My dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed- my dearest pleasure when free.

-Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

-;-

Ellie wandered down to the mess hall, her eyes for once not half lidded. After waking up in her own bed, which had been slightly disorienting considering that she'd fallen asleep on her desk in the infirmary, she'd gone to said infirmary to check on Eliza.

Apparently, she'd been very relieved to wake up to no snoring.

After a quick check, Ellie allowed the SRT Captain to leave, although she was to use a crutch until the stitches had begun to heal. Otherwise, it would be a risk of opening the wound again, and if she was perfectly honest, Ellie did not feel like re-stitching Eliza's leg.

From there, she'd gone back to her own room to change out of the pajamas she'd been sleeping in for the last two nights and into actual clothing, which consisted of a white tank top, a pair of canvas capris, and white runners. She decided that her boots needed to air out for a while, considering that she'd had them for less than a week and they were already beginning to stink.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the familiar sound of a car engine caught her attention. Turning, she could see Bumblebee approaching, and out of instinct backed closer to the wall so that there would be less of a chance for her to get hit. Of course, by now she realized that Bee wouldn't actually hurt her on purpose...but there was always a chance, right?

"Morning, Bee." she greeted with a bright smile.

"Hey there, little lady." the Autobot greeted, a few clicks and whirs escaping as he did so. A few seconds later, he transformed up into his bipedal mode, and he crouched to offer her one of his servos. "Need a lift?"

"Such a gentleman." Ellie giggled, stepping onto the offered palm and grabbing onto his thumb, which was about her own height. "Thank you."

"Anytime." the 'bot waved off her thanks with a casual wave. Ellie tilted her head, completely at ease with the yellow 'bot. She'd even managed to get used to the fuzziness that came between the clips he used to speak. It was like she had known him for far longer than she actually had.

"So, what are you up to today?" she asked curiously as he carried her down the hall, his pedes travelling much quicker than her own small steps. "Anything new and exciting?"

Bumblebee shook his helm slowly, a look of what appeared to be thought crossing his face. "Not that I can think of."

As they approached the mess hall, Ellie tapped her palm onto the metal she was holding, and when the Autbot glanced at her, she gave him an apologetic half smile. "This is my stop."

Bumblebee looked depressed by the news, but bent down to let his charge hop down onto the ground. "Try not to get into too much trouble." a woman's stern tone told her through his radio, causing Ellie to laugh.

"Don't worry, Bee. I'll try not to send anyone to the infirmary today."

He vented, shaking his helm as he watched the femme walk over and get in the short line that was gathering to get what he had a feeling would be coffee. Ellie was hopelessly addicted to the caffeinated beverage, and wasn't able to function properly unless she had several cups of it in the morning. Now that he thought about it, coffee was slightly similar to High-Grade for the Autobots, only it wasn't.

Ah well. Shrugging, he transformed back down into his alt-mode and raced off, wanting to ask Ratchet about the humans and their addictions to coffee.

-;-

Ellie was in heaven. Inhaling the scent of coffee, she grabbed one of the styrofoam cups and poured herself a full cup of the steaming beverage before she chugged it. Wincing for a couple of moments, the burn settling in, she poured herself another cup, feeling more alert already.

Moving farther down the line, she found the oatmeal packets, and picked up a random one, grabbing one of the plastic bowls lying around and dumping in the powder lazily. Satisfied, she poured the boiling water over it, relazing as the scent of her breakfast wafted up to her nose. Nearly purring, she grabbed a spoon and stuck it in her mouth before making sure she had a firm hold on both her coffee and her oatmeal.

Spinning on her heel, Ellie's eyes roamed the large hall, looking for somewhere that she would be able to enjoy her meal in peace. She really wasn't in the mood to socialize, considering that in her books, it was still early, but by the looks of things she wasn't going to have much choice. Sighing softly to herself, she went for a table that was semi empty, aiming for the half that was currently unpopulated.

Weaving her way successfully through most of the soldiers, she finally made it to her seat and plopped herself down with a grunt. Not caring what anyone thought of the others might think of her, she dug into the oatmeal, not wanting to hang around long.

Unfortunately, her uncle and Lennox honed in on her, and she hunkered herself down, preparing for the worst.

"Ellie!" Epps grinned, taking a seat next to his niece and making a casual grab for the coffee that was sitting innocently by her palm. Said woman snapped at his fingers, teeth bared, and picked up the cup with a possessive hiss.

"Mine." she stated firmly before downing it.

