Hi, everyone! Glad to be able to post another ficlet today just in case the week before Christmas gets extra busy. I hope everyone's holiday preparations are going well, and I hope you like the new guest in this ficlet. Thanks for reading!

Honor

Lieutenant Commander Harmon Rabb. Major Sarah MacKenzie.

Don't get too familiar. You're gonna work together.

"This is going to be absolutely beautiful," Harriet gushed, twisting another long string of roses around the base of the wedding arch. She and Mattie were clipping the stems at the bottom while Chloe and Mac both stood on ladders, weaving the flowers in a decorative pattern at the top. The roses, the baby's breath, and the thick green leaves were the perfect accent to the pretty knotted wood.

Mac smiled as she heard Harriet's compliment, feeling another little thrill of anticipation for her wedding. It was entirely fitting for two people who had met in a rose garden to be married under a trellis of white roses.

"Mac, there's someone at the door for you," Frank called from inside the house.

Puzzled as to who it could be, Mac climbed down from the ladder and left the other women on the patio while she made her way inside.

When she opened the door, she couldn't contain an audible gasp of surprise.

"Admiral!"

He was a little older and a little grayer, but the commanding figure of Admiral A.J. Chegwidden was unmistakable.

"Colonel."

It took a moment for Mac to recover her voice. "We...uh, haven't seen you since your retirement, sir."

"Well, I've been very busy with...well, you know, retirement things."

"Of course...um, won't you come in?" Mac still felt a little dazed as she stepped back from the door and allowed him to enter.

The admiral nodded politely as he entered the house and clasped his hands behind his back, as if he were preparing to make a speech that he wasn't quite ready for.

"This is a lovely home," he said.

"Sir?" Mac asked, recognizing the way he was stalling.

A.J. took a deep breath. "Colonel, I recently received a phone call from a very persuasive petty officer who told me that you and Captain Rabb were getting married on Christmas Eve. I believe she said something along the lines of 'Admiral, it just wouldn't be the same without you.'" He hesitated for a moment and then continued on determinedly. "Mac," he said, addressing her more informally now. "You once asked me to walk you down the aisle for your wedding, and at the time, I had doubts that I might be giving you away to the wrong man."

Mac flinched visibly.

"Obviously you did, too," A.J. said without missing a beat. "Colonel, I no longer have those doubts, and if you agree, I'd still like to be the one to walk you down the aisle."

A.J. Chegwidden was a former Navy SEAL who was highly practiced at cold, emotionless facial expressions, but Mac could have sworn she saw a hopeful light in his eyes.

His words hung in the air for a long moment, and then slowly, Mac breathed out and a smile spread across her face. "I'd be honored, Admiral. Petty Officer Coates is right...it just wouldn't be the same without you."