Just why Katie wants to pick up her mother. -.-;
Hmm. I should work on some of my other stories... I'll try for another chapter tonight; hooray for Labor Day weeked. ((weak cheer))
"Okay. If she's the one that made you mute in the first place, why in Primus' name are you dead set on picking her up?" Jazz growled, pacing the room while Katie typed on her laptop. "It makes no sense!"
Katie looked up at her guardian who paid no attention to her look and continued to pace.
"Jazz, please stop; you're distracting me." Ratchet said sourly, looking up briefly from repairing a dent in Sunstreaker's arm. Sideswipe sat next to his brother swinging his legs childishly. A zebra finch sat on each shoulder, and another one on his leg.
"I don't understand it either, Katie." Sideswipe admitted, playing with the finch on his knee.
With a sigh, Katie put her laptop on the side, closing it and waiting for Jazz to stop grumbling and swearing before answering. "I believe it will help my mental wellbeing."
"How so?" Ratchet asked, intrigued.
"Well, if you think about it, I have lived in fear of her for most of my life, and that was the reason I couldn't and wouldn't talk." Katie explained. "I can talk some now, but not as much as I'd like. Sometimes, I have to force the words to come." She looked down at her hands. "And sometimes when I'm dreaming, I dream of what happened all over again. I see her standing above me, once with a frying pan, another with a wooden spoon, and the list goes on."
She was silent for a while, and no one prompted her to continue. "Mrrow." Snowy rubbed his head against her side and idly, she reached down and stroked his head, scratching his ears fondly.
"I know nothing about your pasts, but I assume that in a sense, you're all hurting inside like me." Katie said slowly, looking down at the tabby who began to purr. "I assume that you have found ways around them and in some sense, even made it past the obstacles they made. I however, have not. Not like you have," she paused when Snowy crawled into her lap, curling up and looking at her, exposing his pale belly to be scratched. "I have thought long and hard about what happened to me, and what I could do to stop my irrational fear of her."
"It's not irrational." Jazz and Ratchet told her flatly in unison, and Katie ignored them.
"Ralph Waldo Emerson says 'Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain'. I found that quote the day after Papa e-mailed me about Mama's parole." She ignored Jazz's mutter of "I don't see why you still call her that" and continued on regardless. "In the hospital, I had plenty of time to think it over, and when I wasn't wallowing in self-pity, I thought more about it and came to the conclusion that if I face Mama, I'll stop being afraid of her. If I show her that I'm no longer afraid of her, that I have gotten over what she's done to me, I'll feel better about living my life."
Silence reined in the med-bay for a few minutes, a silence broken only by Ratchet's tools and Snowy's purring.
Jazz was silent, sulking in the corner, but Katie could tell he was mulling over her words. At last, Ratchet sighed and put down his tool. "Though I don't like it, I agree with your reasoning. Sometimes the best way to get over our fears is to face it."
Katie nodded, watching Jazz grumbling to himself. With a sigh, he quieted and Katie knew he agreed with her logic, if grudgingly. "Can I help you, Bumblebee?" Ratchet asked mildly as the yellow mech walked in with Aldrin cupped in one hand, and Sam and Mikaela in the other.
He stopped abruptly in surprise, staring openly at Katie and Snowy. Evidently he didn't know that she was back, and neither did Sam and Mikaela, judging by the way they stared. The moment Jazz spotted Aldrin, he was on his feet and hovering anxiously near the berth Katie was on.
Aldrin didn't notice her immediately as Sam, Mikaela, and Bumblebee had. Instead, he read a stack of papers in his hand. Cautiously, after a quick look at the defensive stance Jazz had taken, he placed the humans on the other end of the berth.
Snowy, who knew that his owner wasn't happy with her father, fluffed his fur and was on his feet in seconds, ears flat to his skull. When Aldrin was on the berth, he fluffed up even further and let out a territorial hiss.
At that, Aldrin looked up. The first thing he saw was Jazz who loomed above him, despite being on the other end of the berth. Next was Snowy, and lastly it was Katie who sat bristling behind her cat. "Katie?" he asked incredulously, leaping to his feet and sending papers scattering.
Startled, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe hopped to their feet as well, taking in the suddenly-tense atmosphere of the med-bay. "Uh, we'll be going. See you tomorrow morning, Katie." Sideswipe said after looking anxiously between them. That being said, they beat a hasty retreat.
"Katie? What are you doing here?" He winced as Snowy's hissing took on a higher volume, effectively sending the chirping zebra finches into silence. Jazz's engine growled and he put his claws protectively on either side of Katie.
"What do you care?" Katie snapped back, causing her father to start in surprise at her angry tone.
"Katie," he said in a warning tone, and winced as Jazz's claws clenched, sending a screeching sound echoing through the med-bay.
"Don't try that tone on me." Katie growled, surprising everyone with the amount of venom in her voice.
"Katie," his tone had changed to a one of pleading.
"Have you considered how I felt when you locked me up?" she hissed, talking a step forward, and then another. Snowy stayed right beside her, ears still flat and walking stiffly. Then she was right in his face, nose to nose, blue-hazel eyes to blue-hazel eyes. "You've never spoken to me, though I've e-mailed and sent letters to you. Once I was eighteen, you disappeared from my life, and the next time I see you, I'm twenty-nine, and you pretend that nothing happened. It's like I didn't exist, and the only times you acknowledged my existence was when you gave me Snowy, and when you asked me to breakfast."
"Katie, no, I –" SLAP! Aldrin was spun around by the force of her slap, and he fell to the ground, staring up at her and holding one hand to his smarting cheek, staring up at her.
"Don't bull-shit me." Katie hissed. "You want me to be safe, that I know. You don't want my heart to be broken, I know that too. But sometimes I wonder if you are just an emotionless piece of–"
"Katie," Sam ventured, and Snowy turned on him, fangs bared with an angry yowl. "C-carry on."
Katie, however, didn't hear him. "You locked me away thinking it was good for me – no, not good, the best for me, but I bet you didn't consider that perhaps the best thing for me was to make my own choices! So listen here, Aldrin Keynes," the general winced when he heard her say his full name instead of calling him 'Papa.' "I'm still your daughter, but I'm still a person you know; treat me like a friend, not a criminal or a child."
With a flourish, she whirled around and walked onto Jazz's hand after picking up her laptop. She voiced a whistle and after hissing at Aldrin once more, Snowy loped over. The med-bay was silent long after they left.
Sam walked over and gave Aldrin a hand which he took after realizing that Sam was shoving his hand in his face for a few minutes. "Heh. She sure packs a punch, eh general?" Dazed, Keynes took the offered hand and hauled himself to his feet. "She must be pretty mad to start swearing like that."
"Yeah." Aldrin murmured, staring after his daughter.
"You have to admit, though. She has some pretty good logic." Ratchet muttered to Bumblebee who snorted after he was filled in on the conversation before they arrived.
"There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is Katie." The Camaro replied dryly.
Okay. The last bit of dialogue is based on a quote on logic I found, said by Edward Abbey: "There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is California." All the quotes in this chapter are found at www . brainy quote . com. Very useful at finding handy quotes. :)