Part 2:Breakfast
Megan stared down at the stranger who was now laying on the couch in her living room. She was baffled, utterly baffled by what had happened earlier that evening, and now sat with her hands bandaged next to some guy she didn't know and may or may not be a giant robot.
She reached her hand over and placed it on his forehead,he was burning up. Getting up, she moved to the kitchen to get some ice for his head. She heard footsteps behind her.
"Hey, I better go, Stephen's back from grad-school," she looked over to the man on the couch."You gonna be okay?"
"Yeah,I'll be fine, he's got a fever, but,I'll be fine," Megan said quietly.
"I'll call you in the morning?"
Megan smiled."Yeah, should be an interesting morning," she rolled her eyes.
Amber left, Megan let out a sigh and leaned against the counter, running her fingers through her bangs in distress. She looked over at the man on the couch, then walked over to the seat next to him, placing the ice pack on his forehead. She leaned back and continued to stare at the man.
"Who are you? What are you?" she muttered under her breath. Right as she said this,the man's hand dropped from his side and something landed on the floor. She picked it up, only to discover it was the rock shard from earlier. She snatched it off the ground.
"So it is you!" she exclaimed,looking between the shard and the man."I get it now,you were afraid something was going to happen, weren't you?...And it did,you're a human now,' she bit her lip and set the shard down on the table next to the couch and slumped back into the chair. She let out a yawn,reaching for the light switch. Kicking up her feet and leaning her head against the arm rest, she closed her eyes and remembered something her father always used to tell her,
"Cheer up kid, things'll be better in the morning,"
But the next morning? Well, one wouldn't exactly call it better.
Megan woke up with a start, as if her entire body sensed all at once that something was wrong. She looked around in panic,but nothing was wrong, She did noticed she currently had a blanket draped over her. Her father was home. She swallowed. Had he seen the stranger laying on the couch? Did he notice the shard? No, of course not, he would have been too tired to see that. Light had already begun to filter in through the windows, suggesting that it was later in the morning. She rolled off of the couch and checked the stranger with a quick glance. His fever had broken, but that was about all that had changed. She removed the ice pack from his forehead and laid the blanket over his body. In the kitchen, she found a note addressed to her stating that her father was,in fact, not home but would be back that evening and hope everything was alright with her. She sighed and closed the letter, the words seemed empty to her, there was nothing there except for the possibility of a false promise. Her train of thought was interrupted by a sound from the living room and she rushed to see what had happened.
From what she could tell, the strange had fallen onto the floor,
"That's a nasty way to wake up," she said to herself with a cringe.
It took him a moment,but he rose to his knees and grunted. A hand ran through his hair and the other rested on his back as he let out another grunt and finally opened his eyes. They were blue, an almost unnatural blue, similar to that of his robotic eyes. A look of confusion came across his face when he saw himself staring at a carpeted surface. The hand on his head came down in front of his face of his face and he wiggled his fingers just to see if the responded to his movement. He brought the other one up as well and that's how he knew the impossible had happened. Megan hesitated, then opened her mouth to speak.
"Don't scream," she said. He whipped around to face her, eye still wide from shock."Whatever you do, please, don't scream," she took a step forwards. She could see the fear in his eyes, but what was she supposed to do?"I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I'm not going to hurt you,I just want to help you," it was a little too late for that, he was up on his feet and took off running out the front door. Megan followed him and yelled from the door way.
"I hope you know what you're doing!" she snapped. He stopped dead in his tracks."You knew that shard was dangerous, why don't you come back here and tell me what the hell it is?" she demanded. He looked back at her over his shoulder, a look that seemed to ask,"Can I trust you?" She rolled her eyes.
"Of course you can trust me you idiot, now get back here!" she waved him back to the house. He waited a moment, took a step and kept moving towards the house.
"You'd better start talking, otherwise this is going to be a long morning!" Megan continued as she punched a number into her phone.
The stranger looked around, not having quite taken in his surroundings yet.
"...It's all so...much bigger," he managed to say in a horse voice. Megan looked at him.
"Good! Progress!" she gave him a thumbs up then returned to her conversation."Hello? Stephen?...Yeah hi, I'm...?...It's Megan? Megan Sullivan? You know, Amber's friend?...Yeah, can you put her on for me?...Thanks," She looked up again to find him staring at her.
