June sighed as she worked, everyone in the hospital realized she really wanted to be in there coddling her son who had major surgery not 48 hours earlier.

"He's doing just fine, June" one of the other nurses said "I was just in there, he was asleep"

"Okay, I'll just check on him before I clock out for the evening" June said realizing she needed to make sure Jack was okay

Jack sighed as he scratched his arm. His mother would have scolded him to no ends if she caught him scratching this spot below his elbow but it felt good to him at the moment. Then Miko noticed what was going on.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just an itch, Miko, no big deal" he dismissed

"Really, let me see it" she said

"No, Miko!"

"Jack, come on, if it's just an itch why can't I see it?" she demanded pulling on his sleeve, after a few moments of fighting he gave up and let her move the sleeve out of the way to reveal the secret he had worked so hard to keep.

"What the…" the Japanese girl fell into confused silence

"Plaque psoriasis, I've had it for most of my life. My skin was almost cleared up then I found out about Raf's problems and it came back with a vengeance" he sighed

"And exactly when did you plan on telling me of this recent flare, Jackson Darby?" his mother demanded coming up the stairs

Jack blanched at his mother's tone

"Ms. Darby, could you explain to us what this 'plaque psoriasis' is?" Optimus asked beating Ratchet and Bulkhead to the punch.

"Plaque psoriasis is a condition that causes abnormally rapid skin cell development. This leads to patches of itchy skin, or plaques like the one you see on Jack's arm to form. The causes of this condition aren't fully understood, but it isn't contagious, Jack's case is hereditary. His father had it and so does Jack"

"So this condition, it just causes skin problems?" Ratchet surmised

"No, it can cause joint problems, or psoriatic arthritis, but Jack doesn't have that condition thank God" June commented then turned to Jack "go to med bay and I'll meet you there" she told him still angry at him for hiding this from her.

"How long has Jack dealt with this condition?" Optimus asked as Jack left for med bay

"Sixteen years, he was two when we saw the first signs of the psoriasis. It wasn't bad back then and we weren't really sure what it was until the doctor confirmed it and we've been living with it ever since."

June went to tend to Jack as Ratchet launched a further investigation on the new medical condition he had learned about.


June entered the med bay, squared her shoulders then went over to treat her son.

"Jack I need you to take off your shirt" she said

Jack didn't protest or ask why, he just complied

June winced, when Jack had said it was 'back with a vengeance' he hadn't been kidding

"Why didn't you say anything to me, Jack, we could have been treating this" she said indicating the particularly large area of affected skin on that stretched from his spine around over his right shoulder, but didn't come to where it showed over the collar of his shirt by some miracle.

"You were stressed about Raf, I didn't want to make it worse" Jack sighed

June sighed inwardly, she wasn't going to deny that she was more than mildly irritated with Jack, but she had to admit that she understood why Jack did what he did. He had decided that Rafael's medical situation needed her undivided attention so he took one for the team and hid his psoriasis flair up until things were better with Rafael.

Arcee entered the med bay to see her junior partner shirtless and being treated by his mother for something. She noticed the flaky read patches littering Jack's torso and arms and wondered what it was.

"Hi, Arcee" he muttered

"Care to explain" Arcee said casually

Jack gave her an explanation of the condition and how long he had it then braced himself for the fireworks.

"You have had this condition practically your entire life and decided I didn't need to know of it?" Arcee was angry and Jack really couldn't find a reason to blame her for it.

"Arcee, at the time I didn't think it was that important, I mean it's not contagious, it's just an irritation. People don't understand this condition so… I've just taken to keeping it to myself" Jack sighed jadedly

"Well I am your partner, I'd like to think that you felt you could tell me about things like this" Arcee sighed pointing at the plaque below his elbow.

Jack sighed, "I'll try to be more open about things, but Arcee it isn't easy for me to tell people about this. I've hidden it for so long now"

June sighed, she hated that Jack felt he had to hide his condition and in that moment she realized there had to be a better way to deal with his skin. Then her phone began to ring.


Meanwhile Rafael was sitting in his hospital bed playing a video game. The nurses all seemed to know who he was and his mother. He wasn't really surprised about that as his mother worked at the hospital. He looked at the clock and sighed, the nursing staff had just finished the shift change and so he had a new nurse and his mother had gone home, or more likely to the Autobot base.

He sighed he had several little rash-like places that itched quite bad and it took a little willpower to keep from scratching them. He sighed and after a few minutes of toughing it out he decided to press the nurse call button to get some kind of relief from this.

Diana sighed, she then noticed that the call light was on for Rafael. It was rare that he really called for anyone, she didn't know if it was because he was really independent or because he didn't like to bother people or make a burden of himself, even in this situation. She then smiled as she entered the room, Rafael was a quiet boy most of the time, not really opening up to speak about himself but endlessly curious about things others were doing. She often had to ask Rafael questions to find out how he was doing or if anything was bothering him.

She got inside and noticed the red places along his arms and realized instantly that they were hives. He told her about how they formed and when they did. Then Diana checked his file and began to wonder why he wasn't put in a latex free environment from the beginning as she figured he had now developed a latex allergy. She went to the nurse's station and called June who returned to the hospital to be present for the testing and it didn't take long for the results to come back.

To be continued...