I dunno how universal this is, but 2100 (2100 hours) means 9 p.m.

Loud rapid knocking brought Prowl's attention to his office door. Whoever was on the other side must have been there a while from the sound of it. Prowl didn't realize how much focus and energy he was putting in to keep all his thoughts exclusively about work and not personal problems. Apparently it was enough because whoever was on the other side resorted to nearly smashing the door. Prowl smoothed his pensive facial expression before hitting the open door button. Prime walked in, puzzlement clear is his voice. "Prowl? Since when do you keep the door locked during your 'open office hours?'"

"Since I need to get some work done and there seems to be someone loud in these halls."

Optimus chuckled, knowing full well who he was insinuating with Blades and Ironhide arguing a few doors down. He'd only asked because he was concerned that his team's response to yesterday's mishaps might have gotten to Prowl, but so far he seemed fairly normal. Most mechs wouldn't even entertain the notion that the stoic tactician could be bothered, but Prime knew Prowl long enough to recognize how far that was from the truth. When it came to his team's view of him as an officer, Prowl cared deeply. He may not show it like Jazz or Ironhide, but that didn't mean Prowl was affected any less.

Typically Prowl's door was unlocked during this joor in case anyone had concerns they wanted to ask or bring to his attention. The small change in his work schedule was a sign he was at least a little affected. Opting out for once to remove his rarely utilized "open office hours" was hardly any reason for alarm as far as Prime was concerned, considering it was pretty mild for Prowl. In the past when something was troubling Prowl he'd drown himself in work until he collapsed into stasis lock. Clearly this wasn't the same pattern as he appeared well energized. Still, Prowl relied heavily on his routines, so the subtle deviation in his daily structure was a sign of something.

"I'm sorry about my delay, although I'm curious why you didn't override the doorlock." Prowl inquired.

"I could hear you typing away. Since you were obviously fine, I didn't want to interrupt you over a bit of impatience." Actually, it was more that Prime didn't want to see what he was interrupting. The last time he overrode Prowl's doorlock he found a certain saboteur wrestling Prowl away from his console. He stopped after the image of Jazz straddling a wriggling pinned Prowl was seared into his processor. When it happened, they both immediately separated after Prime drew their attention to his presence, and Prowl hastily explained that Jazz had gotten a little carried away getting Prowl away from work since he felt like Prowl was working himself nearly into stasis. And his arms were pinned down so Jazz could take away the datapad Prowl tried to hide. Still, Prime didn't care to see a repeat performance. He'd been almost certain the only reason him hitting the door like that went unnoticed was something like that.

"Now, I understand there's been a report regarding potential activity on Cybertron from Megatron's forces?"

"Yes," Prowl nodded as he pulled out the datapad given to him yesterday with an additional pad, "but there isn't much reliable information. I've written up my analysis of the report and possibilities for Megatron or his forces to be in that area along with tactical suggestions, but there isn't much I can do past that."

Taking both datapads from Prowl, Optimus looked over them. Prime was disappointed; he really hoped for something more concrete so he could stop whatever scheme Megatron had. Whatever this is, there wasn't anything known to them at that location to warrant Megatron's interest. Knowing him, it was more likely a trick meant to divide the Autobots so they wouldn't be able to defend themselves against an attack. Until more evidence came into light they had to remain here, even if Prime did want to get rid of half the army.

Giving Prowl a quick nod, Optimus vocalized his opinion about the matter. "We need more information or else we can't act. For all we know, Megatron's just using this as a decoy. Put in a high-level priority request for more information." Prowl agreed, returning to his work after Optimus left. Alone once again, Prowl renewed his vigorous work efforts after submitting the request.

A few breems went by uninterrupted before Prowl got a comm from Ratchet. ::Yes, Ratchet?::

::What's the punishment for murdering Sideswipe?::

::Still the same as the last time you asked me. Possible permanent deactivation pending a martial court decision.::

::It's Sideswipe.::

::Then chances are the punishment handed down won't be as steep.::

Ratchet seemed to consider that. ::Like how much less steep?::

::Like spending-the-next-several-vorns-in-prison less steep.::

Ratchet muttered some dark before cutting out. Prowl had a feeling that frantic comm he was expecting wasn't too far off. If he was anything like Smokescreen he'd place a bet on it since odds were high. But he wasn't the fun brother; he was the serious, no-nonsense one. Returning to his work once again, he ignored everything else so he could finally accomplish something. However, it must not be his orn because only two joors in, he received another comm "requesting" his presence down in the rec room. Prowl knew if he refused the request, Jazz would butt into his work schedule by either sitting in his office until he saw fit to leave, or flat out drag the tactician away. Sometimes Prowl loathed his best friend. ::Give me two breems to finish up here.::

::Fine, but one astrosecond later I'm coming after you.::

In exactly two breems Prowl walked out his door. He made it almost to the recreational room before running into Jazz. Jazz gave him a look before grabbing his arm and leading him in. "You really did have to use ever astrosecond of those two breems, didn't you?"

