Toby noticed during his conference on Monday morning that Michael was visibly absent. He was at work all right; there was no shortage of bad puns and obnoxious laughter coming out from the shared workspace that morning. It was all right. He actually got through his meeting without being interrupted or insulted, and Kelly actually asked a few questions as if she were interested. But somehow it quite wasn't the same without the putdowns or the humiliation, go figure. That was why he paid his therapist the big bucks.

"Great meeting Toby," Jim smiled. "I only needed two shots of Novocain to get through it."

Toby nodded. He never knew how to take him.

"Don't listen to him. I thought that it was a great session on sexual harassment," Kelly smiled.

"Actually, it was on ergonomics in the workplace and what we can do to make our environment safer," Toby's voice trailed off as he noted that even Kelly's interested had waned by now.

By then her interest had faded and she had wandered off to something else. He was used to that by now.

He looked over at the picture of Sasha on his desk and picked it up. Seattle. He wondered what she was doing right at that moment. She was probably doing well, she always was a happy child. Somehow she had made it through the divorce just fine, though she seemed to cling to her mother a little more than she should. His therapist said that was normal, that was separation anxiety, probably caused by the divorce. Dr. Miller tried to reassure him that Toby did not cause any distress to Sasha, but he couldn't help feeling like it was his fault somehow. Like he had let her down. After all, it wasn't like he had wanted the divorce. But he had to learn to accept it, Dr. Miller said. It would make life a lot easier. He'd learned to accept a lot of things- his job, Michael, his co-workers, and up to a point, even his wife leaving, but even he had a boiling point. How do you accept not seeing your daughter except on holidays and vacations?

"Toby?"

The familiar voice snapped him out of his trance, while he crumbled up a piece of paper that was probably not important anyways.

"Toby are you okay? I didn't mean to disturb you," Pam smiled politely but curiously as she approached the HR rep.

"No, no you're fine. I was just thinking about my daughter," he smiled.

"Sasha? How is she?"

"Um, I think she's fine, I really don't know. I mean, I haven't really talked to her or anything."

"Really? Why not?"

"Well, her mother and step father moved to Seattle. For his job. So it's kind of hard to see her now," Toby sighed.

Pam wasn't sure what to say. It wasn't like they were in the business of sharing personal information, but she knew he loved his daughter. She felt bad for him, but what could she do? She looked around for someone to help, but unfortunately the only person she could find was Michael.

Not missing a beat, Michael walked over to the two of them. "What is this, bore the receptionist to death day, Toby? If it is I can see you're doing a very fine job. What's the matter, you didn't suck the life out of the group today but now you are doing it one by one?"

"I was just.."

"He was just telling me about Sasha, Michael," Pam smiled. "You remember Sasha." She picked up Sasha's picture and showed it to Michael. "Toby's brought her to work several times. You've played with her, remember?"

Michael's mood changed. He remembered how well he had connected with her, even hoping to be her godfather. "Yes, of course I remember Sasha!" he laughed. "How is the little munchkin?"

"She's okay I guess," Toby replied.

"What kind of answer is that? Why don't you bring her in again? I have more fun things in my desk. We can bring in an ice cream cake. How about Friday?" Michael was so enthusiastic, and pleasant, that Toby knew he would have to tell the truth.

"I can't, Michael. Sasha doesn't live here anymore. She lives in Seattle. With her mother. And stepfather. They moved a few weeks ago."

Everyone grew quiet, then Michael looked at the wadded up ball of paper next to the picture of Sasha, and suddenly it made sense why Toby was going out on the weekends. This man was even lonlier than he was.

This would have been the perfect time to kick Toby when he was down, to make a comment about how his family so disliked him, they moved several states away to get away from him. But for once, Michael thought better of it.

This one's on me, he thought, as he shook his head and slowly walked away.