AN: This story is based off of an RP that my friend and I have been working on for almost three years now. It's humanized and an AU. Also, incredibly obscure crack pairing.

Story also jumps from scene to scene quite frequently, which I've noticed isn't very good thanks to the way FFN has formatted everything. I'm trying to figure out a way to separate when the POV changes, so I've gone back through to the beginning (I'm at 21 chapters as I'm typing this) to fix everything. Hopefully this works out better. As always, please remember to leave a review. Thanks!

The Seeker was devastated. Just this morning, everything had been fine...and now? Shattered. Completely ruined. Everything had fallen apart. And for what? A misunderstanding. A mistake. This wasn't supposed to happen. Someone was dead and it was all his fault. He was being dragged away and locked in a padded medbay room, sure to be "evaluated" and tested and prodded. Sure to have his mental state come under scrutiny before being dishonorably discharged by the Prime himself, thrown out of the base, or worse, given back to Megatron or sold back to Dylan. His contract wasn't up yet. The Seeker knew it was a distinct possibility. He finally stopped struggling and let the two medics pull him down the hallway and into medbay. Ratchet was trying to speak to him but his words meant nothing to the distraught Seeker and he couldn't reply, simply staring at the chief medic with tears streaking down his cheeks, leaving black lines in their wake. At least his screams had quieted to soft labored sobs, but he could hardly catch his breath. Ratchet was trying to explain something to him while a concerned Wheeljack rubbed his back, but the Seeker didn't understand, so he just nodded anyway. That was what they wanted right? They wanted him to comply. To submit. That was fine. Starscream didn't care anymore. He couldn't care about anything anymore. His life was over and he would never recover.

Ratchet eventually gave up trying to get a coherent response from the Seeker. It was clear that he was in shock and the blood covering his throat and arms was telling of his current mental state. They'd found him like that. Crouched and screaming in a pool of red. A knife in his hands, the other flyers lifeless body just feet in front if him. He'd tried...so hard...to follow his partner. And by all accounts he should have succeeded. Neither medic knew how he was still alive with that much bloodshed. And they were baffled by the fact that he had no sign of injuries. That was why they wanted to run tests. Figure out what was going in inside of him. But in this state, he was volatile. They'd had to call Ironhide in just to keep the Seeker from attacking them when they'd tried to retrieve the body. Starscream had cornered then both, at one point even pinning the younger of the medics. Ratchet was sure that the Seeker would have torn out their throats if not for Ironhides interference. He'd been growling with such animosity and his eyes had been filled with this fire...The elder medic had nearly thought he'd been staring at Unicron himself, and he distinctly remembered praying to Primus for help. They'd put enough sedative in him to knock out an elephant when Ironhide restrained him, but he was somehow still awake. Ratchet didn't know what to think. And as bad as he felt about Starscreams loss, in the back of his mind he remembered warning them both about the danger of their relationship.

Of course Ironhide followed them to the medbay. After seeing what had happened in that room, there was no way he was leaving their side. In the end, it had been up to him to carry Powerglide's body anyway. Morbid business. He shuddered as he saw the way Starscream's eyes followed him to the morgue, hearing the almost otherworldly wail of anguish emerging from the Seekers throat. The old soldier set the young flyers body down on an empty table and glanced over him. He did not see this coming. None of them did. At one point, he would have quite readily admitted that Powerglide would probably die of an overdose one day. But now? He shook his head. This couldn't have been intentional. Powerglide had been doing so well since he'd been with Starscream. They both had been doing so well. He'd been completely clean for months now and Ironhide had never personally seen him looking so happy. The same could be said for Starscream. There had been life in his eyes. Especially when they were together. And as weird as it was for Ironhide to admit, they'd been perfect for each other. Starscream kept Powerglide in line and gave him someone to show off to, and Powerglide kept Starscream relaxed and never failed to make him smile or laugh. He almost felt guilty for ever doubting them. And he felt worse because he'd heard the fight and did nothing, thinking they'd resolve it themselves. When Ratchet called him and he'd heard the screams, however, he knew the base wouldn't ever be the same again.