Deleted Scene VI
Spark of Gold

SPOILER ALERT!

A/N: This deleted scene is meant to occur much later in When We Dared the Dawn, but I thought I would post it now – please note spoilers!

Okay, I’ll let you in on the fact that in Chapter 20 (or thereabouts), Bulkhead – based on the character from Transformers: Animated – will be landing on Earth and joining the Autobots in their struggle against Galvatron. He develops a close friendship with Jade and eventually becomes her best friend, so I thought I’d give you a little preview of their interaction. This is also a late Christmas and New Year present for JadeDolphin22; sorry it took so long, m’dear, but I hope you enjoy it!

Requested by: JadeDolphin22

Next is the oneshot for Lecidre – it’s taking me longer than I thought, but I promise it will be up soon! ;)

“Is this high enough?”

Jade chewed on her lip abstractedly as she eyed the steadily growing sandcastle, holding up her finger and thumb to measure the size of one of its towers roughly.

“Hmm. I’m thinking a bit higher – we want this to be the essence of ‘intimidating’.”

A thought occurred to her in the back of her mind that if her mother had been here at the moment, she would have been laughing – in a condescending way, as opposed to an amused way. She was twenty-three years of age – a married woman, an official Autobot ally, and a member of the United States Air Force – and here she was, standing in flip-flops on a beach and building a sandcastle. She even had a plastic bucket and spade, which would have incited hoots of spiteful laughter if the aforementioned mother had been present.

There was a thud that shook the ground beneath her feet, and she glanced over the rims of her sunglasses to see a calculative expression on her companion’s face.

“You okay?”

“Sure,” he assured her, cobalt optics narrowing thoughtfully. “Just tryin’ to figure out how much sand I’m gonna need.”

You could tell that he had been a construction engineer before he had landed on Earth, she thought to herself affectionately as he started muttering to himself in an undertone. He was taking this sandcastle thing way too seriously, true, but she was happy to play along with it. She needed a little bit of harmless, childish fun once in a while – she was still a kid at heart, anyway.

She had been desperate for Skyfire to take her out flying – it was a beautiful, cloudless day, and the ocean would have looked magnificent from above – but he had been tied to his work in the laboratory with Ratchet, though he expressed sincere regret for her disappointment. Skyspy had gone haywire, with the radar indicating Decepticon presence all over the world, and an alarm had been blaring through the base since four o’clock in the morning; seeing as she had been awakened by it, she understood the need to repair it.

At first, she had taken to hanging around the kitchen, snacking idly on some candy and trying to ignore the shrill alert, but she had been close to tears with boredom and disillusionment.

Then Bulkhead, with his spark of gold, had offered to take her to the beach.

Frowning in concentration, the giant Autobot clumped towards the surf and scooped up two enormous handfuls of wet sand from the seabed, weighing them carefully before he returned to the golden brown tower. He slapped both of them onto the apex of it, seemingly in a slapdash fashion, before he began to smooth them down with the precision of a professional sculptor.

Two minutes later, the tower had grown by about twelve feet.

“How’s that?” he asked gravely, and she grinned.

“It looks amazing, Bulkhead,” she complimented earnestly, tightening her kerchief in her hair as she wandered round to examine it from another angle. “No wonder you were the best engineer on Cybertron – this thing would probably hold out against the Decepticons!”

If his face hadn’t been made of metal, she knew that he would have been blushing.

“Not me... I’m not the best...” he mumbled bashfully, rubbing the back of his head. “Ironhide was better.”

It was quite remarkable to see a thirty-foot mechanoid standing there looking so tongue-tied, shifting his optics to his gargantuan feet in what looked to be embarrassed modesty. His vehicular form was a SWAT Armoured Rescue Vehicle in military green, so he wasn’t exactly short on musculature – he was as bulky as his namesake, and could easily have sent someone as large as Thundercracker flying with a careless movement – but he still managed to look and act like such a sweetheart sometimes.

Jade pushed her shades up into her hair, quirking an eyebrow at him. “Come on, Bulkhead. Big yourself up for a change!” she encouraged, and he looked uncertain. “Ironhide’s great, sure, but it doesn’t mean that you don’t rock out loud.”

“Rock... out loud?” he repeated, blinking slowly.

“Yeah. As in, you’re awesome.”

