He overslept and wound up being late to work by almost half an hour. It took a monumental effort to drag himself out of bed, but he managed somehow. Breakfast was hurried and he didn't eat enough of it, but he figured he could clean out the candy supply at reception and get the dual benefit of extra calories and talking to Pam.

She wasn't at her desk when he finally did make it to work, though. That was disappointing. He hoped that she wasn't sick or something, that he wouldn't have to go the entire day without seeing her, when he saw a tiny box expertly crafted out of cardstock on his desk, a yellow sticky note on top.

Jim-Don't even ask how long I spent fishing these out. You're lucky I had a slow day yesterday, all things considered.-Pam

The paper box was filled to the brim with buttered popcorn jelly beans. He smiled broadly to himself, not bothering to try and hide it since she wasn't there to see it anyway. He told himself it didn't mean anything, just a friendly gesture from one (best?) friend to another, but he carefully affixed the sticky note to the inside of a desk drawer, next to the handful of others that she'd given him. Pathetic, maybe, but he couldn't help himself.

He was pulling his digital camera out of his bag so he could upload the pictures he took for Pam when Dwight exited the kitchen and stalked over to his and Jim's desk clump. "Well well well, look who finally made it into work today." Jim realized with a start that he could smell Dwight-not in a BO kind of way, but that he could pick up individual notes the way a sommelier could distinguish the different tastes in a glass of wine. Wet dirt, coffee, mothballs, what was most likely manure. It was unnerving and weird and was this his life now? Smelling all his coworkers? He shook his head and tried to block the scent from his nose as he responded to Dwight, who was now eyeing him suspiciously.

"Don't know what you're talking about. I was here before you were, remember?"

Dwight looked momentarily taken aback, then glared at Jim from behind his thick glasses. "No you weren't."

"Yep," he replied, plugging in his camera and saving a handful of landscape photos to his desktop. "Maybe you should see a doctor if your short term memory is that bad, Dwight."

Dwight scoffed and turned away. Jim made a tallymark on his mental JIM V DWIGHT scoreboard (the score was decidedly in his favor) and opened up his email.

From: Jim Halpert [jimhalpert ]
To: Pamela Beesly [pamelabeesly ]
Subject: Thanks
Attachments: , ,

Beesly-

I knew you were lying about eating all the buttered popcorn. Thank you. Great craftsmanship on that little box, by the way. It will earn a place of honor in my top drawer, storing my paper clips. After I eat all the jelly beans, obviously. Anyway, I have something for you, too. I took some nature photos for you over the weekend. I remember you saying you were painting landscapes now? I thought you'd like these. I'm not the best photographer, so I hope they turned out okay.

Haven't seen you yet this morning. Haven't seen Michael, either, for that matter. Hope he's not boring you to death somewhere, but I bet he is. Can't wait to hear all about it.

See you soon-

Jim

He clicked send just as the main office door opened. Michael walked in and turned sharply into his office without acknowledging anybody, a look of extreme annoyance on his face. Jim caught the faint smell of perspiration, stale coffee, hair gel, and cheap drug store cologne. Dwight was out of his chair immediately and the door to Michael's office slammed shut just as Pam walked in. Jim watched as her eyes immediately went to his desk and couldn't stop from feeling pleased with himself as her face lit up. She tossed the legal pad she was carrying onto the reception desk, not even looking to see where it landed, and all but skipped over to Jim's desk.

"Thank god you're back. You don't even want to know what Michael just had me doing." He was immediately overwhelmed with how good she smelled: Earl Grey tea, Dial soap, fabric softener (he recognized it as the same kind he uses, which makes him smile), something sweet and crisp (he'd later come to find out through much trial and error at an overwhelmingly pungent store in the mall that it's her lotion, Country Apple from Bath and Body Works). Yeah, maybe being able to smell Michael and Dwight and everybody else from a distance was weird and unsettling, but if it meant he got to be surrounded by the intoxicating scent of Pam, he'd take it. And maybe that was weird, too, but he couldn't help it. He smiled up at her, glad that she came to talk to him, glad that she was happy he's back, just glad in general.

"I won't ask, then. But hey, thanks for the warm welcome." He gestured to the box on his desk and found it incredibly endearing that her cheeks flushed just the tiniest bit. "It's great."

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other in a way that seemed almost playful, if not a little bit shy. "Yeah, well. Um, but something was said about a gift for me? That was my main motivation."

He inclined his head towards her computer. "Check your email."

She grinned down at him, all bright and shiny and with her tongue poking out. He grinned back, knowing for all the world that he probably looked like a lovesick doofus, but he couldn't quite find it in himself to care. As she walked back to her desk Dwight came barreling out of Michael's office and the clean, fresh, heady scent of Pam was wafted away and replaced by the somewhat offensive smell of Dwight.

Jim sighed. If this was part of being Bearman or Manbear or whatever the hell he's going to call himself, it was going to take some getting used to.

Next to him, Dwight pulled out a moleskin notebook and turned his attention to Jim. "I'll need to know where you were during your absences from work so that you can appropriately be docked a personal day, sick day, or be issued a demerit for unexcused absences."

