A/N: So I've now decided that I'm going to be alternating between POVs and this chapter is going to be from Prowl's perspective! Hope you guys don't mind! Xxxxxxx


Prowl had not been happy when Blackout died.

He hadn't been particularly devastated either.

Due to their respective positions, they had both had to work together a fair amount during the short time that Prowl had been promoted to head of tactics. And during that time they often come to disagreements. Then again Prowl did tend to have disagreements with most people.

Still Prowl couldn't deny that Blackout had been excellent at her job and that her loss was a devastating blow to their command structure. He was sorry to hear the news of her passing by the hand of Megatron.

Unfortunately the Autobots didn't have the luxury of wasting time to mourn so Optimus Prime had appointed a new head of Special Operations barely a week after Blackout's passing.

There was only two real options for Blackout's replacement and of the two, the one Prowl had voted for was not the one to have been selected. He did have to concede that the one Optimus had chosen did have more experience, even if he had more infringements of subordination and disregard for rules, which Prowl did raise concern over. Ultimately it was decided that the mech's skills outweighed his infringements and thus Jazz was appointed as their new head of special operations.

Now Prowl was not one who cared about appearances. As long as you were presentable and did your job then he could not care less what a mech looked like. Therefore his embedded battle computer did not deem it necessary to search for an image of this Jazz when debating their merits. Something that Prowl now intended to rectify in the future as he recognised the mech standing- no leaning- in front of him.

" You ." Prowl stated, his usually monotone voice ice cold.

"Hey officer." Jazz grinned, infuriating him even further.

"Optimus I must inform you that before I attempted multiple arrests on this mech." Prowl stated, turning his attention to the Prime.

"But ya didn't!" Jazz retorted, mocking the fact that he never actually managed to slap a pair of cuffs on him.

"That does not change the fact that he is a criminal."

"A criminal?!" Red Alert shrieked, having now tuned into the conversation. At least someone was taking Prowl's concerns seriously.

"Oh come on, most of those were for busking without a licence."

"And for aggravated assault of an officer." The scar under his forearm plating burned with the reminder. Prowl turned his attention back to the mech, who's grin now had an edge to it that wasn't there before.

"Hey we're all enemies of the state now pal."

"Jazz is right." Optimus interceded before Prowl could argue back. "From the moment all of you joined the Autobots you broke the law. Regardless, our past is in the past. What matters now is how we chose to help others."

"But-"

"If it is Jazz's character that you still question then I can assure you that he has my personal trust."

That hardly settled Prowl's plating. The entire reason he quit the force in the first place was because of those in power only giving it to their friends.

Jazz must've realised the implications of those words too as his grin briefly fell into a cringe. It soon returned though as Optimus continued the meeting, going over the logistics of transferring Blackout's previous responsibilities to their new head of Spec opps.

Prowl ignored Jazz's optics on him not wanting to allow himself to be further goaded into a confrontation. Instead he kept his own eyes focused entirely on Optimus briefing as they all should have been doing.

When the meeting was over, Prowl saw Jazz heading straight for him, but Prowl did not have time for his petty grievances. Unlike some people he took his responsibilities seriously.

He marched straight off to his office where Sideswipe was still scrubbing graffiti (if you could call the colourful depiction of what Superion was doing to Megatron graffiti) from the door.

"Is it true you got into a fight with Jazz?" Sideswipe asked, prodding him with the end of the brush instead of cleaning with it.

Prowl pushed past him, resisting the urge to groan. One day he was going to find out whoever was responding for spreading gossip on this ship and give them a punishment even then twins would deem to be too far.

"Scrub." Prowl told him. But Sideswipe had never been one to listen to authority.

"How'd you even get Jazz into a fight anyways? He's like the chillest guy around! He's the only one who doesn't get mad at me and Sunny's pranks."

That hardly put more faith into Prowl's assessment of Jazz.

"Fetch your twin to clean up the rest." Prowl ordered, knowing Sunstreaker wouldn't care enough to pester him about pointless gossip.

Sideswipe wasn't going to argue with getting let out of his punishment early and changed into a lamborghini in his haste to speed down the corridor.

Prowl shut the door behind him, putting the new datafiles from the meeting into order on his shelf when he heard a knock.

Assuming it was Sunstreaker reporting for punishment, Prowl opened the door.

"We need to talk." Jazz said, the grin on his face in contrast to the seriousness of his words.

Prowl tried to slam the door shut but Jazz had once again weaponised the art of leaning, using the curves of his black and white frame to keep the door open.

"Look I'm sorry for giving you the run-around all those years ago. But in my defence I did not want to go to prison." Jazz grinned.

Prowl was one more snarky comment away from called security.

Jazz must've seen that in his face as in a blink that grin of his had vanished.

"In all seriousness, we both know that OP-

" Optimus Prime "

"- ain't the type to promote someone just because we're mates. You really think the only reason he chose Ratchet as CMO is because they're BFFs and not that he's the best medic still alive?"

It was hard to argue that Ratchet did not deserve his position. However one example was not an adequate sample size to prove results. Plus Prowl's issue was not with Optimus. It was with the bot standing in front of him.

"Obviously we've gotten off on the wrong foot. Maybe we can start over? What do ya say? Friends?" Jazz asked, stepping out of the doorway with his hands held up in peace.

Prowl shut the door in his face.