I was originally going to post this as a one-shot, but it's been going really slowly, so here's the first part. This may end up a two- or three-shot, I don't know.

This fic exists in my Ties that Bind Trilogy Universe, the first installment of which is in the early writing stages. The second is all planned out, and the third is still in the idea stages. I will also include a crossover spin-off of the third part, but which fandom it's crossing over with... that's a secret for now. ;)

I know that in RotF, Mikaela's dad is out of prison, but in this fic, he isn't released until two years later. Six months, after RotF, a second NEST base is set up outside Tranquility, and the best civilian mechanics are hired to help out, Mikaela being the first choice since she already knows about them.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Transformers or Simple Plan (that would be the lovely people at Hasbro and Lava/Atlantic Records). I do own Marty, Bruce, and Knight.

WORD COUNT: 2423

Cal Banes was no fool. He knew he'd done wrong and had to pay for it. He knew that if he kept his nose clean in prison, he'd be able to get out on parole and see his Baby Girl sooner. Her biweekly letters and monthly visits kept him going, but he wanted to be able to talk to his daughter without his fellow inmates and the prison guards standing around.

So when he was granted parole, Cal couldn't be happier. He took the bus from prison to his garage, which was now being managed by his best friend Marty. Marty and his wife had been looking out for Mikaela since his incarceration. He would be there to meet Cal today, along with Mikaela's boyfriend. Cal was looking forward to seeing his old friend after all these years. This boyfriend, Sam Wickity (Witicky?), however... Like any good father, Cal didn't believe that there was any boy deserving of his Baby Girl, although Mikaela had told him in her letters that she was very happy with Sam. Still, he had to see the boy for himself and make his own judgements.

The garage was a small business, with employees coming and going all the time, so there wasn't anyone he recognized when he entered. When he mentioned his name to the young man at the desk, however, the kid's eyes brightened, and he eagerly showed Cal the back area. The man hadn't even gotten halfway through the door when he heard a squeal and was practically tackled by a black-haired beauty of twenty. "Daddy!" Mikaela gasped, "I'm so glad you're home!"

Cal grinned and hugged his daughter back. "I missed you, Baby Girl," he murmured. Over her head he saw Marty and a brown-haired boy Mikaela's age smiling at the pair. He grinned at his friend, but fixed the boy with a suspicious glare.

Mikaela pulled away. "Dad, there's someone I want you to meet," she stated, darting over to the boy and dragging him over. The young man nearly tripped, straightened up and ran his fingers through his hair. "This is my boyfriend of four years, Sam Witwicky."

Witwicky gave Cal a nervous smile and stuck out his hand. "Pleased to meet you, sir," he said, at least managing to keep a stutter out of his voice, "Mikaela's told me a lot about you. Said you taught her pretty much everything she knows about cars."

Cal nodded, still keeping a cool look on his face. "She's mentioned you, too." He didn't add anything more.

Mikaela gave him a sharp glance of her own. "Dad, don't you dare start. If you scare him away, I will never forgive you."

Marty snorted. "If Joey and I can't scare Sam away from her, I doubt you can, Cal."

"Who?" Cal asked.

Mikaela rolled her eyes. "Dr. Joey Landsdown, a friend and sort of co-worker of mine. He's appointed himself as my unofficial big brother figure after I started working at the base." Cal recalled one of her letters about a year and a half ago, telling about how she'd gotten a job as a mechanic at a new army base about an hour away from Tranquility. It'd thrown him a bit, since military bases didn't usually hire civilians, but apparently there was some top-secret stuff they needed experts working on, so special clearance was given to those who qualified, based more on their skills than actual on-paper qualifications. Mikaela had some sort of contact with one of the soldiers and had gotten an interview.

In fact, she'd mentioned a 'Joey' a couple times, along with a 'Doc Hatchett' and some pair of twins named Matty and Scotty, who were always fooling around. Mikaela had complained about having to buff dents and scratches out of their cars every other day.

Anyway, even if Marty and this Joey guy didn't scare Witwicky, they weren't Mikaela's dad. And only a Mama Bear could compare to a father looking out for his Baby Girl.

About a week after Cal was released, he'd gotten into a fairly simple routine. Every morning, he'd wake up, eat breakfast, and head to the garage with Mikaela and Sam in the boy's tricked-out yellow and black '08 Chevrolet Camaro. He'd work until lunchtime, at which point the famous Dr. Joey Landsdown would sometimes join them.

