Chapter 20: Ben and Leslie

At Leslie's House:

"Do you want eggs or bacon with your pancakes?" Ben yells from the kitchen.

"I want whip cream!" Leslie replies off camera from the bedroom.

"That wasn't in the choices, but sure…" Ben mumbles to himself, shaking his head at Leslie's obsession with whip cream.

His Star Wars themed ringtone blares suddenly and he sets the pan down to quickly grab his phone from the dining table. He sees Chris's name pop up on the caller ID and answers it.

"Hey, Chris. What's up?"

"Ben Wyatt?"

"Yup."

"Why do you have Leslie's phone?"

Ben's blood drains as he realizes that he answered Leslie's phone. He blanks out and looks wide-eyed at Leslie who just entered the kitchen. Leslie seeing her phone on Ben's hand gives him a confused look.

"Uh, well, Chris… I…" Ben stammers on the phone and Leslie panics as she finally understands what Ben has done. Her jaw falls open and she's staring at Ben as he struggles to find an answer. Her gut feels like it's filled with rocks, and she's thinking that this is it. This is how they get found out. Chris would see the clues and put two and two together.

"Leslie, uh, left it in the car yesterday from our trip back!" Ben quickly answers, looking proud of his clever excuse. Leslie sighs a breath of relief as it sounds plausible. "Yes, I'll relay that message to her." Ben hangs up and throws the phone to Leslie. "Change your damn ring-tone, Leslie. That was really close!"

"Gaahhh! I'm so so so sorry!" Leslie fiddles with her phone as she changes the settings. Her heart rate is starting to come down. "What did Chris want?"

"He wanted to set a meeting with you around 10 this morning." Ben takes the pan from the stove and transfers the pancakes on her plate. He opens the can of whip cream and sprays the pancake surface completely, swirling his hand until he reaches a height that he knew Leslie preferred.

"Thank you! I love when you prepare breakfast." She kisses Ben lightly on the lips before she sits and starts devouring her food. Ben sits beside her and eats his bacon and eggs.

They were back in Pawnee, back to hiding how they felt about each other in public. Leslie shouldn't complain really. She has an amazing boyfriend that she's dating in secret. She got to spend a wonderful week with him in Muncie. One glorious week where the universe ceased to exist outside of them. Sweet, fun and sexy hot moments that she replayed in her mind. She's thinking all this while licking the whip cream from her fork.

"Good Lord. Stop that. I'm getting really jealous of that fork." Ben teases her. He sees how distracted she is this morning and he knows what she's feeling. He's feeling the exact same thing. The trip to Muncie made him realize that he wants them to be a real couple. Do things real couples do without the fear of getting fired. Leslie smiles back and he reaches out and tucks a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. She leans her face on his big hand and then turns to kiss his palm. It's such a short and sweet exchange that Ben feels the urge to skip work and just spend the whole day with her. But he knows that Leslie would never skip work, not even when the world was ending.

"So, I guess it's back to normal then in the office? I'll try not to stare at your butt all the time and you'll try not to call me babe in one of our meetings?" Her smile doesn't reach her eyes.

Ben wants to cheer her up and comes up with an idea. "Alright, how about this. Let's go out tonight, I'll figure out a place that I know no one from work goes to." He feels heavy in his heart when Leslie sighs and nods her head softly. It's the best he can give her for now, until he figures out a way around Chris' rule.

At Ben's Office:

"Will you tell her for me?"

"Actually, you can tell her yourself." Ben points to the door as Leslie enters.

"Hi, Amy. Fancy seeing you here." Leslie wonders when she stopped thinking of Amy as a close relative of Voldemort. Had they met in another circumstance, they would have probably become friends. The past few weeks were definitely hard to forget, but Leslie knew that a woman in love would do crazy stuff.

"Leslie, hi! I was telling Ben that I'm going to be moving to Brooklyn."

"What? But I thought you were starting to like it here in Pawnee. What about Carl?"

"I do like it here in Pawnee. But since you last introduced me to Carl, well, we've been going out. And we both want to start fresh somewhere. So, we decided to move to Brooklyn." She beams at Leslie and flashes her pearly white teeth at her.

"Wow. That is some news. What's Carl going to do in Brooklyn?"

"Well, he wants to shift his career a little bit and go into the police department. I mean, don't get me wrong, he really loves being a Park Ranger, but he wants to do more than guard the park from rowdy kids and runaway raccoons."

