~Star Light, Star Bright~
Chapter Eleven: It's In the Names
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"Names have power."
-Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief
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Sector Seven Agent Simmons was an unhappy man.
Irritated with life in general, his mood had further soured when he received word that the Autobots, with a few of their human allies, had just up and left during the middle of the night with no word otherwise. Needless to say, he was less than pleased, even more so when his men continued to report through the night that they had no signs of where they could have gone, let alone their reason why.
But the final breaking point for the agent was when at 1:30 pm a message was sent in to the communications officer courtesy of Autobot Optimus Prime, stating that in no terms were they returning to the S7 base, instead were opting to go to the newly founded NEST base, and were going to officially make it their new location in the morning after a conference with Secretary of Defense and the President.
The message also continued on to state that the mystery of the website creators had been solved, and that the case would be closed and all evidence and case files sent were to be sent to CMO Ratchet, thank you very much.
Enraged at having his case taken from him, Simmons immediately sent a message back demanding to know who the perpetrators were and to have a hand in their sentence. After waiting impatiently for five minutes for a response, he had been about send another message when he finally got his reply.
:Sector Seven and YOU personally have been officially removed from this case, no acceptations. This has been approved by Secretary of Defense John Keller, who has been granted power by the President on this matter. That said, frag off human. – Ironhide:
Simmons high pitch scream of rage made every living being in the area run in all directions, desperate to dodge the many random and heavy objects the man threw in his irate state.
It was during this fit of emotion when Simmons noticed someone else was also missing.
"Where. Is. BANACHECK?!"
Said agent was currently hiding from his raging comrade in his office; door locked and blinds down to avoid the wrath of the irritable agent. He was still nursing his cuts and bruises from the failed attempt to bring in the librarian that had been a suspect, and so had no desire to add to them courtesy of Simmons.
The poor man sighed, and stared forlornly at the message on his own computer screen, telling him in big red letters that Sector Seven was in the process of being disbanded.
Banacheck whimpered.
Just how was Simmons going to react when he got this news?
Optimus Prime gave Ironhide a rather measly glare; no matter how much he should reprimand his soldier for his wording in his message, he was finding it rather hard as the rest of his highly trained soldiers laughed and congratulated Ironhide on getting one over the hated association. Ratchet in particular looked rather satisfied, while Bumblebee and Ironhide slapped servos, chortling like sparklings. A quick cough had all them standing to attention to their Prime, though Ironhide still had a rather unrepentant smirk on his faceplates.
"As amusing as that was Ironhide, we must settle down for the night. But first, Ratchet, how is young Cody and his caretaker Macy?"
"Macy is currently resting in a room I had one of the soldiers set up for her next to the infirmary, with several machines hooked up to warn me if her status changes and to tell me when she wakes up. However, I highly doubt that she will awaken anytime before noon tomorrow. She is, quite simply, exhausted. And Cody was worried over the fact that I wouldn't be there to watch her, but once I told him he could sleep next her in a little cot he calmed down". Ratchet chuckled fondly. "He refused to stray far from her, insisting on being near just in case. The little sparkling really adores her."
"And her him." Optimus agreed, a small smile appearing. "And now, I believe we should all follow their examples and recharge. We can speak of… other matters in the morning."
It didn't take much to realize just what their Prime was talking about, and all the mechs fell quiet.
"We are safe, and among friends, so I believe that just for tonight we can all relax and get a full cycle of rest. Good night."
A chorus of 'good night's from his mechs made Optimus's smile return, and for the first time since the Mission City battle, he fell into recharge that night with hope for the future.
Ratchet had honestly intended to go start to recharge, no really, but the silent notice that suddenly went off in his processors quickly put a halt to that plan.
For a moment he wondered if he should tell Optimus that for some strange reason Macy had awoken, but the old medic decided that it would be best if he simply took care of her on his own. Optimus had been holding onto a lot of grief and guilt of late, and as his medic and more importantly, his friend, Ratchet couldn't bring himself to cause more stress to his leader.
