Hello lovelys!

It feels weird to take months in between updates and not feel even a little bit guilty about it. Because, after all, it's for each holiday. There's nothing in between January and February (well, actually, there is, but I don't really celebrate it much).

I would just like to point out, views in this chapter are my own, don't take offense if you absolutely love Valentine's Day or anything like that.

So please review! And I'll see you next month for St. Patrick's Day! Let me know if there's a holiday in between that you love/celebrate!

Today was the day of love. It was the universal day of everyone getting together and showing one another how much they really loved each other. It was the day that couples would meet up and give each other kisses, of the chocolate variety and other sorts. It was the day of indulgence. The men would indulge the women with chocolate and flowers, while the girls would treat the men with sexy, skimpy outfits. It was the day people would show their significant others just how much they loved them.

At least, that's the lie everyone told themselves to make it seem alright.

Valentine's Day was nothing but a horrible day trying to make every single person on the planet feel terrible. It didn't matter if you were single or dating or in a complicated mess of things that you couldn't even describe. Valentine's Day was the worst day of the year. And no one believed that more than one Head Detective Carlton Lassiter.

The Head Detective sat behind his desk at the precinct. There weren't many lovey dovey couples there at that moment, and for that he was thankful. But every now and then, a new couple would come in. They would be holding hands, or maybe they'd be staring in each other's eyes, or maybe they'd even exchange a kiss. And Carlton would growl under his breath and focus all his attention onto his much hated paperwork. It was better than dealing with this romance crap.

Valentine's Day to him was nothing but a materialistic way of showing what many assumed was love for each other. Men bought women chocolate and flowers because the alternative was a fight. Women then paid them back in the bedroom after a couple glasses of wine. And that was enough for a whole year. A day that should be dedicated to love was instead dedicated trying to match the commitment other people showed in their relationship.

Carlton hated Valentine's day. For numerous years, he had to deal with people telling him off for his hate of the day. They'd always say "Oh, but if you had someone, you would love this day". Those people were almost as bad as the holiday itself. A certain partner of his was especially fond of that little comment.

And speak of the devil, there she was. Twenty-three minutes late, Juliet O'Hara walked into the station. She walked past Carlton, muttering a quiet greeting before running to her desk.

"You're late, O'Hara" Carlton noted.

"I know, sorry" she said with a smile on her face. "Shawn surprised me this morning with a Valentine's treat today. I woke up to roses everywhere, and then a trail of rose peddles leading to the kitchen, where Shawn had actually cooked a whole –"

"O'Hara" Carlton cut her off. "I don't care. I never have, I never will. There's a lot of paperwork to sort through. The sooner we get it done, the sooner we can go home and the sooner this horrible day can be over."

"Aw, Carlton" Juliet pouted as she sat down. "I thought with Marlowe around you'd like this holiday a bit more. Even a little bit?"

"No" he said with complete honesty. "The presence of my honeybunny changes nothing."

"I'm sure Marlowe would like to celebrate Valentine's day with you."

"No, she wouldn't."

"Have you asked?"

"I don't need to." Juliet let out a deep sigh.

"I give up" she muttered, and then she reached for top file on her ever growing pile of paperwork. Carlton nodded at his partner before turning back to his own work. He was done with that conversation.

After six long hours of paperwork, Carlton finally made his way back home. His day went on relatively undisturbed. The entire day, only three men came in delivering roses to women, and Spencer only came in once. He ran quickly to O'Hara's desk with her favourite take out and made sure she felt love. While he hated this damn day and the psychic was a pain in his ass since day one, Carlton couldn't deny that he was happy with the attention his partner was getting.

He had always been worried that Spencer wouldn't treat her right, that he would get bored after a couple weeks and leave her. Carlton was actually happy to be proven wrong. If Juliet was happy, he was happy. He just hoped she'd spare him the details tomorrow.

Carlton shook his head and tried to forget everything of this day. He just wanted to curl up with his wife and go to sleep like they always did.

He pushed open the door to his house and walked inside, kicking the door shut behind him and tossing his keys onto the side table. He walked into his living room and found his beautiful Marlowe sitting in front of the TV, holding two different DVD's in her hand.

"Hey, baby" Carlton said with a smile on his face.

"Hi, sweetie" Marlowe said smiling back at him. "How was work?"

"Tedious. How was your day?"

"Boring." She turned back to the TV. "Now, which Clint Eastwood movie should we watch? I was debating between the good old classic Heartbreak Ridge or one of his newer works Gran Torino." Carlton just stared at his wife, the love he felt for her clear as day.

When Marlowe didn't get a response, she turned back towards Carlton. "Baby?"

"Hmm?"

"You alright?"

"Of course. Sorry, long day. I'm a bit tired."

"You still want to watch a movie?"

"Of course I do. It's movie day" Carlton assured and made his way to the kitchen, where the takeout Marlowe had already ordered was sitting waiting for him. He prepared to plates of food and then headed back to the living room where Marlowe was now sitting on the couch, movie on screen.

"I decided to go with the classic" Marlowe explained.

"Always a good choice" Carlton agreed. He handed Marlowe her plate and then sat down beside her.

They ate in silence, completely entranced in the movie that both of them could recite nearly word for word. Once they finished their food, they place the plates on the coffee table and Marlowe made her way in to Carlton's arms. He held her in his arms and they watched their favourite movie in silence.

You see, it wasn't the fact that Carlton hated love or romance. In fact, he loved it. He always enjoyed the romantic gesture, the acts of love. He really did love it all. What he hated was the fact that people assumed that they could squeeze all their love into one gesture on one day and call it quits for the rest of the year. Love wasn't about how you spent one, tiny, unimportant day. Love wasn't about how much you spent on a particular gift. Love wasn't a contest. Love was simply being with that one person, never feeling like you have to be nice and good, but always wanting them to be happy.

As far as Carlton and Marlowe were concerned, February 14th was just another day of the year, and they planned on going through it as they did with all the other days in the year.