Disclaimer: Don't own anything. CBS owns it all... everything... including my social life apparently as I'm writing this fanfic of their TV show on Valentine's Day.

Dedicated to all of the obsessed Hiphuggers out there! ALMOST CANON! YAY!

The Power of Flowers

This was the worst Valentines Day ever for one CSI Eric Delko. And the cause of such pain? Flowers. Roses to be precise. Someone had sent Calleigh roses on Valentines Day and that someone was not Eric Delko, and he was determined to figure out exactly who that person was. Eric had been peaking out from behind a corridor wall near reception, waiting for Calleigh to discover her flowers. With some luck, she would chat to the receptionist and Eric, using his well-practised skill of eavesdropping, would hear the man's name mentioned. That was the plan, anyway.

Ryan walked up beside Eric, baffled by his friend's behaviour. "Hey man, what are you doing?"

"Waiting." Eric replied, not even glancing away from reception to acknowledge Ryan was there.

"Waiting for what? It looks like you're spying to me!" Ryan said, grinning slightly. Eric peering out from behind a wall looked rather amusing.

"Calleigh got flowers." Eric replied, trying to sound nonchalant.

"She did? From whom?" Ryan's curiosity was now building up. Calleigh kept her personal life rather quiet, but as far as Ryan knew, she wasn't dating anyone.

"I don't know. That's why I'm waiting for her to come and get them. Hopefully she'll say the guys name out loud."

"And then what?" Ryan asked, grinning at his friend. He knew about Eric's crush on Calleigh. He knew how this flower thing would be bugging him until he found out from whom they were sent. "Are you going to pay the guy a visit? Confess your undying love to Calleigh?" He joked.

Eric shot Ryan a dirty look then continued his watch on the reception desk. It seemed everyone knew he at least had a crush on Calleigh. Even Calleigh knew, but Eric doubted he knew that his affection for her went far beyond a crush. Eric didn't really know what he would do. He so desperately wanted to tell Calleigh the truth. He wanted to tell Calleigh that he'd been in love with her since the day he met her, but, so far, he'd never had the nerve. Noticing Ryan was still expecting an answer, "I don't know! Does it matter what I will do with that information? I just want to know, that's all." He snapped at him.

"Hey, no need to get nasty." Ryan said, throwing his hands up in defence. They watched and waited in companionable silence for a while. "Eric, how do you know Calleigh won't come down this corridor to get to reception?" Ryan asked, breaking the silence as he glanced behind his shoulder nervously.

"Because the other corridor is the quickest route from reception to the Firearms Lab." Eric explained.

"Oh, I didn't think of that." Ryan said as he went back to watching the reception area.

"Working hard, boys?" Someone said in a cool voice behind them. Ryan and Eric swirled around to meet Horatio's face only to find their boss's eyebrow raised in amusement.

"Hi H, we're just… um…" Ryan stuttered, not sure whether his boss would appreciate the reason behind their surreptitiousness.

"Trying to figure out who sent Calleigh those flowers for Valentines Day?" Horatio filled in the rest of the question. "There's no name on the card." He added, watching as Ryan and Eric shared a look. "I had a glance while I was getting my messages from reception." He explained.

"Ah, I should have thought of that when I got my messages! I just asked who they were for then left. That's some good detective work there, H!" Eric joked as they all peered from behind the wall to wait for Calleigh to retrieve her flowers. How much longer were they going to keep up this spying business for?

All of a sudden the sleuthing gang heard the familiar click clack of Calleigh Duquesne's high-heeled shoes on the hard floor behind them. The three of them quickly averted their gaze from reception to each other, pretending to discuss a case.

"Now, now, what would three fine gentleman like yourselves be doing hanging around a hallway looking suspiciously like they were spying on someone… or something?" Calleigh said in her thick Southern drawl. "What are y'all up to?"

"Nothing, nothing at all Calleigh!" Eric gushed, guilt written all over his face. Now why did she have to suddenly change her normal route on this particular day at this particular time? And why did he know Calleigh's normal route from Firearms to Reception? He had to talk to her!

