When Raf woke a few hours later, Pilar had already left for work herself. He got up from the couch and peeked into the garage. He saw with relief that not only was Flashdrive still there, but she was still fast asleep. He closed the door again, and then turned as he heard his phone buzzing. He ran over and picked it up. "Hello?" he asked, not even looking at the caller ID.

Raf! You're never gonna guess who we ran into last night! Miko's voice squeaked on the other side of the phone.

Raf looked towards the garage door. "...Bee?" He guessed quietly.

Excellent guess! He got into a hit-and-run last night while he was out looking for-

"A hit-and-run? Is he okay?"

Oh yeah! A little banged up, but he's okay. He's out looking for a little baby bot that ran off from his group.

"I see... Where is he now?"

We got him to rest and recover in an old warehouse outside of the base's perimeters. He's still here, if you wanna come see him.

"Absolutely. Don't let him leave until I get there."

Will do.

Raf hung up the phone, then grabbed a toaster pastry and a bottle of water before going out into the garage. "Hey Flashdrive..."

The little bot stirred, her optics fluttering open before widening and looking around for a brief moment. Her optics finally fell on Raf, and she relaxed. "...Rafael." She murmured.

"Uh huh...My friend just called. Bumblebee's out here looking for you."

"Bumblebee...?" Her face lit up just a little, "...Looking for me...?"

"Uh huh..." Raf came over. "I told you he couldn't be that mad at you...I'm gonna take you to him...Okay?"

Flashdrive nodded, getting up immediately. "Take me." She agreed.

"Good...Come on, we need to get you out of town before anyone else sees you..."

Bumblebee was still aching when he woke up, but he'd rested long enough. He'd lost a few hours on the search, and that was plenty of time for something to have happened to his child.

"Good morning, Bee." Jack replied, "How're you feeling?"

"Well enough." Bumblebee murmured, transforming into robot mode and grimacing as his joints all popped as he moved. "Ah...! Stiff. I'm stiff."

"You sure you're up for moving around?"

"I don't have much choice... I need to find Flashdrive before something happens to her. She doesn't know this planet like I do."

"So what exactly happened that made this baby-bot run off?" Miko asked.

Bumblebee sighed. "I...I ignored her. She's my responsibility, and I wasn't paying attention to her, I was treating her like I do the rest of the team...But I can't. She's not a soldier, she's a baby, for Primus' sake! You can't just ignore it when it cries, even if you don't know what to do, you have to do something!"
Bumblebee sat down on his knees. "This is my fault... I was too focused on being what I've always been that I didn't even realize it can't be like that anymore... I just hope she's okay..."
He turned as he heard the door of the warehouse open, and for a moment he panicked, before seeing a little and familiar robot come running up from outside, crashing into him and wrapping their arms around him. "Flashdrive...!"

"I'm sorry!" She sobbed, her faceplate buried in his torso. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Bumblebee relaxed, and then scooped up his daughter, holding her up against his chest. "You're okay...! Thank Primus...!"

"I'm sorry...!"

"Shh shh shh...I'm sorry too... I know now that I'll need to make adjustments to my routine to accomodate you being here with me." He stroked her head gently. "...I'm the one who should be apologizing... I'm the one who was pushing you away..."

"Of all the things I imagined you doing..."
Bumblebee looked up as a voice came from the shadows, and a human man stepped out into the light with a grin. "...I never thought being a father would be one of them, Bee."

"Raf..."

"Hello, Bumblebee..." Raf came up to the bot. "...It's good to see you."

"The same, Raf..." Bumblebee murmured. "...I would've come to visit you, but it had been so long and...I didn't want to interrupt your new life with a visit from an old one."

"I understand, Bee..." He grinned.

"So we found Bee, and you found the baby..." Miko murmured, then gave Raf a high-five. "Not bad for Team Prime!"

Jack rolled his eyes, then placed an arm around both of his teammates. "Not bad at all... You'll be keeping in touch with us now, right Bee?"

"We may be revealing ourselves to the public soon, so I may call you for advice." Bumblebee looked to Flashdrive again as she rested her head against his shoulder. "...But for now, I'd better get her home and make sure the rest of the team hasn't blown up the scrapyard."

"So the war's still going?" Raf asked cautiously.

"No...Just rounding up stray cons that come here to make trouble... We have a lot of catching up to do, and most of it is my fault, but I'm going to make up for it, I promise."

"Even if this was goodbye again..." Raf patted his former guardian's leg. "It was nice to see you again..."

"Thank you for protecting Flashdrive."

"You're welcome...Now I think the three of us have some work to do back at our own HQ."

"Right."

Bumblebee grinned, and then tapped his comm link. "Bumblebee to Fixit, send us a Groundbridge, please..."

"FINALLY!" Strongarm hissed as she heard their leader's voice over the comms.

"He's only been gone for like...Twelve hours." Russell murmured, counting the hours on his fingers.

"But a lot's happened in that time." Sideswipe informed. "And I don't know how long Ratchet wants to be on hold."

"Good point."

The team all waited as the Groundbridge opened, and after a few seconds, Bumblebee stepped back through, cradling Flashdrive against his chest.

"Is she okay?" Grimlock asked, seeing how still Flashdrive was.

"She's fine... We both are."

"You still look a little worse for wear, Lieutenant." Strongarm expressed.

"I'm fine, really."

"Bee! You're never gonna guess what happened while you were gone!" Sideswipe announced, turning the Lieutenant's attention away from his Cadet's concern.

