Breaking Points

Chapter 2: Revelations & Confrontations

It's almost nine o'clock Monday night; I'm sitting in my room, watching TV. All of a sudden, my cell phone starts ringing. Who the hell can be calling me at this time of night? "Jim Halpert," I say into the phone.

"Jim!" I groan to myself, "It's Michael."

"Hello Michael."

"Jimbo, I need you to do me a favor."

"Michael, I really don't..."

"I need you to run to the office and get the red folder out of my desk. It's in the top left drawer. The key is taped to the bottom of my 'World's Best Boss' mug. It's right on top in there."

"Michael, I'm really tired, and I'm..."

"If you do this, I'll…I'll…well I'll do something for you." I sigh, Michael must really want that folder, whatever it is.

"Michael, the office is locked, I couldn't get in, even if I wanted to."

"There's a key in the plant next to door."

I can see that I'm not getting out of this so I say, "Alright, I'll do it."

"Thank you. Was that so hard?"

You have no idea, I think, but I say, "No, sir." I sit quietly and listen as he tells me how to get to his place from the office. When he hangs up, I put my phone in my pocket head out.

When I get to the office, I kneel down, and sure enough, there's a key hidden in the plant. I stand up and put the key into the door, I hear a click, signifying that the key worked. I open the door and walk in. I look at the reception desk fondly as my thoughts stray to Pam I have to find a way to stop her from marrying Roy. Snapping out of my reverie, I enter Michael's office.

I lift up his favorite mug, grinning as I remember the image of this very mug suspended in Jell-o. I pull the key off the bottom of the mug and place the key in the lock on the drawer. I pull the drawer open and there it is, the red folder. "What the hell is in this thing that's so important?" I mutter to myself. I open the folder, and almost throw up. It's porno. Okay, that's disgusting. First of all, what, is he to good to use the Internet like a normal person. Second of all, how dare he send me to pick up his porn?

I walk over to Pam's desk and run the folder and all it's contents into the shredder. I then proceed to empty the shredder into a garbage can, then I take the bag, so I can throw it in the dumpster near my house. Before I can go out the door though, I hear a noise, almost like a shout. What the hell? I put the bag down and move in the direction of the sound. I deduct that it came from the door leading to the warehouse. So I open it and descend the staircase. Before I get to the bottom of the flight though, I see the source of the sound.

Right in the middle of the floor, there are two people having sex. Almost instantly, I recognize both of them, first the woman, then the man. The woman I knew through Katie, it was her next-door neighbor Courtney. Then I realize who the man is, it's…Roy. For the second time in a matter of minutes, I feel a wave of nausea wash over me. I turn and move back up the stairs. Before I leave I pick up the bag. I lock the door and put the key back in its hiding place. I definitely need to talk to Pam, immediately.

Having thrown the bag into a dumpster, I get home and pick up the phone. I dial Pam's number and wait for her to pick up. She doesn't, the answering machine does, but I can't leave a message in case Roy finds it first. I call three more times, with the same result. "Damn!" I'll have to talk to Pam tomorrow, resigned to that fact, I pick up the phone again and call Michael. I lie to him and tell him I couldn't find his folder, even after searching the whole office.

"Oh. I must have it here somewhere then. Thanks anyway Jimmy. I'll make it up to you."

You'd better is all I can think. As I hang up the phone, my thoughts move back to what I saw in the warehouse. I feel terrible for Pam; she'll be crushed when she finds out. I sigh and start getting ready for what I know will be a restless night.

I wake up much the same way I did yesterday, being dragged awake by my alarm clock. As I repeat my morning routine again, I remember why all my insides have turned into lead and rocks overnight. A part of me hopes it was that it was just a dream, but I know it wasn't. I get into the car and drive back to the office.

There she is, sitting at reception, like always. I walk over to her, "Hey."

"Hey," she smiles at me, almost making me forget everything for a moment. The moment passes. The camera crew shows up. They seem drawn to the two of us for some reason. She looks concerned, "What's wrong?"

"I need to talk to you later. Okay?"

She looks really confused now, "Alright, but if you tell me that you're really a Russian spy, I'll have to call the FBI." She smiles at me again, which is the only reason I give a half-hearted laugh like I do. The cameraman is signaling me. I know what that means, the want me to do a one-on-one. I think I heard them calling them "floating heads."

He pulls me into the conference room and shuts the door. "What is it you have to tell Pam?"

