(Hi this is the next chapter of my story, I hope you enjoy it. ^_^)
Chapter two
"Ratchet!" Ironhide shouts as he runs over to him. "What's wrong? Were you hurt in the fight?" he asks voice full of concern.
"No, help me get to the med bay please," Ironhide nods and wraps an arm around him.
"Ratch' what's going on?"
"I will tell you, argh, when we get to the med bay."
"Alright everyone you are dismissed," Optimus says as he, Jazz, Red Alert and Mirage follow Ironhide and Ratchet. The femme also follows and once at the med bay she settles at a vent just above the door.
"Ratch' please you're scarring me," Ironhide says as he helps Ratchet onto one of the berths.
"I think I am having a miscarriage," Ratchet says once again clutching his abdomen.
"You mean you're with sparkling?" Ironhide asks in disbelief. The other transformers in the room look as shocked as Ironhide does.
"Not for much longer, I don't think. I don't know enough about sparkling formation to help myself or to talk First Aid through helping me," Ratchet explains through the pain.
"There's nothing any of us can do?" Optimus asks.
"No, no one in the base has the knowledge we need, Primus I don't even know if anyone knows enough about mech-mech pregnancies in the universe to do anything to stop this," Ratchet says with a sad smile.
"But..." Ironhide starts before his optics widen. "Femme if you can hear me please if you can, help him."
" 'Hide we don't even know if she is here," Ratchet says as the door opens revealing the femme.
Slowly she makes her way inside staying as far away from the other transformer as she can, as she nears Ratchet she slows almost to a stop. Ironhide holds out his hand too her which contains the two disks she used to heal him, the femme slowly walks up to the two of the them and takes her disks back reattaching them to her chasset.
Ironhide sees her unease about him being so close and moves back slightly taking hold of Ratchet's hand.
"Please if you can do anything to help him, just do it," Ironhide says almost pleadingly.
Slowly the femme raises her hands and places them on Ratchet's abdomen, scanning his reproductive systems she finds that the sparkling is in distress due to weak connections of energy to its creator's spark, a common problem with mech-mech sparklings that without treatment would end in the termination of the sparkling. Looking down to her left thigh she removes two long thin pieces of equipment placing them on Ratchet's chest plates, then taking two very small disks from the same area as she got the others, she places one on Ratchet's chest plate slightly to the left and one on his abdomen slightly to the right.
Reaching up she pulls a screen down from above the berth, turning it on, one side revealing Ratchet's spark whilst the other shows the forming sparkling.
"That's inside me?" Ratchet asks in disbelief, the femme nods at him. Taking one of the thin sticks of metal in both hands she slowly pushes one through his chest plate and the other through his plating that protects his abdomen, then pushes through into his reproductive system where the sparkling chamber is, looking at the screen she hooks the end of the stick around one of the very thin strings of energy coming from Ratchet's spark.
The femme sends a very small amount of her own energy down the string watching on the screen to see the corresponding string that connects to the sparkling, once found she hooks it with the other stick and slowly sends more of her own energy through it to test its strength.
Looking over at Ironhide she looks between him and the sticks she is holding and back again.
"Oh, you want me to hold them?" Ironhide asks a little unsure, the femme nods at him, letting go of Ratchet's hand he takes holds of the sticks from her. The femme bends down and looks through some of the draws until she stands back up with a vile of clear liquid, pulling a needle out from the top draw, she draws up a very small amount and starts to insert the needle into the stick near Ratchet's spark.
The femme sees him tense and moves the hand not holding the needle over to Ratchet's placing it on top and squeezing it, Ratchet smiles at the sign of comfort and reassurance, then relaxes again.
Once the femme feels him relax she removes her hand and continues inserting the needle, when she feels the tip of the needle hit the energy string she pushes the plunger and injects the liquid into it, pulling the needle back out she places it on the table beside the berth and takes the sticks back off Ironhide.
She sends some of her own energy along the string again to check its strength, satisfied that the string now has the strength it needs she moves onto the next one.
The other transformers watch her in awe as she works.
"Wow," Jazz says watching the femme.
"I know, good job Ironhide decided to call out to her," Red Alert adds.
"Yes it was," Optimus was about to continue talking when the femme turns her head to face them and narrows her optics silently telling them to stop talking.
"Sorry," all of them mumble and continue to watch in silence.
As the femme finishes strengthening a fifth string she removes the two pieces of equipment from Ratchet, who is amazed to see no mark what so ever from where they were inserted into him.
Ratchet goes to sit up only to be stopped by the femme's small hand on his chest slightly pushing him backwards. Lying back down Ratchet looks at the femme to see her pressing a few buttons on the screen.
The femme leans over to him removing the two small disks putting them back on her chasset, she looks up at the screen reading Ratchet's vitals seeing that everything is in order apart from a slightly too low energy level, she stores the screen again. Walking over to the energon dispenser she pours a cube and walks back over to Ratchet handing it to him.
"Thank you," Ratchet says to the femme and sees a look of shock in her eyes which turns into a smile and a nod. "You've done that before, haven't you?" Ratchet asks trying to get her to speak, she only nods. "What did you do?" the femme turns to him but quickly looks away.
"Why won't you talk?" Ironhide asks helping Ratchet to sit up, they all watch as the femme lowers her head and stares at the floor.
