A/N: Have a tense little cool down with some OOC PapaHide fluff.
Everyone that had remained on base was on edge as the rescue party returned. Ratchet had relayed to the infirmary that Lori had suffered severe blood loss, gave them her blood type, and how much blood he was going to need for her. The medics rushed to gather what Ratchet needed and get it into his medbay. The minute Ratchet pulled into his medbay, he and Barricade gently picked Lori up off his stretcher and set her on the bed they'd borrowed from the human infirmary when Lori had broken her shoulder. He ran a thorough diagnostic scan on her, and luckily found no broken bones, internal bleeding, or severe trauma; the scan did show how deep the wounds on her arms went and how deeply the chains had cut, but revealed no other severe injuries. She would need to be given more blood and her cuts were going to need disinfectant, but she was otherwise fine. The others crowded around him as soon as he began to treat her.
"Give me some room to work!" he snapped as he slowly inserted an IV needle into her hand. They backed off right away. As he'd told Optimus and Ironhide, he set the feed rate low in order to get blood into her without disturbing the dried blood that was temporarily preventing further blood loss.
"She's shaking," Jazz observed as Ratchet held one of her arms to clean it.
"Soundwave shocked her to shut her up, but knocked her out altogether," Barricade explained.
"Punk 'Con," Bumblebee said softly. Everyone surrounding Lori turned at the sound of screeching tires. Ironhide was tearing into medbay at break-neck speed, looking like he felt rushed after dropping off the NEST soldiers that had carpooled with him.
"How's she doing?" he asked as he activated his holoform.
"She's not quite stable, but I'm working on it," Ratchet answered. As if on queue, Lori began to regain consciousness.
"Daddy…" she muttered softly as she shifted about restlessly.
"I'm right here, Lori," Ironhide said in an uncharacteristically gentle tone. He took her cleaned hand and held it as any concerned father might. Lori's eyes opened slowly, and when she saw Ironhide, she gave a weak smile. Then her gaze drifted to the blaster on her arm, and her expression went from weak relief to fear in the blink of an eye.
"Lori, you need to stay calm," Ratchet insisted gently.
"Come on, Lori," Ironhide pleaded softly. "You're gonna be all right. Everything's all right. Everything will be just fine. Please calm down." He tightened his grip on her hand, as if it would stop her shaking.
"Is that real…?" Lori asked breathlessly.
"Yes it is," Ratchet said flatly, "and you'll have get used to having built-in weapons. Right now, I need you to stay calm so that I can keep cleaning you up. You've lost a lot of blood."
"Is that why I feel so dizzy?" Lori asked. Ratchet was about to reply when they heard Shadow roar in infinite tones of stress.
"I'll go investigate that," Optimus said softly. "We're all glad we have you back, Lori." He then stepped out of medbay to check on Shadow.
"As I wanted to say before that little interruption, dizziness is normal with blood loss," Ratchet explained. "Although I'm not too worried about getting you back to normal now that you're awake. But because you lost quite a lot of blood, you'll need to rest in order to make a complete recovery."
"But I just woke up," Lori complained.
"You were knocked out by an electric shock," Ironhide corrected.
"Asleep and knocked unconscious are two different things," Ratchet added. "I need you resting properly so your body can heal itself."
"I'll stay right here if anything happens," Ironhide assured.
"I don't think I can sleep," Lori admitted.
"You're probably in shock," Ratchet said. "You probably won't be able to sleep until you're fully calmed down."
"Just let Ratchet take care of you," Ironhide mused gently. "I'm right here if you need me." Lori nodded as Ratchet continued to clean her up.
Optimus found Shadow curled up in the far corner of the training room, his tail lashing irritably. He approached Shadow slowly and knelt so he wasn't so large.
"Shadow, what's wrong?" he asked as he reached out to pet the Raptor.
"I'm not good enough," Shadow snarled.
"You can't blame yourself for what happened to Lori," Optimus said gently. "If anything, it's my fault for not realizing how dangerous it was to send her home with just you and Ironhide to protect her. This proves just how high value a target she is to the Decepticons. You're very new to this war and inexperienced, but faced hard adversaries and survived. You've been very lucky, so don't you dare say that you're not good enough. You're giving your best effort and that's all we can ask of you." Shadow relaxed a little, and Optimus took the opportunity to pet Shadow in all his "sweet spots." This relaxed the Raptor further.
"Thank you," Shadow muttered. His tail was now lazily slithering on the floor.
"Lori's awake if you want to go see her," Optimus said. "She's a little frantic, but she's aware. I'm sure seeing you would help put her at ease." Shadow nodded and got up, shaking off stiffness.
