Okay, I'm totally aware that it's been two months. And I'm horribly, horribly sorry for that. I've been totally consumed with school and work the last couple of months. I didn't realize just how hard it was going to be working fulltime and going to school fulltime at night, and anymore I just don't have the strength to think about anything by the time I get home at 9 or 10 at night. Over half of this chapter has been written since I posted the last one, but then I got stuck and I couldn't just end it there because it would've been incomplete and I'm so anal retentive that that just wouldn't work for me. I wasn't gonna post a chapter just for the sake of updating. Hopefully this one will make up for the long wait and I'm definitely gonna try my hardest to get my butt in gear and get another update in before two more months go by. A huge thanks to all those who are still reading after all this time and also to the new ones...you guys are the best!
And a special thank you to Brittany who is the main reason this chapter is finally done and posted rather than wholly incomplete and...not posted. Anyway, thanks to her for the electronic kick in the pants! :)
As always, I own nothing except for the creative license I take with a world that already exists.
Reviews are love so share some with me :)
"You what?" Several long moments passed before Will was the first to find his voice and speak.
"I know where she is," Sam repeated.
"How?"
"She told me," He fully expected all the strange and crazy looks he received.
"She told you?" Epps repeated slowly.
"Well, it's not like she actually popped up and said 'hey Sam here I am'," He rolled his eyes.
"Then how did she tell you?" Leo asked curiously.
"I've known for the last month that I had seen that room before. There was a reason she was in that particular room, but until now I couldn't place it. I knew it, but I couldn't remember it. Not until the video we got today. Watch it," Sam walked to the computer and started the latest video just before Mikaela started talking.
"What does it mean?" Christian spoke for the first time. "So she's glad she took a chance on you. How does that tell you where she is?"
"Because there's only one other time she's said those exact words to me," Sam said simply. "In Mission City. Lennox ordered me to take the Cube to the roof of a building where a chopper would meet me. Just before I ran off, she stopped and told me no matter what happened she was glad she got in the car with me."
"And somehow she figured out where she was and she knew by telling you that, you would be able to figure it out and the Decepticons would never know she was giving you a clue because nobody heard those words but you and her," Will filled in.
"There's only one way to get to the roof of that building," Sam continued. "Through that room."
"Why did we never think of Mission City?" Epps sighed.
"They chose that room, that building, for a reason. Nothing about this has ever been about taking over the world or destroying the entire human race. This was an attack against me and me alone because I have directly led to the demise of Megatron twice and the Fallen once. They knew I was the only one who knew that room, and that if we couldn't find her in time it would be no one's fault but my own. This is their payback; they took the most important person in my life away from me just like I did to them those three times."
"Jensen!" Will called out to the soldier standing guard at the hangar door. "I need a plane prepped immediately. I want it ready to take off at 1300 hours. Alert Harrison, Strickland, Hughes, Morrison, and your units that we have discovered Mikaela's location. Sadler and Banker's units are staying behind to guard the base. The plane will leave at 1300 hours exactly and any soldier not on that plane at 1255 will be left behind and disciplined severely upon our return."
"Sir, yes sir," Jensen saluted his superior before leaving his position to follow Lennox's orders.
"Christian, Leo, Sam," Lennox turned to the three. "I will allow you to go, but you are not to step off that plane under any circumstances until we have Mikaela safely out of that building and every one of those Decepticons destroyed. I don't even want to be able to see you when I look at the plane. Got it?"
"Like hell I'm staying on that plane!" Sam argued.
"Witwicky, you will do as I say or I will forcibly leave you here," Will said fiercely.
"Just listen to me. I have an idea," Sam recounted his plan and saw the nods of agreement as he continued.
By the time the large military plane landed at a small, privately owned airstrip about 100 miles southeast of Mission City, they had eight and a half hours left to get to the building and get Mikaela out. Epps had suggested landing somewhere close to the city but not actually in it, so as to keep the element of surprise in their favor. The Decepticons would surely have eyes on every airport in the city and would know the moment a military aircraft landed.
There was an army base four hours south of the airstrip that had been ordered by the Secretary of Defense to deliver and allow the use of a number of Humvees to the higher ranking troops. The soldiers delivering the vehicles were also ordered to stand guard of the plane and the two occupants on it.
The Autobots had been put on a separate plane with Jensen's unit. There had been no way to fit the robots in their alt modes on the same plane. Upon rolling off the cargo ramp, Sam took to Bumblebee, Will took to Ironhide, and Epps took to Optimus. Luke Gordon, NEST's leading medic, was teamed with Ratchet. The remaining Autobots had created holograms and would bring up the rear. The rest of the humans were designated to the borrowed Humvees.
Half an hour went by in the time it took for the planes to land, unload all of their needed cargo, and leave the airstrip. It would take roughly an hour at most to get to the building. Satellite images had been collected and were to be studied on the ride over. Sam, Epps, and Will each had their own copies along with radios to talk back and forth with each other. The building looked relatively easy to ambush, but they knew the enemy they were dealing with would be their toughest yet. Their moves could not be anticipated, and they had no way of knowing how many there were or how close the real Decepticons who controlled these ones were.
