A/N: Sorry this took a while. Classes have started up again so I am swamped. Um a few announcements:
First, the character Lex belongs to the contest winner 'What Lies Beyond'. I've been meaning to say that, but I kept forgetting.
Second, this chapter might have a few grammatical errors b/c I edited it while half asleep. My bad, but it was the only way y'all were gonna get this lol.
Third, I FOUND A STORY TO PROMOTE. I'm gonna start promoting stories I find and love. This week I am promoting: 'The Girl with an Autobot Tattoo' by smileytrashbagg. I highly recommend it. I'm enjoying it thus far.
I think that's all my announcements. Leave me reviews pretty, pretty please with sugar and sprinkles on top. I'm gonna go sleep. Kay, bye.
Chapter Three:
Coming Home
"Home is not where you are from, it is where you belong. Some of us travel the whole world to find it. Others, find it in a person." –Beau Taplin (The Explorers)
Lennox had a lot on his plate to deal with. In an ideal world, his only problems would be dealing with the enemies he was allowed to shoot at. Namely, the Decepticons and the drones. However, this was far from an ideal world. In this world, he had to also deal with asshole politicians who thought they were bigger than they were, mountains of paperwork for the most pointless things, and one couldn't forget the long list of meetings with more politicians who thought they had some God given right to be in the loop.
Plus, now he also had to deal with the growing list of damages in Diego Garcia because some fathead government liaison thought it'd be a better idea to say no to the fire breathing dinobot.
Then, of course, there was the whole matter of 'another human just popped through a mystical portal'. The American Government hadn't exactly been notified of that new development and boy was Lennox not eager to be the one to break the news.
"Would you look at that." A familiar voice chuckled. Lennox briefly glanced up from his human sized datapad to see Robert Epps strolling his way. The dark skinned man wore his Airmen Battle Uniform, neat and crisp, with his hat settled on top of his head. Lennox wasn't surprised to see Epps here rather than outside running through tactical training. This was only because his partner for tactical training was a giant, black mech standing across the hangar. "This is the first time I've seen Ratchet walking around since yesterday. Why ain't he in the Medbay?"
"His patient is knocked out cold, from what I hear." Lennox replied.
"Dr. Bradshaw?" Epps asked in clarification. There was obvious skepticism on his features.
Lennox shook his head, "She goes by Aj. She's not a doctor either."
"This is weird as hell, man."
"Weirder than that?" Lennox nodded his head toward Ironhide and Ratchet who were still arguing with each other. They had started off in English, but as per usual, the English quickly switched to Cybertronian. It wasn't odd to see the large, black mech going toe to toe with the slightly shorter red and white mech. The two argued like an old married couple.
Epps smirked, "That I'm used to." He motioned toward the many working soldiers walking around the two mechs without even giving them a passing glance, "Hell, everyone's used to that." He paused briefly, "What's she like? You saw her didn't you?"
"Yeah." Lennox nodded and furrowed his eyebrows together. It was hard to wrap his mind around it all. For almost 8 years, his mental image of Aubrey's sister was a stuffy physician who sneered more than smiled. He had walked into the Medbay yesterday expecting a bitter woman with a curt attitude, but that wasn't what he found. Aj seemed…nice. Despite being laid up in bed with a serious injury, she was all smiles and jokes. He could even see concern in her features when she realized her introduction to his kids wasn't going as swimmingly as it could've. Dr. Bradshaw never cared about connecting with Annabelle or Lucas. He glanced over at Epps to see his old friend staring at him, waiting for an answer. Lennox shrugged, "She's different, Epps. She's not the person we thought we knew."
The sound of transforming made both men glance over in time to see Ratchet fold down into his alt mode. A white H2 Search and Rescue hummer with bright red accents. He drove out of the hanger leaving Ironhide here with a shaking head.
"He's so fragging sensitive about the human girl in the Medbay. I just want to meet her." Ironhide scoffed and walked over towards them.
"She's like Tyler, Taylor, and Pete, Hide." Lennox replied, "You know that."
"So?" The mech scoffed.
"So maybe leave it alone for now?"
Ironhide replied with another scoff and a wave of his large hand. He folded down into his own alt form and let his driver's door swing open, "Epps, are you ready?"
"Was waiting on you, man." Epps chuckled and gave Lennox a quick nod before hopping in. Lennox watched them drive away with a sigh. What he would give to drop all this paperwork in someone else's lap and take up tactical training instead.
"Pete went out to stay with Amy and Delilah." Taylor hummed out loud as she paced the floor in the shared Human-Autobot lounge. This was the only lounge on base that was built to have both species in at the same time. The human area was raised up off the floor with catwalks circling the outside of the room for people to enter and leave. Right now Taylor and Tyler were one of the few groups of humans in here. The only other group was a small pack of soldiers sitting at the far end of the catwalk talking to the only Autobot in the lounge, Hound, about something. "He wants them to meet Aj, but it probably won't be this weekend since Delilah's mom is visiting. Pete said he'd be back Tuesday though. I hope he can bring Amy by sometime next week. Aj'd love to meet her…it's only been a day and she's already losing her mind sitting in that room. Do you think there's something we can do to help her feel better?"
Taylor ran a hand through her loose hair and glanced over at her twin to see him grinning at his phone. He was texting, Taylor could tell because the back of the xScreen was shielded his color choice of navy blue, and wasn't paying any attention to her at all.
"Tyler!"
He nodded, "Yeah, yeah. You're totally right, Tay."
She rolled her eyes and stepped closer to the couch he was sprawled across, "I think I'm going to shave my head, tattoo the words 'Con Lover' across my forehead, and go live with Barricade."
"Sounds like a plan." Tyler replied nonchalantly.
Taylor reached over and slapped him against the side of his head. Tyler let out a cry of pain and clutched the side of his head with wide, surprised eyes, "What was that for?"
"You're ignoring me."
"I happen to be in a very important conversation." Tyler shook his phone slightly in her direction.
"I don't care about the girl you're texting this week, Ty." Taylor scoffed, "I'm worried about Aj."
Tyler sighed and stuffed his phone into the shirt pocket of his uniform, "Why? Aj is fine. Besides, nothing we do is going to make her want to stick around in the Medbay."
"She has to be in there for another two weeks at the least. Even after that, Ratchet is still going to restrict her to stay in bed."
Tyler grinned, "If you honestly think Aj is going to lie around in bed for two weeks then you obviously don't remember our dear aunt as well as you think you do." He stood up, "Now if you don't mind, I, unlike you, don't have this weekend off."
"Bye." Taylor replied airily as Tyler gave her a quick wave before scooping his hat off the couch and tucking it under his arm. She briefly watched him leave the lounge before sitting back down at the table she had started out at. She just wanted to make sure Aj was as happy as she could possibly be here. That's all.
264 tiles. That's how many there were on the ceiling above me. How did I know this bit of trivial information? I counted them. Four times. It was exactly 2:13 in the afternoon, and I knew this because every twelve seconds I ended up glancing over at that stupid ticking clock. As if the more I stared at it, the faster time would go.
