Ashley awoke to the strong scent of a sterile room and faintly guessed where she was, there was a buzzing noise somewhere which could be humans.
Oh man…I must have gotten a beating of a lifetime….
She thought, to her it seemed like nothing more than a beating had happened on that night days ago, that was until she opened her eyes and saw a brunette standing next to her bed, staring out a hospital window worriedly.
What….?Mikaela?So it wasn't a dream?
She groaned feeling a headache in the process but couldn't being herself to lift an arm to rub her forehead. Mikaela chose that time to actually notice her and gave a little jump in her seat.
"Your awake!Thank god! Bee and I were so worried!"
"What happened?" she asked looking around the hospital room, there were other patients on separate beds with curtains to block the gross view.
"The doctors…well…they think your on drugs." She said a bit hesitantly, biting her bottom lip.
"Well that's not a first….what led them to that conclusion though?" she slowly started feeling her body again, although she was starting to wish she didn't, god her arm hurt.
"Your arm, it has needle marks and it went all purple, for a while they considered amputating it" I flinched as she said that, and she gave me a sympathic look. "then it just…wore off." I raised an eyebrow at her.
"It just wore off?" she nodded "those types of things don't just disappear…"
"I know, the doctors are really confused about it too." She fidgeted nervously with her hands, looking sideways many times, catching her breath frequently.
"You can ask you know? Its not like I'll bite you"
"Well…I was just wondering….are you on drugs?" I blinked several times before expressing my pure disgust with my expression and turning away.
"God no" she sighed in relief.
"Then….how..?" for a moment I was going to tell her that doctor Rose was probably the one at fault for this but then I remembered her threat. I couldn't tell her…but if I didn't she'd tell Ratchet and he would certainly put two and two together.
"I can't remember…" I lied making it look as if I was searching around for answers, that usually made them believe me. "I can't remember anything of the sort happening to me."
"Well the doctors aren't going to like that…what am I to tell them?"
"What have you told them so far?"
"I told them I knew you through net chats, and that we had been meeting for the first time." I nodded.
"Good work, you're a fast thinker"
"Well I did have the whole way here to think about it while Bee drove."
"How is he by the way?He sounded a bit panicky before I passed out." Mikaela snorted.
"That's putting it mildly, I swear that bot has way too much compassion for human beings, he's all right though. You should have seen him with Sam two years ago when he started living with them. Kept threatening house appliances as decepticons in disguise." I raised my eyebrows in surprise and let out a low whistle.
"Talk about though ride" Mikaela just nodded in agreement. "So what now? What should we tell these guys? Plus what am I going to tell Ratchet? He'll tear me apart as soon as he finds out!" I groaned sitting up carefully, trying not to put too much strength into the hurting arm.
"Well they aren't clearing you that's for sure. They said they wanted to take some more exams to make sure nothings wrong."
"So I'm stuck here?" a nod. " Think Ratchet can convince them to let me go?" a shake of the head. "damn…."
"Now is that any way to talk?" a more male voice interrupted us, from behind the curtains came the eye sore yellow figure that was Bumblebee, Blond, fairly tan skin, a yellow jumped with two black stripes going down on each arm, and wearing black jeans, his eyes were as usual a piercing azure.
Well at least he's not wearing all yellow this time She thought smiling at his friendly figure.
"Bee!" she cheered childishly. He went over and the two exchanged a friendly hug, Mikaela watched the two with interest and a sneaky smirk. Bee who had his back to her didn't see it but Ashley gave her a glare and pointing at her mouthed 'Don't even start with that'.
She held up her shoulders feigning innocence as Bumblebee let go.
"How are you feeling?" He asked sitting down next to the Brunette.
"Err…."she thought for a while, some parts of her body felt sore and she was a bit tired but all in all she felt fine for someone whose arm could have been amputated and her life terminated a few hours ago. "Much better I guess… I don't remember much about being in pain.
He nodded satisfied with the answer; thank goodness robots were a bit ignorant to human's fragility in overall. "Good, I contacted Ratchet, he's on his way, unfortunately he was fixing the twins so their tagging along."
"Why did they need fixing?"
"They got carried away in sparring again." The blond boy sighed dramatically to which the two girls giggled.
