The first few days in Richmond passed slowly for Ben, but things gradually picked up. Ben remembered once again why he had spent so many years auditing for the state government; he loved the challenge of trying to fix a budget. There was something about number crunching and trying to come up with a new solution to a problem that Ben just really enjoyed. And Martin definitely got it too.
Martin was a great partner, and every day he and Ben did more and more to perfect their rhythm. When angry employees burst into their makeshift office, Ben stepped back and let Martin try to pacify them. If Martin's calm and friendly demeanor didn't work, Ben would enter the conversation with the numbers and the tough attitude that had led to his title of "Mean Ben" back in Pawnee. The difference between Martin and Ben wasn't nearly as jarring as the difference between Chris and Ben had been, but it got the job done. The employees were all at least relatively cooperative, different from the last town he had been in, he regularly remembered, grinning as he missed his favorite employee from Pawnee, who had done everything she could to make his life difficult for the first three months they had known each other.
Said favorite employee still maintained regular contact with Ben, a fact which Ben was immensely grateful for. He and Leslie emailed each other at least every other day, Ben telling Leslie all about the Richmond city government and entertaining her with Richmond/Pawnee comparisons that put Pawnee miles ahead of the smaller town, and Leslie giving Ben updates on Parks Department business and on the lives of all of their friends back in Pawnee. Whenever Ben saw or thought of something that reminded him of Leslie, he dropped her a quick text, and she did the same to him. A picture of waffles in a Richmond diner from Ben was met with an almost immediate reply of a picture of J.J.'s Diner waffles from Leslie. Ben didn't know if he was just making it up in his mind or not, but he was pretty sure that J.J.'s waffles were better.
His other friends stayed in touch with him too. Chris sent reports about the government accompanied by exercise and health tips and expressions of his sadness at losing Ben, who was literally the greatest fellow employee and friend that Chris had ever had. Tom and Donna texted or emailed whenever they saw something nerdy that reminded them of him. Ben would usually have been annoyed by their labeling of everything he enjoyed as "nerdy," but really he was just happy that they missed him, in whatever capacity. Jerry checked in every so often with sweet emails hoping he was doing well. These emails often came with attachments that were clearly not meant for Ben to receive, but that Jerry had evidently attached by accident. April and Andy sent Ben a video message from their honeymoon just a day after Ben received his first video message from Leslie. This pair made fun of him too, but Ben didn't even care. He replied to the couple that day, and since then he had received a sporadic correspondence from each of them. Andy emailed him random facts and part-gibberish accounts of his days, and April sent death threats. Despite being terrified of April, Ben was still touched that both of them still wanted to talk to him. Ben never heard from Ron, not that he had expected too. The man still used a typewriter primarily, so Ben hadn't figured that he and Ron would stay in contact. Of course, Ben knew what was going on with everyone through Leslie, so this relatively limited contact that he had with the rest of his Pawnee friends was enough.
Even though he missed his friends back in Pawnee, Ben did start to make friends with some of the Richmond workers. He and Martin got along well with the cooperative city manager almost immediately, and Ben even went out for a drink with some of the city planning guys after work a few times.
Martin had asked Ben to handle all of the Parks business, since Ben had so much experience with it already. This meant that Ben spent a lot of time working with John Peterson, who had a lot of good ideas, but was relatively solitary, leaving Ben, more often than not, alone with Ms. Evans.
Bridgette Evans was much less a source of good ideas and much more a source of gossip and overwhelming flattery. Ben was fairly certain she would have been happy to sell out her entire department for a promotion, an attitude which annoyed Ben immensely. What he respected in a fellow employee was honesty and loyalty, and, from what he had seen, Ms. Evans had neither of these qualities.
One day, about two weeks into his stay in Richmond, Ben had been stuck in the Parks Department's conference room with only Ms. Evans for almost an entire afternoon as they tried to figure out what programs could be cut to balance the budget without hurting the department. Ms. Evans's willingness to cut anything and everything, just to get Ben's approval, was wearing his patience very thin, and he was pretty sure he was going to crack if this continued.
Five o'clock came, and Martin asked him if he wanted to go get a drink and grab some food. Ben replied that he wasn't really hungry and just wanted to get some work done without Bridgette Evans ranting about the lack of appreciation for her work. Martin laughed and then left Ben alone in the office.
Ben had been typing at his desk for about five minutes when his phone rang. He checked the screen and found the call was from Leslie. Without hesitating, Ben answered it.
"Hello?"
