Thanks for all the support!

Don't own Transformers.


Chapter 7

The following morning, Wheeljack had gone to the infirmary after a long and needed recharge. He knew that he had expended a lot of energy between the attack on the Decepticon base and saving Ratchet's life the day before. He had needed it.

But now, Wheeljack was ready to tend to his friend for the day. He knew that it would be a few days before Ratchet would come to and that would be when the real test came in. Given what he had been through, Wheeljack couldn't even begin to imagine what Ratchet's emotional state would be now. He just hoped that Ratchet would recover. As foul-tempered as Ratchet was, once he became that temperamental again, it would mean that the old Ratchet was back.

Upon arriving in the medbay, Wheeljack was unsurprised that Optimus was there with Ratchet. Wheeljack had a sneaking suspicion that Optimus had remained in medbay the entire night, not wanting to leave Ratchet's side for anything. Not that Wheeljack could blame him. Given how Optimus had done during the time they believed the medic to have been dead, Wheeljack wasn't surprised by that knowledge. He wouldn't dare say anything about it, either. "Good morning, Prime."

"Morning, Wheeljack." Optimus replied.

Wheeljack was glad to see that it seemed like Optimus had at least gotten some rest the night before. Even if he had probably slept against the table that Ratchet was on. Wheeljack went about checking on Ratchet and seeing how he was doing.

"How is he?" Optimus asked.

"Even a little better than he was last night when I saw him last. Seems to have gotten some strength back, too." Wheeljack answered.

Optimus nodded. He let his optics remain on Ratchet. He was glad to hear that Ratchet was going to be all right. He would feel a great deal better when Ratchet was awake and yelling, though.

"It'll take him a little longer to recover than it normally would, but I don't see any problems with his recovery." Wheeljack added.

Optimus frowned at that, even though Wheeljack couldn't see it behind his faceplate. "Why is that?"

Wheeljack turned to face Optimus. "The sparkling, sir. It takes the energy from Ratchet's system to sustain itself. Not enough to really hurt him, given the injuries. It just means it'll take a bit longer for Ratchet to regain his strength." Wheeljack looked at the unconscious medic. "Of course, I'm sure his primary weapon will be in working order when he comes to."

Ratchet was well known for his temper. Any mech who has ever met him knew that. Even mechs who had never met him knew about Ratchet's temper. It was a joke that was started by Jazz that Ratchet's greatest weapon was his vocalizers. He could kill a Decepticon with his words alone, and as long as that was in working order, there was no danger of anything happening to him.

Optimus smiled at that. "Yes. We're all going to know that Ratchet is in good condition once he starts with his temper."

"In any case, he'll be fine with a little time." Wheeljack put a hand at his chin. "The only problem is keeping Ratchet out of medbay once he's back on his feet. He's going to need to take it easy for a while. You know Ratchet. Keeping him from immediately going back to his duties won't be easy."

Optimus knew better than any other mech just how Ratchet would react to that. Ratchet was, at the core, a medic. His inclination was to take care of the injured and get them better, even if his words made one think that he couldn't stand what he was doing. Ratchet not being allowed in the infirmary was something that would result in a rather loud shouting match possibly followed by Ratchet throwing something. Normal behavior for him.

"Regardless, he needs to give himself time to heal. He'll just have to deal with it." Optimus responded.

Wheeljack looked over at Optimus. "You realize that you're the one who will take the brunt of his anger."

"Not much different from anything in the past." In fact, Optimus would happily take that anger because it meant that Ratchet was back to normal.

The two were silent for a few moments.

Optimus wanted to stay longer, but he knew that he just couldn't do that. "I need to get to work, Wheeljack. Keep me updated."

"Of course." Wheeljack wouldn't keep him in the dark about any of this.

Optimus turned to leave and silent left the infirmary.

Wheeljack pretended that he didn't notice the glance back at Ratchet that Optimus had given.

Wheeljack started to look over the stats once more, making sure to check on the sparkling as well. Everything seemed to be going good for both of them.

"Well, at least things seem to be okay for now." Wheeljack looked down at Ratchet's still form. "You'd better come to pretty fast, Ratchet. There are a lot of mechs here who want to see you up and back to your usual temperamental self. We've missed someone yelling every second of every day." Wheeljack gave Ratchet's shoulder a gentle squeeze before he went about his work.

Skyfire arrived not too long later.

"He's doing fine, Skyfire." Wheeljack told him.

"Good." Skyfire walked over to join Wheeljack. "Is that the encrypted file that we found in Ratchet's memory processors last night?"