Cal took an instant liking to the guy. He was quiet and clearly cared for Mikaela, but not like he was interested in her, and nobody dared upset her for fear of incurring his wrath (which was apparently a rare sight, according to Sam, but still terrifying when it did happen). He was a little odd, though. He spoke rather formally, and sometimes he'd stare at Cal like he had no clue what he'd just said. He jumped slightly at loud noises and sometimes could tell what someone was doing without even looking. He said he was both a medical doctor and a mechanic (Cal was impressed at how he could do both, and he was still in his late twenties), one of Mikaela's sort-of bosses at the base, but couldn't tell Cal more than that – classified stuff, and all.

Cal had to wonder exactly how Mikaela had gotten such a job right out of high school. Even though she was a damn good mechanic, why give her the job instead of one of the military's leading experts? Unfortunately, the reason for her acceptance was also classified, but apparently Sam's parents knew about it, and Joey was trying to appeal to get Cal clearance.

It was at the end of a particularly late shift when it happened. Cal had gone under an old Mazda to fix a hole in its undercarriage. Then Bones had come wandering in – the dog had free reign of the place – and there had been a strange whirring sound, along with some muttering. The weird thing was that Cal had been the only person in the room last he checked.

"Stupid mutt! Get off me! I dunno why Warrior Goddess keeps you around, you sonuvabitch! Oh wait, that ain't an insult to ya. Hey! That's my arm!"

Cal wheeled out from under the car, wondering who the hell was talking and how they'd gotten in without his notice.

He sure as hell wasn't expecting the sight that met his eyes.

Bones had clambered up onto a short stool and was balancing with his front paws on the table, his jaws clenched around something long and made of metal. That something was attached to a small metal... robot... thing, with red eyes.

Cal did the first thing that came to mind.

He yelled and threw a heavy wrench at it.

The robot flew off the table, and Cal took the opportunity to grab Bones and run out of the room. He slammed the door behind him just as Mikaela came running over. "Dad?" she asked, frantic.

Cal started hurrying her in the other direction. "Something's in the shop, Baby Girl. It looks like some kind of robot, or I don't know what. But we need to get out of here and call the cops, or the FBI..."

"A robot?" Mikaela asked, suddenly suspicious. She stopped running, and Cal kept trying to push her along. "About knee-height, with a really foul attitude?" She cursed. "I'm going to weld his aft to the ceiling!" And with that, she moved around him and stormed back into the shop area.

Cal set Bones down and chased after her. "Mikaela, wait! It could be dangerous!"

But she ignored him and pushed the door open angrily. "WHEELIE!" She yelled. She went behind the desk and bent down, and emerged seconds later, holding the robot by its neck. "What the Pit, Wheelie?! How could you be so fragging stupid?! You nearly gave him a heart attack!"

"Hey, it's not my fault!" The robot, 'Wheelie', argued in a whiny voice, "Your big slobbery mutt tried to eat me again! Was I supposed to just sit there and do nothing?!"

Mikaela sighed heavily, dropping the robot on the table. "I suppose not. But that's not gonna stop Prowl from having your helm when he finds out."

Cal found his voice, which had abandoned him when his daughter had started yelling at the robot. "Mikaela?" he asked, his tone a whole lot calmer than he felt, "You know that thing?"

She pulled up a stool. "Better sit down, Dad," she sighed, pointing to another, "This is going to be hard to explain."

He stayed in the doorway, not wanting to go anywhere near the robot. "I'll stay here, thanks."

Mikaela gave him a look. "He's not going to bite. He knows I'll torch his optic again if he does anything." The robot shuddered. "And he'll be quiet during the entire explanation, too."

Cal hesitantly sat down. "I'm guessing this has something to do with your job at the army base?"

She nodded. "Four years ago, I was at a party at Tranquility Lake, and I got into an argument with Trent, my boyfriend at the time. I decided to walk home, but Sam offered me a ride. His car was acting really weird; it drove itself into a lover's lane and wouldn't start back up until I started walking away again."

Cal raised his eyebrows. "Did... you just say it drove itself?"

"Yep." She nodded casually. "The next day, I saw Sam chasing the car on his mom's bike. I followed on my scooter, thinking he'd had some kind of mental breakdown, and then he crashed into me coming the other direction because he was being chased by a killer alien robot that turned into an evil police car."

She paused, clearly expecting a reaction from him.

She was correct. "An alien robot?" Cal looked over to the one on the table just a foot away. "Like this one?"

