Chapter 39 - Grandfather's story

"Lennox!" I stated mildly, "it's impolite to ask a lady her age," I shot a wink at him before I began to toss the frying meat with some seasonings.
"Sorry, how old are you again?" Lennox laughed this time.
"Eighteen, or... hang on, what day is it today?" I asked curiously.
"Um, November first, we missed Halloween," Will frowned.
"Huh, I'm nineteen now," I pursed my lips then shrugged.

(MPOV)

"You just spent your nineteenth birthday driving through the desert and finding dead bodies." Will stated flatly.

"No, my birthday was yesterday, Halloween." I shrugged, tipping the boiling water into the meat with the dehydrated vegetables. The pot filled with water again and began making coffee. "And it could be worse," I added, glancing over my shoulder.

"How?"

"I spent my birthday in an Egyptian desert, eating and sleeping with people I gladly consider my friends." I smiled, "How is that different from the costume sleepover parties my dad would throw for us? I. Am in Egypt. Look! Pyramids!"

Will just shook his head with a wry expression.

"Optimism Will, optimism," I grinned at him, taking a quick taste of the stew. "Life is too short to spend it with regrets." my own words caught me, I looked quietly into the distance.

"Like being considered a criminal?" Optimus rumbled quietly.

"There are cool points to being a badass criminal," I retorted with a grin.

"Like what?" Will laughed.

"Well, stealing that tow truck in Mission City isn't a bad start," I laughed. "I've got skill sets that come in handy in weird situations."

"If I didn't know any better I'd say you'd been raised by the military," Will chuckled.

"Nah, just a man who loved to learn," I smiled. "Especially if it was something a common person wasn't meant to know. What's your family like?"

Will immediately began to expound on weekends spent fishing with his father, his baby girl and her development, and his wife who was evidently the most beautiful woman in the world. I smiled and asked the questions that brought forth more information, serving up the stew and chatting easily with the small group of soldiers. I flicked my eyes to the sky as the sound of aircraft slowing down reached my ears.

Jetfire stalled and landed gracefully, striding toward camp the next second.

"Use your holoform!" Ironhide called out brusquely. The seeker nodded with a snort and transformed, onlining a holoform the next moment. The soldiers stared at him.

"Wha?" he rumbled with a snort, looking down at the form.

"That's an interesting shape," Ironhide snorted.

"Ach, now 'e was a damned good pilot," Jetfire growled, looking at the form. "Trusted me, he did, only human I e'er tol', o' 'course tha' was an accident..."

"Story!" Jacobs demanded with a broad grin, scooching over and whacking his hand on the spot beside himself. I looked at the holoform with a small frown. He looked incredibly familiar.

Jetfire laughed and plunked down.

"Righ', so it was the three of us up there, middle of a dogfight when the co-pilot took out his gun an' shot me! Righ' in the instrumentation panellin! Tryin' tae crash us for th' other side to get a good look a' us. Spy. Well ol' Tully, he started shoutin' said 'Boyo! If there's ever a time tae have a mind o' yer own now's the time!" Jetfire stated with a snort. "I liked Tully, 'e were always making sure my lubricants were in good shape, sae I did a triple roll and pulled a few dives. Co-pilot fainted, wern' used to that kinda force, but Tully, Ol Tully he stuck wi' me the entire ride. I transformed and landed wi' the two of 'em in me hands."

"What'd they do?" Ironhide asked with a laugh.

"Well, the co-pilot just kinda took a long look at me, and passed righ' back out again, Tully, 'e just sat in me hand for a minute, starin' righ' back at me. Then 'e burst out laughin' an' said 'Holy tossin' mother o' Mary, why din't you do that before you impressive fukkin' bastard!?"

The soldiers proceeded to roar with laughter, right beside Jetfire.

"Aye, I miss ol' Tully, good man, good flier, 'e were another what run on energon." Jetfire nodded placidly. The entire camp froze.

"He what?" Ratchet asked in shock.

"Tully, 'e used tae create energon, started shortly after we became cohort, 's how I managed to stay alive pas' the rest 'o 'em deactivatin.' Run on jetfuel, 'e did, Fatback an' whiskey. Cept 'e never did use it. 'E'd sleep in me cabin mos' nights, rest 'o them groundpounders never did get 'ow 'e managed. Seemed tae them anytime we flew t'gether, 'e'd come back in better health than when we left."

"He'd produce energon," Ratchet stated in a shocked tone, "Flying with you would have caused him to release it, which you would use, freeing his system from the toxins. But flying with you was an almost guarantee he'd be safe. A perfect symbiotic relationship..."

