Queen's note: mild language warning... because, well. Hound. Sorry for the delay, but here you go!

Just A Stray, Just A Cover

Chapter Thirteen

Friends

Amy was yawning, she did not mean to. Really, she had been having a surprisingly good time that day.

These mechs did not seem to mind when Amy took naps, in fact she noticed that like Crosshairs the two almost seemed to expect it. Mostly exploring around with Jolt, by riding on his shoulder as he started poking around on a side passage. They found all sorts of things that were Cybertronian made, a few parts Jolt grabbed for Leadfoot and wrote (with what looked like a pen as big as her!) that the parts were taken for the inventory and others. Jolt was nice, Amy thought in that he would explain or talk about what he they were doing. Crosshairs had started doing that too, as best as he was able.

Now though? Amy was tired, dosing in a new spot, not alone but against the side of Leadfoot's leg. The steady, somewhat gravelly voice of the older wrecker was a not so surprisingly comforting. It reminded Amy of Crosshairs, though Leadfoot had a thicker accent almost all the time. As he was giving Jolt a lesson on gravity lifts and breaker, time seemed to slip by faster. Not that Amy minded too much, at least until she was poked awake and to sit up.

The girl made a face, pushing her red hair out of the way to see (it was growing faster the before... she wondered why). Asking as a large hand curled around her, "What's happening?" she had to reach out and brace herself against the black and red chest, as Leadfoot stood up.

"Got some company coming lass," Leadfoot said as he used Jolt to balance himself, having one hand full and all. Once up and he was stable, the old mech waved upwards, and Amy looked. Watching the lift rapidly leaving. "Lift should be fixed and cleaned now. Won't be long 'fer they come down."

"Is it the others?" Amy perked up, looking around as if for Crosshairs at first, settling on looking at Jolt. "Bumblebee?"

She knew him, and Bumblebee was nice to the girl.

"Its him, and at least two others." Jolt chuckled, grabbing leadfoot's 'cane,' to hand the mech. The blue Autobot tilted his head, listening to comm chatter.

"Hound and Drift?"

"More than likely lass." A large claw rubbed Amy's side as Leadfoot moved back to the few left over creates that Jolt had found in that side chamber off the entry doom. One that was like a storage, or staging area, and the things that had not been moved out yet. The Wrecker lowered his hand as Leadfoot noted how Amy was more holding onto his talons then his chest, "Unless they picked someone else up."

"Knowing that scout, I would not be surprised," Jolt chuckled, leaning on his elbow joints on the crates, one hand moving to wiggle at Amy. "It'll be a few kliks before they're down," Jolt told the girl, producing a water bottle from subspace to offer it. It had been a while and he noticed the bottle from before was missing.

Amy sat up to take it, noting that the bottle looked so strangely small in his claws. "Shouldn't we tell, I mean, wake up Crosshairs?" Amy asked, looking around and back at the main entrance tunnel to the rest of the bolt hole.

"Nah, we'll let the lad get some rest softspark." Leadfoot rumbled as he shook his head. At the same time patting Amy's back with a careful digit. He had recognized the signs of a mech being the equivalent of sleep deprived.

"Hopefully the rest will improve his attitude." Jolt snorted, and then paused as he looked around. Noticing Amy was looking up intently, listening intently for the sounds echoing down the lift shaft. "Primus knows he needs the rest... Leadfoot?"

"Hmmm?" The elder mech glanced up, watching Amy with a bemused expression.

"Where's the wolf?" Jolt asked, he had wrestled with Steeljaw not an hour ago once Leadfoot had finished the lift.

Only then did Leadfoot pause and straighten up, looking around for his cyberwolf. He cupped a hand and covered Amy in an attempt to shield her while a sharp whistle-click came out of the mech. The human still winced and covered her ears, making a face up at the palm over her before pushing lightly against it.

Then all three listened as there was a response.

There was a not so much faint, but clearly distant bark echoing down the lift shaft above, Steeljaw was responding to the call for his attention, but... well. It was not like he could get back down to where the mechs were. Leadfoot stared up, his expression blank for a moment, and the he face palmed. His hand running over his face and talons through the metal beard. "Primus..."

"Steeljaw knows Bumblebee right?" Jolt asked, staring up with Amy still as there was some exited sounding woofs drifting down. "At least?"

"Aye, he knows the scout at least, shouldn't attack." Leadfoot turned back, free had on a hip, tire, "Steel's a good wolf. He's got no order ta attack mechs right now."

"That's good, I hope." The blue mech vented, shaking his head, and then hummed in reassurance at the worried sound from on top of the crate. Jolt smiling in his way as he stayed in place, he was 'caught' now after all, "Its Bumblebee, he'll be okay."

