All of Team Prime, including their human allies, were gathered around in the main hanger, hovering near the med-bay. Ratchet was moving back and forth between all of his medical tools and the berth where Arcee lay; she had Bumblebee's hand gripped tightly in hers as he sat next to her, trying to be as encouraging as he could despite the slightly painful grip the femme had on him. Bulkhead also stood next to the berth, alternating between encouraging the femme and helping Ratchet, when needed. Smokescreen was stood a little off to the side, close to where the humans waited on the platform, but still close enough to offer assistance if necessary. However, the member of the team who was most needed, was currently absent. No-one knew where Optimus was, and they were struggling to both find his signal and contact him via the comm-links. Arcee tensed up in pain, letting out whimpers, as she grabbed hold of Bulkhead's hand and tightened her grip on Bumblebee, her back arched slightly upwards off of the berth. Both mechs endured the pain inflicted on them silently, continuing to comfort Arcee, as they knew that at this moment, any pain they felt was nothing compared to what Arcee was feeling.
"Where is he?!" Arcee whimpered as she the pain momentarily passed, her body sagging down onto the berth in relief.
"We're still looking for his signal." Raf spoke up from his seat at the monitors.
"I'm gonna kill him!" Arcee cried as she her body once again tensed up and she pulled her whole upper body up off the berth, into a sitting position. She dug her fingers into Bulkhead's wrist, leaving painful dents in the Wrecker's armour, which became scratches as she dragged her fingers down to his hand.
"Have you searched every frequency for his comm-link?"
"We haven't found anything Bulk." Miko said apologetically. Raf continued to rapidly look for Optimus's signal on the monitor, while Fowler and Jack searched frequencies for his comm-link. Prime needed to be there, Arcee needed him; she couldn't give birth to his sparkling without him being there. Arcee's optics closed tightly as she tried to take her mind off of the pain, she lay as still and as relaxed as she could, trying to remember the different moments which had led her to this position, such as when she told Optimus she was pregnant.
Arcee paced nervously around her quarters; she'd never been so nervous and scared. She was pregnant, with Optimus's sparkling. She had no idea what to do now; no-one on the team knew of their relationship. The two had been together for nearly 3 years, but because of their individual fears and concerns surrounding the war, they'd kept their relationship a secret. At first, both had tried to fight against their feelings for one another, so as not to become attached when there was always the possibility of them dying the next day. But, after months of tension and the occasional secret lust-driven kiss, they'd given up on trying to fight their feelings, after being unable to resist spending a night together in Optimus's quarters. Their relationship had remained a secret, which added another layer to it, in a way, it made it more edgy and dangerous; the risk of being caught with one another and therefore losing the only thing that was truly just theirs. And, if no one knew, no one could stop them.
Arcee had comm-linked Optimus, asking him to come and see her when he returned from patrol, which was a few hours ago so, hopefully, he wouldn't be long now. A soft knock drew her attention to the slowly opening door, the light from the hallway shining into the room.
"Arcee?"
"Come in." Optimus slipped through the opened door and closed it behind him, locking it as he turned to face her. He walked over to her, kneeling down to take her into his arms. Her rested head against his warm chassis, the sound of his strong spark beating within soothed her nerves slightly. Optimus picked her up and held her tightly against him as she wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms snaking around his neck. Optimus moved over to the berth and gently lay Arcee down on her back, hovering his body over hers as he kissed her passionately. She responded immediately, her fingers stroking the back of his head. She moaned as his searing kisses broke away from her lips and moved to her jawline and down onto her neck. One of Optimus's hand moved to grip onto one of Arcee's thighs, pulling it away from his waist and opening her up to him, his hips dropping down to make contact with hers. His other hand moved to hold onto her side, his grip strong but not enough to hurt. The moment his thumb touched her stomach, the passion she felt evaporated off of her and Arcee pushed Optimus away from her neck, pulling herself from underneath him. She moved completely off of the berth and watched as Optimus also stood, when he tried to come close to her, she backed away from him, her hand gripping onto her other elbow, a subconscious move to both hide and protect her stomach, her sparkling.
"Arcee? What's wrong?" He kneeled down in front of her, the concern evident in his voice.
"What is this? What am I to you?" Arcee had her head down, not looking at the mech in front of her, her arms still blocking her stomach.
"I do not understand what you mean."
"Us. Me and you. What am I to you?" She walked around him, not getting close enough for him to reach out and touch her, before she sat down on the berth, Optimus turned his his body around to follow her.
"Arcee, where is this coming from?"
"Please, Optimus, answer me. Honestly. Is this just a physical thing, I need to know what I am to you. Please."
"Arcee, this, us, has never been just physical. I've never in my life felt the way I feel about you with anyone else. I love you, Arcee; I've loved you for a long time, and I will continue to do so until the day I am offlined." Optimus barely caught her as she threw herself at him, pulling his face down to hers and kissing him passionately.
"I love you too Optimus." She whispered between kisses, enjoying the feeling of Optimus running a hand up her back lightly, while the other found a handhold on her aft. When their feverish kissing died down, they kept their foreheads pressed to the others, Arcee quietly taking in Optimus's expression while he had his optics closed. Optimus moved his hands to her hips and, while still keeping her close, separated their bodies enough to fully look at her.
