Author's Note: Wow! Thanks so much you guys for adding this story to alerts and for reviewing! :D And I got a few votes that the holoforms should be solid like actual people so they shall be, thanks for your opinions!

WARNING!—This chapter contains abuse. Only verbal, emotional, and physical. The topic might be difficult for some people to read so I thought I would warn you. There is also mild swearing. Read at your own discretion.

(As a side note I guess you can pronounce the name Demetri two ways: (Dem-me-tree) or (Duh-me-tree) Looking at the word "Duh" made me think of Miko's "Doi" XD That always made me laugh whenever she said that in the show. Now without further ado, I give you chapter 3!

Chapter 3

"Tell me Jack. Tell me what happened," June Darby said calmly as she moved to take a seat across from him at the dining room table. She placed her hands on top of his. As a mother, she learned a long time ago that when it came to her son's well-being, she had to mask her own internal conflict. She had to remain strong for him. It was a challenge sometimes, but after working as a paramedic for so many years, it became rather easy to appear fearless.

Inside though, June was screaming.

She divorced Mr. Darby eight years ago. She took her son and fled from the domestic abuse he heaped upon them two years before the divorce was finalized. Thanks to government assistance in the state of Arizona, she was able to get her paramedic job transferred to Jasper Nevada, a place that June figured her ex-husband would never go.

Now that Demetri Darby found them again, she would probably have to get a restraining order. That might be hard to come by since it had been eight years since the last one which was long expired by now and to get a restraining order, the cruel hearted man would have to harm or attempt to harm either Jack or herself.

"Sweet-heart…I need to know what happened." June rubbed Jack's hands in soft reassurance.

"Okay mom…I'll tell you…" Jack began knowing he would have to leave some classified details out.

"Go on," his mother encouraged.

"He was there...when I went to the store with one of my friends…"

-Six Hours Earlier-

Jack could only stare at the man he once called father in pure disbelief. He slowly backed away from Demetri, his every sense screaming at him to flee.

"Hello Jack."

"…Hi dad," Jack replied in a near whisper with wide eyes.

"It took me a long time to find you."

"Y-you were looking for me? Why?"

"It didn't seem very fair that I never got to say good-bye to you, son."

Jack swallowed a thick lump in his throat and felt his mouth going dry.

"How did you recognize me?"

"That's not important right now…what's important is that we can be a family again," the man edged a little closer forcing Jack to take another two steps back.

"What do you want?" Jack trusted the man as far as he could throw him.

"I want to spend some quality time with you. Why don't we go for a little drive?" his ex-father flashed him a smile. It wasn't warm or true. It was fake. Jack saw right through it. He knew the man wasn't sincere. Jack remembered what the man had done to him as a child. The teen never forgave him and he never forgot…

-Flashback-

A six-year-old Jack was outside with a neighborhood friend. They were innocently playing catch with a baseball. They were having lots of fun…until another kid who was a couple years older than them wanted to join in. The elder boy overthrew the ball and accidentally shattered one of the windows of the Darby residence. The guilty kid was already half-way down the block before Jack could blink.

Jack felt ice cold fear flowing through his veins when his father walked out on the porch and screamed for him to come inside. His friend apologized and ran back home, leaving Jack to his doomed fate. That day his mother June was at work and his dad had the day off.

"Stop dragging your sorry ass and get the hell inside!" his father shouted at him.

Jack ran and knew that to disobey the man would result in a far worse punishment than the one he was about to receive. Jack learned at an early age to take the blame for anything that went wrong, even if it wasn't his fault.

"Look at what you've done!" Demetri yelled in Jack's face.

The little boy's breathing quickened as both dread and the urge to cry overwhelmed his young senses. Jack looked down at the floor in shame.

Demetri roughly caught a hold of Jack's chin and forced him to look at the broken window.

"See that?! Do you have ANY idea how much it's going to cost to replace that, you STUPID, lousy brat?!"

"I'm sorry!" Jack cried as he rubbed his sweaty palms on the side of his pants.

"SORRY isn't going to FIX it!" Jack's father screamed at him as he pulled out a leather belt.

