Not the Only One with Problems
"Arcee," Jack spoke gently, "I just really wanted to say I'm sorry for your loss."
"What could you possibly know about loss," Arcee spat.
Jack was stunned, but quickly recovered, "What, you think you're the only one with problems?"
Arcee transformed and glared, "I'm not sure girl trouble counts."
"I'm pretty sure my girl trouble started the night I met you," Jack shot back. He had had a better rebuttal, but it would've been disrespectful to use 'her' like that.
Jack was brought back from that thought when he noticed headlights pulling into the driveway.
Arcee had followed Jack's gaze, then changed to blasters and hissed, "Cons."
"No," Jack panicked, "Mom."
The white vehicle parked and an older woman exited. She looked stunned, "Jack?"
Jack walked toward her and answered, "Mom, now don't freak. I can explain."
"Can you," she shot back as she approached an ordinary blue motorcycle, "Jackson Darby, we've talked about this."
Internally, Jack sighed in relief because his mom hadn't seen a giant robot, but he knew when a stern talking to was on its way.
"I know, Mom."
"Obviously, you don't know. I worried enough about you and Julie whenever you took off on her motorcycle. I would think after what happened, you would know better and be kinder to my worry wart by not getting one," June cut in.
"Mom," Jack sighed in frustration. He didn't want to talk about Julie, especially not in front of Arcee. "People get into all sorts of accidents all the time, and they have to get over it if they want to keep on living. Even if I hadn't gotten this bike, I would've gotten some form of vehicle eventually."
June sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Deep down, she knew Jack was right, but still…
"How did you even afford this," she decided to let it go for now, but only for now.
Jack gave a small smile, "Well, it's used, more abused really. Needs a ton of repairs."
"Great," June muttered humorously, "Now I'll have to worry about it being a hunker junker to boot."
Jack flinched at little, hoping Arcee wouldn't be too offended by the comment.
"Well," June continued, "I'm glad you finally have a reason to wear your helmet EVERYTIME SINGLE YOU RIDE. You will take me for a spin every once in awhile?'
Peace had been made for now as June and Jack started to head into the house.
"We'll see. She's kind of temperamental," Jack replied as he hit the switch to turn off the garage lights and closed the garage door.
Jack and June made small take as they got ready for bed. June had worked a long shift, and Jack had discovered a race of alien robots on Earth. Needless to say, both were exhausted.
Dream/Flashback
Jack rushed out of the house on his 10 speed, on his way to his first day of his first job at the KO Burger. It wouldn't be glamorous, but Jack would be making his own money, which meant buying his own choice of picks once in awhile, and he would be showing his mother that he was a responsible adult.
But, Jack's main goal was to save up enough to get a real vehicle of some kind. He didn't care if it still had two wheels or if he upgraded to four, as long as it ran and was decent on the eyes.
About half way through his shift, Jack was convinced this was an almost hell. He kept screwing up the smallest things, and he already had drive offs. People sucked. Well, most people sucked. The only saving grace was a visitor during his break. A visitor named Julie Widowski.
Jack and Julie had pretty much been friends since they were way little. They both had parents that worked long, weird shifts, so they were both in daycare. Julie's parents had better paying jobs, though, hence why she was already making use of her driver's license on a little purple motorcycle.
"So, how's your first day going," Julie asked cheerfully.
Jack couldn't help but smile, "Not too bad, though house chores are looking like a cake walk."
Julie laughed, but it died when she noticed Jack looking past her and had a slightly nervous look on his face. She turned to see what he was looking at and sighed in dismay. Of course, he would show up on Jack's first day of work just to make him miserable.
A black car with flames on the hood pulled up and parked shitty. A ginger head stepped out and had an arrogant smirk on his freckly mug.
"So, Darby," Vince chuckled, "How's it feel to be a member of the lowly working class?"
Jack just glared and kept his mouth shut. Since he was still on the clock, Jack couldn't say anything that would be considered "rude" to a potential customer, and Vince probably knew that.
