Author's note: This story follows the fanfic timeline beginning in "Family Ties", created by Phantom, a fellow tf fanfic writer. Her fanfics can be found here My thanks to her for the initial stamp of approval and allowing me the use of her character, Andromeda.  Nova is my character.

This story is rated 'R' for language and certain conversation. You have been warned!

Onto the story!

* * * *

Chapter 1

Rodimus was bored.

Oh he had *plenty* of work to do, he just didn't want to do any of it!  He leaned back in his seat and looked up at the ceiling. Three more hours till his shift was over. Primus, he'd be glad to be pretty much anywhere else other than stuck in his office working on a pile of data pads.

A pile that was about to get even larger.

The door chimed, signaling a visitor.

"Enter." Rodimus sighed.

Springer came in all smiles, and with another pile of data pads. 

"Nooooo..." Rodimus moaned.

"Yesss...." Springer hissed evilly. "Actually, these shouldn't be too bad to look through. These are just information notes about new members who are arriving on Cybertron today."

"What? Why didn't I know about this?! It's not on my calendar!"

"Rod, CHILL!" Springer commanded. "Ultra Magnus is ushering them in. We know you're stuck in here and old Oppy is out with Andromeda, so..."

Rodimus snarled and threw down the data pad he'd been holding onto his desk. "The hell I'm gonna stay here one minute longer! I've been working for nine Earth hours straight. Come on!" Rodimus stomped out, Springer running after him.

"Wait, Roddy, you can't meet the new recruits - yet."

"Give me one reason why not." Rodimus snarled.

"Uh.....cause you might put the fear of Primus into them a little too early."

"Why, because I'm the almighty Rodimus Prime, co-leader of the Autobots?"

"Uh..."

"That's a load of bullshit. Optimus distanced himself from a lot of the troops and it hasn't done *him* much good. I refuse to follow his example." Rodimus resumed his trek down the hall. Defeated, Springer followed, hoping to Primus that this wouldn't turn into a disaster.

* * * *

"A-ten-hut!" Magnus called as Springer and Rodimus entered. Well, Springer entered first, after BEGGING on hands and knees so there wouldn't be an initial commotion. Rodimus reluctantly agreed, wondering why Springer was making this big fuss. For chrissake he was ONLY the second-in-command! Not the big hot shot on campus, Mr. Optimus Prime himself was!

"Rodimus Prime?" Ultra Magnus was surprised to see his comrade. There were a few gasps from the newbies Magnus chose to ignore. "I didn't expect you to this briefing."

"Call it a surprise inspection, Magnus." Rodimus smiled, and started to walk around the group, who stood at full attention. "So these are our new tools of destruction, the secret weapons to finally destroy our enemies, the ones to die first for our just cause."

"Uh..." Magnus was at a loss for words. A femme in the group flinched ever so slightly when Rodimus, who was behind her, looked over her shoulder to look at her from the side. You said I can have any one of them I want, any *time* I want, right?" He asked Mags.

Magnus and Springer looked at him, dumbfounded, trying hard not to let their jaws drop. What the HELL had gotten into him?!

"No."

All three, Magnus, Springer, and Rodimus turned their heads to the left, the voice coming from one of the femmes near the other end of the line.

"No?" Rodimus repeated.

"With all due respect here, sirs," the femme that stepped out of the line was colored with white paint with orange splashes all over her body, "I came into the Autobot army looking to destroy Decepticons, who ravaged my home world eons ago for Energon. I didn't come here to be one of the higher-ups play toys."

"You must be out of your mind." one of the males next to her whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

"I am not out of my mind," she shot back loudly. "And if we're only here to pleasure you three, or anyone else in this army, no, on this PLANET, and my battle skills are not needed here, then I'm leaving!"

Here she stormed out of the room, making a wide arc around Magnus and Springer. They watched with stony silence, not sure whether to run after her, or begin to yell at Rodimus, IN FRONT of the new recruits.

"Hot Damn!" Rodimus whispered. He quickly left the group, and began running after the sprightly femme, but Springer flung himself in front of his commander-in-chief.

"You got ten seconds to tell me what substance in your Energon stream made you do that." Springer ground out quietly.

"Oh lighten UP!" Rodimus cried. "God, sometimes you're just as bad as Optimus!"

Springer gave Magnus a pained look, as if to say "What do I DO?!" as Rodimus shoved him out of the way, and went after the femme.

* * * *

"Hey! Wait up!"

"Not a chance in the Pit!"

"Ok, how about a chance out of the Pit?"

"Go to hell!"

"Been there. Done that. Want to go back with me?"

"LEAVE ME ALONE."

