-1Chapter 2 Barricade.

Sam looked down. Then he brought his head up, forcing his eyes, which wanted to close, to open wide with feeling as he looked at her.

"O.K.," he said levelly, "But I'm not the only one you're running out on." He paused, looked down, then added guardedly "D'you wanna ride - can I take you home?"

She wiped her hair back from her eyes. "No." She was still looking at him - she bit her lip but still smiled defiantly. Was she going to laugh?

"There's still a CD of yours in the stereo."

"O.K., just for old time's sake you can take me home. But you won't persuade me to change my mind."

She stepped into the car. The door closed.

"Neither of you."

"O. K. They don't take sides. Do you Bumblebee?"

There was silence except for the car engine starting up. Then:

"I will always protect you whatever your decision, Mikaela," said Bumblebee. "You are both my friends. I hate seeing my friends argue. This is the Pit."

"Yes, well let's hear this CD then." She did look down now.

He played it. It was "Before it's too late." It made both of them feel awkward.

Still, at the end of the journey, Mikaela took the CD out, set her face hard, and marched to the top of her steps. Sam got out and saw her there. She did not even say goodbye.

He came down listlessly, his feet feeling like lead, Bumblebee opened the door, he sat down in the driver's seat. The car did not move, however. There was silence.

"What's got into her?" asked Bumblebee.

"It's not right, it's not like her." Sam said flatly and bleakly.

"If she wanted to end it, she wouldn't do it out here in front of others. Surely she would talk to me, after all we've been through, or use the phone or something." Sam said. "This feels staged." Miles would have said that he'd been right about her all along, she was just an evil jock concubine, and he'd seen her dump someone in the homeroom, before the teacher came in: but he'd thought they had something better than that. "She's deeper than this, don't you think?"

"I agree," said Bumblebee. "I'm not Ratchet, but she was hurting, and I don't mean at you. My scans indicate physically as well as mentally."

"Why didn't you let me know?" Sam asked, his eyes widening in sudden hope, then narrowing again in anger.

"If she did not want you to know, Sam, I couldn't give her away.

Something's up with her."

Sam's voice went tight. "Or someone. Trent?"

"It's not Trent. She hates and despises him" said Bumblebee.

"Then who? Or what? Bumblebee wait here!" He shot out before the doors clicked shut. The keys still hung in the dash, swinging slightly.

"No Sam!" came stage-whispered through the car window, a hint of panic in the mechanical voice. "Not here!"

"Then call for help!" Sam whispered back fiercely, pain, anger and despair warring within him. "Call Ratchet, I'm sure he'll be intrigued! I want to see if she'll come out for you if not for me!

I'll just wait round the block here!" The last bit came out in a husky hiss as he hid round the corner.

Bumblebee complied just with an alert blip on the comm. With no overt threat, Ratchet would want to know what was going on, and at the moment he only had a sense of unease. He hoped what Sam wanted to happen would not take long. He could not recharge here, not even for an hour - he would be up on blocks when he woke up!

It was the kind of neighbourhood where no-one walked anywhere, unless they had to. He scanned for any form of life approaching within 2 metres - Sam was about that far away- and 5 km for him, as he'd had to when parked up on his own, for any kind of threat.

He'd give it 15 minutes, then he'd try to get Sam to come in again.

Luckily he did not have to wait that long. Mikaela came down the steps 2 at a time, tapped the door, shot in and grabbed the keys.

"Mikaela, No! What's up?" said Bumblebee.

The lock trick beat the human senses this time, and it wasn't just central locking. When Sam charged up to the other door it opened.

Mikaela's remained shut, although she threw her weight on it and her head against the window. It chinked, bone on glass.

"I 'm sorry" said Bumblebee. He would protect her one last time.

When the situation was safe and she'd calmed down, she could be free.

"Look Mikaela," said Sam. "I'm not gonna stalk you, you can walk away from the car forever now, or we can work something out, but please tell me, with no-one looking, why we're through."

He put a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't touch me!" She shied away, angry, shaking.

Unable to hold anything else, he held onto Bee's passenger seat. As usual, that comforting sense of warmth came through it for him.

She turned round. A red welt showed on her hairline.

Sam looked at the keys in her hand.

"Please tell me you're not betraying us both!."

"Sam, how could you leave Bumblebee like that, this area's evil, he could have been stolen, sliced and diced, cut and shunted and sold on in a couple of hours!" Mikaela burst out angrily, her smouldering eyes tight, her hands balled into fists.

" I don't think so," said Bumblebee.

"I was trusting both your reactions!" said Sam.

She gave him the keys. Now her eyes were brimming with tears.

"Sam, he'll kill you!"

"Who -Trent?"

"Will you stop talking about dang Trent! He is irrelevant. So is every man on the planet!"

"Oh, so we're talking Decepticons here!" He tapped the car seat.

'Right!' thought Bumblebee, and put Ratchet on Speaker.

"Am I right in thinking by he you mean a police car with red eyes, big teeth and no manners?"

"Barricade?" said Bumblebee. "He is not going to kill Sam. And if you wanted me to fight him in protection you need not have bothered to try to steal my keys, just ask!"

"I had to bring these" -she pointed to the keys - "and no-one had to call for help or anything-

"Oh, it's too late for that, that's been done," said Bumblebee.

"Oh no!" She put a hand to her head and closed her eyes.

"Get moving, Bee, and don't go the regular route, we might be chased!"

"O. K., seat belts on, you two!"

Sam tapped the steering wheel, lightly, twice, though he did not need to. They set off with a squeal of breaks, dodging into a side street as soon as possible. If Sam had been in his own drive curtains would have flickered as the neighbours looked but here nothing moved at any window, somebody making a quick getaway must've been such a normal noise.

"Good for you Mikaela, I knew you still loved Sam!" said Bumblebee.

"Too much! Trouble is, he' s not the only one!"

"I take it you don't mean just Frenzy?"

"He came naturally along with Barricade, that was a forgone conclusion."

Sam thought. There was only one other Decepticon left alive he could think of. His eyes widened.

"Bee, can you make for the nearest cover available?" he said urgently.

Bumblebee's response was to speed up.