Once again I am offering my sincere thanks for the wonderful reviews and helpful suggestions on this story. What started out as a fun exercise to see if I could come up with something interesting for this fandom has turned into a delightful project. While emphasis, by necessity, will be on Jack and Arcee, the other characters will be utilized and explored. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Gregg.
Disclaimer: I don't own, or profit from, these characters or franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
"So how you holding up?" Agent Bill Fowler asked Jack as he took a seat across from him, nodding politely at the kids Mom, June.
Jack shrugged, and then looked pensive. "I feel like everything I do is under a magnifying glass," he told the man he'd come to like and respect. Fowler could be a real hard ass at times, but the man knew his stuff and was loyal to a fault. "Leadership is nothing like I thought it would be," he remarked and took a bite of his lasagna.
"Welcome to the real world," Fowler laughed mirthlessly. "You get none of the credit when you're right, but all the blame when you're wrong. It comes with the territory."
"But I was good at being just a partner and sidekick," Jack took the opportunity to vent. "I could take rides with Arcee, joke around, and at the end of the day feel like I'd done something important. Now I know it was all me deluding myself."
"Jack!" June Darby said firmly, about to correct him about his worth before all this came about. She'd had a number of talks with Ratchet and Optimus about her son, and he was most certainly not deluding himself. The Autobots respected him, and all three of the kids, a great deal.
"Let me handle this one, June," Fowler suggested. He leaned back and regarded the young man. He'd been expecting this for a little while now, and was glad that Jack was venting in a positive way. "Maybe you're right, Jack. Maybe you were deluding yourself, but not in the way you think. The bots sure don't think you were nothing. But you probably did over inflate in your head what you were doing. But guess what? We all do that. It's called being human. It's how we learn, and believe me, leadership is learned. All that stuff about natural born leaders is a bunch of bull. You have the sense and ability to adapt, and that's the innate part of being a leader. The rest comes with education and practice. Your education is what the bots are doing. The practice for you is on the job training."
"But what if I screw up?" Jack asked, now glad he'd answered the original question truthfully.
"Then we regroup and kick some 'Con butt the next time," Fowler told him confidently. "No one's perfect. Even Prime wasn't. Or isn't." He looked a little confused about how to refer to Prime. "The point is, Jack, you may know what a leader is, but how to be a leader requires you to actually be a leader. There's an awesome line in Star Trek II when Kirk tells some Ensign we learn by doing. Guess what? You're at the doing stage."
Fowler and June let Jack finish his meal in peace now that Jack had something to think about. When Jack was finished he stood up and looked at Fowler.
"Thanks Agent Fowler," he told him.
"Anytime, Jack," Fowler told him and watched him walking off. He looked at June. "He'll be alright."
"I don't know if I'm ready to see him so grown up," June admitted. "But thank you for helping him."
"That's what friends are for," Fowler replied honestly.
Miko, meanwhile, was trying to avoid her parents and host parents. The fear and paranoia from them had died down in the last couple of weeks, but it still felt like they were trying to be like Jack's Mom had been at the start. In other words she felt like she was being smothered and she didn't like it. She smiled widely when she saw Bulkhead coming around the corner down the corridor.
"Hey, Bulk!" she said happily. She ran over to him and loved it when he reached down, picked her up, and sat her down on her perch on his shoulder.
"I thought you were having dinner with your parents?" Bulkhead questioned, rotating his head just enough to let his optics focus on her. He had to admit he was glad to see her as they'd all been so busy the last couple of weeks that they hadn't had much time together. She was his best friend, after all.
"Ugh!" Miko groaned. "I'm so sick of them being here!"
"Miko," Bulkhead said in that patient, yet exasperated tone he had for her when he was concerned. "They're your parents. And I know that they're just concerned about you. Your host parents, too. Cut them some slack."
"I know, Bulk, but things were just fine before they had to be let in on the secret," she whined just a bit.
"I know that, and you know that, but have you given them any reason to know that?" Bulkhead questioned. He may be just a tough old Wrecker, but he was perceptive. Especially when it came to Miko.
