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Nellie Bertram had no compunctions about who she was.

The youngest daughter of a big and especially religious family, she was, whether by her nature or by nurture, not one to play by the rules. She had to be! The world was a big and cruel place, especially for women. You had to play dirty if you had any hope of getting ahead.

Well, okay, admittedly, she hadn't exactly helped herself that well. She still had awful credit card debt, she still wasn't married despite a few instances where she came close to at least a proposal, she still hadn't been able to get approved by any adoption agencies and wasn't getting any younger…

And that was without mentioning that her life in London had been left in shambles. Many of her friendships, if one could even call them that, had either fallen apart or they just drifted away from each other, never having been all that deep to begin with. The longest relationship she'd ever had similarly went down the drain when her boyfriend left her for a younger woman. And she wasn't on the best terms with the rest of her family either - she had always been at odds with her parents, and her siblings, far more straight-laced than she, considered her an embarrassment.

So she did what any person (okay, maybe not any ) would do and decided to start over fresh. She left England for America, took on a new job and made new friends… and enemies.

Okay, so maybe she should've expected some sort of consequence for just waltzing in and trying to take over the Scranton Dunder-Mifflin branch, but finders keepers losers weepers, right? And yeah, she wasn't helping when Andy, the guy whose job she tried to steal, ended up saving the company when Robert California essentially ran it to the ground.

And she especially didn't help her case with him when she essentially set up the killing blow to his relationship with Erin.

She could tell Andy's goodbye was full of fake courtesy; he was clearly waiting to get away from here and was only saying goodbye so he wouldn't look like a total asshole. But if she had to be honest, she actually could empathize with that. After all, when you constantly burned your own bridges, what else was left to do but to move forward and try to at least end things on some mildly pleasant note?

And then, a couple months after he left, shit hit the fan.

Nellie expected she'd get a little harassment. After all, she liked playing the villain and embraced the controversy she created. And she turned the dick pics random men sent her into an extra source of income, which was nice. In fact, everyone got some negative attention to some degree, for whatever reason.

But poor Erin (and to a lesser extent, Pete) got the worst of it. The harassment was ruthless and relentless. Even getting off the internet for a while did nothing to lessen the sheer vitriol sent her way.

Nellie nevertheless was determined to be a source of support for Erin in this, especially since she knew that it was partially her fault the younger woman was the target of scrutiny. She stayed by Erin's side whenever she needed to go out, assisted her with ways to make her safer including helping Erin move into her new apartment and changing her phone number. And it helped slightly, plus the harassment was leveling off, little by little.

But even with all those steps, Nellie couldn't shake off the feeling that things would only get worse before they would improve.

Like every human that worked a job and breathed air, Nellie hated Mondays.

She was absolutely not a morning person and she still couldn't understand Americans' preference for coffee over tea (maybe some sort of little cultural holdover from the Revolutionary War?). And she had to be honest, American offices could be so droll.

As she entered the Dunder-Mifflin office, she quickly noticed that Erin wasn't in today and in fact, the general atmosphere seemed… more somber today. Pete was in today though, and she could see that he also looked down in the dumps, for lack of a better term. That couldn't be good. She gently approached him.

"Peter, are you alright? Where is Erin today? Is she ill?" Nellie asked.

He shook his head. "No, she's fine for the most part. She's… just taking a few days off."

"Why?" Nellie pressed. She could tell something wasn't right and didn't like what her gut was telling her.

Pete sadly sighed and said, "She needs to take some time off because… well… we broke up a few days ago and she needs time away from here… and me."

For a second, Nellie's mind went blank before she found her voice. "I'm sorry, I think I spaced out for a moment there, what did you say?"

Pete repeated, "Erin and I broke up and she needs time away from here."

"But… why ?" Nellie asked, jaw dropped in shock. "I mean, you two worked so well together, and you made each other happy, and-"

"Not anymore," Pete interrupted.

"Is… is it because of all that Internet harassment?" Nellie questioned further.

Pete nodded, "That did play a part, yeah."

"Well, you shouldn't let some random anonymous jerks get to you like this!" Nellie asserted.

"It's not just us though," Pete replied. "It's also everyone else that's gotten caught up in this. My family mainly." His expression hardened as he continued, "They've been getting a bunch of shit thrown at them too. My parents had to move to a new house because they were getting a bunch of hate mail and then someone threw a brick into their window and my mom had to start a new heart medication because of the stress, and my brother got his identity stolen and my sister's been getting harassed, all because of me ."