Instantly Leslie's voice responded. "Hey, Ben! It's Leslie Knope from the Pawnee Parks Department."
Ben laughed, a smile growing across his face. "Yeah, Leslie. I know. What's up? It's been a while. Or it's been a while since we talked on the phone. I mean, I just emailed you yesterday, so it hasn't really been a while since I talked to you." Ben was aware that he was rambling, but he didn't care. He was talking to Leslie! Today had been a pretty crappy day, but this phone call automatically made it at least ten times better.
Leslie was laughing on the other end of the line. "I just wanted to tell you about what happened to me at work today, and I wanted to hear your reaction. You aren't busy are you?" She suddenly sounded worried.
"Oh, not at all. I'm still at the office working on some stuff, but that's not even a little bit important," Ben assured her, honestly. "What happened?"
"Okay, good." She launched into a story. "Well, Chris has us working on a new health initiative, because he's Chris, so my best friend, and beautiful nurse, Ann Perkins came in with a cholesterol testing kit, and we were talking, and she asked if I had been thinking about dating anyone recently, and I said no."
Ben was simultaneously pleased that Leslie wasn't dating anyone and upset that he wasn't dating her. It was times like this when he thought about Leslie that he hated being in Richmond. Of course he thought about Leslie most of the time, which really summed up his feelings about his temporary location.
"So Ann suggested I try online dating," Leslie continued, "and I didn't want to, but she convinced me and helped me make a profile, but then she got really confused when I said my favorite place in the world was that wildflower mural up on the second floor. You know the one I'm talking about?" Leslie paused for Ben to answer.
Ben grinned. "Yeah, I really like that mural." It was one of city hall's only murals that didn't depict some sort of atrocity, and Ben had always kind of had a soft spot for it for that reason. Plus, he had come upon Leslie sitting on the bench in front of it on several occasions, so he had always associated the mural with her. It didn't surprise him in the least that it was Leslie's favorite place in the world.
He could almost hear Leslie's smile as she replied. "I do too. I'm sitting in front of it now, actually. Everyone else is out in the courtyard, so I figured I'd come up here."
Ben imagined his friend back in Pawnee sitting on her bench in front of that mural talking rapidly on the phone to him. He sighed quietly, wishing he could actually be there to sit with her in person.
"Anyway," Leslie continued, "Ann and I filled out the profile, and I had this 98%, soulmate level, match."
Ben's heart sank momentarily. Was this phone call Leslie telling him that she had a new boyfriend? Ben really didn't want to hear that.
"So she clicked on it, and it was Tom." Leslie stopped.
Ben didn't respond for a few seconds. "Tom? Haverford?" he finally spluttered out.
Leslie laughed on the other end of the call, this clearly being the thing she had wanted to hear Ben's reaction to. "Yeah, Tom Haverford. Which made no sense at all, obviously, so I called the guy over at the site and complained, and then I decided to take Tom out to lunch to see how this had happened. It was pretty much a disaster, and then I told Tom that we were matched up online, and he thought it was hilarious, so he kept bugging me about it for the rest of the day until I finally had to take him out of a meeting and kiss him to get him to shut up. But Chris saw and then lectured me about how I, as a superior, can't have a romantic relationship with an inferior." She finally stopped to take a breath.
Ben really didn't know what to say in response to all of that. "Um, wow."
Leslie sighed tiredly. "It's been such a weird day, Ben."
All Ben could do was laugh, and soon Leslie joined him.
"That honestly sounds so much better than my day out here," Ben replied, still laughing quietly.
"Another fun meeting with Ms. Bridgette Evans of Suck-Up-Ville?" She added a snooty British accent to Ms. Evans's name.
Ben grinned into the phone. He was so grateful that he had Leslie to complain to about Richmond and everything. "Yup. It was so much fun!" he added sarcastically. "She only told me five times how much better a department director she would be than John. That's a new record!"
They both laughed again.
"Sorry you have to work with such a jerk, Ben," Leslie said genuinely. "I wish you could work back here with all of us non-jerks."
Ben half smiled. "Yeah, I wish I could too. I miss you guys. How's everyone doing?"
"Well, Ron just beat Chris in a cook-off to allow the commissary to continue to serve hamburgers," Leslie said off-handedly. "Ron made a normal hamburger, and Chris made some turkey burger with chutney. Also, what's chutney?"
Ben laughed. "Ah, the patented Traeger Turkey Burger! Chris always loved to talk about that. I really don't know what chutney is though; we should probably ask Chris." Ben paused for a moment, realizing something. "Wait, did Chris actually eat a real hamburger?"
