A/N: You know, I keep intending for Will to get laid, and something always gets in the way. The scene at the end of this chapter is a 'To be continued in the next episode' thing so we'll see if I finally manage next week. Which should hopefully be out on Wednesday, too :D (since author won't be online Thursday)

Ironhide liked to think he had a well-developed sense of danger. He liked to think that while luck had definitely had a say in him surviving for as long as he had, skills and good instincts counted as well and that he had plenty of both.

He could understand said instincts reacting to a Seeker, even if part of the personality in said flying fragger was a trusted comrade-in-arms – the rest, after all, was still a Seeker and Ironhide had plenty of bad experiences with those. Having those same instincts react to the human resting in the Seeker's hand as well... that was a bit of a new experience and he ran a quick, localized system scan twice to make sure it wasn't some glitch acting up, only to find that there wasn't a single thing wrong. It didn't react nearly as strongly to her as it did to the Seeker but it was still there and Ironhide wasn't quite sure if he should be amused or worried – it was, when it all came down to it, just a human. Certainly, Sam had taken down Megatron and Lennox had dealt with Blackout but they'd had the help of the Allspark and sabot rounds, respectively, and no small amount of death-defying insanity.

Sarah Lennox, to the best of Ironhide's knowledge, had nothing of that sort but still there was the nagging feeling that he should be somehow... wary. Natural uncertainty about the whole thing at first – Will Lennox's mate or not, she was still a civilian and Ironhide was never very good at talking with those – but that had steadily turned into a wary cautiousness when he approached them. It was hard to pinpoint exactly what made his senses react like that but the way two pairs of blue eyes – one Cybertronian, one human – locked on him in perfect symmetry at the sound of his footsteps definitely had something to do with it. There was nothing hostile in it, nothing off about it at all, just... strangely unnerving to find himself under that kind of scrutiny from them and have no idea of what they had been talking about or were thinking at all. The human femme didn't have a bond to communicate across and what he picked up from Will and the Seeker from behind their heavily-shielded bond didn't offer much in the way of help, not even after he had cautiously lessened the strength of those shields.

At least it was easier to block the worst of it now. Whatever they'd talked about, it had cut down a lot on the constant, invisible hammer of Seeker-born emotions that had made the past hour or so such a pest to deal with. It was still there but not as heavy and what remained felt more controlled, too. Less raw panic and more a calm, careful – if slightly intense – focus on... Ironhide.

It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you.

They moved like one again to look at each other and then the small femme rested a hand on part of Will's plating, well away from any bits and pieces that might crush an organic limb on accident.

"I need to get back to Annabelle," she said quietly. Too low for any possible humans lurking around to hear but more than enough to be picked up by Ironhide's sensors and he figured that she knew it, too.

The emotions from the bond lost some of their calm and turned darker, more raw and desperate as flickers of memories of the small human offspring surfaced even through Ironhide's mental blocks on it and the Seeker frame tensed. Sarah Lennox didn't seem to care but brushed her hand gently across grey plating and while Ironhide knew without a doubt that the human femme couldn't possibly feel the effect it had on Will the way that Ironhide could, she still seemed to know instinctively that her touch would calm him down. That, or she put up a fragging good act. Either way, Ironhide figured it worked. "We can talk about that later. We'll figure something out, one way or another. I'm not letting Annie grow up without her father just because of something as silly as this."

And just like that the emotions calmed down and the fear levelled out again as Will nodded and walked over to one of the Jeeps parked nearby, and Ironhide trailed along from a mix of curiosity, concern, and a lack of anything else he ought to be doing.

The car looked painfully small and fragile against the Seeker as he kneeled to put his human companion on the ground and Ironhide was a bit bemused to find said companion level a long look at him before she glanced at Will again and seemed to mouth something that Ironhide couldn't make out.

Probably didn't matter, anyway, but still he couldn't quite help the feeling that someone was plotting behind his back.

Front-liner and Seeker both watched silently as the car left and only when the last sound of the engine was gone did Will look back at Ironhide, a flicker of what looked like amusement in his expression and the ghost of the same feeling brushing against his shield through their bond. Like he was in on some kind of joke that Ironhide hadn't caught up with yet but at least it was better than the fear-anger-panic they'd been treated to before. Ironhide could deal with amusement instead of that.

"You here to beat me up and put the Seeker back in its place?" Will asked. The amusement in his voice left little doubt that he wouldn't really have a problem with it if that was the case and for a moment Ironhide was absurdly curious about just what had happened in that combined processor of theirs during the swift, brutal battle with their Prime to make Will enjoy it so much. On the other hand, knowing Seekers... some things were probably better left unexplained.

