My eyes found Will's light brown ones through the window next to me. A solemn look on his face didn't settle well with me, knowing he was pitying me for my predicament. Hide opened the door and allowed Will to slowly approach me.
His warm hand carefully enclosed around mine. "Aubrey, would you like to tell me what happened?" The kind and soft expression on his face wanted me to explain for my mood, but the ornery part of my personality told me 'no'. I barely shook my head and hugged myself tighter, pulling my hand away from his.
"That okay, if you want to tell me, you will." Will turned his attention to the center console since Hide deactivated his holoform. "Could you take her to the Rec. room? Make sure there's a soldier there with her." I didn't want to be alone with someone I didn't know. That's the last place I wanted to be.
"No," I mumbled softly and shook my head more noticeably. "I need work." With my mind in the state it's in, I needed something to keep me busy.
Will nodded his head, a little bit surprised. "I can find something for you to do. Thanks, Hide." My friend takes my hand again and gently leads me out of Hide's alt. mode. "Prowl probably needs help with some datapads. He'll need someone with a rational mind and common sense. You up for that."
I dipped my head and allowed him to pull me away from the bulky truck behind me. Before entering the large hangar of working soldiers, I gave Hide a goodbye wave after he closed the passenger door.
The size of the main hangar still made me awe at the sight of it. It can comfortably fit all the Autobots in here with extra room for them to stretch. At the front was a catwalk bridge with soldiers walking and working about it.
We strolled up to the black and white S.I.C of the Autobots. "Hey, Prowl, do have any work for Brey here to help you with?" Prowl turned to face us with a large tablet in his hand. His gaze settled on me, he seemed to be judging me, seeing if I fit enough for the job.
This caused me to take my hand away from Will's and stand up straight with my shoulders back and head high. After of being an officer of the law for about eight years, your training will kick in automatically.
A proving smile appeared on his lips, an extremely tiny one, before it disappeared. "I do, if you're up for it." Was he challenging me? It was not a good idea to challenge me because I will do everything in my power to defeat my opponent.
"I am, Sir," I responded, voice confident in my skills.
"Follow me." I continued to hold my head high and shoulders back while following him. Prowl lead me over to a table with a single computer on it. There wasn't anybody over gladly so I could work in peace with whatever he'll have be doing.
"Since you work with the human officers of the law, I need you to go over the citations I have issued to both human and Bot. A lot of the soldiers here like to break the rules set in place for them." Prowl sounded irritated of human nature. I chuckled quietly to myself and shook my head.
"You should have learned that humans like to push the limits of what they can and cannot do. It's like in their gene to do that, even us officers like to break laws. Everyone once has broken a law, including yourself." He looked so offended by me say that he has broken a law.
"I have not, for your knowledge." I raised an eyebrow at him but brushed off the lie he totally told. Prowl set up the computer on the table for me to get to work on and keep me busy. "For the citations, check if they have done what they have been punished for."
That sounded easy enough for a newbie to do. "I understand, thank you." He dipped his head before leaving me to do the assessment he gave me. I got to work on making sure if the soldier has done his time and typed on Word for the ones that haven't.
Fun enough, while doing this, a couple new ones appeared at the bottom. The Twins name's were scattered throughout the list, which surprised me a little bit. They didn't seem too much of a troublemaker in my eyes but I guess they act different on the base.
It did strike me as odd that Sunstreaker was on here, less than his brother but still on here. He's a good ma-mech, nearly forgot he and his twin are sentient robots from another planet. But why do I get weird feelings when around them?
Stop thinking about them! Do your work and get it done quickly. I focused back on making sure every non-punished soldier was writing down with the date they're suppose to fulfill their end. Some were late, those ones were written down at the top so Prowl could make sure they were the first seen.
It was later in the day, the sun touching the horizon when the black and white mech came back to check up on me. All the work was done by that time and he seemed impress even though he doesn't show much emotion. "Some of the soldiers haven't fulfilled their punishment and I put those at the top. All are in alphabetic order by last name."
"Good work, if you ever think about quitting as an officer, I would take you within a spark beat. You work well." I thanked him and followed him back over to where Will was talking with Epps and Fig.
"How you feeling? You're looking much better," Lennox questioned.
A smile grew on my lips. "Good, I'm ready to go home."
"We'll take you home then," a familiar voice stated behind me. My breath caught in my throat at the sound of Sides's voice and my stomach fluttered.
All three of the army men stepped up and put on a brave face. "Boss Bot told you to leave her alone for a while," Will grounded out.
