It started with a cough.

She brushed it off saying that it was the dust, and Starscream believed her.

Then came the headaches, and flushed red skin. Those, he shouldn't have brushed off.

It all came to ahead one day, when Nya just didn't leave her courters in the morning. Communal morning fueling, or breakfast, was a thing at the autobot base. Nya would always be at these with some toast and a glass of juice while the bots had energon, and she eventually got Starscream to join her in this tradition. Though it was easier for her to join in these as she usually woke up before hand and went on a run, while Starscream preferred to sleep in.

So, it was quite worrying when not only the air major wasn't present at breakfast, but no one had seen her around the base at all that day. Eventually they found her still in bed, her flesh flushed scarlet and far too warm. Nurse Darby was summoned right away.

Influenza. That's the illness that was inflicting the air major. Starscream was quick look up more information on the human disease. No longer fatal thanks to modern human medicine, but that didn't mean the sickness didn't have a horrid track record. Merely a hundred of earth planetary rotations ago, it was on of leading causes of death.

Thankfully, despite her conditions, Nya's prognosis was a good one. Though, Nurse Darby still wanted someone to keep an optic on her to make sure nothing happens. That's how Starscream found himself, sitting at her bedside in his holofrom. His false fingers running through her sweaty hair. He could feel the heat of the fever radiating off of her flushed skin.

He didn't mind doing this, Nya had helped him a number of time if he was injured or having trouble sleeping. It only made sense for him to return the favor when she was unwell. And it wasn't like she was a bad patient. She most just slept and was actually quite compliant with all of the things that Nurse Darby advised him to do. Though, she was adamant on using the rest room by herself.

It wasn't all that hard to care for her anyway. Administering her medication, keeping fluids in her and try to get her fever down was simple enough. The hard part was just watching and listening to her. The raspy wheezing as she struggled to vent with clogged up pipes was like a stabbing knife to his audio receptors.

He dipped the washcloth in the bowl of cool water next to her bed, and twisted it before returning it to its place on the air major's forehead. Starscream knew it would quickly become as warm as her skin in a moment, but he didn't have any type of ice to cool her down. It was inefficient in his opinion, but he did it anyway, as it lessened the pain in her expression. It was a small difference, but it was a difference not the less.

He rose from his seat and checked on the soup he was heating up in the nearby barrack's kitchen. The timer he had set still had a few breems left to go, so, he returned to her bedside. Her hair was down and with all of the tossing she did in her shut down it would certainly be all knotted up once she recovered.

Starscream knew that Nya loved her hair. She always took so much care in it, and her work wasn't for nothing. The dark brown fibers were always shiny, smooth and thick. It would surely disappoint her if she found them all tangled. So, after some searching, he managed to find where Nya kept her brush and scrunchies. Carefully, he turned her head and began to brush through the dark brown hair.

After thoroughly brushing, he began to try to braid it. Which turned out to be much more difficult than Starscream had previously thought. Honestly, he practically needed another servo to handle the three clumps he was trying to twist together. Just the fact that Nya was able to do this without looking, amazed him. He eventually had managed to make something that looked similar to Nya's braids, of course it was in no way as pretty or even, but it would stop her hair from knotting.

Once the soup was finished, he set aside a small portion, and placed the rest in the refrigeration unit. When he arrived back into Nya' quarters, said air major was still asleep. He hated to wake her, but Starscream knew that she needed to ingest something to fuel her immune system.

"Nya?" He gently shook her shoulder. Primus her skin felt so warm.

Nya stirred, giving a low groan, before opening her glassy dim eyes, "Scream?" she rasped, before suddenly coughing.

"Yeah, it's me, sorry to disappoint," he said.

Her coughing slowed, and she swallowed before speaking, "Very funny, I don't think seeing you is all that disappointing. What going on?"

"I have some lunch for you."

"Really?" She yawned.

Starscream nodded.

"Thanks," Nya moved to sit up.

"Wait, wait, allow…" He stared.

She stopped him, "Starscream, I'm sick, not dead. I can sit myself up."

He didn't move to help her, listening to her judgement. And Nya was successful in sitting up herself, though judging by the grimace on her face it wasn't a pleasant process. Starscream remembered reading that one of the symptoms of the illness was muscle aches and soreness. Hopefully, they weren't too hard on her.

"Thanks," Nya murmured as she took the bowl of soup. Starscream tried to forget seeing her servos shaking.

"How are you feeling?" Starscream asked.

Nya chuckled (he wasn't sure as to why, there was absolutely nothing humorous about this entire situation), "Like crap. Everything hurts."

"I'm sorry."

"Why are apologizing? You didn't get me sick. It's mostly my fault anyway. Didn't get that flu shot in time."

"Flu shot?"

"It's sort of like a preventative medication given through an injection."

"Preventative? Why didn't you get it then?!"

"I was going to, just didn't get it in time. Don't worry I'll do better next year."

After her meal, Nya feel back asleep, and she remained in shutdown for the rest of the day. All while Starscream kept a watch over her. Though, she didn't get better like he had hoped, as that night her temperature spiked again.

