A/N: A touch of serious-ish fluff. This is set post RotF but before DotM; just wanted to note that we are writing under the pretense that the public is aware of the existence of the Autobots and public perception of them is still new and undecided.
And now...on with the plot!
Please R & R (Optimus would want you to!)
~~~Epsilon Pax
# # #
"Mr. and Mrs. Lennox…thank you for coming down to meet with me." The middle-aged women with sandy hair greeted the Lennoxes firmly, though not unkindly, "Major Lennox, I'm glad this conference was able to coincide with your military leave."
Tersely, Lennox shook Annabelle's Kindergarten teacher's hand, "Actually, its Lieutenant Colonel now."
"Oh." She replied disinterestedly as she retracted her hand and straightened her glasses in a business-like manner. She flicked her gaze over to Sarah Lennox, "Mrs. Lennox, I trust it wasn't too much trouble to find a sitter for Annabelle?"
Sarah Lennox managed a smile that was far and away friendlier than the grimace her husband had made, "Yes, she's with one of her Uncles at the moment."
As the Lennoxes and Annabelle's teacher found a seat in the only full sized chairs in the classroom, Annabelle's teacher cleared her throat, "One of her blood-relative uncles, or another soldier you served with, Colonel Lennox?"
Crossing his arms across his chest, Lennox fixed her with a cold and firm gaze, "I've never seen a reason to make such a distinction," he replied icily, "So what was it you felt so concerned enough about for you to call this meeting?"
With deliberate motions she drew out Annabelle's file and flipped it open, "Mr. and Mrs. Lennox, if I may, lately Annabelle has been exhibiting some rather concerning behavioral tendencies…"
"What, like fighting? She can be stubborn sometimes…" Sarah asked cautiously; it was a concern she had long harbored. After all, Annabelle had spent virtually her entire life around soldiers and the Autobots alike, both of which structured their entire lives around violence. In Sarah's opinion it was a small miracle that Annabelle hadn't picked a fight or two of her own yet, especially with all of her 'uncles' always telling her to stand up for herself.
"No…no, not fighting…" Here, Annabelle's teacher drew out a sheet of paper and flattened it out before the couple. While Lennox remained unmoving, Sarah reached across the table and pulled it toward them. To his surprise, Lennox recognized it almost immediately as one of Annabelle's homework assignments. It was, in fact, one of the few he had been able to help her with: straightforward and simple, the assignment had been to come up with a noun for every vowel. Fondly recalling the evening he had spent spelling out words with his daughter, Lennox's gaze skipped over the page. In Annabelle's unwieldy, though determined, writing he read: 'A for Autobot, E for Energon, I for Ironhide, O for Optimus Prime' and 'U for Unicron'.
Folding her hands primly, Annabelle's teacher regarded them in somber tones, "Now, Mr. and Mrs. Lennox, I'm not sure you realize the gravity of the situation…I for one didn't recognize many of the words Annabelle came up with for her answers, that is I didn't until I saw that alien's name."
Lennox blinked, "That alien's name?" It was a small miracle he managed to speak with his jaw clenched so tightly. Beneath the table, Sarah grabbed his knee tightly in warning.
Oblivious to his growing temper, Annabelle's teacher nodded earnestly, "Well yes," she continued, tapping the page where Annabelle had tediously written 'O for Optimus Prime.' Lowering her voice to an almost hushed tone, "You know…that alien leader's name."
"What's wrong with her using Optimus' name?" Lennox ignored his wife's warning gaze, "She completed the assignment correctly, I don't see a problem."
Annabelle's teacher's eyebrows shot up, "Mr. Lennox, with all due respect, Annabelle seems to base too much of her school time and school work around pretending she knows such dangerous creatures. It is not a healthy mentality for a girl her age to have."
"Pretending?" Lennox snapped despite the firm hand Sarah placed on his arm.
"Yes," Annabelle's teacher insisted, "she tells the most preposterous stories to the other children about how these creatures are not just her friends, but she refers to all of them as uncles of hers."
Surly, Lennox crossed his arms across his chest; mumbling as much to himself as to Annabelle's teacher, "Bet they're more family to Annabelle than your family is to you."