"So, what is this all about?"
Arcee didn't answer him straight away, instead deeply into his optics. All she saw was sincerity, concern and love. She reached down and pulled one of his hands from her waist and he held it in her own, bringing it to her face. She smiled softly and closed her optics, leaning into him as she felt him stroke her cheek with his thumb softly.
"Arcee?" He asked again. She sighed deeply as she opened her optics.
"Are you sure? Don't say it if you have even the smallest doubts, please." No matter how much she trusted that he wouldn't lie to her and the emotions she could see in his optics, she couldn't bring herself to actually tell him. Her hand came up to grip onto his hand, shaking slightly.
"Arcee, I love you. Nothing will come between us and I will never let you go. I promised you, years ago, that I'd always be there for you. We will end this war and be at peace, together." He leaned in to lightly kiss her forehead.
"And I promised that I'd help you end this war and be with you," Arcee tensed her body and held his hand tighter, looking deeply into his optics, "We will both be with you forever." Optimus's optics widened.
"Both?"
Arcee moved his hand down from her face to her stomach, whispering to him, cautiously, "Both of us."
Optimus seemed frozen as he looked at his hand resting over her stomach, he made no movements and said nothing. His silence scared Arcee and she moved away from him, his hand falling from her stomach onto the berth where she had been sat.
"You don't want this; it's not the right time. We're in a war. A sparkling would be in too much danger, especially your sparkling. Megatron, he would... he'd... a sparkling wouldn't work." Arcee began to ramble, turning her body to face a different direction to him, until Optimus grabbed her arms with both hands and made her face him. The force with which he pulled her into him and kissed her was almost overwhelming for Arcee; the kiss was filled with with so much love and happiness. Optimus pushed his body up from his kneeling position, knocking Arcee off balance, and ended up hovering over the femme who was now laying on her back. His hand cradled the back of her head as they kissed while the other one gently rested on top of her stomach, lightly caressing it.
"Why would I not want this?" Optimus asked as he broke the kiss, "You are the best thing to happen to me in a long time; you, and now our sparkling. I won't let anything happen to either of you. I promise!" He hugged her tightly to his chest, nuzzling his face into her neck, "How far along are you?"
"About a week." Arcee blushed when Optimus kissed her neck and placed his hand on her stomach again, her own arms coming to wrap tightly around his neck. Pulling free of her grip, Optimus moved down so that his head was in line with her stomach; he moved his hand from covering her stomach, so that it was instead gripping her waist, as he rested his head on it softly. Her legs were parted around him so he could easily lie down against her, in a way so that they would both be comfortable. The pair spent a few silent minutes with Optimus kissing and stroking Arcee's stomach while she gently traced patterns onto the top of his head with her fingertips. Optimus couldn't seem to get his head around the idea of becoming a father; he honestly never thought this day would happen. He'd longed for a child of his own since his days as Orion Pax, a clerk at the Iacon Hall of Records. When the war broke out, he had put that dream to the back of his head, and it wasn't until he met Arcee that he'd allowed it to creep back into his mind properly. And now here he was, Optimus Prime: leader of the Autobots and the last remaining Prime, about to become a father. At this moment though, he didn't feel like like he was the last remaining Prime, instead he was an ordinary mech, awaiting the birth of his first sparkling with the femme he loved. And by Primus did he love her. Arcee was, as he'd stated to her on many occasions, the best thing that could have possibly happened to him during the war. She'd opened up his optics to the future, beyond the war, and allowed him to believe that those dreams and ideas he had had as Orion Pax were still available to him. And now she was giving him a sparkling; she truly was his savior in this war.
"Optimus?"
"Yes sweetspark?" Optimus angled his head up to look at her.
"What are we going to tell the others?" The realization of their new situation then struck him: he and Arcee were having a sparkling together, but the team had no knowledge of their relationship.
"We tell them the truth: we love each other, and you are carrying my sparkling." Optimus's voice had his usual authoritative tone to it, but ended he finished with a soft kiss on Arcee's stomach. He continued to kiss her stomach, moving around the area while he changed his body position to be more able to see her reactions. As he kissed the top of her right hip, she arched herself into him, the hotspot he had focused in on being particularly sensitive, something which he knew. Optimus smirked to himself as he continued to target this spot and she began to desperately arch herself towards his mouth, wordlessly pleading him to continue. And he was never one to deny his femme.
That night was 3 months ago, and since then Optimus had been nothing but attentive towards her, soothing any further fears or uncertainties she had about their sparkling. But, no matter how much Arcee loved Optimus, at this moment in time, she could kill him. The pain coursing through her body was borderline unbearable, and she was sure that Bee and Bulk's hands would need looking at when this was all over. Though the worst thing about the whole situation was the fact that, at he time she needed him the most, Optimus was MIA. All attempts by her and every member of the team to contact him had been met with static, it was as if he had disappeared. She needed him now more then she ever had, to help her through this pain and bring their sparkling into the world. Arcee let out a strained scream of pain and squeezed Bumblebee and Bulkhead's hand tighter, letting her head fall down between her arms when the worst, for the moment, passed. Her knees were drawn up as close to her chassis as she could get them, a cover resting over her legs.
