Disclaimer: I never owned this show, okay. No matter what others may say. You didn't hear it from me.

A/N: Okay, this is probably the most difficult chapter I ever had to right, ever. It is pretty deep, so you have been warned. I just want to let you readers know that I am a huge fan of Jan and Michael. When I first saw 'The Client', I thought,'Man, this could actually work.' LOL. With that in mind, I present to you the next chapter...

11:34 pm

Michael and Paul pulled in front of a brownstone. When Michael got out of the buggy, he immediately recognized the place, it was Jan's home from when she lived in New York City. Countless memories came flooding back into his mind.

Michael turned toward Paul, "She's in there?"

Paul nodded, "Uh huh. She's up there, alright." He started making his usual stance, prepared for transporting. He extended his arm for Michael, "C'mon, we have to hurry up."

Michael rushed over, "What's the hurry?"

Paul shook his head and ignored him. When they opened their eyes, they were standing in Jan's living room. Paul looked around, "Here we are. Jan Levison's home."

Michael scanned the place and was flooded by many memories and moments spent in this 'lair of love'. He looked at a purple couch, "Man, I remember me and Jan making out on that thing for like five hours. Man, that was good night."

Paul mumbled, "That's fantastic."

Michael nodded, "I know, right? Me and Jan had some great times here." His eyes fell on a large straw hat, "Ah man, I remember this thing. God, I remember this one time me and her were taking photos, you know? I took a really nice one with her wearing this."

Paul smirked, "That's sounds -

Michael chuckled, "Yeah, she was wearing only this. Man, she was so smoking hot naked in that picture. We had a few laughs during that afternoon."

Paul grimaced, "Lovely."

Michael walked around, admiring little trinkets and furniture that Jan possessed, as if for the first time. He traveled into the kitchen, "Man, I can't even count how many times we made love on the kitchen table."

Paul protested, "Must you have to tell me every single thing you did with Jan in this place?"

Michael shrugged, "Just reminiscin'." He started looking worried as he went through each room and finding no Jan. "Where's Jan?"

Paul looked apprehensive, "Michael... I need you to understand that this is the life without you in it."

Michael asked again more anxious, "Where's Jan, Paul?"

Paul looked sullen, "Do you understand what I'm -

Michael looked at Paul stern, "Where's my Jan?"

Paul sighed, "Michael, let me explain. Jan still works for Dunder Mifflin. She never had any relationship other than work-related with any other employee. She is still Vice-President of Regional Sales and has held that ranking for the past seven years -

Michael sighed annoyingly, "Would you cut it with the crap, already? Tell me where she is!"

Paul nodded, "I need to tell you this so that you can fully understand what happened, okay?" Michael nodded. Paul sighed, "You see, Jan never really connected with anyone here at Dunder Mifflin, not like she did with you. She had her friends and her status in the corporate world, but at the end of the day, there really was no one there. She was married to Gould, but they did eventually divorce, mostly for the same reasons as before."

Michael tried to keep up but the urgency to see his girlfriend burned inside him. Paul continued, "As you can see," He gestured to several photographs of Jan's. Some of them were with family. Others with friends. But none of them really showcased anything that showed Jan happy. She seemed to show generic grins and courteous smiles, but nothing seemed real, nothing seemed authentic. "Jan wasn't the happiest person in the world."

Michael held a picture of her that was taken a few years ago. It was a photograph he never saw before. She looked exquisite in photo, but there seemed to be a darkness in her eyes, a sort of emptiness that peeked through. "She seems so... lost."

Paul agreed, "She was lost. She never had anyone she could truly count on, no one she could lean on for support and comfort. She was alone."

Michael spun around, "But Jan... she's so strong. She's Superwoman. She can do anything... she was always strong -

"When you were around." Paul chuckled, "You see, Michael. You gave Jan the courage to be her own person, to be herself. Before you, all she was to anyone was this 'Ice Queen'. She had removed herself from anything non-work related and focused on being the best worker she could be. She missed out on so many things, but when she found you, she didn't have to be that person in the office, she could be herself. She could laugh or cry or dance or ..." He grimaced, "Take naked photographs... in a straw hat. She could never do those things if it weren't for you."

Michael looked awestruck, "I made her do that?"

Paul shook her head, "No, you let her, Michael. No one ever gave her the encouragement to be herself. She always had to put on a front with people and separate herself so that she could survive, but with you, you gave her another option, another way to live, a better way to live."

