[Location: Griffin Rock, Maine, Emergency Headquarters] Rescue Bots Universe

Done with the majority of their duties for the day, the adults of the Burns family made their way home with their Rescue Bot partners. Once safely behind the closed doors of their base, the bots transformed as soon as their occupants had exited. Much to their mutual surprise, Elita, her larger form, was dancing while she was sweeping the floor of the garage, as if she was listening to music while doing the task. There was also the smell of something delicious coming from the kitchen, beckoning the humans towards its direction, Chief Burns privately pleased with the fact that he didn't have to worry about making dinner.

Cody was running to greet them all, obviously excited about something, "Dad, you have got to come see this." As the Chief followed his youngest child, his three oldest were still watching the dancing bot, along with their rescue partners.

"What is she doing?" Blades asked to no one in particular.

"It appears that she is dancing as she's cleaning," Boulder answered, "Fascinating!"

Kade scoffed, "About time we have a freeloader that does something other than live here." That earned him a hard elbow from Dani, since she was standing next to her brother. Rubbing his side, the red haired Burns only grumbled that he was only joking.

The others only watched as Elita had stopped dancing, placing the broom back where she had found it, walked over to a rather empty, out of the way corner, before transforming into her motorcycle form. Heatwave could tell when he first saw her that her eyes were dim, meaning that the 'brain' of the pair was not inside of the form.

"Let's get cleaned up," the fire truck ordered his subordinates, the four of them heading to the bunker below while their human counter parts headed upstairs. The four Rescue Bots were surprised to find that the bunker they stayed in had been cleaned as well. Elita seemed to have kept herself busy while they all were out doing their job. There was also a daily ration of energon set out for all four of them, as if waiting for their return to refuel. It rather surprised Heatwave as he admitted to himself that she seemed to be handy to keep around.

Upstairs, the three oldest Burns children were halted suddenly as they took in the extremely clean living quarters while the delicious smell that had drawn them closer surrounded them. Chief Burns and Cody had stopped as well, the majority of the family staring in shock as the human woman was dancing around in the same manner as her robot below had been. She was wearing a pair of headphones, which would explain why she had not heard them come into the room, as she was setting the table as she jammed.

While Dani and Graham were still in their shock, Kade chuckled a bit. "Maybe we should keep her around. Who knows," he gently nudged his father with his elbow, "she might make a good step-mom."

Clearing his throat, Charlie Burns gave his eldest son a look that told the younger man that he didn't appreciate the comment. He was surprised when Graham added, "It is nice to come home to dinner being done."

"That may be so, but she is a guest," their father reminded them, "and we do need to try to get her back to her own reality. It wouldn't be fair to those she left behind to keep her here."

"What happens if we can't get her home?" Dani asked as she looked at her father. Deep down she still missed her mother, despite the years it had been since she passed, and she liked the idea of having another woman around to help even out the testosterone.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," he replied to his daughter gently, "but it would be completely unfair to Elita if we planned her life for her."

It was then that Elita had pulled her headphones down from over her ears, "Oh! Hey, you're earlier than I expected." She had just pulled dinner from the oven and set it on the table when she noticed the family standing there, "Figured ya'll'd be hungry when you came home so I wanted to make sure dinner was ready."

"We appreciate your courtesy," Chief Burns said for his family as they began to surround the table, "though I never expected you to go out of your way to do all of this while you were here."

Elita waved it off as she sat in the chair he pulled out for her, "It's the least I can do while I'm stuck here."

As they ate, Cody filled his family in on what all had happened while they were away, expressing how much he appreciated Elita helping him with his homework. They settled into the dinnertime conversation and it gave Chief Burns a moment to think about what his kids all said about the situation. Although the idea was appealing, it wasn't the time to be focusing on that sort of situation just yet.

Later that night, after his children were all in their beds, Chief Charlie Burns carried two cups of coffee up to the roof of the building. Elita was sitting on the bench of her bike as she overlooked the town, having used the lift platform that Blades normally used to gain access to the roof. Noticing how pensive and preoccupied she looked, the elder Burns cleared his throat slightly to let her know that he was near her. The last thing he wanted was to startle her and end up getting hot coffee spilt on himself.

E looked over her shoulder, smiling a bit as she sat up more, "Chief Burns, I figured you'd be asleep with the others." She motioned for him to sit on the other side of the bench seat after taking the cup of coffee he offered her. Smiling with delight as she took in a deep whiff of the brew, she let him get settled before taking a sip. "Quite a town you've got here. Reminds me a bit of where I grew up."

"Small town girl?" Chief Burns asked after a sip of his own drink.

"For most of my life," she admitted with a smile, tilting her head up to look at the stars. There were still quite a bit in the sky, but not as many as she would see when looking out from above the Autobot base.

Her friend took a moment to look up at the sky as well as the quiet of the night settled in again before he spoke. "So, what's the whole story?"

Elita looked over at the police officer for a moment before taking a long drink from her mug. "Things were rough after my father died when I was seven, and I saw how hard my mom was working just to put food on the table and keep me in school. When I was old enough I took what jobs I could to help ease her burden; I ended up learning all sorts of things from fixing small engines to computer repair and coding. Joined the military to help pay for my higher education and ended up getting mixed up in a project that fast tracked me into a nightmare and ended up with a great group of friends."

Chief Burns nodded as he took another drink of coffee, "Very well scripted, but not completely honest."

