A/N: Um hi there. I've been MIA. That sucks. Please love me lol. Y'all might wanna reread the last few chapters as a reminder of where we are b/c this one starts with a bit of a time skip.
Chapter Eleven:
Field Trip
"Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow." –Anita Desai
The apartment was small and studio like in style. The kitchen merged with the living room, which merged into a bedroom like area. The walls were painted a soft gray that complimented the dark cherry wood floors and the cream tiles of the kitchen. There was a light tan, leather couch set facing a fancy, futuristic TV. The bed was a queen size with dark blue sheets and the bed frame matched the dark wood dresser sitting in the corner and the nightstand beside it. One of the two doors in the bedroom area led to a bathroom while the other led into a medium sized closet. The third was the one that led in and out of the apartment.
It was small and it was cozy. There were no leaks in the roof, no shady neighbors with questionable pets, and the view was of a gorgeous sandy beach rather than a dirty, dark alleyway. Granted, the sandy beach was an electronic hologram, but boy was I a fan of it.
I jumped up onto the black marble counter and smiled to myself as I let my eyes drift over my apartment for the millionth time. I stuck my spoon back into the carton of chocolate chip ice cream just as someone knocked on my front door.
"Come in!" I called out and then majestically shoved the spoon of ice cream into my mouth. The door opened and Tyler stepped in with a smirk. He had on a PT uniform that consisted of black polyester shorts and a gray shirt. My eyes darted to his left arm, which had scarred up. There were three faint lines, which were still a bit red that went from a little below his elbow to his wrist. His other, smaller, wounds from the battle two weeks ago were healed and gone.
Tyler pointed at me while walking over, "It's 8 in the morning, and you're eating ice cream."
"How very observant of you." I replied with a mouth full of cold dessert.
"You liking the new place?" Tyler asked. He jumped up and sat on the counter next to me.
I kicked him with the side of my foot, "Get your ass off my counter."
"You're sitting up here."
"It's my counter. My ass is allowed to be up here." I countered. Tyler chuckled and hopped off and I did the same. I tossed the spoon in the sink and then put the half empty ice cream carton back into the freezer.
"So what's on your agenda today?" Tyler asked.
I closed the freezer and then leaned against the stainless steel with a smile, "Well let's see… my schedule is pretty full, has to be in order to maintain my current lifestyle, which means I'll spend a little time annoying Ratchet, work out on my own, and then I'll probably spend a bulk of my time today sitting on my couch staring at the wall in boredom and despair."
Tyler raised an eyebrow at me, "Aj."
"It's no big deal." I shrugged, "I live here in this amazing apartment where I don't have to pay rent because I'm being supported by the government. Ain't life grand?"
"Call me crazy, but you seem a little bitter." Tyler chuckled. He pulled out his phone and checked something before sticking his phone back into his pocket with a nod. "It's ok you know. We all want you here and no one except Galloway is bitching about you wasting resources."
I tilted my head with narrowed eyes, "I can't tell if that was supposed to be a pep talk or not. It started good…"
"But kinda went downhill?" Tyler nodded, "Yeah, it wasn't my best work. You know what I mean though, right?"
"I do." I smiled at him. I knew exactly what Tyler was trying to say. It's what everyone had been saying to me for the past two weeks, but it seemed like none of them understood what I was trying to say. This wasn't the way I wanted to live my life. I wasn't the kind of person who sat back and let others take care of me. It just felt wrong. It made my soul twitch with restlessness and agitation. Apparently, I wasn't built for the homebody life.
Tyler clapped his hands, "Well I just wanted to stop by and check on you. Mom's still trying to get everything together for the kid's trip. Are you going on that?"
"They asked me to." I started to walk over to my dresser. Since the kid's summer break had started Aubrey had been trying to get a vacation planned, which was apparently a bigger pain than I had thought it'd be. Right now their plan was Disney Land, but in order to travel that distance she needed to get approval from our overprotective mechs, "Asked might not be the right word though. Annabelle begged."
"That didn't answer my question."
