A/N: I said I would make it up to you for the short chapter; so now I bring you: a super-fast update! cheers

Oh, and I officially love Wheeljack. As my stepdaughter would say, he is my friend.

Here's the usual love for my beta-reader and my reviewers: ya'll are freakin' awesome.

Sideswipe was officially jealous of Wheeljack.

He tried not to eavesdrop—he really did—but Ratchet was so new to being bonded that he was wide open to them without even realizing it.

It had to be bothering Sunstreaker too; he looked over at his brother to see him playing his video game with a scowl on his face. It couldn't have been caused by the game—Sunny was winning.

The fact that it had been Wheeljack who had calmed their lover down when he was feeling skittish and uncertain about the new depth to their relationship was a major irritant, although they tried not to let it be. The fact that Ratchet had gone to Wheeljack about it in the first place had just plain hurt.

Oh, he wasn't worried that Ratchet would leave them for Wheeljack—quite aside from the inventor's assurances that they were friends and nothing more, the bond left no room for doubts in that department. It was nearly impossible to hide anything from your bondmate, after all.

He fidgeted a little, looking back and forth between Sunstreaker and the door before coming to a decision.

Well, he didn't have anything better to do—he was off-duty today. "Sunny, I'm going to the medbay," he announced, and got a distracted "Whatever" in response.

He crossed the hall quickly and poked his head into the medbay before slipping inside. For a moment he simply stood just inside the door, watching as Ratchet worked and listening to the conversation.

"—Prime'll have my head on a platter," the medic was saying, pulling a scorched and twisted piece of armor plating off of Wheeljack and dumping it on the floor to be picked up later.

"Eh, maybe it won't be that bad," the inventor replied once he had stopped hissing in pain.

Ratchet gave him a pointed look. "He's already unhappy with me for insisting on dealing with Sunny's temper tantrums—what makes you think he won't go ballistic over me bonding to them?"

Wheeljack did his best to give the impression of a shrug, considering he was unable to move. "Worst he can do is throw you in the brig—and I don't think he can really afford to do so for long, since you're the only fully-trained medic we have."

Said medic made a dubious sound.

"Aw, he can't stay mad at you forever, Ratch. He'll have to give over sometime. How are the twin terrors taking it, anyway?"

Ratchet hesitated, and embarrassment colored his end of the bond. "I think maybe… Well, if I hadn't flipped out on them they would be perfectly fine with it. It's almost like they're… relieved about it. I keep getting this feeling that it made them uneasy to be unable to reach out to me the way they do to each other, especially Sunstreaker."

Sideswipe chose that moment to make himself known, and carefully insinuated himself into Ratchet's consciousness. The medic twitched nervously and both mechs looked up as the Lamborghini strode over to them.

Sideswipe couldn't help but smile a little when he felt Ratchet 'lean' tentatively into the mental contact and, just as tentatively, Sideswipe pressed his hand against the medic's back. With his mouth right next to Ratchet's audio, he whispered, "You tell him fragging everything, don't you?" He felt his lover stiffen and indignation flowed across their bond.

::Might I remind you that Wheeljack and I have been friends for longer than you've been functioning?:: Ratchet sent tartly.

::That just makes you old,:: Sideswipe sniped in return.

"You are not endearing yourself to me," the CMO said aloud, voice as dry as the Sahara. Wheeljack arched an optic ridge, but wisely kept his vocalizer mute.

::It bothers me and Sunny that you'll confide in him but not in us,:: the red Lamborghini admitted. Ratchet looked up at him in surprise.

"You mean to tell me that—even though I'm bonded to you—you're jealous? Of Wheeljack?"

The inventor made a noise that sounded suspiciously like laughter, and Sideswipe had the grace to look embarrassed. "It does sound kinda stupid when you put it that way…" he muttered, hunching his shoulders.

Ratchet sighed and shut off his laser-cutter, and Wheeljack made an almost imperceptible sound of relief. "Look, Sides, I'm not trying to put you or Sunny down," the medic began.

"Hey, I'd be jealous too," Wheeljack quipped, and Ratchet thumped the side of the inventor's head with his fist.

"Quiet! You're not helping." The medic turned back to Sideswipe. "Pay no mind to him. The reason he's jealous is because he's not getting any—"

"Ratchet!" Wheeljack squawked in a strangled voice while Sideswipe snorted with laughter—and the two lovers got a flash impression of Sunstreaker laughing helplessly while his video game character got mauled on the TV screen.

Apparently he'd been paying more attention to his bondmate and his twin than his game.

"Anyway," Ratchet continued, talking over the engineer's furious muttering once the amusement had died down, "As I was going to say, I love you and your brother very much—I'm bound to you now, for Primus' sake—but Wheeljack is my friend. And friends have this annoying habit of telling each other things, especially when you've been together practically since you were sparklings. It's just something that you're going to have to learn to deal with." The medic paused when he saw Sideswipe's pained expression, and was not surprised when the red twin's next comment was mental—though it was still unnerving to hear the red warrior's voice in his head rather than his audios.

