Disclaimer: I do not own the characters to The Office. They are owned by MSNBC. This story takes place during the 5th Season so Erin is working reception and Toby is still with HR, but well versed viewers will notice that it is very mixed. I may not be well versed as I think I am but if I make an error, please point it out and I will correct. Lines in italics are talking head interviews. Thank you for reading. Enjoy.
Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company was a small, not relatively well known, office supplier in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The workers there were primarily 'nine-five punch in and out' and gone for the weekends, but as a group they were very diverse; there married and single-religious and agnostic, the life of the party and the quiet and subdued, the loved and reviled. What is enough to add more to the mix?
Playing on his computer in his personal office Regional Manager Michael Scott didn't hear his phone go off for a couple rings as he was sucked into an intense game of Chef World on Facebook, but picking it up there was Erin, the receptionist, on the other end saying that there was an important call from corporate CFO David Wallace. Punching the button for the line Michael kept his eyes on the screen, one hand on his mouse as he began, "Hey, buddy. How's the Big Apple?"
"Michael" Wallace's voice was a bit low and seemed annoyed. He had dealt with Michael numerous times for his incompetent handling of the branch and his seemingly oblivious demeanor. He wanted this call over with as quickly as possible, "Michael, did you receive the email that was sent out to you last week over the new employees?"
Michael was not responding, he was trying to find a place to put his fresh chocolate cake, "Michael? Michael!" Wallace called out that made Michael jump a bit.
"Easy, David. The city life is making you angry. Tends to happen to city folk. Why don't you move out into the country…."
Before he could go on Wallace cut him off, "Michael, Corporate sent out emails to the other branches about the hiring of veterans. All of the other branches responded back except for you. Is there a problem?"
"No. No. No problem at all, David. Just trying to-" as he spoke Michael closed the game and went to his email and entered the passcode that was printed on a sticky note on the left side of the monitor-and pulled up over fifty unopened email messages and went through each one trying to find the one in question.
"You didn't read it, did you?" Wallace sighed in frustration.
"No." Michael said at first, and then whispered, "Yeah…."
"Michael, listen to me carefully. The company is now part of the Hire a Veteran Campaign. We get a tax break for hiring veterans so I sent out emails to the branches to start doing so. Your branch is the only one that hasn't responded. Now, we went through the applications and there was only one veteran that applied to your branch, but you didn't send anything about hiring him. Is there a problem?"
"No. no problem at all, David."
"Good. Well. Because of your delays we went ahead and hired him. His name is Charles McMillan. He lives in Scranton and he'll be coming in tomorrow and working with corporate as an administrator." However, as Wallace continued to talk Michael was slowly losing interest. He didn't like corporate people. There was Toby of Human Resources that was his bane and that was his only enemy in this office, but apparently now they were going to have a second man and this had Michael worried.
As Michael was sitting and stewing in his office Pam enters the office with a beaming smile on her face as she puts her coat on the rack beside her reception desk crosses over to a desk adjacent to Jim's desk and sits down putting her purse down by her feet.
Pam: (sitting in the conference room still with a beaming smile on her face) we're engaged and we need the extra money. So, Jim actually got me into contact with a local publisher that needed readers. So, I became a professional reader! I do mostly short stories and poems, mark mistakes and all that and give my honest opinion before sending them back and it's anonymous. I don't get paid very much, it's on commission but they do start to add up!
As she sits behind her desk and turns her computer on she takes a folder, places it before her, opens it and starts reading as Jim enters the office, hangs up his coat and gloves to the edge of the desk and looks down. "Whatcha reading?"
Looking up at him and smiling Pam replies, "Oh this one is about a little bird that is trying to rescue his friends that are trapped in a bird cage inside an old woman's home!" speaking as though she is really interested in reading it further. "I'm only on the tenth page but this author is really good!"
Jim smiles and nods, "Is it any better than the wizard that eats a whole bunch of strange leaves?"
Pam could only help but giggle and go back to reading as Jim goes to his desk, sits down, and turns on his computer. Already next to him was his office mate Dwight whom was combing through his daily emails and then pulls up those that go to Michael Scott as he knows the password and when he sees that there is a new employee coming, a veteran, Dwight immediately gets up and goes to Michael's office, barging in without knocking and sits right beside his boss, "Michael, what is going on? Are we getting a new employee?"