Never, and I mean never in my entire freaking life, had I ever been good at doing nothing. Rest? I was not the kind to rest. I mean, sure, I could maybe set aside a couple hours to sit on a couch and watch some TV or something, but an entire day? No. Just, no. For almost 24 hours now, I've been in this bed and I was very quickly losing my sanity because of it. I wanted to be up and moving. I wanted to be exploring this base.
No amount of conversations with my sister or Taylor was going to sate my drive to physically move about. Although, at least their company had distracted me. Taylor left, saying she had some kids to watch, and Aubrey left saying she had a few errands. I didn't blame them. They had their own lives to live.
I wondered where Bear was. Couldn't they at least leave my dog in here with me?
The sound of a holoform coming to life greeted my ears and seconds later Ratchet was standing on the right side of my bed looking at the machines. He glanced my way and nodded, "How do you feel, youngling?"
"I'm dying, Ratchet."
Ratchet rolled his eyes, "Don't be so dramatic."
"I traveled all the way here", I replied in a very overdramatic way, "Through a magic portal no less-"
"Not magic."
"Just to end up in this bed." I finished, draping my arm across my forehead with a sigh, "Dying of boredom."
Ratchet cracked a smile at me, "What would you have me do? Let you loose on the base?"
"Yes." I nodded eagerly, "That's exactly what I would have you do."
"Well that's a prime example of why I'm in charge of your care and you are not." He replied then walked over to set his hands on the wheelchair parked against the wall. He motioned toward the door to the right with his head, "Do you need to use the restroom?"
I shook my head, "No. Aubs took me an hour or so ago."
Ratchet nodded and walked over to the IV, "I could lower your dosage of medicine. You could sleep the day away."
God, that actually sounded tempting at the moment. I frowned and shook my head, "Ratchet, I gotta do something. I'm gonna lose my mind in here."
"In one week you will begin Physical Therapy." Ratchet replied as if I hadn't said anything to him. I groaned and he continued, "We have a physical therapist on base that is quite good according to the soldiers."
I sunk in my bed with my lower lip jutted out in a pout. Ratchet, in response to my pout, shot me an amused smirk.
"How come you don't wear a military uniform?" I questioned, letting my eyes trace over the clothes I had grown so used to seeing.
Ratchet shrugged, "I just never coded it into my holoform programming."
"Why?"
"Because I saw no personal use for it. Wheeljack and Perceptor also don't have it coded into their programming."
"Why?" I repeated
"For the same reasons." Ratchet replied again, but his voice was curt and there was a flash of annoyance in his eyes.
He glared at me as if daring me to continue my actions. It's not like I could turn down a dare, real or not. So with a grin I repeated my prior questions like a 5-year old would.
"Why?"
"For Primus' sake, youngling-" Ratchet exploded, like I figured he would, but his long-winded rant and my boring ass lecture was interrupted by the sound of a mech speaking Cybertronian. It was almost impossible for me to distinguish who was speaking when they spoke in their natural language. Despite their voices sounding so different when they spoke English, when they spoke Cybertronian it was too similar.
Ratchet mumbled under his breath and someone spoke again. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion when I realized it sounded like the voice was right next door. Right next door to my very human sized hospital room. The medic turned his holoform off and I was alone again. Almost. The sound of a mech transforming was faint and arguing happening right outside the room followed it. I could tell Ratchet apart from the other voice because Ratchet was yelling and threatening. Well, due to the Cybertronian language I couldn't tell if he actually threatening the mech, but I would guess that he was. I knew my medic fairly well.
"Ratchet!" I yelled loudly and the voices died down. "Ratchet!" The arguing picked back up again, "Ratchet!"
"Please, Ratchet? Please?" A new, male voice suddenly filled the air and I paused from my yelling. This wasn't a mech I knew.
Ratchet replied in Cybertronian, but I wasn't done trying to keep his attention, "I'm going to keep yelling until you answer me! Who knows maybe I'll hurt my throat or break my vocal chords! Ratchet-"
The sound of my voice was drowned out by the sound of metal gears groaning. For the briefest second I thought something was wrong with the mechs that had been talking, but that idea flew from my mind when I noticed the entire wall to my left was slowly sinking into the floor. At the same time as this, the ceiling was being slowly pulled towards the right. This continued until the ceiling and left wall were gone and I could clearly see two big ass Cybertronians standing off to the side. Although, I wasn't looking up at them like I had been with Thundercracker. Rather, my bed was about at their waist level.
"That's one injury I might hesitate to fix for you." Ratchet snapped, but his lips had twitched up in amusement. My eyes widened in disbelief as I just stared at the speaking mech. He didn't look like he did back home. In fact, his shape was less boxy and more round, reminding me of his bipedal mode from the movie. Unlike the movie though, he was primarily white with accents of light gray and red.
"Holy…" My words trailed off, still in shock.
All attention snapped to the mech beside Ratchet who was grinning. He was taller than the medic, maybe by a couple feet, and had a slimmer build around his waist area. Underlying pieces of armor, like the center of his broad chest was a royal blue color, and over those pieces were stark, white metal. He had accents of bright red here and there, including on the top of his head, and there was a red and royal blue racing stripe on each of his two door wings.
His eyes were a very soft blue, pastel in shade, and they were staring at me. I shook my head, briefly glancing away, to take in the area around them. It was a huge area considering both mechs were standing there and the new ceiling above them, and now me, was still another ten feet up or so. The walls I could see were made of dark concrete and the back wall, quite a ways behind them, had tall windows, but all I could see out of the windows was another building.
"The fuck, Ratchet!?"
"Language." He growled in response.
I shook my head again and glared at him, "You never told me this room had removable walls!"
"Did you ask?"
I opened my mouth, realized he was right, and then quickly snapped it closed. With a light glare, I pointed at him with twisted lips. That was a low blow. Who the hell asks 'Hey, do these walls shift up to reveal a secret room?' on a regular basis?
"Where am I?" I pressed, then glanced over at the new mech who was grinning at me, "And who are you?"
"You're in my medbay-"
The mech pushed forward and motioned toward himself, "The designation's Smokescreen. It's nice to finally meet you, femme. Ratchet's been hogging you all to himself." Ratchet grumbled to himself and crossed his arms in annoyance. Smokescreen continued, "You go by Aj, right?"
"Yeah", I nodded, "That's me."
Ratchet sighed, "Anyways, you're located one story up from the floor in a human medical room I have placed in the corner of my medbay for the usage of-"
"This is so cool!" I cried as the realization finally hit me. Ratchet threw his hands up and walked away from us while shaking his head. "You're the first new Cybertronian I've met in this universe. This is awesome though! I could have a parade of new Cybertronians walking through here to meet."
Smokescreen and I both ignored the word 'No', yelled out by Ratchet who was working on something out of my line of vision. The new mech chuckled, "We've been trying to convince Hatchet of that since you got here, but he's been a bit stubborn and overprotective, as per usual." He shrugged, "I've heard a lot about you though. Taylor sings your praises!"
"You know Taylor?" I asked, but as soon as the words left my mouth I knew it was a stupid question.
