Yay! 2nd chappie. Thanks to the followers, hope I won't disappoint.

Reply to review: Cute Little Cellest: Glad you're curious! Here's your update.

I don't own TF:P. You wish.

Enjoy.

"What in the Pits were you thinking?!" Ratchet couldn't remember being this angry before in his entire life.

He'd woken up because of the sound of pedes running through his room, and he'd thought that it was already morning and it was time to go to school. Then he'd realised that it was still night. Arcee's berth was empty. Curious and irritated, he got up to see what she was doing so late at night and maybe make his sire tell her to go back to recharge. He didn't like being woken up in the middle of the night. He'd searched the living room, the washrooms, even his sire's room.

Finally, he realised that she was on the roof and went up there just in time to see her sit down on the railing. Ratchet stopped short. She couldn't be about to...could she?

Then she fell and he rushed forward to catch her. Using all his strength – she was small, but not that light, and Ratchet was only three vorns older than her – he pulled her up.

She was looking very sorry as he shook her and shouted at her. She shrunk away from him, refusing to answer. Ratchet finally let go of her as the severity of what had almost happened hit him. If he had been an astrosecond late... He realised that he was trembling and tear slid down his faceplate. He was going into shock. She was crying as well. He collapsed onto the floor, stunned.

Questions were racing through his mind. Was it an accident, or had it been... Primus forbid it... On purpose? He had always seen Arcee as a little dumb, but surely she wasn't that stupid. No... The look on her face told him that she had fully intended to fall.

"Why?" He asked. She pressed up against the wall opposite, winglets flared out. "Why?" He repeated, more forcefully. She bared her dentas. "Like you would ever understand. You hate me anyway, why does-" she paused to wipe away at a few stray tears- " -does it matter to you? Why didn't you just let me fall and get the fragging thing over with?"

Ratchet shuttered his optics several times. Had he really tormented her so badly these last couple of orns that she thought he wouldn't care if she died? He opened his vents, but no sound came out. She continued to tremble and press herself against the wall, which gave him plenty of time to form an answer. "I... I don't hate you that bad." He muttered at low volume.

"Oh really?" She sneered. "You and the others...and-" She dropped to the floor. What she said next was far too soft for him to hear. He frowned and sat up properly. "I didn't do anything to you this bad." He said firmly.

"It's not because of you, dumbaft."

"Then-who?" He found it hard to believe that anybot could do anything that would cause her to take such an extreme step.

"You don't know them."

"Then I want to know!" She stared at him with wide optics. She was plainly afraid of how angry he was getting, so he forced himself to take a deep vent. "Tell me."

She was silent for a long time. Finally, she managed to speak. "Striker. Fellraft. Efflux. Forcen. Ripoff. From the Law Enforcement caste. 11B and 11C."

"What did they do to you?"

"No." She shuddered slid to the floor, curling up into a tight ball. Her winglets drew in close. "Please. No." She started to sob. He winced. He hadn't been expecting such a violent reaction. "What-"

"No!" She cut him off, sobbing even harder. Ratchet wrapped his arms around his pedes. What on Cybertron had they done to her? He decided to try a different tactic. "Why did they do...it?" Arcee looked at him so sharply that he drew back in alarm. "You-you don't know anything, do you? You don't know anything about me, what we've been through. You don't know, and yet you treat me like I'm a piece of scrap under your pedes!" Ratchet shuttered his optics. For the first time in a long time, she'd actually bothered to give him a fitting reply, instead of just letting him have his way.

You don't know anything about me, what we've been through. She was right. He didn't know, and he was a fool. He was hit with how very stupid he'd been, and how far it had gone before he'd realised it.

"Arcee, I'm sorry." She looked away.

"I mean it." He said suddenly. "I'm sorry for...all of it. I just...I was just being stupid. Because Orion was so obsessed with you, and he refused to tell anybot why! And then you just showed up here... Sire said he'd adopted you and Prowl, but he refused to say anything else. And I was selfish, because you took up my space and things weren't the same anymore. I'm sorry."

She sighed.

"Tell me." He said. "Tell me what this-" He gestured at the railing "-was." She looked at him warily. "Please."

"Why do you want to know?"

"I think it matters when somebot gets up in the middle of the night, wakes me up, and then tries to commit suicide right in front of me!" He yelled. Thankfully his sire was very hard to wake up when he recharged, or he would've some dashing up the stairs. He wasn't sure why, but he didn't want his sire to get involved. Not yet.

"You don't want to know."

"I do!" He glared at her.

"It's a long story."

"We've got plenty of time." He growled.

She vented deeply. "I... Well, the truth is...I'm not from the Law Enforcement caste."

"What?"

"I was actually born in the cleaning castes. After my formers offlined, I ran away with Prowl. Two bots named D-16 and S-42, who had run away as well, found us when we were on the brink of death. We stayed together for some time-" She told him how she'd 'bumped' into Orion, who began giving them lessons because they were illiterate. "And then we were caught. D16 and S-42 were sent to the Pits." Another tear appeared on her faceplate. "They're probably offline now. Prowl and I – you know what happened to us."

Ratchet listened as she spoke in a faltering voice. Finally, she looked up at him. "It would be better this way." She said, pointing to the railing. Ratchet's optics widened as she proceeded to explain all the reasons she could think of in favor of jumping off. As she spoke, she became calmer and calmer, even as she talked about her tormentors.

Ratchet was aghast at the thought that she was going to try to jump, again. "But-but- what about Prowl?!"

"I told you." She snapped impatiently. "It'll be easier for him. Happier too, probably." She rose.

"No!" He stood up as well. He was a full head taller than her, even at this age. "I won't let you."

"Why?"

"I-I can't! I'm not going to let you just-just die!"

"How does it matter to you?" She asked, trying to sidestep him, and failed. "This is my decision. I'm taking it for my brother and for myself. There's nothing else I can do, and the Guilds will be happy to see me dead, so there won't be much of an investigation. You could just say you were recharging."

"What? No! That's not what I'm worried about!" He said desperately. "Don't just throw your life away like this!"

She met his optics. "I can't take it any more. What they do to me – you don't know – you don't understand – please – just let me-"

"No. I'll – I'll do something about it – we'll complain-"

"I've tried that."

"Please, Arcee. I'll do something – anything, I don't know – I'll punch them in the face, if you like-" Ratchet paused, realizing how ridiculous that sounded. Him, a bot from the engineering caste, offering to punch bots from the law enforcement caste? But he plowed on anyway. "We'll talk to Orion, see if we can find anybot that can help – we'll get back at them, and you won't have to be so afraid of them any more. And Prowl won't cry his optics out, and I-I won't – just – please!"

Arcee began to shake again, more tears coming out. "There's nothing you can do!" He placed a servo on her shoulder. "There is." He promised. "We just have to find it."

"You don't even know what you're talking about."

"I know, right?" Ratchet mock-grumbled, trying to lighten the situation. "And Orion Pax calls me pessimistic."

She frowned. "And if there is no way?"

"I don't know – but I'm not going to stand here and let this happen!"

"Fine." She answered, finally losing her nerve and letting go of the wall. They stood there for a moment, staring at each other, more tears forming in Arcee's optics, till he reached out awkwardly to pat her helm. To his surprise, she put her servos around him...and began to cry all over again. He sighed and put a servo around her as well.

"Just... don't do something like that again." He whispered shakily. "I – it was – scary."

He patted her helm again, unsure of what to do with her. Finally, he guided her back inside, resolving to question her more in the morning.

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