Chapter 11

"It's high-grade!" Ratchet yelled, and threw a (sealed up) cube directly at Optimus who'd run in right when he heard the medic shout out loud the engineer's designation.

The Prime caught it, barely, and inspected it curiously, a serious frown appearing on his faceplate.

"It's ALL high-grade!" he repeated, lifting his arms up in defeat.

"I knew it was a bad decision to let him stay here. Now, look what that son of a GLITCH…" Ratchet spat out the last word. …"has caused! A mountain of nothing but high-grade!"

He paused and vented a little.

"It's not very useful for anything except getting your energy levels back up rapidly. Bumblebee and Smokescreen are too young to use it for anything else! Oh, guess what; the ground-bridge can't use it at all. And look!"

The Prime watched as Ratchet pointed to a few other cubes lying on the other side of the room.

"Those came from my refineries. They – at the moment – are the only cubes of regular grade we have left, aside the leftovers in the storage!" the medic continued ranting, his voice beginning to waver.

"I can't handle this…" His voice finally broke out and he sat on the floor and covered his optics, making him look like he was about to weep.

The Prime's look softened, as he slowly approached his long-time friend.

"Ratchet…" was all he said, sounding a little unsure. However, it was as if something from deep within was telling him what to do.

The medic tensed a little when he felt Optimus kneeling down next to him and gently wrapping his servos around him.

"It is going to be alright." the Prime reassured, not being really sure what made him do this. But it felt right.

"Wheeljack can fix the device and I'm sure we can find a use for the… excess amount." he stated slowly, deciding against to mention the name of the substance that had caused his medic so much distress.

Ratchet didn't say anything. It was taking all his willpower to not break down completely. Deep down he wondered if the Prime had any idea what he was doing to him.

Suddenly they both perked up when they heard someone clearing their throat. It was June.

Oh, wasn't this just perfect.

Optimus stood up immediately and Ratchet swiftly wiped his optics as he also stepped up. Without saying a word he grabbed a few high-grade cubes with him… and exited in his quarters, this time making sure the door was locked.

June just stood there wide-eyed looking at Optimus. Now what the heck had that been all about?

"Ratchet… has been pretty stressed out, recently." was the only explanation Optimus provided.

June just kept staring at him and then towards the hallway the medic had just bolted into, and then back at the Prime.

Optimus then chose to also exit the med-bay, leaving the bewildered nurse in.

June simply shook her head in disbelief. She had a sneaking suspicion she might have an idea just what the reason for Ratchet's current situation was…

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On the following day, Wheeljack could not stop laughing when he heard what had happened.

"It is NOT funny!" Ratchet complained, clearly hung-over from the previous night.

"I can't believe it! Ohh, boy. Guess my invention really lived up to its name." the engineer chuckled, referring to its playful designation, the 'High-Grade Might Aid'; clearing lubricant from the corner of his optic.

"I swear I'd murder you on the spot if my helm-ache allowed me to do so much as stand up without making me go all woozy." the medic barked.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever you say." Wheeljack waved at him, not taking his threats one bit seriously.

He went to the machine and inspected it for a while, opening up its back-panel.

"A-ha!" he suddenly exclaimed, as he held it up and pointed to the bundle of wires within.

"One teeny loose wire. Sure didn't think it could cause so much trouble. I guess I should consider installing a back-up system, don't you think?" he teased the irritated medic, re-attaching the wire.

"There! Good as new!" he proclaimed, deciding to test it out right away. Loading it up, he made sure the settings were correct and turned it on.

"Whatever. I'm not going anywhere near that thing ever again." Ratchet swore, his helmache making him a bit slow to react.

That only made the wrecker snort in amusement.

"Sure didn't stop you from drinking all that high-grade last night. Though judged by how up-tight you've been recently, it probably did you good." he chuckled, coming in on closer and giving him a sultry look, suddenly taking a deep vent.
"Though, I'm sure I could think of a few… other much needed activities that would do you good. You smell nice." he sweet-talked in a mocking tone.

Ratchet's optics widened to the size of dinner plates; his expression fuming. He did not just say that.

It took all of the medic's willpower to not flat out explode; when suddenly:

"Wheeljack." It was Optimus Prime.

"I think there was somewhere you needed to go."

Wheeljack only shrugged, rolling his optics and got moving.

"You guys have no sense of humor, you know that?"

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June had been watching the scene, her mouth open wide. Just when she thought things couldn't get any weirder…

Since Ratchet had gone drinking again the previous evening, Arcee had taken June home once Jack had returned from the Jackhammer. Today happened to be her day off, and as she didn't have any plans, the nurse had asked the female bot to bring her back at the base once she'd taken Jack to school.

She couldn't help but feel a bit worried for the old medic, and she kind of liked spending time with the bots, so the nurse didn't mind spending her day off concealed out of bright daylight.

Now, though, she was beginning to have doubts.

Wheeljack helped himself as he opened the ground bridge and walked in, the Prime following him up to close it down.

Almost immediately after the vortex disappeared, Bumblebee walked into the hangar. He whirred something to the Prime, who simply nodded and then turned to Ratchet.

"It's time for our scheduled patrol. Will you be alright?"

The medic rolled his optics.

"Yes, carrier; just peachy. Now, get going. I got better things to do than waver in here chatting." was the snarky reply of the cranky old bot, as he ushered the two mechs onwards.

With them finally gone, Ratchet left out a deeply vented sigh, and closed his optics. Finally, some peace and quiet and the base just for himself… Oh, right.

"Might want to close your mouth, unless you want a bird making a nest in there."

That caused the nurse finally come out of her stupor. She shook her head in disbelief.

"Sorry. I guess I wasn't quite ready to witness… that."

"Please. We are an alien species to you. There are many things about our kind you probably wouldn't understand."

"So, same-sex relationships… are a common social norm for you?" she asked, hoping she had gotten that right.

"Well, if you really must know, yes. And not just social; it's crucial for the survival of our species." Ratchet explained.

June didn't say anything, only listened. Ratchet sighed.

"I guess your confusion is understandable. Among humans, relationships between the members of the same gender are not very common since that's not how your species works. Ours, however, is a completely different story."

"Which means…?" the nurse asked, still not quite following.

"You ever stopped to consider why the only female Cybertronians on this planet are Arcee and Airachnid? The male to female ratio on Cybertron even during the golden age was somewhere around ten to one; now, even less. Not very efficient on the biological viewpoint, really. " the medic continued his lecture.

June's eyes widened at that.
"So, you're saying that…?"

"Well, let's just say that our kind is a little more versatile in the ways of life."

"Oh… OH." It took a split second for the nurse to finally get what Ratchet was aiming at.

The look on her face must have been quite shocked since the old bot only shook his helm, and returned to work on his console.

AN: It's a bit shorter than the ones before, but I had to post this in order to celebrate the premiere of Transformers Beast Hunters which aired today in Singapore... And leaked to Youtube. ;D
Tell me what you think! ^^