TITLE: Lost and Found
SERIES: Imperfection, part 15
AUTHOR: Macx
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: None of the characters belong to me, sadly. They are owned by people with a lot more money
Author’s Voice of Warning (aka Author’s Note):
English is not my first language; it’s German. This is the best I can do. Any mistakes you find in here, collect them and you might win a prize The spell-checker said everything's okay, but you know how trustworthy those thingies are....
FEEDBACK: Loved




Sam wondered how he always got himself into these situations as he walked along the road, trudging back toward Tranquility. Somewhere in the distance the noises of the highway could be heard and he could already see the lights of his home town in the clear, cold night. It was still at least twenty miles, but hey. He was young and fit.

But he was cold. The jacket didn’t keep out the dropping temperature and while the wind was no more than a breeze, it was still uncomfortable on his skin.

Night in the desert, he mused.

Bumblebee was probably back at the base, secure in the knowledge that Sam was at Mikaela’s, having a good time.

Well, that had been the plan. Then the plan had changed and they had driven into Las Vegas where she had told Sam it was over. That was the short version. The long version involved Sam planning to watch a show with her, then gamble a little, get a room and spend the night.

Now it was over. He wasn’t even so clear on the why. Not that he had really had had high hopes on keeping a classy girl like Mikaela Banes. Without the Autobots, Bumblebee in particular, he wouldn’t even have managed to get close to her, let alone call her his girl friend for more than a year.

The bus he had managed to get from Las Vegas had stopped at some dingy little town halfway between the Vegas and home. Sam hadn’t really looked at where the bus was going, only that it was headed for Tranquility – but this was the bus that stopped for the night and wouldn’t continue on its way till morning. It was the end of the line.

Stupid and angry at himself as he had been, he had hitched a ride from there.

Now he was walking.

He had asked the driver to stop. The guy had been about his own age, driving drunk, metal music blaring, barely a brain cell alive in his toxed-out brain.

Sam sighed heavily. Here he was, without a ride, without a girl, and cold.

And no cars in sight. He had probably chosen the wrong road, too.

What a night.

Sam buried his hands deeper in his pockets and almost stumbled over some rocks.

Lights danced over him and he heard the noise of a car approaching. Debating with himself whether or not to try his luck with hitch-hiking again, he turned, looking into the blinding white lights. The car that stopped next to him was a battered old pick-up and the two guys inside didn’t inspire any more confidence than the drunken freak from before.

“Hey, kid, need a ride?” one of them called, grinning.

“No, thanks,” Sam answered, walking on.

“Hey, we’re offerin’. C’mon, hop in.”

“I said no. I’m walking, Need the exercise.”

Laughter again. “Kid, it’s the desert at night. You wanna get eat?”

Sam almost rolled his eyes at the bad language. “I said no.”

The car kept following him. “We’re goin’ to a hawt party, kid.”

“I’m not.”

“Hey, I guess the lil’ spunk’s dissin’ us!”

Insults started then. Sam just wanted to disappear into the night. Things could hardly get worse, aside from either of them pulling a gun and really flipping on him.

As it was, neither of them did. There was a second car approaching and Sam’s heart dropped when red and blue strobe lights started to flash.

Aw, hell! he thought. My luck. Again.

The two guys in the truck cursed and the driver accelerated, pulling quickly away from Sam.

Well, at least the police would get him off the road and either home, with a stern talking to and his parents having a coronary about his stupidity, or it would involve a prior visit to the precinct – and then his parents.

The cruiser stopped beside him and Sam froze when he recognized the make and model. His eyes flew to the symbol on the fender and strangely enough, it wasn’t really fear he felt. It was relief.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he exclaimed.

“It seems you get lost,” Barricade replied. “It must be a human trait.”

Was that sarcasm? Sam wondered. He still didn’t know how to handle Barricade. On one side he was a former Decepticon and his whole manner was foreboding, brusque, rather dark and harsh. But then there were small things that begged Sam to differ. And bigger ones, too. Like saving him, like hunting down Trent and making him pay for what he had done, or that Jazz was his companion. He was a mechanoid full of contradictions. Sam didn’t make the mistake to believe he was like Bumblebee, but Barricade had stopped being such a nightmare to him.

“So you went out to find me?” Sam wanted to know, letting disbelief und sarcasm mix.

“No. I happened to drive past.”

Huh. Right. Sam had heard that Barricade had taken to patrolling Mission City and Tranquility, but this was somewhere half between both places, if at all.

The passenger door clicked open and he swallowed. Sam had been inside the Decepticon car once before, totally drenched, shocked and shaken from a near-miss, and back then he had actually even dropped off to sleep. Now he was fully conscious, it was his decision whether to take Barricade up on the offer or not, and there was no one out here to get him if he declined.

