Five Things Pam Misses About Jim While He’s In Stamford (Jim/Pam), G
Title: Five Things Pam Misses About Jim While He’s In Stamford
Author: Molly / ambiguousreason
Pairing/Character: Pam, ensemble; slight Jim/Pam
Word Count: 919
Rating: G
Summary: The title says it all
Spoilers: Through "Gay Witch Hunt"
Warnings: None
Author's Notes: This is my first Office fic (actually my first fic, period). Go easy on me. : )
ONE
Three months after Jim transfers, Pam realizes that something has something changed. She can’t pinpoint it exactly, but the office feels different - different beyond Jim not being there, naturally. It bothers her for three days, during which she makes it a point to talk to everyone in the office, just a short casual conversation (how are you how’s your family any plans for the weekend), trying to determine if someone has changed. She leaves Dwight for last because she wants to avoid voluntarily starting a conversation with him.
Finally, though, she takes a deep breath and walks over to Dwight’s desk, clasping her hands together.
“Hi, Dwight,” she says cautiously.
He looks up from his bobblehead collection. “Oh. Pam. Hello.”
“Uh… how are you?”
He leans back in his chair, smugness virtually radiating from his every pore. “Shouldn’t I be asking how you are?”
“Excuse me?”
He leans towards her, looking for all the world like he is about to share the best piece of office gossip ever to exist. “Jim is gone.”
Something twists inside her stomach, but she focuses on keeping her voice level. “I know.”
“Well, you always seemed to enjoy being his accomplice.” He glares at her. “Don’t try to pretend that you weren’t a part of the childish pranks that Jim wasted his time on.”
She bites back a smile. “Dwight, what are you talking about?”
“Jim is no longer here. He will no longer be able to play pranks on me. Consequently, I will be able to focus on my work. I will definitely be Dunder-Mifflin’s top salesman again this year, and I will probably be promoted to co-regional manager, all because of Jim leaving.”
“Right.” Pam nods. “I better let you get back to work then.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Dwight says smugly.
As Pam walks back to her desk, she realizes that she never thought that everything she and Jim did to Dwight had any purpose, but apparently she was wrong. She sinks into her chair and looks over at Dwight; the cloud of self-importance and smugness that has always seemed to follow him around has definitely gotten a lot bigger. She sighs.
The next week, when Jim sends Dwight gaydar, the cloud shrinks a little bit and she can’t help but smile.
TWO
Ryan doesn’t get up during the day, ever. He sits at his desk and works for hours without even breaking his concentration. Sometimes when Pam is bored, she sits at reception and watches him, times how long he can keep his attention focused on whatever it is that he’s doing without looking around the room. One particularly slow day, she timed him for an hour and fifteen minutes before giving up and starting a FreeCell game.
Pam isn’t used to actually having to be productive.
He also never eats the jellybeans she keeps on the counter. No one else does, either; she hasn’t had to refill the plastic container for a few months now. Sometimes she wonders why she doesn’t just throw them away, but for whatever reason she can’t quite make herself do it.
THREE
Pam eats lunch alone now, since Jim is gone and Roy doesn’t come up to eat with her anymore. Sometimes she’ll eat with Kelly, or Angela, but Kelly talks too much and Angela doesn’t talk at all, just silently judges people - probably her - while eating.
She ate with Phyllis once, and that was okay, but Phyllis just wanted to talk about Jim and how she called the wedding off and broke up with Roy and that’s still not something Pam really wants to talk about with people. At least not most people.
Before Jim left, sometimes they would eat with Kevin and she tried that once, but without Jim to distract him Kevin just stared at her through half-closed eyes the entire time and said “Nice” when she got up, dropped one of her orange peels on the way out of the room, and had to bend over to pick it up. She didn’t eat with him again.
So now she usually goes out to her car, because if she sits alone in the break room Michael will come in shouting things like “Pam-a-lama-ding-dong,” and spends her lunch break alone.
FOUR
The day after Jim left Scranton, Michael came out of his office and started telling Dwight about his second date with Carol the night before. Pam knew he was being obnoxiously loud on purpose, so that everyone else in the office would hear about it too.
She tried to tune him out and focus on her shredding, but when he started talking about how they went back to his condo after dinner, she couldn’t help looking over at Jim’s old desk, expecting to see him making a face at her. Then she remembered, and she briefly wondered if jamming her finger in the shredder would hurt enough to distract her for a good long time.
FIVE
Several months after the transfer, she’s still not sure why walking to her car alone at the end of the day seems so depressing. It’s not like they ever really talked, just took the elevator down together and walked across the parking lot to their cars in silence, breaking it only to say good night.
She considers for a minute that maybe she liked knowing that someone cared, that there was someone who liked simply being with her, but decides that probably she just doesn’t like walking to her car alone in the dark.
Author: Molly / ambiguousreason
Pairing/Character: Pam, ensemble; slight Jim/Pam
Word Count: 919
Rating: G
Summary: The title says it all
Spoilers: Through "Gay Witch Hunt"
Warnings: None
Author's Notes: This is my first Office fic (actually my first fic, period). Go easy on me. : )
ONE
Three months after Jim transfers, Pam realizes that something has something changed. She can’t pinpoint it exactly, but the office feels different - different beyond Jim not being there, naturally. It bothers her for three days, during which she makes it a point to talk to everyone in the office, just a short casual conversation (how are you how’s your family any plans for the weekend), trying to determine if someone has changed. She leaves Dwight for last because she wants to avoid voluntarily starting a conversation with him.
Finally, though, she takes a deep breath and walks over to Dwight’s desk, clasping her hands together.
“Hi, Dwight,” she says cautiously.
He looks up from his bobblehead collection. “Oh. Pam. Hello.”
“Uh… how are you?”
He leans back in his chair, smugness virtually radiating from his every pore. “Shouldn’t I be asking how you are?”
“Excuse me?”
He leans towards her, looking for all the world like he is about to share the best piece of office gossip ever to exist. “Jim is gone.”
Something twists inside her stomach, but she focuses on keeping her voice level. “I know.”
“Well, you always seemed to enjoy being his accomplice.” He glares at her. “Don’t try to pretend that you weren’t a part of the childish pranks that Jim wasted his time on.”
She bites back a smile. “Dwight, what are you talking about?”
“Jim is no longer here. He will no longer be able to play pranks on me. Consequently, I will be able to focus on my work. I will definitely be Dunder-Mifflin’s top salesman again this year, and I will probably be promoted to co-regional manager, all because of Jim leaving.”
“Right.” Pam nods. “I better let you get back to work then.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Dwight says smugly.
As Pam walks back to her desk, she realizes that she never thought that everything she and Jim did to Dwight had any purpose, but apparently she was wrong. She sinks into her chair and looks over at Dwight; the cloud of self-importance and smugness that has always seemed to follow him around has definitely gotten a lot bigger. She sighs.
The next week, when Jim sends Dwight gaydar, the cloud shrinks a little bit and she can’t help but smile.
TWO
Ryan doesn’t get up during the day, ever. He sits at his desk and works for hours without even breaking his concentration. Sometimes when Pam is bored, she sits at reception and watches him, times how long he can keep his attention focused on whatever it is that he’s doing without looking around the room. One particularly slow day, she timed him for an hour and fifteen minutes before giving up and starting a FreeCell game.
Pam isn’t used to actually having to be productive.
He also never eats the jellybeans she keeps on the counter. No one else does, either; she hasn’t had to refill the plastic container for a few months now. Sometimes she wonders why she doesn’t just throw them away, but for whatever reason she can’t quite make herself do it.
THREE
Pam eats lunch alone now, since Jim is gone and Roy doesn’t come up to eat with her anymore. Sometimes she’ll eat with Kelly, or Angela, but Kelly talks too much and Angela doesn’t talk at all, just silently judges people - probably her - while eating.
She ate with Phyllis once, and that was okay, but Phyllis just wanted to talk about Jim and how she called the wedding off and broke up with Roy and that’s still not something Pam really wants to talk about with people. At least not most people.
Before Jim left, sometimes they would eat with Kevin and she tried that once, but without Jim to distract him Kevin just stared at her through half-closed eyes the entire time and said “Nice” when she got up, dropped one of her orange peels on the way out of the room, and had to bend over to pick it up. She didn’t eat with him again.
So now she usually goes out to her car, because if she sits alone in the break room Michael will come in shouting things like “Pam-a-lama-ding-dong,” and spends her lunch break alone.
FOUR
The day after Jim left Scranton, Michael came out of his office and started telling Dwight about his second date with Carol the night before. Pam knew he was being obnoxiously loud on purpose, so that everyone else in the office would hear about it too.
She tried to tune him out and focus on her shredding, but when he started talking about how they went back to his condo after dinner, she couldn’t help looking over at Jim’s old desk, expecting to see him making a face at her. Then she remembered, and she briefly wondered if jamming her finger in the shredder would hurt enough to distract her for a good long time.
FIVE
Several months after the transfer, she’s still not sure why walking to her car alone at the end of the day seems so depressing. It’s not like they ever really talked, just took the elevator down together and walked across the parking lot to their cars in silence, breaking it only to say good night.
She considers for a minute that maybe she liked knowing that someone cared, that there was someone who liked simply being with her, but decides that probably she just doesn’t like walking to her car alone in the dark.