Disclaimer: Transformers; do not own. His Dark Materials/Golden Compass; do not own.
Summary: Semi-crossover; oneshot series. Lennox was slightly envious of Sam and Mikaela... They were closer to the age where childhood plasticity and imagination reigned, where their dæmons changed from form to form on a whim, and where they thought that anything, even making friends with aliens from outer space, was possible.
After
Lennox
It had been a few weeks since Mission City. There was still a government frenzy going on in the background, covering up the fact that they were not alone in the universe, and there were still plenty of questions and too little answers. However, things were winding down. Lennox had taken up a new job offer, working with giant sentient robots. He was finally home with his wife and growing baby. While Optimus, Ratchet, and a newly fixed Jazz were at the makeshift Autobot base, Bumblebee had opted to stay with the Witwickies.
Ironhide had moved in with the Lennoxes.
It was late in the afternoon. Annabelle, who had just started walking, was making her way slowly around Ironhide, leaning on him for support. Sarah was an arms length away, and both she and Ironhide were giving praise and encouragement. Lennox and his wolf dæmon were watching this scene from the front porch. He watched an unsteady but determined Annabelle in wonder, her dæmon perched on her shoulder as a mouse, before clumsily taking flight beside her as a fledgling sparrow.
"It's amazing, isn't it?" he said quietly to his dæmon.
"It is," Sidney answered. "Anna took to Ironhide like fish to water."
"Remember when we were younger?"
"Yep. How could I forget?"
"Times like these…"
"Yeah. Times like these."
She leaned against him, her grey head reaching his midriff. Lennox stroked the fur behind her ears.
Lennox was slightly envious of Sam and Mikaela, though he would never admit it. They were closer to the age where childhood plasticity and imagination reigned, where their dæmons changed from form to form on a whim, and where they thought that anything, even making friends with aliens from outer space, was possible.
Sam had no hesitation in going out with Bumblebee for a drive, and his cougar dæmon was confident in getting into Bumblebee's backseat. Mikaela was a little more awkward, but even she was getting more and more familiar with Bumblebee, and each day her dæmon hesitated a little less about touching their yellow friend.
He had to wonder at their boldness. No person would touch another person's dæmon.
"Maybe because they're sentient alien robots, the kids don't think that the great taboo applies," he remarked.
"Maybe," she said, ears swivelling and head turning to look up at him. "But I don't think so. These guys are people. Sam and Mikaela don't seem the type to deny or to be blind to that."
"You're right. They don't seem the type. I wonder what they know?"
"Sam did tell us that they were their own dæmons."
But both knew that it wasn't the case. If Autobots were their own dæmons, then that meant that the Decepticons were their own dæmons. Though it dæmons fought alongside their humans, Lennox was filled with pure fear and disgust at the thought of a Decepticon grabbing Sidney—and it wasn't connected to the fact that a Decepticon could kill them both easily. No, this was a completely different sort of fear. Sidney started growling, and he soothed her.
"That's not it though," he said, stroking her fur. "He might have thought that at first, but it's changed. He knows something else now. So does Mikaela."
"But we can't ask them now, can we?"
"Nope. It's like learning the names of other peoples' dæmons. We have to learn it ourselves, or else it won't mean anything."
Meanwhile, Annabelle was getting tired of just going round and round and round. Keiran was a chipmunk on her shoulder, a sparrow fluttering clumsily beside her, a butterfly perching on Ironhide's side mirror, then hanging from his open window haphazardly on a thread as a spider.
Then a question popped into their mind. Ironhide was big. Bigger than Daddy and Mommy put together. But how big was he?
Annabelle squatted near a convenient crevice, and the adults thought that she was just resting. But then Keiran was a ladybug, and crawled into said convenient crevice.
"No, wait, don't!" Lennox and Sidney heard Ironhide cry out in alarm, startling them from their musings. Then Annabelle squealed and giggled.
Curious, Lennox jumped lightly over the porch fence, his dæmon a leaping grey shadow after him. "What's wrong?" he asked. Sarah was crouched down and holding Annabelle in her arms. Sarah's whitetail stag bent his antlered head to whisper to her, and pawed the ground, betraying her nervousness. Annabelle's dæmon was nowhere in sight.
"Lennox," Ironhide rumbled tightly, "your progeny's companion has inserted himself inside my systems."
"'Hidey-hide big," Annabelle said, clapping her hands together and laughing in glee. Whatever Keiran was doing inside Ironhide's systems, he must have been enjoying himself.
