Curtain Falls, Exit Stage Right

by Triscribe

G1: Bee might have been a bright and cheerful soul, but after the Battle at Autobot City and Unicron's arrival... Even the bubbliest of personalities can shatter. After that, it's up to the friends and family to help put them back together again. Or in this case, the godson and his best friend.

3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Coming Back from the Brink

Scene 1:

"I get it now," Bumblebee said dryly as he watched Spike and Carly get ready for a day at their respective offices. "You only wanted me to come stay here so that you two could get free babysitting."

"Honestly, Bee, you know Daniel's old enough to take care of himself-"

"But with Wheelie here, neither of you is willing to leave the two of them alone." He smirked in triumph as the grown humans each gave him a begrudged nod.

"It'll only be for today, I promise." Spike assured him, to which Bumblebee merely raised an optic-ridge.

"Right. Where have I heard that one before?" All three of them remembered the first time Bee had been conscripted as a babysitter for toddler Daniel, a task he'd greatly enjoyed for all the years that it lasted, but which had also begun as a supposedly one day deal.

"Okay, fine, it'll only be on rare occasions, does that suit you, your Gruffness?" Carly asked with a huff.

"Depends. Where are the boys when they aren't here?"

"Usually, at work with one of us or another of the old crowd, which is where they tend to get into various types of trouble."

"Don't they ever stay with Wheelie's caretakers?" He blinked at the lack of a response. "Well?"

"...When he isn't with hanging out with Daniel, Wheelie stays at Autobot headquarters. Officially, the kid claims to have reached his majority, even though no one really believes it for a second." Spike slowly explained. "But since he's adamant about it, Rodimus lets him stay in the troop barracks when he isn't spending the night here."

Bumblebee stared at him, dumbfounded. "That's all they're doing for him? If the kid's an orphan, he needs a guardian, frag it!"

"We aren't at war anymore, Bee, so Rodimus can't make that decision the way Optimus did back in the day with you guys. Unless Wheelie owns up to being younger than he claims, no one's going to be putting him in the care of an adult."

"Maybe you could try doing something about that during your stay," Carly said casually, getting an odd look from her husband as Bee began to mull it over.

"I just might," the minibot muttered.

"Alright then, we'd better be off. Have fun with the boys, don't let them do any science experiments, food is in the kitchen or you can go out to eat as long as it's someplace healthy. See you tonight!" She and Spike both called their goodbyes to Daniel and Wheelie, who were in the back of the house, before heading out the door.

"What was that with telling Bee he should do something about Wheelie?" The question came as they were walking along the road to Iacon's diplomatic center, and caused Carly to grin.

"A bot who was orphaned by war and raised by loving guardians hears about a kid with similar origins but no caretakers? I'd bet a hundred credits that by the end of today, Bee's made it his personal mission to wrangle Wheelie into a proper family. Maybe even apply for guardianship of the kid himself."

Eyebrows raised, Spike shot a glance over his shoulder at the high class housing unit they'd just left behind. "Huh. You really think so?"

"You know better than I that Bee considered most of the older Autobots his family. Do you doubt for a second that he isn't going to do everything he can to ensure that Wheelie experiences something of the same?"

"After thinking it over, no, I can't say I do. Heck, this might be just the thing for him!"

"For both of them, dear. Both of them."

Scene 2:

"How?" Was all Bee had to say, staring at the absolute chaos Daniel and Wheelie had managed to unleash in the human boy's bedroom. Strands of some sort of gelatinous substance stretched from floor to ceiling, taking various objects and furniture items with them. The boys were trapped on the far side of the room, surrounded by the stuff, and grinning sheepishly at him.

"Uh... Experiment. For science!" Daniel said by way of explanation.

"Turned out just as it was meant to be, only larger than expected, see?" Was Wheelie's contribution.

Bumblebee groaned and rubbeded a servo against his forehelm. "Okay, let's leave the exact walkthrough of how this happened for later. Do either of you know of a way to clean this stuff up without making an even bigger mess?"

"Oh sure, it'll dissolve with water." The human boy informed him. "We just, uh, can't get to any at the moment."

"So I see." Bee shook his helm. "Alright, you two hang in there while I go find a bucket or something."

"Utility closet's at the back of the kitchen!" Even with Daniel's helpful note, it took Bee a while to dig through the cluttered storage space in order to find an old mop bucket.

