Where There Is Smoke

Rated T for language and anything else I might have missed.

Talking:

"English or other Earth language"

"Cybertronian"

"Talking on the phone or recordings"

:comm. link:

[Texting]

'Thought'

(Bond talk)

** (Bumblebee speaking in beeps) **

Spark feelings

Flash back or change of time or place.

Time changes:

Nano-klik=1/2 a klik. Klik= less than a second. Breem (cybertronian minute) = 8 minutes. Cycle=hour. Joor (Cybertronian hour) = 6 hours. Solar cycle=day. Megacycle= 1 week. Orn= 13 days. Groon= 1 month. Deca-orn = 3 months. Stellar cycle= 1 year. Vorn=83 years

Author's note: Hello everyone. So fragging sorry this took so long, this past year has been hell on wheels and my old laptop had completely quit on me and I just now got all my files back and uploaded onto my new one, which took me while to save up for.

When the bots stepped out of the ground bridge and into the base they had to slide to a stop as they all had gone through the bridge at a full run.

Everyone still in the base looked up at them. "Is everyone alright?"

Miko interrupted June by bursting out with "Was there a fight?"

June looked at her and then back at the 'Bots and continued. "We heard yelling in the back ground when Optimus called for a ground bridge,"

Hot Rod looked at all of them "And you all, uh…" he coughed into his fist and muttered "…weapons," like he was telling them they had something on their face plates.

They all looked down at their servos and saw that none of them retracted their blasters back into their servos yet.

"Oops, sorry," Smokescreen held up his guns like he was surrendering and then transformed them back into his hands while the others just changed out of them.

Miko looked up at them with a look that was a mixture of excitement and worry "So there was a fight!"

Arcee glared out the corner of her optics "It would have been more of a fair fight if all of us had been returning fire,"

Drift slammed his sword into its scabbard with enough force that everyone else worried it might have broken the holster off of his hip before he stomped up to Arcee, optics burning with hatred.

Drift stopped so that he towered over Arcee and looked down at her. "I don't have any blasters, Arcee," His glare softened slightly. "I haven't used them in vorns. I used to but when I left the Decepticons, I removed the power cells and placed them in a lock box which went in the vault of my ship,"

He shook his helm. "I have not touched them since,"

One part of what Drift said stood out more than everything else and the room suddenly felt somewhat colder.

"Wait…" Arcee glared up at the mech in front of her "You were a Decepticon?!"

Drift realized he had made a blunder and then took a deep intake to steady himself. "Not anymore," he turned on his heel and walked away.

Everyone figured he wasn't going to say anymore and were going to let him go but Smokescreen asked "Why?"

Drift stopped but didn't turn around, after a moment of stiff silence he spoke. "I joined the Decepticons because, at the time, they were still fighting for a cause worth fighting for.

"I left the Decepticons because by that time the Autobots had become what the Deceptions were when we started the rebellion which eventually became the war and the Decepticons had become… more terrible than any of us could imagine,"

He left the room after that. After he was gone, Arcee looked up at Optimus "Are we really going got let him wander around the base? He's a 'Con,"

"Ex-'Con," Bulkhead corrected, which earned Arcee's ire being directed at him.

"You knew?! You knew the whole time and you never said anything?!"

Crosshairs glared at the femme "What difference does it make? He quit being that mech vorns ago,"

"What difference does that make?"

"Arcee, Crosshairs, enough," Everyone looked at Optimus who looked at everyone present, optics lingering on each individual long enough to ascertain they were listening.

"I have heard of Deadlock and I have heard of Drift; had I not been told they were one in the same I never would have guessed such. Therefore, unless he actually poses a threat, he will be treated like any other Autobot. Is that understood?"

Optimus glanced around, giving the others a chance to speak while silently warning them that harsh words would not be taken kindly.

In the end, everyone nodded their ascent and Arcee scoffed and left the room, grumbling something along the lines of "going to quarters" when Jack asked where she was going.

After a while, Smokescreen went to seek Arcee out; to see if she was alright and to make sure she didn't do something she would regret later.

He knocked on the door. "Arcee, you in there?"

Smokescreen waited a moment before the door opened just enough for Arcee's face plates to be visible through the opening. "What do you want?"

Smokescreen was surprised by her tone; it was the same one she used with him when he first arrived. Why would she go back to that when they were on friendlier terms now?