She knew why he was so reluctant to believe in himself, and it made her blood boil just thinking about it. For some reason, everyone seemed to treat Bulkhead like he was some idiotic child; just because he was a little clumsy, it didn’t mean he was stupid. He was actually very intelligent, and was an excellent engineer, but they had simply assigned him to ‘demolitions’ and passed him off as the resident lumbering oaf. It made her truly upset sometimes, and she had even shouted at the twins for teasing him at one point.

Sideswipe had looked genuinely shocked by her shouting, and had left their new arrival well alone since her outburst, but Sunstreaker had continued to pester him. His range of nicknames included oaf, idiot and Bigfoot, amongst other, coarser things; he never stopped the barrage of unkindness, and it frustrated her immensely that she was unable to stop him. Leiana had tried her best, and Jade was touched by her endeavours, but he had already chosen his victim.

Obnoxious idiot.

She was so going to prank him.

Bulkhead grinned lopsidedly. “Awesome, huh?”

“The best!” she confirmed enthusiastically. “The best secondary guardian I could possibly hope for.”

She could practically see the nonexistent flush now. “Aw, Jade... why are you always so... nice to me?” her friend asked almost guiltily, and she cocked her head to one side, frowning. “I know you get a lot o’ slag for it from Sunstreaker.”

“I’m not just going to stand around and let him bully you, Bulky,” she sighed, shaking her head. “I’m not going to let any of them bully you. I’ll even go up against Ratchet with a sledgehammer if he calls you ‘clumsy’ one more time. You just landed here, you’re trying to help, and I don’t see anybody thanking you for it. It sucks.”

Bulkhead grimaced. “Don’t go up against Ratchet. He might hurt you.”

“He doesn’t scare me – and nor does Starscream, before you mention him.”

The dark green Autobot visibly shivered, slapping another handful of damp sand onto a wilting part of the sandcastle. “I don’t know ‘bout the rest of ‘em, Jadie, but I still don’t trust that guy,” he grumbled. “I know you say he’s in love with Alexis, and that he quit the ‘Cons, but that don’t mean he’s not still a bad one. He did some real nasty things back on Cybertron – sorta stuff I wouldn’t want a little human like you hearin’ about, but it wasn’t pretty. Lot o’ good ‘bots lost their lives ‘cause o’ him.”

“I can imagine,” she murmured, approaching the sandcastle and smoothing a bump out with the flat of her spade. “Don’t get mad about this, but he actually broke my ribs once.”

“Huh?” Bulkhead gasped, gaping.

She clenched her jaw, still exasperated by the memory. “I was much younger then – eighteen – and Rose had just come to the base,” she explained patiently nonetheless, and he listened attentively. “I accidentally let it slip to her about Starscream and Alexis, and she went crazy, shouting at Starscream and everything. She ended up getting into a fight with Alexis, and Starscream blamed me.”

“Well, that’s not fair. I guess you just panicked, huh?”

It was Jade’s turn to go a little pink in the cheeks; the presence of blood, however, ensured that her blush was perfectly real. “She caught me... um, kinda making out with Skyfire,” she giggled, and Bulkhead’s optics widened.

“Wow... that must’ve been kinda awkward,” he commented sympathetically.

“Oh, it was,” she tittered. “It was probably one of the most embarrassing moments of my entire life, actually, but I had to get over it pretty quickly. Rose was... really angry.”

Bulkhead scratched his head in confusion. “Why... why was she so angry?” he asked slowly. “I don’t get it... didn’t you... didn’t you say that Rose was Ratchet’s spark partner?” The poor thing looked completely flummoxed, and Jade couldn’t help but smile widely at his naivety. “She’s been real nice to me, too. I can’t imagine her shoutin’ or anything like that, ‘specially not with a spark partner like Ratchet. He shouts too much to let anybody else get a word in, doesn’t he?”

Jade laughed. “Oh, Rose can shout, alright. She’s picking it up from Ratchet.”

“So... she yelled?”

“Yeah, she yelled a lot, but it was all okay in the end.”

He shook his head, suddenly looking quite fierce. “No, it wasn’t,” he said staunchly. “You said he broke your ribs.”

