"I've done all I can now Optimus; it's up to her now. But I must warn you, she may not survive the night." Ratchet spoke solemnly as he walked away from the med-bay. His words killed Optimus, they were the words he never wanted to hear, nodding his acknowledgement to Ratchet as he made his way over to where Arcee lay. She lay unconscious on the berth in the med-bay, she looked peaceful, it could almost be believed that she was sleeping, it it weren't for the wires hooked up to her. Life-support, she was in a critical condition, and as Ratchet said, she may not survive the night. It wasn't supposed to be a dangerous mission, a simple energon scouting is all it was meant to be. But the Decepticons ambushed her, setting up a trap specifically for her. Megatron knew that Arcee was the key to hurting Optimus, that if he took her away, Optimus would crumble; Prime knew Megatron wanted Arcee dead. Arcee was his rock in this war, the one he always turned to when things became too much to bare alone. She was the one he loved and the mother of his nine week-old sparkling. He couldn't lose her, she couldn't let go, not now that she had so much to fight for. And that she was: a fighter, she wouldn't give up easily.
"We'll leave you two alone." Ratchet left Optimus in the med-bay, ushering the team and the humans out along with him. None of them had spoken, they didn't know what they could say, they knew that nothing would help Optimus through this. Bumblebee held Optimus and Arcee's sleeping son tightly in his arm. Everyone was thankful that the young mech was, for the time being, sleeping; he didn't need to see his mother like this.
Optimus staggered over closer to the Arcee's berth. The wound on her stomach made him feel sick, she's been hurt by Megatron's own hand, a long gash stretching across her torso and ending just under her spark. Kneeling beside her, he placed a soft kiss on her lips and took both of her hands in one of his own, bringing them to rest on his chest. She made a sort of groaning but remained in stasis, Optimus was thankful for the fact that she didn't seem to be in pain while she slept. With his voicebox feeling as if it was closing, Optimus dropped his head down to kiss her hands, before looking back at her face.
"Don't go. Please, don't go. Just because you have done everything you promised; please don't leave me. You are everything I need. The light in my dark, dark world." He could feel tears beginning to build in his optics, the block in his throat feeling as if it would choke him, "Please Primus, in your mercy, don't take her away from me!" Optimus started to feel his voice-box closing as he spoke, "My son needs his mother! And I need her." Optimus flinched as he heard a groan of pain, and he saw her optics opened slowly, blinking against the bright lights; the pain in her optics was spark-breaking.
"Optimus..." She weakly pushed the word out, her head tilting to the side so that she could see him properly, taking all of his features in and memorizing them.
"I'm here. I will never leave you. I promise." Optimus whispered back at her as he brought her hands up to kiss them again.
"I love you." Tears began to slowly leak down out of her optics; they both knew that this was it, neither wanting to voice it out loud though.
"I love you too." He leaned over to kiss her forehead softly, the grip he had on her hands tightening as he brought his free hand to wipe away her tears.
"Look after them. They need you." Optimus nodded to her, finding himself unable to either find the words to say or operate his voicebox.
"But we need you too!" The sound of the Miko's voice reached their audio receptors, causing the pair to turn to where the whole of Team Prime stood looking at them.
Bumblebee looked to be on the verge of breaking down in tears; Arcee had been a sort of mother figure to him, helping him navigate his way through the war to become a skilled soldier. If he had gotten injured in battle, she would sit up with him in the med-bay so he wouldn't get lonely, as he would do for her. He couldn't imagine his life without Arcee in it; he never thought that he would have to.
Bulkhead held the humans in his hands, a clear look of distress and helplessness covering his face. Arcee was one of his best friends, a sister to him. He didn't want to lose her. Smokescreen stood holding Optimus and Arcee's son gently in his arms, having taken him from Bumblebee when the Scout began to break. Although he and Arcee had had a rocky start, he'd always respected her for the warrior she was and he had grown to see her as a friend. The sparkling had awoken at some point, and was not oblivious to the tension in the air and wanted the comfort of his mother, struggling and squirming in Smokescreen's hold. The Team were all praying for Primus to spare Arcee, not just for the sake of the sparkling, but for Optimus and the team as a whole; they needed her.
The humans were no different to the Bots. June stood trying to console the three teens, but was not succeeding. Jack seemed to be in such a state of grief and dismay that he had zoned out completely, his face seemed blank, bar the tears that were flooding the rim of his eyes, and he was stood as still as a statue. Raf and Miko, though not Arcee's charges, were both feeling the severity and emotions of the situation, watching the femme lie on the berth with bated breathes. Fowler didn't know what to do; he felt the emotion of the situation as strongly as June and the kids, despite not usually being the best person to have these sorts of situations; but he also saw this from a military stand point: the bots were the only hope Earth had against the Decepticons, when one was injured or, in the case of Cliffjumper, passed on, they got that much weaker, and with the necessity of looking after a sparkling, the team's responsibilities would be spread even thinner.
As much as Ratchet didn't want to admit it out loud, or even to himself, he knew that this was the end. Arcee had lost too much energon and her wound was too deep, it had done too much damage to her insides for him to be able to fix, without her bleeding out. He knew that she wouldn't survive the night, all he could do was make sure that she was comfortable. Arcee was like a daughter to him, having known her father back on Cybertron and promising him, on his death-bed, that he would watch over his daughter. And eons later, it was a promise that Ratchet had tried to keep, and would now extend to her son in her place. His main worry after this point would be Optimus, how he would cope with her loss and raising their son without her.
Optimus's attention was drawn away from the team and back to Arcee when she lightly squeezed his hand, opening up a private comm-link to Arcee he once again begged her to continue fighting.
'You can do this, you can pull through. When you are better, we will finally spark-bond, raise our son and end this war; Together.' Optimus rested his forehead on hers, waiting for her reply, praying that it would come. Everyone felt themselves tense when they heard the spark-rate monitors spike, making loud bleeping noises. Optimus's grip tightened on Arcee's hand as everyone came closer to her, circling around the berth as the beeping began to get slower and longer.
"Don't go." Optimus pleaded with her again.
"I love you." Arcee's whisper was weak as the beeping stopped and gave way to a long drawn out whirring of the monitor. Arcee was gone. Kissing her forehead again, Optimus's optics closed tightly to keep the tears from being able to freely leak from them, "I love you too. I always have and always will... I promise."