"Yes, Dwight, we are," Michael replied with a bit of worry, "This guy is going to be from corporate…"
"Corporate?" Dwight replies, "Why corporate? Why do they need to send someone out here?"
"I don't know, Dwight," Michael shrugs his shoulders as he leans back in his seat and folds his arms before his chest.
Immediately Dwight kindled an idea, "A spy?"
"A what?"
"A spy" Dwight turns to him and says, "They're going to try and plant a spy in our ranks to send to corporate all of our dirty little secrets." When he spoke Dwight actually meant every word of what he was saying.
"We're not dirty," Michael sighs, "Oscar keeps this place clean. But, tell you what, you're good at surveillance, right?"
"The best" Dwight replies confidently.
"Well, see what you can find on this new guy coming in. Corporate says he's a veteran and I think that he may be trouble for us. So find out what you can on him and let's start from there."
"On it!" Dwight leaps up and goes to his desk. On the way Michael calls him back.
"Here, let me give you my email password…" Michael began.
"I already got it" Dwight replies, shutting the door.
For the rest of the day Dwight was combing through pages of information on the internet of this Charles McMillan. He was even able to get a report from the Army using the Freedom of Information Act, but it was very brief statement. He found that there was a Charles McMillan that was Honorably Discharged from the Army in 2005 after eight years of service and was awarded a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars with V device and a Purple Heart, but what he couldn't 't figure out was why Charles was being sent here for all places and that was most pressing.
By about lunch time Jim, who was pulled in with so many client calls, was finally given a lull and asked Dwight what he was up to, but the man with the glasses and Dijon mustard shirt replied that what he was doing was top secret, so Jim just nodded and went to the kitchen to get his ham and cheese sandwich from the fridge and retired to the break room to eat. As he was eating Dwight comes in with a thick stack of paper wrapped in a Manilla enevelope and drops it on the small table across from Jim deliberately so the loud crack of impact gets his attention before sitting down.
"What's up, Dwight?" Jim asks casually.
"Jim, if I tell you this, will you keep it top secret? Do you want to join me on a plan to protect our branch?"
The bored Jim immediately sensed leaned forward in his seat and propping up his upper body on his elbows Jim whispers, "Absolutely I do."
Jim: Dwight says that there's a new guy coming in from corporate and he and Michael think that this guy is going to be a danger to us and so Dwight is planning on trying to get as much information out of this guy as possible and try to expose him as a spy and he asked for my help (his lips pull to the side in a mocking expression) I will try to help Dwight as best as I can. (he gives the camera a thin smile and slightly tilts his head to one side, again mocking.)
The next day Erin was sitting at her desk, getting it going to receive calls when a new figure came in carrying a small box tucked under his left arm and a backpack on his shoulders. She knew a new person was coming but wasn't told who so when she saw this person she smiled and said, "Hi, can I help you?"
The person paused before her desk, "Yes, I'm Charles. I was just hired…" before he could finish Dwight immediately stood up, went around Jim and stood before Charles.
"I'm Dwight Schrute, Assistant Regional Manager," holding out his right hand. He was going to be testing this man right from the start.
Dwight: I'm going to be testing this man. One of the ways is by his handshake. If the man has a weak handshake, doesn't look you in the eye, doesn't know what to say when asked multiple questions and backs up when you speak to him then he is a man with low standards. (He then smiles devilishly sensing that he is going to be winning)
When he stands before Charles, Dwight easily dwarfed the man standing at 6'2 and Charles was only at 5'11 and immediately steps in close and tries leaning forward for the handshake much to his surprise Charles didn't flinch in shaking his hand and didn't even back up but looked up and Dwight and looked into his green eyes, "Charles McMillan."
Dwight: (pauses for a moment and begrudgingly admits) Not a bad start.
Michael comes out of his office and is all smiles as he shakes Charles' hand. "Hi, I'm Michael Scott-the manager" then claps his hands several times loudly to get everyone's attention. "People I would like you all to meet Charles. He's going to be joining us. He is from corporate." Emphasizing the corporate part so he could tell people that he was the enemy. Turning to Charles he said, "Why don't you tell us a little about yourself?"
Looking at Michael then at the other eyes at the desks arrayed before him and off to the right-Kevin had to stand up and look around Oscars' desk and Angela's eyes were just above the cubicle wall that separated her desk from Erin's. "Well, I'm Charles, as you know. I'm just a guy from corporate and a program manager. The company is trying to launch new software for all the branches that is supposed to stream line sales and reduce costs, but…" then shrugs his shoulders.
