Cliffjumper was starting to regret just a little, letting both Sunstreaker and Sideswipe stay at his place during his gestation. For one, they were getting on his nerves with their constant arguing. Thankfully Sideswipe seemed to vacate the apartment whenever Sunstreaker and Cliff were having their 'giving the sparkling nanites' time.

Although the Succubus was actually probably going out to find something – or someone – to munch on.

Cliffjumper didn't know how he should feel about that.

He should probably be angry about someone else getting victimized, but a part of Cliff was telling him that Sideswipe wasn't doing anything like that.

Maybe it was the way Sideswipe would reappear, smelling like high grade and acting more than a little tipsy.

And that was something else entirely.

Apparently, demons could survive on regular Energon without feeding off of mortals.

It boggled Cliff's processor a little that the Temple and the Priests could be so wrong about an entire species.

Although in the long run it didn't really matter what the Temple thought.

If they knew that Cliffjumper's sparkling was sired by an Incubus, they would have immediately had the little one removed. And that made Cliff feel sick when he thought about such things.

And that was why Cliffjumper hadn't gone to the Temple since finding out he was sparked up. He didn't know if they had someway of finding demon offspring if the carrier was inside their halls.

With Cliff's luck they did have someway of telling exactly that.

Not that that would have kept Sunstreaker from stopping the Priests if they did find out about the sparkling. The yellow Incubus was nearly growling at anyone who came an inch close to Cliffjumper when they went out. It was no stretch of imagination that he would rip out the sparks of anyone who tried to remove their sparkling.

Cliffjumper was beginning to dread the very idea of leaving his apartment.

But today at least, he had no choice.

It was his appointment with Ratchet, and even with Sunstreaker coming along, he wasn't looking forward to the conversation that was going to happen with the medic.

He never thought he was in for a surprise when he got there.

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Cliffjumper kicked his pedes as he waited for Ratchet to pop up inside his exam room. Sunstreaker was leaning next to him, looking a little bored, although his gaze kept flicking down to Cliff's already rounding middle.

If Cliffjumper was anything but a minibot, the gestation wouldn't have started showing yet. But since he was far smaller than a normal mech, he was showing early. Which of course made for a fun time at work, but he couldn't exactly say that the smaller workload wasn't better.

And the treatment he received from his boss and coworkers had mellowed out too.

Usually his coworkers had tried to put as many delivery's as possible on him, but now that he was quite clearly carrying, his boss had stepped in and the others had to do their own delivery's.

Cliffjumper had no doubt that they were looking forward to when his gestation was over.

But that was really beside the point currently.

Cliffjumper looked up as Ratchet entered the room, holding the scans that the nurse had taken of Cliff earlier.

The medic looked up and was about to say something, when he caught sight of Sunstreaker leaning nearby Cliff.

Cliffjumper watched as the medic did a double take and then turned incredulous optics to him.

"That Pitspawn is the sire?!" the medic demanded, annoyance and anger clear in his tone.

"Hi, Ratchet," Sunstreaker said casually. "How are you?"

Cliffjumper blinked as Ratchet hit his swear word routine, a part of him glad that his sparkling couldn't hear those words yet.

The medic stalked closer, anger slowly filtering out to worry as he leaned closer to Cliffjumper, "Cliffjumper. . . you know what he is, right?"

Cliffjumper gaped at Ratchet for a moment before he said, "Yeah. How. . . How do you know what he is?"

Ratchet sighed and stated, "Because I adopted him and his brother. Now be truthful, has he hurt you?"

"No. . ." Cliff said slowly, suddenly uncertain of what to say to the volatile medic.

Ratchet frowned, "Did he lose himself to his coding?"

"Maybe," Cliffjumper responded, nervously, as Sunstreaker growled a little at that.

Ratchet glowered at Sunstreaker at that. The yellow Incubus just shrugged and said, "Sideswipe snapped me out of it."