As Optimus and Shadow walked into medbay, they found Ratchet applying disinfectant to Lori's ankles while the latter winced in pain. Lori's boots, which by some miracle had not been bled on, were at the foot of the bed with her socks.
"Just a little more, and then I'll get you wrapped up," Ratchet muttered gently. Ironhide's holoform was sitting beside Lori, doing his best to comfort her. Shadow slunk over as quietly as he could and set his head on her lap.
"Hi, Shadow," Lori greeted in a strained voice.
"I don't like seeing you hurt," Shadow complained. "It makes me sad."
"I don't like it either," Lori said, "but please don't feel sad. There's nothing you can do about it sometimes."
"You'll need to take it easy for a little while," Ratchet advised. "Your ankles will heal faster if you keep them elevated as often as possible. I also recommend that you to not put any weight on them unless you absolutely need to." He tucked a few pillows underneath her feet to prop them up a little.
"That feels really weird," Lori said. Ironhide chuckled a little at what she was implying.
"Less blood flow to your feet will allow the damaged tissue to heal faster," Ratchet explained. "I'm sorry if you feel like you're on a delivery table." Lori and Ironhide couldn't help but laugh at that.
"What does he mean?" Shadow asked.
"That's a topic for another time and place," Barricade said as he walked in.
"Where have you been?" Lori asked.
"Calming myself down," Barricade answered. "Being on Shadow's back and holding onto him for dear life while trying to keep a hold on you as he ran 40 miles an hour was pretty damn terrifying."
"Good thing you were out of my sight," Ratchet said. "If I'd seen you freaking out I would have sedated you."
"I'm probably more freaked out than you," Lori said. "I'm the one with shredded arms and built in guns!"
"That's going to be fun trying to explain," Ironhide muttered.
"How am I going to even retract them?" Lori asked.
"It's probably similar to how we do it," Ironhide replied.
"So like a thought command?" Lori sighed in frustration. "I'll never be able to leave this base if I don't know how my weapons work!"
"I could give you a good explanation on that if I do a full body scan," Ratchet offered. "Do you want to do that now or wait until you regain some of your strength?"
"Let's get it done now," Lori said. "It'll probably calm me down a great deal if I understand how my new features work and can learn how to control it."
"Alright, I can do that," Ratchet said. "Lori, I'll need you to stay still. The rest of you need to give me a little more room." When the others had backed away, Ratchet started his scan. He was very slow with the scan so he could take in as much data as possible. When the scan was finished, he posted the results on the main monitor screen. The results showed that Lori's skeleton was actually the same material that made up a Cybertronian's base frame, but in the shape of normal human bones. Tucked behind Lori's ribcage and below her heart was a small T-Cog, most likely what allowed her blasters to extend and retract. A gap between the "bones" in Lori's forearms was where said blasters likely retracted. The blasters were solar powered, could fire highly concentrated blasts of energy, and were as deadly as her father's cannons. Hidden in the folds of her vocal chords was a tiny modulator that would give her the ability to speak fluent Cybertronian if she learned how to use it consciously –Ratchet could tell she'd already used it unconsciously. Mixed into her optical nerves were optic fibers that, when active, would cause her eyes to behave like a Cybertronian's optics. The rest of her organs and external features were human; her facial features were an even mix of her mother and Ironhide's holoform, her eyes were obviously Autobot blue, her black hair was clearly inherited from her father, and she didn't have any feminine curves to speak of, but she definitely had her father's frame.
"Wow," Optimus whispered, visibly surprised.
"Dang, Lori, you're more like us than we thought!" Jazz said. Ironhide remained silent as he stared at the scan results. His expression was impossible to read.
"Yeah, I guess I am," Lori said. She looked at both her blasters intently, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes to concentrate. To everyone's unspoken relief, the blasters folded smoothly back into her arms.
"That's my girl," Ironhide said shakily as a proud smile spread across his face.
"Well, now I guess I can get my arms wrapped up," Lori said with a sharp wince. "Now I'm really feeling the pain." Ratchet promptly gave her a shot of strong painkiller and began wrapping her arms; he wrapped the gauze tight enough to prevent any more bleeding, but loose enough to keep her skin from sealing over where her blasters were so that she wouldn't cause fresh wounds the next time she extended the weapons for any reason. Once the gauze was secured around her arms, Ratchet adjusted the feed rate on her IV to a normal setting.
"Will that painkiller get her to sleep?" Barricade whispered to Ratchet so that Lori couldn't hear.
"It's strong enough to put her under until tomorrow morning," Ratchet whispered back. "Why do you ask?"