"You know, I can picture him as a police officer. I'd bet he'd make a good detective someday."

"I'll let him know you said that. Also, I really just wanted to say I'm sorry for the things I put you through. And thank you for introducing Carl to me. I was so mean to you and in the end you still figured out a way to help me."

"It's nothing. Really. I wish you a happy life in Brooklyn and if you ever find yourself in Pawnee again, don't be shy to say hi." Leslie gives Amy a hug. Ben gives Amy a hug too and they say their goodbyes as she leaves the office.

"Awww, I feel kinda sad to see her go." Leslie says turning to Ben.

"Me too. I told you she was a nice person."

"Well, I'm sorry, I was too busy being jealous." Leslie gives him a knowing smile. She can't believe the series of events that happened for the past few weeks were because she couldn't take seeing another girl hanging out with Ben.

"So, I found a restaurant a couple of minutes downtown that I think we can safely go to tonight. I've made reservations for 6:30. I'll pick you up at 6?"

"Sounds great. I'll wear something extra special." She gives Ben a wink before she turns and sashays out of his office.

At Ben's House:

"Wow, Ben! You look fancy!" Andy exclaims as Ben enters the living room wearing a black suit and tie. Andy and April were cuddled on the couch watching a show on TV.

"Are you going on a date?" April asks suspiciously.

"Uh, maybe." Ben doesn't want them to keep prying in case he accidentally gives something away.

"Who is it? Tell us!" Andy runs to the entrance and blocks the door.

"Andy." Ben gives him a look. "Please get out of the way."

"No, Babe. Don't let him pass until he tells us." April joins Andy and stares down Ben with her arms crossed. "Tell us, Ben."

"Seriously?" Ben starts to get annoyed, he places his hands on his hips and tries to think of how he can get out of this situation. "It's no one you know."

"You're lying. I know when you're lying." April narrows her eyes at him. "Don't think we don't notice that you haven't been sleeping in this house for the past few months."

"Yeah." Andy agrees then his facial expression changes suddenly when he realizes what April just said. "Wait… What, you haven't been sleeping in the house?"

"It's none of your business. Please let me through or I'll be late." He starts to worry that April might be able to figure things out.

"It is someone we know." April looks thoughtfully at Ben. "But you can't tell us and you're keeping it a secret."

Cut to One-on-One with April:

"He's sleeping with Leslie." April says in deadpan into the camera.

Back At Ben's House:

April finally speaks after staring at Ben for a few excruciating seconds. "Let him pass, babe." She says to Andy.

"But why? He hasn't told us yet." Andy whines but moves aside and watches Ben hurry out the door.

Ben suspects that April figured it out but he is thankful that she isn't going to say anything. In a weird way, he feels that he can trust that April won't mention it to anyone.

At Leslie's House:

"Ok, how do I look?" Leslie appears at her bedroom doorway and presents her dress to Ann.

"What are you going for exactly?"

"I'm going for an 'innocent until proven guilty' look."

"Okay, that description does not sound sexy, but that dress definitely looks hot." Ann gestures for her to turn around and gasps. "Whoa, that dress will also let you catch a cold tonight. But Ben is going to be really happy to see you in that."

Leslie beams at Ann's words. She feels giddy that she gets to go on an actual date with Ben. She wanted to show how special it was by wearing the sexiest backless dress she had.

"Ok, so let's make sure you have everything you need to distract Chris tonight."

"Don't worry, Leslie. I got this. I will be playing boggle with him until you get back home."

"Oh Ann, you sparkly ball of distraction. Thank you for this."

Ann gives her a wide closed lip smile. "Ok, let's work on that smoky eye shadow then. And let's put your hair up. Then you need to show me what shoes you're wearing with that." Ann drags Leslie back to her bedroom.

At the Fancy Restaurant:

Leslie's hearty laugh makes Ben smile. Ben was just telling her why he tried to build a giant winter sports complex during his term as mayor. The first reason was to impress Cindy Eckert who had turned him down for senior prom and the second reason was because he had a thing for women in skates and building a huge ice skating rink would ensure that there were always girls in skates all year round. She imagined Ben as a horny 18 year old who used up all the town budget to fund his fetish and this made her laugh harder.