"NO!"

"WHY NOT?" The femme whirled around to face Rodimus.

"Hm...." Rodimus paused.

"For the LONGEST time, I looked up to the Autobots, especially their leaders, for their dedication to fight off the Decepticons. Now to find one of them is a perverted sicko..."

"I'm not sick, I feel just fine." Rodimus retorted happily.

"I hope to PRIMUS that Optimus Prime wipes that smirk off of your face when I present my harassment case to him."

"Woah whoah, who's harassing you? If it's Ultra Magnus I can explain. See he has this condition..."

"Oh for God's sake." She'd finally reached her boiling point and slapped him hard across the face. "I hope Optimus shoots you."

Ow. That hurt. Not so much his faceplate, but her tone. He'd pushed her too far, he finally realized. Rubbing his cheek, he watched her go.

* * * *

"YOU ARE A GOD DAMNED IDIOT!! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?! I OUGHT TO HAVE YOU COURT-MARTIALED! DRUMMED RIGHT OUT THE ARMY! PUT YOUR DISMEMBERED HEAD ON MY WALL!"

"Jeez-US Arcee, chill!" Rodimus took his hands away from his audio receptors.

"YOU KNOW HOW MANY FREAKING FEMMES WE HAVE IN THE AUTOBOT ARMY? ONLY A HANDFUL! IT'S PEOPLE LIKE YOU THAT SCARE THE NEW ONES OFF!"

"Primus..." Rodimus muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

"I'm not surprised that poor girl slapped you. You deserved it." Arcee's voice had returned to normal, only because she was out of breath and hoarse from screaming. "Now *I'm* the one that's gotta find her, convince her to come back to the Autobots, assure her you won't go within a thousand miles of her -"

"Oh come on, 'Cee, I was only having some fun with her!"

"FUN?" Arcee started yelling again, then remembered her throat hurt. "You were harassing her!"

"I was joshing her, sure, but I didn't think she was that uptight!"

"And acting like that in front of the rest of the new troops! I'm ashamed to be in the same company as you!"

"What the HELL is everyone's problem today? Everybody else can have their good times, and just because Rodimus acts out a bit for a laugh and *attempts* to get a smile out of some people, they think he's on drugs!"

"Sometimes I have to wonder."

Rodimus' jaw dropped. "I can't believe you just said that!"

"Well, you act more like Hot Rod than you do Rodimus Prime these days."

"That's because I *am* Hot Rod!" Rodimus rose angrily.

"No, you're *not*! You're Rodimus Prime, co-leader of the Autobots. Hot Rod is GONE. You can't bring him back!"

Rodimus raised his arm and Arcee looked away. "What are you going to do? Hit me because I'm right?"

Rodimus froze. What the hell had come over him? He was about to hit a fellow soldier - a good FRIEND.

Wordlessly, Rodimus let his hand drop and walked out of the room.

* * * *

Rodimus's shuttle tore through space. If Optimus came back from his trip with Andromeda with the news going around Cybertron that Rodimus Prime of all people, had caused massive upset in the Autobot army, in the FEMMES department of all places, Optimus would have his head on a platter faster than Arcee could get it mounted on her wall!

No, he HAD to find that femme! He'd BEGGED on bended knees to Magnus and Springer that he would take all their work for six months for this - JUST to get their forgiveness, and to get the femmes personal data pad. She'd lived on...Rodimus scanned the data pad again that was sitting in the passenger seat next to him - Tronus. Hadn't Kup mentioned being there before? Ah shit, not the time to wonder about that! God, where the hell WAS Tronus?

"Computer, locate the planet Tronus." Rodimus commanded.

"Tronus, several light years from here. From Cybertron, take a ..."

Rodimus followed the directions to the letter, and found the wasteland of a planet...she hadn't been kidding! The Decepticons must have sucked the planet dry of any resources! How could anything, even Transformers, live there? Primus be praised that Earth hadn't ended up like this...

Rodimus touched down, blowing dust everywhere as his shuttle hit the hard ground.

It wasn't hard to find her. Her home was the only one on the entire planet that was still kept up. Rodimus assumed that everyone else had left to keep up the survival of their race somewhere else. Her house wasn't very large, barely just a hut with a door, but he supposed she loved it, otherwise she would have left with the others. But then...why had she joined the Autobot Army? Was she merely looking for a meal ticket?

Rodimus transformed from his vehicle mode to his robot one, and knocked gently on the door, afraid a banging would knock the entire structure down.

"Who?" He heard her ask, most likely to herself. God he *hoped* she was alone, or this was going to make for a very awkward scene!

