Chapter 9: Late Night Visit
I laid on my bed, in pajamas, readying myself for sleep, but sadly sleep never came. I felt too guilty to sleep, I guess my conscience is more punishing than I expected it to be. I sighed and rolled over, wondering over the things that happened today, like I usually do before going to bed. I told myself I would apologize to the Autobots and Josh, but I wasn't sure what to do with Jaden. Maybe she just needed time, like all girls do, the space issue and all.
I grabbed my stereo remote and clicked the on button and 'Mad World' by Gary Jules began to play, I quickly turned the volume to a very quiet setting, but enough for me to hear and not disturb the snoring Grandparents. I curled up and snuggled my face into my pillow, wondering if sleep would succumb me tonight.
"Damn Insomnia and mental conscience cricket" I cursed and buried my face in the pillow.
There were thunderous footsteps from outside and I froze, the footsteps were stealthy as they could be, but not quiet enough to fool me. My heart banged up against my breast bone and sped up. I grabbed the remote and quickly shut off the music before slipping a hand under my bed and grabbing my metal Louisville Slugger bat and hid it under my covers, waiting.
I heard the steps come closer to the house and I closed my eyes, playing possum to fool whoever the transformer was.
'Probably one of those blasted Decepticons' I growled in my head.
I heard the footsteps cease and clenched my bat. The creaking of moving metal could be heard as I began to feel a presence, or hand, beginning to move through my window. Once I felt it in range I jumped out from under my covers and began to smite the metallic hand with all my wrath, hearing the culprit yell in pain, his metal hand shaking before retreating out the window, nearly breaking a few things in the process.
I ran after the retreating hand to the window and raised my bat over my head ready to strike the Decepticon outside of it. But after a moment found that it wasn't a Decepticon at all, it was in fact Optimus.
"Ow, Jody it's just me" Optimus said, still shaking his hand of my blows with the bat.
"Oh..." I started, letting the bat lower from over my head and put it up against my computer desk "I'm sorry Optimus, I thought you might have been a Decepticon or something"
"Don't worry" he told me.
"So what brings you here?" I asked.
"To see if you were OK" he said "The Autobots and I were worried that something was wrong with you and so I came to check on you"
"I see" I nodded.
"Oh and Starscream told me that this might make you feel better" Optimus said and dug in a compartment somewhere in his metal mass and handed me a slightly smashed Hershey's bar.
I blinked for a moment and looked at it "How did he think that this would make me feel better?" I asked.
"Well...We did a little research on what might be wrong with you and we have come to the conclusion that it is possible you may be on this, so called, period" he explained.
My jaw dropped, as did the Hershey's bar "What!? How did you know that I was...can you smell...I mean..." I held my head in confusing embarrassment.
"It's OK Jody" Optimus said, patting his hands in the air to calm me down.
"No it isn't, it's completely embarrassing" I said, my face flushed red and letting it hide behind my hands.
"Well, we understand what you must be going through, and we want you to know that we're here for you if you need anything" Optimus said in a caring tone.
"Thank you Optimus" I sighed and nodded, knowing that he meant well. I then thought about earlier and looked up into his golden optics "And I'm sorry for earlier"
"That's alright Jody, we understand" he said.
I nodded "So...was that all?" I asked, looking around, starting to feel a little awkward and a bit of self conscious.
"I guess so, is there anything you need?" Optimus asked.
I looked down at my bare feet, feeling that I probably really shouldn't be alone. Ever since my kidnapping a few months ago, I've never really been able to sleep, afraid that the Decepticons would come and get me again. Also I was becoming weak, the last action of smiting Optimus' hand had taken a lot out of me and was making my stomach cramp up, which showed an even bigger reason for me not to be alone, who knows who I would hurt. I looked up and blushed slightly.
"Could...Could you get someone to watch me?" I asked, cautiously.
Optimus was still and silent for a moment "Are you scared?"
I looked away for a moment, defiant as always, then looked back at him "Yes, ever since the Decepticons kidnapped me, I haven't been able to sleep much, if at all" I admitted quietly.
Optimus' optics dimmed in pity, care etched deep into his features "Jody, why didn't you tell us you were troubled like that?" he asked sadly.
"I didn't want you guys to burden yourselves, you guys have other things to do, and I would just be getting in the way of that if I asked someone to watch over me every night" I told him, tears singeing at my eyes.
