Since you guys are being bummy with those damn reviews, here's another chappie!
"'Bee'sRadio."
"Talking."
"Thoughts."
Enjoy my lovelies,
-Squid:)
"Attention all passengers: Flight 280 to Las Vegas International Airport has now descended. Please be prepared to exit the plane," the flight attendant announced after the plane jerked to a stop. With a resounding ping that broke through the barrier of my grogginess, it signaled everyone aboard that it was safe to undone our seat belts. I undid mine before doing to the same to Aubrey and Jacob. As they woke up, Priscilla and I grabbed the carryon bags and help them off the plane by their little hands. The shuttle we'd taken transported us to the baggage claim area.
My roommate, children, and I stepped outside the terminal after receiving our bags to catch a taxi to Tranquil City. It was May and one of the most humid months of the year. The air outside was thick with heat and humidity and here Priscilla was bundle up in a cardigan and a scarf sweating her petite ass off. I looked around for the sign stating where taxi-transportation would be before turning to the raven haired female. "You know if you're hot, you could just take off your scarf, and your gloves, and your beanie. Oh! And how about your knit cardigan."
"I'm fine. It's not hot to me," she breathed out stubbornly, all the while wiping sweat off her brow.
"Oh, no. You shouldn't be hot at all," I bit back sarcastically, checking my phone for the temperature. "It's only, what—ninety-eight degrees outside. You must be freezing in your fur-lined interior boots."
"Okay!" She flushed easily ignoring my kids laughter. I'd tried to warn her about the impending heat. Hell, I even prepped myself and my squirts for it. But she thought I'd been exaggerating when I told her the temperature could reach up into the hundreds. She pulled off her gloves, scarf, and beanie and shoved them into her bag. A sheen of sweat cover her whole neck and part of her exposed chest. I could see the sweat stains discoloring the aqua colored graphic tee she wore. She huffed and grabbed a fist full of her bangs, before throwing her arms out in exasperation. "I can't possibly see how you could live in this! England never got this hot in the summer! Argh!"
"See," I told her, quirking a brow. "What'd I tell you?"
"Ah, to bloody hell with what ye told me! Let's just get in 'Bee already!"
"'Bee?" I glanced away from her sweatiness and toward the curb where there was, in fact, Bumblebee's alt mode quivering form from his engine rumbling in a greeting. I squealed feeling as giddy could be and launched myself at the front the yellow striped Camaro, ignoring the onlookers at the odd affection I was showing the car. "I missed your cute bright ass," I murmured against his roof and kissed it. I spread my arms out wide, pressing myself closer to him in an attempt to give a hug. He vibrated in approval.
"Mooooooommmm!""Gross!"
"Save the affection for later! You're getting funny looks for groping a car," Priscilla hissed. The driver's seat of the bumblebee themed car popped open. 'Bee's holoform stepped out, giving me my favorite lopsided grin and made his way around the car before embracing me in a fierce hug.
"He's a hot car. Sue me," I grumbled into his chest, taking in his scent of motor oil and honey. Iknowit'sanoddcombobutitsmelledawesome. A guy passing by leered at me, casting me what was supposed to be a sexy smirk. The guy's look slackened once he saw the intense stare he received from my boyfriend. A snarl ripped through his throat and chest and rumbled along with his engine. I smirked back at him smugly and brought 'Bee down by his neck, pulling those full and pouty pink lips that I missed with painful yearning into a searing kiss. It was always such a turn on when 'Bee got mad or growled in anyway.
"I missed that growl," I mumbled against his lips. A smile tugged at corners of mine when I ran my fingers through his silky and dirty blonde hair and eventually wound them around his neck. His muscled arms pressed me closer to his form, practically molding my body into his as his arms tightened around me. His face nuzzled the spot just below my earlobe; his warm breath tickled my skin and caused it to blush madly.
"I missed my sugarplum," he whispered. He brought his face back to mine. "I'm so glad you're back."
