AN: Not up as quick as I'd like but not as long as last time. ^^; I'll try and do better in the future. Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed last time! That was the most reviews I've ever gotten for one chapter. Thank you! Hope the length of this one makes up a bit for the tardiness. Enjoy and let me know what you think! ^^
Disclaimer: I own nothing but Andi, Axle and the plot of this story.
Chapter 5: Doctor's Orders
4 a.m. found Andi once again curled up in her underwear and tank top on one of the med-bays extremely uncomfortable human sized beds while Ratchet and First Aid hovered overhead. Her arrival to the base an hour ago was greeted with surprise and concern, and upon explanation of why she returned, irritation from Ratchet. Apparently she was an irresponsible and foolish child. A fact he was still voicing, quite loudly.
"You should never have left in the first place!" He grumbled as he ran a scanner over her from head to toe. "You should have mentioned the dreams the moment you awoke! Not now, nearly seven hours later!"
"It was a dream, Ratchet! How was I supposed to know it meant anything?"
"That's exactly my point, Andrea! You didn't know, so you should have asked. What if it was an indication of something more? Hmm? Which obviously it was since you had a second one. Normally your intelligence runs slightly above many of the humans on this planet, but as of right now, you are nothing but a stubborn immature little girl."
"Hey! There's no need to get nasty. I made a mistake, but at least I came back! I could have continued ignoring it. I could have gone on living day to day without telling anyone." Andi prided herself on the fact that Ratchet had trusted her and her intelligence enough in the past few months to allow her to help revive Jazz. Him downgrading her standing rubbed her in all the wrong ways. And now with him lecturing her she really did feel like a little girl again in trouble for breaking the rules.
"Hold still," he ordered suddenly.
She flinched as he stuck her arm to draw some blood without another word. He had long since modified one of the needles in his hand to be suitable for use with the humans he now lived with and treated occasionally. Normally his touch was surprisingly soft for a giant robot. His ire at her at the moment seemed to override his desire to be gentle.
"Ouch!" She scowled up at him as he walked away to place the sample in one of his many diagnostic machines. "That was uncalled for," she grumbled.
"You'll have to excuse him," First Aid smiled gently at her. "Surprises and mysteries annoy him greatly." It was the first time First Aid had spoken directly to her since she arrived.
"I don't mean to annoy him, honest. It's not like I went and got zapped by the Shard on purpose. I wasn't standing there and thinking, 'Gee I hope this thing overloads and gives me a good blast that will turn my dreams into Technicolor 3D movies'."
The older bot laughed at her. "I know, little one. He does too. He just doesn't know what the Shard has done to you and that bothers him. But don't fret, we will figure this out."
"I can hear you," Ratchet glared over his shoulder at the two as he waited for a readout from the machine in front of him. He turned back when it beeped softly at him and Andi stole the opportunity to stick her tongue out at his back. Well, she never claimed to be above using the occasional childish antic.
She gave him a moment to read over his findings. "So, what's the verdict, Doc?"
"Inconclusive."
She huffed irritably. "Fantastic. Now what?"
"Back to work."
"It's going to be a long night isn't it? Alright, have at me."
In the rec room, Axle took refuge with the Sunny and Sides, waiting anxiously for a report of any kind on Andi's condition. The Twins had been sparring when he first entered Control, an activity they often participated in at night. Upon seeing him they paused their match, opting to keep their friend company instead. Now the three were slouched on one of the Bot sized couches in the Rec room in front of a large television which was currently playing late night infomercials. Axle could not for the life of him figure out the humans' delight over an object being called the "sham-wow!". It looked an awful lot like a towel.
"So what's the deal, Axle? Why'd Andi need to see Ratchet?" Sunstreaker broke the silence.
"I don't know. She wouldn't tell me. She had some kind of nightmare and woke up distressed. I asked her if she was alright and she said no. Then asked to come here."
"Wonder if it has to do with the accident yesterday?" Sideswipe questioned.
"Of course it has to do with the accident, you slag head." His brother smacked him over the head. "Why else would she come here?"
