Rated T for language, mentions of past character death and drunk bots.

Talking:

"English or other Earth language"

"Cybertronian"

"Talking on the phone or recordings"

:comm. link:

[Texting]

'Thought'

(Bond talk)

** (Bumblebee speaking) **

Spark feelings

Druatch

Flash back or change of time or place

Time changes:

Nano-klik=1/2 a klik. Klik= less than a second. Breem (cybertronian minute) = 8 minutes. Cycle=hour. Joor (cybertronian hour) = 6 hours. Solar cycle=day. Megacycle= 1 week. Orn= 13 days. Groon= 1 month. Deca-orn = 3 months. Stellar cycle= 1 year. Vorn=83 years

When the four of them finally emerged from the training room Ratchet was running diagnostics on the ground bridge, Optimus still hadn't moved from his spot at the computer terminal, Blaster and Rewind were gone—presumably they had gone back to Blaster's quarters—and June was leaning against the railing next to the chair Jack was sitting watching the two boys play a video game as did Bumblebee who was looking over Raf's shoulder.

Miko trudged up the stairs and plopped down on the couch next to Raf and groaned "Itai (1), that's going to hurt later,"

While Jack made a comment about the time Miko mentioned she needed to work out more, June noticed Jack's hair was sticking straight up in the front and, not really thinking about it, stroked his hair to try to smooth it out.

Jack jerked when he realized what his mom was doing and leaned away from her. "Mom, what are you doing?"

June smiled at him absently as she reached for his hair again. "Just fixing your hair,"

Again, Jack leaned away. "Mom, it's fine,"

June frowned and reached both hands out to try to get to the stubborn tuft of hair on her equally stubborn son's head. "Hold still, you look like a Cockatoo…"

He kept leaning away until he almost fell off his seat so he got up and sat on the couch with Miko and Raf, raking his fingers through his hair as he went.

While this was going on, a certain femme watched from off to the side with a frown on her face plates.

Greenblades, seeing this and wondering what was wrong, sidled up to her and asked. "What's wrong?"

His mate shook her helm and answered over the Bond. (They really don't know how blessed they are. They are so lucky to have each other and even after all these "close calls" we have heard about them having they still take that for granted!)

Greenblades felt her pain through the Bond and squeezed her servo reassuringly. (Easy, from what I hear this is a normal interaction and they have been clinging to what little normalcy they have as a means of coping… and they don't know what today is.)

Silverbullet nodded sadly and went over to Ratchet and quietly asked if she could use the ground bridge.

The medic looked at her with a raised optic ridge. "Why do you need the ground bridge?"

The Techno-dragoness shrugged "I was going to go to the island and get some more energon for everyone,"

"Why? The storage cubes we have here are full for now,"

Silverbullet looked up at him with a smile pulling at the corners of her sad optics. "Ratchet, today is the anniversary of three different events I would rather forget but have to remember and every year at this time, aside from the three years we were trapped on the Nemesis, I drown my sorrows in either high grade or human alcohol or both. I'm drinking tonight and figured it would be uncouth of me to not have some for the rest of you, as well,"

Ratchet considered for a moment and sighed in defeat before powering up the ground bridge and setting it for the coordinates she had given him before. "As long as you're bringing back enough for everyone…"

Silverbullet nodded and whispered a quick "Thank you, Ratchet," before running through the ground bridge so he could close it.

Miko saw her leave and looked up at Greenblades "What's with her?"

The Techno-dragon sighed and went to kneel on one knee by the human's platform "She just needs to deal with something. I'll go check on her in a breem, after she blows off some steam," then he whispered to Jack and June "Next time, be a little more careful about who you argue in front of if you must do so… and remember you two are lucky to have each other,"

Jack and June looked down guiltily before turning to each other to apologize, only to stumble over their apologies and talk over each other and end up just hugging it out.

Raf looked up at Greenblades "What does that have to do with why Silverbullet left?"