Smokescreen's already expressive features seemed to light up and his door wings fluttered once, "Oh yeah! I hang out with Taylor all the time. Especially when my ward is off base and at school. I know Tyler and Pete too. Plus your sister."
"Ward?" I blinked then nodded, "Wait, I know what that means. Uh, you're a guardian." He nodded and I suddenly remembered the history lesson given to me yesterday, "To the Witwicky family right?"
"You got it." Smokescreen nodded, "Sam and Mikaela usually stay on base these days so I watch over their daughter, Lex."
"Oh, okay." I replied as if I had a clue who this kid was. Though, I did recognize the name. Someone must have mentioned it earlier. I pointed at his door wings, "You're Praxian, right?"
Smokescreen smirked and his door wings fluttered again in response, "Look at the quick processors on you. Right again. You actually already know my brother. Prowl."
I didn't react immediately mostly because it didn't actually register in my mind. I heard the words, but nothing clicked into place. Smokescreen nodded once and my eyes widened, "Wait, what?"
"Prowl is my older brother." Smokescreen replied slowly, but his amused grin did not falter. "Way, way older actually. We didn't even grow up together. It's like…" His gaze drifted up towards the ceiling briefly in though, "It's like Taylor and Lucas. They're siblings, but she's an adult and he's still a youngling. Comparatively though, out gap isn't as large as theirs."
I shook my head, "Prowl has a brother?"
"I think we established that." Smokescreen chuckled.
"That little shit never told me." I mumbled with a frown. Smokescreen laughed and I let out a miffed 'hmph'. Prowl was going to hear an earful from me next time I saw him. A part of me, probably the voice of reason, spoke up and reminded me that maybe he didn't mention it because he was separated from his brother, but I smothered the voice and ignored it. I nodded at Smokescreen, "Can I see your holoform. I mean, I assume you have one."
Smokescreen shrugged, "Well yeah, but why?"
"I want to be able to recognize you in holoform too. You won't always be in bipedal mode around here, right?"
He wagged his finger at me, "Good point. Good point."
Without another word, Smokescreen disappeared from view as he began to transform down to his alt mode. A second later the sound of a holoform appearing filled the air and someone was standing a few feet from my bed. I wasn't surprised to see that Smokescreen's holoform was also Asian like Prowl and Bluestreak's. It was an interesting concept to think about, but I didn't let my mind wander down that rabbit hole.
Smokescreen was taller than Prowl, that much I could tell because his holoform looked about Wheeljack's size at around 6'0. He had the same long, oval face with a squared chin as Prowl did, but his was a bit slimmer. It seemed like he had a messy, short boy cut under the dark blue baseball cap he wore backwards on his head. He had on a loose gray tank top with a sleeveless, hooded red jacket over it and jeans. The holoform grinned at me and his soft blue eyes made it look, like Prowl and Bluestreak, like he was wearing contacts.
"What do you think?" Smokescreen jokingly popped the front of his jacket than crossed his arms in a pose with a wink, "Taylor says I'm the best looking holoform."
"Oh, did she?" I chuckled and he nodded confidently. "So do you not wear the military uniform either?"
Smokescreen shook his head, "I have the coding for it. I'm just off duty right now."
He pointed at me once before turning on his heel and spinning in place. His holoform glowed blue briefly and then suddenly he was facing forward again, but wearing the same camo uniform as the other mechs. There was no hat on his head anymore and his short hair was loosely spike up in the front. It was easier to tell his hair color now. The sides were black, but the top portion was a light shade of brown.
Smokescreen snapped a salute in my direction and I laughed. His holoform disappeared then and I watched as Smokescreen, in his bipedal mode, stood back up off the ground.
"Ta-da." He chirped with a wave of his hands.
"If you're quite done showing off now, you can leave." Ratchet barked as he sauntered back over. In his hands was a large data pad. It was strange to see that in full size now too.
Smokescreen's smile fell, "Wait, I came in here for something though. What was it?"
"This, you glitch." Ratchet handed over the data pad.
Smokescreen laughed, "Right, right, right." He took the pad and I watched it disappear into his subspace, "Thanks, Ratchet. Nice to meet you, Aj!"
"You too." I replied and watched as he turned to leave.
My gaze drifted over to Ratchet who was already staring down at me. He sighed and shook his head, "Now everyone is going to come in wanting to meet you."
"Good." I shot back with a smirk, "It's about time I got to know the rest of the family right?"
At my words, Ratchet's lips twitched up in a small smile. Hopefully I'd get some new visitors soon and wouldn't have to wait long.
Epps had two datapads under his arm as he walked down the hall toward Lennox's office, smiling and nodding at soldiers who greeted him along the way. He still wasn't entirely sure why Lennox needed all these files exactly and why he needed them 'ASAP'. The guy had been more than vague in the text sent his way. The two datapads he held dealt with a handful of odd, miscellaneous missions that were completed in the last month and a half. They were non-essential at best and didn't require sending to the higher ups until at least the end of June.
Rather than knocking on the half closed door, Epps used his foot to push it open and stepped inside. His eyes widened to see Lennox frantically writing on one datapad with a stylus while other datapads were stacked around him.
"Uh, am I interrupting something?" Epps lifted an eyebrow at his old friend.
Lennox lifted his head and nodded, "Those are the missions reports from the supply runs and patrols, right?" Epps held them up slightly with a nod. "Good. Set them over there."
Lennox had motioned toward one of the side tables that had even more datapads stacked up on it. Epps wandered over curiously and added his two to the pile. When he glanced back at Lennox he realized the man had gone right back to writing.
"Man, what's this all about?" Epps asked with a shake of his head, "What are all these reports even for?" He walked over to stand in front of the desk and turned on one of the top datapads. The words 'Austin Recon' flashed onto the screen. Epps narrowed his eyes, "The Austin mission? That ain't even finished yet. Not 'till Bee and Jazz get back with their final report."
Lennox nodded but continued to work, "I'm sending them everything we have now on the mission. A check-in."
"Check-in? Since when have we ever given in and sent them a damn check-in." Epps scoffed. The only people off base who ever wanted a 'check-in' were a few government officials and the government assigned 'human' liaison. Their own 'Autobot' liaison, Sam Witwicky, usually managed to successfully keep that asshole at bay though.
Lennox set down his stylus and looked up with a small smile, "They want the mission report from yesterday morning by 2200 tonight since it was an unauthorized mission. I can't send that in to them without revealing that we had someone come through the portal." Lennox motioned toward the datapads. "However, they've been nagging us day in day out on the Austin mission. So? I'm gonna send it all to them."
"All of it?"
"Every bit. Even the unnecessary portions. They'll be so preoccupied with going through every detail of the Austin mission that they won't even look at the other stack I send of 'Misc. Missions'." Lennox nodded, "Even if they did start looking through there, I'm gonna jam pack it with every non-essential mission we've had since January."
Epps grinned, "Not bad. It'll buy us at least a few weeks."
"Exactly." Lennox agreed, "Enough time for us to settle down and figure out what exactly we're going to do with this situation." He sighed and leaned back in his chair, "Plus, the last thing we need is Galloway showing up and trying to get into the medbay to see Aj. Ratchet'll throw a fucking fit."
