Author's Note: This is just what I think could happen at the beginning of next season. It's a just a short little one-shot, and I hope you enjoy.


He thought he'd escaped. He'd left the day after the Casino Night, saying he needed time to pack all his stuff for his move to Stamford. He took the rest of the time before his transfer off. He'd accumulated quite a few sick days in the past few years. He never went back to the office, not even for his goodbye party or to pack up his stuff. He'd never kept anything important there, anyway. The only important thing had been… her.

Well, after a few weeks in Stamford, he had gone to Australia like he'd planned. On June 10th he'd gotten roaring drunk and woke up the next day with a killer headache and the thought that he truly had no chance now. She was married. It was all over.

He went back to his new office after he spent two weeks moping around the small continent. He worked hard for two months, but then one day Jan came in to give him some news. There would be downsizing, and even though sales had increased tremendously since Jim had showed up, they

were still far behind Scranton. They were going to shut down the Stamford branch and send most of the employees to different offices. Since he'd already worked so well in Scranton, it was only natural that he would be sent back there.

So here he was, sitting in his car in the parking lot of the building where he'd already spent 5 years of his life. He'd cut all ties with all the people he knew in Scranton when he left. Pam had tried to call him a few times, but he'd never answered, and his cell phone was stolen shortly before he'd left for Australia. He hadn't bothered to replace it, as he hadn't known very many people in Stamford, and he suspected that none of the people he knew would ever try to reach him outside of the office. He tried to imagine how he would be able to walk through that door and see Pam, a happy newlywed. He didn't think he could face her, but he had to try. He got out of his car and slowly began the walk to what he assumed would be his own personal hell.

There was no way he could have known that Pam had called off the wedding. He couldn't know that she had been horribly depressed since he had left. He didn't know that ever since Michael had announced that Jim was coming back, Pam had cheered up slightly, but was still dreading his return as she assumed from his lack of communication that he no longer felt the same way about her. He didn't know that his first few months of being back would be painful and awkward, but that eventually both he and Pam would see that nothing had changed, except for Pam's newly single status. He had no clue that walking back into the Scranton office would be the best thing that had ever happened to him.