Long nights in the med bay were becoming routine for Ratchet. Every night Ratchet stayed awake till the early hours in the morning, reassembling Ironhide's dead rusted body. What kept him going, on those long nights was the hope that the end of the war brought. If Ratchet could fix Ironhide, he would finally see a universe without the Cybertronian war again. Ironhide had fought bravely through the entire war, and survived until the final day. The least Ratchet could do to repay his old friend, was to let him live to see the universe at peace again.
It was the third night Ratchet had gone without proper energon refueling and proper recharge. He'd been so busy putting Ironhide back together; he'd completely lost all concern for his other patients. All of his work in the med bay revolved around Ironhide, until Sideswipe barged into the med bay. He wheeled in and hollered Ratchet's name. His voice was furious! It rocked the walls of the med bay and startled Ratchet out of his processor. He threw his tools down, turned around, and threatened the scariest death stare Sideswipe had ever seen. The next thing Sideswipe saw was the shine of a silver wrench flying at him. The wrench hit him in the center of his face, but Sideswipe shrugged it off as if he'd been hit with a cotton ball. His face hurt, but he was caught up in too much rage to show his pain.
"WHAT SIDESWIPE?" Ratchet yelled. Sideswipe wasn't phased.
"It's been days. Days since you started neglecting your patients!" Sideswipe barked, folding his arms. Ratchet was already reaching for another wrench.
"I don't know what in Pit ever made you think that! But I do not neglect my patients! Now get out of my med bay while you still have your face plates intact!"
"I'm not leaving here until you hear me out!" Sideswipe said, raising his voice again.
"And what is that supposed to mean? Who gave you authority to give me orders in my..."
"Exhibit A:" Sideswipe announced, cutting Ratchet off. "Prime's arm!" Ratchet snorted.
"I repaired his arm and reattached it to him as soon as he allowed me to. Incase your memory banks don't recall, Prime refused to let me take one single scan of him until all other Autobots were treated." Sideswipe shook his head and swaggered towards Ratchet with one hand on his hip, to intimidate him.
"Then after Optimus Prime was fixed up, you told him to get some recharge, and you went straight to work on putting Ironhide back together. At first it was just so you could properly put every last piece of him to rest. But then Prime informed you that if enough of Ironhide's spark chamber is saved, then his spark can be reignited, right?"
"Yes youngling. You never cease to amaze me with your unpredictable talent of pointing out the obvious." Ratchet said in a half sarcastic tone.
"What I'm trying to say is, did you even bother to see if Prime's arm was completely attached and all that?" Sideswipe asked slyly.
"It should be healing steadily." Ratchet tried to defend himself.
"Well it's not. Prime has no feeling in his right arm whatsoever! He won't even try to use it! It just limply hangs at his side. I haven't even seen him try to transform. He probably can't with his right arm being nothing but dead weight on him!"
"Well if it is that bad, then why doesn't he come see me?" Ratchet snarled.
"Because you won't let him! Primus forbid Optimus ever interrupts your precious work in your med bay! Face it! Prime's never going to interfere while you're fixing Ironhide, unless you ask him to. And he's gonna quietly suffer through the frustration of being handicapped, until you're done!" Ratchet would admit it was very mature for Sideswipe to stand up to him for Optimus. But Ratchet still wanted Sideswipe to get lost.
"Okay, Sideswipe. I'll take a look at Prime's arm in the morning." Ratchet sighed. Sideswipe nodded with satisfaction.
"Good." Sideswipe said. Ratchet turned around to return to his work, when suddenly Sideswipe loudly continued. "EXHIBIT B:" Ratchet scowled as he looked back at Sideswipe. Sideswipe wasn't wearing the usual sly half smile on his face. Instead he still looked very upset when he stared Ratchet down. Ratchet was not amused.
"What now youngling? Who else have I been so inconsiderate to, that they are suffering and in need of medical help? Who else could you possibly be here for?" Ratchet growled.
"Look...behind you!" Sideswipe grunted through gritted dental plating. Ratchet turned his back to Sideswipe. The first thing he thought of was Ironhide's half assembled body lying on a medical berth in the middle of the room. Sideswipe saw where Ratchet's gaze was, and he felt completely disgusted with the medic. Sideswipe wheeled directly up to Ratchet, and smacked him in the back of the head. "Look harder!" Sideswipe demanded. Ratchet was an astrosecond away from smacking Sideswipe back and taking him over his knee. But he resisted as soon as he realized what Sideswipe wanted him to see. Ratchet was looking at the door to another operating room, which was purposely secluded away from the base for the safety of the contagious patient and the rest of the Autobot team. Ratchet felt like he'd been shook out of a dream when he remembered his patient. The more Ratchet thought about it, he hadn't forgotten completely about his patient. But like Sideswipe said, Ratchet neglected his patient. Ratchet had become so obsessed with bringing Ironhide back online, that he convinced himself that he could postpone treating his other patient's virus by keeping him in stasis. But what Ratchet overlooked, was that stasis would not make the virus go away. Though it would keep his arrogant patient quiet, stasis would only give the virus more time to spread and possibly cause permanent processor damage.
"How could I be so blind?" Ratchet wondered. "I'm so sorry Sideswipe." Sideswipe's expression softened.
