Protector XIV

A/N: Please don't kill me. I know it's been almost a MONTH since I last updated but I started college and all sorts of things got in the way TT please don't hate me TT hides behind Jazz and Ironhide

Ironhide was floored. Gazing down at the young woman in his arms he opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out, giving him a resemblance to a fish out of water. Kory looked up at him. Her dark blue eyes were half closed and had a slightly disorientated look about them, no doubt from the morphine. The weapons specialist couldn't help but smile down at her. The young woman smiled tiredly and drifted into unconsciousness.

The next time Kory woke, she was alone. Wincing at the twinge of pain in her side, she sat herself up and looked around. The room was large enough for an Autobot to stay in but had a human sized table and several chairs.

Looking at the bedside table she found a small bouquet of Black Eyed Susan's on it. Kory couldn't help but grin. She knew they were from Sam. He was the only one that knew they were her favorite flower. Kory's attention was pulled from the flowers by the sound of heavy footfalls. It was Ratchet.

The medic saw that his patient was awake and smiled slightly. Kneeling down beside her, he checked her vitals and her ribs.

"How long was I out?" Kory asked in a raspy voice, her throat still very raw. The yellow Autobot finished his scan and paused as if in thought.

"Approximately 12 hours and 26 minutes," he replied. "Sam came by earlier and dropped of the flowers."

"I figured it was Sam, he's the only one that knows they're my favorites," Kory said softly. No sooner had she said that, Sam stuck his head in the door. He didn't notice that Kory was awake as he spoke opened his mouth to speak to the medic. Just as he was about to say something he saw that Kory was awake.

"Hey," Kory said weakly, a soft smile on her face.

"Kory!" Sam exclaimed she he, without thinking, threw his arms around the young woman's frame. Fortunately, the morphine blocked out a vast amount of the pain so Kory was able to give her friend a one armed hug. Ratchet let Sam hug Kory, but only for a few seconds. Clearing his throat to get the two humans attention, the medic locked eyes with Sam.

"Is there something you wanted to tell me Sam?" Ratchet asked trying not to sound annoyed at the fact that the teen had probably just caused more damage to his friend's ribs.

"Oh yah, Will's here with the brace," Sam said as he stood back up and went to go get the man known as Will.

"Who's Will?" Kory asked looking up at the yellow Autobot.

"He's a friend of ours, he assisted us in the battle against Megatron," was the medic's reply. Kory opened her mouth to ask him something else, but was stopped short when someone said her name.

"Kory?" A voice said in disbelief. Said girl whipped her head around. Standing in the doorway of the room was Capitan William Lennox. Tears filled her eyes when the Capitan's brown eyes met her deep blue ones. Will dropped the brace he was carrying, sprinted over to Kory and threw his arms around her, being as careful as he could of her shoulder and ribs.

"I'm so sorry, Kory. I'm so sorry that I couldn't be there," the Capitan whispered as he held the young woman close. Kory clung to the Capitan like lifeline. Closing her eyes, tears of mixed emotions leaked from them. Ratchet scanned Kory's body after a few seconds and found that she was unconscious. Will noticed this and, with tenderness only a new father possesses, laid her back down on her bed.

"I take it that the two of you are acquainted," Ratchet said as Will picked up the brace he had dropped. The Capitan sighed and sat the brace on the table beside Kory's bed.

"Her father and I were close," Will sighed as he ran a hand through his cropped hair. "We served in the Army together and I was the best man at his wedding."

"What did you mean when you said that you were sorry that you couldn't be there for her?" The medic asked, his curiosity getting the best of him. The Capitan sighed again.

"It's not my placed to tell you. Let's just say I wasn't there for her when she needed someone," with that said he left the room. Ratchet looked down at his young patient and sighed.

There was so much that they still didn't know about her and her family. From when he stayed with the young woman he knew that she didn't like hospitals and, judging by the few pictures he had seen around the house, she lived with her mother. However he was confused because he never sensed another person in the house, more or less seen evidence of anyone else being in the house. Rubbing the bridge of his nose in frustration he left Kory's room to let her rest.

Kory woke to the sound of someone's voice. At first she thought that it was all part of her dream but the more the voice persisted, the more and more real it felt.

"Kory, Kory, wake up," the voice said. Moaning slightly, Kory forced her dark blue eyes to open themselves. Blinking several times she found the hologram of Ratchet standing beside her bed.

"What Ratchet?" Kory asked tiredly as she rubbed her eyes with her only working hand.

"I need to change the bandages on your back," the medic said as he helped sit his patient up. Kory scratched the back of her hand where the IV was still embedded.

"Can you take the IV out now? I don't think you have to worry about me getting dehydrated again," Kory said with a small smile. The medic scanned her, checking her vitals and found that all of them were stable.

"Very well," Ratchet said. "But if you feel the slightest bit faint, please for the love of Primus, tell me." With that said he removed the needle from the back of Kory's hand with precision that he alone possessed. After bandaging the young woman's hand, his hologram dissipated and he kneeled beside her, his hand on the floor beside her for her to climb in.

Minutes later Ratchet was in the med bay cleaning and re-bandaging Kory's back. It had only been a little over 24 hours so he didn't expect there to be much of a change in the burns, and there wasn't. Kory lay on her stomach as Ratchet worked with speed and precision, for which she was quite grateful considering the morphine was wearing off and a dull throb of pain was starting to annoy her.

Kory had just slid the clean sleeveless that Ratchet had given her over the brace for her ribs when the door to the med bay opened and a tall red and blue Autobot strode in. The only reason Kory recognized Optimus was because he had been the one to knock her from Blackout's grasp before she had been kidnapped. Judging by the way that he carried himself and he air of authority he gave off, she assumed he was the leader. The red and blue mech nodded at the medic in acknowledgement, then turned to Kory. Said girl shifted uncomfortably under the bright blue optics of the tall mech.

"I don't believe we've been introduced," the unfamiliar Autobot said. As he said that he activated his hologram. His hair was a deep chocolate brown and was cut a bit shorter then Ironhide's, accented by his bright blue eyes. He stood about 6'3" and had a strong build about him, not as prominent as Ironhide but still well defined.

"I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots," he said as he extended a hand to Kory with a soft smile on his lips. Kory smiled and shook his hand.

"Kory Mathis," she said as she released his hand. The hologram Optimus nodded in understanding then dissipated.

"I am glad to see that you are awake and moving about," he said taking a seat beside her. Kory laughed slightly as she ran a hand through her hair.

"I think the only reason I'm out of bed is because Ratchet had to change my bandages," she said with a smile, her dark blue eyes looking up at him. The lead Autobot was about to say something when Jazz came sprinting into the med bay. Ignoring the yells from Ratchet he strode over to Optimus.

"Sir we have an incoming Decepticon," he said in an uncharacteristically serious tone. Even though Kory didn't know what they were saying she knew it couldn't be anything good by the tone in the second in commands voice and the serious look that spread across Optimus's face.

"Do we know who it is?" He asked as he stood back up.

"It's Barricade."

A/N: yes, yes I KNOW! This chapter was extremely boring and had no 'Hide Kory action. The next one will be better I promise! And it WON'T be another month until I update!