Title: Anonymous Rose
Author: Jen
Email: jenny@blue-unclouded.net
Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be.
Classification: Mitch/Terri.
Summary: Von contemplates the identity of Terri's mysterious anonymous valentine.
Author's Notes: Set after 'The Show Must Go On'.

Terri Sullivan leaned against the wall of the lift, arms crossed, her eyes raised upwards to the row of backlit numbers that kept track of the elevator's location in the lift shaft.

Terri and the three other occupants of the lift slowed to a half at the floor prior to the one the former nun was heading for. A young female doctor joined them before the doors slid shut and they were away again.

The most recent addition to the lift's party carried a partially unwrapped gift in her right hand. Under the disarrayed layers of red tissue paper and gold silk ribbon, Terri caught a glimpse of a box of expensive chocolates.

Valentines Day. Terri took one more glance at the young doctor's gift before turning her gaze back to the floor numbers up near the ceiling. A nun for such a long time, she saw Valentines Day more as a commercial ploy, than a day of celebrating love, and felt neither bitterness towards it, nor a real desire to join in the forced affection. Love should be celebrated in small ways every day, not all at once on a single, Hallmark specified date.

A second later, the lift halted again and the doors slid open quietly. Terri pushed herself off from the wall and entered the hallway beyond, the only occupant of the elevator to leave.

A moment later she was through the swinging doors and back on Ward 17. Glancing at her watch, she saw guiltily that she was a couple of minutes late. Throwing open her office door, she tossed her bag hastily inside, pulled the door shut again, then strode over to the ward's reception, ready to start her day.



By the time her staff's duties for the day had been organised and several patients admitted to the ward, Terri was glad to claim a few minutes of solitude in her office.

Opening the door, she gathered up her bag from its haphazardly dumped position on the floor, and strolled towards her desk. A second later she had halted. Gazing at her desk's surface, she moved slowly and silently around the side of the table, coming to stand beside her chair.

"Terri, Mr Wilson is asking for ..." Von Ryan bustled into the room, but broke off mid sentence, as Terri finally dropped into her seat.

Both women looked curiously at the single, perfect, long-stemmed red rose that sat neatly by itself in the middle of Terri's immaculate desk.

Von raised her eyes from the flower just in time to see a ghost of a smile grace her friend's face, before it fled a split second later.

"Well, it looks like somebody's thinking of you, even if Malcolm's all the way over in America." Von was her usual matter of fact self, but a question in her voice belied her curiosity.

Terri picked up the stem of the blood red rose delicately between her right thumb and forefinger. She brought the head of the flower up to rest carefully on her left hand, moving her face to the bud, checking for a fragrance.

Lowering her hands back to the desk, but not releasing the rose, Terri's eyes flickered back to Von, hovering a metre inside the door.

"So who's it from?" There was an inscrutable look on the older nurse's face.

"There's no card with it ..." Terri looked back down, twirling the stem between her fingers. She felt a faint flush reach her cheeks, and hoped it wasn't visible to Von.

"That's not what I asked." There was still that expression on Von's face.

Terri met Von's gaze, unsure of how to reply. Unwilling to give away her suspicions.

But she was saved by Mitch barging into the room. "Von, did you page me? I'm here to see Mr Wilson." He stopped at the sight of Terri twirling the beautiful rose in her hand. "Aaah, valentine from a secret admirer, Terri?" There was a twinkle in the doctor's eyes.

Von dragged her gaze away from Terri and the flower, her eyes coming to rest on the man beside her. The same gaze then flickered between her two friends several times.

"Looks like it ..." The warmth in Terri's eyes matched that in Mitch's.

Von caught the almost imperceptible undercurrent in the room. She knew both Terri and Mitch far too well to be fooled, but she wasn't quite sure what to make of this new and unexpected development.

A small smile on his face, Mitch flashed one more cheeky glance in Terri's direction, then turned his attention to Von. "Now, Mr. Wilson, wasn't it?" He disappeared out the door.

Von's face was unreadable as she cast one look back at Terri, still slowly twirling the flower between thumb and forefinger. "Yes, that's right." And then she was gone as well.

Terri's face spread into a wide grin as soon as she was alone. She raised the rose to her nose one more time, breathing in the faint scent of the elegant, cultivated blossom, before moving her left hand to her face, ready to suppress the girl-like giggle that threatened to escape.