"Do you think they all stopped fighting?" Amy asked, one arm around one of Jolt's talon like digits. Sipping out of the new water bottle as she looked over at his face, glanced at the lift tunnel and back.

Jolt tilted his head, the bots had been fighting? Had Crosshairs or the girl mentioned that? "I'm... sure they've gotten along again to make it here little one."

"I hope so." Amy glanced down at the talon she had a hold of, "...?" She looked up again as the mech moved his hand, leaning fully on the creates as Jolt hummed.

Cupping his free hand over Amy, the Autobot gave a reassuring purring sound, running a finger over the girl's sore spots with a tingle of energy. "If they're not getting along, we can shove them at a room and tell them to drink energon and nap it off."

"No locking in right?" Amy asked as she tensed, looking up with wide green eyes. Focusing on the blue mech she missed the look Leadfoot suddenly shot her. "No closing and locking right?"

"There's no doors to close, or lock, in the room chambers remember?" Jolt reassured and reminded, frowning a bit too. "Don't worry soft spark, its safe for all of us down here."

"Promise?" Amy asked hesitantly, gripping the talon in front of her, though mostly her body was relaxing again in response to the mech's field and the painkiller charge that had been done again.

"I promise, we won't lock anyone in." Jolt promised, and after a moment shifted slightly to put weight on his right leg. Using the other to lightly kicked the wrecker for him to speak up. Not enough to knock over Leadfoot, but enough to get the cane smacking him back out of the human's direct light of sight.

"Yea won't be locked in, nor any of us." Leadfoot agreed, he prodded Jot's arm, making him bump Amy a little to get her attention on him. "Now, did you pick up any when I was teaching this electric prick?"

That took Amy by surprise as she blinked up, green eyes widening as she wondered if she should have been listening. Instead of napping. The girl racked her brain and came up with, "Clean breaks often?"

It was the only thing she could think of, and sort of remembered that coming up several times.

The red and black mech blinked down back at Amy, before a rumbling laugh slipped out of him. The wrecker grinning from the human to Jolt, "Alright, the lass was listening in."

"She was also tired and resting too, so don't pester the little one too much rusty old mech." Jolt pointed out, running the side of one claw on the worried girl's back, "Don't mind him. Leadfoot's probably forget that young girls need all the rest when you need it." Like sparklings.

"Hardly," Leadfoot drew himself up, snorting as he glanced up at the lift entrance and the sounds faintly echoing down. Returning his attention back he smiled at Amy, "Yea are still young, not that different from a Sparkling. But yea do need a semble- no, yea do need education."

"And that can wait until after Bumblebee and his mechs are back down and settled." Jolt considered something, then with a smirk he added, "I'm sure you can talk to Crosshairs once he's up from recharge what's he started on."

"Like... letters and numbers? I know some math." Amy chirped, she had watched the math video a lot before!

"Well, that's a good start then lass." Leadfoot rumbled, trying to remember what human learning stages where, it would do no good to overload a young mind of any kind. But the young sucked up information best. "How old are yea?"

"I'm twelve!" Amy chirped, and then paused before adding with a shrug, "I think? That's what He... what He thought?"

"You think?" Jolt echoed, and tilted his head at the second shrug.

"He thought?" Leadfoot echoed, and then shook his head. He was not going to focus on who 'He' was right then at least for now. Instead he gave a low thoughtful rumble. "Ya know when yea're, ah," Pit, what was that human thing called... "Birthday is?"

Leadfoot knew that there were ways to figure out how old the girl really was, only he did not know how to read the scans. Yet, seeing what Amy knew would help narrow it down as well. Fraggin 'ell Ratchet was better suited at this, and he could fix Leadfoot's pitted leg. Ah well. The mech tilted his head, he could faintly hear Steeljaw getting a little louder, so far no signs of aggression just an excited cyberwolf seeing at familiar faces.

"Oh!" the girl perked up, smiling as she knew this one! Amy held a little tighter to Jolt's fingers as she bounced in place, not to high as she was still getting use to expressing herself more openly. "April 3! I remember momma saying that! two...two thous..end...and, um... "

There was a pause in the bouncing, Amy thinking really hard before shrugging helplessly. "April 3! And... aaand two thousand something?"

"That should help," Jolt guessed, glancing at Leadfoot, but had a puzzled expression on his face. He knew enough to pick out the basic stages of 'young,' 'very young,' 'that's small' and of course 'just too tiny' for humans.

