After letting Ron/Ironhide know 'we' were 'okay', he left my room. I was left to get up and get going, since it was getting dark and I needed to go home. Thanks to Ratchet's advanced medications, I had healed in a matter of hours. Now I had to face the fact that when I kissed Ron, I kissed Ironhide, a giant alien robot/talking truck.

As I got off the bed and stretched, my bones cracked happily that I was moving again, and I slid those heels on again. My feet hurt me from using them too long, but it was just one day.

And it was one hell of a day. I guess I didn't really dream it, now did I?

I left the room also known as the 'medical bay' and went towards the exit of the hangar. I looked around frantically all the time, afraid some giant robot will come out and kill me. Uncle Will came around.

"Uncle Will!" I called him. He jogged towards me.

"Hey, Mel. I see you're up. You okay?" I nodded.

"Will… I didn't dream. They're real." I said, but not being at ease.

"What are you talking about?" He knew what I was talking about, I was sure of it.

"The robots, Will, your allies. You said so. I know who is who, I've seen them all." I actually felt proud saying this.

"Oh, so you've met them? The Autobots?" That's what they're called?

"Not personally, no. Though I'm… kind of afraid to, honestly." I said, smiling awkwardly. Uncle ruffled my hair. It was night time at the base and very quiet.

"Don't be, they're great bots, trust me. Now, let's get you home, you've had a hell of a time here." He said as we moved towards the middle hangar, where Ironhide, in truck mode, even though I don't think I've seen him in any other mode, was waiting for us. He grumbled with his engine as he came towards us, opening both of his front doors.

Uncle and I got inside of him and I felt more uncomfortable than ever. Ironhide exited the base and began his drive towards home. I moved hesitantly to the back of the cab and put my arms around my bent over knees. I put my chin on my knees and uncle noticed my position by looking into the rearview mirror.

"A penny for your thoughts, Mel?" He asked.

"If you seriously wanted even a penny for how many thoughts I have, you'd go bankrupt." I said in a flat voice. My uncle laughed, which made me smile. He moved in the back of the cab with me, and he sat behind the driver's seat. He put his hand on my bent over back.

"Tell me what's bothering you, Mel. I can't stand seeing you like this all the time."

"Well it's not all the time, Will." I said. "Just when I realize how stupid I am."

"Why do you say that?" He scratched my back, which I loved. After many times being in his care before the loss of my parents, he knew the exact spots to scratch. I moaned in response. "Come on, teddy bear, tell me what's wrong." He stopped scratching me and I whined a bit.

"I mean, he's a truck that drives himself and if that wasn't weird enough, he's a giant, alien robot and Ron's not human, Ron is Ironhide." I broke it to him. He stared at me, but seemed to understand at a point. Or at least the last part.

"Well, that was a mouthful." He said, sighing. "Mel, I know it's too much to handle in such a small amount of time, but you have to adjust."

"I'll adjust alright, just don't go all wise guy on me."

"You mean like Optimus?"

"What about him?" I said. He realized he was going to tell me something about him, but he looked around, almost giving me a sign that he couldn't tell me with Ironhide being here and listening. I merely nodded as a silence fell around us.

"He's the leader of the Autobots, you should be respectful towards him. He knows many things." Will said.

"Good to know." I sighed. "God, I'm so tired even though I just woke up."

"Go to sleep Mel, I'll carry you upstairs if you need me." I smiled at him and lay myself all across the back of the cab, my head sitting in my uncle's lap.

We were a tight family, the Lennox's, so I could tell my Uncle everything. All because I loved him. But, that's family. People who always love you, no matter what you look like or what you go through.

Tomorrow…

Eventually my uncle, being the darling he is, didn't wake me up, yet he carried me all the way upstairs. I admired his strength. I woke up in my bed, though I hated myself for wearing the same dress so long. I needed a shower, pronto.

As I got out of bed, I looked through my window. Ironhide was in the driveway and I did not feel completely at ease.

Why couldn't I have connected Ron to the truck? He and his damn processors, glitches and all those other strange remarks. He was an alien from the very beginning, but he looked so human. His skin was human, his body was human. Damn me if I say this, his kisses were even human.

And yet he's not.

I've kissed with an alien robot. Where does that leave me? What am I to do? Live life as if this never happened?

I got in the shower and got my hair wet. While showering, a lot of thoughts cross my mind. Thoughts I didn't even want to think about just popped out of nowhere. So I got the mental image of Ron showering with me. I shivered at the thought. Where is my sick mind taking me? I can't have him as my boyfriend or something like that. I mean, he does look older than me. He most probably is.

