Hi everyone! This is my first ever fanfic. I've been working on a dark, psychological horror novel and after outlining it I hit writers block. So, I've spent some free time writing about my favourite two characters on TV, Jim and Pam. I'm from the UK so you might find some British words in with the ones I Americanised. Also, we're only up the season four here but I bought season five from America and watched it on my region free laptop (I was not going to be denied my proposal!) but I'm still waiting for season six to be released.

So this fanfic is set towards the end of season three, it's pre-Phyllis's wedding, but that's where the parallels with the show end. I've set it during a swine flu outbreak after coming up with this concept ages ago and I'm giving you a couple of chapters straight up as the first chapter is me just setting things up.

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"This is now a national emergency!" Dwight boomed, his audience were suitably unmoved and Angela busied herself with disinfecting the keyboards and phones with a huge can of Dettol spray. "Swine Flu is expected to kill 30% of the population so therefore 30% of this office. Mostly the weak and old, so Creed, Phyllis and Stanley, you're probably the first to succumb so..."

"Dwight, shut up." Phyllis snapped while pushing her chair into his legs and storming off to the break room. Stanley sighed and got back to his crossword. Creed nodded in agreement with Dwight. Jim tried to calm things down before Dwight brought out the surgical masks.

"Dwight, no one is going to die, it's just really bad flu so let's all just be sensible, wash our hands regularly –"

"Kevin" Angela butted in, glaring at the gentle, if unhygienic, giant.

"-and get on with it, ok?" The room grumbled in half agreement and got back to the marginal amount of work they were doing anyway.

Dwight leaned over to Jim whilst trying to look as authoritarian as possible "I'm in charge of this crisis, Jim, I'm the only thing standing in the way of this disease and the end of Dunder Mifflin Scranton. Michael has locked himself in his office to ensure his survival so I'm in charge."

"Ok Dwight." Jim had a flash of easy inspiration. He stared at Dwight's face, "Whoa, you look kinda pale all of a sudden, you ok?" Pam's ears pricked up from behind the desk, it was likeshe had a sixth sense for Jim's pranks. Jim furrowed his brow with fake concern and continued to scan Dwight's quite naturally pale face.

"Ha, ha Jim, I know you're lying because I can't get sick, I have the immune system of an Ox. Doctors say I'm a medical miracle. Well, my great uncle doctor Schmidt said so back in the old country." Dwight looked proud of his white blood cells in a way that only Dwight could. This spurred Jim on.

He leaned back in his chair, relishing the seeds of a prank. "Well that sucks because it was on the news yesterday that cattle were catching swine flu."

"Really?" Dwight finally bit. Pam gave a wry smile and held off from answering the persistently ringing phone for a little while longer.

"Yeah, Dwight, and it effects them differently too, their coat gets weirdly dusty and their hooves turn purple." Dwight was taking this studiously.

"Is it curable?"

"Yeah, scientists found that the blue stuff in cheese fights the virus, so you have to rub it all over the Ox." Jim wandered if he'd pushed it too far but he kept his poker face like a pro, he'd been doing this a while. He was desperate to see if Pam had noticed but knew he had to keep looking at Dwight; the prank hadn't been sold yet. There was a long pause while Dwight processed the information. Jim held his cool.

"Yes, that makes perfect sense." Dwight thought for a beat and snapped "Get back to work Jim." before turning to his computer and quickly becoming engrossed in bulk buying cheese websites.

Jim grinned ear to ear and turned to Pam to see if she had noticed. She was smiling back at him while on the phone. They did a sneaky air high-five and got back to work. He knew he shouldn't but sometimes it was too hard to resist the closeness they had.

Karen stared at Jim, trying to get his attention but instead he flipped through his rolodex and dialled out, she pursed her lips and distracted herself with work. There seemed to be a part of Jim she didn't have access to now he was back at Scranton, she missed having him to herself like she did in Stamford. However, Karen wasn't one for playing 'poor me'. She waited for Jim to hang up the phone and confidently strode over and placed herself between Jim and Pam's eye line and leant flirtatiously against the desk.

"I'm taking you out for lunch today, want to risk the plague for a grilled chicken salad?" she flashed him a smile. Finally she had his attention. Jim stroked his chin in faux thought.

"Well, maybe for a burger, but not chicken salad, that's only worth a heavy rain storm." Karen nodded in agreement.

"I can't fault your logic Halpert. So the Burger Bar then?"

"Sounds great." They both smiled and Karen waltzed off, giving Jim's hair a gentle tousle as she walked by.

Jim gave a quick glance at Pam, more out of habit than anything, she looked washed out. Roy had been coming up on his lunch breaks to say hello every now and then and it was playing on her mind, he knew that look all too well. Jim wanted to go to talk to her but he held back. He just couldn't go back to where he started, it almost broke him the first time around and he had prospects now with Karen, he wasn't going to throw that away.