Sam stood there watching as the ARC1 left the atmosphere, and doubted if he would ever see Bumblebee again. Sam ignored the stab of grief. He refused to acknowledge the twin drops of wetness sliding down his cheeks as he clutched Mikaela's hand tighter and he wondered again if he should have told Bee.
Bee had a right to know about the small, strange changes that had started occurring to his body after Mission City, but everything had been so wild, and the government had been deep into their cover-up, and denial. Sam had had an awful feeling when looking into the cold, calculating eyes of the government sycophant they'd been assigned. The man had made Simmons seem warm, and fuzzy. He only asked Will Lennox about his problem with the agents once, only managed to imply his difficulty. Who'd looked Sam straight in the eye and replied that some things were better left unsaid. Sam knew when he'd been given the high sign to keep his mouth shut, and he had. So while he'd desperately been hiding the changes from the suits that never quite seemed to go away, he'd ended up hiding them from Bee, too.
Part of him was wildly glad; Bee wouldn't be forced to make the decision between leaving him when he needed him, and going home to rejuvenate Cybertron. Bee deserved to go home. Bee deserved to be happy. As for the tiny, cynical voice whispering that Bee would have left him anyway, whether he needed him or not. Sam ignored his worse, more skeptical self, and clung to what he had left.
A beautiful woman who loved him, the half way mark for his college goals, tight friends who could be counted on, and his goofy parents who loved him with a fierce if exasperated devotion. These were nothing to sneeze at, and if his heart ached for Bee even as he loved the woman at his side. Well, that was the breaks.
Megatron was defeated, and the rest of Decepticons had fallen after him. It was time to go on with his life. Goodbye Bee. Sam turned his face into the gentle touch that wiped his cheeks. Mikaela.
Sam never told Mikaela about the goodbye he and Bee had in private. She didn't have to know, it was his to remember. When Bee had showed him something very personal, something that in a way no other had seen, Sam had been honored and amazed. At the time when Bee asked to see him Sam didn't know what his friend had wanted. The memory was still warm in his heart.
