I was given charge of a young student recently. Friends, I do believe that child is actively trying to melt my heart! Therefore, I have echoed my young friend's mannerisms into the child who appears in this one-shot (though his age and name have been changed for privacy reasons).
This takes place within the same continuity of the one-shots "The Name" and "The Council".
Camaraderie
The playground was nearly empty. Evidently, a light dusting of rain was cause enough to hibernate indoors with a bowl of cereal and cartoons. There couldn't have been more than three families at the park that afternoon. One was a young couple doting on their raincoat-clad toddler, who strangled their fingers in his chubby grasp as he hopped from puddle to puddle. "Not so fast dear, you'll get wet dear, Wait for Mommy and Daddy, dear."
Across the sodden sandbox, a thin, tired woman huddled miserably under her umbrella with her iPhone while her four children shrieked noisily as they chased each other up the slides. When one inevitably fell down and began to cry, the mother would glance up to be sure that no one was seriously hurt, and return to her phone with a cautionary, "Play nice!"
Every now and again, she and the young couple would cast mildly anxious looks at the lone figure on the other bench.
Tall, broad-shouldered, grizzled and scarred—he hardly seemed the type to frequent a playground. The shiny black Topkick truck parked behind him on the curb looked less like a family vehicle and more like an assault vehicle in the tired woman's opinion. Of course she didn't want to judge. Nobody wanted to judge.
Still, all adults relaxed imperceptibly when the imposing man cupped his hands to his mouth and bellowed, "Not so high, Annie! Not so high!"
Wary glances melted into amused understanding when a high pitched voice responded, "I not a baby, Unca Hyde! I do it myself!"
A second child's voice chimed in after. "Be careful, you'll fall!"
A little boy belonging neither to the young couple nor the tired woman leaned on the ladder behind little Annabelle. The three-year-old looked down to tell him that she was quite capable of taking care of herself, but then she realized that she was rather high off the ground.
Her little eyes widened and the beginnings of a shriek built up in her throat. A woman leaning on a tree called out to them.
"Daiqwan, can you help her the rest of the way up?"
He bobbed his curly head and took a step up. "It's okay," he reassured the little girl, "I won't let you fall!"
Annabelle bit her lip and moved one wobbly sneaker to the next slippery rung. "I fall! I fall!" she squeaked.
Daiqwan moved up behind her. "Nuh-uh! You're doin' great!"
The man on the park bench settled back down, satisfied that his young charge was in no danger. The woman who had called out to the boy walked over, arms crossed against the Autumn chill.
"Mind if I sit down?" she asked.
The man shrugged, but slid over. The woman chuckled as she watched Annabelle and Daiqwan reach the top of the platform and yell, "We did it!" while doing a victory dance.
"What is it with kids and trying dangerous stunts?" she wondered aloud.
Her companion smirked. "I think they're just wired that way. I caught Annie on top of the fridge this morning—I just about crashed!"
The woman groaned and pushed wet bangs from her face. "Thank God, Daiqwan hasn't done that yet. Although, I did wake up one morning to find him playing checkers with the new neighbors...whom he had invited in while I was asleep." she grimaced. "Kid doesn't know a stranger, unfortunately."
For several minutes, the two sat there comparing stories of unruly children. He learned that her name was Chris, and that the five year old boy chattering animatedly to Annabelle was her foster son. She learned that his name was Hyde and that he was looking after his little niece while her father was overseas and her mother was at a conference. On the top of the jungle gym, Daiqwan and Annabelle were in the midst of a Very Important Operation: who could hold their breath the longest.
Hyde glanced over at Chris, who was watching the young pair with a fond smile on her face. "Your face changed when I said Annie's dad was in the military." he observed.
Chris started. "You noticed that?" She sighed wistfully. "Daiqwan's daddy was a friend of mine. He was killed in action overseas when the Soccent base was destroyed. Daiqwan was only a year old."
Now it was Hyde's turn to be surprised. "Soccent? In Qatar?"
The woman did not answer at first, then she nodded distractedly. She was watching a slight drama unfolding on the playground before them. Daiqwan and Annabelle had come down to the sandbox only for one of the other four children to suddenly snatch the little boy's blue truck from his hands and hold it over his head.