Sam was not naïve; he knew how tough this mission would be, but he felt more optimistic than he had in months. Never once had his faith that Mikaela would be found faltered, and despite the danger and short amount of time they had left to get to her and bring her out alive, he had complete faith they would do it.
Mikaela believed he would save her, and he'd never let her down yet.
Mikaela's concept of time was now totally restored thanks to these thugs and that final video. She'd finally figured out their pseudo names after three months of being trapped with them. The main one was called Hawk and the abusive one called himself Chomper. The reason for the names, she didn't know and it would be of no help at all in finding their real identities on the outside of this hellhole, but at least she could silently refer to them as something besides Thug 1 and Thug 2 or any other appropriate, albeit obscenely vulgar, name she'd come up with in her time here.
Chomper took great joy in telling her every hour on the hour that she was 60 minutes closer to dying because her precious fiancée couldn't save her. When the clock chimed a new hour, he'd beaten her the equivalent number of times as hours it had been since they'd sent that final video. The last beating she'd received she'd counted 17 strikes by the leather whip, telling her there were only seven more hours.
She refused to give up. At any moment, Sam or Will or even Bumblebee for that matter would come busting through that door to save her. There wasn't much she was absolutely certain of anymore, but she was certain of that. No matter how close it got to 3:25AM, when the countdown would be up, she would not lose faith.
Hawk and Chomper had taken to searching the building when it hit the halfway point of the 24 hours. Each time they left they were gone a little bit longer as they began to search more floors more thoroughly. They weren't worried about leaving her alone; at this point there would be no escaping. She was too weak to walk and there was only one way out of the building save from jumping from a window. They would see her if she tried to crawl down the stairs. The last time they'd left, she'd spied her cell phone on the desk on the other side of the room. Surprisingly enough it hadn't been destroyed in all this time.
It may not even be charged, she really didn't know, but she had to try. Slowly and painfully, she crawled to the other side of the room. Her body was sore all over from the beatings and lack of use, but she pushed herself as hard and as fast as she could. By the grace of God, the phone turned on and had one remaining bar of charge left in it.
"Mikaela?" Tears pooled in her eyes at the sound of his voice when he answered. He'd heard her voice, seen her through video in the last three months, but she'd had nothing of him.
"Sam, don't talk. I don't have a lot of time," Mikaela whispered hoarsely. "We're in Mission City. The building you took the Cube up. I think there's just the two. I've never seen or heard any others. They're gonna blow the building up at 3:25. I love you."
"Oh, Mikaela…I love you too," She could tell Sam was crying too. "We're just outside the city now. You're amazing 'Kaela. You told me exactly where to go in that video."
"I have to go before they come back in here," She whispered urgently. "I can't wait to see you again."
"It won't be long I promise. We're on our way. I love you baby," He started to say more, but at that point her phone died. Honestly, she was truly surprised her phone had lasted as long as it did. As bad as she still wanted to hear his voice, she knew she'd done all she could do. He'd figured out the meaning behind the specific words from their past she'd used, and she'd confirmed his hunch.
A mere handful of seconds passed before the two thugs reentered the room after she returned to her original position. The short trip to the opposite side of the room had sapped Mikaela of what little energy she had, but she had to force her breathing to sound normal as the deep, panting breaths she longed to take would give it all away. They couldn't know she'd managed to make that one phone call or the bomb would be set off early.
Every ounce of pain and suffering she'd felt while in their evil hands melted away. For the first time, she knew Sam was going to save her. She'd never doubted for a moment he wouldn't, but now she had concrete fact.
"Well if it isn't the prettiest little lady I ever did see," Hawk said evilly and laughed. These two had to be the most sadistic beings she'd ever met in her life. It was strange in a way because they hadn't spent every waking moment torturing her, but when they did it was plain to see how much enjoyment they got from it. Mikaela wouldn't have been a bit surprised if they walked around with constant hard-ons from the pain they inflicted upon her. Their eyes betrayed the desire they had to truly punish her, but they were under orders to leave her alive and relatively unscathed. Bruises and cuts could heal, but broken bones and mutilation was insubordination to their leaders.
"You're disgusting," She spat.
"That may be so, but I'm not the one pathetically waiting for my worthless excuse for a boyfriend to come save me," He taunted.
"My fiancée is going to save me." Mikaela emphasized the word describing what Sam actually was to her. "And he's going to fucking tear you limb from limb for what you've done. I'm the one who will walk away from this. You and your little fuck buddy bitch over there will be carried out piece by piece in plastic bags."
Chomper evidently didn't take kindly to the insult judging by the force he put behind the kick to her side.
"Calm down Chomper," Hawk called out tiredly. He was used to having to restrain the other man's anger. "She's only provoking you. She knows we're going to win."
"Guys, Mikaela's alive!" Sam hollered excitedly over his radio the moment their call disconnected.