Masking her husbands comment with a nervous laugh, Sarah spoke up, "Bill," Her voice was sharp, "it just occurred to me, I think you might have left the car headlights on…better go make sure they're off, wouldn't want to drain the battery."
Lennox was only too glad to escape the confines of Annabelle's classroom; moreover, he was only too glad his wife was more diplomatic than he could ever manage. Leaving with more speed than grace, Lennox found himself with only the quiet night out in the school's parking lot in short order. Though he was quick to realize it was an all too empty parking lot; of course there was Annabelle's teacher's car, but other than her plain white sedan, the school lot was empty. Not overtly alarmed, Lennox tucked his hands into his jean pockets and tilted his head to listen to the wind.
There, just behind the school's gym, he heard a deep rumble. Smiling and feeling far more relaxed than when they had first walked into the conference, Lennox strolled over to and then around the school's gym. There in the darkness two bright blue optical lenses flickered over in his direction from behind the school's playground. Moments later, Annabelle's bright and happy giggles reached him from the swing set.
"Higher, Unka 'Hide, higher! I wanna go higher!"
As Ironhide gingerly obliged by giving her a gentle push with a single digit, Lennox wandered over to lean against the weapons specialist's shin, "You think it's a good idea for you to be out in the open like this 'Hide? What with the world knowing about you now, you might draw unwanted attention."
In response, Ironhide exvented haughtily, gesturing with his opposite hand, "That building conceals this area from the street; I'm out of danger from any unfriendly line of sight."
"Hiya, Dad!" Annabelle tried to crane her neck back as she swung and Lennox's stomach performed an over protective lurch watching her lean so far backward.
"Jelly Belle don't do that, it's not safe."
She merely smiled up at him, "Its okay, Unka 'Hide said he'd catch me if I fall."
At that moment, hearing her absolute trust in one of the Autobots was music to Lennox's ears and did wonders to soothe his temper. Unfortunately it wasn't the only sound to reach his ears.
"Bill!" His wife's voice echoed over, "Annabelle?"
Too bad for Lennox, his wife's lovely voice was given a shrill and unpleasant chorus when Annabelle's teacher similarly called out for them, "Mr. Lennox? Annabelle?" However her query quickly caved into a shriek of fear when she beheld Ironhide crouching behind the school's swing set, mildly pushing Annabelle back and forth as Lennox leaned against him.
"What—What—What—" Her hands flew to her head as she finger combed her hair in dismay, unable to process the scene before her.
Picking up on the unknown human's distress, though not the reason why, Ironhide rose to his full intimidating height, "Come, my Sparkling." He told Annabelle gently, "I think it's time we roll out."
At last finding words, Annabelle's teacher rounded on Sarah and Lennox, gesturing as wildly as voice sounded, "What is that creature doing here?! How can you let it touch your daughter! It's a dangerous machine! I need to call the police!"
Still endeavoring to be diplomatic, Sarah reached out to stop the other woman, "It's all right," she attempted to soothe her, "Remember, the Autobots were the ones who fought to protect humanity? Well this is an Autobot, this is one of the good ones who protected us. This is our friend, Ironhide."
Unfortunately, Annabelle's teacher was not to be reasoned with and unable to cope with the sight of Annabelle holding her arms up and out to the black titan—asking, "Unka 'Hide, up! Up!"—Annabelle's teacher staggered backward, stumbling away from the horrific scene before her.
"I—I—I can't see why anyone would let such a dangerous thing near—" Fortunately, the rest of her words were scattered into the night as she turned away from the scene and retreated to the safety of her non-transforming car.
"Bill?" Sarah's voice sounded closer now, and Lennox realized that he hadn't noticed her move to stand amongst her family again. Her eyes alighted from her daughter, to her husband, to their Autobot guardian, before resting once more on the figure of her husband. "Bill…" she sighed once more, "Let's go home…"
# # #
In the late afternoon air, Epps took another long, cool swig from his water bottle; in no hurry, his feet meandered their way to the back of the Autobot's hanger. Without hesitation, he plopped down beside William Lennox, listening unabashedly to his friend as he finished up a phone call; over the last week he had missed reclining beside his friend like this.
