Author's Note:

I don't know if I'm completely happy with this chapter. I wasn't feeling too fantastic this week and while it wasn't the hardest chapter to get out, I just don't know how I feel about it. I let this ruminate for a few days and, so far, I'm inconclusive on it.

I am so shocked and happy about the support I am getting for Uncle Gregory. Thank you so much! He's just an uncle, with no instruction manual, trying his best.

I own nothing and will put the characters back when I am done, except Gregory Witwicky who I made exclusively for this story.

…

Sam kept his promise to his uncle and didn't discharge the moment he opened his eyes. He was exhausted and sore, like he'd been sick with the flu for a week, the pain killers they kept him dosed with only took the edge off his symptoms. However, the longer he stayed in the hospital the more nervous he became. He was constantly shooting glances towards the door to ensure some suit wasn't going to come bursting through with handcuffs and a questionable agenda. He wasn't sick, just easing off the after affects of acting as a live AED for a Cybertronian.

The doctors didn't want to discharge Sam and he had to sign a waiver stating that he was being discharged of his own violation against medical advice, but he knew there was nothing they could really do for him and all he could do was go home and sleep it all off. Uncle Gregory didn't agree with it either, Sam could easily tell from the pull of his lips and the furrow of his brow. He was silent on the hour ride home, though, letting Sam just drift off.

He hovered close as they went inside, making sure Sam didn't suddenly fall over since he was still weak from his ordeal, and didn't step back until Sam flopped onto the couch. He stared at his nephew for several long moments, his jaw working as he clearly had something he wanted to say. Sam wasn't his kid, however, so he was always measured with how he spoke and what he said. Sam turned his head feeling the holes being burned into his skull by Gregory's eyes.

"Uncle Greg-" Sam started, but then didn't know where to go from there. Not the truth. Not the truth his Uncle deserved.

"It's okay kiddo," Gregory interjected. "I'm going to go get these prescriptions for you and then we can watch some movies together."

"What about the shop?" Sam asked, worried, knowing Gregory hadn't had the shop open in the couple of days Sam had spent in the hospital. The shop was his livelihood, how he put food on the table, if it wasn't open he didn't make money.

Gregory scratched at his stubble in thought, sighing deeply. "I've got just a couple of things I should do quick."

"I'll be fine." Sam insisted. "I won't move from the couch, I promise."

He could see the hesitation in Gregory's eyes, but sense won out. "I'll be back in a couple of hours; your scripts should be done by then and I'll bring them home. Stay out of the backyard for now?" He reached over and ruffled Sam's hair. "I want to talk when I get home though, okay?"

Sam nodded stiffly, stomach sinking out of nervousness and nausea. He should have known he couldn't skirt around forever. His uncle wasn't an idiot, just understanding, but even that had its limits. "Yeah." He answered.

It wasn't too much longer before he heard Gregory's truck pull out and away. As soon as he was sure he wasn't going to circle back, Sam groaned as he stood up from the couch and ambled out to the backyard. He squinted at the harshness of the sun, the exposure bringing up the pounding in his head. The yellow Lamborghini was still there, sitting quietly among the dirt and weeds in the yard. Hound hadn't been clear about the state of the other Cybertronian and Sam wanted to see for himself if he'd helped or hurt him.

"Sunstreaker." He tried out the name, feeling it around on his tongue. "Are you doing okay?" He asked, not really expecting an answer. The mech wasn't talkative in the first place considering his vocal processor had been so damaged. It didn't stop the stab of disappointment when Sunstreaker remained silent. "I'm sorry if I hurt you. I-I can't control this yet and I'm not sure what I was trying to do anyway." He placed a hand on Sunstreaker's hood, both to steady himself and to reassure the mech he hadn't meant any harm.

"He didn't want you out here."

Sam jolted at the voice, but quickly calmed again. The accented, scratchy voice he now knew as Sunstreaker's was reassuring. "You were able to hear that?" Sunstreaker didn't answer. It was telling on its own, however, that his systems were repairing themselves now if he was able to hear their conversations in the house. Sam pulled over the folding chair and almost fell into it.

"You know Prime?"

"Yeah, he was among the first of your kind I met. You're an Autobot?" Hound had more or less confirmed it, but he needed to hear it from the source.

"I am." Sunstreaker answered firmly, irritably. Like he was used to, and annoyed by, the doubt in others voices on the topic. "Hound got to you." He said this like a statement.

"He was worried," Sam looked down at his own hands. "And he didn't know you were back here; I think this whole thing just surprised him." Sam hesitated before continuing. "He said you're dangerous."

A sound came from the mech, scratchy and sharp, it took Sam a moment to realize it was laughter. "You believe him."

