It turned out that her dad indeed was in a good mood this evening. The job interview had gone well, but he did not know if he got the job or not yet. They would contact him in a few days maybe a week but he was almost guaranteed the position. As to celebrate the good news, he had been grocery shopping, so this evening became something of a feast. He had even bought her a bag of her favorite candy for later. Chewy and sweet. The best kind there is, and she could not wait to pop one in her mouth and thoroughly enjoyed it.

After dinner, her father took a beer and went to the TV for some sports program or perhaps the news. Katja looked over her shoulder when he walked out and started to put away the rest and wipe off the counter last, as she did that she was looking thoughtfully out the window. Mirage was getting better, and today confirmed that he indeed was starting to recover, soon he would be fit for fight again. So to speak. And he would go off on his own and meat up with the other Autobots.

She stopped in her movement as a cold feeling slip into her chest, Because that also meant that he would leave her. Her hand on the fabric tightened, and she closed her eyes as dizziness comes over her, and she grimaced and bent forward not to fall.

Breath in... Breath out...It's alright... breathe... She could hear TV's loud voices and her heart pulsing so loudly that it was ringing in her ears. He would soon be gone; he would leave her here, but it was as it should be. But why did the mere thought hurt so much? She did not know him so well; the only thing she had done was to save his life. So why did it felt like she was losing someone close to her?

Tears were gathering in her eyes as she crunched down but held on to the counter; it hurt so much. But perhaps it was for the best. She had no right to hold him there because he made her feel...safe. They had a war to fight, and she had no place in it.

Katja slowly straightened herself and let a ragging breath leave her tight thought; she put her hand down in the now cold and dirty dishwater before pulling up the last plate. She knew this was going to happen sooner or later. But it really scared her how quickly she got used to having the big giant in the barn. He hadn't been there for more than a few weeks, and he had already settled into her everyday life. It was like he always had been there. Katja quickly shook her head to get rid of the thoughts; she could not think like that. Nothing good would come of it.

But all good things have an end. Katja closed her eyes again and took a last deep soothing breath and put the plate back to its place. She pulled out the plug in the sink and went to the office, it was there they had their old computer from the - 90 was sitting.

She had to distract her with something, but then again, what she was going to do doing was only speeding up his departure. She began to look up various pages containing information about the Autobots whereabouts. Many people were speculating on where base they were on was. What she could understand was that people knew that there was one, but not where it was. Some people reported that the Autobots had kidnapped them and forced them to stay on a secret base experimenting on them. Others claimed that they were their best buddies and had them on speed dials. Some news talked about how dangerous it was to have aliens in their backyard, and they took even the smallest case against them as something huge they could use to discriminate the Autobots.

Katja tried to avoid all of these theories, but she wrote down where the news was from and when, as a few different areas were a good possibility for the location. On her note was everything from Chicago to Washington, as well as Ohio and Mexico. She continued for a while before her eyes began to burn, and she had to shut down the computer.

What she suspected, given how many activists or so-called 'situations' people boasted that they had seen an Autobot, Washington was the most likely city where they were in. She took the note and folded it down so that she could put it in her pocket for later use and erased every history on the computer so that her father would not see what she had been working on.

"I'm going out to the animals, will probably be out for a good while," she said in the hallways and just got a loud hum in response as she stepped out into the now cooler night.

It felt strange how the temperature could change so quickly here, but she blamed it on the mountains. Katja hid her arms in the big sweater's front pocket and went out to the barn. She could hear the soothing sounds of the animals eating in their boxes as soon as she entered and looked over Mirage that was sitting and resting.

His eyes were dark as he was in recharge, but she could hear soft clicking sounds coming from his frame that softened her nerves that he still was alive. But considering he didn't even wake up when she walked in said he was still very much affected by his injuries. So instead of disturbing him, she began preparing tomorrow's food portions for the goats and the sheep while she began to hum at an old song her mother always sang to her when she was younger. Singing was still something she did when she worked in the barn or cleaned for the animals. So there was no strange thing as she started to sing for herself in a low humming voice.

~ You are everything I ever wanted,
You are everything I ever dreamed,
You are the one that makes me remember
all the dreams I have forgotten.~

She picked up one of the smaller tools and began to brush the goats that had some strange seed capsules in their pelt, surly from the field. She continued to sing the song for a bit until she came to a part where she remembers her mother always switched to her native language, so she did that too only to honor her memory of the melody.

~För du är allt jag någonsin önskat.
Du är allt jag någonsin drömt.
Du är den som får mig att minnas
alla drömmar jag har glömt ~

She smiled at the goats who buried his head in her stomach, demanded that she would continue to pat them, so she did with a smile on her lips.

~Du är den som får mig hoppas
Du är den som får mig att le
All min kärlek får du bära
All min kärlek vill jag ge~

Katja bowed down and hugger the goat before going out of their box and continue to hum the last sequence of the song while she checked them all. She folded up some of the used plaids and suddenly felt observed, something she had started to develop a six sense about. She smiled as she looked over her shoulder and was met by a pair of blue eyes that followed her every move.