"Because she looks like she's gonna get really cranky," Barricade answered. "If she's exhausted and injured, she's not fun to deal with. Trust me on that one."
"Thanks for the heads up," Ratchet said. "Alright, everyone; I need all of you to go to the open hangar so I can properly address your injuries."
"Why not in here?" Ironhide asked.
"Lori has to rest so she can recover better," Ratchet explained. "If you're in here pestering her, she won't get the proper rest that she needs. Lori, I'll be checking on you from time to time and if you're not sleeping when I do check we're going to have a problem."
"Ooh, I'm so scared," Lori said sarcastically.
"You should be scared," Ratchet warned.
"Will you rest for me?" Ironhide asked sweetly.
"Oh, fine," Lori answered. "I'll get some rest to make you happy, Daddy." She shifted around to get comfortable, suddenly looking tired –almost sickly because of how pale she was.
"Thank you, Lori," Ironhide said. As she drifted off, he smoothed her hair back and placed a little kiss on her forehead; before anyone could say how cute such a scene was, he pinned everyone with a death glare that dared a comment. Fearing the protective father's wrath, they all silently made their way to the open hangar. Ratchet got started repairing Shadow as soon as they were all settled in the hangar.
"Next time, the Decepticons won't stop me!" the Raptor hissed.
"Right, because next time you'll have some proper training from me," Ironhide replied. "That's going to happen as soon as Ratchet fixes us up; then you and I are going to my personal hangar so that I can teach you effective fighting moves."
"Really?" Shadow asked, looking excited by the prospect. His tail even rose a little.
"Absolutely," Ironhide answered. "I'll teach you all that I know; different methods work with different 'Cons and you're going to learn all of them."
"This is going to be fun!" Shadow purred. "But, what'll happen if I try shooting my blaster cannons with one out of commission?" He looked at his severely damaged weapon and rolled out the undamaged one, and at the same time, his back spikes extended. Most of the spikes were dented or bent over.
"Ironhide can take care of that in his workshop," Ratchet said. "But couldn't you two give your wounds a little time to heal?"
"We'll be fine," Ironhide said. "You worry too much."
"That's my job," Ratchet said as he worked on fixing Shadow's back spikes. Shadow yelped in pain every time a dent was popped out or bends were pulled the opposite way.
"Try to be a little quieter," Ironhide warned. "You might wake up Lori."
"I doubt it," Ratchet assured. "Getting kidnapped can be hard on a person. The rescue can affect them as well. She's fast asleep. I expect her to be out until the morning. She needs it too." Shadow did his best to muffle his pained yelps as Ratchet kept working, but froze solid as an idea came to him; on his left hip, a panel slid back to reveal the radio console and glove box of his Ford SVT F-150 Raptor form. Shadow nudged his glove box open with his snout, and then gingerly -without using his teeth- pulled out a micro-plush blanket that had a guitar/rose motif printed on it. Ratchet guessed Shadow's intention and paused his work to let Shadow carry out his plan. He and Ironhide followed the Raptor into medbay where Lori lay sleeping. Silently, Shadow draped the blanket over her and tugged at it until it covered her fully. Lori, though asleep, gripped the blanket with a blissful sigh.
"Good thinking, Shadow," Ironhide whispered. "It's bringing her comfort."
"The better she sleeps, the faster she'll heal," Ratchet said. He took the opportunity to change out the now empty IV bag with a fresh one.
"She's already looking better," Shadow said, noticing that a little color had returned to her face.
"A rapid recovery is just what I want," Ratchet muttered. "Let's keep it that way." With Shadow's task complete, they slunk back to the open hangar.
"How's Lori?" Jazz asked as soon as they returned.
"Is she going to be all right?" Bumblebee added.
"She's recovering steadily," Ironhide answered, cutting Ratchet off.
"She's going to make a full recovery soon," Ratchet added. "And since you appear un-injured, Jazz, I'd like you to take up a bedside watch for her tonight."
"Why not me?" Ironhide complained.
"You're injured and need to heal," Ratchet said. "Besides, you're going to train Shadow, remember?"
"Right, right," Ironhide replied. "Come on, Shadow." He proceeded to escort Shadow to his personal hangar.
In the hangar, which Ironhide referred to as his "office," was a variety of cluttered workspaces and a miniature training area full of scraped up targets. Several of the targets had wheels under them, and there were trackways all along the training floor so that the targets could move and provide more of a challenge.
"I like this," Shadow said with a fang-y grin.