Before this could escalate and become worse, I stepped in and put myself between the Twins and the group of three. "Hey, it's fine. I'm good. I just needed sometime away from them." The three gave me a look and crossed their arms over their chest.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. See, I'm all better. I just had an episode and will be going back to work tomorrow for an uneventfully day." Epp's glare hardened on the two behind me. "I'll go home tonight and everything will be fine." I truly didn't know why I was doing this after what happened earlier.
Gladly the three gave in and allowed Sides and Sunstreaker to take me home. "I'm sorry about pushing myself on you. Everything was going good so I thought it would be fine."
"And he thought wrong," Sunstreaker butted in and his voice sounded inside of Sides alt. mode.
"Yes, I did. But do you think you could forgive me? I'll give you space but please let us stick around," Sides begged and tightened my seatbelt. I sighed and gazed out at the window next to me.
My heart wanted to follow Zeke's word of giving them some trust and seeing what they do with it. The rational side of my brain was saying no and telling me to get far away from everyone. But I didn't want to be alone with my dogs anymore with the occasional hanging out with my friends.
I stared into the rearview mirror and watched the yellow Lambo behind us. The decision wasn't too hard to make and a small smile grew on my lips. "Yes, I'll forgive you just give me some time."
Sides revved his engine loudly and sped up over the speed limit. "Yes! Thank you so much! You won't regret this… I do have a question though." He paused and seemed unsure about wanting to ask his inquire. "Why do you act this way? Seeming afraid when super close around us or other humans in general."
"A story for another time," I pushed his question out of the way and kept quiet. What has happened in the past, needs to stay in the past. Unless it comes to my brother, he's one that allowed to stay in the present with me.
"Alright." The cabin of his alt. mode became engulfed by silence and it was welcomed in with open arms by me. Unfortunately, memories grew inside of my head of my past.
Count. Counting helps. One… two… three- "Why are you counting?" Sides interrupted me. Wait… was I counting out loud. I buried my head into my hands and mumbled to myself how stupid I was.
"Nothing," I said plainly and ran my hand through my hair, a nervous habit of mine. The ringing of my phone saved me from continuing my conversation with the red twin. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and saw that the caller ID said 'Dommie'. "Hey," I answered the phone slightly awkward.
What happened this morning still rolled around in my head with him. "Hey, I uh, I called because I wanted to apologize for my actions this morning. Any way I can make it up by taking you out for dinner?"
"Where will this dinner be taking place at?" I secretly teased him and dragged my fingernail across the leather seat. The seat below me heated up a little bit for me to notice.
"They opened this new place called C-side Seafood if you would like to have dinner there."
"Sure, let me get home and in some clean clothes. I'll text you when I arrive back home."
"Where are you?" Confusion in his voice.
"On the road, I'll text you when I get home, see ya in a bit." I ended the call with that and felt nervous at the end of it. His question unsettled me, why was he suddenly acting this way? It had something to do with Crosshairs but something told that wasn't all of it.
I brushed it off and held on tightly to my phone, over thinking what could happen with Dom. My brotherhood with him over threw a lot of things since our meeting at the police academy. But even that has its limitation.
Gladly, neither of the twins struck up a conversation after what they probably overheard. We made it to my house within a few minutes and the three of us entered my house, not saying a word to each other. I headed up stairs to put on some clean clothes on for dinner.
The pounding of paws against the floor caught my attention and a smile graced my lips. Then my closed bedroom door rattled from the two probably running into it. I couldn't help but laugh after slipping on a new shirt.
After opening the door giving the two silly puppies a look, I stepped down the stairs and put on my combat boots. "You two watch the troublemakers," I teased the two and snatched my truck keys hanging by the door.
"Hey! We aren't that bad. And we're your guardians, so we're coming with you," Sides gasped and acted offended by my joke.
"I wasn't talking to you two, I was talking to those two." I pointed to my two trusty family on four legs. "Also, Dom has enough beef with you two. You don't need to make it worse. Lastly, Crosshairs will be with him, I'll be fine."
"You two-" I pointed to the dogs-" be good. No digging." The two of them had a problem with that and it doesn't help with the gopher holes. "You two-" I pointed to the twins-" also be good. And if you two want to duke it out, there's a pasture that you can, alright?"
Sunstreaker rolled his eyes with a hint of playfulness. "Call us if we need to rearrange Dominick's face for you."
