Bumblebee Wants to Come Home.

SUMMARY: When Bumblebee's Transformation circuit goes on the fritz, Ratchet must remove it to make repairs, leaving Bumblebee trapped in car form. Bumblebee doesn't'mind, as it's only for a few hours-until he finds his central locking and self-steering have also been compromised as he is taken by a car thief! When Bumblebee escapes their clutches by fixing his steering mechanism, he doesn't know where he is, and must make his own way back to his human, Sam.

PAIRINGS: None

SETTING: Movieverse

DISCLAIMER: Transformers and all named characters belong to Hasbro and Dreamworks, and I lay no claim to them. I'm just having a brief play with them.

Bumblebee Wants to Come Home.

Chapter One: The Accident.

There was no warning, it just happened.

One moment Bumblebee was coasting happily, with Sam relaxed in the driver's seat, humming to the music Bumblebee's radio was playing, the next, a car coming the other way suddenly seemed to veer across the road, the driver wrestling with the wheel as it slid on a direct collision-course for them.

Bumblebee's first instinct was to transform to dodge out of the way, but that wasn't an option, for to do so would crush his human charge. Dumping Sam out would not only take too long, but put him in danger of being hit by something else travelling on the same highway. Bumblebee had no other option than to make a sharp swerve to the right.

Unfortunately, the highway was built on a bank of earth fifteen feet high, overlooking another highway, and although Bumblebee tried to avoid going down the slope, he failed. He tightened his seatbelt around Sam and cradled the human protectively in his seat as he rolled over twice. He heard Sam cry out, felt himself caught a glancing blow by two separate vehicles as he slid onto the second highway-thankfully right-way up. Ignoring the dents in his bodywork, he managed to join the traffic stream on the second highway. Once he was out of danger of being hit again, Bumblebee turned his attention to Sam.

"Sam, are you okay?" asked Bumblebee. Sam was white-faced and a bit shaky, but seemed otherwise okay.

"Y-Yeah, I'm okay, just a bit shocked, that's all. You?" said Sam.

"A bit dented and scraped, but that'll self repair. Are you sure you don't need to be mended at hospital?" Bumblebee asked.

Sam poked himself in several places.

"No, nothing's broken, just a bit shaken and a few bruises. The human version of auto-repair will sort that out in about a week." Sam said. "This drive out to stretch your wheels has turned out to be a disaster! Let's head home, I've had enough!" Bumblebee didn't argue, just turned off to take Sam home.

They got back to Sam's home, and Sam climbed out. "Okay, Bumblebee, we're hidden from the neighbours, you can transform now." he said. Now that Sam's parents were in the know, they didn't mind if Bumblebee chose to be in robot form on the drive, as long as he did his best to be light on his feet, and stayed off the flowers, lawn, patio, and avoided touching the power lines. However, Sam could tell that something wasn't right. Although Bumblebee's doors and headlights twitched, nothing else happened.

"Hey, Bee, what's up? Have I done something to make you mad at me?" he asked plaintively.

"No, it's not that, Sam, I think that the crash damaged something vital. I can't transform."

Sam pulled out his mobile phone. "Hang on, I'll call Ratchet to come and have a look." He patted Bumblebee on the hood. "He'll have you back to normal in a jiffy."

Ratchet had made some adjustments to Sam's mobile, and Mikaela's new mobile, enabling them to hit a key to send a tone to either Optimus Prime (Hot Key One) or Ratchet (Hot Key Two) if they needed to contact them. The Autobot in question would then send a message via the (to them) primitive mobile phone network, enabling them to communicate with the humans. Sam pressed and held Hot Key Two, and then waited.

A minute later, his phone rang, and it was Ratchet on the other end. Sam quickly explained about the accident, and Bumblebee's subsequent inability to transform.

"I'll come over and take a look." said Ratchet.

Fifteen minutes later, the S+R vehicle turned onto the drive, and Ratchet carried out a detailed scan of Bumblebee.

"The auto-repair to your bodywork is proceeding well." said Ratchet to Bumblebee. "However, one of those impacts damaged your main transformation circuit too severely for auto-repair to fix it in a realistic time scale. I can repair it, but I will need to remove it, and scavenge some spare parts from the Army. I know Captain Lennox will be able to help me with that."

"Will the Army have all the parts you need?" asked Bumblebee. "The humans' mechanical prowess is inferior to our own."

"Oh, I suggested that they scavenge a few things from the remains of the Decepticons, before they were dumped out at sea. We'll use a few of those." said Ratchet.

"Decepticon circuitry in me? Do I have to?" Bumblebee sounded horrified. "Haven't some of the others got a few fail-safes they could reroute, or some spares hidden away, so you could scavenge from those?"

