*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.*

The rain pattered down onto my bedroom window. I sighed, and sat up. Normally, I loved rain, but given the circumstances, I absolutely despised it. I looked around and noticed that Ironhide wasn't beside me anymore; he was most likely at base or sitting downstairs with everyone else.

I pushed myself off of my bed and walked over to my dresser to pick out something to wear for the day. After rummaging through my clothes for a few minutes, I finally picked out a pair of white Hollister shorts, a white tank top, and my plain black Nike hoodie. I changed quickly and threw my hair into a messy bun before heading downstairs.

To my surprise, the only people I saw were my dad, who sat on the couch flipping through the TV channels, and Adalyn who was in the kitchen conjuring up some sort of food.

"Where is everyone?" I asked as I sat down beside my dad.

"Cleaning up my house," he grumbled as he very aggressively pressed the buttons on the remote.

I gently removed the device from his hand and laid it down on the table before turning back to him. He had tears in his eyes and it absolutely pained me to see him like this. Never in my life had I seen my dad so vulnerable. He wasn't even this bad after the base attack in Washington back in 2009. It almost made me want to cry.

"Daddy," I whispered as I took his hand in mine.

He squeezed it before pulling me to him. I hugged my dad tightly as he cried, but I didn't even know what to say to him. I'd never dealt with him like this before.

"You're all I have left of them, Azalea. I don't know what I would do if I lost you too," he sniffed.

I smiled sadly and released him, wiping the tears out of his eyes.

"I'm not going anywhere, dad. I promise you that. Remember what you told me that one day almost two years ago? You said 'You're Azalea Lennox. You're tough'. You have to take your own advice now dad. It's hard. It really is. I don't even know if I'm going to be able to handle it, but seeing you like this just makes it worse for me, so please be tough. For me?"

He smiled and wiped away the rest of his tears before squeezing my hand again. "I can only try, but since I love you so much I guess I could try just a tad bit harder," he responded.

I smiled back and propped my legs up onto the coffee table, last night's thoughts immediately coming to mind, causing my smile to drop.

"Can I talk to you about something?" I asked him.

"Sure. Go for it, kid."

I took a deep breath.

"Well, last night I was doing some serious thinking. I was thinking about how as soon as I met Ron, everything in my life changed for both the better and for the worst. I was wondering about how different my life would've been if he had never brought you home or if you have been in some different branch of the military or even if you hadn't been in the military at all.

"It didn't take me long at all to realize just how fantastic my life could have been. Braelynn would still be alive and we could have went to college together like we planned. I would've come back home to Washington state after college and found a nice job and I would've ended up with a normal human boy. Mom and Annabelle would be here annoying the piss out of me, but I wouldn't care because everything would just be perfect," I started, the tears already rolling down my face.

My dad gave me a strange look. "What are you saying, Lea?"

"I love Ironhide so much. I love all of the Autobots. I really do and I always will, but I just need a break from all of this, dad. I can't do this anymore. For the past four years my life has been ruled by Cybertronian beings. The bad ones may be gone, but still. I can't turn my head without seeing one of them, whether they're in holoform or not," I replied.

Adalyn was now making her way over to us, a spatula in hand.

"What the hell are you getting at? Are you trying to break up with Ironhide?" she yelled at me. I flinched back at her tone, but shrugged.

"Why, Azalea?" my dad asked me, his tone a little bit louder than before.

If they didn't stop yelling at me, I was going to wind up saying something I didn't mean.

"Because I just need a little time to think about all of this. I need some time away from everything that has to do with a Cybertronian being."

"So, you're going to hurt him just because the Decepticons killed your mom and sister? Do you not realize how much he loves you? He's done absolutely everything for you and this is how you're going to repay him? Need I remind you who the real enemy is?" Adalyn inquired, her loud tone echoing through the air.

"Quit yelling at me, okay?" I snapped.

She scoffed. "I'm only yelling so you can hear what I'm trying to say to you. Don't do this to him, Azalea. Please," she replied.

My dad laid a hand on my leg. "I don't think you should do that to him because of something that was never his fault to begin with; I don't think you should do that to any of the Autobots for that matter," he said to me.

And here it goes. .

I squeezed my eyes shut and stood up before looking at the both of them.

"Why is this about them? I'm trying to get you to see my reasoning for doing this. I'm sorry and no offense, but I never asked for you to be in the military. I never asked for a Decepticon to attack your base in Qatar and I most definitely didn't ask for you to come home in that stupid truck. Did I ever once come up to you and ask you for an alien guardian that I would wind up falling dangerously in love with? No, I didn't. I also never asked to be caught in the middle of this stupid Cybertronian war, dad.

"Do you understand just how great my life would have turned out to be if you hadn't went overseas five years ago? My best friend is dead and my mom and sister are dead now too. I definitely didn't ask for that. They would all still be here right now if you hadn't brought home that truck. And no, this is not Ironhide's fault at all, but I just can't handle knowing that my life is the way it is because of his species. I just can't do it anymore. Please believe me when I say this," I ranted.

My dad and Adalyn looked absolutely horrified, but that was probably only because of the voice that followed my little outburst. "Wow. I definitely didn't expect that," I heard Leo say.

I stiffened and looked at Adalyn, the expression on my face basically asking her if you-know-who was behind me. She only nodded. I sighed and slowly turned around, only to be met with the very puzzled faces of Mikaela and Leo who only ran upstairs. Lastly, there was the very unsettling expression on the face of Ironhide's holoform. I pursed my lips and scratched the back of my head. I opened my mouth to say something but was cut off by the smoke alarm sounding overhead.

My eyes shot over to the kitchen where smoke was barreling towards the ceiling. I quickly ran over to see that there was a large pot nearly filled to the brim with oil. Whatever was inside it was burning and the oil was ready to boil over from the high temperature. Adalyn ran over and my dad and Ironhide made a move to run over too, but I stopped them.

"What the hell is in here?" I asked my friend as I turned the burner off and removed the pot from the stove top.

"Frozen chicken wings. Why?"

"Shit-fuck," I cursed as the hot oil splashed my arm. "You aren't supposed to put fucking frozen chicken in oil or frozen anything for that matter," I told Adalyn as I put the pot into the sink to let it cool down.

"Well, excuse me. I'm a medical student, not fucking Rachael Ray," she retorted, waving the spatula around in front of her.

I grabbed from her hand and gave her a look. "A spatula? There are wooden spoons for a reason, you idiot." I hit her over the head with the spatula before throwing it onto the counter. She growled.

"Just because you're in the middle of a crisis doesn't mean you're going to take it out on me. I've known you for almost two years and I'll be damned if you still think I'm going to take your shit," she remarked.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not going through a crisis. I'm fine," I grumbled as I pushed passed her.

"Really? You're not? So, what was that four minutes ago when you were talking to your dad and me about ending it with poor, innocent, little Ironhide over there. I definitely wouldn't call that a trip to fucking Disney World if you asked me," she seethed.

I stiffened, slightly disturbed by her stupid ass idiom, but also angry because she had the nerve to even say that out loud. It wasn't her place to even say anything about it.

"And this day just keeps getting better and better," I heard Leo mumble.

I glared at him and Mikaela who were listening on the stairs and without another word, the two of them disappeared once more. I turned around to face Adalyn. There wasn't really much I had to say to her. I mostly wanted to punch her in the face, but considering she was like a sister to me, I refrained from doing so.

"I will deal with you later," I said slowly. Turning yet again, I was met with the now sad face of Ironhide's holoform. The look on his face only added to my pain. "Could I speak to you, please?"

He just shrugged and walked out the door. This was going to be a lot harder for me than I thought it would be.

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