History my Dear Benjamin (1/2)
What if Ben Wyatt never had political ambitions? What if he never ran for mayor back in Partridge? What if he became a high school history teacher instead, and was a college friend/roommate of Chris's?
(Part two link attached below)
Ben groans as the phone rings. Three days into his summer vacation (and this is why he became a high school teacher, not an accountant- although the extra pay would have been nice) and already, his plan of re-watching his Firefly dvd set has been interrupted. He casts a longing glance at the tv as he gets out of his lazy boy and ambles over to the kitchen bench in his pyjamas.
"Hello?"
And that's when Ben finds out that he's still Chris' emergency contact.
90 miles later and Ben's in the town- no, city as it proclaimed on the welcome board- of Pawnee.
He wearily rubs a hand over his face as he drives into the local hospital's car-park. It's a Monday afternoon, and Ben shivers to think what's wrong with Chris. Not much- not anything,actually- gets Chris down, but Ben knows that he was a sick kid, and that Chris doesn't cope well with illness ("I'm locking you out of our dormitory for your own good, Ben Wyatt!" "Flu shot, Ben Wyatt? They literally work wonders.").
"Oh! You're Ben!" A pretty nurse says as he enquires about Chris with the receptionist, reaching out a hand like she wants to comfort him.
"...Yeah." He says cautiously.
"I'm Ann," She tells him, "I'm sort of... I'm Chris' girlfriend."
Ben scoffs quietly to himself. How long's Chris been here, a month? Ben's lived in Indianapolis for sixteen years and he's had... Three serious girlfriends. (Rachel through almost all of college, Sarah when he got his first teaching job and then Ella for three years- he turned 30 and all of a sudden just flat out panicked).
"Nice to meet you," Ben says cordially, if not wearily. "Do you- Chris- is he-"
"Of course," Ann says, walking out from behind the desk and leading him away. "He's had a range of tests done, but we're still waiting on results. But he's awake now, finally."
"Finally?"
"He passed out at work and just... Wouldn't wake up, according to the EMTs." She tells him quietly. Ben supposes that this is affecting her perhaps even more than him.
"But he's awake." Ben says cautiously.
"He is," Ann smiles, opening the door to room 210. "Chris is doing-."
"Ben Wyatt! You're here! In Pawnee! The greatest city in America!"
"Fine." Ann finishes amusedly.
Ben can't help but close his eyes for a second and laugh. Because Chris is most certainly awake. (In fact, Ben's so relieved that he doesn't mention how Chris has said that- "I'm in the best place in America, Ben!"- about all of the towns that he's audited).
Ben must have fallen asleep at one point, because suddenly he finds himself sitting in a room with not Chris, but someone else.
"Hello." He murmurs, his voice cracking unattractively. Oh well, Ben thinks sarcastically, there's always the sweatpants he wore to bed and the Star Wars t-shirt that he's wearing with the toothpaste stains on it to make up for that.
Good lord he's wearing a Star Wars shirt out in public.
Acceptable for teenage boys, not so hot at 36.
"Oh! Hi!" It's a woman, a very pretty blonde woman, who is sitting in Chris' bed.
Ben stares.
"Oh right," She says. "Chris has gone to get some scans or something- medical jargon, yuck- but he didn't want to leave you here alone, so he left me here to wait with you!"
Ben's still staring.
"...And you're friends with Chris?"
"Well Chris is friends with everyone-"
"Very true." Ben smiles.
"But we work together at the council," She tells him, fiddling with the buttons on the bed to make it sit up.
"Uh, cool. I- I'm Ben, by the way." He tells her, holding out a hand for her to shake.
She probably won't want to take it. He wouldn't want to actually- he's disgusting at the moment, and needs a shower, and-
But Leslie doesn't have the same hesitations as him. "Nice to meet you, 'Ben Wyatt'!" She says, imitating Chris' way of saying his- and everyone's- name. She does it quite well, actually.
"I'm Leslie Knope, deputy director of the Parks and Recreation department."
