Somewhere I Belong
The silence in Optimus's cab was almost overwhelming, but it was also very welcome. The pounding in Sam's head wasn't as bad as it had been before, but it was enough to let him know it was still there. His left foot was still bleeding and his cut on right hand stung badly. He didn't even want to thank about all the other places on his body that hurt. He felt like he'd been ran over several times by Optimus in his alt mode.
Though, he had to admit he was oddly calm about what was currently going on. Bumblebee was in a forced recharge, as a car of course, being pulled by the tow truck that had pulled him around in Mission City, Ratchet not far behind him. Ironhide was in front of them and Jazz was cruising along behind Optimus without a care in the world, probably trying to listen to as many radio stations as possible. Will, Mikaela, and all of Will's men were spread out amongst the Autobots and the surviving normal vehicles. Now, all he had to do was figure out what was going to happen to him, and he'd be good.
"Sam?"
"Ya Optimus."
"What will you do after this? Will they really send you back to the Asylum?"
"They might. I don't know. Right now, it's either the Asylum or the Police Station. They do think I killed that nurse after all." Optimus' engine rumbled for a moment, sending a slight vibration through his seat. Sam shifted, fidgeting a little, fingers on his left hand twitching a bit.
"If you go back to the Asylum, what will they do?"
"Put me in a straight jacket probably, that or lock me in the hallway with all the other really dangerous patients. I'm not really sure, Optimus, Lynch was never the best doctor."
"It's not right. Ratchet said there wasn't really anything wrong with you. He mentioned that the electric pulses on one side of your brain were stronger than the other side, but it isn't causing you any damage." Sam smiled a bit. So Ratchet thought he was sane.
"During one of my ECT treatments a few years ago, I heard Lynch talking to someone, I'm not sure who, but from what I could understand of their conversation, Lynch thinks that the increase of electric impulses on one side of the brain is what causes psychic powers in a person."
"Hm. I'll have to tell Ratchet that. He'll have a field day with this." Sam smiled and leaned his head against Optimus's window, watching the scenery go by. He really didn't want to go back. He knew that if he went back, he'd probably never see the light of day again, and by the end of another year there, he'd probably wish he was dead. He liked the outside world, even if it scared the hell out of him. He wanted to stay with Bee and the others.
"Sam?"
"Yes."
"Do you want to go back? I noticed that when you're around a lot of people, your fingers start twitching." Sam laughed, he should have known that Optimus would notice something like that.
"It's a nervous reaction. I've spent the last twelve years in a nut house. Just consider yourself lucky I don't start screaming or something just as embarrassing, and no Optimus, I don't want to go back." A darkly amused chuckle escaped Optimus. Sam was right, his nervous reactions could be worse.
"I notice that you seem much more comfortable around us. Why is that?"
"Well, as lame as it probably sounds, you guys have been something constant in my life. No matter how many times I'd see you guys in my visions, you were always the same. You guys never changed." Optimus remained silent, processing the information that Sam had just given him. It was, in a twisted way, amusing. His kind could live for millions of years without changing, and here was a human who related with them, not because of how they looked or acted but because of the fact that they had stayed the same while his world changed around him. In a sense, they had kept him grounded. They had given him hope when there was none. In a sense, they had been saving a life by doing nothing.
"You waited a long time for us didn't you?"
"It was a long time for me. I mean, twelve years to you guys is nothing right?"
"Yes, twelve years to us is nothing. It's almost like a minute in your lifetime. We've lived years of your time, and it seems only minutes or perhaps hours to us. Our sense of time is very different." Head leaning against the glass of the driver's side window, Sam smiled and nodded. It was strange, what he understood was probably ten times more complicated than the things he didn't. He'd admit that he wasn't very intelligent, but he understood what he understood and he'd stopped trying to understand why a long time ago.
Sam smiled as he looked at the small car next to them. A child probably no more than six sat in the back seat, arm going up and down. Sam had to wonder for a moment if Optimus knew what that meant.
"What is that youngling doing?" Sam's smiled widened. Nope, he had no clue whatsoever.
"Blow your horn."
"Why?"
"Just do it, Optimus." Sam smiled as Optimus's horn sounded loud around them, and the child in the car clapped her hands and laughed, pointing at Optimus with a smile on her face.
