Care (Part 1)

Ratchet really wasn't having a good week.

It'd started off well enough with Jazz, Sideswipe and especially Fireflight's arrival. While the former two could be irritating and a massive pain in his plating, they were familiar faces that he'd thought long dead and it had been a relief to see them alive and well. The latter though- Ratchet hadn't realised how much he'd missed the little flyer until she'd actually shown up.

As much as he worried and fussed over all the Autobots, there had always been something special about the faction's two combiner teams, in particular the youngest of both; Fireflight and her best friend First Aid. He'd taken on First Aid as an apprentice medic during the war and both femmes had spent more time than he could remember simply hovering around his med bay and keeping him company. Having even one of them around again was a good feeling.

Of course right after that Sunstreaker had to make an appearance and send everything to the pit. Yes, to be fair it hadn't been all his doing, but with his history and the fact that he dared lay a hand on Ratchet's human charges and favourite nuisance (Smokescreen), the blame was mostly resting on his still offline and rather crispy-looking head. Well his and Knock Out's.

The vain sports car's involvement in the recent Decepticon Trip to Earth had been figured out rather quickly and Ultra Magnus in all his wisdom had elected to send the little glitch to Ratchet to keep an optic on as punishment. The medic had been…let's go with less-than-thrilled. In fact there'd been quite the temper tantrum until he'd had the brilliant idea to stick his two biggest problems together to sort each other out.

Knock Out now had the pleasure of handling Sunstreaker's repairs, Ratchet having not had time to do anything other than stabilize the yellow bot and force him back into stasis when he'd begun to wake up. The ambulance was well aware that both egomaniacs hated each other and was counting on them keeping each other occupied for a while. If not, he'd just deck them both, since that wasn't an option for Problem Number Three.

William Fowler had shown up a mere half hour after Ravage's departure, out-tantruming Ratchet with ease over his wife and children's safety. While the medic could understand the little human's worry, he'd mostly just gotten in the way of examinations on June and Jack and expanded Jazz and Sideswipe's already rather extensive vocabularies with human curses.

Well that and sent Arcee into some kind of self-pitying breakdown. Ratchet could sympathize with the femme; he would be well on his way to a breakdown of his own, except Jazz and Jack had gone after her, leaving him essentially the only sane one on base to babysit everyone else.

He just hoped Jazz remembered to scan an Earth vehicle and refrain from adding any more problems to his list.

Heaving a sigh, Ratchet ran a hand down his face and turned away from the computer terminal he'd been staring blankly at for the past who-knows-how-long and trudging over to take a seat on one of the medical tables. What a mess! He was doing his best, but when it really came down to it, Ratchet had no idea how to handle this many bots and humans. He was just a medic, not a leader of any kind and he almost resented Optimus for leaving him in such a position. Almost. Mostly he just missed his old friend.

"Ratch?" A soft voice dragged him out of his thoughts and caused him to glance over towards the med bay's entrance and smile weakly. Fireflight. "You alright?" She asked with a tilt of her head and flick of her wings. It surprised him how young and adorable she still managed to look despite all the time that had passed since he'd last seen her.

"I have been better," He replied honestly, having never been able to lie to the little femme. She had some strange ability to pick up on lies and give one the most unbearable disappointed look imaginable. Although, the sad, sympathetic look she was giving him now wasn't much better. "Fireflight…"

She smiled and wandered into the room, moving to sit beside him, cautious of her wings. "You look like you could use a hug," She said matter-of-factly, wrapping her arms around his larger one and resting her head against it. "You wanna talk about it?"

"Not really," Ratchet replied with a genuine smile this time, reaching over to pat her hands with his free one. "It has just been a long week."

"If you say so," She replied cheerily enough, tilting her head to glance up at his face. "You're doing that blaming yourself thing again though."

The medic opened his mouth in surprise to argue only to be met with a rather pointed look from the femme. "When did you get so observant?" He muttered fondly.

"While I was busy not paying attention to everything else I should've," Fireflight replied with a playful grin. "You know me, I can spot a screw on the ground from the air, but I won't see the skyscraper right in front of me."

Ratchet snorted in amusement. "Speaking of, how are your wings?" He asked, pulling out of her grip to inspect said appendages.

"I dunno, wonky?" 'Flight replied with a shrug. "You're changing the subject."

"Yes, I am. You know me, I dwell on things." Ratchet replied simply, getting to work on realigning the wings.