"I'm not kidding!" Ben says defensively. Ben smiles widely at Leslie. He loves seeing her this happy and the fact that it was him that made her laugh that way. He treasures these moments because he doesn't know when they'll be able to have this kind of date again.

After the bill had been paid, they were both getting ready to leave when Leslie hears a familiar voice and she looks up sharply to see Jean-Ralphio standing at the entrance talking to the receptionist. Leslie 's heart stops. Jean-Ralphio always hung out with Tom. If he sees her and Ben, it could lead to Tom finding out about it.

Ben upon seeing the reaction on her face as she stares at something behind him, tries to turn and see who she's looking at. But he stops short when Leslie hisses for him to hide under the table. At first, he wasn't sure what she was asking him to do but as Leslie wildly gestures for him to get under the table, he instantly gets on his knees and crawls under the table cloth, understanding that it was someone she knew that was heading their way.

"Leslie!" Jean-Ralphio spots her on his way to his table at the back. "What a lovely surprise!" The word 'surprise' was sang in a high tone and stretched long.

"Hi Jean-Ralphio." Leslie says with a smile, hoping she doesn't look too nervous.

"You are looking very sexy. Mmm" Jean-Ralphio scans her table and sees the empty chair and empty wine glass. "Please tell me your date abandoned you and that you are in desperate need of a companion." He looks hopefully at Leslie.

"No, no. My, uh, date just went to the bathroom." Leslie is suddenly startled when she feels Ben's finger tracing circles around her ankle. She tries to shake it off discreetly so Jean-Ralphio wouldn't notice.

"Hey, if he's a freak and you're trying to escape a bad date, blink once and I'll save you."

Leslie tried really hard not to blink. "I don't need saving. And, I think I'll go on ahead to the car and wait for him there." She fixes her skirt and stands, getting a low guttural sound from Jean-Ralphio as he takes in Leslie's dress.

"Oh, Leslie. You just killed me with that dress." He puts his hand over his heart and pretends to faint.

"You're sweet. Alright, I'll see you around." She hurries out of the restaurant, hoping that Ben would find a way to escape under the table without being noticed.

After a few minutes, Ben decides it was safe to come out. As he crawls out of the table, he bumps into the foot of a waiter. Ben looks up to find the waiter giving him a very judging look. "I, uh, dropped my pen." Ben says as he stands, arranges his suit back to order and tries to walk out of the restaurant with whatever dignity he had left.

At Leslie's House:

As soon as the door closes, Ben's hands go to Leslie's waist and he leads her backwards to the couch. His lips finds hers and his kisses are full of hunger. Leslie's arms snake around his neck as they blindly make their way to the sofa. He sits in one corner and places Leslie on his lap as he starts tracing soft kisses on her shoulder.

"I had a really good time tonight." Leslie half whispers. Drowning on all the sensations elicited by Ben's soft lips on her skin.

"Except for the part where we almost got caught." Ben pauses his kissing to discuss the serious matter. "I don't think we can date in pubic again. What if that was someone from the office who almost bumped into us?"

The sadness in Leslie's eyes are obvious. "I know…" Ben hates how the mood suddenly dropped.

He decides to lighten it up again and remove the frown from Leslie's lovely face. "But more importantly, have I told you yet how gorgeous you look in this dress. Like a blonde Jackie Kennedy."

"Oh, really?" Her expression turns mischievous and Ben sees a smile form on her lips. "So, then this," She turns her face and gives Ben a soft kiss. "is how Jackie Kennedy would kiss."

Ben kisses her back with a little more force. "And that's how John F. Kennedy would kiss Jackie."

Leslie laughs at the sudden turn of playfulness. "Alright, now this is Pelosi." She adds a playful bite at the end of the kiss.

"Sweet." Ben places his hands on both sides of Leslie's face to give her a long and deep kiss. "That was Theodore Roosevelt."

Leslie turns competitive, wanting to outdo Ben's kiss. "Okay, okay. And this is how Eleanor Roosevelt would kiss."

"Whoa. Eleanor likes the tongue. Hey, show me Pelosi again."

Leslie laughs at Ben's reaction. "Okay, lay down..."

And for the remainder of the night any thoughts of getting caught were pushed back behind their minds. Both just hoping to make this secret relationship last as long as they can. Unaware of the phone in Ben's back pocket that had accidentally dialed a number in his saved contacts.

-END OF STORY-