A/N – Sorry for some of the lines that Lindsey steals from Mikaela. But some of them I like too much to scrap or change.
Disclaimer – I do not own Transformers.
Earth, birthplace of the human race, a species much like our own, capable of great compassion and great violence. For in our quest to protect the humans, a deeper revelation dawns. Our worlds have met before.
For the last two years, an advance team of new Autobots has taken refuge here under my command. Together, we form an alliance with the humans, a secret but brave squad of soldiers. A classified strike team called NEST. We hunt for what remains of our Decepticon foes hiding in difference countries around the globe.
I had been so excited when I had learned that Sam had been accepted into Princeton. I was kinda disappointed I hadn't been, but I was planning on going to the Community Collage in a couple months. Until then, I was house-sitting for Judy and Ron as they went on vacation.
"Come on, let's go! All hands on deck!" Ron called. We were helping Sam pack up his things and move into his dorm today. It kinda sucked, because I was so used to us being together every day, but I didn't want to go to Princeton. I could have, because of the part I had played in Mission City, but I wasn't really Princeton material.
"Frankie, Mojo, out!" did I forget to mention the Witwicky's got another dog? "Come on, kiddo, we're on a schedule" I giggled as Ron rushed Sam. He really wanted Sam's room for than home theater.
"Slow down, Dad. Why are you in such a hurry to get rid of me, huh? Did you rent the room out?" Sam asked as we carried his boxes to the car – not Bumblebee. "No, I got other idea for your room" Ron told him.
"Yeah, a home theater, with surround sound" I remarked as I passed both of them with a tall stack of boxes. Shooter was in Sam's room, picking up the small things we couldn't reach or notice and setting them where we could grab them.
"Oh, here, Lindsey, let me help with that" Sam said, grabbing the top two boxes, leaving me with only one. I smiled at him. "Thanks" I said, kissing his cheek.
We stashed the boxes in the car and went back inside for more. As we passed, Sam and I found Judy crying. He sent me a pleading look, but I shook my head. "Your mom" I muttered before going up to his room.
I looked around the nearly empty room, and a feeling of sadness rushed through me. I swallowed hard. I didn't want Sam to go. Shooter, sensing my mood, scurried over to me and nestled himself in the crook of my neck and shoulder, his favorite perch.
I was going to be alone for a month, and even after that it'll only be the Witwicky's, not Sam. My parents had kicked me out; I didn't have anywhere else to go. Only Bumblebee knew. He was the one that picked me up from hope and helped me hid all of my stuff in the Witwicky's garage, not that I had that much in the first place.
Because I couldn't tell them. I don't know why, but every time I tried, no words would come out.
I shook my head. I could deal. I would.
3rd POV
"What are you talking about, Dad?" Sam followed his father out of the house with another box.
"There's gonna be a lot of women there" Ron said loudly. Sam glanced at his window, hoping Lindsey wouldn't hear his dad. He knew how sensitive she was about their relationship. He felt bad for how she had to suffer over his obsession with Mikaela Banes.
"Yeah, well, I'm a one-woman kind of guy" Sam said firmly. He had no plans of leaving Lindsey, ever.
"Look, Lindsey's the greatest, and your mom and I both love her, but you gotta give each other room to grow, okay? You two have been best friends for years! You're no different than any other couple your age" Ron explained.
"Except we discovered an alien race together" Sam pointed out. "And she adopted a mini-robot that thinks she's his mother" Sam added as an after-thought, thinking of Shooter. "Ha. How long you gonna be riding that scooter" he scoffed, as if it was no big deal as he walked away.
Sam was actually kinda fond of Shooter. It had taken the little bot some time to warm up to him, but now Shooter thought of Sam as his father, the same way he thought of Lindsey as his mother. It was a kinda nice feeling.
"Dad, listen, I know what the odds are. We're the exception, okay?" Sam insisted as he followed his father. "Wait a second. Oh, who could that be?" Sam showed his dad his phone, even though he was kinda confused on why Lindsey was calling him, because she was just in his room.
"In two weeks, it could be Muffy" Ron dismissed.
San answered his phone. "Hey beautiful. Why are you calling me from my room?"
"I am sitting your room close to tears, staring at the infamous D-Day shirt. Come comfort your girlfriend" Sam smiled at Lindsey, though he was kinda worried when she said she was close to tears. "Be right up"
Sam ran to his room and found Lindsey sitting on his bed, staring into his closet.