Jade blinked. “Oh, yeah,” she nodded, and his optics blazed with quiet anger. “He followed me out and shook me a little bit, and he squeezed too tightly and broke one or two of my ribs. It was okay; Ratch’ healed me up in a few hours, anyway. I think he just meant to scare me... I don’t think he intended to break bones.”

“But he did,” her secondary guardian insisted, and she shrugged. “By Primus, I wouldn’t’a let him touch you, Jade... if I’d been there, I would’ve stopped him good. Where was Skyfire, anyway?”

“Aw, Bulkhead...” she smiled, laying a hand against his armour. “I know you would – you would have beaten the crap out of a whiny little bitch like Starscream.” He chuckled, having already been familiarised with the derogatory term by Leiana. “But it wasn’t Skyfire’s fault; Starscream ambushed me in the corridor just after I left the room. Nobody would have expected him to follow me out and pin me against the wall, especially not Sky’... Starscream’s one of his oldest friends, y’know?”

“Yeah... I guess.”

He looked a bit pensive for a moment, turning away and linking his enormous, thick fingers together uncertainly. She knew he didn’t like the thought of people fighting or being in pain, especially not her. He preferred people to be friends; he was a born Autobot, and that was the main reason why Sunstreaker’s attitude towards him enraged her. It was like kicking an innocent child – she couldn’t stand the sad look in his optics when he was being tormented so cruelly.

Gathering her optimism, she brushed some sand from her shorts and gave him a sunny smile. “Come on – I’ll race you to the rocks,” she offered, and he visibly perked up. “Last one there is a rotten egg!”

“A – a what? Hey!” Bulkhead protested as she kicked off her sandals and took off down the beach.

She laughed melodically as she broke into a tearing sprint, her long hair whipping out behind her from beneath her panda kerchief as she splashed into the surf and made towards the craggy rocks that bordered the coves. Bulkhead recovered faster than he thought – she heard his thunderous footsteps thumping across the sand and into the ocean a moment later, and she shrieked playfully when he overtook her, splashing water at him uselessly as he steamed ahead.

“Hey, that is not fair! I’ve only got little legs!” she laughed, already out of breath.

“Shouldn’t’a challenged me to a race then, should you?” he chortled triumphantly.

He suddenly stumbled, and she stopped dead in a panic when he teetered treacherously, windmilling his colossal arms. “Bulkhead!” she cried, but it was too late – he crashed down into the sea a moment later, sending a diminutive tidal wave straight in her direction. It swept her right off her feet, and she screamed in surprise when she was thrown headfirst into the warm, gushing water, swallowing a mouthful in shock.

The water was only shallow – it hadn’t even come above her ankles when she had been running – and she surfaced again quickly, choking up what felt like half a lungful of salty liquid.

“Bulkhead?” she shouted, blinking it out of her eyes.

Her vision had blurred a little, and she shook her head to clear it, pushing her wet hair out of her eyes. She couldn’t see him anywhere, and suddenly had the horrible notion of Cybertronians being unable to swim – she couldn’t exactly imagine Optimus and the others leaping out and doing breaststroke, though the image of Bumblebee in little armbands wasn’t quite so outrageous. She sloshed forward doggedly, trying to regain her footing as she looked from side to side in a panic.

Something suddenly snatched her up around the middle and lifted her into the air, and she gasped in surprise at the unanticipated yank as the sand fell away from beneath her feet. “Jade!” Bulkhead exploded, and she gave him a weak thumbs-up as water cascaded down from her hair and sodden clothes. “I thought you’d drowned, or somethin’! Don’t do that again, kiddo!”

“I’m a good swimmer,” she reassured him quickly.

“Primus, I’m so clumsy,” he mumbled sheepishly, looking angry with himself. “I’m sorry, Jade... I should’a watched where I was goin’... Sunstreaker’s right to call me an bumbling oaf –”

“No he is not, Bulkhead. Don’t you ever say that.”

He placed her onto his hulking shoulder carefully and she grasped the metal tightly in her wet hands, her bare feet slipping on his armour as she scrambled up into a secure position. “You’re gonna end up freezing,” he groused, shifting his asymmetrical jaw with a metallic grating sound and rolling his optics as she clutched onto a protruding headlight. “Vector Sigma, I’m messin’ up this guardian business a treat. It’s a slaggin’ wonder Skyfire didn’t already have me relieved of duty.”

