.......

As she anxiously waited for her hand to be shook, Breakdown only grew more confused but yet encouraged.

"I-" He said quietly. 

That was the first time he'd ever heard those words, even from the Merbots.

Which they were the ones to save him from MECH in the first place.

The one's he called his enemies. The one's he fought, and killed.

Had saved him.

And now, a human, someone of a race he thought he'd never see kindness from. Was trying to help him.

He was at a loss for words. 

With everything horrible that had happened to him from mankind, he never thought in a million years that he would experience kindness from them. But here came this dark haired woman, who'd said her name was Amelia, offering her help to escape death.

She had just flipped his perception of her race upside-down.

"Breakdown, my name's Breakdown."

"And, why are you helping me?" He muttered in a breathy voice, perplexed. Holding out his hand to take hers, in a firm handshake.

Amelia beamed a shy and sweet smile and shook his hand in a tight but gentle grip. 

"Hello Breakdown, I'm happy to meet you, and I guess the reason is that it's… I guess it's kinda my job." She giggled shyly as she scratched her neck awkwardly with her free hand.

Her timidness made Breakdown smile softly, a foreign feeling to his scared and broad face. He'd never seen a human like her before, and he'd wished he had.

"So, it's your job? How in the world are you going to fix me up?" His smile soon became pained and turned into a grimace as he dropped his hand and lowered his head, relaxing his wounded body. And showing his vulnerability to her.

It felt very weak to him, but he had no choice but to put some faith in her to help him out.

He didn't know if he'd ever see Knockout again.

'Knockout…' He wondered.

Would he ever see his bestie again?

Was he even alive? He hoped he'd see him again. 

Breakdown wasn't one to pray. No. He honestly thought that Primus had turned his back on everything he made and left them to destroy each other over the smallest of things.

But for once in a very long time, he prayed; it was small. But he pleaded to Him for his best friend's safety.

And hoped He had heard his call, even if he didn't choose to listen.

He hoped He just heard.

Amelia noticed the dazed look in his eyes. She also saw some touch of concern in his features as well. She wanted to ask what was wrong but she didn't want to overstep her boundaries. She then noticed that Breakdown was still holding her hand. And she noticed that he rubbed his thumb on the back of her hand. 

She thought it was just his way of thinking, but it still felt intimate to a degree. So she tried to get his attention without him seeing how embarrassed she was.

"Um, in order to p-patch you up, I k-kinda h-have to use both of my h-hands…." She mentally facepalmed herself for stuttering like an idiot.

Lifting his gaze to look at her flustered face and was able to slowly pull himself back to reality.

He normally wouldn't zone out, or for that matter do anything like this.

He was a soldier, someone who had to stay professional and strong at all times.

He wasn't supposed to show weakness.

But that's just what he was doing. He was laying there; wounded with a human, holding her hand…

Holding her hand... 

Now he was completely back to his senses and mentally cursed.

Pulling back his hand and watching her much more closely.

"Very well…" He mouthed, waiting for her to do something.

"Well, I have some medical supplies here with me that can hopefully slow the bleeding and prevent infection from your wounds." Amelia informed, now back to her senses.

Breakdown nodded in confirmation. 

"May I ask what you're going to do in order to patch me up? I may not look like it, but I am what you call a nurse." Breakdown asked/informed.

Amelia was surprised. She then asked, "You seem more like a soldier than a nurse? But… then again, I guess I'm in the same position of rank as you when it comes to the looks department. Heh." She sheepishly giggled to herself. 

Breakdown thought on her words for a minute and smiled. "Yes, I suppose we are." He replied thoughtfully.

As Amelia listed off on what she was going to do, Breakdown gave his input to her and suggested what else she could use to help.

"Annnndddd…. There! That should hold you up till we get to our destination!" Amelia smiled at how well her work on him was holding up. 

Breakdown was impressed. He wouldn't expect a human to be so well versed on how to treat one of his kind. Although, with his input also helped things along nicely.

But Breakdown couldn't help but flinch when she said "destination". So he had to ask, "Where EXACTLY are we going?"

Amelia noticed how tense his voice was and carefully replied, "Well I was ORIGINALLY thinking of taking you to the Center where I work, in order to help you out further. But from the way that you're getting tense at what I'm saying, I take it that you don't want to."

"Your assumption is correct. I'm not really comfortable with the concept of going to places that I'm not familiar with."

He replied matter-a-factly to her and trailing off at the end.

Amelia thought hard on this. She thought about it till she had an "A-HA!" moment. She looked at Breakdown with a smile that said that she solved the world's most complicated math problem. 

He was nervous.

"Okay, Breakdown. I know you wouldn't like it being surrounded by different people. But since you trust me(?) would you prefer it if you would like to come to my house? Or in your case, a residence where I live. That way we can treat you properly and you won't have a panic attack. Is that alright with you?" She asked brightly.

