Title: Ten Silver Spoons
CHaracters: Wheeljack, Ratchet, June Darby, Bulkhead, and other TFP characters
Based on the song "Mowgli's Road" by Marina and the Diamonds
Wheeljack laid silently on his berth as he tried to recharge, but instead was online for the fourth night in a row. This was getting ridiculous. He needed to recharge or soon he would be in such need of it, he may offline during one of his missions. Sighing, he sent a comm to Ratchet asking if he was still awake and much to his surprise the comm was answered.
"I am awake, are you in need of me?"
"I am, can we meet near your equipment, Doc?" he replied.
"See you there," came Ratchet's irritated voice as the comm link was cut.
Wheeljack shook his head as he stood up and walked silently into the main room and towards Ratchet's small Medbay area. Since he decided to stay on Earth, Ratchet and him had talked some and received one mission together, but they still weren't as close as he was to Bulkhead. Part of him wanted to find a way for that to change, but at the same time, he was afraid that maybe that would be for the worse.
"You do know that it is the middle of the night on this planet," Ratchet spoke up as he interrupted Wheeljack's thoughts.
"I understand that and trust me, I wish that I wasn't having to comm you. This is the forth night that I haven't been able to recharge and I am beginning to worry that something may be wrong," Wheeljack explained to the grumpy mech in front of him.
"Have you tried offlining your optics and just laying there?"
"Yes and I have tried warming my energon and drinking it hot. Neither one has helped."
"Go and lay down. Come morning, I will run a few tests and see what pulls up. Let's just hope that those stupid cons decide to stay away until we figure out what is going on with you," Ratchet said as he handed the wrecker a cube of energon before turning and heading back to his recharge quarters. "Try again to warm that and see if it helps."
"Thanks Doc," Wheeljack smiled.
"Don't call me that," Ratchet almost yelled as he slammed his door and left Wheeljack alone in the main room with a cube of room temperature energon in his hand.
He crossed the room silently and placed it on the warmer as he sat and waited for it to warm. Talking to Ratchet turned out a lot better than he thought it would. Now all he would have to do is wait until morning for Ratchet to start running tests and find a cure to this. Hopefully it would be something simple and tomorrow night, he would be able to sleep normal again. That would make him feel better about the entire situation. Glancing at the clock on the way, he noticed that Ratchet was right. It was only three in the morning. Arcee, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead don't leave until ten in the morning to get the squishies. That meant he had seven hours until the base would be awake and Ratchet would start the tests.
Sighing, Wheeljack lifted the cube of hot energon and began to drink it as he turned off the warmer and headed back to his silent room. Of course what he didn't plan on was sipping the energon and reading a book for the next several hours. He wasn't even sure that he was hearing stuff right till Miko's voice started to echo through-out the base. Placing his almost completely read book down, he stood up and left the safety of his room and make his way towards Ratchet once again. Ratchet was checking all of his equipment and making sure they were reading correctly as the human kids played a racing fame. Usually the humans weren't here this early, but they didn't have school. Reaching Ratchet's Medbay area, he spoke up.
"Good morning, Doc."
"Wheeljack, for the last time, don't call me that. I am not in the mood to deal with that this morning. I need to do a check-up on you, the kids are here all day, and the 'cons are still on the low. I am positive they are up to something. I am just not sure what yet," Ratchet said as he put a scanner down. "As far as you, sit and I will be right with you."
Ratchet walked off as Wheeljack sat down as Arcee and the others went about their normal business. Watching Ratchet shake an instrument at Bulkhead, he walked back over to Wheeljack with a sigh as he placed it down.
"I swear if he breaks one more thing I need," he began as he lifted the scanner he was holding earlier and started to scan Wheeljack.
Wheeljack smiled slightly as he shook his head. He knew from tales that Ratchet was a very uptight mech, but seeing him run his Medbay was a different story. This mech has so much stress placed upon him that he understood why he was always busy and working. Hearing a beep on the scanner, Ratchet looked at the results and shook his head before plugging into Wheeljack's medical port to further access his systems. Ratchet stood silently for a moment before unplugging him and writing down some information.
