[Lecture Circuit.]

[callofkaren]

After enough time spent on the island and getting to learn its varying levels of weirdness, Karen knew there was nothing she could really do when, for three days in a row, all she get off the bookshelf was the same reel of The Office. And she knew if she ever wanted to watch another movie or read another book or comic or magazine again, she was going to have to give in and watch it.

Didn't mean she had to like it.

The last time Karen had seen an Office reel had been so long ago, it felt. Like an entire lifetime had passed in a year, and remembering watching that first one, the looks on Jim and Pam's faces, seemed like a weird, barely remembered dream. She knew there was nothing she could really do, or nothing could really get worse than the last one she'd watched — she'd made it to regional manager, hadn't she? Whatever version of herself was back home was doing okay, and so was she.

That didn't mean she couldn't shake the nerves as she set the reel up during one of the relatively slow times in the compound, hoping there was nothing too embarrassing she couldn't explain away if anyone wandered over. She at least had the faint hope that anything she could do couldn't be worse than the best thing Michael Scott ever did.

As she started watching, the reel opening with Michael being Michael, Karen's nerves slowly melted away until she was actually giggling along. It was like nothing had changed at Scranton, except Jim's desk. Of course, when Michael explained what he and Pam were doing on the road, Karen saw exactly where it was going.

Still, it was a bit comforting to know that Scranton was as batshit insane as ever.

Karen prided herself in being smart enough to follow along and prepare herself for the weirdness that would be watching herself onscreen. She could take it, right? Nothing could be worse than that first time watching with Jim and Pam. She could have done without the knowledge that Michael pictured her naked. Hey, there was her voice and there she was, looking—

She blinked.

And then, practically echoing Michael but at a higher and more shocked tone, "Oh my GOD."

Half of the rest of the episode flew by Karen's wide eyes as she just stared and stared, trying to process what in the hell she was watching. She was still half in shock when the explanation came, and barely registered Michael's stupid mouth or any awkwardness. All Karen could focus on was the strange, almost disconnected feeling that came with watching herself up there being happy and starting a family.

[Find her at this scene or at this one, your pick! Dated to some arbitrary time this weekend.]

Comments

[jim-halpert.livejournal.com]

Jim had just been doing a couple of things before he knew he was set to get Samantha from being babysat. He hadn't expected to stop in the rec room, but it was kind of hard to ignore it when he heard Karen in there. He expected her to be watching some kind of horror film, but instead he found himself staring at her on screen.

A very pregnant version of her. He actually forgot to breathe for a few seconds, until she answered Michael's question.

"Oh, thank god," he said outloud without thinking, then winced when he realized he said it for her to hear. It wasn't that anything back home actually mattered here, but for that brief moment, a panic had set in at the mere thought that he was going to have a kid back home with her, too. The relief that hit him right afterwards when she said it wasn't his was palpable, and he leaned against the doorframe to shake it off.

[callofkaren]

Maybe some other time Karen would have been a little offended and even found something to throw at Jim, but all she could do was stare over at him in matching shock.

If there was anything stupider she could have done back home, it was go back to Jim Halpert. No offense to Jim here, of course.

"Yeah, that," she said faintly.

[jim-halpert.livejournal.com]

He knew enough that he should at least look apologetic, which he did. She had to know he hadn't meant anything by it.

"Wow," he finally managed out, letting out an uncomfortable laugh. "I did not mean to say that outloud. But - I mean -"

He was stammering and he knew it. He stopped himself before he made an even bigger idiot out of himself. In the background, Michael was doing an even better job at doing just that.

"Sorry," he settled on, focus on her, sounding close to meek. "Do you want me to, uh, not stick around?"

[callofkaren]

"No, just..." Karen glanced back at the screen, unsure any of the mental resolve she'd worked up in the past half hour could stand watching more, but she had to know what in the hell was going on. She looked back at Jim. "Hang out, for a little bit?"

[jim-halpert.livejournal.com]

Jim looked at the screen one more time before nodding and sitting down next to her. He had plenty of time before he was supposed to go get Sam. He knew full well how it felt getting news from back home.

"Yeah, alright," he said, watching the scene switch to him. It was still bizzare, to this day, to realize he was a TV show character. He didn't really think he'd ever let it sink in, purely because it was something he didn't want to think about often.