Little Jack's eyes widened and he cried.

"NO DADDY! Please don't hit me! I'M SORRY!"

"Well now you get to pay the price for being sorry!" Demetri began to mercilessly beat the child.

Jack screamed and cried, begging his abusive father to stop but the wicked man wouldn't. The child fell to the floor and curled up into a ball and continued to suffer as his innocent, heart-breaking pleas fell on deaf ears.

June miraculously came home early and witnessed what was taking place and yelled at Demetri to stop. The man wouldn't listen. June resorted to violence herself in a desperate attempt to protect her only child but her husband turned his wrath on her. He beat her with his fists and choked June in front of Jack's eyes.

"NO! STOP IT! LEAVE MAMA ALONE!" the injured boy screamed with tears running down his face.

The man for once actually listened and threw June to the ground where she lay gasping for breath.

"Yeah I guess I'll stop…but only because you two are a pathetic waste of my time," the man sneered as he looked down on them with disgust.

The young boy, now covered in red welts and multi-colored bruises crawled painfully over to where his mother lay in a sobbing heap. She hugged him close and whispered in his ear.

"It's going to be okay, sweetie. I love you."

"Jack, get me a beer from the fridge and don't you dare make me wait! I've had enough of your shit today," Demetri ordered from where he was reclining on the couch watching football.

June nodded at Jack with a brave smile and encouraged him to do as he was told as she opened the freezer and pulled out an ice pack to put on what was soon going to be her black eye.

Jack's small hands shook as he obeyed his father and gingerly grasped one of the large beer bottles, praying he wouldn't drop it...

-End Flashback-

Jack shook his head as he stared at the man with complete distrust. He mustered up enough courage to speak his mind a few seconds later.

"I'm not going anywhere with you."

"That wasn't a request…" Demetri's eyes narrowed as his expression grew dark.

That look sent chills down Jack's spine. It was the kind of look his father had given him in the past when he promised he would hurt him if he didn't do what he was told to do. Jack felt the last of his courage drain away. He began to feel like a scared little six-year-old again. The teen awkwardly stumbled back with the shake of his head as his father walked towards him. Jack's face paled at what Demetri said next.

"I'm not giving you a choice! You're my son and you are coming with me!"

Jack felt trapped as unshed tears welled in his eyes. He felt cornered and didn't know how the hell he was supposed to get out of this situation. His father hurt him in the past and probably had no qualms about hurting him now…

"Is there a problem here?" a deep, familiar sounding voice rumbled behind Jack. Jack was startled and turned to see who it was. He breathed a sigh of relief to see it was Optimus's tall, buff, and rather intimidating looking holoform. Jack laughed inside when for a moment he thought he saw fear in his father's dark brown eyes. If only the abusive jerk could see Optimus in his true form…

"Hey guy. Mind your own business! This is between me and my boy here, alright?" Demetri glared at Prime.

"I'm afraid it is my business. Jack is with me," Optimus persisted as he put a solid hand on Jack's shoulder in reassurance.

Jack's eyeballs nearly popped out of his head wondering how the hell the Autobot leader's holo was SOLID, until he caught a brief glimpse of Ratchet's ambulance form driving away out of his peripherals.

So Ratchet's invention DID work…Thank God…

His timing couldn't have been more perfect. He would have to thank the Autobot medic once they returned to base.

Jack didn't know it, but when Ratchet stopped by earlier while Jack was shopping to give Optimus his very own holoform integration device, the medic immediately noticed Jack's irregular vital signs and alerted his leader to the teen's distress. As the boy's temporary guardian, Optimus needed to ensure that the child was alright so Optimus had gone into the store to investigate. That's when he met Mr. Darby…

Jack felt much better now that Optimus was standing behind him but he wasn't out of the woods yet…

"Who the hell are you?" Demetri gestured rudely with a look of contempt.

"My name is Orion Paxton and I'm Jack's guardian," Optimus replied confidently without missing a beat.

"Look, I don't care who you are but Jack is MY son and I have the right to take him with me!" Demetri growled.

