Chapter 2

A/N: This one is for Bones and Ryn, a couple I ship in real life, because both of them could use a little fluff today. And as usual, I don't own ENT, because if I did, things would have turned out just like this.

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Benjamin Archer was playing hard to get. He was acting shy and buried his head in his mother's shoulder. Erika leaned down and whispered in his ear that he didn't have to be shy and he looked up a little, still staying close in his mother's arms. Finally, he smiled.

"There we go!" Sam Gardner said with a smile. Erika couldn't ever remember seeing him this happy about having a small child in his midst, but then Ben seemed to have that effect on people. They all seemed to adore him.

Ben had been fussy and fidgety all throughout the wedding dinner, so much so that Erika had to walk with him in her arms a few times to calm him down. There was just something about sitting still that didn't seem to sit well with Ben Archer and Erika knew exactly where he got that tendency. In fact, his sisters seemed to have inherited their father's restlessness as well. So they had walked around and around the tables, stopping to say hi to everyone they knew. Ben had charmed them all, smiling and burbling as he tried to eat his mother's corsage. Several people had offered to take him off her hands for a little while and let her enjoy the dancing, but Erika didn't mind. Besides, there was no telling what this one might get into if he really did take after his father.

When Erika finally calmed her little boy down and made her way back to her seat, she noticed that her middle child had disappeared. Adalie, a flower girl in the wedding was present and accounted for, and was the darling of the bridal party. Everyone wanted to dance with her and she was more than willing to oblige. Frankie, at three and a half, had absolutely no interest in dancing what so ever and that was what had worried Erika the most. She nervously scanned the area, a beautiful outdoor garden space with lush trees and faint lighting, until she had finally spotted the telltale ruffled dress that Frankie had already tried to wriggle out of at least twice. She was sitting in the middle of a flowerbed, playing quietly by herself. Erika did a double take to make sure it was her child. She looked closely and saw that it wasn't really a flowerbed, not anymore. Every single tulip and been carefully dug up and was now lying off to the side. And Frankie was covered in dirt. Yes, that was her daughter.

Erika picked up Ben and quickly went to go find her husband. He wasn't hard to spot, even amongst all the Starfleet dress uniforms. A small part of her brain was congratulating Starfleet on choosing a distinctive uniform for the Chief of Staff. She also thought momentarily about congratulating her husband on achieving a rank that entitled him to a distinctive uniform but then she thought better of it.

"Hi," she said when he saw her.

"Hey," he smiled, clearly oblivious to what was about to happen. He leaned over to give both her and the baby a quick kiss.

"You weren't by any chance supposed to watch Frankie while this one and I were walking around, were you?" Erika asked in the sweetest voice she could muster.

Jon's face fell. "Oh no."

"Yes 'oh no.'"

"What did she do?" Jon put his face in his hands but Erika could see that he was trying not to laugh.

"Come see for yourself," she said, leading him over their daughter. When they got to the pile of dirt formerly known as a flowerbed, Erika felt her eyes widen. The damage was worse than she had initially thought. An entire sixteen square foot chunk of the garden was missing its flowers, with dirt scattered everywhere and petals and long flower stocks littering the ground. Frankie saw them coming and instantly grinned.

"Hi!" she said, utterly cheerfully.

"Frankie….." her father began.

"Flowers?" she held out a crumpled bouquet.

"No thanks."

"Jon…."

"Kiddo, what did you do?" he finally asked, bending down to examine her handiwork.

"I was gardening."

"I think de-gardening would be more like it," Jon muttered to himself.

"Frankie, you can't go around digging up other people's gardens," Erika sighed as she looked over the damage.

"Not good?" she asked.

"No," Jon shook his head. "Not good. Come on, let's get this cleaned up."

"Boy, your kids sure do know how to party," Trip Tucker said, as he walked up behind Erika. "I turn around for one minute and this one is schmoozing with most of the Starfleet brass," he pointed at Ben, " and that one is tearing it up on the dance floor. And this one," he paused as he looked at Frankie, "well, I'm not sure what she was doing."

"I was gardening," Frankie explained again.