"I am too. I don't like keeping our family separated." Even though I had to leave ina week to my new job. At the mention of the word 'family' his eyes, and headlights, brightened drastically and his eyes slid over to his offspring they on their luggages talking to each other about Primus-knows-what. Priscilla, standing next to them, waves slightly at Bumblebee.
"Hey, 'Bee." She awkwardly stuck one hand out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. He rolled his eyes and snatched her into a hug and ruffling her hair.
"Y' need to loosen up a bit, Pri."
"Did you just call me Pri?"
"Yeah. I don't feel like sayin' your whole name." He shrugged and squatted down so that he was eye level with Aubrey and Jacob. They tackled him in a one armed embrace while he hoisted them on his hips.
"Daddy!"
"How's your flight ,squirt?" Jacob went on animatedly about weird it was for him to flying for the first time. He was always more talkative than his sister was so it was quite understandable for him to answer most of the question. Plus, Aubrey had just fallen asleep on her Pop's shoulder. I smiled at their interaction and helped Priscilla loaded her stuff into the back of 'Bee's alt mode.
"Shouldn't lover boy be helping us with this?" My roomie gestured to the luggage surrounding our feet and in the trunk.
"Good idea—hey, 'Bee? Can you help us put this in your trunk?"
"Sure thang darlin'." I sometimes wonder why he always insists on talking in a southern drawl–not that t isn't hot. It's quite sexy.
Eventually, we decided to get in the yellow Camaro and made our way to our first destination. We stopped my old house which and thank God, Raul and Paulo were only there. Apparently Shara and my mother had gone shopping for summer items that were on sale at the mall downtown. It was 'must'. They, my stepdad and stepbrother, we're equally as freaked out as I was when the twins showed them what they were capable of. 'Bee was quite smug of Jacob being an Autobot and I could tell he didn't want his little girl to become. Who knows how he'll react if she was one and actually had to fight a Decepticon. Hell would freeze over before he let that happen. After the quick trip, we headed to our final destination. The NEST Base. It took us about three hours to get there because we had to stop at iHop for breakfast and eat at the restaurant because we weren't allowed to eat inside 'Bee. IswearthatbotismorehighmaintenancethanSharawas–is. He was afraid the butter and syrup would stain his interior. That was nothing a little washing couldn't fix.
We drove through the large doors of the main hangar that were bustling with a few soldiers. Sideswipe, and Will (according to 'Bee, they sometimes relocate to their base in New Jersey) strolled up to us, each grumbling about the weather. Lennox tapped on the tinted window of Bumblebee flashing us a smile. I greeted him with my own and a hug once I exited 'Bee. He did the same to my friend.
"Hello Priscilla, Dahlia." He slapped 'Bee on hood in a greeting. "Welcome back, Bumblebee."
"Lennox! How's my favorite soldier been?"
"I'm swell. Just swell. How 'bout yourself?"
"These two," I started, gesturing to Aubrey and Jacob, "have been keeping my life just as freaky as ever."
"Is this..." he trailed and knelt down to their level like my love had done earlier today and as if to ask whether or not these were the children I had those few years ago. I nodded.
"Guys, this is Aubrey and Jacob. Aubrey, Jacob—that's Will Lennox and Sideswipe. He's my guardian." Jacob tapped the top of my calf to get my attention.
"Are they metal like I am?" before I could answer Sides spoke up.
"He's a bot, like bug bot here and the rest of us?"
"Pretty much." You wouldn't believe how hard it was to explain why your kid had metal living inside of him when going through the metal detector at the airport. I had to make up some excuse about him having a rare disease that cause his body to produce that. It didn't make much sense to me but somehow they seemed to buy it. For now. "He's been like that for a year now." I picked up Aubrey and cradled her sleeping form, hearing the whirring and clicking noises of metal grinding together as 'Bee transformed into his bipedal mode. He'd already used his holoform to unload our bags from his trunk and proceeded to carry them in his four digit hand.
"I thought I was your favorite," 'Bee's radio sputtered through his nozzle cap.
"You're my favorite bot soldier. There's a difference, babe." He slumped in defeat. I shook my head at his behavior. He'llnevergetoverhisjealousytowardsWill.