"Well then, I'll just be leaving you boys to look guilty! I'm going to get my messages." She said, and left the boys standing there. They all peered past the wall, watching as Calleigh found her flowers and heard her exclaim "Oh, roses on Valentines Day! How sweet!" to the receptionist. They all ducked back behind the wall as Calleigh glanced over at them, a cheeky smile lighting up her face.

Horatio, Ryan and Eric turned back to each other. "Dammit, she didn't mention who they were from!" Eric sighed; his plan had gone completely down the drain. He had to know who they were from! Could he compete with them for Calleigh's affections? Was it Jake? It had better not be Jake. "Well, I guess I'll just have to go ask her myself!" Eric said, leaving the other two to stare after their colleague as he walked past reception in search of the southern belle.

Eric found Calleigh in the break room, putting her flowers in a vase. "Calleigh," He said, he loved to say her name, "Those are some nice flowers you've got there." He said, attempting to sound casual. He failed miserably.

"Oh, aren't they?" She exclaimed with delight, looking at the large bunch. There must have been at least a dozen red roses in that vase.

"Um… who are they from?" He asked, not sure of whether he'd crossed the boarder of privacy that Calleigh usually kept around her. She didn't turn around and glare at him, so Eric assumed he was in safe waters.

"Well, that's for me to know, and you to find out!" She said with mock mysteriousness, shooting an amused glance at him. "Why do you want to know? Are you jealous?" She asked, half chuckling as she added water to the vase.

Eric didn't really know what to do. He was jealous. But most of all he was angry with himself. He'd passed opportunities by to ask Calleigh out on dates so many times and now she had someone in her life and he was too late. "Well… yes, I am jealous." He finally stated, his tone dripping with nervousness. "It should have been me who sent you those flowers. I should have been your Valentine. And it was stupid of me to have thought you'd still be single long enough for me to ask you!"

Calleigh stopped chuckling and turned to face Eric. "Eric," she practically whispered his name, her cheeky smile now wiped from her face only to be replaced by a look of longing. "I don't know what to say." She glanced down at the floor, her cheeks beginning to flush.

"Calleigh, I don't know who this guy is who sent you those flowers," Eric started, now was his time to finally tell the truth. "But I know they can't, nor could they ever love you as much as I do." Eric finally proclaimed.

With that, Calleigh looked up into his eyes and smiled. Her eyes welled with tears as she melted with every word of his confession. "I've waited so long for you to say that!" She breathed, a smile creeping onto her face. He leant down and kissed her softly on the lips as they wrapped their arms around each other. It was perfect. She was perfect. Everything in the world finally made sense.

Eric pulled back first, hardly believing his luck. Not only had he just professed his love for Calleigh, but she had also returned it! He wanted to say something beautiful to her, recite some soppy Valentines Day love poem but all he could think to do was to lean down and kiss her again. When they pulled back from their embrace for the second time they saw Horatio, Alexx, Natalia and Ryan standing outside the glass break room door, clapping at them and grinning from ear to ear.

Calleigh felt her cheeks flush even more as Horatio came into the room. "Okay you two, you know the drill; I'm fine with this as long as it doesn't interfere with your jobs." Horatio stated, smiling at them. "Alright, now… I do believe… you both have cases to solve." He added and left the room.

"At least we don't have to do the whole 'Hey Horatio, I'm dating Calleigh!' speech to deal with." Eric said optimistically as Calleigh's embarrassment subsided and her cheeks returned to a normal shade.

"Yeah, if I'd known everything would turn out this well then I wouldn't have waited until today to send myself flowers!" Calleigh said, that cheeky grin returning to her face as she looked up at Eric.

"You sent yourself those flowers? There was never even another man? This was all a trick to get me to confess my feelings for you?" Eric said exasperatedly. All of that jealousy and there was no one to be jealous of!

"Maybe!" She grinned slyly. "But aren't you glad that I did?"

"It's the best thing I've ever been tricked about!" Eric replied, returning the grin. He leant down and kissed her once more before, savouring the moment before going back to their busy work.

THE END!

A/N: HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYONE! Hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to review, constructive criticism, etc etc... it would be much appreciated! kthnxbai