by Sigma Vortex » Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:39 pm
Chapter 19
Everything before this point in this chapter is simply too racy to post. If you want to read it, go to my page at FanFiction.net and read the unedited version there.
Meanwhile, back at the med-bay...
Five tense seconds had gone by after Chromia locked Prime and Ellie into the room built for dangerous patients. Five seconds of silence before the walls exploded with the yells and screams of two very angry Autobots. Ellie had come to her senses first and started pounding on the door with her fists. The act was futile, the doors, walls and even floor and ceiling were constructed to keep the occupant in. It was made from the same material as the inside of WheelJack's lab and would not crumble for anything less than a nuclear explosion.
Prime's more authoritative threats had followed, promising Chromia would spend at least a vorn in solitary confinement when he got out. This had been met with snickers and out right laughter at the look on Chromia's face. When she had devised her plan, she had not figured that either party would not be keen on spending some time together. 'Well,' Chromia thought. 'we can fix that.' The devious smile returning to her face. She walked up to the door and knocked on the metal to get the two occupants to quiet down. "I am not letting you two out any time soon." This had been met with more shouts and threats, including Ellie threatening to take Optimus by the ankles and using his head as a battering ram.
Prime had promptly let her know that he was not going to tolerate that for one second, his dead pan voice making making the femme locked inside with him laugh. "I am not letting you two out," Chromia continued. "until I hear some 'Autobot Luvin'', as Sam likes to describe it." Silence answered her. Chromia liked to imagine that the two occupants were sharing an 'Oh Frag' moment, staring each other down as though to dare the other to try anything. "Not in the mood? That's alright, I've got lots of time," Chromia cackled as she left the med-bay, screams and curses following her all the way out.
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The two occupants stared each other down, not sure if moving would be the best of ideas. The room was only big enough for Optimus to stand upright in, he could only raise his arms three-quarters of the way up before his wrists hit the walls. Ellie was in a similarly precarious position. The length of the room gave her a great vantage point to pick out every detail in Optimus' face while standing as far as she could from him. The room was proportionately the size of a human prison cell without the benefit of windows or a toilet. The only thing in the room was a low narrow recharge berth with all the comfort of sleeping on a bed of scouring pads. There was only one door with a small opening used to deliver sustenance to the occupants.
Ellie crossed her arms over her chest, huffing and looking away from Optimus trying desperately not to look at the Autobot leader. She would rather have had Chromia drop the matter instead of resorting to these kind of drastic measures. Of all the confidence Ellie had, this was one part of her life that she had little real experience. Sure she had had boyfriends and lovers, but what she always suspected was that most of her relationships were started because the boy had pity for her. She had always resented being seen as a charity case, and it was hard not to see this as a charity case. Chromia, in Ellie's opinion, was feeling sorry for her and trying desperately to set her up with someone who wanted nothing to do with her in that way. She was simply unaware of herself as a whole
Optimus observed the femme standing across from him, leaning against the far wall as he assumed the same posture. Ellie was an interesting puzzle, and now that Prime had time to figure it out he set his processor to it. She had the fighting prowess to have IronHide limping into the med-bay with a heaping serving of 'crow', yet she seemed totally out of her element right now. She was doing her best to avoid optic contact, even going so far as to off-line her optics when they got close to his. She had spirit enough to be mistaken for IronHide's own offspring, but right now, Prime could swear she was treating him as though he was off limits. Optimus' head inclined in understanding. He sighed, perhaps he had been acting unreasonable. It had been a very long time. "I am sorry."
"Que?" Ellie's left optical guard rose, forgetting herself as she looked directly into Prime's optics. The two stared at each other for a full minute before both shook themselves out of it. As far as Ellie was concerned, that was a dirty rotten trick. "What ever for?" She gritted her jaw, willing herself not to cuff the mech upside his head.
Prime steeled himself, realizing that he was only a hair's breath from getting the slag kicked out of him. "For avoiding you. I suppose I should have explained myself and let you make the decision."
"What the hell are you talking about?" The blank look on her face spoke volumes as to how much she knew about the situation.
Now it was Optimus' turn to have the blank look. This was not going as smoothly as he had expected. Though he should have expected as much with a femme who was so not subtle she used another mech as a bludgeon to deter the affections of a mech she had no feelings for. At least she had no desire for mind games, she simply did not know what was going on. Optimus stepped closer, watching Ellie tense up, her optics watching him as he stepped close enough for her to have to crane her neck to look him in the face.
This close together, their sparks were literally trying to lunge out of their casings toward each other. It was a but uncomfortable for Optimus, but he knew it was down right frightening for Ellie. "Do you feel the pull," he asked, sighing as Ellie nodded once. "That is the pull of a spark bond, something very rare for my...our kind." Ellie made a noise that almost sounded like a gulp, showing just how painful it was getting being this close yet so far away. "It is not something one chooses. I had been afraid the others would look down on this because I perceived you as much younger than I."
