Holy crap!
It's been a long time.
Hello again to all those fellow Office fans who enjoy this story. I haven't forgotten about this. I've been working on it on and off for months.
And hello to the readers of my other fics. Stick around and take a look.
Jim:
Well, it's December already and tonight is the rehearsal dinner.
Pam:
And tomorrow...we're getting married! Plus I get to ride in a limo for the first time ever!
Jim:
That'll probably be the highlight of the day, won't it?
Pam:
You bet it will be.
(Turns to the camera)
Thanks again, guys, for providing that. We weren't sure what we were going to do for transportation for tomorrow.
Jim:
Yup. It's been really hectic these past few months.
Pam:
Yeah…I never realized how much work planning a wedding involves.
(Jim gives Pam a funny look that she notices)
Pam:
Well I got to work at a slower pace last time. Besides…it was more of an "idea" than anything real.
Jim:
Yeah, well tomorrow's going to be real. Very very real.
Pam:
Can't wait. I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight.
"I've got a girl-Her name is Pama Lama Ding Dong" Jim softly sang along to the radio as he drove through the streets of Scranton to the restaurant where their rehearsal dinner was to be held.
"Stop it," Pam admonished from the passenger seat
Her fiancé-soon-to-be-husband just grinned and kept on singing.
Pam rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Figures…the one non-Christmas song that comes on the radio has to be one that lets my fiancé channel his inner-Michael."
"Don't knock the classics, Pam," Jim said as he turned a corner. "They've lasted this long for a reason."
Pam just grunted and leaned forward to switch the radio over to the CD player. Soon the sounds of Bing Crosby singing Christmas classics filled the car. She leaned back and smiled at the memory of their first Christmas season as a couple and how Jim had roped her into babysitting his nieces and nephews with him while their parents did the last of their Christmas shopping.
They'd piled too many kids into this car and driven to Jim's too-small apartment while loudly singing along to this CD (the only one the children were willing to listen to at that time of year) to spend the day playing games and watching movies. She remembered watching Jim closely as he interacted with the children, especially the younger ones, and she could almost see a future scene play through the lens of a video camera as she recorded Jim playing with their own little one.
Pam would be the first to admit that she wasn't the best with children. But seeing Jim so at ease with them, the prospect of having a family didn't seem as scary as it used to.
Jim noticed Pam lost in her own thoughts with an odd smile on her face. Curious as to what was going on in her mind he asked softly over the music, "What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing…" she replied with a teasing smile. "Just drive."
Their grins grew wider and Jim turned his attention back to the road.
"Yes ma'am."
Pam:
My mind wanders a lot when I'm at work. I used to try and keep myself awake by playing Solitaire. Then I started sketching. Lately, I've just let myself day dream. They've been getting pretty vivid lately…and I really like what I see.
In their preoccupation with trying not to be late, neither of them particularly noticed that the restaurant's parking lot was packed. They just pulled in to the first space they saw-which in hindsight was suspiciously close to the restaurant-and quickly made their way inside.
"How do I look?" Pam asked as she took off her coat and smoothed her hands down her dress.
"Perfect."
Pam smiled and checked her appearance one last time. She looked up to see Jim looking at her with a funny smile on his face.
"What?"
"Nothing. I just really love the way you look with snow in your hair."
"You're sappy."
His arm came around her to pull her close.
"You love it," he murmured.
She just grunted as she felt his lips brush against the top of her head, "Hmphh."
"Ready?"
"Let's do this."
They walked up to where the hostess stood waiting for them.
"Yeah, hi. We're here for the-"
Jim never got to finish the sentence as the entire restaurant broke out in cheers. All their friends and family were on their feet. They could hear several voices-most of them children, with one sounding suspiciously like an adult male's-yelling out: "Surprise!"
Pam tugged on Jim's sleeve to get his attention.
"We're not late are we?" She asked above noise.
"No…" Jim said, adding extra syllables to the word as he looked at his watch. "We're actually a little early."
They were brought back to the moment by their parents. The fathers came up and clapped Jim on the back while the mothers engulfed Pam in a hug.
"You look shocked," Jim's mother observed as she released Pam.
"Yeah…" Pam replied, her voice a bit shaky with emotion. "A little."
"We all came fifteen minutes early."
"You wanted to surprise us?"
"Nah," Jim's father said as he moved in for a hug. "We just wanted to give you guys a proper welcome."
Jim:
My parents met in front of the principal's office. My mother was there for convincing half the cheerleading squad that the clocks in school were fifteen minutes fast, and my father was there for somehow managing to fill an entire classroom with packing peanuts.
(Grins widely)
All the way to the ceiling.
Jim and Pam had their worries about tonight, because it would be the first time their extended families would be meeting each other, and it would also be the first time that most of the people in this room would be exposed to the antics of their coworkers.
