Hey, sorry for the wait. Again. Going to get on with it.

Hope you like it as usual.


He was in a skeptical silence for a while until I spoke. "You can't have a true vacation until you're lost. So don't even think about sneaking some Google."

"What about Bing?" he asked, amused.

"Nope. Almost as bad as Yahoo. Once you start, you'll never want to stop."

"And your cell? If I can't, you can't." he accused.

"Go ahead, block my internet. I won't use it." I smirked.

"It's done. But I'm not giving up com usage." he warned.

"Just don't ask them to help figure out where we are. Otherwise, I'm fine with it." he pulled to a stop.

"Then what are we doing?" he asked.

"Well, we can either just follow signs, because we should at least know the general area, or we stop to get an old fashioned road map." I leaned back. "Take your pick."

He paused for a second. "Let's wait on the map." he compromised. "We'll do it by sight."

"Very well. Let's go." I grinned, analyzing the surroundings.

"Where are we going?" he asked before rolling forward again slowly.

"Hmm, we should probably get back to the base. We can always do this again later." I leaned back.

"You're right." he sighed. "It might take a while to get there though." I grinned.

"That's the plan. Let's stay on the speed limit." I suggested.

"Agreed." and he pushed forward again. "Can I at least figure out which direction is which?"

"I've got that covered. Sun rises in the east and sets in the west." I grinned.

"It's noon." he pointed out. I looked out the windows, realizing I couldn't really tell which direction the sun was leaning to.

"Oh. Well, let's just go this way for a while then." I smiled.

Suddenly, a song came on.

But where were they going without ever knowing the way

I grinned and leaned back. The perfect traveling song, except...

"I certainly hope we make it home." I mused.

"I do to, but it's true we don't know The Way." He chuckled.

"What if this song jinxes it?" I wondered. "We'll end up at the collage and Leo's going to freak out on us."

"I doubt-" he was cut off by another song starting to play. Not much of a song, just a random tune.

"Uh..." I dug my phone out. "Mom."

"Of course. I wouldn't ignore her." he warned. I sighed and flipped it open.

"Are you alright?" she asked worriedly.

"I'm fine. Why?" I asked in confusion.

"You haven't called in three days." I counted in my head. We left two days ago, and then there was yesterday with the fireworks.

"I'm not calling every day." I pointed out. "We've only been gone for two and a half days."

"You said you'd call and tell us when you'd be back. I'm not leaving this base until you're safely back."

"Bee takes good care of me." I pointed out. "You don't have to worry."

"When will you be back?" she demanded.

"I already texted you. Three weeks." I expected we'd have a 'few' distractions on our way back.

"Three weeks? Your father said you just text that you'd figure it out the next day." oh. Nice, Dad.

"No. We'll be back in about three weeks. And just because I don't call that day doesn't mean we're dead."

"But three weeks is an awful long time." she sounded distant.

"You don't have to wait at the base for us. Go home and come back, if you want to be there when we return."

"But-"'

"Gotta go now Mom. Bye." I quickly hung up.

"That was rude." he pointed out.

"She was just going to try and convince us to come back early." I set my phone down. "Or take up as much time as possible."

"But-" he stopped, thinking. "Your mom was just," he paused again. "Let's just ignore this. I've got nothing." that's because however rude I might have been, I was right. "How do you expect we take up three weeks to come back?"

"I don't know. Attractions? Sights? Where are we?" I asked.

"Somewhere in southern North Dakota, judging from the sign we just past."

"Mt. Rushmore?" I suggested. That's the only thing I know in the area, South Dakota.

"Sure. South we go." He switched directions and off we went. Sure enough, we could make a drive back home last three weeks. It included a few races, in which our opponents had no chance. When, in three weeks, we were pulling up to the gate, Sideswipe was waiting for us.

As soon as the security guard let us in, Bee transformed and set me on his shoulder.

"You two have some nerve, running away for three and a half weeks." he glared at us.

"Hey, sorry we gave such short notice. It just kinda, came up." Bee grinned.

"'Just kinda came up'. If I pulled something like that, they'd have someone after me within the hour to bring me back, conscious or not." he grumbled.

"But you don't have a human you've got to be taking care of." I pointed out. "His main job is to be my guardian. No one ever said where."

"You're lucky I like you." Sideswipe pointed a finger at me.

"Did you want to come?" Bee asked suddenly. I laughed suddenly.

"I told you we should have invited the rest of them after a month or two." I grinned at him.

"How long did you expect to be gone?" Sideswipe gasped.

"Three years." Bee answered, amusement seeping through the link again. I couldn't hold both mine and his, I cracked.

"What's so funny?" Sides demanded, watching me seemingly laugh for no reason and Bumblebee grin.

"Nothing. Just a little conversation we had earlier. Involving a group vacation, and Decepticons." Bee shrugged, walking around him toward the base. That specific conversation wasn't very humorous, but we were both still giddy from the vacation. "What've we missed?"