"Just as organized as ever I see, Spike." He muttered while filling it from the nozzle at the sink. Then the minibot hauled it back to Daniel's room, and used a smaller cup he'd snagged to pour streams of water over the goo strands. Within a few minutes, all of the yucky stuff had fizzled out of existence, leaving behind a swamp of pale green liquid throughout the room. As the boys started to retrieve everything that was salvageable, Bee ducked back to the kitchen and returned with a couple of mops to go along with some industrial sized sponges and the bucket, re-filled with soapy water.

"Alright, you two clean this up, and as soon as you're done, report to me in the living room." He said grimly. "And no detours for anymore 'experiments'. Last thing I need is you two turning into a couple of mini Wheeljacks..."

It wasn't until he'd left the boys to their work that Bumblebee realized it was the first time in almost a year and a half that he'd said the name of one of the Autobots lost to the Battle. During the hours that it took Daniel and Wheelie to clean up their mess, he'd merely sat and puzzled over the altered emotions running through his spark. The grief was still there, and always would be, he suspected, but most of the anger and bitterness seemed to have faded away.

Perhaps the year in space had done him more good than Bee first realized, after all.

Scene 3:

"You seriously want that monstrosity for your first vehicle?" Bumblebee was hard-pressed not to laugh. "If that's the sort of thing teens today appreciate, Tracks would have a spark-attack."

"It's not that bad," Daniel frowned at his godfather. The three of them were in the process of walking through Iacon's commercial district in search of a decent place to eat for lunch when the boy's eyes were caught by a poster for a new sportscar being put on the market (for humans to buy or bots to scan for an alt-mode). Not only was the particular model depicted on the electronic poster garishly colored in green and a pinkish-reddish color, but the designers had gone out of their way to try and make the thing look unique. What they got was a lot of odd lines and random fins in a supposedly aerodynamic form.

"Danny, if you tried to go out in that thing and got hit by a crosswind, you'd suddenly find yourself flying rather than driving. Do you get what I'm saying?"

"I guess so." His godson muttered.

"Now, Wheelie here's alt mode is about as smooth a drive as you're likely to get, I think." The orange minibot snapped his helm up in astonishment. "Not a sharp edge on him, and young enough you've still got full suspension, right Wheels?"

"Right, I suppose, as far as that goes..."

"He's really fast too, Uncle Bee." Daniel decided to put in, and help steer the conversation away from his own taste in vehicles. "We had to get away from some of Galvatron's Decepticons a few months ago, and Wheelie managed to get away from the Sweeps and into a tunnel faster than you could say 'run for it!' 'Course, then we were wandering around underground for a few hours until the Dinobots sniffed us out..."

"Oh, that's nothing. Has Spike ever told you guys about the time he and I got lost in the African Savannah? It took Hound almost a straight week to track us down, thanks to a signal scrambler that the Cons had set off during the battle that separated me and your dad from the rest of our team."

"Whoa! Really?"

"Yep. And let me tell you, the wild animals were nothing compared to having half a dozen terrified natives shooting poison arrows at you..." All through the rest of the afternoon, Bumblebee told the enthralled boys all sorts of stories about his and Spike's misadventures during the two decades the War had been centered on Earth. He had to pause on a few occasions to explain about mechs who'd died before Wheelie met them, ignoring the pains in his spark as he did so.

For the sake of sharing the good deeds of those bots with this pair of awed younglings, Bee could temporarily set aside his grief.

"... But for the Siansi, you need to have a legal connection to the person who comes to bail you out, with proper documentation as proof." Bumblebee explained. "So, after all of our efforts to make sure Carly knew nothing about our evening out, she got a call in the middle of the night from the Sian Police Division, with full details of the whole thing."

Both Daniel and Wheelie cringed even as they laughed at the mech's dramatic narrative.

When the fourteen year old got his breath back, he asked how his mom had managed to get both his father and surrogate uncle sprung from the alien jailhouse.

"Well, for Spike, she brought over a copy of their marriage license - and with me, it was actually a copy of your birth certificate, kiddo, which had both your parents' names on it, and mine listed as your godfather. Once the Siansi had those, we were out in about ten minutes."

"Bet you wished it had taken longer, though."

"Oh, yeah - the entire two hour flight from Sian back to Earth, your mom chewed us out but good. Skyfire may have been in shuttle mode at the time, but I know he was grinning at every word she yelled. Fragger made an audio recording of the whole thing, too, and let it circulate around the base."

