Hey guys, this is my Morganders Valentine's story for this year! It's a little long for a one shot, but I didn't want to split it into two chapters, so I'll just stop talking now and say: hope you like it! ;)
A wish upon a star
"Come on, ring!" Morgan stared at her phone, hoping it would actually make it ring. She and Greg had been working on a case for four days now, narrowing down their suspect list from twenty… to zero. They had just found their victim's car, which could possibly contain some new evidence, but they had to wait for it to be brought in.
"You know that won't actually work, right?" Greg sat down next to her, smiling at her. She looked up at him, giving him an 'I-know-but-I-don't-know-what-else-to-do' look, making him grin.
"You're right!" he nodded and he started staring at her phone as well. Morgan was so focused on her phone she didn't even notice how close he was or that his hand was on her back.
"Hey, guys, you never… Oh!" Finn entered the breakroom, looking very excited, but her voice trailed off when she saw them. "Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt!"
Morgan frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"Oh, well, you two looked so cozy and comfy, I didn't mean to… interrupt something," Finn said with a big smile.
"We're just waiting for Morgan's phone to ring," Greg explained the situation. Morgan only realized now what it must have looked like to Finn, but she decided not to give the older CSI anything to tease them with by changing the subject: "What's with that red rose you got?"
Finn indeed had a red rose in her hand, which she now proudly held up. "I have a date for Valentine's Day!"
Morgan immediately returned her attention to her phone, while Greg simply said: "Congratulations."
Finn tried to catch Morgan's eye. "What? Aren't you happy for me?"
Morgan looked up and smiled at her. "Of course I am, it's just… Well, you having a date is not that special since you have one every week…"
"True," Finn agreed with a grin, making Morgan smile again as well before she continued: "And other than that, I just don't like Valentine's Day, so your date isn't really that big of a deal to me…"
Finn stared at her, her mouth almost open. "Wait! I did not just hear that right! How can you not like Valentine's Day?"
Morgan looked up from her phone and shrugged her shoulders. "I just don't, okay? It's a stupid day where people are being forced to be romantic all of a sudden and buy each other expensive presents."
She didn't notice Greg's face suddenly seemed a lot paler than usual.
"Well, that's the beauty of it!" Finn called out. "Having guys go through all the trouble of trying to create a romantic date or finding the right present…"
"Romantic date?" Morgan repeated. "How can a date be romantic when you're in a crowded restaurant with fifty other couples around you? And finding the right present… I think that choice is pretty easy as all the ad campaign creators already made that choice for them! Take that red rose for example. How much time do you think your date spend to choose it? Everyone around him has already decided for him he has to get you a red rose!"
"They say red roses are romantic…" Even the always confident Finn seemed to consider Morgan's words now. Next to Morgan, Greg was still paler than usual.
"Well, they remind me of blood," Morgan simply said. "I hate red roses!"
"Oh, come on, are you telling me that if a guy walked in here with a huge bouquet of red roses with a card saying 'Will you be my Valentine?' you'd send him away?" Finn called out. Morgan made a face at her. "That'll never happen!"
"Excuse me…" Greg got up and quickly left the breakroom. Finn watched him leave before she turned to Morgan again. "Come on, what if Greg walked in here with a bouquet of red roses? Would you send him away?"
Morgan couldn't help but blush a little. She tried to hide it by repeating what she had said before: "That'll never happen."
Finn moved her chair a little closer to Morgan's and lowered her voice. "Come on, Morgan, please tell me why you don't like Valentine's Day. I know you love romantic movies and stories, so I'm not falling for this 'I hate Valentine's Day'!"
Morgan sighed before she admitted: "I've never had a real Valentine's Day, that's why I don't like it. The only time I had a date on February 14, the guy took to me to see an action movie, made me pay for my own popcorn and then afterwards he took me to this pizza place where the bottom of the pizza was black and the cheese on top hadn't even melted. He didn't have enough money to pay for our pizzas, so he asked me to pay for them instead."
She looked directly at Finn. "I just got up and left him there."
Finn grinned at her. "Nice! And I guess I understand why you don't like Valentine's Day now, but… you never know, this year might be different!"
