AN:

This chapter is set in the present I would like to point out none of the Autobots are dead in this story, that is very annoying. As are none of the Decepticons dead, well outside of The Fallen. He just wanted to destroy everything and well okay so Megatron is a nasty one but still you kind of get the impression he will keep pets….

I hope.

THE DEATH OF THE FEMME

The garage if it could be called that was filthy. For a moment he actually wondered if he could get a fungal grease infection from just sitting in the tiny little berth. So this is what Skids and Mudflap's hillbilly hell looked and smelled like. Sulfur and rotten eggs, oh joy.

He had been so wrong when Skids and Mudflap got into that bad bit of fuel. They had reeked of something similar for weeks and constantly backfired. Ratchet had suggested off handedly they should light a match. No doubt a human comment he'd picked up. A couple of days later when they had actually done it though was when things really went sour and that was probably why he was really here. No doubt Cybertron karma hard at work. He had definitely learnt his lesson. He would never again suggest blow torches to those two idiots. Ever again.

Now left with nothing but his thoughts and surroundings he kept his scanners open. Maybe this was actually just a regular car thief ring. But just in case and the fact if he got terribly bored he could always tune into what the other Autobots were doing. Jazz and Ratchet were always worth tuning into, especially when the little silver saboteur was bored and spoiling for a fight.

In the wee early morning hours he detected before he saw, a human female tottering in. She was ghastly pale. Limp locks of blonde curls poked up from multiple directions on her head. Her black spaghetti strap dress hung lopsided from one shoulder. She wiped at her nose. Ironhide thought he had even heard just the squeak of a sob escape her. She scratched at her arm. Picking at something. Odd she just kept picking at it why, he wondered.

She stumbled falling against his front grill plate. It give Ironhide time to take her in more clearly. She looked unhealthy. No actually he thought for a brief moment she looked like walking death. And she smelled almost the same. She was so thin, her blue eyes were blood shot the pupils were dilated, and she seemed sweaty as if she had just come from exercising.

Where ever she was planning on going to he doubted she'd make it on her own. But he didn't lock his doors when she crept and clung to him to get to his door. She struggled to figure out the basics of lifting the door handle.

Surrendering after she dragged those three quarter inch red lacquered nails down his side for the fourth time, he popped the door open. So he thought oddly to himself that was where the phrase nails on a chalkboard come from. That was very annoying.

She slumped in behind the wheel after what was a Cybertronian eternity, to Ironhide. The only semi-pleasing thing at the moment to him was, that she had lost those spiked shoes. Those could hurt a fella he thought off handily. Not the mention she had stepped in moldy grease.

Fumbling for the switch, she pawed his steering column. Making Ironhide think it had been a truly bad idea to have let her in at all. But here they were now heading to who knew where. He'd just let her believe she was driving but he'd manage all the driving and braking himself. And if the destination begin to look unfavorable well, he could always call in back up.

He had done well not to react to anything she had done to him thus far, though the nails down this door and then again across the steering column had been near deal breakers. But when she grabbed the floor shifter and went to shove it into another gear without first depressing the clutch that was the final straw. There was skidding and smoke as the large black Topkick went sideways into a brutal stop just a mere eight inches from clipping a power pole.

"Keep your hands to yourself"a gruff male voice growled from every inch of the cab.

She drew back a look of horror turned all struck flooded her face. She started messing with every knob, dial, and button she could get her hands on. "Come on- pretty truck- talk to me." She sing songed.

He'd give her pretty truck if she didn't stop immediately. He thought darkly.

"Touch one more thing." Ironhides tone was rough. "And I will boot you out. Now if you will kindly sit back and direct me to where you wish to be taken." She lifted a finger to touch the door panel, but he greeted her with a firm "DO NOT." So she sat back picking at places on her arms and legs. Mentally Ironhide groaned. What had he gotten himself into?

The sun was just beginning to crest as Ironhide backed his way back into the dank smelly garage. The woman nestled on the passenger seat, in a strange stupor. This took place at least every other day with Ironhide trying to make sense of it for a solid week. He had begun to make headway with the woman. He had learned her name was Carney. And if the photograph she had shoved into his grill really was her she had once been an attractive human female.

He'd never hinted he could transform or do any more than she was already aware of, he had also made it a point to not respond around anyone but her. Not there were many who came to the filthy little garage.

The boyfriend the one that had originally stole him did come around. But he was mainly checking something. He kept referring to cooking off. And the smell Ironhide was beginning to find it caustic and messing with his systems.

On a particularly bad evening Carney and said boyfriend got into some frantic mating mood. But before it really heated, up. She insisted on pushing Ironhide out into the little alley. Personally Ironhide found the humans mating customs very violent and distasteful. There appeared to be a lot of the male human domineering the female. He actually beat human female, bringing blood. Why?

Is this how they got offspring? He just didn't see this as right. Lennox and his mate didn't seem violent towards each other. They had offspring. The boy Witwicky and his mate though aggressive seeming weren't violent. Something just wasn't right. He needed to contact Lennox and Optimus. But that horrid caustic smell- it was messing with his systems, keeping him from accessing valuable information or com linking to the others. He now had to decide did he try to leave and go get help or did he stay. In the end he'd left to find Optimus Prime or at least get them a message as to where he was and what the situation was.

Epps trooped back past the caution tape strung up around a wide perimeter barrier. Flicking his hood loose from the bottom portion of his hazmat suit he shook his head. "Hey, there was nothing anyone could have done. Place went off. Man' those meth labs ain't nothing to play around with. Like mortar fire in there."

Lennox watched Ironhide his optics dilating, turning to large blue orbs. He knew the Autobot felt he was to blame for at least the woman's death. How were you suppose to tell a six ton 25 ft Autobot it wasn't his fault a human become a casualty of drug manufacturing. It after all wasn't a drug sting they were running it was supposed to be a Deception car theft ring they were trying to bust up.

Ratchet stepped up beside Ironhide. "Come on let's go get you detoxed and straighten back out. I feel confident if we take care of this now there will be no lasting damage."

Ironhide held his position until Carney had been removed from what remained of the burnt out hull of the filthy little garage. He'd had no interest in the male but he had taken one last look at the female. Her broken soot smudged body made him see how fragile the human race really was. He watched the humans, as they covered the body, as the human female Carney was now known as. She was no more. It wasn't that he wasn't familiar with death and destruction. He knew it all too well, he just didn't understand why the human female wanted so badly to self-destruct.

His large optics turned seeking out Prime. But he said nothing. Prime studied his old friend the battle scar over his eye somehow made him look all the sadder. They are but a young species, Optimus Prime had to remind himself as well as Ironhide.