AN: So I started watching TF:Prime, and that's what distracted me from this for like a day. Good thing it's the weekend! And gah, I'm kind of like 'to do Bxm, or not to do BxM?' That is the question! I even thought of starting a seperate little fic where it would continue of this but have them get together, but then it's like more work. xD So I don't know. The only one I know for sure they get together, or will, is Imprinting. Anyway, FIVE more reviews or no chapter!

Reviews: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! (MissShelz, Iwanita, Bookworm Gal, supergirlprime, DarkHunter643, Sharta, shadow-dog18, writergurl616, anonybot, 3xX-BOTDF-Xx3, Ryen Selenity Caliburn, Symphis, wolfwitch94, BrowneyedShamer)

Chapter 51
Moving on

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN HE'S STUCK?" Ratchet yelled, glaring at Bumblebee, Groundhog, and consequently Sam.

Groundhog and Bumblebee were standing near the fallen body of Shockwave, next to Barricade. Bumblebee held Sam in servo, and the teen was just cannon fodder to the irate Medic.

Several things had happened in a short amount of time. Groundhog had pronounced Barricade as a goner when stimulation of the spark didn't get a reaction, Miles decided Groundhog hadn't done anything right and gotten his own reaction, and now Miles was stuck. Inside Barricade. Neither was sure what exactly happened, but Groundhog assumed that Barricade's spark called to Miles, urging the teen to slip inside his Spark chamber, or if it was possible, just pulled the teen in itself. Either way, Miles was inside of Barricade's spark chamber, and neither of them could open it.

"Miles is stuck inside Barricade's spark chamber." Groundhog repeated, rolling his optics. "It's not that big of a dea-"

THWACK! Bumblebee and Sam winced in sympathy, Groundhog rubbing his brand new dent with wide optics. A wrench clattered to the ground a few feet away.

Ratchet growled, "No big deal? What if something happens to Miles while he's inside of there?"

"Ratch," Bumblebee started placatingly, "With all that's happened we really doubted that. Both he and Sam can practically survive off Energon, they can use Allspark energy to rescue Sparklings, and each of them had abilities, though now only Epps and Sam can probably use theirs. Primus is on our side, here."

Silence from the Medic. Groundhog felt at his dent, trying to see how much effort it would take to fix it. Bumblebee and Sam just waited, the teen fairly calm. He wasn't worried at all, and Bumblebee was thankful for that.

"Let's get him open." Ratchet finally said, a good bit calmer because of what the Autobot Scout said. Years of being around the Medbot had taught Bumblebee well in the ways of calming him down.

It took them an hour. Groundhog used every medical override he knew, including the ones special tailored for Decepticons, and they didn't work. Ratchet used every medical override he knew, a good deal more than Groundhog, including the special tailored ones for Autobots. Eventually, Ratchet resorted to trying to pry Barricade's chest plates open. Both he and Groundhog had to work together, the ex-con being more stubborn than normal. Sam stood on Barricade's lower chest plates the entire time, watching them work.

An hour later and Ratchet was practically a ticking bomb, just waiting to go off on somemech or someone with pent up frustration.

"I can just see Miles." Bumblebee reported cheerfully, "Looks like he's at the bottom, underneath some of Barricade's spark. 'Cade's spark looks a good deal better than before."

"Reach in and get him." Ratchet ordered gruffly.

Bumblebee reached in carefully, making sure not to brush the spark chamber itself where Shockwave's round had gone through. His servo brushed up against Barricade's spark with no reaction from the ex-con. Until he touched Miles, that is. Barricade's spark reacted quickly, a tendril of its energy darting in through the metal plating of Bumblebee's servo and shocking him.

Bumblebee jerked back, cursing loudly. "Slagger shocked me!"

"Are you alright?" Sam asked worriedly, staring up at his Guardian.

"He's fine," Ratchet took a quick look, before snorting. "That shock was nothing more than a hard slap on the hand for you, Sam. He's just being a baby."

