Part 3: Telling the Truth:
Wes Sullivan never considered himself a great father, he was okay,but he was not the best. Sure, that's what every parent thinks, that they aren't a good parent, but Wes was never there for his daughter as much as he wanted to be.
"She's all grown up now, you gotta let it go," a friend once told him.
That might be true, but she still lived with him, she payed her fair share of the rent, she cleaned up after herself, but she was still there. She was always there, and it seemed like she always would be. He sighed and looked out the window of the car he was in, the sky giving way to an orange sunset. It's not that he minded her being there, but why? Why had she chosen to stick around? It's not like he was ever there.
But if she left, there would be no one.
He focused his attention on the road ahead, not even bothering to put his hands on the steering wheel, for the car's actual driver was quite capable of handling it himself. The car itself, in truth, was the one driving, Sideswipe had offered to give him a ride home after noticing Wes was a little too out of it to drive himself.
He tried to take his mind off of Megan by focusing on work related things, but to no avail, he always came back to Megan. He shook his head.
"Easy,Wes, she's in her twenties now, she can handle herself," he said under his breath. He rested his head against his elbow as he propped it up on the window sill. He decided it best to try and converse with Sideswipe.
"So, no sign of Bumblebee,huh?"
"Nope, no contact from him in the past two days," the Autobot replied.
"Geez, you think something happened to him?"
Sideswipe let out a groan,"Let's hope not, but for all we know, he could have gone the way of Ironhide-"
"Eh, let's not bring that up, we're lucky we got out with as many as we did,"
"True,"
They went back to the same silence as before.
"Wes?"
Having nearly fallen asleep, Wes answered groggily,"Hm?"
"Do you ever think of telling your daughter what you've been doing? I mean, many other families in N.E.S.T. Knew about the Autobots before it was brought to the world's attention, why are you still keeping it from her?"
Wes hesitated, not having expected this peculiar a question,
"I...you don't know her like I do," he said,"She would worry too much, I don't want to burden her with that sort of thing,"
"I would figure that telling her would make her less prone to worry, wouldn't it?"
Sideswipe's proposal caused Wes to rethink his earlier statement.
"I guess you're right, Sides," he said.
"But I wonder how mad she'll be when I tell her," he thought to himself.
Sideswipe turned with ease onto the Sullivan's drive only to cringe at the sound of the gravel below being kicked up onto his underbelly.
Wes slung his bag over his shoulder as he exited the car. He thanked the Autobot for the ride and watched him leave with a cloud of dust trailing him. The man fumbled with his keys while running his shoes over a bristle covered rug to remove whatever grime might be on them, then unlocked the door to hear the sound of familiar laughter and the sound of a voice saying,"No! You idiot! That goes over there!" to which someone replied with an "Ohhh..." and proceeded to complete the task correctly.
As soon as Wes had set his bag down,the laughter and chatter stopped, he looked up to find he was being stared at by not one,but three faces. He recognized two of the faces immediately, but the third he had never seen before. It caught him of guard to see that this third face was that of a man,Megan rarely had male friends over and would have bothered telling him if she had. He glared in her direction in time to see her glance back and forth between him and the stranger and look rather ashamed.
"Who is he?" Wes asked sternly. Megan opened her mouth to speak, then closed it and looked at the stranger who shrugged. She looked back at her father.
"He...Dad,he's not going to hurt anyone," she said.
"Damn right, he'd better not, who is he?" Wes sneered.
She looked up at him,concern on her face, for what reason, he didn't know, but he was growing impatient.
"Megan Lee-Ann, you answer me this instant!" he snapped harshly which caused Megan to flinch slightly.
Mind you,Wes would never cause his daughter any harm, he wasn't that kind of person, but having known him for many a year, Megan had come to expect certain things from certain tones of voice. It didn't help that when she was younger, Megan had been physically abused by her boyfriend,making Wes defensive around any guy who came around her.
Wes's impatience was growing, he clenched his teeth and balled a hand into a restrained fist. Megan finally spoke.
"H-how was your day at work?" she asked.
Wes raised an eyebrow.
"...How was my day at work? What kind of question...Megan!"
