Thanks to MorgyWorgy for fan art on Melissa Lennox!
As uncle and I were driven home by Ironhide, we didn't talk much and the drive went quite smoothly. As we rolled onto the gravel driveway, uncle said something about getting Sarah to make tea and inviting Ron to come with us. Even though Ron could enter and exit the house as he pleased, he spent more time with us inside.
We all got inside the warm house, Will going away to talk to Sarah about tea and other things he talked to his wife about. I went upstairs to change into my long-sleeved PJs and came downstairs. By the time I came down, tea had already been served on the coffee table in the living room. Everyone was downstairs and I noticed that there were only three mugs on the table. One was missing, but it wasn't that odd. Ron didn't eat or drink in front of us. For what reason, I really wouldn't know, but that didn't mean uncle, aunt and I didn't. We each took our mugs of warm tea and I sat on the couch next to Ron. Will and Sarah sat on the sofas conversely to us. In the middle of them stood the TV which I turned on. There was some sort of late night kitchen cooking TV show which Sarah liked to watch, so we left it at that. I watched it with her as I pulled a blanket around my back.
I sipped the tea slowly, all the while listening to the cook on the TV and occasionally sharing a word or two with Sarah. All of a sudden, Will started talking to me. "Mel, what's that under your shirt?" He asked. I gave him a confused look and looked at my shirt. Nothing out of the ordinary, except for the fact that a bit of my skin was revealed down where my ribs were. I guess I didn't put it the pajamas correctly.
I covered my skin with the shirt. "There's nothing under my shirt, Will. Unless, you're seriously asking me what's under it." I chuckled, but he had a pretty serious face. He seemed to whisper something to Sarah and she nodded. All three of the adults were looking at me now. I didn't feel comfortable with their gazes fixated on me.
Uncle put his mug of tea on the coffee table and approached me. He crouched just before me and asked. "Mel, may I?" He seemed to think I was hiding something underneath my shirt. Who knows, I mean, he is my uncle and he's only looking out for my wellbeing. I nodded with an added shrug as he pulled my shirt up where my ribs were.
Sarah and Will gasped once they saw whatever was on my ribs. I looked down at myself and I was purple. Well, sort of. I was sort of green as well. It didn't hurt at all, the skin just changed its color.
"Melissa, where on Earth did you get these bruises?" Uncle said in his serious and worried voice. I pulled my shirt down as I didn't want all these stares directed at me.
"Um, sparring with Ron?" I insecurely said. Will turned to Ron then, his tone of voice significantly changing in octaves.
"Ron, you have to be more careful with her. You could hurt her a lot more. She's human and she's fragile. You could hurt her worse than Barricade did." Will scolded Ron. I felt a little angered, it seemed like I was called weak.
"I apologize, Melissa." Ron said. I swear, I haven't heard this many apologies in a lifetime.
"No big deal, it didn't hurt that much." By the way, who's Barricade?
"Doesn't matter, I should have known better." He seemed to face-palm himself.
"It's okay. Apology accepted, jeez, don't beat yourself up for it." I pushed him playfully, trying to lift up the atmosphere. Apparently, I failed miserably. Uncle was the one who broke the tense atmosphere a few excruciatingly long moments later.
"Come on Mel, you've had a hell of a day." He picked me up by the elbow gently as suddenly, the phone rang. Will went into the kitchen pick it up. It was around 8 pm, so who could call? I mentally shrugged as I got up from the couch and went to the stairs. On my way to them I whispered to my uncle who was holding the phone to his ear and had a tumultuous expression on his face.
"Who is it?" I said in a whispered voice.
"Um, Amanda." He said, like it was somebody estranged. My eyes widened with shock.
"Amanda?" I couldn't hide the grin from my face.
"Yeah, you want to talk to her?" He offered the phone to me.
"Hell yes!" I yelled and leaped from the stairs, snagging away the phone from my uncle. "Amanda!" I screamed into the phone with excitement.
