Here it is, a new story. Not the sequel but a series of chapters that didn't make it into the main story line. This one takes place just before 'Mother Bee'

:thoughts:

:Comlink::

First Snow: Tales of Winter

Sugar Rush

By Steph

It was 9 pm local time yesterday when the first snow flurries began to fall. Since then, it had came in continuous streams, drenching the ground outside with yet more layers of white powder, adding to the snow that was already there from the previous snowstorm. Worst still, this particular snow was what people called 'wet snow', the stuff that clumped together and stuck to literally everything, which included windows and doors. It was this that had prompted Optimus to order an entire lock down of the base. For the sake of everyone's safety, no one was to go to outside until the snow let up, and the way things looked at the moment, this did not seem set to change. If things could not get anymore low, the base's heating had also broken down, which meant the inside was not much warmer then the outside.

So like he had for the past four hours, Sam sat in his usual spot next to the window in the Rec room, absently watching the snowflakes pass on by. Bumblebee watched silently from the door, his human seemed… distant, he had not deviated from that spot in quite a number of hours. Sighing, Bumblebee reached up and opened a small compartment on his left shoulder, pulling out a small, fluffy blanket, pacing forward, Bumblebee made his way over to the window and carefully draped the blanket around Sam's shoulders, tucking it in at ether end. Sam seemed snap out of his sombre mood as he looked up and flashed Bumblebee a brief smile. Clicking in response, Bumblebee lowered himself to the floor, turning his attention to the window, after a few moments, Bumblebee voice broke the silence.

"Sam, are you all right? You seem a little… distracted." He finished, optics flickering over Sam's position.

Sam blinked, shaking his head. "I'm fine Bee, just a little tired I guess." Bumblebee tilted his head, puzzled, he ran a scan of his charge. Sam shivered, even through the blanket he could feel the effects of the scan, as the blue light fanned over his body, he shot his guardian a dirty look huddling his head down into the confines of the blanket. He hated it when Bee scanned him.

"Bee! Knock it off with the scans, you know how much I hate it."

Rolling his optics, Bumblebee powered down his scanners and began to analyse the data from the scan, Sam's vital signs were slightly below average, and his heart rate in particular was cause for concern. It seemed to be the early warning signs of an impending illness. Worried, Bumblebee sent a copy of the results to Ratchet. Seconds later, the medic sent the scout a data burst of his recommendations, with strict orders to bring Sam to him if the human did not begin to recover in the next few hours. According to the information Ratchet had provided, Sam needed to be kept warm and his blood sugars constant.

"I'm sorry Sam, I'm just worried about you. Why don't you come off the window ledge, it can't be the most comfortable of places."

Sam grumbled sourly under his breath, lifting the blanket up to cover his head, hiding his face from the soft glow of Bumblebee's optics. As if to confirm the mech's logical reasoning, Sam's body let out another round of shivers. He was cold, even with the blanket and his butt had begun to go to sleep, yet Sam was doing what Sam did best, being as stubborn as possible. It was the typical teenage reaction, when told to do something, usually they did the opposite.

"I'm fine." Sam mumbled through the fabric of the blanket, Bumblebee clicked disapprovingly, using one large finger to poke at Sam through the soft fabric. Sam groaned, using the back of his hand to pitifully swat the opposing digit, Bumblebee laughed as Sam flopped onto the ledge huffing and puffing. Bumblebee warbled, once more moving his fingers forward, prodding Sam in the back. This was an exact repeat of last week events, Sam once more being more stubborn then Ironhide. The insistent prodding attacks continued, Sam squirmed squeezing his eyes shut whilst trying to ignore Bumblebee's pestering, which was more difficult then he anticipated.

"Bee, quit it" Sam moaned. Bumblebee chuckled pulling his attacking fingers away from Sam's side, he sighed heavily, unsure of what else to do; Sam was still clearly not in a good mood despite his best efforts.

"Come on Sam, I bet I know what would cheer you up."

