AN: Sorry for the wait guys. Now you get a long chapter to make up for it! Thanks for the reviews X)

Two days had passed. That meant Miles had spent four days on the Autobot base. The second day, or night going into day, he had brought back Jazz, dealt with Sam, and met the soldiers. It was almost as eventful as the first day, finding out that Orion was actually a giant robot, one from outer space no less. The third day had been spent mostly with Ratchet, Sam, and the soldiers. Ratchet so he could be checked over, Sam to help kidnap him and keep him away from the Medic, and the soldiers needed to get to know him.

The fourth day had been the best, in his opinion. He'd spent a large part of it in Optimus' cab, just listening to the Prime talk. He found out why Bumblebee's vocalizer sometimes cut out or got staticky, how the war started, what Cybertron was like before the war, and more. It had been going perfectly until Ratchet had managed to find them, but the ensuing chase was almost worth how mad the Medic 'bot had been.

The past four days had been heaven. And now? Now Miles was back in Tranquility, having been personally escorted by Bumblebee. He got to ride in the back of the Scout with Sam, Will pretending to drive. This was of course the part the teen had been dreading most, having to face his parents after dropping contact like he had. At least Will would lie and say that Miles got involved in government business, instead of government business finding him on the run and getting involved with him.

Whether the whole Cybertronian thing would be explained to his parents, Miles wasn't sure. But he at least counted on the Captain to be civil to his father. He'd had a talk with the man, explained his feelings towards his father. It was a lot more open than Miles had ever wanted to be, not even Optimus had gotten the privilege of that particular talk, but it needed done. He didn't hate his father, couldn't begrudge him whatever anger he had towards his mother's affair and then him boing born, and his father could be downright decent most days, but… He didn't want a sibling born into that, didn't want his father's hate to feed off having a child of his own and grow worse. And he was almost 18; it was time to get out of there anyway.

That didn't mean he was going to be there when Will talked to his parents. He took the opportunity to grab his Mastiff and take him to the Witwicky household. Miles knew that his mother couldn't handle the large dog on a good day, and it would take some training to make sure the Mastiff could behave around a baby. Mason was a great dog, but he'd never been around a baby or kid before, and Miles knew his mother would worry otherwise. Sam could take care of the Mastiff, he'd done it before and Mason liked his friend.

Miles started the trek home, and soon realized the one thing he hadn't bothered to think about just as rain started to pour down. He'd ignored his mother's warning about the news, so he hadn't brought an umbrella with him. The teen groaned, with his luck he'd catch a cold and the shard wouldn't take care of it this time, so he'd be stuck in Ratchet's servos.

"Need a ride?" A voice rang out, and Miles looked to his left to see a police car.

"Yeah, that'd be great, dude." Miles didn't hesitate, unlike when it had been Optimus asking him to get inside. He went over and let himself in the back, smiling at the police officer in the front. "Thanks, it's really starting to pour. I live on 404 Crossbow Drive."

The officer started to drive, and Miles took out his phone to text Sam. His phone wasn't working, however, and that stumped Miles. He didn't think it had gotten too wet, nor had he dropped it, and it had been working fine when Will had him text Ironhide about something. The screen was on but it kept flickering, and he couldn't get a signal at all. He checked his Ipod to find the same result, which made no sense. Maybe they'd gotten more wet than he'd thought and he needed to put them in some rice.

The teen glanced up to gauge how close he was to his house, and realized that the police car wasn't heading toward his house at all. In fact, he was going the opposite direction, heading straight out of Tranquility.

"Dude, no, I'm the other way."

Silence.

"Sir?"

Still no response. The police man in front of him seemed to flicker for a moment, almost fading out of existence, before coming back. The teen stared in surprise, and then realized with growing dread that he probably shouldn't have gotten in the police cruiser. Phone and Ipod not working, a man who certainly didn't seem real, and what did that point to? Cybertronian. But all the ones he knew of were on base, or with Sam, so that meant this was one that Miles hadn't met yet. Which wasn't a good thing, because Optimus had only mentioned one other Cybertronian on Earth, and that was a Decepticon.

"You're Barricade, aren't you?" Miles kept his voice low, not even looking at the man as he asked the question, just looking in the rearview mirror. The only response he got was the holoform dissolving completely.