"Hey, Julie, want to go out with a man a little higher on the food chain? We can go to places that actually have other things beside grease and shakes on the menu, and then you can watch me race against the chumps from the next town over."
"Seriously," Julie rolled her eyes. "One, I would rather be a racer then a cheerleader. Two, I like greasy fries and milkshakes. And three, I prefer my dates to use their own money rather than their mommy's."
Both Jack and Vince were shocked by such a blunt declaration, but obviously, for different reasons.
Vince was pissed, but couldn't come up with a good combat. So, he just got back in his car and left.
'Did she say 'her dates,'' Jack thought dreamily.
Julie sat back down next to Jack and smiled.
Julie started to say something, but instead of words, engines revving emerged.
"Julie, are you okay," Jack panicked, but she continued to smile as more revving came out of her mouth.
End Dream/Flashback
Jack awoke to the sunshine in his face and an engine revving in the garage.
"Damnit, Arcee," Jack muttered as he got up and rushed to the door leading out to the garage, "Shhhh, are you crazy? You'll wake up my mom."
"Grab your helmet. It's go time," Arcee demanded.
Jack groaned, "But it's Saturday."
"You can watch cartoons back at base with Bumblebee."
"Cartoons," Jack muttered, "I'm sixteen."
Jack reentered the house so he could get dressed and grabbed something to eat. He barely heard Arcee yell at him to leave a note for his mom as he began to remember his dream. It had been so long since Julie had been in any of his dreams.
TIME HOP
"Junior partner," Arcee smiled as she bent down a little, "I can still pull rank."
When Arcee and Jack got back to base, they just chilled out towards the back where hardly anyone else went. Both were too exhausted to want to deal with anyone. Arcee sat on the floor with her back against the wall, and Jack sat on a stack of metal boxes probably containing more of Ratchet's 'delicate equipment', but Jack didn't care right then. He wasn't that heavy, anyway.
The silence was heavy, and Jack could no longer stand it, "Hey, Arcee, I know it's probably difficult, but do you wanna talk about what happened between you and Airachnid?"
"You were there for most of it."
"I didn't mean today. I meant back on Cybertron."
Arcee sighed, "Jack, I know you're trying to help and I appreciate it, but I don't think you need to hear about it and I doubt you would understand."
"Seriously," Jack was getting irritated, "I wouldn't have minded if you just said you weren't ready to talk or something, but you're assuming I don't know what it feels like to lose someone for the second time!"
Arcee was a little stunned by the outburst, but then Jack's words fully registered.
"You've lost somebody?"
"Yes," Jack sighed, "Her name was Julie Widowski…"
Flashback/Story Time
It was Jack's first homecoming. Jack and Julie were going together as 'friends,' but Jack had high hopes that by the end of the night, things would be different. If only they could actually get to the dance and escape his mother and her dreaded Polaroid.
Jack rode behind Julie on her motorcycle, and though guys teased him, Julie played off as feeling special because Jack let her 'have a turn at taking the lead,' which made all girls reprimand their boyfriends a little bit.
'Julie really is the greatest,' Jack thought admiringly.
There was still teasing, but nothing Jack couldn't handle. Jack and Julie danced together and with a few others, but the night would soon end, and Jack was running out of time to tell Julie how he felt. He had lost track of her about ten minutes ago. She didn't seem to be in the gymnasium, so Jack assumed she had stepped out to cool off.
He wandered around for a bit before turning a corner and was frozen in horror. Julie was shoved up against a wall, kissing Vince.
'No,' Jack's mind screamed, 'Why, Julie?'
Julie's eyes opened then widened at the sight of Jack. She shoved Vince away and reached out to Jack, but he was already speed walking away. Jack didn't know what to think or feel for only a couple of brief seconds. Anger and hurt settled in, and Jack ran away from the gymnasium, from the school, from Julie.
