Chapter Text
Starscream was utterly restless.
Pacing his room again and again, only to sit down by his workstation once more, he checked his chronometer for what must have been the millionth time that cycle.
On the couch by the seating area Skywarp groaned: “For the love of Primus, Star! Will you chill out already! There is still more than a megacycle left till the appointment.”
Soundwave, Nova Storm and the Younglings, that were all currently present in the seekers room, seconded the notion. He had been pacing since dawn.
Up until a few orbital cycles ago, Starscream could avoid meeting with Dr. Marks, but Agent Schloder of all people brought his foot down. The seeker had to see the therapist. The issues between him and Megatron needed to be resolved.
And so today was the day they would have their first group session. Starscream didn’t know, how he had managed his in-person sessions with Dr. Marks up until this point without giving himself away as S., but today would be a thousand times worse.
Megatron would be there!!!
And they would have to talk about their train wreck of a relationship and how it came to the incident a few cycles ago, during which the former warlord stampeded into the kitchen and nearly broke the seekers wrist.
The thought alone made Starscream get up from his workstation to uselessly pace again. It made the other occupants of his room groan.
Nova Storm stood up, briefly took her Trineleader by his shoulders and maneuvered him into her previous seat at the table. The Terrans had put up a boardgame to pass the time.
While they had claimed, that they were all here as his `emotional support´, Starscream was only all too aware that some of them were only here to keep an optic on him and prevent him from fleeing. Identifying the paranoid thought for what it was, the seeker tried one of his venting techniques and attempted to focus on the game.
His thoughts however, kept wandering off.
As Dorothy came into his room, he all but jumped to his peds.
“It’s way too early! I still got time!” he cried like a prisoner on death row.
Dorothy made a placating motion with her hands, like trying to calm down a spooked horse. “It’s not about that,” she soothed, “We’ve got a visitor.”
That almost sent Starscream even more into a tizzy. He hated strangers on the homestead during the best of times.
As it turned out, the visitor was Keith, the older brother of Cassidy Nulte. The children had to think for a bit, before Robby remembered her as Izzys friend, that had participated in the Mal-Terran Park disaster.
Apparently, Keith wanted to talk with Swindle, but didn’t know how to contact the con.
Starscream scowled at that. He had no time dealing with the pesky jeeps’ shenanigans right now …
A sudden idea surged through him like an electrical current. Bless the little troublemaker and his unfortunate timing! That was exactly the excuse he needed.
But before Starscream could even finish his improvised monologue about taking responsibility of his subordinates’ actions, like every true leader would, Skywarp had already called his bluff.
“No problem, Dorothy,” she said with a toothy grin, “I’ll fetch the little wire weasel for you real quick. Just gimme a second, and I’ll warp right over.”
Starscream started to object and gesticulated wildly, that he should be the one to fetch the jeep. It earned him an unamused look from Dorothy, who saw right through his spiel, and some giggles from the Younglings, that found his antics wildly amusing.
Not wanting to argue, but also unwilling to play into her Trineleaders distraction, Skywarp grabbed Starscream by the arm and both of them disappeared in a flash of red lightning.
They were already standing in the hallway of the Safehouse as the tricolored jet realized, what had happened.
Twisting his arm free from his grinning mate, Soundwaves clinical message with the location of Swindle did nothing to improve either his mood nor his nerves.
Stepping up to the room of Skullcruncher and the Insecticons, Skywarp knocked on the door.
As a bamboozled Bombshell opened the door, Starscream hoped to see something that was so horrendous (or at least time consuming), that it would require him to spend all day long fixing it.
But a first looked showed him nothing indiscriminatory.
All the grunts were present as Swindle kneeled on the ground in the middle of the room, his small form almost completely hidden behind a looming Skullcruncher. It soured the seekers mood even further, that this one time, he needed his chaotic kin to do something processor numbingly stupid, they were just … Well, what were they doing?
As the huge beastformer turned around at Bombshells exclamation of “Oh, slag!” Starscream spotted a little device in the big mechs servos, before he wisely hid it behind his back. Breakdown and Shrapnel moved slowly to hide something else from their leader, in a move that was probably meant to be smooth.