Miles knew that he could have tried to run, could have unbuckled and tried to open the door, but he also knew that the likelihood of that succeeding was slim to none. It was better if he cooperated; he'd learned that from his father. When someone was bigger and stronger it was best to listen to them and seem like you wanted to please them. It left you the opportunity to talk to them, and as often as that didn't work, it also left an opening for escape when whoever wasn't expecting it.

"Why am I here?"

Miles figured that two hours of being silent should have won him some questioning. If he was right, Barricade would be surprised that he hadn't asked a thousand and one questions already, and it would make the 'con curious, perhaps even receptive enough to answer. Or maybe the 'con would have been willing to talk right away, the teen honestly had no idea, but then again there was no way for him to be able to do, and it was safer to try to take the route that would anger Barricade the least.

"I sense the power of the Allspark in you, organic." Barricade's voice drifted out of the speakers in the front, and the Decepticon sounded tired. "I intend to find out why so I can access that energy."

"Oh, I can tell you why…" Miles hesitated, knowing it was best to be honest because if he was caught lying that'd be horrible, but the honesty might anger the 'con. "I don't think you'll be able to tap it, though."

"And why not?"

Miles stared at his hands, "It's inside of me. Through a stupid reason I really don't want to bother going into, I swallowed it. It's been in me for about two days now, and the Chief Medical Officer, Ra-"

"I know the Autobot Medic, fleshling." Barricade growled, "I guarantee that I know all of the ones you can list better than you do and more on top of them. Get to the point."

"Er, right, well, Ratchet's been scanning me continuously since the incident and the piece of the Allspark I swallowed hasn't moved at all, nor does it seem that I've started to digest it. It's just sitting there." Miles glanced up from his hands to the dash, reading the time that glowed on there.

"Then I guess I'll just have to cut it out of you."

Miles tried his hardest to not react to that. His father would have looked for a reaction, looked for fear in response to his words, and the Decepticon was probably fishing for it as well. Barricade wanted him to be scared, and so far Miles had been relatively calm. The teen knew that if he played his cards right he could come out of this mess relatively unscathed; he was smart enough to recognize that Barricade must want something if he was bothering to go after Miles. It would have been obvious that if Barricade could pick up the Allspark shard inside of the teen then the Autobot's would be able to do so as well, which meant that Miles would be protected and looked for.

"I wouldn't," Miles replied, trying to keep his voice neutral. "I was the one who brought back Jazz using the shard. It would not react to Ratchet or any of the Autobots, but the shard not only showed me how Jazz died but it led me to him and used me to bring him back. I think it can't react to Cybertronians anymore, at least not fully. So long on Earth being made to do what Sector Seven wanted… I think it changed the integrity of the Cube, or something. I can't think of any other reason it would react to a human and not any Cybertronian."

"Then I still would not need you. Any human off the street would do. The less they know the better."

"Why do you want the power, Barricade?" Miles got to the question that they'd both been waiting on. "Maybe I could help you."

"I owe a debt to someone, fleshling." Barricade stopped, but a glance out the tinted window revealed nothing to Miles by way of his location. There were tons of trees, and trees were abundant in every single direction going away from Tranquility. "We Cybertronians take our debts seriously, especially when somemech or femme saves our life."

"The shard brought back Jazz, it might be willing to bring back whoever it is you're wanting to be brought back." Miles said placatingly, seeing the Decepticon in a bit of a better light.

"I doubt it wants to bring Megatron back, but it might be coerced into doing so." Barricade vented, and Miles could feel a blast of cold air hitting him in the face, and coupled with the cold shock of fear from the Decepticon's words, he shivered. "If the shard has picked you as a conduit, I highly doubt it will want you suffering on it's account."

It hadn't taken long for Sam to figure out that something had happened to his friend to keep him at bay, and the teen had assumed it was the rain. He'd gone with Bumblebee to search for Miles to see if he'd taken shelter in any of the buildings on the way back from his house. Will, however, had tried to call Miles to no response, and when he'd asked Ironhide to locate the teen's cellphone signal the Weapons Specialist had been unable to, even with Jazz's help. That was a bad sign, one of the worst possible, because even with Miles' phone turned off they'd put a tracker in it, just like they'd done for Sam.

And that was why he had Bumblebee come with Sam and take them back to base, meeting up with Ironhide and finding the Prime. Will looked over at his Guardian, and then back at the Prime. "We have to tell him."

"Tell me what?" Optimus asked, an optic ridge raising. "What is causing all of you to act so oddly?"

"The boy's missing, Optimus." Ironhide said shortly, shifting out of his alt mode to stare his Prime in the face. "And I don't think he'd run again, do you?"