Ben smiles a little bemusedly.
"...I'm just Ben."
"Oh no!" Leslie says, shaking her head fervently, "You're Ben Wyatt! Chris' roommate in college, best friend since then and history teacher in Indianapolis! Although, I mean, really, Pawnee has schools to teach at too, and it's a way better city than Indianapolis."
Ben laughs a little bit. "Best city in the world, right?"
"Well, definitely in America." Leslie says seriously.
Ben just smiles lazily and snuggles a little bit further down into the chair he's outstretched in, his feet extended onto Chris's bed.
"Tired?" She asks him.
"Hmm," He replies softly, his eyes fluttering closed.
"Didn't get a solid three hours sleep?"
Ben's eyes snap open, because she's not being sarcastic about that 'solid three hours'.
"Three hours? Is that- do you only sleep three hours a night?" He asks her incredulously.
Leslie shrugs. "Three to four."
"Nobody sleeps three hours a night, every night and is still functioning properly," Ben says, shaking his head.
"Well why don't you tell an insomniac that, then!" She snaps back defensively.
"You are an insomniac!"
"I get three hours sleep a night, Ben!"
"That's what an insomniac gets!"
"...Insomniac's have trouble getting to sleep. I just... Have other things to do." Leslie shrugs.
"What, like getting sick and dying young?"
"Well- I-" She splutters, "You know what, you're a jerkface!" She tells him loudly. "Chris was totally wrong about you, Ben Wyatt!"
"Well Chris has a tendency to exaggerate, Leslie. Like when he said that Pawnee- and every other town he's ever been to, might I add- is the best city in the world!"
"Not the world!" She yells back at him, "Just America!"
"Oh, ok," Ben says, his eyes widening sarcastically. "As long as it's just in America, Pawnee totally wins, then."
They're both glaring at each other when Ann comes in, wheeling Chris over to the bed Leslie's now abandoned.
"Leslie Knope!" Chris says happily, if not a little tiredly. "How are you and Ben getting on? I knew as soon as I met you that you and Ben would literally be best friends."
"I-"
"Leslie's very nice." Ben says tensely, shooting her a look.
"...Yes, Ben is also... Very un-nice."
"You said un-nice." Chris states.
"What? No I didn't, Chris!" Leslie says laughing sort of hysterically. "I said nice. I said Ben is very... Very... Nice." She seems to have trouble forcing the words out of her mouth.
Ben rolls his eyes, because Leslie's just another government nut that has attached herself to Chris in yet another small, bankrupt town.
And then Ann, who's been silent since she came in, tells them something that Chris failed to mention.
"Chris has a brain tumour."
Cancer. His best friend has cancer.
"Shit."
"...It's not cancer, Ben. It's benign. It's not... It's not going to hurt him any more than he already has been hurt." Leslie says quietly.
He must have been talking aloud.
"Oh god," He groans, putting his head in his hands. He's shaking. He's shaking, and can't think properly, and just-
"It's going to be fine." Leslie soothes, and suddenly she's beside him as they sit in the hallway, rubbing his back. "He's going to have surgery, and they'll get the cells out, and then he'll be back to running around and saying people's full names in an overly cheerful way in no time!"
"I'm sorry I snapped at you before." He tells her. "I'm just stressed, and I need a shower and Chris... He's been telling you all about me, and I haven't seen him in months. So... I'm sorry."
Leslie smiles. "I'm sorry too. For, you know, calling you a jerkface. You don't seem so bad out here, I suppose."
"Different lighting."
"Naturally."
Ben calms down when he's in Leslie and Chris' presence. Leslie's so optimistic that she makes the surgery sound like it's going to be a routine trip to the doctors, and Chris is just brushing the whole thing aside. ("How are you, Ben Wyatt?").
Which actually does cause a little bit of worry in the back of his mind, because when will Chris snap?
But that's not the point.