"I'm certain Ironhide has many of those, Bumblebee, but I've seen his reaction to me asking to use some. If you want to chance it, you can do the asking. You know how much he'd grouse, and he might just refuse point-blank anyway. Although, thinking about it, I suppose I could start disassembling the remains of Jazz." Ratchet sounded thoroughly unenthusiastic about that last idea, Sam noticed.

"No, don't!" said Bumblebee. "That would be even worse! I'd feel like I was letting him down somehow. He was my friend, I'd feel like I was betraying him, letting him be taken apart for that."

"We're agreed, then." said Ratchet, sounding relieved. "The Army's spares it is, then."

"Yuk." said Bumblebee, but without rancour.

"Look, it's only the odd circuit and chip, and I'll make sure there is nothing dangerous or overly Decepticon about them, so stop complaining! Anyone would think I was about to give you Megatron's processor clusters, the way you're carrying on!" said Ratchet in exasperation.

"Those weren't saved, were they?" asked Sam worriedly.

"No, they were dumped in the Laurentian Trench with the rest of him. The Army only scavenged a few replacement parts they hadn't yet worked out how to make that we might need, although by studying them, they will probably soon be able to." Ratchet assured Sam.

Ratchet waited until it was dark before transforming into robot form.

"I'm afraid, Bumblebee, that removing the circuit will de-align a lot of systems. I could re-align them before I go, but the repairs will take a maximum of twenty-four hours, and it'll take four hours for re-alignment, which seems a bit pointless as I'll just have to re-align them again when I put it back. You'll lose most communications-you'll have to talk through your radio to communicate again-and your self-steering-Sam would have to drive-and a bunch of other minor systems. I should have it fixed before this time tomorrow, so you won't have too long to wait, so don't worry." Ratchet gently patted Bumblebee on the roof. "So just be brave for me for that long, and it won't seem so long, especially if Sam can keep you occupied."

"Okay." said Bumblebee.

Turning Bumblebee onto his left side, Ratchet deftly removed the transformation circuit, then put Bumblebee back on all four wheels.

"Okay, Bumblebee, I'll go to the army base now, and call Captain Lennox on the way, so he can get the parts ready. If he's really efficient, he'll have them waiting, and I can put this back early tomorrow morning for you." he said. Transforming into his vehicle form, he turned on his lights and siren, and set off at a fair clip of speed.

"Are you okay, Bumblebee?" asked Sam.

"I will survive." Bumblebee played through the radio. It was like when Sam had first met him, which raised mixed emotions in Sam. In some ways it was almost nostalgic to hear Bumblebee speaking as he had the first time he's met him, but on the other hand, he was sad, for Bumblebee had been forced to communicate that way due to injury to his vocal processor, and it might be bringing back unpleasant memories for Bumblebee, who had one day sat down and related to Sam the entire story of the battle at Tygar Pax, where Megatron had ripped off one of Bumblebee's arms, and his vocal processor, because Bumblebee had stalled Megatron long enough for the AllSpark to be blasted off into space.

"Yeah, we'll cope, chum, it's only twenty-four hours, and maybe even less than that." Sam tried to soothe.

Sam stayed out with Bumblebee for most of that night, only going in to eat his dinner, and then after washing up, coming back out. However, at ten-thirty, he looked at his watch, and then at his car-shaped friend, feeling rather guilty.

"I'm sorry, Bumblebee, I have chores to do and then I need to get some sleep, and I KNOW my parents won't let me spend the night in you. I have to go in, but I'll be out again in the morning, hey? Maybe Ratchet will have your circuit repaired by then. But-what do we do if we have to wait till nightfall again?" Sam looked concerned. What effect would all this have on his Cybertronian friend?

"Why worry now?" Bumblebee played. Sam smiled, stroking Bumblebee's hood with great affection.

"That's right, be brave and keep your chin-er, bumper-up." he said. With a last light touch, Sam went indoors.

Bumblebee watched Sam go into the house, and had never felt so lonely and insecure in all his life. He had been able to transform ever since he was a sparkling, and had been taken out to gain an alternate form and to learn how to move in both forms. He felt so vulnerable stuck in one form, and a little worry kept surfacing in a corner of his processors: 'What if Ratchet can't fix it? What if I'm never able to transform again? Would I be thrown out of the Autobots? Would Sam get fed up with me not being able to transform, and sell me, or give me away?'

He heard Sam's window open, and Sam, unaware of his friends mushrooming (and unfounded) fears, called out "Goodnight, Bumblebee!" Bumblebee decided, due to the lateness of the hour, to not answer back using his radio, but flashed his headlights at Sam briefly.

Bumblebee watched all the windows in the Witwicky house go dark, as, one by one, the lights were turned out. Once they were all dark, Bumblebee decided to shut down as much as he could, for it would aid his bodywork's self-repair, and would help the night pass quicker.

After all, it was only one night. What could possibly go wrong?