Day Six (Jim's Pov)

I woke up to sunlight streaming in through the window, the storm of yesterday finally passing. It took me a second to register that she was in my bed, curled up against me. A dizzying feeling of happiness washed over me as I recounted just what had happened last night. And there she was, still in my bed, still with me.

I shifted carefully, so not to wake her and leaned over, watching her sleep soundly, peacefully; admiring how the light of the early morning streamed in through the window, illuminating her, creating a wonderful glow. She was so beautiful that I could hardly believe my luck to have her lying there next to me. I traced my fingers up her bare arm to her shoulder and down again, reveling in the feel of her soft skin.

Man, I loved this girl.

Some of her gorgeous curls had fallen over her cheek so I gently tucked them behind her ear and continued to trace my finger along her jawbone up to her chin. Unexpectedly, she jolted awake and began screaming.

"Get it off me, get it off me," she panicked, thrashing about, trying to brush whatever she thought was crawling on her off. As she sat up, the sheet fell, revealing her perfect breasts.

I think I loved her even more. "Good morning," I said trying hard not to laugh too much.

"Is it still on the bed," she cried, looking frantically around her.

"Nothing on this bed but you and me," I assured her.

"Oh," she said, relaxing a little. Then, whether it was from feeling embarrassed about how she woke up or realizing that she was sitting there half naked I wasn't sure, but Pam blushed, pulling the sheet back up to cover her. "I thought a bug or something was crawling on me," she said sheepishly.

I grinned at her. "Nope, that was just me."

She let out a laugh and curled up again, snuggling close. "Hi," she said brightly, her green eyes giving me an adoring look.

"Hey," I replied, not hesitating to lean down and give her a deep kiss. "Did you sleep alright?" I asked, brushing a few strands of hair off her forehead.

"Yeah," she replied warmly.

Usually, there was an awkwardness the morning after my first time with a girl, if there was a morning after. Not with Pam, though. It felt comfortable. It felt right. I wanted to wake up this way for the rest of my life.

I began to kiss her again. "What time do you need to be a work?" I asked between kisses. As she stretched her head back to look at the clock, I began to work my way down her heck.

"I should probably be there now," she said breathlessly.

I paused. "So…"

Her thigh purposely brushed against me, finding me ready for her. She grinned. "I can be a little late today," she said pulling me close to kiss me.

God, I really loved this girl.

I ended up being almost an hour late for work. When I got in, I expected some sort of lecture from Dwight but he seemed to be too busy on his computer to notice me and I was too giddy to care. But the moment I settled in, he began to talk.

"I expect you had a most productive evening," he stated.

I assumed he was talking about work though I learned long ago, I shouldn't assume anything when it came to Dwight. "What are you talking about?" I asked. "I had the evening off."

He grinned like a Cheshire cat. "Well, based on that dopey grin you have on you face, I can assume you consummated your relationship with the PR girl from the museum."

"Oh my god," I said keeping my eyes fixed on my computer, which seemed to be taking its time to load. "Okay, let's not talk about this."

"You know," he said rolling his chair next to me. "You are not the only one who pleasured a woman last night."

"Stop," I insisted, trying very hard to ignore Dwight's stare.

Unfortunately, he continued. "Angela is a goddess among women and I made her bow down to me last night…"

"Does this really need to be discussed?" I asked as I frantically clicked the button to open my email

"Oh, please," Dwight scoffed. "I'll bet you didn't even make her orgasm last night. Do you even know how to make a woman orgasm, Jim?"

"Alright…" Having enough, I quickly stood up. "Time for coffee."

"…I'll have to ask Karen when I see her..." I heard him say as I left the room.

When I got to the break room, I noticed all of the interns gathered around one of the tables talking feverishly. Normally, I don't notice what the interns discuss but I thought I heard mention of the art festival.

"What's going on?" I asked the newest intern, Erin, who was also getting coffee at the moment.

"Oh, hey Mr. Halpert, you haven't heard?" She was genuinely surprised. "Oh, well, there's all this gossip going on about last night at the art festival."

"What gossip?" I asked mildly interested as I poured my coffee.

"Well, you see, Stanley was there and a few of us saw him without his wife," she explained in her overly perky voice. "And bunch of the other guys think he's having an affair with the woman. I said that I didn't believe it because Stanley is such a nice guy and why would anyone want to cheat on their wives? But they insist that Stanley kissed her. I did not see that so I can't say one way or the other. And I really don't like to gossip anyway but no one else has any other interesting subjects to talk about."