"Watch it, Sunny!" Sideswipe pushed his brother away. "What are you doing over here anyway, Axle? I'm surprised you're not hovering over Andi."
"I do not hover," Axle grumbled as his two friends laughed at him.
"Please, the girl can hardly sneeze without you having a panic attack." Sides dodged a swipe from Axle, laughing as he hid behind his brother.
Sunstreaker turned to his brother and puffed his chest out. "Oh Andi, are you sick?" He attempted to impersonate Axle. "Do you need to go to the doctor? Do you need surgery? A blood transfusion? I can't donate but I'll find someone who can and make them for you."
Sides snickered and adopted a high pitch feminine voice. "Oh Axle!" He swooned into his brother. "You're so considerate and manly! How would I ever live without you?"
Axle felt his faceplates heat up as the Twins continued. By the time they were making kissing noises at each other he had had enough and lunged at the two of them, knocking them off the couch and into a pile of mechs. The three wrestled for several minutes.
"Cut it out, you two!" Axle realized his mistake moments after he made it as Sunny and Sides ganged up on him and soon he found himself in a headlock.
"C'mon buddy!" Sides laughed as he helped his brother restrain Axle. "There's no use denying it. We all see it everyday."
"There's nothing to see!" Axle grumbled as he struggled.
"Oh please," Sunny responded. "You two are almost as bad as Sam and Mikaela, and they regularly make out on Bee's hood."
"We are not! There's nothing going on between Andi and I! She's my friend and my partner. It's my job to look out for her. Now get off!" He finally managed to extricate himself from the two bigger bots.
"Primus you're an idiot! Andi's a nice femme, and she's put up with you for all this time. What's the problem?"
"There's no problem," Axle mumbled. "It's not like that. We're not…she doesn't…I mean we…"
Sideswipe snorted. "What? You're different species? Please, don't kid yourself. That's a stupid reason not to try and you know it. It doesn't bother you and we know it doesn't bother her. Are you worried she doesn't feel the same? Also stupid. If the two of us figured it out you know it must be true."
"Guys, please. I can't think about this right now. Can we talk about this later…or you know, never?"
"Fine fine. You win…for now."
The three settled again for the increasingly long wait. Nearly two minutes of silence passed before Sunny interrupted.
"You never did answer me. What are you doing out here and not with Andi?"
Axle sighed and his shoulders slumped. "Ratchet and First Aid kicked me out."
The twins began cackling again and Axle knew then that he would just have to kill them to shut them up.
It was now verging on 6 a.m. and Andi had resorted to solving increasingly complex math problems in her head while Ratchet and First Aid performed test after test and debated the outcomes. She had gone over both of her dreams in detail with them several times. They confirmed what she already suspected, that the occurrences happening within were factual.
So far, not one of the tests performed came up irregular. Physiologically everything was normal. There wasn't a single abnormality in any of her systems. Excluding the symptoms she had been suffering from after her brush with the wall yesterday. Her blood test came back normal, and her nervous system was responding as it should. Her organs were intact and healthy, exactly as they had been before the accident. The only thing that seemed to have changed in the slightest showed on one of her brain scans. At the moment her brain functionality seemed to be up ever so slightly. It was this fact that Ratchet and First Aid were clinging to as it was the only change they could find.
Andi was less than enthusiastic. By this point, she was beyond tired. Her head was still pounding slightly, though now she suspected it was more from stress and fatigue than the events yesterday. She looked over to the two bots who were currently studying a screen divided into several brain scan images. If she listened carefully she could just make out what they were saying.
"I know brain function is up slightly, but we can't be positive it's resulting from anything the Shard did. It's not outside of human capability, just raised slightly." First Aid was saying.
Ratchet huffed in annoyance and crossed his arms in front of him. "We can't just disregard it though. It's the only change we have to go on. Humans are so fragile; their systems so inferior to our own that any little change could cause major damage."
Andi took offense at that and made her feelings known. "Hey! Lay off the talk of inferiority if you don't mind. It's not nice to talk about someone like that when they are sitting 20 feet away."
