-1A few hours passed, and over cocoa for the humans and explanation for the stranger. Optimus patiently explained, again, about the war that consumed Cybertron, about Megatron and his forces. Cassie was spared the light show, but understood about the war. She was a little more absorbed with watching the miniscule tools from Ratchet's fingers stitch and dress the gash she received when she went into the junk pile. In the darkness of the night, Ratchet and Bumblebee provided the majority of the light while a bonfire, assembled mostly by Wreck Gar under Cassie's coaching, crackled and popped.

"What of your friend?" Ratchet inquired. Wreck Gar was sitting, cross-legged… attempting to complete a cat's cradle with some rubber tubing.

"Wreck Gar fell out of the sky." Cassie replied simply, "I found him, broken up. I gathered as many of the pieces as I could, but there's no way I could repair something like that. I'm a tower, not a mechanic genius. For that you'd need Mickey."

"Who's the leader of the ba-" Bumblebee began.

"She means me." Mikaela piped up.

"I don't know, maybe he got messed up or something, but he's not like you guys. He's not smart… he's just… Wreck Gar." the girl gave a helpless shrug. "It's like having a twenty-foot toddler hanging around." Cassie added, with a FWING! sound from Wreck Gar as the rubber hosing sprung from his massive metal fingers and off into the distance. "… a twenty-foot toddler with ADHD." she corrected.

Bumblebee gave a small laugh, though Ratchet and Prime looked a little more concerned.

"If it is true that his processors were scrambled at some point between Cybertron and Earth, he could be re-taught," Ratchet began thoughtfully, "he may even recover to the point of full processing with time."

"How much time are we talking?" Cassie asked, her eyebrows raised.

"Longer than you have." Ratchet replied, and Cassie deflated.

"What is the extent of his damage?" Optimus asked, and the medical officer straitened up.

"Unknown. He's bits and pieces; possibly Junkion, Butcher's work." Ratchet replied thoughtfully, scanning through Wreck Gar again.

Wreck Gar giggled, and wriggled in his cross-legged position.

"Tickles!" he protested. Sam just gawked, and Mikaela had to bite her lip to keep from laughing.

"It would be wisest to take him with us; he may suddenly break out of this. Idiot or not, he's a Decepticon." Ironhide growled as he stood. The ground shook beneath his frame.

"He's been here for a year, and Sam's done more damage around here in ten minutes than Wreck Gar has in that time." Cassie objected as she stood up and tried her best to look Ironhide in the eye -- a feat that would have required a very tall ladder. "He could just stay here; it's not like any of the Deceptiwhats know he's here," she added in a small voice, "… this is his home."

"No, this is not his home. What would you know about--" Ironhide glowered, though a glare from Optimus silenced him.

Ratchet looked to Optimus, and Optimus stood, taking a few paces with the ground below trembling beneath the weight on his shoulders.

"He needs help," Cassie began, and looked down, "… and I understand if he's not safe here, but he's been in my care for a year. Doesn't that warrant some say?"

"Cassie. You have been very kind to something that fell into your lap, and for that we do thank you -- but with the Decepticons on Earth, it means he is not safe here, and you are not safe with him."

"Your ribs tell that story, even though you do not." Ratchet added, and Cassie self-consciously wrapped her arms around her own waist.

"That was an accident; it hasn't happened since."

"Cass." Mikaela said as she stood, and put her hand on her cousin's shoulder. "These guys know what they're talking about; and if they say it's not safe, it's not."

"What do you care anyway, Mickey?" Cassie hissed, and grabbed Mikaela's wrist. Sam's fists balled up and he got to his feet. Mikaela's eyes narrowed, but before anything else could be said, Optimus's vocal processors gave an ugly sound of static. Both girls looked up, though Cassie looked immediately away.

"… fine. Take him away from the only place he's known. Teach him how to fight and how to kill things. I'm just human, what do I matter? What do I know?" Cassie growled aggressively, then turned to stalk back inside; Optimus halted her.

"A word, Cassandra." Optimus rumbled, then glanced to the assembled. "In private."

The two walked off, Cassie looking impossibly small as she jogged to keep up with Optimus's slow stride until they were some distance away.

Sam glanced at Mikaela, who watched with hurt eyes as Cassie and Optimus disappeared into a stand of trees.

Wreck Gar glanced up, and scratched at the back of his head with a sound like nails on a chalkboard before giving a burst of staticy sound.

"She's not dead; she's just pining for the fjords!" Wreck Gar finally spouted.

