Bumblebee didn't know why, but Fina drove home alone, leaving Mark at the hospital. He hoped the boy wasn't seriously hurt, that maybe someone else was going to pick him up and take him home. But Fina didn't talk to herself about it, so Bee was left to his theorizing.

Halfway home, Fina pulled off the road, evidently because she couldn't see. She was in tears. Once she pulled off the side of the road, she leaned her head against the steering wheel and let herself sob. Much as Bee didn't like her, he was a bot of gentle and compassionate spirit, and her tears moved him. He wished there was something he could do to make her feel better.

But there wasn't anything he could do. Nothing except for sit there while the salty teardrops fell from her eyes and landed on him.

Then, for no discernible reason, she suddenly straightened up, screamed and smacked the wheel with her hand. Sitting back against the seat now, she continued to cry, occasionally pausing to scream again. Nobody outside the car would hear her, no matter how loud she screamed. He got the impression Fina didn't really want anyone to hear her. The truth was, he wasn't convinced she fully knew what she was doing.

Finally, she pressed herself against the seat, grabbed firm hold of the steering wheel with her arms rigid. She took several shuddering breaths, and blinked furiously until the tears cleared from her eyes. It seemed like she was going to get herself under control, then she choked and broke again.

"Why?" she spoke aloud, and for a moment Bee thought she was speaking to him, but it was soon clear she was asking herself, "How could this have happened to me!?" and then she asked the question Bee had been asking since he'd first met her, "When did I become this person?"

There was a pain in her eyes when she opened them again that pierced Bumblebee to the core. He didn't -couldn't- understand, not really. Or so he told himself. But the truth was that he had done things during the war, and there had been times when he'd become a someone he didn't even recognize. That was different though. That had been war. That had been survival. That had been defending his kind from extinction at Decepticon hands. It was different... but still he had felt the pain he saw here before. That pain only came when you woke up one day and realized you had become someone you didn't want to be. Somehow, without realizing it, you'd become someone you'd have called a monster, perhaps even swore you'd never be. That's the pain which was in Fina's eyes now.

Sniffling, Fina furrowed her brow and her eyes cleared. It was obvious she'd changed what she was thinking about, and now she looked over at the dash where the radio was... and the dreaded button. She frowned and Bee felt a flash of fear at the thought that she might press it out of pure curiosity. Mercifully, she didn't. Instead, she spoke again.

"You saved my life," she said, and this time she really was speaking to Bee while she shook her head wonderingly, "Daddy said I'd be grateful for you... I didn't... I didn't believe him. I don't know if you've got some kind of collision detector or AI or something... but I know I would have crashed head on... I might even be dead now. But you... you didn't let that happen."

Maybe it was just that she was still a little drunk. Maybe it was just the shock of the evening. But somehow, she had realized in an hour what her father hadn't in all the time he'd worked for MECH. She didn't even know Cybertronians existed. Yet, somehow, she knew that Bumblebee was alive.

"Oh God," she said, leaning against the seat and looking up, "how did I get here?"

Bumblebee sensed she wasn't being rhetorical, nor was she referring to her physical location. He wished he could give her an answer. But, even if she could have understood him, he didn't know her, and he had no idea what choices she had made or what had happened to her that brought her to this place in her life. He didn't even understand humans well enough to know what this place was.

Until she reacted, Bee didn't even realize he'd let out a sympathetic whirring sound.

"Did you just-" she didn't finish the question as headlights on the road told of a vehicle coming towards her, a vehicle she happened to recognize as it pulled off the road in front of Bee.

Rick got out of the silver Jag and jogged over to Fina's door. She rolled down the window. Rick's breath burst out in clouds of frost as he spoke.

"Fina! Where the hell have you been? When you didn't answer you phone, Mom and Dad got worried. I've been driving around for over an hour. Tracy said you left the party, but Eddy was still there and-"

"Rick. Rick... Ricky, take a breath. I'm fine," Fina said, pausing to sniff, "I just... left my purse at the party when I drove Mark to the hospital, and my phone was in my purse, so-"

"Wait? Hospital? Mark? Fina, what happened? Did you sleep with him again?"

Fina scowled at him, hiding her pain behind anger, "Not that it's any of your business, but no, no I didn't. Eddy found out. They got into a fight, and Mark came out with the worst of it... and..."

"Fina, this is stupid. If you wanted to be with Mark, you should have just told Eddy. It was never weird that I was dating Mark's sister, and now Tracy and I are broken up, there's no reason you two can't-"

"Ricky, I don't want to talk about this right now," Fina interrupted sharply, "I just want to be left alone, alright?" the wavering of her voice told Bee that was the opposite of what she wanted.

Rick looked worried still, but not because he doubted what she said.

"You sober?" he inquired.

"Yes," Fina said, but her answer was unconvincing.

Rick sighed wearily, "Slide over. I'll drive you home and have dad come back with me to get the Jag."

"Rick, you don't have to-"

"I said slide over," Rick insisted sharply, opening the driver's side door, "Now do I need to push you or are you gonna move over by yourself?"