I rinsed my hair from the shampoo and body as I left the shower and wrapped the towel around me. I squeezed the water from my hair into the shower and left the bathroom. As I scurried to my room quickly and eliminated the few remaining droplets of water on my body. I got into clean clothes, some jeans and a thick jumper as I wrapped the same towel around my head. It stuck on my head like a bee hive and it looked kind of funny, honestly.

It wasn't long before I got downstairs, since my stomach was growling for food. As I got downstairs, I saw Sarah with already made up sandwiches on a plate, headed towards the dining room. She offered me a sandwich, so I took one and went to the living room where I found Ron fiddling with a DVD player uncle bought not too long ago.

I took a bite from my sandwich. "What's up?" I said, my mouth half full. He glanced up at me.

"I'm trying to get this thing to work, but it needs a bit of spark." He said as he connected all of the cables, but the DVD player just refused to start. Ron put his hand on the player and some sort of light came from underneath the palm and enveloped the DVD player with bluish white lightning bolts. The DVD immediately turned on. I stared at it. "Problem fixed." He muttered as my sandwich fell from my hand. As disgusting as it may be, Ron caught the sandwich instinctively and then groaned as the salami and butter covered his palm.

"What the hell did you just do?" I stared from him to the DVD.

"I gave it a bit of flare, it should be working fine for the next… century or two." He shrugged.

"Century?" I dead-panned. Then again, he could very much be joking with me. "Ha ha. Very funny."

"I'm serious. The energy I gave it should provide enough for at least a whole century." He looked at the DVD and then at me. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine, just… Wow, you have superpowers." I took the towel off my head and let my hair to dry. It was half dry, anyway.

"Not quite." Though, he did chuckle. "Nicole is the one who is gifted, not me."

"Nicole? What does she have to do with anything?" I followed Ron to the kitchen where he threw the sandwich from his hand and washed his hand in the sink. I put the towel on a nearby chair.

"You'll see for yourself. The girl is special." He said flatly. Suddenly I got an idea pop into my head, something I couldn't shake off.

"Hey Ron?" I caught his attention as he shut off the water flow and dried the water from his hands with a cloth. He looked at me. "Could you… show me Ironhide?" I felt like an idiot for asking this, but my curious side stepped in. "I know curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back and…"

"You are no feline. You are human." He said. I shook my head. I guess he didn't know what that meant. "I can introduce you… as weird as that may sound. You wish to see the bipedal form?" He said as I nodded. "Very well. That can be arranged." He looked around. "Do you wish to see it now?" He asked.

I froze stiff. Sure I wanted to see it, just not this soon. "Sure." I said. I mean, how hard can it be? It won't kill me, otherwise uncle wouldn't have said they were our allies. I was safe. Sort of. If anything, I can always scream. Robots seem to flinch because of that. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger, right?

"Come." He said as we exited the house. He was way ahead of me as I was stalling. "Come, no need to be afraid." He motioned with his hand for me to come. I slowly came and he saw that this was going nowhere if I was going to be this slow. He offered me to take his hand. I looked at the hand at then at him. He blinked and nodded.

I hesitantly took it, though that was what I wanted to do since I've seen him offer it. My heart skipped a beat from happiness of holding his hand, but I had to keep it cool. I had a robot to meet! He cupped my hand gently and pulled me a bit, since my feet seemed to dig themselves in the ground. Ron managed to drag me painlessly, until I was about seven feet away from Ironhide's front bumper.

"Are you ready?" I nodded, as he still didn't let go of my hand. "You must not scream or anything pertaining to screaming." I nodded again. He looked to the truck as I did as well.

The truck began to transform, the hood slicing in half and going somewhere, the headlights split apart and fell back together, resting on the shoulders as a spiked head emerged from the chest with two bright blue eyes.

I gripped Ron's arm and, literally, pulled myself to him as the huge black being stood in front of me. He was so tall! He probably was around 20ft tall! And he had huge, scary ass cannons on his arms.

"Oh my God." Was all I could mutter. The being just stood there proudly.

"This is the real me." Ron said, letting go of my hand, though I didn't let go of his arm. "It's alright, I won't hurt you." He said as I slowly let go completely. The robot crouched in front of me, using his left hand as a stabilizer. I looked at every single thing the robot had on it. Intertwined wires, gears sticking out on the joints, or what I thought they were, and I couldn't take my eyes off those cannons. For once, I was glad he was our ally, otherwise… Well, you get the point.

I turned around to Ron, but he was gone, nowhere to be found. That left only me and Ironhide.

"Uh… hi." I meekly waved and forced a small smile.

