*I don't own Transformers or anything affiliated with Transformers. I only own my original characters and plots. All rights go to Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg.*

My body ached with great pain. The only thing I could see now was darkness; the darkness in which I was too particularly familiar to. It was almost as if I was being pulled away from the light. I was cold yet I could feel the warm air circulating around me. If this was the experience that corresponded with death, then it was quite strange. I always thought death to be peaceful, full of serenity, but this wasn't that at all.

Several incomprehensible voices sounded around me and had I been able to, I would've jumped right out of my skin. Where was I at right now?

"Hello?" I tried to call out, only I could not find my voice to do so.

I could feel myself getting warmer and warmer, though I was still trapped in the vastness of darkness. The voices around me became louder and I was becoming frustrated with the very fact that I could not see anybody around me.

"Hello. Is anyone there?" I attempted again.

My voice was lost to the darkness again and I was becoming very fearful. I hadn't a clue as to where I was or why I was here. Was I in hell? I truly hoped not.

A loud voice sounded this time. This one was familiar to me in more ways than anything, but it couldn't be possible. I was supposed to be dead. I shouldn't be hearing his voice right now, but then again maybe I was still alive. It had to be the only explanation.

"Azalea. Please wake up," Ron said. The tone in his voice was surprisingly heartbreaking. It almost made me want cry.

I tried as best as I could to open my eyes, but I just didn't quite have the strength to do so at the moment. It was either that or my body didn't want me to open my eyes.

"Lea please," another voice said. It was my father's. He sounded so shattered, so desolate. It pained me to hear them both like this. All I wanted to do was let them know that I was fine and that I would be.

This time, I solely concentrated on pushing all of my strength into opening my eyes. Finally, I could see only it was very little.

I noticed that I was not in my bedroom, but I was not in a hospital room either. The light emitting from the room was burning my retina and I groaned and turned my head. A great deal of pain shot down the back of my neck and I whimpered.

Beside me, Ron sat. His pained eyes met mine. He moved closer to me and it was only now that I realized he was holding my hand. I squeezed it as hard as I could and tried to sit up, but he stopped me.

"Stay still. You'll only aggravate your injuries," he told me.

I frowned. A hand was placed down on my opposite hand and I turned to see my dad looking at me, tears in his eyes.

"You're finally awake," he exclaimed happily.

"How long have I been asleep?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

"A day at the most. We thought you had died," he told me.

"I should have." They both stiffened.

"No. Don't even speak like that. If anything the slagging Con that hit you should have," Ron retorted.

"I'm sorry," I croaked out.

My dad gave me a strange look. The pain in my body was getting worse and worse but I was far too weak to even acknowledge it as much as I should have.

"What are you sorry for, Lea?"

I squeezed both of their hands. Though my dad seemed very happy to know that I was alive and well, there was still a sadness deep inside his eyes.

"For worrying you two."

"Believe me. It isn't only us you've managed to put in a state of frantics," Ron chuckled.

I raised a brow. "Like who?"

"Your mom-" my dad was cut short before he could say anything else.

The door to the bedroom opened and Ratchet walked in.

"The Autobots and myself," he said and walked over to my bed.

I smiled at him. I should have known the only reason that I was even alive was because of his expertise and dedication.

"Thank you, Ratchet."

He smiled. "You're more than welcome young Lea."

I looked around the room, examining it as if to get a feel of where I was. It was pretty homey, but nothing about the familiarity of this room registered inside my mind. If I thought about it, I could have another concussion, but the chance of that was very slim. I hadn't remembered hitting my head.

"Where am I?" I asked them.

"You're at the base. You're in one of the rooms they use for family housing," Ron told me. His hand was still wrapped around my own.

"Why am I not home?"

"There was a possibility that you could've died had we moved you so far," Ratchet told me.

My dad sighed and I looked at him. Tears were threatening to spill out of his eyes, but I hadn't a clue as to why.