Sam snapped his head up at that. "No." He said quickly and sharply. "I've seen dangerous. I've ran from it. I've shoved the All Spark into it. If you were dangerous, I think you'd have shown that to me by now. Destroyed this house. Hurt me. Something." Sunstreaker didn't have much regard for his safety when it came to his All Spark energy, but to be fair he didn't understand it any better than Sam himself did. That made him an asshole, not dangerous.

"You were hurt." Sunstreaker surprised him by saying.

"Oh. That." Sam touched the back of his head, which still ached to the touch. "Yeah. What we did wasn't a good idea, and I did warn you that I don't know how to control this. I'm not doing it again….but….." Sam looked down at his hands. The marks hadn't appeared since the accident and the energy had been all but nonexistent, confusing him even further. It could have been work of the drugs or maybe he overused it. He didn't know. "How are you?"

He wasn't sure if he surprised Sunstreaker with the question, but it took him several beats before he answered, "I am repairing."

"Good." Sam said, nodding to himself. He rubbed at his eyes and stood up. "I'll be back out later. Just keep healing."

Sunstreaker waited until Sam was inside before rumbling quietly, "You too little human."

Sam was still recovering from his ordeal and so spent much of the day in and out of consciousness. He briefly heard his uncle return from the shop and open his bedroom door to check on him, but he couldn't bring himself to stay awake long enough to talk. Especially after taking one of the prescription pills. He felt bad because he knew his uncle wanted to talk, wanted answers to questions he didn't even know to ask, but it would just have to wait.

It was dark when Sam woke up again. He could hear his uncle snoring in the next room and the old alarm clock next to his bed blazed 1am in bright red. Sam swung his legs over the edge of the bed, wondering what had woken him up. He was part way to the bathroom when he heard a strange sound. It was metal grinding on metal, like a saw and he wondered who the hell was doing work in their garage at one in the morning?

Sam detoured and opened the front door. The street was dark and quiet, no indication of anyone burning the midnight oil. The sound was louder out here though, but he couldn't see where it was coming from. Warning bells were beginning to go off in his head, but like the night his new car took off on its own, he didn't listen to them. He stepped out onto the porch and began to wander towards the street. The noise stopped and didn't pick up again.

Sam huffed a noise and turned around to go back inside. Something was off though. His uncle had a large rock in the front yard with some sort of metal sculpture chained to it, he'd always equated it to modern art and never asked about it. Now though the chains that wrapped around the rock were on the ground and the twisted black and red metal that topped it was …..missing.

"Oh fuck." Sam breathed. He couldn't bring himself to move, grounded out of fear. There was a clicking and something crawled onto the top of the rock. Two bright points of red peered at him from above a snarling mouth that reminded him very much of Frenzy, but with a darker color pallet. Its arms weren't skinny and lanky; however, they were thick and blunt. It looked around for a moment before focusing on Sam.

"Let's Rumble, Witwicky." The creature ground out. It pressed the ends of its arms to the rock, revealing long cylinders that rammed into the rock repeatedly, cracking it down the middle. Sam could feel the vibrations in his feet and surmised that if he were on the other end of that, he would wind up pulverized.

Unable to make a break for the door, Sam decided to try for the side gate. The Decepticon wasn't as fast as Frenzy, thankfully, but Sam was still hard pressed to keep distance between them. He was nearly to the gate when Rumble stopped, placing its arms to the ground, and vibrated them again. The ground under Sam shifted like a wave, knocking him off his feet. His head swam and he silently cursed the pain killers still in his system. He yelped, scrabbling around for anything he could use as a weapon. He grabbed a rock, waited until the small Cybertronian was nearly on him, and slammed it into the side of its head. Its head spun around and eyes glitched out as it twitched, clearly still damaged from whatever had caused it to wind up on that rock in the first place. Sam could only figure that when he sent that large charge to Sunstreaker, some of it must have hit Rumble too.

"Meg-meg-tro-o-on" It spazzed much like Frenzy had talked. Sam took advantage and made a dash for the front door, slamming it shut behind him.

"What the hell are you doing Samuel?" A voice demanded sharply behind him.

Sam yelled and spun around, almost pitching over as he did so. Gregory threw out his arms to steady Sam, still looking furious about being woken up in such a manner.

"No, no, no. You gotta go! We gotta go!" Sam said in a panic.

"Sam!" Gregory snapped, trying to get his nephew back to reality. As he was about to speak again the glass rained in from the window, followed by Rumble.

"Holy shit!" Sam yelled.

Gregory yelped, stumbling back as well, then reached for something next to the door and swung with all his strength. Its head spun around again as it was knocked against a wall where it stayed, stunned. Gregory tried to shove Sam behind him even as his nephew clawed at him, trying to drag him towards the back yard.

"What the fuck is that thing doing up?" Gregory yelled.

