Notes/ Just a short little mini chapter this time. I was not originally planning on writing this one, and it's not that important to the plot. I've always quite liked the fanfictions that others have done, dealing with the kids and their lives outside of working with the Autobots, or just away from the base, doing their thing and talking, and this kind of ending up being my try at writing something like that myself just for fun. It ended up taking a turn I wasn't planning on.

Jack climbed quickly out of Smokescreen's front seat. Miko and Raf were right behind him, jumping out of the back seat. The Autobot had managed to angle park nicely between two yellow lines in front of a mini mall. It shouldn't have been a difficult thing. Any transformer could park themselves as well as any human driver could park a car. But this one had always been more concerned with burning rubber than with proper and legal parking.

"Thanks for the lift, Smoky," Miko said, checking to see that there was no one around at the moment to catch on that she may have been talking to a car.

"Hey, no problem. Great excuse to get out, and take a little drive, right? I'll wait for you." The bot replied.

"Smokescreen, remember..." Jack took a second to remind him cautiously. "Low profile. Middle of downtown, business hours, people everywhere..."

"Yeah yeah, got it. Robots in disguise. No funny stuff or braking cover. I'm good."

Leaving the bot in his vehicle form near the doors to wait for them, the three humans hurried into the 'One Stop,' grocery store. They hit the snack isle first and proceeded to stock up on various junk food for their planned horror movie marathon later with the Autobots. They needed milk and cereal too, some eggs and bacon, and they remembered the can of ground coffee Fowler had asked them to pick up while they were in town.

"Do you guys want the think cut bacon or the thin cut for breakfast tomorrow?" Raf asked his friends. He held up a package in each hand, standing by the meat cooler.

Miko shrugged. "Don't matter to me. Bacon is bacon. Let's get bread for toast too. Jack, any bacon preference?"

"I'm not coming back with you guys tonight," Jack answered. "I'll probably be back at the base tomorrow afternoon for a while, but not by breakfast time."

Raf and Miko exchanged looks of surprise and confusion. Miko, who was carrying the basket of groceries, hurried to the nearby checkout, and unloaded it. Jack hurriedly handed the clerk the folded bills Agent Fowler had given him.

"Jack," Miko cried as the trio left the store with a plastic bag each. The 'One Stop' was the end slot of the mini mall, and she quickly pulled him right around the side of the building, out beside the dumpster and a back alley that bordered a vacant lot. "What do you mean you aren't coming back with us? What the scrap?"

"I've just got a lot to get done," Jack answered, looking from one of his friends to the other. "Remember, I'm not on vacation away from home, like both of you. I live around here. My mom is up to her eyeballs in wedding planning, and I think I should hang around home tonight and help her. She keeps asking me about flowers and center pieces. I think she really wants my opinion… even though I told her I'm no help. I mean, what do I know about flowers?"

"Wedding plans?" Miko questioned loudly. If her motivation for dragging him behind the store had been to avoid being overheard, the volume of her voice that second might just have nullified her efforts. "Whoa, your mom is going to marry Agent Fowler?"

Jack nodded. "Yeah. They got engaged last month. I think its kinda fast, but those two really are good for each other. The wedding is in November."

"You never said anything, Jack," Raf said. He stood swinging a grocery bag around a bit, and thinking. "Then again, I guess nobody ever asked. So, what do you think of that? Good news? Bad news?"

"It's good I guess. I mean, my mom deserves to be happy too, right. She needs someone to love her and now she's got him. Bill's got a daughter too. Lives in Alaska with her mom. I'll finally meet her at the wedding. I guess her name is Cassie and she's ten. It all seems weird still, but its not bad. Having a step father with military connections will be pretty cool. I'm joining the air-force after collage, so..."

"Collage?" Miko exclaimed. "Wow, you're already thinking about that, Jack?"

"Well sure. I graduate high school next June. This time next year, I'll be packing for school, hopefully in Rhode Island if I get in."

"Rhode Island? Jack, that's across the country."

