Notes/ Just a quickly written short little chapter, I started last night and finished today since I've got a day off work. Kind of a weird mix of sad and just plain and pure fluffiness. Chapter 20… Wow. Not quite such how I managed to let this get this long.

It was nice to see that people like the addition of Soundwave. I had never planned on adding him (or on several of the angles this ongoing story is taking,) but for someone reason I started reading a couple of fanfictions featuring Soundwave recently and was a bit inspired to think he'd be a pretty interesting character to (attempt to) write.

"Knockout, could you help me out with a school project?" Miko questioned over the commline. She was quite obviously somewhere inside her home. Judging by the angles, she was sitting on the floor, with a laptop resting on her lap, looking into its web cam. Her closed closet doors and a stack of magazines were visible behind her. The computer was jostled hard as she shifted her weight somehow and the image on the monitor shook.

"What subject?" Knockout looked up at the wall mounted monitor on the far side of his living space, blinking his optics as the image shook again.

"Science," Miko grinned at her screen, and then appeared to consider a second. She mumbled an apology over the shaking, and quite obviously set the computer down on a flat surface somewhere, before she flew right into a fast spoken explanation. "This project is technically optional, although it is a big bonus grade, and I need that bonus big time. I told you once I'd gotten my best grade ever on a science thingy last term, right? So it just makes sense to try to beat that this time. I wouldn't bother with it, if I didn't need the grade. But I'm, already a year behind in school, I realize there is a future after high school… I may just have a shot at this if you can help me."

"Science is one of Ratchet's fields. If this project of yours is that important to you, then perhaps we should call the true expert in on this one." Knockout's reply had been well intentioned. But on her end of the comm-link Miko gave a look of wide eyed, near horror and dread at the idea.

"Oh no. No way!" The little human exclaimed, louder than one may have expected. "Ratchet may just be one of Cybertron's great assets in the field of science, but I brought home a big fat F the last and only time I let him help me with my science homework!"

"You can't be serious."

"As serious as an outbreak of bird flu in Tokyo airport."

"Bird flu?" Knockout gave a look of confusion in the direction of the monitor.

"It's an Earth thing. Something that could be very very bad news if humans caught and spread around the world. Nevermind..." Miko laughed and shifted so that she could shrug her shoulders at the monitor. "Let's just say the world, or at least old Mr Fletcher in Jasper Nevada, just wasn't ready for Ratchet's understanding of astronomy."

The bot laughed for a moment before his expression went serious, and he tipped his head slightly in thoughtful questioning. "You didn't call all the way to Cybertron, just so I might help you with some homework did you?"

"No," Miko admitted, grinning. "Although I really do need help. And Bulkhead might just be a worse choice than Ratchet. I wanted to find out for myself, how you are. Though I can now you're much better. Almost back to normal now. Last time I talked to you over the comm you still couldn't sit up quite like that."

Knockout smiled silently at the monitor for a brief second, but Miko''s face turned serious, thoughtful, and considering. "Hmm… I know I shouldn't have said it that way. 'Back to normal,' is wrong. You were always…." She looked away from the monitor a second and appeared to stare at the floor beneath her. Slowly she looked back up again and stared at her web cam. Her expression was suddenly sad. "Knockout. I'm sorry for..."

Knockout looked her in the eyes over countless light years, through their respective technology. He smiled at her. "Hey. I wasn't offended." He meant it.

"What I meant is..." Miko tried again, starting over. "You are more like you were before. Like any other bot..."

The human stopped dead in the middle of her explanation. Her hand flew to her mouth, as her suddenly wide eyes filled quickly with tears.

"I didn't mean… I said that so wrong," she said, chocking back her tears. "I didn't mean you're any different from anyone else."

"Miko," Knockout said, trying to hold her gaze over their monitors. "It's alright. I knew exactly what you meant to say. And yes you're right. I am much stronger now, and far more functional."