Lennox rolled his eyes, seeing the familial similarities between the two dark skinned relatives. Propping his chin on his hand, he waved his other hand in front of Epps' face, snapping him out of his miniature argument that he had started with his niece.

"Right." Epps smacked his fist into his palm, a look of realization crossing his features. "Ellie, after you're done your breakfast, you're needed on the runway. There's a new shipment coming in this morning, and you're going to help unload."

"Why me?" Ellie raised a brow. Epps swallowed nervously before Lennox saved the day.

"We're a little low on free hands right now. Training starts right after breakfast, so there aren't many soldiers free to help out. Since you're not too busy at the moment, we thought that you would like to get to know our schedule and our base a little better."

It was a load of shit, and everyone surrounding the table knew it, but Ellie shrugged, accepting the excuse for what it was. "Alright. I can head out there now."

"Thank you." Lennox smiled, watching the mocha skinned woman walk off before turning on Epps. Cuffing him upside the head, he hissed, "You almost compromised this mission, you dumbass!"

Whimpering, Epps cowered beneath Lennox's furious death glare before pouting. "Sorry."

"You'd better be. Saving your ass like that. I do it far more often than I should." he rolled his eyes. "You think she'll like the surprise?"

Epps snorted. "Know so."

-;-

Ellie shaded her eyes in the morning light as she scanned the sky for any signs of the giant plane that would be bringing in the week's supplies, a yawn escaping as she did so.

There were a couple of other men out here with her, one of which she recognized from the SRT. He'd introduced himself as Michael, while the other guy was known as Bingo around the base. His real name, however, was Andy.

Finally, the dark shape became visible on the horizon, and she pointed it out to Andy. The man took a look of his own before shouting to Mike, and they began opening up the hangar that the supplies would be going into. Ellie thought it looked pretty cool, like something out of an Indiana Jones movie, but she kept that thought to herself and merely did as she was told.

"Alright!" Andy called over the sound of the plane engine, "We're gonna get the back of this thing open, and you're gonna make sure that nothing too serious happens to us!"

Grinning, he flashed her a thumbs up in reply to her playful scowl, and then the plane touched down, nearly knocking her off her feet with the vibration that tore through the ground. It was slightly unpleasant, she would admit.

-;-

Leon yawned, bored out of her skull. She'd plugged herself into her headphones hours ago, and then had proceeded to pass out while listening to some instrumental music from Lord knew what action movie.

She was woken from her nap as her pillow shifted, and she began to lose oxygen. Which wasn't exactly part of her plan of living to the ripe old age of ninety-something. She'd decided a long time ago that the world would keep her around for amusement purposes, and would make her suffer the entire time.

Yeah, she thought that was a pretty sound theory.

-;-

Ellie watched as the final box of something was unloaded off of the plane.

What she wasn't expecting was the person that walked off next.

"LEON!?"

-;-

Leon only had about two and a half seconds to brace herself before Ellie tackled her to the ground in a hug. All of the wind instantly knocked out of her lungs, she lay there gasping like a beached whale until she managed to catch her breath long enough to say, "Ellie. Off."

Ellie automatically got off, although her grin was so wide it was nearly blinding. Leon was here! On Diego Garcia!

"Ohmygodit'syou!Ican'tbelieveyou'rehere!Howdidyougethere?" she chattered at supersonic speeds. Leon had the feeling that her best friend had had at least two cups of coffee so far that morning. At least, she thought it was morning. She was feeling a little jet-lagged at the moment, so she wasn't really able to tell which was up at this particular point of time, but hopefully that feeling would go away quickly.

"I took a plane, obviously." she rolled her eyes, easily understanding the chipmunk type things that Ellie was spouting off. She'd had a few years to decipher it, after all. It was only natural that she would understand it perfectly and translate it back to normal human language. "Actually, Uncle Epps gave me a call...a couple of days ago, I think it was, and told me that you were homesick. Naturally, of course, we decided to surprise you."

Ellie's eyes widened, and for a moment she looked like she was about to start crying with happiness. "We'lldealwiththatlatersinceyou'reprobablyjet-laggedandyoucansleepinmyroom becauseyoudon' ?"

"Alright." Leon yawned, feeling tired.

"Come on." Ellie rolled her eyes, grabbing her friend's hand and her large backpack and dragging both off towards her room. "You need to sleep it off. How long are you staying?"

"A week." came the tired reply.

Ellie grinned, bursting on the insides with joy. Her best friend was here!