Ellie was only half paying attention to Prime's words, instead trying like hell to keep from screaming. There was only so much of this she could take before she did something stupid. A part of her wanted nothing more than to pull Prime closer to relieve the pain of being so far away. The other part of her wanted to raise her cannons and just start shooting. As a military girl, she was always taught to be in control of herself in any given situation, to always keep an eye open for suspicious behavior and keep the exit at her back and nothing between her and it. Ellie's parents had pounded into her head the importance of having contingency plans already in place before a situation got out of control. Control was the buzz word in the Murdock household. Always be in control, never let anyone take that away.
Right now she had no control over what she was feeling, or over her own movement. She wanted to push Optimus away from her with all her strength, but only half heartedly. She knew she had been interested in the Autobot leader from the time he had come to check on her after her and the others transformations. She had a little more than a passing interest, but she wanted it to happen on her terms. She wanted to be the one to make the move, she had always made the moves. Whether it was to steal a kiss on her first date or using the rock to sever the fuel line in Thundercracker's foot, Ellie was used to being the one in control. She was no where near in control as Optimus lowered his head, touching his forehead to hers. It was more like touching the front of their helmets, but there was no difference between their armor and skin, the gesture would have felt the same.
The tension in Ellie's shoulders drained, her mind calming as she looked into Prime's optics. She was still nervous, but it didn't have the sharpness that gave her the need to either fight or run. There were no more words, at least none that Ellie could hear. She could feel rather than hear Optimus trying to comfort her. Ellie could still feel her spark trying to fly out of her body, but the longer Prime stood there, the less frightened she was by it. A slow understanding dawned on her. This was something like what IronHide and Chromia shared. Almost like marriage, but without the vow of obedience to her spark-mate. She could keep her Independence, but she would always be a part of Optimus, and conversely he would always be a part of her. The bond would work equally both ways. None of the inequality that had turned her off to marriage since she was little.
The feelings changed, like looking down into a massive reflecting pool. The surface was placid and calm, but there seemed to be no bottom to it. Ellie was somewhat aware that Optimus was seeing the same thing for her. She remembered the old saying; 'Still waters are always deepest', and she could see it ringing true here. Next to Optimus, Ellie felt like a speck of dust. He had lived for so long that he might have easily seen the dawn of land based life on Earth. He had fought many battles, lost even more friends, watched Sentinel Prime's death and had the mantle of leadership passed into his unwilling hands. He had been nothing but a lower ranked commander, and yet Sentinel had trusted him enough to name him as successor. Optimus had been more idealistic than Sentinel, but no less a capable commander.
Seeing all of this Ellie felt like all of her 'accomplishments' added up to nothing, wondering if Optimus felt any disappointment at all. In response to this, Ellie felt herself changing perspectives, watching her own life through another's eyes. She saw herself at five, calmly defending herself after some kid two years older than her had tried to stab her in the head with a pencil on impulse. She had walked to where he had run, drew her fist back and hit him in the nose, no pretense or warning given. She saw the pride in her father's eyes at having defended herself and the incredulous stare from her mother when the teacher asked if she wanted her daughter punished.
Fast forward five years. Ellie was ten years old, riding her bike down a street in her neighborhood when she turned a corner and came upon a kid no older than her getting hassled by a couple of high school boys trying to take the kid's brand new bike. 'Here...this one would look better on you.' She had thrown her bright pink bike with white tires at the foot of the biggest boy, watching his face turn red, the vein on his forehead threatening to pop. Just when the boy tried to grab her shirt, she let out an ear piercing scream that had every parent on the street outside in a heartbeat. Being cowards, the two boys had pushed her down and run.
Six months later, Ellie had woken in the middle of the night. She could hear whispers and foot steps out in the living room. She slipped out of her bedroom and went to investigate. She had always been short in stature and some would say in intelligence. She had seen two people in the house that she was sure were not her parents. Her dad was dead asleep. He still took sleeping pills from time to time to get to sleep. It wasn't often, but when he did, the man was dead to the world and would not wake even for a mortar going off in the back yard. Her mother had the bad habit of slipping ear plugs in her ears. The house was in a good neighborhood, nothing ever happened there. But that did not mean that they couldn't happen. Ellie made the snap decision, one she would regret for years.