It took a while before Ratchet arrived, actually they heard him way before they saw him, his shouts were clear coming from the hall.
"Its barbarity! There ought to be a law against it!"
"Now Hatchet! No need to get upset and gather all human attention!" Sideswipe said trying to drag him into the room where all the doctors wouldn't stare at him more.
"Yeah, I'm starting to feel the creeps just with their stares!" Sunstreaker agreed.
Soon enough the three came into view, it was her first time seeing Ratchet's holoform.
He had messy straw like hair and somewhat pale skin, unlike most medics he didn't have the typical 'pot belly' or an elderly look; he actually had a good physique for the appearance he took. He should have been around 40 for human standards yet was in fit shape and looked extremely healthy.
"Hey Ratchet" she said trying to sound cheerful so as not to alarm him too much. The medic simply turned and gave her a cold glare to which she shrunk back into the pillows, knowing full well she was in trouble.
"You young femme have a lot of explaining to do" He said moving closer and holding up a hand. She stared at it questioningly.
After a while of waiting he growled.
"Your arm!"
"Oh!Sorry" she said trying to lift it but it just fell back limply and she winced when it made contact with the mattress. "Er… it kind of hurts… I don't think I can lift it…"
He took it himself with surprising gentleness and pulled up the sleeve to see the needle marks.
While he was at it she tried to look away from it and smiled at the twins who were now at the end of the bed both rubbing the top of their heads. Ratchet had probably hit them along the way.
Ratchet cursed before pulling the sleeve back down and staring at me straight in the eye.
"Was this Doctor Rose's doing?" I felt my heart jump up to my throat; I was between a rock and a hard place. I knew he'd be reading my bio signals so he already knew my answer. I tried to calm myself and not break eye contact.
"No. She just took out some blood, this isn't supposed to happen form that." He smacked me atop the head and I couldn't help but whimper.
"Don't lie to me kid!" I rubbed the top of my head looking away, it was no use. "What did she inject you with?"
Now how was I to answer this?
"I…I…" I could see everyone staring at me expectantly and I tilted my head a bit downwards so that my hair could work as a curtain and hide my shame.
"I can't tell you" He was ready to hit me again. "Please! I just can't tell you! Don't force me to!" my voice wavered slightly, I kept my promise, I didn't tell, but they knew something was up either way.
"Did she threaten you?" He asked with a suspicious glare, I slowly gave a half nod, tilting my head sideways.
"Sort of…" The medic growled angrily, no one seemed to notice though. The other three bots were all glaring into thin air, probably imagining themselves stepping on the woman.
Mikaela was giving me a sympathy look albeit confused. There was a moment of silence, where no one dared to speak.
"I'm sorry." She finally said leaning against the pillows, not bothering to move the hair away from her face, she just didn't want them to see it right now.
"No need to worry youngling" Ratchet said. "I'm going to talk to your doctors, to see if I can get you to my med bay, you four keep an eye on her until I get back, inform Optimus while your at it." They gave a short nod as the medic left, he seemed too calm for her liking. Mikaela scooted closer but said nothing. I felt horrible being the centre of attention, it always made me feel like prey.
"Sorry I ruined our date" I joked after a while, making the girl chuckle amusedly. "No seriously now, I really am sorry, shouldn't you call home or something?"
"Nah its all right, my dad is away for the weekend."
"Nice…." I said for lack of anything better to say, I finally got the courage to move my hair away, the three holoforms were still staring at the air with glares. "You know, glaring on the air won't make it suffocate the woman." Mikaela chuckled as we watched the three come back from their musings. "It was nice of you guys to come though, thanks" she said to the twins and they both shot back chessire grins.
"No problem, we were dying to know if there was any Ratchets in here in human versions." Sideswipe said entertained looking back at the entrance door. I snorted.
"Good luck with that, most of the doctors are cold and insensitive."
"How'd you know that?" Mikaela asked.
"I spent a lot of time in those places, to either fix injuries or because of indigestion. I once saw a woman who had just came out of stomach surgery and was in great pain, she kept screaming and crying, struggling and the doc kept ignoring her playing on Tetris on his computer right in front of her. Took them three hours before he finally went and gave her something for the pain." The girl looked at me shocked.
"Why were you there?"
