A/N: So, right now I'm struggling with my ongoing stories—just a little blocked right now. I still want to write, but I need some little things to clear my mind. If y'all hadn't guessed, I'm a Taylor Swift fan. I feel weird about that at age 46, but damn, the girl can write. My girls and I are going to one of her concerts this summer and we are EXCITED! Anyway, these are going to be short little ficlets inspired by Ms. Swift. So, without further ado…

Swiftlets

Swiftlet 1: You Are in Love

1989 Deluxe Edition

It's Christmas Eve and he and I are dancing in the snow while it whirls around us. It's really too cold to be out, but it's also so beautiful and we can't help ourselves. We've been married for a year, and I think we're even more in love now.

Our eyes are focused on each other's, his a dark blue now, mine their normal chocolate brown and amber, as he describes them. He's also called them luminous, huge, shining, and my favorite—simply beautiful. Harm is smiling now, a special smile he reserves just for me. I smile back and he kisses me, and I think about how we began…

There has always been something between us, something we discovered in a rose garden years ago, but one night it all changed.

It was two days before Christmas, and we both found ourselves working late. The lights in the bullpen were off as we stepped out of our offices at the same time, and I felt his eyes on me as I straightened my coat. He was staring at me with such intensity that I blushed, though I doubt he could see it in the dark. I fumbled with the buttons on my coat, and suddenly he was there, his deft fingers completing what I had been unable to start. He made a little joke I don't even remember, but I remember calling him a squid and he called me jarhead before asking if I wanted to go out for a cup of coffee, his treat. Of course, I agreed.

We made a little small talk on the way to the coffee shop and while we ordered, his shoulder brushed up against mine. Our hands touched as they had at my engagement party, after our ill-advised kiss, but this time it wasn't a touch of angst. It was warm and lovely, and it was then I knew things had shifted.

As we left the coffee shop, he suggested we take a walk. The street was adorned with Christmas decorations, which we admired as we walked down the sidewalk. When we made it to the corner, he noticed something and told me to look up.

The sky was beautiful. Much of the time in DC you can't see the stars very clearly, the lights from the city overtaking the glow of the night sky, but tonight it was different. Thousands upon thousands of stars shone down on us, and in the quiet, his shoulder once again made contact with mine. It was then I knew and could finally admit to myself that I was wholly in love with Harmon Rabb, Jr. My eyes filled, and I surreptitiously brushed the tears aside.

Harm, of course, being ever observant, noticed them almost immediately. His hand went to my cheek and his thumb moved under my eye.

"Hey, marine, what's wrong?" he whispered, and I shook my head.

"Nothing. It's just so-so lovely!" Harm smiled and his thumb stroked my cheek.

"I think you are too," he grinned, before dropping his hand to touch the golden chain around my neck. "I like this," he said. "The lights make it glow."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

And then he dipped his head and kissed me.

Harm took me home that night, neither of us caring that my car was still at headquarters. We didn't talk, but I heard something in the silence, I could feel something on the way home, and when we stepped into my apartment, the lights still off, I could see it. I could see the love around us in the darkness, and just like that, we were together.

Sometimes I doubted his love for me. We were six months into our relationship, and he had yet to say the words. To be fair, neither had I. I knew how I felt, but I was scared. I couldn't bring myself to tell him, because what if he didn't say it back? What if he didn't feel it? I would have been devastated.

It was hard to remember during those times that Harm is, and has always been, a man of action. In his world, actions speak louder than words, and as time went on, I could recognize the love he poured into everything he did. He made me breakfast with bacon, real bacon, every Sunday, although one morning when I stepped out in his dress shirt, he couldn't help himself. He lifted me onto the counter and made love to me right there. He burnt the toast, he burnt the bacon, he burnt everything. It was the best breakfast ever, or pre-breakfast I should say. He took me out for lunch that day, because breakfast and brunch passed by while we loved away the morning.

This is not to say it was all smooth sailing. We fought, sometimes viciously, but we always made up. We would actually talk it out, so unlike the Harm and Mac of the past. Truly, something had changed.

I learned to completely trust Harm. I learned he always kept his word, even when he was mad at me. I learned he was wonderfully affectionate. We'd go for long walks, and so many times he would stop us just to kiss me right there on the sidewalk.

I finally learned how much he loved me one night at his apartment, when I woke in the middle of the night to find him staring at me. He had such a strange look on his face, and I asked him what was wrong. He shook his head and then uttered the words I had been longing to hear.

"You're my best friend."

Okay, those probably weren't the words you were expecting, but I knew what they meant. I leaned over and kissed him, whispering 'I love you' against his lips.

We were married a scant two months later. Harm works at the Pentagon now, his office adorned with the picture of him and his father, a model of his stearman, and a picture of the Roberts children. He keeps my picture on his desk, along with a collage of pictures from our wedding. I'm still at JAG, and each day he calls to tell me I'm his best friend. I hear 'I love you' in those words, and though he will actually say 'I love you,' I prefer it this way.

And now, here in this wintery night, he's twirling me around, his nose and cheeks pink from the cold. He starts to laugh when I catch a fat snowflake on my tongue, and then his lips descend on mine. He pulls me close, wrapping his loosened coat around me as he kisses me. It's like a scene from a movie and I think I could stay here in his arms all night. That's not practical, however, so before frostbite sets in, he leads me into our house to love me, his best friend.

He's my best friend too, and we are in love…so in love.

End