AN: This is my first Transformers story. This is also the first thing I have written since my mother died 4 and a half months ago so if it is possible please be kind. I am not adverse to helful comments just please no nasty ones. I have had this floating around in my head for about 2 weeks now and just today got the courage to actually write it out. My head has been too mess up lately to make the words come out right and even when I forced myself to sit and write today I have found myself using the backspace way too much. I hope this does not suck. Please review.

Warnings: Death (gee I wonder why)

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers (though God wouldn't it be great). I am just asking them to come play with me.

Info: This takes place 10 years after the movie. Sam and Mikaela are now 27 and they have a daughter named Danielle who is 5. I used Danielle as shout out to anyone who knows that Spike Witwicky had a son named Daniel. Since Spike was changed to Sam and Carly was changed to Mikaela, I changed Daniel to girl and called her Danielle, of course. Sam went to college to for Computer knowledge and also went into the Military only as a soldier who fights with the Autobots. This happened with the help of Defence Secretary John Keller. Mikaela became an Assistant to Ratchet and was totally trained by him, but he did require her take a course in nursing so she also knew how to help the humans who would get hurt while working with them. She became very good at her work and could do some things with her eyes closed which came in handy when she had to try fixing wires that were wrapped around other things. Danielle is not in school and she is mostly taken care of by Bumblebee though sometimes Sunny or Sides gets babysitting duty and that is never fun... FOR THEM. Anyway I think that is all Iwanted to say so now to the story. (Jeez I probably bored you already)

Sam drove the car lazily along the freeway. He had such a good time with his family over the past 4 weeks. No war, no training, no mind numbing computer work to kill all his brain cells. It was just pure uncomplicated fun with Mikaela and Danielle. Disneyland had been the just the ticket needed to get his mind cleared and focused on his family again. The only thing he felt bad about was leaving behind Bumblebee. Bee had not liked it one bit either and he had let Sam know it, loudly in fact. Sam felt bad but he knew after that last battle they had lived through that it was necessary for all of them to just be a family for once. Optimus had been more than happy to give them the whole month off. He had seen how stressed Sam and Michaela were getting with each other as well as everyone around them even Bumblebee. He hadn't realized it was 2 years since they were away from the base. Optimus did make them take along a communicator though just in case. It had stayed in the car mostly though and was never used.

"Well back to normal life tomorrow. Are you ready?" Sam asked Michaela as he grabbed her hand and kissed it affectionately.

Michaela smiled at him and laughed. "Ready? Do you mean am I ready to face Ratchet as he complains about how overworked he was while I was gone, or do you mean am I ready for the 'welcome back' I am sure to get from Sideswipe or Sunstreaker or both? She says the last word with a shutter as she imagines what those 2 have rigged up this time. Last time it resulted in her having red hands for week. Sam laughed as he thought on that one.

"Well at least you don't have to go train with them. I don't know which is worse the pranks or the training session with them. Every time I think maybe I can get the upper hand on either of them they tag team me and I come home with paint all through my clothes and even to the skin." (training sessions with paintball guns and cannons is what I am imagining here)

Michaela had to laugh at that one because the last training session had been right before the new Defense Secretary had come to the base and Sam had to meet him with blue hair. Sam laughed too but at the time he was NOT laughing. It is hard to be taken seriously with blue hair.

Danielle chose that time to wake up. She was rubbing he big brown eyes when she asked, "How long Daddy till we see Bee?"

"Not long sweetie just about 1 hour."

"How long is that?"

"Well just about 1 time of watching CINDERELLA."

"Good because I miss him. Can I watch CINDERELLA?"

Michaela rolled her eyes and gave Sam a "did you have to say that movie" look. Sam thought of a good diversion tactic for the movie though. "Danielle would you like to talk to Bee and let him where we are?"

This brought an excited squeal from the back seat. Sam pulled the communicator from the glove box and punched in Bumblebee's code. He handed it back to Danielle.

Bumblebee was sitting in the Rec room with Sunstreaker and Sideswipe having energon when his communicator chirped. He groaned expecting it to be Prowl or Ratchet wanting who-knows-what this time. Sunny laughed at him.

"Bumblebee here." he said half groaning, and he was met by a high-pitched squeal of "BEE!!" from one small very happy little girl.

"Dani," Bee said almost as excitedly. "How were you vacation?"

"Great! I got meet Cinderella! And I got to have breakfast with her. Daddy and mommy took me on all the rides and I got to see the big whales at the sea place. I think one was as tall as you. We went to the beach, and I built a sand castle with mommy and buried daddy while he slept. He jumped up like a monster and chased me all over the beach. I got to sleep in a wobbly bed when we were at the beach and I stayed up all night one night watching TV between mommy and Daddy only daddy fell asleep and he snored." Dani giggled at that. But she kept going. "You know what though, I miss you lots."

"I miss you too, Dani." Bee said marveling at how much she could say without seeming to take a breath.

"Daddy says we are only an hour away. That means one Cinderella so it is not that long until I can see you again."

Two things happened right then which Bumblebee heard over the com. First Michaela screamed, "Sam watch out!!" at the same second a resounding boom of a laser cannon was heard just missing the van. Bee knew it missed the van because heard Sam yell, "Oh Shit! Its Starscream!"