The medic grumbled a little at that but turned his attention back to Cliff, suddenly looking serious as he said, "I'm only asking this to make sure. Are you certain you want to keep the sparkling?"

Cliffjumper just nodded as Sunstreaker growled a little at that question.

Ratchet sighed and just nodded his helm, "Alright. I just wanted to make sure. Now. . . the gestation is going well as far as I can see. . ."

Cliffjumper mentally sighed in relief and settled down to listen to Ratchet's updates, all the while marveling that Ratchet had adopted an Incubus and Succubus.

It was certainly surprising, especially since that information indicated that his sparkling was technically Ratchet's grandcreation.

Definitely interesting.

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Orns passed and Cliffjumper began to gain more and more weight. It got to where he nearly fell over every time, he bent down to pick something up. Which would have been annoying if Sunstreaker wasn't there nearly all the time catching him.

And the rest of the time it was like the Incubus couldn't keep his servos off of him.

Every time Sunstreaker came near him, he was either rubbing against him with a servo or another body part or pressing himself against Cliff's back.

Cliffjumper would have been annoyed if the contact didn't always prelude a round of 'facing.

The touches got a little deeper once the sparkling started kicking after the ninth vorn of Cliffjumper's carrying cycle. And to go along with that Cliffjumper was no longer able to move an inch when the sparkling was kicking without suffering from the worse pain he had ever felt.

He flinched as the sparkling kicked him again, this time Cliffjumper almost swore from the pain. He was sitting on his newly acquired couch, trying to ignore the pain coming from his huge bump at every kick.

Thank Primus he had been given time off from work for a few vorns because if he hadn't Cliffjumper was pretty sure he would have been fired for making delivery's late.

Cliffjumper let out a small yelp as the sparkling kicked again just as Sunstreaker laid a servo on his bump. He looked at where Sunstreaker was kneeling next to the couch.

The yellow Incubus was frowning slightly as he touched the bump, then he murmured to it, "Hey there, sweetspark. Settle down. You're hurting your carrier."

Amazingly enough the kicks stopped.

Cliffjumper gaped at Sunstreaker, "How did you do that?"

Sunstreaker just smirked back, "Little one just needed a firm scolding to settle down."

Cliffjumper just shook his helm in bemusement before turning back to his datapad as Sunstreaker continued to stroke his bump.

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Nearly fourteen vorns into his gestation, Cliffjumper began to feel that something was very, very wrong. The sparkling was still moving around and kicking, but way far less than Cliffjumper had expected at this stage.

The movement that came from his gestation tank almost made it feel like the sparkling was squirming, trying to find a way out.

Cliffjumper's huge bump in his protoform was aching with every movement he made now.

It bothered him a lot more than he thought it would.

He sighed as Sunstreaker brought him a cooling pack to rub on his bump, before settling down next to him.

"Still aching?" he questioned gently.

Cliffjumper nodded and grimaced a little as the sparkling dug around in him making something creak.

"Maybe you should call Ratchet?" Sideswipe called from where he was sitting nearby, looking slightly bored, yet worried. "He might know what's going on."

Sunstreaker ignored his brother as he stroked at Cliffjumper's helm, carefully petting his horns. Cliffjumper grunted a little as he ruthlessly ignored the pain and sat himself up, saying, "That might be a good idea."

Sunstreaker frowned a little at that, clearly beginning to worry now that Cliff had said it. He said quietly, "You sure?"

Cliffjumper let out a small gasp of pain as a bolt of agony came up from where the sparkling was.

"Yeah," he croaked out. "Somethings wrong."

In an instant, Sunstreaker was comming the medic, demanding for Ratchet to get there as soon as possible.

As the comm cut off and Sunstreaker activated another comm to someone else, Cliffjumper attempted to relax as much as he could a drown out the panicked sounds of voices.

Besides the throbbing pain from his gestation tank, there was nothing after a while and Cliffjumper slowly began to relax.

