"Brooke! Wake up, sweetie!" My eyes opened to see my mom with a huge grin on her face. Sleep felt amazing and I definitely needed it. But when my mom quickly woke me up, I shot up, ready for battle. But she put a hand on my shoulder and calmed me down. Jace was sitting at the end of the bed I was on.
"It's midnight. The Autobots are 30 minutes away," she told me. My feeling inside suddenly beamed with warmth as I thought of seeing Optimus and the others again.
At the end of my bed was another pair of clothes. I grabbed the clothes and went to get dressed. They were a long sleeve black shirt, skinny jeans, and black boots. Luckily the clothes covered all of my bandages, so Optimus wouldn't be freaking out just yet. When I went back, mom was blowing raspberries on Jace's stomach, which was making him giggle.
I quickly scooped him up and kissed his forehead. "Are you ready to meet your daddy?" I asked him. Would your daddy be ready to meet you?
"Yeah, yeah!" Jace squealed out. I smiled at him and we all walked to the main hanger, where there was a wall open to the cold Russia landscape.
"They're in the atmosphere!" one of the workers yelled out. The warmth got warmer as I smiled at my family. I handed Jace off to my mom and told him that he needed to stay with her until I came and got him. I got warmer with each passing second and finally we saw a very large alien ship landing a few hundred yards away.
'Welcome back to Earth' I thought as the door to the ship opened. Four cars zoomed out and finally skidded to a stop right in front of us. I easily recognized who it was: Leadfoot, Ratchet, Bumblebee, and Optimus. They transformed right in front of us and I smiled at Optimus. He got an upgrade and he looked great, valiant even.
"Autobots! Welcome back to Earth!" Ackerman greeted. Everyone else was really too stunned and happy to say anything.
"Thank you for your warm welcome, President Ackerman," Optimus said, nodding at him. "And thank you for aiding our human family while we were away." Ackerman beamed.
"Welcome back, you guys!" Ironhide bellowed, giving Ratchet a big hug. Ratchet didn't look very pleased about it, which caused me to laugh. As soon as Ironhide said that, everyone began to run up to the bots, welcoming them back to Earth. I didn't move; I just stood there smiling at Optimus. Seeing him made me feel so complete again.
Finally Optimus laid his optic on me and smiled. I smiled back at him. He took a few steps forward the transformed back into his alt form. His holoform stepped out, looking at handsome as ever. But he definitely changed. His stubble had grown out, but it definitely was nowhere near as bushy as Ironhide's. He wore a dark red button-up shirt with black dress pants. His blue hair had also grown out and a few strands hung in his eyes.
He looked at me and held his arms open. I took the sight in my mind, since this was what I was waiting for for a year. I quickly ran towards him, ignoring all of the pain in my body. When I reached him, he wrapped his arms around me. He held me in a tight hug and kept kissing the top of my head.
"Oh, how I've missed you," I said into his chest.
"I have missed you too, precious one." He put a hand under my chin and tiled my head up. When I looked at him, he kissed me hard on the lips. His hands moved to cup my face and my arms wrapped around him.
Finally when I needed breathe, I pulled away. "Optimus… I need you to meet someone," I said. He tilted his head at me and let me go. I walked over to my mom, who was holding Jace. I took him from her hands and walked back to Optimus. "Introduce yourself," I told Jace. He nodded and looked at Optimus.
"I'm Jace Orion Pax," he said with a smile. Optimus' eyes widened.
"Is he…?" he asked.
I smiled and nodded at him. "Yes, Optimus. I carried him and… he is your son," I told him. Optimus had his eyes fixed on Jace and Jace did the same.
"May I hold him?" Optimus asked. I smiled and nodded. He took Jace from my arms and I just watched as the two stared in curiosity at each other. Jace's bright eyes seemed to glow brighter.
"Daddy?" Jace asked, looking at me. Optimus smiled a warm smile at him.
"It is nice to meet you, Jace. I am sorry I was not here with you for a long time. But I promise that I will never leave you again," Optimus said. Then his blue eyes flickered to me. "Nor you, Brooke." Those made me feel so safe; like I didn't have to worry about the Warriors ever again. And seeing Optimus with Jace in his arms… It was heaven. I eyed my mother who was mouthing 'disowned' at me. But I didn't care that Optimus wasn't proposing to me then and there. Just seeing him was enough for me.
"Brooke!" I turned to see my favorite guardian's holoform running towards me.
