Kelly couldn't concentrate. She had locked herself in her room, trying to write a paper for her online collage course but the shouts from downstairs had rendered her incapable of writing a singe word. Her parents were fighting again… they had fought for years but these past few months had been terrible. Her mother had been cheating again and her father was as silent as ever about his work. Kelly shook her head and attempted to reread the question she was to write upon for her business class, but no matter how many times she read it she couldn't comprehend the words. A crash came from downstairs, her mother had thrown something.

"You crazy bitch!" And now her father was angry. He didn't get angry often; normally he was a kind man with the happy glint in his green eyes. But over the years Kelly had seen that glint disappear and instead he just seemed tired. Kelly liked her father a lot, she often compared him to a bear, scary when angry, but really cuddly and nice when calm. She heard her mother scream and throw something else; there was another crash and the breaking of fine china. Kelly grabbed a pillow and hugged it. Her eyes moved back to her open word document. She had about a line and a half. She sighed and pushed her hair out of her face, she really needed to get this done but she couldn't concentrate. Kelly always knew her parents weren't exactly perfect for each other, when she was little they had taken their fights elsewhere so that she wouldn't hear. They fought about a lot of things, some things silly other things more serious. Their fight at the moment had been started by her father, he had found some male pants that were not his under their bed. He had called his wife out on it and she had started spouting nonsense about how he was never home and how they never spent time together and that she was lonely. Kelly didn't believe her mother for a second, she knew that her mother would go on cheating even if her father did spend more time at home.

Her father didn't know it but Kelly knew her mother had a drug problem too. She never commented on it as she knew it would start another fight. Kelly hugged the pillow closer to her body and then suddenly she stood up, she was frustrated, with her parents, herself and the damn paper. Growling she grabbed a notebook and scribbled the question onto the first page and with a blanket, pillow, notebook and pen she snuck downstairs. She managed to sneak past the kitchen, the room where her parents were and opened the door to the garage. There her fathers minivan sat, her parents had bought the car when they realised that they were going to have a baby. They had been hoping for a big family but only managed to have one before the fights began. Kelly climbed into the very back seat of the van and wrapped herself with the blanket and placed the pillow on the seats. She laid her head on the pillow and placed the notebook in front of her, open to the question. She looked over the question, once, twice and finally managed to understand what it was asking. She picked up her pen and started brainstorming, she smiled a bit, happy that she was finally able to get some work done. Kelly wrote for a few hours filling up quite a few pages of her notebook. She was happy she couldn't hear them anymore, still Kelly hated silence so before she had started writing she had plugged her headphones in and played some music. She fell asleep to Celldweller, the pen still in her hand and blanket snug around her.

Kelly woke to the sound of shouting. She groaned wondering why her parents had moved the argument to the garage. She groggily got up and crawled to the door fully intent on telling them to give it a break, she still had her blanket around her as she was still in her Pj's and barefoot. The door opened and she heard a few more voices, shaking her head Kelly got out of the minivan and blinked the sleep away from her eyes. When her vision cleared she gasped. This wasn't her garage… this seemed to be some sort of work ground. Was that a spaceship in the distance?

"What the f-"

"Hey girl! Move your in me way!" The voice that cut off her swear was a Scottish one, it was a loud voice that seemed to come from way up. Kelly glanced up and saw a robot. He was tall with green paint and a blue visor where his eyes should have been. Her mouth opened and she was paralyzed. "I said move girl, you're in the way." Kelly regained her senses and since she didn't want to get stepped on she stepped out of the way and watched as he walked past her.

"Kelly?" A familiar voice sounded from behind her. It was her father "Kelly!" She turned around and saw her father running up to her.

"Dad…" Kelly sounded strange, her voice was raspy and her eyes were wide. It took her a moment to realise that the blanket she had been holding slipped to the ground and she stood in a loose tank top and shorts. Her father reached her and took her by the shoulders.

"Why… What… How… how did you get her?" He sounded as surprised as she was shocked.

"Dad…" Kelly said again weakly, She pointed in the direction of the green robot "Robot… why…?" She looked at him with wide eyes.

"Uhm… its kinda difficult to explain. Here come on, I'll tell you everything." He picked up her blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders, and then with an arm around her he began to walk her towards a building. As they walked another robot passed them. He was red and a bit pudgy, he was shouting at two men that walked beside him. They passed Kelly and her father without acknowledging them. Kelly's dad opened the door to the building and took her to the nearest chair. He sat her down and then grabbed a chair for himself. He turned the chair backwards and sat on it the same way another would ride a horse. He turned his baseball cap backwards so he could see his daughter.