Greenblades looked around to see if any of the bots were listening before gesturing the humans closer and whispered a summarized version of the story behind why that day was so important.

"Today is not only the anniversary of when Silverbullet's Carrier was killed right in front of her when she was a small child, but it is also the anniversary of the day our son was killed by the same mechs on his first sparkday, or birthday as you humans call it,"

The humans all gasped, June and the boys offered their condolences.

Jack rubbed the back of his neck and said the only thing he could think of. "I, um, I'm sorry for your loss,"

Raf nodded in agreement "Yeah,"

Greenblades shook his helm "Don't apologize, it wasn't your fault,"

June looked up at him, trying to use her experience as a nurse to come up with something to say. "I can only imagine what she could be feeling right now, I'm sorry for not being more considerate," she looked over at Jack to indicate she was referring to the mother-son moment they had moments before in front of the grieving parents.

Greenblades smiled sadly at all of them. "Again, no need to apologize. It wasn't your fault, you did not know. Thank you though,"

Miko didn't say anything, she just stood their clutching her mouth, remembering what she said to Silverbullet when they fought at the Hive. '"… Who do you think you are, my mother?"'

Now that she thought about it, she remembered the pained look her "big sister" had when she said that, now she realized it was because she had reminded her she was a mother… without her child…

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Sometime later, Ratchet got a call from Wheeljack asking for a bridge. :Hey, Doc, bridge us over already!:

Blaster tried to bring up a visual feed but since Wheeljack was calling them from his comm. link he just got a wavelength projection.

Ratchet answered him "Wheeljack what are you doing?"

:Met up with the Techno-dragons and offered to help carry the energon. Now hurry up and open the damn ground bridge, for a place that's close to the tropics it's fragging cold out here!:

Ratchet did as he was told with a huff and when the swirling green portal opened Wheeljack came through carrying a box that was filled with energon crystals followed by the Techno-dragons in their dragon modes each carrying a good sized chunk in their mouths.

When they set their loads down so they could transform, Miko ran over to Silverbullet and hugged her ankle, sniffling. "I'm sorry,"

After a moment's hesitation, Silverbullet knelt down on her other knee and placed a clawed servo on the girl's back with a sad smile and shushed her gently.

Wheeljack carried the crate he was holding over to Ratchet and said "Think this will be enough for everybot?"

Ratchet examined the energon and did some calculations. "Well…. Barring any incidents, there should be enough here to have at least have enough for everyone to have at least a cube of high grade, maybe two if processed and rationed correctly,"

Wheeljack followed him over to the refining machine where they processed the energon. "Need some help?"

Ratchet immediately positioned himself to prevent Wheeljack from getting to the machine he had been about to load the energon into. "I said 'Barring any incidents'. Past experience tells me that if you help that's an incident waiting to happen!"

Wheeljack held up his servos in surrender and walked away "Fine, fine. Sheesh…"

He went over to where the other bots were watching the kids play video games and stood with his arm servos crossed and his hip cocked to the side in a deceptively relaxed stance but he the way he was standing also made it easy for him to reach the grenade on his hip at a moment's notice.

After a few minutes he looked at the Techno-dragons and said "By the way, what were in those barrels you two smuggled in here with you?"

The others looked around to see where these alleged barrels were so both of them each took a cask out of subspace and shook them. "We brought some rum to drink tonight,"

Arcee glared at the casks suspiciously "Rum? How can you drink that stuff?"

Greenblades shrugged "We are Techno-organic, in addition to energon we can also live off of food and drink like organics can,"

Bumblebee looked at Arcee "Isn't that the stuff that was in those drinks you had at 'World's End'?"

Silverbulle raised an optic ridge "What kind of drinks were they?"

"I think they were called 'Bite me's,"

Silverbullet thought a moment and her optics dimmed when she used the internet to double check what she was thinking. "One ounce of rum, one ounce of orange soda, one ounce of root beer, shaken in a shaker full of ice cubes and strained into a glass and garnished with an orange peel… not a bad choice in drink. How many did you have?"

