Invasion of the Pike Clan

With only one week until the wedding, Elle's family began coming in waves. First her immediate family, Her parents, and her brothers and their families arrived exactly one week prior. Elle and Leonard brought Jamie and they were to meet the first wave of the Pike clan at the shuttle station to pick them up and get them settled at Uncle Chris's house. It was Leonard's turn to be nervous as they pulled up to the station about half an hour early.

"Honey, relax. They're happy for us." He raised a brow.

"Okaaay, well they just want me and Jamie to be happy and taken care of, and we are now."

Elle's mother, Irene was a sweet woman, who for the last eight years had been keeping her men in line and allow Elle to handle things the way she saw fit. Her father, Michael, looked much like his younger brother, with a slightly larger frame, as Elle was his baby girl, he was quite over protective. And then there were her brothers. Noelle Pike was the youngest and only girl, with four older brothers, who all thought it was their job to protect their baby sister. With families of their own Elle thought that maybe they would lay off her love life, and be a little easier on Leonard, but in all honesty, that wasn't going to happen. They understood, that he hadn't known about Jamie, but it didn't make him that much better in their eyes. Each of the boys looked a great deal like their father, with a few features differing between each one. The oldest, Ryan was possibly the most like their father and had the same overbearing protectiveness of his baby sister. Next was Edwin and Jason, who mostly made sure that their baby sister stayed safe, and lastly Patrick the youngest and the closest to Elle. Each of them would be arriving with their respective families, along with her parents.

Leonard had been apprehensive about meeting her entire family again in one go, right before the wedding. Her mom had always been very nice and understanding, but her father and brothers scared the absolute bejeezus out of him.

"Ellie! Jamie!"

"Hey everyone!"

Suddenly Leonard found himself surrounded on all sides by Elle's family, her brothers and their wives and kids rushed them, and soon Jamie was engulfed by his cousins and smothered with hugs and kisses from his grandparents and aunts and uncles.

"All right, family, you all remember Leonard?"

It had quieted down, and Leonard felt himself color as all their attention focused on him. Luckily, Elle's cousin/best friend chose that time to arrive.

"Well hey family!"

"Cesca!" they all chimed.

"Are you playing nice?" Cesca asked as she eyed her male cousins and her uncle. They smiled at her and Elle before turning toward Leonard, Michael spoke up,

"Well if my baby girl really loves you, then I can't hate you now can I? And you did your part in giving us Jamie. Welcome to the family son."

He held out his hand to Leonard, who took his hand and shook it. Simultaneously he and Elle let go of a breath they hadn't realized they'd been holding. Elle then enveloped her cousin in a hug whispering,

"Thanks, I owe you."

"Anytime honey, I expect you to do the same when I have to bring a boy home and introduce him to my parents."

"You got it!"

Len realized the large spectacle the family was making and cleared his throat, once he'd gained their attention he invited everyone to their house for lunch. They'd prepared a barbeque for the family, and later that night the crew would be coming over for dinner. Inwardly, Len was nervous for Kirk to meet Elle's cousin. He was a consummate flirt, and good looks ran in the Pike family. Cesca was up for the wedding, she lived down in San Diego where she worked with the xenolinguistics department. Len remembered just how much he used to see her when he'd been with Elle in college. She was younger than them, but always found a way to visit, she was the first interview he'd ever had. Though she was younger than Elle, she was just as tough as her old man.

Lunch passed pretty uneventfully, and everyone sat around the living room and round the house, in a food coma. All the family telling Len stories about Elle growing up, teasing, making Len feel better about his family embarrassing him the week before. As the day dragged on, Elle made her way to the kitchen to start working on dinner, she'd sent the men outside to start on the BBQ. As she was left in the kitchen with her mother, sisters in law and Cesca, they all praised the choice on her home, and how they never got to see each other anymore. They started on the simple foods first, as the door chimed and revealed damn near the whole command crew of the Enterprise on the front porch just about beaming at Elle and Cesca.

"Hi you must be Leonard's co-workers! I'm Francesca Pike, but you can call me Cesca."

The men looked on appreciatively, until Spock chimed in that they should go inside and meet the rest of the Pike family. The family of the Enterprise met the Pike family in the backyard, and the impromptu party got increasingly louder as they worked their way to the large laid out table for dinner. Everyone settled into their seats Elle and Len sitting at the middle of the table with her family on one side and the command crew on the other, with the exception of Cesca who'd gotten into an in depth conversation with Lt. Sulu about everything from herbs and other flora and piloting. Much to Kirk's dismay, and Len's amusement, she wasn't responding to any of his charming advances, she would answer politely, then slyly turn the conversation toward Hikaru once again. Michael walked over to the happy couple and addressed Elle,

"When's your Uncle Chris getting here? I haven't seen Maureen and the kids in a quite a while."

"It hasn't been that long Daddy; they should be here really soon, Auntie Reen just got back from a debriefing from her last mission."

Her brothers had migrated over and began talking animatedly with the command crew while all the kids had taken to running all around the back yard playing tag or climbing over the play structure the boys had put up for Jamie's last birthday.

Elle smiled and nudged Len playfully to look over at Cesca flirting awfully shamelessly with the Helmsman. Smiling laughing and tossing her hair. On the flip side, Kirk looked somewhat dejected and started towards the kids and began playing with them like the big kid that he was. As they began cleaning up, Chris and Maureen Pike and their youngest daughter Cassie came through the back door, and the family crowed with greetings. As they made their way around the family and onto the command crew, Cassie and her mother went to get some food, as Chris greeted his old crew. As they all exchanged greetings amidst the "nice to see you sir" greetings one greeting broke through, surprising most of the men,

"Hi Daddy! Where are Mom and Cass?"

None of the officers were aware that Cesca, was Francesca Pike. Admiral Pike and Number One's eldest daughter. Leonard felt the tension he'd been feeling around Elle's family dissipate as he broke the silence with roaring laughter at Sulu and Kirk's faces. Sulu whispered to his captain, with an incredibly worried look on his face,

"Daddy?"

"I can barely believe it myself man. I mean, I knew Pike had kids, but I'd only ever met his youngest daughter.

"Hi princess, they went to get some food in the kitchen. When did you get in? We could have picked you up"

"I came straight over to help Ellie get the boys and Uncle Mike off Leonards back."

Pike chuckled, and conceded to his daughter crushing her in a big hug and suddenly getting a mischievous look in his eye.

"So it looks like you've met my old crew, especially Kirk and Mr. Sulu here?"

"Sure have daddy, I think I'm gonna grab some pie that Aunt Irene made, you want some?"

Without taking his eyes off of his officers he replied, "No thanks princess, I think I'll just catch up with my old crew for a while."

Cesca giggled to herself and shot Len a look, and he too chuckled at the pained expressions on both Jim and Hikaru's faces.

"You boys seem to be getting along find with my daughter. I warn you she's a firecracker. At ease gentlemen, I love my daughter and I'll hunt either of you down if you hurt her, but I also know she can take care of herself."

Jim hid his fear and put on his familiar mask of bravado, "Taught her yourself Admiral."

Pike smirked, oh how he wished, "No she learned from someone far more fearsome."

Now they were all interested to hear where else Pike would trust his daughter to learn self defense. All he needed to say were two words.

"Her mother."