A crooked smile appeared on his scared face as he replied to her.

"It doesn't look like I have too much of a choice now do I?" His one eye looked towards her yet, still unsure of what to expect from her.

Now the only question that remained in Breakdown's mind was, how was she gonna get him to the truck? So he asked.

And she once again gave him a look that sent worry through his body, but it wasn't completely uneasy.

It was more playful than anything.

That's when she lifted him up gently by the underside of his shoulders and began to drag him aways before hoisting him up bridal style. And had him secured in the sling across her chest.

Which in turn made him cry out like a little girl in surprise shortly at the sudden movement.

Breakdown was definitely not expecting this situation to happen. 

'How in the Pits is this human woman so strong?! She lifted me up like I was nothing but, what do humans call it? "A sack of potatoes!" ' Breakdown thought erratically.

"What's the matter~? You got awfully quiet after those "manly" screams?" Amelia teased lightly as she walked towards the rock face.

"What can I say? I'm not used to being carried." He shot back sarcastically.

He'd decided to tease her back since she'd shown she was alright with it, due to the amount of times she'd done so to him in the past few minutes of knowing each other.

Amelia grew sheepish and nervously scratched the back of her neck. "Ahahaha… Yeah… I get called out by that a lot by my coworkers… I'm just naturally strong and big boned… Heh…" she blushed as she grabbed hold of the rope and started to climb.

The descent up made BreakDown hold his breath; he'd never really had anyone carry him before, not to mention CLIMB something before.

It felt odd, almost like his brain and gut was still on the sea floor below even though they were only a few feet from the sea level.

It was still odd and made him very dizzy at the feeling.

Not that he'd even been to dizzy before, the ocean was the ocean.

You can go up and down and nothing really changes other than pressure.

There had been a few times he'd been caught in a small whirlpool and that was nauseating.

This.

This was just strange.

"Hold on tight! I'm almost there!" She yelled as she reached the top of the rock face. 

When she finally made it, they could see the rest of the beach and ocean along with her running heavy duty pick up truck.

"Since you're a little big to fit into the backseat, you're going in the bed in the back, is that okay with ya?" She asked out of breath.

"Again with the rhetorical choices."

He replied still a bit dazed at the climb but conscious enough to know that she was tiring with his weight and the climb.

Amelia then grinned mischievously from ear to ear. "You ready for the fun part~?"

His eye went wide with playful worry.

"Oh no," He mouthed halfheartedly, waiting for her to do something nuts.

By this point he was starting to get used to her playfulness, but what she did next put the fear of Primus himself back into his soul.

She then turned around and literally dropped halfway down the small seaside cliff and then stopped abruptly in a military slide drop. To say Breakdown wasn't expecting that would be an understatement.

He once again found himself crying out in terror when she dropped to only stop mid fall the yank on the robe that rocked though both their forms made him yelp and his grip on her became all the tighter.

'NURSE MY AFT!' He thought. As many more profanities flooded his mind when she landed on the side of the tiny cliff with a graceful tump of her boots.

"Alright, we're almost there. Just hang tight Rambo!" She teased as her mischievous smile grew on her face. She then made another drop and slide and made a jump to the ground. Which in hindsight, wasn't that much of a drop for her but a certain Mercon would say differently.  

"YOU JUST CLIMBED UP THERE AND JUST CASUALLY JUMPED OFF!!! WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?" Breakdown finally yelled out in his deep voice completely terrified of the girl who was currently holding him.

He wasn't angry at her, he was just plain old, terrified.

As he stared at her for a moment watching her facial expressions closely.

She tried to hold in her laughter, but it was futile. "Hahahaha!!!! S-sorry. If I had known you would've reacted that way, I-I would've… Hooo boy!!!" She kept laughing her cute laugh while Breakdown just stared at her with both a wondrous stare and a pouty face.

"You're crazy…" He gave her a pouting glare, and then huffed and looked away.

He knew it was merling-like to do but hey, he was wounded and the cute human girl was toying with him!

He wasn't trained for this! 

"Okay mister grumpy scales~ I'll put you down." she giggled as she walked up to the bed of the truck and gently placed him on some comfy towels as she carefully strapped him in with some secure strappings. "Now I have to put this tarp over you in order to hide you. Is that okay?" She asked as she showed him the blue tarp.

Instead of saying something he just gave her a look that seemed to do most of the talking for him as he rolled his eye and reached for the water proof plastic blue tarp.

For her to hand it to him and then to throw it over himself. The sound wasn't too pleasant to him but it worked and it kept him out of the setting golden sun.

She made sure that the tarp was secured so it wouldn't fly off in the wind when the truck moved. "Alright! Here we go, hang in there! And don't come out unless I tell you to!" She yelled back from the front seat as she closed the truck's door and started to drive out of the beach and onto the road.

To be continued....