Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, show, etc.

A/N: A/N: You are a demanding lot! You might hate me for doing this, but the story below has the challenge lines from Jan, Feb, Apr, May, and June 2007. It was not easy to put it all in there, especially the kinky/Energizer Bunny bit, so please suspend your disbelief. I hope you enjoy it.

Romantic Gestures

Harm sauntered towards his office feeling the irrepressible urge to whistle a tune, maybe even hum it out loud, but he checked himself. He doubted the Admiral would appreciate him bursting into song in the middle of the bullpen. A nice light tune would be nice though, fun and happy, like Sweet Caroline. Or maybe Row Row Row Your Boat. He had always liked that one as a kid. Might have had something to do with the mention of water. Did he know any songs with planes in them? He shrugged as he walked through his office doors and began flipping through the messages left on his desk. None that he could whistle. That ought to be remedied though, and soon. What kind of pilot didn't know how to whistle a song about planes. He had felt like whistling and humming ever since he had received that phone call at 9 o'clock yesterday evening. He was so excited, in fact, that he had barely slept. Thank god Mac was not staying at his place last night. She would have called him on it and that would have ruined everything. It was absolutely shameful that she could read him like some cheap dime novel. He could not keep any secrets from her.

Speaking of Mac, she should be returning from her trip any moment now. Harm looked up from the wad of messages in his hand too see Mac walk through the bullpen and quickly drop her briefcase, coat and cover on her desk before heading towards the Admiral's office. He followed her progress, hoping she would look in his direction. Just a quick smile, a glance...She suddenly turned her head towards his office and caught him watching her. She gave him a warm, happy smile before quickly turning back to head for her meeting with the Admiral. He continued to watch her walk away at her usual, determined clip. He idly wondered if it were possible to synchronize his heartbeat to her footsteps. What would that feel like? He laughed at himself and shook his head to clear his thoughts. She had better not make him into a romantic or he would never get any sleep or any work done. He sat down at his desk and got to work, trying not to think too much of the evening ahead. Just three hours to go.

---

Harm looked up at the clock on his desk. He had been sitting at his desk for an hour now but he could not remember actually accomplishing anything. It was all her fault. Hers and the incredibly slow pace at which time chose to pass today. Two whole hours left. Would this infernal day ever end?

"Harm?"

He looked up to find the source of his distraction walk through his doorway. He leaned back in his chair and toyed with the pen he was ostensibly using to write reports.

"Mac." He tried desperately to look casual. She could probably see right through him. "How was the trip?"

"Alright."

He watched her carefully, hopefully without her noticing it, looking for some kind of reaction. "Debrief the Admiral?"

She nodded while seating herself on one of the chairs facing his desk. "Decided to lay charges against the CO. She was propositioning everything with two heads. Some Marine. Did I tell you-"

"Why a female Marine is like the Energizer Bunny?" he grinned at his own wittiness.

Mac was not as impressed. "Not funny, Harm," but she humoured him by smiling anyways. They looked at each other warmly for a good moment before she let her eyes roam over his desk. He could sense she wanted to say something that was perhaps not suited for the office.

"Have dinner with me tonight?" He tried not to look too eager.

She laughed at that, the mood suddenly lifting. "Don't I always?"

He nodded, "lucky me," and smiled.

She suddenly got up and slowly made her way to his office door which she proceeded to close. She then closed the blinds. Interesting. She had never done that before. This was much worse than breaking out into song and dance in the middle of the bullpen. The Admiral would have both their hides. He was not too surprised to find himself more than a little excited by whatever she was about to do.

"Kinky?" he tried not to frame that as a question or a plea but felt that he failed miserably on both counts. Judging by the look on her face, she agreed.

Her eyes were on him, head cocked to the side. She was debating something. Well, a little encouragement couldn't hurt, so he might as well run with this one. "What? No yellow light, Colonel?"

She shook her head at his silliness, a somewhat self-conscious smile appearing on her lips, and made her way to his chair. "Haven't we reached the point where we can drop the traffic signals." She took both his hands and pulled him to a standing position. Stepping up to him, she wrapped her arms around him and gave him the gentlest hug he had ever received. This was, he decided, way better than any kinky thing he could think of. He returned her hug just as gently.

"I'm glad you came in here," he whispered trying not to break the mood.

She leaned back and studied his face for a moment before giving him a short kiss that was, by any standards, phenomenal.