Bumblebee jumped up and ran out of the Rec room like lightning had hit him in the aft. Sideswipe hollered after him to wait for them, but Bumblebee could not. Sunny commed Prowl on what they heard as both ran after Bumblebee. Prowl and Optimus were heard not far behind. Bumblebee never slowed down. The link between him and Sam's car went dead after the second laser cannon was heard and Bumblebee went into battle mode. He could not think about what that meant at the time. He only wanted to get to their location and beat the slag out of Starscream. He sped over the roads cursing when he had to slow but never going under 100mph. The twins were right on his bumper. They arrived at the car in only 20 minutes but it was still too late. Bumblebee screeched to a semi halt before transforming causing some gears to grind harder than they should have but Bumblebee never noticed that pain. He fell to his knees screaming at the wreckage that filled his sight.

The car was nothing but a blackened shell. Sam lay beside it the gaping hole in his chest telling it all. Mikaela lay further away with the same hole in her chest. Dani ….. Wait where was Dani? Bumblebee snapped out of his stupor and started hollering for Dani. He got no response. He screamed again. Nothing. He turned in defeat to where Optimus and Prowl were now standing. He could not stop it this time. He fell against Optimus and tears that fell literally felt like they were being wrenched from his spark casing. Optimus had to grip him hard to keep him from falling to the ground. His own eyes filling up with tears as he felt the sobs rip through Bumblebee's body.

Sunstreaker was angry and he could not stand still. Instead of collapsing in pile of tears he raged at the world for this…this mess of life. He stormed off yelling his anger at the sky. After he started back toward the…..the Primus awful mess something in the tall grass caught his eye. He never would have seen her if the wind had not wafted a corner of sundress up that Dani was wearing. He bent down and gingerly picked up the little girl. He scanned her and discovered she was still alive but she had a nasty gash on her left side.

"BEE!!" he yelled, "I have her and she is still alive!" Sunstreaker's thrill at finding her was nothing compared to what happened to Bee. He sprang from Optimus' arms in less than a nanosecond he was at Sunstreaker's side. "Dani, oh Dani," he crooned through his tears, "We need to get you home." "Sunstreaker, Sideswipe take Dani and Bumblebee back to base. Prowl and I will stay and clean up here." Optimus gave the command and Bumblebee handed Dani back to Sunstreaker before he transformed. Sunstreaker carefully laid Dani in the backseat. Then he and Sideswipe transformed and the three drove off. Sides and Sunny were flanking Bee on both sides as he raced home.

Dani never woke up the whole drive back to base and Sunstreaker radioed to Ratchet to get the med bay ready for Dani. They reached the base and Ratchet was waiting outside with Ironhide. Both were in their holo forms with a stretcher ready to transport her to the infirmary. They got her out carefully and rushed her back to the bed that had been made ready for her. Ratchet immediately went to work. He yelled at Bee to get out when he came bursting through the door. Bee would not leave until Ironhide physically pushed him out into the waiting area.

Bumblebee paced the waiting area. Sitting was too hard right now. Sunny and Sides both tried to get him to calm down but Bumblebee would have none of it. Finally he had to sit because he could hardly hold himself up. Then the world seemed to rip apart at the seams for him because he stopped. He put his head in his hands and groaned out his hurt. "Sam, Mikaela, why?" was all he could say.

Prime and Prowl returned with the bodies and put them in the part of the Med Bay that was reserved for the dead. Optimus came out and sat beside Bumblebee laying a comforting hand on his back, but Bumblebee never seemed to notice. They just sat waiting for word from Ratchet.

When he came out he sighed, "Dani has a concussion and the nasty cut up her side I stitched up. It took 25 stitches. The way the cut looks it happened when someone, presumably Mikaela, hastily got her out of her seat or out of the car. I had to monitor her brain waves to see what damage the concussion may have had on her but I think once she wakes up there should be no permanent damage. I will stay with her so everyone should go recharge. Yes, Bee even you. I promise if she wakes I will call you."

"Call for him in my quarters, Ratchet. I will make sure he recharges." Optimus said. Bee looked at him questioningly. "Yes you will come with me because you will be no good to Dani if you don't recharge. I will adjust your schedule so you don't have to be on duty for a while. So lets go."Bumblebee did not protest he knew better than to try to argue with Optimus.

When they got to his room Optimus offered Bumblebee his berth while he took the sofa that was at the other end of the room. Bumblebee sat on the edge of the berth and just stared at his hands. They were the same hands he always had yet somehow they looked like failure to him. He clenched them and released them he wrung them together but it did not help they had been useless to him this time. They could not make Sam or Mikaela come back and they could make Dani better. He punched one hand into the other and growl ripped from his vocal processors like a lion's roar rips from deep in its chest.

Prime sat beside him and took Bee's small hand in his big ones. "There is nothing you could have done."

"Yes!" he spat out vehemently, "I could have saved them if I had been there. I would have known Starscream was there before he hit."

"Bee if had been there then you would be gone too. You are a great warrior but Starscream would have overpowered you."

"Maybe so but least I could have given them the fighting chance they deserved."

"Oh I don't think Sam and Mikaela went down without a fight or else Dani would not be here."

"It is not your fault this happened, Little One. I am glad you were not there, because I would been left here in this world without you and this world has already taken too many comrades from me." Optimus said as he wrapped his arms around Bumblebee. Bumblebee accepted the comfort and leaned against Optimus' chest just letting the whirl of Primes spark sooth his raw spark.

Bumblebee finally fell into recharge and then so could Optimus.

A/N 2: Just so you are not confused (because I know lots of stories are written her like this) Optimus and Bumblebee do not have slash thing going on here. More like a creator/sparkling thing. Not that there is any proof that they are such but hey it is my AU world so deal with it.