Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. If I did, I'd have a way cooler mode of transportation.
A/N: so, here's the point: I'm leaving for college tomorrow and will be stressed enough without self-bashing due to the low review rate of this fic. If you want it to stay up and keep going, I'm going to need some feedback.
Chapter 2: Of Moving Caravans and Difficult Decisions
It had been a long day at the Autobot's base, and Optimus Prime left the control room with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. Two more signals had been detected en route to Earth. Over the past year there had been several new additions to the growing Autobot hub. Prowl had come first, always prompt to answer his leader's call, and the twins had followed in his wake. Others had come as well, some settling down with a specific human clan, as Bumblebee and Ironhide had elected, and some staying with their compatriots. There were, of course, still plenty who had chosen to remain in the base and cause Prowl more than enough trouble to keep him occupied. Optimus wondered where the new arrivals would wind up in their new home.
Pausing in his march down the hallway, the massive leader turned his head towards the tempting noises coming from the rec room. A bit of energon would be more than welcome, and some friendly conversation wouldn't be out of place, either. He decided that his berth could wait an hour or two, and swivelled instead towards the open doorway.
Optimus was not the only one, it seemed, who had taken to the laid-back relaxation of the rec room to undo the day's knots. Among the mechs gathered there, he spied Bumblebee and Jazz speaking eagerly together over portions of energon. Although he spent most of his time with Witwicky, Bee did enjoy swinging by the base from time to time, and there were few things that gave him more pleasure than conversing with Jazz, who had only recently been cleared by Ratchet to leave the medbay. The silver mech's recovery and resuscitation were nothing short of miraculous, but by now that word just meant that another event was added to Ratchet's growing list of contributions.
But while he would have liked to sit and talk with a few of his mechs, Optimus had the sneaking suspicion that most would be unable to truly relax with him sitting just across the table. Bee and Jazz wouldn't have had that problem, but he had no wish to disturb them, so he scanned the crowd for another possible companion. His eye landed on Captain Lennox, presently the only human in the crowd of bipedal machines. The man was glued to the papers spread out in front of him, and he didn't even realize he had company until Optimus was folding himself down into one of the chairs set next to the raised human eating area. The area had been cleverly devised by Wheeljack, who had arrived shortly after Prowl, in order to keep the humans from getting underfoot in the often rambunctious rec room... literally.
"Good evening, Will."
The man started at the unexpected voice, looking up a little sheepishly and trying to shuffle the papers out of sight. Optimus chuckled.
"If the twins discovered that you had brought your work with you into the recreation center I believe you would be in for a difficult time," said Prime.
"Probably," Will laughed. "But..." he waved towards the uncompleted forms, "this stuff just never stops coming."
Optimus frowned, the shutters around his optics narrowing. "Do you not spend a large portion of your days solely on such official documents?"
"Yeah, but the guys in Washington don't seem to understand that my job is not limited to the desk," said Lennox. He sighed tiredly, combing his fingers back through his hair. "I think I need an assistant. When I first got this position it was just the five of you that I had to work with, but now... there are just way too many details for one man to handle."
"Perhaps you have come up with a wise solution, then," Optimus noted. "There must be someone in your military that your government would be willing to give the needed clearance."
"That's my problem," Lennox said, laughing uneasily. "You know Fenner, right? Of course, you've seen him a couple times. But, anyway, I was leaning towards taking him to help me out here, but now with his sister and all..."
"Captain Lennox," said Optimus, "may I remind you that you yourself have a family to care for?"
"True," sighed Lennox. "But still...I don't know. Maybe you're right. I'd like your opinion on him first, though, just to get a little extra input."
"Of course," Optimus rumbled. "What did you have in mind?"
"Well..." Will scratched his chin. "I don't know how you'd feel about this, but..."
.O.O.O.
Astrid went back to her home, which was located halfway across the country, with brother in tow. There wasn't much time to do anything but pack, and Astrid tried not to focus on all the people she would have to say goodbye to through an e-mail, or all her favorite places in town that she'd be unable to visit just one last time. It ripped, it really did. Being an emotional wreck would almost be preferable to this cold, efficient machine that she'd become. However, with a whole house to empty out and either move into storage or stick into moving boxes there was little time to feel much of anything.
She had to be careful with what she picked to take with her. All of her personal junk would go, of course. She would have her own bedroom, and all the assorted odds and ends she'd gathered over the years could easily fit inside. It was the furniture in the rest of the house that she and Jeremy had to pick and choose with. Before they'd left, they'd taken careful measurements of each room in their little house, and in the evenings they would sit there arranging little measured pieces of cardstock on piece of chart paper as they dined on cold pizza and luke-warm tap water.
A few days after they began to wage war on all the useless stuff that seemed to have bred in the dark corners of the house like vermin, a small caravan arrived in the street outside. As she was carrying what felt like the thousandth box down the stairs, Astrid glanced tiredly out the window. When she saw the vehicles waiting outside she did a double-take.
