Two updates in one month (i think)! what? well I'll try to keep going at this sorta pace. please tell me what you think and enjoy!

Ratchet was working frantically; he hadn't seen an injury like this in a long time. Even sparklings had minimal shielding and as such Ratchet never had to deal with bots that had been damaged so completely without any protection. A shot at a mech as vulnerable as that could do damage to everything it hit, even the smallest components of Bee's circuitry were fried and Ratchet had to call upon every bit of his medical expertise and knowledge to save the scout. And that wasn't even the worst part.

The worst part was that he had found the scout in stasis lock on the floor of the console room that morning and now his shields were down as well! Something was definitely wrong.

After about an earth hour Ratchet had been able to patch most of Bee's injuries up and the youngling was in a stable stasis. He would most likely be fine, as long as he woke up, but that still didn't solve the problem of why his shields were malfunctioning and why he had been acting strange as of late.

Ratchet walked slowly out of the med bay, exhausted and still slightly shaky from seeing everyone's favorite scout in such a bad condition.

"Ratchet," Optimus said, walking over to meet his old friend, "How is Bumblebee?"

"As good as he can be considering what happened."

Arcee looked a strange mix of fuming, worried sick, and slightly disturbed. She grumbled.

"I was meaning to ask, now that we have the time, can you explain exactly what happened out there?" Ratchet asked.

"Bee was fine until he got hit. Then he got disoriented and was cornered by about five or six cons. Optimus had to fight them for him and by that point Bee had already been shot three or four times. But the drones have low intensity blasters! They shouldn't have caused so much damage!" Arcee said in one long, angry stream of words.

Optimus put a hand out, trying to calm the raging Femme down. "Bumblebee was indeed not himself, we can only hope it will not happen again."

"Maybe it has been happening for weeks and Bee has been keeping it from us!" Arcee yelled.

"There is no need to lose trust in our scout now Arcee, he will need our support not our suspicion." Optimus said calmly.

Arcee grumbled again and walked off in a huff towards her quarters.

"What's with her?" Smokescreen said walking up to the two older bots outside the med bay.

"There is more than one way to show affection for someone, Smokescreen." Optimus told the young bot.

"Some more hair-brained than others," Ratchet grumbled, walking over to the spacebridge controls and fiddling with them.

Smokescreen just shrugged and moved aside to allow the wreckers, who were returning from their scouting of the mine, to walk through the ground bridge.

"Find anything?" The curious blue and yellow sports car asked.

"Not a slagging thing." Wheeljack said. "Con's musta' found everything there was to be found. How's the kid?"

"Stable." Ratchet said, optics never leaving the monitors.

"Will he be alright Ratch?" Bulkhead asked worriedly.

"He should be, until I get my servos on him," the medic grumbled.

Bulkhead rolled his optics, "Go easy on him, it wasn't his fault all those cons attacked him."

"No, it wasn't, but it was his fault that he didn't tell me something was wrong before he drove headfirst into a warzone!"

"Cool your circuits Ratchet," Wheeljack said, "Maybe he just didn't feel like talking about it."

Ratchet mumbled something about 'slagging young bots' under his breath and ignored the obnoxious wrecker.

"Bulkhead, perhaps you and Wheeljack should go pick up the children."

Optimus suggested.

"Alright" Bulkhead agreed.

"Whatever," Wheeljack said as he transformed and raced out of base, Bulkhead close on his heels.

"Good riddance" Ratchet said grumpily.

Optimus simply smirked and went to talk to Ultra Magnus about the ongoing war effort.

Arcee sat in her room reading a data pad, her optics scanned the text but she just couldn't seem to retain any of it. She was too angry, and too sad. She hated seeing any of her teammates damaged, but when it came to Bumblebee she found it especially infuriating and nerve-wracking. The two bots had become so close in the last few months. It was something she had vowed she would never let happen again, not after so many of her partners had offlined. She didn't think she could take another blow like that, and ever since the whole Arachnid incident she never ceased to thank Primus every day that Bee was still online and functioning. Now it seemed that Primus might not be so kind.

"Arcee?" called a muffled voice from outside her door.

She looked up from the data pad, part of her wishing Jack would just leave her alone; but she would never refuse her charge, he was her responsibility and her friend and deserved to be heard. The blue femme sighed.

"What is it?" She asked, flinching at how harsh her voice sounded.

"Do you want to . . . um talk, or something?" He asked. Arcee could picture him shuffling his feet and rubbing the back of his neck outside the door, a few of his nervous habits.

She got up and opened the door for him, looking down with her hand on her hip.

"Hey," he said, smiling softly.

"Hey." she greeted back.

Arcee could tell that Jack didn't know where to start, he looked a little lost and like he barely knew what was going on. He couldn't have gotten back to base more than 10 minutes ago and who knew how long it would take Ratchet to fully explain what was going on if he even could.

"I'm fine Jack." Arcee said, answering the unspoken question.

"I don't doubt it," he said, looking around the room, "just like you were fine all the other times."

Arcee turned her head.

"Look Arcee . . . I know it's been hard since Bee had his run-in with Arachnid, but he can take care of himself and I'm sure he's going to be fine."

"You didn't see him out there today."

"You could help me understand, maybe—maybe telling another person will help."

Arcee sighed again, figuring she would humor the human teenager.

"He's just been acting odd lately. He doesn't seem as aware as he usually is." She said slowly, trying to pick apart what it was that was really bothering her.

She took Jack's silence as a cue to explain.

"He doesn't notice certain things or he'll just stare off into space. Something is off."

"Everybody has those kind of days Arcee."

"Not Bee."

"Oh come on, he's only human . . . er, cybertronian."

"I'm not joking, Bee was raised in this war and it's made him the most alert and awake mech I've ever met. He never stops paying attention, it's just not like him."

Jack was at a loss for words. What could he say? He didn't know Bee all that well, what with the language barrier and all, and he couldn't understand what was wrong with not staying focused all the time.

"Maybe it has nothing to do with what happened today, maybe he just woke up on the wrong side of the bed." Jack suggested.

"It has everything to do with it! His shields were down for Primus' sake. A bot can't disable their shields even if they want to!" Arcee fumed.

"Er . . . shields?" Jack asked.

Arcee put a servo to her temple, explaining cybertronian anatomy to humans was always a challenge. "They are a program that is part of our immune system. They prevent us from too much external damage and shield us from the harsh conditions we are often faced with.

"Ah." was all he said.

There was a moment of silence.

"You don't get it at all do you?" Arcee asked with a smirk.

Jack smiled sheepishly, "Not really, no."

"It's alright, I still don't understand what the purpose of having two intestines is." Arcee said with a laugh. Jack had tried to explain it to her when he had been studying for a biology test a few months back and she had been simply perplexed by the whole idea.

Jack smiled at the slightly happier Arcee; mission accomplished.

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