Continuity: G1 Ratchet & First Aid: Five Firsts

I shared a look with Hoist, both of us pausing in our cleaning as Ratchet stumbled, the lack of recharge catching up to him as he checked up on our patients.

:Your turn.: Hoist said over a private comm. channel to me. My turn to try and tempt him away from his patients and into a recharge berth.

Of course we could just wait until he simply keeled over, but that would mean moving several tons of offline medic as his redundant systems left him deceptively heavy.

"Ratchet." I waited till he acknowledged me as I moved across the room to lay a hand on one energon smeared arm, reminding me that none of us had been able to clean up yet, the tools and medbay being our priority now that our patients had all been shoo'd out or put in stasis.

"You need to recharge."

"Later." He muttered.

"Now." I countered. He always made sure that we got in some recharge time, saying that we could make mistakes when we get tired. Given that he was now into his fourth consecutive shift it was beyond time that he take his own advice. "You're going to miss something soon." I said as I shoved at his arm.

He swayed as his fingers tightened around my arm as his gyros fought to compensate for the abrupt change in weight. "We'll comm. you if anything happens."

He didn't answer, although he did follow when I tugged at his arm, letting himself be guided towards the doors.

:Go with him and make sure he cleans up and refuels without falling into stasis. I don't want to be hauling him out of his own washracks.: Hoist sent with a grin, careful to keep to a private channel.

:Will do.: I said as we ran into an alert looking Wheeljack at the door, the engineer (and part time medical assistant) having been sent to recharge some time last shift.

:Get some recharge of your own Aid, I know you didn't get much, I'll stay with Hoist.:

:Thanks.: I sent back as I opened Ratchet's door, glad that whoever had designed this ship had put living quarters next to the medical wing for its staff so that we didn't have to traverse half the Ark just to rest.

"Aid?" Ratchet asked in confusion as I steered him towards the washrack.

I ran my fingers across his arm, flakes of dried energon and coolant fluttering to the floor.

"Oh." He shook his helm slightly as he stepped into the cleansing solution I had started, leaning against the wall for balance as he groped for his cleaning cloth. "I'll be fine Aid."

"I don't mind." I said as I stepped under the spray, taking the piece of cloth from his hand, his half-sparked attempt to retrieve it not even coming near to me. Hoist was right, if I left him now he'd probably be waking up here in several days time.

Shutting the cleanser off I steadied him as the dryers almost blasted him off his feet, despite not even having the power to blow over a human.

"Just stay there a moment." I said as he sat down heavily on his berth, his optics tracking me as I moved to his storage space rather than leaving.

"Aid?"

"Here." I said as I passed him a cube of highgrade energon. Normally it would be inadvisable to drink highgrade with nothing else in his tanks, but as close to recharge as he was it wouldn't do more than knock him straight into stasis.

The other option was to walk all the way up to the rec room to get a cube from the dispenser but he'd be well offline before I got back.

"Thank you." He said as he emptied the cube.

"You're welcome." I said as I went to take the empty container, only to have my wrist grabbed by his other hand. I yelped as I ended up sprawled along the berth as he collapsed backwards, the empty energon cube clattering away into a corner of the room.

"Teletraan, lights off. Night Aid." He said as he curled around me, his optics dimming as his systems wound down into a peaceful recharge.

Well, this was... different, unexpected, but not unwelcome.

Snuggling into his larger frame I started my own recharge cycle, hoping that it wasn't the recharge deprivation and highgrade alone that had made him want a berthmate for the night.