"Up?" Sam squeaked. "What was it doing in your yard?"

"Let's R-Rumble!" Rumble called out. Sam could hear the foundation of the house crack as it began a new round of quakes. Sam knew the house wasn't going to be able to stand up to the abuse for long, they had to get out. Gregory followed Sam to the backyard, a tire iron his weapon of choice in hand. The rumbling from inside stopped as Rumble pursued them outside, unable to do both at once. This time it came at them with those dangerous arms. Sam grabbed the folding chair and threw it at the creature as Gregory used the tire iron like a golf club.

"What is that thing?" Gregory panted, not taking his eyes off the metal atrocity. While he seemed aware that it had been in his yard, a question Sam was definitely going to ask later, he didn't seem to know what Rumble was.

"I'm so sorry Uncle Greg." Was Sam's only response.

"Witwicky. You are mine." It chittered sinisterly as it lunged for Sam.

"Not today!" Gregory snarled as he made another swing at the Decepticon, but miscalculated. Sam heard the crunch of bones as one of those cylinders grazed his hand. Gregory shrieked in pain, dropping the tire iron, and Sam moved instinctually. While Rumble seemed startled that he'd nailed one of the humans, Sam swung his leg full force at it like he'd once done with Frenzy's head. Electrical sparks danced over the creature's body and it twitched uncontrollably once it hit the ground.

Sam turned his attention to his uncle, who was cradling his hand to his chest. He was white in the face from pain, which had to be substantial.

"I'm so sorry." Sam stuttered, hands shaking. "We gotta get you to a hospital."

"Sam," Gregory grit out. "What the hell is going on kid? What have you gotten yourself into?"

"Later, I'll explain later, we gotta go."

"Sam!" Gregory yelled, yanking his nephew back against his chest as the creature was clambering after them like a twisted, blocky spider. That shock hadn't kept it down long, if anything it only angered it further. Suddenly there were sharp sounds of grinding and shifting as a shadow rose high above them and the house. Sam could make out the unmistakable outline of a Cybertronian in the shadow cast on the house. Rumble stopped moving. Sam twisted his head around to see a cannon being aimed at the creature and the Autobot standing deadly still, daring it to move even an inch. Sam nor Gregory dared to breath as Rumble weighed its options. It looked to the cannon, to the humans, then back again.

"All hail Lord Megatron!" It spat before scrambling off into the darkness.

The cannon didn't move or power down until the red and black mass was completely out of sight. It transformed out of sight, turning into a black hand. A single blue optic gazed down at the two humans, the other still offline and damaged.

"Sunstreaker." Sam breathed. He watched his head move imperceptibly in a nod. Gregory's mouth was just open, silent, unable to formulate words. Sunstreaker leaned down, transforming as he went until he was in the shape of the beat down Lamborghini again. His door swung up in clear invitation. Sam could hear sirens in the distance and knew this was their only option.

"We gotta go." Sam pulled at Gregory. "Before it comes back."

"My car." Gregory wheezed as he stared at the space the robot once stood to where the car now was. Sam could almost hear the old-fashioned internet dial tone as he struggled to keep up.

"I know, it's a lot to take in. Come on." Once they were in Sunstreaker's engines flared to life. Sam couldn't help the excitement that bubbled in him. After all, it was every mans dream to just be able to touch a Lamborghini….much less get to drive in one. Sunstreaker backed up towards the back wall before tearing forwards at the gate at full speed, crashing through it like it was tissue, taking them far away from the crumbling house. Sam watched as his uncle stared despairingly out the window at the damaged house until they turned the street and it was out of sight.

"Is this what you never talked about?" Gregory asked as he lay back, still cradling his injured hand.

"I never meant for this to happen." Sam said quietly.

"I know kiddo." Gregory sighed. "I know. Where are we going?"

Excellent question. He wasn't sure what was going through Sunstreaker's mind, but he was sure those sirens were following them.

'Shit.' He thought. The last time he had sirens following him into the night it hadn't been a good sign. A normal police car shouldn't have been able to keep up with the horsepower of a Lamborghini, but this one did. Then again, it wasn't a normal police car. Sam was only slightly comforted by the etching of 'To Protect and Serve' on the side rather than the ominous 'To Punish and Enslave' Barricade had always sported.

"The edge of town Sunstreaker. Now." A voice announced through the crackling radio. It was calm and smooth in tone, one Sam didn't recognize.

Gregory seemed to, however. "Officer Prowl?" His brows knit as he looked over at the police car. Sam could see his uncle's world crashing in all around him and it was all his fault.

Sunstreaker didn't answer but did comply and drove to the edge of town with the escort. Sometime along the way a dark green jeep joined their convoy, which Sam knew to be Hound. He put his head between his knees as though he were going to be sick.

His time of self-segregation was up, it seemed.