Ironhide brought Alana to her room along with Ratchet and together they began to pack for a long trip. Fortunately Alana had no questions for them as of now, but once they had started driving they were sure she was going have a lot. Ironhide and Ratchet had taken over the process of packing the essentials such as clothes, bath things and other such things, where as Alana had taken over the process of bringing what she thought was essentials. These essentials being LEGO and toys. It took them half an hour to pack and another half hour for them to convince Alana that she didn't need to bring her bed. Int eh end she settled for bringing her sheets and stuffy. During this time Sam had done a lot of packing as well and he greeted them in the hallway.

It seemed that everyone was ready to depart. Fireflight was in his alt. mode and it looked very cool to Alana , she rushed on over to the giant jet and tried to climb its smooth surface. She failed a few times and then sat down in a huff. Ironhide walked on over to the small girl carrying all her things.

"Alana…" he said sternly, he had no intention of letting her fly with Fireflight. "Come help" he gestured for her to follow him and she did as she was told. Ironhide then placed her things and some of Sam's things on the ground and transformed. The truck bed opened up and Alana got the drift that she was to begin loading the things into the back. She did as she was silently instructed with the help of Sam and soon they were ready to go.

Alana climbed into the back seat of Ironhide with her blanket and a few Lego sets. She then laid out her blanket and put the Lego sets on top of it. Once she was seated the seat belt made its way around her shoulders and down to her waist. She tugged at it and frowned.

"Safety" Ironhide reminded Alana. She stuck out her tongue which told him 'screw safety' but he would not let her go. Alana let out another huff but dealt with it all the same. The Autobots wasted no time in leaving their base and left for their new destination.

They had been driving for less than five minutes when Alana posed the first question.

"Where are we going?"

Ironhide let out a big mechanical sigh "to the town of –"

"Oh" Alana sat back. "Why?"

"Because that's where our new home is" Ironhide said, Ratchet could answer questions better than he could.

"Oh" she said again "Why is our home there?"

"because we need to protect the humans there" Ironhide said. He suddenly felt as if he were being interrogated, Alana could make a kick-ass police officer he thought.

"oh," she said once more, "Is it a big home?"

"Uh," Ironhide thought for a moment and then pulled up the blueprints for the next base, unknown to Alana they had yet to build the base. But in reference to her question it was true that the new base was to be digger than the one before. This was to accommodate new comers to earth.

"Yes it is a bigger home"

"Ok!" she seemed to be done with questions and was beginning to settle in.

Sam on the other hand was very restless, his parents had not been home when he had needed to leave so they were naturally clueless, and he was on his phone trying to call them. The of course had to make matters worse by not answering. In the end he got them on the phone and had to endure a hysterical mother and father yelling at him via the phone. Once he had hung up Sam was quite deaf in one ear but he felt better.

They drove on for quite a while, all were silent minding their own business focusing on getting to their destination. Alana played with her Lego while Sam searched videos on Bee's internet service. They had been driving for quite a while when Ironhide sensed a sudden strain in the background he let his eyes drift from the road to peek in the back. There he saw Alana gripping the bottoms of her shorts and crossing her legs. She had the a strange look on her face, her mouth was a tight line and her eyes were screwed shut.

Ironhide let out a laugh, his little girl was comical, quickly he opened up a com link between him and Optimus "Sir, I think we need a pit stop"

He heard Optimus sigh "Alright"

The Autobots pulled into a gas station and watched as Alana ran for the bathroom, naturally all were amused. Sam followed after her at a more leisurely pace, he had been smart and had gone before the trip, but still a pit stop couldn't hurt. Once they were done they exited the Gas station and walked on over to Optimus to everyone's surprise. Sam held out his hands in a begging fashion and Alana got down on her knees.

"Optimus I'm hungry!" Alana whined.

"Can we have some money for the food?" Sam asked.

Optimus was about to answer when Ratchet's Holoform stepped into sight. "I'll pay Optimus" the two humans cheered and raced back to the Gas station where there snacks and drinks waiting. Ratchet kept a hand on Alana's shoulder and steered her away from the chocolate bars but there was nothing stopping the small girl from getting a slushie. The swirling liquid was something that Alana could deny herself no more. She dragged Ratchet on over and looked over her shoulder and made eye contact. Ratchet knew immediately what she wanted and shook his head.

"Alana that stuff is not healthy for you" he was about to walk away when Alana gave him the eyes, they were big and were close to watering.

"But I WANT the slushie!" she practically shouted.

"Nut Alana you know that it's not good for you" Ratchet knelt down and took a hold of her shoulders.

"But it tastes good" Alana pouted "just this once?" she batted her eyelashes at him. "Pwease!"

Ratchet sighed "fine…" he muttered. Since Alana was too small to reach the slush machine she directed Ratchet in what flavors she wanted. In the end she had a swirling mass of orange brown and blue. Ratchet stared at it disgusted and was thankful he didn't have to drink it. Once Alana was holding her slushie they walked on over to the sandwiches and bought a few for her and Sam. Sam on the other hand had thought it wise to get candy and a root-beer. Ratchet looked at his selection of food and shook his head. "Your killing yourself" he told Sam.

Sam shrugged "death by candy is a death I wouldn't mind" Ratchet muttered but bought the food items anyways. Then once everyone was seated with their food and drinks did then the Autobots continue on their quest.

Fireflight was far ahead of the group and would get to the area the base was to built in, in a day. He was to start the construction while the ground based Autobots got there later on.

So as the convoy continued from the Gas station Alana sat in Ironhide's front seat and was preparing to enjoy her slushie. Of course being little she wanted to consume as much of it as possible in one big gulp, so she did just that and after a moment she was gripping her head in pain.

"ooooooohhhh" she moaned.

Ironhide laughed at her "Brain freeze!" he said in a sing song voice. Once she had recovered from that ordeal Alana tried once more to get as much of the drink down as possible and was once more rewarded with a brain freeze.

"Oooooooohhhh" she gripped her head and closed her eyes tight. This made Ironhide laugh once more. It took two tried for Alana to figure out that whenever she had that much of an intake of the slushie she was sure to get a brain freeze, so her child like mind went to work in trying to figure out a way to drink that much while not getting a brain freeze. In the end she came up with an idea. Ironhide was bored driving down the straight road so he took his eyes off the road to watch his girl.

She had placed down her slushie in the cup holder and was taking off her sweater. Then she wrapped the sweater around her head in a turban style, once she knew it was secure she swooped up the drink and took a big gulp.

"That's not going to work" Ironhide told her. Alana took a big gulp and stayed silent for a moment. "Wait, maybe it does wo-"

"Ooooohhhhhh" Alana moaned as a another brain freeze took over her.

"Never mind" Ironhide said, Alana could tell he was smiling. She continued to drink her slushie but this time in smaller sips.

They drove on into the night not stopping unless it was for human needs. They stopped at around one in the morning to allow the humans some sleep in a motel they had found. Alana and Sam shared a room and slept in the same bed, for there was nothing else available. Sam was eagle armed across the bed while Alana was curled up in her usual fashion at the bottom of the bed.