Ann stretched, arching her back and resting her shoulder against April's. "You know, we have to go outside sometime…." Ann said, alluding to the fact that she had almost used up all of her sick days.

"No, the outside sucks," April said, yawning against the back of the couch.

"Aren't you going to get bored of ordering pizza in every day?"

"I dunno," April pouted, "Aren't you going to get bored of kissing me?"

"No," Ann said, grinning, as she leaned over and pressed her lips against April's. It was as soft as the first time, and she kissed her again and again, until they were out of breath. "Yeah, definitely not."

April tried to stop smiling, but couldn't. "Whatever, perv."

"You love it." Ann hooked an arm around April's legs possessively.

April rested her head against the back of the couch, the warm light reflected in her eyes.

"God you're beautiful," Ann said, softly, and went to kiss her girlfriend again.

Outside there were the usual yells of protesters, on their way to main street, screaming something about soda and freedom and America. The crowd was riled up, and had thrown things into the street. When the streetlights went off, there was a cheer.

Inside the house was dark, the only light coming from the bathroom, a warm slice filtered through the mist of the hot shower.

April could hear the protesters dimly over the shower, but ignored them. She stepped out from

the bathroom into the darkness, wrapped only in a towel, the warmth flowing behind her.

"Hey," she said, speaking into the darkness.

"Yeah?" Ann said thoughtfully, lying in her bedroom, listening to the crowd but not getting up to look out the window.

"I'm gonna take a shower."

Ann turned her head toward April, seeing her shape backlit against the door. "Have fun," she said.

April stood there for a second, and put a hand on her hip. "Well, are you coming or not?"

Ann grinned, and walked toward the shower with April, before closing the door behind them.

April gulped after swallowing her coffee. It was the last day they'd spend together before Ann had to go back to the hospital.

"I don't want you to go back," she said quietly.

"I know," Ann said, resting her hand on April's. "But I have to."

"But, what if you didn't?" April said, suddenly picking up steam. "What if we didn't stay?"

Ann bit her lip, and watched April for a second. "Where would we go?"

"We'd go to Wilmington. There's a hospital there. You'd work there, I'd go to school there."

"You can go to school here, too, you know."

"I know, but… We could find a house. Even if it was just some cramped apartment, we could go there. We'd come home each night and eat dinner, and see each other, and sleep in on the weekends."

Ann looked down, smiling at April's sweet vision, but trying to be careful. "April, have you ever been to Wilmington?"

"No," April hesitated, aware that Ann was picking up on her constant fantasizing.

"Have you ever been out of Pawnee, besides your trip to DC?"

"No," April said, not liking where this was going. "But it doesn't matter. Wilmington's got to be better than this place."

Ann swallowed.

"It's got to be. People here are terrible, and they hate everything that's good and love the stupidest things," she said. "Look, it doesn't have to be Wilmington. We can just move somewhere good."

"April…" Ann said carefully, reaching over to put a hand on her hip. "I don't think we can."

April shook her head. "What are you even talking about?"

"Hey, it's just… well, I've been a few places in my life. And people being selfish, and hateful, and so easily manipulated… that's not Pawnee. That's people." She exhaled. "You can't actually get out of Pawnee. Pawnee is everywhere."

April curled up tightly, and Ann scooted over closer to her, wrapping her arm around her waist, and resting her head on her shoulder.

"April, what matters is that we'll be together."

"But I just always imagined us… somewhere else," April said. "Anywhere else."

"I know."

"What's the point? Pawnee sucks, and apparently there's no escape, so…"

Ann looked into April's eyes, holding her gaze steadily. "That just means that the people here need us. Look, we're never going to stop people from being stupid, and selfish, but… we can make things a little better. At least for our friends, for the people we care about. And they're here, in Pawnee."

"How are we going to make things better for Leslie?"

Ann nodded. "I've been thinking about that. The paper said that Leslie is really down in the polls. But I think it's because she's forgotten. She's forgotten that she only got into office because we all helped. We can do that again. We can help her keep her job. And maybe get everyone

else's jobs back."

"I don't think we can," April said. "I don't see this working out."

"Maybe it won't… or, OK, it probably won't. But what else are we going to do?"

"I dunno," April sulked, running her finger over Ann's knee. "We could stay here and take in a ten or twenty stray cats and call in fake bigfoot sightings to Pawnee Today."

Ann smiled, and brushed her thumb over April's neck. "We can still do that. So… we'll stay?"

"OK, I guess." April kind of shrugged, and rested her head on Ann's shoulder.

"So what's the plan, Ludgate?"

April thought about it, eyes focused in the distance. "So we stay. And we try to help our friends."

Ann smiled. "Yeah. Anything else?"

April shook her head slowly. "No. I think… I think maybe that's all there is, anyway."

"Yeah," Ann nodded. "So we do this together?"

April smiled, and Ann pulled her close, her hand around her waist, another stroking her hair. She leaned over, and kissed April, who sighed into the kiss, as if letting go of a great weight. "Together."

End