I turned away from him and began to wipe at my eyes with the back of my hand, suppressing as much as I could, not wanting him to hear the sobs rising up in my throat.
I heard retreating footsteps and turned my head slightly, finding that Optimus had left. I blinked for a moment before my heart made me realize that him leaving was making me sad, and announced its hurt by making me fall to the floor and cry helplessly. I wrapped my arms around myself and held tight, afraid that if I let go, I'd fall into a million pieces. I couldn't believe he left me alone.
After I rocked myself back and forth for god knows how long, I felt a hand place itself on my back. I stopped rocking and looked up from my sorry state to find Starscream in his younger Holographic human form.
"Where...Where is Optimus?" I asked.
"He told me you needed looking after and thought I'd be the best candidate" Starscream told me with a small smile.
I blinked away tears and wiped at them, trying to hide the evidence of my weak moment. Starscream took my hand gently and moved it away from my face, exposing my red face and wet eyes, or visa versa.
He smiled "You know, leaking does not do well for your features" he tried to joke.
I let out a burst of air that came out as a brief laugh and I couldn't help but smile. He smiled back.
"There's that smile of yours" he said and helped me up.
I stumbled slightly, falling against him for a moment, before pushing myself back up, feeling a blush sneaking up on my cheeks. Starscream only smiled and wrapped an arm around me, helping me to my bed. He sat us down and rubbed my back soothingly, making me sigh. I laid down and curled up on my side. Starscream watched my tired body rest on the mattress, wondering what he was to do now.
I looked over at him and scooted over near the wall, giving him room to sit or lay down next to me. He took the invitation and sat criss-cross on the right side of the mattress. I looked at him for a moment before moving my head to lay on his lap. He seemed confused by the movement, seeing as he probably never had someone lay on his lap before.
"Do you not want me to lay my head on your lap?" I asked.
He was taken back by the question "Well, I don't mind, it's just a feeling I've never felt before" he admitted.
"I haven't felt many feelings either, well, in the since of physical feelings that is, I know a lot of mental feelings" I said quietly, but smiled a little "But I'm sure you've felt the touch of a few girls back on your planet"
"On the contrary, I have not. I've only made memories that I will regret for the rest of my life" he said sadly.
"What do you mean?" I asked, picking my head up from his lap.
He sighed and looked up at my ceiling "The Decepticons, raped, beat, and destroyed the Femme population of Cybertron, there are no Fembots left in the universe" he started "And being a Decepticon back then, I was part of all that. So really, I did not feel their touch, they felt mine..." he said but cut out, and looked away from the ceiling to the wall, unable to look at me.
I looked at him with sympathy, pushing myself up to sit in front of him. Starscream shut his eyes in shame and bowed his head. I lifted a hand and placed it on his cheek.
"We all do things that we regret, the only thing we can do though is move on and try to change our ways so that we do not do something else that we regret. You did that when you helped me get away from the Decepticons and joined the Autobots. You changed and became good" I pointed out.
"Yes, but what I did back then was unforgivable" Starscream told me.
"Even so, you have friends now, and you got out of what gave you orders to do those things, you've pretty much already repented for your sins by doing good" I continued.
Starscream sighed and finally was able to look at me, turning his head to face me.
"If it wasn't for you Jody, if I hadn't have met you, who knows where I'd be" Starscream said.
I looked into his synthetic brown eyes before saying "I could say the same thing to you, Starscream"
We both looked at each other for a moment, before I leaned forward slowly and kissed his lips softly. This made him intake breath quickly and tense up his jaw, making me realize he had never felt a kiss as a human, it must have felt a lot different than feeling it as a robot. I slowly wrapped my arms around him, kissing him lovingly, which made him begin to kiss back, wrapping his own arms around me.
While we kissed, I felt happy, it felt so natural to kiss Starscream, so real. I never wanted it to end. I pulled us down on to the bed, making us lay side by side as we continued to exchange our affection. His arms held me close, as I grabbed the blankets and covered us with them. We soon pulled away, looking into each others eyes. I smiled.
"Thank you, Starscream" I said and snuggled up close to his solid holographic body.
"No Jody" he started, a wicked grin appearing on his lips, unknown to my sight "Thank you"