A/N: How about the first time some of the Parks Department meets the new addition to the Ludgate-Dwyer family?
I wasn't kidding when I said this month was going to be constant kid-fic. Also, I broke my pinky a few days ago so if you get some late, relatively short fics it's because I lose a lot of speed without my right hand and can't devote endless hours this week on writing :(
It was a pretty regular day in the Parks department - a grating intern asks April if she needs help with something and, just coming back from a maternity leave that was technically a month too long, she groans and wants to drive an ice pick into his head. Sadly, all she can do is him to go away and leave her alone so that April can get back to appreciating Leslie's old office and its blinds. Leaning back into her own office chair, April tries her best to fall asleep in the middle of the day.
Yet again, an interruption in the form of a text alert drives her further from a nap. It's Andy, and he's meeting her for lunch. Something she'd forgotten about in the mess of work, something she'll never admit she's putting more than twenty percent of an effort into, but she gets up slowly from the chair in an effort to meet Andy just outside.
He arrives with that silly chest strap he insisted on weeks ago, carrying Roberta in the sling and walking proudly into the department.
"Hey babe," he says to her cheerily, kissing her on the cheek, "you ready?"
"Yeah, just let me get-" April starts but she's cut off when she sees the person standing in front of the permits counter, a seemingly important binder forgotten on it.
Leslie walks forward with one of those grins that's ready to split her face in half, her eyes alight at Andy and the baby. It wasn't that April was hiding the kid or anything, but Leslie had been so insanely busy the previous two months that any chance to even sit down with the three of them wasn't possible. If it was anyone else, April's sure that Leslie would have dropped dead from exhaustion weeks ago.
When she steps in front of Andy, Leslie's still got that irritatingly infectious smile on that April doesn't want anything to do with.
"She's-"
"Adorable, right?" Andy says with a smirk, nodding and unstrapping Roberta for Leslie to hold her.
"She's beautiful, just like her incredible, hard-working mother," Leslie turns to April and her face is still bright with joy at meeting the new member of their family.
"No, stop," April tries but can't keep her lips straight for long watching Leslie staring in awe. "She's way cuter than I ever was."
"So, this must be her," a gruff voice says, Ron stepping out of his office.
Andy beams up at Ron like he's going to explode into an impossible amount of joy, ecstatic at the older man's well-hidden smile. It was so secret that it never made its way on his face, but April knew that look - the slight upward brush of his moustache - and knew what it meant. Leslie hands her off to Ron, who despite his best efforts looks like he'll finally reveal that grin to everyone in the office. Before he can, however, something that sounds eerily like that nonsensical baby gibberish comes out of his mouth and he looks up suddenly.
Ron stares at them like an animal caught out by headlights, as if he never said anything at all.
"Yes, that is indeed a baby," he coughs, returning her to Andy. "She's... well done, you two."
He awkwardly pats Andy on the shoulder before doing a double-take at his door and stalking off to his desk. Leslie still fawned over the baby even as Andy stood there and gave April a look like they needed to get out of there. Something about watching Leslie, a mother of three, still aglow and bubbly over a child was making her obscenely happy in a way April hadn't anticipated before. It was kind of like the feeling that you had actually achieved something, like an actual accomplishment that April could be proud of.
A really smelly, tiny, loud accomplishment that was going to make them even more broke, but it was still pretty great.
"Oh, has Donna seen her?" Leslie says quickly, all that energy April had come to love and respect bowling over in that moment.
"She's seen pictures, but she said she won't ever be holding her," April explains, nodding along with an understanding Leslie before finding her perfect out. "But, she's out for lunch and that's actually where we were just going, so..."
"Oh, I'll let you two go... or you three I should say," Leslie corrects herself and gives the now laughing baby a squeeze of her small, weirdly shriveled hands. "Just remember to actually get someone to file these, because last time I sent any records down here they just ended up on the fourth floor next to a homeless man."
"Got it - set them on fire, then scatter the ashes in one of the Great Lakes," April nods, taking Andy's arm and guiding him out and away from Leslie before she could say anything to April. "We're gonna go to Tom's place and, uh, yeah."
They're definitely not going to miss the deals that Tom drunkenly gave them in writing, after April demanded a contractual agreement, for free have to get to lunch or April might actually send someone to pick up those records and actually do their job. She predicts that, within five years, she'll be department head and succeed where Ron failed in creating a perfectly ineffective governmental body. In addition to the whole raising a child thing, April likes where she sees her life going from there.