Optimus suddenly remembers that Megatron said they were slaves. "Is it because you are afraid to say something out of line?" he enquires as he slowly approaches the femme, once he is stood in front of her he speaks again. "You don't have to worry no one will punish you here."
"No they won't and if anyone tries to mess with you they will have to get through me, you saved my bondmate and my sparkling, and come to think of it me, so I am in your debt," Ironhide says.
The femme turns to look at him with a confused expression on her face.
"You're not used to hearing those sorts of things are you?" Ratchet says with a small smile, the femme smiles sadly in response. "Guys can you leave for a few minutes," Ratchets says getting up, not so much a request but an order. Every other transformer moves out of the room leaving Ratchet alone with the femme. Looking at her Ratchet sees she looks very tired. "Please sit down," Ratchet says pointing to the berth behind her.
Slowly she sits back down and looks back down at the floor Ratchet walks over to the energon dispenser and pours a cube for her. Making his way back over to her he holds the cube out to her.
She looks between the cube and Ratchet but makes no move to take it, seeing the unease in her face makes him think then it suddenly dawns on him.
"You have had bots spike your energon before," the femme nods her head at him, sighing Ratchet takes a sip from the cube and hands the rest of the cube to her which she gladly downs. "You know you can talk to us, no one will punish you, Primus if we did that to everyone that said something out of line, or did something they weren't supposed to do, poor Sideswipe, Bumblebee and Sunstreaker would probably never be out of here with all the things they do," Ratchet says with a reassuring smile.
The femme looks him in the optics and smiles. "Thank you," she says quietly as she hands the cube back to Ratchet.
"Is it alright if everyone else comes back in?" Ratchet asks walking back over to the energon dispenser and pours another cube, he hands her the cube after taking a small sip. The femme slowly nods her head. "Don't worry they won't hurt you. Guys you can come back in now," Ratchet says as the doors to the med bay open and the other five transformers walk back in.
"You got her talking Ratch'," Ironhide asks as he hugs Ratchet, the femme smiles at seeing the interaction between the two, Ratchet nods in response to the question.
"Good," Optimus says as he comes to stand next to Ironhide and Ratchet. "I'm Op..."
"Timus Prime," the femme finishes for him. "Ironhide, Ratchet, Jazz, Red Alert and Mirage. I downloaded your files from the computer system."
"I thought those were meant to be encoded," Mirage says looking at Red Alert.
"They were, I swear to Primus they were," Red Alert replies holding up his hands in defence.
"Don't worry they were," the femme says. "You 'guys' are in my home, I can access all files on the network, anything you know I do too," she explains.
"I don't mean to sound rude but you know who we are but we have no idea who you are," Jazz says to the femme.
"Oh right sorry," the femme says looking down and getting off of the berth. "I'm Sh..." the femme doesn't get to finish her sentence as her optics offline and she shuts down into recharge.
Acting quickly Optimus puts out his arms and catches the femme lifting her up so she is leaning on his chest plates, feeling her weight in his arms Optimus feels his spark pulse a little stronger and reach out for her.
"Is she okay?" Ironhide asks concerned.
"If I am right she has been in a hibernation pod for quite some time, I believe her system is fully rebooting itself, she should only be in this recharge state for a few groons," Ratchet explains.
"Where should we put her?" Optimus asks, slightly readjusting the femme in his arms into a more comfortable position.
"Well I would say leave her here, but anyone can walk in here and it would be better if she wasn't disturbed," Ratchet says.
"I will take her up to my quarters. If anyone needs me I will be working up there," Optimus says making his way out of the room.
"Optimus don't do anything threatening I have a feeling she was used for more than just her medical skills," Ratchet explains.
Optimus stops for a few nanokliks and looks down at the femme in his arms.
"Who could do that to her, to any other transformer?" Ironhide asks in disgust.
"Our ancestors," Optimus replies sadly, and then continues walking to his quarters. Once Optimus is out of ear shot Ratchet turns to the others.
"He likes her," he says simply.
"Yeah it was fairly obvious, do you think she likes him?" Jazz asks.
"I don't know, I am surprised that she trusts us though," Ratchet says putting away the needle the femme used on him.
"Well we haven't given her any reason not to," Ironhide states.
"Yes and let's keep it that way. There is a spare room on our corridor right?" Ratchet asks.
"Yeah the one across from ours, to the left of Optimus," Ironhide replies.
"I see where you are going with this, let's make it her room," Red Alert says, Ratchet nods.
"I will tell Optimus later for now let the femme rest," Ratchet says, they all nod at him and exit the med bay heading for the rec room.
"Ratchet are you alright?" Bumblebee asks as they walk in.
"I am fine 'Bee, in fact I am better then fine I am with Sparkling," as Ratchet says this all the noise in the rec room stops, but soon starts up again with congratulations, cheers and whistles.
Optimus arrives at his quarters shortly after leaving the med bay, opening the door he steps inside and quickly makes his way to the bedroom. Opening that door reveals a large berth; walking over to it he places the femme down on one side of it carefully. Once she is laid down he pulls a blanket over her and smiles at seeing her rest so calmly as it is rather soothing for him.
Making his way back into the living room, without closing the door, he sits down at the desk that has a view of the bedroom to do some work.
(I will leave it there this time, until next time readers. ^_^)