"… pining for the fjords…?" Sam blinked, and glanced at the idiot-bot.

When Cassie and Optimus returned, Cassie's eyes were red and puffy, and she brushed past Mikaela and Sam, giving an incredibly aggressive look to the both of them before heading to the back door. The hangar remained black, even though the back forty was illuminated by Ratchet and Bumblebee's lights, along with the camp fire. Sam looked at Mikaela, who shifted her weight uneasily. The Autobots turned their attention to Wreck Gar, and spoke among themselves to try and find a viable solution to the problem as Mikaela sat near the fire.

Sinking down next to her, Sam wrapped an arm around her, and leaned her head on his shoulder.

"Want me to beat her up?" he offered, half-jokingly.

"She'd win," Mikaela replied, pursing her lips o try not to laugh, "she's pretty tough."

"Yeah… well. She hasn't taken out alien robots with a saw-gun-thingie."

They're occupied with their own. Ratchet clicked, turning to Bumblebee who stood watch, and Ironhide who grumpily held Wreck Gar down by his shoulder. How did she come up with Wreck Gar anyway?

It was the first sounds to come out of his vocalizer when he woke up. Prime replied. What are the chances of him breaking?

Back to his old self? Slim, to near nil. This is the Butcher's work; there are bits and pieces that match several eliminated Decepticons and at least two Autobots. It is likely he will never fully recover to full processing, but given time he may make partial recoveries -- it will take time.
It's too dangerous to let him wander around. We should eliminate him if he can not be-- Ironhide began, but he was cut off.

I never said it would take a long time to a partial recovery. Ratchet interrupted, completing another scan. I will need several hours to complete a full analysis of the extent of the damage, but I suspect that even repairs and a transfer of basic data will be enough to keep him on his feet… and give him a chance to hide. It would be wisest if we took him with us for education, but given the radiation he has been giving off -- even if the Decepticons did not know he was here by now, they would be able to find him.

Then Cassandra is in danger regardless of where Wreck Gar is. Prime considered.

Did you warn her of this? Bumblebee asked, tilting his head as he glanced towards the larger Autobots. His fingers stretched out as he shifted his bulk. We can't leave her defenseless; that's as good as a death sentence.

She is aware of the possible dangers of harboring Wreck Gar, which is one of the reasons she agreed to give responsibility of his care to us, Optimus replied wearily, on one condition.
Did she want a babysitter? Ironhide snorted.

Something more difficult. She wanted a human located; I told her that we would do our best to search.

… shoulda asked for currency instead. Ironhide rumbled, all of these humans look the same to me.

Sometimes, what motivates is very simple, even for such short-lived creatures; this simply was not a simple request. Prime replied softly, and knelt down to look Wreck Gar in the eye, before reaching out a hand to steady Wreck Gar's other shoulder.

This might hurt… Ratchet said as he drew out some wires, a lot.

Ratchet first cut a line to the vocal processor to keep Wreck Gar silent; it wouldn't do to upset his caretaker further than he had to.

Sam and Mikaela were quiet for a long time; without Cassie there things were a little more relaxed; Mikaela wasn't tense, and Sam wasn't defensive.

"So… what's up with the room she stuck me in?" Sam asked. Mikaela leaned back, and glanced upwards.

"Tommy's room."

"Who's Tommy?"

"… when my dad went to… well… it's kinda difficult to explain, Sam -- Tommy's her little brother." Mikaela paused. "He's not here anymore."

Sam blinked, and then rubbed at the back of his head. He glanced upwards towards the dim sky, and blew a breath upwards. He'd have to rethink his assumptions about her.

"How did he--"

"… oh, no, it's not like that." Mikaela continued, picking up on Sam's track of thought. "When my dad went in, so did her dad and older brother. Her dad died in prison, and her older brother got caught up in a prison gang; so after aunt Jackie passed away there was a huge problem. He was registered living in California, not Washington, so both states fought to put him in their system and blocked Cassie out of any information until she turns twenty-one -- so she doesn't know where he is," Mikaela stated, and gave a helpless little shrug, "… so he's just… gone."

Bumblebee made a little sad sound nearby, and Sam and Mikaela glanced up at him.

"To know someone close to you is out there, but untouchable even by communication may be harder on her heart than if he passed away," 'Bee stated softly, "… at least, that's what Optimus would say, but I agree. Why would they not keep him with his sibling?"

There was a crunching sound from Wreck-Gar, along with some snarled Cybertronian from Ironhide.

