Jaacs: Hello Readers!

Lily: HI!

Jaacs: Uh… did you put sugar on your Froot Loops again, Lils?

Ratchet: That sounds disgusting!

Lily: No it isn't!

Ironhide: Before there's a situation, Jaacs McHenry doesn't own Transformers, she only owns herself and Lily.

Jaacs: On with the story!

XxXxXxXx

Jaacs rushed over and covered Lily's mouth before she could say anything. Jaacs didn't hate birthdays; just hers.

"Lily Marks, if you dare say anything I'm going to personally see you to your grave!" she said, staring daggers. The pool water started to bubble.

"What's going on?" Optimus asked, confused. Ratchet looked worried; Ironhide amused.

"Optimus, don't worry about us, it's nothing," Jaacs said, struggling to keep her hold. "Quit licking my hand, you sicko!" she whined. Jaacs yelped when Lily bit her hand, but held her ground. "Biting isn't going to get you anywhere, sweetheart." Jaacs said sweetly. She adjusted her grip so she was positioned behind Lily.

"Iff Jaacs' irthffay!" Lily tried to say; but Jaacs' grip stayed firm.

"I don't see what the big deal is, Jaacs." Bee said, a grin playing on his lips. Jaacs' eyes widened.

"Oh no! Not you too!" Jaacs yelled, trying to get over to him; but Bee kept moving just before she could reach him. "Bee, please, don't tell!" she pleaded.

"Why? They deserve to know!" he laughed. Bee really didn't understand why Jaacs didn't want the others to know, if they didn't already. "It's just one day out of the whole year, Jaacs, you should enjoy it!"

"No, Bee! Please! Don't!" Jaacs yelled desperately. "I don't want to be the center of attention!"

"Ah, so that's it. You don't want me to tell everyone it's your birthday because your modest… very interesting." Bumblebee said smugly.

"Bee!" Jaacs whined; she let go of Lily and started to run away, but Lily's Powers were useful.

The earth shot up around Jaacs' ankles, halting her in her tracks.

"Hmm… very useful." Lily said menacingly. Everyone 'ah'-ed in understanding. Jaacs moaned and sat down, defeated. "Calm down, Jaacs. It's not like I got you a present or something." Lily laughed.

"Really?" Jaacs looked up hopefully.

"Of course not! What kind of friend do you take me for?" Lily shouted, insulted, but smiling. Laughter ensued.

"We all knew anyway, Jaacs." Optimus said to her; smiling.

"I should've guessed." Jaacs grumbled, trying to yank her ankles out. "Hey, Lils, can you let me go? I won't run away."

Lily released the earth holding Jaacs in place, sending up clouds of dust. Jaacs' eyes watered, and she breathed deeply.

"Ah-ach-CHOO!" Jaacs sneezed, her Powers overloading. Jaacs sailed at least 20 feet into the air, landing roughly. She sniffed loudly. "Ow…"

"You said you wouldn't run away!" Lily scolded.

"I didn't run away, I… sneezed away…" Jaacs retorted, making a face. "Is that going to happen every time I sneeze?" she asked, turning to Optimus.

"Quite possibly," he said, not wanting to be the bearer of bad news, "but I'm sure once your Powers are under control, it won't happen."

"Good, cause' that one hurt…" Jaacs mumbled, rubbing her nose.

"Wimp," Ironhide said under his breath.

"HEY! Do not get me started about what I've been through, Ironhide!" Jaacs whispered. He backed down immediately.

'Even Ironhide is no match…' Optimus thought in wonder.

"Alright, alright! Let's all just calm down!" Lily shouted, "There's a birthday to celebrate!"

"Oh no, there's not!" Jaacs whispered, jumping into the water. She quickly sank to the bottom, and sat cross-legged. Jaacs held her hand up to her mouth, and air entered her lungs, allowing Jaacs to stay under for a long time.

Meanwhile, the others were getting worried.

"How is she staying under for that long?" Ratchet said, panicking.

"She's probably cheating, and giving herself air." Lily said, laughing.

"Someone should go get her…" Bumblebee said thoughtfully. Ironhide jumped into action, diving into the water, and headed towards the small form of Jaacs. Jaacs wasn't quite ready to leave just yet, though.

It turned into a wild goose chase, and since the holoforms didn't need to breathe, though they could, Ironhide was able to stay on Jaacs' trail, and he swam fast. Ironhide eventually caught one of Jaacs' ankles, and he pulled her to the surface victoriously.

Jaacs harrumphed indignantly.

"Quit running away, would you? We all try to do something nice and we have to drag you kicking and screaming! What is with you femmes?" Ironhide asked; pulling Jaacs out of the water. Arcee and Chromia humphed. They had recently come back from a long mission, and had been delighted to not be the only femmes on the base.

