Later that morning...
"A. D. Skinner called, wanting to make sure that the reports for the Commissioner General will be ready, on time." Mulder said off handedly as Scully breezed past. Barely having set a foot in his direction, she knew her day had begun as per usual.
"I thought by now my routine had become clear to both parties involved."
"What, you mean apart from the fact that although you have their reports typed up two nights in advanced, and always handed in 6:00pm sharp, sparing no time for a social life with me, which I may add just turned out to be some what of a..."
"See?" Scully cut in. "Even you Mulder, of all people have picked up on it."
"Well, I'm only your partner." He grinned, placing his feet on the desk to lean further back into his black leather chair.
"Sometimes," she continued, drifting her trail of thought, "men can be so..."
"Patronising?" Mulder finished, tugging shyly at his shirtsleeves.
"Well if that's how you put it..." Scully stopped, her gaze falling short. "...what's with the tie Mulder?"
"Oh, this?" He looked down at the black tie, tiled with a multitude of bright gold and purple violets. In fact, there was no need to name any colour of black, because it was barely visible behind the bright whirl of purple flowers. "Found it at the back of my sock draw. Haven't seen it for years and years."
"Any uh, reason or occasion? Or is this just another impulsive mood swing." Scully folded her arms, trying to conceal a growing smile.
Surprised, Mulder frowned, almost taken aback by her statement. "Scully, do you really have that much on your plate? Work getting to you? Not enough sleep?"
"Actually, things seem to be rather light these days." She replied absent-mindedly, flicking through an assorting of papers that had been accumulating over the past couple of days. Several pink return-my-call slips, an anonymous missing-persons notice from the All Points Bulletin, the pale yellow manilla folders spewing with bright coloured photos and paper clipped loose-leaf. An unopened cushioned parcel, which Scully presumed was the video documentary on supposed "scientific ground-breaking advances" in speeding the abrasion healing process, that and many other sheets meaning absolutely nothing, often dubbed "Federal Junk-mail". Sifting through to the bottom, she picked out a small Post-It that caught her attention.
"Results on 'hit-and-run' came through, Toxicology on your "blank man" checked positive. Check your E-mail Dr. Scully. Ain't nothing like the technology we have these days." Scully smiled at the shorthand written note from Mark Chaplan, one of the Serologists at the Forensic Science Bureau in Richmond. She had asked Chaplan to run a few tests as opposed to doing them herself to save time, mainly because she knew ahead the Commissioner would be pressing for the reports on last weeks case. It had become more than a routine as Mulder had said, it had begun to take over her life. Scully was sure it would pass. It always did.
"Did you notice anything peculiar this morning. Nothing a little unusual in the lobby?" Mulder pressed.
"No."
"Nothing at all?" He hinted.
She paused. "Come to think now that you mention it, there was a mix-up with the Identification scanner. Even though every officer knows who I am, as well as who every other Field Agent, Special Agent, Assistant Director, Deputy Officer etcetera etcetera, in this building is..." Scully sighed, passing a glance at Mulder.
"...they refuse to allow any access to Federal compounds unless your identification checks up as a 'match'. Yes Scully, I know." He nodded, as she let him complete her sentence.
"As it turns out, my serial..."
"2317-616"
"...Thankyou," she smiled once more, repeating what she had said to continue, "scanned in as a 'Security Officer In-charge Patrick Blug'. I spent over half-an-hour trying to explain that I was not Mr. Blug, until Director Parsons 'Okayed' me, showing substantial proof that I was in fact one exclusive 'Special Agent Dana Scully'."
"So the ID. Database, or whatever they call it these days, is down."
"Turns out that the computer managed to turn back each ID two digits and two letters, not that my ID number contains any letters. Anyhow, instead of registering as '2317-616', the computer registered me as 'AA-1217-616." Scully sighed incredulously.
"Sure glad I arrived early this morning."