"How much longer until I can get this sparkling out?" Arcee voice was harsh and pushed out through the pain.
"Not long now, Cee, you just got to keep going. You're doing great!" Bulkhead encouraged her, still ignoring his throbbing hand. For the smallest member of the team, there was no denying that she had some strength in her.
"Ratchet, please? How long?" She whimpered.
"Soon." Ratchet drew his attention away from Arcee, as she leaned herself back down onto the berth, "Anything from Optimus?"
"Still searching..."
Arcee once again let her mind drift to another point in the last few months, to draw her focus, somewhat, away from the pain. While the first memory she had dived into had been one of happiness and love, the second was one Arcee would rather forget: when she and Optimus had come so close to losing their sparkling, well before it would be born.
Team Prime were in the heat of battle: Optimus battled against Dreadwing while Bulkhead and Smokescreen fought a group of Insecticons, Bumblebee dealt with Knockout and Arcee took on a group of Vehicons. Dreadwing took off in flight when Prime gained the upper hand, so Optimus moved to help Bulkhead and Smokescreen, who were outnumbered by the Decepticon bugs. Bumblebee had, easily, defeated Knockout, who was now unconscious on the ground, and had begun to help Arcee with the Vehicons. Everything seemed to be going in the Autobots favor, that is until the bots heard Arcee cry out in pain, as a vehicon landed a blaster shot directly onto her stomach. She dropped to the floor, clutching her abdomen tightly as energon began to pool around her. Bumblebee attempted to go to her aid, only to be tackled from the side by two vehicons. Optimus had turned to face the battle when he heard Arcee's scream. The sight of her laying on the ground, clutching at her abdomen, where his sparkling was developing, filled him with equal parts fear and rage. He ran towards her, increasing his speed as the same vehicon aimed it's blaster at her once again. Prime was desperate as sprinted towards her, he couldn't let anything more happen to her or their sparkling, they were everything to him. He had promised Arcee that he would protect them both, and at this moment, Optimus felt like he had broken that promise to her, as she lay in a pool of her own energon.
"NO!" Optimus shouted in anger as the vehicon fired another shot at Arcee, hitting her in the back; Optimus swiftly tackled and killed the vehicon, before moving over to where Arcee lay on the floor. He gently lifted her from the floor, holding her in the crook of his arm and against his chest as he stood back up. The area surrounding him showed the signs of the Autobot's victory, with vehicons lying offlined on the floor, alongside an unconscious Knockout, most of the vehicons had been offlined while others, like the vehicons, were offline.
Optimus heard Arcee's weak groan of pain as grew even more limp in his arms, her optics offlining as she fell into unconsciousness.
An emergency groundbridge request was sent back to the base, and within seconds the team was running through the portal, Optimus in the lead. Inside the base, they met an already prepared Ratchet, who ushered Prime into the med-bay, while the rest of the team kept the humans out of the way.
Optimus carefully lay Arcee down and remained stood close to her, reluctant to leave her side for the fear that if he did, he would lose her.
"Optimus, you need to back-up and let me work." Ratchet spoke to Optimus without looking up from Arcee's wounds; but Optimus didn't hear him, focused solely on Arcee, it was only when he felt Bulkhead gently pushing him backwards out of the med-bay that he came back to himself. For hours, Optimus stood off to the side with the rest of the team, over-looking everything that happened in the med bay.
Ratchet managed to close the wound in Arcee's stomach, stopping anymore energon from leaking out of her body. He also took multiple scans and ran tests to make sure that there was no internal damage caused by the blaster fire. In total, Arcee's repairs and tests took almost 3 hours to complete. When Ratchet finally exited the med-bay, Optimus was quickly at his side, he'd been slowly moving closer as time went on but now Ratchet was out, he was desperate to know if Arcee was stable; he knew that she'd remained unconscious for the duration of her repairs. At some point, the team and humans had gone somewhere else in the base, which now left only Optimus, Ratchet and an unconscious Arcee.
"Ratchet, is she OK?" Optimus asked his longtime friend, worriedly, his optics focussed on Arcee.
"There was severe damage to her stomach and I'm still replenishing the massive amount of energon she lost. But, as long as there are no complications that come up in the next few hours, she should recover well, and hopefully quickly."
Optimus felt as if a weight had been lifted, but that didn't alleviate the fear which he still felt at the uncertainty of the next few hours, Arcee may yet not survive. And he knew nothing of their sparkling's health; did Ratchet know about the sparkling, would he even think to check for it? He'd run multiple tests and done scans on Arcee, but whether anything had shown up was still a mystery to Optimus. He was praying to Primus that Ratchet simply hadn't got back that test result yet. The alternative scenario was that there was no sparkling for Ratchet find, and that idea that shook Optimus too his core.
"I'm going to get some energon."
"Thank you, Ratchet." The medic nodded and left towards the energon storage.
Optimus walked over to the berth where Arcee lay. She was so still and lifeless, almost as if she was dead. Optimus moved his hand to her chest, feeling her spark beat underneath the warm metal calmed his nerves slightly.
