Insomniac

Author's Note: This story was inspired by my own sleeping problems. Sometimes I just lie awake in bed, thinking about the things that went and go on in my life, and what could have been. Sometimes I even wonder about lost loves and crushes. This is exactly what Toby and Kelly do in this story, although they aren't thinking about each other. Will their insomnia be cured? Read on and find out.

Also, the Toby/Kelly scenes take place in the same timeline, meaning that when it's nighttime for Kelly, Toby's POV is during the same period. Plus, the Office timeline is a little messed up…the events of "Fun Run" come a week after "The Job", and the week after that is where our story begins. Just clarifying that so the timeline isn't confusing.

Just a warning: There are spoilers for "The Job", "Fun Run", and "Dunder Mifflin Infinity" included. Story is T for swearing and sexual references in later chapters.

Disclaimer: I don't own the US Office. That belongs to Greg Daniels.

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It was just another night for Toby Flenderson. Another night looking up at the stars, shining like the colossal gas giants that they were. Another night thinking that he would be better off among the constellations instead of trying to survive another hellish workday (made more so by his boss Michael) at the Dunder-Mifflin paper company. And most importantly, another night without any sleep.

He'd been going through this insomnia for a few weeks now. At first, Toby would appear tired, his eyes fluttering closed as soon as his red-haired head hit the pillows. But after much tossing and turning, those same eyes would quickly open up again. He'd shrug, attempting to fall asleep again, but to no avail. The restlessness would take over, the eyes would open up again, and the wave of drowsiness that usually hit Toby at night never came. That first day, it was slightly odd, but by the end of the week, Toby began to surmise that he really did have a problem, since nothing--not even a tall glass of warm milk--could put him to sleep. But what was it?

Dr. Burke, his doctor, chalked it all up to insomnia. "Try taking a sleeping pill and see if that helps," he suggested, since that had helped cure his insomnia. So Toby popped one pill. Then another, and another, and another. But Toby remained in his nocturnal state, silently begging his body to be at least a little bit tired. But it was all to no avail. The next morning at work, however, he'd feel like he just took a flight from Scranton to Singapore and back again, and had to rely on several cups of coffee (thank God for the goodness of Starbucks) just to get through the workday. However, most of his coworkers found him a tired-looking person to begin with, so they weren't concerned. In his mind, Toby wished they were. Not even Kelly, an infamous chatterbox and the main source of all workplace gossip, noticed that Toby was acting even more reserved and miserable than usual. Was he that invisible that Kelly Kapoor herself didn't give him a second glance? Toby had to wonder.

Whether it was insomnia or something else, though, Toby found a way to make a nighttime hobby out of his sleep-deprived condition. Back when he'd gone to Bishop O'Hara High School, he'd had a girlfriend named Wendy who adored stargazing and anything to do with outer space. While they dated, Wendy would take him out to the park on Friday nights to look up the stars, pointing out various stars and constellations to Toby. Now, years later, Toby was at a local park in Scranton, armed with a telescope and a book on constellations, reliving his stargazing high school days again, but all alone this time. His ex-wife Kathy (who was also a devout atheist and clashed with Toby's Roman Catholic beliefs, another thing that led to their divorce) had never been into astronomy.

Toby positioned his telescope, looking for anything new or different, like Sirius the Dog Star or the Andromeda constellation. He didn't see much though; just a cluster of star that looked like the Little Dipper and a blinking star that turned out to be the light of a helicopter. Still, Toby continued to scan Scranton's velvety blue night sky, just gazing at random stars. He had no idea why he suddenly took up interest in stargazing again, or even why he was looking for intricate star clusters that never seemed to appear in the sky. Sometimes you just did things for the sake of doing them, which Toby always did. He just cruised through life without any sense of where he was going or what he was doing, and even now, with his insomnia, things weren't any different. So Toby straightened up his telescope lens and kept looking through them.

When the sun began to rise and the beautiful, chaotic darkness had been touched on by light, Toby packed up his stuff and headed for home. In a few hours, he would have to go back to reality--well, as realistic as a day at Dunder-Mifflin could get. It was only Tuesday, and already Toby wanted the weekend to hurry up so he could escape work for a few days. Yes, work was that bad. And it had gotten even worse just a week ago. Toby shuddered, not wanting to dwell on what had happened. It was just too painful.

As Toby exited the park, a flash of red moved past him. There were curls, long, auburn curls, fluttering in the early morning breeze. A woman in a red-and-blue-striped jumpsuit was jogging past the gates of Lackawanna Community Park. Toby took a double-take, suddenly startled. Could it be…? But what was she doing up so early? The familiar redhead stopped, ducking her head down to retie her Reeboks. Toby's optimism crumbled. The eyes were hazel, not gray. Her hair had hints of brown highlights in it, and she was much taller than….her. It wasn't the receptionist that Toby knew and once loved.

The Pam look-alike spotted him, giving him a small nod. "Hey. You an early riser too?"

Toby nodded back. "Uh, yeah. I take my telescope at night and run in the morning before work…I live near the park." So she wasn't her. But she looked like her. That was enough to start a relationship, right? "Uh…I'm Toby Flenderson."

The Pam look-alike smiled. "Flenderson, huh? Cool name. I'm Ann Schuyler. I just moved back to Scranton two weeks ago."

"From where?" Toby asked. He was curious, plus he wanted Ann to think that he was interested in her. Not that he wasn't; she seemed nice and looked very pretty. But he wasn't in love with her, like he was with--

"Costa Rica."

"Huh?"

"I moved back to Scranton from Costa Rica. It's very beautiful year-round, and the culture and cuisine is just amazing. You've got to go down there for a vacation when you have the chance. I lived for two years in San Juan and I miss it so much, even though I'm happy to be back home," Ann explained. "The hardest part was leaving my boyfriend Ricky behind. But we're trying to make it work long-distance."

Boyfriend. One of the two-syllabic words that Toby despised the most. It was the word that caused him and Amy to break up, since she still had feelings for her ex. It was the one thing that most women in college didn't want to call him. And it was the one thing separating him from the love of his life, Pamela Morgan Beesly.

A clunking feeling filled Toby's chest, causing tears to prick the corners of his eyes in the process. He couldn't even have Pam's doppelganger, which further proved how pathetic his love life was.

"I have to go. Nice meeting you, Ann," were his parting words, extremely awkward to his own ears. Ann smiled again, telling Toby the same before happily jogging off to who-knows-where, while Toby dragged himself back home with sleepy eyes and a heavy heart. Some things really would never change.

Reviews are appreciated! Next part is Kelly's, which should be going up sometime this weekend.