"Yeah. Figured we might as well try to decode them. Need to know what Ratchet was hiding and why." Wheeljack replied.

The two mechs started working to figure out what it was.

"I'm surprised that Prime's not here." Skyfire remarked.

"He was when I arrived. I doubt that he left the infirmary last night. Not that I blame him in the least." Wheeljack replied.

Skyfire nodded in agreement.

The two silently continued their work.


Optimus arrived in the command room to find that Ironhide and Jazz were both there. "Has there been any Decepticon activity?"

"Not yet, Prime. Been watching out for it." Ironhide answered.

"With what we pulled off, I figure old Megatron's going to be stark raging mad. Probably going to want to get back at us for this." Jazz stated.

"Which is why we have to be ready." Optimus replied.

The two nodded.

Ironhide decided to ask. "How's Ratchet doing?"

"A little better, but Wheeljack thinks it'll be a while before he comes to. Probably better that way. It'll give him time to regain some of his strength." Optimus stated.

"Primus knows Ratchet won't get much rest once he wakes up. He'll be up and repairing before he's ready." Jazz stated.

"Wouldn't be Ratchet otherwise. You know how stubborn he is. We'll have to confine him to quarters just to keep him from overdoing it." Ironhide added.

Optimus smiled behind his mask. He knew that the two were right, and it would be nice to have Ratchet back to normal.

"All right. Have you two decided who does what patrol? Optimus asked.

"Sure have. Figure it'll be better to keep some of them out there. Give them time to cool off from yesterday. Not many are thrilled with everything. Only happy about the fact that the doc's alive." Jazz said.

"I know." Optimus told them.


"Oh, for the love of Primus! Another one!" Wheeljack shouted. He threw his hands up in frustration. "What is this? Some kind of top secret information that Ratchet doesn't want anyone to know?"

Wheeljack and Skyfire had been working for some time on the encrypted file, but were no closer to getting into it than they were before.

"Perhaps Ratchet feared anyone getting into the file." Skyfire suggested.

"Ratchet knows the rules! No file that is this encrypted!" Wheeljack ran a hand over his face. "Honestly, what is so important that he can't let us in?"

Skyfire didn't know how to answer that one.

Wheeljack released a frustrated vent of air. "When he comes to, I think that Optimus needs to remind Ratchet of the rules."

"I highly doubt that that's going to happen any time soon. Optimus is going to just be glad that Ratchet is safe for the time being." Skyfire told him.

"I know, but this is beyond ridiculous." Wheeljack got back to work on trying to decode the file.

Skyfire figured that the best thing to do was leave it be. He went to review the scans that they had done to ascertain the repairs that they had done. Everything seemed to be working nicely. Ratchet's repair functions were helping his systems heal even faster, so that was a good thing.

Skyfire was still baffled by the fact that there was absolutely no damage done to Ratchet's spark. He knew that a forced interface had happened at some point, but there should have been some damage done there, but none was found. Megatron was not known for mercy, but he showed some this time. The question was why.

Skyfire set aside the datapad on Ratchet's stats and looked at the sparkling. He frowned. Something was off. He decided to recheck his findings.

Wheeljack looked back at Skyfire and saw him examining Ratchet again. "What is it?"

"I noticed something odd with the sparkling." Skyfire replied.

Wheeljack walked over. "Meaning?"

"Well, gestation period for a sparkling is about eight to ten of Earth's weeks, right?" Skyfire asked.

"Yeah. Any scientist or medic knows that. For that matter, most mechs know that." Wheeljack answered.

"Right. Given the fact that Ratchet was in their hands for four weeks, even if the forced interface happened right at the start, the sparkling should only have been roughly four weeks into gestation."

"Your point?" Wheeljack really wasn't seeing.

Skyfire handed him the datapad.

Wheeljack looked and saw what he meant. "Hey. That's off. If we're right, then the gestation period of the sparkling should only be four weeks, but according to this, it's six weeks into gestation."

"Leaving little room for any conclusion other than this. Ratchet was already carrying when the Decepticons captured him." Skyfire stated.

Wheeljack was quiet for a moment as he contemplated this. "And if we're right, then that means that the sparkling is Optimus's, not a Decepticon's."

Skyfire nodded.

Both looked at Ratchet's still form.

"If the Decepticons knew that Ratchet was carrying the sparkling of an Autobot, why leave it be? I mean, they could have caused so much torture to him by ending it." Wheeljack stated.

Skyfire looked at him, absolute horror in his face.

