Note – This story will be a little more meaningful if you've seen or read the deleted scenes for "Performance Review

Note – This story will be a little more meaningful if you've seen or read the deleted scenes for "Performance Review." I won't spoil it for you by recounting them. And thank you for the awesome feedback. And thanks to the Scranton Times to recommend this fic or post about it, however that works, lol. I'm glad that I don't seem to flat out suck at writing Office fic.

Part II

Ryan walked into the kitchen to grab a soda from the fridge and found Kelly sitting at the little table with microwave pizza and the very last can of Coke. He couldn't mind, though, because she was eating again, and he was tremendously glad for that.

He shut the door and turned to face her, and he would have said something (he didn't quite know what) but Michael entered the kitchen just then and immediately spotted her.

"Kelly, is that something healthy?"

Ryan had to smile when she grinned and shook her head.

Michael wasn't as pleased. "Well, can you make an effort here? Come on, we're trying to lose weight."

The smile faded from Kelly's face and Ryan stifled a groan. He should have known to expect this from Michael: every time that man took one step forward, he took a giant leap backwards. He'd seen it time and time again but had hoped that somehow, this time would be different.

Michael was gone, probably off to tell Phyllis that she won a free round of liposuction that she'd have to pay for, and he turned back to Kelly, dismayed when he saw her slowly put the slice of pizza down.

"Kelly, don't listen to him," he tried, "you know Michael, he's insane. The guy was on an egg yolk diet for months – he doesn't know anything about healthy eating.'

She was staring down in horror at her food, and he had to wonder if she even heard him just now. "Pizza? Oh, my God, what was I thinking?"

"Kel, come on-"

She swallowed her last mouthful – with some difficulty, he noticed – and wiped her mouth with her napkin, shaking her head. "I have to get back to work."

He took two steps toward her before he even knew it. "What? You just started your lunch break, you haven't even eaten-"

"I'm not taking a lunch break!" Kelly snapped back, tossing her soda, napkin, and plate, pizza and all, into the garbage can. Ryan could only watch as she stalked out of the kitchen and back to the annex.

With a growl, he leaned back against the fridge and scowled at the wall. Back when he used to work at this branch as a salesman, he hated being cooped up with her in the annex. Now, he wanted nothing more than to be able to follow her there.

To the camera:

Kelly: (holds up the empty box of microwave pizza) What was I thinking?

(throws it down; shakes her head with an irritated huff)

And, you know, I was thinking, the spicy-syrup-lemonade stuff I've been drinking has got to have, like, a bunch of calories. Maybe it would be better if I didn't eat anything at all…

…Yeah, that's probably better.

Kelly wasn't listening.

She'd gone from bad to worse in her quest to lose weight, and now she wasn't listening to a thing anyone had to say. Granted, few of his co-workers cared enough to get involved, but Ryan was past worried.

Kelly wasn't eating at all while she was at the office. She came to work every day with a large water bottle, no lunch bag, and went through at least three refills of it every day. She was dropping the pounds, sure, but that didn't mean she looked better. Her old clothes were starting to hang on her, making her look even more emaciated than she was. Her skin, which used to be so smooth and soft under his hands, had gotten splotchy. Her hair lost its luster and bounce and now looked coarse and dull. Her nails kept breaking, which meant that she had to forgo those manicures she'd always loved so much, and what with her occasional bouts of light-headedness, Ryan was starting to seriously doubt her abilities to stay upright in those four inch heels she insisted on.

He knew she kept soaked almonds and a small assortment of crackers (graham, saltine, and animal) at her desk, which she would nibble at come lunchtime, but that was nothing substantial.

Since returning to Scranton, he'd slowly come to the realization, as troubling as it was, that he wanted her back, and because of this, Ryan had taken to casually arranging run-ins with her in the office. He didn't deliberately plan and stage them – that would have been trying too hard and putting forth too much effort – but he made more trips to the break room and the kitchen than he used to, hoping on the off-chance that he'd see her walking around. But Kelly hardly ever seemed to leave her cubicle, so there were no chance meetings.

Back when he sat by Creed, Kelly was frequently to be found in the break room or the kitchen or in the main office. She'd come by to talk to Pam or Jim far more often than she had before, and he belatedly realized it was because she was hoping for little run-ins with him back then.

When he joined her in the annex after being promoted, that wandering habit ceased and Kelly would spend all her time at her desk since he rarely left his, not really caring to hang out with his co-workers since he was planning to be out of there before long, anyway. When work was slow and the ever-vigilant Dwight was otherwise occupied (which was often, thanks to Jim), he'd back her up against her desk or she'd back him up against his and they'd kill time making out.

When he made the move to corporate and only returned to the branch when he absolutely had to, he'd see her walking around more than ever before. She'd be over in accounting unknowingly harassing Angela (sometimes by her very presence); she'd hang out at Jim's desk; she'd sit on the reception counter and talk to Pam; and often enough, she'd be on her way over to the warehouse to presumably visit Darryl in his office.