"Aye, ol' Tully stayed wi' me to th' end," Jetfire stated with a nod, looking into the distance. "Nigh on a century 'e lived, kipin' me strong, kipin' each other strong til' them big wigs cottoned on. When 'e knew I'd be grounded, 'e'd give me the specs fer a new form. S' how we stayed hidden."

"What happened?" Jacobs asked quietly.

"Well, them big wigs sent the orders down, an' foun' out tha' Tully were survivin' on fat an alcohol. Said 'e weren't healthy doin' that. Said 'Grandpa' you should go, retire, made it an order. Last I remember," Jetfire said heavily. "Them mechanics were raisin' their glasses to 'im, tae Tully, th' only one who'd flown wi' me and made me sing in' th' air. Spark went out after tha'... no' even me logs show wha' happened. Although by the feel o' it they stripped me fer parts," Jetfire finished with a grumble, looking back at his form. The nex' thing I remember, is wakin' up in tha' mausoleum, wi' Tully's grandchild restartin' me spark," Jetfire looked at me with narrowed eyes, scrutinizing me. I looked at him curiously before two and two clicked. I began laughing softly.

(RPOV)

Mikaela began laughing softly, looking at Jetfire's holoform, Ratchet looked a bit more closely at the seeker's form. He was military build, red optics, but the holoform had Mikaela's eyes...

"You're the blackbird. You know, everyone thought your inputs were from his co-pilot, Danny." Mikaela said in amusement. The soldiers stared at them.

"Elaborate," Lennox stated with a broad grin.

"My paternal grandfather, Theodore 'Tully' David Banes, he came to the hospital the day I was born, sat down in a chair and cradled me for an hour, talking about flying." Kae said with a sad smile. "Dad always said gran'da gave me my marching orders, he said 'never set down, never gi'e up, kip goin' till you find the truth ma wee Kae, there are greater things in this universe than are covered by our philosophy.' Those were his last words, he died with me in his arms, went peacefully." Kae stared off into the distance for a long moment then looked at Jetfire, rising and catching his holoform in a strong hug. "It's nice to have you back, Gran'da." Jetfire's holoform's arms wound tightly around her.

"Nice to have you back, grand-daughter," Jetfire rumbled quietly. "Now where the pit are the neurals I gie' ya?"

"Wait, wait wait wait, your grandpa was airforce?" Jacobs asked with a broad grin.

"Cavalry first," I smiled, "You can find his history. They buried him under one of the little white crosses in Arlington. So next time you try to josh me as the Maggot, Jacobs," she grinned. "Bear in mind that flying is in my blood, this maggot was born with wings."

"So you are a military brat," Chance grinned.

"No," Kae snorted immediately, "My father was, and Gran'da taught him a good few things." Ratchet concealed a small frown as she cut herself off, looking at him.

"Where are her neurals?" Jetfire asked sternly.

"Her signature is stronger when the neurals are integrated into her system," Ratchet stated firmly.

"Aye, they're runnin' the same program Tully's were, preservation," Jetfire growled, "smooth out th' production o' energon, govern it a wee bit sae she can use it hersel'!"

Ratchet stared at the seeker and offered back the heavy bracelet. Kae grinned and integrated it back into her system, already looking more alert.

"Jus' remember to disconnect mos' o' em 'fore you sleep," Jetfire snorted, grinning at her. "Else wise you're gonna start usin' th' Cybertronian day cycle."

"Which is?" she asked with a grin.

"About two of your weeks long," Ironhide snorted.

"How you guys manage to get so much done when you're sleeping all the time is beyond me," Sideswipe snorted. "Of course Optimus switched his sleep cycle so you'd get some proper sleep." He grinned unrepentantly at her. Optimus was glaring.

"It never occurred to you that I could function on your sleep cycle?" Kae asked with a snort, looking at Optimus.

"It's not good for you to be awake for ten days, and asleep for three," Ratchet snorted. "You're an earth femme."

"And that differs from me running on three hours sleep every twenty four hours how?" she asked with a small smile, looking at the medic.

"It's still bad for you," Ratchet grumbled, "and I know you, you'll then start trying to convince me that you did your three day sleep two days ago, when it was ten."

"Okay true," Kae snorted.

"So wait, Kae's grandfather knew you to be a bot," Jacobs grinned.

"Yeh? So?" Jetfire asked curiously.

"So why were you lot claiming first contact?" Chance grinned at Ratchet.

"Because as far as we knew, we were the first," Optimus rumbled patiently, looking at Kae. "Which explains one, and leaves a thousand questions more."

Kae looked at him for a long moment and laughed softly.

