Chapter 14 – The Truth

Joe blinked away the stinging sweat that had dripped into her eyes. She continued to run wishing that she had been able to run in the much cooler morning rather than the evening. Keeping pace on her route outside the autobot base, Joe thought about how busy the day had been. Two decepticon skirmishes had prevented her usual morning workout; and with Wheeljack still not fit for duty that left them shorthanded.

Joe reached the end of her route and slowed to a walk. Shadows of a nearby canyon offered some protection from the setting sun. It seemed like years had passed since Ratchet had brought her here after her advancement test. Joe approached the rock face and began to climb. Ratchet. Now that the autobot medic's name had come to light in her thoughts Joe could not think of anything else. She was still not sure if what Wheeljack had told her was legit or just delirious ramblings brought on by his injuries. She had not been able to bring herself to ask him about it when he regained consciousness.

She reached the top of a cliff cut into the canyon wall and sat down letting her legs dangle over the edge. Another evening storm was forming over the horizon. The setting was almost identical to the first time she was here. The only thing missing was Ratchet. Ratchet again. Joe sighed heavily and leaned back on her arms. "Just because Jack said that Ratchet cares for me doesn't mean he meant it in that way. He was probably just delirious." Joe closed her eyes. "It's not what Wheeljack told me that's got my brain scrambled though. It's the fact that I think I care for him too. And I do mean it in that way. And then there is the fact that I am talking to myself about it on a damn cliffside!"

Joe opened her eyes and caught the sight of lightning in the distance. "Frag!" She quickly climbed back down to the ground and ran hard towards the base. Racing the storm renewed the burn in her legs but did not distract her from her earlier thoughts. 'Joe what are you doing? He is a giant alien robot for crying out loud!' Her thoughts warring within echoed the breaking storm outside. 'I know what he is but it's who he is that matters.' Rain started to fall and in short time had Joe soaked to the bone. 'So he's a nice guy, but you can't just ignore what he is. How the hell would you make it work? You don't even know if he really cares for you.'

Strong winds gusted from the direction of the base slowing Joe's run. She gritted her teeth and forced herself forward. The storm would not win…and neither would the voice in her head telling her that she was wrong. 'I don't care about the difficulties or the consequences! Isn't that usually a part of falling in love anyways?!' Joe tripped and fell to the ground with a grunt. Sitting up Joe forgot all about the rain, the winds, and the lightning. The negative thoughts were gone, the argument was won. "When the hell did love come into this?" she asked out loud. Joe was not sure how long she sat there in the storm reveling in her newfound feelings.

Eventually a slight pain worked its way through her haze and she glanced down at her legs noticing that she scraped up her knees in the fall. Joe raised a hand to redirect the rain from her eyes so she could get a better look at her scrapes. Suddenly the rain stopped hitting her. It had not stopped raining around her, it just failed to fall on her. Confused, Joe looked up. She felt her heart skip a beat as she noticed Ratchet standing over her blocking the rain.

"I thought you said you were going to stop worrying me. I fail to see how running in the middle of a storm fits into that agreement."

Joe grinned up at her robotic umbrella and shrugged. "Well it wasn't raining when I left."

Ratchet shook his head and kneeled offering Joe his hand. She climbed on and he cupped his other hand to protect her from the elements. He stood and began to walk back towards base. "I don't see why you insist on running that far from the base. I don't even understand why you run to begin with."

Joe would never admit that she liked running to that spot because Ratchet had taken her there and seemed to like it. "Running laps around the base is boring. I do not have a set metal frame like you do. If I don't exercise I will turn into a disgusting ugly blob."

Ratchet chuckled. "Doubtful. You and disgusting in the same sentence are impossible to contemplate."

Joe raised an eyebrow "and here I thought Jazz was the flirt of the autobot crew."

Ratchet glanced back down at her and blinked his optics but said nothing.

Nothing more was said as Ratchet carried Joe back to base. Between her workout, the storm, and mental fatigue Joe found herself falling into a light sleep in Ratchet's warm hands.

