She's Like The Wind: Part 5

I want to say that convincing Wheeljack that he could love Alyssa was an easy task. That however is as far from the truth as saying that my relationship got off to a wonderful winning start. Personally I thought he was just being a stubborn pain in the neck. Looking back now I suppose that he did make some valid points to Optimus that evening when Prime once again found him sitting out on the steps staring up at the sky.

"What are you doing out here Wheeljack?"
The engineer shook his head, "I don't know I really don't have any reason to be inside."

"You sure," Prime asked.

"You don't give up do you?"

"My friend, if I gave up I wouldn't be here right now would I?"

Some how Wheeljack's face turned to thoughtful as he continued to stare at the sky.

"Doesn't it bother you though Optimus?"

"Doesn't what bother me?"

Wheeljack took a deep breath and continued, "That this girl you have so many feelings for, that you're so deep in love with, is bound by things that no matter how much you love her, aren't going to change."

"Like what?" Prime prodded.

Optimus really wanted them to wind up with one another as much as my self if not more. So he was trying here and now to find out what was stopping them.

"Like for example, we're old Optimus." He stopped and motioned around him, "Older than this town, older than this country, older than their whole world. For us it doesn't matter, our appearance doesn't change that much no matter how much time passes. We still look the same. But the truth is, they are barely more than kids compared to us! Its even worse for Alyssa than it is for Angel."

"That bothers you," Prime prompted, "That they are young compared to us?"

"Doesn't it you?"

"That's not what I asked you Wheeljack," He paused for a second and then let that one go.

"Besides that, what else about them bothers you?"

Wheeljack sighed and started again, "There's also the fact that I'm, we're, going to out live these girls by thousands if not millions of years. Were still young for our race, the chances of us living a long time, despite the war are still pretty good Optimus. That means that no matter how much one of us loves them, there isn't any thing we can do to keep them from dieing in the end."

Optimus opened his mouth here to say something. The real truth is he had some new information from Ratchet that had changed that factor of his relationship with Angel. Then again he had to admit he didn't really care. Even if he only had a few years with me, he was willing to spend it.

"Should it matter Wheeljack?" he turned away and looked up at the stars him self.

"Shouldn't it?" Wheeljack asked him sounding near frantic.

"I don't know, I remember in this one human book I was reading. An immortal woman was willing to give up her eternal life so she could live with a human man she loved. I know that I would give up forever to have Angel, or if I could find away I'd share my forever with her. But in the end it doesn't matter Wheeljack."

"How can you say that?"

"Isn't it better to take that chance and love, then live half awake not knowing what could have been?"

"You're being philosophical." Some how he did a good job of looking disgusted at op. "I wish you wouldn't do that."

Optimus laughed softly, "Well maybe I am, I have heard that love dose that to a person."

"I wish I could make my self see it that way Optimus, but the harder I try to get my processor around it the worse it seems to get."

"Are you willing to loose the chance of being with her?"

"No, but you missing the point." He sighed, "After this is over, after we leave, she's going to head back to her life and I'm going to go back to the ark."

"Maybe it's different for my self and Angel Wheeljack. After all you seem to have fallen in love with Alyssa in a much more... traditional way."

"I don't know Prime, it's like she's just some one or some thing I will never be able to have. She's something that I can feel and see but never actually touch. Besides all of that, there is her human family to worry about. You may not care what Angel's family thinks but I'm not going to get this poor girl disowned because I care about her."

"You think she's beyond your reach?"

"She's so far beyond me that I couldn't ever catch her no matter what I did."

Optimus looked at him, "Besides, again your working on the assumption here that SHE likes me too."

"I don't know if she dose or not Wheeljack. What I do know is that you can't keep on tormenting your self like this. You either have to make up your mind that you don't care about her or that you do."

"You mean just walk up and tell her how I feel?" The engineer asked.

"That's exactly what I mean, if you don't your going to go insane."

Wheeljack looked back at him and lowered his head for a moment, "What if she says she doesn't care?"

"Then at least you will know and you can get on with your life, one way or another Wheeljack, something has to give."

With that Optimus got up and left Wheeljack sitting there to think this all over. Slowly but surely he came to his choice and came reluctantly wondering back into the house in search of my best friend. What he found was her alone at the kitchen table in the middle of working up some ideas on paper for the company she worked for. He stepped into the place and looked at her then got her attention.

"Alyssa?"

She looked up from the paper and those who would have known what to look for could have seen her face light up at the concept of him coming to talk to her. She was able to get it under control pretty quick and so the look passed over her face so fast that Wheeljack didn't even see it.

"Whatcha' want Wheeljack?"

"I ahh... well I just wanted to talk to you mostly. There's something that..."

She suddenly froze and looked at him.

"You're not going to say what I think you're going to are you?"

"Probably," He sighed, "Listen I don't expect any thing other than to just hear me out for now."

"No you listen," She set down her work and looked up at him, "I have a pretty good idea of what you're going to say and I have to tell you that ...."

"Yeah I know," He Sighed, "I just had to say something, I couldn't keep this to my self any longer."

"I'm Sorry to put you in this kind of position."

"No it's not y our fault at all, I just made some assumptions I shouldn't have"

The engineer tried again to get the will up to say some thing but lost it. He let out one more, long sigh and walked back into the other parts of the house. She was left alone there at the table with what was, For all intents and purposes, a completely and utterly crushed heart.

About twenty minutes later I came wondering into the place and found Alyssa there staring at the paper, with a look on her face that told me volumes. Something had happened and it had changed the way that she was looking at the world. As well as changing the way that she looked at a certain member of my house's current Cybertronian population.

"Alyssa? What happened?"

"Well, I hate to say I told you so but I was right."

"About what," I demanded.

"About Wheeljack not feeling the same way for me that I do for him," She sniffed.

"Come again?"

"He was in here, less than a half an hour ago and basically told me that he doesn't feel the same way for me that I do for him."

"Are you..." I trailed off because this wasn't what Optimus had told me, nor what I had picked up on my self.

"Please Angel, He shot me down." She sighed and looked back down at the scribbles she had done on her paper. "I don't know why I talked my self into thinking that it might work, that I might some how deserve to have a relationship." She grimaced, "You'd think after all the relationship stupidity I've seen in my life I would understand that they don't last."

I pushed a chair out and sat down next to her, "Now wait just one second. I for one don't believe that Wheeljack is the kind of person that is capable of coming in here and shooting some one down. Are you 100 percent positive that he wasn't trying to tell you something else and you just read it wrong?"

"What else could he have possibly been trying to tell me Angel!?" She nearly shouted.

"That he loves you silly," I waited while that sunk in.

"Wha?" She looked at me blankly.

"That he loves you, has loved you from the moment he carried you out to the ark. But that he was too scared to let any one know, let alone confess it to you out loud."

"But he was just..."

"What did he say to you exactly?" I asked.

"That he just... well made some judgments and assumptions and that he was sorry."

"I think you read more into it than he was saying." I stopped and thought for a second, "What if he was trying to tell you the exact opposite?"

"No... That's just not possible."

"Why not," I asked.

"It's... It's Just not possible... that's all."

"You sound like I did a few days ago." I paused, "What if you're wrong?"

"I don't know." She looked up at me with her heart in her eyes. "What if I'm not?"

"Come on." I grabbed her and pulled her to her feet. "Let's go find out for sure."