Utterly disappointed at the lack of chaos Starscream didn’t even let Skullcruncher finish his pathetic simpering as he ordered Swindle: “You! With me!”
Swindle at least had the good grace to look guilty, which gave Starscream some hope, that the jeep did something bad enough to warrant a thorough investigation. But just as they tried to defy him, a little beep sounded in the room. First from where Breakdown and Shrapnel still shielded something from his optics, and then a resounding noise from behind Skullcrunchers back.
Starscream felt like ripping his processor out. He knew that noise! Those useless thugs were hiding a gaming console from him!
“Oh, for sparks sake – Skywarp!” he ordered before the stupidity of it all would infect him, too.
As his Trinemate snatched the little grounder up by his own kibble, Starscream growled a threat in the general direction of the room and they once again disappeared.
As they rematerialized this time, they were outside the homestead, where Alex, Dorothy and Keith were waiting for them. The humans sat around a table, drinking lemonade, as Skywarp dropped Swindle unceremoniously.
“There you have him! We’re off,” Starscream groused and before he could do much else, Skywarp once again teleported them into his room. So much for his great escape plan!
Ever since he started living with the Maltos something weird happened every other orbital cycle, but the one time he needed a miracle, to avoid his therapy session with Megatron, it was a completely ordinary day. Was it really too much to ask for something extraordinary?
_____________________________________________________________________
The entourage of bots marching through the hallways was audible a mile away.
Dr. Marks smiled to herself even though that thought should have been scary. She had wanted to work for an institution like S.T.A.R.S. for her entire life. Ever since she watched the X-Files as a kid she wanted to be like Dr. Dana Scully. But blood and guts had always made her queasy, so she opted to become another kind of doctor.
After all, she still wanted to help people, and she still wanted in on all the wacky government conspiracies. That thought, too, matured over time, like many other of her aspirations. When you get older, you have to decide which dreams to pursue, and which ones to let go after all.
But now she was here. She was working with real life aliens!
The bickering outside of her door got louder.
Once again, she laughed to herself, because those aliens had the exact same issues as everyone else.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Starscream wasn’t happy. Not. At. All.
He was currently being hassled down the halls of Autobot HQ by the Maltos, Soundwave and his Trine. Everyone was encouraging him, sweet-talking him … cutting off his escape routes. Urgh!
Now they were only one corner away from the office.
The seeker stemmed his thrusters into the ground, as Hashtag and Skywarp were pulling on his servos. “Would you stop it already!” he groused to everyone in his immediate vicinity.
Even Arcee, Prowl and Elita-1 came to see the procession following the seeker. Great! Even more of an audience!
“I am perfectly capable of walking to her office on my own,” he let them all know. It earned him several flat looks.
Skywarp was still pulling on his servo, but she wasn’t putting her whole weight into it. It was more of a playful gesture. “Noone’s thinking you can’t do it, Star,” she purred at him as if he was a pet failing to learn a new trick. It made his wings shoot all the way up.
Soundwave took over with a droned: “Chance of flight: high. Starscream: nervous.” Several heads bobbed up and down in agreement to that.
Starscreams cheeks turned hot as he pressed forth: “I. Am. Not. Nervous!”
Down by his peds a flat voice greeted: “Hello!”
It made him jump almost all the way to the ceiling with an undignified shriek. Hashtag lost her grip on his servo but Skywarp held tight, which is how Starscream ended up in her arms bridal style.
Dr. Thi Dang looked at them in that eerie owlish way of hers while the Terrans and Skywarp erupted in laughter.
More embarrassed than ever before Starscream demanded to be let down and brushed invisible dust from his plating. “By the Unmaker: Put a bell on her!” the flummoxed jet demanded from no one in particular.
The anthropologist was once again writing his reactions into her little black notebook.
Glaring down at the woman, that ignored his outburst much like she ignored everything else that wasn’t currently the topic on her studies, he noticed something different about her.
Oddly, her form seemed to have changed.