"By what authority do you have that right?"

"I'm his father. That's my right!" Demetri snarled while jabbing a finger at Optimus's chest.

Jack was forced to drop all of the items in his arms when without any warning, the abusive man reached out and gripped Jack's right wrist painfully and began to drag the protesting teen behind him.

"You're coming with me Jack!" the man shouted, uncaring if he was causing a scene or not.

As Demetri Darby began to walk away, the Autobot leader used his holoform to reach out and tightly grab Jack's would-be kidnapper firmly on the arm and pulled the man back with amazing strength. He then stood and blocked Mr. Darby's path with an icy glare. He straightened his posture and towered above Demetri by a little over half a foot. If Jack had to guess, he'd say that Optimus's holoform was roughly 6'4". His father Demetri on the other hand only stood at about 5'10".

Jack tried to pull his wrist out of his father's vice like grip. Any tighter and his hand would go numb from lack of circulation…

It tore at Optimus's spark to see the silent, desperate plea on Jack's face. He could see fear, torment, and pain in the child's eyes. The leader of the Autobots wanted more than anything to reach over and free Jack from his father's restraining hand but knew that provoking or touching Mr. Darby any further might cause a physical altercation which would in turn involve the police…and Optimus couldn't blow his cover. So he did something he was very good at.

Diplomacy.

"Release the boy," Optimus ordered firmly with a hard look that would send most people running.

"I already told you that I'm this boy's father and that he's coming with me! So NO, I won't release him!" Demetri sneered defiantly.

Jack observed the interaction between his father and Optimus with wide eyes. For a moment it looked like Optimus's holoform spaced out for a minute. When Optimus snapped back to reality a few seconds later, his entire demeanor changed.

Prime now turned icy, wrathful, brilliant blue eyes on the wicked man.

WOAH! What just happened? Optimus's mood shifted within the span of like three seconds! Jack thought to himself. In the short time that the teen got to know Prime over the past few months, he realized that he'd never…not even once, seen Optimus angry before. He soon found out why.

"According to the Arizona police database you were recently released from a 10 year prison sentence for the physical assault, and attempted murder of both Jack and June Darby. You have no right to take this boy, he is staying with me," Optimus growled dangerously low and took a menacing step forward with clenched fists.

Optimus had actually stumbled upon that information while he was downloading everything else he could about the adult human. Prime's holoform looked like he was ready to beat the crap out of the man. This was a new, protective side to Optimus that Jack had never seen before. It would have made him laugh if the situation wasn't so serious.

To say that Optimus was angry was a huge understatement. What Optimus hated the most, was when caretakers (regardless of species) abused their younglings. The fact that this man had not only abused the child but had also attempted to terminate both Jack (who in Prime's optics had practically been a sparkling at the time), and his mother, was the wire that fried the motherboards circuits. Back on Cybertron during the golden age before the war, the penalty for committing such crimes had been punishable by death. Abusing and terminating sparklings in the eyes of the Autobots was UNTHINKABLE! Autobots cherished life and fought to protect and preserve it. It took a great deal of effort on his part, but Optimus finally got a handle on his raging emotions and held himself in check. Barely. He couldn't stop thinking of what he wished he could do to Mr. Darby. As a Prime, he knew it was wrong to entertain such fantasies but the fact remained: Jack's father was a Decepticon in human skin…

"Yeah, what do you know…are you a cop or something?" Demetri now looked both suspicious and uncomfortable.

"All I can say at this moment, Mr. Darby, is that I have unlimited access to all law enforcement databases and have very reliable government contacts." Optimus responded smoothly.

"You're bluffing!"

"Am I? How else would I intimately know of your past crimes?"

Mr. Darby's insecurity began to grow as Optimus continued to speak.

"I know that you were arrested in the past at the age of 17 for petty theft after the store owner pressed charges against you. I know that the state recently released you from prison, not only because your incarceration expired, but because your cousin paid off your obscenely expensive parole. Here is something that not even you know Mr. Darby. Your cousin is now the one in prison for selling illegal substances. He was arrested this morning. Shall I continue?"