"Think about what you have to do." Sideswipe said in a low tone. "You choose who's more important. Ironhide, who has a small chance of living. Or Sunstreaker who has a huge chance of dying!" Sideswipe swerved around on his wheels and skated out of the med bay. What he wanted more than anything, was to go into the secluded operating room, and see his brother. He wanted to wake him and tell him the war was over. But Ratchet wouldn't allow both twins to be deadly sick. So Sideswipe learned quickly from Ratchet's threats to stay away from Sunstreaker until he was cured. 'That was back when Ratchet cared. Before Ironhide died.' Sideswipe reminded himself. Ratchet was left alone in the med bay with a lot weighing on his shoulders. He put away his de-rusting potions and grabbed a clean set of tools. He glanced at what was beginning to look like Ironhide's face again.
"I'm sorry my old friend. They need me too." Ratchet said, referring to the twins. He equipped himself in protective gear over vulnerable energon veins to avoid coming in contact with Sunstreaker's diseased energon. He opened the door to Sunstreaker's room, closed it quickly behind him, and didn't come out for the rest of the night. Hours later, Sideswipe woke with morning light shining down on his optics coming in from a skylight. Sideswipe put his hand over his optics. He made a mental note to install some sort of a horizontal blind over the skylight so he could watch the stars at night, and not be woken up by blinding sunlight in the morning. Sideswipe pulled himself off of the berth, and lazily glided on his tires out of his and Sunstreaker's room. He'd made a habit of getting up early. The energon always had the best quality when it was fresh. So Sideswipe looked forward to getting the first and best cube of the day. Sideswipe was making his usual route to the Autobots' energon storage, when he passed through the Autobot's rec. room. He was startled to see a mech sprawled out on the Autobot sized couch. 'Nobody's ever up this early, are they?' Sideswipe thought. Sideswipe curiously snook up on the mech and leaned over the couch, and then froze in astonishment. He couldn't believe his optics when he saw who it was.
"You're...okay?" Sideswipe whispered. The mech's optics flashed up at him in confirmation. Then he gave Sideswipe a cocky smile that Sideswipe hadn't seen in a long time. Sideswipe cheered and tackled the golden mech on the couch. "SUNNY!" Sunstreaker laughed, but only for a moment. It didn't take long till Sunstreaker was fed up with Sideswipe's sparklingish game and shoved him off the couch. Sideswipe rolled across the room, but he was still laughing. Sunstreaker sat up and watched his brother look like a dangerously hyper idiot. Sideswipe leapt back on the couch, sat down next to Sunstreaker, and gave him a one arm hug around his shoulders before Sunstreaker could squirm away from the affectionate touch. Sunstreaker accepted it, seeing how happy it made Sideswipe to be so close to him (which he could understand because of how Sideswipe suffered from separation anxiety when they were apart). "I was so worried." Sideswipe sighed.
"Phhh! Worried about what? You didn't really think I was gonna die on ya, did you?" Sunstreaker said rolling his optics. Sideswipe's smiled widened. He would admit it. He missed Sunstreaker, and every bit of his egocentric personality.
"I know." Sideswipe replied. "You were just in stasis for so long. From what Ratchet warned me about earlier, if you stayed in stasis too long, you might've not been the same when you woke up. See, while you were in the med bay Ratchet was leaving you in stasis for an extended amount of time, so he could have more time to repair Ironhide's body. And Ironhide is in the med bay now because, well he's offline." Sideswipe tried to explain. Sideswipe hesitated when he heard a knock on the wall behind him. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker turned their heads (though Sunstreaker already knew who it was). Ratchet was standing not far behind them, watching over Sunstreaker.
"He already knows Sideswipe. No need to make me feel any worse." Ratchet said. Sideswipe gave them both looks back and forth.
"I told Ratchet I wanted to be the first mech you saw when you woke up this morning." Sunstreaker said. Sideswipe finally got the whole picture in his processor. Ratchet chose to cure Sunstreaker, and let him out of the med bay so the twins would be reunited as soon as possible.
"And Ironhide?" Sideswipe asked.
"He can wait a couple more cycles. I've still got Prime's arm to repair too." Ratchet told the silver twin. Sideswipe smiled and nodded in thanks. Ratchet stiffened "Now both of you get back to your quarters and go back to recharge mode. It is still too early to deal with the shenanigans of two twins." Sunstreaker obviously agreed, since he was the first off the couch. Even he was in no mood for pranking so early in the morning. The twins quickly disappeared down the hall, and into their room, again leaving Ratchet alone with his wandering thoughts. He knew now just how careless he was about Sunstreaker. Things did get in the way of treating Sunstreaker, such as the Autobots being exiled off the planet. Ratchet didn't worry about keeping Sunstreaker in stasis through that. He knew that the Autobots wouldn't be exiled for long and they had to come back soon. It was when the battles were over and the Autobots recovered the remains of Ironhide's body. That was when Ratchet himself became the set back. He became the reason for Sunstreaker's postponed operation because he chose to be. But not anymore. As of that moment, Ratchet swore to never put the living in danger for the sake of fallen friends. Repairing Ironhide would take more time now. But that didn't seem so bad anymore. Ratchet understood his place now. Ratchet was no Matrix of Leadership. His main priority always would be to take care of the living first.