Happy Valentine's Day, Dave
By Kitchen_Sink5
kitchen_sink5@yahoo.com

CATEGORY: Malucci, practically angst
RATING:PG-13
SPOILERS: None
ARCHIVE: Please ask me first!
DISCLAIMER: NBC, Warner Brothers, Constant C, and anyone else who can claim that they own ER are soooo lucky. Because I cannot claim that.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: The song used in this piece of work is "Easy For You To Say" by Harry Connick Jr. As for the story, it was just an idea I had. I wrote in within two hours one Sunday afternoon.



She was making scramble eggs - and toast that morning, he recalled. He liked waking up to find her sitting in the kitchen, wearing his Black hawks shirt, sipping orange juice. She wouldn't be there every morning, but he wished that she was. But it was okay on those mornings that he woke up alone, because he knew that soon he would wake up beside her. It made the times that it did happen more special.

Now, a year later, he woke up alone. The faint smell of the food, and the sound of eggs being cooked in a pan didn't great him as he woke up. It was Valentine's Day, and unlike last year, he dreaded it. There was no one to give flowers to, to wake up to. There was nobody to eat breakfast with.


The sentimental sun
In his teary sky
Says he doesn't want to shine today
You tell me to imagine myself
With another lover
That's easy for you to say


There had been women since her. But not the right women, not women who would make him scrambled eggs - Not women who would stay by his side for months. They were women who entered his bed, his life, for just a night, maybe two. They were the ones who he met at a bar, the ones that only knew him as a man with a couple of beers in him. She had been nothing like that. She liked being slightly cautious, not wanting to draw attention to herself.

"Please let's not tell anyone about us yet, Dave," She had whispered one night as they lied in his bed, "I don't want this to turn into some giant rumor - And I don't want either one of us to end up embarrassed if it doesn't last - Please don't hate me for saying that, but I've been in enough relationships to know that it can all be over in a snap."

"This will last." He had taken her hand and kissed it, "But I won't say anything if you don't want me to."

Dave smiled slightly, thinking of her lying there, his arms wrapped around her. He remembered his words whispered in her ear:

"This will last."

It didn't.


The April that I knew
With her cool soft rain
Has turned into a flowerless May
You tell me to go on with my life as if nothing's
happened
That's easy for you to say


"Dave - I have a friend, a nurse in radiology....." Chuny rambled off as she picked through the bowl of candy hearts, ".....She's looking for a someone to go with her to this ball, event thing tonight - Can you go with her?" She ate one of the hearts, then continued to try and persuade him, "Her name's Paula - She's real pretty, you would like her.....How about it?"

Any other day he might of considered it. But he just couldn't do it today - Not tonight. "Sorry, Chuny - I, uh, have plans." He lied.

"Suit yourself." Chuny took a few more hearts, and then went down the hall, "Hey Carter, I have this friend, a radiology nurse......."

Dave picked up one of the candy hearts. "Be True," it said.

Last year, he had driven her to work after their breakfast of eggs and toast. She had been flipping through the radio stations as he drove along. It practically drove him crazy, because she never picked one station and stuck with it, but he let it go because it was Valentine's day. A fight was one of the worst things that could happen to you on Valentine's Day. A worse thing would happen though.

"I'm off at nine tonight." He said as he turned the wheel. "Let's get some dinner after then."

"I'm working until midnight," She stated as she changed the station again.

"I'll wait for you. We can get some dinner, and you could come over........" He suggested.

"I had a feeling you'd suggest that." She smirked as he parked the car.

"I'll make you dinner - It'll be ready at midnight, waiting for you when you get to my place." Dave began to convince her, "I won't just buy it from somewhere - I'll actually make it...."

"You, cooking?" She practically laughed, as she pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "That I have to see." She said as she got out of the car, "I'll see you later."

He kissed her cheek just as she left, and he headed back home to prepare before he headed off to work. He bought her a bouquet of flowers - red roses mixed with a few whites ones. He set the table, placing a few of the flowers in a vase. He placed the white candles on top of the red tablecloth, planning to light them when he got home.

He would never light those candles. The flowers would fade away. Because when he got home, he would be utterly alone.


The melancholy moon
Is awfully pale
And while his light is dim, you seem okay
You tell me there are plenty of fish
In the deep blue sea
But the only one I caught
Has gone away
It's easy for you to say.


After his shift, he walked around the streets, which were filled with couples, walking in pairs, their arms around each other. He thought about the previous Valentine's Day - how he had hoped to walk around with her, much like the couples in front of him now. But it never happened - and the candlelight dinner never happened, because he had spent last Valentine's night working in a trauma room, watching as his girlfriend died.

It had been so hard to watch as his Lucy struggled for life, and he had wanted to run out of the trauma room screaming. When they had taken her up to surgery, Dave had wanted to go up to the surgery waiting room and be the first one to know how she was doing. But he had promised Lucy that he would keep their relationship a secret from the ER staff, and he didn't want her to be angry when she woke up.

But she wouldn't wake up. And no one would ever know that he had loved her, and that for the first time in his life someone loved him back. Nobody would know that he would go home to his apartment, seeing the set table, the reminder of the love that was lost forever, and that he would cry.

Wilted flowers, unlit candles, a broken heart. No one knew that this was all Dave had left.


The only one I caught
Has gone away
It's easy for you to say.


THE END