Chapter 9 - "High Hopes"

by Pan!c at the Disco

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The base was quiet. The other humans were still out with their guardians having been picked up after school. Today was the first time I would actually get to spend some time with Ratchet after I'd left with Jack the other night. With everything that happened with the Decepticon Space Bridge, there hadn't really been any chances to talk to the grumpy bot.

I locked my car and slowly made my way around the corner and up the stairs. Our interactions over the past few days ran through my mind but I kept going back to what he'd said when they had to destroy the bridge.

"-the Space Bridge is our sole hope of ever returning to Cybertron. Are you certain its destruction is the only option?"

"I am afraid so." Optimus replied somberly over the comms. My heart clenched.

"Then by all means, let us light our darkest hour."

He chose our planet over going back to his. We all knew how much Ratchet especially wanted to go home and his dislike of this planet so to hear him give Optimus his approval made me think that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't so cold after all.

Walking across the platforms, I made my way around to the med-bay where said mech was examining one of his tools. He looked up at my approach before returning to what he was doing.

"Hello, Carmen."

I shifted on the spot and drew my shoulders back.

"Hey."

It was awkward for a moment but I'd never been a fan of awkward silences so I cleared my throat. "Whatcha up to?"

He kept his gaze on the tool. "I'm repairing a laser scalpel which Bulkhead trampled."

"Ah, I- I see."

...

"How's your nose?"

"Huh?" I asked in confusion. He huffed and gave me a pointed look.

"Your nose, I know you damaged it yesterday. I can already see the bruising around it and on your forehead forming."

"Oh." I blinked, shocked that he was asking about it. Like he cared. The corner of my lips ticked up shyly. "It's doing alright now. Thankfully it wasn' actually broken, though it sure felt like it, haha. But, ah, still pretty sore, and yeah, got some nasty bruises startin' but I'll live." I gave him a once over. "Wha' about your arm? How's it healing? After your run in with the zombie-cons."

It was Ratchet's turn to look surprised. "It- uh, it's doing well. All patched up." I nodded. My fingers twitched.

"I'm sorry."

His glowing eyes flicked up to me. "Sorry for what?"

"The Space Bridge. For coming back... I know you don' want anything to do with me. And I'm sorry for whatever it is tha's made you feel that way but.. I can't help but feel attached to you guys." I kicked at the ground and diverted my gaze. "I don' know. I- I know I haven' known you guys long. None of us have. But there's a connection with the others- I know you can see it. And maybe- maybe I'm not meant to be here. Maybe this isn' my story... but maybe it is."

Ratchet didn't say anything, he just continued to stare at me analytically, taking it in and trying to figure out where I was going with this.

"I was hoping we could start over again? I know you don' particularly like me but I know that you're not all gruff words and snarky comments. You showed that yesterday when you let Optimus go through with destroying the Space Bridge. That... that was really... thank you, is wha' I'm trying to get at."

Still he stood there, not moving or saying anything.

"Say somethin', please."

"...Okay."

"...Okay?" I jolted back slightly. The medic grumbled under his breath before fixing me with his piercing gaze again.

"Okay, I'll try a little harder." There was an almost guilty look in his eyes as he went on. "I'm not as young and spritely as the others and I have actual work to do so I can't promise anything... but," he stated at my wilting form, "I will... try to be a bit more hospitable to you." I could have sworn he murmured something to himself that sounded suspiciously like 'Optimus would just make me do this anyways' but I ignored it in favour of giving Ratchet a soft smile.

"I'll take wha' I can get."

And believe it or not, I saw a little smile peeking back at me.

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"Ratchet, calm down, would you? It's not a big deal!"

Even though we'd had a little heart to heart the other day, that didn't necessarily mean that everything was all sunshine and rainbows between us now. It was better, definitely, - I wasn't as daunted by him anymore - but apparently not including my guardian in my science project like the others were (because I'd had the great idea to start it when we got told about it and almost finished already) was a sore pill for him to take.

"Shouldn't you be happy that I'm not having to rush at the last minute?"

"You still could have asked for my help."

"I had most of it finished before I even met you." He just huffed at me and went back to welding another sheet of metal onto the giant volcano he was making for Raf. I'd tried (and failed) to get Ratchet to let the others do their own projects: it was like he was a 'control freak' as Miko put it. I sighed. Why do we have to always be at ends? "Don't get me wrong, Ratchet, I can tell that you're really enjoying these projects and I appreciate that you want to help me - and you can, I still have a few things to finish it up - but getting huffy with me isn't doing any good for either of us." But Ratchet wasn't listening anymore it seemed.

An idea popped into my head.

With a brief "be back soon", I made my way past the others who looked on warily and down to where my Jimny was parked.

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I'd just stepped out of my car after pulling up back at base when I was ambushed by Miko. "Carmen! Thank goodness you're back, you have to stop him! He's gone full on mad scientist!"

"Wait, hang on, Mik- Miko!" I ripped my arm out of her grip and went back to open the backdoor of my car. I carefully balanced the large box in my arms and then gently kicked the door shut behind me.

"What is that?"

"My project." We shuffled over to where Ratchet was welding away at something with Jack and Arcee staring at it in dismay. I juggled the box in my arms to try and get a better hold on it before lowering it to the ground. The box was about 3 ft long with the front panel removed and the box's lid was lifted up. Inside was a diorama: a prehistoric landscape of paint, rock, plants and clay along with a large, clay triceratops as the centerpiece. The flipped-up lid had all sorts of facts on it and, with a push of a button on the back, a crackly speaker played dinosaur sounds.

