Drift was worried.

So were Slipstream and Jetstorm.

Optimus and Windblade also were worried but they tried not to show it.

Sideswipe hadn't showed up yet and daybreak was fast approaching, they could see the sun from their hiding spot.

Windblade fiddled with her fans while Drift tinkered with his sword. Jetstorm and Slipstream quietly chatted while Optimus watched the containers; praying to Primus that he would see the young mech come over the rise.

"I'll try to comm him one more time. If he doesn't answer, I'll have to go get him," Drift said, tired of the others being so worried and secretly terrified that something had happened to Sideswipe while they were separated.

: Sideswipe, do you come in? Where are you?: Drift asked into his comm-piece. The silence that followed was all that Drift needed. He climbed to his pedes and wiped the dust off of his armour.

"I'll be back soon," He said. His students didn't ask to come; knowing full well that Drift can't keep his apprentices safe if he had to carry Sideswipe. Windblade nodded and Optimus looked like he wanted to go with but refrained from saying anything.

Drift quietly made his way back into the shipyard, alert in case any humans were in the yard early. He scanned the containers with worried optics; looking at the numbers. Sideswipe had climbed into number one-hundred and fifty-five.

Yes; he had memorized the container number… to be fair, he did it for the other bots too.

Drift finally reached the container that he was positive that Sideswipe had climbed into back in Singapore and knocked on the side. He did it three more times than he reached for the front and opened the door.

\\\\\\

Sideswipe had noticed something was off a week into the trip. He felt light-headed and a low-energon warning had flashed in his optics for the last three cycles. He knew that he was getting weaker and weaker by the cycle and Sideswipe was honestly surprised that he had made it to Singapore in the first place. The warning showed up two cycles into the overseas journey.

He also knew that he would go into a coma by the time he arrived in Nevada in an attempt to preserve the little energon that would be left flowing through his body. With no one to talk to or to at least keep him a little company; he waited. Waited for his protoform to get colder and colder by the hour; waited for all of his systems to start shutting down and waited for his normally blue optics to be consumed by the black that had started to show up at edge of his vision on the third cycle.

If Sideswipe had to honest with himself; he was scared. Scared that he would never wake up again; scared he would never get the chance to apologize to Strongarm or tell her and Windblade that they were sisters to him and to tell Bumblebee he saw him as a father; scared he would never tell Grimlock, Slipstream, Jetstorm, Fix-it and Rusty that he saw them as brothers; scared that he would never tell Drift that he saw the mech as a strict but loving uncle and he saw Optimus as a totally cool grandfather that had control issues.

He was scared and he had no one to tell him they he was going to be ok. He had never asked for it; not since he had been nearly broken in the whorehouse but he wanted it so badly right now. He wanted that comfort that he had been denied for most of his mechling hood; that many creators gave to their sparklings so freely but he had been so harshly deprived of. He wanted a bot-a mech or femme, he didn't care- to hold him close and whisper sweet nothings into his audio-receptors as he lost conscious.

Seven cycles into the voyage; Sideswipe thought that he heard his team's voices but he knew that was ridiculous because they were on radio silence for the entire trip.

Ten cycles into the trip; he transformed back into bipedal mode and finally sank into the coma he had been waiting for.

/

Drift couldn't believe his optics but they weren't lying; Sideswipe was laying in his bipedal mode, sprawled out on the cold metal ground and not even moving. His optics was a dull and lifeless black and for a minute, Drift thought Sideswipe had gone to meet Primus.

The only thing that deluded that illusion was the fact his armour was still that bright red that Drift thought was slightly distasteful. Drift reached into the container and pulled the light bot out. Tossing the bot over his shoulder, he hurried out of the shipyard to the ridge.

The lack of energon in the mech's system could be the explanation but that meant one thing to Drift.

He needed to get Sideswipe to the others and he needed to do it now!

