Part 7: When the Time is Right-
Bumblebee nervously cleaned his gun the following day at N.E.S.T. HQ, the minutes seemed to pass like hours to him.
Would Sam even show up?
He looked out at the blue morning sky,there wasn't a cloud to be had. He shook his head and chuckled quietly to himself. It certainly didn't feel like a blue sky kind of day, but maybe that was just him, maybe other people where happy...
He heard the squeal of a young child that caught his attention.
It was Annabelle,she was playing with Ironhide while her father looked on. She looked happy and so did he, and Lennox hadn't looked very happy lately, ever since Ironhide's alleged death.
Maybe the sky was blue for them, the people who deserved to be happy.
He let out a sigh and began fiddling with the dog tag around his neck.
"Come on Sam, where the hell are you?" he wondered.
He soon returned to cleaning his weapon-which was already spotless-having nothing better to do until Sam showed up. He heard footsteps but didn't bother looking up.
"H-hey," It was Megan.
"Hey..." he replied quietly, still not looking up.
It was strange, this past week it was like something had changed between Megan and him, like there was something driving a wedge between them. Things had been okay those first few weeks, when she was helping him learn how to be human.
It was fun, being around her, she was cheerful, happy and laughed at all the little troubles he would have.
What happened to that? That was nice, it made him feel happy too. Had he taken this too far? Gotten a little too involved with her? He hadn't done anything wrong, had he?
No.
He felt flustered, a strange feeling come over him that made his heart beat a little faster and his face go red. This seemed to happen a lot when he thought about Megan like this, how he wanted to see her happy, he wanted to make her happy.
Was this normal?
Megan voice cut through his train of thought.
"You alright, Bee?" she asked.
He threw the rag he was cleaning the gun with down on the floor and holstered his gun.
"No, no I am not okay!" he grumbled."I had my reasons for not telling him, Megan, and I'm still not happy that I have to."
Megan sighed."It's for your own good, Bee, as well as Sam's, and mine! I don't think you realize how many people you've affected by doing this!"
Bumblebee clenched his hands into fists in aggravation.
This was a bad idea, he could have made it on his own that night, if he could go back and change all of this...
"Then you wouldn't have met Megan, or Amber, you would know any of the things you know now."
His heart skipped a beat. It was true! He never would have known what it was like to be human, to have this kind of freedom, to explore the world around him even more.
"Why didn't you tell him?" he heard Amber ask.
Megan flipped her gaze back onto him, her pink lips pressed together in an almost pout like fashion.
God! Why did she have to be so damn cute?
Bumblebee opened his mouth with hesitation."I...I just...I wanted a break," he said.
"You told me that before,but I still don't understand," Megan said."You could have taken a break and still let Sam know you were okay."
"I know! I know I could have...!"
"You SHOULD have!" Amber interjected.
"...I just wasn't thinking, alright?"
Megan let out a loud "Hah!"
"I'll say!" she placed her hands on her hips.
Bumblebee let out a sigh."I wanted freedom for once..." he said in a quiet voice."I didn't want to worry about protecting Sam twenty four hours a day, I didn't want to be stuck in one place for an insane amount of time! I never really got to experience Earth cultures like you humans do. Every time I learned something about how your world works, I savored it, and seeing as I'm stuck here I might as well take every chance I get!"
Megan was a little shocked! This had to be the most truthful statement to come out of the Autobot's mouth in the short time that she had known him. Adventure, excitement...everyone wants a chance to experience that, a little bit of romance never hurt either,but surely he wasn't thinking about that.
She grinned.
"I get it," she said, placing a hand on the shoulder nearest her."Take in all the world has to offer, travel across the globe! Do it all while you still can! We've all been there."
She looked to Amber who nodded, knowing the feeling all to well.
"So, you get it?" Bumblebee asked, a little confused because he hadn't put it in the clearest of terms...words weren't his strong suit...
Megan nodded.
"But, I gotta say, I think you're looking at this in the wrong way!"
"How?"
"If I'm not mistaken, you're an Autobot, correct?"
"...Megan, where are you going with this?"
She held up a finger to silence him.
