Jack's decision was to call his mom and inform her that he couldn't make it to school.

"Why?" She asks through the phone, in the background, Jack could hear that the hospital was going through its morning rush, floods of footsteps and intercom announcements buzzed in his ear. Flu season was here and plenty of Jasper's residents have fallen ill. Having had the flu plenty of times, Jack truly felt for them.

"I'm sorry, Mom. I missed the bus and when I tried to chase after it I fell and sprained my ankle." Sure he may have 'forgotten' to add the fact that his new friend was the reason for his limping. At least it wasn't a lie...But that didn't make Jack feel any less guilty.

"Oh, no!" His mother cried in alarm, "Jack, are you alright? Do I need to come home?"

"No!" He answered a little too forcefully, cringing when sharp, metal claws pierced through the cotton of his black and gray shirt to prick his chest. Shifting the baby robot around so that she would stop kneading him like a hungry kitten, Jack forced himself to take on a much calmer tone, praying to a higher power that his mom would not come home this soon. "I'm perfectly fine, Mom. I just don't think I'll be able to walk to school."

His mother sighs heavily in defeat, "Jack, you know if you keep missing your classes you're going to end up going to summer school." Her disappointed tone shot through his chest like a hot bullet.

"...I'm sorry, Mom."

"It's alright," she sighs, probably rubbing her temples as she usually does when upset, "I can still come home if you need me too."

Jack shakes his head, glancing down at the baby bot asleep on his stomach. He was reclined on his ex-dad's favorite chair, both legs held up by the footrest, with a bag of frozen peas laying over top his bad foot to help with the swelling. "No, Mom, I'll be fine. Don't worry about me, I'll just keep off this leg for a bit."

"Make sure you keep it elevated so that the blood circulates properly, and don't forget the peas."

He chuckles and rolling his eyes as her motherly nature, "Okay, Mom. I'll do that."

The baby robot shifts, whining aloud as she stirred from her long nap. When she opened her optics, the little bot squeaked in excitement upon seeing his face and chirped happily.

"Jack, what is that noise?" He cringes, wrapping his arm around the little bot to shove her face in his shirt, muting her noises, "N-Nothing, I'm just watching some cartoons..."

His mother laughs, "Just like when you were 4. Okay, Jack, I'll be home around 6 tonight. Try not to stay off your leg until I get back. Okay?"

"Sure, Mom. Love you."

"Love you too, Sweetie." Click.

Jack sighs in relief, slumping back in his chair, then tucked in his chin to stare down at the blue bot with its face still muffled in his shirt. Upon feeling his little friend wiggling in protest, Jack releases his tight grip. She pulls back to scowl up at him like an irritated toddler. The look was beyond adorable, and he felt himself chuckling, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck, "I'm sorry, but I couldn't let my mom know you exist...At least not yet."

She still glares at him, that is until a deep rumble from Jack's stomach made her jump in alarm.

Jack laughs as the little one curiously pokes at his belly-button, intrigued by his stomach's cry for food. The wet, gurgling sound made her cock her head left and right, trying to decipher what the sound meant.

Jack pats his flat stomach, smiling down at his new friend, "That means I'm hungry. Do you know what hungry means?"

She shutters her optics at him, her head still cocked to the side like a confused puppy.

Maybe she was hungry too. Do robots need to eat?

She did have a mouth, and what else is a mouth used for other than eating and talking. But if she could eat, what would she like? Surely, human food won't suffice. As a robot, she'll probably want oil or trans fluid: something. Would that work?

He picked up his little charge, folding the footrest back down with a high bang, startling the blue baby bot. She peered suspiciously over his shoulder, narrowing her optics at the recliner as Jack made a limping bee-line to the kitchen. He sets the little bot down in a wooden chair, with her big blue optics barely peering over the table top, scanning the eggshell surface with fascination reflecting in her optics.

Ignoring her for a minute, Jack rummaged through the cabinets, standing on his good foot, while the other barely kissed the tile floor. He searched through the canned food that ranged from veggies to chopped fruit soaked in their own juices and frowned at the variety because none of them seemed to be what he was craving for. At the moment he wanted something light with minimal effort to make. Finally, he grabbed a can of peaches, deciding that eating this was better than going hungry.

Now he just needs to see if his new charge is hungry...

Jack casts a narrow glance over his shoulder. Back at the table, the bot standing in her chair, staring down at her reflection curiously. She frowned at her reflection, before shifting her face into a cringe, and then throwing her best massive, overexcited grin; showing off two blocks of dark gray metal that are her teeth.

He returned his attention back the assortment of canned goods, trying to look for something that she could eat. Would she even need food? If she had teeth (thought metal) then that meant she could eat right?

