
"Thanks for joining us guys," Charlie umber said after Rachel sat down in
the giant steel reinforced chair that dominated his office even when the
imposing news anchor who now occupied it wasn't sitting in it. He'd had
to remove three of the normal sized chairs he used to have in his office
in order to accommodate it, but taking care of his star performer was important.
Since Jen Lee, the Opinion director, was already in his office occupying his
one normal sized guest chair, Ben, Rachel's co-host, had to stand. Rachel
still made him look tiny by comparison of course.

*What's Jen doing here?* Ben wondered, a foreboding feeling settling in the pit
of his stomach. He shouldn't have been worried. After all, the ratings were way
up. Then again, the ratings were way up, and it didn't take a genius to guess
that one half of the news anchor team might have more to do with it than the
other. "What's up?"

"Well, first of all, congratulations are in order. Rates are way up. Way, way
up. We've even been able to see a notable dip in ratings from other shows in
the same time slot."

Rachel beamed. She thought she had a decent idea of why, "thanks Charlie."

"This is obviously amazing, and you guys should be really proud, but we want to
make sure we capitalize on this unique opportunity we have here," he said, using
his practiced corp-speak to gesture at the fact that News 13 employed the woman with
the largest breasts in the world (Rachel had checked after that throwaway comment
by her seamstress), and that the viewing public didn't seem to be able to get enough
of her. "So we've been very focused on this behind the scenes for the last few weeks.
We didn't bring it up because we didn't want to distract you, but we've done focus
groups and everything. I'll let Jen lay it out."

Jen smiled, "The long and short of it is that audiences want more of you, Rachel,
but they don't just want more of you on screen, they want to hear your take on things."

"You mean you want me to become a pundit?" Rachel asked, clearly a bit uncomfortable with
the idea.

"Well, not exactly, we just want to shift the tone of the show a bit. It should still
remain fact focused and uphold all those journalistic standards that you news people
insist on," she grinned to show she was joking, "but we want you to spend some more time
reacting organically to the news as you read it. Ben, you can help Rachel out by bouncing
questions off of her. 'What do you think of X?' 'Where is Y going?', that kind of thing."

"And I should do the same? Bounce questions off of Ben to establish a back and forth?"

Jen shook her head. "That's how this sort of thing would normally be structured, but the
focus groups were pretty clear. We want to make this show more about you. Not just the
news, Rachel's take on the news."

Rachel bit the inside of her lip. This wasn't what she had gone into journalism for. Lord
knew there were plenty of journalists who threw their own opinions and biases into the
mix, heck everyone did a little, but Rachel had always prided herself on doing her best
to give people the facts and keep her own opinions out of it. This was asking her to do
the exact opposite of that. At the same time this request was hugely flattering. Jen and
Charlie wanted to turn this into a show about her, and it wasn't just coming from her.
Ordinary people had said specifically that they wanted her take, and only her take. They
didn't care what Ben thought.

Thinking of Ben, she glanced over at her co-host to see how he was taking it. She knew he
felt the same way about sticking to the facts, and he didn't get the benefit of having his
ego stroked by the ask. In fact, if anything it was probably the opposite as he felt
overshadowed by Rachel not just physically, but professionally. Off set, Rachel had always
had a coolly professional relationship with Ben. They had started off friendly enough, but
when it became clear that Rachel was a real force when it came to the nitty gritty reporting
work that went in to preparing for the show each day, not just a spokesmodel with big boobs,
he'd cooled off. She was pretty sure he had felt threatened by her intelligence. He wouldn't
have been the first man. Despite their tepid personal relationship, they worked well together,
and Rachel did feel a bit bad for the guy.

"So, you with us Rachel? Ready to take this show to the next level?" Rachel realized she
had been thinking for a while.

*Let's give the people what they want*, "Yes. Yes, I think so." She noticed that they hadn't
asked Ben.

"Great! I don't want to keep you two late, but let's talk details in the morning. Jen's going
to be helping out from now on. She's got a lot of great experience with all this gross
opinion stuff," Charlie had to score some points to make up for Jen's earlier comment about
journalistic standards.

After they had left Charlie's office, Rachel pulled Ben aside, squatting with her knees together
and her torso twisted so she could get her face closer to his and loom a little less. It was
a bit of an awkward position, but Rachel felt it was more respectful than looming over someone
while she talked, and years of yoga plus the strength that was a gift of the HERS virus made it
more comfortable for her than most women would have found it. The position did tend to put her
cleavage right in people's faces. "You ok with this Ben?"

Ben dragged his eyes up from her chest. He'd been staring at her boobs a lot lately. Everyone
had. It was the kind of thing that used to bother Rachel, but now just sent a buzz of pride
through her. "Ummm, yeah, I'm happy for you."

Rachel sighed, "That's not what I meant. What about you?"

"I mean, I think we all know why the ratings are going up. You're the star Rachel, that's just
the reality. Honestly, this could still be an upgrade for me. You're going to get huge Rachel."

"Already am," Rachel joked. Of course she was still growing.

Ben laughed, "Yeah, you know what I mean though. This is just the beginning. I bet by the end
of it, being the setup guy for you is going to be way better than where I am now. I mean we
were what, a tier three or four channel before you came back? I'd put money on your show being
number one in the country pretty soon. Probably by a large margin."

Rachel's nipples were always denting her tops, but those dents became even more prominent now.
It sounded like Ben was actually eager to start playing second fiddle to her. He was already
calling it "her show". Since she'd come down with the HERS virus, everyone had been acting
more submissively towards her, and the man who had always harbored a quiet rivalry for her
rolling over so eagerly was yet one more example.
