Chapter Text
It’s snowing outside. Leslie and Ben are in bed, cuddling. The fire in their bedroom is lit, illuminating the Pawnee poster on the wall that Leslie had made a few weeks ago. We’re in their adorable house in Benning Heights, a neighborhood in southeast Washington, D.C. The house is just a few blocks away from Hickey Run, a tributary stream of the Anacostia River, where Leslie and Ben often go to sit on a bench and make out, just because Hickey Run has that name and because they love making out with each other. They have just moved into the house from the more temporary apartment downtown.
Leslie was elected Acting Director of the National Park Service in November 2023, a few months ago, and starts her new job today.
A couple of years back, Ben started his restaurant ”The Low-Cal Calzone Zone” in the heart of Indianapolis. With the recent move to D.C., Ben has taken the restaurant with him. ”The Low-Cal Calzone Zone” serves healthy calzones with different fillings to a reasonable price. Ben’s main job is to do the books, which he loves, but he also occasionally steps in to make some calzones. The restaurant only serves calzones, apart from Ben’s Famous Chicken Soup, which he once made for Leslie when she was sick in the beginning of their relationship. Leslie has in recent years warmed to the idea of calzones, but has always been honest with him about the fact that she prefers ordinary pizza. Nevertheless, she is very supportive of his restaurant business.
It’s morning, 5 AM. Leslie woke Ben up a few minutes ago to kiss him, which to his credit didn’t annoy him even though it’s so early in the morning. After all, Ben knows that Leslie rarely sleeps more than five or six hours a night, always eager to start the day.
Ben and Leslie’s triplets Wesley, Stephen and Sonia are 9 years old.
Wesley is an adorable, self-proclaimed nerd who likes paleontology and collects dinosaur figurines. He wears glasses and loves fantasy books. He is, apart from his father, the only one in the Knope-Wyatt family who likes calzones.
Stephen plays a little bit of soccer and likes to play catch with his father using his grandfather’s old baseball mit. He is a little bit more popular at school than Wesley is, but always nice to his brother. He likes fantasy movies, but doesn’t really like watching them with his brother because Wesley always points out differences between the movies and the books they’re based on, which annoys Stephen. He is, apart from his father, the only one in the Knope-Wyatt family who is great at math.
Sonia is relentless and energetic like her mother, although maybe slightly more shy. She loves Christmas and is currently a little bit bummed that it just ended. Sonia never liked Barbie dolls when she was younger. She has an interest in politics but wants to be a journalist. She is, apart from her mother, the only one in the Knope-Wyatt family who refuses to get up later than 6 AM every morning.
Being January in D.C., the streets are covered in snow and the air is bitingly cold. In their cozy bedroom in their sweet house on their busy street, Leslie and Ben are now drinking as Leslie calls it, ”Ann’s signature drink,” which is coffee with whipped cream on top. They’re in bed, and Leslie considers chugging her coffee and jumping him. But she decides it’s a bit early in the morning for sex and makes a mental note to jump him later. Around 6 AM, she decides to get up and shower, start the day. Ben follows her into the bathroom to brush his teeth. The bathroom starts to smell rosy as Leslie lathers her hair with shampoo.
After they’ve woken the kids up, Leslie leaves for her first day at her new job as Director. She’s very proud to have come this far. The day starts out busy, with a lot for her to be filled in on and updated about. Leslie flies through the day, very happy and filled with energy. She’s so excited about her new job. At 4 PM, just as she’s about to get ready to go home, she is approached by a woman wearing a very expensive Hillary Clinton-like pantsuit. The woman asks to have a word, and they sit down in a conference room. As the woman announces what she wants with the meeting, Leslie has a very strong flashback to when she was asked to run for councilwoman in Pawnee.
The woman says that she wants Leslie to run for President of the United States.
”Now, I know you just started this new job as Director, which is very important work, but we in the Democratic Party need someone to bring us together, bring the country together,” the woman says.
Leslie is astounded and speechless.
”Listen, here is my number. Take a few days to think it over, maybe reach a decision. Call me. We believe in you,” the woman continues. She then says goodbye and leaves the room.
Leslie is left alone sitting at the conference table, staring into space, shocked.
Eventually, Leslie brings herself together and drives home to her husband and kids. As she walks through the door she is greeted by Ben, adorably covered in flour, apparently working on a new calzone recipe. The kids are in the backyard, playing in the snow. Ben looks at Leslie and sees that something is the matter, asking, ”Are you alright? You look startled.”
Leslie gives him a sweet stroke on the cheek and says, ”Something happened at work. Everything went really well all day, and I already love the job. But by the end of the day, this woman came up to me, and guess what? She wants me to run for President. President of the United States.”
Ben: ”Are you serious? Honey, that’s so amazing!”
Ben gives her a warm, sincere hug which makes her smile widely.
”I can’t believe it,” she says and shakes her head joyfully. ”I don’t know if I can do it, and I know it’s a lot to ask of you and our family, and it’s going to be stressful and too much and very hard, but I really think I want to do this.”
Ben replies with, ”Of course you should do it. I don’t have a little statuette of the map of the U.S. or whatever to give you, but if I had one, I would.”
”I love you and I like you,” Leslie says and kisses him.
Ben replies with the same words, and they go outside to tell the kids the news.
The next day, Leslie calls the woman to tell her that she wants to run for President. As soon as she says the words, she realizes for sure that it’s the right thing to do. From that moment, things move very quickly. Leslie is given a campaign team headed by none other than April Ludgate. Leslie and April haven’t seen each other in months and Leslie hugs April tightly when they reunite. April has worked on different political campaigns already, and it has turned out that she has an amazing knack for it. When she heard that Leslie is running for President, she immediately made a phone call to apply to the position of Campaign Manager.
The next few days fly by in a flurry. Ben is working on setting up the restaurant and getting it to run smoothly, hiring chefs and designing a new menu. Leslie notifies the staff at the National Park Service that she is running for President, which is greeted with both cheers and applause, and sadness that she won’t stay on as Director for long. Leslie sheds a few tears during her speech:
”This was always my dream job, and I’m so happy for the opportunity, but this is just something I have to do. I hope I have your support.”
Later, she calls Ron Swanson to tell him the news. Ron is uncharacteristically very excited and even lets out a few whoop whoop’s during their conversation.
The rest of January flies by very quickly. April and the campaign team make plans for the campaign advertising and fundraising. Background checks are made on Leslie, and other than a pot brownie in college that turned out to have no pot in it, they find nothing. There’s nothing to stop her from running. Given the very long hours Leslie has to put into her campaign, the kids see little of her that January. They’re sad about it, but old enough to know that what their mom is doing is very important. Ben gives them ice-cream for dessert every evening that Leslie is at work late, as compensation.
However, one day Leslie decides that she needs to take a break from her campaign and spend some time with Ben and their kids. They spend an entire Wednesday outside in a park, eating hot dogs, building snowmen and ice-skating.
By the end of January, Leslie has attended four fundraisers and collected over 20 million dollars for her campaign.