Author's Note: this takes place during Season Five's 6th episode, Customer Survey. The fragment at the beginning belongs to the lyrics of There goes the fear by Doves. I hope you enjoy this first chapter.

There goes the fear again, let it go.

There goes the fear.

"Uh, well, actually there's something else I'd love to talk to you about. Can we go somewhere else to talk about it?"

"Okay."

"That's it. I want to talk to this guy. Put me in his ear."

"What's up?"

"I'm gonna take a big leap and I want to tell you that I think you should not move back to Scranton."

"Wow."

"I'm gonna make a bigger leap here. He is into you."

"Why did you come to New York in the first place?"

"Because they have a great design program, and I wanted to see if I was any good at it. And I wanted to work on my art, too."

"Right. And that's why I think that you should stay here. Because I mean, you - really you just got here, you know? You can't do New York in three months. You know, it has everything. It has - all the opportunity is here. All the - the whole art scene is in New York. You know, it would be nuts to go back to Scranton without getting to fully experience it."

"Jim's in Scranton."

"I know. But all I'm saying is, if there's even a teeny, tiny part of you that really wants to be an artist, then I think you should stay here, because you don't want to wake up in 50 years and look back and wonder what could have been. And that is the end of my speech. I planned it all. Anyway ... I will see you tomorrow."

"I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay."

Then there was silence, and miles away, Jim was taken over by a fear that quickly crept its way into his brain and seemed to push the air out of his lungs to make room for itself. Ignoring Dwight's request to see 'the world's tiniest bluetooth', he stood up and walked quickly to the bathroom. He was panicking. Everything the man had said was true, and Jim knew there was no way to deny it. He had encouraged his fiancée to pursue her dream of being an artist, and he would continue to do so (becoming a man that resembled Roy Anderson, even in the slightest, wasn't acceptable), since he didn't want to be a limiting burden for Pam: if she wanted to go to art school, she had a right to it, and he would support her, because he truly loved her enough to follow her to Mars if she happened to decide she wanted to be an astronaut. The fear of losing her to the sparkly, exciting, mesmerizing New York City was the problem, and it became bigger by the day they spent apart.

"Yeah, I'd say she's happy. I mean, she loves her classes. Loves the city. I mean, last night, she was out with her friends, 'till, like, 8:00 AM."

"Wow."

"What?"

"I thought you were a friend."

He remembered, bitterly how he had almost driven all the way to New York just because of one stupid, irrelevant comment (that Roy had probably specifically said to cause that reaction on him) that he should have seen coming, and which had made jealousy and worry eat him up inside the same way fear was doing it now.

What if she wants to stay there? What if she doesn't want to come back? What if she leaves me? Oh God, what if she says 'I can do better than Jim Halpert, I can do better than my life in Scranton, and I can do better than working at Dunder Mifflin'?

Waiting for her to say something after that unexpected piece of advice her friend had given her wasn't exactly putting his mind at ease.

If she's even considering what that Alex guy just said… I should go to New York just to kick his ass. Who does he think he is?

Finally, he heard her breathing out loudly and she hesitated before speaking.

"You're still there?"

"Yeah, I'm right here."

"I'm sorry you had to hear that."

"No, I'm glad I heard that, 'cause if you changed your mind and you wanna stay-"

"Don't be silly, Jim. I'm not staying any longer than what we planned."

"Really?"

"Really. I don't care what Alex said. I miss you."Her voice was about to crack with emotion.

He let out a deep sigh. "Oh, thank God, Beesly. For a moment I thought-I don't know. I mean, I know the city's awesome and you're happy there, but I don't think I could handle three more months away from you. I miss you so very much…"

She chuckled briefly-although her eyes were shimmering slightly with tears-, hearing the way he pronounced the last three words."I feel the same way."

"Alright. I take it I just made a fool of myself, didn't I?"

"No, no, it's okay. Um, I should probably get back to work."

"Yeah, me too."

"Love you."

"Love you too."

Jim slowly walked back to his desk and thought he might actually do some work- his gaze fell on the list of sales calls he had to have done by the end of the day-, but his mind was somewhere else, in another city, along with the girl who owned his heart.