"Melissa!" She screamed back.
"Girl, how are you!" I gripped the back of my head because of the joy.
"Well alive, sure, you?"
"Likewise. You got me worried so much." I said honestly. I hadn't heard from my best friend in almost a full month and I didn't know if she survived or not. I missed her so much I started to feel the tears in my eyes well up slowly.
"Come on g-girl, I've missed you so m-much." I could already hear her crying at the end. I started to cry a bit too. Screw the 'don't let anyone see you cry' rule. I thought she died.
"I know, hon, I've missed you too. I have to come over there." I told her.
"You know where to find me." She said. "The town is slowly repairing itself."
"Can I come in a day or two?" I looked to my uncle, asking him the same question. He turned around to Sarah and Ron to discuss something.
"Of course, I'll be here." She replied on the other side of the line.
"I'll see you then." I said and hung up. I wiped my eyes and sniffed a bit. I hadn't cried a river, but I had a feeling I would when I saw her.
"Who was that?" Ron asked.
"That was my best friend, Amanda. Uncle Will, can I got tomorrow to Texas? Please! It's Amanda, I have to see her!" I pleaded. I knew I never pleaded, so it must have been weird.
"Um, Mel we need to discuss this further. You'll have your answer in the morning, alright? Go to bed, young lady." His voice turned to a slightly scolding one at the end, seeing as it was late at night.
"Sure thing. Goodnight!" I said as I ran upstairs. I was excited! I jumped on my bed and threw the blanket over me and closed my tired eyes. If I could, I think I smiled in my sleep that night.
XxXxXxXxX
I woke up with a smile on my face. How could I not? I mean, I haven't heard from my best friend for so long, I missed her a lot. I thought about her in my dream. Once I regained my vision, like I always had to, I shot up from the bed and dressed myself in a matter of seconds. I ran downstairs, tripping a bit on the way down. For once, I was thankful that my uncle was an early bird and woke up all the time around 5 in the morning. Sure, it was now around 8, but still.
He was in the living room, looking out the window, his back turned towards me. I snuck up at him and then pounced. I did like doing that and I always forgot that he was battle rugged. He easily threw me on the couch a smug smile on his face. "Ha ha, nice try. I could see your reflection in the mirror." He said, laughing at me. Well, I haven't really thought about that. Maybe he wasn't battle rugged, he was just smart.
"You know why I'm here." I said as I sat on the couch, surfacing the military woman in me. Even if there wasn't any, it was a slang for seriousness. It did work well, though. Uncle sighed as he sat on the couch, on the seat next to me.
"Yeah, Mel. I know why you're here. Don't worry, Sarah, Ironhide and I have an answer." He said. I could feel the tingle in my stomach, butterflies flying everywhere inside. I waited as patiently as I could. He spoke up. "We decided to…"
"Yeah?" I looked at him, wide eyed.
"You can go." He said. I stared at him for a bit and then jumped in the air. He stood up as I jumped on him and hugged him tightly.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" I exclaimed, earning another hearty laugh from him. Something rang in my head. "Wait, why Ironhide?" I said as I got off him, much to his hidden pleasure.
"He's your guardian Mel, you keep forgetting that."
"Oh." I said. He was, wasn't he. I glanced back to the truck. He didn't do a lot of protecting anyway, he just sat in that driveway all day long. Or maybe he did do some protecting. Who knows. At least I'm alive and away from the red eyed freaks, so that's a plus. Uncle didn't answer, so I proceeded to the other question. I knew Ron would be coming with me wherever I went anyway. "When am I leaving and how long am I staying?"
"Well, when you're ready, you can go. And you can stay as long as you want, I trust with Ironhide you'll be safe wherever you are in Texas." He put a strand of hair behind my ear. "You're growing up so fast. Now you're going to your friend's, next thing you know you'll have a real boyfriend and so on. I'm really proud of you, Melissa. You've become so strong, handling all of these things." He smiled at me. He really was proud of me. I did go through a lot.