"I hope I didn't wake you," she said, drying off her hands and sat down on the haystack.

Mirage looked down at her " You didn't, I woke up before you started to sing. You have a lovely voice," he said with a -what she could only call- charming smile on his lip plates. "However, I do not recognize the last language you sang last in. What was it?"

"Swedish, from my mother's side of the family. She moved here when she was my age but always kept in touch with people over there. It was also thanks to her that I can some, but frankly, it is quite difficult to pronounce so many of the strange words."

"Really? In what sense?" he asked curiously as he could not phantom how it could be any different from English.

"Swedish grammar is difficult because it does not make sense. The same words can mean three different things and so they constantly find new words that are not even translatable, not even to mention that they can write the letter one way and then pronounced it differently," she said, waved with her arms. "I mean, seriously! Who does that? And as they speak, it sounds it as if they are singing even if they not actually doing it."

Mirage laughed. " It sounds like fun."

She huffed " Easily for a super-advanced life form to say, you can just download the language and then *poff* you can speak it fluently" she enhanced the 'poff' part with her hands and Mirage shook his helm in amusement

"True," he admitted, he never had to think of it anyway. It was more of how much space the data of the languish took "I must say that the Italian language appeals to me so much more than the English one."

"Nooo, really?" she sarcastically asked, "And here I thought you were only using the dialect for fun."

"Cheeky femme," he poked her lightly in the stomach, but only the slight movement caused her to move away and make a fast grimace before she fast enough smoothed out her expression. Something that did not go unnoticed to him.

He didn't say anything at first but withdrew his hand and inspected her, was she afraid of him? " I didn't mean to scare you," he said after a moment's silence " I hope that you know that. I don't want to hurt you."

"No! No! No, don't think you scare me," she hurried to say and looked up at him with wide eyes "it's just that ..." she was lost for words and sighted.

"I'm not so good with touching," at least not the more friendly kind, but it was nothing she said out loud in any case. However, it felt different when she touched him; it was not the same as a human being would. She had even been able to stand in his hand and wash him before.

"why is that?" he asked, and the question was innocent, but the meaning was even more substantial.

"Let's say I don't have that good experience of it," she replied, "But your touch isn't ... so bad, you just surprised me right now, sorry."

Mirage tilted his head briefly before putting his hand down with his palm, now making it her choice. Katja looked down at the invitation he had given her and only hesitated for a moment before cautiously walked over to his hand. With a slow and gentle movement, he lifted her so that he could put her down on the largest part of his knee. When she was like this, she also comes up to a better height, meaning she didn't have to bend her neck so much to look at him.

"Is this all right?" he asked, and she nodded with a smile

"So, tell me more about Cybertron," Katja asked as she sat down with her legs crossed and her hands resting in them as Mirage began to tell the most fascinating and painting stories about his home planet. That night was the first night she had fallen asleep with him, his hand over her like shelter, and she had probably never slept so well in her entire life.

The days flew by, and soon a whole month had passed by since Mirage had come to her on that stormy night. Katja stretched and hummed contentedly, in the living room a fire crackled as it had become a little chilly outside. Her dad had been in a relatively good mood lately. The bruises had almost wholly disappeared, and things seemed to be looking brighter. But this day her father had been glued to the TV and ignored her, not even speaking to her or shouting for her to get him a beer. Which was nice for a change.

Katja turned off the computer and went out to the kitchen to grab a glass of water while humming a low tune. She had talked to Mirage about her last searches, and he too agreed that Washington sounded like the best place to start. The problem was that it was far away, and they had talked if she might come along.

And yes, it was something that she wanted to do. But then again, she didn't think it would be a good idea, her father would never let her and if he knew where she was going and with who. He would surely do something that would not benefit any of them and bow a gasket or two. And she didn't want to be the reason that more shit was thrown at the friendly cybetronian. She was only going to be in the way, and as long as her father stayed in a good mood, his darker side would not come out.

Katja looked over her shoulder as the silence fell completely over the house again and she put the glass down in the sink. This was strange; not even the TV was on. She turned around to look if something happened but froze in her movements as she saw her dad standing in the doorway. Blocking it completely, his head was bowing down, and she could see the large veins in his neck pulse as he stood there.

Katja looked out the window before she looked up at her father again, "Dad?" she asked in a low voice, please don't be back. Please, don't let it be this time again; things just had started to look brighter. Like they could put everything behind them and be a family again.

His red-eyed eyes stared coldly into her as he walked forward slowly, like a predator in position to kill and there was something in his face that made her whole inside turn cold as fear took hold of her as he spoke in an icy voice.

"What...are you planning?"

Oh shit...

A/N:
The song is a Swedish called "you are everything" or " du är allt", you can find it here with an English translation.

watch?v=MX71A_QN6sE&list=RDMX71A_QN6sE&start_radio=1

Thank you for reading!