"You bet your ass he would." Epps chuckled and sat down, "He'd blow a GD gasket. You need any help?"
Lennox motioned toward the stacks, "Be my guest."
Over the course of the rest of that Saturday evening, plus most of Sunday, I spent my time talking the ear off anyone who came to visit. Tyler and Taylor often swung by, sometimes together, sometimes not. Aubrey was almost always with me and even Lennox came by to talk again along with Annabelle and Lucas on Saturday night. Besides my human visitors, I also had a never-ending stream of Cybertronians coming to visit me. The ones I had grown close to back in my universe spent ample time visiting and talking with me, like Prowl, Optimus, Bluestreak, and Ratchet. Though I couldn't really consider Ratchet on that list considering he was here more often than gone. I also got to spend time talking to Smokescreen again and I met some new Cybertronians, which was definitely the highlight of being trapped in Ratchet's medbay.
The first new mech to stop by was Blaster. He was a dark red mech, same height as Ratchet, with light gray legs and a slightly protruding yellow chest. He had matching red wing type antennas on either side of his head and the portion of helmet above his eyes was solid white. Blaster's eyes were very dark, blue. He was a fun mech to talk to and during my conversation with him he mentioned Jazz a few times. I guess the two were good friends, but it just made me miss my visored friend that much more. By meeting Blaster, I also got to meet his cassettes, which was interesting in itself.
There were three in total: Eject, Rewind, and Steeljaw. All three were way smaller than the usual Cybertronians, but some still managed to be larger than me to a degree. Eject was a light blue mech that looked like he was wearing tall shoulder pads. He had a light gray helmet, a reddish face, and the same eye color as Blaster. Eject was probably a foot or so taller than me and could actually stand inside my room in his bipedal mode. I had never met a mech so invested in human sports. Eject liked football the most it seemed, but his knowledge didn't stop there. When he found out I played volleyball and softball at some point in my life he showed he had plenty of knowledge in those sports as well.
Rewind, who looked a lot like Eject, had the same eye color and was the same height, but his colors consisted mostly of black with yellow accents on his chest and no tall shoulder things. The time I spent talking to Rewind consisted mostly of him telling me random bits of trivia about random topics. He was like a limitless source of unlimited knowledge, mostly about random shit I wasn't sure I'd ever honestly need to know, but he was a really nice mech regardless.
The last was Steeljaw, which was a name I remembered the kids talking about back home. The thing about Steeljaw was that he was a fucking metal lion. He wasn't as blocky as some of the other mechs I knew. In fact, he was shaped very much like an actual lion just with metal muscles. He was dark gold in color with dark blue eyes. He even had a thick mane made of gold and silver wires and curled sheets of thin metal. Unlike Eject and Rewind, who had unfolded out of Blaster's chest to greet me. Steeljaw had been chilling on Blaster's shoulder napping. It made me wonder if the mech did transform or did he just look like that all the time. I never got the chance to ask because after Steeljaw commented, in a deep voice might I add, that I stunk the whole lot of them had to go since Blaster's shift was starting. Blaster apologized for Steeljajw's comment, explaining that the mechanical lion's sense of smell was exceptional, but it wasn't that big of a deal. The comment didn't come as that much of a surprise. I was beyond ready for a bath, but Ratchet was unrelenting on that front.
Sometime after Blaster, I got to meet my first femme. Flare-Up was small, but I guess that was just because I was so used to seeing the giant sized mechs. She was only about a foot or two above the floor of my room, which meant she stood at maybe 12 feet? I wasn't able to make out details until she jumped up and sat on the floor of my room with both feet hanging down (ignoring Ratchet's cries of annoyance entirely). Flare-Up was slim with curves and her main three colors were red, orange, and yellow with small accents of gray here and there. Talking to Flare-Up was exciting and fun. She was loud, energetic, and brash with her words.
I hadn't gotten to see Blaster's holoform or any of the cassettes, assuming they also had them, but I went out of my way to ask to see Flare-Up's holoform. The guys always came out looking like male models and I wondered if she'd end up looking drop dead gorgeous as well. Unsurprisingly, her holoform matched the 'modeling' theme. She had an oval face with a thinner jawline and high cheekbones. Her dark brown hair fell to her lightly tanned shoulders in loose curls that turned to a light brown as they got to the tips. Her light blue eyes were big and bright, giving an air of innocence, but her smile was impish at best canceling out the possible innocence. She wasn't wearing a military uniform when I saw her, though I'm sure she had one too, but instead wore a loose yellow tank top with dark blue skinny jeans and black boots. The more I spoke with her the more I realized that Taylor was right in her assumption that the two of us would get along swimmingly.
One mech I had heard lots about, but haven't gotten to meet yet was Ironhide. He didn't stop by, but Ratchet informed me that was because he had been sent out on a small task.
Bear, however, spent most of Sunday with me either lounging on top of me or bouncing around my bed. It took me all the way until Sunday to figure out that they had Bear trained for military missions. It's why he was out with Tyler the day I got picked up out in the middle of Oregon. I didn't like it. It was bad enough my kids had gotten all involved in this, but my dog too? I was assured, by basically everyone, that Bear was fine, that his trip through the portal had made him stronger and faster too, but that didn't make me overly happy. He was my puppy, after all.
"Come on, Bear." Tyler whistled in the archway.
Bear didn't flinch and remained lying on top of me with his tongue hanging out. I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried the side of my face into his fur, "Why the hell do you keep stealing my dog? Go get your own."
"He kind of was mine for the past twenty years." Tyler replied cheekily. I raised an eyebrow at him and he rolled his eyes, "Ok, so technically he was more Sunstreaker's. That was the only person Bear would really listen to until training… but for the past two years, while Sunstreaker's been in Australia, I've been taking care of him!"
"Yeah, yeah." I mumbled and ruffled Bear's fur one last time, "See you tomorrow, buddy."
Bear turned his head and licked the side of my face a few times before jumping down. Tyler scoffed at Bear who walked right past him. He glanced up at me, "I think Annabelle and Lucas are coming to visit you again soon."
"I know." I replied with a nod, "Later, Ty. Stay out of trouble."
He raised his hand to me with a grin before turning around and leaving. I sighed and leaned back in my seat. Aubrey had brought me a hair tie earlier today so I was finally able to pull my greasy, dirty hair up into a small bun. It was nice to just have it up and out of my way. I was determined to convince Ratchet into letting me take a shower sometime tomorrow. I'd break down into crocodile tears if I had to.
A few minutes later, I spotted Annabelle and Lucas in the hall walking toward the door. Lucas broke away from his sister and sprinted into the room with a smile, "Hey, Aj! I beat that level on my game! You wanna see?"
"Course, kiddo." I smiled at him. He wasted no time in crawling onto my bed and settling down on my left side. It was pretty easy winning over the young boy. Annabelle was the one I was having a harder time with, but things were still a bit better than they were when we first met. A little. Lucas turned on his handheld gaming device, which looked kind of like the DS that Peter, Taylor, and Tyler used to have, but this one had a shiny, silver exterior and when he turned it on the screen shot out a 3D image he played with. Needless to say, my experience thus far with future electronics wasn't too great.
"See!" He showed me something on his screen, but I wasn't sure what he was pointing out.
"Nice." I nodded and glanced over at Annabelle who sat down in the chair by my bed. Her hair was braided back and she wore a 'Soccer Camp' t-shirt and jean shorts. "Hey Annabelle."
"Hi, Aj. How do you feel?" She replied politely.
I shrugged, "Never better."
Lucas began to rattle off about his day as he played his game and I listened contently while Annabelle texted on her phone. This routine continued for about ten minutes before my mind began to wander off. I couldn't help but wonder when I'd get to see the mechs I was missing. Jazz and Bumblebee wouldn't be back for a while because of their mission, but when would the twins and Grimlock be able to stop by? As I followed that line of thought, I slowly realized there was one other mech who hadn't stopped by yet. In fact, I questioned how it could even slip my mind.
I waited until Lucas paused to catch his breath and then spoke, "Hey, y'all know Wheeljack right?"
Annabelle looked up from her phone with a nod and Lucas bobbed his head up and down as well. He spoke without pausing his game or turned his eyes away from it, "Course we know, Jackie. Why?"
"Where is he?" I asked, "He hasn't stopped by this weekend. Did he go on that mission with Ironhide."
"No way. Besides, Hide is back already. He's talking to Optimus Prime." Lucas answered, "When he's done with that he's going to take us back home. We have school tomorrow."
Annabelle nodded, "Luke is right. I'm pretty sure Wheeljack is in his lab. Has been since Friday." She shrugged, "Sometimes he just gets caught up in an experiment and doesn't come out for a while. We're not supposed to bother him."
I furrowed my eyebrows in thought. It made perfect sense. Wheeljack would be the kind of mech to lock himself in his lab for extended periods tinkering. It seemed 100% in character, but still something didn't sit right with me. Caught up in an experiment or not, he'd still come and see me. I mean, when I first got here Ratchet had to threaten him to keep him out, but now? When I was finally allowed visitors he was nowhere to be seen? I didn't buy that. Taylor's words drifted through my mind, about how he felt guilty about the portal. He didn't blame himself for what happened with me, did he?
"I need to get out of this room." I said aloud and both kids stopped what they were doing to look at me. It was silent between all of us and I just smiled at them, "Anyone want to help?"
Annabelle looked skeptical, "Ratchet seemed pretty dead set on you staying in bed…on account of your knee and all."
I nodded, "Right, but I need to go see Wheeljack."
"Why?"
"To kick his giant metal aft for not coming to see me himself." I replied and sat up. With ease, I twisted so my raised, injured leg was hanging off the side of the bed. It wasn't like this was the first time I was getting up. It'd be just like going to the bathroom except this time I'd be going out a bit further. "Luke, can you stay here and keep watch for us?"
Lucas set his game down briefly, "Keep watch?"
"Yupp. Ratchet is in a meeting right now and should be for another hour or so, but if he comes back early you need to text your sister and warn us."
The boy grinned in excitement, "Yeah! I can do that!"
"Annabelle, will you get me the wheelchair?"
She stood up to push it over, but her face remained skeptical as ever, "I really don't think this is a good idea. You're injured and Ratchet said-"
I shook my head, "You don't have to go if you don't want to. I'm sorry. I just really need to check on Wheeljack."
"How are you going to get there without me showing you to his lab?" Annabelle sighed. She held onto the chair as I stood up on my left leg and carefully dropped down into the seat.
"Just give me directions. I don't want to force you to do something you don't want to." I replied while opening the leg stand on my chair so I could keep my right leg straight and raised up.
Annabelle gave me a small, firm smile, "Don't worry about it. This won't be the first time I've gotten on Ratchet's bad side."
That was easy to believe only because I was sure there wasn't a person on this planet or Cybertron who hadn't gotten on Ratchet's bad side at least once. He had a very big bad side to stumble onto. I gave Lucas a quick thumbs up, that he happily returned, and Annabelle began to push me out of the room. It felt strange to be leaving that make shift hospital room. I couldn't help the damn near giddy grin that slipped onto my features. Why hadn't I thought to try this before? The thought of Ratchet catching us was pretty sobering though.
The hallway I had watched people walk down, but never traveled myself, seemed to go on for a while. Eventually it turned to lifted walkway with guard rails on either side rather than full on walls. I glanced over the side of the wheelchair to see the large medbay doors that the cybertronians could go through and the gap in the wall we had just exited. We were still about ten feet off the ground. The space around us continued to be ginormous in size and I equated this to being designed specifically for our intergalactic friends. We went about fifty feet down this walkway until we reached a human sized elevator built into a concrete wall. Funnily enough, to my left was a car sized elevator, I could tell because the doors were grates rather than solid silver. It sat next to another archway that led out somewhere.
"We're on ground level right now. Well, I mean, part of Ratchet's medbay is. We're suspended on the walkway right now." Annabelle explained. She moved around to hit the elevator button and the doors opened automatically. "The giant elevator for the Autobots leads down into their side of the base. It's huge and underground so people can't spot it from the air. It's where their rooms are and some other stuff."
She pushed me into the elevator and hit the button with a down arrow on it. The only other button, other than the emergency stop, was an up arrow. I nodded as the doors closed, "They don't like live side by side with y'all?"
"Living? No, but they spend a lot of time topside." She replied, "The base is split up into three main areas. You have the Autobot only area which is underground like I said, the human only area which is on the East side of base, and then the West side is the blended area." The doors opened and she pushed me out into a large gymnasium looking room. The ceiling was high and the walls were still made out of concrete. The far wall, way down a ways, looked like a ginormous garage door, but it was shut currently. In the dead center of the room was a large elevator. This one though, like the last, looked like the kind of elevator made to lift and lower vehicles. Size wise, the elevator was tall enough to fit a large truck, but where the elevator ended, bricks continued. It was like a giant chimneystack and around that chimneystack was a lifted, metal deck that connected to walkways that were suspended in the air all the way to the walls of the room.
"That sounds kind of segregated."
She chuckled, "No, it's not like that. The human side of base is just built for human sized people. The 'bots are allowed, they just have to be in holoform to fit. The blended area is built with walkways and stuff so we can interact easier." Annabelle pointed to the grated walkways that seemed to go around the entire edge of this room, plus the ones traveling toward the elevator. "The only real rule is that humans aren't allowed down in the Autobot area without prior permission."
I tilted my head slightly as Annabelle pushed me toward the big elevator in the middle of the room, "I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say Jackie's lab is in the Autobot area?"
"Yeah, but that's ok. That rule…well, it doesn't really apply to us." Annabelle replied. She pressed her thumb against the down button outside the grated doors. "At least, my friends and I have never gotten in trouble for going down there. I doubt Tyler, Taylor, or Peter have ever gotten scolded for it either."
I laughed as the grated doors noisily pulled up, "So our 'bots play favorites?"