Mikaela nodded again. "Yes, Dad, an alien robot. By the way, you should close the door. Sam's the only other human around here who knows." Cal did as she suggested. "The robots, called Cybertronians, are divided into two factions, have been for thousands of years. One faction is called the Decepticons; they just want to destroy everything that stands in their way to power and domination. But the others, the Autobots, all have respect for sentient life, so they're trying to stop the Decepticons. They were both looking for this very powerful object called the All-Spark, which was on Earth. Sam's great-great-grandfather discovered the leader of the Decepticons frozen in the Arctic after he crash-landed, and one of his old belongings wound up containing information on the location of the All-Spark. That's what Barricade – the police car Decepticon – was after Sam for, because it now belonged to him. There was a whole lot of robot smackdown when Sam's car – who was actually an Autobot named Bumblebee – came to our rescue, and we met four other Autobots. Then we were taken by some government group who were researching the Cybertronians. They had the All-Spark and the Decepticon leader, Megatron, on ice in their base, but some of his minions attacked and set him free. We went with some soldiers who'd survived an attack overseas into Mission City to air-lift the All-Spark out."

"Mission City?" Cal interrupted, "The city that got torn up by terrorists?!"

"Alien terrorists, Dad. There was a huge battle between the Autobots and Decepticons, though one 'Con was taken down solely by humans – he was one of the pair that attacked in Quatar, so it was a bit of a revenge killing. Sam and I were in the middle of the whole thing; Sam actually killed Megatron by shoving the All-Spark into his Spark – like his heart – and causing a serious power overload."

Cal blinked. Scrawny Sam had killed an evil alien robot?

"Yeah, I know. It's hard to believe, but it's true. After that, the Autobots made an alliance with the UN. Now there's a special top-secret military division that fights alongside them, since the remaining Decepticons are still out there, and they even managed to bring Megatron back to life."

Cal was a little unnerved about the whole bringing-the-evil-overlord-back-to-life thing, but he remembered something else Mikaela said. "A military division? As in the one you work for?"

"After another incident in Egypt, which is a whole other long story, I helped the Autobot medic Ratchet repair some of his comrades, and he decided it would be a good idea to have a team of humans to help him out, since we could get into places he and Jolt can't. Since I already had a familiarity with the workings of a Cybertronian, and I knew all about the Autobots, and I had long since earned their trust, I was one of the first picked. They let me lead all the civilians they've hired, which would be only four at this point. But in the Med Bay, I have the same authority as my military counterpart, Sgt. Knight – as in I get to order his guys around when he's not there." She smirked.

Cal was about to ask another question, but Mikaela's cell phone rang as he opened his mouth. "Wo-oh! Wo-oh! I'm always gonna be the last one stand-"

"What's up, Sides?" She looked up at Cal and mouthed 'Autobot'. "How goes the Vegas assignment?" Then she paled at something this 'Sides' guys said. "How bad? ... Okay, I can be at the base in... oh, dammit, Sam and Bee are out of town! ... You sure? ... Yeah, I can do that. I'll have everything ready by the time you get here. ... Yeah, I know, I've got a couple spares. Hurry." Mikaela hung up without saying goodbye.

"What's he want?" Wheelie asked, "Is he comin' here? I don't like that guy, those blades of his make me nervous. He's always threatening to turn me into scrap metal."

Mikaela disregarded the small robot's worries completely. "He was with Mirage and Jolt on a scouting mission outside Las Vegas. They tangled with a Decepticon Seeker and had to retreat when Jolt got hurt." She got up and started for the door, now all serious and business-like. "An extra hour of travel might kill him, and Ratchet's still on Diego Garcia, so they're bringing him here. I need to clear the place and call Bruce and Knight and the others, and get all my equipment together." She looked over at Cal. "You're about to meet some Autobots, Dad. And maybe helping me save one."

Well, that's it for now. I don't know when the next chapter will be up, since I'm going back to school in September. The song used for the ringtone is 'Last One Standing' by Simple Plan.

Here's the thing for ringtones: the Autobots and their close human friends each get their own ringtone, so when Sideswipe calls Mikaela, it's his ringtone and she can tell right away who's calling. However, I haven't picked tones for everyone. This is where you guys come in.

I need ringtones for:

Autobots: Optimus, Ratchet, Ironhide, Bumblebee, Skids, Mudflap, Wheelie, Mirage, Wheeljack, Prowl, Hot Rod, Blaster, Bluestreak, Trailbreaker, Red Alert, First Aid, Skydive, and Lancer.

Humans: Sarah Lennox, Monique Epps, Maggie, Glenn, Mearing, Sharsky and Fassbinder. I also have four OCs who need ringtones. Two, Bruce and Sgt. Marcus Knight, have an introductory fic in the works, though they are mentioned at the end of this chapter, in case you didn't notice.

I will be taking requests almost indefinitely, until I need to use one. To submit, review or PM me with the title of the song and artist, and if needed, which version or mix. Also, you can add which lyrics you want to have played. But even if I pick a ringtone, I may not find an opportunity to use it.

Anyway, just sit tight and I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I can. I have school and (hopefully) work coming up, as well as many fics that have been on hold for over a year, so those take priority, IN THAT ORDER. So don't hold your breath.