OK, here is the next chapter. It's is mostly here just to give you guys background info. Like what happened and such. I really hope you enjoy it, though.

Disclaimer: I don't own the office or these characters.

"You know, we offer free shipping." Jim was tapping his pencil, trying to nail this sale he had been working on for at least an hour. Dwight snatched his pencil away.

"Stop. If you are so clearly inferior, tapping a pencil won't help." He then smashed the pencil down on his desk, which was probably meant to break it, but instead it bounced from his grasp and landed on the floor, inches away from Jim's feet. Jim picked it up, smiled, and started tapping it again. Dwight stood up, letting his chair wheel backwards and straight into Phyllis, before storming off to Michael's office.

"OK, sounds good. I'll put you down for that." Jim hung up, smiling. His glory was short-lived, however when Janice began yelling. Again.

"Well, you sonofabitch! If you weren't such a worthless drunk, then maybe I'd be a little happier when I came home from work. What do you mean? You don't fucking care about my wants!" She slammed the phone down, then huffed like a six-year-old. Jim sighed.

He was so close to the breaking point, in here. Only now, Pam was gone and Karen had been transferred to Utica. He was alone. There was honestly nobody here to keep him laughing anymore. He wasn't even sure why he kept coming back.

When he was alone like this, he was forced to remember and recount casino night.

They had just finished making love. It was the most passionate experience either of them had ever felt. They'd both kept their eyes open, staring intently at each other, her breathing heavily, him smelling the sweet smell of her hair. When they both reached their climaxes, they lay together, legs intertwined and smiles on their faces.

He was hastily pulling his pants back on when she pulled her hair back up, sweeping it into a clean bun and walking away

"Where are you going?" He was frantic. She was leaving?

"I. . . can't do this, Jim. I can't. I have to go. I'm marrying Roy." She slowly opened the door and walked out, delicately stepping down the stairs and hoping to catch Angela for a ride home.

"Pam." He said her name, clear, in the stifling air of the office. How could she leave after this?

And that was when he knew. Knew that he couldn't stay here, he had to leave. The transfer was right there, open for him to take if he wanted to. And now he had his solution.

And so he had left. He met Karen, worked harder, changed his hairstyle, played Call of Duty. But he never forgot her, he couldn't. It was impossible, how could he? Karen fell hard for him, that's what he had.

But when Karen began noticing how much he missed the face at reception, she began asking questions, and he spent nights talking it over with her, over and over.

"Do you still have feelings for her?" Karen had seemed so surprised when he said yes, she had never even met Pam. He hadn't seen Pam in months. But after so long, he couldn't hold on to Karen when he knew that it wasn't her he had loved. It wasn't fair to her.

Dumping her by a fountain, the fountain they had been the day before, laughing and joking around, was the saddest thing he had ever needed to do. But he had to. She was going to get a better job, and he couldn't complicate that. She didn't understand it then, but he was doing it for the better of her. Because he couldn't marry her or go further with her. Her couldn't do that, thinking of Pam.

XXXX

Pam pulled on her pencil skirt, then slipped her feet into some ballet flats. She had gone shopping when she got the new job, and could finally fit back in these clothes. She took up exercising to lose the baby weight. Doing three months at Pratt was the best thing she had ever done for herself, right after leaving Roy.

He wasn't happy when he found out about the baby. In fact, he was infuriated. He would have exploded if she had told him that it wasn't his, so she arranged a meeting at a restaurant, while he was sober, to tell him. He wasn't as angry when he was sober.

After his vow to kill Jim, Pam had alerted the security at Dunder-Mifflin and sent in her resignation. Without saying goodbye or putting up with a party of Michael's. She didn't know about the merge, that Jim had come back. She didn't know about Karen or Andy. If she had known, the whole story, she maybe would have told Jim about Ellie. But she didn't.

She thought that he had left for good. Hell, it had been over a year.

That was the sad part. It had been over a year, and she couldn't forget. She found out she was pregnant, left Roy, went to Pratt, and had the baby. With the help of her mother, she managed to take care of the child for the first few months, before finding the perfect day-care. Now she worked for a graphic design company, finally happy with her job.

She wanted to live in a rural area, for the baby, but she needed to leave Scranton. If she had known that she was only 15 miles away from Jim, she would have payed him a visit. But she didn't. She didn't know any of this.

Little did she know, that a week from now she would have to drive down to Scranton, Pennsylvania to help them with the graphic design for their new commercial.

Little did she know.

OK. So how did you like it? I need to know what you thought. Seriously.