The thought still irked him, so Ryan shrugged it off.

Those social calls were a thing of the past now, and Kelly was once again back to being shackled to her desk. This time, however, she was alone back there. Holly was around, of course, but she had her hands full trying to get used to dealing with Michael and Dwight and Angela and their particular brands of idiosyncrasies, and she didn't know Kelly enough to want to keep an eye on her.

Kelly just stayed back there, sometimes curled up in her chair, sometimes with her head down on her desk, just trudging through her work until it was quitting time and she could go home and not eat. She didn't take lunch breaks anymore and avoided the break room and the kitchen because she didn't want to see people eating, because that would make her want to cheat on her macrobiotic diet.

Yes, the behavior was crazy and yes, this was Kelly and Kelly herself was crazy, but there was a limit, and Ryan knew that something had to be done. Unfortunately, he had no clue what or how to get started.

Taking positive action for people other than himself had never been one of his strong suits.

He felt the camera zoom in on his face as he watched Kelly rest her hand against the side of her cubicle to keep her balance, and just sighed and walked back to reception.

To the camera:

Kelly: (holds up a pack of 5 gum) See this? This is 5 gum. It's what I eat so that I don't get hungry and want to eat. It's green, and it's called Rain, which I think is like spearmint or whatever. It's sugar free, it has no calories, and it was part of the SWAG offering at the last Emmy awards.

(offers camera a piece)

This is my breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Not dessert, though. I haven't eaten dessert in three months. It's like, really bad for you and stuff.

Ryan followed his co-workers back into the office. They'd just been down in the warehouse for the daily weigh-in, and Michael was upset because they'd only lost one pound. He and Dwight were just ahead of him, talking between themselves about the possibility of investing in anti-gravity suits for everyone, and weighing the pounds they'd knock off their total core against the weight of the anti-gravity suits themselves.

Ryan had stopped following that particular conversation five seconds after it started.

"What if we get anti-gravity suits…for the anti-gravity suits?" Michael pondered. Dwight was nodding thoughtfully. "The negative will cancel out the positive. Simple rule of math."

"Kelly, stop dawdling," Dwight directed, trying to move past Kelly as they reached the end of the little hall that opened up into the main office. "You don't burn as many calories if you're dawdling."

Ryan rolled his eyes. That guy really needed to give it a damn rest some-

"I don't feel so-"

"Kelly!"

Jim yelled out for her when he saw her start to fall, and Ryan was the one that lunged for her. He caught her in his arms just before she hit the floor and scooped her up, holding her against his chest. He'd forgotten how small she was, and she was even lighter now after the crash dieting.

"Let me get her pulse!" Dwight shouted, roughly shoving Creed out of the way. "Move. I'm a sheriff's deputy-"

"Volunteer," Jim interrupted, but he wasn't making a joke for the cameras. Instead, he looked visibly concerned as he tried to get the cameras to step away from them. "Come on, give her some room."

"It's weak," Dwight murmured, his fingers pressed to Kelly's throat. "Someone open up WebMD!"

"Get her to the hospital," Jim argued, looking around the room. "She hasn't been eating right for weeks – this was bound to happen. Who's her emergency contact?"

Holly came running back up with the file that held all the contact information and pulled out the card. "Kelly Kapoor…emergency contact…Ryan…Howard."

The camera zoomed in on him to catch his immediate reaction, no doubt getting a great shot of him looking completely stunned.

"Me? Why does it-" It occurred to him. "How old is that?"

"Last updated…two years ago." Holly turned on her boss, waving the card in front of her like a fan. "Michael, what happened to the contact cards from last year?"

"I don't know!" He threw his hands up in the air, still freaked out from Kelly's fall. "Ask Toby! Where is he? Oh, that's right, he ran off to Costa Rica, probably with the cards from last year. It was his last revenge against me."

Jim closed his eyes and shook his head. "Forget it. It doesn't matter."

"I'll take her to the hospital." Ryan adjusted his hold on her, shifting so that her head rested securely in the crook of his neck. "I know all her personal information, too, it'll be fine. I'll call in as soon as I can."

Michael waved him out as Dwight shouted some nonsense about securing a police escort, and Ryan marched out the door and down the hall, her body still surprisingly light in his arms.

This had to stop.

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To the camera:

(in the nurse's lounge at the hospital, Bill the camera guy has just shown Ryan footage of Kelly talking about eating nothing and using gum as a deterrent)

Ryan: (angry) And you didn't tell anyone? Why the hell wouldn't you tell anyone?! You didn't think that maybe, just maybe, this was something that-

(door opens; nurse enters)

Nurse: You can't be in here.

Ryan: It's okay, they're with me-

Nurse: Sir, you're not allowed in here. Please return to the waiting room.

(Ryan scowls at the camera and leaves the lounge.)