A/N: This was requested by Lila on AO3 as "more H/C around hurt Andy, maybe something in the hospital."

I guess there are tidbits of stuff from 7x04 in here (at least April's job) but there aren't really any S7 spoilers. Also, some April and Tom stuff because I've been on this streak of "April + x" for a while here so why not?

April can't remember how many times Andy's been in the hospital. He's broken both of his arms multiple times, not at once though, and he actually broke both of his legs at the same time so things got understandably blurry when it came to his medical visits. One time they went in for some routine nonsense, something about yearlies, and she didn't even know he broke his thumb on the sliding doors outside until he mentioned it to the doctor.

Hell, he needed glasses but she already knew that wasn't going to work. Contacts were fine, and she's already used to them so it was a matter of time before Andy would get used to them too, but sometimes she wondered how he got himself into this stuff. Then she remembered him buying a bike only to crash into a car not long after, so April stops thinking about it.

Now that April's finally getting accustomed to her National Parks Service job, whatever the hell a Regional Whateversperson is April still doesn't know, she can finally spend lunch hours sitting around with Andy like old times. His new TV spot as a children's entertainer - how in the world he managed to negotiate that without her around was beyond April's understanding, not that Andy's a moron but he lacks a bit of intuition when it came to that sort of business-savvy thing - wasn't giving him an awful lot of time with recordings to drop on by. April made sure to call Andy's agent and negotiate (or as she would say, threaten and blackmail, but what did that lunatic know?) better afternoon hours.

That meant, eventually, Andy somehow finding his way to a part-time job as an assistant. Again, April's always going to be confused how he lands stuff like this. Then again, she knows he always just needs a push before he tries something. He could be whatever he wanted if he focused hard enough, she knew how weirdly smart he was and his viselike grip his brain had on certain memories and weird factoids, but a minor television celebrity was something completely different.

April has all of these thoughts and more, gross constant thinking, when he doesn't show up for lunch one day. He doesn't show up, none of her texts get answered, and when she calls him his phone isn't even on.

"What the hell?" she mumbles to herself, confused and kind of annoyed. Andy never forgot these things, at least anymore.

Terry happened to overhear her and said something but she mostly ignored that. When April tried to call him again, there was still no response, and something else was starting to seep in - worry. Ugly, unwanted worry. So, like the mature adult she is, April throws her cup of pencils at Terry in frustration.

Again, he says something but she doesn't register any of it. Standing up, she quickly walks out of the department on the third floor into one of the interconnected halls. With her back against a wall, she taps her foot impatiently as yet another voicemail goes out into the ether unanswered, and April has that pang of worry again. Silently, she just wishes that he's okay. As if heeding her mental call, her phone immediately vibrated loudly in her hand.

The number, however, was totally unfamiliar to her. She could only see PAWNEE M- before the scrolling text started and April's too impatient to wait and see who this is.

"Hello?" she growls, squeezing her phone tight because this isn't who's supposed to be calling her right now.

"Mrs. Ludgate-Dwyer?" a very calm, cool voice of an older woman answers her.

And that, something about that voice and the formality of hearing her own name combined with a minor anxiety burrowing in her mind, makes April hesitate to answer for a second. "Yes?" she eventually gets out, like a question because she isn't sure what she's supposed to say. "Yeah, this is... yeah, April speaking." Her mouth is suddenly way too dry and April doesn't like any of this.

Just as she's standing there wondering why breathing is so damn hard all of a sudden, Tom appears from an elevator and greets her. "April, what's ha-"

April puts her hand up and stares at a corner of one of the walls, focusing on the lady on the other end speaking. Something something something - car crash - something, something broken?

Her mind starts running in seventeen different directions, each one just as confusing and terrible, but she can't make out anything that should really be worrying. Just something about staying overnight, and a scan, and that she would have to pick him up. There was something about his car, too, but before she could really explain anything April grabs Tom's arm and makes him drive her to the Medical Center just a few minutes away from City Hall.

Hell, he owes her for the free labor she gave him when the Bistro opened. The least Tom could do was give into her demand that he drive her a few blocks. Her pastiche of fury on April's face was just a well-hidden worry, anyways, so if he did refuse her - which he never did, Tom was a few things but he was always a little meek around strong women - April had no choice other than to beg him. She doesn't have her own car anymore, that stupid laking two years back the culprit, so she needs either him or Terry.

The last thing she's going to do is ask him for help.

The whole drive, Tom kept asking her why she was playing with the strap of her bag. April keeps saying it's nothing, and everything's fine, but he also never asks why they're going to a hospital. There's some bit of tact there and she's happy he isn't making her say anything. When he pulls into the parking lot, Tom turns to her with a curious expression.

