"Oh, God, okay, let's think, think, think! Who's he gonna tell, Joan? She's not gonna listen to him after he didn't make me get nude on camera! But he's still got the Pawnee Sun in his death grip, they can take or leave nudity! Or even proof! But what if he's expecting us to expect he'll use the Sun? Oh God, he's gotten much more crafty since last time! That new campaign manager Rob probably had something to do with that or something!"

Leslie pretty much rambled from there for the next few minutes outside the Pawnee Today studio. Even though people would have been more suspicious of her if they saw her like that, she was too panicked to notice. For Ben's part, he just let her go on and get it out of her system, while he did his own quieter brainstorming.

It was easier for him to do, since he wasn't as nervous as Leslie. In fact, a part of him felt something that he wouldn't dare to reveal to Leslie. It felt relieved.

If they went a certain way on this, the sneaking around, schedules, and carefully managed time together would be over. They could have a real relationship at long last, and if they went a certain way, it wouldn't kill their careers. Maybe it would kill Ben's for a while, but he was caring less and less about that with every passing day. And logically, there was no way it should kill Leslie's, because Pawnee couldn't just not forgive her, after letting Dexhart slide for so many years.

Pawnee was odd and wacky much of the time, but it wasn't stupid or hypocritical- at least not as much as Ben thought it was at first. Surely, enough people would back Leslie up, determine that Dexhart was just lashing out after losing the debate, realize this wasn't really that tawdry, and figure out that this one mistake didn't outweigh Leslie's millions of successes. After over a year here, Ben knew enough about Pawnee to trust it to do the right thing.

But after a lifetime here, Leslie almost certainly did not. And that outweighed everything.

Ben figured that Leslie wouldn't see the upside to this, and her panic right now was proving it. Even if this only cost her the Parks job, and not the election, she would be too distraught to continue on. And most likely, she wouldn't want to be around the man who helped cost her her dream job, and her future dream job at City Council. After losing all that, having a real, open relationship would hardly make up for it, and neither she nor Ann nor anyone else would probably convince her otherwise.

Even if it was possible to convince Leslie, there was no way it could happen now, or at any time before Dexhart spilled the beans. So Ben had only one option- be distraught along with her, and try to think of a way to keep the secret anyway. After all, if he didn't think of something good before it got out, Leslie would either dump him in a last-ditch cover up, or be too angry at their whole relationship to keep it going. Normal Leslie would never be that harsh, but frantic Leslie was a tad more unpredictable, and needed to be kept at bay.

Unfortunately, Dexhart had been so badly beaten on the show, there'd be no stopping him from spoiling their secret and changing the headlines. All they could probably do was try and make sure the fallout wouldn't be too horrific.

However, before Ben threw himself into the campaign, he had thought up some plans in case the worst happened. And maybe there was one specific idea that could work…..although it would be quite risky in the long run. He waited a few more seconds for Leslie to catch her breath before he laid it out.

"Look Leslie, all those ideas sound…..original. But we can do something without hiding out in Canada and getting an ice fishing license. Maybe we can't stop Dexhart from talking…..but we could at least find a way to keep our regular jobs."

"How? Do we erase everyone's memory at the Pawnee Sun after Dexhart talks to them?" Leslie inquired. "Is there some memory erasing guy you know back in Minnesota?"

"We won't need him," Ben said sarcastically, although that may not have been the best tone. Yet what he had to say next would make Leslie forget that. "We can tell Chris instead."

"What? Ben, did Dexhart….give you anything to mess with your brain before he left?"

"I mean we tell Chris….without actually telling Chris." Leslie didn't accuse Ben of being on drugs after that, but she was still quite confused. "Come on, I'll try to explain better on the way to his office," Ben offered.

It took a while, but Leslie eventually understood the plan by the time they returned to City Hall. But that still didn't mean she was any less nervous, although she was hiding it a bit better. Yet that got harder the closer they got to Chris's office.

Somehow, Leslie managed to remember that she stood up to Dexhart and Joan just an hour ago, and could do the same with Chris. But the goal wasn't to antagonize Chris, and the stakes were a lot higher than they were at Pawnee Today. However, this was Ben's idea, and Ben was the one taking the lead on this one. The feminist in her was quite offended, yet she didn't have the time or nerves to listen to her for once- it's not like she was coming up with anything better.

Still, that didn't really say a lot, since no parts of her had anything better. All they could do was something that Leslie had fought tooth and nail not to do for months, so that said something. As such, when they entered Chris's office and he greeted them with a smile, his wide smile never looked more intimidating.

"Leslie, congratulations for being on fire on Pawnee Today! You must have literally gotten five or ten thousand new voters from that performance! Wasn't she something, Ben?" Chris rhetorically asked.

"Very much so. So much so that I gave her a high five afterwards," Ben began. "And that's….when Councilman Dexhart assumed something he shouldn't have."

If Leslie could still steel her emotions, she brought herself to do so at this moment of truth.

"Dexhart wrongly assumes that me and Leslie are sleeping together, and violating your rule. We aren't, but we're afraid he's going to make everyone believe we are, so it kills her campaign. That's why we wanted you to know right now that it isn't true, before he starts lying to everyone."

"Lying, that's what he does, yes sir!" was all Leslie could say to add on. But she was quicker to say anything than Chris was, at the least.

"I….I am stunned. Would he really do that to you? Make up these kind of insane lies?" Chris questioned.

