36A: N/ Jim and Pam go shopping at the local Target! (p.s. I like adore Target! Yay!) Please read, enjoy and review! I really do appreciate all your advice and support…sorry this has taken so long to post, but I had really terrible writers block and I just sat down this afternoon…and this came out! I hope you like it! Review!
Dis.: I don't own the office…but for a couple of bucks you might be able to own a signed pair of JKras jeans! (can you say Christmas list?!)
"My God, where do you wanna start Jim?" Pam says, grinning from ear to ear. Jim chuckles and looks down at his fiancé. Her amber hair is longer now than it has ever been, while her skin is glowing beautifully. But you can hardly notice her skin, when your eyes are drawn to her enormous stomach.
She and Jim stand, holding hands, in the baby department of the local Target. Neat rows of baby outfits and child rearing materials are laid out in front of them. Pam's pale little hands gripped the handle bar of the couples shopping cart, in anticipation and anxiety.
A helpful Target employee, whose name tag reads 'Brenda!' came to stand in front of them. "First time parents?" she said sagely and Jim nodded, while Pam grins and tries to focus her words into sentences.
"Would you like some help? I understand that this can be rather overwhelming." She says slowly, drawing Pam into the present. Again Jim nods.
"Well, we can begin with the beginning I guess," she says cheerily, directing the two over to the infant clothing. "Do you know that baby's gender? Or are we waiting until the delivery?" She asks, smiling and nodding down to Pam's stomach.
"Yes, a boy and a girl. Due mid-February." Pam informs her, pleased by the sales woman's reaction.
"Twins! That's a wonderful treat; you two must be so excited." Brenda is smiling now, as she mentally lists the items she will try to tell these people they absolutely need double for, considering its twins.
"Yes, we thought we'd better get some things before their arrival. " Jim said quickly, his eyes glancing around the store, trying to look anywhere but the money hungry eyes of the saleswoman.
"Naturally. I hope you don't mind me asking, but are you planning on dressing the kids alike? We have a wonderful special going on Tommy Hilfiger for Tots. Or maybe some Laura Ashley blankets for the babies." She was really trying her best to push the most expensive stuff on the two, hoping they would bite and just forfeit their wallets to her.
"No, I don't think I wanna dress my son like a princess if you mind. Or vice versa." Pam said, her hormones working a number on her. She didn't like how pushy this woman, no girl, was being.
So with a deciding smile, she said simply "I think we've got it covered from here Brenda, but thanks for your help."
"Of course, but if you need anything just remember I'm around here somewhere!" she said, her fake enthusiasm making Jim chuckle.
"Will do Brenda," he assures her, as Pam hooked her arm in his and led him towards the newborns section, "thanks."
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"I think this one's kinda cute." Jim said, holding up a matching baby suit. It was pale green, with a tiger cub on the front and an attached bib. "Only 6.99! And look here Pam; they have a pink one with a lion club for our girl."
"Fine, put them in the cart Jim. But we really have to come with names soon, because its plain mean to keep calling these two 'our boy' or 'our girl'." She said slowly, as she pushed the cart farther down the isle. She would occasionally stop and pick out up an outfit, inspect it, and then toss it in the basin of the cart.
"Cool. What do you suggest Mama?" He asked, tossing the two little outfits into the cart and rubbing his hand across her belly.
"I don't know, maybe something like Hannah, or Jonathan. But I always liked the name Maria…" She mused, moving the cart into the isle with blankets and diaper bags.
She spies a tan shoulder bag she liked, on the bottom shelf, and begins tugging on Jim's sleeve. She motioned to the bag and says, as sweetly as possible, "Can you get that for me?"
"Yup." He answers her, bending down and retrieving the surprisingly heavy bag.
After looking it over, she puts it in the cart and moves onward. Jim however did not.
"How about… Nicholas? Dean? Samuel? Katarina? Elizabeth? Morgan?" He lists, causing Pam to twist herself so she can see behind her.
"What? Where did you get all those?" She asks him, annoyed at how much work it took for her to turn around. 8 months of pregnancy was really wearing on her, and she'd be very happy once the babies were born.
"This book," he said, smiling, and holding up a book, "A Thousand and One Baby Names"
"Why didn't we think of that earlier?" She joked, throwing her hands up in the air in mock frustration.
"I don't really know. I guess we are not very experienced at this kind of thing." He explained, throwing the book casually into the cart, where it landed with a terrible thud.
"Hey! It's a thick book." He said when Pam gave him an annoyed look, which disappeared when she saw an item behind his head.
"Jim! Look at that. It's the cutest thing!" She crooned, pointing behind his head to the shelf of picture frames.
"This one?" He asks her, picking up a pink and blue picture frame. In golden letters it said "Our Twins!" and then it had three spots free for photos.
"It's adorable. See here," she pointed to the top spot, "is for their ultrasound picture, and then the bottom two are for their baby pictures." A tear escaped her eye, and she swiped it away with the back of her palm. Damn hormones.
"Well, for 14.99 it's the perfect finishing piece to the nursery." He states, placing the picture frame in the half full cart, on top of two matching blankets.
"Thank you, Jim." She whispers to him.
"It's a picture frame Pam, but you're welcome baby." He is smiling, but becomes unnerved when she doesn't speak again.
"Pam?" He asked tentatively. "Are you alright?"
"Wonderful, Jim. Wonderful."
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"It's perfect!" She whispers, rubbing her stomach. Her Eagles sweatshirt is becoming too tight on her, but is also too comfortable to give up. In her bare feet, sloppy ponytail and sweatshirt, Jim never felt more attracted to her.
They had spent that entire Saturday by hanging up baby clothes, dressing the room and ordering take-out. Pam unpacked bags of baby articles, while Jim assembled the baby gift from his parents. A mahogany crib now stood proudly in the center of the back wall, and above it there hung the picture frame.
"It's perfect." She said again, leaning up to kiss her wonderful fiancé.
"It is, isn't it?" He said, puffing his chest out, just a slight hint of manliness in his tone of voice.
"Yes. But you have those reports you have to go over, and I have those paintings I wanna finish for the show…so as much as would like to spend all night in here…we can't." She said ruefully pushing him towards the doorway, on her way hitting the light switch.
"Wait! You go get working on your painting, and I will get the trash, like the gentleman I am my dear lady." He tells her chivalrously, as he re-enters the room and reaches for a plastic Target bag
THUNK!
"What the…?" He questions, leaning over and flipping the switch on. Casting his eyes downward he sees what had made such an unattractive thump.
The baby names book lay, face up, on the beige carpet. Chuckling to himself, he picks it up and calls for Pam, hoping that she hadn't started working yet.
"Yea? You rang? " She asks, entering the room, wiping a handful of brushes on a dirty rag.
"Why don't we blow work off tonight, and look over some names?" He asks her, hope rising in his voice.
She couldn't let him down today, not after all the work he had done. So she smiles and stops prepping the brushes.
"Okay, meet me in the living room in ten minutes, Mr. Procrastination."
A:N/ Please feel free to review and tell me if you liked or did not like my take on Jim and Pam out of the office…but you can review and tell me anything you want… heck, you can even tell me the time of day, or weather! Just please review (and this is NOT me begging…thankfully because you all have been so wonderful, and reviewed this story so far….I have not felt the need to beg…yet)