Finished this one a bit sooner than I thought I would, so...yeah, here ya go :)

(edit: accidentally posted a draft earlier - here's the re-upload, but the only changes are in grammar and a sentence here and there. Thx to the reviewer who pointed out the goof that tipped me off about the mistake!)

Chapter 13:

Truth

"The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you."

-David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

"Report bio-circuitry status," Ratchet ordered from his seated position against the side of the balcony. Jack, who was typing away at a laptop in front of the medic, lifted a hand to give him a thumbs-up.

"Levels are rising," he answered confidently.

"Excellent," Ratchet replied, before moving on to the next issue. "Rafael. Make sure to keep a close watch on Bumblebee's electro-pulse monitor. Miko, check Bulkhead's circuitry patch."

"It's steady," Raf assured.

"Looking good!" Miko added. Ratchet gave each a nod before turning to Billy.

"Billy, make sure Arcee's defrosting modulator is still attached. We don't want that coming loose."

Billy nodded, giving the bot a strained smile before pushing herself off the side of the computer stand she had been leaning against ever since they had gotten the bots situated in their various states of recovery. Her leg was throbbing worse than ever, but she had been refusing to look at it, determined to wait until she could be alone.

She didn't have the strength to hide her limp as much as she had been before, though. Even worse, as she made her painstaking way over to where Arcee laid on the bed behind Bumblebee's, she noticed that she was starting to grow a little dizzy. It was probably just the result of the day's events finally catching up with her now that the adrenaline was wearing off.

Still, that's not exactly a good sign, she thought dryly, but pushed through the discomfort until she made it to her destination. Luckily, the other occupants of the room were either too out of it or too focused on other things to pay much attention to her.

"Readings are steady, Ratchet," she reported. The bot glanced her way briefly and nodded in appreciation.

"Good, good."

"Perhaps you should get some rest yourself, old friend," Optimus suggested from his seated position next to the medic. "You saved quite a few lives today."

"It…wasn't all my doing," he replied, voice taking on an uncharacteristically soft tone. He looked over to where Jack, Miko, and Raf were fiddling with a piece of Bumblebee's monitoring equipment. "We are just fortunate that this infestation happened…on a Saturday."

"Our human friends may be small, but they are strong," Optimus agreed.

Billy began limping away at that, making a beeline for the balcony stairs so she could dig up some of her emergency bandages. It was a good thing she made sure to keep her backpack with her, a habit she stuck to religiously after that one time –

Billy jumped at a loud shriek that suddenly echoed through the hangar, coming from the direction of the other three teens. Without a second thought, she began limping back towards the group as fast as she could.

"Scraplet?" Jack yelled, already wielding his lead pipe.

She leaned down and snatched up her own weapon from near Ratchet's feet, skidding to a stop next to Raf.

"Spider!" Miko cried in response, hopping around and brushing at her clothes frantically. "Is it on me?!"

Billy groaned in annoyance, immediately dropping the wrench to the ground with a loud clang. Once her leg felt better, she was so getting Miko back for that little stunt.

Unfortunately, in her frustration, Billy failed to realize that the group was much less distracted than it had been a few minutes ago. As she began limping away again, Jack's surprised voice stopped her short.

"Billy, are you alright?" he questioned worriedly. She froze, refusing to face the teen. Of course, his rather loud question drew the attention of everyone else in the room, and suddenly she was surrounded by a mixture of curious and worried gazes.

"Uhh, yeah, I'm fine Jack," she grimaced, shoving her hands into her pockets and trying to appear nonchalant. "Why do you ask?"

Jack's footsteps drew closer, until he stood directly in front of her, arms crossed.

"You were limping," he stated simply. "What happened?"

"Nothing," she answered firmly, steadfastly refusing to meet the gaze of any of the room's occupants. "My foot fell asleep, that's all."

She forced her stance to relax and tried to push past her stubborn classmate, but no matter how much she tried, she couldn't make her stupid leg pretend to be normal until she got out from under everyone's watchful eyes…and optics.

"Billy, stop," Jack insisted, moving to block her way again. "Why won't you let us help?"

You're sick, you need help, her dad's voice echoed.

Billy flinched at the memory that Jack had unintentionally triggered, shrinking back from the other teen before she could get ahold of herself again. For a moment she didn't reply on the slight chance that Jack might drop the subject if she simply didn't respond.