"Little punk!" Hyde growled under his breath.
At the same time, Annabelle's round face puckered into a frown. "Give it back, , you little punk!" she stamped her foot.
Hyde looked sheepish. "Oops."
Chris observed the altercation with concern, but did not move to interfere.
"That's not yours!" Daiqwan declared. The older boy stuck his tongue out at Daiqwan and waved the truck tauntingly.
The boy stared back at his tormentor with serious brown eyes, then turned and took Annabelle's hand. "Come on, Annie."
Together, they left the sandbox and walked up to Hyde and Chris. "Aren't you going to get your truck back?" the big man asked.
Daiqwan shrugged his narrow shoulders. "S'not worth it."
Hyde frowned. "What do you mean? You gonna let that little punk push you around, kid?"
Daiqwan tugged on Chris's sleeve. "That boy's clothes are really old, Mom. Maybe he doesn't have any trucks to play with at home. I guess he can have mine."
"Oh honey," Chris sighed.
Hyde hoisted Annabelle up onto his hip and raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't like confrontations?" he asked.
Chris shook her head. "He just started doing this." She shrugged. "I don't know. He met an old man in the park a few months ago who told him...what did he say again, honey?"
Daiqwan pulled his coat closer. "He said sometimes it's braver to be nice to somebody mean than to fight back."
Annie raised her head from Hyde's shoulder. "Kalat'sa says that!"
The little boy blinked, bewildered. "Who says that?"
The preschooler rolled her eyes. "Kalat'sa! You know, T'o't's T'o't?"
Daiqwan and Chris stared blankly at her.
"Use English, Annie," Hyde reminded her gently. He grinned apologetically. "We oughta be goin'. It was nice meeting you, Chris." He strode to the black pickup truck and slipped the girl inside.
"Bye, Annie!" Daiqwan yelled.
"Bye 'Qwan!" Annabelle's muffled voice came from the truck's interior.
Hyde disappeared around the side of the vehicle and the lights abruptly came on. Daiqwan frowned as the truck pulled away from the curb. Maybe he was just too short to see, but it didn't look like there was a driver! He looked up, but Chris was staring too.
"Mom," he said cautiously, "Are giant robots real?" He remembered the pointy thing calling itself "Fallen" or something taking over their t.v a few months before. Didn't that thing say there were giant robots that turned into cars or something?
Chris stuttered wordlessly for several moments. "Uh...let's go, baby. You can pick out another truck at the store, what do you think?"
Daiqwan slipped his hand into hers and smiled. "Only if it turns into a robot, Mom."
Oh scrap, I gotta go, guys. My sister is making my Bumblebee and Airachnid dance ballet. She literally just said, "Take one for the team, 'Bee, or else Orion's dancing!" Optimus says no. Very much no. Actually, Aspen says no. What the—she's trying to make Hot Shot "riverdance". I need to put a stop to the madness, sorry, the one-shot ends here.
I'm back...and I couldn't stop her from making my Transformers look ridiculous. The only ones she left alone were Optimus and Rodimus (out of respect, I presume). Yeesh. Starscream and Predaking are doing some sort of weird 80s dance...
Ok, moving on.
Another one-shot set in the live-action movie 'verse. (Because every time I watch the movies, I can't help thinking that somebody ought to wipe the smirk off the standard-issue-obnoxious-government-person's face.) Because Charlotte Mearing irritated me greatly.
Solidarity
The soldiers in Diego Garcia had their own special code for Director Mearing. It hadn't been difficult to convince Ironhide to teach them the Cybertronian word for "harpy", and they had been exceedingly amused to learn that the proper Iaconian vocal pattern corresponding to the word sounded an awful lot like "Cruella deVil". Around the corridors, it became fairly common to hear an Autobot or human whistling five rising notes as a warning that the unpleasant woman was approaching.
Luckily, Mearing was no connoisseur of Disney films, and had no idea what the tune meant. She only knew that it referred to her, and since it was coming from N.E.S.T., it must automatically be either insulting or overwhelmingly stupid.