Arcee shrugged "Four, I think… the uh, aftermath wasn't all that pleasant,"

"You had four ounces of rum diluted in eight ounces of soda and there was 'aftermath'?" Silverbullet snorted "Light weight,"

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Word travelled quickly that there was a possibility of a high grade party for that night and the bots all took their charges home early that night, both so the humans weren't around when they got overcharged and because it was a school night for the kids.

Less than an hour after the bots got back from dropping their charges off at home, Ratchet and Silverbullet came out each carrying a tray on energon cubes that were stacked high and glowing a pale blue-white, indicating they did in fact contain high grade.

Since they didn't have an actual table they could all sit at, Ratchet set the tray he was holding on the floor off to the side. "Alright, help yourselves,"

All the bots present took a cube each and inhaled the fumes deeply.

Smokescreen grinned like an idiot, already getting a little loopy. "So, what's the occasion that you're bringing out the high grade for?"

Bulkhead held up his cube of high grade up like he was making a toast "Yeah, not that we'd really need an excuse to party, but…"

Silverbullet smiled and set another round of cubes out for everyone on the floor and sat next to them, gesturing for them to join her "How about we each take a moment to share with the rest of us why we need this?"

Everyone looked at each other and sat down around the stack of cubes as if it were a campfire.

"Alright, who's first?"

Greenblades suggested that they do ladies first and Silverbullet shrugged "Arcee, how about you?"

Arcee stuttered. "Me? Why me?"

"Because it we went alphabetically you would go first anyway and if we went by rank, hey look, you again… unless Ratchet outranks you because Optimus is busy,"

Arcee slumped "Fine," she held her cube to her lip components and took a sip "After losing two partners and almost losing more than that for a while I felt that the only thing left to live for was revenge. The only reason I'm still functioning now is because of my teammates, who had over time become friends… family,"

Everyone smiled at her and she took another drink of her high grade while the others tried to decide who was going next.

"Should we just go around the circle?"

"Okay, but which way?"

Arcee looked at the bots sitting on either side of her; Smokescreen was on her left and Bumblebee was on her right, so she decided to use a human trick Miko taught her. "Eenie, meanie, miney moe, catch a tiger by the toe…"

Greenblades watched her servo move back and forth while counting to himself and coming to a conclusion "Well, if that's how the lady wishes to choose…" he pointed to Bumblebee "Bumblebee, I believe you are next,"

The others all looked at him, Ratchet put one fist on his hip while holding his cube of high grade in his other servo. "And just how would you know that?"

Greenblades took a drink from his own drink before answering "There is a way to predict the outcome of the human game 'Eenie, meanie, miney moe' Judging by the rate she was pointing to each mech while reciting the rhyme if she kept going at that pace she would have ended it at Bumblebee,"

They all shrugged and looked at Bumblebee waiting for the mech to speak. Bumblebee thought about what he wanted to say before he started talking.

"Well, I probably don't really need to say this but the war has been hard on all of us. We've all lost so much and we've gotten ourselves in and out of so many life-and-death situations I stopped keeping track a long time ago. We've been blown up, shot at and smashed to bits and put back together only to be sent back out again."

He turned to Ratchet "Thanks for all that, by the way,"

Ratchet made a guttural sound and waved him off so Bumblebee continued "Bottom line is, we've all been through the Pit and back—some of us literally were during that Unicron incident a while back—and we're still here. And I'm thankful for that and the family and friends I've come to know along the way,"

He raised his cube like he was toasting everyone, when he brought it back down again he looked at it like he had never seen it before in his life. "Aaaand I've never actually had high grade before so I'm a little anxious to see what it's like. Cheers!"

Bumblebee had wanted to wait until he had a turn speaking before he had his first drink of high grade and now that he had, thinking it would go down like regular grade, he gulped down three swallows of it and coughed up smoke as a result.

