Chapter 11: Thanksgiving

At the base in their room, the mother and daughter were prepping the meal that they had planned on doing for tomorrow's Thanksgiving feast. Arcee was at the stove and just now put a big pan of super triple mac and cheese while Miko was at the table piling a big box of potatos for the mash potatoes and also for the seasoned potato wedges into two other pans. "Mmmmmm. Wow, Mom, that food smells great." Miko said as she couldn't help but smell her mother's food.

Arcee smiled at hearing that from her sweet sparkling and was able to keep her temper in check from her child after learning some more about her abused life. The teenager had never had a Thanksgiving meal before and had no idea about the American holiday until Jack had suggested that they all get together at the base for a Thanksgiving meal. "We have a lot to be grateful for and I can't think of anywhere else I'd love to spend Thanksgiving dinner," he had said.

Miko had been curious and Jack, being the loving boyfriend to her, had explained it to her. She then recalled a few painful memories of when her foster parents had had such a large dinner, but had only given her either cereal or nothing at all and she had had to sneak some food so that she could eat. Jack had instantly hugged her and promised her that she would have a good Thanksgiving too. He would make sure of it and he knew Arcee would too.

Being the protective mother, the blue femme had been furious to learn more about the painful abuse her little one had endured before being adopted by her and she had lately been asking Optimus to give her more assignments and more solo missions, just to to shoot and beat the scrap out of the Cons to relieve her anger towards the people that hurt her daughter. He had understood as he too felt furious that a sparkling had gone through such abuse, though he did warn Arcee to be careful on the missions. She had promised she would.

Miko had been asking why she never came home until late, which was unlike what she had done before, but Arcee made every attempt to keep her daughter in the dark for her own good and out of love for her. She didn't want Miko to think it was her fault in any way. Plus, she didn't want to scare her daughter either, and though the teenage girl didn't easily scare, she didn't want to risk it. Her little sparkling deserved all the happiness in the world and she'd make sure of that.

"I'm happy you love the food that I'm cooking, pumpkin," she answered back and went over to kiss her child on the cheek as Miko did the same to her mother, feeling fortunate to have such a loving parent. Seeing most everything was ready, Arcee told Miko to go ahead and relax in the other room so she could have the whole kitchen to herself and finish up cooking. She of course didn't say that out loud to her. "How's your book report coming, by the way?" She asked.

"It's coming along pretty good," Miko said honestly. "The teacher said we could do mobiles for our reports and I've been taking some notes for it."

"A mobile?" Arcee asked before looking it up and smiling. "Ah, they want you to get creative."

"Yeah," Miko said. "By the way, is Bulkhead back? I don't want him to miss any part of the story I'm reading for my report."

Bulkhead had been interested when Miko had picked out a science fiction book that had robots and humans in it working together and so the teenager had been reading it to him, enjoying the story and sharing it with her best friend.

Smiling, Arcee called Bulkhead on her comm and smiled. "He just arrived," she said. "You sure you want to read your book for school while relaxing?"

"Yeah, because I'm relaxing with a good book with my best friend," the young girl said with a smile. "You know, if someone had told me last year that I was going to meet some cool bots, become best friends with one, and gain a mom in another one, I would have told that person they were crazy."

Arcee chuckled. "Believe it or not, I think I might have told them the same thing," she admitted with a smile. "But I'm thankful to have such a wonderful daughter as you, my sweet sparkling."

"And I'm thankful to have a cool mom like you, Mom," Miko said with a grin.

The next morning, after settling up the tables in the main part of the base, Miko helped everyone set down the plates and napkins down and help Jack carry the heavy turkey that June had roasted and set it down. Raf came in afterwards with the food that his mom had made for the day and set it down at the table. "This is going to be an interesting experience," Smokescreen said bending down with the other Autobots as Optimus had the honor of carving the turkey and went to passing the plate to everyone and he and the others watched their human friends enjoy the meal after saying grace.

"Mmmmmm, Arcee, this is really good," Jack said enjoying the mac and cheese while holding hands with Miko, who was smiling the whole time.

Arcee could only smile and just continue watching them eat the food that she made. June was very impressed on how good Arcee's cooking was as her mouth was stuffed with mashed potatoes and potato wedges as well.

"So what do you guys want to do after we're done eating? Raf asked, helping himself with another round of turkey and smoked salmon.