Lennox patted him on the foot as if to reassure him something. "I know how ya feel. Women are strange creatures. Now, C'mon. Mikaela's been waiting to see you guys." I ignored his comment about women and picked up Aubrey. I set her on the edge of my hip while Jacob held my hand and followed Lennox and Sides to the shooting range with 'Bee's thunderous steps beside us and Priscilla trailing next to me. Ironhide stood over Mikaela's slender form clicking the safety on his guns and showed her a large target-practice sheet. Ihavenoideawhatthosethingsarecalled. She groaned, tossing her hands in the air with frustration before stuffing her handheld gun the holster at the side of her dark denim jeans.
"Trouble at target practice?" Priscilla asked. She turned to smirk at her and then smiled at the both of us before her eyes rested on the two large bundles I held onto.
"Aw, they're so cute!" Mikaela cooed. Aubrey nestled her cheek into the crook of my neck as Jacob hid behind me slightly. She crouched down next to him. "Hey, little man. I'm Mikaela, a friend of your mommy's and the big scary bot behind me is Ironhide. If he growls at you, ignore it. He's just old." Said bot had been transforming his arm into a canon and repeated the process a few times before processing what she said.
"What the slag! I ain't fraggin' old," he growled. But of course everyone, which includes 'Bee, the twins, Priscilla, Mikaela and I—Lennox went back to his duty—ignored him.
"Anyways, where's Sam at? He has to meet the twins," I said excitedly and shifted my little girl to my other hip. She'd started to get heavy on the left side and made my hip numb.
She looked around awkwardly and it seemed that all the mechs tiptoed as quietly as they could—which wasn't that much—out the room. My roommate and I looked at each other. Something was either going on around here or something happened that they weren't telling us and I could tell Priscilla and I had thought the same thing. "Are we missing something?"
"Sam and I...well we broke up."
"What?""Why?" Priscilla and I asked in unison. We were equally shocked about the news. Those two had been madly in love the las time I had seen them. Hell, they were almost as bad as 'Bee and I were. But they broke up? What the frag?
"Who dumped–stop that!" I chided my son once I saw him transform his arm into a canon similar to The Weapons Specialist. Great,hisfirstdayinthestatesandhelearnshowtoassembleagun. Next thing I know, he'll probably be testing it out on a tree or something.
"Sorry, mom."
"Okay, so who dumped who?" Priscilla picked up for me.
"I dumped him."
"Why?"
"Sam couldn't hold down a job and I was the only one bringing home the bacon. I couldn't live with him mooching off me without giving anything back so I just ended it. It wasn't really going anywhere."
"Was he okay with that?"
"I'm not really sure. He hasn't spoken to me since then and that was last year."
…
A week later, here we were again back the airport. We already sent my boxed things to Leo's apartment. Priscilla had sent hers straight from England which was why we had to go back to Nevada. Today's the day we head to Washington D.C. to start our new jobs with Hotchkiss Gould Investments. We already checked out bags in and Priscilla stood just a ways away to give us some privacy to say our goodbyes. Jacob and Aubrey were crying because they didn't want to leave their dad and frankly I didn't want to leave him at all either.
"Please don't cry, sugarplum," his holoform pleaded. His hands grasped my shoulders gently and my hands placed themselves on his shirt coved chest. "Please don't cry. This ain't the last time you'll see me."
"How do you know that?"
"'Member what I told you? We're relocating to the base in New Jersey and there maybe be a possibility that there maybe be a secret one in D.C. that acts as an embassy."
I slapped him hard in the chest. "Why didn't you tell me this before? I could've saved my tears for later like the next time I see you or if something bad happens!"
"I'm sorry, 'Lia. I did tell y' tho'," he remarked, shrugging slightly.
"Flight328toArlington,VAnowboarding."