Charlotte had been avoiding Optimus Prime for the last several days. She would never admit it, of course, but his display of indignation over the secrets her government kept had unnerved her.
The five-beat whistle echoed down the hallway before her, and she could hear a rush of movement as whoever was in the mess halls grouped together. Safety in numbers, after all. It amused Mearing that whenever she interacted with the soldiers—which was as little as possible—they tended to stand in little bands with the younger members insulated in the middle. They behaved like a herd, for crying out loud!
The Director stormed into the central command center and her jaw nearly dropped. Witwicky was back. Had she not expressly forbidden his involvement in N.E.S.T. activities? The boy stood on a catwalk with Lt. Colonel Lennox, speaking very rapidly. Behind him, his civilian girlfriend was holding Lennox's five year old daughter!
Well, Charlotte thought, why not go invite somebody's gramma while they were at it? And maybe the whole dang city!
"Wittakee—" she was cut off by all four of the humans on the walkway.
"Witwicky!"
She scowled. "I honestly don't care. You, more importantly, had better have a really good reason for countermanding my orders."
Witwicky was infuriatingly calm, very unlike their first meeting. "This isn't peacetime, Director. The rules are a little different now." Under his peaceful facade, however, Mearing could see glimpses of his nerves, his insecurity. She could use that.
"What, you had to come back and play hero?" she snarled, "Had to show off in front of the little princess?"
Annabelle tilted her head to the side. "Why's Sam gotta show off for me?" she asked innocently, nearly undoing Mearing's efforts to provoke the young man.
She needed him angry: if he was angry, then she had the higher ground and could bully him into leaving. It was how she'd handled every sexist blowhard who'd hassled her as a younger woman, it was how she handled her problems still.
"I've made my point clearly before. You're not doing anyone any favors pretending to be an Autobot and you're just going to get yourself or good soldiers killed by playacting: you're just the boy with the special car."
Sam's eyes smoldered a frightening electric blue, but he said nothing. This may have had something to do with Will's death grip on his arm.
"Je, Sam," he cautioned, shaking his head.
Mearing turned her sights on the Lt. Colonel, unsure of what the half-buzzing, half-hummed sound had been. "Use real words when you're talking to humans, soldier," she sniffed, "I'm already questioning your intelligence, don't make it worse. I mean, clearly you have some sort of hearing problem because I distinctly remember saying that Witikee, as a civilian, was not allowed in this base!"
"It's not your base!" Annabelle piped up, "It's the Autobots' base!"
Charlotte leveled her iciest glare at the little girl. "Colonel, control your young."
The child stuck her nose in the air. "Ironhide is scarier than you." she said with conviction.
"Is that so?" Mearing rounded on Sam and Will again. "Well, Ironhide isn't here right now, is he? And neither is Prime. So, chain of command works the way I say it works until they get back. If they come back."
The two men did not even flinch as she began to verbally shred them, systematically targeting the boy's insecurities over his place in N.E.S.T., his failure to secure a job, and his generally unprofessional manner.
Neither was getting angry—her attempts were failing. Charlotte Mearing hated failure. She was still nagging at them when the Autobots returned from their scouting mission and reported that Sentinel Prime had asked for time to observe humanity separate from the base. Optimus did not seem to be as upset as he had been before, but he was not pleased to see the Director.
"Kalat'sa!" Annabelle squealed, holding her arms out for the colossal robot. Optimus smiled and took her from Carly.
"Have you behaved yourself, little one?" he asked quietly. He smiled and listened to her prattle a moment before handing her to an all too eager Ironhide.
Mearing could not believe her eyes. Not only were there civilians on base, but the Autobots were just going to interact with them like old friends? Not on her watch!
"You." she pointed at Witwicky, who was very close to cracking. "Take the blonde and get out of here. You can expect legal trouble over this later. You—" she turned to Lennox, "Get your kid and send her home. If I ever see her around here again, I'm calling CPS on you."
Behind her, Carly turned a pleading look to Ironhide, letting him know that this had been going on for close to an hour. He grimaced and nodded, and edged towards the door, still holding Annabelle.