"Yeah, he did," Leslie replied, a smile in her voice. "And he said it was better."
Ben shook his head. "Wow. Chris Traeger eating red meat. I never thought I'd see the day."
"Yeah."
The pair settled into comfortable silence for a few moments.
"So are you going to keep trying the online dating thing?" Ben finally asked, hesitantly.
There was the briefest pause on the other end before Leslie spoke. "I don't think so. I like to meet people in person, you know?"
Ben smiled. "Yeah, me too." If he had been in Pawnee at that moment sitting next to Leslie at her favorite place in the world, he would have kissed her and told her that he was glad they had met in person. He wasn't completely sure if Leslie liked him that way or not, but if he could judge anything by the quantity of emails she sent to him and the amount it appeared she thought about him on a daily basis, he was pretty sure that this wasn't just him. Not that he could do anything about it, since he was nearly three hours away from her with no immediate plans to return. All he could do was talk to this wonderful friend for a while about her ideas for the city hall health initiative and his plans for fixing the Richmond budget without going crazy.
And that's what he did. Nearly an hour had gone by before he heard Ann's voice faintly on the other line asking Leslie if she wanted to head out.
"Oh, yeah, um, give me a sec," he heard Leslie reply to her friend before she directed her voice back to him. "I guess I should let you go. It was really great to actually hear your voice."
Ben gave his phone the goofy grin that often was the result of an interaction with Leslie Knope. "Yeah, same here. We'll talk soon, right?"
"Absolutely," Leslie replied enthusiastically. "Have a good night, Ben."
"You too, Leslie."
A week and several usual Leslie emails later, Ben found himself almost completely finished with Richmond Parks Department business, and, more importantly, almost completely finished dealing with Bridgette Evans. Ben and Martin still had what they estimated to be almost two more weeks worth of work left in the town, but the Parks budget was almost completely figured out. Ben was thrilled.
"It's a shame you won't be around here too much anymore," Ms. Evans said casually to Ben as they sat in their usual seats across the conference room table from one another. "You've been great to have around in the department."
Ben almost rolled his eyes at the woman's obnoxious flattery. He just wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.
But Ms. Evans kept going. "It's almost five. You want to go grab dinner somewhere?"
"I think I've talked about the Parks budget enough today already, Bridgette, no offense," Ben replied, barely looking up from his spreadsheets.
Bridgette laughed much more exuberantly than necessary, throwing Ben off-guard. He glanced up at her, puzzled.
"I meant could we go grab dinner somewhere and not talk about work," Bridgette explained, smiling at him almost coyly.
Ben's eyes widened in surprise. Bridgette Evans was asking him out on a date. Ben opened his mouth to reply, but found it difficult to formulate a sentence. "I, um, I don't think I can, but, uh, thanks for the, uh, offer." He stood up awkwardly. "I have to go. Um, I'll see you around." He grabbed his laptop and his papers hurriedly and then almost ran out of the department, leaving Bridgette Evans staring after him.
Ben was extremely grateful to find he and Martin's office empty when he reached it. He set the papers and the laptop down on his desk and sunk in his chair. He had not handled that situation well, but seriously where had that come from? Ben was bewildered. He momentarily wished that Martin actually was around so Ben could tell someone what had happened. But, as he thought about it, Ben didn't really want Martin, or anyone in Richmond for that matter, to know what had just happened. The only person he really wanted to talk about this to was… Leslie.
Without thinking, Ben picked up his phone, pulled up Leslie's contact and pressed call.
"Leslie Knope, Pawnee Parks Department."
Ben had to laugh at her always-formal introduction. "Hey Leslie, it's Ben. Are you busy?"
"Not really," she replied, a slight hesitation in her voice.
Ben could imagine his friend sitting at her desk surrounded by mountains of work as she pretended that she was free so Ben could talk to her. Leslie was really an amazing friend.
"What's up?" she asked curiously.
Ben paused. This was a pretty weird reason to call his friend, but she had called him the week before to tell him she had kissed Tom, so Ben just took a deep breath and began. "Well, today was my last day working with the Parks Department here."
"Yay!" Leslie replied. "No more snooty Bridgette Evans!"
"Well, that's the thing," Ben said slowly. "Just five minutes ago 'snooty Bridgette Evans' asked me out on a date."
There was silence on the other end of the line for a few moments. "Bridgette Evans, THE Bridgette Evans asked you, Ben Wyatt, out on a date?" Leslie asked incredulously.