"Why are we putting a party together?" he wondered, watching the scene. A part of him was trying to keep off the subject of her surprise pregnancy until she brought it up - or the show did, again. He had a feeling that wouldn't be the last scene of it. "I didn't even know they sold balloons in those colors."

[moraldyslexic.livejournal.com]

"For what it's worth, that is a really dorky picture, but it's also really sweet," Lennox said from where he was standing, his sandwich halfway to his mouth. "So they're both right." It was weird watching this, seeing Karen pregnant and Pam being awkward and that guy who looked like Frank being... really freaking inappropriate. Lennox wasn't sure what to make of any of it.

"So... what the hell?" he asked. "Baby?"

[callofkaren]

"Baby," Karen repeated, barely hearing anything but that word from Lennox. The shock was wearing off just a bit, but not enough that she could remember much of what had happened in the past five minutes. "The me that isn't me is having a baby."

[moraldyslexic.livejournal.com]

"At least you can take some comfort in this incredibly fucked up situation," Lennox pointed out, coming over to where Karen was sitting, still staring at the screen. "And that comfort would be that you still look really freaking hot even when you're that pregnant, which is a real feat."

[callofkaren]

That got a laugh out of Karen, even if it was a short one. If there was one thing she loved about Lennox, it was his ability to say the right thing - or the most ridiculous - to make her feel better. For a given value of better, anyway.

"I guess that's true," she said, shaking her head as the scene finally ended and went to Dwight and Jim. And some really ugly balloons. "Oh my god, this is too weird."

[moraldyslexic.livejournal.com]

"So Karen back there is married and is having a baby," Lennox murmured, tucking a leg under his body before he took a bite of his sandwich and then offered it to Karen. Just in case. Sometimes people liked eating in stressful times.

"Wow. But, hey, you look really happy," he pointed out. "I know it's pretty much a mind fuck, but you do and that's gotta mean something, right?"

[this-is-pam.livejournal.com]

The look on Pam's face when she walked in and saw what Karen was watching was about equal to her own on screen, if not even more stunned. It wasn't just that she was looking at herself; Jim had told her a long time ago that the bookshelf liked to give up reels of the documentary. Seeing Karen pregnant, though... All Pam could think about was the night she'd shown up from, what she'd planned to say to Jim right there in front of everyone, and how they obviously would never have worked things out back there. Of course she wasn't the one he wound up with. Of fucking course.

"Um," she said after what felt like an eternity, but was really only a matter of seconds, just enough time for the Karen on screen to waddle over to where she and Michael were standing. Her voice was more unsteady than she'd have liked it to be, but she hardly noticed; she was too focused on trying, somewhat unsuccessfully, not to let her eyes well up. Maybe she ought to have expected this, but that didn't make it easy for her to watch.

With what came next, she let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, lifting a hand to wipe at her eyes, but she couldn't bring herself to speak yet. This was all too weird.

[callofkaren]

It was a little hard for Karen to really pay attention to anything going on around her, what with her finding out she was having babies back home. (And she wasn't huge - if she'd been back there, she might have smacked Michael for saying that. She could see herself holding back on the screen, even.)

She knew Pam was there, but hadn't really worked up the courage to look at her just yet. Karen often forgot that Pam wasn't the Pam who'd been here first; there still was a lot between them, even if things were good.

"We're not—" she stopped herself, because having to repeat what she'd said when Pam heard it well enough was just stupid. "You and Jim, you're together. Like you're supposed to be." If there was anything Karen was grateful for on the island, it was being able to say that without an ounce of regret. She'd gotten over it, had moved on and accepted the way things were.

[this-is-pam.livejournal.com]

It might not have been Karen's intention to make her feel that way, but Pam quickly felt pretty foolish, as much as her reaction might have been warranted. She couldn't have known. That didn't make the initial thought of it any less jarring.

Her head felt like it was spinning, but she made her way over to sit on the couch by Karen, trying not to look as shaken as she felt. Like you're supposed to be, she repeated in her head, and managed a weak smile. Maybe that was true. Maybe it was supposed to work out no matter what. She couldn't dwell on that now, though, not when Karen was onscreen and pregnant.

"Right," she replied quickly, shaking her head. "No, of course. I just -" What she'd thought had been made pretty obvious, though. What wasn't clear was what was going on onscreen. After watching for a few moments, apparently confused, she turned her head to look in Karen's direction, still a little pale. "You left Scranton," she said, the sentence not quite a question. "So this is in the future."

