Predaking growled as he settled on the Mesa. Based off the scents, somewhere in the town was the human carrier of Ripclaw. This was the road that she took, presumably to the autobot base.

If she didn't know the fate of her offspring, perhaps she would help him. He had vague memories of carriers being rather protective of young, hopefully she was the same.

—-

Kristen looked up from the nurses station as June entered. Her attempt at a greeting was cut short as she realized June's eyes were red from crying.

"June?" They all knew her son had gone missing the night the town had evacuated, and this long ... if he had been seriously injured, he was probably dead.

"Yes?" June straightened up.

"A-any news about Jack?"

"No. Not yet." June looked at the files on the desk, clearly trying to change the subject.

Kristen didn't let that stop her. "June, please, if you need time off, please take it. No one would judge you."

June glared at her.

"No, you know as well as I do that you need a hundred percent focus, and a part of you isn't here, because you're looking at the out-patient files, not the emergency room ones."

June looked down, and then wordlessly covered her eyes.

"I can't go home, or to the base." She finally admitted.

Kristen took it for a victory. "There's a motel a block over, they're renting rooms at a discount for hospital workers, specially those that are displaced by that meteor shower."

"I can't just leave, I just got here!"

"June, trust me. Just get some sleep."

June turned and left, and one of the administrative doctors came over.

"I owe you twenty from the betting pool, I thought for sure we'd have to slip her a sedative, she's been going almost non-stop since the meteor shower." The two women looked at where their colleague had left. "Did she say anything about her son?"

"No, but I think we all know that if he was still alive, he'd have checked in by now."

—-

June made it to her car, sending a text to Bill that she was off work early and going to a motel for the night when she noticed that her rear tire had a flat. And she hadn't replaced the spare tire yet from her last flat.

Just like that, June began feeling tears prick her eyes as she sat down inside her car. Today was not a good day. Not after giving her son that memory test and learning how much of the finer details of his life he'd forgotten.

Her phone rang, and for a moment she thought about not answering. Unfortunately, it could be important.

"June Darby-" she started.

"Nurse Darby, a predacon lifesign has appeared outside of town and is hovering around your route to base. We're going to bridge you out." Ultra Magnus informed her.

"My car's got a flat, and the parking lot of the hospital has too many windows." June was not going to make Bill's job harder than it had to be.

"I can get her." Smokescreen's voice came over the comm. "We can go in the opposite direction to bridge out and avoid the dragon."

"I can get her." Arcee added.

"Arcee, you're supposed to be with Jack, someone sees me with you, there will be questions. Smokescreen, how soon can you get here?" June asked, pulling out pepper spray from her glove compartment, it wasn't much but it did effect bots.

"On my way now." Smokescreen drove through the ground bridge, and exited on the other side of the city. The amount of time it took to get to June made him wish he'd asked to have the bridge connect in an alleyway or something.

"Mrs. Darby?" Smokescreen opened his driver's side door. He was promptly baffled by her going to his passenger side. "Uh?"

"You're picking me up, I'm good as a passenger."

"Yes ma'am." Smokescreen closed his door. "I've got Mrs. Darby, heading back to the bridge coordinates."

"We're on standby, be careful." Ratchet ordered.

The drive was uncomfortably long just getting here, Smokescreen was a little uneasy about the drive back.

"I'm sorry." Smokescreen apologized without thinking when he stopped at the stoplight. "I shouldn't have left Jack, I didn't want to, but he said-"

"Smokescreen, why did you listen to Jack?" June cut him off. "You ... you keep saying that 'Jack told you', that 'Jack said to', but you never say why you listened and obeyed him?"

"..." Smokescreen shifted on his wheels. "I'm... okay, so you know we're millennia old, right, by your calendar? But if you do ages comparatively, I'm ... well, I'm Jack's age equivalent as a cybertronian." Smokescreen admitted. "So ... I kept forgetting that Jack's not actually my age, or that he wasn't an autobot because he ... was the closest person to my age? I don't know. I just ... it never really clicked that Jack wasn't an autobot, I don't know why!" Smokescreen felt frustrated. "He always felt different..."

"Smokescreen, you came to earth a year ago... after Jack went to Vector Sigma." June paused, vague theories trying to connect to each other running through her mind. "He would've had the spark energy then, what if that's why you thought Jack was your age?"