"I'm glad," Ironhide said. "Let's get started by fixing your weapons." When it came to weapons, Ironhide's hands were just as delicate as Ratchet's. In no time, Shadow's weapons were even better than new, as Ironhide took liberties in improving what Optimus had provided for the Raptor. Given that Shadow had been created on Earth, he had a combination of Cybertronian and human firing capabilities, which Ironhide expanded. Shadow could now fire any large human-made ammunition, and his hip-mounted blaster cannons now fired the same concentrated solar energy blasts as Lori's weapons. Along with improved firing capabilities, Shadow could also extend and retract his weaponry faster than he originally had been able to. Ironhide also gave Shadow the ability to independently extended, retract, and fire both blasters cannons. For a good hour, Ironhide tested Shadow's weapons to make sure nothing jammed or stuck. By the time Ironhide was satisfied with Shadow's weapons, Shadow could extend his blaster cannons, "kill" a target, and have his weapons retracted as quickly as any gunslinger in a Western movie.
"That felt great!" Shadow purred. The two were on a break from training to allow Shadow time to regain a little energy.
"You learn quickly," Ironhide praised. "You've got shooting down well, but now you need to learn physical combat."
"What do you mean?" Shadow asked.
"I mean fighting with your teeth and claws," Ironhide explained. "You've got an advantage over most 'Cons because of such natural weaponry. They'll have little defense against getting clawed or bitten other than throwing you off or trying to shoot you. The first thing you'll want to do to have the upper hand is use your claws or teeth to disable their guns first."
"Like what I did to that helicopter 'Con, only better?" Shadow asked.
"Exactly," Ironhide replied. "Do you need a little more break time, or do you feel ready?"
"I feel ready!" Shadow said as he jumped up.
"I love your spirit," Ironhide said. With that, Ironhide proceeded to teach Shadow all that he knew about fighting from rapid attacks to ambushing, occasionally having to adjust his techniques to accommodate Shadow's different stature and body characteristics. Through the use of training dummies, Ironhide taught Shadow to use his teeth, claws, and even his tail as weapons. He advised Shadow on when to attack and when to flee, and warned him that the 'Cons never played fair. Whenever Shadow retracted his teeth to avoid damaging something, Ironhide gently but firmly told him that in a fight retracting his teeth could be the difference between winning and losing a fight. It took a few tries, but eventually Shadow was attacking the training dummies with his teeth fully extended every time. Ironhide became Shadow's ambush decoy, enjoying every minute of it, until he actually had to wonder where the Raptor was; when Shadow caught him by surprise he praised the Raptor. He was impressed by how ferocious Shadow could be, and inwardly felt glad that the 'Cons didn't have such a powerful creature among their ranks. Once fully trained, Shadow would be more than a match for Ravage and Scorponok combined. Ironhide continued to train Shadow until most of the targets on the training floor were about to fall apart and Shadow was panting from using so much energy.
"Thank you for teaching me," Shadow said as he cooled off from his most recent exertion.
"You performed excellently," Ironhide said. "I still have things to teach you, but this was enough for now. How are you feeling?"
"Tired," Shadow admitted, "but I feel like I can be a much more effective fighter now."
"You will be," Ironhide assured. "How about we go check on Lori?" Shadow nodded enthusiastically and the two made their way to medbay.
In medbay, Ratchet was changing the bandages on Lori's arms and ankles. The latter was still fast asleep, but she was looking much better with a little more color on her face. Jazz and Barricade were sitting on either side of her, both occupied with some quiet activity.
"She's still asleep," Shadow muttered softly, looking a little crestfallen.
"She needs that sleep to heal," Ironhide replied. "Maybe Ratchet will let her get up in the morning."
"Of course I will," Ratchet said softly as he secured fresh gauze around Lori's right arm. "If she shows enough improvement in the morning."
"What if she doesn't?" Ironhide asked.
"Then she's stuck in that bed even if she's awake," Ratchet answered.
"She won't like that," Barricade muttered. "She tries to be as active as possible."
"She'll learn that she can't win an argument with me," Ratchet said. Ironhide chuckled at that, having lost many an argument with the medic.
"She'll need to learn more than that," Optimus said as he walked in. "How was your training session with Shadow, Ironhide?"
"It went excellently," Ironhide replied. "Shadow's a fast learner." He gave Shadow a pet on the head, to which Shadow responded with a purr-like growl.
"That's very good to know," Optimus muttered. "Lori's going to need all the protection we can give her."
"That's gonna be fun explaining to her band-mates," Barricade remarked softly.
"She has to keep us a secret," Optimus said sternly. "Her drummer may know due to family ties, but we don't need to be exposed to the others. The hard part comes when she does take to the roads."
