Crash and Burn: Part 5

I stood there for a second and watched Sunny tear off the farm as fast has he possibly could, then I turned on Angel's family and proceeded to let them have it.

"Any one of you want to explain what the Slag just happened here?"

No one made a move or opened their mouths to say much of anything. So I took it upon my self to push my way through the crowd until I came to the girl's parents.

"Well how about you two? Want to tell me what that was all about?" I demanded.

Her mother looked away as if she was just starting to realize that what had happened was a bad thing. Angel's father on the other hand was the one that managed to get out some kind of response.

"We, our other daughter, asked her to do something…." He stopped and trailed off. "I guess the rest of us were trying to pressure Angel in to feeling like she had to."
"So what was it?" I scowled down at him. He wasn't the only one around that knew how to pull the pissed sergeant crap.

"Don't you tell me this was wrong," This came from her mother, "Maybe it was wrong to ask Angel to do it. But this had to be done! I just can't turn away from her sister; Angel's not my only child!"

"From what I just heard mam," I crossed my arms and looked at her, "She may not be your only child, but Angel is the only child that ever acted like one to you."

"I'll have you know…" The sister began.

"SHUT UP!" I cut her off, "Just keep your slaggin mouth shut or I'm going to feed you to the Dinobots!" I turned back to Angel's parents, "So go on then, explain to me what it was that this girl of yours wanted you to do so bad that you were willing to put it off on My Poor Angel."

"She…" Angel's mother tried.

Her father shook his head, "I don't think its right to tell you. I mean we just can't go around telling family business to complete and utter strangers."

"IN CASE you hadn't noticed sir, I happen to be your daughter's life mate, You know Husband?" I was having a very hard time here keeping my temper in check, "So the last time I checked both the religious and actual laws, that makes me a part of this family."
"I know but…" The man tried again.

"What else is going on in this family?" I snarled, "What things have gone on that would result in a pair of sisters acting that way?"
"I'm sorry…" He tried again, "I just can't…"

"OH I get it," I shook my head at him, "You'd rather keep your stupid little secrets than tell me what I need to find your youngest daughter. Which by the way, just took off in a Lamborghini Diablo that is one of us, which in plain and simple English means, we may NEVER find her."

He opened his mouth again but I had at this point taken all I was going to from this group of misfits my poor life mate had the misfortune to share genetics with, and I preceded to storm off back to the barn.
"Look I know you love her," He came after me, "But it's not just her that was affected by all of this mess."

I stopped and looked down at him, "What…mess?"

"Everything that's gone on in this family for the last twenty years," he blurted.

"So are you going to tell me or do I have to guess?"

"I…" He tried, I could see he was really trying but it wasn't good enough.

"Never mind," I shook my head again, "If you wont tell me, then I'll find out for my self."

I stalked off and left all of them standing there just gaping wondering what was going to happen this time, and if Angel's sister had crossed a line she should have stayed far, far away from.

"Jazz," He looked up at me as I walked in and nodded, "Get on the internet, or what ever database you have to, find out everything you possibly can about some one named Daniel Jones and what connection he has to this family."
"Right on it!" he answered and got to work.

By that point I was over to the com station and could see that the rest of the people there were doing their level best to raise either Angel or Sunstreaker on the horn.

"Well?" I asked.

"Nothing sir," Wheeljack told me. "We're getting a homing signal from Sunstreaker, but as for answering us out loud."

"Angel's gone and turned the thing off," Alyssa sighed. "What the heck did they do to her up there Optimus?"

"I have no idea but I plan on finding out as soon as I can." I motioned to the monitor, "Get a fix on that homing beacon, I'm going to go after her."

A few seconds later they told me that they had stopped and were showing no signs of moving again, so I got out and got ready to get on the road. This meaning that I went out side and returned to my proper size. I was about to take off and go get her when Jazz came running up to me.
"PRIME!" he called.

"What Jazz," I stopped as I noticed that he was holding a data pad in his hand, "Did you find something?"

"You need to take a look at this boss," I could tell that his eyes were the size of tires underneath his visor, "It's about that guy you wanted me to look up."
I was about to take it from him when he stopped me, "Prime, there's also something there about Miss Angel."

"What do you mean?" I drew my self closer and took it out of his hands.

"I think the girl's got some real issues Optimus," He shook his head at me, "Though this would explain why she's bound and determined to not do the damsel in distress thing."