But the night turned out to be a pleasant one, with everyone getting along fine and behaving as normal people should (even Michael, surprisingly enough), although Jim did unleash his older nieces and nephews on Dwight to keep him distracted as a precautionary measure. The normally shy Mose, on the other hand, proved to be a hit with the younger kids, having a group of them around him as he told stories of life on the farm.
It was their siblings who provided much of the entertainment for the night, having lovingly put together a slideshow of some of the more embarrassing photos of Jim's and Pam's childhoods which they accompanied with narration. The gathered crowd laughed raucously, while Jim semi-bashfully covered his face with a hand and Pam leaned against him, burying her face into his shoulder.
But despite the teasing nature of the photos, it was obvious that they were put together with deliberate care. Each pair of photos showed Jim and Pam at corresponding moments in their lives. And despite the fact that neither knew each other back then, it was obvious to all those gathered that Jim and Pam had always been meant to be together.
The show finally ended to the thunderous applause of all those gathered. Jim stood, urging Pam to join him, ready to thank everybody for coming and to put an end to the night so that the next morning would come faster. He grabbed the microphone from his brother and pushed him out of the way with a brotherly shove and began to say his thanks.
That was, until a familiar voice suddenly screeched, "WAIT!"
Jim and Pam-along with the saner members of Dunder-Mifflin Scranton-thought the same thing at the same time: 'Uh-oh.'
But then again, would any of their get-togethers be complete anymore without the contributions of one Michael Scott?
In came Michael lugging, with the help of Dwight, a humongous trophy depicting a businessman carrying a briefcase.
To say that it was larger than their regular Dundie trophies would have been an understatement. The thing was easily more than half the size of the man who commissioned it, and judging by how red the two men's faces were, it was quite heavy as well.
Jim and Pam could only stand and stare along with everyone else in the restaurant as Michael and Dwight made their way towards them. The two men placed the trophy on the floor and straightened. They were both huffing and puffing from the strain.
"Hi, guys," Michael panted. "Uh, you mind?" he gestured towards the microphone in Jim's hand.
Completely dumbfounded, Jim couldn't think of anything to say as his boss simply plucked the device from his hand.
Michael turned to Dwight and began talking. The microphone was close enough to his mouth so that those gathered could make out what he was saying.
"Alright, Dwight. You can sit down now. No. I don't need you up here anymore…I said 'maybe' to you accompanying me with your recorder…would you just go already?"
He then turned to his unsuspecting audience and launched into his prepared speech:
"Hi there! I'm Michael Scott, Jim and Pam's boss over at Dunder-Mifflin. And this baby over here is a special Dundie. For those of you who don't know, the Dundies are Dunder-Mifflin Scranton's annual awards ceremonies where I hand out awards for various achievements in the fields that make Dunder-Mifflin great."
Pam gripped Jim's hand tightly as she wondered what she should do in the event that Michael decided to break out into one of his characters. She eyed her boss carefully, looking for telltale bulges in his pockets that might indicate what sort of props he might have concealed on his person. The last thing they needed was Michael offending someone or everyone.
"So tonight, we're here to commemorate Jim and Pam finally getting married. Everyone probably knows that they were secretly in loooooooove with each other for years before they got together. And I, as Jim's confidant, got to know a lot of details of their Sega-"
"Saga," Pam corrected automatically.
"That's what she said."
Jim looked at the friends and family who hadn't seen a Michael performance yet, and wasn't surprised to see the puzzled looks on nearly every face he could see.
Michael also took a look at his audience, and he noticed something that made him calm down and begin
"Well…I just want you to know that I never stopped rooting for you guys. And I'm glad that Jim took my advice and never gave up. So this special Dundie for 'Most Deserved Happy Ending' goes to Jim and Pam!"
The restaurant filled with applause and Michael suddenly pulled Jim and Pam into a tight hug.
"Okay, Michael. Thanks. You can go sit down now."
Finally free, Jim took up the microphone again and began to talk: "Thank you, Michael. And thank you, everybody…"
Jim:
Michael is usually Michael. But I've gotta admit. The man has his moments.
Pam:
I knew that we'd be getting a Dundie. I just didn't expect it to be this big.
(Camera zooms out to show the trophy beside her. It is a large silver cup on a solid wooden base with the figure of a briefcase toting businessman on top. The businessman's head is level with her chest)
I don't think this will fit in our car.
(Jim appears in frame)
Jim:
Yeah. My parents told me that they'd be willing to hold onto this thing until we get back from Australia. Then it's our problem.
Creed:
I know a place where you can trade stuff like that for more useful stuff.
"I'll see you at the altar tomorrow, Beesly."
"Enjoy using that name while you still can, Halpert."
Who knew there were so many songs that use "ramalamadingdong"? Gotta love Doowop.