Jack limped to the next cabinet over and rummaged through that; pulling out a bottle of vegetable oil. It probably wouldn't work, he's sure of that, but not too long ago Jack had heard some guy using vegetable oil for his car and it worked perfectly. Maybe this could suffice as a substitute until he found her something she'll actually need to survive.

Jack reels back in surprise.

Survive? Robots don't need to survive. They're machines with no life what-so-ever. They exist to do whatever their creators tell them to do and that's it. Nothing more. Why is he treating this thing like a human child?

"Because she's acting like one," Jack answers himself. The truth in his words was mind-numbing; a robot acting like a human baby? How was it even possible?

He had no answer for it, and personally, he didn't care to know the hows or whys of his predicament. He just knew that he was now responsible for this, whatever she was. Speaking of his charge, if he was going to be her caregiver then he'll need to give her a name, or something besides "Baby Bot."

What can he name her? Julie?

No that didn't fit her.

Amanda?

Definitely not.

He chewed the inside of his cheek, staring blankly at the bottle of vegetable oil in his hand. Maybe he should focus on something different. He was, after all, taking the human approach. Maybe he should look somewhere different.

His cloudy blue eyes cast to the refrigerator. Rigerator? No. Rator, definitely not that sounded like a boy robot's name. How about Ri? Ri was kind of nice, but that just didn't fit her.

He turns to the microwave. Wave? No. Micro? No. Crowave? That's just terrible.

Jack rubs his baby smooth chin, much to his chagrin. He hated how soft his face was, despite having lost a substantial amount of baby fat over the years, Jack was still struggling to even grow out his first mustache. Most guys at school were already sporting velvet hair along the line of their lips. There was only one kid, the teen could think of that wasn't going through this and that was Rafael Esquivel.

Raf, as he liked to be called, was only 12, he was a quiet kid and usually didn't socialize with anyone. It made sense. Raf had skipped several grades and most teenagers don't want to associate with a "little kid." Plus, it didn't help that he was smarter than most of the student body.

Jack is one of them.

It wasn't like he didn't admire Raf for showing off his smarts. No, it's just that... he doesn't want anyone to think he's a little kid either. Okay, that sounds bad. He shouldn't be judging Raf, especially since Jack understood the pain of being alone a lot. And Raf was usually alone; a lot of kids have spotted him playing by himself with his RC car.

Jack's eyes glowed with excitement. That's it!

"Arcee." He tested the name out loud and grinned in approval. Yes, that would be perfect for her!

Turning around, ready to see Arcee's reaction to her new name, Jack nearly had a heart attack upon spotted an empty chair with no baby robot in sight! "Oh no!"

Heart pounding, Jack looks around the kitchen, peering under the kitchen table, spotting nothing."Arcee!"

No answer.

He limped frantically into the living room. "Arcee! Arcee, where are you!?" He checked behind the TV, under the couch, and under the coffee table, but he could not spot the blue and gray robot.

No, no, no! This was bad!

Jack roughly shoved his fingers through his black hair, tearing out a few dark strands. He limped around going into his room, his mom's room, the bathroom, and finally the garage. Carefully hopping down the stairs to step on the icy cold concrete floor, the always chilly air seeped in through his shirt rousing goosebumps all across his skin. He checked behind the old red couch that they never did anything with. No Arcee.

Damn.

What if someone took her? What would they do to a baby robot? Would they try to dissect her like in the movies?

He limped out through the other door on the other side of the garage, wincing at the brightness glaring down at him from above. The raven-haired teen was tempted to call her out again when he overheard a rustling coming from his mother's rose bushes. The green plant was decked with pink and yellow buds, closed tight until they fully matured. Peering inside, he spots a blue and silver body digging through the roots of the rose bush.

"Arcee!"

The baby bot squeaks in surprise as Jack scoops her up in his arms and hugs her lightly. He loosens his hold to look her over and scowls at the dirt and grime coating her claws. "Look at you! What the heck are you doing out here?" Upon realizing they were still out in the open, Jack quickly looks around to find no other humans present. Sighing in relief he turns around to hurry back into the house when his charge began to thrash around angrily to get away from him.

Jack winces as those sharp claws of hers dig into his forearms in order to pull herself out of his grasp. "Arcee, what are you doing? People are going to spot you!" She doesn't respond, instead, she cries out in desperation, reaching towards the rose bush like a needy toddler wanting ice cream.

Jack winces again, the squirming toddler was going to attract attention and he wasn't sure how he could possibly explain this to nosy neighbors. "Arcee, please, you need to stop or someone is going to see you!" She didn't relent, wiggling violently, her sharp claws, like knives dug into his skin drawing up blood, making the raven-haired teen cry out in pain before releasing her.

Arcee rushes back the bushes and began digging, clods of earth tossed behind her zealously. Jack quickly uses his shirt to wipe off the blood, the dark pinpricks of blood lined both his arms.

