Author's Note: Sorry about the delay in posting on this fic. I got sidetracked by the fic "Chat" (which is referenced in this chapter). Hope you enjoy!

The next day was Friday, and I was all but bursting with excitement when I was finally released from the clutches of public education. No school to interrupt – I could live in the Autobot hangar this weekend! Ironhide was still bedridden last night after dinner…well, he was strapped to the repair berth and swearing up a storm, but regardless, I hadn't even seen him sitting up yet. Ratchet sent all three of us Lennox's home for the night, telling Mom that Ironhide wasn't in the hospital so much as he was in time-out for trying to walk off earlier.

I was a little disappointed when Mom showed up in the minivan to pick me up, but I guessed it was unreasonable to expect the Autobots to play chauffer for me all the time. "So have you heard if he's up and about yet?" I asked as I hopped in the front seat. "Ratchet's got to be sick of his cussing by now and I was hoping 'Hide could show me around a little bit more. Does he have an office?"

"That'll have to wait, Annabelle," Mom said, checking her blind-spot before merging onto the main road. "They're all in a meeting right now."

"Meeting? Autobots stuck in a meeting?! You've got to be kidding me."

She wearily smiled. "Afraid not."

"What's it about?" I asked.

"Classified."

I delicately snorted. "I thought I had clearance." Sudden hope swelled in my soul. "Are they choosing a new Autobot designation for me?"

Mom smirked. "Not everything's about you, Annabelle. I'm just guessing, mind you, but this is the first major powwow they've had since Ironhide's injury, since he got hurt with Shockwave's weapon."

And then I connected the dots, too. "This is about him. Who is he, anyway? Besides being a Decepticon, of course."

She pursed her lips for a moment before answering. "They haven't told me much, but I gather he's one of the few Decepticons who could give Megatron a run for his money. The 'cons have been on the defensive for roughly the last eight years, so Shockwave turning up now…it just doesn't bode well. Is he going to challenge Megatron or reinforce him?" She pensively shook her head. "Regardless, it's an all-hands-on-deck kind of thing. You dad will let us know when they finish, and 'Hide will probably come down to the house tonight."

"But I want to visit him on the base," I whined.

She gave me a look of strained patience. "Annabelle, it was special circumstances for us to sleep in the Autobot hangar. Things have to get back to normal now."

I rolled my eyes. "There is no such thing as normal anymore, Mom. My dad's best friend is a monster alien robot warrior."

She half-smiled. "Yes. And that's been normal for me for the last fifteen years. Trust me, we can and will get back to something resembling normal. Like homework. And all of us sitting down together for dinner tonight, 'Hide included, with any luck."

I sighed heavily and stared out the passenger-side window. Grown-ups. What was their infatuation with normal?

...

That evening, Dad was the first one through the door and I ran to him like usual, catching him in a hug.

"How's my little lady?" he asked, squeezing me tightly.

"Happy to be on speaking terms," I giggled, realizing it had literally been weeks since we'd had a moment like this.

"Me, too," he said, kissing the top of my head. Then he let me go so he could plant a kiss on Mom. I'd tell them to get a room, but knowing them, they'd take me literally.

And then Hyde was there, standing awkwardly in front of the door leading to the garage. I could see his Topkick – his alt-form – parked behind him, and…. You know those pictures that just look like blurry patterns of color until you stare at them long enough and then suddenly you can see them as three-dimensional seascapes and stuff? Seeing Hyde there felt like that, but it was like everything had new dimensions. And like those blurry pictures, I felt a little dizzy because of what I could now see.

It was like there was some kind of dual reality with dimensions and layers that hadn't existed before. Here was the man I loved like a grandfather, the man who indulged me and, frankly, spoiled me rotten. But here, also, was a being who was utterly, unimaginably alien, who was a walking weapon, who made my brief lifespan look like the blink of an eye. Which was the illusion? Which was the reality? The two seemed impossible to reconcile, and yet…and yet I could feel it bone-deep that Aaron Hyde and Ironhide were one and the same.

With a start, I realized that, just as he lived longer, he loved deeper than any human could ever hope to. That was the link between the two people standing as 'Hide before me. The walking weapon killed to protect me because he loved me like his own child. His own sparkling.

I'd always liked the sparkle in his blue eyes, but with the clearance I'd been given, I understood the light in them so much better now.

"Hello…Annabelle," he nervously rumbled as I stared, careful to not accidentally use my old name.

I threw myself into his arms, knocking the wind out of him with an "oof." "Welcome home, Hyde. Ironhide."

