A/N: So, I'm here with a new Office story. A one-shot from me from the last episode. I love JAM goodness and had to write something from it. So here it is. Hope you loved the last episode as much as I did!
Disclaimer: The Office isn't mine. I don't own anything of it, expect the DVD's.
His words rolled around and around in her head. She couldn't turn them off. She wasn't sure if she even wanted too. She was still trying to decide if he was indeed actually serious. But she knew she wouldn't be able to fully decide that until it actually happens.
Which she though almost did today. It seemed almost unbelievable. They'd been dating less than a year. Talking about rings and proposals wasn't supposed to come around that early in a relationship, was it?
She laid her head back on the soft pillow at the top of her queen-sized bed and sighed. She knew plenty of people who had been engaged within the year of a first date. And those had been with people that their first dates where only days after they'd met the person.
Not years.
She shut her eyes tight to avoid the tears she knew would surface if she let them. It had been years that Jim had loved her. While she was engaged to Roy and self-destructing, he was there and he had loved her.
Even when she pushed him away, he loved her.
She still had a hard time wrapping her mind around that. It wasn't everyday that you found the person you are meant to be with and she had, the moment Jim walked into the office that cold day years ago.
She still wished she would have realized that then.
It would have saved a lot of heartbreak and a few thousand tears.
But she hadn't and they'd grown as friends, best friends, until he couldn't take it anymore and had let his feelings be known. And she pushed him away, far away.
State lines away.
That had nearly killed her. And the months he was gone, at Stamford, were the worst of her life. A broken engagement hadn't added happy feelings to the pile either.
She knew what everyone thought. Or at least she wanted to think she knew. Breaking off the engagement with Roy had been a shock to almost everyone.
Roy wasn't as surprised as she thought he'd be. Then again, he knew she hadn't been happy. They hadn't been happy. They both had thought that setting a date for the wedding and actually 'sealing the deal' as Roy called it, would make all the happy feelings from when they had first fallen in love come rushing back.
They were wrong. It had only made things worse. Handing the ring back to him the night she did was the most liberating experience of her life. She didn't regret it for a moment.
What she did regret, not driving through the night to show up on Jim's doorstep in Stamford and beg him to come back, to let her in again. To still love her.
She couldn't even begin to put into words how badly she had wanted to. She picked up her keys and made it to her car at least four times that night and about eight the next day, but she always stopped herself before the car was actually started.
She didn't know why she hadn't just done it. Then again, yes she did.
She was terrified and in the end those were the feelings that won out. She was scared to put herself out there only to have him tell her it was too late. She wasn't sure she would have been able to handle that.
So she didn't go.
She waited.
And thankfully, in the end, waiting had been successful.
He had come back from the city, without Karen, and asked her to dinner. It was the happiest she had been in a long time.
Years probably.
A smile formed on her lips as her memories replayed the last several months. From everything from their first date to current. It had been months of hidden smiles, stolen kisses, whispers of love, and promises of forever. Months of pure bliss.
Sure, they fought, what normal couple doesn't have a tiff every once and awhile. It is part of a healthy relationship and they both know that. But there hadn't been any huge blowouts. A few screams, the possibility of tears, and several slammed doors, and most likely if she could remember, all over something as stupid as…well, anything.
But Jim, he always knew what she needed to make it right again. She could remember the longest they went being upset with each other was probably a day and a half. But she remembered that fight with clarity.
It had been a few days before the camera crews were scheduled to return to the office to start filming after the summer break again. He had wanted to let their relationship come out into the open and well, she hadn't.
It wasn't necessarily that she didn't want everyone to know, she just was happy with where they were at, she had told him. And she knew that once the cameras became aware of their relationship everything would change.
At least that is what she thought.
She'd had that experience before and didn't want to repeat it.
He had argued that he wasn't Roy and things weren't going to change between them just because people knew about them. His feelings for here weren't' going to change.
It was the closest he'd gotten to using the 'L-word' since they'd started dating. But he hadn't actually used it that night.
Things had been said that they both later took back, but after that disagreement she knew that he was the one for her.
It had sealed the deal for her, so when the cameras had been back only for a day and had already caught on to their relationship she was giddy about telling them. Honestly, she would have been okay shouting it from the rooftops, but she controlled herself.
It hadn't taken long for the rest of the office to find out, well, with the help of Toby's inter-office memo about public displays of affection.
She couldn't help but giggle at that memory.
It had been such a great day, even with all the looks and comments from Michael and everyone else, but they had just tuned it all out.
When she had finally told him those three little words it was like their relationship went to another level.
They were walking out of the movie theater in downtown Scranton, Jim's around was securely around her shoulders, sheltering her from the frigid October air.
Jim couldn't keep his laughter in anymore, "you can't honestly tell me that you liked that movie. It was horrible Beesly."
"It wasn't horrible," she argued scooting closer to his chest to keep warm. "It was sweet."
"It was predictable and boring," Jim said with a chuckle. "Are you hungry?"
"Don't try and change the subject Halpert," she said smacking his chest gently, "you really thought it was predictable?"
"Yeah," Jim said with a sarcastic nod, "it was just like every other…"
"I love you," Pam's voice was as quiet as a whisper against his chest and Jim stopped breathing. He heard her voice again, "I love you."
"Uh," Jim rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. "Pam?"
"I do," she said and they stopped walking. Under the fluorescent glow of the parking lot lights Pam looked up into Jim's face with tears in her eyes. "I just wanted you to know."
A grin broke out over Jim's face and he reached down to cover her lips with his. Pam sighed and leaned into his kiss.
"Pam," Jim said breaking away from her for a moment, "I love you too."
It had been a magical moment and she thought it was almost laughable that those words had been spoken in a parking lot.
It had been magical. As ordinary at it might have seemed to the outsider, for them it was perfect.
Pam sighed and glanced at the clock blinking on her bedside table. A bright blue 1:30 am met her eyes and she groaned. She should have been asleep by now. That was going without really needing to be said. She would have to get up in the morning and go to work. She would have to deal with Michael and his quest to find his 'perfect mate.' She wanted to curl up under the covers and sleep till noon.
It was tempting. Almost too tempting.
But she knew that spending the day with Jim would be well worth the actual work. He had promised to take her to lunch tomorrow too and she wouldn't want to miss any lunch dates.
Dates.
She smiled again. They went on dates. It was a strange day when they didn't. Tonight he had a poker night with some old friends, which is why she was home alone. That didn't happen very often anymore either.
Which turned her attention back towards Jim's words earlier that day.
"Let's do it," he had said.
She had a hard time figuring out if he was kidding or not. But he wasn't. She knew that. He wouldn't joke about something that big.
Or about a proposal.
"And when it happens, it's going to kick your ass, Beesly."
He was going to propose. He had told her he was going to propose.
He just didn't say when. She wanted to know when. She wanted it to happen. She wasn't going to deny that.
The thought about him placing a ring on her left finger gave her goose bumps. She had wanted that so much, for so long that the dream of that happening was almost too much for her to take.
Smiling the almost-soon-to-be Mrs. Halpert drifted off into a peaceful sleep, filled with dreams of rings, weddings, babies, and a forever type of life with the love of her life.
A/N: I'd really like to know what you thought. So, if you could review…that would be great.