"I was thinking about it. A trip sounds nice, but it also sounds like the perfect way for Galloway to successfully kick me off base." I said. Galloway had been on and off base since I first met him, but I had been stuck on base since. Mostly because we all knew that the moment I stepped off base he would enact a ruling that prevented me to get back on. Could he follow through on that? Of course not. No member of my extended family would let that happen. They'd sneak me back on, but then we'd have to deal with all the trouble of breaking his bogus law.
Tyler nodded, "That's true." He grinned, "So hey, you wanna see something cool today?"
"Depends." I replied warily. Tyler was no longer the cute kid I remembered. He was a grown ass, sarcastic man with a penchant for pranks that I can only assume came from growing up around Sideswipe.
"Come to the training gym around noon. You'll get to see me kick some ass."
He began to backpedal out of my apartment while I stared at him in confusion. I shook my head, "What does that even mean?" Tyler pointed at me with a grin, offering no answer, then left. I rolled my eyes and went back to looking for clothes to change into.
With the help of Aubrey, I now had an actual wardrobe with shirts that didn't have military logos and real jeans. Most days I still wore work out shorts though since working out is the only thing I really did in my free time and I didn't have to remove my brace to put on those kind of pants. Still, it had been a while since I wore real clothes. With a sigh I swapped my sleep shirt for a loose fitting black tank top and squeezed my ass into a pair of light jean shorts. It took an extra minute to carefully maneuver around my knee brace, but the slim design of the thing made it not too much of a hassle. Thank you, Wheeljack.
After I stop by the training gym and see whatever the hell it was Tyler wanted me to see this afternoon, I could use the pair of workout clothes in Taylor's locker. She didn't use the gym as much as I did, and offered me her locker since technically I wasn't allowed to have one on my own. It was part of Galloway's plan to try and weed me out. Slowly cut me out of the place by limiting my use of the facilities. At this rate he'd soon say I wasn't allowed to eat in the mess hall. Honestly, that wouldn't surprise me.
As I left the apartment, I grabbed my hair and pulled it up into a messy bun atop my head. The pieces that were too short to stay in the bun immediately fell, but I ignored them entirely. My apartment, along with the others, was built downstairs, but apart from the Cybertronian wings. They were built that way as a means of protection for if the base were ever attacked. The same hallway that had mine, Aubrey's, and the kids' apartments also had a few bunkers as well. Peter, Taylor, and Tyler all shared an apartment, but it was like that only because Taylor was really the only one who used it. Peter spent most nights in Vegas with his family and the nights he did stay here was when he stayed with Taylor. Tyler also had a room in that apartment, but he was also issued a room with the rest of the soldiers in the barracks and he spent most nights there.
The walk from my apartment to the elevator and stairs only took about five minutes, and from there I knew it'd take me another couple minutes to reach the mess hall. At this time, most soldiers would probably be done eating since they usually get up so early to do so.
As predicted, the mess hall was fairly empty with only a few tables still full of people eating. My eyes ghosted over the room until I spotted a few familiar faces at one of the tables in the middle of the room. First things first though, food. I smiled to myself and breezed over to the food line.
Considering this was a military base, I assumed the food would look and taste like garbage. I mean, that was the cliché right? Soldiers eat MREs day in and out? I never would've guessed the cliché would to be wrong though. Sure, the food didn't look spectacular. It was no five star meal, but it usually tasted pretty good. Then again, I really wasn't a picky eater. Food was food.
"Thanks." I said to the woman who filled my tray with eggs, sausage, and hash browns. She replied with a small smile, and I went off with my tray to find my table.
"Morning, Aj." Eli greeted as I sat down next to him. Annabelle sat on his other side with Lex on the other side of her. Across the table from us, was Taylor, Riley, and both Bumblebee and Smokescreen's holoforms. They echoed Eli's greeting and I responded in turn before starting to eat as well.
Smokescreen chuckled, "Well you waste no time, do you?"
I'd throw back a retort, but my cheeks were filled with eggs. Taylor chuckled and turned to the kids, "So what's on the agenda for you guys?"
"Mom says she needs my help in the garage." Lex replied with a shrug, "It shouldn't be too bad today, I think they're bringing in a tank."
Annabelle sighed, "Eli and I are studying for the ACT."
"Oh God, does that test still exist?" I cringed.
"It does and it's the worst." She dropped her head down onto the table.