Morgan's phone buzzed to let her know their car was ready. She grabbed her phone and got up. "I highly doubt that! But I do hope you have fun at your date, although I have a feeling you will…"
"I always have!" Finn grinned. Morgan rolled her eyes. "My point exactly! Now excuse me, I have to go find Greg!"
She left the breakroom and started looking for Greg. To her surprise she found him at the reception… accepting a huge bouquet of red roses from a girl she didn't know. When he saw her, his face turned bright red.
"Morgan, this isn't what it looks like!" he stuttered. Oh, no? she thought. Her eyes caught the card attached to the bouquet, which read 'Will you be my Valentine?' She tried to remain calm as she said: "Our car's ready. I'll meet you there."
She turned around and left, not sure about how she was supposed to feel. How could it not be what it looked like? Greg obviously just got a bouquet of roses from a girl who wanted him to be his Valentine. How could it be anything else? Morgan thought about what Finn had said earlier about Greg giving her roses. Her 'That'll never happen!' seemed more right now than ever.
She shook her head as she put on some gloves. She and Greg weren't even dating, then why did the roses bother her so much? He had every right to get roses from another girl! In spite of that thought she couldn't help but feel terrible as she started taking photos of the car. She had always been sure he liked her, then how could he accept flowers from someone else? A few tears escaped from her eyes, but she quickly pushed the rest back as she heard footsteps down the hall.
"Morgan, I…" Greg started as he entered the garage, but she immediately cut him off: "I already took photos of every inch. Can you take the backseat? I'll take the front."
If he'd start apologizing or saying things to try and make her feel better she'd definitely start crying!
"O… kay…" Greg grabbed a pair of gloves, but suddenly stopped and breathed in through his nose a few times. "Do you smell that?"
What, red roses? she thought. Then she suddenly knew what he meant. She pointed at the trunk of the car. "Open it!"
As soon as he had, the smell got worse. Covering her nose and mouth as she looked down at the dead body in the trunk of the car, she managed to say: "I'll go and get David."
She hurried out of the garage and rushed downstairs to the morgue. She found David in one of the autopsy rooms.
"David, I…" Surprised she stared at the huge bouquet of red roses that was on the desk next to the door. That was the bouquet she had seen Greg with! She recognized the card with 'Will you be my Valentine?' on it, there was no doubt about this being the same bouquet. She stared at David. "Where did you get that?"
"Oh, Greg gave it to me," David told her. "He told me to give them to wife."
What? What was going on here? Morgan didn't know what to think or believe anymore. Why would Greg give a bouquet of red roses to David to give to his wife?
"Look, Morgan, was there anything special? I'm kinda busy," David softly said.
"Oh, yeah, we found a dead body in the trunk of a car in our garage," she quickly told him.
"Let me just grab my things, then I'll come up with you," David said. While he gathered his things, Morgan couldn't help but stare at the red roses. Really, what was going on?
She and David left the morgue together and went back up to the garage.
"Hey, I heard…" David started, but Morgan interrupted him by looking at Greg directly and asking him: "Why did you give those red roses to David to give to his wife?"
Greg's face turned bright red for the second time that shift. He stuttered a few things that didn't mean anything to Morgan while he seemed to look more uncomfortable every second. Suddenly, she felt angry.
"You know what?" she said, throwing her gloves in the nearest trash can. "Forget it, I'm outta here!"
She turned around and walked away angry. Who was this Greg and what had he done to the sweet, caring Greg she had been in love with for such a long time? This definitely wasn't the Greg she thought she knew!
As she gathered her things from her locker, Finn appeared.
"What's going on?" she wanted to know.
"I'm going home, tell Russell I'm not feeling well," Morgan almost snapped at her. Finn raised her eyebrows. "What's going on?"
"Nothing, I…" Morgan's anger disappeared when she saw Finn's worried look. With a sigh she told Finn about the roses and Greg's weird behavior. Finn sympathetically wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I'm sorry, Morgan, I don't understand why he's acting so weird either. You go home and try to forget about him, okay?"
Try to forget about him… The words kept echoing in Morgan's ears as she drove home and crawled into bed. Yeah, right, as if she could ever forget about Greg!