The two bots had jumped slightly when she spoke and spun to face her as if they hadn't expected her to interject. Then they stared, and continued to stare until Andi started fidgeting in her seat.
"What?" she asked. "What's wrong? Guys? Would you stop staring, please?"
They both stepped toward her then.
"You heard that?" Ratchet asked.
"What? Of course I could hear you, I'm like 20 feet away and you guys don't seem to understand the idea of whispering. Why?"
"What he meant was you could understand what we were saying?" First Aid added.
"Of course." Ratchet cursed and ran a hand over his face in frustration. "Why? What's wrong?"
"Andrea," First Aid knelt so he was closer to eye level for her. "We were not speaking English. We were speaking Cybertronian."
"…Oh." Her eyes widened in surprise. "That's…not normal."
"No, it's not."
The new discovery of course set Ratchet and First Aid in a tizzy and led to another two hours of tests. Only this time Andi was a much more active participant. By the end of two hours, they found that she could fluently read and write Cybertronian and understand the spoken version of the language but not speak it. Though Ratchet claimed that this was due to the fact that human vocal chords simply could not form the necessary sounds.
It was 8 a.m. now and the base had become crowded with active personnel, all who were banned from entering the lab at the moment. Human and bot alike were told to stay out (largely for Andi's benefit) or face Ratchet's wrath. Needless to say, they listened.
Finally, things seemed to be coming to a close. All three agreed to throw in the towel, that there was nothing else to find at the moment.
"So let me get this straight. Basically I've been turned into a glorified encyclopedia slash dictionary? And what, I'm just going to have to deal with the dreams? There's nothing you can do?"
"Correct. I'm sorry, Andrea, but at this time there is simply no way to reverse what was done." Ratchet apologized.
"Great," she sighed.
"It makes sense if you think about it," First Aid added. "The All Spark was the source of all life on Cybertron. It held the power to create and heal, but it also held our history. Everything it had absorbed and seen since the beginnings of time. But now, the Spark has been all but destroyed. This may have been a self-preservation attempt. Nobody really knows how the AllSpark works. What's to say it couldn't have chosen you to act as a keeper for our history?"
"Is it weird that I'm feeling honored and creeped out all at the same time?"
"After the night you had? No, I'd say that is a perfectly alright reaction to be having."
Her eyes widened in horror than as a sudden thought occurred. "I'm not going to start creating baby bots am I? The Shard didn't pass on any other tendencies to me did it?"
"No! No. You do not have to worry about that. The creation of bots requires a certain type of energy that you do not possess. There were no traces of it in your system." Ratchet reassured.
"You're sure?"
"Positive." He answered.
"Absolutely positive?"
"I am 98.78% positive."
For a millisecond she contemplated that lost 1.22%. "…Good enough. So now what?"
"We will need to inform Optimus and Lennox about the situation," Ratchet went to com his leader.
"Wait! Do we have to tell Will?" She asked anxiously.
"Of course. Why? You seem concerned."
"It's just that, well, I'm not sure how people would react to this. I mean, the military will want to do testing and stuff, won't they? I don't want to be a lab rat."
"You don't honestly believe that the Major would allow that to happen, do you?" First Aid asked, trying to reassure her.
"Well no. I guess we can tell him, but it has to be in private."
"Done."
Several long minutes later Andi, Ratchet and First Aid successfully explained the situation to Optimus and Lennox. The Major seemed to be having a bit of trouble comprehending all that he had been told. "So let me get this straight, you're having some kind of prophetic dreams? And you can understand Cybertronian?"
"Not prophetic, Will. More like historic. I'm dreaming about things that have already happened. And yes, apparently I'm now fluent in Cybertronian."
He took a minute to ponder her response. "…OK. I guess it's not the strangest thing that could happen considering who we work with. No offense, " he said looking at the bots around them.
Optimus shook his head. "None taken. This is extraordinary, Andrea. You are now holding a very important part of our society. Our history must be preserved so that others can learn from our past."