"Okay, then," I said sipping my coffee. "And that's pretty much it?" I asked hoping that my name was not involved in the gossip mill that day.

Erin fazed out for a moment, as if she had to think it over. "I don't think so. Oh, wait, I do have a message for you. Mr. Porter said that he needed you and I in his office as soon as you got in," she said grinning proudly.

"Did he say why?" I asked, my mind once again racing to the possibility of being fired, though I doubt he'd fire me in front of Erin.

"No," she answered. "But I'm excited. When your boss wants to see you that's usually good right?"

The girl's naivety was astounding. "Come on," I said. "Let's go see what Josh wants."

How many times that week had I ended up in Josh's office? I had lost count. At least when I entered he didn't look upset. He didn't look much anything but I took indifference as a good thing and sat in the chair across from him. Erin, still looking overly perky, took the seat next to him.

"Josh, look," I started. "I just want to say upfront that I'm sorry."

Josh looked confused. "Why?"

I was silent, no use digging a hole for myself. "Ah, nothing," I said, thinking I should just make a joke out of it. "Just how I normally tend to start conversations with you lately."

Thankfully, Josh laughed. "Actually, Jim, I wanted to commend you. You've picked up a little of that work ethic I felt was missing for a while."

"Thanks, Josh," I said with a smile. This day was off to a fantastic start.

"And that's why I wanted to talk to you," Josh continued. "Look, even after doing a complete turnabout, I can't take you off probation right away. But, I can hurry the process along a little. Here's the thing, I just got a call this morning and I have to go up to New York today, something about a fraud and, well, doesn't matter. What matters is that I'll be gone pretty much all day. So, I thought maybe I could leave you in charge. Now, there's not a whole lot going on today, so it should be an easy time. All you have to do is make sure everyone gets their assignments for the day and settle any day to day issues. Basically, just make sure everything runs smoothly. And, if it does, we can probably lift the probation early."

"Really?" I asked, a little stunned to hear Josh not only have confidence in me but that I might have a chance to be off probation as well. I grinned, feeling almost as giddy as I did when I woke up that morning. "I mean, wow, I didn't expect that. Yeah, I can definitely watch the place while you're gone."

"Good," Josh said with a smile on his face. "I was hoping to hear you say that."

"Oh, wow," Erin added, she was grinning wider than I was. "Mr. Halpert, that is an amazing opportunity. I am so happy for you. Congratulations."

I was excited myself but Erin was taking it to a whole new level. "Thanks, Erin," I said not quite sure how to react to her enthusiasm.

"There's one other thing I'd like you to do today," Josh said. "Erin, here, has been interning with us for a little over a week but she has yet to do anything more than get cups of coffee for people. I'd like her to stick with you today, show her around, let her see what it's like to be a reporter."

"Uh," I stammered. I wasn't sure how much I liked that idea but if it was going to get me off probation, I was going to do it. "Sure," I said. "I can do that."

Erin lit up like a Christmas tree. "Oh, Mr. Porter, thank you so much. Mr. Halpert, I you will not let you down. I will be at your side all day and I can't wait to see what it's like to work with a real reporter on real stories. I mean, I have been here all week, but mostly people have ignored me, which is okay because I'm used to being ignored. And that's why I have so many stuffed animals because stuffed animals can't ignore you."

Josh shot me a grin as Erin rambled on. It was apparent he knew what he was giving me. I nodded at him, understanding fully. "Alright, let's tell the troops before I head out," Josh said standing up.

Erin and I followed him out into the hall. Erin continued to chatter as we walked. "So, Mr. Halpert, you're a sports reporter, does that mean we get to go to any games today?"

"Actually, I will probably be here all day," I corrected, trying to be as nice as possible. "Since Josh put me in charge, I can't really go anywhere."

"Oh, right, I should have figured that out," she said, whacking her own head with her hand.

"So, you want to be a reporter?" I asked her as we headed down the hallway towards the conference room where all the senior staff members were meeting.

