Chapter Text
Leslie Knope felt sick to her stomach.
She had been completely fine up until the words had left Ron’s mouth. He’d said them so casually, almost with glee, as if them coming here wasn’t a threat to all of their jobs. And his department. Their department. Her department.
“They’re going to make cuts, Leslie. Prepare yourself.”
Leslie straightened in her seat. State auditors were coming to Pawnee from Indianapolis to ‘take a look at the budget’. Which basically meant they were two suits with fancy jobs and the ability to ruin everything. And it couldn’t come at a worse time. She was just starting to make tracks with her Lot 48 project. How on earth was she going to be able to build a park during budget cuts?
After she’d left Ron’s office, the nerves had settled into her bones and she doubted they’d be leaving any time soon. Her foot tapped against the edge of her desk anxiously, and she couldn’t help but glance at the entrance to the Parks department every few minutes. Surely they would come and introduce themselves?
“Leslie, you have got to stop it.” Tom whined from his desk, “It’s driving me insane. I’d actually rather work than listen to that.”
Leslie scowled at him, but stopped tapping her foot anyway. Five more minutes passed. She couldn’t take it anymore.
“Ron, you have to go and introduce yourself to them.”
Ron looked up at Leslie, clearly annoyed at her appearance in his doorway.
“I do not.” His voice was rough.
Leslie moved further into the room, the annoyance on Ron’s face growing with every step she took. She heard him groan out-loud as she sat down in the seat opposite him, the same one she’d occupied earlier this morning when he’d told her the news.
“Ron, our department is in danger. Danger, Ron. You have to find out if we’re safe. Or at least make a good impression so they’ll spare us when they start cutting jobs.”
“I will do no such thing, Leslie.” He was using his ‘and-that’s-final’ voice on her, but there was too much on the line for her to let this go. She stood up, determined.
“Fine. I’ll go.”
“That’s not a good idea. They’ll find us when they need us.”
She shook her head, knowing this feeling well – no one could stop her. Well, except maybe Ann. But Ann wasn’t here right now. “No! They need to know how essential the work we do here is. I can’t just stand by and let them destroy our department!”
She could hear her voice getting louder. Ron was clenching his jaw, starting to look genuinely angry.
“Good God, woman. Will you keep your voice down?”
Leslie followed Ron’s eyeline and saw Donna and Jerry looking at them, worry written all over their faces. Good. They deserved to know.
“If you don’t go, then I will.” She stuck her chin out, defiantly.
Ron growled; his eyes shut, “Leslie, I have almost fired you before and I’m happy to try again. Leave this alone.”
“Fine.” Leslie shot back, trying to hide the hurt behind anger. She would just pester him again tomorrow. She was even more productive than usual for the rest of the afternoon, just to spite him.
Leslie came to work the next day even more determined to get Ron to change his mind, but when she walked through his door, she was greeted by a scene that halted her. Two sharp-looking men were sitting opposite Ron – one was talking animatedly to him, while the other was slumped and reading paperwork.
Ron caught Leslie hovering in his doorway out of the corner of his eye, “Oh, good. Leslie’s here.”
At his words, one of the suits – the one who’d been talking animatedly – jumped up and turned towards Leslie. His smile shone all the way into his eyes. He made his way over to Leslie, grabbing her hand in his and shaking it warmly.
“Leslie Knope. I have heard so much about you. My name is Chris Traeger.”
Despite herself, Leslie smiled at him. “It’s lovely to meet you, Chris.”
“This is my colleague, Ben Wyatt.” Chris stepped back and Ben looked up from his paperwork for the first time since Leslie had arrived. His face was angular, his hair seemed almost too messy but he was getting away with it, and his eyes were set hard. His mouth barely quivered into a smile as he said hello. She couldn’t help but notice that he was cute.
Chris continued, “Anyway, Ron came and introduced himself to us yesterday afternoon as he was leaving, and he mentioned that he had an employee that was eager to meet us.”
Leslie’s eyes flicked to Ron, who was leaning back in his chair, glad that he no longer had to hold a conversation with such a disgustingly charming man. She smiled at him, thanking him, and he nodded.