"It seems that you are fine. I am going to give you some N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine or N5MT for short. This will allow you to sleep. Normally your body would produce it naturally, but your levels seem a little low," Ratchet explained as he started to prepare a shot to give Wheeljack. "You should be asleep in about an hour after receiving this."
Wheeljack nodded as he watched Ratchet stick the shot in his energon line and slowly pushed the medicine into him. As it finished entering his systems, Ratchet pulled the needle out and put it in the proper container.
"Go ahead and lay down. It should work soon."
"Thanks Ratchet," Wheeljack smiled as he stood up and walked back to his room.
Upon lying down, he picked back up his book and opened to the page he left off on. He was not one to become interested in human literature, but this particular book had seemed to catch his attention. It was based off the human that went by the name Ed Gein. He was a serial killer that killed women and used their faces as masks. He also wore a uniform that included the chest and genitalia of women. There had been a few modern day movies made about this man, but what was kept out of the movies was the fact that he did this because he wanted to be a female instead of a man. Back on Cybertron, there would never be a story like this. Sure there were stories of meches and femmes that had killed others and some were in mass numbers, but the thought of a mech wanting to be a femme was unheard of. One of the most interesting facts about Ed was his first victim was his brother. He killed him after being criticized for worshipping his mother. What disturbed him the most was the fact that he would use the skull skins of his victims as soup bowls.
Wheeljack continued to read the story and started to lose track of time as he did so. That's what he enjoyed so much about a good book. He could start a book and before he knew it, almost half the day could be gone. But as he read his book, something caught the corner of his optic causing him to turn and look, but there was nothing there. He looked around for a moment trying to find out what had went past him, but couldn't find so he went back to working on his book. Maybe his mind was just coming up with images due to his lack of sleep, he thought as he read. He had heard of plenty of meches and/or femmes that had images come into view caused by lack of sleep, but it didn't bother him due to the fact that majority of the time, they would disappear soon after they appear and that would mean that he would sleep.
Reading the last few pages of the book, he continued to see shadow like images move across his vision. Shaking his head, he placed the book down and looked straight ahead to see a ghost like image of a spoon with angry eyes and sharp teeth glaring at him. It looked as if Megatron had taken the form of the shiny, silver cutlery as was standing before him. Jumping up, Wheeljack rushed out of his room and all the way to Ratchet with wide optics.
"Ratchet…" Wheeljack panted as he reached the Medbay, "There is… a silver spoon… with angry eyes… and sharp teeth… in my room."
"Wheeljack, are you sure that's what you saw?" Ratchet asked calmly as he placed his hand on his comrade's shoulder.
"Ratchet, I swear that's what I saw. It had eyes and teeth like Megatron, but its entire body was a silver spoon. He looked like he was coming to get me," he said clearly. "You need to go and see if it's still there because if so, I am not going back."
Ratchet looked at Optimus Prime who was listening from the other side of the room. He was a little confused as to why Wheeljack was seeing spoons. He had given him a small dose of N5MT to make him sleep and it shouldn't have this affect on him. Nodding, he walked across the room and pushed open Wheeljack's door to look inside.
"Wheeljack, all that's in here is your berth and a book," Ratchet said calmly. "Where did you see the spoon?"
Wheeljack walked over to his room slowly as he looked in there and saw that Ratchet was right. There wasn't anything in his room. Blinking his optics a few times, he looked around the room before turning to face Ratchet. Before he could say anything, he saw the spoon appear behind Ratchet.
"It's behind you," he yelled as he stepped back a few steps in fear.
Ratchet turned around and looked at the empty space that was behind him.
"Jackie, I don't see anything," Ratchet said looking back at the startled mech.
