Author's note : This story is dedicated to Taipan Kiryu, who's supported and encouraged my fanfics from the start, and who's written stories that, as different as they were in tone or effect, always made me want to read more. And because we both loved and miss a certain odd-couple pairing in TF:Prime. Without further ado… enjoy.

Diamonds

Fourteen wasn't that different from thirteen, Geri decided as she settled down in bed to read. Her birthday party had been a small one because the company which employed her father was downsizing, but she'd invited her best friends and they'd had a good time. And her father had given her a silver charm bracelet. Just one charm at the moment, but she'd get more eventually.

Plus, there was always the chance Wildrider would turn up.

Geri preferred audiobooks to Braille, but if Wildrider dropped by and she didn't hear him right away, he might do anything from leaving in disappointment to honking his horn while doing donuts on the lawn. So she put on an old shirt and a pair of jeans so comfortably worn that she could fall asleep in them if necessary, then began to read. The story was so absorbing that at first she didn't hear the high-performance engine in the distance.

As soon as the sound registered, though, she slipped a bookmark between the pages and hurried to the window, sliding it up. The engine's growl grew louder before the sound was nearly drowned in a screee as tires fought to grip concrete, and Wildrider pulled up just outside.

"Hey, kiddo!" There was a shift and clank of rapid transformation. "Happy birthday!"

"Thanks," Geri said, and although she remembered what had happened on her last birthday, he sounded so pleased that she couldn't help smiling. She held out her hand and heard her bracelet jingle. "My dad gave me this."

"Oh." There was something in Wildrider's voice she couldn't quite make out, but in the next moment he said, "Oh, great! You're going to love my present."

Geri's smile suddenly felt a great deal less spontaneous. On her last birthday Wildrider had mugged another blind person to get her a guide dog, so she could only imagine what he would do this year.

On the other hand, she couldn't refuse to go with him. Not only would that be rude after he had come all that distance, but she hated to hurt his feelings.

"C'mon, let's go for a drive and you can have it."

"Okay," Geri said, trying to ignore her doubts. She sat on the window-sill and swung her legs out, feeling with her feet for the solid surface of Wildrider's hand before she pushed off. He set her down on the ground and transformed again. Geri stretched out a hand, felt her way to his open door and climbed in. The door slammed and the lock thudded down as she pulled the seatbelt across her.

That was where the resemblance to riding in her father's car ended. Wildrider's engine revved as if someone had lit firecrackers beneath his hood, and he swung into the driveway so sharply that she would have hit the door if she hadn't been braced against it. Through her feet pressed hard against the floor mats, she felt the thuds as pistons pounded home and shock absorbers were strained to their limits, but for once Wildrider didn't turn his radio on.

"All right, kiddo," he said, anticipation filling his voice. "Your present's in the glove compartment."

Geri nearly sighed in relief. Not a dog. And something small enough to fit into a glove compartment was something she could hide in her sock drawer if it was at all dangerous, like a communications device. She ran her fingers along the dashboard until she found the glove compartment, and reached inside.

A small cool weight slipped into the palm of her hand, trailing what felt like a segmented chain. Uncertainly, she touched it with a fingertip. The heavy little object was the size of a walnut, but faceted and framed with many sharp-edged pebbly things that felt like the hailstones she had once picked up after a storm.

These didn't melt in her hand, though. It was jewelry of some sort, she could tell that, but costume jewelry wasn't so heavy.

"What is this?" she said.

"D'you like it?" Wildrider said. "Put it on!"

"Wildrider, what is this?"

"A necklace," Wildrider said. "A diamond necklace."

Geri's first thought was, Are you serious? Her second was, Yes. He is. He absolutely is. Her mouth stayed open, partly because she couldn't have made a sound if she had wanted to.

"Don't you like it?"

"I… thank you," Geri said automatically. You thank people for gifts, even if you don't want them. The diamond necklace lay in her palm, coiled and overflowing over the sides of her hand.

"You don't sound like you like it."

Now he was dubious. Geri licked her lips and tried to think of what else to say. How much did this thing cost? she wondered, then thought maybe she was going crazy too. As if any Decepticon would have paid for it.

"Where'd you get it?" she said, keeping her voice as casual as possible. Maybe she could return it anonymously.

"From this museum…" Wildrider seemed to be making a real effort to remember, because there was a faint crackle from deep within the dashboard, like electricity sparking between circuits. "Oh yeah! The Smithsonian."

"The Smithsonian?" Geri repeated. Suddenly all she wanted was to be back home, in her own room and in her bed. Or better still, under it. "In DC?"

"Yeah, that one."

The solid thump of a minor collision vibrated through Wildrider's passenger compartment, but since he kept going at the same speed it couldn't have been serious and Geri would have ignored anything other than a head-on crash at that point. "You broke in there to steal me a necklace?"

"No, Megatron ordered us to get some component for some new weapon of his, but while we were there I saw your necklace. And we got the whatchamacallit he wanted, so it was a great day."