The hum of the engine was the only noise and the flashing lights illuminated the deserted road in an eerie way.

“Shall I call your guardian instead?” Barricade rumbled.

“Uh, no, it’s okay, just… unexpected.”

Sam cautiously slid onto the passenger seat and flinched a little when the door shut. The police lights fell dark as the Mustang pulled back onto the road. Sam glanced at the empty driver’s seat. No hologram this time.

“You seem to be a magnet for trouble, human,” Barricade remarked.

Small-talk? Sam was a little perplexed. This was really eerie.

“I didn’t do anything,” he muttered.

“A person shall not stand in a highway to solicit a ride or any business from the driver or any occupant of a vehicle,” Barricade quoted.

“Hitch-hiking is not illegal! And I wasn’t hitch-hiking. I was walking down the road.”

Well, he had hitched a ride and then decided it was unsafe. And the other two? No way!

“And what this basically means is that you can’t hitchhike anywhere within a highway, like the shoulder or halfway up an onramp. But if you are outside of the highway it’s technically legal to hitchhike.”

Barricade was silent, the engine humming smoothly.

“Those two humans were trying to invite you into their vehicle,” he finally said.

“Well, I didn’t want to.”

“They were quite insistent.”

“How long were you watching?” Sam asked suspiciously.

He got no answer.

“You did follow me,” he said into the silence.

“What makes you so sure, human?”

“It’s not like you to drift around empty roads. At night.”

A dark chuckle answered that statement. “You know nothing about me, Sam Witwicky.”

“Well, that’s not my fault,” Sam muttered under his breath. “But you know everything about me?” he asked out loud.

“Yes.”

“You poked around the computer net and think you know humans?”

Sam groaned silently at his own bravery at asking such a question.

“I know enough. I also know that your guardian is at the Autobot base, thinking you and your mate are in the city called Las Vegas.”

“I was,” Sam muttered, sinking back into the seat, feeling dejection rise again. “Until Mikaela said thanks but no thanks and ended it.”

“Your reproductive lives are complicated,” Barricade noted.

Sam blinked. “Repro… no way! Mikaela and I weren’t reproducing!”

And hadn’t he had the same discussion with Bumblebee? What was it about giant alien robots and their questions about human sex?

“You mate for fun.”

“Uhm…” Now he felt a blush creep over his face.

“Your mate seemed dissatisfied with you.”

Sam sighed. Yes, weird fascination with sex, he decided.

“Why?” Barricade asked, clearly puzzled.

“Mikaela is a girl of anyone’s dreams. That she and I got together was… well… because of you guys, actually. I’d never have stood a chance against jocks like Trent. She was out of my league.”

Barricade seemed to ponder that. “I see,” he finally rumbled. “You have complicated relationships.”

“Don’t I know it. It would be easier for all involved if it worked like what you got with Jazz.”

Sam stopped, freezing as his own words registered, and his throat constricted. He was walking a very fine line here.

“My spark connection to Jazz has nothing to do with reproduction,” Barricade stated. He didn’t sound as annoyed as Sam would have thought. “My kind does not reproduce.”

“I know that. I only meant it as an example. It’s easier, I think. A lot easier.”

“Why do you believe that?”

Sam chewed on his lower lip. “You just know he’s right for you. There’s no doubt. You don’t have to make a fool out of yourself. There’s not something like rejection over the fact that you’re more like a geek than a jock.”

“Do you doubt you can attract another mate, human?” Barricade wanted to know.

He shrugged. Sam hadn’t thought about a new girl friend so far. He had yet to get over Mikaela. That pain was only a few hours old.

“You are young for your kind. According to my data, at this age you don’t have off-spring unless it is accidental.”

“Mikaela and I weren’t thinking that far ahead. At least I wasn’t. It was just nice to have a girl, y’know.”

“I understand the need for companionship,” the former Decepticon said, surprising him.

“I thought Decepticons didn’t trust anyone.”

“We don’t.”

“Oh. Jazz. Sorry, forgot. It’s an alien concept for me. I mean, it’s…”

“Not something humans understand.”

Sam shrugged and gazed out into the darkness. “It’s not like I’m not trying. It’s just… not what we humans are used to.”

“Understandable. Your species is directed by a biological imperative to reproduce to insure your survival. We are created. We don’t need to copulate.”

“So what’s spark resonance for?” Sam asked curiously.

Barricade chuckled and it sounded actually amused. Sam felt heat rise in his face.

“Just because we don’t need to copulate to have off spring doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy closeness.”

“So you have kind of something like… “ Sam broke off, beet red now. “Sorry,” he muttered.