At least, he had hoped they were on friendlier terms now. "I just want to talk, Lioness,"

Arcee slid the door open just enough further so that she could slip through. "About what?"

Smokescreen noticed she still left her door open so that she could slip back inside if she saw fit and felt hurt that the femme he was courting wanted to run from him.

He decided to not let it show and continued "Arcee, I know you don't want an Ex-Con in the base, I'm not too crazy about it either…"

He gave her a reassuring smile "But Optimus says we should give him a chance and how often has he steered us wrong before?"

Arcee crossed her arm-servos and looked away. "I could tell you stories…"

Smokescreen raised an optic ridge; she was dissing Optimus now? Sure, she'd questioned his decisions before but never, in all the time he had known her, did Arcee ever aim her ire directly at the Prime himself. "What are you…"

Arcee turned away from him and covered her audio receptors to block him out and hissed at him "JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Smokescreen pulled back as though he had been slapped. When he recovered he narrowed his optics at her. "Fine, you want to be alone, I'll leave you alone. Let me know when you're done wallowing in your own bitterness,"

He started to walk away but then he realized that sounded more harshly than he had intended so he turned back and added softly "I'll be waiting,"

He walked down the hall at a brisk pace to the main area where the others were. On his way there he heard Arcee's door slam shut and winced when the lock clicked into place. 'I'll be waiting… just don't make me wait forever,'

Smokescreen continued walking until he made it to the main area and went over to where Bumblebee and the humans were watching TV, standing next to the scout who was leaning over the back of the couch to see the screen.

Jack looked up from the show they were watching. "How's Arcee?"

Out of habit, which formed from trying to keep his and Arcee's relationship secret, Smokescreen tried to act casual. "W-what makes you think I…"

Bumblebee didn't look at him as a knowing smile formed on his face plates "Because you said you were going to go talk to her,"

Smokescreen sighed and looked off to the side. "She's in her quarters. She… didn't feel like talking,"

Bumblebee turned and put a servo on his shoulder. "Let's just give her some space. She'll open up to us again when she's ready,"

Just then June looked at her watch and realized what time it was "Oh no, I'm late," she looked up at Smokescreen, who was staring off into space, and was about to ask if he could give her a lift but then hesitated; he had gone back to how he was when Arcee turned him down a while back, before he got shot by the Requiem Blaster.

"Uh, Smokescreen…"

Smokescreen looked at her "Yeah?" June was about to ask if he was alright but before she could Smokescreen checked his internal chronometer and realized what time it was.

"Need a ride back to work?"

June opened her mouth to say that wasn't what she was going to say but then decided to ask him on the way so she smiled at him as she put on her coat. "If you could, please?"

Smokescreen walked a few steps away from the platform so he would have more room and transformed into vehicle mode. "Get in," he opened the door for June as she came down the stairs.

"Thank you," June climbed into the passenger's side and fastened her seat belt just as Smokescreen shifted gears and drove out of the base.

In his rear view mirror, he saw Hot Rod come into the room just in time to watch them go with a dejected look on his face plates.

'How long are we going to have to keep fighting each other?'

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On the way back into town, June looked at Smokescreen's dash since he wasn't going to activate his holoform until they got closer to town. "Smokescreen, is everything alright?"

Had Smokescreen been in holoform or in robot mode he would have jumped and smiled nervously, and June could hear it in his overly cheerful tone as he responded.

"What do you mean? Everything's fine, isn't it?"

June looked out the window then closed her eyes and crossed her arms "I heard yelling when you went to talk to Arcee. Did you two have an argument?"

"I… uh…" Smokescreen tried to come up with a cover but didn't see a point "Hey, don't worry about that. You've got your relationship issues and I've got mine,"

June looked down at her hands solemnly and Smokescreen realized he had said something wrong. "Oh, uh, I… um…"

June patted his seat comfortingly "It's alright, Smokescreen, no harm done,"

The rest of the ride was quiet until they got to the hospital and Smokescreen dropped June off at the doors and waited until she was inside before leaving.

When June passed the front desk the nurse there asked "And where did you disappear to?"

June looked at her in confusion 'I can't be THAT late, can I?'

The other nurse smiled and said "You told everyone you won't be leaving for your break today and then suddenly you were high-tailing it out the door,"

June came up with a quick half-truth "I forgot I had promised I would have lunch with an acquaintance of mine until he called me saying he was waiting in the parking lot,"

June was going to leave it at that but then the other nurse's eyes widened and she smirked. "HE?"