"He was just there and now it's gone. Ratchet, I promise I am seeing this. I am not telling you a lie. There really is an angry spoon running around the base," Wheeljack said as he looked at Ratchet's confused face. "You have to believe me, Ratchet."
Optimus Prime walked over to join Ratchet and Wheeljack in the doorway as they all looked at each other not quite sure what to do at this point.
"You don't believe me, do you?" Wheeljack asked as he looked into the optics of his medic and leader.
"Wheeljack, we aren't seeing anything. There are no spoons around the base," Optimus Prime told him.
Wheeljack was at a lost of words. He had clearly seen the ghostly outlines of a spoon and they were saying that they hadn't. Was it his mind playing tricks on him? If it was, maybe it was time for him to go into stasis. But there was still the thought that he wasn't just seeing things and that there really were spoons coming after him. He offlined his optics for a moment before onlining them again and seeing not just one spoon, but two this time. They were behind each of the meches in front of him and this time they looked as if they wanted to eat them.
"Behind you," Wheeljack yelled as he pulled the two meches into the room with him and slammed the door hoping that it would prevent them from entering. "There were two of them this time. They looked like they were going to eat you."
"They were going to eat us?" Ratchet asked in almost disbelief.
He had heard stories of crazy medical conditions, but never had he heard of one thinking that spoons were going to eat them. Maybe if they could get out of Wheeljack's room, he could search in his medical data base for information containing any information on Wheeljack's current condition.
"Wheeljack, we need to leave the room," Ratchet said as he looked into his friends optics seeing the fear in them.
"But they will get us if we leave," he spoke in a frightened voice. "We need to stay here where..."
Wheeljack was cut off when he turned to face his berth and saw three spoons standing around the foot of it and moving towards them. His optics widened as he looked upon them with fear. The more there were, the clearer they were becoming.
"RUN!" Wheeljack screamed and ran towards the door and out into the main room where Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee and the kids were sitting looking at the door wondering what was going on.
"Jackie, what's going on?" Bulkhead asked as he went towards his fellow wrecker in hopes of comforting him.
"There are three demonic spoons in my room. They are going to kill us," Wheeljack said in hopes that his friend would believe him unlike his medic and leader.
"Spoons?" Bulkhead asked confused.
"Bulkhead, do you not know what a spoon is?" Miko spoke up as she moved towards them. "They are silver ... sometimes white, rounded at one end. They have a long handle, you use it to eat with."
"Miko, I know what a spoon is. I am just confused as to why they are out to kill us," Bulkhead responded calmly.
"You have to believe me Bulkhead. The others don't and they are going to die horrible deaths," he spat out hoping that someone would believe him and not succome to the fate of the spoons.
"Jackie, I don't see any spoons. Where were they?" Bulkhead asked as Arcee moved towards Ratchet and Optimus Prime who were emerging from his room.
"They were at the foot of my berth. There were two of them to begin with behind Ratchet and Optimus Prime before I pulled them in the room to protect them. They are coming for us. Why didn't they choose to go after the 'cons though?" Wheeljack asked as he took a step towards Bulkhead only to stop when he saw yet another shiny, silver, demonic spoon behind him.
"BULKHEAD, behind you."
Wheeljack pulled Bulkhead towards him as the spoon faded only to appear on the other side of him with two more by its side.
"Jackie, are you sure there are spoons?" Bulkhead asked as he put his servo on his helm and looked around the room.
"They are appearing everywhere," he freaked as he started to move back in every way he could to try and avoid the spoons. "Don't you see them?"
Ratchet watched in shock as Wheeljack seemed to lose his mind. Nowhere in the room was anyone other than Wheeljack seeing spoons. And without the spoons there, it looked as if he was hallucinating and fighting an invisible partner. As entertaining as it was, he knew that it wasn't a laughing matter because Wheeljack could seriously hurt himself in the process.
"Bulkhead, Optimus Prime, keep him under as much control as you can. I am going to look into this," Ratchet said as he made his way safely around the fighting Wheeljack and over to his Medbay.
