Sam woke to the tinny voice of a drive-thru speaker asking with equal parts boredom and enthusiasm if he wanted to try a biggie boy meal today. He almost answered automatically in the negative, still muzzy with sleep and not wanting anything to do with any meal of boys, biggie, smallie or in between. Bumblebee's voice beat him to it.

"No, thank you. We'll have the #3 burger meal, no onions, extra ketchup, a large coke, make the fries chili-cheese and add on an apple crispito."

Oh, right, food, like, food food and Bumblebee remembered he hated onions. Not that he was prone to forgetting things. Probably had a little file saved somewhere with a list of his likes/dislikes, allergies, whatever, all in a neat little spreadsheet. Sam wondered what it said about him that the idea seemed kinda sweet instead of creepy. Stockholm syndrome by proxy. Anyway, it was exactly what he would have ordered himself. Well, almost.

Sam scrubbed a hand over his face as he sat up from his curled-up spot in the backseat, the seatbelt twisting around him uncomfortably. His voice sounded dry and cracked, that coke was going to go down first. "What's a crispito?"

"I have no idea," Bumblebee's holo looked at him via the rearview mirror, green eyes amused, "but it was the only thing on the dessert menu. According to Google, it does not exist so we may be solving a culinary mystery." His expression sobered, gentling, "How are you feeling?"

Good question, Sam wasn't sure himself. By the clock, he'd only been sleeping for about an hour. He must've dropped off after their little recharging interlude while Bumblebee used that time to head off to a nearby town. He stretched with a groan, feeling as sore as if he'd spent an hour running in gym class. As hard as Bumblebee tried, sleeping in the backseat was never going to have the comfort level of a Serta sleeper. How did he feel? Altogether, not fantastic, not terrible.

He reached back and touched the bandaid covered wound on the back of his neck, instinctively flinching in expectation, but it barely hurt; his receptors must've been hard at work while he was asleep.

"I'm okay." He sat up a little more and peered out the passenger side window. Halogen lights mixed with various shades of blinking neon surrounded them. They were legitimately at one of those old-style drive-in restaurants like in an old movie where they brought your food to the car on a tray. No roller skates on the waitstaff, that must be where they drew the line at authenticity. He leaned in closer to the window, taking in the sights. Obligingly, it rolled down for him and let in a little of the night air. It was still stiflingly warm outside but after a day in the dry air conditioning, it felt good. "Where are we?"

"A small town called Kernside." It came from the speakers, not the holoform that was distracted by swiping his credit card through the slot by the menu on the pole beside them. "Not much in the way of a population but your blood sugar is low and there is a drive-thru." There were several other cars pulled up around them despite it being past eleven. Either this was the only restaurant in town or folks stayed up late around here.

"Food sounds amazing," Sam agreed. His stomach growled with comedic timing. "Shame I can't get by on energon like you can."

"It's more convenient but I can't say it's always better." From his holo this time and he turned to look at Sam. "I've been meaning to work on my holoform schematic, I should be able to rework it to allow for taste. It's simply a matter of finding the time."

"That actually sounds like it would be fun." With a little effort, Sam squeezed between the two seats, narrowly managing to avoid kicking Bumblebee in the head as he fell into the passenger side. "I'd love to watch you do some taste tests. Sample every flavor of Doritos, breakfast cereal, sushi."

"Something to look forward to."

A young, disinterested-looking woman came up on the driver's side with a bag and drink in hand. "Number 3," she read off the receipt. At Bumblebee's nod, she thrust the grease-stained white sack and cup into his hands with enough force to dribble soda over the back of his wrist. "Enjoy," she said boredly, popping her gum, and hurried back to the stand in the middle for her next order and out of their lives forever.

"Friendly," Sam muttered and dug in.

Customer service aside, the food was amazing. Maybe it was only because Sam hadn't eaten since that morning, but right at this moment a big, greasy burger and fries tasted like a gourmet feast.