She looked at him with a face full of anger and betrayal,"I found out," she said through gritted teeth.
"You found out,found out what?" he asked in his confusion.
"I know what you've been doing," she said, storming over to him,"The Autobots, the Decepticons, the war? How you go off playing hero everyday? The reason you've been gone for weeks, sometimes months at a time?"
Wes was shocked,he had no idea how she knew, but he hung his head all the same. The angry bite of her words was unsettling. Megan scanned him with a pained expression.
"You always taught me that honesty is important," she said quietly,obviously hurt."I can't believe you didn't have the nerve to tell me yourself," she turned away from him, leaving him there,thinking about what he had done. He realized that Sideswipe had been right, he should have told Megan sooner.
"How did you find out?" he asked.
Megan stopped, looked at him, then looked at Amber who was standing next to the blonde stranger.
"You tell him," she said flatly.
Amber sighed and pointed at the person net to her.
"Wes, this is Bumblebee,I believe you two have met before," she said.
"Bumblebee?" the name fell out of Wes's mouth in awe as he looked the stranger over. Finally getting a good look at him, he noted the blonde hair, alarming blue eyes and his choice of clothing color-assuming the black and yellow jacket was his, not one of the lady's. He watched as he shifted slightly under Wes's stare.
"How long have you been here?" Wes asked.
"Two days,today and yesterday," the boy's hand went to his neck.
"How'd you end up here?"
"I got lost in the woods after a fight, got scarred pretty badly. Your daughter,Megan,she offered to try and patch me up so I could get back safely,but,as it turns out,getting blood on an Allspark shard can have some...strange side effects," he explained, looking up at Wes,then back down at the cards that were placed in front of him. Placing his hands on his hips, he sighed and studied the supposed "Bumblebee".
"Alright, not everyone knows about the Allspark, I'll bite, how do I know it's really you?" he asked.
Bumblebee found himself hesitating once again, trying to find the answer to a question. This was happening to him a lot, in the past,he could pass off a question because most believed he couldn't talk, so after a while, they just gave up on asking. But not now, Wes was waiting on a answer,and he wanted it soon. He caught some movement in the corner of his eye as Megan made her way over to the living room where she picked u the Allspark shard(carefully) and brought it over to her father.
"You might want to hide this in a better place," she said as she held the shard out to him,"It's gonna end up causing a lot of problems for a whole lot of people otherwise," she looked over her shoulder at Bumblebee.
"Amber and I,we saw what it did to him,and if it can do that,who knows what else it might do,"
Amber nodded as a response.
Wes looked down at the shard,turning it over in his hand. It was stained red in places,but other than that, the odd shaped,alien rock remained the same.
"Why is there blood on it?" he asked.
"I cut my hands trying to get the shard away from Bumblebee," Megan explained."he's got a pretty strong grip!"
Wes still stared at the shard, it would be the first time a piece of this all powerful alien object caused problems,but,could it really make an Autobot human? Maybe. Until he was proven otherwise, the answer would be "Yes,".
"So,Megan's blood coming in contact with the shard caused a reaction...making you human?" he pointed to Bumblebee.
He shrugged,"I guess so,"
Wes sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.
"I can't believe this," he grumbled."And I'm guessing he's gonna be staying with us, isn't he?" he glared in Megan's direction.
"Where else has he got to go at this late hour?"
Her father let out a groan.
"Okay, he can stay," Bumblebee perked up a bit."But that's indefinitely. I'm not saying he can stick around here forever,"
Bumblebee shot a look in Megan's direction as if to ask if this was a good thing. She held up both hands with thumbs up, a light smile gracing her face.
Looking at the time,Wes yawned. He gathered up his things and...
"Wait, dad, one more thing," Megan said, stopping him before he could reach the stairs.
Frowning,he asked "What?" in an irritated manner. All he wanted to do was climb into bed and get a decent night's sleeps.
Megan looked at her companions,then at her father.
"We want in," she said."We want to join N.E.S.T."
Wes looked at her in alarm.
"What! You can't be serious!"
"I am! Amber and I want to know what the big deal is and Bumblebee doesn't want to miss out!"