“Yes, that’ll be me he was talking about!” Leslie could feel herself beaming at Chris, and she tried to remind herself that these men had the power to take her job away. “Would you like a tour of our very essential department?”
“I would love a tour of your department.” Chris beamed back. He forced Ben to come with them but he didn’t say a word other than, “Sure”, when Leslie asked him if he liked her colour-coordinated binders. Chris was enthusiastic and interested in everything Leslie told him, and he didn’t seem to mind April’s snark when she arrived for the day. He seemed delighted by it all. Leslie was really feeling like she was getting him on her side when he excused himself.
“I just have a couple of things I wanted to ask Ron, but thank you so much for the tour, Leslie. This is a wonderful department you’re running.”
She watched him disappear into Ron’s office. She started chewing her lip, the nerves settling back in again. She turned her attention to Ben, even though she’d gotten the impression that he wanted nothing to do with her, or any of them.
“So, how are you liking Pawnee so far?”
Ben’s grip on his padfolio tightened, “I’m not really one for small talk, Ms. Knope.”
His tone was tight and clipped. Leslie blinked at him, wondering if he’d meant that to sound so rude, but he wasn’t even looking in her direction. His shoulders were squared, and he truly seemed like he’d rather be anywhere but here, next to her. She silently took what she’d thought earlier back – he was no longer cute.
“Okay. And you can just call me Leslie.”
“I haven’t been here that long, anyway.”
“Okay.” She repeated, wishing he would stop talking.
She turned back towards Ron’s office, hoping to hear something important. She could feel Ben’s eyes on her now – they were lowered and he was trying to hide it, but he was definitely looking at her. She looked back at him and he dropped his eyes immediately. His jaw was set hard, as were his eyes. It seemed that they always were. What was this guy’s deal? She’d never seen a man look more uncomfortable in her life.
“Well, I should probably get to work.”
He raised his eyebrows slightly as an acknowledgement, and she walked into her office.
She hoped she could just deal with the nice one from now on.
“You have some ketchup on your chin.”
“Hm?”
Leslie felt bad. Ann had come to visit her for lunch – which was a fairly common occurrence and usually made Leslie giddy – but today she was distracted.
“I said you’ve got some ketchup on your chin.”
“Oh.” Leslie grabbed a napkin out of the Paunch Burger bag in front of her. Usually, Ann brought a salad or soup for their lunch dates. Whenever Leslie would protest, Ann would set her with a stern, loving look and tell her that she needed to get some nutrients into her system. But Ann could tell that Leslie needed cheering up today. The three-hour phone call last night that had lasted until midnight had been a pretty big clue. Along with the forty-eight text messages she’d received this morning. Ann figured bringing Leslie her favourite meal deal from Paunch Burger would be a welcomed treat.
“Do you want to talk about it some more?” Ann asked.
Leslie considered that. “No, it’s okay. Let’s talk about you. What’s been going on in Ann’s world?”
“Well, not much. Old Stu was back at the hospital yesterday with pneumonia. I was supposed to be getting dinner with a friend yesterday, but she cancelled on me at the last minute. I’m thinking about getting another piercing, maybe.”
“Oh boy.”
“Yeah.”
The pair remained silent for a moment. Ann picked at her cheese fries.
“You want to come over tonight and watch that new Ted Danson movie?”
“Yeah, that sounds fun.” Ann smiled.
There was a knock on the door.
“Leslie Knope. How’s my favourite deputy director of the Pawnee Parks and Recreation department doing?”
She wasn’t sure how he did it, but there was a warm bubbling inside of her chest and she was already beaming at him. His cheerfulness was infectious. She noticed Ben standing behind him, sullen. She ignored him.
“Chris, hi. What can I do for you?” She stood up as she spoke.
“Ben and I were wondering if we could bring our meeting forward a little bit?”
“Oh, sure thing.” Leslie nodded.
“Great! We’ll meet you in the conference room in ten minutes.” They were about to leave when Chris noticed Ann, sitting quietly in her seat against the wall, staring at him. “I’m so sorry! Leslie – who is your friend?”
“Oh! This is perfect human and local nurse, Ann Perkins.” Leslie shot Ann a loving look, which Ann returned with a grin.
