It was a couple of days, but even Heatwave knew it couldn't be avoided. He left his sleeping chamber one morning in dinobot mode, and had been ever since.

He assisted around town and the Firehouse where he could, keeping an eye on Snowblast whenever the rest of the team was called out for an emergency.

Today, they were assisting in the decorating for an event the Mayor was hosting. It was a cooler morning, so Snowblast was content to be outside with them, dangling from his father's neck as Blades held a flag banner in place for Dani to secure.

Heatwave held his ladder tail up for Kade to hammer in the other side of the banner, another banner dangling from his teeth and awaiting its turn to be set up.

"You doing okay, Partner?" Kade asked.

"I'm fine. I'd rather get this done ourselves than have someone else fall off a ladder and then we have to pull them out of a tree."

"Touche."

"Remind me what these decorations are for...?" Blades whispered.

Dani sighed, "It's the Mayor's twelfth anniversary of being in office..." She muttered.

"We're not counting that break he took when Chase was in charge?" Boulder asked as he paused in his stage assembly, "Or when they thought your family was royalty?"

"Nnnnnope."

Dani hammered the last nail into the post and then turned to look behind her. "How's it looking from back there, Blurr?"

"Eh...Hmm...Maybe? Nah-"

"Blurr!" Heatwave barked, "Is it straight, or not?"

"...Straight."

"Thank you."
The firetruck sighed, "Sorry. I just...don't have the energy to deal with your fooling around today."

"Good. That means we can put up this last banner and then go home so you can rest."

"I told you, I'm fine...And wouldn't you rather be working on wedding stuff with Haley?"

Kade grimaced, "Yeah, about that... Haley doesn't want me to do anything with the planning and scheduling stuff. Her exact words were... 'You bring your handsome self to the ceremony and have your family make sure nothing blows up.'"

"Which in theory wouldn't be too hard." Graham expressed, "But...This is Griffin Rock, and no event after goes according to plan."

"Shh! Don't jinx it...!"
Kade climbed down onto Heatwave's back, allowing his partner to move a ways down the treeline to the next post. "But there is something I wanted to ask you, Heatwave..."

"If you're going to ask me if you can write 'just married' on my front window, the answer is no."

"No, not that...I need a Best Man."

The fireman nearly tumbled off of his partner's back as Heatwave came to an abrupt halt. "C-Careful!"

"S-Sorry. I just...You want me to be your best man?"

"Well...Yeah! I mean, you're my partner and we spend more time together than I do anyone else on the island. You know, besides my family and Haley."

Heatwave was quiet for a moment, "...I'll need to think about it."

"That's fine! I mean, the wedding's still a couple months away, so we have time, I just wanted to ask now."

Kade tapped the ladder to alert Heatwave to lift it. "And since it'll be in a few months, you won't be dealing with your carrying by then..."

"True... Just a sparkling."

Heatwave's helm perked up as he heard voices, and both he and Kade looked over to where Chief Burns was having a conversation with Mayor Luskey. "What's going on over there?"

"Dunno...Sounds like Dad's kind miffed at the Mayor, though. He probably suggested some big fireworks display that'll be a fire hazard."

"Knowing Luskey...Probably. Or have the entire event televised to the Mainland."

The conversation went for a few more minutes, and then the two men split ways, Chief marching back towards the bots.

"Everything okay, Dad?" Dani asked.

Chief sighed as he shook his head, "Let's just say... Crisis averted. Let's get this finished up and then head home..."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"He wanted to what!?"
Heatwave gave a hard huff as he stamped a foot down. "Over my dead spark!"

"That is essentially what Chief Burns said..." Chase muttered, "You deserve as much privacy as any other sentient being at such a crucial moment."

"Filming me while I'm carrying...Do I look like that giraffe from a few years ago? Don't answer that."

Cody patted Heatwave's leg, "The good news is Dad rejected the idea and told him off. You don't have to worry about that anymore..."

"Right... Now I just have two problems: My carrying, and Kade asking me to be his best man..."

"He asked you?" Blurr questioned. "Why?"

"That's the exact same question I'm asking... I don't think it's a good idea."

"Why not?" Cody asked.

"The Best Man's job is to hold the rings for them, but those things are small even for you humans! What if I lose them?"

"We could minimize you so that you're smaller." Blades suggested.

"And what if something catches fire, which is likely? I'd have to go get the minimizer, grow back to my full size, and then go to help. That would take forever!"

"Then be two places at once..."

The bots all turned to Quickshadow as she spoke. "You can project yourself for the wedding, and if an emergency pops up, then you can immediately go back to bot form to get to work."

"Projecting?" Cody questioned.

Quickshadow closed her optics, and then out of nowhere a young woman with curly blonde hair and a pencil skirt appeared. "Like so." The woman responded in Quickshadow's voice. "Have any of you ever actually used your holoforms before?"

"Well... Not exactly." Boulder admitted, "We never needed to."

"I could have used mine when I went to the mainland for the Teen Pioneer ceremony I guess..." Blades murmured, "...But I forgot about it, and then when I saw all the effort Graham put into that holoprojector for me-"

Cody shrugged, "It worked out in the end..."

Quickshadow's human form disappeared and she opened her optics again. "Just forge a holoform to stand in your place during the wedding; if something happens, then you can snap back into bot mode immediately."

The slightest smirk formed on the firebot's lips. "Hmm...That just might work."

"Having one on hand would be a suitable idea for all of us." Chase informed, "If we should become separated from our partners at any given time, we have a driver to cover for them."

"Sounds like a plan to me." Cody agreed with a grin, "I'd better head upstairs for dinner. I'll see you all later."

"Bye Cody..."

Heatwave watched the teenager disappear into the elevator, and then started to limp down the hall. "I'll be in my room..."

"Alright...Goodnight." Blades murmured.

Heatwave wandered into the room he used to sleep, settling down on the floor and resting his helm down on the cool concrete. With his components being slowly squished by the increasing protomatter collecting and putting pressure on him, he was always in at least some pain. But as he laid still on the floor, he felt movement for the first time. His optics widened a little, craning his neck to nudge his side.

"So that's it now..." He whispered, "...You're really in there."

He felt the sparkling move a little, a foot or maybe their helm brushing against his metal. They settled down after a few minutes, and Heatwave finally closed his optics and allowed himself to fall into sleep mode.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

The next morning, Heatwave didn't wake up when he usually did. The rest of the bots were up and moving, but even as noon began to creep closer, the firebot still hadn't emerged from his room. Chase and Blades eventually headed out with their partners to patrol the island, and Quickshadow left the island entirely, saying she had something she needed to take of on the mainland, but she'd be back in a few days. High Tide was rarely off of his ship off the coast, always scanning the sea for intruders and only coming inland for supplies.

This left Boulder, Blurr and Salvage alone in the Firehouse, occupied by their own interests. Boulder was reading a book, while Blurr and Salvage had started a ring-toss tournament with scrap that Salvage had collected.

"What do you think Heatwave's doing in there?" Blurr murmured.

Boulder shrugged, "He did seem rather tired last night... Why don't you go check on him?"

Blurr grumbled, but didn't disregard the bulldozer's suggestion. He wandered down the hall, and for several moments the remaining two resumed their tasks, before Blurr came rushing back down the hall.

"He's gone!"