"It's a theory." Smokescreen agreed. "I just never thought about it, since being with Jack and hanging out was fun, especially pranking that bully- which I was not supposed to mention to you, ever."

"Jack pulled a prank on someone?" June asked, feeling very faint amusement.

"Mean kid that deserved it, who throws food at someone for driving by them?" Smokescreen sounded indignant.

"Did he have fun?"

"... Yeah, he did. Then I kinda forgot he was human and convinced him to come with me on a mission... Arcee was furious."

"I heard." June paused. "Smokescreen, I'm not mad about the pranks, that's normal for a teenage boy. I'm glad you two had fun, a little disappointed that you both forgot about the danger, but you already got punished." June absently patted the dashboard. "As for leaving Jack ... while I'll never be happy about that, I understand Optimus was dying and you didn't have time to argue." Smokescreen was the equivalent of Jack's age, she'd known he was considered a rookie, but... it did explain a lot. "I'm not going to hold it against you, I'm sorry if you thought I was."

"... Jack said you were a lot like Arcee, and she can hold a grudge, so ..."

June chuckled. "I think he meant that we're both protective, not about us holding a grudge."

"Ok, so we're good?"

"We're good." June assured him.

"Great. Um, if I can ... why were you upset during the memory test? When Jack didn't identify the guy in the fishing picture?"

June hesitated, before deciding that she should probably explain it to someone before she melted down again.

"... That was Jack's father. My former husband." June sighed. "He wasn't... the short version is we were young when we got married and he never really wanted to settle down and raise a family. He left, I stayed with Jack. I only kept his name because of legal reasons." And the amount of paperwork was almost not worth it. There was also the added factor that Jack's last name couldn't be changed without her ex-husband's filling out paperwork- which the man was allergic to and would never open- so it was easier for them both just to keep Darby as their last name.

It had also been a peace offering to her in-laws, who, while they had been on her side during the divorce, had held out hope that eventually their son would get over himself. They were gone now.

"... you lost me about the names, but does he know that Jack was missing?"

"We haven't talked for a couple years, I just get the occasional child support check from him." And that had ended a month ago. There was no reason to continue contact.

"So ... he's not a good guy?"

"He's a good guy, just not a good dad. It happens." June slumped back in the seat. Talking about her ex on top of everything else was moving her towards exhaustion.

As she had told Bill, their life together had been quite the saga, one that had been complicated by the fact that she was incapable of hating the man no matter how frustrating he was. She'd only put her foot down when she realized that Jack's well-being was on the line. (It occasionally hurt how easily the man had agreed to everything, and just left without looking back.)

"Okay." Smokescreen was not subtle in the change of subject. "So, prior to everything getting blown up, Jack was talking about horror movies with Miko, and while I want to see some of them, some of them sound problematic? Like the wolf man thing ... probably shouldn't watch that one, but any of the others okay or should I wait longer to ask?"

"Probably a little longer before anyone other than Miko can stomach them." June smiled as Smokescreen complained.

"Aw, come on, what about those black and white ones about aliens? I wanna see what humans thought other planets would look like."

"You haven't been watching Miko's movie nights?"

"I'm on patrol at night lately."

Smokescreen was interrupted by his comm link chiming.

"Ratchet to Smokescreen, the predacon is on the move. Get to the rendezvous now."

"Understood." Smokescreen picked up speed. "Hang on."

June gripped the door handle. Smokescreen didn't react to her foot reflexively hitting an imaginary brake when he sped up through a yellow light.

They cleared the city and Smokescreen sped up even more, the reason why roared after them as they sped through the ground bridge.

Smokescreen screeched to a stop inside the base. The ground bridge quickly closing behind him. "Sorry about that." He apologized to June as the sudden stop had her slamming her foot down in reflex.

"It's alright. Thanks for the ride." June got out, and a quick glance around showed that Jack was once again asleep on the slab.

Smokescreen transformed behind her. "Anytime."

"Until we know why the Predacon was there, I think it would be wise for you to continue to use Smokescreen and the ground bridge for the time being." Ultra Magnus crossed his arms.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Bill looked down at her. "June?"

"One problem, Smokescreen is a little expensive for my budget." June climbed up the ladder to the designated human area.

"We'll think something up." Arcee moved to check on Jack who was still out cold. "Bulkhead and Bumblebee are with Miko and Raf's families for the night."

