Full Story Title: 18 Steps from Extinction, or how Sam finds out his place in everything
Challenge: 18coda (On Livejournal) #6. Ostinato: (Italian: obstinate)-indicates a part that repeats the same rhythm or melodic element
Rating: K/K+
Characters/Pairings: Sam Witwicky, Bumblebee
Warnings/Comments: Unbeta'd, Post RoTF
Chapter Summary: Sam finally lets his death affect him, only to have a certain yellow Camaro ruin the panicked and depressing mood.
Disclaimer: I make no claim to anything herein of this story. They belong to various companies like Hasbro and no profit is being made from this.
Full Story Summary: After Egypt Sam starts to think about his life, which leads him to finding out about the lives of his Cybertronian friends. His questions soon spark ideas that may lead this race to an answer for their biggest question since their arrival on Earth. "How are they going to survive even after the war is over." while also finding his own place in the world, his home, and amongst the alien race living on earth with him now.
It had taken exactly two months, three days, and twenty hours after returning from Egypt for whatever coping mechanism Sam was using to stop working. This was how he found himself laying in the little corner of the attic where the roof slanted down and the various bits of junk created a barrier into a space that had once been a childhood hideaway when he and Miles used to play together here. Now it was a stuffy space that barely held him as he laid there, body motionless even as his mind kept going over and over the thought he had been denying until now.
He had died. Sure he was back but that made it even worse, because he was resurrected by an alien holy relic of some sort…like he was a sort of Jedi Jesus. Taking everything he had gone through since that day he first saw Bumblebee at the used car lot, into a realm of weird and out of sorts that he wasn't ready to deal with. What did it really mean in the long run here? Sure Ratchet had given him a clean bill of health after brightly colored medic had snatched him away from the military doctors, but how long was that going to last? It had already changed everything that was normal for him, and as much as he would like to go back to semi-oblivious life at college he had to admit he couldn't see himself sitting in a lecture anytime soon again.
Especially not now as his mind was finally allowed to let images of him spontaneously mutating into some half metal half flesh creature during a test, or seeing symbols again until he was as insane as Archibald Witwicky had gone and locked in a room of pillow walls. Or the day his constant involvement in being an Alien item finder made Mikaela realize seeing him was a bad idea, even if he did love her he didn't see a happy mundane life of getting a job and helping to give his mother grandchildren at all in his future. Not when he knew even Optimus or any of the Autobots really, knew what this meant for him. (Though he had to overhear Major Lennox and Sergeant Epps talking to find out the Autobots were worried and as lost as the humans were on what the Matrix had done to him.) He could stop aging, or just fall over dead for no reason at any moment.
He wasn't sure if a second death or some weird immortality scared him more at the moment.
And then his phone began to ring, with a ringtone he knew wasn't programmed into it but had become the staple calling card for the overprotective Camaro currently sitting in his driveway at the moment.
#Sam, your stress levels are rising.#
The text message was blunt and probably would have had him annoyed if it was anyone else, but after everything he knew that 'Bee knew he could read more then just the words on the screen. Like the various forms of the 'Are you okay?' and 'What can I do to help you?' questions that he had heard over and over again during the years of 'Bee being his guardian.
#Well, I did die.#
Sam didn't remember getting up or how he was already nearly tripping down the stairs to the first floor. Dodging past his dad and stopping only to pocket his cell once more before taking the invite of the open driver's door of the bright yellow sports car and settling into the very comfortable seats. The soft ticking of cooling metal and other little mechanical noises he normally missed when Bumblebee was having his engine going during a drive or the constant stream of radio chatter and song lyrics to amuse him, but were apparent now as both sat there in silence.
"I won't let it happen again Sam."
"You're not putting me into a modified hamster ball no matter how much you whine at me."
Sam didn't want to think about when he started to have a conversation within a conversation with a giant alien robot that transformed into a very bitchin' concept Camaro. It was a very welcome thing though, as it meant he could avoid sounding sappy around people at NEST.
"If I somehow got gipped of some awesome Highlander immortality, you better do whatever alien robot equivalent is of naming your first born after me to remember me."
"…If a chance for such arrives I will honor that."
The odd pause made the comforting feeling a bit strained, but Sam just threw those questions into a little box labeled 'Things to ask Ratchet about during the next kidnapping/check up' and settled back into the feeling of safety repeatedly being thrown at him as he sat there.