“Hi, it’s nice to meet you -”
“Chris. Chris Traeger.” He said, grabbing her hand in his and shaking. Leslie noticed their hands lingering and watched the pair as they talked. There were definitely sparks happening, and it totally made sense. No one was worthy of Ann, but if she had to pick someone, sweet, charming Chris wouldn’t be a bad option.
“And this is my partner, Ben.”
Ben reached forward and shook Ann’s hand quickly and sort of smiled at her.
“Well, we’ll see you shortly, Leslie.” The two men nodded towards her, and then Chris turned back to Ann. “And I hope to see you again, perfect human and local nurse, Ann Perkins.”
Ann smiled and turned to watch them leave.
“Are you blushing?” Leslie asked.
“What? No.”
They smiled at each other. She was.
Leslie sat down and picked up her burger again.
“You didn’t tell me on the phone last night that Chris was that good looking.”
“I guess I was just distracted by the fact that he has the power to fire me, you know?”
“Fair enough.” Ann said, scrunching her nose up apologetically. “Ben’s pretty cute, too.”
“Face-wise, I guess. But he’s so grumpy and mean.”
“Didn’t you just meet him yesterday?”
“Yes?”
“So how do you know he’s grumpy and mean?”
“Were you not in the room just now? He didn’t say a single word the whole time he was here.”
Ann shrugged, “Maybe he’s just shy.”
“Maybe.” Leslie said, “Do you think Chris is going to ask you out?”
“I hope so.”
“I hope so, too.” Leslie stood up and threw her leftover lunch in the trash. “I better go and find Ron for this meeting. I’ll see you tonight.”
“Okay.” Ann called out after her.
She knew that Chris posed a big threat to Leslie and her job, but Ann couldn’t help but be excited that he was here in Pawnee.
Ben was sitting in Conference Room A, staring at Chris and trying to remember to nod appropriately. He’d been talking about Leslie’s friend ever since they’d met her ten minutes ago, and Ben was about to crack. There were only so many times he could tell Chris to “go for it” when he asked if he should ask her out on a date.
Out of the corner of his eye, Ben noticed Leslie and Ron about to push the door open, so he cleared his throat loudly and raised his eyebrows at Chris. He got the message and stopped talking just in time.
“Leslie Knope. Ron Swanson.”
“Hi.” Leslie spoke, while Ron just nodded at the two men.
“Thank you for agreeing to push the meeting forward, we appreciate it.” Ben said flatly. “Let’s get straight to it.”
Chris launched into a spiel about how they were just in town to tinker with the budget so that Pawnee could get back on its feet and function properly again. He assured them that the cutbacks wouldn’t be too major and Leslie felt her heart soothe a little bit.
Leslie noticed Ben’s eyes didn’t raise off his padfolio the entire time Chris was speaking. Sometimes, his eyes would narrow or his lips would purse. Occasionally, he would write a note down but Leslie couldn’t see what it was about.
“So, just try to keep everything running as normal as you can and hopefully this will all be fixed soon.”
“Okay.” Leslie smiled. “I do have one question.”
“Great! I love questions.” Chris beamed, and Ben audibly sighed.
Leslie threw a tentative glance at Ben, unsure if the sigh was about her or Chris’ enthusiasm, but continued regardless. “There’s this big lot behind Ann’s house – it used to be a pit but we filled it in, and I’m trying to get my plan to turn it into a park approved. Can I still continue with that?”
“I see. Well, a new park sounds exciting, Leslie! We’ll have to put the brakes on it for a little while, but if all goes well you can continue your plans in, literally, no time at all. Right, Ben?”
Ben looked up. He had barely been listening. “Sure.”
“Okay.” Leslie nodded. That wasn’t too bad.
Chris stood up, and the three of them followed suit. Chris shook hands with both Leslie and Ron and thanked them, before heading into the hallway. Ben gave them both a small smile, nodded, and followed after Chris.
“Oh, I feel so much better. They’re just here to tinker.” Leslie took a deep breath and looked at Ron, “Isn’t Chris just great?”
Ron grunted, “I prefer the one that doesn’t talk.”