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Chapter Twenty Eight – Junebug

The storm lightened up enough to give clearance for planes to come and go once more, so as soon as they finished with the cargo plane it was given the green light to take off, and maybe twenty or thirty minutes later, a similar looking plane came onto the island. Even through the rain that was still falling, J.J watched as Optimus's truck disembarked slowly before he took it upon himself to transform from his truck mode. Ironhide stood alongside Chromia and Elita One, ready to greet him once he'd finished moving and was on two feet, facing forward.

From here, J.J couldn't see the way his eyes ran over each of their faces, but she did see him nod in Elita's direction.

Chromia nodded her head towards the plane in gesture as she asked, "How was your trip?"

Again, he nodded. "We'll have our discussion on the outcome later. For now, I think we should get out of the rain, I believe Major Lennox will want to be briefed."

She nodded at him, and from where Jess was hidden in the Jeep, still parked, she watched them all transform down once more and leave the scene, with Optimus heading towards the JCS Hangar and the others following on his tail.

Her phone buzzed from where it sat in her lap, and she looked down to see a text message coming in from her friend back home, Dottie. She was going on about something that had happened on the TV show the two of them watched, the only thing they really bonded over anymore. As she began typing back her response, and airhorn went off twice, one after the other, as if someone was trying to get her attention, and sure enough when she looked up Optimus was driving by. He flashed his high beam lights at her, the only real way he could say hello to her right now.

To be truthful, he didn't expect any kind of response. He could tell she was in her vehicle because his HUD was picking up on her vital signs in there, but he wasn't totally sure what was going on in there or what she was doing.

Much to his surprise, just before they passed, the light bar that was stationed at the top of the vehicle suddenly started flicking on and off at them as they passed. Her headlights began flicking on almost immediately after, the additional KC pod lights that were positioned everywhere turned on too in her own silent greeting to him. Inside, she smiled wide as she flicked all of her lights on and off at the group of passing Autobots. Optimus honked one more time, then they'd passed completely her and were headed to the JCS Hangar. Once they were inside, the main door was slid shut as a sign that the Hangar was private right now. Classified information was being talked about, and no one else except those with clearance, were invited to come in.

X0X0X0X0X0

The storm didn't stop when they'd expected it to, although it did ease up. The lightning stopped flashing, the thunder backed off and became only slight rumbles that echoed in the distance every once in a while, the wind stopped pulling everything around and bending trees nearly in half, but rain continued to fall to the ground in rapid succession, as if the worst of the sky's grief was over but there was still a few more tears to be shed. The droplets only stopped falling about two days later, but unfortunately that gave Jess not much to do except stay at home with the dogs and watch TV, clean whatever she could, and finish reading the book she'd started about two weeks ago.

Though she liked the paid leave that they offered her while the shop was being built up, and could admit that sleeping in as long as she wanted was wonderful, she was also bored stiff. She didn't have much to do besides watching trainings with the Boots, because quite frankly she was still too scared to watch any trainings with the Autobots, or sit out on tar mac and watch what was going on that day.

Once the rain stopped totally, though her options were still limited, it opened them up a little bit more for what she could do.

And that was how Andrew found her at the edge of the island, the Jeep popped up on a jack stand. She had one of her toolboxes, the smaller one, not far from where she was working. He smirked as he approached her.

"Thought you were on leave?" he asked out loud.

She stopped what she was doing and looked over at him from where she sat beside the front right tire, her eyebrows furrowed as she looked him up and down, then back at her project.

"I am. I'm still allowed to work on my own shit." Her response sounded bitter.

He huffed. "So what, are we not gonna talk this out?"

She huffed, keeping her hands where they were as she looked at him. "This isn't a relationship, we don't have anything to talk about. Rule number one was put in place so nothing got messy and no one got hurt. If you couldn't help it that's fine, but that doesn't mean we're just going to pretend like you won't get hurt if we keep doing this. And I like you, I do, you're a cool guy and you're super easy to get along with, but that's it. I'm not interested in you that way. If continuing on means you're going to get hurt than I'm not gonna keep going on with it."