"He didn't want to risk anything," his voice cracked.

Maybe later I'd find out what was bothering him so much, but for now I was more focused on what was wrong with me. There was a sharp pain in my leg and I grimaced.

"May I ask what injuries I have been subject to?"

Ratchet placed a hand underneath my back and the other under my thigh before shifting my body so I was now in a sitting position. There was ample pain, but it was not quite enough to bother me. He peeled the comforter off of me and my eyes nearly burst from my head.

I was no longer wearing my jeans, but I could feel the comfortable tightness of a pair of spandex beneath my father's sweater that was now present on my body. I took the time to look over my lower half. There were contusions covering the surfaces on both of my legs. There was a giant cast on my right leg and my left knee was wrapped up in clothed bandages.

Other than my lower half, my abdomen cried out in pain. I had only assumed the pain corresponded with my ribs. Aside from that, there was a sling on my left arm from where I had dislocated my shoulder ramming into the side of Sideswipe's vehicular mode, and there was a purple cast on my right arm.

"As you can tell you have several injuries. With the impact you took, I assumed you to acquire more afflictions than this but I'm rather thankful with the turn out," Ratchet told me. "On the other hand, you have a broken ankle, three broken ribs, and a broken wrist. There's nothing severely wrong with your knee. You simply just wore it out from running so fast and you had a dislocated shoulder, but I managed to put it properly back in place. The sling will keep your arm steady while it continues to heal," he finished.

I nodded.

"You should be healed in a matter of six to eight weeks. Your dislocated shoulder will take approximately twelve to fourteen weeks to completely heal, however."

I frowned.

This was absolutely fantastic. .note the sarcasm. I was without both of my arms for the better part of a month or two. Why did that stupid Decepticon try to run me over instead of letting me attempt to save my best friend? This caused me to jump in realization. Braelynn. .last I had seen her she was in the death grip of a Decepticon. Had one of the Autobots managed to save her for me?

I looked at the three men in front of me. All of them held curious expressions on their faces.

"Is Braelynn okay?" I asked.

It felt as if the temperature in the room had dropped ten degrees. None of them spoke.

"Is someone going to answer me?" I pressed.

My dad squeezed my hand and I looked at him. A single tear slid down his face and he coughed before speaking to me. "Braelynn wasn't as lucky as you were, Lea."

My body went limp and my throat contracted when I realized the meaning behind his words. There was no way. He had to be messing with me.

"No. You're lying to me," I whimpered out. I quickly wiped away a stray tear.

"I wish that I was."

My lip quivered as I tried to hold back the tears. This couldn't be happening. It was her damn birthday for crying out loud!

"But, she was fine. I saw her. She spoke to me and everything."

I felt the bed lower. Ron was now sitting beside me, a single arm wrapped around my shoulder.

"When I was chasing after your stubborn aft, I saw her. Since you're human, you couldn't see what I saw. She wasn't well. She was suffocating and the slagging Decepticon only applied more pressure to her fragile human body. She couldn't breathe. She was being crushed from the outside in, Azalea," Ron told me.

I leaned into his shoulder and silently cried. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"Optimus and I had found her before I came to your aid. The Decepticons had begun to flee, including the one that had taken your young friend. Her skin was pale from the lack of oxygen in her system and she was lying on the ground in a pool of her own blood.

"We had made the assumption that the Con had simply let her drop to the ground before taking off. It was the only explanation I had relating to the fracture in her skull. I believe that if she had not been dropped, she would have survived. I am so very sorry, Azalea. I only wish that I could have done something to help save her," Ratchet said to me.

My heart lurched in my chest. I tightly gripped Ron's shirt with my slung arm and sobbed. He held me tightly, but not tightly enough to hurt me.

This wasn't fair at all. I refused to believe that she was actually gone. It already didn't seem realistic. Just yesterday we had been having a great time laughing, eating, and joking around with my family. How had things managed to take such a drastic turn of events? I didn't understand.

