Transformers Prime: With every heartbeat

Chapter 4 - Like a dagger on the heart

She just took a zip when she saw Miko approching the desk not looking quite herself and she did not brought her biology notebook so it was not a visit related to homework.

"Miko, what are you doing here?" she asked very puzzled and surprised 

"I wanted to ask you something" she sounded shyly

Miko told her about the night of the autobot sleepover, June knew a bit since Jack and Ralph had told her bits about what had happend too, Miko was telling her what had happend but it was complicated for her but June had time and a hot coffee to hear her version of the events. The story to us would sound like a novel of romance and science fiction, something that writters like Edgar Allan Poe or William Shakespeare would've loved with the exception that was very real, as real as few can imagene. June started to feel dumb for the time she felt bad for him not seeing her wearing heels and everything, when it was clear that Optimus wasn't ready to love again. 

This was the part that June hated the most about working as a nurse, being on the front row on the sad spectacle that tragedy is only being able to be give emotional support to those who have to go throught it, just knowing and imagene the pain Optimus was feeling, she couldn't fix it and make it go away but she could help on making it more bareable.

Miko asked "So what can I or everyone else do?" she sounded impatient

June told her that it was clear Optimus was not having the healthiest of grieving process which can be normal in some cases but there were ways to take the mourning process to a much healthy path making him see that he's not alone in his pain and help him to externalize that pain and sadness, they shouldn't wait for him to overcome and forget the trauma that Dakota's death was.

"Right now he's somewhat stuck on the phases of anger and depression" June said and then added "I've seen similar cases, Miko. Its hard for someone to move on from loosing a loved one when it was such a deep relationship, but it's not impossible"

Miko asked "You have more expirience, do you think you could talk to him?"

June nodded.

Optimus tried really hard to get a hold of his head but it was hard when he was remembering the day he learned about Dakota's death. That day she'd cover Fowler on "bot-sitting" duty, it was morning and she never was late for work and if the plans changed she'd let them know, worried he and Ratched called to her phone but no reponse, tried calling at Sandra's (Dakota's daugther) but she wouldn't respond either it felt so weird and off, Ratchet eventually called Fowler to tell him that something was wrong with her as she did not arrived, Fowler would look into it and see what was the matter. It wouldn't be until the night when all the autobots were highly worried for their friend, that whole day was the day Optimus could hear his spark-beatings on his audioreceptors, when Fowler arrived the agent looked so serious and pale.

"Agent Fowler?" The man has a lost glance, they were also red. Prime was known for his patience but on those moments he couldn't deal anymore with that suspense, so he asked sounding slightly unpatient "Is Dakota well?" 

The autobots were around the agent, they were also impatient and worried. Fowler managed to ask them to sitdown so he could tell them the terrible news, they did and Bill took a deep breath and gave them the news: Dakota had been killed in a home invasion. 

They couldn't belive it, they had just seen her yesterday, how was this possible? Almost all the autobots bombarded questions about what had happend and if Dakota's daugther was ok, there were so many questions asked at the same time that agent Fowler was barely able to anwser them while for Optimus was in deep shock and could barely process or understand the news, the words "Dakota is dead" - "killed on a home invasion" were words he couldn't connect quite well and the words felt like stab wounds one after anotherm his spark started to beat harder and faster making him think he was about to die, the sound of his beatings became even louder that he couldn't hear the others.

His voice was gone, his throat felt tight and tight so his was speechless. Ratchet and Arcee got him out of the initial shock  however he couldn't remember what questions were they making him but he remembered that he just took this truck form and drove off however the autobots couldnt and decided not to stop him, he was going faster and faster, exciding the speed limit.  He was in complete denial, she couldn't be gone. He drove for a long time until he felt too tired to continue, he was in the middle of old roadways of a forest; he took his robot form and simply sat on the ground puting his face in between his hands finally letting the newly grown pain out, yelling and crying. Optimus could only remember the last words he heard from her

"I'll see you tomorrow" followed by the three words he had come to yearn to hear from her every now and then "I love you"

Realizing that was the last time he saw her and that now he would not see her ever again, he wouldn't hold her in his hands and that he wouldn't hear her voice to was ravaging. He had learned to enjoy and love her company but now he'd have to learn to live, endure and mourn her absence while also learn to treasure her bittersweet memory, these were lessons that he wished he didn't had to live. Eventually dawn came along, he had been sat and lost in his toughts the whole night. The most soffocating expirience back in those days was her funeral, her casket was sealed but the thought of her body being inside and slowly going down the pit became too painful and horrific.

Back on Cybertron a corpse of his kind would remain for thousands of centuries before becoming dust but human remains could remain less than centuries -unless their body had been prepared for preservation -, while he could live longer than humans her body would become bones and then dust and physically she'd be earased from existence except for all the moments she left on his life. Her body was finally buried while solemn music was played in her honor

"Kota..." he thought and then thought a question to himself, that question would never have an anwser "Why did you leave?"

Back in the present day, he and the autobots were searching for a energon mine in Abu-Simbel, Egypt, possibly it was from a ship that crash landed many centuries ago or maybe the conditions allowed energon to grow in the depths of the dry desert grounds, whatever the case there was job to be done. The autobots had gone to Egypt in the past and there had been little remains of energon however the annual flooding of the Nile must've caused changes that allowed the energon readings to be a bit more stronger, Scorpia, Bulkhead and Bumblebee would help on getting as much energon as possible.

They would work the night-shift and near the temples of Ramses the Great and his wife, Queen Nefertari where Optimus would find a story that in a way was similar to his.

After her talk with June, Miko went back to the base with her apology planned and hoping he felt like talking about Dakota but still she tried keeping her hopes from reaching the sky. Ratchet and Arcee where the only autobots on the base monitoring the search while Jack and Ralph were watching T.V.. She asked Ratchet were everyone were.

"Egypt" he responded casually

"Ah, I see" 

It was odd, no comments or tourist places recommendations about the country where the autobots were at? no complains for not going there? This prompted Ratchet to ask Miko if she was feeling alright.

"Yeah, I just wanted to talk to Optimus" she replied and said "I wanted to apologize better than last time"

Ratchet couldn't help but to smile kindly and understandingly, then asured her "Optimus will understand, Miko. He's not angry at all."