Chapter Text
June pushed her bangs out of her face and took the exit ramp to the restaurant whose signs she’d seen for the past couple of miles. It was a long drive from Jasper to her high school reunion in Carson City, and she could use a stretch, a bathroom, and some lunch and a cup of coffee. It felt good to be here on her own, her hair down and wearing something other than scrubs and sensible shoes for once. It was amazing how a pair of jeans, chandelier earrings, and some sandals could make her feel ten years younger. She was so used to being in her work clothes she almost never took them off.
She pulled into the restaurant’s parking lot a couple of minutes after taking the turnoff, just behind a dark-coloured Humvee. The other car pulled around to the other side of the lot, and she parked closer to the front of the building. The restaurant was bustling, not surprising given it was near a busy highway at lunchtime, but the waitress found a two-top in a corner for her. It was small, but at least it had a view; she could see the whole restaurant and most of the parking lot out of the plate glass windows along the far wall.
She also had the leaf of a fake plant hovering near her ear, probably why the location wasn’t in high demand. June nudged the plant pot away with her foot, looking down to gauge the distance. Looking back up, she was just in time to see two men in dark clothes and ballcaps take a seat on the opposite side of the restaurant. They weren’t looking at her, but something about them made her uncomfortable, made her not want to risk catching their attention. June pulled her current book out of her purse and kept her head down, reading. Hey, she needed to catch up on her reading anyway, right? What with the teenager and the giant aliens she’d fallen behind.
June ate her vegetarian club sandwich (multigrain toast, no mayo) while trying to get lost in the drama of The Thirty-Nine Steps. The two conspicuously-inconspicuous men across the room always hovered on the edge of her awareness, though, and she kept glancing up. That was why she saw them watching the cherry-red Aston Martin that sat in the parking lot, as she was putting down cash for the bill. One of them made a too-quick, too-quiet call on his cell in a way that set her personal alarm bells – finely tuned after decades of looking after patients and raising a kid – ringing. She knew that Aston Martin and she didn’t think that the Plainclothes Guys had just a car lover’s interest in it. June dropped her book back into her purse and followed the two men out. Maybe they worked for Bill, but she didn’t think so.
Heart in her throat, June approached the men and the sports car. One of the men was trying to open the driver’s side door, shielding way too much of it to be trying to open it with a key, and Knock Out – if it was Knock Out, didn’t so much as try to pull away.
June decided: if this was just a car, then some poor bastard was about to get carjacked in broad daylight; if it were Knock Out, then…then no matter what he’d done he still didn’t deserve to wind up in the hands of guys June was pretty sure were MECH agents.
“Hey!” she shouted before she could think any further about it. “You! Get away from my car! Yeah, you heard me!” she added when they started and looked over, the attention she was drawing making her a little braver. “Paws off!”
“Everything okay, lady?” someone called from across the parking lot, and June silently blessed whoever they were for not falling for the Bystander Effect.
True to form, once one person did something it caught the attention of others. “You alright?” someone else called.
“Sorry,” one of the men said, holding up his hands defensively. “Wrong car. Our mistake.”
They backed off, and as they retreated June saw something glinting on the ground next to the car, the one she was pretty sure was a Decepticon and what was she doing? Whatever it was, she couldn’t leave a potential MECH device lying around in public, so she quickly crouched down and picked it up. She could show it to Ratchet later, hear him scoff about human technology and tell her it was nothing. June was almost looking forward to it.
As one of the people who’d yelled out on her behalf came over and checked that she was okay, June saw the Humvee taking off, and she was pretty sure that someone noted the license plate number. Someone else asked her if she wanted to call the police. June declined, knowing that would cause even more trouble and hoping she could just get to a quiet place and call Bill for help. She had no idea what else to do with a terrorist group’s technology in her purse and a, strangely silent, possible Decepticon idling next to her. The unusually quiet Decepticon she’d just claimed was hers, and who those men would probably come back for once she was gone. Now what was she going to do?
“Thank you, thank you so much for checking on me,” June thanked the people who were checking on her. “I’m fine, now, really. No harm done. Thank you. Thank you.”
They finally left, leaving her feeling a little guilty for not being more grateful people had, for once, responded to someone who seemed to be in distress. She pulled out her cell to call Bill and –
“Oh, really!” she muttered. “A busy signal? Come on!”
She tried a few more times, turning in a little half-circle as she waited for Agent Fowler to finally pick up, and saw that she was being watched from inside. Probably they were wondering why she wasn’t driving away. Great, something else to explain. Maybe, if she had a reason to go back inside, she could – she didn’t know – hide out in the ladies’ room until the excitement died down and she could slip out? June slipped her cell back in her jeans pocket and pretended to rummage inside her purse for her keys. She could pretend she’d lost them and go back inside to look…
June’s wrist brushed up against the MECH device, and it suddenly snapped closed around her arm.