Daniel gaped in disbelief while Wheelie howled with laughter. "No - he didn't!"

"He did." Bumblebee shook his helm with a smirk. "I got him back for it a couple weeks later, at least - reset the environmental controls in his room to super saturate it with moisture, then dropped the temperature below freezing."

"A prank, you? That cannot be true." Wheelie scoffed.

The human boy's jaw dropped. "I remember hearing about that! His whole room froze over in a layer of ice two feet thick - but I thought Sideswipe and Sunstreaker got blamed for it?"

"They did. That was the secondary part of my plan, to make sure he didn't get me back for it - along with bribing the two of them to willingly take the blame."

"Daaang, Uncle Bee, I never would have guessed you had it in you."

"Well, that's the nice thing about having been a part of Special Ops - a lot of the same skills carried over for making pranks, and I always had to be a good actor to divert suspicion from myself."

"What other jobs were there for Special Ops? All I've ever heard was that they were tops."

"Oh, we did most of the behind the scenes stuff - gathering intel about the enemy, sabotaging Decepticon bases, leading small infiltration missions to rescue prisoners, all that sort of thing."

"To be such a bot, I'd have given a lot." Wheelie sighed. "I try to help and all, but Autobots say I'm too small." Bumblebee tilted his helm slightly, suddenly seeing yet another similarity between himself and the younger mech.

"Stand up." Both the boys glanced at him, startled. "You heard me, c'mon, both of you up." As soon as they were standing, Bee showed the pair how to get into a fighting stance. "First rule of fighting an opponent larger than you - let them think you're the weaker fighter, just a puny minibot or human. When they underestimate you, your enemy brings about their own downfall."

Jazz's voice echoed in his mind as Bumblebee spent the next few hours demonstrating various combat moves the pair could perform against those bigger than themselves. When Daniel asked how he could possibly use such attacks against Decepticons, his godfather pointed out that on the occasions that the kid knew there was good chance of fighting, he could go grab the old exo-suit to wear.

"Besides, you never know when you might need to go up against a human who's got a foot of height and a hundred pounds of muscle on you."

"...True."

Scene 4:

"Okay, I'll admit, Bee teaching the boys how to fight wasn't quite what I had in mind," Carly said as she, Spike, and Rodimus stood looking down through one of the observation windows into the main training room at Autobot Headquarters. On one of the sparring mats below, Wheelie had just fought Springer to a standstill, much to the triple-changer's shock. From the sidelines, Bumblebee and Daniel cheered for the orange minibot, getting him to duck his helm bashfully.

"Springer's just the latest one," Rodimus informed the humans. "Those three have been here all morning, taking turns bringing down every other bot who comes in. I think Bee actually draws out his fights in order to give the others a demonstration."

"Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest," Spike murmured with a grin, watching as his best friend laughed and smiled with a good humor he hadn't had in ages. It looked like the old Bumblebee was finally coming to the surface once more.

"Oh, and his mental evaluation is coming up soon - do you two think you might be able to convince him to actually undergo it at the clinic?"

"Not a chance." The married couple said in syn.

"He would either accuse us of trying to trap him in there again and bolt, or dig his heels in like Ironhide would about routine check-ups and refuse to answer any of the questions the doctors tried to ask him." Spike elaborated.

"We'd be back to square one, or worse, no squares at all to work with." Carly added.

Sighing, Rodimus agreed that he had feared much the same. "Still, he's got to go through with the evaluation, or the medics will insist he go back into their facility."

"Have them send one of their shrinks to our house, then. We'll all be there together with him, lessen the stress as much as possible."

"I think that might just be our only option at this point."

Scene 5:

Bumblebee glowered silently at the femme doctor. She stared passively back. Sitting on chairs around the rest of the room, Wheelie and the Witwicky's watched anxiously. After almost ten minutes of silence, everyone was waiting for someone else to make the first move.

Eventually, that someone else turned out to be the doctor.

"So, Bumblebee, can you tell me how you've been feeling since you returned to Cybertron?"

"Ecstatic." He deadpanned.

"I see. How have you been managing in your new surroundings? I imagine they're quite different from when you were last here."

"I haven't gotten lost, if that's what you mean. Just because I grew up when most of the planet was in ruins doesn't mean I can't find my way around." The femme's lip components pressed together tightly, giving Bee the impression that she must have either been a bot who went into stasis when the energon crisis started getting bad, or else fled the planet when the War first broke out. Being in the first category would make her someone he'd work with if he had to, but if she was in the second... It would make this conversation even harder. Cliffjumper and plenty of others he'd grown up around had managed to make Bumblebee wary of Cybertronians who simply ran away from the fight for their homeworld, and with the rise of his cynical personality, that wariness was translated into full-blown hostility.

