Chapter Four:

Energy

"Coffee, because crack is bad for you."

-Unknown

You don't understand persevering annoyance until you've had a foot tall jet turning robot banging against the inside of the washer demanding to be let out in a high pitched voice. It seemed like the moment I finished agreeing that they could stay the decepticons decided to open their mouths.

"Come on, can you let us out already?" One of the jets in the dryer whined while the other just stared at me with unblinking red eyes.

"I demand it!" The high pitched one yelled again.

I turned and set my hand on the dryer door first, "Do you little monsters promise to control yourselves?"

"Wait, you're not going to let them out are you, Aj?" Tyler gasped.

"I can't leave them in there." I shrugged. "Now are you going to liste-"

"You have no power over us, human!"

"Look here." I narrowed my eyes at them while pulling the metal leg out of my pants pocket, "The mega- 'whatever the hell his name is' guy does though, right? Because guess who has power over him right now."

The autobots seemed just as surprised at my statement as the decepticons. Bluestreak's voice spoke up first, "Is that Megatron's leg?"

"Yupp. Now-" My statement was interrupted by the red, white, and blue jet throwing up his arms and letting out a celebratory cackle.

"Finally! The strongest has prevailed!" He cheered while the other three decepticons looked bored, "I am Lord Starscream, leader of the decepticons!"

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion as I glanced back at the autobots and kids, "I…That wasn't the reaction I was expecting."

Sideswipe crossed his arms, "All of us expected that reaction from that slagger."

This was taking longer than I wanted it too. I groaned in irritation before turning back to 'Lord Starscream' and all his annoying glory. "Alright, as your first action as leader you can promise me that no decepticon is going to start any fights or tear up our house. This entire house is now a neutral zone."

"And if I don't?" Starscream sneered.

I gave him a big smile, "Then I tear off your wings and bury you in the backyard. M'kay?"

He looked taken aback and gave me a quick nod, "Agreed, human. Now release us!"

The autobots tensed as I opened the dryer door then the washer. All four of them hopped out with ease. I didn't stand around and wait to see what would happen next. Instead, I turned and walked out of the laundry room to head toward the kitchen. Injuries were taken care of and I've handled the bots, mostly, so now it was time to take on the war zone.

One word to describe the kitchen would be scarred. Small bullet holes littered the cabinets along with charcoal black scorch marks. I stood there in thought. How was I even supposed to clean this? Maybe I could rub away some of the black from the flames, but I couldn't exactly wipe away the holes.

"Are you sure it was ok to let them out?" Taylor whispered to me. The kids had caught up behind me and stood close to my back. They were eyeing the decepticons warily and I honestly didn't blame them.

I nodded, "They're gonna be on their best behavior. Right?"

My eyes cut to Starscream who walked a few feet from my right side. He gave me a sickly sweet smile and bowed in my direction, "Of course. I give you my word."

The urge to roll my eyes was almost hard to bite back but I managed. The sound of transforming filled the air as the two other flying robots jumped into the air and took off.

"Come on, TC!" The mainly purple one called as he zoomed out of the kitchen with the mainly light blue one right on his tail.

"Be careful!" I yelled in fear that they would knock something over, but the only reply I got was a round of laughter. I closed my eyes as a pressure filled my head. A headache was forming right behind my eyes. It wasn't anything new, I got tension headaches all the time. My pills for it were upstairs with all my junk. Usually the cause of these headaches were stress. I wonder what could possibly be stressing me out right now.

The other robots began to scatter throughout the house to explore. In fact, the only robots who remained in the kitchen were Wheeljack who had opened the cabinets under the sink and was now looking at the piping and Optimus Prime who stood a few feet away.

"Alrighty." I clapped my hands and focused my attention on the kids, "Upstairs, now. Get cleaned up, new clothes, and be careful around the robots."

"They aren't robots." Peter crossed his arms with defiance, "They're sentient beings."

"Kid, you're ten. Do you even know what the word sentient means?" I replied.

Peter narrowed his eyes at me, "Of course I do."

"I don't wanna go upstairs, Aj." Tyler shook his head, "I wanna talk to the autobots."

Taylor bounced where she stood, "Yeah, me too!"

I massaged the bridge of my nose, "Will you just listen to me? I want you upstairs and-"

"Why are you being so bossy and uncool?" Peter questioned.

There was a pause of silence as I let my gaze drift from each kid. They stared at me in return with a look of questioning and confusion. Ok, so I had been a bit bossy this morning, but could you blame me? I needed to be bossy to get things done and to keep them out of the gunfire and literal fire.

I took a knee so I was closer to eye level with them, "I know… I know that I'm being a little more tight strung right now, but… You guys have to understand. New things, things that I don't understand, they make me nervous."

