A/N: HAI GUYS!

 YOU ARE ALL THE BEST! THANK YOU SO MUCH! THIS ABSOLUTELY MADE MY DAY!

 I also know I promised I 500 read special, and I'm sorry it's a bit late (Y'all read a lot more than I thought you would, but that's awesome!! :) but I hope you guys enjoy it! The idea was submitted by @Clieo_Whiteshadow, thank you!

 Live Long and May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor ;)

 -Spock_is_in_asgard

Pike walked into Kirk's ready room, and nearly had a heart attack. There was no way the sight before him was real.

What he thought was a meeting called by Kirk to his bridge crew (Admiral Pike was invited as he was currently the senior most officer on the ship, and in all actuality, Kirk had personally asked him to come) had, by some wayward alien signal or god-knows-what, turned into a babysitting job for Pike.

Gathered around his feet, de-aged editions of Kirk's crew looked up to the tall Admiral Pike with curiosity.

At about five years old, a tiny James T. Kirk smiled at the Admiral. Already, his friendly personality was showing.

Pike kneeled down to James' level.

"Hello James. Do you have any idea what happened?" Pike had no idea whether he remembered his time as a fully fledged adult, or whether he had been regressed to his five year old self, devoid of any memories.

"what happened?" James lisped, unsure what he was asking.

Pike stood up and groaned. He had no idea how long it would take to fix this, but until then, he was in charge of all these small children.

Keeping track of the half-a-dozen crewmembers that had been regressed into children proved harder than Pike thought. James had the habit of wandering off after anything he found remotely interesting, and almost always dragged a reluctant child-spock with him. A younger Bones seemed utterly humiliated to have been turned to a child, and had a tendency to hide in any convenient corner or closet. A baby Chekov almost always followed a younger Sulu, who gallivanted around the ship with a wooden toy sword and squeaking about swash-buckling pirates. Bitty Carol was just happy to have friends, and alternated between following after Jim and following after Sulu.

Pike enlisted the help of a Montgomery Scott, who, though wasn't good dealing with small children, began designing a machine that would hopefully return them to their correct age.

In the meantime, Pike had his hands full.

"James, James get down!" Pike cried, scooping Jim off of the top of a bookshelf. Pike and company had invaded an empty guest room, which Pike had hoped they wouldn't be able to get in much trouble, but he was proven wrong.

Jim laughed, and scurried after god-knows-what as soon as Pike set him on the ground. Pike sighed exasperatedly and wondered how he would manage all these children until Mr. Scott finished the correcting machine.

Somehow, Pike managed to survive the first day, and shuffled the kids off towards bed. It was as interesting process, to say the least, as Jim was reluctant to brush his teeth, Sulu was bouncing off the walls, and bitty Chekov was falling asleep where he stood. Carol insisted she had to brush through her short blonde hair nearly a dozen times before Pike could get her to change into her pajamas.

When he had finally managed to get the half-a-dozen children dressed for bed with teeth brushed and tucked collectively into a large bed; Jim, Sulu, Chekov and Carol all clamored for a story. At the loud outburst of voices, Bones dove under the covers, and Spock raised an eyebrow (a habit that he had apparently mastered since childhood, as the younger version had shown no lessening of the behaviour).

Pike had no idea where he'd find a storybook on Starfleet's flagship, but had a mild stroke of genius, and acquired a PADD.

All standard Starfleet PADD's had access to Starfleet's equivalent of the Library of Congress, with both research sources and fictitious works.

Pike prayed that it would have access to at least one book of children's tales. Pike was crestfallen when he could find no such collection.

While searching for something to read to them, he found the summary and outline of the destruction of Vulcan, and the events leading up to it.

What if he told them their own story? The idea surely had merit. They would be more than engrossed in the story if it told the adventures of their little group, and would keep Jim and Sulu from getting bored and getting hyper again.

Pike decided that would be the best course of action, and pulled up the outline.

"It all started when a star went supernova, near the planet Romulus-"

The children dropped off to sleep before Pike could get three-quarters of the way through the arduous tale. Jim had his arms around Spock, reluctant as he was to be cuddled. Chekov had his head buried in little Sulu's chest, and the bitty Russian was snoring softly.

Bones had the blankets up almost over his head, only the dark fringe of his hair visible. Carol was similar, the tip of her nose barely peeking over the coverlet.

Pike smiled to himself. As much as they were a handful, he had to admit they were cute.

And, as much as he didn't want to admit it, he'd miss it when they returned to their correct ages.