AN: Hey everyone, thanks so much for reading and those of you who reviewed, really appreciate it! Hope you guys like this one.


August 2012 pt. 2

"Can you believe the summer's almost over?" Jim asks as they stroll along hand in hand down the path leading to the entrance of Nay Aug Park.

"Wow, yeah, September's next week already," she glances quickly in his direction before bringing her focus back to Cecelia. "We need to get her a new fall coat," she points toward their daughter, who has gone from skipping happily to crouched over, closely examining something in the dirt.

They both squeeze the other's hand, laughing lightly as they watch as Cecelia proudly holds up a brown worm. "Mommy, can we keep him?"

"Sure," Pam says with a chuckle, cringing slightly as Cecelia places the worm in her hand.

"He can be your worm, mommy," Cecelia nods happily and turns her attention toward Jim. "Daddy? Will you push me on the swing?"

"Sure thing, cupcake," Jim grins as they watch Cecelia run in the direction of the swings.

Pam probably could have waited the extra few seconds before putting the worm back on the ground, because as soon as she bends down, Cecelia whines, "Mommy, don't put him down! You have to keep him."

"Sorry," Pam smirks toward Jim as she straightens up and leans against the pole. "It's okay, baby," she runs her hand over her daughter's head and gives her a quick kiss before Jim begins to move the swing.

They stand in silence for a few moments, smiling adoringly as they watch Cecelia clap her hands and giggle each time Jim gently pushes the swing.

"Oh," Pam says, clearing her throat, "so, I was talking with Miss Rita about Cece yesterday when I picked her up."

"Yeah?"

"She's a little concerned that Cece isn't socializing with the other children. She shares alright and is polite, but she prefers being on her own."

His brow creased in concern, he asks, "Do you think it's the other kids? I mean, she's hilarious, I don't know why they wouldn't love playing with her."

She shakes her head, "Miss Rita didn't think so. Yesterday, when Cece was asked if she wanted to play with the other kids, she said no, I'll just play with my daddy when I get home."

He winks, "You're just jealous she didn't say she wanted to play with you."

"No," she says adamantly, rolling her eyes. "I think she's just shy. I mean, I was really shy when I was kid. I just don't want her to…" she trails off with a shrug. "Maybe we should have her spending more time with her cousins."

"Yeah," he scoffs, "then she'll be traumatized from all the pranks they pull on her, thanks to my brothers', and then she'll really be anti-social. Or, a bully. I think we have a good balance right now – holidays and birthdays. And even that's too often."

Pam tilts her head to the side and quirks her lips, but her reply is lost as they look up to find an elderly woman staring at them.

"Excuse me," Pam asks, shaking her head and taking a step closer to Jim.

"I know you two," the woman says. "Why do I know you two?"

"Um," Pam asks, trying to remain polite. "Did you buy a printer recently? Maybe some paper?"

"That's it," the lady says airily, her index finger on her chin. "That promo. You two are the stars of that documentary coming out next month. I saw your promo on TV!" she says happily.

"Promo?" Jim asks, lifting Cecelia from the swing, holding her in his arms tightly and moving closer to Pam so their hips are all but connected.

"Yes," the lady nods, placing her hand on her cheek as she eyes Jim and Pam. "It looks hilarious. I work in an office, so, I know how you feel."

"Yeah…" Pam whispers.

The lady continues, waving her hand between the three of them. "I'm assuming the two of you are together. How wonderful!" She brings her hand up to her mouth, as if she's telling a secret to Pam. "The promo makes it look like you don't even know he exists."

Jim's head twitches as his eyes widen. He opens his mouth to say something, but it's as if his entire vocabulary has been erased from his brain.

"Um," Pam clears her throat, "what's … what's in this promo?" she asks, her eyes fixed on the woman as she reaches her arms out to Cecelia, who is all but flinging herself at her.

"Oh, not much, you'll just have to check it out for yourselves, it's on TV nearly twenty times a day. I'll bet you guys are so excited," she rambles, reaching out her hand toward Pam, who takes a step back as Cecelia holds both arms around her mother's neck and hides her face. "Oh, is this your daughter? She's beautiful."

"Uh, thanks," Pam says, trying to hold onto a now fidgeting Cecelia until she just puts her down between she and Jim.

The lady grins and waves to them. "You have a wonderful day." She smiles to them once more before walking away.

