I do not own these characters. That distinction goes to James Duff, etc.

Special thanks goes to RoslinGirl983 for talking through the plot line & researching with me and to gingersnapped907 for checking for missing words. You both are awesome! This just keeps growing...

Chapter 2

Andy is grateful that they managed to wrap up their last murder and that Taylor has stated that they will not be called in due to overtime reasons until at least Tuesday. He is thrilled when the first part of the plan that involves her goes off without a hitch when he asks her if she would like to have a quiet brunch with him after mass Sunday and she agrees reminding him that she wants no gifts or cards to commemorate said brunch. There had been a few close calls in the last few weeks, but Andy thinks that he might just have managed to not have Sharon expect anything that was planned for tomorrow even with having to enlist Rusty's help. Unsure of which service Sharon would attend Sunday morning, Rusty has agreed to shoot Andy a text message when he figures it out so Andy can sneak into the condo and finish assembling the art project and escape before they return home. Rusty agreed with Andy that it needed to not go on the bathroom mirror, as was shown in the picture that he had, but somewhere where Sharon would be the only one to see it. Andy was going to have to find a place in her bedroom to put the project. He had an idea, but wasn't sure if it was too large or not. In the meantime, he needed to finish finalizing the details for tomorrow.

By the time Sharon had arrived home from mass, she was very surprised that she had not heard from Andy. He had been so excited about Valentine's Day and she noticed that he was quite disappointed and surprised that she did not want to celebrate it. She figured that he would have at least sent a text message this morning confirming brunch for later today and was starting to worry that maybe something had happened to him. She quickly brushed that thought aside figuring that he still had two hours until he picked her up and maybe he just decided to sleep in this morning. As she walked into her bedroom to change into something more appropriate for her brunch, she was quite shocked to find the two sets of pink and red sticky notes hung above her bedside tables in the shape of a heart. Knowing that these were not here when she left, she quickly walked over to see what was written on the notes closest to the wall. Tears came to her eyes as she started reading them. "You are my best friend." "You make me smile." "Your kids are first in your life." "I enjoy it when you REALLY kiss me." She reached into her pocket to grab her phone as the tears continued to fall and she continued reading the various sticky notes while pressing 5 on her phone to speed dial.

"I take it you found my greeting," was the knowing response on the other end of the phone.

"Andy," she barely managed to whisper her voice not containing any of the emotions flowing through her.

"Sharon, I hope you didn't mind me using your key and I know you said you didn't want to celebrate, but I wanted to show you how much I care today. It isn't anything more than that," Andy rambled.

"Andy."

"If you don't like it, we don't have to do brunch," Andy continued.

Sharon took a deep breath to control her emotions and interrupted more firmly this time, "Andy."

"Yes?"

"I would love to do brunch, but can we change the time a little or will that cause issues with brunch?"

"Depends on which direction we are changing the time," Andy answered honestly.

"Well, I was hoping you could come over a little earlier than planned so we could talk about this."

Andy hung his head and again questioned if he had made the right decision about what to do today. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't realize that he had never answered Sharon nor that he was still on the phone. This part of the plan seemed like the most innocent part of it. He had written various things that he appreciated and loved about her and written them on pink and red sticky notes and then hung them in the shape of two hearts over the lamps on her bedside tables. If that was not ok, he wondered how much of today's plans could be continued as he continued to stare at his phone.

"Andy, did I lose you?"

"No. I'm sorry. I just spaced out for a moment. Can you repeat what you said?"

"Would you be willing to come over earlier than planned so we could talk for a bit before continuing with whatever you planned for the day or will that mess up your plans?"

"No, I can. What time do you want me at your place?"

"Well, I just need to change so give me about 20 minutes? By the way, how should I dress for this new brunch place you said you found? You never answered my text last night."

"Something casual. There will be a lot of walking."

"Okay. Just let yourself in when you get here. If I'm not out, just wait in the living room."

"See you soon, Sharon."

"Bye, Andy."

Andy knocked softly before quietly letting himself into her condo. He didn't want to startle her. He had spent the short drive over with various scenarios running through his head. None of them were good. He had planned an elaborate, but low-key, day and was planning to ask and tell her something very important as he wanted her to have good memories of this day. Thankfully, there were no reservations required, but it wasn't making him feel any better about having to postpone the day that he had planned. He noticed that she wasn't out in the living room, so he decided to grab a seat still holding the bouquet of wild flowers that he had spotted while grocery shopping yesterday evening. He sometimes got her flowers "just because" so he was hoping that it was safe despite her reaction to his earlier surprise. The last thing he wanted to do was to bring back bad memories. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he never heard Sharon come out to the living room. He startled when he looked up and saw her standing in front of him looking radiant wearing a beautiful red dress and holding her silver sweater.

"I didn't want to interrupt your thinking, Andy," she explained.

"You never have to worry about that, darling. I hope I am not overstepping your wishes here, but these reminded me of you," he responded as he stood up to properly greet her with a hug and kiss after passing the flowers off to her.

"Andy, I thought we agreed to not observe this so-called holiday. It's just a day made up where people feel forced to spend money to show the other person that they care."

"You may think that, but I do not. Honestly, I think that is every day in a relationship – not the being forced to spend money, but the showing the other person in the relationship that you care. Just so you know, the flowers, brunch, and parking are the only things that I'm spending money on today, but I can't think of a better way than to spend any day, but especially this day, than with you making happy memories."

"Ok. Before we get to that, can you follow me though?" Sharon relented.

"Sure."

As she turned to walk away, her voice took on a teasing tone, "I think you might need to go get some gloves and the fingerprint box from your car, but I'll let you make that determination. It seems that someone broke into my apartment while I was at church this morning. Since Rusty left really early to go somewhere, he wasn't home. I came home to this weird display that someone spent a lot of time putting together. This person has some stalker tendencies as there are all sort of crazy things written on the walls."

Andy grabbed her hand to stop her before he entered her bedroom with her. He had never been in the room with her before and he wanted to make sure that she knew that just because he walked into the room did not change anything. "Sharon, are you sure you want me in here with you?"

"Andy, I wouldn't be having you come in if I wasn't. You should know that by now. I just think that this conversation probably should be done with both of us in the same room and I really don't want to disrupt your art project. Did you mean every single one of the things you wrote on the Stickies?" she asked continuing into her room.

"Yes, Sharon, I did. I talked to Rusty about the idea I had. He told me that it couldn't go in any public area of the condo, so I figured your room was the best place for it. I'm sorry if I overstepped my bounds."

"No, that was fine. I just was surprised."

"What was surprising, Sharon?" Andy asked sitting on the edge of her bed. He had a feeling that this had the potential to be a long conversation. "Each one of those is something that I like about you or makes me care about you. I would like to continue to add to them as I discover new things about you, too."

"I just never saw myself that way."

"That is exactly how I see you, Sharon. How about you read each one off to me and I'll tell you why I put it on the paper?"

"Ok."

They spent an hour having a very long discussion with Andy detailing all of the various ways that he liked and appreciated her. She was back to her normal self by the time they were ready to leave for brunch. Of course, he had left some of the big ones off, but they were waiting in the car to go up later tonight when he dropped her off.