Still at the ruddy hospital... Still losing my mind and being more stir crazy than a jack rabbit that's been hog tied. But hey I did get another chapter to this done. Yay!

Many thanks to Reader103 and Meep15 and emc2fantasyfan for fav/following. And thank you to sarielgrace (guest) for reviewing!

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers.

Word count: 2312

Chapter 4

~x~

~Eight~

~x~

Eight was sitting in his floor exhausted. It had taken the whole day, but his room was cleaned back to a state of modesty... Something that he could say wouldn't have happened if Simon was still alive...

Simon... Eight gazed at the bunk bed. He could only imagine what his brother would say about Jazz... Heck his brother probably would have been ecstatic... Eight blinked at the robot who was 'recharging' on his bed.

He couldn't tell Aunt Bay. The woman had fully believed that the incident in Mission City was a terrorist attack... Was it a bad thing that he knew? Eight shook his head as he thought of the repercussions.

If he was to help Jazz find his friends he was going to have to do it soon. Who knew what would happen to the bot's original body? He had seen the movies and tv shows, the government took anything alien and claimed it as theirs... Stripping it for the technology. And even if Jazz's friend had gotten the chance to retrieve Jazz's body, what if they did some weird burial rite? Like sinking it into the ocean or a funeral pyre?

But how in the heck was he going to look for giant cybernetic aliens disguised as earthen vehicles? He considered the internet for a minute... but he was sure the last thing they needed was M.I.B. to come bursting in on them... Plus Jazz had told him that the Decpticreeps had used the internet for information... So not only could he alert the MIB but the bad guys as well...

He tightened his fists as a sharp jolt of pain stabbed through them. Eight sighed and slowly began to peel at the bandages. The dark caramel skin on the back of his hands was untouched compared to the blistered flesh that was slowly healing... He stared at the reddened flesh they reminded him of Simon... He tightened his hands into a fist, wincing at the pain as the battered flesh protested the movement. The doctors had told him to stretch them but it still hurt to do so...

"Ah'm sorry."

Eight looked up to see Jazz staring at him from the edge of the bed. "For what?"

"It was mah energon tha' did tha' to ya..." The little bot said his visor dim.

"It was an accident. Don't blame yourself Jazz." the boy said as he flexed his hands. "The good thing is that they will heal.." the boy said quietly.

"Mmm."

The boy sighed at this dismissal tone in the bot's voice. "Hey Jazz, if the bot's don't pick up you energy signal how are you going to find them? Because no offense dude you are insanely tiny compared to them and while I would suggest that you use the net, I don't think it's be a good idea to get the MIB's attention."

"MIB?"

"Men in black. The feds. The government. Besides I'm sure it would freak out Aunt Bay if they came swarming in here because we tried searching for your friends on my laptop." Eight said as he began to rewrap his hands. "Besides you said your enemies could track us that way too right? So the internet as helpful as it is is a no go at the moment."

"Maybeh if we could find Sam we could ge' ahold of Bee tha' a way..." Jazz mused.

"Sam?"

"A human contact tha' we made prior to da battle. He lives in Tranquility Nevada."

Eight arched a brow. He could almost hear his sister Evy quoting one of her favorite anime quotes... he bit off a snicker and shook his head.

"What's so funneh?"

"A quote that my sister used all the time. It was from her favorite anime... 'There is no such thing as coincidence in this world, just hitsuzen' or something like that. Evy said It meant there is only fate not coincidence." Eight grinned at Jazz. "This is Tranquility Nevada."

A soft knock came on the door. There was some whirling sounds as Jazz transformed back into his altmode just as the door opened. Bay eyed the room with a studious eye before her gaze landed on the boy sitting in the floor.

"I'm surprised you were able to get to bookcase set back up... How's your hand's doing?"

Eight flexed his bandaged hands. "Sore..."

"Remember what the doctors told you about flexing them."

"Yes Aunt Bay."

She went to gazing about the room. "Wow... I can't believe you have this old thing." she said as she moved toward one ot the shelves and pulled off an odd gadget. "I remember this... It's a Galilean Thermometer right? I was sure your dad would have broken it by now..."

"I'm surprised it didn't get broke in my bat attack."

"Still sticking with that story huh?"

EIght grinned. "Of course."

"Alright then... Look lights out in ten okay?"

"Yes Aunt Bay."

The woman had a mildly sour look on her face. She muttered something under her breath and turned to the boy, "Goodnight Octavius."

As soon as she was gone the boy leapt up and joined Jazz on the bed. "So how do you think we should go about finding your friend?"

~x~

~Bay~

~x~

Bay sighed as she sat down on the sofa. Today had been a disaster... she had to admit defeat to the boy, who laughed with her and then preceded to help her clean the kitchen. The boy then saved her from what would have been her failure that day and suggested PB&J sandwiches.

The kid must have made an effort not to look disappointed, or he was distracted from the thought that they weren't having mexican... And while it made Bay feel a little better, she knew that sooner or later she would have to try to make the kid something that reminded him of his mother. She was so not cut out for this...

"How am I going to do this? I don't even have a job anymore."

She heard a door creak open somewhere on the upper level. Eh probably going to the bathroom. She shrugged and glared at the stack of paperwork waiting for her. She sighed as she stared up at the wall of photos that surrounded the television, her gaze landing on a familiar green eyed, brunette man. "This crap was more suited for you. You never had any problem beating your way through the paperwork or worrying about screwing up. Always the steadfast one... You were the one that could deal with these situations... You were just like Pop..."