"You really should stop, Jazz says it's bad for your health," The Aerial replied, peering over her shoulder to watch him. "Although, he says the same to 'Bolt and he never listens either…"

That was the first time she'd mentioned any of her brothers since arriving on Earth, something that had been bothering Ratchet for days. "How is he? And the others?" He asked softly.

Flight's wings fell and she fidgeted slightly, no longer meeting his gaze. "I don't know." She replied quietly. "I can't feel any of them. I mean, I know they're still there, but the link's…muted I guess. We're too far away."

"We'll find them," Ratchet told her firmly, patting her shoulder in assurance and absolutely meaning it. He'd spent enough time among the two Autobot combiner teams and studying and treating them in an effort to make their links more manageable to have some understanding of them and knew this distance had to be killing her. "You've just got to keep it together until then. How are you feeling?" He asked, gentler than he would be with any other patient.

"Spacey." Fireflight replied simply, struggling to explain it properly. "It's hard to think and concentrate, well more than usual."

That sounded about right. All five Aerials tended to exhibit more and more exaggerated versions of their primary personality traits without the other siblings around to balance them out. In Fireflight's case, she remained cheerful and positive, but quickly lost the confidence and ability to think things through and focus she gained from her brothers.

"And the panic attacks?" Ratchet questioned, thinking back to the breakdown she'd had earlier.

"They're getting better," 'Flight replied softly. "They were a lot worse when we first split up."

"What changed?" Ratchet asked with a frown, although already suspecting he knew the answer.

"Sideswipe."

Ratchet nodded, suspicions confirmed. The red warrior had struggled for ages with trying to find a substitute for Sunstreaker when he'd first left and was probably the only bot around that would come even close to understanding Fireflight and most of her problems. But still… "Do I need to slag him?" The medic asked pointedly, causing the femme to giggle.

"Please don't." She replied, smiling. "Besides, Jazz has already offered. Apparently he's never quite approved of Siders' previous um…interests."

Ratchet rolled his optics at that. And Jazz dared make fun of him for being overprotective; he and Prowl were far, far worse when it came to their team. The two bots had been referred to as various translations of 'mother' and 'father' since the Ark had first come in contact with organic worlds and learned of the concept.

"Jazz can get in line. Besides, he isn't half as scary without his partner in crime." Ratchet informed her flatly, finishing up with her wings and patting them when she again giggled. "Come on, I'd better go check on Knock Out, he's been too quiet for a while now."

A flick of her now functioning wings and the Aerial jumped to her feet, trailing after him cheerfully. Okay, maybe this week wasn't that bad.

Turned out Knock Out wasn't too quiet so much as the storage room was more sound-proof than Ratchet had thought, since the second he and 'Flight opened the door to peek inside, they were bombarded with complaints and less-than-pleasant opinions on Ultra Magnus and Ratchet at a rather loud volume. In Knock Outs oh-so-humble opinion though, they deserved it, leaving him alone with the likes of this- this thing!

Sunstreaker's repairs so far had been hard work and extremely time-consuming, not to mention really horrible for Knock Out's poor paint job. All the charred paint and metal was going everywhere. He was going to need a really good car wash after this and he was going to whine until he got it. That was one of the things he really enjoyed about the Autobots; pitiful looks and complaining actually got you somewhere other than the end of Megatron's fist. Well, except with Grimlock, but he really wasn't going to go there right now.

Stopping the whining for now, Knock Out glanced over at the doorway. He actually hadn't had a chance to meet any of the new bots other than the brief run in with Jazz in Magnus' office, but he knew them all by reputation. He had to say though; the tiny little flyer wasn't at all what he expected.

The Aerials had been a regular opponent to the Stunticons, the combiner team his friend Breakdown had been a member of until their leader's unfortunate demise, so he'd heard all kinds of horror stories about what they were capable of and the damage they caused. They just didn't match the adorable and quite frankly rather pretty, although not as much as him, little bot standing in the doorway. Especially not when she smiled and waved shyly in greeting.

"Well hello there," He offered in what he was sure was a friendly voice. Ratchet apparently disagreed however.

"You will speak to her as you'd speak to me or no one will find your remains." The medic stated in a deadly serious tone. Well alright then. No big loss, her red and silver paint job was just too similar to his own for them to really work out anyway. Although, she looked like she could use a touch up, the colour was looking rather dull-

"Knock Out!" Ratchet snapped, clicking a finger in front of his face. "Stop your gawking and report already!"

"Bossy, bossy," Knock Out complained in a huff, "And here I thought I'd left the Decepticons. Your ninja friend did a real number on Sunshine here. I've used up nearly a third of your med bay supplies by the way, might want to do something about that. I've patched up all the damage, all that's left is cosmetic work and quite frankly I don't think he's worth the effort."

