Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers

Summary: Sequel to One Last Time. Two years later, Human – Autobot relations are breaking down and Sam is the only one who can fix them. Megatron's forces are increasing and Director Galloway is back with a vengeance. In the midst of all this, Sam and Will still have to try and keep their relationship a secret.

Rating: M

One More Time

Chapter 9:

"Thanks for this, Graham." Will said as the British soldier handed over the large gym bag. "I really appreciate this."

"You're welcome." Graham said grimly. "Just make sure you return it exactly how I gave it to you. Maggie thinks I'm borrowing it to test it out."

"Well I am going to test it out." Will insisted with a grin, slinging the bag over his shoulder and shaking hands with Graham. "Anything I need to know about this stealth suit?"

"Yeah... try not to get it too wet or too hot." Graham said thoughtfully. "And make sure it doesn't get ripped. If anything bad happens to this, Maggie will get a bollocking from Kami, then I'll get a bollocking from Maggie and I'll have to give you a bollocking which I KNOW you won't listen to!" he punched Will on the shoulder. "Just make sure you bring it back in this pristine condition."

"Sure thing Graham." Will grinned and climbed into the topkick which was parked beside him. Graham sighed as he watched them drive off and walked back inside the robotics lab.

xxxxx

Will and Ironhide drove along the outskirts of the NEST base, still through the rain. It showed no signs of letting up at all. They travelled in silence, the only sounds were the thudding of raindrops on the exterior of the topkick, the faint rumbles of thunder growing ever more distant and rustling sounds from where Will was changing into a stealth uniform that Kaminari and her team had been developing for the past few months. He had talked Graham into convincing Maggie to lend it to him for the night. If anyone did pick up that someone had broken into the network, it would be harder for them to identify him. A bolt of lightning illuminated the surroundings for a few seconds, allowing Will to see the network terminal they were heading for – it looked like a derelict warehouse to make sure any locals on the island stayed away. Ironhide stopped and Will jumped down from the topkick. He patted Ironhide on the hood and the Autobot transformed.

"Come on, someone probably heard that." Will smiled.

"How exactly am I going to prevent myself from being identified on any video footage?" Ironhide asked. "I can't put on a stealth uniform."

"Ironhide, we can always erase any footage of us hacking in." Will reminded him. "I'm only wearing stealth gear as a precaution. It's unlikely anyone will realise we've hacked in. Galloway might just think that he deleted the file by accident... he has copies anyway."

"What exactly is the file in question?" Ironhide asked. He picked Will up in one of his hands and carefully lowered him on the other side of the barbed wire fence. Will moved out of the way as Ironhide stepped over the fence.

"Some sensitive material, 'Hide. You may not even see what's in it." Will sighed. "If I'm honest, I don't really want you to see it. It's not really something I want to be public knowledge. It could potentially ruin my life... and someone else's. It's not just me at stake."

"Then we better find it and get rid of it." Ironhide said, pulling the doors to the warehouse open. The creaked as they swung open and Will ran inside, pulling his gun out of its holster, checking the warehouse was clear.

"Will, you better stay away from that electrical equipment." Ironhide advised, walking into the warehouse behind Will. "Water and electricity don't exactly mix."

"I know." Will shook his head, flinging droplets of water everywhere. "This is the second time today I've been completely drenched. I hope this stealth gear still works properly... I think Graham said that Maggie told him not to get it too wet."

"Well that was clever." Ironhide snorted. "We'll just have to put the air conditioning or the heater on extremely high to make sure you dry out."

"I doubt that would work." Will smiled. "Can you project as a hologram what you're hacking into, kind of like on a computer screen?"

"Of course I can." Ironhide replied, inspecting the network terminal to see where he could access it. "Is this so you can see what I'm doing?"

"Yes, and I can see if you're along the right lines." Will replied. He added: "And so I can see it's the right file you're deleting. Or files. It depends what we find on Galloway's hard drive."

"Right, let's get this started." Ironhide said, rubbing his hands together and walked up to the terminal. He proceeded to hack into it, after plugging several cables from under his chest armour into it. Ironhide projected a hologram of what he was doing from his headlights and his optics. Will watched as Ironhide accessed Galloway's computer and went through his files. He found a video file and Will motioned for him to stop.

"This might be it." Will stated.

"It was password protected and heavily encrypted." Ironhide explained. "It is likely to be this file. How do we find out if it is the one?"

"I guess the only thing to do is to open it." Will sighed and shifted uncomfortably on his feet. Ironhide looked down at Will and patted him gently on the head. "Open it, Ironhide. Let's get this over with."

"Will, I promised that I would never tell anyone what was in this file. I said I would take it to the grave and I mean it. I can erase it from my memory banks if I need to." Ironhide comforted his human friend.

"Thanks 'Hide. Just open it." Will said, shoving his hands in his pockets. Ironhide opened the file. Will saw familiar events that happened in his office begin to unfold on the hologram. "It's the right one. Turn it off and get rid of it... please."

"Very well." Ironhide closed the file and deleted it. He knew Will didn't want to talk about it. He could tell by analysing the human's body language... but there were so many questions he wanted to ask Will, so many things he wanted to say to him. "It's gone. You don't have to worry about anyone finding out... unless they find the copy, which I was unable to find on the network. It must be on a disk or memory stick."

"Can you check something else for me while we're here?" Will asked.

"Of course."