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"Cliffjumper? Cliffjumper, can you hear me?"

The familiar voice speaking to Cliff was indistinct, but it cut through the slightly growing pain coming from his middle.

He groaned and onlined his optics to see Ratchet, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, and an unfamiliar black and red mech with a red visor standing over him.

Ratchet was closer, concern clear on his faceplate as he questioned, "Cliffjumper, what type of pain are you feeling? Does it come and go?"

"No," Cliffjumper grunted as he forced himself into a sitting position. "It's like the bitlet is trying to rip itself out of me."

That caused Ratchet to frown slightly in worry, "That isn't good."

"No, duh," grumbled Cliffjumper angrily.

The unfamiliar mech leaned down closer to him and Cliffjumper tensed minutely.

Sideswipe noticed his tension and said calmly, "This is the local witch, Trailbreaker. He knows a lot about the more arcane side of our lives, so we called him in in case it's something like that."

The mech, Trailbreaker smiled kindly at Cliff and then carefully placed a servo against his bump and his red visor dipped offline.

When it came on again, he seemed a lot more concerned and said, gravely, "Well, that isn't good."

"What? What is it?" demanded Ratchet, faceplate rather grim and worried.

Trailbreaker grimaced and said, "Looks like the bitlet is on it's way out."

That caused Cliffjumper to relax but Ratchet remained tense, "And why is it that I can't detect as much?"

Trailbreaker's frown deepened as he carefully continued, "It happens sometimes. Gestations for demon offspring take a shorter amount of time than regular sparklings. Little bit's late and is trying to get out the easiest way possible as quickly as it can. You probably should have artificially inseminated labor about two to three vorns ago."

"So, what's going to happen?" demanded Ratchet angrily.

"Well. . ." Trailbreaker's visor seemed to flick down to Cliffjumper nervously. "It's begun trying to rip it's way out of his gestation tank. If you have any way to inseminate labor, now would be a good time."

Cliffjumper felt his faceplate's pale a little at that as Ratchet cursed and reached into his subspace, beginning to pull things out of it. The medic was quick to insert a shot into Cliff that would jumpstart his labor and keep the little bit from ripping it's way out of his gestation tank.

Even the thought of that made him cringe.

He turned his anger filled optics to Sunstreaker who looked like he was inwardly panicking.

Cliffjumper grabbed a hold of the Incubus's arm and snarled, "You did this to me!"

Sunstreaker flinched a little and grabbed a hold of Cliff's servo in his own and began to whine, "I didn't mean. . . I didn't know this would happen. . . I swear. . . He's gonna be okay, right, Trailbreaker?"

"Umm," the witch said nervously, suddenly looking as if he would rather be anywhere but here. "I can't really answer that right now."

Cliffjumper growled as a sudden pain began to fill his entire torso. It blinded out everything else, causing Cliff to scream in complete pain.

The pain was stabbing him over and over again as he vacantly heard Ratchet curse and Trailbreaker mumble softly in an unfamiliar language.

Whatever he was mumbling seemed to cause Cliffjumper to slowly relax and fall into a dazed state of half-unconsciousness. The only thing that cut through the daze he was in was the feeling of extreme pain erupting from his lower regions. He didn't know how long he was in that state.

Cliffjumper whimpered as he was slowly shaken out of the daze by Sunstreaker calling his designation, "Cliffjumper? Cliffjumper!"

He onlined his optics and the first thing that he felt was extreme pain coming from his lower body. Then his optics caught sight of what exactly Sunstreaker was holding.

It was a tiny, petite, yellow mechling with audial horns(like Cliffjumper's) blinking his large blue optics at him tiredly. On autopilot Cliff reached for the little mechling, his sparkling.

In an instant Cliffjumper was holding his little one and he could only stare down at the little one in awe for a moment before he whispered to his son so that Sunstreaker wouldn't hear and inflate his ego even more.

"You were worth it. little one."