When SAW had sufficiently fueled Perceptor of the knowledge of his being, both 'bots returned inside, where Honeydew was crying, holding onto Bumblebee's arm. SAW rushed forward and took her off of Bee, hugging her.
"Oh, Honey, what's wrong?" he asked urgently. Honeydew looked up with half-lidded eyes that were full of liquid and then threw her arms around his neck.
"Daddy was gone!" she cried. "Daddy was gone, I didn't know where you was!" SAW patted her back comfortingly.
"Shh…it's okay, Honey," he said. "Daddy just had to step outside for a little while. Daddy's not going to leave." This seemed to calm Honeydew down a little, enough for SAW to pull her from around his neck. "You okay now?"
"Uh huh," she sniffed, wiping her eyes. SAW was surprised and amused when she smacked his shoulder. "You don't do that ever again!"
SAW laughed. "I wont," he promised. "Will said he's bringing Anna over today. Excited?"
"Yay!" Honeydew shouted happily, jumping down from her parent's arms. She ran to her room to take out a few things for her and Annabelle to play with. The other Autobots looked on, amused by thier youngest member, then turned thier attention back to SAW.
"I was also worried, Sam," Bumblebee said. "You never get up this early, and it worried me to see that you were gone."
Perceptor, who knew that SAW really didnt even sleep at all, said nothing. He found it best to keep what SAW confided in him a secret until SAW was ready to spill on his own.
"Sorry," SAW said sheepishly. "I'll leave a note next time, alright?"
"You do that," Bumblebee said, not seeing the light sarcasm at all. "I dont mean to worry about you like this, Sam, but..." He broke off, looking at the ground.
"Worrying just shows you care, Bee," SAW said, putting a hand on Bumblebee's shoulder. "Thanks." Bumblebee smiled, then blinked his optics and put a hand to his head. "What's wrong?"
"...It's Mikaela!" Bumblebee said excitedly. Mikaela hadnt been around in awhile, so everyone was wondering how she was. Bumblebee was silent for a few moments. "She said she's coming over today with some great news!"
"What news?" SAW asked. Bumblebee was silent for another few moments.
"She said she'll tell us when she gets here."
"Aw man..." SAW hated wating for good news. "Tell her I said hi."
"Sam says hi...uh huh...right...goodbye." He broke off the comm. link. "She says 'hi' back and that she hopes you'll be happy for her."
SAW thought for a moment. "Oh," he said softly. "Maybe she's going to another college farther away..." Bumblebee shrugged.
"Who knows?" he said. "It must be good news for her, though, to tell us all."
About two hours later, well after Will brought Annabelle over, Mikaela finally drove up in her car, hardly waiting until it had stopped before jumping out. Bumblebee had to remind her to put the brakes on.
"Mikaela!" SAW said happily, walking up to her. "How've you been?"
"Great!" Mikaela said happily. Very happily. "Oh, Sam! The greatest thing ever happened last night!"
"What?" SAW asked hurridly. Before Mikaela could answer, a happy shriek resounded throughout the base and Honeydew launched herself at Mikaela.
"Mikky!!!" she screeched happily, hugging Mikaela around the waist. Mikaela barely managed to balance upright from impact. She patted Honeydew's head.
"Nice to see you too, Honey," she said humorously. Honeydew gave Mikaela another squeeze before letting go.
"Bee says you gots news!" she yammered. "What, what?!" SAW carefully picked Honeydew off the ground.
"Let Mikaela breathe, Honey," he said. "She'll tell us when..."
"Yeah, yeah, we're all here!" Sunstreaker said, coming up the path with his brother in tow. He stopped and transformed, stretching himself out a bit. "Ah, that feels better..."
"What's this about good news?" Sideswipe said, following his brother. "We were on our way here when Bumblebee contacted us about some good news."
"Well, go inside so I can tell everyone!" Mikaela said, pushing on SAW's get for emphasis. They walked into the base where everyone else was waiting.
"What's the news, Mikaela?" Optimus asked, politely curious.
Mikaela had her hands clasped behind her back with an 'I-cant-wait-any-longer' look on her face. She smiled a mile wide before whipping her right hand from behind her back and showing it to everyone. "Nathan proposed!" she shrieked happily. "I'm getting married!"
There was a short silence before SAW bent down to be closer to her level. "That's great, Mikaela!" he congratulated. "When's the wedding?"
"I dont know yet," Mikaela said, still happy. "But I was thinking sometime next summer!"
"Congratulations, Mikaela," Optimus said. "Am I to assume that...?"
"Yes!" Mikaela said. "You're all invited!" She turned to SAW. "Sam, I dont have any...you know...girl best friends...so..." She broke off, a little red in the face. SAW smiled at her.
"Sure, I'll be your 'matron of honor'," he said. Mikaela dove forward and hugged his arm.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she said. "And I want Honeydew to be the flower girl!"
"Naturally," SAW said. He suddenly paused. "Oh, Mikaela! Someone new arrived yesterday!" He stood up and walked over to Perceptor. "This is Perceptor." Perceptor knelt down lower to Mikaela like SAW had done.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you," he said politely. "My friends have told me much about you."
"It's nice to meet you, too," she replied. "You're more than welcome to come to the wedding, too." Perceptor nodded.
"Thank you," he said. "It would give me great pleasure to attend."