\\\\\\

Windblade was watching the shipyard with Optimus, Slipstream and Jetstorm. Drift had been gone for an half an hour and they were all getting worried. Slipstream looked nervous and Jetstorm looked like he was two kliks away from crying; Windblade had no idea on what to do. She could never handle upset bots well and she practically ran from sparklings.

She could tell Optimus was in the same boat as her but he was trying to keep the two Minicons from having an emotional break-down so she could truthfully say that he was the better bot at this moment.

Windblade turned to look back at the shipyard; waiting for a sign.

She got it; in the form of a big mech running up the hill with something slung over his shoulder. She could have wept in joy if she wasn't a proud warrior.

Didn't stop a couple of coolant tears from gracing her faceplates.

"Drift," She called, "Is he ok?"

Optimus and the two emotional Minicons looked up at her in surprise, delight and worry. Drift finally joined them with Sideswipe being carried over his shoulder. The look on his faceplates stopped them from chewing out the all too silent bot still being carried by Drift.

"Drift, what is wrong? Why haven't you removed Sideswipe from your shoulder bearing and why hasn't he said a word?" Optimus asked. Drift just looked at him with sad optics and lowered the still frame onto the ground.

The black optics was the most obvious sign that something was wrong but the red armour meant that he was still alive. It was almost like he was just sleeping.

"What's wrong with him?" Jetstorm asked, coolant tears gathering in the corner of his optics. Slipstream gently bumped shoulder bearing with his brother. Drift surprised everybot by scooping the two Minicons in a frame-crushing hug.

"Master?" Slipstream asked meekly.

"What's wrong Master?" Jetstorm questioned softly.

"I fear Sideswipe has slipped into a stasis coma," Drift quietly said after two minutes of holding his students. Optimus and Windblade gasped in shock while Slipstream and Jetstorm shared a horrified look, "He had been giving my students his cube and I believe he's not taking another for himself. I fear his body decided that going into a stasis coma would be the best way to preserve the little energon he had left."

His two students, Optimus and Windblade just looked horrified but Jetstorm was the first to say something.

And the first to cry.

"He lied to us," Jetstorm sobbed, "He said he would grab another cube. He said he would eat. Why did he lie to us? Why?!"

Drift felt his spark break at the clear distress on his students faceplates and he resolved to fix it, "Sideswipe must not have wanted you two to go hungry when he could easily prevent it but he must have also felt like Windblade wouldn't let him take another cube."

Windblade was quick to protest, "I would have if he came to me and explained."

"I know that," Drift swiftly soothed the irate femme, "But he must have been conditioned to believe that he can only consume what he had been allotted."

Slipstream quickly wiggled out of the embrace and walked over to Sideswipe. They all watched, Drift ready to intercept the all too likely kick that Slipstream would try to deliver.

"You lied to us," Slipstream said softly, "But I think I get it," The small mech ignored the shocked faceplates and the look of pride on his masters faceplates, "You wanted to do the right thing for me and Jetstorm; making sure we were fed and we had enough to keep going onto the next cache, the next Decepticon, the next lesson and the next natural wonder," Then he gently kicked the still mech on the left arm; more of a tap than a physical kick, "But you are still in trouble mister. Jetstorm will more than likely kick your aft all the way back to the junkyard and back here if he's pissed enough. Miss Windblade might just do it for fun. I'm not too sure about Mr. Optimus but I think master Drift would do it just to teach you a lesson," Again ignoring the look of protest on his masters faceplates, "I kinda wish you didn't lie to us but at the same time, you didn't want us to worry about you. I hope you realize that worrying about each other is what a team does; they look out for each other. So get better soon. Please; for Jetstorm, Master Drift, Miss. Windblade and Mr. Optimus. For us."

Drift decided it might be a good time to move the little mech before he could launch another kick.

He tugged Slipstream away as Optimus scooped Sideswipe up and gently swung him over his shoulder bearings, "Windblade; is there a cache nearby we could use to take care of him?"

