Chapter 2

His whole body hurt. Hurt worse than he cared to admit to himself or to Ratchet or to Optimus even. Sam didn't care if all it was was sore muscles. He hurt. Though there was no way he'd be able to hide sore muscles from Optimus for very long. And Sam was quite sure that when Optimus showed up in a few minutes (if he was able to get away from work) to see how his session with Ratchet had gone that the mech would make a much bigger deal about him being sore than he himself was.

He loved Optimus, really he did, with all his heart and soul but there were times where all he wanted to do was smack the mech's holoform across the back of the head. Sadly he doubted that doing so would have much of an effect on the mech. He was half tempted to ask Ironhide if he's smack Optimus for him.

He was pretty sure that the black mech wouldn't have any problem with the request and if he did there was always Ratchet. Sam sighed as he sat in one of the squishy chairs that were set against one of the walls in Ratchet's Med bay. Sam blessed whoever had thought of putting the chairs there for people to wait in when Ratchet was busy because they were a godsend. He'd heard about the incoming signal that just might be coming from other Autobots. It made him happy to think that more of them were on their way and would, hopefully, be making Earth their home.

At the moment though not even Ratchet was sure if the signal was from one of them or not. The chartreuse mech seemed sure that it was but wanted to do more tests to be certain. Because if it was a group of new bots then there was reason for them to be worried. The weak signal could mean that they incoming group were injured though they hoped that that wasn't the case.

But there was also a chance that it was simply the gravity of planets and moons that was screwing around with the signals of the might be bots. Ratchets had said that there was a chance that the mechs, if that's what they were, that were coming simply might not have had their communications systems upgraded in a long time. Sam hoped that that was what it was because he didn't like thinking about new bots arriving to earth hurt. The last thing he wanted to see was an injured mech.

Injuries meant that he hadn't been able to do anything to help, not that there was much he could really do. Like he hadn't been able to help Bumblebee or Punch. A sharp spike of pain ran through Sam's very being at the thought of the two mech's that had died trying to help him.

A different type of hurt started then and it had nothing to do with his sore muscles. He missed Bumblebee so much that it was a psychical pain. He knew that Optimus didn't like it when he thought about Bumblebee and the only reason he didn't like it was because it made him hurt so much.

Optimus hated that he had to feel that kind of pain at all and Sam was certain that if the blue and red mech knew how to make that pain go away that he would. Sam wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to tell the mech how grateful he was for his presence. Optimus was the only source of warmth he seemed to have in life anymore.

Everything seemed cold to him now. Even his skin always felt cold to the touch. Lennox had told him that his skin felt like he'd been standing outside in the cold and hadn't gotten warm yet. Sam wasn't sure if he agreed or not because everything he touched seemed to be either cold or barley warm. It was annoying in more than one way.

He was constantly burning his fingers, and the top of his mouth, because he couldn't seem to tell when something was too hot. Epps had started checking his food for him whenever the dark skinned man was in the kitchen with him and he was eating. Sam had a feeling that it wouldn't be too long before some of the other soldiers started doing it as well and he hated it.

He hated that they had to keep an eye on him like that so that he wouldn't burn himself. It made him feel like a little kid again. It didn't help that he was actually the youngest one staying on the base. He was beginning to miss the warmth that other people provided and that he couldn't seem to feel anymore.

It hadn't been that way when he'd woken up in the hospital. Sure he'd felt cold almost all the time but there had been some warmth back then when he touched his parents and the mechs holoforms and Lennox and Epps. It was almost like someone had cast a shadow in his soul or something and only Optimus could get rid of it.

Hell, it was probably true in some way because Optimus was the only source of warmth for him anymore. There were moments when Sam wondered if that nagging feeling had anything to do with the cold. He could swear that there was something that he was forgetting, something important and it wasn't his missing memories of his time with the Decepticons either.

This was something else entirely. Something far more important and life changing. Sam sighed and leaned back in his chair to stair at the ceiling that was some fifty or sixty feet above him. There was so much that he needed to figure out and the only way he was going to do that was if he remembered.

The thing was though that he really didn't want to remember. He felt cracked enough as it was and some part of him feared that if he remembered then he break completely and then not even Optimus would be able to put him back together.

Ooo

He should have known that morning that it was going to be one of those ungodly long days. The type of day that just seemed to drag on no matter how much he willed it to go faster. And for once his music wasn't helping. Though if he really wanted to be productive he supposed that he could go try and help figure out the signal that they'd received earlier but that kind of thing wasn't his specialty and he really didn't want

too. Actually now that Epps was thinking about it he knew what he wanted. He wanted lunch and someone to eat with him.

