Author's Note: I'm so sorry for the long wait. I have no excuses. So, here's the next chapter. Kinda a filler, but that's okay. Next chapter will have more plot development (mostly since someone's made an appearance *hint hint*). So, read on!

Chapter 8

Confinement and Rusty Lambos

The All spark had been destroyed. Megatron was defeated. Mission City was in ruins.

Lyra's father was working damage control with the rest of his Special Ops team, so he hadn't accompanied her back to the Hoover Dam. Noah was snuggled up in her arms in the backseat of Ratchet's alt mode as the medic drove them to their destination. The "Doc Bot", as Bumblebee, who had suddenly started regained his ability to speak, had called the medic, had wanted to monitor her condition to make sure she didn't go into shock.

After she had awoken from her encounter with the metamorph (and nearly had her rib cage collapse thanks to Mikaela's frantic hugging), Lyra had found Noah clinging onto their dad. When he had spotted her, though, he had completely abandoned their father and practically tackled her.

Ratchet hadn't been amused.

Now, the siblings were dozing off, the eldest being kept from slumber by the periodic whirring of a full body scan and the intense pain she was in. If that wasn't enough, the slightest shift her kid brother made resulted with a world of agony.

"Perhaps you should remove the boy from your grasp," Ratchet stated.

"Perhaps," Lyra replied, gritting her teeth to keep herself from screaming.

There was a pregnant pause of silence. Ratchet was waiting for the girl to move her brother. Lyra was trying to fall into unconsciousness.

Neither happened.

"Why do you humans insist on ignoring what's best for your health?" the 'bot asked in exasperation.

"Why do you robots not understand why we humans do what we do?" she chuckled, leaning her head back in an attempt for comfort.

There was more silence.

Then...

"Ow!" A slender, metallic appendage had softly and swiftly unfolded itself from the roof of the car and injected a clear liquid into Lyra's arm. "What the heck was that!?"

"A simple, fast acting anesthetic. You are in immense pain, and it should help ease it. Unfortunately, there is a sixty to eighty percent chance that you'll lose con—"

The brunette didn't hear the rest of the medic's words before she fell to the sweet mercy of sleep.

It had been a week. A week stuck at the Hoover Dam. A week of being confined to Ratchet's makeshift med bay. A week of pain meds and mush the doctors called food.

Lyra was sick of it.

They (meaning every human who had had direct contact with the aliens) had been forced to stay at the Hoover Dam as they were debriefed and the cover story had been successfully circulated.

The hospital smell made Lyra nauseous, though, and the lack of visitors made her anxious. Noah hadn't been allowed to visit her (something about not getting overexcited), and she had the developed the habit of curling her toes to calm her nerves. Which, mind you, was not something her phalanges appreciated.

"Please?"

"Absolutely not."

"Please."

"Negative."

"Please!"

"No."

"PLEASE!"

"Since you do not seem to be grasping the concept of 'no', I shall express it in your native tongue: No."

"PLE—wait. How'd you know I speak Spanish?"

"Your father has been muttering in the language for a third of a decacycle. It has been driving the other humans 'up the wall'."

"Oh..." Lyra said lamely, twiddling her thumbs as she stared off into space. A silence ensued between the patient and doctor as Ratchet worked off in the corner on what appeared to be no ore than a pile of scrap metal. "I-is he g—you can't save him can you?"

The sound of air rushing out of a vent was her answer as Ratchet stilled in his work. The silence was even thicker now.

"Jazz was a great comrade. His off-lining is tragic, but he's served his duty as an Autobot. To bring him back would not be 'saving' him. It would be forcing him to endure this war much longer than he must," Ratchet finally said as he returned to his work.

"Then...what are you doing?" she asked quietly.

"It would be dishonorable to allow a comrade to remain in pieces after he gave his life to protect the defenseless," the mech clipped.

"So, it's like a funeral," Lyra surmised, wincing a bit at what the word implied.

Death.

Noah had been dead in that dream—no; it was a nightmare. A horrible, disturbing nightmare that Lyra never wanted to think about again.

What would she had done? If it had been real? If she had chosen to back out of her promise, would it have remained real? Would that world, the one with an enraged mother and MIA brother, would it be where she would live? Would she wake up everyday to a place not lit up with Noah's smiling face?

Lyra didn't have all the answers, and, if there was one thing she absolutely detested, it was not knowing everything.

"I suppose you could address it as such," Ratchet said offhandedly, "Though we do not make a show of it as you humans do."

"I see," she muttered, getting distracted by her thoughts.

There was silence again. They were both stuck in their thoughts now. Life and Death. Two topics that left the duo feeling somber. The Autobots were all still mourning the loss of Jazz. Optimus chose to suffer in silence, putting on a brave face for the others as he negotiated day and night with the humans of Earth.

Lyra didn't know of this of course. Her main source of gossip was banned from the med lab despite her pleas to allow the young boy to visit her.

"...please?"

"Fine."

"—and I saw Optimus, and he was huge! He was like this big," Noah exclaimed, stretching his arms out as far as he could to show his elder sister just how big the Boss Bot was. "And Mikaela! I met her! She was so nice. Sam's a bit stupid, but he's cool too."

"What did I say about calling people stupid?" Lyra said sternly as she played with her brother's hair.

"Not to," the boy grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. His dreary mood disappeared quickly though as he continued on with his encounters with the Transformers cast. "And Epps! He's so awesome! He let me hold his gun and showed me how to point it and how you sho—"

"He what!?" the brunette screeched sitting up quickly from her lying down position on her bed. Noah fell back, seeing as he had been leaning on her, and gulped, having realized that he had said something he wasn't supposed to.