"Melissa." He said. I froze at his voice. It was Ron's voice. His eyes were the same as Ron's. His proud stance, his facial expression… he really was Ron!

"Wow… This is… Wow." I couldn't think of the words to describe the majestic being in front of me. He seemed to clear his throat.

"Thank you. I see you are taking this much better than at the base." He said as I blushed a bit. I had reacted quite wildly, hadn't I?

"Sorry." Why was I apologizing? It seemed right. "I thought they were going to kill me." I said as he growled. I took a step back.

"Come." He said. He said it in the same tone as Ron would. God, this is strange. I looked at those blue eyes of his, mine being very wide. Come where? "Come here." He said and took his hand, the one that he used as a stabilizer and spread it across the ground, palm up. His other hand, the right one, was now a stabilizer.

"I'm supposed to… come into your hand?" I stared from the hand to him. He nodded and made a 'mhm' sound. "No way." I said and shook my head. I remember the last time I was in a hand. One almost squeezed me and dropped me, the other cut my lower body circulation. Not a chance I was going to take again.

"You do trust me, do you not?" He inquired.

"What does trust have to do with anything, if I just met you?" I said, not moving from my spot. He tapped his finger on the ground with his stabilizing hand.

"What is my designation?" He asked. He was up to something, I could feel it. But what does designation mean?

"Is that like a name?" I fished.

"Yes."

"Your name is Ironhide." I said, as if it was the most obvious thing.

"Good."

"Where are you going with this?"

"Right now, I think I trust Ironhide more than I do you." He pulled out a clip from my fight with Ron.

"Oh no, you did not just use my words against me." I crossed my arms as he gave me a robot smirk.

"I'm afraid I just did."

"You got me cornered."

"Yes I do." Oddly enough, I felt safe with him, and I felt like I knew him before. Like we knew each other for a hundred years. Maybe it was because of all my truck and Ron talking. Then again he was both of them.

"Please, be careful." I said as I took a single step forward.

"Always."

I started walking slowly towards him. Maybe I was taking the one way path towards my doom. I didn't know. He said he was going to be careful. I did say I trusted him. Let's see where this leads us.

I put my foot on his palm, which was surprisingly a smooth surface. I got in and took his thumb to keep myself standing.

"Ready?"

"For what?"

He didn't answer my question as he lifted me off the ground. I gave a small scream in return, but he didn't flinch.

"Are you crazy?!" I yelled at him. I really felt like doing much more.

"Do you not like this?" His metallic plates shifted to something that looked like his eyebrows knitted in confusion. Only if he had eyebrows to begin with.

"No! I'm afraid of heights, damn it!" I gripped his hand tightly. I looked at him, ready to yell to put me down. "Put me down, you robot!" I exclaimed.

He seemed to have a hurt face, as he slowly put me down on the ground. He gave a big robotic sigh as he let me exit his hand. I got out and moved a couple of feet away. He transformed into the familiar Topkick I knew and rolled out on the road.

"Wait! Ironhide!" I yelled at him to come back. "Come back!" I ran to the road as he took off at a normal speed.

Bravo, genius, you managed to hurt a robot!

Wasn't my fault!

Oh yeah? He took care of you when you needed it, listened to you even though he didn't have to, and yet he wanted to show you something, but you just had to throw it in his face, didn't you?!

My conscience was right. I did hurt him. I didn't mean to, but…

I looked at him, he was some distance away from me.

"Don't go…" I muttered and fell on my knees, the tears falling freely. My hair went over my face as I looked up, only to see Ironhide backing up in reverse and Ron standing next to me.

"Don't worry, kiddo, I'm not going anywhere." He said. I leapt from my position and hugged him.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I-I didn't mean to hurt you!" He hugged back. I can't believe I just threw his offer straight into his face. That was wrong of me to do.

"Hurt me?" He snorted. "It takes a lot more than that to hurt me." I poked his stomach with my hand. "Oy." He said, as if I hurt him.

"I'm glad you're back." I said. "Don't scare me like that anymore. You could have told me you were going to lift me."

"But, I like to surprise you." He smirked.

"Hardy ha ha, real funny." I snorted. A thought invaded my mind. "Am I still going to be training with you? Or Ironhide?"

"You forget we are the same. You can train with my human form, vehicle form or just my normal, bipedal form."

"Did you have to say so many things?"

"Yes, I did."

"I'd like to train with you in human form, since training with a truck would eventually hurt me and with a robot, kill me."

"It wouldn't kill you. Though you would acquire much more damage than knowledge."

"Same thing." I said, but he snorted. "Come on, let's get inside, it's getting colder."

With that, I learned who Ironhide really is. Oddly, it was fun. Though I could have gone without the tears.