Bumblebee didn't know enough human biology to know if it was the tears or the inebriation that was causing the sharp dip in Fina's driving skills. Really he only knew a little about drunk drivers because he'd once inquired to Raf about some bad drivers he'd encountered on the road. Raf had explained that sometimes people did things that made them incompetent drivers, but they didn't realize that's what had happened to them. He'd said they were called 'drunk drivers'. Bumblebee had seen that tears clouded over the eyes of humans, and so he assumed it obscured their vision. He didn't know which was causing Fina to send him careening back and forth across the icy road, but he wished she'd stop.
Bumblebee himself couldn't put on the breaks, only cut power or fail to follow an instruction. But he was reluctant to do that for a couple of reasons, not the least of which being that menacing button.
In addition to that was the fact that he was in a bit of a gray area. Autobots were supposed to protect humans at all costs from Decepticon threats, but Optimus Prime had made it a rule that Autobots were not to interfere with humanity. They were not to interfere with the conflicts between countries, and they were not vigilantes out to capture criminals. But if Fina was driving him, wasn't he already sort of involved? If she got hurt while she drove him, wouldn't he be to blame? Wouldn't that be someone getting hurt because of a Cybertronian, something Bumblebee had sworn to prevent at any cost?
On the other hand, Fina was in control. Far as she was concerned, he was just another car. And he certainly owed her nothing. She was not his friend. Truth be told, he was disliking her more and more the longer he spent in her presence. Whatever happened to her would be her doing.
But, if Bumblebee hadn't been given to her, she would have had no vehicle. Her father had said he wouldn't let her drive the SUV, and Rick certainly wouldn't let her drive his car. If not for Bumblebee, Fina wouldn't even be driving at all. Not that he had chosen to be here, but he still couldn't help but feel like he was at least a little responsible.
Even aside from that, he already had blood on his hood from when Mark had fallen against him, and there was now blood on his window from Mark leaning his head against it. Bumblebee felt soiled by both stains. Not in a vain sort of way, but on a deeply personal level. He felt dirty and wrong with blood on him. He didn't want any more human blood on him, no matter what the reason for it was. That a human had bled on him was something which should never, ever have happened for any reason.
Still, what could he do without risking the button, and without revealing himself as a Cybertronian?
Between his conditioning of the day before and his preoccupation with his thoughts, Bumblebee blindly obeyed when Fina had him turn into the wrong lane. By the time he saw the oncoming headlights, it was too late for thought. Cutting power and coming to a rolling stop would do no good here and now, it would only delay the inevitable. It was one thing not to interfere with Fina, but it came to Bumblebee in a flash that she would not be the only person who might be hurt. He could not allow this collision to occur. But, no matter how he tried, he couldn't gain a bit of physical control. He couldn't turn without her telling him to. He did the only thing he could.
{Fina, stop! Look out!} he knew she wouldn't understand, but hopefully the unexpected noise he made would jar her out of the half-sleep she seemed to be falling into, {Fina, turn the wheel!}
"Hmm? What?" Fina roused, reaching for the button without seeming to think, but the motion was arrested as she realized her danger and screamed.
"Fina, turn the damned wheel!" Mark shouted at her, having opened his eyes when Bumblebee spoke.
He reached across and yanked so hard on the wheel that Fina was shoved into the button. Bumblebee's tires squealed on the asphalt, but he couldn't hear it through the electricity snapping in his processor. His vision flared bright white, and he only barely felt the cue to turn, despite the fact that his steering wheel had been wrenched as far to the right as it would go. His speed faltered and he heard the screech of metal on metal as his side scraped against that of the other vehicle.
After what seemed like an eternity, Fina managed to pull herself back from the dash and into her seat. She took the wheel from Mark and Bumblebee obediently wobbled unsteadily to the edge of the road.
Fina sat bolt upright, her back pressed hard against the seat, hands gripping the wheel tightly. Her braided hair had fallen messily around her face, her mascara had run and tears streamed down her face.
"Did I hurt anyone? Are they okay? Are they alive? Mark! Are they okay?" Fina asked the questions too quickly for Mark to have answered any of them, her voice rising with each word.