Explaining the disappearance of the two children had not been easy, and Bill had eventually had to explain everything to Raf's family. Miko's family was still suffering from the paper work nightmare that was trying to explain military secrets to a foreign family, but it was going well so far as June knew.

Optimus returned, sending Smokescreen and Arcee out, and was brought up to speed on the stalking of the Predacon.

"While it is troubling, I am unsure if it is something that Megatron was aware of." Optimus frowned.

"Roadhauler and the Predacon have shown the ability to track across distances farther than anything we know of. Why the Predacon was tracking Nurse Darby is still a concern." Ultra Magnus paused. "It may be because he's trying to find Roadhauler."

"Unfortunately I don't have enough vacation or sick days to use. I can call out for the next couple of days, but not much more." June sighed.

Regardless of Bill's offer to re-pay her anything she missed, it wouldn't look good on her record if she missed anymore days of work.

"Then Smokescreen will be your bodyguard until the Predacon is gone." Ultra Magnus declared, as if that solved the matter.

"I work long shifts, he wouldn't be able to leave the parking lot." June pointed out.

"I could pretend to be dropping you off." Bill offered.

"We will discuss this later when Smokescreen returns. In the meantime, I would suggest calling your superiors and asking them for a few days off, perhaps the Predacon will lose interest if he has no quarry." Optimus decided, and everyone agreed. "Is there anything else that needs to be discussed?"

"Well, while the kids are out, I want to bring something up." June crossed her arms and glared at Ratchet. "Namely, What was it about Raf's scan that you hid from him?"

"Ratchet?" Optimus looked at the medic.

There was a moment where Ratchet glared at June and seemed as if he wouldn't speak, before sighing.

"... Rafael also has a spark signature." Ratchet explained. "It's weak, if he was cybertronian I would not expect him to last a week, but it's there."

"How?" Bill put a hand on June's shoulder.

"My theory is evolution. Your nervous systems emit electricity, it is possible that as more technology develops on this planet, your bodies will also begin to adapt to it as well, possibly to the point of becoming like us ... there are several planets that have evolved along similar lines. Rafael is merely... ahead of the curve." Ratchet sighed. "If this information got into decepticon servoes... I fear they might try to replicate the experiment they did with Jack... only Rafael would not survive it."

Ratchet had seen it several times, an immature spark would sputter out if too much stress was placed on it.

"That would explain how he understands Bumblebee." Bill frowned. Optimus nodded.

"As well as his inherent computer abilities." Ratchet looked weary. "I deleted the scans, wiped them off all the backup drives, but if Knockout or Shockwave get their servoes on him and scan him... he wouldn't survive."

"What about the exposure to dark energon?" June asked, remembering Raf's small body slowly failing him after being hit with it.

"I don't know, I wasn't... monitoring that." Ratchet looked away. "Presumably the exposure to real energon counteracted the dark energon and stabilized it, but I have no way of studying it, not without potentially causing harm to Rafael."

June nodded in understanding.

"I'm not putting that in any report, last thing we need is MECH finding out." Bill leaned against the rail.

"We shall keep the information to ourselves for now." Optimus agreed. "Do you have anything to add, Ultra Magnus?"

"Not at this time."

With that everyone retreated to their own activities, no one noticing that Jack's optics had onlined at some point during their talk.

Jack didn't move, mulling over what he had heard, before deciding that it didn't really matter. He'd kill anyone that tried to harm Raf or any of the rest of his pack.

Decision made, he fell back asleep, dreaming about running in the snow after a lion. When he woke up again, it was to Miko playing guitar.

—-

Miles away, Predaking returned to the Nemesis, growling in frustration. The Autobots had interfered this time, but he would get to Ripclaw's Carrier one way or another.

Okay, notes- not demonizing the unnamed mr. Darby, I know several divorced couples and can tell you that sometimes one half of the couple was just not suited for married life or the responsibilities of parenthood but they weren't evil or abusive just ... absent and perfectly normal otherwise. (One couple is doing better as friends than they were married)

Raf is mentioned in extra material that he could understand computer code at age three. We do not get any answers, I made up my own pseudo scientific theory as to why, based on the IDW transformers spotlight that had the evolution of a planet from humanoids to transformers. I can't remember which one.

A lot of plot being laid out, sorry about that.