Title: Partner (2/9)

Verse: G1 AU

Rating: PG

Warnings: None

Characters/ Pairings: Prowl, Sierra (human OC)

A half an earth year working together and Prowl still knew little about the human he worked with beyond what had been revealed in her personal file. The file itself was very complete. Sierra Hunter had no family left- her parents had died when she was young and her brother had been killed when his vehicle was struck by a drunk driver.

She never spoke of her friends or of what she did after work hours. As far he knew the only change in her routine had been when Prowl discovered that she utilized public transportation to and from the station on a daily basis.

It had been a simple matter to retrieve her file and discover the address of the apartment she rented. And even though she had offered a token protest the first morning she had walked out the door and found Prowl waiting out front for her, when he dropped her off that night she had stepped away so he could close his door and paused.

"So is this a regular thing and I can stop worrying about my bus fare, or was it a one time thing to celebrate the fact that we've been able to stand each other for two months?"

"I will be here in the morning at 0900."

She'd nodded. "See you then."

Prowl had not understood initially why the two months were so significant, except that it was an even number, and humans did seem to like their even numbers. But that night when was sitting in the garage and did a little more digging, he discovered something that had originally escaped his notice.

Sierra Hunter had not kept a partner for more that two months since her first one was shot off duty and later passed away from the injuries. The date was a rather significant marker for both of them, and just maybe an indication of a new direction in both of their lives.

The same human was now pacing circles around Prowl, cup of coffee in hand and more than half empty, to judge the speed of her circling. "So because they had hit targets in that area consistently they want us to start patrolling it. But it's not going to make a difference."

"You seem very convinced of this fact." Prowl commented, finally giving in and allowing his passive sensors to track her movement. It wasn't worth the energy to keep his active sensors on her the whole time.

The hand that wasn't holding the all important coffee waved expressively. "I've seen this pattern before. There are enough high-end neighborhoods in that area they can take their pick. At the first sign of an actual police- not rent-a-cop- presence they will move on to another neighborhood. Fresh victims. We'll investigate. Reach the same conclusion as we did with this set of crimes, and then we'll start all over again from square one."

Prowl hummed thoughtfully. "Would it not make more sense to schedule a patrol in all of the locations deemed to be at risk as a preventative measure?"

"Lack of man power. I suggested that a long time ago and they keep insisting that there is not enough man power."

Prowl crunched the numbers and he had to admit that at least this time they were not lying. At least when the only available officers were the local ones there were too many neighborhoods to cover them without a large number of officers performing a number of over time shifts.

"Random patrols then, if it what you fear does occur."

"That could work, so long as there are no leaks." Sierra mused, stopping in front of him and finishing the last of her coffee.

Prowl opened the door for her. "We should be on our way, if you are going to get another coffee before we start our patrol for the evening."

Sierra slid gracefully into the drivers seat, hands coming to rest lightly on the wheel. Initially she had taken a completely hands off approach to riding along with the former Autobot, but the department had grown tired of the reports of a cop going down the road not holding on to the wheel. She had been ordered to find a compromise.

"How do you know I even want another cup of coffee?"

"Your caffeine intake has not reached it's normal level yet. I understand that this fact in general can be detrimental to normal function."

Sierra had started to laugh. "How did you know I hadn't had as much coffee as usual? Can you scan that or something?"

Actually, Prowl couldn't. His scanners were not tuned to reading the chemical make-up of a human on that level. But he still had an answer. "No. You were not circling me as fast as you normally do at your current level of agitation."

"That gave me away?" She sat back in the drivers seat, considering her partners powers of observation in a new light. Adjusting his systems so that they were all tuned to the local police bands Prowl set of down the road, and finally decided to voice a question that had been bothering him.

"Why do you do that?"

Sierra blinked, straightening in her seat carefully. No matter how many times Prowl assured her that normal motion in his passenger compartment did not disturb him in the slightest she was always so conscientious of where and what she was doing. "Why do I do what?"

"Pace around my vehicle mode while you think."

Sierra just raised an eyebrow at him. " Because I think better when my feet are moving and when I circle you I can still have a conversation with you?"

Prowl rumbled thoughtfully. "So different."

"Come again?"

"You are very different from all of the other officers they assigned to work with me."

"And you're very different from every other moron they've assigned me to work with. Probably the reason we are actually getting stuff done six months into this arrangement." Sierra commented, mind already shifting into work mode as they reached their route for the night.