Chapter 28 - A Happy Reunion

''They're going to love you,'' I reassured Chase as we drove the short distance towards Autobot quarters and the little party we had organised to celebrate having the whole family back together again.

Chase simply let out a nervous chuckle, ''Well, I hope so. Too bad if they don't, cause I'm not going anywhere,'' and he kissed my hand again in a show of affection.

I had spent Friday evening and the better part of Saturday morning setting up an area near Autobot quarters in the old ''tent city'' area of Point Marrianne. Tables, chairs, a fire pit, lights strung up, music, BBQ's and of course - some refreshments. The Autobots had helped when possible and they seemed as excited as I was to be reuniting with Bumblebee, Sam and Mikaela. Not to mention the chance to unwind and relax given all of the hard work involved being on team N.E.S.T.

As Relda rolled along eating up the miles and closing the distance to our destination, I felt small waves of excitement course through me as I anticipated seeing my friends again, introducing Chase in person and spending time with those that mattered most to me – all in the one place! As Hanger 1 loomed in the distance, my stomach began to do flip flops and I felt myself fairly bouncing up and down in my seat.

''Will you calm yourself down OC! Pace yourself already,'' Chase gently admonished me and let out a small laugh as we drove past the hanger and towards the lights and smoke in the distance. I could make out the shapes of most of the Autobots milling around amongst the people. Chase flashed Relda's lights as he pulled up a short distance away from the action. As soon as the car stopped, I reefed the seatbelt off and opened the car door in one motion.

''Chase, will you grab the esky and bring it please?'' I yelled out to him as I readjusted my dress. I walked around to the boot where Chase was dutifully lifting the esky out and locking Relda. Grabbing his arm, we headed over to the tables and fire pit where everyone seemed to be gathering. My eyes scanned the crowd to find the faces I had been missing.

We had almost made it when I heard a high-pitched squeal of delight followed by my name and an attractive young lady came running up to me closely followed by her boyfriend.

Mikaela and Sam.

''OC! It's so good to see you!'' Mikaela embraced me in a tight hug. I held her close for a few moments, tears stinging my eyes. /Thank GOD I wore the waterproof mascara tonight!/.

''Hey Mikaela!'' I returned her greeting with equal enthusiasm. ''So good to see you too, I've missed you all so much.'' After a few moments we released each other and then Sam, who had since arrived on the scene, stepped up to greet me.

''Hey OC, how ya been? Long time no see. I hope you've been keeping the others in check,'' he gave me a quick hug before releasing me and stepping back beside Mikaela.

I smiled at him, ''Well I try but honestly, sometimes, it's like pushing shit up a hill!''

Sam laughed as Mikaela looked me up and down in my figure hugging deep blue dress, which showed off just the right amount of tanned skin, ''Damn OC! You been working out? You look amazing!''

I blushed slightly but it felt nice to hear the compliments. Before I could speak Chase had walked over, esky in hand and piped up, ''Well I think she looks amazing most of the time anyway.''

I started in embarrassment. ''Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry babe! How rude of me,'' I apologised to Chase. ''Mikaela, Sam this is Chase - my boyfriend and main man,'' I gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

Chase put the esky down and shook hands with Sam, ''Nice to meet you Sam, heard a lot about you,'' he turned to Mikaela, ''You too Mikaela. Any friend of OC's is a friend of mine,'' Chase smiled.

Sam and Mikaela both took it in turns to shake Chase's hand, ''Nice to put a face to the name we have been hearing so much about,'' Mikaela said as she gave a quick glance up and down Chase.

''Yeah,'' Sam commented, ''OC has done nothing but rave about you for weeks now,'' Sam sent me a teasing smile.

I began to walk towards the party indicating for the others to follow. ''Would we use the word ''rave'' Sam, maybe gushed would be more appropriate,'' I tried to argue.

''Well don't believe everything you hear, I am sure OC has embellished me a bit to you both,'' Chase modestly interrupted.

We had reached the area where the drinks and food were set up and Sam and Chase went ahead to put our esky down and get drinks for us. As soon as Chase and Sam were out of earshot Mikaela gushed, ''He seems wonderful OC. And damn he is fine!'' She gave me a wink.

''Oh, he is wonderful and so fine in so many ways,'' I gushed. It was true. It was how I felt. ''I finally feel as though everything in my life is on track and I feel so happy. I have a wonderful boyfriend, great friends who are basically family, a great job. For the first time in forever I am loving life and life is loving me!'' I smiled at Mikaela. ''The ONLY bad thing is that I don't get to see you, Sam and Bee as often as I would like.''