"There's no way for him to have scrambled his cellphone's signal, Optimus." Will added on, "Someone else has to be doing it. Someone good. Not even Glen can get a location on him that isn't bouncing all over the place."

"What does that mean?" Sam asked.

"It means that someone took him." Will sighed, "Sector Seven was disbanded a month after Mission City. We've gotten several angry anonymous emails from what we believe to be ex-members making threats, and if they picked up on Allspark energy coming off of Miles it would make sense that they'd try to use him as leverage. Outside of Sector Seven, there is only one known Decepticon on Earth that's alive. Barricade. And he was last reported just outside of Tranquility a few days after Mission City, after that he dropped off the radar."

"Y-you… You're bluffing." Miles swallowed hard, hands tightening into fists. He knew he was taking a leap here, but that didn't fit with Optimus' description of the leader of the Decepticons. Barricade wasn't important enough, as far as Miles knew, for Megatron to pay him any special attention.

"Tell me, fleshling…" Barricade drawled, drawing out what he wanted to say. Miles felt like the 'con was toying with him. "Just what makes you think I'm bluffing?"

"Megatron was the leader of the Decepticons. You're just a Scout, like Bumblebee. You two wouldn't have been that close, I doubt Megatron would care if you lost your life."

"Oh, but isn't the bumbling insect close to the Prime? Optimus would save him."

Miles hesitated at that, "Megatron… Megatron wasn't known for his kindness. It's reported that he and Starscream, his Second in Command, fought more than they got along. If he was going to be kind to anyone it would have been Starscream."

"Starscream would have killed Megatron if he could have gotten away with it; there was no love between the two of them. Megatron kept Starscream close because he was the Air Commander and a backstabbing traitorous pile of slag. My Lord and Soundwave, however, his Third in Command, got along famously."

"The Autobots would have known you were close to Megatron if you had been." Miles decided to take a leap now, ignoring the bit about Soundwave. He didn't recognize that designation, which meant he hadn't been told about Soundwave. "The Decepticons knew that Optimus and Bumblebee were close even so short a time after Bumblebee was found. That's why Megatron tore out his vocalizer in Tyger Pax, to get at Optimus. The Autobots would have found something like that out, used it against Megatron."

"Optimus would never allow them to."

"Optimus would never be allowed to know." Miles glared at the dash now, "Go ahead. Tell me I'm wrong. Is it Megatron you owe that debt to?"

Barricade started to laugh, and Miles blinked. He could feel the Decepticon's frame shaking, and… it just didn't make sense, why would the 'con be laughing? Barricade was toying with him! Miles scowled, if the 'con went to the length of kidnapping him he could at least have the decency to act like a kidnapper and just kill him and bury him or dump him in a lake somewhere after getting the piece of the Allspark out of him, not toy with him for entertainment purposes.

"I can't tell if you're an intelligent organic or you're just stupid enough to talk to me in such a manner." Barricade's laughter died down to a chuckle, "Either way, the only time I've picked up on you being scared is when I mentioned bringing Megatron back."

"Yes, well, from what I know of him…" Miles didn't really want to bother with going into detail about how his dream about Jazz had actually let him live the Saboteur's death, and that meant he'd gotten an up close and personal meeting with Megatron that he wished he could forget. That dream had been more than enough to tell him that the now dead 'con was bad news.

Barricade scoffed, "From what you know of him? You've been fed tales by the Autobots. Of course you'd be biased."

"It's not like you're offering any heartwarming tales about him," Miles pointed out, raising an eyebrow at his reflection in the rearview mirror. "And besides, you've given me nothing to be afraid of."

"I'm a Decepticon and I kidnapped you."

"You haven't done anything that Optimus didn't do."

"…the Prime kidnapped you?"

"How do you think I found out about the Autobots?"

"You're joking."

"I wish."

"Do tell." Barricade didn't hesitate in this command at all, and Miles had to fight off a grin. He knew his luck was going to run out at some point, but it didn't look like Barricade was going to be when it happened.

"It's actually very similar to how you picked me up," Miles said thoughtfully. "Except it was night, and I was on the highway a couple hours out of town. Optimus was out there driving and picked me up since it was raining, and for a reason I will never fully understand saw it fit to knock me out with some gas and take me back to the Autobot base. I mean, I know why he thought he was helping, protecting me from being on the run but not making me go on either, but seriously." Miles groaned a little, "And I still thought he was human, right? So I wake up in an unknown place with a fresh pair of clothes on and no idea how I got there. I'm freaking out, right? But I hear him outside arguing with Ratchet so I go to give him a piece of my mind and lo and behold giant fucking robot. After that the cat was out of the bag."

