Yeah this chapter is short…but I couldn't think of anything to add without it getting more boring than it already is -_-

Echo © Regretfuldragon

Transformers Animated © Hasabro

Chapter 3

Echo sighed as she sat on her berth in the room next to her parent's one. It had taken the better part of a week to convince her father to leave the med bay and right now she was listening to her father's cries of loss through the wall. She couldn't tell if he just wanted Bumblebee to come back and didn't care about the noise he was making, or he didn't know how loud he was being. This week had been hard on everyone. Optimus looked down and was at a loss on how to help patch his broken sparked team back together. To cope with the loss, everyone seemed to have banded into groups. Ratchet and Optimus had grouped off together so they could work more effectively at combating this sudden change in the group. Then there was Blurr, Jazz and Bulkhead, all trying to come to terms with what had happened in their own way. Then there was Prowl, who had decided he didn't want to know anyone but Echo and Ratchet, and therefore turned away or ignored every mech otherwise. Off all the bots, Prowl had sunk the furthest. He's become more moody than he had been before, snapping at anyone, when he wasn't ignoring them, for the smallest thing. The only one who hadn't felt his temper was Echo. It was clear that although he trusted Ratchet to look after Bumblebee, Echo was the only one he truly trusted with anything anymore. Even Jazz had been turned away when he'd tried to comfort his best friend. Echo sighed again, knowing exactly what the problem was. The group had lost the one thing that held them all together and made them laugh and smile at the darkest of times. Bumblebee. And although Echo drifted from group to group in a desperate attempt to help and try to do what her mother did so easily, it was a lot harder than it looked. If you asked her to treat a bot with all its limps ripped off Echo could fix them, but patching this team together was very nearly impossible. Then she heard a soft knock at her door, distracting her from her thoughts.

"Come in," she called; onlining one optic and she felt a flicker of surprise to see Blurr make his way in.

"Hey," Blurr said with a smile, "I was just wondering if you wanted any company?" Echo smiled back at him, it was very easy to get on with this bot.

"I'd love some company," she said, "Thanks Blurr." Blurr smiled at her again and limped over. Watching his painful limp made her remember how he'd got hurt like that. The biggest and most obvious of all the divides in the group was between Prowl and Blurr. If any bot thought there was a divide between them before they'd seen nothing. It had all started when Optimus had given Blurr a patrol to do, the patrol Bumblebee usually went on everyday. Needless to say it hadn't gone down well with Prowl when he realized who he'd be patrolling with, and of course, it didn't even take the lost in grief bot long to see what Optimus had done. Blurr was now going to start replacing Bumblebee's role on the team, something that Prowl had taken an extreme dislike to.

"You CAN'T replace Bumblebee you no good fragger of a leader," Prowl had snarled at Optimus, "So don't you DARE try! Or I'll dismantle you and kick the pieces from here to Cybertron!"

"Prowl you need to get over this aversion to Blurr doing Bumblebee's duties," Optimus had bravely said, trying to defend his actions, "Bumblebee can't do his duties right now so we need someone else to do it for him." Wrong thing to say, Echo remembered thinking. Prowl had then screamed the poor Prime's audio's off, asking him how he dared say that, that, Bumblebee wasn't gone and he shouldn't act like he was, and that no tin can racer was ever going to replace his bondmate no matter what he said.

"Cool you circuits Prowl," Blurr had snapped at Prowl, "I think you've made your point clear. Now go mope in your room and let us get on with life." Prowl had then turned on the blue racer, a glint of sheer fury Echo had never seen in her father before showing in his optics. Prowl had leapt at Blurr and Blurr, blaming Prowl for what had happened to Bumblebee, had met his attack head on. The two then proceeded to fight each other, not to hurt, but to kill. It had taken the force of Bulkhead, Prime, Jazz, Echo and Ratchet to pry the two away from each other, Bulkhead and Prime holding Prowl back with Echo trying to cool him down, and Jazz holding Blurr down while Ratchet tried to help him as he struggled out of the Elite Guard's grasp. The two had glared at each other as they were held back, hostility not yet spent. In the end, Prowl had walked away with a long gash down his chassis, dents littering his frame and a broken servo, where Echo suspected he'd hit Blurr too hard. Blurr on the other hand had not been so fortunate. One of his legs had been badly damaged but it was repairable, he had one of his optics almost destroyed but thankfully Echo had managed to fix that, leaving only a dark print around it that would soon fade, something Echo suspected her father took great pride in looking at, as well as several gashes and dents all over his armour. Both had also received a hit to the helm with Ratchet's wrench and told to stay away from each other. Echo still didn't know why the two hated each other so much. She couldn't understand how anyone couldn't like Blurr. He was playful and easy to get on with.