"What?" Christian's voice crackled. She and Leo were using an Autobot-enhanced long range radio so they weren't left in the dark back at the airstrip.
"How do you know?" Will questioned at the same time.
"I don't know how she did it, but she managed to use her cell phone without them knowing what she was doing."
"Is she where we think she is?" Epps asked. "'Cause we don't have time to go anywhere else."
"Yes," He recalled the conversation and all the valuable information she'd relayed to him. "She said she thinks there's only the two we know about and she's never seen or heard any others. They're going to blow the building at 3:25."
"This may be easier than we thought," Will said more to himself. "But let's not get overconfident. That's a 20 story building and she only knows the one room. I want everybody going into this mission thinking we're facing 30 Megatrons and every other Decepticon that exists. We don't know exactly what we're walking into here, so we have no room for mistakes."
"Christian, Leo," Sam spoke to his two closest friends. "We will see you soon. I promise."
Sam looked out the windshield of his beloved Camaro and saw the tall white building with the statues on it for the first time in two and a half years. Months of searching and suddenly he could see the very room that held the most important person in his life hostage. With every fiber of his being he wanted to leap from the car and run into the building and up 20 flights of stairs to get to her, but he knew that was the stupidest, most reckless thing he could do. A choice like that would only end in both of their deaths.
A 15 block radius had been evacuated and barricaded from entry aside from the convoy of military Humvees and accompanying pack of flashy looking civilian vehicles. Several military units from around the state of California had been ordered to secure the area, but none were granted access passed the first block.
"Harrison, Strickland, Jensen, Morrison, Hughes, and Witwicky gather up," Epps called out to his captains and Sam. They'd stopped halfway into the evacuated area to receive final orders.
"Strickland and Hughes," Will eyed the two men. "I want you and your units in the two buildings on each side to cover the rest of us. Snipers with plasma rifles on the roof, but do not shoot unless ordered to do so by Epps or myself. Ironhide will go with Hughes."
The two captains nodded before turning to their respective teams and heading to the assigned buildings.
"Harrison and Morrison," Will continued. "Your units will surround the outside of the building. On my call, you will fire without abandon. Until then, show some restraint. Shoot only if fire is opened against us."
"Jensen, your unit will follow Mudflap, Skids, and Bumblebee up the building. Stay behind them at all times," Lennox finished.
The remaining three captains gathered their units before marching off to follow the orders given to them.
"Sam, you know what we're doing," Sam nodded to show his understanding. "Luke will be waiting for you the minute you come out of that building."
"Yes sir."
"You do not for any reason stick around. Get out and radio us when you're out of Mission City. Do not seek revenge; we will do it for you. Do you understand me?" Will gave Sam a gravely serious look.
"Yes sir," Sam did understand. He would follow his orders to the letter.
"Good. Let's go."
Sam, Lennox, and Epps would be going up the fire escape. It was on the side of the building Hughes' unit was stationed with Ironhide so they would have ample protection along with the weapons they carried on their persons. Their plan centered around two main objectives: surprising the hell out of these fuckers and confusing them beyond comprehension. They were counting on the surprise and confusion to execute the mission. As long as they successfully did one or the other, they stood a good chance of getting Mikaela out safely.
Optimus had performed a thorough scan of the building before allowing Jensen's unit or the three Autobots to enter the main doors. It was mostly to see if there were any Decepticons lying in wait to ambush them and alert the other two to their arrival. All that the scan revealed were several randomly placed motion detectors, but the Autobots would have discovered them once inside the building before tripping them, so they weren't worried about that. Like Sam expected, both from Mikaela's provided information and his own gut instinct, it truly appeared there were only the original two. Of course, with the new and improved undetectable Decepticons it was impossible to truly know that, but Sam truly believed they really were the only ones. They were expecting him to barrel up the stairs and through the doors to that room without any sort of backup. In that case, both Sam and Mikaela would die in the explosion they would detonate.
Little did the Decepticons know, they were playing right into their little theory.
Sam admittedly did not have half the stamina any of the soldiers did. Halfway up the stairs, he was running on pure adrenaline. If he'd anticipated the need to climb so many stairs, he would've spent part of the last three months glued to a Stairmaster building up his strength. Tomorrow or the next day, his muscles would be screaming in pain but right now it didn't matter. He had one conscious thought, and everything else was shoved from his mind.
At the 18th floor, they paused when the radio softly crackled to life.
Phase one of their plan had begun.
Hawk and Chomper spent the majority of their time monitoring all the motion detectors and cameras they had inside and around the tall building. As of yet, not even a blip had shown up on the radar. Where was this infernal human who supposedly loved their captive so much? They had both expected his presence hours before, and the lengthy wait was making them more and more anxious. Their inner turmoil was invisible to Mikaela, who still believed them to be calm and confident of their victory.