"I imagine that was quite a nice way to find out about my race."

"Oh, yeah, it was a great. Then after that I got to experience how Jazz died and be used to bring him back. Fun!"

Barricade vented by way of snorting, "What I want to know is what could possibly inspire the Prime to kidnap you?"

"Oh, that…" Miles had kept his secret for his entire life. No one outside of him and his father had known, and while his mother might have suspected, he highly doubted that. There were truly times when he and his father could get along fine, which is why the teen couldn't hate him. But now everyone was finding out after keeping it inside for so long. All of the Autobots knew, Sam and the soldiers knew. Miles didn't know how to handle it anymore; it had been easier when he had to deal with it alone.

"Ah." Barricade almost sounded understanding, "So when you said on the run you meant running away."

"Basically." Miles decided to change the topic, "But enough about me. It's not Megatron, so who is it that you want to bring back?"

"I don't actually want to bring anymech back." Miles tried hard not to gap at the amused tone the 'con was using. He had been toying with him, the jerk. "I want the power for my own."

"What for?"

"I'm dying."

Sam stared out of Bumblebee's windshield as they did their twentieth round of Tranquility. They got sidled with the job of searching for any signs of Barricade, black vehicles with men in suits, or finding anyone who might have last seen Miles. They'd gotten a few people who'd said they saw him taking a dog on a walk, but of course they already knew that Miles was dropping Mason off at Sam's house.

"You don't think he would have run, do you?" Sam asked, chewing on his bottom lip a bit.

"No, Sam, I agree with Will and Ironhide on this matter." Bumblebee replied without hesitation, "From what I've been told by the other 'bots Miles has grown accustomed to their presence quickly, and as he can live on base and still visit his family the situation would be the best one for him. Miles is smart, he wouldn't run from that."

"But that means someone has him, and that's bad, isn't it?" Sam rubbed at the steering wheel absentmindedly, "It's either Barricade, some old members of Sector Seven, or people we don't even know about!"

"I'm actually hoping it's Barricade. I don't think he'd kill Miles, not unless he was sure he could still retrieve the Allspark piece or it's energy."

"Oh, yeah, because he's safe with a Decepticon, Bee."

"Samuel, we both know about Sector Seven and what they used to do. We know what they did to me, how they used the Allspark to make mindless robots. We don't know what they're capable of, but I doubt they'll care much if Miles dies and they lose the Allspark energy. At least Barricade may use him as leverage against us, but there's no way he'd be stupid enough to let Miles die."

Sam stopped rubbing the Scout's steering wheel, frowning out the windshield. "Thanks for the pep talk, Bee. I feel loads better."

"Dying?" Miles echoed, not even holding back how surprised he was. Barricade growled, and Miles could almost feel the Decepticon's mood shifting from humoring to angry.

"Yes. Because of you organics." Barricade spat out the word organics like it was disgusting, "After Mission City I was recuperating from a fight with the Scout. A group of you organics came and cornered me, and pit if I know what they used but it didn't allow me to fight them much."

"What happened?"

"What happened? What do you think happened, fleshling?" Barricade chuckled bitterly, "They ran 'experiments' on me. They infected me with virus after virus to see how much my system could take before it gave out. I don't know how long I was with them, but those creatures won. I'm dying, my Spark is fading."

Miles didn't know what to say, he just stared at his own reflection in the rearview mirror, feeling bad for the Decepticon. The teen never got a chance to voice this as he felt himself sliding out of the 'con and hitting the ground hard on his ass, watching as Barricade shifted into his bipedal mode to tower over him. The Decepticon loomed over the teen, placing a clawed servo on either side of the smaller body, and snarled.

"Do you have any idea what it's like to be held captive by beings not only two sizes smaller than you but not nearly as strong and by all indications nowhere near as intelligent?! Do you know how embarrassing it is that pit-forsaken organics are the ones to be my downfall after all my years in the Decepticon army evading death like I was made for it?! And I have to do it alone! My partner is dead and I'm stuck here on this pit-forsaken Unicron blessed planet, surrounded by the disgusting organics who are killing me!"