His mom was going to freak when she saw this.

Shaking his head to dismiss the thought, Jack hurried back to Arcee and found her intently digging in the soft earth similar to a dog with fertilizer being kicked out between her legs. Jack hesitated for a moment before pushing the pencil-thin branches aside, sharp barbs peppered his body as he reached in to grab the little robot.

Sensing this, Arcee spins around, hissing in warning, her optics glowed with unyielding rage (and something else too, but he wasn't too concerned about that at the moment), making Jack back up at her feral glare. How could something so cute be so scary?

After making sure he took the hint, Arcee spun around and resumed digging into the soil some more before finding what she wanted. Several glowing blue crystals, hidden deep in the ground, perfectly ripe for the picking.

Earlier this morning she had been perfectly content to remain with her new sire. He was the only person who saw her and didn't immediately try to attack her. He also didn't smell like splattered energon...

The smell of energon in its raw form was easy to pick up, at least for her, but apparently, her new sire can't smell. She found that to be very sad because how is he suppose to eat if he can't smell good energon. She needed to find some. When his back was turned, she snuck out to search for a composite. Hopefully, there was enough for her and her new sire. After all, sharing food is a form of bonding between creators and creations.

Sadly, her new sire didn't seem all too thrilled with her digging. Perhaps he doesn't like her getting dirty? Maybe. But that didn't matter to her, she was going to get them both something to eat if it was the last thing she did. She wanted energon to eat, and she wanted him to eat too. If her sire doesn't get nourishment soon, he'll offline and she'll be all alone again!

She dug around and under the ore, before picking it up. It was a large chunk, grouped together in a crystalize state, unusual since energon in its raw form usually appears deep beneath the earth in underground deposits.

Her sire watches from behind, his storm blue eyes widen when she heaves the ore out of the hole and sets it at his feet. She grins up at him, proud of herself. She had always been good at hunting raw energon. The bad men used to send her out to find some while driving in large and loud metal boxes. They never cared about how far she went. They just wanted their energon for one reason or another. The bad man she used to think as her sire didn't care about her as much as she had hoped.

Her new sire was nice. She loves her new sire.

There were a number of things Jack has never suspected. A giant glowing blue crystal was definitely one of them. When he saw Arcee pull up an ore of some kind of crystal. His mother's fury over her rose bushes flew out the window.

Jack had never seen anything like this before. The ore of blue crystals was the size of a football, with the longer crystals having the width of his fingers. He could only gap at the ore before him, until Arcee whined in annoyance at his lack of response, chirping like a bird and pushing the crystals closer to him. She glared up at him, before breaking off one of the longer pieces, bitting it with her metal bar teeth and then offering it to Jack.

Realization brightening his eyes. Jack took the piece of crystal, cold to the touch and, surprisingly, weighing as much as a bar of soap. He squinted at the contents before pocketing it for safe keeping and picking up the ore, much to Arcee's excitement. She happily hops around him as they made their way back inside the house. Luckily with no witnesses to see this odd phenomenon.

Once in the kitchen, Jack set the large ore heavily on the table, being careful not to scratch its surface. Despite the table being ancient, older than him, Jack didn't want to risk raising his mom's suspicions. Perhaps he was just being super paranoid, but he decided he had every right to be. After all, someone might want to take Arcee back. It could be the government or the Illuminati.

Maybe this was some sort of test?

Jack shakes his head, dismissing the thought. Why would someone want to test him? He wasn't anything special. He was an average teen with average grades-only Bs and Cs, and he didn't do much besides go to school and then go to work.

Speaking of work, how should he pull this off? He couldn't leave Arcee alone, especially since she obviously has the curiosity of a toddler and could easily slip into small spaces.

Well, he doesn't have work until tomorrow. So he could worry about that later. For now, he had a baby robot to feed.

Jack stared quizzically at the ore of blue crystals, before looking back at his charge. Arcee grins at him, happy he finally was taking more interest in her food. However, she wasn't sure how to prepare it. Back when she lived with her previous sire, he would do something with the crystals that would make it watery and easy to drink. Something that she didn't know how to do.

Jack was also very clueless. He flips his gaze between the ore and Arcee several times before poking one of the crystals, causing the ore to roll back at the force of his finger and then wobble in place when he lets go. "Soooo... How do you eat this?" Arcee blinks her optics, not uttering a world.

Jack sighs, shoving his hand through his black bangs. Could Arcee just bite the crystal? Maybe it was like rock candy. She does have metal teeth after all, so perhaps she could grind down. Taking the piece out from his pocket, Jack offered it to Arcee.

The small blue and silver robot blinked, confused by the offered energon. What was her sire doing? Did he expect her to process the crystal herself? Maybe he was testing her to see if she knew what to do.

