Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Karen knew she was in bad shape when Toby sat down next to her.

 "Hey," he said, in that sad way of his, where his mouth starts to quirk up into a smile, but ends up looking sort of like a grimace instead.

"Hey," she said. She had stormed from the office, after her loud and unfortunately public rant at Jim, and had been too angry and oh God, sad, to drive herself anywhere. She had been counting the minutes until someone would come try to find her, but she had figured it was going to be Phyllis, who liked to think that she was the most sympathetic in the office, or Kelly, who would be looking for some gossip.

She hadn't guessed Toby, and she had to figure if Toby felt badly for her, she was in trouble. 
        

"So," he started.

"I'm sorry," she said. "About all of that. This move to Scranton...it didn't turn out like I had wanted it to." Toby nodded, and he was quiet for a minute, and Karen decided that she liked that about him, the way that he was quiet and introspective and he didn't need to fill awkward silences right away. Because he was aware that there wasn't much he could say to make her feel very much better. 
   

Like she hadn't missed all those looks between Jim and Pam. Like she believed both of them when they said that they weren't dating, that they were just friends still. Like she believed that Jim was going home to an empty apartment, or going home at all. She wasn't an idiot, and she wasn't blind.

"I guess they make it worse," Toby said finally. "Jim and Pam, I mean. I guess seeing them makes it worse." At least Toby wasn't stupid or blind either. "I mean, they're dating, right? They're dating."

"I know," Karen said, and she thought it was funny that Toby wasn't saying it to be mean, that Jim and Pam were dating. He didn't say it like that at all, he said it like he wasn't sure if he believed it or not, and was trying to convince himself. "It was only a matter of time. I was just filling in." She shook her head. That was probably what pissed her off the most about the whole thing. Not that her relationship ended, but that it had ever started in the first place. That Jim ever allowed it to start when he knew, he knew, that Pam was single and that eventually the two of them would stop being so stupid and stop dancing around the fact that they were ridiculously in love with one another.

That was what pissed off Karen the most. Because why did he have her move there? Why did he ask her to come with him?

She still wasn't sure how she had gone from having one of the best weekends in New York City with the guy who she thought could be the One, to being dumped by a fountain and learning that he couldn't be the One, because he already had the One for him, and it wasn't her.

It was enough to make anyone bitter, and Karen was already prone to bitterness to start with.

She had been asking Jim to move in with her before their weekend in New York. She had thought it was time to take that step, and he had been fighting her on it. 
        

"I can't right now," he kept saying. He had a whole list of reasons, but the way Karen saw it, it wasn't that Jim couldn't, it was that he wouldn't, and in the end that defined their whole relationship.

"I was going to ask her out," Toby said. Karen had honestly forgotten that he was still next to her, and she turned surprised. She thought that she was pretty perceptive, but she missed the sad HR guy's crush on the pretty receptionist.

What was it about Pam that made all the men in the office go crazy? What was it that she had that Karen didn't?

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I wanted to do when she broke off the engagement, but I figured I should give her some time, and then Jim came back and she was always preoccupied with looking at him and pretending that she wasn't looking at him, and then I figured I would ask her out right before beach day, but you know..." Oh Karen knew, she remembered all too well little Pammy's speech at the beach. Jim hadn't talked to her on the ride back to the office, or the ride back to her apartment. He told her that he was tired and that he thought he should just go home, and had given her a quick kiss on the cheek before getting into his car and driving home.

"I didn't know that," Karen said. Toby studied his hands.

"Yeah, well," he shrugged. "I never got the timing right. And besides, I wasn't ever going to be the one that she wanted." And there it was. Toby had stumbled upon exactly what was bothering Karen. She wasn't ever going to be enough for Jim, because she was never going to be Pam. It was what, ultimately, had broken them up.

