A/N: With S6E18 I kinda got carried away with one line in particular: "...and then we wouldn't be married, and I don't like thinking about that."

Read, review, do whatever! Thanks for at least stopping in :)

Talking to Leslie wasn't always Andy's favorite pastime. She was easily the third coolest person he knew and one of the smartest by a long shot, but if she was yelling at him or telling him to do something Andy wanted to get as far away from her as possible. The only reason he didn't drop the call was because it had to do with April. At the government thrown prom she'd been acting weird, talking about how they wouldn't be married if they were in high school or something just as stupid, and Leslie was chewing his ear off about it. Apparently Leslie was pretty damn observant too.

"Andy," she half-shouted, waking him up from his thoughts, "are you even listening to me? This is important, and you know it."

"Oh come on Leslie," he pouted, "April's just being weird again. I told her she was being dumb at the prom and we had fun."

"You really should talk to her and hash things out!" Leslie yelled through the static of the call.

"We talk all the time," he replied, feeling more confused than ever. "Like, literally every day."

"Ugh," she groaned, "Andy, your wife is feeling insecure. Go talk to her."

"That can't be possible, we had Ron change the batteries in that fire alarm last week," he answered incredulously.

There was a moment of silence where Andy swore that he heard Leslie mumble something about a 'dysfunctional nightmare' but he didn't feel like remembering those definitions. He was getting tired of walking around the building looking for April anyways, so he sat down and waited for the rest of the tirade. There were only a few places she would go, and the Parks office definitely wasn't it. She must have been at the shelter, he decided.

"Andy, you sweet innocent child," she muttered, before continuing with a gentler tone. "This is about April feeling like there's a chance that you're… y'know, done with her."

"What?" Andy laughed in response. "That is the dumbest thing I've heard today, and I think about a lot of stuff."

"Seriously Andy, talk to her," she finished, hanging up on him.

This was crazy. After getting kicked out of prom, and the subsequent failed laking of the limousine, that night had been awesome. They got drunk, shooed Orin out from beneath their bed, and decided that worrying about anything like this was stupid and not worth it. Andy kept the rest of the night in a special memory bank for other occasions. The after-party was always the best part of prom, anyways. That was supposed to be the end of it, but then Leslie called him in the middle of the day with all of this stuff about having to talk to his wife and everything came back up. It was all so confusing.

Life was great for them, and Andy never really thought about it beyond that. They had a house, they had Champion, and every day was like another fun adventure for them to get through. He loved it, and loved her and spending every day around her. Being across an ocean had been hell mostly because he only talked to her and saw her through Skype calls. In the middle of his ruminations, Ron walked into the offices. Seeing him sitting down, contemplative, the older man instantly went into his office to try and hide from whatever 'emotional' stuff Andy was dealing with. He wasn't going to bother Ron anyways – he needed to find April and talk.

She wasn't a person with a naturally positive disposition and Andy knew that, but when he was around her the last thing he wanted was for her to be in anything resembling a bad mood. Any time she was enjoying herself, it was really hard for him to not be. He loved the way her smile kind of snuck its way on her face, and the hitching chuckle that she called a laugh. It was all the most awesome stuff in his life smashed into one – he loved seeing April happy, and living with a depressed April wasn't doing him any favors. It was definitely a failure on his part.

It was going to turn out pretty easy, seeing as he was the only with the car and she pretty much had to be working at the shelter. Andy had only ever seen her walk through Pawnee three or four times in his life, and it still bewildered him. Walking into a small office where she worked he found an empty desk and no snarky note telling people to never come back, or anything else that would have her touch to it.

"Hey," he asked a lady sitting at the front desk, "is April Ludgate out for lunch or something?"

"No she left for the day," the woman answered roughly. "She might be at the Parks offices."

Why would she leave the only sort of work that she actually, if only marginally, enjoyed? Andy's head hurt even more. Getting back into his car, he tried to make a mental checklist of where she would go and finally made the decision to check home. It took him an hour or so to figure it out, but that was almost a new record.

She thought all of it was over. It had been weeks thinking like this, and after that fake prom and seeing Andy melt back into his high school persona, the crippling thoughts had been dragged back to the surface. April even felt better that night, especially after getting kicked out. Then when they woke up, it hit her again and again. Every day it was like a niggling doubt, almost like fear and if there was anything she hated more than people it was feeling afraid of something so obviously stupid. They were married and if the last week was any indication, Andy was certainly not bored of her. Despite that, she laid down on the couch and bit at the sleeve of her sweater in contemplation.