Ratchet patted him on the back until the worst of the coughing fit subsided and Bumblebee wheezed "What is that?"

Ratchet hit him on the back plates one last time before pulling away "High grade, don't drink it too fast or it will burn going down,"

"Now he tells me," Bumblebee took a tiny sip and waited a moment before swallowing, letting it sit on his glossa so he could taste it. "Hmm, not bad, I don't think I'm going to be able to drink that other cube though. Anyone else want it?"

Wheeljack laughed "Save it for later, kid, high grade is one of those things that gets better with age,"

It was Ratchet's turn to talk next and when he realized this he looked like someone told him he was on a human reality show where they secretly film people and display the footage for all to see. He fidgeted a big then took a big drink of high grade and said "How about someone else says something?"

Smokescreen and Wheeljack egged him on.

"Ah, come on Ratchet. It's your turn,"

"Yeah, Doc, we're all bots here,"

Ratchet huffed and took another long swig of his high grade to try to loosen his glossa before saying his piece. "Well, like Bumblebee said, war is a terrible thing, especially when it takes us away from the homes and loved ones we fight for. And putting up with all your antics on a daily basis isn't exactly helping things in my case,"

His tone softened "but despite all that… I cannot think of anyone I would rather serve with than the bots I do now… well, having my Bondmate and all our Creations here too would certainly help, but I'll have to settle for what family I have here now until they get here,"

Bulkhead jumped "Holy scrap, he said the 'f' word!"

Ratchet rolled his optics and took another drink "Yes Bulkhead I said it… and yes, Wheeljack as annoying as you are sometimes I'm including you in that too,"

Wheeljack threw an arm-servo across Ratchet's servos, already loopy from the high grade he had been drinking while everyone else was talking. "Ah, you do care,"

Ratchet glared at him "Wheeljack, take your arm-servo off me,"

The Wrecker grinned cheekily "Make me,"

Ratchet set his cube down and ducked under Wheeljack's arm-servo to throw a punch towards his faceplates.

Wheeljack's helm fins flashed blue as he let out a surprised squawk and started to lean away, only for Ratchet's fist to stop just short of his faceplates.

Ratchet smirked "Made you flinch,"

Wheeljack rolled his optics "Ha, ha, funny,"

Bulkhead looked at Wheeljack's helm, thinking he was already overcharged after drinking half of his cube already. "Did your helm fins just light up?"

Wheeljack felt his helm fins "Oh, right, I didn't know they could still do that,"

Arcee looked at him "Wait, your helm fins light up?"

She, Bulkhead and the Techno-dragons were the only ones that didn't already know that but Smokescreen and Bumblebee pretended to be surprised; if they said anything they would be asked how they knew and Smokescreen wasn't ready to say how he knew Wheeljack yet and Bumblebee was trying to keep up the act that he didn't know Wheeljack prior to when the Wrecker landed on Earth because he didn't want to say how he knew him either.

Wheeljack nodded and fiddled with his helm fins. "Yeah, back before I was a Wrecker I was an Engineer. Since a lot of the things I worked with usually blew up in my face I had to wear my blast mask all the time," he slid his mask into place as an example "But when things got loud the only way to tell if anyone was trying to talk to each other was if ya saw their lip components moving. Since no one could see mine when I had my mask on I had to figure out another way to get bots' attention,"

He finally found the switches he was looking for and his helm fins flashed blue as he talked "So I rigged my helm fins to flash when I spoke. Pretty clever, huh?"

"That's so cool!"

Smokescreen set down the cube he had been drinking from and reached for another one in the stack in front of everyone. Arcee noticed this and looked in his previous one to find it was empty. "Seriously, Smokescreen, you drank that whole cube already?"

Smokescreen shrugged and reached for the next cube again only for Ratchet to slap his servo. "Go put the empty one in the cube return and then you can have another,"

Smokescreen rubbed his servo before grabbing his empty cube and going to the med. bay where the cube return was. Arcee and Bumblebee watched him go trying to see if he was going to start stumbling as the high grade kicked in.

