Disclaimer: I sadly do not own Transformers: Prime or any of the characters in it.
Pain radiating over her entire frame was the first thing Arcee was aware of. The second thing was the fact that she was alive. Truth be told she hadn't expected to survive her last encounter with Airachnid. She was fine with that though, knowing that at least Bumblebee, and hopefully Jack, would be safe. If she was dead, there would be no reason for Airachnid to go after either of them anymore. But at the same time she did feel guilty about leaving Jack without a guardian and leaving Bumblebee with no actual family members. At least now they would still have her around. Carefully she opened her optics and tried to sit up, before immediately realizing that that was a bad idea. Maybe death wouldn't have been such a bad thing after all, at least she wouldn't have been in this much pain.
"You might not want to move for another day or so," Ratchet spoke up, drawing Arcee's attention over to the monitor where the medic was standing. "I patched you up, but you received severe damage and it will take a while for you to fully heal."
"That bad, huh?" she asked, her voice quieter than usual.
"I will not tell Bumblebee this, but if Optimus and I had not arrived at your location when we did, you would not be here right now."
"Where is 'Bee?"
"Recharging, finally. You've been out for a week and in that amount of time Bumblebee has constantly blamed himself for what happened to you despite everyone else assuring him that it wasn't. He's also refused to recharge, even though he knows he needs to rest so he can heal. He's stressing out his damaged systems even more and had you not woke up, I would most likely have had to resort to putting him in stasis so he wouldn't do anymore harm."
"It was getting that bad?" Arcee asked, her voice filling with concern for her little brother.
"Yes."
Arcee knew that sometimes Bumblebee would blame himself when something went wrong. He had done it before when Megatron had invaded his mind and forced Bumblebee to bring him back, but he would listen to them after a while and realize that he wasn't the one to blame. The fact that he hadn't done so yet told the femme that it was going to be up to her to truly convince him that what happened to her was not his fault at all.
"I want to talk to him."
"Later. You can't get up and I'm not waking him from a much needed recharge."
The femme was about to say fine, when she noticed Bumblebee tiredly walking into the med-bay. His lack of recharge was clearly showing itself.
"Looks like you don't have to."
Ratchet turned and looked at the youngling, "Bumblebee! You need to recharge!"
"Sorry Ratch, but…" Bumblebee lifted his head and saw that Arcee was awake. "'Cee!"
"Hey, 'Bee," the femme forced herself to smile as the scout rushed to her side.
"I'm so sorry 'Cee!"
"What are you sorry about 'Bee? This wasn't your fault."
"If I hadn't of wanted to leave the base so badly or if I hadn't of made us stay out when I got tired, Airachnid wouldn't have hurt you."
"You know that wasn't your fault, so stop blaming yourself."
"But…"
"No buts, just stop."
It was then that Arcee noticed how dim Bumblebee's optics were.
"You need to recharge 'Bee."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"I keep seeing her hurt you. It's awful 'Cee, I don't like it."
"Oh 'Bee…"
Arcee forced herself into a sitting position, wincing as she did so and receiving a glare from Ratchet as well, and reached her arms out towards Bumblebee. The youngling eagerly fell into her embrace, wrapping his arms around her the best he could without hurting her. Arcee gently stroked his back when she felt him trembling slightly. It was easy for her to see how much almost losing her bothered him.
"It's alright 'Bee, everything is going to be fine."
"Y-you almost died."
"But I didn't, I'm still alive."
"Why'd you d-do it?
"I wasn't going to let her kill you Bumblebee. She's already done enough to you. And I've already lost Tailgate and Cliffjumper, losing you or Jack would just be too much. You're my little brothers; I don't want to see anything happen to either of you."
"But we don't want to lose you either."
"I know."
Arcee continued to stroke his back, trying to give him as much comfort as she could. It wasn't long until Bumblebee had fallen into recharge, his arms still wrapped around her and half of his body lying on the floor. There was no way that could be comfortable for him.
"Hey Ratchet."
The medic glanced back at the femme and youngling and realized what she wanted. He sighed, but walked over and hoisted Bumblebee's recharging form up onto the medical berth with her. Amazingly the youngling didn't wake at the movement and instead simply snuggled closer to his sister.
"Thanks," she replied.
Arcee smiled at her slumbering brother one more time before falling into recharge herself.
When Optimus walked into the med-bay and saw Bumblebee and Arcee recharging on the medical berth, he smiled internally to himself. The sight of the two siblings was endearing to say the least. He was glad that Bumblebee had the confirmation that he needed to know that Arcee was going to be alright. He had grown increasingly worried about Bumblebee over the past week. The youngling had been ignoring his well-being and had been letting guilt consume him. He had never seen Bumblebee act like this before and the Autobot leader made a mental note to discuss it with Arcee later. They were going to have to find a way to help the youngling cope should a similar situation rise again.
"How is she recovering Ratchet?" Optimus asked as he walked over to his medic.
"Well enough to sit up despite me telling her that she shouldn't move for another day or so. I suppose it was for the best though. She was able to get Bumblebee to finally recharge, and with any luck has made him feel less guilty as well."
"Let us hope she has. I do not wish to see Bumblebee continue to plague himself with guilt."
"Neither do I… I would have feared to see his mental state had I not been able to save Arcee…"
Optimus remained silent, sharing the medic's sentiments. He hoped that they would never have to see how Bumblebee would react should they ever lose Arcee. He feared that the results would not be ones that any of them would ever want to see.
"Let us just be glad that you were able to save her, old friend."
"Optimus, I would like to suggest that you keep Bumblebee and Arcee off of active duty for another week. By then both of them should, as long as they listen and don't try to do anything reckless, be almost completely healed."
"I agree with keeping them off active duty. They have been through quite a lot lately; I believe that they both deserve a small break for a little while."
Ratchet glanced over the recharging forms of the brother and sister and thought of all that had happened.
"Yes, Optimus, they do."
