AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I am having so much fun, you have NO idea!

So this chapter is in the time I want it to be in and will still have a couple flashbacks.

This chapter is a LOT of Sam and Clara.

You'll get to see how they interact in almost every way.

=D

****

"Wake up, Sampson." Clara told him as strongly as she could, tears running down her face.

Clara didn't know what she would do if Sam actually died on her. Captain Lennox was holding onto Mikaela as she cried, Sam not responding to the defribulators. When it looked like he was gone, Mikaela grabbed him before Clara did and held him to her, Clara kissing his limp hand that had been holding the Matrix. Mikaela told Sam that she loved him and Clara wished that she could say it too…so she did. He was dead and he wouldn't be able to hear it anyway. What she wasn't expecting the second after she said it was for Mikaela to send her a look and Sam to suddenly open his eyes and start gasping for air.

Sam squeezed Clara's hand and looked Mikaela in the eye and told her he loved her before sitting up and all of them watching the Matrix reform itself. Sam grabbed it and went to put it in Optimus' chest, Clara beaming as Optimus woke up. Unfortunately The Fallen grabbed it and got it to the sun destroying machine and Jetfire sacrificed his parts to Optimus so Optimus could defeat The Fallen and save Earth, Megatron running away. It was far from over but for now…everyone Clara loved was alive…everyone.

Clara found herself jolting awake a little, turning over as she heard a light chuckle she recognized. She smiled at Sam and propped herself up on her elbows in her bed under the covers, and shook her head as she laughed a little. She knew he looked a little upset but mainly she was wondering why he was there and what exactly was going on. It had been a good six months since the fight with the Fallen, and Clara had been mostly spending her time with her mother, father, sister and Glitcher.

"Your mother let me in." Sam told her, motioning out her bedroom door.

Clara nodded. "She would have. So…what brings you here, Sampson?"

"Mikaela broke up with me." Sam replied. "For real this time."

"What? But she's in love with you and you're in love her…right?" Clara asked him.

Sam shrugged. "I don't want to talk about it, Clarabear…room in there for me too like old times?"

Clara nodded and lifted up the covers, blushing in the darkness as Sam slid into the bed with her and she snuggled up against him. He wrapped his arms around her and held him to her, realizing that his heart quickened when her head automatically laid on his chest over his heart. He'd never really realized before just how perfectly her body fit into his—because since the shutdown after their first kiss…Sam had never looked at her romantically since she never showed any interest in him that wasn't platonic. Even when they'd gone to dances together when she didn't have a date—which she did a lot of the time—they'd only dance one slow dance and that was only because their group of friends had told them it was required, so they complied…and it hadn't been bad for either of them—it had been enjoyed.

Still, Sam Witwicky had never thought that Clara Ferguson had ever been interested in her. He couldn't understand where his parents got their ridiculous notions from, because he and Clara though completely inseparable, had always helped the other get dates. If they had been so into each other, then neither of them would have worked so hard to get the other one dates to the movie that Chris had forced everyone to go to. If they were so into each other then one of them would have spoken up when the other got a significant other—when Clara started dating Davis, and when he had started dating Mikaela. Sam couldn't get over how perfect her body fit his though, and come to think of it…her body had always fit right into his…even in the worst of times.

Sam could hear Clara crying for a few feet away, and hurried to her side inside her parents' garage. She had her knees pulled tightly to her chest and her eyes were wet and a little red from the crying that she had obviously been doing. Sam hurried over to her side and pulled her close to him, stroking her hair as she instinctively rested her head on his chest. She fit right into the crook of his arm, and it was easy and natural to simply stroke her hair and hold her.

"Clarabear?" Sam asked her in a worried voice. "Clarabear, what happened?"

"I just found him, Sampson…just lying there in his own fluids." She sobbed, grabbing a hold of his shirt to steady herself and to reassure herself that he was really there with her. "He had to die alone."

Sam kissed the top of her head. "Hunter?"

Clara nodded. "What kind of family lets their German Sheppard die alone?"

