OMG! I'm soososo sorry it took me SO long to update! If you are reading any of my other stories, I will DEFINITELY try to update them as soon as I can, too! A LOT of stuff happened recently and im not even gonna go through it all xDD I know you've all been waiting for this, and I hope I didn't lose any of you, and I hope I gain more readers!

SORRY! I suck, I know!

A few hours had gone by, and I was still hanging out with Ratchet. I hadn't even seen Alix at all.. I was starting to wonder if he even remembered I existed. But, as weird as it sounds, I didn't really care. Ratchet was being a good friend to me, despite the stories I'd heard about him, and he even let me stay in the med bay all day to keep him company.

I'm not going to lie, though, I think Ratchet was the key to my socially-awkwardness. He basically transformed me into a new person within a couple minutes.. without even trying. I felt a bit more confident than I usually did, and I was able to keep a good conversation or two with him; something I hardly used to be able to do.

"Are you impressed with me or something?" Ratchet interrupted my thoughts, and that was when I realized I had been staring at him the entire time.

I laughed it off as best as I could without looking too embarrassed and shrugged my shoulders, "I could be."

He looked like he was about to reply, but the med bay door swung open with a loud groan, and Alix came stomping in, his huge bipedal mode towering over me. "Medic, we're gonna have to switch my appointment around."

"Excuse me?" Ratchet's optics squinted in a glare, and I automatically thought he was going to beat the hell out of Alix. "Sideswipe, I already have everything organized." I could tell Ratchet was trying to hold in his anger, and not yell.

"Well, un-organize it. I don't have time to come in," Alix rolled his optics.

"What the slag makes you so busy all of a sudden?" Ratchet argued back.

To my surprise, Alix looked straight at me and spoke, "I'm taking Jenn home."

"What?" Both Ratchet and I nearly yelled at the same time. Glaring, I spoke again. "Are you fucking serious? Why?"

"You don't belong here, Jenny," he stared at me. "I made the mistake of dragging you here."

"And what if she does not want to leave?" Ratchet asked, glaring still. "You can't make her."

"I can do whatever I damn-well please!" He yelled back. "She's my responsibility."

"I am not your slave!" I nearly screamed. "You can't just tell me what to do and expect me to do it! You can't just say you're taking me home without hearing my opinion! I don't have to go anywhere with you."

"Yeah, well, this is a military base, and what Optimus and the others say goes. They think it's safer for her to go home," Alix wasn't even looking at me anymore. He turned his attention back to Ratchet.

"Well, please allow me to go change his mind," Ratchet growled, standing up and storming past Alix. Alix spun around and glared back at him. "And don't you dare try to stop me.. I know how to take you out."

"Ratchet, you're being naïve," Alix snapped.

"You're taking me back to where those Decepticon weirdos were at? Are you kidding me?" I grabbed his attention again.

He looked down at me just as Ratchet left the med bay. "There is no sign of them anymore. They were after me, not you. You need to go back to your family. It's not safe for you here."

"Alix-"

"My name is Sideswipe," he growled, surprising me. "Not Alix. Stop calling me that."

"Sideswipe," I corrected, gritting my teeth from anger. "I am not going anywhere-"

"No, Prime, I'm not saying your plan to send her back home is fragging insane," came Ratchet's voice as both he and Optimus walked in the med bay, "I'm telling you that you are fragging insane. She is my patient. I have her on file now. She is not going anywhere until I say so."

"She can't stay here unless I know for sure somebody will take full responsibility of her," Optimus sighed, and I could tell he was trying his best not to argue too much.

"Then I'll be her guardian!" Ratchet blurted, and I was instantly confused.

Alix-I mean Sideswipe, jumped forward. "Frag no. You can't just do that to keep her here! I know you, medic. Your schedule is too backed up, you'd forget about her in an instant. Not happening, slagging moron."

"Shut up!" Ratchet growled, shooting the shorter Sideswipe a glare. Then, he returned his glare back to Optimus. "I am requesting a guardianship with the femme. With her permission, that is," he then looked down at me next.

"What.." I glanced at Sideswipe before I continued. "What is a guardianship? What does it mean in your terms?"

Ratchet bent down to my level before he explained. "It means that I would be taking full responsibility for you. And, it would also mean you'd get to stay on base."

"Then yes," I didn't even think about it.

"No," came Sideswipe's stern response.

"Stop it!" I yelled, squinting my eyes at Sideswipe. "If I want to stay, then I can stay. Right, Optimus?"

There was a loud noise that came from the great leader.. as if gears were whirring inside of him. Then, a puff of air escaped his facial vents that sounded like a sigh, and he nodded. "You did give me permission to allow Ratchet to be your guardian.. I don't see any other complications other than Sideswipe's refusal to let you stay, which.. he has no authority over."

"If anybody deserves to have guardianship over Jenn, it's me," Sideswipe argued back, shoving a finger in his chest. "I'm the one who watched over her throughout high school. She was my responsibility."

"No," I shook my head, to his surprise. "Everybody was your responsibility, Sideswipe. You just pretended to be my best friend. And as far as I know, I'm the only survivor."

"Pretended?" Sideswipe stuttered out, and I instantly regretted my choice of words. "Jenn, I.. I would never have faked my friendship with you just to make you feel better about yourself-"

"Well, I dunno, Sides," I shrugged. "Because since we got here, you've been acting like a dick. You aren't the same person I knew. So, if you want me to believe that you never pretended to be anything, then you'd respect my decision to stay, and you would respect Ratchet's decision to be the one to take care of me. He's doing you a favor."

"Surprisingly," Ratchet muttered under his breath loud enough for us all to hear. If I wasn't so frustrated with Sideswipe right now, I probably would have laughed.

There was a long pause before Sideswipe finally replied. With a sigh, and soft optics, he nodded his head slowly. "Alright. Okay, I'll live with it for now." Then, he looked up at Ratchet, but he was still talking to me when he spoke. "But I don't care if he's your guardian now, I'll always protect you as much as I can, too." His optics made contact with my own eyes again. "You are my best friend, and I mean that."

"I know," I smiled faintly. "But I had to get through to you somehow."

"So everything is settled, then?" Optimus interrupted. "Sideswipe?"

"Yeah," Sides nodded his head. "Yeah, we're good."

Prime nodded his head once. "Very well. Ratchet, I trust you on this one. And Sideswipe, you too." Without another word spoken, Prime turned his body around and walked out of the med bay, leaving me and my two guardians alone.

"You know," I began, trying to lighten up the mood more. "You two could be like.. my parents. And you're both married, and I'm like, your child."

"And it's not surprising that I instantly regret this," Ratchet growled, rolling his optics as he walked back over to his desk.

Sideswipe, to my surprise, smirked down at me. "Ratchet's just mad because you called him out on it. He's always wanted to bond to me."

"Have not!" Ratchet's voice got really high in pitch, and it made me chuckle. Why, oh why, did I find that so cute?

I snorted, "Aw, how adorable."

"The two of you can just go somewhere else," the medic muttered, going through a whole bunch of files on digital screens. They looked like giant iPads.

"I thought I had an appointment?" Sideswipe asked.

Ratchet didn't even bother looking up at all. "You can live without one for once. Just be gone."

"Come on, let's leave the old coot alone," Sideswipe told me, lowering his hand. Without hesitation, I climbed in his palm. "We can go torment Ironhide."

"I'm sure he'd love some target practice," Ratchet sighed and I could see a hint of a smile forming on his face.

I grinned and shook my head. "Bye, Ratch'."

And, without another word, Sideswipe and I left the med bay.