"What?"
"...Megan...That's a pretty name," he commented. Megan was slightly stunned and a little confused.
"...Thanks?" He just smiled back,then returned to the couch where he had been earlier. Megan was finally able to get a hold of Amber and told her that he was awake and to come down as soon as possible.
He was looking at his hands sceptically when she went to sit near him,the blanket sitting between them. Neither one of them looked at the other at first.
"...So,what's your name?" Megan asked. Instead of answering, he grabbed at his neck where Megan had noticed an odd wound.
"...It's...Bumblebee..." he told her quietly, as he was not quite used to talking or the sound of his own voice. Megan raised an eyebrow and laughed lightly. He shot her a look.
"I should have known! I mean, you are a guy who does seem to have a habit of wearing yellow and black," she tugged at the sleeve of the jacket he was wearing, black with yellow trim made of soft, well worn leather. He looked down at her hand, then at her. She retracted it quickly, unnerved by his gaze."...Sorry," she muttered.
Bumblebee ran his fingers through his hair.
"Hair,I have hair!" he exclaimed in frustration."Arms,legs, eyes, nose...this is really confusing,"
"As an actual human,I can tell you it's easy once you get used to it, but the figuring it out part is the hardest part,you've already got walking and talking down so I'd say you're doing pretty well so far,"
He just looked at her.
"What? I'm completely serious, you'll get used to it,"
"Well what if I don't want to get used to it?" he snapped,bolting upright. "What if I liked being the way I was? Everything was perfectly fine, and then...!"
He noticed the look on Megan's face,one of disappointment, disapproval even,so he stopped and sank back into the couch. He was not one to want to disappoint anyone.
They were silent a minute,then Megan spoke.
"Look,all I'm saying is, right now, there's no clear way to change you back,I hate to sound rude, but I think you're just going to get used to this,"
"So you mean, live a lie? Pretend to be someone I'm not?" he questioned.
"On the outside, yes,but on the inside,you're still..." she looked him over. "What are you?A side from the giant robot part,"
"Giant,transforming, alien robot, to be exact," Bumblebee corrected with a shake of his head."I've heard that so many times,it's almost sickening,"
"Okay, is there an easier way to say that?" Megan asked.
He made a sound that was almost a laugh."So someone actually wants the simple version," he said sarcastically."I'm an Autobot," he told her.
"An Autobot? What...No, don't tell me,I want Amber to be here to hear this too," she said,stopping herself.
"Was she the girl that was with you last night?"
"Yes,she was," Megan said as she moved to the kitchen. "You know, for a guy who had to use the radio to talk as a robot, you sure don't have that much trouble now," she pointed out.
He grinned,almost as if he were proud of something,"Yeah," he said,"I could've talked, but,I got so used to using the radio that I never bothered.
"Sneaky! Here," she said, handing him a glass of water and a few pills.
He rolled the pills over in his hand."Those should help with any pain you have," she told him,staring at the scar on his neck."Is that the reason you couldn't talk?" she asked. Self-consciously, his hand went to his neck as soon as he swallowed the pills,
"Yeah,I was attacked by...something that left my vocal processor damaged,it still hurts,"he explained."Just another excuse to use the radio," he stared down at the remaining water in the glass then smiled."You should have seen a friend of mine,scars everywhere,you couldn't imagine the number of scraps he got into!" After he said this,he frowned,looking rather disheartened.
"What's wrong?"
"He...he died," Bumblebee replied quietly.
"I'm so sorry,"
He hung his head and sighed. Megan needed a way to distract him from this thought.
"...You know what food is, right?" she asked.
Bumblebee gave her a peculiar look.
"You have no idea how many fast-food and grocery store runs I've made in the past four years! The question is, how do I not know what food is?"
Megan let out a laugh. "Well now you actually get to try some!" she said, pulling a few things from the fridge and pantry. Curiosity compelled him to move to see what she was doing. It wasn't until he saw the food that he realized what it meant to be "hungry". So many different and strange things, all of it making his mouth water. But where to start? He looked over the display and picked up something flat,brown and red that was hard and crumbly to the touch.