Mikaela was growing anxious internally as well, though for different reasons. Of the three, she was the only one who knew how close the other side was. Her concept of time was so skewed she couldn't honestly predict their arrival, but she knew it was coming. More than anything, she was worried about Sam's role in her rescue. She'd seen him behave recklessly in the heat of a battle before and knew that he was prone to rushing ahead of himself before thinking his decisions completely through. Her instinct was the same as the thugs: Sam was going to come barging through the door guns blazing with no help. If he did that, she was going to kill him for being such an idiot once they were both safe and she had the strength to beat the piss out of him. Lennox or Optimus would never allow him to do that, but he'd never been the best at following orders.
Her patience was thinning quickly and with every snide comment they made she had to force herself to keep silent and not reveal their approaching attack or that she'd given away their location. Mikaela made herself think about all the simple things she would soon, God willing, be able to experience again. A shower, for one. A big, comfy bed, though she knew they'd likely confine her to a hospital bed until they were convinced she was fine. Clean clothes, although there again it would likely be a paper thin gown in the beginning. Food besides stale crackers and sliced cheese. Most of all…Sam. His eyes. His hugs. His warm embrace. His smile. Those long, slow kisses.
She swallowed a giggle that threatened to escape as it dawned on her she would likely be attacking him one way or another once they were both safe and healthy. Her reasons for attacking him were yet to be discovered. It would either be angrily or sexually. They were both hot blooded teenagers after all. A contented peace enveloped her knowing that despite all she'd endured she could still fantasize about her fiancée even as her life remained at stake.
A loud, screeching siren caused her train of thought to come to a sudden halt.
"What the hell!" Hawk yelled angrily.
"The 19th floor?" Chomper's chair legs scratched against the concrete floor when he shoved his seat back.
"How did they get past all of the other detectors without setting them off?" Hawk was more furious than Mikaela had ever seen him. Normally Chomper was the one with the anger problem and Hawk was the calmer of the two, but the look on his face could kill.
"Damn it Hawk!" Chomper yelled at his cohort and began to pull weapons from a case nearby. "You fucking moron!"
From the looks on the two Neo Decepticons' faces, it seemed they were a half-second away from exchanging blows with each other. At least if they managed to destroy each other, nobody on her side would get hurt and she'd easily be able to escape.
The sound of the door banging back against the wall caused all three of their heads to snap towards the sudden noise. Just as they'd expected: there stood Sam guns blazing and fire in his eyes.
"Fancy meeting you two here," Sam taunted with a smirk on his face. "Been waiting for me long?"
"Tut, tut Witwicky," Hawk smoothly returned the taunting. "Awfully cocky for someone who waited three months to rescue his girlfriend, aren't you? Do you know all the times she cried herself to sleep, all the times she called out your name in her sleep? It was quite an entertaining show for the two of us."
"You're a sick, twisted fuck," He growled.
"Hey now, there's no reason for name calling," Chomper said condescendingly. "We're all friends here."
"This chat's been loads of fun and all, but give me Mikaela," There was a deadly aura around Sam. "Let me have her, and maybe I'll have a little mercy on you when I destroy you."
"A mere human like you has no chance against us," Chomper moved so he stood in Sam's way of getting to Mikaela. In response, Sam pointed his shiny looking gun towards their computer setup and fired it. There was no shrapnel, no debris; all of it literally just vaporized into thin air. It was the Autobot's newest weapon creation.
"No chance against you?" He asked rhetorically.
There was a resounding thud on the roof above them and Hawk and Chomper looked back and forth at each other uncertain. Hawk nodded at his accomplice before turning to the door leading up to the roof and going out of it. Neither Sam nor Chomper did anything other but glare at each other as several long moments passed.
Mikaela knew something was up. Sam hadn't hardly glanced at her or made a move towards her in the entire time since he'd ambushed the room. The only acknowledgment he'd even given to her presence was telling Hawk and Chomper to let him have her.
Chomper's interest was piqued as well. He too had noticed the human's seeming lack of concern for his captive girlfriend. Sam simply stood there toying with his gun and a knowing smirk on his face. A shrill scream was heard from the roof, and Chomper looked nervously at the open door. What was going on up there? Hawk was one of the best at what he did. Chomper had seen him go up against other Neo Decepticons severely mismatched in their training and come out unscathed. The two of them could go up against the Autobots and their stupid military teams and defeat them. They were built to be indestructible. That's why they were the only two guarding Mikaela.
Hawk bounded down the stairs with a look of disbelief upon his angry face.
"There's two of them!" He shouted to Chomper. "And my scanner can't detect the imposter!"
"There's two of who?" The other man was confused.
"Witwicky is on the roof," Hawk pointed towards the door and then at the man standing in the other doorway. "And Witwicky is right there!"
"Actually, there's three," A third version of Sam stepped through the door from the inside of the building. "Now things are starting to get real fun. Three Sam Witwickys and you can't tell which of us is the real one and which two are the imposters."
Mikaela was overwhelmed at the sight of seeing two figures standing side by side that looked identical to her fiancée. She couldn't even tell if he was one of them or if they were both fake. Chomper growled and went to grab a weapon until the first Sam pointed his gun directly at him.