Woah! Was his dad's parole paid off with DRUG money?! Was that even legal?! Jack struggled to hide a triumphant grin when he saw how uncomfortable the man was getting. It looked like Mr. Darby was beginning to sweat a little.

"Alright you nearly bought me…but shouldn't you have a badge or government ID or something? For all I know you could be some kind of hacker!"

Optimus soon turned deathly serious and stepped forward until he was only a few inches away from the man's face and continued, unabashed.

"Mr. Darby, let's cut right to the chase. The truth of the matter is, you should in all rights still be in prison. Whether I have a badge with or without me right now is irrelevant. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. It's your choice." Optimus narrowed his eyes at the man as he spoke with a dangerous edge in his voice.

Wow. Jack was amazed. The leader of the Autobots sure did have a way with words.

Mr. Darby considered everything that Optimus said. The man must have decided not to take any chances because he finally released the teen and scoffed.

"Fine. Just know that this isn't over," Demetri pointed at Optimus with a glare.

Optimus gently grabbed Jack by his shoulders and held the boy protectively against him.

"And Jack…Jasper is my new home now. So I'm sure we'll both be seeing each other again real soon," Demetri flashed his son a wicked smirk.

What Mr. Darby said nearly made the boy hyperventilate. Jack had apparently never experienced a panic attack before. Anxiety was common in victims of past abuse. Now Jack was forced to face the heartless demon from his childhood. The youth struggled to hide his fear as he forced himself to take slow, even breaths.

Optimus held Jack in a fatherly, one-armed embrace and patted the boy's chest gently in reassurance. He kept his other hand free should he need to use it if Jack's progenitor were to attempt anything foolish. Jack began to breathe evenly again although Optimus could still feel the boy trembling slightly as they both watched Mr. Darby leave the store.

Jack exhaled a sigh of relief and felt his tense body relax after the man was gone. He looked up at Optimus's holoform with a grateful smile.

"Thanks for the save Optimus. Ratchet's timing couldn't have been better with that holoform integration device. I don't know what I would have done without you…"

Truth be told he was still terrified and quite shaken after that encounter and wanted more than anything to leave the store and return to the safety of the Autobot base. For the first time in his life Jack felt eager to travel within a Cybertronian...

Optimus helped the boy pick up the items that had been dropped and aided the youth in purchasing them. They walked out into the parking lot. Jack shuddered. What if his father was watching him from inside one of the parked cars out here? If he was he couldn't see any sign of him. Maybe the man already left…

He truly relaxed once he was safe and snug inside of Optimus Prime's cabin. He was extremely paranoid now though. His father's threats never left his mind. What was he and his mother going to do now that his abusive dad planned on living in Jasper? What if the creep found out where they lived?!

"Hey Optimus…you don't think he's going to try and follow us do you?"

"No Jack. I'm certain that he won't."

"Really? How do you know?"

"His method of transportation has become quite...unreliable."

"Meaning?" Jack questioned with a wary tone of voice while shooting Optimus's dashboard a curious stare.

His cell phone chimed at that moment alerting him to the fact that he had a text message. Actually it turned out to be a picture.

There was Demetri Darby standing next to a white pick-up truck on the side of a road screaming at the heavens in absolute fury…

"What the…" Jack squinted to get a better look and slightly enlarged the image to see what the man was so frustrated about. That's when he saw it.

"Optimus…did you have something to do with this?" Jack asked incredulously.

"Perhaps." The Prime refused to elaborate further than that, confirming Jack's innocent query.

There in the photo, all four tires on Demetri's pick-up truck were completely blown out. Yeah…the man wasn't going anywhere.

Jack couldn't hold back a smile and leaned back into his seat, feeling safer than he had in years. The duo drove in companionable silence until the sobering thought finally struck Jack like a wrecking ball.

"Oh crap…I'm going to have to tell my mom that he's back! Optimus…what if…what if my dad finds out where my mom and I live?" Jack fought back tears. "I know that you guys probably can't save us because your job is to protect us from Decepticons and not from other humans…which I can totally understand! I just…I don't know what to do…"

Optimus broke the silence and gave Jack the hope and the comfort that he desperately needed.