"The door opened and she appeared.

"Shit, what the HELL is your problem? Do you NOT know the meaning of 'stay away'?"

"Nice to see you too." Rodimus mumbled. "Listen, I came to say I'm sorry, I didn't think -" he was going finish with 'you were such a prude', but thought better of it. "you'd get so upset."

"Yeah, well I did. Now leave. I've got to find another job. One that you're NOT associated with."

"Um, you can't just leave the Autobot army like that. You're gonna have to have a good reason -" Soon as the words were out, Rodimus wished he'd kept his mouth shut.

"Isn't harassment by an Autobot leader enough? Or do I have to be raped and beaten and left for dead before I can even start discussing quitting the Autobots?"

"Oh come on, you're taking this the wrong way."

"What way should I take it?"

"You could LAUGH for one thing, at my miserable jokes."

"I don't find much to laugh about these days."

'Not when you live on this mud ball, I guess.' Rodimus thought silently. Aloud he asked, "What can I possibly do to convince you not to press charges and come back to the Autobots?"

"Will you leave if I don't press charges?"

"Maybe."

"Fine. I won't press charges. Goodbye." she lay down on the recharge bed, the one piece of furniture in the hut, her back facing him. "Now go away, you're making me exert precious energy I'll need later job hunting."

Rodimus sighed. He'd tried, at least. "Thanks, I guess..." he trailed off realizing he couldn't remember the femmes name.

"Nova." she said quietly.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the recharge bed was dangerously low on energy. She probably was as well. And probably too damn proud to take any sort of charity. He retrieved an unopened package of Energon goodies from subspace . He'd been saving these for his next date, but she could certainly use them more than his next weekend girlfriend. It wasn't much but it was all he had on him at the moment. He pretended to drop them on his way out the door and not see them.

He left the planet actually feeling a LOT worse than when he'd arrived. He was probably leaving her to die...but what could he do? He couldn't force her to come back with him. She'd chosen her own path. 

Rodimus looked back one more time, then headed for Cybertron.

* * * *

The next day, Rodimus was buried under his work, Magnus's work, and Springer's work all piled on his desk. Six months of this! He groaned. He was such an idiot sometimes!

His intercom beeped, signaling an incoming message.

"Yes?" he asked tiredly.

The Autobot on the other end, who's name Rodimus failed to recall at the moment, replied, "Rodimus Prime, there's a visitor for you in Shuttle bay 2...I think it's that femme that came in with the other recruits yesterday."

Rodimus shot out of his seat. NOVA! She'd come back to the Autobots after all. Even if it might be only for a handout, he was glad she'd returned. Maybe now he could prod her into staying.

Springer and Magnus were already at Shuttle bay 2 with Nova when he arrived. Was Rodimus imagining it, or was Nova swaying a bit?

"I came back to give these to you." she held out the unopened bag of Energon goodies. You dropped them on my..." Nova closed her optics and began to fall. Quickly, Rodimus grabbed her, calling her name in the process.

"Nova! Come on, doll, wake up!" Rodimus lightly flicked her cheek. No response. 

Springer was already calling for the medical team to RUN to Shuttle bay 2. Within minutes, First Aid, and Hotspot and Groove had arrived. First Aid transformed into his ambulance mode and Rodimus put Nova in.

"Oh please be all right." he whispered. If she died because he hadn't stepped in... "Come on!" he commanded of Magnus and Springer. Both nodded, understood immediately.

The hours passed slowly. Springer kindly brought them work from Rodimus' office (a security bot had allowed him access with Rodimus' permission), and they tried to concentrate on that rather than what First Aid's answer would be when it was all over.

Rodimus was kicking himself over and over and over mentally. He should have done something more. He KNEW something was wrong with her. He'd NEVER forgive himself for this if she didn't recover.

"Rodimus?"

Rodimus shook himself from his musings. "Hm, Magnus?"

"Go get some rest. I'll stay until First Aid comes out."

Rodimus shook his head vehemently. "No. You guys go. Arcee's probably waiting for you, Springer. I'll stay. I've got work to catch up on anyway."

Reluctantly, only after Rodimus had pulled rank, Springer and Ultra Magnus left.

First Aid came out three hours later, when Rodimus was struggling to stay awake reading over some speech Optimus had asked him to review for next week.

"She's stabilized. She was pretty close to complete shutdown. I think it's pretty lucky she happened to be here when she was. She's asleep now."

"Thank you, First Aid. I really appreciate all you did for her."

First Aid held up his hand. "There's something else you need to know about her."

Rodimus bit his lip worriedly. What could...

"She was pregnant."

Chapter 2 -->

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