"Bee!" I yelled, jumping into his arms. He laughed and spun me around. "I missed you so much!"
"Tell me about it! It's so boring without you around!" he said.
"Hey Bee, I want you to meet someone. Remember when you said that we had a child to watch over?" I said, leading him over to Optimus and Jace. "Jace, this is Bumblebee. Bumblebee, meet Jace, my son." Bumblebee stared at me and at Optimus. Then he looked at Jace.
"Brooke you… you were pregnant?" he asked me. I nodded at him and he looked at Jace, who had a big grin on his face. "He looks just like both of you," he noted.
"Bee!" Ben yelled from across the hangar. Bee winked at me then ran to his godson. When they met, Bee quickly scooped him up in his arms.
"Brooke, will you hold Jace for a moment?" Optimus asked me. I nodded and took Jace from him. His holoform disappeared and then he transformed to his real self. "Autobots, we will stay here for tonight then leave midday tomorrow," he ordered. Everyone nodded then went back to their business. Optimus walked up to me and placed a hand down. I put Jace in his hand and let him look.
"You are like Uncle Hide!" Jace yelled out. Optimus chuckled and allowed for Jace to crawl all over him, keeping a hand by him at all times.
"Hey Brooke, can I talk to you?" I turned to see Akila standing there with a grin on her face. "It's nice to see Optimus bond so quickly with Jace."
"It's an Autobot thing," I explained. "Creator bonds are very strong, second only to twin bonds. A creator bond is even stronger than a sparkmate bond."
"I hope Ironhide will act the same way with our child," she said. Well yeah, I'm sure he-
Wait, what?!
My eyes widened and my mouth dropped as I looked at her. "No way," was all I could manage out of my mouth.
She chuckled. "I'm pregnant!" she said. "Now of course, it was done in a more human way than what you and Optimus did, but yeah! I found out while you were asleep in the med bay."
This was great! This child would be the first born on New Cybertron! And I would be an aunt! This is amazing! I hugged Akila and congratulated her, then she went to make sure Ironhide wasn't bothering Ratchet too much.
"Brooke, you look tired. Perhaps it would be best for you to get some sleep?" Optimus asked me. I nodded at him and he handed Jace to me while he transformed and activated his holoform.
That's when the anxiety hit me. Optimus would see my wounds. He would be freaking out and go to basically nuke the Warriors base. But right now, all I wanted was off this planet.
We took Jace and put him to sleep in my mom's bed. Optimus and I needed to talk, so my mom said it would be fine if Jace slept with her tonight. When we got to my room, Optimus' holoform disappeared then reappeared in just pajama bottoms. I had never seen Optimus shirtless and, let me tell you, I was missing out. He was very muscular and tones. Light flicks of blue chest hair were there as well. He climbed under the sheets and waited for me. There was an outfit waiting for me as pajamas, but it was a midriff white short-sleeve shirt and black shorts, which didn't help to cover my bandages.
So, I took my boots off and climbed into the bed with my jeans and long sleeve shirt. Optimus raised an eyebrow at me. "Are you not going to change?" he asked. I shook my head no. "Is something the matter?"
Ugh. Now or never.
I grabbed the clothes and changed in the bathroom. All of my bandages were visible. I took a deep breath and walked back into the room. As soon as Optimus saw me, his smile faded and a look of shock took over. "Oh Primus Brooke, what happened?" he asked, jumping out of bed. He started to touch my arm but I winced and pulled away. "What happened to you?" His eyes were narrowed and his teeth were gritted.
"Do you remember that group that wanted to keep Earth human? Two days before we were set to come here, they found us and… and they captured Jace and I. Their leader, Ryan Pace, used this form of torture to get information out of me." Visions of the day came into my head and Pace's smile haunted me. I started to cry again, reliving the pain. "He cut me open like a pumpkin and got information out of me." Optimus pulled me in his arms and soothed me while I cried into his chest.
"Relax, Brooke. I'm here. I won't allow any harm to come to you or Jace," he promised.
"They made a mistake and I was able to get out. Elita helped me escape," I said.
"Elita One?" Optimus interrupted.
I looked down. He looked so eager that she was alive. It hurt.
"Yes, and she's strong and nice and beautiful. I know you guys were once bonded," I muttered, still crying.
Optimus moved my head up again and looked me dead in the eyes. "Brooke Nicolle Walters. You are my sparkmate and you are the mother of my son. Yes, Elita is back, but our bond was severed. I am bonded with you, for life," he said. It made me feel a lot better. "Now, let me look at your wounds."
