Ficlet: A Snow Day
Title: A Snow Day
By: Merisel
Characters: Sam, Optimus [with a dash of Ratchet and Jolt]
Continuity: Movieverse, post ROTF
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Natural Disaster: Avalanche
"Thanks for giving me a ride," Sam said for the third time. "I really appreciate it."
"It is the least I could do. You did save my life. Twice. I'm am----grateful for that," Optimus told him. That something he was never going to forget; the agonizing pain of Megatron's fatal strike, and the moment when he was restored to life. The first thing he'd seen was this incredibly brave young man. Gratitude was such a tepid description of the feelings that had blossomed in his spark that day. Feelings that were best left unspoken. Forever.
"Yeah, well..You saved my butt a few times." Sam fidgeted self-consciously and changed the subject. "I just can't believe Mojo ate my wallet, and everything in it. Stupid airline wouldn't replace my tickets!"
"Did they not say proper identification was required?" he reminded Sam of that small detail.
"But it's Christmas! Everything's closed for the weekend." Sam sighed dramatically.
"We've been planning this for months. Mikaela's always wanted to learn how to ski."
"Don't worry, Sam. I'll get you to Jackson, Wyoming before 6:00 p.m, as I promised Mikaela."
Sam stopped complaining about life in general and looked out the window. Optimus was driving pretty fast, even though the snow was really coming down now. But so what? It was totally logical that the Autobot Leader would have much better traction than a regular truck.
There was nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.
"Hey, how 'bout some music?" he asked, digging around in a backpack for cds.
"All right, but please no Nickelback," Optimus teased him over that band he liked so much.
"But they're the best!" Sam protested, then shook his head when the Autobot Leader chuckled. "Ha-ha. Good one." He put the Dark Horse cd in and got a specific song playing.
"You're welcome," Optimus warmly replied; he enjoyed indulging Sam whenever he could.
You're never gonna be alone from this moment on
If you ever feel like letting go, I won't let you fall
When all hope is gone, I know that you can carry on.
Sam sang along, off-key.
Thinking of Mikaela, Optimus knew, his previous good humor fading somewhat. He refused to feel jealousy, however. It was quite obvious that those two were in love, and that further validated his decision to stay silent.
The next track had just begun when Optimus' external sensors picked up a strong vibration in the ground beneath him. A quick scan revealed it's origin; the snow-covered mountain that they were currently passing. The music was abruptly stopped and Sam's seatbelt tightened around him. "Stay calm, Sam," he urged, sending out a distress signal to his Autobots at the same time.
"What the--" Sam looked and spotted the avalanche bearing down on them. "OH SHIT!"
"Uhn.." Optimus grunted when the wall of snow plowed into him, sweeping him off the highway.
"WE'RE GONNA DIE!" Sam screamed, eyes squeezed shut and hands tightly gripping the edge of his seat during the violent bouncing.
Optimus rolled several times, managing to come to a stop right-side up. "Are you all right, Sam?" he asked, his first concern was his panicked passenger.
"I think so..." Slowly opening his eyes, Sam pressed his nose against the passenger window. There was nothing to see but white everywhere! "We are so dead!"
"We are not going to die, Sam." A deep scan showed no injuries to his panicked passenger. Relieved, Optimus then ran a self-diagnosis on himself. There were dents and small cracks in his frame, but no serious damage had been done to his systems. "Ratchet and Jolt are on their way."
"It'll take hours for them to get here and dig us out! We're buried under a ton of snow!"
"I know, Sam, but the immediate danger has passed," Optimus assured him. "You're safe here."
"Okay..." The thought of freezing to death freaked Sam out, but Optimus sounded so sure that it wasn't going to happen. If anyone can be trusted, it was him. Sam pulled his phone out of a back pocket and tried to call Mikaela, but of course couldn't get a connection way out here. "Dammit."
Optimus resumed playing the cd in an attempt to help him relax. It didn't succeed. Sam kept fidgeting and shuffling his feet. A more active distraction than listening to music was needed. "Would you like to play a board game while we wait, Sam? There are six on a shelf in the compartment behind you."
"A board game?" Sam repeated. Where'd that come from? It'd been ages since he played one of those, and he doubted that the great Optimus Prime was into that sort of thing. Still...anything was possible. It sure beat sitting on his butt. "Ok, sure, if you want to."
The seat belt was released and the door swung open for Sam. He took a deep breath, nervously glancing out the window again, then peeled himself out of the chair and went into the sleeper section.
There was Monopoly, and Operation, but that one was more up Ratchet's alley. Sam ignored Risk and picked Scrabble, taking the game from the stack and setting it up on a small table next to the wall. "Uhm.. how are you gonna play?" he asked, plopping down in one of the two chairs.
