This is the rewritten version of chapter three! Thanks for reading and enjoy!

Please note: I do not own Transformers. I do, however, have my own OC's which I have inserted into the story. My OC's include Reese Shields and Chase Sanders. and Electra belongs to my sister.

Next Steps

A week had passed since Reese had come to the base. She was healing up nicely. A that remained of her scuffle with the Decepicons were a few fading bruises and the stitches that held the cut across her face together. It was going to leave and ugly scar when it was healed. Unfortunately, the week had gone be extremely slowly, and Reese was starting to go stir crazy. Sure, the bots were nice, and the kids were fun to hang out with, but she was bored out of her mind. Neither Optimus, nor Agent Fowler would let her leave the base, and she was getting pretty tired of the gray walls that she had come to be familiar with.

She walked down one of the many hallways in the base. After getting lost numerous times, Reese was finally starting to get a hang of the layout of the base. She came up towards the training room, relieved to find that it was unoccupied. She closed the door behind herself and pulled the punching bag out of the corner. She had been taking out her pent up energy on it in secret for the past few days. She also enjoyed giving it a good punching whenever Miko got on her nerves.

With each jab, Reese tried to release something that was stressing her out. The whole accident, her being confined in this stuffy old base, her boredom, her missing her parents… If they had been alive, what would they have wondered? Would they have thought she had just run away? They would have never believed her if she had told them that she was living with a bunch of giant robot aliens.

Reese hauled off with a particularly forceful jab, causing the whole stand that the punching bag was on to wobble slightly.

"Whoa there, you pack quite a punch. Remind me not to get on your bad side," Bumblebee's distinctive voice whirred from behind her. She gasped and whipped around sharply, startled. Somehow, she had been so lost in thought that she hadn't heard the bot come in (which meant that she must have been quite distracted, since these robots weren't exactly the stealthiest, given their size).

"Bee, you scared me! Don't sneak up on people like that," Reese chastised the bot, wondering how long he had been watching.

"Sorry Reese, I didn't mean to scare you. I had just come to tell you that Optimus wanted to talk with you about something. He sent me to go find you," Bumblebee explained.

"Optimus wants to talk to me? Why? I haven't done anything wrong." Reese immediately went on the defensive. She knew the autobot leader was a very kind and gentle bot but being summoned to talk to him felt like she was being summoned to talk to the president or something. She hadn't really talked to him since that first day when she met all the bots. He mostly kept to his quarters or busied himself with missions. So, in her mind, the only logical reason he would want to talk to her would be if there was a problem, right?

"Oh, you aren't in trouble, don't worry about that," Bumblebee tried to reassure the girl. "I think he just wanted to check in on you, see how you were doing."

"Doesn't Optimus have more important things he could be doing than talking to little ol' me? I mean, he is your leader after all. Why would he want to check in on me?"

"Optimus isn't just some big official bot. I mean, he is, but he doesn't act all high and mighty. That's one of the reasons I joined his team. He cares about each member of his team, and currently, that includes you too. He just wants to check in and see how you are acclimating to life here at the base. He feels really bad about how you got caught up in all of this."

"Oh, well, I guess I can go talk to him," Reese finally conceded. Optimus intimidated her a bit, but he seemed friendly enough the last time she had talked to him, so she mustered up her courage and followed Bee back into the main room of the base where he was waiting.

Optimus turned and looked down at the Reese with a gentle smile. He could sense the nervousness emanating from the girl, so he tried to seem as kind and nonthreatening as possible.

"Hello Reese, I just wanted to check in with you. I have talked with Agent Fowler, and I think that we might have some good news for you," He said as he leaned down so that he was at least somewhat closer to her height.

"Wait, do you mean I can go home?" Reese looked up at the Prime with surprise. This was not what she had been expecting.

"Well, not exactly. We talked and decided that since things have been quite for a bit, that it would be okay for you to return to your earthly occupation. We do still want you to stay at base when you aren't out and about, though.

"Oh… I mean, thank you. I appreciate that you are letting me go back to work," Reese looked a little disappointed. While she was excited about the idea of going back to work and getting out of the base, she had hoped that she would be able to go back to her everyday life. It looked like it was going to be a little while longer before that happened though.

"Does the prospect of going back to your job not excite you?" Optimus looked down at Reese a little confused.

"No, it's not that. I just… I had kind of hoped that I could go back home and get back to my usual life. It's not that I don't enjoy hanging around you guys, but I would just like to go back to the way things were."

"I understand. We just want to make sure that you were safe until the decepticon activity around died down a little. I am sure that you will be able to return to your home in due time."

"Thank you, Optimus," Reese smiled as genuinely as possible. Sure, this wasn't exactly what she had been hoping, but it was sure better than being stuck in the base all day. "Oh, by the way, I was wondering If I would be allowed to head up to the top of the plateau… You know, to get some fresh air."

"Yes, that would be fine," Optimus assured, much to Reese's excitement. She had literally been stuck inside this base, with no fresh air or sunshine for a whole week, and it was beginning to take its toll on her mental health.