Jim let's out a breathy chuckle and turns to face Pam. "I think we need to see this promo."

Her eyes widen, "I can't imagine…" she trails off, shaking her head. Her attention is immediately drawn to Cecelia. "Sweetie, why are you pulling my hand?"

"I want my worm back," she says, trying to turn Pam's hand around.

Pam opens her palm, "I'm sorry, sweetie," she winces in Jim's direction before bending down to Cecelia's eye level. "But I think the worm wanted to go back to his family."

"His family?" she asks, her lips pouted.

"Yup," Pam nods, "he has a mommy and a daddy just like you do."

"I bet his family misses him," Cecelia says seriously.

"They did, baby," Pam says, kissing Cecelia's cheek before standing up, lifting Cecelia into her arms.

"So," Jim says as they make their way home, his arm around her shoulder. "The documentary."

"Oh, I know," she sighs. "Why do I have a feeling this is going to be worse than we ever imagined?"

"Why did we even stay at our jobs back then when we could have found something much better?"

"Because we were young and stupid," she laughs. "And didn't think the documentary was ever going to be released."


Raising a shy daughter who is also at the same time, tentative about potty training is a task they're trying to handle simultaneously. Once home from their afternoon in the park, Pam made a quick dinner while Jim looked up potty training tips on the internet, and while he cleared the dinner table and entertained Cecelia, Pam searched the for information on how best to break her daughter out of her shell.

They're settled in the living room while she quietly reads the article she printed, her face set in slight bemusement as Jim talks with Cecelia about the benefits of using the big girl potty. Each time his voice cracks, as he sits next to Pam, with their daughter in his lap, it takes every ounce of self control within Pam to not laugh.

Jim points to the television, "Look, see?" he says, thankful for the powers that be at TV Land for showing a Pampers Pull Ups commercial right at that very moment. "She's a big girl, she used the potty all by herself. You want to be a big girl too, right?"

He pokes Cecelia's stomach lightly, eliciting a small giggle from her as she shifts her body right and leans her head to the left.

He wraps his arms around her and gives her a noisy kiss on the cheek, "We'll work on it, okay?"

"Okay, daddy. I will try," she nods with a proud smile.

Pam looks up, unable to hold in a laugh, and before she can say another word, the moment they'd been waiting hours for, finally arrived.

"Daddy, I think I have …

The television stops the three of them in their tracks, as they hear their names announced, loud and clear.

"When Jim met sweet, mousy receptionist Pam, it seemed like a beautiful friendship," the announcer says as clips of them high-fiving during the time they organized the office Olympics, and a clip of her happily jumping in his arms and kissing him on the lips after she won her dundie.

"Then," it continues to slow melodic sounds of piano, the music swelling as the screen shows a clip of Pam laughing in the parking lot in her purple dress, her face falling in an instant, "He left town."

"Daddy why do you look so sad on the TV?" Cecelia asked, sliding from his lap and tugging his hand as he and Pam stared blankly at the television.

The announcer goes on a second later, as a quick clip of Pam watching him and Karen dance at Phyllis' wedding is shown.

"Mommy," Cecelia points, "you look so pretty," she squeals, hopping on her little legs.

"In just two weeks, tune in to the premiere of Co-Workers, starring real people doing real work, and all the mayhem that comes with falling in love with the right person at the wrong time. Only on TLC. Check your local listings."

"What the …"

"Language, Jim."

"Language, Jim," Cecelia parrots. "Daddy why do you have your angry face on?"

"It's …" he whispers.

"They called me mousy," Pam says stunned.

"Mommy? What's mousy? Daddy? I pottied."


"So," Pam shrugs, picking the crust from her sandwich as they share lunch in the break room, "there's nothing we can really do about it."

"Nope," he agrees, lowering his voice as Stanley walks past, grumbling all the way to the back of the room with his crossword puzzle. "Thanks to the contracts we signed seven years ago."

"Eight," Pam corrects him with a grin.

"Really?" he asks, his eyes widening. "It's been eight years?"

Pam nods slowly and bites her bottom lip, trying not to laugh at her husband's dumbstruck expression.

"Wow," he says, scratching his chin, "I've been working here over a decade?"

"So have I," she says as a matter of fact.

"Yeah, but at least you…" he trails off, deciding to stop his train of thought the moment Erin quite literally bounces into the break room. He tries not to roll his eyes as she sits at the center table and begins rambling about the documentary.

