Hello dear readers,

Sorry for the long wait. Life has given me lemons lately and I've had a lot of stuff to deal with. Also in the previous story I often wrote a few chapters in advance before I started posting. With this story I'm posting more or less as soon as I've written them. I tend to write when inspiration strikes me.

Thanks for hanging in there,

Enjoy~

The next day Jack visited his mother in hospital with Jacey. As soon as they arrived the toddler clambered up onto the hospital bed and was surprised that her mother was holding something. Her eyes suddenly became full of curiosity as she drew nearer.

"Hey, you two, come meet your baby brother," she smiled weakly. She looked exhausted, her hair was messy and her complexion pale, labour had taken a toll on her especially now that she was older and it was her third child. In her arms she was carrying a small bundle wrapped in a pale blue blanket and pulled the it aside a little to reveal the new-born in her arms.

"Meet Junior," said his step-father resting an arm on his wife's shoulder. The little boy was the perfect mix of June and Bill, his skin was a rich cocoa colour and his hair was a mass of black curls. Jack was reminded of when Jacey was born.

"Can I hold him?" Jack asked tentatively.

"Sure," and his little brother was placed in his arms.

"Hey, I'm your big brother, Jack," he said smiling at the baby in his arms. Jacey still wasn't sure about what was going on and wasn't bothered about the baby. She just wanted her mother and snuggled up to her on the bed.

"You're a big sister now, Jacey," Jack said and showed her their new sibling.

"Huh?" she replied not sure what that meant but Jack had a feeling she would find out soon enough.

A few days later June returned from the hospital and introduced Arcee and Abigail to the newest member of the family.

"Do all humans start off that small?" Arcee half-asked half-joked and Jack nodded with a smile. She was crouched in the garage since it was the only place where the nosy neighbours couldn't look in while she was in her natural form. She reached a finger towards Junior, he was incredibly tiny compared to her and she hovered her hand over him not daring to touch him in case she accidentally hurt him. Humans were such fragile creatures.

Abigail was the most curious as she'd never seen a baby before. When she was 'born' she was already more or less the size she was now. She seemed to take more interest in her cousin than his sister did. Jacey, on the other hand, did not like the baby as soon as June and Junior had arrived home from the hospital. She'd always been the centre of attention before he'd come along and now suddenly everyone's attention was focused elsewhere. The last few days she had been acting out and having more of her temper tantrums than usual and was a lot moodier. While everyone was distracted and gushing over the baby she went over to the toolbox on the workbench and gave it a push so it fell over with a loud clatter spilling the contents across the floor.

"Jacy!" her mother scolded. "What did you do that for?" and immediately the waterworks started. She cried and threw herself on the floor, although she had expected her mother to yell at her she had hoped her mother would come over and see what the matter was. Instead, Jack came over and started to help pick up the tools.

"Come on, Jacey, let's pick them up together." He offered.

"Nooooo!" she wailed. Then Bill came in to see what all the commotion was about and agreed with Jack's mother that she was just overtired and due for a nap. He whisked the child away her sobs seemed to calm down as she cuddled into her father.

"She's going to be a handful," June sighed.

"You betcha," Jack said with a chuckle.

Now that Junior was born, it meant that Jack and his family had to move out. The house he'd grown up in was just getting too small for six people and a bot. He also was glad to get some relief from how noisy the house had suddenly become since the arrival of Junior. Even Abigail seemed pretty fed up with the fact that every time Junior would cry, as babies do, Jacey would misbehave to get attention. A couple of times Jack had taken Jacey off to the local park just to give his parents some relief.

By the end of the week he was glad to hear that his mortgage for the mechanic shop had been approved. He smiled as he walked out of the estate agent's with the key and proudly showed it to Arcee, who was concealed in her vehicular form.

"Our own place, Cee," he beamed as he got on her and they drove back to his mother's house. Abigail was waiting for them and as soon as she heard the familiar roar of Arcee's engine she put on her helmet and headed outside. She hopped on Arcee behind Jack then within five minutes they were at their new home.

"Here we are," Jack said and opened the door with grand gesture feeling a sense of pride for being able to buy his own home and provide for his family. Once inside Arcee transformed and so did Abigail. She was much taller than her father in this form but still a lot shorter than her mother. He wondered just how tall she would grow to be. Come to think of it he didn't really know much about Cybertronian lifecycles despite his partner being one. He was going to have to ask Arcee about that later although he hoped it would be too awkward. Abigail seemed to enjoy being in her Cybertronian form the most and playfully chased after Arcee, there was more than enough room for them even though there were some empty oil barrels and cables scattered on the floor.

"You can't catch me," Arcee said running past Jack causing a rush of air and dust to rise. He coughed and shook the dust out of his hair.

"Hey watch out! Small squishy human here," he called to them and Abigail skidded to a halt.

"Sorry, daddy," and the three of them burst out laughing.

A few hours later Jack slumped down on the floor with exhaustion and Abigail sat next to him. Both were covered in splatters of paint but triumphant that they had finished painting the main garage room. Arcee was just finishing off the last corner of the ceiling, the roller delicately placed between her index finger and thumb.

"You know it's looking better already," Arcee said standing back and admiring their handiwork. More than anything she was glad she could stand upright and walk around the room freely. Jack had been right about it being perfect for the three of them. Later on that week builders arrived to fit new windows and once the new furniture was in place it felt even more homely.

The garage part of the house had a large custom-built platform for Arcee and Jack to sleep on, with stairs leading up. On Jack's side of the 'bed' was a side table with an alarm clock and phone charging stand. Though Arcee didn't need to sleep she enjoyed resting next to Jack while he slept. There was also a corner of the garage which had been previously used to wash cars so they decided to turn that into a makeshift shower stall for Arcee should she feel the need to clean herself off. A third corner contained giant shelves stocked with energon cubes for Arcee and Abigail. Their bright blue glow illuminated the room at night time creating a rather tranquil atmosphere.

The rest of the house contained a combined kitchen, living and dining room, an upstairs bathroom, two bedrooms although the second bedroom would eventually become a guest room, and a downstairs toilet. The furniture was of simple Swedish design that Jack chose since Arcee had told him to pick what he liked. It wasn't like she was going use those rooms anyway.

Jack was just collecting the last of his things when his parents came out to say goodbye.

"I can't believe my boy has a place of his own now. It seems only yesterday you were Junior's age. " Jack's mother hugged her eldest son tight, a sense of pride and a single tear trickled down her cheek.

"Come on mom, I can't stay living at home forever. Besides, it's not that far and you know you can visit any time." He placed his hand on her cheek and wiped her tear away with his thumb. Behind him he heard Junior stir in his step-father's arms.

"Sugar, you better take him. It's time for his next feed," he handed his son over to his wife and once she headed inside he turned to Jack "she's still emotional from all the hormones. She'll be fine."

"Yeah, I know."

"Well, see you at work on Monday," Bill said and with that Jack was on his way to starting a new life with a family of his own.

Meanwhile in an unknown location.

"Mayday. Mayday, Cybertron Control. If you can hear me, this is maximum security prison ship Alchemor. We have crashed on an unknown planet. Many of the containment pods were disengaged, but the one I can see still appears to be intact, so I'm hopeful none of the prisoners has—"