Jack blinked open his eyes to a white hospital room and a vicious headache.
He groaned softly.
An older looking woman with mustard colored hair stood nearby. She looked up from her clipboard and smiled. "Hey, you're awake! That's good."
Jack shakily sat up. His entire body ached like it had never ached before."Where am I?"
"Steady." The woman hurried over and raised the back of his cot to give him support. Jack gratefully sat back. "You're in Griffin Rock. Chief Burns said you had a bit of an accident on the mainland."
The past few days came back in a flood. The Cons, the ambush, his capture...
The doctor looked him over. "How do you feel?"
Jack hesitated. How much should he say? He lightly rubbed his temple with a wince. The crusty handkerchief had been replaced with a real bandage. But it still throbbed with a burning passion. "I hit my head."
"Yes. You have a small cut, but it isn't deep." She give him another smile. "It wasn't as bad as it probably looked. Head wounds bleed a lot."
Jack drowsily nodded. "Thanks."
The doctor stepped back. "Chief Burns wants to talk to you, so I'll give you some time to wake up a bit. Then I'm going to check you over one more time and hopefully let you go." She gave him a last smile and left him alone.
Jack felt a pang of homesickness deep in his stomach. This doctor was nice, but he couldn't help but wish it had been his mom he'd woken up to instead. He glanced towards the large window and imagined Arcee was waiting for him outside. Or Raf. Or Miko, ready to give him one of her choking hugs. But he was in Griffin Rock, not Jasper. Arcee probably didn't even know where he was.
The door opened again, getting his attention. A police officer with all gray hair and a matching mustache entered. He greeted Jack with a reassuring smile. "Hey, it's Jack, right?"
Jack nodded. "How did you know?"
"Optimus told me."
Jack blinked hard. "You know about the Autobots?"
The officer nodded. "My family has been working with Cybertronians for a while now." He stepped further in and sat in the chair across from Jack's bed. "Optimus called us, and told us one of the human kids on his team needed rescuing, but he couldn't get to you."
Jack gave a small smile. "Right. He did say he was sending help."
"I'm Chief Charlie Burns. As soon as Dr. McSwain gives you the all clear, you can come with me. We've got room for you at the firehouse until Optimus and his team can get you back."
Jack glanced back at the window. The GroundBridge had been down for days. Who knew how long it would take to get it running again?
"Don't worry, Jack." said Chief Burns as if he had read Jack's thoughts. "It can't be too long before you can go home. But in the meantime, I'm sure the Bots are eager to ask you a few questions."
"Bots?" Jack snapped back to attention. Chief Burns chuckled. "Yep. Four of them live in the firehouse with my family."
"You live with them? In the same building?" Jack tried to imagine Arcee living in his house. She barely fit in the garage in bot mode.
"You'll see." Chief Burns didn't bother to hide his amusement.
Jack rested his aching head back against his pillow. "Was I out for long?"
"Only a couple of hours. You didn't look so good when Dani and Blades brought you here."
"Tell me about it." Jack moaned.
A quick knock came from the door, and the woman from earlier, Dr. McSwain Jack guessed, came back in. "Okay, Jack. Now that you're awake, I'm going to give you a quick checkup to make sure everything's going smoothly."
Jack bit his tongue on any complaints as she shone a bright light into his eyes, and asked him a few questions. Stuff like, does your head hurt? Do you feel sick, lightheaded or dizzy? Do you remember what happened?
Finally, Dr. McSwain took a step back. "Okay, I don't see anything serious. Just that cut, and you show symptoms of a mild concussion. Those will heal up soon enough if you take it easy for the next little while. I recommend you also stay away from the TV for a few days, just to make sure you don't strain your mind too much."
Jack resisted the urge to rub his head. "Okay."
Dr. McSwain frowned a little. "You also look a little malnourished and dehydrated. How much have you been eating and drinking?"
