Disclaimer: Hasbro still owns Transformers.

Chapter Nine:

:: … Prowl?:: Bumblebee was in shock as he stared up at the black and white mech. Prowl had been lost in the vastness of the universe. Hadn't he? Even Optimus did not know where he was. Why... why was he here now? Why was Prowl now stopping Bumblebee from going after the accursed Decepticon Barricade?

Bumblebee could not speak any more, couldn't think anymore, his processor working overtime trying to understand what was going on.

:: Yes. What do you think you were doing? You know the laws regarding sentient life forms! Barricade had a human femme within his alt mode and your attempts to kill him directly put her in danger! And you nearly killed the two human children with you! On top of that, you deliberately ignored your superior officer, your Prime, and continued some sort of homicidal mission. Your actions were absolutely intolerable!:: Prowl, the Chief Security Officer of the Special Forces of the Autobots, furiously screamed at the young mech while he kept his weapons aimed at the youngling.

Prowl was not a mech given to yelling.

Prowl was certainly not a mech given to screaming.

Prowl's words could express undeniable anger and fury, but the only time he had ever raised his voice to the level that Bumblebee was now hearing happened only during dire emergencies. For him to yell and scream as he was doing now were Bumblebee's final clue that what he had done was inexcusable.

Bumblebee's faceplate fell as his memory core assaulted him with what he had done. His spark hurt as he remembered. He had placed his charges in danger, and his Guardianship link blazed in pain. He had failed his human charges, had placed them in danger.

He heard again Sam's frantic voice, Mikaela's demands, their screams, and Barricade's furious voice after he had slammed the Decepticon into the concrete barrier.

He whipped his head around to where Sam and Mikaela were hiding on the shoulder of the highway. Sam looked frantic and terrified, and Mikaela's face was full of anger and disappointment. Bumblebee whimpered sorrowfully. His spark ached.

The Guardianship link hurt him even more, reminded him of what he had done, reminded him painfully of his actions that day.

What have I done?

He crawled to his charges as Prowl followed him with his weapons charged, though he no longer felt it necessary to aim them at Bumblebee. For the moment, anyway.

"I am sorry, Sam and Mikaela, for placing you in danger." Bumblebee looked down at the asphalt, shame evident on his metallic features.

Sam stood shakily, and placed his hand on the mech's warm faceplate. His hand was so small compared to the mech. No matter what had happened, Sam knew he could not hold it against Bumblebee. He so rarely heard the mech's voice, as it was usually on the fritz, that he knew that Bumblebee was truly remorseful.

"Bee, don't ever do that again. And your apology is accepted." Sam said softly to his Guardian.

"Well, he's gotta earn my forgiveness." Mikaela huffed, crossing her arms in front of her as she glared at Bumblebee. She was infuriated with what he had done. The mech's eyes had returned to his crystal blue, and the sorrow contained within threatened to spill out of him. Mikaela didn't care, her anger becoming clear.

Mikaela continued, "What the hell were you thinking, Bumblebee? That was a real life human COP, and you just tried to kill her! Yeah, so she was with Barricade, who I know you hate, but Bee, everything you did to him, you did to HER. A HUMAN. Like me and Sam, flesh and blood. Who knows what that last hit did to her! She may not even be alive, I saw that other cop and I heard what Barricade screamed at you. She may be dead! Do you even know what that means for you if she is dead? Optimus will have to offline you permanently and then who knows what Sam will do after that and what the hell were you fucking THINKING?" Mikaela was screaming at this point, pacing back and forth kicking up red dirt as she ranted, her green eyes blazing with rage.

Bumblebee keened softly, the sound conveying pain, grief and guilt at his actions. He knew precisely what Mikaela meant.

"Senior Patrol Officer Maeve McWilliams is not dead, Mikaela Banes and Samuel Witwicky." Prowl spoke in English for the first time, startling Mikaela into silence as both she and Sam looked up at him in surprise. Bee's eyes bore his hopefulness as he stared at the new mech.

This newcomer stood with a mixture of pride and knowledge. Sam instantly warmed to him.

"Well, that's a relief," Sam sighed. Mikaela looked up at the other mech, suspicious, and cocked her head with a confused look on her face.

