Ok, so I might write one more chapter to this, just to make sure that it ends properly. If not, oh well. . My muse for this was Phil Collin's You'll Be in My Heart.
Ironhide found himself rather hidden to begin with at the start of the meeting; standing well behind Prime as low voices murmured around about the thought of there being a survivor from Praxus. No one knew who he or she was, of course, because Prowl decided to make that a surprise. No one knew that it was one of the last known sparklings remaining on Cybertron. No one obviously noticed the sparkling he hid in his arms, either; partly using Optimus as a shield, Ironhide easily hid the sparkling in his arms, looking to anyone else that didn't know that he was merely crossing his arms. Bumblebee seemed content to be there; shriveling away in his care takers arms and lavishing in the protection he was getting. Ironhide didn't mind, either. At least it was a good way to reason to try and keep everyone else from the start anyways.
Everyone silenced almost at once when Optimus finally stood from his chair, Ironhide shifting on his peds as he did so. If he weren't the rough and tough weapons speaclist that he was, he probably wouldn't be able to façade hiding a sparkling so well. That, and no one would question why he had been acting so strange. He had been a little held back to everyone since the start of the meeting, and would rather stay where he was than go and mingle. At least no one was staring at him anymore; at least not directly, anyways.
"As you all know, there has been a recent attack on Praxus," Optimus said clearly. "And as you may have heard, there has been no survivors found as of yet out of the wreckage." Still there was silence; no body moving, and no one dared to make a sound as the Prime paused, obviously expecting the opposite. Finally, nervously, Cliffjumper raised a servo slightly.
"But isn't that why you called us here, sir?" he asked when Optimus nodded in his direction to speak. "Because there was one survivor."
"Yeah, then where is he?" asked an anxious Sideswipe, leaning forward on the table. "'Cause, ya know, if he's outta the med bay an' all, we'd like to meet him."
"You only wanna meet 'em so you'll have someone to spar with," accused Hound jokingly, earning a glare from the silver twin.
"Well, he can't exactly spar," stated Optimus slowly, taking a small and curious peek at his old friend behind him; Ironhide was already giving some of the other mechs dirty looks.
"Oh, what?" Sunstreaker chuckle. "Fragger too small for his own good, or is he just a coward, afraid of meeting the mighty Autobots?" Ratchet looked as if he were about to throw something at the golden twin for cursing, much less raising his voice, when Optimus managed to cut in.
"Well, he is a little too small for his own good," said Optimus, not looking towards Ironhide and gesturing for him to step forward with the sparkling. Ironhide did so, just as Sideswipe spoke up.
"What? Ironhide has to be some odd bots protector or something?" snickered the silver twin, leaning back in his chair.
"I'd watch what you say 'bout a sparkling, dumbaft," said the weapons speaclist bitterly, lowering his arms slightly so all could see the bundle he held in his arms, "otherwise, a lot 'ah us won't be sorry when we kick your aft."
Everyone else went silent even before Ironhide finished his sentence; a few people leaning forward as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing. Bumblebee's blanket was no longer protectively wrapped around him, but rather just there to keep him warm. The sparkling was still well against his current care taker's chassis, and when he as lowered, took a cautious look around at everyone around him. Seeing that he was being stared at, and obviously not liking it all too well, quickly hid his face in the large mech's chassis for protection. It was probably one of the longest silences anyone had ever heard on the Ark, those who already knew of the sparkling - at least Jazz and Ratchet - seeming pretty content on the silence happening around them.
"A…. A sparkling?" Wheeljack asked, finally fining his voice. "Y-you've got to bee kidding me, Optimus. Why, weren't all of the other sparklings killed at the youth sector?"
"That's what we believed," Optimus nodded at the inventor. "Until Jazz found him in Praxus, that is."
"Both 'is creators an' one o' his family was killed bah th' time ah got to where he was," Jazz informed. "Dunno why he wasn't killed off either, though. Ah guess the Decepticons jus' left him ther' t' die or somethin', or jus' simply missed 'im."
"A little guy like that," Hound asked, still baffled. "'Least ya think they'd do was take 'im in, wouldn't you?"
"Yeah, well ah don' think tha' the Decepticons are that kind hearted, Hound," grumbled Ironhide, now pulling the sparkling up higher against him like he had been.
Bumblebee seemed content with that; clicking and twittering happily in response. Around the room, it looked like some of the bots were trying to hold back an "aw" face, anyone else trying to hold back the sound of it altogether. Optimus smirked at that, lucky that he had his face mask on to where no one could see him doing so.
"So, how long is he staying?" asked Perceptor curiously as he leaned back in his chair; cocking his helm to one side in question.
"Well, we don't exactly know," informed the Prime. "Prowl and I have been trying to find him a place to stay where he would be safe and not in harms way, however the search has not been going well at all, honestly."
"Then why not let him stay here with us?" asked Cliffjumper in a serious tone. "I mean, there's no safer place to be than here with the Autobots, right?"
There was some murmurs of agreement to that statement; it wasn't as if they were going to intentionally hurt a sparkling. And all of Cybertron seemed to be a battle ground for either faction, leaving little safe places except for those rare hiding places underground. And even they were hard to find, like it or not. So what better place?
"No hold on, just a minute," Prowl said calmly as he stood up from his chair, however a hint of slight annoyance showed in his optics. "Who's to say that we won't get attacked in the on coming week here on the Ark, and someone snatches the sparkling, or worse, what if -"
"Well then we could have someone watching him every hour," shrugged Sideswipe. "I mean, he is our last sparkling, isn't he? Shouldn't we be taking special care with him? I mean, he is a sparkling, and we should be taking special care of him anyway, but that don't mean that we still can't take care of him."
"Yeah, and maybe someone could adopt him or something," shrugged Hound. "That is to say, if all of us don't try to do so at once." There was a grumble of annoyance from Prowl at all of these thoughts.
"Ya have't admit, Prowl," shrugged Jazz, "that this'd be a good idea as any. You even said yerself that the searchin' ain't goin' too well, right?" Prowl gave his bonded a glare, however everyone could tell that Jazz was right; Prowl's shoulders had slumped even as he tried to give his bonded the death look.
"And even if you guys find him a place to stay, it's not like it'll be quickly and all, right?" Wheeljack asked, before getting a curious look on his face. "It is a mechling, isn't it?"
"'Course," Ironhide mumbled with a nod.
"Did he come with a name or somethin, or did you guys never pick a name out for him yet?" asked Sideswipe.
"Oh yeah, 'Sides," said Sunny, rolling his optics. "Like they would have time to sit down and give a sparkling a name when it could simply come with a name." Sideswipe gave a look towards his brother, seeming eager to hit him, when Prime thought it would be best to intervene.
"He does have a designation, actually," said Optimus, earning everyone's attention. "We gave one to him the night before last, because there were no records on him that Ratchet could find."
"Oh yeah? And what'd ya call 'im?" asked Cliffjumper with a smirk.
Looking back to the sparkling for a moment, Optimus thought. The mechling seemed now interested in all the voices around him, seeing as how he had Ironhide for protection, and he didn't seem as if he were letting the little sparkling go any time soon. The yellow bot gave some small clicking noises when the room went quiet, as if asking, "Hey, why did everybody stop talking?" Looking back to everyone in the room, Optimus merely said one simple word, a smirk still playing on his lips from behind his mask.
"Bumblebee."