Chapter: 21

"I don't see why Jim needs to know anything," Ryan said firmly and in a harsh voice. He knew the fight was going to happen when he saw Jim in the office earlier that day.

When Pam had told him that Jim wanted to talk with her alone, he was a little less then happy about it. He had told her that he did not want her to go but she seemed not to want to listen to him. He could feel his temper rising. It was as if she didn't care that he couldn't stand Jim, she didn't want to hear it.

"Ryan, I don't understand what harm it would do," she said calmly. "He came back here not knowing a thing. It must have been a big shock for him. I need to talk to him."

"You don't see what harm it would do? Pam, he wants you to be with him. He is going to try and talk you into being with him." Ryan stated. "I am not going to stand here and let him do that. I am not going to let him take you or Anna away from me."

"What are you talking about? You know, Ryan, if you ask me…it almost sounds like your jealous. Jim always had the girl you wanted," she snapped and they both grew quite, they were so wrapped up in their fight they didn't see Annabelle at the bottom of the stairs. "I didn't mean that…I…"

"I am not jealous and he never had you," he said quietly. Ryan stormed away from her and out of the house with a slam of the door.

"DADDY" he heard Annabelle cry from in the house. Ryan slid down the door and sat down on the porch. Hearing the little girl cry out for him made his heart break.

Pam turned at looked at her daughter who was distraught and in tears. Pam walked over to her and took her in her arms, letting Annabelle cry on her.

Pam stroked her hair to try to get her calm but she couldn't even stop her own tears.

"Shh…it's okay, you don't have to cry," Pam said in a soothing voice.

"Daddy," Annabelle cried.

"I know you want your daddy. He will be back, Anna. You don't have to cry, he'll be back," Pam kept repeating but it was not helping either of them.

"DADDY," Annabelle cried and ran toward Ryan who was now standing behind her. She felt relieved that he did not actually leave; they had to work this out.

Pam watched as Ryan picked up their daughter and hugs her close to him. He moved her hair off her face and kissed her temple, this action seemed to calm her down. Pam walked over to them and told Anna that she needed to go back to bed. Pam waited until she couldn't see Anna anymore to talk to Ryan.

He looked tired as she was as hecollapsed in the chair and looked at her waiting for her to say something.

"You actually walked out," she said to him.

"I don't know what to say to you anymore, Pam. I don't want to be here right now but I am because of Anna, I don't want to scare her." He told her.

Pam starting shaking, she couldn't believe that he didn't want to be near her right now. He didn't want to work this out; he just wanted to be away from her. Wiping away the tears that fell down her cheeks, she meets his cold stare with sad eyes.

"You don't get to cry," he told her. "You know, I like to think that we have a good life. I thought that we were happy and didn't really have any big problems. Then Jim comes back, and all you're worried about is what he thinks. You are not over him, Pam." He told her in an all to calm of a voice.

"That's not true, Ryan." Pam pleaded. "Where are you going?" She asked as he got up and walked form her. "Ryan, come back here."

"I'm going upstairs to my bedroom. I suggest that you sleep in another bedroom tonight," with that, he walked away and didn't look back.

The next morning, Ryan sat at his desk in the nearly empty office. He got up early and left the house before Pam even got up. He drove around for an hour and went out to breakfast finally deciding that he would just go into work early. He hated not waking up next to her but they both need time to cool off before they talked about what happened.

Ryan looked up as Jim came in and sat down at the desk that was pushed right by his. He could hear Jim faintly humming to himself and Ryan wanted to punch him for it. Jim's innocent act does not fool him for a minute.

"Ryan," Pam said hoarsely.

Ryan looked over his shoulder and saw her standing behind him. He was relieved to see that she looked as bad as he felt. He didn't want to do this here, not where everyone was going to listen to them. Ryan decided that he would just ignore her in hopes that she would just go to her desk and get to work.

"Okay," he heard her whisper.

Ryan sunk down into his seat and looked over at Jim, who was giving him a look that he couldn't read. Ryan glared at him and Jim looked away. He wasn't going to be able to do this all day.

It was one o'clock and Ryan was surprised that it took Jim that long to get up and go to reception. Ryan looked at them and he didn't even try to hid that fact that he was openly staring. He couldn't tell what Jim was saying to her, he was talking softly and he was facing away from him so he couldn't read Jims lips.

Ryan swallowed his pride and got up heading toward reception himself, he needed to break this up. He saw that Pam sat up straighter in her chair as he approached.

"You want to talk?" He asked and she nodded. He led the way into the break room and made sure that no one was lingering by the door.

"I don't like him and I'm never going to like him," he commented, leaning against the counter.

"You won't lose me to him," Pam said.

"I wish I could believe that," he said quietly not able to look at her.

Pam slowly walked up to him and hugged him softly waiting to see if she was going to be rejected or accepted. Once she felt his arms go around in a protective, loving manner, Pam tightened her embrace.

"I'm scared," she mumbled into his shoulder. "I don't want to lose what we worked hard for."

"We'll work this out," he said.

As if on cue, Jim walked through the break room door. Pam didn't pull away from Ryan, instead she held on to him confidently. If she had pulled away, Ryan would have second thoughts about working things out.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt," Jim said walking by them and went into the bathroom. Pam could see Ryan roll his eyes.

"I'll do it now," Pam said to Ryan. "When he comes out I'm just going to tell him anything. We are going to get this done together."

Pam moved away and out of his arms but took his hand instead. When Jim came out Pam took a deep breath and told him to sit but he didn't, instead he remained standing.

"Obviously, Ryan and I are together," Pam said but the look on Jims face read that he obviously already knew that. "Ryan is Annabelle's father in everyway…except for biologically."

"What?" Jim asked. "Ryan isn't her father?"

"No," Ryan spoke up. "Roy is."

'Of course he is," Jim said with a bitter laugh. "It always comes back to Roy."

"Jim, why are you back here?" Pam asked.

"I thought it was time to come home. I kind of thought that I could pick up right where I left off," he admitted.

"Are you serious?" Ryan asked. "You wanted to come here and be with Pam, right?"

When Jim didn't answer Ryan, Pam knew that it was true. Jim really thought that she would still be here waiting for him. She felt so horrible for not listening to Ryan.

"Jim, I can't be with you." Pam told him. "If it wasn't for you I would be married to Roy right now and I will always be thankful for that."

"You love him," he finished for him a head nod towards Ryan. Pam nodded her head yes, with a small smile across her lips. "Sorry," he said and walked out.

Pam turned back to Ryan to look at him. Sighing, she crossed her arms and didn't look amused by his satisfied smile.

"I'm not going to say it," she said. Pam moved past him and got into a cupboard to get her tea bags. She felt Ryan move behind and his arms wrapped around her torso. "You were right," she said in defeat.

"I know," he whispered. "Sorry that I practically said that I couldn't trust you."

"It's okay, but Anna is still quite upset about our fight," she told him. "We will have to be careful next time."

"Lets go back out there," Ryan told her. As Pam turned to leave she felt Ryan's hand stop her. "If Jim tries anything…you'll tell me right?"

"He won't, Ryan. I won't even let him have a chance to try anything," she told him honestly.

As she went back to her desk, she could see Jim look up at her. She wishes that he didn't come back.

Next up: Someone gets hurts.

There are only like four more chapters left.