Another chuckle. It sounded almost devilish. “As I said, humans have a fascination with reproduction. Sharing is non-sexual for your kind, but it is everything for mine.”

Sam was a little surprised how openly Barricade was talking to him. He didn’t want to prod any deeper as to the why, but it was a little strange.

“Sharing is about trust, human. Not about sex. It is pleasure and comfort and absolute, unquestionable trust, and it can only be achieved with one single spark from all our kind. I can’t feel Jazz outside the sharing, only recognize his resonance. We make no difference as to who the partner is, neither faction nor age nor gender.”

It sounded so easy and was still so alien a concept.

“So you have females, too?”

“Yes.”

“Uhm, why? I mean, you don’t reproduce…”

“I’m not a scientist. I can’t explain spark creation processes. To our kind females are not a reproductive must.”

“Okay…”

Tranquility was coming closer. There were already more cars on the road and he almost yelped when the hologram appeared next to Sam.

“Geez, warn a guy!” he exclaimed.

He thought he heard the former Decepticon chuckle deeply. The hologram wasn’t looking at him, but Sam knew Barricade definitely was.

“Your guardian doesn’t use holographic imaging.” It was a statement.

And it was true. Bumblebee didn’t use it.

“No. Usually I’m in the driver’s seat.”

“That would gather too much attention,” Barricade stated emotionlessly.

Sam chuckled. “Yeah, figured that.” He wasn’t an officer of the law and couldn’t double as one either.

They were by now entering the city limits of Tranquility and Sam felt something heavy settle inside him. Mikaela had dumped him. He wouldn’t have to face her in class again since they were taking different college courses, but the knowledge that he hadn’t managed to keep a girl like that… it gnawed at him. Of course, he wouldn’t have been able to attract her at all if not for the whole Allspark disaster, but still…

He had tried… really tried…

Sam sighed softly, gazing at the lights flashing past outside.

At least he now had no distractions throughout college. He wanted to be the best engineer and he wanted to learn about Cybertronian technology, and he wanted to continue being with Bumblebee and the others. He was the only member of the ‘team’ who had no education of any kind useful to the Autobots. Lennox and his guys were military. They had a really good advantage. Sam had no illusions about his use beyond the fact that he had, actually, well kinda really, saved the world. That would wear thin and probably off one day.

Barricade stopped in front of his house and Sam was surprised to find they were already there. The hologram disappeared noiselessly.

“Your kind tends to think too deeply about the relevancy of sexual attraction and prowess,” the former Decepticon said, breaking the silence.

“Huh?”

“The attraction of a female for reproduction is not how warriors are judged by others. It’s their prowess in battle. You have proven yourself already, Sam Witwicky.”

Sam blinked. Pep talk? Barricade was actually complimenting him?!

“What I did wasn’t prowess,” he argued. “It was damn sheer luck. Stupid luck, really.”

This time the laughter was there and it didn’t sound malicious. “Survival on any kind of battle field is a lot of luck and the stupidity in others that underestimated you. Megatron saw you as weak and discarded your importance in his defeat.”

“You think humans are weak, too,” Sam pointed out, calling himself stupid right away. He was really walking a fine line here, probably provoking the Decepticon.

“I’m willing to amend that opinion.”

“Really?”

“Do you doubt me?”

Sam winced. “N-no.”

“You do. Your bodily functions betray you.”

“Would you stop scanning me?!” Sam exploded. “Yes, you’re freaking me out, but I’m trying to give this a chance! You are not helping!”

There was silence.

“I apologize for the intrusion,” Barricade said formally.

“Yeah, well… I just hate it when you guys scan me to get information.”

“It is our way.”

“I know.” Sam sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Thanks for getting me home,” he finally said quietly. “I appreciate it.”

“You are welcome,” Barricade rumbled.

Sam opened the door and got out. Suddenly the door to the house was flung open and his mother ran out.

“Sam! What happened? Why is the police driving you home? Are you okay?”

His mother took him by the shoulders and looked him up and down as if she expected him to either start bleeding all of a sudden or fall apart.

“Yeah, Mom, I’m okay.”

His father had joined them, looking slightly pinched, as if expecting something really bad. After giant transforming robots, what was worse?

“What did you do?” he asked.

“Nothing.”

“Where’s Mikaela? Is she alright?” his mother interrupted.

“Yes. She’s fine. Still in Las Vegas.”

“But…”

“What I want to know,” his father interrupted in turn, “is why my son is brought home by a squad car.”

“Uhm, it’s not actually a real police car…” Sam started.

His father looked at the car, noticed that there was no one inside, and started to frown.

“Is this a joke?” he asked.