Mulder watched Scully return to flip through her papers, until she stopped at a blank rose pink envelope. Her curiosity taking the better of her, she flipped it several times for any mark of owner ship, before flashing a quick look at Mulder. Lowering his gaze to avoid the wave of laughter that had begun rising at the back of his throat, he leaned forward as she withdrew a bright red card, spilling tiny rosy heart sequins onto her lap. Yelping in surprise, her chair banged the wall sending a further shower of red sparkles trickling out from the envelope. That was the last straw for Mulder. His contained laughter exploded, as he chuckled into the desk.
"What?!" Scully exclaimed wiping her skirt. "This isn't funny Mulder."
"Hey, it wasn't my idea of a joke. Read it." He managed to say between happy sighs.
"Roses are red, Violets are Blue, Nights seem so lonely, until I see you... Happy Valentines." She looked at him suddenly in shock. "You've got to be kidding me." She muttered.
"That's right Scully, Happy Valentines." Mulder continued laughing. Grabbing hold of her desk calendar, she scanned for the date: 14th of February. She had forgotten completely forgotten Valentines Days.
"I don't believe it." Scully said slowly, the realisation settling in.
"I had to forward all your other Valentines cards, flowers, chocolates and soft-toys, not to mention other items to the 4:00pm delivery so you wouldn't see them, because I knew you would forget."
Scully burst out laughing.

Just as Chaplan had said, the Toxicology results and the John Doe from the hit-and-run turned out positive. This was going to add a twist to the ME's initial report. Mulder would be thrilled.
Moving the mouse cursor over to the top right hand corner, she hit the print button, listening for the quiet humming of machinery.
The Phone rang.
"Scully."
"Dr. Scully, this is Dr. Waverly, the Quantico Pathologist. I just called to inquire about the fluid swabs that we had run on George Warner..."
George Warner, Scully pondered, rattling her brain for any recognition of such name. Of course, the second victim out of three, the 'Irish Devil' the case had been dubbed. The very same case Scully and Mulder had been investigating, and the one that the Commissioner had been pressing for detail release. Seems there has been quite a stir in the local community with the way the victims had died, but Scully pushed such thoughts away. She'd been over it more than a thousand times before...
"...they are missing."
Her heart skipped a beat.
"I beg your pardon?" she said dryly.
"The swabs, they are missing. Either that, or they have been missed placed." Waverly replied.
"I put them in cold storage last Monday morning. No one has touched them since. At least no one should have touched them."
"We've searched through the entire cabinet, and there seems to be no trace whatsoever..."
Scully's attention was drawn back to the printer. It was jammed. Even parts of the document that had already printed, there was no way to salvage them, they had been chewed by the damn machine.
"No,..no.." Scully whispered to herself, striding to stand over the printer, studying it closely.
"Dr. Scully?"
"Have you checked with the lab assistants?" Paying no attention whatsoever to the phone, she began slowly easing the piece of paper out.
The printer beeped angrily.
Further deterred, Scully yanked vigorously, tearing the sheet apart, further jamming the machine.
"Neither are aware of any mis-placement or personals who retrieved the swabs..." Waverly continued.
"I'm...positive I didn't...touch it." Speaking in broken sentences, she tried retrieving bits of paper, before hitting the machine in defeat.
It returned to printing. But it didn't matter now, the document was shredded.
This can't be happening. I know I put the slides into the storage. There is no way they were moved, or lost...why am I stressing over the printer? I can always reprint.
"Dr. Scully, are you ok?"
"Yes," she replied as calmly as she could muster, "just some printer problems."
"Doesn't that drive you up the wall? Technology, it isn't as great as it's made out to be. If only everything was reverted back to typewriters. There were never any problems back then..."
Scully returned to the computer screen, just as Mulder walked into the office.
"I heard beeping..." he began.
"Not now Mulder..."
"...but then again, the Internet, hell, where do you begin?"
"...and thought...hey Scully," pause, "would you believe they're handing out little red lollipops just left of the elevator. Well I never."
"Not now Mulder!" Scully said more firmly pressing the phone to her ear.
"...but the point is, if we can't find the swabs, the evidence can't be filed, the investigation will be setback almost to square one. The office will be furious..."