After a breathless chuckle, he held me even tighter than Dad did, resting his cheek on the top of my head. "Thank you."

"Thank you," I softly said, "for putting up with me."

"I could say the same," he answered, letting me go but holding my gaze with his own. "And it's good to be home."

Feeling all sappy, I gave him a little smile, and he returned it with a nod.

Looking at Mom, he said, "Smells good, Spitfire. You made enough for Will to have some too, right?"

She laughed and swatted at him with a kitchen towel. "Enough for you and Will and the femmes when they get off duty. Go wash up; dinner will be ready in a few minutes."

And just like that, life resumed the rhythms and patterns I'd known for as long as I could remember, carrying us all on to what was now to become 'normal.'

Dinner conversation revolved around holoforms – what they could sense, what they couldn't, what happened to the food they ate…. You know, normal stuff.

It turns out that holoforms were about as accurate as alt-forms when it came to mimicking the real thing – with a few upgrades of course. The Autobots' awareness stayed connected to their processors, so they kept their communication and sensory abilities, but they had to focus to access them. This showed up as a blank, spaced-out expression that I'd noticed before but never really thought about. It also explained how they were such know-it-alls; they had constant Internet access. Couldn't be because they were so ancient I couldn't quite wrap my mind around it.

(Oh, and by the way, human food could be processed just like any other energy source, but it took a long time and wasn't really worth the effort as fuel. They just ate because Mom was a good cook and holoform tastebuds work as well as human ones.)

R.C. and Mia roared up the driveway on their alt-forms just in time for dessert. "Hey guys!" I called out when they let themselves in through the front door. "You up for cheesecake?"

R.C. came in and gently squeezed my shoulder. "Sounds great, Spit…fire…made it? Or did you, Annabelle?"

"Nice save," I grumbled, giving her a dirty look. "It's not like I'm gonna smack you if you slip up. It's just an annoying nickname – I'm not angry about it. And Mom made the cheesecake."

Hyde pushed the chair beside him away from the table, inviting Mia to sit there. Her fingers trailed lightly over his shoulder and then she sat down. That was the most demonstrative I'd ever seen them. "Cherries?" she hopefully asked.

Mom grinned as she rose to her feet. "Of course."

"Here, let me help," I offered, grabbing a stack of small plates from the cupboard. Mom dished out the pieces and I served, while Dad opened a can of cherry pie filling and scooped it into a bowl.

"So how was your day?" Mom asked them as she sat down again.

R.C. casually said, "Prime had to restrain Ratchet when he saw what Sunny and Sides did to Skids and Mudflap."

It was the sort of thing I'd heard pretty much daily my whole life, but the words brought to mind a very different scene now. "Oh dear."

"They had it coming," Hyde said as he spread cherries on his slice of cheesecake. "The younglings superglued the warriors' heads to their berths. Everyone who wasn't strapped to a berth in the med bay woke up to them flailing around and cussing."

I started sniggering at the mental images.

Mia rolled her eyes. "Sunny and Sides hacked their berths to bits trying to get free, and now they'll have to sleep in their alt-modes until 'Jack gets around to fixing them. And this cheesecake is heavenly, Spitfire."

Mom grinned. "Flattery will get you seconds."

Dad took both her hands in his and staring deeply into her eyes, declared, "My lovely, witty, beloved wife, Helen of Troy was a hag compared to you."

She giggled. "Sorry guys. Will just took the cake."

We all groaned at the pun.

"I'll arm-wrestle you for it," Hyde offered.

"Not a chance," Dad said with a smirk.

"But what did Sunny and Sides do to the younger twins?" I interrupted.

"Oh, nothing much," R.C. answered. "Just hacked off their arms and legs and hid them randomly around the base."

"OH JEEZ!" I snorted. "That's HORRIBLE!"

"It was worse for the poor people who randomly stumbled across amputated limbs," Mia dryly answered.

"Had it coming," Hyde repeated.

Shaking her head, R.C. said, "They were still looking for one of Skid's arms when we left."

"Are they gonna be okay?"

"Oh yeah," she assured me. "They'll be sore for a few days and their energy levels got depleted enough that they'll need to spend the rest of the day recharging in the safety of the med bay, but they'll be up to their stupid twin tricks all too soon."

Dad added, "They'd be in the brig except that's where the other twins are right now."

"Just another normal day with Autobots?" I asked with a grin.

Dad sighed, his expression troubled for a brief moment. "I wish." Straining to lighten his own mood, he said, "But then, what's normal with these knuckleheads around?" His gaze went from the femmes to Hyde before he managed a smile for me. "As soon as I think I have them pegged, they sucker-punch me with something as insane as an amputated-limbs scavenger hunt."