The worst part about it was Karen was pretty sure that it was all ridiculously romantic. The epic love story of Jim and Pam. The old romantic in her even wanted it to work out for them, because it was such a great story. He had been in love with her for years. Karen wanted to be someone's Pam. She had wanted to be Jim's Pam, but Jim's Pam was Pam, and she was just Karen, which was pretty good, but not good enough. Even during the best parts of their relationship she had recognized that the best she could do was a distant second. But she had been content being second, because she had him. And he could pine over Pam all he wanted, but it was her that he came home with. And she had been stupid enough to think that meant something.

"I'm an idiot," Karen muttered. Toby looked at his hands, and then over at Karen. He didn't say anything, and Karen wondered if it was better or worse that he didn't disagree with her.

"Listen," he said. "I'm not going to pretend that the whole office didn't hear your argument with Jim," he started. Wow, Karen thought. Who knew that Toby could be so blunt? "So I heard you say that you weren't going to go anywhere, but I talked to some people at corporate," Corporate, Karen thought, assholes. Giving the job to the temp over her? It would have been so much easier to deal with Jim if she was his boss. The thought of it make her giddy, and then almost simultaneously depressed. "And they were looking for someone to manage the Utica branch. David Wallace called to see if I thought you might want it." Karen had no idea what was in Utica, and it would suck to have to move again after just having moved, but if Utica didn't have Jim or Pam, or more accurately Jim and Pam, then she was in.

"I'll do it," she said immediately.

"Okay," Toby said. "Great. I'll draw up the paperwork and talk to Wallace and we'll get you out of here as soon as possible."

"Please do," Karen replied, and Toby nodded and stood up.

"Hey, Karen?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't think you were an idiot for following him here, I think he's an idiot for letting you," Toby shrugged, and there was that sad, crooked smile again. He paused for a minute and walked back inside.

 Karen waited until she was calm, and then went back inside the office. Jim was standing, leaning over the reception desk, and when she walked in, he jumped back, and Pam looked guilty, and Karen ignored both of them and went back to her desk.

Toby sent her an email later that day telling her that it was all set, and that she could start as soon as she wanted in Utica, and she didn't even bother telling Michael that today was going to be her last day. She waited until the office cleared out before grabbing some boxes and loading up the things in her desk, throwing out anything that reminded her of Jim. As she was leaving, her box in her hands, the door to the office opened up and Pam stood there, a surprised look on her face at the sight of Karen. 
       

Pam didn't say anything at first.

"I forgot my phone," she said after a minute, gesturing to the cell phone that sat next to her computer. Karen nodded and Pam reached over to grab it. Pam turned to leave, and stopped.

"Karen?" Pam shifted from one foot to the other nervously. "I'm so sorry. About how everything happened. I never wanted...you're really great...Christmas, standing up to Angela...I wish we could have been friends." Karen did too. She had rambled on to Jim that night about how great Pam was. It was ironic really, the way that Jim had nodded and said in a tight voice, "Yeah, she's pretty great." Karen wondered how she could have missed that. How she could have missed so much.

"And anyway," Pam said. "I just wanted to apologize. You didn't deserve to be stuck in the middle of all of it, and you got hurt, and I never wanted that." Karen shrugged, she wanted to still be angry, damn it, and Pam was getting in the way of that. Just like Pam always got in the way.

Pam looked down at the box in Karen's hands. "I should go. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." And with that Pam left, and Karen followed a few steps behind, and watched as Pam ran out and jumped into Jim's car.

Pam said something to Jim and he turned and looked at Karen, and Karen did her best not to look back at Jim and Pam. Jim put his hand up in a half wave, and pulled out of the parking lot, and Karen let out a long breath and started her own car, pulling out of the parking lot and pretending that she wasn't behind Jim's car, and that she couldn't see the two of them driving together, that she hadn't just wasted months of her life on a guy who didn't deserve it.

She wondered if Toby would be surprised that she had moved so quickly when he came in and found her desk empty. If everyone would be surprised to see her desk empty. The thought of all of her co-workers filtering in and wondering where she had gone made her think about how she never really had to see any of them again.

And for the first time since New York, Karen smiled.