A/N: This fic takes its title from the Noel Coward play of the same name. This fic is definitely going to be on the fluffier side, because according to actual canon and my head canon the latter half of 1992 gets dark.

Thanks to mccoylover and Isabella2004 for their continued reviews and support! :) I hope you enjoy!

Somehow their plans for a private New Year's celebration end up morphing into a quick dinner alone before heading to her cousin's party. She loves Charlie's party, she does, but… selfishly, she just wanted the evening alone with her boyfriend. Mike had been the one to suggest dinner, just the two of them, but the next day at the precinct, after he'd spent the evening before at a Knicks game with Charlie and Bill, he pulled her aside, persuaded her to change their plans.

She's glad he's getting along with her family, of course she is, but selfishly-she selfishly wants to be with him, alone on New Year's.

But here she is, at home on New Year's Eve, trying to figure out what to wear. Mike is on his way from the precinct, finally, having been stuck retyping witness statements for the DA's office. Their dinner reservation is in an hour and a half; by the time he fights his way through traffic and gets home, they'll be cutting it fine. Thank God the restaurant is only ten blocks away. They can walk.

With that in mind she knows she should wear shoes that are more comfortable than not, which at least narrows her choices a bit. She finally pulls a knee-length sleeveless black silk dress out of her closet, a tight knee-length one that he's never seen her in. She sets it on her bed just as she hears his keys in the lock.

Finally.

She pulls her robe more tightly around her and goes to meet him. He's in the hallway, hanging up his coat in the closet. He hears her and looks up.

'Finally home,' he says, grinning. 'Do I have time for a shower?'

'All yours,' she replies, returning his smile. 'I'm glad you're back.'

'Me too, honey,' he says, walking over to her. He wraps his arms around her waist and bends to give her a kiss. When they break apart, he grins again. 'I'll be out in a minute.'

She turns to watch as he enters the bedroom, smiling after him.

He doesn't take long in the shower, as promised, and emerges with his hair slicked back, a towel tied carelessly around his waist. She's sitting at her vanity, putting on makeup. She watches him in the mirror as he moves around the bedroom, rummaging through his drawers for a dress shirt, cufflinks, and a fresh pair of boxers. His suit is in the closet; she picked it up from the dry cleaner's this morning. He opens the closet and peers at the tie rack in the closet. She'd put that in after he started leaving some clothes at her apartment. He'd noticed and thanked her in a very satisfying way…

'What's got you smilin' like that?' Mike asks. He's come up behind her when she was daydreaming and he bends down now and kisses her shoulder, his arms sliding around her waist.

'Mm, just thinking about later,' she tells him, smile widening as he drops his head to nuzzle her neck.

'Why just later? Why not now?' he asks, kissing her just beneath her jaw. She knows he must feel her pulse racing the Kentucky Derby, because his embrace tightens.

'Dinner,' she manages to respond, and he drops his arms and sighs. She feels the same. 'Remind me again why we're going to this party?'

'Hey, they're your relatives,' he says with a shrug, but tempers his words with another brief kiss.

'We should get ready,' she reminds him, and leans forward to apply her lipstick. She can hear the rustle of cloth as he gets dressed. She sets down her lipstick and picks up her brush, running it through her hair.

'Help me with my cufflinks?' he asks after a few minutes.

She sets down her brush and turns to him. He hands her the cufflinks-a beat-up gold pair-and she sets them down for a moment as she lines up the cuffs. Standing like this, with him so close to her, she feels a wave of desire wash over her. She hasn't seen him outside of work since they came back from her parents' and even though it's only been a few days-

He bends and kisses her forehead, then her cheek, then her lips, and it takes every single ounce of willpower she has to not throw him back on the bed right now.

'Mike, we have to go,' she reminds him, and he sighs.

'Now I wish I'd just suggested we stay in,' he grumbles with a laugh.

'Me too.'

They finally, finally get dressed and she digs out her mink coat from the cedar closet in her office. It was once the maid's quarters and she's turned it into an efficient little office, though it could easily become a fourth bedroom if they need it at some point. The cedar closet is handy, however, and she keeps her sweaters and her mink here. It was a gift from Peter and Miranda when she turned twenty-one; she really only wears it a handful of times a year, although every time she does it feels like the height of luxury. She strokes the soft fur as she rejoins Mike in the hall.

'Very nice,' he tells her, taking the mink out of her hands to help her into it. 'Guess I always knew you were the mink type.'

'It's from Peter and Miranda,' she tells him, shrugging into the heavy coat. 'I wear it maybe twice a year.'

He's grinnin when he turns her around to face him. 'Hey, I'm not complainin'. You look beautiful, Lizzie.'