--Hoover Dam--
The entire trip back to Hoover Dam hadn't taken very long in reality, but, to the battered and beaten soldiers, it felt like forever. All of them were sore and tired and dirty, but they were also happy. They'd be able to go home soon at least. Sam squirmed as he followed Lennox and his men back into Hoover Dam fallowed closely by the Autobots. Simmons, Keller, Maggie, and Glen were waiting for then when they arrived, all of them with smiles on their faces, except for Simmons, who seemed to be scowling more than smiling.
Orders were handed out quickly and without much protest. They were to get cleaned up, and then they were to go get themselves looked at by one of the five or six doctors that lived at the dam year round. Though, Ratchet had told Sam he wanted to see him right after he was looked over and patched up, Sam had a feeling that Ratchet wanted to be sure he was well taken care of or something.
So, heading toward one of rooms with a shower, Jazz fallowing not far behind him playing the role of guardian since Bumblebee was unable to, Sam let his first real shiver of fear run through his body. He wanted to know. What were they going to do with him?
--With Optimus and the others--
Silence filled the large room that the group had retreated to in order to talk. Keller sat on a chair besides Simmons and Banacheck. The Autobots, Optimus, Ratchet, and Ironhide, stood in front of them looking down.
"Okay boys, so how are we going to do this?" Keller asked, thin fingers intertwined and resting on his lap.
"I mean we've never had a situation like this and I really don't want to be rude, so why don't we start with what you want."
"We only wish for a home, Mr. Keller. If it's alright with you, we wish to stay here, well not here exactly but we'd like to stay on this planet." Keller nodded for a moment.
"Well, I don't see a problem with that. You guys saved our lives, it's the least we could do." Ratchet moved a foot a moment later, almost nervous looking. Keller's gaze shifted to him for a minute. If the robot had a question, then why didn't he ask it.
"What will happen to the boy?"
"I was wondering the same thing." Heads turned toward the doorway where Will stood clean and a little bandaged.
"Captain Lennox. What are you doing here?"
"Oh shut it, Simmons. I was wondering what you're going to do with the kid." A thoughtful silence filled the air for a moment.
"I don't know. I suppose that that's really up to his uncle or at least his doctor." Simmons snorted as he looked at the people around him.
"The kid will either go back to the nut house or to jail, those are his only options. You forget about the nurse they found. Witwicky is wanted for murder after all." Banacheck sighed from his spot besides Simmons. The man truly was an idiot, if he bothered to look he'd see that none of them cared about anything he'd just said. He also had the feeling that all hell was about to break loose and over a scrawny teenager whose hair was half way down his back.
--With Sam--
Sam sighed in content as he stepped out of the shower. He was currently clean and some of the hurt in his body had been chased away by the hot water. Long hair still damp because no matter how much he toweled it or wrung it out it refused to dry, he stepped out into the hallway and tapped Jazz's foot to get his attention.
"Hey little dude. You done now?" Okay stupid question, but oh well.
"Ya Jazz, I'm done now, all we have to do is go see one of the doctors here."
"Your foot ever stop bleeding?"
"It's still bleeding but not as much." Jazz nodded in approval and picked Sam up in one hand, the teen gasping a bit as he did so. He owed this kid his life or so Epps had told him, so the least he could do was make sure the kid was gonna be alright. He owed it to Bumblebee too, the poor mech was already attached. Jazz's movements were steady and his steps surprisingly quiet. Sam eyed the halls around him, fighting the urge to yawn. He hadn't slept in almost two days, and he was exhausted in all shapes, ways, and forms. He knew that as soon as he was able to drop his guard and relax, he'd be asleep within minutes or probably seconds if his body had any say in the matter.
Bones popped as Sam stretched, being sure not to fall off of Jazz's shoulder in the process - he was going to feel every ache and pain tomorrow, that was certain. The hall around them was quiet, and if he strained his hearing, Sam could hear the buzz like hum of Jazz's spark. The sound kind of made him think of a bee's hive, but it didn't sound angry like bees did. This sound was peaceful and had a kind of calming affect. Sam was almost certain that if he were to place a hand over Jazz's spark chamber, he'd be able to feel it vibrating.
As they moved along the hall, the sound of Epps's and Fig's voices grew louder. It sounded like they were arguing or at least attempting to. From what he could hear Fig was speaking in Spanish again and Epps was telling him to 'speak English dude'.
"Those two fight a lot, don't they?"
"You have no idea, little dude. They spent most of the ride back here arguing back and forth. In Spanish and English, it was actually quite amusing. They're not that bad, though." Sam nodded as he and Jazz turned to look at each other and they both smiled.
