JIM

Jim was a bundle of nerves, his mind was racing, would he really have to go back to Scranton after leaving because his heart was broken? He felt like he was floating in nothingness without a chance to be rescued until he decided to leave for Samford. Shit, shit, shit, he kept repeating this in his mind, he wanted to punch Josh, his soon to be ex boss's double crossing would now force him to make a decision, and worse, it could force him to face Pam on a daily basis after she rejected him.

He and Karen were very new, the last thing this new relationship needed was the stress of being around the girl who got away on daily basis. Jim sat at his desk and stared at the monitor as if it would somehow give him the answer he needed to make this decision. Karen had given him space as she contemplated what to do herself, if Jim went, that would be easy, but if he stayed, did she want to go to a new town and give up on a new relationship with someone she really liked?

Jim was still staring when Josh came back in, "Jim, my office please, Jan will be conferencing with us, by phone."

Jim nodded, his mind still battling between his options. Jim sat down, Josh looked extremely fatigued, earlier Jim just thought he was being smug, but that seemed to change for some reason. Josh sighed and hit the phone, "Jan, Jim and I here. Do you want to tell Jim the plan?"

"Jim, good news, Josh has reconsidered and will stay with us, but at the corporate level, overseeing Samford and Buffalo, working more closely with them than they have had in the past and to avoid the problems other branches have had, and our CEO David Wallace would like you to run Samford, with Josh's input and training, if you want the job, which we sincerely hope you do."

Jim didn't know what to think, he had once prided himself in not trying and not wanting to move up in the paper business, then his hand felt forced when he realized Pam could never be with him. His heart broken, his pride hurt, he chose to take an assistant manager job, make more money and escape the pain, but now, this was different, this was a big commitment.

Jim swallowed, his mind trying to process what this would mean for his life, but then he thought of Pam, she had said no, but when she kissed him back, he knew he felt love, he knew he felt passion, but her word and decision was no, so what could he do?

"I accept, thank you." He tried to smile and hoped he looked genuine.

"Excellent, Josh will start training you Monday, four employees will be coming from Scranton, Dwight Schrute and Ryan Howard from sales, Oscar Martinez from accounting, and Creed Bratton from quality assurance, before you both leave today, you need to figure out how they will fit in with the existing staff, Dwight could work from his home, keeping his many clients in Scranton and absorbing some of the others and dealing with the personal needs of clients there, eliminating the need for others to travel as much, but that is ultimately up to the two of you."

Jim, Jan, and Josh hammered out a few more details, Jan said goodbye and hung up and Josh exhaled loudly, "what a day, I hope you don't think I'm a huge dick because of what I did, I can handle being treated like a normal dick, just not a huge one."

Jim nodded, "yeah, of course, I mean, no, you're fine."

"David Wallace called Staples and told them they'd be a fool to trust me not to move up the same way in another company using them to do so, but at least they're paying me more and it's basically a promotion."

"No, I get it, this isn't my dream job, but I can't say no…"

Josh slapped Jim on the back, "what, you didn't dream of selling paper products for a failing company in a struggling economy, that was my dream."

Jim didn't know how to respond, "yeah."

"Listen, you'll do fine, don't make Andy your number two, I would make it Karen, but be upfront with HR if you guys are serious about dating, Andy has a big mouth."

Jim felt himself blushing, "yeah, that's fine with me, and yeah, he does. Any chance we could swap him for Stanley from Scranton?"

"Sadly, no, just pair him with the Ryan, new guy from Scranton that doesn't hasn't made a single sale in six full time months and for however long he was a temp, but he was much cheaper option than Phyllis, and she didn't want to move. I'll tell them whoever is further behind in sales at the end of the quarter is fired. Andy has one sale this year, one, so at least I might take him down a peg from his cockiness."

"Okay, yeah…man, me as manager? I didn't plan on that."

"I pushed it Jim, Michael is a time waster, he's talented, in sales, but he distracts everyone, I mean, we all waste time, we sell paper, but he takes it to new levels, you don't like meaningless meetings or wasting other people's time."

Jim could only nod as he thought of the meetings Michael would call, on a regular basis. It was in those meetings that he found himself falling in love with Pam, as she fell asleep him, whispered with him, and excited him with her presence, he had never felt that with anyone else, not Katie, and so far not with Karen, even though he did like her and wanted things to work out with her.