"You were in the army?" Dwight asks. He already knew the answer but he wanted to get the exposure started.
Looking at him Charles sighed, "Yes, I was in the Army."
"We're you deployed?" Dwight asks again.
"Yes, I was deployed during Iraqi Freedom. I did two tours there. Thirty months."
Phyllis smiles, "Thank you for your service."
"No problem" Charles gives a half smile and nods to her.
"Did you kill anybody?" Dwight asks next rather coldly.
"Dwight!" Pam exclaims in surprise.
Instead of answering Charles takes back his box, "I like to get started."
"Good. Well, we can put you in the annex" Dwight began, but then Jim stopped them.
"Hold on," Jim said, "There's that old desk over there by Stanley" pointing in the far corner of the office near Creed. There was no one there. In fact, there was no Creed either and his phone was ringing.
Dwight sighs and says they could put Charles there and as they go Jim trades a look with Pam of concern. Knowing that Dwight will either try to scare this man away or force him to submit Jim was going to try and help this man to at least stay afloat in this company. What came next was a series of introductions with Dwight taking Charles from station to station, meeting everyone. Starting with Phyllis, Stanley, and Andy. Dwight tried to just brush past them with just giving names and moving on, but Andy jumped up to shake the man's hand, "Hi. Name's Andy Bernand. People call me Nard-Dog. (Dropping his tone) You can call me that. Do people give you a nickname?"
"Not in a while" Charles replied.
"Well then" Andy smiles, "Allow me to be the first to give you one here for you!" then looks Charles over. He wore khaki slacks and brown tennis shoes and a maroon button up shirt. Not exactly formal but Andy didn't call him out on it. There was his bristling hair, smooth facial cheeks, dark brown eyes, and thin lips but there was nothing sticking out that Andy could use to make a nice sounding nick name. "What did you do in the Army? If you don't mind me asking."
"Combat Engineer. Explosives"
"Well!" Andy exclaims, "I got the right one; Boom-Boom!"
Charles chuckles and nods.
"Boom-Boom it is!" Andy claps Charles' back. "Look out everyone! Here comes Boom-Boom!" At her desk Erin was smiling and nodding with this.
Going on to Jim he was on a sale's call and was distracted, but Pam was also eager to meet the new guy until her phone rang as well, so it was cut short. Creed was not at his desk and Meredith was also on the phone and when Dwight came near she snarled at him to get away. At the accounting department Charles turned in his paper work so he could start getting paid to Angela, and Kevin also showed Charles his stash of M&Ms. "If you want some, just let me know." Oscar was trying to get through the paperwork to close out the quarter so he didn't talk much, but they did shake hands before Dwight continued on towards Erin the receptionist who was very eager to meet new people. When Dwight came by he said, "Erin-receptionist" and turned sharply to the annex expecting Charles to follow. He was all the way to the door before he realized that Charles was still at Erin's desk and marched back perturbed.
Erin asked, "Hey, do you think I can get some of that Army food? I've always wanted to try that?"
"You mean MREs? Sure. What do you like?"
"Anything will be fine" she nodded.
"Sure. I'll get some during lunch"
"I can pay" she replied going for her purse but Charles held up a hand.
"It's okay. I got tons of them. I can spare one," Charles gave a half smile and shrugged his shoulders.
Continuing on Dwight led the way to the annex for the final leg of the journey; Toby and Kelly with the intention of just blowing them off, however when Toby turns around in his seat when they entered he showed that he already had the necessary books out for an introduction and Charles defied Dwight's 'We're done here' and sits down with Toby to listen to him, much to both Toby's and Dwight's surprise.
As it neared lunch time Phyllis and Stanley had finally finished a deal with two local clients and after typing out the paperwork and sending it down to the warehouse who they packaged and set out the products, but because the orders were only a few boxes they were not going to use their truck to deliver so Charles was asked to do it and Charles went for it because he could take them out quickly and spend the rest of the time out for lunch and grab the MRE. As the new guy disappeared into the warehouse Michael cautiously comes out of his office and looks around. Not seeing Charles at his desk he wanders over to Dwight, "Where's the new guy?" whispering.
Overhearing this Phyllis turns around in his seat and says, "He's delivering a couple orders for us."
