A/N) Yay, a Nick/Katherine Valentine's Day oneshot! I was contemplating which pairing to do this for, and so it's my new favourite shipped couple featuring in this. Hope you enjoy and Happy Valentine's Day!
It's waiting for her when she enters her office that morning.
Propped up against a half-full mug of cold coffee - damn, she never did get around to drinking that last night - the card sits innocently on the desk, seeming to taunt her with its - pinkness. A bear sits on the front of it, holding a large oversized heart and cheerfully smiling 'Happy Valentine's Day' to all that might walk innocently by.
So that's what day it is, Katherine reflects. Come to think of it, some people had been acting rather - smiley this morning. Zac was always cheerful in one way or another, but yet his happiness seemed to actually be radiating out into the lab this morning. He probably had some large ostentatious romantic surprise planned for Eve's first Valentine's Day, knowing him. Even the usually quiet serious people in the forensics department didn't seem quite so subdued and sullen this morning when she had walked past on her way to her office. Phil had actually been chatting to someone while they worked on something together. And she could have sworn she heard Nick Clarke whistling to himself this morning. Actually whistling.
And then of course, there's the card.
Katherine picks it up rather distainfully, wrinkling her nose as some of the glitter escapes from the writing on the card and seeks to attach itself frantically to every bare surface of her skin and clothing alike, where it will doubtlessly remain engraved for weeks afterwards. Glitter is notoriously difficult to get rid of.
Maybe it's meant for someone else.
Maybe someone thinks this is someone else's office. Somewhat who actually appreciates useless clichéd romantic sentiment such as Valentine's Day cards and the like.
Her doubts are banished to some kitten and rainbow-filled land when she actually opens the card to find her name in neatly typed letters inside, along with a wish that she'll have a happy Valentine's Day and a scrawled x in the corner: the only part of the card that is actually handwritten. She has to admit it's clever, typing the message so she can't try and identify the person by their handwriting. There is no name inside.
Who would send her a Valentine's card?
It had to be someone in the company itself. For one, no-one would have access to her office apart from the higher level employees who work in her particular sector. Also - she doesn't really know that many people outside of work. Her family are all either indifferent or too far away to care about her on Valentine's Day, and she's burnt most bridges with her friends a long time ago. She has quite a few contacts, yes, but no-one who she knows too well or cares about particularly.
Guess it's time for some detective work.
She tries the suspiciously talkative forensics department first, since they're the closest department to her office apart from Nick and Zac's workstation right outside her office. And she would have questioned Nick first if he hadn't been nowhere to be found. Not that she suspects him.
Uncharacteristically, Phil actually grins when Katherine rather haltingly asks her if she knows who could have sent her a Valentine's card. "Ooh, has someone got an admirer?" she wonders aloud, and although no-one directly looks up from their forensics work, she can hear a whisper here and there as Phil practically announces her predicament to the world.
"I don't know," admits Katherine, flushing slightly. "If someone saw fit to send me - me of all people? - a Valentine's Day card, I suppose anything's possible."
"Hey, Katherine, I'm sure you'd get lots of Valentine's cards if you weren't so -" Phil's reassurance trails off as the sharp enquiring look Katherine gives her makes her realise the hole she has dug herself into.
"If I wasn't so -?" Katherine prompts, tilting her head. "What am I, Phil?"
Phil stutters slightly, but manages to regain her composure. "- Prickly?" she decides on cautiously after a moment.
Katherine huffs. Yes she is prickly at times, but she would never get lots of Valentine's cards anyway. She's just not that sort of person. The type with friends. But this time she did get a single card, which in itself is a curiosity.
"I just want to know if you - you know - saw anyone go near my office this morning past your workstation?" Katherine asks, trying to be as discreet as possible and wishing she had never started this now.
Phil considers. "Well, considering it is only 8:37am, and I only arrived here twenty minutes ago, I can't say I have, sorry. Oh, apart from Nick Clarke, though he works down your way anyway so that's not much of a surprise."