I scanned down the page feeling my own optics widen in horror as I processed the information that was being offered to me. Part of me screamed that there was no way in hell that she could have been mixed up in something like that. There was no way that her family would have let the child she must have been at the time see all of that stuff, but thinking back on the last few days, and how jittery she had been to come here, this information made it make SO much more sense to me.

"Go back to the barn Jazz," I told him, "Keep an eye on the tracking signal, if it moves any, tell me."

"Roger that boss."

He vanished up the hill and I proceeded to transform into my alt mode and take off in the direction I was told Angel was. As it turned out, once she became stationary she never moved from the place. Sunstreaker stayed there and kept an eye on her until I pulled up into the parking lot of the old drag strip just out side of the town where we had first met, Stanton.

She was there, sitting in what was left of the stands with her knees pulled up and her head buried in her arms. I hoped that she was still awake and that I would be able to talk to her, getting her to be coherent after she has dozed off is just this side of impossible.

As I pulled up Sunny transformed and looked at me. For once his face wasn't full of arrogance, or vanity or anything that was typical Sunny. No, this time his face as filled with complete and utter dread about what was going to happen to the girl that he had carried to this place.

"Prime I'm so sorry, I never should have…" he started.

"Don't Sunny," I held up my hand to him, "You helped her, that's all that matters to me. Now it's my turn to go and do something."

Sunstreaker nodded and proceeded to back down while I stepped over the broken remains of the retaining wall and took on my human size again.

I found her just sitting there still, head in arms, body posture saying that she wished all of it would just end, right then and there.

"Angel," I put my hand on her shoulder, "I found out everything."
"Even Jones?" came a muffled reply.

"Yah even him." I sighed, "Now I have a question for you, why didn't you tell me any of this stuff Angel? Why didn't you tell me that your sister married some one who…?" I stopped at a loss for words suddenly.

"Some one who was coming to kill my whole family Orion," She told me, "That was her first husband. A murdering SOB who was willing to kill my sister and every one she loved."
"What happened," I begged, "Please tell me?"

"There isn't much to tell, that was the first time she ran off," Angel shrugged, "1988, she vanished in the fall of 1988. She wanted to go to California and be some kind of a rock star, so she took off not knowing that it takes money and time to do that."

"Go on…"

"She hooked up with Jones when her money ran out, after she had sold everything she owned and still wasn't there. She hooked up with him and they were together for the first few months that she was gone. With in a few weeks after his funds vanished they were calling my parents trying to extort money from them." She looked up at me, "Jones would get on the phone and tell my parents that he would kill her if they didn't send the money. Being who they are, of course, my parents did what he wanted, they didn't want my sister's stupidity to get her killed."

She took a deep breath and was getting ready to start again when I held up my hand for her to stop.
"I want to know one thing about this entire thing Angel," she looked up at me and so I continued, "It isn't about your sister or the creep she was with. I want to know about you."

"What about me?" She blinked looking at me like some one had never gone and asked her that question.

"That's exactly it, did any one stop to think about you while this was going on?"
"I don't understand Orion," she blinked up at me again.

I put my hands on her shoulder and held her there, "How old were you Angel? How old were you when this started, when you sister first ran away?"

She shook her head, "Ten… I think… maybe younger…"

Now I was gaping, every single thing I had read on that data pad was true. They had let a ten year old child witness all of this. They had let her see things she shouldn't have known were in the world until she was grown.

"You were ten when this happened? You were ten HUMAN years old when your sister ran away and left you to deal with parents that were devastated by what she did?"

"Orion I never thought about it that way, their my parents…." She trailed off.

"That means their supposed to protect you, not the other way around," I glared off into space for a second and then looked back at her. "What did you sister come here to ask you to do Angel?"

She sighed and then finally relented, "She wanted me to take her oldest child. The kid doesn't get along with her newest husband. So she wanted to send him to be with her family. My parents are too sick and too old to take him, no one else wants him, so…"

"So they dumped it off on you, right?" She nodded at me and I let out another sigh, "Why didn't you tell me any of this Angel?" I asked again.

"What good would that have done," She looked away from me, "No one's ever listened."

I noticed that she was about to cry and I pulled her up into my arms, "Oh Primus. I'm sorry, I'm so very sorry."

Everything that had gone on this weekend, not once had she started crying, not once had she let any of them see how badly all of this, every thing had affected her. But then she finally let it all out, let out all of the pain and emotion that she had been keeping in side for a life time.

I had a few days ago wanted to know if Angel had as many problems in her past as me. I now had my answer and as I held her in my arms and thought about if finding out the truth about her past was worth it.