Hello all! A thousand apologies for not posting sooner! School has been hectic and I basically worked as much as possible so I could finish out this semester. Needless to say, I've had this chapter sitting around for a while, and I didn't know where to go from there. But now, I have beaten the writer's block and gotten back on track! I hope this chapter isn't too boring, and I'm sorry it's so short. I love you all - thank you so very much for reviewing and such. And as always,

Enjoy~

With a sigh, I sat my breakfast down at the cafeteria lunch table, surrounded by Sam, Mikaela, Lennox, Epps, and some other marines. I continued forking food into my mouth all while staring Sam down. He hadn't spoken to me this morning at all except to say 'Excuse me' as he passed me in the hall. The tension between us was heightened, especially at this moment – the group was trying to have a decent conversation. However, Sam was making things difficult, as he wouldn't respond to anything I had to say. What brought on this sudden change in character I couldn't say – but I'd be lying if I said that my brother's behavior didn't bother me. It couldn't have been because of him catching Optimus and I lip-locked, he had already discussed that with me a few weeks ago. I couldn't come up with a reason for the entire awkwardly occurring breakfast, so as soon as I finished my food, I headed off to the hangar to see my Autobots. I'd have to talk to Mikaela in a little while to see if she new anything. Maybe it's because you aren't spending a lot of time with them. I thought to myself as I continued walking down the hallway. The thought was almost immediately dismissed; I do spend a good chunk of my time with Sam. I tried comforting myself, and not thinking of the possibility that Sam had changed his mind about Optimus and I within these past two or three weeks. The thought of Sam being against something like this made my stomach flip inside out.

As I approached the hangar, I felt an instant relief as I spotted all the Autobots hanging around the hangar. All of them towering above all the marines, talking to one another, the twins were off in a corner fighting as usual, and Ironhide was laughing with the marines. I found Optimus talking with Ratchet, and as I approached Ratchet walked away, leaving Optimus alone.

~*~ OP ~*~

I had awakened this morning with an uneasy feeling in my spark. The Decepticons had been too silent for too long – it didn't set well with my processor. I pondered for a few hours in my area of the hangar, pretending to still be in offline mode. What do the Decepticons have planned? I thought, completely convinced that they were planning something and waiting for the right moment. Finally after everyone else had recharged, I rose up and shook loose the tense wires from my chassis. I decided worrying over something that wasn't happening isn't good for my team or myself. I headed to the recharge area and grabbed some Energon – guzzling it down in a few moments. I sensed Ratchet's energy near me. When I turned, I saw him nearby looking at me. He gave me a questioning glance, and I merely shook my head while walking over towards the end of the bay. He followed me and stopped when we reached the end of the hangar. He turned to me before speaking.

"Optimus, I can sense your anxiety levels. What is troubling you?"

I exhaled hot air and cycled in the cool oxygen of earth, attempting to calm my processor. It took me a few moments before I could respond.

"I believe the Decepticons are planning something, and I'm not sure yet as to what it is."

Ratchet hummed while looking out to the area before us.

"I see. If I may speak freely – I would tell you this: there's no good in stressing your core. If you continue on a path of pure anxiety and worry, the end result will be a quicker trip to the Well of Sparks. Now I'm not saying be completely carefree either. However, you must not worry every nanoclick of every vorn. The possibility of Decepticons attacking us could be any vorn. As our leader, we believe in you and know that we will be ready when the time comes to fight. You are ready for an attack – whenever that may be. Take the others advice when it comes to these things and relax." Ratchet patted my shoulder and walked back into the hangar.

I stared off into the earthen forest as my thoughts wandered again, this time to more peaceful subjects. My processor took me back to yesterday evening when Delyia and I had shared her earth custom called kissing. My spark jump-started at thought of her lips on my holoform's, though it was my holoform doing the work I still felt everything through my own chassis. I felt things that night that I had never felt before, something stirring within the pit of my holoform's abdomen, It raised many questions with my processor but it felt right to my spark. What was this feeling that occurred, and why hadn't I felt it before?

"Optimus!" I heard a voice sing to me.

Turning I saw the femme herself walking up to me, a smile plastered on her beautiful face. I couldn't help it as my own dermas lifted. I kneeled down, holding out a hand for her to jump on. She complied, and sat as I brought her up to my optics. She grinned up at me and I could not help but feel a sense of warmth in my spark as I thought of her choosing to be with me. She is remarkable.

~*~ Delyia ~*~

I felt my heart beat fast against my chest as Optimus brought me close to him.

"How are you Boss?" I asked while placing a delicate hand on his metallic cheeks.

I could hear his engine whirr and grind.

"I am fine Delyia. How are you, my sweetspark?"

I raised a brow. "Alright. Sam hasn't spoken to me since last night. I don't understand why."

I certainly hope I did not offend him in some way. Granted, the situation he had witnessed would stir up some brotherly protection instincts – if my research is correct."

"But we've talked about it before, and he had no problem then. So why the sudden change?" I asked.

"The only thing I can think of is that talk is different than action. To witness his sister seemingly being taken away from him can cause one such as Sam to get upset."

"I guess I never thought about it that way." I pondered the concept for a few moments before turning back to Optimus.

"So, are you busy today?" I asked.

I saw Optimus's optics sadden as he vented out air.

"I am afraid I am. I am taking my Autobots out on patrol to see if we can detect any Decepticons; they've been too quiet as of late. We're set to head out in an earth hour, and I'm not sure when I'll be returning."

I nodded and smiled up at him to help ease his worry.

"Okay! No biggie, we can hang out when you get back. I'd like to spend some time with you, Optimus."