"Please, don't do that to me again. I need you... I can't lose you. You need to wake up, please." He stroked her face softly, his fingers dragging down from her cheeks to stroke her neck, continue down across her chest and stop on her stomach, "My little one. Don't give up, you're strong, like your mother, you will be fine." A wave of sadness hit Optimus again and his optics closed, "If you are still alive."
"It is." Optimus quickly moved his hand away from Arcee and turned to face Ratchet, who was stood leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed across his chest.
"How long have you been there?"
"Long enough." Ratchet smirked, walking towards Optimus, "Your sparkling is fine, it somehow managed to survive both blaster shots. There won't be any issues when it is born either, you have a healthy sparkling; it's development is progressing as it should, looks to be able 2 weeks along. I had a feeling you were responsible for her pregnancy."
"Why didn't you say anything, if you knew the sparkling was alive?"
"I wasn't completely sure it was your, I needed to be before I told you anything. You said nothing, so there was a doubt about your involvement in my mind, and I'd therefore need to speak with Arcee about it before you. I couldn't exactly start asking you, my Commanding Officer, if you've been impregnating your soldiers, could I?" Ratchet moved around the berth to the monitors and checked on Arcee's vitals, which were holding steady, "I made an educated guess, based on your behavior these last few hours, but I still could have been wrong. The only mech I knew for certain wasn't the father, was myself. For all I knew, it could have been Wheeljack who had gotten her pregnant when he, briefly, visited the other week."
Optimus's body tensed at Ratchet's words, "I didn't even know that Wheeljack had been here." Optimus found himself agitated at what Ratchet was suggesting. He didn't want to even entertain about the notion or idea of Wheeljack and Arcee together. The thought of Wheeljack holding and touching her in the way that he did made Optimus inwardly cringe and feel the anger and jealousy building in his body. He didn't want to go down that road, not now or ever.
"I said briefly; you were on patrol with Smokescreen when he arrived, and still out when he left. He came to see Bulkhead and Miko, then left again."
"If it was only a brief visit and he was with Bulkhead and Miko, why would you think it could have been him?" Optimus didn't know why he was asking these questions, possibly to distract him from of his unconscious femme and unborn sparkling, he only wished he could have found a different topic to distract him.
"Bulkhead had to take Miko home, her host parents were growing concerned about her whereabouts all the time, but June dealt with that when she said that Miko had been at her house with Jack and Raf. Bumblebee had to take Raf home also and Jack asked to be groundbridged to his work; he'd forgotten his shift, if Arcee had taken him he would've been late. That just left myself, Arcee and Wheeljack. Those two disappeared somewhere into the base, to the training room I think. They didn't return until the others came back. Anything could have happened while they were gone, and I certainly wasn't going to ask them then." Ratchet finished.
Optimus wasn't overly happy with Ratchet's response, but he was right, anything could've happened between them. There were no cameras in the training room.
"And," Optimus's attention was drawn back to Ratchet as he tried to push the thoughts of his femme with anyone else from his mind, "call me naive but I believed myself to be too observant to miss the fact that there was a relationship, outside of professionalism, going on under my nose. For a moment, Wheeljack seemed like the only likely candidate." Optimus's head again was filled with the idea of Wheeljack and Arcee, his Arcee. He felt his battlemask slip across his face without his command, in a subconscious attempt to mask his frayed emotions.
"How is she?" Smokescreen's voice filled the room as he and the others arrived back into the main hanger.
"Stable, she should be fine. We just need her to wake up to be sure." Ratchet informed them. A sigh of relief was heard all around the room, from bot and human alike.
'Thank Primus!' Bumblebee bleeped as he moved closer to Arcee, sitting down by the berth and taking her hand tightly in his own.
"I'll go tell Wheeljack." Bulkhead turned to walk back out again.
"Wheeljack?" Optimus inquired, taking a step forward. How did Wheeljack know about Arcee's situation? And why did he need to know?
"He commed me while Ratchet was working on her, he told me to keep him informed when I told him what was happening."
"Very well." Optimus dismissed him.
Somewhere in a Canadian forest, a Cybertronian form ran out of a cave opening. Seconds later, light blue flames shot out of the caves mouth as a large explosion went off within. The form jumped into a ship not too far behind the treeline and sat in the driver's seat chuckling to himself.
"Take that Cons."
'Wheeljack, come in.'
"Bulk! Any word on Arcee?" Wheeljack immediately replied to his friend.
'Yeah, Ratchet said she's stable, still unconscious though and we won't know exactly how she is until she wakes up. The team is with her.' Bulkhead commed back.
"Room for one more?"
'Sure, but why?' Bulkhead asked quizzically.
"For Cee. I'll be there later." And with that Wheeljack put in the co-ordinates for Autobot Outpost Omega 1 and flew off.
Bulkhead reentered the main hanger and leaned against the platform where the humans were stood.
"Bulk, did you reach Wheeljack?" Miko asked as she ran towards her guardian.
"Yeah."
"What did he say? Why does he want to know so badly?"
"He didn't really say much." Bulkhead knew that he should inform them that Wheeljack was on his way, but he saw how Optimus seemed a little tense when he found out Wheeljack was asking about Arcee and couldn't decide how to word it.
"He must have said something." Miko, as usual, we relentless in her questioning.
"He said he was..." Bulkhead looked around the room, mainly watching Prime's reaction, "He's on his way here now."