Epps took a quick glance down at his watch and smiled. He'd been gone when Sam had eaten breakfast that morning and if he knew Ratchet then the bot wasn't letting the kid out of his sight until someone came to get him from his session and Optimus was currently busy. That meant that it was up to him to go and get the kid. He could kill two birds with one stone.

He'd be able to free Sam from Ratchet and get someone to eat lunch with him at the same time. Besides he's taken it upon himself to be sure that the food the kid ate was actually edible to some sort of human standard. He'd thought that Sam's newly found inability to tell if his food was warm enough funny at first.

Then he'd had the kid make him something (he couldn't quite remember what) and he'd ended up with the top of his mouth burnt all to Hell. He hadn't been able to taste anything right for the next week. Of course compared to the person in question he'd been better off.

Epps was pretty sure that Sam was still burning the top of his mouth on accident whenever he made something for himself that needed to be warm when eaten. It was one of those problems that had sprung up not long after they'd gotten the kid settled on the base with him, Lennox, and the Autobots. And there were times where it seemed like something new was always popping up. He half wondered if Sam had a new problem today or not.

He wasn't going to ask however because he knew better. The last thing he wanted to do was get in trouble with Optimus or worse yet Ratchet. Spotting the open hanger door that led into Ratchet's temporary domain Epps pulled the ear buds from his ears and turned his music off.

He managed to stuff the ear buds in a pocket before he actually entered Ratchet's space. He couldn't help but grin when he caught sight of Sam. The poor kid looked bored out of his mind sitting in one of the squishy chairs along one of the out of the way walls.

"Today's your lucky day Sam." Epps called as he walked across the grey concrete floor. Sam turned to look at him and Epps fought the urge to wince. He looked exhausted but also grateful for the distraction that Epps himself provided.

"Why is it my lucky day, Epps?" Sam asked his voice slightly scratchy. He almost sounded like he didn't spend a part of his night screaming. Epps smiled, all white teeth in a dark face.

"I've come to rescue you from Ratchet. How does lunch sound?" Epps asked as he stopped in front of Sam. Sam gave him a grateful smile as he reached over for his crutch.

"Lunch and freedom both sound great Epps. I've been waiting for Optimus forever but he's been busy with that signal you guys got earlier. Sadly that means that I'm stuck here bored out of my freak'n mind." Epps nodded his head in understanding. For a moment he resembled a bobble head doll.

"Eh, can't fault Big Buddha for doing his job. Besides I'm sure he'll feel bad for leaving you here with only Ratchet for company." Sam laughed before his gaze focused on something over Epps' shoulder.

Epps winced and turned around slowly as if he were about to face a predator. Ratchet stood right behind him his optic's narrowed in the annoyed look that was often reserved for the people or bots that annoyed him the most. Considering that Epps tended to be one of those people the look wasn't all that surprising.

"I can be good company when I have free time Epps. You yourself know this and so does Sam." Ratchet's voice was slightly annoyed but Epps was pretty sure that the annoyance wasn't really directed at him. Epps laughed.

"You can be good company when you're free but right now you aren't free so you ain't good company." Ratchet made a noise that might have been a huff of annoyance had he been human before he shook his head and made a motion with his left hand for Epps and Sam to leave. He still had a lot of work to do.

"See ya Ratchet."

"Good luck with the signal man."

With those good-byes both Sam and Epps made there way from the Med Bay and started heading towards the mess hall and the food that awaited them.

Oooo

I feel like a heel. Seriously guys I'm sorry about the lateness of this chapter and about how short it is but I've gotten freak'n writers block again. It almost seems like I can't go three weeks without getting it as of late. That and I'm debating about whither or not I want to try and forshadow anything from the third movie in this. Sadly me doing that would mean that I'd be forced to wait until I can get my hands on the movie novel. Which come out next month.

That of course means that you'd be forced to wait even longer for an update unless I can manage to get something short out. Once again I apologize for lateness and the short length. I'm not even gonna ask for reviews because I don't really feel like I deserve any. I'll try to update soon but like I said I'm trying to figure out if I wanna play with movie plot any so don't expect to much too soon. I'll keep trying I swear. Maybe I'll get lucky and inspiration will strike me.

Oh and I'm not quite sure what Epps specializes in but I'm pretty sure that it isn't analyzing signals.