"So I'm going to go home, grab a bag and I'll be back here in a couple of hours, plenty of time before you have to go into theat-"
"Ben, go home and sleep, I don't go in until-"
"Yeah Chris, I'm going to go home and sleep while you're here, having your head cut open. That sounds like a great plan."
Leslie and Chris fall silent.
"Sorry." Ben says staring resolutely at the ground. "I know that it's you who should be freaking out, Chris, but I'm just better at it, really." He laughs weakly.
"Ben," Chris says, "I am going to be excellent. I am excellent. And when I am, you can help me with budgets!"
"...Budgets?" Leslie asks from the chair opposite Ben.
"Ben thoroughly enjoys math based activities, Leslie."
"Math based activities?" Leslie mouths at him.
"I was going to be an accountant." He shrugs.
"Fun."
"At the time, I really thought so."
When Ann finishes her shift and joins them in Chris' room, Ben leaves for the night.
"Hey!" Leslie calls, jogging after him in the carpark. "Ben, wait!"
He turns around and waits for her to catch up, leaning on his car.
"...Did I forget something?" He asks her.
"Oh no," Leslie says, "I'm sure you're far too organized for that,"
True.
"But I was just thinking... You're going on a long drive... I don't sleep..."
"You want to come with me on a road trip to my house?"
"Oh, are you inviting me along, Ben? Why- what a surprise! I would love to come!"
Amused, and a little amazed, Ben just watches as Leslie snatches his keys and unlocks his car, sliding into the passenger seat.
"Are you coming?"
"You had to move the penguins?"
"I had to move the penguins." Leslie nods. "My arranging of the gay marriage apparently showed how government supports the issue. Which, of course, we're not allowed to do."
"Ugh," Ben says, "That's why Chris never could convince me to work with him."
Leslie snaps her head around. "You were going to work in government?"
"Well, I had the right sort of degree. Chris offered me the job to work with him going around and fixing cities budgets, but... I don't know. Government work just always seemed sort of... Painful to me in some respects. I like messing around with figures, but the people seem tough." He shrugs.
"Well, you're right, I guess. But I love people."
Ben smiles. "So does Chris. He just doesn't have the heart to cut the things that need to be cut."
"Which is where you would have come in."
"Mean Ben." He nods.
"I- mean Ben?" She splutters.
"It's what the students call me- the ones that I give detention to, anyway."
"Yeah, it really makes sense that you became a teacher. You hate people, so you go and work with teenagers."
"Hey, I get holidays." Ben tells her, mockingly defending his position.
"I bet they try to distract you by talking about star trek in class."
He groans. "It was so bad when the last Harry Potter book came out, you have no idea. I ended up reading to my classes instead of teaching."
Leslie laughs delightedly. "Well Harry Potter is great."
"It's right up there with Lord of the Rings."
"Never got into that."
"As long as you haven't read Twilight instead, I think we'll be fine."
"Oh, ew," Leslie says, and to his amusement sounds like a petulant little girl. "Harry Potter is way better than that drudge."
"And here I was, thinking that you'd be in love with vampires." He smirks.
"Only Dracula."
"You're so well read." He drawls.
"Apart from those two; the majority of the other books I've read in my life are political biographies."
"Ok then," Ben dares her on a whim, "List them."
"You want me to list all of the political biographies I've ever read, Benjamin?" She asks him- and he can tell by her tone that it's not really a question, because she's already accepted the challenge.
"Do it." He dares her, taking his eyes off of the road to raise his eyebrows in her direction.
She does.
They're both laughing as Ben unlocks the door to his apartment.
"Did Chris really do that?"
Ben's head falls against the door as his shoulders shake. "So many times that it's hard to remember individual attempts."
"I never thought about Chris living with someone." Leslie muses.
"You shouldn't," Ben tells her, opening his door. "I try to forget about it."
"Oh wow," Leslie says as she walks in. "Great apartment."
"Thanks."
"It's not Pawnee, but..."
"Yeah, yeah," Ben says, throwing his jacket over a couch. "Um- do you mind if-"
"Go have a shower and get changed into some real clothes, Han Solo. I'm just going to rifle through your things and judge you based on your DVD collection."
