Podie1 - Thank you. Healthy groupies are welcome, all welcome. LOL. That was very kind of you to say and I appreciate that. :)

Here's Chapter 3

Meet the Parents

Shortly after Alex and Mike had sat down, a young girl, covered in all kinds of food ingredients had come out of the kitchen. Her face beaming with pride, grinning, she had announced that dinner was served. Everyone had suddenly become enthusiastic for dinner, and Alex had led Mike into the dining room. They'd sat down together, next to each other, both not wanting to be seperate.

The food was in dishes at the table, everyone's plate was empty but warm inviting the food in. "Well, it smells good!" Mike said, enthusiastically, winking at the little girl, Janey, who'd spent the better part of the morning cooking. This earned him a beaming smile from the girl, who seemed to be quite shy. Alex smiled at him and shook her head in amusement. Everyone was seated, there were alot of people around the table. Mike didn't dare count them all.

Alex, as if she could read his thoughts, spoke directly into his ear, "You'll be okay." Mike was a little surpised by her sudden positivity about the situation. "Just get stuck in because if you don't, you won't get anything." She was referring to the food at the table. People had already begun passing around bowls of vegetables. Mike nodded, finding it incredibly funny even if it was a little overwhelming, he'd never been in a situation like this. It was like The Waltons, only on a much larger scale.

He managed to put some meat on his plate and some potato's but it seemed that Alex was right - bowls were being passed in every direction except for his. But luckily for him, Alex managed to get a hold of some veggies and she passed it to him before anyone else could take it from her.

The noise level in the room had risen to a point where it was becoming white noise. Mike couldn't make out anything that was being said to anyone. The only person he could understand was Alex and that was because she was talking to him, near his ear, ensuring that he could hear her. But it didn't go unnoticed because a large, high-pitched whistle made the talking stop and everyone turned to the woman who'd done it. "Hey, guys, come on. Mike's never done this before. Let's not overpower him with the Eames chatter!"

"Thank you. I - uh - I can hear fine now. Thanks." Mike replied, rubbing his ear, speaking quietly because he noticed that all eyes were on him. Alex looked at him and she couldn't help it, she just had to smirk. Mike looked back at the woman who'd made everyone shut up.

"I'm Katie, Alex's eldest sister." She offered as introduction, she'd not met the man yet but she'd discovered his name from her son who'd met him at the door. "You've already met my son David at the door when you arrived." Mike noticed the little boy sitting next to her and he just smiled at him. "And my daughter, Janey, cooked the lovely meal we're eating."

"Pleased to meet you." Mike replied, just literally a second before another woman chose to spoke up. She seemed excited and extremely bubbly.

"Ooooh, are we doing introductions?" She asked, without waiting for an answer she dived into hers. "I'm Jo, the other sister. This man sitting next to me is Karl, my husband." she continued, the man in question just nodded. "This little man is my son, Nathan." she pointed to the toddler sat in between her and her husband. Alex was smiling at the little boy more than the others and that didn't go unnoticed by Mike. Turning to her brother, Eric, she poked him to remind him to do his introduction.

"Oh, no, see we've already met. I was actually good enough to introduce myself when he arrived." Eric said, with a grin, leaning back on his chair, feeling proud of himself at having beaten everyone else to the punch.

"It's true, they did." Alex told Jo with a small apologetic smile. Alex then turned to Mike, "Eric is the baby of the family." That earned her a snort from the brother in question, who hated being referred to as the 'baby' even when he had been one.

"Okay, well, I'm John, her brother." A man who was clearly older than Alex by a long shot spoke up after the room had fallen silent. Mike looked at Alex's father and then back at the man who'd spoken. "Oh, right, I was named after my Dad."

"To save confusion we call Dad, Dad." Alex provided the explanation. "Everyone. Only mom calls him by his name." They looked back at John, who clearly still had more to say.

"Son, you can call me Johnny if you prefer." Her father told him, Mike was grateful and he nodded his appreciation.

