Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everybody! I hope you're all enjoying this time, and thank you all for being so supportive of my work, especially during times like these! Enjoy!
X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Jess opened the big window in her room. It was right around four in the morning, the sun was just barely peeking over the horizon. Enough light to see outside, but not enough to wake everybody up yet. She looked both ways, smiling to see the special cars involved in the military on this base, all parked in a circle.. She leaned down, grabbing the bucket that sat on the ground beside her. Inside it held two large, yellow sponges, three bottles of soap, a thing of turtle wax and a wax rag.
Yesterday, after she met Bumblebee - who had proven himself to be the absolute cutest person to ever exist on this planet - she set up a hose that connected to a water well, making sure the hose could reach behind her room, where the cars were always parked. She opened the window the whole way, and reached one leg out to place a bare foot on Captain's hood. Optimus always parked Captain right outside the window in the perfect position so that the hood was right under the window, but the headlights weren't looking into the room that way the light didn't wake her up in the morning. Today, it left a perfect step for her to slink out. She made sure she didn't slip, before plopping onto the ground safely and walked over to the middle of the circle and put the bucket down beside the hose, then trotting back to Captain's hood.
"Ollie." she whispered.
There was a grunt, before the black and white head popped up over the window railing.
"Careful." she said quietly, and he stepped down onto Captain's hood, his nails clinking against the metal. "No, Ollie! Ollie! Off the beast!"
Ollie jumped down quickly, and walked over to where she placed the bucket and laid down, tired. She walked over to the house and turned it on lightly, pointing it away from the dog. When it got to the right temperature, she put everything out of the bucket, filled it with water and a little squirt of soap, watching the bubbles form and float to the top, then placed the hose down. She slipped her shoes off, placing them beside Ollie, and pulled off her shirt and shorts, leaving her in her two piece, gray swimsuit that had more of a shiny tint that made it look silver, then turned around and gasped.
"Look! I match with the idiot's Corvette." she joked quietly.
She picked up the hose and turned it back on, yanked it over to the massive truck. It was caked in eight layers of dirt, three layers of dust and a layer of a blue colored.. gunk, for a lack of better terms. It smelled weird too, like gasoline and copper, and like a mix of goo and sticky blood to touch.
"Oh gross. What the hell does Optimus do to my poor danger-barricade. Poor Captain." she joked, then took a step back, looking at the grill with a devious smile. "Guess we'll just have to fix that." she smirked, then turned the hose on full blast before directing it at the chrome grill. She smiled as the water splashed against the truck, and she turned the hose onto the jet stream, praying it would help peel off all the stuff that was stuck to him, which it did - thankfully. Less scrubbing for her.
She managed to pre soak the vehicle with a whole layer of water, then reached into the bucket as she turned off the hose, picking up two sponges that were filled with water and soap. Then she turned and smiled at the truck.
"See? Optimus doesn't do this for you, does he?" she asked rhetorically, walking closer. She stopped at the grill, where the weird emblem sat at the top proudly. She'd noticed that they all seemed to adorn that emblem not only on their clothes, but their cars as well. They had it everywhere, like a crazy devoted Catholics would put the cross everywhere.
She stopped in front of the grill with a smile, leaning her body towards him. "No. No, he doesn't clean you. See? I'm the one you should like more, because I'm better than your freakishly tall driver." she lowered her voice to a whisper. "I'm the one you should love, because I love you more than he does. Obviously."
A second or two later, she let her head fall back with a laugh. "Alright Captain, let's get scrubbing." she said, plopping the two sponges on the hood. "And I swear to God, if this doesn't make me his favourite, I will cut his nuts off and reattach them using packets of jam from the cafeteria." she said, using the tires to climb up on to the hood.
Crawling on her hands and knees, she grabbed the sponges and started scrubbing.
About five minutes into scrubbing, she looked up and pointed at the silver Corvette that was facing the truck, as if watching amusingly.
"Don't you be laughing, you're next. You little shitter." she smirked.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X
"Jess!"
She groaned, shoving her head under a pillow. "What?"
"Get up!"
Jess groaned. "No! It's my summer, leave me alone." she said back weakly.
Washing had taken more time than she thought it would, and it took her until six that morning to finish waxing all of Captain. She wasn't kidding when she called Captain a behemoth; he was massively huge.