Ironhide snorted and decided to go with the truth. "Ratchet dismissed me with instructions to be social and get to know your wife, but we can schedule a training session if you miss getting your aft slagged that much."

Will didn't rise to the bait but just glanced in the direction where the Jeep had left and then back at Ironhide, still with that amusement in his words. "Play nice and social, get to know her, get friendly, and give her some kind of bond to you so there's less risk I'll decided to pack up, go 'Con, and take her with me?" Then continued before Ironhide had the chance to reply- "That's what I would have done. Starscream did a good job reminding the Seeker part of me that there's nothing that really keeps Sarah here other than me and if I left..."

...She'd follow, Ironhide didn't finish because they both knew that. She'd follow, at least as things were now and whatever arguments she'd had with Ratchet probably hadn't helped, either. Stubborn-as-frag medics and organics were a pain in the aft any way you looked at it.

Silence followed as Will seemed distracted again and Ironhide was busy with his own thoughts and a cautious attempt to further lower the shield that had kept the Seeker's mess of emotions from invading his own spark as well. It was a lot less than when Ratchet had first told him to shield, even noticeably less than when he had arrived to talk with Will only minutes before, and he could feel it slowly weaken even as he watched. Seekers, he had been forced to learn from close proximity to Will, tended to show and feel a lot stronger than other builds did but as fast as their temper could flare, as fast it could vanish again, too. Ratchet had been right – it wouldn't take that long for their Seeker to be reasonably stable again.

And speaking of which...

"If this is what dealing with Seekers on a regular basis feels like, no wonder someone gave Ratchet that 'Hatchet' name of his," Ironhide snorted. "Nobody sane or stable could have survived actually living with them."

Will's cheerful half smile, half smirk of a response was a nice reminder to Ironhide that Seekers weren't built for that sort of expression, but it would probably take the human part a long time to remember that little fact. "That's okay, 'Hide. We always knew you were batshit insane. Nothing to be ashamed of."

"Says the human that took on Blackout," Ironhide drawled right back. Took on Blackout gleefully at that and left no doubt that he'd do it all over again in a heartbeat if he could.

No one had ever accused their young NEST commander of being sane but then, with a position like that, Ironhide doubted that anyone sane would even have been able to function, much less run a successful operation. Come to think of it, he realised with some bemusement, it was probably the only thing that had kept William Lennox from losing it completely in the days and weeks that had followed his human body's death. Someone sane and stable, Ironhide suspected, would have cracked under the pressure. Lennox was stressed, there was little doubt about that, but it wasn't anything he seemed unable to handle and his mindset undoubtedly had a lot to do with that. The same mental... flexibility that had allowed him to deal with the thought of alien robots so easily was the same that now kept him at least marginally sane – and it said a lot about the flying fraggers as a breed that they made Lennox look sane, stable, and downright normal in comparison.

Will smirked, entirely unrepentant, and then he glanced in the direction where the Jeep had vanished again, drawing Ironhide's attention in the process. One second, two, wondering what to do, and then he pushed aside the uncharacteristic hesitation – he wasn't meant to deal with non-combatants or be some sort of sensitive, caring pest of a shrink; he was used to comrades-in-arms and if you had issues to deal with, you did so with a sufficiently impressive number of firearms – before he focused on their Seeker.

"How is she adapting?"

Decently from what Ironhide had seen but that had been a few conversations at the most and she was well used to keeping secrets, her own state of mind included. If nothing else, it might give him some idea of what he would be dealing with.

"A lot better than I would have done in her situation," Will admitted. "I'm stuck with this, I have to learn to cope some way or another, but she doesn't. She could just walk away if she wanted and half of me hoped she would. She's amazing, I don't deserve her, and I wanted her to be able to have some kind of a normal life again without some jealous, temperamental bird-brain hovering around her. I'm grateful she refused but..." He sighed. "I wanted her to have it, you know? Give her the choice I didn't get, at least. Maybe I did something stupid to get myself in this situation, and I can't make it all just peachy again, but I could at least give her the choice. Let her have a kind-of normal life away from Classified County and Giant Genocidal Robot City. We still have to figure out what to tell Annabelle but... Sarah's coping. Really, really well."

"As long as it isn't Ratchet doing the explaining," Ironhide said dryly.

Will snorted at that but the amusement he felt still carried over through the bond, and Ironhide wasn't quite sure if it was a good sign that he was slowly getting used to dealing with something as temperamental as a Seeker. He was still affected by it, granted, and it still took him by surprise sometimes, he just... wasn't as confused anymore when it happened. It was a Seeker, being a pain came natural to it, and the best thing anyone could do was learn to cope because it clearly wasn't in any Seeker's personality to learn something like 'self control' or 'restraint'.