Nellie's heart dropped as she heard this. "Good God," she breathed in astonishment. "I mean, what kinds of bastards would do that, to target and involve your family in this? That's just low."

He nodded in agreement and added, "Yeah, and because of that… my family didn't like my relationship with Erin and they all blame everything that's happened to them over these last few months on her."

"Wait," Nellie said, "did they play a part in this?"

Pete nodded again. "Yeah, they… they wanted me to break up with her."

"You shouldn't break up with her because your parents told you to!" Nellie reprimanded. "You realize you are an adult who can make his own choices, right?"

"And what good are those choices when they lead to nothing but pain, Nellie?" Pete asked her angrily. He immediately calmed down and elaborated, "It's not just them either. I did it for her sake too."

"How is breaking up with her good for her?" Nellie asked in confusion.

"Well," Pete slowly explained, "a few weeks ago, Darryl made Erin watch this clip from way before you and I started working here. He said it would 'give her some perspective'. And well, basically… at the time that clip was filmed, Andy was dating this other woman named Jessica and Erin just wouldn't accept it, to the point that she once told Andy she wished Jessica would die right in front of Jessica's face. And when she watched herself there, Erin's been… well, I'd say she feels guilty, but even that doesn't feel adequate enough."

Nellie was taken aback. That was news to her. She had no real desire to watch the documentary beyond the episodes she'd appeared in, so to hear this…

"Dear God," she breathed, her shoulders falling as she began realizing there was a whole new dimension to the situation.

"Ever since she saw it, Erin just… she hasn't really been the same. Especially around me," Pete continued sadly. "She would always look at me like she was ashamed or something. She… could barely even let me touch her sometimes."

Nellie's heart sank as she listened to this. And, little by little, an emotion she often shut herself off from because it was an inconvenience to her began to set itself in.

Guilt.

Nellie shook her head. "I should probably go see how she's doing after work."

He nodded and replied, "That's probably not a bad idea." He then added, almost pleaded, "And please, Nellie, don't tell her about my family. It's… it's already hard enough, and… I don't want her to have to feel even worse about all this."

She could see the desperation in his face, the pain of having to do this for his own sake, for his family's sake, and especially for Erin's sake.

"Don't worry," she told him with utter sincerity. "I won't. Absolutely promise."

He smiled and nodded. "Thank you," he said to her, voice filled with gratitude.

When the workday was over, Nellie immediately left to go to Erin's apartment. The drive was quick and simple, and, just to make it a little nicer, she took a quick stop at a store to get Erin a little bag of goodies to cheer her up. Candy, some herbal tea that was supposed to be good for elevating one's mood, and a lavender scented candle.

She put a couple knocks on the door. A moment later, Erin answered.

"Nellie? This is… unexpected," Erin greeted with surprise.

Erin definitely was not in the best shape, Nellie could tell immediately. She looked tired, her hair limp and disheveled, and eyes red-rimmed. She was wearing a pair of old sweatpants that looked crusted with food crumbs and a faded shirt that had a small hole in it.

Nellie sadly replied, "Well, I had heard about what happened with you and Peter and I figured I should come here and see how you were doing. Can I come in?"

"Of course you can," the younger woman replied with a small smile, moving over to let the Brit in through the door.

Nellie set her purse and the bag of goodies on the coffee table and took a seat on the couch. Erin moved to the kitchen.

"You want anything? Water or anything to drink?" Erin offered.

"No, I'm quite fine," Nellie gently declined. She opened up the bag and took out the box of tea. "I actually got you some things. Just figured it would be nice to have some little things to help you while you take time off. This tea here is supposed to be good for improving your mood. I mean, the claims could be rubbish, but it would at least taste good with a drop of honey, right?"

Erin smiled slightly and took a seat next to Nellie, looking over her purchases. "These are really nice actually, Nellie. I like the candle especially. Thank you."

Nellie wasn't sure why, but she honestly had to wonder… why? Why wasn't Erin lashing out? Or at least being something else other than… whatever this was? This mixture of acceptance and resignation rather than anger and bitterness.

"Erin," Nellie said in as measured a tone as she could, "how exactly have you been since… well, you know…?"

Erin sighed and replied, "Well… at first, I wasn't so good, but I'm doing a bit better now."

"I'm glad to hear that," Nellie said back with a nod. "Although if I may, and I don't want to sound insensitive here, you seem to be recovering from this fast."

"It's fine. I don't know," Erin shrugged. "I guess with all the stuff that happened… all the bullying and other stuff… I just kinda realized it's probably for the best that Pete and I are broken up. I liked him but… I didn't handle things well and I… didn't stop to think about the possible consequences."

