I know it's still Friday in Jim and Pam's world but...
Oh, there's a fair bit of Left 4 Dead references but if you don't know what Tanks, Boomers, Witches and Smokers are just think of them as super zombies and the boys are scaaaared!
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Friday Evening
Pam had left to visit her sister so Jim sat, controller in hand, lobbing a pipe bomb into a hoard of zombies.
"Taaaank!" Shouted Mark, moving to the edge of the couch, his eyes narrowed on the screen. "I'm on handguns only, god I look badass when I dual wield!"
"Run ahead, get to the ammo, should be around the corner." Jim ordered, unloading clip after clip into the grotesque, hulking monster.
"Oh crap, help, it's chasing me!" Cried Mark. "Run Zoey, run!"
"I'm right behind it." Jim had moved to the edge of the couch too, totally absorbed in the fight for life.
"Dammit! Stop shooting me in the back of the head!"
"Stop weaving!" Jim unloaded yet more bullets into the back of the Tank and a few more into Mark by accident. The tank took a sweep at Zoey, punching her body through the air.
"It got me!"
"It's down! It's down!" Jim sighed in relief, Mark couldn't have taken another hit, they were trying to complete the game on the expert level.
"Oh man, I need healing, got any health kits?"
"Yeah, come 'ere." Jim's character Francis stood healing Zoey who suddenly struck Jim as familiar. "She looks a little like Isobel."
"Yeaaaah." Said Mark with a grin that Jim was sure he shouldn't see for its sheer leeriness. That was more than he needed to know. "Not far to the safe room now. I'm on a shot gun."
"Right, lead the way; you've got the most health."
They continued onwards through the level, blasting zombies and collecting supplies. Jim enjoyed evenings like this, no stress and no worries. He and Mark had been distracted with their new relationships that they hadn't spent as much time hanging out as usual.
"You're out tomorrow night, yeah?" Asked Mark casually.
"Dinner at Pam's."
"Sleepover?"
"Dunno. Hope so." Jim was half distracted by a group of zombies hanging outside the safe room, blocking their way to safety.
"Isobel's coming over, I'm gonna cook a rack of lamb." Mark still his tongue out of his mouth in concentration. "Boomer." The disgusting, bloated creature exploded safely at the hands of Mark's shot gun.
"Showing her some of your Welsh heritage." Mark's grandparents on his father's side were both from South Wales; he knew them better than his actual father. They'd chosen to stay
involved after his dad left and Mark's mom was happy to oblige. They were kind people who loved Mark dearly. Jim had met them many times, usually in the summer when they'd come to stay and see Mark for a few weeks when he was growing up.
"I like to think so. It's the only grown up meal I can cook."
"Being trying to teach you for years. Women love a man who can cook."
"Whatever, I'm not the reason there's a big hole in our carpet and a blood stain on the concrete. Get inside, hoard coming. What did you trip on anyway?"
The safe door closed giving them respite from the zombie apocalypse. Jim ignored the question.
"So you want the place to yourself if you can?"
"Yeah."
"See what I can do. Ready?" Jim was reloaded and poised at the door for the next section.
"Go for it."
They left the safe room blasting, a hoard upon them almost immediately. They worked well as a team, though the occasional stray bullet caught the other. Mark freed Jim from the grips of a Smoker in time for Jim to lob a Molotov cocktail behind them and buy time for an escape into a building.
"I introduced Pam and Nick, though they kinda met last night. That went well even if Nick was being all fatherly."
"Cool. Shit, I hear crying, lights off." Jim and Mark both switched off their characters lights in fear of setting off a vicious Witch, her trademark crying signalling her presence. "You wanna do something next Saturday? Is is gonna ask Pam, Pen and Kelly out for a dancing girls night."
"What did you have in mind?"
"Poker night?"
"That sounds great actually. Oh shit, I set off the witch! Help, help, help, help!" Jim cursed as Francis was incapacitated on theground shooting with his hand gun into the grey, flailing woman trying to claw out his insides.
Mark suddenly paused the game. "Was that a knock at the door?"
There was a distinctive rapping noise and Jim got up to see if Pam had returned. They'd agreed to sleep apart tonight and see each other tomorrow for their dinner date. He was a bit disappointed but it was good to hang out with Mark.
Jim opened the door and was more than a little stunned at who was waiting on the other side.
"Mom." The surprise in his voice was evident to the greying woman on the doorstep.
"Hello dear. Oh gosh, what happened to you?" She looked up at the cut on his head with motherly concern.
"Oh, I fell." Jim was still blindsided by his mom's appearance. He couldn't tell if she was here to apologise, or expected him to. Either way, this was an unusual development; his dad must have done a number on her. "What brings you here?"
"Can I come in?" There was no demand or expectation in her tone, she placed Jim in control.
"Ok." Jim said guardedly, willing to hear what she had to say, she was his mother after all. He stepped back to let her enter and Mark met them in the hallway.