"This isn't high school, Dwight. You can't give me a demerits. And time off gets authorized through Michael anyway, so. Not your job."

"I am assistant regional-"

"To the."

Dwight slammed his notebook down on his desk, much to Jim's amusement. "Fine. Don't tell me where you were. I don't care where you were." Jim unsuccessfully tried to stifle a laugh, which drew a sharp look from his desk mate. "Stop making noises. I'm busy."

"Don't look busy to me."

"Shut up. I have to check the forums." Jim tuned Dwight out, not much caring to hear about whatever forum he was checking (beets, probably) and turned his focus to the paperwork and messages that had piled up for him over his absence. That was, until, something Dwight muttered under his breath caught Jim's undivided attention. "... bear sighting over the weekend and some weird circumstances. The forums haven't been this active since-"

"Bear sighting?" Dwight's head snapped towards Jim and looked at him questioningly. Jim cleared his throat and tried to look natural. "I mean, that sounds cool. I didn't know we even had bears in Scranton."

"There wasn't a sighting in Scranton, idiot. It was in Huntingdon County."

Same place. Same bear, probably. Same weird circumstances? He cleared his throat again. "Oh, right. Of course. Uh, what do you mean about weird circumstances?"

"Why do you care?"

"I don't! I don't. Just, uh, curious. It sounds interesting." Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Pam's head tilt in confusion, obviously overhearing his conversation with Dwight and not buying it, either. "It's not very often you hear about a bear sighting in Pennsylvania, right?"

"Come on, Jim. Pennsylvania is home to a substantial population of black bears. If you joined the forums," and here he raised his voice so that everyone in the office could hear what he had to say "as I have recommend that you all do multiple times, you would know that."

Jim nodded once. "Right. Uh, which forum again?"

"The Pennslylvania Bear Forums, duh?"

Of course. What else would it be? "Cool. Thanks, buddy."

"Not your buddy."

The work that had accumulated for Jim was quickly forgotten. Instead, to his utter disbelief, he pulled up his web browser and did a search for The Pennsylvania Bear Forums. He found them quickly enough and was halfway through creating an account when he heard the chime indicating that he had a new email.

From: Pamela Beesly [pamelabeesly ]
To: Jim Halpert [jimhalpert ]
Subject: Thanks! And what?

Jim,

The photos are gorgeous. That view is stunning. I'd like to see it myself sometime, but until then these pictures are perfect. You did a great job, they'll be perfect to work from.

But am I *really* overhearing you talk to Dwight about bears? Are you okay? You sure you're not sick? I'm worried about you, Jim. Is Dwight holding you hostage somehow? Look over to my desk and blink twice if you need help. I'm here for you.

-Pam

His hand curled over his mouth reflexively, a conditioned response to trying to hide how big his smile gets when it's caused by something Pam says or does. He looked over to the reception area and blinked slowly, three times. Pam giggled behind her desk and he shrugged before allowing his smile to spread across his face without hiding it. The phone rang then and Pam's job description got in the way of their over the desk banter and Jim got back to-astonishingly-signing up for the bear forums.

He scrolled through the stickied threads until he found one that looked promising: BEAR SIGHTING NEAR THOUSAND STEPS! He clicked it and began to scan the most recent posts.

ursusamongus: What's interesting to me, though, isn't the bear. I mean, we all know what a bear sighting looks like, exciting as it is. What about the way the bear was reportedly acting? What about the reports of the men looking for it? Anything about that?
DwightKShrute: In a separate thread, a user described their encounter and did mention something about men. I'll quote the text here: "i was at my mom's farm out in rural huntingdon co and found evidence of a bear being on the property. there's been bears out there before and it's whatever, but then my mom's closest neighbor came down and told us that he'd heard some men down around the fence line acting like they were looking for something. the neighbor said he snuck down there to listen in and couldn't hear much, but there was a group of guys in fatigues talking about tracking and subduing. weird, right?"
PAWS862: I was on the Thousand Steps trail this weekend and actually saw the tranquilized bear. It was amazing, that thing was massive. There definitely were men there, but I couldn't get a read on where they were from. They didn't look like GFC guys, that's for sure. No logos or anything like that. What do you guys think?
DwightKShrute: More information is required before we make an assessment.

Jim sat back so that he could absorb what he'd just read. As weird as it was, he didn't feel quite as alone. He didn't think anyone else had been attacked, of sorts, but at least there were others who had encountered the men and were asking the same kinds of questions that he was. After a quick internal debate, he scrolled to the bottom of the page and clicked on the link to make a new post.

BearMan1078: first post. am i doing this right? anyway, i also saw the bear, right after they tranquilized it. i saw the men, too, but didn't talk to them. they seemed really official and i overheard them tell another hiker that they worked for a rehab program and that they'd put a press release out after they got everything under control. i haven't seen anything about that, have any of you?