"Those three young ladies are my children." John continued, the three ladies in question rolled their eyes, they didn't liked being called children, although they were clearly under 18. "Lucy, Ashley and Liz." They just waved at Mike. Everyone then turned to the final person in the room, who was greatly tucking into his meal without paying attention to topic of conversation.

"Oh, right." he finally noticed them watching, "I'm Steve, brother, and I'm sorry you couldn't meet the wife and kids but they're at some theatre production."

"Theatre production?" Alex asked, puzzled.

"Yeah, they've been going to rehearsals for about a month now, Al, I'm surprised you didn't know." Steve replied, looking at her sister as she just looked a little guilty.

"I've been busy." Alex told him, although she knew that that excuse was starting to sound pathetic, even to her. Steve raised an eyebrow to show that he wasn't sure if he could believe that one.

"With work, apparently." Her father chimed up informing everyone of the 'reason' for her excuse.

Her sister, Jo, snorted loudly. "Yeah, I can see you've been busy though it wasn't really work, was it?" Jo laughed at Alex's embarrassment.

"Actually, Major Case has had alot of cases piling up lately." Mike replied for Alex, Alex felt extremely grateful for the way he was kindly standing up for her, even if it was a liitle bit of a stretch of truths. "Her and Goren seem to always end up with the really hard ones."

"You're at Major Case, Mike?" Her father asked, curious. He hadn't known Mike was at Major Case, but that's what he'd just inferred from what Mike had just said.

"Yeah." Mike replied, "I've been there for about 9 months." He couldn't help but feel some pride at having surprised Alex's father a little. He seemed more than shocked that he worked there.

"I thought you got booted to Staten Island for punching that councilman?" He asked another question, his curiosity peaking. He was absolutely certain that was what he'd read in the paper.

"What did you do at Staten Island?" Steve asked, who was also a cop, he'd now forgotton his meal completely now he knew that Mike was a cop, now he knew that Mike was the cop that got everyone in this family talking about 11 years ago.

"Domestic Abuse cases, watched the ferries, ate hotdogs - stuff like that." Mike replied, he felt like he was being bounced around the room like a ping pong ball.

"Wait, you went from domestic abuse to Major Case? How did you do that? I'm stuck at Vice and let me tell you, I've tried to get into Major Case." Steve continued, in awe at the fact that Mike had managed to pull himself to that kind of high from that kind of low.

"Captain Deakins pulled some strings to get him there. He helped with a case a year ago and he did good work so..." Alex replied for him, sensing Mike's unease at the turn of the topic.

Maggie helped out with that a little, "Janey, sweetheart, I don't suppose you made Grandma some pudding?" Janey looked at her and shook her head slightly, suddenly grabbing her mother and hiding. The room erupted into laughter and talk as everyone decided that they needed to rectify that immediately.

"...We can bake cookies..."

"...I could wip up some ice cream sundaes..."

"...maybe we could make chocolate cake..."

"...or we could just buy one..."

"...I think there's some trifle in the fridge..."

"...How do you guys keep track of what's being said..."

"...I've got some skittles in my car, that..."

"...If we make cake, Grandma could lick the bowl..."

"...There's no real way of keeping track..."

"...Bought cakes taste like plastic..."

"...Oh, sweetie, don't touch that..."

SMASH!!!!

A glass bowl had been grabbed by the 5 year old boy, David, who'd had enough of the 'conversation', he had decided to play with one of Maggie Eames' favourite ornaments. But his small hands had been unable to hold onto it for more than 2 seconds. When it fell to the floor, the echoing smash that had sounded, showing everyone that the precious delicate bowl had been damaged, caused the room to enter complete silence.

It was silent for all of two seconds before everyone went into action mode. Katie ran off to get the brush to sweep up the large fragments of glass. The young children were being taken out of the room, one for each adult who was near one, except for David who was clinging to Maggie in absolute tears, guilty that he'd broken something, it didn't matter what - he just knew that he'd done something wrong. John was already on his hands and knees picking up the less difficult to handle pieces whilst Alex held open a rubbish bag to put them into.

