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“Thanks again for doing this, Knockout.” June set her purse down on the passenger seat and reached for the seat belt as the former Decepticon grumbled in response. “Seriously, I know you don’t like any of us humans enough to play taxi, so it means a lot.”
“Well.” Knockout revved his engine once she was buckled in and pulled out of the parking lot at a speed June chose not to mention was highly illegal. “You try saying no to Optimus when he’s giving you that disappointed look.”
“I’m a mother. His disappointed looks don’t scare me.”
“You’ve clearly never been the target of one, then.” Knockout slowed down suddenly as they approached a streetlight, and a large crowd of humans in the road. “Oh, this doesn’t look good.”
“No, it doesn’t,” she agreed, frowning. Then the people, protesters she realized after a moment, started approaching them.
Knockout revved his engine. June reached for her phone.
A sign was slammed against Knockout’s side window, making her jump. Aliens go home!! it read, with pictures of Megatron and Optimus both marked out by large red Xs.
“Back off!” Knockout yelled, forcing some of the protesters back a few steps through sheer volume. June hit the emergency call button that Ratchet had built into her phone.
One of the protestors, either braver or stupider than the others, rushed back up Knockout’s side and upended a can of paint, tossing it across his hood and windshield.
Knockout shrieked with fury. June opened his door and slammed it into the protestor, knocking them away. Behind them, police sirens whooped.
-_-_-_-
“I can’t believe I am bailing you out of jail,” Miko chirped at her as June signed the paperwork that would let her leave, though she still had to appear in court in two weeks. “I thought you and Jack were the responsible ones.”
“What was I supposed to do?” She asked wearily as she and Miko turned toward the door. “Just let them keep assaulting Knockout?”
“I’m just saying,” Miko grinned, “That if anyone was going to bail anyone out, then you should have been bailing me and Jackie out.”
“Miko, you know I love you dearly, but no judge with a single bit of sense would set bail for you or Wheeljack.”
“Yeah, probably not.” They stepped out into the morning sun, where Ratchet and Knockout were parked at the curb. “Oh good, Knock’s out too!”
“Good.” June went down the steps quickly and walked to Knockout’s side. “You all right, Knockout?”
“Hardly.” He opened his passenger door, indicating she should climb in. “My overnight accommodations were atrocious, I am still covered in interior latex paint, and I got lectured by Optimus, Ratchet and Soundwave, and I would not have wished that on anyone but Unicron himself. Thank you, though. For defending me.”
“Anytime.” She smiled as he closed the door in Miko’s face and made a point of locking it, just to underscore that the young woman would not be riding back with them. “Unless you go back to that whole dissecting humans bit.”
“That was one time!” Knockout protested. Then he pulled away from the curb in a maneuver that Ratchet could never have replicated and sped down the road before the former Autobot had a hope of catching up.
They both had an appointment with the shower when they got home, and maybe a little more getting to know each other than they’d managed before.