"I meant with Cybertron being restored to an era of peace," she amended. "Having spent most of your life cycle in a war is bound to make the change a harsh adjustment."

"You'd think so, wouldn't you? But really, the War was winding down anyway, to the point that we sometimes had to remind ourselves we were still fighting the Cons."

"We? Do you mean yourself and the other Autobots from the Ark? Are you still upset about their deaths, Bumblebee?"

He had to grind his denta together in an effort to avoid leaping up and yelling at her for talking about them so blandly. "Yes. The Ark crew and myself. And I imagine there are lots of people still upset about losing them."

"I'm not evaluating anyone else, though. I want to hear about your feelings. Many of them were your good friends, were they not?"

"Family."

"And you're still in the grieving process for them."

"Supposedly."

She frowned, leaning forward slightly. "Bumblebee, you are aware of the documented stages of grief, yes? It is my opinion that for over a year you've been trapped in the Anger stage, unable to move on. It isn't healthy, and I'd like to point out that at our facility you'd be able to receive proper help for-"

The doctor flinched when Bee brought a clenched fist down upon the arm of his seat with a harsh bang. "I'm not going back into that place." He growled. "And as far as your stages of grief go, I worked through them during my year in the Solar Scouts."

"And yet, you're getting defensive and lashing out at any target that presents itself-"

"Most of the people I see and talk to don't present themselves in the same way you are right now, lady." Her frown deepened into a scowl at his words.

"You aren't making a strong case for yourself right now, Bumblebee. Can you think about how your friends, your family, would react to seeing you act like this-?"

"Don't you dare bring them into this, as though you'd know what they thought!" He snarled. "You didn't know them. You didn't grow up with them! You sure as the Pit weren't there when they talked me out of my depression aboard that ship-"

"When they talked to you?" She cut in sharply. "Did you actually converse with them, Bumblebee? Or were they merely a figment of your imagination?"

He crossed his arms and snorted. "Does it matter? Ghosts, hallucinations, figments of my imagination, they were there when I needed them to be. Made sure I kept taking care of myself, did my job right with minimal risks, kept me from offlining myself after that energy monster tore my ship apart and left me drifting, injured and with next to no hope of rescue." Aware that the others in the room were staring at him with mixed expressions of shock and fear, Bee made an effort to regain control of his vocalizer.

"Do you still see or hear them?"

"...Not since coming back. Since I've started staying here." Instead of pacifying her, as he thought that statement would, the doctor's optics narrowed and she started to reach for her datapad.

"I think it would be a good idea if you came back to our clinic, Bumblebee, at least for a few days, just so we can observe in case you have anymore of these conversations-" In an instant, Bee was on his pedes, and despite not quite being of a height with her still managed to give the impression of looming over the startled femme.

"Not. Gonna. Happen." He growled, before turning on his heel and stalking out the front door. No one moved until they heard the sound of his transformation sequence and Bee's engine roaring as he took off at full speed. Within moments, the doctor had activated her comlink and was calling for armed assistance, while the boys hurried after Bumblebee, Daniel jumping into Wheelie's seat as soon as the minibot shifted to vehicle mode. Meanwhile, Spike had grabbed his own communicator to contact Rodimus and Carly made an attempt to forestall the doctor's request for reinforcements.

This hadn't gone the way anyone planned.

Scene 6:

"I'm sorry, guys, but we haven't been able to find any sign of him." Rodimus sorrowfully told the Witwicky family. "We've checked with the Scouts, put out a Watch Sign for him with all forms of public transport, and have as many eyes as possible scanning the city. That said, you know he trained under the best - if Bee doesn't want us to find him, we probably won't, not without a miracle."

Spike and Carly both nodded their downcast agreement, but Daniel was ready to explode. He'd been ordered home, though Wheelie was allowed to go on with the search efforts, because of his supposed full-grown status.

"He wouldn't just skip town like last time," the kid insisted, despite the looks of extreme skepticism he was receiving. "He wouldn't! He promised!"

"Who promised?" Bumblebee asked as he walked into the room, stretching out a kink in his back struts.

"BEE!" Raising his optic-ridges at the lot of them, Bumblebee looked the very definition of confused innocence.

