A/N: Requested by Rotashark on ffnet as "A/A interaction with Ben around S4."

The last thing Ben needs is to miss work.

He's been all sorts of a mess for weeks about this whole thing and he just wants to take a hot shower, get into some mildly uncomfortable clothes, go stare at spreadsheets and make phone calls for eight hours, and leave. Work is like a strange relaxant for him, because for one reason Ben simultaneously hates being there - Leslie - there is another reason for why he loves being there, also Leslie. But now? Now, he's got none of that. He's just a slouch on a couch watching yet another Doctor Who DVD because he's bored out of his mind and there's nothing better to do.

Also, he's pretty sure he doesn't want to go in the bathroom yet. Every once and a while a little noise escapes and he takes a deep breath, considers double homicide, and then groans. He lifts up the remote again, turns the volume as high as it'll go on the crummy TV, and sighs again.

When they leave the bathroom, and yes they leave the bathroom and don't even seem to care that Ben's around (though he does notice April walks with Andy mostly covering her even though she's clearly fully dressed again), he gets up to go take his turn.

"Sorry dude, all the hot water's out," Andy shrugs.

Ben tries to think up something clever to say in his growing agitation. All that comes out is another deep sigh.

"Yeah, we used up all of it," April says and stares up at her husband. Ben kind-of wants to throw up.

"So, um, yeah. Sorry, bro!" Andy taps his shoulder playfully and Ben slumps his shoulders.

"Gross," April scrunches her nose up at Ben.

"What?" he finally asks, his voice grouchy and tired and all sorts of unused to being used.

"You're depressed," she says, pointing at him as if convicting him of a crime.

"No I'm not," he deflects instantly but doesn't mind letting the thought getting into his head.

"Are too," April fires back childishly. Ben has no answer for that.

"You should, like, take a super long bath. Or, oh! You can, like, eat a bunch of ice cream or mac n' cheese and cuddle... that always works fo- ow!" Before he can finish, April smacks his arm. "I mean, I hear it's nice."

"Sure," Ben nods, confused. He glances at April who only gives him a brief flicker of a look, but the red-hot daggers there tell him to look away. A little scared, and mostly tired, he returns to Andy. "Did you guys at least do the towels last night?"

"Oh, yeah!" Andy has that same, toothy look of exasperation whenever he forgets something. "Babe, I told you we forgot something."

"We didn't forget it, I just thought it was lame," April taps his arm with her whole right side and looks absolutely bored of this conversation.

"Yeah, but we already did ours and we didn't do Ben's!" Andy points out. Ben figures that April already knew that.

"Yeah, well... whoops," April lifts her hands up in defeat and then takes one of Andy's in hers. With their matted, crazy wet and still a little sudsy hair, and a smile, they head off to the bedroom to go negate the whole point of the shower.

Ben goes and finds his noise-cancelling headphones, lies down on the couch, and mouths the words to a few episodes before he drifts off to a rather lethargic, short nap. At least, he thinks, he doesn't have to hear whatever is going on in the bedroom. The worst that can happen is Champion bounding over to him and licking his face or whining because he's not up on the couch with Ben. Really, as far as Ben is concerned, Champion is the most sane person in the Ludgate-Dwyer family.