On the Value of Pets.

Chapter Two

'Well,' she thought, 'at least it isn't Barricade.'

She addressed the mech defiantly:

"Who're you?".

"My designation is Dropkick, fleshling. You're lucky I'm not hungry."

He opened his mouth showing a set of wicked steel teeth with fangs.

"What're you gonna do with me if you're not gonna eat me?"

Mikaela knew she was too tired to escape but she was too fed up to care. Talking was Sam's forte not hers. Mind you, all they'd had going for them was talking, running, and a love of cars and music-one car/robot especially who had become a friend. But it had been enough. It had led to a partnership affiliated with the Autobots.

He picked her up.

"I'm gonna take you back to the Decepticon base." He scanned her, she could tell from the electronic sound. " You're one of the ones Starscream fought in Mission City. Aren't you afraid?"

"A base is a base. As long as it's warm and dry."

"It's dry. It could get hot - for you."

"Can't you take me in car form?"

"It's dark. I can easily travel like this." He turned away from the river. "No-one seems to be around."

"You'll be seen as a threat. What if I start screaming?"

"I could start squeezing you. I could kill you."

"Then I'll bleed all over you."

"Oh all right. You're soggy already. My seats will get wet, but I'll get kudos from the others."

He put her down again on the road, transformed into a gray and blue pickup and opened a door. "I'm faster this way. Fasten your seatbelt!"

One of her earrings seemed to have come loose in the river. She tried to adjust it and tipped the water from her ear out the window, no use disgusting him further.

"Hey, close the window. And don't scream or I will squeeze you in your seat!"

'Damn earring, there it goes, only one left,' she thought, as it fell out. "I might need to get out before you get to base."

"I hope not. I'm going as fast as I can. My seats are already wet."'

'And you don't smell too good.' She thought, but she did not say it.

She was used to musty old car insides, her Dad couldn't afford to have their own vehicle valeted. Mind you Bumblebee had been, and it made all the difference. So did his personality.

She sneezed. He just went faster. "Mind my dash!"

Yes, you definitely noticed it when they didn't care.

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Bumblebee arrived at the hospital and measured his holoform against it - yes, he had enough power to project it to the top floor if necessary. His holoform got out with a big bunch of flowers. He'd used some spare fuel money and parking change from the gear box dip for them and paid the car park charges. If this didn't go well he'd have to start doing things for the army to earn his energon money.

Oh well if it didn't, he'd have to, he wasn't giving up on Sam! He went in and up to the front desk.

"For Sam Witwicky? Which ward?"

"10-4." He went up in the lift. Then the nurse at the station took the flowers off him and he had nothing left to hide behind.

He asked again: "For Sam Witwicky- which bed?" He'd come along with the curt nurse round there was a more gentle one though who replied "We've had to keep him in overnight."

"Family?

"Friend."

"He needs friends." She said with a smile.

"One at a time, fifteen minutes." said the hard one, making notes.

He looked a bit like Optimus in his battle mask all wrapped up in bandages to the eyes. He scanned him: one broken arm in a sling, one broken leg, same side, in plaster, a broken rib, a broken cheek-bone and a broken jaw.

Would he be angry still?

But Sam's eyes did not look angry, just puzzled.

Then they lit up, which was all Bumblebee needed. This was going to be O. K.

He put the other hand out of the bedclothes. Bumblebee took it.

He'd have to use the oldest sign language there was-writing on the hand. He wrote the word "hi" and waited. Or if he heard his voice perhaps Sam could respond?

"Sam, sorry, no news of Mikaela yet."

Sam blinked.

"I'll look. We're forming a Search Party. I'm good at tracking. We'll find her."

Sam went on looking at him.

"I 'm really sorry."

He blinked, and then wrote "Autobots?" into Bumblebee's hand, and lifted his eyebrows questioningly. Sam had caught on.

"We're all O.K. So-so." Bumblebee hovered the fingers of one hand up and down. "Optimus looks like you. He pointed to the sling.

"Yowch." Sam wrote in Bee's hand.

Then he pointed at Bee and raised his brows again.

"Me?" So he'd noticed, it wasn't just the row, it was the crash. He put his hand on his chest. "I'm O.K. Ratchet fixed me up last night and I've recharged. I'm sure glad to see you though."

Sam spread out his hand in acceptance and Bumblebee took it nodding and quoting the Witwicky family motto "No sacrifice, no victory."

Sam's eyes looked troubled again- Mission City had been a rather heavy battle. But it had cemented their friendships. This brought the Mikaela question back to Bumblebee's mind as he thought it would be in Sam's. "Sorry I didn't pick her up. She'll come back, Optimus says she survived the battle, she's a strong girl Mikaela."

"She's still an evil Jock concubine!" Miles came in through the curtain round the bed, dragging a visitor's chair.

"Miles!" He had a head bandage., nose plaster and a bandaged right hand.

