Alana continued to go to school, though Mrs. Winkel would give her odd looks at times she would continue on with class. Alana thought the classes were fun, she got to see a whole new world through school, she knew most of the letters of the alphabet by the first week, she would sit and stare up at them trying to memorize them and figure out what the sounds were. All in all she was an incredibly bright girl.
One day when school was over, Alana made her usual rush to the door but a hand stopped her, it was Mrs. Winkel.
"Alana, dear, I need to have a talk with you"
"Ok" Alana was curious as to what the teacher was going to say.
"I want you to tell your daddy that I would like to have a talk with him" Mrs. Winkel smiled sweetly.
"Ok" Alana nodded and walked out of the room.
When she had reached the parking lot she saw that Ironhide was there as always to pick her up.
"Hello Ironhide"
"Hello Alana, how was school today" Ironhide opened the door and let Alana slid into the passenger seat, the seatbelt snaked around her waist and buckled up.
"School was ok"
"Just ok?" Ironhide asked as he drove out into the highway.
"Yah ok"
Once at the base Alana ran into the med office where Ratchet was busy with fixing Bumblebee. Alana climbed up the stairs made just for her and walked out onto the table where Bumblebee was sitting.
"Hello" she called up to Bumblebee.
Bumblebee looked down "hey there Alana" he held out his hand and let Alana climb on. "How was school?"
"Ok" she shrugged and turned to Ratchet, she cleared her throat letting him know she had an important question for him.
Ratchet looked up from his work and turned to face Alana "I'm busy right now Alana, you can ask your question after. Ok?"
"No it's very important" Alana protested.
What's Important" Sam had walked in. he also climbed up the steps, Bumblebee lifted him into the Sam hand Alana was in. He circled an arm around her shoulders.
"Alana has a question for me" Ratchet told Sam "but she is going to have to wait, I'm busy"
"Oh" Sam said "well Alana you can ask me"
Alana shrugged "ok, who is my daddy? Mrs. Winkel wants to talk to my daddy, so I want to know which one is my daddy"
"Oh" Sam said again, he was at loss as to what to tell Alana. Ratchet was obviously thinking hard as well, he had put an elbow on the table and was propping up his head, thinking quite hard.
"Well I suppose Ironhide is your dad, he is more of a fatherly figure than any of us to you"
"Ok" that was good enough for Alana; she really didn't understand the ties between child and parent so it didn't really matter to her who her daddy was, just as long as she had one to present to Mrs. Winkel. She ran down the steps to go and find Ironhide.
He was in his room trying to fix a long rifle, when Alana came in he quickly stashed it behind him.
"Hello Alana"
"Ironhide, Mrs. Winkel wants to see after school tomorrow" with that she smiled and walked out, she had some TV to watch.
The next day after school Ironhide walked in, Alana saw and ran over to him.
"You came you came" she laughed.
Ironhide smiled "well you told me to, now where is your teacher?"
"Over there" Alana pointed; she then took his hand and proceeded to pull him towards the teacher.
The teacher was a kind looking woman but when she saw Alana her eyes darkened, and the look she gave Ironhide wasn't a nice one. She held out her hand and said "hello my name is Mrs. Winkel and you are?"
It had just occurred to Ironhide that his name was not a normal one for humans and if he said it that might make Alana look more strange so he hesitated.
"Uhm, well" oh darn a human name, uh you were watching a movie with Sam last night, there was a man in it, what was his name again. Oh yah "my name is Rick"
"I see" the hesitation had not helped. "Well, your daughter Alana is a bright child but she seemed to have no knowledge of family values."
"Really" Ironhide looked down at Alana; she had gotten bored of the conversation and was trying to fit herself into the back of a small dump truck. Ironhide thought that they had done a good job of raising Alana; she was a smart girl and was perfectly capable to take care of herself.
"Yes I believe it is because she is not getting enough attention at home, she didn't even know what a last name was" Ironhide knew that telling Mrs. Winkel that he didn't what a last name was either until recently, but he knew that was the wrong thing to say.
