The three hardest phone-calls William Lennox ever made stood out in his mind daily, if given the chance. Calling his little Brother, who he hadn't spoken to in years, to tell him their parents were dead; making a call to set up the date where he proposed to Sarah was better, but still ridiculously hard; and when he'd called Fig's Mama to tell her that her baby boy was already home. But this call was the hardest call of any- he dared anyone to find a harder call to make.

Will Lennox was a tough man, a hard-ass to be blunt, but he was always there, and nobody was allowed to die on his watch- it was for that reason he'd gotten along so well with Ironhide at first. The somewhat violent, cannon loving mech was the same. The two, though separated by literally quadrillions of years of age and miles of distance, were destined to be brothers.

And of course, 'Hide had soon wormed his way into Sarah and Annabelle's hearts too- and they into his spark. After Egypt, Ironhide had been the first to call the Lennox household- his audial hadn't worked properly for a week after hearing Sarah's cry of despair when she thought he was calling because Will was dead. But it hadn't mattered to the big black truck- he'd have been the same comfort if Will HAD died.

But nobody wanted to make a call like this, a call saying that he had failed as a father, a husband and a friend- that he'd failed to bring Ironhide home this time. Oh, to be sure, they'd been in some close scrapes- like that time in Budapest with those weird Dog-like Cybertronians (and they WERE dog-like, the two had laughed afterwards- they sniffed at everything then they peed on it or tried to chew on it), but that was only because 'Hide hadn't wanted to shoot, for once.

Or that time in Miami, against a mech named Blitzwing- he was either really angry, really distant, or bat-shit insane, but he'd been about three times Ironhide's size and had the weaponry to match. Both man and mech had come home from THAT experience with aches, pains, dents and broken bones (though in 'Hide's case it was more 'struts' than 'bones', but it hurt about as much, so what was the difference, really?)

Will couldn't help a melancholy smile then. A laugh escaped his throat, then another, then another, reaching a pitch of hysteria with unsurprising speed. He soon was leaning against the wall behind him, then sliding to the ground, head in his hands, sobbing his ever-loving eyes out.

That was how Sarah and Annabelle found him when they were escorted to him an hour later, and the family dissolved into tears together- Will's quiet, short sobs mingling with his wife's hiccupping moans and his daughter's howling wails of panic, fear and confusion and grief- she knew death would find her family eventually ("Because your daddy and I go out to keep you safe, sparklet, and we may have to not come back to keep you safe."), but why did it have to be her Unca' 'Hide?

The family remained there, eventually calming. Will sat still, but had a lapful of crying wife and child, and a soulful of unsaid words and thank you's and tears that still needed shedding. He could work later, Mearing came to tell him about an hour into his Family mourning period; right now he needed to mourn and help his family do the same. The woman had earned about 100 points in his book then, and a hundred more when she brought a tiny piece of metal out to the little huddle.

"This… this is all that Ratchet managed to get, I've been told. He said you should have it, and for once, I'm not arguing. Take a month of leave, Lennox- mourn and help these two do the same."

An hour later found the three getting up and drying their eyes. Annabelle held the piece of metal in her hands- it was barely bigger than them, and she keened a mournful wail once again as she'd held it up to her face.
"Will, I need to know what part that is of 'Hide," Sarah said, still near crying. "I don't know why, but I need to know.
"Yeah… let's… let's go ask Ratchet. He'll be happy for the company, if nothing else…"

So the three made their way to the med-hanger, Will holding his wife's hand and carrying his child in his other arm. He knew then that a hole had just been made in his chest, as surely as Sentinel had made one in Ironhide's, a hole that would never be filled up again, not without divine intervention. Who was it that 'Hide prayed to when he prayed again? …Primus, that was it! Primus!
'Don't know if you accept human prayers, oh maker of the trigger happy nuthouse I called my brother,' Will thought. 'But if you do, I hope that 'Hide gets where he's going safe, and stays that way when he gets there.'

The trio entered the Med-Hanger to a strange sight- a Cybertronian protoform, chest opened, processors exposed. Will could tell by the red tint to the optics that it was a Decepticon's protoform, which angered and saddened him at the same time.

"Ah, Lennox!" Ratchet called out, then amended when he saw the two female members of Will's family. "I'm actually glad the three of you are here!"

Will cocked an eyebrow, confused as to how the medic could be so damn happy when 'Hide was gone, gone, gone, not coming back, never coming back to the ranch, never going to shoot off a freaking cannon at raccoons again!

"Just let me online this ol' slagger, would you?" the Medic continued, still insanely cheery for someone whose close friend had just been turned to dust. But Will had not a moment to think before the medic onlined the protoform, which whirred to life. Slowly, Ratchet sat the mech up and ran it through the motions, making sure it was fine, but suspiciously blocking the Lennox family from view. They clicked back and forth at each other in Cybertronian before the protoform gave a booming chuckle that sounded so much like Ironhide.

Ratchet slowly shifted so that the Lennox's were in full view of the mech, who, shock appearing in his optics, swooped them up and hugged them. Static whirred in its 'throat' for a moment, and then a voice came forth that told all three organics in the room that life and they weren't done with a particular black robot who turned into a black truck.