Stephanie sat in Jazz's hand because she didn't want to feel like she was alone. She knew that neither Jazz nor Prowl would just up and leave her. But still sitting in one of their hands let her feel that someone was there with her. She didn't have to listen for the soft muted hum of their spark as they called it. Nor did she have to listen for the sounds of their movements. She could feel that solid unyielding support beneath her and she was very glad that it was there.

The only thing Stephanie had in her hand at the moment was a steaming mug of coffee. A large glass of milk and another of orange juice sat on the table waiting for her. She hadn't ordered anything to eat because she really didn't feel like eating. All she really wanted to do was cry, but she knew that would only make Jazz feel a lot worse than he already did. She wasn't sure how many times he had already apologized to her but she knew that he had truly and sincerely meant every last one of them.

Stephanie really did understand how it had happened. Prowl had explained all of it in details that she could comprehend. Starscream (whoever that was) had already blown Bumblebee's legs off with a missile, and Brawl had started firing at the people who had been minding their own business. Jazz had raced forward to put a stop to that. He shoved Brawl's cannon to one side, before kicking off the missile launchers when Brawl stood up. He had been trying to save people from getting killed… not kill her family! If there had been some other way to stop Brawl from hurting and killing people, Stephanie had no doubts that Jazz would have done it, but there just hadn't been time.

Jazz felt like he deserved to be offlined again… only this time it needed to be done slowly! Here he was sitting at a table while the human sparkling in his hand had lost everything that ever mattered to her including her health because of his actions. He had apologized nineteen times and each one had come straight from his spark, but how did one apologize for something like this? What could he possibly say that would make her feel better and assuage at least some of the guilt that riddled his spark?

There was nothing. Nothing he could say and nothing he could do. He couldn't go back in time and change the direction of Brawl's shot so that Stephanie and her family wouldn't pay the price for his actions. He couldn't give Stephanie's family back to her. All he had known at the time was that a small group of human soldiers and a larger group of human civilians was being targeted. Humans; so incredibly fragile, killed or injured so very easily, with such short lives that it was a wonder that they even had weapons. Yet that small group of soldiers had played a major role in taking down both Brawl and Blackout. Small and fragile but so very brave in spite of the odds stacked against them. It had even been a human who had killed Megatron.

The ingenuity, persistence, intelligence, and sheer unstoppable bravado possessed by these fragile little beings was something that was truly impressive. Yet his actions on that fateful day had killed three of them. One of them had barely begun to know life. If he had never met Stephanie, had never stopped her from being robbed, had never brought her to this base, he would never have known of the three lives that he'd ended. Then he realized that if he'd never done those things that Stephanie herself would also be dead.

'Oh yeah, Ah helped 'er, after Ah went an killed 'er family! Unicron must be laughin it up right about now. Dis mess sucks slag right from da pit!' Jazz berated himself.

Prowl remained silent. He knew that Stephanie was emotionally distraught with very good reason. He also knew that Jazz believed that he deserved to be in the pit. He could feel both the guilt and the grief that plagued Jazz's spark and he knew that it was caused by what Jazz had inadvertently done. He knew that Jazz hadn't hesitated to put his life on the line for those humans. The probability of him having even thought about it once before trying to do something was so infinitesimally small that he didn't bother with the calculations. He knew Jazz. He knew that Jazz would readily risk his own life before allowing someone else to endure pain or grief. It was the kind of bot he always had been… the same kind he always would be.

Prowl could also understand why Stephanie felt the way she did. She had made it clear that she didn't blame Jazz for what he'd done. He had no way of knowing that Stephanie's family would be killed, all he'd known was that he could save several humans from that fate. He had acted. It didn't help matters any to know that Stephanie had not only met two of those that Jazz had saved, but actually liked them as well.