"Hi Mrs Halpert." He smiled. Mark always had a way of making mom's love him, something about those chocolaty eyes. "You can both use the living room, I'll be upstairs." Jim gave Mark a crooked yet grateful smile.
"Thanks Mark, send your best to your mother when you next speak to her." Beamed Betsy, falling once again for Mark's charm.
"Will do." Mark gave Jim a meaningful look of support having had enough mother trouble to last a lifetime and head upstairs. Jim gestured towards the living room.
"Do you want a drink, mom?"
"Oh my goodness!" Jim's mom stood frozen in the doorway, her hazel eyes like saucers. "Is that...?"
Jim looked down where she was staring, he'd completely forgotten about the cut up carpet and the faded but still obvious blood stain on the concrete beneath. "Oh, yeah, that's mine, it looks worse than it was. The landlord is installing a new carpet next week. We can sit in the kitchen if you'd like."
"Can you cover it up or something?"
"Sure." Jim got a cloth from under the sink and laid it over the stain. His mom looked pale and sat facing away from the doorway so it wouldn't catch her eye line. "So, uh, what brings you here?"
"Were you dizzy before you fell? You fainted at your aunts that time, are you eating properly?" Her questions came thick and fast.
"Mom, I'm fine, I just tripped on something."
"Did you lose consciousness? Do you remember what happened?" His answers weren't helping as she became more frantic and answering those questions honestly was not going to improve things.
"Mom, quit stalling, why are you here?"
"Humph." She didn't like being taken off track but acquiesced. "I'm here to apologise. I shouldn't have been so negative without giving Pam a chance." She met his eyes, they looked reproachful, something he hadn't seen that often in his lifetime.
"Ok, thanks." Jim sensed there was more she wanted to say so stayed quiet, this was the best he could hope for at this point.
"I met her."
"Who?"
"Pam. I met her, yesterday, your father went in for his check up x-ray, she was there with that ghastly boss of yours."
"Oh..." Pam hadn't said anything about meeting his mom, she'd mentioned having a nice chat with an older woman but surely she'd mention something as big as this. They had plenty of time to talk in the hospital last night too, why would Pam keep something like this from him? "Are you sure it was her?"
"Receptionist at Dunder Mifflin called Pam with a boyfriend called Jim." She replied simply.
"Ok, so it was her." Why hadn't Pam said anything? "And?" His stomach was a ball of knots and acid.
"She loves you very much." Betsy reached out and placed a warm hand on her son's knee. "I didn't realise you were both in love."
"You didn't really give me a chance." He pulled away, he didn't know why but he was still angry, she had no business talking to Pam. "I told you it was serious. When have I told you about someone I'm seeing since college?"
"Well, we didn't exactly get to meet those girls."
"So you assumed I must be some dating disaster? Because of two women you never got to meet when I was nineteen?"
"Don't get your heckles up, I'm here to eat some humble pie, remember?" Her voice was surprisingly calm and a little soothing. Jim would hear her out.
"Fine."
"Pam didn't know who she was talking to, when I figured out who she was, well, I was a bit sneaky and asked a few questions, let her talk. She's a lovely girl."
"So you tricked her?" His forced his words to be calm but they were spoken through a tense jaw. That would explain a few things.
"A lie of omission." She qualified. "She met your father too, albeit briefly, I'm surprised with us both there she didn't pick up on the resemblance, you are the spitting image of your dad in his twenties, just scruffier." She teased but it didn't go down too well. "I'd like to meet her properly, have her over for dinner when you feel ready."
Jim didn't respond, he'd say something he'd regret. She'd tricked Pam. How was Pam supposed to get on with her now?
"I'm sorry. I should have introduced myself the moment I knew who she was. I was tempted, I could suss her out without her trying to impress me or make her nervous. The way she talked about you, it's just what every mother wants for her son."
"Ok." That was nice, but he worried about what Pam would think when she found out about his mom's trickery. Not exactly how he expected the whole 'meet the parents' thing to go down.
"I really would like to meet her, properly, your father too. He told me more about what you'd talked about, things about Pam and your... courtship. We'd very much like to get to know her, especially as it looks like she could well become family."
"That would be nice." He knew he'd caved, but hearing his mom talk about Pam becoming family was his weakness.
"I'm sorry I didn't give you enough credit. Pam as well, I thought that maybe she'd used you as a way out of her old relationship, I shouldn't have assumed the worst."
"That means a lot, thanks."
"So she's an artist? She said she was starting art classes, got a new place and a car all on her own."
"Yeah, all before we got together."
"So I worked out. I should have listened, I'm sorry darling but I'm listening now." She reached out again and maternally rubbed his forearm. "Tell me about her."
Yeah, this so isn't over.
I'm changing the way I update this story. Because I want to work on some other pieces but still do this opus justice I'm going to see if once a week Monday updates will work. Especially as my chapters tend to run upwards of 3,000 words. I think that'll work for me and you guys too. See you next Monday.