She doesn't answer him, instead getting out of the car and walking purposefully inside the large building. When she asks where Andy is, and has to almost fight some stupid nurse because she's his wife not some random person, April turns and sees Tom waiting in a chair. As she moves to a hallway she can hear his stupid shoes clipping all the way as he half-runs to meet her pace. The elevator ride is uncomfortable because someone else is in there with them, but that doesn't stop Tom from being annoying and there.

He doesn't actually say a word, but that doesn't matter. April's supposed to be able to look distraught and uncomfortable with Andy being in a wreck. He's fine, she knows that, but that doesn't mean her heart's beating its normal rate and her hands are sitting comfortably at her sides.

"So what's the deal? Andy break another leg?" Tom half-jokes when they exit the elevator, that small devilish grin on his face.

"Yeah, Tom, that's exactly what happened," April snaps back as she scans a hallway.

He actually looks, if it's even possible, sorry. "Ah," he nods but still follows her. "He's gonna be fine, right?"

"Yes, he's gonna be fine. Why the hell would you ask me that?" April's a little touchy right now. It's only fair. Still, Tom looks like she actually bit back.

Raising his hands defensively, he's quiet when they find Andy's room. The moment she's in, April slams the door in Tom's face and rushes over next to him. There's a little scrape over his right eye and his face is a bit redder than normal, and other than his leg elevated and the big cast on it he looks fine. Like a weight is suddenly lifted off of her, April hurriedly cups his face and kisses him.

"Babe, I was..." April looks around and stares at a nurse until she leaves the room, allowing Tom to squeeze inside, "I was worried."

"Yeah, she almost threw up on my dash," Tom waves his hands and sits down in front of the cot, "it was a bad scene."

"I didn't-"

"Everything's awesome, babe," Andy laughs and the glaze of his eyes suddenly tips April off to how many painkillers he's on. "I can't even feel it. See, look!"

Andy wiggled his leg and for a second she expects him to scream in agony but he only sits there smiling. Tom taps his foot and April turns around with a cold glare, making him root himself back in the chair. Turning back, she gives him another kiss just to make sure he's really there and this isn't some weird, fever dream hyperreality she's caught in. Instead he's just all lovey-dovey eyes and a smirk.

"I love you so much," he murmurs, putting his head back on his pillow. "How'd you get here though? I have an episode to film... I didn't know they cast you...?"

"Just, sh," April quiets him and sits next to him in a chair, giving Tom a look that should have told him to leave but instead he just shrugs. "Well, lemme know if you need something. I'll make Tom go get it. He feels bad about all of this."

"Aw," Andy's mouth is half-open and he's got another small smile, tilting his head to look at Tom, "I didn't know little Tommy was here. He's my best friend, y'know? Not like my best best friend, 'cause that's you babe, but-"

"What?" Tom interjects, but April's giving him that smile that's begging him to question her. Like an intimidated animal, Tom just backs off.

"Yeah, he's a good guy sometimes," April gives him, nodding smugly before turning back to Andy, "is there anything you-"

She intends to ask him something but Andy's asleep. His hand's over the edge of the bed and she puts it back on the covers before standing up and telling Tom he has to get April lunch. If he argues she can pull the distressed wife card, though they both know she won't since April's actually worried, but he doesn't argue. Maybe a few years prior he would argue but she's called him out on owing her something before.

Pawnee's first mogul-turned-errand boy comes back forty-five minutes later with her veggie-fried rice but no egg rolls. He gets the honor of driving Andy back from the hospital, all while April makes him stop and get them more food.

It's a week and April's dropped a lot of that initial fear from the day she went to the hospital. In some weird way she kept expecting people to be lying to her and Andy would be in way worse shape, and other than being high on pain medication there wasn't that much different about him. Hell, that really wasn't that much different than regular Andy. When he gets back home, April watches him struggle with crutches to walk around the house.

He bumps into Champion at one point and almost trips over, but thankfully all that happens is Andy lands face-first on the couch and Champion looks around confused, bumped out of a comfortable sleep, and April laughs at him. There was even a gross, miniscule part of April that kind of wanted to help him but watching Andy struggle to get around and falling over even more was hilarious. It seriously is.

Then he actually falls and screams out, his leg slamming into a half-wall, and she gets that familiar pang of guilt. April helps him up and lets him lean on her as he finds his footing again, and when Andy's standing again he kisses her cheek and calls her the best, seemingly forgetting about being in excruciating pain.

