Verity looked up at Optimus with some of that wonder lacking the first time around. For the first time in a long time, wanted to think that maybe. Just maybe - one more face in this wide galaxy, one more than she could count on one hand. Actually gave a damn about the person sitting limp and bloodied on the gurney. Not the track record or the information that came with the package, but her. Even after Ratchet, Magnus and the Wreckers...it was still a strange and unfamiliar feeling to be regarded in any capacity that didn't regulate her to nuisance or asset.

"It..." And she was loathed to admit this, "Wasn't so cut and dry as if he attacked me out of the blue."

Verity looked over at where her armor was packed away on the other side of the room. Neatly stored with no one the wiser the data artillery she carried. When she locked eyes with Optimus again it almost engendered a feeling she could trust him with full disclosure. Almost.

"I've been carrying sensitive information since a deep ops mission with the Wreckers - all Prowl pulling the strings, of course." Her smile was almost genuine as if time made the bitterness dull. "I don't know if he wanted it back because it's still the ticking time bomb it was five years ago

Or maybe he's like the rest of us deep down and can't let go, but when he found out and I said no. Well."

Verity lifts the ankle still in the splint and motioned to the mess that was the rest of her.

"If I wasn't with my exosuit you and I both know we wouldn't even be having this conversation."