Mikaela gave a small smile, ''Well it does suck but it's the way it's got to be. Sam is getting ready for College, I am working full time in my father's garage now he is out of prison and Bee… Bee won't leave Sam… at least not at the moment,'' at that Mikaela stopped herself. ''Speaking of which, have you seen Bee yet?''

''No, no I haven't actually! Where is he?'' Surprisingly I had not noticed the 18foot bright yellow and black Cybertronian milling about and began to glance about, looking for him. At this point Lennox and Epps had wandered over followed by Sam and Chase.

''Hey OC, great party, great idea,'' said Epps as he gave me a quick hug hello.

''Yeah, I guess she does have good ideas every now and then,'' Lennox smiled as he stepped up to say hi.

''Ahh, Lennox,'' I smiled sweetly. ''I give you the man who's last ''good idea'' involved hiding alien technology in the heart of a bustling city,'' I raised an eyebrow at him defiantly.

Lennox stopped in his tracks. His smile died on his face and quickly turned into a pout. Epps burst out laughing as did Sam and Mikaela, ''Oh she got you there Lennox, what's the tally up to now?'' Epps pretended to count the stings.

Chase simply put his arm around my shoulders and gave me a kiss on the cheek, ''That's my girl.''

Lennox nodded in my direction, ''OC, always fun seeing you, if only you were as fast with your fists as you were with your mouth imagine what you could do for N.E.S.T then,'' his smile returned.

Before I could rise to the bait, I heard a familiar beep and whirring sound and Lionel Richie's ''Hello, is it me you're looking for?'' burst through the radio waves as Bumblebee appeared from inside Autobot quarters.

''Bee!'' I ran up to him and he bent down to give me a hug. ''I've missed you, it's so good to see you,'' I did my best to wrap my arms about his chest. Bee simply made whirring noises and played snippets of ''I'm so excited,'' sounding just as happy as I to be reunited.

After a moment Bee placed me carefully back on the ground and I motioned for Chase to come over, which he dutifully did. ''Bee, I'd like you to officially meet my boyfriend, Chase Ryder.''

Chase stepped up to the yellow and black scout, ''Hey there Bumblebee, honour to finally meet you.'' He extended his hand for a handshake.

Bumblebee eyed him for a moment before clapping once or twice and announcing, ''You da man!'' and stooping down to extend one of his metallic digits for Chase to grab and pump once or twice in greeting. I couldn't help but smile. /Now he has met all of my family – life's good/.

''Look who finally decided to show up,'' Ironhide announced walking up to join us with Jazz and Sideswipe in tow. ''Were you trying to make yourself look pretty Chase?'' he folded his huge metallic arms over his chest, his cannons glinting menacingly under the lights.

Sideswipe sniggered behind Ironhide, ''That would explain why it took so long for OC to drag him out here.'' Ironhide turned and gave him a smile.

''Boys, boys, boys,'' Chase retorted. ''You are both just jealous because I have a gorgeous girlfriend and you don't and Sideswipe, you're brave being seen out in public with a mug like yours, the party would be over before YOU had time to make yourself look decent,'' Chase smiled teasingly back at them with a satisfied look on his face. Everyone, Autobot and human alike broke out into laughter.

''Oh, you got burned ''Sides,'' Jazz smacked Sideswipe on his back struts.

Bee just clapped again, 'Another one bites the dust,'' by Queen blared out. ''You're beautiful, you're beautiful,'' he said pointing to Chase who puffed his chest out proudly at having soundly dissed both 'Hide and 'Sides.

''Yeah well,'' Sideswipe stuttered. ''You wouldn't be laughing if Sunny was here,'' was all 'Sides could mutter as he gave the equivalent of a robotic pout.

Suddenly, a familiar clipped voice interrupted our verbal sparring. ''I could surgically remove it if you like Sideswipe,'' Rachet's voice cut in as he and Arcee appeared next to Bumblebee.

''Remove what exactly Rachet?'' Sideswipe looked dumbfounded.

''That stick up your aft,'' Rachet continued to stare seriously at 'Sides which only made us laugh all the more.

I stood there taking in the scene before me. I had everyone I cared about, everyone I loved right here in front of me, laughing, having a good time and simply enjoying each other's company. I stopped myself. /Well ALMOST everyone I care about is here/.

Optimus was noticeably absent from the gathering. Though given Chase's concerns the other night I was reluctant to bring the topic up. I decided to wait and see if Prime turned up of his own volition.

''It is SO good to have everyone here, it's been too long,'' I announced to the group, bringing a more serious tone to the discussion.

