I finally got around to updating this story. This chapter was a pain in the you-know-where, but I hope you enjoy it. Thanks to everyone who's been reading and reviewing by the way, I still love you guys for doing it. xD

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Invisible Heart

Her eyes fluttered open and the usual morning fogginess that covered her eyes wasn't there. Startled, Mercy sat up quickly. Thinking something was wrong, she looked her body over only to see a little color had returned to her skin, she wasn't sore and achy, she didn't feel heavy and useless…was she normal? There wasn't any whiplash from sitting up too quickly, she wasn't lightheaded and dizzy, she felt like she was at her full health, all one-hundred percent. She felt whole and complete like she had before Megatron had left, before she had come down with the virus. Maybe it was gone…maybe she was healthy again; maybe she could finally go home.

Glancing over at Megatron, Mercy saw that he was still sleeping and, not having the heart to wake him, she got up from the bed, grabbed her normal clothes, and went into the bathroom to take a shower and get dressed. Once inside, she closed the door but didn't bother to lock it. Stripping out of the hideous hospital gown, she crumpled it up and tossed it across the bathroom into one of the far corners. There was no way she was going to put it back on. They'd have to strip her and put it back on her, but there was no way she was putting that rag on again of her own volition.

Stepping over to the shower, Mercy pulled back the curtain and turned on the water. Once it was warm enough, she stepped into the shower and pulled the curtain back so that if anyone came in, they wouldn't be able to see her. The shower was invigorating; Mercy felt as if she were washing away the remnants of her sickness. She massaged the shampoo through her hair, rinsed it out, and then repeated the process with the conditioner. After that, she used a bar of soap and cleaned her body off, feeling even better now then when she had first stepped into the shower. When she was completely cleaned and all the soap rinsed off of her, she turned the shower off and reached outside the curtain to grab a towel. Once she had it, she dried herself off the best that she could and then wrapped the towel around her torso.

Getting out of the shower, Mercy went over to the sink and mirror where there was a hairdryer. Using that, she dried her hair thoroughly and then turned the hair dryer off and put it away. The hospital had given her a brush, and using that, Mercy combed through the tangles of her wild mane. She wasn't sure why guys were attracted to women with longer hair, but she hated brushing hers. It was always a painful waste of time and she wanted to get it cut. Her hair went a few inches below her buttocks, and she wanted about two feet of hair taken off. She wasn't sure whether or not Megatron would approve of that, but she wouldn't ask him. The moment she got the opportunity to have her hair cut, she was having it cut, regardless of what he thought.

Once she had finished brushing it, Mercy immediately went for her clothes. She shed the towel from her body and slipped into her clothes without delay. The feeling of her jeans hugging her legs, the feeling of her shirt embracing her torso…it was so good. The socks on her feet…her bra…everything was in its ordered place.

Mercy hung up the towels to dry and then went over to the door. She opened it only to nearly jump out of her skin. Megatron was standing directly on the other side of the door, his form taking up the doorway and he was leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. There was a frown on his lips, but a cruel smile in his fixed stare.

"What do you think you're doing, dearest?" he asked condescendingly.

She crossed her arms, "I was showering and getting dressed."

"You know you can't be in those clothes."

"They're my clothes, I decide when I can or can't wear them," she said and then added, "Besides, I'm not sick anymore."

At this, Megatron automatically reached out and held his hand to her forehead for a few brief moments. Eventually he took his hand away and said, "Perhaps we should get one of the nurses to confirm this."

"Can't you just take me to Cybertron now?"

"I'd love to, but I want to make sure you're okay first."

She sighed heavily before trying to walk by him. He uncrossed his arms and held one out across the doorway, catching her by the waist as she tried to walk by. Using that one arm, he crushed her against his torso so that her back was to his front. He held her there, left arm latched around her waist and left hand exploring the areas of her body that it could. With his free hand, he tucked Mercy's hair behind her ear, exposing her neck. He pressed his lips to her soft, pale skin and grinned when he heard her stifle a breath. Hi kissed his way up to where her neck met her jaw and then stopped.

"Tell me you love me," he breathed as he turned her face to his.

"I love you," she exhaled softly as his lips graced against hers.

Megatron swallowed her words and then devoured her lips in a compassionate kiss. He didn't pull away until his heart was satisfied and then turned Mercy to face him. "Now," spoke the Decepticon leader, "You get back in that bed."

Mercy grumbled something under her breath but did as Megatron said and went back to the bed. Megatron resumed his seat in the chair and looked at her. "What time does the nurse come in?"

