Moving on chapter 8
When Peaches and her family finally got back to base that day, Aaron went into the rec room to watch cartoons, after getting permission to do so while Abby and Crystal fell asleep and Sideways put them down in their beds. He then stepped out into the hallway and stood with Peaches. "They are the cutest things." He said.
The orange and red femme didn't reply; she simply went to the main room of the base where Optimus had just finished a video press conference with several humans and stood outside the door. She then simply walked back outside and stared at the sunset; sure, it was harder to see from where she was but it was still sunset more or less. The end of a day and to Peaches, the end of the good things she could list about Sentinel….
(Week before, 2 days before the Chicago battle)
Peaches had walked away but not too far so that Optimus and Sentinel could talk alone. She turned on her iPod and began listening to a song that she would sing to herself if she wasn't so damn nervous and thought of as "unusual" for it. It was "Colors of the Wind" from the Disney movie about Pocahontas. While the movie was not on her list of top 5 Disney movies, the song was actually good.
When she turned off the music and powered off the small device, she said "Never in a million years will I ever take a scene like this for granted yet sunrise and sunset happen so often it's tempting not to think about it; same thing with everything else that always happens on Earth and the people we love."
She had not been talking to anyone in particular but Sentinel had heard her talking about it all. "You do realize-"
"That Abby is going to pass away sooner than the rest of my family." She finished for him. "It still doesn't change the fact that she's my kid, maybe not biologically though that doesn't matter. I've lost too many people already to take everyone and everything I've ever had for granted and I hope you can understand someday why I don't 'stick to the status quo' and yet can still be an Autobot with so many human and Cybertronian friends who care about me."
(Back to present time)
Peaches looked at the letter again, sighing sadly. How hard must it have been to attempt to explain everything when writing that down and without Megatron catching Sentinel. It was hard to picture being in his place and being able to do that. Still not ready to forgive him yet a voice in her head said menacingly.
No, someday she would, just not at this point. Peaches transformed into her human mode and then began listening to her iPod.
What I've done, I'll face myself to cross out what I've become
She switched the song to a different one, not sure of why it had to be playing that song of all of them first. The next song Peaches was listening to was "The Reason". The femme turned off her iPod and sighed sadly.
"Now why would you be sitting out here all alone for an hour?" someone asked.
Peaches turned around and saw Sideways, Aaron, Abby and Crystal walking towards her. She transformed into her robot mode and finally said "You're right; we're family, we can't leave each other to deal with things on our own."
They all sat down, watching the stars come out. Abby and Crystal were pointing at the moon and the latter said "I going there!"
"I don't think so sweetspark." Peaches laughed. "You'd get lonely without the rest of us."
Soon enough, the 2 little girls were asleep and Aaron asked "Peaches, may I call you 'Mom' and Sideways 'Dad'?"
"Of course you may if you want to." Sideways replied as he ran his fingers through the human boy's hair and patted him on the head. "Now come on, we all need to get some sleep since today was a big day. Tomorrow, we'll stay on base and relax and then the day after is Crystal's creation day, or birthday as you'd call it."
"When's your birthday?" the human boy asked.
"I don't really know." The ex-Decepticon answered. It was the best answer he could give as Cybertronian dates and measurements of time were hard to convert to the equivalent human said dates and times. "Now come on, let's go in."
"But Dad"-Aaron yawned-"I'm not sleepy yet."
"I think you most certainly are." Optimus Prime had gone outside to see what was going on after having gone on patrol and helping Ratchet with feeding the hatchlings. "Mind both of them please. Is that clear?"
"Yes sir." Aaron replied as Sideways picked him up in one hand and held Abby in the other one.
Peach was carrying Crystal and went in after her sparkmate, the Autobot leader not far behind and smiling. She let Sideways go way ahead of her with the 2 human kids and stopped as she got into the hallway. She didn't want to say that she was nervous about anything; there was still time to pack up before moving after all but Optimus somehow knew that she needed to talk.
"Peaches, what's the matter?" he asked.
"Nothing much; just glad that I can focus on my family a bit more but my dinner with the President is in 3 days and I have to take all of them with me and I don't have a nice dress to wear in my human form!" She admitted only part of it.
"I think it's something else besides worrying about being 'fashionable'." Optimus said.
"I don't want to talk about it right now though." Peaches sighed and started wondering whether she could handle it if her family was attacked by any 'cons that might still be alive.
The Autobot leader nodded his understanding and bid her good night. The Pretender then walked toward her family's quarters and put Crystal into her crib. She could see that Abby had already been put down and that Sideways was telling Aaron a bed time story. Snowball was lying on the floor but got up as soon as she saw her owner and ran over to the orange and red Autobot to lick her.
Peaches lightly patted the dog's head and said "I'm glad to have you back too."
"Hey Peaches, I need to talk to you!" Ashley was standing by the doorway. "Do you have a few minutes?"
The Pretender looked over to her family. "Just a second, I'll be there."
"Go ahead; we'll be okay." Sideways said to her as he tucked Aaron into bed and made sure that the nightlight was plugged in for Abby and Crystal.
"Good night Mom." Aaron said, yawning again and then finally falling asleep.
"Good night." Peaches walked out of the room and followed Ashley down the hallway.
The human woman then told her friend what she wanted to tell her. "If you need a dress, I can help you find one for a reasonable price."
"Thanks. I'd love that. I'm normally a t-shirt and jeans person as you already know." Peaches started laughing.
"So, see if we can go out tomorrow when I'm done with my shift?" Ashley asked.
"Sure." The Pretender smiled. She bade her friend good night and then went back to her quarters.
Peaches had slept better tonight mainly because of another shared dream with Optimus, but was unaware that someone else was looking for a bit of revenge…
The Decepticon had yet to be discovered by any Autobots that were searching for him. He had been alive this whole time, just not showing himself. He thought of her, the one who had escaped his powers that he had over other Autobots except for Optimus Prime. She had just gotten lucky, having a family like that..wait that was it!
Mindwipe said "Pretender, you will face reality soon…"
Author's note: Yeah, I ended this with a cliffhanger since I'm getting more of an idea of where to go with this story. Thanks to my wonderful Internet friend and beta reader Cairistona for proofreading the last chapter and for reviewing.