NEST Field Commander

    “I worry about those boys that they don’t think an ancient alien race can’t tell apart.” A sigh, then Will ruffled his hair with an eye roll. “At least you’re putting ‘em to good use. But if he, or anyone else, gives you anymore trouble--you let me know.”

♡–||;; It took Donut a full five minutes to realise that he was being spoken to. Whether this was because his head was still fuzzy from dimensional travel, or the fact that he was surrounded by what appeared to be giant walking, talking machines, was uncertain. 

                                    Why didn’t they have those?

           But his head still whipped around, coming to focus on the only fleshy being he’d seen so far, and he actually stuttered for a moment, a quick “ex–excuse me”,  then he looked down. He half-expected his armour to be missing, but found it firmly in place. 

    Oh, God. He knew this wasn’t going to end well, and he didn’t have the patience for this nonsense today. His back straightened, “listen, soldier, no time for this shit,” he said, waving off the pink armored stranger. “we’ve got Decepticon activity and we’ll figure out punishment after.”

“I don mind she’s gettin’ big now. She’s still Belle, I’ll always love her. She’s jus’ a l'l Sweetspark.” Truth be told, he saw his own kids in her. She just had a joy for the world, saw all the good, never the bad. She was just what he needed to be around. To remind him that not everything was horrible.

    Anger melted away completely and Will slumped in the seat. “You say that now, wait until she’s older and she thinks she knows everything. She’ll be mischievous for a long time, then she’ll get to that teenage stage...” he trailed off of the halfhearted warning; they were the strangest family he’d ever been apart of, and it worked in its own way. 

How did mates understand each other then? Sarah and William seemed to understand one another pretty well…. But they still fought a decent amount. Of course, Ironhide was something they seemed to argue about a good bit when he first started coming to the house. Sarah didn’t seem to like having a robot living in the garage.

    It had been a little rough since Ironhide had shown up, Will wouldn’t deny it. Sarah, who liked Ironhide well enough, didn’t necessarily completely trust a massive, metal alien with their child all the time. And it got worse one night when Annabelle had called Ironhide ‘da’ during a play date, which Will had thought hilarious but Sarah not. 

    Still, they powered through the differences and they both tried to meet in the middle. 

    “Sorry about the noise,” he blurted out before he could stop himself, chalking it up to the arguments that the couple had had a few nights previous, when Annabelle wouldn’t go to sleep without saying goodnight to the alien in the garage. “Annabelle’s getting kind of big now, and mischievous... just wanted to make sure that she’s not... bothering you. That you don’t think you have to stay there.” 

    “Most of the humans you’ve probably ran into. Unless they’re--you know, the fancy ones that you don’t really want to look in the eye.” He maybe a bit bitter about a mess involving one of those fellas and blaming Autobot misbehavior on him. Like they didn’t know that Autobots had minds of their own. 

It was a quiet day, almost peaceful and serene with a breeze coming in through the window and the tv as background noise…

“INCOMING!”

    Will had seen many of things in life, particularly after Mission City, but spherical drones colliding with desks--out of nowhere at that--were not one of them. He jerked in surprise--probably more from the shouting than the actual drone--and pushed away from the desk. 

    The first thought, as he rose to his feet and took a few steps back, had been some wild Decepticon plot but-- 

And there was that one awkward moment when he sneezed while in his alt mode….

Poor Epps. Never looked so scared.

    And sure enough, when he pulled out his cell and made the call, he got voicemail and he left one, short and business like. He hung up without much thought and pocketed the phone, leaning back against the seat.

    “That’s supposed to be punishment. I’d ask what you did to get that position permanently, but really, it’s not my business and it’ll be on your record.” After gesturing with a hand at the bot, he grinned, “Will’s fine. Just don’t go around using it around the higher ups. They get a little pissy about things.Being too friendly with the aliens happens to be one of those things.”

Not to mention on the short list of humans that knew about Cybertronians, William Lennox wasn’t one of them.  >>How do you know about Cybertronians?<<

Should he press the matter?

    Through the frustration came a small moment of confusion when the passenger seat was taken, but he redirected quickly and opened the driver’s side. “Nothing. If anyone comm’s you, we’re on a mission,” he grumbled as he climbed up inside, then closed the door. Miraculously without slamming it. 

    Someone had tried to explain to him that dragging an alien home with him wasn’t exactly keeping the aliens a secret. Especially with a child at home. Angry words had been thrown back and forth, and there was something way to smug about the other guy.