One Half

By

LigerJager

…

Transformers © Various Creators & Companies

Chapter 4: Of Mercy and Forbearance

"Sam?"

The teenager's eyes fluttered under their lids.

"Sammy?" Judy's voice became much more insistent. It was then she started to shake his shoulder, gently.

"What?" Sam cracked his eyes open, his voice was slurred with sleep. His mother's concerned face steadily came into focus.

"What are you doing on the couch?"

His mind jolted enough to register the faint kitchen light and his mother's gentle

"What happened here?"

"I knocked it over last night." He grumbled, "sorry."

"Next time, be more careful." His mother gently admonished. The auburn haired woman knelt down to clean up the mess, after all she liked a neat and tidy house. Sam rolled off the couch, dropping the old bracelet in the process, and knelt by her, his mind more or less awake with the last vestiges of lethargy still clinging to his conscious.

"Let me help you." Judy waived him off.

Undeterred by his mother's dismissal, Sam snatched up some of the mess and began stacking it, not really caring about the order. He stopped when his eyes zeroing in on a few papers. They looked like they were some sort of tests.

"What does this mean?" he picked up one particular paper and held it towards Judy.

"What?" Sam caught the slight pause before his mother's seemingly clueless question. His frown deepened.

"This." He said, waving the paper in her direction. Judy's eyes briefly flitted towards the words. It was the results of her doctor's final tests on her ovaries. She hadn't wanted Sam to see it.

"It's nothing to worry about." She said a little too quickly, "why the interest now?"

"Because of this." He held the paper out for her to read, "and I never saw this box before."

"Funny," she pondered, "it's been there for years…" She trailed off. Sam, used to her flighty evasions, just raised an eyebrow. His mom never really took confrontation well about anything that was sensitive to her, she always avoided any course of action.

"Nice try, mom, but that doesn't get you off the hook." He gave her a stern look.

His mother hesitated.

"Sammy, you were supposed to be stillborn."

Sam blinked, his disbelieving thoughts spoke before he realized what he was saying, "What?"

"I was…am…infertile, unable to conceive…or carry to term."

Come again? The eighteen year-old just stared at his mother. The stack of paper he'd been gathering slid out of his lax grip and fluttered to the floor.

"Then how…?"

"How are you alive?" she finished statement.

He nodded.

"A miracle." She smiled up at him, "you are my miracle. I can't explain it any other way." Her eyes traveled over the mess before they landed upon the semi-precious jewelry.

She picked up the old bracelet and held with infinite care. A small smile adorned the auburn haired woman's lips. She held the silver and turquoise piece up to the dim light for Sam to see.

"Your father bought this for me the day I told him I was pregnant with you." Her smile became serene, "it had the prettiest stone in it. It's gone now, but I decided to keep it as a reminder, a good one, that miracles can happen."

Judy seemed to drift off into her thoughts for a moment before resuming cleaning up the box.

The teen's eyes, however, were locked on the empty setting. It was that spot that attracted his attention in the first place, the very shell where he could sense the faint traces of ancient, Ixonian energy.

"When we fought Megatron, your body was destroyed. He tore you apart. Joint by joint. Wire for wire. Circuit by circuit. The only part of you I could save was your spark core. I compacted it into a small stone size…"

Judy had missed how pasty white Sam went when he had turned to stare out the dark, early morning window. Sam froze for a moment before he started shaking ever so slightly on the couch.

His eyes glowed slightly green in his reflection.

::Twins Part II: To Be Continued::

A/N: Still alive. Just not…inspired…at the moment.

LJ 9/17/10, 9/20/10