No matter what she told herself, or what happened between them, this felt wrong and almost like they were on timer until everything boiled over and one of them forgot why they were even in the relationship. The thought alone made her want to cry. Feeling so weak and powerless was the worst thing April had ever considered in their relationship, and even the doubts made so little sense to her. Still the idea gnawed at her and made everything feel strange and almost floating, like some kind of horrible dream she wanted to get drawn out of.

"This is stupid," she mumbled to herself, wiping at her eyes and sitting up.

Why couldn't it just be water under the bridge for them and they could go back to making out, dressing Champion up as every one of the Golden era monsters, and hosting summertime Halloween parties? But they did that anyways, and even then she couldn't get the idea of it not being enough out of her head. She loved him, he loved her and that should have been enough. She was sure it had to be enough, but there it was nonetheless, that horrifying doubt. Interrupting her thoughts, the sounds of a car pulling into the driveway broke into the house and she was relieved to see Andy walk up to the front door through the window.

"Hey, honey?" Andy asked into the house, "You here?"

"Living room," she responded, waiting for the sped-up footsteps and excited yelling. But they didn't come.

Again she wanted to curl up in a ball and forget everything, hoping that Andy would curl up next to her and not say what she was sure was coming. Every single day they lived together was the same thing. When he came home later than her: he would call out, she would answer, and then he would basically nosedive into the couch or bed after her. They had a pattern, and when it was broken things were never looking up.

"Hey, uhh…" Andy started, scratching the back of his head, "can we talk?"

"Yeah, sure," she answered, moving to lay her head down on the armrest and focus on Andy's words.

He sat down next to her and remained silent and motionless for a moment, his eyes darting around the room and to her every few seconds awkwardly. After a few more seconds of silence he groaned and spoke up.

"Come here," he motioned towards himself. "Come on, honey."

April slinked over to him and he pulled her onto his lap, wrapping his arm around her. This was really serious, she decided, and he was trying to let her off as easily as possible. She wanted to smack herself for these thoughts, but everything was starting to add up in some really crazy way. When she rested her head on his shoulder he let his head drop and they sat like that for a few moments without saying anything. She lived for this, no matter what anyone else saw in their relationship. The days where they hung out and played pranks on the city of Pawnee were great, they really were, but the reason she always missed Andy when he was away was for times like this.

Nothing was better than curling up and just sitting there, talking once every few minutes if that, holding each other and wanting nothing more and nothing less from each other. Neither of them knew this was going to be their favorite time together, since both of them preferred being covered in egg yolks and fake blood to sitting around acting like an old married couple, but at the end of the day there was little that April wanted more than to just be there with him. And she knew for a fact he felt the same way, but in spite of that she still wondered when he would drop the horrible bomb on her.

"I was talking to Leslie and, uh…" Andy interrupted quickly, "we should talk, right? Like, it's, um, a good thing we talk so much and…"

"Andy, I know what you're trying to say," April looked up to him and fuck if there wasn't a little bit of a tear welling in her eyes, "and I understand."

"What?" he asked, sounding surprised.

"Yeah," she answered, pushing her head deeper into him in the hopes that she could burn this moment into her memory for the rest of her life, "I do, and it's okay. I'm just as surprised this lasted as long."

There was a rough movement and April was wrenched from that incredible position, and left standing with Andy staring directly at her looking all over her face. After what felt like an eternity of scrutiny, he pulled her into a back-breaking hug which just sent those tears streaming down her face even faster.

"April, don't," Andy said, and there was a slight quiver and seriousness in his voice that struck her by surprise. "What happened that made you start thinking like that?"

"Babe, you know as much as I do that this," she made a gesture between the two of them, "was just dumb kids being dumb. Leslie said it herself."

"Yeah, and it's still cool, right?" Andy asked, and the redness around his eyes and nose was obvious now.

"It's just that, y'know…" April sniffed, and Andy gripped her shoulders even harder, "I don't even know. I started having these thoughts one day and then we went to that stupid prom, and then I thought about us not being married and it was so stupid, but…"

She had intended to keep going, trying to remember everything that her brain had been turning over and over, but had been interrupted by a rough pair of lips crashing down on hers. Andy had pulled them together and was trying to silence her with a kiss, and for a moment she felt everything wash away again. Then the flood of terrible thoughts and the situation came crashing down on her again.

"April, we're awesome together," he finally said, "and you know that. Talk to me, come on."

"Why?" April asked, looking up at him as she cried more than she ever had in front of him. Generally they both hated crying, and there hadn't ever really been a scenario for them both to be doing it like there was now. Even so, she didn't bother wiping her tears away and she could tell Andy was fighting his damndest despite the few of his own that escaped.

