Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. Just the plot and OCs.

Ratchet, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker. 96. "Are you leaking!?" 139. "Okay, it wasn't the best idea I've ever had." 150. "Because I can't lose you!"

Oh this was a good one. ^-^ I'm glad you picked this. This is also a rather large backtrack in the timeline. It's early in the war when the twins hadn't been Autobots long.

Massive, death welding, destructive, angry, vengeful, ex-gladiators the twins may be but all Ratchet would ever see in them is a pair of mechlings too foolish to look after themselves.

Just like now.

When that great big red idiot decided that taking a hit for the medic would be an intelligent idea.

Ratchet hadn't been paying attention. At least, not as much as he should have. Bent double in the mud trying to stop the latest pour spark from leaking out under his hands he hadn't seen the inbound seeker coming.

Over the chaos of the battlefield not even the roar of flight engines stood out all that much. Not when every ounce of Ratchet's focus was on trying to save a life.

Rule number one of battle field medical care: You aren't much help to the wounded if you get yourself killed.

Which meant, paying attention to more then just the task at hand was suppose to be the medic's top priority, but Ratchet . . . well, he'd never much liked that rule. Which was why he so often chose to ignore it.

Like now.

Only before, it was usually Ironhide or Optimus that would slide in at the last possible nano and take the force of the hit that would have killed him. Their larger, heavier, thicker frames and armor meaning they could take almost all of it and keep on going. Ratchet was built to take a hit-medics had to be, they had to be strong-but his armor wasn't anywhere near what Hide's and Optimus' were.

That was why they were always doing slag like that even when he snarled at them not to. Though, over all these vorns he might have accidentally somewhere along the line gotten use to Hide and Optimus being there to cover his distracted aft in the middle of a fire fight.

He knew he shouldn't, but well there were a lot of things Ratchet shouldn't do that he did. This wasn't all that different.

Only this time, it was. Because Ironhide and Optimus were halfway across this falling city fighting for their own lives and he was on his own near the back at the moment.

Habit and medical protocols won out over thought though when he saw that struggling, leaking frame in the mud. He dove in and went to work without much thought more then that.

Whole mind narrowing down to the task of trying to keep this slaggin' might as well be youngling alive. He never saw the incoming death from above at all. Would have met death without even knowing what hit him.

That is, if a crimson blur hadn't chose that moment to come flying in from out of no where and crashing into that swooping seeker full force.

"Hey aft-hat!" Sideswipe's echoing war cry sounded. "Pick on somebot your own fraggin' size!"

The swooping weight of the seeker had no time to correct for the suddenly flash of frontliner and the impact sent them both down to the muddy ground in a crash of metal and frames.

"SIDESWIPE!" Ratchet found himself screaming, optics blown wide at the sight just before him. Whole frame snapping up and rushing forward. He'd already lost the poor spark he'd been trying to save. That spark giving out just before Sideswipe crashed in, and now all Ratchet could see was the cloud of splattered ash, mud, and squealing metal.

Surging out of the ditch he'd found himself in, weapons systems that had shifted to stand by coming in a blur he ran forward only to yelp with a duck as the two crashed mechs came back up in a rush.

The seeker snarled, claws and a blade tipped blaster slashing as he struggled to his knees. Trying to take the red frontliner out before Sides could get his feet back under him, but Sides had not lived through the Rings by being that easy to kill.

He sprang up in a twist of limbs, blades already drawn, and whole frame echoing with the force of his own growls.

Ratchet stood there froze for what felt like a breem, but it all happened in less then twenty nanos.

Sideswipe just avoided the claws swiped for him and then the blade, his own right blade slashing froward and taking out a huge chunk of the larger mech. But his left leg was heavily damaged, twisted at the knee and leaking. It buckled under the weight he had to suddenly give it when he tried to doge the next swing of a hit.

This one he couldn't, and the full force of the Con's hit slammed into his already damaged middle. A grunt tore out of the red mech as he was flung backward. Landing hard on his back, arms filing and busted leg screaming.

Then a real yelp was torn out of him as that massive seeker latched hold with clawed hands into his already damaged leg and ripped him back into range.

The whirl of charging plasma rang out as Sides's dark optics open through the pain to find a end of a blaster above his face but then a scream was torn free. But not form him.

Now his optics widened as the huge weight over him suddenly buckled to the side and the blaster that had been held over him clattered down onto his face.

With the hand and most of the arm still attached.

Huh. Sideswipe actually had the time to consider. That's odd.

And then his gaze was swinging to the side to find not the expected gold of his brother, but the yellow and red frame of Ratchet instead.

The CMO was snarling, buzz saw whirling and sparking as he charged in swinging.

"Get off him!" Ratchet yelled, swiping out with his saw again, taking out a good bit of armor from the mech he'd already downed one arm. The injured seeker was howling in pain, trying and failing to make it to his feet.