"That time was accidental food poisoning; I tried cooking squid….enough said." She trembled at the memory. "I might sound sappy by saying this but I would much rather have Ratchet yelling at me to hold on than those doctors playing tetris while I'm in pain." The four nodded in agreement. Just then the said medic entered the room.
"Uh oh…he doesn't look too happy…" Sunstreaker commented moving away from his wrath's path.
"I take it they didn't let me go?" Ashley asked as he reached them. He let out and angry huff crossing his arms over his chest disapprovingly.
"We have to wait until Optimus settles things with them and the government." I sighed, not that I really expected it to work." Bumblebee you should get going, Mikaela probably has to go home and you have to pick up Sam first thing tomorrow morning, you have a long journey head of you still." He grouched sitting down on a chair. The younger blond looked between the two authentic humans and the medic with a worried expression for a while before sighing and with a nod motioned for Mikaela to come. They said their goodbyes and left. I felt a bit sad at that, but I couldn't force them to stay here all night.
Speaking of which. The twins had just gotten themselves settled, observing the human room curiously while Ratchet looked at it with disgust.
"I take it you find our medical facilities pre historic?" I said with mild amusement at his face.
"That's one way of putting it" he grouched as a medic came into the room, he checked a few beds searching the names until he came to hers and stopped there.
"Ah. So you're Ashley, nice to meet you, I'm to take you for a few exams all right?" he said sounding all too indifferent to the situation, to him it was just a boring routine. He then turned to the three autobots.
"If you would be so kind to wait outside in the waiting room, we'll call you when we know something."
Ratchet looked like he was about to protest but the twins took him away, each holding him up by the shoulders and muttering things such as "not in front of the humans, remember Prime's orders". Actually they didn't give a slag about orders, they were just having fun tormenting Ratchet.
The doctor then proceeded to pull on her bead and wheel it away.
She lost count of how many exams she had to do and when half an hour had passed she was already dozing off right in the middle of a CAT.
She felt someone prodding and occasionally they'd ask her to do something but overall it seemed the regular medical procedures.
With time she started getting annoyed and grumpy, she just wanted to curl up in a corner and sleep.
She closed her eyes for the hundredth time and for once it felt like they were letting her sleep a bit, that was until she felt extremely cold. Snapping her eyes open she was met with the starry sky above, some medics were putting her into an ambulance.
"Wait…"she coughed, her throat felt hoarse. " Where are you taking me?" they looked down at her briefly then turned away in the same direction with questioning looks, a few short seconds after Ratchet's hologram came into view.
"Hey kid, what's wrong? Anything hurting?" she tried to shrug but found it rather difficult with her now being strapped to the wheeled bed.
"I'm doin' okay. Where are they taking me?" Ratchet nodded briefly and looked at the retreating doctors who were trying to give them a few minutes.
"Into me, I'm taking you back to base now. It's all been taken care of don't worry."
"Good…these guys have less compassion than a rock." She tried to joke but ended up coughing again, she had taken a few liquids for the necessary exams and it was making her throat incredibly dry.
Ratchet gave a faint smile before signalling for the doctors to help him put her inside. As soon as the doors shut the darkness helped her go back to sleep.
The next thing she knew she didn't feel the strong scent of anaesthetics or the bright lights of the hospital, no inside as she opened her eyes she saw an empty med bay, it was dark at the moment, the lights being out, and she was laying on a berth where her mattress had been placed. Right next to her though was a man, sitting on a chair and sleeping soundly. He wore an army sort attire and looked quite young, possibly mid twenties. Sitting up in the dim light that came from the tiny window she poked the said man with her good arm.
"Um….hey!" she whispered trying to wake him, but to no avail. She poked a little harder and his eyes blinked, the man stiffened and looked around in slight alarm but when he saw her skinny figure he relaxed visibly.
"Whazzat? Oh…oh! You woke up!" She tilted her head examining the man as he stretched and yawned still tired apparently.
"Sorry I had to wake you, but when you wake up in this place with a guy next to you you just have to wonder."
"Right…right, sorry, name's Will" he said handing over a hand, she took it with her left one since the right one was useless and shook it, he had a firm grip. "Will Lennox. I was supposed to keep you company for the night, the bots had a few issues to take care of. Only Blurr is at base at the moment and he's in the control room waiting for news."
