Disclaimer: nothing belongs to me (that's true in general, but in this case I refer to the show and/or characters)

I'm a longtime fanfic reader but this is my first-ever story. I never would have thought my first one would be "The Office," but I'm obsessed with Jim and Pam and couldn't find enough about them, so I thought I'd write one myself. Constructive criticism requested and loved!

Set before/instead of "The Secret;" this is the first of probably 3 chapters.

Friday, 11:00 a.m.

Jim shut down his computer with a sigh. He never would have thought there was a worse place to spend a Friday morning than at Dunder Mifflin, until today. Today he realized there was no worse place to be than on a bus heading toward a weekend of Michael-sanctioned coworker bonding.

It was all Dwight's fault, really. Jim had done much worse to him than glue everything to his desk, but for some reason this time Dwight had snapped. After he stopped spitting, Michael had declared that the level of hostility in the office was "bumming him out," and decided that the entire office needed to spend the weekend on a retreat at a conference center in the woods two hours outside of Scranton.

Jim looked glumly at the brochure Michael had left on his desk. "Friendship Fields: Where Coworkers Become Friends" looked about as boring as Dunder Mifflin, but in the woods. It was a single, bland building surrounded by trees. Basically it looked like hell on earth. And Michael had come into work that day wearing his jeans, so it was definitely going to be a bad day.

Just then a piercing sound exploded behind Jim. Dwight came running out of the conference room, where he had been watching for the bus to arrive, blowing a whistle. "The bus is here. I repeat, the bus is here. Please collect your belongings and proceed to the parking lot in an orderly fashion."

Oh yeah. This was not going to be good.

Jim picked up his bag and went to Pam's desk, where she was staring into space like she hadn't even heard Dwight. She had been acting strangely all day, not smiling at any of his jokes about Michael's ironed jeans or helping him plan ways to torment Dwight on the bus. He had entertained the thought that she had broken up with Roy for a second before sternly reminding himself that Pam was his friend and he didn't want her to be unhappy.

In any case, he decided then and there that he would do whatever it took to cheer her up. If all else failed, the two bottles of vodka that he had packed in his overnight bag would do the trick. Not that he wanted to get Pam drunk again. Although, come to think of it, she was pretty happy when she was drunk at the Dundies… and alcohol was responsible for that one second of pure bliss he had experienced with her…

Okay, definitely have to stop that train of thought, Jim told himself. He wasn't the kind of guy who got girls drunk, he was the kind who took care of them once they were and made sure they got home safely to their fiancées.

"Hey Pam," he said, waving a hand in front of her face. "Come on, it's time to board the bus to hell."

She looked up and smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Oh, right." She pulled a bag out from under her desk and shut off her computer. "Let's throw spitballs at the back of Dwight's head."

Jim smiled. Even when she wasn't herself, Pam was still pretty much his favorite person ever.

They sat together in the middle of the bus, even there was enough room for everyone to have their own seat. He let her have the window seat, even though he sometimes got motion sick if he couldn't look outside.

For the first half an hour, Pam was clearly trying to act like her normal self, throwing spitballs at Dwight, who sat in the front seat where he was "using his superior sense of direction to help the driver navigate." Every time they made contact, Dwight would stand up, turn around and threaten to unleash his martial arts skills on anyone who threw another spitball at him.

Michael sat across from him, trying to talk to Phyllis about all the hot chicks in his condo development, while she knitted a scarf and tried to ignore him.

Once they ran out of paper, Pam turned her head and stared out the window, lost in thought. Jim stared at the back of her head, wondering what had her this down. Could she finally have realized that she was too good for Roy? But if that was the case, and she had been the one to dump him, wouldn't she be in a better mood? Jim couldn't believe that Roy would dump Pam; even though the guy didn't appreciate her enough, he'd be insane to break up with her. He'd never get another girl like her.

Jim exhaled deeply and turned to his other side to talk to Stanley. Except for several unsuccessful attempts made by Michael to get everyone to sing "The Wheels on the Bus" and "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall," the rest of the trip passed in peace.

Eventually the bus turned off the highway and down a winding road, and soon the building from the brochure appeared before them.

Michael bounded off the bus, followed by Dwight, who was blowing his whistle again, followed reluctantly by the rest of the Dunder Mifflin crew.

A man who bore a striking resemblance to Geraldo Rivera came out of the building and walked toward them with a placid smile on his face. "Helllllo friends," he said, in a voice that reminded Jim of Mr. Rogers. "Welcome to Friendship Fields. I'm Kenny, and I'll be your guide on your journey from coworkers to lifelong friends."

Jim exchanged sidelong glances with Stanley. He was starting to feel like he was on the Dr. Phil show or something. He realized with fear that he would likely be encouraged to talk about his feelings that weekend.

"Hi, Kenny, I'm Michael Scott, and I'm the leader of this rag-tag gang," Michael said. "You could say I've been their life guide."

"No you couldn't," Stanley muttered to Jim.

"Dwight Schrute, assistant regional manager, Dunder Mifflin Paper Company," Dwight said, breathing heavily at the front of the group.

Kenny looked taken aback but his calm, pleasant smile never left his face. "Okay then! Follow me and we'll get you settled before we get down to the business of bonding."

He turned and walked into the building, followed closely by Michael and Dwight, who was telling Kenny about his purple belt. The rest of the group stared miserably at each other before trudging into the building too. Jim hung back to walk with Pam, who was staring at the ground.

Bumping her shoulder gently with his, Jim bent down to look into her eyes and smiled. Her lips curled upward slightly, but it didn't reach her eyes.

… To be continued