Chapter 4:

Ellen Hartley swung her purse casually as she walked, trying to act as if nothing out of the ordinary, nothing embarrassing or nothing well...short of mortifying had taken place. She quietly bid Mary a goodnight, maintaining a happy face, even though she knew she really wanted to talk about what had happened. Bidding her adieu for the evening, Ellen dashed up the small staircase to her one roomed overly pink apartment, allowing her mood to change slowly with each step and leaving Mary at her own door, just frozen there staring up at her and wondering how she could help.

When Ellen reached her pink monstrosity of a home she threw her purse down on the floor with a thud, which was kind of unlike her, especially given that she really liked that purse. It fit her mood though. She ignored the purse on the floor as she slowly began to pace, wondering what she had just done with her life.

The decision to take this job out here had just changed her entire life. Back in Chicago she had family, she had friends. Out here, she had a job where the person that she had to work with was the person that she wanted to avoid more than anything, she was humiliated and infuriated right on live television, she left her boyfriend back home, and her own room was giving her a mild headache. After today, she had begun to wonder if all of this was really worth it?

Then again, maybe it was just her. Everyone else around her seemed happy out here. Everyone else in the newsroom were friends with each other, and she knew very well that she wasn't the first person to leave people behind and move to completely different city. She herself had done it before...two or three times and that was before ever coming here.

As she slowly paced towards her bed, she spotted the phone. Howard. That was one of the only reasons that she even slightly considered for a brief moment, not to come. She knew that she would take this job, as soon as she heard about the opening, she had to have it. Her relationship with Howard though, was constantly in the back of her head. She did think about how he would handle it, how they would see each other.

Maybe a single phone call to him would help, maybe. She walked over to the phone and stared down at it. No matter how bad she thought that she wanted to call him, she couldn't convince herself to pick up the phone just yet.

She dropped her arms to her sides and sighed. Calling him now would not solve anything, as a matter of fact, it would make things worse. She would miss him more, he would miss her more. It would just cause a lot of unnecessary pain.

There was a knock at the door. "Hi hi!" greeted the familiar, all too chipper voice.

Ellen rolled her eyes. "Great," she muttered to herself, recognizing the grating voice.

Phyllis stepped into the room and looked around to see what she had changed. "I just came by to see how things were going," she stated.

Ellen nodded. "They're going," she remarked, faking enthusiasm.

"Good," Phyllis replied, looking at the rug with disgust. "I really thought you would have better taste than this."

Ellen smirked at this. She thought Phyllis had the taste of the old woman living in the shoe. Ellen didn't know that this was the only point (regarding style) that she and Rhoda agreed upon.

"Was there by any chance something you wanted?" Ellen implored, just wanting to get rid of her. "I have a lot of work to do."

Phyllis looked to her. "Oh, I was just saying hi," she said.

"And looking at the apartment," Ellen added.

"Right," Phyllis replied. "I'll see you later," she said as she slowly turned and left.

As soon as Phyllis was gone, Ellen plopped down onto her bed. "I may as well have just moved back in with mom and dad," she told herself. Ellen looked over and eyed the phone. Phyllis had also made her long for Howard, she still secretly wondered what life would be like now if she'd become his roommate all that time ago. She picked up the receiver and listened to the hum of the dial tone for a second. Her other hand reached over and smashed the phone down. She didn't need to call Howard. Not...not now.

…...

The next morning, Ellen walked into the newsroom confidently, she was not going to let Ted get the best of her...in fact she'd been thinking it over and she was going to do everything she could to make him look like a fool.

It was evident to her that he would be pouting and was most likely going to go out of his way to get back at her for what happened between him and Georgette. So the first thing she did when she got to work that morning was to check her dressing room and make sure that he hadn't messed with anything. He had. There was glue on her seat, but by the time she had gotten there it had dried. Not surprising at all. It was also not at all surprising to her that Ted would be bad at making a prank like that work. Then, there was green food coloring in her hairspray. That one actually surprised her a little. She didn't think Ted was able to come up with anything like that. She knew she needed to get back at him, so she did the only thing she knew how to do. Ellen sat on her couch and picked up the receiver, finally allowing herself to dial Chicago.