“Skyfire would never do that,” Jade said fiercely. “He knows that you’re a great secondary for me.”

“But I’m so clumsy!” he groaned. “I don’t mean to be, but I always end up breaking things. I stood on little Mikaela’s toolbox the other day, and then I broke one of Sunstreaker’s mirrors.”

“Come on, who cares? I’m clumsy as hell myself,” she pointed out, and he shook his head disbelievingly. “Come on, Bulky... don’t be on such a downer about yourself all the time. How many times do I have to tell you how awesome you are before the truth sinks in, huh? I would’ve complained to Optimus myself if I thought you were a crappy protector.”

“You just don’t want to hurt my feelings.”

“As if Sunstreaker hasn’t done that enough already,” she muttered, unable to keep a trace of bitterness from her tone. “But that is not true, Bulkhead. You know that you could just use your wrecking ball and smash a Decepticon in the face if one of them tried to attack me; it’s bigger than Ironhide’s cannons, for the love of God! I can’t think of anybody that I’d rather have, and that’s the honest truth.”

A hint of pride was visible in the corner of one slanted optic now. “Knocked Blitzwing right outta the sky with it once.”

“Exactly!”

He smiled reluctantly, glancing at her for a split second before returning his gaze to the gently undulating ocean. “You always know how to cheer me up, Jade,” he told her contentedly, and she patted the side of his head. “Tell you what... seein’ as you made me smile, why don’t I give you that ride you’ve always wanted?”

Jade frowned. “Ride?”

“Yeah,” he nodded keenly, raising his left arm and transforming it into a cannon-like launcher. “You know you were jokin’ with Skyfire ‘bout how I should give you a ride on my wreckin’ ball?” She nodded slowly, having a vague memory of it. “Well, why don’t I? Didn’t want to do it over solid ground, o’ course, but it shouldn’t do any harm if you just fall into the water. You could just climb onto it and I could shoot it over that way, then you could let go of it and fall in. You said you were a good swimmer, right?”

“Very,” she agreed. “And you’d really do that?”

“Sure I would. You’re my friend.”

She laughed, an enormous grin spreading across her face. He was so blunt and innocent like that; it made her smile no end. “Okay,” she said willingly, clambering inelegantly across his armour and sliding down one of his arms on her front, carefully avoiding several dangerous wires and appendages as she went. Bulkhead’s gigantic hand hovered warily a half metre away from her, just in case she slipped again. “What – ow, crap – wire – what do you want me to grab onto?”

“Don’t hurt yourself,” he warned her, then raised a finger and prodded part of the launcher. “Reach into the mouth of it and grab onto something real tight. Real tight, okay?”

“Got’cha...”

She swung herself down onto the weapon, reaching a hand into its enormous, cave-like mouth and feeling for a handhold. Her fingers found something cold and metallic, and she wrapped them around it tightly, doing the same again with the other hand.

“Now your feet,” Bulkhead recommended.

“Yeah... don’t want to fall off straight away, right?” she said, a nervous giggle escaping her.

If Ratchet ever found out about this, they were both so dead.

However, in spite of how concerned he might be, she could picture Skyfire giving his ultimate approval. This was, after all, a scientific experiment... just with her as the guinea pig.

Slinging her leg into the shadows of the weapon, she managed to drag herself fully onto the hidden wrecking ball that lurked within the cannon, ready to fire at any Decepticon that laid a finger on her. Or, in this case, at the long stretch of warm water ahead of them. She looked around uncertainly, her uneasy giggles echoing in the gloom, and she heard Bulkhead rumble thoughtfully to himself from somewhere above. The sound reverberated around her, sending vibrations through her teeth as the heavy orb hummed in preparation to fire.

“Make sure you give me a countdown, or something!” she called, another anxious laugh bouncing off the rounded walls of the weapon. “I trust you, Bulkhead, I promise – but I want to be prepared –”

Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea...

“I will!” came his chirpy reassurance – before it all went hideously wrong.

“Weapon activation in: five seconds,” a voice suddenly boomed, and Jade shrieked in protest when she felt the weapon shudder ominously again. “All Autobot personnel clear the area immediately.”

“BULKHEAD!”

“Four.”