"You could say that." She pushed me in then turned to address the buttons. Like the last elevator, there was really only two. Up and down. She pushed the down one and I watched the grated door close before the elevator slowly began to move. "I'm just hoping no one is waiting outside the elevator for us. That'd be awkward."
She could say that again. I could picture Ratchet standing there waiting for us. An alarm having gone off in his head the moment I pushed myself out of bed. I shrugged, "That meeting Ratchet's at isn't in the Autobot area is it?"
"No. It's part of the blended area in Hanger 3."
"How many hangers are there?" I asked. The elevator was still slowly moving down. I wondered exactly how deep down their area was.
Annabelle paused in thought, "Six, unless I'm forgetting one. The place we were just in was Hanger 1. That one isn't used for much. It's basically just a pass through area. That's why it was so empty today. Not many people are coming or going on Sunday evening. It also has one of the three elevators that can take people down to the Autobot area. All the other hangers are designed for certain things. Hanger 3 is usually where they have meetings because there's this giant computer screen that allows them to make calls to the pentagon or wherever. It's against the wall in front of a walkway, deck area where humans can sit or stand and behind that the 'bots can stand in their bipedal mode."
"Wow." I breathed, "I can't wait to actually tour this place without having to hide from Ratchet."
Annabelle chuckled and the elevator came to a stop. The solid screen lifted first, then the grate followed next. She pushed me out and I glanced around curiously. This space looked just like the one we had just been in both in size and what filled it. The only difference was that this area had no walkways. I noticed three large archways. One was straight ahead and it showed a huge hallway that I couldn't see the end of. The other two was on either side of the room.
"So, Annabelle-" I began, but paused with a frown, "Can I call you something else? I mean, do you strictly go by Annabelle or do you have nicknames?"
She began to push me toward the archway to the left, "You can call me whatever. My dad calls me Annie, the girls on the cheer team call me Ann, my friends on the soccer team call me Lennox- which is the only one that sounds weird, but I guess it's because I'm so used to hearing my dad be called that." She chuckled, "Then Lex and Eli call me AB. Honestly, I think the only people who call me Annabelle is Aubrey and Ironhide."
"Aubrey's got this thing for real names. She's not much of a nickname person." I replied with a shrug, "AB, though?"
"Yeah", She began, "Lex, Eli, and I grew up on base really. The military and the 'bots have always been a part of our lives. As a joke, when we were kids, we tried to make nicknames for each other like people on base did. We just go by our first letter. L for Lex, E for Eli, and AB for Annabelle."
Although, I like the idea of calling her 'AB', just because how short it was, it seemed like something meant for the three of them. I nodded once, "Ann it is."
It momentarily grew quiet between us as I took in our surroundings. The giant hallway, with towering concrete walls, could be seen as intimidating, but the large overhead lights kept it from looking creepy. Every once in a while the concrete walls would be interrupted by an electronic looking door or a large window looking structure. So far I've seen a window that overlooked a snowy plain, one that was on the beach, and another showing the stars. Technology obviously played a role.
"Jackie's lab isn't too far away. If you ever planned on going in deeper in this area you should probably have a 'bot with you." Annabelle commented, "It would take at least an hour for us to hike out to their living spaces."
I blinked in surprise and quickly shook my head. What had I been trying to ask her before I got distracted by her name?
"Oh." I breathed, "Hey, so I never got a chance to ask Aubrey, but do you like live on base?"
It was something we briefly talked about. All I knew though was that Aubrey was leaving later tonight with Lucas so she could take him to school in the morning. She made it sound like she usually is off base with him during the week, but the conversation had been interrupted by Ratchet's hourly testing of my vitals.
"Only on weekends. The soldiers on base have barracks they stay in, but my family, Eli's family, and Lex's family have apartments here on base. Peter has one that's big enough for his family when they come to visit, but they usually live off base. Taylor has one too, but I'm pretty sure Tyler sleeps in the barracks." She paused briefly, "During the week we live in Vegas. We have this big, shared house where Eli, Monique, Lex, Aubrey, Lucas, and I live. It has a garage big enough for any guardians looking to stay too."
I nodded, "What about Eli and Lex's parents? I don't think I've met or heard about them yet…have I?"
"Monique is Eli's mom. His dad is Robert Epps." She replied. I had heard of the Epps guy obviously. "Lex's parents are Sam and Mikaela Witwicky." It dawned on me then that someone had mentioned that they were Lex's parents. Was it Smokescreen? I think so. Regardless, it'd be nice to finally put a face to the name of both kids. "Sam is the Autobot designated liaison and Mikaela was hired by the military as a mechanic. I'm not sure of the details, but I know she works mostly on the real vehicles."
"Right. It's Taylor who works in the medbay with Hatchet."
"Exactly."
Annabelle slowed as we came to a left turn. She stopped in front of the space and I stared down this new, shorter hallway to see a giant electronic door with a keypad beside it. On the right hallway wall was a smaller window showing more stars and on the floor was a thick, red line from wall to wall. She pushed me down the hallway, but stopped halfway when we came to the line.
"What's up?" I turned in my seat to look at her.
She nodded toward the line wit ha shrug, "That big, red line on the floor? Humans aren't supposed to pass it." Annabelle forced a small smile, "And that rule does apply to us."
Her hesitance had returned. I shook my head, "I can go on from here. If anyone questions you about coming this far, you can blame me. Tell your dad that I kidnapped you and held you hostage."
Annabelle laughed, "Talking my way out of trouble with him is easy. I had that mastered by time I turned 10." She shook her head, "It's Hide who's going to be pissed."
"Ironhide. Your guardian?"
She nodded, "He's…very overprotective of my family. Especially, Lucas and I."
"Well, you can blame me with him too." I grinned, "I mean, if I can handle a pissy Barricade, a moody Megatron, a fire-breathing Grimlock, and an explosive prone Wheeljack for two whole months than what's the big deal about a trigger happy weapons specialist?"
She laughed again, "Your life sounds really exciting."
"I don't know about exciting." I replied, "Stressful is the more accurate term and honestly I'm still not sure any of this is real. I'm pretty sure I lost my marbles that morning I woke up to a kitchen full of tiny Autobots."
Annabelle pushed me forward and the two of us crossed the red line without a second glance. Honestly, the red line seemed fitting. What sane human would willingly venture into Wheeljack's lab?
"I'm sorry." Annabelle said suddenly.
My eyes widened, "Huh?"
"I'm sorry for being kinda cold to you when we first met and yesterday." She continued, "You're…not what I expected. I'm glad you're here and I'm glad that Aubrey, Taylor, Tyler, Peter, and all the 'bots have you back." She paused once more, "I guess…I'm just happy to have you as part of the family."
A slow smile spread across my features, even though she couldn't see it, "Thanks, Ann. That means a lot to me to hear you say that. Besides, I totally get it. Some weirdo comes flying through a magic portal and people tell you she's your aunt? I would've reacted the same way. Actually, I probably would've been worse. I don't handle new, weird things well."