Sam finally moved his head peeking out from underneath the fizzy blanket; Bumblebee opened his palm next to the teenager, a clear invitation. Sam eyed Bumblebee's hand and sighed; giving in Sam slowly stood and allowed Bumblebee to wrap his huge hand around his body. Sam shivered, feeling Bumblebee's metal abruptly warm around him as he was settled upon the mech's shoulder. Bumblebee adjusted his armour, shifting metal plates around Sam so he could walk freely without worrying about the teenager falling. Sam sat back as Bumblebee started to walk in the direction of the human mess area.

"I have no idea what's going on in that processor of yours Bumblebee, but I'm not buying."

Bumblebee merely gave a small jump, jolting Sam from his seated position. Sam gave out a loud yell clinging for dear life on the mech's neck joint.

"You… you scrapheap." Sam screeched as he heaved himself back onto Bumblebee's shoulder. The yellow mech whistled lowly, Sam stared wide eyed at him, seemingly speechless. Then he caught the hints of suppressed laughter rattling Bee's chest. Sam couldn't help but join in as the pair made their way through base.

Upon reaching the human mess area, Bumblebee set Sam down next to the hot drinks machine, giving his charge an encouraging nudge in its direction.

"Go on, I'll be in the Rec room." Bumblebee stood, leaving Sam next to the huge looking silver object.

It had been installed for the soldiers who came to base, as the autobots had found out; humans often could not function well without their usual morning coffee. Sam stared dumfounded, gazing up and down the glowing label; Sam didn't think he had seen so many drinks. He didn't even know this many existed. There was the usual tea and coffee but also other bizarre concoctions. Vanilla tea, strawberry coffee? Eyeing the choices, Sam spotted one of his all time childhood favourites, hot chocolate. Despite himself he had to crack a smile. Grabbing one of the biggest mugs, Sam pressed the red button and watched as steaming hot chocolate poured out into his mug, next to the drinks machine there stood a row of topping choices such as extra sugar and million sprinkles. Why they were there was beyond Sam, but whilst they were he may as well take advantage of them. Pondering for a moment, Sam grabbed several, laughing quietly to himself. He added chocolate flakes, cream and a big handful of coloured marshmallows until his drink looked like something out of a circus. Grinning Sam turned, and headed over to where Bumblebee was currently reclining against the mech sized sofa, noticing Sam's approach Bumblebee lowered a hand to the floor, allowing his charge to climb upon the smooth metal surface. He settled the teenager upon his chest, humming happily as Sam leant back, getting comfortable. Bumblebee's optics, flickered over his human carefully, eyeing Sam's steaming drink warily, of all things, his charge had to pick the one with the most sugar in it… Glancing into the white mug Bumblebee noticed the vast amount of marshmallows and sprinkles that were floating around the drink's surface, scratch that, his charge was trying to kill himself…

"Sam…" Bumblebee admonished, groaning as Sam took a big gulp of the thick brown liquid. "Are you trying to give yourself a heart attack?"

Sam swallowed heavily, lavishing the sweet luscious taste. God how he'd missed hot chocolate. "Nope." he replied, taking another swig of his elixir, "I'm trying to enjoy a nice cup of coco."

Bumblebee shook his head, "and I don't suppose you have any idea how many calories is in that concoction?"

Sam merely shook his head, closing his eyes happily cuddling down into Bumblebee's chest armour, Bumblebee sighed, allowing the subject to drop, he raised his palm, lightly covering Sam's legs and leaning further back. It was so quiet and peaceful Bumblebee found himself drifting off into recharge as his systems slowly began to shut down of their own accord. Sam yawned loudly, noticing Bumblebee's dimming optics. Sam downed the rest of his drink, setting the mug aside, he was feeling a little tired… Sam got comfortable and closed his eyes, trying to will his body into a state of rest, but for some reason as he tried to force himself to relax, his leg started twitching. Grumbling, Sam shifted, turning over onto his left side, leaning his head up against Bumblebee's hand.

Twitch twitch

This time, it was in his arm, growling Sam sat up, holding both hands out in front of him. They were both shaking, madly. What on earth was wrong with him? Then he remembered, Bumblebee had tried to warn him, the hot chocolate… The sugar, and boy there must have been lots of it, and now it was cruising around Sam's body making him more jumpy then a cricket. Not knowing what else to do, Sam began bobbing up and down quickly on the spot to see if he could get rid of the excess energy, he felt hyper, more then hyper, in fact he could run an entire marathon! Sam's insistent bobbing motion was enough to rouse Bumblebee from his light recharge, the mech's systems whirred to life. His optics flickered back on, and when Bumblebee's vision cleared he was greeted by the most unusual sight, his charge was jumping up and down like some crazed budgie.