Yeah. Perfect. Geri crushed an urge to sink her head into her hands and wondered what on earth to do next. If I mail it to the Smithsonian… no, what if they trace it back to me? This was the kind of robbery where the FBI would be called in, and there was no way she could cover her tracks that well even if she mailed the necklace back. They'll find me. I'll be sent to juvenile hall. My life will be over at the age of fourteen.

"I thought it would look cool on you." Wildrider sounded worried. "That's a really famous diamond, you know. Dead End said it's the Hope Diamond, as in he hopes to be deactivated painlessly but doesn't really think it's going to happen."

I know exactly how he feels, Geri thought. If her father found her with that museum piece thanks to Wildrider, she didn't know what he would do. Move them both across the country and change their names, maybe, assuming the shock didn't give him a heart attack first.

"And it's miles better-looking than that bracelet." Wildrider was clearly trying to fill in the ominous silence with chatter. "Hey, maybe next year I'll get you a matching—"

"No!" Geri blurted out. She swallowed hard and got herself back under control. "I mean, no thank you. This is more than enough."

There was a pause. "No," Wildrider said, and all the enthusiasm was gone from his voice. The engine's snarl had more expression. "You don't like it. You won't even wear it, will you?"

"Wildrider, I'm fourteen. Girls my age don't wear diamond necklaces anywhere."

"Not even if I got it for you?" Wildrider said in what was clearly intended to be his most plaintive voice. "It's so shiny. It'll look great on you if you just give it a chance. And aren't diamonds supposed to be a girl's best friend?"

With friends like these... "Look, if anyone sees me with it, they'll know it was stolen. And what if they try to mug me for it? I can't keep it at home either, because my father might find it." Not that he would have searched her room, but Wildrider didn't know that.

A long pause followed. Geri wasn't the kind of person who felt awkward during silences, but she found herself wishing she could tell what was going through Wildrider's head. It felt very strange to hear nothing but the whir of tires and thrum of the engine.

"I thought I was getting you a great present," he said finally. "But I guess you think I was pretty stupid."

"Come on, you know I've never treated you like you were stupid," Geri said. "Look, for my next birthday, why don't you get me some audiobooks?"

A loud snoring sound came from the speakers.

"Oh, that's mature," Geri said, getting annoyed in her turn.

"Look who's talking. You don't even like jewelry yet."

"I am not getting involved in an argument with you," Geri said, closing her hand tightly. She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, but I can't accept this necklace. It's not just stolen, it's—it's so valuable and so one-of-a-kind it might as well be radioactive. I'm afraid of getting caught with it." And thrown in prison, she nearly added, but stopped just in time, realizing Wildrider would be only too delighted to break her out.

He was silent again, but not for long. "I guess I see what you mean," he said finally, and there was a grudging acceptance in his voice.

"Thank you," Geri said, bracing herself. Now came the difficult part. "And we'll have to return it."

She hated fighting with anyone, least of all Wildrider, so she spoke even more quietly than she intended. With the radio off, though, he heard her easily. The engine growled in counterpoint to the bristling undertone in his voice.

"Are you gonna say we have to stop at a police station again?" he said.

Geri's patience was at an end. "It's either that or the Smithsonian. You pick."

"I'm driving, so neither. I got you a present, it's yours. End of story."

"I told you, I can't accept—"

"We're stopping here," Wildrider said, and slammed his brakes. Geri barely had time to brace herself, especially with one hand full. She jolted forward against the seatbelt, diamonds digging into her palm, but before she could do more than gasp from the impact, the window nearest to her slid down. Wildrider had come to a halt by then, and she heard a rushing sound outside, like wind or water moving fluidly past something below them.

"Okay," he said curtly. "Toss it out."

"What?"

"You don't want your present, fine. Throw it out the window."

"I'm not going to do that," Geri said, taken aback. "Where are we, anyway?"

Wildrider's engine began to tick over, like a metronome counting off seconds. "On a bridge. Make up your mind, Geri—either you keep that or you throw it in the river, 'cause I'm not going to any fragging cop stop."

Geri couldn't decide what was a worse resting place for a priceless diamond—her sock drawer or the bottom of a river. "Wildrider, please," she said firmly. "I can't throw this away."

"Then get out."

In all the time they had known each other, Geri had never been afraid that Wildrider would hurt her, but she did know that when he was upset it was best to give him as much space as possible. So she pulled the door open and scrambled out. The back of her neck was already sore and she could feel the impression the seatbelt had left along her body, but the diamond was more of a priority. It felt heavier than a boulder in her hand—and still cold, although she had been clutching it close.

Massive components shifted and moved into place with a sound halfway between a creak and a slide. She heard heavy feet clank-thud against the bridge as Wildrider took a step away, and metal shrieked as it was torn loose. It clanged to the ground twenty feet away and the bridge shook a little, as if a great weight had settled down against it.

Her heart thudding, Geri advanced cautiously. Her free hand, outstretched, found the sharp edges where part of the bridge's guardrail had been ripped away, and she didn't need to touch Wildrider to know where he was. She could hear him; his engine was still ticking over and liquid gurgling through pipes, hopefully to cool him down. The smell of gasoline and smoke and hot rubber filled her nostrils.