Then, as promised, she ran a hose over Sideswipe's car, who she began calling Hot Shot. She soaped him, not having to scrub all too hard to remove the light layer of dirt that clung to his sides, but by the time she was finished with waxing him, it was almost seven thirty. She retreated to her room again, pushing Ollie in through the window with effort, then used Captain as a stool to get in herself.
However, here she was, lying in bed at eight thirty, having just really fallen asleep, and having someone bang on the bedroom door to wake her up.
"No! Up!"
She groaned, turning over in her bed and expecting to to be on her back until she realized she was on the edge of her bed, but by then it was too late.
She fell off the bed and landed on the floor with a loud bang. She groaned, letting her head fall back onto the floor.
"Jess?! What happened?" the voice yelled into her room.
She groaned aloud again, instead yanking the blanket of her bed and cocooned herself in it, tangling the fabric in between her legs.
"Jessica! Open this god damned door or I'll break it down."
Jess covered her head with the blanket as she used her arms as a pillow. Outside the door, there was a muffled. "Go get the key."
Then she forgot that she'd locked the door last night so that no one cold come in and see her not sleeping. She groaned in an attempt to tell them that the spare key was under the piece of duct tape that was on the top of the door frame, but her lack of sleep stopped her from making any real coherent sentence. Instead, it was more of nonsensical mumbles stringed together as one long sound.
"It's not there." a muffled response said.
"Jessica! Open this fucking door! Now!"
She grumbled again, pulling herself along the floor. As she slunk across the floor with effort, the blanket unwravelled from her body until she reached the door. With a tired scream into the floor, she leaned up.
"Jess?!"
She continued reaching up until the tips of her fingers managed to just barely wrap around the door knob, and pulled it open, the lock coming undone. She collapsed back down to the ground, covering her head with her arms as the sound of nails ticking along the floor rang through the room. Ollie barked as the door opened, and he trotted up to her side, growling at whoever was behind the door.
When he didn't stop barking after a whole minute, Jess let out a nonsensical scream again. "Ollie!" she screamed at him right after.
She lifted a hand to slap him as a way to shut him up. Of course, he managed to evade her hand, but it shut him up.
It was silent for about a minute and a half.
"Jess?" this time, the voice was clear enough that she could recognize Robert's voice - Epps.
She groaned.
"What was that bang?" another voice - Will - asked.
"Me." she grumbled.
"Did you... fall out of bed?"
She grumbled in response, and felt a paw on her back. She groaned out Ollie's name, sounding more like she was in pain, but he didn't respond to it.
"Ollie, off."
The dog growled lightly, but stepped off of her and she moaned in relief, grumbling out a thank you towards him. Then someone grabbed her by her forearms and pulled her up off the floor as she moaned.
"Noo." she moaned as whoever it was placed her on her feet, catching her as she swayed around.
"Jess, why are you still asleep?"
She groaned in an answer.
"You were up late last night, weren't you?"
Another grunt.
"Why?"
"My summer." she emphasized, then turned and walked over to her bed.
"No, come on. It's almost lunch. Get up."
"I just fell asleep, how is it already lunch? And to do what? It's not like I have anything to do over here besides waste the day away. " she grumbled angrily again.
There was a sigh. "Jess..."
He didn't say anything else and she reached down to yank the blanket off the ground, collapsing on the bed and covering herself up again. Ollie hopped up on the bed, lying beside her and stretching out his back legs as he dropped his head with a huff.
"Jess, come on. You've gotta get up."
She groaned again, covering her head with a pillow.
There was muffled voices, and about two miutes later something grabbed her waist. Whoever it was pulled her off the bed, flipping her over and carrying her in a bridal-like style. She yelled out loud at whoever it was, and whoever it was chuckled, but walked.
She heard Ollie hop off the bed, and the clinging of his tags telling her he was following them.
"You comin' Ollie? Yeah you are, let's go."
She recognized that voice as Robert Epps's, and Ollie yipped, obviously not having a problem with the time of day since he was able to sleep the entire time.
Jess groaned in an attempt to ask where they were going.
"What?" the person carrying her asked.
Was that a British accent?
She groaned out the question again.
"Anywhere but your bed. It's almost twelve in the afternoon, you should be awake. If you do this too often you'll fall into an incorrect sleeping cycle."
Jess groaned aloud again, letting her head roll off of his chest and hang over the ground as if the muscles in her neck didn't work anymore.
"Do you even have the slightest curiosity as to what we're dragging you out of bed for?" she recognized Will's voice.
She groaned out her answer; no. She didn't really care either, she wanted sleep.