"Oh come on Kae!" Will shouted with a broad grin. "You've listened all night to us talking about our families! Your turn!"

"You realize I'm not supposed to offer anything about my family?" she snorted. "I have way too much history for an agent to memorize, let alone know who knows what about which piece of history."

"But..." Chance started, shooting puppy dog eyes at her.

"Pleeeaaaassseeeee," Bumblebee's holoform wheedled his big sister. "You're my sister, I wanna know our family history!"

Kae frowned for a long moment.

"Alright fine, on one condition," she stated firmly.

"What is it?" Will asked warily.

"If, some time well into the future, a woman approaches you, claiming to be me, but she doesn't know everything that I've told you. You behave as though she is me, because I swore to give my identity to another agent. If she approaches you, it means she'll need your help, and you make damn sure you treat her as you would me," Mikaela stated sternly.

"On our honour as soldiers," Jacobs stated firmly.

"Good enough for me," Kae smiled somewhat.

"History!" Chance grinned.

"Theodore David Banes was born in Scotland, the third son and fifth child to retired Admiral Jacob 'Ironhand' Lewis Banes. But once we're in, we stay with our chosen path, Great Grandfather spent the rest of his life as a steelworker at one of the shipbuilding factories." Kae began quietly. She began drawing in the sand, idly sketching her lineage.

"Admiral!?" Will choked in shock.

"Admiral Ironhand Banes," Jacobs murmured respectfully.

"Background," Lennox grinned.

"One of the most feared Admiral's in his time," Jacobs grinned. "Took out hundreds of enemy ships. There are textbooks detailing his exploits. Unofficially, he began the phrase 'no one left behind'."

"His son, Theodore was a cavalry man first, " Kae took up the story again. "At fourteen, he took his older brother's birth certificate, went to war rather than his brother, who had a wife and children already, and didn't want to leave. He began flying after that, with his own name once he was the right age. That caused a bit of shit stirring." Kae laughed. "He flew during the second world war, and met his wife on base, an Italian refugee serving as a nurse for the allied forces. They moved to America and fought like devils, but nana loved gran'da to distraction, and presented him with three sons, remaining faithful to him for the sixty years they were married. Even though they saw each other for the sum total of twenty."

"They were a career military family," Jacobs murmured. Kae nodded.

"Good boys, they were," Jetfire stated musingly. "I remember those three boys, back when I were still disguised as a spitfire-"

"That was you!?" Kae demanded incredulously.

"Aye, Tully and his three boys, settin' on me wing and grinnin' like madmen," Jetfire grinned. "You'll be that third boy's child."

"How do you figure that?" Kae snorted.

"You got their temper, 'Specially that third's." Jetfire grinned at her. Kae began laughing.

"Yeah, yeah I do." she grinned.

"Wow, the unconscious Seeker knows more about her than we do," Jacobs interjected with a snort.

"I will follow Tully's line to the end of days," Jetfire announced sternly. "He were a true leader, a Prime of his kind, as were his sons. Leaders, the lot of them. Never left a man behind, I were glad to be under his command."

"Tully Banes!" Chance shouted suddenly, staring at Kae.

"Yeah?" Kae shrugged.

"He's your grandfather!" Chance shouted. He jumped to his feet and caught Kae's hand with an almost reverent gleam in his eyes.

"What's that for?" Will asked curiously.

"Tully Banes! as in 'Pullin' a Banes' Tully Banes!" Chance shouted excitedly.

"You're shittin' me!" Graham bellowed.

"What?" Will asked curiously.

"Firsthand, what happened Jetfire!?" Chance asked with a broad grin. "There's an old story, ghost story, that Tully Banes defied-"

"Oh tha' night!" Jetfire howled, laughing uproariously and whacking his thigh.

"TELL!" Jacobs howled.

"Right, well, we were fighting some war or another... which was it...?" Jetfire murmured, looking up at the sky for a moment. "Nam, stationed in Laos, I were a spitfire for most o' the time," he nodded firmly. "Tully got me the specs for a starfighter for a little while after tha'. Anyway. They tried tha' old trick, dropping a dozen or so men behind enemy lines so that they could break through from the back. Nobody told Tully o' course, but they were his boys, not his sons, his boys. Well them boys got trapped you know? Pinned down by tanks and the like. The higher ups o' course said 'leave 'em, a dozen boys ain't important. Well... Banes! Cardinal Rule!" Jetfire roared suddenly.

"NEVER leave a man behind SIR!" Kae bellowed.