June face palmed; she had forgotten that all of the nurse staff knew by now about her separated marriage and now she said she was having lunch with a guy. "He's a family friend. It's not what you think,"

She didn't seem convinced. "Uh huh, sure,"

June groaned, knowing that now that her co-worker had gotten that idea in her head there was no convincing her otherwise, and walked away to go punch in for the rest of her shift. "I'll see you later,"

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When Smokescreen got back to the base, only Raf and Hot Rod were still in the main area. He looked over and saw Ratchet in the med. bay looking over Solarlight.

Smokescreen shrugged and went over to where Raf was watching TV to see what the boy was watching.

When he passed the spot where Hot Rod was leaning casually against the wall, Hot Rod looked at him and asked "So, you give June a ride to work every day?"

Smokescreen shrugged "Yeah, she lost her car a while back and since I'm her guardian I've got to make sure I drop her off and pick her up on time. Wouldn't want to be late like that one time,"

He looked off to the side and mumbled "That didn't end well,"

That got Hot Rod's attention. "Why, what happened?"

Smokescreen looked away completely, not sure of how Hot Rod would react if he told him what happened to June in the hospital parking lot that night.

Hot Rod seemed to know he was going to avoid the subject and sighed as though he was in pain. "Smokescreen, please, I've missed about ten years of Jack and June's lives and now neither of them will talk to me. Don't you start keeping me in the dark too,"

Smokescreen hesitated for a moment before he gave in and told him about how a bunch of drunks tried to drag June off until he got there and scared them off; leaving out the parts where he transformed, of course.

"WHAT?" Hot Rod glared at him. "Who were they?"

Smokescreen noticed the steam rising off of the other mech's plating and remembered Hot Rod had pyrotechnic mods and all the reasons it would be a very bad idea for them to go off then. "We've only been able to identify one and…"

Smokescreen stopped; if he told Hot Rod who one of the perpetrators was he might go after him and that would not bode well for him or any of the Autobots.

Hot Rod's glare intensified and he growled "Smokescreen, tell me,"

Smokescreen hesitated—He did look intimidating—but stood his ground "Hot Rod, you seriously need to calm down,"

Hot Rod sighed and then cycled air deeply as he held up his servos and then lowered them in front of him in a calming motion as the steam dissipated. "Alright, alright, I'm calm, I'm totally calm…"

He rubbed his optics. "Now will you tell me?"

Smokescreen looked at Raf, who seemed to be paying attention to his laptop but could have been pretending, and spoke in Cybertronian "Like I said, we've only identified one but he seemed to be the 'ring-leader' of the whole thing so there's a chance word might get to the rest of them…"

Smokescreen slammed his fist into his servo to emphasize what kind of "word" might spread, but then his enthusiasm dwindled. "But that night… and when we ran into him at a school football game Miko made us all go to, June said she didn't want us going after him because of the trouble it would cause with Optimus and the human authorities if they found out,"

Hot Rod thought a moment and looked around before sharing a conspiring whisper with Smokescreen. "Who says they have to find out? What they don't know won't hurt them,"

Smokescreen thought for a moment and smiled "I like the way you think,"

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Later that night

Smokescreen parked across the street from a local bar, waiting for someone to come out.

:Are you sure he's here?:

Hot Rod responded almost immediately. :He's here. I tracked him down while you were bringing June home and he hasn't come out yet.:

Smokescreen scanned the area for any sign of the mech—he knew that Hot Rod was around there somewhere, he just had no idea where—or any sign that Hot Rod might be wrong. :Alright.:

:Just keep your scanners peeled for anyone that looks familiar.:

About an hour later, after scanning multiple people as they came out of the bar, one man came out and was recognized as soon as Smokescreen scanned him. :That's him, the guy coming out right now.:

:I see him, let me just go over and have a few words with him.:

Smokescreen saw Hot Rod's holoform walking over to where Gary Mitchell was getting into his car and struck up a conversation with him.

They were too far away for Smokescreen to hear what they were saying but when he enhanced his optical scanners he saw "Rod" take a lighter out of his pocket and light it, looking at the flame like he was examining it.

Curious, Smokescreen heightened his audio receivers' sensitivity so he could hear what they were saying just as "Rod" advanced and grabbed the front of his shirt.

