This is great, z_z. I love your style! Love that Jim knows his Batman collection down to the issue number. Loved this:

Her bottom lip twitches, just a bit, but he notices like he always does and that’s when he knows that if he tries to kiss her she will let him, just this once, just because of how close she thought she was to losing him forever.

And the 'emergency emergency backup bag.' Ah, the nervous worry of new parents.

But I think this is my favorite little bit:

(not because she can’t stand the thought of watching him hurt, not now not ever)

Nice work.

Author's Response: Thanks! I tried to capture the little things between Jim and Pam, both before and after they got together. Glad to see you liked it!

Guh. Steph, you kill me. Here I was annoyed with Toby all over again when he did that TH, but the way you write him, so complex in his sadness and depression and self-doubt, can't help but make me feel for the guy. Loved his brief fantasy about fixing Michael up with his sister until he realized that may very well backfire. And Kelly at the bar... ouch.

As always, great stuff. I love seeing everything through Toby's eyes the way you write it. It always rings true but has that 'other' perspective. Keep it comin'. :)

Author's Response: Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. I hated the TH too - found it so unnecessary. Any time there's something less than positive about Toby in an episode I have to find a way to justify it or defend him somehow in a fic - just because I'm one of the few who loves him. And it's always fun writing Kelly even when it's like that. Thanks again.

Love it. Marvelous atmosphere, so quiet and private. Nicely done. :)

Author's Response: Thank you! "Quiet and private" is exactly what I wanted. Glad you enjoyed. =)

As always, Steph, what a great read. I love your Kelly so much. And no, Ryan would never have been able to come up with 'Whorephan.' I love the Kelly/Erin friendship and hope we get to see more of that, and of Erin and the Nard Dog, as this season goes on. Thanks for sharing! I love seeing something new from you. :)

Author's Response: Thank you! After writing somewhat more mature Kelly in recent fics, it's fun writing her as bratty again. And I like her and Erin too (Erin's the follower Kelly's always wanted). Thanks for reviewing and for the last sentence you wrote. Reading stuff like that means a lot to me

I only discovered this song about a week ago and I could not get it out of my head for three days! How delightful to see one of my favorite authors loves it too. This is such a sweet little story, just the kind of domestic scene that makes me smile. I think my favorite part is Jim noticing how he's changed and become the responsible guy who worries about his job and his wife and kid.

"Old Jim would have agreed with her, but New Jim had suddenly become a responsible adult who worried about taking care of his wife and baby and felt a little like that kid in school that had perfect attendance and bragged about it to everyone else.


He hated that kid in school. That kid was Dwight. He hated that he was Dwight."


Yeah, I feel ya, Jim. ;)

Good to see you around these parts again, bashert!

Lovefool, this is awesome and I can't wait to see how you finish it up. They need to play with this kind of tension and nerves on the show when it comes back... it's a really stressful thing to think you're about to lose your job! I can feel the tension!

Author's Response: Thanks Callisto!!! I'm really hoping they will explore the tension more too...Here's hoping that when the baby comes we'll get to see a bit more.  They can't pass up that opportunity, right? 

This is fantastic! So heart-wrenchingly realistic, from both of their perspectives--very hard to capture. I've wondered about the immediate fallout, how Jim left, if they talked at all, etc., and this is an amazingly realistic depiction. Well done! Thanks for posting.

Author's Response: Thanks so much! I really wondered what had happened between them before he left, it's not like he could have not gone in the next day! I'm glad this seemed real to you. :)

Well, you know how much I love your stuff but I'll unapologetically do the fangirl squeal. So awesome to see something new from you! And of course it's full of the excellent little details you do so well. This:

By mid-afternoon, not calling her has started to feel like holding an unnatural contortion, a yoga position designed to cloud instead of clear his mind.


Pam answers on the first ring and Jim wonders if that’s a sign. A sign of what, he has no idea. He really needs to stop doing that.

Such a perfect illustration of where both of them are. And Pam, always quick to defend Roy. Sigh. Thank God these days are behind us... but I do love seeing someone revisit them with such a deft hand as yours.

It's good to see you on the Most Recent page again. :)

Author's Response: Doing the fangirl squeal right back at 'ya! I really don't know what provoked this trip down memory lane - I haven't had a fic in me in ages...then, boom! Go figure. Anyway, it's fun to be back and so glad you're here with me - thanks, callisto!

I think this is quite realistic, actually. Pam's concerns and fears and her guilt about feeling uncertain and not just happy are perfectly understandable. (I also liked the part in the first chapter where she lamented that they didn't get to 'try' for their second, like so many couples do.) I like how she's at war with how she truly feels against how she thinks she should feel.

The visual of Jim playing with Cece on the blanket and your description of how he plays with her and talks to her is awesome and just how I'd imagine Jim to be as a dad, very in-character. As is his excitement about the new one, and his instant recognition that her tears aren't happy ones. I wonder if Pam's fear and uncertainty won't get him thinking about the downsides of having another baby so quickly, too.

Anyway, this is great! Looking forward to the rest.

So glad you didn't forget about this story. Nice twist there, having her worst moment become the thing that makes her find the happiness in the situation!

This bit made me laugh because yes, so true:

You might as well get used to it because in the coming months, your husband is going to get a nice congratulatory pat on the back from all of male civilization for this one— as if this was all his doing and you just passively laid there as he got you pregnant for the second time in barely over a year.

Whatever.


Brava. :)

Author's Response: Thank you! I had a hard time thinking of a way to resolve everything, so I'm glad you liked the way it ended up :) And yes. It's funny how that works (at least when it isn't too obnoxious, haha). My cousin and his wife recently had twins, and one of his buddies bought him a shirt that said something like, "Father of Twins: Twice the Man." When my other cousin (his sister) saw it, she said to him, "You know you had nothing to do with the fact that they're twins, right? They're fraternal. That was all your wife." He tried to play it off like, "Yeah, whatever," but it was pretty funny.

Haha! Nice. :)

Author's Response: Thanks!  I don't have much time for fic these days but I wanted in on the NanReg birthday action, for sure! :)

Love it! All of them, but in particular, the ones where they both end up loveless and alone in the city, and the one where Jim dies falling down the stairs, really tore my heart. And the one where they find each other in old age. And the one where Jim gives up too soon. And... Well. You get the idea. :)

Well done!