“I’m sorry, Jade – I’m sorry!” the Autobot shouted in a panic, and she felt the sudden shift as he raised the cannon high into the air, angling it upwards a little. “I hit the wrong button again – you’re just gonna have to hold on tight!”

“Three.”

“Oh my God –”

“Two.”

“Hold on!”

“One.”

“Really needed more time to prepare for this –”

“Launchcommenced.”

The wrecking ball flew forward with what felt like the force of a nuclear bomb going off right in her face; all the air was thumped from her lungs as if she had been hit by a semi, ripping away the scream that had been halfway out of her mouth and tossing it harmlessly to the wind as she was catapulted from the darkness, flying through the air and clinging to the gigantic thing so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Her hair was everywhere; her breath had departed her lungs; the entire world seemed to turn upside-down as the wrecking ball blasted forward from Bulkhead’s cannon, giving her what could only be described as... well, the ride of her life.

It reminded her so much of flying with Skyfire, but it was different – it was like being on a rollercoaster that went backwards, yet she was still suspended in the air, like a bird. Then there was the sensation of being outside, too... the warm, salty rush of the sea breeze whipping her hair into a frenzy, and the feel of the sun blazing down on her skin, the warmth just about swept away by the fluid motion of air.

She felt it slowing down gradually as the metal coils reached their limit, and Bulkhead shouted at her from what seemed like miles away as she hesitantly cracked one eye open.

“Jade, let go!”

Her fingers seemed reluctant to respond to his command, and her toes curled automatically, as if they could sense that they were going to have to part company with the footholds. “Don’t know if I can,” she gasped, trying to remember how to breathe, or at draw some oxygen from the air, even if she couldn’t remember what to do with it.

“You’ve gotta let go now – come on, it’s just water! You love the water!”

For a moment, she squeezed both of her eyes shut again and remembered when she had swum with dolphins as a child. She remembered how much she loved the feeling of being surrounded by water, and how protected she had always felt in its maternal embrace; how much she revelled in the ability to kick her legs and float freely, carried by waves. She thought of the waves below, and slowly, her fingers loosened around the metal. She leant back, holding herself there as the ball came to the slowest point of its movement.

“One... two...” she whispered to herself, “Three.”

And she let go.

The feeling of flight came again – she was reminded of when she had fallen from Skyfire at Mission City, but no strong arm came down to snatch her back this time. She was in freefall, plunging down towards the ocean.

For the split second that she was falling for, exhilaration swelled in her chest like the tides. She found herself shrieking with joy as she fell, twenty years of her life stripped away by the rushing wind and the sound of her own delight. She was suddenly three years old again, being tossed into the air by her mother... six years old, riding on the tire swing with Rad and Carlos in the big tree by Tranquillity Lake, trying to keep from falling off as they soared towards the sky... sixteen, taking wing with Skyfire for the very first time.

She hit the water then, her legs slicing through the surf and thrusting her deep beneath the waves. Spreading her arms out, she allowed herself to sink a little further before she swum strongly towards the brilliant sunlight above her, the salt stinging her eyes a little as she admired the way it danced on the clear, lucent surface.

Her lungs filled with fresh, brackish air as she trod water, searching out Bulkhead. His optics were wide with alarm as he stood, knee-deep, in water, but she only gave him a cheerful wave in return, laughing at his stunned expression.

“That was amazing!” she called frankly.

The wrecking ball slowly grated back into the cannon, and a large red light that had been flashing on the Autobot’s shoulder faded slowly, the glow dwindling down to nothing. “I’m sorry – I’m so sorry!” he repeated shamefacedly, giving the weapon a sidelong look. His faceplates rearranged themselves into a bemused frown, and he shrugged his massive shoulders, looking genuinely baffled by the suddenness of what had happened. “I... I don’t know what I did wrong...”

Jade waved him off, sending a spray of droplets up into the air as she did so. “It’s okay; you just activated the emergency response system,” she explained, raising her voice so that he could hear her from such a distance. “Bumblebee did it once.”

He muttered to himself again, and she sighed before she began to swim back to him.

“Stupid... clumsiest excuse for a guardian...”