"I have to go," I murmured inching my mouth closer to his. "I love you, Bumblebee." I gave him a soft and chaste kiss on the lips and then his cheek, prepared to pull away only to be pulled back by him. He deepened the kiss, tightening his grip on my shoulders and me doing the same to his shirt. The raw passionate emotion of the kiss gnawed at my heart and increasing libido, not wanting me to pull away. But I needed to. The clerks at the desk announced the flight once more saying that passengers were now able to board the plane. I tore myself away from him, knowing I wouldn't be able to if we continued and stared into his vibrant light blue eyes.
"I love you Dahlia." I sat there for just a few minutes staring at him. It wasn't just the raw emotion tugging at my heart. It was something else that I couldn't put my finger on. It something that made me want to stay with him.
"'Lia." Priscilla's hand grazed my elbow. She pulled me. "We need to go, now." I nodded, feeling myself being pulled away by her and onto the plane. We sat down in our assigned seats. Jacob and Aubrey sat in the inside next to me. Priscilla sat behind me. A plump lady sat down next to me, smiling at my barely puffy eyes. I remember she was the person in front of us to check her luggage in.
"You're each other's everything?" She looked to be in her mid-forties and was more to love. She wasn't fat, just a bit chunky. She seemed like a nice enough lady from her laugh lines around her eyes right down to her simple black slacks.
I turned to look at her. "Huh?"
"He's your all and you're his everything. You love each other." I smiled at her observation.
"You're right."
"Then why are leaving your..."
"He's my soulmate," I told her. I didn't feel the need to call him my husband because we weren't married. He was more than a boyfriend to me and a lover as well. He was–is my life partner. I didn't need some legal document to tell me that either. "I'm leaving because I got offered a got out of state. We need the money, especially to raise two children."
"Then, I hope all goes well for the four of you. I've never seen young love so strong with the addition of children. Normally, your generation of males would've ran off."
"Well, you could say we weren't normal," I said grinning at her and the irony of that statement.
…
"Well, don't you ladies look lovely today." Leo approached us in plain tee and dark jeans with his arms opened wide. His hair was unkempt as the last time I saw him and had that same goofy grin on his face.
"I'm not a lady," Jake grumbled his spot beside me. He stuck his tongue out Leo before sticking his thumb back into his mouth. Aubrey giggled at his annoyed behavior from her stroller, earning a smile from her new friend.
"Well, at least one kid likes me. That's all that really matters!"
I snorted at him, while Priscilla rolled her eyes. "What about our opinion?"
"I already know you guys like me so it doesn't matter."
"How do you know she likes you?" I pointed to my former roomie from England. She smirked at him as if he'd never come up with an answer for that. But I know Leo. He would probably make some kind of flirting gesture out of it. "She could hate you for all you know."
"Trust me, she has the hots for me." He waggled his thick, black eyebrows suggestively and picked up one suitcase. "She know wants a piece of this." I saw her roll her eyes but couldn't ignore the deep scarlet blush spreading across her cheeks and on part of her neck.
"You are so full of it," she mumbled, and loaded her stuff into the back of his jeep. "And I'm only blushing because it's cold outside. The wind is biting my skin."
"I'm not really sure what you meant by but I'm considering it a step in the right direction of winning your heart mi amor," he said putting his car in drive to take us back to his apartment.
…
I tiptoed my way to the front desk in my high heels with Priscilla hot on my tail in this damn white pencil dress that was required to wear at this damn job. Leo worked from home so he was able to drop us off and take care of Aubrey and Jacob until I could get them enrolled into school, which wouldn't be for another few months. But I already hated this job because I had to wear white. Primus! I hate the color white!
"Ah, you must Dahlia Monroe and Priscilla Smith," came a slightly deep and suave masculine voice from behind us. The man had dark, curly black hair and wore a black blazer with a blue and white pinstripe shirt and dark wash jeans. He had a smile of arrogance and smugness as if he knew something I didn't. I ignored my pending suspicion of him and pushed it to the back of my mind.
"Yes, that's us," I replied, trying to sound as proper as can be.
