Five Days Later

Kitty winced as she pulled her new backpack onto her shoulders. Her body still ached from the what happened days earlier. Most of the bruising Kitty earned from her unwise defiance towards Megatron had faded. The few burns she gained from Megatron's final attack weren't too terrible but they did hurt. Those were still healing up. Though, Kitty found no reason to complain about them considering how severe Optimus' and Ironhide's injuries were. Kitty still felt bad about how badly hurt they were. Ironhide was seriously damaged for he used his body to protect Kitty from Megatron's plasma cannon. Kitty could remember how Optimus immediately ran over to Ironhide's fallen body and carried him to the medbay despite being hurt himself. Even with a crater in his side, Ironhide still managed to grumble profane things about the silver Decepticon. Kitty sobbed apologies to both Optimus and Ironhide as Ratchet and Wheeljack tended to them. Ironhide merely grinned at her and said, "I've had worse." Optimus, on the other hand, would simply try to apologize back to her. Ratchet had to tell all three of his patients to be quite countless of times. After stabilizing Ironhide, Wheeljack immediately tended to Kitty. After much quick research, he treated Kitty's burns as best he would and ordered her to rest.

Optimus allowed Kitty to skip school on the last three weekdays to recover, much to Kitty's relief. During the first couple days, Kitty spent almost all of her time with Optimus and Ironhide in the medbay. She ignored Ratchet's complaints about her being well enough to leave. On the third day, when Optimus was able to stand, the Prime decided that it was truly time to tell Kitty the full truth. Against both Wheeljack's and Ratchet's wishes, who thought that he should still be resting, Optimus took Kitty to the site where her parents had died. He told her everything about the day they had deceased. Kitty could tell how incredibly hard it was for Optimus to tell her all of this. So the least she could do was listen and take in all of what he said. As she did so, the young girl felt a deep pang of sadness and guilt for not remembering much about her parent, but, surprisingly enough, Kitty also felt grateful. Grateful for being alive and healthy. Grateful for having the Autobots, who took her into their base and loved her and protected her. When he finished telling her about her parents, Optimus apologized countless of times. Kitty was sure that if Optimus was able to, he would have been sobbing at that moment. The thought depressed her slightly. She calmly accepted his apology, knowing that all he truly wanted, even though she knew that Optimus had nothing to apologize for. Afterwards, the two were almost inseparable. Optimus would spend the nights holding the human in his hands as she slept, remembering how tiny she was just a few years ago.

Regardless of finding some sort of closure with her time with Optimus, Kitty still dreaded the fact that she had to go back to school. Ironhide, who also deemed himself well enough to leave the medbay much to medic's annoyance, suggested an idea. He shared his plan with Optimus, Bumblebee, and Jazz who all agreed to keep it secret from Kitty. After all, it was a surprise. With much whining and begging and promising, Bumblebee, astonishingly, managed to get Brawn and the twins in on the plan as well. Prowl, who thought the entire operation was a bad idea, tried to talk Optimus into forbidding it. He failed. That was why, on Monday morning, the twins, Brawn, Jazz, Bumblebee, and Ironhide waited in their vehicle modes out of view from Kitty as she slowly walked out of her personal quarters. She felt very anxious as she climbed into Optimus, who stood near the entrance/exit ramp of the base. Kitty also felt a bit upset that she didn't see her other Autobot friends in the morning at all. Optimus told her that they were preparing for a mission, which wasn't a complete lie. Without anymore delay, Optimus revved his engines and left the base. Kitty was completely unaware of the six other Autobots following not far behind.

It didn't take that long for Optimus to arrive into town. Traffic was surprisingly low that morning. By Kitty's request, Optimus dropped her off a block away so she could walk the rest of the way. He didn't try to talk her out of it. Instead he wished for her to have a good day. All the human could do was give the rig a small smile and tell him that she would try, then she walked away. Optimus waited for the others as he watched Kitty, anticipating the right time to make his move.

