A/N: Okay, I know I've been MIA for, like, ever and I wish I had a good excuse as to why. However, I will be honest with you guys…here it goes…I've been playing Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 for the past, like, three weeks solid. Yeah, no life for this gamer. And because of it, I'm kind of doing massive research on an upcoming fic that will be featuring Banagher/Setsuna because that needs to be a thing and my life has just spiraled out of control at this point. Well, there you have. I'm sorry. …I'm so, so sorry (who are my Whovians out there?). R&R. Enjoy!

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Anger

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For a long time since she became a teenager, Tessa has been angry at her dad.

She knew it was stupid and immature and selfish, but she just couldn't help it. Not an adult yet, the older she got, she just…automatically blamed Dad for Mom's death. It wasn't his fault – that she knew and she knew she knew that – but getting her mind to actually believe it was another matter entirely. Growing into her teenage years without her mom, seeing her friends and classmates with their moms, just mad Tessa so, so very angry, and most of her anger was directed at her dad.

He wasn't to blame for Mom's passing; even covered under the insurance, her illness was too far developed for medicine to help. The fact that her mom had never let anyone really know that she was so sick until it was too late didn't make matters any better either. But once Mom was in the hospital, Dad couldn't work. Oh, he had tried, but with his mind constantly on her mom, he never managed to get very far on anything. She spent many nights with her dad by her mom's bedside, just waiting because what else could they do but wait?

And even though her dad was supportive and understanding and still being a nag, Tessa couldn't help but blame him. As a kid still, she didn't fully realize or understand what exactly was going on. Her dad had always pulled through in the end, had always made bad situations right again somehow with that mind of his. Surely, he would have been able to help save Mom.

But he hadn't.

He had watched her die, just like Tessa had watched her die. And at the time, she didn't know what was worse: her mom dying or her dad not doing anything about it.

Looking back on it now, as an eighteen year old college student, Tessa knew that there was nothing he could have done. Dad did the best he could while mom withered away, just as he had before their lives had changed forever. Eventually, Tessa's anger faded away into nothing and she sat down with her dad and told him about it. Never before had she seen her dad cry when the subject wasn't about Mom, but he had cried and it had made her feel like complete and utter garbage.

But she had gotten through that and had become a better person for it. At least, that's what she had liked to believe.

Tessa wasn't stupid; how could she be when she got the highest grades in all of her classes? She saw how her dad and Optimus looked at each other. Before he had even taken off and left Earth, Dad and Optimus had been giving each other goo-goo eyes and had looks of longing that were so obvious that even Lucas would have noticed it had he still been alive.

While she knew that she should be happy that her dad had found someone – kind of – to be with again, she was angry once more. Not at Dad though, but at Optimus. Her dad wasn't ready for a relationship yet, she had told herself, and Optimus needed to back off. That was her dad and she was going to protect him just like he had protected her all of her life. After the crazy adventure they had gone through, her dad was just high off of the adrenaline and practically no sleep – Shane had told her about that and the bags under his eyes couldn't lie.

Yet, when her dad got depressed a few months after Optimus had left, Tessa knew that it wasn't just a fascination and curiosity about the Autobot leader that was made him pine for the alien robot. Tessa could see it in his eyes: Dad loved Optimus just as he had loved her mom. There was no way he could deny it and there was no hiding from it; it was as plain as the sun in the sky. And there was no keeping them apart, either, because Optimus' Autobots' were basically their personal bodyguards, meant to keep them safe while they awaited for Optimus to return home. To them: the Autobots and the Yeagers.

She wasn't sure how it would work out between her dad and Optimus, but she knew one thing for damn sure: Optimus better not hurt her dad.

One night, almost a year after Optimus had left and after a good dozen date proposals and rejections later, with her dad still missing Optimus like crazy, Tessa sat down in front of him at the kitchen table – for once, he was eating of his own accord – and told him,

"It's okay, Dad. I've got no problem with you and Optimus. But if he hurts you, he's a goner."

As she got up and went upstairs to her room, she knew that her dad was gaping at her like a fish out of water. Hell, she could even hear Bumblebee's laughter coming from the living room – who knew Autobots had such good hearing…or holoforms for that matter?

When Optimus did return, Tessa cornered him alone in the hanger Joshua had built attached to their barn. With her hands on her hips, she gazed up at him with a stern expression, knowing Optimus would take her seriously.

"Optimus, I know you've got the hots for my dad," she said bluntly. Optimus blinked down at her and she swore that if he were human he would have been blushing.

"Tessa Yeager, I-"

"Don't. I'm not done," she interrupted him. It was her time to talk, damn it. "I don't know how it'll work and I don't want any details. Just know that if you hurt my dad, I'm going to hurt you."

"Tessa, I have no intentions of hurting Cade. He is…very special to me," Optimus told her, his blue optics staring down into her own, meeting her head on.

"I know that. I just wanted to make it clear that he's sensitive. He may not seem like it, but he is. And if you hurt him, I'll mow down your Autobots myself if I have to to whoop your ass," Tessa warned him.

"Message understood," Optimus said with a hint of a small smile on his face. Tessa smiled herself. Even though Optimus could crush her with just a finger, it was nice to know that he was taking her words to heart and genuinely seemed to care about her dad.

"Good. I'm glad we had this talk," Tessa said and with that, she left the barn.

She meant what she had said: she'd pulverize each and every one of the Autobots, Dinobots included, if Optimus ever hurt her dad. And it was a threat and a promise she fully intended to keep.