"Uh-huh…"Lennox spoke into the receiver, though his gaze was trained on the rumpled and worn piece of paper in his hand, his eyes were glazed over in an unseeing expression, "That's great Jelly-Belle…I'm glad you like your new school…"
Surprised at this new bit of information, but not overtly concerned, Epps propped his boots up on Lennox's desk, leaning back into his chair and looking over just in time to see Optimus Prime and Ratchet walk into the hanger. Noticing the two humans, Optimus directed his stately stride in their direction, while Ratchet motioned to where Bumblebee reclined with Sam WitWicky, murmuring as a moved, a quiet request for Bee to join him at his med station so he could check on Bumblebee's vocal processor yet again.
" 'Sup Big Man." Epps tossed Optimus a sincere smile as he watched the Autobot Leader kneel down beside his chair.
Optimus flickered his optical lenses in greeting, "Good afternoon, Epps."
"—love you too Jelly-Belle, kisses." With a pained smile painting his features, Lennox reluctantly hung up the phone.
"How was your time with your Sparkmate and Sparkling, Lennox?" Optimus inquired gently.
Lennox blew out a gust of air, "Whew…well…it was…" he shrugged, "…it just was, I guess."
Knowing the man, Epps reached out for the page Lennox gripped, "What's that?"
Feeling the weight of Optimus' presence, Lennox hesitated before holding out the paper to his friend, "That…that is the reason we had to transfer Annabelle to a new school…again."
Absorbing the words and implications of the page before Epps, Optimus regarded Lennox, "This relocation of your Sparkling…was because of us?"
"Naw…" Epps instinctively denied.
"Yes, it is." Lennox countered, his voice devoid of accusations, "In particular…it's because of you Prime…you and Ironhide."
"How can you say that, man?" Epps jumped in immediately, "Naw, Big man and 'Hide didn't do nuthan…"
Lennox shrugged, "Annabelle knows she's normally not supposed to talk about the 'bots…but ever since the Fallen forced you into the public's awareness…well I guess she took it into her head it was suddenly okay to talk about you bots…a lot."
"Was that what the conference was about?" Epps folded up the page with relative care before sending it sliding across the desk and back into his friend's protective grasp.
"Yup," Lennox's voice was tight, "apparently her teacher didn't think it was healthy for a girl of her age to pretend 'such dangerous machines' were her uncles…"
That was all Epps needed to hear to become surly, "That's fu—"
"—Lennox…"Optimus rumbled, "I am sorry for the sacrifices and inconveniences knowing us has brought upon your family…I hope you cautioned your Sparkling against speaking of us again…"
Absentmindedly, Lennox chewed the inside of his cheek before answering, "I didn't…but Sarah did…at least for when Annabelle is at school…"
"My friend, while it pains my Spark to say this, perhaps it would be best if you did not bring Annabelle to base so frequently. Or, when she does come to visit, perhaps it would be best if we kept our contact with her minimal—"
"No." Lennox hated to admit how pleased he was when his responding denial echoed Epps' simultaneously.
"No…I'm not going to do that…and I don't want to do that…" Lennox flatted his daughter's homework out on the desk, turning it so Optimus could read it plainly. He tapped a finger just above where Annabelle had so carefully written her answer for 'O'. "Prime…look…"
Obliging his human friend, Optimus did, though not making the connection, he merely returned his gaze to Lennox's, patiently waiting to hear the rest of the soldier's thoughts.
"Look," Lennox repeated, "She spelled your name right, I didn't help her with that; she did that all on her own."
"Yeah? And? Belle is smart, its no surprise she'd figure out how to sound out Big Man's name."
"No…but if she can spell Optimus' name correctly, how come she doesn't pronounce it correctly? She always calls him Otmus."
Epps smiled, understanding where Lennox was endeavoring to lead the Autobot, "Touché man, touché."
Optimus blinked, "I had always concluded such a mispronunciation was due to her still developing vocal processor."
"Nope. She can say your name just fine. Optimus, the difference is she chooses not to. She likes to call you by the nickname she has given you…its because she loves you and the other bots, all of you are her family." Decided, just as he had been when he told his wife they were putting Annabelle in a new school, Lennox leaned back into his seat, "And I'm not ever going to take her family away from her." The solider could have sworn he saw the Prime's optics shine just that much brighter, if only for a moment.
"Primus willing that day shall never come," Optimus intoned gently.