Jack laughed. "Yeah, says the girl all the way from Japan. I'm not going half as far from home as you already have."

"But you've never even left the county… well except for ground-bridging. Wow Jack, do you really wanna leave this place?"

"I think so, yeah. I can always come back again. I just… you were right once when you said small town Nevada isn't all there is. I've often thought if I were to leave I'd go our east, so I thought why not. And it's a very good school. It's a military collage. Hmm…. I think Raf graduates next year."

Raf nodded, and kept on swinging his bag around. "I will, yeah. It's crazy I guess. I'll be almost fifteen then. I don't even now what I want to do with my life yet. My dad says I've got lots of time. I just fast tracked through so I wouldn't get bored. Maybe I'll take collage classes online. Physics and advanced computer programming I'm thinking… maybe a little trigonometry to just for fun."

"What about you, Miko?" Jack asked. He sat on the ground near the dumpster. The others followed suit, and their bags formed a neat little heap between them.

"Me? I dunno. I'm a year behind in school. Funny to think Little Raf will finish before me. I wanna come back to live in America though for a while. I might try to go to collage here. Well not here, here. New York city probably, but, yeah. I want to study music. I'm not just a metal head you know. Mom hates that I want to do that. My dad's just happy I'm going to be anything at all."

"It's quite amazing really," said Jack. "Just months ago we are all kids, already helping save the world, well two worlds really. Now we're all just… normal. Sitting around having a normal conversation, about normal life and a normal future, on a normal planet Earth."

Miko stood up, and offered a hand to pull Jack to his feet. "Well, we can go back to being normal in a couple days. Right now we have a big night at the base. Huge night for Knockout I guess. He'll really be an Autobot. It's official. And I brought some great horror films with me from home. Ever seen Japanese movies? These ones are funny! Bulkhead is looking forward to a giant city crushing monster double feature!"

"Miko, how can you trust him?"

"Bulkhead? Jack, he's my bot partner. We were partners for a year. Why shouldn't I…"

"Not Bulkhead. Knockout. You actually want to be his friend. How is that even conceivable after what he's done?"

Miko was silent for a moment, considering, when she never really had before. Thoughtfully, she answered, "I dunno. I didn't think I'd be his friend either. I thought I'd hate him too, maybe more than you do."

"I may be just some dumb high school kid, but I hope the bots knew what they were doing, taking in that 'con. Does nobody think maybe he's lying? Does nobody think maybe he'll sell them out? Maybe they're right when they say he really does want to be an Autobot and stay loyal to them. Fair enough. But what if the 'cons come to him with an offer he can't refuse?"

"You haven't heard anything I have. I can't even say much about any of that because it wouldn't be right, and he trusts me. But he would rather die and than go back. Believe me on that."

"He threw my Mom into his trunk. He kidnapped a classmate. That was uncalled for even if the guy was a jerk. Okay maybe I can forget about the Vince kidnapping thing. That was so early on… he did get the wrong guy thinking he was one of us… yeah okay. But my mom and my soon to be step father! And what about what that 'con did to you? Surely you can't have forgotten that. He held your container that day we were dragged to Cybertron in trade for the keys..."

"He was following orders," Miko said sadly. "No, I don't think for a second that what he did was right, but we know how the 'cons think. We've seen how heartless and brutal… Jack he may have died if he hadn't done that."

"I hate to say this, Miko, but some bots are better off dying, I think."

"Jack," Raf said. He'd nearly fallen silent for several minutes. "Isn't that a bit mean? I think you're right to be mad, and maybe you should sit this one out if that's what you wanna do. But, Prime always used to say anyone deserves a chance at redemption, remember? Knockout is gonna be an Autobot. We all know the 'bots could use any new help they can get in case the 'cons ever were to come back. Either that or they will never come back, and the war is over. In that case, who cares about factions anymore, anyways?"