"Check the CCTV and see if you can find out where the copy is. You must be able to find Galloway going somewhere with it. I want to destroy it." Will growled. "And if it is on disk, I'm going to do it with my bare hands."

xxxxx

"I'll be five minutes, Ironhide. Just calm down." Will hissed down the mouthpiece of his hands free headset for his mobile phone. They had found CCTV footage from Galloway's office of the Director placing the copy in the filing cabinet in his office. They had seen him lock it on the video, but Will was sure he would be able to break into it. Ironhide was still plugged into the network terminal, monitoring the CCTV cameras and erasing Will from any he appeared in. They were connected by phone so that Ironhide could warn Will if anyone was heading in his direction.

"If we get caught, you're not going to be the one forced to leave the planet." Ironhide grumbled. "You'll just lose your job and be forced to go back to America... or you'll be sent to prison."

"Thank you for that enlightening statement." Will grumbled. He reached the door to Galloway's office. "Ironhide, can you open the locks? I think they're operated by electromagnets or something... and if I damage anything he'll know I've been here."

"So you don't want to destroy the door, but you're fine with destroying his filing cabinet?" Ironhide asked.

"Didn't you notice on the footage?" Will asked. "He keeps the key to the filing cabinet in his desk drawer."

"What if he's taken the key with him? Then you'll be screwed."

"Can you just be quiet?" Will snapped. Ironhide responded with a grunt. "Thank you." There was a click and the door to Galloway's office opened. Will stepped into the office and walked straight over to Galloway's desk, using his torch to see what he was doing. He opened the desk drawer and found the key. He pulled it out and walked over to the filing cabinet. Will pushed the key into the lock. The lights came on and he froze. Galloway was standing beside the light switch, leaning against the wall.

"I wondered when you were going to show up." Galloway smirked. He walked over to Will and snatched the key from his hand. "You're not the only one who can sneak around an office block at night, Will. You see, as advisor to the President, I have an alarm that goes off whenever anyone hacks into my computer and, let's be honest – you're not that smart. So, which one of your Autobot friends did you get to help you?" he was pacing in circles around Will. Will's face was flushed and his eyes were burning with fury. He couldn't believe Galloway had caught him. He should've stayed on the phone to Sam and discussed the consequences of the decisions they had to make. He shouldn't have rushed off to find Ironhide and launched a one person covert mission.

"None of the Autobots are helping me." Will insisted, fixing a steely gaze on Galloway, who was still pacing around him. Galloway entered Will's blind spot. Will cried out in pain and fell to the floor on his hands and knees, a sudden sharp pain across his shoulder blades, all the way down his back. Galloway had hit him with a stapler, which he was currently still holding in his hand. "Ouch..."

"Now, listen to me, Will." Galloway crouched down beside him and shoved him over. "I'm not going to tell anyone about this. I'm going to ignore this little incident if you comply and get the Autobots off this planet after your next mission, regardless of whether you win or lose. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Director Galloway." Will snarled.

"Good. Now why don't you get up, run back to your Autobot friend and go home. You might want to check your mail when you get home. I think you might need a couple of reminders to do as I say." Galloway smirked. He stood up and walked over to his desk and sat down in his chair. Will picked himself up off the floor and staggered out of Galloway's office, heading for Ironhide. He had to take the weapon's specialist back to the Autobot hangar. Will also remembered that he was meant to keep the stealth suit dry and made a mental note to hang it on the heater when he got home... not that anyone had need for heaters on Diego Garcia.

xxxxx

Will walked back into the apartment, carrying the stealth suit in his hands, now wearing Epps' T-shirt and jogging bottoms he had gone out in before, which were now also soaking wet. It was late, and likely that both Sarah and Annabelle were in bed. Will picked up the letters on the doormat and shoved them in his pockets. He walked into the kitchen and turned on the dryer and shoved the stealth suit inside. He then proceeded to strip down to his underwear and shove Epps's clothes in the dryer. Will then remembered that he had left the letters in the pockets. He took them out and switched the dryer on, then stomped into the study. He turned on the shredder and one by one, pushed the letters into the jaws of the machine, watching was satisfaction as they were no longer recognisable.

"Will, what are you doing?" Sarah asked, walking into the study in her nightdress and dressing gown, rubbing her eyes and yawning. "It's like... two o'clock in the morning. What time did you get in?"

"I only got in a couple of minutes ago." Will explained, walking over to Sarah. He kissed her on the forehead and held her in his arms. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. I just had to shred some important stuff... I hate leaving classified information lying around."

"Well you're lucky you didn't wake Annabelle up. I had enough problems getting her to go to sleep because of the thunderstorm." Sarah sighed. "I'm going back to bed, okay?"

"Wait for me, I'm coming too." Will yawned, following Sarah out of the study. He closed the door behind him. "Remind me why I made the briefing so early tomorrow."

"Will, your briefing is at ten o'clock. It's not THAT early." Sarah smiled, crawling into bed.

"That's what you say." Will muttered, climbing into bed beside Sarah. She curled up in the curve of his body, in the same position that they always slept. Will lay awake in the dark, listening to Sarah's steady breathing. This doesn't feel right. It should be Sam there, not Sarah.

I am still amazed at the huge stationery debate I had with two of my friend's whilst writing this chapter. We were trying to decide what Galloway could hit Will with... I remember going extremely off topic at one point... something to do with The Office or Gossip Girl I think.

Anyway, if any of this whole "hacking" thing is incorrect, this is because I am not a hacker and I am probably the most technology disabled person my age in the whole wide world. Just ask Kimmieh-chan or DarknessintheCorners. They can tell you that I somehow managed to copy 50gig of music onto one of my hard drives and not realise for a few months... I'll stop humiliating myself now.

Thank you for all of your reviews – they really do brighten my day. At least now I've nearly got through that dreaded biology coursework! I love reading the comments I get from you guys so keep them coming... or you can face the wrath of Galloway. MWA HA HA!