"Slaggin' glitch!" He screamed, swiping out with his claws and catching Ratchet in the side, but it just lost the fragger another hunk of metal as Ratchet swung back. Throwing his weight forward to keep himself between the Con and the struggling red twin.

Another roar of pain as Ratchet slashed again and again, trying to end this quickly, but the seeker was batting around too much. Another good hit smacked Ratchet almost off his feet, knocking him hard enough to make him see stars.

Then a cut off cry of pain and even though Ratchet was swinging right back to the fight he had to pull himself up short as the huge black frame arched backward, grasping and choking and failing as the end of a dueling blade pierced out the center his chest with a spray of energon, spark flares, and shattered metal before slowly going still and crumbling to the side.

Sunstreaker gave the glitch one last hard quick to free his left blade from the Cons' back as he snarled down at the dead frame.

"Keep your slaggin' claws off my brother." He spit, dark optics seething.

A sudden silence-at least to Ratchet's audios-followed as they all were left their panting before Sideswipe let out a wet sounding chuckle.

"Took ya long enough, Sunny."

Both the golden twin and the medic's gazes snapped back to him then to find the red mech trying to push himself up right on the ground.

Ratchet gasped, spark squeezing at the sight of the literal pool of energon already forming under Sideswipe. The yellow and red mech was there in a nano. Crashing to his knees and quickly swatting away Sides' hands from the way. Quickly attempting to stop the rapid leaking the frontliner was doing.

For once Sideswipe didn't try to stop him which proved for itself how bad he was hurting. Enough so that Sunstreaker was staggering sightly as he rushed to his brother's side. Optics still trained around them and the battle going on. Though for the most part it had moved on from here.

Still, his blades were out and his engine was snarling.

"Stupid fragger." Sunstreaker gripped at his twin lightly, looking down at the energon all over him. Watching as Ratchet managed to stop most of the worse leaking and go about stabilizing him.

"What the slag were you thinking!" Ratchet snarled as he worked, half to make sure Sideswipe stayed lucid and half to keep himself from shaking.

Sideswipe just shrugged through. Holding himself up in a backward bend of hands almost lazily half laying there half sitting there watching the medic work.

"I don't know. Stop him I guess." He admitted.

Ratchet spared him a glare as he worked.

"Okay, it wasn't the best idea I've ever had." Sides shrugged.

"You think?!" Ratchet seethed. "He could have killed you."

"Uh, Ratchet, we're frontliners and ex-gladiators. Could have killed us is kind of old information." Sideswipe chuckled. "Don't get so worked up about it."

Ratchet just snarled in return.

Sideswipe chuckled at him again, optics shifting between his guarding brother and the medic he'd tried to protect who ended up protecting him. Optics shifting over him as they both did a lot of the time. Still trying to figure out this strange mech.

This medic that actually seemed to care.

About them of all things.

The twins still didn't get it, but they had started trying to repay all the careful fixes Ratchet had been give them.

Then Sideswipe's optics widened as he focused in on the yellow and red metal to find a thick trail of blue.

"Hey!" He snapped. "Are you leaking!?"

Sunstreaker's gaze swung down as Ratchet cast a glance at his side before he huffed. "It's a scratch."

"No, you're leaking!" Sides tried to get up but was forcibly shoved back down. Once by Ratchet and then by Sunstreaker planting a foot in the middle of his chest after Ratchet growled at him.

"I'm fine,you idiot fool! Now lay the frag still and let me save you both."

"He's not hurt that bad, Ratchet." Sunstreaker grumbled, optics still watching the area around them.

"Says the mech standing there swaying because of his twin's energon loss. Both of you just fraggin' shut up and let me help you for Primus sake!"

"Why do you care so much anyway?" Sunstreaker said it, but it was Sides that had thought it, and quite honestly neither of them had meant for it to come out.

But there it was.

They both blinked in shock at the sound of it before their mirror optics shifted to the suddenly still medic that slowly turned his narrow gaze back at them.

Sideswipe hadn't been afraid of that Con, but he was suddenly afraid of this medic. Though not for the entirely same reasons.

"Why do I care?"He spit back at them.

Ratchet's engine turned over in anger as he went yelled.

"WHY DO I CARE!? I CARE BECAUSE YOU TWO SLAGGIN' MECHLINGS ARE TWO SLAGGIN' FOOLISH TO LOOK AFTER YOUR FRAGGIN' SELVES!"

They both jerked at the outburst.

"You slaggers are nothing but mechling! Slaggin' mechlings! And you slaggin' drive me insane! You never think! Always rushing in! And always getting in over your helms! And-And-And-Because I can't lose you! You hear me! I slaggin' got attached to your trouble bound afts! And I'll be damned if I let a pair of mechlings get killed out here because of me!"

The raging fit ended with his surging, ragged breaths leaving him kneeling there glaring at the pair of them who just blinked in return.

Then, with on last long look and a snort Ratchet went back to fixing Sideswipe leaving the twins staring at him. Slowly, curious but happy smiles curled up those matching faceplates and they both settled in to let him work.

-Jaycee