June breathed a word she would have grounded Jack for using. She didn’t want to stand in the parking lot and try to remove it, so she headed back inside. She could get free of this in the bathroom, pretend to find her keys and then – well, she’d think of something. Get some tea to calm her nerves, maybe. That at least wouldn’t be any kind of pretense.
Leaving Knock Out to do – whatever it was he was doing, June headed back into the restaurant. Once she got inside, hand still in her purse to hide the bracelet she hadn’t had earlier, her new jewelry began to vibrate against her wrist. That couldn’t be anything good, and June really hoped there'd be a free stall in the bathroom, so she could get rid of it in peace. But as she got further from Knock Out the device’s vibrations started to be audible – and attention-getting.
Thinking fast, June pretended to answer her phone as she turned and headed back out the door. The hostess looked at her curiously. June moved her phone away from her mouth and held up her keys to indicate she’d found what she’d been looking for.
“Thought I’d lost them,” she whispered by way of explanation. The waitress smiled and nodded in understanding. June escaped out the door before she could ask why her phone was still making noise. The noise stopped at about the same place it had started, and the vibration dialled itself down.
Okay, so. Pretty obvious that this thing, whatever it was, it didn’t like being away from Knock Out. Great. June had no idea how to get out of this one. She was nearly back to Knock Out now and swore she saw the Decepticon – relax on his wheels? Well, if this wasn’t Knock Out then at least her imagination was alive and well.
Her phone rang, and she nearly fumbled it in her eagerness to answer. “Agent Fowler?”
The drawl that answered instead froze her in her tracks. “Sorry, but I’m not your boyfriend.”
Knock Out. Of course. June didn’t know why she was surprised. “What do you want?”
“What I want doesn’t come into it, fleshie. It’s what I need.”
Who knew experience dealing with teenage sulks would come in handy when talking to a who-knew-how-old alien who’d kidnapped her once? And what had happened to her life to put her in a place where that sentence made sense? “Alright, then, what do you need?”
Knock Out, apparently not as concerned as the Autobots with blending in, swung his door open. “Get in. I’ll tell you on the way.”
Well, that wasn’t suspicious at all. Not to mention what her last trip with Knock Out had been like. June balked. “On the way to where?”
A sound remarkably like a sigh sounded in her ear. “Does it matter? It’s not here. Unless you want to stay and have a nice little chat with your MECH friends, who are circling back right now and eager to talk to you. It’s a limited time offer, human!”
Knock Out wasn’t wrong; a quick look up and down the highway and June could see the Humvee in the distance, pulled over on the side of the road and waiting. She didn’t know if the men inside were waiting for backup or waiting for an appropriate moment to come back. If she called Agent Fowler for back up it would take them time to get here. If she got hold of the Autobots they risked having to break their cover and that would create even more problems down the road.
Knock Out had been terrifying but he hadn’t really hurt her, even though at the end there it had been due to Wheeljack’s interference. MECH had handed her over to a giant mechanical spider-woman for torture and eventual death.
There were innocent people in the restaurant in danger, she risked her Jack being left an orphan, not knowing what had happened to her – or worse, knowing. She could run, but this stupid machine on her arm would sound off again, and –
“Oh, dammit!” she muttered and got into the Decepticon, her skin crawling. She’d wanted to read The Thirty-Nine Steps, not live it! “Well, at least I’m not in the trunk this time.”
“Ye-es,” Knock Out drawled, voice coming from inside him this time; she hung her phone up automatically. “We’ve seen how well that little trick works, haven’t we?” The seatbelt snapped tight around her as he backed up, heading back to the highway. “Pay attention, human, and I’ll tell you what’s going on. Think you can manage that?”
June folded her arms and glared in the general direction of the dashboard. “My name is June.” Why in hell was she telling him that?
“You’d be surprised to learn just how much I don’t care.” Knock Out continued as he drove, not letting her get a word in. “Those MECH agents tagged me with something during a drag race – which I was winning. It did something to my systems, and now I can’t transform. I can’t go back to the Decepticons like this, not after – “ he broke off, and June wondered why. “Anyway, I can’t go back until I’m fixed and for that…”
“For that, you need the Autobot’s help,” June finished. “But why help me get away from MECH? Because I helped you?”
Knock Out made a sound remarkably like a snort. “That’s what you’re asking? No questions about the shiny new accessory you picked up?”
He went silent until, finally, it was June’s turn to sigh. “Okay, I’ll bite. What’s up with the…thingy those guys dropped?”