She slipped the loaded gun from under her dad's pillow, checked the safety like she had been taught and crept out into the hallway. She had never stopped to think of the consequences, never thought about what would happen if she used the gun. The two thieves had found a small stash of 'mad-money' as her father had called it. Something he had socked away for a rainy day or an emergency. They were currently stuffing the bills and coins into their pockets. Ellie's prosthetic foot kicked over a glass her mother had left on the floor beside the chair where she liked to read, making a hollow thunk when it hit the carpet. One of the intruders had turned her way, their eyes meeting. Ellie had never thought about the front door being open behind her, that maybe the man could have been trying to get past her to that door. But she had panicked when he had lunged in her direction, raised the gun, and fired point blank into the man's chest.
She was assailed by the smell of burnt flesh and blood, the taste strong in her mouth, her arms covered in red streaks. The other man had fled at the sound of the gun shot as his partner fell to the ground, his last breath escaping with a gurgling sigh. She had not remembered what had happened afterward, all she could see was the spreading pool of blood soaking into the beige carpet, the color leaving his face. Her breath had caught when she saw his face. It was that same punk that had tried to hassle the little kid out of his brand new bike. The other must have been his partner in crime. She could barely hear her parents voices behind her, though she could have sworn at the time she was deaf from the sound of the gun going off. She heard them pleading with her to let go of the gun though her eyes were fixed on the lifeless corpse in front of her. Her mother had taken her face and turned her head toward her as her father prized her fingers from the gun.
The police had been thorough, taking pictures of the scene, the gun, her arms and face. They had not bothered talking to her, instead getting what they could from her parents who admitted to using sleep-aids, leaving them unable to hear the intruders enter their home. Ellie had received training with the hand gun, she knew how to fire it. But what she had been unprepared for was the result of firing it at a living body. She was only trying to protect her home and her parents and had probably not made the best of decisions in not waking one of them up. But neither she or her parents were charged with anything. This was simply something that could not have been helped. Even if it had been one of Ellie's parents holding the gun, even they would not have noticed the front door laying invitingly open and would have opened fire too when the thieves had panicked and run.
The rest of her life up until she had met the Autobots had been calm compared to this. Even babysitting for Sam had been calm. Though coming outside after a long night of keeping the little boy out of trouble and finding her precious car's paint half eaten off had nearly caused her to do the boy in. Ellie could feel Prime's amusement at the sight of young Sam squirming in his shoes trying to convince his father that he had nothing to do with it. His father had never liked to part with his money, but he could not have his regular babysitter being scared to come back, expecting to find her car disassembled next time.
A few years forward and Ellie was on the verge of graduating high school, she and her boyfriend at the look out that was once so popular with the kids. The car's windows were fogged over on the warm late spring evening. It was the weekend before their finals, the excitement threatening to boil over both at the school and in the car. Two bodies moved against each other in the back seat. Clothing had been haphazardly thrown off, two bottles of cheap beer laying in the front seat; empty. Their inebriation and inexperience was painfully obvious as each fumbled with the other, not sure what to do or where to touch. The result was a fast coupling that left the young man sated, but the young woman under him wondering what had just happened. Being young granted men the ability to recover faster than their older counterparts, but inexperience and alcohol left him asleep within moments. Ellie had shoved the boy off of her and gotten dressed and walked home. Though she had not left without giving her thanks by using one of her boyfriends pocket knifes and slashing all four of his tires.
The hang over he had the next morning along with the slashed tires had spelled it all out and the two had graduated bitter enemies. Ellie should have known that the boy who had stabbed her in the head with a pencil when she was five would have made an awful first time, especially after he had downed both bottles of beer. All that boasting about being able to last had panned out to nothing, and Ellie had made it known that he was a 'Minute Man', making him the laughing stock of their class. It seemed that Ellie was good at salvaging her dignity back in any situation and turned it to her advantage. Ellie's subsequent years spelled that out clear as day. She had had other lovers, other relationships, but none were what she was looking for. All of them had wanted to control her, and that was impossible to do with Ellie. This was what she had been afraid of, being controlled, told what to do, where to go, what to say. She was afraid of being forced into something she did not want.
Optimus' optics focused on Ellie's face as she pulled out of their temporary bond. They were laying on the small berth, Prime's arms wrapped around Ellie's shoulders, her arms around his chest. She seemed surprised at their position, though not concerned. Neither of them would go any further than this. Prime respected Ellie too much and he was not as uninhibited as IronHide to initiate where others could hear let alone see him. Optimus had always been a private mech, the responsibility of leadership emphasizing that trait. He had to keep his own troubles locked away so he could give his all to his Autobots. Their lives depended on his entire mind being in the situation. But now that things were calm, perhaps he could afford to pursue a relationship. He smiled as Ellie off-lined her optics, coming to enjoy the feeling of his spark so close to hers. They were not trying to jump out of their casings anymore, just basking in each other's presence. Optimus followed Ellie's lead, off-lining his optics. This was enough for now just to be close.