"What is this place?" Kelly asked. She still seemed frazzled and her father couldn't blame her.

"I think it's better if I start at the beginning." He said, "That way you'll understand" he paused for a moment to collect his thoughts, as he did so he rubbed his growing beard. "Alright so, as you know a few years back there was this whole incident in Mission City, with all of those robots remember?"

"Yeah it was all over the news. Are these the robots that did that?" Kelly hugged the blanket closer to her body.

"No, they guys came to earth after that."

"You mean they're aliens?"

"Yeah… That's it." Her dad nodded and continued "And then there was the live broadcast about two years ago where that robot thing wanted that boy named Sam. You remember that?" Kelly nodded "You see the robots what wanted that boy were… bad guys" He couldn't think of another word for them other than scum, dead metal and other such lovely terms, "Then the good guys protected the boy and they managed to beat the bad guys. You still with me sweetheart?" He waited for his daughter to nod and continued on. "Well honey, I got a job here working with the Autobots. Those are the good guys of this alien race. They are here to protect us and we work with them."

"Protect us from what?" Kelly frowned.

"Well mostly from the Decepticons, and sometimes from ourselves, but mostly Decepticons."

"Decepticons?"

"The bad guys, greedy bastards, our earth has a lot of resources that they need to rebuild their planet. But the problem is that the resources they need would wipe us out if they took them. We survive off what they need."

"So the Autobots stop the Decepticons from wiping us out…?"

"That's right"

"Why don't the Autobots want to rebuild their planet?" Kelly asked "Are they not from the same planet?"

"They are, but the Autobots are programmed different. They want peace, and they are willing to sacrifice their own home to achieve it. Honestly they are really nice if you look past the armour and wires. And they do want their planet back but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. They've asked to make this their home for now." Kelly's father said.

"Why are you working for them?" Kelly asked. She was feeling a bit better now. Her mind had gotten over the shock of suddenly seeing these massive robots, and she was accepting her fathers story.

"Nest asked me to work with the Autobots. Nest is the human team that works for the Autbots" He said after seeing her confused look. "I was a mechanic before this job and they wanted some people to help the Wreckers, those are the Autobots that are working on that spaceship over there." He jutted his thumb over his shoulder to a window that showed the ship she had seen before. He paused to let Kelly take it all in and then leaned towards her, his chair lifted so that both of the back legs of his chair were in the air. "Now I have a question for you."

"You want to know why I was in your car." Kelly said.

"Exactly." He nodded and waited for her to explain.

"I wanted to get some work done… but… I couldn't concentrate. It was too loud." Kelly's father shifted uncomfortably, he and Kelly never talked about the fights. "I went into the garage and into the van and I guess I fell asleep while working." She shrugged. "When I woke up I was here and that green guy-"

"Roadbuster." Her father suddenly said.

"Huh?"

"Roadbuster. His name is Roadbuster."

"Oh well, Roadbuster started yelling at me telling me I was in the way and then you found me."

Her father laughed "Yeah, all three of them are assholes, you get used to it. Would you like to meet them?"

"I guess." Kelly stood up and folded the blanket and held it in her arms. She padded barefoot after her father out onto the warm concrete. They walked a few steps when that familiar Scottish voice sounded behind them.

"Is this one yours then, Orville?" Both father and daughter turned to see Roadbuster crouching a little ways away from them. His was grinning. Behind him was a blue robot.

"Yeah" Kelly's father took a few steps and gently shoved his daughter closer to the robots. "This is my daughter Kelly. This is Roadbuster and Topspin."

"Hi…" Kelly said weakly.

"You were in my way earlier." Roadbuster said.

"Hello." The blue robot named Topspin leaned forward and placed a hand on Roadbuster's shoulder. "You're small."

"She's a lass, normally they are smaller than the lads." Roadbuster said.

Topspin stepped past Roadbuster and went to get a closer look, "Orville, she's got your eyes."

"Thank you." Orville grinned and patted his daughter on the back.

Suddenly a voice shouted causing Kelly to whip around to see the red robot, "Will you ladies quit gawking at each others eyes and get back to work, We've a schedule too keep damn it!"

"That's Leadfoot he's nicer once you get to know him, he just likes to yell a lot." Orville mumbled to his daughter.

"Yeah, yeah" Roadbuster stood up "Go blow it out your ass Leadfoot, we were just meeting Orville's kid."

"Work now chat later." Leadfoot waddled up to Topspin and gave him a kick.