Michael shook his head in disbelief, "I couldn't possibly -

Paul shook his head, "Never underestimate the power of love, Michael. It can do extraordinary things. You gave Jan something no one ever gave to her, and that's unrelenting, unconditional love. You let love lead you blindly into her arms and never let her go. You gave Jan hope that real love, true love existed. She needs you more than you could ever know, Michael. I want you to understand that Jan..." Paul froze.

Michael asked anxiously, "Understand what?"

As soon as that question left his lips, Jan's grandfather clock chimed the time as midnight. Boom boom boom boom The chimes rang throughout the brownstone, rattling the china hung on the walls and the crystal in the cabinets. It rang omnisciently through everything, marking the hour, marking the new day.

Michael rushed to Paul's side, "Paul? Where's Jan? Tell me where she is, please?"

Paul shook his head and glared up the stairs, "You have to understand that Jan... she can't live without love... she can't live without you."

Michael stood still as a chill went down his spine, "What was that? Did you feel that?"

Paul shook his head, "I can't feel anything. Ever."

Michael followed Paul's gaze up the stairs, "She's up there, isn't she?" Michael didn't wait for an answer. He ran upstairs in search of Jan.

Paul ran after him, "Michael please, stop! You don't understand the magnitude of this. Please, stop!"

Michael didn't pay attention to Paul's warnings and ran down the hallway, "Jan! Jan! Baby, can you hear me?!"

Paul met Michael, "You know she can't."

Michael pushed Paul against a wall, "Tell me where she is or I'll -

Paul looked at Michael straight in the eye, "Or you'll do what, Michael? Kill me? I'm you're guardian angel, Michael. You can't kill me or harm me. You couldn't even pinch me if you wanted." He pushed him aside and brushed himself off. He looked at him again, with more intensity than ever before. "You still don't get this, do you? This is your life, Michael Scott! You chose this! You wanted this! This is what you wished for on the solitaire bridge, wasn't it? You never wanted to be born! Well... this is it, Michael. This is your life, now."

Michael looked terrified, "I just want to know where Jan is, that's all."

Paul pointed down the hall, "She's right down there." He pointed to a lonely door in the corner, her bedroom. There was no light coming from underneath the door or from the door frame. It looked completely deserted.

Michael walked cautiously to the end of the hall, feeling another chill down his spine, making him flinch. He took a deep breath and entered. He looked around and saw a cold and dark room. It looked nothing like the bedroom he fantasied about when he was away from Jan in Scranton. It wasn't as bright and colorful as her. He liked her bedroom most of all out of any other room in her brownstone. In this room, it actually looked like she lived in it. It had pictures of her in college on the walls, pictures of her on vacation, including the one to Sandals, Jamaica with him. He loved looking at the paintings she hung and the space that she could call her own. To him, this room was his Jan. Looking around it now, he couldn't recognize anything. Everything reminded him of the rest of the house: cold and distant.

Paul came up behind Michael, "Michael -

"I don't see her. Where is she?" He looked around the room, "Jan, sweetheart. Can you hear me?"

Paul shook his head, "She can't -

Michael silenced him, "Just leave me alone." He scanned the room and noticed clothes on the floor. He reached down and tried to touch it, maybe just to feel something of hers, be close to her somehow. "Why are her clothes all on the floor?" He looked around some more and noticed that the bed wasn't made. "She always makes the bed. She always freaked out when I didn't make the bed when I came over." He scanned the room one more time and noticed something he didn't before, a bottle of vodka. As he approached the bottle, he noticed something else, a bottle of prescription pills. He read the bottle which were sleeping pills: 'DON'T DRINK WITH ALCOHOL. POTENTIALLY FATAL.' Michael dropped the pills and ran to Paul, "Where is she, Paul?" He started to choke up, "Please... tell me where she is..."

Paul looked to the window. Michael followed his gaze, walking in that direction. Paul tried to protest, "Please, Michael. I don't want you to see -

But it was too late. Michael walked to the other side of the room and found a cold Jan Levison, dead on the floor.

"No... no, please God, no... not Jan, not my Jan... NO!" He rushed to her side and tried to touch her, failing. "Paul, make me touch her. Let me touch her... please!"