"The answer is yes, you are an Autobot. You're name is Bumblebee for Christ's sake! What better way to see the world than by being an Autobot! You've probably been to more places than me and Amber combined! Russia? Egypt? China! Hell! We could barely convince our parents to let us go to England after we graduated!"
There was a flicker of fire in her eyes. There. That was one of the things liked most about her, how passionate she could get about things like this. He grinned at her.
"So I really don't see why you think being human is any better than being an Autobot, seems like a pretty sweet set up to me!" She got a thoughtful look on her face."Mind you, I wouldn't necessarily want to be an Autobot myself."
"Neither would I! I enjoy being human, thank you very much!" Amber announced, causing the other two to laugh.
"Freedom then, that's what turned me on to being human," Bumblebee proposed.
"What freedoms do you have now that you didn't have when you were an Autobot?" Amber asked."You could have just asked for the time off."
"You seem to be forgetting one little insignificant little detail," replied Bumblebee as he revealed the scar on his neck."I couldn't exactly talk."
"Well, Sam would've understood, it seemed like the two of you were pretty close," Megan pointed out.
Bumblebee sighed."I still don't think he would have understood..." he rubbed at the scarred area on his neck."He is going to be so mad when he finds out..."
"Course he is ya goof!" Megan said, smack Bumblebee in the stomach."Which is why you shouldn't have waited so long!"
Little did this trio of friends know, but their conversation had reached the ear of none other than Sam Witiwcky himself.
At first, he didn't know what to think, maybe he had just misheard something,maybe his brain was playing tricks on him. but as the they continued to talk, it became more and more apparent that "Brent" had been lying to him.
So he had been keeping his identity a secret from him this whole time! And here he had thought Bumblebee was his friend! Did he really not trust him? Did he really think it a hassle to have to keep an eye on him? The young man bit his tongue, trying to hold back his anger.
"...All I wanted was a little break, really! I was going to tell him!"
A break! Okay, that was the last straw or Sam!
"Is this some sort of joke?" Sam snapped, now in full view of the trio.
They all jumped, but none of them as much as Bumblebee who nearly jumped out of his skin upon seeing Sam. His bright blue eyes were wide in fright as if he had seen a ghost, his slightly spiked hair seemed to stand a little more on and.
"S-Sam!" he sputtered."H-how long have you been standing there!
He could see-and almost feel- the fury in Sam's eyes. Bumblebee knew this was a bad idea!
"Long enough to know my best friend doesn't trust me!" Sam snarled."How could you? First you run off and now you're off gallivanting as a human! Did you think you could just...desert everyone? That they would just forget you were even here?"
Bumblebee managed to swallow the knot in his throat before saying.
"I came back, I didn't go any where..."
"That's not the point! You let everyone think you were still missing or worse, DEAD! But no! You were hiding right under our noses!"
"Sam, calm down..." Megan insisted, noticing people were beginning to stare.
Sam shot her a look.
"And you, you're no better! You were supposed to be helping me find him!" he pointed a finger at Bumblebee."You never said anything about this either!"
Bumblebee tensed up, he wasn't about to let Sam attack his friends, that was for sure!
"Now hang on! They were only doing what I asked them to!" Bumblebee said."I didn't want Megan to say anything to you so she didn't! It's my business and I'll choose who I share it with!"
"And you did think to share it with me?"
Sam's voice had gotten loud enough to attract the attention of a bystander who's interest in the spat got the better of her and she went to check it out.
"What's going on here?" Elita asked with concern.
"Nothing," said Sam who was still glaring at Bumblebee and believed that people should just mind their own business.
Bumblebee rolled his eyes.
"Sam here is upset because I didn't tell him the truth about who I am," Bumblebee said with slight irritation.
Elita blew a raspberry as she tried to think about handling the situation or maybe she should walk away from it all together.
"Alright,seeing as I have no idea what the hell I'm getting myself into and...well, resolving conflicts insist my strong point, I'm going to say that was a bad move on your part," she said to Bumblebee."And..."
She stared blankly at Sam.
"You know? I don't know what to say to you! You're allowed to be mad at him? You should let it go..."
