II. High

All he needed was someone to tell him not to go. Because he didn't want to leave, not really. He'd just been backed into a corner by his own stupidity, and he was getting desperate.

Kelly called him that fateful night, the night in which he mildly sprained his ankle jumping a fence and running into the dark, and more or less asked what the hell that was all about. Really, that was all he--Toby Flenderson the dumping ground for everyone else's problems--needed. Someone to listen. And in a roll-reversal, Kelly listened supportively while he poured his problems out until one in the morning.

Then she said it. "Costa Rica isn't going to fix anything."

They had the next day off, and she came over to make sure he didn't do anything else crazy. He called into Corporate and got his vacation days approved. It was only two weeks, but it was enough time to think things over and start going to therapy again. When he returned to work, he formally apologized to Pam and suffered though a period of shunning from all his coworkers.

Except for Kelly. Once he let her into his life, she quickly and easily became a fixture. His only ally 9 to 5. his one-girl support group.

After awhile she broke up with Darryl, more or less by default,, and started dating Toby, also by default. It surprised him how naturally it happened, the serendipity of it, and how happy she made him.

The only thing that bothered him was how close he'd come to letting it go.