''Well not EVERYONE OC,'' Sam spoke up. Sam cast his eyes about the area and the gathered crowd, searching. ''Where is the Big Guy?'' Chase reflexively pulled me closer to him. ''I haven't seen him since before the party started.''

At this Prime's second Lieutenant, Jazz spoke up, ''Prime said he would take first patrol tonight to give everyone a chance to catch up. He said he might join us later.''

/That was thoughtful of him/. ''Might?'' I asked interrogatively.

''Don't take it personally OC,'' Arcee responded, ''Prime's usually don't join in such celebrations anyway. Mind you,'' she continued, ''There haven't really been many opportunities for such occasions for millennia.''

A part of me wanted to take Arcee to task for making such assumptions about her leader but I restrained myself for several reasons; I didn't want Chase to possibly misinterpret my intervention on Prime's behalf in the wrong way, Arcee has known Prime a lot longer than I have and I didn't want to ruin the mood of the evening by causing any disagreements or arguments. However, I stood there silently thinking /the Prime Iknow actually needs a chance to take a load off and relax, to not think about all of the problems and issues, to simply be himself – be Orion and not a Prime for one night/. I kept my thoughts to myself.

Sideswipe spoke up for the first time after his previous put down by Chase. ''All the more reason for us to get stuck in and enjoy ourselves as who knows what tomorrow will bring!''

''I'll drink to that,'' Lennox spoke up, ''I'm sure the Big Guy will turn up when he is ready. ''Till then, who wants a drink?'' Lennox was greeted with several chorus' of ''I do!'' and the group slowly gravitated towards the fire pit as the night air started to turn slightly chilly and a breeze picked up.

As we settled in around the fire and our discussions turned to various topics; how have you been? What have you been up to? What's the latest news or gossip? I forgot about Prime and focused on the people with me here and now. A few hours went by and, aided by alcohol and energon, the conversation took an interesting turn as the midnight hour approached.

'Wa'h a minute, wa'h a minute,'' Chase said slightly slurring his words. ''Are you serious you've NEVER done it?'' He said directing his attention to Sam.

All eyes turned to the young man in question, awaiting his response. Sam stared daggers at Chase. ''I'm not going to answer that Chase, it's a personal, private, personal thing,'' and he took another swig of his beer.

''Well if YOU'RE not going to answer it, we can just go straight to the source.'' Epps teased Sam. Sam's face turned white. Mikaela giggled.

''Yeah that's right! That's right, THEY'LL 'fess up,'' Lennox yelled out loud. ''Hey Bee!'' Lennox half turned in his chair to face the scout. Bee beeped and whirred at him. ''tell us honestly, Autobot code and everything, DOES Sam fart in you from time to time?''

''BEE!'' Sam shouted at his friend from across the fire. ''Do NOT answer that question, you gotta have my back on this,'' Sam was trying to guilt Bee into silence. The yellow scout tapped his metallic digits together and he looked nervously away.

''Come on Man! Everyone does it from time to time driving in their cars, I bet sometimes, even just ONCE you have let one rip in Bee,'' Chase continued, determined to get Same to confess.

Ironhide spoke up matter of factly, ''For the record, can I just say that Lennox has, once or twice,'' Ironhide made a distasteful expression with his face plates. ''It was very irritating not to mention unpleasant.''

''Yep,'' Lennox put his hand up in the air, ''guilty as charged! Sorry 'Hide but when you gotta go, you gotta go.'' Ironhide simply grunted at him and folded his arms over his chest.

''Well,'' I interrupted the conversation, ''can I just say Sam, given your over reaction to such an innocent question, and the overwhelming mounting evidence contrary to what you maintain, I am going to say you HAVE done it, likely on numerous occasions,'' I offered to the group with a smile on my face.

''Yeah!'' everyone chorused.

Bee's radio broke into various snippets, ''The truth! You. Can't. Handle the truth!''

Sam glowered at all of us shaking his head, ''I gave up the first week of my last holidays before college to come here and get verbally abused and interrogated by you all, shame on you.''

Everyone simply sniggered at him. Sam turned to face his Autobot friend. ''And Bee, you let me down, you let me down big time.'' Bee looked hurt at the assertion, ''I thought you were my buddy. And OC, don't even get me started on you!'' Sam jabbed his finger at me and pouted before he threw his hands up in the air and yelled out, ''Fine, yes, if it will shut you all up, fine I HAVE FARTED WHILE SITTING IN BEE!'' Sam admitted to the group to the sound of high fives and laughter.

''There now,'' Chase soothed. ''Don't you feel better for admitting it?'' He smiled.

