Monday update again!

We'll be switching back to Monday only updates as I've run through my buffer of chapters.

Enjoy!


Chapter Fifty-One: Thursday Evening Continued

Jim arrived a little later than he planned as he'd called Mark to let him know he wasn't going to be home for dinner but ended up talking excitedly about his experience with Jamie. Mark was still referring to him as a 'bum' for being jobless but he had a couple of interviews for work the following week. It was a bit disconcerting, but Mark kept slapping him on the back and telling him he was doing the right thing and that he'd fight his corner if, or rather 'when', his parents flipped out. Then he'd make a joke about being Jim's sugar daddy and the sweetness left.

Mark's reaction had been quite something. He was all ready to make Jim apologise for being a bit of a dick to him before they left for the Parental Dinner, which Jim did of course, even if he didn't include all of the superlatives Mark had asked for. Then Jim sat him down on the couch told him why he'd been so uptight.

"Dude, you're totally shi-" He saw Pam nodding. "Mr Dependable quit? You, Jim Duncan Halpert, born of the loins of Elizabeth and Gerald Halpert, quit your job?"

"Yes."

"No."

"Seriously, I quit this afternoon and I'm gonna train to be a high school English teacher."

"Mr and Mrs Prankerton here don't fool this piece of cheese so early in the morning." Mark pointed accusingly at them both.

Pam was giggling and whispered, "Has he been drinking all night?" The unfortunate answer was that he was stone cold sober; he'd eaten a whole bag of Haribos.

"Well it's true, Mr Cheese except that it's midnight and what's up with the whole Mr and Mrs thing?"

"I got given a bag of sweets at work. You know, that place I go to earn money so I'm not a bum. Listen, you shouldn't joke about the teaching."

"Dude, seriously, I've applied at places, I should be able to commute, I'm gonna do this."

Mark stared at him. Then at Pam. "Is he screwing with me?"

"Nope, I was there."

"Was it good?"

"Meh, needed more planning. Ten out of ten for the surprise factor, right in the middle of the conference room during a seminar on time wasting."

"How long have you been planning this and not told me?" Mark actually looked hurt.

"I knew about thirty seconds before I actually did it. Should I text next time?"

"Appreciated."

"Not the smartest way to do it, I know."

"You have no job. Are you moving out?"

"I'm not moving out, I've got savings and I'm going to get another job, I'll have student loans too."

"Oh man! This is fantastic! Mr Halpert, the teacher!" He grabbed Jim by the upper arms and jiggled him around a bit. "Well done Pam, you've done more in two months than I've done since we
moved in. If only I had boobs, might have made some headway."

"Mark! For crying out loud, you can't even use being drunk as an excuse!"

"What? I'm stating a fact, right Pam?"

"Right. It's practically scientific fact, Jim." She witheringly shook her head at Jim.

"Seriously, this is awesome Jimmy. Don't freak out on us, will you? Shit!" He exclaimed like he'd just realised he'd left the gas on. "What did your parents say?"

"I didn't tell them."

"Good, good, they are going to go mental. I mean they'll flip a bitch."

"I know. But they'll get over it."

"Maybe."Mark said dourly.

"Yeah..."

"You got us, we'll help you out, morale support and pizza on occasion. Maybe you can get some part-time work one of Nick's stores?"

"Clean up on aisle five, clean up on aisle five." Pam said over her fake tannoy before being rewarded with a high-five from a laughing Mark. Everything would be fine.

Jim stood outside Pam's door and slipped his key into the lock. It still felt so good to do that simple thing.

"Hey Pam."

"Hey!" Pam bounded up to give him an enthusiastic hug. She'd changed out of her work clothes and into a skirt and t-shirt. What caught him off guard was that she was wearing her glasses; she didn't often wear them around him. She looked cute. "Still pumped up and humming?"

Jim took her hand and placed it over his heart. "Like you have no idea." Surely she could feel it pounding. "Glasses Pam?"

"I lost a contact lens in the shower." She said hastily. "I've got to go back to the kitchen real quick, go make yourself comfy."

Jim hung up his jacket and leaned in the doorway of the kitchen. He was too wired to sit down; he'd been squirming in the car the whole ride over. He wanted to see Pam. "Smells good in here, what's cooking?"