"Sam?" Bumblebee asked, "are you all right?"

Sam turned his head, nodding wildly, "I'm just great! In fact I feel so great think I could fly!"

Bumblebee tilted his head, concern filling his circuits, Sam was acting rather odd… "Are you sure? Your heart rate is almost treble what is considered normal."

Sam jumped to his feet so quickly, Bumblebee had to grab him, to prevent the teenager from falling.

"I'm finnneee! Just on a little sugar high, that's all." He laughed so madly, Bumblebee was beginning to doubt his charge's sanity.

"Not that I don't trust your own judgement Sam, but I think we should let Ratchet have a look at you, just to be on the safe side."

Bumblebee made a move to pick Sam up but before the mech could get a grip on Sam's body, the teenager ducked out of the way. "Uh uh, no way I'm going to Ratchet, your going to have to catch me first!" Laughing hysterically, Sam rolled to the side as Bumblebee made another attempt at catching the now mentally charged teenager.

"Sam!" Bumblebee warned as his charge began to climb down the huge sofa with apparent little effort. "I'm not playing games with you, get back here now!" Sam merely rolled on the floor as Bumblebee made another unsuccessful grab.

"Missed again Bee! You know, your actually quite slow!" Sam quickly got to his feet and took off running down the corridor with remarkable speed for a being so small.

"Sam!"

Bumblebee growled menacingly, he didn't have time for this. Activating his com link, Bumblebee contacted Ratchet.

"Bumblebee to Ratchet." There was a pause before, Ratchet's gruff voice sounded over the channel.

"Ratchet here, what is it Bumblebee? I was in the middle of recharge, now what can be so urgent you felt the need to disturb me?"

Bumblebee grumbled impatiently, the longer he took speaking to Ratchet, the longer Sam had to hide.

"It's about Sam."

Ratchet scoffed down the com line. "Of course, what is it this time?"

"I lost him."

"What! What do you mean you lost him?"

Bumblebee paused, not really quite sure how to explain this. "I allowed him to have a hot drink from the human vending machine, he picked one with a rather high concentration of sugar. I did try reasoning with him, but allowed the matter to slide. After consuming it, Sam's body began to shake a lot, his pupils become dilated and before I could stop him, he took off running."

Silence filled the channel as Ratchet processed the information. "Do you have any idea where he is at the moment?"

"Negative, wherever Sam is hiding, he is out of my sensor range."

Ratchet sighed. "Sam is probably experiencing what the humans call a 'sugar rush'. This will eventually wear off naturally, how long will depend on how much sugar he has consumed. I will alert the others to keep an optic out for him. In the meantime see if you can track him down, it would be best to not have him wandering around the base alone."

Bumblebee vented in relief, with the others also looking out for him, Sam would not get far. "Thank you Ratchet. Bumblebee out."

Bumblebee shut off his com link and set off in search of his missing charge.

Sam's legs quivered, energy flowing through them, sending tingles down his charged spine.

Twitch twitch

Running like a streaking bullet, Sam let out a loud screech of excitement, whizzing past the storage room.

CRASH

Ironhide lurched around the corner to see Sam sprawled out on his back with a large pile of wooden planks scattered randomly all over the teenager's body.

"What in the name of primus… Sam, are you all right?"

Sam gazed upwards, finding himself staring into the bright blue optics of Ironhide. A suppressed laugh escaped Sam's lips. Ironhide looked funny from this angle…

Twitch twitch

Without giving the weapon specialist so much as a warning, Sam leapt to his feet, almost knocking down a casing of energon cubes in the process.

"Sam! Watch what your doing, that box contains raw energon, it's highly unstable. Come on, settle down, Bumblebee is looking for you. Why don't you wait here for him?"

Sam took two steps back from Ironhide's open palm, edging towards the door. "No no, I'll be on my way, outta here, vamoose."