He sighed and rubbed his helm as he strode towards the infirmary rooms, grumbling irritably as he went.
Just what in the world could have awoken the human femme from a state of complete exhaustion?
Macy revived from her faint to a stark scent that one could only find in a hospitable: the sharp smell of bleach and an equally nose-crinkling odor of medicine that shouldn't really find its way into people's bodies yet somehow did was strong in the air.
She hated hospitals.
The red head resisted the urge to vomit, and instead rolled off the small cot she was on to stagger onto the cold concrete. "Aw shi-!" The curse escaped her before she could stop it as she slipped and fell, landing heavily on her bottom. Wincing at the pain that now throbbed through both her butt and head, Macy attempted to take stock of her surrounds only to look up to a pair of legs.
"I believe this is what one calls a natural consequence? After all, if you had not gotten off before you were fully awake, you wouldn't have slipped and hurt yourself."
The man before her was tiny, only about 5'2, bits of peppered gray in his black blue hair and dressed in the standard clothes one in the health profession wore, complete with a stereotypical stethoscope hanging around his neck. Deep blue eyes rested underneath completely silver eyebrows that were raised in slight amusement at Macy's misfortune.
That and his patronizing tone only served to piss off Macy even more.
"Who the heck are you and where the fu-"
A quick cough cut her off, and the doctor didn't bother to hide his grin at her attempt to curse. "I go by many different names Miss Macy, but today I am Doctor Avidan. You may simply call me Doctor Dan if you'd like." The man's grin merely grew at the irritated look Macy shot him.
"That doesn't tell me where I am, or why you are here, Doctor."
Macy's drawl of the last word merely had Avidan's eyes vanishing in the folds of his skin as he beamed at her. "True, very true Miss Macy! I was sent here to keep an eye on you while you were unconscious. Mr. Cody will be most pleased to hear that you are awake, when he awakens himself."
The man looked away from Macy and to the side, prompting her to follow his gaze. To her surprise Cody slept not a foot away, in a little cot just lower than her own.
"Despite both the good Ratchet and I telling him that you were merely exhausted and needed to rest, the poor boy has been quite worried."
The tiny doctor glanced down at her, dark eyes suddenly serious.
"You obviously mean a lot to him, and if even half the rumors of where the two of you come from are true, then he will need you by his side more than ever. You two are practically alone now, and should stick together no matter what."
Rather stunned by the abrupt change in the doctor's tone, Macy could only nod eyes wide. He merely gave her a hard look.
"That is not enough to convince me. Are you or are you not going to stay with young Cody in these times ahead?"
Something in the way he spoke the last sentence snapped Macy out of her surprise enough to snap back at the man, forgetting to keep quiet as her eyes flashing with anger.
"I have no idea who the hell you think you are, but you have no right to question me about how I interact with my son! Furthermore, I love Cody, and I will never ever let him down as long as I can help it. He is my midget, and nothing is ever going to change that!"
Macy frowned when Doctor Avidan's face went from dead serious to a soft smile. She cocked an eyebrow at him, incensed and baffled by him at the same time. Her frown grew when she heard the telltale sounds of Cody waking up, likely from her yelling, but it didn't stop her from asking one last question.
"Why are you smiling at me like that?"
The soft smile turned back into that irritating grin and the doctor chuckled.
"Oh, well you see, you just called Cody your son."
That final statement made Macy stall for a moment, and it was only the tiny voice of her favorite brat in the world that snapped her out of it.
"Auntie, who are y-" A large yawn interrupted his sentence, and Macy couldn't help the twitch of her lips at that, "-ou talking to?"
But as she turned back to point at Doctor Avidan, the poor babysitter was left to gesture helplessly at empty air, where the small man had been moments before.
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End — Chapter Eleven: It's In the Names
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Authors Note:
All the hints are here. Have fun figuring them out. c: