OMG I'm so sorry for not updating for a while, but RL has been hell. Here's another chapter of OWR. It's a bit shorter than I wanted but it's kind of heavy. I had a hard time figuring out how to write what I wanted to happen, but I'm happy with how it turned out. As always anything recognizable is not mine, I'm just playing with characters owned by people much more creative than me. Enjoy the chapter!
Cahira walked through the doors of the med bay, and turned around to walk right back out, but was picked up by an unamused Jazz.
"Damn." She muttered. Cahira had been avoiding everyone on the base. She felt like she didn't belong there. She was a freak of nature and needed to be kept away from everyone to save them from having to deal with her. Ratchet had sent her a text message to come to the med bay. Maybe she should consider getting rid of the cell phone, then she could plead ignorance, but the bots would never go for that, it was merely wishful thinking.
Jazz set her down in front of Ratchet, who immediately ran a scan on her.
"Hey! What's the big idea?" She glared at the yellow mech.
"I want to make sure the energon isn't doing anything else to you." Ratchet stated. "It looks like your bones have a higher metal count than normal." He picked the girl up. "You need to be careful. I think being in such close proximity to us has accelerated the process."
Cahira threw her hands in the air. "Great. Just great. Why does this shit always happen to me?"
Jazz scooped the girl up into his hand and carried her out of the med bay. He transformed around her and took off out of the base. Cahira was in the passenger seat, and Jazz activated his holoform.
"So," He said, a bit awkwardly, "you want to tell me what's going on?"
Cahira folded her arms across her chest and turned away from him. "Not really."
Jazz drove on in silence for a while until they came to a small ridge overlooking the highway. His holoform got out and walked to the passenger side. After sending a small command to open the door he grabbed Cahira and pulled her from his mech form.
"Hey-" Cahira stumbled. "Watch it. What the hell do you think you're doing Jazz?" She stood in front of him and crossed her arms.
"I just want to make sure you're okay. You're not acting like you usually do." Jazz said, trying to get her out of her defensive stance.
"There's nothing wrong with how I'm acting." Cahira accused.
Jazz put his hands up. "Hey, I didn't say there was. I just said it was different."
Cahria sighed and leaned against the back of the Solstice. "It's just happening too fast, you know? I don't know what to think. Hell I don't know who I am anymore."
"You're Cahira Whelan. Femme with a, what was it? Oh, spitfire attitude, and can stand her ground with any mech when you're in the mood to. You're smart, pit, Ratchet took you on as an apprentice. He never takes apprentices. You know how to deal with just about any problem, and you won't stay down, no matter how many times they try." Jazz walked over to her. "You're amazing."
Cahira smiled slightly and shook her head. "That's not what I meant. I mean I know who I am, I guess it's more what I am that has me confused. Am I human, or Cybertronian? Or am I a hybrid? I just don't know where I belong anymore."
"It doesn't matter. No matter what, you'll always have us." Jazz gave her a hug.
"Thanks Jazz, but it does matter. I was born human, raised human, ergo I should be human. But something changed. I dunno if it was the energon or something that creepy insect bot did, or what, but I'm different now. And I don't know how to deal with it." She buried her face in his chest and clung to him.
"It'll be okay. Ratchet will figure it out." Jazz pushed her away gently, "Now hows about we have some fun and get your processor off all this heavy slag."
Cahira laughed softly, "Mind, Jazz. The phrase is mind off of it. I don't have a processor, well, I do if you count the electronics I carry, but then that's not really me." She looked at him quizzically, "What did you have in mind to do?"
Jazz rubbed the back of his neck, "Uh, I hadn't really thought that far ahead."
Cahira shook her head. She got in the Solstice and said, "Then we'll figure it out on the way."
Optimus Prime was looking over some data pads when he heard the exasperated vocals of his SIC.
"What in the pit is so fun about hitting a small ball into a hole? And why the slag was there a windmill in the way." There was a pause. "What do you mean 'It's a child's game'?"
Now Optimus's interest was piqued. He got up and peaked out the door to see Jazz carrying Cahira, the small human that his spark mate was beginning to see as his sparkling. "What are you two talking about?" He asked.
Cahira laughed and replied, "Mini-golf!"
Jazz scowled at the femme in his hand. "How is it mini? The ball is the same size and you use a stick to hit the ball. I still don't see how that's fun."
"Mini-golf?" Optimus asked, unsure if he really wanted to know, but he did want a distraction from the boring data pads.
Cahira nodded enthusiastically, obviously amused by Jazz and Optimus's confusion. "It's called mini-golf because the distance from the tee to the hole is shorter. And you were the one that wanted to try it. Personally I prefer mini-golf to regular golf. It's always fun to see what obstacles they put on the course. Regular golf is just boring." An evil looking grin appeared on her face, "Then there's Frisbee golf, which I think is kind of hard, but fun all the same. Then again I can't aim a Frisbee very well to begin with. I usually have a better chance of hitting a bystander than I do the goal."
Jazz and Optimus looked at each other. Humans were strange creatures.
"Oh c'mon. I'm not making it up. Frisbee is a flat piece of, usually, plastic that you throw and it spins and hovers. Depending on the angle and speed you throw it determines where it goes." Cahira started tapping her foot, "Just look it up online."
Optimus shook his head slightly, vaguely wondering if all humans had a glitch in their sanity centers, and said, "You seem to be in better spirits, Little One."
Cahira froze. Little One. That was something her mother called her, something she hadn't been called since she died.
"I'm sorry, Cahira. I didn't mean to upset you, it's just your kind is so much younger than us, and I forget you become an adult when we would still be sparklings." Optimus held out his hand and Jazz moved his charge to Optimus's.
Cahira snapped out of her memories. "It's not that. It's just...I haven't been called that since my mother died." She glanced at Optimus. "I don't mind it. It just caught me off guard."
Jazz slipped out the door. He could see that Optimus wanted to get to know the femme that had so impressed Ratchet.
"I see." Optimus said. "If it brings up such bad memories then I will not use it."
"NO! I mean its okay. It's not bad memories, they're good ones. It just wasn't expecting it." Cahira said. She was a little intimidated by this powerful bot, not because of his status, but because of the power he had over how the rest of her life would go. She clasped her hands behind her back and looked down at his hand.
Optimus chucked. "Ratchet always said you had a very interesting personality and you didn't fear us." He looked at her and used a digit to gently lift her chin to look at his optics. "Why are you so hesitant?"
Cahira startled the mech by flopping down on his hand. "I don't know how to act around you."
"What do you mean, Little One?" Optimus tried out the pet name again.
Cahira smiled at the term of endearment. "It's just, I'm a little country girl with no clue how to act around anyone of status. You're the leader of the Autobots. That must mean something right? I also don't want to disappoint Ratchet." The last part was almost inaudible to his audios.
"Disappoint Ratchet? How would you disappoint him?" He asked.
"He's the closest thing I've ever had to a father, and you're his spark mate. I think it's more I want you to approve of me, because in the end, I know it will be you he chooses, if it comes to that. I don't want to lose that, the feeling of safety, of family, that I get around him. I guess," She sighed, "I guess I was hoping that maybe I could increase my family by one more bot." She looked down and shuffled her feet nervously.
Optimus was stunned. This little human femme wasn't intimidated because he was leader of the Autobots, she wasn't intimidated because he was a Prime; she was intimidated because he was Ratchet's spark mate. He couldn't help, he laughed.
Cahira bit her lip and felt tear well up in her eyes. She should have known it wouldn't work out. Something always would go wrong, just when everything felt so right. She turned away from Optimus's face and tried to figure out how to get off his hand.
Optimus looked at the femme in his hand and was startled when she sat on the edge of his servo looked at the ground 15 feet below. "Cahira, Little One, what are you doing?"
Cahira continued to focus on the ground. How to get down so she could find the best place to hide herself away from the shame? She had opened up and bared some of her fears and wishes to Optimus and he had laughed in her face. She nearly fell off her precarious perch when she felt something trail down her back. She looked over her shoulder to see it was one of Optimus's fingers.
Optimus was startled to see the glassy sheen in Cahira's eyes. "What's wrong, Little One?"
Cahira shook her head. "It doesn't matter. It won't happen no matter how much I wish otherwise." She shut her eyes, holding the tears back. "Would you please put me down?" She never noticed that he was still calling her 'Little One'.
Optimus was now confused, but did as the little femme asked.
"Good day, Optimus Prime." Cahira walked out of the office and disappeared around the corner.
Optimus was surprised. In all the time he had known Cahira, she had never called him by his title, content with calling him Optimus. He pondered the sudden change in the femme's attitude and decided to pay Ratchet a visit to see if his spark mate had any idea to why the change came about.
"You did WHAT after she said she wanted to consider you family?" Ratchet whacked his spark mate on the back of his helm with a wrench. "You slagging glitch-head!"
Optimus tried to fend off his spark mate's wrenches as he asked, "What do you mean? I didn't do anything! She just turned away and then asked to be put on the ground. Stop hitting me!"
"Of all the glitching things you could have done, you laughed! She must have thought you were laughing at the idea that you could accept her. What in the pit possessed you to laugh?" Ratchet had stopped hitting Optimus, but still held the wrench in his hand. Optimus eyed it warily before answering.
"I found it amusing that even after learning everything she has about us, she wasn't intimidated because of what my status was, she wasn't intimidated because I was a Prime. She was intimidated because I was your spark mate. It took one little human femme to make me realize that I'm not just a Prime, or the leader of the Autobots."
Ratchet vented his tanks, put his wrench away (Optimus was very happy to see it disappear) and pinched the bridge of his olfactory receptors. He explained that Cahira probably took it the wrong way and thought he was laughing at the idea of being a family. "Come on you glitching aft, let's go find our sparkling."
Cahira made her way to the roof where she sat on the edge of the building and finally broke down. It had been a long time since she had cried. Tears fell silently down her cheeks. How could she have thought that any of them would think of her as anything but a passing memory?
She knew their lifespans were inconceivably long, especially seeing as Bumblebee was the youngest and he was over twenty thousand years old. Bee wasn't even considered an adult mech yet, he was still a youngling. She had been selfish. She shouldn't have thought that any of them would feel any sort of kinship with her.
She didn't know how long she sat there, but slowly the tears stopped falling and she stared blankly at the setting sun. She jumped when she felt two holoforms sit on either side of her. She stiffened when she recognized their signatures as Ratchet and Optimus.
"I would like to apologize, Little One." The one that felt like Optimus said. "I didn't mean to laugh at you. I was laughing at the fact that of all things that could have made me intimidating to you, it was because I was Ratchet's spark mate that you were intimidated."
"The slagger didn't realize that you might have taken it the wrong way." Ratchet said.
"Why was it funny that I was intimidated because of that?" She asked softly.
"Because I have become so used to everyone being intimidated for many reasons, size, that I'm a Prime, I'm leader of the Autobots, many reasons. But you were the first to be intimidated because of who my spark mate was to you. After Ratchet told me what you may have though when I laughed, I looked up surrogate caretakers and realized that you thought I was rejecting you. I wasn't."
"You weren't?" Cahira looked at Optimus in disbelief.
Optimus was surprised to see the slightly red eyes and evidence that she had been leaking, crying according to the internet. "No I wasn't. I wasn't expecting what you said and it caught me off guard. Are you alright?"
Cahria realized she must have had tear tracks on her face and ducked her head to try to rub them off. "I'm fine." She mumbled.
Ratchet looked at the femme curiously, but Optimus shook his head. Ratchet nodded his head and stood up. He gave the two a little bit of space; he knew this was something the two of them needed to work out for themselves.
"No, you're not. I upset you. I'm sorry." Optimus said.
Cahria knew she wouldn't get out of this conversation, especially with Ratchet there as well. She harbored a small hope that it had all been a big misunderstanding. "You still haven't said anything."
Optimus tilted his head in confusion. "What?"
Cahira let out a bitter laugh. "You haven't said anything in response to my slip up." She saw the confusion increase. "When I said I hoped I could increase my family by one more bot."
Ratchet's processor stalled for a moment. She thought of him as family? Her reaction made a lot more sense now. She was treating Optimus like a new step-parent. He fervently prayed to Primus that Optimus straightened everything out.
"Of course, you can increase it by one more bot." Ratchet nearly vented his tanks in relief that Optimus had said that, "In fact I think your family will be increasing by a few more bots in the near future."
Cahira blinked, and processed what he said. Then she nearly launched herself at Optimus wrapping her arms around him in a hug. "Thank you."