It has to be infatuation. It has to be. Not even her luck would be so bad as to have her Sparkmate be a human who's little more than a child.

But she finds herself thinking of Jack constantly.

The first time they met, he had touched her … the first human who had ever touched her. There had been something about that touch … she knows that humans are much more tactile sensitive than Autobots … they use their hands, their sense of touch, in ways that does not occur to her people. He had caressed her, and something in her Spark had responded to that …

And it made her angry.

Humans were tiny, fragile things. They were a nuisance. They were a distraction, an inconvenience.

She did not want to like one.

And as long as her only human contact was Agent Fowler, she did not find it hard at all to dislike them.

But Jack …

Jack surprises her. At first he seems like any other human … weak, a coward.

But then he displays a consideration and compassion that surprises her, understanding before Miko and Raf that this is not a game. His words of condolence regarding Cliffjumper anger her at first … but in retrospect she appreciates them.

And when he says "I chose her" it makes her shiver inside …

She can't resist showing off for him the next day. She wants him to have a good time. She wants him to like her …

And later, after the Fowler rescue, she's stricken by the thought that she might never see him again. It hurts that he could walk away from them … away from her.

She tells herself it's safer for him to go away … that once he's gone she'll be able to put away all thoughts of him aside and focus on the important task of defeating Megatron's plans. That she won't be so distracted once he's gone.

It doesn't work.

Once he's gone, she can think of nothing else but getting him back. It's insane. It's dangerous—to her, to him.

But the Spark wants what it wants, and she can't deny her need for him.

She feels a stab of something—jealousy?—when she hears that Miko went to him first, tried to bring him back. Miko is insufferable. She is reckless, wild. She would do nothing but lead Jack headlong into disaster …

But she's human … human, and by human standards, attractive.

But Jack does not come back for Miko.

He comes back for her.

She's femme enough to feel an immense sense of satisfaction in that.

And when Megatron is stopped … when her Spark is fading .. she comes back for him.

She tries to warn him that this path they are on can only lead to tragedy. "There are other motorcycles in the world."

Even if she were a human woman, the differences in their stages of life are too great. For all his bravery and maturity, Jack still has much growing to do. It would not be fair to him ...

And she is an Autobot with a lifespan immeasurably longer than a human's. Before the Great War, a Cybertronian might spend the equivalent of a human lifetime reading one piece of literature, studying a work of art, or consider that time a brief vacation.

Jack will age and die in little more than an eyeblink to her.

But when he says, "You're my first" she knows that she will not turn away from the path that fate has given them.

They will work together. They will fight alongside her fellow Autobots, alongside Raf and Miko …

But when they can, they will steal away time to be alone together in the only way they can be.

She will drive down the desert highways she has ridden so many times since she came to Earth. She will know the sun and the wind and the alien stars of a world that she does not belong to.

But she won't be alone.

Jack will be with her.

And that is enough for her.