"You're really bad at this," Amber said.
"I know I am," Elita sighed."Doesn't hurt to try though."
Bumblebee let out a sigh.
"Look, Sam, I'm sorry I didn't tell you,she's right, it was a bad move on my part," he said,looking at his friend."Can you forgive me?"
Sam didn't know how to respond. Bumblebee had been missing for a month,and now he was asking for forgiveness? Forgiveness Sam wasn't ready to give him.
He was all to ready to tell him that, but when he met Bumblebee's gaze, he froze up.
It hadn't really occurred to Sam that the person standing in front of him was, in fact, human. Well, almost human,if anything could tell you that Bumblebee wasn't human, it was his eyes which were almost the exact same color his optics were.
He remembered all the times that same person had saved his sorry ass over the years, and listened when others wouldn't He was always there when Sam needed him most, surely he could forgive him for disappearing like he did.
He let out a sigh.
"Yeah, I guess," he said. He watched Bumblebee's face light up, a slight smile come on his face."Just don't go pulling anything like that on me again!"
"I won't! I promise!" Bumblebee said looking like his normal, cheerful self.
"Well, looks like my work her is done!" Elita said, rubbing her hands together in satisfaction.
Bumblebee stared at her.
"You realize you did absolutely nothing, right?"
"I know, I'm just glad I didn't have to do anything!" she said, rolling up the sleeves on her jacket.
Bumblebee shook his head.
"I don't get you sometimes," he told her.
"No one said you had to!" she retorted.
Sam watched the pair talk as if they were old friends. That's new, Bumblebee talking! He always used the radio to talk,but that doesn't really work for humans. Now? He was talking and laughing, no problem what so ever.
"Do they know each other?" Sam asked Megan and Amber.
"Yeah, they do," Megan said."That's Elita, she's one of them."
"Them meaning the Autobots, right?"
"Right."
"Why are they all human?" Sam asked."It doesn't make sense."
"I don't know about Ironhide, or Elita, but with Bumblebee we were thinking it was when some blood got on an Allspark shard that affected him." Megan explained.
"Wait, you had an Allspark shard?"
"Yeah, my dad dad found it,tried to hide it in our garage, but, that's never a good place to hide things..." she began to trail off.
There was an eruption of laughter from Elita and Bumblebee who were very much engrossed in their conversation.
"What's he like? As a human, I mean," Sam asked about Bumblebee.
"You know him better than we do, dude," Amber said."We've only known him for a month."
"Well,yeah,but, what's he like to do? You know, hobbies and stuff."
"He likes baseball," Megan said."He's a fan of the Nationals, kinda because that's my dad's favorite team, so he's only really watched those games."
"Baseball?" Sam questioned.
"What? You're surprised? He's actually pretty good a pitching..."
"You mean he's tried to play?"
"Of course! Didn't you ever try out different sports?"
Sam winced as he remembered the time he tried out for the football team in high school and ended up getting tackled to the ground.
"Y-yeah, sports weren't my thing in school..."
Megan looked at at Sam suspiciously, but let it go.
"He picks up on things really easily," she continued."He started learning Italian and Japanese because we had the books laying around, and he's pretty good a fixing cars."
That Sam wasn't so surprised about, if you've spent part of your life as a car,you're bound to know a thing or two about them.
They're conversation was interrupted by the appearance of Lennox, who looked worried.
"Hey,Lennox, we found Bumblebee," Sam said, nodding in the direction of the blonde human.
"Oh...that's good,but, we've got a problem," he replied.
Amber rolled her eyes.
"What now?" she groaned.
"Optimus is missing."
They all fell silent when they learned this news.
"Missing? How is he missing?" Bumblebee said."Big, blue and red Autobot how do you misplace that?"
"You're one to talk!" Megan said with a noise similar to a laugh."Big, yellow and black Autobot? Hello?"
"...Touche, Megan, Touche..."
Elita seemed the most worried out of all of them.
"How long has he been missing? When was the last time you saw him?" She began hounding Lennox with question after question.
"Easy, easy! I don't know where he's gone, I don't remember when we last saw him, all I know is he's not here," Lennox told her.