"Hello, Bob! Can I have your friend's number, you know, the creeper?...Oh the Peeper!..The Peeper?...Why? Oh nothing...just a few questions about practical joking for a...for a story I'm working on for our newscast tonight...chicken fat?" Ellen questioned.

While she was on the phone, Mary knocked on the door and poked her head into the room. "Hold on," Ellen said and then covered the mouthpiece with her hand. "Yes?"

"I just wanted to make sure that you were doing better. But I can come back later."

"Hold on a second. You think you could do me a favor?" Ellen requested.

"Sure. What is it?" Mary asked.

"Take that bottle of hairspray and trade it with Ted's," she instructed.

Mary really didn't know why she was doing this, but went along with it anyways. "All right," she obliged.

Ellen thanked her and then went back to her conversation with Bob. "So what were you saying about chicken fat? Ew Bob that's gross!...No I don't think it was funny..." Ellen sighed. "No...yes I'm sure I still want Cliff's number. Yeah. No I'm not...I'm not planning anything."

…...

Ellen stood out in the newsroom, talking to Mary and Murray, well, more like pretending to talk to them as she was waiting for Ted to come out of his dressing room.

"You know, I actually got to use a word with nine letters in it today? And it's all thanks to you," Murray said to Ellen.

Mary smiled over to him. "Remember when you were nervous about using six letters?"

"We all get to move on to bigger and better things sooner or later," Murray remarked.

"Glad I could help," Ellen said, keeping her eye on the entrance to the room.

It was seconds later that Ted came strolling into the room. His eyes narrowed on Ellen as soon as he noticed her. "Hello Murray, Mary," he greeted as he walked over to join the group. He then looked up to Ellen and just stared. It was his childish way of letting her know that he wasn't talking to her.

Ellen smiled. This was her chance. "You're really not talking to me Ted?" she questioned. Ted just ignored her and turned to Murray.

"Because, that's really too bad Ted," Ellen began as she grabbed his shoulder. "I thought now that Georgette was out of the way, that maybe we could start spending some time together," she stated, slowly moving her hand from his shoulder to his hair.

Ted widened his eyes as he turned and looked to her, finally allowing himself to acknowledge her presence. "Really?" he asked. "I mean, you really can't do that," he corrected himself, going from his normal voice to his news voice.

Ellen leaned in closer to him. "That's why no one has to know," she whispered into his ear and then walked away. Ted gulped...that kind of...rendezvous was pretty...well pretty appealing.

Ted decided to go on as if this sort of thing was a normal occurrence. "Well," he began, clearing his throat. "I think I should probably head back to my dressing room," he announced and then started walking back. As soon as he thought no one was watching though, he picked up his pace and hurried.

"Amazing isn't it?" Mary asked.

"What's that?" Murray asked.

"One minute he hates her, and then the next she has him drooling over her. Practically eating out of the palm of her hand," Mary explained.

"What did you expect from Ted? You need a brain to think that something's suspicious."

…...

Murray glanced over at the door momentarily from watching his fingers click the typewriter rhythmically. He was bored with this work: of writing copies that could both be read easily by Ted, but also not spark an on air fight between him and Ellen...upon looking over his work just a few minutes before, Murray would've told you he thought that this newscast would be really cute...if delivered by two first graders. Murray welcomed the distraction provided by the tall man who'd just walked into WJM...he was attractive! He must be there for Mary...he didn't know she had a new guy.

"Can I help you with something?" he asked, more or less just to see if his assumptions were correct.

"I need to talk to Ted Baxter," he informed him. "I'm..." he hesitated, "a friend."

"Okay." Murray raised an eyebrow...he didn't know Ted had friends.

Murray was about to tell him where Ted was, but Ted came through the doors from the studio. "Hey Gary," he greeted, using his news voice.

"Ted," Gary replied as he walked over towards him. "You said you needed a favor?"

Ted motioned to him not to mention that.

"So uh..." Murray began, observing the two, he thought their body language was...weird at best. "Where did you two crazy kids meet?" He wondered momentarily if it was at some kind of bar...you know the kind where ONLY guys went.

"He lives in my building," Ted answered and then looked over to Gary. "Isn't that right?"

"I really do live in the same building Ted. I was the one that complained about the noise when you were moving the furniture around," Gary assured him.

Murray knew that something was going on, but decided that it was best not to get involved. He rolled his eyes and sat back down to type his boring copies. Woman anchor or not, no one was going to watch the show tonight with such simplistic stories, that was for sure.