"… they said she wasn't safe to be around," Mikaela replied, "because of his stories about monsters."

"It was because he saw Wreck-Gar before I did." Cassie replied, and both small humans and Bumblebee glanced up as she came up behind them, tossing a blanket to Sam and Mikaela before zipping up her jacket.

"Only a day, a matter of hours, but he was four. He told the investigator, and told him about how I wasn't home when he found him. Based on that, they took him… I'm not old enough to be a legal guardian anyway." Cassie frowned. Her eyes were red and tired, but she glanced up to Bumblebee and asked;

"Will he be all right? With you guys, I mean. I'm sorry to keep asking, but I want to make sure… make sure…"

Bumblebee nodded enthusiastically, "We will fix him up in no time; and you'll get to visit. We won't keep you from that, but there are Dece--"

"Optimus told me. He told me a lot of things." Cassie gave a smile, and settled down. "Some of which I suspected, but hey… some people just know."

Bumblebee replied with a reserved silence, and Sam and Mikaela glanced up confused at Cassie's statement.

"What do yo--"

There was a flash of blue light, and the sound of something transforming as Wreck-Gar's body folded inwards and onto itself, turning into the beaten flatbed wrecker truck that Cassie drove. Cass gave a smile as Wreck Gar transformed back, and gave a staticy blast of affirmation, trumpeting out,

"I am WRECK GAR! I am good for driving a truck!"

Optimus stood to his full height, and approached the humans. He knelt down and glanced at Sam and Mikaela, and then to Cassie.

"We should be leaving very soon, Cassie," the Autobot leader rumbled, "Ratchet made some repairs to his processors; he should be able to say goodbye."

Cassie gave a nod, and walked slowly over to Wreck Gar, who before Sam's own eyes twisted his faceplates to reflect the sadness in Cassie's face, he even reached down and lifted her up with all the gentleness of someone handling an object made of thin glass. Where Cassie was concered, he was careful.

"You should retrieve your personal items." Prime stated softly to Sam and Mikaela. "Bumblebee will be returning to base briefly; we will stop at your house, Sam, and drop you two off."

"What about Cassie? She's not coming?" Mikaela asked, her voice squeaking a little at the end.

"She has elected to remain here, for now." the leader replied, lifting his optics up to watch the solemn farewell between Cassie and her charge, who for the first time was able to process what he could remember.

"What about the Decepticons?" Sam inquired.

Prime was silent as he stood. Ironhide and Ratchet surveyed the peremeter, and Bumblebee looked to Prime, the same as his human charges.

"Cassie is aware of them," he stated simply, then turned to Ironhide. Ironhide rumbled something, then transformed back into his alt-mode and roared off.

"Wreck Gar, you're going to be all right." Cassie smiled, pressing her hands to the frowning, concerned faceplates, urging them upwards. "They're your friends; they're family. Mikaela's my family, and Sam's an okay guy. They'll take care of you now."

Wreck Gar glanced down, and then around, unsure of what to say, searching his feeble processors for the right words to express what was going through his circuits.

"It's a crazy, mixed-up world…" the bot began in an approximation to Bogart's voice, and the girl smiled.

"Don't, Wreck Gar, don't think about it too much, okay? You don't want your cerbos or circuits or whatever to fry before they fix you up all the way. Go with them, and be a good boy. Don't throw anyone around, unless they tell you to." Cassie smiles. "I wish I had something better to say than that."

"Me too." Wreck Gar stated painstakingly trying to find better words to say… but they wouldn't come. He set Cassie down. Cassie took a deep breath as she watched Wreck Gar transform into a facsimile of her wrecker truck, and drive off after Optimus. She heard gears crunch.

"Shift first, you block head." Cassie smiled, and then lifted her head as the truck gave a lonely blast of its horn.

"You'd better take care of him!" Cassie called out. "Or… or else!"

One by one, the other Autobots transformed and rolled out of the Back Forty, leaving Bee alone with Sam, Mikaela and Cassie. Sam and Mikaela already had their bags, and Mikaela gave a pleading look to Cassie.

"… sorry it had to be cut short, Cassie, but Prime thinks it'd be better for us to be back home." the dark-haired girl said, and Cass turned her head, and gave a smile.

"You should listen to him; that robot's a smart guy."

The cousins embraced, and Sam gave a small, sideways smile.

"… maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to come up here. We should try again sometime soon."

