Carry The One

Rock Bottom

"They're here," Jack said excitedly, pointing towards the hall as a familiar engine rumbled through it.

I looked around Optimus' head before returning my eyes to his optics, shooting him another pleading look.

"Come on, Optimus," I begged, not even caring anymore that I was begging. "It's just one night, one concert."

"Cara," he rumbled, placing a hand over his eyes. "You know what my worries are."

"And Arcee and Bulkhead will be with us the whole time!" I protested, looking to the bots in question for backup.

"Don't look at us," Bulkhead shook his hands quickly, looking up at Optimus.

"You're in this fight on your own," Arcee agreed, joining Bulk in backing up even further away from us.

I glared at them. "Thanks guys..." I muttered before looking back up at Optimus. "Pleeease,"

"Carabelle," he stated again. "I cannot risk the decepticons getting their hands on you again.."

"That was Megatron inside Bee's head," I protested yet again. "It was inside our base, something that not even you could've prevented."

"Exactly why I don't want you to be put in a situation where i could stop it," he looked at me with pleading eyes. "Please don't make me be the bad bot,"

I huffed, crossing my arms across my chest, slouching off his shoulders and onto the catwalk beneath him. I walked over to Miko, my head hanging low. "Boss bot says I can't go," I pouted.

"Why don't he just come with?" she offered.

"Prime's don't party," Arcee answered, looking at Optimus as he studied the screen in front of him, ignoring the pleading looks I was giving him agin.

"Well..." Miko smiled at me.

I returned the smile. "I'll regret this later,"

"Maybe,"

~---~

"I can't believe you convinced the bots to take you," Jack told me as Miko and I gawked at the entrance of the cave the bots had retreated through not twenty minutes ago.

"That was me," Miko cheered. "I didn't tell Bulkhead where she was until it was too late,"

"How that bot misses a human climb inside of him is beyond me," I reported next.

"But if we're being honest," Jack sat up from his relaxed position to look at us curiously. "How long do you think it'll be before he realizes that you're gone? You do spend all of your time with him,"

"Not if I had Raf and Bee tell him they were going to get food and that I needed some,..."

"So, you got Raf to lie for you..."

I smiled sheepishly. "Maybe. They owe me for getting them out of trouble for that racing thing. Which, you still owe me for as well,"

Jack scratched the back of his head, looking through the tunnel. "Arcee,"he called happily.

"Saved by the bell," Miko muttered.

"By all appearances, the mine's been stripped," Arcee muttered to Bulk.

"But I'm still getting a signal," he protested. "It's faint, but it's definitely energon."

"Woah!" Miko smiled to me, myself looking curiously around her.

"Exploring?" I offered, gesturing to the giant, empty hole in the mountain.

Her eyes brightened before she smiled at me. "This is why I'd sneak you into Bulkhead and not Jack,"