"While it is true that our main agenda is to protect and defend you from the Decepticons, we have sworn since the day we met you, Miko, and Rafael that we will guard you from any perceivable threat. I have been sending Ratchet to watch over your mother whenever Arcee is occupied guarding you. However, since meeting Mr. Darby and learning of his volatile nature and extremely questionable interest in you… I have made the decision that I shall guard you Jack, on the days that Arcee cannot."

"What? Really?" Jack sat in shocked wonderment.

It was too good to be true… there had to be a catch though right?

"Optimus, don't you have more important things to do rather than guard duty?"

"When it comes to safeguarding the ones we care most about, they become our first and only priority."

Jack might have imagined it but he could have sworn that he heard an affectionate lilt in Prime's tone of voice…

Soon they rolled to a stop within the Autobot base and Jack hopped out. Optimus Prime transformed and stood up, stretching stiff servos and smiled down at the boy.

"Arcee will guard you tonight. Have no fear."

"Thanks Optimus," Jack smiled.

"Have a pleasant evening, Jack Darby."

"You too."

Optimus retired to his quarters to recharge. Jack was disappointed to find out that Ratchet wasn't currently at the base. No one seemed to know where he went. After the elder teen put the food items away and wished Miko and Raf good-night, Bulkhead drove him home with Arcee in hot pursuit. Arcee pulled up in front of Jack's residence and parked outside on the curb.

Jack being as paranoid as he was, locked every window and every door in his house. He grew more nervous the longer he had to wait for his mother. He thought about ordering pizza but decided against it. It would suck if the delivery driver happened to be his dad.

Finally his mother came home…

-Present Time-

"…and that's pretty much what happened. If it wasn't for Raf's dad I'd be in serious trouble right now…" Jack had to fib a little since he obviously couldn't tell his mother about Optimus. Even if he told her that advanced robotic aliens from a distant planet were here on Earth living in Jasper, she'd never believe him. Luckily his mother had never met Raf's family so had no way of contacting Mr. Esquivel to thank him for allegedly saving her son's life.

June was deeply troubled. How could she keep her son safe from her ex-husband… no, that monster?! He was lurking out there somewhere, probably waiting for the perfect opportunity to attempt a second kidnapping, or worse! The police wouldn't be able to do a damn thing unless something terrible actually happened. At least when she and Jack first moved to Jasper, June made sure their home number and address remained unlisted. That gave her a small, miniscule measure of peace.

"Jack if you see that man again, call the police. In the meantime, be sure to stay in public areas."

"I know mom. Safety in numbers. Lots of witnesses if he tries anything. Don't worry about it, I'll be fine," Jack reassured her with a small smile. Jack was actually feeling a little more confident now that he knew he had Arcee AND Optimus guarding him.

"All right sweetheart. Why don't you go to sleep now, it's late," June spoke softly as she ran a loving hand through Jack's hair.

"Okay mom."

Jack hugged her and wished her good-night.

June got ready for bed. After making sure the house was locked down tight she attempted to go to sleep herself. She planned on having a security system installed in their house the following day.

She said her prayers and then slid into bed and shut off the lamp on her nightstand. June believed in guardian angels. She held on to that faith. She hoped those angels would protect her son. After about three hours of tossing and turning, June finally succumbed to her exhaustion, unaware that their guardian angel was right outside, keeping a faithful vigil over them through the long watches of the night.

TO BE CONTINUED!

Author's Note: I really hope Optimus wasn't too OC but I felt compelled to give Optimus more emotion since in the show there were many times he seemed too detached. So I know I focused a lot on Jack and Optimus in this chapter but if you read the story summary, Jack is a mechanic/inventor and ends up saving Optimus's life later on, which leads to a very PO'd Megatron who orders the hit on Jack's mom in the future, so the two have to get to know each other for the sake of this plot lol. Thanks for reading, reviewing, and adding to alerts and favorites! :D