Once they both had their energon they sat down, apart from the few others occupying the room. There wasn't any particular reason for it other than Prowl didn't like competing against loud mechs. Once settled, their conversation wasn't really any different than most days; Jazz berated him for whatever he felt Prowl failed to do that orn to care for himself before "ending on a happy note" by persuading Prowl into whatever activity he wanted to do. In the past, whenever Jazz hung out with the others, he'd try to get Prowl involved. After failing numerous times he devised a new route, removing what he suspected was the reason why Prowl didn't join in – other mechs. Of course Prowl never admitted to having a sort of low-level social anxiety, but it wasn't hart to figure out if you knew him like he did. So when Jazz hung out with a group to do whatever, he'd do the same type of activity alone with Prowl. He hoped the solo similar-activities would help Prowl feel more comfortable and maybe one day he'd finally join in. Today's activity was "human movie night."

"Prowl, I think after all this you could really use some good ol' comedy-relief right about now," Jazz winked, "and I've got just the movie!"

"And just what is this movie, Jazz?"

Jazz smirked deviously. "Nope. Ain't tellin' ya until it's time."

"And leave me in such awful suspense? Your cruelty knows no bounds," Prowl responded, deadpan.

Jazz grinned, fully ready with his own retort when Bluestreak practically ran right into their table. "Hi Jazz, hi Prowl. How's it going? Are you okay, Prowl? I didn't get to ask you yesterday and I couldn't recharge very well 'cuz I was worried you weren't recharging very well after all of that yesterday. So did ya recharge well? Or do you need any help with the datapads? Was that one of the things stressing you out? 'Cuz I could totally help if you let me. I mean, I know nothing about tactical planning but I can still help with something." Bluestreak rushed, concern flickering in his optics as he stared fixated on Prowl.

Prowl felt a pang of guilt over not getting to the sharpshooter sooner. "Thank you, Bluestreak, but I'm fine. I prefer doing the datapads myself." Seeing Bluestreak's crestfallen face he quickly added, "But if I need some assistance in any other way, I'll let you know."

" 'K!" Grinning widely, Bluestreak bounded off to fetch his energon. Prowl and Jazz, the later chuckling at Bluestreak's antics, turned back towards each other before hearing Bluestreak's cheerful, "Hey ya, Sideswipe!"

Jazz leaned to his left so he could see past Prowl, giving him a full view of a very displeased and dented Sideswipe. Sideswipe headed straight over to the couch and pushed his twin over, grunting about his turn next. Sunstreaker shoved him, nonchalantly grunting right back. Jazz pulled himself upright, noticing Prowl never looked back. Was Prowl still upset over the whole Sideswipe thing? Jazz wondered if he should bring it up but decided against it; it'd be better to bring it up in his private quarters after Prowl had unwound a little.

"Well," Prowl said, startling Jazz, "I think it's time for me to return to my work."

" 'K Prowl, but you better be done at 2100, cuz I won't care what's left when I drag your aft out."

/-/

A little after 2000 hours Prowl finished up his last necessary datapad for the day. Thanks to their "home arrest" from Mother Nature, there weren't many high priority datapads for him to work on in a given day. Not that he was hard pressed to fill his day with office work with the abundance of disciplinary issues taking place – along with all the base-related reports, experiments, and inventory/equipment requests. Especially the last one. Certain mechs like Ratchet, Wheeljack, Perceptor, and Red Alert found the situation to be a sort of blessing for finally catching up on inventory. And since at any given joor, there were at least 2 'bots in trouble, they had assistance they fully intended to utilize.

However, the system really was a double edge sword for Prowl – someone misbehaves, he has to write up the disciplinary report before punishing them with inventory, where the results and subsequent requests are submitted back to him. It was one thing if this happened on days where he could break the cycle periodically with tactical planning or bureaucratic matters. Unfortunately, current circumstances caused Prowl to lose that kind of relief and he soon found the only way to get some needed air was either doing outdoor patrols or stop fighting Jazz on his self-appointed "Prowl Care" duty (normally he read, but he hard-pressed to find anything new). Yesterday, however, showed him even those weren't enough to relieve all his stress and tension. In fact, now he felt a renewed desire over finding some stress-relief activity allowing him to seclude himself from the stir-crazed warriors. If he could do it in his office, then all the better because then he could spread his work out and keep himself in the office longer. Then no one would bother him… except Jazz. Although he usually didn't consider Jazz a bother. In fact, unless work related, Jazz was one of the few he was willing to leave his office for something outside of work.