The whole team, confused, looked at Bulkhead, "Why?" Ratchet asked.
Bulkhead pressed his comm-link and the conversation between himself and Wheeljack played out to the team, and no-one said anything more about it, they couldn't really. Not for the time being at least.
Arcee was still laying unconscious in the med-bay 3 hours later, with Optimus still refusing to leave her side. The main hanger was mostly silent, save for the noise coming from the TV, everyone was waiting for both Arcee to wake and Wheeljack to make arrive. One main question was going through the minds of everyone there: why was Wheeljack coming all the way to Jasper for Arcee? As if on que, the proximity sensors flared up to alert everyone that Wheeljack had arrived. Wheeljack sped in through the main tunnel at a high speed, Bumblebee and Smokescreen barely managed to dart out of the way, to avoid a collision. He drove straight towards the med bay and transformed before the end of the berth where Arcee lay. Before acknowledging anyone else in the room, he moved himself so rather then being at the bottom of the berth, he was stood at her side. Only after taking in Arcee's physical condition did Wheeljack look up at Optimus and Ratchet, who were stood on the opposite side of the berth to him.
'It's your sparkling and she's your femme.' Ratchet privately comm-linked Optimus when he noticed that Prime had become visibly more tense.
"What's the damage Doc? Is she going to be OK?"
"She's stable and we'll know more when she wakes up."
"What happened? Which one of Megatron's goons did this to her?"
"One of the vehicons. Optimus took care of it." Bulkhead stood next to his friend.
The monitors flared up again, only this time it was a notification of Decepticon activity, "Cons have hit an energon mine." Smokescreen announced from his position next to the monitor.
"Where?" Optimus's deep voice was heard for the first time since Wheeljack got there.
"A small rural area in the west of England."
"Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Smokescreen you three will accompany me. Wheeljack, you are also welcome to join us." Optimus offered, silently hoping that Wheeljack would accept; as irrational as Optimus knew it was, he didn't want to leave him with Arcee.
"Thanks, but no thanks. I'll stay with 'Cee for a bit."
Once again agitated, Optimus nodded at the Wrecker then turned to the rest of Team Prime, "Autobots, roll out." The mechs drove into the groundbridge and were gone in a flash of light.
"Come on kids, it's getting late, I should get you all home." June stood up and began to walk down the stairs to her car, Raf and Miko following her.
"But mom, what about Arcee? I can't just leave her, not until she wakes up at least." Jack protested.
"She's not on her own Jack; Ratchet and Wheeljack are here. We need to go home; Miko's parents are still suspicious, Raf needs to get home too. You all have school tomorrow and you have work. Arcee will be fine here, she's in safe hands." Reluctantly Jack agreed and followed his mother into the car.
"Tell Bulk I said bye!" Miko shouted out the car window as June drove away.
"Bee too!" Raf copied the her actions.
"I should probably get going too, I have my monthly meeting with General Bryce in an hour. If he asks, what should I tell him about Arcee's condition?" Fowler moved towards the elevator.
"Tell him what I've told everyone who has asked so far: She is stable but we'll know more when she awakens!" Ratchet said, annoyed.
Fowler nodded at the medic and left.
"Hey, Doc, how long do you think it will be until she wakes up?" Wheeljack inquired.
"Shouldn't be too long now, it's been nearly 7 hours. Why are you so interested in her welfare? I didn't know that you and Arcee were close."
"We have a history." Wheeljack's answer was short and he barely looked up from the femme to answer Ratchet.
"Care to share?"
"We knew each other on Cybertron. End of story." Wheeljack slightly looked over to the medic, "What's up with Prime? He seems more agitated than usual."
"He's concerned for Arcee. He's her Commander, he feels responsible for her well being, guilty for not protecting her." Ratchet wasn't lying, Optimus did feel guilty about not being able to reach Arcee in time to protect her; Ratchet just simply left the sparkling aspect out of the conversation.
"I need to get something from the back, watch her vitals." With that, Ratchet turned and left the main hanger.
Wheeljack looked down at Arcee again when he heard a small groan, she was slowly opening her optics and reaching weakly for her stomach. Ratchet had given her something for her pain, but it didn't help with the soreness she felt.
"Hey." Wheeljack put his hand on Arcee's back to steady her as she sat up.
"Hey. Where is everyone?"
"The humans have gone home; you'll want to let Jack know your awake, he didn't want to leave you until you woke up. Ratchet's somewhere in the back and the others are in England."
"And you? What are you doing here?"
"Oh, that's all I get, is it? No 'Thank you Wheeljack, for coming to see me on my possible death bed.'" Wheeljack said in a sarcastic, mocking tone. Arcee hit his arm playfully before trying to stabilise her body and sit up by herself; Wheeljack was still ready to catch her if she fell.
"Thanks Wheeljack."
"Your awake then?" Ratchet re-entered the room, bringing both bots attention to him.
"Seems that way, doesn't it?" Arcee looked at the medic, who stopped next to her.
"Seems like your back to normal, but I will need to check you over, as a precaution. Wheeljack, could you give us some space please?" Wheeljack shrugged and went away from the medbay, stopping to rest on the wall by the groundbridge tunnel and tossing his grenade up and down. Ratchet helped Arcee to her feet and checked her balance and strength before sitting her back down on the berth, checking her leg reflexes and her back for any messed up circuits.