"Persuaded the old battleaxe that you could take two" said Miles. The triumphant sense of fun in his eyes reminded Bumblebee so much of the Twins with Ratchet that he had to laugh.

Sam laughed too but without being able to move his mouth, his chest shaking, and he laughed so much they had to help him up onto his pillows to breathe.

"No, but you should have seen how she went through the football team - vuh-t!" He mimed one finger going from one side of one hand to the other. Sam's eyes got angry and he started getting agitated, making little growling noises. Bumblebee and Miles put out both their hands to try to calm him down.

"No really, you guys have lasted much longer together. Maybe they were all too shallow." He locked his shoulders together, stuck his hands out and nearly crossed his eyes in imitation of someone with big arms like Trent. "Me big muscle man. Come, little lotus flower, hop on my back and we'll make sweet music together --Hunh?"

Bumblebee laughed again in spite of his anger at Miles.

"You look like Ironhide on a bad day. No, correction, he never looked that vacant." Miles laughed too.

Sam stuck out his middle finger as the "I" in Ironhide to show he understood, like many English teachers his teacher had taught him the vowels on his fingers. Of course, it looked like he was flipping the bird.

Miles again held out his hands in defence before him. "O. K., calm down man, I'm not your enemy. Really."

Bumblebee found it hard to maintain the holoform through mixed emotions and it fritzed.

"Hey are you O. K., Bumblebee?" said Miles and put an arm round the shoulders of the seemingly younger teen. "I nearly went through you then. He steered him onto the chair. Surprisingly, it helped.

"Those footballers ought to try projecting power up a 10 storey building. I'm ok-ish. I wish I was like you." he said.

"Wha- you wanna be human? No way, you'd soon get fed up with it." said Miles. "You stay as you are, keep on fighting da foes with da forces and stuff. Just hang on till we get down in the lift so they don't think I 'm stealing you, and everything'll be fine.

You're my ticket outta here. Gotta make sure the dogs're all right. Hey Sam, they went for that red one, Bee says it was Swindle, and he went off at top speed, I bet he thought they were gonna pee on him, and with Mason, that's a lot of pee."

Sam switched his hand with the middle finger raised round and ran it over the bed flickering the top of the middle digit like a panicking duck.

"Sam , you're uncanny, you've never seen him, that's exactly how Swindle looks when he runs transformed!"

Sam pointed at Bumblebee. "You worked it out from how I described him? Well that's a win! Sorry I was not there for you."

Sam put out the hand to him and Bumblebee put his into it.

"At least you're here now." said Miles. The other two looked at each other. Forgiveness and yes, love passed between them.

"Sam, you have such expressive eyes."

Sam pointed at him "Mine too? But they're just round, not advanced like Optimus' ." He had obviously forgotten he was in holoform.

The brown-eyed boy he addressed looked pleadingly at him.

"He means don't do yourself down, you look fine!" said Miles slapping him on the back. Bumblebee gave him a surprised grateful look. So contact was used for encouragement in humans as well.

Sam wrote in Bee's hand. "Don't go!"

"Sam, I don't think they'll let us stay!"

"Let me finish this quickly as we haven't much time together." said Miles looking at his watch. "I had 4 nickels. I rang my parents, your parents, the police and them -the Autobots." he added in a whisper counting the calls off on a hand, pointing at Bumblebee last."

"My parents were at work, but I managed to get your Mom, they're coming in next, they might take you home. The police said the dogs were all right, apart from Mojo's paw which is in plaster again, I have to collect them and pay the vetinary bill. Don't worry Bro I got some cash saved up I'll get that for you," as Sam rolled his eyes and moaned, "And Bumblebee came out for us!"

"Now Sam I'm not gonna diss your girlfriend or your car any more, life's too short, Peace!" He held out his hands in the two fingered peace salute, then fingers crossed for forgiveness and then the v for victory salute. "Let's do all for one and one for all now there's three of us." He laid a hand on Sam's and put Bumblebee's on top of it. Bumblebee was puzzled until he remembered old re-runs of the Tom and Jerry cartoon "The three Mouseketeers" where they did this. "All for One-and One for all!" they said and Sam nodded.

The nurses came and shooed them out. "Are you disturbing the patient?" said the hard one, "There's a lot of sick people here.!"

"It's good to hear him laugh," said the nice one, who was a pretty brunette. "This morning he was unresponsive."

On the way down they saw Sam's parents coming up.

Bumblebee stopped and stared at them feeling responsible for the accident all over again. "I'm sorry" he said.

Judy Witwicky came over to them carrying flowers. She had picked her own roses for Sam from the new bushes the government had replaced hers with and wrapped them in brown paper.

"Hi Miles, how are you? It's Bumblebee isn't it, I've seen you before."

"Yes."

"We thought the car was stolen or something. I'm glad to see you.

"YOU thought the car was stolen" said Ron, "I heard Sam saying something about repairs at the garage."

