What's in a name?

Jim stands behind her and rests a hand on each of her hips. He wants to wrap his arms around her and hold her tight the way she keeps wincing every time she moves he's being careful not to hurt her.

His eyes are still misting over. All he can remember is the way Pam looked when she first saw the baby. He can feel her trembling with nerves as he holds her. Five more minutes and they'll get to meet face to face.

"She's so beautiful and oh my God. She's so tiny." Pam whispers.

"She is." He agrees as he presses a kiss to the top of her head, resting his chin there.

"You're going to hold this over me aren't you?" Pam elbows him in the ribs gently. "The fact that you got to see her first."

"Never." He smiles so widely she can almost feel it.

When the doctor had come into Pam's room empty handed they'd both panicked. Pam's heart pounded so loudly in her ears she'd only heard every other word.

Jaundiced. Premature. Phototherapy.

It had scared her to death, until the doctor reassured them that she'd be fine, that it was common and that they could go and see her soon.

The waiting was torturous but now, as she stands with him staring at the baby all her worries melt away.

All she can see is perfection.

"Look. She's got like little sunglasses." Pam giggles softly as she places her hand on the glass.

"She's already in a tanning bed and she's accessorizing in the nursery. I already know I'm in trouble." Jim laughed back at her and shifted to kiss her temple.

Pam narrowed her eyes and focused. "Why isn't her name on there?"

"Huh?"

She slowly turns in his arms, blinks up at him. "All it says is Baby Girl Halpert. The other kids all have their names."

His face falls, looking dejected. "You don't like the name Baby Girl? Think of the career she'd have as an R&B artist."

Pam's eyes widen. "You forgot what name we decided on – didn't you?"

"What? Me? No." He gave her a look that said she was crazy. "Of course I remember."

"Then why didn't you tell them?" She replies, not buying it for a minute.

"I…"

"Jim. I can't believe you don't remember." She shakes her head and turns back towards the window.

"Hey. I was a little preoccupied. You were still in surgery when I first saw her you know."

"I know." Pam whispers. Her knees are weak and she's still a bit dizzy so she settles back against him again, reaching for his hand and linking his fingers with hers.

He kisses the top of her head again and sighs, and tries to remember…

Jim sat on the couch with Pam's feet resting in his lap. Lately she'd been complaining that her feet were swollen so he's taken to rubbing them at the end of the day.

Pam is hoping it's something that she can get him to continue far after the baby is born. His fingers, she's come to know on many levels, are nothing short of magical.

Sighing Pam rested her head on the arm of the couch, a book propped up against her distended stomach. Right on top of it rested a bowl of olives.

Usually? Pam hated olives but tonight she was eating them like popcorn. Lately her cravings were nothing short of insane. She seemed to eat mountains of olives. Tortilla chips dipped in mustard. Carrots dipped in peanut butter.

He smiled softly as he watched her, so mesmerized he didn't hear her at first.

"Jim. Are you listening to me?"

"Hmm?" He replied, pressing his thumb against the arch of her foot, causing her to sigh and the bowl to bobble a bit. He rushed to catch it before it fell. As he did he got an idea.

Gently he placed her feet back on the couch as he stood and moved towards the kitchen.

"JIM. Pay attention! There's a fifty-fifty chance here and we need to decide." She called after him. "Amanda? Abigail? Caitlin? Emily?"

She hears him opening and closing the cupboards. "What are you doing?"

He grinned as he walked back into the room with a teacup, a saucer and a wineglass.

"Just an experiment." He gives her a huge smile and settles back down next to her. "And I am paying attention. Names. Girls. Run down the short list."

She has no idea what the hell he's talking about as she turns another page. She feels him place something on her belly. She looks over the top of her book and sees the teacup resting squarely in the middle of her stomach. He sticks out his tongue a bit, the way he does when he's really concentrating and then balances the saucer on top of it.

She sighs at him, exasperated and prays she's carrying a girl. Having another male in the house with Jim's ingenuity might just kill her.

"Jim. That is my good china."

"I know. Don't worry." He grins back at her. "Pam, seriously. It's amazing what you can do. You could be in the circus or something."