Windblade nodded, "Yea; it's a few joor's walk from here but we should reach it by nightfall."

"Good, let's get moving."

\\\\\

They walked for a few joor's but they finally reached a mesa in the middle of the Nevada desert and for a brief minute, Optimus was reminded of the mesa base that his team used. But he had seen no sign for Jasper so he assumed that they were in another part of Nevada.

Windblade lead them to a small door on the side, "I carved this out myself, took two months' worth of work but I made large enough to hide a star ship here."

The cavern they stepped into was enormous; natural features poking through here and there to give it the expected cavern look. Mountains of spare parts laid scattered about and a few Megatron sized crates laid near the back. A large berth was placed against one wall and that was where Optimus place Sideswipe; gingerly placing the mech so they could access the protoform. Drift had found an intravenous for them to use and Windblade had recruited the two-still very upset-Minicons to help her fill a few bags with energon for Sideswipe.

Optimus had watched Ratchet do it enough times to know how to place an IV into a bot…but not enough times for him to get it on the first try. He managed to get it after a few tries but once it was in; they hooked up one of the bags to the IV.

"What do we do now?" Slipstream asked as they watched the rich blue liquid slowly make its way through the tube.

"Now," Optimus replied softly, "We wait."

/

Sideswipe was cold; too cold for it to be even remotely healthy for a bot. He wanted nothing more than to warm up but he wanted to stay where he was. He was safer that way. Everybot was and if they ever found out about his past, he would lose the only bots he had ever considered family.

No bot wanted a slutty mechling in their perfect family.

He wondered where he was and he wanted to online his optics but he was scared.

What if the trip to Earth was nothing but a dream and he was still the property of the whorehouse? What if he dreamed his escape and what if he dreamed of being free? If that was the case, Sideswipe knew he would be a broken bot. He knew that he would most likely go insane and be offlined by the owners of the house.

He wanted to stay like this for a long time but something was bothering him; it was like an itch that can't be reached no matter what you did. It was… he didn't know what was.

He didn't know what to do.

"You lied to us but I think I get it," Who was that? Did they find out just how dirty he really was?

"You wanted to do the right thing for me and Jetstorm; making sure we were fed and we had enough to keep going onto the next cache, the next Decepticon, the next lesson and the next natural wonder," Huh? What did he do? Wait, that bot said fed… did he feed somebot?

Did he feed Daybreaker? Had the owners let him see his sparkling? He felt a light pain on his left arm; more of a soft tap than a full force kick. Who did that?
"But you are still in trouble mister. Jetstorm will more than likely kick your aft all the way back to the junkyard and back here if he's pissed enough. Miss Windblade might just do it for fun. I'm not too sure about Mr. Optimus but I think master Drift would do it just to teach you a lesson," Jetstorm… he knew that name. Windblade, Optimus and Drift too. They were a few of the bots that were on Earth with him! So it wasn't a dream! It wasn't! Sideswipe felt so happy! But he also felt sad; it meant that Daybreaker was still on Cybertron, away from him.

"I kinda wish you didn't lie to us but at the same time, you didn't want us to worry about you. I hope you realize that worrying about each other is what a team does; they look out for each other. So get better soon. Please; for Jetstorm, Master Drift, Miss. Windblade and Mr. Optimus. For us." He now knew what the bother was; it was the need to get back to the other bots; the need to apologize to them for lying and the need to fix his mistakes.

But he wasn't ready to come back; not yet. He knew that because he felt too tired to move and he somehow knew that if he moved now, his body could suffer some major damage.

So Sideswipe waited.

\\\\\

Drift knew that Jetstorm wasn't the most patient of mechs but he had no idea that when worried over a friend, his patience got so much shorter; for everybot else at least. With the friend in question; Jetstorm apparently has the patience of a Carrier.

He also had medical training; proven when he fixed the IV, placed sensors on the helm and had done a check on Sideswipe an hour later.

