Work In Progress | Ben Wyatt/OC

1 step forward, 3 steps back

(Items written in italics are being spoken to the camera)

Ember Holloway stood in front of the window behind her desk, which sat within the Government Building of Pawnee, Indiana. She stared outside, past the reflection of her brown eyes, past the grey of her blazer, the world and noise behind her fading away as she stared through that glass barricade that kept her from falling down to the ground below. Some days, she had to press her hands to the cool glass just to remind herself it was really there. That she was really there. Today was one of those days. She pressed her palms flat against the glass and closed her eyes for a moment. But only a moment. Because she couldn't ignore the flash of light that had caught before she closed her eyes. She opened them again and looked down at the ring on her finger. The ring that held so much weight for such a small thing.

She closed her eyes again and she was pulled back, back, back. Her body seemed to leave the space completely, as if she weren't in her office at all, as if she weren't in this time at all. As if it were no longer April Ludgate's birthday party, but in fact was several years ago. She could feel the spring breeze on her bare shoulders and could remember where she was when she heard the crash. She opened her eyes again and shook her head. Today was budget meeting day. She didn't have time to be sucked into one of her dark places today. She turned around and caught sight of the camera outside of her office door, watching her. She hated that Ron had approved this idea all those years back, hated that her life was constantly being filmed. But this was where she was now. She had been used to it for far too long.

Ember Holloway was unequivocally the scariest woman to work in the Parks and Recreation department. Probably the scariest woman who worked in government in this small town, if not in all of Indiana. She hadn't always been that way, but she sure was now. With her power suits and long, always perfectly waved brown hair, eyes that could narrow to slits, and heels that could probably stab a man, she could go toe to toe with anyone in this building and never back down. That's what happens to a person when they lose all the things they love so quickly. Now, the things that Ember had left were minimized to one : her job. And so she did what everyone who lost the most important things did. She sunk her heels in and fought, kicking and screaming. Now, she was so deeply invested that she couldn't think about not investing everything into her work. It was what she did.

It helped that Ember was partners with someone like Leslie Knope. Leslie was also deeply passionate about her job, but in a much more...enthusiastic way. She was one of the few happy people that Ember tolerated being around. Perhaps that was because Leslie had been there with her from the start. With Ron's help, they had molded this department to be what it was today. So Leslie got to stay, even when Ember pushed everyone else out. And she knew Leslie would be waiting for her, with Ron, outside of those doors, ready as ever to go present at the meeting. Ember would let her present for the both of them, as she always did. The less talking she had to do, the better.

The thirty three year old brushed her long, brown hair over her shoulder and grabbed a notepad from her desk. If she wasn't going to participate verbally with whatever her partner was about to announce at this yearly meeting, she might as well take notes on what the reactions were. She liked taking notes, always had. It was something she was rather quite good at. She would take her notes, she would type them and email them to Leslie, and save them in the file she always did. Then she would leave the office today and walk out to the Lot she and Leslie had been working on for so long and dream of her plans she had for that space once again. That was how she made herself feel like she was the calm in the storm.

I am only doing this because Leslie asked me to, Ember stares into the camera with her narrow eyes. You know I don't like doing these things. Whatever you want to call this. Our little back and forths. She motioned back and forth between herself and the man behind the camera. It was true, she didn't. They rarely got her in front of the camera.