Spoilers: Set after "Frame Toby," with some spoilers for that episode.

Disclaimer: The Office clearly does not belong to me. I don't know why you would ever think it did, but it doesn't. Is that disclaimer-y enough?

A/N: Long time Office fan, first time Office writer. This idea has kind of been in my head since I first saw the episode, and I had to get it out.

"And the clown?"

"Yeah, I really can't move him."

---

The new key still felt foreign in her hand as Pam turned it, slipping inside the house. Turning the lights on, she continued down the hall to stand in front of where a sheet seemed to be hanging from the wall like a curtain over a nonexistent window. She took out her supplies and set them around her and then pulled the cloth off the wall.

Where there was once a clown, a blank white, framed surface greeted her. She had taken great joy the other day in coating the frightening clown's face with a thick coat of white paint. The tabula rasa, a clean slate erasing the past ugliness. It reminded her of her first real date with Jim, where they had decided just to start fresh, covering the ugliness of their past mistakes with blank white to fill in. It seemed so long ago that they had sat down for that dinner.

Now they had a home together. Pam still wasn't quite sure how she thought about the building. It was far from her ideal dream house, but Jim seemed willing to do anything to make it hers. Painting had always acted like a kind of therapy for her, though, and she knew putting herself into the house would make it feel more like home. It was also a surprise for a surprise; Jim hadn't told her before buying the house, so she wasn't going to tell him before she added her own special touch. She had the advantage of being way surer he would like it, though.

Pam taped up a rough sketch on the wall next to the painting and began to sketch it onto the canvas with charcoal, wincing at the awkward position of the vertical surface.

The picture could have been taken from any of a million memories. It showed Jim, shirtsleeves pushed up and hair tussled, leaning over her desk. They were smiling at—well, it could have been anything. Pranks, serious conversations hidden behind jokes, jokes hidden behind serious conversations—so much had happened at that desk.

It all came back to the office, she realized as she began to sketch in the familiar background. Dunder Mifflin had brought them together as coworkers, and the collective weirdness of all of their coworkers had brought them together as friends. They never really met outside of the office back then, so it was in the office where their relationship had grown, becoming stronger than any other they had ever experienced.

It was the office where that friendship fell apart, with kisses and "I can't"s. It was also where it was stitched back up, with mergers and, somewhat later, offers of first dates and proposals of proposals. And, though they would one day (hopefully) both leave the office for good, Pam knew that it would always remain a part of who they are.

Pam, all the more certain of her choice, pulled out her paints and got to work.

---

"So what's the big surprise? And don't say you bought me this house; I already used that one."

Pam giggled the way only Jim could make her. He just looked so eager, like a child at Christmas. "It's under here."

"You're just trying to trick me into staring at the creepy clown picture again, aren't you."

"Oh really?" And with that, Pam pulled the sheet off.

There was a pause as Jim took the picture in, his eyes sweeping up and down the canvas with a look of awe.

"Pam, it's perfect!" He spun around, pulling her into a kiss.

"It's us," she replied breathlessly. "Just two far more attractive clowns."

Any reviews would be much appreciated!