"I'm your boss Dylan Gould. CEO of Hotchkiss Gould Investments. It's a pleasure to have you join our team. I would show you the facility but I can't at the moment due to me being late for a meeting," he said, each kissing us on the cheek. Priscilla and I looked at each other. Whatthefrag? "Now if you'll follow me Priscilla, I'll give your work schedule and your first task and be on my way. Dahlia, Carly Spencer will be out with you in a moment." With a nod, he left with my friend and in place stood a tall, my height, blonde with impeccable makeup and voluptuous pink lips. She stood in her white dress as well, smiling amicably at me.
"Hi. As Dylan has probably told you, I'm Carly Spencer." Oh,she'sBritish! She stuck her hand out to shake mine. I complied. "I don't really consider you to be assistant so I won't treat you any differently. You're another curator like I am even if it's not your record job title. As long as you look gorgeous everyday, which obviously isn't a problem, and complete the tasks given to you, you should be perfectly fine."
"I guess I could do that." I shrugged my shoulders. She beamed even more.
"Excellent! Let's get you started on your first assignment."
Carly gave me my first thing on the job as taking inventory of this guy's car collection and art collection within the first few floors. And here I thought, ohthisisgoingtobesoeasy.Ha! Boy was I wrong! This guy had 150 cars just on the top floor of the garage. Don't get me started on the floors below it. Anyways, inventory had taken a little around three hours to do considering Dylan had everything electronically set up so that I didn't have to hunt to the cars to actually see if they were in their correct parking spots. I headed back up to the main floor carrying the tablet containing the inventory catalogue in my hand. "Hey, Carly. I finished the invent…" I trailed off staring ahead of me. "Samantha!"
Carly bit her lip to stifle her giggles. He looked equally as surprised, and embarrassed, to see me. "Oh, please don't call me that," he groaned. "I tried to escape that in high school and college! I don't want to experience that all over again."
"I will when you stop acting so sensitive, Samantha." He blushed puffing his face out in frustration. "Get your damn panties out a twist! I'm only teasing. I know your not the same girl you used to be." He sent a playful glare my way that couldn't have melted an ice cube.
I grinned back at him. "I'm not entirely sure I like you right now."
"Love you too, Sam."
Carly's British accent cut in through our witty banter. "How do you two know each other?" Sam and I looked at each other.
"Does she know about..." I hoped my question gotten through to him. He nodded.
"Yeah, but just briefly," Sam hinted. "No real details."
I turned back to her. "Let's just say we share a bond with an alien race," I told smiling as convincingly as I could. She eyed the both of us. "If we ever get the chance, we'll tell you in private." I glanced around the white, capacious room seeing an old lady pretending to be working but looking like she's trying to ease drop on our conversation. I'mgonnahavetowatchher.
"How'd you know Sammy?"
"We live together." My brows rose passed my hairline. "He's my boyfriend." That'sashocker.
"Sam!" Dylan's voice rang out from behind me. He smiled a greeting at me and then at Carly. He walked up, sticking his hand out from Sam to shake. "Dylan Gould."
Sam hesitated before complying. "Hey... Pleasure to meet you," he said politely.
"Pleasure meeting you. I see you've met the new assistant curator here, Miss Dahlia Monroe."
"Nah, we already knew each other." Dylan's eyes lit up as if that had confirmed something.
"Ah, well then. Howd you two meet?"
"Uh, y' know. High school," Sam stammered. Heneverwasagoodliar.
"Hmmm okay. Carly's told me a lot about you," Dylan said sauntering away from the little group we formed to set his tablet down on the white desk. Sam turned around, following his movements a bit.
"Well, vice versa. It's a beautiful building you got here. Like a starship enterprise," Sam began to flatter my boss. He wasn't lying, though. It was exquisite.
Dylan laughed as if he knew this already. "Thank you very much. Uh, before Carly, and now Dahlia, came to help run the collection, it was just a complete mess." He gestured wildly to everything around him, while Carly looked quite bashful about her feats. Sam looked on verge of saying something sarcastic. "The restorations are back on track. We're going to Pueblo Beach this year and we're going to get a trophy for that stand right there." Dylan used his pointer finger to gesture to the stand holding silver trophies of various events up against a wall. "Y' know why? Because this woman right here...is my secret weapon."