Using his side mirror, Bumblebee looked back across the road. The other car had slid to a stop on the opposite side of the road, facing the way they'd come. Frost seemed to dance in the lights of the car, and its tires had dug into a pile of snow along the edge of the road. The driver seemed as rattled as Fina, but they shortly got out and looked fine. Bumblebee didn't know if there were passengers.
Fear rolled through him as the driver hurriedly went to the back door of their sedan and opened it to reveal a child's car-seat. He felt another thrill of horror when he got the signal from Fina to shift gears and speed away down the road. He chose to ignore her, even though his insides were still shuddering from her hitting the button earlier. He would not leave, not until he knew he hadn't been responsible for getting anyone seriously hurt or possibly killed.
"Come on, stupid thing!" Fina practically screamed, slamming her hands against the wheel, "Why won't you go!?"
"Hey, Fina!" Mark interrupted, "You want to make this worse? If you bug out, you'll be one of those hit and run drivers. You're not supposed to just leave the scene of an accident."
"Mark, you don't understand!" Fina wailed, "I left my purse back at the party. It has my driver's license in it. And I've been drinking, I'm not legal! If the police get involved, I'm in real trouble here."
"Okay," Mark said, "Okay... well... we'll switch places then."
"Mark, you've had as much to drink as I have, and this isn't even your car."
"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter," Mark told her hurriedly, "Just switch places. Hey, maybe they'll be willing to just exchange information and we can both leave."
"Mark, you're forgetting something," Fina told him.
"What? What am I forgetting?"
A lot, Bumblebee thought, Mostly that those people over there could be hurt and you're doing nothing to help them or even see if they need any help. You're only thinking of yourselves!
"This piece of shit car won't move!" Fina smacked the wheel again, "Even if that driver's willing to let bygones be bygones, what do we do then? I mean, who do we even call? You need to get to the hospital to get checked out... Mark, that's it! We just tell the truth! They can't hold it against me for trying to hurry my boyfriend to the hospital after another guy beat the crap out of him!"
You're so awful, Bumblebee thought miserably.
Fina shoved the loose hair out of her face, quickly wiped back her tears and opened the driver's side door. She got out and jogged across the street. She was too far away for Bumblebee to hear clearly, but he could see that she was apologizing and pleading with the other driver, who by this time had a child in their arms, having retrieved the baby from the seat. Bumblebee was relieved to see the child seemed to be unharmed, and that nobody else appeared to be in the car.
After Fina had been talking for a minute or two, she began to cry again. Seemingly reluctant but agreeable, the driver finally waved her off, putting their child back into the car-seat. They exchanged information with Fina, then got back into their seriously scraped vehicle and drove away.
Fina smiled crookedly when she got back in, then giggled with relief.
"I can't believe he actually believed me!" Fina laughed.
"It's true though... most of it," Mark reminded her, equal relief in his voice.
"I know, but it sounds like such... such an excuse!" Fina exclaimed, then sighed, "Now, if we could just get this stupid car to start..." she turned the key and Bee cooperatively fired up his engine.
There was no point in making them stay out here anymore, he'd already done all he could. He just hoped the near-tragedy which had just occurred would encourage Fina to be more alert and careful. He certainly didn't plan to follow any more cues to cross to the wrong side of the road.
He slipped into gear and started forward effortlessly, provoking a squeal of surprised and triumphant laughter from both Fina and Mark. Both had clearly believed Bee was more than just scraped and wouldn't start up on his own. He supposed maybe he should have done that to them, just to make them face the consequences of what they'd done. But the truth was he did want Mark to go to a hospital and get checked out. His breathing had sounded funny ever since Eddy hit him in the gut during their fight.
Mark wasn't exactly blameless, but the last thing Bumblebee wanted right now was for him to suffer and possibly die right here in Bee's shotgun seat. By doing what Fina asked now, Bumblebee could make sure the injured Mark would get the help he needed. He wasn't about to take his feelings out on a human, even if it was a human that had provoked his disgust in the first place.
He just hoped Fina wouldn't reconstruct the events and realize not all was as it seemed with her car...