Bumblebee looked at the others and said "I'll go make sure he's okay. He drank that pretty fast," Bumblebee got up and fast-walked in the direction Smokescreen had gone.

The others all returned to their conversation which was gradually becoming almost like a story-telling game. "Okay, Wheeljack, your turn,"

In the med. bay Smokescreen set his empty cube in the autoclave they put their empty cubes in to remove any excess radiation from them so they could start fresh with the next ration of energon.

Just as he was about to leave he spotted a large box of industrial trash bags, the kind humans used in construction sites, with a large roll of duct tape sitting on top of it.

He looked around to see if anyone was watching and looked at the box; his drunken processor telling him to do things, stupid things but he didn't see any harm in them so he'd worry about that later.

When Bumblebee found him he was ripping a trash bag apart and taping it back together in a certain shape "Uh Smokescreen, what are you doing?"

Smokescreen smiled at him and told him what he planned on doing.

Bumblebee considered it for a moment; what Smokescreen was doing was rather silly but there really was no harm in it… and it did sound fun…

Then Bumblebee remembered something he had heard once; "A good friend will stop you from doing something embarrassing, a great friend will be right up there with you and laughing with you,"

Bumblebee smiled "Can I help?" he explained what he meant by help and Smokescreen nodded

"Okay, let's find something to make your costume with," Smokescreen looked around until he found something that would work. "Aha! Here's something,"

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While this was going on, Optimus and Blaster were on a video conference with Agent Fowler to see if either party had found anything pertaining to the Decepticons or the final relic.

Unfortunately, after Optimus reported all that had happened recently and explained that it wasn't getting them anywhere, Fowler slumped.

"I'm sorry, Prime, but we haven't had much luck either. We haven't been getting any reports that look like they could be 'Con related and that cloaking field of theirs makes tracking them a pain in the…"

Agent Fowler was interrupted by a bot covered in what appeared to be black trash bags ran by singing "NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN!" while holding a "cape" made of the thin black plastic so that it billowed out behind him.

The two mechs turned to see who it was while Fowler leaned from one side to the other trying to see what was happening "Who was that and what is going on over there?"

Optimus Prime did a double-take and returned his attention to the screen while Blaster leaned around the corner to see what the mech that just ran by was doing and Rewind climbed up onto his shoulder to see for himself.

"Apologies, Agent Fowler,"

"Yeah, Don' mind Smokescreen, he's just drunk,"

Just then a familiar yellow mech ran by wearing a cape and cowl crudely fashioned from an old green army tarp ran by shouting "Hey, wait up, Batman!"

Blaster leaned back around the corner after he had returned to an upright position to let the second meh run by. "And Bumblebee is… not?"

Rewind looked up at Blaster "May Ah go play too?"

Blaster thought about it and nodded, lowering his creation to the ground. "A'ight, just be careful… and don't drink any o' that stuff the grown-ups ah drinkin',"

"Okay," Rewind trotted over to where the other bots were to see what everyone was doing.

Once there he found a spot to sit and listened to Wheeljack and Bulkhead's old Wrecker stories and the Techno-dragons' stories about their travels while Arcee made sure the "Dynamic Doorwinged duo" didn't get too out of hand.

Once Optimus and Fowler finished their call after exchanging what little information they had about recent 'Con activity and the next Iacon relic Blaster cut off the communiqué and went over to where the others were while Optimus went back to his terminal to take yet another swing at trying to crack the Iacon codes.

Since there wasn't enough places for everybot to sit all of the bots that were gathered off to the side of the room were sitting on the floor. Blaster sat down and pulled Rewind into his lap.

"So, what are we talking about?" Blaster knew already but he wanted to be polite and actually asked what they were talking about so they would include him in the conversation rather than butting in on it.

