CHAPTER 2.- The Search committee

Our dear friend Donna Noble is gone and Eleanor Donna "Nellie" Bertram has taken her place in the world. Since the Doctor has to take her away from England, the only way to do so, came from the most unexpected place: a paper company named Dunder Mifflin.

Since David Brent was quite interested in taking Michael Scott´s job in the USA, Nellie had no other option and had to take the first flight to cross the pond and find herself at Scranton, just to be on a search committee to find a replacement, she only knew that she had to go there because the guy who was supposed to take the job was on a coma and the interim regional manager was a former hippie and homeless man, which led Nellie to the task of finding a woman named Jo Bennett, her acquaintance and CEO of Sabre, who considered her a close friend.

Little did she know that Jo Bennett considered her a close friend, because she already knew Donna Noble. They worked together at Chiswick and Donna impressed Jo by not only being a responsible, understanding and amazing temporary worker, but for her attitude: a strong willed working class woman who thought she was capable of saving the world whenever she had the chance. Which in fact, she did, many times before…

Nellie had a free day from work to pack her bags and leave to the USA, so she returned home to the Bertram´s, her "adoptive" family. Sylvia Noble gave a warm welcome to her daughter, already knowing the news Nellie was giving her, The Doctor had explained Wilfred that in order for Donna to avoid remembering, her life would have to change almost completely, and her story and memories would be locked away forever. Sylvia understood, and with the best acting she could do, she told Nellie: -"So… are you leaving right now?"

-"Well, the committee will start functioning tomorrow, so I´ll have to fly overnight, it takes 7 hours and a half to get to the US, and I´ll have to check in on a hotel and then get to the office, so you can do your math" – answered Nellie with a very upset attitude and then went to her room to keep everything on her bags.

Sylvia Noble knew that once Donna left to the States, she´d never come back, or so she thought, and the pain she felt left her to her unspoken thoughts while she was crying on the kitchen: her only daughter taken away like that. Of course, she saved the universe, but it was at a very high cost: losing herself… Sylvia just couldn´t take it, after losing Geoff, Donna was all she had left, and her father Wilfred came to her and hugged her and said: "The Doctor told us she´ll do fine, and you know her, she´s strong, she can handle it, after all, she´s the most important woman for us and that´s the only thing that matters, also, remember that time when she took a bus and went on her own to Strathclyde!, of course she can do this alone, she always has."

Nellie came downstairs with all her luggage, consisting of several suit cases, and she even took a hat box (she thought it could come in handy in case there was a store on the US called "Planet of the Hats") and saw Sylvia and Wilfred laughing and hugging, but felt strange and puzzled looking at Sylvia with red eyes, as if she had been crying.

-"Mrs. Bertram?, you okay?, don´t worry, I will come back!, it´s not like I´m gone forever!" –Nellie laughed, unknowing that she had actually left forever – "Thank you so much for taking me in when I was little… I really thank you for that and of course I will come back. You are my only family"

Sylvia kept quiet and just held Nellie in her arms, the way just a mother could hold her only daughter and Wilfred had to pull her away before she burst into tears again. He then hugged Nellie and told her: "I will look up with my telescope to wave goodbye to you…" and stopped himself with tears in his eyes: "when you are flying on the plane of course… I hope I can find you".

As she waved goodbye to them and the black taxi driver was putting her luggage on the trunk of the car, Nellie didn´t understand this reaction from her adoptive family, because she was just going to go for a few months to work, it wasn´t going to be forever and it would be for the best.

Once she got to the US, Jo Bennett was already waiting for her arrival and had a room booked at a hotel, therefore all that Nellie had to do was going to the hotel and unpack her things, everything was ready and she needed a good night´s sleep before going to work, and then David Brent called her: "Nellie, you there?, it´s The Brent Meister General over here, need to give you instructions so you don´t ruin my new job interview"

She answered him: "Who gave you the hotel number?"

-"Well, I had Gareth looking for it, as you know, he also has great spy abilities because he did his service…"

-"Yes, yes, at the Territorial Army, I know, he says it ALL the time, what do you need David?"- Nellie interrupted

-"Well, I need you to give the worst ideas possible at the committee, it shouldn´t be hard for you, just change your mind about everything you say, do your worst, as usual, and try to make me look good"

-"When are you coming here? I didn´t see you in the flight, or the airport"

-"Oh my dearest Nellie" – he said with his patronizing tone, -"I´m not going there, I´ll Skype them!, after all, the job is already mine, anyway, I have to get ready, get a haircut and pick my guitar from home, I expect great results from you and if you do a great job, you might even have a job with me at the Dunder Mifflin company!". David hung up and Nellie just hung up too and fell asleep really fast, the next day would be her first day at Dunder Mifflin and she hoped to make a good impression, or at least, a "not-so-mediocre" impression and stay there for a long time.

Unlike Donna, who was responsible, a great worker, punctual and friendly, Nellie was rude, sloppy, lazy and had no particular skills, which was a total contrast but helped the Doctor to keep her safe and alive. Still, the chameleon arch of the TARDIS let her keep her street smarts and everything she had learned in previous jobs to let her have a normal life as a woman who had spent her years working hard and learning a lot; taking that away from her would have been awful and The Doctor knew that, and with the repairs that he did to the chameleon arch creator on the TARDIS, he also managed to keep a little shadow of Donna inside Nellie´s mind.

The morning came and with it, the usual environment of the Dunder Mifflin paper company at Scranton, where Jo Bennett called a lot of people to find their new manager: Jim Halpert, Toby Flenderson, Gabe Lewis and of course, the applicants. It was Nellie's task to ruin her interview and instead, suggest that David Brent got her interview spot, but she didn´t count with Jo's affection towards her (Donna), who she found completely amazing, and now that Donna had been replaced in everybody's head with Nellie, it was her who Jo thought of as her best friend.

As she arrived, she saw the receptionist and then there were the guys from the search committee she had to talk to, and she overheard another interview:

-"Did you just trademark that?"

-"W-What?"

-"That's a verbal trademark. That's an agreement"

Shoot! The interviews had started way before her arrival and she couldn´t find Jo anywhere, what to do?... it was almost the time when David was supposed to have his interview and she had to go before him, but she just lost the instructions to get to Dunder Mifflin and she couldn't find a taxi anywhere… she ran really late, but then again, she was already there and she couldn't panic.

Erin saw Nellie and said: -"Hello there, welcome to Dunder Mifflin, do you need anything?"

-"ehh… Hello, I´m Nellie, Nellie Bertram, I come here for the interview"

-"Oh, sure thing, wait in here and then the guys will call you" said Erin with her usual kindness.

"She feels an awful lot like Dawn Tinsley" Nellie thought and giggled. Maybe while she waited she could see how things were going on Dunder Mifflin and how she was supposed to fit in here.

She sat down and immediately, a fat woman with glasses walked from the elevator towards the receptionist: "Erin, we should get going"

-"yes, sure thing, just let me go to the break room, I need a snack and then we're off"

Inmediately after the woman, other two men came down from the elevator, a black almost bald, fat guy in a suit and another black guy in a suit, with a small afro. They all looked like they knew each other very well and Nellie got nervous about being an outsider…but that was ridiculous! She had never felt nervous at her temporary jobs, why start now?

Nellie shook off the fear out of her head and then saw the motherly look on the fat woman´s face who was looking towards the receptionist and immediately thought about Sylvia back in England. The Bertram family had been very kind for taking her in and loving her… she sighed. While she was still thinking about Sylvia and Wilfred, she noticed a bunch of cameras filming everything… what strange place had she been sent to?