"Hey" he wrapped his arms around her, making Shooter scuttle to her lap, and she leaned her head against his shoulder. "Hi" she replied quietly. "You know, you can come with me. They have cheap apartment near campus"
Lindsey smiled sadly. "I can't. Not only do I need to house-sit for your parents, John's getting out of prison. I'm gonna help him clean out his apartment and check into a post-re-hab clinic" she explained.
"John, the reason you went to Juvie" Sam remembered when Simmons had first taken them, two years ago. She nodded. "He's clean now, but he needs to get back on his feet. And then I need to find a place to stay permanently" Lindsey said absentmindedly. Shooter cooed sadly.
"Wait, why do you need to find a new place to stay?" Sam asked, moving so he was kneeling in front of her. Lindsey bit her lip. "My parents kicked me out" she mumbled. Sam cursed. "Why didn't you tell me before?" he asked.
Lindsey shrugged. "You were so excited about collage and between helping you, baby-sitting Annabelle, and helping Maggie move, I've always had a place to sleep" she said.
Sam sighed. "Here" he got up and pulled the D-Day shirt of the hanger and handed it to her. But as he was handing it to her, something dropped. "What?" Sam muttered, kneeling back down and grabbing it.
"Is that…" Lindsey trailed off. Sam nodded.
"A sliver of the cube. It must have gotten stuck on my shirt"
Back to Lindsey's POV
There was a suddenly spark and Sam dropped the sliver in alarm. Before I could grab it, the liver melted through the floor and landed somewhere in the kitchen. "Crap!" I cried, knowing what would happen.
"Ah! There's a fire!" Sam tried to stamp it out, and then ran from his room. "Sam!" I cried, but he didn't reply. "Dad, we gotta fire" Sam cried as he ran. He grabbed the extinguisher and ran back into his room to extinguish the fire.
"Fire!" he cried again.
When that didn't work, he dumped a bottle of water over the hole. Finally the fire was taken care of. I grabbed Shooter and we both headed for the door. But when Sam opened it…
"Die!" a ton of itty-bitty Decepticons, about Shooter's size, started shooting at us. Shooter growled and started shooting back to defend Sam and I, which was sweet, but didn't do much good against the dozen-or-so Decepticons.
Sam fell backwards and I stumbled back as they invaded his room. I shrieked as they shot, though their shots didn't hurt really.
But they were destroying his room. We jumped through one of his open windows, onto the awning that covered the porch. Sam made sure I was in front of him, and Shooter had stopped shooting, because he couldn't do so without hitting one of us.
"What is all the racket?" Ron yelled at us from below. "Decepticons!" I shrieked as Sam and I jumped. It's a good thing it takes a lot to dent Shooter.
Ran and Sam both crawled, for we were all on our hands and knees, to the new fountain, and sat behind it. I ran around the corner of the house so I was out of the current range of shooting. "What was that?" Ron asked.
"The whole kitchen" I shouted to him.
"Bumblebee…Oh, my…" Ron suggested.
"BUMBLEBEE!" Sam screamed.
Without hesitation, Bumblebee drove through the garage wall and transformed. He started shooting at the little Decepticons, one hit killing one bot. But, he did hit the house. I think what's left of Sam's room is destroyed.
I heard Judy running from the house screaming. I peeked over and saw her running with what looked like pot lids covering her head. It was a semi-smart idea, until her head collided with one of the hanging planets, knocking her down.
"911" Ron called, getting up and running into the house.
"Bumblebee" Sam called. "Get in the garage. Go!" I stared at Sam incredulously as he pointed at the garage. I could see his point, but he should be nicer about it. "What the freak just happened?" Judy cried.
I approached them from my corner. "Bumblebee, what Sam means is: you have to stay hidden. We just had a major battle in the middle of a suburban neighborhood in broad daylight. It's too exposed. And if we have a Camaro parked in the middle of our newly destroyed yard that does seem touched, it'll get suspicious" I explained.
Bee looked down sadly, but went back into the garage as Judy freaked out.
"Firemen! Fire fighters, over here!" Judy was screaming as she ran out front. "Dogs out! Get the dogs out!" Ron cried, carrying a garden hose.
"Sam" he looked at me. "The sliver" his eyes widened and he ran for the house. I looked down at Shooter, who was sulking in my hands.
