What's this? Two chapters in one day?

The keyboard is on fire, baby!

*Disclaimer: I don't own transformers*

~ o ~

"No fucking way!"

After I had figured out how to scan the Toyota Supra, which was unsurprisingly just as easy as the first time I'd accidently done it to Silver, Prowl had taken me on a tour around the base. I'd checked my new armour; enjoying the shiny yellow paint I now had, along with the fact that I was slightly taller. My body had either finished maturing, or it had changed with the transformation, because I now reached up to Prowl's shoulder, and I was curvier. I figured the last part was due to the fact that my armour fit tighter to my body, making me look less like a peewee adolescent, and more like the adult femme I was.

God, did I just refer to myself as a femme?

I mean, I was, but that was beside the point. It hadn't been all that long since I'd lost my humanity, and yet here I was, picking up on their phrases and language. Was there even any human part of me left?

After we had traversed most of the base, I finally managed to convince Prowl to at least let me make a phone call home. I don't know if it was because he was sick of me constantly bringing it up, or if because the comments about my animals starving to death had actually registered with him, but either way I finally got him to agree to one phone call.

I think I shocked us both when, after he agreed, I instantly transformed back down into a human. Hell, I shocked myself. All I'd been thinking about was how tiny human phones were compared to the bots—and boom! I was human.

Of course, I was immediately taken to Ratchet. Turns out I was an odd triple-changer, of sorts. I was still fully Cybertronian, Ratchet had said, I just also happened to be able to transform back into my former human self. I think part of me already knew that—after all, hadn't I transformed back after turning into my jeep?—and had just forgotten. Either way, my initial shock wore off quickly, and I was eager to make my phone call. I think Ratchet was reluctant to release me from the med bay, but with no real medical reason to keep me he let me go with the promise that I would go to him if anything else strange happened. Of course, this was all strange to me, but I didn't tell him that.

Using one of the army's phones that was on a secure line, I dialled Abby's cell number and she picked up on the first ring, shocked to hear it was me. Turns out that the police had contacted Abby the very day the Autobots took me, stating that I was a missing person and that she needed to let them know if she saw me. To say that I was surprised to find out that the visiting officer's name had just happened to be Barry Cade would be an understatement.

I was downright shocked.

I needed no other confirmation that the Decepticons were still after me. I just made sure that Abby knew enough not to call the crazy psycho bot and tell him that she'd spoken with me—which was a task all unto itself considering I couldn't tell her that he was a crazy psycho bot.

Initially I'd considered lying and telling her that I was home, but of course, in her disbelief of Poker-Ass's words she had already driven out to my farm and seen for herself that I wasn't there. I was touched by her concern for me. And even more so when I found out that she'd been staying at the farmhouse for these past few days in order to look after Astraea and Billy. I knew she hated visiting my grandparents' farm, so the fact that she was willing to put aside her own feelings for the sake of me meant a lot.

Still, I knew I couldn't tell her the truth of what had happened. For her sake, the less she knew the better. Not to mention, I doubted the Autobots and government would be very happy with me if I spilled my guts—except that I already had, sort of, when I'd fled to her apartment, babbling on about driverless cars and turning into a car—either way, she sure as hell wasn't making this easy!

"Bullshit."

"I'm telling you the truth! Believe it or not, I'm with—joined the military!"

"And I'm telling you its bullshit. No one just up and leaves behind everything to join the military. Least of all you."

"It's not that simple," I said, though of course summed up prettily it was totally that simple. Just without the 'joined' part. It was more like I was I kidnapped and then carried into it after I fell unconscious.

There was a snort. "Yeah right. Like you would ever leave behind Astraea. Your farm. Their farm."

I paused.

"I just don't see why you're lying to me," she said in a quiet voice.

I was about to give her my whole well-maybe-you-don't-know-me-as-well-as-you-thought-you-did spiel and to explain that I didn't know how to break the truth to her, but I stopped myself. "I don't want to put you in danger," I admitted.

"Worry about yourself," Abby said, but not unkindly. "Are you sure you're even okay?"

"I'm sure," I said. Though I wasn't sure I believed it.

"You better not be lying to me. Are you even with the military right now?"

"I am."

"By choice?"

I hesitated. "Sort of."

"Sort of?" She sounded angry. "Are you telling me they're holding you against your will?"

"It's . . . complicated," I said slowly. At least that much was true. "Look. There's only so much I can divulge to you over the phone."

"I swear to God, Jane." Her words were an angry hiss. "If this is your sick idea of getting back at me . . ."

"Just who do you think I am?" I snapped, my frustration and hurt getting the best of me. I rubbed my temple, trying to calm myself. "Whether or not you believe me, this is happening. I just need to know if I can count on you to look after Astraea and Billy for me while I'm gone."

"I don't know what I believe," Abby replied, after a long moment, "but while you're gone . . . I'll look after the animals for you."

"Thank you," I breathed.

"One of these days you're going to owe me an explanation though. And I mean the long-winded kind."

I nodded, though she couldn't see it. "I'll tell you everything as soon as I can. I promise."

"You also have to promise to let me cut your hair the next time I see you."

"Deal."

"Good," she replied. "Because you really need it."

"My beautiful hair one-hundred percent disagrees with that statement."

Abby laughed for real at that, and the tension eased a bit. I heard her bite down on what sounded like an apple. "Did I forget to tell you that I had a friend over to the farm yesterday?"

I laid a hand against my locket. "Oh no."

"Oh yes. That little shit goat of yours rammed him in the ass when he bent over to tie his shoe."

I tried to swallow it down, but the laughter bubbled up anyway. Billy The Goat head-butting another guy naïve enough to bend over in his presence? Priceless. I could just imagine Abby's scrunched up face as she'd said it too. Some things never changed.

"It's not funny! Now, thanks to that freaking goat, he refuses to come over."

"Let me guess," I said, struggling through the laughing tightness in my chest. "It was the edible snake-boy from your shop."

"You have no idea, Janie." There was an audible sigh. "His abs were divine."

Here we go, I thought to myself.

~ o ~

Abby and I wound up talking for another half and hour before I was evidently kicked off of the phone by one of the soldiers. Honestly, I was just surprised that they'd let me talk as long as I did. After my phone call with Abby ended, I found myself headed back through the human hallway into the larger one of the Autobots.

Without bothering to transform up into my bipedal mode, I walked the winding hallways to where the Autobots sleeping quarters were located, only transforming once I reached the room that Prowl had said was mine.

After I'd fiddled with the passcode on the door for a bit, I lay spread out on my strangely not uncomfortable metal berth, too exhausted to wonder much about the room I was staying in. It wasn't only that I felt odd in my new body and tired from the day's hike around the base: it wasn't all that different from when I'd slept in the med bay yesterday night. And yet I couldn't exactly fall asleep. In what seemed like a fugue state, I thought about the peeling wallpaper in my bedroom. Funny how I'd never realized just how rundown the farmhouse was getting when I had lived there. It was an old house, but I'd never thought about it all that often. So many times I'd meant to repaint my bedroom walls. So many times, I'd forgotten or put it off. Now I might never get the chance.

I rolled over onto my side to face the direction of the door; half wishing that someone would walk in and lie down next to me on the berth. It was ridiculous, and yet I still ached for the sensation of a body pressed up against mine. Not for love. Just for company.

Finally, I offlined my optics and fell into a deep recharge.