"Nervous?" Taylor asked in a soft voice.

"Yeah." I admitted, "It makes me feel out of control and I worry. I just want to keep you guys safe is all. I promised your mom I would."

Tyler smiled and set a small hand on my shoulder, "Now you have the autobots to help though. You don't have to worry anymore."

I chuckled at the kid's innocence, "I'm sure. Now, how about you guys go get cleaned up like I said before. Then you can come down and make conversation with whoever. Cool?"

They agreed before bounding out of the room and up the stairs. I stayed on one knee in thought. When Aubrey asked me to stay and watch over her kids I highly doubted that she had anything like this in mind.

"Aj." I startled some at the deep voice and glanced over my shoulder to see Optimus Prime staring at me, "May I speak to you?"

"Uh." I opened my mouth and couldn't form words. It was as if my mind suddenly disconnected from my mouth. Eloquent as always, Aj. "Sure thing, just let me…"

It felt really weird talking to him on one knee, but if I stood up to talk it would feel even weirder. He stood there patiently as I internally struggled with how to make this a little less awkward. Finally, I just muttered a quick apology and picked him up off the ground from around the waist. He seemed surprised as I stood up and set him on the island countertop. Now we were just about eye level.

"I didn't mean to manhandle you like that." I said sheepishly, "I do need to talk to you too though…Mr. Prime?"

Optimus nodded, "I don't mind, and Optimus is fine. I just wanted to thank you again for your hospitality. My mechs and I will do everything in our power to make this easier on you and the younglings."

"Right, right." I nodded. I wasn't familiar with the word younglings, but from context clues I figured it was their equivalent of kids. I could've been totally wrong, but I didn't care enough to continue pondering it. "Don't think of this as me taking back my hospitality, but is there anyway we can turn that year into, I don't know, say two months?"

Optimus narrowed his blue eyes in confusion. The amount of emotion I could see on their metal faces was astounding and a little unbelievable.

"Two months!?" I jumped and glanced down at my feet where Wheeljack stood with glowing blue fins.

"I need to put bells around y'all's necks or something." I mumbled before reaching down to pick Wheeljack up. I set him down on the counter beside Optimus. "It's just, my sister is going to be home in two months and I need you guys gone by then."

Wheeljack tilted his head, "Why?"

The last thing a newly recovered Aubrey needed was a bunch of living toys running rampant through her home. I was in perfect health and I could feel it wearing me down already. I opened my mouth to explain that but immediately stopped myself. What if one of the bots let it slip and accidentally told the kids?

"Because she's allergic to alien robots from different universes." I replied. Optimus seemed to understand that I was being sarcastic and didn't want to talk about it. Wheeljack, on the other hand, didn't fully get it for the first few seconds and just seemed utterly lost. "So let's just make that our goal, hmm?"

Optimus nodded, "We understand."

"Well, I guess I should get started then." Wheeljack shrugged. I helped Wheeljack down to the floor and watched him walk out of sight.

"So", I turned back to Optimus, "Should I be worried about the rogue cop car and the jets from hell?"

He nodded in determination, "We will keep Barricade and the seeker trine from causing trouble."

Seeker trine equals jets from hell? I'd add that to the list of things I needed to ask the kids about. I reached back into my pocket for that metal leg and held it up for Optimus to see. "What about Meggy? He hasn't woken up yet and neither has the screen faced one."

The battle mask on his face was still retracted so I saw his lips twitch up in amusement briefly before returning to its more stoic state, "I suppose we will cross that bridge when we come to it."

"Sound like a plan." I agreed.

The remainder of the weekend was somewhat successful. Meaning, there were only three more fires throughout the entire house thanks to a grumpy Grimlock and I only had to separate two brawls. The first was between Skywarp, the mostly purple seeker, and Sideswipe while the second was a battle of Barricade versus Jazz and Bumblebee. For the most part, I didn't see the bots at each other throats all that much. The autobots had claimed the office as their base of operations late Saturday afternoon while the four decepticons mainly just roamed the house. Saturday night, the first night they were alive, Aubrey didn't call. With the craziness that was yesterday, I hadn't even given it that much thought. At the beginning of today I had finally realized it and considered it kind of a blessing in disguise since it gave me one more day to deal with everything. As the day progressed though and I hadn't heard from her I got more and more worried.

It was 6 PM, Sunday night, and I sat at the dining room table staring at the cordless phone in front of me. Dinner had ended about an hour ago and I had just finished cleaning up and putting away dishes. I could hear the TV playing in the living room, but I couldn't hear what was playing over Taylor and Tyler's loud voices. Both of them had been even more attached to the hip to Bluestreak and Bumblebee than before, but that wasn't exactly surprising. The two bots seemed taken to the kids as well so I didn't interfere. They might as well enjoy it while it lasts.

