This was my entry for the 12th Precinct Valentine's Competition.

It was a one shot but I wanted to post it in five chapters, one for each year.

Valentine's Day 2009

This year it was like any other day. The year before both she and Will had had the day off and they'd spent it together, doing all the Valentine's Day clichés. But now Will was in Boston and she was alone so today she was working her way through the mountain of paper work in her in tray. She'd even offered to do the boys for them, just so she didn't dwell on memories of today.

At one point she caught herself staring into space, remembering Valentine's Day when she was younger, before her mother had been killed by random gang violence. Every year without fail her dad would make pancakes for both Kate and her mother, even the years when Johanna had been in the middle of a big case and had been up all night working, there was always pancakes to be had. She shook her head and turned her attention back to the file on her desk.

She managed maybe two more pages before she gave up completely. She couldn't concentrate and guessed that the fact the case was a stabbing in an alley wasn't helping her ignore the memories from the first eighteen years of her life.

She looked around and saw that the bull pen was mostly empty; lots of people have taken a day off today to be with their other half's because it was a Sunday so a lot of the partners had had the day off as well. Anyone left in the bull pen was going through paper work, like Kate had been attempting to do. It had been a quiet day for the homicide detectives and most of the open cases from the week had been closed, or were stalled.

She stood and made her way to the break room. Once she had poured herself a cup of coffee she headed back to her desk and opened the bottom draw. She took another quick look around, just making sure that no one was looking her way, before she pulled out the book that was always there. She kept it for the nights when she was here with nothing happening and needed a break.

She put it on the desk and picked up a pen, so that it looked like she was working if anyone happened to glance in her direction, before she opened the cover and looked at the writing there. She had gotten it signed years ago and she always read the words before starting to read properly.

Kate
Stay unique and follow your heart
Richard Castle

It always made her smile no matter how bad the day had been, remembering getting the book signed. She had stood in line for hours clutching at her copy of In a Hail of Bullets. When she had gotten to the front he had smiled at her before asking, "Who am I making it out to?" she had told him her name and handed him the book. The she had gotten another, different more genuine smile when he had seen what book it was, and how loved it looked.

He had actually been there to publicise his new book but had happily signed her old one before handing it back to her and saying, "It's nice to meet someone who is an actually fan of my work."

She remembered smiling and leaving the book shop. She hadn't read what he had written until she had gotten back to her apartment.

She read a few chapters before returning to the paper work, her mind now clear enough to concentrate.

It may have been Valentine's Day and she was remembering her dead mother, more than nearly every other day of the year, at every turn but Richard Castle's words could, and would, always make her feel better about anything.