The River and The Highway Part 4

All I could do was stand there and gape. The thing that I had wanted had some how come true. There was Optimus standing in front of me, but as a human. Still I knew it was him. I had seen him with out his mask on and this was the face that I now saw smiling down at me. The most incredible blue eyes in the universe looking at me in the way that I had only dreamed they would be able to. Like I said, all I could do was to stand there and gape while the other three he had been with came back in the store looking for the both of us.

"There you two are!" This was the one that had been talking a mile a minute before.

Now that I got a good look at him I could tell instantly that this was Bluestreak. I hadn't met him much back at the ark but I had seen him. He grinned at me and waved like a goof ball.

Behind him another person walked up, one that looked a whole lot like him but a lot calmer. Again I recognized him, this had to be Prowl. Then finally there was the dark haired one that had the accent. This was none other than my buddy Jazz man, who proceeded to drape him self over Optimus' shoulder and grin at me in a way that only he could manage.

"Hey there Kitten, where you been hiding from us all this time?"

I started to answer when I caught Jean smirking at me out of the corner of my eye.

"Not one word you," I growled.

"Oh not one word, not one," She grinned then looked at Optimus. "Now Mr. Pax, I think you need to take her home and make sure she gets some rest, she's gotten meaner than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs."

That earned her weird looks from Jazz, Streak and Prowl but got a huge goofy grin from Prime.

"I think her Doctor will be more than willing to do what ever it takes to keep her home. Seeing as how she ran off this morning when she wasn't supposed to."

"Oh yeah," I muttered, "Rub it in."

That earned me snickers from Streak and Jazz and a dirty look from Prowl. Then Optimus proceeded to put one arm around my shoulders and lead me out of the store. The moment we were in the parking lot I stepped back and tried to demand some kind of explanation.

"How...?"

That earned me more grins, all around this time.

"Well I'm sure you saw Ratchet and Wheeljack are human sized now?" Optimus asked.

I nodded blankly and he continued.

"Well a shrink ray is one of the lil' toys that Wheeljack had been working on for a while. As for why we look human, chalk that up to Hound and his holograms." He held out his wrist and proceeded to show me what looked like an over complicated watch.

"So you're not human?"

"No," He smiled at me and proceeded to change the subject, "Do you have any idea how hard you are to track down?"

I blinked, "Well that was kind of the idea..."

I turned away from him and focused on looking at my truck. I have to admit after this I had the dubious honor of being one of the few women in the universe who was able to draw and exasperated sigh from the leader of the autobots.

"Why did you run off Angel?"

I refused to look at him, "Do I have to explain?"

He opened his mouth to say more to me and that was when the "Guards" from the house spotted us and descended down on us.

"THERE YOU ARE!" Ratchet pounced.

Alyssa and Wheeljack weren't very far behind, every single one of them in some sort of hologram to make them at least passably human.

"Well I told you she'd take off again," Wheeljack commented. "Come on pay up."

Once again the medic forked over credits to the engineer. I have to admit, being the butt of this running gag was getting a little bit old at this point. Still it was my own fault for taking off and its something that I should have known would come back to haunt me.

Ratchet seemed ready to pounce again after paying off his dun, thank fully Optimus came to my rescue this time.

"Don't be angry with her Ratchet, she had to have some milk for the house. And besides now all of us are here so we can help you keep an eye on her."

Alyssa grinned and reached out, "Keys please?"

I handed them over and got up into the cab of my vehicle, Prime schooched in beside me and the rest of the guys all plied into the bed. A few moments later we were back at the house and I was getting the tongue lashing of a life time.

"I told you that you are not to run off do you hear me!? You're still hurt, you may want to act like nothing is wrong young lady but if you don't do what I say you may have problems for the rest of your life hear me? I've never seen any one so stubborn in my whole tenure as a medic, except for maybe him!"

He stopped and pointed at Optimus for dramatic effect, then kept on ranting.

"You're not some kind of super human girl! Not only are you still damaged but your system still hasn't gotten all of the energon out of your body! If you don't do what I say and start acting like your better when you aren't you could have another attack even when you don't have contact with his spark!"

That one hit the right button. I had been worrying over this problem for a week. Now that they had come here to find me the solution I had though found by leaving him turned up to be null and void. Being alone was no longer an option for me, they had all come here. I knew deep down that every single one of them had come looking for me because the cared about me, but I was starting to get up set. The fact of the matter was the Doc was right. I wasn't recovered, but stubborn ass that I am I was trying to act like nothing was wrong. My body was in bad shape and as a result my mind was about to go haywire to match. I took one good look at the people around me and then proceeded to blow up in ratchet's face much the same way I had in Jean's. This time though it was about a hundred times worse.

"HOW DARE YOU!?" I screamed, "YOU have NO right to talk to me this way! I haven't done any thing wrong! What I do with my life is my business you hear me!"

Ratchet got a dumbfounded look and it suddenly dawned on him that he could have been a little gentler in his coaxing. I wasn't going to give him time to apologize though.

"I came here to try and keep some thing like this from happening. I didn't want to make you have to worry about me. I didn't ask you to come here and be my baby sitters! ANY of you! I just wanted to come here and have some peace and quiet! Is that too much to ask for!?"

Huge gentle hands suddenly landed on my shoulders as I yelled in the doctor's face, I turned around to fine Optimus standing there looking at me. A face so full of emotion that I though I was going to die, I had no idea how he had done what was done. Even though he had explained it to me, the change in size seemed to matter little. He was still and autobot and I was still human. Being faced with that look of love and concern when I was in so much emotional turmoil was more than I could bear.

"Please Angel," he begged, "Try to calm down. Ratchet's only trying to..."

"NO!" I tugged my self away from him and pulled toward the door, "Please don't! You know as well as I do that there is no way its ever going to be! Why did you come here? I don't want to break your heart Optimus but there's no way it will ever work between the two of us. No matter how much I might want it too!"

He gapped at me as the realization of why I had taken off in the first place hit him like a, if you will excuse the bad pun here, a Mack truck. So many different emotions ran through those wonderful eyes of his that I no longer had the will or the strength to stay there and try and fight for a relationship that I felt I had never had in the first place. I proceeded to whirl away from the autobot commander and take off out the door of the house and across the farm. I heard him calling to me as I ran but I convinced my self that I couldn't go back, That I would be kidding my self if I tried to believe that he wanted me as much as I wanted him.

That's when Ratchet's warning came back to haunt me. I had made it to the door of the barn and was planning on going inside to hide my self when I felt it hit. The horrid sensations that I had been experiencing from the moment Optimus had gone into my mind. Energy running through me with power enough to keep a transformer alive, only this time however there was no spark there to need or control the power. So it hit me directly.

Back at the house they were just getting their wits back and starting after me when they heard me start screaming.