Wes shook his head. He knew what being a part of N.E.S.T. Had done to him,he didn't want the same to happen to her,or Amber for that matter.
"Why not?" Megan asked.
Wes sighed."I've seen what the military can do to people,Meg," he said as calmly as he could."It changes people,it changed me;it's the reason your mother and I split up! I don't want to happen to you," he looked over at Amber."The same goes for you,"
Megan sighed as she watched her father walk past. She folded her arms and began pacing,staring down at her bare feet as they padded across the wood floor. Amber looked over at the cards in front of Bumblebee and instructed him to move one to a certain spot. Megan continued pacing as Amber showed Bumblebee how to properly finish a hand of solitaire. She stopped when an idea occurred to her.
"Give me a chance," she said,eyes locked on her father who was almost up the stairs. He turned around to look at her."I'm not going to let something like this change me, let me have a chance to prove that to you. And if it does change me? Let it be for the better,'
Wes let out a disgruntled groan."Why do you want to do this so badly?" he asked,coming back down the stairs.
She made a face and thought about it."because I want to do something important for once in my life, something different,and what's more different that the Non-biological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty? Besides, it be a good use of time, we seem to have a little too much of that on our hands,"
Amber nodded in agreement.
Wes rubbed him forehead and ran his fingers through his hair.
"Alright! I give up!" he declared."You want to do this? Don't say I didn't warn you, if you get hurt, it's on you,"
A smiled crept onto Megan's face as Wes disappeared once more up the stairs. She turned to Amber.
"Told you he'd crack," she said. Amber shrugged.
"I stand corrected,"
Megan settled into the bar stool across from where Bumblebee was. He looked at her with concern in his impossible blue eyes.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked.
Megan fiddled with a curl as she studied the cards.
"Positive," she said,finishing the hand and stacking the cards. Amber,a tad unhappy that Megan had finished the hand an not her, laid out a new hand for herself."You didn't think you were getting off that easily,did you?" she wagged a nagging finger at him."You haven't seen the last of me,Bumble-boy," her fiendish grin and stern eyes took him by surprise.
"...I just hope you know what you're getting yourself into..."
Later that evening,Bumblebee found himself sitting on the front porch of the Sullivan's home,staring out at the night sky. You could see many stars clearly from out her,so much more than in a big city like DC. He had to wonder if it was out there, his home world, Cybertron, but there was a vast distance between the two worlds,it would be impossible to know for sure. Leaning back and elbows resting on the step behind him, he began to think about what Sam might be doing at that same moment. He felt his heart sink, Sam, Carly, everyone else,they would all be worried about him. He hadn't been home in two days,Sam would be freaking out. That was a weird word to call it,"home", was it really right to call it that? His brow furrowed in confusion. That's a weird word, "home", where was his home? Was it with Sam? Was it with the Autobots? He always felt bad when he was away from Sam for long periods of time,but that was because they were best friends.
He looked around where he currently was,the nearby forest,the cool air, the gentle breeze,it made him smile.
"This is a nice place," he thought as he took a deep breath of the pine scented air. He allowed a small grin to come onto his face. The natural beauty of this world,that's what made it fascinating,and unique. And being out in nature was so much different than being in the city,he liked it. That's when a thought occurred to him. Maybe he could use this chance to take a break! He could just,let it all go for once,make his own decisions,be someone else for a little while.
He smiled."Yeah,that could work,just for a little while..."
There were footsteps behind him and he looked back to see Megan sit down on the step right above him.
"You alright?" she asked,fiddling with the short braid her hair had been thrown into. She had changed into a baggy sweat shirt and an old pair of jeans.
"I think so," he replied.
"And,you're okay with...this?" she gestured to his current form.
"Yyyyyeah,I'm getting used to it,but it gave me idea," he said,shifting so he could see her better.
He explained to her that he wanted to use this time as a chance to take a break from being "Bumblebee",just for a little while.
"I mean,we've all been working hard,why not take a break?"
"...So,you aren't going to tell anyone?
He shook his head. Megan sighed.
"Bee? Are you sure you know what you're doing?"
Bumblebee shrugged.
"We're just going to have to wait and see..."