“Hardly,” Barricade startled them.

“You’re one of them,” Sam’s father muttered. “Didn’t know you worked for the police, too.”

“I don’t.”

Judy Witwicky had stepped away from the police cruiser, looking slightly disturbed. Suddenly she looked at her son.

“Why is Mikaela still in Las Vegas?”

“Can we talk about that inside?” Sam asked, almost whining. He really didn’t want to discuss his lack of a love life in front of Barricade.

His mother nodded, heading for the house. Sam looked at the Mustang.

“Thanks again for getting me home, Barricade. It’s appreciated.”

There was a second of silence, then, “You’re welcome, Sam Witwicky.”

It sounded almost pleasant.

Sam followed his parents and he knew there would be awkward questions. He would circumvent the truth a little, especially when it came to walking part of the way home. He didn’t need to be yelled at for that. Mikaela leaving him hurt too much all on its own.

°°° °°° °°°

Barricade had felt no need to leave the Witwicky home and he remained parked across the street. He gathered some looks, but since there was no one sitting in the police car, no one thought much of it. The conversation with the young human had intrigued him. His interest in the species was rising, mostly because he had no other pressing matters – like the Allspark or fighting Autobots – to occupy his mind. So he turned to studying those he had ignored for more than five years.

Humans were a lot more complex than he had thought. They were also a lot more interesting. Since the only humans Barricade had closer contact with were the ones associated with the Autobots, he had to work with that. Sam Witwicky was the youngest and also the closest to the Autobots, followed by the Army Captain, Will Lennox.

°°° °° °°°

When Sam left the house that morning, he walked across the quiet street. It was Sunday. No one was out and about.

“Scaring away the bad element?” he joked.

“I am the bad element,” Barricade replied with a trickle of maliciousness in his voice.

It actually made Sam smile. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Do you require a ride to the Autobot base?”

“You would go there voluntarily?”

“It’s where your guardian is.”

“You could call him,” Sam pointed out.

Barricade made a noise like an exasperated sigh. Sam grinned a little.

“Okay, yeah, a ride would be cool. I’ll get my things, okay?”

He darted off and grabbed his stuff. Mojo was watching him lazily from his place on the couch and his father raised an eyebrow as Sam quickly stuffed his things into the backpack.

“Leaving?” he only asked.

“Yeah. Barricade’s driving out to the base. I’ll be there with Bee today.”

“Don’t you want to talk to Mikaela once more?” his mother wanted to know.

Sam stopped. “No. It’s over,” he said evenly. It’s not like I had a long-term chance anyway.

He left, not the least bit surprised to notice that the hologram was there again. Barricade opened the door and he wordlessly got in.

As the Saleen pulled out onto the road and headed toward the highway, Sam noticed a well-known car. Mikaela’s. She had bought an old, beat-up Ford a while back. Epps and the guys back at the base had given it a good once-over. Sam briefly toyed with the idea to have Barricade stop, but he squelched that thought.

“She noticed you,” Barricade said levelly as they continued past.

“Oh?”

“She looked frightened.”

Sam only gave a grunt. Mikaela knew about Barricade, like everyone involved with the Autobots did. She hadn’t liked it any more than Sam had in the beginning, but where he was growing accustomed to the black mechanoid, Mikaela couldn’t accept his change of heart.

Barricade didn’t add anything to his statement and smoothly joined the cars on the I-15.

It was when they took the exit ramp and were driving down the desert road that would eventually turn off to the abandoned Airforce base that Sam noticed a second car. It was Bumblebee.

“Do you want me to stop?” Barricade asked.

“Huh? No. Is Bee asking you to?”

“No. I informed him about your arrival. He chose to join us.”

“Ah. Okay.”

Barricade pulled up in front of the hangar and Sam got out. Bumblebee stopped beside him and transformed. He looked faintly worried. The Saleen stayed in his vehicle mode.

“Thanks,” Sam said softly.

The engine revved once, then Barricade rumbled softly. He pulled away without another word. Sam stayed next to Bumblebee, watching the Saleen disappear.

“Sam?” Bumblebee questioned.

“I’m okay. Barricade just played taxi.”

“You could have called me,” his friend pointed out. “My transmission frequency is programmed into your cell phone.”

Sam shrugged. There had been a lot of stupid male pride involved, he knew that now. Stupidity in general, he decided. So much could have happened.

“Sam, are you okay?”

“Not really, Bee,” he murmured. “I somehow knew the whole thing with Mikaela wouldn’t last, but I didn’t think it would end like this.”

Bumblebee transformed and opened the driver side door. The radio came on and played It’s My Life from Bon Jovi.

Sam smiled. Yeah, it was his life. Now or never.