A/N: This is my first fanfic in a very long time. I have been reading a lot of Office fanfiction lately, however, and just felt like I really wanted to write something. This is a somewhat random idea that came to me while I was contemplating the day when The Office would have its series finale (may that day be a long way off). Anyway, I was thinking about ways the series might end, and I thought of a few things.

This story begins during the winter of season four, a year after Jim would have been in Stamford. Obviously, Jim and Pam are together now. But where is the story going to go next? One of the points repeatedly made in the show is that no one wants to be an office drone – everyone has dreams that they want to fulfill, but not necessarily the drive or means to pursue them.

This story consists of my impressions of Jim and Pam, after they are together. We all know they are thinking about where they are going to go next, and we all know that they can do anything they want while they are together.

It may be sounding very dramatic – I promise, it will have humor, and characters besides Jim and Pam. I'm just outlining the main plot for you. Anyway, this opening chapter is very short, and sort of sets the stage for Pam. Enjoy, and remember that I don't own anything having to do with The Office or its characters. A lawsuit from someone as big as the National Broadcasting Company scares me. A little bit.

A gentle snow was falling over Scranton, Pennsylvania. The rolling hills around the town were hidden in grey fog, as the low grey buildings slowly bore the weight of more and more little flakes of ice. The sun had only just risen behind the clouds.

A plainly dressed woman strode out into the parking lot of an apartment complex, moving toward a blue Toyota Yaris. She opened the door, settled herself inside, and started the ignition.

Pam Beesly blasted the heat of her car, trying to scrunch herself up inside of her coat and unflattering business shirt as she drove through the frigid winter air.

It was the mornings like this where her thoughts went wild – the weather like this where she had the deepest thoughts about… well, anything.

Her windshield wipers flicked snowflakes off of the glass as her mind swirled away to the place where it always returned to, no matter what digression had called it away. Nine months, it had been. Nine months since that glorious, sunny day when she had felt like she was strong enough to let a dream she had had for what seemed like an eternity go.

"I haven't heard anything… but I'd bet Jim got the job. I mean, why wouldn't he? He's totally qualified, and smart… everyone loves him. And… if he never comes back again, that's okay. We're friends. And I'm sure we'll stay friends. We just, we never got the timing right, you know? I shot him down, and then he did the same to me… but you know what? It's okay. I'm totally fine. Everything is going to be totally – "

And then he'd come in, back from New York. He'd come back to her, only when she'd realized who she truly was inside.

Pam wasn't normally a very spiritual person – she liked to think of herself as very down-to-earth, in fact. But in her journey with Jim – in her journey to be with him – she felt like there had been some kind of guidance, some kind of intervention that had lead her to that one moment in the conference room. That moment when she had seen who she truly was, because it was in that moment that everything she had ever wanted and every dream she had ever had began to come true.

A smile spread itself across her face as her car bumped across the dip in the road and into the parking lot of the Scranton Business Park.

A year ago, a snowy Monday morning drive to the office would have made her question the very merit of living at all. She would go through the bleak weather to a bleak office where vulgar, insensitive people said vulgar, insensitive things to her. She would fight her way through the offensive comments and the jungle of paper and ringing telephones to the end of the day, where she would drive back through the much-thicker snow to her apartment, where she would cry until she felt like she wouldn't ever cry again.

But now, as she rode the elevator up to the second floor of the office building, a slight excitement was bubbling up in her, from the bottom of her stomach, all the way up to her fast-beating heart. Her steps quickened as she rounded the corner and saw the clear door declaring itself to be the entrance to the Scranton branch of Dunder-Mifflin Paper Products. She pushed it open and walked inside, past the window into her idiot of a boss' office, and around the corner.

There he was. He had been leaning toward the door, clearly eager to see who was arriving. He stood up.

"Good morning, Beesly. Are you aware that you are one and three-quarters of a minute late?"

The snow gently fell outside.

I know it isn't a lot yet, but please review! Flames and all other forms of criticism are welcome. Although, if you want to make my day and leave me a compliment, that's fine, too.