"Not that I'm not thankful for that, Skyfire." Wheeljack added quickly. "Losing that sparkling would have devastated Ratchet."

"Indeed." Skyfire agreed.

The two were silent as they contemplated this new revelation.

"Maybe that was why they kept the sparkling alive." Wheeljack mused.

"Meaning?" Skyfire asked.

"Think about it. If they wanted information out of Ratchet, he wouldn't have told them. If they waited until the sparkling were born, then they would have something to use against him." Wheeljack explained.

"Ah. That explains why both the spark chamber and the sparkling were unharmed. They wanted the sparkling to survive." Skyfire stated.

"Yeah, but they must have had the stupidest medic that ever lived. Any medic should have known that allowing Ratchet's energy levels to get so low could have killed the sparkling. I mean, the sparkling grows because of the energy in the carrier's system. Without that energy, the body would reject the sparkling to save itself. It's lucky that that didn't happen." Wheeljack explained.

"There is no way for us to know the answer to that." Skyfire reminded him.

"I know. It just twists my gears to think of that." Wheeljack shook his head.

"We need to do several more tests and scans to confirm gestation time. We can't tell this to Prime without being certain." Skyfire stated.

Wheeljack nodded. "It'll be helpful to ask him when the last time they spark merged was." He shook his head. "Never thought that I'd be asking our leader about their sex life."

"A necessity to ascertain this. We need to be sure." Skyfire stated.

Wheeljack nodded. "Better to ask Prime than Ratchet. I think I'd rather go one on one with Megatron himself than ever ask Ratchet something like that. If we thought he was good at yelling before, then I'm sure that would be the loudest, longest, and most language-filled shouting we have ever heard."

Skyfire chuckled. "Seems to be true with Ratchet. I'm sure Prime will tell us since he knows it'll help us figure this out."

"Let's get these scans done. I'd like to be at close to positive about this as possible." Wheeljack stated.

The two got to work.


The Autobot base had been a flurry of activity the entire day. All of the Autobots were carefully carrying out their tasks, unwilling to really step out of line. Every one of them knew that their leader was tense because of everything that had happened, so they were careful not to upset him. Even the Twins.

In a rare moment of calm, Optimus stood outside the base. His thoughts were with his bonded. And the sparkling. He was upset about this. He wouldn't deny it. The thought that one of the Decepticons had forced an interface on him was enough to heat up his circuits. The notion that a sparkling was a result made it even worse.

Optimus and Ratchet had dreamed for a long time of having a sparkling of their own. Both wanted that so badly, but their duties held them back from it. Both knew that a sparkling during the middle of a war was not ideal, and they knew that their positions as leader and medic also meant that either of them being out of commission would not be a good thing. The two had decided to wait until after the war was over to have a sparkling.

Now, Ratchet was carrying the sparkling of a Decepticon.

It angered Optimus to know that the first sparking Ratchet ever carried was not his. It wasn't how he wanted things to be. He held no anger at Ratchet. He could not blame the medic for something that was not in his power to control.

"Prime?"

Optimus turned to face Ironhide. "Is everything all right?"

"I think I should ask you that." Ironhide replied.

Optimus was silent a moment. "Things are better than they were."

"But." Ironhide prodded.

Optimus knew Ironhide well enough to know that he wasn't going to give up until he was given an answer. "I'm angry at what happened. I can't deny that. I'm angry enough to want to hunt down every Decepticon in existence and rip them to shreds with my bare hands."

"You probably could do it." Ironhide told him.

"I know I could." Optimus sighed. "But I also know that Ratchet is going to need me to get through this. I'm not going to abandon him because of this."

"No one thinks you would. The doc won't be himself for a while." Ironhide said.

"I know."

"And the sparkling?" Ironhide asked.

Optimus knew that Ironhide wanted to know what he was going to do. "If you think I'm going to ask Wheeljack and Skyfire to terminate it, you're out of your processors."

"I didn't think that."

Optimus nodded. "As far as what else happens, I'll do whatever Ratchet decides. I can't just abandon him because of this. He's going to need my help in more ways than one. That sparkling might not be mine, but it is Ratchet's, and there's no way that I can ask him to abandon that sparkling."

Ironhide was quiet. He knew the question he wanted to ask, but he wasn't sure about asking it.

"And since I know that you want to know, yes, if Ratchet decides to keep this sparkling, then I will stand by him, and I will help him raise this sparkling as if it were my own. It won't be easy, but I'm willing to make that sacrifice for Ratchet." Optimus told him.

"Not many mechs have the courage to do something like that." Ironhide told him.