"Not much. We're still trying to track the Decepticon's movement. Soundwave is still in orbit, and our Cybertron team has reported back saying there's been more Decepticon activity out there lately." Sideswipe let his lecturing go and walked with us. "The scout we found before you two left hasn't left, but we're certain he hasn't attacked Telitraan yet. There haven't been any Decepticon attacks here on Earth, and Hound landed two days ago."

"Really?" Bee asked, surprised.

"No, I just wanted to see if you were listening." Sides smirked.

"Any news from your brother's team?" Bee asked. Sideswipe shook his head, looking away. He was separated from Sunstreaker and the rest of the team (Mirage and Red Alert) during a battle and came to Earth when he received Optimus's transmission after Mission City. "They'll turn up." Bee smiled to him.

"Anything else we missed?" I asked. "Has Galloway left yet?" Sideswipe snorted.

"We wish. He's here and just as annoying as ever. But, as you probably know, he's watching his mouth a bit more after his play-date with Lennox."

"Well, we're making progress aren't we?" I sighed.

"Yeah. Oh, and you should probably know your parents haven't left at all. Optimus tried to help assure them you'd be alright with Bee, but they're probably in there right now about to call you."

"Who all knows we're back?" Bee asked, confused. He'd called ahead so we didn't have a repeat false alarm.

"Only us. We thought it'd be a better punishment if you got the full force of Ron and Judy finding out you're back on your own."

"We, or you?" I asked.

"I don't see how that matters." he grinned, walking ahead and in the building. Bee hesitated, glancing at me.

"Don't even think about it. You're staying. I'm sure they've got something to say to you too." I stared at him seriously. He chuckled and sent affection down the link. I took it, sending acknowledgement. He chuckled again.

Upon entering, we found my parents there interrogating Sideswipe. He glanced at us.

"There they are, see?" he pointed, looking down at them. Mom completely forgot about him and ran our way. Bee set me on the ground, handing me to the sharks.

"Sam! You stopped calling!" she hugged me. Dad just stood behind her.

"I missed one day. My phone died." I defended. "But we're back. I told you Bee'd take good care of me."

"Except for that time-" Mom and Dad glared up at him, seeing where he was going with it. "What? It's a joke."

"Not very funny. We're staying another day Ron. I want to make sure Sam's still alright here."

"Judy, he's fine." Dad set a hand on her shoulder. "He's been living with these Autobots for a while now. He'll do alright." he assured. I could tell my parents had changed while we were away. They both are more comfortable around them, and Dad trusts them. "We can't stay longer, my vacation ends tomorrow. That's my last day, I've got to be back at work the next day."

"Call in sick. Tell them you picked up some rare diesis from Hawaii or something." Mom ordered.

"I told them we were going to Michigan." Dad said bluntly.

"Some rare dieses from Michigan." she revised. Dad shook his head and guided her toward the human door.

"We were leaving anyways. You're lucky you came back when you did." Dad called back to me, hauling Mom away.

"That went well. What put Dad in such a good mood?" I asked, climbing back into Bee's hand.

"He got in on William's betting while we were sparing. It wasn't a tournament, but he won." Sideswipe grinned.

"Who'd he bet on?" Bee asked suspiciously.

"The one and only champion." He showed off.

"You only won because I wasn't there." Bee scoffed.

"There's a reason Sam never wins." Sides insulted.

"Sam doesn't bet." Bee reminded.

"That's because he knows you'll lose."

"I wouldn't bet on that." I smirked. "I just don't want to be greedy." Bee sent my affection and pride, ruffling my hair.

"You're very loyal Sam." Sideswipe complimented. "You'd have to be to pretend he'd have a chance at winning."

"He's taken." Bee reminded, putting me back on his shoulder. I stuck out me tongue and Sides laughed.

"I don't want him. He talks back too much." he teased.

"You wouldn't love me any other way." I grinned.

"No one would." Bee agreed.

"Get a room you three." Arcee walked past.

"I hear yours is vacant at the moment." Sides shot back. She glared at him before entering another room.

"Is there something we don't know?" I asked curiously.

"Long story short, I talked Jolt into helping me paint her room florescent green." he answered, grinning.

"Poor Jolt, taking Sunstreaker's place." Bee sighed.

"Someone's got to do it, and Jolt was the best candidate-"

"All Autobots to the transmission room." Optimus's voice came on the speaker, then it clicked off. The door just in front of us opened and out came a pink motorcycle, speeding back past us and turning the opposite way we came from.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"I bet we're getting hailed from Cybertron again." Sides mused, following after her. He transformed and sped up.

"Well, something's certainly going on." Bee looked at me.

"We better follow them." I agreed. Bee set me down and transformed. I got in and he sped after them.


Sorry about just skipping most of their vacation. But that's what's mostly held me up, aside from not being at a computer often. So I decided to skip it so I could get the next chapter out. I might write a little side story that has those three weeks in it, but obviously not now.

I have started to edit all my chapters in all my stories, thought I've only gotten one chapter done. But I've started. Now is when all your reviews that have pointed out mistakes have come in.

R&R thank you to all of those who have reviewed this story.