"Hey guys, have you seen the new promo for Co-Workers? I'm so excited about it. I mean, I realize I'm not even in it until the end, but how cool is it to see you guys before I was around. It must be really fun for you guys especially, since there's such a spin on you. Like home videos. I had no idea that you guys weren't together. I mean, I thought you were always together. Well, obviously not always together but…" Erin continues to rattle on as Jim and Pam exchange silent looks of shared annoyance.

"Yeah," Jim says, his eyes locked with Pam's, "this is going to be really fun."

Pam tries not to laugh as Erin, who clearly can't decipher sarcasm, continues chattering about her excitement.

"I know, right! I was talking to Kelly about it last night, and, oh, don't you guys just miss Kelly and Ryan? I do." Erin pouts for a moment as Pam and Jim continue to stare at one another with smirks. "Anyway, Kelly was talking about doing a blog and I can't wait to read it, it will be totally awesome. Kelly's thinks there's going to be paparazzi everywhere. She seemed super excited, but I'm not so sure."

Pam lets a laugh spill from her lips instantly. "Really?" she scoffs, "I highly doubt our boring work lives will get that much attention. I'm pretty sure this show will be buried underneath much better television programming."

"One can only hope," Jim muses, taking a long sip from his soda can.

"Guess what I've got," Andy suddenly appears in the doorway with a huge grin on his face. "My first fan letter in the mail," he waves a piece of paper in the air. "Well, email," he corrects himself and stomps his feet and all but flings the letter toward Jim.

"And it's from yourself," Jim quirks an eyebrow toward Pam. "Didn't realize you were such a big fan," he shakes his head, trying to hide a smile.

"I know," Andy says haughtily, snatching the letter from Jim's grasp. "But it's my way of getting prepared for when the real fan mail arrives."

Jim reaches for Pam's hand, squeezing it lightly as Erin directs her attention to Andy.

"Do you think we're really getting fan mail?" Erin asks. "I bet you will, Andy. Everyone loves you."

"Hey, everyone," Phyllis chimes as she takes a seat next to a still grumbling Stanley. "Have you guys seen the new promo for the documentary? It's one that shows all of us in the office," she nods and smiles as she unwraps her sandwich.

"The one with the printing and paper selling has never been this much fun tagline?" Andy asks, turning himself around before taking a seat next to Pam. "Yeah, I love that one. I'm in there for 1.5 seconds."

"I think there's something seriously wrong with America if they think that a documentary about people who sell paper is fun," Jim mutters, leaning in closer to Pam.

"Jim, are you not having fun?" Pam playfully asks as she pats his shoulder.

"I can't wait to see if we get any fans." Phyllis says between bites of her lunch. "Bobby says he'll get out his hunting gear and use it on people who trespass on our lawn. Really looking forward to that."

Pam jerks her head back, matching Jim's horrified expression. She once again finds herself left speechless by her coworkers.

"I'm sorry Kevin," Oscar sighs as he and Kevin walk into the room and go to sit at the same table, "but I just don't see that working."

"I don't know why you are trying to discourage me," Kevin says slowly and pouts. "I mean, women love men who are on TV. All I have to do is wait for the show to air and then wait for my phone to start ringing."

"All right, Kev," Oscar utters condescendingly with a head tilt, "but don't be disappointed."

"Why would I be disappointed?" Kevin asks, his chin wiggling as he shakes his head in confusion.

"First, how would they know your phone number?" Oscar points sarcastically.

"I'm listed in the phone book," Kevin deadpans proudly.

"I actually I have to agree with Kevin," Meredith chimes in, standing with her hand on her hip. "There are some women who will sleep with anything. I, for one, need this documentary. Need to get my name out there. I think I've slept with all the men in Scranton. Except for most of the men in this room. I'd knock all of you off in one night if all of you were up for it, though."

"Meredith that's gross," Oscar says with a look of disgust.

"Whatever. The whole thing is probably going to suck anyway. From those promos, it looks like it's all about Jim and Pam," Meredith grouses, leading others to start grumbling.

"Hey," Pam says, trying not to sound too defensive, "we did not ask them to edit it like that. Believe me, we would prefer it if we weren't front and center."

"Again, I'm not sure why anyone thinks that we're that interesting," Jim shrugs.

"We're boring people," Pam motions between her and her husband.

Jim nods. "Very boring."