"It wouldn't be beneath him. He knows that Leslie's gaining on him, so he's getting desperate to hurt her before it gets worse. Trust me, it's a common trick in these campaigns. It certainly happened to me more than once," Ben recalled.

"Yep, trust him, he's the expert!" Leslie called out to try and stay in the conversation.

"Well, you certainly are a better expert than me, so I will trust you," Chris assured. "But this kind of lie is just ludicrous. You two are too much of a dynamic friend and work duo to work as lovers, even if my rules didn't forbid it! Would people really believe that you two are….dynamic in that way?"

"Dexhart made people think that Leslie and Ann were…dynamic in that way two Christmas's ago, just to distract from his own scandals. If it worked for a while then, it might now, especially since she has more to lose," Ben answered.

"Yep, I'm about set to be a big loser!" Leslie pointed out, before deciding she should probably stay quiet if that was the best she had.

"Well, that is just….completely not nice. In fact, I'm going to tell him so right now before he slanders you!" Although Chris's offer sounded like a solution, Leslie and Ben knew Dexhart wouldn't listen to him- and that even bringing it up would make it worse. So they both called out "No!" just as Chris reached for his phone, then Leslie let Ben take it from there again.

"He probably won't listen to you, anyway. Besides, there's still a slim chance he might not run with this. So there's no sense talking about it and letting it leak until then. But if he does start lying about us…..can we count on you to have our backs and not fire us?"

With that, Chris put down the phone and almost looked ready to tear up. "There are…..literally no backs in this universe I will have more gladly than yours. I don't care if they're scandal ridden, dirty from political mud, or bare, those bare backs will be defended by me until the end!"

For once, Chris's zealous, somewhat oblivious positive reassurances were actually reassuring, which was a rare break. But of course, he had to keep talking after that. "Of course, if he's actually telling the truth and you two are together, it would be another story. Especially after you just told me you aren't. But in that case, it's a good thing he's a liar, isn't it?"

Somehow, Leslie prevented her laughter from sounding too forced. "Yep, that's the one good thing about him lying, all right!"

"Good indeed," Ben concurred. "So Chris, we're all clear? You won't say a word about this now, but you'll have lots of good words if Dexhart slanders us, right?"

"Only the very best for my honest and true slandered friends," Chris promised. Since he was starting to lay it on too thick- and more than usual- Leslie and Ben just briefly thanked him once more and took their leave, while they were barely ahead.

"Well, this might actually work," Ben said when they were far enough from Chris's office. "Even if Dexhart makes the election harder, you'll still have your job, and maybe Chris will actually convince people he's lying. I'm sure Pawnee knows that he wouldn't defend us if we were lying."

"But we are," Leslie whispered. "And the second he finds out, we will be fired for sure! That's why he really can never find out now, never never or even ever!"

Since Leslie was still in damage control mode, she didn't have time to realize the implications of that statement. Mainly, the fact that if she never ever wanted Chris to find out, then she never ever wanted her relationship to be in the open. As much as they were both trying to keep it a secret, there was still hope that they could be open someday- but Leslie didn't sound like she had that now, or even wanted to have it.

But she still didn't realize that, since she was still whispering her damage control ideas. "This is probably what we get for letting down our guard like that. I mean, we can't even high-five without making it obvious! Maybe if we get back to shutdown mode, and just stop working so close together right now, it'll give Dexhart time to think he was imagining things."

"I don't think he really cares if he was imagining things or not," Ben pointed out.

"But we can't take that chance!" Leslie whispered as loud as she could without getting noticed. "He can't get any more inspiration to talk about us, and he won't if he doesn't see us together. And we can't work close together either, or else it'll probably get back to him!"

"So we're going to distance ourselves even more because of what he might think or say?" Ben now had to whisper himself for fear of getting loud.

"It's not like anything else has a real chance to work, is there?" Leslie asked, laying it on a bit thick herself. But she was still in her little panic bubble, so thickness was just another element that couldn't pop it.

"You're right. I didn't think of it that way, but you are right. I'll run my ideas through Adam and let him bring them up with you now. Once Dexhart exposes us or stops making us think he will, we'll brainstorm together then….whenever that may be."

And although Ben did sound completely professional, and didn't outwardly give signs of being disappointed, saddened or upset, the words were still enough to burst Leslie's bubble- albeit a few seconds after he headed back to his office.

But over the next few weeks, Leslie could have been excused for thinking that it worked all along- because Dexhart didn't say a word about her or Ben to the press. Although Leslie had made up new ground after the interview, and was now in full fledged striking distance, Dexhart didn't change the headlines by alleging any affair. Still, the fear that he would, and was just biding his time to reveal it later, kept Leslie and Ben from shortening their newfound distance from each other.

Although they still brainstormed together, it wasn't in one-on-one sessions anymore, as Ben actually had to interact with people other than Leslie now. Even those other people briefly found it weird that Leslie wasn't relying on Ben as much anymore. But those who were relieved to have more input brushed it aside, so as not to press their luck.

Despite the fact that Leslie hadn't made any gigantic gains in the polls since the interview- and would need to start making them soon- no one saw anything suspicious in it. No one wondered what was missing now, or saw anything deeper in why Leslie and Ben weren't as on fire as they were just three weeks earlier.

Somehow, that didn't lessen Leslie's fears as much as she might have thought three weeks ago.