"Everything seems in working order. But you will remain off of duty until I see fit."
"Ratchet... can I ask something which you must keep to yourself?"
"You sparkling is fine." Arcee breathed a sigh of relief. "Optimus knows too."
Arcee looked at Ratchet quizzically, trying to attempt to act as if Optimus hadn't sired her sparkling.
"He is the father. Isn't he?" She gave in on her act, Ratchet already knew and had spoken to Optimus about it.
"Yes... Who else could it be?"
Ratchet tilted his head in the direction of Wheeljack and in return got a kick in the leg from the femme.
"Wheeljack? Really?" She whispered as quietly as she could through her exasperation.
"Where did you two go when he was here the other week?"
"Training room. We sparred for a bit until Bulk got back to base." Ratchet left it at that. Mainly because he received a groundbridge request from Bulkhead, "Wheeljack, open the groundbridge." The medic didn't get an answer, all he heard was the groundbridge open and tyres on the floor.
"Miko and Raf said bye."
Optimus walked towards the medical bay and felt a huge relief when he saw Arcee awake and sitting up on the berth.
'Cee! Are you OK? I was worried about you, we all were!' Bumblebee hugged the femme happily and tightly when he saw her, sitting down next to her on the berth when he was done. Bulkhead patted her on the back, albeit gently, with a smile on his face. Smokescreen, too, offered her a smile; the two still didn't completely see eye-to-eye, but that didn't mean he wasn't worried about her.
"I'm fine Bee, thanks, just need to sleep it off some more. Ratchet, can I go?"
"Yes but nothing strenuous. You need rest."
Arcee slowly got to her feet, but stumbled slightly, being caught by Wheeljack, who'd at some point moved closer to her. He lifted her up into his arms, bridal style, "I gotcha. Come on, I'll take you to your room."
"That won't be necessary Wheeljack, I can take her there." Prime stepped forward, his arms already slightly extended to be passed Arcee.
"Yeah Jackie, let Prime do it. Come on, I'll get the lobbing ball out!" Bulkhead hit Wheeljack on the shoulder as the latter passed Arcee from his own arms into Prime's, the two turning to leave the main hanger.
Though the walk down the corridor towards Arcee's quarters was silent, it was filled with soft caresses, from both of them. Optimus, with one arm wrapped around her back, was able to rest his hand against her stomach, while Arcee nestled her head into his neck and stroked his chest softly with her hand. Upon entering her quarters, Optimus gently lay Arcee down on her berth before carefully placing his body next to hers, hugging her into himself.
"Thank Primus that you're OK, I thought I'd lost you, both of you." He whispered to her, his hand once again reaching to cover her stomach.
"I'm right here." She kissed him softly, "I'm fine and so is the sparkling. It's OK." Arcee dotted small kisses all across Optimus's face as his grip on her tightened. No-more words were spoken between the two, they weren't needed att his moment. They just needed to sit there in silence and hold each other. Arcee fell asleep again in Optimus's arms fairly quickly, and though he was reluctant to leave her, a comm-link from Ratchet informing him that any more time spent away would become suspicious, Optimus pulled away and stood up from the bed. He draped a blanket over the top of the femme and kissed her forehead, before turning and leaving the room.
That day had been one of the most stressful times in both the mech and femme's lives; they'd come so close to losing their child, as well as it's mother. Optimus was still trying to lessen his protectiveness over Arcee, but struggling to get passed the image of her lying in a pool of energon as she clutched her stomach.
"Sorry Bulk." Arcee apologized weakly as she felt Bulkhead once again tense up as she really dug her fingers harshly into his hand.
"It's OK 'Cee."
Arcee's mind drifted back again to not long after she's been injured. It was a day that both she and Optimus knew was inevitable, but neither expected it to happen as it did. Her mind took her back to the day the team had discovered their relationship.
For the next two weeks after the incident with the vehicon, Optimus and Ratchet had both increased their protectiveness over Arcee and been more watchful of her. She was rarely alone now, as Optimus ensured that she had back-up each time she went out, he usually tried to make sure it was himself who was with her; and Ratchet had begun giving her daily medical check-ups. Arcee was around a month pregnant now and she and Optimus would soon have to tell the rest of the team about them and their sparkling, or else they would figure it out for themselves. Cybertronian pregnancies lasted around 4 months, with the femme beginning to show physical signs of pregnancy between the sixth and eighth week. They knew they had to tell them, but they couldn't find the right moment to do so.
All of the team were gathered in the main hanger, with no current Decepticon activity, they had the opportunity to relax slightly before the next mission or patrol. were with the team and humans in the main hanger. Arcee comm-linked Optimus, a small, sly smile etched onto her face as she turned and left the hanger,
'Follow me.'
2 minutes later, Optimus also silently left the hanger, following after the femme. In the corridor, Arcee grabbed Optimus by his arm as soon as he came close enough to her, pulling him down to her level so she could then wrap her arms around his neck and kissed him violently. Optimus grabbed onto Arcee's waist, lifting with him as he stood back up and feeling her legs wrap tightly around his slender waist. Arcee's feverish kisses moved from his lips to his neck and chassis while Optimus pushed her body against the wall, holding her there with his bulk as he let go of her waist with one hand to grip her thigh and stroked her back with the other. Right now neither cared that they were in the corridor, where anyone walking down it would see them kissing. The team seemed fairly preoccupied with different things when they both left.
