CHAPTER 25
Bold Moves and Reminders

"He's going to be okay..."

Mark nearly fell to his knees in relief as the medic, First Aid, stepped outside of the med bay a few hours later . He could feel Sideswipe's hand on his back, rubbing it gently. First Aid stared down at Mark for a moment, his optics twisting in recognition. "You must be the Mark I was told of, then?" Mark nodded his head "Nice to meetcha kid, you probably already figured out I'm First Aid." Another timid nod "Your old mech is going to be A-Okay, though he'll be in stasis lock for the next two days." He added.

"Is that normal?" Mark asked in confusion.

"After losing one of his energon lines like that? He's lucky he's pulling through at all." First Aid shook his head a bit "He's tough as pit though, I kept thinking I was going to lose him."

"And you almost did." Mark turned his head towards Coulton as he approached them slowly "And you, my good Autobot friends." He ignored the scowl that most of the group, with the exception of First Aid, had on their face at the word "friend" "Which presents you all with a problem." He grinned. "Because that would leave young Mr. Savoy without a guardian for two days. And I'm no expert on the foster care system, but I don't think that's going to fly well with them."

The first reaction that got out of the Autobots was Sideswipe who rolled in front of Mark protectively. Coulton had to take a few steps back as Sideswipe brought out one of his blades, a dark growl emitting from his systems. "He's got seven temporary guardians right here." Sidseswipe told him bluntly "You wanna call Dana up and try and get him taken away from us? Go ahead and try. I'll..."

Prowl held up a hand, carefully trying to calm Sideswipe down. "As I understand it..." Prowl began quietly "Markus's affairs are handled by Hound, and by his social worker, Dana Walsh." He then added "You have no right to kick Markus off this base. And I will need a solid reason to hand over someone who is under direct guardianship of one of my mechs."

"Luckily, I called her."

Mark watched as Dana entered, looking around the side of Sideswipe's leg. "I'm sorry, guys. You know I support this, I have ever since I knew Hound was serious." She explained, shaking her head "But I'm afraid that Mr. Coulton is right. Without a legally registered foster parent on-base who is... Not in a catatonic state. We can't keep him here."

"And he told you there wasn't one?"

Dana turned around, noticing Lennox was standing behind her. She frowned slightly, and nodded her head. "Well, that's funny." Lennox chuckled "Because I told Coulton that Hound and I had worked this out. My wife and I just renewed our foster parenting licenses over this past summer." He watched Coulton's face visibly fall "William and Sarah Lennox, you can look up the file and everything. I'll help the 'Bots take care of him until Hound is back online."

"Give me one moment."

As Dana left, Mark felt relief fill every pour of his body. "Colonel Lennox, you cannot be serious!" Coulton demanded "I can't be the only one who thinks that his reaction today proves the boy should have never come here in the first place." He added coldly "We're in a war, we can't have a child breaking down every time his friends get a booboo on base."

"What that proved is that he has a heart." Lennox snapped back "Mark and Hound have a deeper bond than you'd ever understand. I should know because I lived with an Autobot under my roof for a good five years." He cringed, thinking back on Ironhide "And his and Hound's is even deeper than mine and Ironhide's, because whether you like it or not, Hound is his dad now."

Coulton didn't waver in his harsh glare at Lennox, but lucky for the others, Lennox didn't waver either. "Colonel Lennox?" Lennox turned his head as Dana walked back "You check out. I'll let my superiors know that Markus is in your temporary custody until Hound is out of his comatose state." Lennox nodded his head "Can you come and sign some paperwork for me, please?"

"Sure thing."

As Will left, the Auotobots were left facing Coulton, whose face appeared to be red as a tomato. He shook his head a little bit, pointing towards Mark. "You must think you're really tough now, hiding behind your robot buddies. You don't belong here, none of you do." Coulton told them very bluntly "And like it or not, that's never going to change."

As Coulton stormed off, Sideswipe turned to Prowl. "Can I just cut off his smug head?" He asked with a scoff "I'd really like to put it up on a post and let the rest of the prejudice fraggers-."

"Sideswipe, calm yourself." Prowl replied calmly "If he heard that who knows how he could turn that against us." He explained as Sideswipe stood straight, and retracted his sword, grumbling under his breath "Mark, why don't you go off and do some homework." Mark frowned a bit "Hound won't be waking up early, and until Coulton is off-base again, I don't want you near him." He then added "I don't trust that man worth slag."

