#ler!pam

“Are you kidding? I’m always happy to,” you hummed, grinning down at the perfect little baby in your arms. You’d always suspected that their kids would turn out to be annoyingly perfect.

After your summer internship at Dunder Mifflin had ended, you’d left that weird few months of your life behind — except for Jim and Pam. They’d pretty much been the one good thing to come out of your time there, and so here you were. A year and a half later, being their on-call babysitter for Cece Halpert.

“Are you sure this is okay? We really don’t have to go,” you heard Pam from over your shoulder, and chuckled.

“Trust me, I would’ve done anything to get out of my house tonight.” Your voice faltered slightly, and Pam slowed in her movements.

You cleared your throat, not liking the feeling that was settling over the room. “Plus, I wouldn’t dare deprive you of seeing Scranton’s most talented actor on stage,” you added, voice dripping with sarcasm. “Go, have fun.”

You saw Jim exchange a familiar look with Pam over your head. She quickly dropped beside you, pressing a kiss to Cece’s forehead, then yours. You wrinkled your nose in fake disgust, smiling as they hurried out the door.

They arrived home at about 10pm, Cece long asleep and you curled up on their sofa, watching reruns of Boy Meets World. You hardly noticed them come in until the sofa cushions either side of you shifted. You just about jumped out of your skin, looking between the couple who had apparently appeared out of thin air in a mix of amusement and frustration.

“You did that on purpose,” you grumbled, sitting back. They laughed, not even trying to deny it.

“What, you through having a baby would make Jim ‘grow out’ of pranks?” Pam teased. “He has to get his fix somehow.” You rolled your eyes, going to turn the TV off, but Jim grabbed your wrist.

“I need my eyes to be cleansed after seeing what I just saw,” he explained, his voice dramatically pained. You giggled, raising your eyebrows.

“That bad?”

“There was no ‘bird’ this time, so that’s a plus.”

Now, you descended into your favourite part of these nights — just sitting and chatting with Jim and Pam. What with Scranton’s range of people being fairly small, they were kind of your only friends here outside school.

The conversation ended back on pranks, and you were struggling to keep your laughter quiet enough as to not wake Cece.

“I swear, the next time I’m going into work late I’m gonna ask him to pretend to be me,” Jim grinned, clearly proud of his plan.

“Okay, but any photos on either of your desks, you have to retake them with him in it,” you spluttered. “And you have to film it!”

You turned back to Pam as you said this, catching her mid-eye roll. You scoffed.

“I think she’s mocking us, Halpert,” you mused, tilting your head. Pam raised her eyebrows.

“She acts as if she’s so above it all,” Jim added, his smile adding an affectionate tone to his words. “But she loves pranking Dwight just as much as I do.”

“That’s because it’s Dwight. He deserves it.”

“Hold on, I seem to recall the both of you dolling out a fair share of pranks to me,” you said, defensive.

“That was because you were new,” Pam replied. “And it was hardly a prank — look at us now!” She smiled, and while you could have ended the ordeal there, the relationship the three of you had didn’t exactly come about by ending things when they should have been ended.

“Who would’ve known I’d be suffering the consequences over a year later,” you muttered. You didn’t need to look up to know the expressions of fake-hurt that they were surely both bearing.

“I seem to remember a particular prank,” Jim said under his breath. Now you kind of wished you’d stopped.

Anticipating what was to come, you leaned forward, making to leave the sofa — but Jim was ready, and his hands easily found their way to your waist. The moment his fingers curled, you fell back into the sofa, unwilling to put up such a tough fight for a tender moment.

“Jim!” you laughed, his hands scribbling up your sides to pinch at your ribs. You couldn’t help but squirm, and his year and a half of experience was evident as he kneaded his thumbs under your arms, sending you into hysterics.

“Sorry, Y/N, you insult my wife, this is what you get,” he said, shrugging in apparent oblivion to your laughter.

“I was insuhuhulting you tohohoo!” you managed, challenging his smirk with a (less-voluntary) one of your own.

“My mistake,” Jim continued, unphased. “Pam Beesly-Halpert, will you defend my honour?”

“Gladly,” came the hum from behind, and before you could get in a word of protest, another pair of hands found your stomach, nails trailing across to your sides and swirling against your hips. A mumbled mess of various curses was all you could direct to Pam.

“This is so much wohohorse,” you giggled breathlessly, Pam’s tickly fluttering alongside Jim’s ruthless tickles to your ribs driving you half-insane. Your head tilted back to meet Pam’s eyes, her grin almost as wide as yours. You held her gaze as you snorted, a sense of frantic joy and peace written across both your faces.

Having you apologise was unrealistic, so they eventually let up. 6 months ago, in this same position, you remembered curling up, pushing them away until you calmed down. But now? Now, you just lay there, chest heaving and smiling wide.

You stayed like that for a little while longer — you didn’t really know how long. You were almost starting to doze off when realisation struck.

“Um, I should get going,” you said, getting to your feet.