She wrapped her arms as far around his leg as she could when she reached him, and she felt him tense in surprise. The muttering ceased, and she knew that she had comforted him with her physical closeness – there was no hint of romance between them, and there never would be, but she knew that he liked to be close to others. “Bulkhead,” she sighed, pressing her cheek against the smooth, wet armour, “That was one of the most awesome experiences of my entire life, and your clumsiness gave it to me. Is it really such a bad thing?”

“Yup,” he said mulishly.

God, he was bad as Ratchet had been sometimes. The whole ‘I’m crap, nobody loves me’ way of thinking... but that was behind the medic now. Now that he had Rose.

And whilst she couldn’t be Bulkhead’s spark mate... she could be his best friend.

Hooking her fingers around the edge of an armoured plate, she pulled up with her arms a little, wordlessly indicating that she wanted to be lifted. He was quick to oblige her, jerking out of his misery in an instant to tend to her needs – he wrapped his broad digits around her carefully, lifting her out of the ocean and into the palm of his hand. She wriggled into a more comfortable position, wondering whether she ought to have worn something over than denim shorts before she went swimming – she was soaked through.

The hulking Autobot held her close to his lopsided faceplates, his optics glowing softly as he studied her. She reached out a hand to him and stroked the bridge of his tetrahedron nose, marvelling at what a gentle giant he was. It seemed that she had a chronic affection for that type of ‘bot, she mused; she was closest to Optimus, Bulkhead, Ironhide and Skyfire, all the largest of the Autobots.

Wow... she was so weird that she freaked herself out sometimes.

She kissed the side of his thumb kindly, slinging her arm around it. “Come on, Bulkhead... don’t be sad,” she scolded him softly. “We came out here to have fun, right? You’ve got to stop being so down about everything.”

“Sorry.”

“... And quit apologising, too.”

They remained in silence for a little while, and Jade turned her gaze to the sun, vaguely realising that she had mislaid her sunglasses – probably when she had been pulled under the waves the first time around, when he had stumbled. Her wet hair was going crispy with the salt, and she winced as she tugged her fingers through the tangled tresses, knowing that it was going to take her hours – and a hell of a lot of conditioner – to get it all out. Bulkhead’s fingertip suddenly came to tousle her dried-out locks, and she smiled warmly.

“Thanks, Jade,” he rumbled. “Thanks for everything.”

”You’re more than welcome.” She fiddled with her dolphin pendant for a moment, thinking, before she looked up at him and grinned mischievously. “Hmm... you know what, Bulkhead? I want to give you a present.”

Blink. “Huh?”

Her grin widened. “Well, I’ve been working on something for you, and I finished it the other day,” she explained, and his optics grew round with what looked to be astonishment. “It’s nothing too awe-inspiring, but I think you might like it. I was going to save it for your... spark-day, or whatever, or maybe Christmas... but I think now would be a good time.”

“Christmas?”

“Um, explain later. How about we head back to the base...?”

She was quite certain that the Autobot’s unbalanced jaw would have hit the floor, had it not been attached firmly to one side of his face by an immovable, stubbornly oxidized bolt.

“You made this... for me?”

Jade folded her arms and looked up at her handiwork with a mixture of pride and uncertainty. “Yeah,” she confirmed, her brown eyes flicking back to his face to assess his reaction. He looked, to put it simply, as if he had been smacked around the head with Ratchet’s favourite wrench. That, she supposed, could have been good or bad... but she hoped it was the former.

The gift she had made him had taken her months to complete, and she had had to recruit several of the Autobots to help her out with it. Skyfire, of course, had been only too willing to help – he liked Bulkhead, and wanted to make him feel welcome – and Bumblebee had practically been falling over his own feet in his haste to lend a hand. Ratchet had taken a little more convincing, but his tools had been vital to finish it off. Ironhide, too, had given his professional assistance... after she had promised to polish every last one of his cannons, of course.

He was such an extortionist.

She loved him, of course, but he was an extortionist nonetheless.

Everyone always made Bulkhead feel as if he was in last place – the worst of the guardians, the clumsiest soldier, the last one to land on Earth, and the one with the least intelligence – and during one of her moments of belligerence towards Sunstreaker, she had decided to make him something that would make him feel on top of the world for a change. Something that would make him feel as if he had come... first.

“It’s a trophy,” she explained shyly. “You give them to athletes and people like that when they win a race, or do something special. It’s a mark of achievement and respect for the person that receives it.”