Sam stroked her hair and rocked her ever so slightly, and she laughed a little and pulled away. Best friend or no, the fact that he was consoling a girl who seemed to no longer want his touch made him shift uncomfortably for a moment before he reached out naturally to wipe her tears away as she smiled at him sadly. Clara just didn't want Sam to have to see her at every weak moment, and just the fact that he was now wiping her tears away made her love him even more. She tucked her hair behind her ears and sniffled a little, her hand up covering her face.

"God, you can probably see snot." She said sheepishly.

Sam smiled. "You look beautiful, Clarabear—lets go get some Kleenex and play Halo. Sound like a plan?"

Clara beamed. "Sounds perfect."

Clara knew that it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but she ran her fingers along his shirt lazily and ran her toes along his foot. Sam didn't know why the sensations were making him swallow, but he equated it all to his feeling lonely that Mikaela had finally broken up with him. He didn't even really want to talk to Clara about it, and yet he knew that there was no one else to talk to about it. Clara was his best friend and all she wanted to do was help—which meant that she had to know what was going on. She deserved that much didn't she?

"I think Mikaela's an idiot to break up with you." Clara told him with a shrug, looking up at him. "She has no idea what she let go—that's obvious because she let you go."

Sam blushed a little but she couldn't tell in the moonlight. "Well it wasn't entirely her decision, Clarabear."

"Oh, no? It wasn't your fault." Clara said.

"She gave me an ultimatum." Sam admitted, and smiled when Clara hugged him.

Clara wanted to know what the ultimatum was but she didn't want to be too pushy. She knew that Sam was always trying to keep Mikaela and Clara both in his life without having to make them pick sides, and without picking sides himself. Clara admired that about him but always knew that she and Mikaela would pick Sam's side over anyone else's—whether they actually got along with each other or not. Clara and Mikaela didn't hate each other in the slightest they were just weary of each other—they both knew just how much the other meant to Sam.

Clara traced a heart on Sam's chest absent-mindedly. "Then she's a bitch."

"What did you just say?" Sam asked Clara with a laugh.

Clara shrugged. "I said 'bitch'."

Sam laughed loudly and Clara rolled her eyes and plopped herself down on the couch, Sam telling her he was sorry he had laughed and trying to wrap his arms around her. She wanted to respond but she wasn't for the sake of her pride, staring at the movie that they were watching. It had been the first time that Sam had actually heard Clara swear, and it wouldn't be the last time either. Clara had been feeling like the movie was outlining hers, Sam's and Mikaela's lives, and the one that reminded her of Mikaela had done something rude and Clara had reacted out loud without speaking.

"You're the one who wanted to watch this chick flick and I only caved because you looked like you were going to cry." Sam reminded her.

Clara smiled. "You fall for that all the time!"

Sam nodded. "I know…wow…she is kind of a bitch."

"See?!" Clara exclaimed, and then flung herself into Sam's arms and let him hold her as they watched the movie.

Even if they told people that they were liked siblings, no one really thought that they acted like siblings. If they had actually been related then it would be one thing, but Sam and Clara looked like a madly in love couple when they were out in public seeing sports games or at the mall or the movies. They flirted constantly even though they refused to say it was flirting, and they were more comfortable with each other than they'd ever been with anyone else. Still, they'd never tried to date each other, and they were pretty sure that they never would.

"God, I hate this movie!" Clara exclaimed.

Sam gave her their usual brother/sister peck only on her cheek. "How about Halo?"

"She's not a bitch…I pushed her into it." Sam said with a shrug. "Wanna play Halo?"

Clara laughed. "If you wanna play Halo it must be serious."

Sam shrugged and then he watched as Clara sat up a little, resting herself on her arms on her stomach while still resting her hand on his chest. She looked him in the eye and he realized that the moonlight hitting her was a beautiful sight he'd never taken the time to take in. She laughed a little as she shook her head, obviously trying to figure out how to word what she was going to say next and Sam just watched her. How could he have possibly ever overlooked her? She was the one person in the whole world he knew that he could one hundred percent count on.