Andi nodded at Optimus and looked back to Will. "Now do you understand why I didn't want you to tell anyone? I really, really, don't want any of the government's scientists to decide and poke around in my head."
He snorted. "Don't be ridiculous. No one would experiment on you."
"Are you sure? No one knew about Sector Seven until 3 months ago. Look at all the experimenting they did."
That caused a momentary pause. "Ok, I get your point. We'll keep this between us for now, but eventually someone is going to notice. Can you even tell when they are speaking Cybertronian? Or does it all sound like English to you? What if you slip some day?"
She shrugged. "If that ever happens I'll tell them Axle has been teaching me. Everyone knows I'm an egghead."
"Alright. I guess that will have to do for now. We'll have to let the other Autobots know about this though so they can watch what language they speak around you. That should help prevent any problems for a while."
"Agreed. I will personally tell them to watch themselves," Optimus agreed.
"Alright, that works for me. You can tell Epps if you want. Or any of the others you really trust. Just make sure they don't tell anyone not in the club, ok?"
Will smirked at her description of N.E.S.T. It really was an exclusive club, wasn't it? "I'll only let Bobby know what is going on for now. We can let the others in on it later. What about you? You going to let anyone know?"
"Only Axle for now. As soon as Sam proves he can control his tendency to vomit out random information when he's nervous I'll contemplate telling him and the others."
Will chuckled. "Good. Now that that's settled. Go home. Get some rest. You've had a busy few days."
"No kidding. And it's not over yet. I've got to go to a bridal shower later today. My cousin is getting married this weekend and I'm one of her brides maids."
He cringed in sympathy. "Ouch. Have fun with that. I'll see you later, kid." He headed toward the exit. "Major?" He paused. "Will you send Axle in please? I'd go get him but well…" she glanced down at her lack of clothing. "I''d rather not flash anyone if I don't have to."
He laughed at her. "Sure." And then left.
Andi glanced up at Optimus and the others. "I'm sorry about this, Optimus. I know it would be better if one of you had this information I'm seeing. I'm not going to be around near as long as any of you."
"Do not fear, young one. This is a good thing. You may be much more of a help to us than you think. Can you not see the possibilities for growth between our people? You know us better now than we know ourselves. One day you may be the link between us."
The thought had actually not occurred to her. But now that she was hearing it, Andi didn't know how to feel. That was a lot of responsibility to be placed on her shoulders. As she was contemplating what this would mean for her future a knock sounded from the entrance to the lab and when she looked, Axle's head was peaking in through the doorway.
"Can I come in?" he asked softly.
Andi smiled reassuringly at him. "Hey, Axle. C'mon in." Axle slowly approached the bed and knelt so he was near eye level with her.
"Are you alright?" His voice was soft and concerned and his eyebrow plates were furrowed.
Andi smiled reassuringly at him and placed a hand on his cheek in comfort. "I'm ok, big guy. I'm sorry I worried you."
"What was wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong, not really. I'll explain everything on our way home, ok? We've got a party to get to in a few hours and I want to take a nap before then."
"You're sure you're ok to leave?" He was not going to let her get away with anything for a long time, she just knew it.
"Yup! Even Ratchet agrees."
"Alright, let's get you home." He nodded in thanks and farewell to his superiors and then transformed next to her bed before opening the driver's side door for her. "Your ride, m'lady."
Andi chuckled and headed towards him. He had been watching tv with the Twins again, she could tell. Before entering she smiled and waved to the others in the lab. "Thank you. We'll see you tomorrow." Then she sat, made herself comfortable and as Axle made his way out of the base began her explanation.
AN: Now you have some idea of what is going on with Andi. This chapter has been re-written twice now. It was ready to post a week ago and then I re-read it and decided that there was simply not enough of the Twins in it. ^^ Originally it was Ironhide and Prowl distracting Axle but since they had a chance last time, I wanted to change it up a bit. That and I realized that where Ironhide goes Lennox goes and the man can't be on duty all day every day. So, hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you think. The next chapter is finished and will be up on time! ^^ Until next time.