He pressed enter and sat back in his chair, wondering what in the world his life had come to. If someone had told him Saturday night that by Tuesday morning he'd be discerning the individual notes of Pam's (and Dwight's and Michael's and everybody else's, but mostly Pam's) scents and giving himself superhero-esque monikers and posting on bear forums, he would have said that that person was certifiably insane. But here he was, hoping for another chance to get a whiff of fabric softener and nervously tapping his fingers against his keyboard as he waited for a response.

It seemed dumb to sit around and wait, so he minimized the window and finally turned his attention to the stack of papers in front of him. For once in his career-nope, not career, job-at Dunder Mifflin, he poured himself into his work.

After lunch (which he ate with Pam and managed to feel only marginally creepy for breathing deeply so he could burn her smell into the olfactory center of brain, but he couldn't help it because she just smelled so good), he settled back in at his desk and pulled up the forum window. He hit refresh and was pleasantly surprised to see several new posts.

PAWS862: Welcome, BearMan! We're always happy to have a new member. Thanks for the new information, this whole situation just seems really strange. To my knowledge, there's not a wildlife rehab near there, at least not one that a bear could have escaped from. I'll do a search for recent press releases, but I haven't seen anything.
DwightKShrute: Bears can run up to 35 miles per hour so it's possible that it could have escaped from a different facility.
ursusamongus: IDK, Dwight. It still seems pretty fishy. What wildlife rehab that's equipped to house black bears would have to track one for that long? My bet is that it was being held at somewhere that doesn't usually hold bears.
DaHibernator: it was tranqued on the 1k steps trail?
PAWS862: Hibernator, that's right.
DaHibernator: i leave near there. my hood backs up 2 this wooded area thats fenced off w/ like a 12 foot fence w/ razor wire the top. once my buddies n i decided 2 see if we could figure out what it was n all we were able 2 see was some huge building behind all the trees n shit n a big gate w/ a bunch of ppl guarding it. we didnt see guns but they prlly had them. they looked srs
DwightKShrute: DaHibernator, as assistant moderator of this forum I'm going to have to insist once again that you make your posts a little more legible. You're looking at a week long mute if you can't fix your grammar and spelling.
PAWS862: Dwight, we've talked about this. You don't have mute privileges.
DaHibernator: yeah so suck it nerd
ursusamongus: Hibernator, was there any signage or anything? Any idea what the building is used for?
DaHibernator: nope. some nutjob n my town swears that its a secret research place but hes crazy so nobody pays attention to him
PAWS862: Hmm. Makes you wonder, doesn't it? BearMan, I looked for a press release but haven't come up with anything yet. Make sure you keep checking back in, I have a feeling that this case is going to keep to forums hopping for a while! :-)

Jim's mind was reeling. Could really be possible that the bear had escaped from some clandestine government research facility? The more he thought about it, the more it made some kind of sense. After all, a regular old bear bite didn't grant what Jim was hesitant to call superpowers (he was calling them that anyway, for lack of a better term), at least not to his knowledge. What if the men and others like them had been doing research on the bear, making it radioactive or injecting it with whatever it was they gave Captain America or hypnotizing it or something? How else could he possibly explain what was going on? The strength, the enhanced athletic ability, the sense of smell-

As if on cue, he was suddenly overwhelmed by his new favorite scent. Pam was walking past his desk on her way to the kitchen, and he let himself be calmed by her presence, as fleeting as it was. And that wasn't something new, he'd been that way since pretty much the day he'd met her. It was just another thing that was heightened now, the effect she had on him. He sat back in his chair with his eyes closed, allowing himself to relax and think only about cardigans and Keds and Snuggle fabric softener and buttered popcorn jelly beans. He only snapped out of it when Pam walked past him again, a new smell accompanying her. One that wasn't near as pleasant as the rest.

Jim straightened up and looked over at reception. Pam was stirring the contents of a yogurt container, the kind with the fruit on the bottom. She was so absorbed in thoroughly mixing up her mixed berries that she didn't notice him leave his desk and head to hers, not until he leaned across the countertop, his hands dangling over the edge. At this distance, it was obvious to Jim that the yogurt had expired and he wanted to prevent another situation like the one with Mark and the orange chicken. But how weird was it to just out and out say "hey, your yogurt smells bad?" when it very clearly didn't to her? Pam was looking up at him expectantly, though, so he better say something. He smiled at her (hopefully not awkwardly but probably so) and pointed to her yogurt.

"This might sound weird. And there's no reason for me to know this. But...that mixed berry yogurt you're about to eat has expired."

Pam looked at him in confusion, the lifted the container to check the expiry date printed on the bottom. When she looked at him again, it was in shock. "Wow, you're right. Almost six months out of date. How'd you know that?"

He shrugged. "I know my yogurt, I guess."

"Yeah, I guess so. Thanks, Jim."

"No problem, Beesly. Hey, since I ruined your snack, want to split a bag of chips with me in the break room?"

Her smile was radiant, or so it seemed to Jim. It definitely wasn't conducive to his not-wanting-to-fall-further-for-the-engaged-receptionist, but he just couldn't help himself when it came to her. As they sat together, a bag of french onion chips between them, he didn't think about the bear or the men or the alleged weird building, not once.

He just thought about Pam's smile, and how to make her do it again.