Detained

Chapter 36

Dorothy was having a great day so far. She had helped to take care of the kids and finally gotten Toxin to take a nap, even if it was against her chest as she was working. He was in recharge, until someone can barging in with the loudest rage she had ever heard. "THAT FRAGGING LITTLE PIECE OF YELLOW SLAG!"

The little sparkling against Dorothy's chest instantly woke up and became scared, crying and hugging his carrier tightly. He was chirping and beeping as he buried his helm into her shirt. The woman looked about ready to kill someone again when she saw Barricade walked in with the same look. He looked pissed and upset at the same time, growling at anyone who walked in front of him, human or Autobot. Ravage and the rest of the cassettes gave the police car a confused look as he stomped pass.

"Hey, Barricade?" the eldest of the children called out. "What's your problem? What's got you so mad?"

"What's got me so mad?!" the ex-con asked back, red optics ablaze. "That's little Camaro slagger is why I am so upset! Couldn't even say it to me in person!"

Dorothy was getting concerned for both Barricade and Bee at this point. Bee had disappeared about two and a half weeks back and Barricade hadn't been at base a lot. The only time they saw each other was at work, but he was very quiet. Soundwave usually drove her to the base now since they started a relationship, but the woman was still very concerned when Barricade left the house in the middle of the night to go somewhere. "Whoa, whoa, Barricade, what happened?"

The police car glared over at the human and threw a recording device down on the desk that Dorothy was sitting in front of before going to sit up against the catwalk wall and crumbling into a pit of despair before all of them. He was shaking and sobbing as he hugged himself tighter than he needed to. Ratbat was the only one brave enough to fly over and hug the mech as he broke down. "It okay, Cade." the little bat comforted.

The woman shifted the sparkling she was holding so he was sitting on her lap facing the desk. He patted the desk and looked back at her, a few tears still in his optics from his fear attack. He chirped at her as she picked up the recorder and examined it, looking between it and the mech crying on the floor in front of her. Soundwave walked over and gave her the same look she gave him: completely and utterly confused.

Dorothy finally played the recording and put the device back down on the desk, Soundwave plugging in one of his tendrils and using his speakers to up the volume. "::Hey, Barricade.::" the voice said coming out of the speakers, earning a gasp from everyone but Barricade, who cried more. "::You've probably been wondering where I am and what happened, like everyone else probably is.::"

"Bee..." Dorothy commented. "...oh no, I know where this is going."

"::I decided that we weren't going to work.::" the recording continued. "::I was scared, scared that something might happen to me if I was with you. And something did happen when we went to the ARTEMIS facility. I got electrocuted again. I started to wonder if being with you and Soundwave and everyone else was worth it if something was going to happen...::"

There was a weird break with some background noise and voices before the mechling continued the recording. "::So I'm breaking up with you and leaving the Autobots for a while. I'm sorry, but I can't stay around there knowing that you or someone else will put me in danger again. I already told Sam I was leaving and I took myself off the map. I knew you'd come looking for me, but please stop. I don't want to see you anymore. Bye, everyone.::" Then the recording ended in white noise, the only loud thing heard was Barricade still sobbing.

The police car finally looked up from his knees and placed his helm on his arms. "What did I do wrong, Dorothy?...I treated him right, I loved him with all my spark, we did so many things together, but he still rejected me in the end...what did I do wrong?" The little bat on his helm hugged his tighter, trying to comfort him.