"I already told Ratchet that people gave the 'Iron Will' nickname to the wrong Lennox but nobody listens. I figure it's their own afts on the line, then. And yeah, she wasn't too happy with him." He paused and smirked again in that distinctively Seeker-ish and wrong way. "A wash and a wax says Sarah wins round two."

Ironhide snorted. "We need to cut down on training sessions, you've damaged your processors. He's a Seeker-trained medic and he deals with Prime, Sideswipe, and the Twins."

"And you," Will agreed. "Mr. It's-Just-A-Flesh-Wound."

Ironhide's eyes narrowed slightly at the reference. "You do know we have wash racks?"

Another smirk. "I know. What's the fun in that?"

And there it was, the whisper of lust underneath it all again when Ironhide lowered his shields a bit more to pick up the emotions, curiosity and attraction and fascination and a raw, lingering desire to claim, and if that was the case, then who was he to argue?

"Just making sure. You're on, and you better make it the good wax."

Of course. Only the best for a Seeker, Will sent smugly over their bond but before Ironhide could do anything more than narrow his eyes, Will continued out loud, slightly more hesitant. "I told her about spark-merging."

It took a second longer than it should have for his processors to catch up with that train of thought and he was more surprised than he probably should have been. Seekers were all about mates and claiming and interfacing – Will had called them nymphos more than once and Ironhide didn't doubt that it was true, too – so it shouldn't have come as a surprise to him that spark-merging that been brought up. It had been bound to, sooner or later, and while Ironhide would have preferred 'later' to 'sooner' – if nothing else then because they had enough to deal with as it was – he was willing to listen, too, and he sent a soundless feeling of encouragement through their bond.

The emotion he got back was a strange mix of uncertainty, determination, and wry amusement. "I brought it up with Ratchet and he gave his own Ratchet-y kind of blessing. Didn't forbid it, at least. Sarah sort of understands, too, told me flat-out that she didn't want me to be alone. All I have to do now is bring it up with you, and..." he shrugged, not bothering to point out that he had, in fact, done just that, if in a rather round-about way.

A spark-merge.

The word brought back memories a lot stronger than Ironhide had expected, memories of what had been and was and might just be as past mixed with a possible future, the raw feeling of a still-open wound that was losing a spark-merged mate, pain and loss and everything that had come before, and he forced it all back under control again and more than halfway suspected the Seeker's influence was to blame.

"A spark-merge," Ironhide repeated out loud and Will shrugged with a casualness that Ironhide knew him well enough to see was forced.

"I'm a human, 'Hide. If we'd both been Seekers, I'm sure we would just have known in some magical, mystical Seeker-y way, but we're not. I'm a human and all I've got to go by is a grouchy old medic and a Seeker-half that's still running on mostly-basic programming. Maybe there's some right way to do it, bring little wrapped cubes of Energon or something, but I don't know it, so I'll make due with what I have."

Since Will had brought it up with Ratchet himself, Ironhide didn't really doubt that he had gotten a thorough lecture about just what he was trying to get himself into, but he still had to wonder. Seekers weren't known for being stable and while he wouldn't have doubted the whole thing if it had just been Lennox the Human who'd brought it up, Will the Seeker was something else entirely. He had felt first-hand how fast their moods could change and there wasn't any guarantee that spark-merging hadn't just been brought up in a good mood and would be regretted with the next fickle change of mind.

"A spark-merge," Ironhide repeated again, this time in more of a question than a statement, and the way Will paused for a moment was reassuring. It meant there was some kind of activity happening in his processors. What kind of activity was another question but at least there was someone at the wheel.

"There's a ton of reasons to say no, I know," Will admitted. "Spark-merging with one of the few mechs that could take me down if I went off in the deep end? Not the brightest idea. Spark-merging with a Seeker with no common sense or much in the way of survival instincts and which is more than likely to get itself offlined sooner rather than later? Definitely not a bright idea. Spark-merging with a human-turned-Seeker that's had way too little time to get used to it all and could go bananas next week for all we know? Pretty damn high on the 'dumbaft ideas' list."

"On the other hand, it would make the bird-brain in your head less likely to take off with the 'Con fraggers," Ironhide replied. "And you've found some advantages to it, too, or you wouldn't bring it up now."

Will nodded. "'Con fraggers," he confirmed. "Stability. Keep the Seeker part happy." He paused and his hesitation was clear through both body-language and their bond - a lot more obvious than it had been as a human, and even more so when held against what a ground-bound warrior-build would be likely to show. "I trust you. This is - I'm about as clear-headed as I'll ever be again, 'Hide. Sooner or late, it'll push for this and I probably won't have a choice. I'd rather do this when I'm the one that makes the decision. I know the Seeker wants it. This way, it'll be me as well. Sarah accepted it. Ratchet didn't sound too convinced but he didn't tell me to forget about it, either."