"He certainly does," mutters someone under their breath behind her, and Katherine rounds on the rest of the room for that comment, ready to fire someone at the very least. She's in that sort of mood. But everyone's working innocently now, eyes down to their work or their computers, and she can't be bothered to kick up a fuss over a mundane comment like she probably would normally. She's got a card-giver to find, after all.
"Maybe it is Nick, Katherine," Phil suggests, lowering her voice slightly, which Katherine is grateful for. "Have you considered that? You're pretty good friends, after all."
"No. No!" Katherine says vehemently, even as she does so feeling red rise in her cheeks. "I have not considered that, because Nick Clarke would not and does not like me! He's an employee, nothing more. It's a stretch to even say we're friends."
When did she get so certain that Nick hadn't sent her a card?
Phil is still laughing at her, though she's trying to look as serious and calm as possible. "Yes - er, well, since we've apparently completely ruled that particular option out, I'm sorry to say I can't help you, Katherine. Though - I do think you should consider that -"
"I do not like Nick!" Katherine burst out.
The older woman can't hold back a smile. "That - wasn't actually what I was going to say, but sure."
Yep, definitely a few sniggers there around the room. Katherine makes a mental note to cut all of their pay for the next month or so, keep at least some tension in the business. Companies work well with a little bit of tension, after all, and she can't have anyone getting soft, not while they're trying to battle PRICE - and work on this Project Eternity Point 2 in utter secret.
"What are you, Cupid?" Katherine retorts scornfully, trying to hide her embarrassment from the room, before giving up and turning sharply on her heel, leaving the room with as much dignity as she can muster. She's fairly sure they will all burst out laughing once she's safely out of earshot. If she hears them, she will fire them all, she swears.
As she storms back to her office in thoroughly foul mood, she nearly crashes into a similarly hurrying Zac, arms full of what appears to be ... heart-shaped cushions of various shades of pink. As the younger employee realises who it is that he's just narrowly missed, he smiles sheepishly, trying to hide as many of the items behind his back as possible, which is easier said than done with large cushions. "Hey Katherine," he greets.
"I won't even ask what it is you think you are trying to do," sighs Katherine, having already had quite enough of Valentine's Day already, at the early stage of only quarter to nine.
Zac smiles that infectious smile again. "I'm just setting up a Valentine's Day surprise for Eve. Will and Lily said they'd help me. I already booked the morning off if that's okay?"
"I suppose it'll have to be," grunts Katherine, rolling her eyes, before pushing past the cushion-clad boy as she heads with renewed vigour to her office. She's in no mood to quiz Zac as to whether he's seen anyone near her office. Zac smiles brightly at her and practically skips off the opposite direction, looking ridiculous with his large load in his arms.
Once safely back in her office, Katherine sinks back down into her comfortable desk chair, glaring half-heartedly at the card still resting innocently on her desk. Taking an automatic sip from her coffee cup - then coughing and spitting it out, she had forgotten that it was cold - she sighed irritably. Mystery unsolved and mood definitely dampened. What a great start to the morning. And Zac's taking a half day to surprise his artificial girlfriend while Nick is nowhere to be found.
There's only one thing for it.
Katherine begins to type on her keyboard, quickly bringing up the cameras that revolve up in and outside her office and searching though the footage since this morning. It had to be before 7:15, when she arrived, as she went straight to her office when she arrived this morning, as she does most mornings really. Who has she got to talk to? So she speeds backwards from 7:15, watching like a hawk for any evidence as to her mystery Valentine's identity.
It turns out no-one came into her office this morning, so Katherine's queries to the forensics team were useless. Fantastic. She did all that that for nothing. But as she speeds backwards through the early hours of the morning and into last night, suddenly she sees movement and her fingers stabs down on the pause button, halting the footage dead at 10:21pm.
The face is unmistakeable of the person making their way into her office.
And it's the last person she had expected.
Katherine steps out of her office, her high heels clicking softly on the tiled floor as she searches the workplace with a raking glance. If her colleague isn't here, she's fairly sure she knows where he'll be. So, collecting the card and trying to touch as little of its actual surface as possible so she doesn't get completely glittered, Katherine stalks through the corridors, noting the chatter from the forensics department and updating her mental note accordingly.