"Aww, my precious sweetspark. I'm sorry you didn't get to fight those nasty Decepticons" I cooed. That seemed to make him feel a little better, but he was still pouting. "Shooter, I don't wanna let you go. You're my little bot, and you and Sam mean the world to me"
Shooter gave a mini-robot equivalent of a sigh and stopped pouting. He nodded and climbed into my pocket, transforming.
It was kinda cool having a robot for a phone. I don't have to press any buttons.
Sam came running back outside to where I was still standing by the garage. "Listen, I need you to take the Cube sliver and keep it safe. Just take it" I nodded silently and took the sliver, stuffing it into the pocket opposite Shooter.
"Sam Witwicky?" Judy approached, looking awfully mad.
"Yes mom"
"A word with you. Hi, Lindsey, I have a bald spot" Judy showed me the back of her head, where there was a tiny bald pot amidst her thick, healthy hair. "From a waffle iron. When you go, he goes. I cannot live with a psychotic alien in my garage" Judy ranted, a little too loudly.
"He's not psychotic" I tried to tell her, but Sam was pulling me to the garage.
We walked in to Bee hitting himself in the head. If he could talk, he would probably be chanting "stupid, stupid, stupid" he probably was chanting it in his head.
"Yeah, you know you're in trouble"
"Sam" I scolded, but didn't say anything else.
"Bee, I want to talk to you about the collage thing, okay?" Sam called, wiping his hand on a random rag I kept lying around when I wanted to clean Bee. "I'm so excited and I just can't hide it" Bee's radio sand as he danced around happily.
"Hey, I'm not taking you with me" that kinda worried me. Sam still played a big part in the Cybertronian war, and there were still Decepticons out there, wanting revenge. Bee lost his happy look and slouched down sadly, with a groan.
"I'm gonna go outside, okay?" I told him gently. I wanted to be there, but this was a conversation Sam needed to have with Bee in private.
I went outside and pulled Shooter out of my pocket. "I have a present for you little bot" I cooed. Shooter transformed and hopped up and down happily. I laughed and pulled out the little custom-made cellphone carrier Maggie and I had made for him. "it's like a cross between a cellphone cover, a purse, and a car" I explained.
"As a cellphone, it's just like a bulky slip cover with a strap. If you wanna transform, I open the zipper and it's a purse so you don't have to be cramped in my pocket all the time. But it has wheel, an engine, and steering, so if something happens, like Mission City, you can drive around and I can worry less"
Shooter climbed into the Autobot blue case happily and quickly went into stasis, which I learned was Cybertronian for sleep.
Sam came out and walked over to me. I set the case down as his set his hands on my hips, pulling me closer. We were inches away now. "So, you think you can make it through those East Coast winters without me?" I teased.
"You are the best thing that ever happened to me" Sam said in way of reply. "Including discovering an alien race and saving the world?" I asked, biting my lip. "Most definitely. And I'll do anything for you"
"And" I prompted. No, we haven't said 'I love you' yet. I wanted him to say it first. I wasn't quite ready to but my heart on the line, even though it was unlikely he'd break it. He hadn't said it yet, so that possibility was still there.
"I…adore you" he tried. I flinched. "Sam" I sighed. "What? It's the same as the other word" I swallowed hard. "It's not the same though, Sam"
"Don't force me to, Linds" force. Wow. "Plus, you haven't said it either. So don't get mad at me for not saying it" Sam ranted.
"Sam, I've been hiding my feelings for you for years. Can you imagine what that's one to me? I'm not secure enough to say it first" I tried not to cry. "I don't want you to tuck tail and run"
"Girls run to. Especially girls like you, with options. You have just as many guys after you as Mikaela Banes and those other girls" Sam said.
"So, this is all a plan to keep my interested?" I asked, feeling a little better.
"It can be"
"It's working" I smiled.
"can I have a kiss?" he asked. I leaned into him and kissed his softly, wrapping my arms around his waist. "We're going to make it work, I promise" he told me.
"Don't say good-bye yet, I'm still coming to the dorms with you, remember?" I laughed. He chuckled and grabbed my hand, pulling me into the car with him. I pulled away to grab Shooter's bag, and then hopped into the car next to him.
3rd POV
What Lindsey didn't notice was the Decepticon RC car. Wheelie scanned the girl as she went into the car. He noticed a mini bot, but he also saw the shard. He had overheard their conversation and knew she would be coming back, alone. So he pulled into the house and waited, making sure not to alarm to Auto-scum in the garage.