"Maybe not, but I do." Optimus knew he would. He could never hold something like this against Ratchet. And he wouldn't hold it against the sparkling, either.

Ironhide nodded. "Most think that's what you'll do as it is."

"And they'd be right. It won't be easy, but I'd do it. For him."


Skyfire and Wheeljack had done their tests and looked over the results once more. They double and triple checked their work before they came to one conclusion.

Ratchet was carrying before his capture.

"Well, no way we could be wrong then." Wheeljack said.

Skyfire nodded. He looked at the unconscious medic. "So, who asks Prime when they last spark merged?"

"Haven't I done enough? I had to tell him that we thought Ratchet was dead, I had to tell him that we thought he had been forced into an interface. I don't want to have to ask him that." Wheeljack had reached his limit.

"Someone has to, although there's no one else on this base that Ratchet would interface with." Skyfire stated.

Wheeljack collapsed in his chair.

Skyfire looked at him sympathetically. Truth be told, he didn't much care to ask that question of their leader, either. Knowing something that personal was not something Skyfire truly wanted to know about any of their teammates. He knew that it had to be done.

"No!"

Both mechs jumped before they whirled around to find Ratchet moving around as if something were attacking.

"Keep him still! He might injure himself!" Wheeljack exclaimed.

Both mechs jumped forward and grabbed a hold of Ratchet. Wheeljack grabbed Ratchet's arms and easily pinned them to the examination table while Skyfire tried to stop him from moving his legs.

Ratchet fought them though, continuing to mutter.

"What's going on?" Skyfire asked. He easily held Ratchet down, but he was afraid of hurting him.

"Bad dream cycle." Wheeljack answered. He also feared hurting the medic. As weak as his frame was, it wouldn't be hard for them to actually cause more injuries.

"We have to calm him down!" Skyfire barked.

"Ratchet! Come on, Ratchet. It's me, 'Jack. Just calm down. You're safe. You're home." Wheeljack told him, hoping that by some miracle Ratchet would respond.

But he didn't.

Ratchet continued to struggle against them. He then muttered one word, one name. "Orion."

Instantly, Wheeljack got an idea. "We need Optimus!"


Optimus had gotten off duty for the day. He'd leave the night command to Prowl now. He was happy to do that, too. He was tired, and he knew that he could use a good recharge.

But Optimus wasn't planning on recharging again in his quarters until Ratchet there with him. He was heading for medbay.

:Prime!:

Wheeljack's sudden shout through the private comm link caused the Autobot leader to nearly jump. He was badly startled by that and headed to medbay faster. :Wheeljack, what is it?:

:No time to explain. Just get to medbay!:

:Almost there.: Optimus arrived at the medbay a few moments later and instantly ran into the room. He noticed Wheeljack and Skyfire holding down a struggling Ratchet. That startled Optimus badly knowing just how hurt Ratchet was. "What's going on?"

Wheeljack looked up. "Never mind. Come here and hold him down. Talk to him. Try to calm him down."

Optimus immediately went over and took over for Wheeljack.

Wheeljack went to see if he couldn't find something that would calm the medic down.

"Ratchet, calm down. Ratchet, it's me." Optimus told him. He was a great deal stronger than Ratchet was, so it wasn't that hard for him to hold Ratchet down, especially given his weakened state.

Skyfire noticed that Ratchet had calmed down considerably. He wasn't struggling quite as much as he had been.

"You're safe now, Ratchet. Nothing else is going to happen to you. I won't let it." Optimus assured him.

Skyfire had never seen Optimus and Ratchet in any sort of private moments. When he saw them, they were either the leader talking to the medic or two friends talking. He had never seen them as lovers, but he saw that tenderness, heard the love in the words and was amazed at just how much love there was in those words.

Slowly, Ratchet stopped struggling until he lay still.

Optimus let go of Ratchet, but kept one of Ratchet's hands in his own.

Skyfire released Ratchet as well. He was glad that the medic had calmed so that he didn't hurt himself.

Optimus looked up at the two temporary medics. "Mind telling me what just happened?"

"Bad dream cycle, I think. Considering what he's been through, I'm going to assume a bad dream cycle about what happened while he was captured. He was struggling because he was still unconscious and thought he was with the Decepticons." Wheeljack vented air. "I'm just glad that it worked."

"What worked?" Optimus asked.

"Well, Ratchet once told me that just your presence was enough to calm him down. Even though he was out, I was hoping it would still work. Besides, he was muttering your name before you got here, so I figured you were probably the only mech to calm him down." Wheeljack explained.