I wasn't entirely sure where all the other bots were. Peter had been jumping back and forth between helping Prowl with the base setup and Wheeljack with getting them home. Grimlock was currently curled up in a mass of metal on top of my feet under the table like some sort of robotic pet. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why the T-rex robot was so chilled out. He was usually wreaking havoc whining about going home. I have burn scars on my hands to prove it.

The sound of someone climbing up into the dining room chair beside me greeted my ears, but I didn't turn to look at who it was. A couple more beats of silence and then a grinning Autobot came into sight. He took a seat right by the phone casually.

"Hi Jazz." I said without much enthusiasm. I was actually beginning to remember all their names and match it to faces. Turns out, all it took me to learn them was for them to magically come to life. Go figure.

Jazz crossed his arms, "Wha'cha doin' in here all alone?"

"I'm waiting for a phone call."

"From?"

"The kids' mom."

"Where are the younglins' carrier?" He questioned. I was assuming carrier meant mother? I really needed to start a list of these terms. I didn't answer his question and Jazz seemed to catch on that I didn't plan to. There was shifting at my feet and a grumpy moan. Jazz stood up, "Was tha' Grimlock?"

I pushed back my chair, momentarily forgetting the phone, and peeked down at the dinosaur. He remained curled up on the floor in his dinosaur mode, but his eyes were a lot dimmer than I was used to. My own eyes widened in surprise as I reached down to scoop him up into my lap.

"Jazz?" The alarm was evident in my voice, "What's wrong with him?"

The bot stood on the edge of the table staring at Grimlock, "Better get 'im to the docbot."

I reached out to grab Jazz and set him on my shoulder so I could hold the dinobot in my arms. Jazz didn't mind me picking him up. On the few other occasions I did, he had no complaints and was all smiles. Wheeljack also didn't mind it as well as Bluestreak and Bumblebee. However, there was also a list of bots that did not like it. Prowl and Ratchet had their own spots on that list. After that first hour they were alive, I hadn't tried to pick up Optimus again mainly out of respect. He was like some sort of autobot general or king, right? You don't manhandle guys in his position whether he was a foot tall or not. Nobody had tried to pick up either condiment twins yet, and I certainly didn't plan to. Especially not Sunstreaker. I automatically put the temperamental daffodil on the 'don't pick up' list right next to the decepticons. However, the bot on top of that list was none other than Grimlock himself. The fact that I didn't hear a word of complaint from him as I pulled him to my chest was sign enough that something was seriously wrong.

Jazz took a seat on my shoulder so he wouldn't fall and rested his hand behind my ear for support. It didn't bother me so I kept moving out of the kitchen area. The moment I stepped into the foyer my foot bumped into a bright yellow body.

"Hey, watch it!" Sunstreaker growled after regaining his balance.

I ignored him and looked to his more manageable twin, "Have y'all seen Ratchet?"

"He's upstairs." Sideswipe replied, "What's going on with Grimlock?"

"Out of my way, small fry." I breathed and hopped over Sunstreaker to get to the stairs. Jazz held on a little tighter as rushed up the stairs.

Sideswipe called after me, "What's going on?"

I didn't hear them following us, but didn't pay too much attention to it. Jazz slipped slightly as I turned quickly around the top of the stairs and marched into the office. He didn't complain though and instead just readjusted himself.

The office looked the same for the most part except the office chair had been moved across the room and books were stacked in front of the desk so the bots could stand on the desktop. Most of the books came from the large shelf downstairs in the living room corner. Currently standing on the desktop was Prowl and Optimus. They had been speaking to each other, but when I came storming in they stopped.

"Aj", Optimus stepped toward the edge, "What happened?"

Jazz didn't jump off my shoulders onto the desk which is what I was expecting. He did stand however to speak to Optimus, "Grimlock ain't lookin' too good, OP. Where's the Hatchet?"

I hadn't heard anybody call Ratchet a hatchet yet, but from the nearly two days I had gotten to know him I could see why he would be called that. Apparently Prowl was familiar with the nickname because he answered without a pause, "The med bay."

"Med bay?" I questioned with a furrowed brow. Suddenly, realization hit me and my eyes narrowed, "Med bay."

I turned on my heel without waiting for the other two bots and walked out of the room. Optimus and Prowl were following behind us as I walked down the hall to my room or rather the new med bay.

This morning when I had left my room it looked the same as it had the day Aubrey showed it to much just with less boxes and a little more mess. Now, however, half my room had been converted to a med bay. Someone had taken all the boxes in the corner and stacked them in levels coming to a little under my waist. Books sat on the floor like a staircase and make-shift cots made of more books and blankets sat on top of the boxes. All that took up the left corner by the door. My desk had been cleared and it seemed Ratchet had taken that space as his own with another staircase of books to my desk chair.