Excitedly, she made her way to the elevator. She would have run, but she didn't want the autobots to think she was desperate to get away from them. She stepped inside and hit the button that took the elevator all the way to the top.

Reese could feel an immediate boost in her mood as she stepped out into the warm desert air. It was bright and sunny, and a nice warm breeze carried up to the top of the plateau from the desert below.

A smile broke out on her face and she found herself running to the very edge of the cliff face, her hair blowing wildly around her as it was tossed and turned by the breeze. Sunlight had never felt so warm, the breeze had never smelled so fragrant. It felt as if she was being kissed by heaven itself.

With a contented sigh, she sat down and let her legs dangle over the edge of the cliff. It was a long way down, but heights had never really scared Reese anyways. As long as she kept most of her weight shifted away from the edge, she would be fine.

She leaned back, stretching her arms back behind her head and laid down so that the warm sunshine was beating down evenly across her face. Oh, it was wonderful. She closed her eyes and soaked up the sun's rays.

Reese must have fallen asleep because the next thing she knew, she was being startled awake by someone talking, or rather, whirring. Her eyes snapped open and she could see Bumblebee leaning over her curiously, probably wondering what she was doing.

In a panic, she scrambled to get up on her feet, but being as close to the edge as she was, her foot slipped on the edge when she tried to stand up. She felt her center of gravity lurch backwards as the ground was suddenly no longer beneath her, and with a scream, she found herself falling.

She reached for the edge of the cliff as she fell, but it was just barely out of reach by the time she thought to grab for it. Her life flashed before her eyes as she prepared to for the inevitable crash landing, but something cut those flashing moments short. That something was Bumblebee reaching down and grabbing her outstretched arm, causing her to jerk to a halt and slam into the wall of the cliff.

Dizzily, she looked up to see the black and yellow bot hanging halfway off the cliff, deep concern in his round, blue optics. Quickly, he scrambled up, out of his precarious position, pulling Reese up with him. He lifted her up and set her down safely away from the edge of the cliff.

It took her a hot minute to catch her breath, reveling in the fact that she was still alive.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to scare you. Are you okay?" Bumblebee whirred worriedly, looking Reese over for any possible injuries.

"Yea, just a little shaken up," Reese finally found her words and tried to reassure the bot. Other than the fact that her shoulder was throbbing from where it had been jerked when Bumblebee caught her, she was fine.

"I had just come up here to check on you. You were up here for quite a while, and we were wondering how you were doing."

"Oh, I must have fallen asleep."

"It is very peaceful up here, so I'm not surprised."

"Yea, though, I think I might have gotten a little sunburned," Reese touched her face gingerly, feeling it sting lightly under her touch.

"yea, it's a little red, but not too bad. Trust me, I have seen waaay worse. I went on a mission that was out near the beach, and some of the people out there looked like they had been doused in red energon."

"What's red energon? All I have ever seen is the blue stuff."

"Oh, it's a really rare type of energon that provides super speed when consumed, but its also bright red, just like the colour of those sunburned people on the beach," Bee whirred in a way that sounded like he was chuckling.

"Dang, I would hate to get a sunburned that badly. It must hurt pretty bad."

"Yea… Oh, by the way, Optimus talked with us about you going to work tomorrow. We have worked out a plan for how we are going to take you in and bring you back, if you want to hear it."

"Sure, but maybe we should head inside first, the longer I stay out here, the more burned I'm gonna get."

"yea, we should probably get you out of the sun for a bit," Bumblebee ushered Reese towards the Cybertronian sized elevator and followed her in. "Anyways, so we talked about how we are going to get you to and from work. We will all take turns taking you in, in the mornings, and then one of us will be there to pick you up in the afternoon when you get off. We won't be there while you are at work, but you should be safe there. Bulkhead will be taking you in in the morning, and I will be picking you up tomorrow afternoon. Does that sound good to you?"

"Yep, that sounds like a plan. I excited to finally be able to get out of the base. I just wish Optimus would let me go home already."

"Don't worry, I'm sure you will be able to go back pretty soon. Things have been relatively calm, so I don't see why you shouldn't be allowed to go back home in the next few days," Bee whirred encouragingly.

"You think?"

"I mean, I don't know for certain, but it seems like a likely outcome."

"I hope so…" Reese smiled at the thought. Finally, things seemed to be looking up. Hopefully Bee was right, and she would be able to finally go back home and get back to her normal life.

Alrighty, I have finally gotten chapter 3 rewritten. I found this one kinda hard to rewrite, mostly because the original chapter three didn't have much interesting stuff happen in it. I definitely tried to make this one a little more interesting than last time, but its still one of those introductory chapters that set things up, so there isn't much to work with yet. Luckily, its relatively short, and hopefully stuff will start picking up in the next few chapters, so hang in there! Please review and let me know what you think of the story. That is a HUGE motivator for me to keep up my writing. Thanks again for reading, and as always, Have a lovely and blessed day!