Disclaimer: Not mine. Never will be. Someone else owns them.
Practice Makes Perfect
"Uhm, Ratchet? You mean I'm…" Mikaela couldn't finish the sentence. Instead, she looked down at her still flat belly.
"You're five weeks into your gestational period," the Autobot medic repeated, not for the first time, the same sentence.
"But… I thought… I never…" the human girl continued and Ratchet couldn't help but sigh in exasperation.
"I am not repeating it again, Mikaela. My results are conclusive. Didn't he tell you about the possibility?" the rescue vehicle replied, cutting off her babble.
"You mean he knew!" her indignant screech was loud enough to make him wince even though she was on the ground and several feet away from his audios.
"I take it he didn't tell you it was possible," Ratchet drawled while gaining a warning glare from the human. He wasn't really impressed by it. Better and more dangerous robots had tried to stare him down before.
"It is one of the side effects of using the 'holograms', as you call it."
"But holograms are not supposed to make people pregnant!" the girl replied.
"And they do not. The problem stems from the fact that the word 'hologram' was the only existing word in human speech that was available to us," the medic began to explain while carefully studying his patient's reaction.
Mikaela's eyes widened at the implication, but she said nothing. Giving Ratchet time to finish his explanation.
"We blend, Mikaela. It is our way of life. Our very survival often depends on how good we blend in. Our 'holograms' are our way to blend in with humanity. Our forms are much too big to pass unnoticed. Our 'holograms' are a hundred percent accurate, down to the smallest detail. Facial expressions and other nuisances are not part of the 'hologram' deal and make us look strange by normal human standards, but they can be learned…"
"Wait!" the girl interrupted what had become a medical lecture right in front of her eyes, "When you say the holograms are a hundred percent accurate to the smallest detail, are you actually saying…"
"That we expel fluids as humans do in our disguise? Sure!" the medic's optics were bright with excitement. Not many liked to listen to his explanations.
"We even study the composition of them so they can be replicated."
"And that's how I got pregnant?"
"Not how. That actually involves physical intimacy. Where a male inserts his…"
"I know that part, Ratchet. I was there," a red faced human interrupted him.
"Yes, of course. I know that," the medic said hurriedly.
Silence filled the room for a few minutes. The Autobot medic contented himself with cleaning his tools while Mikaela mused over how much he cleaned them.
"Ah, yes. Bumblebee asked Bonecrusher once what you two kept doing all alone. He told Bumblebee you were practicing," the medic broke the silence, "You can tell Bonecrusher he doesn't need to practice anymore. I believe he's quite good at it."
"I'll tell him that. As soon as I figure how to tell the big, bad, I-tolerate-you-because-you-saved-me, robot he's going to be a father."
Edited:2/16/09