Alone
Chapter 8
"Jazz…" The Porsche groaned his response, after not having the energy nor will to try actual words. Still, the voice seemed so far away but the touch of someone's hand on his shoulder was comforting. At least Jazz knew he was safe and the others were near.
"Jazz. You…hav….up. Squeeze…and. Hear.. Me?"
His hand flexed and grasped the red hand in his as hard as he could, which wasn't much but he tried. Shadows came in and out of sight, blurred color washed out like an oil painting. Static filled his audios, making the voice broken and fuzzy. The hand squeezed his in return, patting his shoulder fondly.
"You…b…fine. Ont…worry."
Jazz tried hard to smile but his face and just about every inch of his body ached. More sounds now. Moving around him. Colors fading and buzzing by making him dizzy again. The world spun and his optics shutdown. Slowly he grew lax again and sagged against the berth, peacefully offline.
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Satisfied, Ratchet extricated his red hand from Jazz's grip and gave him a pat on the shoulder as the mech fell into blissful recharge. Given a few more days, Jazz should have enough energy restored to sit up and regain more of his basic functions such as audio and vision. That was if he and Wheeljack could remake Jazz's visor.
The door behind him hissed open and a pair of black and white feet clinked on the floor, coming to rest a few feet from Ratchet.
"Prime asked me to give a report. How is he doing?"
Ratchet turned to face the second in command. "Prime did, or did you just wanted to see him?" The CMO grouched, giving a nasty look to Prowl's usually calm face. It was then that he noticed how drained Prowl really looked. His door wings were drooped, his optics dim, paint was nicked in a few places and his shoulders slouched slightly.
Prowl thought about it for an astrosecond and decided to bypass the question. Ratchet wasn't in a good mood and to provoke him farther was never a brilliant decision. He did have a horrible habit of throwing things. Hard.
"How is he?"
Ratchet grunted at him, "Better I suppose. He should be back on his feet in about a week or so. Loosing that much energy put too much strain on his systems."
Prowl nodded and turned to leave when Ratchet caught his arm, "It is okay to show some emotion, Prowl. I know you were close friends. Hell, you two have been working together for over five million years with Prime, you can't tell me he isn't your friend."
Prowl's right door wing twitched slightly, "I know that and he is but I have to report this to Prime."
"Prime already knows!" Ratchet barked, "Stop running around for five damn minutes, will you? You're always so busy that you don't even take time to notice people around you, Prowl. You have friends here, you know, despite how many times you ignore them." Prowl looked like he was about to protest but Ratchet silenced him, "I know you don't do it on purpose but this… attitude of yours, you just don't notice anything around you sometimes. Me, the twins, Blue, Jazz, Prime! There are friends here. Try just once to stop rushing and take notice, okay? It's not healthy."
The Datsun nodded and paused to look at Jazz's still form. Perhaps he did have friends…did he really push them away? He had never meant to, but maybe he did.
"I have to go find the terrible two, you stay here for a breem and watch the monitors. If anything changes, comm me." With that, Ratchet left. Prowl didn't even have a chance to retort.
With a shrug, Prowl walked back to the berth, where the saboteur had begun to stir restlessly. Slowly, his optics regained color, bright blue warming the edges of both optics and his hands twitched. Prowl kept his distance so as not to startle him, put ended up doing just the opposite.
"Ratch! Where are ya, buddy? Please tellme yer there…Ratch? 'Jack? Anyone?" Jazz shouted, banging his fists on the berth. He couldn't see any blurry faces above him and began to panic. "Someone answer me!"
Prowl's hand stilled Jazz's fist on the berth. "It's okay. Calm down," Prowl told him calmly and methodically.
"Prowl?"
He nodded, "It's me."
The Porsche breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed, "Sorry…I…" He paused.
Jazz ran a hand over his face. He could hear! Finally, no more silence and no more broken hearing. That must have meant that his energy levels were back up. He gave a deep sigh and tried to sit up. A sharp stabbing pain racked his body, screaming for him to lie back down.
"Whatcha doin' here anyway? Aintcha on duty?" Jazz shifted his weight to lay down, groaning in his effort.
"Ratchet asked me to stay so he could go find Sunstreaker and Sideswipe." Prowl answered and sat in the nearest chair. "How are you feeling?"
Jazz gave a weak chuckle, "Ta be honest, I feel like slag."
"Understandable."
The comment fell flat and both Autobots sat in an uncomfortable silence for a moment or two before Jazz broke it.
"Did I miss anythin'?"