"Actually, after a kiss like that, I'm really glad you came." He thought it would do wonderful things for office moral - well, his office moral - if he got a hug and kiss from Mac behind his desk everyday.

"It wasn't an easy decision," he heard the teasing lilt to her voice and was reminded of summer and fireflies and trips to the lakeside cottage.

"It wasn't?"

She shook her head. "I actually wanted to ambush you in the middle of the bullpen when I saw you walking to your office."

"You were already here?"

"By the elevators, talking to someone. I actually can't remember who."

He found that hard to believe and raised his eyebrow in challenge, "Really?"

She shook her head, "No, but I thought your ego deserved a good stroke."

Truthfully, having her look at him in the way she was doing just now did wonderful things for his ego.

"Anyways," she continued, "it took all my willpower to go see the Admiral first and then mount a more covert operation in the very confines of your office."

He pretended to consider her words - he was actually just enjoying the way her eyes looked in the light that filtered through his window - before adding in his two cents, "it was the right decision,"

She gave him an impish smile. "I know."

Well, that was a waste of two figurative cents.

She pulled out of his embrace and eyed his closed door. "I had better get back to the fray." She looked back at him, embarrassment reddening her cheeks, "this was a pretty stupid thing to do."

He nodded in agreement even as he leaned in to give her another heart-stopping kiss. Slowly, his lips left hers. "Absolutely." He smiled at her. "Dinner, my place after work?"

Instead of letting her say yes, he leaned in for yet another kiss. He pulled away slightly, "Well, Mackenzie," his tone was dripping satisfaction, "we've gotten too good at saying goodbye."

She grinned and rubbed a smudge of lipstick from his lips. "So you like saying goodbye?"

"I've always preferred hello, Mac," he walked her to the door. "Lot of potential in 'hello', don't you think?"

She looked at him over her shoulder, "I guess we'll find out tonight, Harmon" her tone was all velvet and sin. Woah. He struggled not to trip over his feet as his libido got the better of him.

"We could find out right now..." for the second time since she entered his office, he tried not to frame his words as a question or a plea.

She seemed to consider his request until they heard a sharp knock on his door. They both glanced at the door and then looked a little guiltily at each other before simultaneously agreeing, "on second thought, let's not."

He cleared his throat and opened the door to his office for her. Raising his voice slightly, he tried to sound nonchalant, "thanks for your help, Mac. My client will be quite pleased." He pretended to just notice Bud standing there, a file in his hand and a slightly panicked look on his face. "Oh hey, Bud. I didn't hear you, hope you weren't waiting for too long. What can I do for you?"

As she exited his office, he saw her shake her head slightly at his efforts to make their interlude in his office, behind a shut door and closed blinds, seem like it was all business. Well, he had thought that it was a pretty clever cover. At least she hadn't figured out what he had up his sleeve for dinner tonight. She must really have missed him to not only kiss him in HQ (three times!), but to also fail to see that he was valiantly trying to hide something from her. He could hardly wait. Just one and a half hours to go. He turned his attention, as best he could, to Bud.

----

Harm waited eagerly for the stupidly slow elevator in his apartment building to come. He could not keep still.

"What is with you, Harm? You've been acting strange since I walked into your office," she was standing besides him, watching him, her expression full of curiosity.

He just smiled and rocked back and forth on his feet. He hadn't been this excited since his dad sat him in his first tomcat as a kid. She was going to be so pleased, he just knew it. Or, he paused in mid-rock, he thought she would be. Just how would she react? All of a sudden, Harm felt really nervous. What he was about to do was not something he was in the habit of doing. This was new for him. Was he making a huge mistake?

"Where are we going? I thought we were having dinner at your place?"

"We are," and that was all he was going to say. Not only was he too nervous to elaborate, but she had left him feeling confused and flustered often enough, though not always intentionally...at least he didn't think so. In either case, let her keep guessing. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye to see that she was indeed adequately confused and, he was pleased to note, curious. Good.

The elevator finally came and he ushered her in none too gently. He was too wound up and now, thanks to her, too nervous to worry about being a gentleman.

"Harm!"

"Shh, Mac. Just wait." He said the words and then paused, his finger poised on the button pad. Did he just shush Mac? Maybe she hadn't noticed.

"I can't believe you just shushed me!" The elevator doors closed.

