The day after New Years, Leon found herself with a raging hangover. It pounded against her head with ferocity of an angry Ironhide clone on steroids. The light that danced across her burning eyes was like needles and the annoyingly loud sound of the blanket rustling above her head made the mechanic want to throw up.

Moaning, Leon clutched her hands over her ears and clenched her eyes shut, hoping to shut out the noises and light. Nature decided not to like her.

The brunette threw herself from her bed, tripped over her own feet and sprinted for the bathroom. She barely made it to the toilet. Whatever she had drunk or eaten last night probably tasted twice as bad as it tasted good going down.

As an experienced drinker, Leon knew that if she didn't pull her bedhead out of the way she'd end up having gross projectile stomach acid in it and that was possibly the most horrible feeling she knew.

Leon ended up heaving into the toilet for several minutes before emerging from the bathroom and wrapping herself back into her blankets, completely cocooning herself if fluffy quilt. It crinkled around her ears and got too warm immediately, and the hungover woman ended up sticking her head out to breath.

Her eyes squinted against the harsh light from above and landed on Ellie, who was quite calmly sitting on her bed with a large tome in her hands, flipping the pages.

"Lights." Leon croaked, looking pathetic. "Ellie, lights. Please."

Ellie held up one finger, flipping the page and allowing her eyes to roam slowly down the page whilst Leon suffered quietly. When she had finished her page, Ellie dog-eared it at the bottom and slid from her bed in a pair of blue fuzzy pajamas to flick the lights off.

Leon immediately moaned as the dark caressed her eyes and listened –wincing- as Ellie stumbled her way back to her bed. A small beside lamp flickered on and Ellie lifted her book again, wordlessly pointing to the side table beside her best friend.

Perched within reaching distance was an aspirin, an Advil, and a cold glass of water. Leon would forever be eternally grateful for having Ellie to look after her.

One of the Leon's tanned arms stretched from her safe cocoon and picked up both of the tablets, shoving them in her mouth. Water made an appearance to the party, and everything was suddenly just….better.

"What time is it?" The brunette asked hoarsely, withdrawing to her quilts.

"Around seven in the evening. You stumbled in to bed around six in the morning." Ellie smiled into her book. "It sounded like you had a good night. Nice way to start off the New Year."

"Hungover?"

"Drunk." Ellie laughed, making sure her voice was soft. Leon was no light-weight, not in the slightest actually, but she suffered for the amount she usually drank when she was partying. Ellie was used to it by now. Leon was quite the partier back in college.

Ellie wasn't much for drinking and partying. She preferred movie at home with a few friends and junk food in pajamas, or a good book. On the occasional times she did go drinking, it was either a staff party – where she was the designated driver- or Leon's birthday.

Leon eyed her friend seriously, watching as the mocha skinned woman fiddled with her fingers and watched them as if they were the most fascinating thing in the world. And suddenly….Leon felt a little bad.

She'd set up Ellie for Mirage, sensing a faint kind of attraction from both parties involved, but Leon had never considered that Ellie possibly hadn't wanted Mirage to kiss her at all. She knew that she got a little carried away sometimes, and since she'd been caught up in the excitement of Christmas and pranking with Sunny and Sides, things may have gotten a little out of hand.

Leon forgot sometimes that Ellie was much more reserved than she was.

"Do you…regret it?" The mechanic pushed herself up, fighting against the nausea that clawed at her stomach.

Ellie's fingers stilled and she looked up, finding Leon's green eyes with her own as a blush made its way across her cheeks. "Regret what?"

"Kissing Mirage. Do you regret it? Cause it's my fault, you know. I told him about the New Years kiss tradition and sometimes I forget that you're, like, shy and stuff and now I feel bad cause I probably pushed you into it!" Leon babbled, looking slightly panicked as she tugged and twisted her messy brown hair.

"I don't regret it." Ellie murmured. "I'm just…"

"I'm sorry. I should have thought first." Leon murmured, sliding from her bed and padding to Ellie's. She sat herself on the edge and pulled her knees to her chest, like she did when they were back in college.

"Hon, it's fine. I'm just a little confused with my feelings right now. On one hand, Mirage is incredibly awesome, attractive and funny and stuff….but on the other hand, I know that if we started any sort of relationship, we wouldn't be able to do anything physical. I'm too small to hold his hand or kiss him properly…and Lord, we wouldn't be able to ever have sex. And I don't know what to do about all of this, Leon. I'm just sorting through everything in my head right now. But no…I don't regret it. What about you?"

"The parts I remember?" Leon snorted. "It's nothing I haven't done before. The stuff I don't remember….I'll just hope nothing completely bad happened. Obviously I didn't have sex last night, considering what I do remember. Sunny and Sides were acting like bodyguards or something; they wouldn't let me out of their sight after they kissed me."