"Oh the stories we could tell you, Annabelle," Mom said, grinning.

"Will tell you," R.C. promised with a smirk.

"Like what?" I eagerly asked.

"Like the scare Ironhide and Chromia gave Will when she first arrived on Earth," Mom said, already sniggering at the memory.

My first recollection of Mia was her coming to a football game. R.C. introduced the newcomer as her sister, and it was years before I figured out there was something between her and Hyde. "What happened?"

Through her giggles, Mom said, "They triggered every alarm on the base by slipping away for…an intimate chat on the beach."

"Holy crap!" I choked on my own laugh. "You didn't!"

"Ten-thousand years apart makes a femme desperate," Mia said with a shrug.

Dad leaned back in his chair, grinning. "I put the fear of Primus in them if they ever did something like that again, at least if it was within sight of our house."

"Wait!" I exclaimed, incredulous. "You two were doing the horizontal tango on my beach? Where I innocently frolicked in the surf all while I was growing up?"

"You weren't frolicking at the time," Hyde said defensively.

"We were," Mia murmured, mischief sparkling in her eyes.

I choked again on my laughter.

"They were horrible for the first couple of years," Dad said, shaking his head at Mia. "We had to build a special facility for their…chats so that they wouldn't keep lighting up the sensor nets."

"And so that your perverted government liaisons wouldn't try to play peeping tom," Mia snorted.

Chat. A light bulb switched on in my head and, looking at Hyde, I said, "So that's why you freaked when I was eleven and told you I was chatting online with 'Bee?"

R.C. almost fell out of her chair she was laughing so hard. "You…said…that…you were…?!" she wheezed.

"Yep," Hyde matter-of-factly said, taking a bite of cheesecake. I wasn't sure if he was answering me or R.C.

"…Primus!" R.C. gasped through her guffaws.

"So if you two were doing-it-on-the-beach serious, how come I've never seen you kissing or anything?" I asked Mia and Hyde.

Swallowing his cheesecake, Hyde answered, "Like your father said, he put the fear of Primus in us if we ever corrupted his daughter with our heathen ways."

"But…Mom and Dad kiss all the time in front of me. It's annoying sometimes."

"It's good for you," Mom said firmly, though she was still smiling.

"That's different," Hyde curtly answered me.

"Because they're married?" I wondered.

Hyde looked offended. "Marriage is a weak, fleeting echo of what Mia and I share. It's different because they're human."

"So are you right now – kinda. I'm sure you must have kissed in your holoforms at least once." I wracked my brain trying to remember.

Mia chuckled. "Nope."

"Not once?"

R.C. smirked. "Nope."

"Not even under mistletoe?" I pressed.

"Terrible tradition," Hyde righteously answered.

"Not even a little peck on the lips?"

Hyde started to turn a little pink – blushing. "No."

"Why not?" I demanded.

"Because we're in our holoforms."

"So?"

Grimacing, he answered, "So…it'd be…kinky."

Even the femmes busted up laughing at that one.

"So let me get this straight," I chortled. "It's perfectly normal to traumatize my beach, but a chaste little peck on the lips is kinky?"

Hyde awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah."

Mia surprised Hyde with a sudden kiss on the cheek. "I'm so glad you're mine, Ironhide."

The scandalized look on his face was priceless.

…

The Autobots didn't leave until almost midnight. I quietly neglected to tell my mom I didn't get my homework done, planning on finishing it during English first period instead. No way was I going to miss out on a night like that for a few math problems. I was pulling a low A in the class – I could afford to miss a few points.

The next day after school, Ironhide and Ratchet showed up at the house for their promised "spa treatment," as Mom called it. I'd helped wash the truck countless times, but it was a completely new experience to talk with 'Hide and Ratchet via the radio instead of speaking to their holoforms. Just another weird way that reality changed for me. Mom and Dad took on Ironhide while I scrubbed Ratchet until he shined, and all the while, the two 'bots amiably bickered like an old married couple.

I'd need some help with the waxing, so while Mom and Dad buffed 'Hide, I got out the Black Magic and started wiping down Ratchet's leather seats. Abruptly, his engine revved and then spluttered. "Sweet Cybertron!"

I sat back on my heels in surprise. "What?"

"That…is extremely pleasant. I'd forgotten how good it feels."

Fifteen years of helping to wash the truck...things I'd never thought about before. I grinned as I sprayed some more of the cleaner on his seats. "I'm glad - you earned it!"