"...Scully, the screen..."
"Mulder!" She almost screamed. The phone went dead.
"...it's frozen." Mulder muttered, stunned to silence.
Scully glanced at the screen. Panic filled her eyes. The report, my report for the Commissioner... and the toxicology results...
"Hello?" She mumbled to the phone.
Sirens filled the air. Water sprinklers burst to life. The Fire alarm had been triggered. The Computer System had crashed. Her Paper documents were screwed. And so was everything else that had been sitting on the desk.
"Can't say I'll live to see this happen more than once." Mulder placed a hand on her soggy shoulder.
"I don't think either of us will live much beyond today." Scully just stared.

"Agent Scully?"
Auburn hair clung to her skin in small wet ringlets. Her shirt, dampened from the heavy spray of the sprinklers, was drying sucked to her figure. Wriggling her shoulders to peel away her jacket, Scully absently brushed droplets from her neck, keeping in mind the dying need to slip into dry attire.
"Earth to Scully..."
Casting her eyes to meet those of the Computer Technician Assistant, Phil Handley, she studied his facial expression, trying to read it for any signs. Of course there were none. He had been trained extremely well, hiding any appearance, any flicker of what thoughts he was processing behind his steeled-framed glasses. "Yes?" Which, she added, caught the glaring reflection from the overhead lights making it difficult to tell whether she was making eye contact or not. Computer malfunctions were his texts.
"Good news ahoy. We were able to access your system files through DOS, though whether or not they have been chewed up with bi-system language..."
English please. Scully thought, intently listening though understanding absolutely zippo about the technical gibbly-gook coming out of his mouth. At least she understood words were coming out of his mouth, acting as though they made perfect sense. As clear as mud or so to speak seemed more realistic.
"...encrypted, but with the possible chance that we could convert your data to the slightly down-marketed version of the original word processor. Though I doubt that you should have any problems, I highly recommend that you save your files to disk from now on."
I had. But thanks to the water show curtesy the Feds this morning...Scully bit her tongue, continuing to nod in agreement.
"I owe you big time." She smiled, as he passed her a black back-up disk.
"Don't thank me, thank those damn buggers downstairs for triggering the Fire Alarm off. The Fed's Database won't be up for hours now. Anyhow, Happy Valentines." Was the salutation she heard whilst exiting.

"He said the problem had been fixed!" Scully looked up from her laptop screen, a safer option she'd chosen over using the desktop. "I had the files, reports sent via e-mail this morning...this can't be happening, not here...not now of all times. This is the FBI, for Christ-sakes,"
"Scully."
"The... the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Things like these aren't suppose to happen. They should be taken care of, be stabilised..."
"Scully." Mulder repeated with more emphasis.
"What?"
"How can I stress this. Calm down, before you kill yourself."
"I am calm." She insisted, flexing her wrists.
Mulder rolled his eyes, sighing heavily. "Ok. Now, what about all technical geek language they'd used on you down at the CTA."
"Mulder, I'm no Computer Wizard. I can't just wave my magical wand and presto, the documents just appear."
Tapping her fingers on the desk, she stared intently at the glowing screen. How she willed to turn the clock back two hours.
"Whoa Scully." He raised his hands defensively. "Don't get narky with me. I'm not the Computer Assistant. Besides you know they only use such language to baffle. I could place bets that the disk you were given was filled with nothing more than blank Word documents." He continued slotting white sheets into various manilla folders. "Even more so, maybe they decided to show a little effort by typing bull-shit lettering or characters to make it appear as though your documents got chewed." Shrugging, he paused adding, "I mean, how can you prove it? How could anyone? Neither you nor I understand computer business. And tell me you can access data from a computer spoilt by water. Sometimes even technicians don't know what they are doing or what they are on about."
"Don't make this any worse than it already is."
"Hell, it was worth a try."
"There's not even any jumble appearing." She sighed, as Mulder leaned over her shoulder.
"Perhaps the disk isn't formatted or you don't have the right version to run the files. Didn't they mention something about that?"