Ben inhaled slightly, glad that Leslie saw the ludicrousness of his situation. "Yeah. It was really weird."
"Well, what did you say?" Leslie asked. "She's really pretty, or, I mean, from what you've said, she sounds really pretty…"
Ben narrowed his eyes at his phone. "Leslie Knope, did you Facebook stalk Bridgette Evans?"
Leslie didn't say anything for a moment until Ben finally heard a tiny, sheepish, "maybe."
Ben couldn't keep himself from laughing at his friend. "Why'd you do that?"
Leslie's voice grew defensive. "Well, I wanted to know what this person you were always complaining about looked like, and, you know, you always complained about me when we first met, and now we're good friends, so I thought that maybe something like that might happen with her." Leslie's voice grew quieter and quieter as she finished.
Ben almost scoffed at Leslie's words. "Bridgette be like you? No way! You were a total pain in the ass, but you cared so much and worked so hard that I had to like you. Bridgette doesn't care about anyone. There's no comparison between you two."
Leslie laughed slowly, and Ben just wished that he could go back to Pawnee and give his amazing friend a hug and tell her all this in person.
"So, what did you say to her?" Leslie asked finally.
"Oh," Ben said, jerked back into reality. "Well, I was so surprised that I basically rambled at her for a minute and then sprinted out of the conference room."
Leslie had already started laughing before he had finished his sentence. "You really don't do well in stressful situations, do you?" she said as she tried to catch her breath.
"Hey! Rude!" Ben replied in mock offense. "But, yeah, that's completely accurate."
Leslie gave one last small laugh and then sighed. "I wish I could have been there to see it."
Ben smiled. "Yeah, I wish you could have been here too. I mean, not to laugh at me, but just to… you know… be here…" Ben trailed off knowing that he had just come pretty close to telling Leslie that he liked her. Of course, she probably already knew that. Ben had been pretty transparent about how much he loved spending time with his friend and about how much he missed her. Leslie was smart, and she could read him pretty well. Of course she had to know.
"Yeah," Leslie replied softly. "I'd love to see you. And I'd love to give Ms. Evans a piece of my mind! She's disgracing the position of Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation!"
Ben had to laugh at Leslie's enthusiasm. Wow, he missed that.
Martin walked into the office. "Ben, do you have a second?"
Ben held up a finger to Martin to tell him to give him a minute.
"Martin just came in, and we have some stuff to go over," Ben explained, bitterly, not wanting to end their conversation, "so I have to go. I just wanted to tell you about… that."
He could almost hear Leslie smiling back in Pawnee. "I'm really glad you did. I'll email you later, okay?"
"Okay." Ben grinned. "Talk to you soon, Leslie."
"Bye, Ben."
He hung up and turned back to Martin. "Sorry about that. What's up?"
"Who were you talking to?" Martin asked curiously, as he sat down at his desk across from Ben's.
Ben smiled to himself. "Just one of my Parks Department friends from back in Pawnee. That great deputy director I told you about."
Martin nodded in understanding, but he gave Ben a searching look as though he was sure Ben was leaving out some details.
Another week went by, and Ben's dreams of getting out of Richmond were getting closer and closer to being a reality. He and Martin were supposed to get their next assignment in a week at the most, and Ben was feeling a little conflicted. He liked this job a lot, but moving from town to town to town didn't really have the appeal it used to. He still missed Pawnee, the closest thing he had had to a home since Partridge, well since Partridge pre-Ice Town. Partridge post-Ice Town was mean and violent and definitely not home. But he didn't have a job in Pawnee, and that was the problem.
Since it was a Friday, the city manager invited Ben and Martin out for a drink, and they both accepted.
No sooner had the three men sat down at the bar that Ben's phone rang. It was Leslie.
Ben stood up, grinning at his phone. "I've got to take this. I'll be right back." He answered the call as he exited the building.
"Hey, what's up?" he asked immediately.
"Ben! I'm so glad you answered." Leslie sounded nervous, worried, and a little bit excited.
Ben was concerned. "What's going on?"
"Well, I just stole a painting," Leslie said as though she couldn't quite believe what she was saying.
Ben wasn't sure how to respond to that. "Um… what?"
Leslie, as usual, launched into an explanation. "You remember I told you about that art show we were having?"
"Uh huh…"
"Well, Jerry submitted this amazing painting of the centaur goddess Diaphena, but in the painting she's half-naked, so Marcia Langman – you know Marcia Langman?" Leslie paused again for him to answer.