Bumblebee pouted at the Medic, holding his shocked servo close, while Groundhog rolled his eyes. Sam tried not to grin.

"One question, how the hell can he shock you if he's practically deader than a doornail?" A pause, and Sam gave an embarrassed smile. "Bad phrase to use, sorry."

"The spark itself can be used as a sort of last ditch defense." Ratchet responded, leaning in to look inside Barricade's spark chamber for himself. "While extremely rare, there have been stories of a Cybertronian giving off a strong enough 'shock' to kill an attacker, though normally the shocks are reserved to fight viruses that have come that far. I kind of expected it, really. I think I'll have to perform emergency surgery to stabilize his spark chamber before we can retrieve Miles."

"Then why did you have me reach in to get him?" Bumblebee asked, trying hard to keep the slight whine out of his voice. He had been spending entirely too much time with human teenagers.

"I didn't want shocked." Groundhog couldn't contain his snickers at the Medbot's words.

Barricade floated in a drifting unconsciousness, not thinking or feeling. The only thing he could perceive was a continuous thump, one that occasionally quickened or slowed down, but kept going nonetheless. It kept him calm in the constant nothingness.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Pause, the beat getting weaker. Thump… Thump… Thump… Silence.

Barricade opened blurry optics, his sight taking a moment to come in to focus. There was Ratchet, hard at work at something on his own body, and Barricade realized that the mech was in his Spark chamber. He tried to say something, but his vocalizer refused to work just yet. A quick run through and he realized he couldn't access anything besides his optics and his vocalizer, and his vocalizer was being stubborn.

He tried to remember what happened, recalling Shockwave and getting shot by the mech just before killing him. Barricade could remember knowing he was dying, and then something changing. Maybe it was that thumping. He had gotten so used to the continuous thump, occasionally changing pace, but not very often. When it stopped he had woken up.

"Medic." Barricade watched as Ratchet jerked in surprise, cursing loudly in English, Spanish, and Cybertronian.

"What in the pit are you doing up?" Ratchet growled, pulling his servos out from Barricade's insides just in case there were any other surprises.

"Nice to see you, too." Barricade retorted sarcastically, rolling his optics. "Why can't I move anything lower than my helm, where's my comm frequency, and everything else?"

"You shouldn't be up yet, much less running your slagging mouth." Ratchet grunted in reply, closing Barricade's chest plates for the time being.

"The thumping stopped. My internal clock is down, but I'd guess it stopped a minute or two ago. It's what woke me up."

Ratchet was the Chief Medical Officer of the entire Autobot army, and even the Decepticons respected him. Barricade could at least trust the Medbot enough to do his job, and to explain what was going on with him. Ratchet waved his servo at him, telling him to continue.

"It was constant. I remember knowing I was dying because of that glitch, and then something… changing. Then the thumping. Sometimes it changed pace, a bit faster or slower, but nothing major. It kept me calm."

Ratchet scanned Barricade thoroughly, though he was already fairly positive he knew what Barricade had been hearing.

Ratchet hm'd in thought, "Shockwave's shot entered and exited the outer edge of your Spark chamber, making some contact with your Spark. You were dying. Groundhog came, I was busy with Prowl and didn't know what had happened, and he tried to save you. Bumblebee helped him, and Sam and Miles just stood around making the background look better. Groundhog tried to stimulate your Spark, but never received a response."

"Then how am I here?"

"Miles saved you."

Barricade blinked at the Medic, and Ratchet grinned back.

"You know those crazy organics," Ratchet said, humor evident in his voice. "Miles decides that Groundhog didn't do a good enough job in trying to save you, because it's not like he isn't a fragging Medic himself, basically. He gets it in his head that he could do a better job, touches your Spark, and you react. Then one of two things happened, but either way, I spent an hour trying to pry your fragging chest plates open to free him."