I held out my arm to him and he slowly unwrapped the bandage. When he saw the first cut, his eyes grew soft. When he continued up and kept seeing cuts, he began to be sad. He moved to my other arm and unwrapped the bandage quicker than before. Then he basically tore off the bandage on my leg and stomach.
"Brooke, he did this to you?" he asked. I slowly nodded my head, trying not to freak out at the sight of my wounds. He gritted his teeth and looked away. "I swear, I will find this man and rip him apart," he growled. This Optimus scared me. For once in my life, I was afraid of him. His voice was deep and laced with anger.
"I need your help putting the bandages back on," I said. Optimus turned back to me and slowly put them on, kissing every wound on my arm. When he got to the stab wound in my thigh, he lightly kissed it and then wrapped it up. He then kissed my stomach and lingered for a bit before wrapping it up. I moved to go lay down and he followed me.
When I got in the bed, Optimus pulled me close and climbed on top of me. He kissed me hard and traced his fingers along my bandages. Then he moved and began to kiss down my neck, lightly nipping certain areas. I moved to put my hands on the muscles on his back.
Finally he grabbed my hands and pinned them on either side of my head. He then looked up at me and smiled a sweet smile; but they sweet smile soon transformed and I was looking into the face of Pace. I was in that torture room again with my arms handcuffed to the metal bar. Then I felt pain in my stomach. I looked down to see the knife in me again. I could do nothing but scream.
"Brooke, please, it's me! Optimus!" Pace yelled with bright blue eyes. Suddenly everything started to morph back into my room with Optimus above me. When I snapped back to it, I scrambled to feel my stomach. Optimus lifted up to where he was straddling my hips. My stomach was fine and still bandaged.
"Optimus I-I… I'm sorry. I had a vision and I freaked. I'm sorry," I muttered. Optimus nodded and stroked my face with the back of his hand.
"I understand," he said softly, and went back to kissing my neck. I really couldn't do this, not now. I moved him off of me and he looked confused.
"Optimus, I'm sorry. That vision… I'm not in the mood for that. Plus, I've already had a kid before marriage, I'd like to keep my virginity," I said, as weird as that sounded.
Optimus looked surprised at me. "Is bonding not the equivalent to marriage?" he asked me.
"What? N-no, not on Earth terms!" I told him. "Is it the equivalent on Cybertron?" Optimus nodded his head. "So wait… That night, one year ago, when I asked you to spark merge with me… It was basically us getting married?" He nodded again. "So in your mind, we've been married for a year?" He nodded again. So all of the stuff mom accused him of was wrong! In his mind, we were married! "Wait, did you not see Ironhide propose to Akila?" I asked.
"I did, but I assumed you understood what bonding meant," Optimus explained. Oh my gosh, so this was all just a huge misunderstanding. "Brooke, if you want the traditional human proposal and marriage, I will make sure it happens. But I will need time to make preparations. For now, I want to take you home tomorrow."
Home. New Cybertron. Exactly where I needed to be. Home and safe with Optimus and Jace.
Optimus lay down next to me and wrapped me in his arms. His breath smelled like spearmint, which was my favorite.
"Brooke, look at me," Optimus ordered. I followed his orders and looked up. "Before you fall asleep, I need you to know something. I will be here until you wake up and I will protect you. You will never go back to that man again and I will never allow anyone to lay another hand on you."
"Optimus," I began. I had a question to ask him that I think only he could answer. "Why me? Why did the Primes choose me to do all this? To have to worry about the fate of another race and my son, when I should be worried about my first year of college? When I went back to normal life, I did feel normal for a few months. I had friends for the first time in my life. Why, Optimus, why?"
He rubbed his thumb on my face and kissed my forehead. "Oh little one, I asked myself the same thing when I was chosen to be Prime. I spent many solar cycles worrying about my place in the world and why I was chosen. But now I know that they chose me because I had the power to fight through anything that was thrown at me and still emerge as a leader. That's what being chosen means: it means you are a fighter. And I know you are a fighter, Brooke," he explained.
I snuggled into him. "Thank you Optimus. Thank you so much." I snuggled into him and soon I well into a deep, nightmare-less sleep.
And they're reunited! I don't know when the next chapter will be, as I am leaving tomorrow for a week-long vacation. Hopefully I have packed enough chapters in these past few days to keep you all entertained!