Chapter 1: Resurgence
"Bumblebee, could you come in here for a breem?" Ratchet motioned to his office, and waited for the little mech to enter before following suit. Swallowing, Bumblebee cautiously asked, "Something wrong Ratchet?"
"I was hoping you could tell me."
Bumblebee frowned, "I'm not sure what you mean, sir."
Ratchet sighed, and set down the datapad he'd been holding. He fixed Bumblebee with his best 'Don't-you-lie-to-me-you-little-Glitch' glare, a look he had perfected in dealing with the twins.
"Don't give me any of that slag, kid. Why are you always late to shifts? Jazz mentioned you didn't even show up to a mission briefing earlier today." The yellow 'bot absorbed the line of questioning with a neutral expression, waiting for Ratchet to finish. Very uncharacteristic, the CMO noted. He had always known Bumblebee to be an expressionate mech, which he wasn't being now.
Bumblebee met ratchet's optics. "I'm fine Ratchet. Really. I guess I just never got Jazz's memo."
Ratchet folded his arms. "He left a message on your comm."
Bumblebee nervously rubbed the back of his helm. "Uhhh, I, uh, I never checked. Distracted I guess."
"And what, exactly, is distracting you? I can tell you're scared of something, Bumblebee. You act like you barely know me, or any of the crew for that matter." Ratchet thought he saw a sudden flash of, was that fear? in Bumblebee's optics, but whatever it was disappeared just as quickly.
"Did Ironhide put you up to this?" "No, but that's beside the point," Ratchet snapped.
"Believe it or not, I care about you. I care about all my patients. I'm just trying to figure out what's wrong." Now it was the scout's turn to glare.
"Nothing is wrong with me Ratchet. I'm fine. Can I go now? Sir?"
The medic was tempted to say 'no' and see how well that played out, but the yellow mechling clearly wanted to get out of his office. It wasn't like he could force his friend to tell him the problem. And there definitely was a problem, he was sure; even Ironhide had noticed this 'new' Bumblebee. He regarded an increasingly squirming Bumblebee, then finally relented with a "Fine then, get out."
As Bumblebee passed him, he tacked on a "Just know that you can tell me whatever it is. I'm your medic; anything you say is confidential." The minibot looked over his shoulder, but didn't respond as he headed out of the med bay. Ratchet frowned after him.
Bumblebee kept up his fast clip even after he was well away from 'the hatchet's' lair. He passed several people in the hallway, inwardly marveling at each weird and unique frame design but outwardly remaining as expressionless as a robot. Arriving at where he knew his shared quarters with Ironhide to be, he made to punch in the key code…'Damn it.' He wasn't used to such blunt fingers. Now he had to try again while also not looking like the moron who couldn't get into his room. Ugggghhhhhhhhhhhh.
'Third time's the charm' he thought darkly when he finally did get the door to open. Oh good, Ironhide wasn't home. That made things less awkward. The red mech was probably hurt that he didn't reciprocate its affections, but honestly? Ironhide kind of freaked him out. His memory files labeled the mech as his adoptive caretaker-apparently, Bumblebee was still somewhat young. Like the equivalent of a teenager, or something equivalent to his own age. He knew Ironhide. Yet, he didn't know him. Hell, he didn't know anything anymore. All he knew was that he wasn't on Earth. Also, the aliens here seemed to think he was a robot named Bumblebee.