Raf's family hadn't noticed he'd been gone the night before, nor did they make note of the fact he spent the whole day in his room with the door shut. Nobody came to ask him what he was doing, or if he wanted to join the family for cookie decorating. Nobody noticed that he didn't even try to get anyone's attention for anything that day. The only time anyone said anything was at breakfast and dinner, when his mother noted the empty chair and yelled for him to come and eat. He guessed the only reason she knew he was missing was that empty chair, or maybe doing a headcount. Otherwise, who would know he was gone? His family was simply too big for anyone to be keeping track of him.
Aside from those two interruptions, Raf didn't leave his laptop for a minute, looking on every possible website (as well as hacking into security cameras) for any sign of Bee. He began his search in the area where Bumblebee had disappeared, but eventually it went city-wide. Linking his laptop to the computer at the Autobot base, Raf worked with Ratchet to set up a scanning program to search for any vehicle matching Bumblebee's description.
It soon became apparent that Urbana 500s were extremely popular, and yellow with black was a common color choice. Raf had never realized how many of a type of car existed until he found himself looking through literally thousands of photos from security and traffic cams, along with pictures posted to social media. He'd also never realized how well disguised the Autobots truly were, as it took even Ratchet some time looking at many of the pictures to make sure they weren't Bumblebee. From a mere photo or short video clip, it was impossible to tell a vehicle mode transformer from a regular car unless they were doing something other than that which a normal car would do.
Well, nearly impossible.
Raf and Ratchet spent a goodly number of hours between them at their respective locations refining the search to exclude visual features Bumblebee didn't have and to include ones that not every yellow/black Urbana 500 had.
Still, at the end of the day they were left with hundreds of photos, at least as many video clips and even more traffic footage that they hadn't even checked yet. Ratchet advised Raf to get some sleep, promising that he would continue working, but Raf chose to ignore him.
Bots didn't just disappear. Someone, somewhere had to have seen Bee. If it took him from now until Christmas, Raf was going to find the video clip or photo that would give him a clue where his friend had been taken. Bumblebee couldn't just be gone. Raf refused to believe it.
In the meantime, the other Autobots had gone looking for 'Cons, but they'd had little luck except for a lone vehicon scout. When Arcee pursued the vehicon, it tried to outrun her, which resulted in a loss of control turning on a cliff road. The vehicon had pitched off the side and met a definite end, leaving the Autobots no closer to finding Bee, or even proving the 'Cons had him (something Raf was beginning to doubt). But, if not the 'Cons, then who? And for what possible reason?
Bumblebee was parked sideways across two parking spaces in the lot outside the hospital. It was a source of deep irritation to him. He'd always been proud of his proficiency at hitting precisely the center of a marked parking space on the first try. With the exception of Arcee, the other Autobots had a hard time getting into parking spaces, even the large ones meant specifically for shipping vehicles like semi-trucks. Cliffjumper, when he'd been alive, was a especially miserable at it, mainly because he didn't care. And Bumblebee was the only one that dared attempt parallel parking. The 'Cons, of course, simply didn't care and were never seen parked anywhere.
Bee knew being splayed across two parking spaces shouldn't be bothering him right now... but it was, especially when other cars were forced to circle the lot looking for a place to put themselves. The holidays were a busy time of year for hospitals.
One person actually got out of their car and got out their keys. Seeing Bumblebee was dented and deeply scored on the left side, they walked around to the right and keyed the right side twice before getting back in and leaving.
Oh sure! Bumblebee fumed, Punish the car for what the driver did! You think I wanted this!?
He knew his irritation was just a distraction from the fact that he was tired, and a dull ache had spread throughout his systems as the result of being in vehicle mode for so long. Certain parts had also been shifted with the impact, and he couldn't straighten them out in vehicle mode. He felt metal pressing metal where it shouldn't, and knew damage would result in the long-term if he had to stay like this.
But he was also wondering how many more times he could survive that awful button... and how many more times he would be called upon to do so in the defense of people he was trying to be a good enough bot not to actively hate with each drop of energon in his body and every pulse of his spark.