He remained quiet for a long few seconds as he watched her work, but the sound of an engine screaming stopped him from responding back to her, as a golden Lamborghini came screeching to a stop not far from them, transforming up as he reached the spot. The golden newcomer, once standing at full height, glared down at Andrew.

"Frag off." He growled at the little human.

"Y-Yes sir." Andrew stuttered as he turned and ran off.

Sunstreaker watched the male squish run off, and when he turned back around he took note of how J.J was watching him, her eyes not leaving his position, analyzing every movement he made. She was sitting on some kind of stool with wheels on the bottom, dressed in a pair of dirty jeans with a hole in the knee, a white wife beater tank top, and a pair of big, dirty work boots. The vehicle she was working on was propped up with its tire missing, and her hands were currently tied up with holding something that was there. Her shoulders were turned downward slightly in the smallest little hunch to help alleviate the pressure she was holding up, her jaw clenched closed so tight it began accentuating her jawline extremely strongly, and her body was as still as a stone, completely rigid and unmoving, her eyes raced up and down his frame erratically.

"What are you doing?" his tone made her flinch backwards slightly as her fight or flight response got ready to flee if he continued on, and it made him roll his eyes. "I'm not gonna touch you, Meat Sack. That squishy looked like he was annoying you, so I fixed it for you. Now, what are you doing?"

Her jaw muscles relaxed slightly, though her jaw was still clenched together, and she looked back at the task in front of her. "Replacing my brake pads, they were starting to get too low for my liking. Why are you trying to help me?"

He rolled his optics, but refrained from giving her a direct answer – he'd been briefed on the fact that despite the Imprint taking place, and her admitting to Sideswipe that she was attracted to Optimus, the Prime and his almost-Prime fleshy weren't in a relationship, and he knew that she didn't know anything about that aspect of their relationship – she was completely oblivious to everything having to do with the main reason she was here.

"Just say thank you for getting rid of that squash stain for you."

"Uh, thanks, I guess," She swallowed deeply, but continued with what she was doing, "What, uh, what do you need?"

He huffed, crossing his arms. "Thought Prime said you weren't supposed to be working right now?"

She shook her head. "I'm not working, this is my car."

"Sides told me that you told him that you like Optimus," he changed topics so fast that she didn't know how he didn't have whiplash, "Why the frag haven't you done anything about it yet?"

She froze for a moment, seeming to be in shock at his abruptness, and blinked a couple times as she struggled to process what he was saying. "Uhm…"

Nothing else came out of her mouth for a few moments as she gapped like a fish out of water.

"Why are humans so slow?" he tried not to snap at her, but humans were irritating as all frag. "Its an easy question."

"I-I-I – 'cause its fucking weird?" though her answer was her actual answer, it came out and sounded like more of a question. "I mean, its also wrong."

Sunstreaker scoffed. "How do you figure that?"

She looked at him in extreme ludicrous. "Are you kidding? How about we start with the blatant fact that you guys are aliens to us and we're aliens to you. Seperate species in total. Not to mention, y'all are twice as large as us, you're made of metal, you come from a different planet. If I were to do anything, I'd be crucified, they'd probably commit me into a psych ward. Would you like me to keep going because I'm sure I can."

He watched her silently, almost like he was judging her on the words she just spoke.

"Besides, aren't you the one who literally calls us all meat sacks? Why would you think that would be appropriate in any context whatsoever?"

Again, he didn't respond to her and instead they just stare at one another. Though he didn't actually speak to her, the gears in his processor were moving at a million miles a minute.

"Whatever, Meat Sack. I got rid of that annoying bug for you, you're welcome."

Upon finishing speaking, he turned and walked away, before transforming down and took off across the tar mac, leaving J.J there with a gigantically confused look on her face.