SAW stood back and watched as everyone else gave their congrats to Mikaela. He was truely happy for her, and even more happy that she wasnt moving farther away. Honeydew was asking what a 'flower girl' was, and SAW kind of tuned out to his own thoughts and leaned against the wall, something he did a lot of recently.
"Oh! And I want Nathan to meet all of you!"
SAW promply lost his balance and slid off the wall.
After clarifying that Nathan would only be meeting their hologram forms until such occasion that he would be deemed trustworthy enough to meet them in true person, Mikaela left to meet up with her parents. Ratchet had then thrown a fit over the state of the base, and instituted a massive clean-up. The twins tried to duck out, but Ironhide snatched them both up by the backs of their necks and tossed them back inside to help Bumblebee with the main-base cleaning. SAW was helping Barricade with Ratchet's lab, seeing how his room was nearly spotless to begin with.
"SAW, take this into my lab, and put it on the low shelf," Ratchet said slowly, making sure SAW didnt skip on the anal retentiveness. "Be very careful with it."
SAW nodded and carefully took the whateverthehellitwas in both hands and walked slowly to the lab, having to dodge Sunstreaker throwing something in a tantrum once. He found the shelf Ratchet clarified and carefully sat the thing on it, then suddenly sighed. It seemed like it was just yesterday he and Mikaela were still in high school; now, she was nearing 24 and getting married, and he didnt feel any different than before.
Was this how it was going to be from now on for him? Living for eons, like all the Autobots; never aging and watching mortals like Mikaela and his parents age and die? He wrapped his arms around himself. Was this how it was with the Autobots? With their race nearly extinct and so few left, and more dying somewhere, and others lost in parts of the galaxy waiting for a signal from someone like them to spend eternity with, instead of living it out alone? He felt a shudder run through him. If it wasnt for the others--Bumblebee, Barricade, Frenzy, Optimus; everyone--he was sure he wouldnt be able to take the madness.
SAW let out another sigh and leaned against the wall with a huff. He jumped back when it let out a hiss and slid open, revealing a secret cavity behind the wall. SAW blinked several times before cautiously sticking his head inside. It was dark, and his optics automatically switched to night vision. When he was sure nothing was going to attack him, SAW slowly inched his way inside, taking another cautious look back to make sure no one saw him.
From the hazy details, as he had not quite mastered his optional visions yet, he could see that it was another, smaller lab that by the looks of it, hadnt been used in a long while. He stepped around a little before his hip gently bumped into something. He whipped around and saw that it was a lab table...
...With something on it...
SAW felt his spark flutter as he leaned closer to look. His optics widened and his spark jumped in its casing.
It was Jazz.
Or rather, Jazz's body. SAW's optics slowly went over the form, noting that the body had been welded or something, back into one piece. The body was in nearly perfect condition--aside from the fact that no one inhabited it, anyway. SAW felt saddness overcome him. Ratchet had tried to save Jazz. And failed. He suddenly felt the urge to cry as he slowly raised a hand to touch the one warrior he hadnt gotten to know well.
He cried out in surprise when he was roughly grabbed and tossed away from Jazz's body. His head shot up to see Ratchet glaring down at him, apparantly very upset.
"What are you doing in here!?" he bellowed angrily. Okay, not using English. Yeah. He was pissed.
"I...I...!" SAW stuttered, trying to justify himself. The words got cought halfway up his vocals. "...I just...I found...!"
"Dont ever come in here!" Ratchet growled, advancing on SAW. "You never should have even-!"
"I'm sorry!" SAW shouted, jumping up and bolting out the secret door and out of the lab. He ran past everyone out the base and into the woods that surrounded it, not stopping as his legs carried him as fast as he could go.
He didnt know how long he'd been running, but when he finally stopped just because he didnt want to run anymore, he found himself in an area he'd never seen before. He looked behind him and saw that quite a few trees much taller than him had suffered from his escape. Letting out a shuddery sigh, he slumped against a huge rock and pulled his knees to his chest. He felt ashamed, invading Ratchet's privacy like that. He knew that Jazz was a touchy subject around the Autobots, so he was never brought up. SAW didnt even know how close Jazz was to everyone. Must have been really close, for Ratchet to blow up at him like that.
SAW remained in his little huddle for awhile before deciding that getting up and apologizing was the best course of action. He stood up, brushed the dirt off of his legs and picked a branch out of his arm before turning to follow his neat little trail back to the base. Just as he began walking, he heard something zoom over him, land behind a cluster of brush and rock, and transform. Fear grasped at his spark as whoever it was walked its way toward him.
SAW took off running, knowing that transforming would do him no good. 'Just had to be a Solstice, didnt you?' he berated himself. 'Why couldnt I have been a Jeep, like Soundwave?' His thoughts distracted him, and he tripped over something and pitched forward. By the time he got back up, all noise had stopped. He stood up fully, his blade sliding out of his arm, and backed into his trail, looking around frantically. When he still heard nothing, he lowered his arm a little and turned to walk on back to the base, then collided with a larger mech.
He felt himself being enveloped in two arms to keep from falling back. He raised his arm, blade ready to cut his way out, when he saw who it was.
"...Thundercracker...?"
AND I STOP THERE!!! --things get thrown at me-- Ow...sorry for the wait. I had tests and stuff. But next up--Thundercracker explains, and someone dies. Too much of a teaser? Well, I like to make you all write on that rusty, omigod-what-happens-next blade.