It was a very melancholy scene that Sarah walked into. She had climbed the stairs leading to the table where Prowl and Jazz were sitting, knowing that Stephanie would also be there, because she wanted to thank Stephanie for keeping Annabelle occupied yesterday. She had frozen before finishing the climb. Prowl looked as stoic as ever, but Jazz looked as if someone had torn his spark out and treated it horribly before putting it back. Then she spotted Stephanie sitting in Jazz's hand and she could see that the girl had been crying very hard. Stephanie's eyes were very red and puffy, her nose was red, and she had the sniffles. She knew at once that it couldn't be allergies because Ratchet would already have been called… that meant that Stephanie had been crying.

"What happened here?" Sarah asked in genuine concern.

"I have examined the memory logs of both Jazz and Ratchet as part of my investigation into the deaths of Stephanie's family. I have already discovered which bot fired the shot that killed them." Prowl said in a wooden tone.

"Brawl might 'ave planned on firin da shot at Lennox an da rest o' da soldiers, but Ah was da one who moved da cannon so it killed Steph's family." Jazz muttered sourly. "Ah'm da one ta blame."

"No you aren't!" Sarah snapped. "I know all about that damned tank because Will had nightmares about it for weeks. Will knew that he was looking at his death when he saw that tank aim at him and the others. You tore it up and stopped it from killing a lot of innocent people, Jazz. That Decepticon didn't fire at the Autobots even once! Never! Every shot was aimed at humans! If you hadn't done what you did then a lot more people would have died. He probably would have destroyed the building that Stephanie and her family were in killing hundreds of people including her and her family. You put a stop to it Jazz. Yes, Stephanie's family was killed, but you didn't fire that cannon, Brawl did!" She finished firmly.

"That is exactly what I have repeatedly attempted to inform him of." Prowl told Sarah. "I do not believe he is any more satisfied with your version of that explanation than he is with mine."

"Well he should be! Even with the fighting as contained as it was, there were still hundreds of fatalities. That one called Bonecrusher managed to slice a bus in two before Optimus killed him. Sixty-one people were on that bus." Sarah said seriously as she looked up at Jazz.

"Sixty-one people who died. They were killed before anyone ever got downtown! The Decepticons were after us just as much as they were after the Allspark. Yes… Stephanie got hurt horribly, and I wish to God that she and her family had never been involved. If her parents were even half as decent as she is, then they must have been wonderful people. You didn't choose to bring the war here Jazz, you didn't start that fight, and you didn't fire that shot!" Sarah said sternly as she addressed both Prowl and Jazz.

"Stephanie… Sweetheart… I honestly don't know what to tell you." Sarah said gently as she went over to the girl. "I know that it isn't going to make you feel one bit better to hear that your family died so that others could live, because you are the one who is going to be without a family now, not them. If I could give them back to you I would… I really would, but I can't. What I can do… and what I will do is see to it that Prowl and Jazz take good care of you."

Jazz placed his hand down on top of the table as Sarah approached. Then Sarah was pulling Stephanie into her arms.

"You know… I came here to thank you for watching Annabelle yesterday. You kept her happy, kept her occupied, kept her out of trouble, and kept her from bothering anyone, and I really do appreciate that. I know that no one asked you to do it and that just makes what you did something that I know she enjoyed. So thank you for that." Sarah said as she hugged Stephanie tightly.

"I was hanging around with Belle yesterday because I really like her! It's not like I have a lot of people that I can talk to." Stephanie said a little defiantly.

"I know Stephanie, I know… and if I have anything to say about it; that is something that will change. As grumpy as he is, even Ratchet has friends to spend time with." Sarah said kindly.

Sarah knew that Stephanie was having a rough time right now. She had just learned that the one who'd saved her life had also played a role in the deaths of her family. No matter what anyone might say, that was not something that could be easily reconciled. The girl obviously liked Jazz and that was what made everything so different. If she hadn't developed a friendship with the smiling saboteur then she could easily blame him and hate him for it. But with that friendship in place, Stephanie didn't want to blame Jazz, nor did she want to hate him. That was the problem, but this was the kind of thing where it just wasn't that simple.

"Come on Sweetheart, let's eat something." Sarah whispered gently as she gently pulled the girl out of Jazz's hand.