Further down the walkway, Optimus was attempting to brief Keller and the rest of the higher-ranked officials on the newest developments, but Charlotte's shrill screech droned on in the background. The Secretary of Defense winced sympathetically onscreen as the normally emotionless Director of Intelligence devolved to insults: the soldiers' refusal to react had finally gotten under her skin.
A quick glance to the end of the gantry showed that Sam looked utterly defeated and William was now shouting right back with equal fervor. It was probably a good thing that Ironhide had taken Annabelle to go play outside.
The tirade continued, distracting the men and women being debriefed to the point where none of them heard a word the Prime said. They marveled at the woman's nerve, and most of them secretly hoped that something would happen to shut her up, having been on the receiving end of her sharp tongue before. Mearing was too full of herself anyway. At last, as expected, she went too far.
She smugly told Lennox to collect his things and be off the base by morning, then coldly told Sam, "I shouldn't have to tell you the same. You never belonged here to begin with!"
Then something happened that no one had expected: Optimus Prime lost his patience with a human.
"Director Mearing!" he thundered, "Kindly stop harassing my sons!"
In the silence that followed, a pin's drop would have sounded like a gun shot.
"I beg your pardon?" she asked.
Optimus took several seconds to calm himself, then carefully lifted a thick file from the humans' workstation with two servos.
"Samuel, I need you to take this to Ratchet," he said, holding the papers out to the boy.
"Aahroh, T'o't," Witwicky took the bundle and slipped down the stairs with Carly in tow. Lennox nodded gratefully at the Prime.
"In N.E.S.T., we are a family, Director," the voice was serene, but Mearing was not about to forget that this was a being who could easily flatten her. "You are certainly fortunate that Samuel's guardian was not present. He would not have taken your comments lightly."
Mearing belatedly attempted to regain her composure. "Are you threatening me, Prime?"
A huge metal hand grasped the railing as the Prime leaned in closely, optics narrowed. "No, Director. If I were threatening you, I would have said that if I ever find you harassing or attempting to harm any of my sons or daughters, I will have you permanently ejected from Diego Garcia."
From behind them, on the viewscreen, a senator shouted, "Yes, please!" The secluded group chuckled, as did Colonel Lennox. He sobered quickly when Optimus sent him a stern glance.
"Surely I do not need to remind you that we are all allies?" The humans cleared their throats and looked everywhere but at the Autobot.
"Je, T'o't. I'm sorry, T'o't," Will muttered, flushing.
Mearing pointedly ignored everyone, waiting for attention to return to the robot so she could slip out unnoticed.
Optimus sighed. "I am certain that this will not happen again?"
Lennox and Mearing shook their heads rapidly.
The Prime dipped his helm. "Thank you, I appreciate your cooperation." He turned back to finish informing the officials about the state of affairs, then glanced back.
"William."
Lennox cleared his throat awkwardly and turned to the Director. "I apologize for shouting at you, ma'am," he said stiffly, "I was out of line."
The severe woman edged away towards the stairs. "I may have been somewhat...hasty...in my judgment," she grumbled, "But Witwicky is still a civilian." Before anyone could retort, she somehow managed to rapidly exit the room without running.
Keller watched Optimus with interest. "You know, I think that's the first time I've seen you lose your temper, Prime." he remarked.
Optimus nodded apologetically. "I apologize. It has been a ...trying week for us all."
He glanced up to where Lennox still stood and his optics softened a little. The slight tilt of his helm saw the human visibly relax. He knew Optimus's body language well enough to know he wasn't in trouble.
"Lt. Colonel," Keller called, "Not to change the subject, but was that your daughter who left earlier with Ironhide?"
Will cringed. "I know, I shouldn't have her on the base, sir, but Sarah's at work and I didn't have anywhere else for her to go."
The older man smiled benignly. "Oh, I wasn't going to argue that. No, I don't think anyone's going to fuss about who stays and who goes around here." he shot Optimus a meaningful look.
"So, tell me about this "family" of yours, Prime."
Optimus smiled.
Because I figured that if the soldiers call Optimus "dad" long enough, sooner or later he's going to respond in kind.