X0X0X0X0X0

The foundation to the new garage was dug out once all the rain dried up, and the beginnings of the building were put in. Not that it was a lot, but it was started and that was all J.J could ask for. They'd finished the blueprints, they had everything worked out, and now it was just a matter of putting it all up. It had to be strong enough to withstand the storms that came through here, including if there was any kind of extreme storm like a hurricane that might pass, and big enough to fit the bots in there comfortably, while also giving her room to have her work in there. Though only the beginning had been put into place, it was still started and one step closer to having her dream garage.

She crossed the tar mac slowly as she walked alongside the dark cement atop the island, enjoying the sun after the five days of constant rain; she'd received a text from Chris, one of the guys Andrew had introduced her to, asking her to meet him in Hangar One. When she asked what for, his response was 'just hurry', so she shoved her feet into her boots and left the building, and headed in that direction. The Jeep was currently parked, and she hadn't finished replacing the back brake pads so she left it there so she could finish it later, which meant a hike across the tar mac.

Main Hangar One wasn't a particularly large hangar, it was probably one of the smallest here on base actually. She didn't know totally what happened in there in total, but she had seen a lot of boxes being moved into here consistently, products that she never got to see what they actually were. She supposed that she'd always just assumed it was classified information hidden in there that she wasn't allowed in there.

The outside of the building seemed pretty plain and dull, being decorated with a lifeless blue-grey material that looked like siding for walls and a domed silver tin roof. Two giant bay doors and two human sized doors accompanying them on the farther side stood as an obvious main entrance, leading to the inside. It was longer than it was wider, and looked like it went on forever between all the materials, drawers, boxes, chests, that were stored in there.

Jess really only had two seconds to look around and absorb her surroundings.

"J.J! Aye, there she is!" she heard Chris's voice yell, echoing off the walls.

She looked over to see him at her right, jogging over with another man, an older man, in tow. He offered her a comforting smile.

"Hey Jay."

She gave him a tight smile. "Hey Chris, what did you need?"

He nodded as the older man he was with finally got close to them.

"Um, I'm really sorry, its just that Grumpy over here wanted to talk to you." He threw his head in the other guys direction.

The man he was with smiled lightly at her, his grey-blue eyes sparkling alongside the bags underneath them.

"Its good to see you again, Jessica."

She furrowed her brow, tilting her head slightly, "Do I know you?"

With a soft chuckle from between chapped lips, he reached up and removed the beret that sat there previously. Strands of salt-and-pepper hair had been trimmed short, as to match the goatee that hid the shape of his chin. His face, though probably young in comparison, wrinkled slightly around his large eyes and forehead to indicate the smiles he'd had his fair share of experiencing, and his nose sat slightly too large for his face. His smile, a cocky grin and that was almost lopsided, graced his face as hers just so happened to drop.

Though definitely older from the last time she'd seen him, he still looked like himself. Still happy, carefree, enjoying everything that got thrown at him.

It made her blood boil.

"C'mon Junebug, its me."

Before she could say anything back, the sound of a turbo whistling stopped her and indicated Ironhide's arrival all at once. William Lennox hopped out, his face stern and almost angry. Their joint arrival pulled Chris's and the older man's attention away, but Jess's eyes stayed glued on the side profile of him, her jaw clenched in fury.

Ironhide took the little Fleshy's appearance in as he transformed up, then concluded if looks could kill, that soldier would be better off dead already because it'd be less painful than whatever J.J was thinking up right now. After only a brief second of debating with himself, he sent Optimus a comm that she was at his location and stuff didn't appear to be going very smoothly right now. His presence might be required. He barely got an acknowledgment before his radar told him that the Prime was on his way.

"What is going on here?" Lennox bellowed, "Who gave either of you permission to give J.J clearance to enter this building? There's classified information in here, there's products that could be harmful to her."

"Sorry, Major, I had Williams contact her, have her come."

Lennox focused in on the older man speaking, and peaked at his name tag briefly.

Jennings.

"Has she been briefed? Is she aware of the products in here that she can't touch for her safety? Was anything done to prevent an accident?"

Jennings shook his head. "No, we haven't gotten that fa-"

"Then why is she here?!"

FIN

Date Started: November 6, 2020
Date Finished: November 20, 2020
Last Edited: April 7, 2021