Chapter 15: Mothers

Ten days, three missions, one almost-heart-attack after Jamie got injured and, well, a lot of sex later the Enterprise docked at McKinley Base in Earth orbit. They kept the debriefings short and Leonard scheduled for himself, Jamie and their wedding party - a.k.a. senior officers of the Enterprise plus Admiral Christopher Pike - to be beamed directly to McCoy Manor in Georgia. Winona Kirk was to meet them there later.

Eleonora McCoy was expecting them in from of the large building when they materialized in the courtyard. She gave them a bright smile. "Welcome to Georgia." She hurried over to pull her son in a tight embrace. "I missed you, Leonard. You're away too often."

"I love you, too, Mom", he answered, returning her hug.

When she turned to Jamie she took in the sight of her new daughter-in-law for a moment, until she pulled her also close. "I'm so happy to have you here."

Leonard chuckled. "Let Jamie go, Mom, you're crushing her."

Jamie just laughed. "Hi, Eleonora. It's beautiful here." She remembered the house, but some things were different. Probably part of Eleonora's preparations for the wedding. There were so much flowers everywhere. But she ignored that for the moment, remembering her crew and friends.

Jamie and Leonard introduced Christopher Pike, Spock, Nyota Uhura, Montgomery Scott, Hikaru Sulu and Pavel Chekov to Eleonora. The elder woman, of course, immediately discovered Nyota's engagement ring and started questioning her about Spock and their plans.

"And here I thought she'd be talking about nothing else than our wedding", Leonard remarked.

"Oh, I will", his mother promised.

He laughed and looked around searching for his daughter. "Where's Joanna?"

His mother sighed. "I'm sorry, Sweetheart." She touched his arm. "She will be here any minute. But not alone. Jocelyn found out about the wedding. She showed up unannounced when I had the woman from the catering company over."

Leonard also sighed. "I should have called her. Didn't want to tell her over comm and her possibly hanging up on me."

Jamie stepped grabbed his hand. "But isn't it a good sign that she's bringing Joanna?" She tried to smile.

"She's jealous", Eleonora said.

"What?" Leonard and Jamie replied in unison.

The others gave her also surprised looks.

"Jocelyn divorced Leonard and remarried years ago. How the hell can she be jealous?" Jamie gestured.

Eleonora chuckled. "Honey, have you looked in the mirror lately?"

That made Leonard grin proudly and he slid an arm around her waist.

"You're beautiful, you're a highly decorated Starfleet captain, command the flagship and you saved billions of lives", her mother-in-law spelled it out. "Jocelyn never said it, but I can see right through her - she never thought Leonard would find another woman. Jocelyn didn't want Leonard anymore, but also she didn't want any other woman to have him. Let alone one of the Federation's biggest heroes."

At first, Jamie just stared at Eleonora with wide eyes, lips parted, blushing and completely incapable to say anything. Then her expression changed to a small smile and her eyes locked with Leonard's. "He's the hero. Without him I wouldn't have gotten on the Enterprise. And I stopped counting how often he's saved my life." She leaned against him and placed a chaste kiss on his lips. "Perhaps I should thank Jocelyn. Without her being that stupid and letting you go, we would've never met, Bones."

Eleonora just smiled. The officers did too.

"Is there something like an competition or award for Starfleet's most badass power couple?" Sulu asked with a smirk. "I'd like to nominate them."

Laughter brightened the general mood and it took Leonard a moment to notice the voice he'd longed to hear.

"Daddy!"

The doctor looked around and saw his daughter running towards him. He sighed relieved, started smiling, got on one knee and enwrapped her in his arms. "Hey, Jo-Jo. Oh, you've grown. I've missed you so much."

"I missed you too, Daddy." The girl smiled back, but didn't stay in his arms as long as he'd liked her to. She freed herself after a minute and turned to Jamie. "Can I hug you, too, Jamie?"

The captain gave her a bright smile and got down on her knees. "Of course. Hello, Joanna." The girl fell around the captain's neck as if it was the most natural thing to do.

Leonard and his mother exchanged a glance and in the background Scotty took a few pictures without the Kirk-McCoys noticing.

A slight cough made everyone look to a woman stepping next to Eleonora McCoy.

"Jocelyn", Leonard greeted her politely and nodded.

"Leonard", she replied and just stared at Jamie Kirk who was letting go of Joanna in that moment.

Jamie stood up and made eye contact with the girl's mother.

"You must be Captain Kirk. Pleasure to finally meet you", Jocelyn Treadway said in a neutral tone.

Jamie pondered for a moment how to answer that. She chose to go straight forward. "You can call me Jamie." She gave her a diplomatic smile. "As for the other part of my name..." She glanced to Eleonora and saw in her expression that Jocelyn didn't know. Jamie decided that now was as good a time as any. "I'm still called Kirk on the ship to avoid any confusion. But technically Leonard and I are already married. It's a complicated and even classified story. My name is Jamie Kirk-McCoy now."