Nick is bent over a computer in the advanced testing lab where they usually run tests on Eve, running a diagnostic on a couple of the data sets to see if they correlate. Katherine walks in and Nick looks up in surprise, his eyes widening slightly as he sees Katherine holding the card and looking at him pointedly.
"Good morning, Katherine," Nick offers hopefully.
Katherine doesn't know whether to shout or smile at his nervous look. "Nick," she greets curtly. "It's - Valentine's Day today."
"Yes," her employee agrees weakly, clearly unsure where this is going.
"Did you -" Katherine hesitates slightly, then continues. She doesn't hesitate - ever. Especially not where Nick is concerned. "Did you leave this card on my desk?"
Nick swallows, unsure what to answer. With Katherine you sometimes have to try and second guess what her reaction will be to what you say, so you can make the right choice to keep your job. Luckily Katherine beats him to it. "Don't bother lying, since I saw you on the CCTV cameras in my office at 10:21pm last night."
"You hacked into the CCTV?" Nick enquired, looking quite understandably confused.
"I didn't "hack" into the CCTV cameras in my own office," Katherine argues, making quotation marks in the air. "For one thing, they're my CCTV cameras. It's my company. And it's my office. So I accessed them. No hacking was necessary."
"Still, it's still kind of cheating, isn't it?" Nick wonders aloud.
"Cheating? In what way?" Katherine tilts her head in inexplicable curiosity.
"Well, the whole idea of Valentine's cards is that you don't know who's sent them," Nick explained, dimly aware that he had already had this conversation once this week with Eve, who had been fascinated by the prospect and demanded to know everything about it, then proceeded to go and try and explain it all again to her boyfriend. "You try and work it out. You don't tend to get evidence on who it was, hunt them down then demand that they admit to doing it."
"Don't try and evade the question, Nick. In fact, I've no idea why I'm actually asking you the question. I already have CCTV footage as clear evidence that you did."
"See what I mean?" Nick can't help but point out.
Katherine flashes him a look, before looking again at the card, still held in her hand. And is it just Nick's imagination, but is that a flicker of a smile across her closed expression?
"Do you - I mean -" Nick stutters. "Did you - um -"
Katherine doesn't know when she decides to like Valentine's Day, but it's then that she rolls her eyes and meets Nick's own warm brown irises. Why can just one shade of brown contain so many different colours within it? "Yes, I like it, okay?" she blurts without really meaning to say anything. "Is that what you wanted to hear? Although seriously, why is so much glitter really necessary on anything?"
Nick smiles suddenly, and a real, genuine, unforced smile is rare from him, especially in her direction. She's seen him exchange those sorts of warm smiles with his son and Eve, but it's the first but it makes Katherine almost smile back. Almost.
As they're standing in sudden companionable silence, Nick wondering whether or not to breach the gap between them as Katherine looks faraway as she stares at the ground, Nick finally manages to meet her eyes again. However Katherine quickly lowers them furtively, and Nick can't help but feel curious. His boss normally never hesitates to say anything, since she doesn't usually particularly care about other peoples' feelings when she says what she thinks. "Katherine?" he asks. "Is there something wrong?"
Wrong? No. Nothing seems all that wrong when you're here, Nick. Katherine makes a sudden, reckless decision and reaches inside the pocket of her blazer, bringing out a thin oblong object and hesitating once again - stop hesitating, Katherine! - before silently passing it to Nick, who takes it in confusion, his eyes widening for the second time in so many minutes as he sees what his boss has just handed him, reading the neatly written text inside.
Happy Valentine's Day, Nick.
Phil smiles from her position concealed behind the nearby wall as she sees Nick and Katherine talking quietly, which is about as far as Katherine gets to being relaxed with anyone. And the biggest thing that she notices?
Katherine is actually smiling.
Katherine is in complete denial. And Phil is the ultimate fangirl - determined to get Nick and Katherine together. A scary combination. Please review!