Chapter Text
Warning(s): G, none
Brighton Falls, San Francisco, California
“All it takes is a spark...”
Ten months. It’d been ten months since the day it’d all happened, and sometimes she still couldn’t believe it’d transpired at all. Things had become different anymore. Her room was canvassed in boxes and bins of her things that were either going to storage, or to her new apartment she’d be moving into that was part of the complex she’d be moving into before she started community college. It was still hard to believe it’d been since then.
How much her heart ached with how badly she missed him.
At least she wasn’t totally alone. Memo and she had become best friends, Charlie reflected after kicking off the sheets and trudging her way to her bathroom, Walkman clipped to her waist with Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” playing in the background. Volumed low in case her mother wanted something of her. They’d become close since the incident with the Decepticons and Sector Seven. And like clockwork, they’d be carpooling together in her Corvette and to the boardwalk fairground at Brighton Falls. Just a few more weeks, and it’d be all over.
After changing into her uniform and grabbing a pop-tart she’d nonchalantly placed in the toaster, she went into the garage for the quietest hour of the morning: with Otis sleeping in because of summer break and her mom and stepfather already having commuted to work, she didn’t have much else to truly worry about. That gave her peace to just fiddle around with her car.
“Alright, Dr. Charlie’s in the house. Let’s see what you’ve been up to, Mr. Little Red Corvette,” Charlie teased as she entered the garage, used to talking to it even before Bee had come along. She ambled towards it and hopped over the car door and into the driver’s seat, giving a perfunctory swipe at the dash that had accumulated some dust. “Hm, have you been remembering to keep up with your personal hygiene, sir? That is pretty important.”
Fishing for the car keys affixed to a key-chain and tassel of feathers, she trained it on the ignition but instead received a sharp jolt and a visible spark that caused her to flinch back. “Ow!” she gasped, dropping the keys reflexively and sucking on her finger that stung, hissing between her teeth. “What heck was that for?”
Though, the note of betrayal her voice carried didn’t last long as she instead was resigned to mute shock as an achingly familiar whirring of parts and the clicking and clangor of transformation and emanated and Charlie found herself on the floor as whatever this was carefully deposited her there.
“Hi mom!”
Charlie could only stare in mute shock as a Transformer itself--or, himself?--squatted before her and gave a cheery wave. Made of cutting angles and with mechanical, angelic wings framing him, replete with maroon red armor plating and bright, orange oculars, there was no way she could mistake this being for anything other than what it was.
This was a Transformer. And he was...calling her mom?
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the phone! Slow down, please!” came Charlie’s distressed plea as she held her hands out placatingly. “Hang on, mom ? How did this happen? You can’t--I’ve been working on... you , for years! If you were a Transformer all along, why didn’t we...”
The Transformer’s orange gaze rolled around his sockets as he considered an answer. Sitting down and propping his legs up, hands tapping his armored kneecaps, it made Charlie’s head swim as to who that reminded her of. “It’s probably because one of the parts you used was one of the Allspark fragments. That, and dad probably helped when he was here, too.”
Charlie’s face went completely pale. ”... Dad ?” she squeaked, voice uncharacteristically pitched. She swallowed thickly, a slow flush beginning to burn its way on her cheeks before the Transformer nodded enthusiastically.
“Let’s call him!” There was a burst of static that Charlie recognized as a transmission being broadcast, a bright sting of fear and adrenaline causing her to tremble somewhat. When the brief reception received a small blurb she recognized as Bumblebee’s disjointed voice asking, “Hello?” while the Transformer lit up excitedly. “Hi da--“
Charlie rushed over to the Transformer, halfway scrambled up his knee as she vehemently mouthed for him to cut the transmission, the mecha staring at her in bemusement before it registered and the crackle of Bee’s voice prompted another, “Hello?” before, with an utterly and heartbreakingly crestfallen expression, did he finally cut the feed and Charlie practically slumped to the ground in relief, heart hammering in her chest.
”...Why don’t you want dad to talk to me? Are you ashamed of me?” That hit Charlie in the heart like a jackhammer as she felt guilt tighten in her throat, swallowing down a closing throat as she gingerly reached a hand to cup the Transformer’s cheek, careful not to let metal cut into her hand.
