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Author's Chapter Notes:

To our favorite butterfly, happy birthday TPB!

 

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything, unfortunately.  

They have been living together for about six months now, but there are still some mornings where Jim would wake up, see Pam asleep beside him, and wonder if he’s still dreaming; if he’ll blink and she’ll be gone. But then he runs a hand across her back and she stirs, offering him a sleepy smile and a hand on his arm as she tries to get a few more minutes of rest. He’s learned that she isn’t a morning person on any day that isn’t Christmas or one of their birthdays, so he lets her sleep. Kissing her forehead, he slips out of bed, her hand flopping back down onto the mattress as he gets up. 


He quickly showers and then gets dressed, making sure Pam is actually up after he’s done so they won’t be late for work. She grabs her glasses but then follows him out of the bedroom, saying she’ll get ready after breakfast. 


“Frosted Flakes or Life?”


“Life.”


He grabs both boxes and shakes his head, “I don’t get why you like this cereal so much when you have the option of Frosted Flakes or Captain Crunch or even Raisin Bran.”


She shrugs, taking the cereal box from him, “You don’t know what you’re missing, Halpert. Life is awesome.”


“Yeah, if you like cereal that gets soggy before you can even take your first bite.”


She rolls her eyes, smiling, “You’re so dramatic.”


He kisses her quickly before sitting down across from her, “Dramatic with good taste in breakfast foods.”


“Yeah, yeah.”


They fall into a comfortable silence, pouring their cereals and starting to eat. After a couple minutes he looks up at her, and he’s hit with another moment of disbelief. 


He’s with Pam, eating breakfast in their house, and he gets to marry her. Her hair is a mess, untamed by sleep, curls occasionally falling into her face. She has to keep sliding her glasses back up the bridge of her nose because they keep slipping down. Her pajamas (one of his old t-shirts) are wrinkled. She took off her makeup last night, but some stubborn mascara is smudged just underneath her eyes. He’s not sure he can wait until November to say “I do.” 


She looks up at him just as she’s taking another bite and smiles around her spoon. He smiles back but doesn’t look away, so after swallowing she asks, “What?”


“You know what I want to do today? I want to marry you.”


She laughs, “What?”


“I mean, I’ve wanted to marry you for a long time now, but especially today.”


She glances down at herself and then raises an eyebrow, “Really?”


He chuckles, “Really.”


She pauses, stirring around her cereal as she seems to consider what he’s saying. He says nothing, because he would be perfectly fine waiting until their planned date if that’s what she wants to do, he’s already waited this long, but he certainly wouldn’t be opposed to marrying her as soon as possible. 


After another moment, she says, “It would be a lot easier.”


“It would.”


“And cheaper.”


He nods, “Way cheaper.”


“And there would be a much lower chance of Michael messing anything up.”


“Practically no chance.”


She studies him for another moment. “You really want to?”


“I do. If you want to.”


She grins, “Let’s get married today.”


His grin matches hers, “Really?”


“Really.”


He glances down at his watch, “We have to be at work in twenty-five minutes.”


“I guess we’d better get ready, then.”


They stand at the same time, bowls quickly tossed into the sink before they both go back into the bedroom. Pam quickly makes her way to the bathroom as Jim grabs his laptop to start looking things up.


Ten minutes later, Pam emerges, glasses gone and hair curled, and heads towards the closet. Jim speaks up from the bed as she decides what to wear.


“The closest place without a waiting period is Youngstown, Ohio. It’s about five hours away, but if we can get Michael to let us leave early we can do it.”


She glances back at him, “Why don’t we just call off?”


“I have that big sales call this morning, remember? But we’ll just tell Michael that we have to meet with our contractor and we can leave at lunch.”


She walks over and sits beside him after getting dressed, “We’re really going to get married today?”


He smiles at her, “Looks like it.”


***


She slides her fingertips across his back as she makes her way back to her desk, gaining his attention. He’s still on his sales call, so they just offer a smile to each other before she sits down in her chair. 


Michael had agreed to let them leave early (after complaining about no lunch buddies and doing an impersonation of a robot just learning how to love), so it was just a matter of minutes now before they could head out. They’ve been surprised with how easy it’s been so far. No one has asked why they’re leaving or where they’re going. Erin almost found the directions to the courthouse in the printer, but Pam had managed to grab them before she really saw what it was. 


Now, everyone was down at the “Café Disco”, as Michael had proudly named it this morning, while Pam waits for Jim to finish up. 


She couldn’t wait to marry him. To see the ring on his finger and know that it’s because of her. To change his title to husband and hers to wife. To finally have his last name. 


They had been planning their wedding since before he proposed, really. Just little comments, if they would want a big wedding or small (something in between), if they should invite their coworkers (they felt they had to), if they wanted it local or not (not, so less of said coworkers would come). After they got engaged, the talk got more serious, what date (mid November), what colors (Jim suggested lavender and light blue, Pam slapped his chest), the song for their first dance (Pam insisted on So Close by Jon McLaughlin, one of the songs that played on the way home from their first [official] date). 