The girl glanced over to the clock and answered, "Anytime now."

And, as if on cue, a nurse walked into the room. It was Cindy again and Mercy looked relieved to see her. Megatron had also noticed that this nurse was the only one that Mercy addressed by her name. Cindy, however, looked a little startled to see Mercy in her normal, everyday clothes.

"Who told you that you could put your clothes on Mercy?" Cindy asked as she took out a thermometer.

"Why can't I? I'm not sick anymore."

"Really? Do you feel better?"

"A ton better," Mercy replied.

Cindy proceeded to take Mercy's temperature and was stunned, "Well, your fever has finally broke. I'm guessing you've been up and about. Thor, have you helped her walk at all?"

"She's walking by herself," Megatron responded surprised that the nurse knew his fake name.

Cindy took a paper out of the manila folder and wrote down Mercy's temperature and that she was walking again on her own, unassisted. The bandage had long since been removed from her ankle and if she was really feeling better…

"I'll go speak to Dr. Brown. If you're not sick anymore, there's no need for you to be stuck, cooped up here," Cindy stated.

Mercy and Megatron exchanged glances. "Alright," Mercy said and watched as Cindy left the room.

It wasn't long after Cindy left that Dr. Brown walked into the room, carrying the same manila folder that Cindy and the rest of the nurses had been carrying around. He smiled as he walked in and said, "Well Mercy, I'm glad to see that you're feeling better. You look a lot better too."

Megatron felt a twinge of jealously strike him when he heard Dr. Brown comment on Mercy's appearance. He grumbled lowly so that no one heard.

"Well, there are a couple more people that want to see you today," Dr. Brown continued, "So, one more day of bed rest and if your fever is still gone in the morning tomorrow, we'll let you go home."

Mercy grinned emphatically, "Really?"

Dr. Brown nodded, "I see no reason why you can't go home. You just have to take it easy, no school for another week until you're fully recuperated. Then you should be fine. I'm glad you came out of everything okay Mercy."

"Did you think that…I wasn't going to make it?"

"There were a couple times…but that's in the past now. You're okay and you're going to be okay."

Megatron suppressed a growl. Mercy almost died while he was gone, and not just once…he wasn't sure the exact number of times but Dr. Brown had said a couple. He couldn't stand the thought of her dying on him, he was angered and guilty all at once, but his guilt overcame the anger. He had to atone for his actions, for leaving her behind when she needed him the most, when he needed her the most. The last week or so had been so awful…but now…the present, this was so much better.

"Dr. Brown," Mercy started to stay and then hesitated.

Megatron knew she was going to say something about the money the court had given her. Dr. Brown looked to her and asked, "Yes?"

"…Who…is coming to see me today?"

"I think they're here. I'll show them in and let them introduce themselves."

Mercy nodded and Dr. Brown left the room. Megatron watched as the doctor left and then looked to Mercy and said, "I thought you were going to say something about the money."

"I was…" the girl confessed, "But I changed my mind."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I'll tell you later," she said just as a man and a woman walked into the room.

The man was tall and appeared to be in his late thirties or early forties. He was well poised, had glasses, and dark brown hair. His glasses were thin and accented his blue eyes. The woman had black hair and green eyes. She was young too, about the same age as the man. She had a petite figure and was on the short side.

Mercy felt a lump snag in her throat and she choked out, "Are you…Brenna's parents?"

The mother smiled in a friendly way and nodded, "We are." And she cast a cautious gaze over to Megatron.

Mercy followed her gaze and looked to Megatron saying, "Thor…could you leave for a few minutes?"

Megatron looked to Mercy dumbfounded before he sighed heavily and complied, "Alright." He then got up from the chair and left the room, shutting the door behind him.

"I'm guessing that's the boyfriend," Mr. Meyers said as he watched the door close.

The girl blushed, "Um…yeah…we're kind of crazy about each other." And her blush intensified.

"That's alright, Daphne and I were young when we got married," Mr. Meyers remarked gesturing to his wife.

"Oh come now Peter, I'm sure these two aren't ready to get married yet."

Peter shrugged and then Daphne sighed as she walked over to the chair Megatron had been sitting in and sat down. "Have you seen the news?" she asked finally, getting to the point.

"I have," Mercy replied.

"Is it true what your parents say then? That you really want to go back and try again?"

"Absolutely not, they're just after my money; they've always been more concerned about the money than me."

Peter came and sat down in the chair next to his wife. His wife spoke, "Mercy dear…we certainly don't mean to intrude, but we know that you're still a minor and you need parental custody…and we want to adopt you. Not to replace Brenna, but we feel we owe so much to you."