I learned a long time ago that I have to repeat the question so they can have a sound byte. "What do I have to tell Pam? Well it really isn't something I should tell anybody but her." The cameraman glares at me, but I just say, "No I'm serious. I'm not telling you."

He sighs, stands up opens the door and says, "Oh well, thanks anyway," and walks out.

It's about 12:30 when Roy comes up to talk to Pam. I have to use all my willpower to not strangle him with my phone cord. He walks over to Pam's desk, "Hey babe, listen I'm goin' to lunch with some of the guys, so I'll see you later."

"Oh, okay, I guess I'll see you later then." She looks upset; I feel awful for what I'm going to have to tell her. She has to know though; it was for her own good.

I wait a few minutes after Roy leaves, then I get up and walk over to her. "Hey. You hungry?"

She gives looks at me gratefully and says, "Sure just give me a sec." I wait as she finishes whatever it is she's doing. When she stands up, we go into the break room. It's deserted, thank god because this could get ugly. We sit at a table with our lunches, and she says, "So what was it you had to talk to me about?"

I take a deep breath; this is it, no turning back. "Last night, Michael called me and asked me to come here and find a folder for him." She looks confused and opens mouth to say something, I hold up my hand and say, "Please Pam, let me finish. So anyway, I got here, and when I found it, it was full of…questionable material," her eyes widen at that, but she stays silent, "I ran the folder through the shredder and put it into a garbage bag to get rid of the evidence, when I heard something coming from the warehouse. Do you remember Katie?" She nods,still confused. "Well I saw her next-door neighbor Courtney having sex with a guy in the middle of the floor."

She gasps, "Who was it?"

I have a hard time getting the name out, in fact, it comes out muttered: "Roy."

Her eyes flash with confusion, then fury. It's so intense that I subconsciously recoil a couple inches. "No, it couldn't be Roy, he was at a bar with the other guys from the warehouse."

"Pam, it was Roy, I know it was. You can't marry him. He's cheating on you."

She starts screaming at me, "No Jim, you're WRONG! Roy would never cheat on me! He loves me!"

"Pam, I know it hurts, but you have to believe…"

She cuts me off, "Shut the fuck up Jim!" I stare at her shocked; I've never heard Pam curse before. "You've never liked Roy, don't think I never noticed. You've hated him since the first time you met him."

Now I'm yelling, "Yea Pam, you're right, I never liked him. He's rude, self-centered, and disrespectful. He doesn't care what you want; only what he wants. You can do so much better than him."

"With who Jim? You?" She accentuates the last word by jabbing her finger at me.

"God Damn it Pam, I'm only trying to keep you from ruining your life! I care about you too much to see that happen!"

"Oh, is that why you're going to be in Australia during the wedding!"

"Haven't you figured it out Pam? No? Well let me spell it out for you, I LOVE YOU! There, are you happy now? I can't watch you marry him, it'll kill me!" I'm acutely aware of the fact that the entire office is staring at us through the windows of the break room. But despite the situation we're in, I feel a little better at having that off my chest.

She's staring at me now, incredulous, "Oh, so that's it. You come in here with some bullshit story about Roy cheating on me so that I'll leave him. Then, I'm so grateful to you for saving me that I run to your arms. You make me sick Jim."

I can't believe this. How could she accuse me of something that low? How dare she? I throw my hands up, "You know what Pam, fuck you." I turn around and walk out of the break room. The camera crew tries to catch my attention, but I ignore them. I keep walking straight out of the office, despite Michael's attempts to stop me. I step into the elevator. When it reaches the ground floor, I walk out, and for the second time in as many days, I'm stopped halfway to my car by a call of my name.

"Jim," it's Ryan this time though. He runs up to me and puts his hand on my shoulder, "What the hell just happened up there Jim?"

"Listen temp, I'm in no mood for this, so get your fucking hand off me and shut the hell up." My voice is deathly quiet now. He steps away from me, and I walk the rest of the distance to my car. I get in and turn the key, throw the car into drive and peel out, leaving a large quantity of rubber on the pavement. It's not until I'm halfway home that the first of the tears fall from my eyes. Pam hates me; I have to get the hell out of Scranton, now.

Okay, chapter 2 is done. I hope you liked it. Yes, I know it's a downer, but…love sucks sometimes. Well look for chapter 3; different bat time, same bat channel.

PS: Thanks to everyone who reviewed, especially those of you who mentioned my tenses. I went back and edited it. If I missed anything here, let me know, I'll fix it ASAP.