"...That doesn't make me worry about leaving you alone downstairs at all."
"It shouldn't. I have great taste." She smiles.
He can't help but smile back.
An hour and a half later, after some dinner and the episode of Friends that was on, Leslie and Ben leave again, Ben carrying a large travelling bag out to his car.
"I'll drive," Leslie says, holding her hand out for the keys.
"It's fine, I can-"
"Give me the keys before you drive us into a platoon of racoons."
Well, he can't argue with that logic.
He's woken up by loud clapping that seems to be right in front of his face.
...Probably because it is.
"Ben! Benji! Benjamin! Benifer-"
"...Leslie."
"You're up!" She says with a wide grin. "Good! I tried to wake you the nice way, but that whole shoulder shake thing didn't really work."
"Deep sleeper," He shrugs, still slightly out of it as he wrestles with his seat belt.
"No way."
Ben glares.
"What's the time?" He yawns.
"11-o-clock."
"Will we still be able to get in?"
"Of course!" Leslie says, "We have Ann!"
...They don't have Ann.
"You're not allowed in, Ben. I'm sorry, but visiting hours are over. You can come back in the morning before he goes into surgery."
"Can't you just-"
"No. Everyone will see you," She says, and Ben realizes that this isn't Ann, Chris'-girlfriend-Ann, but Nurse-Perkins-Ann.
"Alright." He says, grabbing Leslie's arm as she starts to argue back. "We'll go."
"We will not back down without a fight!" Leslie yells as Ben tries to drag her away. "Ann, I love you, but this is unforgivable behaviour and I refuse to speak to you for the rest of my life, sweet, strict, Ann!"
"You're crazy," He says with a fond, familiar sort of grin already wrapping its way around his lips.
"You haven't heard my plan yet, Ben."
"No."
"What do you mean 'no'? This is the best idea ever!"
"It's quite possibly the worst, Leslie."
"It's easy! I go back to Ann's, take a pair of her scrubs, put you in a wheelchair and pyjamas, and then we're in!"
"You're actually serious." He deadpans, leaning against his car in the hospital's parking space.
"Of course I am! This is going to work perfectly!"
"The only way it could work, is horribly."
"Well what do you suggest then?"
"I suggest that you go home and maybe sleep for the first time in weeks."
"Awfully sorry, Mean Ben."
He just smiles. "All of the kids who call me that deserve detentions, Leslie."
"I feel like you're trying to make a metaphor out of that."
"Do or do not... There is no try."
"Oh my god, you just quoted Yoda in everyday life."
"I would hardly class this as a day part of everyday life."
Leslie's silent for a minute, because, well, he's right.
"...You're still a total nerd."
He ends up spending the night at Leslie's house.
(And he tries so, so hard not to comment on the state of the place).
"...This is totally unlivable. My stress levels are rising just from standing in your lounge."
(...It doesn't work).
"I said your apartment was nice!"
"Yeah, because it is! This is a mess!"
Leslie bristles. "You don't have to be rude about it!"
"My god," he says, ignoring her and walking about the small bit of space he can manage to find. "Where did you find all of this crap?"
"Your mother."
"My- what?"
"...Your mother!" Leslie says again. "Your mother gave me this stuff because it's crap and your mother is crap if my stuff is crap!"
Ben stares in utter disbelief.
He opens and closes his mouth, before sinking down into Leslie's couch.
"This is nice."
"I'm sure your mother is too." Leslie says quietly. "I didn't mean to insult her. But honestly, Ben- manners!"
"Don't know what they are." He laughs. "Awfully sorry."
She smiles too and sits down next to him.
"You're alarmingly good at getting under my skin." She muses.
"I'll be better tomorrow, I promise." He says softly, leaning back and looking at her through lidded eyes.
Leslie's face softens. "Hopefully we'll all be better tomorrow," She says, rubbing his arm and getting him some blankets for the couch before she goes off to her own bed.