Well... Arcee only had a vague memory of how energon was processed. If she thought about it long enough she could faintly remember her original sire putting the energon in something very hot that melted it. Perhaps, this was how she was supposed to do it? Every time her old sire fed her, the energon was in liquid form.

Chirping in delight for having figured this out on her own, Arcee took the shard and looked around for something hot to use but found nothing of the sort. Her old sire used an odd thingy, something big that he would put the crystal in and it would slowly begin to melt into a glowing blue drink. But where could she find it?

Her optics land on something similar sitting on the gray and black marble countertop. While it was significantly smaller, it looked similar to what her old sire used to use. Grinning, she immediately rushed to the device and clawed her way onto the counter.

Jack screams in a panic, grabbing the hair around his ears, as his charge clambering up the counter, leaving behind deep, ugly scratches that his mother was sure to notice when she returned home. "Arcee, what the heck are you doing!' He rushed over to grab her but jumps back when she hisses at him again

Arcee grabbed the device and dropped the crystal energon into a glass pot with black handle. She looked at it eagerly waiting for it to melt but it didn't. Usually, it didn't take that long. Usually, the energon would be simmering by now, or at least start making a few cracking sounds, signaling it was turning into a liquid. But nothing happened.

Arcee scowled at this and tapped a sharp digit on the glass pot. The crystal laid dormant at the very bottom.

Jack cautiously observed Arcee's actions and found himself both disturbed and impressed. A baby robot was trying to use a coffee machine. She had dropped the crystal inside and seemed to be waiting. Maybe that's what he was supposed to do.

Carefully he stepped closer, being slow so as not to startle her. When Arcee finally noticed him, she looked discouraged, her blue and lavender optics were big and pouty, and she had a huge frown on her silver face. It pulled his heartstrings terribly. He smiles anyways, wanting to offer his help. "You want to cook it?"

Arcee cocks her head to the side, before looking back at the crystal. Jack took it as a yes. He grabbed the glass pot, happy that this time Arcee didn't snarl at him, and took the crystal out. The coffee maker wouldn't work if she was wanting to melt the whole thing into a liquid (he thinks that's what she wants.) He takes out a small spaghetti pot from the bottom cabinet and puts it on the stove, setting the heat it on high.

Arcee watches in amazement as her new sire puts the crystal inside the hot pot with a glass lid to seal in the heat and, after a few minutes, it finally begins to melt. She begins pouncing on the counter like an excited chimp.

Jack chuckles at her enthusiasm, taking pride in her excitement before carefully nudging her aside and taking a red plastic cup from the cabinet above the stove. He poured the glowing contents into the cup and after blowing the steam away to cool it down, offered it to Arcee.

The baby robot squeaks in delight, snatching the cup and downing her meal quickly. Too quickly, in fact, the energon splashes all over her face and on the counter too. Cringing at the mess Arcee made, Jack grabs a nearby rag and attempted to clean it, his first target being Arcee. The baby robot's eyes widen when her new sire approached with a damp cloth. Panic flooded her systems and she attempts to escape, but a thin arm encircled around her middle, picking her up. Arcee hisses as the cold, wet rag wipes across her chrome colored face.

Her reaction was typical for a toddler, it was like he was babysitting his cousins again back when he needed the extra money before he got his job at KO Burgers. Despite how annoying the customers at KO were, he always prefers working at a fast-food place over babysitting Jeremy and Lisa. Those two were little devil spawns and had at one point destroyed his science project for school.

They wrestled around for a bit, Jack trying to clean Arcee's face, and Arcee trying to get away.

Both forgot that Arcee was still holding onto the cup. Which was about half full.

The result: Arcee being tuckered around after finally getting cleaned up, and energon covering Jack's shirt and face. Exhausted and annoyed the teen sits down on his reclined chair with a plush bubblegum pink blanket thrown across his lap, his charge currently snuggling her head against his chest, her engine purring in contentment.

He glares down her, she was definitely like Jeremy and Lisa, maybe even worse than those two because at the end of the day he would hand them back to their mother...

Arcee sighs cutely, tiny metal claws kneading his shirt again.

What had he gotten himself into?

AN: Wow, this took much longer than I anticipated, not to mention this is the second longest chapter I've ever written. The chapter that's beating this one is the final chapter for Button Eyes, which is almost at 7k words an I'm a little over halfway done with it. Merry Christmas everyone! And Happy Holidays! I know I'm late, but I do hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday. I'm still adjusting to writing and sadly I know this probably doesn't flow as well as I want it too. I'm learning though, one day I'll get there. Until then I hope you enjoy this! :D Credit, of course, belongs to MeesterFinchy. You can find the picture this chapter was based on, on DeviantART. It's called "More baby Arcee and Jack." Please look it up and tell MeesterFinchy how awesome he is! :D

Love you guys and I hope you have an awesome New Year!