"Woah!"

I beamed at their expressions; I had worked hard on this, especially trying to mold the triceratops. The head was kind of deformed at points and its whole body was on a lean because of its wonky legs but the paint job and details were actually half decent and I'm sure the teachers would focus more on that and the rest of the diorama... hopefully.

"That's awesome, Carmen!"

"Thanks, Miko. It's not done yet though." I glanced up at my guardian hesitantly, "I was hoping that you'd help me finish it and maybe add a few things." It was a peace offering of sorts. A way of saying 'hey, let's forget about earlier and work together on this. Tech it up, go crazy, just please stop being mad at me'. Whether he realised that or was just excited at the prospect of working on another project, I didn't know, but nevertheless his eyes sparked and he smirked.

"About time you came to me. Let me finish up with Jack's and then we'll see what we can do about it." I tried to talk him out of doing the other kids' projects, again, but Ratchet was a mech on a mission and no matter how many times I tried, they all fell flat. All I could do was shrug at the others.

"Sorry guys, I did my best."

"Hey, no worries, you tried, that's what matters." Jack consoled me with a hand on my shoulder.

"Besides," Miko stated, "your project's about to get a make-over too and you were practically done."

I grimaced. "Don't remind me." I glimpsed the happy, if slightly crazed, look on Ratchet's face and couldn't help a rueful smile. "At least he's happy, I guess."

All we could do now was wait.

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My fingers twitched as I stood before my class, a little remote resting underneath them. Luckily, Ratchet hadn't had time last night to redo my whole thing and had left most of the diorama intact. The Triceratops however...

"Well, Ms Lowe?" came Mr Skolville's curious voice

I gulped. This was it. I pushed the red button to start it up and the model's eyes - "Optics, they're called optics, Carmen" I remembered Ratchet telling me - lit up a baby blue. There were a few 'awws' from the class as it moved out of the box and across the table but they soon turned into screams as it roared and leapt at the closest student. I was frozen for a moment but I snapped out of it and panicked, repeatedly pushing the stupid button to turn off, turn off, turn off! but it kept on charging at students and bruising them with it's tiny horns.

"Ms Lowe! Get that thing under control!"

I jumped at Mr Skolville's booming yell and leapt forward, catching it mid air as it tried to impale poor Ashley who was starting to look a lot paler than normal. "I am so sorry, I don't know what happened, I'm sorry-" The wiry teacher fervently gestured for me to leave and to 'get that thing to stop, please!'. I stumbled into the hallway with the door slamming shut behind me and the little triceratops squirming in my arms.

I wonder how the other's projects went.

BOOM!

"Ahh!" I screamed as a bright beam of burning heat tore through the floor in front of me and up through the roof to the sky above. Once it had stopped, I cautiously peered over the new hole in the floor. I let out a short, hysterical laugh out of shock when I saw sweet, little Raf standing there with his shoulders hunched up to his ears and a familiar metal "volcano" directly underneath the hole.

Oh yes, Ratchet's projects certainly "went".

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I groaned as I snapped my phone shut: my friends kept sending me texts about the horror that was the science fair fiasco and I shared a look with Miko. She wasn't as upset as I thought she'd be given that she handed in a "made-up" planet. "I thought for sure you'd be angry at Ratchet."

"Eh, wasn't that bad. Besides, you three kind of distracted everyone from it so thanks." I narrowed my eyes at her cheeky grin and gave her a playful shove which she returned in earnest.

"No rough-housing in my seats, okay girls?"

Miko rolled her eyes at her guardian's voice. "Yeah, yeah."

"Thanks again for the lift, Bulkhead."

"Yeah, thanks." Raf chirped from the backseat.

"You're welcome, anytime."

As we passed through the tunnel and came into the main part of base, I felt nerves start to rise in me. What would Ratchet say when he heard what happened? I didn't want to hurt his feelings or make him feel bad. Miko, Raf and I all hopped out with Jack dismounting Arcee next to us. Ratchet came sweeping into the room as he peered at us eagerly.

"Well, how were my, uh, our projects received?"

The four of us shared a look. Ooh boy. After retelling what had happened, we waited for Ratchet's response. He'd been silent but his grim look grew deeper throughout all of our recounts until we'd finished.

"Well, on our planet you would have been awarded the highest honours." He then turned and trudged away, grumbling about "absolutely no gratitude..."

"Ratchet, wait!" I called out and ran after him. He disappeared down one of the back tunnels and I pushed myself to catch up to him. "Ratchet! Please-"

He swiftly turned to face me and leered down at me. "What? What do you want now?"

I puffed as I caught my breath and stared up into his illuminating optics. The glare in them made me want to crawl inside myself but I took in a steadying breath. "What I want is to make sure you're okay." This made him pause and the hard frown he bore on his face lessened slightly. "I'm sorry things didn't go the way you thought they would. Our cultures and- and our ways of life are very different from yours. The fact that you were trying to help us all is… it's nice. It's-It's a nice thought. And I really appreciate it" His facial expression was still guarded but I could see some of the tension leave his body at my words.

"How about you teach me about Cybertron?"