Eli chuckled, "Come on, it won't be so bad. Just think, if you start studying now you'll be ready to take it in August."
"Didn't you just finish your freshman year, Eli?" Riley asked as she rubbed her hands on a napkin and tossed it onto her tray, "Why are you studying already? I didn't crack open a book until way later."
Lex chuckled under her breath, "Eli's a nerd."
"I just like to get a head start on things!" Eli argued with a laugh and a smile. The conversation continued for a bit before Riley had to leave for work and Lex walked with her since she had to get ready to work in the garage with Mikaela. Smokescreen went with them too with his arm draped around Lex's shoulder. A little after that Eli and Annabelle excused themselves too leaving just Taylor, Bee, and I.
"So here's a dumb, sensitive question." I blurted, "Lex is…adopted, right?"
Taylor looked at me in amusement, "What gave it away?"
"Ha ha." I replied dryly. Anybody with eyes could see how starkly different the young girl looked from both her parents. "I guess I was just wondering…is there a story there?"
Bumblebee and Taylor shared a quick glance before the mech nodded, "Sure, and it's not a secret really. Lex was…four?" Taylor nodded and he continued, "She was four when her birth parents died in the battle of Chicago." My eyes widened in shock, but Bumblebee didn't stop, "Smokescreen found her in the rubble crying and brought her to safety. She stuck on base with us while we looked for living relatives. Mikaela and Sam took care of her mostly and when they found out Lex had no living relatives, they chose to adopt her."
"Wow." I breathed and let that story sink in. It was silent between us only for a second or two longer then Taylor changed the subject by asking Bumblebee a question. My mind was still hung up on Lex though. Did she remember the battle of Chicago? I've heard so much about that battle. It was probably better if she didn't.
My gaze lifted up from my food, past Taylor and Bumblebee, to the mess hall doors where a familiar face walked in. Cade Yeager. With a gasp, I dropped down and slid under the table in one swift movement. I hadn't talked to the guy since I saw the symbol on his armband. In fact, I avoided him like the plague. To be fair though, even Optimus agreed that might be for the best once I finally got around to telling him about the symbol. He was still here since the military couldn't figure out what the hell was on his arm or what the hell to do with it.
Taylor cleared her throat from above the table, "Um, you're hiding under the table?"
"Shut up." I called back and prayed he hadn't spotted me, "Is Cade still in here?"
"He is." Bumblebee answered, and his tone sounded more understanding now. I felt bad for avoiding the guy, but I couldn't deal with that symbol. It was bad news and it'd be better for everyone if I didn't go near it. Optimus wanted me to touch the thing in front of Ratchet so we could study the effects and figure out what it was and what it was doing, but I wasn't comfortable doing that. Prime understood and wasn't forcing me to either. I think he was just hoping I'd come around. Unfortunately, for the big guy I wasn't the kind of person who easily came around to things.
A few more minutes passed before Taylor spoke, "He's gone."
I cautiously peeked my head over the table in time to see him leaving the mess hall with a tray. Relieved, I slid back up into my seat and ignored the skeptical gazes that both Taylor and Bumblebee shot me.
"Don't judge." I shot at them.
Taylor scrunched her eyebrows together, "I just don't get why you're avoiding him. He's a nice guy, and he always asks about you."
"Really?"
She nodded, "I think he still thinks he pissed you off somehow. Did he?"
I sighed and leaned against my hand, "It's nothing like that it's-… It's just hard to explain."
"Whatever you say." Bumblebee smiled and rose from his seat.
I narrowed my eyes at him, "Your tone still sounds kinda judge-y."
His smile grew and he kissed Taylor on top of the head then wished us a farewell. I watched him go before turning my attention back to Taylor who had picked up her phone to look at something.
"Look at you. Always on that phone." I hummed in amusement. Taylor's gaze snapped back up to me and I widened my eyes slightly and shook my head, "Dear God, I sound like an old person. Here I am yelling at youths about their cellular devices."
Taylor giggled, "You aren't old. We're the same age remember?"
I groaned and buried my face into my hands, "That's so much worse."
"Well, you'll be older than us again in four days so there's that." She replied and set her phone down to put all her attention on me, "Speaking of, what do you want for your birthday?"