The CMO was organizing things on my desk working around the plastic box pushed to the back corner where Megatron and the other bot, who I learned was Soundwave, still lay inanimate.

"Good, you're here." He spoke then looked up from what he was doing. His blue eyes widened, "Frag it all. I knew this was going to happen. Put him on the berth over there."

Ratchet jumped onto the desk chair and then jogged down the books to cross the room. I shook my head, "You knew this was going to happen?"

"Set him on the berth." Ratchet ordered motioning toward one of the cots. I bent over and set Grimlock down on one of the bigger ones. Optimus and Prowl walked up the book staircase to join Ratchet as Jazz jumped from my shoulder onto the boxes as well.

Prowl spoke up first, "How is he?"

"He's close to falling into stasis." Ratchet continued to look Grimlock over. I had never seen a robot checkup before so I was a bit on the lost side. For example, I had no idea what the hell a stasis was but it didn't sound good. "He needs energon, and soon."

"Don't we all." Jazz commented.

Ratchet looked up from Grimlock, "What are your current energon levels?"

"37%."

"29%."

"18%."

All the bots answered their medic. Jazz had the highest level while Optimus had the lowest. I let my eyes travel over them all before speaking, "So, what? The bigger the bot the faster you…fall into stasis?"

"It's a…coma like state in human terms." Ratchet grumbled, "We need energon, Optimus."

There was a thoughtful look on Optimus' face as he pondered their current issue. I took a seat with my legs crossed and my arms resting on the boxes. The bots were taller than me like this. I finally spoke up, "Don't judge me, but what the hell is energon?"

"Our lifeblood, our fuel. We need it to survive just as you need food and water." Ratchet answered as he scanned Grimlock one more time.

Optimus continued, "Is there any sort of that in your world? Even as an unrefined ore?"

"Energon? Here?" I scoffed. "Yeah, lemme just run down the road to our local energon mine."

I was shocked when Ratchet suddenly lashed out and whacked one of the knuckles on my left hand with his wrench. It was more startling than it was painful, but I still pulled my hand away with a small cry of pain and matching glare. He pointed the wrench at me, "Watch it, youngling. That mouth will get you in trouble."

"Not the first time I've heard that." I mumbled. I didn't add that it probably wouldn't be the last. Although, I wasn't expecting Ratchet to call me youngling. That's what they called Taylor, Tyler, and Peter. It meant kid, right? I was not a kid, but I didn't press on the topic. I pulled my hands into my lap, "Maybe we can find a replacement."

"If finding a replacement were that easy, the war with the decepticons would be very different." Prowl shot down my plan.

I shrugged, "But that was like your for real bodies."

"Wha'dya mean?" Jazz pressed.

"I just mean, you showed up and you guys became the toy action figures." I tried to explain. It was something I thought about briefly last night while I lay awake in bed. "And the toys weren't actual robo- er, mechs. Sorry."

"She has a point." Ratchet backed me up, "Wheeljack and I have been thinking about the fact that perhaps it wasn't us that came to this world, but rather our minds and sparks. It would explain why some, like Optimus and myself, do not look like we usually do. It also accounts for why we can't access our commlinks, or holoforms, or even connect to the human's source of information."

Prowl grew even more rigid, which I didn't think was possible for the stoic bot, and his blue eyes flickered for a moment. All eyes were on him as he slowly began to relax again. Jazz was grinning to himself, "You good, Prowler?"

Prowl gave a curt nod, "So this…replacement?"

"Let's see." I shrugged and got up off the ground and left the room. I didn't wait for them as I waltzed out of the room with the intention of heading to the kitchen first. What could they use instead of energon? It was their food, they were machines, machines took gas…

Aubrey probably didn't have a spare tank of gas in her garage, but I could siphon some from out of the lawn mower or the truck. Just enough to test and see if it worked that is. What other options were there? As my mind wandered, my legs carried me into the kitchen. Optimus, Prowl, Jazz, and Ratchet were all following me, but they were a few feet behind. I stepped into the kitchen to see the fridge door already open.

"Hey." I called out.

The door shut quickly to reveal Taylor with her mess of blonde curls and a pout on her lips, "I'm hungry, Aj."

"Still?"

She nodded her head sending the loose curls bouncing around her shoulders. A bright smile quickly grew on her features, "I want chocolate cake!"

"You guys ate all the cake." I replied, "Besides, sugar is the last thing you need right now, kiddo. How about an apple?"

"Mmm", Taylor thought to herself, "Orange?"

I nodded and walked across the room to stand beside her and open the fridge, "I can do that."