Crouching down to her level, some of the others exclaimed in surprise. Maybe they thought that he had enough and wanted to crush the woman. However, Starscream merely pushed her notebook down with one careful digit to better see her body.
This time the anthropologist actually looked up at him in what might have been her mild form of surprise.
The seekers optics whirred as he zoomed in on the strange package that was bound to the human’s chest by a colorful cloth. He laid his helm to the side, his wings flicking in interest. Dr. Thi Dang wanted to note this gesture down, but Starscream kept her notebook out of the way. This time, he was scrutinizing her.
No one spoke during that little encounter. Even the Autobots seemed to be curious what this was all about.
Finally, the seeker asked: “What is that?”
The Maltos had made their way up to him and Dr. Thi Dang by now so they could see, what got his attention. Dorothy seemed surprised by what she saw. Mo squealed.
“This is Alexis,” the Asian woman answered and patted the things head where tufts of light brown hair could be seen.
Well, this answered nothing. “Is it a parasite? Or a symbiont?” the seeker asked.
For some reason Dorothy of all people was offended and swatted at his leg. Alex, Robby and Mo laughed, much like the Autobots did.
“It’s a baby, Starscream,” Mo explained between giggles.
Still confused the seeker guessed: “Soooo, more like a pet then?”
By now even the Terrans were giggling. The humans however stopped doing so. They just looked at him incredulously.
“You don’t know, what a baby is, do you?” Dorothy asked him with wide eyes. It had never occurred to her, that he wouldn’t know, where humans came from.
Robby stepped forward to explain: “A baby is a little human. A child, just like us.” He pointed at himself and his sister.
Starscreams optics slitted in confusion. “It’s … a human larvae?”
The Terrans giggled even louder. The Autobots did so as well. The seekers Trine crouched down next to him to take a look for themselves.
Alex took pity on the poor mech. He beckoned the seeker to pick him up and place him on his shoulder, in order to tell him, where babies came from.
From behind Soundwave, Elita-1 whispered: “Please tell me, that you are recording this.” Upon seeing the blue mechs thumbs up she had to bite her tongue in order not to laugh out loud.
The explanation he received from Alex must have been rather intense, because Starscream startled so bad, that he almost threw the man off.
“You are lying!” the con accused, “You are making fun of me, just because I don’t know what a … a bebby is. How is something so small supposed to become a human?”
This time Dr. Thi Dang answered: “She will grow. It will take a long time, almost a fourth of her life. It will take a lot of nutrients, education and effort. But then, she will be an adult and will maybe have her own children.”
Starscream stared from the baby to Robby and Mo. “Are you two also still growing?” he asked suspiciously, as if trying to confirm, what Dr. Thi Dang had just said.
The children laughed. Robby said: “I sure hope so.” He straightened his back and went to his tiptoes. Mo raised her arms in the air and asked: “Did you think we were already fully grown all this time?”
Again, Starscream cocked his helm before he admitted: “I thought humans came in different sizes just like Cybertronians.” With that he looked at Twitch, who currently sat on Hashtags shoulder. How was he supposed to know, that humans could actually put on more mass as they got older.
While he still mused about this, Dorothy asked the other woman: “Where is the father? Is your husband here as well?”
Dr. Thi Dang didn’t even blink at the question. “I have no husband,” she answered clinically,” He was a former co-worker. As I informed him about my pregnancy, he made it clear that he didn’t want a role in her life. It’s why I looked for a new job. S.T.A.R.S. was offering great benefits, especially regarding their children policy.” The last part was stated with a look at Robby and Mo.
During her explanation Dorothy and Alex were looking away in … shame? Pity? It was hard to tell. Starscream however, looked at her intently. She answered with her own owlish stare. It was once again silent in the hallway.
“The sire didn’t accept your creation?” he breathed.
She shook her head. No trace of remorse or sadness on her face.
The seekers gaze turned even sharper. “But you do?”
A nod.
He nodded back and clambered back to his peds.
Just then Dr. Marks peeked around the corner. “There you all are,” she exclaimed, “I was wondering, why it became so quiet all of a sudden. Do you want to come in?”