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Dammit , Ann chastises herself. She should’ve known better than to be a part of--no, to help instigate all of this. All she cared about was wanting Leslie to finally have a good day for once and now it was ruined.
The worst part? Ben is a good guy and Anne was willing to lie and help him put himself in harm's way. He’ll probably be just fine and yes it was all for Leslie and Anne and Leslie would do anything for each other. But Leslie… oh god she’s going to have to tell Leslie now. Shit.
Leslie was well into her third drink--some sort of cotton-candy-based concoction--by the time Ann got the phone call from April. Ann is the designated driver so only had one and that was a while ago; she’s definitely sober. Ugh, she really wished she didn't have to be so sober while she told Leslie this.
Leslie is in the perfect sweet spot where she is just past buzzed but not so wasted that she’ll feel it in the morning. She’s grinning ear to ear at the bar when she sees Ann walking back toward her, “ANN! I missed you!” she shouts a bit too loud as she envelops her in a hug.
“Hey Leslie, I was just over there for a minute,” Ann reminds her gently.
“Yeah but I’m worried about you and your tumor or illegal smuggled exotic pets or whatever.” Leslie babbles contently into her ear, not breaking the hug.
“Wait, what?”
“Nothing, don’t worry about it.”
Okay, maybe Leslie is a little more drunk than she thought.
Ann breaks the hug and grabs Leslie’s hands “Les, I need to talk to you about something for a second, let’s find a quieter spot in here.”
“Is it the reason you’ve been on your phone?” Suddenly Leslie looks like a nervous kid.
“Yes.” Ann answers honestly, “But don’t worry, I promise everything is going to be fine.”
Still holding one of Leslie’s hands, Ann drags her friend across the bar to a relatively quiet, unpopulated spot along the wall.
“So before I say anything please know that I mean what I say when I say everything and everyone is fine.”
Okay, nothing like starting a story that way to make Leslie more nervous. She nods shakily anyway.
Ann takes a deep breath, “When I woke up this morning, I got a text from Ben saying that he felt sick but he wanted to make sure that you still took the day off so he wanted me to come over earlier. I came over and he has the flu and had a fever. He agreed to go to his place with Andy and April taking care of him where he was not supposed to do any campaign work but, honestly, I’d be surprised if he didn’t.”
A small smile almost breaks through Leslie’s worried expression. Almost.
“All the calls were me checking in with them. His fever has been getting worse, and April just found him in his bed and it looked like he hadn’t been able to keep water down. Plus his temperature is 104.3º. And I’m so, so sorry for keeping this from you. I never should have; I just wanted you to have your day. You've been working so, so hard Les. But I let Ben martyr himself and I was wrong and I’m sorry.” Ann pauses and looks nervously at Leslie’s expression.
“Can we go see him?” Leslie asks hurriedly, not even seeming to register her friend's apology.
“Yeah, of course,” they start walking out before Ann even finishes the sentence.
Ben can’t decide if being in the E.R. with April and Andy is more stressful or entertaining. He’s leaning towards entertaining since he doesn’t really have the energy to be stressed anymore. Andy keeps doing that thing where he pats Ben’s chest too hard and calls him his brother. He always does it too hard at first, and then apologizes like a spooked puppy when it makes Ben wheeze. April is spending her time trying to keep Andy from playing with the medical equipment.
Getting an IV in was a big relief. Don’t get him wrong, Ben still feels like shit. He feels clammy and sweaty and his throat hurts and he’s shaky and he's feverish. At least he doesn’t have to worry about keeping water down, though.
“Dang, you still look like crap, dude!” Andy laughs jollily after returning from the bathroom, clearly intending no harm.
“Jee, thanks Andy.” Ben mutters. “Serves me right for not taking care of myself.”
“Serves you right for going to a place where they only feed you cheese whiz and they lie to the stupid nurse about you doing not-as-bad,” April mumbles miserably and guiltily, eyes darting between the IV and the floor.
“Seriously, April,” Ben insists, “This isn’t your fault. You did what you could to help and everything’s fine.”
She shrugs unconvinced and Ben gives her a tight smile as he sighs through his nose, knowing that April is the kind of person who will need more time to be convinced.
“Ben? Oh my gosh,” Leslie runs over to him and hugs him so fast and tight that the wind gets knocked out of him again and he sputters out a cough. She starts to pull away “Wait, I’m sorry, did I--”
He laughs a little as he pulls her back into the tight hug, “No, please. I love you.” He holds up the pointer finger of his right hand so that the fingertip heart rate monitor doesn’t get tangled in her hair as he runs the other fingers of that hand on the back of her head, his left hand rubbing her back. All too aware of the company around them (and far more considerate than April and Andy), Ben kisses Leslie’s temple as she starts to pull away and she kisses his forehead back with a smile.
Catching up to Leslie, Ann comes over to the bed. Damn, she looks like she feels as guilty as April. “Hi, Ben,” she says quietly, “I owe you an apology.”
“What?” Ben says, confused. “Why?”
“Because,” Ann hesitates, embarrassed, “I was so focused on making sure that Leslie had a good day that I ignored what you needed and made things worse.”
“I appreciate it, but really, it’s not a big deal,” Ben presses, “I still have a fever but it’s going down so they’re going to be discharging me soon. Plus, I was the one who made all my choices, so you have nothing to feel sorry for.”