"What? What are you all worked up about now, for Primus' sake?" Rodimus was across the living room in just a few steps, snatching the shorter minibot up into a tight hug. "The frag-! Roddy, you nutcase, put me down!"

"Do you have any idea of how worried we all were?!" Carly snapped as the Prime carefully set his annoyed friend back on the ground, just in time for Daniel to charge up and grab Bee in his own embrace. "Where the Pit have you been?"

"Recharging in my room." He smirked at their looks of shock. "What? I said I wouldn't take off and I didn't. In fact, I just drove around the block earlier and snuck in the back door so that I wouldn't have to face that idiot doctor again."

"You- YOU-" Spike couldn't help it. He burst out laughing.

Rodimus shook his helm in fond exasperation, then headed outside so that he could call off the numerous search efforts. A notice was also put in to the recovery clinic, telling them in no uncertain terms that whatever treatment he might need, Bumblebee would be getting it on his own terms and certainly no one else's.

From the Matrix, Roddy could hear Optimus Prime's distinctive, highly amused laughter, and decided that he'd made the right move.

Scene 7:

Bumblebee awoke rather early the next morning, thanks to the extra recharge he'd gotten from his nap. Deciding to go ahead and start his day, the mech strolled from his room to the kitchen, intending to serve himself a cube of energon and take a look at what the newsfeeds were saying. Before he reached his intended destination, though, something odd caught Bee's gaze.

Daniel, laying in the remains of a nest of blankets and pillows, was sound asleep in front of the threshold of the front door, obviously attempting to guard it. Turning around, Bumblebee went and checked the back exit, finding Wheelie in a similar position. He shook his helm with a silent sigh, before undertaking the task of getting the two boys back to their proper beds without waking either one up. Carrying Daniel was a cinch, despite the kid's growth spurts since the last time Bee had taken his slumbering form from one room to another. Wheelie, though, was a bit trickier, because even though he was a fair bit smaller than Bumblebee (barely bigger than a full grown human, even!) he was still Cybertronian, which equated to having a pretty hefty weight.

Still, Bee managed, though just as he was setting the younger minibot in his bed, the kid stirred slightly.

"G'night, creator. See y'later." He murmured. After taking a few minutes to get over his surprise, Bumblebee retreated from the room and let the door slide shut. He continued to stare at it for a while, eventually retracing his earlier steps to the kitchen.

"Figures," the mech muttered to himself at one point. "Little guy rhymes even in his sleep."

"I suspect someone must have used poems or lullabies to distract him during times of stress, which became his default speech pattern." Jerking in surprise, Bee whirled around to face Optimus, who calmly leant against the kitchen counter. The two stared at each other for a good long while, until Bumblebee sighed and slapped himself across his faceplates.

"Ghost, hallucination or otherwise?" He challenged.

"Any of the above." The older mech returned, to which the minibot scowled.

"That's not helpful and you know it." Optimus only shrugged.

"All I am able to say, Bumblebee, is that the others and myself will continue to show up when you need us. As you've been healing very well so far with the Witwicky's and Wheelie's help, there hasn't been a need for us."

"And let me guess, you're only going to show yourselves to me when no one else is around or watching, right?"

"That would be correct."

"Joy."

Optimus rumbled a brief chuckle at him. "I will admit, young one, cynical sarcasm from you is both a refreshing yet worrisome change."

"Dare I ask what you mean by that?" If Bee hadn't liked where the conversation was headed before, he especially didn't like the way his old leader's optics darkened.

"You lost your innocence to our war far earlier than most others did, Bumblebee, and that was horribly unfair to you. Yet, through the vorns that we battled the Decepticons, you managed to remain such a beacon of light for the Autobots. You stood for what we hoped to accomplish by fighting - to win back our planet's future so that others may be sparked with hope and innocence, free from fear and tyranny. To see you lose that light just as the War has finally ended... Even amongst the peace of the Well of Allsparks, it is possible to experience the pain of a broken spark. And that is exactly what a great many of us who've watched you grow from sparklinghood now feel."

"...Y'know," Bee said hoarsely, not bothering to wipe away the coolant tears that spilled down from his optics in a great stream. "Whatever you people are now, it really fraggin' stinks that I can't get a hug out of all these oh so helpful words of insight." He was about to let himself collapse to the floor when the minibot suddenly felt large hands gently take hold of his shoulder pauldrons. Looking up in shock, he met Optimus' compassionate gaze as the massive mech knelt in order to give Bumblebee a proper embrace.