"And the fleshling is still okay."

It wasn't a question, but it wasn't an actual positive statement, either. Ratchet smirked at the ex-con.

"He's fine. Tired, but fine. He's been playing energizer bunny to you for the past week and three days. I just cut off your connection to him in that respect." Pause. "I think the thumping was his heartbeat. Do you have a bond with him?"

"I don't know."

Ratchet just nodded. Both knew it could be that no actual bond had been formed, and that the only role Miles had played was energizer bunny. They also knew that a bond could take a while to take affect for both sides, and seeing as it would possibly be between an organic and a Cybertronian, it was new territory.

"As I said, I just cut off the energy supply Miles was feeding you. Admittedly, it was fairly small by now and you could have gone without it, but someone else in your condition I'd have in stasis for a month or so more." A frown, "I don't even want you up yet, but I guess there's no choice if it's already done. We're doing it my way."

Barricade just grunted. It would be useless to argue against Ratchet, he would never win, and no one would ever be on his side if something like that happened.

"First is your optics. We'll go through the different ranges. Basic, night vision, you get the drill. I assume you've been on basic, go to night vision." Ratchet held up a mirror, holding it up so Barricade could see himself. One reason was so Barricade could see what damage he had undergone, and so that Ratchet could control the distance his optics focused on.

Barricade followed the Medbot's orders, bored already. The Medic turned off the lights, and he activated his night vision. He looked at himself, opening his mouth to make a sarcastic comment. And then he was blindsided by a strong feeling of mirth, causing him to snort in response before he could stop himself.

"Awe, don't be so hard on yourself. Primus hasn't blessed all of us with good looks."

Barricade glared at the smirking Medic, "I'm assuming some sort of bond is in effect."

"I can tell." Ratchet replied, looking entirely too amused. "We did have a fight over whether you two would get bonded or not. I believe the NEST website's fan-fiction section had such an unusual number of hits that we had to shut it down due to over trafficking."

"Frag."

Miles entered Optimus' office, searching for Sam. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the young Prime sound asleep at his desk in his bipedal mode. After the trap he had been doing whatever Prime's do, and now he had fallen into recharge, leaning back in his custom made chair from the humans. That wasn't what stopped him, oh no. He knew the 'bots had learned to tune out the humans, even in their sleep.

What stopped him was the make up on the Prime's face, the beginnings of what looked like a huge apron, and what it said on the apron. 'Kiss the Prime, he makes kick aft Energon cookies' read the first line in big bold letters, and underneath that in what appeared to be the fine print 'And he regularly kicks the aft of Megsy-wegsy. Win-win.' His cheeks had a good deal of rouge on them, his lips painted bright red, and the shutters over his optics were covered in a light blue. It looked like he even had fake eyelashes put on. His face mask appeared to be missing.

After the front wall of the main hangar had been rebuilt, Barricade had been declared completely stable, and most of the wounds were tended to with none the worse, Optimus had decided that his soldiers could use a nice little treat. Hiding away for half the day in the kitchen, he had returned with Energon cookies, a rare treat to receive from him. All of the Autobots had been excited. Even Ratchet had stopped working on Barricade for a nanoklik to grab one, and that was saying something.

"Uhm, Optimus?" Miles called, getting no response. He climbed up on the Prime's desk before trying again. "Optimus!"

The Prime vented a gust of air, and then unshuttered one optic. "Yes?"

"Twins."

Optimus sat up immediately, looking around. Nothing on his desk had been moved, all his filing datapads were in place, his door wasn't locked, the room hadn't been painted, and nothing appeared to be out of place. He looked down at himself last, noticing the apron and reading it upside down. Miles grinned, and gestured to his face, so the Prime picked up a datapad and looked at his reflection.

Miles snickered at the look on the Prime's faceplates, "You got twin'd big time."

