Of This Life and the Next

Chapter 23 : So close and yet, so far...

Location: Diego Garcia Main Hangar

Time: 8:30 A.M

Mikaela yawned as she attempted to rub the sleep from her eyes. She normally didn't have any problem waking up early, but after a long plane ride in which she got little to no sleep, well...it was hard to blame her for not wanting to wake up. However, there were meetings and more introductions to be made, and to be honest, the military personnel were already generous enough to let their guests sleep in till eight while the rest of them were up at the crack of dawn.

"Oh my god! I am so not a morning person!" Glen whined as he tapped his cheeks in an attempt to wake himself up.

"That's what happens when you're up all-night playing video games." Maggie chided as she wove her hair into a tight braid.

"I wasn't up last night!" Glen defended.

"No, but you've put off enough all-nighters to mess up your sleep schedule." Maggie countered without skipping a beat.

Mikaela smirked as she pulled her hair into a high ponytail, "Don't let Ratchet find out you're still doing that." She warned.

Glen scoffed, "That guy probably already knows somethings off, what with his radar and scanners and who knows what else..."

"He can pick up on stuff like that?"

The trio turned to Colin, who was currently tying his shoelaces and looking them over in disbelief.

Glen shrugged, "Well, yeah man...he's the top doctor of the team. He's got a crazy powerful sense of smell and x-ray vision and everything!"

"X-ray vision?" he turned to Mikaela for confirmation.

"He's a doctor." The young woman repeated with a shrug, "He probably already has some reading on you, from last night. Or if not him, his son probably picked up on something. He was sniffing at us for a while."

"Is that what he was doing? Getting some sort of medical diagnosis of us?"

"Most likely."

"Oh..." Colin's eyes flickered over to where Glen sat on his cot, "And...they can really tell if we haven't gotten enough sleep or whatever?"

Another scoff from Glen, "Oh, you'll be surprised what Ratchet can pick up on."

Colin hummed in thought as he finished putting on his shoes.

Mikaela followed his lead before pushing herself off her bed and walking over to her father to help him up, "Come on! Let's go get breakfast before the signing."

"Yes! I'm starving!" Glen cheered as he hopped up from his cot. "Come on Maggs!" He waved his companion over as he made his way to the door.

Colin and Mikaela followed close behind.

"What exactly are we going to be signing?" Colin whispered to his daughter as they left the room.

"Just some confidentiality stuff. Basically, for you, you're going to promise not to say anything to the public about the Autobots and N.E.S.T or your association or knowledge of them."

"Basically, I'm gonna promise to stay quite." Colin clarified bitterly, not at all pleased with the thought of having to be under the government's thumb.