Moving on chapter 14
It was the night after Sideways' visit that Peaches was dreaming again; this time, she had allowed Optimus to share this dream with her. The setting was a made-over abandoned warehouse, similar to where Peaches and Sideways would move with their kids and their dog. Outside other children were playing on a swing set, in a sandbox and in an inflatable kiddie pool with Crystal, Aaron, and Abby while the Pretender and the ex-Decepticon as well as several teenagers were watching them to make sure no one got hurt. Snowball, the only dog there, was running around the yard with several children chasing her then stopping and resting to let the children pet her head.. Soon the only ones left were of course the adopted children belonging to the unusual couple, their sparkling and a few other kids and teens who then subsequently went inside.
On the beach, Peaches said "That's basically what I've been imagining myself and Sideways doing; fostering children and teens that no one else seems to want and opening a home daycare for other kids. I think that letting teens that are old enough to volunteer to help out would be a good way to teach them responsibility for their actions and thinking of others."
"I do believe that you both will be able to do that if you give it a shot." Optimus Prime said smiling "I always had a feeling you were called to do something besides be a soldier when you adopted Abby with Sideways and began raising her as your own. There are many times that I've seen you upset over news stories which involve children coming to harm and the fact that you wish to keep them from it if at all possible warms my spark and causes a bit of wishful thinking on my part."
"I know; there are many people who can't have kids like my human parents who are suited to having them and then the 'parents' who have kids and either don't take care of them, abuse them, sometimes a mix of both. Then there are those who cand and do have kids and take care of them and I also wish more people would think of the next generation; they're our future and if we don't raise them right, how much worse will the problems on Earth get?" The Pretender replied sadly.
The Autobot leader gave her a hug. "Unfortunately, you can not force anyone to make the right choice but you can do so yourself and perhaps inspire those around you to also help others who need it."
Peach was comforted by this. "I'll always try my best to remember that."
(Sometime later, Sideways' POV)
Peach was finally out of the medical bay after a little over 2 weeks recovering. I had decided to postpone the move so that we could all go to our new home together; myself, Peaches, Aaron, Abby, Crystal and of course, Snowball would be leaving today in order to get settled in. My sparkmate had been having a talk with Optimus and Elita, reassuring them that we both would be fine as well as be alert for any other Decepticons that might still be out there.
When Peaches was ready, she hugged everyone on base goodbye, even Mearing, who seemed relieved that the femme would not be able to do that so often anymore. We already had everything we needed from our quarters packed into subspace and both human kids had used the bathroom, even though we would only be driving about 2-3 hours to get to where we were going.
I opened the door to my alt mode and Peaches put Snowball's kennel on the seat. We checked to be sure that said dog was in the kennel and that all 3 children were in the backseat. They were so we bid everyone a good bye and I heard Optimus say "Till all are one my friends".
"Till all are one" Peaches and I repeated as we headed west towards the state of Virginia, ending one chapter of our lives and beginning another.
Four days later, we were all settled in. It was 8:00 p.m., meaning that the kids had to get into bed in about half an hour.
"Why do we have to go to bed early?" Aaron asked.
"Yeah" Crystal added.
Peach sighed but was able to come up with a good explanation. "Kids, your father and I are older than you so we can stay up later and don't need nearly as much rest. Also he and I need to have what we call our 'special alone time' together where we do things to show how much we love each other that you can't see or do until you're grown up. Don't try to walk in on us any of you, is that clear?"
"Yes Mommy." Abby and Crystal replied.
"Okay." Aaron said, seemingly satisfied with my sparkmate's answer.
"Okay son, go ahead and get ready; when I've got your sisters' PJs on, I'll tell all 3 of you a story." I told them.
When they all were ready, Peaches cleaned the kitchen and I took both humans and one sparkling into the living room of the former-warehouse-turned-living-space and made up a story to tell them. All of them liked it but were asleep by the end of it.
"Sideways, I'll put them into their beds." My sparkmate volunteered.
"Go ahead love; I can wait a few more minutes." I told her, handing all 3 younglings over to her.
Peaches took them to their own rooms, and I went into our quarters and wiped the berth off, even though it didn't really need cleaning. Maybe I was obsessing too much about perfection since for both my femme and I, this was the first time we had ever done something like sparkbonding but I still felt it had to be done.