No such luck. The silence stretched on, and it soon became obvious that Jack wasn't going to back off. Billy sighed, keeping her gaze firmly fixed on the ground in front of her as she slumped in defeat. There was no way she was getting past him without some sort of explanation. Maybe if she could give them some half-truths, they'd let her be.

"Raf?" she called quietly.

"Yeah?" the boy answered from behind her. Billy winced at the worry evident in her friend's tone. If only Miko hadn't seen that stupid spider, then she'd have her leg taken care of by now and this whole mess never would have happened.

"Could you go up to the balcony and get my backpack? I think I left it next to the railing near the computer consoles," she asked.

Raf only hesitated a moment before walking past her to climb the stairs. As he went, Billy limped over to the steps near where Bumblebee lay and sat down heavily, running a shaky hand through her hair.

"Billy," Jack said, more insistently this time. "You're bleeding. The ground bridge is working ok now, so you could go straight to the hospital my mom works at. The bots wouldn't mind. Right?"

"Jack is right, Billy," Optimus agreed, voice having taken on a more serious tone than when he was teasing Ratchet. "The ground bridge can reliably transport you anywhere in Jasper, even with its main navigational system offline."

"I-I can't," Billy shook her head, still refusing to make eye contact with anyone.

"Do not be a fool, youngling," Ratchet huffed. "Let the human medics fix your injury."

Billy chose not to respond, only looking up when she heard Raf's footsteps approaching. The boy set the backpack down on her right and then moved to sit on her other side. He didn't say anything but gave her shoulder a nudge to let her know he was there if she needed him.

She felt the eyes of the room still on her but did her best to ignore them as she slowly tugged her pant leg up, wincing when it caught on some dried blood here and there. Once the wound was exposed, she carefully brought her leg up, so it was resting on the step next to her.

"Gnarly," Miko breathed, peeking over the top of the steps where she was keeping Bulkhead company.

Raf, finally getting a good look at his friend's leg, let out a little gasp at the size of the wound. Even Billy, who had dealt with her fair share of injuries over the last three years, had to agree that this one was pretty bad.

There was a good amount of dried blood around the edges of the gash, which was roughly three inches long, but it was the un-dried blood that almost had her a little concerned. Whenever she moved too much, a little more of the sticky red liquid would dribble out and run down her leg. The cut itself was fairly straight, though, and it looked as though the edges would fit back together with little difficulty.

"Well, there goes my favorite pair of jeans," Billy joked quietly to Raf as she started to dig through her bag for her first aid supplies. The boy laughed a little, which was the desired effect. Unfortunately, the comment was also picked up by Jack, who was decidedly less amused.

"Your – Billy, that isn't just a little cut, that's – that's gonna need stitches," Jack stuttered, taking a step towards her.

"Just go with Jack, kiddo," Bee suddenly spoke up, propping himself up off the berth to see his wards better. "It's not a big deal, and you'll be back here before you know it."

Billy shot her guardian a quick glare but didn't put much heat behind it. She knew he meant well. Jack, despite having not understood what Bee was saying, crossed the rest of the distance between him and Billy and offered her a hand up.

"Let's go," he said shortly. "You can use my phone to call your parents when we get there."

Billy stopped short. He was really serious about this. Jack was ready to…she shook her head and looked up at the teen, her fear urging her to lash out, to protect herself, before it was too late.

"I already said, I can't," she hissed, leaning away from the boy and finally meeting his eyes, glaring at him with undisguised anger. Jack wasn't deterred.

"Why?" he countered, crossing his arms.

"I…can't afford it, ok?" she said wearily, shrinking back as her short-lived anger dissipated. "I-I don't have health insurance. And you said the navigational system for the ground bridge is shot, so it's not like I can just go to a free clinic somewhere."

Jack leaned back in surprise, his stance relaxing slightly at her confession.

"What's health insurance?" Bee asked curiously. Raf distractedly relayed the question to Jack and Miko, wide eyes darting between Billy and their guardian.

"It's, uh, it's this system humans have to help us pay for things," Jack explained, still eyeing Billy confusedly. "Some things like medical care and car accidents and house fires are too expensive to pay for all at once, so you make payments to an insurance company so that if you ever have to go to the hospital or get in a car accident, you'll have enough money saved to take care of it…or something like that."