"Hey! Come on now." Topspin jumped away and growled, as he walked away he lifted his fist to Leadfoot and raised his middle finger.

"Fuck you too!" Leadfoot said, he turned to Roadbuster who was already backing away.

"Alright, alright, I'm on it." Roadbuster turned and walked towards the spaceship, where Topspin was already hammering something. Leadfoot bent down so that his face as closer to Orville's.

"Shouldn't you be somewhere?"

"Yes sir." Orville nodded. "I'll be right there."

"You have a minute" Leadfoot stood up and walked past them.

"What should I do?" Kelly asked.

"I can't drive you home now because Leadfoot wont get off my ass if I do. So just explore for now. Have fun. But try not to get in the way." Orville ruffled his daughters frizzy hair and then jogged away.

Now left to her own devices Kelly realized that she wasn't so scared any more. Her father seemed fine with this giant robots walking around and so she would be fine as well. The Wreckers, that what her dad had called them were certainly assholes but there was something compelling about them. She wanted to get to know them for some reason. She supposed it would be interesting to have a conversation with a giant robot from space. Grinning at the thought she began to walk towards the space ship. Her steps were careful as she was barefoot and she didn't want to step on anything that might hurt her. She walked past numerous buildings, some with garage doors attached to them. Those buildings that had their doors open were filled with parts that looked like they came out of a science fiction movie. She paused to peek into one garage and saw some glowing cylinders, she wondered what they might be and came to the conclusion that they could be batteries. She continued on towards the ship when suddenly she was stopped by two men that looked like they had just come out of a mud bath.

"Hey girl!" One of the men shouted. He walked up to her and stopped her from walking forward. "What are you doing here, you don't have permission to be here."

"I uh… it was an accident. My dad he… he works here." The man was large and very intimidating.

"Who's your dad?" The other man asked.

"Orville Dawson…." Kelly said.

"Dawson… hey now! You must be Kelly!" The large man said. He was smiling now. He wiped his hand on his partners shirt.

"Hey!" The large man then held out his hand and Kelly took it. They shook hand and then Kelly shook hands with the other man. The large man introduced himself as Brian and the other man was Steve.

"We work with your dad on the ships engine." Brian said.

"There was a little mishap though…" Steve grinned. "Oil everywhere."

"So that's why you're covered…" Kelly said. She grinned as the two men nodded.

"We managed to patch it up but Leadfoot is gonna kill us." Steve sighed.

"Well I would like to be clean when we are killed." Brian said "It was nice meeting you Kelly."

"It was nice meeting you too." Kelly couldn't help but laugh as the men walked away leaving a trail of oil behind them. She was closer to the ship now and could see it was a mixture of both alien and human technology. The ship was huge and it even made the Autobots look small. Kelly stared at it a while more when suddenly a voice sounded behind her.

"You're in my way again girl!" Roadbuster growled. Kelly turned and saw he was holding what looked like a piece of the ship.

Kelly narrowed her eyes at him, she wasn't going to put up with that "Step around me, it's not that hard." She turned back around and continued to look at the ship. She crossed her arms and waited for Roadbuster to do something. He was silent for a moment and then he laughed.

"I like you." He said as he stepped around her. "You've got guts standing up to me."

Kelly grinned and followed after him, "You've got guts standing up to me." She said jokingly.

"Oh yeah, I'll agree with that since you're Orville's kid. He's a tough son of bitch." Roadbuster reached the ship and called up to Topspin. "Oi! Jackass!" All Roadbuster got in return was the finger, he laughed and tossed the ship part up. Topspin caught it one handed and put it into place with out saying a word. Roadbuster placed his free hands on his hips and looked down at Kelly, "your father taught him that." Kelly couldn't help but laugh. Roadbuster grinned and took a step away. "What do you think of her?"

"The ship?" Kelly asked.

"Aye." Roadbuster looked down at her expectantly.

Kelly looked up at the massive structure before her, "It's beautiful, but powerful." She said. Roadbuster nodded pleased with her thoughts. "How long have you been working on it?"

"Bout a year and a half" Roadbuster shrugged. He was silent for a moment and then said "I got work to do, run along lass." Kelly did as she was told and walked past Roadbuster up the gangplank to the ship. She walked into the hub of the ship and gasped at the huge hall and stairs that was in the inside.

"Hot damn…" She breathed. She heard noises coming from down the stairs and climbed down them to see what was happening. When she touched the floor she realized that she was stepping in oil. It was cool and her bare feet were now slick with it. "Ew…" she could hear men shouting at one another and slid towards the sound of the voices and when she turned the corner she saw her dad covered in oil, trying to stop a leak.