"Still feel confident now?"
"Hawk, take the roof," Chomper ordered without tearing his eyes away from Sam and the gun pointed at him. "I've got these two."
"What about her?" Hawk referred to Mikaela.
"She's trapped. Her only option is to jump out of a window, and that's suicide."
Hawk retraced his steps to the roof after grabbing weapons in both hands. Mikaela was surprised neither Sam attempted to fire at him, but their eyes were trained on Chomper. Something told her the lack of resistance they'd shown in letting him go back to the roof armed meant the one on the roof wasn't the real Sam. There was no way they would possibly let Sam face off against an armed Decepticon. He stood no chance.
In a blur of movement, Chomper had grabbed a gun and fired at the first Sam before there was any chance to react. His body flew back and knocked a hole through the wooden wall. Mikaela screamed when she saw him land on the hard ground outside the room unmoving. She had no idea if that was her fiancée or not, but even if it wasn't it was horrifying to watch someone who looked exactly like him get shot at like that. He advanced towards the other Sam who wielded a similar looking firearm. He fired off a quick shot at the ground under Chomper's feet, causing the floor to disintegrate and his body instantly dropped to the floor below with a crash. The clone gave Mikaela a long look before shaking his head and jumping through the hole.
Great, Mikaela thought. Three Sams, one of which is the real one, and they all disappear. She could hear the shots volleying back and forth both above and below her. Stupid pigheaded moron. Like I wasn't already freaked out and worried enough.
"Alright kid, it's your time to shine," Sam could hear Lennox's voice loud and clear in the earpiece fitted into his right ear. "We've got eyes on you for protection. Don't do anything stupid."
"Aye, aye captain," He mock saluted the older man. The joking nature at such a serious time was an attempt to calm his nerves.
"Get in, get Mikaela, and get out."
Epps had quietly cut out a window to the room off the fire escape. From the sounds of the wide open radio, both Decepticons were sufficiently distracted leaving Sam the perfect opportunity to crawl through the newly created hole and rescue Mikaela.
Sam entered the room and immediately shuffled over to where Mikaela sat against the wall. She gave him a confused look and he knew it was because she was now seeing a fourth version of him and she had assumed one of the first three was actually him. When he reached for her, she shied away and there was a sense of hurt despite understanding why she had reacted that way.
"I'm the real one," He said softly.
"How do I know?" Mikaela questioned warily.
"Remember in Florida when we got busted by Rachel for making out in the closet when we were playing hide and seek and she called us rabbits on Viagra?"
"Sam…"
"Come on. We've got to go," He picked her up bridal style and reveled in the feeling of her skin against his after so long.
Sam carried her to the window before handing her gently to Lennox and crawling back through the small space. There were no words between the two men as Sam took her back into his arms and started running down the stairs. Her arms instinctively locked around his neck more to try to steady herself from being jostled around in his haste than anything else.
"Hold on tight and don't let go," Sam ordered in between panting breaths.
At the base of the fire escape, Luke was waiting. The moment Sam's feet padded onto sidewalk, both men were sprinting towards the Humvee parked a couple blocks away. He unceremoniously threw Mikaela into the backseat when they reached the vehicle, and in the back of his mind he felt bad about tossing her around like that but their only priority at that moment was getting the hell out of the area as quickly as possible.
"Go Luke!" Sam hopped in the backseat with his fiancée and screamed at the man who took the driver's seat. "Go, go, go, go, go!"
He covered Mikaela's body as best he could without lying completely on top of her to shield her from view. Her eyes had been shut tight from the moment he took her from Lennox and she was afraid to open them. Sam took the moment to rejoice in his rescuing her from that room and down to the Humvee waiting for them on the ground safely. Not once had they been shot at, thank God, and there had been nothing on the radio about the two Decepticons having any idea she was gone.
"How do you feel?" Sam finally whispered.
"Like I've been carried down a gigantic flight of stairs and thrown into the backseat of a car like a ragdoll," She tried to joke but her breathing was uneven.
"Did I hurt you?" He pushed.
"No, baby, you didn't," Mikaela assured reaching a hand gingerly to his head to run her fingers through his hair. "Chomper was a little rougher than usual today."
"Will, we're en route to the airstrip. Radio Luke if you need me, I'm turning mine off," Sam tore the earpiece out and chucked it and his radio into the floorboard.
"Sam…" She breathed softly seeing the pure emotion on his face. Tears poured from his eyes and he buried his head into her chest.
"I missed you so much. God, I love you Mikaela," His words were muffled against her skin and the erratic sound of her heartbeat was like music to his ears.
Mikaela couldn't speak she was so choked up. There were a dozen or more things she wanted to say, but none of it would come out. All she could do was run her fingers through his hair and cradle his head.
Sam didn't even mind that she wasn't talking. The physical contact was well more than enough right now. They would have their time to talk, but for the moment it wasn't that important. The tears falling from his eyes finally dried up and he lifted his head to meet her gaze.