"You're going off base again. This time for an overnight trip."
This caught her attention.
She raised her head quickly, almost too quickly, and connected eyes with Ironhide, who was carrying her. She opened her mouth to speak, then stopped. She repeated the action two or three more times.
"I swear if you're lying, I will literally kill you and steal your truck to turn it into extra scrap metal for my Jeep."
He rolled his eyes. "I do not lie about such simple things. Major Lennox will explain more in a few minutes."
She groaned, and let herself go limp again in his arms.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Jess sat in the passenger seat of Bumblebee's Camaro, her head leaning against the window. The blond haired man had some music playing in the background, and he was tapping hidied s hand along to the rythym on the wheel, his head bopping along with the words as well. Jess was tapping her foot along to the beat as well, drawing little circular patterns into the door with her index finger.
Apparently, her overnight trip meant she and Bumblebee were spending two nights over at Bumblebee's friend's house. They had her bag packed, and even gotten the C-17 ready while she was asleep.
Another plane ride. She almost threw herself out of the window just so that she wouldn't have to live through it again.
Apparently the first time she got to leave base for a night, she didn't even get to choose where she got to go.
Bumblebee seemed nice though so she wasn't totally complaining. He had a nice car too. Radio seemed a little... wonky at time, but it gave him character. She found it pretty adorable. Kind of paradoxical considering it was a Camaro - a muscle car, who even looked menacing and pissed when you stand at the right and look down at his headlights.
They'd made light chatter earlier on during the drive, but Jess was still really tired, so when their last conversation died down, she didn't start a new one with him and instead just enjoyed the silence.
Ollie stuck his head over the center consol with a groan blinking his eyes.
"Hi baby." she mumbled, leaning over to kiss him on the forehead.
He groaned again and she giggled, kissing him on the forehead again.
He sneezed, then looked over and plopped his head down on Bumblebee's shoulder. The young man chuckled at the seemingly tired dog, petting the side of his head when he huffed at the boy again for the lack of attention he recieved.
Then he pulled into a driveway.
It was a two story house, but that wasn't what caught her attention. What caught her attention was the yard. It was practically perfect as if each individual blade of grass was measured and slice with the perfect knife evenly. The fountain in the middle had the perfect amount of water flowing through it, not too much to make it overflow but not too little to make it look empty. The flowers were in their prime bloom and the pots that hung from the roof weren't too full to make it look bad or fake.
"Holy shit." Jess said, looking out the window.
Bumblebee let out a loud laugh with a nod and Ollie barked as the aforementioned parked his car in the drive way.
Jess opened her door, her mouth in a perfect 'O'. Ollie followed out, stepping over the center consol instead of waiting for her to move the chair, and onto the ground. He sniffed the gravel below them, then the Great Dane twitched his ears.
"This is your friend's house?" she asked.
"Yeah. Well... his parents' house. But he's only in Grade 12 so yeah he's still living here for now." he nodded. "Oh, you might wanna grab Ollie's collar?"
Jess furrowed her brow, but her hand reached down and grabbed the chain collar that sat around Ollie's neck loosely.
Just as she did, a little bright brown rat yipped as it ran out of the house. It wore some kind of jewelled blue collar that looked freshly sparkled. His eyes were so wide you'd think they were about to pop out of his skull and his little teeth were bared as if he was a wolf about to tear flesh.
Really, all he was was a gutsy Chihuahua.
And she was holding back one of the biggest Great Danes she'd ever seen. He even outgrew his Dad at only two and a half years of age.
It made her laugh out loud with Bumblebee, who was laughing so hard that he was bent at the waist and almost crying.
"Mojo! What the f- Bee!"
Jess looked over to see a dark haired guy about her age stood on the porch with a shocked face.
"Dude, you weren't supposed to be back until, like, two more weeks. Man, what are you doin' back bro?" he smiled as he walked off the porch onto the walkway. The Chihuahua got closer, barking at Ollie.
The black and white Great Dane stepped in front of Jess as a means of a protective wall between the oncoming threat (barely existent, but still a threat in his mind) and his lip turned up to show off his large incisors. Jess tightened her hold on his collar.
"Sam, this is Jess. She's my friend that'll be sleeping with me tonight." Bee introduced. "Jess this is Sam."
Straining the muscles in her arm to keep Ollie from moving forward towards the rat like he wanted to and was pulling on her to do, she gave him a smile. "Nice to meet you."