"Indeed." Optimus responded, sounding slightly bitter. He rubbed at the make up on his face, but it didn't come off. "I think I'll need to pay Ratchet a visit." The Prime paused, before turning an accusatory optic on Miles, "And what brought you in here?"

"I didn't help 'em!" Miles said defensively, "I was lookin' for Sam and Bee."

"It's hard to know who to trust when everymech and organic might do something to you. Minus Prowl." Optimus sighed, standing up and offering his servo to Miles. "You can ask Prowl if he's seen them when we go tell him to brig Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, and possibly Fig."

Unlike his twin, Sideswipe was never very good with artistic abilities. Optimus' face was all thanks to Sunstreaker, Sideswipe most likely putting the apron on him. Fig might have given them the idea in the first place.

Miles climbed into Optimus' servo, making himself comfortable for the short ride. Prowl's office was just a bit down the hall from Optimus'. Optimus made sure the human was safe, before heading for the door. He stopped just short of leaving it, and Miles looked up to ask what was wrong.

Optimus had an evil glint in his blue optics, and was smirking.

"You really want to encourage Prowl to start doing stuff to you, too?" Miles asked.

"I'm the Prime, I can do what I want."

Optimus walked in to Prowl's office, his SIC hard at work with two stacks of datapads on his desk. There was a half drunk Energon cube on his desk, and the SIC seemed engrossed in a datapad he had in his servo. Prowl didn't even notice them walk in, his systems recognizing Optimus as a non-threat and not doing anything else besides that.

Optimus moved Miles up on to his shoulder, and then moved around Prowl's desk, and then behind Prowl's chair where the SIC was seated. Optimus reached around the chair, and grabbed a doorwing in each servo, gently massaging it. Prowl tensed up, letting out a strangled sound of surprise, before relaxing ever so slightly. Miles was already grinning like a fool.

"Honestly, Ratchet!" Prowl huffed, "I told you I'd have Jazz or Bumblebee take care of them before I went to recharge. Now shouldn't you be working on Barricade before Miles drives everyone else insane?"

Prowl batted the servos away, before turning his chair around to face what he thought to be Ratchet. Blue optics widened to an unbelievable amount.

"Awe, honey, you know I can't keep my servos off you!" Optimus batted his fake eyelashes at his SIC.

Prowl spluttered, trying to get anything out in response before he crashed, but it was of no use. A final, strangled, "Buwha", came out before the SIC locked up completely.

Miles burst out laughing, and Optimus chuckled, reaching up and grabbing the teen before he could laugh himself right off of his shoulder. The teen took a minute to compose himself, wiping his watery eyes, as Optimus walked out of his SIC's office and towards the Medbay.

"Ratch is gonna throw a wrench when you tell him what you did!"

Optimus grinned, "If I just say Prowl glitched when I walked in, he'll assume it was because of my appearance."

Miles snickered, going to say something else when a small wave of irritation and slight curiosity tentatively reached out to him. Optimus raised an optic ridge at the young teen.

"Barry's up!" Miles said by way of explanation, grinning up at the Prime.

Barricade was sitting up, Ratchet fixing one of the wheels on his arm. During the fight between himself and Shockwave, the Decepticon Scientist had managed to slash a hole in it. Both of them heard the sound of Optimus Prime entering the room, those ped falls nearly unmistakable around the Autobot base.

"I'll be with you in a minute, Optimus, I'm just fixing this glitch's wheel." Ratchet grumbled.

"Of course, Ratchet." Optimus said pleasantly.

Barricade peered around the Medbot's shoulder, staring at the Prime. He shuttered his optics, unshuttered them, and then repeated the process before giving up and accepting that he was actually seeing what he thought he was seeing. It helped that there was a grinning teen sitting in the Prime's servo.

"Now I know what was so damn funny." Barricade drawled, eyeing the two and thanking Primus he hadn't been touched while in stasis.