"You could be right, I won't rule out the possibility. But even so, it doesn't change the fact that there is no possible way on earth I can reproduce a report satisfactory enough for the Commissioner. All the test results, the evidence, everything I had recorded were contained in those files." Eyes down cast, she continued. "And even if I were to reschedule an autopsy, it isn't possible because the body has already been cremated." Closing her eyes, she tilted her head back. "This morning, I received a call from Dr. Waverly. He said some swabs had been missed place. He may as well dropped the sweet talk and flat out assigned the blame to me. Mulder, this could possibly be one of the worst days of my life."
"Scully, if there is anything I can do..."
"Damn it Mulder, there's nothing anyone can do. Not even you."
"Call the Commissioner, and explain your situation."
"I can't. I've done it too many times in the past, each time becoming more difficult to compromise. Sometimes, I just want to...to strangle him! Him and his perky little sectary."
"You'd be doing us all a favour," Mulder smiled weakly at the thought. "And saving us a lot of work. And time. And money."
Scully held her head in her hands and said nothing more.

Present time...
Opening her eyes, Scully let them adjust to the darkness of her apartment, enlightened only by the dim street lamps from outside a window some good few strides across the room. She wanted nothing more, than to throw herself into a useless heap. Drowned by thoughts that continued flooding her mind, she screamed for release. Gently massaging her temples, she withdrew an arm out stretched in front to pull up a chair. She stopped short when her eyes fell on the kitchen table.
There, in the midst of the shallow darkness atop of the redwood surface lay four brilliant red roses, whose colour did not fade into the darkness, in perfect contrast with the table.
Taken aback, she breathed sharply before reaching down slowly to pry one loose. Holding it gently between her fingers, she marvelled at it's beauty in awe, blinking furiously at forming tears before placing a hand to her mouth to silence the quickening rasp gasps for air. Sitting down in a chair, one hand on the table to steady herself, the scraping chair leg on the floor echoed loudly. She tightened her grip on the single rose, closing her eyes again to savouring the sweet, distinguished scent.
"Such a simple gesture on a day like none other," Scully thought, "born from love or inspired by it." Either way, she was genuinely touched. Someone had thought of her when she, who naturally handled enough lifetime knowledge for at least two people, had barely a piece of mind to remember Valentines Day. The day of the year when you tell someone that you care, let the world know you have a heart full of love and are not afraid to use or share it.
Closing her eyes, Scully felt a tiny bit guilty for having been so careless. Looking once more at the vibrant red rose through her blurry glassed eyes, smiling, she decided it best not to nominate any persons responsible for the unexpected delivery, no matter how obvious it seemed. The mystery was far more intriguing. But assumption was too temptable.
"Could it have been...Mulder? Surely not. He would...never."
Again, Scully retraced her thoughts of the day. Over and over events pounded into an overwhelming headache. Clenching her fist, she firmly re-adjusted her state-of-mind.
"I can beat this. Just another day at the office. Don't let this get to you, Dana. Breathe." She had been able to withstand the phone calls, the computer failures, the lost evidence, the sprinklers...
One glance at the soft rosy petals, the curling green leaves coiling at the base, the smooth luminescent stem, this gift of nature seemed to melt her away her barriers, her coldness which protected her from such days as this. One small gesture had hit home, pulling her back to earth. The Earth she secretly longed to be apart of; love. Scully had been able to withstand everything except this. Resting her head on the cool table, she closed her eyes, drifting into her childish dreamworld that she kept tucked beneath her exterior, and began to cry.
It was then that Scully realised she was not alone. The soft crumpling sound of the couch straining beneath an unknown weight drew her attention. Startled, Scully yelped at the sight of Mulder's head roll from behind the couch, his hair mopped up to one side from having slept in the same position for quite a while.
"Mulder...what are you doing here?"
Rubbing a hand over his eyes and then through his hair, he focused on Scully. Her eyes down cast, a sweep of orange hair falling to one side of her face, he met her concerned look.