::It's not so much that you go to Wheeljack about this stuff as it is that you don't come to us,:: Sides said plaintively.

Ratchet opened his mouth to reply, then shut it again with a frown. "You've got a point," he admitted quietly.

Wheeljack looked confused. "About what?" he asked, looking from medic to warrior and back again.

"I haven't exactly been entrusting them with my concerns as much as I ought to have… and I'm sorry." He put an arm around Sideswipe's waist and leaned into him a little while Wheeljack gaped at him and demanded, "Who are you and what have you done with Ratchet?"

Ratchet ignored him and sent his apology across the bond to Sunstreaker—and was suddenly glad he was leaning up against Sideswipe when the yellow twin did the mental equivalent of tackling him. If Sideswipe's arm hadn't been around him he was pretty sure he would have fallen to the ground when Sunstreaker thrust himself fully into his mind.

Ratchet was abruptly aware that his yellow lover had longed to do this with him, and only the knowledge that he might overwhelm the medic had made him hold back this morning. Like a vague background noise, they could hear Sideswipe protesting for his brother to "take it easy!", but Sunstreaker paid no mind, sifting through Ratchet's emotions until he found the bright core of the medic's love for him. Ratchet could feel him stop then and bask in it, and the tension that the medic had been trying to soothe ever since the incident with Gears faded away as though it had never been. Relaxed and happy now, his own love wrapped around the ambulance like a warm and comforting blanket, and Ratchet couldn't help but surrender to the sensation.

Then Sunstreaker withdrew as suddenly as he'd come, and Ratchet sagged against Sideswipe, drained.

"—sorry rusting scrapheap!" Sideswipe was swearing worriedly. "The worthless scrapper shut me out!" he raged.

"I'm alright, I'm alright," Ratchet interrupted weakly, optics wide at the stream of vituperation his lover's vocalizer was spewing.

"You don't look alright," Wheeljack said grimly.

"I'm gonna kill him," Sideswipe vowed furiously. "He knows better than to pull a stunt like that."

"You're not gonna say a word to him," Ratchet snapped back, earning incredulous stares from his lover and his friend. "I mean it," he added firmly, seeing that both of them meant to argue. When Sideswipe still looked likely to protest, he let him 'see' what his brother had done.

The red twin shut his mouth with an audible click. "That business with Gears really rattled him bad," he murmured, subconsciously tightening his hold on the medic. "You're sure you're alright?" he asked anxiously.

"Sides, I'm fine," Ratchet insisted, exasperated, and pulled away from the red mech. He regarded Sideswipe thoughtfully as he picked up his laser-cutter and switched it back on. "You're just as jumpy as I am about this whole thing, aren't you?" he asked in a gentle voice as he leaned back over Wheeljack to remove another section of ruined plating.

"I thought it wouldn't be so hard on us—we've been bonded to each other our whole lives—but it's completely different with you." Sideswipe admitted.

"That's because it's a completely different kind of bond," Wheeljack interjected once he had finished squirming underneath Ratchet's repair work. Sideswipe just blinked at him in confusion.

"But I thought all bonds worked the same way?"

Wheeljack snorted. "You know next to nothing about yourself, don't you boy?" he asked derisively, and Sideswipe bristled.

"If you fight in my medbay I'll use both of you for parts," Ratchet threatened. They each shot him a sour look.

"Forgive me if I found the war more important than studying," Sideswipe said coolly.

"That's as may be," Wheeljack replied, "but that's no excuse not to know the difference between a regular spark-bond and the one between twins—especially considering you and your brother are one of the few living sets of Cybertronian twins left."

The red Lamborghini crossed his arms in a huff. "So enlighten me," he growled.

"Where to begin…" Wheeljack mused, then yelped in pained startlement. "Primus, Ratchet, warn a mech!" The medic had switched from cutter to scalpel to begin the delicate work of removing the smaller bits and pieces of metal that had melted into his joints and servos—he'd already pulled off all of the scorched outer plating along the front of the engineer's body. Ratchet ignored him, digging into his elbow again.

Haltingly, hissing occasionally at the uncomfortable sensation of Ratchet rooting around in his elbow-joint, he started his explanation. "Ah!—Well, the reason that you two—mmph—are bonded to one another is because—by all rights—you should have been just one person. Easy, Ratchet! Your sparks are not whole in and of themselves, so they actively seek their other half. It was not something you had any control over or choice in—will you watch where you put that thing?—and it's not something you've ever had to think about, right?"

"Right," Sideswipe muttered.

"Flex your elbow," Ratchet interrupted, and Wheeljack did so, pleased that at least some part of his body worked now. The medic nodded in satisfaction and moved on.

