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Jack didn't know what to do with Cody.
The boy was sitting on the couch, watching some TV movie while eating some goldfish. His jacket, which looked to be a size too small for him, was on his lap. He played with the fleece lining, picking lint out of the edges.
It seemed odd. The mark of a forgetful fourteen year old boy, a small nususice for Heatwave, became a security blanket for a sixteen year old that had lost everything. The coat had been replaced by an oversized green zip up jacket that he wore everywhere. Unlike the brown coat, he let the green one be washed frequently.
Jack had heard about the burning of Griffin Rock fire station and the deaths of Cody's family from the bots when they didn't think he was listening.
Cody was… different. According to Optimus, he had been living with the rescue bots with very minimal human contact outside of doctor visits and a few friends from before the accident for almost a year now. It showed. His body language had changed. It was bigger, more exaggerated and precise.
He was younger than Jack, but had already gotten his GED. He told Jack that Heatwave had insisted that he graduated as soon as he could. Though the bots would take over in terms of work and making money, Heatwave saw graduating as a goalpost of being healthy again. It took him almost two years, but both he and Jack had graduated a month prior. The trip to Nevada was supposed to be a reward for graduating for Cody, and a fresh start for everyone. Optimus told him and Miko to be nice to him and not pry for information, and it was implied that if Cody was showing improvements by the end of the trip, they may permanently relocate.
He walked behind Cody, who Heatwave had dropped on the old couch by the TV, and tapped him on the shoulder. Surprisingly, Cody looked up instead of behind him.
Jack couldn't help but laugh. "Dude, I am right behind you."
Cody turned around, his big purple eye bags betraying the overall lack of sleep over the past two years. "Sorry about that, i thought one of the bots wanted to pick me up."
"Why would you think that?" Jack said, looking confused.
"To be fair, I am used to bots either smothering me and not letting me walk around, or having to yell like, eight times for help." Cody said sheepishly, pointing to Blades and Boulder respectively.
"Really? Boulder's the distracted one?" Jack said.
"He's thrown himself into work and painting and all that. Besides, Blades and Heatwave do enough mother henning to make up for it. Heatwave's softened up a lot after Chase died."
"I don't mean to pry, but who's Chase?" Raf asked. He hadn't eavesdropped as much as Miko and Jack.
"Chase was the police car of the bunch. You seen how each of them have a different first responder vehicle alt? He was transporting my dad and older brother when he crashed, killing the three of them." Cody said. He looked guarded, his voice wavering.
"Didn't Optimus tell us that you had three siblings?" Miko said, ignoring Cody's guarded answer.
"Yes, I did. They all died, my sister and younger brother in the fire that made me and the rescue bots homeless, and my father and oldest brother in the crash that killed Chase. Little reminder that it hasn't been long since I lost all of them."
Miko, at least, looked a little ashamed of herself. "I am sorry for your loss." She said, looking at the ground.
Cody smiled. "It's okay."
Boulder watched the four children talk. Today was already a rough day. The second anniversary of Chase's death was today, and he and Heatwave just wanted to be away from the island for the day. Blades didn't want to be alone, and the Greenes' house was ill equipped for Cody's infrequent but still explosive meltdowns.
The Greenes knew Cody really couldn't help it, he had triggers that faded in and out of relevancy and intensity all the time, but it wasn't fair to have them lockdown every part of the house on short notice whenever the bots needed a break from caring for him.
Boulder rifled through the pictures stored in his comm. He found one of the four of them, taken by Chief and sent to him after the fact.
It was the four bots, one or two pints of engex in, on some Cybertronian holiday of some sort. He didn't quite remember that night, mostly due to the engex. They were all smiling, sitting against the wall on a line of crates. The window behind them showed a full moon and a sky full of stars.
Like it or not, they had made a home on Griffin Rock, and as much as he pained to admit it, staying there after Chase's death felt like torture.
The humans around him were all well meaning and kind, setting up vigils at the bend in the road he died on and at the remains of the firehouse. The official story was that Kade and Chief had died in the crash, and a gas leak at the firehouse had taken Dani and Graham. The Greenes had testified that Cody had slept over at their house the night everything had gone down, and to his horror, Cody seemed to accept that too. He never talked about the lab, and Heatwave was always concerned that he had wiped his memory somehow. However, Heatwave had never seen the nightmares that gripped Cody at night. It got bad enough that Boulder had put a baby monitor near Cody every night in order to keep track of them.
It disturbed Boulder how fast Cody accepted it as part of his new routine.
