A/N: I want to address several concerns I received reviews about. I have nothing against Ryan; I think he's great. In fact, if you read, you'll see Jim agrees with me…
Breaking Point
Chapter 3: RunningThe tears stopped falling ten minutes before I got home. I take my keys out of the car and run inside. I go into my room and start some last-minute packing. I hope Mark isn't home, I don't feel like dealing with another human right now.
I feel like total shit. Pam probably will never talk to me again, I probably don't have a job anymore, and to top it off, I feel awful about how I treated Ryan, he's a good guy. He was just trying to help out. I'll have to apologize to him when I get back.
When I finish packing, I go into the living room. I sit on the couch to wait for it to become time for me to leave. I glance at my watch...it's half past two...only sixteen until my flight.
I suppose I can't blame Pam for her reaction. She's been with Roy for ten years. I know it probably wasn't the best decision to spring it on her like that, what was I supposed to do though, let her marry him without even trying to save her? Yeah right. Well I've done all I can do; it's up to her now. The only thing left for me to do now is to wait for six-thirty tomorrow and get on the plane.
It's nine o'clock now. I've been sitting here for six and a have hours. I haven't gotten up for anything. Not to answer the phone one of the seven times it rang, not to turn on the light when it started to get dark, and not to answer the door when someone knocked. Finally, I hear a key in the door; that'll be Mark getting home. Yup, here he is. He peers into the room cautiously, "Jim?"
"Yo," I reply glumly.
He walks over to the light switch and flips the lights on. I wince a bit in the bright light. "What's going on? Why are you sitting here in the dark?"
"Because my life sucks."
He sighs, walks over to the couch, and puts his hand on my shoulder, "Alright Jim, let's hear it." I lean back and stare at the ceiling as I begin to recount the events of last night and this morning, right up to the train wreck that was lunch, finishing with, "…so here we are. I don't know what to do. She doesn't believe me."
"Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor, not a shrink." I give out a little laugh, despite having heard the same joke a million times. "I don't know what to tell ya. You just gotta do what seems best."
"You still taking me to the airport tomorrow?"
"If you're still going."
"Thanks man." He slaps my back and goes upstairs. After a second I decide to go up too. Early day tomorrow, so I need to get to sleep soon. As if I'll be able to.
Today's different. I'm not being dragged awake by an alarm clock; someone is shaking me. "Dude, wake up. It's two o'clock. You gotta get ready. We have to leave in an hour to get you to the airport."
I slowly start to wake up, realizing that I'm leaving today. "Alright, I'm up." I start to get up, and Mark, satisfied that I'm up, leaves. I'm exhausted; I didn't get to sleep until midnight. I groggily go through my morning routine and put some final things into my suitcases, my toothbrush and all that stuff. When I finish, an hour later, I drag my stuff downstairs, where Mark's waiting for me. He helps me load up the car, we get in, and we're off. We're both too tired to hold any real conversation, so it's a pretty quiet drive to Philadelphia.
When he drops me off, I grab my stuff. I lean down, and he rolls down the window. "Thanks man. I owe you."
He yawns, "You're damn right you do. See you intwo weeks."
"See you." I carry my stuff into the airport, and go through all the wonderful airport stuff. Checking my bag, missing a random security screening (complete with cavity search) by one person, boarding. I lean back, just a short jump to LAX, and then I'm off to Sydney. I sit down, and as soon as the standard safety speech is finished, I'm asleep.
When I wake up half an hour or so later, it's because of an announcement of an in-flight movie. Star Trek: Nemesis. Some people around me groan, but I grin. I'm suddenly reminded of the joke I played on Pam on Monday. Pam. Oh god, what the hell am I doing? Pam's about to marry a man who's cheating on her and I'm here on a plane to LAX. What the hell is wrong with me? There's nothing I can do now though, so I ask the flight attendant for some headphones and try to enjoy the movie.
When the plane lands at LAX, I file my way off the plane with everyone else. As soon I reach the terminal, I look around for a service desk. When I spot one I run over to it. I only have a have baked plan in my head, but it's the best I've got. I have to get back to Scranton. The woman behind the desk looks up at me, "Hello sir, can I help you?"
"Hi. Can I exchange this ticket?" She takes the boarding pass out of my hand and examines it. "I'm sorry sir, this flight leaves tomorrow. If it were leaving Friday or later, I would be able to help you." I'm pretty sure that my heart just stopped.
I lean against the desk for support. "Please, I have to get back home," great my voice just cracked, "The woman I love is going to marry a man that's cheating on her. I'll do anything to get back." I can feel a burning sensation in my throat. I'm a second away from breaking down in the middle of the airport.
