If That's What it Takes: Part 7
Angel bolted upright in her bed and sat staring into the semi-darkness of the bedroom she and Prime had been sharing. The girl slowly relearned how to breathe and finally calmed down, as she drew her knees up and put her head down on them.
"Another dream?" The soft deep voice next to her asked.
"Oh 'Rion," She jumped at his voice, "I didn't think I woke you up."
"You didn't," He looked up at her, "I was already awake."
Prime watched his human mate for a few moments as she turned away and looked into the darkness.
"Please tell me about it." he pleaded.
"What's to tell?" She turned and looked back down at him, "It's the same as it has been the last few nights, pain, blood. It's always the same."
Optimus shook his head up at her, "I'm so sorry. I wish there was something I could do to make it stop, to make the memories go away."
"It's not the memories I mind," She looked away from him again, "It's the things I can't remember that worry me."
Prime looked at his human mate as she sat there next to him. She had changed some since he had last seen her. Foremost was her hair, it had once almost come down to her waist now hung just below her ears in the front and was shorter as it went back. She was also a lot paler than she had been and there was a strange quietness to her. Still Prime had made up his mind that he had no care about that. He loved this woman with his entire spark and so all he could do now was to stand by her as she worked her way through the darkness.
She lay back down next to him for a few moments, but it was clear that the girl wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, and she tossed and turned for awhile trying to somehow get back the notion to sleep that she had lost will for it and she finally gave up.
"Orion," She started.
"I noticed Angel," Prime sat up and looked at her. "Go on and get up if you're feeling restless."
"Thanks love," She tossed the covers off and headed in the direction of the human fresher that had long ago been installed in their quarters.
That was when Prime noticed something strange about her. She seemed to be walking like she was in some kind of pain, slowly very gingerly. He continued to watch her for a few seconds as she made it to the door way and stopped, putting one hand on the door and wrapping the other around herself. She was so wrapped up in this that she failed to notice Prime get up and head in her direction.
"Alright, what's wrong?"
Angel nearly jumped about two feet in the air and then calmed down.
"You startled me," She shook her head.
"That's not what I meant and you know it," He gently turned her around to face him, "What's wrong Angel?"
"I …I don't know," She shook her head again, "My stomach, its hurting."
Prime softened considerably and put his arms around her, "Its okay."
Angel let go of the door and melted into the embrace, "I still…I still can't believe."
"Don't worry about it," He held her tighter, "I'm not going anywhere."
The young woman closed her eyes and put her head against the man she loved for a few more moments, just enjoying the fact that this wasn't a dream and that he was indeed alive.
"Orion," She finally pulled away and looked up at him, "There are some things we need to decide."
"About what you saw," He stopped, "When you were…"
"Yes," Angel nodded to him, "I have to go into town and get some stuff, when I get back we need to figure out what we are going to do about it."
"Alright," He pulled back from her but kept hold of her hands. "First things first though. If you can't manage to go, if you're not recovered enough then I'll handle it."
"Orion…" She started.
"No buts this time," He grinned, "Now then, go get what you need. One of the guys will give you a ride into town. I'm going to go and see if everything has managed to not fall apart on poor Prowl."
She finally grinned at him, "I bet he's about to have a nervous breakdown."
"Ya think?" Prime grinned back.
The girl vanished into her fresher station and Prime went to his own to make him self presentable to the rest of the base. A while later he emerged only to find myself standing off to one side watching as Prowl did his best to handle the newest development that had been dropped on our doorstep this morning.
After we had managed to rescue Angel, Prowl had ordered others to go and find Wheeljack and give him whatever assistance that he needed in locating the other missing human female. Unfortunately, the irate engineer and his six prehistoric co-horts had other ideas about that subject. At this moment, the out come of those ideas were in the process of having a discussion with Prowl.
"Okay Silverbolt," The police car told him, "Slow down and tell me that one more time please?"
Prime appeared and walked over to me, I spotted him and nodded.
"Good morning Prime."
"Good morning," He stopped and proceeded to gape at what Prowl was talking to, "Do I even want to know?"
"Possibly not," I had to grin at him, "But all things that have happened this week taken into consideration, it's not that much of a shock."
This was when Silverbolt, who was very nearly at his last nerve, once again reiterated what had happened to him and the rest of his team.
"I SAID Prowl," He sighed, "That I DON'T think Wheeljack and the Dinobots want any help finding Alyssa."
Prowl looked the leader of the Aerialbots up and down and blinked, from head to toe the SST was covered in scorch marks. In more than a few places it looked as if some of his outer armor had actually began to melt. The rest of his team was in no better shape than he. Fireflight stood there riddled from one side to the other with what looked suspiciously like the remains of one of Wheeljack's needle shells. He was favoring one arm and kept wincing every time he moved in that direction. Air Raid appeared to have a rather large foot print right smack in the middle of his chest and Skydive's left side was dented in, in several places as if it had been bashed several times. The one that was by far in the worst shape was poor Slingshot. Two of his comrades carried him by the shoulders and ankles while he languished through what could be nothing other than bite marks, with teeth still embedded in two or three places.
"Help me …" He said pitifully
Prowl blinked at their condition and said the only thing that could possibly be said about the situation.
"No Kidding?"
I had to do my level best here to not start laughing at the poor young mech's expense. I have to admit I was less than successful at this and I truly felt awful about it, still anyone could probably have warned them what would happen when confronted by the Dinobots. But they were due credit for at least making the attempt. Prime himself was doing his best to not crack up as they hauled Slingshot to face the wrath of Ratchet.
Finally he was able to turn his attention to me.
"So have you made any sense out of what Megatron said?" I asked.