''Actually,'' Jazz spoke up, ''wouldn't you say it feels better to be out than in?'' he joked. Everyone, including Sam, cracked up at the comment.

The conversation continued to move from topic to topic, some serious, some decidedly not so serious including asking Bee if he got annoyed when he heard people shout ''SPOTTO'' all the time as he was a yellow car. There was more drinking and laughter as the night progressed and before I knew it, it was about 3am and everyone, Chase included, was a little worse for wear.

As the fire started to die down, I called it quits. ''Chase, I think it's time we got you home and into bed,'' I said to him patting him on his knee.

''Oh yeah, you're gunna take me to bed, woooh! Let's go,'' He started to try and stand up and fell back down again into his seat.

/This is going to be fun/. ''Yeah.. to SLEEP Chase, to sleep. You're pissed as a newt and in no condition to do anything except sleep it off babe,'' I gently admonished him. I stood up trying to help Chase. He was a dead weight, and I was struggling. ''Ahh, a hand here someone?''

''Sure,'' offered Lennox, at which point he slipped off his chair and onto the ground laughing. ''But who's going to help me?'' I rolled my eyes.

''Come on Sam, time for us to head off too,'' Mikaela tapped Sam on the shoulder.

''Hmm… yep… time to head home…'' Sam started to stand but promptly sat back down in his chair too.

''Let me help you ladies with this,'' Jazz spoke up. ''Bee, transform will ya?'' Bee immediately transformed, albeit a little slowly, into his Camaro form and popped his doors open. Jazz carefully picked Chase up and placed him in the passenger seat. He then collected Sam and placed him in the driver's seat. Mikaela and I fitted our respective partner's seatbelts. ''Now, if you like ladies I will give you a lift home and help your fellas at the other end.''

''You are a life saver Jazz,'' I was very appreciative of his help as I honestly didn't know how I was going to get him in the car and out of it again. /Could use my powers/ came the latent thought.

''Jus' wait a sec I'll get Lennox and Epps into Ironhide, 'Sides can help get them out back at their places,'' Jazz took a moment to organise the others. Most everyone else had the good sense to depart earlier in the evening so it was just us left anyway.

When everyone was safely seated inside their designated cars, and quick, drunken farewells were made, we headed for home.

A short time later Jazz and Bumblebee pulled up out the front of my apartment block. We had managed to arrange a room there for Sam and Mikaela during their stay which was convenient, especially now! Mikaela and I got out of Jazz and walked over to the waiting Bumblebee to unclick the seatbelts. Jazz carefully lifted Chase out.

''Umm… how are we going to get them inside?'' I said out loud. I started to gently tap Chase on the cheek. ''Wake up honey, nearly home, just gotta get upstairs.'' Chase began to stir a little but was still mainly comatose. I thought for a second. ''Hey, Jazz? You think you could lift Chase up onto our balcony and Sam onto his balcony? From there we can go inside and either drag them in OR I could use my powers to get them inside.''

''Good call OC, on to it,'' with that Jazz carefully raised Chase and then Sam up onto our balconies. ''I'll wait here until I know you are all safe n sound inside,'' Jazz replied.

''Thanks Jazz, I owe ya,'' Mikaela and I walked into our apartments, and unlocked the balcony door, we tried to drag them in but in the end to speed it up I cheated a little and used my ''gift'' to help. Mikaela, although she knew about it, had never seen it, and she was both blown away and slightly scared by it.

''That is kind cool OC, and I must say, very helpful at the moment.'' Once Sam was in bed, I bid good night to Mikaela and left to get Chase inside. ''Hey Jazz,'' I called out, ''Could you hang around for a minute, I'd like to hitch a ride back to the hanger and get Relda.''

Jazz smiled up at me, ''No need little lady, get her tomorrow. We'll keep an eye on her,'' Jazz tried to reason.

I sighed, ''Ok, but I also haven't seen Prime today and I just want to check he is alright,'' the truth came out.

Jazz's expression softened, ''Oh, well in that case, of course lil' lady. Be waitin' right here for you.''

I smiled my thanks and carefully ''moved'' Chase into our apartment and into the bedroom to lay on the bed. I took his shoes off and his jeans and pulled the covers over him. He stirred slightly but didn't wake up. /Dead to the world!/ I smiled at him and then placed a little kiss on his cheek.

I turned to leave. A part of me felt like I was betraying Chase sneaking off like this to check on Prime, but I knew there were no sinister motives and, like it or not, Prime was in my life BEFORE he was.

Having successfully reasoned my way out of guilty waters, I turned and made my way down to the awaiting Jazz and Bee.