"Now we just sit around and watch TV. I think the Macy's parade is on and the football game as well," Agent Fowler said after polishing off his fourth plate.

After everyone finished eating and cleaned up,putting the tables and food away, Miko helped her mother wash the dishes together and just enjoyed the company of each other. "Tell me something mom. How much do you know about Bulkhead's wife? I been dying to know as he told me a little bit about her." Miko asked after grabbing a plate from Arcee.

"Well sweetspark, his wife was known to be a Wrecker like himself and very good with a sword. The last time I saw her was on Cybertron when we worked together on blowing up Megatron's weapons factory," Arcee told her finishing the last bit of dishes.

Miko wished that she could meet Bulkhead's wife and was dying to know her story on the war of Cybertron, as it was her favorite thing to hear about from one of Autobots. As soon as the two finished putting up the dishes, Bumblebee ran in and started beeping something to Arcee, who automatically became serious from hearing the news. "W...What happened, Mom?" Miko asked, both worried and curious.

"Ratchet found a Autobot ship that crash-landed in the mountains. I'll be right back, pumpkin," Arcee told her after giving her a kiss on the cheek and then ran out to join Optimus, Wheeljack, Bulkhead, Ratchet, Smokescreen and Bumblebee. All of the Autobots transformed and rolled right into the groundbridge and came to their destination, transforming back with guns out ready to fire. "The signal is coming this way," Ratchet said, leading the way while watching his scanners on his arm.

"I wonder who could it be?" Smokescreen asked as it was rare for new Autobots to come to Earth.

"We're about to find out now, rookie," Wheeljack answered at seeing the spaceship up ahead.

"Approach with caution," Optimus said. "It could be a trap."

They hated to think that, but knew he had a point. "Ratchet, are you picking up any spark signatures?" Arcee asked.

He shook his head. "Too much residual heat from the ship's entry into Earth's atmosphere," he said. "I can't get a clear reading of who's inside, if anyone is inside."

When they reached up to the ship, they noticed that the door was open and they heard some noise from the inside. "Come out and identify yourself," Optimus demanded, ready to fight.

"Are you Autobot or Decepticon?" Bulkhead asked, his wrecking ball ready just as a familiar female voice was heard from the inside of the ship.

"Bulk? Is that you?" She asked, coming out to reveal herself, shocking the old Wrecker, who put his wrecking ball away as tears gathered in his eyes.

"Windblade!" Bulkhead shouted, pushing Smokescreen and Wheeljack out of the way, running up to her and picking up his long-lost wife in a tight hug, his spark beating fast with joy at seeing her.

"Bulky! I finally found you, you big lug!" Windblade said, already used to being crushed by her husband's grip. She hugged him back just as hard, tears in her eyes as she was happy to see the face of the mech she loved.

Wheeljack and Smokescreen, who normally would have been a bit testy about being pushed aside, stood there in surprise before the bomb expert chuckled. "Well, I'll be," he said, smiling. "She made it."

"Windblade? I've heard of her," Smokescreen said. "She's one tough cookie, as I've heard humans say."

"You don't know the half of it, rookie," Wheeljack said, grinning. "That femme took on Shockwave after the creep hurt Bulkhead to the point that we weren't sure the big guy would make it."

The young Autobot's mouth was agape. "She took on Shockwave?" He asked in shock.

"Oh, yeah. That creep didn't stand a chance," the bomb expert said with a laugh. "For each hit he tried to land on her, she got in about six hits, no joke."

Smokescreen looked a bit worried. "Remind me never to get on her bad side," he said.

Wheeljack chuckled again. "Relax, kid," he said, but nodded all the same.

"Windblade, you're here! I thought I never going to see you again, old friend," Arcee said, putting her blasters back and went to hug her old friend after Bulkhead let her go. The two femmes embraced.

"Arcee, it's been too long," Windblade said. "I'm glad to see you're still around."

The blue femme grinned. "You can't lose me that easily," she said with a teasing grin, making Windblade laugh and nod.

"Welcome to Earth, old soldier," Optimus said with a smile, happy to see one of his best fighters here on Earth.

She saluted in respect. "Thank you, Optimus, sir," she said before smiling. "And I see you have the rest of the Wreckers here. I hope you boys aren't giving Optimus a hard time."

"No, ma'am," Wheeljack said as Smokescreen shook his head. The bomb expert nodded to Windblade. "We've missed you, Windblade. It hasn't been the same without you."

"And it hasn't been the same without the rest of the Wreckers," she admitted.

"The 'Cons aren't going to know what hit them," Bumblebee said in Cybertronian.

"You can say that again," Arcee said with a smile.

After hugging his wife once more, Bulkhead let Windblade enter first when the groundbridge was open. As she walked into the green swirling vortex and reached the base, her eyes fell on the kids who wanted to meet her. "Oh my...sparklings!" She exclaimed in excitement.

That was all that she could say as she picked up Raf and started hugging him and went to planting kisses all over his face, making Miko and Jack try to hold back their laughter while Raf tried not to squirm too much.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down, Windblade. He's fragile," Bulkhead said, chuckling as Windblade set Raf back down gently.

"Wow, for a female Autobot, you have one great grip," the young boy said, holding his sore left ribs but managing to smile, liking the femme immediately.

"Oh, I'm sorry to just hug you crazy. It's just that I love sparklings!" Wingblade said happily.

"Yeah, we got that loud and clear, ma'am." Jack said, chuckling a little bit as he wrapped his arm around Miko's waist and pulled her beside him.

Arcee put on her stern mother look, making Jack let go of Miko and gently push her back away from him. Every since Jack been dating Miko, Arcee had gained the over-protective attitude and knew all too well that most boys had their mind on one thing and that was getting their hands in a girl's pants. She knew that Jack wasn't like that at all, but she was still protective of her daughter.

When done introducing herself to everyone, who warmly welcomed her, Windblade started to explained that there were more Autobots coming in the next month and also told them that was she sent there on a scout mission and needed to report back soon to tell the Commander on her recent discovery.

"Ultra Magnus is heading this way as we speak. Including Ironhide, Jazz, Drift, and the others!" She said excitedly, drinking her cup of hot oil.

"Haha! I haven't seen Ironhide in cyber years. How is that war veteran?" Ratchet asked. He and Ironhide went way back as not only good friends but war buddies too.

"He's doing great, Ratchet, and he couldn't wait to shoot out some ugly Cons," Windblade said before noticing that Miko was looking at her. She smiled at the cute sparkling.

"So tell me something, Windblade. How did a cool female Autobot like yourself wind up with Bulkhead?" Miko asked, dying to know very much, in which the female Wrecker had no problem telling her story.

"Well, he and I had just graduated from the Academy and just started on training to be Wreckers when we first met," she said. "It was actually our first time working in the training room that we officially met."

"Really?" Miko asked, listening closely.

"Yes. And at first, I thought he was just showing off, but then I saw how he swung his wrecking ball to take out ten training dummies at once and he tried to increase the number to dummies he hit to improve his aim. He even taught me a few moves and well..., that was the start of me liking him," Windblade said with a smile. "Though you may not have guessed, but he was really shy back then too."

"Bulkhead? Shy?" The teenage girl said in surprise. "No way. You're pulling my leg."

The femme Wrecker chuckled. "Oh, he was, to the point that I had to ask him out on a date first," she said. "But after that, he gained the courage to ask me out and after we finished our training as Wreckers, he asked me to be his sparkmate."

"I remember that day," Wheeljack said with a smile. "You were so stunned from his proposal that we had to ask you if you were okay."

She laughed. "I remember that," she said. "And then I knocked Bulky off his feet, didn't I?"

Wheeljack nodded. "Everyone teased him about you sweeping him off his feet, but he didn't care," he said. "Though I had to remind him to kiss you after you said yes."

They both laughed and Miko laughed too, enjoying the story.

Hours later, after Miko was asleep in bed, Windblade and Arcee sat in the rec room to catch up with each other and talk about their home planet, but they mostly talked about Miko.

"You're so lucky to have a sparkling, Arcee. Do you think that I could get one on this planet?" Windblade asked hopefully. As she loved sparklings, she was hoping to be a mother some day like her best friend.

Arcee smiled. "The only way that I was able to adopt Miko is due to saving the Earth from Megatron's evil schemes and also help saved Agent Fowler countless of times, so I don't know," she admitted, but decided to ask the agent if it would be possible in the future perhaps.

"Oh, I understand, but can I be her aunt?" Windblade asked eagerly.

"Very well, old friend. I'll let you be her aunt, for old times sake," the blue femme said, pouring another round of hot oil in her mug and clicked her cup with Windblade's and the two female Autobots drank the oil as it truly was a Happy Thanksgiving for them all.

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