One day she watches him lean against the kitchen counter with a can of soup in his hand. They only just recently bothered with a can-opener, so Andy bought twenty cans of basically anything that needed one.

"You don't really need legs to do that," she explains, commenting on him leaning without his crutches.

"Yeah, but there's, like, ledgering that helps a lot, y'know," he says with a blank look, and April just rolls her lips at the word.

"Sure," she walks over and pulls at the pop-lid, "why'd we even get these?"

"To try out the can-opener," he says like it's obvious.

"You don't use it on the ones with the little lever tops, babe," she's standing there opening a can for him, something a grown man with working hands should be able to do, and April suddenly grimaces. "Ew, what am I doing? You can do this yourself."

"That's... that's what I said?" Andy looks confused but shrugs and pours the cold can of tomato soup out into a bowl.

It falls into the bowl in a disgusting, slimy plop and April turns her nose up. Shaking her head, she takes the bowl from him and dumps it down the sink before he can argue. Throwing the bowl in after the gross, somehow spoiling soup, she quickly pulls out her phone. Ordering two extra-cheese pizzas, she waves Andy off.

When the pizza comes, she gives the delivery guy a dissatisfied look as he looks inside the house. Pushing him away, she closes the door and sits down next to Andy on the couch with the food. Setting it out on the table, she gets the awful, adult plates they still have. It's another ten minutes before Andy speaks up, his face all confusion and unsure movements as he eats.

"Why'd you order a pizza?" he asks like it's some sort of unusual thing that they're eating pizza for the third time that week.

"Dunno, seemed like the thing to do," she shrugs, "why? I was hungry, and so were you."

"Yeah, but I was gonna make some soup," he laughs and points to the kitchen, "but then you threw it away."

"It looked gross and you shouldn't eat that crap," she takes another bite and puts her food down, "do you want something to drink?"

"Why are you acting like this?" Andy pulls his head away from April like she's going to start spewing acid and grow another few extra limbs or something.

April stands up and shakes her head, confused. "Like what?" she wonders what the hell he's talking about. She was thirsty, so why not ask him if he wanted something?

"You're being all... caring," Andy's eyebrows are all bunched together and he still looks unsure about everything, "and you're never like that. Why're you being weird?"

"I just asked you if you wanted some pop?" she lowers her head, angling her neck a bit in confusion.

"Yeah, and you got me food and two days ago you asked me if I wanted to stay in bed all day," he says slowly and without moving his eyebrows back, all bushy and weird still.

"Because sleep's awesome, now do you want something or not?" she says a little too loudly, standing still until Andy nods.

She comes back with two cans. They finish their food in silence and April takes his plate to toss in with the bowl that she might bother to wash at some point in the future. Who knows, dishes were Andy's job and they only got cleaned every once and a while anymore. He was getting better at it, and in a weird way that's kind of awesome to April, but that's out of her train of thought because Andy's still looking at her strangely.

Later that night she watches him get into bed slowly, propping his leg up on a pillow. She nestles into him, definitely not-cuddling but by definition very snuggled up with him, and April almost gets to sleep when the thought hits her that she's been babying Andy. It's so weird and sudden that she almost moves away from him, but his hands are so warm on hers and his body is so comfortable to be smashed up against that she can't.

But, for a second there, April thinks it's kind of weird how caring she's been.

In the morning, she texts Leslie and isn't surprised at all that she answers almost immediately at five in the morning.

An hour later and they're sitting in JJ's, and for a second April wonders what the hell she's doing up. April definitely doesn't wake up early for her job. No, no way. Then again, there have been weeks where she gets up at five and goes in, and God it makes her shudder to think this, early. It helps that Andy's usually awake too, and they're not so boring and old that a little comfortable morning sex and maybe some cuddling is out of the question, but this time she's curious about something.

In front of two plates of waffles, one with quite a bit more whipped cream dumped on top, April speaks up. "Hey, Leslie, this is... stupid," she struggles to figure the words out, "or something, I dunno. D'you remember when Ann and Andy used to date?"

"How long ago was that? Seven years? Holy crap," she takes a bit of her breakfast and makes a pleased, groaning noise before opening her eyes like April wasn't there the whole time. "Sorry, what's this gotta do with the vacant plots at-"

"Nothing, I just needed an excuse to get you to listen to me," April says quickly. "Anyways, you remember how they broke up right?"

"Sure, broken legs and making Ann do all this stuff-"

"He's changed a lot, though," April butts in, like Leslie's personally offending her before the blonde woman nods in agreement. "I just... I feel like the same thing's happening again. Like, almost the exact same thing."