Opening up the information on N5MT, he quickly scanned through in search of anything dealing with hallucinations and found exactly what he was looking for. From such a small dose of N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine, he might have overdosed Wheeljack and if this information was true, then Wheeljack could experience dizziness, headaches, nightmares, sleepwalking, feeling overwhelmed, uneasiness, hallucinations, and decrease his chances of being a carrier. He was almost in disbelief that he didn't think all of this out before giving the shot to Wheeljack. Turning around, he watched as Wheeljack went from a dancing fight around the room to attacking one of the walls yelling for the spoon to die. Shaking his head, he looked at his watch and noticed that the medicine had been in his system for an hour now and there was nothing to do about it, but let it run its course.
Wheeljack hit at the spoon as hard as he could before pulling out a gun and shooting at it and watching as the blast went right through it. The spoons were immortals, he thought to himself as he watched nothing harm it, but he knew that he was hitting it. He could feel the impact through his swords and that alone told him that the spoons were real and not just a figment of his imagination.
"Wheeljack, you are attacking the wall," Bulkhead told him calmly as he carefully made his way over to his friend.
"Bulkhead, I am hitting it. I can feel it," he said turning around and having his optics go wide.
Behind Bulkhead were now ten shiny, silver, demonic spoons and they all had the same angry look in their eyes and Megatron's fanged teeth bared at him. The only difference this time was they were no longer ghostly figures, but solid forms.
"Bulkhead, they are going to kill us all," Wheeljack freaked even more than before as he readied his weapons to fight his way through them.
"Jackie, I do not see anything," he replied as he turned to face whatever his wrecker friend was about to fight.
"Wheeljack, there are no spoons," Ratchet said as he slowly made his way into Wheeljack's view.
"Ratchet, did you turn into a fork?" Wheeljack asked confused as he looked at the fork among the spoons who was speaking to him.
"I don't think I have," Ratchet replied looking down at his form wondering why he was taking the shape of a fork in the eyes of the warrior.
"Ratchet, I think the fork has your voice," Wheeljack said as he looked at the fork confused as to what was going on.
"The fork has my voice?" Ratchet asked looking at the others in disbelief. "Maybe you should listen to the fork. What is the fork telling you to do?"
Wheeljack watched the fork for a moment and shook his head.
"He isn't speaking. The spoons are speaking to me."
"What are the spoons saying, Jackie?" Bulkhead asked trying to coax information out of him.
"We are the spoons. We scooped our way into your dreams, to knock the knives out bloody cold. And lead you down the unforsaken road," Wheeljack spoke softly as if in a trance.
Everyone looked at Wheeljack totally confused now. What road was he talking about and why was it unforsaken? All they knew was that there was no way they could let Wheeljack out of the base. If they did, there was no telling where he would go and what would happen.
"Wheeljack," Ratchet said walking over to him slowly. "Lower your weapons for just a moment. I am not going to harm you."
Wheeljack watched as the fork walked over to him and spoke. Nodding he listened and lowered his weapons as the fork stood in front of him.
"Anything you say," he told the fork as he watched it closely.
Ratchet nodded and placed a servo on Wheeljack's shoulder.
"Come over here and sit with me. I promise you, the spoons won't come towards us," Ratchet spoke softly as he took a step towards Wheeljack's room.
Wheeljack cautiously watched the spoons as he took a step with the fork with the voice of Ratchet towards his room. The spoons didn't seem to notice he was moving and were too busy knocking out the knives that had just recently appeared in the room. One of the knives had lost almost all of its blade and was now lying on the ground dead.
"Fork, when did the knives get here?" Wheeljack asked as he watched as the spoons took down another knife.
"I didn't realize they were here. What are they doing?" Ratchet asked shocked that knives were now invading the base with the spoons.
"The spoons are knocking them out and there is one dead over there," Wheeljack said as he pointed at the dead knife. "Are the knifes evil?"