"Try an think about that date lass," Leadfoot rumbled, doing the math that twelve might be close, but he suspected it might be a high guess. The red and black wrecker lifted a hand and rubbed his talons through the metallic beard. "Jolt, see if yea can remember ta ask a medic. Or Crosshairs."

"Not sure if he would know," Jolt said, looking at the lift passage as he

"Is Bumblebee going to sleep for a really long time when he and the others come down?" Amy asked, looking up at the sounds of the lift coming back down. She paused and asked in a worried tone, "Its coming fast?"

"Not that fast," Jolt shook his head, and then chuckled, "Well, maybe a little faster than when Crosshairs had you riding along. Don't worry little one, Leadfoot's here to yell at the lift some more if it miss behaves." The mech added, getting a giggle from between his hands and a snort from the Wrecker.

"As for the scout gettin' recharge, I'm sure he will, but not befer seeing yea lass." Leadfoot added on, shifting and leaning more on his cane and the boxes. "Yea should have plenty o' supplies for everyone to rest and recover- including yea."

"No more colors!"

"Yeah, no more bad colors on yea lass. or...more scratches then colors."

Amy nodded though distracted from anything more as she was poked, a giggle escaped, and then started to giggle more as Jolt smiled. Flexing his fingers he used a safe charge that sent a tingling-tickling sensation over soft skin. The Autobot rumbled his own chuckle as he effectively and thoroughly distracted the girl in the rest of the time waiting for the lift to return. Shamelessly making sure she was breathless and back into a truly good mood by the time Stealjaw jumped down to the ground with Bumblebee not far behind.

The black and yellow scout gave a high, cheerful whistle the moment he saw Leadfoot, and then Jolt. Shaking himself off not unlike Drift soon was as he too hopped off the lift before it finished settling. The short triple changer seemed just as pleased to roll off and up to stretch as well as there was a familiar snort from Hound's big frame. Jolt had disentangled his hands and once free of the small person darted over to meet Bumblebee in a small clang and clash as they rolled over one another. Bumblebee full of excitement as harmless energy (to him) crawled over his frame and up the stubby door wings. Jolt chittering right back in Cybertronian, happy to see his friend as a random mish-mass of music jumbled together to mimic the words back. Both yelped as Drift came right over and jumped on the two, adding to the semi chaos.

"Crazy the lot of you," Hound grumbled stepping off last, though the mech was grinning under his more wild wire like beard as he saw the two in the bolt hole.

"Like yea'r rusty aft is ain't better hound," Leadfoot growled, but he was smiling, limping forward to scrub Steeljaw's head before the green mech came up to him. They shared an arm clasp before Hound looked down at the injured leg, making a surprising- to anyone that was not used to Cybertronian, light chirp. A questioning sound, what happened?

"You done got-got Leadfoot?" Hound asked glancing to the side as Steeljaw moved off to start sniffing at the crates the Wrecker had been leaning on. "Those fragging humans?"

"Some crazy ones got inta the base Jolt an' I was at." Leadfoot rumbled and then snorted, motioning down at the improvised cane, "Got this as we were helping the survivors ta get safe."

"Why'd'ja bother? They ain't gonna help us for slag. Should've left this world for The Fallen." Hound asked, looking back at the three younger mechs settling, and sorting themselves out, and not able to pick one language for a few minutes it seemed. Drift looked... /happy/ of all things.

"Masses panic Hound, yea know that. Same thing happened when the war was reaching out on Cybertron. No matter what anyone says." Leadfoot snorted, smacking the taller mech in the arm before he limped back to the boxes, nudging Steeljaw with his cane knocking the malformed wolf over and off from his attempts to get up, "An' yea, stop that, or the lass will never trust yea. There's mech-loyal humans out there Hound. This lil' one proves that, so does the humans with Roadbuster."

Hound finally followed the gaze of the cyber wolf, wondering what had Steeljaw so happy and wagging his stump- oh.

Oooooh...

Hound stared for a moment at Amy, realizing he had somehow completely missed the girl. She was just looking up from peering over at Steeljaw, and those little green eyes were staring wide at Hound.

...and now he felt like a complete ass, as he did like the little pip-squeaker.

At least the good news was, if Amy was here, Crosshairs could not be too far. Hound was pretty positive the little shit had become notably attached to his human, so Crosshairs likely would not have given her up, even to Leadfoot without a fit... or an outright fight.

"Hey half pint, didn't mean you." Hound greeted as he came over, pulling out his Cy-gar, and reached out with his free hand.

Amy shied a bit, at least at first. Hound vented a sigh, "I didn't mean it half pint."

