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[jim_halpert]

Disappearances always shook Jim up. It was the same all over again, feeling the need to keep closer to Pam and Sam, even when he knew that wouldn't really help. Things had mostly calmed down, now, helped along by following his usual schedule for each day. Normalcy had to be kept up just for Sam's sake, and it made it something Jim could focus on

Comments

[callofkaren]

"She dresses very prettily," Karen commented as she walked in with a small bag of laundry of her own. It wasn't much, just little odds and ends Nick missed the last time he'd done it (and having a bum ankle had been awesome for things like that). "Heya, Sammy. You helping dad out with laundry today?"

[jim_halpert]

"Or making me more. I'm not sure which yet," he said, watching her peek out from under the big hat on her head. The thing really looked comical on her.

"I big girl. I dress!" she exclaimed, beaming up at Karen. She'd been getting pretty good at stuff like that lately, and it was for that reason alone that he was fine with her playing like she was.

[callofkaren]

"I see that," she replied approvingly. Halfway into a crouch, Karen winced and stood back up, her ankle not entirely up to it just yet. She tilted Sam's hat back a bit so she could see her face, and leaned over to give her a kiss on the forehead. "Maybe we can play dress up later, huh?"

[jim_halpert]

"Aunt Karen's still hurt a little, sweetie," he said, standing to head over to her to nudge her away before "Why don't you go find another shirt?"

She seemed to at least get the hint, shuffling back to the box to start going through it again. Standing up straight, he turned to Karen. "You need any help there?"

[callofkaren]

"I'm good," Karen said, side stepping the concern. "I just keep forgetting I'm not completely healed and get a twinge when I do something like that."

[jim_halpert]

"You probably should take it easy," he said, though he had a feeling Nick probably said the same thing to her. "With how much walking everyone needs to do, the worst thing you can have is a hurt foot. Unless you thinking of stealing one of the couple of vehicles I've seen around here."

[callofkaren]

"I was stuck in and around my hut for like, two days," Karen replied, her tone letting Jim know there was no way she was going to go through that again. She'd gotten tired of her own home, which was just wrong.

"I'm not going to push it and hurt myself again."

[jim_halpert]

"Alright," he said, giving in. He was sure she knew what she was doing. He showed the right kind of concern about it, either way. Pausing, he couldn't help but grin at the memory an injury like hers brought up. "You know, Michael hurt his foot once, and he tried to have everyone wait on him and feel sorry for him. Did I ever tell you that story?"

[callofkaren]

Karen's expression turned sort of pained, as if what she was recalling wasn't the best of images. Given that she'd only heard about it, what she was picturing was pretty damn unpleasant.

"The George Foreman grill incident? I think Pam told me that one."

[jim_halpert]

"Right. At one point he was trying to get Pam to butter his foot," he reminded, in case she forgot. "If Nick ever complains about having to take care of you, you should tell him that story. I know I'd use it if I ever got hurt."

[callofkaren]

"So gross," Karen said, unable to let that image go by without some sort of comment. "I don't know, I love Nick too much to put that kind of image in his brain."

[jim_halpert]

"You should've seen the car ride I had to deal with when we all realized Dwight had to go to the hospital that day. The entire ride I had to keep the two of them from fighting."

He paused before eventually shaking his head and letting out a laugh. "Wow. You know, I really, really don't miss working there."

He missed some of the people sometimes - he'd never admit that, but he knew it was true - but beyond that, he had to prefer the life he had now.