"Good thing your opinion counts for less than nothing then." Ratchet retorted. "This is a punishment; you do not get to pick and choose which parts you do. I want him as shiny and yellow as he was when you last saw him."

Oh fantastic. Knock Out groaned in annoyance and aimed his very best glare at the medic, who really didn't seem to care. "Are you kidding me!? Do you have any idea how much time he spends on his paint job to look like that!? Not that I have any clue why considering he's such an ugly colour and a real brute on top of that but-"

"About as much time as you?" Fireflight asked innocently enough with a slight smile, Ratchet snorting in agreement.

"Touché," The former Decepticon replied dryly. "But to do it properly, I'm going to have to pull him out of stasis."

"Oh really? You're going to wake him up?" The little Aerial asked hopefully. "Can I stay and watch? I've always wanted to meet him."

"Really?" Both medics questioned flatly, Knock Out adding; "Why?"

"He's Sideswipe's brother." 'Flight answered as though it was obvious, ducking past Ratchet and taking a seat on one of the supply crates despite neither of them agreeing. "And he sounds like he could use a friend."

"Yes, but see that involves him at least trying to be remotely likable," Knock Out muttered with an optic roll.

"You seem to get by just fine," Ratchet threw at him before turning his attention back to the Aerial worriedly. "'Flight, I don't think it's such a good idea…"

One pouty face later and Fireflight was settling herself happily on her crate as she was left alone with Knock Out and the still-unconscious Sunstreaker.

"What a pushover!" The former Decepticon mumbled exasperatedly as he fiddled with the other bot's systems. "Well, here goes nothing."

While Ratchet was convinced he was the babysitter around here, Smokescreen was having very similar thoughts as he tried to keep the peace between June, Fowler (it was just weird calling him anything else) and Sideswipe, as well as keep Leah entertained. Funnily enough the two-year-old was proving the easier of those tasks, as she played quietly next to him with her dolls while he was seated on the hangar floor.

The so-called 'adults' though…

"-is he being kept here!?" Fowler ranted, waving his arms around dramatically as he shared his opinion on Sunstreaker. "Ship the bastard back to Cybertron and let's be done with him."

Unfortunately Sideswipe had lost patience very early into the 'conversation' and now appeared to be simply debating the fastest and likely most satisfying way to squish the human. "For the last time squishy; it's because I'm here. He's my brother, so he's my problem."

"That's another thing!" The human continued on, not showing any signs of winding down soon, despite June clearly drifting off from her spot resting on one of the couches. "How are we supposed to trust you?! I wasn't even aware robots could have siblings! All we have is Ratchet's word-"

"All we have on you is Ratchet's word and that's enough for us." Sideswipe growled, moving his face down in front of the man. "So shut it before I decide it's not and just squish you. You're hurting my audials, haven't you ever heard of an inside voice?"

Deciding now would be a really good time to intervene, Smokescreen carefully got to his feet.

"Umm, Fowler?" He interrupted, putting a great deal of effort into ignoring the foul look Sideswipe gave him. Quite frankly the warrior scared him a little, especially with some of the stories he and Jazz had already shared. "I think maybe June needs to see a human doctor or something," He said truthfully enough. He really was worried by how tired she seemed to be.

That seemed to be enough to distract the human who went straight back to fussing over his wife. Soon enough a plan had been made for Smokescreen to drive both humans to the hospital, Leah being left in Sideswipe's care. Apparently Fowler didn't distrust him as much as he claimed considering he was willing to leave his daughter in his care, he was just frustrated and after a fight. Sideswipe seemed to calm down upon learning that much to Smokescreen's relief, apparently understanding the feeling well.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Smokes told the warrior as he transformed. "She shouldn't be any trouble; just let her play with her toys and take her to Ratchet if she needs anything else okay?"

Sideswipe simply nodded and waved him off dismissively, muttering something about 'not being worse than 'Flight'.

Oh Primus. Why did that not leave Smokescreen with an especially good feeling? Deciding he really needed to get back as soon as possible, he left the base at a much higher speed than base rules dictated, all the while praying that just this once nothing went horribly wrong.

Umm, just go ahead and insert whatever excuses you feel like here. I know it's been ages and I'm sorry. I'm reasonably happy with this chapter, although it's more of a breather before we get into some more action next episode.

As usual, thanks for the follows, faves and reviews!

Next chapter should hopefully be up sooner than this one. I hope. There will likely be an update to the Drabbles side story sometime this week as well.

~Saani