Jack was about half way home when he heard a revving motorcycle behind him. He looked over his shoulder to confirm it was Julie. She pulled up and puttered alongside him.
"Jack," she called, "Please listen! It's not what you think!"
Jack stopped running and was bent over, gasping for air. Julie stopped beside him. Unfortunately, all that running hadn't worked off Jack's anger and his mouth went on autopilot.
"It's not what it looked like," Jack mocked, "Tell me what it was then because it looked like my best friend was kissing the guy that makes my life hell. The best friend that always defended and played me up when he was around, turned right around when I'm not looking and started making out with him. What else do you do with him when I'm not around?"
Julie was pissed off now, and her voice was filled with venom, "I'm gonna let most of that bullshit slide, Darby, since you have never got angry over anything before. I know you two have issues, but if you ever paid attention, you would know I hate his guts more than you do because of how miserable he makes everyone. Now, get on the bike. I'm taking you home like I promised your mom, and we will talk about this in the morning when you've had time to pull your head out of your ass."
Jack didn't want to get on the bike, but he knew if he went home by foot his mother would get pissed at him for walking home at night and pissed at Julie for not keeping her promise to bring him home. So, he crawled onto the back, but he didn't hold on to Julie like he normally would. Instead, he sat as far back as he could and held on to the seat.
One could always tell when Julie was legit angry because of the way she drove. Her driving became reckless, erratic, and she sped like a bat out of hell; and that is exactly what was happening.
Jack knew Julie well enough to know that something was wrong. Maybe he had jumped to the wrong conclusion. He didn't know what other conclusion there was, but. Jack placed a hand on Julie's shoulder and was about to apologize, but blinding lights and loud horn was the last thing Jack remembered before falling into darkness.
The next thing Jack registered was bright lights and his mother's sobbing. His vision cleared, and he realized he was lying in a hospital bed with his mother crying beside him. He moved a broken casted arm to nudge her head since he couldn't find his voice just yet.
June's head shot up, and as soon as she realized her son was actually awake, she held him as gently, but as closely as she could. Jack did his best to return it. They stayed like that for a few minutes before Jack finally mustered up enough voice to ask the dreaded question.
"Mom," he wheezed, "What happened?"
"Julie was bringing you home from homecoming. At an intersection, you guys got into a collision with a truck. That was three days ago."
Jack's heart monitor started to ring as it all came back to him. Vince kissed Julie. Jack ran away. Julie came after him, and he said things he shouldn't have, but wait….
"Where's Julie?"
June's sobbing began anew, and Jack was further panicked by this.
"Jack," June spoke softly, "Julie didn't make it. She cracked her head against the pavement."
Jack swore he was going to faint or die. Either way, he needed to escape this nightmare. Julie couldn't be gone. Not after what was said. Not after what wasn't said.
'Oh, God, why?'
Jack tried to get up, but June wouldn't let him until Jack began sobbing and begging to see Julie. It broke June's heart to see Jack like this, but she understood. She got a wheelchair and rolled him to the room where they were keeping Julie's remains.
Jack threw himself at Julie's body and held it against him, and sobbed.
"I'm sorry," he screamed, "I'm so sorry, Julie!"
Jack cried until his eyes couldn't create anymore tears. Before, finally, being forced back to his own room to rest, Jack placed a small kiss on Julie's forhead.
"I always have," Jack whispered, "And always will love you."
End Flashback/Story Time
By the time Jack finished his story, he was crying softly. Arcee was holding Jack against her chassis, cradling him.
"I'm sorry for your loss, Jack," she whispered, on the verge of tears herself.
"The worst part is, I found out Vince had forced her against the wall. There were bruises on her wrists from Vince restraining her."
They held each other and cried as Arcee began telling Jack about the horrors and loss she had faced, but it was alright, because she wasn't alone. Arcee vowed to protect this partner with her very spark and Jack vowed he would never doubt a friend or partner again.