"Melissa, ready to go? Sarah packed your belongings and we are ready to go." Ron came into the living room. I looked to uncle, he just sighed.
"I guess it's time to go, huh Mel?" He said rhetorically as I nodded softly. I got outside with my uncle, seeing Annabelle in Ironhide's open trunk and Sarah calling to her.
I got to the trunk, helping Sarah get Annabelle out of his trunk. "Come on, Annabelle, Mel's gotta go." Sarah called to her. All Annabelle did in return was to hug the back window and shake her head.
"No. Annie wuv Iwonhide. Iwonhide no go." She stubbornly said, shaking her head. I laughed with Sarah and got up in the trunk. I came over to Annie as I crouched.
"Come on, Annie, I have to go." I smiled at her and she got into my arms. I got to the beginning of the trunk and handed Annabelle to Sarah and got down myself, locking the trunk. I gazed on the symbol Ironhide wore almost proudly on his trunk. It was a damn huge symbol, let me tell you that. I touched the embossed symbol, getting my slim finger in between the loops and holes the symbol had. I earned a shiver from the truck in return.
"All your stuff is in the back cab. Good luck, hon." Sarah said and we exchanged a hug. I kissed Annabelle's head and went to my uncle.
"Good luck, Mel. Be sure to call us every week or so." Will gave me a tight hug. I hugged him back.
"Don't worry, Will, I will." I smiled at him and let go. I waved everyone goodbye as I got in the passenger seat. Ron, who was already inside, started the truck and rolled out of the driveway.
I turned the radio on immediately upon our leaving. It put on a quiet song and I mused to myself how I was going to enjoy this ride. Ironhide was going to drive and keep me safe at the same time. We rode for about ten minutes in silence, minus the radio. I started to ask him some questions, just for the fun of it. Me and my damned curiosity.
"So, Ron." I said, gaining his attention. "Wait, should I call you Ron or Ironhide? I mean, when we get to Amanda's, calling you Ironhide is going to be weird."
"Ironhide is my real name, but you may call me however you wish as long as you don't tell her about the Autobots." He said bluntly and shortly.
"Don't worry, that was never my intention. So, can you tell me something more about the Autobots?" He did bring up the subject. Kind of.
"What do you need to know?" He said, shifting his hands on the steering wheel. He put the left one on the steering wheel, his gaze fixed on my eyes.
"You won't crash into something? You're not even looking at the window." I said, looking from him, to the road ahead.
"No. What do you need to know?" He repeated. Well, we won't crash. That's somewhat comforting.
"I was thinking about telling me more about the robots. What they are like, what they like, stuff like that."
"You are curious beyond your safety." He chuckled.
"Usually, there's a saying for that, curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back." I shrugged.
"Who would you like to know about first?" He asked. Suddenly a name blurted out of my mouth before I could stop my brain to think about my choice.
"Chromia." I kind of regretted saying that, but then again, I did want to know something about her. He didn't exactly explain when he wanted to, when I was in the medical bay.
A long moment later, he answered my question. "Chromia is a femme I've known for a very long time." He said.
"Is that like a female?"
"Yes, and she and I knew each other before the War."
"War?"
"Yes. I keep forgetting you know nothing about us." I sighed in response as he continued. "On our planet, where all the Transformers come from, Cybertron is its name, a great war was battled. It was between the valiant Autobots and conniving Decepticons. The Autobots wanted peace and a right to live freely, while the Decepticons chose death and tyranny. A great Civil War started between the two factions. Cybertron, consumed by the War, was destroyed and what little of us Autobots remained had escaped."
"Oh." His life was not easy. "Where did you escape?"
"Space." He turned his attention towards an oncoming vehicle and then fixed his gaze on me, again.
"So why are you on this planet?" He stayed silent for a little while. His eyes somehow dimmed, if it was possible, anyway. He seemed to… nod?
"We came here looking for the AllSpark." I gave him the eyebrow. "It holds the power to create worlds and life within them. Our race, for example, was born like that."