"Who are you? And how do you know our names?"

"My designation is Prowl. I am the Chief Security Officer of the Autobot Special Forces. The human equivalent of what I do is law enforcement, although my position is closer to a SWAT commander than a patrol officer. I know of you both from the transmissions Optimus Prime has sent to Autobots across the universe." Prowl explained.

Sam noted that although Barricade's and Prowl's alt modes were similar for being law enforcement vehicles, their mech forms were glaringly different. Prowl's facial features were softer, gentler; his optics a deep blue color that reminded Sam of tropical oceans, his hands not consisting of talons but almost human like fingers, thick and almost soft looking in their makeup.

Prowl stood tall, proud, and his patrol vehicle doors stuck out at a stiff angle from the mech's back.

While Barricade and Prowl's similarities were noticeable, their differences were even more evident. Sam knew that he could trust this mech with his very life, while Mikaela hesitated. Everything that she had been through echoed throughout her thoughts. She did not trust this new mech, and she knew that she wouldn't for a long time. She gazed at Sam. Only for him, she knew, she would deal with this new mech.

Bumblebee looked up at Prowl, his faceplate glowing in wonder.

"How long have you been here? Why did you not come to us when you first arrived?" He questioned Prowl, curiosity burning in his optics.

"That is a long story that I will explain at a later time. Bumblebee, you might wish to enable your communications. Optimus is quite unhappy. Especially with you." The white and black mech answered as he stared at something in the distance. "You have an estimated twenty human minutes before Optimus arrives and offlines you himself. I suggest we move to a… less populated environment."

Bumblebee shrank to the ground as much as he could, shuttering his optics as he anticipated the lecture soon to come. Sam just patted his hand affectionately while Mikaela rolled her eyes. She was still infuriated with the mech, no matter how quickly Sam forgave him.

Barricade ran his sirens and lights as he barreled through Tranquility's downtown district, having taken the nearest exit off the freeway. The sun was beginning to set, only just throwing shades of orange, pink and red across the sky.

"How is she?" He demanded of the SWAT unit commander who was nervously checking over Maeve, trying to get her comfortable without exaggerating her injuries. While Barricade could tell her vitals and the severity of her injuries, he could do nothing to help her in his alt form.

"She's breathing, but she's bleeding like hell. I don't know if she has any internal injuries, and if we don't get her to a hospital soon, I don't know what's going to happen," Jack replied in a cold tone as he glared at the dashboard of the Saleen.

The blood running down Maeve's face from her head injuries made a relentless drip-drip-drip sound against Barricade's door frame as Jack held his hand against the gash on her head to suppress the bleeding.

"She has no internal injuries that my scans can pick up. A hospital is out of the question, they will find her there. Any other options?"

Jack sighed, "My house or hers. My wife is a nurse. She can meet us at Maeve's or we go to my home. But I have three kids, and frankly, giant freaking robots with cannons might not be a good idea."

"To Maeve's, then. Is there anyone to watch your children if your wife comes to us?" Barricade's tone was flat, void of emotions. It was a struggle for him to hide his emotions, to hide what he felt about Maeve, from this human. But he knew he had to.

The flat tone, a voice completely void of any emotion, unnerved Jack, but he nodded in assent and quickly called his wife, detailing the situation as best he could without giving much away.

His wife had been speechless when Jack had explained that Maeve's car was an "alien robot car" and wondered if she needed to submit her husband to a mental hospital, but still, after a quick conversation with the neighbors, she quickly secured a babysitter for their three young children.

She let her husband know that she was on her way to Maeve's small house that was outside the edge of Tranquility's city limits.

Barricade headed to Maeve's small adobe home; thankful the area was rural.

When they arrived, Jack's wife Janet was already there, anxiously tapping her fingers against her small sedan that was parked along the side of the dirt road. Barricade pulled into the driveway, hoping against hope that this tiny woman would help his human charge.

"Jack!" Janet hurried to the battered police cruiser as Jack jumped out.

"Holy mother of god, what happened?" Janet exclaimed in horror as she saw the young woman she had grown close with over the years slumped in the passenger seat of the police cruiser, blood everywhere.