"How did that work anyway? Three-person kisses should be kinda difficult. That looked seamless." Ellie leaned forward slightly, interested.

"They were both there at the same time, but one of them kissed me and kinda passed me along or something. It was a bit difficult to make heads or tails of….but I think that's what happened. Also they've probably done it before." Leon shrugged, resting her chin on her knees. Her pajama pants bunched uncomfortably in all the wrong places and her shirt rose up her stomach.

"What are we doing, Ellie?"

"Pardon?" Ellie looked startled and a bit confused.

"What are we doing? We're twenty-two and living in a top secret army base filled with alien robots who's enemies want to take over the world. Did you ever think that there was probably someone much more qualified to do our jobs around here, and do them a bit more professionally? I could have, and should have, been fired so many times by now. And what does NEST really need a mechanic for anyway?"

"I thought about that for a while when we first got here. Maybe our uncles are just trying to keep us the safest they can…and the safest place they can think of is here, with them and the Autobots. And yes, someone a lot more qualified could have been brought in to do our jobs; an older CMO and a seasoned mechanic. But our uncles chose us. We're not the most talented people at our jobs…but we get it done. NEST needs a mechanic for their non-sentient vehicles. Eventually, Leon, I got a little tired of judging myself about my job, and I'm just grateful to have such a good one."

Leon nodded slowly, gazing at Ellie with the most serious expression she'd seen on the mechanic's face since they'd been first brought here. It was a little strange actually, seeing Leon like this.

"No more chick flick moments." Leon grumbled, dropping her legs to the ground. "I'm going to take a shower and then we're getting dinner from the kitchens."

"Have fun." Ellie flipped her book back open, starting from where she'd left off.

Leon's feet didn't make much noise on the concrete floor of the base as they made their way to the kitchens for a small dinner. Leon had ended up being sick again during her shower and her headache was still pounding at her head, but on more of a Wheelie-proportioned pain.

The gleaming kitchen was empty, and the fridge held the remains of the soldiers' dinner; broccoli, pork chops, and mashed potatoes. Ellie immediately got to frying up the potatoes into little cakes and reheated the pork in the microwave.

Leon leaned miserably against the counter on the other side of the kitchen, waiting.

When Will found them twenty minutes later, the pair of young women were seated in the empty cafeteria, finishing their food.

"It lives." Will joked, pushing lightly at his niece's shoulder. She flipped him the bird and muttered several choice sentences under her breath.

"What do you need, Uncle Will?" Ellie asked, placing her fork politely on the table as Leon kept carefully stuffing her mouth.

"I just got a call from NASA." He lowered himself onto the bench next to his niece. "They've confirmed an unidentified spacecraft as entered our orbit. They're Autobots, a sub-division known as the Wreckers. I'm sending you with Epps to welcome them to Earth."

"Why send us?" Leon muttered.

"You two are still part of the NEST liaison team. Fortunately, this is probably the only liaison mission you'll have to do, as our new three-man team will be arriving in a few weeks. Leon, you've done this before with Luke, right? I heard that you handled the arrivals of Prowl, Wheeljack, and First Aid. You'll be in charge of the operation, and Ellie will be there to help you." Will planted his elbows on the table. "You'll be in charge of getting the three Wreckers alt-modes."

"Excuse me?" Leon gave her uncle the strangest look, abandoning her plate of steaming food.

"Think of it as a paid vacation. You ladies have earned it. The Wreckers should be landing in Houston, Texas. From what I've heard from Optimus….the Wreckers are a little…rowdy."

"Houston, we're gonna have a problem." Leon muttered under her breath, face white as a sheet as the thought of the plane ride filled her mind.

Will pat her shoulder sympathetically as he left. "Be to leave at five tomorrow morning."

Both women made faces.

Leon shifted uncomfortably under the hot Texas sun, smoothing down the beige blazer she wore and trying to ignore the fact she was enjoying wearing a matching pencil skirt. The breeze against her legs was nice, and she'd managed to sneak a pair of black yoga shorts underneath them.

In all honesty, if you didn't know Leon, you'd probably think this was her job. She looked completely professional, and not at all like the dirty jeans wearing mechanic she actually was. The tan-and-white suit was dry cleaned and ironed, paired with a pair of matching heels and Leon's clean chocolate hair pulled into a bun on the back of her head. She was wearing a pair of hoop earrings and a pair of large black glasses.

Ellie stood slightly behind her best friend, carrying a shiny silver briefcase and a nice leather purse. She was flaunting the fact she was allowed to be less professional than her best friend and was wearing a dark red turtle-neck dress with a casual pale yellow blazer over the top. On her feet, which she was loudly bragging about, were a pair of comfy white sneakers.

Several of the men who were securing the Autobot ship that had recently landed were checking out the pair of professional looking women, who were waiting for the three enormous robots to exit their ship.

