Sonny put a hand up to stop Emily from entering the house. He lifted her in his arms.

"Babe, we've walked into this house numerous times before."

"Yes, but not as husband and wife and I want to do this the right way."

"You are an eternal romantic, you know that?"

"Isn't that why you married me?" he asked as he opened the door and let them in.

He put her down.

"Among other things," she answered smiling.

Ever since he had proposed, life had gone by at a million miles an hour. They had set a date 6 months later in spring and, along with the girls, Naima, Stella and Natalie had slowly started preparing the wedding and reception.

Good thing was that Sonny didn't have to worry too much on his end about preparations, he was going to be in his blue service dress uniform. It was a good thing because Bravo was on constant alert. Things were flaring up in a lot of different countries of the world, there was no rest for the warriors.

Flashback:

Emily and Sonny stepped out on the terrace of the restaurant. The weather was warm and pleasant, the sky was cloudless, and the stars were shining.

He took her in his arms. "Come here."

She kissed him. "You know this is the rehearsal dinner and it usually means we stay inside with the guests."

"I don't get to spend the night with you, let me take in what I can right now."

"You know, I didn't picture you for the old-fashioned kind of guy."

"I want to do this the right way and respect certain traditions, even if it means I won't see you until you walk down the aisle tomorrow morning."

"I find that very romantic Mr. Quinn."

"Well, that is the objective Miss Blackburn."

His eyes gleamed. "I get to marry you tomorrow."

"Yes, you do," she answered back.

"And from that moment on, I can call you Mrs. Quinn."

"I love the sound of that."

They kissed again and were interrupted by the restaurant door opening. Eric, Ray, Jason, Clay and the rest of the guys walked over to them and grabbed Sonny.

"Come on Cowboy Casanova, it's time to celebrate your last night as a single man, then tuck you in," said Clay.

Emily laughed. "Have fun!"

"Don't think you're not getting your share of fun!" she heard Naima say from behind her. She too was joined with Natalie, Stella as well as Brock and Trent's girlfriends.

Sonny and Emily looked at each other as they were led to opposite sides of the parking lot and put into cars.

Luckily for Sonny and Emily their wedding ceremony wasn't until mid-morning, because both had stayed up till the wee hours of the morning, having a great time surrounded by their friends.

It was Naima that woke Emily up.

"Good morning sunshine."

Emily cracked an eye open. "Morning."

"Did you dream of Sonny or Jack the striper in his police uniform, last night?"

"Haha.. funny you should ask that question. I was too tired to even dream about anything. You girls are crazy you know that?"

"Well, a wedding is the only excuse. Come on, up we go, you've got to have breakfast, shower and get ready. Today is the big day!"

"Have you heard from Sonny?" dared ask Emily as she raised, a curious and pleading, eyebrow at Naima.

"All I know is that he was tucked in way earlier than you were and no stripers were involved, which I find rather ironic."

"I agree," said Emily chuckling.

"He's been up for a couple of hours and apparently impatient to put that wedding band on your finger!"

They headed downstairs and met up with Zoe, Julia and Christina, Emily's mother, in the kitchen.

Christina looked at her daughter. "Good morning sweetie. Why don't you sit down? Breakfast is almost ready."

Emily hugged and kissed her mom before doing the same to her own daughters and sitting down with them at the table.

The doorbell rang and Natalie, Stella and the others arrived with their dresses and everything they needed to get ready.

Naima, who was Emily's maid of honor and in charge of everything, looked at the women. "All right ladies, all of you head on upstairs and get ready, that way Emily has time to eat before the hairdresser and makeup artist arrive!"

All of them waved and smiled at Emily before heading upstairs.

Naima looked at Zoe and Julia. "You, too. Go on."

"Yes ma'am," replied Zoe as she and Julia took their plates, placed them in the dishwasher and headed upstairs as well to get ready.

Naima and Christina helped Emily into her dress. It was a full length ivory colored dress. It had a sweetheart neckline and beading across the front. The back was with satin laces that closed it up mid-back. The train was 16 inches along the floor, in a perfect circle around her. Even though she had tried the dress on, the minute she turned around and saw herself in the mirror, it caught her breath.

Her mother placed the veil at the top of her bun, and the hairdresser delicately placed the locks of hair on the side of her face, in place.

Christina and Naima exchanged looks.

"You're stunning," said Naima.

"You look beautiful sweetheart," said Christina as her tears welled up.

"Mom, don't cry.. If you cry, I'm going to cry."

"I'm sorry," said Christina. "It's just that this was how I always pictured your wedding to be like and I'm so happy that you get it."

Emily knew what she meant. Her marriage to Jack had never come close to this and overall, it should have been an indication that it was doomed to fail, even though they had tried many years to make it work.

There was knock on the door. The women turned around as it opened.

David, Emily's father, and Eric came into the room and both stopped upon seeing Emily.

"Wow," was all that Eric could utter.

David laughed. "Let's hope Sonny is more outspoken than you are."

David walked over to his daughter. "Would you look at you? You are a sight for sore eyes. Sonny is a lucky man."

"Thanks dad."

Emily looked at Eric. "You clean up nice Commander Blackburn. It's been a while since I've seen you in your whites."

"I only wear them on special and important occasions," he answered as he winked and smiled at her.

David looked around the room. "I'd like to have some time with Emily."

"Of course," answered Christina.

"Why don't we go and round up the women? We need to be out of here in fifteen minutes if we don't want to be late," said Naima as she looked at her watch.

Once everyone was out of the room, David showed Emily over to the bench at the end of her bed and patted down on it for her to sit down.

"I know that your mother and I haven't been as present in your life, or Eric's, as much as we should have been, and I know I'm mostly responsible for that."

"Dad, we don't have to talk about this now."

"Yes, we do. When you and Eric joined the Navy, it wasn't what I had in mind for both of you in life. Instead of supporting you and seeing how important it was to you, I shut you out both and your mother stood by me against her will. Over the years, I came to terms, somewhat with what you did, but I could never understand that you could sacrifice your life for strangers or in countries we didn't live in. It's taken too long for me to understand all of that and even if I'm too late when it comes to you, I want you to know that I'm proud of you Em. I'm proud of the woman you have become, the mother and role model you are for your girls. I'm proud that you are so passionate about everything."

He paused for a moment and took her hand in his.

"I always though of Jack as a good man, but over the years, I realized he was far from being worthy of you. Now, that I know Sonny and the man he is, the way he loves you, respects you and our family, I know that he is a good man and the one you were always destined to meet and fall in love with."

He tilted his head to the side. "And raise a family?"

Emily looked at her dad.

"I'm just putting it out there. That's for you two to decide. With him in your life, I know that everything will be alright, even when I'm no longer around to see it. Be happy my love, live it to the fullest."

He took her in his arms. "I love you kiddo."

"I love you too dad."