that she knitted a hat for everyone in the warehouse. Later in the episode, Val lies to Darryl and tries to convince him that her mother got her a vase of flowers, but Darryl earlier had discovered that it was her boyfriend that sent them. This then convinces Darryl that the hat is a "beanie of love". In "After Hours", Brandon, Val's boyfriend, arrives at the Scranton branch, and accuses Darryl of having an affair with his girlfriend, after having read Darryl's text messages to her. After reading his text messages aloud, everyone agrees that his text messages are suggestive of Darryl wanting to be with Val, but both of them brush it off as being ridiculous. When they are alone, however, Darryl tells Val that a potential relationship is not ridiculous, leaving her shocked. In the eighth-season finale, "Free Family Portrait Studio", Darryl declares to Val and Brandon that he is officially pursuing her. While Brandon insults Darryl for this, Val looks impressed by Darryl's bravado. Later, when Darryl is having his portrait taken with his daughter, Jada, he invites Val to be in the picture. She joins them, and affectionately grabs Darryl's hand. Their relationship is continuing in Season 9, with Val accompanying Darryl to the early-morning weekday wedding of his former co-worker Roy. Nate Nickerson Nate N. Nickerson (Mark Proksch) is a dimwitted, but well-meaning, warehouse worker, who used to be Dwight's handyman. He is introduced in the opening to the season 7 episode "Sex Ed", when Dwight hires him from a group of undocumented immigrant day laborers and has him remove a hornet's nest from the Dunder Mifflin parking lot (which he attempts to do using a blowtorch and then a baseball bat, leading to him getting severely stung). Nate responds to Dwight in very broken Spanish when the two first meet, though later on, he seems to have become more fluent when he translates for Dwight in "Jury Duty". In "WUPHF.com", he helps Dwight run the Hay Place attraction in the parking lot. In "China", he helps Dwight turn the office toilet paper to half-ply as a cost-cutting measure, and goes with him to check out the "new building" that Pam claims to have found. In the opening of "Classy Christmas", he takes the staff Christmas photo. Nate re-appears in the season 8 episode "Lotto", where he applies for a warehouse position with Dunder Mifflin