Paul looked over solemnly, "I'm afraid I can't do that. Michael -

Michael spat back, "What kind of guardian angel or you anyway? How can you let this happen? Why won't you do something."

Paul shouted back, "I can't! I'm as powerless to stop it as much as you are. You wanted this, Michael. This was your choice. These are the consequences. You wanted a non-life, well.. you got it, pal. This is your life!"

Michael began to sob over Jan cold corpse, "I don't want this life. I don't be non-existent. I wanna live. I don't want to be in a life where I can't touch her, it's not worth living."

Paul shook his head, "I'm sorry, Michael. But this is the way it is."

Michael stayed where he was, "I wanna go back."

Paul looked at him sternly, "What?"

Michael repeated more clearly and determined, "I wanna go back. I don't care how, I just need to get back."

Paul stood up straighter, "Are you sure, Michael. Remember, this is a non-life. You have no rules to abide by, no strings holding you down, no troubles of a normal life to restrain you. You're life is your own."

Michael had tuned Paul out and looked at the stiff corpse of Jan. One particular memory came flooding back to him:

Michael was laying next to Jan on a lazy Sunday afternoon. They had just made love for the third time that day and were just holding each other. Jan had her head on Michael chest, while Michael simply breathed in Jan's shampoo in her hair.

Jan asked meekly, "Michael, do you wonder what it would be like to have children?"

Michael chuckled, "All the time."

Jan chuckled, "Really?"

Michael nodded, "Oh yeah. I imagine that I would have four or five kids, you know, running around. Playing hopscotch outside or double-dutch. Playing with water balloons and eating corn dogs."

Jan sniffed into his chest, "That's sounds nice."

Michael smiled, "Yeah, and I'd teach the boys how to play football and catch and I'll have tea parties with the girls and play with their dollies."

Jan chuckled, "I don't think it's necessary for you to play with dollies and have tea parties -

Michael scoffed, "Hodge podge, of course I'll do that stuff."

Jan perked up, "Why?"

Michael shrugged, "Because I'd love them."

Jan shook her head in amazement, "How do you do it?"

Michael looked confused, "Do what?"

Jan sat up next him, "You know... do that."

Michael laughed out loud, "What are you talking about?"

Jan looked more annoyed but amused, "Be so... I don't know... loving?"

Michael chuckled, "I don't know, I just do."

Jan leaned back on his chest, "You amaze me, sometimes."

Michael nodded, "You amaze me, too."

Jan smiled as Michael held her in his arms. Michael spoke ever so softly, "I love you, Jan."

Jan always stiffed up when Michael expressed his love for her, and he expected it, with no response, but that day was different. She got more comfortable in his embrace and breathed, "I love you, too."

Michael had never felt so elated as he did in that moment. It was the first time she ever said those words to him. She looked up at him and in that moment, she never looked more beautiful. She said it again with more conviction, "I love you."

As that memory flooded away back in the corners of Michael's mind, Michael felt cold again, alone again.

Paul repeated, "Are you sure, this is what you want, Michael. After this, there's no going back."

Michael quietly breathed, "Who would want to come back to this? This isn't a life. A life is where I can touch and hold her. A life is where I can be with her and only her. That's a life, my life. And my life is her life. She's my life, Paul. I don't wanna a non-life. I have a life, and she's it. She's all I need."

Paul smiled and nodded, "You finally understand." With that, Paul snatched Michael's arm and closed his eyes.

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Michael opened his eyes and saw water. He breathed in and out and smelled the polluted water of Lake Scranton. "Paul? ... Jan?... Where are you? Paul?... I need you... Where are you?..." He hadn't realized that the snow started again, he simply looked over the edge of the bridge. "Am I really back?"

At that moment, Michael heard something coming up the road. He looked and saw a car pulling up besides his own. As he stepped away from the railing, he tried to catch a glance of the vehicle, but couldn't make it out through all the snow. He saw a shadow step out the car and walk into the streetlight. Michael felt at ease when he recognized the lone shadow as Dwight came running toward him, "Michael, we've been worried sick about you!"

Michael breathed a sigh of relief, he was home.

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More to come. In the next chapter, everything comes together. This is the last chapter than the epilouge. They will either be posted by tonight or tomorrow. I wanna hear some begging and some pleading here, folks! lol. Hope you've enjoyed thus far, I know I have.

PLEASE REVIEW, or I'll be angry and you don't want me to be angry. (not an open threat!)