Now that they are together, it's all about them.i love this! its great how in one chapter you capture all different aspects of their relationship. what funny, sexy, and adorable little oneshot.
A year or two before the cameras arrived, Michael takes the staff to the Poconos for a camaraderie event. Much unresolved sexual tension and angst ensues (uh, between Jim & Pam, not the entire staff).
bahhhhhhhhhhhhh! this just tore me up! i love how Pam kept kissing him to delay the inevitable onset of reality. and then her freak out was so. frustrating. but so spot on for Pam. such a smart move making Jim get angry at her first when she was going the denial route, because it made his eventual agreement to just forget about it that much more heartbreaking.
this is great angst, but that said, this story better end happily! i'm too emotionally invested! (so emotionally invested, in fact, that I just had to finally give in and register on this site so I could leave a review.)
keep up the good work!
Gah -- I am *so* sorry! I'm realizing that if someone reviews an older chapter, it falls back in the rotation when I'm responding to reviews, so I don't see it -- and thus end up responding to 98% of the reviews and appearing to randomly just ignore the other 2%. (Seriously - I'm kind of horrified that someone would take the time to review, see that I respond to most reviews, but find that her review was ignored!)
All this to say: I am so sorry I didn't respond to your review(s) sooner! And oh my god - you registered just to leave a review!
Okay, I'm done freaking out now. :o)
I'm really glad you enjoyed this chapter; angst whore that I am, I think it's my favorite of this story (and was definitely the most fun to write). And yeah, I was trying to capture the fact that Jim's just willing to do *anything* for her - even if that means sacrificing himself/them.
As far as the happy ending outweighing the angst: I've had the ending written for several days now and was about to post it but couldn't bring myself to -- because I didn't feel like it delivered enough of a happy ending. (Or rather, it ended pretty abruptly after said happy ending, LOL.)
So it's back to the drawing board (or the laptop, as it were); I promise to make up for the angst (and for inadvertently ignoring your review!) --
Thanks so much for taking the time to register and review!
oh, one more thing: the "i'm sorry" before he kisses her...PERFECT!
Two days after the Booze Cruise...what might've happened if Jim had confessed sooner.awww...yay!! so cute.
I like that in your stories you have the story change totally by way of an inner monologue, something thats going on with one of them. i think its one of the unique things about the Office--that things aren't all spelled out on the outside but that we have to hypothesize about motivation and thoughts to understand the plot, and I like that its translated in your stories.
thanks for this happy chapter!
You know, buymeacoke, that's exactly how I got sucked into writing fanfic in the first place -- after CN aired for the first time, I was absolutely obsessed with the notion of exploring what was going on in Jim's head...which made me curious about what was going on in Pam's head...which led to my writing a gazillion fics, and here we are. :o) But I definitely think one of the main reasons people are drawn to writing Office fic is precisely what you stated: That there's so much subtext left unexplored on the show, and it's always intriguing to explore it.
Thanks for reviewing!
Loved it, as usual. But extra kudos on the timeline-appropriate choice of Liz Phair!! That cracked me up, especially since it has exactly the kind of over the top, super-literal lyrics I'm sure Kelly would totally identify with.
Author's Response:
It's funny that you singled out the Liz Phair song, because that idea came to me really early on, and I so wanted to work it in. I'd initially planned on interspersing Jim & Pam's conversation with bits of the lyrics as Kelly sang them; it was going to be something that sort of added to the palpable tension between the two of them, given the content of the song. But I sent the draft to my beta with the question, "Does this work?" (which is what I ask when my gut's telling me no, it does NOT work, lol), and she agreed that some of the lyrics were a touch too racy for Kelly to actually sing them casually in front of her co-workers. (You know, the whole, "Here we are / we're at the beginning / we haven't f***ed yet / but my head's spinning." I mean...Kelly's not a slut, but who knows? lol)
Thanks so much for reviewing!
Member's Choice - For just a brief second, he feels almost happy. Or at least not unhappy. Maybe the absence of unhappiness is the new happy.I liked a Jim/Karen story?? What?
This story is really an example of proper words in proper places. One of my favorite phrases is "the rare nights he gets to himself these days" because that word choice expresses so much about their relationship--implying that he wishes for more nights alone. Just goodness all around in this story.
oh i loved this! the whole story feels like how summer should be--breezy and happy. i also like how you describe the ways Pam changes while in the city, but still stays connected to home. and the stapler tourist prank! good stuff all around.
Aww I like this. Creative idea for why that moment was the moment Pam knew.
I also like the idea that Jim's parents were a happy couple, I think it fits for his character.
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