"So how have you been holding up?" Blurr asked, cutting across her thoughts again.

"Better than some bots, but not great," Echo sighed and Blurr gave her a sympathetic look, "Honestly, I feel horrible inside. My Mum was so easy to talk to and she made me feel so safe and wanted. But Dad…I love him, Primus I do, but I don't find my Dad as easy to talk to. And now…I have to pretend to be Okay for him. I don't want to hurt him anymore." She looked down at the weight of the confession she'd just made. Every word was true. She loved her father dearly, but he was so mysterious and unpredictable, and she often wondered how two so different mechs ever fell in love. But her father was the bot she always wanted to be. He was so strong and brave, and she'd always looked up to him, hoping that one day she'd be just like him.

"It's not fair you have to do that for your father," Blurr said with a sigh, "It's such a big burden for you. I don't doubt that you can take it but you shouldn't be put through this."

"It'll get better though," Echo said weakly, not really believing her own words, "When Mum wakes up, everything will be fine again." It was clear from the sympathetic look on Blurr's face he didn't believe it either. Suddenly Prowl let out another loud cry from his room next door.

"Does he always do that?" Blurr asked with a disapproving frown.

"Yeah," Echo said looking away, "He really misses Mum."

"I do to, but you don't hear me crying like that," Blurr said.

"But you don't understand how he feels," Echo snapped, defending her father, she was the only one who had any right to put him down, and to slag would she let him do it, "He's lost the one he loves, his bondmate. You just lost a friend." Blurr narrowed his optics at her.

"So he didn't tell you," Blurr said, his voice interested, "Haven't you ever wondered why we hate each other so much?"

"Of course," Echo said, her anger evaporating when she realized he had answers for her, "But Dad never told me."

"Well I will then," Blurr said, "He hates me and I hate him. And this is why."

**FLASHBACK**

Blurr growled at the mech infront of him. The black cyber-ninja had a victorious smile on his dumb faceplate, making the urge to punch him much harder to resist.

"No!" Blurr growled, "This isn't true! He's lying. Tell me he's lying Bee."

"No he's not," Bumblebee said, "Me and Prowl are together. What's the problem? I thought you'd be happy for me." The last few words filled with hurt and Blurr realized Bumblebee had hoped for his best friend's acceptance, not fury. But there was no way in Pit he was going to let Prowl win that easily.

"But I love you Bumblebee!" Blurr cried, "I love you far more than he ever did. Please, choose me. I can make you truly happy. We were meant for each other." Bumblebee stepped back in shock at Blurr's revelation, his optics full of confusion.

"No I love him more than you," Prowl snapped at Blurr, "You only love him for his personality and the fact he likes to race, nothing else. You don't love the whole Bumblebee."

"Is that so?" Blurr snapped back, "You only love Bumblebee for his frame and clear beauty. You don't love the true mech at all. At least I love him for him and not his aft!" Prowl growled at the racer, looking ready to dismantle the other mech. Instead of feeling afraid Blurr wanted Prowl to try and beat him. Let him try, Blurr thought, I'll kick his stupid ninja aft back to Cybertron!

"Stop it both of you!" Bumblebee cried and Prowl and Blurr both froze. They'd never heard so much distress in Bumblebee's voice, "Blurr I'm really really sorry but I just don't see you like that. I love you like you're my brother, but not the way you love me. Please, I don't want to lose my best friend over this."

"No! I refuse to believe this!" Blurr snapped, "He's tricked you I know it! You love me, I know you do! Just you wait, you'll see." With that Blurr had stormed off, utterly spark-broken.

"Well you delude yourself with that Blurr," Prowl had shouted after him, "Bumblebee is mine and don't you forget it!" Blurr's frame shock in fury as he pushed into his room, fighting the angry tears the whole time, not seeing the spark-broken look on Bumblebee's faceplate as he did so.

**END FLASHBACK**

"And that's really it to be honest," Blurr finished once he was done explaining everything. Echo's optics had been wide the whole time. She was in complete shock. They…they had both fought, over her Mother? Part of her wondered if she'd ever have two mechs fighting over her, while another part shivered, wondering who she would have choosen had she been in her mothers place.

"I know it's a lot to digest," Blurr said softly, "I leave you to think on it." Blurr gave her a farewell smile that she returned, and he limped out. Who would she have choosen? Briefly she wondered what it would have been like to have Blurr as a father, but as soon as she thought about it she felt horribly guilty. Prowl was her father and no one else, she thought, shaking any other thoughts from her head angrily, although one part of her panged with a jealousy and longing she couldn't understand. She heard another loud cry from her father's room and she frowned uncertainly when she realized that was no longer a question she could answer.