"You don't have to be alone…" This was getting to the point where Miles was actually afraid, had reason to be, but he suspected that it pleased Barricade to some extent. "You could come with me to the Autobots. I'll take you right to their base and Ratchet's the best Medic, he could help you!"

Barricade leaned away from the teen in surprise, shuttering his optics in disbelief. "You think the Autodolts would accept me? And here I thought you were somewhat intelligent!"

"You're all Cybertronians, you're the same race! Before the war started it was the Golden Age and you all got along, Optimus told me about it! Megatron's dead, there doesn't need to be Decepticons and Autobots anymore. You won't have to be alone anymore. There will be mechs who understand you. We can help find the ones who did this to you, maybe if we find out what exactly they did, what they infected you with…"

"You're delusional." Barricade snarled in disgust, righting himself and taking a few steps away from the teen.

"You're not saying no."

"I-"

"Oh, come on." Miles smirked at the 'con, "Can you imagine their faceplates if you drive into base and I just step out of you like nothing odd happened? You could claim me for a Charge, or we could initiate the Treaty of Iacon. That would really throw them for a loop; Ironhide might just randomly combust on the spot. If you're dying at least live it up a little, dude."

Barricade shifted into his alt mode again, popping the driver's side door open for the teen. It was a relief to be out of bipedal mode, though Miles didn't need to know that. It was easier to maintain his alt mode without feeling tired then it was his bipedal one, but he was closer to stasis the longer he was in alt mode.

"Get in," the Decepticon ordered. "It's either death by organics or death by slagging Autodolts, and I chose Autodolts. At least I might be able to take one of them out with me, or die laughing."

Once they got close enough to the base Miles wasn't too surprised that they had a welcoming committee waiting for them. Barricade wasn't either, and the Decepticon slowed down accordingly to show he wasn't going to attack. It would have been useless for the 'con to attempt to be hostile at the moment anyway, what with Ironhide, Optimus, Jazz, and Ratchet battle ready. Bumblebee stood a little behind the four Autobots with Sam and the soldiers.

Barricade rolled to a stop a safe distance away from the Autobots, and Miles stepped out of the 'con, cheerfully waving at their audience. Barricade shifted into his bipedal form next to the teen, and then picked him up, making a show of carefully cradling him in his servos. Outside of the hum of the Autobot's weapons there was dead silence, and Miles had to be careful to make sure his smile didn't slide into a smirk.

"Miles and I get along quite well, and I'd like to take him as a Charge."

Barricade sounded downright pleasant, and the gob smacked expressions on Ironhide's, Ratchet's, and Optimus' faceplates were beautiful. Jazz was too good at his job to let his shock so through, visor down and flashing darkly in confusion, and Bumblebee warbled out his own confusion. Surprisingly enough it was Sam who raced forward past the leading line of Autobots and glared up at Barricade.

"You can't take him as a Charge! You can't even be here; we're going to ki-"

"We initiate the Treat of Iacon," Miles said calmly, cutting off Sam and finally letting himself smirk.

"Alright, who the slag told him about that?" Ironhide snarled, mad that he couldn't hurt the 'con right in front of him without breaking Autobot law. At least while Optimus was there.

Miles pointed at Optimus, and the Prime just gave an unamused look at his Weapons Specialist. "We were talking. It came up. Problem?"

"No, of course not, it's just-"

"Ironhide no smash, Ironhide angry?" Miles supplied helpfully.

"Exactly!" Ironhide agreed, and then did a double take. "Wait, no, you li-"

"You were right," Barricade said finally. "This was worth it. How have you Autodolts managed to survive?"

"Barricade." Optimus' tone brook no arguments, calling the Decepticon's direct attention even as Ironhide sulked over being interrupted again. "Why did you take Miles?"

"According to the organic I didn't do anything you haven't done yourself," Barricade stared at the Prime challengingly. "Less, since I haven't knocked him out."

"Yes, well, the situation called for it." Optimus replied easily, ignoring the way Miles scoffed. "Why are you here?"

"Where else do I have to go?"

:Verdict?: The Prime sent over his comm, opening a link to all of his 'bots without waiting. He tilted his helm to the side, as if that would better help him to size Barricade up.