"Bad experience." Jaacs mumbled. She suddenly felt ticklish. "Ratchet! I'm fine! You don't need to scan me!" she said, uncontrollably laughing. Ratchet did his best to ignore the Cybertronian inside of Jaacs; but nothing seemed out of place.

"How did you stay under for that long?" he demanded. Jaacs replied with emitting air out of her hands, drying herself off. Ratchet moaned and sat down; 'This femme is going to give me a spark attack…'

Bee stood behind Jaacs, making sure she wouldn't run away this time. Lily reached into the tote bag she had with her and pulled out a small box wrapped in blue paper. Lily held it out to Jaacs.

"Come on, Jaacs, take it!" Bumblebee coaxed her forward. Jaacs took the box in her hands, and hesitantly pulled the silver ribbon off. "It's not going to bite you!"

"That's what you think." Jaacs said softly. She peeled the tape off of one end, and slid the box out of the wrapping. Jaacs looked at it suspiciously. "This seems very low-key for you, Lily. Thank you." She said, earning some laughs. Jaacs gently lifted the lid off the box, and what she saw made her eyes widen.

Inside the box was a small necklace, the locket on the end shaped to be the Autobot symbol.

"Go on, open it," Lily said softly. What happened next was even more amazing.

When Jaacs opened the locket, a picture was projected upwards, in front of her face. It was a picture taken a couple of weeks ago; all the Autobots and humans that Jaacs knew had clumped together to take it. Everyone was so happy.

'What happens when I'm off at college and I can't see you guys for forever! I need memories, people!' she had shouted, trying to herd everyone together. She had needed to set her camera tri-pod on one of the medical tables to get it to the right height. The Autobots had needed to hold up all the humans so they could be seen, but it was fun.

"I know you didn't want a whole up-scale thing, so I tried to do something little, but I know you still hate me for doing it – oof!" Lily's words were cut off by Jaacs' tight hug.

"Oh I'm so sorry I put up such a fight it's just you know how much I don't like my birthday and –!"

"Alright! Apology accepted." Lily smiled. "We all chipped in to design it." She explained, clipping the necklace around Jaacs' neck. "It's water-proof, fire-proof, it's practically indestructible."

Jaacs made her way around the circle, hugging each Autobot, thanking them for the thoughtful gift. Everyone seemed to sigh in happiness; Jaacs' hugs seemed magical. Everyone hugged back, even Optimus did.

That is, except Ironhide.

"No way am I getting into this mushy stuff!" he said, backing away from Jaacs' open arms.

"Who's running away now?" Jaacs taunted. Sam snorted.

"Come on, 'Hide, it's just a hug!" Mikaela said teasingly. "She won't kill you!"

"That's what you think! I'm not risking turning into a softy!"

"Fine. If you don't want a hug, I won't give you one." Jaacs said loftily.

"Your loss." Bee said, grinning. The others agreed. They were all still warm from their hugs.

Ironhide sighed in relief, but then he noticed how happy the others looked.

'Could a single femme's affection be so pleasant?' he asked himself. Ironhide saw the warm look on the ever-grumpy Ratchet and answered himself. 'Yes…'

XxXxXxXx

Jaacs had sat down and was drawing again, and everyone else had gone back to what they were doing. After a couple of minutes, Ironhide approached Jaacs slowly.

"Jaacs…"

"Mhm?" she said, not looking up.

"I'm sorry about before, it's just that I didn't want one then…"

"It's fine, Ironhide." Jaacs cut in, blowing away eraser shavings.

"If you really want to, you can give me one…" Ironhide coaxed. Jaacs sighed and put down her sketchpad.

"Oh no, don't you try that. You said you didn't want one, you're not getting one." Jaacs said mischievously. "Don't try and get me to give you one. I know that you want one; but until you get over this stubbornness, and tell me that you want me to give you a hug, I won't give you one. Though Primus knows how much good it would do you." She added under her breath.

Ironhide fumed.

Jaacs slicked her hair into a high ponytail, and diving in the pool headfirst, started a splash fight with Bee, Lily, and the Twins.

"Looks you got yourself into quite a predicament, old friend." Optimus said, coming over to Ironhide, watching the younglings playing.

Ironhide harrumphed,

"Not my fault the femme is stubborn." he grumbled.

"It's you that's stubborn, 'Hide. She wanted to do something nice in return, and you pushed her away. It is your fault." Ratchet chimed in. He too was reminiscing, and still he was warm from his own hug from Jaacs. Her hugs seemed very familiar to him in some way.

"Ugh. What am I supposed to do? I'm not going to give into her ploy!" Ironhide said moodily.