'And you look extremely handsome,' she says. He does. The suit she bought him-the one she insisted he get tailored-fits him perfectly. He's a handsome man no matter what he's wearing, but when he wears nice clothes… she grins in return.

'Do you want to walk or take a cab?' he asks. She takes his hand in hers and looks at his watch-an unconscious gesture that recalls his birthday, their first night together-and sees that they have half an hour.

'Let's walk,' she tells him, and he sketches a bow, offering her his arm.

Dinner passes too quickly for her liking in a blur of a packed dining room, slow service, but ice cold champagne and the man she loves. No one notices when he drags his chair over so that they can sit next to each other, knees pressed together. It's lovely, being here with him, being able to relax and enjoy what's to come. Sometimes the anticipation is just as good, she thinks, but quickly corrects, almost as good when Mike slides his hand up her skirt.

'Ready to go?' he asks, leaning forward to whisper in her ear. She agrees with alacrity, eager to get to the party and then get home, to be with him-

As they collect their coats from the coat check, he slips his hand around her waist, pulling her close to him. She turns to him once they get outside, leaning forward to kiss him. He responds immediately and their kiss goes on until she forces herself to pull back from him.

'Why'd you stop?' he asks, and she laughs.

'We're going to get arrested for public indecency-' she's cut off when he kisses her again and she throws caution to the wind, wrapping her arms around him.

'Oh, God, can we please just go home,' she begs him when they break apart. 'Please, Mike. They'll never know we weren't there-'

He's about to reply when his beeper goes off.

'Goddamnit,' he says, letting her go and digging through his coat pocket for the beeper. When he extracts it, frowning at the screen. 'It's the precinct, gotta call in.'

She nods and he takes her hand, leading her to the payphone on the corner. As he dials in, she stands close to him, grateful for the warmth of her mink. There's a brisk wind whipping down the street; in conjunction with the crowd from the pub behind them, she can barely hear his words. Finally he hangs up the phone with a bang, scowling.

'I'm gonna have to go in, Lizzie,' he says. 'They think they've got that guy, the one who's been setting fires in nightclubs. Damn it,' he adds, slamming the side of the phone box.

She groans in frustration. 'Do you have to go now?'

'Yeah, they need me in right away. What d'you want to do? D'you want me to bring you down to Charlie's, or home, or what?'

'I guess I'll head to Charlie's,' she says reluctantly. 'I don't want to be home alone without you.'

'I know, honey,' he says. 'I'll get us a cab.'

'I can head down by myself. The faster you get to the precinct the faster you'll be done.'

'Are you sure?' When she nods, he says, 'Okay, I'll get you a cab, then.'

He finds one after about five minutes and bundles her into it. 'Have fun, honey. I'll try to make it down there. Why don't you page me when you're heading out if I don't get there first.'

She nods and grabs his tie, pulling him down for a kiss. 'I'll miss you. Hurry up!'

'I will,' he promises, and closes the door. He hits the cab on the roof to send it on its way and she leans back against the pleather seats, giving the cabbie her cousin's address.

By the time she walks up the stairs of his Gramercy brownstone, she can hear the music from inside. The house is awash with people and she slides her way through the crowd in the hallway, making for the coat check Charlie has set up in the back hallway. She hands over the heavy fur with relief and accepts the ticket before heading back into the fray.

Despite the disappointment of Mike's last-minute work call, she's enjoying herself. She finds a group of her friends and is absorbed into their chattering circle quickly. She enjoys a few glasses of champagne but it feels so odd being here without him. Over the past few months she's grown so used to his presence, so being without him feels like she's missing a limb.

When midnight strikes she hugs her friends, wishing them a happy New Year. It's the first time in so long she has someone to kiss, but he's not there. After saying goodbye to her friends, she slips out of her cousin's house in the midst of drunken rendition of Auld Lang Syne. She manages, to her astonishment, to hail a cab in a few minutes and heads back uptown from her cousin's house.

She's pleasantly tipsy, just on the right side of drunk, and she snuggles back into her fur. She paged Mike as she was leaving but didn't expect to hear back from him; the noise precluded it. She's tempted to tell the cabbie to take her to the precinct… it would be empty, she's sure, and perhaps they could…

But no. She'll wait for him to come back. He'll be busy, anyway, and why is she so sure it will be empty? Surely they'll have a lot of extra beat cops on duty to break up any parties gone bad.

She sighs and settles back into her fur. When they finally reach her apartment, she pays and tips the cabbie a bit more than she usually would, then makes her way inside.

She heads straight to her phone to call the precinct. His phone rings out and she's not going to call anyone else to try to get in touch with him-they are still keeping their relationship a secret for now. After waiting for another twenty minutes, she gets undressed, takes a shower, and goes to bed, leaving the lights on for him.