"So where does this AllSpark come from and what does it look like?" I felt like I was interrogating, though he seemed pleased at answering these questions. Maybe he liked talking about the history of his planet.
"We don't know where it comes from, though, I believe it has the shape of a…" He paused for a bit, looking for the correct term. "It looks exactly like a cube. Might be the reason why we called it the Cube."
"That's sounds so cool." I said. How awesome was it to talk to a robot from outer space about his War and Cubes and whatnots!
"Anyway, back to the point." He cleared his throat for a bit. Oh right, I asked about Chromia. "Chromia was, and still is, a weapons specialist, like me." He proudly stated the last part.
"I know weapons are something you love." He made and 'mhm' sound from his voice. So he's a weapons specialist. Awesome.
"Yes, weapons are one of the first objects I was handed to by my creators." I stood silent. "Those are 'parents' if you will." He said, but carefully. I nodded, thinking over what parent would give their child a weapon instead of a toy? I disregarded the thought of parents, trying hard not to think about mine. "I was taught self-defense and got into many fights as a youngling." Again, silence. I thought I asked about Chromia? "That is the equivalent of a child." He said. He cleared his throat again.
"Chromia?" I reminded.
"Yes, Chromia. Primus, why is this taking so long?" He muttered to himself. I still didn't know what a Primus was yet he kept on saying the name. "So the War started and we were assigned in the same unit, which is where we first met. We were to fight side by side and at first, we abhorred each other." He said. My brows lifted up in surprise. Abhorred? It didn't seem like it under the mistletoe. "It was because of leadership. I wanted to be the leader of our unit, but so did she. But after I saved her life by killing a Decepticon, she learned to respect me, as I did likewise." He continued.
"It sounds like a love story." I said, but he didn't ponder on that thought.
"So Chromia and I grew to like each other. Training together strengthened our friendship and we grew closer all the time, until the inevitable happened."
"You hooked up?" I said. He was silent for a bit, as if thinking over what that was.
"Yes. We were very passionate about each other, but the War had other ideas and we were separated. I haven't seen her for many milennia."
"Milennia?" I got a slight headache at the number. "Ron, exactly how old are you?"
He ignored me. "So, when we eventually found each other here on planet Earth, we wanted to pick up where we left off." He looked at a couple of cars approaching us and kept his eyes on the road for a couple of minutes. The streets were pretty empty. "Of course, I too wanted us to go back to the same way we were, but I didn't feel the same way we when I saw her. I didn't feel the excitement of us getting back together."
"Oh…"
"It was a shame really. She was the same as she was before, but the feelings on my side had extinguished. It was never the same from there. We had a long and serious talk about it and decided that we just… weren't meant to be." He shifted in his seat. "That's all. Does that answer your question?" He smiled. I smiled back.
"It did a lot more than that." I looked around, noticing we were getting on the highway and going at a reasonable, near the speed limit, speed. A thought quirked up in my mind. Me and my random thoughts. "Wait a second. How are you supposed to get me across the border? I mean, where are the papers required? Don't you need like, parental approval? Or something?" I asked out of the blue. I didn't even formulate the question in my mind.
"I am your guardian and a legal one at that." He said in a matter of fact voice.
"My alien transforming truck is my guardian. And you can actually get away with it?" I asked him, but he ignored questions he didn't want to answer. He picked up where he left off.
"And your uncle Will has all the papers done and signed, so when we come to the border, everything will be ready." While he was talking I managed to yawn. He ruffled my hair. "Get rest, kid." He said.
"Yes, old man."
"Older than you think."
"I don't think I want to know." I chuckled. He did so as well as my seat lowered a bit on its own. "Thanks." I went to take my little nap. I still had a lot of questions to ask. Chromia was down, so how many of the other Transformers remained for questioning about? Sideswipe, Skids, Mudflap, Optimus, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Arcee and Elita, right? And Ironhide himself. This was going to make an interesting trip.