"So Ted, what was it that you wanted to have me do?" Gary inquired.

"Let's uh, how about we go back to my dressing room," he offered.

Murray waited until they were both out of the room. "It finally happened, Ted has lost enough brain cells to not know the difference between men and women anymore," he muttered to himself.

Ted lead Gary back to his dressing room and closed the door behind him. "All right Gary, I'll have to be frank with you. You're an attractive man," he started.

Gary raised an eyebrow to him, wondering if this was a bad idea.

"Well Ted, you know, I am married...and to a woman, right?"

"Do you think you can pretend you're not married for a couple hours?" Ted pleaded.

"I really don't think so," Gary answered, heading for the door.

"What's wrong! I just wanted you to pretend to be somebody's boyfriend for a half an hour!"

"Ted." Gary sighed, he'd begun to open the door again but quickly closed it. "I know I'm an attractive man." Gary liked to flatter himself, much like Ted.

Suddenly Ted's dressing room phone rang.

"Sue Ellen?...Well what is it? I happen to be a busy man. I'm important around here, you know that...Okay," he said and then hung up and looked over to Gary. "I need you to go see Ellen while I stop downstairs real quick," he instructed.

"Where do I go?" Gary asked.

"Into a room with a door with a name on it. You can't miss it," Ted answered as he rushed out of the room.

Gary stood there, dumbly staring to the door trying to figure out what just happened. It shouldn't be though, at least, that was what he figured. He stepped out of the room and headed towards the newsroom, the opposite direction of Ellen's dressing room.

The newsroom was empty while everyone had just headed out to lunch. This didn't bother him too bad though. Actually, he had spotted Lou's office. "Lou," he read out loud to himself. It sounded like the name he heard earlier... what was it? Lou Ellen? And Ted did say Ellen. This had to be right. Without any doubts, he opened the door and walked in and got himself situated on top of the desk.

…...

Mary walked into the newsroom along with Ellen and Murray. "As bad as it sounds, I'm glad I was able to get away from Ted for an hour," Ellen announced.

"Trust me, an hour will start feeling like its not enough," Murray told her as he sat back down at his desk.

"I was just glad to get away from the childish behavior that had been going on lately," Mary added from her seat. "I've been getting so annoyed with Ted lately. I can't stand it when he starts pouting."

The doors swung open as Lou rushed past the desks and towards his office. He grunted his usual greeting and went straight for his office. No one, even Ellen thought much of it, it was just normal for him.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!" Mary was shaken, she'd never in her life heard Mr. Grant yell like that. She, Ellen and Murray quickly ran to what they thought would be Mr. Grant's aid or tried to. But he angrily burst out his office door before they could get there.

"MARY!"

"Yes Mr. Grant." She replied calmly.

"Who's that in my office?"

"Who's who in my office."

"Mary. There's a man in my office."

"Did you see what he wanted Lou?" Murray asked.

"I wasn't especially interested seeing as he's on my desk with his shirt unbuttoned!"

"What!" They all burst, running into the office, this they had to see.

"Um...can I help you?" Mary hesitated, thinking that she probably didn't want to help him.

"Oh, he's a friend of Ted's." Murray announced casually, watching to see what Gary would do next.

"Uh-huh." Mary observed.

"A friend of Ted's?" Ellen laughed.

"Why, what's so funny?" Mary asked.

"I mean, I didn't think Ted had any friend either but it's not that funny Ellen." Murray said.

"Just watch." Ellen had in fact, spent part of the morning on the phone with her brother's practical-joking friend Cliff Murdoch, also known as the Peeper. He had indicated that something like this might happen and that with careful non-intervention, she could make Ted's plan backfire.

"Watch what?" Murray asked.

"This. What are you doing in Lou's office...what is your name?"

"I'm Gary. Didn't you know. I'm Lou's date."

"DATE!" Lou was livid. "Mary."

"Uh...yes Mr. Grant." She was worried at how calm his voice was, she knew it was the calm before the storm.

"Murray you said he was a friend of Ted's?"

"Yeah Lou, his name is Gary."

"Mary...GET ME TED BAXTER AND THE LIST OF ALL OTHER AVAILABLE ANCHORMEN IN THE TWIN CITIES...NOW!"