Primus, I did not mean for that to take so long. Bet you guys were a little worried, huh? Never fear, I will finish where I started! I had some family problems before, and now some more, but I'm trying to channel my frustration with the world into writing. Also, I need you guys to look at something important that will be placed at the bottom of the page.

Sorry for the shortness! I wanted the next part on it's own because some exciting things are happening!

Chapter 10

Ironhide drove down a street lined with human residences. The car in front of him was a dark blue color, and he constantly kept his scanners on it.

He had followed Zack from his home to a grocery store, where he waited in the parking lot for his quarry to emerge. He realized that this was the same store where Marissa had encountered Zack. Marissa's words came back to him.

"He just wants something he can't have."

An angry shudder went through him. He knew what Zack had wanted. He would make it clear for the insect that Marissa was off limits.

Zack came out of the store with a piece of paper and got into his blue car. Ironhide followed behind him closely. The car sped down the street with sudden urgency. Ironhide formed his holoform in his driver's seat and grinned satisfactorily. The chase was on.

He gunned after Zack, pursuing him onto a country road. Hide let him go on for a mile then started inching closer. When he was almost even with the car, he switched from normal fuel to energon, and pulled ahead easily. He could almost feel the terror mounting inside the vehicle behind him.

Ironhide wrenched his steering wheel to the right and he put on the brakes. The intimidating black truck was now sideways, in front of the other car.

The car jerked as its brakes were applied and slid to a halt. Ironhide watched it with anticipation. The driver's side door opened bristly and Zack stepped out onto the ground. The man was obviously angry, and he moved in front of his car and yelled at Ironhide.

"What the hell do you want? Get out here or I'll come in there for you!"

Ironhide's holoform smirked and opened the door. His boots hit the dirt road with a thud and he slowly walked around his alt mode. Zack followed his movement and caught his breath when he took in the sight of Ironhide.

The holoform showed Zack it's perfect teeth. "Don't you recognize me, Zack?"

Zack hesitated, less sure of himself now. "I think so...maybe. Wait, yeah I do remember your face."

Ironhide folded his arms. "I should hope so. By the way, that's a nasty bruise there."

Eyes widening in animal-like fear, Zack stepped back into his car, almost crawling back onto the hood. "Oh God, you're that guy who almost killed me!"

"A shame I didn't, it would've saved me the trouble of tracking you down," Ironhide said calmly and took a few steps closer to the human.

Zack struggled to get something out of his pocket. It was revealed and the glint of metal under the hot sun flashed into Ironhide's optics. So, he wants to go down that path again.

Ironhide grabbed Zack's hand before he could strike with the knife and took it away, literally like taking candy from a baby. The knife was carelessly thrown to the side and Ironhide tightened his hold on Zack's arm.

Zack looked at him then back down at his hand. "Come on, let me go, I was drunk, don't even remember driving to Will's place."

Growling, Ironhide shouted "but you remember hurting her, don't you!" He met Zack's scared eyes with his furious blue optics.

"I what...who?" Zack questioned dumbly. Ironhide let go of him.

He was incredulous."You hurt Marissa. You're saying that you don't remember that part?"

Zack shook his head no then slid down onto the ground. "I hurt her?" He asked, truly horrified. "I am such a dumbass."

Ironhide cocked his head. "You've got that right." He helped Zack back up.

"I have to tell her I'm sorry," Zack said, stepping away from the holoform.

"No, you're going to stay away from her. She's heard enough from you."

"Listen, I was sober. I thought that maybe she might at least have dinner with me if I told her that I was off the drink. Her rejection just devastated me so much that I threw everything I've done to get this far out the window." Zack dusted some dirt off his hands. "You're probably why she didn't want me anyways."

Ironhide grunted. "That couldn't be farther from the truth...But still, if I catch you near her"-

Zack cut him off. "I know, you'll kick my ass again."

"Right."

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Will walked out of the main hangar. Optimus was behind him, treading carefully, despite the rare show of anger he had shown just minutes ago. Though, he had the right to be upset. Ironhide had possibly murdered a human and they had no idea where he had been because he was hiding his spark signature. That had sent Ratchet off on yet another rant about Ironhide's complete lack of a functioning processor. Will had expected Prime to be running across the pavement to his weapon specialist.

