Mechanical love

Chapter Five

Well...now what?

A deep, almost forlorn sigh escaped Carol as she stood looking at her house.

The military hummer had already driven away leaving her walking up her driveway to her house clutching her duffel bag in one hand, and a half-eaten cheeseburger in the other.

Despite the late hour, the woman who had driven her home; one of the computer analysts in N.E.S.T's strike planning team, had taken her to McDonald's on the way.

Carolina smiled at the memory of the woman's parking job; having taken up an entire curb with the oversized vehicle so that they could order their greasy junk food.

However as Carolina entered her house and threw the keys on the kitchen counter; the food felt heavy in her stomach, and the leftovers in her hand were suddenly unappealing.

The worry she was feeling for her friends was weighing on her mind; a reality that hit her harder than it should have.

She wasn't from a military background, and neither did she fathom the dangers that Lennox's team; but she knew that they were there.

She wished there was something she could do to help them but Optimus was right.

She would be nothing on the battlefield but another defenseless bystander; someone else that they had to protect.

She didn't want that.

Giving the remains of her food a disgusted look she tossed it into the trash before pulling out the carton of guava juice; and shaking it to check the amount of content left.

She sighed and kicked the refrigerator door closed behind her before flopping down onto the couch; not even bothering to change out of her work gear.

The remote was sitting on the sofa where she had last tossed it, so instead of wallowing in her thoughts she switched on the television; having to quickly turn the volume down from its previously loud setting.

Fatigue was weighing down her muscles, but she ignored it; instead flipping stations until she could find something she liked as she took a swig from the juice carton.

"No, no, no...definitely no." she quickly changed from the channel currently airing an episode of Grey's Anatomy.

She had nothing against the show per se, it was just the medical side of it that grossed her out; something her family had always found amusing about her.

She could work in and on the entire guts of an engine, but as soon as a broken bone or a person was throwing up; she folded.

Machines were her thing; the human body, however, was just...weird to her. Deciding against watching anything on TV, she instead rummaged through her DVD shelving for a good movie; something to distract her from the things she couldn't stand to think.

"This'll do." She muttered to herself, smiling as she pulled out a DVD season of Knight Rider; one of her closet favourites.

Her brothers loved to tease her about having hunted down a copy of such an "outdated" television series, but she remembered having watched it one day while she'd been home sick from school.

She'd had a minor soft spot for the show ever since. However, if she'd been hoping for a distraction from her friends' absence; she was sorely disappointed.

As the episode "KITT vs KARR" started to play she settled down into her couch to unwind, pulling her hair from the tie at the top of her head; and letting her knotted hair fall onto the backrest of the sofa.

She sat happily for a few minutes, just losing herself in the poxy, endearing old TV series.

Then, the character of KARR spoke just as she took another sip of juice; and she nearly had to spit it back out in shock.