Ann offers a small smile in return and glances over to Leslie, whose face she is all too fluent in. She can tell that even if they wish things had happened differently today, neither of them hold it against her, which is a comfort. She glances at Ben’s chart and his stats on the monitor. He was right that he is probably going to get out of here soon, which is a relief, even if he is clearly still pretty sick.
Ann closes her eyes and steadily exhales with relief, making a solemn vow to herself that she will remember this moment and remember that in order to be a good friend to Leslie, she has to be good to everyone else Leslie loves, too.
“Babe, it’s okay, I’ve got it,” Ben tells Leslie as she tries to help guide him up the stairs into the bed. To be honest, he’s not really sure that he’s "got it" but he doesn’t want to make her help him. He feels bad enough for ruining her day and lying to her.
“Please, Ben, let me help you,” Leslie says more firmly. Ben falls silent and just tries to put as little of his weight on her as possible while keeping a cozy grip on her shoulder. Shuffling slowly, Leslie makes it with Ben to the bed. “I’m going to get you some water and the meds they gave you, okay?”
Ben’s still looking down, ashamed. He hates this. He’s let her down.
“Hey,” she gently grabs his cheek and angles his face towards her. He sees the warm smile she’s giving him and offers a smaller one in return before she kisses him slowly and gently, trotting downstairs.
He takes a deep breath. Well he tries to, at least, but when he tries to exhale it ends in a long coughing fit that continues until she returns up the stairs.
As he continuously coughs into his elbow, she helps him sit up and sits just beside and behind him, holding a glass of water. She leans forward to press her face forward to kiss his shoulder blade as she rubs his back gently with her free hand. Finally, the coughing begins to subside a bit and she brings the water closer to Ben’s hand.
He takes it shakily, sputtering out a scratchy “thanks” between coughs and gulping down the smooth liquid, wishing he could just stop being like this. She’s so sweet and perfect and she doesn’t deserve to have to deal with this.
Leslie wordlessly helps him set the glass down on the table. His voice is barely a whisper when he says, “I’m sorry.”
Leslie raises her eyebrows a bit, “For what?”
“I ruined your day,” Ben states what he thinks must be obvious as he looks down again, “I lied to you and I made everyone else lie and feel bad and you were supposed to at least get this one day to rest. You needed to get a break and you didn’t get your break because of me… I don’t know, bringing you down, and I just-”
“Stop,” Leslie interrupts, forcing him to look at her. “Ben, do you seriously think that? That you bring me down? After everything that’s happened?”
His eyes dart between the two of hers, his mouth slightly parted with no words or breath coming out. He has no words to say and no energy to make excuses. He’s worn himself out.
“You have done so much for me. To support me and my dreams. It’s above and beyond what any person could deserve and I never, ever want you to feel like you owe me anything.”
“No, I,” Ben hesitates, “It’s not that I feel like I owe you something. I just love you and I want to support you. I know I’m not as good at this as Jennifer Barkley. Let’s be honest, my experience in government comes down to my time as mayor when I was impeached two months after failing catastrophically and now I resigned in disgrace as Assistant City Manager.”
“You’re amazing at this and there’s no one else I’d rather be doing this with,” Leslie insists. “And you’re ignoring years and years of public service where you did incredible things, not to mention the reason why you resigned.”
Ben offers a grateful half-smile before looking down again, pausing, “I’m just really sorry that I ruined your day.”
“Look at me, babe,” Leslie stresses. “Yes, I needed a day off from work. This campaign is insane. But you need a break sometimes, too. We both know that things are getting more insane than ever with the campaign but we can’t not take care of ourselves until we’re literally hospitalized and we definitely can’t lie to each other about it along the way.”
“I know,” Ben gulps. “I know that if the situation was reversed, I would have freaked out. If I was in a bar with Chris, he probably would've tried to get me to find inner peace with mindfulness meditation as soon as I started panicking before he even finished explaining everything,” they laugh together at the image: Ben, neurotic, hair sticking up in a million directions in the middle of the Bulge while Chris tries to guide him through breathing exercises in a positive tone. Her fingers wrap around his and bring his hand up to her lips, comfortingly grounding him in the moment. “I’m sorry. I promise I’ll talk to you and take better care of myself.”
“We both will.” She smiles and radiates joy. God, he just wants to be with her forever. Can he just surround himself in a glowing blanket of golden energy that is Leslie Knope? Unable to stay away, he wraps himself around her and she reciprocates immediately and fully in a tight hug, Ben’s head in Leslie’s neck as she kisses the sweaty, chaotic, bird's nest of his hair. Yeah, he is still pretty gross from the flu, but at this moment she doesn’t really care.
Before long she changes into pajamas and he changes so he’s just in a fresh pair of boxers--he’s too hot with his fever to wear anything else. They take the comforter off the bed so that they are just under a thin sheet (again, because Ben is burning like a furnace). The one thing his fever does not and could not prevent them from doing is snuggling in close to one another.
His face nuzzles into her chest and his arm drapes over her waist. Her legs entangle with his, one of them draped over her favorite ass in the world. His breaths grow more steady and relaxed as she lazily plays with his hair and plants her lips on the crown of his head.
“Les?” He mumbles.
“Yeah, babe?”
“I love you and I like you.”
She breathes him in and closes her eyes, smiling softly, “I love you and I like you.”