"Very well, where shall you and I go? What do humans do when they 'hang out'?"

I giggled at his innocence.

"Well, Optimus, I want to do something with you in your true form. I like hanging out with your holoform – don't get me wrong – but I know it's only an extension of the real you. I want to spend some time with the real you, like we used to." I smiled. "And if you want after we spend some time with you, your holoform can come out to play –" I felt my cheeks redden. "That sounded way dirtier than what it was meant to."

Optimus chuckled and set me down on the floor, "Very well my little spark, we shall spend some quality time together very soon. Hopefully I am not out too late tonight so that we may 'hang out' this very day. I shall see you soon my little Delyia – try not to get into too much trouble while I am away." His lips upturned and shook a small wave my way.

"The same goes to you Optimus, come back in one whole piece please!" I grinned and blew a kiss towards him before skipping off to find Mikaela.

If anyone knew why Sam was so upset with me it'd be her. As I walked through the halls and farther away from Optimus, I began to feel something uneasy in my stomach – as though something was off. My brow furrowed at the thought. What could possibly be wrong? I thought to myself as I knocked on Mikaela's door. No one answered, so I knocked again. After a few moments Mikaela opened the door and I saw Sam sitting on her bed behind her, when we made eye contact I felt a distance grow between us. My frown deepened and I looked to Mikaela.

"Hey I didn't mean to interrupt anything. When you have some time, could you come to my room to talk?" I asked.

"Yeah I can come by soo-"

"I was just leaving; you two can talk now if you want." Sam muttered before leaving the room.

I called after him as he walked down the dark hallway,

"Sam! I love you, please stop being mad at me and tell me what I did." I felt tears push against the corners of my eyes.

Sam turned back at me, his expression had softened some.

"I love you too, sis. I just don't think I'm ready to see my sister grown up and in a serious relationship with someone yet."

"Samuel that isn't a reason to be upset with me! I haven't done anything – I mean you're in a relationship with someone too!" I cried, upset that this petty reason was why he hadn't talked to me in almost twenty-four hours.

He shook his head. "It's different when you're so used to protecting someone and seeing them as a child, then one day they're making out with their newly found boyfriend."

"Sam! Don't be so rude!" Mikaela chastised him.

He shrugged and walked off, "That's just how I feel."

Flustered, I furiously wiped away the angry tears that flowed over my cheeks.

"I can't believe he's acting this way." Mikaela sighed, and placed a hand on my shoulder. She read my mind.

"I can't either, one day he's okay with it – the next he's acting like this! I don't understand." I cried.

"It's okay Delyia, he's a man and all men end up seeing that their wrong and apologize eventually. Just give him a little bit of time and he'll come around. Who knows? We could be laughing about this tonight for all we know!" She smiled at me and invited me into her room to have some girl time.

~*~ Optimus P.O.V ~*~

Dusk was beginning to settle over the earthen sky as we continued our search for some Decepticons. We had left on schedule and searched the nearby area for any sign of them, but to no avail. We weren't picking anything up on our sensors. However, I could not shake the feeling that we were supposed to find something – what that was I didn't know just yet.

"Prime we've been searching for almost an entire earth day – I don't think we're going to find anything." Ironhide grumbled.

"I cannot help but feel that we are supposed to find something tonight. I know not where this feeling comes from but I know that something is going to happen to-"

I did not even finish my sentence before we sensed something in the sky. All our optics glanced up, and that's when we saw it. A large ball of fire was heading down towards earth's delicate dirt. My spark fluttered as I realized that I was right – there was something we needed to do tonight.

"Autobots! Move out!" I commanded as we raced to get to the meteor.

How will we stop this? Not a single one of us can fly. I thought. No Prime, you must have faith. I shook the doubt from my processor as I willed my pedes to get me there as fast as possible. The Meteor inched closer and closer until it finally broke through their atmosphere, doubling it's hurtling speed towards earth.

"We aren't going to make it!" Ratchet shouted to me.

I glanced at him, not saying a word, then focusing back on getting to this meteor. We have to make it. I felt a pull to get to this flaming rock and I had to follow it. The rock suddenly shot down and collided with a forest only a few hundred earthen meters from where we were. I felt my chassis cycling in cool air to calm my thrumming spark as I stopped momentarily to watch the collision. Unlike other meteor videos I had seen, this one left no dust cloud, and there was no resounding booming. It was almost like our landings. I thought back to when we first landed here on earth, our pods never even lifted a speck of their earth dirt, just rolled until gravity stopped us. Could it be another Autobot? The thought sent my spark racing and I began to run for the rock again, my Autobot's close behind.

When we finally reached the crash site, what I saw was exactly what I had thought. A Cybertronian landing pod laid before us, it sparked and shot little spouts of Energon. Why hadn't I received any signals from the pod? I was confused at this, all the other Autobots had given off signals as they landed so why not this one?

"Why hasn't it opened yet?" I heard Jazz ask.

I looked to Ratchet; I had not answer as to why it wouldn't have opened yet.

"There must be something wrong. I'd need to take it back to base to fully examine it in order to make a fair assumption." Ratchet concluded.

I nodded, "Very well. How far are we from the base?"

"Only a few earth miles, I will radio Lennox." Ironhide spoke up.

Nodding to him, I looked up at the stars with a sigh. Please let this be something to help us against the Decepticons. I silently wished to the universe and to Primus – I just hoped it wasn't another Decepticon trap.

Once again, Thank you for all the support and I hope to put out a new chapter soon. Love you all! (P.S. - Sorry to disappoint about no 'love scene' don't worry it may or may not be coming soon.)