Author's Note: Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. This was written in about 10 minutes, so forgive the random ramblingness of it.

Stepping into the lab, Meredith debates gouging her eyes out with pens. She's warned her minions that, under no circumstances, are they to decorate for this ridiculous holiday, but clearly, they either don't listen or they no longer fear her.

That needs to be rectified immediately.

It looks like Cupid has puked all over the work stations. There are frilly pink hearts scattered all along the tables and confetti littering the floors. She's going to murder someone if it's not cleaned up soon.

"Alright," she bellows, hands on her ample hips as she glares around the room. "Whose idea was this?"

Not surprisingly, nobody speaks up, but she will find out and when she does, they will pay. She stands there for a moment, glaring but none of them are making eye contact so she sighs and stomps over to her own workspace. Thankfully, there are no hearts or confetti to speak of in her space, so maybe they are still a little frightened of her after all.

She powers up her computer, doing her best to ignore the excited chattering that commences once they all realize she isn't going to murder them right now. She only catches bits and pieces of their conversations, but from what she's gathered, Sam is as big of a holiday sap as Elizabeth was and has put together some ridiculous Valentine's Day party that's to take place later that night in the Mess.

Ridiculous waste of time, she thinks. She certainly won't be caught dead there.

It doesn't take long for her to bring up her work, but even so, she can't concentrate. She's too busy watching the way everyone is interacting with one another.

Miko casting a shy smile in Simmons' direction.

Simpson giving Zelenka a playful wink. Meredith kind of wants to bleach her brain after that one, because really? Ew.

She doesn't understand what it is about this stupid holiday that makes people go even stupider than usual. It's especially silly because they're in another God-damned galaxy, for Christ's sake. It's a Hallmark Holiday in a world where there's no such thing as a Hallmark store. Ridiculous.

Even so, she can't stop the slight twinge of jealousy as she watches her silly assistants passing homemade cards back and forth to one another while making no attempt at handing her one.

Assholes.

She stands up so abruptly that her stool almost falls to the ground. The room falls silent as they watch, as if waiting to see what she's going to do but she just turns and stalks into her office. She's just about to tap her radio and yell at John for not thinking to throw lavish gifts at her when she spots it.

The flowers are really quite ugly if she's being honest. She recognizes them almost immediately as an assortment from the Athosian settlement and she wonders what he did to talk Teyla into getting them for him.

They're in a standard metal coffee cup full of water, which only adds to the ugliness of the whole arrangement, but even so, she finds herself grinning like an idiot because apparently, he didn't forget after all.

Under the cup, there's gigantic heart shaped card with her name on it and she rolls her eyes fondly as she pulls it out and opens it up.

Meredith-

Happy Valentine's Day.

All my love,

John

PS: Do you like the decorations in your lab? If so, you're welcome. If not, it's all Zelenka's fault.

She should have known that John was behind that.

The sound of the door opening catches her attention and she turns, ready to screech at whoever has dared to interrupt her until she realizes it's just John. He's slouching casually against the doorframe, small box in hand.

"Hey," he greets.

"Idiot," she responds.

"Did you really think I'd forget what today was?" He asked, grinning at her.

"It's a stupid holiday."

"Yeah," he agrees, pushing off from the door frame. "Do you like the flowers?"

"They're hideous."

He kisses her and presses the box into her hands.

"What's this?"

"Open it up," he insists.

She releases a put-upon sigh and lifts the flap, suppressing a laugh when she sees the cupcake.

"I swiped it from the kitchen," he says proudly. "Carter's had the cooks make dozens of them for that stupid party he's throwing tonight so I figured he wouldn't miss one. They're cute, huh?"

"Horrible," she says, plucking the conversation heart off the top. "'Be mine'?" She reads.

John grins. "Thought you'd never ask," he says, leaning into kiss her again.

Meredith figures maybe Valentine's Day isn't so bad after all.