"I think so," Ratchet told him as he sat down on the medical berth and gently held Wheeljack's hand. "Sit with me and I will protect you from both the spoons and the knives."
Wheeljack nodded and laid down on the medical berth with his head in the fork's lap. Something in his mind told him that here was where he was safest.
"Why are the chasing me, fork?" Wheeljack asked very confused.
"I don't know why Jackie, but I won't let them get you." Ratchet promised knowing that Wheeljack was seeing him as a fork now.
As to why he was a fork, it was still unknown and Wheeljack probably wouldn't ever know why. Ratchet looked down at the very tired and panicking mech in his lap as he started to rub his back in hopes of calming him down enough so he could sleep. Wheeljack relaxed and leaned into Ratchet's touch as his optics started to dim but not go completely offline. Wheeljack was scared that if he offlined his optics, the spoons from across the room would come closer even though the fork had promised to keep them at bay. There was no guarantee that 'the' fork could keep all ten silver spoons from coming to get him. They had already taken out two dozen knives and the knives that were now fighting them looked as if they were going to die any second now. What if no more knives came to fight the spoons after they died and they decided that he would be the next target? What if the fork was wrong and was holding him down and calming him before the spoons came for him? He just didn't want the cultery to keep on chasing him. He wanted to escape from all of them and be free from their wrath. But would he upset the fork knowing that he didn't trust him enough to guarantee safety? But what made him think that the fork really would betray him? The fork had the voice of his medic, his comrade, his personal friend, and his crush. Maybe it was the fact that the fork had the appearance of a piece of cultery and not a Cybertronian body. Maybe it was the fact that it had the voice of Ratchet and not the shrieking voice of the spoons or the crying voices of the knives. Maybe the fork took the voice of one closest to him in order to calm him or was it to decieve him. Shaking his head, he let thoughts slip from his mind as he saw more knives appear in the room from what looked like a ground bridge and the spoons start to take on more of them. Sighing a little, Wheeljack let his optics offline as he decided to trust the fork with his safety and try to rest at least a little.
Ratchet smiled when he noticed that Wheeljack had finally fallen into a light stasis. Anything was better than nothing at the moment. At least they wouldn't have to see Wheeljack hallucinating and potentially hurt himself or others.
"Jack, can you call your mother? I have a few things I would like to discuss with her," Ratchet said softly as he watched the sleeping mech in his lap.
"Sure," Jack said as Arcee transformed into her motorcycle alt-form and allowed Jack to climb on before quietly leaving the base and heading into town to contact with his mother.
Optimus Prime, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee sat silently with Miko and Raf as they watched Wheeljack recharge. Wheeljack had been in need of stasis for some time now, but that didn't mean that overdosing him on N5MT was the right answer to this issue. And they were almost certain from the way that Ratchet reacted that he didn't mean to. Why would anyone in their right processor overdose a mech or femme on N5MT and give them hallucinations like this?
Ratchet's train of thought got sidetracked when Arcee returned with Jack and his mother, June.
"You called for me, doctor?" June Darby asked as she climbed off of Arcee and made her way towards Ratchet who had Wheeljack sleeping still in his lap.
"Yes. I wanted to ask you a few questions about N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine. I didn't know if humans had the same stuff in their systems that caused sleep," Ratchet responded as he watched Arcee lift her so that she has sitting on the medical berth with Ratchet.
"Humans do have N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine in their systems. It makes humans sleep but for short we call it Melatonin. Its activated when in an area that's dark and stops producing more when in a lighted area."
"Cybertronian medics have been calling it N5MT for as long as I can remember," Ratchet told her as he continued to rub Wheeljack's back gently. "Earlier today I was commed by Wheeljack informing me that he was having issues recharging. I didn't think much about it at first and when I ran some tests, nothing came back. I figured giving him a small dose of N5MT would help him recharge, but it seems that I overdosed him. He was seeing forks and freaking out till just recently."
