Fic: Love and a Daughter's Leaving (Thunderstreak's Adventures Ch 12)
So I promised and here it is, the continuation of Thunderstreak's Adventures. I've only got three more chapters to write and then this series is finally done!
Chapter 12
Title: Love and a Daughter’s Leaving
Pairing: Sam/Bee, Will/Sarah, and Ironhide/Ratchet
Rating: PG for angst
Summary: Post RotF. Takes place in the same timeline and after the ‘Ponderings’ series. Will Lennox realizes how quickly time can pass and he’s not the only one wondering where the time has gone.
Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers, nor do I make any money out of writing this.
It had to happen sometime and it was also the logical choice that it would be his Anna who’d be the first; the first to get married and the first of the children to start their own life and leaving the safety of home.
Now forty seven, Will was still struggling with the fact that the years had passed by so quickly in such a way that it had felt like only a few years since the terror and insanity of Egypt. Surely it couldn’t have been two decades since Ironhide had given him that first ride back home to see, hold, and kiss his little girl for the first time? Time was once again relative and had snuck up on him, turning his baby girl into a toddler, then a teen, and finally into a gorgeous woman.
Just a couple weeks prior, Will had caught Ironhide muttering the same general things to himself. The trigger happy mech had been much like a well loved uncle to Anna and Will could see the confusion in the mech’s optics when faced with the rapid, by Cybertronian standards, growth that Anna went through from baby to woman.
Will couldn’t help but wonder privately to himself how alarming it must be to the Autobots to see their friends and comrades aging so swiftly while they remained seemingly untouched by time.
He watched as Sam, now thirty seven but not looking a day over twenty five due to being half Cybertronian, danced with his daughter Mirari, having placed the nine year old’s feet over his own to effortlessly waltz with her across the floor. Sam then picked her up and twirled her, his hands securely holding her underneath her arms while she laughed in delight. Will felt the familiar pang in his heart that had been plaguing him all day when he realized it had been over twelve years since he had last done that with his Annabelle.
Right out of high school Anna had joined the air force to be a mechanic, otherwise known as an aircraft structural maintenance worker. Will could only be relieved that she hadn’t chosen to be a pilot. Though he and Sarah would have supported her one hundred percent, it would also have meant more sleepless nights and worry filled days than ever.
One thing led to another, and soon Anna came home on leave to let her parents know she was engaged and to meet her fiancé, whom she had met in basic training. Will saw how happy his little girl was with the boy and gave his permission, but not without first having Ironhide do a complete and thorough background check on the guy. Personally, Will held to the traditional father’s belief that no man was good enough for his baby girl.
The wedding had been wonderful, or at least as wonderful as it could be while having to give away his most precious treasure to another man.
Ironhide had of course been given the honor and duty of driving Annabelle to and from the wedding, using his holoform to drive and assist Anna in and out of his alt mode.
Mirari had been a sweet flower girl and did her part perfectly, even discreetly smoothing out a part of the walkway with her foot that had become bunched up so that there was no risk of Anna or her bridal party tripping. Lily was a bridesmaid along with Anna’s best friend from high school, and it was Mikaela who was the matron of honor, having shared her mechanical passion over the years with Anna.
James as Anna’s brother held the position of best man while Alex and Logan both served as groomsmen. Due to several sticky notes placed throughout their house, James had made sure to remember to bring the rings.
Vows were exchanged and with Sarah’s silent support of a delicate hand slipping inside of his own and fingers intertwining with his as he brought his arm around to pull her in closer to him, Will was both father and man enough to admit that he’d cried.
It didn’t hurt his subconscious stung pride that Sam, Ironhide, and even Optimus had cried as well, though Hide was the only one who tried to hide it, wiping his jacket’s sleeve over his face multiple times and glaring at anyone stupid enough to make eye contact.
The reception afterwards had smoothly as well, though there had been a small fight regarding the bouquet between Mirari and Lily. Mirari had caught the bouquet, but Lily had then said that it couldn’t count since she was too little to get married.
After having given up his Anna to her new husband after their father daughter dance together, Will was reminded of something he had read once. It was a quote that had said that in a man’s love for his wife there was desire, in a man’s love for his son there was ambition, but that in a man’s love for his daughter there was something that could not be expressed with any words.
Will beyond a doubt understood that love and now he had to give the source of it away to another who may never truly appreciate it.
Shifting his gaze across the room, Will saw Bumblebee and Sam sitting at one of the tables together, a tuckered out Mirari cuddled up in Sam’s lap. Sam had his arms around his daughter while Bumblebee was sitting next to his husband with one arm slung around his husband’s shoulders and the other gently stroking his daughter’s loosely curled hair.
A glance at the next table over showed Ratchet, Ironhide, and their daughter Firestorm in nearly the same exact pose, though Ironhide was trying to pull off looking grouchy and mean and failing miserably.
As if they’d heard Will’s thoughts, both Sam and Ironhide lifted up their heads and locked gazes with him. Both had a soft, slightly sad smile on their face and both had understanding shining in their eyes.
They both had kept their daughters close during the wedding and reception, a natural instinct brought on by the realization of the truth right before their eyes that their little girls, or femmes, were not going to stay small forever. They would someday be leaving and starting their own lives, whether it be close or far away from their parents.
Will knew that Sam would bawl like a baby when his daughter left, but face it, Sam was an emotional guy. Hide, Will suspected, wouldn’t bother with the cliché shotgun, but instead go for his plasma cannons and just hide the body afterwards.
A/N: The quote Will remembers is by Joseph Addison.