Okay. Finished another today, and now it's time for me to go to bed. :)

The first thing he saw when he came online was the bright lights of the med-bay. They were dimmed slightly, but he couldn't really figure out why. Slowly, he sat up and looked around blearily. That was odd. Snowy wasn't here, and neither was Katie.

Thinking about his charge, he stiffened as the memories came flooding back to him. Maggie, coffee shop, Bluestreak, Barricade, note…. They rushed back at him as he shook out the cobwebs in his head and the world began to spin dizzily. Ratchet. He drugged him!

"Jazz," he looked around at the dull voice and found Bluestreak sitting on a berth nearby, knees drawn up to his chest. "Do you think Katie and Maggie will be okay?" He asked in that same dull tone.

Seeing his comrade in such a depressed state, Jazz pushed his anger away for the moment and went to sit beside him, forcing tense cables to work properly. "They'll be fine, Blue. Maggie and Katie are tougher than many; Maggie survived Frenzy and Katie survived her mother. Together they can survive the Decepticons too."

Bluestreak sighed and buried his head in his hands resting on his knees and Jazz wrapped a comforting arm around his shoulders. "I can't help but be worried, Jazz," he said quietly.

"I know, Blue. I feel the same way." His spark ached knowing that if he hadn't left them, they wouldn't be in this mess. He smirked slightly. If he thought about it too much, he half-expected Katie to notice and throw something or kick him and tell him to find something more productive to do.

"Hot Rod's here." Bluestreak said suddenly, surprising Jazz. "Ratchet's working on him in the OR. Thundercracker and Skywarp attacked him out of the blue. They're looking for hostages, Jazz; they tried getting the human Hot Rod protects."

"Do you know what happened?" Jazz asked, and the gunner sort of shrugged.

"Not much. She contacted Optimus and he went out. Hound and Mirage got to them in time but left for one reason or another." He said simply. "The girl's wandering around somewhere."

"Would 'the girl' you're referring to be me?" an unfamiliar, lilting voice asked from the door and both mechs turned and found the little Italian girl leaning against the side of a berth.

"Perhaps." Was Jazz's contribution. "I suppose it would depend on who you are and why you're here."

Armonie nodded at the big gray tabby sitting a few feet away from her. "The cat brought me here, and my name is Armonie, not 'the girl'."

"That's definitely something Katie would've said," Jazz murmured to Bluestreak who nodded and uncurled himself, letting his legs hang over the edge.

"Same with Maggie, though I think she'd phrase it differently." He peered at Armonie who had crossed her arms and frowned thoughtfully at them. "My name is Bluestreak and this is Jazz." He said simply.

Armonie paused for a moment as if expecting him to continue, and black eyebrows rose. "I was told you usually talk a lot."

"Under usual circumstances, we're usually more cheerful." Jazz told her flatly. "It doesn't help that through our negligence–"

"If you two are going to have a self-pity fest, go do it somewhere else." Ratchet interrupted gruffly, helping a newly-repaired Hot Rod to an empty berth nearby. "And Jazz, if you act up again, I'll have to sedate you again." Reminded of the drug that still trickled through his systems, Jazz's optics flashed angrily at the medic who ignored him and walked out.

"Hey, Jazz! Hey, Blue! It's nice to see ya again. How've you been?" Hot Rod said, sitting up on his berth and swinging his legs over the edge, leaving to dangle like Jazz and Bluestreak's did. Two silent, flat stares answered his cheerful query. When it was evident that they weren't inclined to answer him, he went on almost nervously. "Ratchet's told me that I was lucky, that Armonie wasn't kidnapped. I heard two other Autobots had their charges taken away from them. Terrible, isn't it? I wonder what they're doing with them."

"That's something we don't want to think about." Bluestreak said without his usual cheer or rambling, something that surprised Hot Rod.

"Do you two know whose charges were taken? I want to talk to them and ask them how they lost them. I can't imagine doing something that made me lose Armonie," he looked fondly down at the human who rolled her eyes at him but patted his leg fondly. "Tell me what you know."

Bluestreak and Jazz exchanged a glance and shrugged. "The girls who were taken were named Katie and Maggie. Maggie worked with the Secretary of Defense and Katie was a freelance journalist and amateur artist and photographer. Both had gone with their guardians to a coffee shop to talk about something or another when their guardians got called away by Optimus. A suspicious signal was detected and both mechs were sent to investigate, leaving their charges in the coffee shop. Maggie left after Katie did and was taken at a bus stop by Barricade. Katie had left a few minutes before Maggie to attend a meeting a few blocks down. She was taken after Maggie by Frenzy." Jazz said bluntly.

"We have yet to figure out why they were taken," Bluestreak added quietly as Hot Rod carefully lifted Armonie up on the berth next to him.

"You were not negligent," Armonie stated firmly, startling the three bots. "Your leader called you off and you followed as it was your duty. I would not blame Hot Rod if he did that and I was taken while he was gone."

"Wait. How can you tell they weren't just making it up?" Hot Rod asked, and he didn't seem to notice that both Bluestreak and Jazz stiffened at that. "Who reported the signal, and why was it two guardians that were sent out?"

Armonie frowned up at her guardian at that and watched silently as Jazz and Bluestreak bridled. She'd been after him to use more tact when he spoke, and it hadn't worked; perhaps having it spelled out for him how tactless he was by two distraught mechs of his own kind might work better than shoes to the head.

Jazz's engine growled. "We weren't making it up. We picked up the signal and reported it to Prime. He told us to muster out and we did, but not before telling Katie and Maggie. We were sent out only because we were the closest to the signal."

Hot Rod "blinked" in surprise at that as Armonie shook her head. Wearily, Jazz got to his feet and Bluestreak followed suit. "I'm sure she doesn't blame you," Armonie said quietly, drawing the silver mech's attention. "Either of you." she added with a nod to Bluestreak. "If you so wish to blame someone, blame them that took your charges and give them back what they did to you." She smirked slightly. "I know if I saw Roddy here blaming himself I'd throw a shoe at him."

All three mechs were quiet and at last, Jazz walked over, lifting a hand. Armonie noticed as the hand descended upon her head that it was clawed and stiffened slightly. Gentle fingerpads touched her hair and stroked gently. "You sound so much like Katie. If Ratchet asks where we are, tell him we said to slag off."

Jus' why is it called "Self-Pity"? Well, 'cause the authoress was in self-pity-mode today, so it carried over to the story. But after listening to all the songs with a fast tempo I had as high as I could tolerate them in my ears, I feel much better. :)

Okay, I think they're all a little off character, but I just wanted to add this in. Er... Hmm. Right when I finished this chapter, it occurred to me to ask y'all. What would you do if I killed off Katie, Armonie, or Maggie? Would y'all, you know, bus' out the pitchforks an' torches an' come in a big ol' mob to my little house in th' middle o' blue ol' nowhere?

If you are, please don't go through all that trouble. I was just curious and I'm probably not gonna kill 'em off. But you know what they say: curiosity kills the cat. ;)

Anywho, next chapter : Ultimatum