She put one foot before her, feeling about until she knew where the edge of the bridge was, and then perched there, allowing her legs to dangle over the water. She guessed Wildrider was sitting on the edge of the bridge too, but he said nothing.

"Do you ever celebrate your birthday?" she asked finally. She'd asked him once when that was, but he hadn't been able to remember.

Wildrider held out for a moment longer, but he had never been good at giving her the silent treatment for long. "It's our birthday," he said. "My whole team's."

"Oh." Geri shifted a little closer to him, gauging his position from the sound of his voice. Her grip on the diamond relaxed a little. "Okay, do you guys ever do anything together for your birthdays?"

"Not really. I mean, what would we do, give each other stuff? That's so… soft." He sounded as though he had stepped in a puddle of slime. "Like something an Autobot would do. Or a human."

"Uh, yeah."

Wildrider continued, sounding as though he was warming up to the subject. "And it's not like my teammates need anything from me that they couldn't get for themselves. I mean, what's the point of giving Dead End polish? He's got a hundred cans of that already. And Drag Strip would just give all of us signed pictures of himself."

Geri chuckled. She was an only child, so she loved hearing stories about Wildrider's teammates; it was like vicariously being part of a big family. "Seems like you might just enjoy getting together and doing something fun, then."

Wildrider took a moment to consider that, then said, "Yeah… there was this one time we drove out to the desert at night and played hide-and-seek."

"Who won?" She was starting to relax, and even better, this would distract him from the diamond necklace.

"Oh, Breakdown. No one can find him when he really wants to hide, and Dead End wasn't interested in looking anyway, but Drag Strip got snippy 'cause he wanted to win. Then we got overcharged on some high-grade and looked at the stars and Dead End named all the constellations. The Seeker's Head, the Coffin, the Flat Tire, that kind of thing."

Geri laughed again, but tried to think of something else to keep the conversation going. "What are stars like?"

"Uh…" There was that faint crackling sound again. "Well, they're tiny… and bright… but I guess you've never seen anything bright?"

"Nope," Geri said cheerfully. "Tell me what they might feel like."

"Feel like," Wildrider repeated. She heard metal slide over metal and guessed he was rubbing his head. "Huh. Okay, you ever gotten a shock? I mean, like electricity?"

"Like when you walk across a shag carpet and open a door?"

"I guess," Wildrider said. "Now imagine twenty or thirty of those little shocks. They'd feel tiny and sharp, but they wouldn't hurt you, and they'd be cold. Even though stars are really balls of fire, they're so far away that their light's frozen by the time it reaches you, and they'd feel like bits of frost. All scattered across the sky, like little diamonds."

Geri said nothing when he had finished. As if from a short distance away, she heard the river running beneath the bridge and the wind sifting her hair, but the stars felt more real and nearer. She tilted her head back to the sky and imagined all those little lights shining down, cool as raindrops on her face.

"You know," she said softly, "that's not a bad birthday present at all. To let me feel like I could see the stars."

"Really?" Wildrider said, and for the first time since they had driven off he sounded happy.

"Yes, really." She still had to persuade him to help her return the necklace, but she was no longer in a hurry to do that—and he deserved something from her too.

"I'll try it on," she said, and slipped the ends of the necklace around her throat. "Just this once."

She snapped the catch closed behind her neck. The great diamond pendant lay on her shirt, so she undid the top button and arranged the solid weight of the necklace against her skin before she shook her hair back from her face.

In that instant, she was no longer fourteen. She felt taller and far more sophisticated, her hair no longer windblown but done up with exquisite care. The wind stirred clothes that were foreign and delicate as silk on her skin, a frozen fire circled her throat, and the broken railing of a bridge beneath her hand was the smooth carved newel post of a staircase that spiraled down to a ballroom, to a great hall, to places she had never been before.

"Wow, kiddo, that looks amazing on you," Wildrider said, and the spell broke. Geri reached up and unclasped the necklace, not without a little reluctance. The Hope Diamond felt hard as an ice cube against her palm, untouched as always by the warmth of her hand. She thought that if she were to drop it in the river it would simply remain there as it had existed millions of years before she was born, bright and cold and perfect as a star fallen to earth.

Not a present I would want to keep, even if I could... but for one night, it was more than enough. She slipped it into her pocket.

"Come on," she said, "let's go for a drive."

Wildrider jumped to his feet—which made the entire bridge shudder—and transformed again. Geri got in and closed the door, strapping herself in just before they took off with the usual lurch of rapid acceleration.

"I mean it, kiddo," Wildrider said as he picked up speed. "That necklace looked really something on you."

"Thank you," Geri said, hoping he wouldn't decide to fixate on that. Distract him. "You look great tonight as well."

There was a brief pause. "Hey," Wildrider said slowly, "you just told me I look great tonight."

"Yes."

"But… you're blind..."

"I know." Geri had a sudden feeling she'd said the wrong thing entirely, but it was too late.

"Holy frag!" Wildrider slammed into something, but recovered almost at once and began to reverse. "Did the necklace cure you? Can you see now? 'Cause if it did that, you gotta keep it!"

"Oh my God…"