"Like this." Optimus casually demonstrated for him.
Sam jerked back from the table, startled, when one of the tiles scooted away from the others and flipped over, apparently by itself. "Whoa! How'd you do that?!"
"The truck I chose to copy had these games inside it; it's driver must sometimes take his offspring with him sometimes," explained Optimus.
"So..all this is actually part of you?" Sam picked up a tile, turning it between his fingers. The full extent of their disguises hadn't really registered on him until now. "Even the furniture? Uhm...You don't mind me sitting here...on you...do you?" he tentatively asked. For all he knew, this chair could be Optimus' nose, or worse! Sam also worried that it'd bothered Bee all the times the yellow Autobot drove him places. I'm gonna have to ask him when he gets back from Dallas.
That question drew another chuckle from Optimus, echoing through the tiny room. "Not at all, Sam," he replied, then redirected the young man's attention back to the game. "You have the first turn."
"Oh, right." He wondered if Optimus deliberately let him win the draw, then an even more momentous suspicion crossed his mind. "Hey, no using all those dictionaries you downloaded to cheat!" Sam exclaimed with a cheeky grin.
"Not even the Chinese one?" teased Optimus, changing the letters on the tiles.
"Plain English, please!" Sam let out a dramatic sigh of relief when the tiles reverted back. This was turning out to be more fun that he'd expected. Who knew the stoic leader of the Autobots had a sense of humor?
The game started out slow, with the usual mundane words, like 'posts'. It didn't take long to degenerate into nonsense.
"Concutation?" Optimus questioned. "That's not a word."
"Sure it is!" Sam declared with a straight face. "It means ignoring someone who bugs the hell out of you. Like Agent Simmons."
Optimus was still skeptical of Sam's claim. "Does it?"
"Yup! It's in the dictionary." He didn't mention that it was the Urban Dictionary.
"Hm. All right." More tiles were moved into place.
Sam's eyebrows went up. "Emusa? What's that?"
"A small mammal, native to another planet I've visited."
"Uh-huh.."
"You don't believe me?" Amused, he activated a hologram of the creature for his dubious opponent.
"That's an emusa?" Sam gawked at the image. It looked like a winged rabbit, of all things!
"Yes," Optimus confirmed.
"Oook.." The image disappeared, and Sam studied his tiles. The thing looked weird, in a mutant-type way, but who was he to argue? Optimus was a galactic traveler, and has probably seen even crazier things Out There. "Have they found us yet?"
"Soon, Sam. They're approximately one hundred and fifteen miles from our location."
"Okay." Sam borrowed a few more silly words from the Urban Dictionary, only to be outdone each time by Optimus. Still, their scores were a lot closer than he expected them to be, and Sam wondered if that, too, was deliberate on Optimus' part. He wasn't about to ask, though. That'd be rude.
After a few more minutes his eyelids started to droop and Sam yawned. "Ya know what? I think I'm gonna nap for a little while."
"Go ahead," Optimus encouraged him, running a test on the air inside. "I'll wake you once we've been freed from the snow."
"Thanks." Sam got up, shuffled over to a cot that was set against the opposite wall and flopped down on it. No sooner had he closed his eyes than he heard a faint hissing noise. "Wha's that?"
"I'm cycling fresh oxygen into the cabin for you." Not wanting Sam to panic anew, Optimus didn't mention that the carbon monoxide level had gotten dangerously high.
"Mph.." Sam turned onto his side and conked out.
Optimus watched him as he slept. There'd been so very few times that he'd seen Sam relaxed like this. Like us, he lives with the fear that the Decepticons may return. It was the one thing they had in common, and he wished with all his spark that they didn't. The sad irony of that was not lost on him.
The next hour passed by slowly, but eventually his audio receptors picked up a muffled sound. Ratchet and Jolt were working at clearing away the snow. "Sam," Optimus said aloud.
"....no school...." mumbled Sam.
"Wake up, Sam. They've found us."
He bolted upright. "The Decepticons?!?"
Optimus inwardly winced at the initial reaction. "No, Sam. There are no Decepticons here."
Sam looked around, remembering where he was. "Sorry... Didn't mean to freak out llike that."
"You have been through two battles," he pointed out. "--I must apologize to you for that."
"Not your fault, Optimus." Sam ran a hand through his hair and managed a wan smile.
"Actually, I don't know what I would've done without you."
Optimus chose his words carefully. "You have been a great help to us, as well, Sam."
A more genuine smile crossed Sam's face. "Thanks. That means alot to me."
"You're welcome, Sam." He struggled to come up with more to say without revealing too much.
"Hey, look!" Sam exclaimed when a beam of sunlight shone through the windshield. "They found us!"
"Yes, they have." Optimus was both relieved and disappointed by the interruption.