"Uh, Jeremy? Were you expecting company?"
"Yeah!" Jeremy shouted from the other room. "Captain Lennox volunteered to help us move!"
"Well... from the looks of things... he brought half the army with him," Astrid replied.
Jeremy came from the back room, discarding the old card table he'd been dismantling, and peeked out over the top of Astrid's head.
"Wow."
Parked in their driveway was the biggest truck Astrid had ever seen along with a large Hummer clearly designed for rescue operations, and stopped out in the street was a semi. Granted, it had a smaller trailer than that sort of truck usually hauled, but, still, it was a SEMI.
About that time the three drivers appeared from their vehicles, and the two young people ogling the flashy cars from the window closed their mouths and started towards the door. Will Lennox had driven the truck, which Astrid recognized from the picnic and occasional glances around base. The semi and Hummer, however, carried two men that Astrid had never seen before. When Jeremy opened the door for them, scraping and bowing as was customary in the presence of a superior officer, Astrid was sure to hang back by the stairs until she got a feel for the strangers.
The semi's driver was very tall with dark hair and startlingly blue eyes. Physically he was rather intimidating, and he gave off a vague impression of command and leadership that urged one to salute and come to attention. He didn't look bad, though, and Astrid moved on to look over the second stranger. This one also had the funny blue eyes, but he was slightly shorter, his face more weathered and his hair lighter. He reminded her more than anything in the world of a certain math teacher she'd had many years before in middle school.
Although Astrid wondered whether her long observations had been taken as rude, her mind was put to rest as she realized that the two men seemed almost entirely focused on her brother. Jeremy seemed flattered by the attention, and he kept repeatedly thanking them for volunteering their vehicles and their time for such an unimportant thing as helping him move.
"It was no trouble," the tall man said in a pleasantly resonant voice. "We were glad to be of service."
"Any young man who steps up to defend his country as you have deserves any help we can offer," the Hummer-driver put in.
There were a few more polite words exchanged, hands shaken and explanations offered. During the whole encounter, Jeremy's younger sibling stayed on the sidelines, waiting for some sort of introduction to the fray.
"Oh!" Will said, finally noticing Astrid. "Gentlemen, this is Astrid, Airman Fenner's sister."
"A pleasure to meet you," said the tall one.
"Astrid, these are a couple of friends of mine, Prime and Ratchet," Lennox introduced.
"Nice to meet you," she said.
Off to the side, Jeremy stood scratching his head. "Uh, as nice as it is for you guys to volunteer and all, I have no idea where we're going to put you tonight... to sleep I mean..."
"Don't trouble yourself," Ratchet said. "We're perfectly happy to sleep in our vehicles."
"We'd be happy to dig out some air mattresses or something for you," Astrid offered. "Our house is a bit of a wreck at present, as you can see, but I'd hate to be a bad hostess."
"We will be perfectly fine, Miss Fenner," Prime said kindly. "You have enough troubles at present without worrying about us. We did not come to make a nuisance of ourselves."
Astrid looked relieved, but she struggled not to show it. "If you're sure..."
"Positive," said Ratchet.
"Now that we have that settled," Will declared, clapping his hands, "what can we move for you?"
At that moment there came another tap from the door, which still stood open to the summer warmth. Both movees and movers turned to see a young woman lounging against the doorframe, blinking almost owlishly at the strangers.
"Sorry, didn't know you had company," she said.
"It's ok, Jenna, come on in," said Astrid, stepping forward quickly to usher in her friend. "They're just here to help us move."
"Oh, alright, then," she said. "I actually came for the same reason... well, to help you pack up the last few odds and ends at least."
"Come on up," Astrid said, jerking her head towards the staircase. "Jeremy, if you don't mind...?"
"No, of course not, go on," said Jeremy.
With a nod and smile to the guests, Astrid vanished off after her friend. When she reached her room, she found Jenna walking around, taking in all the things that still needed packing.
"It's just clothes for the most part," Astrid said.
"And a few nick-knacks," Jenna observed.
Astrid turned and saw Jenna nod towards the row of pictures still standing out on her desk. All those containing her parents had been the first things to be buried in the bottom of a box, but there were still a lot to remind her of the good old days with her friends. There was one especially depicting herself and Jenna on a roller coaster at a local amusement park. Both of them had their mouths open in a timeless, soundless scream as they clenched their arms around each other in the face of imminent death. Clearly, the photo was posed, carefully timed as the car raced down the first hill, but that just made it all the more special in Astrid's eyes. It was a bit of a tradition she shared with Jenna.
Stepping around her friend, Astrid picked up the photo, frame and all, and offered it to Jenna.
"I want you to have it," she said.
"If you're sure," said Jenna.
"I am."