He places the wineglass atop the saucer.

Her eyes widen as she watches him. "And my crystal? JIM!"

Annoyed, she lies very still and waits for him to dismantle the tower. Someone, however, is not quite as patient. The baby moves and causes his little experiment to topple.

Lucky for Jim his fingers are nimble. He manages to keep everything from crashing to the floor.

"Wow. That was weird." Jim laughed as he placed the items on the coffee table.

"No." Pam disagreed, placing a hand protectively over her belly. "That was your child saying 'Quit treating my mother like a sideshow freak and name me already.'"

She looks at him, still annoyed but it vanishes quickly as he rested his hand there, rubbing a circle over it absently. He bends his head to place a kiss where his hand just laid.

She was getting more and more frustrated. "Gosh. Jim. Why is this so hard?"

He chuckled against her stomach. "That's what she said."

She glared at him. "Seriously. Jim. We're naming our firstborn. A little decorum might be in order."

"You're right. Let me see." He sits up straight and takes the book from her. He looks up Pamela and his eyes widen in surprise. "Hey. Your name means…sweetness or honey."

"I know." She gives him a look of warning. She can see the words on the tip of his tongue as she adds for good measure. "You'd better watch it."

"Hey. I was not going to say that. I was going to say you are absolutely perfectly named." He leans over, with some difficulty due to her condition, and presses a kiss to her lips.

"Oh just so know your name means 'one who supplants'." She laughed back at him.

"What the hell does that mean?" He looked confused.

"You tell me. It's your name." She laughed back at him.

He keeps flipping through the pages and then closes the book and gazes over at her. "Pam, honestly. I'm happy with whatever you choose."

"Really?" She asked hopefully.

"Really." He replied.

"OK, then. I like this one." She took the book and rifled through pointing at a name and nervously nibbling on her bottom lip.

He read the name and the meaning that corresponded to it, looked over and met her gaze. His whole face filled with a smile.

"I love it." He whispered. "That's perfect."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"Favor or blessing." He said softly as he watched Pam sitting in the rocker cooing to their daughter as she held her close. There was a moment when he'd thought he'd never see the day.

He was so glad he had been wrong.

"What?" She hardly heard him. She was incredibly distracted at the moment.

"Her name. That's what it means." He sank to his kneels next to the chair, running his finger gently over the baby's cheek. "Favor or blessing."

She shifts her gaze to his - smiling widely. "You remember."

"Now I do." He nods back at her. "It's perfect."

"It is." She whispers as she places a kiss on her forehead. "Oh God. But she still needs a middle name though."

"Hmm. How about…Danger?" He said softly as he presses a kiss to her temple.

"Jim. Why didn't I think of that? That's simply beautiful." She laughed as she looked up at him again. "What do you think huh?" She asked their daughter, her voice low and soothing. "Do you want to be Grace Danger Halpert?"

Jim likes the idea even better the more he thinks about it. "I think it's perfect - it's like a built in warning. When she gets to high school it'll keep those boys from getting any bright ideas."

Pam rolls her eyes. "Don't worry sweetheart." She promises her daughter. "I'll keep him in line."

"Seriously." He chuckles back at her and has a sudden epiphany. "Here's an idea. We could use your name." He runs a hand over his daughter's hair, wondering if one day it'd grow curly. "Since – you know - she is a piece of both of us."

When he said things like that it just reassured her, for the millionth time over, that choosing him was the best decision she'd ever made.

"Grace Beesly Halpert." Pam pondered for a second and though she'd been thinking of something more like Anne or Elizabeth she found the sound of their names together made her smile. "Not too bad."

"How 'bout it Gracie?" Jim asks and watches as her hand reaches out and latches onto his finger, holding on tight.

Pam can't believe it. She falls more in love with the two of them every second. And look. He's already given her a nickname. Could he get any cuter?

She beamed over at Jim as she agreed. "I think she likes it. I think…it's perfect." She gazed down at Grace again and sighed contentedly.

Watching them together, Jim's heart quite simply overflows. Taking it all in he nods and smiles. "Yes. It certainly is."