Bulkhead just blinked again.

The trophy that she had designed was about ten feet high, and made of clay. She had spent long, laborious hours with a paintbrush painting it a rich shade of metallic gold, usually balancing on Bumblebee’s shoulder to do so. She would stop after a while, her muscles aching and her neck in near agony from craning it so much, but it had all been worth it. Ratchet had even lent her a kind of advanced glue gun-type thing, with which she had welded large, glimmering jewels to the newly burnished surface.

Again, the cantankerous medic had spent about half an hour just telling her just what would happen if she dared to break his tool... but that had been worth it, too.

At least, she hoped it would be worth it.

The huge Autobot took a step forward, and she felt the ground tremble beneath her flip-flops. “Did you paint that?” he asked dumbly, lifting a hand and indicating the colourful painting that was spread across the middle of the trophy.

“Yes.”

Painting something on such a massive scale had almost killed her, and she had been close to tears with frustration after the third attempt at getting the perspectives right. Arcee had found her in the laboratory with her paintbrushes and cans of paint all around her, just about to abandon the entire project, but the femme had convinced her to carry on. She had allowed Jade to stand on her shoulders for several more hours, advising her on the sketching and congratulating her when she finally finished. Then all it had taken was some paint, a little music to keep her optimistic, and Skyfire telling her that it was wonderful... then it was finished.

The picture she had painted was a very simple one, and almost childish in its innocence. All she had done was painted herself on Bulkhead’s shoulder, as realistically as she could manage under such strenuous circumstances, and splashed the words Number One Autobot Guardian across the rim. She knew that simplicity and colour would appeal to him.

Hours and hours of work... but would he like it?

“Number One Autobot Guardian,” he read slowly, looking as if he could barely believe his optics. “You... you really mean that, Jade?”

“Of course I do, Bulkhead,” she smiled, leaning against his armoured leg and surveying her creation. “I made it just for you. Nearly broke my back doing it, but I wanted you to see how awesome I think you are.”

For a moment, Bulkhead just stood there.

Several panicked thoughts went racing through her mind at this moment. Was it possible that he had simply ceased to function? She had put his frozen expression down to shock at first, but now she wondered whether she had unintentionally sent his systems into overload, or something. His jaw hung slack, his optics round; he looked completely staggered. Surely a clay trophy with a painting on it couldn’t have fried her secondary guardian’s central processing system?

“Um... Bulkhead? Are you okay?”

He blinked at the sound of her voice, and turned his gaze downward to stare at her in silence.

Jade swung one arm behind her back and grabbed it in her other hand, suddenly feeling more than a little foolish. Maybe she had been wrong to think that Bulkhead would like something so simplistic... she could feel a hot, uncomfortable flush spreading across her cheeks, and she chewed on her bottom lip nervously, scuffing her toe along the ground.

“You don’t like it?” she asked tentatively.

For a moment, there was a long, excruciating sort of silence, in which Jade could only send a silent prayer to the powers that were that a huge hole would just open up beneath her feet and swallow her whole.

Then suddenly, she was being...

... hugged?

It was her turn to blink; slowly, it sunk into her confused mind that Bulkhead had scooped her up and pressed her against his chest with one hand – she was so close that she could hear his spark thrumming, its beat powerful and almost joyful in its cadence. His huge fingers curled around her tiny form carefully, caging her protectively, and a slow smile spread across her face. She shifted into his embrace, patting his armour gently as he rocked her like a precious child.

“Thank you,” he choked out emotionally, and Jade grinned, though she had the feeling that she would be weeping a few tears of her own if he kept this up. “I’ve... I’ve never gotten a present before...”

For a moment, she was dimly reminded of Starscream’s shock at getting the chamois from them, once upon that long-ago Christmas... she remembered his stunned expression; the way he had looked almost confused... and she appreciated fully, in that moment, how much they had all been through. All of them had suffered – suffered beyond her wildest imagination, or her worst nightmares – and Bulkhead, she knew now, had suffered one of the most. Suffered in a lonely silence... suffered alone, friendless, and tormented.

But now – here, on Earth – she would remind him of what it was like to be free. What it was like to have your burdens lifted from your shoulders; to hear a kind word; to feel the unconditional warmth of another’s friendship, and their love.

What it was like to...

... live.