She'd been there for me since the second grade. She was like my sister, my other half. She was my family. She was the sweetest and most innocent person I had ever known in my seventeen years of life. No matter what her situation was, she had always been there for me when I was in need, just like I was for her. I went to her for absolutely everything and now I had no one.

She was the reason I forgave Ironhide so quickly. She was the reason I didn't kill Trent when I had the chance. She was the reason for everything, and me? I was the reason she was no longer here. Meeting the Autobots was supposed to be a birthday gift to her, but it only costed Braelynn her life and almost cost mine. She didn't deserve this.

"It was her birthday though," I cried. Ron rubbed my arm comfortingly. I hugged him tighter, ignoring all of the pain in my body. "It's all my fault," I squeaked.

Ron pulled me away from him and stared at me.

"Don't you dare put the blame on yourself. You didn't have a clue as to what was going to happen once you arrived. You are not at fault for any of this," he told me.

I just had a hard time believing his words. Had I waited just a day or so, she would still be here. I couldn't even think of anything to say, so I just buried my head back into Ron's shoulder and cried.

"We must be off now. Optimus requires our assistance with the humans," Ratchet stated.

I jumped up. "You're leaving?" I asked frantically.

My dad stood up. "I'm afraid we have to, Lea."

Ron stood up as well and I panicked. If they left me alone I would be forced to sit here and think about everything I didn't want to.

"No, please don't leave me," I cried as I reached my cast covered arm out to Ron.

He gave me a sad look before turning to look at Ratchet. Ratchet sighed and gave him a small nod before turning to me.

"I'll be back to check on you later," he told me.

My dad kissed my forehead. I could feel a few tears from his eyes fall into my hair, but it was the least of my worries.

"I'll see you in a little bit, baby."

His voice was weak. He gave me a small smile before walking out of the room with Ratchet. I looked at Ron. He wiped the tears out of my eyes, but it didn't help a lot. They still continued flowing down my face.

"Will you stay with me, please?" He nodded and sat down on my bed, wrapping an arm around me as he did. He pulled me close to him and leaned against the bed's headrest. I couldn't very well wrap my arm around him considering it was trapped inside a sling, but I tightly grasped his shirt with my hand.

"I don't know what I would do if you weren't here," I whimpered.

If he were to leave me, I would probably lose it. I already didn't know what to do about my best friend dying, and if he left I'd go into a state of distress. His presence was so comforting to me.

"There's no place I'd rather be, Lea. It pains me to see you in such a state of hurt."

The tears flowed faster. "I'm sorry."

He rubbed my arm soothingly. "Don't apologize for something you have no control over," he instructed me.

"What am I supposed to do about this? What am I supposed to do without her? She was my best friend. I need her," I cried.

He squeezed me harder.

"Losing someone is especially hard; take it from a bot that has lost countless allies and friends in the course of thousands of years. When an Autobot falls, it still affects me because I have lost one of my own, but I have grown used to it. It's understandable as to why you're so brokenhearted by Braelynn's untimely and unfair demise, but she wouldn't want to you to grovel in pain over her loss. She would want you to live out your life and focus on your duties. That's something I've learned over the course of the years," he told me.

"But I just don't know how to do that right now."

"And that's okay. You're grieving. We're all entitled to our right to grieve."

I cried harder. This was killing me from the inside out. "Why her? Why on her damn birthday? What the actual fuck. ."

He sighed and kissed the crown of my head. "There are many things you just can't explain, Lea."

I sniffed and snuggled into him. "Have I ever told you that I love you, Hide?"

He tensed up and I frowned. "You do?"

I nodded. He hugged me tighter. "I love you, Azalea."

I smiled as best as I could. With him, I was going to get through all of this. It was going to take a little bit of time, but I could do it; I knew I could. He made me strong. He was my backbone. He was my everything and I couldn't ask for anyone better than him.

*Please vote and comment. It'd mean so much to me. I wanna know what you guys think.*