"Some," He took on a thoughtful look, "I think it has to do with the images that Angel saw while she was under the influence of the programming."
"How so?"
He stopped and thought for a second, "Ratchet has been looking at the program. It was designed with a specific outcome in mind, for Angel to see Megatron kill me."
Prime took a few steps away from me; I could tell that everything that had taken place was still weighing on his mind. The damage that had been done to his lifemate might very well be irreparable in some ways. However there was the slightest chance that something she saw might help us, so I did the best I could to draw Optimus' attention back to the subject, while still showing some compassion.
"Optimus, I know what happened was …"
He held up one hand and stopped me, "it's not that Alpha." He shook his head. "No there's more to it than just that. The program was set so she'd see a specific thing, but the way in which she saw it was something from her own mind. Angel created the how; they only gave her the why."
"So it's possible…"I prompted.
"Our whole relationship began because Angel has some kind of untapped PSI talent." He turned to look at me, "That's how my spark was able to contact her in the first place. So it's possible that in whatever strange dreams she had as a result of the programming, she may have very well seen the face of the next Prime."
"And now Megatron and his Decepticons have that information," I sighed.
"They have it," Prime confirmed, "So the only way that we are going to be able to stop them from using it is to get to Cybertron and find this person."
"I understand," I told him, "I've done what I can, hopefully the message will reach them and they will be able to evacuate before Megatron arrives."
"Let's hope so," Prime nodded.
We had a few more things to say on this subject that really had nothing much to do except working out the details. Prime eventually moved off to discuss this with Prowl and the rest of his command, which left me to once more try and contact those on our planet that would take steps to keep the individual now marked for death safe. It was nearly the afternoon when something occurred to all of us.
"Hey?" Jazz looked up from where he was with Prime, "Anyone seen Miss Angel?"
If anything that could have been said to set the base back into chaos it was that. Within the next five minutes everyone was up, out and searching for the girl and the one that had taken her into the city. Complete pandemonium reigned for a good ten minutes until someone noticed that the com was going off. Then all of us were in the process of falling all over each other trying to get to the com and find out if the person on the other end had any clue where the girl might have gotten to.
It turned out to be Bumblebee and he indeed turned out to know where Miss Angel had gotten too.
"Optimus?" He asked anxiously.
Prime promptly appeared and took the com, "Bee? What's going on?"
"Optimus," He shook his head sadly "Its Miss Angel."
I honestly heard the whole room freeze, and every single optic focused on screen.
"Sir the two of us were just out here," he shook his head distressed, "She went into the store for a few seconds and then came back out. She got about two steps out onto the sidewalk and then she fainted."
"She what?" Optimus asked.
"She passed out," Bumblebee said again, "They called the hospital and they came and got her. I'm outside right now. I finally got a chance to call you."
"Alright," Prime told him, "Just stay right there."
A few moments later all of us had made it to the Human hospital and Prime had gone in to try and find his Lifemate. He finally located her on the third floor and was in the process of going into see her when he was stopped by one of the human Doctors that were present.
"Sir," The man questioned.
"Can I help you?" Prime almost demanded of the man.
"Yes sir I need to talk to you for a few moments," He looked down at the clipboard he was holding and then back to Optimus, "You are here to see Miss Angel correct?"
"Yes sir," Prime confirmed. "She's my wife."
"Yes sir," The Doctor nodded, "Unfortunately I have some bad news for you."
"Is she going to be alright? What happened?" Optimus demanded again.
"Yes sir," The doctor told him, "The young lady was suffering from a rather bad internal infection. We were able to treat it and her body temperature has begun to drop back to normal, so the prognosis is excellent in that area."
"So what aren't you telling me," Prime prompted.
Inside the room Angel was waiting staring out the window just trying to relax when she heard the comment come from her Husband who was out in the hallway.
"WHAT?"
She winced and waited for him to step into the room, wanting him to come in to see her and tell her what she had for the most part already guessed. She was still looking out the window when she heard a noise and looked back to the door to Prime walk in.
"Hey there," She told him, "Sorry I worried you."
"Don't worry about that," Prime told her as he walked over to her, "I'm just glad that you're safe."
"So?" She looked up at him, "What did he tell you?"
"He… The doctor said…" He paused and tried again, "He said you got sick because of a infection."
"I see," She looked down at her hands, "You can tell me Orion, I'm not going to break."
He turned his face away from the girl and looked out the window.
"The doctor said that the reason you have an infection is because you didn't get treatment…"
"For a miscarriage." She finished softly.
"Angel…" He turned back around and looked at her, "Do you…Do you know what that means? What …. How … The ONLY way that could have happened?"
She bit her lower lip and did the best she could to try and get her emotions under control.
"Yes," she finally managed, "yes I do."
"Do you remember?" Prime asked.
The shook her head once more trying to hold in her emotions, "The only thing I remember are the images from the program, and what happened in the last few days."
"Sweet Primus," he shook his head, "How could …?"
She stopped and looked away from him, tears slowly forming in her eyes, "I'm sorry Orion. If you…" She stopped and swallowed, "If you don't want me…"
"DON'T!" Prime suddenly fiercely snapped at her, "DON'T you EVER, EVER think anything like that!"
He moved closer to her and took her face in his hand, "There is nothing in this or any other world that could change the way I feel about you Angel." He shook his head, "Don't you ever blame yourself for this. None of this was your fault."
She shut her eyes and pulled her self closer to him, "Thank you."
"No," he held on to her, "Thank you. Thank you for coming back to me, thank you for choosing to come back to all of this pain for me. Thank you for loving me."
The two of them sat there for a long time, just coming to terms with all that had happened. Just being with each other and taking comfort in the fact that no matter what they would always love each other.