"What was the ultimatum, Sampson? I'm having a hard time understanding how this was all your fault." Clara told him. "I mean she let you go."

Sam took a deep breath. "She made me choose between her and you…and I'm certainly not going to kick my best friend since I was three to the curb for a girl who obviously doesn't love me enough to make you part of her life when you're the biggest part of mine."

Clara really didn't know what to say, but she applied their brother/sister peck to his lips and then pulled away and smiled. She started to explain how he should have just held onto Mikaela and then moderated the time he spent with her. Sam let the want to kiss her fade as he realized that she really wanted him to be with Mikaela—she really wanted him to be happy. But what about what Sam wanted? Mikaela giving him the ultimatum had one hundred percent convinced him that she would never be all right with the place that Clara had in his life and in his heart. And then he saw it…the spider.

Sam shook his head vigorously as Clara nodded just as vigorously, both of them trying to win this 'argument' of theirs. Clara wanted a pet other than Hunter, and Sam desperately wanted her to give up on the notion of a tarantula. Sam was for some reason very afraid of spiders, and he wasn't quite sure that he could stand coming over anymore if she got one. Clara didn't know why he was so against it, but she wanted him to be on the same page as her.

"Wouldn't it be cool though?" Clara asked him.

"No!" Sam exclaimed and then composed himself quickly. "What about a cat? Or a turtle?"

Clara sighed. "I guess turtles are cute…but you can't really okay with them…and Hunter is too old to take to a cat."

"Then what about a gecko or a gerbil or something?" Sam asked her.

Clara nodded a little and then sighed and decided to ask the man in the pet shop about his geckos. Her parents had given her the 'okay' to get what she wanted as long as she'd take care of it—her little sister, Jenna, had already gotten herself a bunny. Sam was so happy that they'd gotten away from the arachnids, and pointed at a gecko and Clara made a face—she didn't want a common green one. Sam sighed and laughed a little as she started to ramble about how much she wanted her gecko to be special and he told her that maybe she should think more about what she wanted before she bought another pet—completely unaware that in exactly eight months after all of this thinking over, Clara would get Glitcher.

"What in the world?" Clara asked as Sam let out a girlish scream and jumped up.

Clara watched as he planted himself up against the wall as he stood on her bed and let out another girly scream. Clara laughed as she saw the spider in the web in the corner of her window that he was staring at and she looked at him, her eyebrow raised.

"You're afraid of spiders? Really?" Clara asked him.

"Don't make fun! They can bite you and kill you!" Sam exclaimed.

Clara rolled her eyes and went over to him, placing her hands on his shoulders and looking him in the eye. She was amused and that made him frown, but when she ran her tongue over her lips to wet them before talking to him he found himself confronted with those crush feelings again. He'd never truly noticed her before and he really couldn't understand why he hadn't. She was beautiful, confident, compassionate, loving—she never let him down and she was always there for him.

"We've been through wars between Autobots and Decepticons, Sampson—spiders are nothing compared to that." She told him with a laugh. "And if it tries to hurt you, Clarabear will take it out for you."

The notion made Sam smile and he kissed her. Clara was completely confused when it wasn't the normal brother/sister peck, but instead an actual kiss. She let him wrap his arms around her and bring her close to his body, surprised that she fit into his arms perfectly. Clara didn't have to think too hard to respond to the kiss, but as wonderful as it felt to have his tongue tease the corners of her mouth, she put her hands on his chest and pushed him off, shaking her head.

"Sampson…I won't be your rebound." She told him softly.

Just like that Sam snapped back into reality and got off her bed and headed for the door after a pause between them. Their eyes searched the others' for answers and then Glitcher came in to see what the screaming had been about. Sam took that moment to actually go out the door, Clara waving it off and telling Glitcher that it was nothing even though she knew it had just meant everything…

Sam Witwicky had just kissed her and she'd rejected him.