By this point the washcloth was barely doing anything, and with all of the shivering that was wreaking Nya's body, Starscream was scared to remove the blankets to help cool her down. The fever, made her skin flush, an even deeper scarlet, and soak her clothes in salty water. He hated seeing her like this, but watching her physically struggle wasn't the worst part.

Starscream had never really watched Nya sleep before this, so he didn't know if it was normal for her to talk in her sleep, but he could tell that this wasn't supposed to be happening. Nya would have fits in her sleep were she'd blindly flail her limbs, and talk incoherently, mostly saying the word 'no'. He tried shaking her in order to wake her from whatever nightmare she was trapped in, but she screamed and curled up into a ball, clutching her chest as if trying to protect it from something.

Tears flowed form her glazed over eyes, and pour down her flushed cheeks, as she screamed, "Mother don't go! No! No! Stop! Stop! Get away! I don't want this! Please stop!"

Starscream stared in abject horror. Nya was begging, begging for her life. He could never see her in a situation where she would resort to that, he could see her escape, or even die holding her head up high, before resorting to this. Yet, here she was curled up sobbing, so helpless that she was begging for something to stop. Just what was she seeing?

"Get off of me. Leave me alone. Please," Nya blubbered, in her fever induced haze.

"Nya," Starscream carefully called out, slowly reaching a hand out to stroke her hair, but she flinched away from his touch.

He backed up instantly. She flinched; Nya had flinched away from him. As if he was the one who was going to hurt her. Was she afraid of him? The idea made the energon in his tank churn so hard he could feel it even when in his holoform. Once upon a time he could've cared less about harming a human like her, but now? He couldn't imagine hurting Nya, not without being sick with himself. Although he would never admit it, one of his worst nightmares was harming her.

His horror melted away into anger, anger at who ever did this to his partner. It was clear that Nya wasn't just having a nightmare, but that the fever had unlocked some of her darkest memories, and they were now tormenting her in this sickened state. Someone had to have done something horrible to her in order for a mere dream of the event to have made the strong confident chipper soldier that she was crumble down into this broken weak trembling girl. And that made him want to chase whoever did that to her, to the far unknown regions of the universe.

It would be another joor before, Nya's sobbing clamed down enough for her to return to an uneasy sleep. Though, it was going to take longer for Starscream's rage to leave him. Had all of this pain been inside of Nya all this time? She always had a smile in her eyes, and held herself with slightly cocky confidence, but…Could that have all been a beautifully crafted mask? A mask to hide the scared tormented soul she was underneath? As spark breaking as that thought was, Starscream had to give her props; she hid her pain well.

"Ray?" Nay quietly stirred.

Starscream, glanced up. Nya had woken up again, though he could tell by the glazed dim appearance in her eyes, and the use of her late conjunx's name, that she wasn't all there.

"Ray, are you there?" Nya mumbled again.

Her voice was so pleading, that Starscream didn't have the spark to tell her that her conjunx was really gone. If his holoform could cry, a few tears might have slip from his eyes.

He reached out to grasp her hand, "I'm here. I'm here."

"You sound worried, Ray. What happened?" Nya mumbled.

"Nothing happened. You're just sick is all. Go back to sleep," Starscream said. Oh, how he hated lying to her, but he feared the panic she would feel if he didn't go along with her delusion.

"He came again for me, Ray," A tear slipped from her eyes, "He pinned me down. I couldn't move. I couldn't stop him."

She turned towards him, looking for someone who wasn't there; feverish blind eyes searching for comfort. Her arm shakily reached out. Starscream hesitated, before he moved to sit next to her on the bed, and pulled her into his arms. The feverish heat that wafted off of her was suffocating, and the sweat that soaked through every fiber of her being was sticky, but he couldn't care less as he let her cry into his arms.

"I couldn't stop him," Nya said, through her tears.

"Shh, It's alright. I-it's over now. You're safe. I'm here. Go back to sleep," Starscream said.

Comforting wasn't something that the seeker was naturally good at or trained in. There was no tact or formula one could learn to teach them how to comfort. But he tried to remember what Nya did for him in his own moments of suffering. And it seemed that all one had to do was just be there, as a stone for her to hang on too, as a pillar to keep her standing.

They remained like this, long after Nya returned to the world of slumber. Starscream didn't dare leave her side, as she still clung to him like he was her only lifeline. But in all honesty, he didn't want to leave either. She had opened the doors to her darkest pains, and demons, yet he didn't feel scared or a need to run away. If anything, that made him want to stay with her, to help and protect her, because now he understood why. Why she always jumped to help him through his own problems, because she knew how it felt. How it felt to be harmed, and feel like you were helpless to stop it.

And she was still suffering. It was subtle and if one wasn't looking, they wouldn't notice it, but she was. He wanted to ease the burning pain she was feeling, just like she was doing for him every day.

"I will protect you. I don't know from what, demons that torture you. But when you finally tell me I won't leave you. Just like when you did for me."

A/N:

You though the next update was going to be a fun Christmas special didn't you! But no! I have other plans for you! Here comes a wave of cold hard black angst! *MANIACAL LAUGHTER*

But don't worry I will be doing a Christmas special as well…

Have a nice day!