"Well, a regular spark-bond is quite different in that you have to choose to grant your partner that kind of access to your systems—it's completely voluntary, even if it is irreversible. And the part of his spark that binds itself to yours is foreign—your spark is not going to recognize it as part of itself, like it does with your brother. Fraggit, Ratchet, that hurts!" he bellowed when the medic poked a particularly delicate sensor in his knee. Ratchet continued to ignore him. Wheeljack glared.

"So that's why it's still a little… unsettling to feel him there alongside Sunny," Sideswipe mused thoughtfully.

"Yep," Wheeljack replied. "It probably will for a while, too—though at the same time you'll probably all three feel a little overprotective of one another. It's a side-effect of making yourself so dependent on someone else; your OS will automatically rearrange its priorities and insist on keeping them from harm."

Sideswipe nodded in understanding. "I think I get it now… thanks," he murmured.

"Bend your knee," Ratchet ordered, startling them both. Wheeljack complied—it wasn't perfect, but at least the joint wasn't locked up anymore.

There was silence for a few more moments while the ambulance moved to Wheeljack's other knee. "Do you really understand?" Ratchet whispered finally. "Are you aware that it won't matter now if someone else is in worse shape than you after a battle—that I'll have to fight myself to keep from working on you first? Did you realize that someone might die because my logic centers will be overridden when it comes to you and your brother?"

"No," Sideswipe said in a small voice. "It didn't occur to me."

Ratchet's breath hitched in his vents. "It occurred to me." He paused, then, "And it will occur to Prime, if he gets wind of this." He busied himself with Wheeljack's knee again, refusing to look at both of them. "He can't afford to take me off of the duty roster—but he also can't afford to have his Chief Medical Officer go on the fritz when someone's life is on the line."

::I'm sorry…:: Sideswipe sent, sorrow permeating his mental 'voice.' ::I'm so sorry…:: Sunstreaker noticed and sent an unspoken and concerned inquiry. Sides told him he'd tell him later, and his brother uncharacteristically subsided.

Ratchet finally glanced up at him. "Don't you dare blame yourself," he said firmly. "I dug my own hole with this one; it's not your fault at all. And besides, if I had it to do over again, I wouldn't change a thing." ::It's been centuries since I've loved—and been loved—this strongly.::

"But it is my fault," Sideswipe replied harshly. "If I'd never made that stupid bet—"

"I'm glad you made that bet," the medic interrupted wryly. "Oh, I could have cheerfully scrapped you at the time, but now… Well, even before someone dared you to seduce me, I had wondered what it might be like. I'd heard the stories they were telling about the pair of you—you'd think it was a badge of honor to have been with you two—but I'd convinced myself you'd never want an old 'Bot like me."

Sideswipe regarded him with amusement. "Stories, huh?" he teased.

Ratchet chuckled. "They didn't do you justice," he said in a low voice.

"Primus, spare me!" Wheeljack exclaimed, rolling his optics, and they couldn't help but laugh at him. "I really, really don't want to know!" Ratchet and Sideswipe looked at each other and grinned evilly. Wheeljack's expression became horrified when he saw it. "No! Nonononono! Don't you dare—" But the big red mech had already wrapped his arms around his smaller white lover from behind and was trailing kisses up the side of his neck.

"Hmm…" Sideswipe murmured, pausing to gauge the effect they were having on the engineer. He snickered; Wheeljack looked positively sick. "You know," the Lamborghini said in a seductive tone, "I never heard any stories about you, but there was plenty of speculation… Not that anyone was ever brave enough to find out until me and Sunny…" He captured the medic's lips in a passionate kiss.

Wheeljack moaned pathetically, and they finally had pity on him and gave it up, laughing uproariously. "Ha, ha very funny," the inventor muttered, thoroughly embarrassed. "So glad I could amuse you," he added, glaring at them darkly when they kept giggling every time their optics met. "You're corrupting my friend," he told Sideswipe petulantly.

"Oh, he is not! We've been embarrassing each other like this for centuries," Ratchet reminded him, still smiling.

"And it's still not very nice."

"When you're the butt of the joke, maybe. I still recall the time that you—"

"Let's not get into that," Wheeljack said hastily. Ratchet laughed at him again.

"Oh, alright. Spoilsport."

Sideswipe arched an optic ridge; it was not often one got to hear the CMO and the engineer bantering like a couple of young Academy students. He decided that it ought to happen more often—anything that made Ratchet happy was a good thing, since almost everything seemed to have the opposite effect these days.

And, somewhere along the line, he discovered that his jealousy toward Wheeljack had dissipated like smoke on the wind.

Sideswipe stayed in the medbay for a little while longer, watching Ratchet work in silence as the medic and his best friend conversed, then headed back to their quarters to keep Sunny company until their bondmate came home.