The next afternoon she woke up still feeling angry. Okay, so she and Greg weren't dating, but how could he hurt her feelings like this? He was always there for her, always trying to protect her and make sure she was fine, this was nothing like him!
She tried to forget about him for a while by watching a few movies, but everything just seemed to remind her of him. The doorbell interrupting actually made her feel happy… until she saw it was Greg.
"Hey, you ready?" he said. She frowned. "Ready for what?"
"Russell texted me, telling me to pick you up," Greg told her. "Triple homicide."
Well, at least three dead bodies would take her mind off of the fact that this was turning out to be another horrible Valentine's Day!
"Give me two minutes," she said to him. She rushed over to her bedroom, quickly changed, fixed her hair and grabbed her things. She checked her phone, but Russell hadn't texted her.
She kept checking as Greg started driving, not paying any attention to the things around them. Only when she realized they had left the city she looked up from her phone. "Isn't CSI back that way?"
"I'm going straight to the scene," Greg told her.
"I don't have my kit!" she reminded him.
"Don't worry, I've brought my spare one," Greg reassured her. She nodded before looking out of the window again. Where on earth were they? Everything around them was dark, she couldn't even see any other cars.
Suddenly, Greg stopped. "We're here, we'll have to walk the rest."
Morgan got out of the car and looked around. Where were they supposed to go? She couldn't see any lights from police cars or anything!
"Start walking straight ahead, I'll grab the kits," Greg said. Using her phone as a flash light she started walking slowly, waiting for him to join her. This wasn't an area where she wanted to walk around alone!
After walking through the sand and darkness for a few minutes her flash light suddenly lit up something other than sand and rocks. When she got closer, she saw it was a blanket with a bouquet of wild flowers on it. Surprised, she turned around to look at Greg. He smiled at her, the warm, loving smile she knew so well.
"Happy Valentine's Day, Morgan," he whispered. Completely speechless she stared from the flowers to Greg and back.
"I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings yesterday," he softly said, putting down their kits. "Those red roses I got were for you, that girl you saw was a delivery girl. When I heard you hated red roses, I tried to cancel the delivery, but I was too late. I didn't want to throw them away, so I gave them to David to give to his wife as he was the only one I could think of who had someone to give them to, other than Russell, who I didn't want to get involved. I didn't say anything when you asked me about them in the garage because David was there as well and I didn't feel like explaining everything in front of him…"
He gave her an apologetic look. "I'm really sorry, Morgan, I never meant to hurt you! I just wanted to surprise you with an amazing Valentine's Day, but I got scared when I heard you say you didn't like it…"
"What made you change…" Morgan started asking him, but she already knew the answer: "Finn talked to you, didn't she?"
Greg nodded. "Yeah, she told me why you didn't like Valentine's Day. I was kinda hoping I could change your mind…"
He opened the two kits he had brought. Instead of containing crime scene tape and powders they had some glasses, a bottle of wine and some boxes with food in them. Greg picked up the flowers from the blanket and held them up. "I hope you'll like these better than red roses…"
Smiling, she accepted them. "They're beautiful!"
Her anger had long disappeared, this was the Greg she knew and had fallen in love with again! Still smiling, she sat down next to him on the blanket and took the glass he handed her. Greg quickly unpacked all the food and they started enjoying their little picnic in the middle of the desert.
"How did you find this place?" Morgan wanted to know after they had eaten most of the food.
"Oh, my car broke down here once, I had to wait hours before I got help," Greg told her. "I just sat out here and looked at the stars, they're so beautiful!"
She looked up and realized he was right. Her eyes still on the sky, she carefully lay down on her back. Greg lay down next to her, his hand softly touching hers. Feeling warm and happy she looked at the sky, noticing a falling star.
"Make a wish," Greg whispered next to her. She smiled. She already knew exactly what to wish for!
"Done," she said, turning her head towards him. Her eyes locked with his and she felt her heart starting to beat faster. Slowly, he moved towards her. When his lips touched hers, she forgot about everything around her. This felt so good and so right!
"Thank you," she whispered when they broke apart.
"For what? A real Valentine's Day?" he whispered back. She shook her head, moving closer to him again. "No. For making my wish come true!"
And she kissed him again, knowing that from now on every Valentine's Day would be special.