"Well then... I wasn't expecting that..." The pair broke away from each other slightly, turning to see Smokescreen and Miko stood looking at them, shocked. Miko couldn't contain herself and before anyone had had the chance to move or say anything else, she's begun sprinting back to the main hanger.
"Scrap." Arcee said, her head dropping forward to rest on Optimus's chest, before he put her down on the floor again. As much as they knew that the truth was going to come out at some point soon, they didn't want it to be like this: being caught in a compromising position with one another, by Miko especially, and now having to face the team while trying to bring their arousal back down.
"Smokescreen, come along. Myself and Arcee will explain this to everyone together." The three Cybertronians started walking, silently, back to the main area.
"THEY WERE MAKING OUT!" Miko screamed as she rapidly skidded back into the room.
"What?" Bulkhead was intrigued.
"Me and Smokie... walking... there they are! Making out... up against the wall... kissing his neck and his chest!" Miko tried to verbalize everything that she had seen, but her panting from running so quickly back through the base caused her words to be broken and confusing for the rest of the team. She tried to let out a long breath, but it just made her dizzy as she let herself slowly sit down on the floor. When they saw the other three bots arriving back, the team looked to them for answers.
'Smokescreen, what happened?' Bumblebee quizzed them from where he was stood overlooking Raf on the platform with his computer.
"Optimus and 'Cee were kissing." Smokescreen said. The couple felt multiple pairs of wide eyes staring at them instantly, shocked faces all around the room.
"Are you two a couple?" Raf asked innocently.
"Yes Rafael; myself and Arcee have been together for some time now." Optimus replied.
"Why didn't you tell us? 'Cee, why didn't you tell me?" Jack stepped forward from his place on the platform closest to the monitors.
"We didn't want the Decepticons finding out." Arcee replied to the teenager.
"That's not all, is it you two?" Ratchet added in from his position at the monitor, not even turning around from his work.
"What else is there?" Fowler asked.
"Arcee is pregnant, our sparkling will be born in around 3 months time." Tough each reaction to the news was different, the mood in the room was unanimously positive and happy for the two. June, Raf and Fowler were calm during their congratulations, while Bumblebee was excited and happy at the prospect of having a sparkling around the base to play with. Bulkhead lightly clasped a hand onto Optimus's arm and gave him a small hug, then turning to hug Arcee too, before being told by Ratchet to soften his grip a bit. Jack and Smokescreen congratulated both the new parents. Miko was overly excited and loud as she congratulated and celebrated.
But overall, the reactions were positive and apart from a small warning tip from June about the future teenage years, everyone was happy for the pair.
"WE GOT IT! We have his signal!" Raf shouted out excitedly from the platform, "Optimus, return to base, it's urgent! Arcee's having the sparkling!" Raf hurriedly comm-linked the Autobot leader.
"Send a groundbridge, immediately!" Optimus's response was fast and sounded worried. As soon as the groundbridge opened, the Optimus came speeding through in his vehicle mode, transforming in record time when he got to the med-bay. Bulkhead moved aside, making room for Optimus to get closer to the femme, who clung onto his hand as soon as he was in reach. With is free hand, Optimus gently held the side of her face and pressed a kiss to her forehead, "I'm sorry sweetspark."
"Where were you?" Arcee managed to push her words out through the pain.
"Investigating an energon signal, the mineral composition scrambled my comm-link. I would've been here had I known." He kissed her forehead again lightly. Arcee couldn't respond to him as she was hit by the most painful contraction yet, she gripped harder onto Optimus and Bumblebee's hands as she tried to endure the pain.
"Ratchet?" Optimus called out worriedly.
"Come on, Arcee, you have to push now." Ratchet had now set up everything he would need to help Arcee and the sparkling. Smokescreen and Bulkhead had moved back out of the med-bay to allow Ratchet the space to work.
"Alright Arcee, count to 3 and then push." Arcee took a moment to ready herself and then she dug her fingers into Bumblebee and Optimus's hands as she pushed, "Good. Just a few more. And again, count to 3." Again she pushed as hard as she could.
Arcee wanted to give up so badly, the pain was something she had never experienced before, "I can't do this." She whimpered weakly.
'Yes you can 'Cee!' Bumblebee encouraged her as much as he could.
Optimus kissed Arcee's forehead softly and stroked her face "You can do this my love, you are so close."
"Nearly there Arcee, and again!" She strained and let out a grunt of pain, "One last push and it's done." Arcee tried with all of her might and gripped Optimus and Bumblebee's hands as hard as she could. She let out a sign of relief and sunk down onto the berth when all the pain and pressure she felt evaporated from her body, her grip finally loosening on Optimus and Bumblebee. Everyone in the room smiled and cheered when the loud screeching of a sparkling filled the room. Bumblebee jumped up and hugged Arcee as she smiled happily, her head dropping tiredly onto his shoulder; she was relieved for it to finally be over.