David then pulled himself away from Maggie, who wasn't strong enough to hold onto him. He rushed over to the fragments of the bowl. Steve tried to stop him but he was determined to help them clean up his mess. Mike, who'd seen him, sprung into action and lifted the boy up into his arms with pure ease. Katie returned with the brush and pan, she passed it to Eric who immediately began using it, she then took David out of Mike's hands. "It's okay, sweetie. Nobody's mad at you. Grandma isn't mad, are you Grandma?" Katie looked at her mother, allowing David to see her as well. Maggie shook her head and held out her arms for the boy to come back to her.

Alex looked at Mike, she'd seen what he'd done, and she felt a small pang of regret for her earlier doubts she'd had over Mike and her coming to visit today. He was having a good time and she decided that she needed to loosen up a little otherwise he would end up being the only one having a good time. She truly felt guilty for not contacting anyone for two months, she hadn't known that much time had passed.

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"So, does that happen often at dinner? Or was that something special you guys wipped up for me?" Mike asked, once he, Alex, Eric and Steve were in the basement, out of everyones way. Alex rolled her eyes at him but he just smiled at her.

Eric laughed, "Yeah, we do that to scare away all newcomers. You're still here though..." Eric looked at Steve, who was looking thoughtful.

"I don't think we're trying enough, Eric. Maybe we could pull that trick we played on Terry?" His voice full of humor, as he looked at Alex to see if that got the desired effect. It did, because she just stared at him as menacingly as possible.

"Who's Terry?" Mike asked, looking at Alex for some kind of clarification. The four of them were sitting around a small table, as if they were having a meeting. The basement was poorly decorated and it was clearly used as storage. The chairs they were sitting on were old, but it had been explained to Mike that the basement was their hideout from their parents when they were younger. It didn't need decorating because it represented freedom for them.

"Ex-boyfriend. It turned into a food fight. And no!" She looked at her brothers with a stern look, she didn't want to repeat the incident, she didn't want them to frighten Mike away like they had Terry. Although she knew Mike was a stronger person than that, she didn't want to take the chance.

Eric clicked his fingers as if to say 'bingo'. "Or we could just do the all-time favourite. Tell stories about her." Alex rolled her eyes and sighed in frustration.

"I'm game." Steve said, in agreement, rubbing his hands together enthusiastically. They heard footsteps and turned to see Katie and Jo rushing down the stairs. "What's up, girls? Had enough already?"

"No, no, don't worry. We're not here to cramp your style." Jo told him, sarcastically.

"We're actually here for Alex." Katie explained as they stood next to her and she looked up at them in confusion.

"Yeah, take her. We'll look after Mike." Eric told them, nodding his head to the point where it might fall off. It was evident what he was planning to do.

"Uh, actually..." Alex started, looking at Eric and then at Mike. Steve was grinning at the possibilities before them.

"No, we're having a girly chat since we haven't done one in absolutely ages." Katie told her, defiantly holding her ground. She and Jo each took a hold of one of her arms and pulled her up from her seat. She looked at Mike who shrugged, he wanted to hear some of these stories.

Sensing that she had no choice because she knew what her sisters were like and she did miss speaking to them so she said, "Alright." Alex shook herself lose of her sisters. "But no stories." she was pointing at Eric as the three girls walked away and up the stairs. "No stories, Eric, otherwise I'll have to kill you." Of course she didn't mean literally, but she felt good on her threat.

As soon as the girls were gone and out of earshot Eric looked at Steve and then at Mike, they all leaned forward to be near each other so that they could speak quietly. "So, any good stories?" Mike asked, knowing Alex might just carry out her threat on him too but it didn't matter, they were offering stories and he was willing to listen.

"Yeah, here's one..."

Flashback: Alex: aged 16

"John, it's nearly 2 in the morning, don't you think you should go look for her again?" Maggie asked, her long blonde hair tyed back into a ball, dressed in her bed clothes, wearing sleepers, as she, her husband, Eric and Steve sat around the kitchen table waiting for Alex to come home.