"What's all the fuss about," Creed asks as he walks in holding a half eaten turkey leg.

"We're discussing the documentary," Oscar says, not breaking his focus from the newspaper.

"What documentary?" Creed tilts his head to the side and takes a bite of his food.

"Uh, the documentary about all of us, dude," Andy says, twirling his hand in the air.

"Us?" Creed asks, placing his hand on Andy's arm. "I didn't know you and I were related. When's it on? I'll have to get a TV."

"Ah-ha! I knew it." Dwight bounds into the room, whipping the door open and almost breaking the glass. "There's a mass conspiracy and all of you are in on it. I've been waiting for this day…"

"That's right Dwight," Stanley says without looking up. "We're all conspiring against you. We've been cooking this up for years. You've finally caught us," he deadpans.

"Well, you've been caught and I'm taking all of you down," Dwight yells, his eyes bulging wildly as he points to everyone in the room.

Pam shakes her head and calmly explains, "There's not a mass conspiracy, Dwight. We're just all talking about the documentary finally coming out."

"Oh right, the documentary," Dwight says, lowering his tone of voice. "I, too, await the premiere. It will show this company in better light, when run by real management. Michael was a true leader of our times."

"Does anyone know what happened to Michael?" Phyllis asks. "I haven't heard about him in ages. I kind of miss him around."

"You never respected him, Phyllis," Dwight notes. "You always yelled at him."

Everyone chimes in half heartedly agreeing with Dwight.

The mutterings dying down instantly the second Angela walks in the room. "Yes, I just had a baby," she says, holding her lunch bag in front of her, she shakes her head. "Yes, the baby is Dwight's. No I do not wish to speak any more of it," she finishes, sitting by herself at an empty table, avoiding eye contact with everyone as she nibbles her saltines.

They each silently stare at Angela for a brief moment before they begin talking at once about the documentary and Michael, the noise level rising rapidly.

Toby walks in, attempts several times before getting everyone's attention, as he almost whines, "I'm sorry everyone, but you can't all be in here at once. If you are all on break, who's working for the company?"

His words go mostly ignored by everyone as they continue to eat and chatter.

"The show hasn't even premiered yet and everyone has gone crazy over it," Jim says as he moves his chair closer to hers.

Pam runs her pinky over his, linking them together. "I'm sure it'll die down once it airs and there's proof that there is nothing interesting about our lives."

"True," Jim nods. "But don't you miss the days when we didn't have to deal with this much crazy."

"And what days would those be, Jim?" she asks with a bright smile.


"Mommy, I'm hungry," Cecelia whines as they walk through the door. She squirms to be put down.

"Alright, honey," Pam says patiently, taking Cecelia's coat off, she walks to the living room and places her in front of her toys. "You play while daddy and I get dinner."

The sounds of Cecelia playing her xylophone as she sings, "I'm hungry," can be heard as he checks the mail and she grabs some aspirin and a glass of water.

"Hey,' she says, running her hand over his back, "Do you mind calling for pizza? I don't feel up to cooking tonight."

"Sure," he agrees, flipping his phone open to find a 'message box full' notification. He scrolls through the recent call list and gawks, "Oh my god. My brothers left me, like fifty voicemails," he shakes his head in astonishment as he listens to the messages.

"Oh boy," Pam says, holding in her laughter at his horrified expression. Once she makes sure Cecelia is still playing in the living room she walks over to the laptop to check her email. The first thing she notices once she's logged in is an email from former coworker Kelly. She inhales deeply and reads.

Hello everyone,

As most of you know I am about to become a reality star. To celebrate this occasion, I have started a blog that will chronicle my thoughts as the documentary airs. You can find it here: .com (that stands for 'Kelly's Totally Awesome Blog, incase you like didn't get it.)

All the best,

Kelly Howard-Kapoor

PS: Have you guys seen the promos yet? I'm totally geeked. Though can you believe how horrible and atrocious I looked back then?

"Ugh," Pam groans as she clicks the link, trying to brace herself for re-emersion into Kelly's world.

Hello, my name is Kelly. And you know me from the new documentary 'Co-Workers' airing on TLC, Thursdays at 9. The documentary recounts the time in my life when I was just a poor customer service representative for a lowly paper company but is also a powerful love story about how I met and fell in love with my totally awesome and super intelligent husband, Ryan Howard. But the documentary will only show you one side of this story. I am here to tell you the whole, unbiased, unabridged truth.