He smiled, then shock flew across his face. "Oh! Mojo, stop it!"
He hurried over and picked up the brown and white little Chihuahua, giving him a scolding that he obviously ignored.
Ollie relaxed, his muscles going slack, and he even sat down beside Jess's leg as he licked his lips.
Sam turned and dropped him in the house, closing the door.
He kind of reminded her her old locker neighbhor, James, only older. An awkward, dark haired guy that seemed a slight amount like a "loser" compared to others, but his heart in the right place.
That made her think of home.
She missed it.
And her Jeep. She missed her Jeep.
"Sorry, he's got a male dominance thing. Who's this" he asked as he returned to them.
"This is Ollie." she said.
"Yeah, sorry Sam. He kind of had to come with us." Bumblebee said, scratching his head.
"That's fine. I'll lock Mojo in my parents' room with some food and water tonight." Sam waved off. "They're still on their re-run of Italy so they won't be home for a while."
Bumblebee laughed. "Yeah, because they had such a good trip the first time."
Sam chuckled as well and Jess, oblivious to what they were laughing at, stood there awkwardly and shifted her weight as she let go of his collar but pet Ollie on the head just to make sure he didn't take off.
"Well, come on in. I've gotta go pick up Mik soon anyways, so I'll show you around first." he offered.
Sam brought them into the house, which was just as nice as the yard although a little more cluttered. Ollie, being as over protective over Jess as he was, didn't leave her side even when that Chihuahua started yipping from where he was being kept.
"So that's the kitchen, and there's the living room. The movies are in that case right there, and- Frankie no!"
A Bulldog looking dog jumped off the couch with a bark, but froze where he was and just stared at Ollie. He didn't growl or bark, just stared at him with wide eyes. Ollie tensed again, not as much as the first time, but moved in front of Jess again.
"Oh wow, he's protective over you." Sam said as he stepped forward towards the Bulldog. "Come on Frankie, let's go."
Just as Sam went to pick him up, Frankie bolted forward out of his reach and pounced down on the ground. His big tongue flopped out of the side of his mouth and he yipped happily. Ollie visibly jerked back, but then he let his tongue flopped out of his mouth too in what Jess knew what his doggy-smile, and he kneeled down, his butt sticking up in the air and his tails wagging. Frankie barked and jumped forward to try and tackle the dog that was nearly ten times his size. Ollie barked loudly at him and suddenly the little brown rat came flying out of the room he was in and jumped on top of Ollie's back in an attempt to play to. The Great Dane jumped up which made the Chihuahua fall to the ground and land on his back. He flopped around until he was on his four paws and he and Ollie sniffed noses before Frankie broke the pair up.
"No, no, Mojo!" Sam yelled.
"It's fine." Jess waved off. "They're being good."
Sam nodded at her. "Well, I've got the pull out couch all ready for you. I'm gonna head to the shower real quick then change before I go pick up Mik. Bee knows where everything is, the phone's right there, if you guys want you can order pizza and use our credit account."
Bee nodded. "Is that good with you Jess?"
She nodded. "Yeah that's good."
Bee nodded. "Perfect. Thanks bro."
Sam nodded. "Yeah, 'course."
The two bumped fists before Sam left to the top level of the house. The coffee table was moved to almost box in the area, while the bed was pulled out and well made, with three pillows at the top and an ratty looking blanket that had obviously seen better days, with sewn on patches all over it. The TV that sat in front of it was on and playing some movie quietly. Jess stepped over the table and dropped her small bag on to the ground beside the couch.
It reminded her of her old blanket. It was one of those fake fur throw blankets with a picture of a pack of wolves on the front. Her birth Dad had gotten it for her when she was three years old because their house used to get really cold at night before her step-Dad installed a new heating system. He told her when he came home with it and gave it to her that the wolves on the front would protect her from all the monsters she'd ever come across in her life. She used it so much that there was multiple holes in it. Her Mom sewed the holes back up with patches that didn't match, leaving it looking completely wrecked, old, and ratty, but she used it for her entire life from the time she got it because it was one of the only things she got from her Dad that she could remember.
She could remember very little from Father.
Bumblebee, who was walking in behind her, picked up a phone.
"You have any preference pizza-wise?" he asked.
She shook her head as she pulled her phone out of her back pocket. "No, choose whatever kind you want."
He nodded. "Movies are over there, choose whichever on you want and we'll start with that one."
She nodded and walked over to the case as Ollie hopped onto the bed and settled at the end.