And that was another thing. Cody was now really insistent on following a routine. The chronically late, go-with-flow boy Boulder had met three years ago was gone, leaving behind this broken, but still mendable, boy behind.
The radar alarm for a Decepticon incursion rang, and Cody cupped his hands over his ears as the beeping rang out. He looked around frantically for a threat, relaxing as Ratchet turned it off.
"False alarm, everyone. I hit a button by accident."
Heatwave came over to the kids, concerned.
"You okay Cody? That was very loud."
"It's fine. Could you put this back?" He asked, putting his brown jacket in Heatwave's outstretched hand.
Heatwave frowned."Don't you want it? You looked comfortable with it."
"No, you can have it." Cody said, the small, sing-song voice he used out of place with his shaking hands and raised heart rate.
"Cody? Cody, do you want to sit in my cab for a bit?"
"No." He said in a small voice.
"Well, I think you should. It's actually a bit cold out here. At least use a blanket. Jack, could you take it? It's folded on my passenger seat."
Jack grunted as he picked up the heavy weighted blanket. Cody took it, and draped it loosely around his body. He seemed to settle back down after that, even closing his eyes and laying down fully on the couch.
Heatwave gave Jack the camera patt of the baby monitor. "Set this on the TV stand with the camera facing him please. He won't be left alone, but I still want to keep an eye on him."
Jack looked confused but still put the camera where Heatwave indicated was a good spot.
Ratchet opened a space bridge to let Optimus and Arcee return from patrol. Instead of the normal slow strides, Optimus rushed in with Arcee held in his arms, a sharp piece of rock impeded in her shoulder. She was out cold, a nasty looking dent on the side of her head.
"What happened? " Ratchet said, rushing to prepare his supplies.
"Rockslide in the middle of the mountains while on patrol. No one was hurt except her." Optimus slung her onto a medical bed, Heatwave already putting Cody into his cab.
Cody didn't really have the brainpower to care, still shaking off the effects of the alarm.
Unfortunately for him, another went off, this one for MECH.
He shrieked and covered his ears.
"Heatwave, give Cody to Boulder and roll out. We are down a spark, and you're the only bot in your squad with war build level armor." Optimus said, handing him a war ax.
Heatwave removed his ladder and replaced it with the ax, fastened it to his back. He took Cody from his cab, handing him to Blades, who put him on the couch. He went on a quiet fly, aways just on the edge of flight sickness.
Boulder was getting the quick version of how to use the ground bridge from Ratchet. He was going to visit his nephew, since Arcee was fine. She would need a few days of rest, and would likely be out for the rest of the day.
A while later, a portal opened, and Cody saw Silas slink into the base, sneaking up on a unsuspecting Miko, who was jaming on her guitar. Boulder had left to look for material for repairs in the storeroom, leaving them alone. He had left Cody in a pile of blankets in a quiet part of the base.
Cody struggled to get out of the pile of blankets as Miko noticed the man.
She tackled him, wrestling the gun out of its holster and kicking it towards Cody. Jack and Raf were frozen where they stood, Raf on Ratchet's computer. Jack was up on the loft, too far away to be much help. Blades was outside, getting fresh air.
Silas grabbed her, using her as a human shield.
Cody grabbed the gun, and, in a display of gun safety that would have Police Chief Charlie Burns rolling in his grave, didn't even check to see if the safety was on before pulling the trigger. By some miracle, the bullet actually hit Silas.
Boulder heard the gunshot, and ran back to the main room to see Cody's shaky hands holding a smoking gun, his wild eyes wide and frantic. He set the gun down and kicked it away from him, rushing to Miko. Besides the blood from Silas and sprained wrist, she was fine. Silas hadn't broken her arm, but the bruises were going to be every color of the rainbow before they faded.
Boulder took both the teens, dumping them into his backseat and tinting his glass windows further.
Silas moaned as he covered the bullet in his shoulder.
Boulder set the kids in his cab and scruffed the injured man like he was a kitten.
"Optimus, the kids found the terrorist that you were looking for. They are fine, but Cody shot him in the shoulder."
The sounds of Ratchet squawking could be heard over the comms. "I visit my nephew for one day and you geniuses manage to pin down and shoot Silas."
"Yep, that's my brother!" Bulkhead said, his smile audible over the comms.
Boulder set Silas on the gurney, and ground bridged the rest of the team. June begrudgingly kept Silas from bleeding out, but did slap him for putting Miko in a headlock.
Fowler was more than happy to arrest Silas for treason, loading him into Bulkhead and having Boulder ground bridge him to NEST.
Heatwave gave the ax back to Optimus and picked up Cody.
Tonight, Cody wouldn't be sleeping enough.