Jack shook his head and looked at his feet. He picked up a small rock and idly tossed it a short distance. "So maybe I was just a little bit out of line. I just hate this whole situation. And then I stop and think about it and realize that there shouldn't be a situation at all, or at least not knew we should understand or care less about in the first place. Autobots, Decepticons, this isn't our war. And Cybertron isn't our planet. We were all just normal high school kids once. Our biggest worry was not spending lunchtime eating alone, and trying to ace Mr. Collins math tests. We didn't always know anything about robotic alien warfare, or the history of a planet light years away. We did normal things. I just think our lives could have been different if they had just stayed ordinary."

"Who wants ordinary, Jack?" Miko cried. She nearly jumped to her feet. But made herself stay sitting instead. "Normal is boring. Normal is for people that don't want to be anything more than they always were. People who like the world to be impossibly small. I could never want to be ordinary, and have just some other normal life."

"The bots taught us so much, showed us so many things..." Raf said. "Ratchet is even teaching me their language. And I've learned to work the computers and the ground bridge. I guess that old bot learned from all of us just how much humans can actually help them. I would never wanna be ordinary either."

"My Mom is really not happy or pleased with the Autobots, over their letting a 'con join them," Jack said. He lightly flung another rock. "She's furious at him, and now she's upset with all of them too. She says maybe I should just think about school, keeping my grades up and get into the Military collage of Rhode Island just like I want, and keep up my job so I can save money for school. I think maybe she's right. Maybe this who Cybertron and the Autobots thing is just too big for us. Everything is changing..."

"But you went all the way to Cybertron, Jack," Miko said. She shook her head slightly. Sadly. Suddenly things were not the way she had known then anymore. "You did a great thing. You saved a great leader. One they, and we, all loved."

"Yes, but now Optimus Prime is dead. See what I mean. Everything is changing so fast."

Miko stared at him with tears suddenly filling her eyes. She refused to let a single one of them fall. "We don't know that exactly. We were told he flew into the well of the allspark. But the bots also say they don't know exactly know what that means or what actualy happens now."

"But it's safe to assume..."

"I don't care what's safe to assume!" Miko exclaimed, louder than she planned to. "Ratchet and Arcee have never given up that last shred of hope and I won't either!"

"Jack, just come back with us tonight," Raf said. "It's important. Your Mom didn't say you absolutely can't did she?"

"She didn't say I can't. She just said she's not impressed."

"So come back to the base. The flowers can wait a day can't they."

Jack got to his feet, with Miko doing the same a second behind him. He shook his head. "Sorry, guys. I'm not mad at either of you or anything. I just can't… this isn't going to work. I'll see you again. I'll stop by the base for a bit tomorrow afternoon."

"Okay. I guess I'll let the bots know you might call for a lift."

"You have writing on you," Jack said stupidly. He gestured questioningly toward Miko's left arm, where purple gel pen ink showed under her slightly upturned sleve.

Miko gave a little chuckle and shrugged. "Just a couple of notes… for tonight. I wanna get this right and not forget anything."

"You write it all out in Japanese."

"Of course I did. I can't write English as well as I speak it ya know."

Raf stayed sitting on the ground and for a moment he wore a confused look on his face. Then he just looked sad, as he stood up and reached for the grocery bags. "Miko, we better get going. Smokescreen is waiting..."

"Bye Jack," he said as he picked up a grocery bag.

Miko held the other two in one hand and waved with the other. "Well have fun with the flower thing tonight. Tell your mom hi."

"I will."

Smokescreen started his engine as Raf and Miko jumped inside. This time Raf sat up front, and Miko placed the grocery bags next to her in back, careful not to smash the eggs.

"Did we lose one?" the Autobot asked. He didn't move, obviously waiting for his third passenger.

"Jack's not coming back with us, Smoky," Raf explained. He kept it simple. No long story that may not have been meant to be shared. "He's got stuff to do tonight."

"Hey, you guys okay?" Smokescreen questioned as he backed himself out of the stall and turned slowly onto main-street.

"Just fine," Raf said, but Miko was quiet.