Second Chance

Memories that haunt

"leave him be Ratch, he's just grumpy." Wheeljack chuckles softly, watching the sparkling. "right? you're just a little grumpy with us." Wheeljack chuckles, smiling at the sparkling. Reflect growls at him around his cube.

"why don't you take him back to your room or something and see if you can't get him a nap." Ratchet says.

"sure." Ironhide shrugs. "c'mon squirt. bet we could go sit outside in the sun for a bit and you'd finish your nap." Ironhide says, heading out of the medbay. the sparkling cuddles to him quietly.

once they get outside, Ironhide finds a nice warm spark, not too bright, where he and the sparkling could sit for a while. its quiet between the two as the sparkling finishes his cube, but he doesn't nap.

"would you like to hear more stories about Will sparkling?" Ironhide ask. Reflect looks up.

"okay." he agrees. Ironhide nods a little and leans back some.

"hmmm... lets see, surely I have a good story about Will and not a sad one." Ironhide frowns. "well... guess they're all sad to me." Ironhide sighs a little. he frowns, going quiet to think before a grin breaks out on his face. "let me tell you about the time Will and I messed up big time on the 4th of July, a human holiday." Ironhide snorts. "humans have these colorful little gunpowder filled explosives they call fireworks. they fire them into the sky. its both chaotic and beautiful. he allowed my holoform to join him in picking them out, it was nice... this was about four years before Will died. he was so excited to get this pretty big one, almost the size of my servo actually," Ironhide says, holding his servo up to the sparkling. "it was bigger than Will and took up the bed of my alt. it was huge for humans. he was so excited the whole day. he was, as the humans say, as excited as a human child on 'Christmas', thats another human holiday they have a lot of them. I'll have to show you my memory of the day later, I have it saved as one of my favorite days with Will." Ironhide explains.

"okay." the sparkling murmurs, watching him. Ironhide sighs a little.

"he was so mad we had to wait for it to get dark outside, but he waited. we set off all kinds of bottle rockets and 'roman candles' and these tiny colorful smoke balls. it was very pretty. we were out in the back yard of his house, I had cleared out a lot of space to make sure everything was safe, though we had a rogue rocket that caught his old Oak tree on fire, he was upset about that, but I put the fire out." Ironhide snorts. the sparkling giggles. "he was so excited to like the big one, we both were. he lit that fucking firework and it just died out. didn't do anything. he was so disappointed... I'll never tell anyone but you this, so you better not tell anyone I said this or I'll have to kill you, got it?" Ironhide ask.

"Ratchet an Jack stop you." he huffs, blowing a raspberry at the weapons specialist.

"yeah they'd kill me after I kill you so you better keep quiet alright?" Ironhide ask.

"okay." he pouts. Ironhide snorts a little.

"I hated seeing Will upset, he was a handsome human, but... losing Cybertron was worth it when he smiled. when he was happy it was... I would have absolutely never have given up a single day with Will to get Cybertron back, I loved that human, still do...." Ironhide murmurs. "well, he was disappointed, like the whole day had been a waste or something.... like the day wasn't worth it if he didn't get that one last firework in... so you know what I did sparkling?" Ironhide ask. unfortunately the sparkling can't remember this in his own memories, so he shakes his head.

"what do?" he ask.

"I... got stupid. humans call it being love struck. I didn't want Will to be upset. so I figured I could fix it... I was wrong." Ironhide chuckles. he smiles a little and shakes his head. "well, I didn't think the explosion would be too big so I walked over to it and fired my cannon at it. I figured at least it would explode and he'd be a little happier, but I was really wrong sparkling. I don't admit that often, but I was absolutely wrong in that moment. I was lucky Will didn't get hurt. the explosion was bigger than either of us thought it would be. it was huge Reflect, I mean huge." Ironhide snorts. "the fire went everywhere and it knocked me over, I crushed his Oak tree when I felt on it, he never let me forget that, or the fact I could have lost my arm from it. once we got the fires out and cleaned up the best we could, I went to apologise.... I felt terrible for ruining everything. the firework, the night, his yard, his stupid tree. I felt pretty bad... I turned to him, ready to tell him I was sorry and would leave if he wanted me to but before I could say a single word, he started laughing sparkling. he laughed like he had heard the funniest joke in the universe. he laughed until he couldn't breathe. he was changing colors from laughing so hard, idiot almost died laughing, which I had thought was just a human joke but he almost managed it I swear." Ironhide says. a small smile crosses his face plates. "then he begged me to take him to get another so we could do it again because he was pretty sure he blinked and didn't get to see it all." Ironhide murmurs, looking out into the distance. there's a far away look on his face and he heaves a sigh.