Disclaimer: Don't own the show, characters, or anything, sadly.

Authors Note: Prom is up next Chapter! For the sheer girth of everything that needs to happen, the Prom may be a few chapters long. Oh, and if you were expecting it to end at the Prom…you're wrong. I may be beating a dead horse, but I don't see it ending there. It's climax will be there of course….but keep hanging on.

Further Note: I over write. That's just a fact. Most of the Chapters I post are condensed versions of what they once were. I'm thinking of, when the fic is finished, posting a chapter or so of 'deleted scenes.'

Chapter 6

A traffic jam, when you're already late.

// Individual shot Pam //

" The office is extremely tense today. Ryan is here to meet with the party planning committee, see all the final plans before this weekend. He's been greeted with a very hostile atmosphere. I mean, Kelly's a bit chattery, but everybody likes her for the most part. Michael actually told him that seeing as he didn't work here anymore, he wanted to revoke his 'Hottest in The Office' Dundee. I'm sure that was a crushing blow. Kelly hasn't come out into the main office all day. She's staying at her desk. Poor girl. In happier news though, Jim agreed to wear the 18th century tux I wanted him too, with the knickers and everything. It goes with my powder blue Victorian dress. I'm really excited. I always wanted to go classic to one of my Proms. I turned Dwight down about the carriage though. His cousin Mose was going to be the driver. I saw that as a mood killer."

"You appear tense." Angela states dryly as she sits at her desk, and Dwight makes a copy.

"That is expected, with such an evil looming overhead today. " Dwight says, just as stone like " He's making a mockery out of the branch. Stealing positions, sullying the good names of woman not quite accustomed to our culture. He's a madman."

Angela nods bleakly, not looking up from her work. "To bad Kelly doesn't have some strong, driven, intelligent man by her side. Perhaps next time, she will choose more wisely."

" Kelly doesn't have the…assets some women I know do." Dwight said, allowing a slight smile to reach only his eyes, and Angela's posture softens. "But, I won't see a member of our team made a fool of. I intend to do something about that firebug of a temp."

Angela nods. "Good luck with that Dwight. I don't know you too well, but I think if anyone can do it, you can."

Dwight is caught grinning as he walks away, and Angela's writing becomes more loopier, and girlish.

"So let me get this straight. You break up with Kelly using like five words, after you tried to break up with her like a million times before. Then, you two rendezvous in New York, you get her in bed, and then throw her out with no shoes on, and call her annoying. Then, you never try to apologize, and go out with my ex-girlfriend, and on that date you decided that Kelly's the one for you?" Jim pieces together scratching his head, as he sits in the break room with Ryan.

Michael had decided to take everyone out for ice cream. One of his morale boosters he had ensured Ryan. Jim got uninvited because he called 'I Robot' a mediocre movie, and Ryan was never invited in the first place. That did cut a little deep, seeing as Toby had even bee allowed to go.

"I never said she was 'the one" Ryan corrected, pacing the tiled floors, and Jim was propped on the counter eating out of a drum of perfectly good ice cream that had been in the fridge along with two more. "I just said I realized that she wasn't that bad, that I want to be her boyfriend again. Is that far fetched?"

Jim pondered that. With any normal girl, it would be completely far fetched. You say the things to Kelly that Ryan had said (and he knew everything he'd said because a little earlier in the week Dwight had sent around a revised transcript of the exact dialogue) to any other girl, and she would never give a second look. However, Kelly was a more of a romantic then most girls. More than any girl Jim had ever met. And, she was in love with, or at least deeply infatuated with, Ryan. Those elements lead him to believe that stranger things could happen, but since Ryan hadn't proved to be such a good guy lately, he figured he'd be blunt with him.

"Listen. If Kelly has any sense, and I mean half a neuron of anything other than pure naiveté, then I'd say she was done with you." Jim said and Ryan nodded darkly. "That's just one guy's opinion of course. You screwed up royally. You were given a second chance, and you tossed it too. Be satisfied with the fact it's your fault, and leave her alone."

Ryan ran both his hands over his face agitatedly, and continued to stomp around.

"I deserve that, I do" He admitted "But…I can't just walk away, you know? I mean, not after spending a year with her, hating most of it, and now feeling like I can't be happy without her. I know that sounds screwed up, but it's how I feel."

Jim just took a slow bite of vanilla chocolate swirl. As Ryan collapsed into a chair.

"What do I do?" Ryan asked though he didn't really expect Jim to know, or give him the answer.

Shrugging, Jim tried his best, even if Ryan didn't deserve it " Just. I don't know, be honest with her. But before you do that, be completely honest with yourself. Make sure that you earnestly want to be with Kelly, and not just have sex with her because she's never going to be 'that' girl. Apologize, and tell her how you feel. Go outside your comfort zone."

"What if…what if she won't take me back? What if she won't even listen to me?"