"Yeah. That's how I should have said it." Miko sniffled once, and as the threatening tears faded, she smiled instead. When the bot smiled back, the little human shifted her position again, so that she could get herself at eye level with the laptop, and she came closer to the webcam. From his vantage point, inside his living space on Cybertron, Knockout saw the flashes of motion behind her, as the human kicked her legs behind her, in her usual hyperactive sort of behavior.

"So that must be your living space then," she said, obviously studying as many details as she could make out of the now slightly too cluttered little room with the clear curiosity so typical of humans. Through the comm system's viewfinder, he knew she could likely make out an over full shelving unit, a bottom corner of the recharge station, and a pale green armchair in the far back corner that must have looked huge to her. There was a floor lamp, a closed cabinet door, the comm control box, a music player… "Pretty cool room."

"Well it's both mine and Arcee's now. She's been busy rearranging and decorating a bit. You're right though. It is a pretty cool room."

"I was talking to Bulkhead before I called you. He said something about congratulations being in order for you and Arcee. Cybertronians do hook up and pair off then." Miko smirked and gave a tiny laugh. "I told the boys I thought it was reasonable to assume bots loved other bots, just like humans love other humans. The boys thought I was being dumb!"

"The desire to find love would seem to be universal among most sentient beings..."

"That's what I told Raf and Jack! They still said that was dumb." The little human sat still for a second, looking intently at the bot, over her monitor. "So, you are going to marry Arcee, then?"

"Hmm, well in a manner of speaking, yes."

Miko grinned again. "Cool. Hey tell her hello from me."

The human girl left her computer without any explanation at all, but Knockout could hear the sounds of shuffling objects in the room somewhere outside the range of her webcam. She reappeared again after a moment, and held up a photograph in front of her screen. Her own copy of one he had stumbled across recently in Arcee's datapad. She'd obviously made a print out of the image, and that made him uneasy. He could only guess that photo had come a from a pile of other printed images of Cybertronians. He saw her appear to almost bounce with excitement in her position sitting on her floor again

"Hey Knockout, I took this picture of you when we all met up last time in Nevada," she said still smiling her monitor. "Now I have one of every Autobot..."

The bot smiled again before his expression turned serious and he gave her a firm look. "Miko, pictures are fine of course. But be careful about leaving images of Cybertronians around in the open. Particularly those of us in our bot modes."

"No one's ever in my room. No one's even home much anymore except for me. My father works in Thailand, and my mother just sleeps here for eight hours a night. And anyway the pictures are in my sock drawer… From now on I'll keep them all in my locking box under the bed."

"That sounds perfectly reasonable."

"Hey Knockout…?"

"Yes?"

"Do you have that fighting stick of yours handy? The weapon you were practicing with when I managed to take that picture, I mean."

Knockout glanced over in the direction of the weapon she referred to, still haphazardly leaned against a shelving unit in the corner. He nodded absently at the monitor.

"Can you show me how it works?" The little human questioned. She was obviously nearly bouncing in her seated position again and grinning wider at him.

Immediately the bot understood the problem her request posed, and suddenly he found himself looking down and away from the monitor, becoming defeated.

"I don't think I could hold onto it, Miko. It's too long to deal with safely and a bit too heavy."

"What do you mean?" The human sounded suddenly anxious, confused.

"You thought I looked far more functional, and I definitely am, but still there's a very long way to go." Knockout looked at Miko's expression over the monitor. Saw it slowly turn to shock and then horrible realization as she considered his words. He had never known exactly that any of the others had told her about the outcome of his condition, but he would have easily assumed it was more than she obviously knew.

For a long moment he watcher her over the monitor, as her eyes grew wider and then blinked a couple of times. She tilted her head a little, obviously in thought. He knew she must have had questons and not known how to ask any of them. It was in an another instant filled with dread and realization that he looked up toward the viewfinder above his monitor and understood he was sitting too close and it was pointed slightly too high for his cart to be even remotely obvious.

"So you can't lift much weight, and it sounds like your balance is probably off," Miko said after a moment. She smiled again and give a look that was so clearly meant to be one of understanding assurance. "It could always be so much worse. At least you didn't lose the ability to walk, right."