"No, Sam I don't think so," She protested and turned her head when he tried to kiss her.
"What?" He asked utterly confused.
"I haven't brushed my teeth in three months," She said disgustedly. "You're not kissing me."
"Mikaela, I could care less," Sam rolled his eyes at her girliness.
"Well, I do. I'm pretty sure my breath is, like, toxic by now," She laughed. "I promise you can kiss me as long as you want when we get to wherever we're going…as long as I get a toothbrush and some heavy duty toothpaste first." He stared at her a long moment before craning his head around to the front of the Humvee.
"Luke, send one of the officers guarding the plane after a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a jug of water," Sam asked the other man.
"Are you serious?" It definitely wasn't a normal order given to a lower ranking soldier.
"Yes. If it's not there by the time we get there, I'm taking one of those vaporizing guns after every one of them."
"I'll pass along the order," Luke consented all the while shaking his head amusedly at the absurdity of the situation.
"He just thinks I'm joking," Sam grumbled to himself before turning back to Mikaela. She couldn't help but giggle at the way he was acting, but she didn't say anything.
The Humvee was silent for most of the ride back to the airstrip. Occasionally Sam or Mikaela would murmur something to the other, but after the three month separation they were content to simply bask in each other's touch. There was only so much they could say to each other at the moment, and it was mostly repetitive or saying the exact same thing in different words.
It'd been about 45 minutes since Christian and Leo heard over their radio that Luke and Sam were on their way back to the airstrip with Mikaela. Christian had been exuding anxiety and impatience for the last 15 minutes as it seemed time was frozen as they waited for the first sight of the Humvee to come into view.
Three months of nothing and all of a sudden she was mere minutes away. The traumatic experience she'd been forced to endure would obviously have a lasting impact on Mikaela, but nobody really knew how much it would change her. Would they ever have the same fun loving, amazing person they'd grown to love back? Christian remembered how her friend had been right after Justin's attempted rape, and she'd just barely started to get back to the way she was before. If there was one person strong enough to withstand so much in such a short period of time, it was Mikaela—but how much was too much? At what point would she just not be able to bounce back?
They heard the Humvee's arrival before they saw it and Christian barely gave the armored vehicle a chance to stop before she was running towards it and throwing open the door. All it took was one look at her best friend's weakened frame and she burst into tears. Sam carefully helped his fiancée out of the rear seat and step onto the concrete runway and then stepped back a few feet so that she and Christian could have their reunion. If there was one person besides Sam who needed to feel Mikaela's warm skin, hear her voice, to know that the nightmare was finally over, it was Christian. The past three months had been almost as hard on her as they had on him, and maybe even just a little bit harder since there had been a short period of time where she'd lost faith they'd bring Mikaela back alive whereas Sam had never once lost hope.
"Christian, it's okay," Mikaela whispered upon feeling her best friend's body violently shaking from her sobbing. "I'm fine. I'm still here. I'm alive."
Christian still couldn't seem to recompose herself no matter how many reassurances Mikaela whispered in her ear and that only served to upset her more—knowing that she was being consoled by the person she should be consoling. Of course, Mikaela didn't see it that way. There were tears of her own trailing down her cheeks because she was just so relieved to be with them again. Sam was her whole world, there was no denying that fact, but the red headed woman had become an integral part of her life over the last several months before her kidnapping and she was just as happy to see her again.
Leo managed to peel his girlfriend away from Mikaela after a while. He didn't want to break up the reunion, but he could hear snippets of the conversation between Sam and Lucas and knew they needed to get her back onto the plane where they'd brought a load of medical equipment with them. The plan was to check her over as thoroughly as they could within the confines of the plane, and as long as there were no pressing issues that had to be taken care of immediately, they would fly one back to New Jersey and keep her in the infirmary on base. Should anything serious show up, however, the plane would fly them straight to Diego Garcia until she was fit to handle the longer cross country flight. None of them wanted to have to admit her to any other hospital because of the secrecy of her three month long abduction. With all the classified information surrounding the situation, it was best to avoid having to come up with a cover story or outrageous lie to explain her injuries.
Sam carried Mikaela from where they stood next to the Humvee onboard the plane where Lucas's medical equipment had already been set up despite her insistence that she could walk the twenty some odd feet between the two. He was going to be overprotective like this for a while, and she could already tell it would cause some tension between them. She knew he just wanted to make sure she didn't hurt herself worse or push herself too hard, but she also knew her body better than anyone else and knew the limits to which she could go. As much as it would annoy her, his over attentiveness would only make her love him that much more. If the situations were reversed, she would be the exact same way.
"Okay, Mikaela, I'm going to ask you some questions and do a couple scans, alright?" Lucas asked her gently once the five of them were on the plane. "As long as I'm satisfied with your answers and what the scans show me, we'll fly back to Jersey when the rest get back. If something comes up, we're flying to Diego Garcia immediately."
"I'll do anything you want me to as long as you promise me a bath. Like a really, long hot one where I don't have to move for a while," She smiled at her simple request. "And you should probably find out about that toothbrush 'cause I know my fiancée over there is getting antsy."