Smiling, Jenna reached out and carefully relieved Astrid of the treasured item. "You know I'll just post this on Facebook now, right?"
"Do and die."
The two girls worked in nearly perfect tandem for a while, emptying out Astrid's dresser and closet. All the clothes were carefully folded and loaded into one of two large suitcases lying out on the stripped bed. Jenna, being the more orderly of the two, was in charge of folding whatever Astrid brought her way. Things were going very smoothly, too smoothly considering the circumstances, when suddenly there was a quiet gasp from the closet, and Jenna turned from her work to see Astrid standing there, a long, glittery prom dress hanging from her hands.
"Guess I won't be needing this anymore," she said.
Carelessly, she tossed it on the bed with the clothes to be set out for the Salvation Army. Jenna looked from her friend to the dress and back again. She knew Astrid too well to fall for such a show of bravo, and she moved quietly around the bed to pick up the dress and gently smooth it out.
"No," she said quietly, "you should keep it."
The dress was lovely, appropriately termed by Astrid as the 'princess dress'. She was a notoriously picky shopper when it came to clothes, and she and Jenna had stumbled on the dress only a few weeks before her parents' accident. For once in her life, Astrid had done something impulsively, snatching up the dress and whisking off to the check-out counter after she'd discovered how well it fit. Now the gown was just another pretty dream tossed on a growing pile of discards. But Jenna refused to let her friend throw everything away.
"I won't be going to any proms in that tiny little military compound," Astrid pointed out, although her voice was notably weaker. "Why bother?"
"You never know," Jenna said, folding the dress and placing it carefully in the suitcase. "Maybe I'll kidnap you and bring you back for ours."
.O.O.O.
They hit the road the next day, loading the trucks late into the night and celebrating by falling limply into bed. When Will awoke the next morning he stirred to the smell of fresh coffee and something that smelled suspiciously like fresh doughnuts. He rose quickly, used to sudden wake-up calls in the army, and dressed before trotting into the kitchen. There he found Astrid sticking last minute items into the smaller bags and espied a box of what looked to indeed be doughnuts.
"'Morning!" she said. "Grab some food. The coffee just finished brewing."
"Thanks," said Will. As he chewed on one of the tasty and thoroughly unhealthy pastries (Ratchet would be sure to kill him later), he frowned in thought. "Did you go and get these yourself?"
"Yep," Astrid said. "Wasn't a big deal, though. There's a little shop that sells those things just around the corner. And, besides, I didn't want to make a mess cooking breakfast when we're going to be leaving immediately afterwards."
"Good point."
Jeremy stumbled in a few minutes later, dressed but stumbling and bleary eyed.
"Good thing you're not driving," Will chuckled, taking a deep swig of coffee.
The younger man grumbled incoherently and fumbled his way through pouring himself a cup of the caffeine-saturated brew. Astrid looked to Lennox with a grin.
"He'll be better once the coffee kicks in," she said.
"What about you?" Will asked. "Want a cup?"
"Ick, no, thanks," Astrid said, wrinkling her nose. "That stuff's nasty."
"Suit yourself," Jeremy mumbled. "... Shorty."
"I am not short!"
"You're not?" Will asked.
"No," Astrid quipped, "I'm vertically challenged."
"Whatever," said Jeremy. "So, who's riding in what?"
"We can all fit in the truck." Will shrugged. Smirking, he added, "We'll all be really sick of each other by the time we get home, though."
"I would be more than happy to drive one of the Fenner siblings in the semi."
All three of the room's occupants jumped and turned to see Prime standing in the doorway. Will, being a little more used to the unexpected, was the first to recover, and Astrid was soon too busy laughing at her brother to remember the shock.
Wiping off the coffee he'd sprayed all over himself, Jeremy laughed. "Jeez, sneaky much? I'm good with the pick-up. Thanks, though."
"Astrid?" Will asked. "It's up to you, but I cannot be responsible for my actions after more than five hours of driving."
Astrid shuffled her feet and began studying the fake tile of the kitchen floor with ridiculous intensity. Would it be rude to not ride with the captain? Would she really be able to stand her brother for so long a time? That decided her. Reaching a decision, she looked up shyly and said with a weak smile, "If you're sure I wouldn't just be a pain."
"I may not know you very well, Miss Fenner," Prime said, "but I am confident that you could not be a pain to me if you tried."
"All settled then?" Will clapped. "Alright! Then let's get the rest of this stuff in the cars and get on the road!"
A/N: Just a note, the random friend isn't as random as she seems. She WILL be coming back later in the fic... if this fic stays up.
GodisGodandIamnot: Great to hear from you! Out of curiosity, what typos? I went over it twice and my beta read through it, as well. I'd appreciate it if you could take a minute and point them out for me! I think it's great that your sister is going in! Thanks very much for your review, and hopefully we'll get to talk again soon!