Zoe Jane, a transformers fanfic

Title: Zoe Jane
Summary: When is doing what you have to do too much? Songfic, Gen, Oneshot.
Characters: Mikaela and family
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro, of course.

A/N: So as I was going through songs on the computer, this one came up. I gave it a chance to play (I'm not too fond of the whole album Shades of Gray, though I really like Staind), and it turns out, I liked it. And it got stuck in my head. It went from being listened to zero times to a lot during that day (Y-eah, I know. But the acoustics sucked me in...).

But anyway, it fits Mikaela's dad (what he might've been like at least) quite well. And as I was suffering from writer's block, this was quite therapeutic.

So this is based off of the song "Zoe Jane" by Staind. (for the record, I thought he was saying "Sweeps of a jail" or something instead of "Sweet Zoe Jane," which had kinda fit this better, but I'll run with what I got)

Zoe Jane

----

"We don't have enough to pay it."

Banes turned around to face the woman across the run-down kitchen again, rubbing the side of his head.

"I know. But the shop is—"

"The 'shop,' is wrong, and you know it!"

For several long, drawn out moments, man and wife stared at each other.

He wanted to retaliate, to say something back to the accusation; 'It's the only way,' or 'We don't have a choice.'

But right now, he wasn't sure he entirely believed that himself.

He stared at the woman. His look carefully stayed neutral and passive, as hers was aggressive and stressed. Her mouth was pulled into a tight little line, the fine skin around it paling. Her eyes were narrowed, her dark turquoise eyes piercing him through the slits.

She was like a snake, coiled and ready to spring on his next word.

He sighed, any last thoughts of retaliation riding the breath. Crossing the room to her, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders from behind.

"I'm going to pull us through this," he whispered with a kiss to her cheek.

She remained tense and unresponsive as he walked out of the room, the only sound the droning television in the next room and the soft pops of the floor as he walked across it.

"Daddy?"

Banes turned in the hallway to look down at his daughter. A smile stole its way across his countenance at the sight of the little girl. Her questioning facade was framed by her long, wavy dark-brown hair, gently touching her rosy cheeks.

No matter how bad he felt, his little daughter always made him smile. She was the pride of his life, and cliche though he knew it may be, he would do anything for her.

He faced her, squatting down.

"What is it, 'Keala?"

The little girl walked over to him, reaching out to his face. She patted him on the cheek softly.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Banes looked back into his daughter's deep turquoise eyes, the dim light playing across them bringing out their speckles of gold.

"Nothing's wrong, Mika," he soothed, reaching out to touch her cheek in turn.

Her forehead creased, her eyes narrowing as she scrutinized him.

He winced vaguely as the look struck him painfully.

She really did have her mother's eyes sometimes.

The same eyes, only the youthful innocence still alive and flourishing in them.

He suddenly came back to the present, remembering it was his daughter before him now. She still held his gaze, her small palm circling on his cheek soothingly.

He smiled.

"Promise," he told her, placing an affectionate hand on top of her head as he rose.

-Well I want you to notice
Notice when I'm not around
Know that your eyes see straight through me
Speak to me without a sound-

-And I wanna hold you
Protect you from all of the things I've already endured
And I wanna show you
Show you all the things that this life has in store for you
And I'll always love you
The way that a father should love his daughter-

"Despite your recent pleas of his innocence, we have reason to believe that your husband has been involved in ille—"

"What's going on here?"

Banes strode into the front room, his brow furrowed as he examined the scene in front of him.

As he approached, his wife looked over her shoulder, glossy-eyed. The three law enforcement officers standing in the doorway looked up towards him as well.

"Mr. Banes, we have a warrant for your arrest."

A number of emotions flashed through him in that one instant. He damned whatever leads they'd had to come to his home.

He reached his wife and calmly backed her away from the officers in the doorway. When they had gone about ten feet to the side of the couch on the other side of the small room, that was when he saw his daughter sitting on the couch.

Long and lank, not quiet a teenager yet, she sat with the fingers of her white fist pressed against her mouth. Her eyes were upset and distressed as she looked up to regard her parents.

That look nearly made him fight the uniform-clad law enforcers.

But he kept in control of himself. He was angry, of that there was no doubt. But the mortgage-breaking emotion had been petered down to frustration, as there were three (three, his juvenile subconscious still couldn't help but to be a bit smug about that petty detail) people in the room that could ruin everything he'd worked so hard for after one false move.

He'd taken it too far. He'd been reckless. And now he had to pay for it.

His face hardened into a steely mask of passiveness, he stepped forward. He saw the men tense as he drew nearer until he held out his hands, wrists up, in front of them.

As they turned him around, securing his hands behind him and searching his person, his eyes rested on his wife. She was still standing next to the couch, trying somewhat unsuccessfully to mimic his countenance.

"Don't worry. I'll be back soon enough."

Though Banes had spoken the words, in his mind, he scoffed them.

Soon enough. Right.

Regardless, his wife nodded, no doubt thinking the same thing.

Cautiously, when they were done patting him down, he stepped forward. The officers didn't try to stop him, one walking along directly behind and beside him.

Banes stopped in front of the seated girl, his eyes searching for hers. He bent his knees slightly and bowed down to her level.

"Hey," he said softly.

He watched as she wiped her eyes and sniffled congestedly. The moisture had clouded her eyes again by the time she looked up. She hastily wiped again to see his face.

She watched as his smile slowly slid away, his face turning somber.

"It don't do you any good. Remember?" he whispered. "Don't give them that."

The girl nodded at the reminder, running her arm across her eyes.

He watched her, looking into her turquoise eyes for a few more moments. He straightened and walked leisurely towards the door, towards his fate, officers in tow.

He smiled vaguely at the irony of his own vision blurring as they crossed the threshold. But the smile gradually faded and was replaced by the passive mask again as they got nearer to the cruiser.

-When I walked out this morning
I cried as I walked out the door
I cried about how long I'd be away for
Cried about leaving you all alone-

-Sweet Zoe Jane
Sweet Zoe Jane-

"Daddy!"

"Hey, Mika!" he greeted as the little girl ran into his arms.

"Eww," she observed. "What's that?"

He laughed at her wrinkled-nose disgusted expression as he held his stained hand out beside them.

"Aw, it's just grease from working."

"You need a shower."

He laughed again at his little daughter's quips.

"You know. One day you'll learn to be a grease monkey too."

He froze at the words, the little girl's giggles fading to the background. Thoughts swirled in his mind, his forehead creasing in now all too familiar stress lines.

"Mikaela." She quieted at the seriousness in his tone. "You...know, I love you, right?"

Dimples ingrained her rosy cheeks as she nodded vigorously.

He smiled back a little too. "I love you more than anything.

"Always," he said, surprised to hear his daughter's voice in tandem with his own. He smiled outright at her grin; she had lost some of her baby teeth recently, and he never passed up a chance to poke fun at the girl for how lopsided it made her look.

"Come here," he chuckled, pulling her into a hug as she giggled as well.

Things would turn out okay. They had to.

-So I wanted to say this
'Cause I wouldn't know where to begin
To explain to you what I have been through
To explain where your daddy has been-

-Sweet Zoe Jane
Sweet Zoe Jane-

A/N: Of course, Mikaela's dad might not have been a decent fellow. But even if he wasn't, he could have put something of the same basic concept of these lyrics in a message to Mikaela and possibly her mom before he got arrested. Or something along those lines.

Or maybe he was just an indifferent jerk.

*shrugs* It was good for getting rid of the writer's block (and earworm) anyway.