So much for that. It was time for some damage control. "It's a, ah, surprise, Mac. I don't want to ruin anything and you know I can't keep secrets from you, I just thought that, well, I've been looking forward to this since 9PM last night..." he suddenly realized it might be best, for the sake of his self-regard, to end his stuttered ramblings. He had never been particularly skilled at damage control. Quite the opposite, in fact.

"9PM last night?" she looked at the button pad by the elevator door, "and why are we heading to the roof?"

He nodded, grinning again as he remembered what awaited her. "That's when the building manager called to confirm I could use the roof for the evening."

"Building manager?" she looked even more confused.

She turned uncertainly towards the elevator doors which were still closed.

"What are you up to, Harm?"

Why was she so wary? It was not as though he had ever put her life in danger. Willingly. On purpose. Perhaps it was best to abandon this train of thought.

He was relieved the elevator doors finally opened. He gestured for her to proceed onto the roof. She continued to eye him warily before walking out. About three steps onto the roof, she came into view of the spread he had laid out for them.

"Harm?" her voice was full of wonder. She absently took his hand in hers and the casual, unassuming gesture made him think his heart would float right into space and take its rightful place in some distant constellation. It had all been worth the effort, running home after work, preparing their meal in advance last night, laying it all out tonight and stringing up some white Christmas lights around the ventilation ducts.

"It's a bit too bright out here to actually see the stars because of the city lights. But I thought that this would be nice. For you. To enjoy." He forced himself to shut up.

Suddenly she turned to him and stared intently at his face as though running an inventory of his features. She remained that way, studying him, for a very long time. At least, it felt like a very very long time. Her silence made him want to fidget, or maybe jump into the nearest ventilation duct. It was making him nervously self-conscious. Why the hell wasn't she saying anything. Relief flooded him when she finally broke the silence.

"When's your birthday?" she paused and seemed to reconsider, "actually, wait. That's too easy. What did you name your first toy plane?"

So much for relief. Where did that come from? "What are you doing?"

She broke into a grin and patted his cheek, "Just making sure its you."

How exasperating! Actually, forget exasperating, that was offensive. Just what was she trying to hint at? "Mac! You act like I never do anything romantic for you!"

"Oh, come on, Harm! You know I love you, but I can count on my fingers the number of romantic gestures you've done for me," she paused thoughtfully, "in fact, name the last romantic thing you've done."

"Mac! I -" He drew a blank. Shit. What was the last romantic thing he had done for her? He could not remember. "Umm," he racked his brain, there had to be something...wait! He had just carried out a pretty amazing romantic gesture not even five minutes ago. Technically, that was the last one. His bearing went from flustered to full-fledged confidence. "Actually, Mac," he paused for effect, "technically the last romantic gesture was-"

"Excluding this one," her eyebrow was arched and she looked both amused and smug.

Well, that was hardly playing fair.

"You know, Mac, some would say that getting stuck in semantics would take away from the romanticism of this gesture," he waived his hand towards the gesture in question.

"Well, as far as I'm concerned," her eyes once again softly ran over the table, the lights and especially - why was he not surprised - the food, before she turned to him and grinned, "this here has greatly improved your batting average."

He scoffed good-naturedly. "Love isn't baseball, Mac."

"Is that what this is, then?" she asked softly, her eyes attesting to how serious the question was.

"It has always been that, Mac. Even when there was no gesture to prove it. This is just, well..." he trailed off not knowing how to finish his thought without sounding like an idiot. Somehow, whenever he tried to say things along these lines out loud to her, he always felt like a fool. Why was that? Maybe it was something he should work on.

She looked down at their still clasped hands, her head bowed. "Always," she repeated his words so softly he thought she may have been speaking to herself. "I had no idea."

"How would you know? I'm not exactly good at this stuff," he paused before forging ahead, "like in the elevator just now, I was afraid I'd chased you away"

She looked up at him with a smile that made his brain momentarily cease to function. She was perhaps the most beautiful woman he had ever known.

"I happen to think," she took a step closer to him so that their bodies were only a breath apart, "that you're pretty great at it." She stood up on the tips of her toes and placed a soft kiss on his lips. Then she smiled up at him.

He grinned. He had put that smile on her face. He was incredibly proud of himself and couldn't help but let some of his natural cockiness shine through, "Well, Mac," he made his tone as suggestive as he could, "we could postpone this meal and get right to dessert."

She glanced towards the table on which he had set their dinner. "I think, Harm, that the good things in life are worth waiting for."

He looked briefly at the table and then back at her, "You're right, Mac. They are."

The End.