Hola! Just to clarify, this fic goes by the assumption that Moss silent "Computer Man" role in Graham Linehan's short film "Hello Friend" is Moss when he was younger.

It also promises happynesses for Richmond, for those that requested them :-)

Disclaimer: All belongs to Graham Linehan, he of unendingly fertile imagination.

Hello Again

It began as normally as a day could in the basement of Reynholm Industries. Before attempting to make a pre-slacking pep rant, Jen took a moment to survey Roy, practically dead to outside stimuli, reading a battered-looking comic, and Richmond, talking enthusiastically to Moss, who seemed unusually interested in Richmond's theory on the developmental correlation between goths and hippies.

"Alright-" she began, before the smack of a door caused her to jump back and narrowly avoid a blow to the face from the entering delivery man.

"Sign for this please," he said, evidently too busy to bother with such formalities as greetings.

"What is it?" asked Jen.

"New system, the company's just bought four thousand of them," answered the delivery man, quickly and in monotone.

"But we don't have four thousand people working here-"

"Just sign for it," snapped the man.

Scowling, Jen did so.

"Thank you," said the man, clearly as grateful as Roy had been when Jen had finally gone through with her threat to tidy his desk. He stalked out, leaving the others with a large box.

After regarding it for a second, Jen began to rip open the packaging, unaware that the room was silent. She felt Roy nudge her arm, and followed his finger to Moss, who was sitting stock still, eyes wide, staring at the logo on the box.

"Moss? What's wrong?" Jen asked.

Moss kept on staring. Eventually he managed to let out a whisper. "It's Praemus."

Jen looked at the logo. "Yes," she said, finding the name written beneath. "New Praemus."

"Don't open it," Moss directed, his pupils looking tiny inside the whites of his eyes.

Jen let out an anxious laugh. "Moss, I've got to open it, the whole company's using these."

"Please don't open it," Moss begged, standing up now, his body rigid and straight.

"Moss, what are you-"

"Don't open it!" Moss screamed.

Jen stared at him in shock. Then she turned back to the box, gave the tape one last rip and removed the Praemus system.

Suddenly she felt a hand on her arm, and she was thrown to the floor. Looking up, she saw Moss, brandishing his cricket bat, the one she didn't know why was there, because Moss detested all sports, with Roy and Richmond trying to haul him away from the new equipment, struggling more than Jen would have thought necessary. Jen pulled herself to her feet and aided the others in pulling Moss back onto the sofa and removing his cricket bat, a task made much easier by the fact that he was being pedantically careful not to hit them.

"Moss, what was all that about?" demanded Jen.

"It's evil," Moss replied.

"What- the Praemus system is evil?" repeated Jen.

"Come on, Moss, that's the kind of weird mumbo-jumbo I'd expect Richmond to be coming out with," Roy laughed, then remembered that Richmond was sitting across from him, glaring in the unnerving way that only a goth of Richmond's calibre can pull off.

"If that wasn't true, I'd have you," Richmond muttered.

"I mean it," said Moss, who had lost all of his fury by now, and just sat there, quivering. "I've seen it before. It's evil."

The others stared, lost for words.

"Look, Moss," ventured Roy. "If you'd heard of it before, so would I. This is a new company."

"It's not, Roy, they've been operating for years, on the down-low." Moss sounded, scared now, panicked. He was sitting bolt upright, his hands clutching his knees. "I've seen it before, I've seen what it can do."

He seemed almost ready to cry.

"Moss," said Jen, reaching over and putting her hand on his shoulder. "I think it'd be best if you took the rest of the day off. Have a rest, and call me later to let me know if you'll be in tomorrow, alright."

"No! No, I can't just leave you with it!"

But Roy had already pulled Moss up from the sofa and was leading him towards the door. Moss tried to resist, but he was tired from his outburst and found himself pushed into the lift.

"What are you doing Moss?" Roy cried as the doors closed. "This is like, a new level of mental."

"Please believe me Roy," begged Moss. "Don't set it up. Just leave it. For a bit."

The lift opened at the main entrance, and Roy pushed Moss out, not saying a word.

Jen turned the Praemus system over in her hands.

Behind her, Richmond giggled. "It looks like an armadillo without any legs," he helpfully pointed out.

Jen opened the manual. "I suppose it connects to the network…" she mused.

Without warning, the Praemus unit flew from her hands, skidded across the room and stuck itself to the tower of Moss' computer.

"That was weird," she said. "Is it meant to do that?"

"I suppose so," answered Richmond. "Look, it's starting up."

They moved round to the monitor and waited for the home screen to come up. "'Every time you complain, an angel cries'," Jen read.

"And you thought I was depressing," commented Richmond.

"Let's try something out," muttered Jen to herself, connecting to the Internet. She browsed through a few pages. "Doesn't seem any different…"

"God knows," said Richmond.

Jen shrugged. "I'll leave it to Roy. He cares."

She wandered back into her office, leaving Richmond to go into Moss' favourites and reorder them, just for a laugh.

Half an hour or so later Roy returned, alone.

"God that was weird," he said, seemingly to the air around him.

"Was he alright?" Jen asked from her office.

"He kept going on and on about it," Roy answered. "He wouldn't shut up. Kept going on and on about we we're in danger and we shouldn't set it up till he's had a look at it. I wouldn't have got out of there if his mum hadn't come home." He sighed, then smiled and changed tack completely. "So have you had a look at it?"

"Uh, yeah," replied Jen. "It seems to have set up itself."

"What, really?" said Roy. Jen came over and indicated the unit stuck to the side of Moss' computer. "How's it…?"

"It just sort of stuck on," answered Jen.

"Stuck on how?"

"It just… moved over and stuck on," said Jen, feeling more awkward by the second. "Like it… homed to it, or something."

Roy stared at her for a moment. "Homed to it?"

"Yeah…"

Roy leaned in to the unit and fingered the edges. He pulled gently, then a little harder, but it wouldn't give. Shrugging, he turned to the screen and opened the Praemus control panel.

"You set this up?" he asked.

"Yes."

"You set it up yourself?"

"Yes."

"You set it up yourself and it worked?"

"You tell me."

He sighed audibly. "This is worse than Microsoft. I'm gonna go obsolete."

"Oh, don't say that…" Jen called as Roy stalked off to his desk and buried his face in a comic. Wondering if his sympathetic Aunt Irma symptoms were kicking in early this month, she left him to it.