"I find no other solution. Why do you want a hug so badly, anyway? Are you jealous?" Ratchet drawled out the last word, irking Ironhide.

"That's no question, Ratchet. He is jealous, jealous of a 15 year olds affection. How childish." Chromia smirked. Her mate was very confusing; but she knew that she had no competition.

"Oh, that is it! Hey, Jaacs! Come 'ere!" he yelled, not realizing what he was really doing. Jaacs got herself out of the water, and dried herself off.

"What is it, 'Hide?" she asked sweetly, knowing what was coming.

"I need a hug, my 'friends' are hurting my feelings." He said, groaning when he understood what he just said. 'How stupid am I?'

"So you want me to give you a hug, correct?" Jaacs said, feigning confusion. Ironhide groaned inwardly, and forced the words out of his mouth.

"Yes, Jaacs, I want a hug –oof!" Ironhide said, slightly getting the breath knocked out of him with Jaacs' hug. A warm, almost fuzzy feeling spread through him, unconsciously causing him to hug back. It wasn't an intimate hug, but a friendly one all the same.

"Aw… how sweet!" the others chorused.

"Shut up…" Ironhide mumbled. It was Jaacs that pulled away first.

"Alright, big guy, that's enough. Too much and it's bad for your health. It can cause carelessness, overconfidence, and possibly depression once the feeling wears off." Jaacs said, earning laughs from the others. "It's an old family secret."

"Now, where were we?" Lily said. Jaacs responded by tackling Lily into the pool, where they started racing each other across the length of it, trying different strokes.

"Not fair! I don't even know half the strokes you do!" Jaacs whined, sitting on the edge of the pool. Lily was so much faster.

"Yeah, but you're the water bender! Do something about it!"

"Fine! I will." Jaacs stood on the railing, and concentrated as hard as she could. She held out her hands, palms facing downward. Then, still concentrating, she took a ginger step onto the water, but it held her weight. Jaacs took one step, then another, until she reached the center of the water.

She let her concentration slip just the tiniest bit, and Jaacs plummeted into the depths below. She resurfaced, sputtering.

"Whoa! That felt amazing!" Jaacs exclaimed, eyes wide. "But shouldn't have that been harder to do?" she asked, turning to the wide eyed Autobots.

"Um… I'm not sure…" Optimus said, blinking.

"That wasn't hard?" Bee said, amazed.

"Not really, I just sort of willed the water to hold me up, and it did."

"Then why'd you fall?" Ironhide asked.

"My concentration slipped, I got distracted." Jaacs explained.

"By what?" Bee asked.

"Uh… I don't remember…" Jaacs lied. She had gotten distracted by the distant look on Ratchet's face. 'Is he starting to figure it out?' she panicked. The Autobots weren't stupid, it probably wouldn't be hard to figure that Jaacs had a Cybertronian living inside her, if they hadn't already.

Optimus gave her a stern look that said, 'We'll be talking later.' Jaacs nodded in return.

"It's getting dark out…" Bee observed. Jaacs got an idea.

"Hey, Lils? Do you think you could try and light those tiki torches?" she called out to her.

"I can hardly see them!" Lily returned. "Much less the side of the pool!" Jaacs willed the water to push Lily over to her, and out of the water. Lily shook her head when she got there. "Thanks, Bugsy." Lily said, earning a flick to the head.

"Don't call me that. Can you summon some fire?"

"I'll try…" Lily said, sticking her tongue out in concentration. She snapped her fingers, and a small flame appeared on the tip of her thumb.

"Nice!" Jaacs exclaimed as Lily blew softly on the flame, expanding it. The fire didn't burn her fingers.

In turn, Lily held up her flame to the torches, the fire jumping to the wick. They all burned brightly.

"Quite the sight." Jaacs admired Lily's work, squeezing her friend's shoulders.

"You know what'd make this day even betta'?" Skids asked, elbowing his brother.

"Oh, yeah, that'd work…" Mudflap continued.

"What's that?" Jaacs asked suspiciously.

"PIGPILE ON THE BIRTHDAY GIRL!" they both shouted.

"NO! No way! Get away!" Jaacs yelled, laughing. She started to run away, but Bee grabbed her wrist before she could get away. "Cheater!" Jaacs yelped, trying to yank out of Bee's grasp. "Whoa!" she shouted as she went down, with the Twins, Lily, Bee, Sam, Mikaela, Arcee, Chromia, and even Ratchet and Ironhide laying on top of Jaacs. Optimus didn't join in, though.

"Well, if this isn't a Kodak moment, I don't know what is!" Will laughed as he snapped a picture.

"Okay, now you all have proof to laugh at me for the rest of my existence. NOW GET OFF!" Jaacs bellowed. One by one, each of the pile climbed off of the now-squished Jaacs.