"Anna, honey," Sarah said, chocking back laughter as her Xavier scoffed openly. "You have to get out of Ironhide now."
"Please Anna? It's not nice," Lennox put in. Sidney whined softly.
"Fun-fun," Annabelle told them innocently, and then laughed again as Keiran found something shiny.
"I think he's near my spark casing," Ironhide said tightly.
"Is it dangerous?" Lennox asked. Unlike Xavier, who contented himself with lying on the ground, though his eyes never left the tiny hole that Keiran crawled into, Sidney paced around the Autobot anxiously.
"No…but," Ironhide said in a small voice, "I think he's changed into a spider. Get him out." His tone dared them to laugh. Sarah put a comforting hand on her husband's arm, and Xavier nuzzled Sidney's grey fur.
After a couple of hours in this tableau, Keiran, completely pleased with himself, finally made his way out. Sarah took Annabelle, exhausted now with Keiran as a garden snake coiled around her arm, inside the house. Lennox stayed outside, telling Sarah that he'd join them in a few minutes.
Ironhide transformed, stretching after spending nearly two hours being as still as an insentient car as he could. Lennox watched in silence with Sidney leaning against him. He wasn't used to thinking of himself as a child, but, when looking at Ironhide, he thought how, even though he was a father already, he must have seemed so young to this being from the stars.
"Sorry about that," Lennox said, standing a little ways before Ironhide. This was very awkward. Sidney gave a small, inaudible whine that Lennox felt in his flesh. "You said he was near your—your spark chamber, right? I hope that wasn't painful for you."
"It wasn't even uncomfortable," Ironhide told him, sitting down in what was an amazingly human-like cross-legged position. An uncomfortable silence prevailed, and Lennox, at a loss for what to do now, sat down in an imitation of Ironhide's posture. Sidney put her head and her paws on his knee, giving Ironhide an apologetic look.
"I underestimated the changing abilities of your progeny's companion," Ironhide said gruffly, as though he was reluctantly admitting to some mistake. "I apologize. If you will allow me another chance, I will keep a closer optic—"
Lennox waved him off. "Don't worry about it. You have nothing to apologize for." He sighed, stroking Sidney's fur absently. "Annabelle's dæmon…he becomes everything, gets to places where us adults can't get to him. You know, when you're younger, you think that everything is possible and your dæmon can take any form she wants. Days like these kinda makes you miss those times."
"I understand that it is normal for humans to reminisce about their childhood years," Ironhide said. His tone was almost gentle. "Yearn for them, even. But I understand that there are advantages to having a settled companion."
"When your dæmons settle, you know who you are," Lennox said simply. Then, prompted by a nip from Sidney, he asked, "How 'bout you? Do you guys ever think about your—er, youngling, was it?—your youngling years?"
Ironhide gave a deliberate shake of the head. "No. All Cybertronians look forward to the day they are given their armour, the day they are allowed to use their weaponry. We yearn for the day we become protectors. And when that day comes, we do not look back."
"There are advantages to growing up in all cultures, I guess," Lennox said, leaning backwards. Sidney gave a small tail wag. "I think it's a pretty fair trade-off."
"Yes, it is." Ironhide stretched again. "When your progeny's companion was inside me…" Ironhide said absently, as though to himself. He had a hand over what Lennox assumed was his spark casing. He didn't finish the sentence.
Sidney rubbed against him, her eyes half-closed. The captain and his dæmon were filled with a deep curiosity. "Is it…bad?" he asked, not knowing exactly how to describe the great taboo. "I mean, for Autobots to touch the sparks of other Autobots?"
Ironhide was silent for a long time, so long that Lennox thought that he didn't hear him. "For a warrior to touch an enemy's spark is one of the foulest things that can happen on the battlefield," Ironhide finally said. "For a friend to entrust his spark to another friend…to Autobots, that is the greatest form of trust imaginable."
Lennox's eyes widened, and Sidney gave a tremor in his arms. They knew now what Sam and Mikaela knew.
Annabelle's cry pierced through the silence.
"Go to your progeny," Ironhide said, in what Lennox thought was a sort of rough tenderness. "She is calling for you."
Lennox rose, Sidney close beside him. No, they weren't ready for contact yet. But one day, they would be.
"Goodnight," Lennox said. Sidney gave a decisive bark. Ironhide was already facing away from them, facing the setting sun.
"Goodnight," Ironhide said.
Lennox turned to answer his child's summons, and Sidney gave a final glance at their solitary guardian, before following him into the house.