“Oh...yes, of course, let me get the money.” Jim went to grab his wallet, but this time, it was your hand on his wrist.

“You don’t need to pay me. You guys...this...you’ve already ‘paid’ me, you know?” You shifted, unnecessarily uncomfortable in the place you so desperately wanted to call your second home.

Jim just nodded. He knew when not to press. You said your goodbyes, and the two walked you to your car.

“Y/N, you don’t have to come over just to babysit,” Pam said softly. “We care about you, okay?”

You nodded. “Okay.”

A squeeze to your shoulder, a hand closing the car door. Security, care you couldn’t find elsewhere.

Turns out, you were going to wish he’d got it over and done with. The next two weeks of your life looked like they were going to be living hell – as if spending your summer working at a paper company with an incompetent boss and a really annoying desk-mate wasn’t enough, you were now looking over your shoulder every minute.

In all honesty, and this was never something you would’ve admitted to anyone in a million years...by the end you began to realise it wasn’t so bad.

While the past couple of weeks had been mildly terrifying, Pam and Jim had taken a genuine liking to you. They’d taken time to get to know you: hanging out in the break room, saving you a seat in the conference room – Jim had even got you in on a prank he was pulling on Dwight (it was hilarious, and definitely worth the 4 hours of work you had to catch up on). 

And so, a mere fortnight after the perilous parking lot incident, you found yourself not hating the fact that you had to stay late on a Friday with Jim, Pam, Michael and Erin.

It was just some inventory stuff, and the accounting department had basically begged you to take on their part. All in the name of ‘invaluable experience’, which you knew was bullshit, but you didn’t have anything better to do...so there you were.

“Hey, Y/N, come here a second?” Pam called you from the break room, and you happily abandoned the work, sauntering over.

She invited you to sit down, and you noticed Jim by the vending machine. You tilted your head, a little confused.

“Y/N, I would say we’ve bonded rather well over the past two weeks, wouldn’t you?” Jim sat down across from you, a pensive expression on his face. “One would even dare say we’ve become friends?”

“I mean, yeah, I guess,” you stammered, unsure of what direction this was heading. Were they going to berate you? Fire you? Invite you to a dinner party? “We just wanted to make sure you’re okay with that. Us...being your friends,” Pam chimed in. 

“Of course – is there a reason I shouldn’t be?” you asked.

“No, we just wanted to really, really, make sure,” Jim replied, and as he spoke, he rose from his seat and started to walk nonchalantly towards you, Pam following behind.

As if he’d hit a switch, the memories of two weeks ago came rushing back. You jumped to your feet, blanching.

“Wahahait,” you giggled, curling in on yourself. “Don’t even think about it.”

It was two against one, and you all knew that if they decided to attack, you would have no way of escaping. All the same, you didn’t make a run for it.

“We know it gets boring around here some...well, all of the time,” Jim said. “We thought we could make it a little more interesting.”

Right when you thought you were done for, they both stopped, looking expectantly at you. You bit your lip. I mean, it was mind-numbingly boring...and they were your friends...so maybe they had a point.

Before you could change your mind, you narrowed your eyes and nodded. “Okay.”

You didn’t get a second to think before they pounced, trapping you in a corner almost immediately.

Jim’s fingers latched onto your sides, scribbling up and down, while Pam curled hers around your neck, making your shoulders scrunch up.

“Noho!” you squealed, giggles pouring from your lips. Jim’s squeezing and poking combined with Pam’s light, feathery touches had you a squirming mess in a matter of seconds, and you could tell they were taking pride in that.

“No? We’ve hardly started!” Jim teased, and you managed to squeeze in a sarcastic groan between your giggles – which was quickly silenced by a pinch to your knee.

You slid down the wall, batting at their hands, your skin, every bit of you that was alive with ticklish electricity. Jim crawled his fingers up your sides, venturing dangerously close to your underarms.

“Should I do it, hun?” he asked Pam, who had made herself busy with seeing which part of your knee made you jerk the most.

“Might as well do it now, I don’t think she can take much more,” Pam teased, smiling affectionately as your face heated up.

“Stohohop,” you giggled breathlessly, your half-hearted tugging against his grip having no real impact. Jim raised an eyebrow, and you held your breath in anticipation, still squirming from Pam’s nails scratching at your knee.

But then, he pulled away, as did Pam, leaving you to sink into a heap on the floor.

“Alright.”

You tilted your head up at Jim, your chest heaving. “Huh?”

He and Pam exchanged a look. “We don’t wanna make you uncomfortable or anything, so, get back out there,” Pam said, offering you her hand. You couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed – as embarrassing as it may be, it was the most fun you’d had in ages. You bit your lip, but got to your feet, grinning sheepishly at the two as you headed back to the office.

“Unless, of course, you’d rather not.” Jim piped up from behind you, and you turned around slowly.

“I mean, we won’t judge.”

You eyed the door to the annex behind them. “Only if you can catch me.”

Before they had time to pounce, you ducked under Jim’s arm and bolted for the door. You heard two pairs of footsteps in close pursuit, and preemptive giggles spluttered out as you looked for a place to run to. 

Try as you might, it was literally just an office, and you soon found yourself cornered between walls and desks.

Pam’s face split into a huge grin when she saw you, wasting no time in running forward and scribbling her hands up your sides. You shrieked, caught off guard, and you were very glad there was a break room separating you from Michael and Erin.

Jim was not far behind, and you hardly had time to cry out a “WAIT!” before you were once again pinned into a corner, Pam gently holding your hands back while Jim crawled his fingers up under your arms – and that was the last straw. You exploded into squirmy, loud laughter, practically melting into the floor, your eyes squeezed shut and your mouth split into a huge smile.

Pam let your hands go soon after, and you recoiled, slapping at Jim and sinking into breathless giggles. The two smiled affectionately between themselves, and then at you, as you got to your feet, grinning sheepishly.

“We never speak of this,” you mumbled. Jim raised his eyebrow. “Well -”

He was cut off by Pam gently hitting him on the shoulder. “We won’t, Y/N, don’t worry.”

You caught a glimpse of movement in your peripheral vision, and your heart dropped.

“Shit -” you pointed at a cameraman who was hiding quite well behind a plant.

“I thought there weren’t supposed to be any here tonight!” Despite having enjoyed yourself, you were now beginning to regret it - this was meant to have been completely private. 

The two sensed your concern, and without hesitation, Pam squeezed your hand as Jim started over towards the offending plant (or rather the person cowering behind it).

Pam pulled you into a hug, and you relaxed.

“Hey, Pam, can you make these copies for me?”

She glanced up at you, her eyes narrowing.

“No,” she said pointedly. “I’m just answering calls.”

You raised your eyebrows at her. “Seriously? What am I supposed to do?” 

“Make them yourself!” she scoffed.

You hesitated for a moment, but with a cool glare, you walked behind the desk and over to the copier.

Truth be told, this thing was old, and you didn’t really know how to make it work. 

You could feel Pam’s gaze on you from behind, and it was getting on your nerves.

“You know, Ryan said you’d do it,” you muttered under your breath.

“Oh, of course Ryan said that.” The machine was beeping irritably, and she walked up behind you despite herself. You hammered the buttons in quick succession, groaning audibly as she grabbed your wrist in hers.

“Ryan’s cool,” you said, looking sideways at her. “You’re just a stubborn – hey!”

Pam couldn’t have told you why – maybe it was out of habit of petty fights with Jim, or her instinct on resolving problems without harm – but she’d tasered your side, making you jump back in surprise.

“Don’t do that.” You bit your lip.

“Don’t do what? This?” She poked at your stomach, grinning.

“You know what, nevermind, I’ll do it.” You turned your back on her, pressing your lips together.

“Are you sure, though?” Pam mused, and you felt her finger scratching at your side. You stiffened.

“I said I’ll do it!” You could no longer keep your smile at bay as you flinched, your hands balled into fists.

“And I’ll keep you company while you do,” she replied, her voice painfully innocent as her arm locked around your waist. She wiggled her fingers against your stomach, and you spluttered, shaking your head madly as you tried to focus on the copier. But the more time went by, the more fun Pam appeared to be having.

“Here, maybe try this –” She leant forward, pressing a big red button that did nothing but send a huge, flashing, warning screen up. 

“Pam! Not fair!” you hissed, but it didn’t seem to have much effect as she continued to deftly dance her fingers up and down your side.

You let out a shaky, giggly breath, tugging against her grip. She was surprisingly strong, and considering most of your energy was focused on keeping your laughter quiet, it was hardly a fair fight.

“Paham, please stop,” you giggled breathlessly, trying to keep your squeaks and squirming under the radar of everyone else in the office. She only responded by tickling quickly across your ribs, and you clapped a hand over your mouth, your eyes squeezed shut as muffled laughter bubbled out.

“I’ll stop, but you have to promise me one thing,” she said, busying herself with fixing whatever she’d done to the copier. You nodded, scared that if you opened your mouth, the entire office would be alerted to your ticklish predicament.

“You’re a kid. Ryan’s a baby. He basically destroyed the company, and if it wasn’t for Michael he’d be working at a bowling alley. Point is –” She tilted you towards her, unable to stop a smile at your blushing, giggling face – 

“Stop hanging out with Ryan, he’s a jerk.” She gave you a final affectionate squeeze, before handing you the pile of copies and letting you go. You couldn’t scramble out of there fast enough, head ducked to hide the redness that had creeped its way up to your ears.

As you were leaving, you couldn’t help but notice the smirk Pam and Jim had on their faces as they looked at you. When Jim’s gaze averted itself for a second, you glared accusingly at Pam.

“Did you tell him?” you mouthed. She shrugged, wiggling her fingers in the air. Your eyes narrowed, and you made sure you stayed out of her reach as you left the building.