My New Life as an Autobot ~~ Book 1

26

Terry's POV

    I chuckled softly and faced my father with a smile once I chased Ironhide from the pod, "Miss me, Optimus?"

    He suddenly tackled me in a bear hug and I hugged him back tightly as he wept, "Primus. . . I-I'm so sorry, Orion. . . C-Can you ever possibly forgive me for what I did to you?"

    My spark touched his gently and I whispered, "I'll never hold you accountable for what happened, Dad. In my spark I know why you did it and you did what you thought was right to protect Tessa and the other Autobots. . . I will never turn my back on you."

    We both hugged each other for a few more minutes before Optimus slowly drew away from me and allowed the rest of the team to welcome me back saying, "We'll speak more later, Orion."

    I nodded to him, shrank down to my holoform, and faced the team with a warm smile. Of course Tessa made it to me first and made me swear to never go off on my own ever again, but I promised to make her happy even though I knew I probably would sometime.

    Bee, Ratchet, Prowl, and Jazz were next; however, once they had cleared out, Ironhide didn't come up to me right away. His usually stern face looked. . . softer? When I was about to voice my concern, he wrapped me into a fierce hug and broke down sobbing! His muscular frame shuddered against me as he growled in my ear, "Don't you ever do something like that again, kid. We all missed you so much and I felt terrible because I was supposed to protect you but--"

    "Ironhide? Please, look at me," I said as I tried to raise his eyes to meet my own. When he finally did I smiled softly, "You had to take care of Tessa and I had specifically ordered you to protect her before myself. . . In my mind, you did what was right and I'm not angry with you at all."

    He nodded curtly and struggled to regain his composure.

    Ratchet quickly scanned me for any injuries and then was actually nice to me instead of being his usual grouchy self. It was really weird to have him smiling more often and he even laughed as Tessa and I shared a steamy kiss. The old doc was also hanging around Optimus a lot more as well. . . I told myself to ask my father about it later when we were speaking alone.

    Optimus decided it was best that we move soon and I couldn't agree more. My engine purred as Tessa climbed into my passenger seat and my cooling fans kicked on when she ran her fingers lightly over my dashboard. When everyone was ready, my father led us out and I was positioned right behind him and in front of Ironhide. I knew they were trying to protect me better than before and it was kind of annoying for the first fifteen miles of driving we did; however, I didn't complain because I knew we had all been through tough times as of late and I also knew that they would have done it anyway. Big softies. . .

   

Author's Notes/Announcements

*** Hello Readers in Canada and New Zealand!! I give you guys a special shout out right now and I'm hoping you are enjoying this story so far. Please feel free to give me feedback on the chapters you read so that I might make this an even better story for you!!

*** I can't believe that this story has almost 500 views!! Thank you so much for supporting this story for all this time!! My confidence has grown exponentially since I first joined and I owe it all to my dedicated readers (YOU!!). :D

    Thank you all again!!

~ Your Humble Author