"Don't worry, I'll be fine." With that, I left my house and hopped up in my white Ford that was safety delivered back to my house. The red Lambo's engine started up and backed up so my exit was blocked. "Sides, I'll be fine. I have my phone with me, I'll call if I need help, alright?"
Sides sunk down on his wheels before transforming into his bipedal form, scaring me from his sudden movement."Please, Brey, take us. We're not that bad, are we?" Now he was playing the guilt card on me. Sadly for him, I dealt with this multiple times in my career.
The yellow lambo followed his twin by transforming and standing behind him with his arms crossed. "You ain't gonna guilt trip me. You know the answer to that. If I thought you guys were bad or meant harm to me or the general public, there would be bullet holes in your armor. I take my career seriously."
"But I'm fine, Crosshairs will be there, okay? And for the hundredth time, I'll call you if I need help or I'm in trouble, alright?" Sides had a troubling look on his face. "Like I said, give me some time and space."
Sunstreaker placed his hand on his brother's shoulder. "She said she'll call us if she needs help," the yellow twin butted in and reassured his brother. The two glanced at each other before Sides sighed and changed his gaze to mine.
"I just don't like how he acted towards you this morning and Crosshairs isn't a fan of humans."
"Neither is your twin but here we are."
"Watch it, you're different compared to the meat sacks of this mud ball planet," Sunstreaker grounded out, not totally having his voice filled with anger.
"I'm the same as any other 'meat sack of this mud ball planet', still made of flesh and bones." I kind of caught him a trap because if said anything else if would go against his pride or hurt me.
He kept his mouth shut and arms crossed over his chest. "Anyway, thanks for your concern but I can deal with my great friend. All of us have had a bad day. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone." With that, I pulled my truck around Sides and drove to my designation.
I stopped off to the side of the road a few miles away from my house and texted Dom. Now, to find where this C-side Seafood is so I entered the name into Google maps and followed the instructions.
With the restaurant being new to town, everyone flocked to it and gave me trouble of finding a spot. After scanning for parking spots and noticing Dom was here with Crosshairs, I found a place and parked there.
The outside of the building was beautiful with an ocean taste to it even though we are far from the coast. It still had a modern look to it, well balanced with the ocean setting had. I pushed down the lump in my throat and walked through the front doors.
It was stunning on the inside also with seashells and other ocean things decorating the wall and small front desk. A moderate line of people stopped me from seeing if Dom already had a seat. So instead of waiting to get to the front seeing if he was there, I shot him a text.
My friend gladly answered within thirty seconds and appeared around the corner. Dom waved at me to follow him to which I did and sat down at the table he was at. It was a two person seat with a dark brown drink and two waters upon it. "I see you have been waiting for a little bit."
"Yeah, I knew it was going to be busy since it just opened so when you agreed to have dinner with me I came down and got a table for us," he ran on with a extremely on sentence, not completely looking me in the eye.
By the looks of it, Crosshairs wasn't in sight, good for the both of us. Dom's hands were together on table. I grabbed one of his with mine and stared directly in the eye. "What's going on? Something is troubling you and we both know it."
Dom sighed deeply and leaned back in chair with his arms crossed over his chest. I retracted my hand back to my lap and sat up tall. "Those two, 'your guardians', I don't like them. Something in my stomach tells me that."
"I'm sorry Dommie but they're my guardians. Are you sure it's not you being hungry?" I joked and a soft smile grew on my lips. But it was wiped off when Dom scowled at me with angry deep in his eyes. "Are you jealous?" This was the main question needed to get off my chest.
This questioned flared the flames in his eyes, answering it without him having saying anything. "No, why should I be?" I put my hands up in defense and turned my head to the side.
"Wasn't all your flirting fake? Never meaning anything?" I pressed the subject even more, needing to know the answer. He should know that I don't like him that way and never will, he's more of a brother than anything.
He grumbled under his breath and glared at the poor table. "Some of it wasn't, but I was-" he was interrupted by a green haired man rushing past people.
"We got trouble!" he shouted and signaled for us to follow him. We glanced at each other in confusion before literally jumping from our table and running with him.
"Cross, what is it?" So this must be Crosshairs's holoform.
"Cons and they're close. The trine flew over head less than thirty nanoklik's ago. We need to get you to base, now." I glanced at my tall Ford at the other end of the parking lot and prayed for him to be spared.
Crosshairs forced us to get in the only two seats and let him take the wheel. The green corvette sped out of the parking lot with his wheels squealing and towards the base.