As Jack explained how insurance worked to the bots, Billy finally pulled her first aid kit from her backpack and began gently cleaning her wound. Her excuse wasn't entirely accurate but was close enough to the truth that she might be able to pull it off…that is, if Jack didn't question it too much. She technically did have insurance. The only problem being that she couldn't exactly use it without raising a lot of red flags – too many, in her opinion.

C'mon, Jack, just let it go, she thought desperately.

"Fragging barbaric, is what it is," Ratchet huffed. "So, if you don't have this…insurance, you'd be denied medical assistance?"

Jack shrugged absently, turning back to Billy.

"Depends on where you go, really. Jasper doesn't have a walk-in clinic like some other places do, so I'm not really sure how it'd work out. But…kids are covered by their parents' insurance plan, so it doesn't really make sense that Billy doesn't have any," he added.

Billy tensed, but didn't reply, focusing on getting rid of the dried blood from her leg. Damn it.

There was a beat of silence, and then Jack spoke up again, more insistently this time.

"Billy! Say something."

She slammed her fist down on the metal stair next to her, looking up to face the teen again.

"What do you want me to say, Jack? Huh?" she questioned bitterly, unable to stop herself from continuing despite knowing it was a bad idea. "You wanna hear all about the fallout I had with my parents three years ago? How they drove me out and left me to fend for myself? Is that it?"

"W-What?" Raf stuttered softly from his seat next to her. "But…I've seen your house, it's on the street next to mine."

Billy chuckled humorlessly, the gravity of the situation finally hitting her. This was it. They were about to find out…everything. After finally getting a taste of what it was like to actually fit in somewhere, it was all going to be wrenched away…again.

"I don't actually live there, Raf. I do live in your neighborhood, just…not there."

"Then where?" Miko asked curiously.

Billy hesitated only a moment before answering. It wasn't like she had any reason to pretend anymore, so she might as well just get it all out there before they decided to boot her out of the giant alien robots club.

"You, uh…you remember that freeway bridge where we saw Arcee and Bumblebee for the first time?" she asked, directing her question at Raf. His eyes widened in realization, along with Bee and Arcee's, but it was Miko who replied first.

"Whoa, you live under a bridge?" she exclaimed, skipping over to stand in front of Billy on the stairs. "Like a hobo? That's so cool, dude!"

"No. No, it's not," Billy replied quickly, eyes narrowing in anger. "Being homeless is not cool. You know what it is? It's scary. And lonely. It means having to fight off drunk guys who wander too close to your plot on Saturday nights. It means eating out of dumpsters over school breaks when my paychecks run out and carrying a switchblade around in case someone else gets there first. It means that last year when I broke my arm over Christmas break, I had to set it myself in the drug store parking lot and use some wet cardboard to splint it, because I ran out of money and I was barely getting enough food to survive. It's not some action movie come to life, Miko. It sucks. But I…I can take care of myself, and I've survived much worse than this stupid cut, so please just…leave me be."

Billy ducked her head in shame as the room fell silent once again, catching a brief glance of Raf's face, considerably paler than it had been before. Her hands shook slightly as she mechanically continued to wipe away at the dried blood from her leg, her mind spinning with the possible repercussions of what had just happened.

That was it, Parker, she berated herself. You blew it. The first real chance at fitting in somewhere, finding people that you cared about and who cared about you, and your clumsy ass just had to ruin it all. Court case and group home, here I come.

"Y-your parental unit just…kicked you out onto the streets?" Bee finally broke the silence, his shock causing him to trip over his words. Billy closed her eyes, bracing herself for the question she knew was coming next.

"Why?" Bee continued, oblivious to his charge's internal struggle.

It's bad enough they know I live under a bridge, she grimaced, keeping her gaze locked on her injured limb. Now they have to find out about…that…too?

"How could they do that to you?" Raf added, sounding as if he were fighting off tears. Billy sighed, slowly lifting her head to look between the two of them.

If this is the last time I see them… she thought sadly. I at least owe them the truth. Even if they hate me for it.

"I -" she started, only for the words to get caught in her throat. She sniffed and clasped her hands tightly together on her lap before trying again. "They…they found out that I'm – I'm gay."