Bulkhead clapped Wheeljack on the back struts causing both mechs to sway off balance "Jackie just got done telling everyone about the time we repainted patches of Springer's frame and put some rust powder on him while the paint was still wet to make him think he had cosmic rust. THE WHOLE CREW WAS FREAKING OUT AND WE COULDN'T STOP LAUGHING!"

Wheeljack laughed at the memory as he took another swig of his high grade. "Good times, good times…"

Ratchet took a long drink of his own energon and pointed at Optimus with the cube and slurred drunkenly. "If you... If you want some real good times somebot get some booze into dat mech over dere! Dat would be funny as the PIT!"

They all looked at Optimus, who was trying his hardest to pretend he hadn't heard anything, and then back at Ratchet. "You've actually seen the big guy overcharged?"

Ratchet nodded "Uh huh, didn't happen often but when it did…" he chuckled and rubbed his helm "You just had to be there. Like that one time when he was still Orion Pax we… we snuck out and met at a friend's house… who was it again? Oh right it was Ironhide's… and somebot brought out the high grade and dared him to drink a mix that was half Iacon brew and half Poly Hex brew…"

Optimus turned around and put his fisted servos on his hips. "Ratchet you said you wouldn't bring that up again,"

Ratchet grinned "I'm not just bringing it up… I'm telling them the whole story… so don't interrupt!" he took another drink and continued "Anyways, the thing is with Poly hex brew is not only is it strong but when you mix it with another kind of high grade it becomes even stronger rather than weakening like most other kinds do when they are deluded. So… so when he drank this stuff he was drunk off his aft before he could even finish and… and by the time he did he somehow convinced us to weld him to the ceiling."

Ratchet trailed off under his vents "No idea why he would want that… but we were all overcharged and having a good time… so we didn't argue and welded him so that he was hanging upside down by his peds. Heh heh, we even placed bets on how long the welds would hold,"

Silverbullet tried to hold back a snicker at the imagery the story painted to avoid disrespecting the Prime. "I'm sorry, I can't stop picturing that in my mind,"

"But by the next morning he was still up there and he had no idea how he got up there and to make things worse we couldn't get him down so we had to remove his peds so that he fell on his helm because everybot thought somebot else had him so we could cut his peds off of the ceiling and put them back on,"

Everyone that wasn't already laughing was laughing now.

Optimus frowned and walked away but Smokescreen, in a brief moment of lucidity, stopped him. "Hey, Optimus, care to join us?"

He stopped walking but otherwise didn't respond so Silverbullet added "You don't have to drink if you don't want to, we're just having conversation,"

Optimus hesitated before politely declining, saying he was tired and was retiring to his quarters for the night, and walking out.

Bulkhead looked around at everyone "Whose turn is it?"

Greenblades thought out it for a moment "Well, since you and Wheeljack could go on for days with your Wrecker stories and nothing I say will be any different than what my mate has to say… How about we let Silverbullet go next? You did ask her why we brought the 'booze' after all,"

Everyone agreed and Arcee finally got Smokescreen and Bumblebee to sit still by clapping her servos saying "Alright, come on kids, story time!"

Once everyone was settled down, Silverbullet began to tell them a story about a young femme named "Skysong" who was the Creation of a Praxian mech and a Seeker femme who lost what little family she had at the beginning of the war.

Little "Skysong" was also killed but some scientists brought her back to make her the ultimate soldier. She escaped and found a mech who she eventually Bonded with and the two of them went on all kinds of adventures.

Silverbullet also told them about how "Skysong's" mechling was killed by the same 'Cons that killed the rest of her family.

When the story ended with how "Skysong" and her mate fled the planet with a Wrecker who took them to a strange planet where they would spent the rest of their existence guarding the energon sources that planet held from anyone that might try to take them, Arcee asked "Is this story true?"

The Techno-dragons, Blaster and Wheeljack all exchanged a secretive smile before Silverbullet nodded. "Yes,"

Bumblebee scooted forward a bit with his servos on his knees, enthralled by the story. "What happened to Skysong?"