His head lifted somewhat, looking at her hopefully. “No, that’s not it at all. It’s just... I haven’t spoken to Bee in almost a year. I--I don’t even know what he’s doing, or--if he was in the middle of something important. ...Your, um, dad’s , he’s... Fighting the Decepticons. You know who those are, right?” Sighing heavily, she brought their brows together. Mom, huh? Cars were always considered someone’s baby. “The point is, we might have to go. Somewhere where you can be safe. Where we can stick it out and make sure no Decepticons heard you.”
After all, upon closer inspection, she didn’t see an emblem of the Autobots on him. Nor of the Decepticons. Which, while good, meant he was more or less “unclaimed” by either side and impressionable. Not that she was eager to see him embroiled in it. After all, if she was his mom, didn’t that make her responsible to protect her son?
Withdrawing from the embrace a little with a sigh, she smiled reassuringly at him. “Alright, first of all,” she began officiously, extricating herself and bouncing to the ground on the balls of her feet, “we need a name for you. Second, I’ve got some calls to make.”
Without much subtly, the Transformer began paying a dim rendition of Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” on his radio, feigning obliviousness. Charlie laughed. “Alright, how about Little Red?”
“Yeah, Little Red, Little Red!” the Transformer whooped, very satisfied with his moniker.
Charlie couldn’t help but smile fondly. “Alright, you just sit tight. Uh, mom’s gonna make some calls, alright? We’re gonna play hooky this weekend.”
“Okie-dokie, mom!”
Outer city limits, Las Vegas, Nevada
Life had settled into a kind of glad monotony for the Autobots in the past several months. With the American government giving them asylum and anonymity on conditions of commerce in the form of the knowledge they possessed, they worked synergistically in a way that symbiotically benefited one another without raising the possibility of putting weapons in the wrong hands, or their safety to be compromised.
It was tedious at times, but compared to the chaos they’d escaped on Cybertron, this was practically nothing. And if peace meant the luxury of these moments, then he’d be happy to have an infinite amount more.
Maybe it was childish to say so, even ungrateful--but it wasn’t perfect. There was someone he desperately missed. Someone who had given him his spark, and the best part of humanity he could’ve been so lucky to make first contact with.
Maybe it was a good thing she hadn’t known what that meant to a Transformer. It made farewell a little easier, if bittersweet.
Even if he’d give anything to have Charlie Watson back by his side.
However, the morning’s patrol was interrupted by a burst of static, Bumblebee starting from the place he’d been standing sentinel on, a bluff overlooking bleached white salt flats shimmering with mirages and heat in the high noon sun. Another burst of static, then a garbled, “ Hi da-- ” and someone hissing at the voice to cease talking.
Charlie.
Sparks of both deep affection rumbled through the Autobot’s core before being replaced by a tight constriction of anxiety. Behind him, he could hear the revving of a truck’s engine before Optimus transformed into himself and assessed the younger Autobot sagely. “That signal isn’t one of ours, Bee.”
Bumblebee nodded gravely. “It’s not one of the Decepticons, either,” he said in his tumult of tones, each voice portraying the worry for Charlie that was proliferating his being.
“We can’t know that for sure, Bee. Even if we have the planet Earth under our guard, we can only do so much. Even I don’t understand how a Transformer slipped through the cracks. Or how it traced on to your signal,” Optimus reasoned, folding his arms thoughtfully. On the backdrop of the blanched desert, they stood out sorely. “But, it’s a potential threat nevertheless. One we can’t afford to allow to pose a risk to the humans. Have you managed to track its signal, Bumblebee?”
“Hold on,” the lieutenant said, eyes closing as his UI engaged and a virtual spectrum arose, scrying through the maps they’d made of the earth. Though, once he honed on the signal, Bumblebee’s shoulders sagged in visible disbelief. ”...Brighton Falls. It says it’s coming from Brighton Falls.” The disbelief was palpable, that clout of worry only seeming to flourish.
“Scout ahead for us, Bee. You know what to do.”
He didn’t need another word of encouragement more as he transformed into his signature yellow Camaro and sped off with engines revving at considerably high speeds.