The palm sized tangerines were in a drawer to the right below the yogurt. As I grabbed one and began to peel it the bots walked in. Taylor's eyes brightened, "Hi guys!"

"Well 'ey there, darlin'." Jazz grinned. Prowl and Ratchet nodded at her in greeting, but they were already at the lower cabinets digging through them for anything that would work as an energon substitute.

Optimus replied to her, "Are you well, Taylor?"

"Oh, yeah!" She chirped and took the peeled orange I offered her, "Bee and Blue are showing us how to fight!"

My eyes widened, "Bee and Blue are doing what now?"

"Bye! Thanks, Aj!" Taylor waved nonchalantly and skipped out of the room. Should I be concerned? Probably, but one issue at a time. I'd handle the hand to hand combat lessons on a different day.

I clapped my hands and leaned against the counter, "So, any idea what type of thing I should be looking for?"

"No." Ratchet grumbled, "Let me see inside there."

"The fridge?" I clarified and opened the door so Ratchet could peek in. He began to scan things near the bottom. "I'm gonna grab something from the garage that might work."

Jazz jogged the few feet over to walk by me, "Lemme tag along."

"Sure." I shrugged and kept moving.

"So wha' were we talkin' 'bout earlier?" Jazz spoke up. My eyes narrowed in suspicion. I didn't mind Jazz. He seemed like a pretty relaxed bot, but I was starting to notice something about him I hadn't noticed before. My original thought of him was nonchalant. He was the type of guy, well robot mech, that went with the flow. Relaxed in every definition of the word. Yet, every time he popped up and started asking me questions about Aubrey or me I got suspicious. It reminded of when Boss would act all buddy buddy to get what he needed to know.

So I played dumb, "Earlier? Hmm, cant remember. Maybe the weather?"

Jazz's lips twitched up in the corner, "Maybe. 'Cept, the weather aint all too special up in ya office."

"If you'd like I can pump up the A/C in there. Make it really feel like Christmas."

"Christmas?" Jazz questioned.

We passed the laundry room and I reached for the garage door knob, "Do alien robots celebrate Christmas?"

"I'm gonna have to say nah." I pulled the door open and let Jazz enter first. The garage was cold, but not cold enough to effect either of us. The truck was parked out in the driveway rather than in here. The wall to the left had a shelf with shoes while the other side had bikes, and outdoor toys, and the typical junk one would find in a garage. My eyes immediately focused on the lawnmower up ahead, but not because I needed gas from it.

Lying in front of the lawnmower was the seeker trine that made my life difficult. Starscream and Skywarp were motionless with dim, nearly dark, eyes while Thundercracker's creepy red eyes still had some life in them.

"Well, this explains why y'all haven't bothered me in the past hour." I crossed the garage over to them. "Are you guys ok? Guess that's a dumb question but…"

"We need energon." Thundercracker replied in a broken voice.

My eyes darted to Skywarp who had black smears along his chest. I already knew the answer, but I asked anyways, "What is that?"

"We tried to find a replacement."

I sighed, "And you had the same idea that I had."

So gasoline was off the list of possibilities. I reached forward and scooped up all three of the seekers. Thundercracker stared at me with a curious, untrusting gaze. I gave him a curt, small smile in response. Jazz followed me out of the garage and back into the kitchen with the now still seekers.

Optimus took notice of us first, "The seekers?"

"Same as Grimlock." I commented. When I glanced down I realized Thundercracker was now in the same state as the other two.

Ratchet paused from what he was scanning and motioned out of the room with his head, "Take them to my med bay."

"Your med bay?" I repeated and began to move toward the arch, "You mean my room?"

Ratchet grunted in response and paid me no more attention. He was a bossy bot, that much I had managed to learn. The moment I stepped into the foyer, Tyler and Bluestreak did as well with the mech sitting on the boy's shoulder.

"What happened to them?!" Tyler cried in surprise.

"Did you do that?" Bluestreak asked, "I mean, I understand if you did. Especially if they were causing trouble. Were they? Does Optimus know? We're supposed to protect you four from them and-"

I shook my head and interrupted his rant, "I didn't do this. They're running low on energon is all."

"Are you running low?" Tyler turned his head slightly toward him.

Bluestreak shrugged, "Not too low. I still have 42%. That's not too bad compared to the others. The twins are at like 20% already."

Tyler turned back to me, "How can we help?"

"You can take these three to my room." I replied and he came forward to accept the seekers into his own arms.

"Your room?"

I rolled my eyes, "The med bay. Grimlock is up there right now."

Tyler gave a brief nod before rushing up the stairs with Bluestreak holding on tight. Before I could turn around and head back into the kitchen Taylor walked out of the living room with Bumblebee walking beside her.

"Hey, have you seen Peter?" I asked.

"Pete is with Wheeljack in his room." She replied and walked over, "What's going on?"

