Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to these characters or The Office.

He'd been imagining this day with sick pleasure. The place that had nearly suffocated him with humiliation, boredom, daily degradation, was now squarely under his boot. He owned this blistered, rotting motherfucker now, and he planned to show it no mercy. Not now. Not ever. They had never believed in him and they had dismissed his capabilities so callously. And now he'd show them. And his high school classmates too for that matter... and his father, who had coldly warned him that an MBA from a third tier part-time program wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. Fuck them... all of them.

He steered his leased BMW 323 into the lot and aimed it at the spot next to the damned Sebring that he had once been forced to clean the McDonald's wrappers out of. Wallace must have known how desperate he was to get out of Scranton. Despite his impressive new title, he'd only been offered a mild pay raise, and Wallace had refused to budge. His higher salary didn't even offset the considerable cost of living increase from Scranton to New York, and to make matters worse, his B-school loans were now coming due. Despite all this, though, he had squeezed out every bit of disposable income to lease this car, just for this moment. He almost skidded into the spot, before exiting the car and loudly slamming the door.

He made a surreptitious glance around to see if anyone had seen him... nobody. Damn. Wait... somebody. It was Karen. Headed into the building. She'd probably seen the Beamer roll in, but him driving it? Maybe, maybe not. As soon as Karen disappeared into the lobby, Ryan broke into a run. He wanted to catch the elevator with her. As he approached the door, he decelerated to make it appear he had walked the whole way. He rounded the corner as Karen was stepping in.

"Hold it!"

Too loud. Not as cool as he had wanted. But authoritative, which she and the rest of the minions had better get used to. Karen turned and stared blankly at him. As he approached the elevator, she made no move to push the door-open button, and the doors began to close. He abandoned his veneer of coolness and broke into a short jog, getting to the doors and ramming his hand through them with about six inches to spare. The doors re-opened and he stepped inside.

He'd heard the rumors about Halpert. Cutting this little fox loose so he could go enjoy his junior-high relationship with, of all people, the secretary. If he'd rather go around playing retarded pranks than nail this exotic little piece of ass, that was his loss. Which was good, because there was a potent new force in the building, at least for today. She was silent. His move.

"So how's everything going?"

He turned and gave her a little nod and a hint of a smile. Big shit corporate guys don't grin. Karen was looking straight ahead and didn't seem inclined to move. Maybe she needed a little reminding. A little gloating with the pretense of diplomacy.

"Look, I know it may be weird that I'm the boss now..."

Karen sprang to life.

"Shut the fuck up, Ryan. For you own good."

He was floored. For about a second... until he remembered just who the hell he was.

"Hey! What the hell got into you..."

Karen didn't interrupt him, but she shut him up by pulling the elevator's emergency stop. The elevator jolted to a halt and Ryan was stunned. Karen lit into him with perfect timing.

"The boss, huh. Isn't that cute. Well the way I see it, that's good news for me because for the short time I plan on still working here, if the dice don't fall perfectly for me, I'll know just who to blame. And I have a bumbling, beyond unprofessional email to prove bias if I have to. That'd be ugly, wouldn't it... BOSS."

Karen pushed the emergency stop back in and the elevator started upwards again. Ryan was still bumbling for a response when Karen couldn't resist hitting him again. Her voice was soft, almost whimsical.

"Hmmmmm. The first thing I want is to get to take over all your clients. Oh... wait... nevermind. What was I thinking? I guess since the rest of the salespeople actually made sales I just assumed... my bad."

Ryan was saved when the doors opened and Karen stepped out. He took a moment to compose himself. What a bitch. She could have been bitchy because she just got dumped, or maybe she had some hard-core PMS, but she was probably just jealous, and he would have to tread carefully around her.

Ryan had no way of knowing that after getting her heart broken and enduring two painful weeks of watching Jim and Pam obliviously flaunt their new relationship with increasing openness, Karen had finally broken, ducking into the bathroom stall and crying as quietly as she could. And it had been Kelly who heard the muffled sobs, crawled under the door, and held Karen's head tightly against her chest until she recomposed herself. And then Kelly had offered up words of encouragement, and told of Ryan's actions to give Karen something to relate to, and before long a stunned Karen was covered in Kelly's tears. They had found each other when each needed a friend. And Kelly's hatred had spread...

Shake it off. Nobody saw that. He waited a moment to get his wits back about him. He eyed the door, fiddled with his expensive new necktie, stood up as tall as he could, and made his way in. The fun was about to start. Asses were about to get kicked. This was going to be a seriously painful day, and he was going to enjoy every minute of it.

He was right about one thing.