Knockout saw the innocence of a human childhood in a pair of wide open and hop filled brown eyes in that second. And for at least a couple of moments he wondered exactly what he should do or say. He wondered why no one else had told her. He thought he understood every reason not to. His flared across his processor for a moment at being left to explain it all himself. And his spark sunk with dread as he saw how she was still staring him, waiting for him to agree with her, when she had quite innocently guessed so wrong.

"I'm still relearning to sit up unsupported." The bot had decided to be honest. But when the little humans eyes grew wider then before with the shock of understanding, he felt his own spark hurt just watching her reaction.

"But you look like you are..."

"Specialized equipment, Miko. I'm pretty efficient with it all my now." The room was too small and to filled with various objects, for the bot to be able to back himself up in any way that Miko could see the motorized cart on her monitor. And he couldn't even reach the viewfinder so that he could move it and show her. But he did back up a ways toward the recharge station so that she could at least make out and understand the tightly secured system of safety harnesses, or part of it.

"I stayed sitting up by myself for almost five minutes yesterday during daily rehabilitation," Knockout spoke of his accomplishment proudly, wanting so much to show her that he was alright. "And I'm close now to pulling myself up from a laying to sitting position, if I have something sturdy enough to grab hold of. That's honestly pretty good considering I can only really use one arm to pull up with."

"Can your left arm even move at all?" Miko questioned bluntly, shakily. The bot realized she must have thought little of noticing only the right before, as he gestured around the room.

"Only to some small extent. The same goes for the left hand. Left leg and foot fared far worse still."

The bot had spoken calmly and without showing anything to her but the positive tone, he had become so good at in the past months. He even smiled assurance in her direction over the viewfinder. He mentioned the school project again, assuring her that he would still help her. That he wanted to help her. And he tried calmly to ask if she might have had some idea of a project in mind.

Instead of providing an answer though, the tiny human burst into sudden tears as comprehension fully dawned on her, She stared at her monitor and webcam for a second, before her gaze dropped awkwardly. She quickly raised her eyes again and gave a forced through hard sniffled and chocked sobs.

"I… didn't know. Nobody told me… I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't know… It just looked… like you were… like you… were..." Miko couldn't finish whatever it was she'd been trying to say, before she began to cry so hard she could not even speak clearly.

"Miko. Bulkhead was supposed to explain all this to you," Knockout said. He could only admit to himself that he had no idea exactly what to do. He felt his frustration building right along with the hurt of understanding just how much it crushed his friend to learn the bad news in the way she had.

"Bulk's no good at that sort of thing." Miko went on sniffling, but her tears died out a little. "Knockout, I really am sorry for not..."

"What are you possibly determined to be so sorry for? You didn't do anything." Knockout smiled in assurance at the still crying little human.

"But I did." Miko stared up at the monitor with her eyes wide and still so tear filled. A stray tear fell and ran down her face. "I… I said… I said it could be worse… at… at least… at least you can still walk. I didn't know you can't!" She cried so hard again that her little body now shook with the force of her sobbing tears.

"Miko that wasn't your fault. I believe you would never say such a thing knowingly."

"I wouldn't. I wouldn't!"

"Well then, all good right?" Knockout grinned at the viewfinder, tying hard to make the human grin back again. But she only lowered her eyes instead, and he could see the way her shoulders still trembled from her crying.

"I say just say stupid stuff all the time," she mumbled, in a voice that sounded suddenly small, defeated. "My mother, my teachers, everyone… they all say I must be doing it on purpose. I just don't know how to act right. I talk before I think, and I'll never amount to anything."

"Don't listen to them," Knockout went on grinning, until finally the little human gave a little smile back. She raised a hand to wipe at her eyes with a clenched fist, and the bot went on speaking, while he gave a little laugh. "Your conversational skills and tactfulness are far beyond Soundwave's. Stay ahead of him in that regard and I'll never worry about you."

"Soundwave?" Miko raised an eyebrow, confused, curious.

"You probably didn't know he could talk, hey?"

"Isn't Soundwave long gone. Out of the way?"