"Do I want to know...?" Bumblebee asked cautiously.

"Fixit's fixed!" Russell revealed.

"What?" He turned to Flashdrive, who was shifting nervously. "Did you do it, Flashdrive?"

The little bot wouldn't look at him. "When I was trying to figure out how to use the Groundbridge, I... saw something that looked like it was out of place, so I...I put it back. I'm sorry."

"Don't be!" Fixit insisted. "I can finally properly defend myself again...Thank you."

Flashdrive looked back up with a smile, "You're welcome..."

Bumblebee looked over to Knockout, who was still lying on the medical table. "Can you do anything for him?"

"It's some sort of virus, but I haven't been able to isolate it." Fixit murmured, "He's also extremely low on energon, not just from his injuries, and it looks like he's been on his own for a while."

Bumblebee looked at the medic. He hadn't seen or heard from Knockout in a very long time, had he been banished, like Ratchet was? If so, then he might have been wandering the galaxy, not even knowing that Cyclonus and the rest of the council had been dethroned and replaced.
He looked at his daughter, and then placed her down on the table. "If you can fix Fixit, then maybe you can help Knockout."

Flashdrive's grin widened, "Help!" She replied, and her tendrils uncurled.

"Sir," Strongarm started, but Bumblebee shook his head.

"Let her try...We've been keeping her from helping all week."

Flashdrive's tendrils connected to Knockout's helm, and after a moment, they inverted, white becoming blue and blue becoming white. After a few seconds, Knockout's expression softened and he relaxed, and Flashdrive placed her hands on the sides of his helm. "Denny, can I borrow someone electronic that you don't mind me breaking?"

Denny looked at her for a moment, and then handed her an old cell phone. She took the phone with one tendril, and after a second the cell phone sparked and fizzled. "What was that?"

"I moved most of the virus into that..." She disconnected from Knockout's helm as the red bot gave a soft moan. "He's sleeping. I didn't fix all of it, but he can do the rest."

Bumblebee grinned, picking up his daughter and holding her close. "Good girl...That's my good girl..."

"I love you too..."

"Also, Ratchet called." Denny informed. "Said he needs to talk to you about something."

"Ratchet? Did he say anything about what it was?"
They all shook their heads. "Alright...Keep an eye on Knockout..."

Bumblebee looked at the screen as his old friend's face appeared. "Ratchet...Sorry about not being able to get your message earlier."

It's quite alright, Bumblebee. I understand that you're busy with your mission to defend Earth. Ratchet smiled, Actually, that's part of why I called.

"Oh?"

Yes... The Council has decided to allow you to reveal yourselves to the humans whenever you see fit.

Bumblebee grinned. "Really? Wow, that's quite an honor...And responsibility."

Agreed. But I know you can handle the situation well, Bumblebee. You've grown into a very wise and capable leader.

"Gee Ratchet, you're making me blush... I sure don't feel wise, especially right now."

Is everything alright?

"I've just made some mistakes these past few days... But we managed to resolve it."

Mistakes are part of learning, Bumblebee.

"Yes...I know." Bumblebee looked off to the side, where Flashdrive was sitting out of view with a grin on her face. "How are you doing?"

As well as an old timer can... One more thing. The Council is sending one of their representatives to observe your team for a week or so and see how smoothly your team is working together.

Bumblebee's optics widened. "How well we work together...? Well, this'll be interesting..."

I wouldn't worry too much. The representative is a big fan of your work...I'm sending you his file for you to look over.

Bumblebee saw the image that appeared alongside Ratchet's face, and a smile began to form. "...I see... And I'm impressed."

You don't think him being there will disrupt your work, will it?

"Nah... Actually, it would be helpful for him to come. When he returns to Cybertron he can take Knockout back with him."

Knockout? ...I hadn't heard from him in ages.

"He was banished, like you were. We got into a bad fight with Steeljaw and is recovering at our base, but he should be able to travel in a few days, and we have Oversight in a stasis pod to be returned as well."

Glad to hear it.

"Ratchet, I...I have something I need your opinion on."

I believe the humans say "Shoot."

Bumblebee grinned. "You're the greatest medic I know, so I want your opinion on this...What do you think of the possibility of a cybertronian being created from another cybertronian?"

Ratchet looked puzzled for a moment. Well...If it is possible, then it would be extremely rare, because I've never heard of such a thing. Why?

"Oh, Russell was just wondering how we're born and that was one of his thoughts and it got me wondering..."

I see. Well, I need to get back to my reports. Keep your team outta trouble, Bumblebee.

Bumblebee nodded. "Yes, Ratchet. I'll talk to you soon."
The Lieutenant turned off the screen and looked back over to Flashdrive, who's optics were narrowed. "What?"

"You lied."

"I did."

"Why?"

"Because I'm not ready to tell everybody about you just yet." He scooped up his daughter in his arms, "I'll tell him once we know how you got here."

"What if we don't know?"

"Then I'll just have to tell him we don't know. But for right now, I don't want every medic and scientist in the galaxy coming to study me or you to find the answer."

"Okay..."

Bumblebee grinned, and then picked her up. "Now, I think it's past your recharge time."

"What time is that?"

Bumblebee thought for a moment, "...Nine."

"Aww! Russell stays up later than that!"

"Russell's a teenager, you're a week old."

Flashdrive pouted, but there was no hiding the cheery glint in her optics. It made Bumblebee feel much better. He was making progress, and that was what mattered...