A/N: Just something that came into my mind. Deliberately left out the name of the couple in the story to let you people out there draw your own conclusions and let your imagination run riot. I must note that I wrote this with a C/G pairing in mind, as I am a dedicated C/G shipper, but hey, it is up to you to decide! C/G, N/S, S/G. whatever pairing you can think of! Tell me what you think!

'What do you mean you don't know?'

'That means I really don't know!'

'Come on, you must have known. How could you miss this?'

'Well, I was not expecting this. How would I know that this would happen?'

'You were supposed to be keeping an eye on them. What were you doing?'

He just shrugged without answering.

'Please do not tell me that you left them alone while you did your own thing.'

His slightly guilty look said it all.

'How could you? What if they got into something else, something dangerous?'

'Honey, all they did was spill some fingerprinting powder. Nothing serious.'

'Yeah, at least they had the artistic streak in them to spill it all over the couch and the living room floor, brightening it up a little huh?' She said with her hands on her hips, getting exasperated with the man in front of her.

'Geez, I leave you alone with the kids for what, an hour? And I come home to find that my kids had managed to make my living room look like a crime scene? You of all people should know how hard it is to clean all that stuff.'

'Mommy?' a little voice spoke up. 'Are you mad at us?'

She turned around to see her son looking at her with a worried look on his face while his younger sister hid behind her brother, not saying a thing.

'No, I'm not mad at the both of you. But Jason, mommy told you not to touch mommy and daddy's stuff haven't I?' She said as she walked over and ruffled her son's hair and hugged her daughter close.

'Yes, but Jess and I had nothing to do and we just saw all that colorful powder and thought it would be fun to play with it. I'm sorry mommy.' The little boy said with a sniff.

'It's ok Jason. Just don't do it again ok? Some of that stuff would make you sick if you happened to swallow it, not to mention expensive. Come on you two, time for a nap,' she said as she picked her daughter up and took her son's hand.

After she had settled them down for a nap, she returned to the kitchen to confront her husband.

'You are lucky they did not find our field kits and decide that it would be fun to have a water gun fight with our Luminol or something. For heaven's sake, they are only 5 and 3 years old. Even you should know that you can't leave them unattended and with nothing to do. The least you could have done was to put a video on for them or just play with them for a while. What on earth were you doing that was so important than looking after your own kids?'

'I thought that they would be all right if I left them on their own to play while I got some things done.' Her husband said with a slightly bashful expression.

'God, at times like this, it really makes me wonder if you are fit to be a father,' his wife said while shaking her head woefully.

She looked over at her husband who had not said a word, a hurt look on his face. She realized that she had gone too far, overstepped the boundaries of decency. He loved their kids, and would not want any harm to come to them.

She had overreacted. It was just some powder after all, and it would wash off. The kids were ok, just got into things, as all kids do at sometime or another. She needn't have shouted his head off.

'Sorry. Guess I'm overreacting huh?' she said as she walked over to him and kissed him on the cheek.

'You were right, I shouldn't have left them alone. But I was setting something up and it had to be done before you got home. Guess I could show it to you now.' He conceded gracefully.

He stood up and led his wife towards their bedroom. He opened the door and let her enter before him. What she saw inside took her breath away.

'What . . . how . . . why?' his wife stuttered as she took it all in.

'You mentioned that I was never one to be romantic. I realized that it was true. I had never really taken the time or the effort to romance you, especially after getting married. Then I remembered you mentioning once that you really liked four-poster beds, so I had this made to order. I was setting this up after the delivery guys were gone. I guess I got a little carried away and forgot to check on the kids.'

His wife just nodded silently to indicate that she heard him, then walked trance-like towards the mass bed and fingered its flowing canopies. The bed was carved out of fine, solid wood, and one could tell that it was a masterpiece of fine workmanship.

The bed itself was a work of art. Taking up centerstage in the room yet not too dominating. It blended well into the room with its cream colored walls and earth-toned theme. The off-white wispy canopy flowed gently around the sides of the bed and produced a mystical effect. When the occasional breeze lifted and played around with the material, it looked like waves across a calm blue sea.

He had even gone as far as to purchase what seemed like a mountain of new feather pillows and embroidered sheets and pillowcases, the kind that she loved but found too impractical for daily use. It seemed that he had thought of almost everything.

She was speechless as she realized what all this meant. She could hardly believe that her normally sensible and practical husband could think of such a lovely and thoughtful gesture. She was touched beyond words. It could be seen that he had put a lot of effort into setting all this up without her knowledge.

She had said that he wasn't really romantic. She hadn't minded, because she knew him. It was enough for her to know that he loved her, she did not need any romantic gestures or actions from him to be reassured of what she meant to him. But she had to admit, this was really a lovely surprise.

Not only had he remembered what she had said, he had also taken the effort to make her dreams come true. He had also remembered little things, like the fact that she loved embroidered sheets but had not gotten them because of impracticality. That was what touched her the most. She thought that he would not have taken note of it, but he did.

He may not let it show often, especially when he was around other people, but her husband certainly had another side to him, a gentler, more caring personality that he let out once in a while. As she took her husband's hand and led him over to their bed, she knew that whenever he chose to let that side of him show, she would always welcome it with open arms, like now.

*** Finish ***