Fina reluctantly did as she was told, but she was clearly sulky about it. Rick himself didn't look too thrilled about leaving his precious Jaguar parked along the side of the road. Rick clearly noticed the dents and scratches Bee had sustained, but didn't ask.

The silence between them as Rick drove Fina home was thick enough to cut. But it wasn't long before Fina dozed off, evidently having exhausted her range of emotions for the night. It was probably a good thing Rick was driving. Though he went too fast and blew past stop signs like they were nothing, at the very least he was conscious and sober, which was more than could be said for Fina.

Rick called his dad on the drive home, and the man was waiting in the driveway with a red haired woman (probably his wife) when they arrived. Fina got out and the woman immediately took her into the house, while Rick's dad got into the passenger seat Fina had just vacated.

"Do you know what happened?" he asked of Rick, "It looks like she was in an accident."

"In case you haven't noticed, Fina and I don't talk much, and she wasn't exactly in a sharing mood," Rick replied shortly as he backed out of the driveway and turned back the way he'd come.

During the drive to the Jaguar, Rick's father tried to engage him in conversation a few times, but Rick was having none of it. When they got to where the silver Jag was parked, Rick practically leaped out of his seat and into the cold night. He got in the Jag and swiftly drove away. Rick's father remained in the passenger seat even once the boy and his car were out of sight.

"I suppose asking you what happened is out of the question."

{You wouldn't understand if I told you,} Bumblebee replied coldly.

"I didn't think so," the man sighed, "Looking at that scrape, I imagine I should be grateful she was driving you instead of that flimsy convertible of hers. I don't even want to see the other car."

He got out and walked to the driver's side and got back in, but still didn't start the engine.

"You see now why I worry about my kids having the safest possible vehicle to drive."

Bumblebee said nothing to that. Sure, he saw. But he also saw that the real problem wasn't the safeness of the automobile, but the recklessness and carelessness of its driver. No matter how sturdy he might be, Bumblebee couldn't do anything to protect Fina from herself. She was a teenager and, as Bumblebee understood humans, her parents were supposed to be teaching her to make good choices, and protecting her, even when she didn't like it. Clearly, there was none of that happening here. Bumblebee didn't know anything about parenting, but he felt like knowingly allowing the girl to get drunk, drive dangerously and commit acts which made others humans so mad that they slapped her and beat each other up over it wasn't a good example of it.

"I feel like you're silently judging me," the man said.

Give the man a prize.

"You've got no right doing that," he said, turning the key and activating Bee's engine, "You're just a car now, and you have no idea what's going on with my family or my life."

It's not my judgment you're worried about, Bee thought, You're judging yourself, and you don't even realize it. You know this isn't right, and taking me prisoner wasn't the only huge mistake you made recently. But sure, blame it on me. Clearly it's the car's fault that the people are stupid.

As he was being driven back to the garage, Bumblebee allowed himself to think of Raf for the first time since his abduction. It had been Rafael who'd taught Bee how wonderful humans really were. Before, protecting humanity had been just a directive, something he had to do because it was the order of a Prime. Not just a Prime, either, but the last of the Primes, his leader. But then he'd met Raf by accident, and everything had changed almost in an instant. The boy had understood him, had trusted him implicitly from the first moment they met, had known that Bee wasn't there to hurt him, that he need never fear the Autobot Scout, no matter how big, how powerful and how strange Bumblebee seemed to the boy.

Bumblebee considered the other Autobots his family, but the friendships that had developed between them were borne of necessity. They worked together because they had to, played together because there was no alternative, spent time together because they were the last of their kind to share the same ideals. But Raf was different. He and Bumblebee didn't have to be friends. Heck, nothing said the kids had to ever visit the base for any reason. But they could, and they did. Raf especially.

Raf had become Bee's friend not because he had to, but because it was what he wanted. Bumblebee was closer to Raf than anyone else, human or Autobot. He loved that kid, and that love extended to include the rest of humanity. It wavered now because everything he loved about humanity was totally absent from these people. They were cruel to one another, thoughtless and mean-spirited, antagonistic and careless. They were the humanity that Raf seemed to know best from what the boy had said. How could the boy have any love left for the human race if this was what he saw of it?

The ache Bumblebee felt inside now wasn't from having been in vehicle mode for too long. He missed Raf very much, and he wondered if the boy missed him too.

Raf couldn't sleep when he went to bed that night.

He knew he shouldn't worry. Bumblebee had survived much in his time. He was strong and brave and resourceful and... and he was Raf's best friend, who sometimes needed help. Bumblebee wasn't invincible, and Raf knew better than anyone that beneath the warrior's exterior there beat a spark that was soft and gentle and loving and easily hurt. Even Autobots needed help sometimes, and Raf felt that -where Bumblebee was concerned- this was one of those times.

Raf just hoped that, wherever he was and whatever was happening to him, Bumblebee knew that his family was thinking of him, that they were worried about him and that they would do whatever it took to get him back home in time for Christmas (even if he didn't know what Christmas was).

It just wouldn't be Christmas unless and until Raf knew that his best friend was safe. He'd been wishing for so many things before Bee had gone missing, but now this was all he wanted in the whole world.