Time for Don to shine!

On the other side of town, Mackenzie and Sloan were giggling like women half their ages as they climbed out of the car and Don could only stand back and smile. Mackenzie was wearing one of Will's button-down shirts, a pair of leggings, and ballet flats, which was so out-of-character for her he had to stare for a minute. He knew that she didn't wear dressy work clothes at home on the weekend, but it was a little jarring to see her outside, in public, in anything but a skirt and blouse and heels. He couldn't keep himself from laughing as he escorted them through the doors of Red Door Spa on 5th Avenue. The girl at the desk embraced Mac as soon as she entered. Mac introduced Sloan as her maid of honor and there was more hugging. Then, there was squealing from all of them as Mac took her headpiece out of the box she was carrying. It was a delicate headband with pearls on it. Don felt like he was in a teen movie, but he couldn't stop smiling. His face felt like it was going to split in two he was smiling so hard.

Mackenzie looked up from their mile-a-minute girl talk about how amazing the wedding was going to be and said, with a wave of her hand, "Oh, and this is Don. He's Sloan's guy and also another EP at ACN." The desk girl, who Don could see was named Zoe from her name tag, smiled and nodded at Don and said, "Be back at 12:30. They'll be all set by then!"

Don could see he was being dismissed. This was no place for him to be lingering. Besides, he had dresses to deliver and flowers to oversee, and he was NOT going to let it be him who messed up some detail of the wedding of the decade. Don cleared his throat and said, "OK, ladies, I'll get back to my tasks. See you in a bit!"

Sloan stepped away from looking at eye shadow samples and wrapped her arms around Don's neck. See you later, babe." she said and gave him a sweet kiss on his mouth.

Not wanting to seem ungrateful, Mac walked over and gave Don a sisterly peck on the cheek. "Thanks for getting us here, Don! Now go deliver my dress!" she said with a grin and a wink and a wave of her hand. Mac knew she was queen for a day, and she was going to enjoy it.

Don hurried back outside and checked his watch. He had 20 minutes to get to the church before the flowers were delivered. The brilliance of Mackenzie choosing this salon was that they were basically only four city blocks from the church. In reality, they were 2 blocks away, but with one-way streets, you had to go past the salon in the wrong direction, hang a left on East 52nd Street, then a left on Madison Avenue, and then a left onto 53rd Street. Once you crossed over 5th Avenue, East became West and you were at the church, St. Thomas Episcopal. Will hadn't cared where they were married, but Mackenzie, the most modern and progressive woman any of them knew, wanted a lot of traditional things for her wedding. She had told Don conspiratorially one night in the control room that she was only planning to do this once, so she was doing it how she wanted. It was important to her, so Will indulged her every request.

Don got back into the hired town car (thank you Charlie for arranging that!) and told the driver to head over to the church. They got there fairly quickly, even with the normal traffic, and the driver was nice enough to help Don carry the girls' things inside so he wouldn't have to make two trips. Don handled the 3 garment bags- one with Mac's gown, one containing Sloan's, and one containing Mac's veil. She was having the headband put into her hair as it was styled, and then Sloan would help her attach the veil to it before the ceremony. The driver, Lou, carried several bags the girls had carried down together in one of their many giggle fits. Lou turned and smiled at Don as they made their way into the back entrance of the church building and said, "I really like Mr. McAvoy. I've driven him a bunch of times, and he's always been really nice. He tips, and he doesn't have to. He's a good guy." Don smiled and shook his head. There was so much goodwill in the air today.

Don was directed to the room where Mackenzie and Sloan would dress and wait, and he started setting things up. He hung the dresses and veil on hooks mounted on the walls and set the bags down on a large table along the opposite wall. The flowers would be here in 10 minutes and then he could grab a bite, head home to shower and change, and then head back to get the ladies from their salon adventure.

Through the window he saw a white van with the label "Scott's Flowers NYC" on the side and headed out the way he'd come in so he could lead the florist guys to where they needed to be. Three men carried in potted arrangements for around the sanctuary where the ceremony would be taking place. They were vibrant colors- red and an orangey-peach- mixed with creamy ivory and delicate greenery. There were roses and other flowers Don didn't know the names of, but he knew they were beautiful and that Mackenzie and Sloan would squeal over them when they arrived. Don called over to the men and said, "Hey, I'm Don Keefer. I'm assuming you know where things go?" One of them walked over to Don and shook his hand. He said, "Hey, I'm Scott. I'm the owner. Miss McHale gave us a diagram of the sanctuary and noted which flowers she wanted where. These arrangements go up by the altar, and then I have smaller bunches that get put on the outsides of the pews. Once we have that set, I'll bring in the boxes with the bouquets and boutonnieres in them."

After the larger arrangements were placed where Mac had instructed, two of the guys carried white boxes back into the room where Don had put the other necessary items. There was a very large box which contained Mackenzie's bouquet, a medium-sized one with Sloan's, and then a smaller box with the men's boutonnieres in it. There was one for Will, Charlie, Mackenzie's dad, and for Don and Jim, who would act as ushers when people were coming in. There were also two small corsages for Mackenzie's mother and Will's sister, Elizabeth, who had flown in from Lincoln for the event.

With the ladies' things secured and the flowers delivered, Don was able to head back to Sloan's apartment to shower and change. He walked outside into a cool wind and a passing burst of sunshine and hopped into the town car. He asked Lou to bring him back to Sloan's, and as he rode through the streets of Midtown, Don bemusedly thought to himself, "I can't believe this is finally happening! Who knows, in another year or two, this could be me and Sloan." Then he smiled as Lou drove him all the way back to the apartment.