"Yeah." Cassie said, flatly to Sam. "Don't count on it, Sammy." She smiled, and held out her hand. "Sorry I was going to dent your car. Just let things run away with other crap, y'know how that goes."

Sam and Cassie shook hands, and Cassie stood in the darkness, backlit by the roaring bonfire as she watched Bumblebee's taillights disappear into the night.

She reached into her pocket, and tugged out her phone. She gave a smile as she flipped it open, and found the new entry.

Emergency, it read.

She had to prepare some things first.

"On the long and lonesome highway, east of Omaha, you can listen to the engine moaning out its one lone song/and you can think about the woman, or the girl you knew the night before…" droned Bob Seger. Dawn was approaching over the hills, and the gray sky morning betrayed nothing of what the day had in store for them.

The Autobots, with Wreck Gar, for mined a neat line. Optimus first, then Wreck Gar who was cheerily singing along with the music playing from Bumblebee behind him, followed by Ratchet, and Ironhide bringing up the rear. The humans inside of Bumblebee were half asleep, dozing with Sam's arms around Mikaela, her head against his shoulder.

There was a sudden sound of a horn blow, echoing across an empty highway as Optimus skidded, turning sideways. Smoke poured out from his tires as he hit on the acceleration.

Sam jolted awake, his eyes widening as Bumblebee pulled the seatbelts tighter.

"Hold on." came his voice, "something's wrong."
"Ironhide, escort Wreck-Gar back to the yard in Mission City. Ratchet, with me. Bumblebee…"

"I'm going." Bumblebee stated, skidding out along the shoulder, and hitting on the accelerator so fast that Sam and Mikaela were pinned back in their seats.

Mikaela's phone rang.

"He-hello?" she asked, picking it up. "Cassie? What-- don't say that, what's wr--" she blinked, and then looked at Sam. "The signal cut out! Bumblebee, what's going on there?"

"… they found her." Bumblebee pronounced quietly.

The two humans looked stunned; even the Army couldn't take down one of these guys. If more than one Decepticon attacked -- what chance did Cassie have of survival?

The Autobots were keenly aware that human bravery was far above the toughness of their frail skins, too many humans had already fallen thanks to their war -- but the Decepticons would not hold back, neither reason nor pity stirred them.

"Hang on, this might feel funny." Bumblebee stated, apologetically before speeding up. Humans didn't do so well under extreme duress, and the inside of a Camero just was not meant for such speeds -- luckily, 'Bee was not just any old car.

Hang on, Cassie, thought Mikaela. We're coming…

It's funny, the things that run through your mind. Cassie remembered being held in her dad's arms -- strong arms that once defended her mother from a bunch of drunk teenagers at a Stop-n-Go Burger -- that's how they met. She remembered the first memories of Mikaela and her running through a sprinkler, throwing water balloons at each other inside of the hangar while their fathers worked on cars. She remembered seeing her tiny baby brother in the plastic box, and remembered how she protected him when their older brother decided he didn't want competition. Countless hours spent, talking about robots as she carefully, painstakingly built models for his room. Tommy had been her world after her father left, and when they took Tommy, it felt as if she would never smile or laugh again.

It grew worse.

Springtime. It was just the feeling of wrongness in the perfect April morning, the way the sun was shining wasn't right.

She had walked outside -- just to check.

By the time she had found Jackie, her mother, it was too late to call any help. Gasping like a fish out of water, the bunch of lilies -- too early for lilies -- she'd been picking cast to the side in a yellow and green heap. Cass had held her in her arms as she died. She felt the life ebbing out of her mother's body. She cried, and begged,

Please, don't leave me alone, with these cold walls and windows…

She remembered Wreck Gar's first appearance, dredged up from the now-barren fish pond. She'd been unafraid then, and gave him a smart knock on the hand with the pipe wrench when he'd come too close to grabbing her -- but he was her crutch. He was her hand to hold.

Work had gotten harder since. Fear of leaving Wreck Gar alone too long meshed with her growing exhaustion. Slowly, she felt her strength ebbing. That's why she'd contacted Mikaela. The intent wasn't to see the cousin she felt betrayed her -- it was the one last ditch effort to find Tommy.

It was the last effort to find Tommy before Cassie's body expired.

