All Great Power [A Transformers Fanfiction]

Slamming Tears

Jenn kept her lips pressed together and Miles felt his eyes bugging out as they stood next to each other, watching the retreating yellow Camaro. Jenn sighed and then clasped an arm around Miles.

"Come on Miles, let's go home," she released him and started to walk in the right direction.

"What?" Miles whined, "I got out of the house just to be dumped on the side of the road? I don't think so!"

Jenn rolled her eyes at his complaint. She didn't necessarily enjoy being in Miles' presence for a long time, but he had been Sam's best friend since middle school. And he had stayed with her brother while she went off to the Army. She turned halfway around to look at him. The poor guy did have a point and he had just kinda been dumped by his best friend for some girl. A girl he considered to be a 'jock concubine'.

"Alright, listen, you feeling ice cream?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

Miles nodded his blonde head vigorously.

"Okay, we'll stop by the local ice cream joint on the way home. They have the best in town and military personnel get a discount," she motioned with a large sweep of her arm, "Now let's go!"

////.- / -- . / .--. ////

The back screen door slammed shut as Jenn made her entrance into the kitchen, licking the last bit of her chocolate and mint ice cream. She kicked off her worn out tennis shoes and padded in mismatched socks toward the den.

"I'm ho-!" she began to yell in the direction of the stairs, but she saw her mother on the couch, eyes glued to the television and fingers pressed against her lips.

"Oh, hey Mom," Jenn said in a normal voice while taking a bite out of her cone.

"Hey honey," Judy replied distantly, her green eyes still stuck to the screen.

Jennifer moved her eyes around the den awkwardly. Her mother was out of her normal chipper mood, so Jenn knew something was up. Judy Witwicky was never aloof. She practically noticed everything that went on and about the Witwicky residence.

Jenn flicked her eyes to the television. Nothing of interest there, save for a talking gecko. What had gotten her mother like this?

"Mom," Jenn repeated with a little more force behind it, "What's up?"

Her mother jerked around suddenly, as if she had been startled.

"Oh! Jenn! Honey, come here," her dainty hands motioned frantically for her daughter to come sit by her on the plush couch. At that moment, Ron came from the dining room and set the phone down on the receiver. He glanced over at his daughter briefly, avoided her eyes while sucking in a breath, then abruptly turned away to sit in his easy chair. Except, his posture wasn't so easy. He sat hunched over, near the edge, his muscles sort of tense, and hands clasped together.

"Did it come back on while I was gone, Judy?"

"No, not yet. Jenn, come here," her mother held out her arms.

Jenn glanced between her parents, uneasy. She took slow steps over the couch and sat next to her mother, stiff. Judy immediately put an arm around her daughter and tuned her eyes back to the television screen. Jenn looked at her father for help.

"Jennifer, sweetie," he began slowly, taking a deep breath, and fixing her with a stare only a father possessed, "something has happened that you need to know about."

"What?" Jenn's eyes narrowed slightly, ready for whatever her father had to say. Had someone died? She knew nothing had happened to Sam. Otherwise, her mother would be a blubbering, tipsy woman with a hand full of wet and wadded Kleenex. A thousand scenarios ran through her mind.