It all began on a lonely day for me. I was sitting in my nook feeing lonely and depressed when our boss Michael told us that we were hiring a temp…

Jim leans against the counter, his fingers pressed into the bridge of his nose as he listens to the words of his loving brothers, contemplating changing his cell phone number as they go on.

"Hey, loser, just saw your promo." Tom says sarcastically. "How pathetic do you look? I mean we all had to watch you drool over Pam for years, but I never saw first hand how much of a love struck fool you looked like. God, and it took her years to notice? Oh, Pam, I love you so much but I can't have you…"

Jim hits delete and listens to the next one while shaking his head.

"Hey moron," Pete laughs. "Tom just sent me a You Tube video of your promo. I'm going to send it to all our relatives with subject title Pansy Ass…"

Jim hits delete again and begins to listen to the next one. As he does, shaking his head for the millionth time as Tom's voice radiates in his ears once again, he comes behind Pam to see what she's reading, and reads along.

…And I had wanted really long hair for so long but my hair just doesn't grow very long, you know? So I got extensions. But you know what, extensions suck. Do you know how hard they are to wear? And, I just looked stupid. I did just get my nails done at that fancy new store at the mall. It's a shame you can't see them in the promo. Maybe in the first episode they'll do a close up. Anyway, that was the day that I knew I had found the love of my life, Ryan Bailey Howard.

Until later—Kelly Howard-Kapoor.

Pam rubs her head and glances behind her to Jim as he continues to almost violently delete messages from his phone. "Jim, where's Cece?" she asks, noticing how quiet it's suddenly become in the house.

He shrugs, hits delete and listens to another message.

Pam gets out of the chair quickly. "Cece, where'd you go, sweetie," she raises her voice.

"In here, mommy," Cecelia says in a small voice.

Pam walks swiftly towards the bathroom, finding Cecelia standing on the tiled floor, facing her training potty with her pants down and urine running down her legs.

"Oh, Cece, what are you doing?"

"I'm going potty like a big girl," Cecelia proudly says.

"I see that," Pam says, trying not to scare her child by yelling. "But you're supposed to sit on the potty, remember?"

"Daddy stands when he goes."

Pam pinches the bridge of her nose while she tries to figure out the right word combination to explain the differences between boys and girls to a two year old. "Daddy," she begins, "he's a big boy and he can do that. But us girls have to sit on the potty when we go."

Cecelia shrugs and makes a face that resembles Jim's going with the flow expression. "Okay, mommy."

"Come on, kid. Let's get you a bath," Pam says, undressing Cecelia and filling the tub with water.

"Can I have bubbles, mommy?"

Pam smiles and nods, "sure." She carefully toward the cabinet to take out the bubble bath bottle, uncaps and pours some inside the warm water, and then begins to undress herself so her work clothes don't get soaked by Cecelia's splashing.

"Pizza's ordered," Jim says, walking into the bathroom, stopping abruptly as his eyes widen at the mess, and asks, "Bath time already?"

"Cece thought she'd be just like daddy and stand up when she goes to the bathroom," Pam says, trying to hold back the sarcasm in her words. "So now, mommy's going to make daddy sit down whenever Cece is around."

"We'll have to figure out how to make potty time private time when one of us is alone with her. It has to be in one of the books," he says, moving his lips to the side.

"Look, daddy, I'm a fish!" Cecelia giggles, drawing in her lips to a pucker as she kicks her legs in the water.

"You are," Jim says with a laugh.

"So," Pam asks, "what did your brothers want?"

He leans against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. "To remind me how pathetically in love I am with my wife," he smiles warmly, a loving, almost lustful look crossing his eyes.

It's a look she hasn't seen in a long time. She hadn't realized she missed the butterflies it's giving her either.

Cecelia splashes some water at her mother's face, snapping the both of them out of their loving gaze.

"Sweetie, it's not nice to splash mommy, remember?" Pam reminds her.

"Sorry mommy," Cecelia says with her hands out to the sides.

"Good girl. Jim," Pam asks, motioning her head toward the mess on the floor. "Do you mind taking care of those clothes for me? Hers are going to need to go straight in the wash."

"Sure," he says, gathering the clothes.

"And, can you mop the floor, please?"

"Absolutely," he nods.

"Thank you," she grins and bites her bottom lip as her cheeks flush slightly.