Part two here: http://gimmeaspinbaby.livejournal.com/674.html#cutid1
(Part two link attached below)
Ben groans as the phone rings. Three days into his summer vacation (and this is why he became a high school teacher, not an accountant- although the extra pay would have been nice) and already, his plan of re-watching his Firefly dvd set has been interrupted. He casts a longing glance at the tv as he gets out of his lazy boy and ambles over to the kitchen bench in his pyjamas.
"Hello?"
And that's when Ben finds out that he's still Chris' emergency contact.
90 miles later and Ben's in the town- no, city as it proclaimed on the welcome board- of Pawnee.
He wearily rubs a hand over his face as he drives into the local hospital's car-park. It's a Monday afternoon, and Ben shivers to think what's wrong with Chris. Not much- not anything,actually- gets Chris down, but Ben knows that he was a sick kid, and that Chris doesn't cope well with illness ("I'm locking you out of our dormitory for your own good, Ben Wyatt!" "Flu shot, Ben Wyatt? They literally work wonders.").
"Oh! You're Ben!" A pretty nurse says as he enquires about Chris with the receptionist, reaching out a hand like she wants to comfort him.
"...Yeah." He says cautiously.
"I'm Ann," She tells him, "I'm sort of... I'm Chris' girlfriend."
Ben scoffs quietly to himself. How long's Chris been here, a month? Ben's lived in Indianapolis for sixteen years and he's had... Three serious girlfriends. (Rachel through almost all of college, Sarah when he got his first teaching job and then Ella for three years- he turned 30 and all of a sudden just flat out panicked).
"Nice to meet you," Ben says cordially, if not wearily. "Do you- Chris- is he-"
"Of course," Ann says, walking out from behind the desk and leading him away. "He's had a range of tests done, but we're still waiting on results. But he's awake now, finally."
"Finally?"
"He passed out at work and just... Wouldn't wake up, according to the EMTs." She tells him quietly. Ben supposes that this is affecting her perhaps even more than him.
"But he's awake." Ben says cautiously.
"He is," Ann smiles, opening the door to room 210. "Chris is doing-."
"Ben Wyatt! You're here! In Pawnee! The greatest city in America!"
"Fine." Ann finishes amusedly.
Ben can't help but close his eyes for a second and laugh. Because Chris is most certainly awake. (In fact, Ben's so relieved that he doesn't mention how Chris has said that- "I'm in the best place in America, Ben!"- about all of the towns that he's audited).
Ben must have fallen asleep at one point, because suddenly he finds himself sitting in a room with not Chris, but someone else.
"Hello." He murmurs, his voice cracking unattractively. Oh well, Ben thinks sarcastically, there's always the sweatpants he wore to bed and the Star Wars t-shirt that he's wearing with the toothpaste stains on it to make up for that.
Good lord he's wearing a Star Wars shirt out in public.
Acceptable for teenage boys, not so hot at 36.
"Oh! Hi!" It's a woman, a very pretty blonde woman, who is sitting in Chris' bed.
Ben stares.
"Oh right," She says. "Chris has gone to get some scans or something- medical jargon, yuck- but he didn't want to leave you here alone, so he left me here to wait with you!"
Ben's still staring.
"...And you're friends with Chris?"
"Well Chris is friends with everyone-"
"Very true." Ben smiles.
"But we work together at the council," She tells him, fiddling with the buttons on the bed to make it sit up.
"Uh, cool. I- I'm Ben, by the way." He tells her, holding out a hand for her to shake.
She probably won't want to take it. He wouldn't want to actually- he's disgusting at the moment, and needs a shower, and-
But Leslie doesn't have the same hesitations as him. "Nice to meet you, 'Ben Wyatt'!" She says, imitating Chris' way of saying his- and everyone's- name. She does it quite well, actually.
"I'm Leslie Knope, deputy director of the Parks and Recreation department."
Ben smiles a little bemusedly.
"...I'm just Ben."