"He's just going to have to wait a little bit longer," Both of them laughed at the pouty look he got on his face at the news before Lucas got all serious again. "Now, tell me, how often were you assaulted?"
"In the beginning it was just once a day I suppose. It was never consistently as bad as what the videos showed. For the most part, I just got slapped around and kicked. The videos were always the worst—they wanted it to look like it was worse than what it was. I'm not sure who they got their orders from, who controlled them, but I do know they had orders not to seriously hurt me. Towards the end though…" Mikaela trailed off as she tried to control her tears and Sam laced his fingers through hers to try to calm her down. "Chomper couldn't restrain himself. He'd beat me a few times a day or more. There were times I'd pass out from the pain, not because it was that much worse but mostly just because there was less time to heal between beatings. He used a chain once, and I think he broke a rib or two because there was this god awful snap and after that Hawk never let him use it again."
"I should've obliterated that motherfucker when I had the chance," Sam growled darkly and they all watched as he stalked off the plane. Mikaela couldn't help but be upset that he'd just taken off like that, but the rational part of her brain understood that it was hard for him to hear what she'd had to go through.
"Were you ever assaulted in any way that wasn't physical?" The medic asked reluctantly.
"No, they never did anything like that."
"Did they ever use anything besides the chain?"
"Chomper was real fond of a leather whip the last couple days or so. I can't really remember everything. The days all ran together after a while, and I tried to block most of it out."
"That's okay. Did they feed you, give you water?"
"Yeah, I got bread or crackers and water every day. They never really planned to kill me; it was all a ploy to draw Sam in so they could kill him. That's why they couldn't beat me too bad. I had to stay alive because I was their only direct link to him."
"Based on what you're telling me, it sounds like all the wounds are superficial and you're just malnourished given the amount of food they gave you," Lucas summed up. "But I still need to run some tests to make sure there's nothing going on internally that we can't see."
While Lucas got everything in order to get the tests done quickly and efficiently, Mikaela kept her eyes on the open end of the plane. She really needed Sam by her side. They'd been separated for three months with no contact and a part of her couldn't comprehend how he could just walk away like he had.
The tests were relatively simple, more time consuming than anything. More in depth tests would be run when they got back to whichever military base Lucas decided they needed to go to, but for now he wanted to make sure all her important organs were functioning correctly and that there was no internal bleeding of any kind. He didn't have a machine to x-ray her side to check for broken ribs, but there wasn't much he would've been able to do even if they had discovered they were broken. The incident had happened at least a month back she figured, so she'd been dealing with the pain that long anyway.
Sam still hadn't returned when they finished up with all the tests and Lucas gave her the okay to fly back to New Jersey and stay at the infirmary on base, so Christian stepped up and helped her off the make shift exam table and wrapped an arm around her waist to support her as she walked. Again, Mikaela protested that she could walk on her own, but the other woman refused to let her go. All she really wanted to do was sit down and not move for a while, but her fiancée was standing somewhere outside that plane with who knows what running through his mind and she needed to get to him. Both of them had been through hell for the last three months, and they needed strength from each other to help them begin to move on. Even as happy as she was to be with him again, she was still upset at his abrupt departure and she was going to let him know that.
They found him sitting in the back of the Humvee with the door wide open. It was obvious from his demeanor that he was upset and upon closer inspection she could tell that he'd been crying. Seeing him like this made her want to hold him and kiss his tears away.
"I know this is hard for you too and part of me understands that, but there's a bigger part of me that needs you so much right now, more than I ever have before," Mikaela lifted his jaw to look him in the eye. "But I don't know how to depend on you if you're just gonna take off like that."
"'Kaela, I'm sorry," Sam spoke softly. "I didn't mean to take off like that. It's just…hearing you talk about it, knowing what you had to go through—and that it was all because of me—I just couldn't handle it. I'm supposed to protect you and I didn't, I couldn't, and in that moment I felt like a failure because I couldn't save you. I hated myself right then and I was just so angry I had to get out of there before I started destroying everything because that would've scared you and I don't wanna hurt you anymore."
"Baby, you did save me. You pulled me from that building. Every single day you saved me, because I knew you would find me. Yeah, it sucked what I had to go through, but I'm gonna be okay because I have you. You remember what you told me about this ring?" She held her hand up so he could see it. "It means we're stuck together. No refund policy, remember? It means I'm always gonna come back to you because I love you so fucking much."
"I love you too," He said emotionally.
"You've gotta let me in too, okay?" Mikaela tenderly touched his cheek. "I don't want you to close yourself off because you think I can't handle it. I wanna be there for you as much as you're gonna be here for me."
"Yes ma'am," Sam joked and kissed her forehead. "Come with me. I brought some extra clothes with us on the plane."
"See, you're totally the best fiancée ever," She smiled happily. "And then we gotta find that toothbrush 'cause I'm not real sure how much longer I can go without kissing you."