[callofkaren]

"I was still there when I showed up here, but yeah. I left." Pam probably didn't need any explanation for why she would have, and Karen wasn't inclined to give one. She might have shown up on the island before the beach, but she hadn't been stupid. Overly optimistic, maybe.

God, she wasn't even sure how much Jim had told Pam about the reels.

"There was another one I watched, a long time ago? I became regional manager of the Utica branch. And..." she gestured weakly at the screen, "moved on."

[this-is-pam.livejournal.com]

"Apparently," Pam replied, just as weakly. Some things -- namely, Michael -- hadn't changed, but a whole lot more seemed to have, and she barely knew where to start with it. At least Karen had been somewhat prepared, if not enough to expect that it would show her being pregnant. Then again, she doubted anyone could have been ready to find that out that way.

"Do you, um..." She trailed off, biting her lower lip. The question she had to ask would have, under normal circumstances, been pretty cruel, but this was all different. "Do you know whose it is?"

[formerfratboy.livejournal.com]

Nick had promised Karen that he'd meet her in the rec room so that they could go for dinner together, because they did cute things like that. He'd expected to find her watching something or talking to something or trying to convince Utica to stop eating something of Nick's that mysteriously ended up in the rec room.

Instead, he walked in the room just in time to see a very, very pregnant Karen walk on-screen.

He just stared, wide-eyed at the screen. "Holy shit," he blurted, giving away both the fact that he was there and the fact that he was caught incredibly off-guard by this pregnant TV-Karen.

[callofkaren]

Karen honestly didn't know what surprised her (and freaked her out) more — seeing herself on screen like that, or Nick seeing her like that.

It would be just her luck that when things were going really, incredibly well, this would happen, and he'd think that was what she wanted and get scared away or something.

All she could really do was cringe when Michael went on about the possibility that it was Jim's baby.

[formerfratboy.livejournal.com]

Nick slowly walked around to sit down on the couch next to Karen, staring at the screen the whole while. This was so surreal, on so many different levels, that he didn't even know where to start being freaked out.

Even after Karen's former boss had (temporarily) finished making a fool of himself and the show moved on to the next scene, all Nick could do was stare in confusion. It really sort of hurt his brain, and he generally considered himself a pretty intelligent guy.

[callofkaren]

"So...this is awkward," Karen announced, after a minute of just sitting there, unsure where to even start. She chanced a look over a Nick, and was unsurprised to see that look on his face.

[formerfratboy.livejournal.com]

Nick managed to close his mouth and not stare dumbstruck anymore. But only barely. "Just a little," Nick said, finally looking away from the screen, from Jim and Dwight and their hideous balloons.

[the-intersect.livejournal.com]

Chuck had actually been looking for Morgan. There was really no telling where the little bearded man went during the day sometimes, but the rec room in the compound was usually a pretty good place to start.

He heard the sounds of someone watching something on the projector, and when he rounded the corner, did not expect to see what he did on the screen. Karen. Really, really pregnant.

Chuck hadn't even known that Karen was fictional, but that wasn't the first thing on his mind. Eyes wide, he stared at the screen for a long moment before he remembered why he'd come to the rec room in the first place.

"You-- you haven't seen Morgan around anywhere, have you? Tiny man with a beard?" He asked, feeling more than a little awkward. It might have been easier to just back out of the room and pretend he hadn't seen anything at all.

[callofkaren]

"What?" Karen looked over her shoulder and frowned at Chuck, not really understanding his question for a moment. She'd just seen herself pregnant, she could be given a break. "Oh, um, no. No little bearded men here."

Just her. Pregnant. With a baby.

[the-intersect.livejournal.com]

"Oh. Okay." Chuck said, not really recovered from what he'd seen. "If you see him around would-- so, um...I'm just gonna take a stab in the dark here and ask. Is that you?" He pointed weakly at the screen.

Steve Carell. Either this was a long lost episode of The Daily Show, or Karen was on The Office.

And pregnant. Really pregnant.

[callofkaren]

"Future me," Karen said grimly. Not that there was anything horrible about her future, it was just surprising. Suddenly finding out she was pregnant without actually being pregnant couldn't have been anything but surprising.

She looked back at Chuck again, realizing he had no clue, if he was asking about this. "That's me, yeah. On a TV show."

[the-intersect.livejournal.com]

He kind of figured out the TV show part on his own.

"I'm guessing by the look on your face that you haven't seen this one before," Chuck said, looking almost as grim as Karen did.