~~Hello everyone! I apologize for my hiatus on Ruminations of Blue which will be addressed in the next chapter installment. I have yet to be able to re-watch the movie, we were supposed to be moving states and had most everything packed up when the buyer backed out last minute. So with everything packed away I had to do some digging for the laptop and here we are with some inspiration on a different subject! So forgive me.
This is something that has been turning in my head for a few weeks as to what would happen had Optimus had someone to, well beat some sense into his helm in one of his darkest hours.
This will be OC based, taking place in the third movie Dark of the Moon. The last paragraph at the end is actually something I heard on a commercial that really moved me. I take no credit for that. I appreciate any constructive feedback given!~~ LB
Flames and charred remains of choppers littered the hangar floor. To the side of her vision motionless comrades lay in awkward positions. Sentinel had betrayed them. Ironhide was dead. The smell of burning flesh hit her nose and her stomach churned. There was nothing she could do. A play by play in slow motion, everyone was moving but her. Turning from her fallen comrades she gazed up at Optimus, the expression on his face plates enough to make her heart sink lower.
"Take a look Optimus, this is all on you!"
Charlotte Mearing looked furious. Cara recoiled as though she had been physically struck. Anger surged through the young woman. How dare Mearing in this devastation point fingers. Typical government, needing someone to blame. Though in this case the words may have had truth, the verbalizing of them had been unnecessary. Her feet carried her forward of her own accord.
"Optimus." Her voice sounded strained, foreign.
Sounds of Lennox calling for notification of the hundred and first airborne reached her ears as she closed in on autobot leader. She pieced together Sentinel had raided the vault stealing the pillars. Touching a hand to his pede, she had his attention when his glowing optics looked down on her slightly shaking form.
"Optimus. She is wrong." Though her voice wavered with emotion Cara was surprised at the resolve in her words. Optimus seemed to regard her carefully a moment before shaking his helm.
"No." Optimus looked from her out onto the exit ramp that Sentinel had escaped on. "I'm afraid, she is right."
Standing to his full height she came to realize her words had fallen on deaf ears. She sighed heavily watching his retreating form. Something had to be done. Ironhide knew how to handle the bossbots mood swings better than any mech. Now? Hand on one hip the other wiped over her face in frustration. Resolve met, she hastily followed him through the hangar.
"Optimus Prime!"
She would have winced at the tone that she had taken with her commanding officer, for now she was in dangerous uncharted waters. As it stood, she served as a sort of fill in medic under Ratchet who had taken her under his tutelage. She was an underling, he her superior. Now with the way he regarded her she wasn't so sure she would make it to the end of the day.
"You listen here." Cara had started to say but the surprise that seemed to pass through his optics made her want to shrink and get the hell outta dodge. Coughing she added an awkward please, and squeaked when she felt herself being picking up into a large servo.
"You wish to speak your mind." His rumbling baritone voice met her ears. He was processing, looking at her with curiosity though his expression seemed hard. Gathering what courage she had, she let her nursing side take over.
"I know I'm not Ratchet or Ironhide."
Optimus winced slightly at the mention of his newly fallen weapon specialist.
"They have known you much longer than I could hope to, and know you as a bot. More than a leader. I have only known you for so long, but in that short time I can tell you this. I have seen you show compassion, understanding, tolerance and being a downright damn forgiving mech, especially with some of the slag that's gone on around these bases."
'Slag' being some of the pranks from the twins, constant bickering of Mudflap and Skids, human sanctions upon the autobots and the previous asshat they had for a liaison. Her southern drawl was beginning to come out manners be damned in her impassioned speech.
"You let things slide and go and it all falls back on you. I have seen your patience and your kindness extended in friendship and understanding with selfish species, and among your own race. You have all of these fantastic qualities that you extend to everyone. Everyone, except yourself."
Cara paused gauging his reaction as she let her words sink in. Optimus' hardened look had passed to one of deep thought. She took that as her ok to continue.
"Sir. I'm not an autobot, though I'd like to think I have the heart of one. I worry and care for all of y'all just the same. You're family. We all are. Highly dysfunctional but a family."
She couldn't help but grin when she saw his face plates twitch up in an almost amused fashion when she mentioned dysfunctional. She was getting through.
"Optimus, I think you're wrong. I know you blame yourself and that's plainer than the nose on my face. This is not your fault. The hardest and most devastating betrayals we don't see coming, can come from someone we love. Be more forgiving with yourself. Each decision comes with pros and cons and some added criteria we don't see until a decision is made. You deliberate and calculate each decision you make taking all that into consideration and make the decision you feel is best or right. I've seen you in your quarters late at night barely any sleep and that's all I seem to hear from Ratchet when the Terror Twins aren't fragging up the med bay. You are every example of what one could hope for in a leader. I've said my peace, and I'm not askin' much...I just wish you wouldn't be so hard on yourself when you take so much on your shoulders already. I worry for you. I mean not that Ratchet doesn't by any means he probably would have a lil' more tact than well.."
Cara gestured to herself lamely before Cara motioning for Optimus to set her down. Safely back on the ground she looked up into his glowing optics as he had yet to move from his crouched position. Deliberation passing his occasionally moving optics before he spoke.
"Cara...you have given me much to consider. You speak with a wisdom and your heart is in the right place. I shall take what you have said into consideration."
Smiling Cara patted his cheek plate noting the little shocks that went through her fingers as she touched the warm metal there. Noticing some of the small cybertronian symbols ingrained into the left antenna she moved away from his face taking note of the cerulean optics that watched her carefully. She nearly jumped when he spoke once more.
"Thank you, for your...care."
Caras couldn't help the smile that creeped onto her face that had her grinning like the cheshire cat. The Prime exhaled in a chuckle that blew Cara's hair back from her face gently.
"Thank you for listenin', but that is what I'm here for. If by chance you need someone to speak with, I may not be a liaison or very greatly versed and such, but I'm always a listening ear ready to offer an opinion whether wanted or not."
As she headed back into the remains of the hanger she paused and turned on her heel to him, yet to move from his position watching her leave in a sort of intrigued expression. Cara looked up at the autobot leader with as much authority as a 5 foot' 3 woman could have.
"I know you're going to go after him. Sentinel I mean. I have two requests for you."
"One," she lifted a finger, "be safe, and be smart. Two...make something of yourself, Optimus Prime."
Smirking at the leader content she had made some headway in the steadfast enigma that was Optimus Prime, Cara jogged off to help a follow technician move a groaning soldier onto a stretcher.
"Prime?"
Ratchet had come up behind the autobot leader looking at him questioningly. Though the medic had heard part of the exchange he remained perplexed at the Primes newfound thoughtful look. Optimus smirked to himself coming to a conclusion as his fans kicked on. Ratchet began running scans in concern though the Prime paid him no mind.
"Heart of an autobot indeed."
'Wouldn't it be great if human beings were great at being...human? And if all of mankind were made up of kind women and kind men? It would be wonderful if common knowledge was knowledge commonly known, and the light from being enlightened into every heart was shown. It would be glorious if neighbors were neighborly, and indifference a forgotten word. It would be awesome if we shared everything, and being greedy was absurd. It would be spectacular if the golden rule was goodness to every man, and the good things that we did was everything that we can. Treat others how you want to be treated.'