U is for Undercarriage

Maru knew that this was going to be a relatively simple fix, but it order for him to get to the chafed wire that was causing Pinecone so much discomfort he was going work deep in her undercarriage…and that was the current problem. Every vehicle on the team had their particularities when it came to receiving treatments. Blade hated being worked on when he was unconscious and Windlifter's manifolds were ticklish, to name a few. Pinecone was particularly shy about having her undercarriage exposed.

Any mechanic knew it was perfectly normal for ground vehicles to be sensitive about their undercarriages. It was typically one of those places where sunlight should not shine, but even though most vehicles preferred to keep that part of their anatomy private Pinecone took that shyness to a completely different level. It was something that Maru had spent more time than he wanted to admit pondering about, and he finally came to the assumption that it was probably something related to her upbringing.

In the end, it didn't matter why Pinecone was uncomfortable with undercarriage work. As her mechanic it was Maru's find to keep her comfortable while receiving needed medical treatment. Most of the time that involved making sure that he talked her through what he was about to do and then completing the repair as quickly as possible. The one exception to that protocol had been when Pinecone had mowed down a tree on a bad jump and the damage had been bad enough on that that sedation had been required.

Today's repair was such a simple fix, that on any other vehicle, Maru would have already been done but Pinecone was particularly antsy today. Every time Maru had almost caught the loose wire she would squirm causing him to lose his grip. It was a situation that was rapidly causing both vehicles to lose their patience. With a deep breath Maru reached in once again, but the moment his tine brushed against Pinecone she flinched, hard causing Maru's tine to bang against the metal of her chassis and causing the mechanic to swear in moment of pain.

"Can I help?" Drip popped his head into hanger a moment later clearly alerted by the noise.

"No." Maru instantly moved to shoo Drip away. Pinecone really didn't need an audience for this, then an idea popped into his head. "Yes…can you get Patch for me."

"Drip?" Maru prodded when Drip didn't move.

"Yes?" The little digger said still trying to fully take in the situation.

"Do you have tines?"

"No?" Drip said with the slight air of a question around the edge of his statement.

"Then go get Patch." Maru pressed again and luckily this time his words seemed to properly sink in.

"Oh…Okay!" Drip gave a quick bob and then speed off toward the tower.

While Drip completed the errand, Maru turned to another task. He wiped out the small electric kettle he kept in his hanger for emergencies, filled it with water and set it to heat. He had successfully finished that task when Patch came sliding into the hanger at full speed.

"What do you need?" The dispatcher said out of breath and clearly ready to jump into action.

"Take a deep breath." Maru said as he poured the water into two mugs, then added hot cocoa and marshmallows. He rolled over and passed one mug to Patch before giving the other to Pinecone. "I have been trying to make a repair on Pinecone and it is rapidly becoming clear that we need a distraction. Think you could help?"

"You called me out here for that?" Patch at first looked annoyed, but that quickly passed the moment that she saw the exhausted and frustrated look on Pinecones face. An emotion quickly flickered across her face before she settled into an expression of hottie ingratiation and turned her attention to Pinecone. "He really should have let me know from the start…but you know men," she gave Maru a wink, "they always think they can fix things by themselves when sometimes they should lean on their teammates."

That actually got a chuckle out of Pinecone, which instantly told Maru that he had made the right choice pulling Patch in…even if it was rapidly becoming clear that Patch had read the situation and made decided that the best way to deal with Pinecone's discomfort was to make sure that Maru was equally, if not more uncomfortable.

"So, Pinecone, what do you think we should talk about?" Patch made a clucking noise. "Because I have to admit some of those scenes in the latest Game of Thrones episode were incredibly hot and I think we should totally do a blow by blow analysis."

And that is what they insisted on doing for the next half of an hour and Maru worked as quickly as his slagging tines would allow him, because it rapidly became clear that while Pinecone might be shy about her undercarriage, she was very skilled and comfortable at describing things in incredibly graphic language. The worst part was Patch was more than willing to match Pinecone description by description. Maru had honestly thought Dipper was the one with the depraved mind, but it turned out some of the other members of the teams were just more skilled keeping hidden depths.

"Alright. Your finished." Maru said when he was able to finally put the last piece in place and lower the lift.

"Ah…" Patch actually had the audacity to fane disappointment. "Already? We were just about to get to another good part."

"And you can finish it, but not in my hanger as I need space to get everything cleared up." Maru stared at the two women with mock seriousness. As they turned to leave, he stopped them and tossed Patch a tin of high grade. "With all you two were slagging talking about, I suspect you need to wash your mouths out something stronger than hot cocoa."

Both Patch's and Pinecone's peals of laughter could be heard echoing across base, which of course made Maru smile. Pinecone was incredibly shy about her undercarriage and that showed every time it had to be worked on, but today had been different. Today as Patch had reminisced about a TV series in a way that would make even an air carrier blush, Pinecone had not flinched once as Maru had done his work.

Term- Undercarriage- The undercarriage is the framework underneath a care that provides a vehicle's supporting structure. Some vehicles such as cars often have exposed undercarriages, while other vehicles such as aircraft have undercarriages that hidden inside the body of the vehicle.