Alisha was incredibly happy today, by tomorrow she would be able to move once again. She had just awakened when a small contigent of soldiers walked through. Their leader started to laugh before shouting insults.

"Hey Ironhide, what are you doing guarding this bitch?" He taunted, bringing the laughter of his comrades. Alisha turned red with anger, or shame, and was just opening her mouth when I motioned for her to be quiet.

"I'll handle him." I growled, picking up the offending soldier. He seemed to shocked to struggle and the men that had joined him in bothering Alisha fled from me. I quickly walked out of hte hanger, headed for the tall flagpole at the main enterance to the base.

"You don't ever insult her." I cautioned him, pulling his underwear out and hanging it from the top of the pole. He clung to the U.S flag as if the stars and stripes were all that were keeping him alive. He yellede for help but, it being early in the morning, I knew none would come for quite awhile. When I reentered the hanger Alisha was sitting up and looking at me.

"What did you do to him?" She asked.

"A variation of what you humans call an atomic wedgie, he's now flying by his underwear from the highest flagpole." I responded, sending her into peals of laughter. By the time she had managed to regain control of herself there were tears in her eyes.

"Th-th-that's perfect!" She exclaimed, falling back into laughter. As time passed though, her laughter stopped and she became more serious. Finally she looked back over at me. A question bubbled from her.

"Why do you care for me so much Ironhide?" I sighed, relaxing my body. I had hoped that this question would never come up. The sheer level of attraction I had to her made it awkward to answer.

"Autobots sometimes bond with humans, we become their guardians. Bumblebee is Sam's, I guess I'm yours. They say you can tell by the way you feel when the person is harmed. It feels like your Spark is tearing itself apart, desperate to save the other. On Cybertron this was how we found mates, it still works on Earth but it's more like what you humans call best friends, or family." I explained, remembering the terrible feeling that I had felt when she was in trouble.

"Ah, Ironhide. Are you going soft on me?" She jokingly asked, leaning back on her pillow. I ignored the extreme irony with my name and my so called 'going soft' and answered her with what I was planning to do once she was healed.

"Soon as you get out of that bed the only people I'm trusting you with are Optimus and Ratchet." I responded, feeling my old bitter self come back for a moment.

"You are to funny." She joked, smiling at me.

"No I'm just pissed off. As soon as you're safe I'm going to get out of here to track down that Barricade and rip him into tiny pieces." I growled, visioning ripping the Barricade apart particle by particle.

"'Hide, I wouldn't be able to let you do that. I'd stress myself out worrying. That's what made me leave the base that day. I was worried." Her voice grew soft and I realized how different she was from the other humans. The others didn't care that much if we had been harmed, but she would physically make herself sick with worry over us.

"Don't call me 'Hide, it sounds like I'm some kind of teddy bear." I requested, choosing not to voice my thoughts.

"Ohh, sounds like someone's getting angry. You know for some reason I just know you're never going to live this down." Alisha had once again become her joking self, sassy and happy in the darkest of circumstances.

"You're probably right, Alisha." Optimus intoned, walking in through the doors of the hanger. I hastily stood at attention, eyes directly ahead and feet planted firmly. Optimus quirked and optic ridge at me. I sheepishly relaxed, he never had us treat him with an incredible amount of respect. He found it odd to be treated like our higher. "Ironhide always remembers his debts."

"Ironhide, you can leave if you want to. You said you'd trust me with Optimus." Alisha said, giving me her puppy dog eyes again.

"Actually Ironhide, I was hoping to speak to Alisha alone." Optimus ordered. I felt my Spark sink slightly at the thought of leaving her. Ironhide, I heard some human cursing your name from the flag pole. Perhaps you could explain that to me later if you do not wish to leave? He asked over the COM leading me to answer him.

"Yes, Optimus." I looked at Alisha as I left, she smiled and waved at me. As I walked away I could see a fire truck ladder headed up the flagpole to get Lee down. I chuckled to myself as i walked away.

"Hey Ironhide! Ironhide, stop!" I heard Lennox yell, I turned around and kneeled to speak to him. Lennox's hair was not gelled into it's usual spikiness and he rubbed his eyes like he had just woken up.

"What is it Will?" I asked.

"Why did you do that?" He queried, gesturing to the rescue going on behind us. I grimaced, shifting myself in place.

"He insulted Alisha, check the security cameras if you want. It's there." I replied coldly.

"I trust you Ironhide, just next time report him to me or something." Lennox ordered before walking off. I watched him leave with a small sense of pride. It was not often the humans took our advice off of the battle field.

"Ironhide, Optimus wants you back in with Alisha." Ratchet called from the hanger. I brightened considerable as I walked back in. Alisha was hunched under her blankets, a thoughtful look on her face as her eyes followed me.

"What did he tell you?" I asked, sitting by her once more.

"Oh, nothing. He just wanted to make sure I was feeling better." She answered nonchantly, waving a hand.

"Are you?"

"Yes, I am."