The three of us took the few steps necessary to enter the kitchen. Ratchet had managed to pull some stuff out of the fridge in the few seconds I was gone. A six pack of Pepsi lay on the floor along with a few bruised apples. Jazz was actually inside the fridge rooting through one of the lower levels as Optimus and Prowl continued to dig through the lower cabinets.

"We're looking for something the bots could use as energon. They need it." I replied then glanced over at Bumblebee, "How you doing on energon?"

He looked startled that I spoke to him directly, "Oh, I'm ok for now. I'm still at 40%."

"Good."

Taylor giggled, "They can use mama's energon. I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

All movement in the kitchen stopped as everyone cut their gaze to the small girl who didn't seem to mind being the current center of attention. Taylor, in all her innocence, just stared back with a offhand smile.

"Tay", I said slowly and knelt down in front of her, "What are you talking about?"

She pointed to the top cabinet to the left of the fridge, "Mama's energon! It's at the top!"

"What is she talking about?" Ratchet repeated the question to me. I gave him a shrug before rising to my feet and moving over to where Taylor was still pointing. The bottom two shelves were lined with medicine and first aid type materials. That would've been nice yesterday. The top shelf, however, had a large red can with a black lid.

Taylor sat down on the ground and let Bumblebee sit in her lap, "She drinks it every morning, but she says we can't have it till we're older."

I let out a small laugh as I pulled down the can of ground up coffee beans. Jazz hopped out of the fridge, "What is it?"

"Coffee." I answered and opened the can to peek in. There was only about a quarter left of it.

Ratchet stepped forward, "Lower it so I can scan it."

I did as he asked, or rather as he demanded, and waited for the results. His face twisted in hesitance as he mulled over his own thoughts.

"Ratchet, will it work?" Optimus asked. He closed the cabinet him and Prowl had been in.

"Perhaps." He sighed, "We need to try it, but the outcome could be dangerous considering we don't know what it will do."

"Skywarp tried gasoline and he's not dead." I offered. Although, he could have been. I wouldn't be able to tell a coma induced bot from a dead bot. "Lemme make a cup."

Taylor was humming a song to herself as she leaned back on her hands. The coffee machine was on the other side of the sink already plugged in and ready to go. I was never a big coffee drinker. The only time I ever really drank it was when I needed to stay awake and was on the verge of totally crashing.

"If this does work, Aj, are we allowed to use it?" Optimus questioned as I began to make a pot. My eyes widened slightly at his question. His manners kind of surprised me, but at the same time I liked the fact that the leader of the bots didn't automatically assume he could use and take whatever he wanted. The manners weren't necessarily required, but still it was appreciated.

I nodded, "Of course you can. Though, I'll need to go out and buy some more. If it even works."

"Can Tyler and I have some?"

I paused in thought, "Hmm, I'll let you guys taste a little. Ok?"

Taylor nodded in excitement. Tyler walked in a few seconds later with Bluestreak and his twin began to tell him all about the energon. Jazz caught Bluestreak up to speed as I started the coffee machine.

"It should take a couple minutes." I explained to the bots surrounding my feet. There was a comfortable air around the group standing in the kitchen, but that was shattered at the sound of faint gunfire and Peter calling my name.

I didn't pause to wait for the autobots to act. I ordered the twins to stay in the kitchen before racing out of the room. I sprinted up the stairs, two at a time, and found myself in Peter's room where a battle had broken out between Barricade and the twins.

Peter sat on his bed with Wheeljack standing in front of him with his own weapon out. He called out to me again, "Aj! Barricade started it!"

"Shocker." I mumbled to myself before physically trying to separate the fighting bots. The twins had these blades out as Barricade was trying to shoot them. There was a hoodie lying on the floor, probably dirty, by the edge of Peter's bed. I grabbed it and threw it over the twins trapping them under the thicker cloth before picking up the police car with my hands.

Barricade seemed to never want to speak with me. Instead, he would just hiss at me in their own language. I figured it was safe to assume that it wasn't anything particularly nice.

"Why is it always you?" I demanded while holding him by his leg so he hung upside down.

Optimus, Prowl, and Jazz burst into the room. They were starting to get good at getting up the stairs quick. I motioned toward the hoodie, "Condiment twins are under the red hoodie."

Prowl and Jazz ran over to pull the hoodie off the struggling autobots. Barricade took advantage of me being distracted and swung at my face with his hands. Something sharp cut the bridge of my nose making me cry out in pain and drop him in surprise. Barricade landed on his back, but before he could get back up Optimus stood over him with a cannon pointed at his face.

"Stay down, Barricade." He threated. Barricade growled in response but didn't move.

"Are you alright?" Wheeljack asked.