"Whoa, girl! I knew you had lungs, but that was loud!" Lily said to her.

"I am a choir girl." Jaacs said proudly. The others looked at her, perplexed.

"Choir?" Bee said.

"Oh… you guys don't know what a choir is…" Jaacs trailed off.

"Well, you've all got computers for brains! Use 'em!" Lily said to them. The others' eyes grew out of focus, keeping attention on the definition.

"You mean it's a whole class just to sing? It doesn't sound very productive." Ratchet said grumpily.

"It wasn't just singing, 'Ratch, the teacher would teach us about reading musical notes, and vocal health and such things." Jaacs explained. Ratchet seemed satisfied. Jaacs knew that the vocal health thing would get him.

"And then every couple of months, the school would put on performances, where people would just come and watch the choir sing their songs." Jaacs continued.

"Jaacs was like, in every choir possible." Lily said, irked.

"So? Are you still upset about that?" Jaacs asked, exasperated.

"Traitor." Lily mumbled.

"She's in band." Jaacs started to explain,

"And you used to be, too! But then you defected to the enemy!" Lily said irritably.

"You keep forgetting, I was already part of 'the enemy'! I was in band and choir; you band-geek!"

The Autobots left them to bicker.

"They're almost as bad as the Twins…" Ironhide said, in awe.

"That's not possible." Chromia objected.

"The way those two interact is fascinating, isn't it?" Ratchet gestured to Jaacs and Lily, who were still arguing.

"Yes, it is." Optimus agreed.

"Jaacs reminds me of someone, though not from when she was a sparkling… I can't wrap my processor around that or how she is Cybertronian." Ratchet confessed. "I'm concerned of what will happen to the child."

"Do not fret, old friend; she is in the best of care, and she will not be harmed here." Optimus comforted Ratchet the best he could, though, he too was troubled of the child's fate. He needed to talk to her.

"Jaacs?" he called to her as he approached. The two girls stopped bickering, and Lily went to annoy Bumblebee. "We need to talk."

Jaacs sighed, and Optimus led her over to a secluded spot on the beach. She sat down cross-legged, and Optimus followed suit.

"I know you withheld the truth earlier, and something is on your mind. Care to explain?" he asked calmly.

"No, but I will anyway, since I doubt I have much of an option…"

Jaacs launched into an explanation of how she realized that Ratchet's sparkling lived within her, that the Primes confirmed that this information is true; Optimus listened intently, and quietly.

"I'm scared, Optimus; what if Ratchet hates me for keeping him from his sparkling? I don't want to be rejected by him…" Jaacs sniffled, wiping away tears.

"Jaacs, I'm sure once he understands that you did this to save the sparkling, Ratchet will accept you as his own. He would never do something as harsh as rejection to you. He loves you, you do know that. We all do." Optimus said softly.

"Thank you, Optimus. I would like some time to myself, if that's alright." Jaacs asked wisely.

'She sounds so grown up,' Optimus realized sadly. So much placed on Jaacs' young shoulders has matured her before her time. He walked away from the young femme, leaving her to stare at the calm ocean waves, her face turned stony, void of all traces of previous emotion.

As the weary Autobot leader returned to the group, many of them stood, worried.

"Is she alright?" Ratchet demanded.

"What's wrong?" Lily asked.

"What can we do to help?" Bee asked softly.

"Jaacs needs some time to herself. At some point, one of you can go and see if she needs anything." Optimus said to all of them.

"You need to go and recharge! You could collapse at any moment!" Ratchet commanded, when he noticed how tired the Prime looked.

"I was about to go do that, Ratchet." Optimus said, bidding everyone goodnight, leaving for his office. Most of the soldiers had left by then, and some of the other Autobots soon left afterwards.

Jaacs still hadn't moved.

Lily had seen Jaacs like this, and she knew nothing she could say would help, so she soon went inside also, but not before advising Jaacs to go and get some sleep. Lily gathered up Jaacs' things, and set them on her bed, before taking a shower and going to bed.

Jaacs was left alone. A lone jet flew far above her, but what she didn't know was that that jet had comm. linked to his master,

Master, I have located the femme.

And that his master replied,

Begin the retrieval process.

And the seeker replied,

Yes, Lord Megatron.

XxXxXxXx

Lily: Dun, dun, dun.

Jaacs: Was that really necessary?

Lily: Nope!

Ratchet: Then why did you do it?

Lily: Because it's fun!

Ironhide: I didn't find it amusing.

Jaacs: Aw, come on, Ironaft! Have some fun! precedes to run away when Ironhide chases after her

Lily: Hmm, not what she had in mind, but anyways…

Jaacs: yells as she runs by SEE YA NEXT TIME!