Bumblebee shifted to lean against the door panel, settling in to watch Sam eat. Maybe he was curious, maybe he didn't trust Sam not to make a mess, who knew, but Sam didn't care. The sweet sweet smell of burger was calling out to him, begging to be eaten. He devoured it before moving on to the fries.

"So," Sam said around a mouthful of fry, "I don't have much of an internal compass, but I'm pretty sure we aren't headed back." Not unless the suburbs of LA had a freak time warp incident that took them back to the 70s. This place was straight out of the Happy Days reruns his grandma used to watch.

"We aren't. Not yet."

"Because—?"

"I've been considering our options," Bumblebee said. "The problem with revealing our location to our comrades is it would potentially also reveal our location to anyone who could break the encryption."

"My parents and Mikaela. You sent their location." Trying not to sound accusing or maybe a little. He was still a little pissed Bumblebee hadn't gone back for them.

"I did, and it wasn't because I have less concern for them." Bumblebee swiped a fry and slathered it in chili and cheese, held it up to Sam's lips. Shut up and eat, was it? Sam let it sit there long enough for cheese to dribble down to Bee's fingers then took it, letting his teeth scrape hard enough for Bee to wince. Served him right. "The Decepticons will be recovering from the battle as well, regrouping. I can't know what happened during the battle, but I can certainly guess that the Twins did as much damage as imaginably possible. Probably did whatever was unimaginable, too."

"Yeah, but couldn't somebody track them through the credit card you gave them?"

"If anyone were aware they were using it and also felt like backtracking through the maze of shell corporations and tax havens I have setup, yes. The one I am using is on a separate account. Optimus had me create several for any Autobot with a passing Holoform. I wouldn't exactly say we distrust your government but—"

Sam grimaced. "No, I get you." The events at Hoover Dam wouldn't exactly instill confidence.

"In any case," Bumblebee continued, "they may be a target, but they are not the target. Even if they considered using them as bait, I judge the possibility they will want to risk a full-scale assault for them to be vanishingly low."

"That leaves me as 'the target' still, huh."

"Yes." Bee reached out and a comforting hand settled into Sam's hair. "Which means it's not as simple as sending them our coordinates. If the Decepticons got to us first, I'm not ashamed to say I couldn't hold them off until the others arrived."

He played a quick blurb from Mortal Kombat, the 'fatality' sound clip and, yeah, okay, the humor was dark, but Bee knew him well. Sam snorted a laugh.

"So. What do we do?"

"I've been thinking about that." Bee drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, knees bouncing, shifting in his seat like he'd rather get out and pace. "I have a plan that may work. If I send dozens of highly encrypted messages, hundreds, thousands, each with different coordinates? They can't be everywhere at once. Except one message will have a flag that only Autobots will be able to recognize."

"Sounds like a plan," Sam said around a mouthful of apple crispito. It wasn't bad, sort of like a McD's apple pie with the crust swapped out for a tortilla. "So why are we talking about it and not doing it? What's wrong?"

"A few reasons." Bumblebee ticked each off on a finger. "One, because if I choose poorly and they identify the flag, they may find us first. No encryption is perfect, there is always a chance of them breaking the code. Also, I have no way of knowing if any Autobot was taken hostage. If they've been hacked, the Decepticons will already have all of our recent encryptions."

Sam didn't really want to think about who would be the most likely taken hostage. Left behind, taken and violated, taken and hacked, yeah, no, that was one to think about later. "Can't you come up with something new?"

"Yes, but not quickly." He held his hands outstretched, about a foot apart. "We're talking billions of lines of data encryption. It would take days for me. Usually Prowl handles the encryption keys, he crunches the data faster."

"I think we have to risk it, buddy," Sam said decisively. "I know you're not happy about it, but they need to know about Starscream."

"Buddy?" Bee gave him a lopsided smile. "You haven't called me that in a while."

It was tempting to kiss him, just lean in and wipe away even the faintest uncertainty of that smile. Except there were two cars on either side of them, carhops all around delivering food, and Sam didn't really want to get into it with any locals who took offense. He settled for a teasing smile. "Sweetie honey baby love takes too long to say. Anyway, I'm pretty sure we'll both feel better after Ratchet gets a chance to take a good look at me."

