Transformers ( Bayverse ) - I Bleed Into Darkness

31 - Practically Family

        ~~~

        “Do you think I’m special?” Fay asked quietly, her head turning to face Charlie. “Do you think it’s okay that they’re gone? Or does it just make everything worse? Did any good come out of it? Will it ever be okay?” At thirteen, Fay was filled with questions, and with no one else to turn to, she often asked Charlotte what she thought. As the anniversary approached, her favorite topic was always the accident and the pain it had wrought.

        Charlie smiled weakly, looking down at the rolling fields from their vantage point on the hilltop. “I think it’ll work itself out somehow,” she replied gently. “You’re stronger for it, aren’t you?”

        “But I feel so much weaker,” Fay returned softly, her eyes filling with that endless sorrow. “I’ve tried so hard, Charlie, but without them here . . . It’s scary. It’s hard.”

        “I would give anything to have what you had,” Charlie told her gently. “My father is far less than gentle with me. He’s not tender like yours was.”

        “Charlie?” Fay called gently. “What are you talking about?”

        Charlotte merely shook her head, that damaged smile returning. “It’s nothing, Fay. Don’t worry about it. We’ll be okay. For now and for always. Because we’ll always have each other. Through the boys and through the danger, we’ll have each other. Best friends, right?”

        “B-Best friends,” Fay confirmed with a nod, wrapping her arms around Charlie in a firm embrace. Charlie promptly returned the gesture, taking comfort in the contact offered by her friend. “Always best friends.”

        “Good,” Charlie murmured. “We need each other, Fay.” 

        “What do you mean, Charlie?” Fay inquired. “What’s wrong, Charlie?”

        The blonde girl smiled gently. “I’ll explain some other time, Fay. Let’s just enjoy the quiet for now. The world will be okay. We’ll be okay, too. Don’t believe what anyone says, we’re going to be best friends until the end of days.”

        “I . . . I know we will, Charlie,” Fay replied slowly. “We’re almost like sisters.”

        “Almost,” Charlie told her with a smile. “Almost . . .”

        ~~~

        Charlie sighed, watching Fay’s motionless form where it lay on the mossy ground. The stream trickled by, swelling in a few spots, only to narrow down again. A rumble of thunder rolled through the sky, the dark clouds overhead casting shadows over the ground. “What do we do now?” Charlie asked, turning to Optimus, not wanting to talk to him, but the problem arising in her mind. “We can’t let her sit in the rain. She’ll get sick.”

        “We are preparing proper protection for Farrah, Charlotte. We shall not allow any harm to befall her, I assure you,” he told her calmly as the Autobots moved and shifted. As they formed a few walls around her, the doors of their vehicle modes shifted and adapted, creating a ceiling around her. Farrah was encased by the Autobots, protected from the elements.

        “Well that’s all great and fine,” Charlotte told the Prime, crossing her arms. “But why not just take her home? Or at least put her inside the cab of one of your vehicle modes or something? It’d be safer, especially if one of those ‘Decepticons’ shows their ugly faceplates.”