However, in Prowl's CPU, 2000 hours was still too early to quit and meet up with Jazz. Before looking at the new low priority reports after he finished Beachcomber's analysis regarding the plant-growth on the lower decks of the Ark, he searched through the datapads in case there were any lose ends with the high priority datapads. There! While it wasn't exactly a loose end, he could check the status of his request for additional information regarding the potential Decepticons sighting. Prowl connected to Teletraan to see if any more data had arrived.

For once he was in luck because only a few breems ago new data had been uploaded from their sources on Cybertron. After loading it onto a datapad, Prowl began reviewing the data. The unit on Cybertron discovered the barely-functional Autobot near catacombs leading into old Decepticon territory. With medical priorities being placed on more battle-ready warriors, the injured Autobot's repairs were placed on low priority since he was neither dying nor ready for battle. However, with the Ark's interest in the matter, repairs were finally completed enough so the Autobot could give them more information.

According to him, his unit was involved in a battle twenty-two orns ago near those catacombs. Several of his teammates were killed and he ran from pursuing Decepticons until an explosion went off causing the ground to crumple beneath them. When he came to, he found himself in an unknown area with his pursuers dead. After stumbling around with a busted internal chronometer for some unknown length of time he became less and less coherent due to energon loss and head trauma. At some point he discovered light along with a red transformer. He couldn't remember much about the red transformer and his companions as they roughed him up except the red transformer's shrill voice. The Autobot salvage team found him just under two decaorns ago, possibly not much after the encounter.

'Two decaorns ago…' Prowl put down the datapad. Two decaorns ago Starscream was in destroyed catacombs, presumably at least with his trine mates, doing something. Possibly with Megatron (the mech mentioned hearing Megatron's voice calling for a stop, but the medic said it could've been a hallucination from the head injuries). Stifling a curse, Prowl brought his hand up to his face. This information would do them no good now with the trail gone cold. The original information came in over a decaorn ago, but he'd been so caught up in maintaining order within the Ark, he hadn't bothered to check anything filed with the lowest priority. He even knew that datapad existed before Jazz gave them to him. Sure, he didn't know what was on them but that was hardly an excuse.

He'd botched something vital to his position as SIC and the Autobots. The original datapad showed Decepticon activity still in the area whereas the second one didn't. If he'd read it like he was suppose to and pushed the issue, he would've gotten the information by then. The second report stated the mech had been able to talk a few orns after the first report, but his repairs had been slow coming until the issue had been pressed. They lost valuable time because he didn't push it like Prime's SIC should have.

Suddenly Prowl didn't feel like spending that night with company. Particularly with company that'd immediately pick up on his distress and wouldn't back down until he knew why. Prowl grabbed the datapads and retreated towards the lower levels in Beachcomber's report. According to Beachcomber, there was an office there with partial damage from the crash and some flora growing around it, but otherwise still functional. He knew Jazz wouldn't accept him backing out of their plans and hunt him down, but Jazz would never look for him here. Jazz tended to be smug about knowing where Prowl would normally go, gloating about it every time he 'caught' Prowl. Perhaps one of these days he'd mention to Jazz the risk of gloating meant everyone knew what he knew. Once he reached the lower levels, Prowl sent Jazz a message apologizing for missing their night together but something urgent had come up before turning off his comm.

The knowledge that he failed to stop Starscream and Megatron's scheme burned. His battle computer was nearly frying itself trying to churn up a solution that could rectify his mistake without putting anyone else at additional risk. Sending troops out to battle was one thing, but sending them on a mission meant to fix his mistakes was an entirely different subject matter. It was hard enough sending his friends and brothers to battle and continue giving them orders, but risking someone's spark over his mistake went beyond anything he could accept. Especially since chances are Jazz would be the one sent out to find out what Megatron's up to now, and the thought alone of Jazz being injured or worse because of him nearly caused a hitch in Prowl's spark. But it wasn't going to happen! He wasn't going to fail Jazz like he'd failed as SIC. Jazz was as close to him as his actual brothers and he couldn't stand the idea of losing another family member.

Yeah, I know, "where's Jazz's part in all of this? How's it PxJ if Jazz is all sidelines?" Well, his involvement really picks up in the next chapter.

Also, I know this chapter's a little short in terms of events, but they'll get longer from here on out. Mostly because Jazz will have more to say in them, and we all know he can fill up a bit more space than Prowl :)