Optimus looked down at him. "I'm not going to hurt him, Lennox."

Will nodded at the giant being. It always seemed like the 'Bots could read his mind.

Ratchet, on the other hand, had no qualms about harming Ironhide. The medic hit 'Hide's head with a wrench as soon as he had reached him. Their argument reached Will's ears with no problems.

"You know that those things damage your audios! I thought you would be able to figure out that that means you shouldn't use them!"

"My audios are fine!"

Optimus interrupted saying: "they won't be when I'm done with you Ironhide. My office now."

Ironhide's surprise showed on his faceplates for a second before he mumbled a "yes Prime" and hurriedly walked away.

Ratchet. Turned to Optimus and started speaking in clicks and whistles. His optics strayed to Will a couple times before Optimus stopped him and excused himself.

Will waved to Prime when he left then looked at Ratchet. "I don't get to know what you told him, do I?"

Ratchet kneeled down and offered a hand to Will. "No. I think that it would be best if it was someone who isn't me who informed you, though."

Will climbed onto the offered hand without hesitation. "Why's that?"

"It's just not for me to divulge."

~~ Optimus entered his office and sat behind his desk. Ironhide was standing by the door against the wall, numbly spinning his cannons. He did not look at the Prime when he entered.

"Ironhide," Optimus said sternly.

The cannons stopped, but Ironhide's optics did not shift. "You want something?" He said with a hint of sarcasm.

Optimus folded his digits together on the desk. "What did you do?" Ironhide looked at him.

"I didn't kill him, so I didn't break any of your precious rules. And if Keller asks, I didn't show myself."

"Did you?" Optimus asked.

"No, but it would've been amusing if I did."

Optimus grimaced. "You shouldn't have gone off like that. We assumed you had gone berserk."

"I'm not Sunny," Ironhide growled as he finally turned to glare at Optimus.

"Well you fragging act like it sometimes 'Hide!" Optimus shouted in a burst of frustration.

Ironhide's optics widened. "I'm sorry Prime... Are you OK?"

Optimus vented and sunk into his seat. "I'm your friend 'Hide, I want you to be happy. I know that you feel you should protect Marissa the very best you can, but she is safe here and more capable of taking care of herself than you imagine."

"But"-

"'Hide, she is a lot like you, believe it or not. I've talked to Major Lennox and he partly agrees."

"I don't see how..."

Optimus' mouthplates twitched into a grin. "Then look a little deeper."

'Hide gave him a 'what drug are you on' kind of look and his cannons transformed back into his arms. "Can I leave now?" He asked.

Optimus nodded and followed Ironhide to the door. He looked at the weapons specialist before the door was opened. "Did you know, that the eyes are said to be windows of the soul?"

Ironhide shook his head and exited the room, throwing a remark over his shoulder to the Prime. "I think you should go have Ratch check you over. Primus knows how long it's been since you last processor exam."

~~ "He did what!?"

Marissa stared wide-eyed at Will. He shrugged. "All I know so far is that he tracked Zack down after hearing Prime and Jazz talking about him."

Ratchet 'harrumphed' and gestured to himself. "That's actually all I'm sure of as well. That and I know I'm going to have Ironhide strapped down in the med bay for an hour. I swear to Primus that mech is trying to get on my bad side purposefully."

Marissa twisted her t-shirt with a finger. "You mean he's not there already?"

"No, but you'll know when he is," Will said with a grin.

Watching Marissa play with her shirt, Ratchet wondered if she would notice if he ran a minor scan on her blood pressure. It would be interesting to see how her heart reacted to mention of Ironhide. If he was correct in his thinking, her blood pressure would be higher than the normal rate for humans. Just an observation of her actions was enough to convince him that Marissa, did in fact love the weapons specialist. Then, he had a devious idea.

" If you will excuse me, I must prepare my tools for Ironhide's torture-err operation. Marissa, would you accompany me on my way?"

The small human snapped her head up to glare at him suspiciously. "OK," she replied slowly. Then she climbed into the hand he had lowered down and sat cross-legged in the middle of his metal palm.

Ratchet nodded to Will and the Major waved to him. Marissa stared at the skyline as he walked.

"Does this make you dizzy?" Ratchet asked.

Marissa looked at him. "Sometimes. Just in case though, I'd rather not puke all over your hand."