Scene 8:

Daniel had a moment of panic when he woke up in his own bed, instead of the makeshift one he'd put together by the front door. Scrambling out of his room, the boy nearly ran face-first into Wheelie, who was wearing the same panicked expression. Together, the two of them dashed out of the hallway with the bedrooms towards the main section of the house.

Their fears turned out to be completely unwarranted, though, as they found Bumblebee sitting at the kitchen table with the grown Witwicky's, having an intense discussion with Carly about the course curriculum at the Sciences Academy where she worked while Daniel went over some of his paperwork.

"Morning, boys. Sleep well?" They each stared, dumbfounded, at the new mischievous twinkle in Bee's optics.

"Uh... Yeah." Daniel finally replied. "You?"

"Well enough I suppose. Woke up a bit early thanks to my nap yesterday, but that just meant I got a head start of moving some things around." The minibot smirked at them over Carly and Spike's oblivious heads, letting the boys know that he wouldn't be revealing their midnight move any time soon. "So, I believe you two had planned a trip to the nature park being built outside the city, right? What time do we leave?"

The three of them ended up departing shortly after Daniel and Wheelie had their respective breakfast meals, wishing the grown humans a pleasant day off from their jobs. Driving together as they led the grown mech off towards the park, both the boys were dreading the moment he decided to bring up their not-so-well thought out plan. Be didn't say a word, though, until they'd reached the edge of the construction site and both minibots had returned to their bi-pedal forms.

"I'm going to assume you'd banked on waking up before anyone else and returning to your rooms around daybreak, right?" Cringing, the two of them just nodded. "It would have been a smarter idea to set yourselves up at the end of the hallway, which only had one way in or out, and to have taken turns sleeping and keeping watch."

Perfectly aware of the startled stares he was receiving, Bee held back on the smug grin he really, really wanted to let out. "I was a kid once myself, y'know, perfectly capable of pulling the exact same kind of stunt. Granted, I was also being raised by an assortment of the craftiest mechs ever to call Cybertron home, and they made the mistake of teaching me just about every trick they knew."

"Bee is being confusing, and this isn't amusing."

"Yeah, what Wheelie said - why are you telling us this, Uncle?"

Finally, Bumblebee turned to face them, staring down the pair of boys with worry on their faces but determination in their stances. And for the first time since Unicron's arrival, Bee smiled - really smiled, when all his good cheer and happiness just refused to be contained.

"Because. The War might be over, but there are still Decepticons and other threats out there, so I want to make sure you two have every possible weapon in your personal arsenals." He waited while the two exchanged their baffled expressions, which morphed into more serious ones as they looked at him again.

"Okay," Daniel answered for the both of them. "When do we st-"

He was cut off by a sudden explosion that rocked the ground, causing all three to lose their balance and drop. Biting back a curse, Bee was the first back onto his pedes, scanning the skies for what he hoped wasn't there. Luck wasn't on his side, though, as the forms of airborne Decepticons made themselves apparent. Galvatron's scratchy voice bellowed out across the area, ordering his troops to raze 'the abomination to Cybertron's metallic form' to the ground.

"I guess we start right now." Bumblebee said grimly to the boys, just before a trio of Sweeps made to open fire on their position.

Scene 9:

"I'm not even going to begin to ask what you were thinking, because I know for a fact that you couldn't have been." Bee calmly watched as his best friend paced angrily back and forth across the infirmary floor. Autobot troops had reached the nature park only a few minutes after Galvatron's warriors began their attack, and were able to successfully drive the Decepticons off. Even so, that amount of time was plenty for the park to be obliterated - or it would have been, had Bumblebee, Wheelie and Daniel not made utter nuisances of themselves, distracting the terrorists from their assigned task and buying time for others in the area to escape.

Daniel had gotten a few cuts on his left arm from shrapnel, the majority of which Bee had shielded him from. The grown minibot himself had some snapped cables in his legs and more than a few gashes in his armor from blasts and enemy fire he'd barely avoided. The seriousness of Wheelie's wounds were in between those of the other two, with some scorching along his back that First Aid insisted be checked out, just in case anything underneath the plating had been melted or fried.

All in all, Bumblebee felt that their trio of pipsqueaks had handled the situation quite well. Spike was clearly not of the same opinion.