Dark purple and black bruises were forming over Maeve's pale Irish skin, giving the appearance of a woman who had just gone through a brutal fight. While Jack had explained only a bit of the situation, Janet did not expect to find Maeve, whom she considered her best friend, on the brink of death.

Janet glanced at her husband, scared.

Jack was searching Maeve's pockets for her house keys and after having found them ran and unlocked the front door, keeping it open behind him as he ran back to Barricade.

"Help me get her in the house, honey," was all Jack said to Janet.

Janet took a deep breath, swallowing her fears, and nodded, her nurse mode kicking in. She checked over Maeve quickly, at least noting that there were no spinal injuries as far she could tell. They had to move her, though, regardless.

Jack grabbed Maeve's upper torso, while Janet lifted her legs, and they carried her as gently as they could into Maeve's home. Barricade shifted uneasily, keeping all his sensors on high alert, scanning the area and road around Maeve's home every five seconds for threats as he also assessed the situation going on inside the house.

The Murphys had moved Maeve to the back living room that looked out onto her large backyard.

Janet gently removed Maeve's blood-stained dark blue uniform button-up shirt, and the Kevlar vest Maeve always wore underneath while on duty, leaving only a bloody white tank top as Janet felt gingerly along Maeve's chest and sides, looking for any abnormalities that indicated internal bleeding, fractures or bone breaks.

Janet couldn't help but notice the large dark purple bruise along the three-inch scar just below Maeve's left collarbone. Janet wondered if she was hallucinating as she watched the bruise grow darker and move slowly closer to Maeve's heart.

Surely, she was seeing things. Janet tried to ignore it as she looked over Maeve, analyzing the young woman's other injuries.

Barricade slowly moved to the backyard, thankful the home didn't have a fence. He didn't care as he left tire marks. He watched anxiously as Jack's wife assessed Maeve's injuries, unable to stop the Cybertronian equivalents of concerned clicks, whirrs and whines that escaped his vocal processors.

Barricade was still surprised at how much his spark ached for the young human woman, and how much pain he was in.

The pain had never stopped since he was hit from Bumblebee. To be honest, a part of him was disgusted at himself and he struggled to stay neutral at the young human woman's plight. She had to survive. She had to, or... Barricade shivered at the ramifications if she died. He tried desperately to ignore the deep pain he felt, which he knew was influenced from the young woman's injuries.

Primus.

He still refused to think of what was occurring, what had caused the Guardianship link to become so pronounced.

He tensed at the sigh Janet gave, a sigh charged with anxiety.

"Is she going to be all right?" Jack whispered, having caught the sigh.

Janet was still for a moment, and then nodded towards her husband. Her face stayed grim, though.

"Yes, but she is going to be in quite a bit of pain when she wakes up. Without hospital equipment I can't tell for sure if she has any fractures or breaks, but her right wrist is almost certainly broken, and at least a couple of ribs. If they aren't broken, they certainly came close. The bruising down her side is worrisome, I can't tell if there is internal bleeding."

A loud huff echoed through the open windows to the backyard.

Jack sighed, "According to him, she has no internal bleeding."

Janet cocked an eyebrow at that.

She continued, "The head injury could mean a concussion, but I won't know that for certain until she wakes up. The bleeding from her head injury is subsiding; superficial head injuries tend to bleed quite a bit anyway. She's going to look like hell for a couple of days, and don't be surprised if she looks akin to a chipmunk in a few hours. The bruising on her face is going to get worse, and I need to keep an eye on the swelling. If what he says is correct, she doesn't have any cranial or internal bleeding, but any massive change of swelling around her head is a cause for concern." She paused, chewing her cheek with anxiety, staring at the woman she called her best friend laying in front of her.

Janet continued, "I will take her to the hospital, Jack, if I feel she is getting worse or if I even suspect internal injuries. She'll need to take it as easy as she can. But she's been through worse. She'll recover if nothing surprising happens, just like she did then."

Husband and wife went silent as they remembered how closely Maeve had come to death six months earlier.

Janet vividly remembered how Maeve had looked when she had come into the emergency room that night.

