Chris broke up with beautiful, sweet Ann and Leslie was still awkward around Ben and didn't know what to do about him, so there was no better time to throw herself into her friend's problems than now. Leslie drove Ann all the way home from Indianapolis, forgetting about every single one of her own problems for the sake of the beautiful and crying creature next to her. She told Ann past breakup stories to make her feel better, which slowly worked, but then something else came to Leslie's mind.

"Ann," she said suddenly, causing her best friend to jerk up. "Do you remember what you said to me when I was still pining over Mark a couple years back?"

Ann swallowed hard. Dangerous conversation topic, probably. Ann was never a big fan of Mark. "That… Mark was stupid for not being into you and you should find someone else?"

"Bingo! Oh, well, kind of," Leslie blushed, trying to avoid getting too into this type of conversation with Ann. It was bad enough that Ben tried to have it with her. But speaking of Ben… "To get over someone, Ann, sometimes you have to get under someone else. I'm going to set you up! Find you a better man!"

"Oh god, Leslie, I'm not sure that's such a great idea…"

"Sure it is! In fact, I have someone in mind already. You already know him and he's great and an excellent public servant and he's easy on the eyes too."

"I think I know where this is going, and I just don't think that I'm ready yet, Leslie. I always tend to make bad decisions after breakups and I really, really liked Chris."

Leslie snorted, turning the corner to pull into Ann's driveway. "Nonsense. Besides, if you like State Auditors that much, you're in luck, there's two of them. Just go to bed and think about Ben, okay Ann?"

Ann gagged and dragged herself out of the car quickly to run away from Leslie. "Oh, gross, don't…"

Leslie rolled down her car window to yell after Ann. "I love you and you're beautiful, Ann! Think about Ben!"

/

When Leslie got home that night, Mark was waiting up. She smiled at him, but he didn't return it.

"You were supposed to be in Indianapolis," he said, not even standing up to greet her. "Why did you leave?"

Leslie's smile dropped lightly, but her tone attempted to keep things casual. "There was a problem with Ann, so I drove her home. It's okay, Ron is staying and he's going to speak for the both of us."

Mark sighed, dragging his hand across his forehead. "That was supposed to be you up there, Leslie. With Ron it'll just end up a disaster, why would you do that? What could possibly have been so bad with Ann to warrant this?"

She swallowed hard, her voice dropping. "Chris broke up with her."

He threw his hands in the air. "Are you serious? You gave this up and created this disaster because of a silly breakup?"

"She really liked him, Mark! She didn't even know they broke up because he was so nice about it and then she thought he was cheating-"

"God, I don't care about the details, Leslie! I care about how this isn't good for you. You need to be tougher, you need to look out for yourself, you'll never get to where you want to be if you keep bending over backwards and rolling over for everybody who claims they need you."

There was an odd feeling in Leslie's chest as he yelled at her, something that pinched at her, made her uncomfortable. She wasn't so blind that she couldn't see the irony in Mark's statement. She took a step back and heard her voice start to rise, for only a moment. "I'm not… I'm not just rolling over for people like Ann. She didn't ask me to do that, I wanted to! And like it or not, my friends will always come before my work. Friends, waffles, then work. That's the rule."

Mark stood then, so much taller than Leslie that she felt herself shrink. "And what about me, Leslie? Where do I fall in this list? I feel like I've hardly seen you since those State Auditors showed up."

"I wait for you in my office. I text you and tell you to come over."

"And then you work long hours and do things like drop everything for Ann and I don't see you until bed. At which point you won't even come to bed with me, you just sit in the kitchen and work some more."

"You know I do that! That's nothing to do with you, I always work into the night and you've known this before we even got together."

"When's the last time you told me you loved me, Leslie?"

She strained to think, having a hard time placing the exact moment. "I… that's irrelevant, it doesn't matter, you never say it either. And hey, what do the State Auditors coming have to do with all this anyway?"

Mark raised a brow at her, as if she were playing with him. "Are you serious? All you do anymore is spend your time with Ben Wyatt."

