WHO: John & Mary Winchester WHERE: Winchester & co house WHEN: Tuesday, February 14, 2006; evening WHAT: After a day of allowed pampering, John springs the rest of his Valentine's plans. RATING: TBD STATUS: thread; in-progress
Mary didn't often let anyone fuss over her with big shows of attention and pampering, as evidenced recently by the fact he had only been able to get her to rest from one day following her abduction before she was back to doing her normal routine, but holidays were different. John had never really been very pro- or anti-Valentine's Day, really, but he had always been the type of man to use something to his advantage and Valentine's Day had always been a day where he could insist on Mary taking the day off of everything and letting him do things for her for once – and she would actually comply.
For twenty-plus years of his life before he died, he had tried to forget there was even such a thing as this day, but now, once more due to what this city and acts of angels had brought them, John let himself remember. There were some changes to the old plans, such as staying in the house instead of going out, but he had managed to find ways around that to make it special for her.
He had done everything from meals to laundry today, employing Ben to make certain Mary didn't try to sneak work in when his back was turned, but when dinner came around, he had made sure everyone knew they were on their own – with a list of nice take out places and a roll of bills left on the kitchen table for all of it – and had shooed Mary to other parts of the house far away from the master bedroom. He would have preferred another room, but the house had all occupants inside it constantly, so the master bedroom was the only private place.
When he sent her away, it was with her a long box wrapped in ribbon, handed over after he had given her ten minutes to get anything she might need to get 'dressed' including black shoes. In the box was a dress, which he had told her not to open until an hour before she was supposed to come back.
Outside the closed bedroom door, in the small hallway that led to various other parts of the house, John leaned against the wall, adjusting the cuff of his suit as he waited for Mary to arrive at the time he'd written on the card tucked into the dress box.