Dylan walked back to his desk with that creepy old lady standing next to him. "Mr. Gould, please. You're exaggerating!" Carly denied being cocky respectfully. Homegirl'salright.I'llgiveherthatmuch. "I'll I've done is get you organized."
He sashayed back towards us. "Oh you have done much more than that, my duchess." A deep snorted emitted itself from the back of my throat and nose. What the fuck? Duchess. Duchess! He's probably hittin' that if can call her duchess and get away with it from Sam and Carly.
Sam practically raised on his toes on that one, and let a breath of air. "Nicknames," Sam sounded just as surprised as I felt. "That's fun." Carly grinned innocently at him.
"Yeah. The duchess."
"She's adorable," said the creep.
"Y' know when I stole her away from the British Embassy, I say it's easy to manage a country. Try managing a priceless collection of art." Dylan walked over to a red classic that was long and curvy. "Take a look at this 1939 Délayé Juan 65 Cabrillolae. Designed by a French artist." His gaze shifted to his duchess. I had a feeling he was no longer speaking in terms of cars. "Look at the curves. Elegant, isn't it? Beautiful. Sensual. Built to evoke the body of the ideal woman." He smirked at Sam. Sam looked back at him and then at Carly. Dylan walked away but called after us. "C'mon!"
I tittered next to Sam and smacked him in the arm. "You have officially become a bitch! He just keep flirting with your girl and your gonna sit back and watch? What happened to your man-balls?"
"Believe me, I'm just as irritated as you are," he hissed back.
"Do something."
We followed him into the place I had come from not to long ago. "My dad had a ten dollar desk and a dream and built it into an empire."
"Wow," Sam's laugh came off a lit beat and sarcastic.
"We're the largest accounting firm in the U. S. I started it up after he past. Best in the future. Y' know," Dylan bragged as Sam found the shadow box containing lots of photos of his girlfriend hugged up with her boss. Awkward. "Try and bet on the winners. See, collecting cars, helps me keep my sanity."
"Oh, then you must be insane," I mumbled under my breath. Sam and Carly caught it, both coughed out laughs.
Sam looked about ready to attack Dylan at all the photos. His expression read, 'what the fuck is this?' "You guys look...great," Sam stressed, bucking his eyes a little before stiffly walking away. They started to have a conversation of their own of different photos.
"Oh, that was a great day Mr. Gould."
"I haven't seen that one."
"No, me neither."
"Jeans are tight." Sam let out a breath of tense air. I rubbed my hand on his back.
"There, there, Samantha."
"You're not helping."
"Sorry."
Carly ran up to Sam and threw her slender arms around his neck. "You ready to go?"
"As ready as I'll ever be."
Before they got any musher I interrupted their conversation. "Hey, do you mind giving Priscilla and I a ride back to our apartment?"
"Of course!" Carly responded for him. Yeap,hisballsgottakenfromhimandnowCarlymustthemanofthehousehold.Sad. Sam just groaned.
"Okay, well, go get her and then meet us out front." Sam grumbled.
After locating my roommate with the help of my boss and a few other employees, I found Priscilla in the cafeteria area talking with a bunch of grease monkeys about who knows what. I convinced her to leave, finally, exited the main entrance of the whole white edifice. Sam was at the bottom of the steps, groaning in embarrassment once more. "Here we go. Y' see that?" he asked his girlfriend.
"That's judgement. Judging a man by his car. And your going to wave at him while he's judging me." That's when I finally noticed his car wasn't the yellow Camaro that was my boyfriend. What the shit was that? It look like a bulkier and non sexier version of 'Bee. It was horrendous.
"Your car is really a piece of shit," I snorted, with head shake and ignored Priscilla's "don't put it like that" in the background.
"Thank you for contributing to his judgement!" Sam almost shouted at me.
A/N: Don't worry. The drama is about to pick up in the next few chapters. At least this one was longer than ones I've been posting. I hoped my lovely readers enjoyed this chappie!
So review already! Slag it! Review or you will be forced to suffer an attack from Sporky the Spork!
Bye bye!
-Squid:)