Eyeing him sidelong, Elita tipped the rest of her drink into her mouth. "Scripted? Yes. Honest? As much as I can be and still keep things safe."

"With who we work with, do you really think we'd have trouble keeping your secret?" He looked over at her, looking her in the eyes to gauge her reaction, noticing that sheshe seemed sincere.

"It's not really my secret that I'm worried about, but your own protection." Setting the cup between them, Elita rested her hands firmly on the seat edge as she straightened her arms, making her shoulders slump up near her head. "If you have all of the same forces in play here, then my secret could put your family in danger. If they are here, then Optimus will update you on the threat. If they aren't here, then my telling you would make you worry about something that might never come to pass."

"Alright, a simpler question then," he smiled as he rested his own empty mug next to hers, "anyone special back at home?"

Dipping her head down, the hybrid woman gave an embarrassed laugh. Recovering with a deep breath she looked back up at the sky, "I'm not even sure it would work out. It's still my human mind in an odd form so the concept of falling in love and marriage works easily. I enjoy his company and I'm sure he enjoys mine, but I'm not sure how something like that would really work out."

[Location: Autobot Base] Prime Universe

With the weekend allowing the kids the freedom to stay at the base without question, the whole of the group had done their best to stick to their normal routine as the last couple of the days left in the week passed. Fortunately, the Decepticons had been relatively quiet during this time, so they were able to focus a majority of their time into figuring out how to reopen the energy vortex that took their friend. All of them were bothered by the fact that one of their own was missing, but it seemed that the medic took it a bit harder than the rest. Even Optimus was having trouble with Ratchet's shorter temper. Ratchet had only recharged when his body forced him to, and even then, he tried constantly to push past it.

Early Saturday morning, while Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and the kids were watching cartoons and Arcee was practicing her martial arts, Optimus and Ratchet were looking over the information as it scrolled across the medic's screen. There had been a few spikes of the odd energy signature that were tied to Elita-One's disappearance, but it was never strong enough, nor lasted long enough, for the bots to react in time. The idea of stationing one of their own to the area was quickly dismissed, mostly due to the isolated area and the higher chance of being discovered.

Ratchet, who had taken to mumbling mostly to himself even more as Optimus stood by his side, was double checking his data on the times that the energy signature appeared, finding that it was becoming more frequent. With any luck, he'd be able to predict an approximate time that one of the next ones would appear.

"When was the last time you rested, Ratchet?" his dear friend asked, concern threaded through his words.

"I'll rest when I find her," was the unintentionally harsh reply, "What we need to focus on is who is going to go retrieve her." Turning to face his commander, the medic squared his shoulders, "I volunteer for the job."

"As well placed your spark is, Ratchet, it is unwise for you to go in your current state," Optimus replied calmly, despite the cold look he received from his friend, "and we are unsure of exactly what we might find on the other side of the event-horizon."

Looking a bit dejected, Ratchet turned back to his station, numbly running his hands over the controls. Optimus was right. He was in no real condition to rush into any sort of mission as he was. The medic turned his head when he felt a hand rest on his shoulder, Optimus nodding a bit as he focused on him.

"I will; however, allow you to proceed with the mission under one condition."

"What is that?" Ratchet asked as he fully turned to face his friend.

"Go get you some rest, old friend" his commander ordered, "You have your system automatically scanning for the anomaly and it will allow you to look at it all with fresher optics."

Conceding to the terms, Ratchet nodded before walking away into the rest of the base. Optimus only stood by, watching as his friend disappeared into the hallway. As he turned to return to the station where he was working at decoding the Iacon records, Prime was not surprised to find Jack already standing near his workstation.

"Optimus, is Ratchet going to be ok?" the young man asked as the Autobot began working at the station, "I mean, I haven't known him as long as you have, but Ratchet doesn't seem to be… acting like himself."

Optimus paused to face Jack, leaning down to be eye level with the young man, "Ratchet is having to deal with an emotional loss that, all be it not new to him, opens older wounds."

"You mean," Miko said quietly as she and the others had moved over to listen in the conversation, "that Ratchet is in love with Elita? Who would have ever thought that was even possible?"

"We are not that completely different than you humans are with our emotions," Arcee stated as she crossed her arms, standing on the other side of Optimus who had straightened upright as the others joined them.

"That's not what I mean!" Miko scoffed, waving her hand, "I mean the fact that Ratchet actually found somebody to not be cranky with all the time."

Bumblebee beeped a few times, Rafael smiling up at his guardian, "Bee's right. They do spend the most time together here at the base."

"And besides a few gripes at the beginning of her stay here," Bulkhead added with a nod, "I don't think I've ever heard Ratchet grumble about her; especially after she found out about her mom."

"I've caught them watching movies or listening to music together," Arcee interjected, "late at night when one or the other was on monitor duty."

"This does explain why he's taking this so much harder than the rest of us," Jack said, all the pieces falling into place. "I wonder how Elita feels on the matter."

"That is something for both of them to come to terms with," Optimus stated gently, "in their own time." He gave a subtle glance at Miko, but none of the others had caught it.

Author's Note: I do not own Transformers Prime or Transformers Rescue Bots.

Thanks for waiting. Between Little Girl's 3rd birthday, family visits, and trying to think of where I was wanting this to go, it's been a bit hectic.

Thank s everyone for taking the time to read my work.