Sam carried her to the plane a second time, but she decided not to complain about him not letting her walk. She understood now that it made him feel better because it upset him to know that she was hurting even if she didn't vocalize it.
He produced a pair of sweats and a t-shirt along with a bra and panties from a bag underneath one of the seats. They'd already asked Christian and Leo to not let anyone in while she was changing, so Mikaela immediately reached for the hem of the shirt she'd been wearing but Sam moved her hands out of the way. The look in his eyes indicated he needed to do this as a final confirmation that she was okay. Her midsection was covered in bruises and welts new and old when he carefully slid the shirt over her head and she saw his knuckles whiten around the tattered material as he fought to contain his emotions.
"Baby, calm down," Mikaela pleaded. "It doesn't hurt near as bad as you think. I promise."
Sam's hands were shaking as he reached around to unclasp her bra. The second piece of clothing came off and he had to force himself not to stare. This was not the time or the place for any kind of sexual thoughts or actions. He heard a giggle and looked up to see her smirking at him. Of course, she knew him better than he knew himself, so even as he tried to hide it she knew what he was thinking. All he could do was smile sheepishly and shrug a shoulder. He covered her with a new, clean bra and the t-shirt from the bag of clothes before trailing his hands to the button of her jeans. Mikaela shivered from the feeling of his hands on her legs as he pushed the jeans down and it was his turn to smirk knowingly at her. He hooked his thumbs in the waistband of her panties and took them off too and suddenly they were both glad he'd brought one of his t-shirts rather than hers so it came down almost to mid-thigh which meant nobody walking by the plane would be able to see anything.
"I'm sorry they're all wrinkled," Sam apologized after pulling the sweats up and tying the drawstring for her. "I had Christian get them for me when she went home one weekend, so they've been in a bag for a while."
"At least I'm comfortable now," She laced her fingers through his and smiled widely. "Now how about that toothbrush?"
"You're impossible," He shook his head amused and carried her off in search of the officer who'd been sent to buy it.
The others had arrived just as soon as she'd finished brushing her teeth for the millionth time, so their kiss had been postponed yet again as Will and Epps and the rest of the team she'd gotten close to had ambushed her with relieved words and cautious hugs. Will broke away after several minutes to converse with Lucas and find out for sure that she was okay to withstand the long flight back to New Jersey. Once he got word that she was, the two cargo planes were quickly loaded up and ready to take off. There hadn't been any major injuries to any of the humans because of their surprisingly successful sneak attack in which most of the fighting had been done by the Autobots.
"Next time you guys get this bright idea to go to Florida, we're all going with you. Trouble follows you two around like nothing I've ever seen before," Will said half-jokingly and wrapped her up in another hug after the plane they were on began to travel down the runway.
"Don't worry, Will, I don't think Sam's gonna let us go anywhere besides New Jersey, Philadelphia, and home for a very long time," Mikaela agreed. They both looked over at the man in question who was watching her intently from his spot next to Leo and Christian. She slowly made her way over to where they were standing and leaned into Sam's side when he slid an arm around her waist.
"Let's sit down, okay?" He didn't even give her a chance to respond as he guided her to a seat and pulled her down onto his lap. She looked around and could tell that the others on the plane were preoccupied with whatever they were doing or conversations they were caught up in and she smiled slightly.
"Finally," Mikaela whispered and turned her head so she could capture his lips with hers. His fingers instinctively tangled in her hair and the tenderness of his movements brought tears to her eyes. She parted her lips just slightly and their tongues dueled in a lazy battle where neither fought for dominance.
"I missed you," Sam murmured against her lips. "So much."
"Will you just hold me?" Honestly she wouldn't mind kissing him for the next few days straight, but she was perfectly content to just lay against his hard chest and draw in his strength. They were back together after so long and really that's all that mattered to her.
"Of course I will," He promised. "You know, I had a dream about us a while back."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah, it was perfect," She felt him smile against the side of her head. "We had a little boy named Jayden, and a little girl named Madison, and you were about seven or eight months pregnant with another one. You were absolutely breathtaking pregnant with my child and the little girl looked just like her mama. I woke up crying because it was all so amazing, and I knew then I would find you no matter what because we deserved that family."
"I bet the little boy looked just like his daddy."
"He had your eyes."
"That's my dream too," Mikaela craned her neck to look into his eyes. "To have a family with you."
"We'll get there baby," Sam leaned down and kissed her. "You and me, we're forever."
Mikaela maneuvered her body so that her legs were stretched out over the seat next to them and she curled deeper into his body. Her head rested on his chest and the sound of his heart beating was suddenly the most melodic sound she'd ever heard. It would be a long way back to where they had been at before the spring break trip, but she knew they would get there. They'd already been through so much over the last year, and with every obstacle they'd only become stronger. There was no doubt in her mind they'd get their dream. Right now, though, she was happy to be in his arms and feel his warmth.
Tomorrow they could face the world; tonight was just about the two of them, his strength and her safety, and the incredible realization that even against impossible odds—love conquers all.