I scoffed, "Nothing. In fact, it'd be great if we could just let that day pass without brining attention to it at all."
"If you think the mechs are gonna let it slide…."
"They're aliens from another world, what the hell do they know about birthdays?"
Taylor chuckled and stood up, "They've been celebrating with us for 20 years, and they're looking forward to yours. I have to go, but you should swing by the medbay later."
"Why?" I questioned.
"Is it too much to ask my favorite aunt to come visit me?"
I narrowed my eyes at her, "Oh, and I'm sure this visit has nothing to do with Cade 'I have this mysterious alien artifact on my arm' Yeager."
"Maybe." Taylor hummed. She shrugged, "He only talks to me, Ratchet, and any guy Lennox sends to interrogate him right now. You were his only ally, Aj, and now he's alone." I felt my gaze drift away from hers guiltily. She wasn't wrong. I knew that, but going back to see him meant facing a fear that I didn't think I was quite ready to fully face yet. Taylor shrugged, "I'm sure you have your reasons, Aj. Just think about it though."
She left the table and I went back to the food I had been neglecting.
Lennox had more work to do than he could even believe. Things had just stacked up the last few days, and with Galloway being on and off base lately it just made things a million times worse. Despite, being drowning in paperwork and bureaucratic red tape he couldn't seem to focus his attention on a bit of it at the moment.
"They've kept me on hold for the past thirty minutes an- oh! Hi! Yes, I'm Aubrey Lennox." His wife's slightly irritated voice smoothed back into her usual friendly, kind tone. "I'm just trying to confirm my reservation." Lennox chuckled to himself as Aubrey's face lit up with excitement at whatever the person on the other line was saying. "Thank you so much. I really appreciate it."
She hung up the phone and began to scribble on the checklist in front of her. She was working with a scrap of paper and pencil and her lips were pursed in concentration as she double-checked that every task she needed to do was done. Lennox couldn't help but admire the way strands of her hair fell out of her loose ponytail and hung in her face. Aubrey's presence has always had a calming effect to his soul. No matter how crazy things were, no matter how fast things were moving, or how quickly shit was going south, her touch alone seemed to bring him back down to Earth.
"Hey." He said softly and she glanced up from her work. He smiled, "Come here."
Aubrey didn't hesitate to set her pencil down and walk around the desk to where he sat. As she got closer Lennox reached out and intertwined his hand with hers. She sat in his lap in response.
Lennox felt his heart swell in love as Aubrey leaned her forehead against his. Their noses brushed against each other as their lips drew closer.
"I love you." Aubrey whispered. Her lips brushed against his with every word.
"Love you more." He replied before pressing his lips against hers fully. It was moments like this when everything felt right in the world.
I stood outside the doors to the upper medbay nervously. Taylor's words had stuck with me. It wasn't fair that I was letting my fear hurt this guy. He seemed like a good guy and he already had enough stacked against him. The least I could do was ease his conscious so he didn't think I hated him or something.
The boots on my feet rocked back and forth on the metal grate I stood on as my front teeth dug into my lower lip. I didn't have to touch the artifact or even mention it. I was here to strictly apologize for avoiding him and try to make amends.
With one last sigh, I pressed forward into the white hallway that led to the human med room I had spent my first days here in. As I reached the open doorway the sound of Ratchet's voice reach my ears and I spotted Cade sitting at the edge of the bed with his gaze focused slightly upwards.
"-it's a minor fix, really." Ratchet finished and his head turned to focus on me, "Youngling, what are you doing here?"
I tore my eyes away from him to look at Cade who was staring at me with wide eyes. I gave him a soft, apologetic smile, "I'd say I hope I wasn't interrupting anything, but it's Ratchet talking. I'm probably saving you from a boring ass conversation."
Cade laughed with a shake of his head and Ratchet scoffed loudly. The mech waved his hand at me dismissively. He muttered something in Cybertronian and stalked away.
I crossed my arms and watched Cade slowly stand up from the bed. He wore plain jeans and a simple t-shirt. He nodded, "Didn't expect to see you here."
"Yeah, I thought I'd come say hello."
"Could've said hello this morning instead of ducking under that table."
My face warmed in embarrassment and I glanced down at my feet, "You uh, you saw that?"
