Yes (Parks and Recreation Fanfic)

Part 2 - Ben

I can only sneak glances at Leslie during my conversation with Jerry. She smiles at me a couple of times until some man with a suit walks her into a conference room with another girl. I watch with concern. These things don't always go well. I know because I was generally the guy in the suit, pulling people away to tell them that they're fired. I look over to see Leslie smiling, then I talk to Jerry a bit more. She's fine. He's blabbing on about how his new medication works. I was never one for science. Science fiction is one thing, and I sometimes tinker with technology, but biology and chemistry are not interests of mine.
I glance over at the conference room again to see Leslie close to tears and yelling something desperately at the two formal people in front of her. They stand up and walk out.
"So then, after it reaches my colon, it takes out-"
"Uh... Jerry? Look, this is... fascinating, but I think I'm going to have to go..."
"Oh. Of course. Bye, Ben!"
I try my hardest not to run to the door. When I open the door, Ann is already there. She looks up at me and shakes her head vigorously. I cautiously step outside again, but Ann mouths "wait" to me. She leans over to Leslie and asks her something. I see Leslie nod, then Ann nods at me. I bolt towards Leslie, a thousand questions in my mind.
"Leslie, what happened?"
Too weak to talk herself, Ann talks.
"That guy who pulled her away asked her if she wanted to run for office."
That's her dream! This is what she's been working for!
"Oh my gosh! Leslie, that's amaz-"
"Zip it, Wyatt." Ann says, cutting me off. "But... when asked if she had any scandals that would come in the way of the election," I feel my heart drop to my stomach "she said yes."
I ruined her dream. This gorgeous, smart woman just had her lifelong long dream crushed by me. Leslie starts rambling on about how it's her fault. But the only thing that can make this situation any worse is if those people spread the word that Leslie is sleeping with me. In that case, not only would her dream job be gone, but her current job would be gone.
"How much do they know?"
"I mentioned how many sex scandals Dexhart has had somewhere in there, so they assume it's a sex scandal..." Leslie say weakly.
"Is it?" asks Ann.
Actually, it's a valid point. I mean, sure, we do sleep together, but we it's not like we're just in it for the sex, or that we're cheating on somebody by sleeping with each other. We're in a good relationship and we care about each other. It's just that I'm her boss and this is technically illegal.
"Yeah, what is this called?"
"Doesn't matter. They don't know anything else about this."
I sigh. If anyone would've told me that I would one day feel this way about Leslie when I first met her, I would've... I don't know... fired them? Called them insane? It's not important. But when I met her, I was thrown into Leslie's tough-as-nails shield, which protected her friends from any harm. She saw me as some sort of missile, aimed to destroy her friends by firing them. So naturally, I was met with her bad side.
I suddenly realize something.
I almost fired Leslie.
The scene played over in my head: Chris massaging Ron's back while I said that we would fire Leslie. Ron stood up for her, proposing other ways to slash the budget to save her. He even proposed that we should fire him. Ron had never defended anyone in the government. I was shocked that he would do this. I vividly remember two lines that were spoken, one from me and one from Ron.
"Every department is losing a Leslie Knope." I said. I cringe from remembering those words. I said those words.
"No, Ben, they are not. None of the other departments had one to begin with."
I nervously glance over at the door. Ah, screw it. I spread my arms to wrap around her, only to hit Ann's arms in mid-air. I smile and laugh a little, then we both find a way to hug Leslie at once.
The door knob clicks.
"Leslie Knope! What's wrong?" The sound of Chris' voice makes me jump back out of the hug. I see Leslie pull away too. Natural reflex. Behind him are Donna, Jerry, April, Andy and Ron. They all see Leslie crying. Ron tells everyone to leave her be, and purposely phrased his statement so it would be weird for me to stay. I look back at Leslie as I close the conference room door.
'Ben! What happened to Leslie?" Chris asks. The rest of the department (minus Tom, I notice) stares at me awaiting my answer.
"I noticed some creepy guys in suits. Did they tell her that her family was dead and that the bodies haven't been found yet?" April asks.
"Uh... no. It was about the guys in suits though. They said that they wanted her to run for office!"
Everyone gasps in excitement. Crap. I'm not good at lying. This ought to be fun.
"But they made it very clear that she was their second choice and if their first choice came through, they would go with him. So, they were almost done with the meeting and then they got a call from the first guy saying that he wanted to run. I think that this was just the straw that broke the camel's back. She was already unstable after Lil Sebastian's death. She'll be fine."
Everyone looks convinced.
"That is literally the most horrible thing that could happen to someone on a day like this." Chris says. I shrug.
"Ben. May I talk to you for a second." Ron asks.
I follow him down the hall.
"First of all, convincing lie son."
"Yeah. They actually asked if she had-"
"Secondly, my ex-wife Tammy is back."
"Oh yeah. I thought I saw her running around." I said, a bit annoyed that he cut me off.
"Not that Tammy. That one is Tammy 2. I'm talking about Tammy 1."
"Wait. Hold on. You have 2 EX WIVES NAMED TAMMY?"
"Yes. And they are both bitches. But Tammy 1 is dangerous."
"You're acting like Tammy 2 wasn't."
"You haven't seen hell until you've seen Tammy 1. Enough chit chat." Ron grabs a metal bar from Andy's shoe shine stand and jabs it into the wall. He then jumps onto the metal bar to help him get on top of the water fountain nearby.
"Uh... I think that-" I say, noticing the gaping hole Ron just made in the wall.
"I'm leaving. I have 228 personal days. I intend to use all of them if need be." He rips out a vent cover on the ceiling and pulls out a backpack. He leaps down off of the fountain with his backpack.
"Pass the message onto Leslie when she's not crying because of something you did."
"OK. Wait...what? I didn't do anything to-"
"I don't care. Goodbye."
And with that, he runs away.