She came to a stop in front of the door and I wondered how the hell we were going to get in. I also wondered how come we hadn't seen anyone. It made sense, I guess. There were only so many 'bots on base and most were probably at that meeting. Shit, was Wheeljack at that meeting? This entire trip would be for nothing. I would've risked putting Annabelle and myself in the way of Ratchet's wrath for an empty lab.
"Hang on." Annabelle said. I glanced back to see she had pulled out her phone. She typed a few things and I followed her gaze in time to see the high up keypad flash green. She must have noticed my questioning gaze because she smiled with a nod, "They gave us this programming in our xScreens that lets us type in codes from the floor. That way we can get into rooms in case of emergencies. It only works on the doors I have codes for."
The door didn't open despite the flashing light. I nodded toward it, "How come it's not opening?"
"I don't have Wheeljack's lab code, but I have the invitation code. It's like a doorbell. He'll come and open the door."
Another few seconds passed before the metal door slid open quickly and I was suddenly staring at a big pair of white, metal feet. My eyes slowly slid up the very familiar color scheme until they landed on two bright, navy blue eyes and two glowing fins.
"Shit, Jackie." I breathed with a crooked smile, "You're tall as hell."
In my wheelchair, I probably only came up to his knees. Wheeljack took a step back and vented in air, which sounded kind of like a gasp. He shook his head, "Aj? Ann? What are you two doing here?"
"I'm here to rip you a new one." I pointed up at him. "Now get me eye level so I can do this proper."
Wheeljack glanced around and took another step back. His lab was probably as big as that hanger we were just in, but it was far from empty. There were two Cybertronian sized lab benches that started about ten feet away from me and spanned across the room. The lab benches looked cluttered from where I sat and the walls themselves were covered with shelves of items. Wheeljack's ways of organization looked something along the lines of 'toss it aside and maybe come back to it later'.
"I could put you-" He knelt down and reached for the wheelchair, but paused suddenly. His fins flashed brightly once and he shook his head, "Whoops, no. I can't do that. Hang on."
Annabelle and I watched as he transformed down to his alt-mode. It looked exactly like it had back at the house, but now it was the size of an actual freaking car. I chuckled to myself in amusement. The driver's door swung open and Wheeljack's holoform stepped out. His short, curly hair was a mess and he wore his usual outfit of a black shirt with a thick khaki jacket over it and faded blue jeans.
His face broke out into a wide grin as he walked over, "Aj-"
"Hey!" I interrupted him as I snapped my arm out to point at him accusingly. He stopped a step in front of me and glanced over at Annabelle before looking back at me. I slowly crossed my arms, "I get all sorts of visitors this weekend and yet this is the first I'm seeing of you? Explain."
Wheeljack rubbed the back of his neck, "I've been meaning to come, truly, but I got caught up in this project I'm working on for your knee. It's been going well, but a few bugs came up-"
"My knee?" I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.
He nodded, "Well, yes. We got images back from the human surgeon who operated on you in Vegas." Yesterday, Ratchet had finally taken the time to explain who worked on my knee. Apparently, I had been taken into a Vegas hospital to have the reconstructive surgery. Although Ratchet was confident in his knowledge on human anatomy and physiology now, he told me that application was entirely different. It was the only reason why he hadn't been working on my knee. Of course, he had taken it upon himself to handle my post-op care. "His opinion is that your knee is as good as it's going to get, but the damage was so extensive that… Did Ratchet not tell you this?"
"Ratchet didn't tell me shit. Continue."
Wheeljack's holoform sighed and he rubbed his face, "Even after physical therapy, the doctor was worried you'd still have trouble walking. That you'd need a cane at the least for the rest of your life." My eyes widened at this news and it felt like my heart plummeted into my stomach. Wheeljack noticed this and stepped closer, "I've been working on a special knee brace though. I spent all of Saturday researching the braces used on humans currently and added my own improvements to it. I think, once it's complete, this brace will allow you full movement with no handicap whatsoever. It's…It's the least that I can do. I'm so sorry, Aj."
Any shock I had over the news slowly drifted away at his words. Wheeljack's holoform looked torn apart. I shook my head, "None of this was your fault, Jackie. I don't need an apology from you. Pit, I don't want one."
"You were left behind." He said firmly and there was anger and frustration in his voice, "I should've looked over the machine better. There were so many other possibilities I could've explored that may have improved our travel. It could have brought you through and the younglings-"
"It's not your fault. None of it." I repeated myself firmly. Slowly, I let my smile come back, "Now get your holoform ass down here to hug me."
With a smile of his own, Wheeljack leaned over and embraced me. It was a bit difficult because of the chair, but neither of us let that hinder us. He tightened his arms, "I have really missed you, Aj. It's good to have you home."
Home. It was the first time someone used it in this context. In fact, before this moment the word 'home' would have me picturing the house filled with scorch marks, bullet holes, and a broken microwave. That wasn't home anymore though. It stopped being home the moment I watched my family walk through the portal. My home was where they were. I was finally home.
"It's good to be home." I chuckled and he pulled away from me.
Annabelle frowned, "I had no idea your knee was that bad. Are you gonna be ok?"
"I'll be fine." I shrugged. Admittedly, I was a bit worried. I didn't have a lot going for me talent wise other than the fact that my body was in tiptop shape. I was athletic, I could fight. That was really all I had. Without a properly working knee I was sunk. However, I trusted in Ratchet and Wheeljack. They'd get me patched up. I grinned at Annabelle and began my exaggeration, "Back in my universe, I got shot in the gut. Two days later I was jogging around, good as new."
Wheeljack shook his head with a frown, "That is extremely inaccurate. You were in a coma for four days."
"Minor detail."
Annabelle chuckled, but stopped when her phone chimed. Wheeljack brightened, "Oh, I have an xScreen prepared for you, Aj. It has all our comm links connected to it, the numbers to-"
"Ratchet knows we're gone." Annabelle blurted in panic.
I blinked, "Well, shit."
"He didn't know you were here?" Wheeljack cried, he shook his head, "Oh, I should've known he wouldn't let you out already!"
"What do we do?" Annabelle questioned the mech.
He shrugged, "I don't know. Ratchet is going to offline us all."
"You should run, Ann. Save yourself. Jackie and I are goners." I replied.
Wheeljack turned to look at me in surprise, "Wait, why do I have to be a goner too?" His eyes went blank for a second and then he groaned, "Oh, Ratchet is already sending me angry comms."
"Luke must have told him where we went." Annabelle sighed, "He can't keep a secret from Ratchet."
I chuckled, "Seriously, Ann. You've done enough. You should run or hide or something."
"And leave my trouble making aunt hanging?" Annabelle smiled, "I don't think so. We'll suffer his wrath together."
"Ironhide is coming too." Wheeljack announced.
Annabelle's smile faltered, "Shit."
Since the three of us had accepted our doomed fate there was no need to panic. Instead, Wheeljack transformed back to his alt mode and began to give me a quick tour of his lab by pointing things out or bringing things over. Annabelle seemed interested too so this must have been the first time she was in here for an extended amount of time. The tour was cut short a few minutes later when we heard the sound of squealing tires. I glanced over my shoulder in time to see a hummer rescue vehicle and big, black truck turn the corner and speed in. Ratchet transformed on the go and by the look in his eyes I could tell he was pissed.