"You can't help needing repairs."

"I often come to walk the dogs with Sam Sunday mornings. I just didn't see the car coming out of the junction so fast. It was an accident." said Miles.

"It would've helped if you'd got the other car's number."

"I don't think it would." said Bumblebee in an angry set voice. "But I can get - I can help you get compensation."

"Oh. That would be good, but at the moment all we're interested in is Sam." said Ron.

"Oh, so're we" said Miles, "Only I have to get the dogs. I paid the vet's bill over the phone with my Junior Savers' Card."

"Mojo knows you, he'll come to you" said Judy. "The doctors said we might take him home."

"Hang on a minute- Am I to understand you know who did this?" said Ron.

"Not know personally, but I definitely have met him." said Bumblebee.

"And he is an enemy of the country?"

"Not just this country, of all of us."

"Like that one they buried at sea?"

"Yes, but you did not hear it from me."

"Then neither you or Miles was to blame. We know about the war. But why are they always after Sam? He wasn't doing anything, only walking the dogs."

"They wouldn't need that excuse, Mr Witwicky. Sam did something very special at Mission City, for which some hate him and some love and admire him very much. You couldn't take that away from him any more than you could take the equivalent from any soldier on the battlefield. And it's part of the reason I'm with him." said Bee.

"The important thing is your friendship." said Ron.

"How is Sam?" said Judy.

"He's sitting up, seems quite lively, we had a bit of a laugh," said Miles.

"He seems O.K., apart from being hurt." said Bumblebee. This sounded far more realistic to Judy.

"Will you be back tonight?"

"Yes. I will be bringing Mojo back."

"I'll come too, if Sam's coming home." said Miles. "That is, if I can."

"Of course. Just come and knock, I'll have donuts and coffee ready."

"Now if you two want to go looking for Mikaela and Sam wants to come too, you will bring him back to us won't you?" said Judy Witwicky seriously.

This wasn't something he could just say "Yes, I'll try," to.

They were both looking at him.

"Yes, I will." Said Bumblebee. Something inside him had said 'Or die trying.' "I'll stay with him."

He had been given a second chance.

"You can trust us," Miles said. "I've been Sam's friend a long time. We're good buddies."

"That's what I like to hear." Ron said clapping him on the shoulder. "We'll see you later then."

"You can have something to eat if you want," said Judy, "It'll only be T.V. dinners, mind, but it'll be something."

"That's O.K., That'll be fine," Miles said, and then he thought of Sam.

"Er, Mrs Witwicky, have you got some drinking straws? And a blender?"

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Meanwhile Mikaela arrived at the Decepticon base. Her captor put wrist restraints on her wrists after putting them behind her back- like handcuffs, but not the same, they worked electronically - and put her in front of him.

It was not like the Autobot base -it was cold and stank in places, and she could hear arguments breaking out all the time. She was pushed along a slightly warmer corridor to a door marked with the usual pointy symbol and a crossed hammer and wrench, over a car and a plane.

So they did have a repair bay, if not a Med-bay. Perhaps if she could show she was useful it would help? Not that she wanted to be useful to them, but it might mean she'd get to see Sam again.

"I can do that," she said to Dropkick, "repairs that is."

"That is not the reason I've brought you here fleshling." Said Dropkick. "Our leader is beyond that door and I want to see what he or any of the others might want with you." And he gave an evil laugh.

The effect was spoiled by the voices she could hear through the door. It was what they said that was funny. They could have come from almost any doctor's surgery in the country.

"Now hold still, this won't hurt a bit."

"You said that last time, Dr Syn. Ow! Be careful!"

"I have to get them all out. You want them all out, don't you?"

"Yes, just hurry up about it!"

"It can't be rushed, it'll hurt more."

"Ow! Ow that's cold! Watch where you're putting that probe! And those tweezers! "

"Well if you will fly low over the Autobot base _" "Silence! Must you question my actions? Snivelling Autobots!"

"They've jumped you, brought you down, put something in your internal systems…."

Mikaela put her chin on her chest to stop herself laughing, she'd heard this conversation from the other end, when she'd helped Ratchet fix up the Twins in Ratchet's Medbay.

"At least Optimus would only jump on you, like he did on Megatron."

"Silence! Don't mention that name- either of them! I am your leader now! And I won't stand for any insubordination!" There was a slithery crashing noise, obviously the patient's anger, and possibly movement had made it difficult for the doctor to help.

"Oops, no, sorry Lord Starscream."

A slight giggle escaped Mikaela as the noise got louder. She couldn't help it, it was like seeing someone in a difficult situation with the teacher at school almost. But her captor noticed.

"Don't laugh! I'm taking you to him! And he doesn't sound in a very good mood!"

The laughter died in her throat, and big tears came to her eyes. Would she ever see the Twins, Ratchet, Bumblebee, or more particularly, Sam, again?