"If you or your buddies EVER come near my family again, I will find you…" Rod held the lighter up until the man could feel the heat from it on his throat. "All of you,"

Gary nodded frantically so "Rod" roughly pushed him away and said "How much have you had to drink tonight?" Gary didn't answer but Hot Rod pulled something out of his holoform's coat pocket. "You wreak of booze. I'm calling you a cab, you shouldn't be driving..."

Smokescreen could hear Gary starting to protest but saw Rod pause with what looked like a very old fashioned cell phone on his ear. "Or would you rather I called the cops to report you driving under the influence?"

Gary paused but mumbled "I don't have enough for a cab,"

Hot Rod sighed and begrudgingly said "I can spot you a few bucks, not much but it's better than nothing, and a hell of a lot better than letting you drive,"

Hot Rod walked away with a stern, almost threatening "Wait here," and went over to another parking lot that was adjacent to a nearby building where Smokescreen assumed Hot Rod was parked and came back a few minutes later with what appeared to be a folded up green paper.

Smokescreen waited while Rod leaned against Gary's car to wait for something and commed him. :Hot Rod what are you doing?:

"Rod" didn't seem to respond but Hot Rod responded :Making sure this overcharged aft doesn't drive home and hurt anyone else. Luckily I still had a few dollars stashed in my glove box from my time on Earth to give whatever poor cab driver that gets stuck with him.:

After a few minutes, another vehicle with writing on the sides of it pulled up and "Rod" shoved Gary in the direction of it and made sure he got inside before going over to the same parking lot he had went to before; confirming Smokescreen's assumption that Hot Rod was parked over there.

Once the cab was gone, Smokescreen came out of hiding and transformed into robot mode so he could have a better view of the human vehicle driving away. He heard a transformation sequence to his right and turned to see Hot Rod in his real form.

The two mechs looked at each other and smiled as they bumped fists, wordlessly congratulating themselves on a job well done, before transforming back into vehicle mode and driving away.

They didn't get far before a blue motorcycle pulled out in front of them and spun around so that the rider was facing them when she put her foot down to hold herself up and crossed her arms while looking between the two of them.

"And just what have you two been doing?"

Both mechs hesitated, trying to come up with a cover story before Smokescreen said. "Uh, Oh hey Arcee, I was just showing Hot Rod around,"

Arcee was unimpressed. "In the middle of the night? Didn't he live here for a few years?"

Hot Rod shrugged "That was a few years ago,"

Arcee looked at him, her expression unchanging. "It hasn't changed that much since then,"

Both of them hesitated, not knowing what to say. Smokescreen, however tried once more...

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Both Hot Rod and Smokescreen found themselves parked outside the Darby's house while their holoforms sat on the couch inside, getting scolded by June and Arcee like teenagers that got caught out after curfew doing something they shouldn't be doing.

"You two did WHAT?"

Both mechs winced at June's tone; Smokescreen had let it slip that they went after one of the guys that terrorized June months ago even though she told him and the other Autobots not to and Arcee brought them to the Darby household to pick up June on their way to the base so she could be present when they told Optimus since it affected her as well but June went into "Mom mode" wanted a few words with them first.

"A few words" apparently meant June and Arcee scolding their respective significant others for staying out so late and worrying them.

"What were you two thinking? What if someone saw you and called the police?" She pointed at Smokescreen. "I thought we made it clear that the whole 'no one will believe you because your drunk' story will only work for so long,"

Smokescreen held up his hands "We didn't transform or any thing. Hot Rod used his holoform to talk to him,"

He remembered something "Where did you get that lighter that you held in his face, by the way?"

Hot Rod looked at him "Why, did you need one?" Smokescreen didn't answer but he seemed to be considering it.

June and Arcee looked at the two for a moment and then at each other.

"Switch!" They then switched places, June scolding Smokescreen for being so reckless while Arcee glared at Hot Rod and shouted "Thanks a lot, Hot Rod, YOU'VE TURNED MY MECH INTO A PYRO!"

Arcee covered her mouth when she belatedly realized what she just said and everyone else stared at her; Hot Rod and June because they were shocked and Smokescreen because he was surprised and curious as to where to go from there.

'Are we going to start telling people now?'

That thought was proved wrong when Arcee uncovered her mouth and said "Please don't say anything, we've been trying to keep our relationship private,"

Hot Rod raised a [digit if he's in his real body, finger if he's in holoform] to his [audio/ear] and said "What was that? All I heard was 'don't say anything',"

Smokescreen rubbed the back of his helm "So, does this mean you're not mad at me anymore?"