"Hey amigo! How you do'n, we though you drowned or something." Fig said all this with a smile as Jazz sat Sam down on the floor. A sew seconds later, he was pulled over to a examination table by one of the doctors.
--With Optimus--
"I'm afraid I don't quite understand where you're coming from, Simmons." Keller said as he eyed the man standing in front of him. Simmons stood arms crossed and scowl present. He was thankful that the other two NBE's had left to go work on the little yellow one. Getting stared down by one alien was much better than being stared at by three. That and the medic gave him the willies.
"Ya Simmons, where are you coming from?" Will asked as he shot Keller a look over Simmons shoulder.
"I'm saying that it's not very likely that Witwicky will be able to function properly in the real world. I have reports from Lynch that say the kids has seizures for Christ's sake. What would you do if he had one in a public area?" Keller sighed. Simmons did have a point.
"If I may speak Mr. Keller." Optimus said as he looked down at the three men. Banacheck had left claiming that he had reports to fill out and damage to start fixing.
"Ratchet has taken an interest in your species' medical system. He scanned Samuel when we first got here and again not long after the battle. He says that there was a difference in the electric pulses in his brain. He thinks that whatever might have been wrong with him before the battle is gone now." Simmons snorted.
"Oh really, big guy. How do you suppose that that happened?" Optimus's optics darkened as he looked at Simmons. The man was pushing his luck. It wasn't Optimus that spoke up however.
"Ya know, I ain't no scientist or anything, but I have a random guess."
"By all means Captain, let's hear your theory. It can't be any stranger than anything else that's going on right now." Will ran a hand through his hair and looked at each of the people in the room before turning to look up at Optimus.
"Well, I heard one of you guys talking about that cube thing and how it could heal your kind. That got me thinking - what if it could heal us too?"
--With Sam--
"You know you could just make this easier on yourself, kid, and not squirm so much." Epps said with a grunt as he held Sam's leg in place. The boy had started fidgeting as soon as the doctor looking over him had pulled out the needle to stitch up his foot. Said needle hadn't gotten two inches from his foot before he pulled it back and refused point blank to let the man near him. So, Epps and Fig, trying to make the kid more comfortable, had asked the doctor to do something else for a few minutes so that way they could distract him. It had worked, at least until the needle had passed through his skin for the first time.
God only knew what was going to happen when they had to stitch the cut in his hand. Fig, in his attempt to be nice, was trying and failing not to laugh at Epps. It was quite amusing watching him try to keep the kid on the bed long enough for the doctor to finish the last few stitches.
"Now be nice, Epps. If he don't like needles then he don't like needles. At least he has a rational fear. Unlike that one dude at the base who had Eremikophobia." Okay, that caught Jazz's attention. Quickly looking up the term, Jazz couldn't help but chuckle.
"He had a fear of sand?"
"Ya believe it or not. Really sad considering we were posted in the desert." Epps and Fig looked at each other for a second before they burst into laughter. Jazz noticed with a smirk that they had caught Sam's attention completely. Which was a good thing because he was about to take a needle to his hand.
"Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia." Sam looked at Jazz for a second. He'd heard that one before.
"Fear of words?"
"Close, kid. It's the fear of long words." Epps looked up at Jazz and smirked.
"Isn't that word like thirty letters long?"
"Thirty-five." Sam said as he looked at Epps for a second. Epps looked at Sam for a moment. Probably wondering how the kid knew that.
"There all done." Sam and the others turned to look at the doctor, who had successfully managed to stitch Sam's hand without the teen noticing.
"Now see Sam, was that so bad? And all that fuss over your foot." Epps said this with a smile on his face as Sam looked down, his face going slightly red in embarrassment. Sam scratched the back of his head with his left hand while the doctor bandaged his hand.
"So Jazz, you know any more really good fears?" Jazz smirked at Fig, he had the whole internet at his disposal.
"I got one for you Sammy-boy. How about Dikephobia?" Sam's head jerked to the side. There standing in the entrance stood Dr. Lynch and two men he didn't know, but he did know that they worked at the asylum. For a moment, Sam eyed Lynch before turning to look back at Jazz and the two soldiers. From what he could tell, Lynch could see the soldiers but not Jazz, at least not from where he and the men he had with him were standing. Sam looked at Jazz and pointed back toward the way they had come.
"Go get Optimus." He mouthed quietly. Jazz nodded and made his way out of the room, moving as fast as his body would allow.
"So Sammy-boy, Dikephobia. Are you going to answer my question or not?"
"Dikephobia, the fear of justice."
