Tough Love

FIRST ATTEMPT

All was quiet after the human left. Blades finished up with Heatwave and moved on to look over Thunderhoof. He was cleaned and buffed, and his helm felt much better. Scans of his hoof show that it still requires time to properly heal, but all in all, is doing good. Blades excuses himself to deliver the news to Boulder and Chase, leaving Heatwave to watch Thunderhoof.

A couple minutes pass before Heatwave starts a conversation.

"So, Cody seems to have taken an interest in you. Any thoughts?"

"About what? The kid's probably just curious. Doubt he's met any 'Cons," Thunderhoof replied, rolling the stiffness out of his shoulders.

"Human cons, yes. Decepticons, no."

"Technically an Ex-Con, but feel free to call me whatever you want. I don't care."

"Would being called as such have anything to do with that?"

Thunderhoof didn't have to look to see what Heatwave was pointing at.

He still wants to know about my insignia, Thunderhoof internally answered, rubbing his digits along the jagged grooves of Steeljaw's mark. Course he hasn't dropped the subject.

"Nothin' for you to worry about."

Suspicious, Heatwave narrowed his optics.

"Are you talking about the slash marks again?" Kade interrupted, entering med-bay with the rest of the family in-tow, minus one.

"Where's Cody?" Heatwave asked. "Did he get Frankie to leave?"

"Cody and Frankie are running errands for Doc today, so they should be gone for a while," Chief Burns reassured the red mech, then turned to face Thunderhoof. "Which gives us the chance to become more acquainted with our guests. Your name is Thunderhoof, if I'm not mistaken?"

Not feeling particularly comfortable around Autobots, or answering to their human partners, the addressed mech just nods.

"Right, I guess this would be a little awkward."

Chief Burns clears his throat and continues.

"My name is Charlie Burns, Chief of Police and head of the Rescue Team here on Griffin Rock, which I officially welcome you to, by the way. I understand that this is a difficult situation, but rest assured, we promised Bumblebee to give you and your charge a safe place to stay until, well, whenever he says it's safe for you to go home."

The human's smile dropped and he sighed.

"However, considering your background, at least the summary Bumblebee has given us, we can't have you going wherever you like, whenever you like, doing whatever you like."

"Not to mention you're still healing," Blades added.

"And nobody on the Island has met a Decepticon before," Boulder said.

"We'd have to explain to them what makes a Decepticon different before introductions can be made," Graham pointed out.

"Oh, yeah, like that'll go over well!" Kade retorted.

"I bet Huxley'll have a field day with the news," Dani commented.

That bit of information was enough to pique Thunderhoof's interest, and get him to start talking again.

"Wait, are yous tellin' me that the whole place knows about us?" Thunderhoof asked, optics dilated as he gestured to himself and every other Cybertronian in the room. "How'd yous manage that?"

"Not without a few close calls, and some outside problems, but those have all been dealt with, so I wouldn't worry!" Graham reassured the Cervicon.

Correction: Graham tried to reassure the Cervicon.