Leslie scoffed loudly, and for some reason, the way Mark said Ben's name made her fingers clench into fists, her face burning red. "Ben has been helping me with this Harvest Festival! He's been helping more than anybody else when Pawnee isn't even his home. He's a good friend."

Mark shook his head. "You're ridiculous, and you don't see what's right in front of you. Come here, Leslie."

She took a step back instead. "Why?"

He gave her a look. "Come here."

She took a tentative step towards him, having to crane her neck upwards to keep her eyes on him. "What do you want, Mark?" she whispered, and he gripped her chin.

"I want to know that you and I are okay," he said, brushing her hair from her face and tucking it behind her ear. "I want to hear you say you love me and I want to go to bed with you tonight."

Leslie hesitated. "I love you, Mark, I do, but I'm not sure this is a good idea right now. We're both clearly upset with each other and I have a lot of work to do-"

"No you don't," he told her, before lifting her chin to press a kiss to her lips. She didn't pull away, but she didn't exactly eagerly kiss him back, either. "The only work you have to do is coming to bed with me." He pushed her hair back further to kiss along her neck, his big hands sliding around her waist and fiddling with the hem of her blouse. When he moved to tug her blazer off her shoulders, she moved back an inch and shook her head.

"Mark-" she started, but he instantly interrupted her.

"It's not a big deal, Leslie," he whispered in her ear, in that tone he always used on her, when he was telling her what to do. She sucked in a deep breath. She didn't even know how to fight him when he spoke to her like that. It was like she was new in government all over again, having no clue what to do, listening to the City Planner who only wanted to stick around because he liked to laugh at her.

As his fingers pulled off her blazer and brushed against her skin under her blouse, she thought about that night that he kissed her by the pit. She thought about that single misstep, his fall and his concussion, and her insides seized up. It was all too vivid, and all her fault, all her fault…

"Okay," she said, hardly above a whisper. "Okay, you're right. It's not a big deal."

Mark smiled, and scooped her up to carry her to bed.

/

The knock on his door late that night surprised Ben. He hadn't been expecting any visitors… Leslie hadn't even answered any of his texts or called him back since she got home. He was in his pyjamas and his hair was a mess and oh, god, he hoped it wasn't Leslie, he didn't think he had time to run a comb through his hair and dress in better clothes before he had to answer the door.

When he looked through the peephole, he wasn't sure if he was relieved or disappointed that it wasn't Leslie standing there, but Ann Perkins.

Ben pulled open his motel room door, tilting his head to look at Ann, who had obviously been crying not that long ago. Her mascara was a mess under her eyes and her hair was sticking up straight in the back, which she quickly smoothed out when she saw his eyes drifting there. "Uhh… Ann? What are you doing here?"

She barged into his motel room, throwing herself onto his couch and burying her face in her hands. "Chris broke up with me."

Ben pursed his lips, having no idea what to do with this crying woman that he still felt like he hardly knew. "Oh, yeah, like a week ago, right?"

Ann stared at him through red eyes. "Yeah, but I didn't know about it until tonight. I'm sorry, Ben, for showing up here, I just…"

"Hey, don't even worry about that," he told her, coming over to sit beside her on the couch. It was weird, sure, Ann was Leslie's best friend and was Chris's girlfriend, and they had never really had time just to talk, the two of them. They sat close together, and Ben put a hand on her shoulder that he hoped felt comforting and reassuring. "I know what it's like, to be heartbroken and go to the first person you can think of. But, I'm willing to listen if you want to talk about it."

The look she gave him was slightly happier, her eyes widening with appreciation. Ben felt relieved that he had somehow managed not to mess this up so far, surely he would never hear the end of it from Leslie if he somehow hurt her best friend further. "Thank you, Ben. Talking… talking sounds kind of nice. And if you say you know how it feels…"

He nodded, and suddenly Ann was much closer to him than she was before. He felt her knee touching his, and didn't know exactly how to inch away without making it awkward. So he stayed there. "I do," Ben said, looking at her curiously, dropping his voice to a whisper. "I do know how it feels. I mean, I… we all want things… people, that we can't have sometimes."

