It’s the Monday before Andy is supposed to return and Nellie walks in to find that precisely half of the office is missing.

“So,” Nellie explains to Brent, “Most of the salespeople are at a conference, Angela is with the Senator, Darryl’s in Philadelphia, Pam’s home with Jim and the tots, and Andy should be back on Friday, but who are we kidding?” she said through a laugh, “So, with half of the office m.i.a. and with no manager, A.R.M. or Dwight, I have decided to make an executive decision.”

The camera zooms out to reveal her sitting at the Regional Manager’s desk, the ransom-note style desk nameplate back where it was nearly a year ago, her smile widening.

“Attention everyone, attention!” she announces to the room of eight people, “Due to Dwight’s absence, who basically took Andy’s job as I did,” Oscar nods in agreement, “I have decided to take over once again as the manager for the day!  Yay!” she begins a celebratory clap, with only Erin joining her because of Nellie’s enthusiasm.

“Uh, Nellie,” Toby pipes up from the kitchen entrance, “you do realize that you have absolutely no authority to do this, right?”

“You’re right, I don’t,” Nellie affirms, “But I’m doing it anyway.”

“...Alright,” Toby responds apathetically with a shrug and walks back into his office.

“Y’know,” Toby later tells Brent, “there are times when you just… you just gotta throw in the towel.”

“Wait,” Clark asks, “you were the manager here?”

“Yes,” Nellie confirms, “For exactly two months.”

“Can we get raises like last time?” Kevin asks.

“Nope,” Nellie confirms, “Couldn’t if I wanted to.”

“Y’know I was manager once,” Creed pipes up, “Maybe I could give you some pointers.”

She grimaces behind a smile.  “Oh… God, no.  Appreciated, but no.”  Creed nods as he accepts her brutal response.  “Now if anyone needs me,” Nellie points to the door, “I’ll just… be in here, then.”  With a wave, she walks back in.

“I’ve lost the drive and vigor to be manager long ago, but y’know, someone has to steer this ship to keep it from sinking.”  She realizes that she just sounded like Andy.  “Oh God, Nellie”.

Nellie decides to interview one person from each department to see how things are operating.

“So, how is everything in your department going?” Nellie asks.

Pete is the first of many of the employees to be interviewed.  “My department of one, you mean?”

“Yes,” she clarifies.

“Oh,” he shrugs happily, “Yeah, everything’s going smoothly.”

“No complaints coming in?”

“Nope.”

“Any compliments?”

“None of those either,” he responds.

“Right.”  There is an awkward pause between the two until Nellie pipes back up.  “...Do you watch Downton Abbey?”

“Okay,” Pete concludes the interview himself as he gets out of his chair.

Next up was Clark.  “So, it’s been just over a week since you’ve taken over for Jim, how has that been?”

“Oh, really good, actually!” he responds with a smile.

“Excellent!” she responds.

He proceeds to list off a whole list of new clients from his spreadsheet, her face sinking as she’s having to listen to all of them.

Next was Creed.  “So, you work in quality assurance, correct?” Nellie asks.

“We sit across from each other every day,” he responds, confused, “you should know how I operate by now.”

She’s starting to get confused. “... Are you confusing me for Meredith?”

“I thought you were Pam.”

She looks at the camera, mouth still slightly open in confusion.

Next was Meredith.  “And that’s it, you won,” she tells Nellie, getting through with playing Solitaire.

“Oh, my God, that’s brilliant!” she whispers, astounded, “You don’t even a second player!”

“Yup,” Meredith nods in agreement, “Some next-level s***.”

Next was Oscar.  Nellie wanted to discuss accounting with him, but because they were discussing finances, it quickly turned to a rousing discussion of the Series 3 finale of Downton Abbey.

“How is Lady Mary going to raise that child by herself?” she asks him.

“Right?” he responds, exacerbated, “Gah, and Matthew was nearly back at the estate, too!”

“God, what a tragedy.”

“Mm-mm-mm.”