"It's you all over again," Sam said to Bumblebee.
"I'm not that big a problem,am I?"
"Well..."
"Don't,don't you dare," Bumblebee shook his head but laughed all the same.
"At the rate things are going, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that Optimus is probably human."
"You think so?" Bumblebee questioned skeptically."How would he have done it?"
"I don't know," Amber shrugged."Maybe he willed himself that way."
"You really think Optimus is going to will himself into being human? I don't think that's possible!"
"Then you tell me where Optimus is!" Amber retorted.
"I'm not saying you're wrong about him being human, I'm just not sure how it happened.
"Hey! Guys!" Megan said, slapping Bumblebee's arm. She pointed to someone a little ways off from where they were."Who's that?"
The person she was pointing to had unkempt, jet black hair that came up in tufts all over his head and hung down slightly over his forehead. It was hard to tell from a distance what color the stranger's eyes were, but if they weren't mistaken,they were blue. His outfit was very plain, a black jacket, a red shirt, dark jeans, and black shoes.
There was something oddly familiar about him, as if they had all seen him before. The funny part was, non of them HAD seen him before, he was a complete stranger to them.
"...You don't think?" started Bumblebee.
"I'm not sure..." replied Megan.
"I've never seen him around here before..." commented Lennox.
"That's why I pointed him out! Have any of you ever seen him around here before?"
The collective answer was "No", so naturally they all began to assume that it was,in fact, the missing Prime.
"How do we know if it's him or not?" asked Amber.
"We could ask him," proposed Elita.
"You want to do it?"
"WHAT! No! Are you crazy!" she shouted, the idea obviously did not sit well with her.
"We could all at least stop staring at him," Bumblebee suggested."He might notice a whole crowd of people staring at him!"
They did just that, even though their collective curiosity made it nearly impossible. Bumblebee sighed.
"Fine,I'll go ask him!" he said, since no one else was bothering to do so.
Once Bumblebee was gone,Sam took this opportunity to ask Megan a nagging question.
"So, I have to ask; You and Bumblebee, are you two...you know, together?"
Megan gave him a wide eyed look.
"What? What the...Sam! Where would you get an idea like that!" she snapped back.
"I-I was just wondering! I'd be okay with it if you were! I just...you to seemed pretty close, he does live with you, doesn't he?"
"That doesn't mean we're together!" Megan's face was about as red as a cherry.
"...Do you WANT to be together?" Amber asked, having eavesdropped on the conversation.
"Are you asking me if I like him?" Megan inquired with a raised eyebrow.
"Sure, let's go with that."
Megan wasn't sure, Bumblebee was a good friend, but, he was an Autobot, a completely different race from her own!
"We can't be together," she said."He's an Autobot, I'm a human. It wouldn't work..."
She seemed a little disappointed by her own findings. Amber,however, had another way of looking at the situation.
"Come on, Meg, he's human,what? 99.9% of the time? Why should him being an Autobot stop you? You like the guy, you like the guy."
Amber logic seemed to work for Megan, who thought it through a little more. Yeah, maybe she did like Bumblebee, maybe it could work. Did he like her back, however, that was the problem.
"I-I'll think about it..." she said.
"No, you go talk to that boy," Amber instructed."You like him? Tell him."
Amber's forwardness got the better of Megan who was still slightly pink in the face from Sam's question. Bumblebee was returning with the man they had assumed to be Optimus,so now was as good as any to talk to him. Amber shoved her over in Bumblebee's direction.
"Did you really have to do that?" Sam asked.
"Yes, I did," Amber replied."Megan's not very good at the relationship stuff, so I had to help her out."
"What about you? What do you know about relationships?"
"Oh! I have a boyfriend! He's just at MIT right now!" she told him.
"You're boyfriend goes to MIT?"
"Yup, found me a genius," she beamed. Something caught her attention and she pointed it out to Sam."See? What I tell you? All she had to do was talk to him."
Megan and Bumblebee embraced, the discussion had been an obvious success.
"Huh, he's doing better than I did."
"Yeah, well, you're Sam Witiwcky, he's not."
"...Touche."