He was balancing on his sword anymore. He was sitting with his legs folded and his servos were in some meditative position.

I almost didn't want to disturb him. But if I don't talk to him soon Cade will nag at me about it for practically the rest of my days.

Or his days anyway.

Humans only last one hundred years, don't they? Or somewhere around there? I can't remember.

I've seen many die at a younger age than 100. Some in their 90s. Some in their 20s. Some only in their first few seconds.

"How much trouble would I be in if I said you were a piece of Drift Wood instead of calling you by your actual designation?" It was all I could think of to say.

He took in a deep breath. "Your designation would be grounded, Ryanna." His optics shot open at his words. He looked down at me and jumped, falling off of the car he was sitting on and onto his back on the ground.

I winced as he got back on his pede. He just stared at me as if he was seeing some sort of ghost. 

I couldn't tell if he was mad or least relieved. He was just staring... If anything, not through me, at least.

"You came home,"

I nodded slightly. "Yeah. I guess I did."

I felt a cold chill go over me.

"And you're getting sick."

I knew he would point out my hair. "No, I'm fine."

"You said the same thing before you left."

"Yeah. And I'm still not sick."

He just sighed slightly. "At least you're home. Safe."

"For now. There's no telling when they'll figure out where we are."

"We are well hidden. You don't need to worry.".

"I don't? Then what happened with you and breaking your cover?" I crossed my arms. My bullshit meter was off the chart at the moment. I don't know why I haven't just walked out of the junkyard by now.

He sighed. "Yeager told you about that."

"Yeah. What the hell, Drift? Out cover is the closest we have to protection right now. Cade's only so much of a badass."

"Believe me, I know. What I did was wrong."

"Why? And it better be good. I honestly don't care if you lie at this point."

He sighed. "There were vehicles from the Reaction Force all around us. They were searching for something. We were all uneasy. I had Cade in the Driver side, and an officer came up to the window. They spoke, then the guns were aimed in our direction. I snapped."

"So you were defending Cade?"

"And myself. You know I don't take lightly to a weapon being aimed at me."

"That isn't a reason to blow cover. They thought it was just Cade. When you broke cover they got an ID on you. Hell, I could go on the website for the CIA's most wanted and your faceplate would be the first one on there next to Cade's. You need to keep your temper under control. You're not Deadlock anymore. Bots don't usually have a temper like yours. I think the only other Bot that I remember having one besides Crosshairs and you was Ironhide, but he knew how to keep himself calm. You need to work on that. If I have to become Red Alert the counselor, I will. And I don't want to, honestly, because I hated sitting in his sessions. You get what I'm saying?"

He nodded. I saw his optics soften again.

At least he listened.

"Good. I'm gonna go talk to Cade, see if I can lower your ranking on the Shit List. Just be ready for tonight. Last I heard from Bee it's clean up night."

He nodded and picked up his sword, brushing it off. "Ryahanae."

I froze. No one has called me that in so long. "Yes?" I was preparing for a lecture.

"Welcome home."

. . . . .

I walked through the glass siding doors, waving the smoke out of my face. "Hey, Cade, did the Mini-Rex finally breathe his fire?" I stopped when I saw a girl with incredibly tanned skin and dark brown hair staring straight at me.

The same girl from the blocked off area in Chicago.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I ask.

"You first." She snaps.

"I live here."

She looks around. "It's a sad place to live."

"Okay, you better watch yourself. I might look young to you but I have a shit ton of authority here. I can have a cap in your ass in two seconds flat. You got that?"

She looked to the recliner. "You gonna let her threaten me?"

"Yeah. She's allowed to." Cade answers.

I pushed past her and around to the other side of the recliner to face him. "You wanna explain or am I literally popping a cap in her ass?"

"Her? That's Izabella. 'With a Z.'" He made quotes with his fingers. "And she's not staying. She's leaving tomorrow morning. If she's still here and it's after twelve, then you can pop a cap in her ass."

I heard her scoff.

"She's not sleeping in my bed."

"I know. She can take one of the cars. The backseat should be comfy."

She rolled her eyes and walked out.

"Why is she even here?"

He just shrugged. "I dunno. Hey can you hand me one of the blue bottles, please?"

"I've been here long enough to know what beer is, Cade." I walked over to the mini fridge and pulled out one of the beer bottles. I handed it to him just as Mini-Grim (it's what I've been calling him) jumped onto my feet, looking up at me with practically wonder in his eyes.

"Hi, handsome!" I say in a higher pitched voice, carefully picking him up. "Did you miss Mommy? Yeah? Are you so happy Mommy's home?"

I heard him squeak and a little bit of fire shot out of his mouth. I moved my head back to avoid it. "Oh, good boy! You're gonna have to do that outside, though. You'll make a fire hazard, yeah!"

He squeaked and I sat him down. Mini-Strafe landed himself in my hair and I carefully untangled his claws from my curls, holding him and pulling him down to face me. "Oh, Mommy didn't forget about you, either. Where's Cade? Huh? Where's Cade? Can you find Cade?"

He cawwed and took off, landing in Cade's hair. He didn't move, but he smirked.

"There he is!"

Strafe just looked proud of himself.

"By the way, I absolutely love cleaning up the mess you made with the Bots. It's a great homecoming gift, man." I say to Cade.

He rolled his eyes. "I'm guessing you talked to Drift."

"Yeah. I've told you a million times he doesn't have that switch in his processor yet, Cade. He was trained a Decepticon. His instinct is to fight. You're lucky he didn't snap as soon as the soldier knocked on his window."

"I had it under control. His temper said otherwise."

"So you weren't about to get arrested? Like usual?"

He didn't say anything.

"Don't lie to a girl, Cade. Especially me. I find out things one way or another."

"Alright, alright. I'll ease up a little on him. But he's still in trouble."

I roll my eyes. "Whatever."

I got up off the couch and walked out the doors. "Clean up is in an hour, Cade. I want them clean before the sun goes down."

"Yeah."

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