Bee sobered. "Yes. All right, then. That brings us to the second issue. To be able to send them all at the same time I'll need power and lots of it. I'm searching for the closest substation with minimal security that will work for my needs. Much as I want to rejoin the others, I also don't want to risk the lives of other Humans by causing a blackout."

"Yeah, probably won't get you on anyone's good side to take down the western power grid." Sam frowned. "How does that work, I thought you ran on energon."

"We do," Bee agreed, "but my systems are electrical. Electricity doesn't really change no matter what part of the galaxy you're from." Sam wasn't really convinced but that was about normal when it came to Autobot workings. Bumblebee seemed to know it and he tried. "Think of it this way, a human car runs on gasoline, but you still need electricity to start it. To send that many messages at once, I need a jumpstart. A boost."

A boost. Right. Sam licked the last of the cinnamon sugar from his fingers and shrugged. "You're the boss."

The smile Bee gave him was pure mischief. He said, wryly, "Can I quote you on that?"

"Depends on how far we are from a bed."

His green eyes darkened, heating as they flicked over Sam. "I'm not sure if that's an invitation or a warning, but we should get going. Substation first and we can think about how to flag the message on the way."

The passenger side seatbelt came down on its own and clicked home before Bee backed out of the parking spot. He pulled to a pointed stop next to a trash can stationed at the side of the lot and Sam obediently tossed the grease-stained bag and wrappings into it. He didn't blame Bee, he wouldn't want the remains of chili-cheese fries left in his jockey shorts.

They weren't a mile down the road when red and blue flashers came to life behind them.

Bumblebee swore in a mix of English and Cybertronian. "Why would the police be interested in us, I've been very careful to follow all the traffic laws."

Sam craned his neck to look over his shoulder, but the glare of the lights obscured any view of the car itself. "That lady at that other restaurant said she was gonna call the police."

"I know, which is why I changed my license plate after we left town."

"Maybe they're just bored and you're a sports car."

"Then they're about to get some entertainment. Hang on."

Bumblebee's tires squealed as he shifted gears, leaving wide black streaks on the pavement as he tore down the narrow highway. He made a hard left, narrowly missing a streetlamp as he headed out of town and into the blackness of the desert with the flashers coming up behind them.

Sam clung to the 'oh shit' bar above his window, the asphalt in front of them eaten up beneath the front fender as Bee sped down it. He should probably be terrified. Screaming engines and squealing tires and police chasing them, oh my. Maybe a year ago he would've been. Like he'd been meeting Barricade for the first time before he'd known who and what Bee was, cowering and whining in his seat as they crashed through buildings and sped down alleys.

Should be, and maybe he was, a little. But instead of fear or panic, mostly he was exhilarated, watching the scenery blur past them, scrubland and stone swirled up together like a watercolor painting leading to the sky. The town might've looked old, but the blacktop was like new, a smooth dark path to race down, the yellow lines flashing by in the headlights. Bumblebee went up on two wheels around a sharp bend, coming back down with a bounce, and Sam couldn't help laughing, spurred on by Bumblebee laughing with him, the two of them whooping together like idiots in counterpoint to the wail of the siren, caught up in the craziness and there was no place Sam would rather be.

Bumblebee tore around another curve with only the tiniest fishtail, headlights cutting through the darkness suddenly winking out. "We're about to take the scenic route, hold on."

Before Sam could ask what he meant, the deafening sound of transformation surrounded him, cool air conditioning shifting to dry desert heat. He couldn't see, the only lights were from Bumblebee's systems, couldn't tell which way was up, he was caught up in the sensation of falling. It only lasted seconds, he didn't even have time to shout before he was caught in a large hand, jarred hard enough to bite his tongue as Bumblebee slid off the side of the road down an embankment, catching hold of an outcropping of rock and crouching behind it. Sam clung to the large hand around him, gazing down from the dizzying height and listening to the smaller rocks scraped loose falling around them.