"Broken legs, and he's asking you to do the chores now?" Leslie shakes her head, taking a drink of her coffee (also to the brim and much more with cream, of course). "I think you need to tell him straight to his face that's not how he treats his-"

"Ew, gross. No, I've been willingly doing stuff for him and it's really weird and I'm confused and now you're telling me I'm not supposed to," April runs on and lifts her hands in the air in defeat, "and now I'm really weirded out by all this because I kinda want to do it."

Leslie stops from interrupting and a small smile falls on her face. April's just heats up and it feels so weird to be saying stuff like this, because it's been literal years since anything Ann did ever worried her about her relationship with Andy. Now it wasn't so much she was worried he still had eyes for her - that always makes her laugh, but April doesn't really feel the need to at the moment - but that she's turning into a complicit, even flimsier version of the stupid nurse.

"That's not weird, April," Leslie shrugs and puts her fork down as she folds her hands over, "that's just... y'know, I know you were worried-"

"Shut up," April doesn't like it when somebody else tells her that.

"Either way," she's almost laughing again and April vehemently does not want to smile as well, "don't worry about it. Now, I did make sure to bring all the survey information and-"

April already swiftly moved out of her seat in the booth by the time Leslie mentioned anything about work. That's obviously not the reason she called together this little breakfast. She'll see Leslie at work anyways, and then they can talk about whatever nonsense she's supposed to be in charge of. Truth be told, April still isn't one-hundred percent sure what her job actually is. Whatever, joke's on the government then - she still gets a paycheck.

"Andy," it's only a half an hour after she's home and she wants to sleep but has a few things on her mind from that morning, "we super need to talk."

"One sec, I think I found the perfect leg scratcher," Andy struggles with some and when she looks over at his leg he's got one of Champion's rawhide bones in his hand, scraping the side of his cast. "Yep... ah, yep this one's awesome."

"Dude, just put that down for a second," and he complies like a dog being told to obey. "Have I been weird, lately?"

"I mean, no. You're... uh, you're doing the dishes which is weird because you told me that's what I'm supposed to do," he shrugs and scratches the back of his neck. "You take out the trash and never let me get food or drinks for myself, and last night you just kinda sat in my lap when we did it-"

"Andy," she smacks his arm, "I feel weird about this, don't make me feel weird about sex."

"Gotcha," he nods knowingly and rubs his chin. "I dunno, what's up?"

"I kinda feel like doing all this stuff and it feels like I'm your mom instead of your wife," she grimaces and waves her hands a bit, "ew, no, bad image. I mean, you did this to Ann and she hated you for it and I just don't want to hate you, y'know?"

"You just said you wanted to do it, though... so do you want me to do stuff or should you do stuff? Babe, I'm so confused," he just shakes his head and puts his hands up, "this is why you're the smart one."

"Do you get where I'm coming from, though?"

"Honestly, no... I don't want you to think you have to do stuff like that," he points over to his crutches that have little pillows duct-taped to the pads where Andy said his armpits really hurt. "Babe, stop doing it then. I don't want you to think about it at all. Why are you thinking about this, anyways?"

April keeps her mouth shut before everything comes spilling out in a mess. "Because I was super worried when you were in the hospital and I was just sorta glad that you weren't actually hurt," she shrugs and looks down at the couch, playing with the edge of a cushion. "You're actually... y'know? It's dumb, I don't even know what I'm saying anymore."

"Babe, stop thinking about it. Stop propping my leg up before we go to sleep-"

"Y'know, if I wanted to I could just let you sleep with your leg straight on the bed and uncomfortable," April says with a small smile.

"I know you could, babe-"

"And if you ever treated me like you treated Ann I would-"

"You'd beat the crap out of me, I know," Andy says with a laugh, "maybe not literally... or maybe literally, I'm not sure. You'd definitely be uncool with it, and I don't wanna treat you like that."

"So...?"

"So, I'm gonna enjoy this awesome leg scratcher," Andy picks up the rawhide bone and April chuckles, shaking her head, "while you read and lay down. Here."

He pats his lap and April immediately sprawls out along him, her legs are over his thighs as he continues scratching. She can only laugh while she picks up a book from the stack next to the couch, a pile of unfinished reads she desperately wants to get through before work actually becomes hell for her. So, while she flips a page and listens to her husband scratch his leg with a dog's treat, she wonders how she can make this fun while also still kind of caring about caring for Andy.

In a weird way, it's fun in its own right. Then again, there is a little peg at the bottom of his crutches that would give out pretty easily. She could cook up a way for him to literally fall in bed one night. That could be fun, she thinks with a smirk as she puts the book in front of her face to hide it from Andy.