"Congratulations you two, you have a healthy little mech." Ratchet passed the sparkling to Optimus.
Prime was speechless as he looked down at the small sparkling in his arms. This was his son, his and Arcee's son; he was perfect. He looked just like Optimus, with the same color scheme, facial features and physique, but there were elements of him that he had inherited from his mother, his eyes were virtually identical to hers. Optimus bent down to allow Arcee see him as well, she had tears brimming her eyes. Optimus carefully passed the little mech over to his mother's waiting arms before pressing a kiss to her forehead, his hand holding the side of her neck, "Thank you."
"I love you, Optimus Prime." Arcee remained looking down at the sparkling in her arms.
"I love you too."
Optimus ushered the rest of the team over to the berth, moving to stand at the head of it so the rest of the team could gather around, all of them trying to see the newborn. A wave of 'Congratulations' came from everyone gathered there.
"Bumblebee, would you like to hold him?" Optimus directed his attention to the young scout who hadn't moved from Arcee's side. Optimus and Arcee had had a close relationship with Bumblebee for many years. Both had known him from a very young age when his home on Cybertron had been attacked by Decepticons, where his parents had both been killed. Arcee's team, the Delta Team, had been among the first Autobots to arrive and she had found the young mech in the ruins of his old home. Bringing him back to the Autobot base with her, she couldn't leave him and looked after him until he was old enough to go to the military academy, where he had met Optimus.
Bumblebee nodded excitedly and bleeped his thanks to the new parents while Arcee sat up and carefully placed the young mech into Bumblebee's eager arms.
'He's so cute. What are you going to call him?' Optimus and Arcee had already discussed the name of their sparkling at length; if it was a femme, they would have called her Lunar, but seeing as how Primus had given them a mech, he would be named, "Blade." Both Arcee and Optimus said. Blade was passed all around the Cybertronians, all the while making sure that the humans had a chance to see him too.
At the end of that night, Arcee and Optimus lay cuddled up together on the berth in their room; Arcee lay across Optimus's chassis as he had his arms wrapped across her hips and back. Blade lay in the small crib-like berth that Optimus had constructed, with Bulkhead's help, just off to the side of their berth, still within reaching distance.
"Thank you." Optimus whispered quietly into Arcee's audio receptor.
"What for?"
"All of it, you have given me everything I have ever wanted but never thought I would be able to have, not with the war. We have a family, our son and the team; and together, we will end this war." He lifted a hand up to pull the back of her head closer to him and he kissed her lips passionately, "I love you."
Optimus rolled his body until he had Arcee underneath him, doing so gently as he knew that she was still aching and sore from giving birth a few hours before.
"I love you too." Arcee wrapped her arms around Optimus's neck and pulled him back down to her lips, reigniting their passionate kiss, the pair were quiet, as their son was sleeping so close to them. Optimus rolled himself off of Arcee after a few minutes, laying on his side and spooning her body into his, her back to his chest. He kissed her neck softly as she fell to sleep and Optimus knew that this, lying with the love of his life while their newborn sparkling soundly slept just inches from them, was the happiest moment of his life.
9 weeks is all the time it took for Optimus's joy to turn to ashes.
"Don't go. Please, don't go. Just because you have done everything you promised; please don't leave me. You are everything I need. The light in my dark, dark world." He could feel tears beginning to build in his optics, the block in his throat feeling as if it would choke him, "Please Primus, in your mercy, don't take her away from me!" Optimus started to feel his voice-box closing as he spoke, "My son needs his mother! And I need her." Optimus flinched as he heard a groan of pain, and he saw her optics opened slowly, blinking against the bright lights; the pain in her optics was spark-breaking.
"Optimus..." She weakly pushed the word out, her head tilting to the side so that she could see him properly, taking all of his features in and memorizing them.
"I'm here. I will never leave you. I promise." Optimus whispered back at her as he brought her hands up to kiss them again.
"I love you." Tears began to slowly leak down out of her optics; they both knew that this was it, neither wanting to voice it out loud though.
"I love you too." He leaned over to kiss her forehead softly, the grip he had on her hands tightening as he brought his free hand to wipe away her tears.
"Look after them. They need you." Optimus nodded to her, finding himself unable to either find the words to say or operate his voicebox.
"But we need you too!" The sound of the Miko's voice reached their audio receptors, causing the pair to turn to where the whole of Team Prime stood looking at them.
Optimus's attention was drawn away from the team and back to Arcee when she lightly squeezed his hand, opening up a private comm-link to Arcee he once again begged her to continue fighting.
'You can do this, you can pull through. When you are better, we will finally spark-bond, raise our son and end this war; Together.' Optimus rested his forehead on hers, waiting for her reply, praying that it would come. Everyone felt themselves tense when they heard the spark-rate monitors spike, making loud bleeping noises. Optimus's grip tightened on Arcee's hand as everyone came closer to her, circling around the berth as the beeping began to get slower and longer.
"Don't go." Optimus pleaded with her again.
"I love you." Arcee's whisper was weak as the beeping stopped and gave way to a long drawn out whirring of the monitor. Arcee was gone. Kissing her forehead again, Optimus's optics closed tightly to keep the tears from being able to freely leak from them, "I love you too. I always have and always will... I promise."