Hearing the way Erin was speaking really hurt. There were tears behind the younger woman's eyes, Nellie could easily see that. But to hear her so accepting of this, and how she didn't appear to be too bothered by Pete's decision…

"This is all my fault," Nellie sighed sadly, rubbing her temples as she tried to soothe the headache coming in. "I pushed you into this situation."

Erin shook her head. "No, Nellie, you shouldn't blame yourself for any of this. It's on me. I made those choices."

Even though Nellie could tell Erin was being genuine in her reassurances, it still didn't quite stem away the feeling of guilt eating away at her.

'Congratulations on a job well done, Eleanor,' a nasty little voice in the back of her mind sarcastically spat. 'You have really outdone yourself this time! You've managed to ruin not one, but seven people's lives! That's a whole new record there!'

Nellie tried to ignore that voice but it only got louder, more vicious.

What was worse was that this voice wasn't just some random part of her conscience, or whatever was left of it. No, it was the remnant of a voice of an ex-boyfriend from long ago. A Danish man named Lars who came to London to study and carried out a relationship with her, only for it to crash and burn when he found out she had another guy on the side… who was an older married man whose own wife left him when she found out about the affair. Lars was devastated naturally, even as Nellie tried to convince him it meant nothing.

Lars' response to that was something that still haunted her on occasion to this day.

"You are like a tornado! You know what those are, right? The weather phenomenon that only occurs in America, the giant funnel cloud of strong winds that rips through an area and destroys everything in its path? That's what you are! You are a human tornado that destroys everything she touches! You are the most selfish person I've ever met! You don't give a shit about whose hearts you break or whose lives you ruin as long as you get what youwant!"

Well, in this case, he was half-right.

She tried to do something somewhat good, tried to help Erin find happiness. Okay, sure it basically meant breaking up another relationship to set up another, but it made Erin happier than she'd seen her in a while, and Nellie liked Erin. She was like the little sister she never had. And sure, admittedly, there was an element of revenge she wanted to take against Andy for his petty acts of passive-aggression regarding that letter of recommendation, but she meant well, right?!

She could hear Lars' voice in her head again, laughing bitterly at her. 'Human tornado strikes again,' it said. 'Even when you try to be good, you never will accomplish anything good. Because you are a life ruiner. You ruin people's lives even without trying.'

She had hoped for a fresh start after having burned so many bridges back in England; that was why she moved to America. And America wasn't too bad, despite all the horror stories about the country some of her fellow Brits would often come up with.

But it was all too clear at this point that her hopes didn't work out.

In fact, at this point, she was pretty certain she was making more off her side job sending dick pics to that gay porn website for extra money than she was with… whatever the hell it was she was doing here at Dunder-Mifflin. And what future was there in paper selling anyway? Sure, paper probably wouldn't become completely obsolete, but with the way things were becoming more digitized…

'No matter where you go, you leave destruction and pain in your wake,' Inner Voice Lars spat. 'Face it, Eleanor, you ruined your own life and you just ruined the lives of several good people here. You have nothing.'

The Inner Voice was right, as much as she hated to admit it.

There was only one thing left to do.

She had to go.

Go before she ruined even more lives here in this (frankly boring, drab, and horrible) town.

Nellie quietly left Scranton and Dunder-Mifflin three weeks after Pete and Erin's break up.

She turned in her two weeks notice to Dwight, who was surprised by the suddenness of it, but he accepted it, especially when he listened to her simple reason why.

"This… it's just not for me," she told him. "I can't be here any longer."

He nodded, somberly understanding what she meant, what she couldn't say.

Dwight gave her a generous severance package that included enough money to help her move her things to wherever she wanted to resettle.

She quickly decided on moving to Poland. Sure, it wasn't as nice as say, Sweden or even France, but she figured it was a low-key enough place for her to be able to get by without too much trouble.

As she sat on the seat of her airplane, Nellie looked out the window, sighing sadly. She had to admit, as droll and dull as Scranton was, she was going to miss the place… the people…

But, as Lars and others before and after him had made clear, she would always leave a human toll wherever she went. And she had left an especially high toll here.

That was what happened with a human tornado.

Good riddance, Nellie! Don't let the door hit you on the way out!

This was a bit of a challenge to write, to get into the mindset of a person who is generally horribly selfish but does have some shreds of decency (or at least tries to have them). Never understood the point of her character, but I figured I'd have fun putting her through a "my God, what have I done?" realization.