Three minutes and forty seconds. They had been driving around for quite some time, and she was starting to get the idea that they were wandering aimlessly.

"Harm, where are we going?"

"I don't know!" he admitted, swerving the Lexus off the beltway and letting it cruise around in central D.C. "I thought some inspiration would hit me if I drove around for like ten minutes."

"Well, look, there's the IRS office, let's stop there," she snorted, "I need to file some taxes anyway."

"You're not helping," he scoffed, taking a U-turn and heading towards the looming spire of the Washington Monument.

"Why don't we head back to the apartments?" she snapped more forcefully than intended as he frantically searched for a place to stop. "Frankly, I don't mind where we stop as long as I get to eat something soon."

Harm brought the SUV to a sudden stop in front of the Monument. "Come on, we can go near the Potomac."

"You'll get tagged!"

"I won't," he breathed before getting out. "Just come on."

"Are you sure-" she began, until he went around and grabbed her, pulling her along as he walked briskly towards where the bristly cherry blossom trees stood leafless and bare against the cool blue hue of the night sky.

Mac broke into a slow jog as she realized it was less than one minute until zero hour. He stumbled beside her, surprised at the change of speed. "Suck it up, Navy! I even have heels on."

"I'm coming."

She could make out the shapes of several families who stood in anticipation of the imminent fireworks that would accompany the arrival of the new year, and a young couple huddled beneath a tree as they whispered sweet nothings into each others' ears.

Harm pulled her back towards a secluded area where an empty bench sat between two bushes. She managed to sit down, and blew air over her cold fingers, embarrassed that her teeth were chattering slightly.

"I should've changed before I came," she breathed, watching her breath float up aimlessly above them. "Skirts don't cover up adequately."

"I wouldn't know," he winked as he cacooned her hands in his and squeezed gently, angling his head upwards and mimicking the young children around them. "How much longer?"

"Twenty-one seconds," she said, catching the attention of a nearby boy who pointed at her.

"Twenty," Harm continued without skipping a beat, "nineteen, eighteen…"

Mac joined him and after a moment, and the small boy who watched counted with them. His mother and father shared a glance of annoyance, telling him to sit down and not disturb the other people.

"Three, two, one," she laughed as on cue, a brilliant flash of lights erupted in front of them.

The boy squealed with delight and ran into his mother's arms, amazed that his counting had been so accurate.

"How'd you do that, lady?" the father asked with marvel.

"I really don't know," Mac replied with a shrug.

The man smiled and turned back to his family, pulling them close and holding them firmly. She sighed with contentment as Harm stood up and wrapped her in his overcoat.

She pulled back and reached up, brushing her thumb against his cheek that tickled her skin slightly; he hadn't shaved in the morning. "Going for a more rugged look?"

He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Would you like the rugged look?"

"Brad Pitt always looked great with a little bristle," she smiled, "but Navy men – I think they're fine the way the are."

"I'm sorry I'm not Brad Pitt," he laughed. He didn't sound sorry at all.

"I don't think we'd really click anyway."

"Really," he murmured. She could tell he wasn't really listening. Mac brought her hand down from his face and adjusted herself within his grasp. She let her arms slip under his and let their hold on each other finally solidify. "Why's that?"

"I have someone else in mind for…you know."

"Ben Affleck?" She leaned back and arched an eyebrow. "Can't think of anyone else then, sorry," Harm shrugged, pulling her against him again.

The warmth permeated through her, and the previous chill that crept through her body disappeared.

"I love you too, you know," he breathed against the shell of her ear. "I have for a really long time."

Mac buried her face deeper into his shirt. "How long?" She didn't know why she would ask such unnecessary questions. She had already anticipated the answer.

"I don't know. It's not like one day I woke up and said 'I love Sarah Mackenzie'," he said as he squeezed her. "If it was like that, it would've been a lot easier."

"I think it's alright that we took the hard road. To get to everything."

"Why?" He sounded truly perplexed by the notion.

"Because all those things we've been through together…" she tried to put the realization she had weeks before into context.

"They were great," Harm finished for her simply.

She didn't watch the rest of the fireworks that night. She knew they were there from the noises and the shadows and lights that danced beneath her eyelids, but she didn't see the colors as they radiated across the sky in bursts and lines and clouds, dazzling in the air before ephemerally melting against the backdrop. She didn't need to see it to make her happy. She was fine right where she was.

With a final 'boom', the show was done. She pulled him along suddenly and hissed at him. "We'll be lucky if you didn't get a ticket."

"That's alright. It was worth it," Harm nodded.

Then he decided he would whisk her off and make love to her, that very night. He just hoped she really wouldn't get bored. He knew he never would.

THE END

Thank you very much for all the reviews. I hope people enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.
And the Rose Garden suggestion was tempting, but I thought that since Harm and Mac don't really have much luck with romance, it would be quite like them to get lost on the way :)