Kitty could already see her peers outside in front of the school Since the weather was nice, students had to wait outside until the bell rand. As Kitty came closer to the school building, she immediately saw Simon and his thugs. They sat together on the front steps. A twinge of dislike clenched at her heart. She absently clenched her jaw when Simon pointed at her and grinned. The bullies all casually strolled over to her. Kitty forced herself to stand her ground and keep calm.

"Hey, robot girl," Simon said, faking a friendly tone. "We haven't seen you around for a while. Did you glitch up or something?"

"Yeah. Did you go to the mechanic to get fixed up?" the second boy asked.

"How's that freaky robot family of yours doing?" the girl asked.

"They're fine," Kitty muttered, and quickly regretted speaking.

"Hey! She talked!" the girl exclaimed. "They programmed her to talk!"

"Go frag yourself," Kitty hissed. Her self control was dying fast.

"Frag!?" they yelled and laughed.

"What does that mean? Huh?" Simon asked between bursts of laughter.

"It means go screw yourself," Kitty snapped. The laughter immediately died down and Simon glared at her. Without hesitation, he shoved Kitty back.

"Don't talk to me like that, freak."

Suddenly, a chorus of honks filled the air along with familiar sounding engines. The loud delighted squeals and shouts from the other children mixed in as well.

"The Autobots!" one yelled.

"Look! There's Bumblebee!"

"Jazz!"

"Ooh! That's Optimus Prime!"

"Sides and Sunny!"

Confused, Kitty turned to see the Autobots standing in their robot forms. She was stunned to see them all, especially Brawn and the twins. She couldn't completely process what was going on.

"What...why are you guys here?" Kitty asked, astonished.

"We just wanted to make sure you were alright," Bumblebee said and knelt down to greet the other children.

"Yeah. We wanted you to have a great day today," Jazz stated mildly.

"Ya know, without any name callin'," said Ironhide, who looked directly at the bullies.

"And without any pushing or shoving," Sideswipe added in. He grinned at the little tormenters, making them step back uneasily.

"Or throwing things, like say milk," Sunstreaker finished, his optics on the girl bully. She let out a tiny squeak and shrank back behind Simon, who gulped.

"Because, we don't want you to get upset," Optimus said gently to Kitty, pointedly avoiding acknowledging her bullies.

"'Cause if you get upset," Brawn said, crackling his knuckle struts. "We all get upset." All the Autobots were staring at the bullies now, their expressions non too friendly.

"So I suggest that if anyone of you children have been harassing our little Katherine, your should apologize. Now," the Prime said sharply. The bullies stuttered many apologies as they stared wide-eyed at the Autobots. Kitty watched as they backed away from her until they were almost completely against the doors of the school building. It was clear that they were not going to go near Kitty for a very long time.

"Just remember, darlin'," Ironhide said smugly, bringing Kitty's attention back to the Autobots. "Yerr freaky robot family is always here for ya."

"Thank you," Kitty said weakly, still in shock over the entire situation. Optimus carefully rested on one knee and reached over the many tiny children's heads to Kitty. The Prime's little human snagged onto his fingers and pressed herself against them as hard as she could, not caring about how much her body ached. "Thank you so much...daddy," she whispered. Optimus smiled brightly under his mask.

The school bell suddenly rang, making everyone jump. The young humans, disappointed that they wouldn't be able to spend any more time with the Autobots, scattered, grabbing backpacks and lunches before hurrying inside. Kitty held onto Optimus for a moment longer before letting go. She gave her Autobot family a huge smile as she said her quick goodbyes and hastily went inside, eager for a new day. Optimus stared at the door Kitty disappeared behind, feeling incredibly happy and relieved. He felt a sharp nudge at his arm then realized that Ironhide was elbowing him. There was a pleased grin on the older mech's face.

"I told ya that we wouldn't hurt those punks. Just scarin' em."

All Optimus could do was laugh.