She nodded excitedly. "I've always wanted to be a reporter," she said, though I somehow found that hard to believe. "I mean, look at all the great stories people get to do, rescuing kittens out of trees, siblings finding each other after not knowing each other for years, building new homes for people. There was this one story about a turtle who was bred in captivity and last year they let him go back to live in the ocean with his family." I believe she started to well up.

I had no words. Part of me wanted to know how she dealt with all the bad news in the world but I didn't get a chance to ask her because we had arrived at the conference room.

Everyone was there, sitting around the table; Stanley, Karen, Dwight, Hannah, Martin, and Tony all waiting for us to arrive. Once we entered the room, Dwight shot up.

"I think we have a lead on the Scranton Strangler," Dwight said before any of us could get a word out. "Now, if I could just get permission to take the story from Karen-"

"Dwight, you can't take the story from me," Karen said, rolling her eyes.

"I can and I will," Dwight said firmly. "Can't I Josh? Come on, Karen has nothing."

"Actually," Josh said rubbing his hands together. "I'm letting Jim decide this one."

"What?" Came several voices around the room. The only person who didn't react at all was Stanley, who was busy doing his crossword.

"That's right," Josh said. "I'm going to be gone today and Jim is in charge."

"You can't be serious," Dwight said. "Jim is a poor excuse for a reporter. All he does is copy numbers off the internet and put them on paper. You call that journalism? Pfft."

I grinned. "Thanks, Dwight, I never knew how much you cared."

"Alright, Jim," Josh said, handing me a sheet of paper with assignments on it. "Here you go and I should be back this evening in time to have a look over the final copy. Good luck!"

He waved his hand and exited the room, leaving me on my own with five confused coworkers and one very irate one.

They all stared at me, waiting for me to say something, anything. For the first time since I started working for the Times, I felt a little nervous being in front of my coworkers. "Okay, everyone, we are going to run this the same way as if Josh were here," I stated plainly. "I'm pretty much going to hand these out as if he was here doing it."

"I get the Scranton Strangler," Dwight demanded.

"No, you don't," I shot back. "Karen gets it."

"Why?" Dwight sneered. "Because you used to sleep with her?"

"Ew, Dwight," Karen said scrunching her nose. "I can't believe you would even suggest that."

"Well," Dwight responded with a smirk. "Based on Karen's response to that, I guess the answer to my earlier question would be no."

"Oh, god," I said pinching the bridge of my nose. I couldn't believe it taken only a few minutes for this to fall apart. "Dwight, Karen gets the assignment because Josh had her pick it up yesterday. And for no reason other than that, she gets it."

"Yeah, but could she take the Scranton Strangler out if she were crossed with him?" Dwight asked.

"How is that even relevant?" Karen asked.

"I could get him a choke hold if I needed to," Dwight said. "How ironic would that be? Hannah, stand up so I can show you how it's done." Dwight tried to demonstrate on Hannah but she swatted at him to go away.

"Okay," I said in a firm voice, attempting to regain control. "None of that is at all relevant, so moving on…"

"Um, Mr. Halpert, sorry to interrupt," Erin said, raising her hand to get my attention. "I'm sorry, I'm just a little anxious. What would you like me to do?"

My mind was drawing a blank. "Why don't you get us all coffee," I suggested.

"Right," she said taking a step toward the door. She stopped, suddenly, and turned back around. "Wait, sorry again, but didn't Mr. Porter want you to have me do something more than get coffee?"

I thought it over. "Um, sure, why don't you, uh, check to see if I have any voice messages."

Erin grinned, happy, I suppose, with any assignment other than getting coffee. "Right, Mr. Halpert, I will be right back with your phone messages," she said, scurrying out of the conference room.

"Okay," I said, skimming the list of assignments. "Martin, looks like I've got your normal world news line up for you. Hannah, there's a business start up story here for you. Oh, and this sounds interesting. They're opening up a new dump in Scranton. Dwight, I think you should take that one."

"This is so unfair," Dwight protested. Seeing Dwight become all hot and bothered by me being in charge added a little perk to the day. "I would like to lodge a formal complaint."

"Alright, you're allowed," I said with a grin. "But since I am your supervisor today, you'll have to give me the complaint."

Dwight became twisted with anger. "Fine, let it be known right here and now that I think you are a horrible journalist and a horrible human being and Josh should have never left you in charge when I would do a much better and more competent job."

