuve Clicquot chilling in the fridge.”

Just then the baby started fussing and Marcie took him back from Pam.

“Don’t worry, he’s just hungry. I’m going to give him one last feeding before we go. And I’ll send down the kids. Tom can you bring the bags to the car?”

After Marcie disappeared and Tom gathered the bags and disappeared out the garage door, two mini-Halperts came bounding down the staircase sounding more like elephants tossing bowling balls ahead of them than children with calls of Uncle Jim’s here filling the room amid the pounding of their feet on the stairs.

When they reached the landing, the little boy jumping from the second step to land at the base with a thud, they both ran to where Jim and Pam stood each trying to nudge the other away as they clasped their arms around him their overlapping chatter making it hard to make out what either of them were saying.

“new bat for Christmas, Lightning McQueen race track… “

“school concert, best trumpeter ever…”

“throwed up all over...”

“the best movie, did you see it…”

Tom came back in from loading the bags in the car but the kids went right on with their babble.

“and we went to build bear and I builded a bear that looks like a big baseball…

“we all went to the city last week and saw the big Christmas tree, then mom and me went to see the Nutcracker the Lincoln Corner but dad didn’t want to go so he took Evan to see the dinosaurs at the museum…”

“and I putted a heart inside....”

“Lightning McQueen, that’s pretty cool? That’s great Snoopy. Build a bear, sounds exciting Charlie.“

Even as Jim tried to respond to them, the kids went right on talking, each one getting louder with each word trying to drown out the other one.

“The other day Evan had a giant huge poop that comed out of the diaper, It was so yucky…”

“I played that prank on my friend Olivia where I stare at her forehead and she got so mad, but it was sooo funny.”

“Hey guys,” Tom interrupted. “Can you take a breath and say hello to Pam.”

They both stopped and looked to where Pam stood next to Jim, looking a slight bit shell-shocked at the frenzied hyperactivity of Jim’s niece and nephew.

“Hi Pam,” they both said in a rush and quickly went back to their babbling competition, reminding Pam a little bit of Kelly in the speed at which they spit out the words as fast as they could and a little bit of Dwight in the volume.

“Uncle Jim, are we going to make a fort tonight?”

“Mom and dad are letting me get my ears pierced this year.”

“My freindses’ Sammy’s turtle died but he gottted a new lizard from Santa.”

“Uncle Jim, did you bring your guitar?”

Pam, willing herself to snap out of the trance brought on by the little people in front of her, brought up the courage to add her own Uncle Jim remark to the jumbled conversation.

“Uncle Jim, do you think we should play a little Ping Pong?”

The kids both stopped talking at looked at Pam, making her suddenly feel a little bit self-conscious until the little one spoke.

“But Aunt Pam, we don’t have a Pin Pong.”

Vanessa shot her brother a pejorative look, “Charlie, she’s not our Aunt.”

Even though Pam knew what she said was true and as a child she probably meant no harm in saying it, it still stung a bit, that is until Jim responded to his niece’s comment.

“Hey Snoopy, she will be someday so if Charlie Brown wants to call her Aunt Pam now, he can.”

Pam, at hearing what she heard, looked affectionately at Jim, warmth and tiny bubbles filling her whole body. She knew not tonight, especially now that their romantic dinner had become a foursome, but the spoken confirmation of where they were headed was enough for her to feel lighter and happier despite her nerves about the night ahead watching the kids.

“Should I call her that, too?”

“I think she’d like that.” He turned to face Pam whose cheeks were now reddening as the kids finally seemed to take notice of her as their Uncle pulled her in a little closer.

Jim knew what Pam was talking about with Ping Pong, having learned of the helpful game her parents made up when she and her sister were children, who acted a lot like the two moppets in front of him. She’d told him about it back on their first date. Just as he had back then, he let her explain how it worked.

“When my sister and I were just about your ages we also used to want to share stories with my dad at the same time.”

Marcie was making her way down the stairs again, with the baby now asleep in the carrier to join her husband in the room and watch her kids listen with quiet fascination as Pam went on.

“So, we used to play a game we called Ping Pong. When my dad said Ping, it meant it was my turn to speak. I could tell my stories or show him the pictures I drew or show him a good grade I got on a test. But as soon as he said Pong, I had to freeze and stop talking because it was my sister’s turn to tell her stories and show off her dance moves. She took a lot of dance classes. And then after a few spins and arabesques, he’d say Ping again and she had to freeze. It was really funny when he made her freeze on tip toes.”

The kids finally were quiet as they listened to Pam while the older Halperts smiled as Pam had seemed to do what up until moments ago seemed impossible, at least not by means of bribery, food or TV, silence their kids.

“What do you think? Want to try it?”

“Okay,” they both whispered.

Now that the kids were taking turns speaking, Pam was able to give them each some personal attention as they repeated the overlapping tales from minutes ago, responding to them with smiles and nods as they shared.

Pam knelt down to meet Charlie’s delighted eyes, “I would love to meet Mr. Dwigt...” Pam quickly glanced at Jim, knowing full well he’d somehow been involved in naming the stuffed toy, “and all your animal friends. After your mom and dad say goodnight do you think you can show me your room where they live?”

Charlie nodded happily while out of the corner of her eye Pam noticed Vanessa nearly bursting to talk even though they were still on Pong.

“Ping.”

Pam relieved her before the exuberance all but exploded out of her.

“Will you come see my room too?”

“Of course I will. I hear I’m going to love it since there are a whole lot of Snoopys in there.”

Jim finally called Ping Pong to end the game after noticing Tom tap his watch.

“Did you know Aunt Pam was once called Snoopy too? And, get this, she can draw him. Woodstock and Charlie Brown too. She’ll show you but first I think mommy and daddy want to say goodbye.”

Tom came over to give each of his kids a kiss goodnight while Marcie pulled Pam aside.

“That was amazing. They’ve never been so quiet. I’m going to have to start using that.”

She then took her turn saying goodnight.

“Ok kids, remember Jim and Pam are in charge tonight and whatever they say goes. Be good for them and listen to what they say. I love you and I love you,” she said as she kissed each of their foreheads.

“Call us if you need anything and Happy New Year,” Tom said to them as he picked up the car seat.

“Thanks bro. Same to you.”

“Have fun at the wedding,” Pam added. Marcie and Tom disappeared through the garage door leaving them alone with the kids.