Disclaimer: Same as always. I do not own Transformers: Prime or any of the characters in the show.
The moment Optimus placed her back on active duty, Arcee began planning. She knew that she wanted to spend as much time with Jack as she could. She knew that she was being overprotective, but after everything that had happened recently she didn't want her human partner out of her sight. Unfortunately being off active duty prevented her from fulfilling her duties as Jack's guardian. Now she was making up for it… and she was dragging Bumblebee along with her. Her little brother also wouldn't be leaving her sight for the time being. Bumblebee didn't seem to mind though. He wanted to keep an optic on her, just as much as she wanted to look over him. And she wanted her two little brothers to have some bonding time, that didn't involve them trying to escape from Airachnid. Currently though, she and Bumblebee had to wait for Jack to get out of school.
"Can't I just go for a little drive around 'Cee? I'll be back in just a minute," Bumblebee asked for what felt like the thousandth time to Arcee. Fortunately no one was around to notice the fact that a muscle car was beeping and a motorcycle was talking.
"I already said no 'Bee. You're staying here with me until Jack gets out. Then we can go for a drive."
"You're no fun."
"If being no fun means you stay safe, that's fine with me."
Arcee could practically hear her younger brother groan at her words. She knew that her overprotectiveness was going to annoy him for quite a while. After all, Bumblebee did like to prove that he could take care of himself. But she had nearly lost him, and if that wasn't a good enough reason to be protective she had no idea what would be.
"Hey 'Cee guess what."
"What?"
"Raf will be back in two more days!"
"I'm guessing you're excited."
"Yeah, I've missed him a lot. But I'm sort of glad he wasn't here the past week. He would have been really worried."
"Yeah he probably would have been. I know I was worried about you."
"I was worried about you too," Bumblebee nudged the femme in his vehicle mode.
"So are you going to tell him about what happened?"
"Yeah, I will. It's over now and he'd probably want to know what happened. I know that I'd want to know if he had gotten hurt and I wasn't there."
"Raf is lucky to have you as a friend."
Before either of them could say anything else, students started to walk out of the school. It was only a few minutes later that Jack came out and walked over to the two of them. A little bit after that, the trio was on the road heading back closer to the Autobot base. Arcee could tell that Bumblebee was about to complain when he noticed that they were going to the base instead of for a drive like he had wanted, so to appease him she veered off the road and started to drive to where they would be out of sight so she and Bumblebee would be able to transform.
"I thought we were going back to the base," Jack spoke up.
"We've been stuck there for weeks," Bumblebee said which caused the human to look at Arcee for a translation.
"We've been stuck in the base for too long, 'Bee needs a break from being in there," Arcee explained. "I do too."
"Boring?"
"Very. We were stuck in my room the entire time. And Bumblebee was recharging pretty much the entire time, so I had nothing to do."
"That's not my fault. I couldn't help it."
"I know that 'Bee, I wasn't blaming you," Arcee smiled at the scout that was now sitting on the ground next to her before looking back at Jack. "I'm sorry I didn't get to see you much the past week."
"Me too, Ratchet wouldn't really let me come in to see you and 'Bee because he said that you needed to rest."
"Figures," the femme shook her head. "I also wanted us to come out here so you two could spend some time together." She looked at both Bumblebee and Jack after she finished speaking, both of whom looked a little confused as to what they were supposed to do.
This might take a while, Arcee thought to herself.
Fortunately after a little coaxing, Arcee had been able to get Jack and Bumblebee to talk to each other, with her translating for Bumblebee. Their topics mainly stayed on movies and videogames, clearly not knowing what else they could talk about, but that was fine with the femme. After all, they were talking, and that was really all she wanted. About ten minutes later, they were done and Arcee let Bumblebee go for a drive like he had been wanting – with her and Jack naturally following close behind.
"So is Bumblebee going to be coming back to my house tonight too?" Jack asked as they followed the scout.
"No, why do you ask?"
"You act like you're going to freak out the second he's out of sight," the teen pointed out. "I just kind of assumed."
"I know that he'll be safe at the base. Optimus and Ratchet aren't going to let him leave there alone anyway. Though I don't think 'Bee's realized that yet – he hasn't started complaining."
Arcee dreaded the moment when Bumblebee realized that they were all keeping a closer optic on him. Her little brother wasn't exactly fond of being treated like he couldn't take care of himself. And it wasn't like any of them thought that, quite the contrary they all knew that Bumblebee was very skilled as a scout and a fighter. It was his age that made them want to protect him. Truthfully if it wasn't for the fact that they needed the youngling in fights, and the fact that Bumblebee would find his way out there anyway, Arcee was fairly certain that Bumblebee wouldn't be on active duty at all.
"'Bee it's time for you to get back to base."
"Really? Fine, I'll drive back now."
"No driving. GroundBridge."
"What!?" the scout skidded to a halt. "Why do I need to use the GroundBridge? We're only like ten minutes from the base."
"Doesn't matter, you're still having Ratchet GroundBridge you there. I'll call Optimus if you try to drive back."
"That's not fair 'Cee! I'm not a sparkling; you and Optimus don't have to treat me like one!"
Arcee was fairly certain that she would have rolled her optics if she weren't in her vehicle mode.
"Wanting to keep you safe after everything that's happened is not treating you like a sparkling," she retorted. "And it's not just me and Optimus, I'm pretty sure that Ratchet and Bulkhead agree with us too."
"Fine," Bumblebee grumbled before contacting Ratchet for a bridge.
As he walked through it, Arcee let out a small sigh at his irritated form. She was glad that she wouldn't have to deal with him again until tomorrow. Of course she was doubtful that Bumblebee would complain to Optimus about their decision, so there was a chance that he would wait until she returned tomorrow to vent. Arcee just hoped that he would be over it by then.