Mercy shook her head, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "No, no you've already given me the greatest friend I could've ever asked for. I did what I had to do to bring her stalker to justice. You don't owe me anything."

"Mercy, you were chased out of this state for something that wasn't your fault, you were kidnapped and maltreated…we owe so, so, so much to you. We want to try and be your parents, we want you to be loved by a mother and father again," Peter said.

As hard as she tried, Mercy couldn't blink back the tears, "No…I can't have you guys do that. It's too much."

"It's alright Mercy, we want to."

"But I…I don't know if it'll work. I'm very touched by this, indeed I am, but I don't know if I could ever feel like I belonged because of all the things I had to go through these last couple of months," Mercy explained, hating herself for saying that.

"We understand that it would be difficult to adjust to at first, but we want to help you so badly Mercy, we feel so much gratitude and guilt. You were able to bring our daughter's killer to justice, even though you were terribly, terribly victimized by him," Daphne exclaimed.

"Think about it Mercy. We don't need a decision right now. Please, just promise us you'll sleep on it," Peter added.

Mercy nodded her head, "I will."

"Thank you," Peter said nodding, "Dr. Brown informed us that you may be released tomorrow morning. It's good to know that you're feeling better."

Mercy smiled, "Yeah, I'm glad to be feeling like my normal self again."

Mrs. Meyers nodded, "Well, we'll get going and let you get some rest. We just wanted to see how you were doing and let you in on our standpoint."

"Thank you," Mercy said. She bade them both goodbye and waited for Megatron to come back into the room.

Megatron became bored the instant he had left Mercy's room and closed the door behind him. He didn't want to stand in the hallway gazing about the various rooms where other disgusting patients were being treated. Instead, for the first time in a couple of days, he headed out of the hospital to check on his vehicle form to make sure it was still in one piece. He was pretty certain that it was, but he could never be too careful.

Once in the lobby, he went to the automatic doors where he walked out of the hospital and into the parking lot. He noticed reporters in the parking lot, obviously trying to get whatever news they could on his beloved. Megatron growled. He hated the paparazzi, especially the human paparazzi. They were never good for anything except causing problems and starting unnecessary rumors.

When he made it to his vehicle form, he saw that it was fine. That didn't stop him from inspecting it down to the last detail though. There wasn't even a scratch on it, so it was alright. He turned to go back into the hospital but almost crashed head on into one of the unnerving reporters.

"Oh, pardon me," the reporter spoke, "Were you headed back inside the hospital?"

"Yes," Megatron replied with a slight hiss.

"Have you seen Mercy LeCroix at all?"

Megatron frowned, "I have…but—

"May I have your name? And how did you see her? What did she look like?"

Out of the corner of his eye Megatron saw more reporters starting to make their ways towards him. "All of that is classified information," the Decepticon leader retorted and turned to walk away when he almost ran face first into another reporter.

"What is your relation to her? Are you a friend, brother, cousin…boyfriend?"

Megatron growled and turned to the mob of reporters that was gathered around, "Alright, I'll answer two questions, but that's it."

"What's your name?" called one reporter.

"Thor Collins."

"Are you Mercy's boyfriend?" asked another.

"…Yes." And with that, he turned on heel and went back inside the hospital, leaving the reporters in the dirty parking lot. As Megatron walked back to Mercy's room, he figured that he shouldn't have said anything about his relationship with Mercy to the reporters, but it wouldn't matter anyway. He and Mercy were leaving tomorrow, as soon as they got the chance.

He passed Brenna's parents in the hallway, they nodded to him and he reluctantly nodded back. The Decepticon leader despised acknowledging humans, but this was only temporary. He would be going back to Cybertron so soon. After he walked past Brenna's parents, Megatron rounded a corner and went straight to Mercy's room. He opened the door, walked in, and closed the door behind him.

Mercy looked over at him, "Where've you been?"

"I went to go see if my vehicle form was still functioning properly," he responded as he walked back over to the chairs, "What did Brenna's parents want?"

"They were just making sure I was alright."

"Did they say anything about the adoption?"

"Yeah…they wanted to justify their actions. I already like them a lot better than my biological parents and I hardly even know these guys."

"You're not going with them are you?"

"No, I already said I'm going with you…" she trailed off and then asked, "Are we…eloping kind of?"

"Eloping?"

Her cheeks flushed slightly, "Well uh…never mind."

"Tell me Mercy."

"Well…um, I was just going to ask if we were to get uh…married if I would have to change my name."

"Change your name?"

