Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers, only Kate.
Transmissions are in bold/italic.
Transmissions + speech are in "bold/italic."
Ch. 5: Hope
"Kate, there's something I need to tell you."
"What is it, Op?"
She sat in the back of the Peterbilt, Optimus's holoform sitting beside her. It flickered every now and then—the first time making her jump as if he had shocked her—but she was happy, grateful to even see the black-haired, blue-eyed humanoid again. God bless Cade and Hound putting their heads together. The Autobot technician had thought it a waste to even try to replicate Ratchet's technology, but Cade had, of course, seen the value, dragging Hound away to figure out a solution—"I would give anything to hold my wife again," he had said with a small smile.
To be honest, Kate was nervous about the tone in Optimus's voice: it seemed serious, not entirely comfortable. And she wasn't sure why. "You can tell me."
The holoform shifted, his chest rising a falling in a huff. It took him a moment before he spoke: "I'm leaving the human race to their own devices."
Her heart sunk; nerves sunk in. "What does that mean for us?"
"I don't know."
She had never heard Optimus speak this way. Sure, she had thought—maybe even wished—a few times over the years that they could get away from their duty: give up on saving the day and focus only on themselves. But to hear the words actually leave her love's lips, they felt dirty. Wrong. He was supposed to be the optimistic leader; she could afford to be pessimistic, he couldn't.
Automatically her hand reached underneath her jacket, clenching itself around the cylinder that had miraculously survived all these years. She recalled Ratchet's words: hope. But what hope was there now? She didn't want to be left all alone. Not after she had devoted so much to their cause—to him.
"You would leave me? After all this time?"
The holoform hefted a sigh. He scooted closer to her, grasping her hands. She could almost feel his warmth. "What would you have me do?" his voice cracked, his constrained face flickered like a television screen on the fritz, "My team wants to leave."
"It's a choice between them or me." Kate whispered, her heart shattering.
Optimus nodded. "Either I go and seek out new stars, new civilizations—"
"—or you stay. And you stay in hiding, pretending who you really are doesn't exist." She couldn't help the tears prickling the corners of her eyes. As much as she wanted him to stay with her, she couldn't ask that of him: "packed away, disposed of, alone."
"Yes."
Optimus's hand reached out, sputtering in its form before he peeled back her jacket. His eyes spied the vial her hand clenched around, pulling it gently from her grasp. "Ratchet explained this to me, once," he confessed, his voice cracking as he spoke of their friend. "He said it was—"
"'Hope. For you and Optimus,' yes," she stated with a small smile. "I still don't really know what he meant by that. I've never opened it."
"It's—uh—well—"
Kate looked at his strained expression and burst out laughing, grateful for a moment of levity in their solemn conversation. "Optimus Prime, are you blushing?"
It was true: his holoform's cheeks had gone a shade of red and he was sure his hands were beginning to sweat. "Curse Ratchet for his accuracy," he murmured, shifting his eyes away and clearing his throat.
"What could possibly be making you so flustered?"
He sputtered: "Well this tube, it—uh—it goes inside you."
Kate cocked her head, an amused confusion clouding her features. "Inside me?"
"Y—yes," Optimus hummed, his face turning as dark as a tomato. "He—she—they're supposed to look like me—after it's done."
The gears clicked around in her head as she looked down at the cylinder, turning it over and over in her hands: she still didn't understand. "What could Ratchet have been thinking—" Then it hit her: artificial insemination. "A baby?" she gaped, practically dropping the tube on the floor, "Ratchet wanted to give us—a—a baby?"
Optimus couldn't hide the wistful grin that crossed his lips. "He was always a sentimental soul."
Suddenly, Kate's mind took off, thinking of scenario after scenario. An excitement lit up within her—one that she hadn't expected. "But how would it work? I mean, I know how insemination works but would they be human—Cybertronian—both? Would he have your eyes, my hair?" she rambled, a wide grin spreading across her lips, her eyes sparkling. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted it: she wanted a baby.
Optimus chuckled at her childlike glee. "Does this mean you want to do it?"
Kate took a moment's pause, thinking it through. A baby's a big responsibility. Her excitement shrunk, only slightly, as she considered her future. Especially one where Optimus wasn't around. Could she handle a child by herself—a single mom, more than likely alone, raising someone in a world that had been unwelcoming towards her father and his family? Would she explain to the child, one day, exactly who her—his—father had been?
She closed her eyes, taking a calming breath and coming back to the present. We don't even know if it would work, really. The timing might be wrong, the serum too old. But she wanted this; she wanted this with every fiber of her being. She wanted to be a mother. No matter what it took.
Kate locked her gaze with Optimus's, firm in her conviction. She could do this, alone or not. "Yes," she rasped, her voice full of emotion. "Let's do it. Now."
The gobsmacked look on his face could've stopped a train. "What—now?"
She laughed: "Right this minute."
"What about China—the seed—the mission?"
Kate put the cylinder in Optimus's hand, pleading as she grasped them and looked into his eyes. "I'll be careful. Distant," she promised, "Please, Op. I want you to do it. It'll be a memory I can hold onto after—" her voice broke. She shook her head, pushing back the tears that had suddenly welled up in her eyes. Swallowing, she forced the words that she, still, desperately wanted to be untrue to the back of her mind. One thing at a time. "We may not have another moment."
Optimus reached out, caressing her cheek tenderly. "All right," he nodded, "Lay back. Ratchet told me what to do."