"How is Sideswipe doing?" He heard Windblade ask and Drift knew that he would need to run interference. The poor Minicon had been working nonstop for the last five cycles and he had been asked that same question every two joor's or so.

Drift wouldn't be surprised if Jetstorm finally snapped.

"Miss Windblade, I don't have anything new on Sideswipes condition and if I did; you bots would be the first to know!"

Looks like Jetstorm snapped.

Drift quickly moved over there before the warrior femme could snap back. He spun her around; forcing her to look at him

"Fighting isn't going to let Jetstorm do his job Windblade," He said in an attempt to defuse the situation. Windblade took a quick breath to keep her calm and she turned to apologize to the Minicon but she stopped. Drift looked over her shoulder and saw what she saw.

Jetstorm had coolant leaking out of the corners of his optic and they were making trails down his faceplates.

"I don't know ok?! I want him to get better as much as you do and I can only do so much from out here!" Jetstorm sobbed. Drift quickly gathered Jetstorm into his arms but the words he said echoed in his processor.

"What do you mean 'from out here'?" Windblade asked once Jetstorm was calm enough to talk without sobbing. Jetstorm wiped the coolant off of his cheeks and looked at her; startling Windblade with the sad look in his optics.

"Something a bot would willingly starve themselves because they have suffered so much that they just want it all to end. They want an out that they can control and no bot will know until it's too late. These bots have suffered a great loss that was so powerful that they couldn't bear the pain. Most often; it's the loss of a spark-mate or a sparkling, sometime even both. But some bot's can't eat; because they were either poor or they were captured and not properly nourished by their captors. But when a bot does go into stasis, their processors create a field that protects their sanity," Drift wanted to interrupt to ask some questions but Jetstorm just kept going, "When the bot is ready to come out, they break the field. Many outside bots attempt to do it for them but it's too dangerous for the victim. They sometimes succeed in breaking the barrier but what happens is that the bot's processors are damaged and they go insane. I really can't do anything because I refuse to act before the bot-in this case, it'd be Sideswipe- is ready to come out."
Drift and Windblade were quiet, trying to absorb this new piece of information.

Drift wondered for a few kliks were his student was trained and why he had left the medical field.

"So we just wait?" Windblade queried as Jetstorm turned back to the charts.

He nodded, "Yes but bots that have family or friends that they care about often return quicker than bot that have nothing to live for. Since we are his friends, he might come back to us soon."

Windblade nodded and left the two alone, sensing that Drift wanted to ask the Minicon some questions.

Jetstorm kept working, hoping his master wouldn't ask questions as to why he knew so much.

"Why become my apprentice when you could have a job at the hospitals and help others every day?"

Let it be known that Master Drift is nothing if not blunt and straight to the soul of the problem.

Yikes.

"I became your apprentice so I could help stop the bots that would hurt other bots and place them in the hospital in the first place," He answered, trying to keep the pain out of his voice.

"Where were you trained?"

Another soul question.

"I trained at the old Tyger Pax hospital before the war and at the Iacon's Light hospital after that."

Drift fell silent. The Tyger Pax hospital was in the center of the Tyger Pax attack and Iacon's Light was destroyed by Decepticon terrorists that wanted to prove to the council that they had the power over life and death.

Both of those attacks had a total of over one point five million casualties.

"What did Slipstream do?"

Oh… Bad territory. Back it up.

"That is something you will have to ask Slipstream. I don't mean to be disrespectful but I can't say that because it was his job."
Drift decided to pursue that question at a later date but he wanted to know more about Jetstorm.

"What is your specialization?" He asked. Jetstorm froze for a second but he kept on working. Drift thought for a minute or two that the mech wouldn't answer.

But he was wrong.

"Paediatrics and Carrier's care."

Wildcat: Yet another cliffhanger! I must be driving you all mad by now. Disclaimer; I own nothing. Wish I did but I don't.