"AYE!" Jetfire bellowed back at her with a broad grin as soldiers and Auto-bot's stared. "So of course they tol' ol' Tully that on pain of death he were not to fly into that space, he were not to go retrieve those soldiers, he were not to so much as look at a plane."

"That ain't right," Jacobs growled.

"Tha's what Tully said," Jetfire grinned. "Between he and I, we broke..." he trailed off with a frown and began counting on his fingers. "Sixteen...? NO! Seventeen! Seventeen laws and orders," he grinned unrepentantly. "I always forget that las' one."

"What's the last one?" Jacobs chortled.

"No going supersonic too close tae ground," Jetfire smirked.

"You didn't!" Chance howled.

"Well I didn't have any missiles! Wha' were I supposed to do? Transform and use me battleaxe? We'd collected the men already, three dead, six wounded and the other three so damned tired it were all they could do to stand. They were all layin' in me belly as we took off, tanks roarin' t'ward us, so I shoved fire and force down the throats of those bastards tryin' tae shoot us down! Scared the shit out of 'em." Jetfire growled proudly. "Blood and vinegar, we leave no one behind!"

"How does the ghost come in?" Chance asked gleefully.

"Ach, simple, there were twenty o' em settin' around, tryin' tae behave." Jetfire snorted, rising and blinking his holoform. An ancient, nordic warrior walked blindly through camp, through Jacobs and straight to his form, he stopped, and Ratchet couldn't help but admire the bot's theatricality as he stopped beneath his own wing, staring Chance down. He gave a curt gesture, a direction, a command bypassing time and worlds. Come. He flickered out as his lights blinked to life, his engines slowly beginning to bring themselves online, with absolutely no one around. Ratchet thought for a moment and realized just how eerie it would be for the humans to see a plane start itself.

Chance was up and running the next second.

"Ach not taenight sonny!" Jetfire snorted gleefully, catching him with Tully's form. His engines and lights cut out again. "But I'll tell you wha'! I pulled tha' with two dozen sober pilots an' mechanics shocked whiter than their linens. Tully stood an' says, 'Can't argue with a ghost, or those men will be' and run after me, jus' as you did there sonny."

Ratchet couldn't help himself, he clapped his hands with a broad grin right beside Ironhide. The soldiers cheered gleefully.

"So it was true," Chance stated with a broad grin. "The defining story of my life for the past five years was absolutely true."

"Aaww, I defined ya an' yeh din' even come visit me," Jetfire snorted, messing with Chance's hair as the man laughed.

"So boys," Will stated with a broad grin, catching Kae in a headlock. "It seems we have ourselves a military celebrity."

"Bullshit, those are my ancestor's actions," Kae snorted, lightly jabbing Will in the side.

"But you're a Banes!" Chance called out with wide eyes.

"Yeah, a nineteen year old Banes, I've yet to build up the glory that comes with the name," Kae snorted.

"Nineteen year old girl, saved the world once and this is your second campaign," Will grinned. "Yeah, just so you know, we're all laying claim to your autograph when we get home. I've got a daughter to send to college after all. Pretty sure that program's screwed now, everyone knows what you look like, and your name is now irrevocably tied to the 'Bots."

"For which I am grateful," Optimus rumbled quietly, looking at Kae earnestly.

"Quit that, you guys are gonna make me blush," Kae grinned as the soldiers howled with laughter again.

"Granddaughter," Jetfire rumbled finally. "I'll pull a charge from yeh if yeh don' mind, get some scoutin' done while you lot are sleepin.'"

"Have you gotten any rest?" Optimus rumbled worriedly, Jetfire looked at him speculatively and stood his holoform, walking to kneel in front of Optimus.

"Gladly do I respect and give my deference to Optimus Prime," he rumbled sternly. Optimus straightened and laid a gentle hand on Jetfire's head.

"Gladly do I hear and respect Seeker Jetfire," Optimus rumbled. "But you did not answer my question, have you received enough rest?"

"Aye Sir," Jetfire nodded firmly. "Bit o' energon an' I'm good as new."

Mikaela stood up and walked over to the Blackbird, laying her hands on his skin. Ratchet watched in fascination as she commanded the neural fibres to lightly connect to Jetfire, and grinned as a massive surge of energon flashed over his frame, the holoform became even more solid, his human countenance getting a bit more colour.

"Right oh, got your transmission," Jetfire grinned. "If we get any company you'll know before they know they've been spotted." he leaned down and pecked a kiss to Kae's forehead. "Sleep tight granddaughter."

"Fly safe grandfather," Mikaela replied, standing on her toes to peck a kiss to his throat. Ratchet grinned. Even in human form they were honouring Cybertronian tradition.