III. Tommy

This was by far the weirdest job Tommy had ever had. He'd been a sound tech with the local news station for a few years, and local news could get a little wacky, but this place had it beat. The crazy boss, the suck-up salesman geek guy, his beautiful but scary girfriend in accounting- he'd be telling stories about this place for years.

The one story he'd never tell, though, was about the HR guy, Toby. Tommy had promised not to tell, and Tommy was a man of his word. It was after Dunder-Mifflin business hours on a Tuesday. Tommy had stayed late to replace some of the microphones in the desk phones. All of the employees had signed releases (and their clients did, too, if their calls were going to be featured in the final show), but Creed and Dwight kept taking their phone bugs out. Tommy was walking back to Creed's desk when he heard a low sound. Realizing he wasn't alone in the office, Tommy looked around to identify where the noise was coming from. He found Toby sitting at his desk. He had a small flask (Meredith's, Tommy thought) and two large bottles of pills on his desk, and he was crying over them. Startled, Toby looked up at Tommy with a look of pure pain and overwhelming shame.

Forgetting about the bugs, Tommy had sat up with Toby all night, talking and listening. In the dawn's thin light, he drove Toby to the emergency room for a referral to get some treatment for his depression. Tommy never told a soul.