The woman gives me a small smile, and she weakly says, "I'll see if there's anything I can do." When she turns, I think I can see some tears in her eyes.
"Thank you," I manage to get out.
After a few minutes, she turns back toward me and says, "The best I can do for you is sell you a ticket to Philadelphia and take yours for Australia to resell. If someone buys it, we can credit you the price of the ticket.
I nod, "Thank you." It's better than I expected, that's for sure.
"May I see your credit card sir?" I hand it to her. She starts typing into the computer next to her. "The earliest flight I can get you on leaves on Saturday at ten a.m."
My heart just stopped again. "Saturday?"
"I'm sorry sir. We have other flights leaving before then, but they're all booked. If you can give me your cell phone number, someone can call you if a seat opens up." The next few minutes pass as a blur as I give her my cell phone number, which she types it into the computer, and give all the other information necessary to buy a ticket.
"Thank you, so much," I say when we finish and I start walking away.
"Goodbye sir."
As I'm walking away, I realize that I need to find a place to stay for the next few days. So I walk outside and hail a cab. He asks me where I want to go, and I say, "Nearest hotel." When the cab starts moving, I absently watch the scenery flash by for a few minutes, until the car pulls up to the hotel. I pay the driver and get out. I go to check in, which is difficult since I don't have a reservation. There is a free room though, so I check in and bring my bags up to it.
Over the next couple days, I stay in the room, ordering room service and waiting by my cell phone for it to ring. I consider calling Pam, but I reject the idea. I need to talk to her face to face. A phone call won't help my situation at all. When Saturday finally rolls around, I pack my things and go downstairs to check out. I get a cab ride to the airport and go to the appropriate gate to wait for the plane to start boarding. On my way there, I see the woman who sold me my ticket a few days ago. She apparently recognizes me, because when she sees me, she says, "Good luck sir." I smile and nod at her, but keep moving.
I only wait for ten minutes before they start boarding my row. When they do, I listen to the safety speech and wait for takeoff. I turn down the offer for headphones to listen to the in-flight movie. I have a lot of thinking to do. As soon as I got into the hotel room I made a call to arrange my transportation from Philly to Scranton. I called the camera crew from work. I picked them for a couple of reasons. First of all, I want this on film, I'm not sure why, I just do. Probably so nobody can say I never tried to do this. Second, they were the only ones I was sure could get me on Pam's wedding day. I would have called Ryan, but even if he isn't going to the wedding, I doubt he'd want to help me out. I have no clue what I'm going to say to Pam when I get there. I'm kind of hoping that the words just come to me as I'm speaking.
As I sit here, I think I'm absolutely insane. I have to be to be trying this. There's nothing I can do about it now though, I'm already on my way. I lean back and try to get some sleep.
I'm jolted awake as the pilot announces that we'll be landing soon. I sit silently as the plane contacts the runway and taxis into position. I file off the plane, and look around the terminal. After a couple seconds, I spot a man holding a sign with my name on it. It's Ken, one of the documentary's producers. "Ken. Thanks for coming. I really appreciate it."
He smiles at me and starts leading me outside, "Any time Jim, but you owe me now.
"Don't I know it?" I laugh for the first time in what feels like years. When we get outside, I see a van. "You brought the van?"
"I had to, it's the only way I could fit the crew too."
"The crew's in there too?" He just shakes his head and ushers me into the back. And, of course, there's a camera crew in back too. Ken climbs into the driver seat and looks at me in the rear view mirror.
"You sure you want to do this Jim?"
I meet his gaze, "Hell no. But I came this far, didn't I?" He shakes his head again and starts driving. As we're driving, I start thinking about what I'm going to do. I have no more idea than I did on the plane. I'm aware of the camera on me, but thankfully nobody says anything to me. I feel like a single word could destroy my entire resolve.
When we finally pull up to the church, I open the door and jump out before the van has even completely stopped. The cameraman jumps out and follows a couple feet behind me. I feel like I'm running in slow motion. The wedding's already started. It's almost over. Then I feel the wood of the door under my fingers. I throw it open and run inside. There's complete silence for a second, then, "Halpert. I knew you'd show up."
Ooooooh cliffhanger-y. Well, there's chapter 3. Pretty busy chapter huh? I hope you enjoyed it though. I know I liked writing it. And to everyone who reviewed, you guy are great. Keep doing it. We're starting to draw to a close. Two, maybe three more chapters left. Chapter 4 should be up soon.