"Lori's mom said that her being on tour is what kept my former comrades from getting her," Barricade explained. "I'm sure the contracting firm is going to insist the band travels by RV for the sake of their comfort and saving gas, and I know Lori will promise not to get into any more fights while on tour."
"It's not other humans that concern me," Optimus replied. "What bothers me is the fact that not only do they know where she lives, but they also know who she is and how she looks. I simply cannot let her be anywhere unattended."
"If you plan on following her, I suggest you keep yourselves low-key," Barricade warned. "She may not like knowing that you're keeping a close watch on her."
"I know, but it may be the only way," Optimus said. "However, I will try to think of solutions."
"What you could do is put live-feed cameras in their RV," Barricade suggested. "Having one of you tailing her is great, but what if you lose track of the RV for any amount of time? Being able to see inside it could give you the ability to act much faster in the event they get attacked."
"Of course, that all depends on if they even get an RV," Ratchet said.
"I would count on it," Barricade replied. "I've been put in contact with the rest of the band since my employment as lighting and sound tech, and they would love an RV. Having an RV will be the difference between sleeping in comfort and staying in a run-down motel for them. And honestly, you should probably have some live-feed cameras put in her house too."
"She doesn't already have them?" Jazz asked in surprise. "There are some seriously crazy people on this planet."
"She thinks she won't get robbed because she lives in the boonies," Barricade explained. "But I agree with you about there being some serious nuts around. Her guitar collection is easily worth seven figures, and her blade collection is worth around five figures. She's obviously more valuable than her material items, but she'd be heartbroken and pissed if she lost anything."
"I prefer seeing Lori in a pleasant mood," Jazz said.
"Hopefully she'll be in good spirits in the morning," Ratchet said as he tucked Lori back under her blanket. "For now, let's all get some rest… except for you, Jazz. You come and wake me up if anything on that monitor screen changes from green to red."
"Gotcha, Ratch," Jazz said. "You might have to drag lil' ol' Cade with you, though. I know he's not on bedside watch with me." Barricade glared at him as Shadow nudged him away from Lori's bed and out of medbay.
Unbeknownst to the others, Lori was dreaming.
It was definitely not a pleasant dream in any context, even if it had started out with Lori practicing with her band. The tour was rapidly nearing and already promotions were plastered all across the country, both positive and negative. It was the negative ads that troubled Lori; with content like exposed secrets, controversies, and rumors choking airwaves and covering billboards, it would only take hours for former fans to lose their love for Apocalypse Entertainment. She was worried that the ads would completely cancel the tour, and hoped that the positive ads would counteract the effects.
And that was when the dream got really weird… and frightening.
There had been an apparent time-skip, because suddenly Lori and her band were about to go onstage for their first show. Naturally, Lori was both excited and nervous because she hadn't performed in almost a year. She knew the fear would ebb as soon as she took the stage and began to sing, but even as she walked onto the stage, guitar in hand, the fear only seemed to get worse. She was feeling stage fright! She was fully aware that she was dreaming, but couldn't wake herself; she blamed Ratchet and him damn painkillers for making her stay asleep and stuck in this displeasing dream. She did her best to swallow her fear and start the show, but she could hear a tremble in her voice that definitely was not a vibrato. Luckily, the crowd didn't seem to notice… they didn't seem to even acknowledge the band was performing. There hadn't been any cheering when they'd walked on, and there hadn't been the usual introductions. The crowd was staring directly at the stage… or right through it. In the low light, Lori looked directly into the eyes of a random person in the crowd, and nearly stopped singing because of the paralyzing fear that burned through her body as soon as she could see the person's eyes.
All Lori could see was black, empty voids where eyes should have been.
She dropped her own eyes to the stage upon this discovery, only to have them wander back out to the dead crowd. She'd seemed to have caught their attention, but in the wrong way because they were all shuffling right for the stage! The sea of "zombie" fans climbed onto the stage, with ill intent radiating from them. Lori was the only band member to escape the "zombies" and get outside.
But naturally, outside proved to be the worse option as Lori came face-to face with a looming, shadowy figure right outside the back door of the stadium they'd been scheduled to play in that day. The shadow figure made a slow, sweeping gesture to the city beyond, and like the gullible idiot she tended to be during dreams, Lori ran at full speed. Of course, the shadow figure ran after her because it had wanted her to run in the first place. Lori ran as fast as she could through the twisting city streets, the shadow figure keeping up with her every step of the way.
The chase somehow ended up in the forest, where Lori ended up getting pinned to a convenient rock cliff. The shadow figure's cloaked arm reached out for her, its hand level with her chest… and her heart.
She felt its ice-cold touch before her mind went blank.