Ellie had taken a picture of her best friend's transformation already and sent it to the twins back on Diego Garcia.

The door of the Xanthium clanged open, wobbled a bit on its hinges and clattered loudly to the ground.

A long string of loud beeping and whirring exploded from the hatch as three chunky dark grey Autobots pushed each other out, kicking and punching.

Leon fought a smirk, tucking her hands behind her back.

The three Wreckers continued to push and shove each other as the NASA personal and NEST personal continued their jobs the best they could.

Ellie handed Leon the black leather purse on her shoulder and the mechanic-liaison fished inside before pulling out a pair of portable speakers and a small mp3 player attached to them. She cranked the audio on both devices and pressed play.

There was only one track on the device, but when managing liaison duty for rowdy Autobots, it was the best track.

A very loud, very high-pitched, squeal came from the speakers and the three Wreckers stopped brawling to look at the two humans in interest. Several deep clicks and buzzing came from the speakers next and then the mp3 stopped. Leon shoved it all back into the bag and handed it back to Leon.

"Welcome to Earth." She stepped forward, gazing at the newest Autobots from the platform that made the pair of liaisons optic-level. "My name is Leon Lennox, I'm one of the temporary liaisons and the mechanic at NEST. As Major Lennox and Optimus Prime could not be here to greet you, they've put me in charge of your Earth Introduction. Which was a mistake on their part."

"'old on, squishy." The shorter of the three lifted a hand, frowning. He had a very heavy British accent, and Leon was able to place it as Cockney. She'd had a friend with a cousin from there in college.

"Yes?"

"Did you say Optimus Prime?" He asked. Leon lifted an eyebrow and slid her glasses down her nose to stare at him.

"Yes, I did."

The Wreckers shifted, nudging and prodding each other while they muttered amongst themselves.

"I've been made aware by Prowl," She interrupted them, stepping forward without wobbling in her heels. "That your commanding officer, the leader of the Wreckers, Ultra Magnus, has not been heard from since Cybertron. Optimus still has high hopes on Ultra Magnus' survival, but until we've been proven right – or wrong – the Prime is your Commander, and I've been given instructions to demand that you follow his orders. I've been personally warned that you're a bit rowdy so I'm sure that the five of us will get along fine. You'll be staying with the Xanthium, rather than at the main NEST base."

The three Wreckers shifted again, one of them obviously pouting a bit.

"There's a few rules that you'll have to follow." Leon grinned. "Don't squish the humans, don't leave base without permission, and report any and all Decepticon alerts you get. I've heard that your sensors are much more advanced than the ones we've managed to throw together."

"Leon, alt-modes." Ellie coughed behind her, holding out the silver briefcase.

"Riiiight." Leon snapped it open, pulling out three pictures. "Optimus told me that you used to be engineers back on Cybertron, so instead of bringing the actual cars I'm giving you for alt-modes, I've brought you blueprints and pictures. And I've only been told that you're called the Wreckers, so knowing your names would be really great."

"I'm Leadfoot," The shortest one announced, and then pointed to the mech on his left. "He's Roadbuster, and that's Topspin."

Leon looked at them for several seconds before placing three different pictures down in a row, followed by blueprints. The Wreckers pushed and shoved each other, rather like the Tiny Twins, arguing before beams of bright light scanned over each one.

She grinned, glancing back at Ellie before motioning her to the edge to see the Wreckers' alt-modes. Ellie gave her a wary look and shuffled forward. Leon had actually kept the entire Choosing of the Alt-Modes a complete secret.

Secretly, what she'd done was a way of getting back at her uncle for sticking her on a plane through turbulence. It was also a sorry present for Ellie.

Ellie's mouth dropped open and she suddenly rushed towards the stairs. Sitting where the Wreckers had stood, revving their engines and checking over their internals, were Ellie's three favorite race cars.

Roadbuster, on the far left, was the number eighty-eight AMP Energy-National Guard car driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr, and was primarily green. Leadfoot, in the middle, was the number forty-two Target car driven by Juan Pablo Montoya, obviously very red. The last Wrecker was Topspin, who was mostly blue, and he'd taken the number forty-eight Lowe's-Kobalt Tools car driven by Jimmie Johnson.

All three of them were heavily loaded down with guns and Ellie was running between them, fawning while Leon watched over all four of them like some protective mother bear.

"Leon," Ellie asked as the brunette descended the stairs on the side of their platform. "Is this even legal?"

"Of course! I asked." Judging by Ellie's look, it didn't comfort her. Leon just laughed, leaning on the rail as the three Wreckers transformed back into their bi-pedal modes.

"Wreckers, we'll be staying here to help you get your sensors back up and running for a while. Optimus thought you would need a hand. We're also here to help you get settled."