Sirens blared past them and kept going. They waited until they could no longer be heard, fading into the distance, then Bumblebee hopped back onto the road and transformed again, swinging open the door for Sam to climb in.

They sped away, this time silently with the headlights turned off. The speedometer tipped up past a hundred and Sam couldn't feel anything past the hum of the tires on the road. Bumblebee's holo flicked back into place behind the wheel. "Sorry about your drink."

For a moment it was like he'd spoken in a foreign language. Adrenaline was still thrumming through Sam, his pulse loud in his ears, the ache of his bitten tongue already fading as his receptors got to work.

He blinked once, twice, mentally rebooting, and looked at the empty cupholder. A casualty of the quick transformation. He shrugged. "It was down to ice cubes, anyway."

"I could have outrun them, but I didn't want to chance running into more. I know my limitations, theirs I'm not so sure about."

"Uh huh," Sam chewed on a ragged hangnail, the tiny pain helping to clear his mind. "That wasn't a small-town sheriff, you know, that was a statey. I wonder if the military is looking for you."

"That's possible, stupid but possible," Bee said grimly, "I can't imagine your government would risk me ending up in a police impound and you in custody, but…well. It would hardly be the first foolish attempt your government has made to control us. All the more reason for us to get back with the others."

"Strength in numbers."

"Definitely. The sooner, the better. If the Decepticons are monitoring the police channels, one of them might come to this area to check it out, so we're going to ride for a little while, go to a substation a little further out. I can cloak from Decepticon sensors, but that ceases being useful once they have line of sight."

He flipped on the radio, rolling the dial through static and gibberish until a station finally came in mostly clear, with only the occasional pop and crack. The song was a familiar one, the Cars crooning about driving her home tonight. One of the first he ever heard Bee play. It made something warm swell in his chest, yeah, it'd been about Mikaela except not. His first drive out with Bumblebee and he couldn't have known how much his life would change from then.

"…can't go on, thinking nothing's wrong…"

An idea struck him. Music, the first way Bee ever communicated with him. "Bee? Do you think they have Mikaela and my parents yet?"

"Barring complications, they should. Optimus would consider it a high priority."

"Good." Sam said, his mind whirling. "That message you're going to send, can you put an attachment on it? Like an MP3?"

"Sure," Bee said slowly, then he grinned, understanding lighting up in his eyes, "What did you have in mind?"

The substation wasn't quite in the middle of nowhere, but it was definitely within spitting distance. It was lit from on-high by two enormous floodlights, casting it in a sodium yellow glow. Sam could hear the hum of the equipment from where Bumblebee let him out, subsonics making his hair stand on end. The empty desert around them did not help, nothing but rocks and scrubby bushes. It gave him the same creepy vibes as a cemetery, a mausoleum of electrical energy, a ghost town made of metal struts and overhanging wires.

Next to him, Bumblebee transformed, and not gonna lie, it was comforting to have a giant alien robot on his side in this Spooksville, USA.

"Stay here and no matter what happens, keep back," Bumblebee said sharply. His optics glowed as bright as the floodlights. "This voltage is enough to kill you very quickly and very painfully."

Sam nodded and took a couple respectful steps back. "Hurts the entire time I'm dying, got it."

There was a stone outcropping nearby and Sam sat down on it, watching as Bumblebee approached the substation. He knew Bee was going to jack in somehow, had to be some way to start siphoning off that energy. If he'd expected anything, he supposed he thought there would be some kind of cable, like this was the world's largest wall outlet and Bumblebee would plug in.

What he was not expecting was Bee to just reach out and grab hold of the scaffolding. Sparks flew and Sam couldn't hold back a yelp, flinching away from the brilliance that nearly blinded him. Phantoms cast across his vision as he narrowed his eyes and watched, eyes watering as he took in the unexpected beauty of it. Electricity arced off the wings of Bee's doors, spidering around him, shimmering over the metal struts and across the ground. Falling like a deafening cascade of lightning over a metallic angel fallen to earth.

Sam stood transfixed, watching as Bee spread his arms and took the power on offer as he sent out messages across the world, in the hopes that only the right people, their friends, would find them.