Stephanie nodded her head and used her right hand to wipe away the tears that had run down her cheeks. She let Sarah guide her to a chair that she sat down in. She wasn't really hungry and what appetite she might have had was lost. She didn't really want anything, but she knew that Sarah wasn't going to take no for an answer. Why Sarah would probably call Ratchet if needed to make her eat.

She went ahead and ordered bacon, sausage patties, and some wheat toast along with a mug of coffee. It didn't take long for the food to be brought out, and the first thing she did was down the orange juice. Stephanie had to admit that she was a bit surprised at how that alone had made her feel a bit better. That was when she realized that it had been so long since she'd had orange juice that it felt like she was getting something special.

The breakfast was eaten in silence for the most part. The only sounds were those made by tableware as Sarah ate her omelet, the crunching noise of bacon or toast, and the light clink of a cup or glass being set down. Sarah knew that it was a heavy but charged silence and it wouldn't take much to start Stephanie crying again. She had to admit, the girl had a very good reason to be upset for quite a while, but she also knew that it wouldn't do any good. Once the crying was over, Stephanie's family would still be dead, and she would still be crippled for life.

What could she say and how could she say it? Was she supposed to be exceptionally cruel about it by telling Stephanie that yes her family was dead, but at least Annabelle got to have Daddy to hug at night? It was a case of choice between her husband, who was Annabelle's father, close friends like Robert Epps, many others, and Stephanie's family. How was that justified, how could that be justified? Only the cold ruthless logic of numbers could possibly justify such a thing, and apparently, not even Prowl was that cold!

After the very tense breakfast was over, Prowl carried both Stephanie and Sarah to the medbay. Sarah was taken there because that was where she worked with Ratchet. Stephanie was taken there because Prowl and Jazz both wanted to be certain that she was doing okay physically. That the girl now had some serious emotional problems to deal with was a given. Sarah could only hope that a little time away from Jazz would help.

"Ratchet, I have discovered the culprit responsible for the deaths of Stephanie's family. That individual was Brawl, however he was targeting William Lennox among other soldiers and a large group of civilians at the time. Jazz deflected that shot by diverting Brawl's cannon. The result is that Stephanie's family was killed instead. She heard Jazz and myself discussing this discovery this morning. As a result, she has had a very stressful time since her awakening. Mrs. Lennox has managed to calm Stephanie to a degree and I do not believe it to be prudent to elicit another emotional outburst of the caliber she has recently displayed." Prowl sent to the medic because he didn't want Stephanie reminded of the reasons she'd been crying.

Ratchet conducted a quick scan and immediately knew that Prowl had the right of it. Stephanie was clearly distraught by what she had learned. He wasn't at all pleased with the amount of stress that Stephanie was being subjected to.

BREAK

Will looked at his wife in concern as they both readied themselves for bed. She had been pensive and reserved the entire night. He'd wanted to ask her a hundred different times what was wrong, but either Annabelle had been present or there was another reason for it to be the wrong time to ask. Now they were alone, and there would be no interruptions.

"Sarah… what's wrong? You've been really quiet all night." Will asked seriously.

"Nothing." Sarah replied automatically. "Everything. It… it's been a very bad day today Will, and I just want it to be over." She added in exhaustedly.

Will nodded his head, but continued to direct worried looks at his wife. She wasn't happy about something and he could see that whatever it was, was really bothering her. Sarah had just made it clear though that she didn't want to discuss whatever it was.

Sarah was an emotional wreck. How could she possibly explain to her husband of several years that the shot that was aimed at him had killed others instead? If he were to learn that civilians and even a child had died so that he could live, he would not be accepting of that information at all. That knowledge could very well destroy him; it would tear him up just as much as it was tearing her up inside and eating away at her heart.

Sarah knew that her husband had sworn to protect the innocent, to defend the citizenry against all foes, and even to give his life in defense of theirs. To learn that innocent civilians had died while in their home, killed by a shot that was meant for him, would hurt him in a way that he could never recover from. It would be devastating and she knew it. It was for that reason that she kept her silence by not telling him.