He was grateful that the roads were empty this late at night, so that he could get where he was going as fast as possible. The sharp pain in his side was getting worse - according to his system diagnostics he wasn't seriously compromised, but that didn't change the fact that his non-critical injury still hurt like hell.

And all he wanted was some time on his own to clear his head. As much as he loved his ragtag team of rookies, after spending 20 years alone on Earth, he noticed feeling overwhelmed after being around others for too long. Unfortunately, he didn't really think about how driving alone down empty roads, far away from his team, made him vulnerable to enemy attacks: not watching out for rogue Deceptacons - even on Earth - was simply reckless. He really should have known better. At least he dealt some serious damage (the Decepticon will most likely have to go into stasislock soon), but was still disappointed they managed to get away.

Just a little further. He couldn't help but notice how much the city had changed in the past 10 years - what used to be garages and grocery shops were now fancy restaurants and health stores. Thankfully he knew her dad's workshop was still in the same place, though she was the one who seemed to be running it now. He found her website a few years ago: she specialised in the restoration of classic cars, and luckily for him the address was still the same the last time he checked.

He didn't know if she had a family or not; generally he had a rule of keeping away from people with families, because he knew his presence carried a certain risk with it. Yes, the war was over and the main Decepticon leaders were all defeated but, as the searing pain in his side reminded him, it was still not the time to completely let down his guard.

As he waits at a red light and tries to remember where he needs to turn right next, Charlie creeps back into his mind. He remembers driving to Brighton Falls somewhere in the mid 90s and seeing Charlie there: she was still his Charlie, but older, more mature, more confident. She was running after a little boy - probably no older than 3 - when a man caught him and picked him up, and gave Charlie a kiss. He wasn't sure how to feel about it: he was so glad to see her happy, but at the same time a sadness washed over him knowing that she had, in a way, outgrown him.

A car horn brings him out of his musings - the light has turned green, and he's holding up probably the only car he's seen on the road the whole evening. His holographic driver gives a little "thank you" wave (he's really not in the mood to deal with road-rage), and he drives off, burying the memory somewhere deep in the back of his mind. He can't think about Charlie now or he's going to lose his nerve.

Finally, her workshop appears as he turns a corner, and he thanks his lucky stars that the lights are on. Which still leaves one problem to solve: how is he going to ring the damn doorbell?

It was almost midnight when she walked through the doors of her apartment, conveniently located atop the workshop. She kicked off her pumps with a sigh of relief and shook a copious amount of glitter out of her hair; whoever said women were the gentler sex had never encountered a bachelorette party in full swing, armed with alcohol and penis-shaped pastries. It was better to bail before things got out of control and one of the annoyed neighbours called the police - if she never saw a cop again, it would be too soon.

She opened the fridge and was greeted by a half-eaten slice of chocolate cake, a few stray grapes still clinging to the stem, and a load of diet soda cans stuffed into the vegetable drawer. Staring at the mostly empty shelves, she absentmindedly picked off a few grapes before grabbing a soda can and shutting the fridge. After a few minutes of spelunking between the cushions, she found the TV remote and plopped down onto the couch belly-first. It was already late but the party-adrenaline was still in her system, so there was no chance of her falling asleep anytime soon. The TV prompted her if she wanted to continue "Vampire Diaries" from where she last left off, and after clicking OK she popped open the soda can, which instantly bubbled over her fingers and onto the cushions. Oh well, that's why she drank diet soda - no sticky residue to clean off when she inevitably spilled it.

The video started playing and she had no idea what was going on - wasn't the main chick dating the brother of the guy she was currently kissing? - but she felt a little rush of excitement when she realised it was one of the smutty episodes. The main characters had just stopped waxing poetic about how they can't live without each other (aren't vampires immortal anyway?) and were about to get down and dirty, when some idiot laid on their car horn right in front of her apartment. She paused the show with a frustrated groan and walked over to the intercom. When the picture came on, there was nobody there - she could only see a faint outline of a car a few meters from the workshop. Figures - asshole couldn't even get out of his car to ring the doorbell like a normal person.

"We're closed! Come back tomorrow morning or call roadside assistance!" You dickhead.

She was on her way back to the couch when the honking started again. Well now she was furious. She clicked the speaker button on the intercom, ready to give this guy a piece of her mind, when she noticed that the car was now driving in front of her workshop on only two wheels. The intercom screen was black-and-white so she couldn't see the colour of the car, but it had two dark racing stripes running from the hood to the trunk.

No, it couldn't be.

Picking up her keys and haphazardly jumping into a pair of boots, she ran down to her workshop and flung the garage doors open as fast as she could. The car quickly drove into the garage and a moment later the familiar sound of whirring and buzzing could be heard as it opened up and transformed.

"Hey, Miki. Long time no see."

He tried to get up, but the sharp pain got worse so he decided to remain in a seated position. Mikaela was just staring at him in shock, not saying a word.

"I'm really sorry about this, Mikaela, I didn't know where else..."

Before he could finish the sentence, she ran up to him and threw her arms around his neck in a strong hug.

"Oh my god, Bumblebee! I thought I'd never see you again!"

Bumblebee chuckled and leaned into the hug, putting a hand on her back.

"It's good to see you too, Miki."