"Those idiots!" He shouted. "They told me they got it fixed." He growled as he tried to stop the flow of the leak. He barked orders at some men and eventually the flow of oil ceased and the men were able to patch it. Kelly watched as her father wiped the oil off, he looked around and spotted her, he broke into a smile and gestured her closer. "How's it going honey?"

"Good. Did you fix it?" Kelly got closer and peered at the patch job on the leak. It looked secure.

"I think so.." Orville wiped at his brow which only spread more oil across his face.

"Is Leadfoot going to kill you?" Kelly looked at her father from the corner of her eyes and say him throw is head back and laugh.

"I hope not!" Kelly giggled a bit and then suddenly she lost her footing and fell flat on her back into the oil. She didn't even have time to cry out. Her fall seemed to have caused a chain reaction. Some of the other workers were hit by her arms and they too fell, some flat on their faces while others managed to catch their fall by landing on their hands.

"Shit… you alright Kelly?" Her father pulled her up and tried to wipe some of the oil off but only managed to spread it around. He was relieved to find his daughter laughing. She let herself be helped up and then turned to help other men up. Once everyone was standing Orville took a look at them all and said "I think we need a shower."

"Yes please!" One man nodded. There were a few laughs and the group began to make their way back out of the ship. They were leaking oil as they cautiously made their way across the gangplank and away from the ship. A few more men fell but they were helped up.

"What the hell happened now?" Leadfoot saw the group and walked towards them.

Orville stepped forward and explained "Leak sir, but we fixed it up."

"You better hope so. Or else its your ass." Leadfoot was grinning as he said it "You look terrible… all of you."

"Thanks" Orville rolled his eyes. "We're heading off to the showers."

"Good, can't have this muck all over our whole base." Leadfoot gestured them on and the group headed towards the shower house.

Orville turned to his daughter, "you'll have the women's showers all to yourself as no women work here."

"Why would you have a women's shower then?" Kelly asked.

"One can always hope." One of the men said, he winked at her and Kelly grinned back.

They reached the shower house and Kelly took the door on the left while the men took the door to the right. Once she was alone she stripped off her clothes and threw them in a shower stall and left the water running over them. She then hopped into her own shower and used the complimentary shampoo and soap to get the oil off. She sang loudly and terribly as she put some shampoo into her hand and massaged it into her head. She had to work at it but eventually she managed to get most of it out of her hair and down the drain. She stepped out and reached for a towel which hung off to the side. She dried herself off and then turned off the shower that had thoroughly soaked her clothes. Fortunately the oil had mostly come out and she began to wring them out and held them under the drier. She wished that she had other clothes other than her Pj's but she had no idea that she would be visiting an alien base this day. She grinned at the thought and slipped on her damp Pj's.

Kelly then walked outside and saw Roadbuster, he was sitting against a building and when he saw her he chucked some clothes at her.

"Wear those instead." He said. Kelly looked down and saw that the men had come together and given her some of their own clothes so that she wouldn't have to wear her pj's anymore. Kelly grinned and ran back in the shower house and quickly got changed. She threw her pj's out as they were ruined anyways.

She exited the shower building again, this time in shorts that were too big for her and an even larger hoodie. Kelly's hair was beginning to curl, she had curly frizzy hair that never listened so she often tied it back, but since she didn't have any way to tie it back she left it down and sighed as she felt it slowly curl. Roadbuster was still there waiting for her, He stood up and gestured for her to walk down a certain path.

"This way." She followed after him, her hair bouncing as she had to run to try and keep up. "It took you long enough to get out of that damn shower." Roadbuster said.

"I'm a woman, we always take longer at everything."

"Aye, I've heard about that." Roadbuster nodded and led her down another path. Kelly had to jog to keep up with him. "This house, your father is here. He'll be takin you home soon."

"Oh alright." Kelly looked up at Roadbuster's blue visor. "It was nice meeting you."

"Aye." Was all he said, and then Roadbuster walked away. Kelly watched him walk away and then entered the building. Her dad and the men around him were all clean, and laughing. Kelly was reminded of an Irish pub she had been to as they all clanked their beer cans together and congratulated each other on a good days work.

Later when Kelly and her father were in the car she found herself talking about all the things she had seen and liked about the base. Her father in turn would tell her stories of accidents and of some of the adventures he had while working with the Autobots. After telling a particularly amusing one that had Kelly in fits of giggles Orville looked over at his daughter.

"Would you like to come again tomorrow?" He asked.

Kelly looked at him for a moment and then nodded "Yes please."