Well, people, here it is! Riella and Prowl's family is growing!

I only own Riella…and the little one!

Note 7/14/14: This story has been pretty heavily edited (because I was a beginning writer at the time, it really needed it).

Expecting the Unexpected

Chapter 1: Virus?

Riella groaned as her internal alarm went off. "Unh...I don't want to get up..." She rolled over, bumping against Prowl, who was already sitting up.

"Something wrong, sweetspark?" he asked, gently brushing a hand over her hair. She'd chosen to recharge in organic mode, hoping it would eliminate the problems she'd been having in robot mode.

"Oh...I don't know." She forced herself to sit up. "I just don't feel so good."

"Are you sick?" Prowl lifted her onto his lap and cradled her against him.

"Maybe...it could be a virus." She rested her head against his chest, feeling his spark pulse in time with hers. "I'm tired, and my spark chamber doesn't feel quite right. It...aches a bit. Could also be bruising from a battle, I suppose."

"I'm sorry." Prowl rubbed her back. "Do you want me to call Ratchet and have him take a look at you?"

"Not necessary, but thank you. I made an appointment with him for later today. It's not too bad now." She straightened up and climbed off the berth, reaching for her clothes. "All I have this morning is monitor duty and a meeting with General Morshower. It won't hurt me to do that. Besides, I might lose my processor just sitting around."

"You probably would, at that." Prowl got up and waited for her to finish dressing before opening the door. He knelt to give her a kiss. "You'll call me if you need anything?"

"I will." Riella followed him out the door into the giant Autobot-sized hallway. Prowl turned toward the mess hall, then paused. "You want anything to eat?"

"Um...actually, yes. Maybe I should come get some energon." Riella was surprised; she wasn't usually hungry until she'd done her morning workout.

"Don't bother," Prowl told her. "You head down to the training room and get started, I'll meet you there and bring something for both of us."

"Okay, thanks."

The training room, as usual, was quiet; most Autobots didn't start practicing combat until later in the day. On Cybertron, as a Cyber-Ninja teacher, Riella had learned to get up early and get her personal workout done before any of their students arrived. She started with a few quick stretches, before moving into her Form 1 exercises. She only made it about halfway through before Prowl arrived, with two cubes of regular-grade energon. She took one and gratefully took a few sips.

"Thanks. I needed this."

"No problem." Prowl took a drink from his cube. "Feeling better?"

"Yes, mostly. Still tired, but the aching is just about gone. I think it was probably a bruise."

"That's good to hear." Prowl set his energon cube down and started his stretches. Riella joined him, starting her Form 1 exercises over again. The aching returned about ten minutes later, but she didn't complain, not wanting Prowl to worry about her.

After a half hour of exercising, the two separated, Riella going to the monitor room and Prowl to a meeting with Optimus Prime and Jazz. Once in the monitor room, the technorganic climbed into the chair and relaxed with a sigh. "Ooh. I hope Ratchet can fix whatever's wrong."

Monitor duty seemed to last forever that morning, and the meeting afterward seemed to take even longer. General Morshower wasn't nearly as bad as Simmons, but Riella didn't particularly enjoy talking to human government agents, even the ones who weren't stuck-up glitches. Also, the subject matter - how they should deal with the government's concerns about NEST's budget - was incredibly boring under the best of circumstances, which these weren't.

Finally, she was able to go down to the medbay and report to Ratchet, explaining the problem.

"Well, now." Ratchet picked her up and set her on the examining table. "Can you transform to robot mode? It'll be easier to check your spark chamber that way."

"Yes, I think so, but it's a bit uncomfortable." She obediently transformed and lay back on the table.

"Hmm." Ratchet fastened a wire into the data port on her arm, projecting her self-repair systems log onto the monitor. "I'm not picking up any record of a virus. You say it seems to be focused in your spark chamber?"

"That's what I think. Of course, I don't know for sure. I'm only guessing from the symptoms."

"Well, then..." Ratchet started hooking a few wires into her spark monitor. "Let's run a spark scan, see if there's anything wrong in there that your self-repairs didn't pick up." The scanner beeped as he switched it on. Ratchet looked at the readings on his monitor, then his optics widened.

"Ratchet? What's wrong?" Riella would have sat up, if she hadn't had the wires attached.

"Riella..." Ratchet turned to look at her. "You don't mind if I ask a few personal questions, do you?"

"Not at all. You know that."

"First, have you noticed you're unusually hungry lately?" Ratchet sat down and studied her clinically.

"Not that I..." Riella was about to say no, but then she remembered that morning. "Yes, actually. This morning."

"No other times?" the medic checked. When she shook her head, he continued. "And you've been unusually tired. Have you been sleeping at night?"

"Yes. I haven't had any problems at all."

"Okay." Ratchet paused. "This is the really personal question. When was the last time you and Prowl...sparked? Not just interfaced; sparked."

Riella arched an optic ridge. "That's extremely personal, but...it was about ten standard days ago. A decacycle."

"That's what I thought." Ratchet nodded.

"Ratchet, what's wrong with me?" She sat up this time, ignoring the wires that popped free from her chest plates.

"Nothing's wrong, Riella." Ratchet turned to her, a smile on his faceplates. "Congratulations." He held out the small monitor.

Riella stared at the image on the monitor; it was the last thing she'd expected to see.

A double spark signature.

"I'm...carrying? But I can't…"

"Yes, you're carrying." Ratchet gave her a genuine smile. "I know you and Prowl were hoping for this. I'm very happy for both of you."

Riella's optics snapped wide in shock. "But…but you said…I thought…I couldn't carry again. How…"

Ratchet chuckled and shook his head. "I only said that I doubted you would. It's not physically impossible for you. Obviously, I suppose."

"Oh, Ratchet!" Riella suddenly threw her arms around the medic's neck, startling him. "This is...this is the best news I've had since we heard that Bluestreak was coming to Earth!" She let go, hopped off the exam table, and shook her head in laughing disbelief. "Primus…Prowl's going to glitch. I just know it."

"Don't get too excited yet," Ratchet warned. "I want to run a few more tests. I think everything is alright, but I need to confirm."