Peter's eyes widened as he hopped off the bed, "Aj, you're bleeding."

I touched the bridge of my nose with my hand. When I pulled back there was bright red blood on my fingers. I could even begin to feel the warm liquid drip down my nose onto my cheek. It only burned a little though. Considering I've had my nose broken before by a fight gone wrong, this small cut was nothing.

"I'm fine. You Ok, bud?"

Peter nodded, "Wheeljack and I were taking apart my alarm clock when Barricade came in and started ruining everything. Sides and Sunny ran in and tackled him."

"Don't call me that, squishy." Sunstreaker barked. I glanced over to see the hoodie had been successfully pulled off the two.

I shook my head at him, "Can it, sunshine."

If looks could kill, I'd be dead on the floor from the glare that got me. Though, his burning blue eyes were beginning to dim, but not as fast as Sideswipe's eyes were going. The red bot opened his mouth to speak only to collapse instead. Sunstreaker caught his twin at last minute, but his own strength was beginning to fail him.

I walked over and picked up the twins. Sunstreaker struggled against my hold, "Don't touch me you fragging-"

"Can you just pass out already?" I breathed. Sunstreaker couldn't hold on much longer and his eyes dimmed out as well. I crossed the room again to hand the twins over to Peter who took them, "Take them to the med bay."

Peter's eyes brightened behind his glasses, "Did you see it already? Prowl and I helped Ratchet put it together before dinner!"

There were quite a few downsides I could say about this entire situation, but seeing Peter really come to life wasn't one of them. I had the kid pegged as a debby downer, but hanging out with the autobots had brought out a side of him I hadn't seen before. A small smile graced my lips as I nodded, "Yeah. I saw it. Impressive, I gotta say."

Peter returned the smile before walking out with the twins. I turned my attention back to Optimus who was listening to Barricade speak in their language. Jazz stepped forward when he saw my look of confusion, "He says he doesn't like ya."

"The feeling is mutual." I replied and knelt down, "May I?"

Optimus looked at me in shock and took a step back. I grabbed Barricade with both hands holding his arms down to his side. He still struggled against me, but I kept moving. I went around the back way of the stairs to enter the hallway where the laundry room was. Barricade must have recognized the surroundings because he struggled more.

I threw him into the dryer and slammed the door shut. A smug smile lit my face, "Now what, you little cretin? And guess what, I did laundry this morning which means I can leave you in here for a lot longer than last time."

Barricade was banging on the glass, but I just turned out of the room and left. I walked into the kitchen to see the coffee maker had finished about a minute ago. Bumblebee noticed me first, "You're bleeding! Is everything ok?"

"Yeah, it's all good. Just a scratch. " I replied and grabbed a mug from the cabinet, "You got two new patients though, Ratch."

"Let me guess." He said dryly. "Sideswipe and Sunstreaker."

"Good guess." I poured some of the hot liquid into the mug. "How'd you know?"

Ratchet scoffed, "It's always them."

I grabbed a spoon and sat down on the floor by where Ratchet was standing. Taylor and Tyler were seated on the ground as well and both of them already had an empty mug in their hands as they waited patiently for me.

"It's mega hot right now." I commented. Optimus, Prowl, Jazz, Wheeljack, and Peter came into the kitchen a few minutes later.

Prowl walked over to me, "What did you do with Barricade?"

"I tossed him into the dryer." I shrugged and continued to blow the cup of coffee while stirring it slowly.

Ratchet turned to look at Optimus, "What is your energon level now, Optimus?"

"9%."

I glanced from bot to bot, "So how much should you guys try?"

"Not too much." Ratchet replied quickly. I got a little onto the small spoon in my hand and held it up slightly so he could see. He nodded in approval, "That should do."

Optimus stepped forward, "I will try it first."

"What type of glitch spawned idea is that?" Ratchet snapped. It wasn't the type of tone you'd except a medic to use when talking to his commander. Nobody but me seemed surprised though so I kept my mouth shut.

Prowl nodded, "I agree with Ratchet. If this coffee turns out to be detrimental to our health and puts you in danger, we will be in even more trouble than we are now."

Optimus looked like he was going to argue, but Jazz stepped forward with a shrug, "Relax, mechs. I got this."

"Are you sure, Jazz?" Optimus said with a tight frown.

"Positive, OP." Jazz gave the leader a thumbs up and walked over to me. He grinned at me and motioned toward himself with his hands, "Bring it on."

I brought the spoon toward his face and stopped allowing him to pull it toward him the rest of the way. Jazz didn't mess around. He drank all of the coffee I had in the spoon. All eyes were on him waiting to see what would happen. Panic filled everyone in the room as Jazz stiffened and shook his head.

"Jazz!" Bluestreak cried.

