Tinman

The Slope of Recovery

The Lennoxes stayed at the hotel for two days to allow time for Sara and Annabelle to rest and recover before they decided to return home. Despite the fact the Decepticons knew where they lived, Sara and Will adamantly refused to leave their land and home behind. It was all they had besides each other. But, they knew they'd have to rebuild the house since the abduction resulted in irreparable damage to the edifice.

When Optimus brought the family back to their farm a wonderful surprise awaited them. The building that was to be Ironhide's was completely finished. Apparently, Ironhide had planned out the building's specs with Ratchet, so together Optimus and Bumblebee finished it out simply by following the blueprints from Ratchet. The Lennoxes, after all, needed someplace to stay while their new house was being built.

To avoid any nosy questions about how exactly their house got split in two, Will contacted his superiors in the military and they assembled a "special" crew to rebuild the house the following week.

....

Two days later at the Lennox farm...

Will blew some exhausted air from his lungs and sat heavily on the mattress of his bed. Moving all of the stuff from his house to Ironhide's building was exhausting work despite the immense help of Optimus, who certainly didn't seem exhausted in the least moving all of the heaviest pieces of furniture to the building. To him it was as easy as moving doll furniture. Of course, he had to pretty much rip the whole roof off in order to reach the articles. It didn't matter anyway since the house was going to be demolished and built from the foundation up. The Autobot leader just had to be as gentle as possible to avoid crushing the tiny pieces of furniture. Will handled all the boxes of the small, breakable things whiles Sara sat down in the living room, packing and labeling all of the boxes.

Nostalgically, Will stared at the almost alien walls around him and at the sky so brazenly exposed through the roofless house. His home, the home he himself had grown up in, all of it would be gone in a few days. All of it would be lost, only remembered through pictures and memories. His baby girl took her first steps outside this house. He and Sara had shared so many intimate nights as newlyweds in this very room before they had Annabelle and he went off to Qatar. It was almost like losing a friend.

As Will stared at the walls a shadow engulfed the room and the man looked up at Optimus. The Autobot leader quirked his crested head at the man a moment.

"Is there something wrong, Captain?" he inquired.

Will gave a bemused smile to the towering mech, "Just remembering. Sigh If these walls could talk."

Optimus stared at the walls a moment, not quite understanding.

"I just mean this house holds a lot of memories for me. It's ...it's just sad to know it'll be gone forever." Will clasped his hands and then slowly rubbed them together.

"I understand." Optimus nodded.

Will mentally beat himself up. Ironhide had told him all about how they'd lost their home of Cybertron, and here he was complaining about losing a house when it was going to be rebuilt in a few days. The Autobots had nothing.

"I'm sorry...I shouldn't be complaining when you've lost so much more." the man admitted.

Optimus shook his head, "It is all right to miss your home and its memories, Captain. You should not feel guilty."

The Captain nodded, absently clapping his hands together.

"Is there anything else you need me to move for you?" the big Autobot asked politely.