Silverbullet smiled sadly "You're looking at her," As they all watched she projected a hologram of another femme around herself.

She still looked like she normally did but her coloring was lighter, her optics were solid gray and her wings were Cybertronian wing panels. "This is what I would have looked like if the war never happened and I was allowed to grow up normally,"

They all stared at her for a moment before Ratchet asked "Which battle were you…"

Silverbullet/Skysong shook her helm as the hologram faded to reveal regular Silverbullet "It wasn't one of the battles you guys would keep on record. We lived in a little suburb area between Vos and Praxus and the 'Cons stopped by and used the place for target practice on their way to Praxus after they got Vos under their control,"

Smokescreen stared at her, trying to figure out if she was saying what he thought she was saying.

Ratchet somehow knew what he was thinking and answered over the Bond (She may appear older but she's actually the same age as Bluestreak, I found that out when I examined her when they first arrived. Her story fits the time frame she's given us.)

Forgetting to keep such opinions to himself, Smokescreen blurted out "Whoa, and I thought I had problems,"

Silverbullet looked at him "Oh, that's right, you haven't had a turn yet. Mind if I ask what these 'problems' might be?"

Smokescreen waved his servo at her and swayed drunkenly "War sucks! But being here on Earth with you guys is awesome!" he put one arm-servo around Arcee and the other one around Bumblebee and, in a moment of devil-may-care recklessness, kissed Arcee on the cheek strut right in front of everyone.

Everyone went quiet and sat really still, expecting Arcee to go postal on the mech but she just blushed and sat there quietly with Smokescreen's arm-servo still around her after he had already let go of Bumblebee.

Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Ratchet stared at them while Wheeljack cat called and the Techno-dragons just grinned.

Blaster smiled and rubbed Rewind's helm while the smaller mech giggled at their friends' antics. "Ah thinks it's 'bout time we followed Prahm's example and got some recharge,"

Everyone else said they will but they were going to stay up a little longer. "A'ight, don't stay up too late,"

Blaster carried Rewind out of the room, the little mech waving at everyone over his Creator's shoulder. "G'night!"

Eventually, the other bots did retire to their berths for the night, although it was actually dark-o'clock in the morning by then.

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The next morning, Smokescreen came out of recharge feeling like someone had hit him on the helm with a giant hammer and was now repeatedly hitting him with a smaller hammer.

"Ugh, what hit me?"

"High grade," He looked up and Arcee was sitting in a chair next to his berth with a canister of warmed energon in her servos.

Groaning, Smokescreen sat up. "What happened last night?"

Arcee smiled and took a drink of the energon before handing the steaming canister to Smokescreen. "The Techno-dragons brought over enough raw energon to brew enough high grade so each of us could have two cubes,"

Smokescreen nodded "Okay, I remember that much,"

"Blaster and Optimus both said they didn't want any and the Techno-dragons also brought some rum for them to drink so you, Bulkhead, Wheeljack and Ratchet each divided their shares amongst yourselves. Ratchet went right to his berth after he got drunk off his aft, Bulkhead and Wheeljack got into an argument over whether or not we should save the extra high grade for later or just drink it right then and there,"

Smokescreen rubbed his helm to try to make sense of the fuzzy images in his memory banks. "And what did I do after all that?"

Arcee took out a data pad and handed it to him. "Here's a list of people you need to watch for. The ones with stars by them are the ones that will not only never let you live it down but might have taken image captures, possibly video recordings,"

Smokescreen looked over the list "How come Bumblebee is on here twice?"

Arcee giggled "Because when you covered yourself in black trash bags and ran around the base shouting 'Na na na na na na na na Batman!' he pretended he was 'Robin' so you wouldn't be the only one doing it,"

Smokescreen looked down at himself and sure enough he was wearing a mask and cape made of thin black plastic. "Scrap,"

Arcee smiled as she got up and held her servo out to Smokescreen. "Come on, 'Batman', let's go see what the agenda is this morning,"

Smokescreen followed her out into the main area where the others were.