"Uh, he let have some gum?"

"No'," she warned.

"Heletmeholdhisgun, I'm sorry!"

"I'm gonna kill him," Lyra muttered to herself before sighing.

The two siblings were all alone in the med bay, Ratchet, the Autobots, Sam and Mikaela having gone off to bury Jazz. The was a hill not too far from the Dam with a rather scenic view that Mikaela had stumbled upon the day before as she and Ironhide had gone to pick up some few essentials that the two teenage girls needed.

Lyra decided to use this rare moment alone to speak to her brother about more serious matters. "Noah?"

"Yeah, Ly?" Noah asked hesitantly, wringing his hands as he thought that he was going to get in trouble.

"You haven't...told anyone, have you? Ya know, about the...movie?" She was being vague (who knew whether or not anyone was listening in at the moment), but Noah still understood.

"I tried to tell dad," he admitted, his shoulders slumping, "but he told me that I needed to stop playing around. That this is real life and I couldn't see it as a game."

"Oh," Lyra said, figures. "I think," she licked her lips nervously, "I think it's best if we don't tell anyone."

"What? You mean, like, lie?" Noah asked, puzzled. "But you said it's bad to lie!"

"No. Not lie. I meant," she sighed running a hand through her hair, "I meant that we should keep it a secret. Just between us. We're not lying, just not telling everyone the truth."

Noah was staring at his sister in disbelief, but, slowly, he started to nod. "Yeah. I get it. That was the Deceptiscum don't come after us, right? Like when Galloway gave away all the secrets on the video chat and all of the Decepti—"

"Yeah, Noah. Exactly like that," Lyra cut in, forcing a smile. She held out her pinky. Noah quickly clasped it with his own.

"It's a promise," the siblings chorused, sharing a secretive smile.

Lyra was sitting on 'Bee's hood eating a cheeseburger in the main hangar with Sam, Mikaela and Noah. They were celebrating her first day out of Hell, ahem, the med bay, with the most unhealthy food possible.

Noah was choking down curly fries and a milkshake, as was Sam, and Mikaela was trying to open her mouth wide enough to scarf down a Gordo burger. The disgusted looks the quartet were receiving were ignored; they were too lost in their temporary bliss to care.

"I missed this," Lyra moaned, leaning back on the Camaro's windshield. "It's like heaven in my mouth."

"Like an orgasm without having to deal with a pigheaded moron," Mikaela agreed.

Sam choked on a fry, coughing and spluttering as he blushed crimson. Noah, bless his innocent heart, was looking up at the ravenette in confusion.

"What's an orgasm?"

"Nothing you need to worry about, No'!" Lyra chimed in, shooting a quick glare at Mikaela as she tried to keep herself from smiling. Though she found the comment funny, the last thing she wanted was for her little brother to get corrupted.

"Sorry," Mikaela laughed sheepishly as Noah shrugged and went back to eating his fries.

"So, Lyra, what're ya gonna do after this whole thing, ya know, ends?" Sam asked when he finally recovered.

"I don't really know. I mean, I haven't had time to talk to my dad yet," Lyra shrugged, silently watching her brother eat. "We're probably gonna live with our mother," she sighed dejectedly.

"Do we have to?" Noah asked quietly. The three teenagers turned to look at the boy, Sam and Mikaela in confusion, Lyra with a stony acceptance.

"'Fraid so."

"C-can't we stay with Sam? Or Mikaela?" he asked softly. Noah lowered his head so that no one could see his eyes, but it was obvious by his soft sniffling and strained voice that he was either crying or close to it.

"I can't ask that of them."

"Why do I feel like we're missing something?" Sam asked loudly, staring between the siblings quizzically.

"I-Guys, is there something you wanna say?" Mikaela asked calmly, eying the two warily.

"'Kaela," Noah whimpered, cranking up the cuteness as he gazed up the gear head with large, watery eyes, "can Ly and I come live with you? Mommy's mean."

"I, uh, um," she stuttered, biting her lip as she thought it over. It wasn't really her decision to make. Hey, dad. I told my new friend who I haven't even known for a fortnight that she and her kid brother could live here. Yeah, no. "I don't know..."

"You can't ask that of them either, Noah," Lyra sighed, rolling her eyes. Plastering a fake smile on her face, she turned to the two teenagers. "Just ignore him. He's being silly. We'll talk it over with our dad and see about whether or not they'll station him here."

"Oh," Sam said, nodding his head. "'S'cool."

Mikaela was still scrutinizing them, but, as she was about to speak, there was a commotion on the other side of the hangar.

A rusted, beat up, yellow Lambo was wheeling its way towards the med bay. Soldiers and Autobots alike were around it, leading it to its destination. Its engine kept revving, and it would lurch forward, as if it wanted to speed ahead, but its path was blocked by random pedestrians that didn't have the brains to move out of the way.

The quartet watched the scene as static played out of Bumblebee's speakers in what sounded like laughter. It wasn't until the doors to the med bay had securely shut that anything distinguishable played through the 'bot's radio.

"~I'm on sunshine, baby oh! I'm walking on sunshine! Wooah~"

Author's Note: Any guesses who it is? ;)

Again, I'd like to say that I do take suggestions and things of the like, so feel free to comment. I also live and breathe reviews. I lose interest in writing when I don't have something to build off of. If I' not told what I' doing wrong (or right), then I don't have anything to build off of.

Also, we're almost to a hundred reviews! Happiness! I'm like 78% sure that I said I'd write the hundredth reviewer a oneshot of their choice, so, if ya need incentive to review, there ya go. :D