Ratchet smiled as his scans detected that Joe's vitals indicated she had fallen asleep. Upon reaching the base he moved his other hand to completely cover Joe so that the lights would not wake her. He entered the med bay and frowned as he saw Wheeljack fiddling with something on one of the equipment tables. "Get back on the repair berth or I will weld you to it" he said quietly enough not to wake Joe but loud enough for the engineer to hear.

Wheeljack spun around at the sound of Ratchet's voice. "Ratchet! I uh…I was just straightening up." He glanced at Ratchet's cupped hands. "Is Joe ok?"

"Don't change the subject. You are still under my care until I deem you healthy enough to leave the med bay. And yes Joe is ok short of a few scratches. She is just exhausted." He moved to his office and gently placed Joe on his desk with a practiced air. He pulled a small blanket from his desk drawer and placed it over the still sleeping human.

Wheeljack cautiously poked his head in through the office doorway. "You know, it's cute that you keep a blanket in there for her. She ends up sleeping on your desk more than on the bed in the room we gave her."

Ratchet glared at Wheeljack. "Didn't I tell you to get back on your repair berth?"

Wheeljack shrugged. "Oh come off it Ratchet. I got bored staring at the med bay walls. It's not like I am doing anything strenuous."

Ratchet stepped from around his desk and grabbed Wheeljack by one of his voice indicators. Wheeljack made strangled sounds as Ratchet dragged him out of his office and over to a repair berth. "Now get on or I'll keep you in here so long you will think you were sparked in this med bay." Wheeljack sighed and climbed back onto his repair berth. Ratchet nodded and initiated a scan of his friend. His spark appeared to be almost back to full strength and his weld scars did not seem to have any issues. "You are on the mend Jack but you still need to take it easy. You know better."

Wheeljack ducked his head. "I know." He glanced over at Ratchet's office. "I owe her my life don't I?"

Ratchet nodded solemnly. "She'll get plenty more practice if things remain the way they are with the decepticons. I honestly don't know how we've been able to come out this lucky so far." Ratchet frowned down at his hands on the berth. "We need what the humans call a miracle Jack, and soon." He looked back up at Wheeljack and blinked his optics. He had never seen such a fierce expression from his friend before. "What…"

"I am working on a solution Ratchet. I am so close." Wheeljack placed a hand on Ratchet's shoulder. "There is something I need to tell you. I didn't involve you before because I didn't want to get your hopes up. After my recent…incident…" Wheeljack shuddered "you should know about this in case something happens to me."

Wheeljack took a deep breath through his intakes. "Right before we regenerated Jazz I managed to cultivate a small splinter of the Allspark." Ratchet's optics grew wide in alarm and Wheeljack raised his hands to forestall him. "It was a precaution and I'm glad I did it. You know what happened to the original piece after we used it."

Ratchet nodded sadly "it was destroyed."

"Right. Well, until recently I had the splinter entrusted to Sam to keep it secret." Wheeljack's voice indicators flashed in excitement. "The splinter survived Ratchet! It survived and thrived! It's grown too large to keep with Sam so it's been locked up in my lab."

"You secretly took a piece of the Allspark; I don't even want to know how you did that! And then you grew it!?" Ratchet did a quick glance in the direction of Wheeljack's lab. "Has it 'done' anything?"

Wheeljack shook his head. "No. Not yet. I've been afraid to use it after what happened with the other piece. It is now bigger then that piece but...well it's a risk."

"Agreed." It was not often that his friend showed this sort of caution with any of his experiments, but when he did there was usually a really good reason for it. "When do you think it will be safe enough to try?"

"I'm not sure, but at the rate it's growing, soon."

"You know that if Prime, Prowl, or Ironhide knew about this you would be in the brig faster than Starscream running from a fair fight?"

"Wouldn't be the first time."

Ratchet couldn't hold back a small smile. It had been awhile since hope touched his spark. "Can I see it?"

"Will you release me from the med bay?"

Ratchet frowned. "That's blackmail you fragger."

Wheeljack shrugged.

"Fine, but you are still restricted to light duty."

"Works for me!" Wheeljack jumped down from his berth and started for the med bay doors.

Ratchet looked back at his office. Deciding that Joe would remain asleep for awhile longer he followed Wheeljack. 'There's a chance. Thank Primus we have a chance!' A full blown smile had bloomed on Ratchet's face plates by the time he caught up with his friend.