Optimus nodded his understanding.

"That was unexpected to say the least." Skyfire remarked.

"I know, although I know that Ratch has had to deal with that on more than one occasion. Bad dream cycles after battles or such aren't uncommon." Wheeljack stated.

"At least he's calm now." Optimus was now looking down at Ratchet and was talking more to himself than the other two.

Wheeljack and Skyfire looked at each other. Both knew that this was the perfect time to tell Optimus about what they had discovered. Although neither were particularly thrilled with the question that they were going to have to ask their Prime.

Optimus was oblivious to their expressions. He was far too concerned with Ratchet at the moment, given the bad dream cycle he must have been having. It killed him that he couldn't help his lover at the moment.

"Uh, Prime."

Optimus looked up at Wheeljack. "Yes?"

"There's something I need to ask you, but it's, uh, kind of personal. Just know that this is important to what we need to know." Wheeljack was uneasy and wasn't able to look Optimus in the optic. He hated talking about anything dealing with sex, and this was no different.

"What is it?" Optimus had no idea what Wheeljack could want to talk to him about that would be so embarrassing.

"When was the last time you and Ratchet spark merged?"

Certainly that was not what Optimus had expected, and he sure didn't see how they could have any bearing on anything.

Skyfire looked at Wheeljack in shock. He couldn't believe that the scientist had just been that blunt in asking their Prime something of that magnitude.

"Why do you need to know that?" Optimus did not particularly like discussing his sex life with Ratchet. Mostly because he knew that Ratchet would tear him to shreds for it.

"Please, Prime. We need to know." Wheeljack told him.

Optimus vented air before he thought back. "Two weeks before Ratchet was captured."

Wheeljack looked over Skyfire.

Skyfire tapped his chin. "Well, the timeline would fit. It would certainly explain the discrepancy that we found, 'Jack. I'd say that we were right."

Wheeljack nodded. "I agree. It would explain everything that we found."

"What are you two talking about?" Optimus had no idea what they were talking about, and he very much wanted to know why they had asked him a question like that.

Wheeljack turned to face the Prime. "Okay. We've done all the scans and calculations, and you've just confirmed a suspicion that we had developed earlier today."

"Which was?"

"The sparkling. Prime, the sparkling is yours." Wheeljack told him.

"What?" Optimus couldn't believe it. Just last night, they had told him that the most likely scenario was that Ratchet had been forced into an interface with a Decepticon and that results in the sparkling. Now they were telling him that the sparkling was his. Optimus raised his hand to rub his head. He really wished that Ratchet was the medic he was dealing with. At least Ratchet always made sense to him and was rarely wrong in anything he said.

"Okay. I know what we said last night, but we didn't really examine the sparkling all that closely except to see its condition. We were more focused on Ratchet's injuries because of how severe they were. Earlier today, we were focusing more on the sparkling. We realized that the gestation age of the sparkling did not match the length of time that he would have been their prisoner. Ratchet's only been their captive for four weeks, but the gestation age of the sparkling puts it at six weeks, so-" Wheeljack was explaining.

Optimus understood. "So it only made sense that the only way that the sparkling could be six weeks into gestation was if Ratchet was already carrying when he was captured."

"Exactly. We also went back over our scans and our findings from our initial examination. We realized that there were no signs of forced interface. Even at the start, the signs should have still been obvious as the Decepticons would not have treated such injuries." Skyfire added.

Those words were enough to lift Optimus's spark. Not only was there a good chance that a trauma as severe as a forced interface never happened to Ratchet, but the sparkling that Ratchet was carrying was his, not a Decepticon's. It was enough to make Optimus feel a great deal at ease.

However, it brought on a nagging question. "Why would Ratchet have gone out to face Devastator if he knew he was carrying?" Optimus never thought that Ratchet would do something so foolish.

"Truthfully, I bet Ratchet never knew, Optimus. Most mechs don't even realize that there is a possibility they are carrying until they are near the third week. Ratchet may not have even suspected something like this. I'm sure that if Ratchet had known or suspected, he would have told Bumblebee or me that day. He would have never joined us in the battle." Wheeljack assured him.

Optimus could believe that.

"In any case, we can all rest easier now." Wheeljack said.

"Yes. We can." Optimus agreed. He then remembered something. "What was in that encrypted file you found in Ratchet's processors?"

"Not a clue. We're still trying to crack the encryption." Wheeljack said.

"You haven't gotten through yet?" Optimus asked.