"It's okay," Amy finally said as she lifted her arms to rest them over Hound's digits. A not quiet hug attempt, "People were mean to you... Crosshairs said its okay to be mad at someone that's been mean to you… right?"

Leadfoot chuckled as he stole Hound's cy-gar from his free hand, "He's not wrong lass, but just ignore Hound's slag an' bluster."

"Hey, don't over draw on that, I only got a few refills left." The tallest mech rumbled, smacking the Wrecker with his free hand as Leadfoot took a hit. Once Amy had let go he moved his bulk out of the way, hearing an exited whistle behind him

The girl turned, sitting on her knees, Amy smiled seeing the black and yellow mech shaking himself as he walked over. Just like the mechs before, Amy could see smaller lights on these three brightening. They were starting to relax and not... she blinked really realizing that the mechs were hiding a lot, if they had natural glow-y spots that they had to dim so much.

Bumblebee's optics lit up brighter, a chittering coming out of him before the sound turned softer.

"Hi!" Amy chirped, shifting and daring to come closer to the edge of the crate, peeking at Steeljaw before grey-black fingers where cupping around her. Amy giggled softly, shifting to let herself be picked up easier, arms wrapped around the scout's right thumb.

"Suuure, he gets the best response." Hound rolled his optics, but a smile was quirking up under the wire beard as he watched Bumblebee waggled his door wings again.

Bright blue optics- far too big and for a moment very sparkling like rather than a honed scout and warrior- staring up at Hound and Leadfoot as he held Amy up in his hands. The trilled as he turned back the human, nuzzling Amy close as he walked farther into the bolt-hole.

"I missed you too." Amy said quietly, smiling as she leaned against Bumblebee's face, trying to nuzzle him back. "Crosshairs took a bath! It was in a lake, and there was a lot of bugs! I got to poke several, but one of the water bugs tried to climb up on my hand… I didn't like that, and I saw a tiny fish!"

Hound turned as the scout started to leave with the chattering human, likely looking for Crosshairs (who had to be recharging to miss everything). The big mech arched an optic ridge at the sight on the floor behind him where the last two were still. The two mechs had stopped wrestling when Bumblebee left, but had not gotten up yet. The commando trooper rolled his optics, turning away and mentally telling himself he will never understand Drift completely.

Jolt chuckled when the group left with the Wrecker limping after as well. He finished pulling the smaller mech against him, covering and shielding Drift with his frame. One leg over a hip struck and tucking Drift close, all the while olt never stopping kneading at Drift's back with the active energy crackling over both of them. Using it to smooth out not just Drift's energy field, but the too taught muscle cables under the armor and where his chopper rotors hid. Jolt avoided touching to the Great Sword directly but was very aware of where it was with its living energy.

"Relax Drift," The blue and black Autobot reassured once they were left alone and out of hearing range of the mechs walking away. "You're safe now."

Drift vented deeply, catching the familiar charged scent of Jolt- he had thought he had caught it on the lift.

Reviews!

Eldritch-Woods:
They are, I love flushing out Jolt, but also getting some development with Amy too!

Regan:
Nu, -hugs you tight- I hope your night have been getting better, and that you like little Amy. Crosshairs is waking back up soon, I wanted to get some more development of Amy. As well as having Crosshairs rested/in a better mood for a cute between the two. Just hang on for another chapter!

Narrow Wing:
Well, I do have a headcannon that Ironhide used his holo-form to get a ton of wild flowers packs for Annabelle. =D as for meeting him... [-whispers- its coming]

Wacko12:
I did mean Annabelle! She's one of his charges in my headcannons.

Wacko12 [2]:
Soon! Femmies will be around

NightCourtRuby:
Cray-cray? pffft that's the first time someone has said that about my writing. I'm glad you're enjoying the story though! Thank you for the feed back of what you liked Pardon me I'm going to hide under my shy blanket

Sarah:
okay one second [-happy screams and flaps hands about at the feedback-] I'm so gods damned paranoid about interactions. It makes me so happy to see people enjoying my derpness in writing.

Sarah [2]:
Well, Leadfoot did get a new alt and is in disguise, and I had fun writing that part with Crosshairs too! hurrmph- 2hguhds046u4ygh3894748hbnsgd...! thank you .o.

Sarah [3]:
Believe it or not, I too, am a giant sucker/dork for cuteness. =3 its great for helping me distress and/or keep sane. Honestly I see the most bots, possible cons too if alone, not too bothers by kids. there's a base instinct that's triggered by small and tiny and sparkling sized humans...give them the small and cute tiny thing. That's he's now thank you. Also I'm glad you liked that topic, it will pop up a few more times [as you may saw the glimpse in this chapter]!