A little while later, Josh called everyone into the conference room, "Okay, so a lot of rumors and few true things have been flying around today, but the final decision is that our Samford branch is sticking around." The other employees all cheered and high fived, Andy tried to get a chant going before Josh stopped him. "I will oversee our branch and the Buffalo branch, as a corporate employee and Jim Halpert will take over as branch manager." Everyone but Andy clapped and congratulated him, Karen was smiling big at him. " Karen will be the new number two, congratulations Karen, and we will also get four new employees from Samford, but one will only come in once a week to process paperwork as he will visit clients in Scranton and continue living there, but there will be another new employee in sales, another in quality assurance for the increased clientele, and another accountant, but don't worry Sandy, it's not the big bald guy that can't count."

Josh thanked everyone for their hard work and explained how a few other things would work and that he would be around for the next three weeks training Jim. After Josh ended the meeting, almost everyone came up congratulated Jim, only Andy and Karen were missing, Jim saw Andy throwing a chair and Karen was talking with Josh. As Jim walked back to his desk, Karen approached him.

"So, how's this going to work, you as my boss and my boyfriend? Are you okay with that?"

Jim gave her a sly grin, "are you okay with that?"

Karen smirked, "yeah, I am, it will be weird being the number two here, but I'm happy for you, I think you'll be better than that Michael guy for sure, and you won't sucker punch us like Josh tried to do."

"For sure," Jim nodded, "do you want to get out of here, maybe go get some beers?"

"That sounds good, Andy is a moody beast right now, I don't know how he thought he'd get the job, he has less sales than Fred for the year, and Fred got fired in February for sleeping at his desk all the time."

"Cool, I have to sign a few things with Ashley in HR, and then let's go, we can take my car, if that's okay."

Karen smiled as Jim walked away, she worried after their first two dates whether he could get past whatever thing in his past made him wary, but he hadn't shied away from holding her hand during lunch at break the day before, and he had referred to her as her girlfriend before she did the same to him as her boyfriend. She liked him a lot, they'd only slept together twice, but the sex was good, he knew what he was doing, but he was also tender and sweet. She knew she was falling harder for him than vice versa, but that didn't matter to her, she was just glad he was into her at all for the time being.

As Jim finished his second beer, he smiled at Karen, "What Halpert, do I have something on my face?"

Jim shook his head, "no, I'm just glad things worked out, I'm really happy."

Karen leaned into him, "me too, let's go." She stood up and took him by the hand.

Jim felt confused, "where are we going?"

Karen looked back with a wicked grin, "your place, so I can make you even happier."

PAM

The day had been insane, at first, she thought she would lose her job, then she thought Jim might come back to Scranton, and then she was back to having no job. Had it not been for the possibility of having Jim back in her life, she would have been thrilled otherwise to have some financial compensation and time off for art school, but now, she was tormented by how things were left with Jim.

Every day she tried to get up the courage to call him and apologize and let him know it was a mistake and that she felt the same way, but she was unsure about everything at the same time. Breaking up with Roy and calling off the wedding was the right move, she had no question about that, but she also realized how much of her life she had simply just let happen to her without thinking about what she wanted or speaking up and advocating for herself, causing her to fear rushing into anything, even with the man she knew she was in love with.

after the final announcement was made, currently Kelly was wailing in the breakroom, Michael was crying in his office and throwing up, Meredith and Creed were making out on the copy machine, Phyllis had left cry to Bob Vance, Stanley couldn't stop celebrating because his payoff was big, and Toby and Ryan were getting drunk with the warehouse guys. Angela and Dwight were nowhere to be seen, she didn't want to imagine what they might be doing, but then she noticed Dwight sneak back in, he noticed her and walked over to her.

"Pam, your old playmate is going to be my boss, it's outrageous and maddening, that buffoon can't tell me what to do. What qualifications does he have that I don't?"

Pam shrugged, "I don't know Dwight, other than he did minor in business, has a four-year degree, and leads all salesmen in the company right now since the move to Stamford, but you're right, what does he know."

Dwight looked crestfallen, "Oh, I guess that makes sense, Michael was a wonderful boss," Pam tried to smile, "but his lack of knowledge, in many areas, did cause some issues, and I can't imagine Jim calling as many meetings."

Pam nodded, "yeah, but I heard you get to work from here and only go in once a week to Stamford, so you don't have to worry too much."

Dwight fidgeted with some papers, "I just don't know how to go about getting close to him, I always try to do that with bosses, not sucking up, but covering my bases like a spy or true warrior would do."

Pam tried to not laugh, "yeah, I get it."

Dwight turned to leave and the turned back to talk to her, "do you know anything about his new girlfriend, you and he were close, which I still don't understand, but it could prove useful."