"You and I ran headlong into situations far more dangerous than that, and you without half the training I've been giving the boys-"

"This isn't a war anymore, Bee!" Spike yelled. "They shouldn't have to learn how to fight or shoot, much less actually be required to do so! You're treating them like soldiers in the making!"

"I'm treating them exactly as I was treated, Spike. Is it truly so bad that I should want to make sure the two of them can survive any fight they find themselves dropped into, willingly or otherwise? What about that situation last year with the information asteroid, huh? I think they definitely could have used some combat training then."

Spike winced, because he knew it was true. Knowing that Daniel and Wheelie were being held hostage by Decepticons far out of his reach had nearly crushed the man. His son usually received all the protection that the Autobots were able to offer, but it hadn't made a damned difference that day.

"Just... Don't get them in over their heads, Bee. Or too exhausted from training."

Bumblebee grinned at him. "Hey, I survived Ironhide and Jazz's training regimes, and I turned out okay, didn't I? The boys will survive me just fine."

"Fine. But I'm warning you here and now, Bee, if they become too worn out to handle things anymore, I can't guarantee I'll be able to keep Carly from offlining you herself."

"Point taken."

Scene 10:

(8 Years Later)

The Siansi desk clerk glanced up from her computer screen as a yellow and black Cybertronian came marching in the door, muttering something unpleasant in a low tone. He ignored the other clerks in the front room, coming straight to her workplace, making the fox-woman suspect this particular mech had visited Sian Police Divisional Headquarters before.

That suspicion was confirmed when, without any prompting, the Cybertronian slapped two properly coded pieces of paper onto her desk, one of Terran origin and the other of the mech's homeworld, and declared that he'd come to post bail for the two off-worlders they'd apprehended from a party gone out of control earlier in the evening. Nodding affirmation, the clerk quickly ran the provided documents through her scanner, uploading them into the system for confirmation and approval. As soon as that was given, she sent out the comm message for Daniel Witwicky and Wheelie to be released and escorted to the front office.

"You know," she trilled lightly as they waited. "It is usual for parents to come to retrieve their children, but not often secondary guardians, as I believe the human document claims you to be."

His lip components twitched into a humorless smile. "His godfather, yeah. Well, Daniel's parents were both busy tonight, and even if they weren't, I doubt either would he interested in returning here after his mother had to bail out his father and myself some years ago."

"Ah. That explains your familiarity with our protocols as well, then." She gave a brief nod to the paper documents - the first a human birth certificate, the other a Cybertronian seal of adoption.

"Yes, this wasn't exactly an easy situation for me to forget. So much so that I made the mistake of telling my boys about it when they were younger, and something tells me that they decided to come here as some sort of right of passage."

The clerk let loose a barking laugh, a much harsher sound compared to her soft voice. "Indeed."

Their small talk ended when a guard came into the room, followed by a pair of shame-faced youths barely into their adulthood. Upon seeing just who had come to retrieve them, the human's shoulders dropped even lower, while the Cybertronian appeared as though each step was causing him pain.

The grown mech merely waited with his arms crossed for the final release papers to be certified and the youths officially turned over to his custody. Then the first thing he did was smack the younger bot upside his helm and deliver a flick to the human's, which caused about the same amount of pain for each individual if their reactions were anything to go be.

"Ow! Uncle Bee-"

"Come on Dad, it wasn't that bad-!"

"Both of you had better keep those protests to yourselves, because I guarantee that isn't the end of your punishment." The mech hissed at them, silencing both in moments. "Now. You are going to march outside and straight to the spaceport in silence, where we will board my ship and head straight back to Cybertron. Then you are going to tell me every. Single. Detail."

The shame grew, along with the youths' joint embarrassment. "Yes, sir."

"Once we get home, Daniel, your parents are going to decide what your punishment is, while Wheelie is definitely not going to be part of the Quantum Race next week."

The younger mech gaped at him. "But that isn't fair! I got in fair and square-"

"Should have thought of that before you two hitched a ride out here. Let me put it too you this way, Wheelie - it's all part of having a proper guardian." He then ordered the pair to start marching, and they quickly departed from the building.

Shaking her head in wonder, the Siansi desk clerk didn't think she'd ever understand all that went into being a parent.

End

A/N: And that concludes my first G1 tale! Hope you folks enjoyed, all two of you who've favorited so far. I might do some further stories for this family group in future, but otherwise I'm quite satisfied with the ending I managed to reach. Thanks for reading!

-Triscribe