She was excited for all of it, for the white dress and her dad walking her down the aisle and the reception with all of her friends. Planning it all with Jim was so much better than planning with Roy, mostly because Jim actually gets involved. But the fact that he was so involved and wants to throw it all away in order to marry her sooner makes her not care about all the planning. Maybe they would hold a small reception in a few months, so she can actually wear the dress that is sitting at the tailor’s and Jim can have his bachelor party that he and Mark were planning (even though he won’t be a bachelor anymore). But today was just them, and she couldn’t wait. 


Jim hangs up the phone and grins at her, wiping his hands on his pants. “This might be the best day of my life.”


Her smile matches his, “Oh yeah?”


“Yup.”


She stands as he slides back in his chair, waving her over to him. She sits on his lap, her hand going to the back of his head to play with his hair, taking advantage of the empty office to just touch him. “Why’s that?”


“I just signed on Burgess, my commission check is gonna be awesome.” She raises an eyebrow in response, which makes him smile even more and shrug a little, “Oh, and I get to marry you. That’s pretty cool, too.”


She rolls her eyes and then leans down to kiss him quickly. “I could change my mind, you know.” 


He lifts her left hand to inspect her ring, “I’m pretty sure this little thing means you’re stuck with me.”


“You do remember that I broke off an engagement with Roy, right?”


“Yeah, but Roy wasn’t smart enough to use superglue before proposing.”


Her giggle only broadens his smile, “You’re ridiculous.”


“And yet, you’re marrying me.”


She traces his jaw with her fingers, “Yeah.”


He cups her face to bring her down for a kiss. “Come on, Mrs. Halpert. We’re going to be late for our wedding.”


“I’m not Mrs. Halpert yet.”


He winks, “Details, details.”



***


The butterflies in her stomach flutter a little more with every hour they drive. A mix of excitement, nerves, and anticipation radiate throughout both of them as they make their way past state lines. 


Pam had gotten changed at Dunder Mifflin before leaving, so she was now wearing a pink dress she had originally bought for her sister’s graduation party, but is now being used as her wedding dress. She fidgeted with the small bouquet of yellow flowers Jim had cut for her as she got dressed, willing the miles to pass by faster. 


About ten minutes away from the courthouse, Jim offers his hand over the console, which Pam takes gratefully, threading her fingers through his. 


“You okay?”


She nods, “Yeah. I think it’s all just setting in. We’re getting married.”


He smiles, “Yeah, we are.”


She leans her head back on the headrest, looking over at him, “Did you ever picture getting married like this?”


“No, I always pictured myself with a blonde.” She slaps his arm which makes him laugh and then he glances over at her with a small smile before focusing on the road again. “Did I ever picture myself getting married after work in a courthouse on a random Thursday in Ohio? No. But for the longest time, I had pictured myself marrying you, even when I shouldn’t have been. Even when I knew it was just a pipe dream, because you were engaged to Roy. Even when I was dating Karen, which sounds horrible, I know, but I never saw a future with her. It was always you. That’s all that matters.”


She squeezes his hand and then leans over to kiss his cheek. “I love you.”


“I love you, too.” He kisses her hand as he pulls into the courthouse parking lot, parking near the door. He lets out a breath and then turns to her, smiling. “You ready?”


She nods, gathering their things as Jim walks around and opens the door for her. 




The next two hours are a whirlwind of waiting, filling out forms, asking questions, correcting mistakes, and more waiting, before someone is finally available to do the actual ceremony. Apparently, for a seemingly random Thursday afternoon, the courthouse is buzzing with other couples waiting to get married as well. 


But they finally make it up to the altar, a man that looks a little too close to Michael that they both do a double take stands beside them as they hold hands and say the vows they had to come up with in the lobby. They slide the Walmart rings that they had picked up on the way (and will probably turn their fingers green) onto the other’s hand. The kiss that ends the ceremony also marks the end of years of waiting for this exact moment to happen.


They thank the minister before double checking they have everything, Jim holds onto the marriage certificate as if letting go would mean none of this was real, only letting Pam take it to tuck it safely in the backseat of his car. She then goes to open the passenger door, but he grabs her hand, leading her to the sidewalk instead. 


“Where are we going?”


“We have to do one more thing before we leave.”


“What?”


He leads her to the side of the building, a small grassy area in between the courthouse and the bank next door, and then reaches into his pocket, pulling out his ipod and earbuds. 


“We may not have gotten married like we planned. We’re still going to have to wait until November to go on our honeymoon. We have to go back to work tomorrow, right after what has truly been the best day of my life. But just because we didn’t get married in a church surrounded by our family and friends, with fancy dresses and flower arrangements and embarrassing toasts, doesn’t mean we can’t have our first dance.” 


She blinks a few times to try to stop the tears forming in her eyes, but one escapes anyway, which Jim brushes away. He carefully places an earbud in her ear before putting the other one in his and holds his hand out to her.


She takes his hand and steps closer to him, wrapping her other hand around his waist and resting her head on his chest. 


You're in my arms

And all the world is calm

The music playing on for only two

So close together

And when I'm with you

So close to feeling alive



nicemorningtoo is the author of 27 other stories.
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