Mark looked ready to argue, but caught Prowl's look. This wasn't a "just in case", he was seriously worried Coulton might try something. "Alright... Alright, I guess so..." Mark looked through the window again, a small frown "You promise you'll let me know if he does wake up? Even a little bit?" He asked.

"We'll call you in if anything changes." Prowl nodded "Sideswipe, see to it he gets to his room safely."

With a small salute from Sideswipe the two were off towards Mark's room. After a long period of silence, First Aid crossed his arms. "I haven't been on Earth long. But am I the only one who doesn't trust that Coulton man one bit?" He questioned.

He knew by the look in the others optics, he was only one of many.

...

That evening, Mark visited his dad. Whether it be in the form of a stress-induced dream or not, that night he was on a bench in a park near their house in Washington, DC. At the end of the bench, his father sat, with a suit and tie on and his dark sunglasses covering his eyes. "You disappointed me, Mark." James Savoy removed his sunglasses from his face "How can you trust these mechs? Even begin to mourn over the possible death of one? Did you see what they did to DC?"

Mark was almost taken aback by the tone to his father's voice. "This isn't real, you're dead." Mark replied, his voice stammering a little "I don't live in DC anymore, I live in Texas." The man frowned a little "And I definitely don't need to listen to this from a figment of my imagination."

As Mark stood from the bench, he felt a force push him down. Savoy laughed a little at his son, but it was a deep, wicked chuckle. One he had never, and would never give in front of him in real life. Suddenly, he was upon him, putting his hands around Mark's throat. "TRAITOR!" Mark knew it was a dream now as he was trying to strangle him "You're nothing more than a traitor to your kind, Mark!" His face now warped, and changed into another familiar face - Coulton "TRAITOR!"

He didn't get much further than that before he was sitting bolt upright in bed. Sweat dripped down his face as he breathed in and out, trying to catch his breath. It had only been a dream, another stupid dream, yet he still couldn't help but feel shaken. He laid back on the bed, staring over at the clock, which blinked four-thirty AM at him. He sighed, hearing the sound of activity outside his room as the Autobots made seemingly made their way out of recharge, as they normally would around this time.

He sighed quietly, opening up the drawer of his nightstand and dragging the picture of himself and his dad out. Why was his dad still haunting his dreams? Why couldn't he move past the fact of what his father did, let alone how disappointed he may have been in him. He jumped as he heard the door creak open, and looked up to see Crosshairs standing in the doorway. "You okay in here?" He asked with a raised optic ridge "You were making a whole lot of noise in here."

Mark shuddered, did he talk in his sleep? Had he screamed? Either way, for some reason, it bothered him. "I just had a nightmare... About my dad." Mark replied, shaking his head "I guess after what happened to Hound I just... It dug up old wounds, or whatever." He explained, taking a deep, inward breath "It's nothing, I'll probably just go to bed."

Crosshairs frowned a bit, looking over Mark's statistics. Sure enough, he found elevated levels of stress inside the boy. For a moment, he moved to exit, but slowly stopped himself in his tracks. "Hound's alright, Mark. If you're still worried about that, don't be silly." Mark frowned a bit, and nodded in response "Or are you bothered more by the reminder of... Your other father?"

Mark didn't know how to respond without risking making himself look bad. "My other dad..." Mark nodded his head, frowning a little "I know, he was a jerk and all outside of around me. But still... When we almost lost Hound yesterday, it reminded me of what I went through back then too." He ran a finger over the picture a bit "And it sucked."

"I know, sucked for all of us. He scared everyone." Mark nodded his head at Crosshairs's notion "But as for having to relive that, I am sorry for that. No one should have to live through it twice." He then added "Is there anything I can do to make you... I don't know, feel better?"

"Are you going soft, 'Hairs?"

Crosshairs snorted a little, looking to the side at that. "Don't make a big deal out of it. I just... Like you is all." He stated flatly "He's my best friend too, so I figure I know how this feels more than the others." He shrugged his shoulders a little "So is there anything, or...?"

"I'm fine."

Crosshairs knew that Mark was being stubborn, but he only sighed. He knew of all mechs, he wouldn't be able to crack that stubbornness. "Right, I forget sometimes that you're a tough little bugger." Mark gave a little smile at that "Which is why I know your gonna be just fine, kid. So don't let it shake you up too much..." He then added "Got it?"

"Yes sir."

As Crosshairs exited, Mark carefully opened up the drawer again, and prepared to set the picture back inside. Yet, he stopped halfway, slowly reaching over to the nightstand and setting it on top. Maybe, just for the remainder of that night, he could use the smiling faces that stared back at him through the frame.