Arcee looked at him "What made you think I was mad at you?"

Smokescreen shrugged "Well, the way you told me to leave you alone when I tried to talk to you at the base was kind of obvious,"

Arcee sighed and rolled her holoform's eyes. "I wasn't mad at you, I was just mad in general,"

She stopped and looked towards the stairs for a moment before sighing again and going over to lean against the railing as she looked upstairs. "Jack, I know you were listening. You want to come down and help me and your mom yell at Smokescreen and Hot Rod for doing stupid scrap before we let Optimus and Ratchet have a turn or would you rather call it a night?"

She stepped away from the stairs as Jack came down them, dressed in a gray long sleeved shirt and blue and gray checkered pajama bottoms, and stopped at the bottom of them. He looked at Hot Rod for a moment before focusing on Smokescreen; it was obvious that he was going to ignore the older mech for the most part.

"What did you guys even do?"

Smokescreen shrugged. "Hot Rod found out about those punks that tried to rough up your mom and wanted a few words with them so we tracked down Gary Mitchel and he told him that if he or any of his buddies went near his family he would find them..."

Jack frowned at this, he didn't think was Hot Rod's business—not anymore—and raised an eyebrow when Smokescreen added "...while holding a lighter in his face,"

Jack held up his hands exasperatedly, a gesture he usually used for Miko's antics.

"You lit a guy on fire?"

Hot Rod frowned. "I didn't light anyone on fire, I just held it while I was talking to the guy,"

Smokescreen snorted "Oh really mister..." he formed a holographic lighter like the one that Rod had used before and deepened his voice to mock the older mech's "...'if you or your buddies EVER come near my family again, I will find you," he held it closer to Hot Rod's face.

"All of you,"

Hot Rod looked unimpressed as he snuffed out the flame of the lighter by simply clamping his hand over it. "Shut up,"

June sighed and looked at her watch. "It's getting late, if you three plan on spending the night at the base you might want to head back now so you're not out on the road too late," she looked at Jack. "And you, young man, should be in bed,"

Jack rolled his eyes at how his mom was treating him like a child—he was almost seventeen, he didn't need a "bed time"-but relented. "Ok mom, good night guys,"

"Good night," June watched her son go back up stairs while the three Autobots in holoform also said good night to the teen.

However, when Hot Rod said good night he got an incredulous look from Arcee and June and a surprised one from Smokescreen; they all noticed how easily he was interacting with Jack and weren't sure if he should be.

Arcee stood in front of Smokescreen and Hot Rod and pointed to the door. "Come on you two, if we leave now we can catch Optimus before he turns in for the night. The sooner we tell him what you've been up to the better,"

The two mechs hesitated but relented and followed her to the door, also saying their goodbyes to June on their way out.

"See you in the morning June,"

June nodded. "Bright and Early, Smokescreen,"

Hot Rod said a more heartfelt "Good night, June," and lingered a bit, like he didn't want to leave just yet.

June saw through the smile and almost invited the three of them to stay but first of all, like Arcee said, the sooner they told Optimus what happened the better, second, it would be rather crowded with three Autobots at their house and most importantly, she wasn't sure she was ready to let her ex back into their lives.

In the end, she told Arcee and Smokescreen "Goodnight" and reminded them to drive safely, as any mother would, and gave Hot Rod the same stern "Good night, Rod," she gave him when they were dating and were taking too long to say goodbye.

Hot Rod took that as his cue to leave and left the house while Smokescreen had already simply turned off his holoform and disappeared.

Arcee, being a motorcycle, had to actually go out to her alt mode in case someone saw her drive away and followed Hot Rod out. Once they were outside, Arcee looked up at Hot Rod. "What was that about?"

Hot Rod looked at her and simply stated "I told my family good night," he added sarcastically "Isn't that something people normally do when someone goes to bed?"

He got in his car and "started" it while the door was still ajar, letting what humans called "oldies rock music" lilt out of his interior.

"See you two back at base," he closed his door as he pulled away from the curb, holoform driving one handed in order to do so, and drove away.

Arcee shook her head before making sure that Smokescreen was ready to go, just in time to see the mech take off without her as though he were worried that he would be left behind.

Rolling her eyes for the umpteenth time that night, Arcee gunned her engine and sped after the two mechs.