"Wow." I had to have struck a nerve because he usually wasn't that passionate in his hatred for me. Somehow, that made the whole thing more amusing. "Duly noted. But you're keeping the dump story because, let's be honest, no one knows human waste quite like you do."

There was general snickering around the room.

"Wrong," Dwight shot back. "Now if you were referring to animal waste, then you would be correct. I happen to know…"

Dwight was cut off by Erin's return. "Hi, Mr. Halpert, sorry again."

"You don't have to apologize, Erin," I assured her.

"Right, sorry," Erin continued. "So, um, I did what you said and I checked your messages but I found that you did not have any." She smiled brightly, as if she had accomplished some big feat. "However, a girl…woman…person…arrived to see you and so I took her up to your office. I wasn't sure if you wanted me to bring her here because you guys are in a meeting so I thought your office would be the best place. I offered her some water but she said no, she would just like to talk with you when you have a moment."

"Um, Erin," I said. "Did you ask her who she was?"

Erin's face went blank. "Oh my…" she buried her face in her hands. "I knew I forgot something, I'm so sorry. Would you like me to go ask her her name? It will take, like, two seconds."

"No, I'll go see who it is," I said. I gave the list of assignments over to Karen. "Here, I'm sure you guys can figure this out amongst yourselves. I'll be back in a minute."

"Bias!" Dwight accused. "See, you gave it to Karen. I'm taking you down Jim. I'm taking you down."

"Dwight, shut-up

I smiled, deciding best just to ignore Dwight's idle threat and followed Erin out of the conference room.

"He seemed really upset," Erin observed as we walked down the hallway.

"He's always really upset," I said rolling my eyes.

"Well, aren't you worried?" It was obvious that she was very concerned.

"Nah," I said waving it off with my hand. "He'll be over it in a day or so."

I wasn't sure who could be waiting for me; I knew I didn't have any appointments. So, when I saw that it was Pam waiting for me in my office, leaning against my desk with a mad grin on her face, I was more than pleasantly surprised.

"I'm so sorry to keep you waiting ma'am," Erin said.

"Hey, Erin, I think we're good," I said. "Will you please go help Karen finish distributing the assignments?"

"Right away," Erin said. I closed the door as soon as she left.

"'Ma'am'," Pam said as soon as Erin had left. "Wow, I feel old."

"She's only an intern," I said with a smirk as I came towards her.

"She's cute," Pam responded playfully.

"Maybe you should be jealous," I teased.

"I'm not the jealous type." She grabbed onto my tie and pulled me down for a long kiss.

"So, what are you doing here?" I asked after we broke apart.

"Avoiding my job," she gave with a grin. "David asked me to work on fundraising. And I am all about doing fundraising and setting up benefits and auctions for the museum, especially since we need it right now. But he wants me to go to businesses door to door asking for donations. I feel a little uncomfortable doing it, like I'm begging for money or something."

"Well, that's understandable," I said.

"So," she continued. "I was at a gallery a block from here and figured since I was so close, I should stop by and see how you were doing."

"I'm not going to argue against that idea," I said.

"It's a nice office," she said though her eyes never left mine. There was a dark, lustful look there, one I recognized from last night. An image of her in my bed, under me, floated into my brain and my resolve was gone.

"It's just an office," I said before I kissed her again, our mouths meeting furiously. She kissed me back, frantically, as if she couldn't get enough of me. I began to run my hands through her soft hair, pulling her as close as I could. She ran her hands up and down my back before she began tugging at my shirt. I pushed up against her so she became pinned between me and the desk. When her hips began to grind against mine, it dawned on me the real possibility that I would just take her here in my office.

That was until the door opened. "Oh my god, Mr. Halpert!" a voice squealed. Pam and I jolted apart. "I'm so sorry," Erin said, one hand shielding her eyes. It was quite hilarious since both Pam and I were still fully clothed. "I so, so sorry, I just thought- I mean, the door was unlocked and-"

"What is it, Erin?" I asked.

"It's just, um," Erin looked more embarrassed than we were. "Ms. Filippelli had a few questions over some of the assignments and may have called you a few not nice names when you left. Mr. Nash and Mrs. Smoteridge-Barr are having a dispute over who gets to do one of the stories and it's getting rather loud. And Mr. Schrute has Mr. Gardener in a choke hold."

Pam and I exchanged looks before we burst out laughing. "See, I told you my job wasn't any saner than yours," I said.