Ratchet chuckled lightly. "I appreciate that." A vision of Marissa vomiting on Ironhide popped into his processor and he snorted.

"What?"Marissa asked.

"You should do that to Ironhide next time he tries to touch foreheads, that glitch would deserve it," Ratchet told her, without thinking of the consequences.

Marissa laid a hand on his thumb to steady herself on the jostling 'Bot. "What's that?"

Ratchet stopped walking and made a straight face. "What's what?"

"That forehead thing."

"Well...it's Cybertronian culture. We do it to express respect or, uh affection." This is not going the way he wanted it to.

Marissa's mouth was set in a straight line. "And nobody thought that I might need to know that?"

We did, but Ironhide asked us not too."

Marissa rolled her eyes and huffed. "Whatever. Let me down, I'm going to the shooting range now. I have to test some newly repaired weaponry."

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~~ Ironhide curled his hands into fists. The sound of an m-16 came from the shooting range made his optic glitch. He wasn't allowed to shoot in the range with humans present. Maybe he could ask them to leave. He looked into the viewing window.

He saw Marissa replacing an empty clip of ammo on a gun through the window. Her safety glasses hung around her neck and her ears were covered with some headpiece designed to protect her hearing organs. Her tank top was the usual forest green and her sweat pants were black. She looks good in everything, I swear.

Suddenly Marissa stopped and looked at Ironhide through the window.

She must have felt me staring at her. Ironhide walked into the range, passing a glance at Marissa's target. Holes dotted the paper in the center, but a couple rounds had strayed.

Marissa put down the gun and folded her arms. "I heard that you had some fun earlier."

Ironhide winced. I should've known that would come back and kick me in the aft. "Yeah. Sorry about that, I was wrong."

"Wrong? There isn't a word for how bad of an idea that was," Marissa spat. She pushed the button that brought her target closer so that she could retrieve it.

"Will told me that he called your friend Jamie. Said he was looking for you again."

Marissa grabbed her target and looked at it. "Will needs to keep his mouth shut," she said without looking up.

Ironhide shifted his feet. In an offhand way, he mumbled, "I heard that Ratch told you about the forehead thing too."

Marissa looked at him strangely. "Yes he did. You should've told me what that was, I thought maybe you were miming a head-butt." She laughed at herself. "I feel silly now."

Ironhide relaxed. Everything was OK. She wasn't that mad.

Marissa set down the target and walked next to Ironhide's foot. He felt like he should explain something. He looked down at her and crouched.

"I was sincere when I told you I loved you Marissa."

Marissa looked up at his giant face. "I know."

Ironhide's optics got brighter and his faceplates were awash with a blue glow, like he was blushing. "And I apologize for leaving so abruptly after you-"

"Don't do that. I kissed you 'Hide, you aren't familiar with human customs. You had a right to be confused," Marissa interrupted. "I guess that makes us even."

Ironhide's faceplates returned to normal and he looked away from the tiny human. He could not stand being so close to her, and so far away at the same time. What did he say now?

Marissa interpreted this the wrong way and said nervously, "not that I regret kissing your holoform."

Ironhide's focused back on her."Marissa, I can understand if I am not what you want." He started to rise.

"No!"

He settled back down. "'No,' what?"

"Don't leave now, I have an idea. Take me on a date."

Ironhide stated at Marissa for a klik. "A date?" Graham takes a woman named Maggie on dates occasionally. Ironhide knew all about those from the soldiers.

Marissa placed a hand on the metal of his foot. "One night. We can both answer some questions."

Ironhide was thinking that it sounded like a good idea. He nodded. "I'll um, pick you up?"

Marissa smiled brightly. "When?"

"Five-no, six pm."

"I'll watch for you."

Ironhide walked out of the shooting range, straight to the training course. Graham was taking a break with five other men that Ironhide recognized barely.

He called Graham to him and the soldier trotted over.

"Hey Ironhide. What's going on?"

"I need help. Where can I take, uh, my femme friend out...on a date?"

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Okay, if anyone would like to see this story being concentrated on more than any of my other projects, then check back in a week, on my profile. A new story will be posted. Read the chapter I have up, then go to the poll and tell me which story you would like me to concentrate on more. The story will be called Windows to the Soul.

And tell me, do you think any characters are being too OOC? Ironhide is my main concern actually.