Knockout had wondered since the call had started, what if anything he should tell the little human about the matter of Soundwave. He'd wondered if he should reveal anything at all. But the subject had just sort of come up on its own, and he saw that the little human certainly didn't look scared or panicked at the mention of his name, as he feared she well may have. Instead she looked into her webcam, sniffles nearly stopped now, and wiping her eyes once more with a look of curious expectation on her face.

"Soundwave turned up a few days ago," the bot said. He rolled the cart a bit closer to the viewfinder again, and spoke calmly, but serious all the same. "Crash landed over the sea of rust. The 'cons tried to kill him, and he's been under the protection of the Autobots since Ratchet and a rescue team brought him and Laserbeak back here, both damaged."

Surely most humans would be nervous at such news, and Knockout knew it. But Miko instead looked up with bright excited eyes, as she asked almost a little too innocently, "do you think he'll defect from the 'cons like you did? Maybe now he'll be part of the winning team too." Any remaining traces of her upset and tears, were gone entirely.

"I really don't know, Miko. No one knows yet. Soundwave was always loyal to the cause. He helped build the Decepticon ideal, as Megatron's first swore officer..."

"But he could defect… Everything is different now." The little human had always had such hope. The bot felt he had to give her credit for that. But still he only shook his head a little and frowned.

"I wouldn't count too much on that, Miko."

"Ya never know. He may be an Autobot someday, just like you might walk again."

"Miko..." Knockout began to say something more, while not exactly sure what he should say to be begin with. But his awkward and uncertain try at the right words was interrupted by the sound of a telephone ringing somewhere on her end of the call, and probably outside of the room she sat in. The bot was almost relived at the distraction when he saw her turn, and likely in the direction of her door.

"That would be my father," Miko said, her look so obviously conflicted, almost guilty. "The one parent I've got that still believes I wasn't some waste of time mistake. He said last week he'd call tonight at seven. I gotta go."

"Bye Miko," Knockout waved with his functional arm and hand as she killed her end of the commlink.

The red bot sat for several minutes alone in his shared living space, with to many thoughts to think about racing across his processor. Ideally he rolled the cart across the room to the shelf against which his now long unused old staff rested, propped at an angle so that it pointed mostly upward. With his right hand he reached out to grasp the pole, though he knew he could no longer lift it, let alone much else. Somewhere halfway down the length of the long staff, there was a far from obvious little switch which he had once designed as a switch to fire energon current across the deadly points at the top of the device. He thought for a second he might hit the switch, see it the thing still fired at all, since he'd last looked to find it already slightly malfunctioning, long before he'd fallen to his own failed processor. He decided that was potentially dangerous and moved his fingers away from the switch again.

"Knockout, is everything alright?" Arcee spoke up from behind him, somewhere near the door he had not ever heard slide open. He backed the cart up, so that he had room to turn it back around. And he did so with a smile across his face-plate.

"Just fine," he assured her, meaning it. "I was just… thinking..."

Arcee gave a single loud chuckle of laughter and stepped over to stand in front of him. "I thought I smelled smoke in here..." she kidded, backing up a step with her hands in front of her and a laughing, mock defensive pose.

Knockout tipped his head a tiny bit to the side, and mimicked over the top offense. "Ha. Funny… How was your duty shift?"

"Uneventful. Just how we like 'em."

"Miko said to say hello. She comm'ed me earlier."

Arcee's optics lit up at the mention of one of the children back on Earth. Her reaction was always the same. "How is she?"

"Arcee, Bulkhead never told her..."

"Oh no..." The small blue bot stepped closer again. A smile crossed her face-plate again and he put her arms around him for a moment. "She'll be fine. Miko is far more intelligent and thoughtful than I admit I once gave her credit for."

"Ratchet asked me to come and find you," Arcee continued, stepping back from him after a moment. "It sounds like he wants to do tonight's physiotherapy with you a little bit early, before he goes to run scans on Soundwave's frame. And seems like our… guest.. wants to speak to us. No clue what about, but it sounds like he's been doing some thinking."