Ironhide's optics dipped in a squint of confusion, what on earth was wrong with the boy? He gently eased his palm towards Sam's body as not to startle the young teenager. Two inches away…

"Sam, are you feeling ill? Do you want me to take you to Ratchet?" Ironhide asked, getting Sam's attention focused on his face. Just a little bit closer…

Sam quickly shook his head side to side, jumping a little up and down on the spot. "I'm good, great perfect, one hundred percent okay."

Ironhide's processor was already beginning to ache, he couldn't take much more of this. Just one more inch… Sam's eyes caught sight of the mech's hand at just the last second, realising Ironhide's intentions, Sam jumped sharply to the left, narrowly dodging Ironhide's fingers.

Slag!

"Don't make me chase you down boy, you know who would win!" Ironhide warned, his voice dropping an octave. The cannons on the mech's forearms twitched impatiently.

Sam took of running, looking over his shoulder laughing wildly. "Is it my fault your too slow to catch me?"

Ironhide's optics narrowed, watching as the small human disappeared from sight.

"Ironhide to Bumblebee." Static crackled for a few seconds over the com line.

"Bumblebee here."

"I found your slagging charge, he was here a cycle ago, over by the storage room."

Ironhide could almost sense Bumblebee's bewilderment, the silence was enough to tell him that. It was not as if he was built to capture fleet footed humans…

"What do you mean, was?"

Ironhide grumbled. "I mean, he was here, but now he's gone."

"Gone? Well, where is he now?"

"How in the name of the Allspark am I suppose to know? Just find him before he gets himself into more trouble."

"Will do, Bumblebee out."

Ironhide shut off his com link, taking a look around the storage room noting the massive pile of wooden planks that were now coated with a thin pink layer of energon dust. It looked like he had a mess to clear up.

"Humans, they'll be no living with them."

By now, Sam's body was starting to feel the lasting effects of the long sugar high, his legs ached, horribly, and he was feeling quite sick. Despite this, Sam was still hyped up enough to continue his crazy run throughout the base corridors. Loosing his balance for a second, Sam skidded sharply to the left…

BANG

Gears and cogs whirred to life in shock as Sam's head made contact with the mech's foot.

"Aww, my aching head." Sam groaned loudly, moving his hand to his head and rubbing the place his skull had seemingly made contact with metal.

"Ssam?" Blue optics immediately glanced down towards the floor, wide with concern. A large palm moved gently underneath the teenager who was still sprawled out on the floor and eased him into a sitting position.

Sam glanced around with a very dazed expression on his face until he meet the mech's very worried expression. "Bee?" Sam questioned, his voice very sluggish, "oh wait, your not Bee, your Megatron aren't you? You're here to fix plumbing…"

Bumblebee gave his charge a dumbfounded look. He had no idea what on earth he was saying, no doubt due to hitting his head so hard…Slowly Bumblebee picked Sam up and tucked him near his chest. "No Sam, I'm not Megatron, and the plumbing was fixed nearly a week ago."

"Oh." Sam blinked slowly as a wide, strange looking smile stretched over his face. "Then you're here to fix the heating then? It really is cold in here…"

Bumblebee sighed, chuckling quietly to himself. Saying nothing, Bumblebee began to walk towards his own quarters, moving Sam closer to his spark, hoping the warm familiar position would help ease Sam to sleep. As he walked, Bumblebee felt Sam shuffle in his hand, "Bee, just so you know. You suck at hide and seek!"

Bumblebee smiled, shaking his head. "This is the last time I let you anywhere near that vending machine on your own."

Sam weakly bashed Bumblebee's thumb with the flat side of his hand. "Spoil sport."

Bumblebee hummed lightly, saying nothing as Sam finally gave up his attempts at starting some sort of argument. Gazing down at his charge, the yellow mech noted the teen's heavy breathing, Sam was finally asleep. Softly, Bumblebee lightly brushed a finger down Sam's back and smiled once more.

"Humans…"

I could go for a hot chocolate now. As stated above, most of these will be completely random and not really in any order, small snippets or even entire chapters that didn't make it into First Snow. R&R Up next, Halloween approaches, and Sam makes some special preparations this year.

Sapphirebee x