"Hiya." I said sheepishly. His gaze snapped over to Wheeljack and he began to bark out in Cybertronian. My eyes darted over to Ironhide. He looked exactly like he did in the movies, which meant he looked exactly like the truck Nicholas had been driving back in my universe. I couldn't help but tense.
Ironhide didn't transform. He just threw open his driver's door without a word. Annabelle sighed, "Yeah, he's pissed. I'm gonna go."
"Sorry for getting you into trouble."
She waved the worry away, "He's overreacting. I'll see you next weekend, Aj. Maybe then you can meet Lex and Eli."
"Yeah, definitely." I tilted my head towards the yelling Cybertronian, "That is if I live that long."
Annabelle laughed and gave me a quick hug before walking over to Ironhide. She jumped in and the truck peeled out of the room. I turned my attention back to Ratchet who was still yelling at the shamefaced Engineer.
"Oh come on, Ratchet. Leave him be. He didn't know I was going to sneak out." I called out.
The medic snapped his attention to me, "Oh, don't get me started with you, youngling."
"Ratchet-" I tried to start, but he interrupted me with a sharp sound from his mouth. He bent over and carefully picked the wheelchair and me up. I let out a startled cry, but he ignored me and began to leave the lab. "Bye, Jackie!"
He returned the farewell before Ratchet and I got into the hallway. Ratchet didn't say a word as he carried me out into the main hallway. We made it to the elevator room a lot faster than when Annabelle and I were heading there. In fact, the hallway seemed a hell of a lot shorter now.
"I don't get why you're so pissed. I'm fine." I snapped. "Besides, I told you I couldn't just sit there." He didn't reply and walked right past the elevator. I narrowed my eyes in confusion, but didn't comment as he walked through the archway to the right of the elevator. "Seriously, Ratchet. You didn't even tell me that my doctor thinks I'll be a cripple for the rest of my life. I have a long list to be pissed about, but am I? Not really. You have no right to be angry. I should be angry."
Still, the medic didn't reply to my rant. The hallway we walked down looked a lot like the last, but it forked into two directions. Ratchet picked the one to the right, which eventually led to a metal door with a keypad. He typed in a code and the door slid open.
Inside was a medbay.
The medbay above was small compared to this one. The one up top only had two metal beds and a couple stands of what I assumed were supplies. This one had four metal beds on the left and four across from them on the right. Between each bed looked like attachments that could be used to make privacy dividers and there were cabinets and tables against the walls behind each bed with various devices and supplies. In the back left corner was a large desk and bookshelf-looking thing filled with datapads and other items, glass walls surrounded the area separating it from the actual room. Against the far back wall beside the desk area was another metal door.
I raised an eyebrow and opened my mouth to question it, but Ratchet finally spoke, "The medbay on the ground level is for minor repairs. It's also where the human room you were in is located. This is my main medbay. It's also where my office is located. The door back there leads to a storage area which leads to another elevator to the ground level."
Ratchet walked across the room to the door and typed in another code. Like he said the next room was split into two. The left side was storage and the right side was a waiting area of sorts with chairs. An archway led out into a hallway beyond this space and that's where the elevator was. This one was giant though and had an actual metal closing door rather than just a gated one. A Grimlock sized mech could fit inside in his bipedal mode. Ratchet keyed in another code and when the doors opened he stepped in with me and hit a button.
"Why the fuck aren't you yelling at me? I don't like this. This is weird."
"Language." Ratchet replied irritably. He mumbled, "I swear to Primus…"
The elevator went up and opened up to a similar space as below. He walked through this hallway and ended up back in the original medbay where my bed was. Ratchet set my wheelchair into my room. I heard him transform behind me and before the sounds were even complete I felt his holoform appear at my back. He pushed me across the room and I begrudgingly let him help me back into bed.
Rather than leaving though, he sat down in the chair beside me bed. I stared at him as he stared at his hands. It was silent for another minute or two before he began to speak without looking up, "I know you hate being confined to this berth. I understand that." He nodded his head once and slowly brought his sea-green eyes up to meet mine. "But I want- I need you to promise me that this won't happen again."
"Ratchet-" I argued.
"No. Listen to me." He barked and my eyes widened in surprise. Ratchet shook his head once, "I cannot… We cannot lose you again. There are things you don't quite yet understand, but if you wander out of this room and run into the wrong person… The government doesn't know you exist yet, and if they even tried to take you-… We would not let them and that would become a problem."
I bit my lip, "If the government needs to- to question me, or whatever, then maybe- I mean, wouldn't it be easier if we just let them?"
"You were gone for twenty years." Ratchet said firmly, "If you think I'm going to let those bloated, glitching government officials keep you from us for one moment longer-"
I shook my head, "Why does it matter?" He glared at me and I sighed, "I said that wrong. What I meant was… twenty years is a big deal to humans, but to y'all… it's nothing, right? I was gone, you blinked, and suddenly I was back?"
Ratchet's face softened, "I see your reasoning. I understand it." He paused before continuing, "But what you don't understand is our view of time has changed since we befriended humans."
"How so?"
"Time never mattered to us. Centuries would go by and most of our kind wouldn't even really notice. It matters here though." He sighed, "For twenty years, we watched so much change with Tyler, Taylor, and Peter. Even with Aubrey and…and Wes. We see it again with Annabelle, Lex, and Eli. With Lennox and Epps. All the soldiers. Time affects you humans so greatly. A year passes and everything changes. Five years go by and everything is different." Ratchet scoffed lightly, "Aubrey has a new youngling. Peter…Peter has a youngling of his own. All this time passes and it truly affects us now because change is visibly happening before us. I've lived through thousands of years where nothing has happened, nothing has changed. Yet here on this small, organic planet… twenty years is gone and…"
The room was filled with silence between us. I hadn't ever really thought about it like that. I always just assumed.
Ratchet cleared his throat, "Perhaps if we had been on Cybertron and you were the only physical human we knew…perhaps then it would've been like a blink of an optic. We wouldn't have noticed a thing. Here though? We were reminded every 24 Earth hours that you were gone. Things kept changing, but the only thing that stayed the same was your absence."
"I'm sorry, Ratchet." I replied softly.
"There's no need to be." He nodded and stood up, "I just needed you to understand."
I leaned back against my propped up bed, "I won't leave again. I'll stay put. Promise."
There was another beat of silence before Ratchet sighed and spoke, "How about tomorrow…I take you around base. As long as I'm with you then we can avoid those we need to avoid-"
"Really?" I cried in excitement. He nodded once and I bounced in place, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Ratchet's lips twitched up in amusement, but he walked around my bed and busied himself with my IV in prep for my nightly meds. While he did so, I spoke, "Not to push it or anything, but could I also get a shower tomorrow? That would make you just the best mech in all the known universes."
Ratchet rolled his eyes and didn't bother to reply to my request. However, his smile had only grown when I shot him the cheesiest grin possible. Ratchet huffed and lightly grabbed my left arm to hook my IV in, "You'll be the cause of my offlining."
"Love you too, Ratchet."