She remembered how Maeve had screamed, how she had moved about in pain, how the nightmares had hurt her almost as much the injuries. Janet shuddered as she remembered Maeve's nightmares. She would never forget Maeve's haunting screams, or childish chants of how the nightmares had affected her, for many years to come.

Janet knew that these injuries were nothing compared to what had happened before.

They heard the soft sigh from the backyard.

Janet crossed her arms and gave her husband a suspicious glare.

"And who exactly is he? The alien car you were talking about?" Janet asked, an eyebrow raised above her light chocolate eyes. Jack sighed, and gave a lasting glance to Maeve.

"She'll be all right if we go outside?"

"She's stable as much as she can be, and besides we're standing in her living room with no medical supplies to make sure she positively is okay, so yes, dear, she'll be as fine as she can effing get without actual emergency hospital care." Janet replied, sharply.

"Touché," Barricade muttered, just loudly enough for the humans to hear.

Janet exhaled a loud agitated hiss towards the mech in the backyard and then turned to her husband.

"Now, Jack, explain, or I will not be happy." Janet jabbed her finger angrily into her husband's chest. Jack nodded, rubbing his jaw in contemplation, and then motioned for his wife to follow him outside. Barricade sat, still in his alt form, though visibly shaking. From anger or anxiety, Jack couldn't tell. He cleared his throat.

"Hey, uh… what is your name?" Jack asked, a curious look on his face as he stared at the police cruiser.

"My designation is Barricade." Barricade responded shortly.

"Oh, well, um, Barricade, this is my wife, Janet. Care to explain to her what just happened?"

Barricade exhaled noisily in annoyance but gave the Lieutenant's wife a quick and dirty summary.

Janet, for her part, didn't run away screaming as Barricade expected her to. Instead she looked thoughtful and then nodded to herself as if something had just made sense to her. Janet remembered the nightmares Maeve had had. She remembered the screams, the names of the "robots", the horrifying details.

"So, you were at Mission City, then?"

Barricade's alt form stiffened in surprise and his vocal processors squawked indignantly. Primus, how did this human even know about such a thing?

Janet rolled her eyes. "That's what I thought. Maeve had mentioned some rather curious things about Mission City after her little incident last fall. I had attributed her ramblings about 'giant freaking alien robots that killed her family' and a 'big fucking F-22 Raptor nasty jerkoff robot' and 'freakazoid R8 bastard' to drug-induced hysteria, but clearly I was wrong."

Barricade became rigid at the last part of Janet's statement, but neither human noticed.

"So, are you truly a giant alien robot?" Janet's curiosity was getting the best of her as she moved closer to Barricade, staring at him in newfound interest.

"I prefer the term 'mech' as the term robot refers to a being that is inferior to what I truly am, but for your simple human minds, and for the last slaggin' time, yes." Barricade responded irately. He was tired of these organics already.

Janet ignored Barricade's indignation and nodded, looking thoughtful. Barricade watched the femme with curiosity and suspicion as she paced, waiting for her to connect the dots.

Janet stopped pacing, and stared up at Barricade with sorrow-filled eyes. "Wait. So Maeve's family…?"

Barricade and Jack sighed at the same time, Jack's suspicions about Maeve's past floating in his mind.

Jack was still startled by Barricade's sigh, though, his jaw dropping as he whirled around to stare at the Saleen police cruiser. Barricade huffed, his body lifting and sagging on his tires in an imitation of an aggravated human sigh. The humans did not need to hear her story, it was only for Maeve to tell, not him.

"That is a long story that we can save for a later date," Barricade responded indignantly. He caught the annoyed look the Lieutenant gave him, but he ignored it. The two humans did not miss how his vocal processors reflected the stress and pain his very spark felt.

Janet looked crestfallen at the mech's refusal to explain the story in detail, but nodded in acknowledgment. Jack chewed his lip in anxiety, remembering a thought he had had from earlier.

"Uh, Barricade, you said earlier that they could find her if we took her to the hospital. If they can find her at the hospital, wouldn't they be able to find her here? I mean it's not that hard for them to hack in and get her address, right?"

"SLAG IT!"

An ear-piercing blood-curdling scream echoed from inside the house, seemingly to respond to Barricade's angered yell.