Sam got up and went back to the front of the truck. The snow was melting away from the glass. He could see those whips of Jolt's now. Pretty soon a good-sized space was cleared, but it look like there was still a whole lot of snow all around them. "Uh.. How're they gonna get us out of this?"
"A helicopter is here to lift me out," Optimus informed him.
//And if they drop you---//Ratchet began.
//Easy, Ratchet,// Optimus sent back to the medic over their private connection.
Unaware of the conversation, Sam had the same thought. "If they dump you like a sack of potatoes, I'll kick their asses."
"Easy," repeated Optimus. He wished that Will Lennox hadn't spoken of that unfortunate incident, and yet Sam's outrage on his behalf sent a warm current through his spark. "You should sit and out the seatbelt on."
"Right." Nodding, Sam took his advice. He had a better view of what was going on from there, and he watched like a hawk as Jolt and Ratchet looped thick cables around Optimus. There was a sudden jerk, then they were airborne. The 'copter carried Optimus over where the highway emerged from the huge pile of snow. Sam looked at the side window at Ratchet and Jolt. Ratchet had a scowl on his face, which didn't face much after Optimus was gently lowered to the ground. Thank God this pilot wasn't a dick.
"Sam, would you please release the cables?" Optimus asked, opening the door for him.
"Sure." He jumped out and went around the side. It took a minute to unhook the things, they were cold and stiff. "Ok, done."
"Come back inside now," Optimus urged when Sam started to shiver.
"Yeah, I will." Sam watched the helicopter head back to where Ratchet and Jolt waited to be picked up, too, before climbing back into the passenger seat. The heater was on full blast. He held his numb hands in front of it, rubbing them together, and started when the door swung open again. "Huh?"
"Ratchet needs you back outside so he can examine you."
"But---Oh, all right." Sam wanted to refuse - he was perfectly fine! -- but could tell from the resignation in Optimus' voice that he'd already argued that point with the medic, and lost. Sometimes Ratchet was like the Indomitable Force. He reluctantly hopped out again, and suffered through being scanned from head to foot by Ratchet. Twice. God, he hated scans. They always gave him a weird tingly feeling.
"You haven't been harmed by the accident," Ratchet announced his verdict.
"...could've told you that," Sam muttered, and received a frown from the medic.
"Your well-being is important to us," Ratchet primly informed the boy.
"Yeah, I know..." Sam edged back towards Optimus. "Can we get back on the road now? We might still make it to Jackson before sundown."
"Before you go, Sam, Bumblebee asked me to give this to you." With a flick of his wrist Ratchet produced a Digital Book Reader. "He said you've been interested in reading 'Atlas Shrugged', since finding out a movie based on it is being made."
"Cool! Thanks!" Sam took the surprise present, thanking him profusely before climbing back inside the truck.
//Optimus, I must ask--// began Ratchet.
//Don't worry. My conversations with Sam were not improper,// Optimus told him. //I'm well aware that friendship is all that we can offer them.//
Ratchet nodded, then transformed back into a Hummer. Like his fellow Autobots, he was depressed by that aspect of their new home, wishing that humans were not so fragile, and so incredibly short-lived in comparison to them. //Do you want Jolt and I to follow you at a distance, in case there are more mishaps?//
//Yes, thank you.// Optimus appreciated the offer. The chances of a second avalanche were extremely slim, but he did not want to risk being buried for an hour again. Reminding Sam to buckle up, he made a sharp U-turn and drove off, with Ratchet and Jolt trailing a mile behind him.
Sam was soon engrossed in the book. Optimus stayed silent, keeping the cd turned off so it wouldn't disturb him, and focused only on the road during the rest of the drive to Jackson. He'd vowed to never let himself dwell on what could never be, even before Ratchet had cataloged all the difference between their two species. And so he kept contact with Sam to a minimum. Primus knew that young man's life was complicated enough already.
The sun had just disappeared over the horizon when he turned onto the exit to downtown Jackson. "We're at the Rusty Parrot Lodge and Spa," Optimus said a few minutes later as he pulled into the parking lot. The name Rusty Parrot made no sense to him, and Sam thought it was ridiculous, but apparently it was one of the best places to stay at here.
"Ok." Sam turned off the Reader, stuffed it into his bag, and jumped out when the door opened. "See ya later, Optimus." He slung his bag over his shoulder and started toward the entrance. "And thanks for putting up with me," Sam added.
"It was no problem, Sam. I enjoy your company." That much he felt comfortable enough in saying. Then he started to wonder if he'd allowed too much emotion into his voice. He was certain his tone had been strictly polite....
Halfway to the door Sam paused, glancing back at Optimus with a thoughtful look on his face. Then he went into the hotel, where Mikaela awaited him.
.