"Oh no!" Leslie says, shaking her head fervently, "You're Ben Wyatt! Chris' roommate in college, best friend since then and history teacher in Indianapolis! Although, I mean, really, Pawnee has schools to teach at too, and it's a way better city than Indianapolis."
Ben laughs a little bit. "Best city in the world, right?"
"Well, definitely in America." Leslie says seriously.
Ben just smiles lazily and snuggles a little bit further down into the chair he's outstretched in, his feet extended onto Chris's bed.
"Tired?" She asks him.
"Hmm," He replies softly, his eyes fluttering closed.
"Didn't get a solid three hours sleep?"
Ben's eyes snap open, because she's not being sarcastic about that 'solid three hours'.
"Three hours? Is that- do you only sleep three hours a night?" He asks her incredulously.
Leslie shrugs. "Three to four."
"Nobody sleeps three hours a night, every night and is still functioning properly," Ben says, shaking his head.
"Well why don't you tell an insomniac that, then!" She snaps back defensively.
"You are an insomniac!"
"I get three hours sleep a night, Ben!"
"That's what an insomniac gets!"
"...Insomniac's have trouble getting to sleep. I just... Have other things to do." Leslie shrugs.
"What, like getting sick and dying young?"
"Well- I-" She splutters, "You know what, you're a jerkface!" She tells him loudly. "Chris was totally wrong about you, Ben Wyatt!"
"Well Chris has a tendency to exaggerate, Leslie. Like when he said that Pawnee- and every other town he's ever been to, might I add- is the best city in the world!"
"Not the world!" She yells back at him, "Just America!"
"Oh, ok," Ben says, his eyes widening sarcastically. "As long as it's just in America, Pawnee totally wins, then."
They're both glaring at each other when Ann comes in, wheeling Chris over to the bed Leslie's now abandoned.
"Leslie Knope!" Chris says happily, if not a little tiredly. "How are you and Ben getting on? I knew as soon as I met you that you and Ben would literally be best friends."
"I-"
"Leslie's very nice." Ben says tensely, shooting her a look.
"...Yes, Ben is also... Very un-nice."
"You said un-nice." Chris states.
"What? No I didn't, Chris!" Leslie says laughing sort of hysterically. "I said nice. I said Ben is very... Very... Nice." She seems to have trouble forcing the words out of her mouth.
Ben rolls his eyes, because Leslie's just another government nut that has attached herself to Chris in yet another small, bankrupt town.
And then Ann, who's been silent since she came in, tells them something that Chris failed to mention.
"Chris has a brain tumour."
Cancer. His best friend has cancer.
"Shit."
"...It's not cancer, Ben. It's benign. It's not... It's not going to hurt him any more than he already has been hurt." Leslie says quietly.
He must have been talking aloud.
"Oh god," He groans, putting his head in his hands. He's shaking. He's shaking, and can't think properly, and just-
"It's going to be fine." Leslie soothes, and suddenly she's beside him as they sit in the hallway, rubbing his back. "He's going to have surgery, and they'll get the cells out, and then he'll be back to running around and saying people's full names in an overly cheerful way in no time!"
"I'm sorry I snapped at you before." He tells her. "I'm just stressed, and I need a shower and Chris... He's been telling you all about me, and I haven't seen him in months. So... I'm sorry."
Leslie smiles. "I'm sorry too. For, you know, calling you a jerkface. You don't seem so bad out here, I suppose."
"Different lighting."
"Naturally."
Ben calms down when he's in Leslie and Chris' presence. Leslie's so optimistic that she makes the surgery sound like it's going to be a routine trip to the doctors, and Chris is just brushing the whole thing aside. ("How are you, Ben Wyatt?").
Which actually does cause a little bit of worry in the back of his mind, because when will Chris snap?
But that's not the point.
"So I'm going to go home, grab a bag and I'll be back here in a couple of hours, plenty of time before you have to go into theat-"
"Ben, go home and sleep, I don't go in until-"
"Yeah Chris, I'm going to go home and sleep while you're here, having your head cut open. That sounds like a great plan."