"No," she admitted reluctantly. "I guess maybe I should spend time with them like Raf is with his parents. They seem to really like Bumblebee, and accept the whole thing."
"Your parents and host parents will come around," Bulkhead told her. "Just give them a chance."
"Okay," she sighed. He was right. She should be a little more fair to her parents. "Bulkhead?" she asked, finally having the courage to ask what had been on her mind ever since he'd returned from fighting Unicron.
"Yeah?" he asked, hearing the small, fearful little girl coming through for one of the very few times since he'd met her.
"What if we can't get Optimus back?" she asked. Prime was the only one who could take on Megatron and hope to come out on top. Her biggest fear was finding out that Bulkhead had fought the leader of the 'Cons and been killed.
"I don't know, Miko," he replied as he walked them into the main control room where Ratchet was working on some equipment as always. "I really don't know."
"That's what I was afraid of," Miko sighed, for once not caring if anyone knew she was afraid.
Arcee had given enough time for everyone to eat their dinner and then sought out June Darby. She didn't have much time as she was going to be going for a ride with Jack, but she wanted to talk to June beforehand. She found her in the med lab.
"Hi, June," she said. As she came over and sat down on the floor so she would be more at a level with the human woman.
"Hi, Arcee," June said with a smile. Despite her worries over Jack, she trusted Arcee and knew she would always protect Jack to the utmost.
"I wanted to see how you were doing," Arcee said after a moment. "This whole change in everyone's situation can't be easy."
June sighed and sat down on a human sized chair that ratchet had reluctantly allowed to be placed in his med lab for her use. She had a feeling the prickly medibot cared more than he would ever admit.
"Honestly?" she asked rhetorically. "I'm petrified. Jack is my son and now he's one half of the leadership of a group of alien robots fighting a war? I was worried enough when it was just him being your partner and going on easy missions, but this?"
"I'm worried, too, June," Arcee assured her. "Jack means a very great deal to me. I don't even know how to describe how much he means to me. The thought of him getting killed in this war scares me more than almost anything has in my entire existence."
June cocked her head and looked at the female Cybertronian. "You love him, don't you?" she asked. She was hardly surprised at the sudden insight she had, but at the same time was having a difficult time accepting it. Talk about an odd pairing! A human and a robot?
Arcee stared at June for a long time before finally answering. "I believe so," she finally admitted. "It's different with Cybertronians, aside from the physical aspects. We partner for life, and then stay loyal when one goes offline and becomes One With The All Spark, as we say. I've never had such a partnership, though I came close with Cliffjumper. I have the right feelings for Jack, but the incredibly short life spans that you humans have worries me. I will likely outlive Jack by a few millenia if not longer, if I survive the war. I'm not sure I'm strong enough to go for that long without him if we decided to form such a partnership."
June actually felt for her. The idea of losing the one you love and then being along for millenia was a horrifying idea from a human perspective. "I understand, but it is also a terrible ordeal to never know such a partnership, and also to live with the regret of knowing what you let pass you by," she said understandingly. "I can't say I'm entirely okay with the idea, but Jack has shown me that he is a responsible young man, and not just a teenager with a lot of growing left to do. I say talk with Jack. You two deserve to at least discuss it and see how each of you feels."
Arcee gave her a smile. "A lot of this needs to wait until we get Optimus back, but we will talk," she told her. She stood up. "June, if you need anything, or just want to talk, I am willing."
June smiled. "Thanks, Arcee," she told the female Autobot.
Jack was talking with Ratchet when Arcee came up to him in the main control room. He'd arranged for an energon signature block for Arcee while they were out on their ride.
"It will only last for two hours, so be careful when you hit mid line," Ratchet told Arcee once he explained what they had been talking about.
"Got it," Arcee told him. She looked down at Jack and smiled. "Ready, Hot Shot?"
"Always," Jack grinned and pulled on his helmet. "Let's burn some rubber!"
Arcee transformed and when Jack was on her she took off down the exit tunnel.
A/N: I am slowly integrating other characters into the story and adding the minor themes as we go. I enjoy character driven stories with dialogue, so this one may seem slow at times, but it will pick up when we get to finding out more about the Key. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Gregg.