"We've gotten through several. Every time we break through one wall of encryption, there just seems to be another one there. I have never seen anything this heavily encrypted in all my years of functioning." Skyfire stated.

"We might need to remind Ratchet that we're not supposed to have anything this encrypted in our processors." Wheeljack added.

Optimus thought a moment. He knew Ratchet and for all he no real interest in the ways of the military, he did respect them. He would never have violated the rules Optimus himself had set without good reason. "How long has that file existed?" Optimus asked.

"Not sure." Wheeljack answered.

"Find out." It wasn't a request.

Skyfire went to do as he had ordered. "It's roughly four weeks old."

"I don't think Ratchet intended to hide anything. I think whatever is in that file he put there after being captured by the Decepticons. He encrypted it so heavily so that the Decepticons couldn't find out what was in the file." Optimus told them.

"What could be so important, though?" Wheeljack asked.

"Think about it. Ratchet's our medic. In his memory files would be schematics on each one of us. With that knowledge, Megatron could find out our strengths and weaknesses. Everything there is to know about us. Not to mention that Ratchet knows all security codes here, floors plans, everything that he knows that could have been damaging to us." Optimus told them.

"It makes sense. It also makes sense why they wouldn't want to harm the sparkling. No better way to make Ratchet talk than to threaten the sparkling in front of him." Wheeljack added.

"Indeed." Optimus agreed.

Skyfire turned back to the file. "If you're right, then this file is all of Ratchet's work."

"Yeah. It's a no wonder that he encrypted it so well." Wheeljack agreed.

Optimus's attention was back on Ratchet. He was glad to see that Ratchet hadn't had anymore bad dream cycles now, although Optimus still had not released his hold on Ratchet's hand. He didn't intend to, either.

Skyfire and Wheeljack knew that Optimus had no interest in talking about anything else now. They had just given him news that could only be described as wonderful, so the two figured that they had better quit while they were ahead.

Wheeljack motioned for Skyfire to go on and leave. He figured that leaving Optimus alone with Ratchet would be a good idea.

Skyfire did as Wheeljack had suggested. He left the infirmary without a word.

Wheeljack then turned to where Optimus was. "Skyfire and I are going to be heading back to our quarters now, Optimus. You know where to find me if you need anything."

"Yes, Wheeljack. Thank you." Optimus told him.

Wheeljack left the infirmary then.

Optimus was glad that the two had left. He wasn't sure that there was anything that could have been said to him that could have made him any happier than he already was. Wheeljack and Skyfire had truly lifted his spark this night. What they told him made him truly happy, and he could not wait until Ratchet woke up.

Optimus kept one hand tightly around Ratchet's while his other hand went to Ratchet's chassis and gently pressed against it. Before, it had been hard to deal with the idea that a sparkling was growing in Ratchet because of the fact that at the time, he believed it was another's. Now, knowing that it was his sparkling put things in a whole new perspective for the Autobot leader. The dreams that he and Ratchet had had were slowly coming true. They were going to be having their own sparkling before long. It was exciting to Optimus now.

To Optimus's shock, he heard a metallic clank from Ratchet's chest, and he knew that it was his and Ratchet's sparkling. A smile made it's way across the Prime's face as that thought was one that truly warmed his spark. He wouldn't deny that before, he wasn't as thrilled, but now, he was beyond thrilled at this new revelation. Optimus began to stroke Ratchet's chassis slowly. There were several more clanks.

"I'm here, little one. You're going to be fine just like your mother is." Optimus assured the sparkling. He had heard stories that sparklings could hear everything that was going on around them, so he was planning on talking to the sparkling.

As if in response, there were taps against the metal of Ratchet's chest.

Optimus smiled. It was a beautiful sound. Now, if only he could hear the sound of his lover's voice, he would feel so much better.

A low groan filled the room.

Optimus instantly tore his optics from Ratchet's chassis to his face.

Ratchet's optics blinked blue a few moments before they lighted up, signaling that he was conscious once more.

Optimus didn't dare to hope that Ratchet actually was back. "Ratchet?" He needed to hear his lover's voice, just to reassure himself that Ratchet really was awake.

Ratchet looked up at him as if in stunned shock. From the expression that Ratchet wore, it was almost as if he didn't believe who he was seeing, as if he was trapped in some kind of dream cycle.

"Ratchet. It's all right. It's me." Optimus assured him soothingly. He didn't really want a repeat of earlier. He tightened his hand slightly around Ratchet's hand. He reached with his other hand to gently stroke Ratchet's cheek strut.

"Orion?"


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