Ratchet vented softly, before turning around to see himself and dropping his tool in shock. Optimus smirked at his shocked CMO, as it was so rare to actually see Ratchet show it. He set Miles down, and then Ratchet grabbed his servo, dragging him out of the room.

Both Miles and Barricade watched after the two with amusement, and then Miles climbed up on to Barricade's berth and on to the ex-con's leg. Barricade kept an optic on him the entire time.

"I believe you might come to regret this." Barricade said, his voice surprisingly soft, and Miles looked at him with wide eyes.

"That we can feel each other? No way!"

Ratchet had given Barricade permission, though reluctant, to leave Medbay as long as he didn't do anything strenuous. The ex-con had agreed, and left the Medbay with Miles in servo. Poor Optimus had been left to Ratchet's wrath, the Medic having overheard Miles telling Barricade what had happened to Prowl.

The two had met up with some of the others in the cafeteria for dinner. Sam, Miles, Will, Epps, and the holoforms of Barricade, Skyfire, Groundhog, Bumblebee, Ironhide, and Soundwave sat around the table. It was spaghetti night, and like usual the four humans were practically inhaling their food. Miles did so with more gusto than usual, have strict orders from Ratchet to eat more and take an early bed time even though he felt completely fine. While they did so, the Cybertronians talked.

"Fraggin' Ratch was right, again, then." Ironhide growled, glaring at Barricade.

It was common knowledge by now that the two did in fact have some sort of bond, though how strong was unknown. Barricade had his end of it blocked so nothing leaked through, but Miles didn't have any idea how to do so, meaning the ex-con was stuck with whatever ended on slipping through.

Ironhide, Ratchet, Jazz, Optimus, and Prowl had all gotten in a fight whether there would be or wouldn't be a bond, and then on what type. Ratchet and Prowl held that there would be, while Ironhide and Optimus didn't think there was any chance. Jazz held that there would be, and that the two would be Sparkmates. No mech gave that last part much thought besides a good laugh.

Barricade just shrugged, and Skyfire decided he was safe to speak up.

"I'd really like to do some scientific study on this. A connection between a Cybertronian and organic has never been recorded before, outside of a Guardianship. I think Wheeljack would agree with me. Would either of you mind?" Skyfire asked, looking for a reaction.

Miles indicated that he wouldn't mind, shaking his head instead of talking, and Barricade just shrugged again. Even after all the Skyfire related mishaps Miles had already undergone, he didn't expect anything else besides that innocent question. Sam and Epps immediately stopped eating, turning to watch Skyfire instead, and Bumblebee, Groundhog, and Ironhide looked at the holoform as well. Sam and Epps weren't disappointed, seeing Skyfire open the holoform's mouth yet again.

"Excellent!" Skyfire smiled, "The first study we can do would be fairly simple, and could help us out with programing the holoforms. All Barricade would have to do is allow himself to feel all of your emotions completely, and all you would have to do is masturbate."

Miles choked on his spaghetti, while Sam, Bumblebee, Epps, Will, and Groundhog burst out laughing. Ironhide chuckled, crossing his arms over his chest and looking around in amusement. Barricade just stared at Skyfire, while Sam reached over and slapped his best friend on the back hard.

"No!" Miles spluttered as soon as he could get a breath in to do so. "No way in hell am I jacking off and letting Barry feel it!"

"Bu-"

"Absolutely not, Sky!" Miles growled, before taking a route that the seemingly naïve scientist would respond to better. "Things like smells, tastes, and touches I'd be willing to do. There is no need whatsoever for the other, and if you want that really bad then go bark up another tree."

Skyfire looked a little like he was pouting, but accepted that answer. Groundhog had to google what 'bark up another tree' meant. Sam and Epps finally calmed themselves down. Miles could feel Barricade's smugness radiating through their connection, and looked at the ex-con, whose holoform's face was as blank as normal.

Miles glared, "Smug bastard."

"I said you'd regret it." Barricade smirked back.

"I hate it when you're right."