"Honey, it won't do any good. I've already been out to look for her. She doesn't want to be found, she'll turn up." Johnny, her father, was keeping a tight, firm hold of his mug of coffee in his attempt to keep warm and stay awake.

"What about calling the police?" Maggie asked, worried about her youngest daughter and not for the first time since she'd been born.

"Honey, I am the police and I still can't do anything. I wish I could..." Johnny was interrupted by the outside door opening and they watched in disbelief as Alex, dressed all in black, go-go boots, a short-ish flared skirt and jacket, even her long hair was almost black. She walked straight in and tried to tiptoe past them. "We can see you!" he told her. She stopped and slowly turned around to the four people sat stunned at the dining table.

"Dad! Mom! What are you guys doing up?" Alex sounded nervous and understandably so.

"Do you know what time it is, young lady?" Her father asked, standing up tall.

"No." She replied, sarcastically, "That's why I've come back for my watch." she quickly turned on her heel and darted towards the kitchen door.

"Wait!!" Her father's voice boomed in the early hours of the morning. It's deep sound echoing in the still and almost quiet kicthen. The others at the table didn't dare to move. Alex kept on going through the door and through the living room. She made it all the way to the stairs when her father caught up with her. She got half way up before she gave up and turned around to meet the angry glare of her father. She looked at him with similar determination, she didn't want to back down despite the fact she was in trouble, alot of trouble. "Where have you been?"

Alex looked at the four of them at the bottom of the stairs, "Studying?" she offered.

"Studying? At this time of night?" her father asked, incredulously, Alex nodded her head to answer his question. "Alex! You don't study! That's why we have a whole drawer full of report cards from your teachers!"

Alex waved her hand dismissively, "Report cards don't mean anything. Teachers have a quota they have to fill out each week." she told him, with a little smile as she did so, "For some reason they always start with the letter 'A'." She shrugged but her father, however, didn't look convinced.

"Alex, you're going to come down those stairs and we're going to have a long chat!" he told her, pointing towards the bottom step, indicating to her that she should move. She was about to when her mother spoke up.

"John, it's late, let's hand out the punishment tomorrow." Maggie said, desperately tired. She knew the punishment was just going to be the same, she'd be grounded as per usual.

"No, I'm going to be out all of tomorrow, we do it now!"

"Oh, Dad. You're going to be tired if you don't sleep. We should just all go to bed!" Alex looked ready to turn and head back up the stairs when her father took a step forward and she changed her mind.

"The only peole who are going to bed are Eric and Steve. Me, you and your mother are staying up a little while longer." Johnny told them all. Alex reluctantly went back down the stairs as her brothers, just as reluctantly went up the stairs. They liked watching Alex get told off because she was just too sarcastic for own good.

"Of course that's all we have because we went to bed. But I know they continued for at least an hour." Eric finished and Mike shook his head in amusement.

"Who knew she was such a rebel?" he mostly spoke to himself, he'd been laughing so hard throughout the story. Enjoying the comedic way the two brothers had told it.

"Oh God she was the biggest rebel in the family." Steve told him with a grin, "She hated being the youngest girl because for some reason Dad was always more protective of her than the others. Her problem was that she was so damned Snarky about it."

"Yeah, you remember how they used to try to outwit each other at the dinner table?" Eric asked Steve, who nodded whilst laughing at the memory. "Dad and Alex used to have what we now affectionately call 'The Battle of the Wits'." He chuckled before continuing. "They'd literally try to out-do each other with the greatest retort."

Steve snorted, "For some reason Alex always won."

Mike laughed wholeheartedly at that, he could believe it too. He'd enjoyed this insight into her life and he had known it would be funny, he just didn't realise it would be side-splitting. He now had stitch from laughing so hard. He was now glad that he'd convinced Alex to come because if not, he would've missed out on hearing some great stories.

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TBC