"Looks like you made a mess of things," Trip smiled.

"Not really," Frankie sighed.

"Oh no?" Trip asked, scooping the little girl into his arms.

"Trip, she's covered in dirt and mud," Jon warned.

"It don't bother me," Trip said, brushing a smudge off of Frankie's nose. "Now I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that neither of your parents ask why you were gardening. Is that right?" Trip raised an eyebrow at Jon who just shrugged. "So tell me, Frankie Lou, why exactly were you digging up the flowers in my new mother-in-law's backyard?"

"I wanted to make you a bouquet," Frankie said as if it was obvious.

"But why did you want to do that?" her godfather persisted.

"Because you said you wanted one just like Addie!"

Trip laughed and suddenly Erika knew exactly what had happened. Right before the wedding had started, Trip had spotted Adalie carefully practicing her ever-important duties. Never mind that both Jon and Erika had patiently walked up and down the halls of their home, showing Adalie how to walk slowly and carefully and even going so far as to fashion her a makeshift bunch of flowers out of a stack of old report papers. And never mind that they had allowed her to practice her walk down the aisle by going back and forth between their offices, which as Jon mentioned was about four billion times longer than the wedding aisle was bound to be. But Adalie didn't listen. She had been entrusted with this important responsibility and she intended to carry it out to the best of her ability. Jon had muttered to Erika that if this one didn't join Starfleet and become a captain then they had utterly failed as parents, but Erika had just give him a whack on the head. From day one she had been adamant that they wouldn't push any of their children to join the service. She worried that they would feel the pressure to live up to their parents' lofty and continually climbing achievements in the fleet and she wanted them to have the freedom to pursue their own careers what ever they might be. Jon wanted just one of them to go into the fleet, but he too didn't want to push them towards something.

Regardless, Adalie had been nervous before the wedding and Trip had picked her up in his arms and told her just how beautiful she looked and how she was going to be the best flower girl his wedding could possibly have. And then he had told her that her bouquet of flowers looked so pretty that he wished he could have one of his own. Adalie of course had giggled and finally settled down but Frankie who was sitting patiently with her mother nearby had apparently heard everything. At the time, Erika had only worried that Frankie would feel jealous of her older sister and the special attention she was getting but it didn't seem to bother her. But what did bother her was that her darling godfather wanted something that he didn't have and she was determined to get it for him.

"Oh Franks," Trip held his hand to his heart. "That is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me."

"Really?" Frankie beamed.

"You betcha," Trip nodded. "But did you have to tear up the yard to make it happen?"

"No?"

Erika had hoped that that conclusion would have occurred to her daughter in a more confident manner, but she would take what she could get. "No," she said. "Now, tell Trip that you are sorry for digging up his flowers."

"I'm sorry," Frankie sighed, slightly disinterested and probably, Erika thought, looking for another thing to destroy.

"All is forgiven, kiddo," Trip said, giving her a tight squeeze.

"C'mere, little dirt monster," Jon said, holding out his arms for their daughter. Let's get you brushed off." Frankie jumped eagerly into his arms.

"Trip, I'm so sorry about all of this," Erika said, gesturing at the mess. "We can help you…."

"No need, Erika. It's a wedding," he smiled as if that would explain it all. "Besides, when she gets married, I'm going to have a hell of story to tell at the reception."

"No!" Frankie giggled.

"There you are," Jon said holding her up for inspection. "Almost good as new."

"Almost," Erika shook her head. Jon hoisted their middle daughter up onto his shoulders. "Don't let her down from there, okay?"

"That is the plan," he said with a smile. "Now, do you and that handsome little man in your arms want to dance with me and this little destruction unit?"

Erika laughed as Frankie pulled on her father's ears and Ben tugged on her hair. "Why not?"

Her husband led her out to the dance floor, one hand carefully holding Frankie. "Do you remember when we got married?" he asked as they began to dance. She nodded. "I didn't think I could ever be happier than I was that day," he sighed. "But now look at us."

"You've grown up, Jon," she smiled as she adjusted their youngest on her hip. "Let's hope these three do too."

This wedding had been a long time in the making.