She took a step back, still clutching the singular rose, hiding her face in the shadows so as to avoid Mulder's doubled concern for her. "Are these yours?" She said immediately indicating to the table, as he began to remove himself from the couch to stand opposite her. "How long have you been here?"
Panic filling her thoughts, please don't see me like this, as he continued to ignore her questions, until he stood barely inches away.
"Scully, you are going to love the hell out of me..." He said, his voice lowered.
"I don't understand Mulder..." Scully looked up at him confused, her mind racing. She watched bemused at the beautiful smile forming at the edges of his lips.
"...when I show you this." Grinning, he produced a black disk.
"What is it?"
"A back up of your deleted files."
"How... how did you get this?" Overwhelmed with disbelief, she gazed wide-eyed taking in every word he said as Gospel.
"On my way out of the Office, one of the Computer Technicians stopped me to mention a brief apology about having given you the wrong disk. And seeing that you had already left, he handed it to me."
"Omigod Mulder. I don't believe this. Amazing."
"Ah, but that's not the end. Dr. Waverly also called and said that the missing swabs were reported as found. Seems as though it was he who faulted, he'd written down the wrong storage number."
Taking the disk, Scully held it gingerly, flipping it from front to back.
"I don't know what to say."
"Thankyou would be a start." Mulder smiled, straightening his crumpled shirt.
"Of course." Scully returned the smile, tucking her hair behind an ear. "Thank you."
Mulder brushing her fingers, tugged at her limp arm, pulling her towards him.
"Your hands, they're trembling."
Scully looked down. "Yeah, I'm cold."
Wrapping his arms around her, she felt an overcoming sense of relief, his warmth seeping through to her skin. Moving slightly, snuggled in his embrace, Scully felt a protruding object pressing against her chest.
"Oh."
"What?" Pulling away quickly, she looked innocently down at the rose.
"I just crushed your Roses."
Mulder gave a small chuckle, before drawing her hands into his, placing a light kiss on her fingers. "You need rest Scully."
"I guess I could use some."
Briefly meeting his intent stare, Scully elbowed him as he began smiling.
"What are you smiling at?"
"You know, I haven't exactly got you a proper present yet, so here's a curious Q. for you, and be honest. What do you want for Valentines?"
Closing her eyes, Scully delved to the back of her mind, a smile spreading at the thought of several things she was tempted to say.
"Honestly?"
"Honestly."
Sighing, she opened her eyes to meet his. "I must warn you though, that I may throw up after I tell you what I will."
"Oh, well Scully if nervousness is the issue here..." Mulder began.
"Hear me out ok? I have never confessed this before." Smiles growing, she cleared her throat.
"To be honest, I have wanted for so long to be able to close my eyes and sleep, and then open them the next morning to find someone still lying beside me."
"Bathroom to the left." He turned around to point.
"I'm serious!" she exclaimed.
"Hmmm, well I'm sure that can be arranged. You know I've had a dying crush on you for over seven years now. I've got cameras all over this joint just so I can perve on you."
"Cut it out, ok Mulder? You were the one who decided to get personal. Come on, cut me some slack. We all dream. Don't you?"
"Who would you want?" He continued in a more serious tone.
"Want?"
"To be lying beside you when you open your eyes."
"Not want, but need Mulder."
Pulling one hand away to drop the lifeless flower, Scully eased closer until she could feel his cool breath on her skin. "I need you."
Looking down at his loose Blue Violet tie, she smiled one last time pulling him closer before submitting to his urging kiss. The two stood amidst the pale light for minutes on end, exploring a infinite of possibilities, not once stopping for more than a brief moment to catch breath. Taking a step backwards, Mulder pulled Scully up against him, her yet-to-be-satisfied raging desire meeting his, their wondering hands enjoying new sensational touches.
"Love me now?" He muttered in between as their lips separated.
"Of course." She smiled before adding, "Always have, Blue Violet. And not just the hell out of you, but beyond."
Closing here eyes for the last time, Scully savoured his lips knowing that she would no longer have any problems forgetting Valentines Day.