Ratchet was working on a console when he heard a dull thud and Miko Yelling at Jack. He turned to see Jack sprawled out on the floor unconscious with Miko and Rafael trying desperately to rouse him.
"What happened?" Ratchet asked
"We don't know, one minute he was walking to his backpack and the next he had hit the floor" Rafael explained
Ratchet placed Jack on a human sized medical table where June and Arcee came to his side. Arcee looked extremely upset
"Arcee I need you to step back, I know you're upset but you're in my way, I'll let you know something when I figure it out" June ordered angrily
Charlie and Li-Na came to Arcee and guided her away as Optimus and Kathy got there
"Ratchet, what has happened?" Optimus asked
"Jack collapsed, but we are currently at a loss for a cause"
"Miko, what was he doing when he collapsed" June asked
"He stood and went to get his back-pack; I thought he looked a bit unsteady so I said something. He told me that he was okay and then he collapsed"
"Okay" June turned back to her son and sighed as she looked him over, checking his pulse and other vital signs. She then noticed the bags under his eyes and things began to come together for June
"This is a combination of stress and extreme exhaustion" she concluded wrapping her stethoscope around her neck.
Jack began to awaken and groaned at the angered look on his mother's face. The last thing he remembered starting over to his back pack. He had told Miko he was okay and then everything went black.
"Jackson, when was the last time you had a decent night sleep, and lying won't do you a bit of good now" she said
Jack gave a defeated sigh and looked away from his mother
"The night before my birthday… the day you made Rafael's doctor's appointment"
"Jack, that's been over a week! Why would you do this to yourself?" June asked completely dumbfounded
"I was worried, I wanted to find out all I could about what was going on with Raf… so I spend my nights studying up on his condition… before he was diagnosed I was stressing out over what could be wrong and I couldn't sleep"
"Jackson, are you aware that you scared the hell out of us all! Rafael included, we had no idea what was wrong with you, Damn it, Raf has enough to deal with without having to worrying about you! June scolded furious that her eighteen year old son, the one she had thought capable of self-sustaining through this issue at hand but now she was wondering about that.
"I wanted to help you take care of him better"
June sighed while she wished he had managed his time better she understood why he did what he did
"While I appreciate your reasoning, staying awake nearly all night wasn't the best way to handle this situation" June sighed "get some sleep, I'll come check on you later"
"I've got a white noise player app on my phone if you think the sound will help you sleep, or at least drown us out" Yessenia said
"Won't that run your battery down?" Jack asked
"Maybe, but my phone has a full charge and I've got a usb charger so I can plug it into a computer if need be" Yessenia explained
"No, I think I'll be okay, thanks anyway"
"The offer is still out there if you change your mind" Yessenia said and gave Jack a sisterly hug then a light tap to the back of the head
"Scare my baby brother like that again and that little pat will turn into something that will hurt"
"I understand why you want to watch over your brother but why slap people on the back of the head?" Jack asked
"A slap in the face would be humiliating, a slap to the back of the back of the head is a wake-up call" Yessenia explained "I usually reserve that treatment for my teammates, but you… you're kind of like family so yeah, unfortunately, that kind of made you fair game."
"You just rest Jack, I'll check on you later" June said
Yessenia and June started out of the area set up for the humans and were surprised when the lights started to dim. They looked up and noticed Optimus at the light controls.
"Yessenia, I noticed that you always call Rafael by his full name, why is that, why don't you call him Raf like everyone else"
"Habit, I guess, I've always known him as Rafael or on occasion hermanito, which means little brother in Spanish. I just recently learned of people calling him Raf so I just can't seem to call him that myself because I've called him Rafael for so long changing it now would be difficult for me." Yessenia explained as they closed the door to the room Jack was now in.
Ratchet sighed as he mulled over Rafael's current medical state. June had requested a corner of his lab for the dialysis treatments should she have to treat him in the base. He had willingly cleaned and sanitized the space for her due to a fact that part of him feared that if it hadn't been for them he wouldn't have been exposed to Dark Energon and would still be perfectly healthy.
"Ratchet, Yessenia told me their father had kidney problems and they were told it could be a genetic problem and Rafael might inherit that problem from his father" June explained as Ratchet told her what he thought had happened
"Even if that was the case and he would have gotten sick either way the Dark Energon couldn't have been good for him, for all we know it could have hastened the process"
"Yes, Ratchet for all we know that is the case, but on the same note you have to realize if you weren't a part of his life I might have never become a part of his life because I would have never met him" June said
"I… I just wish there was more I could do to make him feel better" Ratchet said as he went through his available data on human medicine and the function of the kidneys trying to see if his Cybertronian technology might be able to create a better way to treat him or even a way to eliminate the need for a donor. Though it seemed much like replacing biological pieces on Cybertronians replacing human organs couldn't be replaced with artificial versions of that item… not easily anyway.
Meanwhile Optimus was giving Kathy's idea some serious consideration. Putting Arcee among humans would give her so much more useful knowledge of them and their cultures. It would also have the added benefit of allowing her to be out in the world instead of cadged up in the base. He sighed, as much as it pained him to put their new human allies at risk it seemed that the choice was being made for him.
"Arcee, how would you like to go and stay with Yessenia and her teammates until we can return you to your original form" Optimus asked
"I don't know, Optimus" she sighed awkwardly "I don't know that much about being human"
"They know that and understand that you have a lot to learn. They have said they are willing to teach you what they can" Optimus explained
"Optimus I have to question the safety of this idea, sure, on the surface, this looks like a gift from Primus himself, but what if the Decepticons locate Arcee"
"Our mutant friends have proven that they are powerful despite their size and even if they don't seriously damage the Decepticons, I know that they are quite capable of holding their ground until we can come to take on the Decepticons ourselves"
"If you think they can handle it"
"I know they can" Optimus turned to Arcee "Are you going to take their offer our new allies are giving"
"Yes"
Optimus and Arcee went to let Kathy and Yessenia know what they had decided
"Looks like our girls club has a new member" Li-Na smiled
"Optimus we have an incoming ship with two Autobot beacons" Ratchet called
Optimus approached the console
"Unknown ship, this is Autobot Outpost Omega One, please Identify yourself"
"Optimus" a female voice replied
To Be Continued…