He stepped forward and I glanced back up, "It was hard to miss."
"I'm really sorry about that." I sighed and shook my head. The guilt was really hitting hard now, "I panicked to be honest."
"Did I give you a reason to panic?" Cade asked, "If I did, I'm really sorry. You helped me out and I didn't mean to spook you if I did."
"It wasn't like that, I swear. It was a personal thing. You did nothing."
"Ok, good. I've been meaning to find you and talk to you, but Ratchet said you didn't handle that type of thing well."
"What kind of thing?" I asked curiously.
"Being chased down and forced to talk about something you didn't want to talk about." Cade answered with an amused smile.
I couldn't help but chuckle, "That's…That's accurate, I guess."
"You wanna sit down?" He motioned to the bed, "I don't get a lot of company these days. At least, I don't get company with people who wanna talk about things other than this damn artifact on my arm."
I tried not to flinch when he lifted his arm as he said 'alien artifact'. Instead, I walked over and sat down on the bed. He chose to sit in the seat beside the bed across from me. I gave him a grin, "How's your daughter?"
"She's good." He laced his fingers together as his elbows rested on his knees, "I don't get to talk to her as often as I like, but she's safe. That's all that matters."
"I'm glad she's safe. Sorry, what's her name again?"
"Tessa."
For the next hour or so the two of us just sat in the room talking about any random topic that came to mind. He told me more about his life back home and I told him basically as little about me as I could without being rude. If he noticed my lack of history sharing he didn't point it out which I was grateful for. It wasn't like I wanted to keep everything single thing from him, but most of my life was pretty under wraps these days.
"I haven't seen Bear with you in a while."
"Yeah", I twisted my lips in distaste, "He's been out on a mission for the past few days. He's supposed to be back soon though. I got used to him sleeping at the end of my bed, it's too quiet without him now."
"I bet. I used to have a dog that- ah!" Cade's face twisted in pain as he hunched forward suddenly.
I jumped out of bed and set a hand on his shoulder in worry, "Cade?" He hissed in pain again, "Ratchet!?"
The sound of Ratchet coming over quickly occurred at the same time as some sort of alarm. It wasn't a base wide alarm, it was from the monitors in the medbay. Cade screamed out in pain as his other arm reached out and clutched the artifact on his arms, "Shit, it burns!"
Ratchet's holoform was suddenly beside both of us, but I could only focus on the sick feeling that had risen in my gut. Something was wrong. The hairs on the back of my arms and neck stood up and it felt like electricity was crawling across my skin. A high pitch tone filled my ears and I flinched.
"Ratch do you hear that?" I cried.
"Leave the room, youngling." Ratchet barked back. The artifact around Cade's arm began to glow and that sinking feeling hit rock bottom. On gut instinct, I moved my hand off Cade to shove Ratchet. He stumbled backwards and fell on his ass just as I heard a loud pop and my sight went black.
Taylor had been standing on one of the berths watching the monitors in worry as Ratchet tried to salvage the situation at hand. Energy levels had skyrocketed all of a sudden and none of it made sense.
"Ratch do you hear that?!" She heard Aj yell. All Taylor could hear was the sounds of the monitor alarms and Cade screaming in pain. She tried to silence a few of the alarms. It was all she could do from this position.
"Leave the room, youngling." Ratchet ordered and Taylor wasn't surprised to see her aunt not move an inch. She was surprised to see Aj shove Ratchet back all of a sudden. Just as she did that there was a loud pop, like a crack of electricity, and she was thrown a foot backwards onto her back when a wall of invisible energy slammed into her.
Taylor gasped as she tried to suck in the air that was knocked out of her from the blow. The remaining alarms had shut off on their own and the room was silent. She sat up and her eyes landed on Ratchet's holoform, which was glitching oddly. Aj and Cade were nowhere to be seen. Panic flooded her system as she grabbed her phone out of her pocket and hit the emergency button that Wheeljack had programmed into all of their phones.
"Taylor? What's wrong?" Wheeljack's voice crackled over her phone. She was sure multiple mechs were on their way here already.
"Jack." Taylor's voice cracked, "Ratchet's hurt I think and Aj is- Jack, Aj is gone. She's just gone."