"Oh well she never bothered to ask us that" Ironhide said instead.
"Well she needs to know these things, her lack of knowledge about them has me worried, which is why Im demanding that you have an inspector stay with you a few days, she is here and ready to be taken home with you" with that Mrs. Winkel smiled sweetly "its for the best"
Ironhide was stunned; he hadn't expected this "say what!? no you don't want to do that"
"Yes I do, I care for Alana and she needs to be taken care of properly, so im just ensuring that your doing a good job" with that she walked into the hall called someone's name and came back in with a woman that looked like she didn't know that there was such a thing as fun. She had her hair up in a bun and wore a skirt and a blouse she looked ready to take over a company.
"My name is Susan" she didn't offer her hand "Im going to be monitoring you for the next week"
"Oh" Ironhide didn't know what to do; he was at loss for words. So in order to get his mind set straight he walked over to Alana and picked her up. She held onto his neck and looked at him lovingly.
"Are we going home now?"
"Yes Alana" with that he walked out of the door. Susan walked behind him she had short steps and her heels clacked annoyingly against the tile of the school.
Alana noticed immediately that she was following them, with a worried look she turned to Ironhide, her nose brushed against his cheek.
"Why is that lady following us?" she asked whispering.
Ironhide frowned "she wants to make sure that you're ok"
Alana turned to the woman "im ok" she told her. The woman raised an eyebrow and continued to follow Ironhide. Alana noticed that she hadn't gone, "are you in trouble?" Alana asked Ironhide.
"We may be Alana, we may be"
"Uh oh" Alana frowned.
Once outside Ironhide walked straight to his original form, he was already notifying the others bout the situation, Optimus told him to delay the woman for as long as possible. They had to think of something. Ironhide nodded, Alana knew that he was in contact with the others, but she didn't ask about it. Ironhide pulled open the passenger door and put Alana in the seat, then ignoring the woman he walked over to his own side and sat down in his seat. Susan had a clipboard out and was scribbling away.
Susan had gotten in the back seat and continued to write, Alana was curious to see what she was writing and got up in her seat and turned around to face her. Susan looked up with a frown.
"Sit down!" she snapped. Alana flinched she wasn't used to such outbursts, the Autobots had always treated her with patience and kindness. She did not sit down.
"Are you coming home with us?"
"Yes now sit down" Susan put a hand on her shoulder and forced her to turn and sit. Alana huffed and crossed her arms. Ironhide was about to mentally put the seatbelt around Alana when he thought better about that. He leaned over the middle part of the cab and brought the seatbelt around Alana. He gave her a quick squeeze and told her that he would fix this as soon as he could. Alana did not respond she did not want that new woman to come into their home. With that he started and drove out.
Ironhide could tell Alana was mad; he didn't even have to scan her. With a sideways look he slowly began to smile. "Hey Alana-" he was cut off.
"Where is the mother?" Susan asked out of the blue.
Ironhide bit his lip "dead" he said. Alana looked at him, he looked back and winked at her, she caught on and stayed silent.
"Oh well then" there was more writing.
"Hey Alana" Ironhide said.
"Yes" Alana looked at him curiously.
"Want some ice cream?" Ironhide asked. Alana's mad looked turned to one of pure joy.
"YEAH!" she shouted.
"No shouting" Susan said sharply "your parents taught you better, use you're inside voice"
Ironhide's brows furrowed "she's allowed to be excited"
Alana turned around so that she was facing Susan in her seat; she stuck out her tongue and smiled.
They pulled into Dairy Queen and Alana flew to the door, she ran to the counter and breathlessly ordered. She got a large banana split to share with Ironhide. Once they were seated Alana dove into her ice cream along with Ironhide. Ironhide had to admit, this human junk food was good. It was a tradition for him and Alana to eat something yummy together at least once a week, he got to spend time with her and hear her stories of school. In turn he would tell her about some of his missions, those ended up being bed time stories.