"Amber should be here at any moment, help yourself," Megan said, popping a small fruit into her mouth. He proceeded to do the same with the odd brown thing.
"What is this?" he asked, unsatisfied by the taste of it.
"That? Oh,that's bacon,"
"Bacon?"
"Yeah, bacon, it comes from a pig," she said between mouthfuls. Bumblebee paused.
"...As in the animal?"
Megan nodded.
He became paled very quickly and ran to the sink to spit out the dreadful stuff.
"Okay? Looks like I have a vegetarian in my midst," Megan mumbled.
"A what?" Bumblebee asked from the sink.
"A vegetarian, a person who doesn't eat animal products, or very little meat products," she removed the meat heavy products from the counter, sort of narrowing Bumblebee's options. He picked a red looking fruit that had a yellow inside. Taking a bite, his face lit up.
"That's good!" he exclaimed.
Megan grinned."Hang on,I think she's here," she paused on her way to the door."She's gonna be so ticked to find out you don't like meat!"
"You're kidding!" Amber exclaimed.
"I'm not!"
"He doesn't eat meat?" she shot Bumblebee a wide eyed look."You don't like meat?"
He shook his head, mouthful of apple.
"He took one bite of bacon and spit it back out," Megan explained.
"BACON! That's like,the gateway meat!"
"You have your opinions,I have mine," Bumblebee commented.
Amber turned to Megan,"He talks?" she asked.
"Yeah, and I can,and I can hear,too!" he said coolly. Amber glared at him,sightly annoyed by his response.
Megan looked between them.
"Stop it, the both of you," she said firmly."We don't need this right now,"
Amber averted her gazed from Bumblebee and he did the same from her.
"So,Bumblebee, what is an Autobot?" Megan asked."And what are they doing here on Earth?" She settled into a bar stool set across from where the Autobot-turned-human currently stood. He leaned on the counter, searching through his memories to where it all began.
The two girls listened intently as Bumblebee explained in great detail what had happened over the course of the past four years, the first battle on Earth, getting captured by the government,the battle against Megatron, traveling across the globe within an instant, another battle against a reconstructed Megatron and the even deadlier "Fallen", and the recent events in Chicago. However amazed she was by his stories, there was one thing Megan kept coming back to,four years. Four years ago, the Autobots came to Earth, four years ago, things started happening, four years ago, her father started going on more and more missions that required him to go away for long periods of time.
Could it be there was some kind of connection between the two?
Maybe, just maybe,this is the answer she was looking for.
"Wow," Amber said in amazement."And no one knows this has been going on?"
"Not until now,no," Bumblebee replied."Only those involved knew until recently,"
"Four years,you all were all to keep it a secret for four years? So no wonder no one understood why that Witwicky kid got the medal when he did,"
"Yeah...wait,how do you know about that?"
"My dad mentioned it once, he said,'He's not even military, what are they thinking, giving a civilian a Medal of Honor? He should have gotten the Congressional Gold Medal!' I don't know why it set him off so bad," Megan said.
"But, how did he know?"
Megan only shrugged.
"I was just telling Amber yesterday that I have no idea where he goes when he's gone,"
"What's his name?" Bumblebee asked.
"Wes, Wes Sullivan,"
"Wes Sullivan?" He racked his brain to see if he remembered the name or the face.
"Blonde? Grey eyes? Redish facial hair? Southern accent?"
"Hang on,hang on! I'm thinking,"Bumblebee said."Yyyyeah! I remember him, he likes to keep to himself a lot, focuses on his work," Bumblebee recalled.
"That sounds like him," Amber interjected. Megan nodded.
"That's him alright," she grumbled."So this whole time, he was part of some secret government organization, that's why he wouldn't tell me anything?"
"More than likely, yeah,"
She rolled her eyes,"Figures," she sighed, elbows resting on the counter and head on that. Her face contorted as Bumblebee and Amber both looked on, every now and then looking at one another. "You know what? I'm not okay with this!" she said decisively, smacking her hand down on the table. "When he comes home,I'm confronting him about it!"
Bumblebee's face lit up with a grin."I'll be right there with you," he said.
"You'd better be,you've got to do about as much explaining as he does!"