Keeping his eyes on Dwight Michael next asked, "What else has he been doing?" reaching into his breast pocket Dwight takes to a small note pad with all of his information written on it, "Came in a 8:58 a.m and was introduced to everyone in the office. At 9:10 was introduced to Toby of HR. At 9:30 he submitted his paperwork to Angela of accounting. 9:31 sat down at his desk for the first time…" Michael waves his hand before him to get Dwight to stop.
"That's not what I meant. What I meant was-has he been 'normal'?"
Unable to avoid overhearing this from his seat Jim, who had his left arm bent, elbow resting on his desk in a rather bored position, the hand holding up his head, leans slightly further onto it.
Curious Dwight blinks as he pockets his notepad, "What do you mean?"
"Well, I mean, guys like that are known to be unstable…" Michael began and still whispering.
"Whoa, Michael, what are you talking about?" Jim says knowing where Michael was going in his train of thought and wanting to put a stop to it.
"Charles is a veteran and veterans, you know, will be unstable, like a time bomb waiting to go off."
"Michael, where did you get that from?" Jim asked.
Again, Michael waved his hand, this time at Jim. He was thoroughly convinced that Charles was going to pop.
"Dwight, I got an idea. Come with me" Michael says turning about and running back into his office with his college right behind him and shutting the door.
Turning about and looking at Pam all Jim could do was shrug his shoulders and Pam felt a cold shiver run up her spine knowing that something bad was going to happen.
When it was lunch time Pam and Jim sat in the break room area with the vending machines eating their sandwiches, chatting about Pam's stories. Kevin was there with them feasting on a box of cookies. Though the first two knew that Dwight and Michael were up to something they became more focused on Pam's readings as she was liking the story and was planning on giving a raving review saying "This writer has a lot of talent" but in order to avoid any bias as this was a local company and the submitters and reviews may know one another, Pam was not told the writer's name, but Jim was curious to know if Pam would ever finish her own stories as she has to keep putting them off because of work.
At the same time Dwight was using Michael's computer and goes onto the internet with the intent was to help Charles with his 'problems' and find a cure. Pulling up therapy Dwight points out, "There are a number of psychologists and physiatrists in the area but they're not covered in the company's HMO," but that's not what Michael was looking for.
Sitting next to him in his chair Michael sighed, "No. No. Not that. I need 'types of therapy', you know. Ways that we help cure the man ourselves."
"Okay" Dwight nodded and tapped some more words on the search engine and hit enter. "Here we go. 'Types of therapy'. There's 'shock therapy'…"
Michael shook his head and hissed, "We're not going to zap him with electricity, Dwight. We don't want to kill him."
"I can get rid of the body easily" Dwight replied unbuckling his eyebrows.
"No! Dwight. I want to 'cure' this man. If we can cure him of this he will look upon me as a savior. That's what I want...I want him to look up at me with ravenous (mistaking the word 'reverence') and respect. In order to that we have to cure him."
"What exactly are we going to be 'curing him' of?" Dwight asks as he draws from his brief experience he was not able to find any physical problems with the man.
"Dwight," Michael sighs as he crosses his arms and looks up, "This man maybe sick. He may be deranged. He may be a killer in hiding..."
"You mean he's CIA?" Dwight looks at him with slightly widening eyes.
"No. Nothing like that. I mean, he may be suffering from Post Partum Depression."
It took a moment for Dwight to figure out what he was getting on to, "You mean PTSD-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? Because those are two different things..."
"I believe it is" Michael replies but doesn't really answer the question but remains firm in his belief that he wants to help Charles over a disease he thinks he has. "Anyway. Types of therapy that we can do" leaning forward in his seat and goes through the list that Dwight has found.
It's noon now and the office is at lunch. Charles is still out and most of the others are in the break room eating except for Dwight and Michael whom are in the latter's office. Sitting behind his desk Michael has taken off his thin white striped black jacket and his dark tie but remained in his white button up shirt. "I had Dwight go and get the necessary materials. When Charles comes back we are going to put him on the right path" speaking a smile. In his mind what he was planning on doing was right. It wasn't like one of Jim's pranks to get back at Dwight or something twisted. In his child like mind Michael believed that he could actually help a man who didn't appear to be in need of help. As he says that Dwight comes into the office with a small face paint kit, a brush and a duffel bag. "Okay, Michael, let's get to work." Taking out a large white towel he wraps around Michael's neck like a bib and opens the make up kit and begins dabbing the brush into it.
"This is going to work" Michael says confidently as he closes his eyes and leans back.