The Wreckers nodded, popping their joints with loud screeches and thumps.

Leon and Ellie had been hanging around with the Wreckers for a little over a week when they decided that they needed junk food, so with Ellie's wallet in her purse and Leon in the driver's seat of Keith the Jeep, the two girls sped towards the city.

The Wreckers had stayed with the Xanthium, which had been moved just past the city limits, so they wouldn't be found so easily. Despite being more than a little rude, and very very rowdy, the Wreckers were pretty great and quite friendly once you got past their obvious flaws.

They were trying to bring Ellie out of her "squishy armor" more, meaning they were trying to get her to loosen up a bit, and it was working…..slowly. Leon simply joined in on their cussing and loudness. In fact, if Leon had been an Autobot femme from back on Cybertron, they had sworn that she'd probably have been a Wrecker too.

The Wreckers were quick workers, and they'd nearly gotten their sensors back online in the ship. The door was still having issues….and several of the inner workings of other components were broken, but they were getting there.

Leon pulled Keith into a parking space in a small mall lot, and stepped out, clicking the locks shut after Ellie had shut her door. The women met at the far side of the jeep and nearly skipped into the mall.

Leon wasn't one for shopping, but she did need a few pairs of this-and-that, and by this-and-that she meant she needed jeans, underwear and bras. Ellie needed new scrubs and a new pair of sneakers. Will had texted them earlier asking for new underwear and pajamas, and Epps had echoed his statement. They'd gotten an email from Fig asking for some alligator pie and some socks.

So they'd been turned into Errand Girls, but they weren't getting Fig is alligator.

Their shopping trip in the mall lasted a lot longer than they'd thought it would, Ellie had ended up getting bras too and while Leon wasn't picky, Ellie was. Leon had eventually convinced the mocha skinned woman to actually get the lacy bra she'd tried on. Leon's underwear had consisted of lacy and see-through, with the occasional sports bra.

They knew that their uncles would dislike them for a little while, seeing how they'd gotten them the most feminine pajamas in the men's department, and Fig had socks with ducks and penguins.

Currently, Ellie was heading back to the Jeep alone because Leon had forgotten a bag in one of the stores.

"Ellie!" Leon whined loudly from several feet away, her feet pounding on the warm pavement. A bag was swinging in her hand. "Wait up!"

A pair of jets whined over head as Ellie placed the bags into the back of the jeep, turning to roll her eyes at Leon. The jets continued whining, and Ellie immediately knew something was wrong when the sound of a bot transforming filled the air, followed quite closely by screams of fear and astonishment.

There were a few teens who whipped out their cells, raising them to capture this moment. Ellie was frozen as the pair of bots smashed into the ground, their pedes making large indentations in the pavement as it cracked and sprayed debris.

The pair of bots were quite tall, with large jet wings on their backs and red optics. One was black and purple, and the other blue and silver.

The pair whirred at each other, and the blue one's arms transformed into cannons, swinging back and forth across the parking lot. He sneered at the humans, and his cannons fired two shots before anyone could do anything.

The people who weren't smart enough to flee were vaporised, and the alarms of all the cars in the lot went off. The two jet-bots snarled, clapping their hands over their ears before the black and purple one vanished and reappeared at the other side, firing a smaller gun in his hand at each car.

Leon had hidden herself behind a stone pillar near the entrance to the underground parking, and Ellie had ducked beneath their jeep.

And then there was rushing heat and pain as the jeep and the cars around it blew sky high. Ellie screeched, holding her right arm to her left shoulder and pulling it away crimson. Pain lanced through her limbs and something warm lifted her by her injured arm while someone screamed.

"Leave it, Skywarp." One of them growled. "It's leaking and will probably die. Take the other one back to base. I'll follow."

"Okay, Thundercracker!" The robot, Skywarp, let come and Ellie made contact with something hard. A high shrieking noise clawed at her ears as she watched, unmoving, as the black and purple bot appeared where Leon was hiding and snatched up.

The other one transformed, shooting into the sky and Ellie's last look at Leon was the fury painted on her friend's face as she clawed at the wires she could reach in Skywarp's hand. Black spotted her vision as the pair vanished.

Ellie howled as she shifted to try and find the flying bots. The purple one shimmered in the air for a second and vanished, the blue one roaring off in some sort of direction.

"Leooooon!" Ellie screamed, her hand flying to her shoulder as she sobbed and her green eyes closed.

I am a horrible person. I really am. I'm so sorry for not updating sooner, I'd lost my inspiration for this fic for a while. Kurohane Ookami forced me to write the next chapter after I'd told her that I was fixing Tattoos up. So I deleted everything that was confusing and rewrote it from here.

Nothing has happened, forget everything that was confusing and out of place and chaotic. This is where I'm taking it. This is what is happening. Ellie is not kidnapped. Leon is kidnapped.