"I'm here my mech; the children are all recharging, safe and sound." The orange and red femme I had known for nearly 2 years said to me as she walked in 10 minutes later. She sounded just as nervous as I was.
I got onto the berth, she lay down next to me and I told her "You know, we don't have to do this now."
"I rather would." Peaches replied, somewhat quietly. "It's just that I'm scared."
"Peach, I will stop if you ask me to." I reassured her as I began rubbing her back and embraced her.
"You promise?" she asked, still slightly apprehensie.
"I promise." I replied. "There's nothing to be scared of; the kids are safe in their beds, Snowball's inside and we have the security system on to warn us of any intruders.
"That's not what I"m scared of." Peaches admitted.
I grinned, not evilly but in a mischievious way. I slipped one hand under the plating that resembled clothed human breasts and felt the liquid that made up the protoform underneath.
"Sideways!" She wanted to scold me but I could tell that she was enjoying it. "That's what I was scared of!"
"I told you shouldn't be, Peaches." I replied laughing a little bit.
"That's not funny!" Peaches insisted but she was holding back her own laughter.
She would not admit to liking it if I had asked her but I moved my hand away to ease her fears. For a while, we just kissed each other and interfaced then came the actual sparkbonding. Both of our sparks briefly leaving their casing and merging together can't really be described here. Whether one could describe it or not, soon I could see Peaches' memories as a human and everything she had been through after finding out that she was Cybertronian; she in turn saw my time as a sparkling, my service in the Decepticon army and my near death as well as what happened when I had met her and afterwards.
When we finally let go each of each other, our sparks behind their protective casings, we both smiled.
"That was insanely pleasing." Peaches said.
"I think you 'hit the nail on the head' with that description as humans say." I replied, smiling and relieved that we had both been able to do this.
That was when we heard Crystal screaming; we both got up and ran to her room. After Peaches found a new lightbulb for the nightlight and I comforted our youngest daughter to assure that whatever the nightmare was that she was having was not going to happen, she was in recharge again. We went back to our own quarters and settled down to also get our recharge for the night.
"I think I've had enough excitement for one night." I admitted.
"We'll wait a while before doing that again." Peaches said. "It's not that I didn't like it; I actually did."
I embraced Peaches; I had had a feeling she was going to admit it but hadn't thought it would be soon afterwards. Still, we recharged well and had only pleasant dreams of each other, the children, Snowball, and our human and Cybertronian friends. I was confident that a new home and a new member of the family was just the beginning of the next chapter of our adventures that we would have throughout the rest of our lives even though in some ways it was sad knowing that the previous one had ended.
Several months went by; Peaches and I had another sparkling who she insisted on naming "Silver Dollar" after her 2nd favorite theme park Silver Dollar City or "Silver" for short; he had been one of the hatchlings discovered in Chicago and we had insisted on taking him in. He was 2 months old and quite a handful but loved his siblings. We also had taken in a human foster child named Tyler, a redhead who was 8 years old right now. It was also Christmas time again; this time, we were all spending it in our home. Optimus and Elita came to visit us on Christmas Eve, much to the delight of all of the kids, human and Cybertronian alike as well as ours.
"Story please?" Abby asked.
"First, we need to tell your parents some good news." Elita said smiling.
"What's that?" Peaches asked.
"Silver will soon have a playmate close to his age." Optimus replied. "Elita and I are going to have our own sparkling after all this time."
"Congratulations." we both said.
"Story now please!" Crystal insisted, getting impatient with all of us "grown ups".
The last of the Primes smiled. "Which story do you want to hear?"
"Could you tell us where Autobots and Decepticons came from?" Tyler wondered.
"Well, when a mech and femme love each other-" I started to tell him.
"Sideways don't!" Peaches warned me. "I think they mean what happened before Cybertronians came to Earth eg the beginning of our race and everything after that."
"Yeah, that's what I meant." the red haired human became embarassed.
Elita One then let the kids climb onto her lap and some of them climbed onto Optimus, except for Silver who wanted to stay in his mother's arms. We didn't mind though; we stood by and listened to the story we had heard before, excited that the next generation was hearing it for the first time in their lives.
Optimus Prime began the story as he always had when he told it. "Before time began, there was the cube..."
Author's note: I'm kind of sad that this is ending but I have other things I want to work on, including my first Transformers: Cybertron story as well as finally getting the next chapter of Transformers: the bonds of family finished and uploaded.