Mikaela will not admit it out loud, but she's scared. Even more scared than when she drove around in Mission City with Bumblebee attached to the tow truck.
But then, that time she got no choice but be brave and anyway, in her life she learnt that showing despair will just lead to more sufferance. So when the policeman, she's almost sure he's an hologram, but she is not going to touch him, asks her to ride with him on a car that she recognize being the one that tried to kill her and Sam, she just tries to evaluate the situation for the moment, and decides against run away.
She sat, uncomfortably, in the Mustang, and, as the engine starts, the holograph disappears and the windows became darker leaving her alone.
A part of her is galvanized for the power behind that hood, but this is a decepticon, and so she also scared. Another part of her, the one that followed Sam inside Bumblebee when the yellow bot first saved them from this decepticon, that part is curious about of the purpose of all this.
"Human… "he starts
"My name is Mikaela" she interrupts abruptly.
"Mikaela. From my understanding, you are close to the Autobot designated as Bumblebee"
"If you believe that I will put him in any danger you are completly wrong, decepticon." she growls back
"My designation is Barricade, and I don't want to endanger him"
"Well, what do you want then?"
"…"
"…"
"I… I need you help, hum-… I mean, Mikaela"
"Help in what? Why should I help you? You tried to kill me!" she tried to glower at him, but it's hard to glower to someone when his face is no where around you and you are sitting inside to them.
"if I wanted to hurt you , I would have already done"
"Ok, then, what do you want?" her mind is spinning, but she's thinking that if she discovers what the decepticon is up to, she could alert the autobot and help them. To do so, she needs to run along with the con, and stays alive.
"The autobot designed as Bumblebee, he seems more… used…to human culture that to the cybertonian one "
"really?" she asks, blandly
"I tried to woo him in the traditional cybertronian way, but he seems confused by it"
"or maybe he is not interested…"
"no, it's not that. We run together in the night for fifteen nights, and I performed the ritual fight-dances of our tradition. He didn't react as suppose to: he fight against me, but neither with the formal way to accept nor the way to reject."
"So do you think that he is not recognizing the procedure?"
"Yes. He is the youngest of our species, and he was born during the war, so it's possible that Prime never thought to teach him our tradition." The decepticon sounds fond when he spoke of Bee, or at least, less harsh than when he mentioned Optimus.
"Why you want to woo him?" she cannot prevent herself from asking.
"Why you followed Ladiesman217?" he retorts back.
"Point taken" she murmurs more to herself than to the bot. Outside the scenery is changing, as they approach the desert.
"He is brave, bravest that any other Autobot. He kept resisting to Lord Megatron torture long enough to let Prime hide the Cube, at the end Megatron ripped off Bumblebee vocal box. And when everyone would have just decide to retire from battle and crawl in a pit, and no one would have said anything at that, the brave Scout volunteers for coming here and retrieves the All-spark. Even as an enemy, I had to recognize his value. And now that the war is over, he will be a excellent companion." His tone is scientific and try to be cold as he recount Bumblebee' story. But he seems to care. If he's lying, he is damn good to that.
"Let me see if I'm understood that properly: you want me to play cupido for you?" a moment pass, as she's sure he's checking the reference on the web, she spent enough time with Bee to recognize it.
"Yes, Primus forgive me, that's exactly what I'm asking you."
"Ok then, how do you feel about flowers?"
After the little chat, Barricade bring her back home, wait for her to get changed and drive her to Sam place for the night. He disappears just after that.
Mikaela decision of keeping her mouth shout for time being about the black Mustang seem the right choice the morning after.
Overnight, indeed, a strange flower-like metallic structure appears in Witwicky garden. Mikaela and Sam keep their distance as Bee scans it multiple time.
After that, for Mikaela's amusement, and Sam's incredulity, Bee take it into the garage. The yellow bot will spend the next couple of days admiring the sculpture and caressing the petals.