"Good. Then she's a smart girl." Jim said, but quickly added, "But, on your side, make her listen. She needs to hear what you have to say, whether she wants to or not."

Ryan nodded. Jim was right, for the most part. He had to make Kelly listen to him. That's exactly why he had written her the letter in his pocket. Everything wasn't in there, because she deserved to hear it face to face. Just the apology was in the letter, and the last part asked her to meet him, if only for a few minutes, in parking lot at the Prom.

Jim noticed people were starting to file back in, so he went back on to the floor to meet Pam. Ryan zipped into the back part of the office and laid the note on Kelly's desk before she would be able to see him do it. It was just a big blue envelope, with no writing, so she'd be sure to open it. No one saw him do it. No one, except a certain purple-belted, spud gun toting, beet farm owning, man on a mission.

Having met with the committee before the ice cream trip, Ryan excused himself after they're return. Everyone else headed back toward his or her desks. Angela and Dwight exchanged a few discreet words, which ended with Angela nodding dutifully.

Before Kelly could reach her desk, Angela summoned her to the accounting area, and inquired how she was wearing her hair to the Prom. Kelly was so into hairstyles, that she didn't even notice that this was a way off base question for Angela. And she certainly did not notice Dwight skulking to and from her desk area, carrying a blue envelope on his way back.

"And then I'm going to finish it off with some ringlets, if that's not to much, bu-" Kelly rambled on, but Angela was done with the conversation, now that she saw Dwight securely back at his desk with the 'package'.

"Sounds nice" Angela said stiffly "I'm just going simple. I find it sinful to spend so much thought on one's appearance. That's just me of course."

"So I did what was right, and brought the information straight to the one person who would know how to handle it best." Dwight stated, as he laid the torn envelope on Toby's desk.

Toby shook his head, not even daring to guess what sort of 'information' Dwight had brought him. Dwight's explanation of the events that the envelope concerned, complete with lots of code names and sign language speak, could not have been further from Toby's mental grasp.

"Okay, I have no idea what this is about, but why am I the best person to handle it?"

"Because, you are HR. This is exactly your field. It deals with humans, so make like your title, and resource it, or resolve it, or do something. I got the envelope, my duty is served. I will continue my surveillance and destroy tactics, but a lone man can only do so much."

Dwight dramatically turned and thundered off back toward his desk, and left Toby with no choice but to look over the contents of the envelope. Half because he worried what sort of mess Dwight was starting, and the other half out of sheer boredom. It was the last thing he expected to find.

Dear Kelly,

I don't even know where to start. Yeah, I do. I'm sorry. So sorry. I can't explain what made me blow up the way I did, so I won't even try. I know that I was so wrong. You deserve better. But I want you Kelly, I really do. I meant everything I said to you Friday; none of it, not one word was a lie. I wasted a lot of time not treating you how I should, and I want a chance to make that up to you, if you'll let me. All I'm asking is for a chance to tell you exactly how I feel in person. I know you're going to the Prom with Toby, but if you'll spare just a few minutes with me out in the parking lot, just a few minutes, I promise I won't ever let you down again.

Sincerely,

Ryan.

He read over the words several times, and his first instinct was to put it back on Kelly's desk. Then he started thinking though, this was just another chance for Ryan to lure Kelly away and get laid on Prom night. Frat boys never changed. His wife's new guy was an ex-Frat boy. After he got what he wanted, he would just dump on her, and leave her feeling ten times worse, especially about herself. Well, he wasn't going to let that happen. Ryan Howard had played his last game.

Taking a deep bated breath, he crumpled the letter, and tossed it in the trash bin under his desk.

"Ew. Toby. No way. Kelly isn't going to Prom with him" Michael said to Pam as the two of them, and Jim got ready to leave the office that night, the last ones out.

"Yes she is Michael. They're sort of on the verge of being an item" Pam smiled; as Jim took her hand on the way downstairs.

"He is sooo not right for her. He's old, divorced, and a total fun sucker. I already invited Packer to come and woo her on Prom night. He's stoked. He loves exotic women."

Jim and Pam both scoffed and rolled their eyes.

"Todd Packer is NOT what Kelly needs, not even close. He's like the last person she should be subjected to," Jim argued

Pam nodded in agreement "Besides, Kelly doesn't need another playboy type. Ryan used her enough already."

Michael shooed away that notion.

"Packer will show her a good time, just wait and see!"

No one looked convinced, not even Michael himself.

As they reached their cars, Pam suddenly remembered something. " I didn't see the clean-up guys heading up."

"Yeah, they have the long weekend off. They won't be back until Monday. Going to have to deal with the scraps piling up until then. Good thing it's just half day, for the Prom and all." Jim said in Michael's absence of knowledge.

"Ah, I can deal with it messy." Pam shrugged.

"That's what she said." Michael concluded the conversation, and left the pair actually giggling a bit.