"It's part of the custom here on Earth. When a woman gets married, she has the option to take the same name as her husband."

"What do you mean?"

"Okay well, you're Thor Collins…supposedly anyways. If I were to marry you, I could change my last name, LeCroix, to Collins."

"I see," he remarked rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "That's an interesting concept, but I don't think it would work in our case…if you were getting married to Optimus Prime then it might since he has two names, but I don't." And then he hated himself for mentioning her getting married to Optimus.

"I don't plan on marrying him," Mercy replied.

"Wise answer."

After a brief period of silence, Mercy sighed suddenly and hugged her knees to her chest. Megatron looked her over for a moment before he asked, "Something wrong?"

"This is all too much…" she confessed, tears shimmering in her eyes.

A stab of panic went through his heart, "What is?"

"This whole thing with my parents and Brenna's parents," she said. Even though she had talked about marriage, this whole ordeal had not left her mind.

Megatron sighed relieved, "Don't worry about it."

She squeezed her eyes closed, "I don't want to go through this…I've been through enough already."

The Decepticon leader got up, lifted her in his arms, and then sat back down in the chair with her on his lap. "Calm down," he breathed, holding her tightly against him, "I'm taking you away from all of this."

Mercy rested her head against his shoulder and found herself looking down over his torso. She could see his muscles through his charcoal shirt; she knew he was so strong. The girl placed a hand on his chest directly over his heart…she could feel it beating and pulsing beneath her palm. Mercy wrapped an arm around the small of his back, even though it was a little difficult to wedge her arm between him and the back of the chair, but she managed to. Then slowly, with her other hand, she traced it down his torso until she reached his waistline. The girl hesitated a moment before she slid her hand under his thin shirt. His muscles immediately tensed under her touch, but they soon relaxed. Mercy teased her hand over his abdomen, counting his abs as she slowly moved her hand upwards. His shirt went upwards as her hand went up.

And his abdomen was flawless. It was warm, soft, muscular, hairless, smooth, and as she slid her hand up the rest of his torso to his pectoral muscles, she realized his whole midsection was like that. When her hand reached his chest, Megatron's shirt was exposing his abdomen and Mercy gazed briefly at his handsome abs. Megatron reached down and pulled his shirt over her arm, as if trying to trap her hand inside. She felt the Decepticon insignia branded valiantly on his chest over his heart, and she traced it with her fingers. Then slowly, using her index finger, she drew an invisible heart directly over his heart and breathed in his ear, "I love you."

Megatron tilted her face to his and kissed her forcefully. Mercy went to remove her hand from underneath the Decepticon leader's shirt, but he grasped her hand tightly, preventing her from moving it anywhere. She could feel his heart pounding and fluttering in his chest from both the excitement of the kiss and from her touch, and when the kiss was through, she didn't remove her hand until his heart had calmed down to its normal rhythm.

Slowly, she slid her hand out from underneath his shirt and down to his thigh. She never had really touched his legs before, so, in a bit of a teasing manner, she glided her hand across his thigh. The crotch of his black jeans bulged suddenly and Mercy's eyes widened as she quickly removed her hand from his thigh.

"Mercy," he growled, squeezing his eyes shut as he tried to fight away his arousal. Saying her name didn't help his cause any though.

"Sorry," she whispered, still surprised by what her small touch had done. It was both flattering and humiliating.

Her smell, her taste that still lingered on his lips, the heat radiating off her body, her touch, her voice…all were making his senses go crazy and making his arousal even worse. "Mercy you need to get up."

Quickly, the girl got up from his lap and went back over to the bed where she sat and watched him for a minute, his eyes closed, his jaw fixed. She peeled her eyes away from him and turned her back to him, she felt the need to give him privacy and she felt rude staring at him. After a few minutes, he came up from behind and wrapped his arms her. Megatron kissed the top of her head and was about to say something when Mercy spoke first. "Sorry about that," she said.

"Don't worry about it," he breathed.

"If you've wanted me…like that…why haven't you said anything?"

"You're not ready and don't you dare tell me that you are."

She smiled, feeling relieved that he understood that. But then he warned her, "I may get lost in the moment though. It's up to you to tell me if I'm going too far."

"That's fair enough. I just know where not to touch you now."

He smiled, "Get some rest Mercy, that way I can take you home tomorrow." And he settled her onto the bed, giving her a quick kiss before going back over to the chair.

Mercy closed her eyes smiling. "Home…" she thought, "I can't wait to go home."

Yeah the ending to this chapter kind of sucks, but I needed to end it...until the next chapter, please review! Thankies.