"Just a chicken casserole, there's more than enough for two if you want to stay, I'm gonna freeze some for healthy fast-food." She stirred the amazing smelling food with a wooden spoon before placing it back in the oven. Jim laughed when her glasses fogged up and she could only smirk in defiantly response.

"That sounds good, I'm starving."

"Won't be ready for another half hour. How was your day?"

He dragged her out of the kitchen for a kiss that he'd needed all day. She almost tripped over her own feet but he scooped her up into his arms and to his lips. He wasn't going to say another word until he'd gotten all the kisses he'd missed stealing throughout the day. Including one on the end of her nose.

"Uh... what was I saying?" She sighed happily.

"Couch." He demanded, sitting down and pulling her onto his lap. He had her laid so her back was up against his arm and the armrest and her legs curled up on a cushion. "I set up another job interview but please... don't laugh."

"Oooh, it's gotta be good."

"It's sales again."

"What would you be selling?"

"Cars. Used cars." He cringed.

"And how... is that better than paper?" She mused, putting her finger to the bottom of her chin in 'I'm thinking' pose that made Jim beam at her. She looked unbearably cute like that and
the glasses made it perfect.

"Ugh, I don't know, I'll be outside and the commissions should be better. It's the option on Saturday that swings it. Nick knew a guy who knew a guy."

"Just don't go from one miserable job to another."

"I wasn't miserable." He made sure to emphasise the last word.

"You weren't happy. I was pretty much your sole reason for staying, wasn't I?"

Jim wondered how long she'd wanted to ask that question, she looked pained.

"Sometimes." He was just a little short of honest but he'd only really been thinking about it on the drive over. "The money was ok, always met my commission cap, even last year when
Dwight stole one my biggest clients."

"He did?" Pam's jaw dropped and she looked furious.

"Yeah but I'm over it. As long as I'm heading in the right direction I don't really care what I do for money, it's about getting my qualification and if that means waiting tables or selling used
Corollas, I'll do it. I've got to keep some time free for the homework sessions because I want to keep doing that when term starts. Oh and I need to brush up on some other subjects, I can't just do English and math, I've got to try some science and history too. I'm ok on both of those, I suck at chemistry but I can work on that."

"I'm no help; I know that helium is the lightest element."

"Hydrogen."

"Sorry?"

"The lightest element is hydrogen." He hated correcting her; he didn't want to be an obnoxious know-it-all.

"Damn. See? No help."

"I only know that because Mark's got a mug with the periodic table on it."

"Cool."

"Nerd central more like, but then I have a Freakangels travel mug. Mark bought it for me a birthday ago."

"Freakangels?"

"Oh, um, it's a Warren Ellis graphic novel. It updates for free every Friday online but it's published too. He's one of my favourite graphic novel authors and Paul Duffield's artwork is just
brilliant, you should check it out just for the aesthetic and how he uses photo textures, they did a demonstration one week on how they colour everything. The storyline is brilliant too and all the characters are so well rounded and you can tell each of their histories has been thought out because each is so uniquely complex. There's this real sense that they are still immature, screwed up kids who were both blessed and cursed with abundant power that they couldn't even begin to fathom. And of course, they end the world, what...?"

Pam was grinning inanely and running her fingers through his hair so lightly it tickled.

"I love you, that's all." She smiled airily.

"Ok, yeah, I'm going on, I know, but it's awesome stuff. You should check it out, got a purple-ish bleached out feel, you'd like that kind of stuff."

"I will, never really looked at the art work in comics."

"Not comics, graphic novels, it's not Garfield."

"Aren't they just a gore fest?"

"Not everything out there is Frank Miller."

"Who?"

"Sin City?" He said as way of a reminder.

"Oh, eww, yeah, saw that." She shuddered.

"Not a fan?"

"It's not that, just the one scene with the girl and the hand. Or where her hand used to be."

"Oh, yeah, I remember, not exactly Toy Story. Hey, um, can I ask you a question?"

"Anything."

"You were right, I stayed for you."

"Umm, that's not a question but ok." Pam looked away and bit her lip hard. "I'm sorry."

"Hey, hey." He turned her head back to face him. "I'm not blaming you for anything, not even the tiniest little bit. I think it was more about using you as an excuse, a distraction so I had a
reason not to disappoint my parents. The thing is, I think I'm only just starting to realise how much that... dampened down who I am. I didn't see what was happening to me."