"I know who she is, yes…" Ben answered, still not sure exactly what was going on.
"Well, she came in and demanded we destroy the painting, since it was supposed to go up in a government building," Leslie continued, "and so we decided to take it to the Pawnee Public Arts Commission so they could decide what to do, and they voted to have it destroyed. And then I ran away from Marcia with the painting, and now I'm hiding at April and Andy's."
"Wait, why do you care so much about Jerry's painting?" Ben asked, confused.
Leslie paused for a moment. "Diaphena is kind of… me. Jerry accidentally painted me as the half-naked centaur goddess."
Ben could only open his mouth in surprise. "Oh."
"Yeah," Leslie replied, her tone almost laughing. "And there's a little fat cherub baby in the corner that looks like Tom. It's a pretty great painting."
"I'd bet," Ben responded distractedly, trying not to think about Leslie as a half-naked centaur goddess. That was not a road he needed to go down.
"But I'm pretty sure any minute that Chris is going to call me and make me bring back the painting," Leslie said, discouraged. "I just really wish I could keep it. It means a lot to me."
"Hey," Ben said comfortingly, not liking the sadness he could hear in his friend's voice. "If I know Leslie Knope, and I do, she'll figure out a way to go around Marcia Langman and stop her from destroying that painting."
"Wait, I might have an idea…" Leslie stopped. "Crap, that's Chris calling me. I guess I've got to turn myself in. Thanks for everything, Ben."
"Of course," Ben replied softly. "Let me know how everything turns out."
"I will. Bye!" Leslie hung up quickly, presumably to take Chris's call.
Ben stood outside for a moment, staring out into the near darkness, thinking about Leslie, far away. Leslie who had called him first as she tried to hide with her stolen painting. Ben missed those little, silly, weird adventures that only ever seemed to happen in Pawnee. He missed home.
Finally he sighed and made his way back inside to join his partner and the city manager.
"That your friend from Pawnee?" Martin asked as Ben sat down beside him.
Ben looked at him, confused. "Yeah, it was. How'd you know?"
Martin smiled knowingly. "You always get this huge smile on your face when you hear from her. She emailed you a couple days ago, and I don't think I've ever seen someone look so happy staring at their computer screen."
Ben grinned sheepishly and ordered a drink. If even Martin knew that Ben's feelings for Leslie went beyond just friendship, he could scarcely imagine what Leslie herself knew. But she had been the one who called him, so none of it mattered. Leslie still wanted to be friends, and that was all Ben cared about.
By the following Wednesday, Martin and Ben had wrapped everything up in Richmond, and the pair of state auditors had said their goodbyes, Ben avoiding Bridgette Evans as he had done since that awkward day two weeks before, and gone out to get burgers in celebration. Halfway through dinner, Martin had gotten a phone call from their boss back in Indianapolis telling them that they had done a great job and that they had off until Sunday when he wanted them back in Indianapolis so they could report to their next assignment in Marion, a city slightly smaller than Richmond, but further northwest. Ben's heart sank at the assignment. He had been hoping for a city in Southern Indiana where weekend trips to Pawnee would have been a possibility. Marion left him about the same distance from his friends that he had been in Richmond, which put him in the same predicament that he had been in for the last almost five weeks.
Martin had accepted the new assignment immediately and then had looked across the table at Ben. "You up for coming to Marion?"
Ben sighed. He had no job in Pawnee. It felt like home, but he had no house. All he had were friends. They were pretty great friends, one of them in particular, but he couldn't give up his job just for them. It wouldn't make sense. "I'm in," he replied, the words sounding like a death sentence.
Martin grinned at him and directed his conversation back to the phone. "Ben's in too. We'll be there Sunday." He paused, listening to their boss on the other end. "No problem. See you then. Have a good night."
Martin put down the phone, clearly pleased. "It'll be great to get out of here. You ever been to Marion? I've heard it's pretty nice."
Ben shook his head. "We'll see."
"Any big plans for your three days off?" Martin asked curiously. "I've got some friends to see in Indianapolis."
Ben hadn't thought about it, but now that Martin mentioned it… He didn't have anyone he really wanted to see in Indianapolis, but he did have some people he wanted to see somewhere else.
"I think I might head down to Pawnee, actually," Ben said slowly.
Martin nodded. "That's what I thought."
Ben smiled to himself. A surprise visit back to his new hometown was exactly what he needed. Three days with Leslie Knope…
Ben felt happier than he had in weeks.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Leave a review!