Ned looked like he'd seen a ghost

River glanced up from her desk, checking that Victoria wasn't coming before she leaned back in her chair and tried to think of what to write next. Ned looked like he'd seen a ghost, she thought. He closed Victoria's office door behind him and stood for a moment, as if to collect his wits. Whatever he'd done this time, Victoria must have really laid into him.

He needed to stand up to her. Her first day on the job, River had set that boundary. She would not be belittled, and if that was how Victoria intended to treat her, she could find another person to write the monthly newsletter and maintain the website. "I'm a professional and I expect to be treated like one," she had said.

To her credit, Victoria had smiled and thrust her hand forward. "That's exactly what I like to hear," she said, then turned on her heel and strode into her office, but they'd always gotten on well since then.You had to treat her like an equal, rather than a superior. Victoria was just one of those people who pushed you to see if you were someone worthy of respect. Ned hadn't passed the test.

God, he was pale, she thought. His skin always had that look of raw pizza dough, but now, it reached a new level of clammy. He needed some cheering up, she guessed. If he only had even the littlest bit of confidence...

She caught his eye and nodded him over to her desk. "Hey, Twig," she said, as he approached. "What happened? Victoria being a bitch again?"

Ned looked trapped. His mouth started to move, but no sound came out. His hair clung to his forehead in sweaty clump, frizzing at the ends where they began to dry. River hated to see him like this, poor guy. "Oh, hey now," she said, standing up, and laying her hand on his lumpy shoulder--nothing too committal. She'd seen him watching her and didn't want to encourage any wrong ideas about their future, but clearly, he needed some form of human touch.

Yet for once, Ned shrunk away, retreating to back to sit with the other junior accountants, turning on his desktop and opening the day's work. River watched him, musing. If she ever got around to writing the novel she wanted to write, maybe he could make a good main character. Not the way he was, of course. His life was too boring. Nothing ever happened to a guy like Twig. She could make him a super hero with a drinking problem! It could be a graphic novel! For just a moment, she allowed her thoughts to wander over plot points, arch villains and out-of-frame action, then she sunk back into her desk and turned again to the article she needed to write, laying her hands on her keyboard, letting the words come.

[All right, faithful readers! Which office worker should we hear from next--Floyd? Bernice? John? Britni? Claire? What elements should I work into their characters? Or should we go back to Ned/Twig for a while? Who will discover the body? What else is going on in the office this day? I'm thinking this might be a non-profit organization... what should they be raising money for?]