"I get what you mean, I didn't realise how much I'd dampened down with Roy but it's just... something Isobel said, you know that fight we had the day I moved in?"

"Yeah."

"One of the things she said was that you probably only stayed in that job for me and what was an English graduate doing in a crappy job that was beneath him if it wasn't for me. She said
I did the same. That I was staying for you. I'm paraphrasing but I thought about it a lot. I thought maybe if I hadn't led you on you would have left and you'd be a teacher already."

"That's just crazy." He brushed the hair that had fallen over her face away. She'd gotten into the habit of taking out her barrette when she got home. "I knew what I was getting myself into when I met you I just don't think I realised I had an underlying motivation. I was in a crappy job but it's more about me and that I was... letting myself get walked over. Or being too afraid to live my own life."

"You think that?"

"A little, I think that maybe it was easier to just to as I was told than risk making a huge mistake and proving everyone right. That and I really, really didn't want to move back home after college."

"Have you thought about what you're going to tell your parents?"

"Thought I might see them when I got accepted somewhere."

"That might not be for another month, won't they find out before then?"

"Yeah... which means I've gotta ask you something."

Pam put her hand over his eyes. "You're abusing your powers, Halpert. I will not tolerate those eyes on my couch!"

He surged up and kissed her but she didn't move her hand. "I know." He said, still blinded. He moved her hand away. "If my mom calls the office, can you put her through to my cell?"

"She's gonna find out through someone, she knows everyone and I can't outright lie to your mom, she'll hate me. Can't you just tell her to only use your cell, tell her that they're monitoring calls now and you can't make personal ones?"

"So much for not lying, Beesly?" He chided with a grin. "Good plan."

"I said I won't lie, you already are. By omission of course."

"It's for a good cause. I know this is right for me, I can feel it. I had no idea how much life Dunder Mifflin had sucked out of me. And by that I don't mean you! Sorry, you're wonderful and I love you."

"I know, don't worry, I get what you mean." She petted his head sweetly.

"I've even been thinking more, it's weird, like I've woken up my brain and it's not just to work out how many packets of chocolate covered Brazil nuts it would take to fill Dwight's desk."

"How many?"

"Thirty three, too expensive."

"I am so very proud of you."

"Because I can work out stuff like that?"

"For realising some difficult stuff, for making the harder choice when you could have just stayed and ended up in corporate." Jim half smiled, he had some way to go yet before Pam could be proud. "Maybe you'll have gotten Jan's job and started chain smoking."

"I think I'd resort to crack."

Pam laughed and kissed him again, sinking into his lap and the kiss simultaneously. "I miss making out with you in the stairwell." She stroked his face. "You shaved, where's my after work stubbliness?"

"I wanted to look presentable. I'm keeping different hours now."

"Have you thought about calling your old English teacher?"

"That might be a bit difficult; he... died... in my last year of college." Jim thought back to his conversation with Pam about when his mom thought he was depressed. That was the second time. He didn't take it well, he didn't realise anything was wrong until his weekly email from him didn't arrive. By then he'd already gone.

"Oh... oh I didn't know. I'm so sorry, honey."

"I forgot I didn't tell you, I meant to but I think we got sidetracked. It was quite sudden, viral meningitis."

"He'd be so happy for you."

"He would, he'd never had let me take that job at Dunder Mifflin either but I think that's gonna work in my favour, having that real world experience. Stay in school kids or be doomed to
work in a second rate paper company for the world's neediest boss."

"That would make me do my homework. Should have paid more attention in school."

"You won't be there forever either, you could quit tomorrow, you've got your rail switching options. Who knows what your destiny could be."

"But I'm happy for now." A buzzer rang from the kitchen. "Mmm, food!"

Pam sprung out of his lap and to the kitchen. Jim laid back and thought that for a jobless bum, he was doing good.


Another flashback included for you but it saves stringing stuff out, you get Jim and Pam cuddled up and Mark on Haribo (seriously, I get hyper on that stuff, like I'm six again). I will never get bored of writing Mark.

Also, Freakangels is a real webcomic by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield. I highly recommend you take a look but it's a mature webcomic so only peek if you're old enough. Google is your friend.

Hope you enjoyed the update and I'll see you next Monday. Oh, Thrown Away (My Office/CSI crossover) updated yesterday for those of you following that story too.