“That ‘thingy’ as you call it is some kind of control device. I’m not sure even those MECH idiots know how it works since the one who dropped it couldn’t even manage to get my door open again. I don’t know why it wasn’t screaming away when they were in that restaurant,” Knock Out continued. “Maybe they shut it off or increased the range or something. The point is if we get too far away from each other, it rattles you, and it locks my brakes, so I can’t move.”
“And you can’t undo it unless you can transform,” June finished. She wondered if it wasn’t that MECH didn’t understand their own technology or if they’d gotten rattled by having attention drawn to them in a public place. “You need me to call Ratchet, don’t you?”
“Unless I want to get zapped and you want to shake, rattle, and roll for the rest of your life…” He made a resigned noise. “…yes.”
“Okay,” June slipped automatically into her ‘nurse voice,’ the one she used to explain procedures to patients. “Find somewhere secluded, and I’ll call Ratchet for a ground bridge. He can take you back to their base and – “
Knock Out made a sound like a buzzer, cutting her off. “Wrong! If you think I’m rolling one tread into the enemy headquarters, you’ve got another think coming. Ratchet can pack up a medical kit and come to me.”
“Okay, okay,” June agreed hastily. Knock Out might not be in robot form right now, but she knew that didn’t make him harmless. “That’s what we’ll do. Meet up with Ratchet. It – it shouldn’t be a problem.”
She hoped it wouldn’t be a problem, at least. Knock Out didn’t have to let her out, after all, and she had no idea how far he could travel before he had to refuel. June decided to go along with what he wanted until Ratchet could get to them and get her out.
“I don’t actually have a direct line to Ratchet. I’ll have to call,” she cut herself off before she could say ‘my son’ or use Jack’s name. The less Knock Out knew about her the better off, and safer, she and the children, and everyone else would be. “I’ll have to call someone else and get them to ask.”
“Fine, fine. Whatever. Call whoever you need to, just get me back into root mode!”
June unlocked her cell phone and brought up her contacts. Ratchet had done something to her cell phone he said would secure it against any human attempts to hack it or listen in on her conversations. It helped her sleep better, knowing that MECH wouldn’t be able to track her via her phone or listen in on her conversations. Of course, Ratchet had also said any human attempts, but she tried not to think about that part of it. If she worried too much about what the Decepticons could, might, be doing, if they even thought about her, she’d drive herself to a nervous breakdown.
“Whatever you say, remember I can hear it,” Knock Out warned her. “Don’t try anything. I can still change my mind and call Soundwave for a ground bridge instead.”
Soundwave, who Jack had told her had a picture of him, Raf, and Miko. June didn’t know how Soundwave felt about humanity, but she knew she didn’t want to find out. She had enough nightmares about being captured by Decepticons - one of which she was living right now – she didn’t need anymore.
Jack’s phone went straight to voicemail. Of course; his lunch break was over, and he’d be back in class. Dammit.
“No luck?” Knock Out didn’t sound pleased.
“No, not yet. Just – “ Maybe Miko was skipping school? If she were at the base during school hours, Ratchet or Optimus would probably send her back but if she was with Bulkhead then at least the Autobot could contact Ratchet for her. “Let me try another number.”
Oh, please let Miko pick up! June didn’t know if Miko would answer a call from her, but it was her best option if Jack’s phone was off. Raf was too obedient a student to have his phone on during class, and if she called Agent Fowler, he’d probably have to report it. Bill’s superiors learning a Decepticon was in any kind of contact with the Autobots – June didn’t think that could end well. She had an idea, especially after the destruction of their original base, of exactly how dependent the Autobots were on the U.S. government for equipment, supplies, and housing. They’d gotten better funding and equipment after Megatron’s invasion of Jasper, but she wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Optimus still had to walk a fine line at times.
Thankfully, Miko picked up on the first try.
“Um, hi, Mrs. Darby, uh, I am so glad you called me when I am on a free period,” Miko rattled off, in a mechanical, rehearsed way that told June she was lying through her teeth. Well, June wasn’t Miko’s mother or even her host mother, and quite frankly had more significant problems right now.
“Miko, I need you to listen and do what I tell you,” June said firmly in her best Mom voice, cutting the teenager off from any further explanations or excuses. “Call Bulkhead,” she was sure Ratchet hadn’t given Miko a way to contact the doctor directly, “and tell him Ratchet needs to call me, on my cell, right away.”
“Uh – okay? I can do that. But what’s up?”
“Just make sure Ratchet knows to get hold of me, and do it as soon as possible, alright? Thanks, Miko. Bye!” June hung up hastily, hoping to hear from Ratchet very soon.
“I certainly hope you’re more useful than you sound,” Knock Out said snidely.
Yeah. June hoped so too.