But now it was ruined with the presence of Susan. They ate in silence as Susan watched. Once they were done Ironhide decided that was enough delaying and notified every one he was coming home. The all gave him the ok and told him that they were coming out straight with the truth. Ironhide agreed and said that would be the best thing to do.
The drive home was silent, Ironhide secretly couldn't wait to see the look on Susan's face when they transformed in front of her very eyes.
Once at the base Alana ran out, Susan with a frown got out and said "you live here?"
Alana laughed "yup"
Suddenly out of now where a yellow blur came speeding down the path towards the base, Sam was at the wheel, well in the driver's seat; his hands were in the air as he shouted in excitement. Bumblebee saw Ironhide and slammed on the brakes and twisted the wheel, he was sent drifting towards Alana. She laughed as the car came closer and closer. And then and inch away from her stopped.
"Hello Bumblebee, hey Sam" she smiled as Sam got out of the car, his hair was askew and he had a greenish tint to his face.
"Be right back" he said, he ran off to the trees and then a retching sound could be heard. Alana just laughed.
"Oh my" Susan frowned "this is a very bad influence for you" Alana stopped laughing. She frowned and sat on the ground. "Don't do that you'll be dirty" when Alana didn't comply, Susan's face grew red "now listen here child, you will listen to your elders and when I tell you to stand you will do so. Your parents are really not good for you" with that Alana began to cry.
Bumblebee decided that secrecy was going to have to wait, Alana was crying, at the same time Ironhide thought the same thing, they transformed simultaneously and went over to Alana. Bumblebee reached her first, scooped her up and began to rock her.
"Its ok Alana, you don't have to listen to her, you did nothing wrong"
Ironhide looked at Susan; he shook his head and held out his hand for Alana to come on. "You ok?"
She hiccupped and nodded.
"Yup"
"What's wrong with Alana?" Sam had returned. Susan was on her bottom staring up at the robots in horror and when she saw that Sam was at home with them she grew even more scared.
"That woman made her cry" Bumblebee pointed at Susan.
Sam rounded on Susan "what did you do?" he was red in the face. Alana was a good kid and like his little sister, no one was going to harm her in his presence.
"Nothing" she stammered out "I-I" she was unable to finish her sentence.
"Don't come near her" Sam yelled. He was about to shout something more when Optimus' calm voice went overtop of his "enough Sam" Optimus walked over to Susan and knelt down in front of her "are you alright?"
Sure" Susan got up slowly "what- what are you?"
"We are Autobots…" the story was told to Susan, when done she turned to Alana "and where does she fit into this story.
Ironhide stepped forward with Alana "I found her, she was in a field and I saved her, after we had taken care of her for a bit we decided that we wanted to keep her"
Susan brushed back her hair "well that's all very nice and all, but you can't take care of a child, im afraid im going to have to take her from you. She needs a real human home and needs to feel the love of a family that is willing to welcome her into their home"
Ironhide shook his head "you can't take her from me"
"Why not?" Susan rounded on him.
"Because... I love her. She is mine" Ironhide said "she is like my daughter, and best friend. She is the one who I've shared the closest bond with. It would kill me if you take her away from me" he continued on "I've read on the internet what families do and we do most of that stuff, we share the good times and the bad, either way we get through it as a family, all of us here are one big family"
Susan shook her head "if she ever displays any abuse or not wanting to live with you any more she will be taken away from you, but for now, I can see she is in good hands and I will leave her with you for now"
Optimus nodded "thank you" In an after thought he said "would you mind not telling any one about this place, it might lead to problems. Don't tell them we exist either"
Susan laughed "who would believe me" with that she nodded, and headed down the path, "Im going to call for a cab" she called telling them goodbye in her own way.
Ironhide looked at Alana who was looking back at him with big eyes. "Yes Alana?"
"I love you too" she told him. She then turned to face Sam and Bumblebee "I love you guys too" then she turned to look at Optimus "your no fun but I love you as well"
"Me too" asked Ratchet hopefully
"You too" Alana said with a smile.