He couldn't have the person that he wanted. And Ann couldn't have what she wanted either. Both of them were hurting but Ben didn't fully understand why he was, only that there was a deep pain in his heart that he decided wouldn't go away unless he kissed someone right then and there. No matter who it was, even if it was Ann Perkins and that was against a million best friend codes.

Even if he thought about someone else while he was kissing her.

And then Ann was leaning even closer and for a fleeting moment, he knew Ann wanted to kiss him too. Their faces were inches apart and he could smell the alcohol on her breath, like red wine and rose perfume. "Yeah," she said to him, and her eyes were no longer on his, but instead on his lips. "We all want things we can't have. You know, Ben, Leslie once told me something interesting.

Oh god, Leslie. Leslie, Leslie, Ben was thinking of Leslie while Ann Perkins was right in front of him and wanting to kiss him. "What's that?"

"She said sometimes the best way to get over someone, is to get under someone else."

Ben's breath caught in his throat, and why did thinking of her feel almost physically painful? "She said that?"

"Mmhm," Ann said, just a little bit closer, and as if to desperately erase this pain in his heart and forget for a moment how that felt, his hand cupped Ann's face, pressing against her hair. Their foreheads touched, but why didn't Ben feel any better yet? "I was going to spend the night with her, you know. But she had to go home to Mark. So I came here, I hope that's okay."

Ben froze, just as he was about to close his eyes and the distance between them. Where before there was a dull throb in his heart, knowing it was beating faster than ever. "Leslie is with Mark right now?"

At first, Ann didn't seem fazed by his concern, just covering her hand over his on her cheek. "I mean, yeah, obviously, they live together."

"That's why she didn't answer me," Ben gasped. "But she always calls me when she gets home, and we talk about the Harvest Festival, and why didn't she call me back this time?"

"Relax, Ben, she's not hurt or anything, she's probably just having some kind of crazy sex which is WAY better than work-related phone calls, for the record-"

"Oh god," Ben groaned, and he ripped his hand away from Ann's face to clutch his heart, beating so fast he had to wonder if this was what a heart attack felt like. Oh god, Ben was going to die and it was going to happen with Ann Perkins in his house even though she's Chris's ex-girlfriend and Leslie was at home likely having sex with her boyfriend Mark Brendanawics and there was absolutely nothing Ben could do about that. All he knew was that for whatever reason, that thought made him want to cry and have something to drink and pass out in his bed alone.

"Oh my god, I think I know what's going on here," Ann said with sudden clarity, standing up and staring at Ben with an open mouth. "I absolutely know what's going on here. Ben, you like Leslie."

Ben ran his hands through his hair and refused to meet Ann's eyes. "She's my friend, of course I like her."

"No, no no no, you LIKE her, you actually like her! You have a crush on Leslie!"

That squeeze on his heart was back, and all he could do was start pacing around his motel room like a madman. "I… I would never… like Leslie? That's ridiculous, she's not even… she doesn't even… and she has a boyfriend…"

Ann was taking this a little differently than he might have expected from someone who was wanting to kiss him just a couple of minutes ago. She jumped up and down and clapped her hands together, her smile widening considerably. "Oh my god, Ben likes Leslie! This is the best possible news ever. Ben, I am so sorry for whatever that was just now and we should totally forget it ever happened, right? We should just forget it."

Ben covered his face. "Yeah, and maybe never mention it again. Or the fact that you're delusional and think I have some kind of crush on Leslie."

Ann dropped her hands to his shoulders and stared at him with a look very different than the last couple minutes. "Ben, listen to me very closely. This is the best news I have ever received in my life because it means that maybe I can finally get Leslie away from Mark and on to a better guy. I don't care for your denial right now, Ben, because I'm about to go home and think like Leslie."

Ben frowned. "Which is… doing what?"

She smiled broadly. "I'm making an idea binder. Operation: Save Leslie is totally and one hundred percent ON, Benjamin."