Jazz made a sound akin to coughing and waved off the worry, "I'm fine. I'm fine. Slag, I wasn' expectin' that rush."

Ratchet was scanning him, but Prowl was the first to question him, "What is your energon level?"

"Ya guys aint gonna believe this. Ah jumped from 35% to 65%." Jazz chuckled and shook his head again, "Slag, that feels weird."

I chuckled and stood up, "That's caffeine."

"Everything on the scans look alright." Ratchet commented. I left mug on the ground with the spoon for Ratchet and grabbed the pot. The twins jumped up in excitement and held out their cups.

"Thanks, Aj!" Tyler cheered as I poured a little in his cup then Taylor's. They looked at each other with wide smiles before carefully tasting the hot drink. Their cheerful faces twisted in disgust the moment the liquid touched their tongues and I couldn't help but laugh.

Taylor set the mug on the island counter, "It tastes so bad!"

"Coffee is bitter not sweet." I replied and put the pot back where it had been. As Ratchet scanned the coffee and Jazz one last time I looked around the kitchen for something they could use as a smaller cup. The smallest thing I could find was a couple plastic cups used for liquid kids medicine. "So, Ratchet, problem solved?"

His lips actually twitched up in slight amusement, "For now, I suppose."

For now. I couldn't imagine a better way to describe the solution. As Ratchet moved around the kitchen supplying the bots in here with the amount of coffee they would apparently need I wet a paper towel to wipe away the dry blood from my face. Wounds on the face always bled more than others and that annoyed the crap out of me.

I'd grab a band aid from my own supply upstairs. Knowing Ratchet he'd be commanding me up there any minute with the pot of coffee anyways.

"Aj." Ratchet called out. Did I say minutes? I meant seconds.

"Yeah?"

He handed me the small plastic cups. There were three in total, "Help me bring these upstairs."

"You got it, doctbot." I nodded and grabbed the pot. I glanced over at Tyler and Taylor, "Can you guys put those three mugs into the sink. Be careful just in case it's still hot."

They agreed and I made my way upstairs with Ratchet and Optimus following a few feet behind speaking to each other. By time I reached my room I noticed Peter had decided to follow as well. He passed the two bots and caught up with me walking in right behind me.

"Your nose really doesn't hurt?"

I chuckled and set the coffee pot on my desk, "Not even a little. I got a high pain tolerance."

"That means things don't hurt as much right?"

"Basically." The bots came in next. Ratchet quickly examined the bots not moving. "Hey, Peter, can you hand me that little white box on my bedside?"

He nodded and grabbed it. The curious kid opened the box as he walked it back over to me and when he noticed what the box held he began to dig out a band aid. Ratchet called out, "Bring that here, Peter."

"Wait a minute-" I said, but apparently Peter saw no issue with doing as Ratchet said.

"Good. Now, can you pour the liquid into the small cups? Fill them only three quarters of the way." Ratchet said.

I pushed off the desk and went over to Ratchet, "Hang on now, it's still hot I don't want him to-"

"I can do it, Aj." Peter said and went over to the desk to do as Ratchet had asked. I noticed that. Ratchet asked Peter to do stuff whereas for me it was mostly commands from the red and white robot.

"Sit down here now." Ratchet said in my direction. Proof if there ever was any.

"Why?" I questioned but sat down in the same spot I had been in when I brought Grimlock in. Ratchet walked up to my face and I realized he planned on dressing my wound. I reached up to take away the band aid. "I can do this."

"Quiet." Ratchet slapped the top of my hand. I pulled it back with a frown. The robot dug through the white box and pulled out the Neosporin. "This is the medicine you used yesterday, correct?"

I nodded, "Yeah, but you don't have to do this. I'm perfectly capable of-"

"Primus, be quiet." Ratchet groaned and walked up to my face. My eyes were about level with his head so I slouched some so he didn't have to lift his arms to treat the wound. I remained quiet as he applied the medicine and then stuck the band aid on after struggling with the sticky side for a few moments. "There."

"What? No kiss?" I joked.

Ratchet scoffed, "Get up and help me get coffee into these mechs."

A small smile slipped onto my face as I stood. I didn't know what I was even smiling at. Was it the ridiculousness of it all? It had been years since I had anyone tend to any type of wound I had. Even the bigger stuff I handled myself. Yet here I was being taken care of by an 11 inch robot with a grumpy demeanor. Life worked in freaking weird ways.

A/N: Sorry about how long that took to put on here but it's long-ish like I promised! Now, lemme know what you guys think so far! Also, I have a question for y'all. I kind of want to write some parts of this story from the bots' point of view (like Jazz, Sides, Sunny, Ratch, etc.) but what do you think? It would be like third person's view but focused on the bots' sides of things. Lemme know what you think about that too!