Work Text:
Case Number: 83062
Incident: Robbery/Assault
Responding Officer: Louise Chen
On May 15, 2002, at 10:20 pm, I was dispatched to a Robbery call at 128 Bakersfeld Drive, Santa Cruz, California. On arrival, I met the victim, Daniel Pacey. He was bruised and in distress, but declined an ambulance.
Mr Pacey stated that the incident had happened twenty to thirty minutes before I had arrived. As he was returning to his residence, he was confronted by a perpetrator or perpetrators on his driveway with a demand that he surrender his assistance dog. When he refused to comply, he was struck with a blunt object, which caused him to fall. He believes the dog was then removed and placed in a vehicle which immediately departed the scene. Being visually impaired, Mr Pacey was unable to provide a description…
The party had been so much fun that Geri hadn't had the energy to unwrap her presents even after all her friends left. That was all right, though. She decided to open them the next day, which would stretch her birthday out even longer, and her father stacked them on her bedside table, where she could hear the crackle of paper and ribbons if she stretched out her hand.
She pulled on her pajamas, flipped open the face of her Braille watch and felt for the time. Well past eleven… but then again, she could stay up late since she was officially thirteen now. Not a kid any more, she thought, though she decided she would wait until her next birthday to stop wearing her comfortable old Winnie-the-Pooh pajamas.
She climbed into bed and drew the blanket up to her chin, thinking of the sleepover she would have at her best friend's house the next day. Really, there was no way the weekend could get any better.
A hard tapping sound came from outside the window.
Geri sat up sharply, awake at once. Is that…
Again the noise came, the muffled thud of metal on brick. Geri scrambled out of bed, feeling the soft rug under her bare feet, and hurried to the window. It was enough of a miracle that her visitor had managed to approach her house without rousing the entire neighborhood. She couldn't expect him to keep thumping without either waking her father up or breaking through the wall or both.
She fumbled with the window and slid it up. "Wildrider?" she said in a whisper.
"Happy birthday, kiddo!" Wildrider said, as loudly as if she had been deaf as well as blind.
Geri shushed him hastily, though she felt herself smile as she did so; she couldn't help being pleased that he had actually come all that way just for her birthday. She'd asked him once when his birthday was, but being Wildrider, he didn't remember. "Thank you," she said, wondering if there was some protocol or manners among Decepticons to be followed under such circumstances. "I'm glad you're here."
"Oh, you'll be even happier when you get your present then," Wildrider said. "Can you come down here?"
My present? "Um, couldn't you just hand the present to me?"
"Better not. There's already been one, uh, waste expulsion incident in your back yard. I don't want it to do the same thing in your room."
Geri was suddenly filled with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension that was entirely normal when she was around Wildrider. "All right," she said, then thought of the security system that her father had installed about a year ago. "Would you help me down?"
She sat on the window-sill and swung her legs over the edge. Her bare feet touched warm metal that closed around her as she pushed off, and she was on the ground a moment later. "It's coming up to you," Wildrider said.
Geri went to one knee and stretched a hand out tentatively. Her fingers brushed thick fur and then a wet tongue flicked against her skin.
"A dog?" she said, hardly able to believe it. It was the last gift she would have expected Wildrider to give her… and how in the world would she explain it to her father? She couldn't say the dog had just wandered up to their house.
"Yup." Metal components shifted and slid against each other and when Wildrider continued, the sound of his voice was a fraction closer, so she could tell he had knelt as well. "I heard that some blind people have dogs to help them find their way around and cross roads and stuff, so now you've got one too."
Wait, was this a guide dog? Geri reached out her other hand and touched the hard rectangular shape of a halter, then ran her fingers gently over the dog's head. Its leash had been wrapped around its muzzle so it could breathe but not bark.
"How did you get him?" she said. She couldn't imagine Guide Dogs for the Blind handing over one of their animals to a Stunticon.
"Uh, that part's not really important. D'you like him? You can give him a name."
Geri stood up. "He already has a name, Wildrider. It's Rocky. I can feel it on his tag." Her heart sank slowly. "Where's his owner?"
"I can't remember."
"Then we'll have to take him to the nearest police station."
"But… why is it always the nearest police station with you?" Wildrider sounded genuinely frustrated, and after a moment he continued more quietly. "I thought you'd like him."
"I do, honestly." And it was true. The dog's tail wagged, and he kept pushing his nose against her other hand. She crushed an impulse to put her arms around him and press her cheek to soft warm fur. "But he belongs to someone else, another blind person. It would be wrong to--"
"He used to belong to someone else. He's yours now."
There was no point in talking about what was right or wrong, so she had to take another tack. "The other thing with guide dogs is, they bond with their owners. It's a really strong connection, and it can't just – just shift to another person. Rocky's a wonderful dog, but it's his original owner he'll respond to and love, not me."
There was a pause. "They're really bonded to just one person? Like Soundwave and his cassettes?"
"You haven't mentioned him before so I have no idea who he is, but yes. Exactly."
Wildrider made a noncommittal sound, and Geri continued to scratch behind the dog's ears as she waited for him to think it out. "I guess you know more about this stuff than I do," he said finally.
Geri nodded, relieved. "I'll come with you to the police station," she said, hoping Wildrider hadn't run over Rocky's owner to get the dog. "And we don't need to stick around. We'll just drive by and let him out."
"Okay." Wildrider sounded as though he was starting to cheer up. "I'll get you something else instead. Drag Strip said you'd love one of these dogs and that I could get one really easily this way."
"Oh, Drag Strip said that, did he?" Geri had been raised to speak politely, which included not criticizing anyone's family to them, but she couldn't help the edge in her voice when she replied.
And Wildrider sounded a little different too. "Yeah… he did." There was a sharp realization in his tone, and Geri thought that no matter how off-kilter he might be when it came to humans, he was a bit quicker on the uptake with other 'cons.
"You might want to explain guide dogs to him when you get back home," she said, wrapping Rocky's leash around her hand.
"Yeah, I will," Wildrider said. "I'll have to talk real loud, 'cause I don't think he'll hear much when his head is stuffed down one of the drainage sluices. But I'll do my best. C'mon, let's beat feet."
He transformed and Geri opened the car door, waiting for Rocky to scramble inside before she got in as well and belted up. She hoped her father hadn't been woken up and that no one had seen her, but she had to make sure the dog was returned safely. It's my birthday. No one should lie awake tonight feeling lonely.
"Guess I'd better not try to surprise you again." Wildrider's engine revved and he took off with the usual lurch of rapid acceleration that made Geri feel as though her stomach had been left behind in the dust. "So what'd you like me to get you?"
Geri thought of replying that she liked having him as a friend and didn't need anything else, then decided against it. It was polite but it wouldn't make Wildrider feel as though he had accomplished anything, and he wouldn't like having his genuinely well-meant offer turned down. "How about a drive after we let Rocky out?" she said, resigning herself to what she knew would be a roller-coaster ride.
"I would've given you that anyway."
Geri grinned, and decided to have a little fun. "No, I said 'drive', not 'ride'. I'd like to drive."
"What?" For once she'd taken him aback, instead of the other way around. "No way! You can't even see!"
"So? I'll just be driving like you always do. Come on, this will be my only chance to drive a car." She ran a hand lightly over the inside of the door. "And not just any car, a Ferrari."
"But… uh… d'you have a driver's license?"
"No, Prowl, I don't."
"Oh, that was low, kiddo!"