Jamie could see how Jocelyn's expression tensed and it became clear to her what Eleonora had meant. The woman actually appeared to still have some kind of feelings for her ex-husband and didn't like it at all that he was - again - happily married now.

"I hope you understand, that we won't invite you to our catch-up-Earth-wedding", Jamie added in a friendly but firm voice. Boy was she glad she'd had all those diplomatic experience by now.

"I'm about to go on vacation with my husband Clay", Jocelyn replied. "So I would not be here anyway. We planned it already when Leonard called a few months back and told us that he would be on Earth for a three weeks wanting to spend that time with Joanna. Just wanted my daughter to drop off personally."

"And see what kind of person I am?" Jamie asked directly.

"Yes."

The two women held their gazes for a few moments and there was a certain tension in the air. The Starfleet officers looked at each other, not sure what to do or say.

"Thanks for bringing Joanna", Leonard broke the silence and tried to defuse the situation by giving his ex-wife a very short kiss on the cheek.

Jocelyn fixated Jamie with her eyes again, as if she tried to discover some flaw. "I just hope this isn't some PR stunt you're pulling."

Admiral Christopher Pike made a disgruntled noise before anyone else, even Leonard and Jamie, had a chance to react. "You better leave now, Mrs. Treadway." He gave her an icy glare. "If you can't see, that they are made for each other or you simply won't acknowledge it - well, that's your problem."

Jocelyn ignored him and gently stroked her daughter's hair. "You call me, if something comes up, okay? Bye, Joanna. Have a nice time with your Dad."

"Have fun with Clay, Mom", Joanna said and hugged her mother goodbye.

Then Jocelyn was gone.

Jamie noticed how the girl addressed her stepfather. First name. Not Dad or Papa. She thought of her own stepfather Frank. She'd also never called him Dad. At least not anymore when she grew older. Despite two calls to Joanna in the past two weeks it only occurred to her now that she never asked the girl about Clay though they had having a stepfather in common.

But before she'd even finished those thoughts Joanna spoke again. "They fight a lot. Mom doesn't like it that he works so much."

Leonard sighed and some pieces fell into place. Jocelyn had always given him the feeling that he had been the sole reason their marriage fell apart. He knew, of course, that he'd made mistakes. But maybe Jocelyn was that kind of women who chose the wrong men. Anyway - he didn't care.

His eyes locked with Jamie's and he felt a warm feeling spreading in his chest. Everything that had happened and gone wrong had let to this moment right now.

Joanna looked at them and was nervously playing with her own fingers.

"What's up, Honey?" Leonard asked crouching down.

"I want to ask Jamie something... But I'm not sure..." she replied shyly.

Jamie smiled and sank down to her level, too.

Eleonora bit her lip, smiled knowingly and went over to Scotty and the other crewmembers. "You might get your camera ready. I have a feeling that this is an important moment for the family album."

Scotty gave her a confused look, but did as she said.

"Is it about the wedding, Pumpkin?" Jamie asked affectionately. "Perhaps about that flower girl dress you were talking about?"

Joanna shook her head. "I don't like Clay that much..." she started.

Jamie exchanged a surprised and confused look with Leonard.

"Uhm, that's okay, Jo-Jo," Jamie said.

Joanna made eye contact. "But I like you very much."

The captain smiled again. "I like you, too, Joanna."

The girl's eyes seemed to grow bigger. "Can I... would you mind if I would... call you Mama?... Mom is my Mom, but I thought... uhm, can you... maybe, uh, be my Mama?"

"She's talking for days about anything else", Eleonora whispered to the bridge officers, but Leonard and Jamie heard her, too.

Jamie looked at Joanna in awe and her heart raced. She would have expected at lot of questions, but not that one. Not so early. Maybe not ever. It hit her completely unprepared. She gave Leonard a short questioning look. He just smiled proudly, but wasn't less surprised than her.

"You can call me whatever you want, Sweetheart", Jamie finally replied - and suddenly had a happy Joanna hanging around her neck again.

The officers smiled at that heartwarming scene.

"Wanna make a bet how long it takes for a cute little laddie or lassie to run around the ship in gold and blue?" Scotty whispered to Sulu and Chekov.

Pike just rolled his eyes and Spock raised an eyebrow.

"Knock it off with those bets", Uhura hissed under her breath, but grinned anyway.

"Well now", Eleonora spoke up, not letting show if she'd heard them or not. "We better get in. I made a little snack for you all." She smiled at the Starfleet officers.

When everyone followed the elder woman, Uhura took Pike to the side. "Admiral, we have there a few ideas for the wedding in mind, but need approval for it..."