Running away from the giant robot had seemed like a good idea at the time. Emma had felt betrayed, angered, the adrenaline in her veins had forced her to either fight or flee and doing the one thing she was good at, she ran.

But after running a while she realized she had nowhere to run to. She could keep running, her feet were already taking her towards home. She could go there, accept daddy's apologies, give Lesley a kiss and forget anything ever happened. She could try and bury it all down, once again. But that had not worked before. It would not work this time either.

She had nowhere to go.

Calming down her pace she ran her hands through her wet hair. It was still drizzling and it was getting cold again. She would have to find a place to rest for a while and she was getting hungry too. Checking the contents of her pocket she found tiny crumbs from a granola bar and barely enough money to buy a sandwich. She could go to the city, get a bagel or something and try to figure this all out.

So, her future car had been a Transformer. That was a shocker. Although maybe there had been signs, now that she thought about it. All those incidents that she had passed as malfunctions? The heater getting on suddenly, the radio turning on by itself. Yeah, maybe she should have noticed something was going on. An idiot. That was what she was. She had trusted herself with a car, how should she have been able to know it was an alien robot?

Kicking her feet on the ground angrily, she seethed. The damn alien had probably spent hours upon hours snickering at her stupidity, playing around with her. Even after she had told how she hated his kind, he had still kept his secret. The Transformers were all the same. They didn't care about the humans, not really. Yes, the Autobots might say that they were protecting humanity, but Emma had no doubt they would do so only until they found something more "important" to do. She could only pray that the moment would be upon them soon. She could hardly wait until she'd get to see them climb on a space shuttle that would take them all away.

The café was nearly full, she hated it. Had always hated. Crowded spaces made her feel ill, they made scream internally and wish she could just die already. The line to the counter was long too. She tried not to care. Her heart was thumping and her stomach churned uncomfortably. She stayed anyway. She bought the cheapest bagel she could find and got out as quickly as she came. While she'd been in, the rain had finally stopped. It did little to help her situation.

She should just go home. What else could she really do? She had no money, she had no place to go. She should just –

A car honk dragged her out of her defeated thoughts and for a moment she was terrified it would be the car from the factory. It wasn't. It was a light yellow Volkswagen Beetle on the side of the road. The driver was someone she really didn't want to talk to.

"Hey Emma", Max said lamely. "Whatcha doing in here?"

She lifted her bagel wordlessly.

"Cool, cool", Max said. "So listen. I wanted to talk to you. You know, about your… car."

Emma stiffened visibly and started to squeeze the sandwich in her hand so hard it almost broke in half.

"You need a ride home?"

Sighing in defeat she said: "Sure, why not."

Sitting in Max's car wasn't as awkward as she had thought. It wasn't really nice either, but it could have been worse. Max was a careful driver, unlike some other hormone crazed teenage boys.

"So… how's your car project going? Is it… is it… is it still going?"

"No", Emma said. "The stupid piece of… rust… was a Transformer."

Max managed to almost ram his newly acquired Beetle on to the car before him.

"That's what it was?!" he squeaked.

"You knew about it?"

"The thing tried to run me over! See? This is why I told you the course wasn't good for you!"

Feeling angered by his behavior Emma growled in frustration. "Well you could have been a bit straight forward about it, don't you think?"

"Yeah. I guess you're right."

For a moment they drove in silence. Max had done good job with the car, or so Emma assumed. It was running smoothly.

"So, what are you going to do now?"

The question surprised Emma, although it probably shouldn't have. It took her a moment to realize she was crying.

"Oh man. Was it something I said?"

"No… No", she struggled to answer. "It's just… my life… my life's a mess right now, and I don't know what to do about it! I c- can't go ho- home 'cause I had a fight with daddy and I c- c- can't go back to the factory 'cause the car's a big bad liar and… and… and…" she sobbed, "I have nowhere else to go."

Max pulled the car to the side of the road. Emma huddled up against the seat like she had used to on the car at the factory, but it didn't feel the same. This car was not him. It was soulless, empty. She let out a pitiful wail and covered her face.

"The way I see it, you really have two options here", Max said calmly, looking up ahead, not facing her at all. "You can either go back to your old life. Try and get things work, talk with your parents – "

Emma scoffed.

" – talk with the big robot alien and… well, work things out."

"What's the other option?" she asked sullenly.

"You get out of here. Have a break. Run away."

That certainly sounded familiar. And familiar sounded good.

"Run away? As in away from home?" she asked. Running was what she did on daily basis, hiding was like a second nature to her. But she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to run that far away.

"Yeah. I mean, you're obviously not going to do that, right? You're going to go with the first option", Max said with a smile. When Emma didn't say anything, he started to look concerned. "Right? Emma?"

"I can't go back", she whispered, looking him in the eye. "Not yet. I… I need time."

He was just looking back at her, as if he was thinking about something important.

"You know, I might have a solution", Max said silently.

-o-o-o-o-o-

And that was why Emma had stayed on the front seat of the Beetle, watching as the scenery turned into a blur. She had called her daddy, telling she was going on a road trip. With Max. On an old Beetle.

Max had actually been planning on moving back to live with his mother. Apparently he had lived with his dad for a while, but it hadn't gone as smoothly as he had predicted. Something about the blended family, he hadn't been too keen on talking about it, so Emma hadn't pestered. It had been a deal that worked both ways. Max didn't ask anything personal either.

As good as the idea had felt at first, as they had been driving away from her precious home town, Emma couldn't help but feel like a coward. It was far from a perfect getaway.