"I have seen a few humans do that too. Melatonin is such a strong medicine that very little can work wonders. With us, half of a milligram if plenty and as little as twenty milligrams can overdose us," she explained to Ratchet.
"But I almost feel as if it is my fault that I overdosed him. If I could have thought about it, I wouldn't have given it to him. I didn't want him to hallucinate. For Primus sake, he think's I am a fork and that there are spoons killing knives in our base," Ratchet told her as his voice raised a little.
"If you raise your voice, you will wake him up," June warned him causing Ratchet to relax.
"We don't want him awake. I am afraid that he will hurt himself if he does wake up with such a high level in his systems," Ratchet told June. "I don't think I could live with myself if he hurt himself over my mistake."
June looked at Ratchet wondering if there was something more to their relationship than he was saying. If there was something more than just a comrade relationship or medic and patient, that could explain why Ratchet felt like he had let Wheeljack down.
"Ratchet, may I ask you a personal question?"
Ratchet looked down at the human nurse and nodded.
"Is there something more than a doctor/patient relationship between you and Wheeljack?"
Ratchet looked at her shocked for a moment before a small smile formed on his lips.
"I wish. Wheeljack… he is stubborn and would never look at me in that way."
"Why wouldn't he?" June asked confused.
"Personally I think he has fallen for Bulkhead, but is afraid to tell him. He keeps talking about how a certain mech has captured his spark for eons and has never shown affection towards him. Who else could it be, but the one that he has worked beside for eons," Ratchet told her softly as his optics drifted from her to Bulkhead who was playing music over his alt-form speakers for Miko and the kids.
"I don't think it is Bulkhead personally. He found comfort in you while having hallucinations. Doesn't that say something?" June asked him.
"Maybe, but he saw me as a fork, June," Ratchet said almost denying the fact that Wheeljack could even find anything in him other than a grumpy, old mech.
"Give him a chance, Ratchet," June smiled. "You will be surprised what a little trust can do. Anyway, I have to head back to work. They will be wondering where I ran off to soon."
Arcee walked over and lifted June and placed her on the floor as Jack and his mother put on the bike helmets they wore. Arcee transformed swiftly and allowed the humans to climb on before they sped off and into town.
Later that night
Wheeljack stirred and onlined his optics to see light and the mechs walking around silently. It was if they had lost a comrade or something. Sitting up he rubbed his helm and moaned at the soreness in his muscles.
"What happened?" he mumbled causing Ratchet to rush over to him.
"How does your helm feel?" Ratchet asked praying to Primus that there were no spoons.
"Foggy in a way. Why am I recharging out here?"
"Let's just say that you were hallucinating and wouldn't recharge until I got you to lay down with me," Ratchet explained.
Wheeljack looked down for a moment almost embarrassed that he had fallen into recharge on Ratchet and then the memories of earlier all flooded his mind. There were spoons and knives in fights and the single fork that protected him. The fork that had Ratchet's voice and got him to lay down.
"You were the fork, weren't you?" Wheeljack asked softly.
"I guess you can say that," Ratchet smiled. "Are the spoons and knives gone?"
"Yes, they are gone. Let's just say I don't want to be on that medicine again, Ratchet."
"Trust me, I won't put you on it again."
"Thanks," Wheeljack smiled as he looked up into the eyes of the medic that he had fallen for. "Hey Ratchet, do you mind staying in the same room as me tonight? I don't think I feel comfortable being alone yet."
Ratchet looked at the mech with a surprised look. Maybe June was right and Wheeljack wasn't in love with Bulkhead. He didn't want to push him into telling him this soon, but he at least had a chance.
"I can do that," Ratchet smiled.
"Thanks," Wheeljack smiled back before adding, "Doc."
"Don't call me that," Ratchet said with a little annoyance in his voice as he heard everyone start to laugh.
At least he could tease the doctor.
"Whatever you say, Sunshine," Wheeljack replied as he watched Ratchet get annoyed with him once more.