"I see…where did they all go? Is anything wrong?" he made a shooing motion with his hand as if dismissing the thought.
"Nah. They went to take care of the doctor who poisoned you. Senator Kelly insisted they come when they went to arrest the woman."
"Their going to arrest her?"
"Yeah, you can't exactly get away with that kind of stuff. Especially when you have an advanced species find out you did it. Ratchet was pretty mad, you should have seen him" he pointed to a berth at the far end, it was completely dent in half "that has to be a work of art" she giggled and the man seemed to smile at that patting her head like a father would usually do to a child, she felt weird at the touch and slightly embarrassed, her father had never done such a thing to her. It was a simple gesture, yet it had the strongest feeling.
"You must be a really good kid, Ironhide even put a good word on you"
"He did huh? Wait why would he tell you that?"
"Oh, he guards my family" he laughed at the look of absolute shock on her face, sure she noticed he wasn't at base most of the time but to think he was guarding a family. "Yeah big guy actually has a soft heart…or spark…"
"So I've been told." She said looking away recovering from her shock. "Sorry you had to leave home though, you really shouldn't have." He shrugged.
"Hey, they were in a pickle, it was the least I could do after they helped us out so much."
"Thanks"
"My pleasure." He leaned back against his chair again and tried to stifle a yawn. " You should go back to sleep, they should be back in a few hours…"
"I'm not really that sleepy anymore." But it didn't matter if she said it or not, the man had fallen asleep again. She let out a sigh and carefully got out of bed, making sure she was okay to walk before heading off. The bots had been careful enough to leave a lifting ladder for will in case he needed to get off, it was rusty, old and it shook a lot, but she got down without a problem. It was probably left behind from the old military jets since this was an old hangar, at first the bots were going to stay in hoover dam's old base, but to their dismay they found it rather inappropriate for them and it lacked their needs in space and conditions such as humidity.
Hurrying off the first place she wanted to stop were the bathrooms, when her work there was done she took her time in front of the mirror, she looked like a corpse. Her skin was pale and her whole arm was bandaged. She was trying not to move it around too much just in case. She then took off to the rec room, climbing had proved rather difficult without using one of her arms but after twenty minutes she managed to reach the top with a loud huff and crawled to her few belongings. Searching around she found herself a notebook and a few writing utensils, gathering them all in one of the plastic bags she started going back down only to fall on her butt on the oversized chair.
"Ow…urgh this isn't my day…" she grumbled rubbing her sore bottom.
"Ibelievethatshouldbenight" she nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of that voice and took more than a full minute to remember how to decipher it, she turned to stare up at blurr like a child caught stealing cookies, she knew she wasn't allowed out of the med bay.
"Er….hi Blurr!" she tried to sound cheerful but he only stared back with a somewhat stern glare. "Okay before you start reprimanding me, I needed to go to the bathroom and used the chance to come get some stuff so I could get entertained." He stood there in silence, unmoving. Then he leaned down offering his light blue hand. Getting the hint and not wanting to get into any more trouble she climbed on and sat comfortably. Blurr had one of the smoothest hands out of all the mechs, most of them had their palms separated in various pieces, but Blurr's model had more complete parts with smooth curves all pointing backwards giving him his aerodynamic look.
She snuggled closer to his thumb not noticing the odd look he was giving her along the way.
When they got to the med bay Will was still sleeping soundly and hadn't noticed a thing. She jumped out of the light blue hand and turned around to smile at the mech.
"Thanks for the ride. And erm…you think you could….just this once?" she begged.
"Iwon'ttelltheothers,aslongasyoudon'tdothisagain." She nodded happily and watched him leave. Once he was out of sight she plopped back down onto her bed and took out the first sheet of paper.
The next morning when Ratchet arrived at his medbay was to find two humans deep in sleep and the whole berth covered in sheets of paper, all of them full of ancient cybertronian codes.
He didn't dare to even touch them, afraid to put something out of order. Taking a finger to his audio he turned on his com link.
"Wheeljack, think you could come over for a nano klik? There's something I want you to see…"
And another chappie done : D I have tf movie style blurr sketch on my deviantart gallery, you can acess it through my profile here.