As usual Prime and Blaster were at their usual stations while Ratchet was in the med. bay, though the medic did seem to be in a somewhat fouler temper than usual.

Wheeljack was sprawled out on the floor where they all had been sitting the night before, "Dead-to-the-world" in recharge, while Bulkhead was sitting on the floor next to the human's area but for some reason Bumblebee was nowhere to be seen.

Smokescreen looked around "Where's Bumblebee?"

Ratchet spoke up from where he was in the med. bay, not looking up from what he was doing. "Bumblebee has confined himself to his quarters for the time being, and after he explained his reasoning via comm. link I support his decision and will enforce it as it is technically a medical matter and therefore under my jurisdiction,"

"Is he okay?"

Ratchet nodded "He will be, the… erm… matter has not fully set in but once it does it should sort itself out in due time,"

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Bumblebee's quarters

Bumblebee lay on his back on his berth, whimpering as he dug his digits into the padding with his vents panting.

The scout had woken up at dark o'clock that morning not feeling well and when he realized why he quickly called Ratchet and told him he wasn't coming out of his room and why and the medic agreed with him.

His whole frame felt so hot and the aches he had felt coming on an hour or so ago were stronger and he knew he was only going to get worse.

Primus, how he hated heat cycles! They only happened to him a couple times a vorn unless something brought it on early and caused him to have an extra one, but they still sucked.

Not having anything better to do and needing someone to talk to—he needed more than that but he felt uncomfortable asking his teammates to help him with that—he activated his comm. link and called the one person he could talk to at a time like this.

He sat there for a few minutes listening to the dial tone before a female voice came on. :Hey, Bumblebee.:

Pretending he was trying to be sneaky, Bumblebee faked a groan "Ah, how did you know it was me?"

:Caller I.D., you're the only one on my contact list that has "Stardust and Rust" as a ringtone.:

Bumblebee smiled, remembering that day when the two of them listened to every song they had in both their music libraries, both human and Cybertronian music, to find one that they could call "their song" and finally settled on that one, which was Cybertron's version of a "rock and roll love song" "So, how have you been doing, babe?"

He heard an exasperated groan and a thud as though someone hit their head against a solid surface. :Sometimes I hate my job, mostly because I can't see you or the other 'Bots and I have to put up with this scrap instead. What about you?:

Bumblebee huffed "Things have been pretty crazy lately but right now I'm bored out of my processor being confined to quarters,"

His current confidant pretended to scold him but her tone had a playful edge. :Ah, 'Bee what did you do this time?:

"Nothing, I've locked myself in my quarters and when I told Ratchet why he said he'd back me up on this one and put me on medical leave,"

The voice on the other end of the line grew concerned. :Medical leave? What's wrong?:

Bumblebee blushed, trying to find the least embarrassing way to explain but he was cut off by an electrical surge that coursed through his whole frame and his lower body seizing up.

His digit was still on the side of his helm when he cried out so whoever was on the other end heard him through the open comm. line.

:'Bee? BUMBLEBEE! What's wrong?:

Bumblebee whimpered as he felt burning pressure in his personal area while his spark was practically trying to pound its way out of his chest. "It hurts…"

The voice on the other end of the line spoke to him in slow even tones. :Bumblebee listen to me. I will be right there, I just need find someone to handle things while I'm gone. Everything's going to be fine, ok?:

Bumblebee nodded even though she couldn't see. "Alright, love you,"

He heard her laugh a bit :Love you too,: then he heard the click of the call ending.

He sunk as far into the berth padding as he could with a slight smile on his face plates that kept disappearing and then reappearing a second later; his girlfriend was coming for a visit, but right then he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

Itai: Japanese for "ouch"

AN: reviewed and/or added; kaleia (guest), Raphaelplusmikey, Zanza Flux, Azul the blue,