A/N: Oh my goodness! You guys! I never expected this kind of response to this story. Thank you so much for all the kind words of encouragement! If you log in to review I promise I will try to respond personally. Thanks again guys and I hope you enjoy this chapter. It sort of wrote itself.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners (Hasbro et. al.). The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

Wheeljack grunted as he pushed aside the rubble. The medical bay was a complete loss. He'd found a few scattered items and a battered case of emergency energon. Half the vials inside had shattered but three remained intact. Carefully stowing them he continued his search. He was going to need something to seal the wounds so that Optimus didn't lose too much energon when they removed the steel from his torso. Glancing over his shoulder he glared at the monolith on the horizon. The setting sun glowed on it's surface, the spires seemingly on fire. If only.

His foot knocked against something and he bent down to inspect it. It was a human sized chair the plastic melted and warped around the metal frame. How in the Pitts had Prime survived the blast at all? Though if he didn't find some synth-mesh to patch his wounds the Prime wouldn't survive much longer. How had he gotten himself into this situation? Oh yeah, the doctor. Shaking his head, Wheeljack knelt to shift through the debris and was rewarded with a mostly intact first aid kit.

"Thank Primus."

He'd meant what he'd said to Ratchet. They were on the same side so of course when he'd discovered their dilemma he'd rushed to help. He didn't want to admit to himself that he was disappointed they hadn't contacted him before things got so out of hand. No use sulking about it now. He had an Autobot to save.

June looked up from her defensive position over Optimus' spark as Wheeljack approached. "Did you find anything."

"Not nearly as much as we need, but it will have to do. Everything is destroyed."

"Yes, I noticed that. Now what do you need me to do? I am a trained nurse."

"Nurse?"

"I assist doctors in their procedures."

"Oh . . . Humans right?"

"Yes, but I know trauma when I see it."

Wheeljack nodded. "A'right well first thing I need you outa the way so I can finish getting this scrap shifted."

He held out a hand and for a moment the two looked at each other. June finally nodded and hopped up into the offered palm. He set her within reach but out of the way of any shifting debris. Turning his attention back to the fallen Prime he scanned the wreckage.

"Do your kind suffer crush trauma like humans?" June's worried tone was not lost on him.

"I don't think so. His circuitry might be damaged but unless something is severed it shouldn't be too hard to fix." He wouldn't know till he uncovered Optimus' legs the extent of the damage. Though that steel girder was going to be very tricky and he wasn't entirely sure that Prime would survive having it removed. It was either take the risk or watch Optimus fade away right before them. Gripping the steel beams over the Autobot's legs, Wheeljack heaved. The whole pile shifted and then caught.

"Scrap! Where is Bulkhead when you need him."

"Well, I'm pretty sure that Megatron would notice if more of you showed up to help."

"Yeah, don't remind me." Moving closer to Optimus' hip actuators, Wheeljack peered at the twisted wreckage. Taking out one of his blades he centered his focus before bringing it down. The weakened steel split under the blow. "There, should be easier now."

Reaching down he pulled. The steel slid apart with a squeal of tortured metal. He glanced over to see June hunkered down holding the sides of her head. Shrugging he went back to extracting Optimus. There were several long tense moments when a slab of concrete proved heavier than it looked. Thankfully it wasn't laying directly on Optimus' legs, merely on a beam that needed moved. There were no other impalements much to Wheeljack's relief. Though there were many deep dents and contusions and his left knee servo seemed broken, the leg canted at an odd angle.

"Primus . . ."

"Are you done? Can I come down?"

Instead of answering her, Wheeljack reached out, palm up. She didn't hesitate this time. He held her up so she could see the whole of Optimus. After a few moments she patted his thumb.

"Let me down. I need to see to those . . .leaks? We need to get him stabilized before we try to remove the foreign object. Do you have any bandages, or whatever it is you use to seal wounds."

Wheeljack stared down at her for a moment a bit taken aback by her no nonsense demeanor and take charge attitude. "Uh yeah, right here."

He pulled the kit over and opened it. Pulling out a roll of synth-mesh he went to hand it to her and realized it was nearly as big as she was. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Why don't you just cut off what we need and before that is there anything I can use to debride and sanitize the wounds?"

"Yeah, sure . . . Umm, this work?" He held up the emergency welder and a bottle of diluted energon.

June looked at it for a moment before taking a breath. "I tell you what. I'll get the debris out of the worst of the wounds. When I'm done you wash them out, seal them up and put the bandage on. Got it."

"Yes ma'am." He winked at her and got a half hearted glare in response. She shook her head and turned back to Optimus but not before he'd seen the small smile. He watched her work at pulling the small pieces of concrete and shrapnel from Optimus' mesh. Each time she got a large piece removed, Wheeljack would run the cleansing solution over it before welding it closed and applying the synth-mesh. After the seventh such wound he realized June was wincing each time she went to use her hands.

"Hey, you alright? You're getting red stuff everywhere."

"I'm fine. The red stuff is blood. I cut my hands earlier."

"Hold up a sec. You can't tend to him when you are damaged."

June turned and glared up at him. "Wheeljack, I appreciate the concern but these scrapes can wait."

She wasn't about to tell him that the energon was burning her every time she touched it. She didn't trust those massive blunt fingers to this more delicate work. She'd handled similar situations in the ER. Okay, maybe not but this was a war zone and she knew that Optimus' life depended on her staying focused. She could tend to herself and Wheeljack once he was out of eminent danger. Looking over the long legs and the obvious damage to his knee she forced down a sigh. She would do her best with what she had and hope it was enough until they could get him to Ratchet. Where ever and when ever that might be.