"Damn it Daniel... I am so out of my element here... God knows I didn't really want kids... At least not yet... I know you must be laughing at me... the both of you." Bay stuck her tongue out at the pictures. "I know that you'd say that it was karma or something since all mom did was badger me about needing a guy and having kids. I didn't ask for my apartment and my bloody office to be blown to smithereens!"

Sometime the young woman had gotten to her feet during her rant and was poking and pointing at the pictures. "It's not like I really can do my job being a parent and the rest of you all knew it! And yeah I know... 'There's no real security being a private eye Bay...' 'Please just get a real job' 'And just find a guy and quit.' That's all you guys ever said to me. The only one that had any confidence in me was Pops and that was because he knew I was good at what I did! Hell I got all my skills from him after all, Being the only one willing to learn from him! I used those freaking skills to find all of you bastards just to get you to the freaking reunion because Pop wanted to see all of you before he died..."

Bay took a deep breath her frame shaking from the pent up anger... "It's freaking ironic. Ironic that he did get to see all of you before he died... Before you all... died..." She sank slowly to her knees to sit in the floor as angry tears began to leak from her eyes... "Why? Why me? Why this? Why make that boy go through this shit? He doesn't deserve this shit. You guys should have lived damn it. At least you all had something to live for... Me? I'm useless... I can't even cook..."

~x~

~Jazz~

~x~

Jazz had snuck out of the room after finally figuring out a way to open the stubborn knob. He had been intent on trying to find the computer. Sure the boy had said something about trying to find something a called a phonebook, but Jazz figured that it wouldn't hurt to find Sam's address... but what he found was a ranting femme. She was yelling at the images of her family unit angrily. Her rant was slowly leading him to believe that despite fact that she and Eight had a rather large family, the femme wasn't as tightly knit in with the rest of them.

Jazz watched as she sat there crying in the middle of the floor, her red hair obscuring her face as she lowered her gaze from that of her family. Jazz vented softly and eyed the stairs in front of him warily...

And this was about when Eight began to scream. The femme's head snapped up and she bolted for the stairs and consequently towards him. Transforming down into his altmode was all that Jazz could think of before she reached the top, pausing to frown at him.

"How did this get out here?" she said scooping him up and marching to the partially open doorway to flip the light on. Eight was tossing and turning in his bed, his face scrunched up in pain. Bay tossed Jazz aside as she hurried over to the thrashing boy. Jazz landed with a jarring thud thankfully on his wheels, his axles protesting the abuse. He watched as the woman gently coaxed the boy from his nightmare.

"Octavius. Octavius wake up." she shook his shoulder. "Come on kid wake up."

"Wha? Aunt Bay?" the boy blinked owlishly around the room.

"Yeah kid it's me. You okay?"

The boy said nothing as he looked down at his lap. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" the woman shifted uneasily.

"Yeah." Eight rubbed his hands.

Bay bit her lip as she eyed the boy for several long minutes before sighing. "All right then. Just... um just call me if you need anything..." she said standing back up and walked out of the room.

Eight sat there staring at his hands blankly for almost a breem unmoving before Jazz shifted back to his bipedal mode made his way over to the bed. He clambered up and sat next to the boy. "Ah really don' thin' ya should lie ta her... It's like she said, it's not good ta bottle it all up kid."

"And what am I supposed to tell her? The truth? I mean yeah even if I did tell her the truth she would probably think it was my imagination... But she will flat out deny the truth.."

Jazz rubbed his chin plates with his servo. "How about I get ya mind offa things?"

"...How?"

Jazz grinned. "Ah could tell ya about Cybertron if ya'd like meh to."

The boy mulled it over before shrugging. "Why not."

"Well then... Before beginning there was Primus and Unicron..."

~x~

~The next morning...~

~Eight~

~x~

Eight whipped into the kitchen and grabbed a banana out of the bowl table startling Bay who looked like she hadn't slept at all...

"Octavius? What time is it?" Nope she hadn't.

"It's almost ten Aunt Bay..."

"Oh..." she yawned before returning to the papers in front her.

"Hey Aunt Bay I'm going to go for a ride to the library today is that okay?"

"Yep uh huh..." she muttered not glancing away from the documents. Eight noted the woman's focused state and he grinned.

"... I'm also thinking about breaking national security and searching for aliens while I'm out too. Don't freak out when agent J and K look-a-likes come beating down the door." he said as he retrieved a bottle of water out of the fridge.

A hushed snicker escaped from the bot in his backpack as his aunt murmured, "Well have fun... be back before dark..."

"I was also thinking of getting a tattoo and setting some stuff on fire-"

"What about fire?" Bay blinked up at him, her brows furrowed.

"I was seeing if you were listening."

Bay sighed as she rubbed her tired eyes. "I'm sorry Eight... I was trying to finish this muck work... I need to get it done before Friday.."

"Okay... Well like I said I'm going to the library."

"Well have fun and be careful."

"Yes Aunt Bay." Eight grinned as he exited out to the two car garage. He hit the button for the door when Jazz poked his helm out of the bag.

"Tha' was mean." The bot said despite the grin that was plastered on his faceplates.

"Hey you were the one badgering me about lying to her. I only told her the truth like you wanted me to." Eight said as he opened the slip of paper in his hand to stare at the address on it. "I just hope that your friend didn't move on us." Eight said before crumpling both it and the instructions back up and shoving it into his pocket.