So beautiful, so fucking beautiful and Sam loved him, loved him so, so much and the way he wanted him right in this moment had nothing to do with receptors.

As quickly as it started, it was over, Bee let go and stepped back, the last sparks disappearing as he gave himself a shake like a dog shedding water.

"That's it, then," Bee said, and did he sound a little gravely? Like static caught in his throat, maybe his vocal cables hadn't cared much for the show. He walked over to Sam and transformed, opening the passenger door in an invitation that Sam ignored.

Instead, he crawled up on the hood to lay on warm metal as he looked up at the stars. He could feel the life in it, humming beneath him. No ordinary car, not at all.

"Sam?" Closer than Bee's speakers. A hand settled on his chest over his heart and Sam covered it with one of his own.

"I love you so much," Sam said. He traced the constellations with his eyes, Cassiopeia, the big dipper, all surrounding the north star. "You know that, right? It's never been about sex or messing around or anything else. I love you."

The stars vanished as Bee's holo leaned over him, smiling softly, "Then it's a good thing I love you, too."

"Really good," Sam said thickly, almost slurred, remembering how Bee looked with electricity pouring over him. "Because I want you so bad right now, I think I might come in my pants."

That softness in Bee's gaze changed, darkened, banked heat beneath pale green eyes. He grinned, touched the tip of his tongue lightly to his upper teeth, running it slowly across the even, white line. "Well, we can't have that."

It was ridiculous, insanity, to be here like this. Decepticons were probably hunting them, maybe the government too, their friends looking for them, and here Sam was, sprawled out on Bee's hood with his holoform naked and heavy on top of him.

Sam's pants were only yanked down to his upper thighs, smooth metal warm against his bare backside and a warm, oh, so human hand around him, holding their cocks together in a tight grip as Bee stroked them both. His hand was so soft, free of calluses and Sam wondered wildly if that was something he could add, how would that even feel.

He'd kicked off his shoes, his bare feet catching leverage on glossy metal as he arched up into Bee's hand, moaning wordlessly. He tipped his head back to stare up at Bumblebee, his mouth reddened with kisses and over his shoulders was a canopy of glistening stars overhead. Sensation swamped over him, caught up in the beauty and the pleasure of it as Sam choked out a cry and came, felt Bee shuddering against him as he followed.

Sam collapsed back, panting heavily and Bumblebee went with him, lying there belly to belly with his come drying on them both as they caught their breath.

"We need to go," Bee said at last. "Before anyone thinks to come out and check the power surges."

"We have to get to the coordinates, too," Sam mumbled. He sat up, frowning at the mess drying on his stomach. One of his socks was probably going to get sacrificed for the cause. "Won't do us much good if they get there and we aren't waiting."

"That, too." Bee gave him a last, gentle kiss before he rolled off to the ground. He stretched, yawning loudly. "Once we're back in the safe zone, I'm planning on recharging for most of a day."

"You told my mom you could go, like, a month without recharging," Sam said, only half-teasing. The rest of him was curious, it was always better to have more info than less, that was a lesson he'd learned pretty damn well these past few weeks.

Bee gave him a look, wrinkling his nose, and damn if it wasn't adorable. "That may have been a slight exaggeration. Technically, I can, but I wouldn't be very happy about it. By about fifteen days, I'd be glitching and by twenty there would definitely be signs of short-term data corruption in my verbal speech. Doesn't help that it's essentially delaying recharge, not bypassing. Eventually it stacks up enough to go into catastrophic failure. I can do it if it's necessary for an emergency, but otherwise I'd rather get my recharge as we normally do."

"Yeah, humans can go a couple weeks without food, but I sure wouldn't want to."

This time when the passenger door swung open, Sam climbed in, one sock on and the other left on the ground behind him. He buckled the seatbelt on his own as Bee climbed in next to him and gravel crunched under the tires as he pulled back out to the road, speeding out into the night towards what was either going to be a pickup zone or an ambush.

Very soon, time would tell.

tbc