Jack didn't know how to answer that. It certainly hadn't been by choice, but how was he supposed to explain that he'd been hounded for days by a couple of giant alien robots disguised as cars? "Not much. I guess I'd better fix that." He gave an uncomfortable smile.
Dr. McSwain nodded. "You've got that right. You need the energy." Jack nodded in agreement, which seemed to satisfy her.
She turned to Chief Burns. "He should okay to leave. If his head hurts, you can give him an ice pack. Just make sure he has enough food and water, and gets plenty of rest. I can tell he's been through a lot." She added with a gentle glance at Jack.
Chief Burns stood up. "Thank you doctor."
He walked over to Jack's cot. "Jack, can you walk?"
"We can wheel you out if you're too sore." Dr. McSwain offered.
Jack shook his head. "No, I'm fine. I'll walk."
He slowly slid his legs off the cot and stood up.
Scrap. He didn't even know it was possible to ache so much. His own legs trembled under his weight, threatening to drop him right then and there.
"Take it easy, son." Chief Burns put a steadying hand on his shoulder. "Stretch your legs for a bit, see if that helps."
Jack complied. It seemed to help the stiffness a tad, but the soreness wasn't going anywhere. "I think I'm out of shape." He said with an uneasy smile, only half joking. "But let's go."
Dr. McSwain led them through a few hallways until the front doors came into sight. Chief Burns had to steady Jack a few more times on the way, but for the most part, he was able to grit his teeth and push through the pain.
Bright sunlight greeted them as they stepped outside. And so did a group of people.
"There's Dad!" A boy likely not much younger than Raf trotted over, followed by three other people. "So this is him?" Asked a young man with the brightest orange hair Jack had ever seen. His eyes went immediately to the bandage around Jack's head.
"I'm Jack." Jack said awkwardly. Dr. McSwain chuckled, wished him luck and went back inside.
Chief Burns seemed surprised that they were all there. But he nodded and turned to Jack. "Allow me to introduce you to my family. This is Kade, Graham, Dani and Cody." He looked over their heads at the road and added more quietly, "And the Bots, too. I didn't know you were all coming."
"We couldn't wait." said Dani with a smile. "Especially not Blades."
Jack soon found himself almost completely surrounded by people. "Are you really from Optimus's team?" Cody asked with what looked like awe.
Jack blinked some more and forced a smile as questions came from all sides. "Yep. That's me!"
"There'll be time for questions later." Chief Burns broke in. "We need to get Jack settled into the firehouse first. He's had a long day."
Jack gave him a grateful look and let him lead him down the hospital steps. The excited chatter continued behind him. Jack lightly shook his head in bewilderment. He'd gone from running for his life to being treated like a celebrity in just a few hours. By people who knew about the Autobots no less. And Optimus obviously knew about them.
As they walked, Jack recognized the orange and white helicopter who had rescued him. Next to it sat a police car, a green bulldozer and a firetruck. They must have been the other Autobots.
Chief Burns led Jack towards the police car. "We're not far." He promised. "It's a small island."
As they approached, the passenger side door opened on it's own. Jack was used to this, but it felt weird coming from a car he'd never seen before.
Chief Burns carefully helped Jack into the seat. "Jack, this is Chase."
Jack met the eyes...or optics of an unfamiliar face on a dashboard screen.
"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." said Chase before he could react. Jack blinked. "Yeah, you too."
"And may I add that you look much better than you did when Dani and Blades found you?"
Jack gave a tired sigh and blinked. "I don't feel much better."
Chase searched his face. "Is that why you are blinking excessively?"
Chief Burns appeared in the driver's seat next to him. "He got a concussion." He explained. "So there's bound to be a bit of pain. We'll get you an ice pack once we get home."
Jack nodded absently. Even through his headache, he had questions of his own welling up. "I didn't know there were other Autobots on Earth."
"We are called Rescue Bots." Chase told him.
"'Rescue' Bots?" Jack had never heard that term.
"Here to serve, save and protect." said Chase proudly.
"We'll explain everything at the firehouse." Said Chief Burns with a smile. He pressed an odd device pinned to his shirt. "Okay team, let's head home."
A siren blared suddenly, making Jack flinch violently. His already aching head wasn't too fond of the loud noise.
"And better leave off the siren this time, partner." Chief Burns quickly added.
"Apologies." Chase turned off the siren and pulled away from the curb.
Jack looked out the window. People were out and about, going about their normal lives as if the last few days hadn't happened. He frowned as something occurred to him. Where had Breakdown and Knockout gone?
"You wouldn't happen to have seen a couple of sketchy cars around, have you?" He asked, clenching and unclenching his hands on his knees.
"Sketchy how?" Chief Burns asked, giving him a glance.
"I do not believe I have seen any drawings of cars around here, sketched or otherwise." Chase put in helpfully, though he gave Jack a confused look.
Taken aback, Jack shook his head. "No, real cars. Decepticons."
Chase's optics widened slightly. "Decepticons? Here?"
"Yeah. Their names are Breakdown and Knockout. They've been following me."
"Stalking and harassing an innocent human? How shameful!" Chase scowled, looking outraged at the very idea.
"Yeah." Jack muttered, thinking back to all the times he'd been chased, threatened, grabbed and shot at during his time with the Autobots. "Shameful."
"Dani and Blades weren't followed." said Chief Burns. "I don't think you have anything to worry about."
Jack let out a long breath. "That's a relief."
Chief Burns furrowed his brow. "After you've rested, you wouldn't mind telling me everything that happened, would you?"
"Yeah. Sure." Jack leaned his head back as memories started filling his mind. Now that he had room to stop and think, they were becoming clearer. "It's coming back to me. I just need to come to terms with all this." He gestured to everything with a wave of his arm.
Griffin Rock was way different than Jasper. But he was safe from the Cons.
He supposed he had an obligation to be grateful for that after the long, hectic days and nights he'd just experienced, even if he was far from home.
The firehouse was more than big enough for four giant alien robots.
Jack looked around the huge garage. He could easily have believed it was built specifically for the Bots.
"Home sweet home." Chief Burns said with a small smile as he and Jack got out of Chase.
The familiar sounds of transformations echoed through the garage, until four unfamiliar Cybertronians stood by, all looking at him. The white and orange helicopter gave the biggest most excited grin Jack had ever seen. "Oh, wow! A human from Optimus's team, here with us!"
Jack blinked, stunned into silence. With that kind of excitement, one would think he really were a celebrity. What in the world is going on?
The Bot stepped forward. "So that means you probably know Bumblebee right? Has he mentioned me? We're best buds!"
Jack looked around distractedly, trying not to think about how incredibly sore he was. "Yeah. I do..."
Chief Burns put a hand on Jack's shoulder. "Hold on, Blades. Jack has just been through a rough time, and he's a little banged up. How about we save the questions and introductions until after he's had a little rest?"
'Blades' reluctantly stepped back with a glance at Jack's head. "Oh. Of course."
Jack tried his best to look reassuring. "I just need a little time. The past few days have been a little...intense."
The green Bot looked him over. "It certainly looks like it." He said with a worried frown.
"How did that happen?" The red Bot added, looking at the bandage.
Chief Burns gestured for them to calm down. "Jack can explain everything later, after he's had some food and sleep. This way, Jack."
Jack followed the police chief on shaking legs. "Wait, is that an elevator?"
Chief Burns simply chuckled. "It is a firehouse."
"Don't worry. You'll like it here." Jack turned to Cody, who had appeared next to him. "And you're already used to being around Bots, so that makes it even better!"
Jack stepped into the elevator with them. "Yeah. That's true. But I still don't know what a 'Rescue' Bot is. Is that different than being an Autobot?"
Cody smiled. "You'll see."