When Eleanor broke her hand because of Ironhide, he felt guilty.

Truly, he did.

The only thing he meant to do was aid the human. She had been in the rain; surely, that would have ended in her catching one of those viruses that weak humans seemed to be susceptible to. Adding to that, her mental state was not stable, and he only wished to help her in getting it back under control.

He wished to help.

Yet, Ironhide had ended up informing her of what he truly believed in, and that was the fact that she did dwell in the past too much. He comprehended that grief was something that was felt deeply, and it was something that did not disappear overnight. Eleanor had been in the later stages of it, sure, but the fact remained that it was an excruciating burden on her already fragile heart. She had been ready to snap at the seams for who knows how long.

So, when she pulled her small, human fist back and punched Ironhide in his holoform's nose, guilt riddled him. Though her bones were brittle and weak, the throw managed to bend the metal in his nose, and he cursed, and Eleanor fled from the scene, broken in more ways than one.

When Ironhide went to the base, he hid in his hangar, building and breaking his cannons-his toys. Optimus checked up on him minimally, asking what had happened, but Ironhide grunted, clenching his digits together in repressed anger. Steam billowed out of his nose.

He hated Earth.

Major Lennox and Colonel Cambridge finally made their arrival when Ratchet swerved into the base, sirens on for no reason other than to be a nuisance to those who were trying to prepare themselves for important matters. Cambridge waltzed into Ironhide's hangar with a purpose, and Ironhide stared down at him when the human entered.

"Yes?" he asked, bemused. Truthfully, his servo was trembling, and he did not enjoy the sensation whatsoever. The angry glare of Eleanor Cambridge weighed heavily on his consciousness, pricking at his wires until he feared he was going to have a meltdown.

"Ironhide, what the hell?!" Cambridge glared up at Ironhide. An amusing sight.

Ironhide did not laugh. "How is her hand?" His hammer beat down on the broken ion cannon. Perhaps he could tear it apart for scrap metal. Ratchet has been needing new medical supplies for the 'bots.

"Broken. Listen, what did you say to her?" Cambridge walked towards the tower that most humans use when wishing to converse with Ironhide's true form. He climbed it with great rigor, saying, "She won't tell me anything that happened, but I know it has something to do with the fact that she wasn't in her bed this morning. And then you sped off before she could even get in the door. What happened?."

The hammer beat completely through the cannon, destroying it. Frag. Ironhide huffed, tossing the useless metal to the side. Colonel Cambridge stood before him, now, and the grey of the sun caught on his expression. He truly did seem livid.

"I said something truly regrettable," Ironhide admitted. Cambridge squawked as he normally did when Ironhide disclosed news that shocked him. "However, I will not apologize. I am guilty that she had injured herself, Colonel, but it is my own personal opinion that she hears something as harsh as what I said."

Ironhide had trekked into battle grounds not suited for him. He was used to the dark void of space, debris falling around him as he pushed against 'cons. He was familiar with the shrillness that guns produced, the loud boom of his cannons as he pressed it into the spark of his enemy. He was used to fighting and killing, winning with strength-no emotions-so the fact Colonel Cambridge's ammunition was loaded in a gun formed of contained rage, one that seeped out of his eyes and into the world, a flood, was something that Ironhide had no grasp over.

"What -- did you say?" the man asked Ironhide slowly. His voice came out a low rumble, and it reminded Ironhide of Ratchet when he was beside himself with anger directed at Ironhide. "Ironhide," he prompted.

Ironhide grunted. A waste of time. "I believed her to be dwelling too much on her past encounters. The night prior, she had divulged some information to me, and then she promptly fell asleep. Since I am to be taking orders from your family like some common 'bot, I simply could not come hounding into the house as you or your partner would have woken from your recharge, inquired me about the state of your sparking's emotions, and then forced me to blather the intimate details to you. That is precisely what Eleanor didn't want.

"So, I made a decision, and I placed the girl in the truck to sleep as I believed it would be safer than her catching an Earthly disease on the unsteady porch."

Glowing optics took in the anger painted on Cambridge's face. Ironhide blinked slowly at him, his fruitless endeavor in fixing scrap metal completely forgotten. The fleshling did not speak for many moments.

Ironhide said, "I did not know that she would be foolish enough to punch my holoform in the face."

There was a weak laugh coaxed out of the man, brittle and broken, and Ironhide balked at the sound of it. He found that he did not enjoy the sound.

"That's Eleanor for you, Ironhide!" Cambridge exclaimed after he was silent for almost a cycle. "When she feels like she's being mocked or someone says something that doesn't make her the happiest camper in the world -- if someone so much as offends her, she will blow up! And you --you caught her in the worst moment of her life, and you said that she was dwelling too much on the past?!

"She is only now losing family, Ironhide!" The rail in which Cambridge was holding rattled as the soldier threw himself forward. "She's not like us, okay?! We lose comrades and friends and family every day. Because we fight in a war. We've been conditioned to do exactly that. We don't get to mourn or grieve or be sad because we've got to fight the battle that no one else wants to! We've got to fight for them!

"Eleanor--she didn't have to! I never -- I didn't want her to ever have to experience losing someone, especially at such a young age. Especially her brother. I never wanted her to lose Theodore." Cambridge shook his head. Ironhide watched through dimmed optics. He almost felt. . . ashamed for his actions.

In hindsight, he realized that Eleanor Cambridge was not a hardened warrior as Colonel Cambridge and Major Lennox were. There was a separation from them as Eleanor was a civilian -- someone to be protected, not a protector. Ironhide could comprehend this as easily as a puny human could.

Though Ironhide had just recently lost one of his own friends, he had been conditioned to hide away that grief that sparked through him. It mattered not that their fight was over, that they had won to the likes of Megatron; the enemy was still alive, so they were to remain vigilant in the face of it. He had to put Jazz in the back of his consciousness and fight for his comrade since Jazz could not.

But Eleanor knew of no death. Her brother's death had been so sudden that she had no time to process it. Plus, she, too, had been hurt during the altercation, and that could have only added onto her complications at the time. It was no wonder that she was grieving still. It was no wonder she lashed out, especially when he dug at her in a way that he knew would hurt her.

"You must remember that refusing to get into a vehicle is not going to bring your brother back," he had told her with a growl.

Frag. He stared at Colonel Cambridge, who was still off in a tangent about how Eleanor did not deserve to suffer from Ironhide's selfish words. Ironhide did not unmute his audio processors, but he did nod at times to please the human as he was not listening. While Ironhide didn't regret saying what he said, he thought maybe he could be more sensible, next time.

Optimus did tell him once that it was his biggest flaw.

Frag.