Prowl shook his head, "No. Everyone was out looking for you so there wasn't much damage the twins could create that was remotely humorous."
The saboteur laughed, clutching at his chest as the pain from his back somehow traveled up there. "Man, I musta missed som'thin'. Prowl's jokin'?
"Who said I was joking?" A smile tugged at his lips while Jazz chuckled. Prowl waited till the laughter died down before looking at Jazz a bit more seriously.
"Jazz," He started, "Do you think of me as a friend?"
Jazz blinked, "'Course I do." He smiled brilliantly, "Aint I yer friend too?"
"Yes."
"Then that makes me yer friend too, right?" Prowl nodded and Jazz continued, "Look, if ya don't mind, can ya stay till Ratch gets back? I know he tol' ya too but…I jus'…I can't stay alone anymore. Not fer a while. I missed all ya guys 'round here when I was in tha' hole. I hated ta be by m'self before bu' now…I know it sounds weird bu'…"
Prowl listened through the rant and gave Jazz's shoulder a squeeze, "Don't worry. I'll make sure Ratchet has someone in here all the time, until you can get out of repair bay."
"Thanks, buddy." Jazz smiled, for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. "I jus' don' wanna be alone…"
"In this place, I doubt you ever would be alone. We are a 'tightly knit' group, as you would say."
Jazz smirked, "Th' language is warin' off on ya Prowler."
"So it seems." Prowl looked to the door as Ratchet, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe came in, tiptoeing.
"He's awake," Prowl announced.
"Oh." Sideswipe said, and jogged over. "How's it goin', Jazz-o?"
And that was about how it went for the rest of the day. One by one, each Autobot trickled in to visit and tell stories of what had happened while his was gone. Even a few humans came by, music junkies that Jazz had met. Turned out the media had gotten wind of the story. Letters were sent and pictures from kids turned up. It gave Jazz something to do while he sat in repair bay.
Before long through, the Ark inhabitants settled back into normal routine. Prowl and Prime ran missions to stop the Decepticons from their average "plot of the week" mayhem. The twins went back to pulling pranks and destroying Cons. The latter was first of course. Starscream in particular didn't return with the rest of the Cons for nearly a month after he had an encounter with them. Ratchet ranted. Bluestreak rambled. Hound explored. Huffer complained. Wheeljack blew himself up. Gears whined. Bumblebee was chipper. Prowl was logical and aloof.
It was good to be home
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Author's Note: YEY! It's Complete! First chapter fic and I actually finished. ;) But I'm afraid I'm probably not going to be able to put up fics for a while. MAYBE. I'm not sure. See I'm moving out and going away to college. I'm scared to death. It's in another city, a BIG city, I'm living in an apartment by myself, don't have a job, no car…yeah. But it depends on if I can get internet connection and how long it will take for me to get it. So till then, I wont be able to post anything. Hopefully it wont be long. :) I also want to thank everyone who reviewed "A Bot's Best Friend." It was cathartic to write about my BJ but I don't think there will be a sequal. It was hard to write the first one and I don't know if I could write a second. Thanks again for your support. :D Hope everyone liked the last chap too.
OH! And before I forget, I did write another version to this chapter in which Jynx comes in. In the end, I read over it and decided against it. I didn't like how it finished up so…this one was written it it's place. Write me an e-mail or review with an e-mail address and I will send you a link to it. I think I actually took out the ending to that version so it's not the whole thing but it is a couple of pages long. Thanks again:D
Mariashadow: Thanks much! As I said, if ya want I will show ya the other version with Jynx in it. So glad you like her! My first fanchar- from like four years ago- was a dud. Most people didn't like her much so I'm glad more people seem to like Jynx at least. :)
Tiamat: Yeah. Poor Ratch…I should write about that sometime. Jack and Jynx…two bad no nos ;) Thanks for the review and suggestion!
Jess: Glad ya like her and thanks ;)
TruebornChaos: I agreed with you on that. I too knew I hadn't added her before so it wouldn't make sense. But in the version I did with Jynx I did find a way to make it work I think…sorta. Thanks!
LKW: Thank ya! It was raining and that's where the idea for the flash flood came from. And uh…ya know…it was really just to occupy time. I wanted the fic to be about friendship more than anything else so maybe that will come up in a sequel but not here. Thanks:D
Whirl: Yes, I agree. I know I didn't but as I told TrueBornChaos, I think I got it to work in the other version. I'll send it to ya and you can tell me whatcha think. ;) And yeah, sorry bout that, I meant to add him…guess I forgot. Hope this chap makes up for it. Thank ya!