"Why what?" he answered, face struggling to keep straight and not contort with more tears.

"I don't even know… I just can't stop thinking about you getting bored and wanting to leave, and having more fun without me, finding some super cool chick that isn't me…" she trailed off, sitting back down and playing with the sleeves of her sweatshirt.

Andy crouched down to get himself at eye level with her and the look in his eyes, the determination, made April's heart feel like a thundering jackhammer. Something was broken in there, devoid of the childish glee and near lack of consideration that they usually housed. He grabbed her hand for a moment and squeezed, fingers rubbing over the cheap looking wedding band on hers before letting go and looking back to her eyes, that serious glint still there.

"Listen," he demanded, holding her face in his hands, "you are literally the best thing that has ever happened to me. If I hadn't met you I'd probably still be living in a pit eating tomatoes every day."

Despite the growing fear in the back of her head, April chuckled lightly and continued listening to his piece. She wanted to say that he was literally the best thing to happen to her, but the words were choking.

"And you know what, I can prove it." Andy got up to his feet and pulled her with him. She hesitated for a moment and before she could react he had picked her up and dragged her into the bedroom. He sat her down on the bed and pulled out a stack of squares, laying them onto a table next to their bed.

"Here," he pointed to a bunch of unframed pictures they were meaning to get around to, "this one's from when you told me to chase my dream and go see the Grand Canyon. And I went, with you."

She picked up the picture and looked at the two of them smiling in front of the large crater. It really was an awesome day. Andy was flitting through the photos incredibly quickly, and the amazing thing was that he seemed to be actually processing each and every single one. It was almost as if this wasn't the first time he'd done this.

Speechless, she grabbed his hand and squeezed as hard as she could. There were times she wondered if Andy even had a brain that functioned but then he went and showed her things like this. It made her realize that even if he wasn't as showy about it that he could be one of the sweetest, most thoughtful people on the planet. If it was anyone else but Andy that would have made her sick to the stomach but for whatever reason, he was the exception. Andy smiled and returned the squeeze, picking up another photo and laughing, cycling through the memories.

"And this one," he said gesturing to another. "Remember when we went with Leslie and everyone after Ann and Chris left, we went to go get breakfast…"

"And we gave each other cool whipped cream moustaches," she laughed, looking over the picture of Andy with a cream beard and April sporting a fu manchu. "Leslie was too busy laughing at us to cry over Ann anymore."

By now they were snuggled up together, going through the pile of pictures – the collection of their memories – and laughing at each one. Every piece of their life, from Champion's homecoming party to Andy's broken nose, was recorded here and waiting to be hung up to be put up in their house. With each little piece, that horrible droning in her head melted away.

"April, look at this one," Andy interrupted, showing her a picture of their wedding with Chris frozen in a gyration that made her neck hurt, "look at me, look how happy I am."

In the picture Andy was finishing up playing the song he wrote for her, looking at April, and the largest smile anyone could ever have was across his face. There had been no one else in April's life that smiled this much that didn't make her want to drive an axe through their skull. Like most other things, Andy was an exception that she was more than glad to make.

"It's because I just married you," Andy explained, rubbing April's shoulders while they scanned their assortment of pictures and captured memories, "and I was the happiest guy in the universe, and I still am."

"I'm sorry," April apologized, putting her head in her hand, "this was so stupid, and it's so obvious and, ugh…"

She broke off into a laugh, and Andy joined in. Of course this was such a stupid thing for her to be thinking, but something had made it impossible to even talk with Andy about. But now, there they were, sitting down and looking through their own version of a photo album, talking about their problems.

"Nah, it's cool," Andy said. "I mean, I've thought about it too."

"What?" April asked, confused at the idea of Andy thinking anything like this about her. That wasn't how this was supposed to work – she was supposed to be the one worried about their relationship and not him.

"See what I mean, it's dumb!" he exploded, shaking his head. "Let's just go back to being awesome together, okay?"

April nodded her head and leaned in to kiss Andy. Maybe she would keep having those thoughts, and maybe one day they would overcome her, but she decided that if they talked about it and acted like – and the idea made her want to wretch – adults about it, there wasn't a whole lot that could get in the way of their lives.

"Yeah, that sounds awesome," she answered after breaking away from him. April lifted her hand in the air and Andy immediately high-fived her, leaving his hand there for a moment longer and intertwining their fingers before going back in for another kiss. April concluded that she had to have been crazy to ever worry about this at all and knew that if it ever came up again, they were only one pile of mismanaged memories away from erasing those doubts.