Leslie and Chris fall silent.
"Sorry." Ben says staring resolutely at the ground. "I know that it's you who should be freaking out, Chris, but I'm just better at it, really." He laughs weakly.
"Ben," Chris says, "I am going to be excellent. I am excellent. And when I am, you can help me with budgets!"
"...Budgets?" Leslie asks from the chair opposite Ben.
"Ben thoroughly enjoys math based activities, Leslie."
"Math based activities?" Leslie mouths at him.
"I was going to be an accountant." He shrugs.
"Fun."
"At the time, I really thought so."
When Ann finishes her shift and joins them in Chris' room, Ben leaves for the night.
"Hey!" Leslie calls, jogging after him in the carpark. "Ben, wait!"
He turns around and waits for her to catch up, leaning on his car.
"...Did I forget something?" He asks her.
"Oh no," Leslie says, "I'm sure you're far too organized for that,"
True.
"But I was just thinking... You're going on a long drive... I don't sleep..."
"You want to come with me on a road trip to my house?"
"Oh, are you inviting me along, Ben? Why- what a surprise! I would love to come!"
Amused, and a little amazed, Ben just watches as Leslie snatches his keys and unlocks his car, sliding into the passenger seat.
"Are you coming?"
"You had to move the penguins?"
"I had to move the penguins." Leslie nods. "My arranging of the gay marriage apparently showed how government supports the issue. Which, of course, we're not allowed to do."
"Ugh," Ben says, "That's why Chris never could convince me to work with him."
Leslie snaps her head around. "You were going to work in government?"
"Well, I had the right sort of degree. Chris offered me the job to work with him going around and fixing cities budgets, but... I don't know. Government work just always seemed sort of... Painful to me in some respects. I like messing around with figures, but the people seem tough." He shrugs.
"Well, you're right, I guess. But I love people."
Ben smiles. "So does Chris. He just doesn't have the heart to cut the things that need to be cut."
"Which is where you would have come in."
"Mean Ben." He nods.
"I- mean Ben?" She splutters.
"It's what the students call me- the ones that I give detention to, anyway."
"Yeah, it really makes sense that you became a teacher. You hate people, so you go and work with teenagers."
"Hey, I get holidays." Ben tells her, mockingly defending his position.
"I bet they try to distract you by talking about star trek in class."
He groans. "It was so bad when the last Harry Potter book came out, you have no idea. I ended up reading to my classes instead of teaching."
Leslie laughs delightedly. "Well Harry Potter is great."
"It's right up there with Lord of the Rings."
"Never got into that."
"As long as you haven't read Twilight instead, I think we'll be fine."
"Oh, ew," Leslie says, and to his amusement sounds like a petulant little girl. "Harry Potter is way better than that drudge."
"And here I was, thinking that you'd be in love with vampires." He smirks.
"Only Dracula."
"You're so well read." He drawls.
"Apart from those two; the majority of the other books I've read in my life are political biographies."
"Ok then," Ben dares her on a whim, "List them."
"You want me to list all of the political biographies I've ever read, Benjamin?" She asks him- and he can tell by her tone that it's not really a question, because she's already accepted the challenge.
"Do it." He dares her, taking his eyes off of the road to raise his eyebrows in her direction.
She does.
They're both laughing as Ben unlocks the door to his apartment.
"Did Chris really do that?"
Ben's head falls against the door as his shoulders shake. "So many times that it's hard to remember individual attempts."
"I never thought about Chris living with someone." Leslie muses.
"You shouldn't," Ben tells her, opening his door. "I try to forget about it."
"Oh wow," Leslie says as she walks in. "Great apartment."
"Thanks."
"It's not Pawnee, but..."
"Yeah, yeah," Ben says, throwing his jacket over a couch. "Um- do you mind if-"
"Go have a shower and get changed into some real clothes, Han Solo. I'm just going to rifle through your things and judge you based on your DVD collection."