And, last but not least, Erin.  Nellie moves her monitor at an angle to where both her and Erin can see it displaying Dunder Mifflin’s official Facebook page, “You and Pete are total rock stars.”

“Thank you!” Erin replies happily, “Oh, and if you don’t mind me asking, how’s the adoption search going?”

“Ugh, I dunno,” Nellie says, demotivated, “I’ve sent in the application months ago and nothing,” she sighs dejectedly, “Guess I’m just… not fit to be a mother after all.”

Erin, crushed that someone who wants to give someone like her a home is losing hope, motivates her, “Listen… I know exactly how you feel.  But they’re out there.  All you have to do is keep looking, right?”

Nellie, motivated by Erin’s simple words, offers her a smile.  “Thank you,” she says quietly, “I needed to hear that.”  Erin nods with a bright smile of her own.  “Keep up the good work.”  With that, Erin departs.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing,” Nellie admits to Brent, “I mean, everything here is going quite smoothly, no thanks to me.  If anything, I distracted them from doing their jobs because of the progress reports!” she humorously wheezes in disbelief, “Like, what does Andy even do here?”

Nellie is distracted by another rousing game of Solitare when she’s interrupted by Erin.

“It’s David Wallace,” she suddenly says.

Nellie raises her eyebrow in response, “What?”

“David is on the line, he wants to speak to Andy, now,” Erin is panicking, this has never happened before, “It’s urgent.”

Nellie begins to panic “Tell him he’s unavailable.”

“I did,” Erin responds, “He’s not taking no for an answer.”

“God, blimey… send him through, I’ll think of something.”

“Right.”  Erin was gone and within minutes David’s voice ran through the phone.

“Andy, it’s David.”

Nellie is quick on her feet, her Andy impression sounding more like a deep-voiced parrot, “That’s me, Andy Bernard, at your service.  Roo-too-too-too-to-tooo!”

“...I can tell that’s you, Nellie.”

She laughs, trying to act natural.  “Welp, ya got me!”

“Nellie, I’ve been trying to get in touch with Andy over the phone for a month now.  He’s not leaving any messages, and his emails are very brief and have nothing to do with anything regarding the branch’s performance.  He’s not even answering his cell.  Do you have the slightest idea of where he could be?”

Nellie’s pinned.  She doesn’t want to rat out Andy, especially after everything he’s done for her.  Hell, he considers him kinda sort of a friend, maybe.  But this is the Chief Executive Officer, her superior, and the last thing she needs is to be out of another job.  So she opts for the truth, just extremely vague.

“He’s had to deal with a family emergency the past couple of weeks,” she tells him, “very tragic.”

David sighs, knowing that Andy is the only reason he still has a job. “Fine,” he concedes, “I’ll accept that.  I’m going to come by on Thursday, do you think he’ll be back by then?”

Nellie, don’t you dare.  “He should be in, yes.”  Her hand is on her forehead, in instant regret.

“Great.”

“Um…” she scrambles nervously, “Is there anything you want me to pass on to Andy?”

“Yes,” David responds, “Tell him I’m proud of him, and all of you, too.”

This gives her pause.  “Really?”

“I mean, the past three months have been staggeringly great for this branch.”  Nellie mouths ‘three months’ after he says it, realizing that that’s how long Andy was gone. “I dunno what your secret is, but it’s paying off in dividends.  Seriously, wonderful job, you guys!”

Nellie accepts this compliment, “Why thank you, David.”

“Alright.  I’ll see you guys on Thursday.  Keep it up.”

“Will do,” she ends nervously, “see you then.”  After she hangs up, she suddenly does the “Thinking Man” pose.

“I’ve learned a valuable lesson today,” she addresses Brent; as she speaks, footage of the rest of the office working diligently is shown, “Sometimes you don’t need a manager to succeed.  This branch is doing just fine without one.  It’s surpassed the need for one, in fact.  And with that, I officially end my tenure as Regional Manager at Dunder Mifflin Scranton for good.”  She drops the desk nameplate in the wastebasket… only to hurriedly pick it back up.  “This is Andy’s,” she explains, “Gotta fix that.”