Finding the last of the larger wounds she directed Wheeljack to wash it out, noting that the bottle was disturbingly low on fluid. "Okay, thats enough. We've got to save the rest for his stomach."

"Stomach?"

"Or whatever you guys call it." She gestured toward Optimus' chest. "Finish that up please and then we need to work out a plan on how to get that removed."

Balancing on his leg, June walked toward his torso, careful to avoid any wounds. Reaching the puncture site she knelt to get a better look. There was little to no leakage at the site. Which meant the beam was keeping pressure on any fuel lines. Once the beam was removed she was worried that Optimus would bleed out within moments. Brushing hair out of her face she winced. Looking down at her hand she flexed it. It was stinging, but nothing she couldn't handle. She had to figure out how to remove the beam without killing Opimus in the process. She just wished she had some sort of monitoring equipment so that she could keep an eye on his vitals. All she had to go on was Wheeljack's assurances that Optimus was still alive and the slow steady trickle of energon from his wounds.

"All done. What now?"

She looked up at Wheeljack surprised that the rogue bot was looking to her for instructions. Though she had pretty much taken charge. Looking back down she bit her lip.

"Now comes the tricky part. Do you have any way of monitoring his vital signs?"

"Yeah, sort of. I mean I know he's there and I can sense his spark. Its just really faint."

June nodded. "Okay. Is there anyway you could sit him up, or lay him on his side so we can see if the beam is all the way through?"

"Sure. Here." He picked her up and set her on a stable boulder near Optimus' head. "Maybe laying him on his side would be easier for you to reach."

"Good call. Just do it slow and don't move the beam."

"Got it."

She watched him as he maneuvered the quiescent bot onto his side. The jagged end of the beam emerged just above his rear, nearly bisecting where a humans spine would be.

"Okay, hold him steady for a moment please." Climbing down from her perch she approached the downed Autobot. "This doesn't look good."

"Well it definitely looks bad."

June shot a look at Wheeljack and got an unapologetic one back. "Do you guys have a central nervous system or a-"

"We have circuits and it looks like from this angle that the beam just missed cutting though Optimus' main line. He still might be paralyzed."

June nodded. "That's what I'm afraid of. So basic anatomy is similiar, I just need to think of it like a human shaped computer."

"Hey, whatever works and gets the big bot back on his feet."

"You don't have bones but there has to be some sort of internal frame . . . " Touching Optimus' back she winced seeing the jagged and broken metal. Looking around she spotted some loose wiring on the floor. Wrapping a length around her arm she looked up at Wheeljack.

"Alight get ready to pull it out, just don't let him fall back and crush me."

Wheeljack nodded, his lips nearly invisible as he pressed them together. "Give me a sec."

Taking a medium sized chunk of concrete he wedged it behind Optimus' shoulders. "There, now get ready. I'm going to do this quick."

June tensed. "Go."

The screech of metal burned her ears and she flinched as Optimus shuddered his whole body convulsing. Running forward she grabbed the edge of the wound and pulled herself up. Immediately she spotted several leaking energon lines. One was larger than the others and looked like it lead down to his legs.

"Dammit. I hope your limbs don't suffer from blood deprivation." Using the wire she quickly tied off each leaking line, ignoring the burning sensation. She shuddered as she looked up. She could see Wheeljack's leg where he stood on the other side of Optimus. How was there any chance that Optimus could survive this? Crawling forward she yelped as something cut her forearm.

"June?!"

"I'm fine. It's just a little tight in here. Not exactly the way I'm used to working. You got that sanitizer handy, I'm almost done."

"I'm ready just let me know when you are clear."

Finding the last line she sealed it off. Careful not to jostle anything lose she slid out of the wound. How odd was that? She'd just been inside a giant alien. No time to really ponder it. Wheeljack was bathing the wound, small bits of metal a debris clattering to the floor.

"Scrap, this looks really bad."

"I thought we already established that."

"Yeah I know but . . . He's almost cut in half."

"Focus Wheeljack. He's still alive. We have to make sure he stays that way. I for one am not about to let Megatron win."

"Me neither."

"But . . ."

"But what?"

"I heard it, 'me neither, but'."

Leaning over Optimus' side Wheeljack carefully applied the synth-mesh, making sure to seal the edges so that no debris could get in. "But there is just the two of us. We have no idea where the other Autobots are. My ship is wrecked, I'm wounded and you're-"

"Human."

"Yeah."

"Lets look at this another way. There are just the two of us. No one else knows that Optimus survived so we can be fairly safe in saying that there probably won't be a pursuit if we leave quickly. I am human therefore I can get us help that won't compromise the two of you. Now, we need to figure out where to hide him until Ratchet can operate."

"I get it. We are fewer and therefore more maneuverable and harder to track."

"Good boy, I'm glad to see you were paying attention." June smiled to take the sting out of her words and got an answering one. "Now, do you know of anywhere we could hide him that is safe."

"Not just safe but would keep him undetectable and would also be defensible should we be discovered."

"That's a tall order."

"Don't I know it. That and we have to figure out how to move him. My alt mode isn't exactly a truck."

"I'll work on that. You finish here. I need to make some phone calls. And I hope you guys have the equivalent of a painkiller. He's going to be in agony when he wakes up."