Author's Note: Happy New Year!

Disclaimer: I own the main character and the rest of her screwed up family, all others belong to Hasbro and whoever else had a hand in the movie.

Disregarded

Chapter 7

Jodi sat on the living room floor, and was biting the end of her pencil. A notebook sat under her elbow and her text book lay open on the coffee table, the pages taunting her. She poured over her math homework, annoyed that the subject kept getting harder with every year of school.

It was only a week in and already she decided that sixth grade officially sucked.

A loud crash came from the kitchen, followed by a scream and the booming voice of her father. "Get the hell out of my house!"

Jodi's head whipped around in time to see a tall man in a ruffled business suit stumble out of the kitchen. He rubbed his stubbled cheek with the back of his hand, dark eyes blazing. Jodi could spot the small line of blood coming from his lip.

He whirled around to face the small wiry form of her father who was hot on his heels. "You're making a mistake Nick," he ground out. "Think of how this will affect Erica and-"

He was interrupted as he was shoved hard towards the door. "You keep them out of this you son of a bitch!"

Jodi stood, utterly confused. "Daddy? Uncle David? What's going on?"

Her father turned just long enough to point at her. "Jodi, stay in the house!" he ordered before shoving her uncle unceremoniously through the front door.

The screen slammed shut behind them.

Quick as a mouse Jodi dropped her pencil onto the table and darted to the window. She peered out through the blinds, wondering what was happening.

Her father was stalking across the yard like an angry wolf, herding her uncle towards the street.

"Now, Nick, be reasonable! I-"

"Get off my property before I call the cops!"

Uncle David shook his head angrily before climbing into his shiny black sedan.

"Jodi?"

Jodi leaped from the window guiltily.

Her mother stood in the kitchen doorway, visibly shaking. It almost seemed like the only thing holding her up was the door frame. Worried, the girl quickly ran up to her and was immediately swept up into a tight hug.

Fear began to creep into Jodi's heart.

"Mama, what's wrong?"

The older woman just stroked her daughter's curly hair and held her tighter. Tears were streaking down her face. "It's alright baby, everything will be fine. He won't let anything happen to us. We'll be fine."

Tires squealed outside.

"We'll be fine. I promise."

oOoOo

For a guy who insisted he was still gravely injured, Barricade sure as Hell made great time.

Jodi had never been on the road so long in her entire life. The one time her family had taken a vacation together she was five and she distinctly remembered sleeping during the whole flight to Honolulu. But that couldn't really compare to the insane road trip that Barricade had decided to take them on.

They had started off that morning in the middle of California, and within the first day they had made their way right up through Oregon and into the heart of Washington state. They stopped only twice, and both times Jodi had relished the chance to stretch her legs. They made camp (so to speak) somewhere just outside Seattle late that evening.

Almost as soon as they parked Barricade had them dive right back into his repairs.

Now that his holo could physically interact with things Jodi took more of a backseat role in his repairs. For that first night she held up a flashlight and played the part of the assistant. She handed him tools as needed and held things steady when asked. It didn't take long for her to realize he was going back over the repairs she had made before he could speak with her. Jodi knew she had done her best, but as she watched him she realize just how poor her work was.

With that firmly in her mind she watched as close as she could without getting in the way. She learned well by observation, and she didn't want to miss anything. Noticing her keen attention he began to explain the repairs as he made them or would go over what was wrong in the first place. A lot of it was complex and most of it went way over her head. His tone of his voice was still rough and sharp, almost pained, but the fact that he even bothered said something.

At some point during the night a thought came to her. "Uh, Barricade?"

"Yes?" He drew out the word, clearly annoyed at the interruption after some thirty minutes of silence.

"Exactly how long will it take until you're fixed?"

"Without a trained medic doing the work it's it's hard to say. Several months if I'm lucky."

"Several months?" She tried to wrap her head around that one. "Why so long? You seemed to be healing pretty damn fast on your own."

"Believe it or not repair systems can only do so much for a mech. If you snapped a couple of your tiny organic limbs would you trust it to completely heal on its own?" She shook her head. "Well, there you have it."

"How long would it have taken if I didn't find you?"

He paused for a moment, then set his tools down. "I think that's enough for tonight."

The holoform dissolved like mist in the wind, effectively ending their session before she could ask anything else.

"Oh . . . okay." She stepped back and the hood of the car came down on it's own.

As she settled down for the night, Jodi remembered the damage she had been witness to. A lot had been fixed since then, but she remembered the large amount of burning fluid in stark detail. Tons of it had been on the scene. It didn't take a genius to work out that the leaks had been there for some time, and that Barricade had been on the road for a large portion of it. Plus she thought there was probably much more damage that they currently couldn't reach.

She imagined that the fluids were more like blood and wondered if she had essentially applied a tourniquet. But if that were the case . . .

Well, shit.

If that was right . . . then . . .

She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, and nervously burrowed herself further into her sweatshirt.

No wonder he dropped the question so fast. All the time in the world wouldn't have done him any good.

He would have been dead.

oOoOo

Jodi gently pawed at the heavy hunting jacket, envious of the thick inner lining. She meandered further down the isle where dozens of similar coats were all lined up. She had already discreetly pocketed a pair of wool gloves and was trying to work out how she could swipe a scarf without being noticed. She let loose a resigned sigh and moved on to a different section of the surplus store towards the camping gear. With any luck she would be able to find something a little more . . . useful.

As they traveled the weather continued to change around them, and the further they drove east the more bitter and cold the air became. Used to mild California weather Jodi was quickly realizing that t-shirts and cotton hoodies simply weren't gonna cut it.

She was mostly killing time anyway.

The last few days had followed much the same pattern of the first. They would travel for most of the day and when Barricade was satisfied with the ground covered they would find some place secluded and set up for the night. They would work on his repairs into the night and would be back on the move again early the next morning.

It was almost like now that he was mobile he never wanted to stop.

Then, finally, the routine was broken. By late morning Barricade had dropped her off in the main part of this no-name town saying he would be back in two hours. He gave no real explanation before speeding off and out of sight.

Jodi relished the chance to stretch her legs in the light of day and was quick to occupy herself. She treated herself to a large lunch at the local deli before setting off to explore the few shops in the area.

An hour in she had found the army surplus store and discovered it had more interesting things than she would have thought. Seeing that the lone clerk was in the middle of helping another customer she wound her way through the isles, letting her fingers trail over some of the things that caught her eye.

She paused at the first aid kits reminding herself that she was running low on gauze.

If she had been paying attention she would have noticed that the clerk had long since finished up with his customer, and had been shadowing the scruffy adolescent that was prowling his shop.

oOoOo

Author's Note: Hello all! Nice to see people still on board and a few newbies in the mix! Hope you are all still interested and as always feedback is always welcome. We are slowly getting to the fun stuff kiddies, hang in there. And fair warning, I WILL bump up the rating on this later, but that's not for a bit yet. Hope you all had a good holiday season! Happy readings!- Shadow