:I don't like it.: Ironhide sent back immediately, his anger evident. :He's up to something.:

:His scans aren't good, Optimus. I don't register any active weapons, and his energy levels are severely low. Almost to a stasis level.: Ratchet looked at every mech with a Medic's optic as long as it wasn't in a battle situation, and not even Ironhide would go against him on that. The Weapons Specialist had done it once, the mech in question had died, and Ratchet had then proceeded to kick Ironhide's aft and lay him up in the Medbay with a broken hip strut. :Look at him, he's not ready for a fight at all. I don't think he could fight even if he wanted to.:

:I agree with Ratchet, Optimus.: Bumblebee added, and they all ignored Ironhide's grumble that followed it. :I've fought Barricade before, and unless he's learned and incorporated entirely new tactics, then this isn't him looking for a fight.:

:Ah think if Mahls is ahdoptin' 'im then we should welcome 'im!: All optics turned to Jazz immediately.

:WE ARE NOT ADOPTING A PIT-FORSAKEN DECEPTICON!:

Ironhide was firmly ignored by all of them, and Jazz continued, visor flashing with amusement. :Think about i'. Barricade ca' give us some info on the 'cons that we don' have! If he's on our side he's no' on their side, mah mechs. One less lahf lost, who knows how many saved? An' Ah thin' Ah trust Mahls judgment. 'E brought meh back. Ah at least owe 'im friendliness to a 'con Ah coul' kill in mah sleep.:

:The least we should do is make sure he can't contact the rest of the Decepticons, then.: Ironhide growled, and all optics shot to him in surprise. Two protests and he was done?

:Ironhide, what's your internal temperature?:

:I do not have a virus, Medic!: Ironhide glared at Ratchet, : The 'con is defenseless here. Even Bumblebee could take him easily enough, and we'll keep an optic on him. As much as I love kicking Decepticon aft… This war has been going on too long. We've all lost mechs, seen some go to the opposite side, killed some old friends. We've lost our planet. We've torn each other apart. I'm tired of it.:

They all were, but it was rare for any of them to admit it. It was dangerous for a mech to allow himself to become worn down by all that they'd been through, each of them had seen mechs who had just stopped living, who just couldn't deal with it anymore. Something had to change, and they all knew it. They couldn't continue on the way they had been since leaving their planet. They'd tear apart Earth, and most likely there'd come a time when none of them would be left. The Allspark was destroyed, and it's energy in a human. There was nothing to fight over anymore.

Bumblebee looked between all of them, :I guess we got ourselves a 'con then. Who wants to break the news?:

:You're kidding, right?: Ratchet asked humorlessly, :Miles already knows. I suspect Barricade does as well.:

:Either way, it is a courtesy, and we would do well to not give Barricade any reason to fear. As easily as we might find it to take him out there are still five organics here to consider.: Optimus sent, before closing his side of the link, his optics shifting back onto Barricade and Miles. "You're in."

Miles cheered, and Will came up to the group relatively unnoticed. He had stayed with Epps, Fig, and Sam in the cafeteria waiting for word, and when they hadn't heard any fighting, he'd wandered out to see if it was safe. It had to be, Ironhide would have picked him up immediately if it wasn't, but then again Barricade was right there, so how safe could it be? The Captain looked around a bit more, and then tapped Optimus on the ped, raising an eyebrow and indicating that he was waiting for an explanation.

"I believe you'll find some suitable way to inform Secretary Keller that Barricade will be staying with us, Captain." Optimus said pleasantly, "I have full faith in you on this matter."

The Captain stared at his Cybertronian counterpart in disbelief, but he was ignored as the Prime just plucked Miles out of Barricade's grasp, leaving the 'con open for Ratchet to attack and drag to his Medbay.

"Did Barricade truly do nothing to you?"

Miles glanced over at Optimus as the Prime's holoform entered his room, the teen sitting up on his inflatable mattress. The Prime had been courteous enough to allow him time alone to change, but the teen knew it wouldn't last long. He sat Indian style, allowing Optimus enough room to plop down beside him.

"Outside of a few minor scares he did nothing, boss 'bot." Miles grinned, brushing off the concern. "Ain't nothing to worry about."

"What you did today was extremely brave, Miles." The Prime stared at the teen, "We made a mistake in not watching you closer, and I apologize for it. You must have been scared."

Miles glanced at the holoform briefly, trying to find a clue as to what the Prime was searching for. He sighed, and leaned against Optimus. The teen knew the Prime wanted to comfort those in his ranks and rarely got the chance to, so he saw no harm in letting Optimus hold him. And after the day he'd just had he appreciated the touchy-feely a bit more than he would have liked, even though he felt like Will somehow needed this hug a bit more.