"...That doesn't make me worry about leaving you alone downstairs at all."
"It shouldn't. I have great taste." She smiles.
He can't help but smile back.
An hour and a half later, after some dinner and the episode of Friends that was on, Leslie and Ben leave again, Ben carrying a large travelling bag out to his car.
"I'll drive," Leslie says, holding her hand out for the keys.
"It's fine, I can-"
"Give me the keys before you drive us into a platoon of racoons."
Well, he can't argue with that logic.
He's woken up by loud clapping that seems to be right in front of his face.
...Probably because it is.
"Ben! Benji! Benjamin! Benifer-"
"...Leslie."
"You're up!" She says with a wide grin. "Good! I tried to wake you the nice way, but that whole shoulder shake thing didn't really work."
"Deep sleeper," He shrugs, still slightly out of it as he wrestles with his seat belt.
"No way."
Ben glares.
"What's the time?" He yawns.
"11-o-clock."
"Will we still be able to get in?"
"Of course!" Leslie says, "We have Ann!"
...They don't have Ann.
"You're not allowed in, Ben. I'm sorry, but visiting hours are over. You can come back in the morning before he goes into surgery."
"Can't you just-"
"No. Everyone will see you," She says, and Ben realizes that this isn't Ann, Chris'-girlfriend-Ann, but Nurse-Perkins-Ann.
"Alright." He says, grabbing Leslie's arm as she starts to argue back. "We'll go."
"We will not back down without a fight!" Leslie yells as Ben tries to drag her away. "Ann, I love you, but this is unforgivable behaviour and I refuse to speak to you for the rest of my life, sweet, strict, Ann!"
"You're crazy," He says with a fond, familiar sort of grin already wrapping its way around his lips.
"You haven't heard my plan yet, Ben."
"No."
"What do you mean 'no'? This is the best idea ever!"
"It's quite possibly the worst, Leslie."
"It's easy! I go back to Ann's, take a pair of her scrubs, put you in a wheelchair and pyjamas, and then we're in!"
"You're actually serious." He deadpans, leaning against his car in the hospital's parking space.
"Of course I am! This is going to work perfectly!"
"The only way it could work, is horribly."
"Well what do you suggest then?"
"I suggest that you go home and maybe sleep for the first time in weeks."
"Awfully sorry, Mean Ben."
He just smiles. "All of the kids who call me that deserve detentions, Leslie."
"I feel like you're trying to make a metaphor out of that."
"Do or do not... There is no try."
"Oh my god, you just quoted Yoda in everyday life."
"I would hardly class this as a day part of everyday life."
Leslie's silent for a minute, because, well, he's right.
"...You're still a total nerd."
He ends up spending the night at Leslie's house.
(And he tries so, so hard not to comment on the state of the place).
"...This is totally unlivable. My stress levels are rising just from standing in your lounge."
(...It doesn't work).
"I said your apartment was nice!"
"Yeah, because it is! This is a mess!"
Leslie bristles. "You don't have to be rude about it!"
"My god," he says, ignoring her and walking about the small bit of space he can manage to find. "Where did you find all of this crap?"
"Your mother."
"My- what?"
"...Your mother!" Leslie says again. "Your mother gave me this stuff because it's crap and your mother is crap if my stuff is crap!"
Ben stares in utter disbelief.
He opens and closes his mouth, before sinking down into Leslie's couch.
"This is nice."
"I'm sure your mother is too." Leslie says quietly. "I didn't mean to insult her. But honestly, Ben- manners!"
"Don't know what they are." He laughs. "Awfully sorry."
She smiles too and sits down next to him.
"You're alarmingly good at getting under my skin." She muses.
"I'll be better tomorrow, I promise." He says softly, leaning back and looking at her through lidded eyes.
Leslie's face softens. "Hopefully we'll all be better tomorrow," She says, rubbing his arm and getting him some blankets for the couch before she goes off to her own bed.
Part two here: http://gimmeaspinbaby.livejournal.com/674.html#cutid1