Pam stared at him incredulously for a second, trying to not look surprised that Jim had moved on, "thanks, I didn't know he was seeing someone, does she work there too?"

"Great, you're useless now, sorry, that's not fair, she does work there. It's been a long day, Jan yelled at Michael and I for staking out David Wallace's house and we had to drive back fast, I learned that my girlfriend, um…Noel, lost her job…at her pencil factory job."

Pam did her best to not visibly roll her eyes at his lame attempt to allude to Angela, whose middle name was Noel. "That's too bad Dwight, I'm sure she'll be fine, she is an accountant, companies always need accountants."

Dwight nodded absentmindedly for a second and then turned red as he realized what had happened. Pam sighed slowly as he walked away. Jim was free to date whoever he wanted, she had rejected him, she knew she had hurt him, but it didn't make it any easier. He had just disappeared, he hadn't said anything to her, no goodbye, no note, no call, nothing.

With the time Pam had worked there, her severance package would be good enough to sustain her for a few months without a job and taking art classes, but suddenly she felt unsure of her choices. She had been with Roy for so long she hadn't realized how close she felt to Jim wasn't just friendship but romantic love, only she realized it too late.

As Pam arrived at her apartment that night, her phone rang, she hoped it wasn't Roy, he would call and check up on her, she wanted space, but he insisted he could win her back. She answered it, hoping it was Isabel or Penny.

"Hello?"

"Pam, this is Jan Levinson, the receptionist here was worried about the workload with the merging branches and quit today, we would like someone who has experience with how everything in the company operates, especially with the merger happening. We would like to offer you the following, you would receive your severance pay, we would give you five thousand dollars for the move and raise your pay a thousand dollars a month, in return, we only ask that you stay for at least a year, and train another receptionist or secretary to handle the increase in the number of clients and employees."

Pam felt frozen, "okay…um…"

"Just think about it tonight Pam, I'll call tomorrow for your answer, I know that Michael may have driven you crazy, but we could really use you in Samford."

"Does Jim know about this?" She felt stupid as the words left her mouth.

"Um, no, this was mine and David Wallace's call, Jim had left for the day, to celebrate his big promotion, do you have a problem with him?"

Pam felt even more foolish and panicked, "no, no, not at all, it's just that he left here to get away from things…"

"Jim will be fine with it, he will be glad to have someone who knows what they're doing, Alice, the current receptionist was not great at paperwork anyways an caused some issues."

"Okay, I'll think about it, I wasn't planning on moving, I just moved into this apartment."

"We can cover costs if they charge you, we really want you on board, this is a big offer, for the same job, but you'd be treated with respect, not having to cover for Michael not doing his job."

After finally getting off the phone with Jan, Pam grabbed a bottle of wine and a glass and went in her bedroom, she laid the bottle and glass on the bed and undressed, putting on her robe from the chair next to her bed, she walked into her bathroom and drew herself a bath. She sighed sadly as she sprinkled in some bath salts, she had started to take care of herself in a way that made her feel sexy, only now, she had no one to impress. She poured herself a glass of wine and set it carefully next to the tub.

As she took off her robe and gently submerged herself in the tub, the hot water was a little bit of a shock at first, she leaned back against her inflatable bath pillow, at first, she just focused on how good the hot water felt, but soon all her thoughts were of Jim. Initially, she felt sad as she rehashed the past events, her rejecting him and him leaving town, but then she remembered the kiss, the tenderness and passion, something she had never felt from Roy, not even in their best times. As she remembered how amazing the kiss felt, how she was so close to surrendering completely to her urges, rather than curse at herself like the past. she began softly working her fingers over her wet breasts, she could vividly remember the smell of his cologne, the way his hands felt as he held her, the tone in his voice, so sincere, so hopeful.

One hand trailed downward, two fingers began gently rubbing her folds, she hadn't done this in so long, when she was with Roy, she would do it to relieve stress, but since the breakup, she had been content to be free and have her future wide open, but tonight was different. As her fingers picked up speed, she released a small and brief moan, "fuck, Jim." Even though she was the only person there, she felt herself blush at having said his name like that.

After she dried herself off, she tried to take her mind off her decision by watching tv, but as she flipped the channels, she came upon Dazed and Confused, which they both had named as one of their favorite movies the day Ryan had caused the small fire. She watched for a little while until she couldn't take it anymore, she was decided, even if he was with someone, fuck it, she had been with someone and he had made a move, she had to try, to at least feel out the situation, she could last a year, right? She owed it to herself to try, she had only felt that way about Jim, ever, she let herself hide behind her fear and he left, only to move on, she couldn't hide anymore.