She suspected that Optimus knew about it long before he asked to speak with her alone. That was the first time she had cried in a long time, belying the tears running down her cheeks as she looked, un-phased, into the blue optics of the huge bot. It might not have been the same disease that had wracked her mother's body, but it was similar enough that she stood very little chance of seeing another lunar cycle. The pain wasn't subsiding, no matter how much Tylenol she took. Lacking the powerful painkillers, she lived with the pain day in and day out. She didn't sleep, didn't feel like showering -- so she went outside every day with that portable TV set and watched old tapes with Wreck Gar in the selfish want to not die alone.

So when the rumbling and high-pitched sounds of the Decepticons came to her ears… she put the cat out the front door, took a last look at Tommy's room, then stepped out the back door.

They might have been laughing. Cassie didn't know. She didn't care. Her strength receded steadily. She tilted, leaning up against the door. She gave a crooked smile, examining the cruelly angled faces of the two Decepticons who had come to attack and retrieve their addle-minded comrade.

Sorry, boys, she had said, even as they all showed their weaponry in frustration of a fruitless search. You're too late.

You're too late.

Those were the words haunting Mikaela as Bumblebee rolled up. She exited the car, looking over the childhood retreat she'd known now turned into a place of utter destruction. Cars were thrown into trees, trees thick as Optimus's leg snapped in half and laying all over the place. The Decepticons were long gone, their trail carefully hidden in the heavy atmosphere of an oncoming thunderstorm. The rumble of thunder rolled across the Back Forty, reduced now to an impossibly tangled heap of half-melted scrap metal. The hangar was crushed, and as Sam got out to survey the damage, Bumblebee transformed, and began to carefully search through the debris.

Ratchet began his scan, finey-tuned sensors searching through the debris and radiation for signs of life, though he -- and Optimus -- were expecting the worst and most likely outcome. Sam was doing his best to search for her, calling out Cassie's name to only the drumbeat of thunder.

Mikaela was just in shock. The thought of this war hitting so close to home had occurred to her, but it never felt so sickeningly close. She felt her knees weaken.

"There." Ratchet said, and he and Bumblebee moved aside a slab of concrete.

A quick assessment did not look good. Terminal damage to her internal components from tissue breakdown added to her injuries; one leg was twisted grotesquely around. The internal systems of the human were shutting down; some already had. Cassie's open eye blinked, and as Mikaela came into her vision, her cracked, broken mouth gave some facsimile of a smile. Mikaela took Cassie's good hand in hers.

"It's okay, Cassie. I'm here…" she stated softly, before a line of white marked the red on Cassie's cheek -- a tear's trail -- and the human girl expired.

The rain fell, uncaring, on both Autobot and Human. Pain, the loss of a fighter was familiar to them all by now, but nothing could compare to the sound of dismay Wreck Gar made when he returned, Ironhide burning rubber to keep up with him.

"I could not keep him away… not in this case." Ironhide rumbled to Optimus, apologetically.

Wreck Gar paused, and knelt down. With surprisingly gentle hands, he lifted the twisted, broken body of Cassie up for his own inspection, his face reconfiguring for confusion. A finger probed at the destroyed arm, the broken leg.

"C-Cass-Cassieeeee?" Wreck Gar verbalized. "Rise and shiny! Temperature of seventy with a chance of rain - Dooon't forget the umbrella! Shiny and New Satisfaction guaranteed!"

Perhaps it was all the television he had watched, or perhaps it was truly a loss felt to the very core of the amnesic bot's spark, but with the rain falling across his face plates… Sam could have sworn, as his vocalizer broke down into static-laden bursts of squeaking, that Wreck Gar was weeping .

Another brave fighter extinguished in this never-ending war. Optimus kept a list of those who perished, and who went missing without a trace or reply. The list of names was ever-growing, but only in the last forty years had they been adding human names to the list of those who perished to the Autobot's enemies, the Decepticons. Even after the government cleaned up the Back Forty, and it had begun to be reclaimed by the forces of Nature, Wreck Gar -- supervised by Ratchet or Ironhide -- returned to the field. Sometimes he sat in the flowers, other times he recited long lines of Monty Python or Humphry Bogart, adding his own quirks with it. Sometimes he laughed, and others laughed with him. Other times he cried, while his sitters watched in quiet contemplation.

Cassie's name was added to a memorial project, dedicated mostly to the human element in the war against the Decepticons. Attending the ceremony, Mikaela stood next to Tommy, who had placed his own carefully hand-painted model by the plaque bearing her name. He received a message, direct from Cassie via Optimus's promise -- to not lose hope. To continue to live, because no matter where he was, or what he was doing -- no matter how old he got…

… she would always be there, right behind him, proud all the way along.