AN - This is just a bit of fun for Valentine. It was pointed out that John wouldn't be that retarded, and I have to agree. It was a simple device to allow for a moment of dawning realisation.

Valentine

Feb 12

Location - 'Empty Vase Florists'

"I'd like to arrange a delivery of Valentine flowers, please" John gives the address and requests that they put a poem in the flowers, he dictates the poem, so that the recipient doesn't recognise his hand writing....

You're in my thoughts and in my heart
Wherever I may go;
On Valentine's Day, I'd like to say
I care more than you know.

With that done, he returns home in a much happier mood. He had been worrying about this for a few days. He hadn't been able to get away on his own, and thought that he would never get the surprise arranged.

Feb 13

Sarah walks down the stairs to find John in the kitchen, at 8:30am. He is preparing breakfast. 8:30am........on a Saturday? Later she notices that his whole demeanour is wrong. He is far too......happy, like the cat that got the cream. Eventually one of those annoying radio adverts breaks through her mental firewall. It's a particularly obnoxious one about Valentine cards.....Valentine?....'No, he couldn't, could he?'

John is fully occupied with his gun cleaning in the dinning room, Sarah sneaks up to his room. "Where would a teenage boy hide a Valentine card?" Having exhausted all the ideas that her limited window of time allows, she gives up and grabs his dirty clothes off the floor. Laundry time. Back in the kitchen she shakes her head in annoyance at the obviously still occupied pockets in his jeans. Handkerchiefs, money, sweet wrappers, receipts, keys.......wait, 'receipts'.....She finds the $35 receipt from 'The Empty Vase'......'Why, the little.....'

Sarah calls the florists from the safety of the garage. "Hello. If I give you a receipt number could you give me the details of the order, please?"

"No we couldn't do that. I'm sorry madam"

"Firstly, I'm not a madam. Secondly, you allowed a teenage boy to use 'my' credit card to pay for some criminally overpriced flowers. Now I suggest you give me the name and address of the recipient, or I will report you for wilfully accepting illegal payments"

The assistant acquiesced to Sarah's demand. "Thank you. Cancel the order and keep the money" with that she hung up. "So that's why you're so happy is it John? You think you can romance 'tin miss', well not while I have breath in my body. It will be interesting to see if you're so happy tomorrow"

Feb 14

Cameron stands in the lounge looking out of the main window. Every now and then she turns her head to look out of the little window by the front door. Sarah notices this but shrugs it off 'Who knows what goes on inside a cyborg's head'.

John is lurking in the lounge, waiting for his Valentine surprise for Cameron to arrive. He keeps imagining her response. He knows she won't be all "Oh wow, they're beautiful John, thanks, *kiss kiss kiss*, oh look, a card. Ooh John, I love you John." No, that would be far too weird. The most he is hoping for is a slight smile, that is deliberately hidden from Sarah. The hidden smiles and touches are the ones he gives most importance to. Like that time when they were investigating Vic's files. Cameron winked at him as she was leaving, and she was careful to hide it from Sarah who was standing right there.

Shocked out of his reverie by a heavy knocking on the door, John makes sure he gets there before Sarah does.

"Delivery for a John Baum"

John's smile instantly drops 'Oh no, the shop got it wrong' he thinks. Then he notices the huge Teddy Bear under the guy's arm. In a daze he signs for the Bear, and is given a card, in a sealed envelope.

Sarah makes a grab for the envelope, but John is back in the world and pulls it out of harms way. "Is your name John Baum?"

"No, but neither is yours"

"Touché, but you're still not reading it"

"Fine" and Sarah moves off into the kitchen.

John looks round to find Cameron, she's not there. She has slipped away unnoticed. He opens the envelope and removes the contents, there is a poem on the card......

I am different from the rest,
I know that you're impressed.
You're not sure how you feel,
Not sure if this is real.
I'll make you want me more,
I will be 'your' bitch-whore.

* from an admirer *

You are my reason to be,
You complete me.

'What a weird poem' he thinks to himself. Finally he thinks of Cameron, and how she disappeared when the delivery turned up. 'I hope she wasn't upset by this.' Finding the door to the garden isn't closed fully he goes through it, and there is Cameron....with her back to the house.

"I wanted to surprise 'you' with a delivery, but....., I dunno, I think I've been sabotaged". Missing a faint smile that spreads across Cameron's lips, he looks over his shoulder at Sarah. Sarah, who is doing her best to hide the fact that she is spying on them, and failing miserably. John is determined to make sure Cameron knows that he hasn't been leading any girls on. "I wonder who arranged this?.....wait.....this has 'Morris' written all over it"

"It does?"

"yeah......." realising the 'literal' meaning John rephrases "No.......not 'actually' written on....anything. It means, I think I know that Morris sent this."

"Do boys normally send each other gifts like this?"

"What?.....No.....well.....yes, some 'pretty' boys will. But this sort of thing is a joke, they send the Valentine gift to make some poor guy think he's got a secret admirer when he hasn't. Then they sit back and watch him make an idiot out of himself trying to track her down."

"That doesn't seem like much of a joke"

"It isn't, believe me". John stares at the ground, and appears to be lost in thought, reliving memories that he would rather forget.

The resulting silence is broken by Cameron "Morris didn't send this".

The confused expression on John's face prompts her to elucidate "He doesn't know where we live"

"Oh, right", John remembers the decision to exclude Morris from the house, due to Morris' constant mental undressing of Cameron.

"Did I see a card?"

"Yeah, someone went to a lot of trouble with this. The quality of penmanship is superb, the wording of the poem.....not so much"

John found Cameron's terse "Show me", to be quite.......well he wasn't sure what to think. He handed over the card as requested.

Cameron scans the card "What's wrong with it?"

"Well.... 1, who would put 'bitch-whore' in a Valentine poem? 2, a Valentine poem with a footnote? 3, the words are all......wrong."

"The first line states that she is 'different'. Maybe that is why the poem is 'different'."

John applies his mind to the problem in earnest, Cameron leaves him to it. She wonders how long it will take him to work out the identity of the poem's author.

He spends some time picking out possible jokesters and admirers, but then remembers that 'no-one' at school knows where he lives. So finally he turns his attention to the poem. "Different?.......different?......I'm different.......you're different......wait, what!" John remembers a brief conversation 'You seem........different' - 'I am'. "No way!". Further down the poem the words 'bitch-whore' jump out at him and demand some attention. Another memory 'I'm a bitch-whore' - 'What?'. "This can't be right, but if it is, it means that....." John notices that he is talking to himself, and quickly checks that no-one can hear him, he is safe. That's why she didn't answer the door and interrogate the delivery guy.....she was expecting the delivery.....she ordered the delivery.

His mind was still processing the implications of his recent discovery when Cameron returns to the garden. "You sent me the Bear, didn't you?" There was no malice in his voice so Cameron answered honestly "Yes, it seemed like something I should do"

"Oh yes, Cameron. It is definitely something you should do"

And with that, she gives him his second gift of the day..........a smile, shared only by the two of them.

/end