Reasonable, logical, with all the little pros and cons written up like the good commander he was, and no fragging wonder Ratchet had frowned. If he didn't think his used-to-be-human partner would get confused, Ironhide would have laughed. As it was, he still couldn't quite keep his amusement from showing, anyway.

"He is a medic. Seekers are focused on emotions so I doubt it cares as long as it gets what it wants but Ratchet's a medic. He's not a warrior-build, he's not a front-liner, he doesn't have the programming or the mindset and he's not supposed to, either. Do you know what two special ops mechs call their spark-merge? 'A tactical advantage'. Because if you're strong enough, it will be."

Surprise mingled with dawning comprehension through their bond as Will got over his surprise and caught up with Ironhide's train of thought and Ironhide could tell the exact moment the credits dropped. "If you spark-merge with someone, you'll know everything about them. Everything they know, you know. How long is the reach?"

"Well beyond planet-scale," Ironhide responded. "There were limits but not enough to be a genuine restriction."

Will nodded distractedly, half of his attention clearly on this new bit of information he had been given. "So you have a partner you trust, you spark-merge with them... perfect, unhackable, untraceable audio and visual. Intel mostly, still have to find a way into enemy territory, but holy frag." He paused and Ironhide clearly felt the darkening of his mood through their bond, heavier emotions making their way into the mix of surprise-determination-curiosity.

"And if your cover was blown, there would be at least one person who knew what happened," Ironhide said and voiced what Will had already realised.

"No MIA," Will agreed quietly. "You might not ever find the body but at least someone knew what happened and whether you're long offline or still trapped in a cell somewhere. Does Ratchet know? Optimus?"

Ironhide shrugged. "Yes. They're not warrior-builds but they've spent enough time around us to know. It's not specific for us, just not that common in the rest. Normal mechs spark-merge because it's someone they want to share their spark and the rest of their online existence with. Us? Same reasons, I guess, we just choose to see it for the tactical advantage it is. It's not that common because we're all a little wary about that sort of thing in combat but we're not so stupid we don't see the potential. Jazz spark-merged after he went into special ops. Sideswipe and his twin were made as one spark split in two and have the same effect going on with them as a spark-merge."

It was more complicated than that but it wasn't the time or the place to get into whatever issues their older set of spark-split twins had, and silence fell as Will paused to go over what he had just been told. Ironhide didn't blame him. It was a lot to take in, and a lot different from what Ratchet had probably told him. If he had based his whole approach on Ratchet's word – and Ironhide didn't doubt that was the case – then it took some adjustment to adapt to what Ironhide had just told him, too.

"Tactical advantage," Will finally repeated and then gave him a vaguely accusing look that was belied by the sheer relief that flowed over their bond. "You could have told me before I worried myself half to death from this slag."

"I could," Ironhide agreed quietly. "I didn't wish to force a decision on you or encourage something you weren't ready for. It's a tactical advantage but it doesn't change the fact that all I am will be yours and all you are will be mine. Spark and body. To lose a spark-merged mate will leave scars that will never completely heal, even if it is a union based on reason and trust and with a military focus. Bonds like those are no weaker than any other, just based on different emotions that are no less strong."

"Partnership with benefits." Relief-hesitation with that bit of determination still in it but there was something underneath it all as well, the same sense of lust-want-attraction that Will's uneasiness about it all had drowned out, and then Will grinned, a glow in his optics mirroring his mood. "You propositioning me, 'Hide?"

He wasn't always sure anymore what was Will and what was the Seeker, too merged to really tell completely most of the time, but the words were all Will and the feeling behind it was familiar, too, a light-heated challenge that lacked the darker seriousness of the Seeker.

It was still a challenge, though, and Ironhide gave a dark purr in response. "So what if I am?"

Wings moved, flared to draw instinctive attention from Ironhide even as Will responded with a smugness that brushed against Ironhide's spark in a deceptively light, taunting way, and there was the nagging feeling that he was forgetting something, that there was something he should know, but it was dismissed an instant later when Will spoke. "I'd compliment you on your taste in partners."

Ironhide snorted. "Fragging bird-brain's got more vanity than processors in there."

"Says Mr. Cannons-For-Brains."

Oh, yes, definitely Will in there. Fragments of a moment of pause and then Ironhide held out his hand. Trust me?

There was no hesitation in Will's response.

With my life, he said, and accepted.